Plant/Kin. Softcapped defenses with a small purple, no haster, perma Crawlers.

[Sovera]

This is the third iteration of the build I have been working on. I meant it to do whatever in the game, not just farm in a controlled environment, so I followed my own concept which is being *sturdy*. A super hero should not have a glass jaw and fold if a red boss hits us three times (especially since I made a Green Lantern homage).

 

This means the character has capped S/L and has softcapped melee, ranged and AoE as long as we chew on a small purple. Do we *need* this much defense? I would say hardly (especially if just farming). Controllers CC a whole spawn and usually keep things under wraps for themselves or their party to take down. But, we are doing a TF, a second pack is pulled, chaos ensues, or we misclick and waste our Seeds on a mob that was just knocked back away from the pack and suddenly things are looking tight. This is my own concept of a CoH character, we must be sturdy, and we must be strong.

 

So, the elephant in the room: no Hasten. Why? I feel that Hasten is something we should take when we have a goal in mind. I always take it, and I always work towards making it perma. But I was looking at the build and saw that my goal was having perma Crawlers. Without Hasten they are seven seconds off and the proc from Force Feedback or a second Siphon speed takes care of that. So I had no need for Hasten which opened the build. I took Rise of the Phoenix and the slotting it took allowed me to rearrange the whole build removing useless powers I had taken as fillers to mule sets. Now everything has a purpose:

 

- Seeds of Confusion soaks the alpha.

- Roots sets Containement.

- Carrion Creepers do damage and soft CC and give extra recharge and the pet does what the pet does.

- Fireblast for ST damage.

- Fireball for much needed AoE damage.

- Fire shield to finish capping S/L.

- Rise of the Phoenix if we go down.

 

 

Alternate power choices available would be:

 

- Kill Fly and Afterburner and just take Super Speed, then use a jet pack to clear vertical obstacles.

- Kill Teleport Friend and take Power Siphon back for those times you're exemplared down, or fighting a single tough mob and Fulcrum Shift will not be enough to reach the damage cap. It also debuffs enemies so it can help in an AV fight so consider this option.

- @oedipus_tex makes a compelling argument to take Hasten in the post under. Take his tip in consideration and consider what could be removed, possibly Teleport Friend or Afterburner if switching to Super-Jump or Super-Speed.

 

Regular engagement:

 

- Approach while using Sprint to be semi stealthed and position yourself (also, if soloing and a pack is spread apart for some reason, Hover closer while using Sprint so the pack groups up to attack the pet), target the toughest mob in the pack, Seeds of Confusion, Fulcrum Shift, Roots, Strangler, Fireball, Fire Blast, Strangler, Roots. From then on it's the usual whack a mole. Keep attacking the tough mob with Fireball, Fire Blast and Strangler as your single-target chain and let your AoEs wipe the rest.

 

 

I have not reached end-game (I keep on making alts and playing with Pines) so I do not know the best Incarnate choices. so opinion on this are welcome.

 

 

 

The build:

 

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962

http://www.cohplanner.com/

 

Click this DataLink to open the build!

 

Level 50 Magic Controller

Primary Power Set: Plant Control

Secondary Power Set: Kinetics

Power Pool: Flight

Power Pool: Leadership

Power Pool: Fighting

Power Pool: Teleportation

Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery

 

Hero Profile:

Level 1: Strangler -- SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg(A), SprWntBit-Dmg/Rchg(3), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), SprWntBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(5), SprWntBit-Rchg/SlowProc(7)

Level 1: Transfusion -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(7), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(9), Prv-Heal/Rchg(9), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(11), Prv-Absorb%(11)

Level 2: Roots -- SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(A), SprWiloft-Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/Rchg(13), SprWiloft-EndRdx/Rchg(13), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(15), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(15), SprWiloft-Rchg/Dmg%(17)

Level 4: Hover -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(17), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(19)

Level 6: Fly -- Flight-I(A)

Level 8: Seeds of Confusion -- CrcPrs-Conf%(A), CrcPrs-Conf/EndRdx(19), CrcPrs-Acc/Rchg(21), CrcPrs-Acc/Conf/Rchg(21), CrcPrs-Conf/Rchg(23), CrcPrs-Conf(23)

Level 10: Siphon Speed -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(25)

Level 12: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(25), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(27)

Level 14: Boxing -- RzzDzz-Acc/Rchg(A), RzzDzz-EndRdx/Stun(27), RzzDzz-Acc/EndRdx(29), RzzDzz-Stun/Rng(29), RzzDzz-Acc/Stun/Rchg(31)

Level 16: Increase Density -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(31), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(31), UnbGrd-Max HP%(33), GldArm-3defTpProc(33)

Level 18: Recall Friend -- RechRdx-I(A)

Level 20: Speed Boost -- EndMod-I(A)

Level 22: Afterburner -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A)

Level 24: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(33), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(34), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(34), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(34)

Level 26: Carrion Creepers -- Rgn-Knock%(A), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(36), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(36), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Rgn-Dmg(37), FrcFdb-Rechg%(37)

Level 28: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Rchg+(37), LucoftheG-Def(39)

Level 30: Tactics -- GssSynFr--ToHit(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx(39), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg(39)

Level 32: Fly Trap -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(40), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(40), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), OvrFrc-Acc/Dmg/End/Rech(42)

Level 35: Transference -- PrfShf-EndMod/Acc(A), EffAdp-EndMod/Acc(42), EffAdp-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(50)

Level 38: Fulcrum Shift -- RechRdx-I(A)

Level 41: Fire Ball -- SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg(A), SprFrzBls-Rchg/ImmobProc(42), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(43), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx(45)

Level 44: Rise of the Phoenix -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg(A), SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(46)

Level 47: Fire Shield -- Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(48), Ags-ResDam(48), Ags-Psi/Status(48)

Level 49: Fire Blast -- GldJvl-Acc/Dmg(A), Dvs-Acc/Dmg(50), Thn-Acc/Dmg(50)

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 -- Clr-Stlth(A)

Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)

Level 4: Ninja Run

Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A)

Level 2: Health -- Heal-I(A)

Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)

Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A)

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[oedipus_tex]

Very cool build. That said, I'd like to present an argument for why I'd still recommend Hasten.

 

The reason is that Recharge works both ways. There are -Recharge powers in the game, usually associated with Psi and Ice powers. While +Recharge tends to require you to obtain tons of it to move your recharge rates down, the opposite is true of -Recharge. Getting hit with a -Recharge power when you already have low overall global Recharge is game wrecking.

 

The formula for Recharge is described on Paragonwiki like this:

 

RechargeTime = BaseRechargeTime / ( 1 + Enhancement )

 

 

 

Now, I can't see how much Recharge your build has, but looking at it I'm guessing it's around +90%. If you get hit by a -Recharge power and that drops by 20%, you'll experience far worse issues than a character who has 90 + 70 (from Hasten) recharge.

 

Hasten thus does 2 things. 1) It increases your Recharge rate. 2) It provides a huge, significant buffer that renders -Recharge powers from enemies almost irrelevant, unless they hit you with boatloads of it.

 

[Sovera]

Valid points, I added it to the original.

[Greentea]

Just out of curiosity,  After the proc changes a while ago, is the  Contagious Confusion proc still useful?  I'm not sure how often it fired from Seeds...

 

 

Also, I don't feel comfortable seeing that Will of the Controller IOs into Roots. I prefer DMG set IOs into Roots, because its dmg is so strong compared to other immob AEs (unless you're aiming for the set bonuses then too bad).

[Sovera]

Shufle the sets around then. Both it and the Seed of Confusion slotting is done for the set bonus, not for the procs.