Plant/TA Advice Sought

[pblue]

I have Plant/TA Controller I got to 50 some time ago and parked. Having picked the character up again recently, I am trying to find a satisfying attack chain. I feel like I have too many options and not all play well with each other. I am looking to respec, but I'd like to have a clearer sense of direction before I do so.

 

To set the context, I play almost exclusively solo and with a pretty modest budget.

 

These are my current thoughts about the attack chain:

 

1. Acid Arrow seems like a great opener,  possibly backing it with Disruption arrow, when its up.

 

2. Area affects I can follow up with include Creepers, Roots and OSA.  Creepers and OSA are both great but they are also seem to do kind of the same thing, except that Creepers duration makes it practically permanent and, if I am not mistaken, seems to follow me around.  Roots as a DOT might not be impressive (I haven't tried adding proc to it) but it can be up every fight. That leaves a question of what is the role of OSA in this build? Its a signature power for TA, but I am not sure what to do with it.

 

3. For ST attacks, Ice Arrow with procs looks good. Strangler and Entangle do OK damage with fast their fast recharge. I don't know if I need all three.

 

4. Seeds of Confusion is great, but most of my other tools seems to work against it.

 

5. The Fly Trap isn't very aggressive especially if I keep at range which suits most of my other attacks. Still, it's good company.

 

Any thoughts? Am I missing the point of some of these powers?

[SeraphimKensai]

1. Open with Flash Arrow. It ensures your survivability. From there if they are clustered, root them in place, seed, and drop in disruption arrow, PGA, Acid Arrow, Creepers, OSA and ignite it. Ice arrow hard targets.

 

2. Creepers are great, but OSA is a huge DPS increase. Having both you can achieve enough damage to out damage some blasters. Because of both Creepers and OSA, this combo requires a lot of recharge.

 

3. You do not need Entangle. And yes aice Arrow should be proced out. You want Strangler, as you can stack the hold mag with ice arrow to help hold AV's.

 

4. Yes your controls will inhibit mobs from being able to attack each other, but regardless a mob trying to attack itself isn't attacking you. It's a great mitigation tool. Otherwise you can open with seeds on a 2nd group to weaken them before otherwise engaging.

 

5. The Fly Trap has your entangle to bring down fliers, and it has a couple of attacks which further reduce mob defense by 20%. It's useful.

 

I play one named Nightshade Mantis on Everlasting.

Edited October 1, 2022 by SeraphimKensai

[Ringo]

Seeds is the standard Plant opener

 

Roots is the highest damage aoe immobilize available to controllers.  It sets Containment for double damage and helps clear minions/lts (who should be confused and helping melt themselves)

 

Everything else should be aimed at taking down the harder targets, Bosses/EBs/AVs.  Strangler and Ice Arrow to stack single target holds.  Debuffs from your arrows and damage from OSA.  Make sure you have a way to ignite Oil Slick, some kind of Fire or Energy damage (the Sorcery pool attack works great)

 

Lotsa recharge in your build to get all your best powers up often.  Fighting pool and Maneuvers plus an epic pool armor or shield to increase survival.  

 

Learn which enemies shrug off Confuse (freaking Longbow) as they will be especially dangerous

[pblue]

Thanks for the tips. I've taken Entangle out of rotation and seen the power of overlappting Creepers with OSA for tougher fights.  I haven't tried Flash yet, but I will add it when I respec.

 

The bane of my existance though are status effects. I can be in control one minute but mods that can hold or sleep my Controller are devastating and soft cappting S/L defences isn't enough and I can run out of Break Frees pretty quickly.  I guess that is life as a squishy.

[Ringo]

Yup!  Soft-capping Ranged Defense will be your best bet to stay unmezzed, but it's a hard knock life out there

[Doomguide2005]

Helping deal with Mez is a second reason to grab the Sorcery pool.  Rune of Protection acts as a breakfree on top of adding damage resistance.  The catch is it's unaffected by recharge and won't provide full time protection.  It can be used, however, while you're mezzed (literally acting like a breakfree in that respect).  Try to save it for times you're either getting chain mezzed or that boss, eb etc is threatening more immediate doom.  Try to let Creepers, Fly Trap, confuse, Range defense, etc. do the work while mezzed saving your inspires and RoP if/when it gets dire. 

     The other option especially if you finding a mission or other content particularly mez-happy or confuse/mez protected is an amplifier,  specifically a defense amplifier at the p2w vendor.  I believe it lasts 1 hour.