Snokle

I have played most FromSoft titles from Demons' Souls up to Elden Ring, and trying to access their older backlog. I can say when I played DeSouls the very first time on PS3 cause it was clunky, slow and I had no clue what I was doing it was hard...BUT I learned quickly through the game and through dying (a lot) how to get around and how combat and other mechanics worked as I got better and more comfortable in the game. While for the most part there mainstream games have specific mechanics and lots of options to let people explore and try and beat the game they do not hold you hand in any which way. It is designed in a way for you to learn yourself. It is tough because it is trying to emulate a sense of dread and hopelessness which is something that you are suppose to overcome with time. Tying into this the mechanics for the most part are usually tight as the focus is on combat, mistakes will get you punished, many mistakes lead to death. Death is common in the games but not as harsh as older games, as it is intended to be apart of the experience. I think people in hyping the game through word of mouth, which now become a meme make something "FromSoft" hard, even if it is really not hard or difficult. It is too much in gaming verbiage in a lazy slang now to either say something is too hard, or not hard enough, or even just to "get good". Hopefully we can move past this stuff someday.

Yes, using layered defence is always good. Defence is vital to a point per context, it all counts on what you are giving up and how much support you have for all the defence you have. Even if I got 45% with some resistance armour from an epic on a support character, if I have low DPS cause of this and it takes me longer to take out enemies than there is a tradeoff, and raises risk for me to fail as extended time can lead to mistake and chance for hits. While defence is nice, it is not vital, or not as vital as it was on Live.

So I went through and did another pass or two and ended up with this build. I did respec into this, and did a couple test runs through some random KM TFs, a couple paper mishes, and then the heist mish. I have not done the incarnate arcs yet, but it feels a lot better on paper now. While it is light on AOE from myself, I think with the clones and Phantasm it brings enough to cover normal mobs. I thought I would miss not having the target AOE, but I do not, sleet is more than and Army is crucial for damage. Also with flash while it has a long recharge time, I do find it is nice in certain clutches. Priority is always Gleam -> Terror, and Darkness two start wreaking havoc. But sometimes if additional mobs come in during a cool-down the extra AoE control is good to have as a backup. Finally gloom does do wonders for adding to the single target DPA, while I stuck with Smite proc'd out, I found Midnight Grasp is best going 5 slot Hetacomb + ATO for abusing the +power proc. As you are gaining the stacks quite a bit. If I felt frisky I could shave one slot off Smite and put it into Blind and Proc that power out, as I have enough recharge for perma-Dom, but I am comfortable with it as it stands. Vigor made a big difference on the End bar, as I am not worried about popping blues anymore really. So I will probably most times skip Ageless, and run Barrier for tough stuff but have that as backup if need be. Overall very happy how it has turned out with the turning and adjustment, thanks for all the input! Dominator (Illusion Control - Dark Assault - Ice Mastery)v2.mbd

Death

I thought the the true answer was i x -i

I am just asking questions about numbers!

But is it the answer to everything?

The note of this, is you should not just build up to 45% defence on all ATs, that is what a lot of people have been saying. All my ATs, that do not have DDR in them do not run 45% Def, as it is roughly not gonna help you in the long run. While yes you will get 5% chance it hit at even level enemies, but you are usually sacrificing others things that that your AT could excel at. As it was mentioned here Dominators, we sit around 20% Def, then use Inspirations if needed or Incarnates, or other powers if there is issues not just using inspirations all the time. Old school Dom builds probably run 45% S/L/E but you are loosing a lot now, to just take advantage to the powers and mechanics in the game.

Inspirations are in the game by default use them or not, that is choice of the player. For new people yes use inspirations, and just for normal gaming use inspirations. If you want to do a challenge (which you are doing for yourself) then go ahead. It does not trivialize the game, the game is 20+ years old and most of us are here just to have fun. There is enough out there for hard content if you want a challenge in AE if you look for it. I would steer players to play how they want and use all mechanics that are available to them to enjoy the game the way they see fit, if it is solo, team, inspirations, or not.

Okay thanks for the notes. I will look at some notes, probably go through with Vigor for the Alpha, and do a bit more power slotting around, scrap out Ice Storm. If worse comes to worse, I will probably scrap Weave to put back in Terror as that was a final add. I will work on what I have planned out for another iteration.

This run I swapped Spectral Terror with Phantasm. I am not sure on it yet, but it is more of a test. I found I was using terror less and less as I went on. Compared to early levels.

Been running this Dom for a bit now after hitting 50 and starting to do some fine tuning on what I feel the build is feeling like. I have gone through a few passes trying out some different epics and the powers and kinda ended up with this currently. While I usually do not got for Def Epic armor, I think Sleet is too good with PA and Gleam to pass up, I think keeping as much as the mobs bunched up together will keep up the damage as much as possible instead of walking around. Also with Dark Assault having some -to hit it will be a little bonus to help with the extra defense. Since no Res epic, I added Fighting pool to add in the Glad Armor bonuses to get some free KB pro when I am not in Dom, and the extra 6% to Def. Still end feels tight on this, which is something I did notice on some other passes. Just want to make sure there is nothing too obvious I missed. Dominator (Illusion Control - Dark Assault - Ice Mastery).mbd

Sorry, did you get confused?

Probably, I just have set prices that I know what stuff usually goes for and I set them there, and let it sit for a week or two till I get them. To note, when I did my first character buying IOs and doing catalyst way was when Homecoming came out originally back in 2019 so it has been some time. I play on a low enough basis now, that I can wait long enough that I can wait than do the two account system.