Lucas_Conrad

I'm still more amused by the fact that it's still lower than a Tanker's modifier than any math errors.

If a 6% damage boost to one attack fixes anything, then that set was already so closed to balanced that it's more an issue of principle than playability.

Psionic Assault is not that set. My posts have an edge because I've been through this same run-around with developers for about six years and it's getting tiresome.

Dominators are supposed to be Moderate damage.
Controllers should be Low damage.

Either Dominators don't do enough damage, Psionic Assault doesn't do enough damage, or Controllers do too much damage because a Controller can hit me for 350+ damage at full range in PvP while I can hit him for 150 with a [censored] snipe. Something is off kilter here, and having leveled a Controller from one to fifty in large part before Containment, I don't think it's Controller damage. At least not in PvE.

I'd much rather see Dominators (and Defenders for that matter) buffed than Controllers nerfed. There's no logical reason why any class who doesn't even have somuch as a [censored] attack set should be approaching the damage of a class which does. It's blows away the whole notion of even HAVING sets dedicated to damage if you don't need one to deal signifigant amounts of damage.

But I am a nice guy. And I would rather see people buffed than see people nerfed. I don't think it's out of line to expect that a class entirely oriented around offense (and rest assured, Control -is- offense) could have some sizable damage in it's secondary.

Maybe I don't have any perspective. Maybe it's just Psionic Assault that just sucks horribly at dealing damage compared to every other Dominator secondary, which is actually respectable and I somehow missed indications to that end in people's behavior. Between the slow projectiles, slow animations, supposed-to-be-rarely-resisted-but-really-isn't damage, and horrible power selection, I could be mistaken.

The powers that I remember being tested and deemed not effected by this boost is Blaze (no surprise) and Psychic Shockwave (huge shot to the gut).

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I'm very pleased with the change. I'm kinda with Conrad on the whole "Why do they keep pushing us into Melee?"

But I don't mind too much, as both of my Doms are melee specialists, so *shrugs*

Most of the best tricks I have (Hotfeet, Drain Psyche) all work best in melee anyway. Now I do more melee damage to boot.

Wouldn't turn down a boost to ranged damage or to HP, but I'm still skeptical about Mez protection.

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You're not a melee specialist, you're a melee range specialist. Psionic Assault has a grand total of one melee attack of any servicable use as such; Telekinetic Thrust is a kick of knockback, but it's not exactly the crux of anybody's damage scheme.

Once again, it really seems like somebody made a change without fully understanding (or at least considering) the entirety of how a Dominator works. Boosting Melee Damage when some sets have a grand total of two melee attacks and expecting a class-wide increase in damage isn't going to get you much.

It's sort of like 'the rich get richer, the poor get poorer'.

I wouldn't recommend making any case for Inherent changes for PvP based on the notion that it's not active/available all the time; the Dominator inherent, which is up 45% of the time in optimal conditions, seems to imply that this is a valid balancing tactic in the Dev's arsenal.

It's a step in the right direction, yeah. Now I have to wonder why we have so many ranged attacks when we're so much 'better' (ie do more damage) with our melee attacks.

Also, the whole 'expected to be in melee combat without any mez defense, shields, and low HP' thing is still a little odd.

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Just a heads up:

I have several devs reading this thread, and are working on the bugs you guys are finding, and on ways to improve the Mayhem Missions (such as making the end Hero non-random; currently the end Hero you get is totally random, and has nothing to do with anything you did in the mission, we are looking into changing that).

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THANK YOU! for answering that little problem. Now we can quit wracking our brains about the 'why' of it and concentrate on other stuff.

I have a raelly bad bug for you... when I use my gravity powers on LOWLY 5hp Civilians... they don't get crushed into little balls of bloody fleshy goo.

Nor do they burst into screaming flames when my dedicated partner a flame/flame brute attacks or gets near them.

Nor do they collapse into a pile of shattered bones when my singularity lifts them...



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Nor do they change the rating of the game by allowing players to kill helpless civilians.

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Kill? Don't be silly! Obviously, the emergency system that throws a force field up around the area your villain is in also tracks the well-being of citizenry in that area, and zaps them to a hospital with the emergency teleportation grid if something happens to them.

I'm sure that takes a lot of power an resources, but Paragon City cares that much!

Cuppa, any chance you guys could start putting these comics out in CBR/CBZ format? It's a lot easier to read.

After entering Grandville, I'm completely unable to enter any door except that which leads to Recluse's Victory. Any other mission or zoning causes me to crash, and hard. The helicopters, the ferry, newspaper missions, anything and without fail.

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Once again _Castle_, your a gentleman and scholar. Thanks for taking the time posting those numbers for us. As for the numbers themself, I know Im quite satisfied with them. I think it makes for a more health PVP evironment.

And to the ppl displeased with Doms. Think of it like this. How long does it take you to recharge you best toggle droppping power? I know for my Dom, TF recharges pretty fast considering. And Doms are made the "kings" of toggle dropping after I7. I think that in itself is pretty flattering.

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I'm the one-eyed king in the land of the blind. Weee.

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The overall changes to toggle dropping are universal, not Dominator specific. The percentages have been lowered, not removed. There's no more 100% chance to drop a toggle anymore.

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QFT.

The way people are talking you'd think Doms were singled out and had the ability completely taken away.

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Well, it was two ATs who were really hit by this. Blasters and Dominators. Out of the two, Dominators are the ones hurt by this the most, while Blasters are the ones who pissed off people with this the most.

Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it?

Also, since somebody asked, the Dominator Toggle Droppers. This is what they -used- to be.

Psionic Assault-
Mind Probe (ST Melee Attack, 100% to drop 1)
Psychic Shockwave (25' PBAE Melee Attack, 100% to drop 1, used to make up for an otherwise horrible set)

Ice Assault-
Ice Sword (See Mind Probe)
Greater Ice Sword (See Mind Probe)

Fire Assault-
Incinerate (Melee ST DoT, 100% to drop 1)
Blaze (Short range Blast, 100% to drop 1)

Thorn Assault-
Skewer (See Mind Probe)
Ripper (Small Melee Cone, 100% to drop 1)

Energy Assault-
Bone Smasher (See Mind Probe, also has a chance to disorient)
Total Focus (See Mind Probe, 100% chance to disorient)


I keep hearing reports that the first of these sets of two powers don't even drop toggles at all anymore. That'd be a hilariously huge nerf for Dominators, by rendering them unable to drop toggles before Warburg.

Anyone who doesn't know this should realize that a Dominator has 70-80% of a Controller's base hold duration, and has no buffs or healing to bring to a group. This means when he can't Control something, he can only plink at it with his 'Assault' powers.

A Dominator in PvP without Domination is shaping up to be functionally useless, due to the prevalience of status resistance (and Break Frees) combined with the fact that their best damage is melee, and they have Low HP, no defense, and no status resists. A Knockout Blow from a Tanker holds us while we can't hold them. Same for a variety of control-bonus'd powers from other sets.

Like every Blaster Ranged pool but Energy, for example.

I made the mistake of doing a Mayhem solo as a Dominator on Malicious. White Swan showed up after I robbed the bank and proceded to kick my [censored] all around the premesis as an Elite Boss with Hero/AV triangles.

So don't worry about the 'LTs in costumes'. Crank up the difficulty and you'll get real heroes.

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In terms of kills to death ratio, Blasters are slightly behind scrappers with EM, but competing with Defenders and Dominators for lowest value Note, that these are solo values! Things are very different in team play.

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Raise your hand if you saw that one coming.

[/ QUOTE ]I did. I got into it with Powerfist and various Stalkers about how Blasters are not the equal of Stalkers. Mez protection and defense mean you have to be brain dead to argue that Blasters are the same as Stalkers in PvP.

The problem is that a lot of old school PvPers are used to the Arena which weeds out all the sets that can't do the burst damage that is needed to win in PvP. Hence, people only saw /Em blasters and this became "blasters" in their world view.

Blasters are defenseless and by and large are sitting ducks in PvP. They can get mezzed and held from range and then subsquently wiped out in seconds. Without an Emp or Kin backing them up...they get worked. I'm not the least bit surprised that controllers outpeform non-/Em blaster.

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Well, I meant who saw that Dominators and Defenders are at the bottom of the pile coming. Also, I'm sure Dominators are at the very bottom. Both ATs are pretty much equal in their inability to deal any crucial damage, but Defenders have a much better primary to fall back on in PvP for escape purposes; defense and debuffs don't 'suppress'.

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In terms of kills to death ratio, Blasters are slightly behind scrappers with EM, but competing with Defenders and Dominators for lowest value Note, that these are solo values! Things are very different in team play.

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Raise your hand if you saw that one coming.

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Patron Powers

Villians got some nasty powers for pvp. They can also acess several froms of web grenades (one being a hold, another an AoE Immobilize), which is brutal with -recharge, -speed, -fly, and -jump if the status effect doesn't get ya. All archtypes can get a pet as well.

What I don't understand is why Stalkers get Snipes. I can see them getting a medium blaster attack (i.e. Slug) or a heavy damage attack (hello 20 footers!), but not snipes. That takes abilities away from other ranged villians against powers such as hurricane or force bubble. But I doubt they will crit from hide or there will be a lot of very angry corrupters.

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I PMd Castle asking fore some reassurance that Stalker Snipes would NOT be better then a Blasters and this is his response.

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The Sniper Blast Stalkers get is less than half the base damage of Blaster Snipe attacks, so with Criticals they are almost as good.


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So yes they will be able to crit from hide after a BU but we still have BU and AIM.

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Just a minor aside, how long did it take for you to get a response from Castle after you PM'd him? I send him a couple around noon PST regarding the 75% redundancy of the Dominator Patron Pools and I've still not gotten a peep from the guy.

Maybe I should put 'Stalker' in the subject, he seems to pay attention to that stuff.

Did you know..

That Assault Rifle didn't always have Burst, but did have a power called Tranquilizer Dart which was a Snipe Sleep (only without the damage)?

Voltaic Sentinel used to be stationary?

Tesla Cage used to be a Sleep?

So did Freeze Ray (Bitter Freeze Ray wasn't, thus explaining why Ice Blasters have two holds)?

Spines were once called 'Quills'?

Temporary Invulnerability was once a click buff?

Resilience (from Regen) was once called Resist Disorientation, a toggle, and had only a large Disorient resistance to it?

Hoarfrost (Ice Armor) used to be a Smashing/Lethal/Cold/Fire resistance power?

Rooted used to (mistakenly) boost your Endurance Regen to phenomenal levels?

Dark Miasma once didn't have a pet (Black Hole was the level 32 Power), and used to have a power called Chill of the Night which was a PBAE damage aura and to-hit debuff?

Personal Force Field was once total and complete invulnerability, basically making it a toggle Phase Shift without the walking through people or stealth? Nemesis' Personal Force Field is set up like this.

There once was a big four of Force Field powers? Deflection Shield, Insulation Shield, and Refraction Shield, the last of which protected against Energy/Negative Energy?

Force Field powers were once useless against Psionic Attacks, like they're supposed to be? (Adding in defense to Ranged/Melee/AoE powers has kind of reverse-nerfed this, stupidly).

Force Bubble was once supposed to "distorts enemy attacks", which I guess means provide a defense against ranged attacks?

Fulcrum Shift was once called 'Kinetic Transfer'?

Fallout was once a power you used on yourself when you were defeated in combat, meant to be a final victory from beyond the grave? So was Vengeance.

Steamy Mist was once two powers, Steamy Mist (which simply provided Fire, Energy, and Cold resistance), and Fog (which was simply team stealth)? This is why the defense boost on Steamy Mist blows; it was originally just the kind of wimpy boost you get from a stealth power. Also, Fog (and Steamy Mist) used to slow the caster, but not his allies. Freezing Rain replaced Fog.

Many Controller Single Target holds were the fifth or six power in the set? Char was called Soot, and Gravity had an advantage in that it's ST Hold was the third power in it's set. Propel was the 7th, however. Blind was 2nd in Illusion, but instead of Phantom Army Illusionists could only summon the same Decoy that Phantasm summons.

At one point, there wasn't a Flight ceiling?

Swift was called 'Quick'?

The Concealment pool went Invisibility, Stealth, Grant Invisibility, Phase Shift?

Super Leap was once Leap and Long Jump, the former being the height of a jump and the latter being the distance?

Team Teleport was an interuptable power that disoriented all persons involved?

I have a couple of old CoH beta guides on my HD which I'm lifting all of these facts from?

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Simple fix, IMO...

NO MORE DETOGGLING MEZ PROTECTION.

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I hope you plan to also suggest the simple fix of barring any Dominator or Controller from entering PvP unless he has another Dominator or Controller that will be chained to him, never to excede a distance of five feet from each other.

Because that's the only way Controllers and Dominators (mostly Dominators) are going to be able to do their job: in pairs.

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Can Blasters get some more unresistable damage to compensate? Since even with detoggling we where pretty ineffective against tankers.

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It could be worse. You could be a Dominator trying to fight a Tanker.

Castle, please don't touch Detoggles on Dominators. It's pretty much universally accepted that we're one of the single worst PvP archetypes in existance, behind even some Mastermind builds. Our 100% detoggle attacks are pretty much the only thing we have that makes an impact in PvP, barring some wildcard powers like Wormhole or Terrify.

You guys have to stop using Gamespot to disseminate content. I can't get this to work, and the bastards don't have a direct download link for anyone who isn't a member of their stupid site.

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It's because a corrupter's primary function is damage, whereas a dominator's primary function is control. It is just like the difference between blasters and defenders or scrappers and tankers.

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A corruptor's primary function is ranged damage. Obviously, it's not as if the Devs can't change one value without altering the other. A Dominator's purpose, even if it's his secondary purpose, is to deal damage and that some of that damage is meant to be melee.

It just seems odd to me that a class that puts such a focus on ranged damage, and absolutely no focus on melee damage, would be 'better' at it than a class that actually has melee attacks.

But this probably isn't the place to get into this.

Am I insane, or does this chart say that (and those brawl numbers confirm that) Corruptors have a higher base melee damage than Dominators?

Corruptors, who have no melee attacks aside from Brawl in any of their sets, and Dominators who hang a signifigant anount of their damage on their melee attack powers?

Is that absolutely insane to anyone else?

Wow, having four ground targetted AoEs would be awesome. I want that Trick Arrow set.

When you say Terrify "attack", Gecko, do you mean a Terrify that does damage like the Mind Controller power, or one like it has now (that does no damage)?

I'd really love some minor damage from the thing!

As an adamant solo player (who loves the feeling of immersion that comes from playing in a MMO; being part of a community doesn't mean you have to team up with them), I love these changes.