Guidance on Plant/Thorn

[Achilles6]

I tend to run Controllers more than Dominators...I'm trying to correct that. So I'm looking for guidance on building a good Plant/Thorn Dominator.

 

I never take Scorpion Shield. I Have no idea how good or bad it might be. I see a lot of people take it tho. I typically use Resist shields, but my defenses were crap. I suspect it was because I was working towards so much recharge.

 

I wanted to take Spine Burst over Ripper, but Ripper does sooooo much more damage. I'd rather do PBAoE over a cone, but....

 

I wanted Spirit tree both for theme and some extra healing if necessary. Vengeance is for the LotG mule.

 

So anything you see that can be improved, please let me know. I'm not sure where to go with this. It looks like I have perma-Dom...maybe that's all I need????

Dominator (Plant Control)i27v4.mxd

[oedipus_tex]

Overall build looks pretty solid. Nice job. You've got a lot of Recharge and some pretty good Defenses going. I have nothing but nitpicks to add.

 

 

 

IMO Scorpion Shield is a lot better on Archetypes other than Dominators. Most people believe the premiere Defense armor on Dominators is in the Ice APP, because of the combo of armor + Sleet (resist debuff) + heal (Hoarfrost/Hibernate). If you can justify it thematically, it would probably be a pure upgrade to switch to Ice in this case. If you do stick with Scorpion, Poison Ray is a good power to pick up.

 

Note, Spore Burst is now autohit. It's a good one slot wonder for putting a 15% self heal proc you can toss out every 15 seconds or so. I like to use it as an opener when my health is below full. 

 

Spirit Tree, if you take it at all, probably could use a Health IO instead of a Recharge. 

 

Vines probably needs at least 4 slots to be effective. I like to put Basilisk's Gaze here.

 

Roots is a high damage attack in its own right. Fiery Orb is fine here and was recently noted to do decent damage. The Dominating Grasp set is considered low rated by many players. I wouldn't bother slotting the whole set. I'd probably do x5 Positron's Blast x1 Fiery Orb proc. That way you get an extra damage proc, decent damage, and +6.25% recharge.

 

A lot of people put a -Resist IO in Fly Trap. I usually see x4 Expedient Reinforcement or Call to Arms x1 Achille's Heel -Resist proc. Or else x6 Expedient Reinforcement to pick up the Ranged defense there.

 

Thorntrops, I've never tried the Chance to Knock special IO. Curious how it performs in this power.

 

The slotting you have on Strangler is technically fine, just make sure to toss a Hold out periodically to keep proccing your +Damage global proc. You'll lose some Damage if you're trying to solo an AV or something. In average fights you're probably throwing the Hold out periodically anyway.

 

Note that Thorntrops, if you take it, actually does significant damage over long fights. It's possible to get this power to around 300 damage, and with a 1.63 anim time that means it's actually a decent blast power. The Recharge on it is pretty reasonable, easily allowing you to have two or three stacks going in a mob. The trops do take a while to do their work--45 seconds, longer than some fights. So this is an "up to you" decision. 

Edited April 26, 2022 by oedipus_tex

[Achilles6]

Thanks for the reply OT. All very good stuff!

 

My biggest issue with this build is there are too many good powers and I ran out of slots. I've never seen anything like this. None of my other toons had this problem.

 

I've never taken Spore Burst on a Plant build. Autohit sounds good tho. Steam-rolling teams pretty much takes it out of the running for power picks tho.

 

As I said, I normally pick Resist shields. I ran out of slots to do what I wanted, so I picked up Scorpion Shield...a "one pick wonder".

 

I will definitely take your advice on Spirit Tree and put in a Heal instead of Recharge.

 

I wanted more slots in Vines as well. Don't know where to pull them from.

 

On Controllers, I usually proc the hell out of Strangler and Roots. Someone on the forums, I wish I could remember who, said essentially that Dominators have a damage secondary, so no need to load up on damage for the primary. that actually made sense to me...to load up on status effects for the primary. I like the ATO's here if nothing else than helping the status effects and the bonus to Energy Defense...stacks nicely with the epic shield.

 

I was curious about the OF proc in Thorntrops. The idea is amusing if nothing else. I hope it works well.

 

What are your thoughts on Ripper vs Thorn Burst?

 

I'm not necessarily married to anything in this build at this point. This was a difficult build...never had this issue with a non-Dominator build. Even Controllers are easier in my opinion. mileage may vary.

Edited May 4, 2022 by Achilles6

[TNT]

21 hours ago, Achilles6 said:

What are your thoughts on Ripper vs Thorn Burst?

I much prefer Ripper. I treat it as a single target attack with bonus AoE damage. It isn't terribly hard to get two. It is pretty sweet when you hit three.  Thorn Burst will help you hit many more targets but you are vulnerable while you wait for that burst of middling damage.