[Fire/Psi incarnate choices]

What are the typical dominator incarnate choices for a fire/psi?

 

I have chosen agility but what else for the others?

[Mind/Psi, Elec/Psi or Fire/Psi???]

30 minutes ago, oedipus_tex said:

IMO Psi has four key characteristics, mostly deriving from the power Drain Psyche. If you happen to have used that power on a Blaster before you may already be familiar with what to expect. 

 

The takeaways:

1. Psi is the "sustainable" Dominator set, the only set they have that has both a strong source of healing/Regen and Recovery.
2. Psi is very recharge dependent. Not a remarkable set unless you spend some cash to gain global recharge. If you aren't looking to IO its probably mediocre overall. (Still playable, of course but a deep analysis of its strengths is probably not necessary.)
3. Psi Assault pays for Drain Psyche with weak ranged blasts (with the exception of the snipe). To make the damage bearable against single targets, you'll likely need to use the set's two melee attacks. This has obvious risks during high risk fights versus AVs and is the biggest setback of the set IMO.
4. Drain Psyche is a point blank, small radius AoE, and its effects last just 30 seconds. So, a lot of the battle tactics involve gathering enemies into clusters in order to vampire from them. This is a bit safer to do on a Dominator than on a Blaster. 

 

[Possible 5th distinction: Psi is the only Dominator support set with a -Regen debuff. Psi Dominators have as much -Regen as well respected support characters like Cold or Thermal Radiation Defenders. It's also twice as high on a Dominator versus a Blaster (-500% versus -250%). I believe this debuff works out to around -21 HP/second. This probably won't affect your overall build but it's worth noting, not a lot of Psi players understand that in AV fights they should treat their Drain Psyche like a Cold Defender treats Benumb.]

 

 

 

My quick and dirty, not entirely fair ratings for Psi pairings:

 

• Dark/Psi: One of if not the tankiest Dominator builds possible, as long as enough enemies are around to apply Drain Psyche. Only real weakness is standard Psi lowish single target damage. This is one of those builds I'm always scared a developer will see in action and assume the entire Dominator archetype plays like this. 🙂 Dark Control's hold has 1.67 animation time, in the middle for Control sets, which isn't great, but isn't bad either.

 

• Plant/Psi: Another of the truly frightening Dominator builds. Damage in Carrion Creepers helps recover from from of Psi's okayish damage, but this is more of an AoE character. May struggle with single target damage, but again that's standard for Psi Assault. To kill you, enemies need to get past Creepers, Seeds of Confusion, and your huge Regen buff.  

 

• Fire/Psi: It's good. Very good. Plant or Dark good? Not sure I'd go that far, but it does have better single target damage than either, due to being able to proc out Char. DP covers Hot Feet's huge endurance costs. Only real downside here is general Fire Control inability to keep its own pets alive, since DP doesnt do anything to help them. You'll note many ages ago this build used to be used by Villains to farm, and the build hasn't gotten any worse since those days. A solid A tier choice.

 

• Elec/Psi: IMO this is A or B tier, depending on what you want out of a character. With this, you're really tripling down on the "vampiric" role. It's great and a lot of fun when it works, possibly frustrating when enemies are too dangerous to engage up close, because you don't have any AoE mezzes that Dominate other than the 240 second recharge hold. I'd give this a higher ranking if Synaptic Overload applied Domination on its chains. Conflict of interest alert: I "main" one of these. He's a good, not perfect character. It's fun to play though, quite different from other Psi Dominators. Note the single target Hold has a 2.17 second animation time, the longest of any control set, and that can significantly slow down your ability to burn down bosses if you need to ensure your safety during the last stages of a battle.

 

• Earth/Psi: Two solid sets that neither specifically interfere or assist each other. The worst thing I can say is Earth doesn't help cover Psi's single target damage hole. But if that's the worst I can say, that's actually really good. I wish Earthquake animated faster. Volcanic Gasses doesn't Dominate, but doesn't need to be amazing; it is easily the best of the AoE holds. Otherwise this is a great choice. 

 

• Mind/Psi: With this, we're getting into unusual playstyles that make it hard to assign a rank. Mind Control is the "sneaky" controls set that lets you set up controls without alerting enemies. But then thrown in there it has Terrify, a cone Fear/damage power that encourages a Rambo style of play. Note that you can use Mass Hypnosis to sleep entire enemy groups and then discretely Drain Psyche them without waking them up. You can even do a combo of Mass Hypnosis > Fold Space > Drain Psyche, so you're opening every fight with maxed out Regen and Recovery. Probably can't pull that off on a team though... like I said, hard to rate. Note, Mind Control's Dominate animates at the same speed as Fire Control's Char and can be procced out to help fill in the single target chain. It also must be said that every player will either learn to live with Mass Confusions 240 second recharge or else walk away from Mind Control a bit frustrated. I'm one of the latter, The set does have its fans, though. 

 

• Gravity/Psi: Overall I don't have good things to say about Gravity Control. But this specific combo is actually complimentary. Wormhole and Drain Psyche have natural synergy, and Gravity Control happens to have Psi's weak single target ranged game with Lift. If you must roll a Gravity Control Dominator, this would probably be my top recommendation.

 

• Ice/Psi: Psi is one of the better Ice pairings. DP helps cover for endurance issues from running Arctic Air. Fun to play. Usual issues with low single target damage. Both Ice and Psi have lots of -Recharge, it will make you wish -Recharge was more useful. 😄 

 

Awesome! Do you have a fire/psi build with incarnates?

 

I am eager to see how it does.

[Mind/Psi, Elec/Psi or Fire/Psi???]

Out of those three builds, which is the better choice. I am looking for a nice solo/team build with full incarnates with any of those three builds!