Onlyasandwich

Ice is a great secondary, and the Scrapper version with Icy Bastion is arguably superior to what Tanks/Brutes get. Permafrost is easy enough to skip, but I wouldn't skip anything else. Even Permafrost is useful as a set mule. As for synergies, nothing particularly stands out. I would just look for a set that matches a fun theme. Katana is great on both scraps and Brutes. Scrappers get juicy crits, but Brutes benefit from its high DPA attacks and fluid chains, building fury quickly. I don't think Ice Armor does much to make up for lackluster aoe, though a damage aura is always nice of course. Personally, I'm rather fond of the thematic combo of Stone/Ice, with the Stone in crystal form. If you haven't played SM, Scrapper is a great place to start. 🙂

I run TW/Electric myself, which is pretty nice. TW is a bit on the end intensive side, and Elec feeds that very well. Elec does involve a little clickiness with its heal, causing some redraw. Nothing too bad though, especially if you manage your momentum cycles well. Other than that I think /Elec is just generically a solid resist based set with no super synergy to speak of. Its extra end tools can fuel hungrier primaries like Stone and TW. The +def sets @StriderIV mentioned are worth considering so you can more easily build a defense layer - TW actually falls into this category as well, though Defensive Sweep is not quite as nice to put in your attack chain as some others.

At that point mailing them around adds a huge layer of inconvenience. I would cash in right there on each character into something easy to liquidate like converters and sell them in bulk. Then you can just mail the influence instead.

Damage aura is certainly a point in its favor. On tanks, a lot of the resistance is over capped and therefore wasted. Scrappers have lower resist caps, so also end up wasting value. Brutes however can make better use of these values, hitting resist caps for SLE with little waste.

Definitely on board with this! Also if I have the same procs in several powers, they have to be set in the same order. As a rule, lotg global always goes in my base slot, then any other defense uniques, then other types of iOS if relevant. Winter sets always go in first. FFback always takes the final slot. So many important rules! I'm pretty sure I get secret performance bonuses behind the scenes for my efforts. 😃

I just make my inf with a handful of crafts I have found reliable, repeating on my AH character here and there. I don't bother with sg sharing - much easier to just send liquid inf and buy what is needed on every new character. All of my many 50s keep their full builds even if not often played, though I revisit with new builds when inspired. The selection page is annoying at this point. Once one hits 50, they get organized by AT with the rest. Until then they just live on my last unfilled page. I wish there were away to make folders here.

Procs will automatically scale in damage with level, regardless of what the crafted level is. As such, there is no real reason to slot it as a level 50 enhancement. Either lowest level or attuned is great.

It is natively knockdown these days, requiring no IO for this. Pop in another damage proc!

As this guy finally approaches the 30's, I just wanted to thank you for the combo inspiration here, @oedipus_tex! He truly has a different texture than any control based character I have ever made. It's just so...peaceful. Even at this relatively low level he can solo fairly large groups with the sleep as his opener. Everything stays asleep most of the time, even as you hammer them with aoes. Eventually it doesn't matter if they're asleep, because they're all just sort of winded and staring at you blankly. I can save my aoe hold for overaggro, and this gives me plenty of time to setup a new sleep field for when they come back into play. This is all even without Synaptic. Add to that the sort of leisurely and smooth animations of Psi Assault and I feel like I'm just whipping smooth pudding out of baddies. Thanks to Drain Psyche, I can bounce back from any errant spikes, and never come close to running out of end. For the record, I am actually liking Psychic Scream pretty well. Using a key bind to combat tp back 33 ft, and having a handy bind to tp back to target makes a big difference. The longish animation time isn't perfect, but workable given that the cone is big at this range, and extends far. It sort of fits the pace and overall feel. I'm excited to put the rest of the pieces together! I don't even really have my true damage online yet - just some vanilla attuned sets with no real focus to tide me over until I hit the right level for all my procs and purples. He won't ever reach the heights of damage that my Plants/Fiery can achieve, but he's certainly no slouch, and will only get better.

I think it's generally worth taking if choosing a set that has one. None of them really compare to the raw power of Drain Psyche though. They are towards very different goals. The extra control duration is pretty handy in some scenarios, but they are also useful for the bit of extra juice in most +defense powers (not all - despite what mids says, those with +res elements aren't enhanced). There aren't any tricks quite as good as what a defender can do with shields, however. The +damage is sort of a happy bonus for using it when it otherwise makes sense. I don't know that I'd rotate it in for the damage only if other effects are not desired at that time. Secondaries with Power Up type do hold a special appeal for Electric Doms, as they will make sapping much more viable. Electric tends to be a bit slow out of the gate for this approach otherwise, or relies on Power Sink.

All this is really useful context. The confused avoidant behavior is especially terrible. I was hoping that contagious confusion proc would help mitigate the lack of domination, allowing it to stack on bosses, but if the proc hits first, that's a no-go! What a weird power. Do you know how many targets it can ultimately chain to?

Nice demo, @oedipus_tex, and thank you for the data as always, @Carnifax! It definitely looks like Jolting is best approached as a control power first, and a single target proc damage power second, with the added bonus of a little extra proc here and there on the chain part. The latter is of less use here on a dom given the longish animation and lack of proc diversity. I'm glad you're finding some of the slotting strategies here useful inspiration, Tex! I think doms are a great example of the real trade-off involved in heavily proccing powers, as there is a world of difference between the strong safety provided by your defense focus and the extra damage in my current build. There are definitely some ATs that sacrifice less when proccing (Tanks generally speaking, certain Defenders to a degree) because of the baseline strength of their survival tools. Doms on the other hand have to scrabble together every layer they can get their hands on to mitigate gaps in their control. In my case, I'm happy enough to play my doms "high stress style" and eat dirt when I stumble. The upside is that sweet feeling of total control and obliterating damage when everything is ringing right. Honestly the Plant/Fire you helped me optimize earlier works really well from this perspective, and I rarely eat dirt. I'm hoping Synaptic stacks up favorably to Seeds to enable a similar experience, but perhaps I am overestimating it. I modified the build in OP just a little, and did take your advice regarding removing the damage proc from Synaptic. I'm really pleased with how this is looking! Next step is to solidify the right character concept to embody it. Keeping the Gremlins for now to see how I like them - might swap for Power Sink later down the road depending.

One little trick if you haven't done so already. In Mids, go to Options > Configuration > Exemping and base values. Change base ToHit to 39 and now your hit chances on mouseover will be accurate for +4's. It would be 48 if you want against +3's instead.

Thank you for the detailed thoughts, @oedipus_tex! I was considering Power Sink, but am not sure how committed I am to the sapping strat, and how much I'll need to rely on it for survival. The recharge seems a bit on the slow side, but addressable. Maybe I drop Gremlins entirely and pick it up with a good set? Sapping on other ATs has proven somewhat of a janky thing to rely on as a primary survival strategy. My thoughts on this combo were to use it as a "we'll eventually get there while doing other things if the content is hard enough" sort of thing. A secondary soft control that helps stabilize tough situations if it takes longer to wear down a mob. I totally read you on the +defense bonuses I missed here. Honestly it's partly a personal challenge these days to try control builds that avoid defense. I'd love to really test the limits of how much I can rely on the confuse. Fair point on the damage proc, though I'm inclined to try it out. I like to sneak in damage on things I'm cycling constantly anyhow. It adds up nicely. Most everything is maxed out against +4's for acc, though Drain Psyche is slightly shy at ~93%. I'm okay with this considering Alpha shifts, outside buffs, and other things to get me there. Chain Fences is also short, at only ~85%. Again I think I'm okay with this considering I'll have the extra level shift in tougher content to bring it up to max. Maybe I should just play with Jolting Chain while leveling up to see for myself. I could always put it through @Carnifax's parser to see how it really stacks up.

Edit: Modified slotting a bit. Edit again: More fiddling with slots. After completing my recent Seismic/Earth Blaster and having a uh - blast, I'm ready to return to the land of doms. : ) I know that Electric/Psi is a favorite of @oedipus_tex, and I'd like to try my hand at this combo with my own approach. I recently built a Plant/Fiery that eschewed all defense, instead relying on the soft controls and of course very powerful Confuse. I see that Electric also has a solid confuse, and would like to see if a similar feat is possible with this combo. Goals: Damage damage damage! As with my plant/fiery, I'm slotting the uniques, but otherwise ignoring defense bonuses entirely, even the juicy low-hanging bonuses. This is a very proc-heavy build. Both good aoe and single target chain. I want to be able to blast almost non-stop in either scenario. Recharge immunity, or near. It's a personal thing, but I really like it, especially on doms. Perma-dom of course. I'm okay relying on hasten, and have achieved a good pad in this build. Elements I am uncertain on in the current iteration: It would be nice to have room for proper slotting on Psi Dart - it seems pretty okay for a T1. Is ignoring it a dumb move? It looks like I'll have a really solid chain between my melee powers and Psi lance. Jolting Chain doesn't seem all that hot to me given the other controls at play - am I wrong? I've picked up Psy Scream, which I know plenty of folks hate. It works pretty well procced out, and combat teleport will allow quick usage. Do you see a better way to round out aoes? Drain Psyche slotting. I ignored end slotting here. Is this silly? There are many ways to approach slotting this power. Chain Fences - here I've gone with the orb proc. However, maybe I won't be spamming chain as much as I might the immob in other builds, given the nature of Static Field. Does it get much play in your elec? If I'm not cycling it much, I could siphon the orb to a slot elsewhere. How effective is the buildup proc in Gremlins? People seem to be a bit down on the damage potential for these little fellows, and maybe it's lower value here than in most pets. Anticipated playstyle: Open with Synaptic, Combat Teleport in, Fold Space, Drain psyche, Static Field self-cast, Psy wave, Ball Lightning, TP back for scream, TP back to mob for continued sapping/pbaoes/ST burn down. If in longer/more difficult encounter, keep spamming chain fences and static field to sap. May take a few cycles, but shouldn't take too long to get to zero. As always, I'd love your input! I'm sure there is much optimization to be had, and perhaps some fundamental flaws in my logic. The build:

Agreed with @Hedgefund, it is a shame to put it in a power that wastes its high proc potential. A nuke is definitely not ideal. If I'm going ranged defense, I want to keep the set together of course. I like putting it in a tier three hard hitting blast or an efficient melee attack. Something that will make good use of the proc, but for which I ideally want to pump local recharge anyhow.

This creates a new counterintuitive nichification of procs. Now instead of just avoiding super fast recharge powers, you also avoid longer recharge, as the cycling potential is wasted, leaving only a small middle ground of moderate recharge powers that just barely hit that 75 cap as optimized for procs. Honestly I like the silly weirdness you can do with the current system, and see the tradeoffs as meaningful. I have of course invested time, effort, and inf into many builds that stretch this mechanic, so am biased towards preserving the fun that I have made for myself. The process of making new builds would be less interesting to me if the value of procs were significantly changed. I suppose it is a bit odd that holds specifically have become damage powers by rote! Honestly this to me is more about the speed of the game and lack of need for long lasting holds in most encounters. Procs contribute to that speed, but are only a piece of the puzzle. I'm all for embracing it and giving mez more of a function in the more challenging content that releases over time.

Interesting question. I'm not sure if the end effect needs to be tied to the attack element specifically for this to work. Normally it's a moot point, but blaster sustain auras are weird hybrid powers. The recovery in blaster auras is a self buff, so this muddies things. Simple enough to test in any case!

For any that may be curious about how this going, I'm loving this guy! Seismic and Earth are both such impactful, smashy sets. I know some folks are not too keen on the delay for Meteor, but I've found the timing game for how best to approach the alpha combo pretty fun. It provides a sense of urgency and focus, as I really want to get off enough to wipe the mob before they are thrown to the moon. My solo combo thus far is lead with Upthrust, tp in, salt crystals for quick damage and achilles proc, meteor, pop shards as I leap backwards. This leaves bosses alive, but no big deal. Blasty blast and combat teleport rocks into their faces. I did go ahead and respec into the hastenless build, and it's totally worth it. I have to make a bit of an effort to save my seismic stacks for Seismic force at times so I can benefit from the cooldown redux, but most of the time this doesn't keep me from picking up enough stacks for the other powers that benefit when needed. While the cooldown buff is in effect, I can chain aoes back to back seamlessly. Heavy Mallet/Stalag/Proccy Smash/Tombstone is truly a beautiful single target dream. I'm not sure how the chain parses out compared high performers like Fire/electric, but it feels really good, and I think it's probably not far off. Smashing damage will always be a limiting factor to some degree, of course. I don't regret dropping Tremor at all. It's a great power, but doesn't play very well into the Meteor timing game, and it's much more fun teleporting and jumping about with near instant cast aoes across the board outside my nuke.

Looks like a bit of proccy fun! I love both of these sets, and really enjoy ramboing it out on my own AR/Tac. Glue Arrow especially is a surprise all-star when procced out.

Not bad at all, Nemu! This is especially good for Ice, as Ice Storm isn't super proc-worthy to begin with, so full set slotting isn't much of a missed opportunity, and Frost Breath still gets the Mistral proc. I hadn't realized how healthy the +dam enhancement was in full Mistral. I don't really see much that I would change - it looks really clean. I like that you were able to land on ~30ish to both ranged and aoe, giving you a short sprint to softcap with other buffs/insps when needed, or even using Flash Arrow to bridge. The only thing I would probably change is swapping the straight damage IO in Freeze ray and Bitter Freeze Ray with the Purple Damage IO and the Purple Dam/End respectively. A bit more juice for the slot, though of course the current slotting keeps it cheaper. I'd be curious to see how much you end up using Bitter Freeze Ray in your rotation. Its DPA is rather attractive when procced out, but my Ice characters typically have a smooth and efficient chain with Ice blast, Freeze Ray, and BiB alone. You even have the extra piece in Char to fill it out. Given that, you might be better served dropping BFR for perhaps ESD arrow with a 4 slot Basilisk, and using the extra slots for fun elsewhere. I realize the BFR choice was intentional, aware of the typical meta on this power! I'd love to hear how it works for you, and if you end up finding it an impactful inclusion.

Electric is a fine set, but not often used for farming, as it lacks sustained aoe damage. Lightning rod is great burst, but is on a long cooldown, and all you have to supplement are your epics and chain. Chain is a good all around power, but not a substitute for a real aoe. Nothing essentially wrong with combining these sets in any case, but this is why you won't typically see the combo used for farming.

I've updated the build in OP with a new, hastenless variety. The recharge mechanic in Seismic Force is more powerful than it looked at first glance, and I'd love to see if leveraging it allows me to drop hasten and maintain a good chain. Advantages: I picked up combat teleport, which I really wanted in the build. Officially at Ranged softcap now. I have a real travel power too. More KB protection is always nice. Disadvantages: I dropped Tremor, which does decent DPA when procced out. It is however a bit of a slow cast and smallish aoe, which is a nonbo with melee range if I'm trying to play with quick positioning. Additionally, my other aoes recycle pretty quickly, so it may not be needed anyhow. Less optimized single target attack chain. Still plenty to fill it, but since the Seismic Force effect doesn't apply to secondary attacks, Mallet and Smash are going to take longer to get back. I was able to use some of the slots to beef up recharge in Seismic and Build Up so I am less reliant on FFback procs to keep them rolling. I'm going to level this guy in "hasten mode" and see what I think. I'm sort of leaning towards the hastenless build long-term, as I really love combat teleport for mixed ranged/melee characters.

That sounds really good too! Do you have the CoD link for where you found this? I'd love to explore the behavior further. I'm making a seismic blaster as well and am evaluating the inclusion of hasten. Perhaps each power just has it's own special value for reducing the cooldown of others (ie on the chart, casting meteor reduces all cooldowns by 25 sec, encase by 1 sec, etc).

Spirit ward is another option. My dom uses it on singy, and it makes a substantial difference in survivability.