oedipus_tex

This is a good strategy. There's a bigger picture item I think too with controls and their role in the current meta. Immobilizes aren't the only control that tends to prevent enemy clumping, the same thing happens with Stuns and Holds. Both of those control types usually have smaller radii, usually around 20 or 25ft, but the effect is similar. Because the current game is so much more survivable than it was classically, Controller and Dominator Controls can actually hinder more than they help in some situations. That's why I rate Blasters so highly in the current typical scenario, and also partly why Seeds of Confusion is such a god-tier power, since it eliminates threats without discouraging clumping.

Consumers are fickle so there's no telling what could cause a sudden influx of attention. In 2021, as unlikely as it is, probably the biggest source of an influx would be a popular YouTuber or influencer causing an explosion of interest. While City-of-Heroes-brought-to-you-by-James-Charles probably isn't in the cards, it's feasible given the current state of marketing.

Just to chime in a bit on the AoE Immobilizes: The AoE immobilizes typically do less damage than typical AoE blasts but are much larger. A typical AoE blast has radius 15, the immobilizes are radius 30. That's an area increase in 2D coverage from 908 feet to 2827 feet--which is actually over 3 times larger in terms of 2D coverage. If you measure spheres, the difference is 2827 ft versus 11309ft, or a bit over four times larger. The potential downside of course is that you immobilize things in that huge area. I think it's an interesting tradeoff. The Plant immobilize does x2 as much damage as the rest of the immobs, and given its huge radius is actually a viable attack. Electric Control has a hefty endurance drain in its immob and a fast animation that makes it worth spamming--personally for sappers I recommend taking Fold Space for the best of both worlds, so you can still spam it but not interfere too much with the team. The real losers in the immobilize arms race is Ice Control. It's animation is super slow and gives this power an abysmal DPA, around 7 before enhancements, never worth casting for damage unless you're solo. Unfortunately Ice Control also lacks other hard controls to bank Containment on. With Ice Control on teams you're probably better off just letting things run around without the immobilize at all, since Ice Slick is such a massive run speed debuff.

Like most classes its hard to nail down the entire archetype, because there are so many kinds of Dominators. Overall the class excels in a couple of areas that may or may not appeal to you: Most Dominators are very good at relatively easy missions, say around the +0x3 niche. An Electric Control Dominator for example running this style of mission without IOs probably has the highest survivability chances of any squishy build out there because it can just spam Static Field. For this reason they aren't a bad class for beginners or people who just want to run easy content without hassle. Inexperienced players will likely struggle with Blasters more. Dominator is the only class that has mezz protection as a class feature. For much of the live game's run this was a much bigger advantage than it is currently, but it does mean you don't have to take certain powers other squishies have to rely on to get there. Dominators have some of the best APP powers in the game. The class takes a huge turn in the level 40-ish range. Sleet, Mind Link, Indom Will, and a few others in these sets are extremely good for APP powers. Dominator multipliers aren't as poor as a Blaster. So it is easier to build for Defense. There was a period of the game where Dominators were (IMO) significantly better than Blasters, mainly most of the game's live run. If I'm being honest in the current iteration I think Blasters are a bit more useful than Dominators in the current meta, but Dominators are still pretty good.

Yep. Believe it or not, Propel and Lift with Containment actually do more damage than the Dom version. That's part of why certain combos with Gravity Control do really well. One I'm a huge fan of is Trick Arrow, because you can proc out Ice Arrow for big damage and then cycle it with the Gravity Control Hold for some good numbers for a Controller.

If you don't mind some sideline quarterbacking: you'll probably be happier with a Gravity Controller, especially if you're hoping to have a justification to cast Propel, the coolest looking power in the set. The DPA Lift does covers a lot more ground on a normally-damage-starved Controller than a Dom (who has an Assault set), and Controller secondaries make covering your defense/recovering from damage a lot easier. Unless you need it for the knock effect, Propel is usually a worse attack than what you'd get in the Dom's Assault set so sadly usually goes unused. Lift is good enough to replace some Assault set attacks though, like the ones in Psi Assault, so there are a couple of Dominator combos where it can do okay. Dominators as a whole will also always have okay-ish damage so the character will still function on the Dom. It's just a lot harder to make up for having traded away amazing powers from Kinetics, Storm, Cold, Trick Arrow and so on.

This is part of your issue. Brickstown is mezz central. There's tons of mobs there with very high chances to Stun or Sleep you, and it happens around a time when the only real counteroptions aren't that attractive. In the 50s you'll be able to take the anti mezz Destiny Clarion power and not worry about it nearly as much, so the good news is its only a temporary issue. You should try to slot an anti-kb somewhere in your build early. You can take Combat Jumping if you need to avoid Immobilize.

With the added challenge settings in the newer Task Forces, Illusion/Empathy is actually a solid support option. The combo was always particularly good as a dedicated support character, it's just that that role wasn't especially critical in the game as it exists up til now. The only thing I'd think through is whether you'd prefer to play this as Illusion/Empathy, Illusion/Pain, or Illusion/Thermal. All three have a lot in common. Thermal and Pain add some debuffs, where Empathy is all buffs (none of which affect your Phantom Army). Thermal has a very effective Regen-buster in Heat Exhaustion and probably has the easiest time of the three swapping between a team and soloist role.

IMO the fight where Confuse plays the biggest role is the final battle of the Underground trial. I'm pretty sure in the early days of the trial I contributed to flattening the league with an ill timed Ionic Judgement.

Hi there, nice work on a first build. I have some suggestions, but this is a pretty good start. (By the way, to get more responses, its often helpful when you post builds to also take a screenshot of the build with the Totals tab showing, and paste it into your post, so people can glance at it without having to load it. I'm going to post your original below for reference for other posters:) Some good things I have to say about the build: This doesn't look crazy expensive. Other than the Dominator ATO most of these sets are very affordable. Appears to be permadom. For the most part, the power choices are reasonable. A few things that strike me I'd suggest adjusting: I don't recommend skipping Call Hawk unless the look of it conflicts with your build. It's a fantastic attack, I'd drop Maiming Slash, because of its lower DPA than other attacks in the set. It's a fine attack, you just probably won't use it that often. Disregard if for some reason you do. I don't generally recommend not having at least one immobilize power, even if all you do is drop a single Accuracy in it. You can absolutely do it if you must, but its a balance decision. Being capable of quickly immobilizing archvillains is a basic expectation most teams will have of the team Dominator. That said, I do have Doms where I skipped it (or where one just isn't available). Just as long as you're doing that as a conscious choice. I don't generally recommend skipping the blast from the APP set, unless it's a very poor one. Dark Obliteration is pretty great and worth taking. Rending Flurry is a divisive power. Some like it, some don't. I personally skip it. It's fine to take if you actually use it. You took Grant Invisibility for the LoTG slot, but could grab Weave, which you already qualify for from having Tough. So for sure grab that. 🙂 Below I'm not going to suggest a complete rebuild, but steps you might take to start filling in gaps in Defense which I think you are capable of picking up in the final version of the build. To show you my thinking on a suggested rebuild, I'll start with a skeletal model showing baseline defenses and slotting. I'm making some assumptions about powers to drop or keep, but you can get the big idea. I've tried to map out where I want each of my critical procs or single slot bonuses to go before I start slotting the build. Starting out, I can see I'm starting around 15% Defense to most vectors, which isn't bad for a non-Psi APP Dominator. My critical procs are Dominator +Damage ATO: We want this somewhere we can proc it a lot. There's a lot of possibilities. The proc can stack, so keeping it somewhere it will cycle a lot is good. This set also provides a tremendous +5 Range defense bonus for 6 slots. I put it in Heart of Darkness but there's good reason it might belong somewhere else depending on your faith in being able to proc it. Other good locations, depending on what you tend to cycle, are Dark Grasp or Fearsome Stare.* ( *Or Feral Charge, but verify it will actually accept the proc in game) Steadfast Resist and Gladiator's Armor +3% defense: Together these add +6% to the build. We almost never want to skip these on any build. I put them in Tough. Luck of the Gamblers: I ID'ed 3 spots: Stealth, Weave, and Hover. You could replace Hover with Maneuvers or Combat Jumping. I took Hover just because of how useful it is to be able to Hover up to cast a cone and then Feral Charge back in. Unkindness: Has slottable -Defense, so we don't want to miss a -Resist proc here. Spot Prey: Has enhanceable +ToHit, so we don't want to miss a free Build Up for an extra +68% damage from Gaussian's proc. Feral Charge can take Force Feedback chance for +100% Recharge proc. You'll be casting this power a lot, so its probably worth taking the proc. This is turn will pull your control powers back up more often. Mids code for the pre-build below. The next piece is finding a path to enough Recharge to become permadom. To do this, I like to take an interim step slotting only the things that provide a combo of Recharge along with Defense. This build I can get to 35.2% Ranged Defense and 70% Recharge with combinations of Basilisk's Gaze, the ATO set, Coercive Persuasion, Expedient Reinforcement, and Cloud Senses, which truly isn't bad for a set without a Snipe. From here, you'd start filling in with your power picks like before. You'll need to decide how much Defense you want to end up with versus procs. In the end you should be able to start with something pretty solid though. You also have the option BTW of moving the Dominator ATO proc into Feral Charge. That will likely mean losing the +10 Recharge and +5 Defense combo this ATO provides so is always a tough choice. Hope this is helpful. 🙂

Here's a pretty good one: the Controller/Dominator power Surge of Power. It has recharge of 1000, 120 duration. In addition to providing excellent, enhanceable resistance to all except Psi (including Toxic) it comes in a set that has Power Sink. So, when your bar crashes, eat a blue, Power Sink immediately back to full. Power Sink has a very generous recharge schedule and should power you through any lingering Recovery issues. Doms and Controllers don't rely on armor toggles quite as much as armored ATs so retoggling anything that drops is usually quick. For maximum tankiness, you can cycle this with Rune of Protection.

Both have their perks. I'd lean Defender for the (IMO) superior self heal proc ATO, which will come in handy on a set like Force Field. Arguments for the Corruptor is the late blast powers are a lot more useful than the late Force Field powers. Level 35 is a long wait for Explosive Blast.

You can get faster stacks with those powers if you are cycling those powers, yes. I think that's the asterisk that needs to be placed on the ATO. It's a bonus you get only if you use the power it's in. I will always be opening on a pack with an AoE control and usually spamming it again when its back up. Part of this comes down to playstyle and the kinds of situations you find yourself in. On my Electric/Psi for example the ATO set is in Static Field, and that power is spammed, resulting in steady 40% bonus at all times, even out of combat if necessary. I may value capped Ranged defense more than some other players. Against a pylon or stationary enemy its a net DPA loss. However if it means I can safely race to the next group of enemies and make what I was fighting chase me while disregarding their attacks, its a net gain.

Yeah there's an argument for ST holds too. Especially for Fire or Mind Control, with those super fast animating holds. Lately on Dark I've been leaning toward Fearsome Stare just because I tend to spam that power so much in AoE situations. With 40 recharge, 16 targets it's got major capability to build stacks. That does mean losing some -ToHit in Fearsome if you 6 slot it, but that's a trade I'm okay with. Other times I'm more traditional and prefer it in Heart of Darkness just because the ATO is so much better than the purple Stun set.

Something I hope we can agree on is that what makes City of Heroes such an interesting game is that we can have these sorts of debates about best in slotting. Your build is great. It's particularly optimized for the synergy between Dark Control and Dark Assault and that's fantastic. In general, on most builds? That ATO proc probably needs to go in a 6 slot configuration in a control power to take advantage of +5 Ranged defense. I wish the ATOs were designed like other archetypes and fit into attack powers cleanly, but we're left with what we're given here. Keep in mind doing this doesn't mean you aren't getting the +Damage proc. It means you are getting the proc from the AoE control power you're spamming anyway. Against large groups you're guaranteed to trigger the proc, and depending on the power you put it in, can stack it. It's a different mindset than putting it in a single target melee attack for sure. But it's part of the same general principal that the proc should go into a power that you're likely to cycle. If that's an upclose melee attack and you can justify losing the set bonuses to obtain that, that's great. I'm not as energized about that for non-Dark/Dark builds. Of course you wouldn't want the ATO proc in an AoE power if you're focusing on AVs or pylons. If that's your focus MG makes a lot more sense, assuming you can withstand melee range with the enemy (that may be a whole other topic).

What I am saying is that if pylon times are the measurement, the only APP that makes sense is the Ice APP, for Sleet. Sleet will demonstrably increase your pylon time because it meets the specific nature of the challenge. The pylon test can't show you the benefit of the Psi Defense in the Psi APP, or the endurance sink in Power Sink, etc. By all means take MG if you can justify it. But also skip it if you can't justify it. There are plenty of great powers available and that particular one is replaceable depending on where you need to put the ATO set.

I did not look at your pylon times but that tracks. A pylon is an example of a fight versus a single target, so a build that focuses on that will of course have better pylon times. Pylon times were developed for straight DPS classes. They will not tell you, for example, that your AoE controls are underslotted, or that you missed a chance for extra utility for a minor bonus to how fast you beat a pylon.

Gloom and Smite for sure. Each of them have a base Recharge of 8, which gives them a theoretical "best possible" recharge of 2, with 3 seconds probably being close to the final number for an end game build (it can be hard to estimate exactly because so many builds have flexible recharge between +100% recharge procs and Ageless Destiny). Both are very fast attacks, with an incredibly reactive 0.97 attack animation on Smite, and a fast 1.1 on Gloom, which doesn't leave a lot of time to do something else. Your first cycle is probably Moonbeam, then onto something else. Somewhere in here you're also casting Life Drain, control powers, and so on. Using MG as a proc delivery system for the +Dam ATO proc is clever, and a good option for people who fight a lot of single targets. The recharge on it means the proc fires pretty reliably versus a single target. I tend to prefer it in my spammable AoE Control, but MG has advantages if you are wailing on a single enemy.

Moonbeam actually has the highest DPA in the set. The chart shows the out of combat snipe animation speed, not the faster in combat speed. I don't have the numbers for fast snipe, but they are astronomical. I agree that's a good place to put it if it works for the build. I usually put it in the fastest recharging AoE control power, but Midnight Grasp is a good spot for it. Good call on that. Part of the reason I still feel a strong draw to skip Midnight Grasp is simply where it happens to fall in the build--level 38. The ability to drop it selectively is part of the draw of Dark Assault to me. You can't get away with that with most of the other Assault sets. Speaking on Dark/Dark builds specifically for a second, part of this goes back to philosophical differences on whether Heart of Darkness should be treated as a proc bomb or a control power. I personally like to slot HoD with x6 of the ATO, which includes the +damage proc. That provides +10 Recharge and +5 Ranged defense for the build, and the +damage proc will fire reliably against groups. The proc bomb approach is fine, but I don't personally like the loss of Stun time, recharge, and that sweet +5 Ranged Defense. (It also does make me wish the Dominator ATOs were designed better). We were talking about an Ice/Dark build earlier. On that one specifically I would feel very pressured on a defensive build to drop Midnight Grasp so I could take 5 powers out of the Psi APP: Indom Will, Resist Armor, Mind Link, Psinado and World of Confusion. The only other power its possible to drop and take 5 powers out of the APPs is Moonbeam, which IMO should never be skipped. Long story short, if you can justify Midnight Grasp with procs for sure take it, but out of the box it's not a huge trade up in damage like you'd expect a T9 melee attack to be. The animation is clunky (2.07) and a Dominator has so many good potential powers choices that being able to drop a redundant attack power even at a small loss of attack chain is often lucrative.

Probably not, but: Gloom > Smite > MoonBeam > quick animating AoE Blast > Sleet/whatever/Life Drain > control power > whatever > whatever is probably closer to what I actually end up doing on a Dominator than cycling a rehearsed attack chain. I have very rarely ended up in situations where a true attack chain really mattered TBH. Mostly it's been about what power is best in the moment. You solo AVs, which is fine. I don't personally have the patience. Soloing an AV requires a very specific kind of build and mindset, and I respect that. The current Dark/Dark meta is an offshoot of the legacy Mind Control soloist Dominator that's been around since live. It's a niche that just never interested me, just like the Illusion Control variety never piqued my interest either. I respect what those builds accomplish without wanting to pursue it myself. Overall, I don't find attack chains as relevant for Dominators as other ATs, It's more a mix of whatever I need to click in that second to keep going. The build is already super tight, so being able to drop something that is mostly redundant is helpful. The Assault sets offer a lot of redundant damage dealing powers, and trimming something off even at a minor net loss of DPS is often attractive to me.

Are you getting good numbers out of Midnight Grasp because of a proc? Out of the box it has lower DPA than Gloom: It does have longer recharge, so I suppose it procs better and might pull ahead. Smite > Gloom > MoonBeam > AoE Blast isn't a full attack chain, but TBH I've rarely worried about a full attack chain on a Dom, just because so many clicks come in between attacks. If you're specifically AV hunting I can see why it may matter more. You tend to fight a lot of AVs which is why I think you're not as big a fan of Haunt as I am. I'd take Haunt over an extra attack from the Assault set in most cases, but that's knowing that the fights I tend to get in they tend to last a while and do a ton of damage for the minimal investment in animation time involved. I do skip Gremlins on Electric Control for being similarly squishy, so if your Haunts are just getting slammed in the first few seconds I can see why you'd want to skip them.

I'll third Void as a solid Judgment choice. It's by far the best choice for AV fights. I think its further buffed by Sleet if you have that, too.

Static Field is probably the most OPed thing possible for the level you get it, but quickly levels off to become merely "good." I've not done a comparison for every powerset but I think Gravity Control > Lift may be the hardest hitting single target power for the first 10 levels of the game. Maybe less than that. But it hits incredibly hard for a power at level 2.

I adore Arctic Air in concept. During the time CoX was away, I created a bunch of mods for other games highly inspired by Arctic Air. It's a very interesting power and very unusual among MMO powers. I can definitely see why someone would want to use it. In terms of its performance, my biggest criticisms are twofold: It's a mezz power on Dominators that doesn't benefit from the main ability Dominators are meant to possess. In fact, its actually worse than the Controller version, with lower Confuse times and less slow/-Recharge. If Ice Controllers didn't have such low damage, there'd be no reason to roll as an Ice Dominator. It makes you build like a tank in order to leverage the power, but doesnt give you a break on endurance you need to run tank-like powers. Part of the experience is bringing unusual builds to the mix. I'm usually not someone who gravitates to top performing sets. I do wish Ice would get a boost from the developers though. It's a great concept missing some of its needed muscle.

I think the solution is harder to come up with than identification of the problem. Overall I think the issue evolved over a timeline similar to this: Way too many throwaway enemies have "nuisance mezz" with high magnitude and chance to proc In compensation, melee characters were made nearly immune to these mezzes and simply disregard them To help unarmored characters keep up, various methods were added to give them their own less perfect ways to disregard mezz Toggle powers on squishies that are meant to be occasionally punished end up at ground zero and obtaining mezz protection becomes the major focus of the build. Every 1 second Sleep on a minion becomes a life threatening emergency (less so for this particular power, but in general) The true long term solution I think is to backtrack and remove a lot of the throwaway mezz hurled by minions and lieutenant level enemies, so that mezz is a major event. The ITF is a great example of an environment designed this way, and that's partly why that TF is so popular. Since a full rebalance is unlikely, a good tradeoff would at least be to not make the archetypes who already deal with mezz situation even worse. If making mezz threatening is a goal, we need to be looking at the archetypes who are currently completely disregarding it, not doubling down for the archetypes who are already dealing with it.