Hold the Mushrooms Please! /Nature sans spores?

[MeMawMan]

Hi all,

 

Bit of an odd one. I've got a character concept that has finally clicked and I'm planning on making them a Symph/Nature Controller. However, the two spore/mushroom power (Spore Cloud and Lifegiving Spores) animations just don't fit the character at all and I intend to omit them from my build.

 

Before doing so, I thought I'd ask for some feedback - how essential are these two powers to a /Nature build? Can something viable be built without them? I'm intending to solo almost exclusively if that's relevant.

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback anyone is kind enough to offer!

Edited January 22, 2023 by MeMawMan

[twozerofoxtrot]

Though not a nature support set player, just looking at these powers I'm fairly confident you'll be hamstringing yourself.

 

Lifegiving Spores you can probably build around. When solo my guess is this is really just a sustainment tool for long fights.

 

But Spore Cloud is an anchor toggle and these are often key for debuffing both groups and single hard targets, even solo. The -ToHit especially since Nature doesn't really give a lot of protection like how other sets (cold, dark, FF, traps, sonic, etc) give for the set owner.

[MeMawMan]

Thanks for the quick response @twozerofoxtrot, I really appreciate your insight. I did a forum search on Lifegiving Spores and there seems to be a general consensus that the power is somewhat lacking overall and in need of a rework which, for me, is encouraging. You raise a really good point about Spore Cloud too - something I hadn't considered fully.

 

I'd be grateful to hear from anyone who also has hands on experience with the powerset also in case there's a method by which the absence of LS/SC can be mitigated effectively. Dissenting opinions are also welcome!

[Meknomancer]

You said its for soloing which means you can skip any powers you want and you wont have a problem. Symphony's great for controls, tons of cones you can just line up. Natures best buff is overgrowth, 2nd best is wild growth. With those 2 alone you have extra damage, endurance, resists, to hit and regen so you wont miss lifegiving spores unless you plan to take entangling aura which sucks the blue bar down and doesnt fit with symphonys cones. You wont miss spore cloud until your up against gm's/av's, its the sole source of -dmg and - regen in the set. If your just soloing i wouldnt expect any attempts to be made on enemies like those anyway especially not with this combo.

 

Everything will depend on what rep you run/how hard the content is. If you bumped to +4/8 with av's you might start rethinking putting those powers in. If your running around solo at 0/1 with no bosses then its anything goes.

[Uun]

Spore Cloud provides a substantial debuff (-tohit, -damage, -regen). You're going to be hurting yourself if you skip it. Lifegiving Spores is very skippable. 

[MeMawMan]

Thanks for these insights both! It's sounding like the benefits of Spore Cloud make it an essential part of the /Nature Controller's repertoire. I may look to team at some point in the future with this character. Would I be right in thinking that it would be a faux pas to join a team without it?

[Braddack]

The most important Thing is, anything goes,

 

Its your Toon, and your desicion what to take so it fits into  the concept you have.

 

You may gimp yourself a bit but not to a point where teams woud be angry or something like that.

 

SO Build your Toon how you like him and roll with it.

[Psyonico]

I'm in agreement with the others... Life giving spores is kind of a skippable power, but Spore Cloud is a really good power.

 

Playing my Symphony/Sonic the other day I realized that the Fear cone doesn't seem quite as potent as other fears for some reason, so I was taking more damage than on say a Mind or Dark controller.  Spore Cloud's debuffs would be a good pairing to ease that return fire.

[MeMawMan]

I'm really grateful for all of these thoughtful responses! It's interesting to see almost unanimous agreement that Spore Cloud is not worth skipping.

 

I love that more than one person has expressed that Concept is King and the most important aspect of any character build is to enjoy it first and foremost. I've no interest in doing a min/max build, but the general consensus makes me wary to avoid a power that is so good. If anything it's a challenge for me to get even more creative with the character's backstory 🙂

 

I guess my final question would be - are there no other powers that giving up two from the Nature Affinity secondary would make it a worthwhile decision? I was hoping that having two free power slots would at least allow me to select something from the Power Pools that might add some impressive oomph/variety/survivability to a Controller.

Edited January 22, 2023 by MeMawMan

[Psyonico]

Well, if you're mostly soloing, you can skip Rebirth.

[Meknomancer]

On 1/22/2023 at 7:59 PM, Psyonico said:

I'm in agreement with the others... Life giving spores is kind of a skippable power, but Spore Cloud is a really good power.

 

Playing my Symphony/Sonic the other day I realized that the Fear cone doesn't seem quite as potent as other fears for some reason, so I was taking more damage than on say a Mind or Dark controller.  Spore Cloud's debuffs would be a good pairing to ease that return fire.

 

Symphonys fear gets a minor damage component with a large range but not very wide cone. Mind has a massive cone, shorter range, higher damage,  while Dark gets a -to hit debuff. I know which one i'd rather have. I'll get my damage from other sources, - to hit is too good to leave out.

[Chi]

Make two builds.  Just do it . experience it . 

[Waljoricar]

I'd quite like to try out this pairing (Symph/Nature). Does anyone have a prospective build they could share? Would like to have any idea of how to level them as I go. Thank you!!

[nihilii]

I use Spore Cloud, but I think a build could be viable without it.

The -regen isn't as strong as some other -regen in other powersets. It won't floor an AV due to their resistances, nowhere close. It's a nice little extra rather than a game changer.

The -tohit and -dam are nice. But, you have plenty of mitigation otherwise, especially as a controller. Symphony + Entangling Aura gives you tools to mez. The rest of Nature has ample +res, +absorb to survive the alpha and regen/heals to recover.

In truth, my highlevel Nature characters frequently don't use Spore Cloud for minutes at a time. Simply because my mitigation is enough otherwise, and I'd rather use the animation time for something else.

[SylvanMansion]

On 1/22/2023 at 3:52 AM, MeMawMan said:

Hi all,

 

Bit of an odd one. I've got a character concept that has finally clicked and I'm planning on making them a Symph/Nature Controller. However, the two spore/mushroom power (Spore Cloud and Lifegiving Spores) animations just don't fit the character at all and I intend to omit them from my build.

 

Before doing so, I thought I'd ask for some feedback - how essential are these two powers to a /Nature build? Can something viable be built without them? I'm intending to solo almost exclusively if that's relevant.

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback anyone is kind enough to offer!

 

I play a fantastic Plant/Nature controller. At 50+ and with several respecs later, I finally grasped her strengths. In Nature Affinity, the strength is understanding HOTs (heal or benefits over time) and timing.

• No Corrosive Enzymes Build 

As I wanted the extra slots elsewhere in my build, I didn't choose the single target Corrosive Enzymes but took the Origin Power, Mutagen, along with Envenomed Dagger from P2W. Though the dagger is not as helpful the higher level you go, Mutagen works pretty well on single targets. It may take multiple doses for some resistant or high-level targets. It’s fairly fast charging, so this isn’t a problem in rotation. Combined with Spore Cloud (the shrooms on their heads), this has worked very well to lockdown main bosses. I also didn't choose the "sleep" from Plant , as most groups or other power sets wake them up. I saved those slots to use elsewhere in the build. If someone were to make a stealth version for infiltration, sleep would be excellent for that.

• Spore Cloud 

This power is really helpful on tough bosses. With that said, I have other controllers who just have the Mutagen and Envenomed Dagger that help lock down a difficult boss.

• Lifegiving Spores 

I have this slotted with heal AND endurance, though I could see using just End.  Unfortunately, my method divides the benefits of a complete set. However, the "over-time" effects linger a while after everyone leaves the circle.  So, while running to the next fight, end is back up. It’s endurance replenishment isn't like KIN or ELEC, but it has been a huge help.

If you don’t like the shrooms, use the same color for the shroom as the ground to make them less noticeable.

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by SylvanMansion