Illusion's Phantom Army and its knockbacks

[Meknomancer]

So how are people slotting this, it sems as if they are kb'ing mobs all over but if you toss in the overwhelming you lose out on either a) recharge or b) soulbounds proc. Or are they unaffected by SB proc? And will the overwhelming prevent the kb?

[SeraphimKensai]

They will benefit from soulbound proc. You could try 2 +5 lvl 50 recharge IOs, the soulbound proc. You could do an overwhelming force proc, and then add 2 more damage procs to round out the power.

Edited October 21, 2022 by SeraphimKensai

[WitchofDread]

At the moment I have 4 expedient reinforcement, the soulbound proc, and 1 +5 lvl 5 Recharge IO.

[Meknomancer]

I have been running 4 expedite and 2 soulbound including the bu but the kb is getting annoying but so is my secondary, turns out thorns has a kb in it too. If i drop the soulbound dmg/rech for an overwhelming kb/kd it won't be perma anymore. Might just have to wait for mids update or hope the ff+rech in my st attack goes off often enough.

 

So if @SeraphimKensai is correct can you get away with 0 accuracy slotted? The slotting sounds good but i'd be giving up the expedites recharge bonus.

 

I have been playing it a lot and keeping an eye on the soulbound proc firing off so i will definitely keep that the damage is quite impressive but i didnt notice if they were being affected by my alpha yet although its only the tier 1 intuition so far, it would be nice if the damage component kicks in at tier 3.

[Xiddo]

I didn’t think the proc would fire as they can’t be buffed? Then again, this will be my first illusion too so am very open to advice!

on the test I didn’t notice the KB at all. Played it a fair amount. However I was using with /energy so might’ve missed it. I didn’t slot it with a converter - city of data says that should only hurl should be KB?

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/entity.html?entity=pets_decoy_dominator

 

 

 

[SeraphimKensai]

1 hour ago, Meknomancer said:

I have been running 4 expedite and 2 soulbound including the bu but the kb is getting annoying but so is my secondary, turns out thorns has a kb in it too. If i drop the soulbound dmg/rech for an overwhelming kb/kd it won't be perma anymore. Might just have to wait for mids update or hope the ff+rech in my st attack goes off often enough.

 

So if @SeraphimKensai is correct can you get away with 0 accuracy slotted? The slotting sounds good but i'd be giving up the expedites recharge bonus.

 

I have been playing it a lot and keeping an eye on the soulbound proc firing off so i will definitely keep that the damage is quite impressive but i didnt notice if they were being affected by my alpha yet although its only the tier 1 intuition so far, it would be nice if the damage component kicks in at tier 3.

You can definitely slot a +5 Acc or something if you want, or a +3 Nucleus or such.

[Frosticus]

Are you fighting enemies below your level? 

PA shouldn't be knocking enemies back, just down.

 

Phantasm on the other hand....welcome to knockback city.

 

PA definitely benefits from the BU proc in soulbound. It makes a significant difference. 

[SeraphimKensai]

6 minutes ago, Frosticus said:

Are you fighting enemies below your level?  

It has three attacks with a 0.67 oh which should knock down, I figured they might be using at low levels for a synapse tf or such since clockwork are weak to kb.

[Frosticus]

13 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

It has three attacks with a 0.67 oh which should knock down, I figured they might be using at low levels for a synapse tf or such since clockwork are weak to kb.

ya clockworks would do it too.

 

I guess there is a chance if all PA attacks hit close enough together it could knockback a normal target too.

[SeraphimKensai]

1 minute ago, Frosticus said:

ya clockworks would do it too.

 

I guess there is a chance if all PA attacks hit close enough together it could knockback a normal target too.

But yeah you're right about Phantasm, Energy Torrent has a ~6.2 mag on to it which is enough to toss most mobs and it's a cone.

[Frosticus]

9 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

But yeah you're right about Phantasm, Energy Torrent has a ~6.2 mag on to it which is enough to toss most mobs and it's a cone.

It gets worse! When phantasm summons the decoy the dam thing does the knockback cone too!

[QuiJon]

I did ill/psi. Frankly I am finding illusion to be lacking without an AOE immb. I would much rather the set had lost the invisibility power and given us a aoe immb. Gonna try the anti knock back ios but frankly even just stunned large mobs are wandering all over and just making the set feel messy. Might retry with fire or some thing and just stay ranged.

[Meknomancer]

@FrosticusI wasn't running against low level enemies, everything i've tried it against (moonfire/leviathan/ToT mobs) have been even level to+3. The 0.67 hurl from PA doesn't seem like it warrants an overwhelming in and i really don't want to remove it from Phanty as its essential there to stop energy torrent's massive knock. I did not consider Phanty's decoy as the source of the problem but its possible he's not being affected by the overwhelming.

 

@WitchofDread are you getting perma PA that way ( i assume you are) and is the damage enough without the soulbound proc?

 

@QuiJon i have to agree no aoe immob means the set is basically chaotic which some will find a lot of fun and others will find very annoying. But its not terrible, with spectral terror and flash you can keep the mob tight and i run with Thorny so i can toss out thorntrops too to keep stuff slowed down in a tight area. But i play it entirely at range. Page 5 QoL fix didn't do anything to help my powerpicks i still took the tier 1 from secondary with no slots and removed it from tray as it was either that or a melee attack which i had no slots for either. I am thinking of trying it with either dark or fire on another server but neither of those will help controlling the mobs, i'm not sure what the best secondary would be. Possibly just remove all kb/kd and go for energy and play like a madman, as 1 player said to me last night, if the mobs on its arse you aren't getting hit.

[WitchofDread]

@Meknomancertbh I need to check the recharge time. I have Ageless core tier 4 and its just off perma. I have the soulbound proc slotted as well.

[Seed22]

6 hours ago, QuiJon said:

I did ill/psi. Frankly I am finding illusion to be lacking without an AOE immb. I would much rather the set had lost the invisibility power and given us a aoe immb. Gonna try the anti knock back ios but frankly even just stunned large mobs are wandering all over and just making the set feel messy. Might retry with fire or some thing and just stay ranged.

I have an Ill/Psi/Ice. Hold out, it's worth it. With sleet and Shockwave things start dying fast enough to say screw the immob.

 

Oh! and grab Intuition Radial T4 and you'll see a substantial boost in damage I'd say.

[Meknomancer]

Slots are so tight on domi's i'm considering just 4-5 slotting PA with 4 expedite and a soulbound proc/boosted rech io. They are a great source of damage but without troller version of taunt i feel the need to build in more defence even if it means they aren't perma anymore and its hard enough to get enough def+rech on domi' as it is without sacrificing attacks/primary controls.

 

Tried it with 4 boosted expedite the acc/dmg and all the rech bits and its not perma and i notice the massive damage drop off, seems like 6 slotting is the only way to go. Proc wise i don't see explosive strike doing anything which only leaves the soulbound and overwhelming and i dont think they need the kb/kd in. Not sure if having 2 soulbound in for the regen bonus is making any difference whatsoever on domi's with no heal and no hp to start with so it looks like 4 expedite and a soulbound proc and a boosted rech io is the way to go as @WitchofDread recommended.

[QuiJon]

9 hours ago, Meknomancer said:

i have to agree no aoe immob means the set is basically chaotic which some will find a lot of fun and others will find very annoying. But its not terrible, with spectral terror and flash you can keep the mob tight and i run with Thorny so i can toss out thorntrops too to keep stuff slowed down in a tight area. But i play it entirely at range. Page 5 QoL fix didn't do anything to help my powerpicks i still took the tier 1 from secondary with no slots and removed it from tray as it was either that or a melee attack which i had no slots for either. I am thinking of trying it with either dark or fire on another server but neither of those will help controlling the mobs, i'm not sure what the best secondary would be. Possibly just remove all kb/kd and go for energy and play like a madman, as 1 player said to me last night, if the mobs on its arse you aren't getting hit.

The thing for me is that the immb aoe prevents the knockback. If the set had one then having to sacrifice slotting in the pets would be avoided. But IMO in its current state it is quite a bit more lacking for a melee - ish approach then other sets. Both Psi and Dark kind of live around the PBAOE attacks. And i have a Fire/Dark that plays just like butter. My AOE immb is slotted up with procs, it keeps the mobs tight even when stunned and the PBAOE attack keeps the mobs at a tohit disadvantage even if they live long enough to wake up. But i just dont feel that illusion/dark would even be able to do this all that well. 

 

I really just feel that over all the invisibility is not good for anything in combat just sneaking missions really. So i feel like it is a waste of a power choice for the most part. Where as in playing the aoe immb is definately missed. 

[QuiJon]

4 hours ago, Seed22 said:

I have an Ill/Psi/Ice. Hold out, it's worth it. With sleet and Shockwave things start dying fast enough to say screw the immob.

 

Oh! and grab Intuition Radial T4 and you'll see a substantial boost in damage I'd say.

Yeah that is the route i have gone also. But Doms are such low HPs that it only takes one or two hits by a Lt or Boss in the +4 game to put you on your ass. So having that slip in control to me is just much more dangerous, much more then it is worth. And IMO the invisibility is only good for cheating through levels and skipping playable content, and i would much rather push myself to make a toon that can play through the content then take one power that allows me to take the easy way out. 

[Meknomancer]

Illusion on domi's has way more control than on a controller. Mag 4 immob over spectral wounds and gleam instead of group invis (which is an insta skip every time for me). I love having superior invis it lets you get ahead of the team and dominations confuse on hard target av's is far better than the controller version. Currently giving /energy a try instead of trying to prevent the kb's i am slotting ff+rech in anywhere they can go and tossing an explosive strike into Phanty. Recharge is now at silly high levels so much so that domination isn't keeping up with the endurance and causing issues. i ended up having to take conserve power which i didn't mind as i wanted energy torrent anyway but i think it will force me into ageless. It can't be played as a control type AT but i found that was almost the case with /thorny too. Instead i just play it as an energyx2 blapper its tons of fun.

[Meknomancer]

And domi secondary's really help out if you went /dark /energy /earth the power boost type power in secondary makes a huge difference.

[Frosticus]

PA

If musculature core then I use the following slotting:

4 piece Expedient Reinforcement (don't use resist proc, or acc/dam) all +5

2 piece Soulbound - proc and +5 acc/rech

=95"% acc, 125% dam, 59% end, 99% rech

 

They provide good damage and can "control" a boss well enough (which I don't need on a dom, but oh well). They don't hold a candle to the troller version though.

 

As an aside if mobs are fleeing you then you might have to forgo casting spec terror. Things that brush off the fear are still affected by the afraid (run) part of it. So AV's can get pretty squirrely. 

 

 

[Meknomancer]

I am going to drop the boosted rech io for sure, just ran Kane and had perma PA and then some thanks to the ff procs, same for sutter, not sure how low i can go and still keep it perma but i'm thinking whatever level sniper blast got picked at. Thanks for posting that @Frosticus i'll try that out on the /thorny. The /energy still runs 4 expedite (no dam/end or resist) 2 soulbound (proc+dmg/rech) not sure what the math is on those i think your end and acc is better and my extra damage is irrelevant.

[Brohole1]

On 10/22/2022 at 11:17 AM, Seed22 said:

I have an Ill/Psi/Ice. Hold out, it's worth it. With sleet and Shockwave things start dying fast enough to say screw the immob.

 

Oh! and grab Intuition Radial T4 and you'll see a substantial boost in damage I'd say.

 

Can you share your build? I'm trying this set too and it feels very fun to play. Trying to figure out how to build/slot the set with hover/fly.

[pearbear]

Can someone explain why are people slotting the Soulbound Allegiance proc in PA? I'm not understanding why this is a good power for that and want to know what I'm missing.

[Carnifax]

14 minutes ago, pearbear said:

Can someone explain why are people slotting the Soulbound Allegiance proc in PA? I'm not understanding why this is a good power for that and want to know what I'm missing.

The Soulbound Proc allows the PAs to occasionally Build Up themselves for a few seconds of extra damage. And since there's 3 of them it goes off reasonably often. PAs can buff themselves it turns out. 

 

2nd is to max out Recharge, boost Acc and get the 2 set bonus because you may as well.