oedipus_tex Posted November 29, 2019 Share Posted November 29, 2019 (edited) This post is meant as a companion to the Overviews of Dominator Secondary Oddball Powers I made a few weeks ago. This post contains my evaluation of each of the Dominator primary sets. In this post I have skipped over powers that are "standard" in order to concentrate on the oddities of each set. Examples of these types of powers are: Single target immobilizes AoE Immobilizes Single target holds 240s AoE holds When I get time, I will be adding short videos to demo each power. *********************************** AoE STUNS ******************************************* ------------------------------------------- FLASHFIRE / STALAGMITES - Earth, Fire Ranged AoE Stun (Mag 3 + 3 from Domination) Flashfire (Fire) and Stalagmites (Earth) are nearly identical. They differ from each other only in the following ways: The Earth version also provides some -Defense. (Note tho it cannot actually be slotted for -Defense). The Earth version can't be cast while flying. Flashfire has slightly shorter range (70ft) than Stalagmites (80ft). The recharge on both powers makes it possible to make these both "every spawn" abilities. Most players use these powers as their opener. The combination of relatively fast recharge time and the fact that Earth can't use this while flying means a lot of Earth players spend their time on the ground compared to other Dominators. ------------------------------------------- HEART OF DARKNESS - Dark PBAoE Stun (Mag 3 + 3 from Domination) -ToHit (-5.63) Heart of Darkness is identical to Flashfire / Stalagmites in terms of duration, recharge, and radius. Differences are: It applies -5.63 ToHit It is PBAoE instead of Ranged The fact that this power is centered on the player instead of castable from range changes the dynamic of Dark Control into a set that needs to be in enemies faces in order to achieve consistent hard control. ------------------------------------------- WORMHOLE - Gravity Ranged AoE Stun (Mag 3 + 3 from Domination) Teleport Non-notify Wormhole has been with the game since Issue 1, but it was only in the later issues that it became highly regarded as a control power. In its current form, it is vaguelly identical to Flashfire with 80 ft range (instead of 70) and 20ft radius (versus 25). However, the power also is non-notify, so enemies won't notice it at all. Plus, the teleport portion. Wormhole accepts KB to KD IOs, which makes teleporting enemies and placing them right where you want them very simple. This is currently one of the best powers in the game, a huge improvement versus its original implementation. Because the Magnitude of Wormhole's teleport is Mag 12 and Teleport is subject to diminishing returns, you can't teleport a +4 Boss. They'll potentially get stunned, but remain where they are. Depending on your needs, this can actually be useful because it lets you fight all the minions and lieutenants separately from the bosses. Other people find it annoying though, and the truth is its probably an oversight. *********************************** KNOCK PATCHES ****************************************** ------------------------------------------- EARTHQUAKE - Earth Knockdown (7% chance per pulse) -Defense, -ToHit Creates a placeable psuedo pet that generates a pulsating chance to knockdown every tick, along with -Defense and -ToHit. The chance to knock ignores any defense the enemy may have, but enemies with any degree of Knockback protection will not be knocked down. Clockwork enemies have low knockback resistance, so will be thrown out of the patch area. As a placeable, the powers can be cast around corners to avoid direct line of fire. This is probably more useful to Ice than Earth, because Ice lacks a hard ranged mezz opener. Ice Slick contains a slow effect, more or less achieving the same effect as Earthquake + Quicksand in a single power. For some reason, Earthquake can be slotted with KB IOs and Ice Slick cannot. ------------------------------------------- ICE SLICK - Ice Knockdown (8% chance per pulse) -Run Speed (-90%) 90s recharge In most ways identical to Earthquake, Ice Slick is both a knock patch and a slow. The slow effect used to be important to keeping enemies inside the patch, but since the change to Immobilize powers so that they no longer hinder knockdown, this is less critical. Ice Slick's chance to knockdown is 8% per pulse, which is 1% better than Earthquake. For some reason Ice Slick does not take KB IOs, which prevents Ice Slick from benefitting from the Force Feedback: Chance for +100% Recharge proc that both Bonfire and Earthquake can slot. In fact, Ice Slick can't take any IOs at all. ------------------------------------------- BONFIRE - Fire Placeable pulsing Knockback patch 60s recharge A placeable knockback patch. As originally designed, this power was not a competitor for Earthquake or Ice Slick. However, KB to KD IOs have turned into one of the best controls in the game, due to the power's fast Recharge (60s) and long duration (45s). It has much better up time than either Ice Slick or Earthquake and, to be honest, probably deserves to a mild nerfed to its rateof knockback, because it's also available on archetypes like Blasters and Masterminds, and even on those ATs it has better uptime than an Earth or Ice Dominator or Controller gets out of their signature knock patches. ************************************ AOE SLOWS ************************************************** ------------------------------------------- QUICKSAND - Earth, Placeable slow patch -Run speed, -defense 30s recharge Quicksand is a just simple slow patch. It is auto-hit and contains a -Defense debuff, making it a potentially useful way to lower the Defense of enemies you struggle to hit. Back when AoE immobilizes provided enemies with knockdown protection, Quicksand + Earthquake was a popular combo. However, now that Immobilizes still allow enemies to flop around, it is less critical to use Quicksand, and the power has fallen somewhat out of favor tight builds. Note this power affects Run Speed only and not -Recharge, unlike Shiver below. ------------------------------------------- SHIVER - Ice Control -Recharge, -Speed (-65%) 30s recharge A cone slow with a fairly massive 60ft x 135 degree area of effect. Identical in every way to the Blaster secondary power Shiver, including its debuff values. This means the amount of -Recharge (-65%) is lower than the Controller version (-81.25%). You can slot Range in this power to make its AoE even bigger, but you may quickly find you've made the area TOO big and the power becomes difficult to use without alerting adjacent enemy groups. The fact that Shiver requires a target to cast rather than just being castable in whatever direction your character model is facing (as in some of the powers in Nature Affinity) makes the power more awkward to use than it might otherwise be. Also, the debuff duration is just 18 seconds, which means to reapply it you've got to away from using Arctic Air. ************************************** MEZZ PATCHES ******************************************************** ------------------------------------------- VOLCANIC GASSES - Earth, Placeable pulsing Hold patch (Mag 3, does not benefit from Domination) Chance to Hold 240 s recharge This power replaces the normal 240 second Hold Controller power. A hold-over from the pre-nerf era when other AoE holds were nerfed and it was missed, it lasts an eye-popping 60 seconds. The closest power to Volcanic Gasses is probably Arctic Air, which Volcanic Gasses is basically an immobile, non-toggle version of, although there are some technical differences. Volcanic Gasses does not directly mezz the target, but instead summons a psuedo pet at the target's feet, which then attempts to mezz. Thus unlike Arctic Air, the nature of these pets makes them capable of stacking Magnitudes (since each caster is tecnically different) and holding bosses. The power also contains a Mag 50 Afraid, much higher than most other Dominator auras, and high enough to send even Elite Bosses running. This power does not benefit from Domination mode. ------------------------------------------- SHADOW FIELD - Dark Placeable pulsing Hold patch (Mag 3 + Mag 3 from Domination on first cast ONLY) Chance to Hold -ToHit 240s Recharge It's hard not to make comparisons between Shadow Field and Volcanic Gasses. Shadow Field differs in that its duration is shorter (45 seconds versus 60) and, upon casting, it has an immediate Hold that hits all enemies in the area of effect. This portion of the Hold can benefit from Domination. The second effect of the power is to remain on the battle field, where it applies -ToHit and a much smaller chance to Hold every pulse. ------------------------------------------- STATIC FIELD - Electric Placeable pulsing Sleep patch (Mag 3, does not benefit from Domination) A Sleep patch with a multitude of side effects. No other power is quite like this one. It's main function is to rapidly pulse a Mag 3 Sleep. The effect reapplies every second or so, so any enemy awakened by a recent attack will likely rapidly be put back to sleep. It also provides a small amount of endurance to any friendly players who stand in its area, although the effect is minimal. What is nice about this power is its base recharge is just 40 seconds, giving it incredible up time even from the time you acquire it at level 12. A true one-slot wonder, its often eough to just put a single Accuracy in it. ***************************************** AoE FEAR ******************************************** ------------------------------------------- FEARSOME STARE - Dark -ToHit (-11.25) Fear (Mag 3 + 3 from Domination) Fearsome Stare is taken from the Defender set Dark Miasma. It is the only example of in the game of a power that exists in a Dominator primary set that was taken from a Buff/Debuff set. Fearsome Stare applies a Fear effect over a 70ft x 45 degree area. This range is about 10ft shorter than most Dominator ranged blasts, so it may be helpful to extend its Range a little for consistency in power reach. Fearsome Stare does not apply direct damage to enemies, thus it is "safe" to reapply it to enemies who are already Feared, unlike Terrify. As excpected, the -ToHit values in this power are lower for Dominators (-11.25) than Controllers (-18.6). ------------------------------------------- TERRIFY - Mind AoE Fear (Mag 3 + 3 from Domination) Damage (52.83) 40s recharge Terrify is an AoE cone Fear that hits a 60ft x 90 degree area. Thus it has 10ft shorter reach than Fearsome Stare, but strikes a 45 degree wider area. Although it is technically a control power, it's also a hybrid AoE Blast, dealing about 40% less damage than a similar cone power from the Dominator secondary sets based on its Recharge time. Because it causes Damage, if you cast Terrify over and over on a group of enemies, they will often briefly wake up from their Fear and shoot back at you. Terrify has no -ToHit component to mitigate this return fire. ************************************* CLICKABLE CONFUSION ******************************************** ------------------------------------------- POSSESS / CONFUSE - Dark, Mind Single target Confuse (Mag 3 + 3 from Domination) 8s recharge Single target confuses. Each is a near-identical copy of the other, except that Possess has a slightly longer cast time and will recolor the enemy model. None of these three powers will notify enemies of the caster's presence. ------------------------------------------- SEEDS OF CONFUSION - Plant AoE Confuse (Mag 3 + 3 from Domination) 45s recharge Seeds of Confusion is a cone with a 50ft x 60 degree range. It is the only clickable confuse available to Dominators that alerts enemies. In fact, to use it you have to get right in enemy's faces. What makes Seeds of Confusion so good is its Recharge time: 60s. With simple slotting it is easy to get this time to around 35 seconds, useable for every spawn, and with a good build, as low as 20 seconds. This power on its own carries Plant Control to one of the top spots among Dominator sets. Same-level enemies hit by Seeds of Confusion will be mezzed for 29.9 seconds before slotting. This is the best mezz duration of any AoE control power in the game except for Mass Confusion. ------------------------------------------- MASS CONFUSION - Mind AoE Confuse (Mag 3 + 3 from Domination) 240 second recharge Mass Confusion is simply the Confusion power applied to a 25ft area. Like Confusion, it does not alert enemies. This power has a somewhat controversial 240 second recharge time. Compare this to the 45 second recharge time of Seeds of Confusion, which has the same mezz duration. The only ways Mass Confusion exceeds seeds is that it is a non-notify power and a sphere rather than a cone. ------------------------------------------- SYNAPTIC OVERLOAD - Electric AoE Confuse (Mag 3 + 3 from Domination (first target only) ) 45 second recharge Synaptic Overload is in direct competition with Seeds of Confusion as best control power in the game. This power works by applying a confuse effect to the first enemy, then "chaining out" from that enemy to 2 more enemies, who spread the effect to 2 more, etc. The effect continues until the power misses its targets or for up to 16 targets. Because it takes time for each chain to spread, the user may want to wait a few moments before alerting enemies. The Confuse duration of Synaptic Overload is slightly shorter than Seeds of Confusion or Mass Confusion (22.35s versus 29.9s). This power has a 45 second recharge time like Seeds of Confusion, giving it incredible up time. This power has a unique "gambling" aspect to it. If you miss the first target in the chain, the whole power fails. Luckily, it can be cast without alerting enemies. When used in Domination mode, the Domination effect will work only on the first enemy in the chain. The Coercive Persuasion: Chance for Contagious Confusion proc has a very high chance to trigger off of this power, which can help make up for this limitation, and for the slow spread speed. In the video below, the Contagious Confusion proc is slotted, which accounts for the Confusion hitting the whole group so quickly. I tried multiple times to make a video where the proc did NOT fire and gave up after 5 tries. Needless to say, the proc is effective in this power. ********************************* PBAOE AURAS ************************************** ------------------------------------------- ARCTIC AIR - Ice PBAoE Confuse, Slow, Afraid (Mag 3, no direct benefit from Domination) Auto-hit Arctic Air is one of the three main "PBAoE aura controls" available to Controller primaries. It differs from Conductive Aura (Electric) and Hot Feet (Fire) in that it is an auto-hit power that makes no ToHit roll whatsoever. Enemies who find themselves in the power's radius have a 100% chance to be Slowed and suffer a -Recharge penalty. In addition, there is a 50% chance per tick that the enemy suffers a Mag 3 Afraid, and a 30% chance to suffer a Mag 3 Confuse. (The Afraid is the "try to run out of area" effect, not the Terrify effect found in powers like Fearsome Stare, so the enemy will turn heel and run, not cower in place.) Once upon a time, under the old proc rules, this was the ideal power to slot Contagious Confusion procs in. The proc made this power have a chance to confuse bosses, and provided better coverage. These days, under the new aura rules, that is not the case, which is very disappointing, especially since 6-slotting Coercive Persuasion is so worth it. Arctic Air does not benefit directly from Domination mode, so there is no additional chance to Confuse a boss. However, Domination mode provides mezz protection which allows you to run Arctic Air without fear of it detoggling. ------------------------------------------- HOT FEET - Fire PBAoE Damage, Slow Afraid (Mag 3, no direct benefit from Domination) Hot Feet on a Controller is nearly identical to the Hot Feet power available in the Blaster Fire Manipulation set. It differs from other versions of this power only in that it deals double damage to enemies who are Contained. Like similar auras, Hot Feet does not benefit directly from Domination. However, Domination helps prevent it from being detoggled. The Blaster version deals 13.9 damage per tick, the Dominator version deals 13.2 and the Controller version deals 7.65 x 2 (because of Containment) = 15.3 per tick, so it technically out performs both the Blaster and Dominator versions in most situations. The power is still useful on any of these ATs, however. ------------------------------------------- CONDUCTIVE AURA - Electric PBAoE End Drain, +End, +regen A PBAoE endurance drain aura, unique to Electric Control. The main effect is to continually drain enemies of endurance. The power drains -10% of the enemy's endurance per tick. The power contains some Regen based on the the number of nearby enemies, but this Regen amount is minimal and generally not worth slotting for. ************************************* ONE-OFFS ******************************************** This is a catch all category for powers that don't fit anywhere else. ------------------------------------------- HAUNT - Dark Pet summon (60 seconds) Special Taunt aura (Mag 10, 60 second duration) 210s Recharge Haunt is a pet summoning power with some extra mechanics. In addition to summoning two "Shade" creatures, it also places a power called "Haunted" on your enemy, which is a Mag 10 Taunt aura. The aura attracts the attention of the Shades, who will usually lock onto the target and attack them to the exclusion of other enemies. Thus this power is often useful for keeping a particular difficult enemy occupied. Once the target that is Haunted dies, the Shades become regular pets and will use default pet behavior to attack anything nearby. The Shades do moderate damage, some -ToHit, and can Fear the enemy. They are also targetable by enemies and can be killed. The Shades are not permanent pets. Instead they stick around for about 60 seconds before disappearing. You can have only up to 2 Shades total at a time. ------------------------------------------- JOLTING CHAIN - Electric Chaining AOE blast + knockdown Damage (15.85) 8s Recharge A chain blast, more or less a much lower damage version of the chaining Incarnate Judgment blast. Base damage is pathetic for the animation time required to be honest, and this power used to be skippable. However, the power benefits from damage procs, which save it from obscurity and actually make it a somewhat strong AoE attack. Because this power causes knockdown, it is an ideal place to slot the Chance for +100% Recharge proc. This power follows the general rules for Synaptic Overload described above. A miss anywhere in the chain prevents the effect from spreading to the next enemy. ------------------------------------------- SMOKE - Fire AoE -Perception Non-alert 15s Recharge Smoke is an AoE -Perception power with a small (-3.75) ToHit debuff. There isn't much else to say here. As expected, the -ToHit debuff is lower than the Controller version (-5%). Unlike the similar power Flash Arrow available in Trick Arrow set for Controllers and Dominators, the -ToHit debuff in Smoke is resistable. Thus against a +4 enemy, the debuff is only about -1.8% ToHit. ------------------------------------------- CARRION CREEPERS - Plant Pet 360s Recharge Carrion Creepers is part of the "harrassing pet" series of control powers available to a few Control sets (most prominently in Illusion Control). The power summons an invisible psuedo-pet that follows you, moving at about the rate of your Fly Trap. This pet summons "vine" sub-pets that attack your enemies. One vine is summoned per enemy (alive or dead). The vines can be targeted by enemies and to some extent can hold aggro. They are capable of receiving most buffs. ------------------------------------------- SPIRIT TREE - Plant Psuedo-pet +Regen (%150) 90s Recharge Summons an immobile psuedo-pet that boosts the Regen of everything within radius. The radius is 40ft, which is quite respectable, so that's a plus. At 150%, regeneration values aren't terrible, but they aren't great either given the conditions of this power: it's immobile, and it has a very long cast time (3.5 seconds!). Two Healing IOs bring it to about +276% Regen. ------------------------------------------- DIMENSION SHIFT - Gravity Toggle (max 20 seconds) AoE Intangible (Mag 10 unresistable) Immobilize (Mag 10 unresistable) 60s Recharge Dimension Shift summons a psuedo-pet that creates an AoE Intangible and Immobilize with a radius of about 20 feet. Creatures within this radius (friend or foe) receive the Intangible status effect. Enemies within the effect are also Immobilized. To understand this power, its necessary to understand how the Intangible status works in City of Heroes. A creature is either Intangible or it is Not. A creature that is Intangible cannot be affected by a creature that is Not. Intangible creatures can affect other Intangible creatures. Thus anything within the AoE can affect each other; anything outside of it cannot. There is sometimes some weirdness with defintions around who is "inside" this power and who is "outside." The Immobilize is Mag 10 and unresistable. On teams, this power is controversial. A lot of players find it confusing for their powers to not affect enemies caught within a Dimension Shift. The power typically sees more use solo. It is possible to drop the toggle to end the power early. If it is not dropped, it will expire on its own after 20 seconds. Edited December 3, 2019 by oedipus_tex 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uun Posted December 1, 2019 Share Posted December 1, 2019 Great job. You missed a few: Gravity - Lift, Propel, Dimension Shift; Mind - Levitate, Telekinesis; Plant - Spirit Tree, Carrion Creepers. Uuniverse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oedipus_tex Posted December 1, 2019 Author Share Posted December 1, 2019 1 hour ago, Uun said: Great job. You missed a few: Gravity - Lift, Propel, Dimension Shift; Mind - Levitate, Telekinesis; Plant - Spirit Tree, Carrion Creepers. Thanks for that. There are so many unique powers to talk about. I deliberately left off the blast-type powers because they seem pretty streamlined to me. Or, maybe not. I suppose I could write something when there is time. Good call on Dim Shift, Creepers, and the tree. I'll revise when I have time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uun Posted December 2, 2019 Share Posted December 2, 2019 20 hours ago, oedipus_tex said: I deliberately left off the blast-type powers because they seem pretty streamlined to me. Or, maybe not. I suppose I could write something when there is time. The blasts are pretty straight forward, except that lift and propel get bonus damage if the target is held by gravity distortion. Also, propel's knockback effects a 15-foot radius around the target. Uuniverse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oedipus_tex Posted December 3, 2019 Author Share Posted December 3, 2019 (edited) I went back and added videos for many of the powers. The videos were constructed from IOed characters, so you'll note the occasional odd proc, but for the most part most of the demos are fairly "raw." Note I tweaked the ability sets enemies have in a few cases to ellicit a particular reaction. In all cases enemies do not have Ranged attacks, which may impact enemy AI in some cases. Edited December 3, 2019 by oedipus_tex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coyote Posted December 3, 2019 Share Posted December 3, 2019 Note about Jolting Chain and FF:Recharge... for the caster, JC is treated as a single-target attack. So the proc has a reasonably high chance to activate on the direct cast, but unlike other powers that are usable for AoE damage and do knockback, you don't gain any more chance to have Force Feedback trigger if you throw it at a large group. So against multiple targets, it's not nearly as good for proccing the +Recharge as true AoE knockdown attacks. However, it's far more usable against single-target, making it kind of a combination AoE/single-target attack. Its damage is about double vs a single target as it is AoE since it procs damage procs at higher chance on the single-target attack than on the AoE chains that follow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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