Riverdusk

Several of the epic MM pools have aoe immobilizes. By the time you hit ITF I'd hope at least a couple of MM's on the team would have one for that problem. I almost always take one (especially on sets like bots or thugs that tend to send things running with their fire patches).

Maybe if we feed them after midnight they transform and get stronger. 🙂 Oh, and the possibilities combining them with the new marine secondary and getting them wet.

I also agree @Ukase. It wasn't presented well as you do have to read through a bit on his post to what changes he is talking about, which is the buffs to Council and CoT. I've managed to do fine with a dominator solo against them (as well as MM, the only two AT that have tried the new council solo). But, I could see how those that aren't as familiar with the game and character building could struggle with these changes on certain characters. It isn't as outrageous as a post as some people are making it out to be imo. Just saying to keep in mind, the "everyone says the game is too easy" and "everyone is soloing at +4/x8" that you hear on the forums are not really indicative of the general population. Not entirely scientific, but when I do team I tend to take a look at how people with missions in their list are set and it is almost never +4/x8 (not even close) except the leader who knows they are filling a team or already running a full team. There is also just personal preferences, not everyone is looking to turn this into something akin to the 'Dark Souls" of MMO's. Some people just want a chill experience and a way to to feel heroic. I think the changes were fine, (I've actually been posting Council needed to be buffed, or that their xp should be lowered, for a long time before the changes were made). But at the same time the call to keep the more 'squishie' AT's and the more casual players in mind when changes like this are made I think is a fair point.

True, have heard others mention that. I guess I don't do whatever triggers that bug or have been lucky, my times have always at least seemed to be accurate as far I could tell.

Exactly, best is when you can also knock those stragglers or outsiders back INTO the group of other mobs. If I have a knockback power it is what I'm usually trying to do. Assuming they are strong enough that I'm not killing them outright, which in that case of course it doesn't matter.

I typically will find an NPC to click on with a name starting with "M" when I hit 50 or soon after, which is how you find out hours played on a character. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Civilian_NPCs Pretty consistent it takes me 30 to 40 hours of playtime to hit 50 with how I play. Which is far from efficient, but I've never been in a hurry to hit level 50 on any character.

My favorite knockback moment is in Posi 1 at the City Hall doors. Constantly slamming the ambush waves coming out of the doors back into them. Never gets old. I make sure to stock up on and use the START plasmatic taser temp power (aka energy torrent) in that situation if I don't have a knockback power of my own.

As to illusion, having played both a lot now, I wouldn't say one is a lot better than the other, more just different. If I had to pick one I'd say the dom version is actually just a bit better imo. Dom gets an aoe stun, a single target immobilize, and a phantom army that doesn't taunt, but that does do secondary effects instead. Between just getting normal aggro for being there and the amount of knockdowns and CC that Dom phantom army does, I rarely miss or even notice the lack of taunt (mostly just occasionally in an AV fight). Dom has that extra aoe stun and I also actually very much like the immobilize for those AV fights which makes me miss the taunt less even in AV situations. You can get the immobilize on a controller too, but you have to go traps or trick arrow. Dom version definitely feels a lot more "controllery" than the controller version. Between phantom army and spectral terror it is definitely one of the safer doms I've ever tried too. Probably helps that I went /dark secondary to stack even more tohit debuffs and have a heal. I also love my illusion controllers, but it is nice on the dom to just be able to one shot snipe things and have some aoe damage before epic pool levels.

I've seen that too actually, although once again it is a rare sight. Multiples of a combination of energy blast and storm works wonders.

I've learned to roll with it. Only really annoying thing about kb to me is when things get knocked and stuck into walls and you can't always get them. I find that happens way too often on 'kill all missions'. If I run a kb heavy character I find it is almost a requirement to take teleport target so that I can yank them out (or have an untargetted aoe attack, although that can sometimes be slow). As to quick and dirty advice on what to tell people. More passive way would be probably something like, "No thanks, but I'll try to be careful with it". Some more aggressive versions have already been mentioned. If helps if you are the team leader as the worst they can do is quit the team. I doubt any kb justification speech is going to change people's minds, they'd have to see you do well in actual practice I think. You could even try recruiting and include the message something like "Knockback friendly team looking for more". I've actually seen that, although rarely.

No problem, the mods will move and combine them if they feel the need.

I've never heard of that and it wasn't my experience, so I double checked several control powers. The AoE controls of doms and controllers are the same radius in all the powers I checked in game (things like flashfire, stalagmites, seeds of confusion, mass hyp, total dom, flashbang). All equal radius between the two, Going to need some example of otherwise. The two are also almost always identical in control power choices, so they have the same amount of aoe control. In fact, Illusion dominators have an extra AoE control that controllers don't have, and that is one of the rare differences in any of the control set power choices between the two. Edit: OP posted same question in several different spots. My thoughts on original questions are here:

The one with the strongest CC is definitely dominator. You can eventually get domination so that it is up very often or even to the point where it is always on. It doubles the strength and lengthens the duration of all your CC, as well as making you immune to almost all enemy CC. Hasten from the speed power pool helps a lot. As to mind and illusion. Mind is more about direct control. Illusion is kind of a mix between control and pet summoner. Personally I love illusion and it is my favorite, but if you don't want to deal with pets, then I'd go mind if you are choosing between those two. As to which to join a team, either can work great and it depends on the team. Controllers are probably a bit more of the team class since they do have the support secondary. You didn't ask, but honestly either can solo as well, the game is very solo friendly, but controllers are generally going to be a bit slower there. As to a first time play character I'd probably suggest a scrapper, brute, or sentinel over either. Both controllers and doms have a bit more going on for a first timer. But if you know you love to play control type characters, then nothing wrong with going for it and this game isn't that hard to figure out. Specifically as mentioned, plant control is a good suggestion as one of the easier starters. They get a frankly some have called overpowered ability they can take as early as level 8 called Seeds of confusion that can just confuse a whole group and for quite a long time. You can then just attack them in safety and as long as you do a decent part of the damage you'll get most of the xp even if they hurt each other. As I also mentioned, personally illusion is one of my favorites as it has good damage on its own and has some pets mixed in which I enjoy. My favorite dominator is an illusion/dark. You have 1,000 slots per server though and part of the allure of this game is making a lot of different characters to try different powersets, so don't be afraid to go ahead and try both, then try 100 other combinations.

My first thought was bots/storm, but just a gut feeling. Necro/storm would be a good one as well with the buffs it has gotten and there sheer amount of pets you can get. As others have said though there are a lot of variables that can affect things, but either of those should certainly rip through things.

A plant dom with domination up, or anyone with a single target confuse. He's pretty easy when his own imps are attacking him for you while he's wiping out the rest of his own crew.

Howling Twilight, of course more impressive the more teammates you rez with it at once. Also my favorite for sound fx.

Some other way to get the zero-G pack would be fine and could be fun. Not sure I understand about the endurance issue of things like ninja/athletic run though. Turn them on to move inside a mission and turn them off once you find a mob to start combat? When mob defeated, turn it back on if the next mob is far enough away that it'll make a difference. They don't have any animation time, so it is literally a quick click or button press. It is literally how I use them anyway.

Well, it does say it has a 6 minute recharge, so that'd be the only limit beyond being stuck to villain side. Even switching sides briefly I think would reset the 7 day timer before you could get it back. Personally I wouldn't like to be tied to villain side only and with a +recharge SG base buff I have enough global recharge that I never have to build up my dom more than once every 90 minutes anyway even if I forget to click hasten or go afk. It is still definitely handy though if you want a villain only character and for when you exemp down and maybe lose too much recharge.

Might still be redundant and unneeded to have both, but not seeing on City of Data that impale is affected by dom. Maybe it is, but I know first hand not all control effects of assault sets are. My experience is with dark assault's midnight grasp which is definitely not affected by dom and it made me sad. Subdue from psi assault does benefit from it, so it seems inconsistent. Something I wish they'd clean up and make consistent.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Alignment_Powers The villain alignment power. You can use it to autofill domination. Only drawback is you have to stay villain to keep it.

You can also just drag a merit from your salvage into the attachment box. It'll auto fill your global. 100% worry free. Can drag the merit back out if you don't want to send it or want to send something else. I always just end up sending influence and 1 merit when I trade inf between characters.

They've also added an annoying cool down now to using /search. Maybe bots were abusing it somehow? A shame regardless.

I'm all for this as an Option. It also comes down to accessibility as some people have trouble keeping track of their own character if it becomes too translucent. As to it confusing other players, we already have a power that causes that kind of confusion that has been unaddressed forever. Controller's Dark Affinity Fade power. A power that gives the entire team (whether they like it or not) a 'fake stealth' effect that gives no actual stealth. I've seen people hit with that and run into a mob thinking they were invisible. Surprise. I'd say players following other stealthed characters when they themselves don't have a stealth power is much less an issue. That is just a case of knowing your own powers.

Combining two powers into one does have precedent, so it isn't an unrealistic request. That would be Invulnerability. Invuln Stalkers get environmental resistance which combines resist elements and resist energies into one. Personally Bo Ryaku is the one I miss the most on the stalker Ninja armor set, more than the endurance power. Having that 7.5% resistance to all is a good base to build on that gives breathing room for when your defense fails you. The built in kb protection doesn't hurt either.

I like an AoE immobilize to keep everything from running off. Also handy for AV's that like to run. My electric blast sent really appreciates it as things that get their endurance drained especially like to run off and scatter. Someone else mentioned rain of fire, another case of having an aoe immob being very nice. The AoE immob tends to be the only thing I take from them though.