Kane1

[ QUOTE ]
Then I'm at a loss how to do meaningful analysis of any CoX powers, as the distinction between primary effects (which should influence the Endurance cost) and secondary effects (which apparently were, and allegedly should be, considered totally free fringe benefits) seems arbitrary. I'm particularly unclear on how to consider damage attacks that are all DOT (Fire Breath) or are some DD and some guaranteed DOT (Flares, Tenebrous Tentacles). I think the devs themselves have changed their approach to this over time.

[/ QUOTE ]Yeah, they are a bit arbitrary, and you may be right that the devs changed their approach somewhere. But I think generally you can demarcate "primary" from "secondary" fairly easily so long as you have two obviously comparable powers. (E.g: Flares has no equivalent anywhere since its Recharge time is unique, but Fire Breath and Frost Breath are analogous, so it's fairly easy to say that Fire Breath has an extra 25% damage as its "bonus" effect.)


[ QUOTE ]
Could it be that with Thorny Assault, they considered only the -Def the free secondary effect? I know I do. Nearly half again as much extra damage, plus a huge Def debuff, is too much extra benefit to all be free.

[/ QUOTE ]No. Not possible. In fact, since you're asking, I can only assume that you didn't actually look at the links I provided you. Or, I dunno, maybe you need more proof. Ok, then, how 'bout Power Blast and Impale? Or Thorny Darts and Shriek? I know -Def and Toxic DoT sounds too good to be true, but when you also consider that without the DoT /Thorns only has Lethal damage, it doesn't sound so much like you're making out like a thief in the bargain. (It's also the only Dominator secondary that's so heavily Smashing/Lethal.)

The DoTs on Thorny Assault are a bonus - they're not taken into account when factoring the Recharge/Endurance rates. (If you don't believe me, compare Skewer to Bone Smasher.)

Also, I never said the disparity in range was a grave insult to Fling Thorns, I simply mentioned it was there.

Haven't gotten a Spiner to level 32 to verify whether the numbers on City of Data are accurate here, but I have tested /Thorns' Fling Thorns, and it's in line with its entry on CoD. Anyway:

Fling Thorns is underperforming. If compared to Psy Scream (the other Dom Cone attack with a 12 second recharge), it's more expensive and does less damage, while having shorter range. Moreover, it doesn't fall in line with the power it seems likely to have been based off of: Fling Spines. If Fling Spines were adjusted for the base damage modifiers for each AT, a Dom would deal 39.40 damage with Fling Spines, whereas Fling Thorns only deals 32.53 damage. (This may seem like a small difference, but it's actually a 20% loss.)

Of course, there's something sort of funny going on with Fling Spines, since Shockwave, the comparable power in Claws/, doesn't deal quite as much damage as Fling Spines does. So, I dunno, there's some weirdness here that I don't understand.

But, anyway, after looking at the AoE damage potential of each secondary set, it's fairly apparent that either the devs grossly overestimate Ripper, or Fling Thorns is underperforming. (Yes, Fling Thorns, not Thorn Burst.)

Speaking of which... separate, but related, issue: Thorn Burst's Endurance cost is a bit too high for the damage it deals. (It deals less damage than Combustion for more Endurance with the same Recharge and Radius.)

Edit: [ QUOTE ]
AI of pets with both melee and ranged attacks is very poor. (Kane1 March 16th)

[/ QUOTE ]I think that can be removed. Supposedly Jack's getting fixed, and the discussion about Audrey is pretty mixed right now.

Hah! Awesome, I get my first vetspec set on Friday. I know how I'm spending my weekend!

Haven't taken a Patron yet, though it'll either be Scirocco or Ghost Widow. (Leaning towards Mr. Moooo.) Patron Pools are on the "to-do" list for this guide.

And here's more /psi love for those of us who went Fire/.

Playstyle

"In all my wanderings and adventurings, I have found that the concept of range is a little fuzzy. Or maybe that's just my head. In any case, it doesn't really matter where you are when you fight things, what matters is how you fight them. Wait... I don't think that makes any sense. Hrmmm... how can I put this? Well, in the words of Courtney Love, 'Love is a burning thing, and it makes a firey ring.' That's what you want to do; love your enemies. I... think. Yes, yes, love them, and trap them in firey rings... wait, maybe that was Yoko Ono? Oh, dear, I'm confused, now."

Actually, when Pyrosycho was talking about firey rings just now, I don't think he was actually referring to Ring of Fire specifically. In the terms you'll be using to describe the powers, he was alluding more to Flashfires and Char, the two "command" controls at your disposal. You will be taking and slotting those powers. You will lead off fights with them. Period. No questions asked. (No, really, no questions. I'm sick to death of them.) They will save your bacon, and I'm pretty sure you like your bacon, right?

"Speaking of Bacon, what's your Bacon number? Mine's 5."

That wasn't the bacon we were referring to, Pyro.

"Oh. Sorry. Although, I think that reminds me of what I was trying to say about range. See, when I'm fighting things and I'm not just relying on my cute little flaming monkey men, I do a lot of hopping around. Like that stuff they put in beer, right? See, I do a little bit of hocus pocus, and I flay the minds of whatever I'm fighting when I first spot them, right? So that they're a good ways away? Then I jump over next to them and shake their hand while they're clutching their head in pain, which probably confuses them more, and hey, it gives me an opportunity to probe a bit deeper into their mind to shred their consciousness some more. And maybe if there's enough of them right there, I'll hit them with a soundwave"

No, you mean shockwave.

"That's what I said, shockwave, and by that point my flaming monkeys and hopefully the secret service men I'm working with have felled everyone I haven't directly consumed the mind of. Mmmmm, brains."

So, for those of you who don't speak Psycho, that basically means that you should let your Fire Imps (and your teammates, if it happens to work out that way) tank for you as much as possible. If you have Smoke, paint the group you're fighting with that first, and then (if it's up) stun them with Flashfire. If you don't have Smoke, just lead in with Flashfire. After that it pays to play what you're dealt with. You could Hold some high-threat target that missed out on the stun, or Fire Cage the group you just stunned so they stay where thye are, or send a Psi Scream at them, since they're still fairly clumped up. Whatever. Develop your own style, and be willing to adapt. For most of the life of your character, Psi Scream and Hot Feet will be your two AoEs, so you'll have to spend a lot of your time hopping into melee for Hot Feet, Mind Probe, and Drain Psyche, and then hopping back out to get a good line-up for Psi Scream, and then hopping back in. Once you've got Shockwave, you can keep that playstyle (which is what I did) and just incorporate Shockwave into the parts of the routine where I'm in melee and partially surrounded, and leaping back for Psi Scream when Shockwave isn't up. It works out pretty well, in my opinion. There are others, however, who just want to wade into melee and stay there, and these players respec out of Psi Scream entirely once they have Shockwave. This also works, and requires a lot less thought in order to be maximally effective, though it doesn't have quite the monster AoE potential that the mixed approach does. Whatever works for you.

Above all, keep an open mind and learn to adapt. You run Bonfire but your latest pick-up group makes extensive use of AoE debuffs? Instead of bouncing them against the walls, set up the patch so it knocks runners back into the debuff. There's lots of ways to use several of these powers, and your success can vary greatly by simply finding the right use for the right situation.

Early Advice

As I said earlier, click Domination whenever it comes up. (Especially if you have Hasten.) It's a strong damage buff and it makes all of your controls better. As a Fire/Psi, you love the first with a passion, and can really use the latter in crunch times.

Learn to prioritize targets. Mobs that fire mezzes should be highest priority, followed quickly by debuffers. (Fortunately for you, most mobs that do one also do the other.) Then, once those are taken care of, shut down healers and anything that buffs its teammates. (Again, most mobs that do one do both.) After that, a good rule of thumb is to follow the hierarchy: Bosses before Lt's before Minions. Higher-ranking mobs last longer and hit harder, so mezzing them stops more damage.

Things go smoothly until the mid-teens, where you're still running with (comparatively) average powers while other ATs are picking up mez-protection, getting their big hitters, or just slotting up the DO's and rolling on. As much as I hate to say it, DO's don't benefit Doms a whole lot. At least, not enough to let you shift the difficulty up to Vicious. (Well, not in my experience, anyway; feel free to give it a try.) And what hurts even more is that, even though you've picked up your key AoE control (Flashfire), it won't be that great until it's 6-slotted, which can't happen until level 17, and probably shouldn't happen until 21 or so. (Because, seriously, you shouldn't be neglecting your attacks.) These, then, are the rough times. Stick it out; I promise things pick up at 22.

SO's and beyond

Whether you pick up SO's at 22 or you start crafting your IO's, you'll see a huge spike in effectiveness at that level. Your controls last much longer, are available more often, and rarely miss if slotted properly. If you have a limited budget to work with, just slot up Char, Flashfire, and Drain Psyche and start working on Vicious (if you didn't crank it to that earlier). If you can go ahead and deck yourself out, you can handle Relentless at this point. It may be rough going for a few levels, but it's doable. (Of course, there's no shame in just switching to Vicious until you feel you're ready for +2's, either.)

Somewhere in the mid-20's you're going to start encountering Arch-Villain and Hero-class enemies. (Henceforth referred to as AV's.) Whether you face them as AV's or the down-graded Elite Boss versions, these foes have the Doms' Achilles' Heel: The Purple Triangles of Doom. (Aka: the PToD.) The PToD drastically reduce the effectiveness of most Debuffs and grant the enemy Mag 50 mez-protection to anything except Immobilize and Sleep for 50 seconds out of every 75. So, basically, you can't Hold them unless you've got a couple of Dom friends with you. Solo, you cannot take AV's. (Well, you can, but it's so much more effort than it's worth that you simply shouldn't try it.) However, when you're on your own, these enemies only spawn as AV's on Relentless - if you run into an AV, simply exit the mission, lower your difficulty (may as well set it to Villainous), and reset the mission. Then come back, and that nasty AV is merely an EB. Still no cake-walk, but much more manageable. If you have any Shivan Shards from Bloody Bay or Nuke Strikes from Warburg, AVs-turned-EBs are excellent candidates for using them, but in all honesty you do not need them. 6 Lucks and a couple Rages (all inspirations) will handily defeat any AV-turned-EB. (Actually, if you have a good strategy, you can probably get the job done with only 4 Lucks.) Keep 3 Lucks going at all times, keep a couple Rages up as long as you can, make sure that you click Drain Psyche as often as possible, and they'll all go down eventually. It helps to have Domination up before you go in, but most EB fights last long enough to build Domination anyway, so it doesn't make a huge difference.

Imps will make a huge difference. Take some time at level 32 to figure out how close they need to be to something before they'll aggro it, and be mindful of the fact that they can easily get you in deeper than you're ready to go.

Psi Shockwave will transform your life at level 38. Not only is it a massive attack, it lets you build the Domination bar without nearby enemies. (Neat, hunh?) If you round a corner and spy a Boss or tougher that you're not ready for, simply Auto-Click Shockwave, and let the Dom bar rebuild. Once it's ready, click it and go to town.

Simple, right?

Above all, keep these two things in mind:

1) It's only a game. Keep a sense of humor about you.
2) It's a game. Have fun!

"Yes, indeed! Have fun! And be sure to say 'hi' to Einstein for me! I'll catch you on the flip side!"

[u]Psionic Assault[u]

Psionic Dart Level 1
Single Target, Ranged -- Base Accuracy: 1.0
1.5 second recharge -- 5.2 Endurance cost
21.69 Psionic damage (at level 50)
-30% Recharge debuff; 5 seconds

Psi Dart blows. It costs too much Endurance for the damage it does, and its quick-rotation, low-damage design happens to clash with its relatively long animation time. (It takes about as long to fire as it does to recharge.)
Unfortunately, this is your forced pick - you're stuck with it. Personally, I just slap an Endurance Reduction in here and use it to build Domination a little bit faster. Others claim it's a good pulling tool, but I've never used it as such.

Psi Dart is not worth wasting extra slots on. No, seriously, they'd be put to better use elsewhere.

Mind Probe Level 2
Single Target, Melee -- Base Accuracy: 1.0
8 second recharge -- 8.53 Endurance cost
68.40 Psionic damage (at level 50)
-40% Recharge debuff; 6 seconds

Please, please do yourself a favor and take Mind Probe. It's the only good attack you'll get until level 28. Yes, I know it's melee, but going into melee range against Held enemies isn't dangerous at all. Just... just take it, will you?

I think 4 slots is generally enough for Mind Probe, although if you end up with leftover slots at the end of your build feel free to stick them here. If you solo, I recommend the "Marathon" slotting of 1Accuracy/2Damage/1EnduranceRedux. (Which gives you the maximum damage efficiency for a 4-slot setup.) If you team regularly, you probably want more damage more than you need better efficiency, so go ahead and roll with 1Acc/3Dam in that instance. If you have spare slots, stick them here first.

Telekinetic Thrust Level 4
Single Target, Melee -- Base Accuracy: 1.0
6 second recharge -- 6.86 Endurance cost
16.68 Psionic damage (at level 50)
16.68 Smashing damage (at level 50)
16.62 Knockback

TKThrust is mostly just a mitigation power - it's massive knockback. (It's about twice the strength of Torrent, if that tells you anything.) It does decent damage, too, but the Endurance cost isn't scaled for the damage so if you use it simply as an attack, it hurts your efficiency. There's two ways you can look at TKThrust. The first is to say that Fire/Psi is kind of weak on mitigation as far as Doms go and take it to round out the arsenal a little bit. The second is to maximize the damage potential of your character and take something else. (Most likely Ring of Fire.) I'm not really a fan of TKThrust, so I recommend the second option, but feel free to give it a trial run if you're interested.

Depending on what you expect out of it, you can invest either zero slots in TKThrust, or 4. 1Accuracy either way, and if you want to 4-slot it, 2Damage and 1Recharge. That gives it decent damage output and lets you toss things around a little more often.

Mental Blast Level 10
Single Target, Ranged -- Base Accuracy: 1.0
4 second recharge -- 5.2 Endurance cost
36.15 Psionic damage (at level 50)
-30% Recharge debuff; 5 seconds

Notice any similarities to Psi Dart? Yeah, they've got the same End cost. Retarded, isn't it? Mental Blast used to have a bugged animation which rooted you longer than it actually took to fire the power. This has since been fixed and Mental Blast no longer sucks. It's still not a very "wow!" power - it's roughly equivalent to the Tier1 in the other 4 secondaries. I recommend taking this at level 10, if for no other reason than that at that level you are in desperate need of more attacks. Many players advocate respeccing out of Mental Blast later, once you've got SO's in your attacks and Subdue to round out your arsenal a little more. While Pyrosychosis has actually taken that advice, his build is more slanted towards team support, so it made a little more sense for him than it might for you. Ultimately, it's your call. I firmly believe that the power remains useful even in later levels, but if you need room in your build it also makes an easy cut.

If you want to keep it, Mental Blast deserves 4 slots like your other attacks. Like Mind Probe, either go 1Accuracy/2Damage/1EnduranceRedux or 1Acc/3Dam.

Psychic Scream Level 16
Cone attack: 60', 30º; (10 target cap) -- Base Accuracy: 1.0
12 second recharge -- 11.86 Endurance cost
37.59 Psionic damage (at level 50)
-50% Recharge debuff; 10 seconds

Psi Scream has a generous range for a cone, and is both a nice debuff and a solid attack. She's a keeper. Take it, and eventually 6-slot it.

2Accuracy/3Damage/1EnduranceRedux is good for solo work. If you team a lot, swap the EndRx for Recharge. Simple.

Drain Psyche Level 20
PBAoE (10 target cap) -- Base Accuracy: 1.0
120 second recharge -- 13 Endurance cost
100% Regen buff; 30 seconds
100% Recovery buff; 30 seconds
-500% Regen debuff to target; 30 seconds
-500% Recovery debuff to target; 30 seconds

Drain Psyche is a Regen buff, a Recovery buff, and a -Regen, -Recovery debuff. It is, to put it simply, awesome. It can, with intelligent slotting, completely replace Stamina. (In fact, Pyrosycho runs Hot Feet and Leadership toggles, using just Drain Pysche and some liberal EndRedux slotting in his attacks.) With a single slot in Healing, it can turn you into a Regen Scrapper of yore for 30 seconds at a time. With 3 slots in healing, it routinely makes you nigh invulnerable for 30 seconds at a time. Again, take it. 6-slot it. Love it.

At least 1 Accuracy, and IMO at least 3 Recharge. Beyond that is your call; I don't think there's actually a "bad" slotting for this power.

Subdue Level 28
Single target, Ranged -- Base Accuracy: 1.0
8 second recharge -- 8.53 Endurance cost
59.28 Psionic damage (at level 50)
80% chance of Mag 3 Immob, Base Duration = 6 seconds

Subdue is a solid single-target attack. And while there's occasionally good cause to drop Mental Blast later, you will find Subdue useful for the rest of your character's life, against EB's and tougher if nothing else.

4 slots, like your other attacks. 1Accuracy/2Damage/1EnduranceRedux if you solo, or 1Acc/3Dam if you prefer large-ish teams. If you have spare slots, I'd put them here after Mind Probe.

Psionic Lance Level 35
Single target, Ranged (Interruptible) -- Base Accuracy: 1.2
12 second recharge -- 14.35 Endurance cost
99.76 Psionic damage (at level 50)
-15% Recharge debuff; 10 seconds

Yes, it's a snipe. No, I've never used it. As such, you should take whatever advice I have about it with a grain of salt.
Actually... y'know, that's just about all I've got to say. I think Doms generally have better openers than Snipes, and they're really hard to use in mid-combat. Don't take this unless you're just really curious.

No slotting recommendations because I've never used it.

Psychic Shockwave Level 38
PBAoE (10 target cap) -- Base Accuracy: 1.0
10 second recharge -- 10.19 Endurance cost
70.85 Psionic Damage (at level 50)
25% chance of Mag 2 Stun, Base Duration = 6 seconds
-50% Recharge deubbf; 20 seconds
64% chance of toggle drop against players

This is it. The power you've been wating 37 levels for. This is the power that makes it all worth it. It is the single best AoE attack in all of City of Villains, without a doubt. If Shockwave is not your cup of tea, then you need to go pick a different secondary.

6-slot it. Instantly. Like, seriously, if this power doesn't have 6 slots by level 40, you have done something horribly, horribly wrong. I roll with 1Accuracy/3Damage/2Recharge, but I also run Tactics, so you may want to go 2Acc/3Dam/1Rech. Shockwave is already very efficient for an AoE attack, so EndRedux isn't a large concern, and the Stun lenghth is too short and too unreliable to be worth slotting.

Pool Powers

[u]Travel Power[u]
Well, I know I've suggested Hasten several times already, but I'm going to suggest it again: take Hasten. I don't care if you're sick of every character you have taking Hasten; Hasten is the single greatest pool power any Dominator can possibly have. It makes Domination come up more often, it lets you fire more controls while Domination is active, and it makes those incredibly-long-recharging AoE controls come up more often. Take. Hasten. Or you can, y'know, pass on it, but if you do, don't come crying to me later that your character sucks.

Now, that being said, I do not trust Super Speed as far as CoV goes. It does fine for most of my Heroes, but trying to maneuver around Grandville with only Temp-powers for vertical movement just does not cut it. So I recommend that if you do take Super Speed that you plan to respec out of it when you get to Grandville.

As far as travel powers go, my personal favorite is the Flight Pool, especially for Doms. Air Superiority makes a nice filler to your attack chain while you're waiting for the later powers in your secondary, and once you've got those attacks (and you've got more slots to spread around) you can respec into Hover, which has several different nice options for IO's. The Leaping pool is the popular choice, as I understand it. Fast vertical movement that doesn't require heavy slotting, Immob protection, and knock* protection if you want it. Solid deal all around. I've never had a Dom that took Teleport, but a Fire/Psi Dom is probably one of the characters in CoV that can best leverage Team Teleport. (Which, yes, I've witnessed this firsthand.)

[u]Fitness[u]
Drain Psyche can replace Stamina. Seriously. It requires some Endurance management skills and the willingness to slot EndRedux in your attacks, but it can be done. Now, IO's have made Health into a very valuable power these days... if you've got the cash to get the necessary IO's for it. But, still... I'd say that at the end of the day, Stamina is merely a convenience for a Fire/Psi Dom. If you want it, fine; just know that you don't need it.

[u]Medicine[u]

"A friend of mine named Dr. McCoy once gave me a small healing device. Or maybe I stole it off of his dead body. Regardless, I have one, and McCoy is responsible. It took me some time to learn how to turn the device on myself, but truly the joy of discovery was more important than the utilty of use. You see, I usually just use the device on the little pieces of concentrated Fire I create whose names I forget just now. Often when I find myself in need of it for personal use, there simply isn't time for it. I'm a busy man, you know. Those banks don't just rob themselves, after all."

To paraphrase: Aid Other is quite useful (though not quite useful enough to burn a lot of slots on). Aid Self is rarely useful. Most of the time, either I don't need it at all, or I'm taking too much damage to use it. But there are others who swear by the power, so give it a spin if you like.

[u]Leadership[u]

Dom builds are tight. Most times, they are too tight to fit Leadership into them. This is unfortunate, because Tactics alone makes a huge difference for a Dom. (Not to mention what an /Ice or /Energy Dom can do with Power-Boosted Vengeance. But that's neither here nor there.) If you can find the room for it, I highly recommend the Leadership pool. If you can't, you may wish to reconsider your build.

[u]Stealth[u]

As far as PvE goes, Smoke does a better job than the first three powers here, and your mezzes do a better job than Phase Shift. For PvP, if you want this pool, you've probably got a better idea of what you're doing with it than I do.

[u]Fighting[u]

Never taken this pool on a Dom. I've heard mixed reviews about it, but really I just can't get excited about anything in here. If you want to experiment with it, be my guest.

[u]Presence[u]

You don't need a Taunt, and the Fear powers here aren't worth 2-3 power picks. Just... no.

Introduction/A Quick Overview of Domination in General
(Warning: There's a little bit of Role-playing to this guide. Anything in italics and inside quotation marks is the voice of Pyrosychosis, my level ~40 Fire/Psi Dom. It's my way of adding humor to the guide. My apologies if it confuses or distracts.)

Note: While I've got a little experience with PvP as a Dom, I've never done it with this character, so I won't really be going over PvP much in this guide. Also, I haven't dived much into the Invention system, so I don't really have any recommendations there, either. I hope to eventually incorporate both of those into the guide, but as of right now there's no ETA for either.

"Pyrosychosis greets you. Yes, I am sure you have heard what they say about me behind my back. I assure, you, I am technically not psichotic. I don't really hear voices, per se, I simply have a sort of swiss-cheese memory, if you will. That is, my mind can't organize things, so except for this whole speech thing, I can't really keep everything straight. I'm a little... disjointed, I guess. But, hey, nobody's perfect, right? And you could not ask for a better mentor in the ways of Pyrokinesis. At least, that's what Lenny Briscoe told me."

(No, I won't be role-playing the whole guide.)
Welcome to the fun-filled world of a Fire/Psi Dominator. You are, technically, one of the two worst-controlling builds possible for a Dominator. In exchange for that, you are the Unholy Terror when it comes to AoE damage in City of Villains. Fire/Psi is a slightly late-blooming build, but once it comes into its own, it is a steamroller of a character that ploughs through spawns in embarassing amounts of time.

However, make no mistake - you are a Dominator, and your primary powerset is still a Control set. You cannot forsake your control powers; your survival depends on them. You simply have ungodly levels of damage to back them up.

In my opinion, Dominators play best as Blappers who sling controls at high-threat targets while they work on the lesser minions and low-threat Lts. They move in and out of melee, and they aren't shy about firing blasts at point-blank range if that happens to be where they are at the time. Domination recharges quickly enough that you can click it whenever it happens to come up (within reason of course; don't click it if there's only one enemy left in the room or something like that) without worrying about not having it up when you need it. That lets you keep your damage at a good average rate, and it means you can spread your controls out more libreally during the mission for a minimum chance of face-plant. It's the best of both worlds, baby! (Granted, that's just one man's opinion, but it's worked for me for several Doms so far.)

(A quick word on the Domination Inherent itself: Domination has three separate functions. The first is that it adds a 75% damage buff, which adds on to whatever Damage Enhancements or other damage buffs you have. The second is that it makes each Mez fired under its influence add a second layer of Mez, usually the same strength as the first, for double the magnitude. This second layer has 150% the base duration of the standard power and cannot be resisted. So for example, with unslotted Char at level 50, you get a Mag 6 Hold for 17.88 seconds, and then for another 8.94 seconds you have a Mag 3 Hold. It's important to note, by the way, that the 150% duration is multiplied with enhancements, rather than added the way the damage bonus is. And the third function is Mez protection for the duration of the power. The protection varies with level, but it's near Scrapper-level protection.)

[u]Powers, case-by-case[u]

All stats for all powers come from City of Data.
Also note that Mez durations scale with level, but not at the same rate as damage. For a Dom, the formula is:
Duration = Base Duration x (0.99 + Level/100)
In laymen's terms, that means Duration = 100% Base Duration at level 1, and it goes up 1% each level until 149% at level 50.

[u]Fire Control[u]

Char Level 1
Single Target (ranged) -- Base Accuracy: 1.2
8 second recharge -- 8.53 Endurance cost
39.75 Fire damage over 4.2 seconds (at level 50)
Mag 3 Hold, Base Duration = 12 seconds

Take this power at level one. Period. You have no business rolling a Dom and expecting decent performance out of him/her if you don't. This will be the cornerstone of your defense for the entirety of your character's lifetime. 6 slot it. Spam it. Love it.

2Accuracy/2Hold/2Recharge is the default - that slotting works for pretty much everything. 2Acc/3Hold/1Recharge may be a better choice if you're running Hasten and it does well in PvP, too. If you don't fight anything higher than +2's, you can make do with 1Acc/3Hold/2Recharge or 1Acc/2Hold/3Recharge. (The former gives you more mez time for the endurance you spend on it, the latter allows you to stack or spread holds faster.)

Ring of Fire Level 1
Single Target (ranged) -- Base Accuracy: 1.2
4 second recharge -- 7.8 Endurance cost
39.75 Fire damage over 9.2 seconds (at level 50)
Mag 4 Immobilize, Base Duration = 15 seconds

Ring of Fire does decent damage at a cost that doesn't completely suck. Immobilize effects aren't quite as useful for Doms as one might think at first, but they can be put to some creative uses if you've the mind for it. Fire/Psi is forced to take either Ring of Fire, Fire Cages, or Telekinetic Thrust. Of those three, I don't recommend TKThrust for someone just getting into Doms. The choice between Ring of Fire and Fire Cages is yours to make - each has their merits. (RoF is more accurate, can Immob a Boss in one application, and doesn't put a huge sink on your Endurance bar even if you use it as an attack.)

Ring of Fire works well with just the base slot, but you can also slot it up for damage if you want. (1Accuracy is all you'll ever need, so basically slot Damage to taste.)

Fire Cages Level 2
Targetted AoE (10 target cap) -- Base Accuracy: 0.9
8 second recharge -- 15.6 Endurance cost
11.94 Fire damage over 5.2 seconds (at level 50)
Mag 3 Immobilize, Base Duration = 15 seconds

Fire Cages is the AoE Immobilize, and as such it can cause problems for someone new to Dominators. Do not be fooled by that short recharge - this is not a power that should be spammed. Now, Fire Cages happens to have more redeeming value than some of the other AoE Immobs; namely, it has strong synergy with Flashfires, producing what is commonly known as the "ghetto hold" in AoE style. But, like I said, this is not a power to be spammed - mezzes draw a lot of aggro from enemies, and Doms (especially in the early levels) can attract a lot of hate very easily without spamming Fire Cages. (Especially since relatively few Villains are actively trying to draw aggro off of their teammates.) If you take this power, definitely get a good feel for how it can be put to use without putting it on AutoCast.

One interesting use for the power has been pointed out to me by _Brev_: slot it for Range, and fire Immobs on mobs which are further away than they can fire. This is useful mostly in the early levels before you get your better attacks (since you obviously can't use Drain Psyche with this strategy), but it's an effective way of keeping enemies off both you and your teammates if you don't think you can handle them. (Remember, Fire Cages draws a lot of aggro, so the mobs will be rooted in place just wishing they could attack you while your teammates kill them safely and mercilessly.)

Fire Cages can be useful with just the base slot - put Accuracy there and don't mess with it. If you want, you can slot it for duration, or you can put range in there and try out Brev's strategy. Several different options, here.

Smoke Level 6
Targetted AoE (10 target cap) -- Base Accuracy: Autohit in PvE
15 second recharge -- 7.8 Endurance cost
3.75% To-Hit Debuff
90% Perception Debuff

Think of Smoke as an inverted version of Stealth. Instead of making yourself harder to see, you make it harder to see things for everything you encounter. It won't completely "cloak" you; enemies will still aggro if you walk right up to them, but if you're just trying to slip past a group standing a little ways away from a door, Smoke is a good candidate, and it helps prevent overaggro. (Clustered spawns? Smoke the back group; chances are they won't aggro with the closer one.) The To-Hit Debuff is nothing to write home about, but Smoke can be useful just as the reverse-Stealth button. Worth a power pick? Depends - if you aren't going PvP, it means you can solo at your own pace no matter what. Though on large teams, Smoke takes several applications to cover the typical spawn, so if you go that route regularly, you may want to give this power a pass.

Smoke will never need more than the base slot unless you hope to use it in PvP. But, honestly, Smoke is a crap power for PvP, so I'm not sure it's worth the pick there anyway.

Hot Feet Level 8
Toggle: PBAoE (10 target cap) -- Base Accuracy: 1.0
20 second recharge -- 1.04 Endurance cost/second
9.04 Fire damage every 2 seconds (at level 50)
-Fly on targets
-70% JumpHeight, Jumpspeed, RunSpeed to targets
"Fear patch" - Affected targets run out of the damage patch.

"I would just like to take this opportunity to say that even though the guy that taught me how to use this technique said that it was just as accurate as everything else, it definitely feels like it's more accurate than everything else. It's kinda hard to tell, though; when you're making the ground around your feet boil and you're setting everything in sight on fire, it's something of a chore to watch how much the fire is hurting them and how much the boiling floorboards are hurting them. And I just don't have the attention span for that sort of thing."

Hot Feet is awesome, but there are two things you should know about this power. The first is that it's a monster of an Endurance hog. You actually have other powers at your disposal which can put a higher drain on your Endurance over time, but they're all click powers, and thus are very easily controlled as to how much they drain you. Hot Feet is a toggle, and therefore easily overlooked; you don't really notice how much it's draining you until you notice how much faster you can hit the rock bottom of your blue bar. So if you want to run this puppy, slot some Endurance Reductions in there.
The second is that while it may seem like this is primarily just another damaging power (and it does a good job of that, make no mistake), it can also be a good mitigation tool if you pay it the proper attention. You see, between the -Runspeed and the Afraid effect, you can chase after a small group of enemies and keep them running out of the damage patch while the damage patch (and your Imps, and your Psi blasts) chip away at them. They'll sometimes turn and fire, but generally speaking, if you keep something running from Hot Feet it's not doing as much damage as it could. I highly recommend this power; it's great solo and on teams, and it sends your AoE damage through the roof if you slot it for damage.

Hot Feet probably needs 4 slots at a minimum, though personally I'd prefer to run it with 6. 1Accuracy/2Damage/1EnduranceRedux is the only 4-slot setup that I consider worth using. For 6-slots, either 1Acc/3Dam/2End or 1Acc/2Dam/3End. (The former clears mobs a little faster, the latter doesn't hurt your Blue Bar quite as much.)


Flashfire Level 12
Targetted AoE (10 target cap) -- Base Accuracy: 0.8
90 second recharge -- 15.6 Endurance cost
8.61 Fire damage over 4.0 seconds (at level 50)
Mag 3 Stun, Base Duration = 8 seconds

Flashfire is awesome. Take Flashfire. 6-slot it. Love it. If you take Smoke, Flashfire should come between Smoke and whatever AoE attacks you want to fire first. If you don't take Smoke, you should open with Flashfire and then unleash psionic hell upon your unwitting foes.

2Accuracy/2Stun/2Recharge is a good working setup, especially with higher-level IOs in there. If you take Hasten (which I recommend), you can also make effective use of a 2Acc/3Stun/1Rech slot setup, but without Hasten that one's not such a great idea. Regardless, Flashfire will become a staple of your arsenal very quickly.

Cinders Level 18
PBAoE (10 target cap) -- Base Accuracy: 0.8
240 second recharge -- 15.6 Endurance cost
Mag 3 Hold, Base Duration = 8 seconds

Yeah, you're reading that right. Stats kinda leave a bit to be desired, eh? Honestly, if you mostly solo, you can skip this. No matter what you do, it won't be up every spawn, and Flashfire is usually adequate to handle solo-sized spawns anyway. (Well, at least with the help of the Crack Monkies.) For teams, that's more open for debate. Personally, even though I like having more control options, I don't currently have it. I figure anything I invest in Cinders is just more damage I'm not getting out of other powers. But then again, my character is a member of Hold Them Touch Them, and as such is, by definition, covered for control as far as his teammates go. I think as far as recommnedations go, I'm going to give this one a weak "Nay," but feel free to experiment if you want to. Just don't take it at level 18; this power needs several slots and SOs/high IOs before it really becomes worth the pick. At level 18, you almost certainly have other areas of your character you need to fill out more than what Cinders can give you... at that level.

If you take it, plan to eventually 6-slot Cinders. 2Accuracy/2Hold/2Recharge is a solid setup, though 2Acc/3Hold/1Rech is also pretty good if you take Hasten.

Bonfire Level 26
AoE Patch (16 target cap) -- Base Accuracy: Autohit
60 second recharge -- 13 Endurance cost
45 second duration
5.56 Fire damage every 2 seconds (at level 50)
Mag 6.231 Knockback every 2 seconds

"I have, in the past, devoted some energies to utilizing this technique. It came highly recommended, and I tried to give it a fair shake and become somewhat proficient with it, but it simply does not suit my style. Make no mistake, watching enemies flung around by high-impact flames is wholely amusing, and I'm always in favor of introducing more chaos into the world, but for some reason it simply became harder to keep track of things -- like where my little pets had gone off to, or why "Wish You Were Here" was going through my head -- you know, important things."

There's a lot of controversy to Bonfire. I can say from firsthand experience that it has some amazing applications if you know how to utilize it, but as you can see from Pyrosycho's testimony, it isn't for everyone. If you can find a sort of a choke-point to drop Bonfire, it's very effective at keeping thugs off of you directly. Another common tactic is to open an in-mission door (most often the Bank in a Mayhem Mission) and drop Bonfire directly in front of the door. The Longbow chasing you then run through the door, directly into the Bonfire, where they get hammered into a corner and get bounced around for the duration. (The same trick can be pulled with any corner, that's just the easiest way to do it. It can also be done with flat walls, but that's a bit trickier and requires more practice than I ever got.) It's definitely a powerful tool, but if you want to try it out, definitely take it willing to experiment with it to find new uses.

Bonfire is fine with just the base slot. (1Recharge) If you really like it, put more Recharge or Damage slots in there to taste.

Fire Imps Level 32
Summon Pets -- Base Accuracy: 1.2
240 second recharge -- 26 Endurance cost

Ahhhh, Fire Imps. You get three Imps per summon, and they're permanent. (That is to say, they stick with you until you change zones.) The Imps have recently been hit with a minor nerf, as they now all spawn at a level below you. (E.g: At level 32, you summon level 31 Imps.) Though really, at the end of the day, that hasn't hit them all that hard - they're still pretty tough (in fact, they spawn with more HP than you have), they're still very simple-minded, and they're still the hardest-hitting pets a Dom can summon. Try to let the Imps draw as much aggro off of you as they can; and believe me, they're willing. In fact, care must be taken to make sure that the Imps do not aggro things until you're ready for them to do so. (Care must also be taken to make sure that Imps do not chase runners down the hallway, aggroing everything along the way. That's one of those scenarios where Ring of Fire comes in handy.)

Imps generally do not require more than 4 slots. 1Accuracy/3Damage works rather well for +2's and the occasional +3 group. If you find yourself routinely fighting +3's or higher, you may wish to invest a fifth slot on Accuracy.

Preface: I'm interpreting "WANT" in Castle's post to mean what I, personally, would like to see as a player. I make no claims that a valid, fair system could be built around these expectations; they're simply an honest explanation of what I'd like to have when I'm playing. If Castle wasn't looking for that, or has no use for such data, then I apologize.

1) You have the default To Hit value (ie no buffs), your target has no Defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?
I have no real stake in that particular scenario. 50/50 sounds right, but even the base 75/25 in PvE can have some annoyingly long streaks, so it's hard to put my finger on what should be "right."

2) You have the maximum possible To Hit value, and your target has no defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?
If I have the maxed To-Hit, it means I have devoted significant resources to maxing it or several teammates of mine have made it their business to make sure I have a strong To-Hit rate, or perhaps even both. In that scenario, I would like a 100% hit rate against any opponents who have devoted no resources to Defense. Similarly, if I have invested no resources in Defense, I do not care about how often I am hit, and therefore would not be outraged to be hit every single time by opponents with full To-Hit buffs.

3) You have the default To Hit value, and your target has the maximum possible defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?Again, a scenario I have no stake in. As an attacker with the default To Hit, I am generally unsatisfied with my rate of misses to begin with. Being rednered completely incapable of hitting a foe who has devoted resources to maximizing their defense value is only a lesson in humility and a learning experience which will teach me to invest in at least some way to improve my To Hit. (Even if it's just packing yellows for an emergency.) So as an attacker, I'd have no problem with a 0% hit rate. The odd thing here is that as the defender I wouldn't really expect 100% mitigation from maxed defense. I'd definitely expect large values, but I think if it was only 80% mitigation I'd be satisfied with it.

4) You have the maximum possible To Hit value, and your target has the maximum possible defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?
Maxed To Hit and maxed Defense should meet in the middle: 50/50 both ways, regardless of whatever the default happens to be. Subjectively, I think I'd feel jilted on either side of the fence there... unless I was told up front that my opponent had his To Hit/Defense maxed. In which case I'd feel OK with what I got.

I think it's a known bug, 'cause I recall seeing something about it in the patch notes.

I don't think anyone ever said the Healing Flames buff was going to make /Fire a set that's uber survivable. It just makes us survivable to the point that we feel balanced. If you take /Fire for survivability, you're sort of kicking yourself. /Stone and /Inv will do that better for you. But /Fire offers more than survivability. It's just that with the buff it becomes survivable enough to make the other stuff it offers look good.

But I'd still like KB protection in Plasma Shield.

[ QUOTE ]
Just tested on test.


burn is borked so hard to tell.... it sticks to where ever you first used it so when you move (even past 100') you reburn the first spot used.



healing flames does 25% heal as base.

[/ QUOTE ]That's weird for Burn. O_o
2.5 = 25%, so Healing Flames is working as reported.

As far as I'm aware, it was 1.75. So this isn't quite a 50% boost.
I'd love to get on test to verify that, but the character copy tool is giving me an error and in any case I8's messed up on my compy. (Though I suppose there's no reason that should carry over to Test.)

Healing Flames is getting a buff. Currently on Test.

You're right; just that one. But taking that one in its given context, it sounded like you were either making a very bad suggestion, or one that's unfair and never going to be implemented.

See, I shouldn't be expected to know what you mean because you said it in fuller detail further down the line or in some other thread. No offense, but that's almost like asking me to read your mind.

[ QUOTE ]
[...] and possibly a temp fury mode, like dominators get domination mode[...]

[/ QUOTE ]You do not want Fury to work like Domination. Trust me. Unless you're asking for Fury to work exactly as it does but with a button that pegs the bar at 90% when you reach that. In which case, you do want that, but it's entirely unfair.

Fixing AS one-shots is easy to fix. It's tweaking a single number in a very oft-used spreadsheet/function. Methinks the devs can't fix this because they don't know why it's not working the way it should. Perhaps because it works on a deeper level of code (e.g: a function which is called by other functions, which I can easily see for something so integral to a Brute's identity as Fury) and thus can't simply be tweaked until it works properly.

Yeah, it's frustrating, but b****ing and whining and calling the devs lazy bums isn't getting them to work on it any more than they already are. If anything it does the opposite.

[ QUOTE ]
heh im telly you guys we actually really do need a fury button. you build it up and then your button is available (like a doms) perhaps they just decrease the amount of damage bonus you get from fury to 1/2, till you ding your fury button. though this would surely piss off the PvE only crowd.

[/ QUOTE ]

That doesn't solve the issue at hand, which is that Fury doesn't do what it's supposed to do in PVP.

Y'know, I'd be happy if Fury just didn't decay as quickly as it does. Say it decays at 1/4 the rate it currently decays at. Then I could go beat up mobs for a bit and still have half a bar of fury when I come across a Scrapper a minute later. (50% Fury ups our damage to about Blaster level, just for reference.)

At least that's a fix that can be implemented, even if it's not the way the devs want Fury to work. And if they decide they don't like that, they can just set the decay rate back to normal once they actually fix the current problem.