Illusion/Energy help & suggestions

[brasilgringo]

Hi team - I'd heard from a few folks that Illusion/Energy is one of the most damaging dom combos you can get, and I was always interested to try the Energy Focus mechanic of Energy on doms.

 

That said, I'm having trouble coming up with a build -- I've heard varying suggstions on taking Force of Will pool for the single-target -RES (Weaken Resolve with the Achilles' -RES proc) and power-boosted (Power Up) Unleash Potential (which looks like 1 min uptime for 2 mins downtime at max recharge).  

 

I also can't decide whether to skip the Ice epic and Sleet  (which I always thought was a must-have on doms) in order to go for Psi (I had a vote given for Link Minds again with Power Up's power boost) and the Res shield, or even Fire epic (for Res shield and Fireball).

 

I also can't decide whether to just 4-slot Blind (with Basilisk for the recharge bonus) or to 6 slot it for proc damage.  I put the  Dom ATO +dmg proc into Total Focus as I figured it had a higher chance to proc there (vs. Blind) -- and that you could go TF->Whirling Hands and I think get the bonus damage from energy focus?

 

I also can't seem to get Phant Army truly perma, but 65 secs vs. 60 duration seems like it would be OK.

 

And I guess I'm OK with Whirling Hands being the only meaningful AOE given its relatively fast recharge and 15-radius on doms.

 

I'm tempted to just leave all defense numbers around 18%-20% (with Weave and Superior Invis and the the +def procs) and then eat medium purples all the time to soft-cap ( or get team buffs).  Pursuing higher defense via frozen armor or sets seems unnecessary.  If the idea is to go balls-out damage with Energy on doms, how to get there?

 

Anyway, here are some builds and I'd appreciate some suggestions/feedback.  

Dominator - Ill-Nrg-Ice_NoFrozPlusUnleash.mxd Dominator - Ill-Nrg-Ice_NoFroz.mxd Dominator - Ill-Nrg-Fire.mxd Dominator - Ill-Nrg-Psi-Unleash.mxd

[Mezmera]

6 hours ago, brasilgringo said:

Hi team - I'd heard from a few folks that Illusion/Energy is one of the most damaging dom combos you can get, and I was always interested to try the Energy Focus mechanic of Energy on doms.

 

My new Illusion/Nrg/Soul is an animal you've heard correct.

 

6 hours ago, brasilgringo said:

 

That said, I'm having trouble coming up with a build -- I've heard varying suggstions on taking Force of Will pool for the single-target -RES (Weaken Resolve with the Achilles' -RES proc) and power-boosted (Power Up) Unleash Potential (which looks like 1 min uptime for 2 mins downtime at max recharge).  

 

I do go with Force of Will pool myself for power boosted Unleash Potential and Weaken Resolve with the Achilles proc.  I build in good defenses on my doms and then let that major defense from Unleash Potential carry me to high numbers.  This lets me not to have to chase all defense bonuses but target the good ones and build for other things since that one power can do so much more for me for when my controls aren't recharged to keep targets from attacking me.  

 

6 hours ago, brasilgringo said:

 

I also can't decide whether to skip the Ice epic and Sleet  (which I always thought was a must-have on doms) in order to go for Psi (I had a vote given for Link Minds again with Power Up's power boost) and the Res shield, or even Fire epic (for Res shield and Fireball).

 

Rarely do I go with the Ice pool.  It's such a one dimensional Epic Pool when there's so many good ones on doms.  I can take Dark Consumption from Soul Mastery and drop a Fury of the Gladiator -res proc into it for nearly the same effect as Sleet granted at a longer recharge, but you're building for recharge on doms so it should recharge well enough anyways.  Based on the recharge of this power it will fire any proc you toss in there on 90% of the targets.  So not only are you getting almost equivalent -res to Sleet but you're capable of detonating all kinds of damage plus it fills back your endurance bar all in this one power.  Then you get access to Soul Drain, Dark Obliteration and the resistance shield which are all great powers of their own.  

 

I'd have a look at what all powers there are from the Epic Pools because any time I consider making a dom I consider what primary, secondary and epic pool I will use.  

 

6 hours ago, brasilgringo said:

 

I also can't decide whether to just 4-slot Blind (with Basilisk for the recharge bonus) or to 6 slot it for proc damage.  I put the  Dom ATO +dmg proc into Total Focus as I figured it had a higher chance to proc there (vs. Blind) -- and that you could go TF->Whirling Hands and I think get the bonus damage from energy focus?

 

Total Focus is a nice power to put this ATO.  Personally I don't like splitting that set up and put all 6 into my most used ST control like the hold.  

 

6 hours ago, brasilgringo said:

 

I also can't seem to get Phant Army truly perma, but 65 secs vs. 60 duration seems like it would be OK.

 

And I guess I'm OK with Whirling Hands being the only meaningful AOE given its relatively fast recharge and 15-radius on doms.

 

Whirling Hands is very bland.  It doesn't do extra damage like when they first revamped Energy it now has the gimmick where it insta recharges with the release mechanic which doesn't matter much since it recharged super fast anyways so they halved the damage for double the animation.  

 

The bread and butter of Energy is Total Focus, Power Burst with +dmg from release, Bone Smasher with +debuff from release, and Snipe.  

6 hours ago, brasilgringo said:

 

I'm tempted to just leave all defense numbers around 18%-20% (with Weave and Superior Invis and the the +def procs) and then eat medium purples all the time to soft-cap ( or get team buffs).  Pursuing higher defense via frozen armor or sets seems unnecessary.  If the idea is to go balls-out damage with Energy on doms, how to get there?

 

Proc'ing long recharge powers like Total Focus and Snipe are the way to go.  The rest of the powers have high recharge values so procs are wasted elsewhere which is where I use sets in those ones.  I always build for a decent amount of defense around 35-45% positionals and let Unleash Potential and Barrier Destiny carry my defenses high when I need it especially when my aoe controls are a ways off from recharging.  

 

6 hours ago, brasilgringo said:

 

Anyway, here are some builds and I'd appreciate some suggestions/feedback.  Slee

Dominator - Ill-Nrg-Ice_NoFrozPlusUnleash.mxd 5 kB · 1 download Dominator - Ill-Nrg-Ice_NoFroz.mxd 4.96 kB · 1 download Dominator - Ill-Nrg-Fire.mxd 4.98 kB · 1 download Dominator - Ill-Nrg-Psi-Unleash.mxd 5.05 kB · 1 download

 

[Frosticus]

Sleet is really good, but it shines best on teams or on doms with  a bit more aoe.

 

That isn't to say it isn't desirable on a single target dom of course. It is up to 45 second -30% res debuff. I stack it easily on my ill/sav/ice on anything that lives long enough. 

 

You'll want to solve your endurance woes and I'm not sure if adding in sleet  to the start of a fight will aid in that goal.

 

PA, TF , snipe, and powerburst already use an unmodified 78.2 endurance. Sleet would take that up to 101 endurance. Domination and slotting likely won't cover you if you play at a decent pace. 

 

Procd blind vs TF for the ato? It is always 2-3 stacked for me in blind and I prefer triggering it from range. You have the 6th slot free in blind if procing, less so in TF.

I use confuse if I need long lasting single target control, which isn't that common. 

 

Perma PA is not needed. They are really only supplemental damage.  They have mediocre control and you just standing there  can basically pull aggro off of them.

[brasilgringo]

Thanks @Mezmeraand @Frosticus.  Updated build attached that goes into Soul for the res shield (Dark Embrace) and then includes Dark Consumption and Soul Drain.

I am still really slot-starved so I decided to proc out Soul Drain (which has a 15-radius) vs. Dark Consumption (8ft radius).  I put the base slot in Dark Consumption with End/Rchg +5 so it says it will be up every 100 secs or so - maybe that's enough to help with Endo issues or not.  Soul Drain I hope will have a reasonable chance to fire the build-up proc and other procs given its recharge, and the 15' radius (same as WH) hopefully allows for some decent AOE (even with target cap).

 

Too slot starved to proc out Blind (6slot) or to fit in Spooky (Spectral Terror) w/o giving something up.  

 

I have put Ageless and Intuition incarnates into the build as well (turn them off to see base stats).    

 

LMK what you think.  thx!

 

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[Mezmera]

5 hours ago, brasilgringo said:

Thanks @Mezmeraand @Frosticus.  Updated build attached that goes into Soul for the res shield (Dark Embrace) and then includes Dark Consumption and Soul Drain.

 

I like to slot the shield with 4 Unbreakable Guards with the hp unique and the other 2 resist uniques unless if I also take Tough which I will 3 slot and put those defense uniques there.  Don't sleep on Dark Obliteration its a great ranged aoe blast with nearly the same dpa as Whirling Hands per target with a higher target count, a 1s animation and better adaptable range.

 

5 hours ago, brasilgringo said:

I am still really slot-starved so I decided to proc out Soul Drain (which has a 15-radius) vs. Dark Consumption (8ft radius).  I put the base slot in Dark Consumption with End/Rchg +5 so it says it will be up every 100 secs or so - maybe that's enough to help with Endo issues or not.  Soul Drain I hope will have a reasonable chance to fire the build-up proc and other procs given its recharge, and the 15' radius (same as WH) hopefully allows for some decent AOE (even with target cap).

 

Yeah I had to make some hard decisions about slotting.  I like to slot Soul Drain with 5 Superior Avalanche and the Gaussian proc if I don't have tactics.  Soul Drain is far too good of a boost to your damage so I like to get this one to recharge fast and its a nice pbaoe damage power of its own.  Dark Consumption is your mighty proc power which that -res proc is big against AVs and along with Weaken Resolve with the Achilles its real noticeable how much faster AVs whittle down.  This is a very optimal proc power and hitting 2-3 targets will fill your blue bar back up regardless, at minimum I like to 3 slot DC with a 50+5 Dmg/Acc/Rech Armageddon and the dmg proc plus the Fury -res proc.  

 

5 hours ago, brasilgringo said:

 

Too slot starved to proc out Blind (6slot) or to fit in Spooky (Spectral Terror) w/o giving something up.  

 

I have put Ageless and Intuition incarnates into the build as well (turn them off to see base stats).    

 

LMK what you think.  thx!

 

I can see 4 slotting Blind sure.  I do take Spooky and 4 slot him with 4 Clouded Senses.  The powers I skip on Illusion are the Immob and t9 pet (he's tissue paper tough).

 

The incarnates I use are Agility, Diamagnetic, Barrier and Assault double hit. 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Mezmera

[brasilgringo]

This is what I'm currently testing out.

 

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[Galamane]

On 11/7/2022 at 8:45 PM, Mezmera said:

 

My new Illusion/Nrg/Soul is an animal you've heard correct.

 

 

I do go with Force of Will pool myself for power boosted Unleash Potential and Weaken Resolve with the Achilles proc.  I build in good defenses on my doms and then let that major defense from Unleash Potential carry me to high numbers.  This lets me not to have to chase all defense bonuses but target the good ones and build for other things since that one power can do so much more for me for when my controls aren't recharged to keep targets from attacking me.  

 

 

Rarely do I go with the Ice pool.  It's such a one dimensional Epic Pool when there's so many good ones on doms.  I can take Dark Consumption from Soul Mastery and drop a Fury of the Gladiator -res proc into it for nearly the same effect as Sleet granted at a longer recharge, but you're building for recharge on doms so it should recharge well enough anyways.  Based on the recharge of this power it will fire any proc you toss in there on 90% of the targets.  So not only are you getting almost equivalent -res to Sleet but you're capable of detonating all kinds of damage plus it fills back your endurance bar all in this one power.  Then you get access to Soul Drain, Dark Obliteration and the resistance shield which are all great powers of their own.  

 

I'd have a look at what all powers there are from the Epic Pools because any time I consider making a dom I consider what primary, secondary and epic pool I will use.  

 

 

Total Focus is a nice power to put this ATO.  Personally I don't like splitting that set up and put all 6 into my most used ST control like the hold.  

 

 

Whirling Hands is very bland.  It doesn't do extra damage like when they first revamped Energy it now has the gimmick where it insta recharges with the release mechanic which doesn't matter much since it recharged super fast anyways so they halved the damage for double the animation.  

 

The bread and butter of Energy is Total Focus, Power Burst with +dmg from release, Bone Smasher with +debuff from release, and Snipe.  

 

Proc'ing long recharge powers like Total Focus and Snipe are the way to go.  The rest of the powers have high recharge values so procs are wasted elsewhere which is where I use sets in those ones.  I always build for a decent amount of defense around 35-45% positionals and let Unleash Potential and Barrier Destiny carry my defenses high when I need it especially when my aoe controls are a ways off from recharging.  

 

 

Hey would you mind posting your build. Thx