Earth brings more control to the table (all of it ranged except for the skippable Salt Crystals). It can control three spawns easily with Earthquake, Volcanic Gas and Stalagmites, with only one of those requiring line of sight.
Plant matures much more quickly and does more damage.
For a secondary I'd suggest Fire, or maybe Electricty, since both have a ranged area attack and a self-damage boost.
With Earth, I really dont think you need to be averse to melee at all. Once youve locked down a spawn and sent your personal Tanker in (Animate Stone) you're in very little danger.
Both primaries work well if you don't wanna be in melee, both offer great control and mitigation, Earth a bit more on the hard controls, but Plant has the sweet confusion (and Carrion Creepers for damage). Earth's pet is better, it's tanky and does more damage than Plant's.
IMO the only secondary that is 100% suitable from range is fire. Energy can be made ranged too but you'll have no AoE (since you'd skip Whirling Hands). Ok Elec assault maybe... But I'd never make a ranged /elec because the melee attacks are so good.
I have an Earth/Fire and due to the ranged nature of Earth I decided to avoid melee, so I skipped Incinerate and Combustion, although Incinerate is a great power it was my only melee one so I respecced out of it since most times I didn't feel like going close just to use that power.
That said, if you've never played Doms, don't think they are like controllers, they are awesome in melee, my permadom Ice/Psi lived in melee her entire career (I shelved her, played too much), as did my Plant/Thorns. I'm playing a ranged one for variety, not because Doms are 'afraid' of melee.
the one advantage plant's pet has it that it accepts the Achilles hell proc for two of it's three attacks, including the throw spines cone. In all other ways the earth pet is better.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
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Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
I wold go Plant. Earth is great as well but if you want control and damage I think plant would be your best choice overall.
Honestly I cannot decide between these two.
I want to be able to lock down an entire room, and still do fantastic damage.
It would be preferable if it didint have to be in melee range for any of it.
Which of these supplements that best?
Also, i duo a lot with my friend. We just started fresh, im playing a scrapper, but i might switch it up a bit, hes a Kat/Ele brute. We are both level 20.
I might switch over to a dominator (sometimes we are having a ***** of a time with some missions duoing as it can be slow, and sometimes dangerous).
He might not play that, im not sure. Regardless I just want to completely lock **** down, and do nice big numbers.
Any advice? And what secondary would you pair these two with?
Thanks