laudwic

I'm a big fan of Slot Machine. Two short, but fun arcs. They really should be included.

Sappers are annoying as they destroy your endurance which causes your toggles to drop, and, without endurance, you cannot use powers. For that reason, players will prioritize taking them out. On the player side, there are a variety of powers that have a - End element, but they do not produce enough drain to hamper enemies unless you hit with multiple powers AND you heavily slotted the power. If you are successful, an enemy cannot use its powers against you until it regains end through normal regeneration. You do knock down powers - looking at you Storm Shamans and Tsoo Sorcerers. Compare -End to a basic hold power. With one hit not only is the enemy not moving, but it can't use powers. Basic holds will one hit hold a minion or Let. Use the basic hold twice and you hold a boss. If you are playing a Dominator with Domination up (or better permadom), you did not have to hit the boss twice. Not much slotting is needed. Keep hitting the enemy with the hold power and have perma hold. Some hold powers even have additional effects such as damage. Confuse, an extremely underrated class of powers, also will one shot minions and Lets, not only are they no longer against you, they are helping you (with minimal xp loss as you don't get xp from the damage they do.) This can be used on bosses allowing generally a two shot to confuse a boss (one with Domination). If the enemy is alone, confuse is a wonderful improvised hold as you can beat the confused enemy into submission with out it attacking back. When comparing end drain to hold and confuse, - End is anemic and not worth the investment to make usable. A small bump to the base drain of - End powers is called for because, frankly, taking down the red line defeats enemies, but you should be able to sap their endurance better than what is available now. Even with a small bump, - End is still not going to be as efficient as dedicated holds or confuse but it would then be viable and worth slotting.

You'll always have to deal with slow activation times to get momentum for a little while until being slow again. Personally, I don't mind it as it is thematic for my character swinging a energy sword the size of a telephone pole. The attacks do more damage to offset this, but they have announced that they are planning to 'rework' this set which sounds like a nerf. Especially if they are just looking at damage powers for a single attack rather than considering each aspect of the power.

Whataboutism is simply an attempt to deflect an argument without addressing it. Titan weapons has long activation times which are part of the bad and good you have to accept taking the set. It is certainly a valid argument that every aspect of a power and a power set should be considered if the power or set is deemed in need of a change. It is certainly valid to compare one set to another in creating an opinion of what is appropriate to change and what should be a priority. In a game in which players look to every possible advantage, it is certainly appropriate to look at how popular a set is, especially in groups that seek optimization such as farming. If a set that is considered to be out of balance is not utilized in those areas, it is certainly a valid question as to why.

There would be no better patron than Ascendant. I'll try to come up with a power pool that befits his legacy.

Yeah, there is a feeling of a prolonged windup with Titan Weapons, but then I see that I hit each and everyone of the group in front of me with my cone, then I do a single target attack that takes out an untouched mob in one hit. I've been able to take out content that I had to run from or that sent me to the hospital with my prior characters. Yeah, I took damage and had to use inspirations but it was a nice improvement. Fallout Shelter seems to have solved my status effect problem nicely. I haven't changed my mission difficulty yet, but I've taken down two bosses at a time in Steel Canyon without difficulty and routinely take on large at level or plus level groups with use of inspirations (that are replaced by the time the fight is over). I'm finding that I'm comfortable picking fights at mob sizes and levels that I wouldn't have done on my Dominators, Defender or Corrupter at this level. Only click I'm using so far with rad is Radiation Therapy as a early heal. Since I'm planning on skipping Ground Zero, the only other powers in Rad that would require clicking is Particle Shield and Meltdown. With only three clickable powers in Rad, I don't think it will be too clickie. I'm not having any endurance problems yet so I should be fine when I'm starting to run Beta Decay, Tough and Weave since I can just slot stamina some. I'm interested to see what kinda return I get from Beta Decay.

Personally, I prefer to do different content with different characters rather than trying to have one character do everything. For example, my current brute never spoke to her initial contact, rather I used find contact and started immediately after the tutorial with the Matthew Hornsby (sp) arc. Not every one of my alts goes to the Hollows or Faultline or Stirga Island or Croatoa. All of them have great arcs but I can experience them on different characters. With the auction house, if you build the normal named recipes and sell them in the auction house you should make decent amounts of inf. Personally, I use my higher level characters to fund my lower level ones and I try to buy the set IOs as early as I can so I can place low bids and let them sit. It is not unusual to get an IO that is selling for two million at 1.2 million if you have a day or two to let a bid sit.

Nice Quiz. The picture/zone identification page was a great idea.

I've rolled a Titan/Rad Brute as a change of pace. (A Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson Shardbearer theme) I've played a brute, scrapper, and a stalker a little on live, but never got far playing a melee class. I mainly solo or duo as I like to do story arcs and if I have to take time away, even during a mission, I won't hold anyone up. I am up to 11th, and I've been having fun with it. A few questions: 1. Since I mainly solo, is there any reason to take taunt? Anything else skipable with Titan Weapons? 2. Even with all the resistance in Rad, its still worth taking tough and weave, right? (Is there anything good that can be done to make boxing or kick not a total waste of a power slot?) 3. With Defensive Sweep, is it worth putting defense sets in other than just a spot to put in another Luck of the Gambler + Recharge? 4. Any slotting advice for Titan Weapons other than sticking a Force Feedback Chance for Recharge Proc in every power that will take it? 5. Any slotting advice for Rad? Especially for Gamma boost? Assuming I should put in a Steadfast Protection Res/+3% Defense in somewhere. 6. Is Ground Zero skippable considering I'm going to be generally solo? Don't like losing a PBAoE but it is only moderate damage, has a high recharge, and I've got the potential for three cones and one PBAoE in Titan and another in Radiation Therapy. Any advice is appreciated. Not looking to make a farm build, just looking to have fun and have a different play experience as I'm more used to holding mobs and whittling their health away with a Dom or Defender. There is something to be said for charging in and attacking mobs that aren't being held or asleep. Thansk,

Perma-Dom is game changing when you are dealing with bosses or things that can Mez/Hold/Sleep you. (Domination doubles the magnatude of your control powers and gives you really good status protection, plus it recharges your stamina) One shot holding multiple bosses with your AoE hold is a beautiful thing. It takes some work in your build as you really need to concentrate on sets that give bonuses to recharge but it is not difficult to achieve in you early/mid 40s. Yes, you are going to need IO sets to hit PermaDom but they generally are not the massively expensive sets and some of them I would not choose but for the bonus to recharge rate. Looking at you Basilisk's Gaze (tops out at 30) and Decimation (Tops out at 40). If you plan ahead for what you need, you can put significantly lower bids for things in the AH and get them over the next couple of days to save a lot of influence. My Lvl 44 Dom has all of his IOs already purchased for until he is 50. (I don't chase purple sets and I still need to put bids in on enhancement catalysts.) If you plan ahead and have patience it isn't bad. Admittedly, I use my prior 50s to pay for my next character, but my current 44 who has all his IOs purchased currently has over 80 mil in the bank that he generated himself, has been buying his own stuff for awhile now, for my next character and over 900 Reward Merits. (I sell all white recipies to vendors, I generally make and sell all others in the AH for a decent return. White ones sell for less than it costs to make them so they are only worth making them if you want to become poor and get a badge. I don't bother with any of the other AH ways of getting funds.) I've soloed a Grav/Savage dom to fifty and I didn't perceive it as slow as compared to taking my Sentinel to 50 solo. Admittedly, I was doing content that was all new to me at the time so that helped. I've just taken a second dome to 44 again, does not seem slow and has seemed a little faster than getting my corruptor to the same level. Admittedly, the vast majority of my play is solo so if you are grouping your experiences may be different.

I like to offer an expanded menu, not only for OP, but for the adventurous alt maker that my later stumble on this thread. Plus, Water/Dark is really fun.

With Water/Dark you get Twilight Grasp which is a nice team heal/foe -regen, -dmg, -to hit in addition to dehydrate which is a nice power which heals you and damages your enemy.

Can we add a Stickied post the the Guides section that lists all of the Homecoming created/exclusive IO sets? I use paragon wiki's enhancement set list to think about and plan my character. I've seen the additional IO sets in the patch notes, I just like the idea that there could be an official place where we can get info on all IO sets that have been added to Homecoming without having to search through the various patch notes. When new sets are added, they can be added to the guide in an edit. Thanks!

Out of curiosity, how are you slotting Call Swarm? On my Grav/Savage Dom, I have two from Entropic Chaos Acc/Dam and the healing proc. I use this power as part of my attack chain to build blood and it just fits in nicely timing wise. Otherwise its only used to take out a foe with a tick or two of health. Can something more be done with it?

I Hawk is your only consumer, you're going to rebuild blood very quickly from your other powers. Plus, Hawk does an amazing amount of damage, replacing that damage is going to take more time and, possibly I haven't run the numbers, more endurance then just launching Hawk.

I had a Defeat 10 Lost Mission in KR asking me to take out 10 Lost. I decided I really just wanted to do a door mission, so I grabbed a Newspaper mission fighting lost. While in the Newspaper mission, I defeated 10 lost. The defeat 10 lost in KR mission was completed. I continued the Newspaper mission. I found the glowing object, and clicked on it. I got a message that I found the item, but no mission completion. I figured it was a defeat all, and checked over and over, and there were no more mobs in the mission. I exited the mission through the entrance, nothing, and went back in. I still could not complete the mission. I then exited, and autocompleted the mission. I received the same message as I did when I clicked on the item but now in a different color. It appears that if you do a newspaper mission in a zone where you have a defeat #, you can only complete one mission in the instanced map.

I and many others have had reliable perma dom well before 50 from set bonuses, ie. no purple sets required. Yes, you have to actively slot IO sets for recharge, including shoving in a Luck of the Gambler recharge bonus everywhere you can and I also do the knockback chance for recharge proc, but you do not need a single purple set to comfortably have perma dom. If you look up the IO sets that give good recharge bonuses and plan, it is not prohibitively expensive. Most of those sets are not the overpriced ones. Heck, if you put in a little planning and start bidding on enhancements before you need them it isn't even that expensive. My currently level 43 corruptor has already bought all of his enhancements (other than for 50 recharge SOs) for the rest of his career and has millions in the bank from just soloing and crafting/selling set IOs that he finds. (I think crafting and selling other IOs is a waste of influence.)

TLDR: Can you add an icon in with the other icons below your health and stamina while Dark Servant is up? It would help let you know when the Dark Servant decided to leave, again. Better yet, can you change Dark Servant to be up until defeated or dispelled? I just got my grav/savage dominator to 50 and did a bunch of incarnate stuff, but I decided to make an alt. I really enjoyed Singularity, had a Ill/Rad controller with Phants back on live, so I thought I would try a Water/Dark Corruptor. I know that I was spilled with Sing, great pet, love him. Dark Servant is nice, but not as good. I can accept that, but the jerk just leaves with no notice. One thing I like with Sing is that it followed me around and even if it wasn't engaging it was there. It did not go away after a certain amount of time. Dark Servant seems have a duration. I don't see why, but it does. Resummoning it is just an annoyance more than anything else. I don't see why there was a design decision made to have this pet on a time limit when others are not. If keeping the time limit, can we add an icon to icon row once Dark Servant is summoned that goes away when it does? That way I'm not having my character turn around occasionally to see if it decided to leave, again. Thank you for all you do, this is a very minor request that should only be honored if it can be done easily. Yes, it would make me happy, but it isn't high up in the pantheon of things that would help the community as a whole. Yes, Singularity and Phants on Live spoiled me (I had them back when you could have up to three summoned at a time on Live)

I try to do different aspects of the content with different characters. Like I took a Sentinel through the Going Rogue set. My next was Red content only. Another was doing first ward. My next one will go to the Hallows. I still haven't done Croatoa, so that will be another one. You can't do all the content with one character (except by turning off xp or Oroboros) but you can have fresh stuff for your next alt.

Your math is right, but your forgetting that you can get recharge bonuses from IO sets. Those plus some LotG and Force Feedback proc Chance for Recharge in any powers with Knockback got me reliable permadom before 50. For example look for the following IO sets: Melee two five slotted Crushing Impact (5% each set at 5 slot) Ranged: Decimation at 5 slots gives 6.25% my Singularity is slotted with Expedient Reinforcement gives 6.25% Recharge at 4 slots Postitron's Blast from my Targeted AoE gives 6.25% at 4 slots. You get the idea. LotG is not the only source of recharge. Just look for sets that give recharge bonuses that also give you other things you need. archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/Enhancement_Sets is a good place to find out which sets give you recharge bonus and the buy them at the auction house. Remember, always buy the attuned version as they are the same price and are not set to a level but increase as you increase. Also, remember, you want to get higher than 122% as you need to give yourself some extra time to click.

To clarify, I soloed my dominator to 50. I used to have Hasten on auto and manually clicked domination (I've switched them, much better). When I was searching the map after I've taken out all the enemies for the darn blinking thing that I needed to click, I would be paying so much attention to finding the last thing to click on that I would sometimes forget to click on domination immediately after it recharged but the domination bar was still full. Some time would pass, my domination bar would drop to nothing and the fact that my domination power recharged in time didn't help. When that happened, I could just use Frenzy if I wanted domination back on before I fight again.

As with all the alignment powers, you will have it so long as you stay that alignment. So, maybe don't talk to Null the Gull. Frenzy is a clickable power that, on a dominator, makes your domination bar go to 100%. Say I just started my first mission of the day. I have enough recharge to have permadom, but I haven't taken out any enemies yet today so my domination bar is at 0. If I click frenzy, my domination bar is now at 100% so I can click my domination power. Frenzy will recharge in 6 minutes. Say I have enough recharge for for permadom, but I wasn't paying enough attention and I let permadom go down. Now my domination power is recharged, but, since I let permadom drop, my domination bar has dropped to zero. Assuming Frenzy has recharged, I can click that to get my domination bar recharged again. Frenzy just fills the domination bar, you need the domination power recharged, with enough in the domination bar, to activate dom. That help?

If you do enough tip missions choosing the Villain result, then you can do a villain alignment mission. Succeed in that mission, wait a few days and you will be given the Villain alignment power of Frenzy. Clicking on this power will send your domination bar to 100%. It DOES NOT recharge your domination power, but it fills your domination bar so you can click on your domination power if it has recharged. (Filling the domination bar and recharging the domination power are two different things. Permadom is possible by recharging the domination power before it would normally expire which drops the bar. If the domination bar is full and the domination power is recharged, you can hit it again.) This power has a 6 minute recharge time that cannot be changed. I use it to start domination before I start fighting or if I got distracted and let permadom slip.

Others have covered it well already, just to reiterate: Slot Machine's High Roller's Last Gamble was a great. I just liked the twist in this one. Television is a can't miss if you remember pop culture television from the time around when the game was created. Doc Buzzsaw has a few interesting missions. The red side content doesn't always make you feel like the villain you want to be, but this content, story wise on average is better than blue content. I soloed a toon to 50 just to play red and will be doing so again to catch ones I missed.

I'm at work and I don't have Mids but this will give you an idea: Gravity: Crush - skipped - Its an immobilize the best feature was the negative fly Lift - part of my normal attack chain used third. Gravity Distortion - This is the power I used first as it will give bonus damage to subsequent uses of lift or propel Propel - the power I use after Gravity distortion. While it only damages one foe (plus bonus damage from gravity distortion) it knocks others down. If they are getting up, they are not attacking. Crushing Field - Skipped - just AoE Immobilize Dimension Shift - Skipped, others love this, it can be fun but I never got great at aiming it to split groups. Just not fun for me. Gravity Distortion Field - Group hold - I put the dominator set with the energy orb proc. Group hold and a short term agro soak pet. Wormhole - Love this power - it does not need much slotting I did a stun duration set - Grabs and teleports spawns. Solo, grab a few, shove them in a corner, go to town. Those left behind do not aggro. If teaming, it groups spawns together. I find I use it more than Gravity Distortion Field. Just remember to shove them into a corner as they wander when disoriented. Singularity - THE BEST PET EVER - get it, six slot it, tell it how much you love it. This little guy has soloed ambushes for me more times than I want to admit. I've watched it hold an elite boss and it was winning. Note: every spot I could put a chance for recharge in a knockback power. Savage: (sorry, can't find a good list of power on-line and I have to go to a meeting soon) Call Swarm: two slotted this with a healing proc (its a up to level 30 damage set also gave +10% regen) Does a little damage, but remember you WANT blood as it gives you a minor recharge bonus and and nice endurance kick) use this to do that little bit of extra damage, I use it all the time because it activates and recharges very quickly and I want to keep blood up. The only power I skipped was the PbAoE. I found it too small, it ate all your blood counters for too little return. Take both normal melee - six slot them The cone is great to build blood - more useful than you would think at first Feral Charge is great! Teleport in to attack. Just fun. Get Call Hawk - great ranged damage. It is fun to watch it take out a minion alone.) Spot prey is worth having, but not worth extra slots. Blood Craze is a healing power that is worth having but remember, you want to use it early as most of the healing is overtime. I didn't slot this more than the initial. I soloed mine and it did better with much of the harder content than my Sentinel because I would split groups with wormhole. I got kick/tough/weave (Luck of the Gambler bonus recharge in Weave) Hasten two slotted - not permanent but close enough I slotted to get as much recharge as I could to get permadom. Since this was my red side character, I get the villain tip power which fills your domination bar. I got Maneuvers and tactics but I got those at the expense of not having a travel power. Again, a defense power to put in another Luck of the Gambler. (Day job power in Grandville gives a free jetpack - logging off there gives more time to it or you can by 30 min at 5k at P2W) If I'm looking for a flight power, I just get it through P2W or day jobs. I took Mace Mastery as my Epic Scorpion Shield (Def so another place for a Luck of the Gambler) Personal Force Field (I was surprised how nice this power is to have. Basically, it lets me stop taking damage for a minute and figure out how I'm going to handle things or get out of there) Summon Tarantula (summon on to the Elite boss and let it absorb damage for a while) Hope it helps!