BasiliskXVIII

Except the badges, if you care about such things

I think where domination really comes into its own is where you're at perma-dom levels of recharge. Both because the levels of recharge that give you perma-dom are fantastic for cycling your best controls, but also because your endurance is getting filled up every ~90 seconds and you're mez protected full-time, letting you play more like a controlling scrapper than a controller. The high magnitude holds also give you a chance to hold AVs through the purple triangles, so they're handy to have for tough AV fights or against groups who resist your controls normally. In general, I find Doms way more entertaining in the low levels where a controller's still trying to get their control/buff/debuff suite together, and then they pull ahead again when you get Perma-Dom. They especially shine with those control sets that don't offer much damage because a) you have a whole secondary that's damage and b) domination tends to have more powers to affect with them. I may be biased because I've been on a dom kick lately, but Dominators have clicked with me in a way that controllers never have.

Well, that's kind of my point. If all you care about is raw defence and nothing else, you can generally have that covered in 3 IOs. If every set had 6 non-proc IOs, they would have no choice but to make them all pretty much the same because there's nothing else that can go in there. I suspect this is the reason why so many of these have a global bonus, because they don't have any other boosts to put in the set. Frankly, I'm a little surprised we don't have more 4- or 5-piece defensive sets.

From the moment he spawns in, Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett sees a silver glowing line which he is compelled to follow inexorably to his painful death. Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett once went to get a glass of water. There were no survivors. The sun doesn’t rise. It just checks to see if Jim ‘Thunderhead’ Bartlett is still alive. Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett doesn't need enemies to die in a mission. He just needs 30 seconds and a particularly sharp table corner. The term "unalived" didn't come into use to bypass internet content censors. It came into being because Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett ran out of synonyms for "dead." Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett once needed to use the mediport system because he died in the mediport system. The Mapserver event happens because Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett survives a mission and the mapserver takes that personally. When Jim ‘Thunderhead’ Bartlett uses stealth, it’s so enemies don’t see where he’s planning to die. Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett survived World War II. This remains one of the greatest mysteries of the modern age. Jim ‘Thunderhead’ Bartlett is proof that God has a sense of humour... And a mean streak. Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett once had a heart attack. His heart gained XP. Every time the game is made easier, it's done to give Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett a chance to survive. It never works. Every time Jim ‘Thunderhead’ Bartlett respawns, the mediport system files a complaint. The tide doesn’t come in because of the moon. The ocean is stalking Jim ‘Thunderhead’ Bartlett. Jim ‘Thunderhead’ Bartlett once tried to hide in a safe room. The room burned down. When Jim ‘Thunderhead’ Bartlett buys insurance, the company folds overnight. When moving into a new neighbourhood, Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett is legally mandated to inform his neighbours that he is listed as an environmental hazard in three states and the Rogue Isles. The stick figure represented on caution signs and emergency exit signage is intended to represent Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett. Nemesis cannot plot around Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett, as he dies immediately upon being perceived. Killing Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett is not considered a crime, but a statistical inevitability. Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlett once visited Baumton. It's Boomtown now.

On top of this you can also tell that for some sets they were kinda going "uh, we don't have enough characteristics to boost to give any diversity to this at all." Hence why you have preposterous recharge bonuses on every defence and resist set with only a vanishing few defence powers where that will have any noticeable effect.

Could be that Kallisti functions as a satellite city of Paragon; independently administered but not geographically separate. Sort of like Santa Monica in Los Angeles, the City of London in London, or Burnaby in Vancouver.

Victory's too new to have much in the way of a "server character", and it's pretty low pop. It is, however, great if you primarily like soloing with only really being able to find teams in the peak play hours of the evening. However, the regulars put in the effort to make sure it is as welcoming as possible to newcomers, so the vibe is super friendly.

While not directly this, I have seen people calling for help in the help channel because they started a TF solo, stalled out on the AV and were looking for people to join their team to help. Clearly some people don't understand the difference. I've never seen people leaving a TF specifically because they didn't realise that the TF wasn't free to add players after they've left, but I also did an LGTF on Wednesday where two of the players did drop out partway through with no explanation beyond "gotta go". I wouldn't think it's impossible.

Also, the Event IO sets (Overwhelming Force and Cupid's Crush) are attuned-only, but do not have a superior version to upgrade to.

I've gotten some limited use out of being able to aim in one direction and kick in the opposite, but it's never been such an incredible bonus to the power that I wouldn't immediately switch it for a targeted version and sing the devs' praises for making the change.

Sure, but you shouldn't let perfect be the enemy of good. I don't think you'll ever get perfect balance either. The game isn't designed for it. Some ATs specialise in some content, others in other content, and the idea that any given character will perform to identical metrics as the next is impossible. There's too many variables and too many knobs to tweak. But that doesn't mean that identifying the outliers and bringing them closer into line with the rest is a fool's errand. Comments like this read as "we'll never get it right, so there's no point in trying to improve," and I think that's ill-considered. Balance work isn’t about making every AT perform identically, it’s about making sure no one feels like they screwed up by rolling a concept they love. If the gap between outliers is narrowed, players who aren't tied to the highest damaging builds and the most efficient farms get more freedom to play what excites them without feeling like they're actively being punished for playing the character they wanted to play instead of the one that's optimal. That’s worth pursuing, even if perfection’s off the table.

In general I agree with everything you say. I do tend to think that Dominators really do suffer from "feast or famine" with domination. Just the mez protection by itself is reason enough to go permadom, since there's so many shitty little incidental mez effects that will take you from rolling happily through a mission to stopped, dead. Having the damage buff taken out of domination and applied as a flat buff was a good start, and made them a lot of fun to play, but I really do wish the difference between perma-dom and non-perma-dom weren't still so stark. On the other hand, though, with so many powerful effects with big recharges, even without perma-dom as an option doms would be highly incentivised to build high recharge builds. Also, if the devs aren't going to do anything about Kheldians, I wish they'd at least give us the option to block them out of the character creation screen so that I stop getting tempted to make one and then spend a week suffering through the most miserable play possible while swearing to myself "this time I'll make it work and this will become fun" before finally giving up and taking the worthless lump of character out behind the woodshed.

My Ziggy Stardust-inspired Psionic/Fire tank, Sol Ring.

The Wild Huntsman, personification of myth. Beasts/Cold MM.

Syzygy, the human waveform. Dark/Sonic Blaster