subbacultchas

This is my the current iteration of my Plant/Dark/Earth if anyone is interested. It's a bit over the def cap, and I will likely remove Maneuvers or CJ if I can find a decent replacement for it. I'm also considering recharge/end red in Howling Twilight since it has a heavy cost, I use it mostly for AVs but also the occasional disorient while farming. Any input welcome. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 2.22 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Controller Primary Power Set: Plant Control Secondary Power Set: Darkness Affinity Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Leaping Ancillary Pool: Stone Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Strangler -- SprEnt-Acc/Hold(A), SprEnt-Hold/Rchg(3), Lck-%Hold(3), SprWntBit-Dmg/Rchg(5), Dvs-Hold%(13), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg(46) Level 1: Twilight Grasp -- TchoftheN-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(A), TchoftheN-Heal(5), TchoftheN-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(7), TchoftheN-Acc/Heal(7) Level 2: Tar Patch -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(9) Level 4: Roots -- Ann-Dmg/Rchg(A), Ann-Acc/Dmg(9), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), SprOvrPrs-Rchg/Energy Font(45) Level 6: Darkest Night -- ToHitDeb-I(A), ToHitDeb-I(13) Level 8: Seeds of Confusion -- CrcPrs-Conf(A), CrcPrs-Acc/Conf/Rchg(15), CrcPrs-Conf%(15), CrcPrs-Conf/Rchg(17), CrcPrs-Acc/Rchg(17) Level 10: Howling Twilight -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(19) Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(19) Level 14: Boxing -- Empty(A) Level 16: Tough -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(21) Level 18: Weave -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), Rct-ResDam%(21) Level 20: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(23) Level 22: Vines -- SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(A), SprWiloft-Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/Rchg(23), SprWiloft-EndRdx/Rchg(25), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(25), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(27), SprWiloft-Rchg/Dmg%(27) Level 24: Fade -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(29), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(29), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(31), GldArm-RechRes(31), RedFrt-Def/Rchg(31) Level 26: Shadow Fall -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(33), UnbGrd-ResDam(33), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(33), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(34), UnbGrd-Max HP%(34) Level 28: Carrion Creepers -- Rgn-Acc/Rchg(A), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(36), Rgn-Dmg(36) Level 30: Soul Absorption -- NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(A), Pnc-Heal/Rchg(37), NmnCnv-Heal(37), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(37), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(39) Level 32: Fly Trap -- ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(39), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(39), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets)(40), CaltoArm-+Def(Pets)(40) Level 35: Fissure -- SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg(A), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(42), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), SprFrzBls-Rchg/ImmobProc(42), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx(43), FrcFdb-Rechg%(43) Level 38: Dark Servant -- TchoftheN-Acc/Heal(A), TchoftheN-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(40), TchoftheN-Heal(43), DmpSpr-ToHitDeb/Rchg(45), DmpSpr-ToHitDeb(45) Level 41: Seismic Smash -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(48), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(48) Level 44: Earth's Embrace -- NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(A), DctWnd-Heal/Rchg(50), Prv-Heal/Rchg(50) Level 47: Super Speed -- Run-I(A) Level 49: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Containment Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(48), EndMod-I(50) Level 50: Agility Partial Core Revamp Level 50: Ion Total Core Judgement Level 50: Reactive Partial Core Conversion Level 50: Clarion Partial Radial Invocation Level 50: Robotic Drones Partial Core Improved Ally ------------

Sure. I farm damned near exclusively with controllers and dominators now, and there's a few AE missions that I use for it. Don't know about story, or why you'd want on on an AE farming mission though. If I can remember I'll try to find the ArcIDs when I get home, but there is one in particular that I've used across several characters and builds. The title is something like Smash/Lethal Farm, Tickets and Inf (no ambushes)

I really toyed with the idea of Fire Mastery too, which I had taken on my Elec/Dark. You can still retain soft-capped defenses easily, and can have most of your resistances in the 40-75% range as well with that route. But I think earth fits the playstyle a bit better. Ice is pretty if you really want to stack more damage, and Soul can provide a decent AOE and a nice self-buff with Soul Drain.

I went Earth Mastery for a couple of reasons. Fault is a damned fine power with quicker recharge than most epic AOEs, a 50% mez component plus knockdown, and slots FF +recharge which it procs constantly. Seismic smash is amazing single target damage with a hold, which can help with holding bosses if procs in strangler don't hit. And Earth's Embrace is quite good on its own, but really shines in a set with a lot of +regen, which this one has (more hp = more hp/sec regen). I did not take the armor because I'd already soft-capped positional. I almost went Primal as Redux did for Power Boost, but instead went with the the line Clarion Destiny that applies it, and stuck with Earth.

Looks like I lost a reply here too yesterday. I use this in my AOE immob, and when farming at least it activates practically every time I cast the immob. I almost always have out a minimum of two Energy Fonts, and often three, rarely even a fourth one. I'm sure there are other powers that equally useful to slot it in, but for me it's the AOE immob in Plant.

Very true. On my Plant/Dark I do use mine, but honestly it's my secondary or even tertiary group mez. Seeds is my number one, and when soloing I've used a combination of Fault/Howling Twilight probably more than the AOE hold. I keep it around because it's nice when everything else is on cooldown, but those instances are just downright uncommon, especially post-50. I'm really in favor of seeing changes to what was a looked forward to power back during live, but is now more often skipped.

Even without Domination, there's several controller powers that can perma-mez already: Elec's sleep, Plant's confuse, Earth's AOE hold, and some disorients and fears. So if they intended to move away from perma-mez, they shifted right back toward it with IO sets and Incarantes. What's the point of holds being the singular exception?

Don't be too sure. ;) Oh hey, I'm not sure in the least. I just don't expect any. That way there's no pressure, and if they do make any it will be an awesome surprise.

They've got their respective eyes on a lot of different things. I expect we will see a lot of balancing, bug fixes, and attention to underperforming powers and ATs. I don't expect to see a lot of new content for quite a while, if ever. But they're not paid, and they probably have families and jobs like most of us. So it's going to take time, and should never be rushed.

/Rad for me has always been a set that works well in a group... and is disappointing while solo. It's not just you. /Dark and /Cold have replaced what /Rad used to be in the olden times, and better in a few ways. YMMV of course.

There's quite a few different ways. As Bentley said, passing enh to alts is effective if you have it. Using merits to get converters to sell is very lucrative as well, moreso than using them for enhancements almost every time. I also tend to slot nothing until near 20s, and at 22s I craft a full set of 25 IOs. This will save you a lot of money long term. After that I only replace those with attuned versions of sets I plan to use post-50, or occasionally a frankenslotted set or two on a main power.

Been mentioned already, but it's really nice when most or all of the team takes the team teleport from P2W vendor. Hell, it's good enough on some of the longer TFs I'd consider giving everyone the cash to buy it myself before we start.

Maybe, but you've got some excellent support in Drain Psyche in the set too. Long term, I think resistances are not as much a worry as you might think. It's going to affect your speed of killing, but not necessarily whether you can survive or not. I think you'll have enough survivability that you'll manage just fine, and won't lack in damage at all one you get epic pools.

Just wanted to give a shout out for mentioning us controller/dominator farmers. We exist, and it's a hell of a thing to see. This is overall a very good guide, and I'm glad to see stuff like this. There's a lot of threads asking how people afford IO sets when levelling, and this is one big component if not the main one (merits and conversion too). So this will be a good guide to point people toward if they are trying to supplement their income .

Yeah, it ain't from this. I tried this, and for me it was among the worst ways to make money, and I actually lost on this. I'm not exactly a high-roller in comparison to some folks, but I've got two toons wearing about 750 mil a piece worth of sets, and probably got about 200-300 mil in spending cash right now. Mostly this is from a couple of things: doing TFs,Trials, Raids, solo farming, and using converters. Doing solo farming when nothing else is going on is a good way to make money, and in early levels that includes a bit of AE farming and then using tickets for recipes. Later levels (especially 50) the tickets are not worth it long run. Using converters to turn some of those IOs into better versions to sell is an excellent way to make money too, and works in tandem with farming. But Trials, TFs, Raids are one of the even better ways for me. Summer Blockbuster itself is a way to get 5-7 mil in 30 minutes usually, and Hamidon raids even more lucrative depending on what you pick. But also being savvy with how you spend helps. I see people all the time using reward merits to buy enhancements, and that's really never the preferred way and especially for the class specific ones. Most of the ATOs, Winters, and Purples run for less on the AH than you'd get for turning those 100 merits into converters and selling them. And while sometimes it's a different of say 5 mil for a Purple, for ATOs it's a different of 10-20 million.

I'm glad I am not the only one. Can we get an artificial skin to apply to non-attuned ones? I'd pay for that.

I would personally build Clarion in that instance too. I'd also add that you are probably a lot closer to softcap than you realize as D/D, depending on pool powers of course. With just Fade and Shadowfall and the 2 3% global defense IOs, you can pack an easy 30+percent without dipping. So consider that if you are interested in it.

Done it a few times, and can concur that it works just fine. I expect if you exemplar you may lose some of the set bonuses.

I can name at least one good friend who creates very high end builds but almost never uses Hasten. You can achieve a great deal of recharge without it, so while I personally use it almost all of the time, it certainly is optional in theory and in practice. You don't ever need it, but I certainly like having it. :D For sure. I specifically put personal practice because it's how I feel about it, but that should never be pushed onto everyone.

To each their own, and don't let anyone give you grief for your playstyle. Glad I could help man!

A few things here: haste is always optional in theory, but I find it never optional in personal practice. You can get by sure, but you're talking about using several sets and specific IO's to counteract taking a single two-slotted power. I don't know how often that's going to pay off honestly, I think they work better complementing one another. But try it. There's no "one size fits all" in this game, and not really a single "best" way for anything. However, if you have a nuke let me promise you that you will use it often in solo play. Like every time it's up and there's a group. They are crashless now, and there isn't a reason to not use them barring a few exceptions. If you play controller you won't have to mess with them as there aren't many if any controller nukes. But you will have large aoe mezzes that you can get on a very reasonable recharge with haste and set bonuses, as well as secondary buffs that are longer duration (AM, Fade, Drain Psyche/Soul Absorption) and such. It may be that you have a build without many and not taking hasten is an option, I don't know. But for me I take hasten to improve the recharges on these and have never once regretted it; and I usually take it by level 8.

As always, I'm gonna say /Dark or /Cold powersets, and you can accomplish those in Controller (preferred by me) or Corruptors, or inversely in Defenders. Both have a lot of debuffs, and a rather heavy -regen and -res one, as well as a lot of buffs to complement them. But before picking an AT it might be best if you decided what your preferred playstyle is, and cater the AT to that and then look for -res -regen.

This. It's not a blanket choice of which is better, it depends heavily on each AT, and really heavily on each build within that AT. I main a lot of controllers, corruptors, dominators and such. Often I will softcap them to defenses if I'm able and it doesn't hurt their powers. So for me, Clarion is almost always the best way to go because I can set up for good defenses minus Incarnates, but not for mez protection (don't like psychic Ancillary). Were I playing another AT, or another build where I could not easily get defenses, I might go Barrier. So it depends on what you've built for, what strengths you have, what gaps you see, and what you hope to accomplish with either choice.

There are some secondaries that make it more or less likely you can cap defenses easily due to having defense powers in their secondaries. /Ice and /Dark come to mind immediately, with /Dark having the easier time of the two. Dark actually is useful for building toward defense soft-cap or resistance caps either way, since Shadowfall and Fade provide both, and substantial amounts (~20 def all, 20%res all but fire/cold/tox just from those). So its often choices of powersets that's really going to impact your ability to pull this off or not. You may be able to with any primary/secondary, but you really run the risk of gimping your powers in favor of defense bonuses in a lot of cases.

You know, I see a lot of DFB posts. I don't think anyone could disagree that those requests often floods the LFG channel. However, I do think we will disagree on what effects that has on team-finding. I run TFs, trials, Hami, and lots of other team-based content weekly if not nightly. I may have issue finding a team for a specific thing I want to run, but if so I can form one easily enough too. DFB may be frustrating, but at least on Excelsior it has never prevented me from finding a team to run content I wanted to run.