What should I skip in plant/storm?

Disclaimer: I can't skip Hurricane, even if you think I should. The character concept is such that his idea of high-brow entertainment is to "git tore up", go to the sewers in Atlas Park, go into a group of Hellions, pop Hurricane, and laugh until he pukes.

But apart from that, I'm pretty much open to suggestions. My usual habit on trollers is to skip the single-target immobilize at least for a long time, possibly never taking it. I am inclined to like Spirit Tree, not because it's an amazingly awesome power all the time, but because I grew to love having Triage Beacon as backup on a traps/ defender. Also, it can block doors. Obviously, Seeds is the reason to play a plants/ troller to begin with. Gale's unskippable by design, though not very popular.

Everything else at least looks good to me on paper...

Was thinking of getting a BotZ KB IO for fly, since I have hover/fly, and not much else I would want to slot fly for. (Hover has my Kismet proc.) Character is a fairy, and thus must fly so his adorable little insect wings flicker.

Spirit Tree is indeed pretty situational, but my experience with traps has been that if you drop a massive +regen bonus the moment something Starts To Go Wrong, it can often prevent a wipe.

In actual practice, you won't use Spore Burst much. It's not non-aggro, like Mind Control's sleep power, so you can't use it to pacify foes lest one of your team members wanders too close to them.

I do some small-time marketing, the BotZ is affordable.

Here's my take on the skippable powers in Plant/Storm. Frankly, there is nothing that is completely worthless, depending upon your playstyle. But I would suggest the most skippable powers are, in order and depending on your playstyle:

Thunderclap: A PB AoE stun that only affects Minions, one of the main benefits of this power is to stack with other stun powers -- but Plant doesn't have any Stun powers. It also need a fair number of slots. This is probably the first one I would skip . . . unless I was taking the Earth APP and Fissure, where the stun might stack.

Entangle: A single target Immobilize isn't all that helpful when you have an AoE immob that can be thrown over and over again . . . unless you solo a fair amount, in which case this power can add some badly needed single target damage. This would be the second one to skip unless I plan to solo a lot.

Spore Burst: It is a ranged AoE sleep that draws aggro. Not all that useful on teams . . . however, it could be a really nice power when solo, as an AoE control power that will handle a spawn when Seeds has already been used. So again, this is a power that may be useful solo.

Spirit Tree: This is an immobile Regen boost. Nice for teams, but only moderately useful solo -- solo, you can just run away rather than stand your ground. I find this power occasionally useful, but certainly skippable.

Some people skip O2 Boost. Personally, I like having it. Twoey is not the most hardy of pets, and the ability to heal it is worth having the power. It is also nice to have for teams to break stuns and a weak heal.

Snow Storm? Large AoE toggle slow power with -Fly and -Recharge, especially when Roots can't grab anything very far off the ground. No way I would skip this.

As for the -knockback -- Steamy Mist will take either (or both) a Steadfast or a Karma. The only reason to put a BotZ in Fly would be because you don't want to slot Fly for either Flightspeed or EndRdx in the default slot. I always put a Flightspeed in the the default slot.

My Plant/Storm is my favorite Controller. It doesn't really have a lot of powers I'd consider skippable, but there are a few:

Entangle: Probably not something you need if you plan to team most of the time. Solo it adds a fair bit of damage (slot it for damage rather than immobilize) and is easier on the blue bar than Roots when spamming it on a boss or EB.

Spore Burst: Can you spare five slots for this? If the answer is yes, take it and 5-slot it with Fortunata Hypnosis for dirt cheap purple bonuses. As an actual power instead of a cheap set mule it's quite skippable though... it can be a nice emergency control but I rarely find myself needing emergency controls so often that Vines can't handle the job.

Spirit Tree: This is a Triage Beacon with leaves. If you really like Beacon then take it, but I find it rather situational. It's nice in AV / GM fights but since AV and GM fights are a tiny fraction of total game play I'm not sure it's worth it.

O2 Boost: Only consider skipping this if you solo most of the time, and even then it can be handy to keep your Fly Trap alive. It's a heal that can't be interrupted and it provides some handy buffs (Sleep and Stun protection, +perception, and resistance to end drains and recovery debuffs) so it's definitely worth using on teams.

Snow Storm: It's a nice slow with -fly. I skipped it on my Plant/Storm and rarely miss it, but I'll almost certainly pick it up once I19 comes out for EBs or AVs. I consider it somewhat situational when paired with Plant though, simply because you rarely need to slow things that are attacking each other instead of you.

Thunder Clap: Why bother stunning minions that get close to you? Both Plant and Storm have a ton of tools to prevent minions from ever getting close to you, and you really have no reason to get close to them without Hurricane running, and if you hit them with that they'll be debuffed into worthlessness anyway. Besides, they're going to be shooting each other, not you.

I would suggest not skipping Tornado. Plant Control has a massive amount of -KB, so you can use Tornado freely and it really adds some decent damage. As for why I suggest skipping things like Thunder Clap and perhaps Snow Storm, it's because your first priority should be getting enough recharge to use Seeds every spawn. Once you do that, the only thing you really need to worry about are bosses and the occasional missed minion / Lt, which you can deal with using Strangler (or Hurricane if you find several things still attacking you).