Plant/Storm

Partially true. The AI doesn't always skip, I think it has to do with who is generating the most "threat" towards you. Distance is also a factor that plays a role in it skipping. Regardless I described one way to get the pet AI to cooperate more consistently through clustering. As a note outdoor maps are fairly easy to cluster but it can be done with ease on indoor maps as well. Which you responded with...

Is it a possible scenario? Sure. Is it a probable scenario? Unlikely (in my play experience) so I think its a safe assumption.

I fully understand that there are foes that resist KB but generally speaking they can still be pushed around for better positioning. Foes can also spawn spread out out as well. If "Herd"icaning doesn't work there are ways to use terrain and/or other powers that results in clustering as well. My point here is "Adapt and overcome".

Sure there are outlier scenarios. Not all tactics work in every scenario. That is up to the player to figure out what works best. For example, the scenario you have described above where mobs are split far apart, it may make sense to respond by "dividing and conquering" (another useful tactic leveraging /Storm's positioning and debuff powers). While doing so you can create two or more clusters, debuff one group, control the second, and attack a third as an example. Another repsonse could be to break LOS to cause clustering. The bottom line is that responses are scenario dependent and I think its safe to say that most players understand that.

I see your point about saving AoEs but its very build specific. Your point may hold true at lower levels, considering most players haven't committed to IOs at that point, where the playing field is usually even. At higher levels this may not be as much as a factor when you consider the gobs of +Recharge (increased power availability) and +DEF (increased personal survivability) that are available through IOs.

One option early on is to dip into Power pools(as you pointed out); later on its Epics. The point here is that all controllers, regardless of Primary or Secondary, have these options available to them.

We can also take an effects based approach and temporarily neutralize an enemy only to deal with them later vice killing them right away. Most Secondaries provide the debuffs to enable this kind of approach when mezzes arent an option.

True Mind/, Ill/, and Grav/ have access to powers that grant them an early endless attack chain at lower levels. Out of these Primaries Mind/ is probably best equipped to handle large groups with consistency and efficiency. These are trade-offs players need to consider when selecting their Primaries. However I wouldn't exclude other Primaries without taking a holistic viewpoint and discussing Secondaries, Power pools and Epics.

In the end I am sure we can discuss, ad nauseum, specific scenarios in which a specific powerset's viability is seemingly invalidated. Savy players play to the strengths of their chosen powersets and not to their weaknesses. Personally I think /Storm is one of the powersets that rewards "out of the box" thinking. With various tools at its disposal, it offers greater versatility than its given generally given credit for. Unfortunately /Storm is also a less forgiving set making misuse of powers more noticeable and usually to detrimental effect.

The real synergy I think Plant/Storm has is that many of its powers have a persistent effect (e.g. toggle or pseudopet). This opens up time that the individual controller can attack or take other actions. Mind you this is not unique to Plant/Storm but it is apparent to those that play these two sets in combination. In essence this synergy grants more "actions per minute". In addition to available endurance this is typical the biggest constraint to any controller.

Sorry for the necro, but this thread came up on one of my searches and wanted to comment on two things:

1. Creeper patch. Although I cannot say if more than one patch is out, I can definitely say that casting a patch again on a mob that is already is assaulted by vines will produce MORE vines. If anything, I suspect the 'patch' is replaced with a new patch. The vines are not. So, this likely results in more vines generated which is a good thing.

2. I've never seen interface procs in creepers. I suspect that those procs are broken for pseudo pets.

3. Targetted AOE procs and slow procs appear to be generated at the same frequency for creepers.