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Build Help: Mind/Fire


Carnal

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Hey Everyone,

 

Long time lurker, first time poster since CoH came back.  Anyhow, I have a build I'd like feedback on.  Here are the goals:

1) Perma-dom;

2) Soft-cap range or as close as possible; &

3) Proc'd out Dominate and really as many attacks as possible while also achieving other goals

 

Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.5
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Deception: Level 50 Magic Dominator
Primary Power Set: Mind Control
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Assault
Power Pool: Concealment
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Mesmerize
*  (A) Fortunata Hypnosis - Chance for Placate


Level 1: Flares
*  (A) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
*  (7) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
*  (7) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
*  (9) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
*  (9) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
*  (15) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge


Level 2: Dominate
*  (A) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative)
*  (3) Apocalypse - Damage
*  (3) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage
*  (5) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
*  (5) Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic)


Level 4: Stealth
*  (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed


Level 6: Confuse
*  (A) Coercive Persuasion  - Contagious Confusion
*  (17) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused/Endurance
*  (17) Coercive Persuasion  - Accuracy/Recharge
*  (19) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused
*  (19) Coercive Persuasion  - Confused/Recharge
*  (21) Coercive Persuasion  - Accuracy/Confused/Recharge


Level 8: Combat Jumping
*  (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
*  (39) Kismet - Accuracy +6%


Level 10: Mass Hypnosis
*  (A) Superior Ascendency of the Dominator - Recharge/Chance for +Damage
*  (11) Superior Ascendency of the Dominator - Accuracy/Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized/Endurance/Recharge
*  (11) Superior Ascendency of the Dominator - Accuracy/Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized
*  (13) Superior Ascendency of the Dominator - Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized/Recharge
*  (13) Superior Ascendency of the Dominator - Endurance/Recharge
*  (15) Superior Ascendency of the Dominator - Accuracy/Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized/Endurance


Level 12: Hasten
*  (A) Recharge Reduction IO
*  (21) Recharge Reduction IO


Level 14: Grant Invisibility
*  (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed


Level 16: Embrace of Fire
*  (A) Recharge Reduction IO
*  (25) Recharge Reduction IO


Level 18: Phase Shift
*  (A) Endurance Reduction IO


Level 20: Fire Blast
*  (A) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
*  (23) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
*  (25) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
*  (42) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
*  (42) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
*  (43) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance


Level 22: Maneuvers
*  (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
*  (23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense


Level 24: Tactics
*  (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
*  (43) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
*  (45) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
*  (46) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
*  (46) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
*  (46) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance


Level 26: Terrify
*  (A) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
*  (27) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
*  (27) Glimpse of the Abyss - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
*  (29) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown


Level 28: Total Domination
*  (A) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold
*  (31) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold/Endurance/Recharge
*  (31) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold/Endurance
*  (33) Superior Entomb - Hold/Recharge
*  (33) Superior Entomb - Endurance/Recharge


Level 30: Super Speed
*  (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
*  (36) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance


Level 32: Mass Confusion
*  (A) Malaise's Illusions - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
*  (34) Malaise's Illusions - Accuracy/Confused/Recharge
*  (34) Malaise's Illusions - Accuracy/Recharge
*  (34) Malaise's Illusions - Endurance/Confused
*  (36) Malaise's Illusions - Accuracy/Endurance
*  (36) Malaise's Illusions - Confused/Range


Level 35: Blazing Bolt
*  (A) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
*  (37) Sting of the Manticore - Chance of Damage(Toxic)
*  (37) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Damage
*  (37) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Interrupt/Range
*  (39) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Interrupt/Recharge


Level 38: Blaze
*  (A) Decimation - Chance of Build Up
*  (39) Superior Winter's Bite - Recharge/Chance for -Speed & -Recharge
*  (40) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
*  (40) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
*  (40) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
*  (42) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge


Level 41: Rain of Fire
*  (A) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
*  (43) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
*  (45) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
*  (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
*  (50) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge


Level 44: Fire Ball
*  (A) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown
*  (45) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance
*  (48) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge
*  (50) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
*  (50) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge


Level 47: Fire Shield
*  (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
*  (48) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%


Level 49: Vengeance
*  (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed


Level 1: Brawl
*  (A) Empty


Level 1: Domination
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) Unbounded Leap - +Stealth


Level 2: Rest
*  (A) Empty


Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift
*  (A) Run Speed IO


Level 2: Health
*  (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance
*  (29) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
*  (33) Miracle - +Recovery


Level 2: Hurdle
*  (A) Jumping IO


Level 2: Stamina
*  (A) Endurance Modification IO
*  (31) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End


Level 50: Ageless Radial Epiphany
Level 50: Assault Radial Embodiment
Level 50: Musculature Radial Paragon
------------

 

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Some explanation:

- Concealment for LoTG mules and Phase (escape card for if things go south)

- Incarnate choices: Musc radial for damage + end but could be convinced for Musc. Core or Intuition radial (for damage, hold, and range); ageless for end recovery + recharge + debuff resistance

 

Thanks for the feedback! 

Edited by Carnal
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Okay, some notes on your build:

The Fortunata Hypnosis proc is wasted in Mesmerize, as you'll never use that power once you get perma-dom. Six slot Mass Hypnosis with that set, as then it can act as an aggro-less AoE placate to reset encounters, especially useful in Lambda Sector or TPN, where you can hit trash spawns to enable your allies to ignore them.

Not sure why you want to proc-out Dominate so badly, as your most commonly spammed control is going to be Confuse, since it has longer duration and is most reliable against AVs/GMs. I like Lockdown in Dominate, as the proc is handy when you're still building to Domination, and it has good defense values. Most of your damage is going to come from your secondary, so there's no reason to sacrifice the efficiency of your controls.

Put Ascendancy of the Dominator into Confuse, as you'll be spamming that against AVs to perma-mez them, and that will stack the extra damage procs really well.

Coercive Persuasion is best in Mass Confusion, because the proc can fire individually against every affected MOB, which will then affect every MOB next to them, and can stack up a LOT, allowing you to often one-shot confuse purple elite bosses, like the DE spawns in Underground Trial. It also acts to extend the radius and target cap a bit.

Procs are great in Terrify, but you're wasting global recharge bonuses for not much additional damage. I suggest five-slotting it with Positron's Blast, including the proc, and then the Overwheming Force proc.

You probably won't need Total Domination very often, so I'd suggest just four-slotting it with Basilisk's Gaze for the global recharge.

Definitely DO NOT put an offensive proc in Mass Confusion, as that ruins one of its best features: it's lack of aggro (same with Confuse and Mass Hypnosis). Like I said, put Coercive Persuasion here, instead.

I don't recommend six-slotting Tactics, as you will be getting absurd global accuracy from your various set bonuses, so it won't really do much for you. I understand if you want it to help your team, but it's not going to be useful solo.

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I've got a good amount of experience on a Mind dom so I'll speak up on a few things to offer a differing view.  

 

The powers I generally take are Mezmerize, Dominate, Confuse, Mass Confusion and an AoE mez control typically Terrify but sometimes Total Domination or the sleep and if I have a spare power to take but I'm low on slots to distribute I'd take TK. 

 

I like to 6 slot Mezmerize with Thunderstrikes for the +defense and in case I'll need some psi damage to spam but if you need the recharge which you shouldn't a 5 set of decimations or fortunata works here.  Dominate I like to put a 6 set of Superior Ascendancy for the +def and recharge bonuses, this is my main mez I lead with so I'll spam this in my chain to boost my damage with its proc.  I differ from my other colleague on the confuses, I like to put the purple set of 6 for the +def and recharge into the single target one since if I'm using that one I don't want to trigger a fight.  Then with the Mass Confuse I'm assuming the fight is on so I'm not worried about mitigating a fight so it's more about controlling it so I'll put a 6 set of Malaise with the dmg proc for the +def and recharge.  Lastly I'll 5 slot either of my other AoE controls like Total Domination which I can use the purple set still with the moderate dmg proc and you can add the pvp proc as well but I do tend to prefer having Terrify as that other soft control since it recharges much faster, which then yes I'd 5 slot the target AoE set for damage.  

 

As for tactics I'll 6 slot that bad boy too with a set of Gaussian's for the +defense whereas the rest of the powers I take in the pool are just gambler mules.  

 

I love Mind you can pretty much kit out all of the primary powers for +10 recharge bonuses for +50 recharge and nice defense bonuses out of just your primary and along with the power pools you take having gamblers in those you're almost to the recharge of 85+ I like to aim for and then a bunch of defense on top of that.  That pretty much leaves you open for however you want to slot your secondary.  

 

Hope this helps!

Edited by Mezmera
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I have to strongly recommend against slotting Mesmerize. It's too weak to be a useful addition to an attack chain, it can't stack magnitude, and it is basically worthless during domination. I can't think of a time when I'd use Mesmerize over Dominate for control, and it's straight-up inferior to pretty much any attack from the secondary. Being psi damage doesn't make up for the fact that it is unaffected by Embrace of Fire, which will be up 2/3 of the time with optimized recharge.

It's valid to argue that you don't care about aggro with Mass Confusion, and therefore can slot a damage proc in it, but I think I made a strong case for why the Coercive Persuasion proc is immensely valuable here, and I think you might me underestimating how powerful a non-aggro AoE mez power can be. Especially since you can make Mass Confusion perma with the right build. One of Mind Control's greatest unique attributes is its many non-aggro control options, making it possible to solo extremely difficult content without ever having to put oneself at risk. Also, there will be many situations in which you want to preemptively mez a spawn to avoid taking the alpha strike, and a non-aggro mez like Mass Confusion allows you to do so without having to deal with the return fire from any targets that resisted the confuse, or exceeded the range/target cap. Finally, adding a damage proc to Mass Confusion is mostly pointless, anyway, because the spawn will kill itself without you needing to lift another finger. Just toss a fireball at it so you get the exp and move to the next spawn.

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Mesmerize is an adequate enough power as a starting damage attack, I like to make use of this attack so I can pick something else later down the road that'll help me in other ways like vengeance or tough/weave, assault etc., I mean how many attacks do you really need?  There's usually a few powerful attacks in your secondary you must take and then the rest are all the same. 

 

Mesmerize does moderate psi damage which is helpful on all of those AVs that pop their Godmode.  In a /fire secondary yes its a tad less useful since you want to get the most out of your fire attacks with Fiery Embrace being active.  But in most instances it's a decent filler attack due to low resists to psi damage plus the fact that it is a sleep so if you want to put some Hero to sleep in an LRSF while you attack the 7 others it's still useful in that regard.  I had a Mind/Nrg dom way back in the beginning before there was IOs and the like, I was doing LRSF's mass sleep method before there was a way to make yourself consistent permadom so I know a bit about aggro mitigation.  

 

Aside from recharge I build for as much ranged defense that I can get.  Confuses benefit from having two sets you can six slot for that.  When you're in perma domination what aggro can't you control if you were to bum rush a group?  Your mass confusion should confuse every target in range as soon as you use it so what difference does it make that there's a proc in it when that group will stay confused much longer than the time that it'll take you to kill that group?  If you are a bit slow in your damage well guess what you most likely have Terrify, Total Domination and or Mass Hypnosis to mitigate the aggro.  I try to build my Doms with the mindset that I'll be in an 8 man team steamrolling random mobs but also able to stand toe to toe with the baddest of AVs so I want to have certain controls available always and be able to tank the aggro with all my bonuses and defenses.  

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With perma-dom levels of recharge, you shouldn't need any filler attacks, though. Your attack chain should be Blaze -> Fire Blast -> Blazing Bolt -> Fireball ->Repeat. Any "filler attacks" are just lowering your DPS for no particular reason. I see no reason to invest so many slots in a power that's only marginally useful for when AVs use their godmode (considering the AV should be confused anyway, so it's no threat).

I'm not arguing that Mesmerize is a bad power, it's just not worth the opportunity cost to use that many slots on it.

As for Mass Confusion, I have explained why I think my slotting strategy is a better choice, so I won't re-hash that. Malaise's Illusions is a fine set to use until you can slot Coercive Persuasion, but it seems pretty inferior to me to sacrifice one of the most unique and strategically interesting attributes of Mass Confusion just for a trivial damage proc. You don't need to slot 2 confuse sets, since you can slot Ascendancy of the Dominator in Confuse, and Coercive Persuasion in Mass Confusion (where the proc is much more valuable). Confuse is the most efficient control to use on AVs, since it has a longer duration than Dominate and can therefore stack to higher magnitudes, as well as contributing to your team's DPS AND being aggro-less, so you should be spamming it in tough fights and will get tons of damage buff procs.

Ranged defense I totally agree with, and always recommend. Honestly, I think nearly every character should try to reach defense softcap to something, it's just such a valuable quality of life improvement.

Edited by The_Cheeseman
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For those of us not /fire or light on OP secondary attacks Mesmerize is a fine power to use in your chain, as stated it has the dual ability of doing good psi damage as well as pausing your target for you to get in the next attack.  Even so at least slotting it with fortunatas is nice in of itself if you're not going to set it into your rotation.  

 

As far as Malaise goes it is a low-key nice set to have slotted since it gives both a recharge and ranged defense bonus where it's purple cousin gives a bit more in that field.  You can get so much ranged defense and recharge out of having two well slotted confuses and slotting the Ascendancy into your hold and heck even Lockdown into your AoE hold if you like.  If your Mass Confuse in domination doesn't last beyond the fight with a tough mob even slotted with SOs well you better find a new team.  And in an AV fight its better to have Persuasive in your basic confuse since it's easier to spam and build the mag as you say.    

 

I've long since let go of any sentimentality in a Mind build like skipping Mass Hypnosis and making use of perfectly viable powers you have to start off with in doing so finding powers that'll benefit you much better at a low cost to slotting like maybe taking assault or whatever else from the pools.  

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In the past I've found it useful to put the Ragnarok: Chance for Knockdown proc in Terrify. Since Fear'ed enemies have a chance to perform an attack when you damage them, Terrify -> Terrify can result in spawns shooting at you. But if they get knocked down, they lose their chance to hit you, and instead stand back up and go back into their Fear pose.

 

However, this is probably more useful on Controllers, who have fewer AoE attacks.

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2 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

In the past I've found it useful to put the Ragnarok: Chance for Knockdown proc in Terrify. Since Fear'ed enemies have a chance to perform an attack when you damage them, Terrify -> Terrify can result in spawns shooting at you. But if they get knocked down, they lose their chance to hit you, and instead stand back up and go back into their Fear pose.

 

However, this is probably more useful on Controllers, who have fewer AoE attacks.

I use the Overwhelming Force proc in Terrify for that very purpose (I have Ragnarok in Fireball). I otherwise have it slotted with 5x Positron's Blast, including the proc, and it's one of my favorite go-to powers for both soft control and AoE damage. Honestly, I think Terrify is one of the best powers in the set!

Edited by The_Cheeseman
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13 hours ago, Mezmera said:

For those of us not /fire or light on OP secondary attacks Mesmerize is a fine power to use in your chain, as stated it has the dual ability of doing good psi damage as well as pausing your target for you to get in the next attack.  Even so at least slotting it with fortunatas is nice in of itself if you're not going to set it into your rotation.  

 

As far as Malaise goes it is a low-key nice set to have slotted since it gives both a recharge and ranged defense bonus where it's purple cousin gives a bit more in that field.  You can get so much ranged defense and recharge out of having two well slotted confuses and slotting the Ascendancy into your hold and heck even Lockdown into your AoE hold if you like.  If your Mass Confuse in domination doesn't last beyond the fight with a tough mob even slotted with SOs well you better find a new team.  And in an AV fight its better to have Persuasive in your basic confuse since it's easier to spam and build the mag as you say.    

 

I've long since let go of any sentimentality in a Mind build like skipping Mass Hypnosis and making use of perfectly viable powers you have to start off with in doing so finding powers that'll benefit you much better at a low cost to slotting like maybe taking assault or whatever else from the pools.  

Coercive Persuasion proc is mostly useless for building magnitude on an AV, because it only lasts around 8-10 seconds. That's why I like it better in an AoE, because you can get the procs to overlap and stack up to one-shot confuse elite bosses for a short time, causing their alpha strike to hit their allies, instead of your team.

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Never mind I don't want you building your Mind dom like mine to begin with just hoped to offer that ulterior suggestion for the OP so he can see there's very good reason for slotting the Mind aspect of his powers the ways he has, not a fan of that ST hold though.  I do think 4 AoE controls is a bit of overkill I like to have 2 AoE's available on rotation, always Mass Confuse and either Total Domination or Terrify.   

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Personally, I am glad you're offering a counterpoint, as discussions like this are a great way to get ideas and learn more about the nuances of the build. I don't want to claim that mine is the only way to play a mind/fire Dom, but I do want people who read this thread to know the reasoning behind the choices I advocate.

As for AoE controls, I'd say the most skippable is Mass Hypnosis, as it's really only useful in niche situations like multi-AV fights or certain phases in incarnate trials. The next would be Total Domination, as is the case for most control sets' AoE holds--they're just undertuned as a category. I do still use it though, as a way to keep MOBs from running out of my Rain of Fire. Mass Confusion is ridiculously awesome and if you skip it, why even play Mind Control?

I actually don't think of Terrify as an AoE control, primarily. I consider it a primary attack with strong control properties. I fire it off on cooldown for extra damage, with the control mostly being a bonus. Though, with a knockdown proc, it is a pretty effective alpha-breaker for when your main AoE controls are down.

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Yeah Mass Hypnosis I had for sentimental reasons once I started playing again in April but aside from a few instances it was just an unnecessary power to have since well built characters like to zerg anyways.  So I spec'd out of it and still have Mezmerize should I really need that kind of control to remove a potent enemy from the fight like Mesmerizing Ghost Widow for last.  

 

Mass Confuse yes keep and as I've agreed with the OP his Malaise are the way I go since the engagement should be well over before your AoE confuse wears off and there's any chance that the procs will cause any aggro you shouldn't be able to handle.  The objective is good bonuses from sets, the minor damage from the proc that'll fire on everyone is a small boon.  

 

As for Terrify and Total Domination I was more in the camp of Terrify back when I had Mass Hypnosis mainly due to recharge and damage and soft control.  Typically you could get that out twice in a fight with a strong mob but most cases once with all these crashless nuking blasters running around nowadays.  I'd usually slot that with a 5 set of Positrons with the proc and the knockdown proc, but due to the low recharge of the power procs fired on a much smaller scale.  So what I'm liking is Total Domination 5 slotted with the purple hold set with the moderate damage proc along with another minor damage proc as the 6th.  Due to the base recharge of the power both of those procs will fire just about every time on every target in range.

 

Looking at the build from a sheer damage standpoint the AoE confuse with Malaise is set to damage just about as well as terrify for one mob then your Total Domination will do double or more the damage with that setup and typically one or the other of those two controls will be recharged from mob to mob with much better lockdown.  Yes you can add Terrify to up the AoE damage potential but really what more need is there when you can just have Soul Drain or Fire Epics and Judgement nukes at your disposal.  

 

In the end I say Mass Confuse is a must.  Mass Hypnosis hard pass.  Terrify or Total Domination is debate-able but the damage potential is clearly skewed towards the proc'd AoE hold that also locks down much harder.  And yes as a /fire dom I wouldn't see myself getting as much use out of Mesmerize thanks to the inflexibility of Fiery Embrace so I'd may just 5 set Fortunata's and call it a day on that depending on how tight my slotting is and what my bonuses are looking like.   

Edited by Mezmera
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Mesmerize is a power more suited for Controllers, due to it having a Mag 3.5 Sleep, which will instantly Sleep a boss. Since Controllers lack Domination mode and have no Assault secondary for damage, this power is more useful to them. It sometimes a useful power to take when leveling up though, mainly so you can sleep Circle of Thorns Mages in one shot and detoggle their force fields.

 

IMO Mass Hypnosis is too good a power to pass up even if you rarely use it. There are a lot of irritating maps that are made easier to solo if you sleep adjacent spawns. If you don't like the power you can always one slot it and with enough global recharge it will still be decent. If nothing else it's a fail safe for moments when Mass Confuse is recharging and you start to get overwhelmed or get ambushed.

 

 

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3 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

IMO Mass Hypnosis is too good a power to pass up even if you rarely use it. There are a lot of irritating maps that are made easier to solo if you sleep adjacent spawns. If you don't like the power you can always one slot it and with enough global recharge it will still be decent. If nothing else it's a fail safe for moments when Mass Confuse is recharging and you start to get overwhelmed or get ambushed.

 

 

I agree,

I wouldn't want to go without Mass Hypnosis.

I see it as a great bailout power. If your team pulls too many. Or if everyone straight up dies, it can get you out of trouble.

As long as you talk to your team ahead of time, it can also be used for very selective pulling.

 

It's not a must have for me. But it's a really nice to have.

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