Critique Please: Plant/Poison, Procs and Debuffs!
By
Jericho,
Posted on: 2011-10-07 10:50 in Controllers
I have a 50 plants/storm that I consider quite toothy, and am currently working on a poison controller. I have a few comments and suggestions about your build, but I am by no means an expert.
In no particular order:
Many of your powers have low amounts of accuracy slotted. Your envenom and weaken have no accuracy slotted. Without tactics, significant global accuracy, or even a kismet:+acc, I think you're going to run into trouble hitting things.
Your hasten has one slot. It's lonely.
You may want an endrdx in burnout. At 48 endurance and -25 max end, I think I would flatline my blue bar and detoggle myself if I tried to use it in a situation where I actually needed it. (after having just blown several expensive long cooldown abilities)
Venomous Gas' debuffs are flagged to ignore buffs and enhancements. You can remove many of its slots for use elsewhere. I was going for 2 endrdx, an achilles heel proc, and possibly a touch of lady grey proc.
Poison trap does not currently use procs correctly, according to Negate, here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...81&postcount=6 You could get a few more slots from here to move around.
Roots can dish out respectable damage with containment. You may want to give it another slot to raise its damage.
I strongly recommend using coercive persuasion: contagious confusion proc in seeds of confusion. It's probably my favorite proc of all time. Drop the pure confuse IO if you prefer to not 6 slot coercive persuasion. Any large group you SoC will generally have enough procs go off that the bosses will be confused as well.
If you plan to use spirit tree much, you may want to give it additional slots if you can spare them. 4 Heal/Rech IOs would ED cap both heal and recharge, but 3 would likely be close enough with a spiritual alpha.
Carrion Creepers could use different slotting if you're going for damage. I'm currently using 4 procs (trap of the hunter, explosive strike, impeded swiftness, and positron's blast), and 2 generic recharge IOs. 3 damage/recharge IOs and 3 procs would probably be better but I haven't switched yet. You may want to consider giving it an accuracy instead of one of the procs as well. I was counting on my freezing rain and tactics to help out in that department. I found this guide to Carrion Creepers helpful when I was trying to figure out what they did and how to slot them, hopefully it's still accurate: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=127023
I would suggest slotting Fly Trap with 4x expedient reinforcement (leaving out acc/rech and +res aura), the touch of lady grey proc, and achilles heel proc. You could also drop the expedient reinforcement rech/dmg/end and put in a shield breaker proc, but I'm unsure if this would increase overall damage output.
I would move the unbreakable constraint proc from vines to strangler, possibly dropping the other proc from strangler and replacing with a lockdown quad. You could put a different proc in vines, but as it is strictly an "oh crap" power for me that gets used maybe every 10 minutes, I would use a lockdown quad in it instead of a proc.
You may want to consider a different epic pool unless you chose psionic for concept reasons. With ice, stone, or mace, you can aim for the smashing/lethal softcap, or get within 1 luck range of it quite easily. Leviathan or fire would likely give you superior damage and some endurance recovery. I found the patron pets to be prone to doing adorably stupid things, but overall put out solid damage over time if they survive.
That's all I could think of. Hope it helps.
Great advice! That's just the type of advice I've been looking for!
I'll be incorporating your suggestions in the iteration of my next build.
Thanks again!
Malakim
-Playing since COH beta and still love the game!
Recent tests have shown that by far the three best procs to have in Carrion Creepers currently are Impeded Swiftness, Positron's Blast and Javelin Volley, however the last of those three is VERY expensive, being a pvp IO.
(At one time, Posi and Jav were not as damaging as they are now, because they only proced on aoe damage from the Creepers, but they currently proc on all damage from the Creepers.)
The damage procs for Trap of the Hunter and Explosive Strike proc much less often, making them not currently recommended for this power. (However, Trap of the Hunter is very recommended for Roots!)
I would try some combination of Accuracy, Damage and Recharge (to make it permanent) along with Positron's Blast and Impeded Swiftness damage procs for optimum slotting. If you can afford Javelin's Volley, then make that a third proc in the power.
-Rich
With regards to the Jav proc... I'll certainly try to put that in. Right now, my character is at level 38 and I can only find the IOs at level 50. I guess people are not PVPing very much prior to level 50.
I currently have Creepers slotted with 3 damage procs (posi blast, trap of the hunter, and explosive strike) and 3 damage/rech IOs franken slotted in. I'm going to take your advice to heart and replace trap and ES accordingly when I get the new IOs. I have plenty of free unslotters that I'll likely use (unless I use one of many vet respecs).
I've also taken the previous poster's advice and improved on my accuracy. My current plan will be to have around 25% global accuracy from set IOs nearing the late game. I think Creepers might have to take that as it's baseline unless I see too many critters avoiding my hits. This hasn't been the case so far even at 38, so I'm good so far.
I think I'll post an improved build in the future as I still have many questions about particular powers (poison trap is still a bit baffling to me), but that might be for the new forum area focussed on build critiques.
Again, thanks for your input. It's appreciated.
Malakim
-Playing since COH beta and still love the game!
Herein I made what looks to be a fun Plant/Poison Controller. I'm looking for any critiques that might point out some glaring flaws or if there are some changes anyone might suggest to make this more effective, but keeping with how I'd like this build to function.
Basically, I'd like to build a plant/poison controller that has teeth! I'm sure I can make a fire/poison controller that can out damage this combo, but this is more fun.
I love carrion creepers so I wanted to make them perma, with hopefully lots of procs to make it more effective. This character is at level 33 right now and burnout allows me to have two spirit trees and carrion creepers out at the same time for tough battles.
There are many procs in the build. This is to make AOEs that don't cause damage, to make some damage - or to make low damaging powers have a bit more umph.
Although I love the procs, my priority is to build in more damage into this build (control, recharge will come organically). So any advice or critiques would certainly be appreciated.
...and here's the build:
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.95
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Technology Controller
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Poison
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Strangler -- NrncSD-Dam%(A), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(19), BasGaze-Acc/Hold(19), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(34), G'Wdw-Dam%(46)
Level 1: Alkaloid -- Dct'dW-Heal(A), Dct'dW-Rchg(21), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(23), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(45)
Level 2: Roots -- Posi-Dam%(A), TotHntr-Dam%(3), Posi-Acc/Dmg(21), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(23)
Level 4: Envenom -- Achilles-ResDeb%(A), Achilles-DefDeb/Rchg(5), LdyGrey-%Dam(5), LdyGrey-DefDeb/Rchg(7), LdyGrey-DefDeb(11), LdyGrey-Rchg/EndRdx(11)
Level 6: Weaken -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb(A), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(7), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg(9), DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx(9)
Level 8: Seeds of Confusion -- CoPers-Conf(A), CoPers-Conf/Rchg(13), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(13), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(15), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(15), Mlais-Dam%(17)
Level 10: Neurotoxic Breath -- ImpSwft-Dam%(A), P'ngTtl-Acc/Slow(17), Slow-I(25)
Level 12: Spirit Tree -- Heal-I(A)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 16: Elixir of Life -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Vines -- BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(25), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(45), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(46), UbrkCons-Dam%(46)
Level 20: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 22: Burnout -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 24: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 26: Carrion Creepers -- GravAnch-Immob/Rchg(A), Posi-Dam%(27), Ragnrk-Knock%(27), TotHntr-Dam%(29), GravAnch-Hold%(29), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(31)
Level 28: Entangle -- Dmg-I(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg(31), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(31)
Level 30: Recall Friend -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 32: Fly Trap -- ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(33), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(33), ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(33), C'Arms-+Def(Pets)(37), EdctM'r-PetDef(40)
Level 35: Poison Trap -- FotG-ResDeb%(A), G'Wdw-Dam%(36), Oblit-Dmg(37), Armgdn-Dmg(37), Armgdn-Dam%(45), Oblit-%Dam(50)
Level 38: Venomous Gas -- Achilles-ResDeb%(A), LdyGrey-%Dam(39), Achilles-DefDeb/Rchg(39), LdyGrey-DefDeb/Rchg(39), LdyGrey-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(40), LdyGrey-DefDeb(40)
Level 41: Mental Blast -- Apoc-Dmg(A), Apoc-Dam%(42), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(42), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(43), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(43)
Level 44: Indomitable Will -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 47: Psionic Tornado -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(50), FrcFbk-Rechg%(50)
Level 49: Mind Over Body -- Empty(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal(34), Heal-I(36)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(34), EndMod-I(36)
Malakim
-Playing since COH beta and still love the game!