Liliaceae

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Larger range Whirling Hands with Knockdown.

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This would be a nice buff to the power, but is it really that useful to a Dominator? Your enemies should largely be controlled already with the primary. The biggest use I would see is for bosses if Domination's not up, which is rather silly given it's an AoE. Sounds awesome for melee ATs though.

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1) [u] Bone Smasher[u] - Replace melee AT version with Blaster version
2.6 DS, 14 sec. recharge

2)[u] Power Blast[u] - Replace Dom 6 sec version with Blaster/Defender 8 sec version with larger 1.64 DS

3) [u]Power Push[u] - Increase DS to 2.4; increase recharge to 16 sec.


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These changes with Power Build Up seem reasonable, but do they really fix /Energy's woes? What they give is better burst damage, but I suspect that /Electricity and /Fiery will still be ahead.

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Is it worth adding to your list of deficiencies that the animations are quite slow in comparison to most of the other sets?

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They are probably below average, so sure, why not.

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Screw the cottage rule. It's not my fault the designers made bad set choices.


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Yes indeed, but let's observe it to keep the discussion realistic. Feel free to start a no-cottage rule thread as well, but it's a much larger and more subjective discussion.

So there has been much lamentation about the state of Energy Assault, and some suggested fixes as well. What we haven't had (or is my memory failing?) is a thread with the premiss that Energy Assault stinks, and with a goal of discussing solutions. This is that thread! (This intro is very derivative so please don't assume I am a beacon of clarity and incisiveness based on the content of this post.)

First, what are the problems:

<ul type="square">[*]Mediocre single target damage. The single target powers are all mediocre at best, which results in completely unremarkable damage. This is true even when damage buffs from other sets are ignored. This isn't significant in of itself, but:[*]Laughable AoE damage. Whirling Hands I'm looking at you. Even discussing AoE potential is insulting.[*]Marginal secondary effects. If you're depending on a 30% chance to stun, then it's 70% chance to die. Knockback and stuns only work on the same enemies as the primary, and "if you're depending on your secondary for control you're bad at playing Dominators". At least the -Rech from /Psionic and /Icy works on PToD enemies.[*]Self-defeating secondary effects. Every blast has a chance to knockback on a set that needs to mix melee and ranged attacks to be acceptable.[*]Dull utility. A ranged single target knockback is not very exciting. Power Boost is popular, but shared by /Icy. [/list]
Second, the rules of engagement:

<ul type="square">[*]No replacing powers or changing their main purpose. (Is this the so-called "cottage rule"?)[*]No reordering powers. While not as strong a rule as the first, this is still considered a major change.[*]Additive changes are ok, but "theme" must be respected. Don't ask me what the theme of Energy Assault is, "except to suck".[*]Don't "break" powers. They are supposed to follow certain rules, and we don't want another Psychic Shockwave here.[*]As few changes as possible. Don't change absolutely everything in the set, this will upset people. [/list]
I hope you like difficult problems.

Third, some possible solutions:

<ul type="square">[*]Increase damage of single target powers, to bring it to the top. I've looked at this on a few occasions and concluded that it's not possible to bring it to the top without breaking powers. The problem is competing with the /Fiery blasts (which are broken) or the fact that /Electricity has an extra melee attack and the excellent damage boosting Voltaic Sentinel.[*]Increase the usefulness of the stun effects, by giving Bonesmasher 100% chance to stun. The net effect is an improvement to the attack chain since the single target hold can now be skipped. Unfortunately I've concluded that the improvement to damage output is fairly minor because /Energy doesn't have the extra attacks to take advantage of the extra time.[*]Fix Whirling Hands. Even with a larger radius and appropriate damage Energy Assault would still have poor AoE damage because it only has one AoE attack. Furthermore, the people who chose /Energy were interested in single target damage, not AoE.[*]Replace Power Boost with Power Build Up. This is running afoul of the power replacement rule, but remains under consideration since it's really an additive change. It's a strong contender for improving /Energy's lot, but certainly is not sufficient on its own. It's also lore that Castle does not like Power Build Up so it may be discounted on that basis.[*]Replace chance to knockback on the blasts with a -Res debuff similar to the sonic blasts. This is my current fix du jour. It solidifies /Energy's position against single hard targets, making it competitive solo, and unparalleled (amongst Dominator secondaries) teamed.[/list]
Fourth, discuss. Geez, a discussion starter shouldn't be so exhaustive (or is it exhausting?)

Yes definitely not affected by Domination, because it's a pet/location power. The good news is that Volcanic Gasses without Domination is about as good as the AoE holds with it. It does mean that Earth Control benefits a lot less from Domination than most of the other primaries, but it's way above them without it, making it more of an even ride. Ice Control actually suffers more than Earth Control because none of it's three fast rechargers, Ice Slick, Shiver and Arctic Air are affected by Domination.

Personally I think the balance for Earth Control is fair as it is, it just results in a different feel for the set. Others may feel differently.

Something that has genuinely been irritating me: In PvP the purple bubbles of confuse don't show. This really reduces the benefit of Confuse for me because I don't know if it's suppressed or not.

Back on topic, could anyone enlighten me as to the state of toggle-droppers in PvP? Have they all been removed? If so I can drop the Electricity Assault issue.

Guess I'm slow today because I have no idea what that means Delta . . .

Another breach of forum rules.

Yes, that was a good laugh. I particularly liked that it had to be quick and no one could remember the old "issues".

What a piddly little list. I remember the days when these discussions would rage for days.

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I think the griping about the set bonusses of pet damage sets should be removed now that there are recharge intensive pet sets which both grant (a very high) global +recharge bonus.

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Already on the list I mentioned in the first post.

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Why is Gravity Distortion doing more damage than Propel? Propel is as much a damage power as lift, and you can fire THREE lifts in the time it takes to fire one propel. Is there a justification or is Propel simply doing too little damage?

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That's a good point, I'll add it to the PvP section:

<ul type="square">[*]Propel's damage is far too low compared to the other single target attacks in the set, especially considering its lengthy activation time.[/list]

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I think there are some small little changes, like base damage and set tweaks, that should be done...however, beyond that I think the issues with Dominators are intertwined with the entire CoV game they have and are too difficult to resolve. I worry that his attempts to do so will destroy the AT I have enjoyed since beta just so it MIGHT attract a non-Dominator player.

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So am I, I think we've hit on a new issue:

<ul type="square">[*]We're scared s**tless of what Castle's going to do to the AT.[/list]
Which makes me wonder. Policy says that no power can be changed wholesale. Except apparently inherents. That just makes no sense to me.

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seems to me that flytrap will only attack a mob that has already attacked me. If I confuse or lock down the mob before they attack, he stands there doing nothing. Test this and see for yourself

[/ QUOTE ] There's already an issue like this in the list. Does it address your concern?

[/ QUOTE ]mostly, but I was hoping to narrow down the specific circumstances this issue occurs

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I gave some repro steps in the issue. If you could try them out, or give your own, that would be great.

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theres no dark/dark combo!
srslyyo!

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You're right, new issue:

<ul type="square">[*]Dark/Dark srsly[/list]

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Overall the set is good, but in my opinion, it isn't balanced. It needs to have a lot of Shockwave's power redistributed to the other powers.

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Yeah, as you said, you won't get consensus on that. I personally agree, but many won't.

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Add: The ridiculously low DPA of Mental Blast means it is always a wasted attack.

Actually, that goes for Psi Dart too.

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You mean reinstate it? The venerable Mental Blast activation time issue.

Could you give us a bigger more comprehensive case for Psionic Assault's woes? On the last go around we concluded that things were just acceptable for Psionic Assault.

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See my sig for some Carrion Creepers issues you might want on the list.

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Ok, adding this:

<ul type="square">[*]Carrion Creepers ignores damage, knockback, accuracy, and immobilize enhancements.[/list]

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Edit: Sorry to the OP, I would love to see a damage increase. Power Bolt (tier 1) for Blasters does more damage than Power Blast (tier 4) for Dom's and Power Blast (Tier 2) for Blasters does more damage than Power Burst (Tier 9) for a Dom, That doesn't even sound fair, and defenders have better ranged damage than we do.

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You're saying a damage increase across the board or just for Energy Assault? The low damage for Energy Assault is already in the list.

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seems to me that flytrap will only attack a mob that has already attacked me. If I confuse or lock down the mob before they attack, he stands there doing nothing. Test this and see for yourself

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There's already an issue like this in the list. Does it address your concern?

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Will say it again:

Mind set's Confuse is a longer activation time than Mass Confuse.. they should be switched.

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Why?

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My big problem right now is that I think we're all holding our breath waiting to see what kind of direction the future changes are going to take. If Castle turns up and says 'Powerboost is now Power Build Up, and Electrical melee should deal half the damage it does!' we're going to have different things to talk about.

Right now, it seems the identity and the role of the dominator are under review. And I'm very worried about what that means, especially if all that happens is a HP buff and some minor tweaks.

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Should I add:

<ul type="square">[*]Castle's taking far too long to look at Dominators and we're beside ourselves.[/list]

Another one to remove:

<ul type="square">[*]The long travel time of Mental Blast means that it is an often wasted attack.[/list]