Plant/psi end game

[Griffin]

What are the thoughts on this combo? I just came back to the game and have one sitting in  the esrly 30s, but I was reading thst psi is not very good end game.  I really like the build in mids - awesome def/resist numbers and perma dom. I am just wondering if I should reroll to a different attack set.  
 

all thoughts appreciated.  
Thanks!

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Psi assault is a very reasonable pick for an assault set. 

Drain psyche is one of the main jewels of the set. It's a strong debuff against harder targets. It makes endurance management much easier. It handles incoming chip damage quite well. Also, unless it was recently changed and City of Data is now incorrect, psy shockwave is the only assault set PbAOE that hits up to 16 targets, instead of the default maximum of 10 targets*. Psy shockwave applies a default 20 second duration, 50% recharge debuff to mobs that it hits; even with purple patch effects in play that still noticeably slows down incoming damage from a wide swathe of enemies. In the end, psy shockwave makes handling crowds easier. As well, the melee single target attacks hit hard, as does the snipe.  

Procs and telekinetic thrust offer some diversification from psychic damage, which helps when fighting mobs that heavily resist psy damage. 

* Other than thunderstrike, but it has quite low damage for the AOE component

Edited July 7 by EnjoyTheJourney

[EnjoyTheJourney]

If you'd rather not share your build, then that is (of course) totally up to you. But, if you are OK with sharing it then hopefully you won't mind posting it in a response to this thread. 

You can get more build-specific help that way. Also, for those who frequent this forum it's always welcome to see a thoughtfully put together dominator build plan. 

[Snokle]

So I think the psi resistance think is a bit overrated. Yes robots have high pain resistance and some AVs do as well. But all in all there is a lot who have no resistance and you can really lay into that.

 

Also if you were worried, the two main melee attacks have great proc quality, as well as the range immob attack. Drain Psyche is the bees knees for it, as well as psychic shockwave.

 

Once you add plant to it you will be a monster running through mobs. Plant is extremely procable with vines, roots, and carrion doing some massive work, adding in the handy -def as well.

 

This can be an AOE hoser with some solid ST chain attacks. Epic/Patron would be more personal but with the little extra they add you can be a beast.

[Griffin]

I appreciate the responses.  I don't mind posting my build but I want to reconfigure it a bit (it's from several years ago before they changed the levels powers are available). Right now it's a plant/psi/cold build with good defense and high recharge.  Will try to post it tomorrow. 

Edited July 8 by Griffin

[Griffin]

I had some time this evening to update and work on the build. let me know what you think.

 

*edit*

 

i am bad at this, not sure how to export so it shows more detail than just the data chunk.  Putting a screenshot below. Also, how do i increase regular IOs to be +5? Can't remember how to do that.

 

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Edited July 9 by Griffin

[EnjoyTheJourney]

It's probably best to begin with a question about budget. The absence of winter sets, Hami-Os, and D-Synchs, the limited presence of purple sets, and the limited use of damage procs suggests that you'll want to be careful about how much you spend on your dominator. If that's wrong, then please let us know and your build can change a lot. Also, knowing your plans for incarnates (if you've made choices, that is) would be helpful. 

 

Even as is, though, this is a carefully thought out build that should be quite effective in-game. There's a lot to like about it. Key powers are supported with a lot of slots and reasonable IO set choices. Softcap smash / lethal defense helps to screen out quite a bit of damage. Ranged defense isn't capped. But, it is still noticeably higher than the floor and it will also be helpful. You're well over the global recharge floor for permadom, which helps in a number of ways. Hoarfrost is well slotted and should have very good uptime, which noticeably helps survivability. 

 

As a "technical" suggestion, consider switching off "domination" in Mids when evaluating your dominator builds because when it is engaged a temporary "to hit" buff that is only applied for about 15 seconds about every 90 seconds is also engaged; that makes it very hard to see the true likelihood of hitting mobs for the clear majority of the time domination is active. Also, hold down the "shift" key and press the "+" key 5 times while hovering your mouse button over an IO that you'd like to boost to +5. After you've boosted an IO to +5 click on that IO with the mouse to put it into your build with a +5 boost. 

The main limitations of your build would seem to be fourfold:

 

1. Endurance drain is quite close to recovery on a "per second" basis, by default. Thus, if drain psyche misses, which it sometimes will, then endurance can become a problem quite soon. 

2. Resistances are all quite low. When hits get through they will hurt. 

3. Slow resistance seems to not be present in the build. Most of the time this won't matter, especially with such high global recharge. But, when it does matter, it will tend to matter a lot. 

4. Damage could be higher. 

Initial thoughts that might differ quite a bit from (reasonable, definitely worthy of consideration) feedback that you might get from others.

PS: I can't copy the data chunk into Mids and make that work. You can try dragging and dropping the Mids file itself into one of your posts. That would probably be easier to work with than a data chunk.

Edited July 9 by EnjoyTheJourney

[Griffin]

I appreciate the feedback. I didnt intentionally not use purples, I am pretty efficient in the market and can usually get enough inf for most anything. I was building for S/L defense (which may not be the best anymore?) and recharge. I wasnt sure if procs were worth it in some of the AOE stuff. I know in long recharge, single target attacks it is the way to go. Should i be adding more procs to those big AOEs (vines, roots, etc.)? I havent decided on incarnates yet as i was going to see how the build felt before picking them. 

 

As for endurance, i honestly thought between the full bar you get from popping dom, and drain psyche i would be ok. Maybe that will not be the case in practice.

 

Resistance numbers i find were hard to pick up in sets unless specifically going after them. with the s/l defense changes, maybe that should be the priority instead of defense?

 

 

 

Attaching the build file here. 

Psylantt - Dominator (Plant Control - Psionic Assault)....mbd

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Here's an alternative build that you may find interesting, even if in the end you decide to go in another direction. Some key changes ...

1. Noticeably more damage. 
2. A little less global recharge. Still comfortably permadom, though, and with a good amount of slow resist to better protect global recharge from debuffs.
3. More resistances. Hits will still hurt, but a bit less so than earlier. See further down for ways to increase resistances on a temporary basis. 

4. The empty slot in tactics would contain the Gaussian build up proc. On teams it should activate about 3 times per minute, which means about 1/4 of the time there's a good to hit and damage buff active. 

5. No knockback IOs. You cut down on "Freem" knockdowns with those IOs, but most of those will be screened out by your smash / lethal defense. You don't really need them.
6. The superior ascendancy of the dominator damage proc has been placed in subdue. If it's being used regularly in the single target rotation then you can get multiple stacks of that proc active at one time. That should help damage for all powers being used. 

Endurance management is still going to be fine the clear majority of the time, except when drain psyche fails to hit. Haven't really resolved that with the attached build, but maybe it won't happen often enough to be concerned about. 

Your build seems most focused on fighting from range. And there are benefits from doing that. Still, to get more damage out of your build and to leverage the survivability granted by seeds, creepers, and drain psyche, it is absolutely fine to fight in melee. Plus, with this build you can take the barrier core T4 destiny, which boosts defenses further and provides strong "peak survivability" when your dom is receiving a lot of aggro from mobs that hit hard. Also, consider taking melee core hybrid for better mez protection, better resistances when the heat is on your dom, and better regen. 

Hopefully you get some ideas from this that you end up liking. Good luck with your dom, however you decide to move forward. 

Psylantt - Dominator (Plant Control - Psionic Assault - Ice Mastery).mbd

Edited July 9 by EnjoyTheJourney

[Griffin]

wow this looks fantastic. I really appreciate it. I mostly play corrs, so i do tend to stand at range, though i go in and out of melee to get buffs (fulcrum, heatloss, etc). and to nuke. Cant wait to get this thing to 50 now!

 

Thanks again for all the help and feedback!

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Glad to hear you found the build appealing. 

I forgot to tweak the IOs in subdue. You can increase the damage a bit more, get a hit point buff from the apocalypse set, and noticeably improve endurance management by slotting it as follows:

 

Apocalype - Damage / EndRed
Apocalype - Acc / Damage / Recharge
Apocalype - % chance of negative energy damage
Gladiator's Javelin - % toxic damage
Trap of the Hunter - % lethal damage
Superior Ascendancy of the Dominator - % damage buff

You'll still have 97.83% accuracy against +3 mobs with this slotting, even with no to hit buffs from external sources or from the Gaussian build up proc. 

 

 

[Imaginary]

I used to farm with my purpled out plant / psi on live. I'm rebuilding it soon, but in my recollection it's fine late game.