Onlyasandwich

I'm happy with the latest change to Seeds. It now serves properly as a Controller "most spawns" opener. I had mine procced for damage too, and this isn't so useful any more. I consider it a fair enough balance. Spirit Tree is great! I'm loving it so far. It gives me another opener or "oh crap" power to bridge the gap when things get messy. Spores is still great, as it was on the previous beta patch. I hadn't given Vines much of a shake on the previous patch, but put in some more work with it this time around. Previously I would use it as a "stuff is going south > stop the mobs now" emergency button, but it doesn't really work well for this any longer. It's a bit slow acting. Instead, it's more of a conditional opener if Seeds is on cooldown, or planned measure if I know multiple mobs are risking aggro and I want to lock one down at the start. Overall this is okay. I can't say that I used it a ton before the change, but I do miss the emergency button. My previous comment on the last patch stands for Creepers. They are sort of okay, but weirdly the most skippable power in the set now. It's very sad to see what was once a centerpiece power of the set (alongside Seeds) to a "maybe skip." I would love to see them summoning more entities as they do on live, even if the powers these entities use are changed to mitigate the impact of procs within them. Fly Trap is good! I already took it on live anyhow, and now it actually stands a chance of living without heavy support. ST damage is low as some have noted, but it has some okay AOE, and provides a decent distraction as well.

My observations so far: Seeds is still usable and decent, though as others have noted the 10 target limit keeps it from being a very safe opener. I have found Spirit Tree or Spores to be an okay substitute here when solo, and the Deep sleep improvement on spores makes this more workable overall. I do feel more obligated to take both of these powers for functional opening play, which means tighter power choices overall. This isn't necessarily a terrible thing, as it's nice to actually have a reason to use them. I would personally prefer a duration nerf, while keeping the old target cap. Carrion Creepers are much less interesting, and seem to spawn many fewer pseudo-pets. Perhaps the original behavior wasn't intended, and this is what they meant when they said they were addressing cascading procs. However, even without procs the Creepers now no longer scale effectively with crowd size, and are substantially less useful. Their damage contribution is pretty forgettable as well. Perhaps I am just spoiled by the comparison to my previously proc bombed creepers, which were indeed pretty absurd in the right saturated environment. I would prefer an approach that keeps their scaling summon behavior more in line with live, while diminishing the impact of procs within the pseudo-pet powers in some other way. I like the adaptive recharge in Vines. I already used the long recharge aoe controls as is, and this only helps.

Please don't go - the drones need you. They love you.

If you click it once only, it's not like you're vulnerable while waiting to click it again. Single clicking when you meant to double click for the bastion effect doesn't exactly punish you, it just means you look all cool and frozen for a second when you didn't mean to. Overall I like these changes! I definitely didn't use hibernate on cool down as is, so the increased recharge didn't really hurt. Meanwhile, the bastion resist can help stabilize you when you pop into intangible during an emergency.

This for sure! When they go to melee each other, they clump tighter. An aoe hold just freezes them where they are, which may not always be ideal. Alternatively, just combine Fold Space with any dom and immob/stun to your heart's content. 😉

I agree with @Hedgefund here. OF KD proc is good because if it goes off once, you get a tangible benefit. Most any mob gets knocked down unless just immune. Cupid's crush is only Mag 2, so luits and bosses won't see any effect at all, unless you happen to have some other confuse effect that you are, by luck, applying to that target currently. I can see some utility slotting it in a long-recharge aoe with high proc rate to mitigate minion tag back, or maybe if you have a slot to burn in a confuse heavy build and want to toss it in there for stacking at random. Mastermind pets have some aoes that would inherit the proc and have more noticeable impact. However, pet slots are already at a premium, and are better served with base enhancement or damage procs more often.

I think it's at least above average aoe for a stalker, maybe even excellent. Guarded spin procs super well, so you end up with two very nice aoes, which is not the case for most other stalker primaries. I agree that it's not a revelation of superiority, but feel like it's one of the better stalker sets in general, not just "best on this at but still blah."

Welcome! If you want a reference point for slotting ideas, here's a Marine/Seismic defender I spooled up recently in a thread. Defender (Marine Affinity - Seismic Blast).mbd I haven't even found the performance shifter proc necessary in Toroidal on my own iterations. Even my extra thirsty Thugs/Marine MM gets along nicely using his end-guzzling attacks. Once you get Depths and some of your other end support slots rounded out, I think you'll find the same on your corruptor. I really like your idea of using the ATO +end proc in Shifting tides! I'm not 100% certain how it will work in practice. I know gaussian in shifting tides works sort of like in tactics (ie new proc chance to self-buff you per target hit/10 seconds). I would guess the ATO proc might work the same way, and pop frequent +end aura bursts centered on you? I'm not sure, but it may be sneakily good in practice. Would love to hear how it works when you try. If it works really well, you'll be absolutely swimming in blue - very in theme!

@Nemu Toroidal's end benefit isn't so much about slotting it with end enhancement (give it resist slotting love instead!), but instead the baseline end bonus it provides without enhancement, and the additional spot for a performance shifter proc. The performance shifter has a chance of going off on cast, giving you a larger swing of end injection. I wouldn't spam it on cooldown, but it's a nice bonus to keep you stable. A 20 end injection every 20 seconds or so is pretty strong - even better that your whole team gets it! If you don't need it at a given time, just wait to rebuff. The main component is the +res after all. Focus on keeping that up. Otherwise, recovery returns are better invested in stamina slots. Power of the Depths indeed makes a very big difference at later levels as well. Few sets provide +end in such quantities, and it synergizes well with your existing recovery bonuses, making them stronger. Some broad input on the build: Personal preference - Soothing Wave is much more useful than Shoal Rush. Shoal is a puny power for procs. The -def is decent enough, but missable, and you have other ways to start your frenzy (whitecap into shifting tides mainly). Soothing wave heals both you and your mates, and has a healthy -damage debuff component. It fills the gaps in your defenses nicely. Power of the Depths could use some love. Its baseline power for +end is pretty strong already. I recommend maxing out its Healing enhancement and recharge. If relying purely on Power Boost to beef it up, some local recharge would be good as a baseline. White cap is begging for more proc love. You'll be cycling it so much more than soul drain - I would recommend the armageddon proc at least in white cap.

Tap + in the selection interface, while hovering the enhancement you want to boost. Each plus is a level of boost.

Final final build (for now) 😉 I settled on keeping Bonfire. I've run enough messy fun TFs so far with this guy that I see its utility even with dom up, and the damage is a nice bonus then as well. I also found that I was going over rule of 5 on F/C resist and my Slow res bonuses. Moved things around and gained some recovery, more damage in Fire Ball, and worked an annihilation proc into Fissure. Here it is: Dominator (Fire Control - Earth Assault) fire version.mbd If anyone has further improvements to suggest, I'd love to hear as always! I feel like it's basically in its final form now.

I think the above build is more or less where I've settled. One question remains - Rise of the Phoenix or Bonfire? Pros for Rise: PM proc mule, erases mistakes, is fun. Pros for Bonfire: Useful in super overaggro situations to throw out for extra mitigation and damage over time. Useful when exemping below perma-dom. Visually fun.

That's more or less what I suspected - thank you for sharing your experience, @Caimie! I wonder what an optimal swap might be. Considerations include: Power Up. No useful secondary effects to boost, but the damage is at least something. On occasion, the extra duration beyond what dom already provides may be useful. Stealth for an extra lotg mule. I probably won't bother running it for the defense. Smoke. -perception can be handy at times. The -tohit isn't much to consider. Misdirection. A decent little aoe resist debuff! Pretty long cooldown though, especially considering I won't have slots to devote. The placate effect might come in handy as an extra pause here and there. Surge of Power. Not super thematic for this guy, but another emergency button might be nice. Could mule Steadfast +def here for kicks. I could always keep it of course. I'll test it for a while and see how much it comes in handy. Actually, I think an epic swap may indeed be the way to go! 2 end/sec + perf shifter, panacea procs, and dom injections should be reasonably sustainable without the extra crutch of power sink. I jimmied up a Fire APP version for comparison here: Dominator (Fire Control - Earth Assault) fire version.mbd The main downside here is that the resist profile isn't as desirable. However, I get more damage, a handy self-rez, a mule for the PM proc, and a debuff I'll actually use in Melt armor. The whole thing is more on theme as well.

Ran some DFB, posi 1, and a sutter last night and have this guy up to 24 so far. He's a blast! I settled on a fun character concept and costume to match, which is 70% of the battle for fun anyhow. 😄 Feeling pretty good about the endurance situation. Even without my end support slotted up yet, I get along decently well with dom refills. Depending on how it all goes, I might even consider an epic swap, but for now the idea of Power Sink as a backup for such an end hungry character is still appealing. I'm glad you all are enjoying the combo as well! I was a little surprised to see basically zero topics about Fire/Earth in the dom forums. It seems like such a natural thematic fit. @MoonSheep, what is your concern with exemping and procs? They function just fine even if exemped below their set level. I absolutely understand the other fun goals one could achieve by backing off on procs (achieving meaningful defense, perma-dom without hasten are big ones). However, with this type of character where I'm relying on other measures to protect myself, this is my basic strategy for slotting procs: First, absolutely maximize effective damage per application through the most optimal combination of ED and procs (some powers have better return on ED up to cap, others are much higher with procs from slot one). Evaluate if I have enough accuracy. If not, adjust accordingly. Slot my other powers in the build. Have I achieved my goals? If so, then excellent! If not, then I'll revisit the hyper-focus on damage in procced powers, and replace with sets until I have achieved what I want. I start my revisit with the powers where procs have the most marginal return. In this way I maximize the potential damage of everything possible while still getting where I want to be on everything else. After playing with this guy, I've determined I'm keeping the Teleport pool. The new "gloop" animation for combat teleport is amazing! I colored it orange and it looks like I'm melting into lava and reforming. Still though - what do you think about Bonfire on a dom these days? It's such a long animation time, and only so-so as spawn control with the reduced chances when KD converted. Do you find it a useful supplement? If you have it, do you even bother using it?

Thank you for taking the time to review, Moonsheep! It sounds like we have pretty different build goals for doms, which is just fine of course. I find the trade-off in hastenless perma-dom to be too great for my own goals. Specifically here, such a focus would keep me from proccing powers as I like, as well as remove a decent chunk of my slow resist. I'm happy enough to use my rotating auto-fire bind to keep dom rolling. Power up is a 34% damage buff for 10 seconds. This isn't nothing, but not worth a power pick all by itself for me here. I don't have any secondary effects worth boosting to take advantage of its other effects. The aoe immob is a pretty big part of an efficient solo strategy! Judicious usage (ie waiting for things to clump, or just not using it at all there) on teams keeps it from being a bother. It is also the best place for my Fiery orb, as well as a mule for an important set that I'm relying on. Seismic Smash is a very proc friendly power. As currently slotted, it has a 90% fire rate for 3.5 ppm procs, which is why I have it more proc focused in my slotting. I have the purple hold proc in Char instead, as the damage difference for both powers is roughly the same (about 30 more damage on average per application compared to a non purple proc), and char is rotated more often, so more net benefit. Phase shift is a capstone for my investment in Concealment, and a really great power! -perception powers like Smoke can be pretty useful in certain types of rooms, but I'd be more interested if it had a better secondary effect. -3.75% tohit just isn't doing it for me, especially since I am not running defense to stack it with. With phase shift, if things get nasty I can just pop into another dimension and wait for a big control to finish recharging, then pop back out and go to town. One change I'm currently mulling over is: Drop the entire teleport pool, pick up Weaken Resolve, Mighty Leap, Unleash. Drop Bonfire, pick up Power Up. I can steal the slot in fold space and the OF KD proc in Mud pots for Unleash. Now I can pop Power Up > Unleash and achieve 30% defense, as well as get an extra end boost. This is further helped along by all the FFBack running. The big losses would be Combat Teleport (not a huge deal for a build that doesn't need to line up cones), Fold Space (very mighty, but not essential), Bonfire (is it madness to drop bonfire? Maybe it's not as important on a dom?), and Phase Shift (goodbye emergency button, but hello another more proactive emergency button). I'd also lose one lotg in the trade. Not sure! I actually love Unleash on doms, especially due to Power Up. I feel like I'd be trading a lot of utility to get there though.