|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
Sign Up to Submit Guides and Earn Credibility! |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Author: Perceptor II
1,105 Views
3 Comments
|
With the advent of Issue 12: Midnight Hour all archetypes are enjoying powersets they previously didn't have access to. Controllers get a new primary set in Plant Control, formerly only available to Dominators, and a new secondary set in Thermal Radiation, formerly only available to Corruptors.
Crops and sunlight: the ultimate farming build?
With all seriousness this is a strong combination, surprisingly effective in solo play but also quite valuable in teams. Here is a first look at this sort of build. Hopefully I can give you enough information to get you started on the right track.
Even before you start playing you'll be presented with a choice. What you do want out of the plant control set: Entangle or Strangler? Neither is a bad choice. Both with keep a single target in place while doing damage over time. Strangler will do more, dealing slightly more damage while holding your foe helpless so he can't punch or shoot you, but entangle has a slightly faster recharge time and would make the better choice if you want to go for the Isolator badge in the tutorial. Either choice will work and you'll want to have both before too long.
On the thermal radiation side you have to take Warmth as your first power. As luck would have it, this is the first power you'd want from this set anyway. It offers a quick self-heal, plus it will heal every ally close by. You will be using this power a lot. Just don't overuse it, as it does eat your endurance.
A quick look at first several powers in each set:
PLANT CONTROL
Entangle: Does smashing and lethal damage while keeping your foe immobile. You foe will still be able to shoot or punch it you wander into melee range.
Strangler: Does smashing damage (a bit better than entangle) while also keeping your foe held helpless. He can't attack you, but you and your allies can attack him.
Roots: Only does minor damage, but holds many foes in a targeted area immobile.
Spore Burst: The narcotic effects of the spores can put a crowd to sleep. They will reawaken if attacked, and in teams you always have a few that will shoot anything they can target.
Seeds of Confusion: This is a ranged cone power. It does not damage, but affected foes will ignore you and turn to attack each other. You gain no experience from foes defeated entirely by confused foes. Keep in mind this is a cone attack, meaning that you won't confuse an entire mob; you'll affect maybe two or three. Confused foes don't do a lot of damage, and the power wears off much faster than it recharges. However, it is an effective way to make sure you aren't taking damage from a few foes for a while, leaving you free to concentrate on the others.
THERMAL RADIATION
Warmth: Heals yourself and any ally close by. A good basic heal self/team power.
Fire Shield: Increases an ally's resistance to smashing, lethal, fire and cold damage. Dishing these out is a good way to keep your teammates alive longer during a mission. This can't be used on yourself.
Cauterize: Heals a single ally. During team missions watch your teammates' health, and use this on any that are close to defeat.
Plasma Shield: Adds energy, negative energy and more fire resistance. This can be used in addition to fire shields. However they can't be used on yourself.
As you start advancing in the game, of course, you'll add new powers from both sets. When choosing your new powers keep in mind your game play style. If you do a lot of soloing, you'll probably want to emphasize the plant control powers. Even though the controller archetype isn't thought of as a solo-friendly build, I've had quite a bit of success as a solo plant controller. Keep in mind that you have neither good offense or good defense as a controller, and your success depends on keeping your foes locked down, preventing them from doing a lot of damage so you have enough time to squeeze the life will to resist arrest out of them. This also means that even more than most other builds your need to be able to hit your opponents. If things go well and the random number generator smiles on you, you can take down a medium sized group at your level without breaking much of a sweat. If things go poorly, though, you'll find yourself surrounded and sent to the hospital faster than you can say, "I wish I'd slotted more accuracy enhancements." In fact, if you want to go solo you probably should take at least one training level accuracy enhancement for each plant power until you can get your double-origin, single-origin and invention enhancements. You can always run Terra Volta and respec them out later.
If you plan on doing mostly team-oriented play you probably want to put a greater emphasis on the thermal side of things. Thermal radation offers a lot of great options in aiding your teammates, but after warmth none of them can be used on yourself until the very end. Fire shields and cauterize are great powers for team players and should be considered must haves. Plasma shields may be skippable, but should be considered if you think you'll be teaming against energy-wielding villains (like Clockwork) a lot.
For a balanced approach, I'd suggest taking Strangler and Warmth at level 1, then Rooted at level 2 (you need a group immobilize power as soon as you can get it). Then add Entangle, Cauterize, Fire shields before level 10. That gives you one power slot to get one of the others or start one of the power pools.
Speaking of the power pools, by all means consider taking fitness to work your way toward stamina. The powers in this build tend to suck your endurance. As for choosing a travel power, keep in mind that most of the plant control powers require the target to be near the ground, so you'll be at a distinct disadvantage in the air. Medicine would seem to be redundant with this build.
This build offers plenty of interesting powers later in the game: more options to summon plant life to heal your teammates and do all kinds of interesting and nasty things to your enemies, and more ways to use heat to revive, bail out and empower your teammates and finally, at levels 35 and 38, turn your heat powers against your foes. Those are bit beyond the scope of this article. I may cover those in a follow-up article as I advance my own plant/thermal build. All in all, plant control/thermal radiation is an effective combination.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
