Controller Advice - Plant/Storm

So, I've been playing a fair bit on a new Plant/Storm toon. He's a *lot* of fun and I've been quite content to blunder along and see how things go.

That said, as I'm starting to approach the pointy end of the content, I've started to think about a final build for him... and boy, am I struggling on MIDs to get my head around him. He's my first controller and I've really got no idea how to get what I want out of him.

I'd like to maximise defense and also maximise my recharge (and then, whereever possible, pick up +end, +recovery, +hp, +regen bonuses). Permahaste would be a dream, but I can't for the life of me recall how much +Rech I'm going to need. I don't mind spending the influence on this guy: he's a blast to play and quickly becoming my main.

As to defense... I can easily design builds that reach the S/L softcap (I've also got one that softcaps S/L/E). But with Hurricane, that seems pointless. I'd have thought Ranged/AoE would be the way to go, but maybe I should just focus on Range? Any thoughts?

Outside of defenses, one question related to the powers themselves:

How does +Recharge interact with the Storm pets? I'm not yet at a point where I can summon multiple tornados/storms,freezing rains, creepers, etc; how does recharge work on these things? Can you have multiples of the pseudopets out? Does Rain stack? I thought Tornado could stack but had no idea about the others...

Really appreciate any guidance!

Lots of questions, there. Glad you are enjoying your controller. Controllers are my favorite AT because the playstyles vary so widely. You have picked a good one in Plant/Storm.

Many of the answers to your questions depend upon your personal playstyle and the way you play the game. If you mostly play solo, your build should probably be different than if you mostly team. Do you tend to hang back more, or do you prefer to run into melee?

First and foremost, Controllers do not need to built for Defense. Your goal is to control the group, and if you are successful in doing that, the bad guys won't be shooting at you. You may want to try to build your controller first with no defense in mind, just to see if you can develop the strategy where Defense is not needed. Most of my controllers, including my Plant/Storm, use Invisibility to be able to approach groups without being seen so that I can then spring my AoE control on them without giving them a chance to attack me. The main goal for IO bonuses is Recharge and Recovery so that I can throw out my controls as much as possible.

On the other hand, lots of people like to build their controllers for defense. For a Plant/Storm, Ranged Defense is probably best. Most mez powers have a ranged aspect, so Ranged Defense is usually the best defense against mez. More importantly, Hurricane can handle most things in melee including some AoE users, so Ranged Defense will handle most things at a distance.

*/Storm is always hard on endurance, so going for Recovery and +Endurance is always a good thing. All of my */Storm controllers have the Cardiac in the Alpha slot. Recharge is essential to get Seeds of Confusion, Roots and Carion Creepers up as much as possible. Some folks choose the Medicine pool to make up for the fact that Storm does not have a self heal. Or they go for the heal, Earth's Embrace, in the Stone APP set. Or they take Hibernate from the Ice APP set (which is what I usually do). Another option is to go for the heal power from the Destiny incarnate slot.

Yes, you can get more than one Lightning Storm and more than one Tornado out. Unfortunately, the Recharge buff does not extend to the pets and pseudopets. Multiple Freezing Rains will stack.

I dont have Mids but here goes nothing.

Strangler 4 basilisks
Roots 5 posi blast and 1 proc
Seeds of confusion 6 coercive confusion
Vines 4 basilisk and 1 other IO
Carrion creepers 5 gravitational anchor & 1 proc
fly trap 6 blood mandate
Gale no slots
Snowstorm no slots
Steamy mist 3 luck of the gambler
Freezing rain 3 of whatever set gives the dam bonus plus 1 achilles heel % for debuff
Hurricane 4 dark watcher
Thunder clap 6 stupefy
Tornado 6 expedient reinforcement
Lightning storm 5 decimation
Stamina 3 slots of whatever
Health with a miracle
Hasten 3 level 50 rech IOs
Super speed with 2 blessing of the zephyr (one being -knockback)
Hover with 1 luck of the gambler & 2 blessing zephyr (move and move/end)
Maneuvers with 3 luck of the gambler
Boxing unslotted
Tough unslotted with steadfast 3% def IO
Weave with 3 luck of the gambler
Epic blast with 4 thunderstrikes
Epic aoe with 5 positron blasts
One epic or other power undefined.

That gets you 43.5% or so ranged defense, 27% aoe def, and 101.25% global recharge not counting hasten. So basically permahasten. Pick up Cardiac for the alpha.

You will have 2 damage procs in roots and a hold proc and a dam proc in carrion creepers if you wish. I prefer fireball but if you went with the ice epic for frost breath and ice blast, you could get another luck of the gambler in the build. Or you could pull out a proc and one or both extra proc powers and have a few more slots for capping ranged def by 6 slotting the blast with thunderstrike. I prefer procs. Or you could pick up fire shield and mule the gladiator def IO for 2 billion.

Bottom line: you can have your cake and eat it too with plant/storm.

Enjoy!

Lewis

Really appreciate the responses; very very helpful. I've had a toy around with the first build posted; I can play around the edges and it looks very very strong. Thank you for that.

The second build appears similarly effective. In practice, does S/L defense offer similar levels of protection from ranged attacks?

Another question - procs in creepers/roots. I've seen this a lot - is it something worth aiming to do? It isn't worth slotting for damage in creepers?

Thanks again!

S/L defense is nice. I prefer ranged on a controller because it neutralizes most of the simultaneous retaliation, including hostile mezzes (which usually are not S/L).

In theory you could do both. If you went with ice on my build and used ice armor for your final power, and pulled the 5th slot from vines and maybe the 6th from carrion creepers and then shifted slots so that you can get the 3 LotG on Ice Armor, you could keep all your ranged def capped while making your S/L defense very solid too.

EDIT: at least 43.4% to S/L def, while keeping the other def, plus you pick up the 5th Luck of the Gambler.

Lewis

Procs in Roots and Carrion Creepers are good.

With as much globsl recharge as my build has, you could keep the 6th slot for procs in both roots and CC and still scrape 2 slots to shift up to the Frozen Armor build. Take the 5th slot from Vines and one slot from Freezing Rain. You could still take the achilles heel and also 2 of the set that gives the damage bonus. Then shift the 2 slots up through the build so you can take Frost Breath, Ice Blast and Frozen armor. That way you can keep range cap def, pick up near to capped S/L, pick up more global recharge with LotG in Frozen armor.

That should let you keep Roots 6 slotted along with Carrion Creepers. Then Roots can have the 5 Posi blasts invluding the damage proc, plus another damage proc from another set. CC can have the grav anchor set in 5 sloys with one of them being the chance for hold, and the 6th slot could be a damage proc. Good ti,es.

BTW, people often slot damage sets in Roots because its base damage is strong for an AoE immobilize. So it is actually a nice component of your damage.

Hope you have fun playing the combo. I love my plant/storm.

Lewis

Here is the build in Mids' planner. It has capped ranged defense, high (over 40%) S/L and Energy defense, good all-around defense numbers otherwise (for when allies have defense buffs or for when you eat a defense inspiration) and it also is only about a second over perma-hasten. It has good recovery and low endurance usage thanks to having T1 alpha cardiac. You could go T2 or beyond if you want.

Hope this is useful.

Lewis

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.952
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

War Druid: Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Ice Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Strangler -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(3), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(5)
Level 1: Gale -- Acc-I(A)
Level 2: Roots -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(13), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13), Posi-Dam%(15), TotHntr-Dam%(40)
Level 4: Snow Storm -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 6: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Zephyr-Travel(7), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(7)
Level 8: Seeds of Confusion -- CoPers-Conf(A), CoPers-Conf/Rchg(9), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(9), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(11), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(15), CoPers-Conf%(50)
Level 10: Steamy Mist -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(11), LkGmblr-Rchg+(37)
Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(37), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(A), Zephyr-ResKB(48)
Level 16: Freezing Rain -- UndDef-Rchg/EndRdx(A), UndDef-Rchg(17), Achilles-ResDeb%(17)
Level 18: Vines -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(19), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(19), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(25)
Level 20: Hurricane -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb(A), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg(21), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(21), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(25)
Level 22: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 24: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 26: Carrion Creepers -- GravAnch-Immob/Rchg(A), GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(27), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(27), GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx(29), GravAnch-Hold%(29), Posi-Dam%(31)
Level 28: Thunder Clap -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(34), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(34), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(34), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(43), Stpfy-KB%(43)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(31), LkGmblr-Rchg+(31)
Level 32: Fly Trap -- BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg(A), BldM'dt-Dmg/EndRdx(33), BldM'dt-Acc/EndRdx(33), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), BldM'dt-Acc(46), BldM'dt-Dmg(46)
Level 35: Tornado -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(36), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(36), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(40), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(43)
Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(39), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 41: Ice Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(42), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42)
Level 44: Frost Breath -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(45), Posi-Dmg/Rng(45), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46)
Level 47: Frozen Armor -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(48), LkGmblr-Rchg+(48)
Level 49: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(50), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50)
Level 50: Cardiac Boost
------------
Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(23), EndMod-I(23)
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run

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That is an incredible build. Thanks very much - that's exactly what I'm after. There might be one or two *minor* changes I'll make (orders of powers, one slot moved, maybe switch one power), but that is fantastic. Wow.

Thanks very much.

Cheers!

Glad I could help.

When I posted it, I also posted it to the new builds forum. Someone on there had some info that Carrion Creepers is better with damage, and that the effects in CC that allow procs to happen don't all work with the Grav Anchor proc. Personally, I dont care. My Plant/Storm used Grav Anchor and/or other Immobs and it was fine for me. But you could throw a Ragnarok in there if you save up some money. Or just frankenslot it and lose a bit of recharge. Its not like being a few seconds short of permahasten is a big deal.

Anyway, just giving you a heads up. Here is the link to his comments for when you tweak your build:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=276123

Lewis

I just realized I only had 4 sets with 6.25% recharge in the build, so there is room for another. So you could put a Posi Blast set in Carrion Creepers (one should be the posi proc) and you will have damage in the power and only be a couple seconds shy of permahasten. Good enough. Im the 6th CC slot, throw a level 50 rech IO in to get CC well under perma, or throw a Trap of the Hunter dam proc in there so you have 2 damage procs in CC. Tho if you do that, your CC will itself be a second or two over perma.

Anyway, just providing options.

Lewis