Mind/Eng-what to skip?

[JnEricsonx]

Right now from Mind I'm thinking the AOE sleep, and maybe TK?   Eng I have no clue on.

[Cenozoic]

For solo, don’t skip Mass Hypnosis.  Putting things to sleep is great for ST sets like Energy, and is like a -100% TAoE tohit debuff.  

[MoonSheep]

you won’t lose any sleep if you skip TK

 

i’d recommend picking the ST sleep and slotting it for damage, it’s very helpful for foes that pop a power which give capped +res to everything but psi

 

resident mind/energy dom @Mezmera can guide you on the energy assault side of things

[Mezmera]

I have 3 builds on my Mind/Nrg but the powers I typically take are:

 

Mind: Mesmerize, Confuse, Mass Confusion, usually Dominate, usually Terrify, usually Total Domination.  One build has Mass Hypnosis which will be good for the impending LRSF change.  TK is trash as it is right now and I'll usually skip levitate and the aoe sleep.  

 

Energy: t1 blast because, Power Up, Total Focus, Power Burst, Snipe.  Sometimes I'll skip Dominate and substitute Bone Smasher for more damage.  The only other power you'd take would be Whirling Hands but I don't like it's animation time for what you get out of it.  I go Soul Mastery and just take all of those aoe powers.  

 

Power Up is a very strong power, it helps you achieve a lot of different things.  Hope this helps. 

 

 

[Dauntless]

It depends what you want to do, really.  The nice thing about the combo is you get so many tools to solve the PVE puzzle if that is what you wish.  Harder content frequently shoves critters that resist various status effects (like rikti headmen are sleep resistant and the later fortunata line is resistant to nearly everything except stun) so you can usually attack them with a weakness.  Or at least I could back in live, I don't play often enough to remember everything these days.  😞

 

TK allows you to stack more domination faster, useful at times but it is still probably the most skippable power in the set.   The pushback effect is seldom of any positive consequence, but corralling critters into corners is occasionally helpful.

 

You also don't need the combination of power push and levitate - either can "one shot" a typical boss for a few seconds.  IIRC power push is one of the higher DPA attacks in the set but I'm sure it drains a knockback->knockdown enhancement for most people.  Outside of the subtly of up vs repositioning a mob both attacks fill the same niche, moderate early attack that can stop most things long enough to stack a hold.

 

The snipe is also on my skippable list.  I usually take it for two reasons:  stacking recharge and the utility of the extra long range attack.  You can get a full attack chain without it and honestly the extra range is a concern most players ignore.

 

You can probably make the argument that you don't need both mass hypnosis and terrify.  They are both easily made permeant and one or the other will be your "goto AOE for every spawn".  You will only make good use out of the other if you attempt to solve the X-adjacent spawn problems often enough or realize you lack a barrier style power (like ice slick or earthquake) and then lean on a second long mez to deal with arrivals and ambushes.

 

If slots are a premium, you can get good use out of confuse, mesmerize, levitate, and mass hypnosis with no additional slots.  If you are even more challenged you can underslot terrify and mass confusion and not be too terribly upset most of the time.

 

 

 

For the record, I actually have taken all of these powers on my current build except for TK (which I used back on live) and levitate, opting for the DPA in power push instead.  It makes for an easy perma-dom build,

[oedipus_tex]

I'm gonna do the reverse and tell you what not to skip and let you work backward from there. 🙂 

 

Don't skip (more or less in order of what not to skip):

• Hasten, because the huge sacrifices you'll have to make getting back to permadom status are too steep
• Power Up, because the power boost effect is one of the main attractions of Energy
• Dominate, it's a very fast casting Hold. If you have room in the build you can proc for huge damage, tho this isn't always possible for Doms due to needing to hit permadom recharge, still worth aiming for though
• Sniper Blast (or any snipe on a Dominator), slot it with Sting of the Manticore x5 and 1 damage proc
• Total Focus, because of the guaranteed Charge effect
• Power Burst, because it can be used to expend that charge
• ~~Some kind of AoE blast in the apps, whichever you choose, because that's only place Dominators get a good one. 
• Terrify, because it's a decent, not great, AoE damage power. Don't even worry about Fear duration since you can Power Up it
• Mass Confusion, because despite its long recharge its one of the main reasons to play Mind over another set
• Total Domination to cover downtime of Mass Confusion. Other Control sets can sometimes skip the AoE Hold, Mind really cannot
• Whirling Hands for some extra AoE but also because it will likely provide good slotting due to being a PBAoE
• Power Push, because it has better DPA than either Bone Smasher or Power Blast. Altho you can swap Bone Smasher in here if the knockback bothers you (more annoying on Mind than other Control sets)
• ~~Various +Def powers to aid personal defenses and slot LoTG to get you toward permadom
• ~~Utility powers from the APPs
• Mass Hypnosis, I usually try to take this in a final slot, not strictly needed but its not terrible either, mainly due to it working on AVs on the rare occasion you need it do that
• Confuse, because it takes good set bonuses and is generally useful. But can be cut if you really need to

 

Middling powers that are maybe on the cut list are:

• Telekinesis, even if its occasionally useful it takes no sets at all, big drag on a tight Dom build
• Levitate, because of bad damage
• Mesmeriza, because a permaDominator can just cast Mass Hypnosis
• Power Blast, low DPA, Power Push is just better
• Bone Smasher, this is more iffy. It's not bad but its point blank range and Power Push actually does more damage. It does have an interesting secondary effect and I can see why some people would want it.

 

Edited October 14, 2021 by oedipus_tex