oedipus_tex

In fairness, I think there's also been a reverse tendency to frame balance discussions around what are perceived to be the game's least experienced players. There's a kind of irony, though, that these hypothetical least experienced folks are mostly voiceless. Most of what we know about them comes from the game's most experienced players. At the end of the day, the IO system is just a gear system, and just like gear is discussed in every RPG and MMO out there, it's a subject of constant discussion for CoX. What's somewhat unique to CoX though is an insistence that significant aspects of the gear system are beyond the understanding of just plain folks.

Heh.

The thing about this discussion is I'd give a different answer about IOs depending on whether we were talking about an established server or a new one that had not yet launched. I feel like there's a kind of "contract" developers have with their players. It may not be fair to snatch something out from under them. On the other hand, I do wish there were servers that reeled in some of the statistics. For Homecoming, sticking to what's there might be best. I say "might be" because I trust this dev team and if they did decide to make changes I'd probably be ok with them. New server? Totally different answer. I'd be taking a hard look at these IOs: Steadfast +3% and Gladiator's +3% - Cut this bonus to 1%, which is still incredibly good for 1 slot. Maybe should even be +0.5% or changed to positional/specific elemental defense. The Winter's Gift sets: Lower set bonuses by a tier or so. Hard look at the -Recharge resistance this offers ATO sets: Probably would not launch the server with these live. Put in cold storage for a future possible update -KB procs: Reduce how reliable these are at providing completely immunity to knockdown powers This would be accompanied by other changes, like turning Hasten into a +15% always on global recharge bonus, slashing recharges on some long recharge powers to compensate. These are all dreams of course of a game that is more like a City of Heroes 2 than what we currently have. On the other hand, having picked through the code, I do think that is more feasible than a stream of new high level content. New content is very difficult to create, and new content that challenges players with the stats the current systems put them at is very hard to build without creating something that tickles Armored characters and vaporizes Squishies instantly.

Sorry it took me a while to post my Elec/Psi build. Took me a while to track down the new Mids. I used to go hardcore on the Defense. Now I prefer a slightly more relaxed build in favor of slotting better for endurance drain and procs. I use Destiny: Barrier as my Destiny power, which covers up this gap in defense and resists a lot of the time. This build is built as a sapper. The idea is to teleport in with Combat Teleport (which gives +ToHit) followed by Fold Space to gather enemies. Power Sink and Conductive Aura crash enemy endurance. It's actually a blessing that Fold Space won't pull bosses to me; I use Drain Psyche for the huge recovery and heal boost by siphoning minions. On this build I also drop a Static Field every time it recharges, which procs the +Damage boost while keeping everything nice and slept. I'm still not sure whether skipping Jolting Chain is a mistake. I've had and dropped the power over various builds. Procs in it don't seem to do as much damage as I would hope and I find a burn through spawns better by mixing Mind Probe and TK Thrust into a chain with AoEs than just going pure AoE. I could be convinced to change things up though. Same story with the Gremlin pets. At times I've added and removed them, finally deciding to keep them on the theory that their occasional Jolting Chain helps because of the mitigation in the knockdown. 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) | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1487;690;1380;HEX;| |78DA6594DB4E13511486F774A69602A59CCAB1055AE56081D20AEAA531802642932| 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I'm here to say whatever I need to say to avoid Electric Assault. Rather than just rag on the set I'm going to call it a "great opportunity for the developers to turn into something cool." It's playable if you reallllly want to do it for concept reasons. The reverse of it, Electric Control/Psi Assault on the other hand offers the same thematics and is actually pretty good. I have over 100 Veteran levels with that combo.

Not ideally other than the single target Immob. Builds can get pretty tight though. The AoE Hold is probably the most skippable power. I'd still try hard not to though.

I'm no expert on Thorny. It's a set I've just never gotten around to. Big picture, based purely on the DPA, I'd be sure to take Skewer as early as possible and six slot it. It has higher DPA than any other attack from level 2 on. It recharges in 10 seconds and would be the bulk of my attack chain. Ripper is a 7ft radius 90 degree cone, so it can hit multiple targets. Thorn Burst has a 3.13 second animation--probably on my skip list. Fling Thorns has a slightly better (not great) DPA. Fling Thorns is a 90 degree arc so at least somewhat useful. Being rooted for over 3 seconds on an archetype like Dominators would worry me. I'd take Thorntrops and Build Up on principle. These are your "special" Assault set powers, might as well capitalize on them.

Yeah, at a glance it doesn't seem that Earth would be that great on Doms because most of the powers don't Dominate. I personally consider it one of the best sets though, especially once IOs are added to bring recharge down. Although Earth, Fire and Gravity all rely on an AoE Stun for their key control, Earth is different than the other two because it has very low damage in the actual control set. Powers that Dominators and Controllers share actually do more damage on Controllers because of Containment, so Char/Hot Feet or Propel/Lift on the Controller will outdamage the Dominator version even before you apply any extra +Damage or -Resist in the Buff/Debuff set. With Earth, though, adding the Assault set is a big lift because Fossilize and Stone Prison animate so slowly and the only other powers you get that cause damage are Stone Cages or Stalagmites. You can't enhance most Earth Control powers for -Defense like you can Dual Pistols or Radiation Blast so it's not easy to catch up with damage procs either. The second thing is that AoE Holds are mostly just not good powers, even on Dominators. It's true that Volcanic Gasses doesn't Dominate. But it's such an effective power it doesn't matter. The Dominator gets a lot of mileage out of being able to place this power and then focus on blasting. At permadom levels of Recharge, Volcanic Gasses recharges as fast as it duration. In my experience this makes all the difference in being able to solo big groups at hard difficulties. Enemy groups just can't easily punch through a Mag 6 Stun, knockdown + -ToHit on top of the Holds in VG. VG also works a bit differently than e.g. Choking Cloud or Arctic Air in how it selects targets that makes it more effective when the enemy group size dwindles. There are other things worth noting. Dominators have very little debuff, +defense, or +resist available to them. Earthquake's -ToHit, which isn't that noticeable on a Controller can tip a Dominator into soft cap territory. 4 Dominator sets get a Power Boost type power that nearly doubles this debuff, and it lasts the whole duration of the quake. Controllers can only match this if they take the Primal Pool which (to me) is often not as useful for an Earth Controller. Beyond that, there's just the speed and practicality of Stalagmites. It triggers nearly instantly when you click it, with very little wind up. This is a hard thing to measure, more of a feel. But it's just a very reactive power that suits a class that doesn't have many other debuffs or sources of healing/defense/resistance. There are a couple of Controller secondaries that closely mirror Assault sets. Mainly, /Storm Summoning. Earth/Storm is very similar to a Dominator in a lot of ways.

Earth is a set I usually personally prefer on Dominators. However there are some Controller combos that are pretty good if you can get past the low damage. Earth has very low single target DPA due to long cast times on its Hold and Immobilize. The AoE damage isn't great but at least better than Ice Control (granted, most things are.) Overcoming low damage isn't as hard as it used to be; there are attacks you can grab in pools and procs you can add to at least make livable. However it can potentially lead to a feeling of being a low contributor in certain content. It's worth noting that Stalagmites requires you to be touching the ground to cast. As builds get better and better this usually means Stalagmites recharging quicker and quicker, terminating at every 15-20 seconds or so. Full disclosure, on Homecoming my namesake character "Oedipus Tex" himself is an Earth/Savage/Leviathan (for Water Spout) Dominator.

Part of the biggest issues with Melee characters and survivability is they are far too able to just shrug off mezz. I think the original developer team was brilliant with some of their designs, but I think it was a mistake at the outset to give Scrappers, in particular, near immunity to mezzes. There are many cascading impacts from this early decision. An interesting fact is that armor doesn't shut off Defense and Resistance bonuses off automatically when you get mezzed, this has to be manually coded in each power. So it was actually possible for the dev team to have armor keep working even if you get Slept, Held, or Stunned. In retrospect, I think that would have been the right move. Tankers could rightfully be the class that shrugs off most mezzes entirely, Scrappers and the archetypes later derived from them would have to weather it. Tankers in turn could rightfully do less damage and still be valuable. If I were going to open my own server (I'm not, I don't have that level of dedication) this would be one of the first things I'd address.

I wonder if we could convince the powers that be to remove Endurance Discount from the sets and replace with Damage. Then add global Endurance Discount to one or both of the procs. Endurance Discount is important for Dominators and this could rebalance the ATO without having to completely redo it. The End Cost redux would still exist but in a different form, in the proc. With lowered overall Endurance costs across their builds, Dominators would be less choked by difficulty running armor toggles relative to a Blaster. Grasp of the Dominator on the other hand needs much bigger changes IMO to make it worthwhile. The most merciful thing they could do here is copy set bonuses from the Defender set that provides +10 Recharge from 3 slots. Dominators are ravenous for recharge and this would be a game changer.

Yeah I think it only fires on first cast. If the psuedo pet occasionally fires it I haven't noticed. I use it because I'm playing an Elec/Psi and there aren't any other sources of +Damage, so even that little bit goes a long way.

I can stack it reliably on a Electric Dominator by dropping Static Field each time it is up. I'm not convinced it's optimal play to spend 2.2 seconds for the +Damage the proc provides, although SF stacked can Sleep and reSleep bosses so it's not a total waste. You're right about the Dominator ATOs being awkward. If the sets provided some damage and could be slotted in attacks like most the ATOs for most other classes they'd be much more useful.

If you can make it work I say for go for it. On Plant Control specifically, due to the nature of Seeds of Confusion, I can see it working out if you can somehow still pick up the recharge you miss out on.

Seeds would be the clear winner for me if Coercive Persuasion weren't such a fantastic set. Between Coercive and Ascendancy you get +10 Ranged defense and +20 Recharge which is pretty much the best of the best. Proccing it out isn't necessarily a bad choice, but it's something I'd be more likely to do with a Controller. If you can stay a permadom without it I might go for it though.

On Mind Control I like it in Mass Hypnosis because you can proc the damage proc before the enemy knows you're there. It won't alert them. I can see the argument for putting it in some of the single target immobiizes. Basilisk's Gaze is usually the better slotting there IMO but with Plant or Gravity your hand may be forced. Thing is I don't actually cast the single target Hold that much. I'll usually slot it in an AoE Hold as a last resort. The Superior Ascendancy set is better than the Purple Hold set. But that means only getting the damage proc every 60 seconds at most, and with the AoE Holds there are better ways to time it. Really wish these sets went in Assault powers and not controls. Other than Controllers most other Archetypes don't struggle to slot their ATOs like this.

These are two very different characters. On balance I'd say Fire/Dark Controller is better overall, even if not necessarily better at the same things. However, the Fire/Fire may be the better soloist. Fire/Fire Dom isn't terrible. A saving grace of Fiery Assault is Consume, which helps a lot with the high endurance cost of Hot Feet and Dominator life in general. Before committing to a Dom though I'd have a look at /Fire Manipulation Blasters. They aren't exactly the same as Fire Doms but they share Hot Feet and can access Bonfire. I have a Water/Fire Blaster and Fire/Ice Dominator. The Blaster has a struggle here and there but is overall leagues better than the Dominator. Fire/Fire would handle a bit better than Fire/Icy but still give Blasters a look to see if that's closer to what you want. On the other hand, Dark/Fire Dominator is top tier if you're open to that swap.

I think Radiation is just a set that isn't very popular. I've tried it and it didn't really gel for me. The special mechanic was too fickle for my taste. You can read my overview to Electric Control pairings here:

I don't think there's any motivation. Sometimes things just are what they are. Most Fire Dominators pretty much are nukeless Blaster without a sustain, especially if they aren't permadoms. You can take /Psi for Drain Psyche, which is literally a sustain. Otherwise you're left with the ragtag secondary effects of an Assault set. Hot Feet and Bonfire are powers you can pick up on a Blaster, so you're really just trying to capitalize on Flashfire, Cages, and Fire Imps you can't really heal or protect. You can still kill things of course. I have a Fire/Ice Dominator just because I have a Dom with every primary and secondary set. He's not terrible, but without the endurance to run armor powers he's actually probably more fragile than a Blaster. I love the OG dev team and some of their creations. But it's perfectly fair to call what they put into the Assault sets "random." DPA all over the place, no real thought about how cones and DoT affect a control heavy archetype, weird mitigation tools like Chance for Knockdown on an archetype that needs to cancel knockdown to incapacitate the foe. The Homecoming team has done a good job cleaning up what was left to them. If you happen to play Dominators on an Issue 24 server their problems are impossible to miss. If you've read my posts about issues facing Dominator, one of the biggest is how little extra control or utility the Assault sets add. If the Control set is very strong or has a good debuff (Plant, Dark) it can work out okay. If you're playing something like Gravity or Fire though where the controls aren't that powerful it's hard to make up for it.

AoE Hold I'm glad someone else is saying this. Let's say you're a Fire Control Dominator out of Domination mode. You mainly have a version of Flashfire that is 33% weaker than a Controller to protect you, with Cinders as a back up and Bonfire as a knock patch. Because most of the Assault sets are so barren, in most cases you have little else. Against a small group, as long as there are no bosses, this is probably doable because anything Flashfire misses you can probably still get under control with a Hold. However as difficulty increases the stakes get higher. The feasibility of finishing off a group before the mezz wears off gets lower. You don't want to use Flashfire twice if you don't have to because you need it for the next group. A Fire Control Dominator is, in pretty much exact terms, a nukeless Blaster without a sustain power who happens to have a pretty good AoE stun, an AoE immobilize, and some Fire Imps. Yes you can still kill some things because even a nukeless, sustainless Blaster can still kill things. However sometimes things just are what they are. With no armor, very few available debuffs, and even the inability to stack mezzes between the primary and secondary set like even Blasters and Scrappers can do, Dominators come up short a lot. There are some builds that pull ahead, but Dominators made from randomly selected sets that aren't named Plant or Dark aren't usually among them.

The funny thing about nukes is they aren't even the worst overperformers. I won't make any friends saying this, but Melee characters simply do too much damage with too much survivability. Everything kind of cascades from there. Blasters got crashless nukes to try forcibly catch them up to Melees.

I'm not familiar with Effect Groups and how they work. I think they may be an issue 25 and later feature. I haven't encountered any in the publicly available I24 code. An Effect Group possibly could work here though, since you could create a group with 30% chance that exactly mirrors how Domination actually works.

If we are allowed to get ultra specific under the hood about Dominators, then there's a specific edit I think needs to be made to powers like Arctic Air that are toggles that contain a mezz with less than a 100% chance to fire. IMO it's unfair that these powers both do not Dominate and suffer a penalty to their mezz duration. Dominators have a lower base mezz duration multiplier than Controllers. Anytime a power is made that uses the base Dominator values but they can't enter Domination mode to overcome it, they end up coming up short. Remember, access to powerful mezzes is one of the main feature of this class. It hits the sets that can't do it hard, since there is very little mezz or other mitigation available in Assault sets. The "normal" way Domination is coded for a power is to just add a second mezz AttribMod with a hand-coded Mag 3 mezz effect with 50% higher scale. The issue is that when a power like AA rolls randomly for its 30% chance for mezz effect, the two die rolls would be independent. Two independently rolled 30% chances gives AA too much effect against minions and lieutenants versus the base power. So the closest to correct solution would be to have one Mag 3 effect for outside Dom mode and a separate Mag 6 effect with 50% higher scale when in Dom mode. I have tested this and it works. Here's the part of AA that handles the chance for Confusion: (For whatever reason this doesn't care about PVP. You'd have to ask a PVPer what impact this has on that system. In any case, this read out is based on publicly available issue 24 code and may have already been fixed for Homecoming.) The right way to account for this style of power IMO is to change the code above to this: I added the critter stuff to the Requires field assuming a Mag 6 Confuse might disrupt PVP. Maybe it wouldn't but might as well be thinking about it. That code wouldn't perfectly emulate how Domination works, but it comes very close. You can remove the DisplayFloat line to prevent the Domination! red text from popping up over enemy heads. IMO making this the standard with powers like AA will solve many headaches as the team thinks about adding future Control sets. EDIT: Fixed a mistatement about how much stronger a power is in Domination mode versus non-Domination mode. Powers have 50% longer duration in Domination mode, not 33% like I originally posted.

You ideally want Ascendancy in a power where you can reliably trigger the +Damage proc, and where the power doesn't also need +damage, and where better slotting isn't already available. In general for me this is where I'd put it: Dark: Heart of Darkness Earth: Stalagmites Electric: Static Field, assuming you plan to spam it Gravity: This one is hard. There's no easy answer because in Wormhole I want KB to KD. Anyway this is part of why I don't favor Grav Doms, access to controls is too limited. Ice: Again no easy answer. Best choice is probably Flash Freeze. Mind: Probably Mass Hypnosis Plant: No easy answer. Spore Burst perhaps. This is the one area where Plant isn't a leader.

Coyote is right about Dark Affinity. The set is already good at low levels, but the T9 pet is what really makes it great. Because the pet uses its own debuffs and AoE heals, you're freed from having to spend as much animation time on that in normal combat, and against hard targets have a lot of ability to stack the effects.