Dayraven

I hate being a naysayer, but as absolutely awesome as the proposed mez protection sounds I have to agree that I was hoping for better balance when Domination was not active. Yes, while we have Domination active we will be incredibly powerful, maybe even uber but I don't think I want to be so dependent on the 90 second click inherent. I'm sure I will enjoy popping domination more than ever now, but I would happily forego the mez protection in domination for better balance the rest of the time.

So, I don't know if any of you have been reading the thread aboutt he Recluse SF contest, but below is a post that just went up in that thread. I'm pasting it in here becuase I think it's a pretty solid example of exactly what the majority of the Dom community has been worried about happening:

[ QUOTE ]
My personal set-up would be something along the lines of:

2 Ice/Rad Corruptors, fully slotted EF and RI and AM

1 Ice/Kin Corr for SB, Siphon Power/Speed, Transfusion (regen debuff + Heal), and Transference to keep the melee toons upright

1 EM/Stone Brute with Granite and maxed defenses to play the "Tank" while also having good burst damage

1 Ice/Dark Corruptor that can provide some Psi resist with Shadowfall, fully slotted Darkest Night (also a damage debuff), and Tar Patch to up damage. Twilight Grasp on auto to heal and debuff regen.

1 Dark/Inv Brute for Touch of Fear which will debuff Accuracy and Fear even AVs while the /Inv side will have Unstoppable to Tank also.

1 EM/Inv Brute for pure burst damage with good survivability. (Could be swapped for an EM/Regen Stalker to simply crank out damage but I think the Brute would have greater survivability)

1 Ice/Ice Corruptor for Frostwork and the Shields. Slotted and in conjunction with the Brute's Dull Pain/Earth's Embrace, the meatshields have the HP to take hits.

Yes, it's all Brutes and Corruptors. Between 2 RI's and 1 Darkest Night, the two EFs, the /Kins' debuffs and a Dark/* Brute's -Acc from normal attacks and Touch of Fear, I have a hard time believing that even an AV would be anywhere except the Accuracy floor. In addition, there's a ton of -Damage coming from the Corruptors so when they do hit, the Brutes are being tickled.

Also, all the Corruptors are Ice for the Holds. That many stacked holds should perma-hold an AV, minus the purple-triangle phase. It also makes a Dom superflous (which I'd rather have the Buffs/Debuffs from the Corrs). I'm also hoping the -regen from the /Kin and /Dark do the trick against the insane AV regen.

Whaddya think? Or is this too "ideal" or "we need X ATs to do this TF" type of thing?

[/ QUOTE ]


The idea that our AT is "superfluous" is exactly why we have been griping for 60+ frickin pages, why there have been one hundred and one threads about it day after day on the Dom board. I really hope the Devs are starting to take notice.

Just felt the urge to post after looking at today's patch notes. I think it's noteworthy that there has been absolutely no further changes or tweaks to Dominators, which I find very disappointing. At this point I would really appreciate if a red name would just let us know what the hell is going with Dom's from their view point. The total lack of any information is really depressing for those of us that still have hope for Dominators as an AT, especially when I see that Brutes and Stalkers are getting their ranged attacks buffed by giving them their melee damage modifiers.

That Dom's need some lovin may well be the one thing I've heard a vast majority of people from every AT agree on, so please let us know what's going on.

Having now had considerable time to play with these changes both on Live and on Test, with both Dark and Rad defenders, I really have very little problem with the enhancement change.

Right now on live I feel like accuracy debuffing is pretty pointless for +2's and above, however on Test I do notice a distinct improvement with the change to the to hit formula, so I have little complaint about it. The new numbers for +1 mobs aren't quite what I think they should be, especially bosses, but I'll take the small hit on even and +1 conning mobs for the better performance against the +2's and above.

My own ongoing trouble with the enhancement change though is PvP. Accuracy debuffing really suffers against other players and most people just calk it up as a useless, espeically given the amount of acc buffs available to players. Is there a chance of a pvp only buff to to-hit debuffing to help level the field?

Atomic, you make a post like that and I have to wonder if you're really ou there in the PvP zones even though I've been teamed with you in RV. Your list do Dom assets, which looks great on a screen as Dom's usually do, seems to completely ignore some of the practical realities of game play as so many of us have experienced them, and you seem to have missed the point of my question.

Yes, our ST holds have a higher mag and longer duration. This really doesn't mean anything in either PvP or PvE. I guess it means something against bosses and EB's, we certainly are better at keeping them locked down than other villain AT's, but that's pretty much it. In PvP either they have mez protection or they don't. If they don't, well mag isn't really an issue and every other AT has enough damage that the shorter duration doesn't matter either.

Ranged and melee damage.... I'm almost suprised you listed this as a Dom asset. Everyone does damage man, and we do less of it than everyone else when we're not in Domination. What's more having melee attacks is not that great an asset for us, as it mandates being in melee range with an AT with absolutely no defenses. That is not a good combination.

Debuffs in some sets.... dude, that's just a joke.

The whole point of my previous post is that anything a Dom's do exactly two things. We mez and we do damage. However, we don't do either especially well enough to make our abilities stand out from what is offered by other AT's. No one is picking up a Dom for damage. As for mezzing, eh, it's ok, but in the high end game the other AT's can do it enough on their own that they don't really need us for it. That isn't to say we don't make things easier for other people, and certainly for that rare stalker that doesn't have a single target mez of his own (are they even going to exist post 40? doubtful). My point is our abilities don't stand out next to the other AT's, the benefit we offer them as teammates is generally situational, and that they really have no reason to seek us out for their teams.

For 90 seconds we have a tremendous ability to lock down enemies and blast them away, but no one building a team is building it around those 90 seconds. It's a bonus, a feel good moment when every villain gets to smile and giggle at the pretty words rising over that damn scraappers head. But thtat's really all it is, and when it's gone we're back to being a glass cannon that's out of ammo.

I realize I may sound like another DOOM caller here, but that really isn't my intention. I like my Dom. He's a great character and I have a lot of fun playing him. I just think Dom's have significant balance issues at the moment, and they stem from the fact that our control and damage abilties were balanced around having Domination activated. However that is not the condition under which we spend most of our time. The Devs seems to have acknowledged this a bit by making Domination a little easier and faster to activate. I don't think that's enough. I think Dom's need to be able to make a substantial and distinct contribution when they do not have Domination activated. And as of now I don't think they do.

I just gotta throw my bit in here in total agreements that while Dom's may now perform with some measure of success on a good team in RV, they still offer the least of any villain AT to a team and are likely only be invited last, or rather if there is an extra spot open and no one else is looking for a team. And I think that's true for both PvP AND PvE. The only unique thing we offer any team is 90 seconds of domination, especially post 40 where most AT's have access to single target holds and others have access to aoe soft controls.

In PvP I think we can all agree that it's the ssingle target mez powers that matter. Soft aoe power likes fears and slows can be useful, especially the slows, but aoe holds are near pointless. No group is going to bunch together for 'em, the aoe holds have very short durations and very long recharges. Essentially, in PVP our aoe powers are good for an end expensive but quick extra stack on that tanker or scrapper, and not much else.

But, as Czar pointed out, some corr's can stack stingle target holds far better than any Dom. And Ice/Dark Corr can have three ST holds in Warburg and four in RV. No Dom even has two unless you count Mind having TK. EM brutes and stalkers can stack disorients like it's going out of style.

So I've been asking this since I7 went to test, and I'm going to keep asking it till someone gives a reasonable answer.... What do Dominators offer a team other than 90 seconds of Domination?

As another team pvp'er I'm afraid I disagree strongly with the Doc's opinion of where Dom's stand in I7.

I do agree that the changes so far are a step in the right direction. However, there is a big difference between us being marginally effective on a well built PvP team (which I think we are now), and being actually desirable to people putting a PvP team together. And I strongly disagree with anyone that says we are now on the same level as Controllers, I don't even think we're on the same level as Defenders yet in regards to PvP.

After considerable testing with 40+ PvP I've found that Dom's can be very effective when travelling with significant numbers of other Dominators. Put three or more of us together and we will drop the Tanker and Scrapper defenses. But really, if you don't have Dom's in numbers you may as wel not have any at all and just pick up another Corr. A single corruptor's debuffs far outweigh the control offered by a single dominator to any pvp team, as only in numbers do Dominators provide any significant ability to stack holds and override mez protection. In addition, these group tactics only work until your opponents realize whats going on and start two shotting the Dom's at the start of any engagement.

Targetting the mezzer first is a valid and smart tactic, so that is not what I have a problem with. My problems is that four out of the five hero AT's can two shot us with utter impunity, and that charging through an entire team of villains just to take out the Dom poses almost no risk. I have seen Blasters charge straight through, taking fire from brutes and corrs alike, only to drop the Dom like a paperweight and dash out before he was even at half health. I've even seen controllers do it.

What does a Dominator really bring to a PvP team if you don't have them in numbers? A corruptor brings better damage, buffs/debuffs, and they have a significant amount of control themselves. Most Brutes and Stalkers also have mezzing abilities of some kind, especially post 40. So really, all we offer is Domination. Even with the increased build up and reduced recharge time, I just don't consider 90 seconds of Domination a worthy contribution to my team, an AT has to be more than that.

To put it another way, Dominators each offer one single target hold and one aoe hold (with the exception of Mind that also has TK), along with a number of soft controls and usually a pet (except Mind again). These controls are supposed to be our schtick, this is what we do. Well post 40 just about every AT has single target holds and most have soft controls as well, some aoe's. So really, what makes Dom's distinct? What do they offer that others don't? I know you're not going to say our aoe holds cause that's just silly given their short durations and insane recharge times..... Damage from our secondary? I don't think so. So really, what do we offer?

Been trying to run his arc since the second day of Test and to no avail. I am still crashing out every time on the very first mission.

At first I was crashing on entry, but I've gotten through the door with the latest patch. Now, however, I crash without fail on the second floor and always at the same exact spot, turning into the right hand corridor at the first t-intersection on the second floor.

I've tried to skip it, beat the boss, clicked the glowie by him, but there is one left and it's in that room. Is there a cut sequence in the first mission? Is that why I keep crashing everytime I hit that one spot, cause that's the trigger point?

It's happened at least half a dozen times consecutively now.

Brev, I know nothing about range modifiers. I just know Tankers do considerably more damage than we do, but not as much as blasters, scrappers and coors. We need to be doing that Tanker level of damage and have blaster hp, that's all I meant.

Wow, Lucas, I think you really just hit on something.

Tanker Damage
Blaster HP

Give Dom's those and keep Domination the way it is now on Test, and I think we'll finally be standing on almost even ground with the other squishie at's out there. And yes, I do mean Tanker level damage for both melee AND our ranged attacks. I think it's justified given that our control times are short and we have absolutely no defenses, relying as so many have put it, on an "active defense". This will put us above our squishie cousins the Defender and Controller, but not threaten the real damage dealer AT's except for those 90 seconds when Domination is popped. And for those 90 seconds it's popped, well damn we should be able to two or three shot a held squishie so I see no problem.

Ya know, it just occured to me that the hero AT's have distinct PvP only advantages that were insituted when the Arena was put in. All blaster attacks have an unresistable damage portion, scrapper crits are unresistable, defender debuffs are a percentage unresistable, and controllers have 3x damage containment as opposed to the 2x damage of PvE (and yes I agree that 3x is just damn excessive). A fast building Dom bar just does not balance out against those enormous pvp buffs.

A lot of people have talked about upping our damage so I'll try to make some alternate suggestions. I think a chance to critical hold bypassing protections would be fair since our current damage is subpar. Alternately a form of limited containment is also I think workable. Some others have suggested that Dom's pvp focus should be on toggle dropping. I'm not a fan of this one as it mandates being in melee, but maybe its workable.

Ok, just finished up some more testing and had a very pleasant experience tonight. I ended up on a villain team with two toher doms, Nouvea Paris and Mistress Zero, along with two mm's and I think one corruptor. I had a blast and we did very well.

Something I did come to realize is that the AT com's synergize the best with is other Doms. With three of us on a team locking down one target at a time we made tanks and scrappers fishfood for anyone else around and got in more tha a few kills ourselves. So yes, multiple Dom's working together have a very significant impact.

The key was very much our player ability to work together and focus fire, not just between us doms but with the mm's and corr as well. That way we could take out any one opponent like lightning and move onto the next. The corr was fire and did a great job of keeping us healthy while the scrappers tried to stick it in our backsides. So teamwork really won the day.

Having said all that, the scrappers, blasters and controllers did adapt to having three dom's on the field, and began using a kriss cross of hit and run tactics very successfully, so kudos to them.

Now, after a very succesfull team run people started to tire and log out for the night, leaving me and Nouveau as a duo. We went out trying to coordinate two on one's against the stray scrappers we found. We did not have that much success. Together we were defintiely able to put a number of stray heroes on the defensive. However, we did have trouble sticking the holds and laying in with our attacks even together did not do near enough damage. Our opponents would either call in reinforcements, which they had plenty of time to do, and before we even had him at half health four more heroes would arrive to beat us into nothing. Or, our oppponent would manage to two shot one of us, leaving the other to be two or three shotted quickly thereafter. Once it was just me and Nouveau, I know I at least was unable to survive any fight long enought to activate domination.

I don't want to diminish the fun I had or the success we had while running a full team. What I've realized is that in PvP a Dom truly needs a full team to be effective. Small and medium teams just don't do it and solo is absurd. Has this changed my thoughts about dom's abilities and shortcomings? Not in the slightest. But I am becoming more aware of the condtions and circumstances under which we can be successful. Best way to put it, every AT or power set has that situational power that they forget for most of the time but love when that moment comes... well, Doms are the situational power of the villain AT's.

Not really a fitting comparison and you know it Hollow. I don't agree with John either, and I think Dominators are much more survivable than he portrays. But please don't compare our reliance on domination to a stalkers hide/AS abilities. And while they may rule in PvP, I do recall a number of posters asking for Stalker PvE buffs as they do get squished quite easily pre-so's.

And to address the actual topic of this thread, and our straying from it, the reason we have gone off on so many tangents is precisely because there are so few changes to Dominators. Look, we've tested the improved PvP dom buildup and overall reduction in it's recharege time. They are pretty damn straight forward and we do like them. The reason this thread has gone on as it has is becuase those changes don't really fix the imbalances they were meant to address. They are a good start, but I think the overall feeling is that we're still a long way off.

Please remember, it's really not just a simple question of can we kill three even con minions, or can we kill another player in PvP. It's a matter of how we do these things and what we offer to other players in a team setting. Playing as a Dominator is substantially more difficult than perhaps every other AT. I know a lot of people point to this and say "Good! Dom's take smarts, take tactics, it's a challenge." And that is a very valid viewpoint. However, as the game difficulty continues to increase in the 40-50 levels and PvP zones, tactics may not be enough to overcome some of our imbalances. I don't think the challenge of playing a Dom should simply be a matter of can we survive long enough to pop domination. And I don't think the AT or game difficulty should be based around that 90 seconds of Domination, but I think that at the moment they are.

Sorry if this seems like another tanget, but it is from playing on Test with the new changes to Domination that I am now squarely of the opinion that it should actually be toned down, so that our primary and secondary powers can receive an overall buff without making us uber when domination goes off.

I think Sadako summed things up pretty damn well in her last post, so I'm just gonna add a few stray thoughts here to try and push things along with brainstorming.

It strikes me that on a fundamental level every AT in CoX succeeds through one of two basic methods, either by outdamaging the enemy with a strong offense or by outlasting them with a strong defense. Every AT in the game can be put in one of these to categories easily.... except for Dominators. Therein lies our basic problem. We're not the only hybrid AT in the game, but the other hybrids (Defenders, Corruptors, whatever) still fall clearly into one of those two categories. Dom's, while having both controls and attacks, don't really do one better than the other, and can't really rely on either for survival. Sure, we can succeed at the low to mid PvE game. But as Sadako pointed out, that's mostly because mobs are dumb and susceptible to a lot more of our abilities than other players (sleep and confuse being excellent examples).

The high end game and PvP are entirely different stories though. Even high level EB's have the purple triangles of doom and we are not going to out damage them even with Domination popped. And players.... yeah, I think a long list of issues just came to all of your heads.

Now a lot of people are calling for changes to our secondaries and our damage, which is one way to go. However, I also understand if the devs are hesitant to do that, any change to an AT's damage scale is going to take serious consideration and testing after all. So, with the previous ramblings in mind, rahter than make us offensive characters with greater damage, what about changing our primaries and giving us greater defense?

Oh, and I don't necessarily mean give us buffs/debuffs. What I mean is our primaries are all pretty uniform (single target hold, aoe hold, ST immob or sleep, aoe immob or sleep, some sort of soft control cone or summonable, etc...), and frankly they were all universally designed to synergize with the defender sets. To work with Dom's and our secondary attack sets, I think they need a re-design. Hell, a lot of people have said how corr's and some defenders can stack single target holds a whole lot better than we can and it's because of the way their primaries, secondaries, and app's work together.

Wow, I am sooo rambling now. Ok, I'll skip the nonsensical road by which I got here. Short version, forget adjusting our secondaries. Change some of the powers in our primaries so we actually can dominate things without being so dependent on our click inherent. Get rid of those immob and sleep powers that for Dom's really do absolutely nothing. Replace them with greater control or defensive measures, which can really help distinguish one primary set from another and make each Dom unique. Maybe give one set a second single target hold so they can stack like a champ, give another some sort of aura or armor, hell give Ice benumb and infrigidate (they so belong in the hands of an Ice dom and I don't even play one). It's our primary control sets that I think are our real problem. They just weren't designed for Dom's (with the exception of Plant and it is so noticeable). They were desgined for Controllers, and as so many people have enjoyed pointing out... we're not trollers, and we don't play like them.

That's it, ending nonsensical ranting now.

Heh, quick edit for one last statement... Having played around for some hours in RV I had the chance to see all of the signature villains make an appearance. Ghost Widow, held up to us in beta as the examplar of Dominators, clearly proclaimed by a red name then to be Mind/Psy, showed up in RV to actually be a Dark/Dark Corruptor. Scirocco? Yeah, he is in fact a Corr as well so it wasn't just a mix up. From what I saw in RV when each villain came out, there is no Dominator among the signature villains. And whether the devs think I should read into this or not, I do in fact take this as an indictment of Dom's, and an indication that they are so significantly underpowered that to throw one as an AV against players would just be too easy a win for the players. Ok, now end rant.

Some days are just bad days, it's gonna happen and this was one of 'em guys. Today in RV there were probably more heroes at each pillbox then there were villains in the entire zone. Of course, a gankfest of outrageous proportions quickly followed. Hell, they not only ganked us, I think they wiped the entire map of every arachnos mob except the entrance drones. Eh, like I said, it's all gonna happen at some point. On the good side, it did make me aware of one or two zone issues.

First, the villain entry point is a bottleneck and far too easily campable. Can the area in front be widened maybe? As it is now the heroes just set up camp at the end of the drone line with ice slicks, patchs, hurricaness, illusion armies, and invisibale snipers and not going through them wasn't an option. If the hero entrance is the same I would suggest changing it too. Bottlenecks for entry points is just not a good way to go.

Second, I know the signature heroes and villains are meant to be tough as hell but they may be a little too tough right now. From what I saw controllers and dominators are useless against them even in large numbers and with domination going. I saw a full team of heroes go at Recluse and they had three heavies with them, he was still at 3/4's health when he simply despawned. I know I'm a villain and all, but they should have had the win on that one.

I think there was something else, but it's escaped me now. I'll post again later if I remember.

Ok, got a lot more testing in last night so here are some more impressions and findings...

First up, the increased Domination build up from our secondary is only being applied when we attack another player. Attacking npc mobs or objects, including the artillery guns at the control points, still only yields the base 2 Domination to our bar.

Second, spent some time last night working with the heroes to spawn both the hero and villain signature characters in RV. Went up against Sister Psyche, Manticore, Positron, and Back Alley Brawler in the course of the evening. Even with myself and at least two other Dom's popping Domination, I did not see them get held once. I was chaining my mezzes at them as fast as I could and running TK, still nada. Spoke to some controllers and they could not hold the villain signature characters either. I don't know if this is intentional, it might be a balance thing they did for RV and I will be posting in the RV forum about it. However, this really brings up the AV issue for me in the late PvE game. I felt totally useless once those Heroes came out. Since mezzing seemed a hopeless endeavor I started trying to lay in with the damage. Well, when Domination wasn't up I kinda felt like I was throwing toothpicks at Hami. When it was up, and my dam was kind of respectable, I quickly got one-shotted into next week. Not fun, and if I was putting together an AV team for the late game, I probably wouldn't even want me on it.

Anyway, some other PvP Dom impressions. There were a lot less people in RV last night, so it was a lot easier to tell what was going on. Sure enough, under normal conditions with a normal number of players Doms are quickly singled out and ganked into a fine red paste. However, even with the target on my back I still got Domination off several times last night, so I am convinced this was an effective and worthwhile change. Don't think it goes far enough, but definitely a good start.

Dom's vs. Scrapper and Tanks in the late game -- I did notice even wtih Domination up I had trouble getting my holds to stick on scrappers and tanks. I think it comes done to an issue of the Mog, Unstoppable etc. final tier powers in their defense lines. Gonna try to get a scrapper or tank parnter and do some solid testing on this tonight, but near as I can tell from last night if a tank or scrapper has activated their final tier defense power, well we're not gonna hold them even with Domination. And I'm not saying this is a bad thing, because hey, when that Unstoppable runs out they are gonna get toasted and that's the way unstoppable and similar powers have always been. Just saying that it appears they do trump Domination for those wondering and I'll try to get some solid numbers on it tonight.

So, to sum it all up, I feel pretty confirmed in the initial impressions. While the change to Domination is great and does have an impact on our PvP experience, it is still a ways off from correcting our rather glaring shortcomings. We are still an easy target in PvP, and I am even more concerned about our PvE role in the late game where AV's become so common. I Dom's Dom's may be too much of a hybrid, part control, part ranged attack, part melee attack, and I understand the difficulty in balancing these three aspects. I'm wondering if maybe we shouldn't lose our melee attacks altogether in favor of a stronger ranged secondary?

Oh, and we seriously need an hp boost.

Been trying to at least try out Scirocco's story arc, but I crash every time I try to enter his first mission. Crashed at least 6 times trying to enter. This has only happened to me trying to run his mission, I have run numerous other door missions, paper missions, and mayhem missions just fine.

Ok, so after mulling it over I wanted to make some suggestions bout possible Dominator changes. First off, I think I understand why this may be problematic for the Devs now, as most of the thoughts I had involved significantly changing powers themselves, which at this stage of the game probably isn't that doable. So here are some other options I think might work ok...

Option 1:
Increase Dominator hp to Blaster levels
Remove the damage increase from Domination
Increase Dominator base damage
Add a defense buff to Domination

Option 2:
Increase Dominator hp to Blaster levels
Increase modifer for Dominators on all power pools so we can actually get worthwile amounts of defense or resistance out of things like maneuvers or tough.
Eliminate the recharge timer on Dominate, let the bar be the limiting factor.

Option 3: (the power alteration option)
Elminate the negligable buff/debuff power in most of our secondaries (chilling embrace, etc...)
Give all secondaries a resistance or defense toggle armor like the ones you put in our PPP's.

Overall, I don't think there is any one change that is going to fix Dominators unless they actually replace some of the powers in each of the primary or secondary sets. The current Domination change is an ok start, but it's just a start. Without some tweaking to hp, or base damage, or the presence of some protection, we're just meat when we're not in Domination mode.

Ok, as I actually did manage to stay on Test for a while last night, here are some of my initial observations. I spent almost all of my time in Recluse's Victory, as all of our changes are PvP only.

Domination - it took exactly 13 attacks from my secondary assault set to enable Domination. This is a marked improvement and I was able to utilize Domination a few times in PvP last night.

Toggle Dropping - I only have Ice Sword in my build, my tier 2 toggle drop power. A controller running 3 toggles allowed me to test it out on him, thank you Balshor. End result, Ice Sword did not drop a single toggle on him after thwacking away at him for about 2 minutes or so. Another Dom, Nouveau Paris, went at him with Mind Probe and Psychic Shockwave. Mind Probe also did not drop any of his toggles. Psychic Shockwave dropped one toggles every three or four hits. Check with Nouveau for a more precise count if he has one.

General notes - I had a lot of fun in RV last night. Granted, it was a major lag fest, one count had over 220 players in the zone, but I was still able to engage in some solid pvp during a few smooth moments. The increased Domination build up was helpful, and I did bang a few times last night to significant effect. However, the loss of toggle dropping was also noticeable, and Dom's are still meat as soon as any damage dealer actually looks our way. That being said, I think my improved performance last night was aided the most by the sheer number of combatants. In that kind of mass melee I had an easier time keeping myself out of the center of attention. I expect once we all return to our normal live servers, and the sheer number of combatants drops back down, I will again become the first one down during any engagement, I'm just that easy a target.

In terms of build, almost certainly dropping Ice Sword now. Useful for damage at the lower levels, but one you get high enough to respec it does more harm than good, drawing you into melee where we die fast and the damage just isn't enough to justify the risk. Greater Ice Sword might, if it hits hard enough and still has a chance to toggle drop, normal Ice Sword definitely not. So that power is toast.

Tk still is da bomb for Mind Dom's, it was my bread and butter in RV last night along with Terrify, Dominate, and Levitate for the -Fly. Oh, and the new Confuse animation... yay! Losing that delay at the end of activation really did make a differnece in the power, so thank you devs for fixing that one.

Did get in a little PvE last night as well, really not much though, but I am disappointed in the total lack of any PvE boost. To cap it off AV's just got an undefined buff, which were a sore point for us already due to the "we are now totally useless" purple triangles of don't bring a Dom with you for this one. Coraling the minions for the Corruptor to wipe up is nice and all, but do Dom's have any other purpose in the End game now? What exactly are we going to do on the Recluse SF against Statesman and the Freedom Phalanx? I'm sure they are trembling in fear of my devastating Ice Bolt and all, but really.... And before someone warps that out of context, no I don't think a lone dominator should be able to chain mez Statesman or any other Hero/AV, but I do think we should be useful to the team in some fashion and I'm just not sure what that is in the end game.

States,

Thank you for clarifying the debuff enhancement change and how it will be affected by the new defense scaling in I7. Chances are I'll be putting my debuff defenders aside for the time inbetween the current patch going live and I7's release, but I look forward to playing them again once the defense scaling is implemented bringing debuffs back into balance. However, I do have one final question, namely once I7 goes live and the new to hit equation is implemented will it also affect the usefulness of to hit debuffing in PvP?

Sorry, not good enough with these equations to understand how they affect other players. Thanks again.

You can all stop your wild speculation. I have received definitive word from a thoroughly inaccurate source with detailed informtaion regarding the nature and powersets of this new Archetype. To start with, the name Blood of the Black Stream is obviously in no way related to or a derivative of an Old English kenning. Now for those of you who don't know, Old English kennings were descriptive strings of words used to poetically identify or define certain well known things or places or people. For instance, the spear man and the whale's road were both kennings for the ocean. The references and associations should be obvious.

In like fashion, Blood of the Black Stream can be broken down into an associaitive and poetic allusion to a creature we all know and love. The capitalization of the word blood is an archaic reference not simply to blood, but is an indication of noble blood, also called blue blood. The "black stream" is clearly a reference to the underground waters of myth that fed the fey children of the earth. It is obviously indicative of fairy creatures tied the power of the earth for their sustenance and life. Now, if we look at these too associative descriptions together, blue blood and earth fairy, we we arrive at a singular undeniably fallible conclusion. Smurfs. The new epic AT will in fact be the beloved three-apple high, blue skinned heroes of our Saturday mornings.

Now as yet the smurf powersets are still being desgined, or so my inside sources tell me. However, I have been assured that the Primary set will be controllerish in nature, utilizing an array of "alchemy" powers to induce euphoria, malaise, hallucinations and psychosis to incapacitate your enemies. The Seconday power set supposedly involes "smurfing" things, but as no one seems to have slightest clue what that means. Best guess is that it involves apples.

If we're talking about simply heores vs. villains, why even allow them to see eachother's level? Keeping that kind of information hidden might cut down on a lot of ganking as people tend to get a bit more hesitant about starting a fight when they're suddenly not so sure they can win. Yeah, capes and auras might be a dead give away for some, but they are not absolute. I know I have a post thirty character that still wears his non-cape, non-aura costume.

Now, hero vs. hero pvp may be another issue, as we can already see not just eachother's level, but even their builds if we check out their info page. But then again, heroes aren't supposed to be fighting eachother anyway. So, if we keep PvP to hero vs. Villain aoutside of arenas, then I see no reason why we should have any inidcation of the others level until we are already engaged....

Hey Wytch,

Thanks for the guide. As a currently lvl 34 Dark/Energy Defender I wanted to ask you a question or two about the rest of the road up to 50. I've been having a great time with it so far and found my build very effective as both a solo'er and team player. Getting into the mid-30's now, I'm starting to get concerned about the lack of mez protection. I was thinking about devoting a couple power slots to the leaping pool so I could get Acrobatics.

However, with the Epp's coming out, Dark and Psychic Mastery both seem to offer some very tempting powers to me. Also, I do not have Black Hole yet. I've been kind of on the fence about whether or not I want this power, but I'm starting to lean towards yes, I do. So, my dilemma. Between the three powers it would take to get some mez protection into my build, the enticing choices offered by the EPP's, and the possibility of Black Hole, there just aren't enough spaces left. So, out of these, what powers would you choose and why? And did you find the lack of mez protection a problem at the higher levels as you made th home stretch towards 50?

Thanks,
Vesperi, lvl 34 Dark/Energy Defender

((Hey everyone. I need two npc's for some heavy rp parts on Virtue this Sunday at about 8 pm EST. If anyone is interested please reply here or just send me a Private Message. Thank you.))

Name: Twillight's Hall
Motto: You can conceal yourself within the Dark, but never from it.
Levels: All
Requirements: a dark power set
Leader: Tenebras
Recruiting: Yes

Twillight's Hall is a gathering place for all those touched by darkness. We are the only SG exclusively for Darks. Yes, this limits us to Scrappers and Defenders, but we have friends

We do have a role-play core, but we're not fanatics. Contact Tenebras In-Game if interested.