/Martial...

[Jawbreaker]

is it me or does it just seem thematically, very out of place as a Dom secondary? I've tried it with a few primaries ( Mind, Grav, Dark) and while thematically it's been a tough set to work around, it hasn't felt very synergistic with those doms for me, play-wise.  Anyone have a different experience? 

 

[Coyote]

/Martial's best strength is to be in melee with several AoE attacks that can all be used without having to change range.

I wouldn't try to pair it with a primary that functions best as a ranged character, like Mind and Gravity. Dark is more usable in melee range because it has a PBAoE Stun, but it still has a couple of cones.

 

Match it with a melee-oriented primary (Fire, Electric, Ice) for a better match. For theme, there are the Fire Clan from the Avatar cartoons, Sub-Z from Mortal Kombat, and the Lightning bad guy from Big Trouble in Little China.

[mintmilano]

The advice to use a melee oriented primary is very sound, and I'll throw in Plant as well. Plant's somewhat melee range due to Seeds of Confusion (the cone is wide, but not terribly long) and its AoE ends up performing well in that environment. SoC > Dragon's Tail > Trick Shot with Carrion Creepers going amounts to some of the better damage MA is probably capable of contributing to. 

Thematically its pairing with the more castery powers of Doms seem like they were definitely inspired by fighting games and anime. I think Naruto deals with this brand of ninja somewhat often?

[Jawbreaker]

I guess my lack of interest in Anime has finally caught up to me. I'll have to give one of those sets a run and see if something clicks

 

[oedipus_tex]

For me, Martial is a so-so set that has Caltrops sitting where an otherwise especially good power could be. Then, it has Explosive Shuriken, was is a big letdown as both a ranged attack and as an AoE, straddling the ground of both but not exceling at either.

 

Caltrops isn't strictly bad, but it's a slow damage over time power that conflicts with Sleep abilities on an archetype that specializes in Controls. The set also doesn't offer any real mitigation.

 

IMO Martial combines best with Plant (because the Control package is so strong) or Dark (because the -ToHit mitigates enemies you can't control). But, both Plant and Dark have better options available, so for me Martial mainly gets picked for the cool animations and not because it's that great.

 

Worst Martial combo for me is Electric. Caltrops eliminates Static Field from the picture. You can skip Caltrops but that's just admitting Martial's unique powers aren't that useful.

Edited March 5, 2021 by oedipus_tex

[Cenozoic]

On 3/4/2021 at 11:13 AM, Coyote said:

/Martial's best strength is to be in melee with several AoE attacks that can all be used without having to change range.

I wouldn't try to pair it with a primary that functions best as a ranged character, like Mind and Gravity. Dark is more usable in melee range because it has a PBAoE Stun, but it still has a couple of cones.

 

Match it with a melee-oriented primary (Fire, Electric, Ice) for a better match. For theme, there are the Fire Clan from the Avatar cartoons, Sub-Z from Mortal Kombat, and the Lightning bad guy from Big Trouble in Little China.

Mind is mostly high-accuracy ST and wide TAoEs, so it synergizes quite well in perma-Dom mode.

Keep in mind that most of these attacks are only typed Psionic, so you have an accuracy advantage there, as well, which offsets the S/L/M defenses of your melee opponents.

• Mesmerize - Automatic de-toggler and ST chain filler with insane sleep time.  You can solo multiple AVs at once with this power.
• Levitate - Skippable on Doms (great for controllers though)
• Dominate - Yes.
• Confuse - Yes.  Confuse the Immunes Surgeon before you jump in for them good heals.
• Mass Hypnosis - In melee, acts as pseudo-PBAoE.  Shut down a mob if things get out of hand, or just sleep them beforehand and ST kill the lot.
• Telekinesis - Skippable
• Total Domination - Another pseudo-PBAoE.  Alternate this with Mass Confusion to save yourself in nasty mobs
• Terrify - Skippable unless you are on teams that can handle your aggro.  Cone is fun and can proc damage well, but otherwise not useful for melee-oriented toon.
• Mass Confusion - Yet another pseudo-PBAoE.  Alternate with Total Domination to save yourself in nasty mobs.  Also highly entertaining.

[Steampunkette]

So... I've been playing Dark/Martial as a "Blappy" type character. And so far? It's pretty great.

 

The AoE Immob holds enemies in Caltrops which I've budgeted 4 damage procs to, though I might swap one for knockdown. The fear slows incoming damage, but if it's still too great, Heart of Darkness stops it altogether.

 

Add in some ninja-star ricochets, leg-sweeps, and a cool spinning kick, and it's pretty cool.

 

I'm RPing the character as a D&D Roguelock. Grabbed Infiltration and slapped a Stealth IO into my sprint for near-stalker levels of sneakiness. On Teams I can rush ahead in stealth, pop Heart of Darkness and Caltrops, then pop out of melee to fling the Immob before diving back in for kicks and stuff.

 

Only 28 so far. But I put this build together for her.

Mistmourne - Dominator (Darkness Control).mxd

[Myrmidon]

On 3/4/2021 at 10:13 AM, Coyote said:

the Lightning bad guy from Big Trouble in Little China.

That would be Lightning, one of the Three Storms.

[Bartacus]

On 3/5/2021 at 7:03 AM, oedipus_tex said:

For me, Martial is a so-so set that has Caltrops sitting where an otherwise especially good power could be. Then, it has Explosive Shuriken, was is a big letdown as both a ranged attack and as an AoE, straddling the ground of both but not exceling at either.

 

Caltrops isn't strictly bad, but it's a slow damage over time power that conflicts with Sleep abilities on an archetype that specializes in Controls. The set also doesn't offer any real mitigation.

 

IMO Martial combines best with Plant (because the Control package is so strong) or Dark (because the -ToHit mitigates enemies you can't control). But, both Plant and Dark have better options available, so for me Martial mainly gets picked for the cool animations and not because it's that great.

 

Worst Martial combo for me is Electric. Caltrops eliminates Static Field from the picture. You can skip Caltrops but that's just admitting Martial's unique powers aren't that useful.

I agree that numbers-wise Martial is so-so. It's not the best, not the worst. I would say also that Caltrops is doo doo, but it's not the only unique power in the set. Explosive Shuriken is unique (even if, like others said, it doesn't excel as a ST or as an AoE). Trick Shot is unique, offering some short CD AoE from a range. And, Envenomed Blades is unique. It offers Toxic damage on all of your attacks and probably more importantly is pretty easy to permanently have up if you're going Perma-Dom already. Having permanent +toxic and +tohit is pretty nice.

On my fire/martial I've gone against what other people are saying in this thread and I'm not in melee at all. I don't have hot feet, and I hover blast with Ranged Def. I love it, and because I hover my imps are able to get in there easily. I find that Martial doesn't have to be in melee range to do well like everyone's saying. Besides, i feel like just about every assault secondary has melee attacks and you could say they need to be in melee, or you could just skip them if you don't want to be. I don't think Martial's melee attacks are particularly unique anyway. 

 

Plus, the animations on the snipe and explosive shuriken are really neat 😉 

P.S. don't ream me for not using hot feet. i know it's good but it's an end hog and building for ranged def instead lets me solo GMs lol

Edited May 12, 2021 by Bartacus