Dauntless

It is a fun event, thanks for organizing them. 😄

While mighty judgement is my vote for #1 for hopefully obvious reasons, I would like to nominate the snipe from power blast for #2. The caster sinks into a deep ready position, uses the other hand to help steady the blasting hand, and then the blasting hand shakes several seconds while you are building up the blast. Everything about that attack says "this is gonna hurt".

This has to be the single most redeeming statement in this entire thread.

Well that is the thing, they don't really play the same, at least for me. And I have your opposite problem, I simply cannot get into playing a controller. (And I've tried, honest.) Mind/energy is about as distinct of a playstyle as I think you can get from a controller - you won't need to slot anything in the primary for damage if you don't wish, plenty of blasts, power boost that affects EVERYTHING in your primary, mildly lacking in AOE damage (which suits sleep & fear just fine). Earth/electricity was another fun combination - electricity gives a good old fashioned build-up which is awesome for the AOE stun and hold, both ranged and melee options are good enough to give a decent attack chain for both distances, and earth has plenty of useful tricks for most circumstances. Arsenal assault annoys me because you don't get a ranged attack chain until late, what you get early with burst and buckshot is serviceable but 1) subtle 2) sucks endurance and 3) just makes me feel meh. You can get by with just burst and buckshot as the majority of a ranged attack chain, they both recharge quickly, but buckshot takes more than a few slots to make that viable and entertaining, and it still seems to suck endurance like there is no tomorrow. A good dominator build in my hands will be there primarily to DPS, and use of controls is on an as-needed basis to keep everything smooth. On the teams I enjoy the most that need is quite heavy, keeping a good sense of tactical awareness and keeping trouble contained. That "keeping trouble contained" varies depending upon the primary: keeping perception debuffed or a nearby spawn slept to keep them from engaging, casting an AOE hold on the spawn just engaged while popping a fear on an adjacent one (that we just couldn't separate), laying down some persistent targeted AOE to hold up an ambush, locking down a particularly annoying mob like a Paragon Protector, etc. Once that is done beat head and go to town. Once things are safe enough enter melee and unleash the really big attacks - or just stay back and blast. On your average PUG you usually have enough latent or overpowered might that it doesn't matter too much what you do, so just protect yourself and shoot. Ignoring build specifics & targets for a moment, that means I'm usually picking my primary as control powers and my secondary as damage powers. In the low levels you lean on your hold, immob, or something as an extra mid-level damage attack, but as you level up those just become controls. It does mean you don't lean on some of those powers in the primary the same way you do as a controller. (This is what annoys me with respect to arsenal assault, it violates this pattern to some degree.)

In all fairness, he did say it was Frostfire. Even in competent hands different ATs and power sets mature at different rates. Personally I'd hesitate at drawing any conclusions about this game from anything in the Hollows or very low level play, especially in the older content. It is so distinctly different from the state of the rest of the game and it is so short-lived and transient.

This was last night's Babbage haul, I think the reported number was 23. Is this a horrible photo? Yes, but it is the best one I have. Ugh. The 2nd photo is from earlier, but no where near the 23 Babbs yet.

Admittedly I've always been more of a scrapper or dominator player. I had a sonic/fire blaster back on live that I pushed all the way to 50, sure, but it wasn't a too that I identified with or reached for very often other than the insistence that I'd get at least one blaster to 50. But today, a decade later, I've been playing a few blaster toons that I actually really enjoy (and one that I don't, lets just ignore him). As I'm getting them into the higher levels and the cooler/fun sets are opening up as options, what should I aim for? Dominators are easy, recharge->permadom. Scrappers aren't much harder, make them survivable. Is there anything else worth aiming for? Blast IO set bonuses are unappealing to my eye compared to what I look for with melee sets. Frankenslotting lets you get more oomph while being efficient on slots, but what am I saving those slots for now that I actually have them in abundance? Or do I actually need to stop and think about powers other than "just take all of them" to see what they do?

I think SeraphimKensai's idea is the best, just improve dominating grasp. Most of the other ATs I play I usually try to squeeze in both sets, with the dominator sets I just squeeze in Ascendency + the other's proc. It feels like a missed opportunity. I honestly don't think it matters too much about control vs damage for where the sets go. The holds always get the 4-piece Basilisk Gaze set for 7.5% recharge and a proc. The other control sets almost all have a 5-piece bonus of 6.25% recharge somewhere, which does compete in the rule of 5 against ranged & AOE attacks but they are usually the cheaper option. Melee and melee AOE are in the 5% bucket and can be "nicely slotted" with only 5 slots. None of these will make an outsized impact while leveling up, and once you hit 50 they all compete for that magic 10% bracket if you want to push it that far. In practice, if I had the option to go either direction or both, I'd still end up using the dominator sets to ease the pressure on that 6.25% recharge bucket - none of those existing alternative sets are perfect and one of them are bad options. lol of course most of my dom builds are levelling/budget permadom builds, which probably taints my perspective.

And tonight they threw a Kronos Titan for good measure.

I found this macro helpful, although I'd recommend spelling "Sprocket" correctly: /macro Sproket target_custom_next enemy alive sprocket Gives you something to do while you wait

I have competing thoughts about ascendancy of the dominator - either in my opening AOE mez so it acts like a mini-build up (those typically recharge for 30ish seconds once slotted, perfect for the proc) or in my single target hold so it is part of my attack chain. The opener makes it a reliable proc but the STH puts it into my normal attack chain, hopefully maximizing its single target use. At the end of the day either is probably fine and I'm just inconsistent.

Shoot, did I get them backwards? Single target immob = mag4, aoe immob = mag 3. STI can actually catch a surprising amount of foes in one shot, just not usually the AVs famous for running away. AOE immob is better as an attack when slotted correctly. Fill in the silly names as you see fit. 😄

It is weird, given how un-plussed I am with electric control, that I have 3 toons with it as a primary. Solo, at your level, it is pretty much up to you. I've typically My bread and butter controls are the hold and confuse (synaptic overload), I'll use the sleep (static field) if confuse is down or I'm expecting adds. And then burn things down. I usually have conductive aura running to help with endurance management. On teams, it doesn't have a good reliable "oops" control. Sleep is alright, it is a location AOE, but I'm sure if you try harder than I do you can macro/bind more snap-worthy faster ability to place that location than trying to manually spot it in a pinch. Confuse can get most of a spawn of mobs, but it takes some time. The no-aggro is your friend here. The AOE hold is your only real oops button, and it is subject to the problems in common with all of the AOE holds. I tend to focus on locking down difficult targets and blasting - I'll put up confuse and/or sleep as the tactical situation permits but I'm generally not achieving the "master of the AOE controls" I typically do with my other doms. Now on to your specific questions: Most dom assault sets are lacking with AOE. The good news is most epic picks can fill that hole nicely. One thing to mind on teams to help keep from getting crushed is control causes aggro - not as much as a tank's multiplier but you should be able to pull aggro on nearly anything that isn't a tank, brute, or scrapper (with a tank-esque aggro aura). You have to understand your group's dynamic before you open up freely with aoe control while you level, in the beginning you are better off holding what you hit but as you level you should learn what you are capable of handling and try to stay within that range. (Or be like me and always push to be the hero as a way to help fund debt badges. 🙂 I don't use jolting chain very often, especially as I've leveled up. But the knockdown is a reliable one-shot "control" for most bosses, even if it only lasts a few seconds. It is often enough time to hold -> jolting chain -> ???? -> hold to lock down and average boss before he hits you too much. Or you can chain -> hold -> ??? -> chain -> hold, with a little recharge and some lucky rag-doll effects you won't get clobbered at all. Chain fences is a mag4 immobilize, it'll one-shot immobilize not only your average boss but also your average AV. Your typical AV does not have high immobilize protection. In theory that is helpful when facing AVs who like to run amok across the map, but in practice those AVs tend to have protection or resistance to immobilize. I used to use it to catch Crimson on that one red-side mission, otherwise just treat it like a low level blast. I usually skip it. I tend to take the AOE immob though, slot it full of damage procs, and use it for damage. They are usually very wide targeted powers. You can probably do the same thing with the STI, but I've never really tried before. I find voltaic sentinel helpful solo, but I usually forget to resummon him on a team. If you are on a team where there isn't much of a demand or need for your controls, either other toons with easier to use controls or you are just speed-rolling, just sit back and enjoy it. Even without a "what's a tank" presence like my mind dom can bring you can still contribute significantly to your team's bottom line. I've run Manticore's task force a fair amount lately. The smoothest run by far was the one with literally just one electric dom - she managed to hold nearly every paragon protector and I think we had to deal with only 1 or 2 MOGs the entire time. It was easily the fastest run of them all.

Those don't count against each other? Sigh, you don't want to know how many years I've been getting it wrong. 😞

Levelling up is annoying me with respect to the ranged DPS: you get the tier 1 burst and a narrow cone AOE in the buckshot, and that is it until the sniper attack at T8?!? Wow. But 5 slotted in both powers it at least keeps me busy. The endurance drain from using buckshot like it is a single target attack adds up in the lower levels. Ironically /arsenal is probably better paired with the more traditional control sets that are chok-full of middleton blasts to give controllers attack powers - I'm just used to leaning on assault for attacks and control sets for controls. I've wondered what it would be like to take the fighting pool and make a full melee attach chain, but not enough to try it yet. One thing I do appreciate in the late 20s thus far is a lot of the AOE controls are useful without additional slots, making it easier to focus slots on the holds and assault powers as I see fit. I'm drooling over hitting the volume of slots that come available in the 30s. I like playing the combo so far, soloing is interesting, but on a well equipped team I have a tendency to rely on flashbang (the AOE stun) because it is targeted, and most of the other AOEs are location targeted and that just takes too long. The plethora of location targeted AOEs is terribly helpful for ambushes and other dynamic encounters, many options for area control and denial.