Samuel_Tow

I haven't done one of these in a while, like... In two years or so But I figured I'm so stumped and desperate for ideas I HAVE to ask for help on this one.

With the recent Dominator changes, I made myself a new Dominator, amusingly plagiarising a costume design my mother made. I tell ya, folks - let your parents have a go at the game. They might just give you something you would never have thought of!

So, with stolen costume and an old, old story, I came up with Mathew Landark, a curious villain who commits acts of evil with no malice or sense of satisfaction. After being abducted by a shadowy organisation as a child, Landark went though all manner of emotions - pain, hatred, sadness, ending up in cackling exhilaration when he finally escaped, to the point where he essentially burned himself out, and is now a cold, calculating, emotionless killer.

And I don't have a good alternate costume for him. I have a street clothes variant that I didn't post, which is essentially a short-sleeved open vest over a bare chest with blue baggy jeans. Nothing worth posting a pic of, which is kind of hard to do as I'm at work now. I wanted his original costume to be very simplistic and stylistic, reflecting a man's disconnect with the world and lack of interest in anything not directly necessary. I'm not sure why I went with the big Vegeta shoulders, but it really seemed to finish the chest plate shape. Whatever costume I end up with as a new design, I'm going to want to that same theme.

I'm not really adamant about keeping much. I'm obviously retaining the face and hair, and I'd rather like to retain the boots at least, and probably the gloves if the design permits it, but really nothing other than the head is really all that important. I don't actually have ANY idea what to do with the next costume, so I can't put any restrictions on that. Suit, armour, tights, kilt... OK, maybe not kilt, but just about anything that looks good and would fit an aloof, disconnected person should work.

To append what also may be important, he is a Gravity/Energy Dominator and an unashamed villain. His theme isn't so much evergy as I'd call it kinetics. Telekinetics, to be precise. The ability to lift, shove, push and generally throw people around with concussive force is central to him. I'm not sure how that could possibly relate to costume, which is part of the reason why his original one has nothing to do with his powers, but if it matters, there it is.

I would like to ask for any ideas you guys can come up with. I'd really like it if you could post screenshots of your ideas, but I'll be grateful for explanations of suggestions, as well. I'm really, really stumped so anything you can come up with would be really cool.

Thank you in advance.

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Removing the AE buildings from the low level zones will be useless.
Solution: buy the Mac pack, get on a team, have the leader put the mission up, tp to mission door...........done. Log toon out at that AE and leave him there. The end.

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I don't believe there are enough people playing the Mac edition for this to matter.

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Specifically NEW people who bought the game as a new experience who grabbed the Mac edition. A lot of veterans have the Mission Teleporter from the Valkyrie pack or even the Mac pack applied over a PC-only account. But this concerns genuinely new player who wouldn't have all the boosters at the start.

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I was wondering how you have Gravity Distortion slotted?

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So far, not very well. I can't recall offhand, but I don't believe I have it slotted for recharge. Not yet, anyway. The mass of slots in the 30s should help with that. I'm not sure I'll be able to 6-slot it any time soon, but I'll certainly be looking at adding more control to it. Truth be told, it's not half bad now. I'll probably be looking at accuracy, endurance reduction, two holds and maybe one or two recharges. We'll see how that goes.

As for global recharge, that's not really something I can make use of. Let's leave it at that.

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Well, I go into the mission, summon singularity, and see a behemoth up ahead. I target him and hit wormhole... and dump a _pair_ of L52 mages in front of me.

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The eternal bane of Wormhole. It doesn't teleport only what you see, it teleports everything that's THERE, including all the other stuff you didn't even suspect was there

You know, sometimes it's the silly things you don't expect that make the game really fun

When I'm wrong, I'm wrong

It's still not where I'd ideally want it to be, and it's still pretty easy to get in over my head, but unlike most other ATs, I feel things are only going to get better, or at the very least not get any worse. That means a lot to me.

But, yeah - having a good way to play a Dominator is really essential to making any use of one. The AT is actually pretty strong when used right, at least from what I'm seeing, but it really does work rather differently from just about anything else I've played. Blasters, Scrappers, Brutes and Stalkers I can play more or less the same and get away with it, but a Dominator can't really afford to play like a Blaster. That was one of the really big things to "get."

Actually, I'm finally starting to see the upside of the control deal. I ate my way through to the other end, as it were. I certainly wish I knew what I did right, but I'm not really sure. Fact is, though, that I managed to find a stride that's reasonably safe and quite fast, and that's even before factoring in Wormhole. It really is a culture shock to a large extent, and slotting duration into Gravity Distortion can let it work like two holds, which is something that I never even considered possible.

For the first time in five years, I'm finally starting to appreciate knockback as a source of control, and I guess out of necessity more than anything else. With melee characters, tough enemies I could just out-tough, and with Blasters, tough enemies I could just kill. With Dominators, I have to hold them, but not all can be. Anathema, for instance, are highly resistant. However, between Lift, Power Push and a little timing and thought, it's fairly easy to, if not stop them from attacking, then at least slow them down SIGNIFICANTLY to where I kill them before they pose a gratuitous threat.

It's becoming fairly obvious to me that Power Boost is going to play a significant role in this character's survival. Hold-juggling is all well and good, but a Power Boosted hold can give me a LOT of breathing room, and be followed by another Power Boosted hold if I plan ahead a little, which counts for a lot. A power boosted Gravity Distortion, though rare it may be, is actually as close to an "I Win" button as I've seen on a Dominator. A good Blaster Combo that spawn-wipes everything is still superior, but that's an AT thing. As with a Blaster, recognising and neutralising threats is quite evidently vital, and neutralising even several threats isn't that much of a problem in the long run.

Wormhole DOES change things quite a bit, as well, partly because it's not inaccurate like other AoE control powers I've seen, partly because it's up so frequently I'm not afraid to use it for even stupid stuff, like pulling a couple of lone minions around. Damage didn't seem high enough when that was all I had to rely on to save me, but being able to rely on control (you know, my primary) more reduces the absolute need for damage. Knockback and, more specifically, knockUP is also giving me plenty of opportunity to use Bone Smasher, my so far lone melee attack that does A LOT of damage, which helps a lot.

To a certain extent, the cause for my musings on control was operator error. I had never had to rely on controlling enemies as a primary directive, and so always relegated my primary to a secondary importance. Against friends' advice, I left Lift off until very late, which I now realise was a mistake, as it helps a LOT. Generally, situational awareness and an impetus on control is really how things seem to want to go. Dominators are still somewhat late-blooming from what I'm seeing, not truly coming into their own until the post-20 game, but it doesn't seem to be by much. The central point of my concern was worry for the future, a worry that this trudge would never end. It hasn't exactly become a cake walk, but it's doable, and that's going to have to be enough. More slots and more powers should make things easier, and hopefully Singularity will come around before the game takes its next step up in difficulty.

In short, I was doing it wrong and I had to learn to play.

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It's not a brute, it's not a MM, but they want it to be. You'll never be able to correct even a tiny percentage of them. Not enough to prevent them from getting Castle's attention if it is even a small issue for them.

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It always makes me smile to see bitter, hateful people pat each other on the back for sticking it to the man.

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I honestly have no idea how they got the powersets done as quickly as they did as well as they did.

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That seems to get quoted a lot, but I think people are missing the point. They got everything ready, functioning and actually playable for the release of an MMO, in a time when it was customary for MMOs to be shunted off to Live in a stage only tangentally better than early Beta. When City of Heroes launched, one of the key points people kept praising the game for was the fact that it launched without any showstopping bugs and with pretty high quality. The game worked!

To me, the mere fact that they actually got all powers animated and working really is doing things quickly and well. It may not have been a perfect setup, but it worked.

You don't take damage when dropping from the height of Super Jump, you take damage when dropping from a height much greater than the height you can jump. This is fairly normal, as you should obviously be able to land from as high as you can jump, but I don't see any particular reason to explain why you can drop half a mile (easily achievable) and not take a scratch.

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I do not see anywhere where it says that or that the status quo is set in stone and set themes are clearly defined as being just one thing and will only ever be one thing. That's just not how the game works and new changes will move further from that with power color customization.

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I'm afraid I don't ever see the game moving away from powerset themes, because there are plenty, plenty of powersets where only theme is the meaningful difference. If you stretch beyond theme, then powersets become meaningless, and I doubt this will ever happen. A few easy examples:

Say we give Martial Arts heavier, more sturdy hits, and we give Super Strength faster, more agile attacks under the pretence that a super strong character needn't be slow or unwieldy. It's pretty easy to get to a point where the sets are visually identical apart from a power or two, and differ only in name and body glow.

Even easier - the only difference between Broadsword and Katana is animation. They are functionally as identical as two sets are going to come, but Broadsword is slow and unwieldy, whereas Katana is fast and snippy. Theoretically, you CAN make Katana animate with slower, stronger attacks, but that's not what the set is ABOUT. It's a fast, relatively light-hitting set. And you COULD make Broadsword strike faster and appear more skilful, but this isn't what Broadsword is about. It's a heavy-hitting big sword. What's more, altering the sets like this would make them almost entirely interchangeable.

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Did you actually want dual blades? I didn't vote for it, I wanted energy blade (Jedis, son!) and psionic weaponry. Too late now and we have it and it's cool so it's alright...but I really would have wanted psionic weaponry because I could make more concepts vs a person that just uses 2 weapons.
Now if they make a Brawling set, it's alright and I'm sure it be cool but it's in the same category as dual blades, IMO. A niche set that does what current sets do (i.e. swords that cut and pummeling strikes with the body). So why not endorse other similar sets like magic wand (energy projectiles), utility belt manipulation (grab bag of gadgets), flying surfboard pool (flight), etc.

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I voted for Energy Blade and Dual Blades in the poll, as we were allowed two choices. I would have been happy with either, and I was extremely pleased with Dual Blades. And Dual Blades aren't just "swords that cut" (ignoring the fact that they're the only sword set which STABS), because they're not just Broadsword, but with two weapons. They have their very own style and feel, one of speed even greater than that of Katana, and of a smooth flow of attacks, rather than the hit/pause/hit/pause of most other sets. It's not inherent in having two blades, obviously, but this is what has become the trademark of Dual Blades. Changing them to something slow and sluggish and heavy-hitting at this point is simply not an option.

And there's the added baggage that "martial arts" has a specific connotation in fiction in general. It's true that a more educated, more realistic approach to martial arts would yield styles as widely diverse as any powerset pair-up we have here, but this isn't an educated, realistic game. It's a game of iconic heroes with flashy super powers, and in this game martial arts is acrobatics, spin kicks, jump kicks and so forth. That's the powerset's theme. Animation-customizing it into another theme turns it into another powerset, no different from asking for Assault Rifle to have its animations altered so that you could use dual handguns to fire off the attacks. It's possible, perhaps even not even all that troublesome, but it would no longer be a set called Assault Rifle.

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I'll just say this: For current powersets, it can be lots of different things with imagination and power choices. It's not entirely easy but you can. If my suggestion where done, then it'd be easier especially for sets like Super Strength, Martial Arts and the like as well as greater concept control compared to just adding a Brawler set to fit in between them.

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I'm not against power animation customization. Heck, I'm decidedly FOR it. But I don't support the idea of changing a powerset into something it is not, specifically since I don't want this to be a 9-for-9 change of entire powersets, but rather a collection of possibilities that you can mix and match together. Such a collection would all have to share a single theme. I'm not against faster, more snippy animations for Super Strength, for instance, or even entering a variety of kicks into it, but it has to retain both the theme and feel of super strength in doing so. No mere Martial Arts with yellow glow (I'm really sorry, Vanden!) where you have to infer you are strong from the damage you do, but a set that still displays this super strength in the way it does things. In a sense, Super Strength is a set of strength over skill, and even if you add skill to it, it has to remain a set hinged primarily and mostly on strength.

And so it goes. More options, yes, but options in the same general theme.

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Spam ignored accounts are no longer banned quickly. Too many griefers ruined that. To many innocent people were spam ignored.

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Wait, do you have any actual evidence to believe this, or are you just inferring?

True, it self-updates periodically, but one would think it would update more frequently than every two weeks

It's back to normal now, and all the servers are still down... Scratch that, it's back to two weeks ago and all the servers are still up... How do I fix this caching problem, other than stepping away for half an hour and hoping it's right when I come back?

The Server Status page is punking me. I saw the Admin message about the servers going down, left and came back at 4:01 PM (a minute after maintenance should start). I checked the Server Status and everything was Up. Except, the updater couldn't connect. And how COULD the servers be up if they'd just gone down? Then I noticed it: Updated: 2009-06-24 13:05:02 UTC.

Aha! So the servers WERE up two weeks ago! That's good to know, I guess. I switched tabs to copy the update time as I was posting this, and very briefly saw it updated on the CORRECT day and showing everything as Down, but as soon as it noticed me looking at it, it switched back to the 24th of June and showed everything as Up. So it shows right when I have my back turned, but shows me the wrong info when I turn to look. Hard har har, server status! You sure fooled me!

This isn't special to Energy Melee and Fire Blast for the reasons you believe. The animation which takes you into combat stance is the standard one you go into even if you didn't have an effect. However, Energy Melee and Fire Blast have persistent effects that stay on your hands whenever a power from the set is queued. I suspect Fire Blast's fade, but Energy Melee's most certainly persist. If other sets had persistent effects, they would play them in much the same way. Unfortunately, it doesn't make sense for all powersets. Say, Super Strength or Martial Arts or Sonic Blast.

Now, with that said I'm not opposed to having a "power draw" emote that would play something specific to either your primary or secondary. Weapon- and power-specific emotes are something I've always wanted to see.

I don't want falling to hurt ME more, but I would really love it if enemies knocked off rooftops did take serious damage and possible even got defeated. Exploding police cars already do significantly more damage to NPCs than they do to us, which makes it cool to blow up cars near them. It would be cool if, in the same vein, falling damage, or at least falling damage while being knocked back, would hurt a LOT more.

Use the excuse of landing badly. When an enemy jumps off a rood, he lands on his feet, so presumably he takes a lot less damage. When ragdoll-knocked-back, however, he often lands on his head, so it can be assumed he'll take a LOT more damage. Make knocking things off high places fun, rather than annoying and counter-productive.

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I'm sorry, you have to explain that one to me. I don't understand. What do you mean by default? When they run out of powers and have nothing left they use their fist?

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Basically, when someone's fighting ability isn't the result of some refined form of martial arts, specific and overwhelming super strength or derivative of the manipulation of some kind of element, it's this. Brawling is what people who have a super power, but not a specific fighting style will use, and eventually that itself can turn into a fighting style all of its own.

You also have "comic book logic" as well as "game logic" to contend with. Martial arts, as viewed through the above, represent the ability to do crazy stunts and be really, really fast, but not all that strong, because if you're strong and heavy... Then it's not martial arts. The opposite end of the spectrum is the hideously exaggerated HULK SMASH!!! version of super strength, where you rely on your strength and NO technique whatsoever. There is literally nothing inbetween.

No matter what you do with Martial Arts, it will remain a set of fast, accurate hits that has you prancing around and going "Hai-yah!" It's what the theme demands. A Brawling set, on the other hand, is an entirely different theme altogether. I actually had a suggestion of a Brawling set that used a combination of the less glamorous, more pragmatic attacks we already have and relying on multi-hit powers. Say one could be pom-pom-less Barrage followed by Kick, while the other could left-hand Jab, right-hand Jab, Brawl.

A brawling set is a theme unto itself. Where martial arts rely on knowledge, technique and lots and lots of training to build the martial art into your subconscious, brawling is pretty much making it up as you go, and something comprised of much less flashy, much more direct punches, kicks, elbows, knees, headbutts and so forth, with perhaps a pinch of super strength thrown in.

Like I said, there ARE martial arts that are pretty much just that, but in this game universe, "martial arts" means something specific and rather unrealistic. And it's cool because of it

I will confess to one thing - aside from wanting access to sets I could never use (Control and Assault), by far the key reason I even considered making a Dominator is because there is no conceptual counterpart to the Blaster villain-side. To my eyes, and this can be true in-game, too, Blasters are wielders of dramatically amazing power with which they can destroy just about anything. That they lack protection is true, but this can be made up by just killing what's killing you, which is very much in-character for someone who has more power than he knows what to do with.

Nothing CoV-side comes even close. Brutes are strong, but they are fighters, and by extension don't really fit the "rocks floating upwards" kind of power. Stalkers are even less appropriate, as not only are they fighters, but they rely on hiding and surprise attacks, as well. Corruptors could PASS for Blasters, but they are more backwards Defenders than anything else, and with a playstyle more focused on support with crappy damage (seriously) and very low hit points, they don't end up being that in actual practice. The Mastermind playstyle does fit the right feel, but a Mastermind is a wimp who has help, which isn't really so much raw power as... Well, other people's raw power. A typical Boss class henchman will be tougher and stronger than his master for the most part.

Which leaves Dominators. As a control AT, I scoffed at them due to the developers' phobia of giving support ATs damage. Yes, 30 levels after the fact and with massive use of Inventions, players could put one over on them and still sneak a lot of damage onto their Dominators (and Controllers), but at that cost and delay it was just too little, too late. With the recent changes, it seemed that Dominators might finally fill the role I had always been looking for - someone who wields amazingly impressive power. This doesn't have to mean they do great damage, and lacking self-damage buffs for the most part, as well as appreciable AoE, that's not what's TRULY amazing about them. It's pretty good, but other ATs can also be pretty good at things not their speciality. I expected their true awesomness to lie in an amazingly impressive ability to control, and to a point that has been true, but...

Well, with the complete lack of anything in-between large-scale, long-recharge control and small-scale, repeatable control... That doesn't really add up. If I could use my large-scale control more often, say once per battle since it doesn't last all that long, or at least once per couple of battles, then I might feel like I'm very good at controlling. Or, failing that, if I had some means to control more than one person when my large-scale control WASN'T up, I might still feel better. But I'm finding myself with a conundrum so very often - 4 people are shooting at me, one has been held, and there is NOTHING I can do to save myself. I can't kill them fast enough to save myself from being killed and I can't control them fast enough for the damage to drop off significantly. About my only recourse is to either hit Domination and hope I can hold them in time, or hit Dimension Shift and either run or rest.

Specifically speaking, thanks to Power Boost, I can make Gravity Distortion Field count a little more, especially as an opener. But that's still only when it's up. The problem is that, with AoE control lasting only around 10 seconds and a battle with multiple enemies taking around 30 seconds or more... I'm not sure I'm seeing this "amazing power" I was looking for.

If Going Rogue allows Blasters to cross over to CoV-side, or, even more, introduces a new control AT... I might seriously reconsider my Dominator. He's not BAD to play, mind you, not for the moment. But of all the characters I have, he's at the same time the least survivable and the one I have the least confidence when playing.

I would definitely want to see Architect buildings removed from any zone under level 10. This means Atlas Park, Galaxy City, King's Row, Mercy Island and Port Oaks. People keep citing "But I've done it levelventy billion times!" and conveniently forget that the POINT of this is to keep NEW people from getting sucked into the cycle of powerlevelling to 50. Missing good developer-made content? You betcha! As amazing as it may seem, not everyone is a five-year veteran who's seen everything a zillion times over. Some people, and indeed the people we need to do the most for, are brand new to the game, looking for a cool new game that's worth $15 a month to play. Is anyone here seriously suggesting that the first thing they should be exposed to is a grinding farm to 50? Seriously?

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I don't want to meddle in other people's affairs. You want to farm and grind, go for it. I do NOT, however, want this to be the public face of the game that all new players get to see. I don't want them to think that that's all there is to the game, because there isn't. This is becoming seriously hurtful to the game, and at this point I DO want to meddle in other people's business because this is NOT what new players should be seeing. It cannot be said enough times.

I believe putting an Architect building in EVERY DAMN ZONE was a mistake, specifically since you can't do cross-building arcs anyway. In very much the same way, I believe putting half a dozen Merit Vendors in every zone and at every location one might stop at was a mistake, as well. There's no need for these things to be all over the place and in everybody's face.

Putting the Architect buildings in higher-level zones does nothing to keep the "jaded veterans" from getting to them, as anyone who's been here for a while can get to, say, mid-town Steel Canyon or up to Cap Au Diable. It takes a bit of practice, but that's what you get by playing the game a lot. What you accomplish, however, is keeping the broadcast spam and the constant invitations to "AE Farms" out of the way of new players until they've gotten at least SOME feel for the game.

Let 50s farm all they want. Let 50-month vets powerlevel their alts to their hearts' content. But keep them AWAY from new players to the game.

Yeah, Excession loves his one-star bandit A lot of the more out-spoken, less sensitive posters developed "fanclubs" like that. I remember Dr. Zeus was hounded by the same bunch of people every time he posted, and even Bad Influence occasionally spawns that, herself. Personally, having gone down this road and found the destination unappealing, I'm not a big fan of posting for the sole purpose of "putting someone in his place."

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The point being that it's better to develop that new engine and incorporate it into the existing game than it is to launch a "sequel".

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I'm not sure that's how it works. Even assuming you can "incorporate" a new engine into an existing game, that won't make it look any better. Half-Life: Source doesn't look any better than the original Half-Life, despite being rendered in a next-gen (or what was a next-gen) engine for the simple fact that the textures remained low-res, the models low-poly and and the underlying game structure remained 10 years old. About the only thing Half-Life: Source has on the original Half-Life is that it came in a bundle with Half-Life 2. In fact, it was actually WORSE, because it lacked the "high definition" weapons and models from Blue Shift.

The point is, a new engine doesn't make a game look better. Remaking the game from scratch makes the game look better, with or without a better engine. Even if a new engine added new functionality, someone would have to edit the game to add situations where this functionality comes to play, which is the basic equivalent of making new content anyway. A new engine MIGHT make the game run faster, and for an inefficient engine like ours, that would be a BIG thing, but it won't make the game LOOK any less 7 years old than it is.

That said, I have to agree that making a sequel to the game would not be a smart move. City of Heroes has proven to be a franchise that doesn't attract too many new players, and I'm all but positive the OLD players aren't going to be subscribed to both. Unless they pull the plug on the original game, which they won't because it would be a huge mistake, they'll end up with two games to support for not twice playerbase.

I don't know what's worse - people making "look at me" threads or people who keep coming back to pick on them.

This
Is
QUICKREPLY!!!

To make this happen with Weapon Customization, which is currently the only way, Spines would need to be drawn as a costume item. Costume items are restricted to items directly on your costume. Items you throw or shoot are not costume items, they are effects, and as of posting this post, effects cannot be customized in real time. BABs can change them manually, but this will change the effect for EVERYBODY.

Again, with the upcoming changes in I16, this may be possible. As of right now, it isn't. What people have been telling you is what BABs told us way back when he instituted custom weapons.

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Street Fighting/Brawling Set- I never thought this idea was very good for a powerset. Players just want the set because they want a punching version of Martial Arts.

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You're getting the reasoning of most people who want this set wrong.
<lots of good reasons cut>

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Not to mention, it works a lot better for 'yeah, I just started regenerating one day and decided to fight crime!' type characters a lot more than martial arts.

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I have to go with this train of thought. Asserting that people want streetfighting because they want a punching version of Martial Arts is a really bad basis for starting an argument over, on the same level as claiming that people want dual handguns because they want to play Assault Rifle, but without the rifle, or that, or that people want size changing as a powerset because they want to play Super Strength, but with less emphasis on strength.

The reason people want a Street Fighting set is because brawling/boxing is very much the default for any hero not specifically going for another theme, such as super martial arts, energy fists, turning to stone and so forth. Not merely functional Martial Arts, but with punches instead of kicks, but an actual set designed from the ground up with the theme of brawling in mind.

Practically speaking, you can't turn one powerset into another via power customization. You could possibly switch elements, but you're not going to turn Super Strength into Dual Blades. You have the whole AT's power structure to contend with, as well as animation length that new powers have to conform to. You also have to worry about the powerset's theme being one thing and you trying to turn it into another. Even if Martial Arts gained punches, it wouldn't turn it into a brawling set. There are plenty of martial arts that emphasise punches over kicks, and a mostly-punching martial art isn't any less a martial art than a mostly kicking one. Just in the same way as switching from the Omnigun to the M4 to the Council rifle doesn't change the fact that you're firing a rifle. You can't turn the set into archery, handguns, hand grenades or whatever else you can think of.

We need new powersets because new themes deserve their own powerset.

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1) Damage.

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Respectable damage appears to only be a factor of the single-target control powers, namely hold and immobilise. At least that's true for Gravity Control. Crushing Field does pathetic damage and Gravity Distortion Field doesn't appear to deal any at all. To add, Blaster immobilize powers deal moderate damage, as well. The thing, for me, is slotting these holds for damage. On a Blaster, I can afford that as Blasters can survive largely on killing things. On a Dominator, I need that control to survive, so I can't really prioritise damage. And I don't want to get into Inventions. That's a can of worms I'd rather not touch.

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2) Duration.

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Granted, I was underestimating the duration of the control effects. When I posted my original complain, I was working with yellow DOs a level away from SOs, while the Blaster I'd played before was working with green ++SOs and the durations were STILL greater on my Dominator. I just didn't appreciate by HOW much until I slotted SOs in my holds. What's more, being that this is a control AT, I could prioritise control and slot more hold/immobilise/stun duration, rather than neglecting my holds with just a handful of slots. With just a single green SO, Gravity Distortion appears to be close to double-stacking with itself, which can be enhanced even more and becomes really fun with Domination and Power Boost.

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3) Area of effect.

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Granted, but that was part of what worried me. Control set AoE control powers are always regarded as "really big" and, though their effects are usually strong, their duration, accuracy and recharge are usually in the tank. I have the I5 changes that halved AoE control duration and doubled AoE control recharge for that. They're a tool to handle special situations, not something that can be used consistently. The next level lower below massive AoE control is single-target control, which is about on the opposite end of the spectrum - good duration, recharge and accuracy (especially accuracy), but only a single target can be affected.

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4) Pets.

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Absolutely granted, but itself the source of a very persistent problem: "It gets better after 32." There's this notion that because control sets get pets at level 32, which transform them quite significantly, it's OK for them to be terribly boring to play before level 32. This has actually been said to me in pretty much those exact words, and I just don't agree with it. My single most convincing reason for not playing a control AT before I15 was that I've no interest in playing a terrible character for 32 levels with the hope of eventual payoff, when my average new character "attention span" is ~25 levels. I will grant that control set pets do make a huge difference, but they come FAR too late for them to act as salvation, meaning I have to look to... Just about everything else to make the set work in and of itself. As of the last couple of days, this has seemed to work, but the game is only going to get harder.

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People that use dim shift in this way generally don't slot it for accuracy and actually want it to miss some of the targets.

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I've heard that mentioned, and I'm not a big fan of this approach. I like my powers to be reliable and predictable. Counting on them to MISS is very much counter to that ideal. I've already learned to use it to catch parts of a large spawn if enemies scatter around enough (it happens), but generally I use it as an escape from imminent death, either my own or a team-mate's. 30 seconds is more than enough to even rest in the middle of an enemy spawn, so saving yourself when you're dying comes easy.

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You really shouldn't need it while solo though. If an ice blaster can cake walk the solo game with just freezeray there is no dom primary that should ever have issues.

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An Ice Blaster doesn't work on JUST Freeze Ray. Even ignoring Bitter Freeze Ray, an Ice Blaster has access to a whole Blaster primary with aim, and very often to a whole Blaster secondary with build up, still often Ice Manipulation. A Blaster is also working with around 50% more hit points, and despite what people keep telling me, having those hit points matters. I can count on a Blaster to survive noticeably longer even just doing nothing than I can an idle Dominator. So a Blaster doesn't actually need as much support and survivability as a Dominator, but I wouldn't put that down to the control they have. After all, one of the strongest Blasters I have is Fire/Fire and that has NO control.

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Gravity damage:
There are only two powers in grav that should generally be focused on for damage slotting. Lift and propel. But you shouldn't take propel. So that leaves lift, which is a very good power.


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Despite all the Propel hate, I have to insist on taking, slotting and using it. It's VERY endurance-efficient, more so than most Assault attacks, and most certainly more so than anything I have in Energy Assault. Granted, it's also slow, which gives it poor DPA, but when it comes to endurance expended for damage done in return, this is the most efficient power I have, so using it actually saves me endurance. Provided so many people criticize Dominators for their endurance consumption, I feel this is one power I should stick to to mitigate that.


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Just get GD slotted up and use lift on targets you haven't hit with GD. Grav really isn't a set that is designed to solo on the even difficulty settings. It does much better against less targets.

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I wish that were an option, but Villainous is too pathetic and I don't feel like scaling my bosses down, and Level 3 is too difficult, because my accuracy isn't very good against +1s, let alone +2s, and I don't fancy fighting purple bosses as a general thing. Kind of in stuck on this one.

On Wormhole: would I be at a disadvantage if I only used it for its stun and not for its relocation function? The pros you gave for it don't really excite me all that much, partly because they seem to be geared for big, powerful teams and partly because they don't seem THAT useful. The AoE radius shouldn't be THAT much of a problem and I don't believe knockback or relocation are going to be problematic, so I intend to focus on just stun for the moment.