Petless Plant Dom?

Is it unforgivably stupid to consider creating a petless Plant Dom? I currently have a Mind/Fire/Cold Dom that I absolutely love. I've got his Incarnate slots to where I'm happy with them so I'm looking for a new project. As I have only the one Dom, I'd like to try something new.

I think Plant is awesome but I admit that the pet creeps me out. Seriously. To the point where I won't take the power just because of how it looks. So I always just wrote off Plant as a set I'd never play. But then I thought about how I've run many a mission on my controllers without bringing out their pets due to being in high aggro environments.

What do you all think?

as long as you don't count creepers as a pet I'd say go for it.

Fly trap is very powerful, but not a gamebreaker to skip.

With Seeds and Creepers you don't need the aggro management as much as other doms, and while it does nice damage and takes the -res proc, you have some of the hardest hitting controls out there. Just make sure you go for a damage-heavy assault set and you'll be fine.

Well, as a) and avid Mastermind player who'd never condone a petless MM, and b) an almost equally avid Dominator player who actually has a level 44 plant/thorn with the pet, I'll say this:

Dumber. Than. Zombies.

Don't get me wrong, I like the chittering little monstrosity, but I'd like to rename it "Wandering Aggroweed... on Crack". Most Dom pets I've experience with (singularity, imps) seem to have an aggression level roughly similar to a MM's "defensive" stance; they'll readily attack things near you, but tend to wander back to your side if they stray too far.

Not this thing. It should have been called "Venus Fly (and Everything Else) HUNTER". Or maybe "Fat Guy at Buffet". I've watched it "chain aggro", hopping from mob to mob, til it hit its "respawn radius", teleported back to me... and promptly scuttled back off to continue maiming the last thing that annoyed it and seemed tasty. Which, incidentally, is now running toward ME, along with everything ELSE it ticked off along the way.

Than heavens for Seeds of Confusion... All of a sudden, that incoming, un-scripted ambush isn't so scary, anymore.

So... yeah, you can skip the pet. It's nice to have, and I like it... but I'm USED to having pets around that sometimes behave... unpredictably. At least this little beastie (like several Dom pets) throws out additional crowd control I can add to. If it just spewed damage, I'd have still taken it... but it'd spend a LOT more time parked in the seed bag.

I took the pet on my plant/fire dom - its a cheap way to get a 6.25% recharge bonus (cheap in slots - only takes 4 and cheap in IO costs as the expedient reinforcement is easier and cheaper to get than, say, a decimation set). However, I rarely summon him, just doesn't add enough to all the damage I already do. However, I have found he is a great assist on the baf trials - sit at the doors with him during the escape phase and he stacks his immobilize up on the minions.

for a long time, Flytrap was basically worthless and had the title of Worst Pet Ever. It was not unknown for your flytrap to watch you get your but handded to you, w/o lifting a .....well not finger, maybe a vine. When they improved its AI, <sigh>, So what am I saying here? Dom's are not Controllers, while the pets are nice and do help, with the possible exception of Gravity, all of the other flavors of Dom's can manage without pets just fine.

My fire/energy Dom, the fire imps balance out Energy Assault's lack of AE, it may mean killing hordes slower, but I can manage just fine

my plant/thorn, my orginal redside toon, I leveled him up just fine when Flytrap was useless,

My stone/earth dom, I might miss rocky, but that combo hits hard and has a lot of control even without rocky

my elect/psi dom, the pets are nice, but I can function just fine w/o them

Its only my Grav/elect where I'd say it might be tough w/o Singy

I like throwing in the -res proc and getting that yummy 6.25 recharge but you could do without him if you reallllyyy want to. He is a bit vapid but at times he saves my butt be it taking a bite out of an enemy, casting roots on a mob or dieing for me while I haul booty out of a stressful situation.

Fly trap freaks you out more than carrion creepers? Carrion creepers use to give me the...well creeps. That awesome sound they make, the suggestive hentai appearance lol.

To the OP,

Don't forget, you can now recolor it to perhaps make it look more innocent or inconspicuous than it does now. I went the other direction, making it a vibrant green with blood red lips and veins. Maybe you could make it white and blue and nickname it Icetrap.

But it won't hurt you not to have it.

I still believe the only reason Flytraps AI got fixed, was because it got exported to Controllers for its full uselessness to become obvious w/o question. Dominators as a rule, are much less dependent on damage from their pets than Controllers are. I can only imagine slugging it out to 32 on a controller, to find flytrap before they improved it

My Plant/Earth/Ice dom has no pet, and he is the highest damage toon I have.