Chromium_Man

I feel like I can never get a grasp on how procs work in pseudo-pet powers. Would the Ragnarok Chance for KD proc in Rain of Fire make RoF act like a mini-Ice Patch or would it just have one chance to go off when the power was summoned?

Thanks!

This begs the question then: Can something like this be done for Static Field or Volcanic Gases without making them overpowered or are those two powers good enough as is?

Here's a link to a thread a little further down the page where we discussed the merits of Elec/Elec vs. Elec/Energy. My main toon is an Elec/Elec/Mu Dominator and I wrote a long post detailing my playstyle towards the beginning of that thread. If you have any further questions or want me to post my (expensive) build, post in either this thread or the linked thread as I check the Dom forums quite frequently.

Link: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=269889

I'm Powerboosting Far Sight and with the level of recharge I'm aiming for, I believe the Defense bonus will be permanent for myself and my teammates.

Question is in the subject.

Some background: The toon in question is a Grav/Time Controller. I would like to lose one more power in my build to pick up an LotG set mule. My Singularity can't be healed anyway and I already add +Regen to my teammates with both Chrono Shift and Temporal Selection. I already skipped Time's Juncture (I don't want to be in Melee with this toon.)

So, would I be crazy to skip Temporal Mending? Do the buffs/debuffs in Time Manipulation bring enough to the table that teammates wouldn't kill me for skipping the heal?

Thanks for any input.

Pardon my ignorance, but what jetpack is that blue tech looking toon wearing at around the 3:06 mark?

My personal preference is not to take any of the Tier 9-esque God-Mode powers. Between all of the mezz I can throw out, my Tier 4 Barrier power, and ~20% Ranged defense, survivability has never been an issue for me.

I also commented on my choice to skip Power Sink earlier in the thread. I use it on my other Elec toons (I have a lot of them), but I never found I dropped it as soon as I needed to free up a power slot on my Dom.

Here's my earlier quote for reference:

"For what it's worth, I took Mu as my APP (I also love themed characters). I took Ball Lightning for extra AoE damage and Charged Armor to slot a -KB IO in for times I'm building domination instead of in the midst of perma-Dom and skipped the rest. The only one I would say is LESS skippable is Power Sink, but an Elec/Elec Dom already passively drains so well with Conductive Aura and after achieving perma-Dom, I never need to top off my blue bar. "

HA! Good call on using Electriple as a name, Kheldarn. I'm glad you liked my impromptu guide. I'm still considering doing a fullblown guide in the near future.


As I said earlier, feel free to post any questions you might have, especially when you get to the point where you're doing IOs. I check the Dom boards more than I check any others.

Thanks for all of the replies, guys. I think I understand it now.

My follow-up question is: Has there been any uproar about the effectiveness of SBEs vs. regular IOs? The set bonuses seem like the biggest game-changer (and even that is relatively minor).

What I mean is that if someone could slot say a set of Decimation SBEs (which I don't think exist, I'm just using it as an example), they could get the full enhancement value out of the set at 40, but keep the set bonuses down to 22. That could make a difference in the level at which a Dominator has perma-dom, for instance, which is a serious advantage over traditional IOs.

I'm asking because I had a hard enough time finding information on Attuned IOs and usually when something like this comes out, it's called to my attention by our very vocal community.

I know that the new "Attuned" SBEs level with you as you go to make the expense worthwhile, but what happens when you exemplar with these?

Are they like Purples where you keep the Set Bonuses no matter how low you exemplar down? If that's the case, then these seem significantly more powerful than the in-game earned alternatives.

Or does it work that they level up with you, but when you exemplar down they act at the current level of the IO. For example, if I slot an attuned Thunderstrike at level 30, it will level with me up to 50, but when I'm level 50 and I exemplar down to 46, will I then lose the set bonuses?

I have an Elec/Elec Dom that is very, very useful in all of the end game content. For example, in the Recluse SF, I'm capable of sleeping the AVs while my team picks them off one at a time. In Tin Mage, I can sleep one of the War Walkers while my team (and I) work on Synapse or Bobcat.

As far as Incarnate Trials are concerned, I have very little problem in Lambda if I get separated in the warehouses and need to solo a crate or container. In BAF, I can drop my sleep patch or AoE hold on the adds as they spawn so they aren't fighting back.

IMHO, part of the problem with building with Incarnate Trials in mind is that in my experience, most of the player's coming on iTrials bring their "A-Game" toons. These are usually the toons that are IO'd to the gills and in regular PvE content at least, can tackle most problems without outside help. A fully IO'd Dom does damage that is close enough to a fully IO'd Blaster or Scrapper that it's not worth playing something you don't like just to do an extra ~10-15% damage on a hard target in an iTrial.

In other words, play what you like and unless you're dealing with a highly specialized Master of X badge team, there should always be room for you on an iTrial. I've run extensive trials with my Dominator, Blaster, Corruptor, and Tank and, on Triumph at least, I've always been welcome.

I'll offer a slightly different POV from Inphinity.

I love my Elec/Elec. He has become far and away my favorite toon.

I think it's Perma-Dom worthy even though only three of my control powers get the full benefit of Domination (Tesla Cage, Paralytic Blast, and Chain Fences). Synaptic Overload gets a benefit from it on the first target, and the /Elec Melee powers have a Sleep component.

More than anything Perma-Dom is good for the Mez Protection and End refill.

I can't give you a non-billion inf build (because mine was expensive). However, if you search my name, I made a post a few weeks ago on the Dom forum that ended up becoming almost a mini-guide. The strategy I described can be used very effectively even with just SOs.

With my Elec/Elec Dom, I slotted Musculature and I think it has a noticeable effect. One thing I really like about it is the added damage it gives to powers that I haven't even slotted for damage.

For example, Chain Fences and Jolting Chain now have +45% damage in addition to the other effects I've slotted them for. Musculature + Reactive has essentially made Chain Fences (which I have slotted for End Mod) an essential part of my AoE attack chain. I pretty much used the same logic you did to reach the conclusion that I needed Musculature. The only hard part was deciding whether to go T4 Core or T4 Radial. I eventually decided to do both and try them out, and ultimately decided that I like Core better.

To the OP: I can't speak specifically to Fire/Stone/Fire, but here's my advice:

Alpha: Musculature (probably Core, since the only secondary effect that the Radial would help would probably be Immobilize which isn't so hot.)

Interface: I took Reactive Radial. The 75% Chance for Fire damage is really nice and the 25% chance for Res Debuff is just gravy.

Destiny: I took Barrier Core. My logic: Doms are too squishy for the +Regen or +Max HP of Rebirth to have a huge effect, which makes Rebirth just a very big slow recharging heal. I already had recharge enough for Perma-Dom and Perma-Hasten, so I didn't need the Recharge or Recovery from Ageless. I have all the Mez Protection I need from Perma-Dom so I didn't need Clarion.

Hope that helps.

My one big regret from leveling up my Elec/Elec Dom was putting off Conductive Aura until the early 20s. He came up before inherent fitness and at that time I subscribed to the philosophy that the all toggle powers needed to be held off till 20 when I got Stamina. After I took it, I checked the end cost and realized it was 0. /facepalm

Anyway, /Elec oddly benefits from its sole decent AoE power (Static Discharge) coming so late (Thunderstrike is garbage IMHO. More on that later.). Because it comes so late you can focus on the first 5 powers of /Elec (two ST melee, two ST ranged, and Build Up). I would highly recommend taking an slotting them all as early as possible. From your primary, your bread and butter powers in the early levels are Tesla Cage, Jolting Chain, Conductive Aura, and Static Field. If you take the 9 powers I just talked about (plus travel and pool powers as needed) you can develop an awesome leveling strategy by the time you hit 20 that you will use until you hit 50.

Here's my strategy:

1) Find a mob.

2) Throw Jolting Chain.

3) While the mobs are flopping, drop Static Field right underneath them. Most mobs will be slept before they get up.

4) Use Tesla Cage on the hardest target in the bunch (or the first target you plan to kill, depending on your preference.)

5) Charge in (after popping Build Up, if it's up) and use your awesome early-game attack chain (Charged Bolts, Lightning Bolt, Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, in whatever order you choose) to kill a single SLEEPING MINION.

6) Reapply Tesla Cage/Static Field as needed as you repeat Step 5 for each remaining minion in the mob. At this point you probably haven't been hit much because your all-ST attack chain won't wake anyone but the one you've just killed.

7) Once all the soft targets are dead, turn your attention to the aforementioned hard target. By this point s/he is gasping for END (you remembered to toggle on Conductive Aura, right?). CA won't wake the mob while it drains them and now you can stomp the hard target and throw in Tesla Cage as needed to make sure he stays a statue.

8) Lather, rinse, repeat.

This is the strategy I used for probably 38 levels (once I got Static Field). As you level up you can just pick up whatever extra powers you want to add in and it just gets better and better.

Here's what I took and skipped (again YMMV):

Skipped:

Primary: Electric Fence (as a long time Blaster player, I have no love for ST immobilizes)

Secondary: Zapp (the play style explained above is too fast-paced for a snipe attack), Thunder Strike (this is the Blaster version of the power, not the Melee AT power AFAIK and thus causes KB, not KD, thus knocking everyone out of your Static Field and defeating your whole strategy), Voltaic Sentinel (I never took this power on my Blaster OR my Dom. I don't know why but I just don't like it.)

Took:

Primary: Chain Fences (taken very late in the build, slotted with Efficacy Adapter for extra End Drain and recharge bonus), Paralyzing Blast (essential to my level 50 +0/x6 soloing strategy), Synaptic Overload (depending on your feelings about confuse powers. I personally hate them, but Coercive Persuasion sets are so relatively cheap for purple sets that I took it just to slot the set), Gremlins (some people love them, some people hate them, but overall I find they keep just enough of the enemy aggro off of me to make them worthwhile)

Secondary: Static Discharge (visually it's probably my favorite power in either set. It defeats the purpose of the strategy I explained above to an extent, but it's nice to have on teams or when you get a few of the AoE hard control powers and want to kill a mob faster than you can with my above strategy.

For what it's worth, I took Mu as my APP (I also love themed characters). I took Ball Lightning for extra AoE damage and Charged Armor to slot a -KB IO in for times I'm building domination instead of in the midst of perma-Dom and skipped the rest. The only one I would say is LESS skippable is Power Sink, but an Elec/Elec Dom already passively drains so well with Conductive Aura and after achieving perma-Dom, I never need to top off my blue bar.

I hope all that helps. Keep posting any questions you have and I'm happy to help. Writing about my favorite character is a lot more fun than I would have thought. I might have even been inspired to write a guide about running an Electriple Dominator after all this.

(P.S. I'm still trying to get "Electriple" for Elec/Elec/Elec characters to catch on after 7 years. Did it work?)

I've not seen too many good things said about /Energy at all. I can say that every /Energy Dom I've rolled has been deleted before 20.

As for /Elec, my main is Elec/Elec/Mu and he is just a murder machine. I love playing him to the point where he's overthrown my previous main of 6+ years (my Elec/Elec Blaster). The debate between /Energy and /Elec for A a Dom is very similar to the debate between /Energy and /Elec for a Blaster: it basically comes down to constant small End Drain from /Elec vs. quick one-shot End Drain with Power Boost.

A lot of people disparage End Drain as a mitigation tool, but as the proud owner of 6 Elec/Elec toons, I've had a great deal of experience with End Drain. It's not as effective as a Hold or Stun but it's on par with a Fear or Slow which helps. This is especially true when you consider that Conductive Aura can drain most enemies in a few seconds and it's a no end cost toggle (that won't drop when you get mezzed if you have Domination up) and will drain WHILE you're attacking. The question than becomes: do you want the level of mitigation provided by End Drain to be dictated by how fast Power Boost recharges or by how quickly you can pound your opponent's face in with your Elec Assault powers. For me the answer is obvious, but your mileage may vary.

tl; dr version: I'm bored, staying with my parents waiting for Hurricane Irene to hit. Take /Elec and feel free to post any other questions cause it looks to be a potentially boring couple of days.

I would love to see that build. I rolled a Fire/Rad a few months ago and he stalled out at the time. As often happens, I came up with a cool costume and now he's rolling. Got him from 10 to 24 in about 2 days (no PLing) and I'm really psyched about him now. The incarnate choices you took are the same I was considering also.

To the OP, I don't have a ton of experience with Fire/Rad but it seems to me that Rad's AoE rebuffs are best paired with massive AoE damage. I think Fire and Ice have comparable ST damage anyway for boss fights. The real reason to choose Ice over Fire IMO is for Ice's mitigation powers but those are much less necessary when your secondary set is Rad anyway.

I tried running /netgraph and it's all green. The ping rate is hovering right around 200, mostly in the 170-180 area and never quite hitting 200 or above.

I'm starting to wonder if the perceived lag is all in my head.

I just got a new computer with an AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics card. The game looks beautiful but I'm experiencing what I would call "input lag". (I know that's a real thing, but I'm not sure if the way I'm using it is the accepted use.)

Basically, when I do anything in game (type, click the mouse, hit a button to move) there seems to be a slight delay. It's only a fraction of a second, but it's noticeable. To test it, I tried hitting the 'w' key very quickly in succession and my character only moved forward about once every 10 strokes. Any ideas? Is this something that's fixable or did I just get a lousy video card?

As I wait for the servers to come up to run my 4th week of WSTs and get the Very Rare Alpha Boost on a few of my characters, I can't help but think how ignoring 2/3 of ED might not be worth it for the amount of effort one needs to put in. I'm especially thinking how right now we might not have anything better to do with the Shards and Notices, but presumably sometime in the future, players will have 10 slots to fill and it might not be worth the effort to get the materials needed for those Very Rare Alphas.

My suggestion: make Very Rare Alphas act like Very Rare IOs. In other words, make them function at any level of exemplaring just like Purple IOs do.

I've played for 300 levels of electricity over 6 different ATs, so I've sapped my fair share of enemies. I have an Elec/Elec Blaster, Brute, Stalker, Tanker, Scrapper, and Dominator (in that order). I play electricity more for concept reasons, but over the past seven years, I've learned a few things about electric blasting in general and the sapping strategy specifically.

With my blaster:

1) I (almost) never sap on a team. If the main tank is /Electric, I might jump in for a quick Power Sink or Short Circuit if things start to get hairy. It's like being a poor man's controller. If that's not the case, I focus on my prescribed role of damage and become an HP Sapper.

2) My favorite drain is incidental. While playing solo, any mob of just minions is getting Ball Lightning and Static Discharge'd to death. I have high enough global recharge (Read: Overkill) to get off both attacks twice during one Aim-Build Up duration. If the mob includes LTs, I'll throw a hold his way first, toss my AoEs and then finish off the sliver of LT health with a few melee attacks. In any of those situations, End Drain is a non-factor. When I'm fighting a Boss or EB, however, I usually open with my two ranged holds, close in once the Boss is secured and then cycle through my melee attack chain: Shocking Grasp, Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch. This keeps the Boss perma-held and IIRC Shocking Grasp does have some pretty good -Recovery. This leaves most bosses drained and dead in short order.

3) The only time I go out of my way to spam my PBAoE drains are when I find myself utterly overwhelmed. I'll pop a few purples, fire off Short Circuit and Power Sink and that usually buys me enough time to either make my getaway or finish off the bad guys.

4) I invested in the Rare (soon to be Very Rare) Musculature Alpha Boost. I don't remember the name off-hand, but I know it boosts Damage and End Mod. That gives all of my attacks that can slot it an SO worth of End Drain that I would never otherwise slot for.

I realize I'm rambling so let me finish by answering the original question: Why Electric Blast? Because it's a heck of a lot of fun. My first 50 was Fire/Fire and the hardest tacticaly decision I usually had to make was to open with Fire Breath-Fire Ball or with Fire Ball-Fire Breath. My Electric Blaster was my third 50 and he's become my main and my favorite ever since. He's not as good at AoE or even ST as my Fire Blaster, but the mitigation of three holds and two drains makes him play almost like a Dominator. If they ever decided to take another look at Elec Blasters, I'd be happy with some buffs, but for now I'm perfectly happy with mine.

I've gotten the global recharge on my Elec/Elec Perma-Dom high enough that I can have Perma-Hasten at level 50 with only 2 slots in Hasten. I'm trying to determine the effect that removing that third slot will have on having Perma-Dom/Hasten at lower levels and my math (if I'm doing it right) using the Wiki and the spreadsheet above is consistently showing different numbers than what I have in game.

For example,

Using the Wiki, three level 50 common IO recharge enhancements in Hasten and exemplaring down to level 19 gives me:

41.5 x (0.519/1.0) = 21.5385 per slot [21.5 according to the spreadsheet]

I have 3 slots so that's: 21.5385 x 3 = 64.6155 (64.5 according to the spreadsheet]

Since 64.6155 is below the ED threshhold, that should be the value I see in game, but what I'm actually seeing is 64.9%; a difference of 0.2845/0.4 (again depending on whether I use the calculated values from the Wiki or the values from the Spreadsheet.

I have two level 50 common IO accuracy enhancements in Jolting Chain so for comparision, the value the Wiki/Spreadsheet gives me for two slots is 43.077/43.0. The actual value in-game is 43.4; a difference of 0.323/0.4.

I know I'm worrying over a few tenths of a percentage point, but I'm just curious if someone can diagnose either my math error or an error in the Wiki. As dorky as it sounds, I actually enjoy the math behind this game and it troubles me that the numbers I'm crunching and the numbers in-game seem to be at odds. Thanks!

Does anyone know how Coercive Persuasion works in Synaptic Overload? Does it only have a chance to proc off the first target or can it proc every time it jumps? For that matter, how does Domination work with Synaptic Overload?

I've usually shied away from Confuse powers for some reason, but after getting three Coercive Persuasion drops yesterday (two on the same Barracude SF ), I'm starting to think it might be a sign from the dev-gods to drop the group immob and pick up SO instead.

Thanks in advance!

I remember reading that guide a long time ago when I first rolled my Elec/Elec/Elec Blaster (I've been trying to coin the term "Electriple" but it won't catch on). I just checked my hours logged with Chromium Man III, my main, and it was some disgusting number in the thousands. Anyway, I've played him as a Blaptroller for years now to great effect. I can solo most content, including AVs scaled down to EBs (with inspirations). He plays extremely well solo and in teams and even though Elec/ gets a bad rap compared to other blast sets, I find that my damage isn't lacking.

I'm especially excited to slot one of the rare Damage Alpha Boosts when it comes out. The extra damage is nice, but the SOs worth of End Mod in every one of my attacks for free will make draining mobs and keeping them drained even easier. I feel like the toon can fill many roles in a team. One of the complaints about Elec/ is that it is a jack of all trades and master of none, but that is precisely what I love about it. On a team, when the tank is firmly in control, I AoE to my heart's content. When there's nothing but bosses left, I break out the ST attacks and whittle them down. If the tank starts to become overwhelmed, I jump in with Power Sink and Short Circuit and the end drain, while not as good as a hold, can buy enough time for things to get back in control.

One of my proudest moments was just a few nights ago. We were forming an LGTF and we had all damage ATs and no support. Someone went to change to a controller to help hold the mitos and I said "Don't bother, I've got three holds."

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I've considered writing a guide but I honestly only have experience with the powers that I've chosen and used for more than 5 years now. That being said, I'm happy to help in anyway I can, even if I'm not an expert.

Thanks for all the replies, guys! It seems that most people seem to think that Assault is better than Tactics when I don't have the slots, or at least that Tactics is not worthwhile just for the GSFC Proc. I didn't see anyone mention the +Perception of Tactics though. When you consider that, how do the two powers stack up?