_Ail_

/ice is completely awesome for tankers now. With frost and the new tier 9, it has great AOE. It also has great mitigation in ice patch and the hold.

On my Grav/NRG, it occurs to me that I might want to take a snipe after all because I am going to be using Power Push a lot more, and it is nice to not have to chase after things...

[ QUOTE ]

Also, all of /energy's ranged attacks have a knockback component making them fodder for the Force Feedback's +recharge proc. +recharge proc, power boost, domination, melee attacks with stun components.... If there is such thing as too much control an /energy dom has it.


[/ QUOTE ]

The FF+rchx proc used to be awesome back when it was broken. I had it slotted in all of /energy 3 ST attacks. When they fixed it though it seemed like it became teh suck and I took them out. Do you think it is worthwhile now and have you slotted it?

As others have said, you can target straight up above you in the sky or you can fly up and target right below you or you can go into a corner. It will still knockback a little though regardless of what you do.

Doing an immob first doesn't really help as grav's aoe immob doesn't have -knockback. You could do the aoe hold first I suppose, but then why bother wormholing?

Sonic/Sonics are prety boring as far as slotting goes. You can't enhance -res and there is no corresponding IO type, so there really isn't a lot to do. You have some options for Liquefy, but that's about it.

I have a mid 30s one that has been stalled out for a while. I like to plan out "uber IO" builds for things, just as something to look forward to if nothing else, even if I never actually implement it. But with a sonic/sonic, you really get the impression you might as well just use SOs.

Sure, you can try for the usual suspects of +recharge or perhaps +defense, etc., but there is no particular synergy that I detect. +damage is the only one that really has any synergy IMO and there just aren't enough options (for me) to make it particularly exciting.

Maybe I'll come up with a fun +damage build though that makes me want to level it again.

But where do you get massive quantities of minions SOLO redside? You have to go with missions, which means you might as well have a single target build (with admittedly some exceptions if you: (a) Don't mind herding up guys in a mission; or (b) Don't mind being a whiny [censored] and asking for people to fill.)

QR

Just make wormhole knockdown instead of knockback and call it good, with no other changes needed really. All gravity really needs is a reliable AOE mez that is up a lot that doesn't piss teams off.

Even if it is available at lvl 12 and doesn't aggro, it is still going to piss teams off with the knockback.

Gravity solos pretty well but it is very frustrating in teams knowing that often the best thing you can do is just tab through targets and single target hold.

[ QUOTE ]
I found the thread where they list all the changes. I see they also upped the endurance and recharge hugely. But at least energy should now be a proper burst oriented set.

I don't understand the whirling hands change. It's not an animation that should have more range, and since it's the only AOE you get it would make more sense to give it more more damage but with the same range.

Hell, what they should really do is give whirling hands knockdown. That would give energy some breathing room while waiting for everything to recharge, and would fit with the animation more IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]

They seem to want to standardize all of the PBAOEs rather than trying to make them unique.

It's fine with me. I'm certainly happy with the changes.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for responding. I like the sounds of this. I have 3 doms in the 30s. Which do you think would be best suited for the play style you're talking about (ranged powers)? I have a fire/electric, ice/psi, earth/fire. So far, I like ice controls the most.


[/ QUOTE ]

Some people like to build ranged Doms, but the approach is just suboptimal compared to a conventional build of range and melee. Make one of your Doms ranged if you want, it's your 15, but keep in mind you are in fact gimping yourself in so doing.

And keep a respec handy just in case.

Remember kids, a Dom that kills slowly dies quickly!

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure it's that cut and dry. If you only take (or slot) ranged attacks, that leaves you with extra powers (or slots) that can help you in other ways. I think there are some doms (e.g., /fire as of now at least, not sure how I15 will affect things) that can very comfortably be pure ranged if they want to.

For example. if your goal is to create a dom that can solo Ouroboros missions quickly, a ranged dom might be just the thing since spawns will be small and the range might help you clear things quicker.

(I still probably wouldn't take a snipe though unless it was for set bonus purposes.)

QR

Hey thanks! I was probably forgetting to toggle it. Silly me.

Thanks a bunch! You have saved me a headache!

/suppressclosefxdist 999

no longer seems to work to suppress auras. Does anyone know of an alternative way to do this?

Some of my characters (e.g., fire/fire brute and sonic/sonic corruptor) just give me too much of a headache to play if I have to look at their zany pulsing auras for hours on end.

I apologize if this has already been addressed.

I have a few villains that are pretty accoladed out (some were even gotten at very low levels back when that mattered.)

How are accolades going to work when going rogue comes out? There is a lot of potential to drive people crazy here. I think you more or less have to be insane anyway to get some of the more grindy villain accolades, and the thought of having to do it all over again gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies.

If you switch sides are accolades erased and you have to start over again? Bad point about this: You will never want to transfer your accoladed-out character to another side.

If you switch sides you have the opportunity to get double accolades? Bad points about this: (1) Arghhh... It will mean all of the accolade hunters have to do everything TWICE if they want to stay accoladed out, which I am not at all excited about; and (2) Having both archmage and demonic that you can alternate seems a little overpowered. Similar for the other accolades like force of nature x 2.

You can only have one of each type of accolade? This is my hope but maybe it is tricky to implement. You can have archmage or demonic but not both, or if you have both you only get 1 ability.

Any info?

I'm all for it. I like all of the natural options. Small blades and shurikens seems really fun...gives it a kind of Tsoo flavor.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I've grown extremely tired of the Villain content, but that is a debate for another thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

Me too, but not tired enough that I'm willing to zone 25 times per story arc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here here! I am actually planning on bringing a lot of my heroes villainside. I might >_> be alone in this though from what I hear.

The villain content is much better thought out. It's real fault, though, is that there is not enough of it.

The hero content is pretty [censored] IMO but it comes in droves and droves.

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Here is a build I just threw together. It tries to be a little bit of a jack of all trades, so you could presumably do anything with it. I didn't use any purples. You could replace the decimations with entropic chaos, but your accuracy will suck and you will probably have to 6-slot the attacks and just add a generic acc.

Hasten is perma (or .3 secs away from it) despite the lack or purples. Purples would be easy to add in the event you wanted to. Just pop them in.

It's not "my build" btw. Bonfire is more a kinetic crash mule than a useable power, although it will have its occasional use in mayhems and tight quarters, and also if you manically spam fire cages you can use it with bonfire soloing.

I think there's some bug with the recharge pet sets and imps (b/c they are lower level than you) so didn't use that. Doubtless an expert can chime in here.

It should be playable from 1-50 while levelling, although I didn't pay spectacular attention to the levels I added enhancements so you might have to adjust that.

I did it more with levelling in mind and wanting useful powers as they appear. If you were trying for a build that could get malefactored down easily, you might want to rearrange things a bit if you are worried about having a lot of +recharge.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Generic FireFire: Level 50 Natural Dominator
Primary Power Set: Fire Control
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Assault
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
------------
Level 1: Char BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(3), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(5), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(5)
Level 1: Flares Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(7), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9)
Level 2: Fire Cages Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(11), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(11), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(13), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(13)
Level 4: Fire Breath Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(15), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(15), Posi-Dmg/Rng(17), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17)
Level 6: Hasten RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(19), RechRdx-I(19)
Level 8: Hot Feet Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(21), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(21), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), EndRdx-I(50)
Level 10: Fire Blast Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(25), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(27), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27)
Level 12: Flashfire Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(29), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(29), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(31), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(31), RechRdx-I(31)
Level 14: Super Speed Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 16: Fiery Embrace RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(33)
Level 18: Hurdle Jump-I(A)
Level 20: Health Heal-I(A)
Level 22: Stamina EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(33), EndMod-I(33)
Level 24: Combustion Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(34), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 26: Aid Other Heal-I(A)
Level 28: Consume Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(36), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(48), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(48), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(50)
Level 30: Aid Self Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(37), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(37), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Dct'dW-Heal(39)
Level 32: Fire Imps SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg(A), SvgnRt-Dmg/EndRdx(39), SvgnRt-Acc/EndRdx(39), SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), SvgnRt-Acc(40), SvgnRt-PetResDam(50)
Level 35: Bonfire KinCrsh-Dmg/KB(A), KinCrsh-Acc/KB(40), KinCrsh-Rchg/KB(42), KinCrsh-Rechg/EndRdx(42), KinCrsh-Dmg/EndRdx/KB(42), KinCrsh-Acc/Dmg/KB(48)
Level 38: Blaze Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(43), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45)
Level 41: Scorpion Shield RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(45), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(45), RedFtn-Def(46), RedFtn-EndRdx(46), LkGmblr-Rchg+(46)
Level 44: Personal Force Field LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 47: Stealth LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Invisibility LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination
------------
Set Bonus Totals:
10.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)
10.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)
10.5% DamageBuff(Fire)
10.5% DamageBuff(Cold)
10.5% DamageBuff(Energy)
10.5% DamageBuff(Negative)
10.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)
10.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)
4.06% Defense(Smashing)
4.06% Defense(Lethal)
2.5% Defense(Energy)
2.5% Defense(Negative)
4.38% Defense(Melee)
1.25% Defense(Ranged)
6.75% Max End
4% Enhancement(Heal)
27% Enhancement(Accuracy)
3% Enhancement(Stun)
3% Enhancement(Immobilize)
105% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
64.9 HP (6.38%) HitPoints
Knockback (Mag -3)
Knockup (Mag -3)
MezResist(Confused) 7.75%
MezResist(Held) 7.75%
MezResist(Immobilize) 15.5%
MezResist(Sleep) 7.75%
MezResist(Stun) 12.2%
MezResist(Terrorized) 7.2%
8.5% (0.14 End/sec) Recovery
16% (0.68 HP/sec) Regeneration
12.5% Resistance(Smashing)
10% Resistance(Lethal)
14.1% Resistance(Fire)
14.1% Resistance(Cold)
10% Resistance(Energy)
11.9% Resistance(Negative)
10% Resistance(Toxic)
10% Resistance(Psionic)
3% RunSpeed

Hi SkylineGTR,

Your build looks fine if your primary goal is defense.

Smoke is okay as a power, but I wouldn't place it above either fiery embrace or PFF.

With a fire/fire in particular, it really is a crying shame not to take fiery embrace.

I think your consume slotting is a little off. You don't really have it for damage, you just want it accurate and up often.

You took combustion but not fire breath. As per

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....e=0&fpart=1

you can see that combustion is going to be worse off comparitively speaking than fire breath in the next issue. Lining up such a thin cone as fire breath is a hassle, but it is going to be pretty good damage.

As far as XPadenX and your request, you'd have to let me know a little better what you want. Primarily AOE or ranged or a hybrid attempt, etc...

I'm sure there are many other experts in the dom forums who could give as good or better advice than mine. Feel free to speak up.

Sorry that I didn't see smoke. My fault.

Shark skin is fine. It is more that it is resistance based rather than defense based. It is perfectly viable though. Most people probably 5-slot it with impervious skin.

If you want to switch to BS patron, you can 6-slot scorp shield with 5 red fortune and then 1 Luck of the Gambler +recharge. In general, this is a good slotting for defensive powers whose defense you actually want to rely on (combat j if you are in a defensive build, maneuvers, weave, etc.) If it is a defensive power where you don't really care about the defense (sometimes combat j, invisibility, stealth, grant invisibility) just stick 1 LotG +recharge in it and call it good.

Over a year ago, it used to be that LotG +recharges were an expensive alternative. I'm not sure about that anymore. They are actually pretty reasonably priced now villainside, when you compare them to other sets that offer around +7.5% recharge. Often, it is the cheaper option because with that other set, you are probably going to have to buy 5 recipes to get the bonus, and while individually they might be cheaper, the whole set of 5 can be pretty pricey. Plus, you get 5 "normal" set bonus 7.5% enhancements AND 5 LotG +recharge 7.5% enhancements, so they are useful in any case. They are definitely easier merit-spending-wise.

Take your time slotting the character though if it is your first 50. It will take a while. Don't let it bother you, and just make sure it is functional in the mean time.

QR

I think the real issue is that controllers need serious nerfage. It has been "City of Controllers" for at least 3 years now, maybe longer. They need containment scrapped and changed to a buff that respects normal +damage limits and their buff/debuff modifier changed to .60.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm more likely to keep SB up if the team is demanding it the second it drops.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really? If you say SB Plz you automatically go to the bottom of the queue for me.

(1) You cut off both Stupefy and Posi Blast (and maybe others, just a brief look) right before their payoffs of recharge bonuses.

Keep in mind that doms still want recharge, even if they aren't going for permadom. You want your AOE abilities to recharge faster, if nothing else.

(2) In general, much of your slotting is suspect. an end rdx in water spout? This does pretty much nothing for you. As a dom, I would prob 6-slot water spout with kinetic crash.

2-slotting bonfire with kinetic crash? Useless as far as set bonuses go and the actual enhancements you put in don't really help either.

Don't 3-slot health with 3 heals. It is not doing much for you. If you want to spend a fortune and put some miracle+recov or numina +regen/recov, that's fine, but otherwise just leave it with its default slot and 1 heal in there.

2-slotting combat jumping with defense sets? Again, probably useless. You didn't take scorp shield in the patrons, didn't take smoke for -tohit, and don't seem to have any other defense in your build really. So the little bit from combat jumping will be absolutely useless.

In general, your set bonuses seem to be all over the place and I am not sure why you chose specific sets for abilities. Basically, you want to min/max things. Decide what you want and go for that. So for example, some might go for a lot of +recharge and high ranged defense. Some might go for +damage (although prob not many doms do this). etc. You get the idea. Figure out what you want and go for it.

But also DON'T GIMP abilities you might actually want to use with stupid slotting decisions. For example, it is okay to get whirlwind and 6-slot it with kinetic crash and just realize that you will probably never use the ability. It isn't okay to take some core ability (e.g., your single target hold, etc.) and give it some ridiculous slotting for set bonuses that makes its primary ability useless.

As a fire/fire dom, your primary abilities are probably some subset of char, fire cages, hot feet, flashfire, fire imps, fire breath, fire blast, fiery embrace, combustion, and blaze. These are the abilities that you want to work as advertised, and so don't (for example) slot hot feet with tempered readiness or something silly like that.

As a fire/fire, you do have a little flexibility. You can go all-ranged very sucessfully, and you can also go aoe. This choice will determine a lot of the abilities you emphasize. You can also try to go for some hybrid.

(3) Maybe take a look at other people's posted builds that seem to receive positive attention here and slightly modify them to suit your personal needs. That might get you better results.

Welcome to the game and best of luck designing characters.

[ QUOTE ]
Longer recharge helps this how? Are you saying that because of longer recharge you find it refreshing to use more powers since the others werent recharged yet and something is STILL alive or what? Please clarify.

My opinion is the longer recharge and higher endurance costs simply make perma dom more of a necessity and widen the gap between the 'casual" so user and the min maxer types.

Yes, I have played the changes on test.

[/ QUOTE ]

Longer recharges help because doms have a lot of access to attacks and more attacks than they can use to be honest. It is nice because this helps justify all of these options.

As far as permadom goes, doms still want to get a lot of recharge for their aoe control abilities even if they aren't going for permadom, and this amount of recharge will help them with their attacks.

QR

The recharge changes are perfect. I definitely wouldn't want them to wimpify the attacks more just to get recharge down. Dominators really have plenty to do and plenty of options for attacks. Really, this has been one of their faults in the past (that they are somewhat attack-heavy IMO) but the longer recharges really help this.

QR

Dark Armor is really in pain with energy damage. I remember playing a DA brute back when they RWZ was more popular and almost dieing every time I jumped in for the alpha.

It was one of the few high-40s characters (which I had several accolades for) that I actually deleted.

It is good against exotic damage types and average/bad against common ones. I can't remotely see it being a good reliable tank if you are only playing one. If you are playing a bunch of tanks though, and want to have one in the closet for the occasional psi enemies, it would be fine.

QR

As far as teams go, I think you make your best contribution against AV-types. You can lay down poison gas (-1000% regen even if you don't care about the hold) and acid mortar for -res. The only tricky thing here is that sometimes AVs have nasty PBAOEs so you need to set acid mortar away a bit so it doesn't get killed. Poison trap is right next to them. And of course ffg is always useful to everyone.

Unfortunately, /traps has such a gimpy rep that many newbie groups won't invite you to SFs, since they don't know you are good vs AVs.

As far as damage, trip mine is really nice. Its only drawback is that is causes scatter. If it didn't do that it would be perfect. It is very easy to toebomb (activate right at the feet of the mobs during the fight) because /traps players typically have absurdly high def (even if they don't invest in IOs.)

Good defense is essential in teams and solo, so that you can get right next to the mobs and start laying traps.

One final nice thing about /traps is that it works very well out of the box. You don't need an IO investment to be useful. Things always improve with the expensive sets, of course, but /traps really is just fine with common SOs.