lobster

Couple thoughts: * You went black scorpion but skipped Power Boost, one of the best epic powers available to mms. You can use that+farsight to softcap yourself without Weave, for example. Plus it gives that defense to your pets and teammates too, where tough/weave is entirely selfish. Swapping Weave for PB would be about 1% defense gain and one less toggle to run, plus give you the boost on your debuffs as well. You can keep tough for the IO muling if you need it. Not to mention giving you all those slots in weave back. * stacking holds Time Stop + Web Cocoon (esp with power boost) can also be strong - gives you a way to lock down a boss. Plus another 7.% global recharge from another Basilisk's Gaze 4 slotted. * You can recover a slot from boxing (if you really want the +2.5 recovery, putting a Miracle Heal in health is a better option), and likely one from Stamina as well (by +5ing the two +end perf shifters, not the proc), which would let you put an extra endmod in the pet buffs, which I find helps, or in anything else you want. How about this? It gets you the other ATIO proc, more global recharge, capped S/L/E/N/F/C/Ranged/AOE and 38% melee, 33% psi, Keep in mind there will be an extra 6% or so global defense from Farsight than what shows in mids (and if you toggle powerboost on it will be inaccurate because it shows it boosting weave/man/hover/etc.) because you fire off Power Boost before using it. I figured you probably don't need the 6th slot in slowed response unless you really want you melee def that high...which at that point was only helping you against attacks tagged both 'psychic' and 'melee', which isn't a ton, so I took that as well: Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.1 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Pink People Eater: Level 50 Magic Mastermind Primary Power Set: Demon Summoning Secondary Power Set: Time Manipulation Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Summon Demonlings (A) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Endurance/Pet +Resist +Regen (3) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (3) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Damage (5) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Damage/Endurance (5) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Recharge/Pet +AoE Defense Aura (7) Sovereign Right - Resistance Bonus Level 1: Time Crawl (A) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Endurance Level 2: Temporal Mending (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance (7) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge (9) Panacea - Hea/Recharge (9) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (11) Panacea - Heal Level 4: Time's Juncture (A) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff (11) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge (13) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance (13) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Endurance Level 6: Enchant Demon (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 8: Fly (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range (37) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance (40) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) Level 10: Temporal Selection (A) Healing IO Level 12: Summon Demons (A) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage (15) Blood Mandate - Damage/Endurance (15) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Endurance (17) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (17) Blood Mandate - Accuracy (19) Blood Mandate - Damage Level 14: Assault (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 16: Distortion Field (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold (19) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold (21) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold (21) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold (23) Lockdown - Chance for +2 Mag Hold Level 18: Hell on Earth (A) Call to Arms - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (45) Call to Arms - Defense Bonus Aura for Pets (45) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets (46) Edict of the Master - Defense Bonus (46) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (37) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge Level 20: Time Stop (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold (29) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold (29) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold (31) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold Level 22: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge (27) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 24: Hover (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range (25) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance (25) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) (27) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 26: Summon Demon Prince (A) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage (31) Blood Mandate - Damage/Endurance (33) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Endurance (33) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (33) Blood Mandate - Accuracy (34) Blood Mandate - Damage Level 28: Farsight (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (34) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Recharge (34) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge Level 30: Boxing (A) Stupefy - Accuracy/Endurance Level 32: Abyssal Empowerment (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 35: Slowed Response (A) Shield Breaker - Defense Debuff (36) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Defense Debuff (36) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Recharge (36) Shield Breaker - Defense Debuff/Endurance/Recharge (37) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge Level 38: Chrono Shift (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod (39) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge (39) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge (39) Efficacy Adaptor - Accuracy/Recharge (40) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy (40) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Endurance Level 41: Tough (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (42) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (43) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance (46) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance (48) Aegis - Resistance Level 44: Scorpion Shield (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (45) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 47: Power Boost (A) Recharge Reduction IO (48) Recharge Reduction IO Level 49: Web Cocoon (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold (50) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Recharge (50) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold (50) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Dash (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Slide (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Quick (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Rush (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Surge (A) Empty Level 1: Sprint (A) Empty Level 1: Supremacy Level 2: Rest Ideally I'd want to get the blood mandates out of your T2 & T3 pets because it's just not that efficient of a set, and you could put in the slow damage proc in T3 for example, but if you really want all that defense I didn't see a clear way to make up the lost defense.

I would be fine with this kind of implementation. I'm not seeing "new graphics" as a thing we'll be getting much of, so I'd be happy just to see the mechanics in game.

I think one of the best things about CoH is how playable pretty much every combination is. There is no MM combo you can't take to full incarnate, solo or teamed. Nothing is unplayable (although I found merc/ff reeeally boring it was still playable). However, raw power wise, I do think that, all things being equal, Bots=thugs > demons > ninja=beast=necro > merc. With certain slotting or secondaries those can be flipped, or sub par sets made very good (I think /storm is one of the strongest pairings for /mercs imho), however in general a merc/dark is going to be "weaker" (slower at clearing, basically, but still fine!!) than bots/dark. Ranking secondaries depends on the primary paired with and whether you are primarily a team or solo player. However, I would put /dark, /time, /cold and /traps near the top of the power spectrum. Personally, I can't stand playing anything /emp, /son or /ff. Not a fain of /pain either, but it's more interesting than empathy (which I don't think MMs needed but no harm done for the sake of proliferation parity). This is because I primarily solo and I find those really boring solo.

I don't think so. These are buffs to both the melee attacks (over the previous patch, which was a bigger nerf, which overall winds up as a slight nerf in damage, but the DPA on these attacks is still very good), and it looks like a damage boost to the T1. Envenomed Blades is crazy good, this will just make it slightly less so - but it's still going to be up most of the time, giving you that extra damage (and tohit, which will boost insta-snipe!). Keep in mind that this is happening in parallel with the insta-snipe change, which is just a flat out buff to every set with a snipe (including MA). As far as EB specifically, my understanding was that the proc amount was based off the attacks total damage, now it will just be based off of the base. Still a solid amount of extra damage, just not as overboard. EB is very strong. When I started playing on HC and looking at this I couldn't figure out how it went live as is...Embrace of Fire is 30s duration with 180s recharge and NO tohit buff, EB is 40s duration, 160s recharge WITH a tohit buff. It looked like someone's fantasy power that hadn't been properly balanced. This is doing some of that balance.

I never understood the rational for the patron pet duration + recharge numbers. I get that patron/epic pools are supposed to be "less" than a primary power, but there are other ways to do that - and none of them are powerful enough to make much of a difference at all to late game players, what's the harm in letting them be permanent without obscene levels of recharge? Is this something that could be looked at adjusting in the future? Making them last until death like most other pets would be ideal (then the long recharge is OK), but even just as far as making them permanent with 2 rech IOs (360-400s recharge, unstackable - new summons override) would go a long way to making them more usable. Pushing the end cost up to 40-50 would be an acceptable trade off to me (and encourage end red slotting).

Yes, that's why I mentioned another power would need to change to offset that. It's probably overkill and as I don't know how much work you guys are wanting to put into each subset as you go through the powers...it would probably be more effort than the return anyway. I was just trying to think of how to make it a good power worth slotting without upsetting the balance, and my thought was "well, replace it with one of those powers and make that power something more optional". I like where you are going with this. What about being able to be used while mezzed like the blaster primary/secondary (except in this case it would be *only* the secondary T1)? This would help a bunch pre-permadom. Like the trigger for those bonuses is "has less than 5 end OR CC'd", so it couldn't be taken advantage of in non-dire situations. I know having something usable when a sapper hits you and you have no blues, etc. would be nice and I'd probably even slot it, at least for leveling up. ...or what about each hit with it gives you a couple seconds of low mag CC protection, so if you somehow manage to get 2-3 of them to connect you could temporarily "break free" of weaker control effects or something (max of mag 2-3?) This could be tied to that condition or not and could be an interesting way to give dominators practice with a mini permadom?

Lobster's (Rambling) Guide to Mastermind Epic Pools (I'll be editing this to fix formatting and update as time permits, apologies for any errors in the initial post!) Background info: This is in part a guide to the mastermind epic pools, it's also prep for another post I'll make with suggestions for improvement, hopefully providing good examples as to why they are semi-terrible and, in my opinion, the worst collection of epic+patron powers (compared to the other ATs). Incarnate 50s on live: Bots/dark, Nec/dark, Nec/pain, Demon/pois, Merc/storm, Nin/Time, Beast/traps Non 50s on live : 30 level 30+ of varying combos. Current MMs: 50 Thug/cold, 50 beast/time, 38 nec/nature: 20s-mid 30s: Merc/rad, Demons/dark, merc/storm, demon/kin. What do *I* think an epic/patron (hereafter I'll just say "epic" for both) pool should provide? At least one of the following: It should give the AT access to something they can't typically do that affects how they can play and what they can do: for example blasters getting armors, controls and debuffs, scrappers getting ranged attacks, debuffs and controls, etc. It should provide a compelling and distinct reason to pick a given set over another. There is a marked difference between choosing Body Mastery (conserve power, focused accuracy, physical perfection) or Leviathan Mastery (snipe, ranged attacks, hold, pets) on a scrapper, or Ice Mastery vs. Leviathan master on a dominator, for example. What should it NOT do? Give the AT worse versions of what they already have (most attacks in the MM pools). Give the AT access to something they can't typically do in a sub-par fashion that doesn't let them do anything they couldn't do before : the attacks in the MM epics also fall in this category for me. Give them things that archetype doesn't want or need (more taunts for tanks, armor "nukes" for masterminds) Be basically the same as another epic pool but with a damage/element type shift. Mechanical background : MM attacks, ROUGH stats: T1 blast : ~30/3-4s/5.5-6.5 end T2 blast: ~50/6-8s/9.5-10.5 end Cone: ~45/14s/17 end Aoe: ~27/16s/19 end Energy Defender ROUGH stats for comparison. Note that other other than the sort of weird higher cone damage (For more end and more recharge), defenders do more damage across the board, and are a low damage AT. T1 blast: 36/4s/5end T2 blast: 60/8s/8.5end cone: 35/12s/12end aoe: 33/16s/15end The pools So, what does each having going for them? Charge Cone: 28/12s/15 1T HOLD 66% duration godmode (31% uptime with 155% global recharge) Melee (with minor pbaoe): 60/36s/12.7 Aoe hold (EMP: comes with penalties, huge recharge) Chill Range: 31/8s/10.6 Aoe sleep Long timer dull pain [25s downtime with 175% rech) ARMOR: S/L defense, C/F res Hibernate Field Range: 31/8s/10.6 ARMOR: S/L res Cone: 29/24s/14.8 Aoe: 27.5/16s/19 66% duration godmode (31% uptime with 155% global recharge) Heat Bonfire Range: 40/8s/6.5 Aoe: 38/32s/19 1t HOLD Self Res Leviathan Cone immob Cone: 36/32s/19 Melee: 109/40s/23 (for comparison, tanker KO Blow s 158/25s/18.5, and they can pair it with Rage) ARMOR: S/L/C res 1T Hold Mace Aoe immob ARMOR: S/L/E defense, tox res Aoe: 30/32s/19 POWER BOOST 1T hold Mu Cone: 30/32s/19 ARMOR: S/L/E res Aoe immob with -KB Melee: 60/36s/12.7 1T HOLD Soul Cone: 33/20s/16.4 ARMOR: S/L/N/T res Oppressive Gloom Cone immob 1T HOLD You'll note that I bolded some powers. These powers are the powers *I* label as the defining powers in a set - the powers (or power in some cases) that make that set unique and worth taking. These are the powers that either bring something new or unique to the table or are just plain good or fun. Digression: I DO NOT CONSIDER "DAMAGE VIA ATTACKS" as a thing for masterminds. I know some people like to use the attacks, or play crazy petless MMS, but I would argue that those people are playing against type (which is fine, but don't expect special consideration for it, it would be like a tank trying to play without their armors and focusing on soft controls or something). Therefore, if an epic pool is going to have attacks in it, it should provide them in a way that do significant damage, letting us do something we wouldn't normally do. A good comparison is the single target holds in the scrapper epics : they are pretty usable if you want to take them and, while worse than controller/dominator holds, when slotted they are very good at what they do. I would argue that all the attacks in the mastermind epics are garbage in the sense that while they do provide that attack, they don't provide it at a significant level to be relevant. I would be totally fine with an epic pool that had 2-3 attacks, mean for MMs who really want to attack, that were significantly stronger than the base mastermind attacks (in the same way that pool attacks - I've heard - are better than you would think because they don't suffer the mastermind damage penalties). The powers Armors: The resist armors are "fine" - and if you are taking a set with the armors and have room there's no reason not to take them, but they're not letting you do things you couldn't before. You were already tanky if you make the best use of bodyguard. They just make you a bit better at that. The defense armors (of which there are only TWO for 8 sets, we'll come back to that) however, are great, because they can let you hit the defcap for smashing and lethal, which is a new thing and can have a noticeable effect on play. Aoe immobilizes : There are a lot of them, so I don't consider most of them as set defining (except for Mu's, which has -KB which can be amazing to counter your pets knockback and keep enemies in bot burn patches for example), but they do give most sets access to a new, useful tool and are worth taking. Single target holds: These are sort of a middle ground in the sense that they do let some sets do things they couldn't, and make others much better at locking down bosses. However, they are present in many sets (like resist armors) so I don't rate them as set defining. However, I definitely recommend taking those whenever you have one available. The godmodes I have rated as unique and set defining but I personally view them as a waste except as set mules, but I understand others might disagree so I highlighted them in case that's your thing. Probably more relevant to tankermind builds who don't mind having the right inspirations available to offset the annoying crashes. AOE controls: the sleep from chill and EMP from charge : limited though these are, they are still aoe controls - something most secondaries lack - so they can be useful. That being said, I have never felt a need to take EMP (or the energy pool in general…), but I have use the sleep on occasion to aid with split pulling or to keep a second spawn from aggroing. Not much use in mid to late game teaming, basically a soloing aide. Hibernate & Rise of the Phoenix are unique and if you like them, worth taking the pool for. Power boost is amazing for many secondaries (goes great with /time's Farsight!). Strange that it is missing from the Energy pool, as it was a signature power in the blaster energy secondary to start…. It's also frustrating that it's only in a set that was already very good. KO Blow : I have never taken it because 23 end for an attack that does less damage than a Scrapper T1 (to give you an idea of how much of an enemy's life% you will hit for) is silly to me, no matter how cool the animation is. E very set has a terrible damage cone power, and some also have terrible damage blasts or single target attacks (yes, TF looks huge compared to our other attacks, but it's less than a scrapper T1). Tl;ndr: Why pick one pool over another? Charge - Pick it if you want EMP. For me, I can't think of a non-thematic reason why I would pick this pool - I don't think EMP is good enough to be worth the drawbacks and recharge. Also, as I said above, I don't think the attacks or godmodes - as they are - are good mechanical options for masterminds. Chill - pick it if you want to cap S/L defense and don't want mace. Dull pain and hibernate are also solid and more like the kind of long recharge defensive power I would want on an MM (compared to the godmodes), so overall it's a solid defensive set. Field - Don't pick this set? The only thing it has going for it is a godmode… It looks like it wants to be the ranged attack set, but the #s on these attacks are so bad I can't recommend them. This set should have had at least power boost or boost range going for it. Heat - Pick this for Bonfire. The attacks are crap, luckily you can skip them and grab Char (and Rise of the Phoenix if you really want a self rez). Bonfire was good before, now with the kb->kd proc it's an amazing control for MMs, with some damage (probably more if you run a bunch of procs). Leviathan - Take it for theme? I dunno, unless you want to throw sharks or spit vomit, I don't see anything special about this set. KO blow would be cool, except for the whole "less that T1 scrapper damage". Shame we didn't get the Arctic Breath option from brutes, that at least has -def and -res debuffs. One thing you can do with this set is use KB blow for the hold and get two holds from the set…I mean, that's something? Mace - pick this for Power Boost AND capping S/L defense. It also has a solid aoe immob and a hold - oh and a random skippable cone (same damage as your existing aoe but double the recharge!). If there's a "best" set for raw power, this is it. Mu - Pick this for Electrifying Fences (what??). Seriously. It's the only aoe immob we have access to that has -kb on it. Meaning that it will hold enemies in your Bots burn patch instead of letting them get knocked out of it by all the other blasts. It's also good to a lesser degree with mercs and thugs/ for the same reason. If you don't want to spend precious slots slotting KB->KD procs, and you're bots/, and none of the other epics scream out at you, grab the armor (b/c you have to and it's not bad), the aoe immob and the single target hold. Attacks are garbage. Soul Mastery - Pick this for Oppressive Gloom. If you're going to be in melee all the time (/time, /nature, etc.) having a permanent pbaoe stun aura is great! It only takes out minions, but that's still a decent amount of damage negated and can mag stack with other stuns (/storm's Thunderclap is the main one that comes to mind, but some pets have stunning attacks as well). Thoughts and hopes for the future I'm not happy with where the MM pools are right now, compared to other AT's pool options, but it is what it is - and there are some solid options in there! The recent dominator and snipe changes on the beta have given me hope for interesting balance changes going forward. I'm not sure how sweeping they'll be, but who knows! So I thought it was worth putting out my thoughts on these pools, after having spent ….way too many hours on too many masterminds on live and now. With this in mind, I'm working on a suggestion post for later tonight or tomorrow. EDIT: I finally got around to putting together and formatting my overhaul suggestions, which are here.

Agreed. /fiery was great on live. Changing snipe to be a viable attack in the chain (and now, without the tohit requirements) seems like a huge enough buff already. I haven't felt a need to play a /fiery yet in this new era because I played the hell out of it before, and it was solid. Re : buffing T1s : this would be great as well. It was a long term frustration I had on live with the number of offensive secondaries where the T1 did not fit into mid to late game play. However, for the reasons you stated I can see why leaving it locked makes sense. For some ATs, designing a secondary offensive T1 is much easier (blasters), I think dominators are one of the more difficult ATs to find the right balance on an attack power everyone is forced to take. I'm not even sure if I can disagree with the choice of making them all ranged, even though 90% of the dominators I play and would play spend most of their time in melee. In all the characters and builds I've done so far (except one of my /fierys on live, on which I forced myself to use flares for some reason), I leave the t1 as a useless, empty attack, but I get that others might not and why you wouldn't want to put a melee attack or even the mid recharge blast in that spot. However, that's the only real idea I have at the moment - making the T1 an ~8s attack and changing the set's existing ~8s ranged attack to something else (maybe filling in something else that's lacking OR putting the T1 there with debuffs attached?) - but that could make things frustrating for new players.

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification. I agree, if it's that solid it will be a pretty tough choice, as we really don't need all those attacks, but they are all good options. I'll just play it out and see how it feels. One of the other servers implemented being able to choose either of your first two secondaries, I'm hoping we get that eventually. Having dead powers is annoying. I have a fire/thorn I'm working on and was planning on skipping either Skewer or Impale, pre-patch changes. Now I'm just not sure. Typically I consider skipping the cone, but the dimensions of Fling Thorns just make it so usable...Ripper and Thorn Burst are both clunky on live, but good enough that I generally take them anyway, and now Ripper is getting even better. Thorns is looking really competitive when this goes live.

* Earth : YESS to the mud pots range boost. My ice/earth will love this. * Elec : Looks like a solid buff to thunderstrike. I need to do some damage testing with Voltaic Sentinel and see if it makes the set worth it. * Icy : Double YESS the set now has a much more "signature" signature power. This and the previous changes I think make ice solid contender. Looking forward to rolling up a new ??/ice after the changes go live. * MA : Reasonable nerf to EB, it just felt way too strong. It's still keeping the duration and tohit though, which is going to keep the set a really strong performer. The melee changes are also solid. The DPA lovers are going to love this even more, and the rest of us won't complain either ;). * So what was the issue with the Savage changes? They seemed solid to me (and I've got a dark/savage @ 38 I'm working on 😉 :). Then again, the set is pretty close to solid on live, so leaving it as is isn't terrible. * Thorny : Not sure what's going on with Skewer here. I'd be more OK with its conversion to a fast attack if we had the option to choose either T1 or T2 secondary at creation. In the interim, I'll likely still keep skipping it. So, Impale now has the same damage as on live but a 2 second longer recharge? Seems like an error? The ripper changes I'm really going to have to play with a bit to inform my opinion. Thorn Barrage seems solid, it's now a very heavy hitter - the heaviest T9 range, I think. This seem fitting for the long cast time (which I am fine with! I don't think every attack should be super fast). Overall looks pretty solid and I look forward to taking some things for spins. EDIT: I Fired up a plant/elec on Justin and put in some time on /elec. The combination of the snipe changes and the animation speed boost [It feels nice and smooth too!] to thunderstrike make the set FEEL way better, just smoother to play. Whether or not a secondary has a snipe is now super relevant, the damage there (with tactics for +TOHIT boost) was really, really significant. I wonder if the "insta" animation time shouldn't be made a tiny bit longer? I need to go look at the numbers on them... REQUEST: Could we get the sentinel showing up in the pet window please (even the dominator fiery orb proc is in there!) so we can tell when we need to recast without looking around and trying to find it on a potentially crowded battlefield?

I wonder if it would be possible to just give them the choice of the 3 attacks and separate that choice from the primary itself? So you pick dp+demons or whips+bots or whatever. I don't see any balance issues with that. I've only taken an attack on one MM anyway, but I get that people want to...for reasons. I still think they shouldn't have given them attacks in the first place, as it gives players the wrong idea about what the set is about. HUH. OK. Now I'm on a roll here. Pull all the attacks out, make them separate little choice pools that every mm gets to pick, and they fill in the same levels, etc. BUT also, add a couple extra support mini-pools for those of us who dgaf about attacks. Mini buffs and controls that are thematic, etc. Quick ideas off the top of my head, not well thought out at all: One could be an improved presence pool, for those actually wanting to be Tankerminds : single target taunt, aoe taunt and a power that makes your targeted pet do a taunt. A military buff style set, similar to what you suggested - have a "bunker down" power that locks the pets in place (just forces them to play a specific emote, then roots them, no new gfx) and gives them some +def, but also debuffs their max range or something (so it doesn't become the flat out best option), maybe have a single target heal, and maybe move the merc serum power here, buff it, and give Mercs a real power. A magic style set, similar to sorcery. Can use the animations from the demon buffs, sorcery, etc. Give a minor all-pet resist buff, a minor aoe debuff (say, slow+-tohit or something), maybe a single target heal - would go great with a set like /FF.

...can you elaborate? 🙂 I had this on my plant/poison, but switched it to Spirit Ward because it didn't seem to be doing much....but maybe with procs? Also the gale thing sounds hilarious, definitely trying. My favorite controller thing lately is entirely visual: Stacking Hot Feet+Entangling Aura+World of Confusion & color to taste. Primarily Entangling+WoC is just the right size to make a neat effect. I'm amused enough that I've held off on respeccing into a patron pet (which I almost always do on controllers, doms & veats). Also, I mean, it's solid synergy all around. Stuff you stand next to has problems :P.

Thanks! Re-purposing chunks of this for my own dominator calculations 🙂

First off: Could we get separate threads for the dominator and snipe changes please? These are significantly different things and the discussion is already getting muddled. Second, having just spent a bunch of time deep diving into dominator secondaries...I have opinions! 😉 For those of you wondering about the recharge time+damage changes: these are all straight buffs, 100%. Dominators run obscene levels of recharge and have very little use for quick recharging, low damage powers. Earth: I don't think earth need any buffs, but I'll happily take them - and the cast time reduction during tremor is likely going to be pretty noticable. One area that I wouldn't mind earth getting a buff on is the other signature piece (beyond single target damage) of the set: mud pots. Boosting the aoe SIZE a bit would be nice. The PB change is also significant. Energy : not much to see here, minor buffs. TF shortening will make for smoother chains...but I do love that animation, so we'll see how it feels going that much faster. Icy: Solid buffs, but same comment as above with respect to earth : the signature move of icy is chilling embrace, which has a radius of ten, getting that buffed to 15 or 20 would be great. Adding a -dmg component or something to that effect would help as well. Psionic : These will mostly be negligible to me, as when I play /psi I am not using either of these powers much (I don't slot the first attack on most doms) - generally on /psi you want to keep monsters clustered together so the KB from TK thrust is not ideal. However, I do use it sometimes as a 0-slotted 100% control power, so this will greatly increase it's functionality in that role. Rad : buffs to an already great set. However...these changes make dblow identical to seismic smash and contaminated identical to stone mallet. The set is now basically a slightly higher damage (due to the dot/contamination) /earth with -def debuffs and a snipe instead of an aura. I would like the set to have more than that to distinguish it. It needs a core unique power to build an identity around, which seems to so far be lacking. I forget, did the game every get knock-to (pull things toward you) physics? Maybe adding a pbaoe knock-to to atom smasher or radiation siphon? Just something that screams THIS SET IS UNIQUE.. Savage : seems OK. Nothing crazy. Will have to see how the unkindness change plays out, as right now it doesn't fit very well into the attack chain. Giving it a much wider arc (60+?) and shortening the range (if necessary) might help here, as this is a set that likes to be in melee. Martial : I thought the cone thing must have been intentional, glad to see it's not and they are cleaning up oddities like that. Trick shot is crazy good. I think this set should be renamed to 'Shuriken Assault" or someting, as it's NOT a good melee set as the word "martial" seems to suggest (aside from using your ranged attacks in melee range, which most dominators do) in the sense that the melee powers are both weak. However, it's a solid set all around and has 3 unique pieces: the special build-up (which makes the snipe even better), caltrops, and Trick shot. Thorny : I don't think Skewer needed to be made a faster attack (see above), as these aren't great for dominators. However, I've been skipping this attack on planned builds, and that will get even more relevant with the faster impale! The impale/barrage buffs are quality. tl;dnr: Great changes, but buff chilling embrace & mud pots and give rad a signature power and an identity.

I'd say that doms are one of the most complex (if not the most complex) classes to play, so it can take quite a while to find your groove. More than any other class except maybe blapper style blasters, a good dominator has to be aware of : positioning, recharge times on powers, durations on powers, how many applications of a power it takes to lock a particular monster down, and how many attacks it takes to defeat a given opponent class (min/lt/boss). It's a lot to juggle, and not for everyone. There's also the playstyle changes that come with perma-dom (which you should absolutely aim for as a dominator), which can be significant. If you really want a heal, you could try /savage or /psi secondary. In addition to what the others have said, since you are dark, when fighting hold resistant monsters, you could try dropping confuse, then shadow field from around the corner - if you get lucky it will tick on the boss or resistant monster and you can follow up with dark grasp, locking them down. Slotting fearsome stare for -tohit can help too. You can also stack 2 confuses on the resistant monster before engaging.

You can slot lifegiving stores for recovery. I didn't notice any end issues until 35 (when it is expected), and i haven't slotted numina, miracle or perf shifter proc yet, so I think it will work out fine.

From what I've heard it's not difficult to cap damage with /kin, so that portion of the soulbound proc is wasted.

Hey thanks 🙂 I can tell you which ones I think synergize well for me - but the kinds of things I consider playstyle synergy might not appeal to everyone SO...here are some random ones, they are going to generally revolve around utilizing the aspect of the secondary that makes it most unique: Dark & Icy Assault : I would (and will, I haven't yet on HC but I'm working on concepts for it) pair it with a primary with a pbaoe aura (elec, fire or ice) and skip the cone power and just stay in melee to capitalize on the pbaoe. These builds can be annoying solo before perma-dom with all the enemy mezzes.... For dark, I'll consider if there's a way I can get close to some capped defenses with the inherent -tohit on the secondary as well. Alternately, the pbaoe could be skipped and the set paired with a primary that lines cones like mind, plant or dark (dark/dark makes for a good ping-pong (in and out of melee) too if you like being that active, but icy really wants to be in melee. I loved my elec/icey on live. Earth : Basically the same as fire, with the exception that earth has no cone to skip so I would be in melee 100% and capitalizing on the knockdowns & aura. Earth is also pretty end heavy, so will have to build taking that into account. One thing I'm not sure of is the interaction between tick timers in mud pots & static field : do they go in and out of sleep, or does mud pots just keep those within it permanently awake? Elec : Honestly elec never jumped out at me. It's obviously going to pair well with the elec/ primary for the extra end draining...but you know, it's just kinda meh as far as the rest goes. To me, it pairs about the same with all the other primaries. I would most likely take the Mu power pool with it to get ball lightning & power sink (and the pet :P). I think it works a bit better for me including those... The caveat here is that if the Sentinel does more damage than I remember, it may be pretty solid because that damage is fire and forget, which gives you more time to do other things. Energy : You have to have a plan for the KB. Either lots of movement to keep things positioned, or maybe hovering and being above them when using the heavy KB blasts. Depending on which one of those you like (or a mix...) that will affect primary choices. You may also just take a primary with -kb in its aoe immob (dark, earth, fire, ice, plant according to MidsReborn) and ignore the KB. Looking at it now, I like dark and using the fear lockdown followed by the immob, then just picking things off one by one (since energy heavily favors single target damage). I might even skip the cone and consider taking energy transfer instead of the snipe at 35 (this is something *I* probably wouldn't do, since I always take the patron pet on doms). Fire : same basic idea as dark & icy. Martial : I'm playing grav/ma right now for a heavy single target ranged damage focus (envenomed blades boosts lift & propel too) and that seems to be working out. The melee options are bad, but the ranged attacks can be used in melee so you're pretty much free to be wherever you need to be. In this case I'm focusing more on the power of near-perma Envenomed Blades (and thus near perma insta-snipe) than I am on capitalizing on the damage portion of caltrops - I'm using it for the control aspect, to keep things away from me or running around randomly. Without the Grav/ attacks it's harder to build as good of an attack chain, but you can use one or both of the melee attacks with other primaries. It also pairs well with plant because confusion+caltrops is always fun. Also pairs well with mind/ do to the strong single target focus - you can sleep or fear and pick off the stragglers. Psionic : ping-pong. This can either be pairing with a pbaoe toggle bearing primary like I mention with dark/icy/earth, but it heavily favors actively jumping in and out to cycle between the aoe and the cone as the single target damage isn't amazing. This means you can put it with pretty much any primary and excel. Honestly I don't see a stand out primary set for it - I played ice/psi and dark/psi on live and they were solid. To me maybe grav and mind would be the worst pairings (but still quite good!) grav because it has no reason to be in melee, and mind because with all the aoes you can't capitalize on aoe sleep in the same way. Rad : I'm still working my way through this one (playing elec/rad right now), but I feel like it's similar to earth, except it doesn't really have a signature "Thing". The one attack that is sort of weird is Radiation Siphon with the unreliable heal...but that's not something you build around at all. So, barring that, what it has is a very good melee attack chain, so that's what I'd focus on. It does have a cone, but the melee options are heavy enough that you want to spend most of your time there. Savage : its a good set for jumping in and out of melee since you can just teleport right back in, but in practice the jumping in and out is a bunch of work and I'm old and lazy, so I'll favor melee. Thorny : I like the synergy between caltrops and slows, so fire/ and ice/ are my primary choices here. Fling Thorns is probably the best of the cones for using in melee - which, in practice, means it (along with Psionic) is one of the cones I'd actually take (I often skip the cones on doms for the reason I mentioned above - too tired for the ping-pong playstyle these days). I just rolled up a fire/thorn last night that I'll get around to leveling eventually.

This looks like a solid suggestion without complicating them (adding more to the attack chain). It would be nice if there was a faint visual to the aura as well. My only worry is that it wouldn't offer *enough* protection vs. the equivalent of +3-7s or whatever you are fighting. You should be able to cast Soul Extraction on a living pet and have it just kill the pet and make the ghost, the price you pay is the lost recharge/waiting. Easy fix, and suddenly a really good power (it was already OK). Man, my first mm (first one to 40 too, I think, but I don't think he made it to incarnation) was nin/poison...talk about squishy! They definitely *need* a defensive upgrade, especially compared with the three sets that were added afterwards. Given them some sizeable passive regen alongside the +def might help. Maybe something weird like an inverted scaling resist: basically 25% of your life total% (so 25% at full, 1% at 4%, etc.) to help avoid alpha one shots (but not do much to save them from the second hit)? I'm fine with jounin losing the darts....giving them lotus drops as a replacement would be cool, and help to push them up towards the top of the damage sets (which they should be fore how fragile they are). If you're going to remove the oni's two melee attacks - why give him another one? I'd say just give me a ranged attack (Blaze, or maybe even something like Hot Feet to keep enemies away from him) instead and make him a 100% ranged pet. Mercs absolutely need streamlining and shifting. Yep, kill the medic's bomb. Yep, give the T2s some aoe and shorter recharging controls. Maybe give the medic a long recharging rez that works on the other pets - that would be something unique and cool! I'm hopeful something might happen, but I haven't been paying attention enough to know if the HC team is actually going to do stuff like this in the future?

Background: The original draft of this is up on reddit, but I figured not everyone is on reddit, and I DO need to start posting here more. This is NOT be a detailed power-per-power analysis. This is more HOW TO PICK a secondary based on how it will feel to play than HOW TO PLAY it. This is math light - I've purposely abstracted most of it out, and am not addressing DPA. Players that are interested in DPA usually know their way around a build and won't find much in a guide like this. 🙂 Dominator Secondary general info: Most sets have the following: a weak ranged attack, a weak melee attack, a mid-damage ranged attack, a mid-damage melee attack, aim/buildup/power boost/etc., a cone attack*, a pbaoe, a snipe or utility and a heavy melee OR heavy range attack. The caveat for cones is that there are a couple things I treat as cones that aren't actually cones but that function the same way in play and have similar damage #s : earth's short range aoe Fissure and Martial's Trick Shot. Psi, fire and thorns have a faster animating and recharging T1 that does less damage than the other sets. Insta-snipe: Domination: All sets with snipe can have access to insta for the first 15 seconds of domination (+25% tohit, you only need +22%). Outside of Domination: None : Fire and Psi will need to rely on Domination and some combination of team buffs/tactics/yellow inspirations to get insta-snipes. Aim (Savage, Thorns) : Neither of the sets with aim have a snipe. Power-Boost/Gather Shadows (Dark, Earth, Energy, Ice): Earth and Ice lack a snipe. Dark & Energy can get insta-snipe during powerboost by slotting tactics with 1 SO (20% tohit) and using the Kismet +6% proc. Build-Up (Elec, Rad) : Will require +tohit slotting (>30% worth) or Kismet +6% tohit proc to get build-up (and Rad's Fusion) up to 22%. Envenomed Blades: MA has what looks to be an OP version of fiery embrace that provides a base of 12% tohit that can be made very close to perma. With ~35% tohit slotted and the kismet proc, MA can have insta-snipe almost permanently. The Secondaries: Dark Assault power-boost with a damage bonus, two medium blasts (exact same damage), one of which has a small heal on it, and a heavy melee, and a snipe with access to insta. It does not have a medium melee attack. The secondary effect of -tohit can be useful if you are close to the defense cap, or keep it stacked heavily with the aoes. It seems to favor being in melee and using your ranged attacks there, or going in and out if you use the cone (which is very thin). Earth Assault power boost, TWO heavy melee attacks, a short range aoe that works great in melee, and an aura that slows and does damage. This set heavily favors melee. Electricity Assault build-up, a faster/weaker weak melee, no heavy ranged attack, the weakest heavy melee attack (with a small pbaoe damage component), a snipe with access to insta, and the voltaic sentinel pet. Aside from pairing with elec/, I haven't found much use for the end draining secondary effect. It seems to slightly favor melee. Energy Assault power boost, the strongest heavy melee attack, two big range attacks, snipe with access to insta with tactics+proc during power boost, and no cone. Must love KB. With insta-snipe, it has 3 very powerful ranged attacks, and lends itself best of all the dominator sets to being ranged. Fire Assault fiery embrace and consume, the strongest heavy range attack, a snipe with NO access to insta, and trades the secondary utility effects on powers for slightly more damage on all attacks. It favors melee, or moving in and out if you take the cone. Icy Assault power boost, its mid strength range attack is faster and weaker than normal, a heavy ranged attack [edited], NO snipe, and a slow aura that does no damage. There doesn't seem to be anything special about it beyond the aura (and good DPA), so I would only play ice if I were going to take Chilling Embrace. The secondary slowing effect does exist, but takes several hits to be noticeable (and, in my experience, generally isn't except for the occasional boss). It favors melee (imho) due to chilling embrace. Martial Assault a weird fiery embrace clone that seems to need balancing/nerfing, its weak melee attack is a cone "for free", trick shot instead of a cone, a snipe with the best access to insta, a heavy ranged attack and caltrops. Maybe the lack of secondary effects is why Envenomed Blades is so strong? It lends itself very well to ranged play, or melee play using ranged attacks. Psionic Assault drain psyche instead of buildup/etc., TWO medium ranged attacks (one of which immobilizes), the largest cone, the best pbaoe (same size but 16 targets instead of 10), NO heavy melee OR ranged attack, and a snipe with NO access to insta. Like Icy, the secondary effect of -recharge can be difficult to observe in action, but it's there! This set favors moving in and out of melee to maximize - you want to take advantage of the cone, pbaoe and drain psyche since your single target attacks are lacking. Radioactive Assault a version of build up with much less ToHit (not super relevant), faster/weaker weak melee, TWO heavy melee attacks, the heaviest damage pbaoe (if the #s are correct), and a snipe with access to insta. The secondary contamination effect is "free" damage, and the -def on all the attacks is always appreciated. It favors melee. Savage Assault aim, improved weak and medium melee attacks (if the damage #s are correct in game), a self heal, a heavy ranged attack, and a second medium melee attack that teleports you to the target with bonus damage based on distance (??). It favors melee and gives you a great tool for jumping back into the fight if you have jumped out to use the cone. Thorny Assault aim, a short, wide arc cone, a heavy melee that is a cone, a heavy ranged, caltrops and extra damage (like fire, from dots). Somewhere between Earth and a set like psi or fire that favors actively moving in and out of combat. Melee attack chain options, vaguely ranked: The sets with heavy ranged attacks can and should use those, as they do about the same damage as T2 melee attacks. T1 & T2 ranged attacks should be avoided unless needed to fill out a chain, as they are lower damage than T1 melees. Counting heavy ranged attacks as T2 melees (roughly the same damage), and not counting snipes in sets that cannot insta them without insps we have: Martial: T1, T1+cone, T2, S Ice: T1, T2, T2 Psi: T1+KB, T2 Fire : T2, T2, Dark : T1, T3, S Thorns: T2, T2, T3(Cone) Elec : weak T1, T2, T3(with small pbaoe), S Earth : T1, T3, T3 Energy: T2, T2, T3, S Savage: weak T2, T2, T2+port, T3 Rad: weird T1, T2, T3, T3, S Ranged attack chain options: If you really want to play permanently at range (it's discouraged by many vet dom players, myself included, but it IS viable, and I'm attempting two different pure ranged builds currently), here are the ranged attack chain options: Worst: Earth: T1,T2 Rad: T1, T3, Cone Average: Psi: fast T1, T2, T2+immob, Cone Thorns: Fast T1, T2, T4 Elec: T1,T2,S, Cone Ice: T1, Weak T2, T4, Cone Decent: Dark: T1, T2, T2+Heal,S, Cone Fire: fast T1, T4, S, Cone Savage: T1, T4, S, Cone Best?: Martial: T1, trick shot, T4, S (best uptime) Energy: T1, T2, T3, T4,S It's also worth noting that the Grav primary has extra T2 & T4 ranged attacks (Lift & Propel), not even counting the bonus damage from impact. And Propel has the recharge of a T2… Mind's Levitation weaker than Lift. Notes : I have not addressed the epic sets but, especially given you can start them at 35, they can really fill out a hole in a secondary - something like taking Energy Transfer at 35 in lieu of a snipe can make a set that was lacking a solid melee chain work much better, or Bile Spray or Fire Ball instead of snipe on a /psi or /fire to give you a second aoe to fire off before you jump in…lots of options here. The way I build is to choose a power-set combo that seems to have interesting mechanical synergy or an engaging or fun playstyle - also likely rooted in synergy. Plenty of others go theme or story first, or just pick a combo for the cool visuals - I think all these are great ways to build a character, and hopefully this mini-guide is helpful to some of you. Background: On live I played plant/fire, elec/ice and ice/psi deep into incarnate content. All were 100% viable - I used the fire snipe in melee range without insta too! I also had grav/energy, ice/thorn, earth/elec, and dark/psi up to at least 50+1 and some incarnate content. Currently I am playing dark/savage, grav/martial, elec/rad, ice/earth & earth/energy, all in the 33-40 range. EDIT: I'll add some thoughts on the beta changes eventually, especially if they go live. I may add some DPA and attack chain stuff then as well, but that's not something I stress about.

This is awesome!! Thanks for picking up the torch that already picked up...?? bug: Regen primary on tankers accepts no sets.

Heya WA! Yeah I need a machine that's not set up this way to test, but all my machines are and I don't feel like de-configuring any right now (W10 seems to have made it more annoying to do this).

I'll comment from the point of view of using /elec on a farmer. It's absolutely doable, you can even run the fire farm maps at +3-4/8, but does require a bunch of ios (where a ss or spines/fire can do 3-4/8 with only basic IOs). SJ isn't the ideal primary for farming, but it won't be terrible, and it's great for everything else. General thoughts: * Don't take Lightning Reflexes that late, take it near when it's available, it's very good. * If you want to focus on the farm part, you want /mu or /fire as your epic. * You absolutely do not need a second slot in stamina, or to take physical perfection at all IF you use powersink properly. I 6 slot mine with efficacy adapter, but you can get by with far less, like 2 slots as you've done. As an addendum to this, you don't need the recovery procs in health either, but if you have the slots it seems harmless. * Why did you take hasten at level 4? That's just...it's not going to help you at that point so...why? * Generally farmers take the buildup analogue (Combat Readiness) and pop that before every other or every 3rd alpha. No slots needed. * If you want to do the faster farms, you probably want to do the fire ones - the energy ones get annoying with KB stacking, and the elec ones can be annoying with immobilizes and end drains. Fire farms are all just damage. With that in mind, you can get your fire resist to 80% without too much work, and to 90% if you really want. Alpha slot wise, it's just whatever you want. For farming it doesn't even matter. For PVE take whatever fills out the holes - maybe you want your end to drain slower, or your end draining powers to drain more, or more accuracy/recharge, etc.

Another minor data issue: psi melee is including insight bonus damage, making it look stronger than it is. Edit : Regen primary on tankers is set to use secondary acquisition levels, should be an easy fix... edit2: OK tank regen is broken in a bunch of other little ways too - many powers not accepting sets, etc. edit3: Does anyone know how to extract/edit the .mhd files? I'm open to attempting text and numerical fixes myself.

I'm pretty sure I had this problem on live and I can't remember if I ever found a workaround. * I can't paste (Control-V) into the game - others in chat said that they could. The only reason I've ever been able to think of for this (especially given its across multiple machines) is that I use the Dvorak keyboard layout. Note that using both "locations" of the V key ("." and "v") do not work...something like having a different keyboard input set just plain breaks the game's paste function??