oedipus_tex

It would be hilarious and completely on message to have groups of Warriors trapped in other zones trying to run for the metro stations.

Good morning. Today I decided to comb through Carrion Creepers. This one really intimidates me because I know a lot of people have first hand experience with this power. I've used it a lot too without totally understanding how it calculates the number of vines, etc. Here's my attempt to clarify it. I reserve the right to be wrong about some of this because there is a lot of data to interpret due to the number of pets involved and all the subsets of files to comb through, about 6 files total for this one power. For reference, this is once again based on publicly available i24 files and there is a chance it has been changed in some way on Homecoming. Plant Control > Carrion Creepers So, it goes without saying this power is weird. Carrion Creepers, the clickable power itself, summons an entity called a Creeper Patch. This is an invisible pet that lasts 120 seconds. Its AI is tuned to "prefer Melee" which means in general it will approach the enemy that has aggroed it for close combat. "Prefer Melee" is technically the same AI Electric Control's Gremlins or Fire Control's Imps have, the only reason the Creeper patch doesn't run off like those pets is it has relatively low run speed. Creeper patches can't fly, so if you do something like summon it on the ground floor and then hover up to the balcony, it will run along the floor angering whatever groups it encounters on the way while it searches for the stairs. The Creeper patch has the following abilities: The patch has an autohit aura called "Bramble." It applies Slow, scale 0.5 and -Fly, mag 10. Entangle Every 10 seconds, the Creeper patch will summon 1 "Entangle" entity per dead enemy within 20ft. On being summoned, each Entangle entity will instantly cast an auto power, which confusingly is also called "Entangle." Entangle, the power used by Entangle entities, deals a Scale 0.1 Lethal and Scale 0.1 Smashing damage DoT, lasting 5.2 seconds, to enemies within 8ft. The power has a recharge of 1000 seconds (meaning it only ever fires one time per summoned Entangle). This may account for why Creepers seems to proc so effectively, but I'm not the expert on procs. The Entangle pet self destructs after 2 seconds. So basically it appears, casts its Entangle power, and vanishes. Vines: Every 10 seconds, the Creeper patch has a 50% chance to summon a vine per living enemy within 20ft. Vines self destruct after 15 seconds. Vine Smash Cast every 4 seconds Scale 0.2 Smash Scale 0.1 Toxic damage 100% chance to knockback (at least on i24 servers... but also I24 servers don't have Homecoming's kb protection converted to resistance) Thorn attack Cast every 4 seconds Scale 0.1 Lethal Scale 0.1 Toxic damage 60ft range Resistance The vines are technically killable but it usually isn't a big factor. They have Mag 100 Immobilize applied to them. In theory if you were to overcome this with Clear Mind type powers they'd start running around the map. They have the same AI as the Creeper Patch (and Gremlins, etc) so this would be entertaining to watch. The vines famously don't have KB protection so enemy attacks can blow them backwards. If anyone is aware of anything I misread in the power and wants to help clarify it please chime in.

I need to correct something I said above. I forgot that Dominators and pseudo pets have identical ToHit tables. So, Shadow Field gives you normal strength -ToHit. Controllers just don't benefit from their higher -ToHit like they normally would. This is a rare case where a power involving a pseudo pet works out better for Dominators, usually that's reversed.

I'm back with an update on Shadow Field, which I recently took a deep dive through. If there are requests for any specific powers, hit me up an I'll do my best to have a look. Darkness Control > Shadow Field This power summons one of two different pseudo pets depending on whether you are in or out of Domination mode. The pets are nearly identical except for where noted below. The radius of the power is 25ft. This is bigger than the radius of typical ranged AoE Holds by 5ft (e.g. Mind Control > Total Domination is a 20ft radius Hold). The pseudo pet lasts 45 seconds. The pet has the following behaviors: The initial Holds. These roll for Accuracy. When first summoned, the pet fires a Scale 8 Hold. Scale 8 is the same as any of the AoE Holds available to other Control sets. However, this Hold uses the Melee_Ones table, not the Ranged_Immobilize table other Holds use. The result is the base Hold duration of Shadow Field remains locked at 8 seconds as you level up, while other AoE Holds continue to increase. At Level 50, the base Hold duration of Shadow Field is 8 seconds, versus around 12 seconds for standard AoE Holds. If you are in Domination mode you also get a Scale 12 Mag 3 Hold (with the in-game "Domination!" floating text). Again identical to other AoE Holds. This also uses the Melee_Ones table. The ToHit Debuff. This is autohit. Scale 1.5 -ToHit for 15 seconds, replacing. Technically, this is the same scale as Fearsome Stare However, because this is a pseudo pet, this is not affected by AT -ToHit mods, so Controllers and Dominators get identical strength. Multiple fields from multiple Dark Control characters do stack, though. Since this ToHit debuff replaces itself, if an enemy stands in the field the full 45 seconds it lasts, the enemy will be debuffed a total of 60 seconds. Mids and I think the game itself lists the -ToHit debuff twice. It does this because its accounting for both the pet this power summons out of Domination mode, and the one it summons in Domination mode. You only get one or the other though, so in game you only get half of what is listed. This power responds to Power Boost/Power Up/Gather Shadows type powers and the -ToHit is multiplied accordingly (as is the Hold duration). Pulsing chance to Hold. There is a 5% chance per pulse to Hold any target in the field, Mag 3, 4 second duration. Enhanceable, but also uses Melee_Ones table. The pulse rate is twice per second. There is no corresponding Domination bonus to the chance for Hold. Perhaps the biggest question is whether you should slot this as a Hold or instead slot it as a -ToHit power. I think there are very good arguments for doing either.

Even though it's a completely different era in style terms, if you found some way to incorporate 1980s Eartha Kitt into the game I'd cherish you hard. It seems at least somewhat relevant since she was riffing on her Catwoman fame.

I like that you specifically included the bandana and the inclusion of sneakers. For some more inspiration, the late 70s and early 80s were rife with what I think of as "Crayola colors." Extreme reds (in the clothes, the lipstick) absolutely awful pinks (for everyone), super solid whites (shoes, socks). Marks-a-lot blue eyeshadows. Retina-burning neons. The era was a reaction to the muddy avocado tones of the 70s (itself a reaction to the era previous).

BTW as a general Dark Control tip, once you get enough recharge to be able to comfortably drop Shadow Field reliably you should click it early and often. Don't save it for a theoretical emergency scenario, open with it. It provides autohit -ToHit that lasts 15 seconds after an enemy leaves the field (so it lasts 60 seconds if an enemy stays in the field for the 45 seconds the field lasts). It's a Scale 1.5 debuff, but unlike Fearsome Stare doesn't suffer from Dominator's lower ToHit mods, so its technically the best -ToHit power you have.

So, there are so many directions you could take this particular combo. I personally consider Dark/Psi an S-Tier combo for Dominators. There are just so many ways you could build this, and many of them push the limits of Dominator performance. Let's say your goal was to build something that would given even an armored character a run for its money on survivability. For that, you could go Dark/Psi/Psi. With Dark Control builds, you always want to be thinking how much the -ToHit in the Dark powers are contributing toward overall Defense. This doesn't help you versus Arch Villains but provides a good estimate versus enemy stacks. You also can't completely rely on it, because it can miss/enemies out of range/etc. I personally like to use 1 Fearsome Stare as my estimator. Since Fearsome Stare here does -18.35 ToHit and we know we mostly never really face anything at end game tougher than +3 after level shifts, we get 18.35 x 0.65 = -11.92 versus most enemy stacks. If we add 11.92 to the ~33 defense we have to Smash Lethal Melee and Ranged defense we come out soft capped to all of them. This isn't to imply you will successfully hit every enemy with Fearsome Stare, but between all the various controls thrown around between you and your pet, that number seems reasonable to me. Also, it happens to be pretty close to the +12.5% you get from swallowing exactly one small purple inspiration. Getting too much heat? Eat a purple. Even if an enemy manages to punch through all of this, they still have to deal with the massive Regen you get from Drain Psyche, which when it hits enough enemies will get you around +35 HP/second. What carries this build over in my mind from "really survivable" to "damn Gina" is it also has 65% Resistance to Run Speed and Recharge debuffs. Not quite Tanker level there, but since Recharge debuffs are a Dominators worst nightmare, being able to even partially cover that hole is huge. Note the Psi defense in Indom Will isn't perma. Unless you are constantly fighting Psi enemies I wouldn't worry too much about closing that hole. Nor would I even bother clicking Indom Will unless you are opening a fight versus Psi enemies or get somehow get knocked out of Domination (it happens). For the Alpha slot, this build screams for Muscular Radial Paragon for the combo of +Damage, +Immob, +End Mod (drain psi and stamina), and -ToHit. What I'm totally torn on for this build is the Destiny slot. All of them are attractive for various reasons. I'm not saying this build would never die, because you're still a Dominator with Dominator hit points and playstyle requires very active management. But, I will go out on a limb and say this has very good survivability, as good or better than many armored characters if you stay on the ball and avoid AVs. If you do encounter AVs and want to try it, rely on your Confuse power. There are other Dark/Psi builds that could trade away some of this survivability for more damage and still do very good. [EDIT: Updated a few slots and recalulated totals]

I appreciate the difficulty of balancing a power like Rune of Protection. I don't envy the position you're in. IMO what would make this power interesting if you kept the mezz duration at the new lower value but then add +Global Recharge to Rune of Protection that does not stack with Hasten. I tend to agree with folks that Hasten is both overpowered and probably unfixable, but a way to make people drawn to alternatives would be if there were other "varieties" of Hasten that traded away some of the +Recharge for some other benefit. I'll leave the math up to you, but just eyeballing it, at 600 recharge, 120 seconds of +50% Global Recharge unstackable with Hasten would make this fairly attractive; the built in Recharge would cover gaps more easily. You couldn't perma it like Hasten but the combined benefits are still pretty nice. FYI to balance that you'd have to watch for exploits with Hasten / RoP combos with low overall global recharge bouncing between the two effects so probably a total lockout of or the other may be in order.

One thing I've always loved about the 1979 film is how unapologetic it is about its fashion choices, and its total dedication to that theme. Here's a quote from the director about his reaction to the graphic novel he was asked to adopt for the screen: “I felt very strongly that it certainly was not a very realistic book, and I wanted to make it even less so. I wanted to take it into a fantasy element, but at the same time add some contemporary flash.” In short, the movie is an urban fantasy. But even as a fantasy, the story still had its own "rules." In this fantasy, a street gang can be a fashion-forward symbol of youth rebellion. Part of the enduring charm of the movie is it embraces rather than backs away from its late 70's-ness. It's not trying to be "timeless," it's a timestamp. IMO the takeaway is that literal Greek and Roman elements break the theming. The aesthetic I'd like to see is torn jeans, colored vests and bright headbands mixed with only occasional nods to the Greek source. Watching any late 70s movie with gangs is likely to give you some ideas. The Warriors (1979) Switchblade Sisters (1975) - examples of a similar female aesthetic Walk Proud (1979) - a more subdued example She (1984) - more of a post apocalyptic look but has some good examples of blended BC/80s

It's just impossible for me to see this enemy group in game without picturing something very late 70s/early 80s, and I'd love to see you expand on that, this idea that they are "stuck in the past." I assume most people have seen the late 70s movie that this enemy group is almost certainly a send up of. The name and likelinesses are too similar to be a coincidence including the fact that the Warriors movie is based on a book that is roughly based on a Greek legend. The video below kind of gets into that, and talks about some other oddball things about the origins of the 70s/80s punk aesthetic. I guess a question worth asking is "Does The Warriors movie exist in City of Heroes universe?" If it does then surely this enemy group is either based on it, or its loosely based on them, or they know about it and have some kind of feelings. One thing I've always liked about this group in game is the high camp aspect. A lot of enemy groups seem pretty self serious but this one was obviously a joke. If you can somehow marry the Greek/Roman elements with late 70s chic I'd be in awe. I'm talking gladiators in knee socks and soldiers in booty shorts. Let's make it happen. There are some additional thematic pointers here: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/555577/the-warriors-things-to-look-for

I think this power should apply a long duration DoT to anyone who steps in it. Stepping out of the power would stop refreshing the DoT but you'd still take a lot of damage even after leaving the effect.

There's certainly something to be said for the chuka-chuka-chuka-chuka-chuka-chuka-chuka aesthetics of a good gun powerset. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

I really enjoyed Earth/Savage Dominator for the sheer audacity. Super loud effects and the sight of a murder of crows tearing through enemies flopping in an earthquake while a Water Spout (from the APP) rages through hit the spot and really felt like a Dominator.

I've been storyboarding a powerset called Colossal Blast where the powers animate very quickly but have a chance to blow the caster backwards. Not sure I'll actually build it but I find the idea of it funny, even if it only ends up becoming a powerset enemies use.

Domination is both an actual mechanic and a concept. "Domination" is the name of a power. Actually, more precisely, it's a group of powers. The Domination group of powers do things like make the Rage meter visible, add Rage whenever you attack, and actually serve as a clickable. The clickable power most of us are familiar with has these atttributes: 90 seconds of mezz protection 90 seconds of scale 1 "Stealth" (more on this in a second) 90 seconds of a full Rage bar -100% Rage after 90 seconds "Stealth" is an attribute reused from other archetypes to indicate the Dominator is in Domination mode. While Stealth >=1, the Dominator gets Domination effects, in theory. The Stealth attrib doesn't actually do anything on its own though. Each individual power has to be custom coded to look for the attrib and react to it. When people say Electric or Ice Control don't play well with Domination what they mean is the powers aren't coded to interact with it. "Perma-dom" is a weird result of a couple of overlapping effects. Basically, there's an AttribMod on the clickable Domination power that's supposed to wipe out your Rage bar after 90 seconds. However, this AttribMod is set to Replace. So, if Domination recharges before 90 seconds is up, you can click it (because the "must have 100% Rage" requirement is met) and doing so resets the 90 second timer for the next crash. It's a complete accident that it works this way, but after players discovered it, the dev team just kind of went with it and it came to define the classat end game. I posted some I24 code readouts for the Domination sets of powers below if you're interested in the specifics. Homecoming may have updated it since this version, but this is how it worked as of Issue 24 on live.

I've interacted with members of the dev team over at Sanctuary a few times and have nothing but positive things to say. They're good people dedicated to the community, and they're also a team that believes in giving back to the larger City of Heroes playerbase by making their creations public. A few of their unique creations are available for download for other servers, and it was by picking apart their powersets that I was able to start working on my own. A member of their team even responded to my private messages and walked me through creating a powerset step by step. Any time bad things happen to good people I think that's a tragedy. I don't know enough about database security to know what the industry standards are. But these folks just wanted to share something positive with the world and it sucks that someone had to ruin it.

I wouldn't mind that, but something needs to be done about mezz protection and powers like Arctic Air. Having Arctic Air constantly detoggled by enemies who hit you with a half second Sleep is so frustrating. 😞 I'm not sure what the Chance for Sleep is on enemies in Brickstown around level 30-38 or so, but trying to street sweep there for testing purposes detoggled the power so frequently I modded in a temp power to give mezz protection.

Yeah Magneto is the kind of villain I think of when I think of what Dominators are meant to represent. Of the original Villain archetypes it's the class that matches up best with him and the class seems partially inspired by that type of character. Funnily, a Magneto build using Gravity Control would probably want to skip Propel because of its poor DPA. 😄 In retrospect, Dominator Gravity Control should probably have traded away Lift and Propel to some kind of Gravity Assault set, and Gravity Control pick up some better control powers. To continue the point, outside of Domination mode I can't stress enough how weak a Dominator's Holds actually are for a class that is supposed to excel at that. In all of the Assault sets and APPs there is just one Hold you can grab to stack with it, Seismic Smash. It's a great power. But it's actually nerfed in Domination mode to only produce a total Mag 4 Hold vs the Mag 6 you'd expect. Because of the possibility of Domination, Dominators actually have restricted access to Holds. Meanwhile other classes have no similar limitation and can even slot Chance for Hold in their long Recharge Holds to semi-reliably Hold bosses. Some of this is "corrected" by going permadom. Permadom is truly the saving grace of the class. I wouldn't look at Doms sideways without it there to justify the time investment. It's an expensive road there though, and you don't emerge at the end significantly ahead of other archetypes, perhaps still a bit behind.

I've always felt a good test of whether Dominator control is actually effective is to ask Melee characters if they'd feel comfortable disabling their toggles and fighting supported purely by a Dom teammate's controls and the limited mitigation in their Melee attacks. If they can't do this then they've discovered what experienced Dom players are talking about. Dominators actually have fewer hit points than those archetypes.

Neither is strictly better, but IMO Ice/Ice Blaster is more straightforward mission. Excellent damage, can be played at range, pretty good mitigation from the sustain power, and excellent control of the endurance bar that allows you to freely add additional armor toggles. For end game iTrials this particular Blaster is loads better than this particular Dominator. No comparison, zero. For just general running up on mobs, the Dominator isn't terrible. Ice Control is a fun set with some unique mechanics. Major downsides are an extreme vulnerability to mezz detoggling Arctic Air and Chilling Embrace. Also a curse Ice Control has always suffered is being a melee oriented set with high endurance costs that make running armor toggles to survive at that close range harder to run. On the Blaster, take the Fire APP and slot Bonfire with KB to KD for a power with equivalent uptime to Ice Slick but better slotting options.

I think there's a strong case to be made that Dominator single target Holds should be Mag 3.5 outside of Domination. That would crown Dominators kings of one shot holding a Boss in or out of Domination and significantly improve their survivability when not IOed. This isn't the only change I would make, but I think it's a smart start. Next thing I'd look at is making sure Domination applies to most AoE controls, even ones that are toggles or summon pseudo pets. Finally I think the Assault sets need another hard pass--we need to look for cases where the Assault set not only doesn't add enough damage, but also where it doesn't add enough utility/survivability or where the base mechanics (e.g. long DoTs on an archetype that's supposed to leverage Sleeps) conflict with the power. Luckily the Homecoming team already addressed the hilarious conflict between knockdown and knockdown cancelling that existed in the original design.

I'd kill for a server run by the Homecoming team that implemented harder core rules around leveling, iPowers, IOs, AE farming, etc and represented a more aggressive vision of balance. I think this team is brilliant and have accomplished some amazing changes. I'd love to see their edits in a version of the game where they feel freer to express their impulses, even if I had to start over from scratch.

I agree that Dominators should be difficult to equal at this, but I'm not sure that most really are. Dominators pay a big price for having access to Domination. I think people tend to overestimate how much control Dominators actually have. Part of what makes some control sets unattractive on a Dom versus Controller is when the Control set is low in control capability, the Assault and APP sets do little to make up for it. Interesting thoughts. I actually lean the other way. I think it would be more effective if most Dominator AoE controls lasted less time but recharged faster. But there are a few powers I think just an overall adjustment to uptime is needed. Ice Slick and Earthquake for example should have a better uptime-to-recharge ratio than Blaster Bonfire obtained from an APP.

It's a mix of a lot of things IMO. The downgrading of control is part of it, but part of it just tracks with a long term trends started long before Homecoming. Homecoming has actually done a lot for the Dominator class already. We have to consider where we started from. I love what the OG team created with the Dominator class. But I think it's a fair criticism that before Homecoming few people considered Dominators a "real" class the way they did Brutes, Scrappers, etc. Dominator attacks were a mish mash of randomly cobbled powers thrown together from Blaster primaries and secondaries without consideration for DPA, risk v reward ratio, or context. For example Fiery Assault had (and on many non-Homecoming servers still has) a self buff power that provided +80% to Fire Damage for 30 seconds that is/was outrageously more powerful than anything the other Assault sets get. On the flip side you had (and again on many other servers still have) powers like Icy Assault's Chilling Embrace which was a famously ineffective 10ft radius Slow aura (you can still see this aura on the Jack Frost pet). Occasionally the OG developers would sweep in if a power was way overperforming, like with Psychic Shockwave (way too good DPA) or Drain Psyche (the Regen debuff used to be enhanceable and outperform even Defender Regen debuffs) but mostly the archetype was treated with a shrug. The closest Doms ever came to mainstream attention was when the class was isolated red side and Fire/Psi Doms were considered a partial answer to bluesides' Fire/Kin Controllers, but they were never as popular. Dominators just never seemed to inspire a sense of seriousness in the way, say, Scrappers do. So you'll see a lot of often aggressive commentary from folks that the class is fine even on the servers that didn't make the edits that Homecoming did. Even talking about issues related to Dominators--permadom, IOs, pets, will often get you shouted down by players who will otherwise shamelessly participate in 100 page threads about a perfect melee attack chain. I don't know if this is good or bad, it just is what it is.