build help Advice/Build Help Needed - Fire Control/Nature Affinity

[TrueAntagonist]

Sorry if this has been covered some place else. I have looked everywhere I can think of and can't find any builds, guides or advice on a Fire Control/Nature Affinity build.

So far I have things mostly frakenslotted with set IO's and it is doing very well, but I don't think it's anywhere near its potential. The build has some synergies that I did not expect so I am liking it so far.

For attack chains, I use spring attack to tele into a group and immediately pop cinders. I keep hot feet and entangling aura running so foes receive a knockdown, an immediate damage hit, a damage over time, a hold, an incapacitate and a slow all at the same time. The fire imps are also starting their attack and have most foes defeated before anyone gets a shot off. Using this tactic, I have not had my health drop below 80 percent and have not had to heal the imps of suffered the loss of one during combat. I also pre-buff the imps with NA buffs prior to every 3rd encounter or so when fighting large groups continuously. The absorbs and heal over times keep them topped off without me needing to assist. The entangling aura is slotted with a chance for Mag 2 hold which makes the entangling aura very effective.

Alternately, I open combat with flashfire, fire cages to stop the wandering off, then jump in with the hotfeet, cinders and entangling aura as the imps go to work. I also took bonfire but have it slotted with sudden acceleration KB to KD.  The imps are 5 slotted with expedient reinforcement and an additional damage IO (but I'm not sure what "recharge intensive pets" are exactly), but the set seems to work okay. What is the best way to slot the imps?

I'm mostly wanting help with Nature affinity slotting as I have no idea how to slot the set. I have most powers in NA set 4 slotted and I'm using IO sets for other bonuses. I do not have the fighting pool so far (I'm level 39) so no tough or weave. For pool powers I have combat jumping, super jump, maneuvers, tactics and hasten. I have health slotted with 2 procs and Endurance slotted with 2 Performance shifters (chance for endurance and endurance) and 1 standard endurance IO. So far no "real" endurance challenges and my health is solid.

Any help or advice I can get with a build or even some advice on individual slotting of Nature affinity powers or the power set in general would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys!

Edited October 22, 2019 by TrueAntagonist
clarity

[TrueAntagonist]

Soooo, no one with any experience with this set care to offer some opinions?

[oedipus_tex]

Fire/Nature is an interesting combo with a bit of a drawback in that its heal is a cone, which conflicts somewhat with the PBAoE nature of Fire's Hot Feet. Normally, a teamed Nature player benefits from hanging back at range and healing the team. However, at least the cone always hits the caster, so its still useful in some ways. 

 

On the other hand, Nature has a bit of conflict within itself with the Entangling Roots power being a PBAoE. Fire is one of the few control sets that benefits from that power, since you will be in melee anyway. So there is some positive in the tradeoff.

Edited October 24, 2019 by oedipus_tex

[TrueAntagonist]

The up close nature of fire is what I have seen as part of the synergy. I am usually standing in the very center of a set of foes while hot feet deals damage, the entangling aura holds foes helpless and the fire imps are attacking working their way from the outside of the pack to the inside. The enemy is completely surrounded in almost all cases. While the main heal in Nature is a cone, it is a wide cone while there are three other powers in the set that ate "team" AOE based and hit everyone. Those powers heal, recover endurance, provide damage shield and cut endurance costs in half. Also, don't forget the location based heal of life giving spores. With that variety of heals and buffs it's almost impossible not to cover your entire team in a single round of heal/buffs. 

Constantly being so close to the imps also makes sure they are always in range for leadership buffs. I like the combo for several reasons but I also love not seeing tons of this combo running around. So far the only downside I am seeing is the lack of builds or first hand knowledge of the combo. I must say though, that I am enjoying the fact that I have not visited the hospital often and not at all since level 32. This is definitely a set that doesn't mature until later, but then again I suppose it is that way with all controller sets except maybe illusion with FA coming fairly early. 

 

Question - If I slot Fire Imps with a recharge reduction, does it make their attacks recharge faster or the ability to redeploy the imps recharge faster? I was confused on this since the set I have them slotted with is for "recharge intensive pets".

Edited October 25, 2019 by TrueAntagonist

[oedipus_tex]

15 minutes ago, TrueAntagonist said:

Question - If I slot Fire Imps with a recharge reduction, does it make their attacks recharge faster or the ability to redeploy the imps recharge faster? I was confused on this since the set I have them slotted with is for "recharge intensive pets".

 

 

It used to, but that was changed sometime ago. Some older guides still advise slotting +Recharge, but it isn't all that useful in that power unless your imps die very frequently.

[TrueAntagonist]

7 minutes ago, oedipus_tex said:

 

 

It used to, but that was changed sometime ago. Some older guides still advise slotting +Recharge, but it isn't all that useful in that power unless your imps die very frequently.

So is there a way to increase their attack rate then? I assume this happens when buffing them as a kinetic? Am I wrong about that?

[oedipus_tex]

3 minutes ago, TrueAntagonist said:

So is there a way to increase their attack rate then? I assume this happens when buffing them as a kinetic? Am I wrong about that?

 

Pet recharge can't be increased. They made this change to prevent pet AI from breaking when their recharge rate got too fast. It was a shame too. Pre-nerf Lightning Storm was absolutely beautiful.

[TrueAntagonist]

Thank you for the fast reply. I am slowly working things out with the set. So far it is working beautifully, but along with Altitis, I also occasionally suffer from min/max syndrome.  

[Erydanus]

Nature is a late to the game set so most people with experience of it have that experience from here. 

 

I think you're doing a fine job with your play so far. My immediate (no pun) hot take on this combo is: finally the damn imps won't die all the time. I mean even as a Fire/Kin spamming transfusion I had imp death problems. But you, you can put so many buffs on them that the little death monkeys should be ok. Now as oedipus_tex pointed out the direct heal is a cone which is slightly awkward but in my experience on my beasts/nature mastermind (which frankly I feel puts me in a position to talk about pets and this power because I've got some puppies that like to die too) it's going to be fine. The damage resistance buff and the absorb shield are both PBAOE so you'll want to be with them a lot of the time which does synergize with your hot feet and entangling aura.

 

Now as to Regrowth I must point out it's a 90 degree arc, 45' long, and the vertex is BEHIND YOU which is why you're always affected by the heal. So that is a fat-ass cone. If you are in the middle of a fight and the imps take too much damage you only have to step back slightly to catch them in the heal. 

 

As far as your power pool choices for controllers I feel Assault is the power you want to get first because you want to up your pet's damage and that's just automatic. Maneuvers? Sure, if the pets benefit from that too and yours do. Tactics? Optional. Controller pets are usually very accurate and a regular accuracy slot should be all you need. If it's for your own benefit or a team's that's certainly fine. I would just prefer to give the imps 11% more damage before I give them 7.5% tohit.

 

You mentioned you don't have the fighting pool yet. Are you sure you need it? Everyone on the forums seems to reflexively slot it in to everything and I just never use it and never feel I have the need.  At high levels I do like taking a defensive toggle in an epic pool just for that extra damage you may get at very high levels, but that's it. On the other hand if you were taking Sorcery to get Rune of Protection so you'd have click-triggered mez protection in case you run into say a room full of Death Mages, that I would think is A O K.  (Also arcane bolt does good damage, gets containment, and does knock down. JUST SAYING.)

 

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by Erydanus
left out the not-pun...

[TrueAntagonist]

Oddly, almost none of my toons have the fighting pool. I have a spines/fire brute that I use to farm inf for new toon sets and I run him on 8/+4 without tough or weave and don't have any issues. I suppose I was a bit surprised with the survivability of a controller standing dead center of the mobs and barely having the health bar nudge. I might believe this on a brute or tanker, but it is just crazy on a troller so I thought I would mention the lack of the fighting pool on him. I think it says a lot about the combo.

I have 2 builds so far to test additional damage. On one, I use the Sorcery pool for arcane bolt, but have also used the willpower pool for force of will. The latter fires off faster but I feel ultimately the damage is the same (with the exception that you can put out damage faster with force of will). This is mostly the same reason I used the jumping pool. Firstly for combat jumping, but also for the last attack which synergizes well with the combo as an opener. The attack is initiated from range,and knocks down foes as you teleport into them. As they get up, they are incapacitated by entangling aura and I pop off cinders for good measure. At this point either all or almost all foes are held and doing no damage. If the group is tightly grouped, I hop back, fire off fire cages for extra DoT and hop right back in the middle of the mob so that hot feet and cages are ticking away. I think this combo is one of the better kept secrets of the game. Glad I found it!

 

Almost forgot...yes, I do run assault and maneuvers, but also tactics. I slot at least two sets whos bonuses both include 9 percent accuracy to all powers. Then I run tactics and slot no accuracy into most powers (unless a particular power seems to be missing often). This allows me to slot an additional damage where I might normally put an acc. Helps eek out that little extra damage or pick up an extra set bonus here and there.

Edited October 29, 2019 by TrueAntagonist