Coyote

This is a legit point, but I think it makes the Dominator experience better, not worse. I kind of agree with this. Controllers are in some ways an AT that has a "what I should be going for" concept. Dominators don't have as much of a "what I should be going for" concept largely because they're in between damage and control, and it's really up to the player which way he wants to go, rather than the AT clearly positioning him for one path or the other. Controllers have gone that way a lot more than their original design, but back when CoV came out, their role was pretty clear, and it was also clear that Dominators were deliberately left ambiguous.

To offer my opinion on correcting some of this: Electric Control works well early because of End sapping. You don't need to worry about mobs breaking out of a non-Dominated mez that only lasts 8 instead of 16 seconds... because after 8 seconds, mobs are drained. And Static Field doesn't even benefit from it. Dark Control also works well early because even without Domination you can stack Confuse for difficult Bosses, and otherwise the -ToHit handles non-mezzed mobs pretty well. Plant Control works reasonably well because while it's nice to Dominate-Confuse Bosses, Seeds has such long Duration/Recharge that it is effective without Domination. Generally, the other powersets really suffer defensively when Domination isn't up. So the majority of Dominators do experience a serious lack of ability before managing a perma-Dom build. I've had no problems with Electric, Dark, and Plant... and little with Mind, but Mind plays more slowly. The other sets are just hard without Domination up, even Earth.

You realize, I hope, that the "one way of game play" is exactly the one way that the OP is discussing. Characters who don't have both Power Boost and Farsight wouldn't be affected. So this is a very specifically targeted discussion regarding one very specific build.

Who defines what's necessary and what's unnecessary? Who defines what's a nerf and what's a fix? Just opinions? We shouldn't use numbers? Should we rely on opinion statements like "well enough" or "unnecessary" to determine what is a balance fix and what is a nerf? In short... balance discussions are best governed by numbers. Opinions like "well enough", and "unnecessary" will necessarily take a back seat to arguments that refer to the power's statistics, reference comparable powers or builds, etcetera.

When discussing buffs to powersets, maintaining the integrity of the original design is almost never mentioned. When discussing nerfs to powersets, maintaining the integrity of the original design is a major argument. I am sometimes amused by how differently the same arguments have relevance or have no relevance depending on the poster's personal power powerlevel preferences. It is reasonable to discuss game balance, powerset balance, power balance, etc, without caring about history. It is also reasonable to mention history when discussing whether some balance passes should be implemented or not. But that doesn't stop the actual balance discussion from being relevant.

I use keybinds on movement and power activates that alternates between loading two files, and alternates setting Domination and Hasten as the auto powers, rather than trying to activate Domination or Hasten. That way you don't get the annoying noise and message that the power isn't ready to activate every time you do something. Also, BTW, I also have found Dominators to be pretty easy at leveling... but I'm really good with control characters. I can get by just on the controls until I can slot out defenses and switch to easy cruising mode in the 40s. But I've seen other players who are more used to relying on passive defenses have problems with Dominators. The "build for defense" advice isn't very useful until the late 30s or even later, so the advice for lower levels should be teaching them how to mix control as a defense with damage as a defense... and that really is a pretty long tutorial to go through. For example, mez the Lt and clobber the minion since both are mezzed with the same difficulty, but the minion is easier to kill.

Nerf pie. And Regen.

I think what he's saying is that suggestions like "melee hybrid", which is definitely a good suggestion for Incarnates.... doesn't fit his problem that a "leveling Dominator" has little access to defenses. Personally, I think he's right... with Doms having slot crunches since everything needs to be slotted for Accuracy, Recharge, End Mod, PLUS effect (mez or damage), it's hard to work on getting set bonuses for a while. And it's hard to slot up extra defensive powers until the 30s or 40s. And epic shields don't open up until 35 (often later since many Doms get good attacks at 35/38), and Incarnate abilities of course only at 50. So, a high-level Dom DOES have good defensive options. A leveling build at 22 or 32... probably doesn't. I think that's why he's saying that you're not answering in the context of how he stated his problem.

It does seem like a problem to me. But it doesn't seem like a MAJOR problem... almost all powers and procs in the game are fine, with a few exceptions like 16-second recharge Holds and 30-90 second recharge PBAoEs. And, on the other side, auras/patch powers are probably a bit weak with their 10 second activation period. So I think that it needs some tweaks more than major rebuilds. And it's less likely to open up new abuses when you're tweaking an existing system where you know what the current abuses are, than doing a complete redesign. But, in any case, I do like the idea of getting ahead of the discussion so that we can properly influence and brainwash the devs into implementing our desired changes 😉

This is what I think also... small AoEs but give them a contagion effect for 10 seconds where the effect can spread (only from the original targets, not keep spreading), that would fix the usual complaints about AoE, while also putting out a pretty unique mechanism. Neurobreath at least need some buffing, especially since the cone doesn't fit as well with Venomous Gas being PBAoE. Paralytic is fine now with damage procs, but that's because all 16-second recharge powers are good with Hold damage procs. If that gets changed, then I imagine that it will be in need of improvement.

But, no, you STILL can't keep it. Even if it follows you home. 😛

Make poison effects contagious.

Same. I love the nametag.

😧😧😧

To offer a completely different suggestion on fixing the proc situation, I had thoughts about how to fix some imbalances. And they are very simple: 1: Add +X to the PPM for every damage proc. For example, add +1 so that all 3.5 PPM damage procs go to 4.5, etc. 2: Lower the damage proportionately to the increase in PPM, so that the default target damage per minute remains the same. First Result: powers that were already constrained by PPM to have a proc chance lower than 90% do lower damage per proc, but have a higher activation chance, thus remaining at the same expected damage. However, these powers were generally not considered to be a problem... I don't think there is anyone complaining that you get more damage in an 8 second attack by putting in a proc than by putting in a pure damage IO, since most players will go for a set over a pure IO. Second Result: powers that had a 90% chance or higher will end up with lower damage. These are exactly the powers that we want to rein in. Yes, you can now slot +Recharge in the power and get it to cycle faster so that you can keep the same DPS, but it still lowers DPA, and it still lowers DPE, and it costs more IO slots to enhance the Recharge. So we end up with long-recharge powers being weaker (in terms of damage) when built with a lot of procs. You might end up with an interesting situation where Char now gets slotted to get down to 12 second Recharge, and thus is better as a Hold than leaving it with a 16 second recharge... but it still does less damage, and it is now more of a balanced damage/hold power with more strength in the mez portion (due to faster recharge) and less in the damage portion, which is probably closer to the power's intended use. And it's simple to implement and to calculate.

Without set bonuses you won't be nearly as strong at locking down mobs, and that's a major part of your defensive abilities. But if you want to try it AND go into melee, I like Earth Assault. It has a lot of knockup, knockdown, and a great Hold in the melee attacks. It can take FF: Recharge IOs if you're willing to go with at least single proc IOs to help your recharge. And it does a lot of damage... usually with Endurance problems, but if you're not gaining much Recharge from set bonuses, then your End burn may not be that bad. I'll also suggest that Dark is a good set both early and late without set bonuses since it doesn't depend on high mez mags as much as others, but another great option is Electric. It also can defend itself very well with End drain and fast-recharging powers that don't need great global recharge to be effective, and it pairs well with Earth since its +Recovery options can help support Earth's high End drain.

I kept Hurricane, for 1 slot it can be a tide-turner power, but I only use it when overwhelmed by ambushes, or when exemplaring. At 50 + Incarnate, it just doesn't have much use when the character has decent Defense, and most mobs are mezzed, or fighting the decoys. Once in a while a fight is tough and spread out and I'll turn it on for safety from melee attackers... but given Hover and that most flying mobs are ranged, it doesn't see much use in outdoor maps. However.... it's a great power for 1-2 slots, and it's huge at lower levels, so it's great for exemplaring. So I'm keeping it. When you get T4 Ageless and can run it regularly, you could keep it up to help with Recharge via the FF proc... but personally I don't like the overwhelming graphics.

Enhancement for EndMod is definitely worth it, though it's more on the drain side than on the recovery side. As you say, it's not a major amount, but... I think with 8 targets it equals Stamina. And Health at the same time. Stamina may or may not be worth slotting, but... if it is, then probably this is worth also. Also, I think Perf Shifter should work in it as well as in Stamina as long as you have it toggled on with even a single mob around, so that may be a good choice to slot in there.

I have done both, but only the Plant so far to 50. Both play very well, and both have excellent strengths that pair up with Savage. Plant is a "fire and forget" primary, where you use pet summons that don't need much reapplying, and Seeds usually once at the start of the fight. After that, you're free to Facerip(tm), which frees Savage up nicely to attack, attack, teleport attack, attack, more attack, etc. It's a very strong scrappery style for going all-out aggressive. Dark is a much stronger defensive set although Seeds is clearly OP, because it doesn't rely on a single mez. You do get a Confuse, but also -ToHit, Fear, and a Stun. The usual problem with Dark is that you open up with Fearsome Stare and Living Shadows for nice -ToHit and some mezzing and damage, but then you want to rush in to throw the Stun. Not only does that automatically waste some time, but sometimes it's hard to squeeze into the middle of a spawn. Well, if you take Savage, you open up the usual way, and then: 1) put two -Res IOs (Achilles, Annihilation) in Unkindness, and throw that next. Now you have chances to give everyone a Resistance debuff while also adding some -Defense and solid damage if you slot it with procs and damage and give up on Recharge or set bonuses. 2) Follow this with Feral Charge into the center of the spawn for more AoE damage possibly boosted by -Res. 3) Now throw the Stun from the center of the spawn, and your "travel time" was a good AoE damage attack, and if you targeted a mob at the center of the spawn, then you don't have to worry about how to get past the bunch at the front. Slot it mostly for damage with like 4 PBAoE damage procs for over 250 damage, and with the 3 major AoEs (and minor damage from a proc in Fearsome Stare and Living Shadows damage), the spawn should be down to the Bosses and heavily damaged LTs, all Stunned. Bonus if you have a Force Feedback in Feral Charge so that you can do this again faster. Plant is generally safer, because OMG Seeds. But when it fails, it has little backup. Dark is a little more risky most of the time since you will get more (debuffed) return fire through the FS/LS/Unkindness/Feral sequence until you throw the Stun, so you have to build up more Defense in the build. But on the other hand, when it hits problem mobs (Plants hate the Rularuu), it doesn't really have major problems.

If you're willing to give up some Recharge bonus, there is a slotting option for Tornado that still gets good Dam/Rech/End from 4 slots using Soulbound and Overwhelming force, and... that frees up a slot to put in Achilles Heel in there for more -Res. Then, free up a slot from another power, and put the 6th slot in Howl and put Annihilation in there for more -Res. Because, after all, if you can get -150%, why not get -180% 😁

I planned a Dark/Sonic. Great offensive help, but also all of the -Res boosts the -Damage to ridonkulous levels. I think well over -150% Damage. And well over -100% To Hit. And just for the real use to most teams, about -90 or so -Res single target, or -50 AoE. And with solid -Regen and great controls for a Defender.

A lot of times a Dominator will go into melee only with mobs around them controlled or debuffed. With Ice, you have a strong defensive PBAoE aura, plus you'll often fight on an Ice Slick. So mobs in melee may normally do more damage, but they actually won't be attacking you very often. Meanwhile, the mobs spread out who are ranged only and won't close to fight you are going to be unbuffed, uncontrolled, and shooting versus your Ranged Defense. In many cases, it's safer to build for Ranged Defense and control the guys near you, even if you plan to be in melee all the time. I'm not sure that Ice is as strong defensively nearby, but my Electric Dom drains everyone around it... so I don't need much melee defense. But I do get shot by guys who were aggroed by the Gremlins, or by amushes, or ranged mobs, and I need higher Ranged defense than Melee. I imagine his situation is the same: taking more damage from ranged attacks because melee-ranged enemies are debuffed or controlled.

It would also affect self-affecting Defense powers. So while it may not seem like much to give a SR Scrapper even MOAR Defense.... it should benefit Thugs and Robots. And it will be a available as a secondary for those sets 😄. Also, the Defibrillate power should be changed to work on Ninjas, because then it would make that the very best power ever to use with them 🤣

Earth Assault works very well in melee, but it's a less mobile set than Savage. Savage is fun because you move around ripping faces off. Earth is fun because you stand in one place and SMASH people into the ground while shaking the entire cavern somehow. Earth is more smashy, Savage is more mobile. Both do excellent PBAoE damage. Earth does better single-target damage in melee because Seismic Smash Uber Alles, and Savage does better single-target damage at range because Call Hawk is like a snipe except better.

Also, use a defensive secondary... Time, FF, Dark, Sonic, etc.