Veridicane (Plant/Storm): a Chronology

[Argentae]

Veridicane was one of the last builds I took to 50 on Live, I recall it being a lot of fun though.

 

I've had a lvl 20 version sitting on Torchbearer for a long time and just got back to playing with it the last couple of weeks. Just dinged 32 v (all soloing) last night.

Yup, a lot of fun. Other than the end hog nature of EVERY /Storm controller it's quite a good combination with fun synergy.

 

Plant's multiple sources of immob/KB control powers mesh well with Storm's Hurricane and Ice slick for providing tightly bunched groups that really leverage the AOE effect from Tornado, Lightning Storm, and Carrion Creeper (aka Vegetative Tentacles) 

 

Using Spirt Ward and the occasional O2 boost on Audrey II (flytrap aka Bitey) is very effective, and Seeds of Confusion (aka Dance my Puppets, Dance!) increases the speed with which full spawns are defeated very effectively.

 

Running Hurricane makes you nearly immune to Melee attacks and provides excellent positioning control when paired with Hover + Steamy Mist + Evasive Maneuvers.

 

I tried going deep into the Sorcery Pool to use Enflame, but while it worked to a degree, it didn't really play too well, and wasn't worth having another end heavy toggle that I had to manage the targeting for. Audrey isn't the best target as they tend to hang back and shoot from range for quite a bit. Mobs tend to keep dying for some reason. 😛

 

Hover-Fly-Evasive is great for mobility for the herdicaning as mentioned and targetting Seeds cones from on high can be very useful. Seeds definitely benefits from some +Range. 

Spirit Tree was underwhelming initially, but I think will come into it's own later. 

Waffling between Ice Mastery and Leviathan. Hibernate from either, too useful for a /Storm controller.
 

Ice would get me:

+Def Frozen Armor for a 5th +LotG set. Thinking of doing two packs of LotG (Global +Rech and +Def to get the +10% Regen and better raw Def) for each. 
Ice Storm massive AOE dmg to speed up spawn elimination

Leviathan would get me:
Water Spout as another FF + Rech and Achilles -Res vector, love Water Spout.

Coralax, which is usually somewhat fragile, but I think will live fairly well with this build and help with stacking damage

Loosely also considering Soul Mastery as Dark Consumption would be handy for End management till I hit incarnate and can be slotted as a mini-nuke with dmg procs, +Dmg from Soul Drain would be useful , but it doesn't blend well with the cone and Targetted AOE nature of the rest of the build. Fortunata is a good ranged pet, so always helpful.

Intuition Radial Paragon is a likely Alpha pick Though Cardiac and for this build Vigor are also strong contenders. I have to really think about this one. 

I'll post a current build later, editor is doing weird things as I type this which is making it awkward to edit. 

[Argentae]

Thoughts evolving towards the idea of using Power Boost and Clarity  (incarnate) in rotation to make Veridicane a pocket /regen. 
Powerboosted Spirit tree fully slotted should be around +485(ish) on Regen. Up to +50% Regen from LotG 2 packs. +80% from slotted Health (+120% with PB/Clarity) +Regen from enh and sets I'm not sure on totals yet, but it's should be enough to be useful.

Focus just on /Range for +Def set bonuses and  use Hurricane to block melee. 

Very high Smashing/Lethal +Res from Rune of Protection + Temp Invulnerability. Probably at cap with PB? 

I think this is the first time I've looked at a controller build and thought: Hmmm Tanky. Fire/Dark tanks well, but it's a you can't hit me kind of tank rather than an I don't care if you do kind of tank.

Vigor for Alpha.
Clarity for  Destiny 
Control Core for Hybrid

Cognitive Core Flawless Interface

[Doomguide2005]

Recharge for at least two Spirit Trees i imagine which at 400+ is in Regen Aura territory.

[Argentae]

Leveled up a lot doing my normal run through the Trilogy mission arc farming each mission where you have one of the boss level mission pets. 

By level 47 I'm soloing at +3 X8 Main reason I don't go to +4 is I only have a single Acc slotted for each power that needs it. Hitting is getting iffy at +3.

 

Spirt Tree makes a solid difference. 

 

On the leveling build I went with Ice Mastery, and that's really not a bad fit. Ice Storm is excellent targeted AOE damage which meshes very well with the basic AOE attack chain.

No IO Sets slotted, but I have 4 LotG global +Rech, and the Panacea, Miracle, and Numina's unique +Rec enh slotted in Health, Stamina 4 slotted with 3 Endmod and the Perf Shifter + End. Three pack of Overwhelming Force slotted in Tornado with the KB to KD enh included. I'm heavily slotted for Endred. Spirt tree is 6 slotted with 3 Heal, and 3 +Rech. 

 

I tried out Spore burst. Not terribly helpful, and I like sleeps generally because I solo a lot. 

 

Doing largely Council missions to maximize the utility of Frozen Armor.

What I've currently been doing is:

 

Have Hurricane, Steamy Mist, Frozen Armor, Hover, Evasive Maneuvers, and Combat Jumping and Spirit Ward on Fly Trap all running as toggles.
Drop Spirit Tree close enough to the spawn that when I move forward to hit the spawn with seeds I'm still in the Tree's effect radius.

Edge forward to potentially compress the spawn a bit with hurricane if needed, pop Seeds of Confusion followed by Roots. 
Then Freezing Rain, Ice Storm, Carrion Creepers if it's up, Lightning Storm and Tornado. Make sure Audrey Two (Fly Trap) is in good shape, hit a coupld of O2 boost if not, then Hibernate and let all my AOE do some work. If the geometry favors clumping up the spawn tighter with Hurricane DO IT. It increases the AOE effects of Lightning Storm and Tornado a lot. 
Then it's clean up with Strangler and Arcane Bolt using other power as appropriate. 
 

This build will get a LOT better with a lot of global +Rech and probably Vigor for the Alpha slot. Will probably get a chance to try switching to Primal and playing with Power Boost later this weekend. Will post some build(s) if I can...

[Argentae]

Just unlocked the Alpha slot last night, and I did get a perfect opportunity to use Spores. 
As I had originally expected, It worked very well when presented with two spawns close together. 
The range on it and the fact that it triggers aggro unlike the much better sleep in Mind/ Mass Hyp makes it less useful. 

 

It really came down to internal debate on Spores vs Snow Storm. 

 

Snow Storm: Very useful as a pulling tool, which can be VERY effective with a Plant/Storm. The hefty slow effect makes the spawn clump up a bit, and they take a bit to get to you so you can have ALL your pseudo pets up and waiting for when they get there. I think the -Rech might also mesh very well with the pseudo /Regen I've been pondering on this build. Slowing all the mobs down gives you more time to react and position yourself well, which can be meaningful if you use Hurricane effectively.

 

Spore Burst: Situational. If there are two mobs side by side or around a corner from each other, sleeping one after confusing the other can be useful. They will wake up, but it generally holds most of them under control well enough that your AOE Maelstrom of Chaos can absorb them as they wake. It was quite useful in the right situation.

 

Tentative Debate Answer: I think Vines is better than both. With a 4 pack of BasGaze I get excellent +Rech and Vines will be up more often than not. It's a lot better than Spores as mitigation, and I don't need two spawn capability THAT often. Vines is also better as a reaction to a sudden set of unexpected Adds and with decent Global +Rech should be up fairly consistently.

 

Hurricane. Just want to spend a minute highlighting Hurricane. If you are a /Storm player, and you're not using Hurricane on your controllers, it might be worth a focused effort to master the positional control it gives you.  If you can stack all the mobs into a tight corner, when you unload all your AOE and Pseudo pets on them the speed of the damage goes up substantially. This is largely due to the Area effect attacks from Tornado and Lightning Storm (small 5' and 5 target cap IIRC) and all the Creepers packed into a small area where they do a lot more total DPS. 

 

The difference in spawn clearing speed is VERY large. I expect it's currently exaggerated by the fact that I have zero IO sets slotted, just key individual uniques, and as a result my (single +Acc lvl 35 generally) accuracy running at +3X8 is dodgy. Once the fight is rolling it's not an issue with the -Def from Tornado and Ice Slick. So as a result, my initial SoC and Roots opening misses more than it should, and there are often a good handful of runners, esp Council Wolves.  Using Herdicane techniques even a little bit can help a lot. I generally set my Spirit Tree, edge in front of it, and then push forward into the spawn the first few mobs to pack the spawn before hitting them with SoC and then Roots. Spawns have a tendency to clump up a bit when they attack each other, and Ice Slick and Tornado make it easier for them to hit each other while doing more damage.

War Wolves are a PAIN. Vines will work better on them than Roots if there are an abnormal number of wolves running around.

That's the other reason tight clumping is amazingly more effective than normal on a Plant/Storm, it puts more confused mobs in melee range of each other. VERY satisfying.  

 

Really waffling on /Ice vs. /Primal too.

Even without any sets slotted or any /Incarnate capability this build is doing pretty well at Council missions running into +4 mobs in +3 missions.

What I have slotted now is a mix of lvl 30 or 35 IOs and lvl 50 SOs.

My slotting choices have been more driven by my desire to play around with specific powers on the way up. Picking up Vigor Radial Paragon on the Alpha slot will help +Heal, +End, +Acc, +Confuse, and +Sleep. My current Acc and Endred requirements should ease up substantially as I add IO sets in and the Vigor Alpha slot addresses those issues. +Heal will be quite useful.

 

I guess I feel this basic config is good enough to optimize a bit and see how it plays before trying the /Primal option. I will still want to try PB on this combo. I have a suspicion through that Spirit Tree may be bugged as the "power in effect on you" icon for Spirit Tree shows +150 Regen and not the almost 300 that the tree is slotted to. I think I'll try using Clarion as a PB stand in first. 

 

Anyway, this is an intermediate build I'm currently going to try out. Won't have all of the handful of the purple sets here, and if I decide to take it further I'll go back and swap out some Sets for more expensive options. I only need 2 Overwhelming Force enh, and I'll borrow  WotC and Coercive Persuasion sets from another character to get this build going. 

Spoiler

This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.7
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Sorcery
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Ice Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Strangler

• (A) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage
• (21) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (23) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• (23) Neuronic Shutdown - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• (36) Accuracy IO

Level 1: O2 Boost

• (A) Healing IO

Level 2: Roots

• (A) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Control Duration
• (7) Superior Will of the Controller - Control Duration/Recharge
• (7) Superior Will of the Controller - Endurance/Recharge
• (9) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance
• (15) Superior Will of the Controller - Recharge/Chance for Psionic Damage
• (39) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance/Recharge

Level 4: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (9) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 6: Hover

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (11) Luck of the Gambler - Defense

Level 8: Seeds of Confusion

• (A) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused
• (13) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused/Recharge
• (13) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused/Recharge/Accuracy
• (15) Coercive Persuasion  - Recharge/Accuracy
• (17) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused/Endurance
• (36) Coercive Persuasion  - Contagious Confusion

Level 10: Steamy Mist

• (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
• (11) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
• (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense

Level 12: Spirit Ward

• (A) Healing IO

Level 14: Combat Jumping

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 16: Freezing Rain

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (17) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 18: Fly

• (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)

Level 20: Evasive Maneuvers

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (21) Luck of the Gambler - Defense

Level 22: Hurricane

• (A) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance
• (37) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Endurance
• (40) Dark Watcher's Despair - Recharge/Endurance
• (42) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff

Level 24: Carrion Creepers

• (A) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge
• (25) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
• (25) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
• (29) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
• (31) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
• (37) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)

Level 26: Fly Trap

• (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (27) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage
• (27) Expedient Reinforcement - Damage/Endurance
• (29) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge
• (36) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge
• (40) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets

Level 28: Tornado

• (A) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge
• (31) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown
• (31) Overwhelming Force - Endurance/Recharge
• (33) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (33) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (40) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge

Level 30: Lightning Storm

• (A) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge
• (33) Decimation - Chance of Build Up
• (34) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
• (34) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• (34) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
• (37) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

Level 32: Spirit Tree

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal
• (42) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance
• (43) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime
• (46) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
• (46) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
• (50) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb

Level 35: Hibernate

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (39) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 38: Frozen Armor

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (39) Luck of the Gambler - Defense

Level 41: Vines

• (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold
• (42) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold
• (43) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold
• (43) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold

Level 44: Ice Storm

• (A) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
• (45) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
• (45) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
• (45) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
• (46) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

Level 47: Arcane Bolt

• (A) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge
• (48) Devastation - Chance of Hold
• (48) Devastation - Damage/Endurance
• (48) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge

Level 49: Rune of Protection

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP
• (50) Resist Damage IO
• (50) Resist Damage IO

Level 1: Containment 

Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Sprint

• (A) Empty

Level 2: Rest

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Swift

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Hurdle

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Health

• (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance
• (5) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
• (5) Miracle - +Recovery

Level 1: Stamina

• (A) Endurance Modification IO
• (3) Performance Shifter - EndMod
• (3) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End

Level 18: Afterburner 

Level 47: Arcane Power 
Level 50: Vigor Radial Paragon 
------------

  

Edited June 25, 2023 by Argentae

[Suavemental]

Hi,

i'm following your journey and am looking at my current plant/storm/leviathan build; atm the endurance usage is killing me and i feel like i must use Ageless.
Another option you could pick, and i'm probably going to respec to, is Psionic Mastery:

• Indomitable will is mag 10 protection vs Hold/Stun/Sleep/Terrorized (still have to slot KB protection), can easily be made perma and fits a Luck of the Gambler +recharge
• Mind over Body is a basic S/L/Psi shield
• World of Confusion is a small radius, very cheap confuse toggle, not 100% sure how good it is but the end cost is nearly free and you can stack confuse on tougher targets this way
• Psionic tornado is slow animation time AOE bwith knockup, a good spot to slot FF proc (though there's many kb powers in storm already)

You won't have the most damaging attacks from this build but are free to pick something other than Rune of Protection or Clarion as Destiny, Ageless solves many of /Storm's issues

I do not have Spirit Tree but i'm considering it, i was using spore burst with the chance to heal proc "Sandman" and it honestly works VERY well, seems to proc almost every time, sleep is autohit anyway so barely needs slotting.
I like Vines and other AOE hold most with the +2mag hold proc in it so might consider that one too.

I do worry about single target damage a bit, using both Entangle and Strangle alone, with enough recharge, will be my main single target chain.  Entangle is decent for building Containment but on /storm with all the knockbacks etc, rooting a target incrases dps by a lot

Would love to hear opiinions and experiences with World of Confusion from other controllers

 

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Suavemental

[Wimbochismo]

On 6/27/2023 at 7:03 AM, Suavemental said:

Would love to hear opiinions and experiences with World of Confusion from other controllers

 

I've been wanting to do a deep dive into WoC to quantify why I dislike it.

 

Let's start with what we get. It has a low end cost. Requires a to-hit check to land, so needs accuracy. An 8ft radius - melee range and attacks are 7ft so it's very tight and means you need to be in melee. A 100% chance for a 1.5 sec mag 2 confuse, 20% for a 1 sec mag 1 confuse, and 3.6 psi dmg. The activate period is 4 secs, I'm pretty sure that means all of this "ticks" every 4 secs - someone correct me if I'm off. Confuse does not set up Containment.

 

If you want to use it for the confuse - to start out the duration doesn't equal the application chance. It needs hefty +confuse for it to be worth it.

 

If you want to use it for the dmg, as in slot it full dmg set. It's a nice little bonus that pairs well with containment and a melee def build.

 

I've seen people rave about proccing it. All offensive toggles are normalized for procs to go off every 10 seconds. There's a formula around for proc chance based off of the radius of the toggle. I'm not the best at the math for it, but I think with an 8ft radius it's around 50%? proc chance for a 3.5ppm proc. So you're really only getting a 50%? chance for each proc every 10 secs. It also needs accuracy and maybe still some end red so 4-5 procs total. Not that great.

 

If you're a melee/s/l def build then it could be a nice little addition. Taking it precludes you from getting a s/l def shield, though. You'd need good survivability from your secondary to risk being in melee.

 

If you're a ranged defense build, it's only worth it if you can cc and lock down the enemies first. You can't effectively strafe the mob and apply it, because of the 4 sec activate period. Going into melee puts you at risk.

 

In a group mobs are best clumped by a tank. Solo/group it has a good showing on builds that also take Fold Space. Gravity would be the best pairing. Wormhole clumps the enemies tightly and applies a stun that sets up containment and keeps you safe.

 

TLDR: With how tight builds can be and trying to free up slots for it, I rarely ever take it. It can be a nice little addition but I most definitely wouldn't design a build around it.

[Argentae]

Veridicane mostly Incarnate update:

 

Still tweaking the build a bit, but so far I'm pretty good with /Ice Mastery. 

 

Hibernate is really powerful/effective for a Plant/Storm, Ice Storm is great AOE damage as always and for groups with a substantial Smashing/Lethal aspect Frozen Armor is excellent.

 

I swapped out my prior slotting for Lightning storm for a 6 pack of Thunderstrike for the +3.75 Ranged def and filled in a 5 pack of Overwhelming Force for Tornado (which has the better +Dmg/KB -> KD enh) + the ForceFeedback +Rech. so current build looks like this:

 

Spoiler

This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.7
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Sorcery
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Ice Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Strangler

• (A) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage
• (21) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (23) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• (23) Neuronic Shutdown - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• (36) Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic)
  

Level 1: O2 Boost

• (A) Healing IO
  

Level 2: Roots

• (A) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Control Duration
• (7) Superior Will of the Controller - Control Duration/Recharge
• (7) Superior Will of the Controller - Endurance/Recharge
• (9) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance
• (15) Superior Will of the Controller - Recharge/Chance for Psionic Damage
• (39) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 4: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (9) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 6: Hover

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (11) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  

Level 8: Seeds of Confusion

• (A) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused
• (13) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused/Recharge
• (13) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused/Recharge/Accuracy
• (15) Coercive Persuasion  - Recharge/Accuracy
• (17) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused/Endurance
• (36) Coercive Persuasion  - Contagious Confusion
  

Level 10: Steamy Mist

• (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
• (11) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
• (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  

Level 12: Spirit Ward

• (A) Healing IO
  

Level 14: Combat Jumping

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 16: Freezing Rain

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (17) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 18: Fly

• (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
  

Level 20: Evasive Maneuvers

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (21) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  

Level 22: Hurricane

• (A) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance
• (37) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Endurance
• (40) Dark Watcher's Despair - Recharge/Endurance
• (42) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff
  

Level 24: Carrion Creepers

• (A) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge
• (25) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
• (25) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
• (29) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
• (31) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
• (37) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
  

Level 26: Fly Trap

• (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (27) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage
• (27) Expedient Reinforcement - Damage/Endurance
• (29) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge
• (36) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge
• (40) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets
  

Level 28: Tornado

• (A) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge
• (31) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown
• (31) Overwhelming Force - Endurance/Recharge
• (33) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (33) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (40) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 30: Lightning Storm

• (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
• (33) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
• (34) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
• (34) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (34) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (37) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 32: Spirit Tree

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal
• (42) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance
• (43) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime
• (46) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
• (46) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
• (50) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb
  

Level 35: Hibernate

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (39) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 38: Frozen Armor

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (39) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  

Level 41: Vines

• (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold
• (42) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold
• (43) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold
• (43) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold
  

Level 44: Ice Storm

• (A) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
• (45) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
• (45) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
• (45) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
• (46) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  

Level 47: Arcane Bolt

• (A) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge
• (48) Devastation - Chance of Hold
• (48) Devastation - Damage/Endurance
• (48) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 49: Rune of Protection

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP
• (50) Resist Damage IO
• (50) Resist Damage IO
  

Level 1: Containment 

Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Sprint

• (A) Empty
  

Level 2: Rest

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Swift

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Hurdle

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Health

• (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance
• (5) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
• (5) Miracle - +Recovery
  

Level 1: Stamina

• (A) Endurance Modification IO
• (3) Performance Shifter - EndMod
• (3) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
  

Level 18: Afterburner 

Level 47: Arcane Power 
Level 50: Vigor Radial Paragon 
------------

Big difference in effectiveness. I'm going to put a 5 pack of Ragnarök (everything except the KB) in Carrion Creepers to boost things a bit, but probably more for the better enh values than the increase in set bonuses from Posi Blast -> Ragnarok which is incremental.  The additional +Rech will be nice in Creepers though.

Endurance usage is looking pretty good, I have Hibernate for End recovery at need, and can swap out Clarion for Ageless in Destiny slot if really needed. 
Flytrap with Spirt Ward is dang durable with just the default Spirit Ward slot with an IO +Heal and the +Heal from tier 4 Vigor in the Alpha slot. Dropping  Spirit Tree (6 pack of Preventive Medicine) adds substantial survivability to both Audry II (Flytrap) and myself, though it's not needed often.

 

My bellwether check was doing my first Incarnate content (Ephram Sha) Talons of Vengeance mission at +4 X8. 
No problem. Ran though the mission at a good speed and even though I forgot there would likely be an ambush I got through with no sweat.

Hurricane 4 slotted with  Dark Watcher for -ToHit makes a huge difference with the flying Boss assassin mobs. With all my pseudo pets out I can turtle up in Hibernate to deal with any unexpected situations. I don't think I used ANY incarnate click powers in the mission.

 

Previously my most effective Controller for incarnate content was my Fire/Dark Lord of the Ravens (LotR) who does pretty well at that mission with those settings, but I have to be somewhat careful and remember the quirks of the build. 
My Fire/Storm (Lavan) struggles a bit in the same situation and has to lean on Ageless a bit for debuff resistance.

Veridicane just basically blew through the mission first try. Nice. 🙂

 

Highly recommended build! 

[Onlyasandwich]

@Carnifax helped me with some damage parsing for Carrion Creepers, and the results are worth considering. Certainly your set bonus with Ragnarok is strong and slotting as is will work fine.

 

However, consider the following:

• Bombardment Acc/Dam/Rech, Bombardment proc.
• Artillery Acc/Dam/Rech. (May as well +5 it)
• Posi Proc, Javelin Proc.
• Trap of the Hunter Proc.

 

With this slotting Creepers do enormously more damage. Seriously, they eat entire spawns all by themselves. Targeted aoe procs are most effective given the pet power types involved, with immob procs being second place.

Edited July 14, 2023 by Onlyasandwich

[Argentae]

Dang. That's good to hear. 🙂

I did not expect that? I thought pseudo pet powers pretty much only procced when cast?

No Force Feedback + Rech? Granted it doesn't fire as often as Tornado and Arcane Bolt, so that makes some sense. 

 

I moved Ice Storm from Posi 5 pack to Artillery 6 pack for the hefty +Ranged Def (over +4) with better overall +rech for Ice Storm itself and still get the +9 Acc.
I'm planning on offsetting the +Rech loss of the 5 pack of Posi by adding a slot to Vines and 5 slotting Unbreakable Constrain purple for the + Rech + Acc.
Could probably finance most of the Unbreakable Constraint by selling the Apoc set...

 

 

On the Chronology side, I tried something I never really bothered with before on this build: soloing A/Vs!

 

I did Infernal at +0 X8 and I used Lore pet (Longbow Cataphract). Went down pretty fast and easy.

Tonight I did Nightstar on +1 X8 with NO lore pet or poisoned dagger -regen. I did use Backup Radio PPD.

Took longer, but with 1-2 Spirit trees out I was pretty safe and the A/V went down. Slowly, but went down in a couple minutes. I'm considering switching Interface from Cognitive to Degenerative to see how much difference it makes. 

 

No idea how that stacks up. I know sets like /Rad or /Dark with hefty -regen can manage it if careful

 

I was impressed that Veridicane was able to pump out enough raw damage to whittle down a +1 A/V with no -Regen.

 

Also considering trying Musculature in Alpha instead of Vigor, though vigor works soooo well with this build I'm unsure if it will be worth it.

 

Overall I HIGHLY recommend Plant/Storm all the way through, starts strong and just keeps getting better and better all through the progression. 

 

At this point I'm going for best possible build, just not sure what that looks like yet. Veridicane is already stronger than my previous best Fire/Dark (LotR) or my Fire/Storm (Lavan), Dark/Dark (Shadow Fallen), or Dark/Symphony (Killashandra). 

 

I'm not going to mention my couple of tanks, they are brokenly OP ever since they got the AOE buffs. 😛

 

[Onlyasandwich]

32 minutes ago, Argentae said:

I did not expect that? I thought pseudo pet powers pretty much only procced when cast?

The pseudopet here is the patch itself. The patch in turn summons a few entities with a variety of powers, which inherit slotted procs according to type. Due to the nature and frequency of how they are summoned, cast, and die, then reappear, certain few of these powers proc exceptionally well. This is compounded in a large mob, as the summons scale to a degree with mob numbers, and the effects are aoe.

 

Understanding all of this in city of data is very confusing! The optimal damage slotting was not intuitive, so Carnifax's parsing in their tool was super useful to confirm.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Onlyasandwich

[Argentae]

That makes complete sense, thank you. 🙂

 

I suppose the main thing is I hadn't really thought about CC being a pseudo pet that summons more entities, so I was thinking about it like Tornado and Lightning Storm.
I should run some tests with Force Feedback +Rech in CC to see how often that procs. It's hard to pay attention to the short lived FF +Rech buff icon, and last time I checked Hero Stats wasn't working to parse the logs at all. 

I suppose I'll put pet damage/combat chat in a tab and scroll through that to see how it does.

 

I tried this out last night with the slotting above. It's highly effective against X8 size spawns, particularly minions and Lts. Bosses still take a while to whittle down if they get spread out instead of clumped together. CC, Lighting Storm, and Tornado all do massively more damage if targets are tightly grouped.

 

I see the procs going off with decent frequency in the Pet combat chat stream. 

I have whole new things to look at. 🙂

[Argentae]

I did some more A/V testing using Black Scorpion as the test subject in "Max's" "Recover Slinger from Arachnos" mission in the DA incarnate Arc.

 

It's obvious that I hadn't done much A/V soloing before, the first few attempts at taking down a +4 Black Scorpion A/V... Did not go well.

Properly handled this build CAN solo a +4 Black Scorpion without a Signature Summon temp pet. Need the Lore Pet though, I used a Tier 3 Longbow Cataphract and Warden.

I dropped back and did the same mission at +2 X1 so I could jog through the long map (and didn't have to deal with 2 bosses in addition to the A/V) to get to Black Scorpion. After doing some better planning and starting the fight as outlined below, +2 was not a real problem. Same thing at +3 though it took a bit longer. On the +4 run I let the A/V slip free of the immob briefly at the very end and he immediately jumped to a beam up in the ceiling with a sliver of health left. That cost me the expiry of the Cataphract, and I almost didn't get the job done. Pulled it out by the skin of my teeth.

Definitely needed the Longbow Cataphract Lore Pet for the -Regen and extra tanking/damage at +4. Might be easier with Interface switched from Cognitive to Degenerative, didn't try that yet.

#1 tactical mistake I made was not coming in above the A/V and quickly stacking the Roots for Immob. Plant/Storm is all about building a patch of doom and keeping the target on top of the Freezing Rain, Creepers and stacked Lightning Storms and Tornados all while you and your beat down crew are standing in the +Regen area of 1-2 Spirit trees. 

 

Key lessons learned: Having Roots 6 slotted with WotC is extremely useful, it stacks and lasts well enough to keep an A/V nailed to the ground and as long as you use it periodically while only costing about 6 End (running 4th tier Vigor Alpha so Roots is +112.7 Endred ). 
Stay in the air and out of melee range.
Start with Spirit Ward on Cataphract so it survives the alpha while you get everything set up and your Spirit Tree(s) going. Make sure you have at least a Good Luck running at all times in the beginning (can slack off later when all your pseudo pets are out) and bring some Take a Breather (blue candy) with so you can pop off all powers rapidly and mostly continually.
The most important things you are doing is keep the A/V from moving and keeping Freezing Rain under his feet while popping Tornado and Lightning Storm as often as they are up. Spam Strangler and Arcane bolt (for the periodic FF +Rech) as Endurance allows let up on Arcane Bolt if end is getting dicey, then slow down with Strangler if needed. Use blue insp fairly freely though, I would have done better if I had kept up a faster pace and burned through blues more. 
Creepers as slotted above helps, but not nearly as useful against a single hard target as it is against large spawns.
Keep an eye on Cataphract and Warden and use O2 boost as needed, do not let them die. Flytrap is easily resummoned.

 

Not sure where Black Scorpion falls in the difficulty level of A/V soloing experiences, and I did NOT use Poisoned Daggar from the P2W vendor, which might have helped.

 

All in all though, I continue to be impressed with what Veridicane can handle. Running through the entire Arachnos map on +4 X8 the first time I ran through the mission last night really drove home how effective a build it is. Arachnos is generally a PITA on my controllers, and I switched out Clarion for Ageless to handle the "Blinded" issue, but honesty it wasn't needed. Veridicane can just keep stacking pseudopet powers and Spirit Tree keeps me on my feet while I use Tornado to target Freezing Rain and Ice Storm. Hurricane makes it very hard for them to really do much to me and Lightning Storm, Tornado, Flytrap (with Spirt Ward) and Creepers have my back. 

Outside of a mission with an A/V at the end, I don't think I've hit anything I can't handle pretty readily at +4 X8, and as mentioned above, the only reason I dropped from +4 X8 to +4 X1 was convenience and to avoid the distraction of having two +4 bosses running around while I was trying to concentrate on the A/V.

 

A word about Spirit Tree and Flytrap:

As slotted with a 6 pack of Preventative Medicine, I have about a 27 second period where I only have one Spirit Tree out, so I'm only regenerating 28.02 HP/Sec. When I have two out I'm regenerating at 44.12 HP/Sec. That makes a huge difference in keeping pets alive during a tough fight like a +4 A/V. On merely challenging fights with just Flytrap out, having Spirit Ward on Flytrap (single slotted with + Heal IO and with Vigor providing another +33% Heal) and a Spirit Tree (+121.1 Heal enhancement for a total of 331.71% Regen) makes Flytrap a surprisingly tough little pocket tank. Audrey II rarely dies, and almost never while Spirit Ward is still running. I've found that tossing an O2 boost and retoggling Spirit Ward on is generally all I need to do rescue my little bitey buddy from near dead. Flytrap is really a pretty decent pet and synergizes well with the rest of the Plant/Storm toolkit. 🙂
 

Edited July 23, 2023 by Argentae

[Onlyasandwich]

@Argentae, do you revisit Verdicane often these days? I know you like to pop on new projects pretty often, as do I.

 

It's one of the few combos where I've felt epic pets make a really big contribution. Leviathan mastery has been good to me - the little Coralax buddy is really great!

 

I'd love some thoughts from others on what to choose as my final power. Ultimately it needs to be something that can take a purple set with +acc in order to complete my build goals.

 

Right now I'm between:

• Spore Burst. Seems like it might be useful in certain content, but I can't imagine it would have a chance to work most of the time, as my pets are always waking things up.
• Thunder Clap. I can't see this ever being worth the animation time. There's always going to be a better cooldown to hit.
• Air Superiority. Not hyper optimized, but sort of fun and in theme with this character. Actually sort of useful when something gets in my face, and pretty competitive DPA. Overall a bit redundant from a ST attack chain perspective, as I'll be able to chain my hold and Arcane bolt almost seemlessly.
• Something else? I'm not sure. I want to keep that acc bonus. The ST immob would work. I guess it would actually have some utility in AV scenarios for more end-efficient application of containment than spamming my aoe immob. Maybe actually the option that would have the best use cases?

Controller (Plant Control - Storm Summoning).mbd

[Onlyasandwich]

Okay, I think I got it!

 

I lost a bit of recharge here and managed to:

• Maximize proc damage even further in seeds.
• Keep my global acc.
• Squeeze in a hold proc to Arcane Bolt (fun!).
• Max out Fly Trap Procs.

 

That leaves Entangle as a pretty decent 1 slot wonder with the purple hold proc. I can chain this on AVs to hold them still, and will then have three powers in my ST rotation capable of piling on holds when drilling down a hard target. Any such targets will be constantly debuffed by nado/spout/FR, so hitting shouldn't be an issue.

 

I could instead choose to mule a purple set in Entangle, or choose another power entirely with a purple mule. I think the extra damage and hold procs here are worth it, however. The runner up power from a utility perspective would be Snow Storm, which I've found useful for pulls in the past. Does anyone have any strong opinions on Snow Storm vs Entangle here? 

 

As a result, I'm a little lower on global recharge than I'd absolutely prefer. I think with FFback rolling from consistent Tornado spam it should still be really solid. I have so many fun cooldowns that it's okay to have a little room to be busy with something else at times.

 

The build, for anyone interested:

 

Controller (Plant Control - Storm Summoning).mbd

 

It just makes me really happy inside to see Seeds doing 225 aoe damage, and I can't wait to watch Audrey tear it up fully loaded out. She seemed to do pretty well with just a lady grey on other Plants I've run in the past, and here she's loaded to bear.

 

 

Edited January 23 by Onlyasandwich

[Argentae]

Sounds interesting! 

I haven't been on my computer with Mids installed today, and tonight is the night we take the whole family over to Grandma's for dinner, so probably won't have much time to look at anything later this evening, I definitely look forward to seeing what you did in proc loading Plant/Storm! Slotting SoC for damage is absolutely NOT what I was thinking when I was playing this build heavily. Pretty sure it got a 6 pack of Coercive Persuasion for the +Def Ranged and Contagious Confusion. 

As I recall Veridicane's build was pretty conventional, more set bonus focused instead of shoe horning in procs. 

When I did Plant/Dark I added in the ST immob for better  A/V imobilization, so I agree you're on the right track there, it's just useful.

I've been thinking about revisiting Plant/Storm, but I'm working up an Illusion/Storm/Lev atm as the sheer number of pet/pseudopets sounds like fun. 🙂