UPDATED ! Dominator Trio doing ITF challenge - No inspirations, no temps, no P2W, etc, +4x8 difficulty.

[Voltak]

Video is now uploaded and posted on YouTube, HD processing took a while. 

Here's a rundown of the team --

1. @Voltak  Dark/Dark Dominator
2. @EnjoyTheJourney  Fire/Psy Dominator
3. @AcreV  (@Acre)   Earth/Earth Dominator

In the video I go over the very valuable contributions and strong points of each of those combos relative to the ITF. 

I also discuss tactics, strategies, and tips.  Some feedback or review about what went wrong and how it could be corrected or improved for future attempts is also provided. 

Overall, a very impressive feat, and perhaps as good as I could see a part 2 being done in a Trio or a duo, or even bigger teams. 

Special but important mention -- SLEET SLEET SLEET !!   At least one player must have this, thank you, @Acre. 
 

 

Edited May 19, 2022 by Voltak

[oedipus_tex]

Excellent job guys. No inspirations is always a risky choice for Dominators. I'm impressed with your accomplishment.

 

I'm very impressed by the way that an Earth/Earth Dom was successful in a run like this. I'd have thought it would struggle keeping its HP bar intact. Interesting to see it doing well. Any background on how it was able to handle hit point drops?

 

I'm also very curious to see what adding an Electric Dominator would do for this run. My main is an Elec/Psi, though lately I've been toying with running it as an Elec/Dark instead. If you're ever down for a run I'm game. Electric has some unique properties that work particularly well in this Task Force, mainly in being able to short circuit the many Elite Bosses. 

 

Thanks for sharing the video and well done as always.

Edited May 19, 2022 by oedipus_tex

[Voltak]

49 minutes ago, oedipus_tex said:

Excellent job guys. No inspirations is always a risky choice for Dominators. I'm impressed with your accomplishment.

 

I'm very impressed by the way that an Earth/Earth Dom was successful in a run like this. I'd have thought it would struggle keeping its HP bar intact. Interesting to see it doing well. Any background on how it was able to handle hit point drops?

 

I'm also very curious to see what adding an Electric Dominator would do for this run. My main is an Elec/Psi, though lately I've been toying with running it as an Elec/Dark instead. If you're ever down for a run I'm game. Electric has some unique properties that work particularly well in this Task Force, mainly in being able to short circuit the many Elite Bosses. 

 

Thanks for sharing the video and well done as always.

I have done a guide on how to solo part 2 , 54 x 8 , no insps, no temps of the ITF with an Earth/ Dominator.  I posted the video. 

I also did a Trio, two doms, one other AT.. I can't remember what AT.  I posted the video on that.  In that trio , I was playing an Earth/Rad Dominator.  

To be fair, we needed ( I feel) an earth Dominator.  

After the recent tweaks to the ITF, the Cimerorans have now a ridiculous amount of Defense.  Enter the hot knife through butter, the earth control set.  

I said on the video that an Earth/ Dom is really the MVP among us for this reason.   

Electric , depending on how long the recharge of the confuse, otherwise, the sleep is not going to do much since things will easily waken up. 

The biggest defensive factor Elec brings is that lovely end drain.   

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Acre plays earth / earth very well, which was a key reason for how well earth / earth held up. Also helpful were stacked to hit debuffs from dark control (Vol) and earthquake (more minor in amount than what dark control brings, but it probably tagged some mobs that Vol's powers didn't). It also helped that the earth / earth dom had ice as the mastery, with hoarfrost. Having a hefty heal and +max hit points buff is so much better than not having one, even if it is on a long recharge. 

 

Something else that helped the run quite a bit, although it may not be immediately obvious from watching battles in the video, was that there were two doms with sleet from taking ice mastery (fire/psi/ice and earth/earth/ice). Stacked -defense and -res debuffs from sleet made everything easier to take down. That's why, for example, even as just a trio AVs went down quite quickly in part 3 and mobs in the part 4 towers also went down quite fast. 

[oedipus_tex]

1 hour ago, Voltak said:

I have done a guide on how to solo part 2 , 54 x 8 , no insps, no temps of the ITF with an Earth/ Dominator.  I posted the video. 

I also did a Trio, two doms, one other AT.. I can't remember what AT.  I posted the video on that.  In that trio , I was playing an Earth/Rad Dominator.  

To be fair, we needed ( I feel) an earth Dominator.  

After the recent tweaks to the ITF, the Cimerorans have now a ridiculous amount of Defense.  Enter the hot knife through butter, the earth control set.  

I said on the video that an Earth/ Dom is really the MVP among us for this reason.   

Electric , depending on how long the recharge of the confuse, otherwise, the sleep is not going to do much since things will easily waken up. 

The biggest defensive factor Elec brings is that lovely end drain.   

 

 

Yeah I can see why Earth Control is a nice addition, it was mainly the Earth Assault portion of it that surprised me since it has no way to heal itself and is so point-blank based.

 

I couldn't remember if my Electric/Psi could solo Cimerorans so I tried it. It was a mixed bag. I didn't do the best job playing here and could have tightened up the game. Think with two players supporting though it would be pretty smooth. I did a quick proof of concept video. This includes some incredibly sloppy play and a rarely have I deserved to die more than the moment where I allowed toggles to drop in the middle of an enemy pack near the end. (I did eat a blue out of habit at one point, hopefully that didn't spoil the implications tho).

 

 

Edited May 19, 2022 by oedipus_tex

[Voltak]

18 minutes ago, oedipus_tex said:

 

 

Yeah I can see why Earth Control is a nice addition, it was mainly the Earth Assault portion of it that surprised me since it has no way to heal itself and is so point-blank based.

 

I couldn't remember if my Electric/Psi could solo Cimerorans so I tried it. It was a mixed bag. I didn't do the best job playing here and could have tightened up the game. Think with two players supporting though it would be pretty smooth. I did a quick proof of concept video. This includes some incredibly sloppy play and a rarely have I deserved to die more than the moment where I allowed toggles to drop in the middle of an enemy pack near the end. (I did eat a blue out of habit at one point, hopefully that didn't spoil the implications tho).

 

 

Like @EnjoyTheJourney said above, the APP that @AcreVpicked helped a lot. Healing/Max HP helps, and staying at range by taking advantage of the slows and bouncing, all that helped.  

Earth assault dmg is strong and it helped for ST.  But I think Acre used it because Earth secondary is just FUN, the SMASH feel comes from no other place. 

Tex, the video is cool, this sort of thing is great for play development.  I like it.
 Practice and practice will let you know where you need to go and how you need to move.  

Elec plays like no other set out there in the game.   So you have a field where I can hardly offer nothing but plenty of chances to practice in these challenges.  

Specifically, practice moving around, jousting.   The way you played in the video, you going to die fast in Part 1 at the mid point of the cave run, and in part 2 once the ambushes start catching up to the group and in part 3 when the waves of ambushes start getting closer,  even with others supporting you

Keep moving, be aware of enemy positioning and joust.  This is especially important if you are on the ground. 

On the air, hovering, that is a different ball game, but even then , being aware of your position is critical.   

I saw many hits you got were not due to build, but it was due because you just stood there just waiting for them to come get you. 

This should be something easy to fix, and practice will come and be plenty. 

Psy dmg vs cimerorans is soooooo strong.   Good stuff. 
 

Edited May 19, 2022 by Voltak

[Topography]

Hey! This is Acre (aka Topography earth/earth/ice Dom).  Thank you so much for the compliments. I am no expert on the numbers and what not but I think EnjoyTheJourney hit the nail on the head with ice mastery.  Voltak is right, I'm playing /earth for the fun factor and for thematic reasons.  Seismic Smash hits so hard! 

 

Join us next time, tex! 

 

Thanks again for the vid, Voltak.

[Voltak]

5 minutes ago, Topography said:

Hey! This is Acre (aka Topography earth/earth/ice Dom).  Thank you so much for the compliments. I am no expert on the numbers and what not but I think EnjoyTheJourney hit the nail on the head with ice mastery.  Voltak is right, I'm playing /earth for the fun factor and for thematic reasons.  Seismic Smash hits so hard! 

 

Join us next time, tex! 

 

Thanks again for the vid, Voltak.

You are very welcome, and I feel I should honor that by playing my Earth/ Dominator in our next run. 
By the way, I spoke with Raw today and he said he's logging in. 
Another Dom run tonight ?  

You deserve the compliments, Acre.  You are a good player, always down to team and chilled. 
Earth/ doms are rare in these types of runs so always good to see them. 

[oedipus_tex]

12 minutes ago, Voltak said:

Like @EnjoyTheJourney said above, the APP that @AcreVpicked helped a lot. Healing/Max HP helps, and staying at range by taking advantage of the slows and bouncing, all that helped.  

Earth assault dmg is strong and it helped for ST.  But I think Acre used it because Earth secondary is just FUN, the SMASH feel comes from no other place. 

Tex, the video is cool, this sort of thing is great for play development.  I like it.
 Practice and practice will let you know where you need to go and how you need to move.  

Elec plays like no other set out there in the game.   So you have a field where I can hardly offer nothing but plenty of chances to practice in these challenges.  

Specifically, practice moving around, jousting.   The way you played in the video, you going to die fast in Part 1 at the mid point of the cave run, and in part 2 once the ambushes start catching up to the group and in part 3 when the waves of ambushes start getting closer,  even with others supporting you

Keep moving, be aware of enemy positioning and joust.  This is especially important if you are on the ground. 

On the air, hovering, that is a different ball game, but even then , being aware of your position is critical.   

I saw many hits you got were not due to build, but it was due because you just stood there just waiting for them to come get you. 

This should be something easy to fix, and practice will come and be plenty. 

Psy dmg vs cimerorans is soooooo strong.   Good stuff. 
 

 

 

Oh for sure. You can even see in the video a few times where I just straight up clicked the wrong power. The entire opening one the first group is pure sloppiness, where I used Drain Psyche on a random minion instead of the larger group. It was mostly luck that pulled me through that first fight. 

 

Playing with no inspirations at all is IMO always going to be one of those uncomfortable things for me. I get why people do it, but, I am so used to using them that it feels unnatural. 

 

I've done the ITF in groups on this character a lot so I know in that setting draining the enemies safely is mostly possible. Not sure I've ever tried it solo, but usually on ITFs I'm one of the more aggressive team members. Draining the all-boss packs of purple guys and all elite boss packs of Cyclopses is also doable. It's never going to be entirely safe though, because Electric is so point blank in nature. I think if I was playing it with a secondary other than Psi Assault or something else with a heal it would be really painful. I'm exploring Dark Assault as an alternate secondary currently because of the heal + power boost effect for the endurance drain powers and some extra -ToHit for safety. But it will be hard to give up the bonus Recovery and -Regen that Psi Assault has.

[Topography]

29 minutes ago, Voltak said:

You are very welcome, and I feel I should honor that by playing my Earth/ Dominator in our next run. 
By the way, I spoke with Raw today and he said he's logging in. 
Another Dom run tonight ?  

You deserve the compliments, Acre.  You are a good player, always down to team and chilled. 
Earth/ doms are rare in these types of runs so always good to see them. 

 

I'm down. I have Plant/Psi and Mind/Dark.

[Voltak]

41 minutes ago, oedipus_tex said:

 

 

Oh for sure. You can even see in the video a few times where I just straight up clicked the wrong power. The entire opening one the first group is pure sloppiness, where I used Drain Psyche on a random minion instead of the larger group. It was mostly luck that pulled me through that first fight. 

 

Playing with no inspirations at all is IMO always going to be one of those uncomfortable things for me. I get why people do it, but, I am so used to using them that it feels unnatural. 

 

I've done the ITF in groups on this character a lot so I know in that setting draining the enemies safely is mostly possible. Not sure I've ever tried it solo, but usually on ITFs I'm one of the more aggressive team members. Draining the all-boss packs of purple guys and all elite boss packs of Cyclopses is also doable. It's never going to be entirely safe though, because Electric is so point blank in nature. I think if I was playing it with a secondary other than Psi Assault or something else with a heal it would be really painful. I'm exploring Dark Assault as an alternate secondary currently because of the heal + power boost effect for the endurance drain powers and some extra -ToHit for safety. But it will be hard to give up the bonus Recovery and -Regen that Psi Assault has.

We have a team forming up now. You down?  All Doms , ITF 

[oedipus_tex]

11 hours ago, Voltak said:

We have a team forming up now. You down?  All Doms , ITF 

 

 

As long as you're not bothered by me face planting from time to time I'm down. I think my skill level falls somewhere slightly above average, but definitely not elite or competitive levels of play. Playing without inspirations in particular isn't something I have a lot of practice with.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

1 hour ago, oedipus_tex said:

 

 

As long as you're not bothered by me face planting from time to time I'm down. I think my skill level falls somewhere slightly above average, but definitely not elite or competitive levels of play. Playing without inspirations in particular isn't something I have a lot of practice with.

When I first joined the MITF channel I half-jokingly referred to my characters as "the team's official veng bait". It was important to keep expectations lows because, well, that was warranted. Things got particularly ugly, at least at first, when I was still new to the channel and playing melee doms in team-based ITF runs that were +4x8, no insps, no temps, enemies buffed, and players debuffed. When enemies are buffed some EBs can crit for 2,500 hit points of damage (before being reduced by player resists), so you can imagine how rough that could get for an AT with relatively low hit points. 

 

With practice things get better, though.  

 

What counts for a lot is that you know a lot about the game and a lot about how to build and play doms. You'll probably figure out how to make adaptations quite soon after joining some "all dom" +4x8 ITF runs. 

 

It would be fun to team with you. 🙂 

[oedipus_tex]

8 minutes ago, EnjoyTheJourney said:

When I first joined the MITF channel I half-jokingly referred to my characters as "the team's official veng bait". It was important to keep expectations lows because, well, that was warranted. Things got particularly ugly, at least at first, when I was still new to the channel and playing melee doms in team-based ITF runs that were +4x8, no insps, no temps, enemies buffed, and players debuffed. When enemies are buffed some EBs can crit for 2,500 hit points of damage (before being reduced by player resists), so you can imagine how rough that could get for an AT with relatively low hit points. 

 

With practice things get better, though.  

 

What counts for a lot is that you know a lot about the game and a lot about how to build and play doms. You'll probably figure out how to make adaptations quite soon after joining some "all dom" +4x8 ITF runs. 

 

It would be fun to team with you. 🙂 

 

 

Given those parameters, I'd want to think a bit about which Dominator to bring. I have a lot to pick from, but most aren't completed builds. I almost never actually finish a build before moving to a new character.

 

A ranged damage approach immediately shouts "Fiery Assault" to me, although there are some other options worth considering. Dark Assault has proven itself to work well because hit point recovery is always precious on a Dominator. I can see maybe Savage doing okay.

 

I'm still utterly stunned to see Earth Assault not eating pavement though. I don't think I could pull that off. Grats to Topography for proving its possible.

[Voltak]

Me as a player before joining Master ITF and after joining .... two very different players. 
I have learned and evolved alot.  
I have learned about building, what works, what works well, what works somewhat, and so on.
I learned tactics, techniques, awareness and so on...

All those things helped me in the other areas and content of the game. 

But most of all, I started having more and more fun after joining. 

It is a matter of fun.  Dying is no big deal because the team does not make it a big deal. 
The only who will make dying a big deal is the player who dies if she or he wants it to be. 

I remember @midnight used to die a lot and she has evolved greatly.  But it was never a big deal, she even used all of that in humor. 

She is one of my favorite players to team with now because she plays builds that are not often seen and she makes them work beautifully.