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PermaDom is the mechanism by which Dominators can play x8 content (solo or in groups). You need the Mezz protection, you need the control (of an entire spawns, including bosses) and you need the blue bar refill because you WILL be burning end to count the coup. It is quasi-obvious for almost every other AT (maybe not MMs, maybe not AFK farmers) that global Recharge is the mechanism for clearing large spawns as quickly as possible...but Endurance costs and Recovery will eventually catch up...in the case of Dominators the blue bar refill is the crucial element for them to keep up.

Writing only for myself: My Dominators chase PermaDom via set bonuses which require 4, 5, or 6 slots (in addition to LotG pieces), so I don't usually have many slots left-over to dedicate specifically to Epic/Patron pools... so when I leverage them I tend to look for ones with powers that are a good spot to use as Enhancement mules. Psionic Mastery happens to be a good one for that purpose.

I have found the key to solving Endurance issues on Dominators to be "permadom". It's the auto-refill of the Blue Bar that solves the problem, no amount of Recovery, Endurance Reduction, or +MaxEnd, or Global Endurance Discounts will have as big an effect. If possible, try to achieve PermDom without Hasten, as there is an endurance hit each time Hasten expires.

I'm leveling a Water Blast/Atomic Manipulation/Flame Mastery, and I will occasionally double up Bonfire (currently with a Sudden Acceleration KB->KD piece) and Whirlpool. I notice plenty of Knockdown happening, it's not 100% but in my head I associate "missed knockdown" with a missed ToHit roll and not with the %proc rate. It's not so much that I'm trying to keep critters in the Whirlpool, it's more like I have enough targets in the same area that these two powers overlap. (I do like the visual display of them combined!) I agree that Bonfire is NOT a good source of damage (inherent, or %damage), based on my experiences with it as a Dominator and Mastermind. The cast IS a reliable source of Force Feedback %+Recharge for the player, but pseudopet nature doesn't seem to lend itself to %damage (could simply be the recharge of the pet's ticks, could be a "toHit check" for the %damage, could be something else). For this Blaster, Bonfire is simply an initial choice on the path to Fire Shield and Rise of the Phoenix... I hadn't planned on dedicating any extra slots to Bonfire, but I am liking the level of soft control (from the KD) so I'm going to dedicate a second slot to it to have it available more frequently, despite the relatively long ArcanaTime.

I like seeing your build, as I was considering using one of the alternate builds as a dedicated Resist/Defense Cap/Healing option for the character. Obviously the Fighting pool was going to have to be worked into this second build, similar to what you have done. I was also considering Energy Mastery as the Epic choice, for reasons similar to yours. What ultimately stopped me was I felt like I was giving up "too much" in terms of what I had originally designed my character to do: make LOTS of (AoE) attacks across all level ranges (part of the reason why I didn't take an Epic or Patron pool) and move quickly between enemy spawns. I ended up being so "not concerned" about resists that I pulled out singleton global enhancements. I'm definitely not making any judgement calls on either approach (offense v. defense) as players we get to choose what sort of content we play and on the sort of playstyles we'll use. As another aside: If build 1 is what I posted, and build 2 is more like the direction you are going in, I was considering build 3 to be more of a team-focused effort by using different power choices (likely going deep into the Leadership pool). I have a deep affection for Unrelenting (Presence pool), and think it could be very beneficial to a sack of HP character with no self-heal (like a Shield Tanker) but I can't justify taking two other powers from that pool on a Tanker. Intimidate is fun, but Provoke (with its ToHit roll) and Placate are waste picks for a Tanker. The other piece I don't see (could be my eyes) in your build is the Reactive Defenses: Scaling Damage Resistance. I never mind taking damage on my characters, so I always try to include it. With characters that have large amounts of Health, I do rather like it. In your build, it would be most noticeable against large spawns of specific enemies (Nemesis? Rularuu?) but otherwise I can see why you might skip it.

You went in a very different direction(*1) than I did for the same choice of primary/secondary, so there isn't much I can directly comment on. I will note that I think you will get better Regeneration results in Health by slotting 2-pieces of Numina's Convalescence (Heal, +Regen/+Recovery) If you really want the 3-piece bonus from Preventive Maintenance, move the Absorb %proc into True Grit. I also think that the Might of the Tanker +Res ATO piece is better suited in one of the AoE attacks (I have it in Pendulum, I don't use any of the other pieces). I don't use Swoop, but maybe consider swapping the sets used in Swoop and Chop? I can sort of see what you are going for with Recharge. I also did not %proc out Cleave (that is where I have the Armageddon set). (*1) I went for (solo) positional defenses in the mid 30s, and only targeted resists in the 30%-50% range (without considering the ATO) , but went for as much AoE. My build won't do what you are looking for (defensively), but I'll include it so you can see my choices of attacks and how I slotted them.

Revisiting this (old) post: I can confirm that Colleen Nelson awarded the Shrouded badge via the "Destroy the Rikti Virus" mission to my level 39 character. As an aside: I was rather peeved at my "friend and colleague" Steven Sheridan running out of missions for me without sending me to the map in question.

It is possible to slot level 50 PVP pieces before level 50, of course....subject to the same rules for slotting higher level pieces.

I'm looking for some new cell phone sounds, and I rather like the "Success!" sound when combining enhancements (or attuning). Does anyone know the name of that sound (and it's location in the pigg file, if applicable). I also kinda like the "Failure" noise too.

I typically (eventually) attune a LOT of PVPs, as long as they are below 50. That way I can (later) slot them into new characters at level 10.

I would never buy a crafted enhancement with the intent of attuning it, but I have attuned a LOT of enhancements that I've simply crafted (or converted into). At this point in the (Homecoming) game's life-cycle I am catalyst-rich (and merit-rich, for that matter) so I am completely unconcerned about raw Influence. I play all levels of content so attuned (for set bonuses) is the way for me. There are a small number of times when I will specifically buy level 50 versions of enhancements with the intent to boost them to 50+5. I don't want a set bonus (i.e., the piece is a one-off not giving me a set bonus anyway) The power can take enhancement set pieces that boost effects but not IOs (or HOs), like Adjusted Targeting: Recharge in Link Minds (or Mind Link) which cannot have recharge time boosted by IOs or HOs It's a piece that isn't available in an HO/D-Sync variety (such as Accuracy/Endurance Reduction) It's a piece I'm too cheap to get the equivalent HO/D-Sync. IIRC in almost all cases, the boosts from a 50+5 piece is just under the values offered by a level 50 HO. A classic example for me is choosing to use singleton Universal travel pieces at 50+5 in place of Microfilaments or Accelerations, or a Shield Wall Defense/Endurace Reduction in pure Defense powers in place of a Cytoskeleton

I want to chime in with a sincere THANK YOU for putting the guide together for blue siders. The only issue I have with the guide is that as written, it may not be immediately obvious to an uninformed that the Croatoa arc has to be started before moving on to level 30. It is there in the text, but it seems weird to come after the "before you move on" bit for level 25-29 content. I was playing at launch day, and I have (for the past several weeks) been playing a blue-side character through as much of the content as I can. This has meant TURNING OFF XP and some amount of grinding. That character is currently level 37, here are my thoughts while they are somewhat fresh: I started the character with the typical gift of Influence, in order to buy P2W travel, utility, and temporary attack powers. I did invest in (cheap) amplifiers at low levels but I don't think they were needed. Much of the game has grindy travel between zones, so P2W helps. I also picked up the Ouroboros portal ASAP for the same reason. Full disclosure: I skipped the Hollows arc. There is nothing wrong with that arc, its just that it is essentially designed to let you skip those low-level grindy missions. I have used Oroborous to work on it when I feel like taking a break. I think I've done all the "newer" zones/contacts at appropriate level (including Faultline, Striga, Croatoa, First Ward, Night Ward). I have mostly skipped the PVP zones, although they are trivially repeatable at higher levels so I'm not sweating them. I did have to use Ouroboros to get a couple of Atlas Park missions that I wasn't offered. I also didn't get around to joining a Death from Below until I was already level 20, and I haven't seen a Drowning in Blood offered! I made one peculiar choice: I took Infiltration as my "travel power" (because Kismet +ToHit), which meant that as soon as I got Agent G's Arachnos Disguise I spent an hour traveling to all the blue side zones I could enter (except the Abandoned Sewer Network, curse you Rikti Drones!) to collect all of the exploration badges and history plaques. This has saved me later effort and allowed me to leverage Long Range Teleport as needed. Infiltration also allowed me to "stealth" many missions that would have otherwise forced me to "defeat most" which would have sped up XP. Turning off XP has another peculiar effect that I am sure doesn't apply to most players: I found myself collecting enough recipes and salvage (and vendor-able items) that this character has been able to craft the Invention badges as he goes along. This is particularly important for the 25-30 inventions, as those badges increase salvage storage capacity. The level range 20-30 has a LOT of content, so XP was off for most of it. Crafting and using the Auction House allowed this character to make back every drop of Influence invested in him (and then some) per typical Auction House strategies by level 30. I should not for "badgers": Taking a "defeat all" approach as a solo player will naturally earn many of the defeat badges (YMMV on bosses). I did turn up the team size to get the Croatoan Ghosts badge withing that arc of course. I have been sure to do a single round of radio missions, to collect the exploration badges in the Safeguard missions. again, Stealthing these makes this go really fast without having to earn too much XP. I've also been doing Tip missions (both hero and vigilante), as I find them to be among the better written missions in the game, and usually I blow past the levels 20-29, 30-39 to get all the different perspectives of the various "soft arcs" in them. I was surprised how much of the OG content I enjoyed in the level ranges 20-40. The "feel" of this content is much different than when revisiting (via Ouroboros) the missions as a level 50+. I'd also forgotten that many of the non-badge, non-story arc missions from contacts drop clues about the greater Lore. Thanks again for the guide, and good luck to all who try the OG "slow path".

I wouldn't worry about a "kiting" on a Robotics/Traps build. I'm pretty sure the build I posted has (with no Incarnates) MM: Positional Defenses of 50%+ for Melee/Ranged, 54%+ for AoE Henchmen: 46%+ Melee/Ranged, 61%+ AoE

I lurv the Presence pool on my Fortunata. Provoke is a bit of a waste(*1), and the ST Fear really only gets leveraged when piling on Fear (magnitude/duration) but the AoE Fear is a wonderful additional source of %damage/control and Unrelenting is a thing of Beauty with the way Fortunata defenses/resists (and recharge times!) can be made to work. (*1) Because small number of targets and ToHit roll required. Just grab aggro from an AoE attack instead.

Slotting single-target and toggle aura Confuses (and Taunts) for %damage is almost always a waste. ST Confuses are better served by Contagious Confusion, Taunts are better with Accuracy (for the non auto-hits, such as from Presence pool) or simply Duration. If confuse or taunt is a secondary effect in some sort of attack, and the AT has a relatively low damage scale, then go ahead and try to leverage %damage from procs. There are a handful of single-target holds and debuffs that have "low enough" damage (sometimes depending on AT) that a %damage proc can make sense, but it is not a sure thing. Currently, I am looking real hard at Water Blast's Whirpool: it ought to be a good place to drop %damage from procs, but much like my previous experience with Caltrops and Bonfire I am beginning to think that it's probably an over-rated place for %damage and that the slots would be better used for set bonuses (such as from Annihilation). Psuedo-pets are always worth keeping an eye on: When I see the %procs trigger it is on the casting (I could be missing some of course), so for high DPS ATs I don't think the little bit of occasional extra %damage is making enough of an impact on clear times to justify the use of the slot.

Setting aside discussion points around Cloak of Fear: is this one of the aura powers that doesn't show the successful ToHit rolls in the combat log? I feel like there was a thread (in the Bugs subforum) a while back that was questioning streakbreaker and observed misses... and that this discrepency was attributed to auras that were (unobservedly) making ToHit rolls.

IIRC, the %damage/%effect procs do rely on a To-Hit check, in addition to the %proc check. I cannot recall if the lost-to-time poster of that tidbit qualified if it was slotted ToHit rolls from the power itself, or using global ToHit/Accuracy. If the latter, Enhacement set bonuses and other power toggles would mitigate the need for slotting Accuracy.

This was me: Not in Beta, but waiting for release day... and OMG the waits on assorted downloads! (Also me, Invuln tanker, stuck in place, watching the fire Tanks earn insta-XP from DE Swarms.) I have a LOT of memories, but the one thing that really stands out to me as a work on leveling a blue-sider by turning off XP and hitting as many of the OG contacts as possible for missions is how much more enjoyable the game got with Veteran rewards, especially means of cross-zone travel that did not involve the CTA trains.

I am not familiar with the specifics of Animated Stone, but I have to believe that Hecatomb is better used for set bonuses in one of the AT's attacks. The Very Rare piece you want to consider for a pet (or a henchman) is Soulbound Allegiance's %Build Up (assuming the pet has no dead-time between attacks). If the summon power brings out multiple pets, the Overwhelming Force Knockdown is also a solid choice.

Leveraging the melee attacks takes some getting used to, for multiple (generic) reasons: The Blaster has to be able to stay in melee, for at least a little bit of time. This isn't easy to do at low levels (low defenses, no resists) , and at higher levels where spawn sizes are larger RNG has more opportunities to land hits. Since many enemies have a mix of melee and range, when in melee range you open yourself up to more attacks. This can be mitigated with a variety of powers, playstyles, Enhancement set bonuses, and power choices. Low-to-mid level Blasters often have something like a decent attack chain made almost entirely of ranged attacks (from the primary) that they grow comfortable with by the time they could choose to have melee worked into the chain. A player has to make a conscious effort, through pool choices (of melee attacks, which could be seen a "gimping a build") and play style to see how melee could be worked into a build at low/mid levels. A level 50+ build can respec and add lots of slots (with Enhancement sets) to better leverage melee attacks, even at low levels. There are a handful of pool powers that can help "Blapping". I'm a personal fan of Combat Teleport, using a couple of binds: /macro_image "DevouringEarthSeed_Hematic_Seedbuff" "BAMF" "powexec_location target Combat Teleport" /macro_image "DevouringEarthSeed_Hematic_seedblood" "Back" "powexec_location Back:25 Combat Teleport" The first puts you in the face of a target (I keep meaning to experiment with the bind to go "just past" the target for those times when targets are on the edge of ledges); the second pops me back to switch to ranged attacks (typically cones). Patches Blasters with some sort of "placed patch" powers also get a bind to drop the patch on a specific target; often the patches have some some sort of "soft control" like Knockdown or damage-over-time, or debuff that causes enemies to begin to scatter, which can buy time for a melee attack. Pay attention to the AI Many single harde targets, like GMs, have a cycle of attacks... so time your melee attacks based on their attack chain.

I have my walking fly trap slotted as follows (Dominator): (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (*) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff: Level 20 (*) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage: Level 50 From memory, the reason this pet has those two %procs is because one of the attacks they fire in is a cone, and there are also two single-target attacks. My Dark/rad Defender only has Fluffy 4-slouted with Cloud Senses. I could put any extra slots to better use elsewhere in the build.

I'm not that familiar with Force Field, but at first blush I would think that the Fighting Pool's Weave isn't necessary and two picks to get Tough (presumably to be mostly a mule) is... well "tough". Given the inspiration, I'd be tempted to forgo both Fighting and Flight, and leverage Sorcery (loss of Group Fly of course) which has many powers that can act as mules (for a variety of types), and if slots are needed in the defense powers (a good idea, probably) then I'd add Concealment for default-slot LotGs global recharge mules. I would probably skip Arcane Bolt on a MM, but it has a cool thematic animation.

No disagreement from me on this approach. Health is IMO one of the trickiest to consider, as it is something trivial to self-monitor (by default) and also easy to monitor for teammates. Experienced players can probably tell if/when a teammate needs healing, but not always. Sometimes it isn't possible to tell when an AT with a "sack o' Health" really needs healing, or when that non-sack AT has got beaucoup resists/scaling and a high-frequency Unrelenting to be popped. I never really mind the TLC, but I'd almost always prefer to have a teammate make it so that I don't need Orange/Purple/Pink inspirations. Wakies I can keep in email, so feel free to spam Howling Twilight on the spawns! If anyone needs team-friendly pool suggestions: one thing an inspiration can't do is teleport teammates across Independence Port.

Thanks for the notice! I've never Stayed goldside long enough to encounter that arc!

This is going into alt-Lore territory, and while I'm glad this wasn't done Back Alley Brawler, I'm always surprised (given the apparent Praetorian connection to Deadlock (and the old devs seeming distaste for certain elements of the original Lore) that Back-Alley Brawler wasn't beaten into a pulp, kidnapped, and turned into the Noble Savage (in the First Ward). Noble Savage's backstory seems to be entirely lacking (is he hinted at in any Gold lore prior to First Ward?), and BA Brawler doesn't seem to be any worse for the experience shown in Eagle Eye's 'personal' mission in any of the places/missions where BAB is encountered.