Steampunkette

I don't know about Controllers... But Control Radial is -amazing- for Dominators! My Dark/Savage/Soul dom opens fights with a fear affect, then moves in to use other powers. With a nice long-lasting fear you can suddenly stack fears every time you land any hit. And if the target is also stunned, it stacks Fear AND Stun (Or at least it seems to). The more controls on a target the more chance they'll get shut down. And the additional damage is swank, too. I've only done that on Justin, though. The Dominator will be using it in another 6 levels on Live! 😄

Try this on for size, @oldskool! Definitely going for Spectral and Intuition. Maybe I should do Assault? Judgement will probably be Void Radial for theme and the 50% damage debuff. I'm never sure what to do with Destiny but I feel like Ageless could be good, here? She's going to be End-Heavy, after all, and more recharge means more Blackstars.

As someone who loves Savage Assault on her Dominator: You should never be exhausted. Pop your stacks at 3 or 4, guys. That's how it's meant to be played. The ring is misleading because it's a warning rather than a queue to use that power.

Mostly I run duos and small teams, really. Very rarely do I solo or hop on 8 man steamrollers. Thank you for this helpful advice!

So I should Rebuild into a Recharge Build? With Darkstar's ridiculous -ToHit it really seems like a great idea... The only question I have left is: Target cap? With 10 targets hit by Blackstar, that still leaves almost half a spawn of enemies who aren't debuffed by 35%. How do I offset those enemies and their high chance to hit me? Is that just where Darkest Night comes in?

I recognize that Dark/Dark doesn't Synergize as well as, say, Dark/Ninja. But for theming of this character I wanted to try it. So she's not going to be perfect. I didn't even get halfway to Softcap though Darkest Night will put her up 12% against those who don't resist ToHit. She'll be open to Defense Cascades dropping her to nothing, her Energy Damage Resistance is a suck... But she's got capped Smash/Lethal damage and near cap on Psionic meaning she'd be fairly great against Carnies, I think. Which would make her my ONLY good Carnies-fighting character! She's also got some decent resistances to Dark, Fire, and Cold meaning she should be solid against Circle of Thorns and Banished Pantheon in Dark Astoria. Tsoo, too. ... I just realized that it's mostly magic groups that use Fire/Cold/Negative/Smashing while Tech Groups do Lethal/Energy/Toxic... Huh. Do you all think this build is a viably strong one or am I overestimating the value of the spread I have, here, and need to get back to the drawing board?

Oh! I see. Well! Assault Sets are a combination of melee, ranged, and AoE attacks. Usually 2, 3, and 2 or 3, 2, and 2. Each powerset also gets a "Build Up" power and a power that is meant to express the powerseet type's general theme. Like Dark Assault getting Lifedrain, Psychic getting a control, or Cold enjoying a PBAOE slow aura. Manipulation sets are built around a few melee attacks and both area soft control and single target hard control to keep the Blaster safe.

Do you know how many Green Lanterns, Captains Marvel, and so forth there are? Hell, there were even 4 or 5 Supermen running around for a while, there. Plus all the Robins and Batmen. There's plenty of tropes in both directions and Legacy heroes to muck it up even further. I love the little jabs you put in, here. Little defensive spines. Very cute. I'd prefer a better system, Biostem. I'll take what we've got 'cause there's no alternative, obviously. But I hope, someday, things change. It sucks being the only Cyclone on my server and having to "cheat", regardless.

By be more creative you of course mean compromise. If you can't get what you want get something that you don't hate. Maybe given enough time you'll actually learned to like the thing that you didn't hate. It's a bad system. it's a bad enough system that as soon as Cryptic got the chance to make a system allowed multiple people to have the same name they made it! I really wish people would stop lauding and defending systems that even the people who created didn't carry forward because they were bad systems. Don't get me wrong I get "creative" with names more often than not. I've gotten used to it. That doesn't mean it's a good thing. If even Cryptic, the people who made the game in the first freaking place, will not stand by unique names why the hell should we? For now we don't have a choice. Maybe forever. But the amount of Stockholm syndrome people seem to have with this particular thing is just frightening.

On Everlasting I created a character named Cyclone. I had to use an i for the L because somebody on that server is sitting on the name Cyclone with the intent to make a storm corruptor. She got the name from a friend who was sitting on it. I'm the only person who has actually played a character named Cyclone on the server but I will always have that ugly capital I in the middle of my name... Because the person who has it spelled correctly for an alt they haven't even created yet wants to use it for the character they originally wanted to make Stormsurge but that name was taken... Layered irony and frustration. I would love if names were not unique but I don't I think they'll be able to set that out

I roleplay while running missions. My superheroes interact with their teammates and friends, react to changes in the combat situation, and discuss the particulars of the enemy groups they are fighting or the story that they're contributing to. It requires one major change: do you have to use team chat instead of local or emote. I just put an asterisk on either side of an action to denote that it is an action instead of a statement. It's worked well for over a decade in different games.

I just use "/bind t powexec_name Mystic Flight" and "/bind LShift+LButton powexec_name Translocation" Then I hold left shift with my pinky and click where I want to go with Translocation in the world. Boom. I'm there. I take Mystic Flight off my bars and have Null the Gull hide the Translocate bar. I also use the second bind alone with Teleport. It's a whole lot faster than trying to click macro buttons!

I'm not certain I understand you, here. Do you mean we should design a new powerset type which combines things we like from different powersets or just talk about why we like the powersets that exist?

Would also work as a "Super-speed" powerset.

It's definitely something worth considering. But I'm not sure you COULD rebalance the AT at this point to remove Permadom. For what it's worth, the Live Devs did rebalance Domination in i15. They pulled the big Damage Bonus out of it and applied it to the AT's baseline damage scales, instead. But in the remaining 8 issues before shutdown they never again moved to change Dominators. They just kept adding new powersets and such. I feel like they either realized that changing Domination too drastically or removing it to replace it with a new mechanic was just too much change. That the resulting furor in the Dominator Community would make it not worthwhile.

Currently no one gets Assault as a Primary Powerset. One AT gets it as a Secondary to pair with Controls. That, alone, would make them feel a lot different. Instead of spamming attacks while your control timers are running down and then hitting more control effects and staring a hole in the Domination power on your hotbar for the Endurance and Control increase, you'd be playing a character who is more focused on where the enemies are and what they're doing. Not just standing in the center of a field of enemies coming to kill you, moving around and keeping track of where they're going so you can maintain aggro through ranged damage. Most of the game is the leveling experience. It's teaming and working together to beat up baddies (Unless your only goal is Efficiency in which case you grab a team of 8 and steamroll without a care as to who is playing what Archetype or Powerset until Knockback comes into play). Once you get to incarnate levels with this design as I've laid it out you'd -still- do good damage, your role in the team would just have to shift to Off-Tank or something similar. Min-maxers would probably still have a field day with it to tweak it's damage output to maximum and ensure it's defensive stats were completely capped to make it as durable as possible. It just wouldn't be able to main-tank the Avatar of Hamidon as well as a Tanker or Brute would thanks to a lower maximum HP and such. I got the idea for this Archetype literally -years- ago when I first played a Kinetic Melee Brute. I skipped Taunt and used Repulsing Torrent and Focused Burst to grab aggro at a distance. I'm playing a new one, these days, and I love her to -pieces-! But I'm still playing the same "Stand in one spot" game as soon as the aggro is secured. I'd rather move around. I'd rather use Savage Assault or Earth Assault. I'd rather mix and match powersets and create something cool and fun than only ever get this playstyle half-way through Kinetic Melee.

I see where the miscommunication came in! We're good. 🙂 And I can agree that it would be more effort to balance than simply giving Sentinels access to Assault Sets. But wouldn't we have to change the Sentinel EPPs? The EPPs typically grant melee attacks right out of the Assault Sets, like Havoc Punch in Electric Assault and Mastery. But... I do have this? You can check out my thoughts, here. As to EPPs I think a split of Control/Support with maybe 1 Sustain power would make a great EPP for Instigators.

Personally I wouldn't want that. I feel like it creates too much of a gameplay divide in order to reinforce a narrative divide. I think most players would just take the "Train to 50" and then feel cheated or jilted at level 20+1 'cause their powers got shelved. Meanwhile a "Dedicated Street" hero who gets to 20+30 or whatever nomenclature we create is still going to have to get to level 50 in order to participate in any form of End-Game system or content (Unless the Devs split their 'End Game Design Time' across all the tree branches. It just makes more sense to me to decouple level from narrative and have different "Game Mechanicy" moments crop up than what we currently get. Probably P2W because they've already got the Opt-Out on Salvage drops and stuff on those.

What -is- a good reason to create a new Archetype if not to create a new playstyle? What exactly would be your reason to create a new AT? And no. Tank is not "Problematically Crowded". Tankers are just badly designed for End Game Content 'cause they were created for a game that didn't have end game content. The proposed Instigator would at -least- be able to do decent damage in Incarnate Content without stepping on the Brute's toes. There's 2 tank types in the game and at least 5 DPS types. 6 if you include Brutes. 3 support types if you don't include any of the EATs... Tank, Control, and Pets are the 3 combat roles that have the -least- options. As to "Sentinel with Provoke": It doesn't use Assault Sets. Period. It can't use Savage Assault or Earth Assault or Plant Assault. It's not a character archetype that weaves in and out of melee (even Blasters can get some of -that- going on unless they're /Archery or /Ninja or something). It's not a character archetype that tanks. Sentinel doesn't cover what I want from the Instigator at all, even with Provoke. I really hate the "Just play what we've already got that clearly doesn't do what you want!" mindset. It misses the entire point every time. Like a WoW player saying "Just play a Death Knight if you wanna be a Necromancer!" without any consideration of the narrative or role differences between the two. UGH.

After Vanden commented in a different thread about Sentinel level Defenses taking Alphas and holding aggro, I remembered that I'm not looking at building a pre-IO BRUTE, here. It's been a -long- time since I played a Scrapper to any level 'cause I just do Stalkers and Brutes, instead. The proposed Instigator would need a higher defensive baseline than Sentinels have. Closer to or slightly above Scrappers. But I stand by the idea of giving them a lower maximum Resistance Value. Either 75% or 85% and I stand by their health values. I still think the Sentinel Defensive Sets themselves would be entirely appropriate for their power selections. But the numbers would need to be tweaked up for the Instigator to take the Alpha and have decent survival while moving in and out of melee.

Not all teams are 8 players steamrolling everything in their path because lolnothingmatters. Sometimes it's 3-4 people and they can use slows and have it be useful. Sometimes it's just two people RPing while they fight crime in a videogame. And yeah. Incarnates and IOd out 50s is a whole other ball game. But if we're going to base all the Archetypes in the game on their level 50 versions then Dominators and Controllers are useless, Tankers need to be erased from the game, ANY Psychic or Lethal or Energy damage can die under the Fire/Toxic spam, and so forth.

I would say that calling them "Blasters" is reductionist and negative... You are, right, though, about the defense values. I hadn't considered the relative squishiness of scrappers when it comes to Alphas. Mostly because I play Brutes and Stalkers -instead- of Scrappers. I want to explicitly thank you for reminding me of this important fact! So they would need higher baseline values than the Sentinel gets, but still lower caps than Brutes/Tankers to keep them moving. Though while it is a Blapper's style to dance in and out of melee, they don't do it while -tanking- those NPCs. That's where the big difference actually is. The Instigator concept is a Tank, not a Damage Dealer.

And you wonder how I know you're not paying attention... Because those Alien Looking dudes are her level Rorshabee can fight them. They give normal XP and they're the same challenge for her as they'd be for Winvincible at the same level (Barring AT and Power Choices). If she's level 20 and those aliens are level 20 then there's no problem. Boom. She fights. She probably wins unless she sucks at fighting them. Those Freakshow looking villains are the same level as Winvincible so he can fight them. They give normal XP and they're the same challenge for him as they'd be for Rorshabee at the same level (Barring AT and Power Choices). If he's level 20 and those Freakshow are level 20 then there's no problem. Boom. He fights. He probably wins unless he sucks at fighting them. Swap the names around and it's the same Winvincible fights the aliens and Rorshabee fights the Freaks and so long as they're even level there's no difference. The divide in power level is NARRATIVE. STORY. Not -FUNCTION-. Not GAMEPLAY. The Gameplay level = Narrative level thing is how it works in -this- game. It's how it works in a lot of games. But it doesn't -have- to. This has been the thrust of my statements this ENTIRE TIME. You've been inventing the "But they wouldn't get XP!" or "She wouldn't win the fight!" stuff yourself. They're Strawmen for you to push over. Consider this my hail mary pass.

I can't speak for everyone, but Peacebringers and Dominators benefit -vastly- from having Hasten constantly active. A Humanform Peacebringer who has a Permahasten build can have a permanent 85% Resistance to everything but Psychic with no Endurance cost. In fact Light Form will give them a Recovery Increase. They'll also get permanent Build Up so long as they're willing to click their Inner Light every 30 seconds. Plus fast recharging self-heals and melee attacks. My high-end PB uses permanent Light Form instead of defensive toggles. Yeah it has a crash, but nothing can do 50% of my HP in damage in the 2 seconds between Light Form crashing (while overlapped) and me hitting a Self-Heal button. Dominators on the other hand become truly BEASTLY with Permadom. Their Controls become Mag 6 instead of Mag 3, meaning they lockdown most bosses and with enough recharge in their hold powers they can shut down EBs and AVs, too. And every time their Domination is triggered their Endurance Bar refills, completely. Without Permadom, Dominators tend to be a fairly squishy sort of character, but with it they're godly. There's other builds out there which rely on Hasten to reach their maximum potential. Who need Permahasten for it to be constant rather than spiky. It's not for everyone, obviously. But for some ATs and Builds it can mean the difference between being amazing and being mediocre.

You keep saying that it's "Not Possible" but I'm outlining how it could be done within the narratives of a single game space that Winvincible and Rorshabee both share. Repeating "It isn't possible" doesn't -make- it impossible. It doesn't actually change anything. You just do not understand my perspective. You're only viewing it through the idea that Gameplay Level = Narrative Level. Do you know how I know you don't understand me? Because you're putting it back into the terms that you -do- understand. Terms that fit your explicit perspective and ignore mine. "Sidekicking" and "Turned off XP" instead of actually grasping that levels don't have to be 100% reflected within the narrative of the game or the shared game space. Because you're saying "The Pandaria tigers are higher level" and not considering how ridiculous a concept that actually is, narratively speaking. And the "Aren't willing to use the tools the game has" thing just tells me EVEN MORE that you're not reading what I'm writing. Like. AT ALL. I'm done repeating myself on this topic to someone who is going to continually talk down to me, thanks. Honestly, I don't think I have the requisite skills to communicate the idea in a way that you will understand, at this point. So I'm just going to write this whole conversation off.