laudwic

I generally stop double xp at 40 as inf starts building up at those levels and you will need to do multiple contacts if you want the Portal Jockey badge. Plus, lvl 50 white recipes are a great source of funds just selling to contact. I find this way by the time this one gets to 50, it will pay for the IOs for my next one.

Plus, fighting with Ascendant is always a plus. I remember him from live, I'm always happy to see him there, I just wish you could overhear some of his conversations on local. Never been a fan of his breakfast cereal though.

This is where I would like a "Holy Crap!" reaction for forum posts. . . .

When the company creates a license that allows exactly that, absolutely! The Open Gaming License that WoTC is seeking to replace allows the use of parts of the DnD rule set and certain IP for free. Frankly, while I do not do IP work and I'm interesting to hear from someone that does, I don't see how they get out of the OGL for 3e and 5e products. If WoTC continues their current direction for 6e, I think they are going to take a decent sales hit. Creating the onerous new version of the OGL at the same time Hasbro has been pretty vocal that DnD is not monetized enough is a fine example of bad timing.

Show us on this doll where the Circle of Thorns hurt you. . . .

At that point you start to realize that Circle of Thorns is also ahead on portal tech.

By worst, I'm assuming you mean most annoying to fight. Personally, Carnival of Shadows: Master Illusionists. If I'm playing a controller or, better, a Dominator, they aren't bad because I can hold them. Otherwise, major pain in the rear.

Personally, with my ninja/TA I took Heat Mastery and took Bonfire. When you add a Knockback/knockdown proc in it, it is amazing especially when you add a damage IO set. I alternate between that and the oil slick/fireball when attacking groups.

I like arcs because I really enjoy some of the Stories. If you have played Red Side, you will remember Radio, Television, and the Slot Machine Arcs. On Blue Side, I remember being recruited by Laura the events of those missions, and then having the ability to redo everything to make one important change. (The best use of Oroborus) Plus, the finish arc xp bonus is nice and always satisfying when it leads to a level. Part of what makes CoH is that you can drop in and out, do a mission and feel like you accomplished something. Arcs are great is it gives greater depth to the game, and is more satisfying that just a bashfest. Sure, is it Planescape: Torment, no. Even so, there is a certain amount of joy in doing Laura's arc a second time. I still think some of the Red Side Arcs just have amazing writing. The ability in Gold Side to see other contacts and alter missions is great.

I think radios are a little bit abused by groups by doing repeated Council missions as a way to power level. That abuse is so minor it is not worth dealing with. Otherwise, Radio missions are great for when you want to do something quick. I little more variety would be nice at the higher levels would be nice as there are a lot of enemy groups in PI that are not represented in missions where Council and Archanos seem to be overrepresented. Also, with Portal Corps there, you can have almost anything. Dark Astoria could use some additional repeatable missions. Tip Missions are also a great addition to the game. My only request would be to add some additional missions in the 40+ range. I really like tip missions but they start to get repetitive.

Symphony Pet has it's problems, I still wish it had an ability to use an attack that wasn't mirroring something you did, if you are using your Dom powers mirrors of the cones have saved my rear end and it serves as a decent damage sponge at times. The Symphony pet can be lackluster and I would rather have Phantasm than Reverberant when it comes down to it. I would take I would take Umbral Beast over Phantasm. Singularity is FAR superior to any of the other pets. I have watched Singularity solo an Elite Boss I did not realize had come up behind my character. It would have taken awhile, but Singularity would have won by itself. You should not be comparing Phantom Army with Reverberant. Now, would I take DOM Phantom Army over Confounding Chant other than the it's cute factor? These are the powers at the same level, both are to be AoE Control and Damage. Confounding Chant is a Cone Superior DoT and Disorient. Slotted correctly it will do enough or almost enough damage to take out minions, and it will significantly damage LTs and stun them until you take them out. Confounding Chant benefits from Domination. PA on DOM offers little control, does not do well with large spawns, has some damage but significantly less than Confounding Chant, and while there is some wandering for a Stun, Confounding Chant offers far superior control. The most apt comparison for Dom Phantom Army is Darkness Haunt. Same level, similar powers. Phantom Army has 3 versus 2 summoned by Haunt, PA does a little more damage before heal back, after healback Haunt does 3x the damage. Haunt does accuracy debuff and PA does some minor knockdown/stun/sleep. Oh, and Haunt has Taunt. Haunt has a shorter recharge time and costs half as much end to cast. PA can't be killed, Haunt can. I think Haunt has a longer duration of 60 seconds vs. 45 for PA. I've got my 4 doms to 50 via the vast majority or entirely solo no use of AE, as with an Ill/TA controller. Leveling up a Sym/Eng before taking a Ill/Eng Dom in test and live. I can see the difference. My Ill/Eng is currenlty only 32, but I did a bunch of ignored testing on Beta for Ill/Eng and Ill/Fire.

I am leveling up a Ill/Eng right now. Compared to the Symphony/Energy I just leveled up it is no where near as effective. Confounding Chant is not as 'neat' but far more effective than the DOM version of PA for damage output and far better as a control. Enfeebling Lullaby does more damage than Gleam. Impassioned Serenade does damage as confuse while Deceive does not. Personally, no damage is better as you can sit at range and hit a boss with confuse twice before it notices something is going on. Personally, Illusion is just 'ok' on DOMs. Five of Nine can benefit from Domination. Gleam is too similar to Flash. Frankly, if you want Illusion, the Controller version has FAR superior versions of Phantom Army and Phantasm as the Controller versions have controls through taunt rather than knockdown/sleep/stun and the Controller versions of the powers do significantly more damage. Spectral Wall on Dom is a single target Immobilize, great graphics but generally skippable, Gleam is better than Group Invisibility but that superiority is negated a little as I don't see the need for both Gleam and Flash in a build. The main advantage of the Dom version of Illusion is Spectral Terror is at 6 rather than 22. Note, this was all brought up in the Beta responses to this power set with no response.

Your response has absolutely nothing to do with the complaint that was being made. My point acknowledged that there was testing prior to beta and simple extended the idea to if you are not actually seeking feedback do not ask for it. My request was only an occasional or blanket responses be made when feedback is received instead of five pages of feedback met by silence. I did not suggest for removal or delay of updates or some mythical perfect system. If Devs ask for general feedback, they should be prepared to provide some measure of responses. It is basic curtesy and builds community. If Devs only want feedback on a specific issue, state that on the onset. Transparency is helpful and builds community. If Devs do not want feedback, do not ask for it. Providing feedback when it does not appear to be desired is frustrating and destructive to community.

With that explanation, respectfully, you need to better decide if you are going to put things on Beta or not. Requesting feedback and then not responding is discouraging. Reading a post that chides about involvement after experiencing a complete lack of feedback leaves a very poor taste. As it currently exists, there is an expectation that there would be some reasonable amount of back and forth. If there is a request for feedback, the proponent of the change should expect to make the occasional, even blanket, reply. If there is no intention to respond to feedback, state that in the onset. For example: "This powerset represents the proliferation of the Illusion Control set from Controller to Dominator. In doing so, we have replaced and reimagined some of the powers. After internal testing, we are confident that the set is ready for the Live server and are solely seeking feedback for bugs or other difficulties related to the powers. We are not seeking feedback for the functionality or design decisions in revising this set to make it appropriate for use with the Dominator class at this time. Please limit your responses accordingly."

I understand using Discord for development, but you also request feedback in the beta forums. In some areas, there are robust replies from the CoH Developers, other areas, no response or feedback at all. I spent a good amount of time on the Beta Server testing the DOM version of Illusion at different levels, different secondary power sets, and running comparable content between a Ill/Eng DOM and a Ill/TA Controller to better compare the two sets. There was exceedingly minimal response from the Devs on that thread. The only thing keeping me from saying there was zero interaction from the Devs was a single post on an ancillary topic. There were no replies or attempts to respond to any of the posts related to the actual set itself. So, there was no meaningful interaction from the Devs for the purpose of that forum topic. Beta Dom Illusion went to live without a change. Currently, the top post in the Dominator forum is about issues in Phantom Army that were raised and ignored in the Beta forums. I'm sorry if this reads bluntly, I got involved, I did was was requested, it was ignored. If you ask for feedback and people take the time and effort to provide what you ask, a curtesy blanket reply that covers a topic in multiple postings would be appropriate.

I have three 50 Doms, (Grav/Savage, Darkness/Electricity, and Symphony/Energy) and two 50 Controllers (Illusion/TA, Grav/Storm). Each has level 4 in all their incarnates. All have been leveled up to 50/Incarnates predominately solo. Only the Symphony/Energy got experience boosters, and even then only to 40th. (Some content seems reparative, I like earning powers faster, and the lose of inf does not seem to be much of a lose before 40.) I have a lot of time in each of these characters. In my mind, the only real problem with Doms is you have to have inf from another character to fund them. All of my Doms were funded by prior characters so they would able to get IOs as soon as they were available and have permadom in the low 40s. Doms are not hard to build, but they take more planning than other ATs for slots and IO set selection. It isn't hard to get the set with a recharge bonus, but you have to understand it is there and a goal. All of my Dominators comfortably had Permadom in their 40s based off hasten, set bonuses and a Luck of the Gamble Plus Recharge Proc or two (Force Feedback Proc if I had knockback powers). Permadom is class defining, but they are certainly playable prior to 40s. Pre-permadom you are clicking dominate to either break a hold (if you don't have an inspiration) or a boss fight to one shot hold a boss. Controllers are less solo friendly, while Illusion is much better on Controller than it is on Dom, my Ill/TA Controller needs to rely upon the Sorcery pool to gain an attack. My Gravity/Storm Controller has enough attacks because of how Gravity is. Both Controllers suffer from the fact that they rely upon the Controller damage bonus to held enemies to speed up combat but is hard to consistently hold EBs to get a damage bonus.

Honestly, it seems the types of Phantom Army are reversed. Dominator, a class more built for Solo (as is the case for all red side ATs) and has sets with Melee attack powers currently has the version that is less damage and more traditional controls that would play better at range and Controller, a more team based class, has the version with more damage and Taunt (don't attack me) not traditional controls that work great at drawing away agroo.

Ok, point by point: Of course Dominators are not 'just damage focused' - you miss my point, the Assault secondary, which is only for Dominators, is absolutely damage focused. Especially when you compare it to the Controller Secondary - aka Defender primaries which focus on mitigation. Ok, Ill/TA Controllers - frankly, mine relies more on the Sorcery Power Pool (Arcane Bolt and Enflame) and Fire Mastery (fireball) for damage with Spectral wounds for damage, TA is a great set for everything, but it is still more of a mitigation/control set than damage. I don't understand your ill/fire references, frankly I think Energy has better stun potential but I've never played fire. No, what I would like is a clear vision for the new Dominator versions for Phantom Army and Phantasm. The current versions are the Diet Softdrink of the powers world. As they currently exist, the Controller versions do more damage and provide more control. My Ill/TA Controller has a lot easier time with the Halloween EBs than my test Ill/Energy Dom. My suggestions for changes to this set after this thread and testing: Gleam - Reluctantly it should stay the same as the Symphony Control power I was comparing it to is over powered and the centerpiece power of that set. Gleam's damage, while pathetic, is consistent with other similar powers at that level. Note: I still would love for it to become Positron's Irresistible Boogie by replacing the stun emotes with random dance emotes plus adding a disco ball for the duration. The current graphics are nice, but it is too similar to Flash. Phantom Army: Increase damage to Controller levels, if not a small amount higher. Add Taunt same magnitude but 1/2 duration to all Melee attacks. (The Controller PA Taunt duration is too high) At a minimum damage should be equal, while I still think it should be higher on a Dominator power rather than a controller. Right now the damage mitigation is very skewed to Controller, adding same magnitude but 1/2 duration taunt to melee (ie. 1/2 the attacks) will remove some of the difference. I still think the controller version is better, but this evens it up some and encourages Doms to fight along side of Phantom Army. Phantasm: Keep it the same for both classes (Ie: give taunt back to decoys for Doms) Either fix the AI (I apologize that I do not have the programming knowledge or skill to understand if this is a major undertaking or not but I do remember the Symphony AI changing a couple of times during test. I don't know if that is an apt comparison or not.) If we can't change the AI to range, give it a melee power (punch or energy punch) as charging in without an attack just doesn't make sense. Or, an idea I really like, make the AI ranged for Contollers and Current for Doms with a melee attack added (with decoys having taunt restored - it is the whole point of the decoy) Also, since it is what I want, having the ability to have your Phantasm look like you (as well as the Decoy) would be great!

I've just soloed a Syn/Energy to 50 and I've been testing an Ill/Energy, if your concern with Energy is Knockback, honestly, you'll learn to manage, it isn't too bad anyways, and, frankly, it is a heck of an asset. I five slot both Sniper Blas and Power Burst with sets for recharge bonuses, then put a Force Feedback chance for recharge in both. I don't bother to put in more because you can't have many proc at once. Note, the set is good but when you have Total Focus and Power Burst the set really takes off. In play, Total Focus can defeat minions in one hit, then you get Energy Focus and can either take the damage bonus with Power Burst or use Bone Smasher with it's great additional effects like harming their regeneration. (especially if you take the Power Up bonus) My Illusion/Energy on test is nice. Not as good as my Symphony/Energy (Confounding Chant is just that good, and they need to fix Phantom Army and Phantasm - I do not understand why they are currently worse at both damage and control when compared to the Controller version. Hopefully they'll fix it.) Energy is a really really good set. Don't let knockback concern you. You will find it to be an asset, or manage it if you have to. You won't need Kb->Kd unless you want to put it in Phants.

More on Phantasm - I tried to check the info while playing last night, but I could not get info to work to give me stats on Phantasm Decoys. Looking at City of Data: Controller version: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pets.decoyphantasm.energy_torrent&at=minion_pets 58.7244 Damage (all heals back) but 13.33 Mag 4 Taunt Dominator Version https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pets.decoyphantasm_dominator.energy_torrent&at=minion_pets 58.744 Damage (all heals back - same damage, improvement but Dominators should still have higher damage than controllers) 60% chance of a Mag 6.231 Knockback So the difference is Controllers get 100% chance of great mitigation (wasting attacks on something immune) and Dominators get 40% chance of no mitigation and 60% chance of one of the most hated mitigation (admittedly you can get a knockback to knockdown enhancement but that costs inf AND you lose one of your limited enhancement slots.) Dominators are damage focused, their version of illusion, especially on the two pet powers should not do inferior damage when compared to the controller version. Especially when the controller version also is vastly superior in its control ability by having Mag 4 taunts with high duration compared to mag 3 sleep, Mag 2 stun (in PA only) or knockback (Phant and PA)(yes, some other minor secondary enhancements that are negligible value, if your not dedicated sapper, minor end drain is meaningless. Minor slow for six seconds also pales in comparison to the mitigation of a 25 second mag 4 taunt to invulnerable pets. Plus, pets will knock other out of sleep that that isn't a big deal and these things are like a pickup group as you don't know what power they are going to use and they will not work together to do things like stack stuns.)

One other idea, and this is for the future as I do not want to delay the set but really thinking about how Flash and Gleam are thematically so close and please excuse my programing ignorance. Would it be possible with Gleam to keep the power mechanically the same (damage should still be higher) but instead of the stun animation (still the same stun power and same basic effect) on the enemies have them do random dance emotes that are already in the game instead of the stun emotes? Add in a disco ball during the duration. Instead of another flash, you are, essentially doing (copywrited name) Irresistible Dance. Instead of Gleam call it Dance, Disco, or Rave. Just an idea, thanks for all you do.

No taunt on the ranged attacks but maybe a lower magnitude (as compared to controller) taunt on the melee attacks?

We keep talking about it, but has anyone run a Yin in the test server to test the concerns about earlier access to the nukes? I would really be interested in the results of those runs. I ran a pickup group Yin on Torchbearer this last weekend with my 50 Symphony/Energy Dom just to get an idea since it keeps coming up here and get the badge. Admittedly, I have this one set up well with IOs. In the current incarnation of the game, I was able to keep Permadom going the entire task force. With that, I still had Confounding Chant doing Superior DoT (slotted with Positron's Blast) covering an area as large as or almost as large as a nuke. I was covering entire groups. Sure, I didn't take them down with that shot, but they were all stunned, including bosses, and the DoT would take a very good percentage of the hit points. Close to all for minions. The point is we can already do a heck of a lot, especially when we are exemplored (sp) down. My humble brag aside, I'm sure there are other examples. My expectation is that the Nukes are not going to be well slotted, not have much recharge, and normal secondary slotting (like lower endurance cost) is going to suffer from lack of slots. If that is the case, I do not see earlier access to nukes as a big change. Mastermind final upgrade is more of a bonus in my mind, but that is still not enough for me to stop this change or to increase HP at the mid/late 20s to compensate for the change. My knee jerk is that the advantage gained by lowering the level in which these powers can be acquired is not going to be as much of a power boast as compared to exempolored (sp) down characters already create and will be mitigated to some extent by the lack of enhancement slots as, in my experience, Primary/Secondary powers are more slot heavy than pool powers. Less slots less improvements to powers. I don't see this change being extreme enough to make a need to do the additional work to balance this the same way I do not see the additional work necessary to balance the game to IO (especially sets) instead of SOs. I do think the newer content, especially the high level content is balanced to IOs. I would really like to see some folks actually run this to see if the concerns really justify increasing the hit points or other ways to increase the difficulty before we do it. Can someone with a lot more contacts than me, and less family responsivities, organize a few runs? Side Note: Imagine if this change goes into effect before the Halloween event is over. You are going to have a ton of respecs cursing because they have to clear out all the temporary power Halloween Costumes while rearranging their power tray doing a respec. . .

After some additional testing: 1. Blind - It is a port of the controller version, fine power, the occasional spill over sleep is nice but happens very rarely as enemies are generally spread out to avoid AoEs 2. Spectral Wall - Nice work on the graphics but I expect this power will be greatly underused. The -ToHit is nice, but if the target is held with Bind or is attacking it's comrades with Deceive they are not attacking you at all. I have a bias against immobilize powers, especially for dominators that go into melee, because I feel the powers just give so much less utility compared to hold, stuns or confuses. Confuse an enemy that is alone, they just stand there. The power is fine, but it will be underused and skipped. Maybe up the damage? The main redeeming feature is the graphics. 3. Deceive - It is a port of the controller version, fine power. 4. Spectral Terror - It has always been an underrated power. Having it at a lower level should get folks to realize how good it has always been. Another port over power. 5. Superior Invisibility - It is a port of the controller version, fine power. Great mule for a LoTG Recharge bonus. 6. Gleam - Nice work on graphics. I feel like it should do more damage out of the box as I am comparing it to the Symphony Stun Cone that does far more damage. I have not tried just shoving a ton of damage Procs into it. The only thing that kills me with that is this is a dominator, perma dom is so important in this class anything that takes away from a recharge bonus is not a good thing. I would rather see the power do moderate damage out of the box (currently seems to do minor and compared to Symphony's Stun Cone Superior DoT) and be able to put a stun set into it to get the recharge. If anyone has filled this with Procs, how did that go? 7. Phantom Army - You have to slot this for damage slots will increase the damage but the heal back does not scale with it (same as controller version). In my mind, the controller version is control through the taunt on the three copies and the damage is a bonus (the damage seems to be the same between the two powers). The Dominator version replaces the taunt with sleep, knockdown, and other 'secondary' effects of powers. Knockdown is great against thing susceptible to knockdown, energy drain is not helpful unless you build a dedicated sapper. When you put Phantom Army on a boss or EB, it can certainly help overwhelm them. You are going to get attacked, but they are certainly helpful. When you drop them in a large spawn, they are less helpful as their attention is not concentrated and a good percentage of their damage heals. So, against a single target I would say it is slightly better than the controller version, against large groups of minions and lts, give me the controller version every day. Looking at my 50 ill/TA Controller and my test character, the damage seems to be at the same baseline (I am not sure and I don't have access to the game) I would prefer the controller version of the power, but, if that is not where you are going, this power should have a damage bump compared to the Controller version. The design idea seems to be that dominators are control and do damage while controllers are control and mitigation. With that in mind, Phantom Army for Dominators has some control, (their control is flashier but if all attacks of a spawn are going to immune targets due to taunt, that control is more effective) but controller's control in the power is more effective. Dominators should have a higher damage baseline. I could be wrong, but that does not seem to be the case. **EDIT: Checking City of Data, the Controller version does more damage. It should be the other way around. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/index.html For Example: Controller Phantom Army with Ice Sword 73.4055 (-56.7224) 27.2 sec Mage 4 taunt Dominator Ice Sword 55.6102 (-42.97) with (-20 Jumpheight, RechargeTime Strength 6s, -20% Run/fly/jump speed 6s) and 11.92 second Sleep Mag 3. - Think about that further, the base damage is also what is being effected by damage enhancements, so higher base damage = more bang for your inf on enhancements. I'll take a 27 sec Mag 4 taunt over a 12 sec (at best) Mag 2 sleep any day. The movement speed changes for 6 seconds are negligible. The same holds true for the other decoy powers.*** 8. Flash - Another port. Fine. This has never been a favorite of mine, and feels a little lack luster and reparative with Gleam. I prefer holds, but I also prefer ranged AoEs. In this way Gleam wins out. With a Dominator, PBAoEs are more fitting of the playstyle than Controllers, but I see this power relegated to more of a 'bleep, I'm surrounded' power. Maybe to stack blind before domination is up. 9. Phants - Port over of the Controller version with the same, shoot, shoot, charge in for no good reason AI. This has been listed as a bug since the days of live. I posted before some reasons to keep it the same AI but just give it some kind of Melee power. I wouldn't mind that as my Dominators generally play range then charge in. Thanks for all your hard work, hope this helps.