Got Photo up to 11.5 or so He's doing 4X/+0 missions w/o bosses. Takes quite a while to get through the mission and he uses insps pretty heavily, but it works which isn't bad for running on stale TO's. 
I'm starting to remember why I didn't like Plant/Storm so much during while playing it during one of the recents betas. It really is going to be quite fragile in the upper levels, given how much squishier he'll get as he levels up, and how /Kin plays in the late game.
Hrm.
I sense... ALT PROLIFERATION!
I think I might try Plant/Rad after all. The synergy between Plant/ and /Rad is nearly as good as that between Plant/ and /Storm.
I would look at /ta. It's like /storm in that it's debuff heavy and adds in damage. The general difference of -tohit isn't that big and /ta's is better against EBs/AVs. To me, we are only talking difference in -regen which is only really a factor on some bosses and EBs on up. I just think tossing everything you can with Plant/ta on a mob and then putting down a lit Oil Slick is really sick and wrong in a funny and good way.
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Hrm... I've only played one or two /TA characters, and those were a long time ago. I think one of the differences if the -def? IIRC Acid Arrow (mostly ST?) and maybe Oil Slick provide some -def, but you have to wait pretty long for it. |
Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
I would look at /ta. It's like /storm in that it's debuff heavy and adds in damage. The general difference of -tohit isn't that big and /ta's is better against EBs/AVs. To me, we are only talking difference in -regen which is only really a factor on some bosses and EBs on up. I just think tossing everything you can with Plant/ta on a mob and then putting down a lit Oil Slick is really sick and wrong in a funny and good way.
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RI is pretty much an option out of the gate, and it's a one-stop-shop for both -def AND -to-hit. Makes it an awesome addition to the SOC -> Roots combo. It even helps clump up the spawn in the beginning as they all run over to try and beat on you. Works great for a corner pull too.
I love Oil Slick though... Adding all the TA goodies into the Plant/ killbox playstyle would really just be evil.
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-def can be countered with acc slotting. The -tohit issue I think is more for lower level play. Yes, it's rather nice to have, but on teams RI gets less and less useful as you level up. On a SO type build, my Plant/storm was soloing 0x6 with bosses with Freakshow and that is without Hurricane. I have yet to do the trials to see how I feel about those. I just need to fill out my alpha slot on may Kat/sr a little more and then I'll switch.
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Originally Posted by Argentae
Hrm... I've only played one or two /TA characters, and those were a long time ago. I think one of the differences if the -def? IIRC Acid Arrow (mostly ST?) and maybe Oil Slick provide some -def, but you have to wait pretty long for it.
RI is pretty much an option out of the gate, and it's a one-stop-shop for both -def AND -to-hit. Makes it an awesome addition to the SOC -> Roots combo. It even helps clump up the spawn in the beginning as they all run over to try and beat on you. Works great for a corner pull too. I love Oil Slick though... Adding all the TA goodies into the Plant/ killbox playstyle would really just be evil. . |
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::nods::|
Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
-def can be countered with acc slotting. The -tohit issue I think is more for lower level play. Yes, it's rather nice to have, but on teams RI gets less and less useful as you level up. On a SO type build, my Plant/storm was soloing 0x6 with bosses with Freakshow and that is without Hurricane. I have yet to do the trials to see how I feel about those. I just need to fill out my alpha slot on may Kat/sr a little more and then I'll switch.
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My Plant/Storm was the same way. But my Plant/Rad is running 0x6 with only TO's, he hasn't even gotten to DO's yet
.Seriously though, the -def and -tohit would still be very useful even in the later game, it would be very useful for letting you solo much larger and higher lvl spawns, and it would make the Vet Attacks useful vs those higher lvl mobs so it would help fill the single target dmg hole in the build. I'm definitely going to miss Lightning Storm and Tornado though
.Lots of neat possibilities with /TA too though... Egads. Not sure if I can handle yet ANOTHER alt! :: facepalm ::
Got back to Photokinthesis last night... Got into a decent PUG and jumped him from 14.5 to 18.9 in a handful of missions. 
So he's finished slotting out Roots, Seeds, Stamina now and has picked up Assault and Tactics, as he already had Super Speed and Hasten that's it for his base choices from the pools.
Obviously he's going to pickup Speed Boost at 20, really looking forward to the AOE effect change coming in the next update. So... Just over a single level till Photo gets SB! Yay! Getting a team mysteriously becomes sooooo much easier once you hit 20th as a Kinetic.
As with all /Kinetic builds, it's going to be quite a while till the build actually matures, but at least Creepers is in the near future, and that makes *such* a difference for Plant/anything.
As the dmg normalizes and the mobs start the late teen -> early twenty ramp up, it's getting tougher to handle the larger spawns. However, I find myself remembering more and more WHY I was such a melee focused player when playing Mind/Kin, Fire/Kin, Grav/Kin etc... Seeds generally gets *enough* of the spawn, that regular Transfusion hits can keep me on my feet as long as I'm careful.
I've found Repel increasingly useful. It's quite handy for keeping the mobs Seeds missed off my back (literally), and when teaming last night I found it was highly effectivel for immediate reaction control to protect my fellow squishies. I found I could keep a target selected that was in the middle of the melee scrum, and pop off Transfusions to keep the tank/scrappers upright, while I ran around and used Repel to bounce the mobs that broke free if the tank lost aggro BACK into the melee, then a quick Roots to keep them there. Very handy. Now that Stamina is 3 slotted (only DO's, but still significant) running Repel is a lot more doable, though I'm still quite surgical with it, generally using it in bursts.
Tactics... I just love Tactics on a /Kin controller. :: happy sigh :: Not sold on the end usage of Assault (though it's worth it when teaming), but with so many to-hit powers in the primary/secondary Tactics helps so much, esp as the mob level starts rising above your own.
The only other Pool powers I'm considering for Photo are Stealth (unless I can get a celerity +stealth IO for Super Speed) and Hover. Looking ahead it seems that I'm going to have some extra power slots available, so I'm seriously considering one or both of those. Oh, almost forgot Combat jumping (to hop in/out of melee range to setup cones etc), that's also a strong possibility.
'K. I think that's pretty much brought Photokinthesis up to date build decisions wise. I've been working him through the Midnighter arc(s), though with the amount of teaming I expect him to do in the near future, not sure how far I'll get through them.
Arg
Oh... Forgot to ask.
I never really used Spore Burst on my Plant/Storm as it just wasn't needed, but it might well be a lot more useful on Plant/Kin given the higher fragility of the overall build. For those Plant/ Controllers that have used it thoroughly, care to share your thoughts/experience using it? I know I'll miss the aggroless nature of Mass Hyp, but it's still an aoe rather than a cone, yes? So it can reach around corners to catch the mobs that Seeds would miss?
Arg
So... Viridicane (Plant/Storm) is 46'th and kicking butt with about a 76% global Rech (on a bootstrap budget, IOW only what she's made on the way up). Obviously it's time to start a new alt!
Any mob that gets missed, you can use Strangler/Vet attacks on, just keep spamming roots on the main spawn. Once you have SOC you can get up into melee range (for /Kin).
I remember playing Plant/Storm and Plant/Kin during the Beta testing for GR when you could start a char at like 40/41 and I found that Plant/Kin was hugely more fragile than Plant/Storm, which is why I went with Plant/Storm.
Recently I've been missing playing Kinetics though, so I figured I'd give Plant/Kin a real spin as well, now that I've got a LOT more experience with Plant/ and to enjoy the SB as an AOE buff change coming soon.
And so... Photokinthesis is born.
Last night I did his initial workup to 6 (to pick up SuperSpeed) and did some teaming. I was the only Troller or Def on the team, and it felt like Transfusion and Roots made a huge difference. The two times I died were shortly followed by team wipes which could have been either cause or effect, but it certainly felt like he was more than pulling his weight.
Then I jumped over to Perez to finish up 7th and pickup SOC. With my past experience as a guide, I have 6 slotted Roots and skimped on my ST hold and transfusion at the start. That lets me put enough Acc TO's into Roots to get the acc up to a very reliable lvl and even throw a bit of DMG in.
Result: AOE street sweeper at lvl 7/8. He's currently working through the perimeter of PP knocking over large spawns of Hellions quite effectively. The bosses are a major problem though, I focus on them pretty exclusively with Siphon Power and Strangler and take out the rest of the spawn just by leading off with SOC and spamming roots. So far it's iffy whether transfusion keeps me upright long enough, but I'd say I outlast the spawn 3 times out of 4, more if I've managed my insps well. Having the respawn point IN PP now makes a huge difference in the risks I willing to run. Overall: Having a blast as a street sweeper. /Kin starts faster than /Storm right out of the gate, almost exclusively due to Transfusion's fundamental awesomeness. Plant/Rad would be better obviously, but it's still fun.
I do miss the -def from Freezing Rain or Rad Infection though they make the Vet attacks sooo much more useful. I'll probably have to pick up Tactics on Photo for that reason alone.
6 slotting Roots early is possibly a bit unconventional, but for Plant/ it makes a lot of sense. Very Early Plant/ is an AOE monster, initially just rooting the spawn from outside of the spawn's Ranged retaliation er.. range.