Better melee smashtastical build - fire/earth or plant/earth?
By
Angelwing,
Posted on: 2011-01-20 16:46 in Dominators
My vote's for plant, for all the reasons you outlined.
I'd say that Fire/Earth has more synergy (not that Plant/Earth is bad, mind you). /Earth has Power Boost as well as knockdowns and an extra hold in Seismic Smash to help the somewhat weak control of Fire/. And Fire with Hot Feet and the Imps adds good multiple target damage to supplement the single target focus of /Earth. As for the spawns spreading apart, take Fire Cages at some point to solve that problem; Flashfire/Cages is a classic combo, and extra effective with Power Boost behind it.
Plant/Earth on the other hand are two good sets that have no particular synergy with each other. It'll still play fine though (I have one at 21).
Arc #40529 : The Furies of the Earth
Plant/Earth is probably the strongest of the two. You get a little regen, almost every type of control there is....and some toxic damage.
I would suggest giving a Grav/Earth a shot. I know Grav takes a beating on the boards..but when teamed with Earth..it can be a very effecive melee oriented Dom. Very single target oriented though.
Plant/Earth is definitely the most team oriented build. If you plan on teaming a lot and frequent task force runs...then Plant/Earth.
My level 50 Dominators:
Madame Mindbender 50 Mind/Energy
Fly Agaric 50 Plant/Thorn
Nate Nitro 50 Fire/Psi
My plant/earth is my baby. I have about 180% recharge on her, which makes great powers like Seeds, Carrion Creepers and Seismic Smash recharge in the blink of an eye. Having Carrion Creepers for about every spawn is pretty amazing.
Since plant is so heavy on control, I didn't even try to build for defense and went straight for damage. With fire, however, you're pretty low on control, so it would be a good idea to softcap to S/L.
japan
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I had actually contemplated a gravity pairing as well. No -kb in the aoe immobilize is a nice thing. Unfortunately, singy's repel ousted the idea from my mind |
Originally Posted by RiverOcean
I would suggest giving a Grav/Earth a shot. I know Grav takes a beating on the boards..but when teamed with Earth..it can be a very effecive melee oriented Dom.
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Wouldn't work very well for a melee-centric build. The only other set without -kb in the immobilize is of course electric, but I don't really like the set - not enough quick reliable hard control for my tastes.Despite really wanting to finally try out hot feet at level 50, I'm sort of leaning towards plant.
Wait a minute, Earth is a single-target focus set? It feels pretty AoE to me. Especially if you want to avoid cones.
Also, to me Elec feels pretty amazing for quick, reliable hard control. I can barely imagine a set with more. o.O
The only aoe -hard- controls in elec/ are the confuse and the aoe hold. And that confuse is hardly reliable (or quick, for that matter) if you fail to land it on the initial critter. This is not even considering the fact that even while in domination, your sleeps/confuses won't be doing anything against bosses.
But this is neither here nor there - different playstyles and all that. I ended up going with plant/earth. One of these days, I have to get around to leveling my fire/rad troller just to experience fire control at 50... one day.
Quote:
Single Target: Stone Spears, Stone Mallet, Hurl Boulder, Heavy Mallet, Seismic Smash.|
Originally Posted by Morganite
Wait a minute, Earth is a single-target focus set? It feels pretty AoE to me. Especially if you want to avoid cones.
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AoE: Tremor, Mud Pots, Fissure.
Other: Power Boost.
Tremor has only slightly more damage than Spears, 15' radius, animates SLOW, and recharge isn't spectacular either.
Fissure only does a tiny bit more damage than Tremor, has a smaller radius, and the animation and recharge are only a bit faster.
Mud Pots has less damage, less movement debuff and less than half the radius (meaning 1/6th the total area) of Hot Feet. It costs 25% less, and has a chance to immobilize minions (and Lts if domination is active!). But you have to wait 27 extra levels for it.
The single target melee attacks animate in 1-1.63s each, recharge pretty fast (except Seismic), and hit like a truck. Spears and Hurl are decent too.
IMO, there are more good ST attacks in the set than AoE.
Earth Control is very much an AoE set. Maybe that's what you were thinking of?
To the OP, and the person who has a Plant/Earth at 21: I've been playing a Plant/Earth the last couple weeks, and I just hit 26. He was kinda fun up to that point. Since I got Creepers, he's the only character I've played. :P
Lots of fun, I highly recommend it. Grab Stealth from the Concealment pool, or a stealth IO so it's easier to get the first shot in, lead with Seeds of confusion, hit them with Roots, Tremor or Creepers to make sure you get at least some XP from an enemy that dies fast, use Strangler if you missed anything with Seeds, then go to town with the Hammers.
Optional: I picked up Combat Jumping and the first three powers from the Concealment pool. For four days, I speed-ran tip missions on four level 50 characters, and bought four Luck of the Gambler +Recharge, then four-slotted Roots and Vines with whatever pieces of Gaze of the Basilisk I could get cheaply. +45% global recharge before level 25 is a very good thing.
@Roderick
No, I'm pretty sure I was thinking of Earth Assault, since I was looking at things to pair with Electric Control (and picked Earth).
I don't know, maybe I'm missing something. Still. Electricity, Fiery, Icy, and Psionic all have one AoE damage power and one cone. (I don't count Fiery's consume as a damge power, and it doesn't do that much damage anyway.) Energy has one AoE. Thorny has the most of any with two cones, one AoE, and one patch.
Well, for Elec, cones are painful, and Thorntrops strikes me as a really bad idea. So Earth really felt like my best option for AoE damage, which is why I picked it. Alternating between single targets on bosses/lts and AoEs for anything nearby seems like it'd be a workable strategy, and with the way Elec tends to 'funnel' enemies towards me, I'm not so bothered by the smaller radius on the attacks.
Either way, I'm not likely to change now; I quite like all that pink crystal.
Quote:
I've got an Elec/Fire Dom right now who is a very fun solo toon, but has a rough time in teams with other Non-Elec Dominators due to the common spamming of holds which root enemies, effectively rendering Jolting Chain useless as anything other than a sapping power. |
Originally Posted by kinaki
The only aoe -hard- controls in elec/ are the confuse and the aoe hold. And that confuse is hardly reliable (or quick, for that matter) if you fail to land it on the initial critter. This is not even considering the fact that even while in domination, your sleeps/confuses won't be doing anything against bosses.
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Teaming WITH another Elec Dom, however, is ridiculous fun. You can chain Jolting Chain off of each other and bounce enemies around until they finally give up and pass out, not to mention how ridiculously fast things are sapped. At higher levels, I anticipate that access to Gremlins and her AoE attacks will make things much more amusing.
Too many alts to list.
I've been deliberating for the past couple days and have come up with two great builds: one for fire/earth and one for plant/earth, both capped to S/L, both with 100%+ recharge. My problem is I just can't decide which to go with !!
Plant is fun w/creepers and has an added control in the form of sleep.
Fire seems like (I've never personally leveled fire control to 50) it would be fun with imps and the oddity that is bonfire... but it relies on flashfire greatly, not having a another aoe control besides long recharge cinders.
Plant's seeds will in effect bunch up the spawns so that [gimped radius] fissure works better.
Fire's Hot Feet will spread apart spawns - the closest they'll be is upon initial agro/stun/immobilize.
I've leveled a plant/storm controller to 50 and it was a SUPERB ride. Part of me wants to (finally) take some sort of fire control to 50 and part of me is wondering about which of these sets has better synergy.
Anyone have any tidbits, having played either of these? HALP!