Voltak

I used to play Mind Dominator in Live server. Thematically speaking, and even technically speaking, Mind should be the king of controls. 1. Controlling the mind is pretty powerful stuff, makes me think of Xavier from X men. 2. It has no pets. 3. Telekinesis was indeed the juice pre nerf. Telekinesis was the bomb in PvP before the nuke bomb of issue 13 which rendered PVP so much inferior and a huge exodus happened after those changes and shortly after the game died. Mind should be the ultimate control set in my opinion, if I had decision making power in the game, I would make sure that Mind has a slight edge over any other control set, specifically in hard controls.

Spaghetti Betty is a totally awesome person. I would like to add to that something else. By running the hard core content like ITF 4 stars, you not only gain those Aethers , but you also gain a lot of influence and xp. When ITF 4 star first came out, yeah, sure I made tons by selling the Aethers but the influence I made just running the ITF was great as well. 4 stars has a greater drop of influence than any other settings in the game. It's harder than your standard 54x8.

Taking about Sinclair ... WHILE CONVENIENTLY avoiding the subjects of what was brought up before, the subject of fighting LVL 54s , AV lvl 54s. I posted a video of me soloing a LVL 54 AV , all normal inspirations with a Dominator. We are talking about soloing AVs with a DOMINATOR. We are not talking about other ATs at all here. You are here trying to give guidance and advice or projecting like you know what Dominators have an advantage over other Dominators when soloing AVs. BUT YOU HAVE NEVER DONE IT. You have zero successful experience soloing AVs with a Dominator. So, when you say that a Mind Dominator has the advantage or has an adavantage over a Dark dominator... well, it's hard to argue with you and reach an understanding since you are talking from a position with no successful practical experience doing this with a Dominator. So you come here to argue not because you know how to do it but because of hubris. You talking about self hype ?? Dude, you are the person that said I am the first person in the game to QUESTION YOUR experience when I told you that you have no experience soloing successfully AVs with a Dominator. How dare I question you, sir, how dare I ?? Wow, talk about self hype. NO, I'm not questioning. I am telling you flat out, you don't have any. About trays closed ... You are conveniently avoiding to talk about or accept that I did solo and successfully completed the LRSF and the ITF, 54x8, and both of them had Inspirations DISABLED Temp Powers DISABLED Zero Deaths allowed settings enabled You are just a troll and a sour troll.

Undertaker enters the room....

The other way is for a proc build. Now, be advised, due to the changes in the game, having soft cap S/L defense now is not the same as it was before the changes. You are going run into more risks. In that case a lot changes, since it is no longer a range defense build. With a range defense build, the goal would be to just place the procs after you reach the 45 line. I play procs when in teams that buff me. I just unslot some stuff and slot the procs in. I carry them with me and I carry unslotters. Otherwise I don't run proc build when I am solo doing some of this stuff

You have not solo'd successfully any AV lvl 54s with a dominator and using no temporary powers whatsoever. You have not completed any Task Force at lvl 54 with a dominator where you face off vs AVs lvl 54, with the settings of the task force being , 54x8, no insps, and no temps. You are not here claiming that you are, are you? If I am correct, again, if I am correct, then I don't know why you have a problem with my comment. I certainly don't see why in the world you see me as questioning your experience. I am not questioning at all. You have no solid successful experience of soloing a lvl 54 AV with a dominator without using temporary powers That's not a question. Feel me? Also, you said -- "I have zero experience solo'ing a dom against lvl 54 AV's using the training wheels that you drive with. " The correct statement is then, you have zero experience SUCCESSFULLy soloing AVs at lvl 54 with dominators. As far as training wheels go, where you the one tho solo'd the LRSF at 54x8, no insps, no deaths, no temps, or even the old classic ITF, under the same settings ? Was that you, or was that me ?? I have seen you come to the threads where I come and all you do is troll me and pick on me. What's your problem with me? Show me what you can do with your "theories" , show me what you can do with your dominator. The video evidence of what I have been able to do with my dominators all speak for themselves. I have never ever used super insps in the stuff I mentioned above. 1. Lvl 54 fight vs Carnies AV (blaster) all normal inspirations. ( evidence is on video provided below) 2. Both LRSF and ITF , 54x8, settings of them BOTH were for NO INSPS, NO TEMPS, NO DEATHS allowed, and that you can verify on video. (evidence is there on video for anyone to see ) You get your rocks off doing this? You find self fulfillment trying to come at me on the message boards? Leave me alone, dude. Go spend your time doing something worthwhile for yourself and go enjoy the game. Yeah, we don't play the game the same way. I love to do challenging things in the game. The game is otherwise too easy. But I love how you have a knack to offer your insight on something you have no experience doing Keep telling me how to do something I have already done successfully with my dominator while you have never done it with yours.

I dont question your game experience. Your game experience is not the subject matter here. But you are not trying to tell me that you have any good experience soloing AV's lvl 54 with a dominator without using temps, correct ? I am being optimistic about this. I am assuming that you are not trying to tell me that. Am I right? Because if I am wrong... Now that is more than just a chuckle. I tried to tell you that Mind does not have the advantage over a Dark dom when soloing an AV So, do you have solid experience in soloing an AV lvl 54 with a dominator? Just in case -- I could care less about any other AT soloing AVs. I am referring specifically to Dominators. I was treating you with respect and here you are unveiling yourself. Now you are just trolling I did not lean on it heavily. Like I said, it was just something that adds to everything else. No way was that an " I win" button, not ever. One thing is the AT and the build, the other part is the driver.

I dont think Shadow field is bugged. Domination causes Shadow Field to cast a pseudo pet. That's the code, it's the way it is. There was an old discussion I saw about this with the Devs. At the time, the code written was the only way they could see of doing this because what happens is the summoning of the pseudo pets for Doms. So you SEE ONE shadow field, but in reality there are TWO shadows field there. Carnies blaster AV also has build up, I still beat her. Granted, for that fight I needed inspirations. Still took her down , no temp powers. I got hit enough to be a very good fight, if dangerous. I dont know who values the to hit debuffs vs AVs a lot, but I do like that it all helps and comes together. Again, hitting sleep on an AV and waiting for the build up to go, it is a pause, but I am certain it hurts your efforts to get that AV dead in the shortest time possible. Look, not trying to argue nor stir anything up, but regen does not stop. DPS not being applied is not progress, also, I am going to assume you don't have any experience fighting AVs, solo at level 54 with a dominator. You dont have time to pause and let the stacks of mezzos fall off. A lvl 54 AV will cause your mez stacks to go away faster than a lower level AV. My DPS chains always include the mez and that cannot stop for me. I need the stacks to be as high as I can reasonably maintain them Therefore if you doing nothing, sleep and wait, then actually will hurt your fight, in more than one way. It is very challenging to write all of this without sounding like I am just filled with hubris or I think I am "special". It is far from the point. Again, if you go out and try to do this, you might understand me better. It is very hard to discuss some of these things with people who have theories and numbers on paper but don't have the actual practical and successful experience doing this very specific thing a lot of times. Some things I cannot teach here on the forums. I cannot simply write out and explain all details. Many things about soloing a lvl 54 AV SPECIFICALLY as a dominator, with no temps, can only be learned or understood via practice. Mind has no advantage over a Dark Dominator when soloing an AV. It has different instruments , yes, but that does not make it better nor a set with an advantage over Dark. Dark has way more DPS than mind when soloing an AV and ultimately, that's the crux of the matter. The best defense is a great offense.

It is posted, the general build with procs, for general content, that's posted in the forums, my friend.

Every little bit helps and it adds to your defenses. Allowing you to sometimes slot for less defense and more dmg or procs. Also there is no such thing as a pause when fighting an AV. The health bar either goes down or it goes up towards full health. Putting the AV to sleep and doing nothing to wake the AV means the regen of the AV is going full swing with no counter. That's not a pause, that's going in reverse. If you mean a safety way out, then sure, anyone can run away and exit the mission, if that is what you mean with "pause". After soloing so many of AVs at lvl 54s, I know at a certain point wether he or she can be killed or not, long before I ever reach a point where I am in danger of being close to dying. If I realize he or she can't be killed, then I just move out and move on. But this discussion is almost irrelevant, the number of players who actually want to solo with a Dominator an AV of lvl 54 or level 52 are very very few. The ones who can actually do it are even fewer. I understand players just want to be casual about the game and stick to the easy content that CoH has far and away. So most build can do the job and most sets or all sets can do the job just fine. My opinion is to pick up and play what you love or what you like a lot, and if you can, then just experiment with different stuff. When you feel the reality that CoH is just way too easy of a game, and then you feel the urge or desire to go out and seek to do very difficult things, then, at that point, you really need to look for the best of the best within the power sets. For me, what Dark/Dark has been able to achieve in my hands, is nothing short of amazing, the Lord Recluse Strike Force at 54x8 with no inspirations and no deaths the ITF 54x8 (older version, which was way harder because of the white Dwarfs and Novas) no inspirations, no deaths Beating the Carnies lvl 54 AV (A getting to her was a difficult thing since she's in mid map surrounded by Carnies, and getting to her via defeating the Carnies, with the use of ZERO inspirations, and then when you face her, she's a blaster and she hits with what seems like nukes all the time) Among, the other things, those things really cement the fact that Dar/Dark is the best or among the best. I loved the set since it came out in live server, and it's dear to me. One of the best, if not the best, control set ever created by the Devs.

Thank you for the mention. Handshake, brother. Hope all is well with you. Actually, mind has no advantage over Dark when soloing AVs. Dark has an advantage over Mind that Mind will not ever be able to catch up, and that is in the dmg department. Also, the combination of dark/dark plus power boost , means that your to hit debuffs from everything provides a useful resource. Dominators get a pseudo double patch of the AoE hold area, the hold is not really the big deal, the big deal is the double patch provides a very nice accumulation of to hit debuff when domination is up and sweeter even when power boosted.

Dark Assault is absolutely amazing, besides hitting hard, it is the best utility assault set in the game for dominators. The runner up for utility is .... ---> Psi Assault is very good, and Drain Psych is simply ... well, nothing compares to it at all. Energy hits extremely hard as well. The new Thorns is now good Earth is the true king of smash and a good additional control , even soft control , too

Hey, thanks for taking the time to write and thanks for the intention to help. I think I should shed some light to you and help you understand me better. I think your intentions are good but you lacking a bit of my vision and understanding of my intent. So here I go --> I have a Night Widow build and a Fortunata build. The problem with Widows is trying to do what I have been able to do with my Fortunata. The widow's ceiling for being able to do... it's lower than the Fortunata The build here is tailored for 1. When I was aiming to do Solo the classic ITF , +4x8, no inspirations, no deaths. That aim was achieved. The widow has ZERO chance to do that. Being melee means you are exposed to the heavy defense debuffs which abound in the ITF, in the old version of the ITF , it was worse, since the white dwarf also debuffed you in melee range. 2. For team play doing the ITF four star and AEON on relentless and the 801s series and other high challenge AE content. Again, for team, it's a waste to go for First Aid. Dropping to many good powers or options to get that First Aid. Not worth it. The team is already covering you for that. Fortunata's positional defenses and the virtue of being in range provides a vastly bigger defense instrument which Widows simply cannot take avvantage of. First Aid... I never needed it, don't miss it at all. So for the purpose of the build I don't recommend any player dropping anything in this build to get First Aid. _______________________________________ Panacea does not beat the Preventive Medicine Proc at higher hard core mode content. Preventive medicine wins. There is no Numina IO in my build. Only the Miracle proc. THat's for Endurance _______________ No, will not skip the dmg procs for an FF+ recharge proc. I have plenty of recharge already. I am in a good zone with the recharge. Never missed the FF proc and don't think I will ever. In gameplay, the AoE nuke comes up plenty, in hard mode content, it's up when needed since mobs take a bit longer to kill. By the time we get to the new groups, it's up. __________________________ The IOs in Psychic they are just fine, nothing wrong. The fear proc does absolutely nothing for me. If I dont slot it, I am not losing anything at all. ___________________________ The BoTZ IO s in my travel power... I take them for the defense buff, the set bonuses. I am not changing them to lose the defense bonus they provide which I sough on purpose to get. Don't need any slow resist in this build for the content I do. I do want those defense bonuses , not the slow resist ____________________________ I am not going to change the slotting of Mask Presence for the Weave IOs. When I exempt down I want the bonuses which are on Mask Presence. Those bonuses I need and want a lot more. So if I drop those , then I lose the bonuses . That makes no sense at all ______________________________________ Again, I am not going to swap the IOs sets in Maneuvers and trade them for the ones in Foresight. I want those bonuses at those respective levels since those powers are picked at different levels. Changing them means losing them at the moment when I want. And losing that makes no sense again. ____________________________ Same thing goes for Combat Training _____________________________ I am not going to change the set in Tough. I want those specific bonuses. If I let them go, I lose those bonuses, the defense bonuses. TO me that's more valuable than the HP bonus. I already have a good amount of HP. ___________________________________ "The Reactive Defenses resist proc is missing. I can see how those 3% were not considered crucial when you're defense based and starved for slots though." No, it is in the build. I somehow clicked the wrong IO in Mids. But I have the Reactive defense proc in the actual build _______________________________________________________ I want the bonuses from Red Fortune. I am not going to drop those either. Those are the bonuses I am going after. ___________________________________________________ I am going to keep both assaults on the build. Every little bit of dmg buff helps, especially since I don't play with inspirations and for cases when I have no kin. Both assaults are better than one assault. Every little bit I can throw in , the better for me. __________________________________ I think you think this build is only for level 50 content. If you think that, then you are mistaken. I dont know, I am not sure. ____________________________ The build is just fine for the hard mode content I do and for the various kinds of stuff I do at lower levels. If I post another build on the forums and you want to try to offer improvements, send me a message or post a question on the thread on how I intend to do with the build and what circumstances or conditions I plan on taking the build through. That way I can help you better see my vision and understand my aims and my plans on how to do them. I can help you better and understanding me.

Part two is all about speed , hit the cysts quickly , prepare to survive 4-6 ambushes coming at you, while you don't try to kill any NPCs , just the cysts. No inspirations allowed, no temps... it's chaotic

Pain does not have the auras which are invaluable. The team wide Regen Auras are tremendous when we were facing the ambushes in part two and part 3 Speed Run at 4 stars , in the caves, ambush after ambush after ambush, quickly running through the caves, only 5 members of the team... regen at max level for the whole team... that's glory right there. There is absolutely no replacement for this. There is no replacement for Fortitude either if your goal is help out reach higher and higher defensive numbers which, in the ITF four star, it is extremely useful and valuable. Part 3 was another hellish experience , ambushes were equal or worse. Now, remember, this is for ITF 4 Star, defensive requirements for this far surpasses the rest of the way easy game of PvE CoH

Make more sense ? No. The numbers are not quite as high. A defender with Incandescence and Vigor will heal about as high as your entire base hit points every two seconds in an AoE. That's not counting the buffs that are power boosted and even the heals can be power boosted. Second, it would be much better to ditch the controller and place a Corruptor there. That's exactly what I did. I have a corruptor fire/empathy in the team. Before I place a controller, I would rather place a corruptor over a controller any day. Also I dont think Phantom Army is doing as much dmg as a Defender who is blasting and can select and pick his targets. Also the Defender is more tanky and his defensive modifiers are similar or exactly the same as those of the Tanker AT class. Now, paying attention to what I am not saying. I am not saying it cannot work. But I am saying that it would not make more sense. What does make more sense mean? Do you mean to say a controller would do the job better than the Defender ? Another thing, outside of part two of the four star ITF, the mastermind option would increase the DPS exponentially more if you get rid of the controller. We have done the ITF four star with some pretty good MM players. The dmg they bring to the other parts of the ITF is simply colossal With two empaths and all the buffs, those pets are a real menace. MMs melt AVs like no other class in the game. It's no wonder they hold record pylon killing times.

I will chip in on this. I will chip in to say that now Electric blast, the new since buffed, is up there with the other elite sets for blasting as a defender. 1. The whole set has undergone a MASSIVE improvement 2. As a Defender you drain more per each hit, and this is supremely important because ---> 3. The faster you drain them, the sooner you make the enemies arrive at SHOCK STATUS ready, which means you get dmg/drain bonus YOU GET MASSIVE ENDURANCE RETURN TO YOU !!! You will see endurance issues as less of an issue. 4. It is the set that provides the most defense to you because drained enemies cannot fight back very well.

You were indeed part of the chat ! We ran some ideas, came up with possible scenarios for a challenge, I pushed the empathy idea and then we tried to see what could blend. It would have been nice for you to join us but , Doom, please join me for the next one, sir.

I did not mean this in a derogative way. I mean to say that as a player develops skill with the power sets, knows the content, and so on, things in empathy can pretty much be set and forget, the fortitude issue I addressed above - PB is recharged, ok , now pop fortitude. I mean no harm, no foul. handshake

Well, this is easy. You see how I organized the team? I just go down the list. The AB was already assigned before we proceeded. I have enough recharge to give PB'd fortitude to all 4 of them. I pop fortitude only when PB is recharged. Fortitude last that long for me given my recharge. With the regen auras permanently given to the team and no gaps, the healing department is set and forget, with the healing aura coming in like almost auto in times when the heat is up like the sun. Absorb pain and heal other was used very few times. With Vigor and Incan incarnates and the support core buff to also buff healing, healing is NUCLEAR levels high. We have enough buffs to be able to stay calm and do things smoothly. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Read the whole post carefully. I think I clarified things a bit more. Take a look at my other post as well, linked. Once you get your skill level up and you got your optimized routine down, you will see it is all smooth and under control. EDIT -- I did not mean this in a derogative way. I clarify this in the post below

Good post. Thanks. In our case, I did heave the healing aura almost in auto. But there were very concrete and logical reasons to do that. If we ever get caught in strong alphas having that aura always going off is good, but no excuse to avoid paying attention carefully, because as most of us know, if the cascade is coming, you got have those back ups ready and firing for greater buffs/heals

I think I posted my Kinetics/Sonic defender build in this thread. That is powerful stuff. Kinetics dmg buff + more resistance debuffs for more dmg buffs The new sonic blast has more dmg and greater DPA.

So I made a comeback to the game. I was away with beta testing Baldur's Gate 3, Diablo 4, and playing War Thunder. Curse all them three because they took my time away from my most beloved game until I die. As I came back to the game, I wanted something a bit more challenging because if it's too easy, I get bored. So , what did I come up with? FIVE (5) man team, FOUR STARS ITF, with the condition that we MUST COMPLETE in under 90 minutes or it does not count. So, how the hell, do I put a doable team to cover the absolutes, the must have stuff ? Well, the original idea was a four man team. I decided that since it was a first try at a medium size team vs one of the hardest content of the game, 4 man is somehow short on all we need to make a run UNDER 90 minutes, so I am going to reserve a four man team three star ITF next , under 90 minutes. Under 15 deaths, since there are 5 of us. Under 90 mins, under 15 deaths. So, the team make up I decided was 2 Cold Corruptors One Proc Tank, like Bopper's famous tank builds. TWO EMPATHY characters. One Defender, another Corruptor. So, why empathy ? The most significant reason, which puts empathy heads and shoulders above any other buffer/healing set IN THIS SPECIFIC TASK or this specific goal is .... FORTITUDE Two cold corruptors provide defensive double shields to only 3 members of the team. That's when Fortitude comes in. Fortitude provides double defensive shields to the folks who cannot buff themselves and otherwise would only have one defensive shield. When doing 4 star ITF, that's not enough especially since cold shields cannot be power boosted Fortitude for all castings can be power boosted, giving defense shield double or greater than the strength of cold shields , and with enough recharge every single one of your target for the buffs can be power boosted defensive shields Also, then you have a combined damage buffs of 62% , which is a significant damage boost. Another reason that helps Empathy for these extreme challenges. Empathy is a set and forget buffing set , allowing you lot a of time to blast. Double regen auras that set and forget, with the time right, you can set it so the regen is overlapping and continuous , with no gaps. Then we have adrenaline boost to get the cold corruptors MAXIMUM recharge buff that we can muster to give them for the debuffs and the nukes , permanent AB for the win. With VIGOR and with INCANDESCENCE incarnates, just the healing aura of my Empathy defender, I can heal the squishies for about their FULL BASE health every TWO seconds. That's not adding the corruptor's aura either. In part four of the ITF, 4 star, I needed to split from the team, it was my job to baby sit Imperious while the team splits to kill off barriers , Imperious was tanking Rommy. At four star , the EBs and Rommy hit like nukes and it took me hitting absorb pain just to save Imp from death. few times, absorb pain for 10,000+ healing !! I was the main healer, the corruptor was back up and the DMG. He was played by my good friend and excellent player @FUBARczar @Spagetti Betty was our proc tank. He did a phenomenal job at tanking, as usual. Did we make it ? Below is another build from a full team run I think I also posted the build but I am not sure it is the current one I have now, which includes the teleports

I am back in the game. I took a long break. Been doing other endeavors. Please excuse my LAAAATE response. OMG, dude. THIS IS SO AMAZING. Humbly grateful, friend. Hope you having fun.

I am back in the game. I took a long break. Been doing other endeavors. Please excuse my LAAAATE response. Aim is not needed at all. You should have enough to hit in the build to make this work just fine. Between siphon power and fulcrum shift, there's a redundancy of dmg buff already that should push Aim out of the build. Use that power slot for something much more valuable.