Redletter

Aw man, I missed out!

The first of business is to canonize Stickbonker as Mayor. Everything after that can, and will, be blamed on the mayor.

So, when I first found the game in the time before time and I was TRULY baby, I thought that villains, like, any character MADE as a villain who inhabited the world of city of villains, was a bad guy -- automatic. They were playing villains as villains and we didnt get along because I grew up in a world before villain team-ups were main stream (Spider-Man 3 had like, JUST come out maybe a year or so prior). And the same was true for me for heroes. Heroes were heroes who wanted to help and save the day and team up and stuff. Now, the reality is this isnt the case. "Alignment" is a game mechanic, your "villain" can by all mechanics be a hero -- they can stand right behind Miss Liberty in atlas park and yell about the glory of Lord Recluse or whatever they want. So we have to look for narrative alignments. That takes us into the most important aspect of RP -- Consent. Just because you're playing a hero, doesnt mean you consent to being harassed by villains. Likewise, just because youre playing a villain doesnt mean you consent to being harassed by heroes. We are, mostly, strangers here. Let's just have an example. Major Malus (Agent Malus, Arbiter Malus) is my arachnos guy. He's handsome, well spoken, dutiful, dedicated. He enjoys simple things in life, like upholding the law. His backstory is basically "wow super powered psychos like Mako sure do suck, i sure wish somebody would come along and keep those guys in check" and he became the change he wanted to see in the world. He can usually be found in the isles, running mission teams under the RP auspice of "Ok, things need to get done around here and trusting villains to do them unsupervised is exactly how we end up with a pile of bodies that didnt need to exist", but you can catch him in the Rikti Warzone, and even Pocket D. Now... Ive enjoyed some scenes with Longbow characters. I like these scenes because it gets a chance to have some fantasy ideological banter. What I don't do is go over to Longbow characters, or super HEROES and say "Hey fuckboy, you grow a dick yet? You big enough to kick puppies and kidnap kids and headbutt grannies?" because not only is this against the character's entire premise, but frankly, the only reason to directly antagonize another character is because YOU are looking for more conflict. Now, sure, you could be playing a character who thrives in instigating these sorts of things (Crom comes to mind as a character who deliverately was made to be obnoxiously obstinate and conflictious) but, generally, people are not playing those kinds of characters, because most people arent interested in pulling people into that sort of RP tone. It's not fair to expect a person to react positively when you come up to them and go "Heh, lookit the little capey wapey. You mad, capey wapey? I flayed THREE babies today and drank their yummy nummy eye juice and YOOOOOOU didnt save them heh! You gonna cry? Piss your pants maybe? Maybe shit and-" and you get the idea. I wouldnt say a lack of conflict between alignments is a problem. Some villains are small time crooks nobody has heard of, some heroes are bibically awesome pseudo-gods who send criminals to prison by blinking at them -- and the inverse is true. Some heroes are just randy street level do-gooders while some villains are card carrying members of the global extinction perpetrators club. What would you say to Darth Vader if you saw him just chillin at a bar post Alderan explosion? Are YOU gonna be the guy to walk up and be like "Hey that was a DICK move, dude, for realz" or, likewise, what are you gonna say to Batman? "Heheh BATman? More like... DEAD PARENT! Ha! FACE!" These things take nuance, trust, and time. All of these things can be spent on NON-conflictive RPs as well and leave people just as satisfied. My remedy would be to have like... a "Be my antagonist" thread, where people could advertise a character they want an antagonist for to participate in more combative (not neccessarily pvp) RP. People could suggest their characters who're looking for the same. TLDR; We need Tinder, but for Arch Enemies.

I like /Traps, which is the version classes with the horrible, terrible, miserable misfortune of NOT being born a blaster get instead of devices. Theyre all very fun, and my Beam/Devices blaster, while i play her not as regularly as I should, is also really fun.

I was just like you, once. I too was a little baby who couldn't touch grass. I was suffering from GAMERITIS! It was horrible. But. You know who helped me out? This ol handsome guy right here. HE believed in me, when nobody else would. Now look at me! Nowadays, I'm a real fungi. Have you considered making Kin you're MAIN power? This is my Kin/Sonic defender, and quite honestly, I do more work with Kinetics than I do Sonic. SONIC ends up being there as a debuff tool more than an offensive set, with MOST of my damage coming from Syphon speed having that Imeded Swiftness damage proc (you could slap an Ice Mistral's in there too, if you wanted) and it becomes a very reliable mainstay attack power. You could slap the "Chance for Disorient" from Energy Manipulator into Transferance and turn it into a passable stun. I would also reccomend maybe playing Kin less as a "support" set to help your team, and maybe, more like a set to help yourself? I know it may seem odd, but, after the nerf to Sonic Blast's -res came out this toon became... functionally fucking terrible. Like, I don't think I *have* a more useless character. It hurts, but, it gave me a love for Kin that I took to an Ice/Kin controller, which I *HIGHLY* reccomend. You can give yourself a couple of proc'd out AoE damage fields, you have TONS of movement and -rech control, as well as normal controls! It might not help solve your "im only playing one set" view, but, it might help it become a set that feels so complimentary TO your main set that you recognize what it does for you, and how it helps you and engages you in how natural it feels to play alongside the set youre using. Even.... THIS ONE?! Can't spell "scrapper" without "crap". I was the same way though. Scrappers are strange creatures. I can highly reccomend Katana/Bio Armor though. Bio armor on a scrapper was an awakening I had while playing a Katana/Bio scrapper and loved every juicy minute of. The only reason I don't play her more is because she's a metal gear rising reference, and there was a very not nice person who ALSO was running around being very ugly to other people and it's been hard to shake the association despite us not interacting much at all. I'm in the same boat. Axe got a revamp, Im told it hits as hard as Titan Weapons USED to hit before THAT rework took away how hard they hit. I've never played any version of TW that wasnt the current one, so, I wouldnt know? But apparently Battle Axe slaps now. It's just uhh... well? I mean, I already play minecraft... P E A C E B R I N G E R S I can't for the life of me play these guys past 30. I really WANT to! I think like, I ADORE their VFX, I love the idea of getting flight for free, I love the variety of powers they have, and I have a couple of PBs that are SUCH fun characters... except in the gameplay department. Because uhhh... I dunno what it is but my PBs miss literally 80% of the time or more. I don't hit ANYTHING if I don't use the build up power, and then MAYBE one guy will get hit. Maybe. Not only that, but I get to attack maybe 3 times every 10 minutes with how much Endurance they seem to suck through. They get to around 30, which for me is the point where a character is either dying more so often they're simply unfun to play anymore and the only solution would be to juice them up with IOs I can't afford, or, they're just not fun to play. Peace Bringers for me tick both boxes. So, I just retire the gameplay aspect of their character, which inevitably leads to me neglecting the character for forever and ever (forever).

While this is a Scrapper thread, I do like Savage Leap on Stalkers. Slot the "chance for hidden" into it and it's a great party starter. Hit build up, leap in to get a few stacks and deal DUMMY damage on a guy, turn invisible, hit assassin's frenzy to deal OMEGA DUMMY damage and get a few more stacks, then hit Rending Flurry to clean up the mobs. I'll either be at max stacks, or just under it. If I'm AT max stacks, everything's bleeding to death. If I'm NOT, then whatever, Im a Sav/Bio staker, i can hit DNA Syphon and that'll usually edge them within DoT death range. (Small edit, you can also take Placate on a Stalker and if you do, you can go BU > SL > AF > PLACATE > RF if you want to benefit from the Hidden status' chance for crit) Now, I say this because theoretically on a scrapper you could do something similar. Slot the "50% chance for crit" into it and leap in from 10 yards and hope for the best. I'm not sure if that'd be BETTER than just slotting it into build up or whatever, I'm not a big scrapper girl, but! It's an option I guess. It'd free build-up to have a full suite of gaussians in it, so you could like... Snipe (w/ chance for build up) -> Savage Leap (w/ 50% crit proc) -> Rending Flurry -> Build Up (w/ chance for build up) and now you're back up to max stacks for whatever you want. Sure, you're losing on on SUPER MAXIMUM ULTRA OMEGA WHOOPDY RENDING FLURRY but there's a precedent for NOT having Rending Flurry burn all your stacks (it's also got a pretty fast cooldown, if you take haste you could probably get this combo nearly perma'd) I don't think this is as cool as the Stalker, but, hey, if anybody was looking for a way to fit Savage Leap into a Scrapper rotation, there's my 2inf

He's very clearly a Symphony Control Dominator

Oh it's good damage! It's honestly *great* damage, and realistically you can fit more damage procs into it than control procs (they're also more NOTICABLY impactful on a Dominator, since with Domination, YOU will have more than enough magnitude on your controls to keep things, well, controlled). Believe me, I like orange numbers. I like *BIG* orange numbers and you can proc it out like mad to like... what? Quadruble your DPS? It's an genuinely bonkers boost, im glad youre enjoying it, So, the reverberant and how it echoes you are weird. It holds onto powers for longer than you'd think, and will use powers it has. I *think* it uses them, in rotation, like a que. But I could be wrong, I havent tested and I don't remember if it was detailed in the feedback thread for Symph Control -- I know I asked about it. Regardless, it's not that the pet is copying moves you havent given it. You can test this by just using ONE move, it will only use that ONE move. It doesnt use the attack that YOU are using WHEN youre using it though. Functionally how it "gets" your power is that by USING a Symph Control power, it "grants" a power to the pet (i BELIEVE for a set duration but I could be wrong), just like how Positron 2 "grants" you a jetpack power. The pet, now having a power to use, will use the power it has. That power will go on cooldown, like any power would, and it will try to use another power. If it doesnt have one, it won't do anything until that one power it has comes off cooldown (I don't know if using that power would REgrant the power to the pet, and if doing so would reset the cooldown of the power, might be worth testing though...) however, if it has another power, it will use that power. THIS is how you get situations where YOU are using something like Enfeebling Lullaby, but the PET is using Aria of Stasis. In short: The pet doesnt echo the power you're using as you're using it. It *adds* that power you've used to its "move list" (play list? hmm...), which it can use as long as ithas that power it's movelist. If you give it 4 powers, it will fire off those powers as they become available -- it does NOT fire them off to mimic the power YOU are currently using. Edit: Here is the thread (and the post) where Symph was discussed and, more specifically, we talked a bit about the pet.

I've made it no secret I love Symphony Control. I will say, it's a LOT better on a controller, as it synergizes PHENOMNALLY well with them moreso than the dominator. However. Domination is, as I'm sure most will say, a game changer. Symphony Control by no means NEEDS Domination. Nor does a Symph dom NEED it. However, with it, the mez stacking becomes truly absurd -- once you get the positioning down. Symph/Earth comes to mind as one of the truly heinous control monster's I've had the pleasure to play. It's a close range dom, closer than I'd like, but with the incarnate power that lets you stun any creature that is both immobilized and feared, in combimation with mud pots, and the Reverberant (with how I've slotted it) pet (along with the many tools Earth has at its disposal) mean that when Im in position, that's the end of a mob group. Even AVs are like "Ah, damn, I guess I can't play the game :/. Man, why do the devs let dominators play, theyre so toxic :/". They don't get to play the game either, because everything is either held, feared, sleeping, or stunned... THEN YOU HIT THEM WITH A FUCKING ROCK Take that level 4 Skulls Slugger!

I don't know if I've said it here on the forums, but the reverberant pet's strengths shine most when it has been proc'd the fuck out. Personally, I like to proc it the fuck out for CONTROL rather than damage. Debilitative Action has a proc for a Stun everytime it casts an immobilize power, Unspeakable Terror has the same but for fears, and I believe it's Stupify that has the proc that allows a Stun power to apply an immbolize (and Fortunata Hypnosis has a proc for a Placate that can trigger everytime it casts a sleep if you REALLY want an odd layer of control outside the wheelhouse of most control characters (force placate) which is pretty welcome for teams). Those FOUR happen to be the flavors of your main cones. That's 4 slots, you can go ahead and drop Lockdown +2 in there for when Echoes your AoE Hold. That's a MEAN 5 slot proc beast, since while it's powers are weaker than yours, I'm fairly sure it's procs are NOT. If I recall, the procs have a fixed mag and duration regardless of if you're casting them or the pet is (I havent noticed them be weaker). Now, the reason you do this is because the incarnate power that stuns enemies who are subject to immobilize AND fear, doesn't need them to be fear'd and immo'd by YOU. They just need to meet the criteria of "feared" and "immobilized" for the stun to apply. With this set up, your pet is has a chance to help you keep enemies stunned in perpetuity, either through one of it's enhancement procs, or, by helping you proc your incarnate power. This, combined with domination, means enemies aren't allowed to play the game when you and the reverberant are around. You get on one side, leave the pet on the other, and just sing to eachother and watch as everything in between you two stops functioning. The reason I say proc it out for CONTROL and not say, damage, is because it's damage is... respectable. But the volume of utility found in stacking control effects is more pronounced. But, more importantly than that, MOST of these procs are from sets you, frankly, dont want on your main powers. If you're building for perma dom (as you likely are) then you can't really afford to fit a random disorient proc into, say, Enfeebling Lullaby. That is a power you can get the purple recharge set bonus from for only 5 slots, and as a SLEEP power it's not like you really have much to stick into a hypothetical 6th slot. By giving all these "less desirable" enhancements to the pet, YOU still get to reap their benefits without needing to slot them yourself. My rule of thumb is that any enhancement you think would be fun to have in your rotation but can't find the space for, give it to the pet.

I like ageless regardless because the CD reduction helps KEEP domination ready to use to help my stamina problems. I like Phanty slotted with KB>KD. He's a reliable source for it, but it does feel like groups I *DON'T* need KD'd, are the ones getting KD'd. Like, more often than not, he'll target the groups I've mez'd already, or, his mini phanty will pull agro from groups i didnt want to mess with yet. It's a 50/50, but on teams he's great! But yeah, I don't take him for the deeps, I'm Ill/Psi and his damage doesnt outstrip mine since Im proc'd out of my fucking gourd (orange number make me heppy) I dunno. Spectral Terror is good for how early you get it, but I do agree, by level 30 or so he's just not the kinda friend you wanna have around? Again, if there's something from set bonuses a person wants I can say that -15% to hit is pretty fucking delish on a Dominator, who tends to have at least 5 powers that'll buff their DEF, so that 15% can go a long way. But yeah, he kinda smelly. Me too! I call this way of life; The Razzle Dazzle

ahem D O M I N A T I O N Domination is the closest thing this game (and many other) has come to an "anime power up" mechanic that manages to be engaging, powerful, mechanically sustainable, consistent, but doesn't outshine other methods of play or invalidate other characters. It's a very cool mechanic that helps keep them far and away the most POWERFUL option for CC, but doesnt invalidate the Controller due to Controller's secondaries being widely more useful to a team than Dominator's Assault sets (DPS is nice, but, just about everyone can DPS if they build it hard enough). I love Dominators, because with the click of a button I'm literally twice as powerful as I was a second ago, I'm effectively immune to enemy CC, my endurance is refreshed in case it was low, and this is going to last till the end of most dungeons and CERTAINLY through a boss fight. I got into playing dominators, because I envisioned a character whose psychic ego was so immense that they could shut down other psychics just because they loved themselves more than any psychic could control them. For further illustration...

My mom happens to BE a dominator thank you very much! Wait a minute...

I'm sorry... what? They... they have the EXACT same controls but doms get higher damage scaling, in the EXACT same mags as controllers get with the exception of Illusion control, which, ironically, GETS MORE CONTROLS THAN THE CONTROLLER. Are you confusing a "support" set for "controls"? Because Force Field doesn't make your controls better. They really don't need it, you have more DPS than the controller because your secondary is full of damage dealing moves. Use your actual attacks instead of JUST mezzing. Containment's damage bonus to controlled targets needs to be OBSCENELY high to justify this mentality, we can check the math! To put it in perspective, Mind Control's Dominate power deals roughly 10 damage (a little LESS on controllers, a little MORE on dominators), you get it at level 2. It's your single target hold. You're gonna be using it for forever. A 50% damage buff would give you 15 damage, and a 100% bump would give you 20 damage. Controllers had BETTER be dealing at LEAST 100% more damage to controller targets, because the t1 attack power for doms deals around 10 damage at level 2 as, and they're melee attack (now available at creation) deals around 17 damage, with many of them getting as high as 21. The LOW performers deal around 15 damage. So, a dominator already has access to attacks that deal AS much damage as attacks benefitting from containment's damage boost, assuming that bonus is at minimum *100%* extra damage. If it is, great, they get to deal Dominator damage on controller targets, Dominators can deal it on ANY target. Not that I would say no to MORE damage on the dominator, they don't need it, but I won't say no to stealing the one thing that lets controllers keep up with their damage. Doubling the magnitude of your mez powers isn't "only good" for AVs, because having double the mag is never a bad thing. Not that it matters, because this statement you just made proves your point about them sucking at controls wrong -- controllers struggle to mez AVs, Dominators do not. So... your complaint is that Domination's endurance refresh is used in desperation far too often in solo play, against groups of 5, as you'll burn out around the 4th enemy. So. All classes have the same endurance? And Doms and Controllers have the same END costs on their mez powers. So, if this end drain cost exists on Dominators, than it exists on controllers in the exact same measure, because that's how math works. Except the controller DOESNT get the ability to click a button, double the strength of their controls AND refresh their endurance. What kind of build are you running that you can't kill 4 enemies before your end runs out? The radiation assault's first melee attack deals *MORE* damage than it's equivalent on a *BLASTER*. Have you considered you're just IGNORING your real damage dealing options? Even if this WEREN'T the case (we'll say you don't HAVE domination ready), that's fine, because in SOLO play, you're not meeting groups of 5. Most solo mob packs cap OUT at 4 in most environs. The only reason you'd pull MORE than that is if you deliberately set your team size higher, OR, pulled an extra mob group -- and that's on you. If you can't handle those situations, then don't put yourself in them to begin with. Doms and Controller have the same mez's, if a dom AoE immob's a group, a controller is also. They are the exact same, until dominators hit domination, where they become better controllers. Wait. No. This isn't a complaint about dominators, this is a complaint about PLAYERS. Well, the exact same argument applies. If a player has premature mez problems, they have them on all their mez toons. Just do what they do in MSR and remind them to mez responsibly. It's REMARKABLE what problems team communication can solve instead of blaming a class you seem to fundamentally fail to understand. Ok, so, you DO know the DAMAGE SET is where you GET YOUR DAMAGE? Why... why did you pretend otherwise? A mind control controller's Dominate power has a mag of 3 for 15seconds, with a 20% to buff that to a mag of 4. A dominator in the same position has the same thing, but instead of a 20% to buff the mag by 1, they *DOUBLE IT* from 3 to 6. 6 is a bigger number than 4. This numerical superiority not only continues across all their powers, but the divide between the effectiveness becomes greater when you account for things like "Power Up" which boost the effectiveness of your controls, and of course, by the END of the character's build, you can have domination up PERMANENTLY, making this bonus, effectively permanent. I have no idea where this idea that dominators are "worse" at controls comes from. You are, quite literally, TWICE as good as a dom than as a troller. Empathy will not save a controller where a dominator would have died. Kinetics will not save a controller where a dominator would have died. Your BEST arguments come from the DEBUFF secondaries which make enemies weak enough that they can keep up with domination. Congrats, you need an ENTIRE power set to keep up with an INHERENT CLASS POWER. This mentality works in the REVERSE, you realize that, right? I could complain about how CONTROLLERS are Dominators without the higher mags needed to be effective against tough enemies, or that they're defenders without the support numbers to make their buffs/debuffs worth having on a team OVER a defender? Man, blasters are such shitty scrappers dude, they can't even CRIT, like, wtf??? Devs, please buff blasters, this is insulting, theyre the WORST class in the GAME dude. They're dominators but without the mez, they're sentinels without the debuffs or survivability, theyre defenders without the support! WHO is this class even MADE for, dude? Either buff it, or get rid of it, I swear, every Dr. Aeon's i run gets 30 minutes added to it because these guys will just snipe a mob and pull the whole pod over and get us all killed. Terrible class, give them a rework or soooomething, dude. It sounds to me like you legitimately and fundamentally don't understand the class. Like, somewhere along the way your brain broke. I can sympathize, I also eat chalk, but at least I don't blame Dominators for it. Ok, so you like DPS classes more than control classes. That's cool. I don't happen to like blasters, theyre kinda just dominators that die too fast and don't have controls :v) I do that with tankers, does that mean tankers are bad? Or maybe that I'm just bad at clearing with tankers... Well, yeah, I mean, theyre already twice as good as controllers. I can't imagine what they'd need more of, honestly, so how about we just make domination a toggle? So I can, at any time, decide to be the best control class in the game. Ya know, skip building for perma dom, we ALLL know that's where we're goin anyway, right? Let's cut out the middle man, save us all a few million INF. Not theoretically, they're quite literally that. Here, see? And they are! It's very hard to die when enemies are subject to all kinds of control effects. It's honestly easier than a blaster solo! Ooooooh! That's what's going on here! Ok, I see you, don't worry man, I've got you. MASTERmind is RIGHT below Dominator, I can see how you'd be confused now. You misclicked! Happens to the best of us.

They are much better than they were. They are still probably the worse set MMs have? But, that doesnt mean they're awful. That just means theyre weaker than Robots. Theyre VERY reliant on their secondary. For secondaries, I would HIGHLY recommend Force Field, which got a slight change to it as well in the same patch. Cold is also a good choice, but I feel FF has more things that synergize with mercs specifically. You could also play Mercs/Emp if you really want to feel like nothing's changed

Ahhhh! Ok, I thought the ATO was that it boosted the attacks crit rate by 50% of the stalker crit rate (50% of 10% for a total of 15%). What you said makes more sense. You have like, basically "build up" amount of time of a coinflip crits.

Hello, I'm the CEO of Illusion Control on Dominators. I am the beggar that whined really hard about it, and often enough, that I totally got devs who've had people whining about it for years before I even knew this game existed to make it for me. That's the story of my rise to power, I'm basically Gary Gecko, but for Illusion Control (Dominator Version™️) Your complaints are valid to your experience, but I would want to know how you're playing the set in general. My personal finding is that it's not very good at actually "controlling" enemies. Like, when I look at a set I like to use Mind Control as the baseline comparison, how that set plays, what it's strengths are, and how it compares to the set I'm currently playing. For me, Illusion Control for doms lacks a lot of "agency" with hits controls. I can't name a single primary on the class that REALLY relies on pets for its controls -- Illusion Control is also lacking in its variety OF controls. You have about as many as Gravity control but not nearly the same utility or damage potential, which is understandable because not all these things should feel the same, but it does leave Illusion Control in a strange spot. Leveling it, is an arduous process. It's main gimmick is "stealth confusion" which is the main gimmick of it's controller counterpart until Phantom Army becomes its gimmick. Gleam is kinda pitiful too, not ONLY does it have a heavy end cost, not ONLY is it's CD as long as Wormhole (Gravity Control) and LONGER than Mass Hypnosis (Mind Control) but it's ALSO got a base accuracy of .80? Like, sure it hits Psychic Defense so it's more accurate than it seems since psy is a "rare" defense, but it's NOT a great power. You rely VERY heavily on Blind (a very GOOD power), Decieve (a very standar power) and Spectral Terror (a very NICHE power) early on, and once you get phantom army going you're very much relying on that despite it being such a painstakingly long CD to rely on, and i feel the lack of a taunt in exchange for MORE attack powers on them wasn't a good call. Not only that, but you're waiting a LONG time for Flash. Controllers get that at level 6, Doms get it at LEVEL 22! You are dead ass nearly halfway through the life of the character before you get an AoE hold. With all that in mind, I will say that Illusion Control feels like the only set designed with "Perma Dom" and "proc monsters" in mind. No other set feels like it NEEDS the kind of global CD building for Perma Dom to be effective, but Illusion Control does. I'm not in the heads of the devs, but i'd argue it's why Gleam has such a painful cool down for such a neglible control effect. The idea is that 1.5 minute CD is going to be reduced by 5 LotGs and Haste, and it's control is going to be buffed perpetually by your Domination before you even touch whatever enhancements you wanna stick in it... which will ideally all be procs so you can turn it into an AoE bomb. Because once you REACH the world of the "finished build" for Illusion Control it's pretty good, Gleam's long CD becomes a boon in making it a proc monster, and that pitiful damage number is spiked right up, and since once you have domination active the stun is MUCH more reliable. This is true for all your controls, the few of them you DIRECTLY get -- which is why I feel like the set seems weaker, youre controls are MOSTLY coming from your pets, Phantom Army even has a "sleeps" to replace its normal Taunt effects, which should probably be Stuns given how damage focused Doms are (you're liable to break the sleep on ACCIDENT before you even realize it's taken effect). I feel it's a set that demands a more aggressive and mindful playstyle, not a more passive natural one. My Ill/MA and my Ill/PA doms are very fun to play (the psy assult one is FUNNER to play but that's because Drain Psyche and Subdue are GREAT additions to that help Illusion Control, and Illusion Control is a set that DOES NOT benefit as heavily to Build Up type powers as other Dominator primaries) and I couldnt be more aggressive with them if I tried. I know a LOT of people play Dominators as Controllers (in that they forego ALL melee powers and JUST play controll powers with a few ranged tools) which is fine, but NOT good for this primary, you don't have ENOUGH controls to reliably keep groups on lockdown, so the groups you DO mez NEED to die before you move onto the next one, and more "unnaturally" you REALLY need to choose your targets mindfully. Like, I don't want it to sound like "ur brain is 2 small for this class :v]" because any class that requires mindful target consideration and active aggressive play is a class that will always feel worse than a class that can do anything it wants and everything works out. Like, on my MC/EA dom, I don't need to care. I can mez anything and everything from a distance, then blast and smash whatever. It's well equipped for whatever situation it finds itself in, everything I do works all the time, everytime, unless the thing im trying to mez is in their "You literally can't mez me, im invulnerable to mez, my anti-mez numbers are so high right now because fuck you solo control class, you should have been a Tanker you stupid idiot lol now die" mode. My Illusion Controll doms can't do that. They have a specific order of operations, they have a specific targeting order I need to play to, they need to use all the tools at their disposal to clear packs as efficiently as they can to make the most of their momentum and they need to constantly maintain that momentum, otherwise it's goign to mean a LOT of boring downtime as we get set up again. I believe this is fundamentally because Illusion Control relies very heavily on its pets who don't see the same buffs you get from Domination, and this comes at the cost of your personal control powers, which in turn costs you the player in the "feel" of the class. Like, you can play a Minc Control dominator and never ever feel "weak'. You don't NEED perma dom, you don't even need enhancements to make that primary feel like it's missing something. I know this because I played a dominator without enhancements and perma dom from 1-50. I can say that about a lot of Dominator primaries. I can not say it about Illusion Control. But, i wouldn't say that means Illusion Control is "bad". Like, Kinetic Melee is bad. Mercenaries are bad. Sonic Blast is bad. These are powersets whose only redeeming qualities are that with enough people their faults won't hold back the group. Illusion Control is more in the realm of Traps or Radiation Emission, where it's a set that's pretty good but requires you to play in a different way to really feel like it's not garbage.

Hello, I'm stupid. I like Stalkers because my powers get glowy little rings around them that tell me if I press them, I deal critical damage. I have a couple of scrappers and none of them have that. That's ok, i don't NEED it, but, it does get me thinking about critical frequency between the two. With Stalkers generally having the rule of thumb that "assassination" will give Assassin's strike its critical property after 3 OTHER powers go off (usually. Sometimes not the case, but, most times, it's the case -- i know that by the END of my chains I'm throwing out an Assassin's Strike crit to start the NEXT combo cycle). Now, from what I've heard about Scrappers, with the ATOs you basically can set yourself up for criticals on demand. I have no idea how that works, im allergic to math. But i'd like to know how that works, because it sounds kinda cool? But like, this raises the question about Damage Caps which apparently exist and that gets me thinkiing like, does the fact a Scrapper can (apparently) crit 3 times in a row on demand even matter? I don't know these answers, because, I'm stupid. Please help. Thank you.

Yes, it's originally from, arguably, one of the most famous Holocaust poems, "First They Came for the Jews," written by Martin Niemoller.

I for one welcome the opportunity to share my favorite poem... First they came for the Brutes and I did not speak out— because I was not a Brute. Then they came for the Brutes and I did not speak out— because I was not a Brute. Then they came for the Brutes and I did not speak out— because I was not a Brute. Then they came for me— and there was no Brute left to farm for me - Berny Thorne

This is an awful lot of work just to say why we need super strength on scrappers, but I'm here for it!

So, I'll make a lil list for you on what i think is the most beginer friendly and low maitance to an intermediate level of those things, because I was where you were like, just over a year ago. Class and Combos for "Help I'm baby and allergic to math" people (me) Sentinel (primaries) Since they're recent rework, sentinels are now, to my mind, the easiet class to figure out and play for any newcomer to both Homecoming and MMOs like it in general. They don't have very complicated mechanics, theyre tanky enough to enjoy solo play without foregoing team benefits, theyre a ranged character so very few enemies will prove to be obstacles and they're very easy to roleplay and flavor to whatever themes you'd like. I will outline what I feel to be the e Radiation Blast I feel this is the most beginner friendly primary any ranged class has to offer as it can teach you a lot about the various mechanics of the game without you having to "learn" them. It's just a useful primary set that employs a consistent and valuable debuff to enemies it hits and does so without any weird gimics. You press your attack button, you shoot a laser beam, and from now that guy is easier to hit for you and everyone else. Fire Blast Much like Rad, Fire is easier than cereal. Hit the button, fire come out. Fire hurts. Fire KEEPS hurting. Click button. Fire hurts. Click button until nothing click to click button on. Beam Rifle Beam Rifle is, to my mind, the best ranged set Sentinels have to offer. It's gimmick is called "Disintergrate" and what it does it applies a DoT (damage over time) to targets, which can occasionally 'spread' to nearby enemies. The Disintergrate power automatically applies it, so you don't need to worry about it too much. If you DELIBERATELY manage it, you'll see a significant boost to your DPS, but, it's something that happens so naturally you can legitimately roll your face across your keyboard and it'll work out just fine. Sonic Blast Sonic Blast isn't great. Recent changes to how Sonic Blast functions had made it more or less a waste of time, due to its benefits being marginal, compared to its downsides. But, as far as blast sets go, it's a good entry point for status effects, and positioning. It has knocks, a sleep, a couple of stuns, and plenty of cones. While the set overall is pretty weak IMO, if a person is looking to learn other mechanics, or seeking MORE from a set besides "click button, deal damage", this is for them. Sentinel (secondaries) Most armor sets in the game (see, all but Regeneration) are at least somewhat based on toggle powers, so, while each set has a LOT of powers, theyre powers you only have to clikc ONCE and stay on until something happens to turn them off. So while there's no way around that, there's some that are easier to handle than others. Invulnerability Who'da thunk a set that shipped with the game way back in the stoneage could and would be super easy to use (and effective). Like all armor sets, Invul has lots of toggle powers. But, that's ok, because once you turn them on only a handful of things turn them off! And, Invul has a lot of passives, so you don't even need to worry about that too much. It's a resist set, so you may need healing, but that's ok because you HAVE the ability to heal yourself! Just drop your toggles on one bar, your actives on another, and you'll be fine. Super Reflexes This is an even simpler set than Invul in many ways. It's a defense set, so instead of REDUCING the damage you take, you instead just DONT take damage. The reason why SR is rough is because if you DO take damage, it HURTS, and unlike Invuln you can't just heal yourself up. It's ok though. You'll be fine. You'll reach a point where it's basically a coinflip if you're gonna get hit or not, and you can take those odds! You're lucky, you gambler, you! Energy Aura Energy Aura, to my mind, is the best Sentinel secondary. It's got resistences, it's got Defense, it's got a heal, it's got an End heal, it's got a perma boost to your max HP! It's got it allllll baby, in such a sexy package too. It's hard not to love, but, it has more words and numbers than some of its siblings? So maybe not the best for newcombers who don't really get the IDEA of how MMORPGS really work (as in, like, "I play call of duty and only call of duty, what the FUCK is a "def" and why doesnt it come in Tiger camo?" kinds of people). Bio Armor Bio armor is really strong. Bio armor does it all. Bio armor is not beginer friendly, and it is NOT user friendly. It is one of the more active sets, especially on sentinel. But, it's very strong once it's built. If you or someone you know LIKES building characters, dangle bio armor over their head like "this could be allllll yours once you learn what all these silly words meeeean~" and there you go. Next up... Tankers Tankers are the quintessential class for new players. There's a reason why the guy on the box is a tanker. There's a reason why most people have a tanker. There's a reason why most of the community leader's main toon is a tanker. Tankers are the main character class. You hit guys, and if they hit you back they either dont hit you, or, they dont hit you hard enough for you to care. Their only real downside is a lack of damage, but on teams this small limitation is mitigated entirely (even on a team of all tankers). The ONLY reason I say they arent as beginner friendly as Sentinels is that they are a melee class. They VERY rarely get any meaningful ranged powers unless they dip into power pools, tertiaries, or patron pools and half those dont come around for a while. Tanker (secondaries) Ranking Tanker primaries is hard, since they're so many and honestly, most of them are good. Some are really good. Let's talk about those... Titan Weapons Some people might not say TW is beginner friendly. It has the "momentum" mechanic, which IS a mechanic that means that could, if you so chose, enable you to fall into a rythmic attack pattern. Or, you could do what all TW users do (especially me) and just mash your face on the numpad until everything around you is dead. Here's an instructional video. I rest my case. Energy Melee A very straightforward set with absurd damage potential. That's it. Stone Melee and Super Strength You're strong. But like, REALLY strong? Strong enough to rip a rock out of the ground and throw it at an airplane, making it one of the few tanker sets that gets a ranged attack that's worth using... But it's NOT super strength. It's super strength, but better! But, ya know, if you DONT like the rocks, you can also use super strength. Theyre both very simple and fairly comparable. Street Justice Stree Justice is really good. It's stylish, and it plays into Tankers having bigger AoEs than the other melee classes, since you get a couple of those things that're really nice, and get nice the more your combo meter goes up. Problem with this is that you have this combo meter thing? That's more work than just face rolling more my tastes, so, take it with a grain of salt. Tanker (primaries) I totally forgot tanker primaries are armors! So, i had to put it second. My brain is soft and smooth, like peanut butter. Invuln It's like Sentinels, but better! Super Reflexes It's like Sentinels, but better! Shield Defense Finally not a repeat! Shield Defense is really easy. It's a lot of toggles, which makes it pretty end hungry? But that's ok, you get a shield! That's 100% more style than any armor set that DOESNT get a shield. If the charge power is too intimidating, that's ok! You don't need it to be unstobable. Stone Armor It's stone armor. I'm pretty sure this is SO good it is THE go-to AFK farm set. It's pretty straight forward too, with the only downside being that you can't fly while it's on. That's ok. You're god now. God doesnt need to fly. What're they gonna do? Kill you? Pfft. Phat chance.

Bio Armor BIO ARMOR BIO ARMOR B I O A R M O R I like offensive adaptation...

Ah, at long last, a man who Six Slots [Brawl], finally. A true intellectual.