Mezmera

My go to is Diamagnetic. As others are pointing out Degen and Reactive are pretty good but everyone runs them anyways so they stack fast. My builds will have lots of defense so the 100% -tohitt play well with defense builds even if I'm the only one stacking them. Plus it also does -regen, sure not as good as envenomed dagger but a side benefit of -regen is always welcome.

You forget Dark Consumption which is about the same as Power Sink but it also does pbaoe damage and procs very well. Dark Embrace has the best resist package of all the available dominator resist powers with S/L, Negative and Toxic resist. The Seer pet does fabulous damage, just learn when to use it and to keep it alive. Yes there's lots of great APP options for doms.

Just wanted to say that although I'm likely not to ever play the new and revamped powers this is so much icing on the cake that is the ASF. I am thoroughly impressed with what has been crafted and I'm really looking forward to what may be coming!

You didn't really need to devote anything before for them to be useful out of the box. If I slot Mesmerize it'll be 5 of the decimation set, if I don't usually on that build I will just have it slotted with a 50+5 Apoc dmg IO and will have tactics and Soul Drain powering my accuracy along with accuracy bonuses. The sleep component will last for as long as I want it to until teammates break it. With Mass Hypnosis if I take it I'll be planning on using it so usually it gets the purple set. If I took it with my last pick I'll usually be using TD, MC and Terrify and the Mass Hypnosis is a bonus aoe control, which I'll slot a 50+5 sleep/acc/rech purple. I was hardly missing with that low slotting to begin with. Yes the consensus it feels from the dev team is to give sleeps a bit more viability by having this in your bag of tricks to be able to help the team with those harsh debuff/buffs. Sleeps atm aren't a terribly reliable control on teams because of zerging play styles but giving them this kind of benefit will be a nice feature if they have more engagements that call for these kinds of tricks.

I use sleeps against AV's all the time, particularly Mesmerize. Here's a tip for you, in the Zoe and Rodney fight if you sleep Rodney he won't be taunting the team, that way you can focus on Zoe first. So long as the change doesn't make them all immune to sleep that's fine, a few already are which is cool. Your sleep powers should likely have a decent set with some accuracy in it anyways so it seems a minor inconvenience.

The enemies fly and have high perception. You can still stealth around but you better be careful you don't bump the wrong Boomer because they just might see you then they will call all of their flying buddies. Which also means ground location powers like bonfire will have less impact. These things WILL be in your face a great deal. Most of the crucial points you can't just sit there stealth confusing, you're team will need big contributions. Stealth control is good for the first strike to soften up surrounding groups before your team catches all of their aggro. The OP started this topic after they correctly assessed how harsh this is going to be if you're not varying your build because it doesn't matter if you want melee or not, melee is coming to you. It's viable to build in max stealth sure but you're going to need to chase those defense bonuses and powers, take shields available to you, contemplate leadership powers, use things like Barrier, and be ready to toss out all kinds of aoe control. If the purple AT isn't pushing out the control available to them I'd rather have a defender or corruptor teammate.

This is also speaking from the Dominator perspective where Domination makes control feel like actual control. Most control feels just about right on doms because they don't have a support set to fall back on so they need that aggressive style for survivability. I also do think Controller's could use something specific to help them in control for certain things. The recharge on these powers feel about right but on controllers the aoe hold doesn't net you the control a Perma-dom gets. For the subtle AT differences I think leave the aoe hold where they're at but allow controllers to get the benefit on this power of an additional mag hold proc so they can get some unique control of their own. That way they don't have to slot some gimmick +2 mag hold proc and can make use of damage procs just as well as doms. There should be subtle tuning between the AT's, I leave controllers to hash that out for yourselves.

Confuse powers are fine how they are. Raise the recharge on Seeds of Confusion so a t5 power doesn't seem like it outdoes a t9 power. If they don't want to raise the recharge to MC levels on Seeds then they may want to look into giving Mass Confusion some kind of accuracy and or self buff ability. Giving enemies Leadership powers will affect confusing well enough without breaking those powers. Giving enemies a Vengeance ability for each spawn will go a ways to give them a "break out" but not stacking like Nemesis does so that you can still take notice they've broke out and now need another application of control to get them back in order. For sleeps it seems they are just fine with that auto-hit ability. Yes it's a light control but being able to hit everything to turn off certain things when you need to will likely be a good ability to have handy. Looks like the dev team has a direction for sleeps, it seems good so far. AoE hold recharge is fine where it's at. You want to avoid power creep this is where you leave the recharge where its at and leverage the other powers in your control set. Or would you think its cool to just walk through maps mass spamming aoe hold and confuse powers at your leisure? These things are pretty well done on the new hard mode Aeon SF. My control feels very significant with this new stuff. Now yes I don't contend that each control set shouldn't get a look at to adjust some things here and there individually. There are some underperforming sets for sure, and one overperforming one for certain.

I have my settings in the middle somewhere, usually I turn them down for UG's. It's real noticeable though when you get those types of targets in your area with all kinds of fx on your screen. I'm pretty sure the Brickernauts and Rifters are coated in a purplish aura so at first fight those should be identifiable. Then once you've wailed on the Bricker to the point of low hp he forms a bright gold pillar, makes tons of noise and there's a visible count on his head. You'll want to look out for those guys. The Rifters suck you in and once they show their purplish pillar along with the big red lettering put on your screen in front of your face you'll want to pay attention to that warning to target and kill them quick, they're not nearly as bad as the other guys but they are annoying as well. It's new and a little different you'll get the hang of it eventually.

It's not to discourage any type of behavior specifically. It's to keep people on their toes. Don't you look both ways before crossing the road? Same premise here, you're solo so you should plainly see the guy you just whittled down to the point where he starts glowing gold and gives you a 10s countdown. It is advisable to get out of that area, it isn't discouraging any type of behavior except mindless smash. If someone throws a grenade into your living room making all kinds of noise and flashing with a countdown you might want to get out of there, heck even Superman will want to make sure it's not glowing green at least if he intends to try to eat that explosion.

Yes I've been running relentless runs with my Mind dom. All of the control I bring to the team makes the runs much easier than they usually are. My Mind dom is Nrg/Soul for lots of melee and pbaoe, Soul is a good pool to target if you want good melee attacks. Heavy control build is very favorable to have on that hard mode stuff. I usually go with Total Domination, Mass Confusion and usually Terrify for the added damage and soft control. But with all of that aggro introduced I gave Burnout a try, pretty great all of that instant control at your fingertips. The baddies also have real high defense which I've found some of my control missing quite a bit more. I tried soloing some of it on Relentless, it's fantastic that Mass Hypnosis is auto hit to stop 16 baddies in their tracks. My Mind dom has been playing great as an off tank to control all of that extra aggro before it gets to the team. Mind control is very well suited for this. Edit: Also don't discount things like Power boost and Unleash Potential. If you're going to survive you HAVE to get some defenses built in, not much cheesing like the regular old stuff.

I think you have to find a waterfall and poke it with a needle at just the right moment. Seems like I just gave your character a convincing back story on their flight power.

I think your avatar gave that away. 😜 I bet they have plans coming for them honestly. That's why I think they made it so that when you run that SF it has an impact on your environment thereafter. This release seems right up your alley. Edit: I'll defend them on the writing on this. It is as you say there's a good deal written but it's not slowing you down in any way but one run to where you'll like to follow along with the story. How many times have people run the other SF's now? You get the gist of the story after the first detailed play through and then it's back to all about playing the game and smashing stuff. Honestly I don't see it being overwritten at all, this coming from someone who is fine with the story written with a bunch of grunting. Anyone can just bash their way through the SF, there's nothing impeding you from doing so once you know the story and it'll only be one time to do that if you're so keen.

I can't remember those arcs but if those two are sub 35 I'd bet that it's intentional to make it feel like your actions caused the environment to change and/or for something maybe coming later on. Good observation though but it may be intentional lore to your environment.

I appreciate the effort devoted to all aspects of having the game back. Power adjustments I can understand taking the time to get it right so we don't go breaking the physics of the game with some super nuke. Costumes though if it doesn't break the game and its barely some clipping I'm in the camp of if its easy to do then lets get some of these things made accessible where possible. I'd love for lots of pieces to be made available, sure take the time to iron it out so it looks right while you're blasting your powers but it doesn't need to be perfect. Perfect is the enemy of good.

I'm gonna have to pass on this. All you need to do is bring along a dom or controller OR most other AT's will typically get access to a mez type of power/attack at a lower mag. If you can't find one control character for your team composition have your attacks with controls baked in ready to spam on the greens. If anything this is a less intense introduction to the mechanics of Hamidon which introduces the gamer to the need for different things needing to be achieved.

@drbuzzard tested it and said no the procs fire on use and then it placates you into hidden status and no aggro.

The smiley face should indicate I was trying to be funny, yet to still passive aggressively keep the pressure on if they stumble across that post. They said it, no take-backsies! 😜

SHHhhhh! Don't let on how good Doms may be. We have them almost convinced to allow sleeps to remove vengeance buffs... 😁

Yeah if it's something as easy as making it -1 and turning the AV's into EB's and kneecap the rewards sure. I wouldn't think it'd take too much work to do. A minus option for those that want to immerse themselves in the story at their leisure okay. The current baseline is kind of soloable atm on most though. But yes options. I also do agree with some here that these are TF's meant for team endeavors for the most part so making them trivial you don't want to detract from their intent. I'm enjoying the new difficulties so if that remains the focus forward and they are able to implement a few easy mode TF's where it would be easy and appropriate for them to do so then great.

Did you slot damage procs? If the placate procs damage does that count as damage to allow them to aggro to you again, or bring you out of hide on placating?

Yeah I didn't think Lord Nemesis would let that fly.

Mind is quite good on doms but yes on controllers its a bit different. They'll have to account for some of the power difference between the two ATs without overtuning it for doms. A tweak here and there on doms and likely some more ideas for controllers but it might just have to be that its plain better on doms. But other controls being underperforming sure. You take away that exploit in bonfire and fire control likely underperforms, or ice control getting a buff. Then yes support things like Force Fields.

Right? He laid out the plan and I saw what the intent of auto hit sleep powers to negate things like this and was like "okay let me shut on up". But then my next thought was "We implementing that veng negation yesterday then?". The control sets could use some tinkering here and there sometime soon but that plan should just about cover sleeps.

That middle mission takes up quite a large chunk of the TF. Getting sucked up into those instances there's a quick out option at the beginning of each which will make it a lot faster. Once people are familiar with the mechanics of this SF it's gonna go pretty fast especially on the medium to lower level difficulty. The first mission can go pretty quick once you know the objective and layout. Oops missed the bar room brawl in the pot o' gold, that's how quick that one can go. The 3rd mission very quick with a stealth tp'er especially. The middle mission super duper quick if you don't go for all of the AVs. The 5th mission is pretty fast on its own but can be tricky with unfamiliarity of the boss. Last mission would likely be the longest if you shortcut all of the others but once people get the strategy the only real long part of it is the opening area. It'll be no longer than a STF once everyone knows what to do. A little longer with Relentless but you're taking your time to fight all of those powerful encounters.