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Dauntless

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Everything posted by Dauntless

  1. So I've been sitting here casting it, over and over again, and nobody told me to stop. Yikes! Thanks 😄
  2. Isn't there a macro to bubble the entire team in a single activation, instead of watching me cast 14 consecutive bubbles? I thought it was added post-homecoming but my search-fu is failing me.
  3. Never mind, I guess it does. I unslotted stamina, just the default slot in CA with an accuracy, and ran off to play with hydras in perez park for a while. 0.13 end/sec per hydra, the lower level critters ran in and out, but I usually had 5+ in range. It looks to take 2-3 seconds before the proc shows up on the combat attributes. On a more interesting side effect, it seems the regen and recovery procs fire at different rates and last different amounts of time. Well I guess I'm wrong then, it just doesn't feel like it helps much on teams that are steamrolling. And I guess that is probably why, it feels that way because I am never next to enough someones long enough to make a big difference.
  4. That is how it is supposed to work. Is it actually working? It certainly didn't seem to be these last few nights.
  5. Does conductive aura _ACTUALLY_ do anything, other than generate more aggro than a brute? Obviously you have to be close enough to hit and it takes accuracy enhancements. With a half dozen procs or more from getting mixed in you would think that you would not be gasping for air after just a few attacks. I have two toons with it currently: A level 40 who is just barely permadom and 1acc/2endmod. I have enough slots so everything has endurance reduction and domination recharges enough now that honestly I don't really need it most of the time. A level 20-something with just the default slot. Flipping it on seems to deplete endurance completely in just a handful of attacks, a very marked difference from her performance in the late teens and pre-24.
  6. It does if the other game devs end up wasting their time playing COH instead of working on their game...
  7. It depends what you want to do, really. The nice thing about the combo is you get so many tools to solve the PVE puzzle if that is what you wish. Harder content frequently shoves critters that resist various status effects (like rikti headmen are sleep resistant and the later fortunata line is resistant to nearly everything except stun) so you can usually attack them with a weakness. Or at least I could back in live, I don't play often enough to remember everything these days. 😞 TK allows you to stack more domination faster, useful at times but it is still probably the most skippable power in the set. The pushback effect is seldom of any positive consequence, but corralling critters into corners is occasionally helpful. You also don't need the combination of power push and levitate - either can "one shot" a typical boss for a few seconds. IIRC power push is one of the higher DPA attacks in the set but I'm sure it drains a knockback->knockdown enhancement for most people. Outside of the subtly of up vs repositioning a mob both attacks fill the same niche, moderate early attack that can stop most things long enough to stack a hold. The snipe is also on my skippable list. I usually take it for two reasons: stacking recharge and the utility of the extra long range attack. You can get a full attack chain without it and honestly the extra range is a concern most players ignore. You can probably make the argument that you don't need both mass hypnosis and terrify. They are both easily made permeant and one or the other will be your "goto AOE for every spawn". You will only make good use out of the other if you attempt to solve the X-adjacent spawn problems often enough or realize you lack a barrier style power (like ice slick or earthquake) and then lean on a second long mez to deal with arrivals and ambushes. If slots are a premium, you can get good use out of confuse, mesmerize, levitate, and mass hypnosis with no additional slots. If you are even more challenged you can underslot terrify and mass confusion and not be too terribly upset most of the time. For the record, I actually have taken all of these powers on my current build except for TK (which I used back on live) and levitate, opting for the DPA in power push instead. It makes for an easy perma-dom build,
  8. I skipped it on my dark/martial, so you get no love from me on this one. Area denial is useful sometimes, which dark control does not have on its own. The "run away" fear is almost helpful, but it comes late enough that dark control is more or less standing on its own. If I took it I'd definitely pair it with a macro to drop caltrops at either my or my enemy's feet. I think Hedgefund's observation that caltrops is nicely functional without additional slots is the best praise in this thread. But I haven't found any of these options appealing enough to actually try, so take it for what it's worth.
  9. In the beginning let him pick whatever he wants and pick something to compliment it. If your son is like my son it'll take about a week or two before he wants to play what I'm playing so we roll new toons and I pick another something to support him. We chase that pattern for a bit until he starts just absolutely trying to play all the ATs at once (so hitting altitis and changing toons nearly every day). Once he started to 'gronk' the game it ceased to matter I play (outside of those first few pairs because they are buddies) because he knows enough about the game and how to play with me that we can make it work. And honestly at this point in time I don't think I could be happier.
  10. With all of our most important powers having a very lengthy recharge, even if domination was a toggle I would still be slotting for recharge. At least this way we have consistency. 🙂 It is certainly less painful than my attempts to slot a squid. Honestly at the end of the day most people seem to aim for defense, recharge, or procs because the gains you get from stacking those three vastly outweigh the gains you get from stacking almost anything else. The best compliment I ever received on live on a dom was when a VG-mate of mine told me "I love it when you are on the team with us, I don't have to stop and heal." He was playing a thermal corruptor and this was pre-IO days. Otherwise as to your scrapper challenge? Depends on the difficulty level, I guess. I've tanked for teams often enough on leveling up content to not doubt it is possible. I don't aim at the seriously hard content or challenges enough these days to have a good idea of just how far up you can reliably reach with it. I imagine it becomes pretty build specific once you reach high enough of a challenge with a small enough of a team.
  11. See, this is where I'd argue that the primaries need to diverge from what controllers get. On my mind dom if I don't have domination ready, then I lean on mesmerize or levitate. Both will one-shot an ordinary boss and there are very few things indeed that are immune to them both. Obviously there are limitations and "gaming things" to use them both well but it puts tools in the toolkit for dealing with tougher enemies. A lot of other sets are not nearly as well prepared: earth, fire, and ice all only have an AOE KD, electric has jolting chain, plant has nothing. Heaven help those sets if the boss is resistant to knockback. Darkness and grav (of all things) have multiple powers that one-shot or aren't difficult to stack to deal with bosses. Fix this part! Remove some of the redundant attacks and give us more powers to deal do our jobs. Let domination be the mixture of trouble/utility that it is now and not a crutch required to get around some of the average parts of the game. Obviously some secondaries have powers that can help, but I shouldn't have to know to pick a particular secondary to make a primary playable. Pick the right sets to be awesome? Sure. But to be average? Nah, that isn't a decision I should be allowed to fail. Note: Nearly everyone save mind has the single target immobilize which helps in the lower levels much more than people give it credit - keeping the boss out of melee range really cuts down on damage inflicted. But most people disregard the STI and in high-end top tier play even a melee boss' "puny" ranged attacks are quite devastating so I don't think it counts for this discussion.
  12. I think one of the biggest things dominators need is to rework the primary control sets to be more distinct from controllers. A lot of the older control sets are full of powers that double as attacks - most immobilizes, levitate, propel, etc. We have a full assault secondary, those powers are really only useful very early on or in later game/high end build scenarios. Pushing out some chaffe intended for "the other side" and pulling in powers with some manner of utility would be nice. Plus the endurance drain from using those powers as attacks is a trap for new players (if there is still such a thing). I think the double-whammy of the purple patch affecting accuracy for controls and mez duration could be revisited. The purple triangles of doom could use a refresh as well - they are far too punishing for a mid-level average or below average build solo or on a small team. I'd be wary of changing the domination button too much more, it has reached a nice state of peace with itself. Permadom isn't quite the same game changing event it was back when domination gave a damage boost. By the time you get permadom in the late game it isn't as game-changing anymore: you should have plenty enough powers to deal with full sized spawns regardless (unless you are sporting a control-lite build and skipped most of those powers), with most things locked down you don't get mezzed very much, your endurance problems should be mostly resolved. The break free is nice. On large teams steam rolling content or running solo I'll usually forget it is there. If anything I'd figure out how to get more domination benefits earlier into the game - not necessarily permanent but more often.
  13. I use mine to mule basilisk's gaze for the recharge proc, which is what I do with most AOE holds. If you stack recharge for a permadom build and add in an ancillary source of +to hit (buildup, tactics, etc.) it fires decently enough and comes back often enough for those 3x spawn or oops-2x spawn scenarios. I also usually put the lockdown +2 mag proc in aoe holds but my earth/elec didn't have the spare slot. I've never been fond of it being a location AOE - while a location AOE has its tricks it is difficult to fire quickly and that really hampers its usefulness in my eyes. I believe it is possible to set a macro to cause it to fire at your feet, which can help in an emergency.
  14. Most dominator T1 attacks have a poor DPA, slow to animate for the amount of damage they inflict. I frequently skip slotting them in favor of other powers. They aren't entirely worthless though: 1. Early on and leveling up they provide decent enough damage 2. They can be mules for set bonuses 3. They can be slotted with damage procs. 4. They can actually be used, it is just sub-optimal. And in the interest of full disclosure, my /martial dom not only has his T1 attack slotted but I also use it as a regular attack. I think the throwing star/kick-fighting actually helps tell his story and I am a concept > power kind of guy. I don't slot it on most of my doms though.
  15. I can't get past the T1 call swarm power. I mean maybe in 2020 with the murder-hornets invading North America it is more significant, but that "bzzt!" angry-bee sound just kills everything. Some day I'll succeed in finding a toon concept I enjoy enough to ignore it, but until man, ...
  16. Full disclosure, I'm not certain I have ever built a dominator that wasn't aiming for permadom. The most important thing to be an effective dominator is you need to be smart. Knowing how to tackle a 2, 3, or 4 spawn situation or deal with a poorly timed ambush on your build will do more for you than permadom. Domination mode certainly helps in those circumstances but it doesn't do much for your run of the mill fight on a well balanced team. On teams with a redundancy in control (tanker, troller, other dom, etc.) and especially on a team where your primary mez overlaps with a teammates it just isn't needed. The mez protection isn't that useful when everything is locked down. There are other ways to solve for endurance issues. The added mez magnitude isn't critical if a tanker/brute is holding aggro. They removed the damage buff from domination a long time ago. There is nothing wrong with saving the domination ability to be used 'as needed'. Again, it isn't a choice I make. I quite enjoy leading slow-minded brutes or tanks and watching them gasp in frustration or leading teams who are too passive to take that first step. I have been on plenty of task forces where the blasters quickly learn to wait until "Domination" appears over everyone's heads to let loose. But being the combat leader on a large team is much easier when you can one-shot mez the bosses. Getting a full bar of endurance every 90 "for free" seconds _is_ my preferred way to manage my it. And if I'm being completely honest, on raids or teams that are steamrolling content without my help I'll eventually forget to keep domination going as I settle into just being a slightly selfish blaster until I eventually get mezzed and remember that fancy little button.
  17. I think you have to score a hit for it to work. Every time I've paid attention it has only failed if TF missed in the first place - and the times I'm not paying attention I can't really vouch for what went wrong.
  18. Some critters have more sleep protection than others. Dominate then levitate and before the critter gets back up you can usually land dominate again, although if you are high enough with recharge you can levitate and land two dominates before the boss can respond. Way way back in the day I used to take them both (back when I could recite from memory every boss' mez resistances). Mesmerize will also put most AVs to sleep in a single hit. It isn't useful very often as your entire team will likely be banging on it, but it can occasionally stop a disaster.
  19. If you are going to insist on range-only, then pick up power push. The DPA is high and it will give you a decent 3 shot single target attack chain.
  20. IIRC it is mag 3.5 or something silly like that, but it will one-shot sleep a typical boss without domination. It was vital back in the day before permadom and it is still helpful while you level up. Damage was meh, expensive on the endurance for what you got. Stick with blasts from the secondary. Levitate was quite fun back in the day, but when I rerolled my old live mind/energy I skipped levitate.
  21. Dark/martial has been fun for me so far. The melee aoe of martial melds well with the pbaoe of hard of darkness. I originally took stealth on that toon for concept reasons; it was unexpectedly helpful at getting time to get off the controls without drawing undue amounts of aggro.
  22. I've had a lot of fun lately with a dark/martial build and a earth/elec build. Both have a decent compliment of melee attacks that, once you are well slotted with IOs, give a "complete-enough" attack chain that you can pretty much attack continuously on a single target. And they both have the perk of a build-up power so opening with an aoe mez is pretty easy. As much as I love energy assault, if your goal is to be melee-centric and to leave out the blasts you will likely be disappointed. I haven't played earth assault yet, I need to find a concept that seems fun.
  23. By default, I always aim for perma-dom. I have a build or two where I did something else but those are the exceptions to the rule.
  24. Mez duration and recharge, and included in the "recharge" bucket is perma-dom. Having a fast animating mez also helps. It can still take some time to stack enough mez to beat 50 mag, and then some AVs have mez resistances. At least this was all true back in the day, I am uncertain if anything has changed with PTOD since way way back when.
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