If this was a buffet, what build should everyone try?

[Myrmidon]

Any Tanker primary, so long as you team with Controllers/Dominators that spam AoE Immobilizes the instant you touch a spawn.

[Peacemoon]

Not my most ‘powerful’ character, but I really enjoy my Thugs/Empathy MM. 

 

It is the one Empathy AT where you can really play as a ‘team support’, even when solo. While Defenders have better pure support numbers, they can’t utilise the full toolkit while solo like a MM can. 
 

Any of the support sets that focus more on empowering allies are really fun as a MM. /Thermal looks the most fun to me but I haven’t played it high yet.

 

Sorry I know you said you already play a lot of control/support @oedipus_tex, but I noticed you said you hadn’t played much MM.

 

To make it more fun while leveling as a MM I recommend increasing the number of enemies quite a bit but not their level. Then it becomes a proper war!

[Luminara]

On 4/11/2022 at 11:54 AM, oedipus_tex said:

For those of you looking into Dominators for the first time, a while back I' wrote a guide on how to do a "trust fund build" that gets you to permadom levels relatively painlessly. It will show you some of the quickest and most popular paths to getting your Dom up and running. I do think it's a class that needs IO work before it really becomes manageable.

 

I've been surprised by how much I'm enjoying my Dark/Martial dominator.  I just don't enjoy dominators, but I wanted something Batgirly, punchy punchy, kicky kicky, whizzing Batarangs, and nothing else in any archetype came as close as Martial Assault.  I almost gave up on it at level 47, after fighting tooth and nail to make World of Disappointment work, but I eventually went back and revised the entire concept without Confuses.  Much more enjoyable.  Stare or Heart a spawn, jump in and start unloading the kicks and shuriken (i do use other Dark powers as necessary, but they're rarely necessary).  I restyled her to a Huntress (Helena Wayne) look, including the purple (i never use purple), and now I'm playing her constantly.

 

Martial Assault isn't great, it burns through endurance like candy and it took a pile of +Damage to catch up to what I can do with other characters, but it is stylish and enjoyable.  And that's really all I wanted out of it.  Anyone who wants a Bat family type of character should give it a shot.

[The Caretaker]

Play with XP on normal.

 

Play with no travel powers.

 

Shut off your XP every 5 levels and try to navigate the available content.

 

Get drunk on the lore.

 

Get angry at the lore. (I'm looking at you, Intern X who slapped the VDay arcs together with no oversight)

 

Theorycraft on lore progression.

 

Start a PUG group and don't turn anyone away, engaging the team in constant banter until everyone starts trying to be their character.

[Shred Monkey]

23 minutes ago, The Caretaker said:

Start a PUG group and don't turn anyone away, engaging the team in constant banter until everyone starts trying to be their character.

 

10 stars for this one.  In this game, we already know we're going to win every fight.  It's team banter makes for a good time.

[Peacemoon]

3 hours ago, The Caretaker said:

Play with XP on normal.

 

Play with no travel powers.

 

Shut off your XP every 5 levels and try to navigate the available content.

 

Get drunk on the lore.

 

Get angry at the lore. (I'm looking at you, Intern X who slapped the VDay arcs together with no oversight)

 

Theorycraft on lore progression.

 

Start a PUG group and don't turn anyone away, engaging the team in constant banter until everyone starts trying to be their character.

I did this once (accept the no travel powers). Was awesome. 

[Doomguide2005]

Oh my oh my

Pretty much tried every AT.  Sentinels being the exception with the excuse my computer did the unfortunate and up and died.

 

Want to get a Tanker to 50.

Same for a HEAT

And then there's MMs

Played all of these but never got into the 30+ range.  MM seem doomed unless I can truly retire and get lots of spare time.  The others will happen.

 

 

[Crysis]

Illusion/Storm Controller and Thugs/Storm Masterminds, both with high Recharge.  Try them both with knockback to knockdown IO’s inserted -AND- without them inserted.  That one single IO is literally an entire game changer for both of those AT’s.  

 

Honestly, I wish Homecoming would just give us a damn toggle in settings to convert KB to KD.  It’s almost unfair to many sets to force them to forego damage or something else just to get that kind of playstyle difference.

 

The MM, in particular….I’ve just never found another AT anything quite like it in any other MMO/Action RPG.  In Path of Exile maybe to some extent….but the ability to directly command/control Thugs plus the inability to really control what 3 tornado’s and a waterspout can do all out once is….wow.  Just wow.

 

 

[oedipus_tex]

2 hours ago, Crysis said:

Illusion/Storm Controller and Thugs/Storm Masterminds, both with high Recharge.  Try them both with knockback to knockdown IO’s inserted -AND- without them inserted.  That one single IO is literally an entire game changer for both of those AT’s.  

 

Honestly, I wish Homecoming would just give us a damn toggle in settings to convert KB to KD.  It’s almost unfair to many sets to force them to forego damage or something else just to get that kind of playstyle difference.

 

The MM, in particular….I’ve just never found another AT anything quite like it in any other MMO/Action RPG.  In Path of Exile maybe to some extent….but the ability to directly command/control Thugs plus the inability to really control what 3 tornado’s and a waterspout can do all out once is….wow.  Just wow.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion for Thugs Mastermind.

 

Kinda off topic, but I always thought it was a shame Necromancy doesn't have a similar power. Swarming Zombies seems very thematic and fun.

[Crysis]

17 minutes ago, oedipus_tex said:

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion for Thugs Mastermind.

 

Kinda off topic, but I always thought it was a shame Necromancy doesn't have a similar power. Swarming Zombies seems very thematic and fun.

 

Oh you can experience swarming, running zombies.  Just take a Necro MM into a mission against the Ninja Chicks.  Those zombies LOOOOOVE to happy dance on caltrops.

[fancy ketchup]

If you are planning to dabble in melee i suggest ice, dark armor or regen if you are really looking for something different. I found all to be a fun alternative to the set it and forget it type. 

Edited April 19, 2022 by fancy ketchup

[Clave Dark 5]

13 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Want to get a Tanker to 50.

I've only played two so far, as for some reason I don't enjoy melee range much these days, so it's been all squishie-distance for me. 

 

And yet... those two tanks were the easiest 50s for me, as it's nearly impossible for them to die!  I almost never play solo, so for me, it's like some kind of showing off moment for me to to just spot a group of foes and hop into the center and then basically stand there lackadaisically attacking them and annoying them while waiting for the team to catch up with me.  So easy!  Find a good build and give it a whirl!

[Doomguide2005]

    @Clave Dark 5 Tanker is pretty much going to happen.  Last time around no SR and no Claws were available yet so ... .  My Main is a Claws/SR scrapper.

     A HEAT will probably happen though finding the right build and not getting sidetracked by several sets I've never played is a big obstacle.  Likely to end up being a Warshade.

      Mastermind is going to be the tough one.  Made a couple on Live and they didn't hold my interest or even really had me thinking about what might be the pairing to try.  But I'll see.  Somewhat ironically (given you're the poster this is a response to) I think what I don't really get into is the indirect form engagement thru the pets so maybe I need to do something petless???  🤔 would that even count 😜.

 

      One of the last characters to really grab me on Live was a VEAT, a soldier build who didn't quite hit 50 before Sunset.  Would have but similar to now life+computer issues kept me out of game till Sunset.  She ended up 49th and only a few bubs shy of 50.  Wouldn't surprise me if a recreation of her wouldn't have happened shortly except for the latest computer/life issues.

[Arbegla]

I will always recommend a toe bombing bot/traps MM. Even without a high end IO build, you can get the big traps (Acid Mortar, Seeker Drones, Poison Trap) to recharge between groups, and just let the bots do their thing.

With even more recharge, you can do some pretty amazing things and completely destroy entire groups of mobs, including GMs and AVs.

 

Just don't play it like a 'I'm going to set up a hallway of DOOOOOOM', play it like a 'I'm going to drop this poison trap at this dudes feet, because putting myself into a prone position in the middle of guys with guns is a great idea, I swear' and then watch everything choke and burn.

[Rokkeb]

Claws on a scrapper. Any secondary works but I like rad, dark, elec, wp, regen, or super reflexes.

[Zeraphia]

On 4/11/2022 at 11:54 AM, oedipus_tex said:

For those of you looking into Dominators for the first time, a while back I' wrote a guide on how to do a "trust fund build" that gets you to permadom levels relatively painlessly. It will show you some of the quickest and most popular paths to getting your Dom up and running. I do think it's a class that needs IO work before it really becomes manageable.

 

 

 

 

So, what makes this class so strange is lot of its potential comes from the epics. Dominators have two extremely good epic APP choices that lead you down either the path of debuffer or extra-sturdy abomination if played right. They're worth knowing about if you've never played the class, because in a lot of ways they define what the class is actually capable of, and that isn't very apparent if you've only dabbled or played at lower levels.

 

First, from their Ice APP, the (honestly overpowered, perhaps justified for saving the class from obscurity) Sleet. It's not quite as strong as the "real" version Cold Domination gets; 90 recharge instead of 60, and the rain lasts 15 seconds versuses the real version which lasts 30. But, the debuff lasts 30 seconds after the rain departs. So, this power can very reasonably get down to a 30 second recharge and end up double stacking on difficult enemies. At that point you're actually beating out a lot of Defender and Controller builds who either can't stack the debuff at all (e.g. Sonic Resonance, Radiation) or can't reasonably get the recharge low enough (Thermal, Time).

 

  

 

(What's kinda interesting here is a lot of folks roll Defenders, Controller and Corruptors for their debuffs, particularly -Regen and -Resist. A  .../Psi/Ice Dominator packs -30% to -60% Resist and -500% Regen, as good or better than many of those toons. You likely won't have the Def/Corruptors ranged attack  power, but you'll pick up control abilities instead. It's just a surprising option open to a class not normally associated with those abilities).

 

The second APP of note is the Psi APP. It's mainly notable for a trifecta of powers that individually aren't that amazing but in combination are pretty sensational:

 

 

 

So, Dominators are not a class known for having any Defense whatsoever. But their Psi APP provides an enhanceable baseline of 4.25% defense to all, 25.5% defense to Psi(!!) and still provides a Resist armor with baseline 23% resist to smash/lethal and 18.7% to Psi. You pay for this by losing out on the debuff of Sleet and a good aoe blast (Psinado is cool looking but not particularly strong). But it's worth knowing about, because Dominators are unexpectedly capable of soft capping.

 

This  is particularly true of /Psi Assault Dominators, because having their healing and recovery already covered, they can dip into Destiny Barrier for the +5% always-up defense and conceivably toe into a capped to multiple vectors build, as can be seen here:

 

 

 

So here's the thing most people don't consider about their APP's: Soul Mastery is the hidden sleeper OP pool that you always want to take if you can take it and are willing to adapt to being a little squishier. 

 

Dark Embrace is a very good resistance power, a great grab pretty universally. But this still isn't the reason that you want to take Soul Mastery if you can.

 

Soul Drain and Dark Obliteration. The minute you get access to these two powers, you essentially get Blaster levels of damage. If you slot in a lot of global recharge, you can get Soul Drain down to having a 50-60% uptime and it doubles as a hard hitting PBAoE. Finally, Dark Obliteration is probably the single best proc monster any Dominator has access to. It's a TAoE that can take 5 procs. 5. The cooldown is perfectly long enough that it's not up often enough to get low usage out of the procs, but it is short enough to where enough global recharge will allow you to have it up mob-to-mob. You essentially have Build Up half the time and a free judgement power.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Play something you don't like, just to make sure you don't like it.

 

Play a knockdown toon.  Because they are AWESOME!

 

[Jiro Ito]

I think everyone should take a support-role tanker (crowd control and taunt as opposed to pure offensive focus) and support-role heal/buff character into a difficult team situation (early level pug, high level Aeon, etc) to get a true appreciation of what these roles bring to the table, and hopefully learn more about good teamwork dynamics.  

[Greycat]

What build should everyone try?

 

We have 1000 slots per server. Try *all* of them.  Don't worry about permacappcharging your defensiztance. Get some dice, pick an AT with it, then a primary and secondary set. Take it to 50 (actually playing, not just PL-then-incarnate-then-cap.)

 

Find a FOTM build. Flip it. (I did this occasionally on live. It ... leads to interesting combinations. When Ice/Energy blasters seemed really popular, I ran around with an Energy/Ice.) Or take a popular combo (Rad/Fire brute!) and ... don't make it a brute. I don't mean "make it a tank." I mean a rad/fire sentinel. Or controller. (... granted, fire/rad there, but you get the point.) Or blaster.

 

Make an MA/Stone Armor just for flippy stones, don't worry about "optimized."

 

Try all the builds. ALL of them. Work through "Everything/Invuln." Or "All control sets." Explore a little.

[Zeraphia]

18 minutes ago, Greycat said:

What build should everyone try?

 

We have 1000 slots per server. Try *all* of them.  Don't worry about permacappcharging your defensiztance. Get some dice, pick an AT with it, then a primary and secondary set. Take it to 50 (actually playing, not just PL-then-incarnate-then-cap.)

 

Find a FOTM build. Flip it. (I did this occasionally on live. It ... leads to interesting combinations. When Ice/Energy blasters seemed really popular, I ran around with an Energy/Ice.) Or take a popular combo (Rad/Fire brute!) and ... don't make it a brute. I don't mean "make it a tank." I mean a rad/fire sentinel. Or controller. (... granted, fire/rad there, but you get the point.) Or blaster.

 

Make an MA/Stone Armor just for flippy stones, don't worry about "optimized."

 

Try all the builds. ALL of them. Work through "Everything/Invuln." Or "All control sets." Explore a little.

I did this suggestion with Fire Blast Blasters. I wanted to explore more options besides Fire Manipulation and see what other sets had to offer in terms of gameplay variety. It was uniquely refreshing and gave me a sense of enjoyment seeing a set do things other than just straight numbers of damage. It opened my eyes to the fact that I actually really liked Ice Manipulation, Temporal Manipulation, Atomic Manipulation, and Plant Manipulation. 

 

I think it also opened my eyes to the idea that while I may not like a FoTM combo (I'd say this was Robots/FF MM and Fire/Kin Controller) I did maybe like aspects of those sets, and found great uses for them with other sets. I much prefer Fire/Fire Dominator over Fire/Kin Controller, much prefer Robots/Time over Robots/FF, and much prefer Fire Blast/Kinetics Corruptor over the Controller variation. 

 

While I'm sure some will disagree with the assessment that I believe Sentinels are slight underperformers, I've found them enjoyable to play. Some combinations are stellar and very appealing even if another AT does it "better." Truthfully, if you enjoy the powersets and try your best to make them work for their intended purpose, that's what it's all about.

[UltraAlt]

Play a knockback character!

 

17 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Because they are AWESOME!

 

[LiquidBandage]

On 4/10/2022 at 3:51 PM, InvaderStych said:

Request:

 

Persuade me to try playing support or CC as a primarily melee (mostly scrappers and blappers)  player who is largely afraid that he's too clumsy and slow to actually target teammates and apply buffs and whatnot.

 

This is my suggestion:

A ForceField Defender - You only have to buff your teammates every handful of minutes with shields. Your natural instincts to get in close to battle will still be valid as your big bubble will help defend other teammates. This is a soft introduction into support and you have plenty of other power choices to dedicate to offensive things or pool powers. There is a lot of flexibility here. This set is exceptionally strong in the early game as most characters don't have a lot of Defense.

 

A Gravity/Sonic Controller - The pet casts holds, so that augments your CC capabilities. Propel is loads of fun. Lift is interesting to use and it is CC. The sonic component is where this kicks into high gear. It encourages you to play with other melee characters so you can anchor your -RES power on them. Liquefy is a massive boost to damage output for a team. And your shields/bubble help with survivability with little active monitoring on your end of things (like ForceFields). One thing I did with my build of this was to take the fighting pool to get Cross Punch. Then I took the Earth Mastery epic pool to get the foot stomp and melee hold. My guy would run into melee and scrapper-lock with the best of them (until he ran out of END). You can play it close and dangerous or you can stand off and do the standard ranged stuff (holds/immobilizes). 

[LiquidBandage]

On 4/18/2022 at 9:58 AM, Doomguide2005 said:

Want to get a Tanker to 50.

Same for a HEAT

 

Invulnerability is a great set for learning tanking (how to tank and how build a tanker). It is a very forgiving set. One of the best things you can do while leveling is to level with a friend that is playing some sort of support. All tanks can be rough to play in the early game. Learning your strengths/weaknesses and how to spot what is/isn't dangerous to you is part of the fun of the AT. Plus tanking really gives you perspective on how the team dynamic really affects your effectiveness (buffs on you & debuffs on enemies). 

 

Once you "figure it out" and get hooked, you'll make many more Tanks and Brutes. And Defense vs Resistance tanking can really be a different experience. 

 

HEATs are a real mixed bag. You really have to have a plan/vision going in, otherwise a "I'll just pick powers as I go along" approach will end up in a mediocre blob of 'meh'. The class really shines if you build towards some objective(s). 

[Doomguide2005]

9 hours ago, LiquidBandage said:

 

Invulnerability is a great set for learning tanking (how to tank and how build a tanker). It is a very forgiving set. One of the best things you can do while leveling is to level with a friend that is playing some sort of support. All tanks can be rough to play in the early game. Learning your strengths/weaknesses and how to spot what is/isn't dangerous to you is part of the fun of the AT. Plus tanking really gives you perspective on how the team dynamic really affects your effectiveness (buffs on you & debuffs on enemies). 

 

Once you "figure it out" and get hooked, you'll make many more Tanks and Brutes. And Defense vs Resistance tanking can really be a different experience. 

 

HEATs are a real mixed bag. You really have to have a plan/vision going in, otherwise a "I'll just pick powers as I go along" approach will end up in a mediocre blob of 'meh'. The class really shines if you build towards some objective(s). 

     Can you elaborate on "have a plan/vision going in"?  I ran a WS through early levels (to mid 20's or so) but no idea now if I had a specific plan back then on Live.  Don't recall what level the PB made it to, but it wasn't as far.

    Tankers while I never leveled one to 50 I had several run into the 20's (Ice and Fire that I recall).  Don't expect it to be a real issue outside of just doing it.  I have had several Brutes to 50 including one who was often the primary tank for redside VG content.  No taunt aura (DM/SR) but had Confront and plenty experience switching targets around to keep foes focused on them.

 

     Probably end up with Bots/Traps for a MM.  Done several /Traps as Corruptor as well as Traps/ as a Defender.  Then either  SR/Claws, Fire/Axe (recreation) or Inv/DM.  A DA/? is intriguing as well.  And last leaning strongly towards a WS.

[LiquidBandage]

10 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

     Can you elaborate on "have a plan/vision going in"? 

It has helped me to answer a few things.

Do I want to be able to tank (aka Lobster)?

Do I want to pew pew in squid form?

Do I want to run toggles for survivability? 

Do I want to run a perma-X power?

Do I want to melee and range and be good at both or just have the other for niche cases (or to mule enhancements)?

 

Answering these types of questions will inform how you build. You will probably want few or no toggle powers if you run squid/lobster frequently. You will want Haste and many set bonuses to ramp recharge for the perma-X. etc, etc.

 

There are so many power choices and build options available to the class that it can be really easy to pick powers that make your objectives murky.

 

What I did with my PB was this: I wanted a shape-shifty alien that fought crime and essentially never be seen in 'human' form. So beyond the basic squid/lobster powers, I chose click powers that augmented capabilities in the shifted forms then a few powers to mule enhancements. Fully slotted out, it had all of the purple sets and made it a really effective character that could be a Blaster or Tank as the need arises.