Gravity/Arsenal dom trying to choose a "heal" power.

[normalperson]

 

For the sake of survivability, and because I have lots of room for pools on my build, I want to choose a self heal/survival Pool.   The choices I'm considering are :  

A: Medicine

 

B: Presence/Unrelenting

 

C  Force of will/Unleash potential. 

 

I want to have some way to heal mid combat.               I'm considering how "Power Up" could be useful if I use it just before activating one of the longer lasting powers, but Medicine overall heals you more, and faster.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Frosticus]

Dunno what you are trying to do with the build but in general you either can handle spawns or you can't, none of those options are going to consistently get you thru a mission unless you go very slowly.

 

Now if you are just getting stuck on EBs or similar, then powerboosted unleash is pretty good if you are avoiding insp.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

I've also been pondering a gravity / arsenal build. It's got some nice synergy not only with wormhole and trip mine, but also with wormhole and ignite, with singularity and trip mine / ignite, and with lift, immediately followed by trip mine.

 

Included is one possible build that should solo just fine in a pretty wide range of content (probably not the best AV hunter, though, as there are better builds for that). It should also function well in teams. 

Totally agree with Frosticus that power boosted unleash potential is a great way to improve sustainability in tougher fights. Toggle both of those powers on in the attached build to see how much defense totals improve, as well as endurance recovery. 

Hopefully you have a blast with a gravity / arsenal dom however you decide to build them, in the end. 

 

Dominator (Gravity Control - Arsenal Assault - Fire Mastery).mbd

[Psiphon]

I'f I can squeeze it in I go Medicine on a Dom. It can be useful to heal up when the going gets tough. 

[tidge]

My Grav/Arsenal Dom went with Unleash Potential, see snapshot below

 

:

 

 

[normalperson]

 

 

I'm curious why you are taking both Stealth and Infiltration?    And why you are taking Aid other, but not Aid self?

 

The rest of the build makes sense.    My character has to take fly for thematic reasons, so I will choose some power to sacrifice for it.   Perhaps I'll even take both fly and Mighty Leap, despite the redundancy.   

 

Also I've noticed both the above builds have Combat Jumping in them?   Is that to add speed to Mighty Leap, or does the immunity to immobilize help you in battle enough to make it worth taking the power for that reason?          I figure it's not for the the 2.15% defense. 

Edited Saturday at 07:03 AM by normalperson

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Combat jumping offers several helpful benefits. First, your character can bunny hop around a battlefield quicker and easier. Landing exactly where you want is also helpful. Quicker movement and better movement control are tactically very helpful, as well as being a nice quality of life feature.

 

That combat jumping can serve as a mule for a LoTG global recharge / defense IO also makes taking it appealing. Once in a while the immobilize protection comes in handy. Also, the boost to defense is not to be underestimated in its value, especially when added together with other defense bonuses. Finally, the endurance cost per second is very low (0.07 endurance per second), which helps to make managing endurance a bit easier. 

 

That said, if you need hover and fly for thematic reasons, then that's a solid reason to skip combat jumping if your build is tight.  

[tidge]

7 hours ago, normalperson said:

 

 

I'm curious why you are taking both Stealth and Infiltration?    And why you are taking Aid other, but not Aid self?

 

The rest of the build makes sense.    My character has to take fly for thematic reasons, so I will choose some power to sacrifice for it.   Perhaps I'll even take both fly and Mighty Leap, despite the redundancy.   

 

Also I've noticed both the above builds have Combat Jumping in them?   Is that to add speed to Mighty Leap, or does the immunity to immobilize help you in battle enough to make it worth taking the power for that reason?          I figure it's not for the the 2.15% defense. 

 

It is common in *my* builds that the final three (or four, or five) power picks are chosen to "mule" certain Enhancement pieces. I like to get both the flavor and the power of the character mostly built by level 30 power picks. I have exceptions, but that is my general approach.

 

Stealth and Infiltration are mules for LotG Def/+Recharge (and/or 20% Slow Resistance from Winter's Gift when I was experimenting) . The Concealment pool is a very convenient pick for Defense mules (plus the travel power). I happen to find that these two picks are superior (in utility) to Grant Invisibility for most of my characters.

 

Aid Other was chosen as a mule for the %Absorb piece.

 

As noted above, Combat Jumping may be the lowest Endurance cost toggle in the game. When not using it for LotG, it is a convenient early level pick for the Kismet +ToHit piece (which helps improve the damage of Fast Snipes)... IIRC the Targeting Drone slotting gets me just under 22% +ToHit, and the Sniper attack is somewhat late in this build so I passed on the Kismet piece.

 

If I was trying to put Fly into the build above, I guess Wall of Force is the power to drop, and replace either the Leaping or Concealment pools with the flight pool. I've delayed Unleash Potential, but having it as early as possible is something I find to be a big help on lower level content. You should be able to rejigger the mules, have Flight early (for concept) and repurpose some slots. <- This kind of decision point (wanting powers for concept, wanting powers like from the Force of Will pool for utility, running out of pool choices) kinda gives the game away why *I* don't blindly add Hasten to Dominators, but instead chase the set bonuses to get the global recharge necessary for perma-dom (down to 22). I know the reasons why folks (especially Dominators) take Hasten below level 20, but I feel like I get so much out my enemy-affecting power picks before level 20 I'd rather not sacrifice/delay any of them just to have Hasten.

[normalperson]

I didn't know Hasten was so helpful for Doms (This is my first dom since discovering Homecoming) .  

 

I'm considering maybe using Super Speed as my stealth power (instead of Concealment) and then having all four Travel types.   Flight/Super Speed/Mighty Leap/Teleport.       It's kind of ridiculous, but if I put Zephyr on all 4 (6 total after second picks)  that's 8.5% ranged/AOE defense right there. 

 

As things stand my pools are :  Flight, Concealment, Teleport, and whichever of the three healing options I end up using.             Teleport is optional, but I definitely want flight and some kind of stealth power to skip to end bosses. 

 

This discussion might finally motivate me to learn how to post builds. 

Edited Sunday at 01:30 AM by normalperson

[MoonSheep]

16 hours ago, normalperson said:

I'm considering maybe using Super Speed as my stealth power (instead of Concealment) and then having all four Travel types.   

 

consider not doing that

[normalperson]

I'm looking at having Jump (Mighty Leap) and Fly.    Stealth really helps with quick missions, and Super Speed is a stealth.        That gets me to three.   Might as well add teleport for the sake of it.   Maybe combat teleport and slot +toHit IO's to it. 

[normalperson]

No.  You are right.           I'd rather go Stealth instead of SS. 

 

My big reservation about going with "Unleash Potential" is that I've already got a full set of ranged single target ranged powers.    Burst, Lift, and Propel pretty much keep me not needing to wait for powers to recharge in battle.         To get Unleash, I'll need to take either one or two additional single target ranged powers. 

 

But if I get Recharge slowed, maybe then I'll be glad to have one or two more  attacks while I wait. 

 

 

Trouble with going First Aid instead, is then my character is really a serious glass cannon.     I'll eventually get personal force field when I choose my patron, and that will let me call "time out" and Aid Self up to full health sometimes.               But the rest of the time my outlook is pretty bleak.  

 

There is no perfect answer.   That's why this character is so fun.   I can plot for days what I'll do next time I level. 

[MoonSheep]

6 minutes ago, normalperson said:

No.  You are right.           I'd rather go Stealth instead of SS. 

 

My big reservation about going with "Unleash Potential" is that I've already got a full set of ranged single target ranged powers.    Burst, Lift, and Propel pretty much keep me not needing to wait for powers to recharge in battle.         To get Unleash, I'll need to take either one or two additional single target ranged powers. 

 

But if I get Recharge slowed, maybe then I'll be glad to have one or two more  attacks while I wait. 

 

 

Trouble with going First Aid instead, is then my character is really a serious glass cannon.     I'll eventually get personal force field when I choose my patron, and that will let me call "time out" and Aid Self up to full health sometimes.               But the rest of the time my outlook is pretty bleak.  

 

There is no perfect answer.   That's why this character is so fun.   I can plot for days what I'll do next time I level. 

 

i think you’re looking at things with a non-dominator mindset

 

a mezzed foe deals no damage, your greatest defense is your ability to lock down the mobs and target enemies which are either damaging you the most or are casting the harshest debuffs

 

permadom tends to be the foundation of most dominator builds as it guarantees you’ll always be able to lock down an enemy with one click and also gives you mez protection

 

some ranged defense is nice to have for sure, but consider that you’re not a hapless punching bag - you have abilities which can stop the damage coming in

[normalperson]

 

 

Looking at it in terms of recharging to permahold, I guess having Lift, Propel, and then Project Will - all three are powers you can slot the +Recharge KB proc onto.  

 

But this also raises the question of whether to try taking the Experimentation power set?           The description for Adrenal Booster says that you get a 27.6% boost to secondary effects, which lasts 60 seconds.  

 

Experimental injection grants +regen.            The Singularity pet can't be healed.   Can it be Regen boosted?         

[tidge]

In my experience, it takes a lot for Singularity to get overwhelmed. Things like multiple +3 spawns where the Singularity has most of the aggro. I have had the Singularity be quickly taken out, but it is far more common that it takes a surprising amount damage (for my Dom) until I can get around to locking whatever is attacking it down.

 

With Power Up, even with its short duration, I wouldn't go deep into a pool just to get a second, similar power. <- This isn't me throwing shade at Adrenal Booster, it's more that the secondary includes a faster recharging power, so why burn a pool choice to chase another one?

 

 

[normalperson]

I have actually reached the point where I have to make my choice.    Level 12 and I'm fresh out of powers to choose that don't affect healing. 

 

-If I go Medicine, I'm going to go ahead and skip Power Up or wait until much later.        Instead I'll go Stealth-Grant Invis - Phase Shift, so I can call "time out" and heal myself. 

 

Downside?   Interruptible without Phasing (or later on using Personal Force Field with Scorpion Patron)

Upside?  Faster Recharge, and I can aid teammates if I'm on a team with Aid Other. 

 

-  If I go Unleash Potential, I'll take Project Will and Weaken Resolve (and definitely yes take Power Up)    I don't need the travel power because I'm already flying.     Gives me lots of single target attacks at 80 foot range, which lets me pick off a few minions before the bosses get close and I have to engage them. 

 

Downside?   Takes 10 minutes to recharge, which I can only probably get down to like 4 or 5 minutes at the lowest.    Phase Shift can fire every 2 minutes. 

Upside?    I can keep right on fighting. 

 

- Unrelenting is still on the table.    Doesn't add defense but it's still a decent heal, and gives +Rech and +Damage. 

 

Downside?   Takes 10 minutes to recharge. 

Upside?    Both the powers I have to pick to get it are useful.          Pacify is near guaranteed non aggression from the boss, and Intimidate is 15 seconds of additional mezz.  

 

Next time I log on I have to pick........................

Edited Monday at 02:58 AM by normalperson

[Caimie]

I wouldn't sweat the choice at that level, since you could get to level 20 then respec.

 

I'm a little lost as to what your build entails and what you're trying to do or plan to do with it. 

For example do you want Perma-Dom, what Epic pool, and what travel pool do you prefer?

Sorry if I missed any of that info, but I work a Weekend shift and haven't really been able to pay full attention to the thread.

 

I tried a build in Mids with this combo, but ended up making it a Grav/Fire instead, but I also have an Arse/Arse/Psi Perma-Dom that has Leadership, Leaping and Speed pools, so I could possibly help throw a few build ideas your way.

 

Doms are late bloomers, so doing or attempting to do Notoriety +'s like you would on a Scrapper or Blaster is going to be slow with a lot of downtime and/or face-plants. (power-set combo choices come into play also)

 

edit: fixed typos from early morning lack of caffeine.

Edited Monday at 06:09 PM by Caimie

[tidge]

1 hour ago, Caimie said:

Doms are late bloomers, so doing to do attempting to do Notoriety +'s like you would on a Scrapper or Blaster is going to be slow with a lot of downtime and/or face-plants. (power-set combo choices come into play also)

 

Hard agree. For my squishier characters (and most "control" types), I will often play solo at -1x3 in lower levels once I have some AoE. The level shift is enough to alter the relative ToHit chances (both ways!) to make solo missions more exciting (and rewarding). This choice has the side effect (for solo play) of quicker collecting more defeats for a variety of badges/accolades in an organic way... like Arachnos Wolfs and Family. Obviously these sort of things can be street swept later, but I see this as a sort of "one stone, two birds" approach.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Taking healing powers in the medicine pool has a way of reinforcing the need for using healing powers in the medicine pool. This happens because if you take it and give it slots then your dom's controls, defenses, and/or damage will suffer. That choice leads to more incoming damage--because of weakened defenses, controls, and/or damage--which creates the need to spend more time using medicine pool healing powers. Any time spent using medicine pool healing powers isn't being used to take enemies out of the fight, which just exacerbates the problems caused by taking the medicine pool in the first place. 

 

One option mentioned earlier that would be a good replacement for the medicine pool would be the force of will pool and unleash potential. It can be up over 1/3 of the time and the buffs to defense and endurance recovery are game-changing, especially when supported by power up in arsenal assault. High "peak sustainability" when that's needed does a lot for dom survivability and unleash potential provides that, especially when power boost of one form or another is also available. 

 

Edit: A few years ago I had a brief phase in which I tried incorporating medicine pool powers into dom builds. It just made them less effective at what they were supposed to be good at--and also squishier--for reasons outlined above. When I took a deeper look at my builds in that time frame I realized that I was consistently building doms that had decent control capabilities, but that had low overall damage, and especially low single target damage. Also, defenses could have been improved noticeably just by more efficient slotting. Aggro management also needed work. Once revisions were made to how I built and played my doms survival became much less of an issue. 
 

As with other ATs, doms are strongest when built to lean into what they're best at, instead of trying to make them into a kind of omni-AT that does a little of most things (or everything) not particularly well. 

Edited Monday at 11:40 PM by EnjoyTheJourney

[JJDrakken]

On 2/20/2025 at 11:23 PM, normalperson said:

 

For the sake of survivability, and because I have lots of room for pools on my build, I want to choose a self heal/survival Pool.   The choices I'm considering are :  

A: Medicine

 

B: Presence/Unrelenting

 

C  Force of will/Unleash potential. 

 

I want to have some way to heal mid combat.               I'm considering how "Power Up" could be useful if I use it just before activating one of the longer lasting powers, but Medicine overall heals you more, and faster.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give this a whirl or done -shrugs-  Just offering some help.

 

Ranged Dominator (Gravity Control - Arsenal Assault).mbd

[normalperson]

 

JJDraken - That is an interesting build.           I'm curious : how well is Evasive Maneuvers working out for you?       

 

I tried taking it on a Mastermind character, but I found  that needing to wait through 10 seconds of inaction before that defense effect kicks in, I was already dead before it started protecting me.   So I turned it off to save End, and ended up not really using it.   I'm probably going to respec it out soon.              

 

 

On 2/24/2025 at 10:48 AM, EnjoyTheJourney said:

Taking healing powers in the medicine pool has a way of reinforcing the need for using healing powers in the medicine pool. This happens because if you take it and give it slots then your dom's controls, defenses, and/or damage will suffer. That choice leads to more incoming damage--because of weakened defenses, controls, and/or damage--which creates the need to spend more time using medicine pool healing powers. Any time spent using medicine pool healing powers isn't being used to take enemies out of the fight, which just exacerbates the problems caused by taking the medicine pool in the first place. 

 

One option mentioned earlier that would be a good replacement for the medicine pool would be the force of will pool and unleash potential. It can be up over 1/3 of the time and the buffs to defense and endurance recovery are game-changing, especially when supported by power up in arsenal assault. High "peak sustainability" when that's needed does a lot for dom survivability and unleash potential provides that, especially when power boost of one form or another is also available. 

 

Edit: A few years ago I had a brief phase in which I tried incorporating medicine pool powers into dom builds. It just made them less effective at what they were supposed to be good at--and also squishier--for reasons outlined above. When I took a deeper look at my builds in that time frame I realized that I was consistently building doms that had decent control capabilities, but that had low overall damage, and especially low single target damage. Also, defenses could have been improved noticeably just by more efficient slotting. Aggro management also needed work. Once revisions were made to how I built and played my doms survival became much less of an issue. 
 

As with other ATs, doms are strongest when built to lean into what they're best at, instead of trying to make them into a kind of omni-AT that does a little of most things (or everything) not particularly well. 

Thanks for talking me out of it!           I had planned the build before even trying a Dom, with medicine in mind, but then when I got to level 10 and took the Aid Other power, in preparation, I had an odd feeling of impending doom, and thought maybe I should ask some other people who had actually run Doms.        

 

What you are saying confirms that dread was real.            I used my free level 10 respec to get rid of Aid Other.            I can't seem to get Mids to give me an image, perhaps because I have only planned the build up to level 14 so far.   But here is the data chunk.            

 

My pools are Concealment, Flight, and Teleportation, and now Force of Will.           I'm not going to fight it anymore!!!!! 

 

 

|MBD;7927;603;804;BASE64;|
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|GtD5kY4CuNsZMHNndk6I3jNC/9tjfzQkS/d9xQjJ1u2SiiCCyqQ4pPaudrFCQoohbDl|
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|Ud5owQ5DniC31S83E8TBI7twwqhcr+6h2qRZEWNyV+9XTDfFFw9UT+nAosumwunBEr+|
|qqKxJ/K8nDeByr+yD93tjjK/BU+Xk+pYtp5KaMY1UPaV09rHmQeK/7pc6cxb1saU18D|

[tidge]

I enjoy the heck out of Force of Will; I hope you will too!

[JJDrakken]

10 hours ago, normalperson said:

 

JJDraken - That is an interesting build.           I'm curious : how well is Evasive Maneuvers working out for you?       

 

I tried taking it on a Mastermind character, but I found  that needing to wait through 10 seconds of inaction before that defense effect kicks in, I was already dead before it started protecting me.   So I turned it off to save End, and ended up not really using it.   I'm probably going to respec it out soon.              

 

 

Thanks for talking me out of it!           I had planned the build before even trying a Dom, with medicine in mind, but then when I got to level 10 and took the Aid Other power, in preparation, I had an odd feeling of impending doom, and thought maybe I should ask some other people who had actually run Doms.        

 

What you are saying confirms that dread was real.            I used my free level 10 respec to get rid of Aid Other.            I can't seem to get Mids to give me an image, perhaps because I have only planned the build up to level 14 so far.   But here is the data chunk.            

 

My pools are Concealment, Flight, and Teleportation, and now Force of Will.           I'm not going to fight it anymore!!!!! 

 

 

|MBD;7927;603;804;BASE64;|
|G/YeQCwK7FgGTowOBtXQKHo7qLWV+mZk5ATVlJ0v7ZtQbkt92aahbKjwoCB/JktXX+u|
|wgHQ15yTlz7yLM8OXrjtYIUtCmjIm/v+/V7MEAh6Dh5q8lbGG7nmTjbMTKKdAPRWYgN|
|h9gy21oJ+6lGfFHxResSyj/2FWRE2KngGPjADuvNZvJopJBMT3AN2XlyuAGVIMwITTA|
|M4Bq1FXnP3yMwfDCEmdHxvIdgCGfG1uJdvLs+bOlC4BiMURJmj1D60AK0PbhJCpYBD2|
|FczaiW4+6M/C8WiIy9jBWnDZlbPx1CluyOSUTbSU+EvxtWYuWtc4gLZ85CoymZJTuWM|
|nOZ77VMoWE3PZMgsuqvnU5Et9tGIO2XMB39r8NFV9OM4I83pnoDTEf40i4b5JghqL4W|
|gT20A3GBILg3Di7y8htPhGXvqYKi3imHI/A7ohu5m0OtRr2aKx8jr2CWTsw0IQaghAS|
|GtD5kY4CuNsZMHNndk6I3jNC/9tjfzQkS/d9xQjJ1u2SiiCCyqQ4pPaudrFCQoohbDl|
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|Id4R4c2Fxwk2ehQ2IObpq85YJD0SYe37yugxOnrva5GkXSVpzbAupiVnR1xcBxEUxG4|
|Ud5owQ5DniC31S83E8TBI7twwqhcr+6h2qRZEWNyV+9XTDfFFw9UT+nAosumwunBEr+|
|qqKxJ/K8nDeByr+yD93tjjK/BU+Xk+pYtp5KaMY1UPaV09rHmQeK/7pc6cxb1saU18D|

 

E-M: Defense only is active out of combat. But it also offers far better control in flight and increased speed.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

I modified the build I posted earlier. The new build is below and hopefully it proves helpful. 

 

I didn't notice earlier that trip mine for arsenal assault natively has knockdown, not knockback. So, the sudden acceleration IO wasn't doing anything useful. Moving that slot to boxing and getting a couple of winter IOs into boxing allowed for removing winter IOs from ignite while keeping resistance to incoming movement and recharge debuffs at 50% (which I find tends to be a functional level of slow resistance). That allowed for another proc in ignite and for slightly better endurance reduction. Efficiency D-Synch IOs are not unreasonably priced. But, if boosting it 3 levels is too expensive then just putting in one unboosted efficiency D-Synch IO would work well. 

 

Trip mine in arsenal assault is quite close to foot stomp in how it functions, except the knockdown percentage chance is lower for trip mine (50% for trip mine vs 80% for tanker foot stomp) and trip mine will not trigger until an enemy is close by. If you like foot stomp or other "hit the ground" PbAOEs then you would probably like trip mine. 

 

Finally, consider taking a few minutes to review to hit chances for different powers and how much damage per second of power activation time offered by each of the different powers in this build. Toggle on each attack power when reviewing its damage so proc damage is included in the calculations, then turn off those toggles to avoid generating confusing information. So, for example, toggle on lift to see its total average damage, then toggle it off to avoid warping calculations for global recharge that would mislead you about how quickly powers recharge. Also, look at attack powers with power up toggled on and off. Exact numbers aren't needed, "eyeball estimates" would work just fine. There's a functional and smooth single target attack chain here, as well, and that helps for taking down hard targets (basically, use lift as a gap filler after using two of the other single target powers). This isn't the highest damage build that can be put together for an arsenal assault character. But, damage isn't at all bad, either. It might help to have some kind of benchmark, imperfect though this build this, when considering how much damage you can have or would like to have for your own build. 

 

On that note, propel is a fun power and if you're taking it because it's fun then there's nothing wrong with that. But, if effectiveness is your goal then it is probably helpful to note that propel does quite a bit less damage per second of activation time than lift, elbow strike, ignite, and sniper rifle, which are all the single target attack powers your build would ever need. 

 

Even if you don't like the build overall, there may be things you find useful to either copy or modify. Good luck, once again, however you decide to move forward. 

 

 

Dominator (Gravity Control - Arsenal Assault - Fire Mastery).mbd

Edited yesterday at 07:05 PM by EnjoyTheJourney