Martial Assault

[Saikochoro]

Hi All,

 

I was wondering what people think would be a good primary to go with martial assault. I really like the animations of MA so decided that would be the secondary for my first dom.

 

I know there are a lot “it depends” considerations and that’s why I’m not really going into what exactly I’m looking for (because honestly I’m not really sure). I just know I want to use martial assault.

 

So, for any one who has started on a martial assault dominator (or for those thinking of making one) here are the questions:

 

What primary are you using/going to use and why? Do you think that any primary just “fits” martial assault well and how?

 

Thank!

[Charistoph]

Do you have a theme/Origin for the character?

 

What other affects would you like the Control set to have?

[Saikochoro]

Do you have a theme/Origin for the character?

 

What other affects would you like the Control set to have?

 

No theme really. Just that I enjoyed the animations and like the concept of martial assault. I honestly don’t have experience with dominators. My overall impression is that they lock mobs down with control and then kill them. I figured any primary is good at the lockdown part to some degree. So was just looking into what others were pairing with MA and their thoughts.

 

Though I guess if I had to pick something I was looking for it would probably be good damage. I figure the control sets are more AoE centric. So I’m not super concerned with ST or AoE.  But honestly more interested in what others find fun to pair with MA and why.

[Charistoph]

Do you have a theme/Origin for the character?

 

What other affects would you like the Control set to have?

 

No theme really. Just that I enjoyed the animations and like the concept of martial assault. I honestly don’t have experience with dominators. My overall impression is that they lock mobs down with control and then kill them. I figured any primary is good at the lockdown part to some degree. So was just looking into what others were pairing with MA and their thoughts.

 

Okay, sometimes the character theme comes before the powers, and sometimes the powers make the theme.  Most of mine are the latter.

 

Though I guess if I had to pick something I was looking for it would probably be good damage. I figure the control sets are more AoE centric. So I’m not super concerned with ST or AoE.  But honestly more interested in what others find fun to pair with MA and why.

 

Damage would probably be Gravity, since it is only one with a direct attack (Propel), but I can't address its aoe effectiveness.  Illusion Control is also pretty good, but Doms don't have that (yet).

 

Darkness gives the standard -ToHit that the Blast and Melee Sets do.  Earth does -Def.  Electrical drains End.  Ice does -Spd.  Mind has few defenses unless the target is classified as a robot or machine.  Plant probably has some of the best overall collection of Control, and Fire is it's usually burninating thing.

 

Earth and Plant tend to prefer the target be on the ground for many powers (dropping down a stair counts as "not on the ground, btw"), so that is something to consider.  Darkness has a cone that most Control powers lack.

 

If you want to go with a more "ninja"/"Secret Ops" Natural Type, I'd probably go Mind, though Darkness and Plant would also fit a Ninja style.  From there, it is your choice, really.

[Lazarillo]

I've been playing an Ice/Martial, mostly that I intended as a side alt, and it's a lotta fun, to the point that it's been like my 3rd most played character since the game restarted.  I'm not sure there are any particular synergies to the sets, though (someday, Arctic Air will make me happy, but it still drains by Endurance too fast to be super useful).  In terms of power synergy, I think Gravity would actually fit pretty well, as Martial Assault has a lot of cool "trick" powers but very little direct, single target damage, which Lift and Propel could probably make up for.

[subbacultchas]

I'm running Plant/Martial and loving it personally. You get a fair bit of close ranged AOE with Martial, and Plant works best IMO in mid to close range, and especially with more AOEs. As far as I'm concerned, with a Dominator you cannot beat Plant for outright damage by the time you get Creepers, and Martial pairs with it perfectly. You may lack a little on single targets, but not as much you think.

[bbevier]

Happen to have a Plant/Martial build?

 

I just started mine today and at 20 I am having a blast. Curious what an end game build would look like.

[Narninian]

Im in the same boat.. I basically took every power in martial as I am leveling up but I know we can't afford to take them all.

 

Skipping, the Single target Root, Aoe sleep, and Healing tree.

but having a harder time figuring out what to skip in Martial Assault.

So we'll want perma-hasten and perma-dom recharge will be pretty high and we'll likely be able to get perma-envenomed blades as well.

[Killerhertz]

Currently playing Mind/Martial and loving it after my latest respec. The character is currently L37.

 

I took the AoE hold powers from Mind only (Plus Mesmerize), and plan to take all the Martial abilities except Caltrops. I also took Stealth and Invisibility for missions/travel, plus Kick/Tough/Weave, Combat Jumping, and the obligatory Hasten. This runs VERY End heavy, which has become very manageable after I slotted all the powers with 1 End Redux IO and the toggles with 2. Alternatively, I could drop the Concealment powers for something else.

 

Terrify is the best tool in the kit. Run up, fear the entire mob, then jump in and rip through them with SK/DT/TS.  Rotate through Total Domination and Mass Confusion for subsequent groups, with Mass Hypnosis as a backup. I'm not sure what to take for epics, but leaning towards Primal for Conserve Power. 

 

I'm still tweaking the build, but so far it's a fun project.

[subbacultchas]

Happen to have a Plant/Martial build?

 

I just started mine today and at 20 I am having a blast. Curious what an end game build would look like.

 

I made a build over the weekend but didn't quite get around to slotting it in Pine's. I'll try to link it up when I get home.

 

Currently at 41 and it's a beast of character.

[subbacultchas]

Im in the same boat.. I basically took every power in martial as I am leveling up but I know we can't afford to take them all.

 

Skipping, the Single target Root, Aoe sleep, and Healing tree.

but having a harder time figuring out what to skip in Martial Assault.

So we'll want perma-hasten and perma-dom recharge will be pretty high and we'll likely be able to get perma-envenomed blades as well.

I skipped Thunder Kick, and I think the snipe shuriken. I have really debated skipping out on caltrops too, just don't seem to use it as much as I'd thought compared to say Sleet from EPPs.

 

I've considered switching around the last two, explosive shuriken and snipe, but I think for my style the explosive will still be the better.

[Lazarillo]

So I realized that Perma-Domination/Hasten and Perma-Venom Blades have about the same thresholds, and that slotted Venom Blades + Kismet means Masterful Throw fires instantly.  These two things combine to completely change my perspective on this set.  It's a very heavily-ranged oriented set rather than kinda melee-ish one that I'd been playing so far (and will prolly continue to, 'cause I'm playing a theme, dammit!); it's going to be doing its best on sets that like hanging back a bit and get more bang for their buck from Perma-Domination, I think.

[subbacultchas]

So I realized that Perma-Domination/Hasten and Perma-Venom Blades have about the same thresholds, and that slotted Venom Blades + Kismet means Masterful Throw fires instantly.  These two things combine to completely change my perspective on this set.  It's a very heavily-ranged oriented set rather than kinda melee-ish one that I'd been playing so far (and will prolly continue to, 'cause I'm playing a theme, dammit!); it's going to be doing its best on sets that like hanging back a bit and get more bang for their buck from Perma-Domination, I think.

I was curious about that as well, so very nice to know. I may mess around with Masterful Throw as well, I'm very on the fence with keeping Caltrops right now.

[subbacultchas]

Happen to have a Plant/Martial build?

 

I just started mine today and at 20 I am having a blast. Curious what an end game build would look like.

 

No slots or sets put in it yet. Right now I'm using 5 slotted Posi's Blast in the target AOES, 4 slotted Basilisk's Gaze in the hold, 5 slotted Malaise in the confuse, 3 LoTG +rech in defenses, steadfast +def and KB in tough, celerity +stealth in sprint, and frankenslotted the pbaoes until 50 and I can find better sets. I've also got Force Feedback +rech in Dragon's Tail and Spinning Kick, they help at early levels to give a buffer for perma-dom. I'll update toward the weekend when I have time to work on it more.

 

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.962

http://www.cohplanner.com/

 

Click this DataLink to open the build!

 

Level 49 Magic Dominator

Primary Power Set: Plant Control

Secondary Power Set: Martial Assault

Power Pool: Speed

Power Pool: Leaping

Power Pool: Fighting

Power Pool: Concealment

Ancillary Pool: Ice Mastery

 

Villain Profile:

Level 1: Strangler -- Empty(A)

Level 1: Shuriken Throw -- Empty(A)

Level 2: Roots -- Empty(A)

Level 4: Trick Shot -- Empty(A)

Level 6: Hasten -- Empty(A)

Level 8: Seeds of Confusion -- Empty(A)

Level 10: Spinning Kick -- Empty(A)

Level 12: Super Jump -- Empty(A)

Level 14: Boxing -- Empty(A)

Level 16: Envenomed Blades -- Empty(A)

Level 18: Vines -- Empty(A)

Level 20: Tough -- Empty(A)

Level 22: Dragon's Tail -- Empty(A)

Level 24: Weave -- Empty(A)

Level 26: Carrion Creepers -- Empty(A)

Level 28: Caltrops -- Empty(A)

Level 30: Stealth -- Empty(A)

Level 32: Fly Trap -- Empty(A)

Level 35: Sleet -- Empty(A)

Level 38: Explosive Shuriken -- Empty(A)

Level 41: Frozen Armor -- Empty(A)

Level 44: Ice Storm -- Empty(A)

Level 47: Hoarfrost -- Empty(A)

Level 49: Combat Jumping -- Empty(A)

Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)

Level 1: Domination

Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)

Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)

Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)

Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)

Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)

Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)

Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)

Level 4: Ninja Run

Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)

Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)

Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)

Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A)

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[Runewritten]

I also went plant/MA. Very fun so far, and plant is low-maintenance enough to have fun with the kicks and shurikens.

[Omnicron]

It's a shame they never released a "natural" control set, themed around a variety of throwing weapons. Bolas, nets, that sort of thing.

[subbacultchas]

A lot of folks view plant as a natural control now. I hear it in teams with some frequency.

 

I finally hit 50 and started slotting for the build I'm going with. I will try to remember to post what I'm working on from Pine's this weekend. It's a fair bit different than the build earlier, with nearly soft-capped positional defenses and perma-dom.

[Charistoph]

A lot of folks view plant as a natural control now. I hear it in teams with some frequency.

 

That's largely because most of the actions involved.  Honestly, anything can be considered a Natural build, it just depends on what is natural for the character.

 

It is natural for Aquaman to swim fast and breathe water because he is Atlantian.

 

It is natural for Kal-El to be energized by yellow sun frequencies which allow him to fly, punch reality, and be revived from Doomsday, because of his Kryptonian heritage.

 

It is natural for my Earth/Fire dominator to use those powers because he is basically an earth elemental from the core of the earth.

 

That having been said, having a Control set that you or I could use, would still be awesome.  The huge array of web grenades, caltrops, etc, all done to 11.

[subbacultchas]

A lot of folks view plant as a natural control now. I hear it in teams with some frequency.

 

That's largely because most of the actions involved.  Honestly, anything can be considered a Natural build, it just depends on what is natural for the character.

 

It is natural for Aquaman to swim fast and breathe water because he is Atlantian.

 

It is natural for Kal-El to be energized by yellow sun frequencies which allow him to fly, punch reality, and be revived from Doomsday, because of his Kryptonian heritage.

 

It is natural for my Earth/Fire dominator to use those powers because he is basically an earth elemental from the core of the earth.

 

That having been said, having a Control set that you or I could use, would still be awesome.  The huge array of web grenades, caltrops, etc, all done to 11.

I'm cool with that.

 

I also want to add as phil grad, "Natural is word that can be broadly applied to any process in the natural world, and is often used to mean normative within someone's experience. The less you use it in arguments the better." I had a teacher once say something like that to me, and it stuck well, and isn't far off-kilter from what you said above.

[subbacultchas]

One of those statements much like Einstein's quote that has stuck with me and made me change my views: Common sense is the sum of prejudices that one acquires by the age of eighteen.

[QuiJon]

Do you have a theme/Origin for the character?

 

What other affects would you like the Control set to have?

 

No theme really. Just that I enjoyed the animations and like the concept of martial assault. I honestly don’t have experience with dominators. My overall impression is that they lock mobs down with control and then kill them. I figured any primary is good at the lockdown part to some degree. So was just looking into what others were pairing with MA and their thoughts.

 

Okay, sometimes the character theme comes before the powers, and sometimes the powers make the theme.  Most of mine are the latter.

 

Though I guess if I had to pick something I was looking for it would probably be good damage. I figure the control sets are more AoE centric. So I’m not super concerned with ST or AoE.  But honestly more interested in what others find fun to pair with MA and why.

 

Damage would probably be Gravity, since it is only one with a direct attack (Propel), but I can't address its aoe effectiveness.  Illusion Control is also pretty good, but Doms don't have that (yet).

 

Darkness gives the standard -ToHit that the Blast and Melee Sets do.  Earth does -Def.  Electrical drains End.  Ice does -Spd.  Mind has few defenses unless the target is classified as a robot or machine.  Plant probably has some of the best overall collection of Control, and Fire is it's usually burninating thing.

 

Earth and Plant tend to prefer the target be on the ground for many powers (dropping down a stair counts as "not on the ground, btw"), so that is something to consider.  Darkness has a cone that most Control powers lack.

 

If you want to go with a more "ninja"/"Secret Ops" Natural Type, I'd probably go Mind, though Darkness and Plant would also fit a Ninja style.  From there, it is your choice, really.

 

The only thing I might add to this though is that Darkness the IMMBL AOE is IMO kind of useless. Where most sets do a targeted AOE for this power dark control uses a cone. Which means if you are not out in front of your mob you wont hit a lot of them and even if you are depending on how wide they are spread out and how far away you are you still might miss a lot of them. Now normally I am not a big whoopie doo on immbl anyway, but they do come in handy to turn a aoe stun into an aoe hold by way of also locking down the staggering movement a stunned enemy will still do and keeps them in range of AOE damage powers like a combustion or rain of fire, etc. Which I am not sure what martial has of this type not having looked into it. But I do know that being Dark Controls stun is a PBAoE attack means you have to essentially be in the middle of your targets and the immb is a cone meaning you need to move back out of them, it was more of a pain then it was worth and I simply just got rid of the immb on respect and normally lead into the mob with the cone fear which essentially holds them like a sleep if they are not attacks and debuffs their accuracy, and then move in to stun them and skip the immb.

 

The thing really is if concept is a big don't care, then really each control set has its own little picadilees. Like earth the AOE hold is a cloud that you drop that continues to spam holds. Meaning it can sometimes even hold a boss if the mag of the waves stack, and you can drop it around corners and such versus something like cinders that needs line of sight. Look at the sets and see what sounds like it fits as a complimenting set the best for what or how you want to play martial assault is the best answer anyone can get for you.

[Chance Jackson]

back when the game was live I played around with a Plant/MA Dom called "The First Fire Shadow" themed after the 1st Hokage on the Beta Server, so far it is the only Beta server set combo I revived on Homecoming

 

 

 

A lot of folks view plant as a natural control now. I hear it in teams with some frequency.

 

That's largely because most of the actions involved.  Honestly, anything can be considered a Natural build, it just depends on what is natural for the character.

 

It is natural for Aquaman to swim fast and breathe water because he is Atlantian.

 

It is natural for Kal-El to be energized by yellow sun frequencies which allow him to fly, punch reality, and be revived from Doomsday, because of his Kryptonian heritage.

 

It is natural for my Earth/Fire dominator to use those powers because he is basically an earth elemental from the core of the earth.

 

That having been said, having a Control set that you or I could use, would still be awesome.  The huge array of web grenades, caltrops, etc, all done to 11.

Agreed on the "natural human" control set, I had pitched a martial arts themed Blaster secondary with Bolas in on the official forum a (possibly before ED)

 

 

 

Off Topic Yellow sun radiation is as unnatural to Kryptonians as Gamma Radiation is to humans

[subbacultchas]

I'm sitting at 50+1 now with mine, early levels of incarnate slots done, and it's still just a beastly character to play. I wish I were more easily able to softcap defenses, but it's just not easy with this combo without severely skimping on powersets.

 

Oddly enough, this is probably my fast farming character when I need to, even moreso than the brutes. Although my safest farming character is Elec/Dark Controller, it takes about twice the time it does with Plant/MA Dom. I keep waiting for SG mates to get level with him so I can stop just sitting on him.

[Waypoint]

I would say the best sets are Plant and Earth, followed by Ice and Electric.

 

All of those sets have very strong controls, meaning getting the entire mob next to you and being able to drop damage mitigating tools such as static field, arctic air, earthquake, or carrion creepers. Once the group is huddled and immobilized and is either stunned, confused, slept, or held, you can start unleashing all of the AOEs that martial is good for.

[Reikland]

Would Dark be okay to pair with MA?