Ozryk

Eh, it's more common than you might think. Longbow & Council Minigunners, the pistol users in Knives of Vengeance, Tanks using Footstomp, there are some big, meaty AoE attacks in this game. The more pertinent issue is this: The really scary attacks tend not to be AoE. Stuns, Holds, Immobilizes, and Recharge debuffs tend to be single-target more often than AoE, but in any case, a Dominator is probably better served itemizing for AoE/Ranged defense than Smashing/Lethal, because it's going to cover a wider variety of attacks you'll want to avoid. That said, Dominator defenses mostly rely on preventing enemies from attacking to begin with.

If you have Ranged and AoE, you pretty much have all that you need on a Dom and more, because your principal job is to provide 'active defense' to yourself and your team, ie: prevent enemies from attacking you in the first place.

Knockback is fine. It's better than fine, it's great. A 2-second soft crowd control is amazing, considering it's available without profound investment in features other than player damage and survivability. The main problem with knockback isn't the mechanic, it's the selfish attitudes of the player-base, mainly the melee players who throw a tantrum because they have to move a couple of feet to re-acquire melee range.

Just drop Brute's resist cap to 85%, comparable to Epic Archetypes (VEAT's, PB's, etc.). They'll still be perfectly viable, tougher than Scrappers, yet not as tough as Tankers. Let's not pretend this is an unsolvable conundrum. It's extremely simple, both to identify and to solve.

Any chance some of the NPC-equipped cape/drape options will make their way to the players? I'm talking about the loincloths on the Knives of Vengeance, or the Robes on the Mu Adepts, or Ghost widow's coattails.

Not even a little bit. The primary driver of inputs into the CH/BM is players farming stuff. Anything which makes recipes more abundant is good for players. Anything which makes them less abundant is bad for players. The only thing that would be actually bad for the market is if loads of active players stopped playing.

I have https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Gaussian%27s_Synchronized_Fire-Control 6-slotted into Tactics on my character, but I never see the IO build-up proc trigger. It should proc an average of once per minute.

The mace blasts are not there to be the mainstay of a build. A Bane isn't a blaster. But they're not bad to have in your build. Sometimes you either can't reach, or don't want to get close to, a particular enemy, and being able to stand out of reach and peck at them is still pretty useful. It's nice to deal a parting shot or two to runners as well, and as Spellward says, slotting IO's. Here's my prospective Bane build, optimized as I wanted to make him: Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Bane Machine: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier Primary Power Set: Bane Spider Soldier Secondary Power Set: Bane Spider Training Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Bash -- TchofDth-Acc/Dmg(A), TchofDth-Dmg/EndRdx(5), TchofDth-Dmg/Rchg(5), TchofDth-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(7), TchofDth-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), TchofDth-Dam%(9) Level 1: Bane Spider Armor Upgrade -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(3), GldArm-3defTpProc(3) Level 2: Mace Beam -- SprSpdBit-Acc/Dmg(A), SprSpdBit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), SprSpdBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), SprSpdBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), SprSpdBit-Rchg/Global Toxic(34) Level 4: Fly -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 6: Hover -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(17) Level 8: Build Up -- RctRtc-Pcptn(A) Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(A), ShlWal-Def/Rchg(11), ShlWal-EndRdx/Rchg(11), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(13), ShlWal-Def(13), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(15) Level 12: Poisonous Ray -- SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg(A), SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), SprDmnofA-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), SprDmnofA-Rchg/DmgFear%(43) Level 14: Pulverize -- Hct-Dmg(A), Hct-Dmg/Rchg(15), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), Hct-Acc/Rchg(34), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(46), Hct-Dam%(48) Level 16: Boxing -- Empty(A) Level 18: Shatter -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(46), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(46) Level 20: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GssSynFr--ToHit(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg(21), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(21), GssSynFr--Rchg/EndRdx(23), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx(23), GssSynFr--Build%(25) Level 22: Mental Training -- Flight-I(A) Level 24: Cloaking Device -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(25) Level 26: Tough -- Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(27), Ags-EndRdx/Rchg(27), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Ags-Psi/Status(33) Level 28: Surveillance -- AnlWkn-%ToHit(A) Level 30: Weave -- Rct-Def(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(31), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg(31), Rct-Def/Rchg(31), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(33), Rct-ResDam%(33) Level 32: Crowd Control -- Arm-Dmg(A), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(48), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Arm-Acc/Rchg(50), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(50), Arm-Dam%(50) Level 35: Web Cocoon -- SprEnt-Acc/Hold(A), SprEnt-Hold/Rchg(36), SprEnt-End/Rchg(36), SprEnt-Acc/Hold/End(36), SprEnt-Acc/Hold/End/Rchg(37), SprEnt-Rchg/AbsorbProc(37) Level 38: Mace Blast -- Apc-Dmg(A), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(39), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Apc-Acc/Rchg(39), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(40), Apc-Dam%(40) Level 41: Web Envelope -- GrvAnc-Immob(A), GrvAnc-Immob/Rchg(42), GrvAnc-Acc/Immob/Rchg(42), GrvAnc-Immob/EndRdx(42), GrvAnc-Acc/Rchg(43), GrvAnc-Hold%(43) Level 44: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 47: Wolf Spider Armor -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A) Level 49: Combat Training: Defensive -- Ksm-ToHit+(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Conditioning Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(9) ------------ ------------