Soul Mastery -> Soul Drain

[Darkneblade]

Currently it has a recharge of 4 minutes. Other versions have 2 minute recharge though, can they be similar? Just cut down to 2 minute recharge?

[Vanden]

Doubling the recharge is pretty typical when putting a power into APPs. For a power as potent as Soul Drain, I don't expect it to get an exemption.

[Darkneblade]

1 hour ago, Vanden said:

Doubling the recharge is pretty typical when putting a power into APPs. For a power as potent as Soul Drain, I don't expect it to get an exemption.

Defender/Corruptor's Dark Mastery is exactly same though. Just 2 minutes recharge with same values.  Only thing is different is for Soul Mastery recharge is doubled which makes sense in a way I guess since it is villain power.

[Doomguide2005]

6 hours ago, Darkneblade said:

Defender/Corruptor's Dark Mastery is exactly same though. Just 2 minutes recharge with same values.  Only thing is different is for Soul Mastery recharge is doubled which makes sense in a way I guess since it is villain power.

I think that's exactly what Vanden is saying essentially.  Primary powers are generally stronger than Secondaries which in turn are stronger than pools and epic/mastery powers.  Since the buffs etc. are the same the way the power is weaker as an epic is its recharge.

[Zeraphia]

I think it's okay as is, I get SD from Soul Mastery on 30s on/70s cd which translates to only 40s of downtime. Overall though, for a power that acts as a decent AoE, and gives a long-lasting damage buff, in addition to the proc'able Dark Obliteration which I find really rounds out a Dominator which traditionally lacks immediate AoE damage, and this really works to strengthen that weakness. I choose this pool evenw ith the flaw on almost every Dominator build I make, no joke. 

 

As for the Defender/Corruptor counterpart, I kind of understand why it was done to balance them overall. From Darkness mastery, you have to choose either Oppressive Gloom (I don't really recommend this in most cases unless you can constantly self-heal), or Dark Consumption which has pitiful base damage, could be used for procs but is on such a long CD that it's going to be up about as often as a judgement if not less, and the only other ones you gain are an armor, which every set gets, and Soul Transfer (which to be frank, I don't think is a great benefit, but it's alright), in exchange for shorter Soul Drain. In comparison to Soul Mastery, you gain Soul Drain on a longer CD, Power Boost, proc'able Hold, and good 4-piece minion for 6.25% recharge and overall better slotting capabilities. Some people will choose #2 for Power Boost alone, but Soul Mastery has the better goodies.

 

 

[Purrfekshawn]

Just checked - for Defender Soul Mastery Drain not only has longer CD, but also 10' radius instead of 15, and 7 targets max instead of 10, comparing to Darkness Mastery Drain. Dunno really why, maybe because DM Drain is the last power in that set, while in SM it starts the set. So it either devs decision assume it's bug or it's working as intended and therefore equalize or not to equalize these powers.

Edited January 11, 2021 by Purrfekshawn

[arcane]

Soul mastery gets power boost and soul storm instead of garbage like oppressive gloom or dark consumption. It’s a fair tradeoff to me all things considered.