EnjoyTheJourney

Here's a build I put together that offers decent DPA. It has over 300 single target DPS on pylon tests and DPA for AOE that's noticeably 100. AOE is almost always available so, while there isn't a "nuke-level" AOE in this build, the repeated application of AOEs can take down crowds in a fairly short period of time even without any teammates helping. Theft of essence in siphon life keeps endurance in a good place with very minimal attention to directly managing it. If more melee defense is desired then putting the full obliteration set into shadow maul can be done, at the cost of somewhat less damage. Scrapper (Dark Melee - Shield Defense - No Mastery),v2.mbd

Totally true. Hasten with 2 generic recharge IOs boosted to +5 would mean +166.25% global recharge (70% + 96.25% = 166.25%) and, even with a bit of downtime for hasten for which global recharge is lower, domination should reliably renew itself before its 90 second activation period expires. Edit: There are corner cases in which stacked slow debuffs on a dominator can prevent domination from auto-renewing, even with high global recharge. That's why having slow resistance built up to some degree can sometimes help dominators quite a bit. Still, slow debuffs tend to end up becoming stacked to significant numbers via a bunch of incoming attacks and usually the rate and amount of incoming damage ends up being the bigger problem than the slow debuffs in such situations.

There may be a couple of thoughts that can help simplify, at least a bit. You'll need a bare minimum of 223% (it's not 222%, forgot the 1%, sorry about that) total recharge, including the base 100% total, to perma domination. Practically speaking, you really need more than 223% in total because of slow debuffs potentially affecting recharge, because sometimes a long animation for another power will prevent domination from activating before it falls off, because a bit of lag might happen, etc. But, it is certain that if you have less than 223% total global recharge (including the baseline 100%) (and you don't have external recharge buffs such as speed boost, for example) then domination will never seamlessly renew itself before 90 seconds elapses and it deactivates. Many people don't bother adding in the 100% baseline when discussing how much global recharge you need to perma a power. Mids used to completely omit any mention in the "totals" screen of that baseline 100% recharge figure. But, it is showing that 100% baseline recharge figure in your files, for some reason. So, all of your global recharge calculations are off by 100% when you compare the Mids recharge total figures to numbers others cite because they're typically *not* including the 100% base recharge total in the numbers they give.

Not knowing how recharge is calculated and the distinction between "added via sets and hasten" global recharge versus "baseline" global recharge (which is always 100%) is causing a lot of problems for your calculations. You're currently overestimating how much global recharge your characters have by 100%, which is a lot and which really moves the calculations. On that note, adding 96.25% global recharge through sets, in the absence of a well slotted hasten power, will not get your dominator to permanent domination. If you doubt that make your character as per your build on the beta server, set domination to auto-renew (press "ctrl" and left click domination, if you're wondering how), then click domination once, and then watch it drop 90 seconds later before it finishes recharging. There are others who have explained how recharge is calculated by the game engine much better than I could and at this point I can only refer you to them. That's why I provided links.

This is probably quite confusing. Here are a couple of links about recharge ...

122% - 96.25% = 25.75% bare minimum. More is needed, practically speaking. Download some other dom builds that have permanent domination (which is most builds that show up on the forums) and look at them in Mids. You'll get a better feel for how much recharge you need and how you can get it.

You need about 170+% added to global recharge with sets to get perma hasten, assuming you have close to 100% recharge also slotted directly into hasten. You need a bare minimum of 122% added to global recharge with sets to have domination always up, assuming a number of things don't go wrong. Things will sometimes go wrong, though, so practically speaking you need more than 122% global recharge added through sets if you'd like domination to be always up. You can't put IOs that boost recharge directly into domination. So, you need all global recharge affecting domination to be provided by sets (edit: hasten can also contribute, a big omission on my part to not mention that earlier).

Here is a breakdown of your sets that have recharge ... 7.5% * 4 = 30% (4 LoTG unique IOs) 7.5% * 4 = 30% (2 Basilisk, 1 power transfer, 1 sting of the manitcore) 6.25% * 5 = 31.25% (2 decimation, 1 expedient reinforcement, 1 synapse shock, 1 positron blast) 5% * 1 = 5% (1 obliteration) -------------------- Sum = 96.25% added to global recharge by set bonuses Mids used to not show the 100% base recharge that is always added in to the demoninator when calculating the in-game recharge of a power. Now it does show that, though. That's why you're seeing 196.3% (96.25% rounded up) in the totals screen for Mids. That initially confused me when I was giving feedback on your blaster build. After a quick calculation showed that there is no way you had over 100% global recharge added by sets it became clear that Mids either has a configuration choice to add that 100% into what is shown or that adding in the initial 100% is the default choice now.

Not sure there are many players that have a noticeable amount of experience with an electric control and fiery assault dominator, especially in light of the IO constraints in place for the build. Also, not sure in what game conditions you plan to play this dominator (enjoy the journey at even level notoriety to level 50 and then stop playing this dominator, run endgame content at +4x8, solo vs teaming, exemplar or not, ...). Not knowing the intended play conditions makes it more challenging to provide much feedback. Regarding low hanging fruit, the build has 96% global recharge, which means that domination will be down a fair amount of the time. You probably know this and are prepared to accept it. But, if you didn't know that and don't want that happening then it may be worth re-thinking the amount of recharge you have in the build. As a benchmark, a minimum of 122% global recharge is needed to maintain perma domination, assuming a bunch of things never go wrong. Things do go wrong, though, so you'll probably want noticeably more than 122% global recharge if you are wanting to keep domination consistently up for your dominator. Also, you can only have five powers with 6.25% recharge as a bonus counting toward global recharge. Since there are six powers with 6.25% recharge that sixth power with 6.25% recharge won't contribute to a higher amount of global recharge. Perhaps the "nudge" of this reply will spur others to offer their thoughts. Or perhaps not, not sure. However things shake out hopefully you enjoy your electric / fiery dominator.

Looks like you're free to use damage procs freely without diminishing your enjoyment of your triple E blaster. Cool beans and hopefully your triple E blaster ends up being a lot of fun to play.

I typically slot both damage procs that can fit into a snipe (the PvP damage proc and the manticore damage proc). I drop the acc / int / rech IO since I generally have enough +to hit and accuracy to not need it; the damage procs take the snipe damage to a noticeably higher level, which can be easily checked by comparing quickform damage with and without them slotted. I don't recall ever seeing damage procs animate. Perhaps I just haven't noticed, though.

I didn't check the Manticore set in a detailed way. I went ahead and assumed the damage proc was in there. doh! On that note, it's fine to drop the acc / int / rech IO and replace it with the manticore damage proc. That leaves accuracy at 94.23% for that power for +3 mobs and average damage per quickform snipe goes up by about 60. Picking damage procs for theme can work. For example, if it doesn't make sense to you that negative energy damage might come from an energy punch charged brawl or a shocking grasp then you can just drop procs with negative energy damage and focus on other procs instead. That does lead to somewhat lower damage. But, if it makes playing your blaster less fun to play to have damage procs you can't associate with that character then the extra damage isn't worth it (of course).

The simplest way to improve single target damage is to drop some attacks that have very few slots and to take charge up and build up. Alternating between those two will keep single target damage in a noticeably better place, as well as increasing AOE. Also, you can still use damage procs even if you'd like to steer clear of purples and ATOs. Even a handful of damage procs in a build can make big difference for damage output. Take energy punch charged brawl in the sample build, for example. You can put in melee set IOs in energy punch charged brawl in place of the Hami-Os, if you'd like, and put an extra slot in there to take damage higher and get another minor set bonus. Edit: I forgot that the "baseline" 100% recharge is now shown explicitly in Mids and I just realized your blaster doesn't have hasten. There's actually less than 100% global recharge in the builds you and I put together, which is leaving key powers on a long cooldown before recharging. It's worth considering dropping a power pool to get hasten because powers will come back so much faster with it.

I had a bit of a brain fart in labeling dynamo crucial to keeping endurance in a good place. If there's one thing a triple E blaster doesn't need to worry much about, it's endurance. If the ideas passed along prove in some way helpful, then that's great. Still, whatever others might say if you're having fun playing your blaster then you're doing it right.

Here's an alternative build to consider ... It's a "high budget" build, but not an "infinite budget" build. Most of the more rare IOs can be purchased using merits if the auction house price is too rich to pay. LKN-351 - Blaster (Electrical Blast - Electricity Manipulation),v2.mbd

The draft build is a bit confusing in how it's put together. Are you putting this together as a kind of "budget build"? If so, then the choices are more understandable. Either way, some thoughts arose ... Endurance drain - Seems fairly well set up for this. Defense & resistance totals - These seem reasonable overall for a blaster. AOE - Has a good amount of AOE, although maybe a bit less would also be fine. No Dynamo - This is a must-take power to keep endurance in a good place. Strike-through text was incorrect. This power helps for life regen and makes endurance management easier. Not essential for endurance management on a triple E blaster. No charge up or build up - These are bread and butter powers for blasters and not taking them reduces spike damage by a great deal. Casting one of these and then nuking is a go-to tactic for blasters. Low single target damage, especially for a blaster - The DPA for single target powers in the draft build is mostly under 200 even on those rare occasions when the decimation build up power procs. It doesn't proc often in low recharge, low cast time powers, though. So, actual in-game single target DPS seems set to be under 200 according to the numbers in Mids. Too many poorly slotted attacks - There's not much value in having many poorly slotted attacks. Take fewer attack powers and slot the ones you take to make them hit as hard as possible. Consider dropping havoc punch, thunder strike, and static discharge to take charge up, build up, and shocking bolt. Put a second slot into charge up and put the gaussian build up proc IO into that second slot. Proc up energy punch charged brawl to make it hit like a runaway monster truck. Consider getting a sixth slot into the snipe and putting a damage proc IO into that last slot. Pick either lightning bolt or charged bolt and drop the other. Use the freed up power slot to take shocking grasp. Put five IOs from the hecatomb set into shocking grasp (maximizing recharge is probably better because of better hold availability and because the DPA is really high even with max recharge) if you can afford it and put a damage proc IO into the sixth slot. These changes give you have two holds you can stack (shocking grasp, shocking bolt) against tougher mobs that haven't been completely drained. You can purchase very rare recipes using merits at a kind of vending machine available in multiple places. Recharge is helpful for any build. But, having a blaster that hits hard is a higher priority. Hopefully these ideas end up being helpful.

You may need to uninstall Mids and reinstall it with the latest working version. After that you should be able to open files again.

What makes DPS tests interesting is what is learned along the way. DPS enhancing strategies that work across all ATs are also of interest and are worth learning about. But, once that lesson has been learned (Is Recluse great? Yup! Is Geas great? Yup!, Are poisoned daggers effective? Yup!, ...) it's not clear how much more gets learned after a fairly small number of runs showing those same lessons to be true. And, those DPS enhancers that have such a powerful effect on all builds tend to obscure the effect on DPS of more sustainable, build-specific choices that would also be interesting to learn about. In the end, beyond a fairly small number of "anything goes" DPS tests, DPS tests that remove particularly powerful generic DPS boosters from the equation are much more interesting because we can learn about specific builds we might want to play in-game that way.

At the risk of belaboring one thing, the mez toggle really needs to be taken. Your tank can't hold aggro and is at risk of being defeated if they are getting mezzed a lot. Without obsidian your tank will be mezzed a lot. This provides you with a good power to take in place of cloak of fear, which is of limited value for the reasons given by others. Not sure if others noticed, but you'll also want knockback protection IOs (karma, steadfast protection, and/or the universal travel one for which the name escapes me). Probably at least 8 points worth to minimize getting knocked about. Dark armor does have fear protection in its shields, which can be really helpful sometimes. But, it doesn't have knockback protection in its shields and getting knocked around a fair amount can get a bit old after a while.

You might want to leave off the set bonus prioritization for early levels for dark regeneration. Your planned build has only 70% accuracy dark regeneration at the moment. That will let your tank down quite often, especially against mobs that have some defense. You might want dark regeneration six-slotted by level 22. Try to get accuracy to as close to 95% as you can, get some endurance reduction in it, and get the theft of essence +endurance proc in it. Edit: OAS's input is very good, as usual. Getting the kismet +to hit IO early is a particularly good choice for any dark armor user because dark regeneration starts out behind the curve for accuracy. And, dark regeneration can be procc'd up for damage and it will trigger quite often; it's particularly appealing to fit in damage procs in an endgame build, after all the +accuracy set bonuses are in place. But, while leveling up it can be a bit of a struggle to get accuracy high enough for dark regeneration. So, focusing on getting enough accuracy to get 95% chance to hit or close, endurance reduction, and the theft of essence +endurance proc is the safer choice, as it leaves your tanker in a better place for both healing and endurance management.

It's a bit confusing to see the theft of essence set in dark regeneration, but not the proc. The theft of essence chance for +endurance proc should go into dark regeneration before level 12. Pay for an unslotter or two and try it out. You can get multiple activations of the proc IO per casting of dark regeneration, when using it in crowds. The theft of essence +endurance proc is transformative for dark armor. Also, your tank doesn't have the mez protection toggle. Not sure why that wasn't taken yet. You could perhaps burn a respec, drop cloak of fear, get obsidian to replace it, and then pick up cloak of fear later once again if you really like it.

I don't recall which command I used. But, it sounds like I was using powexec, in the end. I'll try out powexecauto, then. TYVM!

I tried tying movement to autofire powers once before and got notifications on screen continuously for whichever power was not ready to be used. Is there a way to shut those notifications off? Would be great for dominators to be able to put both hasten and domination on autofire.

Your build is an interesting alternative to the build I put together earlier. It's easy to like the noticeably better AOE that you've put together in your build. You've found reasonable ways to save slots and allocate them elsewhere, as well. The "gloom vs dark blast" choice could reasonably go either way. In the end I wanted a filler power that would not take up a lot of animation time while cycling single target powers that all have higher DPA than either the T1 or T2. Not totally sure whether or not it was the right choice. It can help to switch on arcanatime casting times in Mids for all powers. Then it's easier to see where gaps might appear in attack chains and how long gaps are likely to be) and to see cases in which you could add less recharge and more procs to a power, while still maintaining a gapless attack chain. It should be interesting to see how well everything comes together for you, in the end. Good luck with your build.

Ouch! Hopefully that improves soon. For whatever reason I had fewer mapserver incidents two days ago and none yesterday. Nothing has changed about my PC. Cipher's hypothesis about the cause may ultimately be correct.