Reasons Your Dominator Isn't As Strong as it Could Be

[oedipus_tex]

Thanks to all who participated in this thread. Based on the conversations I am going to revisit the single target blaps in some of my current builds to see if I can make them work. I may find that with all of the added Incarnate abilities and IOs that it is easier to incorporate slots for blaps that classically I wouldn't have.

[honoraryorange]

You can get pretty close to capping all positional defenses with power boost + link Minds and IO bonuses. I had a build that did this on my elec/energy but I didn't actually need that much defense when nothing has endurance to attack.

Does Power Boost actually work with Link Minds? I've heard conflicting reports. I know that Pine's said it does but I've also heard people say that it doesn't work when testing in game.

 

You got me wondering so I did a quick test and it DOES NOT. I'm gobsmacked  I guess I should have been following rule number 4 in the OP. I

 

Wait, what? It literally says it works for Defense buffs. Sounds like a bug?

 

Did you try Clarion as well maybe? I know Clarion's +Special works with it, and powers like Fade on my /dark Controller.

 

 

[oedipus_tex]

If I remember right, any power that has a Resistance component, no matter how small, cannot be boosted with Power Boost. If I recall accurately, there's a technical reason for this buried in how damage Resistance interacts with Damage. The upshot is Power Boost won't work with the following powers:

 

- Cold Domination Ice Shields (they have Fire/Cold resist)

- Storm, Cold, or Dark Miasma auras

- Sonic or Thermals shields (obviously)

- Force Field's Personal Force Field

 

Defense powers that do not include a Resistance component are boosted. These include:

 

- Force Field's bubbles (in direct contrast to Cold)

- Time Manipulation's Farsight power

 

 

 

[Nic Mercy]

I prefer not to take Hasten on my Doms. Instead I build for 130% global recharge so I can leave Domination on autofire cause I can't be bothered to keep track of hitting Dom before it falls off when Hasten is set to auto. What can I say, I'm lazy and have a low attention span, but 130% global recharge from sets/lotgs does the trick!

 

I also prefer to build for S/L/E defense over ranged defense. I feel like it provides more comprehensive coverage than ranged does but that's just my opinion.

 

Also:

 

Defense powers that do not include a Resistance component are boosted. These include:

 

- Force Field's bubbles (in direct contrast to Cold)

- Time Manipulation's Farsight power

 

While not obvious (and certainly not as potent), Power Boost will boost the small defense bonus granted by Group Invisibility in Illusion Control and the boost lasts for the entire duration of Group Invisibility just like it does for Farsight. An Ill/Time controller can get a lot of defense mileage from Power Boost + Farsight + Group Invis

[Adeon Hawkwood]

Wait, what? It literally says it works for Defense buffs. Sounds like a bug?

 

Did you try Clarion as well maybe? I know Clarion's +Special works with it, and powers like Fade on my /dark Controller.

In general Power Boost and Clarion do not work with any power that has an enhanceable resistance component. The reason is that those powers have to be set to ignore external buffs because if they didn't then any damage buffs you have would also buff the resistance component of the power due to some complicated logic for how resistance works under the hood.

 

Powers that have an non-enhanceable resistance component are a mixed bag. They can work with power boost since only the individual resistance component needs to be unaffected. However the devs weren't always 100% consistent in how they implemented powers so while both Deflection Shield and Mind Link have non-enhacnceable resistance effects the former is affected by power boost while the latter isn't.

 

Now Fade is an interesting example. Going by the standard power design rules it should not be affected by Power Boost but it is. So there are two possibilities. The first is that the devs screwed up and the resistance component of the power is impacted by damage buffs. The second is that they fixed the whole damage buffs buffing resistance in some other way but never got around to applying that to older powers.

 

I keep meaning to test how Fade interacts with damage buffs but I never get around to it. So if you've got some time maybe you could try? Use a bunch of Red inspirations and then cast Fade. Does it give a higher resistance buff than it should?

[KelvinKole]

You can get pretty close to capping all positional defenses with power boost + link Minds and IO bonuses. I had a build that did this on my elec/energy but I didn't actually need that much defense when nothing has endurance to attack.

Does Power Boost actually work with Link Minds? I've heard conflicting reports. I know that Pine's said it does but I've also heard people say that it doesn't work when testing in game.

 

You got me wondering so I did a quick test and it DOES NOT. I'm gobsmacked  I guess I should have been following rule number 4 in the OP. I

 

Wait, what? It literally says it works for Defense buffs. Sounds like a bug?

 

Did you try Clarion as well maybe? I know Clarion's +Special works with it, and powers like Fade on my /dark Controller.

 

I did try clarion as well and it also DID NOT work. There are good explanations above as to why they are not working and whether we choose to call it a "bug" or not I would certainly say it's broken. Power Boost, to my knowledge, doesn't affect any damage buffs, so there should be no issue it can't affect defense buffs with a resistance component. Having access to a power that is advertised to increase Defense buffs but then not allowing it to affect the defense buff powers that we have access leaves you feeling a bit cheated.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

I did try clarion as well and it also DID NOT work. There are good explanations above as to why they are not working and whether we choose to call it a "bug" or not I would certainly say it's broken. Power Boost, to my knowledge, doesn't affect any damage buffs, so there should be no issue it can't affect defense buffs with a resistance component. Having access to a power that is advertised to increase Defense buffs but then not allowing it to affect the defense buff powers that we have access leaves you feeling a bit cheated.

You've got the cause and effect backwards. The issue isn't "Power Boost doesn't buff these powers" it's "these powers don't benefit from buffs". It doesn't matter whether or not Power Boost has a damage buff, the powers that it doesn't affect don't benefit from ANY external buffs and CAN'T benefit from external buffs without causing problems (specifically if they could benefit form external buffs then you could use Red inspirations to buff your damage resistance as well as your damage).

 

The thing with Power Boost is it doesn't specifically modify powers, it functions more like Build Up just for Buffs and Debuffs. Build Up gives you a damage buff that increases the damage of any powers you use. In the same way Power Boost gives you an increase to most types of Buffs, Debuff and Controls. The issue is that some Defense powers are coded to ignore all buffs of that type.

[KelvinKole]

I did try clarion as well and it also DID NOT work. There are good explanations above as to why they are not working and whether we choose to call it a "bug" or not I would certainly say it's broken. Power Boost, to my knowledge, doesn't affect any damage buffs, so there should be no issue it can't affect defense buffs with a resistance component. Having access to a power that is advertised to increase Defense buffs but then not allowing it to affect the defense buff powers that we have access leaves you feeling a bit cheated.

You've got the cause and effect backwards. The issue isn't "Power Boost doesn't buff these powers" it's "these powers don't benefit from buffs". It doesn't matter whether or not Power Boost has a damage buff, the powers that it doesn't affect don't benefit from ANY external buffs and CAN'T benefit from external buffs without causing problems (specifically if they could benefit form external buffs then you could use Red inspirations to buff your damage resistance as well as your damage).

 

The thing with Power Boost is it doesn't specifically modify powers, it functions more like Build Up just for Buffs and Debuffs. Build Up gives you a damage buff that increases the damage of any powers you use. In the same way Power Boost gives you an increase to most types of Buffs, Debuff and Controls. The issue is that some Defense powers are coded to ignore all buffs of that type.

 

I do understand the relationship, I'm just saying it seems like lazy coding to just make certain powers not benefit from any external buffs rather than create the right rules so powers like power boost work as they are supposed to and red inspirations don't increase your resistance.

 

I also know nothing about coding.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

I do understand the relationship, I'm just saying it seems like lazy coding to just make certain powers not benefit from any external buffs rather than create the right rules so powers like power boost work as they are supposed to and red inspirations don't increase your resistance.

 

I also know nothing about coding.

The problem that the relationship was part of the core power code of the game. It was also done back when Power Boost was only available to Blasters so it's understandable why they didn't consider the relationship. As for why, I can think of a few reasons that they might want to do it both to decrease memory usage for the game and simply the damage calculations.

[Hedgefund]

I would add to the list of what could make your Dom stronger an item I consider as important as the insp one - you're not using base empowerment buffs.  Most specifically the "increase attack speed" empowerment which provides an additional +20 recharge for 90 minutes.  You know how you wouldn't blink an eye at spending 150-200M inf for 20% recharge?  All this costs is 1 uncommon and 2 common pieces of salvage.

 

The other buffs range from equally great to, at worst, helpful. 

 

In my vault I keep a big stack of each of the 3 types of salvage needed for recharge.  I tend to just peruse the other buffs and craft what I can with whatever salvage is on me.

 

 

[Riverdusk]

I would add to the list of what could make your Dom stronger an item I consider as important as the insp one - you're not using base empowerment buffs.  Most specifically the "increase attack speed" empowerment which provides an additional +20 recharge for 90 minutes.  You know how you wouldn't blink an eye at spending 150-200M inf for 20% recharge?  All this costs is 1 uncommon and 2 common pieces of salvage.

 

The other buffs range from equally great to, at worst, helpful. 

 

In my vault I keep a big stack of each of the 3 types of salvage needed for recharge.  I tend to just peruse the other buffs and craft what I can with whatever salvage is on me.

 

Same.  And it is easier than ever now to keep base buffs up by using the slash command /enterbasefrompasscode <your base passcode> . It will tp you to your base from wherever, when done use the exit portal and it will put you right back to where you were before the tp.  Literally takes just a few seconds to get that 1.5 hour buff now.