Carnifax_NA

Rogue does sound like the best choice for you. You still have Villain Contacts and run Villain arcs, but you can go hero-side where you can run paper missions, tips and join any Blue team running any sort of missions.

Happened to my Domi wither shockwave as well. Said the line but never attacked. Ai seemed to switch to just "follow me".

Sonic Booms sleestack.

Me too, I went with a mustard yellow and indigo set up on bright Elec which really
toned it down and looks well. Ditto with Ice Shields, a dark indigo makes them very minimalist, which is good.

Flames though always give me trouble. Still haven't managed to get a good looking, low impact "invisiflame" effect on my Broadsword/Fire scrapper.

I hate this bug. Got my face staved in by a Tank Smasher running Keith Nances dam mission during the week because of it ("Why's he aiming towards me? Who's he firing that grenade at? OH GAWD NO.").

Have we moved onto rude puns about the wedding night yet, because I'm sure I can squeeze the phrase "kinetic energy" in there somewhere (oh my!)

Nope, I find them chronically bad too. Dunno who designed them or how THAT went live but they could certainly do with a redesign. Making it a Cossie Contest is a great idea (hello? Marketing? Are you listening? Put down that mojito and get to it)

This is exactly right. For an Elec Domi sapping is another layer of soft control to throw onto the pile rather than being a primary focus. The nice thing is that it's a layer of control you don't have to really bother applying, just get in amongst them and it will happen anyway while you attack or apply other mezzes.

For most Elec Domi builds it acts more like a -Recovery debuff more than anything. Things will get attacks off sporadically, but at a much reduced rate. If you're pairing it with Psi though that's another matter since Drain Psyche can cut off recovery and render enemies powerless.

Because the level of hysteria and reverence about them is out of proportion to how well they actually do work (see also Harry Potter for details).

They do work well, but they also get more adolation than they really deserve

Shields would be another i'd throw in there. In fact Shields is a more cut-and-dry example because without IOs it's actually a bit squishy.

Yes, you're absolutely right here, it should indeed do that.

And as you say it's a very tight pack. I mean Ice Sword Circle isn't far off Psi Shockwave really, damage is almost identical (and cold is less of a binary damage type than Psi) and ISC is slower to animate (but still not Tremor slow) but you have it from level 4 onwards!

I'd generally call it as a mid to late game addition, level 24 or level 30 or 35. Before that they're generally skippable (AOE Immobs being taken too early and spammed is the biggest mistake I see people make with Domis, followed by blind spamming of it even if there are slip patches being dropped by allies).

Personally I don't mind a small bit of stunned wandering after a FlashFire / Stalagmites. The mez I find they actually go best with is Confusion since Confusion will tend to bunch them up and then you can AOE immob to prevent morale-broken based running away.

If you're planning the Fire or Ice APPs then I'd aim to have it by 41, possibly taking it at 30 or 35.

For reference, I started reading them in 1992, which may explain why I got so jaded with them.

On another note, Surface Detail is a stunning book (finished it last night).

I'm next onto the Wind-up Girl which I have high hopes for.

You know it's still not finished, right? (and that Jordan died in 2007). It's still being continued with a new writer though I believe.

Just Wikied it and it seems like what was to be the last book has been split into 3 and the last is penciled in for Spring 2012 release.

No, you're right about that. It descends into hopeless meandering and a complete loss of direction after that basically.

Agreed, the Villainous Clone arcs from i17 fall into the same category as well for me (and also make it feel like you're doing things for your own gain rather than being a lackey for a lackey of Arachnos).

I sorta agree with this, but would apply it to Builds posted on the forums as well. Too much focus on end-game build with super-duper recharge and Softcapped everything, but no idea how you're going to get there (which I never do anyway which is why I frankenslot as I go).

Kinetics is one which suffers from this most IMO. Yes, eventually it does indeed have the best damage buff in the game, but it takes 32/38 (and those 6 levels difference are for me usually a killer) to get there. It's also fragile and one of the sets worst affected by lag or a slow PC. I ended up loathing my Dark/Kin Corruptor because the 20s was so damn boring for him (he's both deleted and on an inactive account now).

Rad is indeed pretty good but (like Fire/Dark corruptors) it does suffer from the "snowball effect" where it's popularity is still way out of proportion to how much better it is than other sets (also known as the Harry Potter effect).

Fire/Dark corruptors, to my mind, are overhyped for the opposite reason to Kinetics, their ridiculous amounts of AOE firepower before level 20. You can have a lethal cocktail of debuffs and AOE attacks by level 10. On a Steamrolling team in the 30s upwards they actually aren't that far ahead of other combos.

Power Boost should affect Weave, but since Weave is a toggle which reapplies a short duration (0.75 second short) buff it won't do so for more than the 15 seconds PB is active I'm afraid.

Fire/Earth is a very strong combo. Lots of extra knockdown in Earth (skip Fire Cages, at least for a while, all you'll be doing is hindering yourself and you don't need it to leverage Containment like a Controller does) and the almighty Seismic Smash, probably the best Dominator attack in the game (my NRG Assault Domi is so jealous of it).Power Boost also goes well with Fire Control.

Fire/Earth and Earth/Fire (Earth/Fire is a bit of a beast) are far better synergy-wise than the more thematic Fire/Fire and Earth/Earth combos IMO.

Mind you Earth/NRG would also be a nice combo, although you miss out on being able to Power Boost much (PB has no effect on Quake and little to none on Volcanic Gases).

Fire/NRG would be another decent enough combo, Fire gives you some extra AOE damage via Hotfeet and 2 AOE Mezzes which can be Power Boosted. NRG gives a nice combo of single target hard hitting Ranged and Melee damage and some extra mitigation with knockback and melee stuns.

*points and laughs*

As Nalrok says it's down to Fury.

If you Crit you get 2Dam + FE because FE and the Crit are both coded as extra damage effects in every Scrapper power, but Fury actually increases your Damage Modifier so increasing it will increase both the standard damage effect of a power and the Fiery Embrace one.

For a Scrapper Build-Up will work with a Crit though.