Mezmera

People familiar with each other communicating with one another to coordinate shoring up another's weakness all in an effort to create a super team that we then use to base our judgment's by seems strange to me. Before IO's I'd get into a power super group team playing their way through missions while half were radiation and the others were something else and all with the leadership pool. They'd decimate the +5 baddies that would sometimes spawn, all with SO's. So you're point is coordination is very effective... And then we're supposed to base our build decisions based on these unicorn like instances?

Blasters slot sets typically for bonuses. Proc builds don't benefit them unless it's something like say the aoe hold from their secondary with a long recharge that they can make a mini-nuke to double dip into for moar damage. Their main arsenal is already potent and due to the fast recharges on all of these powers slotting procs is typically done for a set you like for the bonuses. What blasters gain in IO's is survivability from defense bonuses and more recharge, dmg and accuracy bonuses to accentuate their already potent attacks. Defenders already have the survivability in the bag so they can exploit proc'ing. Defenders exploiting procs aren't getting "left in the dust" any more in terms of damage if a blaster is IO'd. It's the tankyness of a blaster you build for. But lets not get started on blasters since they've been made into demigods since the game was last on live.

I honestly do like proc's and the creativity afforded builds through them and IOs in general. It's just crazy though how much regression there is towards damage procs because they are the more optimal choice overall in many cases, especially on platforms that already offer best survivability to start like defenders and tanks, but really any long recharging exploitable power is game. On my tanker I have the main tank build but then I have my 2nd proc'd out build which I still accidently get 3k hp and tons of resistance and defense on top of great procing. How is it that I can take a hold on the tank and the base damage is 30pts but then I add the purple range and hold, pvp range and hold procs that'll most all proc for a total of 310pts of damage. Then I add a decimation proc @Super Atom for a 2nd procable build up that procs every other hold to go along with the gaussian plus my regular BU for some spicy damage. Where long recharging procs are most beneficial in aoe damage powers and some of the ST attacks the problem is then also relatable to pvp where ST attacks are king and a defender getting more value out a hold attack they can have tons of procs firing off in compared to an actual control character that has faster recharge thus the value of their hold is negated when the non control characters get better use out of their holds on a much better dmg/survivable platform. Some procs already push the boundaries like the BU procs and -resist ones but damage procs in such high volume is just a tad out of hand. Not recognizing it as it is and then building for these exploits is some mighty weird logic. There needs some real reworking of procs honestly, a hybrid approach, a happy medium where procs, bonuses and the powers themselves get balanced better.

It's not really a big deal. If you're already aware of exploitable proc bombs then you should already be aware of how to build a character to accentuate that exploit. There's already a lot of regular powers that help with acc/end/rech without even diving into how easy it is to attain global recharge and accuracy bonuses.

Dark is also one of those newer power sets so do keep that in mind. To me Dark seemed like a more damage oriented set with some control and lots of soft control, it feels naked. The -tohitt on powers is nice. But with the instant and total lockdown of Total Domination those baddies won't be shooting anything at you anyways. I also hate target location powers in control sets, they're clunky to use, plus hold procs I suspect don't work quite as well in that one. Yes it may be a stronger hold so on Controllers it's noticeable but on Dom's it's meh. Terrify is a massive cone, this is one of the soft controls I just threw in there but Dark has this great of a power? Or because it's "always-up" it doesn't have quite the oomph as Terrify so you need to get caught spamming this to measure up? Stuns, knockdowns and fear are soft control, they don't always reliably control every target in it's path like what you can do with Mass Confusion and then Total Domination.

You detailed how to build a proper character with sets regardless of the proc bomb. That's how to build something with IO's yeah cool. You are the one debunking yourself. You're taking what someone already does to build a legitimate character then adding on a long recharge aoe power with some slots you're likely able to spare and calling that ground breaking? If they take away that broken amount of damage then I guess you'll have to figure a way to build a strong survivable character without exploiting powers that can wipe away swaths of targets in a single bound that aren't meant to do such. Some are already ahead of the game in that regard, so who's the more intuitive ones?

There's few control sets that have so much control oozing from any angle like Mind Control. Plant is overtuned and is the bar by which every other control set is measured, mainly because it was a late introduced control set that didn't get the balance pass after while that the legacy sets received. Seeds of Confusion is way too good for not being the t9 power. The creeper vines each holding their own aggro is real strong as well. Take the currently broken Bonfire away from Fire and it's not an all too great set. That exploit needs attention. But then some of the other powers in the set would need a tuning up once Bonfire is dealt with. Pretty much all other control sets have that one hard aoe hold yes but then they have a bunch of soft control filler that are partially resisted like stuns and knockdown. Mind Control can alternate for permanent hard control, plus then has filler soft control like Mass Hypnosis and Terrify. As a whole though control sets need balance passes. Most need brought up, some a bit of slight re-tuning and then plant should be coming down a smidge.

Easily overcome by taking Hasten, building global recharge through your other powers and having great tohitt powers like tactics and aim/build up. End reduction? pfft who cares. Again proc bombs aren't difficult to do. It's not some wizardry and not any more intuitive than building for other proper bonuses refraining from abusing the system too much.

How do proc builds require more thinking? That's a new one to me. Take long recharge aoe power, load it with 5-6 dmg procs, toggle the power's use, go boom, repeat once recharged. Not complicated. Minding your stat building, accounting for the 5x rule amongst all of your sets, seeing what bonuses you can build that can coincide with power selections to make you into an animal. That seems a bit more complex. Proc bombing is a lame gimmick. Not intellectually challenging. Sure some damage proc'ing should still be viable but how wouldn't changing some damage procs into doing other beneficial things not be versatile? Like @Naraka I'm not advocating for the change one way or another. It's an observation that some things are easily abused and the devs are looking into it already, hence the topic to perk the devs ears a bit.

Yeah I liked the old % chance but the PPM change is very beneficial to some powers where it wasn't as such before and some powers got screwed over sure. It's pretty much the avenue of creativity shifted from one thing to another. I do like the PPM formula for those real long recharging powers since it makes those powers a bit more attractive. But they should also be limited in how much proci'ng you can abuse in such a power. A hybrid approach wouldn't be so bad either if they are able to enable something like that. Something where there's the ability for procs to be % and others to be PPM. The % for sure will benefit fast charging ST attacks. It's tough they essentially need to be sure to review every single proc and how it interacts best with powers it's able to be slotted in. All without pissing off a majority of people that have gotten accustomed to the formula we now have.

Maining a dom you kind of get used to making use of every slot getting every attractive set you can and end up chasing so many things like recharge, defense and hp that it's rare to have a power where I can double up on a proc. I do think a power getting to proc more than 3 different procs in that power is overkill. Two is completely fine, for instance on my dom's aoe hold I like to 5 slot the purple set with the damage proc so I can get that recharge bonus but then I'll add a 6th slot for the gladiator proc so that the hold gives me some nice aoe damage. I don't feel that's abusive at all since these aoe holds have long recharges so you're not getting to spam stupid damage at all times. I think there should just be at most two damage procs in a power ability. All purple damage typed sets should have the damage procs, which I'd also like to see the target aoe one changed to a damage proc, other than that maybe the only other allowable damage procs would be the ones from the pvp sets. All the other damage ones should be changed to something more creative than moar damage. The set bonuses could be adjusted too to make some of the sets attractive to build for. As for limiting other procs I'm not sure where we get to the point of what's abusive and not. I was tinkering with my dom's dark consumption which I have as an emergency end fix but I wanted to make more use out of it and based on the long recharge any proc I put into it is pretty much sure fire. I ended up putting the pvp -res proc into it and boy does the group of enemies melt when I use this power on them. With this capable debuff plus I also have Weaken Resolve with an achilles proc in it my thinking was to be a versatile asset to the team should we ever really need the debuffing. Also I think all of the defense and resistance sets are just right. They're all good, everyone has access to get them and there's no purple/winter sets needed since there's already so many good things there already. I don't mind procs being looked into but I'd still like there to be avenues of creativity available to people even if they turn out to be real strong experiments. Some abusive proc'ing does need checked though *cough* bonfire *cough*.

I've been playing Mind Control for quite a while now. While I do agree it's bs that Mass Confusion, Mind's signature power, pales in comparison to Seeds of Confusion, I don't think the recharge in any way needs tinkered with. I do think Seeds needs to be toned down though. I know there's quite a want for a buff to Mind Control but it could only use a slight sprucing up. Here's what I'd do with Mind: t1: Mesmerize t2: Dominate (up from 3) t3: Confuse (up from 4) t4: Levitate (down from 2) t5: Mass Hypnosis - Add a good tohitt debuff to go along with the sleep like Flash Arrow t6: Telekinesis - This can go many ways, maybe up the target count to 8 and or add some sort of debuff to the main target t7: Total Domination - Controllers get to proc an additional mag hold, Dominators get a minor damage proc (I'd do something like this for all control aoe holds) t8: Terrify t9: Mass Confusion - Leave the recharge as is but add a self buff per enemy hit, something that still doesn't cause aggro but you get like a 3% dmg/2% tohitt buff per target hit up to 16 for 30s kind of like Soul Drain or a defense buff somewhere in there. Mind is pretty good as is though, at least on doms thanks to all of the fluid instantaneous control you get from being in Domination.

As much as I love my confuses and energy transfer's (the new old animation), I must echo Soul Drain. It's Fulcrum Shift on steroids.

When I find out someone is new in a villain zone I instantly give them 50 milion and introduce them around to Ghost Widow and that group. If I'm in a hero zone I give the new players 20 million and let them know I've tied the rest to a kittens collar and tossed into a tree somewhere in the zone.

I know the TA has slow resist. Yet another point for blasters. I didn't fight the Cold on my TA. Any generalization I'm making is from the perspective of seeing how much more suboptimal some AT's are now compared to how they were last on live. On the dom it does feel like the Cold Defender -recharge debuffs were adjusted up from when it was last on live. Which the point was that some of these debuffs/buffs are far too strong at the values they are at when I know how nasty a dom's Total Focus was back on live, so in comparison why is it the stun from Total Focus that got a fix (which it should have) and the Cold with less sophistication in it's debuff deployment gets to have far greater affect than any control was ever allowed. Originally I had just stated to bring the Dark/TA because I knew it was the thing to bring. When I got to play it I did pretty well, mostly any issues on this one it was me seeing what pool powers I picked trying to be different which were ineffectual to just respec'ing out of those afterwards. As far as the dwindling numbers, yeah priorities and real life stuff plays into things too, plus overall population. I was looking forward to playing all areas of the game when it came back but seeing how far things have regressed in pvp since last playing on live to now it became what's even the point? I'm relating this to why so few newcomers venture into this arena to give you all more bodies to play with.

Nope just my casual foray back into pvp and giving my observation about how things have progressed through the ages of the game to where we are now. More of an identifier to maybe help them boost the number of people that would like to get their feet wet into this arena of the game. It's one thing to be well practiced and suited already which these players clearly were. But having wide balance issues already glaring, for anyone new to coh pvp that may want to bring their favorite character that is suboptimal for pvp to this arena it's already going to be a huge turnoff.

Yes fun is subjective. Dwindling pvp numbers are hard data. That's what this take was designed to help describe as someone that played and enjoyed pvp pre and post revamp on Live to the iteration it is now. Yes damage is king especially when added to hp buffs, mez shields, absorb shields, etc. They police themselves quite fine but hopefully they aren't so complacent they don't see the lack of balance doesn't attract newcomers.

I wanted to share my experience from the well intentioned and thought out pvp event this past weekend. Going in I knew my Dark/TA blaster would be the viable character to use but for giggles I wanted to see where a dom stood so I included that as well. On Freedom I used to arena against some quite talented players playing an unorthodox dom. I'd fight a range of things from typically blasters to defenders, corruptors, controllers, stalkers, scrappers, and masterminds. Aside from having to play it cagey against things like psi blast and thermals I could do quite well. I concede I'm nowhere near as practiced as everyone that entered having not pvp'd for a number of reasons, mostly those to follow below. If I'm speaking to some issues that the pvp community wants addressed and haven't been listened to then hopefully this adds to the perspective of someone that'd be interested to getting into it. But I doubt I'll have little interest knowing these issues will gatekeep pvp to certain cookie cutter characters and limit the variety that I think that's what they were trying to achieve on Live when they revamped the whole thing. First issue: Blasters, in what world do you buff an already easy to use pvp AT with various buffs in their secondary's, defiance and whatnot and not reduce their base hp to less than all the other squishies but instead raise their hp cap.... How good they are is evidenced by how many blasters were carried into the tourney. Second: Certain AT self buffs and debuffs. I fought all kinds of things from Thermals to Cold's back on Live after the revamp, from what I recall in no way did their -recharge debuffs last near as long as what I got blasted with. That has changed since Live. Nature is new, what a tank it is. Defender values are far too strong in pvp. On a control character I'd imagine if a Domination hold lasted half as long as these debuffs or buffs there'd be major issues. Third: Speaking of the mez system, how is it the AT's that aren't supposed to have great control get better value from their control? Control had already been kneecapped with the mez changes, for good reason since it used to be fighting a dominator or controller would be an automatic win once they eat you out of breakfrees, but why is it that control gets far less value from slotting their hold when there's things like procs where a defender can detonate a hold onto your face? I'm not sure how much this helps to guide any decisions but these are some things I can see need addressed from what has changed since Live to the hot mess it is at the moment. What were already some of the worst offenders and easier to exploit abilities have only been pronounced since Live when there used to be at least some viable variety. How things like the placate proc in psi blasters is still a thing as it always has been makes it seem to me that the community which has some of the devs ears is more interested in having their exploitable characters than having good balance. Hope this was insightful. I did have a bit of fun on my Dark blaster when I got to use it, but I do wish other "ranged" characters felt more viable than certain blasters and nature/colds.

The powers that do knockback already have a high mag if you slot it for that. Power boosting the kb on top of that would be totally unnecessary and would likely piss off teammates more than anything. For fun being able to punt hellions in Atlas I can see the reason for it but other than that yes the biggest problem would be how it would interact with things like power push in pvp. I say this as someone who spent a lot of time in zone and arena pvp on a Mind/Nrg dom. The mag is already real high on power push and when I tested your defenses for kb protection and you didn't pass I could easily follow that up with a Total Focus when it was hax with a 15s stun against squishies. Death on a stick. Leave the powers themselves with their high values, power boost shouldn't be able to multiply it's effect, totally unnecessary unless it's pvp and that'd be super OP. Pvp is already a mess with the mez system and procs, no need to add this to it.

To add a bit to subb's take I will say that my most used ST control gets that full set of Superior Ascendancy so I too put that into my ST hold. As for the AoE hold I know the dark aoe hold is a bit unusual but the typical aoe hold is where I typically will put 5 of the purple hold set since the procs are pretty much sure fire and then I'll add a 6th slot for the gladiator proc too so my aoe hold nets me some pretty nice aoe damage. You have a lot of powers with sets to 5 where just one more from that set nets you some pretty nice defense values. The confuse for instance. The good thing to do when leveling a dom is to take all of the powers in the primary and secondary that seem interesting and have a go with them to see if you like them. You may find a few powers not used as much so it'd be a better idea to just drop that power, save the slots and then just take another defense power where you can get that 7.5% recharge from just one slot if you don't want to slot the defense more than that. Night Fall for instance I believe is that really narrow cone attack, you'll see whether it lives up to your expectations or not. I do almost always go with Soul Mastery as my epic pool though. Soul Drain is far to good a power to pass up, I like to slot that with 5 of the purple pbaoe set. Though I'd highly recommend to take the resistance shield as well it's a great shield and since you're already in the pool may as well. Dark Oblit I have 5 of the posi. Then I have Dark Consumption too for any endurance management I may need but it also adds to the aoe damage, though I don't use this one as often so I only have 3 slots on it one of which is the pvp -res proc which makes the group melt noticeably when I use this power.

Doms play like blasters in a way. Think of most of the assault powers you take as trying to be on par with blaster ST damage, mix in one or two of the better melee attacks and play them a hybrid blapper style. Where a blaster has superior aoe damage your dom should be dedicated to aoe control. If you want aoe damage you need to likely get most of that through the epic pool powers later on and the usual pbaoe's the assaults have. You'll want to minimize what you take in your primary and secondary as too much is a waste. So take the 5-6 best powers in each that have the greatest effect and then build yourself through the pool powers, sometimes I end up with 7 control powers but it better be good. Pools with defenses in them are what you're after so you can slot the Lotg's but it's still good to build in defenses to go along with those from IO bonuses. It's still a lot of building with purple sets and uniques but control gets access to a good deal more purple sets to choose from. Usually if I make a new dom I'll catch a ride to 30 and then build it with sets and play it from there. If you have 50-100 mil you can email yourself you can get a perma at 30 easy. The larger issue is how slot starved doms are because there's so many things you'll want to alocate them to. It's a game in itself to see how far you can go with optimal slotting on a dom. Good luck hope you have fun! Edit: As far as the dark heal on my dark assault I split that heal with 3 apocalypse chasing dmg and accuracy and 3 touch of nictus with as much heal and accuracy you can.

Novel but I'll just invite more blasters and coordinate our alternating booms. Sorry but as hard as it may be to hear aoe damage just needs a slight trimming. Not back to Live levels but somewhere in between. 1,2 and 3 all have lost some relevance since Live as you and many can see and as far as I can see damage is the most pronounced thing that has changed since then. I don't care one way or another if certain damage takes a hit but just trying to be objective. I say this as someone who plays a fabulous Dom who will take Alpha and exert my will first before that blaster booms dammit.

There's not a better battleground for control sets to see what their toon is really made of when their controls fail them than running a strong ITF. Except for broken bonfire... I don't feel sleeps are underserved, on their own they are quite strong, especially if you need to deploy some type of strategy if there's ever anything hard to accomplish. I've skipped taking Mass Hypnosis since Live but I do still take the ST sleep since I'm locked into one of 2 options and it retains usefulness at all times. I think just with a lot of how things have changed since Live that control has lost some luster because it's still the same thing but damage reigns supreme. Things like procs, nuke changes, along with a bunch of other features, not just laying blame at the feet of incarnates, is what has made control feel less useful comparatively in amateurish hands. Pretty much everything @Naraka says is spot on.

Yeah dom's melee should be equal to that 1.125 and their range should be 1.000 Blasters will still out-damage doms easy due to having both Aim+BU, Defiance, and nukes, plus higher damage caps.

@Mistress Mezmera Characters: Dark/Tac Arrow Blaster Fire/Atomic Blaster Gravity/Energy Dominator