Bradd

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Assault – It doesn't grant a huge amount of a Damage bonus, and cannot be improved by enhancements. For Defenders it actually grants a great amount, 18.5% Sadly, Dominators have the second lowest numbers for all Leadership powers, so we get 11.5%. It does use a noticeable amount of endurance, and though I wouldn't take it either, it's far better than Maneuvers. It can make up for a single SO of damage, since it works off of total damage and not base like damage SOs do, and it does so for your whole team. I just wish we had better numbers—if we had Defender numbers we'd be giving everyone a full extra SO of damage, including ourselves.

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I tested this the other day. The benefit is only +11.25%, not +11.5%, and it's just an ordinary damage buff (i.e., it adds 11.25% of base damage, not total damage).

That's good advice. You should take it.

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Thanks, KL. That's exactly right.

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Bradd, thanks for clarifying that, based on your highest toon being level 33, you do not presume to offer build or tactics advice.

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OK, so what's the proprer procedure for reporting on-going character assassination?

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I haven't seen a single post from you [515A] that wasn't either a thinly veiled insult, or a DOOOOOM I can't solo 8man spawns so I'm not pulling my weight.

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In his defense, he was quite helpful when I tested regeneration debuffs, after some coaching.

Thanks, KL. That's exactly right.

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Unfortunately, the person who demanded that others post their builds and tactics so that he could tell them what they were doing wrong ....

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That's a personal attack and a lie. I did no such thing. I suggested that you and others post your builds and tactics so that the forum as a whole could offer you advice.

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Bradd, correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time you mentioned your highest dom, it was like, level 30 or so.

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33rd. How is this relevant? It doesn't require game experience to point out that a topic on Dimension Shift build and gameplay tactics recently appeared on the forums.

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If you are going to offer your services as tutor for the uninformed, you ought to at least tell us how many toons you have, what AT and level they are, and how long you have been playing the game.

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For the cases where it is relevant: My current main characters are a 33rd-level mind/psi dominator and a 26th-level MA/regen scrapper. I have enough experience with Mind Control (both PVE and PVP) to offer build and tactical advice for every power in the set. I've also played villain content up to 42nd level with my dominator via frequent lackeying, so I'm quite familiar with dominator play in the late game. The only major kind of villain content I haven't done with my dominator is the RSF. My regular teammates include all 5 villain ATs, ranging from 2nd to 43rd level.

I currently have over 20 characters, and I've played every AT except Kheldians long enough to learn at least basic tactics for the type. I have the most experience with dominators and scrappers (several high-teens characters in addition to my two mains), plus modest experience with tankers and blasters.

I started playing in May or June of 2004. I took a break in 2005 but started again at CoV/I6 release and have been playing regularly since. Most of my CoH experience, except for my scrapper main, is pre-I5.

I'll take that as a "yes."

So you don't want to learn?

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... there is no tactic that will make dimension shift any more palatable to my team mates ....

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Not only do Dimension Shift tactics exist; we actually discussed them recently.

I recently calculated the expected (i.e., average) effects of Scourge. Ideally, it adds +25% damage. However, actual damage dealt is often significantly less because of overkill (more damage than target health remaining). The net result is that Scourge offers little benefit when using an attack that does a significant fraction of the target's total health -- for example, less than +2% when using a high-damage attack on a same-level minion -- but it approaches the ideal +25% when attacking targets with very high health, such as archvillains. Even then, corruptor attacks only deal (0.75 x 1.25) = 93.75% of blaster damage.

Here's the math for anyone who's interested in the details:

The chance of Scourge is max(0, 1 - 2h), where h is the current fraction of the enemy's health. For example, the chance of Scourge at 1/4 health is (1 - 2 x 1/4) = 50%, and the chance at 3/4 health is 0%. If you assume an equal chance of any h from 0 to 1, the average damage bonus is +25% (average 25% chance of 100% bonus damage).

The actual damage dealt is sometimes less because of overkill. Let d be the attack's damage expressed as a fraction of the target's total hit points. The most damage you can actually deal to a foe, Dmax h, is h/d. The most you can deal without Scourge, Dbase h, is min(1, Dmax h), and the most you can deal with Scourge, Dbuff h, is min(2, Dmax h). The expected damage, E h, is (max(0, 1 - 2h) x (Dbuff h - Dbase h) + Dbase h). Finally, the damage increase is (E h / Dbase h - 1). To find the average damage increase, simply calculate the definite integral for h from 0 to 1.

When d is small, the average approaches the ideal value, a +25% bonus. However, when d is 1/8 (common when fighting lieutenants), the average bonus is only +9.9%. And when d is 1/4 (common versus minions), the bonus is only +2.1%.

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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You'll probably get better responses asking for advice in a new thread. Also, I forgot to mention this earlier, but it would help to know what you dislike about your dominator.

Unfortunately, I don't know Gravity well myself; I tried it a couple times & it didn't quite suit my style. The psi side of your build looks reasonable enough, although I'd recommend switching one of the accs in Dart to an endcost, and if you have any dodgy powers you're thinking of dropping, Psy Scream is a solid power (good debuff, decent AOE damage on larger teams). Also, I'd be uncomfortable with just one endcost in Teleport, although it's understandable if you're short on enh slots.

I didn't like Concealment myself, but then I play a petless dominator. I understand that Stealth is handy for setting up your pets.

I can only hope you're joking. If not, you picked the wrong AT for your play style.

Yeah. And if you do get a full team of brutes and do a good job of lockdown, you have the unfortunate consequence of interfering with Fury, which skews the damage measurements in your favor.

Also, note that part of the reason my duos were able to fight non-stop is because I'm specifically built for infinite endurance. (I do run out occasionally when I screw up the timing or aim of Drain Psyche.) Other dominator builds might not hold up as well in continuous-fighting situations.

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How many Dominators would it take for there to be no risk, fast killing, and no pauses? Could you do it with two Dominators as your sole source of team mitigation? Would adding more Dominators make it faster?

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Here are some of my recent experiences.

Duo with thugs/dark MM in Mynx mission: No rest breaks, quick kills, one wipe when caught mid-spawn by Mynx EB.

Duo with thugs/dark MM street-sweeping Bloody Bay: No rest breaks, quick kills, one PVP defeat. At one point, we accidentally split up and soloed separate spawns; we finished at about the same time.

Duo with stalker: No rest breaks, quick kills, one wipe when we overlooked a Longbow Officer. (Multiple wipes after that, as we repeatedly did stupid things trying to kill the Officer.)

Silver Mantis strike force with 2 MMs, 1 stalker, 1 corruptor, 1 other dominator: One or two rest breaks, quick kills, no deaths in the first mission, about one death per mission for the next four, several deaths in the final mission. Obviously, I wasn't the only damage mitigator on this team. Most deaths occurred during accidental team splits (easy to do on this SF). As a side note, this group also defeated Deathsurge between missions 4 and 5, in about 10-15 minutes with no deaths.

Unfortunately I don't have any perfect examples of a dominator providing 50% mitigation for a full team of eight. However, in all of these dominator-heavy teams, we had sufficient mitigation to blow through missions and street-sweeping, save for a few mishaps (which slowed us down less than MM set-up and bio breaks).

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With how ridiculous the comparison between a Defender's mitigation and a Dominator's is ....

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How ridiculous is it? What portion of incoming damage do you think one typical dominator can prevent? One typical defender? Don't assume that we're thinking of the same numbers that you are.

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If I were the only person who felt that doms don't contribute as much as other Ats to large teams, then you would have a point.

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Multiple people complaining just means that multiple people have a problem. It's not a sign that dominators are universally (or even generally) bad on large teams. Heck, you might not even be performing poorly; it might purely be a perception problem.

PS: I didn't say that nobody sees it as a problem. Putting words in my mouth is disingenous.

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The problems that doms have with large teams are not anything that can be cured by build advice, however.

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Which is why I recommended asking for advice on build and tactics. Your large-team problems are not universal. Instead of continuing to argue fruitlessly otherwise, get help.

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I just wish I could team with them without feeling like the weakest link.

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Then post your build & tactics and ask for help. Given your extreme comments about controls and relative performance, it seems that you're having a harder time than most dominators. This suggests to me that either you're not playing effectively or you have unrealistic expectations. By asking for advice, rather than complaining about problems, you might actually be able to succeed at your stated goal. Even better, if it works, the turnaround will be much faster than waiting for the devs to change the game.

By the way, the same goes for everyone else who complains endlessly about dominators without asking for advice.

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Also, I bet your dom had to be level 39, with slotted-out psy shockwave, before it was able to solo even a red-conning boss.

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I should hope not. That's only a +1 boss, not difficult at all, just time-consuming. A couple of Levitate bounces & holds and they're all mine.

The other night, I soloed a few spawns of Shivans and Freaks in Bloody Bay (one boss, 1-2 lieutenants, 2-3 minions, all +0) with my 33rd-level mind/psi dominator and no inspirations. In the past, I've soloed a red-conning Superfreak EB and a purple-conning Fortunata boss. The Fortunata was the more difficult of the two; she took several trips and lots of inspirations to put down, and for a while I wasn't sure whether I could do it at all. I wish I'd had Levitate slotted for perma-bounce back then; it would've been much easier. The Superfreak also took more than one try, mainly because I made some mistakes; IIRC, I beat it with whatever happened to be in my inspiration tray.

So I'll take that bet.

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Psionic Assault can easily hit the recharge debuff cap. Psychic Shockwave alone can easily hit the cap.

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I'm sorry; I overstated my case here. I don't actually know that Shockwave can hit the recharge cap on its own, and it probably can't. My apologies for adding more misinformation to the heap.

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If you compare the debuff effects in the corr attacks against the debuff effects in the dom attacks, it is at best a wash.

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Psionic Assault can easily hit the recharge debuff cap. Psychic Shockwave alone can easily hit the cap. Calling that "slight" is misleading. Saying it's "at best a wash" is misleading.

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That leaves you with one power -- Drain Psyche -- that one dom set has, that would be a valuable debuff on the Recluse.

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Except for Shockwave, right? And Gravity Control, Ice Control, and Icy Assault? Or are you saying that speed debuffs are not valuable?

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The /psi attacks also have a slight debuff effect.

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It's not slight. Psi has powerful recharge debuffs, at least as good as Ice Blast. Only Cold Domination has significantly better -rech than Psionic Assault. Oh, and that's only from the secondary. Like corruptors, many dominators also have significant debuffs in their primaries, like slow in Gravity and Ice. You're showing bias again.

EDIT: Good point, Tez!

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Sleeps might work -- but corrs have sleeps too.

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Siren's Song is a strength 3 sleep, not enough to stop an AV. It deals damage, so the sleep is not stackable. I did not find any other corruptor sleeps, but I may have simply overlooked them. Do corruptors have any sleeps that can actually affect an AV? If not, this claim is a red herring.

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As for the damage aspect of it, some of the debuffs that are most important on the TF are defense, resistance, and regen.

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Many dominators (e.g., practically all /psi doms) have a very strong regeneration and recovery debuff. If you also consider defense, many dominators (e.g., all psi and ice doms) have strong recharge debuffs.

Among everyone. That's what consensus means, duh. Lillicae adds the issues that everyone can agree on. If you're having problems with people taking you seriously, may I suggest that it may have less to do with cliques and more to do with you insulting people?