Ozryk

No. Empathy has too much of its power choices caught up in 'Do not die' effects, and you can't heal enemies to death. You can't dodge them to death. At day's end, your progress through the game is mediated by damage, so you want a defender pick that brings more ways to amplify party damage, through damage buffs, recovery buffs, recharge buffs, and resistance and regeneration debuffs.

The Dominator is Magneto. This archetype expresses the ultra-powerful super-villain which can render their enemies helpless before blowing them to Perdition. Where a Blaster relies on raw damage and some light regeneration to stay live, a Dominator prevents their enemies from ever throwing a punch. Grouped, the Dominator should focus on identifying key difficult opponents and neutralizing them. Healers, Summoners, Debuffers and Sappers can, left unchecked, wreak havoc on your team. Finding those troublesome enemies and swiftly reducing them to piñatas will make your group much more smoothly demolish your opposition. Once threats are handled, Doms casually stop runners and swiftly turn unexpected defeats from becoming a party wipe, through quick and judicious use of their AoE mezz abilities. Finally, a well-built dominator can even turn Archvillains into punching bags, given enough time to stack up hold magnitude.

The people relegating Gravity Control to the middle of the pack haven't played it in ages, if at all. Yes, at earlier points Grav had some downsides, most noticeably that Wormhole's base range was uncomfortably short, with a long animation which would frequently get less well itemized players killed. However, with recent changes, Gravity is S-tier. The impact mechanic turns Lift and Propel into very powerful, fast-recharging blasts with 100% knockdown. This lets a Grav use lots of juggle while maintaining excellent damage output. Wormhole is now a 70 foot range, aggro-free AoE stun which can put up to 16 targets into a spot of your choosing, for orderly AoE disposal. The slightly smaller radius is neatly compensated with the lack of aggro and longer stun duration, and in practice it's the most powerful pulling tool in the game, bar *none*. Finally, the Singularity is the best Controller pet in the game, period. With perfect aerial mobility, a constant repel field, and cycling through Lift, Crush, and Gravity Distortion, this pet helps the Gravity Dom stack more magnitude than any other control Archetype.

I don't find immobilization duration to ever be worth slotting for, because virtually all immobilization powers come with ample duration and few enemies resist it (and those that do resist you're better off using an alternate control). So personally, I'd slot up Living Shadows with damage and some damage procs, like Positron's Blast 5 piece. Fearsome Stare you *definitely* want to slot for -to-hit, it's 11.25% base, so 4 pieces of Cloud Senses is a no-brainer there, for another +6.25% global recharge. As for defense soft-caps, I don't even worry about them on my Grav/Rad Dom. You've got ample control powers, magnitude to shake off mezz effects, and you can always down a purple or two if you find yourself in a pinch. A lot of people like Soul Mastery, I'm personally enamored of Psionic for 'Link Minds' because I like consistency and group buffs. But you should do what speaks to you, and makes a build you like to play. I also skip fighting on my Dom, because I can get more Luck of the Gambler mules in using other powers which have cool secondary uses. Afterburner for flight speed, Vengeance to throw the brakes on a teamwipe, Indomitable Will to laugh off enemies with lots of Psi, and these can all work as one-slot wonders to throw those precious Luck global recharge IOs.

You've 6-slotted Masterful Throw for a 4.5% Psi/Tox resistance set bonus, but dropped the 5th slot on Unbreakable Constraint in your Dark Grasp, which would give you a 6% Psi/Tox resistance set bonus. You can drop one slot from Tough and lose Steadfast Protection KB, and slot Blessing of the Zephyr KB protection into your Teleport, for the same amount of KB resistance, not that you'll need it once you're perma-dom. I'm also highly skeptical of Invisibility as a viable toggle. At 1.3 base end/second, it's incredibly hungry, and the defense bonus it gives is halved while in combat, making it very, very inefficient. Consider using Leadership instead.

Carry a can of purps and burn them down, you really don't have any other choice. Yes, immobilize (or -Fly with hover, which is my trick) works great, these are effects to which most AVs are not immune. As for Earth/Earth, consider slotting that ST immobilize for damage, and adding it to your ST damage rotation. You're going to want to keep your target rooted anyway, and the base duration should be more than adequate because AV resistance (purple triangles) doesn't cover immobilize.

Ah! That is interesting. I was digging to the 6-slot bonuses for both for the amazing +5 to AOE and Ranged Defense, but I will check that out. I'm somewhat lukewarm on the heal procs in any case, as I don't intend to be that close to my targets.

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, I read your guide, and I did take it into account your ratings, it was very helpful. I would love to slip in Swap Ammo, but the only thing I think I'd skip to get it is Piercing Rounds, and I already feel fairly minimalist on my attack powers. I will definitely take your advice and drop Kismet, I was blithely ignoring the to-hit buff from Farsight, that's a clean improvement, no doubt. One reason my end burn seems so high is I've got Sprint toggled on, for the Stealth IO, cutting that brings me down to 1.04/s endurance burn. I also haven't added in accolade boosts to endurance which should help edge that up as well. One thought that occurs is maybe putting Freebird: Stealth in hover, for some always-on hiding, and just eating the 1.81 second longer interval between Chrono-shifts. I'll give that some thought.

So I've been working on a series of Defender/Corruptor ideas, looking for a good combination of style, effectiveness, team support, and good old offensive power. I took a look through the Offender thread, and decided I wasn't fully ready to commit to a pure proc-driven strategy, and came up with this compromise. It's perma-hasten, 4.11 seconds of downtime on Chrono-shift, has double procs in single target attacks, and very, very high defenses, using the Power Boost/Farsight synergy. Here it is: http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1472&c=673&a=1346&f=HEX&dc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tried this using both a Corruptor Base and a Defender base, and decided that the offensive benefits of the Corruptor wouldn't make up for the huge advantages in durability offered by reaching 59% in Ranged/AoE defense, and Intuition in my Alpha slot adds much needed range to Empty Clips, along with damage. I'd like to see if I can squeeze down my Chrono-shift downtime further, without giving up too much else from my toolkit. Thoughts?

IMO, that's suboptimal. Slot for accuracy, damage, and endurance reduction for your single target hold and your blasts. At low levels and low difficulty, killing stuff fast is far more efficient than worrying about stacking magnitude or stuff that has late-game relevance. Until you reach level 25 or so, your basic controls are really better treated as blasts with a strong secondary effect than control powers with a side of damage. For example, Power Bolt (the first blast from /NRG) has 52.83 base damage. Gravity Distortion (the ST hold from Grav/) has 58.11 base damage. Sure, Power Bolt is cheaper, but at low level, you're limited by your green bar as much as your blue bar.

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Leadership It's 10.5% on Brutes, same as Scrappers, Tankers, Blasters, and Stalkers (and one assumes, Sentinels, I haven't checked). The trick is that those figures are a percentage of base damage, and additive with all other buffs, and Brutes have a pretty low base damage factor: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Damage So, given that you're usually running ~70 Fury, and have ~90-100% from enhancements, for an average standing damage buff of +240%, adding another +10.5% can be pretty mild, giving you only a ~4.5% improvement to overall damage. That 3% figure probably assumes you're also running at 100 Fury, and have, say, Musculature Core Paragon in your Alpha Slot. So yeah, I can see passing on assault if you're building a Brute for solo farming. When you team, however, it's super-great, even for the DPS archetypes who get the lowest multipliers.

It's 15% on Corruptors. It's basically a half of a SO enhancement on every damaging power you have, and on every teammates' damaging powers if they're within 60 meters.

I'm referring to the original poster, which is the person at whom my response was directed. Did you come here asking for help with Doms? Then you can safely assume I'm not telling you how you should play your toon. I don't care about you, or your opinions, and I don't see any reason why you should get so butthurt about mine.

Again, my advice is in the context of "I can't stay alive", which is the OP's topic.

And I'm not saying anything with contradicts that. What I'm saying is that if you're having trouble staying out of debt, like the OP complained of, staying out of melee range is going to help. I use melee attacks on my Dom, after the spawn has been immobilized for orderly destruction. But that's not the situtation the OP finds themselves in. With sufficient investment in pool powers and IO sets, you can make any AT viable, but that isn't going to make them optimal.

I'm not the one having issues, the OP is, which is why I gave the advice I gave. As for experience, I think getting 2 dominators Incarnate, once in Live and once here on Homecoming is quite sufficient.

Hey, if what you're doing is working, by all means, play how you want to. This guy came asking for advice, and I gave the best advice I have, which is stay at range if you're having trouble being alive.

Yeah, Blappers are right up there with petless masterminds in terms of utility and efficacy. Yes, if you're in search of handicaps, you can play a class outside its core competence, but you're not doing any favors to the guy asking for help using the AT well. Sure, you can play however you want, but if you're being repeatedly sent to the hospital, it's time to consider how your class was designed to be played.

Doms don't have mezz protection, or any primary or secondary powers which afford resistances or defense. Blaster secondaries have melee abilities too, but I don't think anyone would suggest that they're a melee class. A defender can take the fighting pool and go 100% melee as well, that doesn't mean they'd be effective, or that it's a good idea. More to the point, the OP is complaining that they're dying too much, and that they're used to going in close and mixing it up, which says to me that they're playing the AT too aggressively. Sure, once you've got perma-dom, and good uptime on your AoE mezz powers, you can fly into melee next to the pinatas you've created and start punching them, but that doesn't make a Dom a Brute.

Y'all know the PTR changes will nerf the instant snipe mechanic, right?

Dominators are a ranged class. Yes, I know they have melee attacks, but that's for when the enemy has been completely neutralized with your control effects. Tough/Weave are completely unnecessary to a well-built/played Dominator, because if you do your job right, enemies should be mezzed so much of the time they can't do appreciable damage. My guess is that you're falling for the trap of spamming your AoE immobilize. This just gets the attention of every mob while milding inconveniening them. Focus fire and reduce the number of enemies hitting you. Fewer enemies means you take less damage, and your controls have more impact.

I'm going to modify 'better' to different, because I think that many of the differences offered by both titles are more in the line of trade-offs than raw improvement. Here's what WoW does which really distinguishes itself from CoH: 1) Curated encounters. Their raid and dungeon content, especially in later material, is much more unique, with lots of special mechanics which shake up the usual pummel-party that the regular gameplay offers. But before we run away with that, sprinkling in lots of weird mechanics presents problems as well. Basically, the regular game teaches players a very simple, not-too-challenging set of mechanics, then dunks players headfirst into an overcomplicated square-dance where one false decision will wipe your entire 25 man raid. Surely it would be better to focus on making the core mechanics dynamic and engaging enough to keep everyone interested, instead of turning every boss battle into a research project. 2) Art direction. City of Heroes had great graphics for its time, and a wide variety of choices, but lots of them are, to put it bluntly, bland and/or ugly. WoW has a more consciously designed aesthetic, and while it might not be to everyone's taste, it's definitely more coherent, and much more interesting to look at. Later CoH content compares quite well, however, and stuff from Praetoria and the Rogue Isles looks pretty solid, but then again, I don't think I've ever seen as pretty or amazing as stuff I've seen in Ulduar or The Nighthold in WoW. 3) Feature Creep. Mounts. Toys. Pet Battles. Jousting. Darkmoon Faire. The game is positively brimming with little minigames and stuff that they've added over the years. This stuff is interesting, but I question whether the game is actually better for it. That said, I would not say no to a City of Heroes vehicle system, so that you're not reduced to taking the bus everywhere. 4) A more continguous world. There are very few hard zone boundaries in WoW. You can fly across the entire continent. In some ways this is good as it grounds you in the sense that Azeroth and such is a real place. On the other hand it's kind of bad, because the idea that you can traverse an entire continent in 60 minutes can have the effect of making the world seem dinky. On balance, I think I prefer CoH's choice of portraying a huge city, but I can't argue that Azeroth feels more seamless. 5) PVP. This is one where I think WoW does solidly outperforms City of Heroes. While I don't think any MMO PVP is much to get excited about, since these are functionally turn-based games where a die-roll determines winners and losers, I still have to admit that Blizzard executed on delivering a more dynamic, engaging PVP experience. Battlegrounds and Arenas are still governed more by itemization and matchups than player skill, but there's still some counter-play and quick decisionmaking shaking things up in WoW.

Waste of a power pick, imo. You can take the alpha, and your team should be able to mop everyone up shortly thereafter.

Oh! Here, lemme help ya out: Call Swarm: Ranged, Light DoT (Lethal), Foe -Defense, -Speed Maiming Slash: Melee, Moderate DMG (Lethal), Minor DoT (Lethal), Foe -Speed, +1 Blood Frenzy Vicious Slash: Melee, High DMG (Lethal), Minor DoT (Lethal), Knockdown, +2 Blood Frenzy Unkindness: Ranged (Cone), Moderate DoT (Lethal), Foe -Speed, -Defense, -Fly Spot Prey: Self +To Hit, +DMG, +Perception Rending Flurry: PBAoE, Moderate DMG(Lethal), Minor DoT(Lethal), -Blood Frenzy Blood Craze: Self Heal, Res(Toxic) Call Hawk: Ranged, High DMG (Lethal), Foe -To Hit, Knockdown, -Fly Feral Charge: PBAoE, Superior DMG(Lethal), Minor DoT(Lethal), +3 Blood Frenzy, Self Teleport

Grab a copy of Pine's it's all laid out there.