Frosticus

Earth/Psi handles low level content better than anything else I've created, but it also does really well against difficult enemies in late game too. As always: No inspirations/temps/amps/click accolades No Lore Pets Giovanna Scaldi This is a mother mayhem/swan clone. Psi attacks, psi defense and psi resistance. She doesn't have any special powers, or moves. If you are strong vs Psi damage (every dom can be) this is about as easy as they come. Most AV's would walk through her with little difficulty if you pitted them against one another. Doms have more issues than most hitting through defenses, which as a /psi assault build her 20% psi def and being +3 slows me down a bit. Ultimately zero risk and my build is geared too far toward survivability for such a (relatively) easy lvl 54 AV. This fight could be over much faster. For reference this would take about 2-3 minutes with Lore pets and a more offensive spec compared to the 8.5 minutes it took me. After you beat her this arc has you face: Vanessa DeVore She's the polar opposite of Giovanna. Vanessa is one of the nastiest AV's in the game. She would beat most other AV's in a 1 vs 1. She has all the same powers as Giovanna, but adds in an array of dark powers and debuffs that very few builds can withstand. She will take the wind out of your sails pretty quickly. Things like: Mask of Feebleness - this massively debuffs regen, recovery, damage, acc, and defense. It is perma Darkest Night, Twilight Grasp and she summons Dark Servant which further debuffs you and heals her. At 9:25 she gets me with Mask of Feebleness and you can see it basically flatlines all my stats. There is no way I could beat her if she focused on me consistently. Even def capped (ranged, negative energy) she'd have an 11.7% chance of landing Mask of Feebleness, which would then cascade me to failure. Bonus footage of +4x8 Carny spawns. Their psi def makes it a bit harder for /psi assault, but it is mostly countered by the def debuffs of Earth. Pretty boring for this build, these aren't a challenging enemy type for this combo. I was only interested in facing Vanessa DeVore.

This is what I've been running for the most part. Sometimes I swap around the slotting of animate stone to make him a bit more offensive if he is having an easy time tanking [/img] View This Build In MRB Dominator (Earth Control - Psionic Assault).mbd

Yes it has. The power has been improved over time to make it less skippable, but it has always worked fairly well as a time out vs AVs

Ime /psi plays best when focusing on solid resistances as opposed to the more typical defense focused approach. The strong regen of drain psyche can much more easily handle a series of smaller hits than it can a couple huge chunks. So I like cycling rune of protection and melee hybrid along with barrier. Similar to my earth/psi I'd flashfire as I jump into the middle. And then drain psyche followed by psw spam. I like the chance for fire orb in psw, it goes off a lot. Get bonfire down if you think many will survive the flashfire duration. I dont use the aoe immob because allowing mobs to move around a bit can often mitigate a lot more damage than forcing them into ranged mode. For me playing passively doesn't work well on /psi so I prefer hurdle+cj, or combat tp over flying.

It's actually hilarious how much he can tank if you focus on that aspect. It opens up some possibilities that I haven't seen from dominators. I'm out of town for a week, but will post up a build when I'm back.

Clamor is a nasty low level AV. Radiation attacks and debuffs at a point in the game where few builds can protect themselves well. There aren't a lot of builds (for any AT) that can exemp down and tackle the challenge that she presents head on. Earth/Psi has been my newest project. I'm pretty pleased with it so far. Earth is a powerhouse control set. Very strong aoe control and (situationally) the most single target control for doms. Psi Assault is a proven aoe blender and potent AV killer. Penelope Yin TF In this TF she will teleport out at half health. At this point you will be swarmed by ambushes. These ambushes will either be laughably easy at x1. Or it will be "holy crap that is a sea of freaks" at x8 This demonstration of build mechanics is less about the AV and more about the potency of earth/psi without things like app powers and incarnates clouding the water. I use no: insp/temps/amps/click accolades No deaths I run it at +1x8 Lots of bosses. Sooooo many bosses. It gets pretty intense and I make a lot of errors. Super sloppy play when she shows up the 2nd time Clamor is not a threat 1vs1 at these settings for this combo Clearing the final encounter takes about 19 min Ignore overall TF time, I had errands to run Sister Psyche TF The older version of the TF lets you face her alone with no encounter gimmicks. It is a nice opportunity to see how strong your low level build is. I take it a few steps further. This is a demonstration of build mechanics and understanding AV mechanics I use no: insp/temps/amps/click accolades I face her as +3 I am never in danger, despite not playing particularly well I kill her in 6.5 minutes

You'll always find a bit of selective filtering in these types of conversations. Ignoring some tanks, it is hard to build something that is truly damage agnostic. As an example my sav/shield stalker thrives against Cims because ageless radial+double stacked active defense makes it essentially immune to def debuff. The same character struggles against Nemesis stacking veng. And some kind of patch the IDF puts down has taken that build from full to zero in seconds on more than one occasion. Of course, Inspirations change everything As for "tanking" outside of an actual tank/brute most (scrappers included) don't have the aggro control tools. Many builds can take point and eat the alpha, but for actually keeping the team safe as well? Other routes to the same destination include things like x/psi doms (strong aoe control+ability to sustain themselves) or powerboosting /ff controllers, making traditional aggro management unneeded for most 4x8 spawns.

Agree with @MoonSheep, looks like too much focus on IO set bonuses at the cost of properly slotting powers for their intended purpose. Things like Drain Psyche should be slotted to fully maximize the heal/rech and ensure enough acc to hit things consistently. Once you are hitting 3+ targets with it, it is far and above all other health management options for doms. It is impressive seeing how stable a /psi dom can be with a solid build and controls layered on top. It looks like you are trying to play a ranged build? So i'm not sure if Psy Shockwave is just a set mule for you? Otherwise the stun is only 25% chance. The control of that power is primarily the -rech slowing incoming damage that drain psyche heals back. But on the other hand you have world of confusion slotted as an attack, which is also a pbaoe. It looks like you are aiming for a build that can survive, but a lot of the balance of that is also defeating foes, of which you seem to have very little offense. Finally, some of the posted stats are a bit skewed because you likely don't have the recharge needed to run indom will/link mind/drain psyche anywhere near full time, so you may find your ingame numbers to be a bit lower.

I've found over time that I really prefer a fast aoe control on my doms. single target control takes a backseat on my doms with decent aoe. In order of effectiveness/preference: Earth - stalagmites: 70ft range, huge aoe, ridiculously fast cast, paints everything with -def Plant - seeds: 60 ft, wide cone, ridiculously fast cast and recharge an honorable mention to Ice Ice - ice slick (it's now decently fast for something you can cast around corners) and jump in with arctic air running I sometimes go entire missions without using single target controls on my doms if I'm running normal content.

In the entire game that only includes dominators yes it is tied for fastest, although dominate actually affects the target faster by a small degree. If stopping something in its tracks is the goal, char is middle of the pack. It is however the fastest at letting you move after use and tied with dominate as the fastest in letting you activate your next power. In the entire game that includes other AT's it is not the fastest as my ice/elec blaster has 2 holds that are faster. But I'm sure that's what you meant.

*For dominators It is the same cast time as dominate 1.32 seconds

I'm not sure where you heard that savage leap is anything other than amazing. Stuff it full of procs and some acc/dam and let it delete mobs Rending flurry is quite good with dot factored in, but with full blood it is a really good pbaoe. Hemo is meh. Dot is too slow imo You single target chain might need strike until later when you add an app attack. Some people use shred as a single target attack because it can take 2 -res procs. For a sav/rad you'd likely: sav leap > ground zero> viscous > boosted rending skip viscous in that chain if blood thirst was up. Not much should be left standing to clean up.

Some of your powers are a tad low on accuracy. If you are building so defense focused I assume you plan to fight +3's? If so, some of your key powers aren't going to hit consistently

I personally have more fun playing /cold than I do /dark both solo and teamed. I think skipping the shields on /cold is a tough sell if you plan to team much. I don't have them on my solo build, but flipping to team spec is a macro away. I find /dark to play a bit too slowly for my liking as just about everything seems to have a fairly long cast time and/or needs to be recast very often. There is no denying it is a very strong secondary though. If you enjoy it there is no way it will disappoint.

HL is a different beast. Generally the recovery buff 90sec, is more sought after than the -res and huge -rech debuff (30 seconds). The -rech is so strong it can even tangibly impact AVs through their massive resistances. One recovery buff originates from you. That is auto hit. The debuff and recovery buffs that come off of the enemies needs to hit and you have to be near them to receive the buff (like fulcrum shift) If you are fighting in the middle of a spawn it is very unlikely that at least one enemy will not be hit. You will have ample endurance with 2 buffs (iirc my troller is around 6.5 end/sec) with that. I have acc in my HL, but I fight a lot of AVs with my cold troller and I built around the mechanic.

Global bonuses/tactics/kismet do not transfer to pseudo-pets. Doesn't matter for sleet because streakbreaker will make sure the debuff lands even against Mako in elude (could technically miss all ticks, but unlikely) Does matter for icestorm. Most people don't realize it is missing because it ticks so much. Sleet (unslotted) will give icestorm (unslotted) a 67.5% chance to hit vs +3 80% chance vs +2 92% chance vs +1 You'll either want to enhance the def debuff of sleet and/or slot some acc in icestorm for most content.

Love it. I've long been a fan of RoF on scraps w/o a taunt (not applicable to bio of course) because it doesn't matter how great your dps is if it won't stand still. and RoF is no damage slouch itself.

It's all good, we don't all measure success the same way

Poison/Fire/Psi defender: It is very snappy to play and every victory (and defeat) feels like it was within my control to change the outcome. It almost never feels overpowered because it always walks the line of survivability vs offense, yet it has solo'd (no temps/insp/amps/lore) many AV's/GM's/TF's. I think because I embraced the set mechanics and tried to build around them rather than the cookie cutter approach of ranged softcap+hover so many squishies utilize making their primary and secondary more of an aesthetic choice than integral to play* *I'm guilty of doing this on other builds too of course, and it ends up not being as fun. Illusion/Cold/Stone: Similar to the defender I leaned in to the mechanics and synergy of the combo and didn't worry about complying with the prevailing wisdom. The power of that build is unlike anything else I've seen.

The main aoe hold that goes on cast needs accuracy. The tohit debuff and short pulsing hold are autohit.

@Voltak I apologize, I am just a bit chapped. Not for the reasons you probably think though. You are the biggest self hype man in this game and despite me knowing better I actually bought into the inflated self promotion you put out. I was so stoked when I clicked your Sinclair vid. He's a legit AV. Even fighting him as an even con as you did could have been pretty momentous. My main AV killer took about 6 minutes to kill him as a 54+3 (of course no insp/temps/lore/amps/etc), so I was ready to be very impressed. cue sad trombone What followed was a 20 minute video of you watching a longbow lore whittle him down. It was the epitome of mediocre. I apologize that I thought they were super insp you downed in that fight, I just glanced at your tray and saw a bunch of fancy insp (my tray is always closed and/or locked). I'm not going to watch the other vids you linked because fool me once... I saw enough in the Sinclair fight to know you haven't come up with anything new. I'd be more impressed to see you even make it to Lord Recluse in the Ms. Liberty TF than yet another confuse spammer in the LRSF. You do play the combo well, so if you ever do anything interesting - for example, the other night I solo'd the Twins+vandal (troller, no insp/temps/lore/amps/deaths...well you get the picture, I've already explained how I play) If you do something new or interesting that hasn't been done to death by other AT's, I'll be only too happy to reconsider my assessment and tip my hat. Not that it matters what I think, just have fun. In the mean time, the Driver Assists (nicer way of putting it) that you use don't negate the things you do, they just make them not really register any significance.

I personally only solo under standard scrapper rules - no: insp/temps/amps/lore/click accolades. So to answer your question: no, I have zero experience solo'ing a dom against lvl 54 AV's using the training wheels that you drive with. I do have experience doing it under the constraints I listed above and I openly admit on numerous occasions my doms struggle with AV's. I have no idea if they'd be consistently successful under your irrelevant rules. I don't plan to find out. There is world of difference between "scrapper rules" and "no temps". I'm also not sure why you are so riled up? All I said was the tohit debuffing is heavily resisted by AV's and that mind can pause the fight if they want. Both are true, there is no debate, but that seems to have driven you off the deep end. I've only ever clicked on one of your "solo" vids and you were driving your longbow lore, using super insp, and cruising under a bugged shadow field. I promptly shut it off. I'm sure you can rationalize it all, but it truly falls on deaf ears. We don't play the game the same way, but as long as we are having fun that is all that matters.

It's been a bit since I checked. Thankfully this power has already been fixed. It no longer behaves like you describe and are likely used to leveraging. I'd guess it got fixed in the last major update. Depending on how heavily you leaned on shadow field you might want to put your dark/dark through the paces and see how it holds up currently. Shadow field is no longer a pocket hurricane. It now correctly calls only one psuedo pet depending on player state rather than both. If> a or b rather than if > a and b It still uses the wrong AT modifiers, but that is small potatoes compared to how broken it was before. The rest of your post is nonesense. I think you are the first person to ever question my in game experience, especially solo. Thanks for the chuckle.

I know no one asked, but in case they are wondering how bugged shadow field is on Doms? It overperforms by a factor of 2.67x on the debuff side. It overperforms a small amount on the hold side 1.25x Given the popular advice to combine it with powerboost the tohit debuff is tremendously more powerful than it should be. Fully slotted+powerboost it provides 70.4% aoe tohit debuff (auto hit haha) for ~7 seconds It should be 26.38% without powerboost it provides 47% aoe tohit debuff It should be 17.6% Mine recharges in 65 seconds and it lasts 45 seconds. Edit: the power has been (mostly) fixed. Not sure when, maybe last big update? It is still 1.25x too strong, but that isn't uncommon in the psuedopet category.

Ya it helps. I just showed you how much it helps. 100% tohit debuff is reduced to 8.5%. It is what it is. Some players will value that a lot, others may not. I have not looked at your build, but if you rely on the set mechanics to actually run your build in the mid 30% def range and fill up on procs then that is great. I know I've championed for people to try similar with a poison and damage debuffing. It is very satisfying when it all comes together. This might just be a misunderstanding. I mean when an AV like silver mantis hits buildup. A mind dom can pause the encounter until it wears off. You don't want her hitting because the damage is very high during buildup, but perhaps more importantly, she will cascade your defenses with her huge -def debuffs. 8.5% tohit debuff won't protect you. Pausing the fight for a few seconds to tip the encounter can be valuable. As you said, you might run for the door, I dunno. It's good work and a good combo. No one is suggesting otherwise. Dark control is great. Shadow Field is very very bugged on doms and overperforms on multiple fronts, but it is one heck of a power in its current state.