oedipus_tex

What determines if a toggle detoggles on mezz or not is how that power is flagged by the designer and not because the combat system recognizes offensive vs defensive toggles per se. It's generally true that powers that effect enemies will detoggle on mezz and powers that don't will not, but there are some exceptions, mainly with powers that buff caster while debuffing enemies (e.g. the various Blaster sustains that are also enemy debuffs). The usual recipe for a power that buffs the caster is two parts, the first of which is in the power's main code that prevents the detoggling. Without this piece of code, any Hold Sleep or Stun will detoggle the power (even defensive ones): There's then an individual tag on each specific effect within the power that should suppress when mezzed. Without this, the effect will still work even through the mezz. This piece of code is what causes, for example, Force Field's bubble to stop providing Defense while the FF'er is asleep. I didn't look at all versions of Radiation Armor, but the Scrapper version I looked at didn't have Beta Decay tagged to ignore those mezzes. Making a power like Cauterizing Aura not damage enemies while the caster is mezzed requires some custom footwork on behalf of the power designer: Weirdly I think the code above means Cauterizing Aura damage aura suppresses when the caster is Held, Stunned, Slept or Terrified, which is not how toggles usually work. Cauterizing Aura's heal will also continue to buff you even while you're mezzed--even Tanker armor toggles I know of don't do this. FWIW I've been pushing for a long time for powers like Arctic Air, Choking Cloud, etc to get the ToggleIgnores tags and suppress on mezz instead. Those powers are punished very harshly for appearing on archetypes without native mezz protection.

By the way, a bit of weirdness with Synaptic Overload I recently uncovered is it will not chain to enemies who are Confused. So, slotting Synaptic Overload with the Contagious Confusion proc can actually result in the power not chaining to those enemies. I haven't watched too closely to see if this is impacting my performance and may rebuild based on that.

I posted my Elec/Psi/Mu build for comparison. This version is built around Fold Space for hoovering in minions and lieutenants to serve as batteries for Power Sink/Drain Psyche. Defenses in the 27s to stack with purple inspirations and Destiny Barrier, which bring the soft cap to Smash/Lethal/Ranged/Melee to the cap, with En/Neg very close. Smash/lethal resist is capped a good bit of the time with the rotation of Barrier, and En resists aren't bad for a Dominator. The main difficult thing is dealing with psionic enemies and robots. Energy damage is low despite the primary because Electric has low DPA in its hold (I dont even try to slot it for damage). The Chain Fences are mediocre damage but also hit a huge area and drain endurance so worth casting. I skipped Jolting Chain which is still potentially controversial. I've slotted into and out of this power at various times. Never really found it amazing even with procs. The single target punches hit so hard that I find it better strategy to do a rotation of AoE mixed with that rather than a pure AoE chain. Minions and lts go down fast, its bosses I need to worry about, so I focus on them for the punches between zaps of Ball Lightning and Psychic Shockwave, with the occasional Chain Fences thrown in especially early in the fight to freeze enemies in place and sap their endurance. This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.0.4.7 https://github.com/Reborn-Team/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Dominator Primary Power Set: Electric Control Secondary Power Set: Psionic Assault Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Teleportation Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Tesla Cage -- BslGaz-Acc/Hold(A), BslGaz-Acc/Rchg(3), BslGaz-Rchg/Hold(3), BslGaz-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(5) Level 1: Psionic Dart -- Apc-Dam%(A), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Apc-Acc/Rchg(7), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(9) Level 2: Chain Fences -- PwrTrns-EndMod(A), PwrTrns-Dam/EndMod(9), PwrTrns-Dam/Acc/Rech/End(11), PwrTrns-Dam/Rech(11), PwrTrns-+Heal(13), PwrTrns-Dam/Acc/End(13) Level 4: Mind Probe -- SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(A), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(17), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(17) Level 6: Telekinetic Thrust -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(19), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(19), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), OvrFrc-Dam/KB(21) Level 8: Conductive Aura -- EffAdp-EndMod(A), EffAdp-EndMod/Acc(33) Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(23) Level 12: Static Field -- SprAscoft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(A), SprAscoft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(25), SprAscoft-Rchg/+Dmg%(25), SprAscoft-EndRdx/Rchg(27), SprAscoft-Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/Rchg(27), SprAscoft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(29) Level 14: Teleport Target -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A) Level 16: Combat Teleport -- WntGif-ResSlow(A) Level 18: Paralyzing Blast -- BslGaz-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(A), BslGaz-Acc/Rchg(29), BslGaz-Rchg/Hold(31), BslGaz-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(31) Level 20: Drain Psyche -- TchoftheN-Heal/HP/Regen/Rchg(A), EffAdp-Acc/Rchg(31), DctWnd-Heal/Rchg(33), TchoftheN-Acc/Heal(50) Level 22: Fold Space -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(23) Level 24: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(50), Rct-ResDam%(50) Level 26: Synaptic Overload -- CrcPrs-Conf(A), CrcPrs-Conf/Rchg(34), CrcPrs-Acc/Conf/Rchg(34), CrcPrs-Acc/Rchg(36), CrcPrs-Conf/EndRdx(36), CrcPrs-Conf%(36) Level 28: Boxing -- Empty(A) Level 30: Tough -- UnbGrd-Max HP%(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(37), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(37), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(37), GldArm-3defTpProc(39) Level 32: Gremlins -- CaltoArm-Acc/Dmg(A), CaltoArm-Acc/Rchg(33), CaltoArm-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(34), CaltoArm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48) Level 35: Psionic Lance -- StnoftheM-Dam%(A), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), StnoftheM-Acc/Dmg(39), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx(40), StnoftheM-Dmg/ActRdx/Rchg(40), GldJvl-Dam%(40) Level 38: Psychic Shockwave -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(42), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(42), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Obl-%Dam(43) Level 41: Charged Armor -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(43), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(45), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(45), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(45) Level 44: Ball Lightning -- Rgn-Knock%(A), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(46), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(46), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(48), Bmbdmt-+FireDmg(48) Level 47: Power Sink -- EffAdp-EndMod/Rchg(A) Level 49: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 1: Domination Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A) Level 49: Quick Form Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 50: Musculature Radial Paragon ------------ ------------ Set Bonus Totals: 18% DamageBuff(Smashing) 18% DamageBuff(Lethal) 18% DamageBuff(Fire) 18% DamageBuff(Cold) 18% DamageBuff(Energy) 18% DamageBuff(Negative) 18% DamageBuff(Toxic) 18% DamageBuff(Psionic) 19.75% Defense(Smashing) 19.75% Defense(Lethal) 6% Defense(Fire) 6% Defense(Cold) 17.25% Defense(Energy) 17.25% Defense(Negative) 6% Defense(Psionic) 20.38% Defense(Melee) 21% Defense(Ranged) 6% Defense(AoE) 1.35% Max End 4% Enhancement(Held) 4% Enhancement(Stunned) 4.4% Enhancement(Terrorized) 5% Enhancement(Max EnduranceDiscount) 8% Enhancement(Confused) 8% Enhancement(Sleep) 96.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime) 8% Enhancement(Immobilized) 48% Enhancement(Accuracy) 186.9 HP (18.38%) HitPoints Knockback (Mag -4) Knockup (Mag -4) MezResist(Confused) 33.75% MezResist(Held) 33.75% MezResist(Immobilized) 33.75% MezResist(Sleep) 33.75% MezResist(Stunned) 33.75% MezResist(Terrorized) 33.75% MezResist(Teleport) 100% (20% chance) 18.5% (0.31 End/sec) Recovery 34% (1.44 HP/sec) Regeneration 35% ResEffect(SpeedFlying) 35% ResEffect(RechargeTime) 35% ResEffect(SpeedRunning) 10.25% Resistance(Smashing) 21.5% Resistance(Fire) 21.5% Resistance(Cold) 12.5% Resistance(Energy) 12.5% Resistance(Negative) 8% Resistance(Toxic) 8% Resistance(Psionic) 10.25% Resistance(Lethal)

There's wisdom in this, especially because Fold Space comes in the same pool as Combat Teleport, so you can modify your ToHit on the fly for the more important pulls. Overall I've found Fold Space most useful for characters who rely on gathered enemy as a source for leeching resources. My Elec/Psi Dominator for example uses it to gather enemies for Drain Psyche and Power Sink. It's especially useful for bunching up minions and lieutenants for powers with 10-15ft radii. Drain Psyche, Power Sink, Soul Drain, etc.

This is probably best balanced on a private server where you can control your own adventure. You won't get all of the fantastic additions the Homecoming team has created or balanced, but you do get complete control over your world. Actually editing values on a server is somewhat challenging and requires some development experience, but you do get access to dev commands and can make things harder or easier for yourself.

Pets are being discussed because this thread asked whether the game should be balanced around IOs. You can't IO pets other than the global procs so they fall behind. It's worth talking about how pets should fit into this balance. I suspect the answer is, in part, more IOs for them.

FYI Fold Space doesn't work on bosses more than +3 to the caster after Level Shifts. This ties in to the discussion in the IO thread earlier this week about the impact Level Shifts have on the game. You can avoid this effect, or at least limit it to minions and lieutenants, by running +4 content. Some areas like Dark Astoria it can't be avoided tho unless you're militant enough to kick people who have too many incarnate abilities.

KB to KD enhancers do work in Singularity's Repel. You want to make sure you slot Sudden Acceleration and not the Universal Damage set KB to KD. Repel doesn't cause damage so won't inherit from Universal Damage. An effective trick is to slot KB to KD in Wormhole and Singularity and WH the enemies directly on top of Singularity so they bounce in place. The sound effect might melt your sound card though.

I 100% agree. I'm also coming around to believe MM pets should have innate AoE Defense. I believe Lore Pets already have this.

I've always wanted enemy groups on radio missions to be organized more like the enemies on the ITF. Right now they're pretty evenly randomized and there's not a whole lot of variation, especially as the number of enemies per group goes up. Something like a beat em up game in a RPG. Again I think the ITF does this especially well and provides "moments" where you face very easy enemies, all boss spawns, and so on. Here's a video showing Streets of Rage 4's stage one. It's pretty easy but you can see how the developers used some fairly simple enemies to create "moments" the player must react to, like when the Galcia's charge at the players with knives or each time a shirtless enemy appears carrying a lead pipe.

The beauty of the Mu APP here is Power Sink restores your blue bar and is autohit, so you can easily just one slot it. Between Power Sink, the end restore in Domination, and Drain Psyche you can underslot Stamina/Health and move those slots to procs. Also, that build can easily pick Destiny Barrier, which at its lowest ebb provides +5 Defense +5 Resist. Therefor the number you have to shoot for for softcapped Defense is only 40, not 45, and you get much better Slash Lethal and Energy resistance. You can also take Surge of Power if you want for cycling Capped to All Resist if you want. (Personally I undershoot Defense by even more than that, aiming for Defense in the 27.5s. 27.5 +5 from Destiny= 32.5. 32.5 +12.5 from one purple Defense inspiration = 45, capped Defense. Since you can eat inspirations for extra Defense but not eat them to add proc damage or endurance draining I prefer that route so I get a stronger overall package.) The Mu APP is already great for any melee Dominator who wants to get better control of the blue bar, for Electric Dominators the synergy is just that much extra. Altho I do think there's an argument for other APPs, particularly Soul, Psi, and Ice, under various circumstances.

Incarnate powers are in a way very easy to measure. They don't vary. Most people pick from the same two or three ones. There isn't a significant cost to use them. For a lot of my characters powers like Judgment outdamage any other power available to me so it's not exactly a strategic decision process. All 20 or so of my characters that have gone that far have the same Judgment powers. I can't give an exact number because it's not even something I think about during the build. In practice, Destiny for example turns out to vary a lot in strength because of context. Incarnate trials feature "patches of death" that make clumping strategies difficult to pull off. I think it's well designed for that content and serves an important function in making things survivable without requiring a league full of Buff set characters. Outside of iContent I have less generous things to say about it and the other iPowers. IOs on the other hand at least there is some engagement. I can spend weeks fine tuning a builds' IOs. Ionic Judgment on the other hand is the same power on every character. I take Void Judgment just to be different but what does it matter. It's an afterthought to an afterthought... or it would be if it didn't command so much of the battle.

Not a bad start. Here's some targetted feedback: Drain Psyche. You want Accuracy in this. I usually frankenslot for Acc/Rech/Heal and ignore End Mod (the power gives enough of that already). Chain Fences. IMO the optimal slotting these days is the Power Transfer set which will add Damage and End Mod. This power has a huge radius and is very effective as a endurance sap attack. Jolting Chain. If you take this, I'd proc it out. Psychic Scream. IMO not worth taking on this build. Static Field. If you slot this, I'd move the Ascendancy set here. It will reliably proc the +Damage proc with each dropped Static Field. Open each fight with that move. Psionic Lance. Put a damage proc in slot 6. More than pays for itself. Scorpion APP. IMO this APP adds less to Elec/Psi than other possible choices. I personally lean very heavily toward the Mu APP, although the Psi APP is also attractive. Mu in particular can let you floor endurance with Power Sink and severely cut the damage coming your way from enemies within 10ft. Psi is a good choice if you need the LoTG slots although the DoT in Psi Tornado interferes with the Sleep in Static Field.

Crashless nukes existed on 3 powersets. One of which was Assault Rifle. Regardless, damage stacks. Judgment deals damage on top of nukes. Judgment isn't a power adjacent to another choice in another tree or powerset. It's not even really a choice. Every character gets this as a standard attack from normal advancement. The power hits up to 40 enemies and given its 90 second recharge will fire every 11.25 seconds on an 8 player team. Judgement defines team combat on late game teams. You can argue you like it that way, but the numbers don't tell lies.

Electric Armor's -KB being tied to touching the ground is one of those hilarious quirks I love about the game. There's a certain LOL factor to "umm did the Tank just try to leap in and get sent flying?" that makes me never want to slot KB protection into Elec Armor.

Powers that add Defense have an optional parameter called DisplayPowerDefenseFloat. This param allows the power's creator to display a text message that pops up when a successful Defense roll is made. You'll see various ones like Dodged! Deflected! Blocked! etc. They all do the same thing though, just +Defense buffs.

Rather than do a full write up, I'll share a piece of music that sets the tone when I think about the pace I want to play at. This track comes from Streets of Rage Remake, which was a fan made sequel to Streets of Rage beat em upon the Sega Genesis. Basically, what I am looking for is a game that is not too difficulty and not too easy, where the enemies are varied, and while there is variation in player skill level, everyone can more or less contribute to the battle. Most importantly, there's a sense that you are fighting the enemies in a kind of dance. There are enemy groups you dispatch with ease, others that give you more trouble. You also just can't mash the Call In Reinforcements button (ie nukes) constantly, there's a payload economy to mini-manage. It's no fault of the current developer team, but I used to get a much stronger sense of this before the incarnate system came around. Characters had a variety of moves. Some were much stronger than others, some frankly needed buffs. But there was a sense that each character was very different. The game was a mostly pleasant cooperative beat em up. I don't want to get into a fight with anyone about the Incarnate system, but other than the Alpha slot I find it same-y and less exciting. It's not just about power inflation, for me it's about the fact that I spent all this energy picking out a build and crafting it just for every character to end up with same-y temp powers. Judgment recharges in 90 seconds so on a team of 8 it fires every 12 seconds. It just holds no more attraction for me. I've become a soloist and since I can solo more to my taste on a private server where I make the rules, I spend a lot more time there than in public servers. None of this is the Homecoming team's fault, it's what the were left with. I wish the OG dev team had been less inclined to burn down old content to build their newest adventures.

Yes they can hurt you if you run at them without a strategy. No they are not insurmountable. On the other hand because of the Level Shift mechanics if you happen to find yourself fighting them as +3s, +4s, or +5s while some members of the team fight them as +1s you will get destroyed while other team members cakewalk through them.

Technically, an Assault set can have as few as one melee attack and still be acceptable (Fiery Assault is set up this way). So you could have a Dual Pistols set that basically mirrors it: T1 blast T2 blast T3 blast Snipe Cone 1 Cone 2 (this would be a special exception because usually you'd get a PBAoE) That leaves you with 3 powers to fill in. Dominators usually get either 1 or 2 self buff specials, usually specifically as their fifth power selection. Swap Ammo IMO is not strong enough on its own to fulfill this slot and probably needs some additional effects. Maybe one that does bonus damage versus a Controlled foe or something. It's popular to yank a power from a Blaster secondary to fill in the Assault set. So, pulling something from Devices or Martial could work.

Yeah I'd rate kitted out Dark/Psi as one of the most survivable Dominators you can build. That -ToHit and massive Regen/Recovery boost in Drain Psyche provides an intimidating number of layers of survivability. If I weren't already leveling a Dark/Energy which I consider equally powerful in a different way it's the direction I'd go.

Out of curiosity, are the tests on Regen being run against +4 enemies, or against enemies level shifted down to+3? Shifting enemies down will have you killing them ~36% quicker before debuffs are considered and taking about 35% less damage, in addition to enduring ~35% lower debuff values from -Recharge, -Endurance etc. That takes a lot of pressure off of your armor and mitigation tools. I don't want to drag thefull Level Shift argument from the other thread here, but the game does a do big switcheroo on you at level 50 versus levels 1-49. Enemies become much easier than they were on the journey upward, particularly levels 35-49. Because you can email Empyreans, established players never need to spend time as a Level 50 fighting +4, where a less invested player will spend at least some time there. How does Regen handle when played in that natural +4 range and is that where the perception comes from that it is much more fragile than other armors?

I don't know much about this set at high levels, but I find it very surprising it doesn't already excel at these things. Is there a legacy balance reason a set called Regeneration doesn't resist -Regen and -Heal, at the least?

For me, Martial is a so-so set that has Caltrops sitting where an otherwise especially good power could be. Then, it has Explosive Shuriken, was is a big letdown as both a ranged attack and as an AoE, straddling the ground of both but not exceling at either. Caltrops isn't strictly bad, but it's a slow damage over time power that conflicts with Sleep abilities on an archetype that specializes in Controls. The set also doesn't offer any real mitigation. IMO Martial combines best with Plant (because the Control package is so strong) or Dark (because the -ToHit mitigates enemies you can't control). But, both Plant and Dark have better options available, so for me Martial mainly gets picked for the cool animations and not because it's that great. Worst Martial combo for me is Electric. Caltrops eliminates Static Field from the picture. You can skip Caltrops but that's just admitting Martial's unique powers aren't that useful.

I have a question as someone who never got a Regen character far along. Is it the case that the set would do okay fighting a specific kind of enemy, and that kind of enemy is rare/doesn't exist? Or is Regen just numerically inferior, an Armor variety of the old Energy Melee?

If this TF would be anything like fighting your clones at the end of Posi 1, things really get going when the Trick Arrow team member fires a -Perception debuff into the crowd. I've rarely lost a Posi 1, but TA enemies with Flash Arrow have created some hilarious team wipes.