Do Dominators Need a Buff?

[tidge]

Minor Quibble: I don't think it is entirely fair to think of a Dominator as a nukeless Blaster without a sustain. Domination is a form of "sustain" for its AT. (yadda yadda unmotivating 'change domination' arguments to follow)

 

I am trying to understand the subtle, shifting headspace that exists between this thread ("Doms can't compete with Blasters") and the "Should Set be Balanced around IOs" ("non-Blaster ATs are doing too much damage")... but I'm having trouble following these two different threads to know what the motivation for each of them is.

[BZRKR]

32 minutes ago, tidge said:

I am trying to understand the subtle, shifting headspace that exists between this thread ("Doms can't compete with Blasters") and the "Should Set be Balanced around IOs" ("non-Blaster ATs are doing too much damage")... but I'm having trouble following these two different threads to know what the motivation for each of them is.

I think that some folks just want/need to interact in order to interact. And if they get to do so while discussing the One True Game, then all the better.

[Coyote]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

I am trying to understand the subtle, shifting headspace that exists between this thread ("Doms can't compete with Blasters") and the "Should Set be Balanced around IOs" ("non-Blaster ATs are doing too much damage")... but I'm having trouble following these two different threads to know what the motivation for each of them is.

 

It comes from the unspoken assumptions about the type of characters that the posters are talking about.

 

Dominators can't compete with Blasters. Without a top-shelf, expensive build, or a really good player who can rotate Domination, Hasten, and Power UP for each fight. But with a great build or really good gameplay, they can do very well. But often that's not the situation that the complaining poster is talking about.

 

Non-Blaster ATs are doing too much damage. If you know how to make some really tight builds, leverage extra damage out of IOs while minimizing the defensive losses of set bonuses, and play a high-defense character like a Tank or a Time Manipulation Defender as examples. Nobody is arguing that an Empathy/Electric Defender is doing OMGWTFbbQ damage as the reason why damage procs make low-damage characters into BlasterBeaters(tm).

 

It's about the examples that people are arguing over. Top end builds, or average? SOs or IOs? Specific sets or generally applicable to everyone in an AT. Most posters have some limitations in the situations that they complain about, but don't take the time to clarify exactly what they are, and what they are not, complaining about.

 

Oh, and nerf TW

 

[oedipus_tex]

 

 

3 hours ago, tidge said:

Minor Quibble: I don't think it is entirely fair to think of a Dominator as a nukeless Blaster without a sustain. Domination is a form of "sustain" for its AT. (yadda yadda unmotivating 'change domination' arguments to follow)

 

I am trying to understand the subtle, shifting headspace that exists between this thread ("Doms can't compete with Blasters") and the "Should Set be Balanced around IOs" ("non-Blaster ATs are doing too much damage")... but I'm having trouble following these two different threads to know what the motivation for each of them is.

 

 

I don't think there's any motivation. Sometimes things just are what they are. Most Fire Dominators pretty much are nukeless Blaster without a sustain, especially if they aren't permadoms. You can take /Psi for Drain Psyche, which is literally a sustain. Otherwise you're left with the ragtag secondary effects of an Assault set. Hot Feet and Bonfire are powers you can pick up on a Blaster, so you're really just trying to capitalize on Flashfire, Cages, and Fire Imps you can't really heal or protect. You can still kill things of course. I have a Fire/Ice Dominator just because I have a Dom with every primary and secondary set. He's not terrible, but without the endurance to run armor powers he's actually probably more fragile than a Blaster.

 

I love the OG dev team and some of their creations. But it's perfectly fair to call what they put into the Assault sets "random." DPA all over the place, no real thought about how cones and DoT affect a control heavy archetype, weird mitigation tools like Chance for Knockdown on an archetype that needs to cancel knockdown to incapacitate the foe. The Homecoming team has done a good job cleaning up what was left to them. If you happen to play Dominators on an Issue 24 server their problems are impossible to miss. 

 

If you've read my posts about issues facing Dominator, one of the biggest is how little extra control or utility the Assault sets add. If the Control set is very strong or has a good debuff (Plant, Dark) it can work out okay. If you're playing something like Gravity or Fire though where the controls aren't that powerful it's hard to make up for it.

Edited February 15, 2021 by oedipus_tex

[tidge]

1 hour ago, oedipus_tex said:

I love the OG dev team and some of their creations. But it's perfectly fair to call what they put into the Assault sets "random." DPA all over the place, no real thought about how cones and DoT affect a control heavy archetype, weird mitigation tools like Chance for Knockdown on an archetype that needs to cancel knockdown to incapacitate the foe. The Homecoming team has done a good job cleaning up what was left to them. If you happen to play Dominators on an Issue 24 server their problems are impossible to miss. 

 

If you've read my posts about issues facing Dominator, one of the biggest is how little extra control or utility the Assault sets add. If the Control set is very strong or has a good debuff (Plant, Dark) it can work out okay. If you're playing something like Gravity or Fire though where the controls aren't that powerful it's hard to make up for it.

I did say it was a minor quibble, and it wasn't about the entire suite of Dominator secondaries.

[Galaxy Brain]

19 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

 

 

The funny thing about nukes is they aren't even the worst overperformers. I won't make any friends saying this, but Melee characters simply do too much damage with too much survivability. Everything kind of cascades from there. Blasters got crashless nukes to try forcibly catch them up to Melees. 

Honestly, yeah.... I remember pointing this out in live back in the day with an analogy of like, a Blaster does say 20% more DPS than a Scrapper, but a Scrapper is 200% more survivable and that's an issue.

[golstat2003]

16 hours ago, Galaxy Brain said:

Honestly, yeah.... I remember pointing this out in live back in the day with an analogy of like, a Blaster does say 20% more DPS than a Scrapper, but a Scrapper is 200% more survivable and that's an issue.

Would you still say it's an issue now that IOs allow Blasters to encroach on the "unkillable" area?

 

And yes crashless nukes really were needed (and still are--anyone saying make them have a crash again wasn't here when most folks simply didn't take nukes.).

[ForeverLaxx]

17 minutes ago, golstat2003 said:

Would you still say it's an issue now that IOs allow Blasters to encroach on the "unkillable" area?

I'd say it's an issue a Blaster can even get close to an "unkillable" state considering their design, but there are caveats to that level of personal defense; mostly that it's Defense without any DDR to go along with it and is prone to cascade failure. You also have to sort of bend your build in circles to get to that point and you're essentially forced to pick up Scorpion Shield and other +Defense powers/Tough for set muling which restricts build options pretty severely.

 

While Scrappers/Brutes/Tanks/Stalkers (to a lesser degree) don't have to do this as they have an entire powerset for personal defense and deal good damage baseline. Set bonuses for +Damage are very weak, but that applies to the Blaster as well and it's pretty simple to have enough bonus accuracy via set bonuses and enough damage through slotting sets/procs that it's pretty clear melee ATs don't have to give up nearly as much build diversity to do with IOs what a Blaster must do in order to compete.

 

That said, this is mostly only relevant when solo. Blasters still do more damage despite all that. When teaming, having allies around shores up the potential pitfalls of stacking a bunch of S/L/E or Ranged Defense with zero DDR so it's not all cut and dry.

Edited February 16, 2021 by ForeverLaxx
missing words/clarity adjustment

[Frosticus]

I think the crashless nukes are a proverbial slap in the face for doms/trollers when weighed against their aoe holds. Old nukes were skippable, but new nukes swung the pendulum too far back in the opposite way imo.

[Galaxy Brain]

4 hours ago, golstat2003 said:

Would you still say it's an issue now that IOs allow Blasters to encroach on the "unkillable" area?

 

And yes crashless nukes really were needed (and still are--anyone saying make them have a crash again wasn't here when most folks simply didn't take nukes.).

 

In a grand-scheme sense, it is not as bad but what @ForeverLaxxsaid holds true in regards to all the blaster has to devote to in order to sort of just "match" what armored damage dealers can do. Melee primaries are also more.... I guess "solid" than Blast primaries in terms of design in my testing to isolate them. Granted, this means I did not use a blaster's secondary attacks but still they only exceeded Scrapper averages when I tested on x8 with invincibility turned on in the AE to focus on output. In that regard, yes they are great for team content but the melee's are not too far off without needing to sacrifice as much as the blasters do.

[oedipus_tex]

Part of the biggest issues with Melee characters and survivability is they are far too able to just shrug off mezz. I think the original developer team was  brilliant with some of their designs, but I think it was a mistake at the outset to give Scrappers, in particular, near immunity to mezzes. There are many cascading impacts from this early decision. 

 

An interesting fact is that armor doesn't shut off Defense and Resistance bonuses off automatically when you get mezzed, this has to be manually coded in each power. So it was actually possible for the dev team to have armor keep working even if you get Slept, Held, or Stunned. In retrospect, I think that would have been the right move. Tankers could rightfully be the class that shrugs off most mezzes entirely, Scrappers and the archetypes later derived from them would have to weather it. Tankers in turn could rightfully do less damage and still be valuable.

If I were going to open my own server (I'm not, I don't have that level of dedication) this would be one of the first things I'd address. 

[Coyote]

3 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

Part of the biggest issues with Melee characters and survivability is they are far too able to just shrug off mezz.

 

I agree, though my idea is to have mezzes automatically give an unresistable debuff depending on the mez type.

Like Slept/Held = -Def/-Res since you can't dodge... Immob = -Move, Stun = -ToHit/-Damage, etc.

So while the melees can shrug off the hard effects of the mezzes, they'll still be affected by them. And it would give control-oriented effects a use against AVs, also.

[tidge]

10 hours ago, Coyote said:

I agree, though my idea is to have mezzes automatically give an unresistable debuff depending on the mez type.

Like Slept/Held = -Def/-Res since you can't dodge... Immob = -Move, Stun = -ToHit/-Damage, etc.

While the purple patch brings it's own sort of annoyance, wouldn't an unresistable debuff from Dominator controls be OP?

 

I appreciate the out-of-the-box thinking, but many Dominators can apply different mez effects, so with just a couple of Dominators there would be some serious debuffing of AVs/GMs, etc.

[BZRKR]

11 hours ago, Coyote said:

 

I agree, though my idea is to have mezzes automatically give an unresistable debuff depending on the mez type.

Like Slept/Held = -Def/-Res since you can't dodge... Immob = -Move, Stun = -ToHit/-Damage, etc.

So while the melees can shrug off the hard effects of the mezzes, they'll still be affected by them. And it would give control-oriented effects a use against AVs, also.

If you are talking about player character Melee AT's, then this is already how it works. Resisting Mez and Resisting Debuffs are two different things, and many Mezzes (at higher levels) already come packaged with Debuffs. For example, the Rikti Magus Block of Ice power is a Hold and a Slow,. Another is the Earthquake from a Ruin Mage is -Defense. These things have to be resisted separately from the mezzes, and not every Armor set available to Melee AT's has the appropriate debuff resistance.

 

If you are talking about giving Dominator Mezzes additional unresistable debuffs, then... well that sounds so "awesome", I suspect it wouldn't be implemented.

[Coyote]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

While the purple patch brings it's own sort of annoyance, wouldn't an unresistable debuff from Dominator controls be OP?

 

I appreciate the out-of-the-box thinking, but many Dominators can apply different mez effects, so with just a couple of Dominators there would be some serious debuffing of AVs/GMs, etc.

 

It depends on the level of debuff, but in any case, the debuff would be based on reaching a max value as the mez reaches full effect. So if we say that a max debuff of -20% Damage from being Held, or -15% To Hit  from being Stunned is the top limit, then stacking 1/3 of an AV's Stun protection upon the AV would only give a -5% ToHit... and getting halfway to its Hold resistance would only give a -10% Damage.

I'm well aware of the powers of stacking debuffs on the one hand, and on the other hand, control powers already control... and usually have a secondary effect... and usually do damage. So adding yet another layer of debuffing, which I think is really warranted, would be on the order of a third or fourth effect and would also be capped upon any particular target. Suffering stackable, unresistable -10% debuffs could be crippling... suffering stackable, unresistable -3% debuffs that top out at -15% will have an effect, but not a really major one.

[Cidri]

My feelings about dominators.

1. They should get their melee attacks only at higher levels. A high level dominator has enough control to use them semi-safely. Just some basic shuffling around needed.
2. They get too big a return on recharge bonuses. I don't mind permadom, but if feels unfair that you need 300 million to get there. Starting out with permadom and not have it take recharge might be an option; you won't accumulate your domination bar fast enough for permadom at low levels.
3. Likewise they gain to much over levels. Dominators are a bit too much zero to hero for my taste. Moving the ranged attacks down tiers would help that, not sure if its sufficent.
4. Too much is baked into domination. If domination did not restore all end, it would take more care to actually use permadom. I am not suggesting a nerf, but abilities could be rearranged.

[golstat2003]

My opinion is that Domination is fine as is. Doms' don't need much as compared to say Sentinals.

[Mezmera]

21 hours ago, Cidri said:

My feelings about dominators.

1. They should get their melee attacks only at higher levels. A high level dominator has enough control to use them semi-safely. Just some basic shuffling around needed.
2. They get too big a return on recharge bonuses. I don't mind permadom, but if feels unfair that you need 300 million to get there. Starting out with permadom and not have it take recharge might be an option; you won't accumulate your domination bar fast enough for permadom at low levels.
3. Likewise they gain to much over levels. Dominators are a bit too much zero to hero for my taste. Moving the ranged attacks down tiers would help that, not sure if its sufficent.
4. Too much is baked into domination. If domination did not restore all end, it would take more care to actually use permadom. I am not suggesting a nerf, but abilities could be rearranged.

1: They typically do get the better melee attacks late.  There's the first melee attacks at t2 which try to get you used to playing the hybrid playstyle with Doms.  They give you a decent one at t2 then for most the obligatory pbaoe at lvl 20 then the stronger melee attack 28-38.  Seems pretty well balanced.  Now I wouldn't be against upping the damage modifier a smidge for the ST melee.  

2: You can easily get yourself a discount permadom.  I was broke starting out with HC and the Auction House wasn't even activated yet, that was a slog to get perma.  Knowing the sets to target on the cheap you can get yourself a perma I'd say for around 50 mil.  That's running a few task forces on your way to 50 and then trading those merits in for Winter Enhancements and selling a few of those to get your perma.  LotG's, Decimations, Crushing Impact, Obliteration, Positrons, Manticore, all controls get a recharge bonus.  You're not evaluating what's all available to you if you think it costs so much for this.  

3: I wouldn't mind seeing the t9 Power Burst moved up to t4 range but that kind of takes away from how important those later powers are.  It'd be like getting your nuke at t4 and then all of your power picks after that are downhill.  Doms are more about control early and blossoming into good attacks late.  I'll usually skip the attacks pre lvl 16.

4: Permadom is fine as it is.  Doms consume a lot of endurance because they have a lot of abilities at their fingertips so the full refill is totally called for (and sometimes still not enough).  I wouldn't want any nerf to domination for a reduction in endurance consumption.  There's plenty of tools available for me to manage that on my own.  Domination can be outright mean in the right hands and should be since doms are one of the squishier AT's.  

 

Any changes to domination would need to coincide with a bunch of sweeping buffs to the AT in general.  There's no real need to tinker with the AT in this way, Domination is just too unique to the AT I love how different it is from the rest of the ATs.  For the assaults I'm not against maybe raising the damage scale for the ST melee a little, for the most part the revamp they did was right on par with most of their needs.  Then yeah maybe look at the control sets individually for a small update.  

Edited March 10, 2021 by Mezmera

[QuiJon]

On 1/30/2021 at 10:04 PM, blue4333 said:

Yep yep, I really agree that the current state of Domination is a hassle when we are not able to auto fire both Domination and Hasten. It's a shame because Dominators would suit many concepts e.g. Psychics, Mages or pretty much most elemental/reality manipulators out there.

How is it any different then melee sets that have clickable status protection? I mean not everyone takes claws or a fast recharging power set many melee toons still have hasten and have to manage either clicking it or the status protection and seem to do just fine. 

 

Just saying i have like 9 perma doms, yes i have to pay attention but i can keep up with the click for it just fine.  And if i dont want to bother there are scripts that allow you to bind changing the auto asignment between hasten and dominion every time you push a movement key. 

[QuiJon]

On 3/9/2021 at 8:24 PM, golstat2003 said:

My opinion is that Domination is fine as is. Doms' don't need much as compared to say Sentinals.

Agree sort of i dont care for sentinals, however if sentinals got a damage buff and keep their defense levels then i do also think dominators should get a dam buff as well. Doms are definately a more risky playstyle then a sentinal and should have a higher damage scale as a result. 

[summers]

Is the problem that Dominators don't contribute enough or that damage and survivability has gotten out of control and control in general loses relevancy? Who needs to control them when you can judgement them or have all soft capped defences?

 

(nerf everything/Regen)

Edited March 12, 2021 by summers

[oedipus_tex]

7 hours ago, summers said:

Is the problem that Dominators don't contribute enough or that damage and survivability has gotten out of control and control in general loses relevancy? Who needs to control them when you can judgement them or have all soft capped defences?

 

(nerf everything/Regen)

 

 

It's a mix of a lot of things IMO. The downgrading of control is part of it, but part of it just tracks with a long term trends started long before Homecoming. Homecoming has actually done a lot for the Dominator class already. We have to consider where we started from. 

 

I love what the OG team created with the Dominator class. But I think it's a fair criticism that before Homecoming few people considered Dominators a "real" class the way they did Brutes, Scrappers, etc. Dominator attacks were a mish mash of randomly cobbled powers thrown together from Blaster primaries and secondaries without consideration for DPA, risk v reward ratio, or context. For example Fiery Assault had (and on many non-Homecoming servers still has) a self buff power that provided +80% to Fire Damage for 30 seconds that is/was outrageously more powerful than anything the other Assault sets get. On the flip side you had (and again on many other servers still have) powers like Icy Assault's Chilling Embrace which was a famously ineffective 10ft radius Slow aura (you can still see this aura on the Jack Frost pet).

 

Occasionally the OG developers would sweep in if a power was way overperforming, like with Psychic Shockwave (way too good DPA) or Drain Psyche (the Regen debuff used to be enhanceable and outperform even Defender Regen debuffs) but mostly the archetype was treated with a shrug. The closest Doms ever came to mainstream attention was when the class was isolated red side and Fire/Psi Doms were considered a partial answer to bluesides' Fire/Kin Controllers, but they were never as popular.

 

Dominators just never seemed to inspire a sense of seriousness in the way, say, Scrappers do. So you'll see a lot of often aggressive commentary from folks that the class is fine even on the servers that didn't make the edits that Homecoming did. Even talking about issues related to Dominators--permadom, IOs, pets, will often get you shouted down by players who will otherwise shamelessly participate in 100 page threads about a perfect melee attack chain. I don't know if this is good or bad, it just is what it is.

Edited March 12, 2021 by oedipus_tex

[Galaxy Brain]

6 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

Big brain take

If we had to take a big step back, it is sort of an issue of what the classes can accomplish. 

 

What do Dominators do? Well, they lock down opponents in order to provide safety to themselves and others, and they deal damage at different ranges. Their "competition" would then be other characters that lock things down to provide safety to themselves and others, other damage dealers, and other damage dealers that have safety.

 

Controllers lock mobs down like Doms do, and have a chance for critical control what can kinda/sorta allow them to compete with Domination (at least before permadom). However, they also bolster their defenses with support powers to further protect themselves or the team, and control powers often come with secondary effects that are stronger for Controllers. In some niche instances, Containment lets them deal great damage too.

 

On the offensive, we can compare Dominators to Blasters more than any other AT as they are also a mix of Ranged attacks, Melee attacks, and even control. Blasters though also recently got sustain powers and while they may lack the hard control utility of a Dom, they have much more comprehensive attack chains out of the box and can deal WAY more burst damage. 

 

This leads to the melee AT's. They have more cohesive attack chains from the get-go as their sets are not chopped up like assault sets are. They also have personal defenses which end up being much more reliable on average than control powers for many factors, leading to a much smoother experience with the same result (you survived the fight) with far less interruption between having to choose between using a control and using an attack. Some sets do require extra clicks, but they are almost always an immediate damage or sustain tool in a pinch.

 

Looking at all these, Dominators offer a mix of all these strengths but the trick is the cohesion, largely due to having so many click powers + the maintenance of Domination. I know a lot of people are actually put off by Doms as they feel they *need* to Permadom. You don't, but when all other AT's have inherents that are core parts of their gameplay that come up all the time every fight, and this one doesn't (until it is perma), it is a bit of a whiplash. With Domination running, you can lock down a whole mob (primary depending) and then run in and go to town, but even at max potential I feel that the action economy ultimately puts a lot of people off. 

 

Approaching a mob, a Dominator will likely start with a powerful control ability (which usually has a less than lightning fast animation), which may or may not cause some damage. Then, they will run in and use their damaging powers. If foes are resistant to their controls / they miss a guy, they will need to re-apply control powers to them before laying the smack down. This is simplified, but you get the gist. 

 

A Controller meanwhile has buffs or debuffs they would apply first, and then spend a lot of their time using Control powers primarily with less contact switching. A Blaster similarly will usually apply a self buff, but then has the raw output to eliminate half the mob in an alpha and focus on the bigger targets thereafter with most of their focus being on damage like how a Controller's focus is mostly on CC. A melee AT can usually just focus on charging into the mob and only have to use "extra" powers on occasion and follow mostly the same plan each mob. What is different between these examples and the Dominator, is that these other AT's likely do not have to contact switch as often between Control / Attack / Buff powers that a Dominator has to juggle constantly.

 

If anything, they should actually take a note from Blasters. Blaster Charged Brawl has a DPA of 131 unslotted. Scrapper Charged Brawl is likewise 70 DPA, nearly half that. Dom Charged Brawl is 93, which is not a bad middle ground. These 3 versions have recharges of 10s, 3s, and 6s respectively, which makes sense for the Scrapper as they are likely to be tossing out CB much more often as they only have Electrical Melee clicks (usually) to worry about. The Blaster and the Dom on the other hand have full suites of click powers in their primary AND their secondary that compete for attention with every action. This is why Blaster secondary powers often have very long recharges. One, they have plenty of things to do while those powers are on cooldown, and two, when they are available they are GREAT options to use over other powers which encourages you to plan around when the big hitters are up, and usually have the same goal: defeat the bad guy. A Dominator on the other hand has to juggle more between "do I lock down this guy or do I defeat this guy faster?" most of the time, combine that with the STRONG influence to build for recharge due to Domination, and you end up with a messy situation for many players. Having Control primaries largely copy/pasted from an AT that usually has a more set and forget secondary choice (Support powers are often not used as often per click as assault powers), the recharge time / power per control ability seems out of line.

 

If anything, what if Dominators had much STRONGER click for click control powers than Controllers out of the gate, even before Domination, but in exchange had much longer recharges? Like how a Blaster has a much stronger, but slower Charged Brawl to a Scrapper despite the Scrapper having a better melee mod, the intent is that the Blaster wouldn't need to toss CB out as often. If a Dominator had much stronger but slower control abilities, they could "Dominate" a fight with less activations, and then go to town with their assault sets. Domination would allow them to do this much easier with the ability to have stronger Magnitude for hard targets as well.

 

 

 

[QuiJon]

6 hours ago, Galaxy Brain said:

If anything, what if Dominators had much STRONGER click for click control powers than Controllers out of the gate, even before Domination, but in exchange had much longer recharges? Like how a Blaster has a much stronger, but slower Charged Brawl to a Scrapper despite the Scrapper having a better melee mod, the intent is that the Blaster wouldn't need to toss CB out as often. If a Dominator had much stronger but slower control abilities, they could "Dominate" a fight with less activations, and then go to town with their assault sets. Domination would allow them to do this much easier with the ability to have stronger Magnitude for hard targets as well.

 

IF dominators can already lock down mobs and kill them then giving them longer recharges on stronger controls really does nothing, unless you are going to make that strong control effect enemies that right now are tough to lock down like a monster or AV etc. And frankly i just dont see that as really helping anything. One of the reasons control was nerfed in the first place was because even before dominators a controller could solo an AV and keep it perma held. AVs were totally negated with control abilities in the early game. This is even back before IOs. 

 

If anything is done to dominator at all, all that really would help anything is a damage buff. First off it is a buff to everyone no matter how you build you dominator. Using less attacks uses less end, obviously also allows for killing faster which in turn requires less re-application of controls which again, uses less end. Essentially buffing dom damage will help all doms but really if you think about it a perma dom already can kill an entire +4/8 mob anyway. They have enough control to keep everything locked down and can do enough damage as is to kill everything off and enough end from constantly refilling off domination. What a damage buff really does is open up the class for people that might not really want to build to perma dom, or be able to go a different route in design. It lightens end use, increases speed of killing which then requires less duration or control applications, which both make the thought of skipping permadom more plausible as a play style and less of a choice that might gimp your over all build. 

 

But like i said, that is IF anything was to be done. I frankly think i would say leave them alone before i started doing the "give and take" game the devs i am sure would play if they were going to take another pass on them from a scope of AT design. I would rather they just look at sets as which ones might under perform and work to fix those on their own. 

[Voltak]

Let Blasters be blasters and let them reign at the top of the hill for doing range dmg or let them reign at being the highest dmg dealers from a squishy , it's all they have 

Lets scrappers and brutes reign at melee dmg , that's all they have , along with excellent survival and defenses 

Let tanks reign at tanking and being able to withstand about everything the game has 

Let Defenders reign at buffing and debuffing   

Let Dominators Reign at Dominating , via controls , Domination has no equal in the game , none , it's just so good and so unique in the gaming industry 

Controllers and Corrupters are somewhere in between there but never should any of them be better at any ONE aspect than these mentioned above 

Controllers have access to defender things but should not better than defenders in those specific power sets 

The controller is compensated for that.   He or she has access to controls and the defenders do not 

Corrupters have Defender stuff and Blaster stuff
Corrupters should not be stronger than either one of the above in the specific power set 

Blaster dmg should still be king at blasting and defenders should be kings at buffing or debuffing 

Corrupters makes up for that by combining a lesser degree of both aspects above
Same thing with Controllers, same as corrupters, same principle, I mean  


Anyway, I can go on and on , but you get the idea

So, let's be careful when we ask for a buff to the AT as a whole 

DO you want your AT to do more dmg ?   

Are you sure you want a Blaster or Dominator ?  

You can be either or 

But never give Dominators any equal footing with a Blaster at blasting , otherwise get rid of the Blaster AT then 

The idea and the principle is applied down the line with other things 

Edited March 12, 2021 by Voltak