Thinking about a Mind/Fire Dominator. Ive never played Mind ever.. Tips?

[Heatstroke]

I have a Fire/Psi dom that I kinda dont like. But I havd a nice origin story so I thought why not flip it to Mind/Fire.. but Ive never played Mind before.. 

 

What are the core must have powers. Telekinesis seems like its a hard power to use.. so is it skippable. Im probably going to play at range mostly.. and honesty not having a pet seems like a good idea for me.. 

 

Any advice would be appreciated.. Thank You 

[Erratic1]

Were you just on Exelsior contemplating this?

 

In any event, I have a Mind/Energy Dom. I would not skip Telekinesis. It is too wonderfully useful for squeezing a group of foes together into a nice ball your team can AoE down.

[Heatstroke]

No i wasnt.. although I do play on Excelsior.... LOL 

 

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Below is a candidate build that aims to put the AOE controls of mind to good use and to have reasonably good damage. Fire mastery was selected because it seems both thematic and effective for a mind / fire dom, given how embrace of fire will boost fireball. Having 3 good AOEs should give an effective AOE cycle and single target damage should be reasonable.

You can put more emphasis on ranged defense by reconfiguring some sets, if you'd like. But, having unleash potential available does help to make incoming damage spikes easier to weather already. And, being at range tends to make you less of a target anyways. 

 

Good luck with your mind / fire dom, however you decide to move forward. 

Dominator (Mind Control - Fiery Assault - Fire Mastery).mbd

[MoonSheep]

i’ll post some thoughts and build when home which will hopefully be useful. i’ve mained a mind/fire on HC for the last 6 years and for 2-3 on live before shutdown, it’s a fantastic combo if played to its strengths

[Heatstroke]

4 hours ago, MoonSheep said:

i’ll post some thoughts and build when home which will hopefully be useful. i’ve mained a mind/fire on HC for the last 6 years and for 2-3 on live before shutdown, it’s a fantastic combo if played to its strengths

 

Appreciate it.. Thanks

[Uun]

Mind Control just received several buffs with the last patch. The big ones are that Mass Confusion and Total Domination now use Adaptive Recharge. This allows you to use these powers much more frequently. The addition of the Deep Sleep mechanic to Mesmerize and Mass Hypnosis is also nice, but not as much of a game changer.

[Championess]

55 minutes ago, Uun said:

Mind Control just received several buffs with the last patch. The big ones are that Mass Confusion and Total Domination now use Adaptive Recharge. This allows you to use these powers much more frequently. The addition of the Deep Sleep mechanic to Mesmerize and Mass Hypnosis is also nice, but not as much of a game changer.

 

Yup I think the most impactful things done to Mind control were the TK revamp and Adaptive Recharge on the two aoe hard controls.  Deep sleep is a nice addition in general which seems more impactful on other control sets that don't have access to a high amount of aoe control like Mind does.

 

Between the TK/Levitate combo, Terrify, Total Domination and Mass Confusion there's no lack of aoe control to suit your needs.  The controls I skip on Mind are the sleeps.

Edited Monday at 06:07 PM by Championess

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Once you have enough attacks and you don't have a lot of slots left over even if you took more attacks, then how to use any "extra" power picks still available becomes an open question and there isn't always a clearly best answer. It often comes down to what functionality you'd like to boost further, or perhaps a general preference that spans many kinds of builds. 

I like mass hypnosis for the ability to shut down incoming overaggro, the ability to shut down alpha ahead of using telekinesis to bunch mobs up, and for occasional (aggro-free!) usage on hard targets that have a sleep hole in their mez protection. In the build further up there's just 1 extra slot beyond the base slot for added flexibility to handle mobs up to a fair distance away. So, the cost is not that high for the utility provided. 

Edited Monday at 06:35 PM by EnjoyTheJourney

[Heatstroke]

4 hours ago, Championess said:

 

Yup I think the most impactful things done to Mind control were the TK revamp and Adaptive Recharge on the two aoe hard controls.  Deep sleep is a nice addition in general which seems more impactful on other control sets that don't have access to a high amount of aoe control like Mind does.

 

Between the TK/Levitate combo, Terrify, Total Domination and Mass Confusion there's no lack of aoe control to suit your needs.  The controls I skip on Mind are the sleeps.

 

What were the changes to Telekinesis? All I remember is from live there was very much a love/hate relationship with the power and that it was difficult to use. 

 

[Championess]

There's been 3 significant iterations of TK. 

 

The earlier one was as a toggle hold/repel that you were able to hold 16 targets instantly and permanently as long as you could manage the endurance drain.  

 

When the live devs nerfed it they did so I'd assume to encourage players to use more of Mind's powers.  They lowered the target count from 16 to 5 and the repel didn't seem as prevalent.  People used to love the power and I gather they hated that now it had become mainly a power to quickly stack mag control onto AVs.

 

The newest iteration is quite nice although it diverges from being a hold.  It's back to 16 targets and a repel but also with a pull so it puts enemies into a certain point away from you.  Instead of a hold it does an immobilize so they can shoot back but also clumps targets in real close together for a good spike.  Then you can also combo Levitate your anchor for some soft control knockup and splash damage to all of those targets with an auto detoggle, or you can leave it run for the full 30s to keep enemies at bay.

 

This newest version has some real nice utility to mix into Mind Control.

Edited Monday at 11:08 PM by Championess

[Heatstroke]

1 hour ago, Championess said:

There's been 3 significant iterations of TK. 

 

The earlier one was as a toggle hold/repel that you were able to hold 16 targets instantly and permanently as long as you could manage the endurance drain.  

 

When the live devs nerfed it they did so I'd assume to encourage players to use more of Mind's powers.  They lowered the target count from 16 to 5 and the repel didn't seem as prevalent.  People used to love the power and I gather they hated that now it had become mainly a power to quickly stack mag control onto AVs.

 

The newest iteration is quite nice although it diverges from being a hold.  It's back to 16 targets and a repel but also with a pull so it puts enemies into a certain point away from you.  Instead of a hold it does an immobilize so they can shoot back but also clumps targets in real close together for a good spike.  Then you can also combo Levitate your anchor for some soft control knockup and splash damage to all of those targets with an auto detoggle, or you can leave it run for the full 30s to keep enemies at bay.

 

This newest version has some real nice utility to mix into Mind Control.

 

Thanks for the explanation

[Uun]

53 minutes ago, Heatstroke said:

Thanks for the explanation

The latest TK change was last year (i27p7), not in the most recent patch.

[PyroBeetle]

The newest iteration can be quite tasty for a Mind/Fire(Fire) dom because it clusters enemies nicely for your breath of fire (rain of fire)

[EnjoyTheJourney]

28 minutes ago, PyroBeetle said:

The newest iteration can be quite tasty for a Mind/Fire(Fire) dom because it clusters enemies nicely for your breath of fire (rain of fire)

Telekinesis assistance for breath of fire, which is a fairly narrow cone, can help to at least partially compensate for potentially getting fewer fulcrum shift buffs because of operating at range; bunching up mobs tends to be a really team friendly thing to do as well. 

Edited 17 hours ago by EnjoyTheJourney

[Heatstroke]

So from what I can see the skippable powers are the single target confuse and the single target sleep ?

[MoonSheep]

Here's some thoughts and a guide to the Mind/Fire powers. I've played mine for around 8-9 years, a combination of HC and Live

 

There's a lot to say about this combination which I'll articulate in bullet point form. Much of this is personal opinion and I almost entirely play in teams, so please do salt to taste!

• One of the best: Mind/Fire is perhaps the most potent dominator combination in the game and one the most powerful alts across all archetypes. It combines huge mez with massive damage 
• BigBoi damage: Regarding massive damage, it's a fairly single-target-heavy damage dealer. Through my experience I have found it's best to lean in to this rather than trying to make the alt into an AoE specialist and instead focus on mezzing and destroying the harder enemies in a group. Other team members will quickly remove minions and luts
• Effective from far away: It's almost entirely ranged, this will help with survival, but I don't believe in 'ranged' or 'melee' characters. Buffs are often where the melee characters are, I tend to follow the aggro taker into mobs after the alpha has occured - This allows some helpful applications of Incincerate too
• Embrace your squishyness: In my view it's not worth building this for defense beyond the mastery shield and the +Def and +Res IOs. A mezzed enemy deals no damage and there's a lot of advantages starting a battle at range. The alt really flourishes when allowed to shine to its potential. Inspirations exist for 'oh no' moments along with the multiple, powerful AoE control powers
• Use the powers at the right time! Mind/fire is a controller and a blaster. There will be teams and situations where mez is not really needed and instead you'll primarily be a blaster. There will also be times where application of mez powers allows the team to stay alive or make good progress, such as mezzing Paragon Protectors before they pop their T9 powers. Knowing when to use the powers is part of the fun dual-aspect nature of the dominator. Look for the most challenging enemies to mez first, or if they cast buffs or debuffs, confuse them instead and so on
• Mastery powers: I haven't covered this in the below guide as they're all fairly average since the rework. People like Fire Ball from fire mastery as it has reasonable AoE damage. Sleet in ice mastery used to be the S tier choice but now only casts -22.5% res after changes a few years ago. It's probably still the optimum choice in my view. In my current build I have Mace Mastery. Poisonous Ray procs very reliably, giving a total of -40% res to single targets. A perfect combo as the focus of a mind/fire dom is generally harder, single target enemies

 

Mind Control 

 

 Levitate, Ranged, Light DMG(Smash), Foe Knock Up ⭐⭐ It's a cool animation and fun to cast on lvl 1's when you're lvl 50, but it's fairly forgettable. The animation time is quite long, the damage isn't overly impressively and the damage type (smashing) is not overly unique

 

 Mezmerise, Ranged, Light DMG(Psionic), Foe Deep Sleep ⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is worth taking and slotting as a reasonably effective single target psi ST attack. I find it's useful against enemies like Cylops' on ITFs which pop invul

 

 Dominate, Ranged, Light DMG(Psionic), Foe Hold⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A fast casting ST hold, very worthwhile to have and one of the core powers of the set

 

 Confuse, Ranged, Target Confuse ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The bread and butter of the mind control set. Having a fast recharging hold and a confuse is one of the great benefits of mind control. Even without domination at the low levels, being able to mez several trouble makers without causing aggro is very helpful. At higher levels, the confuse recharges quick enough to confuse AV's even through purple triangles of doom, the crystal titan in the Eden trial can also be perma confused. You'll also experience the game in a whole new way - Finding enemies which give you buffs when confused like rikti guardians and forcefield generators is great fun. This, combined with mass confusion now having dynamic recharge is a winning combo

 

 Mass Hypnosis, Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Deep Sleep ⭐⭐⭐⭐  Often overlooked, but a useful power. At low levels I use this frequently on Posi TF's to avoid other mobs being aggroed. With the new deep sleep mechanic, it has become even more useful

 

 Telekinesis, Toggle: Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Immobilize, Trawl⭐⭐⭐ It has been updated and now has a helpful trawl mechanic. It's useful and takes a bit of practice to get right, it's fun to have but isn't a defining power. Fit it into your build just for the fun if you have room

 

 Total Domination, Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Hold⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐An AoE hold, does exactly what it says on the tin. This, combined with the other AoE mez powers in mind allows you to quickly change the outcome of a tricky situation

 

 Terrify, Ranged (Cone), Light DMG(Psionic), Foe Fear ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A reasonably fast recharging, fairly useful terrify power. It's useful when solo, on teams the terror effect gets disrupted a bit

 

 Mass Confusion, Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Confuse ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of the most powerful confuse powers in the game. For challenging mobs this is a fantastic opener and creates and instant mosh pit. Now that powers have dynamic recharge, stacking this with the single target confuse makes it a great power

 

Fiery Assault

 

 Flares, Ranged, Light DMG(Fire) ⭐ The damage of flared is very insignificant, it's not worth wasting a power choice on it

 

 Incinerate, Melee, High DoT(Fire) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The only melee power in a typical build, but still worth taking. At lower levels it's great to have as a strong attack. At high levels, you'll often be in melee range anyway and it can be a good opener to soften bosses

 

  Fire Breath, Close (Cone), Moderate DoT(Fire) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Mind/Fire as a combination is fairly single target heavy. Fire breath is good to have at the low levels and provides some AoE damage throughout the level range combined with terrify

 

 Fire Blast, Ranged, High DMG(Fire) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The damage is higher than the Blaster version and has a short 1.2s cast time, a staple part of the fire assault attack chain

 

 Embrace of fire, Self +DMG  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Like build up, but better! A +85% damage buff to fire damage for 30 seconds (and slightly less for 10 seconds to all other damage types). Embrace of fire is one of the great powers of fire assault. Dominators generally have high amounts of recharge to make use of perma domination, meaning this often has just a 15 second downtime, nice

 

 Combustion, PBAoE, Moderate DoT(Fire) ⭐⭐ Combustion's damage is fairly average for a PbAoE, however the 3 second animation time makes it a generally poor choice for such a fast moving primary and secondary. Perhaps useful at the lower levels and has a 17s recharge time making it a good proc candidate, but not a power I've been able to love in the 8 years I've played a mind/fire

 

 Consume, PBAoE DMG(Fire), Self +End ⭐⭐⭐ It's fairly useful but has a long recharge time. There are moments where domination is far away from recharging, filling up the endurance bar and consume can fill that gap nicely

 

 Blazing Bolt, Sniper, Extreme DMG(Fire) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Now the intensity is ramping up, this is part 1 of fire assault's incredible 1-2 combo. With quick snipe this casts in around a second and has impressive damage.

 

 Blaze, Ranged, Superior DMG(Fire) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  Part 2 of fire assault's 1-2 combo. A hall of fame power for City of Heroes. Another heavy hitting, 1 second cast time attack, slightly less damaging than blazing bolt. Fire Blast, Blazing Bolt and Blaze with embrace of fire active is a near an unbeatable barrage of damage cast over just 3 seconds

 

Build

The build is fairly uninspiring in reflection to complex dynamics in other archetypes or combinations. The focus is on:

• High recharge to achieve perma domination even if hasten isn't clicked. This is a lovely quality of life achievement so that you're not always needing to juggle Hasten and Domination. Having it drop after a mission can be quite frustrating
• Contagious confusion in the ST confuse power is perhaps one of the few IO choices to view as a mandatory or must-have slotting. It expands the ST nature out into more of an AoE power
• It has Leadership for no apparent reason. I find veng fits well with a mind/fire dom due to the situations it'll experience - End game, gnarly situations where everything is being overrun. Once someone dies, mashing several AoE mez powers and then veng usually saves the day and makes things fairly calm
• I went with Intuition Radial Paragon for incarnate Alpha. It's a good blend of damage (+33%) but also some useful added range (+20%).

 

I'll format this in a more glamourous way soon. It has some improvement opportunities too, e.g. a damage proc can be placed in Blazing Bolt and Fire Breath

 

Mind Fire Dominator
Build plan made with Mids Reborn v3.7.14 rev. 3
──────────────────────────────

• Primary powerset: Mind Control
• Secondary powerset: Fiery Assault
• Pool powerset (#1): Leaping
• Pool powerset (#2): Speed
• Pool powerset (#3): Leadership
• Pool powerset (#4): Teleportation
• Epic powerset: Ice Mastery

──────────────────────────────

Powers taken:

Level 1: Mesmerize

• A: Decimation: Accuracy/Damage
• 3: Decimation: Damage/Recharge
• 3: Decimation: Damage/Endurance
• 5: Decimation: Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• 5: Decimation: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

Level 1: Incinerate

• A: Hecatomb: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 7: Hecatomb: Damage/Endurance
• 7: Hecatomb: Damage
• 9: Hecatomb: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• 9: Hecatomb: Recharge/Accuracy

Level 2: Dominate

• A: Superior Ascendency of the Dominator: Recharge/Chance for +Damage
• 11: Superior Ascendency of the Dominator: Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance/Recharge
• 11: Superior Ascendency of the Dominator: Accuracy/Control Duration
• 13: Superior Ascendency of the Dominator: Control Duration/Recharge
• 13: Superior Ascendency of the Dominator: Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance
• 50: Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing Damage

Level 4: Super Jump

• A: Unbounded Leap: +Stealth

Level 6: Confuse

• A: Coercive Persuasion : Contagious Confusion
• 15: Coercive Persuasion : Confused/Endurance
• 15: Coercive Persuasion : Confused/Recharge
• 17: Coercive Persuasion : Confused/Recharge/Accuracy
• 17: Coercive Persuasion : Recharge/Accuracy

Level 8: Fire Breath

• A: Positron's Blast: Accuracy/Damage
• 39: Positron's Blast: Damage/Endurance
• 40: Positron's Blast: Damage/Recharge
• 40: Positron's Blast: Damage/Range
• 40: Positron's Blast: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

Level 10: Fire Blast

• A: Decimation: Accuracy/Damage
• 37: Decimation: Damage/Endurance
• 39: Decimation: Damage/Recharge
• 39: Decimation: Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• 42: Decimation: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

Level 12: Telekinesis

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction
• 50: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 14: Mass Hypnosis

• A: Fortunata Hypnosis: Sleep/Recharge
• 36: Fortunata Hypnosis: Sleep/Recharge/Accuracy
• 36: Fortunata Hypnosis: Recharge/Accuracy
• 37: Fortunata Hypnosis: Sleep/Endurance
• 37: Fortunata Hypnosis: Chance for Placate

Level 16: Embrace of Fire

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction
• 50: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 18: Total Domination

• A: Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Hold
• 19: Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Recharge
• 19: Basilisk's Gaze: Recharge/Hold
• 21: Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold
• 21: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 20: Combat Jumping

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 46: Kismet: Accuracy +6%

Level 22: Terrify

• A: Glimpse of the Abyss: Accuracy/Recharge
• 23: Glimpse of the Abyss: Accuracy/Endurance
• 23: Glimpse of the Abyss: Fear/Range
• 25: Glimpse of the Abyss: Accuracy/Fear/Recharge
• 25: Glimpse of the Abyss: Chance of Damage(Psionic)

Level 24: Hasten

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction
• 45: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 26: Mass Confusion

• A: Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Recharge
• 27: Malaise's Illusions: Endurance/Confused
• 27: Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Endurance
• 29: Malaise's Illusions: Confused/Range
• 29: Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Confused/Recharge
• 31: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 28: Blazing Bolt

• A: Sting of the Manticore: Accuracy/Damage
• 31: Sting of the Manticore: Damage/Endurance
• 31: Sting of the Manticore: Accuracy/Interrupt/Range
• 33: Sting of the Manticore: Damage/Interrupt/Recharge
• 46: Sting of the Manticore: Chance of Damage(Toxic)
• 48: Sting of the Manticore: Damage/Endurance/Recharge

Level 30: Blaze

• A: Apocalypse: Damage
• 33: Apocalypse: Damage/Recharge
• 33: Apocalypse: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• 34: Apocalypse: Recharge/Accuracy
• 34: Apocalypse: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 34: Gladiator's Javelin: Chance of Damage(Toxic)

Level 32: Consume

• A: Invention: Accuracy
• 46: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 35: Sleet

• A: Analyze Weakness: Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• 36: Analyze Weakness: Accuracy/Recharge
• 43: Analyze Weakness: Accuracy/Defense Debuff
• 45: Analyze Weakness: Defense Debuff/Endurance/Recharge

Level 38: Frozen Armor

• A: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3%
• 43: Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection +3% Def (All)
• 45: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 48: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance

Level 41: Maneuvers

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 44: Assault

• A: Invention: Endurance Reduction

Level 47: Vengeance

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 48: Luck of the Gambler: Defense

Level 49: Teleport

• A: Invention: Range

──────────────────────────────

Inherents:

Level 1: Domination

Level 1: Health

• A: Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery
• 42: Miracle: +Recovery

Level 1: Stamina

• A: Invention: Endurance Modification
• 42: Invention: Endurance Modification
• 43: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End

Edited 31 minutes ago by MoonSheep