RayeGunn

To echo what some others have said, I'd love to see the whole Coming Storm story advanced. I left the game before the Incarnate system was added, and came back and played through the whole story all over, including the new Incarnate/Dark Astoria stuff, and now I am sad that it never got finished, because it seemed to be going someplace interesting. Related to that, possibly, to finish Kallisti Wharf. It's a beautiful zone, just a shame it's lacking any real content. I'd like to see a graphical overhaul with some of the textures. Nothing to change the aesthetics much, just bring them more in line with modern resolutions Soem new costume pieces would be nice. I'd really like some fur collars that can be used with the assorted coats, or some more 'civilian' type clothing for secret identities or non-costumed characters, personally. I'd like a respec-lite added where you just rearrange your slots. There have been times, including right now on my main, where i wish i could just move ONE slot to a different power, but the prospect of doing a full respec and redoing all my trays and everything is... ugh, the stray slot can stay, I'll do without that defense bonus.

It pains me to see Fearsome Stare taken that late. I know you say you are going melee, and I basically did the opposite, i went full on ranged (aside from Midnight Grasp to finish off bosses or anyone who gets too close) and am all about the cones, but Fearsome Stare is such a great opener. It's a soft control that you can use before they are aggroed, it eliminates the alpha strike, and has a significant tohit debuff for some added damage mitigation.

I have the defense IO slotted right now and i can't say it does much even with it stacking with Maneuvers and Link Minds, sadly. The resistance one may be better, i am not sure. Perma Dom can be achieved (though a bit finicky, depends on how well Hasten syncs up, or if you managed to delay Hasten with queuing attacks or something) with (minus Hasten) around 70-75%, but you'll want a bit of wiggle room, so you'll likely want to get to 80-85% or higher for it to be consistent, and give yourself a bit of time to hit it even if you're in the middle of an attack or something. If you take the Secondary Mutation power from the P2W vendor, you have a chance of Quick Reflexes which gives you a 30% bonus which I used while leveling for occasional periods of perma dom before i got all my IO's in place. Incarnate abilities generally work by effectively adding to your powers the way an enhancement would, so if you took Spiritual in your alpha, you get a SO worth of recharge to all powers that can accept recharge. Since you can not slot Domination, I don't think it counts, (but i may be wrong about that, i never took the recharge Incarnate abilities because I had already achieved perma dom, so figured some other stuff would benefit me more) but it would improve the recharge rate of Hasten, which would in effect reduce the recharge of Domination some. Status Effect duration they will help with but it's selective, you have to choose which status effects you want it to boost. *edit - having a look, Ageless would probably help with Domination, if you wanted to go that way, though i'd personally prefer to rely on IO bonuses rather than a second clicky power to get the recharge for Domination high enough.

As has been said, purples are your friend with EBs, since your primary damage mitigation method is not going to work against them very well. But figured i should add that you can save some insps, have a bit more room in your tray for reds/greens, if you go get the Archmage/Demonic accolade power. Demonic is (much) easier to get before 50, and you're redside anyway at the moment if you are doing the arc, and it will convert into Archmage when/if you go blueside again. I know the hunt may be annoying, but you can get all the mobs you need for the CoT badge by cruising the forest in Cap au Diable killing Hordelings, it's way easier than the BP masks the Archmage badge needs (at least before 50ish). And the shield is 50% defense and 30% resistance to all damage types except Psi for 2 minutes. (for Psi, you need Vanguard) which will let you eat the alpha in safety, and hopefully either they will be dead, or the triangles will drop when it falls, or you can pop some purples then. It's totally worth it for EB fights. I've had the Demonic/Archmage badge since i was level 30 or so, and my character leveled solo with the content doing arcs, and that accolade was a lifesaver with EBs and Doms are very soloable, (I usually do +1/x4 or x5 with my dom, even before i hit 50, could probably go higher but that's the sweet spot between cakewalk and challenging for me) it's just EBs can be a bit of a problem due to triangles negating your best defense. but if you want a character that can take anything the game throws at them solo, a Brute is probably your best option, maybe a Mastermind with a good debuffing secondary like Dark, though going /Traps would allow you to solo AVs/GMs because -regen.

though what Waypoint said is true, that you are more after active defense, , and you will always be subject to faceplanting to ambushes or other unexpected adds, which is just the life of a squishy, as I just mentioned in another thread, Dark/Dark provides tohit debuffs. Shadow Field alone is a 20% tohit debuff, so even if the hold component is a little unreliable they are still debuffed, especialyl if you used some attacks on them as well. And if you pair that with some defense abilities (Maneuvers, Stealth, Link Minds etc.) you can get some damn fine defense going, a little bit of defense gets a lot more effective if they enemies have their tohit debuffed. It also has a heal for when things go wrong. You will never be as sturdy as a tanker, but it does help some. Once you get your shield from your ancillary pool that will help too, at least vs the damage types it protects against. (smashing/lethal plus one other depending on the set, except Ice which is defense)

While I can't speak to Grav, I have a Dark/Dark Dom at level 46, and he is a blast to play. He solos easily and does decent damage, but that depends more on your secondary rather than the primary. Dark Assault is very DoT heavy, so you end up with lots and lots of little numbers melting them away over time, (especially with my build that uses Enflame cast on my ghosts on top of that, DoTs everywhere). If you want something more bursty you may want to choose a different secondary. But Dark Assault does pair well with Dark Control to get stacking tohit debuffs. It's no Dark Miasma or Rad, but if you have a bit of defense happening from maneuvers, or stealth or whatever, it adds up to some pretty solid extra damage mitigation. But I think Psi or Fire would also pair well, depending if you want a more ranged or melee playstyle. I favor ranged, personally. But it's very solid AoE control, once you get Fearsome Stare, and I love sets with a confuse, it's so handy to confuse mobs with buffs or heals, or if Domination isn't up, and the group is not aggroed, i like to confuse bosses before using holds on them, so i can enter the fight with the boss not attacking me. Though a Shadow Field then immediately holding the boss also works. My usual is to open with a Possession since it doesn't aggro, then Fearsome Stare, Living Shadows, Haunt, hold and /or confuse some guys, and AoE till they're dead, more or less. Shadow Field if there are adds, the map means a cone won't hit them right, or they are resistant to Fear (damn Nemesis), or i just want some extra tohit debuff, or i am trying to lock down multiple bosses or a tough opponent like an EB/AV. On teams you will likely end up spamming Fearsome Stare and your attacks most of the time, honestly, maybe Living Shadows if managing knockback is a concern. Most other controls will be wasted as things tend to die too fast. But AVs will benefit from more of your skills, you should be able to easily lock down an AV with Shadow Field and your single target hold, triangles permitting. You'll also greatly benefit from a lot of +rech even if you don't opt to go all the way for Perma Dom, Since Shadow Field, Haunt, and to a lesser extent Fearsome Stare have hefty recharge times, so definitely fit Hasten in there. I took some video of me playing the character at level 36, he's a bit more beastly now. I may take more once i hit 47 and have World of Confusion.

Well, not being the most unique around with my Dark/Dark Dom, (tho it is fun and effective so don't care) but my Dark/WP brute is kinda unique. Not surprised by the dominance of Emp for Defenders, but am a little disappointed because you know a lot of those are not taking full advantage of Emp's amazing buffs, but are instead just being healbots. Been on a few teams with aura spamming healbots sitting in the middle of the squishies and doing not much else, no Fort, etc. just rocking that aura, waiting for someone's health to drop so they can Heal other. Was surprised to see Illusion so high for controllers, since i didn't feel like i saw too many Illusion trollers around, but as i think about it, it makes sense because that is the one set you can't do as a Dom.

I came to post the same thing. I like the change to Stealth no longer slowing your movement, i can now turn off sprint in combat, keeping Stealth on just for the defense, or getting a little closer without being detected (dominator, like to open with a confuse or two) and only use it when i am ghosting a mission, but it seems Stealth's graphics got switched with Invisibility or something in the process, which is a bit of a shame. you can see in the top bar, i have Stealth and Sprint (with a Celerity +Stealth enhancement) on, it didn't used to completely hide my character like that before, it was more like halfway translucent with shimmery edges from Stealth