Focused Feedback: Powerset - Plant Control

[The Curator]

 

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Plant Control

 Spore Burst

• Upgraded to Deep Sleep.

 

 Seeds of Confusion

• Recharge increased to 90s.
• Scale reduced from scale 20 to scale 12.
• Target cap lowered from 16 to 10.
• Endurance cost lowered from to 15.6 to 8.528.
• This power now has Adaptive Recharge. It has a base recharge of 8 seconds, and each affected foe will increase the recharge by 8.2 seconds for a maximum total of 90 seconds. 

 

 Spirit Tree

• Cast time lowered from 3.2s to 1.67s.
• Recharge reduced from 200s to 120s.
• Duration reduced from 90s to 60s.
• Spirit tree can now be attacked.
• Spirit tree now taunts and has a scaling defense and resist aura.
• Even after being defeated, spirit tree's regen aura should remain.
• The taunting pet component has been made sturdier.

 

 Vines

• Now summons a Pseudopet that will continue to hold enemies for its duration.
• Now inflict damage over time on its targets.
• Now applies a -DMG debuff on targets.
• Now accepts damage set and enhancements.
• Added missing true pseudopet flags.
• Increased duration from 45s to 60s, set stacking to replace.

 

 Carrion Creepers

• VFX now moves along with the pet patch.
• Carrion Creepers can now proc Domination, Containment and Overpower.
• This power should no longer execute an excessive proc cascade.
• Adjusted the vines spawn timing, should spawn more fluidly now.
• Vines should now be able to proc Containment damage (33% chance).

 

 Fly Trap

• AI mode changed from Pet_Base to Pet_Ranged.

 

Quote

Design Notes:

We are aware this will initially stir some reactions. Please test these changes before making your final judgements. With the introduction of Deep Sleep, we are seeking to re-adjust the set balance so its not as focused on 2 powers.

 

You may have noticed, we are standardizing confuse powers to 90s recharge with a lower scale. Spirit Tree will continue to work as it always did, but now also can dub as a pseudo-tank, at least for limited window. This will not come at any cost, as even if defeated the +regen portion will persists for its standard duration.

 

Similar to some of the other sets we mentioned above, Vines is getting a pseduopet revamp. We are not looking to homogenize all the 240s holds into the same form, instead we are trying to give them a some flavor, but some may be a bit similar. You should find this new incarnation much more useful.

 

Finally, Carrion Creepers was implemented in a way that interacted with multiple procs in an abusive way. The pet had many powers that created other pets that executed other powers resulting in sometimes triple proc rates, bypassing all safeguards the game has to prevent such things. This is being finally adjusted in this iteration. We expect all the additional buffs to other powers, especially in controller containment capabilities, to result in a much more well rounded set.

 

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[Nayeh]

Unforgivable.

[mistagoat]

[LastHumanSoldier]

Dominator:   Stier ==> C- tier

Overall this nerf hurts but I can still clear 8x4 missions without breaking a sweat. 

Key point here, most of my kill speed came from my assault set anyway.

I respec'd in Vines and between that and Seeds (with Contagious proc (IMPORTANT HERE). I felt very safe.
Carrion Creepers is honestly junk now.  Never saw more than 5 creepers at a time, but I didn't have room for Tactics on my build now.

 

 

Controller:   S Tier  ==> D Tier.

Kill power is massively reduced. Seeds of confusion is basically not usable without contagious confusion (EDIT: Due to the target cap reduction)

You can REALLY feel the DPS loss on creepers as they spawn less pets, never saw more than 5 on 8x4.

'Gina (Fly Trap) still was a non factor in high level play, though mine is a kin so YMMV.

 

In both cases a enhanced to the Gills character is going to be fine, but noticably weaker now.
I am planning on stripping both my controller and dom in favor of other combos.

 

Edited Tuesday at 04:41 PM by LastHumanSoldier

[arcane]

3 minutes ago, LastHumanSoldier said:

Seeds of confusion is basically not usable without contagious confusion.

 

The mag didn’t change so not sure what this means.

 

Happy that the devs finally balanced AoE confuses. It was tiresome explaining to people every couple of months that Mass Confusion is not a bad power just because Seeds was overpowered as hell. Seems like much more parity now.

[LastHumanSoldier]

1 minute ago, arcane said:

The mag didn’t change so not sure what this means.

 

Happy that the devs finally balanced AoE confuses. It was tiresome explaining to people every couple of months that Mass Confusion is not a bad power just because Seeds was overpowered as hell. Seems like much more parity now.

 

10 Target cap, not the mag.
Contagious helps get the rest of the group.

Sorry should lave laid it out more plain for yah! 

 

[arcane]

Gotcha! I think “only hits 10 targets” and “basically not usable” might be slightly different things 🙂

[mistagoat]

2 minutes ago, arcane said:

The mag didn’t change so not sure what this means.

 

Happy that the devs finally balanced AoE confuses. It was tiresome explaining to people every couple of months that Mass Confusion is not a bad power just because Seeds was overpowered as hell. Seems like much more parity now.

Targets reduced to 10 means it's useless against x8 mobs without the CC proc to extend its functionality. This means it's shit for anyone under level 50.

[LastHumanSoldier]

1 minute ago, arcane said:

Gotcha! I think “only hits 10 targets” and “basically not usable” might be slightly different things 🙂

Yeah sorry I test at 54x8. Thats my minimum standard.

1x1 the set works great!

 

[arcane]

2 minutes ago, mistagoat said:

Targets reduced to 10 means it's useless against x8 mobs without the CC proc to extend its functionality. This means it's shit for anyone under level 50.

How is a power useless just because it doesn’t hit a whole mob? Am I missing some new feature that makes this logical?

[LastHumanSoldier]

38 minutes ago, mistagoat said:

Targets reduced to 10 means it's useless against x8 mobs without the CC proc to extend its functionality. This means it's shit for anyone under level 50.

 

its not that bad honestly, just not a set I want to play anymore.
Plant has everything it needs to support a group  at all difficulty levels.
its just not what I would consider a top tier set anymore.

There are better ones.

One thing I am shocked about is that Roots double damage wasn't removed too?
Put that last nail in there Homecoming!  You know you want to normalize Roots.

Roots does more damage than Fire Cages.  If we are making these drastic changes now, its time to fix this one too.

 

 

Fire Cages:

 

Roots:

 

Edited Tuesday at 05:20 PM by LastHumanSoldier

[arcane]

3 minutes ago, LastHumanSoldier said:

Yeah sorry I test at 54x8. Thats my minimum standard.

1x1 the set works great!

 

See response to mistagoat. Yall aint makin no sense.

[Snokle]

I mean Plant Control was due for an adjustment as it was a bit overtuned since end of Live IIRC. With Seeds, and Carrion adjusted it will be interesting how it all works now compared to everything else, especially as I found Seeds was way to OP compared to other confuse powers. Unfortunate about the proc bombing about Carrion, but foreseeable.

 

Time to see where this all shakes out during some testing.

 

I do like the Carrion is getting the bonus of Domination now, so that will be fun to test now.

Edited Tuesday at 04:51 PM by Snokle

[LastHumanSoldier]

10 minutes ago, arcane said:

See response to mistagoat. Yall aint makin no sense.

 

Its my opinion that a control that doesn't fully control my targets is to be avoided.
Its my opinion that I can fix the 10 target cap of seeds with contagious confusion.

 

The 10 target cap makes it much less viable on 8x4 than other 90 second powers which hit 16. 
That's my opinion.

Yes there are updates to other plant powers to layer control, but I picked plant because it was a damage set.
The change to plan where I need to take more powers to get effective control, AND the reduced basic functionality of Creepers (less spawns, no procs,) is enough to make me respec/rebuild.
 

[mistagoat]

2 minutes ago, arcane said:

How is a power useless just because it doesn’t hit a whole mob? Am I missing some new feature that makes this logical?

Yeah, not useless but imo, nerfed into pointless territory. Pre-massive-nerf I could confuse the whole mob, post-massive-nerf I can confuse half the mob and get alpha'd to death by the other half. Seeds was the opener, the Flashfire/Stalagmites of the set, the thing that negates the majority of the alpha so you can do other things. It's efficacy is in the toilet now.

I get that it needed some adjustment but this is massively overstepping. Taking from top tier to bottom tier feels punitive. RIP Plant...

[Glorious]

[Vanden]

6 minutes ago, mistagoat said:

Pre-massive-nerf I could confuse the whole mob, post-massive-nerf I can confuse half the mob and get alpha'd to death by the other half. Seeds was the opener, the Flashfire/Stalagmites of the set, the thing that negates the majority of the alpha so you can do other things.

 

With these changes, Plant has two other powers it can use for this, Spirit Tree and Spore Burst.

[StarkWhite]

Spirit Tree as an opener has worked really well for me in testing, yeah. Followed quickly by layering other controls.

[ScarySai]

Plant's profile is more balanced now, but this kinda sucks for the people that enjoy plant as it is now, as the control set for murdering things and causing chaos.

 

I'm not really understanding why, either. Plant isn't "meta" and even mid tier sets from other ATs can clear faster than it does, it just has a fun little niche that's actually useful in the eyes of the playerbase. It's borderline useless in 4* content, and these changes do not change that.

 

I'm trying to make spirit tree work, but I question the usefulness of a mass taunt pet in a set with confusion and sleep being so prominent.

 

1: Either reduce the recharge back to how it was on seeds, or bring the target cap back up. With what other sets got, this nerf is overkill and could stand to be half reverted.

2: Spirit tree still sucks, would like to see it have a more useful bonus for bothering to drop it in a field of already controlled mobs. Maybe have it buff your creepers/flytrap while active.

 

EDIT: Whether intentional or otherwise, Carrion vines don't spawn as often either.

 

Revert it all, if you're really that scared of procs, maybe hit them directly instead of gutting sets while leaving others fully able to make use of them. This is ridiculous.

Edited Tuesday at 10:51 PM by ScarySai

[EmperorSteele]

I've yet to test, but, as someone who runs a Plant/Emp...

 

Good.

 

I main a Mind/Kin and have a Perma PA Illu/Time, and yet the goddamn EMP outpaces them both. Maybe my other builds just stink and I got lucky with the Plant build, idk.

 

However, I'll save final judgement for when I can actually test. If I go from untouchable at +4/x8 to dying horribly at -1/x1, then I'll concede that the changes are too much. Until then, reserving judgement.

[WindDemon21]

On 5/26/2025 at 8:07 AM, The Curator said:

 Spirit Tree

• Cast time lowered from 3.2s to 1.67s.
• Recharge reduced from 200s to 120s.
• Duration reduced from 90s to 60s.
• Spirit tree can now be attacked.
• Spirit tree now taunts and has a scaling defense and resist aura.
• Even after being defeated, spirit tree's regen aura should remain.

No.

 

Add the extra stuff fine, but do not reduce it's duration. It's meant to be the "long haul" battle power and i don't want to have to be casting it so often. It should have it's recharge reduced to 30-60s with its regeneratoin increased to at lest 250% or 300% and just make it non-stackable. That way it's useable every mob, which is the main issue the power always had. If it's going to be these stats, then still at least make it's regen be increased and keep the longer duration.

[WindDemon21]

On 5/26/2025 at 8:07 AM, The Curator said:

 Seeds of Confusion

• Recharge increased to 90s.
• Scale reduced from scale 20 to scale 12.
• Target cap lowered from 16 to 10.

And no, just HELL no. If you're going to increase the recharge, then the target cap especially which is used to handle the alphas needs to be there, and the duration shouldn't really be touched since the recharge is already being nerfed.

 

Just straight ruining this game *shakes head at devs*

[WindDemon21]

53 minutes ago, LastHumanSoldier said:

 

10 Target cap, not the mag.
Contagious helps get the rest of the group.

Sorry should lave laid it out more plain for yah! 

 

right. On this note, can we PLEASE slot attuned purples at level 1 or 10. the values are already lower in attuned forms, but especially for situations like this the extra confuse proc is necessary for powers like this and we should be able to slot them before 50. Likewise, add a small damage component to it too so we can at least put some  damage procs in it and the cupid proc. but also, just keep it at damn 16 targets and stupid ruining shit!

Edited Tuesday at 05:33 PM by WindDemon21

[WindDemon21]

On 5/26/2025 at 8:07 AM, The Curator said:

 Carrion Creepers

• VFX now moves along with the pet patch.
• Carrion Creepers can now proc Domination, Containment and Overpower.
• This power should no longer execute an excessive proc cascade.

so none of these descriptions mention that there are less creeper vines.

 

1 hour ago, LastHumanSoldier said:

Kill power is massively reduced. Seeds of confusion is basically not usable without contagious confusion (EDIT: Due to the target cap reduction)

You can REALLY feel the DPS loss on creepers as they spawn less pets, never saw more than 5 on 8x4.

'Gina (Fly Trap) still was a non factor in high level play, though mine is a kin so YMMV.

So is this just something extra where they spawn less vines. Cause if so then HELL NO. all that creeper chaos is the best part and will just murder all the fun of it. Please tell me they don't spawn less vines cause that would be total BS and needs undone ASAP.

[StarkWhite]

IIRC Vines now spawn over time instead of all at once, but don't hold me to that as it's been ages since I tested Plant Control.