Defense/Resistance builds?

[Idiotfool]

Hey, all. Way back when, I ran a gravity/ice Dominator with perma-dom, but barely. It was fun, but squishy, at times. I was used to my BS/SR scrapper, where I didn't really have to pay attention and I basically never died.

 

I still enjoy the character concepts and have re-rolled my old mains as a BS/WP scrapper and Fire/Ice Dom. I planned to go for perma-dom, again, but I'm curious on if there's another playstyle to build for. Does anyone go for a defensive build on their dominators? If so, what secondaries did you go for, or was it all IOs?

[MTeague]

I pack in as much defense as I can *after* hitting permadom.  Permadom is just too damn good not to shoot for.  Constant Status Protection alone is totally worth the price of the IO's.

I don't care as much if my Dom gets softcapped defenses though. Most things are gonna be locked down or beating each other up from Seeds of Confusion or holds, or stunned by Psychic Shock Wave.

 

After I have permadom, I favor ranged defense > melee defense = AOE defense.   

I don't totally redo power choices for it though.  If I don't have Weave, ok, I don't have Weave.  I don't need it on every character, and I prefer some flexibility rather than *always* taking the same pools on every character every time.

[Mezmera]

Yeah the power pools and IOs get you there.  For powers I run my maneuvers, tough/weave, soul mastery shield and unleash potential from the new Force of Will pool.  I believe /Ice has a powerboost effect power so you should be able to maximize the effect you get from unleash potential by clicking the power boost right before clicking unleash.   

 

As for IOs I aim for what MTeague says above generally.  First I aim for 80-90 more recharge from IO bonuses along with having hasten.  That's a few gamblers here and there and 5 purple sets, easy as pie if you have the investment for it.  After that I aim for set bonuses that'll get me ranged, melee and aoe defense priority in that order.  So say a 6 set of Gaussian's into tactics or a full set of Ascendancy of the Dominator.  Also, don't forget to pick up the unique's like the steadfast, gladiators armor and the resist uniques if you have room.  

 

All in all my doms typically have better defense capabilities than a SR scrapper paired with the ability to control the battlefield like no other along with quasi-blaster-ish damage.  Makes for a very fun night of play.  Good luck with your dom! 

[Idiotfool]

2 hours ago, Mezmera said:

Yeah the power pools and IOs get you there.  For powers I run my maneuvers, tough/weave, soul mastery shield and unleash potential from the new Force of Will pool.  I believe /Ice has a powerboost effect power so you should be able to maximize the effect you get from unleash potential by clicking the power boost right before clicking unleash.   

 

As for IOs I aim for what MTeague says above generally.  First I aim for 80-90 more recharge from IO bonuses along with having hasten.  That's a few gamblers here and there and 5 purple sets, easy as pie if you have the investment for it.  After that I aim for set bonuses that'll get me ranged, melee and aoe defense priority in that order.  So say a 6 set of Gaussian's into tactics or a full set of Ascendancy of the Dominator.  Also, don't forget to pick up the unique's like the steadfast, gladiators armor and the resist uniques if you have room.  

 

All in all my doms typically have better defense capabilities than a SR scrapper paired with the ability to control the battlefield like no other along with quasi-blaster-ish damage.  Makes for a very fun night of play.  Good luck with your dom! 

Thanks for the overview. What set powers are you giving up to get tough and weave, though? Do you have an example build I could see?

[Idiotfool]

2 hours ago, MTeague said:

I pack in as much defense as I can *after* hitting permadom.  Permadom is just too damn good not to shoot for.  Constant Status Protection alone is totally worth the price of the IO's.

I don't care as much if my Dom gets softcapped defenses though. Most things are gonna be locked down or beating each other up from Seeds of Confusion or holds, or stunned by Psychic Shock Wave.

 

After I have permadom, I favor ranged defense > melee defense = AOE defense.   

I don't totally redo power choices for it though.  If I don't have Weave, ok, I don't have Weave.  I don't need it on every character, and I prefer some flexibility rather than *always* taking the same pools on every character every time.

Between Mu Mastery, Speed and travel powers, along with my actual character powers,, I don't know where I can fit tough and weave into my build. Do you get any other powers to aid in defense/resistance, or if it's not tough/weave, it's just IOs?

[MTeague]

18 minutes ago, Idiotfool said:

Between Mu Mastery, Speed and travel powers, along with my actual character powers,, I don't know where I can fit tough and weave into my build. Do you get any other powers to aid in defense/resistance, or if it's not tough/weave, it's just IOs?

 

Mostly IO's.   Keep in my dominator is NOT 50 yet, so many purple sets, I just can't do yet.... I am planning to change some up when I ding.

 

Plant / Psi dom

 

From Sets: 

• Ascendancy of the Dominator (6 slotted to single target hold) :  8.75% recharge, 3.13% ranged defense
• Malaise's Illusions (6 slotted to Seeds of Confusion):  6.25% recharge, 3.13% ranged defense
• Basilisk's Gaze (4 slotted to AE hold):  1.25% ranged defense, 7.5% recharge
• Obliteration (6 slotted into Psychic Shockwave):  5% recharge, 3.75% melee defense
• Steadfast Prot +3% def all  (in Mind Over Body)
• Gladiator's Armor, tele resist +3% def all (in Mind Over Body)

Other Def:

• Manuevers (2 slots):  3.41% def vs all
• Combat Jumping (default slot only):  2.44% def vs all
•  Link Minds (4 slotted)  +6.67% def all    (a few seconds away from being perma, but close enough for this discussion)

Gives 26% ranged defense, 22% melee defense, 18% AoE defense, and 32% smashing / lethal resist (not defense)

I will be changing up a few things at 50, but I find this plenty good enough for misc levelling.

Also helps that I have a few stacks of Drain Psyche running for +regen to top me off, and option of throwing out a pretty darn strong Spirit Tree if I need to spike the regen for a tough fight.

[Coyote]

1 hour ago, Idiotfool said:

What set powers are you giving up to get tough and weave, though?

 

It depends on the set, but the truth is that Dominators going for perma-Dom will necessarily have good Recharge, so you don't need to take all of the attacks from the secondary. And most primaries have some power or two that can be skipped.... heck, I skipped half the powers on my Ice Dom, since, well, there isn't much there 😞 ... that leaves a lot of room for Power Pools.

 

For Fire, I would skip either Ring of Fire or Fire Cages, as you don't need two Immobilizes, possibly Smoke, possibly Cinders. On the Ice side, it has a good amount of good attacks, but you can't use them all. IIRC, it has 3 ranged attacks and 2 ice sword attacks, plus using the single-target Hold, so that's definitely more than you need in any attack chain. 4 attacks is usually good enough, so if I were going full-ranged I'd take the blasts and the AoEs plus the boost power, and leave the swords alone. If I wanted to go melee, I'd take the swords and 1-2 blasts. A more balanced approach is 2 blasts, 1 sword, and the Fire Hold for damaging. Plus, of course, the AoEs.

[Mezmera]

Generally I'd dabble in a few must take powers here and there in your primary and secondary and use the pools and epics to build myself up with the defenses that I want which also allow for slotting of the necessary recharge you'll need for perma dom so you're killing two birds with one stone.  

 

I'll give you a bare bones of what I aim to take starting with the pools then I fit my primary and secondary into the rest.  

 

For the pools I always go with Speed, Fighting, Leadership and one of the new pools usually now Force of Will but Sorcery isn't too shabby either if you have room for resistance more so than defense.  So for speed I just go with Hasten, best pool power there is.  Fighting I go punch, tough and weave.  Leadership I at least go with maneuvers and tactics, gambler mule and tactics just makes everything you do much more accurate which is big for your controls.  Lastly I go with mighty leap, weaken resolve and unleash potential on the Force of Will pool.  That's 9 powers you'll take. 

 

Then I reserve 3 powers from the Epic pools since they are usually quite good and feed into your build quite nice.  As an example I'd go with soul drain, the shield and either the pet (which are quite good on doms) or that end drain, I've found room for all 4 on some characters.  

 

So in all you'll have 12 powers reserved with the pools leaving you with 12 powers from your primary and secondary to take.  Taking more than 6 powers in your primary or secondary tends to end up quite wasteful.  So as you can see with that reasoning you're right on schedule for a build you'll do well with.  Then as you get to play it you'll tweak it a bit maybe dropping a control you never get to use for maybe another pool power more beneficial to you, or you'll want a bit more control and a little less damage.  This way there's room for adjustment no matter what power combos you've chosen.  For me I try to narrow things down to efficiency.  I'll drop a control I "may" use and never do but really only have for sentimental reasons for a power that'll benefit me much more like adding the end drain in the Soul Mastery pool to fix a shortcoming that I can do something about.  

[Chelsea Rorec]

I'm with the guys above.

First option for me is always perma hasten then range def and if i can, some smashing and lethal resists depending on the power i've taken.

Perma hasten means you have the recharge to only need 3 big hitting attacks which will recharge fast enough to cycle through.

Taking the snipe power is also an option IMO as there are sets that give range def/rech and S/L resists and can top up the 3 big hitters for some range.

My favourite is Mu epic for charged armour for the S/L/E resists with tough and some set bonuses and you can cap resists and also gives you power sink to counteract taking weave and manuevers to cap the range def.

My fav elec/elec as an example. 48% range def,75% S/L 160% rech.

It's so much fun 🙂

Edited February 5, 2020 by Chelsea Rorec

[Outrider_01]

On 2/4/2020 at 9:36 PM, Coyote said:

On the Ice side, it has a good amount of good attacks, but you can't use them all. IIRC, it has 3 ranged attacks and 2 ice sword attacks, plus using the single-target Hold, so that's definitely more than you need in any attack chain. 4 attacks is usually good enough, so if I were going full-ranged I'd take the blasts and the AoEs plus the boost power, and leave the swords alone. If I wanted to go melee, I'd take the swords and 1-2 blasts. A more balanced approach is 2 blasts, 1 sword, and the Fire Hold for damaging. Plus, of course, the AoEs.

Christ, I couldn't get much info for a Dark/Ice for awhile. This gave me some ideas, helps to narrow down on ice. Thanks.