MonteCarla

I applaud your genius, Dr.! May I humbly suggest tightening the coils on your power source to create a powerful back-EMF and thus increasing your output voltage? Put a Gaussian Synchronised Fire Control Chance to Build up in Charge Up and it will almost certainly provide a 5 second +80% damage increase at exactly the moment you're about to fire off your Thunderous Blast.

Defence vs Recharge... These are probably the two most common build goals. They kind of compete, and kind of don't. You could take Hasten and Fighting, Leadership and Flight as your pools. Every Defence power you pick is a socket for a Luck of the Gambler Def/+Recharge unique. About 6 million a pop, and you can stack 5 of them in say, Weave, Manouvers, Vengeance, Hover and Field Operative. Some sets benefit both goals: The Blaster Archetype sets give +Recharge and +Def bonuses. Sting of the Manticore (x5) in Sniper Rifle gives +2.5% Ranged Def and +7.5% Recharge. Expedient Reinforcement in Gun Drone gives +6.25% Recharge and +3.125% Ranged Def. Stupefy in Beanbag gives +6.25% Recharge and +3.125% Ranged Def (and makes you beanbag do knockback, which does look cool!) Basilisk's Gaze is +1.25% Ranged Def and +7.5% Recharge for just 4 slots!! (Good for an epic hold) The Blaster I mentioned earlier had 93% global recharge on top of all the big defence numbers, but no Hasten. My own AR/Dev Blaster had capped Ranged Def, 25%-ish Melee and AoE Def and 103% Global Recharge, so pretty much perma-Hasten. That's probably a good goal to aim for: perma-Hasten and capped Ranged Def, and skimp a bit on the other positions. Oh, and my mistake above, Taser takes ranged set enhancements, so Thunderstrike, not Mako's Bite.

And the Blaster Archetype sets give good Defence bonuses too, as well as some recharge, if you have money to spend. I've just checked out my toughest most expensive Blaster in game - she had 46% Ranged Defence, around 32% AoE Defence and 35% Melee Defence, and this is with the P2W buffs active! So I don't think you can softcap completely with a Blaster, but a little purple pill will put you there!

Hopefully I can help... Power pool picks are: Fighting, for: - Tough, which allows you to slot two unique +Def IO's, Steadfast Protection and Gladiator's Armor (+6% total) - Weave, 5.5% for Blasters slotted Leadership - Manouvers, 3.5% when slotted Hover or Combat Jumping - About 2% (or 4% if you take both!) That gets you a start of 17% Defence vs everything, or more like 19% with your Field Operative bonus from Devices The Steadfast IO is about 4 million, the Gladiators Armor one maybe 8 million. They'll be your main big budget items. (If that sounds like a lot, do some Task Forces, buy Enhancement Converters with the merits and list for 1 inf each. They'll sell for 60,000 or so, netting you around 0.9 million per 5 merits! So a Penny Yin and a Citadel will pay for these.) Thunderstrike in ranged attacks (6 slots) Gives you +3.75% Ranged Defence in two bonuses. Artillery (6 slots) in ranged AoE attacks gives you +4% Ranged Defence in two bonuses. Mako's Bite (6 slots) in Melee Attacks gives you +3.75% Defence. These are all pretty cheap, way less than 1 million per enhancement, and give great bonuses to the powers they're slotted in. So you could go: Thunderstrike in: Burst, Slug and Toxic Web Grenade +11.25% Artillery in: Buckshot, Grenade, Flamethower, Full Auto: +16% Mako's Bite: Taser +3.75% And you're over soft-capped for Ranged Defence! Ranged is much more important of the two, as Ranged attacks typically do bigger damage and more mez than AoE. If you're looking for set that give AoE Defence: Blessing of the Zephyr gives a small bonus to both ranged and AoE for 3 pieces - great in Hover or CJ Aegis gives +4.6% for 5 slots. So take Tough and a resistance epic armor, 5 slot each with Aegis and split the two +Defence IO's between them. Scirocco's Dervish (5 slots) in Trip Mine give +3.125%, or Eradication (6 slots) to give a bit of extra Ranged Def too. You can maybe work your way up to 45% Aoe Defence. Here's a useful link for sets that give AoE Defence bonuses: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Sets_that_improve_Area_Effect_Defense Edit: Gaussian's Synchornised Fore Control (6 slots) in Aim or Build Up gives you +2.5% Def to all positions!

The PUG teams I gather on Everlasting are almost always awesome at getting the job done. There's sometimes a bit of figuring things out in the first mission, but I'm constantly amazed by this hive-mind like ability players have to figure out what each other are doing and adjust accordingly. I do run at +2 as a default. That probably helps.

@Linea - Wow! That's amazing - congrats on being able to pull that off! I've always advocated for slotting for damage on every Defender ever ever. So much so that I've taken that for granted and forgot to mention it in this guide. 🙂 I've amended that now. @MoonSheep - fair enough. I have zero experience with Hard Mode content. The range I play in (PUG Task Forces with most teammates IO'd) means the tank is usually not in great danger and I'm supporting the squishies more. Classic SO gameplay and now Hard Mode mean the Tank does need more support, so I guess Absorb Pain makes much more sense then. (It's not so much that I've forgotten that playstyle, as never known...)

@Nemu and @Doomguide2005 - I've taken your comments on board and bumped Clear Mind up to a 5 as well. You're right, there's no way you can call yourself a Badass Empath if you leave your teammates frozen and mind-controlled! Thanks heaps for the feedback. 🙂

As a PUG Task Force and teams runner on Everlasting, I've really enjoyed it. It's great seeing the increased population in Atlas Park, particularly in the lull of Australian evenings when I often play. It's been easier to get teams together, and really nice introducing people to things like Hero Tips missions that they haven't seen before. I've given a few impromptu tutorials after task forces, like showing people how to make money from merits to keep themselves in SO's, or start dabbling in inventions. I'm loving it.

Yeah! And that's me being generous and not giving it a 0! The really big drawback is that you become 100% resistant to healing for 20 seconds after using it, and you have no way to shorten that 20s window. This cancels out your main self-protection - which is Healing Aura. This is maybe fine if you're not drawing aggro, but this is a guide for badass Empaths! 🙂 The advantages over Heal Other (2.5x heal value, minimal end cost) aren't worth it. Heal Other heals enough, maybe taking two applications to get someone back to full. And end isn't an issue once Recovery Aura is unlocked.

The Empathy powerset has a strange stigma around it. It's supposedly the powerset that clueless people from other games take when they're wanting to play "a healer". True, most Defenders I've met with a single unslotted attack have been Empaths. By virtue of it's name, it was historically considered "too nice" to port to Villains. They got a special "nasty" version instead with Pain Domination. (I suffered chronic eyeroll when that happened!) Numina's the signature Empath, and she makes you do all those stupid hunts in her Task Force! I'll just come out and say it, it's considered by some to be "weak and girly". 🙂 I aim to refute that! This is written from the point of view of someone who runs pick-up-group task forces with levelling characters, rather than end-game/hard-mode. My take on Empathy: Mechanically, it is one of the worst sets to solo with, since only three of your powers can affect you. But I believe you can make a good character out of anything in CoH, and have set out to prove this a few times. You'll never be a Brute, but a badass Empath can solo +2 x0 missions easily enough if you want to run a story arc. It's one of the harder sets to play. Paying attention will improve your benefit to the team greatly. It is not cruise control support like Force Fields or Sonic. (No shade one them, I also love them both.) It's all about amplifying your teammates powers. While the set is almost certainly named with Raven from Teen Titans in mind, power-amplifiers like Ando from the Heroes TV series, and Fabian Cortez from X-Men are better fictional example of what empaths actually do. Unlike many other buff sets, you pick which teammates you're going to buff, and play favourites. Empathy Powers Healing Aura 5/5 This is your self-heal. Take it, slot it. Heal Other 5/5 Heals for twice the amount Healing Aura does, and ideal for a teammate in trouble. When someone's health bar dips badly, Healing Aura won't cut it as you have to find them, maybe move and activate. Heal Other can be done purely with keyboard strokes. Absorb Pain 1/5 (or 4/5) A terrible power if you play Offender like I do. It applies a big cheap heal at almost zero endurance cost, but hurts you, and kills your ability to protect yourself for 20 seconds. It was obviously modelled on Raven from Teen Titans. It's a nice idea, but not always good in practice. [Edit based on Moonsheep and Frozen Burn's feedback] If you're playing on harder modes or on SO'd teams, where the team Tank is in danger and needs your support, AND you don't attack much yourself, then this power shoots up in utility to 4 or 5 out of 5 due to the sheer size of it's heal - 2.5 times that of Heal Other. It does have a place, just not one that I have ever used. Resurrect 2/5 One of the worse rez's in the game, because it does nothing else. It can be partially replaced with a device from the P2W Vendor, and falls into a nice-to-have category. I usually grab this later. Clear Mind 5/5 Single Target protects vs Status Effects and Blindness. Makes Resurrect less attractive, in that you can rez using inspirations and then Clear Mind. If you're really good, keep this up on Blasters and fellow supporters, or blinded melee characters. It may be worth announcing to your team: "If you get held or blinded, say zzz and I'll cure you" [Edited from 3/5 to 5/5 thanks to feedback from Nemu and Doomguide below.] Clear Mind provides a buff to other squishies on the team that they can't get anywhere else - mez protection. This allows them to heal you, buff you, nuke enemies and other things, so its in your self-interest to take this and use it proactively. It also helps melee teammates by clearing blindness (which otherwise requires Tactics), providing Fear protection vs Jack-In-Irons, and blocking Ghost Widow's mag 100 hold on the Ms Liberty Task Force. Fortitude 6/5 Your main buff. Take it, slot it for Def and Recharge, and use it. It provides as much Defence as the Force Field bubbles, and bonuses to Hit and Damage. Out of the box, this covers 2 allies. With Recharge slotting and global recharge you can just about cover all 7 teammates with a lot of effort and concentration. This is your main task as an Empath. Recovery Aura 5/5 Regen Aura 5/5 Good powers with very long recharges and the worst buff delivery mechanism - PBAoE. Maybe have a bind to say "Auras in 5..." or just wing it, and let these off mid fight when everyone is more or less stationary. Adrenalin Boost 5/5 A super-buff. The massive Recovery and Regen are nice, but the main bonus is the +100% Recharge. Playing an Empath Turn on the recharge indicators. (Options->Windows->Powers: Power Recharge Indiciators: Bottom) This will help you track when your powers are about to recharge, which is the key to peak performance. Who do I Fortitude? Fortitude lasts 120 seconds and you can get the recharge down from 60 to 15, so a whole team is just about possible under laboratory conditions. Assume you can keep it up on 5 or 6, and pick your targets. 1. Blasters. They need the defence and do the most damage. 2. Force Fielders. (And Cold Dom and Sonic Res users) They're the keystone of the team, giving everyone but themselves defence, and making this task so much more relaxed. So give it back and buff them! 3. Anyone who's health keeps dipping (eg a developing Tanker, a badass fearless non-melee type) 4. Masterminds. The buffs don't extend to their pets, so they get the least benefit. Unless they look like they're in danger of dying constantly, save for another teammate. How do I Fortitude? Get used to using the Shift+1 through to Shift+8 shortcuts to select a teammate. When you see Fortitude is close to recharging, select the next teammate and target through them and keep attacking. Fortitude them as soon as it's up, and go back to manual targetting. If they're out of range, move on to the next teammate and Fort them quickly. Outside a mission, keep rotating through the team and Forting everyone on your list. You'll look a bit obsessive, but this way everyone enters the mission buffed. Otherwise, the final teammate may have to wait a couple of minutes to get their Fort, and missions can last not much more than that sometimes. Why do I Fortitude? Repeat after me: An unused recharged Fortitude is a crime! Who do I Adrenalin Boost? AB lasts 90 seconds and you can get the recharge down from 300 to about 75 You can choose to either keep this up full-time on one teammate, or partial coverage on two. 1. Blasters with nukes. Faster Build Up, Aim and Nukes get missions done more quickly. 2. Other people with nukes. 3. Anyone who's really struggling for endurance and missed out on Recovery Aura. 4. Controllers and doms with long recharge AoE controls 5. Another Badass Empath? This will mean double auras for everyone at all times, and double Fortitude for everyone, and the other badass Empath probably has a Nuke. 6. A teammate with a really nice costume, or who's funny in chat, or who you just fancy. You're allowed to play favourites. 🙂 Secondary Choices Energy Blast - this gives you a fairly easy ride when you solo due to the active defence of knocking enemies around. It also allows for Force Feedback +Recharge procs in your area attacks. This was my first badass Empathy Defender, and no regrets. Ice Blast - the holds are nice active defence, and allow for Basilisk's Gaze slotting. This will be my next Badass empath. Archery - if you really want to challenge yourself, take this set. Your active defence is just Stunning Shot, which comes in late at 28. This is my current badass Empath, deliberately chosen to need a team to play off. Pool Choices Hasten - TAKE THIS! Between this and global recharge bonuses its posisble to run at around +200% global recharge, which means a downtime on your auras of around 30 seconds! Teleport - great for Fort n' Port rescues, and retrieving dead teammates if you didn't take Resurrection. bind e "powexeclocation target Teleport This will allow you to select a teammate in the HUD and then teleport to them from several rooms away most of the time. Leadership - two LotG mules and even more Team support. Tactics devalues Clear Mind a little bit by making the team immune to blindness. Concealment: Grant Invisibility and Stealth - Adds a smidge more defence to allies. Two LotG mules and some nice utility for task forces. If you take Stealth and Teleport Target you open up a new role as team scout for task force missions where you wnat to take out the end boss. Grant Invisibility makes instead of teleport opens up another option to do this, but requires a bit of upfront coordination with the team to get them to line up at the door and make them invisible one by one. Fighting - self defence: +14% Defence from slotted Weave and the two +Def IO's in Tough. Allows you to cap S/L resistances. Sorcery - More protection for a teammate via Arcane Ward. Arcane Blast is great for Controllers but slow animation and low damage for a IO Slotting Slot everything for global recharge obsessively. Holds get 4x Basilisk's Gaze Snipes get 5x Sting of the Manticore Healing Aura gets 6 x Preventative Medicine Heal Other, Regen Aura and Adrenalin Boost get 5 x Doctored Wounds Never slots Recovery Aura or AB for endurance mod, both give you far more than you can consume. Recovery Aura and Hasten get 2 x Recharge IOs, which you'll boost to 50+5 when you hit 50. Stuns get 5 x Stupefy Blasts get 5 x Decimation Split Vigilant Assault across two powers for the double +6.25% recharge bonus. I usually do this to my AoE's, and add one or two damage IOs on top. Slot Defender's Bastion in a good high tier blast power, or your nuke. Slot LotG +Recharge where you can, and 5x Red Fortune as well in Fortitude and maybe Manouvers Slot Aim with a Gaussian's Chance for Build Up proc to do badass damage with your nuke! And make sure you're slot your powers for damage. Defender damage is only anaemic if you don't enhance it. If you want to build towards personal defence: Tough takes the two unique +Def IO's (Steadfast Protection and Gladiator's Armor) Weave gets LotG Recharge + 5 x Red Fortune Hover or Combat Jumping adds 3% Defence with a single LotG slotted. A couple of Thunderstrike Sets in your blasts will help capping Ranged Defence. Add in an epic resistance armor and you can get very good defence and close to the S/L resist caps, which certainly qualifies as mid-level invulnerability. (Or go Scorpion Shield) Defender or Corrupter? Empaths do not lose that much going Corrupter. Your main build goal, recharges on your buffs, stay the same on both archetypes. The biggest loss is about 6% less Defence from slotted Fortitude. In terms of power unlock order, both get Recovery Aura for Synapse, and all powers for Penny Yin. If you're building for self defence, Defenders get better values for pool powers - around 4% more defence for slotted Weave and Manouvers with a single slotted CJ/Hover. Defenders will also have a much easier time hitting 75% S/L if that's a goal. Mechanically, I would recommend Corrupter for a new badass Empath character, although I take perverse delight in being a badass Empath Defender. Controllers and Masterminds This powerset is quite different on these classes, since you have pets to buff, and other means of self-defence. A Mastermind can try to keep all 6 minions Fortitude'd when soloing. I tried this once and gave up on my Tier 1 ninjas. Adrenalin Boost is mostly wasted on pets, since they don't get recharge buffs due to AI reasons.

For an Empath, you want Recharge, Recharge and more Recharge, so you can keep as many teammates Fortitude'd as possible, and have as big an uptime on your Regen/Recovery Auras as you can. I'll assume you want to attack too, and have decent damage slotting. I haven't slotted for End Drain here, because I find it scatters enemies on the rare occasion it does work. Team support and damage are better goals. I go for sets that give a global recharge bonus, and use as many pieces as are required for that bonus and move on. I slot Attuned enhancements, so I get the bonuses for the levelling journey. Here's what I'd do, with recharge bonuses on the right: 1 Lightning Bolt      5 x Decimation                6.25 1 Healing Aura  6 x Prev Med                  8.75 2 Heal Other         5 x DWounds                  5 4 Ball Lightning       3 x Vigilant Assault + 2          6.25 6 Hasten         2 x Rech IOs 8 10 Short Circuit  3 x Vigilant Assault + 2        6.25 12 Fortitude          LotG + 5 x Red Fortune         7.5, 5 14 16 Charge Up        GSFC Build Up proc 18 Recovery Aura  2 x Rech IO  20 Zapp          5 x Manticore                  7.5 22 Regen Aura        5 x DWounds                   5 24 Tesla Cage         4 x Basilisks Gaze              7.5 26 Adrenalin Boost    5 x DWounds                   5 28 Voltaic Sentinel   4 x Expedient Reinforcement  6.25 30 Thunderous Blast   6 x Defender's Bastion         8.75 32   +85% Recharge In the empty slots you could take: - Clear Mind, Resurrection - Teleport and Teleport Target - great for recalling a fallen ally to safe place if you don't have Resurection. Teleport is awesome to bind so you can click on a teammate in the HUD and teleport to them if their life dips for a quick heal/Fortitude. I use this: /bind e powexeclocation target Teleport And then to go to Teammate #3 say just press Shift+3 and e - Hover, Combat Jumping, Grant Invisibility, Stealth to stick LotG +Recharge pieces in. - Leadership: Manouvers, Tactics and Vengeance for two more LotG +Recharge and more team support - Fighting: Kick, Tough and Weave for personal defence. - Other travel powers. If you aren't flush with influence this build should work OK with SO's instead of set IOs. (Slot Fortitude for 3xDef and 3xRech and you'll be good.) This is a rough outline. I'm happy to provide more details if you like.

Ooh! My new Elec/Energy Aura Sentinel is excited to learn this!

I was a bit perplexed by this. I run pickup Task Forces on Everlasting a lot, and part of the fun is that you sometimes get a lop-sided team, sometimes you get an awesome team chock full of support, and so on. And everyone figures out how to work together, because that's one of CoH's biggest strengths. You don't NEED a tank, or healer or whatever. Sounds like there has been some different behaviour on Hard Mode Task Forces though, and this is meant to help address that? (I also take part in all-Corrupter and all-Defender Task Forces, and they're fun too. We really don't need any bonuses due to our sheer awesomeness!)

If you're looking for PBAoE's and targeted AoEs instead of cones, I guess Electric Blast and Radiation Blast spring to mind first. I've used them for Blasters and Defenders who I want to live in melee and its worked well for me. Water and Fire both get a non-cone AoE and a rain/patch AoE which would work in melee. Sentinels don't get damage auras, but Dark Armor has Oppressive Gloom and Cloak of Fear. No idea if CoF is worth putting damage procs in? It could take Cloud Senses and two Fear ones.

The realistic scenario for "Sentinel Regret" that some people are trying to convince you is a real problem. You make a Sentinel. They dish out damage and can take it. After amassing large amounts of influence you can afford a theory-crafted Blaster who does a bit more damage and is just as survivable. So, then you can go and make that Blaster too. There is no problem with Sentinels. 🙂

Cool. Nice work on pumping up the global recharge. A couple of nitpicks, since I'm on a big Empathy kick just now: - Fortitude seems under-slotted. It's your main team protection buff, so I always try to slot of for defence and recharge, so I can shield as many people as possible with it. Red Fortune x5 + LotG Unique maxes out the global recharge from it, without compromising it's own recharge too heavily. I try to keep this on all the Blasters/Controllers and Def/Corrs on the team at the very least. My alternative slotting would be the lOTG unique and frnakenslot with 3 or 4 Def/Rech's. -Adrenalin Boost doesn't need slotting for End Mod - it already gives your target more energy than they can possibly use. I usually slot that with 5 x Doctored Wounds, or just two recharge IOs if I'm saving slots. And I'm not sure if Superior Invisibility needs the extra slots. It's Defence bonus is pretty small. I'd look at moving slots to Fortitude.

Going from a Controller to a Defender, you're trading AoE control for AoE damage. The biggest source of this by far is your nuke. Take Aim (Seismic Forces to you), and slot the Gaussian chance to Build up in it (Adds +80% damage for 5 seconds). This give you a 90% chance of it adding +130% damage instead of just +50%. Use this before your nuke and do them both as often as possible! And drop a Tar Patch first, of course. For Meteor, you probably also want to slot a KB to KB unique. (I'm not yet there on my first Seismic Blast character)

I love that Crey one. I'd always assumed the Voltaic Tanks and others were just guys in Iron Man suits. This implies something much more permanent and horrific. And yeah, this is all part of making a living breathing city, having the idle animations that play out before you engage.

If it all goes well - I come up with a character idea based around a name, a look and powersets. I workshop them in the first few levels, maybe team up with some other players and chat in character to help that process along, and it all comes together. They then carry on with that costume and backstory until 50. This happens with like 80% of my creations, with 20% going on beyond 50 to Incarnate out because I want to keep playing as them. Sometimes it doesn't quite work out. I'll retire a character in their 20's or 30's if they haven't quite taken shape. This is usually that I haven't figured out who they are, or they're no fun to roleplay. Sometimes I dig them out again and rename them, or give them a new costume, often changing the backstory into something that I like more. The gap can be as big as years. And for whatever reason, Scrappers often stall at 40 for me. I think its the lack of desire of anything from the epic pools, whereas others are hanging out for their epic armor, or a big melee attack for Defenders, or something that fills a hole.

Things you can do as players today at the start of the task force: - Hop into the Supergroup Base Portal next to Synapse (use TAXI-4000) and buy the End Drain Resistance buff from the Empowerment machine. - Visit the P2W Vendor in Atlas and everyone stock up on Plasmatic Taser and Hand Grenades if you don't have a good source of AoE damage already. This will all take 5 minutes while recruiting, and make it go a lot smoother. The worse Synapses I've had have been where we had a lot of single target specialists. (And I kind of like having a long-ish task force without unskippable cutscenes as an opportunity to chat with other players, in or out of character)

I have Stone Cages with just an Accuracy IO slotted (to keep enemies grouped on Eathquake and Volcanic Gasses). That sounds perfect! Thanks again!

Ooh, good idea! I've never built towards that before - time to revise my plans a little! https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Sets_that_improve_Slow_Resistance Winter's Gift unique in Flight gives 20%. Two pieces of Blistering Cold in Kick gives +10%/15% (Catalysed) And I could probably lose Obliteration in Whirling Hands for 2 pieces of Avalanche and frankenslotting for another +10%/15% That would be 50% recharge debuffs for one slot, slower flight and losing 5% global recharge. I think I'm sold!

Having a defensive toggle (like say Temp Invulnerability) doesn't do much for you. It means the toggle can be reactivated quicker if it goes down. Getting global +Recharge set bonuses, on the other hand, is THE BEST use of IO sets, and my default aim for any new character. It's not impossible to get +100% global recharge from sets. Nukes and Build Up, long recharge AoE controls, your best attacks, all come back quicker. LotG +Recharge uniques play a big part in this because a) The bonus is great for just one slot b) They obey their own "Rule of 5" - you can have 5 of them, and other +7.5% Recharge bonuses like Basilisk's Gaze or Sting of the Manticore.

I've always been partial to FF/Sonic on Defenders, adding a nice offensive debuff to the most defensive primary. Both sets got improvements this year, so even better now.

I've seen it said several times here that Dominators have one of the biggest gaps between baseline performance and kitted out IO set performance. I do not disagree. In their base state, Dominators are like control-heavy damage-light blasters, relying on active defence to stay alive, with an on-again/off-again mechanic of Domination that lets them handle bosses. With Set IOs this becomes permanent, and Dominators have mez protection and decent passive defences, and can dish out boss-level crowd control. A well-built Dominator is a combination Controller, Scrapper and Blaster. Who do Carnie Master Illusionists fear? Perma-Dominators, that's who! Lock them down in one swift move before they can pop their pets out! This guide is for players with a couple of 100 million lying around, and takes you through how to enjoy the power of Perma-Dom as early as possible. It's a very satisfying journey, watching that global recharge number increase and the magic of Perma-Dom fall into reach. My levelling habits I slot attuned enhancement sets as early as feasible, and with Dominators its always recharge as an exclusive goal. Secondary to that I'll go for Defence. Round about level 30, I'll start to experience chain-Domination, where you sometimes get one Domination kicking off after another, but not always. By 40 I'll have perma-Dom going reliably if I'm vigilant with Hasten. By 50, with a few purple sets swapped in, I'll usually have full perma-Dom where it refreshes without me having to click Hasten at all. Despite this, I always take Hasten to get long recharge AoE controls and other good powers up as quickly as possible. I also try to build for personal defence, as it can save your skin while you establish control in an alpha strike. I aim for good Defence values, and try to cap S/L Resistances to 75%, since this covers a lot of the big heavy damage hits in the game Basic Setup I put Domination on auto, and take Hasten early I put them both in a "utility tray" with things like Long Range Teleporter, next to my main three trays, so I can see them. I then add a couple of binds: \e bind q powexecname Domination \e bind e powexecname Hasten I've found auto powers don't always fire immediately, and sometimes you can lose Domination from not clicking it fast enough. Activate Hasten manually whenever it's up. I use the Powers->Combat Attributes panel to display my Last Chance to Hit, Global Recharge and Melee, Ranged and AoE Defence. I set Options->Windows->Powers: Recharge Indicators to Bottom, so I can see when Domination and Hasten are about to be ready again. Power Pools Speed - must have. Hasten - absolutely take this. You can achieve perma-dom without it, but at perma-Dom levels of recharge Hasten also becomes permanent. You will have some AoE controls and Build Up style powers that you want up as often as possible, so its general benefit is huge. Remember, you can turn off the Visual FX for this at the tailors if you like. Fighting - Dominators get very good values for Red/Def powers, almost level with Tanks/Defenders Kick is a write off, since your primary and secondary are filling your trays with much better clicks than this. I keep it in my tray as brawl-on-steroids, and found it handy at early levels. Tough takes both +Def uniques for 6% straight away, and will help you get to 75% S/L resists with a Epic armor. (60% for both powers slotted, 7.5% for the P2W buffs, and another 7.5% from set bonuses) Weave adds 7% Defence and gives you 12.5% Recharge if you slot 1 LoTG unique and 5 Red Fortunes. Leadership - Almost always take this. Manouvers is about +5% defence slotted, and can take a LotG and 5x Red Fortune. Tactics is great for preventing blindness and making your attacks land, very important when you rely on active defence. Vengeance opens up later as another LotG mule. Concealment - maybe Grant Invisibility and Infiltration are LotG mules, especially if you're not going with Psionic Mastery Flight/Leaping - maybe Hover/Fly or Combat Jumping, adds another LotG mule plus 2.5% defence or so Epic Pools Ice Mastery Defender-level Sleet, around every 30 seconds (down from 120 base) with your big recharge bonus! This is very hard to pass up despite not contributing to the main aims of this build type. Ice Armor will help cap your defence against S/L, but you lose the chance to cap S/L resistance. Psionic Mastery Link Minds is another +7% Defence, almost perma. (Note it can't be slotted for recharge, but is affected by global recharge) With a Power Boost style power this becomes almost 10%) And it's a LotG mule slot. Indomitable Will - the mez protection is already covered by perma-Dom, but capped Psi Defence and another LotG mule slot are useful. Mind over Body - I prefer a resistance armor, since you can get to 75% S/L resist fairly easily on Dominator values. Primal Forces Mastery Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast can take the Force Feedback +Recharge proc and have a 35% and 18% chance of triggering if they hit, giving +100% recharge for 5 seconds. (Slot with the FF proc and 5 x Positron's leaving out the Dam/Rech one?) This effect doesn't stack, but can be up for a decent percentage of time if you're steamrollering on a team. Energy Torrent does Knockdown, Explosive Blast does Knockback, so you may want to slot it with a KB to KD. Temp Invulnerability will get you close to the S/L resist cap along with Tough, maybe to 75% with a few incidental set bonuses. You can take different Epic sets in different builds if you want to experiment, and have the inf to burn. IO sets to chase This was my shopping list before playing my new holiday project Pink Topaz: Ascendancy of the Dominator: +8.75% Recharge and +3.125% Ranged Def at slots 5 and 6. Put this in a Stun or Fear power, or an immobilise even Holds: Basilisk's Gaze: 4 slots give +7.5% recharge and 1.25% Ranged Def. Good for both single target and AoE hold Confuse: Malaise's Illusions +6.25% Recharge and +3.125% Ranged Def Stuns: Stupefy +6.25% Rech at 5 slots, +3.125% Ranged Def at 6 (but this means adding knockback to your power) Spectral Terror: Cloud Senses for +6.25% at 4 slots, ranged Def at 6 slots Pets: Expedient Reinforcement: +6.25% at 4 slots, ranged Def at 6 slots Melee attacks: Crushing Impact +5% at 5 slots Melee AoE: Obliteration +5% at 5 slots (and +3.125% Melee Def at 6) Ranged Attacks: Decimation +6.25% at 5 slots Snipes: Sting of the Manticore: +2.5% Ranged Def and +7.5% Recharge at 5 slots Dominating Grasp: Maybe use the unique Fiery Orb later on. But no Recharge bonus means don't slot this set. I'll usually slot just enough pieces to get the recharge bonus until the slot-rich late-30's and early 40's, when I'll add in the extra pieces for defence bonuses. Other sources of +Recharge - The P2W buff give you +15% Recharge. These cost Level*Level*1000 per hour, and you can buy up to 8 hours worth. They are not crazily expensive when you're levelling up. The first batch, costing a mere 8,000 usually lasts me until level 20. The next batch at 20 would be 3.2 million, and lasts well into the 30's - Base Empowerment gives you +20% for 90 minutes from using a Base Empowerment Station. Use TAXI-4000 or ZONE-8888 as good practical bases that are easy to remember, with simple layouts Ingredients are any set of: (Clockwork Winder, Boresight, Temporal Sands) (Alchemical Silver, Improvised Cybernetic, Symbol) (Ruby, Kinetic Weapon, Destiny) - The Force Feedback +Recharge proc. This gives you +100% recharge for 5 seconds. Its unreliable, but hefty, and can have considerable uptime if you're spamming AoE Knockback powers such as the Primal Force Mastery attacks or Psionic Tornado. You won't want to rely on this for perma-Dom, but it gives you more breathing room in heavy combat. Defence: My baseline is: P2W Buff +5% Fighting +13% for slotted Weave and the Steadfast and Gladiator's Armor unique IOs in Tough Manouvers +5% Combat Jumping or Hover: 2.5% Total: 25.5%, so you're capped with a medium Luck. Add Link Minds and you're capped with a small Luck, and probably capped vs Ranged at all times with the sets listed above. Example at Level 27 (Pink Topaz, Earth/Energy/Primal Forces) Fossilize: Basilisk's Gaze x4 Salt Crystals: Sandman Heal IO Stalagmites: Ascendancy of the Dom x6 Earthquake: Rech IO Volcanic Gasses: Basilisks Gaze x4 Bonesmasher: Crushing Impact x5 Whirling Hands: Obliteration x5 Power Up: Rech IO Total Focus: Crushing Impact x5 Fly: Fly SO Hover: LotG +Rech Kick: Range SO Tough: Steadfast & GA +Def IO's Hasten: 2 x Rech IO Defence: +13.5% (+19% Ranged) Recharge: +46.25% (+81.25% w/ P2W and base buffs) One day in, and I'm already chaining Domination regularly. I got 4 Dominations in a row during the level 20-29 Hero Tips Alignment Mission (big map, 3 bosses, Blast Furnace and Nocturne), which felt wonderful. By level 35 I'll have 20%/26% defence and 68%/103% recharge, so keeping perma-Dom up if I pay attention to Hasten. By level 50 it's +98%/133% recharge, with maybe another 10% as I start to invest in purples, so into the world of perma-Dom without Hasten (or easing up on the P2W buff as it gets more expensive) This lifestyle is expensive. If you're looking to make some decent influence while mainly fighting/committing crime, acquire merits by doing Task Forces, Giant Monsters and story arcs, buy Enhancement Converters and list for 1 inf. You'll get almost 1 million per 5 merits. If you want to devote more time to making more inf (like I do) use those converters to upgrade common recipes that you craft into rares, and convert those into juicy rares! See the Marketing forum for examples. Happy Dominating!