Augury

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That should be 'unpopular'

And dominators are the least played class. Most agree that they're underpowered until they get their pet, and most people don't have that kind of patience. I've probably seen about 5 doms tops in the union server... EVER. And i'm one of them. (I know there's more, but i'm in the mid-20 range, where most will have given up)

The holds are ok, but the aoe holds are a joke (at least the grav power mass distortion is..). The damage output is laughable. With my /psi dom, i'll hit for about 10 dmg with dart, 30 with probe, 25 with scream e.t.c. We only really start up with powers like subdue, psychic shockwave e.t.c, but then it's nearly the end of the levels.

But I still love mine.

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*boggles*

I play a grav/enr and regularly and I have no such problems. In fact I team with another grav/enr regularly and she has no problems either.

Holds are a joke, sorta, but they're really not! If you're grav, GET DIMENSION SHIFT. If people whine, tell them to shut it because it's one of the most useful powers in a grav dominators repertoire if used properly. It recharges way faster than Gravity Distortion Field, it's way more accurate, it lasts way longer, and it doesn't really need to be slotted. ... AT ALL.

Slot GDF for acc and recharge, add holds only after having 2 acc and 2 recharge SOs. I won't have it 6 slotted until level 40 just because it's not that good. Still, you now have two holds. DS and GDF, between those and powerboost you can effectively hold mobs long enough for a team to make quick work of them.

DS is particularly effective since it never hits boss mobs. If you have an elite boss with a troop of 12 other lts and minions around them, powerboost and drop a dimension shift on them. Gauranteed the boss will be unaffected but most of the mobs will be because its inherently pretty damn accurate (no penalty like GDF). Then the whole group can safely pile on the boss, and once he's dead (apply GDF where appropriate if DS wears off) mop up the other mobs.

Power boost can turn DS or GDF in a very scary hold. If you stack domination and power boost on GDF, you can expect a very short lived very easy fight.

Meanwhile single target holds can be used on bosses like tank swipers and smashers, rikti comm officers, lost anathema/pariah/abberants, demon lords and more to keep them out of the battle and from killing teammates until the swathes of minions are dealt with. GD is your best friend.

Next up blasting. No problems with that here. Between power bolt, power blast, propel, bonesmasher and total focus and SOs I have no problem dishing it out. I've dealt 200 damage easy just with one total focus hit in groups, and sometimes my propel and TF go over that 200 with appropriate debuffs and domination.

Incidentally, there's more control for you there. Bonesmasher has a disorient chance and TF a huge disorient chance. Stack them on a boss and watch them stagger around.

Use wormhole and whirling hands to stack AoE disorient on top of decent AoE damage. Apply crushing field if you're feeling frisky and want just that extra nudge of damage.

Use crushing field on big groups of held mobs to help your corruptor's AoE take them out even faster. With proper debuffs and/or domination you can do over 500 damage with this power not slotted for damage.

As far as normal blasty? Like I said, between my melee and blast powers once I have them all and slotted, I'll have a total brawl index of... *calculates* 65. There'll be 20 in TF, 15 in sniper shot, 10 in propel. As a grav/enr I can keep up with a corruptor when it comes to single target damage. They outblast me if they get scourge, I outblast them if I get domination.

Heck, I see my dominator as a controller, blaster, and bosskiller all in one. And a good one. I can't compete with my group's corruptor for AoE damage (but help it along a bit) but single target damage I can compete, control is really great between wormhole, DS, GDF and stackable disorient melee powers, and once my AoE hold usefulness wears off you can bet I'll be all over the nastiest bosses you can find to keep their eyes on me and off my teammates.

I'm 31 now and I feel so powerful that sing almost will feel like a nicity. I can 2 or 3 hit white con minions, rip apart bosses while keeping them held and I can squeeze enough control out to save everyone's behind in a bad situation most of the time.

Maybe I just took the winning combination of powersets? Although I will admit my damage didn't really take off until I got to a higher level, top twenties. SOs help a lot. Before that you are a slightly gimped controller...

But after it you're a force to be reckoned with which needn't feel inferior to any other AT.

Heck, maybe I should write a guide to grav/enr doms, just to show people that they are in fact very powerful and teams would be very pleased to have one on board.

On stamina:

Take this with a grain of salt. I'm not fire/fire, I'm grav/energy. Anyway. I do have stamina 3 slotted, with ED and not having to dump 6 in it it's too good not to take. You could probably get away with skipping stamina but it might require you to get more end redux in powers, reducing their effectivity because you skipped one power and two added slots.

That's IMHO. I could live without stamina as a grav/enr, I just wouldn't want to. Having said that: you probably dont need to be in any particular rush to get stamina over important damage or control powers unless fire/fire is way end heavier than grav/enr. I only got stamina at 28 in lieu of more control powers and such.

Every time I look here there's just about not discussion going on. Are dominators that unpopular, or are they just so easy to figure out that nobody has to discuss anything?

Just curious.

I like it how people seem to fail to realize that any old joe can get stealth+invis just from powerpools and be mostly invisible to those of us who don't have IR goggles, lots of yellows, or PBAoE effects.

It's not just stalkers, people. Although I admit, those are more likely to one-hit you, but getting the drop on someone always gives you a significant edge.

Personally I've given up on PVP. Apparantly you need either one of two sets of things:

1.
- Stealth
- Invisibility
- Possible phase shift for max effect
- Teleport
- Lots of defense powers/toggles to avoid PBAoE

That way you can be cheap like ... well, just about every hero I "met" in Siren's Call during my little stint there which I won't be repeating. Pop up behind people, and do whatever it is you do. If they actually fight back TELEPORT AWAY and try again later. Possibly if they're engaging NPCs or another hero or villain, easy targets YAY!

Or:

2.
- Tactics
- Lots of yellow inspirations
- Lots more trips for lots more yellow inspirations
- IR goggles
- A PBAoE
- Holds (and you better PRAY they hit)

That's if you're incapable to devote two of your four powerpool choices and lord knows how many powers just so you can compete in PVP. Of course, if you're an AT/powerset without a PBAoE that possibility is right out. Tough luck if you don't have one. Tough luck if you don't have a hold either or as above, they'll TP away. Of course you can get TP yourself and run away as soon as someone puts up a fight, but why run away when you're already going to be the person first getting hit anyhow?

So then you need tactics, slot your PBAoE with accuracy making it effectively useless for doing anything but spotting stealthers. Not to mention inspirations. Unfortunately the other guys are stacking stealth, invisibility, occasionally hide, and probably a whole BUNCH of defense powers on themselves (there's 6 or 7 in powerpools alone) and they can use defense inspirations too, so whatever increase you got from those yellows they can match, and they have more than just the one power helping their defense, unlike your accuracy.

They're invisible already so it's not a stretch for them to get phase shift so even if your insane accuracy and trips every 5 minute to some contact to buy yellows means you can see them you can't factually DO anything to them til they decloak next to you, and you hit them, and they TP away (remember those holds!).

Really, PVP at the moment looks rather shaky to me and really boring. I think I'll pass thanks, but to those of you with a million yellow inspires, PBAoEs, holds, teleport, stealth/invisibility/hide/phase shift and lots of defensive powers stacked, I'm sure you lot will enjoy dancing around eachother and TPing out the minute you encounter any opposition.

Personally I get more enjoyment out of blasting NPCs. And no, I'm not an anti-PVP carebear, I've PVPed and enjoyed it in several games, but nowhere was there such an enormous potential for stupid, boring, annoying and frustrating PVP experiences than this game.

Whoops, really? My bad. >_>

The sonic set is basically an FF clone with powers mixed around, as far as I could see?

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forcefield is probarbly OK, since all the FF powers are usually activated out of combat, ignoring force bolt.

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Sonic Siphon, Sonic Cage, Clarity and Liquify are all things you'd use in combat though.

So there's basically no way to make a forcefield using corrupter with an assault rifle without gimping yourself? There goes my theme character...

EDIT: What sets DO go with AR then, for future reference?

This respec trial is insane. INSANE. But we finally made it. I might type more later but I think plenty of advice is being dispensed already about this and on the US boards.

All I'll say is, bring 5 shivans on everyone. You'll need them.

Also on an upnote, if you wipe in the ambush you can pick the ambushers off and there won't be another, so you don't have to freak out, and no amount of respawning of the vines will mean you can't hurt the core.

PS: Most unfun thing I've ever done in CoV, but I'm proud we got it done.

I've noticed this combo suffers from the "put your gun away" thing. Is that going to be a really bad/annoying thing in the long run or is it manageable?

Just wondering if I should reroll.

Speaking as a grav/energy I would say no, the AoE hold - and you effectively only get one with a 4 minute recharge - is not enough. Then again, grav isn't exactly known for being the most controllerish set, in fact it's known to be the least.

Still, 6 slotted you will usually only have 2 recharge SOs in it, you need 2 accs and 2 hold durations just to make up the difference between our pre-nerfed dominator version and the controller version (which lasts 50% longer). That means you can use it every 2 and a half minutes, give or take. You can shave that down to a bit over one and a half minute with hasten, which I'm getting JUST to make Gravity Distortion Field more useful - which really should tell you something if I'm getting hasten explicitly for one power. I literally need it for nothing else.

And then you have a 32 second hold. Woopee, it's just as good as the base for a controller. Of course, it is useful, there's no denying that, but take into account:

1. Early on you'll be using this once every 2 fights. And I mean bigass whopping fights with big groups where not everyone is the optimum level to be fighting what they are. So if you're out of luck, make that 3 or 4.

2. It's 20 seconds. That really doesn't cut the mustard, and early on you won't have the slots to spare to make this power better. Even if you did, you're wasting the slots if you're pre-hasten, because recharges only go so far. In fact, just don't bother to slot for recharge til post hasten. It's just not GOOD enough, and you can't MAKE it good enough til you have hasten and can 6 slot it acc/acc/hold/hold/recharge/recharge.

3. You need stamina more than you need hasten with a grav/energy, as a rule. At least, that's IMHO. Grav has some endurance heavy powers, and energy doesn't help with it's near constant cycle. Don't expect to really rely on gravity distortion field in any way until late 20s, around the time you hit 30 it'll start getting good, is my guess right about now.

Basically, there's a lot a grav/energy can do but AoE holds aren't it until later in the game. Gravity Distortion Field pre-nerfed for dominator flavor doesn't cut the mustard, it's a nice thing to use with power boost if available (no, in the real world it ISN'T always available when you need it, deal). Add domination and you can turn a very hard fight into a relatively easy one.

But (sad) fact is... Gravity Distortion Field won't cut it for those with controlly urges among us, at least not til lategame and then it's still inferiorish. It takes too long to recharge to really rely on and hasten is almost inescapable for someone who wants to use it more often than "sometimes", it doesn't last long enough under most conditions, it doesn't have another AoE you can cycle it with: crushing field is rarely that useful, and basically you need to be relatively high level for it to really shine in any way.

I'm not griping - don't get me wrong - I love my grav/energy dominator, but we're probably less controllerish than some corruptors. Our saving grace is gravity distortion - the single hold - and the fact we get power boost and domination. The single hold counts for a lot, we can keep those pesky mobs like heavy hitting bosses, mezzers, rezzing lts, etc out of the rest of the group's hair while they mop up the rest. Don't underestimate that coupled with some reasonable blasting potential.

The good part is that since Gravity Distortion Field doesn't cut it as such poor neglected Dimension Shift gets more use. Provided you find a place for it early on, instead of getting it late game at about the same time that GDF gets useful like me. But still, that could be a reasonably-ish combo, provided my teammates don't kill me for constantly blocking out things they were attacking.

EDIT: I just realized I totally didn't answer the actual question. Can I keep a corruptor safe from an alphastrike? Hell yes. Can I do so on a regular basis? Not really, not yet.

Sorry 'bout that.

But I can keep that Meat Doctor busy so he won't resurrect those mobs you kill.

Don't have much to add to what's already been said, but I do want to point out that Flash Arrow is a good way to spare your pets from taking a full alphastrike. Or at least, I find it useful for that.

I'm getting tactics. In fact since I duo with a merc MM all the time we have defensive maneuvers and assault already. It doesn't help in some cases of high melee enemies. We're going to doublestack the powers, probably.

I don't see how the bow and arrow helps, I can't keep my genin at range except by using the attack command, except then one fires one and tends to run into melee. And one genin getting melee alphastriked by 5 minions tend to die fast, that's the big problem.

I'm considering getting aid other ASAP but I doubt it'll do me much good. I asked for a link to the keybinds, though from reading it I'm a little foggy on how they actually work out in combat.

If I just knew how to keep my ninjas at range so I can tell them to go into melee when they won't get meleed to death by a thick pack of mobs, this would be so much easier. Or is that what calling them back when they go to melee does? Sounds impractical if it is.

EDIT: Okay, so heel and GoTo commands... could I do something like a Stay/Agressive macro so they won't budge but will still attack everything, and thus stay ranged? Or is that not how it works? -_- all of this is very complicated.

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Personally I can make my Ninja do what the hell I want, including stay solely at range and fire bows for the entire combat.

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I only know how to get them to melee, which is to set them to scout in the center of the mob and not use attack command. I'd REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY like to know how you keep them ranged, I could use it right about now.

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All I have to say is get advanced pet commands (I again bow to whomsoever wrote them).

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Link?

I don't want a survival MM, whatever that is, but it'd be nice if my ninja could live for more than two seconds against simple minions.

Would be better if CoV could let you toggle them into range or melee so they don't run into 5 council and get alpha striked to death in melee...

meh.

Fury really kills damage comparisons for your average controller, yeah. Once a brute, early on, starts rolling he snowballs as fury comes in. Dominators not so, we get Domination one to three times per average mission. Still, I like that sweet Domination spot way more than I like brutes and fury for playing myself. Dominators rip apart bosses better than any corruptor or brute can claim. And face it, it's the bosses that are scariest, not usually the minions.

I'll point out again that not all dominators are hard pressed to get damage out there. A properly slotted grav/energy dominator could be pretty devestating on average. I'd actually like to hear if any other combinations are conducive to blasting or not, or if I just got the best one for blasting damage.

Well like I said, I play grav/enr and I can only comment from that. I'm happy with my damage although a corruptor will -probably- outblast me. (I'd like to see them try though) My endurance problem isn't bad at all, and by the time it will be I'll be getting stamina and a few choice end redux slots on some end heavy powers and I should be fine.

Control is lacking, I spam Crush at things and keep them out of melee. Melee is the killer, a cobra in melee will kill you faster than you can say "ZOMGSQUISHYDOMINATOR". But this is why you have Crush! Without any enhancement but 1 acc I can effectively keep enough stuff out of melee to survive.

Gravity Distortion is what I use on bosses, high damage LTs, and when neither of those are available, choice minions that are still at full HP.

Even when Soloing at the 2nd difficulty level I don't have too much trouble. Crush and GD whittle away their lives. My energy knockback powers Power Bolt and Power Blast knock some down, propel knocks things down, so even then I can effectively hold 3/4 mobs off me at a time. And this is solo.

Boss mobs tend to be ow. I haven't dealt with the Lost's Rectors on my own, those could be a world of hurt. Fortunately if I can't GD them and they sleep me I can usually run. I suppose stocking up on breaks would be smart. Play smart and keep domination on your hand for them: hold their minions, then focus on the boss mob to kill it. Running isn't a shame against boss mobs but for gods sake if you're under Domination finish them first.

Miss streaks kill. I will start up on a group of minions, solo, by going crush, GD, propel/powerblast/powerbolt, crush, GD, crush, propel/powerblast/powerbolt. Run a lot and keep them out of melee. Hold them in series: as in the mobs you held at the start will be behind anyway. Hold the closer mobs when your holds become available. Keep them out of melee and on their backs.

Between propel/powerblast/powerbolt and a DoT I can easily off a minion with that single attack chain. If they're not dead after the attacks, GD or crush them for the last inch.

That's basically how I play my grav/enr. Like I said I haven't tried any other powersets yet (I plan to, but I'm waiting on more RAM to play CoV proper ) but my current choice has me a very happy camper, and I'm even more useful in teams between my blasting which isn't negligable at all and my single target holds.

EDIT: Inspirations are your friend. I forgot to say this. Inspirations can and will save your [censored] in all sorts of circumstance, keep a healthy balance. I've used for no reason and deleted inspires during missions of which I had too many duplicates to get more types. Don't be afraid to do this: you don't want to get with yellows and blues when what you need are greens.

Well just to throw my two cents in...

My gravity/energy controller is really pretty powerful if you ask me. I could probably hold my own in damage compared to a corruptor pretty well between propel/power blast, and I get control on the side.

I don't solo a lot though, I duo with a mastermind who can keep a good chunk of aggro off me. This is probably what'll save me when I get crushing field and need to use it. Then again I haven't wished for Crushing Field except against foes that are woefully inadequate at range and way strong in melee (damn trolls).

Plus you know... Domination is good.

Dominators IMHO just should be played more blasty and less controllerish and they're fine. Of course, I took the controller set that has propel, that probably helps me personally.

EDIT: To clarify. Dominators are not controllers, don't even try to play one like one. You get a lot of damage dealing capabilities and domination, use them.

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IMHO, villain roleplay will rapidly turn into either an enormous angst-fest, or an enormous contest to see who can come up with the most sick/perverted/psycho character without getting banned.

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I seriously disagree with this and actually think that the villains have more RP potential than the heroes. Saying that villains must all be unsociable cackling madmen and women is seriously promoting a flat stereotype character, same as a hero who is always goody-good and never does anything wrong and has great teeth that blind you when the sun hits them.

I mean villains have a lot of potential to be just people who are selfish, arrogant and impatient, and take what they want instead of doing it the "proper" way. There's nothing saying villains need to be unsociable wretches who lurk in graveyards at night with only their dead minions as companions.

Just look at Ghostwidow's memoires: that certainly doesn't seem like the archetypical mad villain to me.

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Sure it's rude, it's not nice, it can even be downright [censored]-hatty... But he's got the right to do it. ;P

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Its not rude to PvP in the PvP zone what would be rude would be if I could do this in some sort of safe zone then you would have the right to complian. But Im not going to ask every one thats standing still if there role playing in the PvP zone.

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I hope you try it when I'm roleplaying with a group of other villains and heroes. It'll be fun to see how fast you can get ganked.

After all, not all RPers suck at PVP, contrary to popular opinion.

Opinion time for us Grav/Ens. >_>

What powers do you have so far, and how do they compare?

I haven't played enough yet to really form a solid opinion, but I'm definately thinking of skipping lift entirely. I have crush, power bolt, and bone smasher. Bone smasher is good because it's my heaviest damage power, even if to use it I have to take a hit. Crush is really good, when it used to be useless, and a great hold to get them out of melee range, and power bolt... is power bolt.

Did Lift change a lot? Or is it the same old, same old? Poor damage, and a knockup? If it hasn't changed I don't think I'll get it. I remember having it on my gravity controller and scraptroller, but only because it was about the best damage I had, and a little control in it, but even then it took a lot of stamina.

So, I'm looking for feedback on not getting lift at all, as well as basically all the other powers and how they compare to their CoH counterparts. ^^;

Well, got CoV today. And immediately went to a dominator based on my experience in CoH. I've always wanted to build a grav scraptroller in CoH, mostly because ranged attacks are impossible for a controller. I even got halfway and thought I might be trying again when containment got out.

But heck, with a grav/energy dominator, why bother? So far based on my scraptroller experience this character plays so smoothly, it's unbelievable. Of course, you do get in pinches with heavy hitting mobs. Crush does a good job of getting those out of melee range, if they do get into melee range that power fist attack (I forget the name) is quite handy to finish them off quickly and reminds me of my old scraptroller's Aerial Superiority.

A few things I've noticed is that damage is important to a dominator. You need to keep rolling and reeling in that damage: why? Because you want that domination power kicking in. Meanwhile the damage you do even without it will make sure you last longer against things like yellows, because dead mobs can't hurt you.

Domination is great, incidentally. It makes you feel so... powerful! Hell, one hitting a mob in melee as a dominator is the best feeling ever as far as I'm concerned.

A few things I've noticed: the pace seems much faster than I was used to in CoH, and since I have only tried CoV now, I don't know how it compares. I know the Rest power didn't use to recharge in only 3 minutes, is that a permanent change now?

And something else I've noticed is that Crush seems to last far longer and recharge far faster than it did for controllers pre-CoV. Again I'm wondering if this is a dominator thing, or if these are gamewide changes that apply to CoH too.

Well, that's my little mini-treatise on my experiences with a dominator versus a controller and versus a scraptroller. I must say I like this archetype a lot, and if I'm only half right I'd say this AT will be soloable far into high levels quite easily, regardless of what the AT information provided on the CoV site says.