MoonSheep

some interesting changes here adaptive recharge really changes things for dominators and controllers command-able controller pets a huge upgrade too

the build is fine and it’ll play fine, but i do observe that you’re not leaning into the radiation emission side of things from your primary, but you’re also not leaning into the huge proc damage potential from your secondary if defense is the largest priority, have you considered a rad blast/rad armor sentinel? it may be able to achieve your targets with less effort thoughts on the current build: - mutation is great and worth taking. if you were to pick soul transfer it means you can self rez then get others going again - fallout is a power with huge potential, massive debuffs, definitely has a place on the build, it’s a signature debuff. - i’d pick vengeance, when slotted it gives almost +40% def to the whole team and very good levels of +to hit, along with some extra +dmg - i’m not sure why there’s so much defense in the build, slot radiation infection with more -to hit and you should be surviving just fine. perhaps target 15-20% of your build to ranged defense at most, tough and weave are a waste of potential - have a look at the thread below for the damage proc potential of the radiation blast and mastery powers. procs will do well on a rad/rad given the -res from enervating field/fallout and ability to gain more -resistance from procs, especially in irradiate which is currently poorly slotted. it’s one of the best proccable powers in the game. it can be loaded nicely with resistance debuff and damage procs to become a signature power of radiation blast

i too am a hater of masterminds and used to actively exclude them from my kin-led KM ITF runs, however i’ve found the melee ones once i’ve hit them with fulcrum shift and speed boost can actually be quite good my biggest frustration now are players who stay entirely at range miles away from combat whilst the rest of the team has +300% DMG from FS having a wild time. those ranged players just aren’t contributing to the progress in such situations but kicking feels a bit harsh

the build overall looks not too bad, i don't tend to build for defense but i don't think you've sacrified much to do so - i would pick up gloom for the good ranged damage and keep both spectral terror and phantasm - smite has a fast recharge, so proccing it out isn't too effective - i find ice storm very underwhelming and would look to have something else haven't got much to say other than that, i quite like it. tempted to make an ill dom myself

keen to have a look at this when home later out of curiosity

bottom right every time, yolooo

haha, i was just going to make this joke also

this is the approach i take for most characters also. 15-20% is a good amount, a medium purple insp contributing an extra 33% keeps the alt nicely safe when needed allows for a lot of freedom in the overall build to maximise output and have fun building for defense is a legacy strategy that is no longer relevant in HC. /ah before missions is the mighty equaliser

3rd from last mate building for defense is a waste of time unless you’re an RPer. isnps are so cheap and readily available that i’d prefer to min/max my build and focus on maximum output

there was a similar thread recently, pasting below for visibility my summary thoughts: - the penalty for dying is so minimal that it’s usually not worth going overboard building for defense unless you’re a tank - inspirations are so easy to get hold of that unless you’re a roleplayer who wants to do a self survival challenge, just pop the insps - wait for the tank or scrapper to take the aggro, then jump in

“spontaneous PvP mode activated”

oh wow! i had completely forgot about that, thanks for finding when did the colour change? i started in summer 2005. i love the original look of the atlas medallion

they’re the same aren’t they? portal jockey has always been a nice vibrant pink

- back in the day, it was an impressive thing to see people with the portal jockey accolade, it was the sign an alt had “made it” - the eden trial was genuinely difficult and/or i was terrible at the game - a 40 minute STF run was impressive - oldschool blaster defiance was great - herding parties in the hollows where a tank would herd up huge mobs and lowbies would cast AoE immob powers to get good XP - sirens call PvP was -the- place to be - having a shivan was nearly mandatory at times to complete certain events if the team wasn’t optimal - IOs used to have massive value, if a purple melee recipe dropped you were 200m richer. if a PvP recipe dropped you could be 1-2bn richer - the old sidekick system was kind of awful - the Cathedral of Pain trial was such a rare event, i didn’t play it until the HC days and only heard about it on live like a legend or myth - i took part in a few base raids which was fun - endurance management used to be such a massive problem in the lower levels, anything that gave a +recovery buff was a big help

in HC recipes have no level on the auction house. if there is a lvl 25 LoTG +Rech recipe posted for sale and a lvl 50 LoTG +Rech recipe posted for sale, both the level 25 and the lvl 50 listings will show 2 recipes being available

hmm, i actually disagree with part of this - the alts suggested are very good at draining endurance but not as good at sustaining the zero endurance from my experience on the beta server, elec control is a real winner as conductive aura is constantly sapping endurance during combat, removing the need to reapply i find things like /elec defenders mean i’m permanently in a frantic rush trying to reapply my end draining powers elec control dom with a melee focused secondary like earth assault or ice assault would get my vote, both have power boost too time to make an elec/ice dom on mids..

@Confusion

i don’t slot most of them on my kin, why would i want +regen, +recovery, chance for heal etc when i have transference and transfusion. likewise i don’t slot the defense or res procs on my dominator as i’m a chronic insp user and will always have a ton of purples on me they are useful for most alts but you should identify a reason why you’re slotting them

yeah it’s generally useful to slot a fair amount of those. the steadfast 3% def is also a useful one if you’re building for defence, the panacea proc also useful. i’ve linked a thread below where they were recently discussed the values of the enhancements can’t be changed, e.g the 5% res on shield wall will always be 5% edit 1: @Vedic70 sorry, here’s the link: edit 2: @shortguy on indom the value of unique procs don’t change with set level, they will always be the same, go check out a lvl 25 LoTG +rech on the auction house compared to a lvl 50 one

i expect you’re correct, i play a few tanks and scrappers on the test server - the crits from scrappers definitely make them better for ST i’d find it hard to view a brute as ever being an preferred choice though as my perception is that a scrapper has better burst damage than a brute and the larger AoEs of a tank make them better than a brute for general play. so i agree with OP that brutes are a bit pointless in the modern era i suspect brutes are still popular on homecoming though because they used to be good on live, in the same way people still play psi assault doms because the memory of drain psyche being good 15 years ago keeps people thinking its still a good set even though it’s glory days are long gone

tanks out damage brutes and scrappers in real world play

what i mean is, don’t face tank the mobs and ruin the alt for the sake of focusing on a defence heavy IO build. playing with an attack:shield mentality is often not optimal - it’s generally better to just mez the most damaging or troublesome enemy and then splat them @Mopery i agree, my mind/fire is entirely ranged but i’m always in the mobs as often that’s generally where the buffs are - hence the use of many insps, gotta crunch them down like skittles

can blasters reliably solo? yes of course they can, not everything needs to be run on +4/x8

here’s a short and potentially argumentative guide: some dom primary and secondaries suck choose a mind/fire or plant/energy and you’ll have a whale of a time don’t try to play it like a scrapper, switch on the brain and think about which enemies need to be mezzed or simply killed use your bloody inspirations get perma dom you have now completed your 11 second guide on dominators