Magentrix
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Posts
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Joined
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The base damage is 44.5 damage per pulse, once every 3.5 seconds, for 60 seconds. That's 17 shots. That works out to ~12.7 DPS, base. Modify that by the enhancement slotting and other sundry damage buffs at cast-time and you're there.
The big advantage of VS is that it's got a HUGE damage per activation and damage per endurance, assuming the fight lasts long enough to use all 17 shots. The problem is that it so rarely does. I guess the real math is to figure out what the break-even point is for VS. How many shots does it need to get in to be as good as just firing your tier 1 blast instead. I'd say somewhere between 4 and 5, based on endurance cost and activation time. Anything after that is pure profit. If only you had the luxury of fighting long, single target spankfests in City of Heroes, instead of lots of minion packs. -
Here, this is my Grav/NRG build. I took Mu Mastery for aesthetic reasons, but there's little reason you can't customize this for your own toon.
Code:Hasten has maybe 4 seconds of downtime, and of course you have permadom. You don't have propel, but if you're really insistent on getting it, drop Power Push and pick it up. It's definitely a suboptimal choice, though, doing marginally more damage for over 3 times the animation. If you REALLY want to make a build that leverages Propel, roll a Grav/Rad controller. Double damage from containment is what redeems that power. Anyway, take it for a spin. I guarantee you'll love hover slotted for movement, once you try it out, it's hard to go back.| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1394;675;1350;HEX;| |78DA6D944B6F125114C7EFF028054A29A5486B0BE5D1CA7B00EBBED6D2D6D6629A9| |8B8AD6399C02438436686A6ECFC00EEEB6369A5BAD6A89F45DDBBB18F1817BA3078| |38E7024D4602F39BF9DFFF3DE7DC7BE6523DAA4C30F6749509FEF5A66418FB15ED8| |9A24AA6A68F57DBA6642A9AEAAE4A75593575E5C8C5188B0F0DFBEB1AA85A53DCD2| |A543C5EC0C9E6323C79A6148EDA6296EA8B25EEF0C1E03DB6A43D621A438B8F1EE6| |91067B3A9D41BA607EF1FB464B9E6C7DB5D59AAC9BAD1505A017CDE560F154379AC| |3421E7DC464B39104709ABEDFDAA6498B2DE99855A97E197B733FEE939D83120C51| |CCF11632F10532F119957881F368BDD46F671B2CF923D45F6024417C8EE147EC3DC| |32B3FD418C75591F93A788A5D788E209E20C1C769EC4FE08258784183F40A46A888| |C8C70C3BE3B05B23BBF62F4A92F88C25F0111429493940442BB784DAEF7284D7CA2| |623E20A21FA9A6CF64EFC2E408BB80806E5E939B16EEA1857BFEB7F00464F0524D8| |2374749085E18F1D108F37DC3322FE1EAA7D8CC4FAE321419E0E90215744D6F1036| |11F12D44E62E2200418314D419F4E06A67BC844944DC87C8FAAF6E48106685F8ACD| |00906BAF686D0A524A788EC5B44F11D6206668579B5610A7413AA9DE3D5CEEDA0EB| |FA3DC22E225A452CDD47FC84EB3CB7CF530F17A8A30BD4DF28353D4B4D9F868411B| |E6391384A2B90709122D817573168EC36E10E610D710ED704CF94A0AE25A96B49EA| |5A92BA96A7AEFDB2D1A1E8DB974B18E1468120128A887C19F10CAA48F3C2D2617C4| |D7C506B8E6F4E8E36671224914B2249DFE13FA5C4A55204272E3886070BBEF06189| |91D2CB5A464B16A56C51562CCA2D8BB26B51F61CC333CB0454DC53C3F3D83BF3C02| |85FB34007EA622409C2433A6A3B427F3FCFAF9AD368BE1C4936E198763346AF3CE1| |1F01F1EBFA| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
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I'll vote Fire. For AOE rain magic, Rain of Fire/Snow Storm/Freezing Rain should keep pretty much everyone from wandering out of the damage field. Take Mace Mastery and grab the Web Envelope power. If you're really worried about people wandering out of your rain effect, that's got yet more slow and an immobilize to boot.
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I can at least see a purpose for propel for a gravity controller, and I don't have a problem with Grav carrying some powers that are more useful for controllers than dominators, since our inherent is FAR better (IMO). Dimension shift is just garbage.
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Things I would change:
You took Stealth as a Luck of the Gambler Mule, I STRONGLY recommend leadership. Maneuvers boosts your entire team's defense, and can hold the luck proc just as well as Stealth, without the movement penalty. Also, any toon that can take power boost MUST take Vengeance, it's a 2 button emergency brake for teamwipes.
You took Dimension Shift. Don't take Dimension shift. You slotted dimension shift. Don't do that either. Seriously. Like I said above, if you're worried about a 'oh crap, we're gonna wipe' function, power boosted Vengeance leaves Dimension shift standing.
Were I you, I'd drop Crush like a psychotic girlfriend with a straight razor. Get Bone Smasher instead. Crush has slows on it, and it's Mag 4, BUT, the damage is pretty mediocre, and more importantly, the timeframe for all the ticks is like 10 seconds. Bone Smasher does twice as much damage, and it does it RIGHT NOW. If you're doing your job right, the stuff you'll be punching is a helpless anyway.
I'm not a fan of Snipers for Doms, even for a recharge mule. Dominators are heavily animation bound, and an attack that animates for over 4 seconds is a complete waste, imo. It's only useful as a solo opener, and honestly you're still better off just using your control powers.
As others have said, whirling hands is a DOG. Drop it, slot Crushing Field for damage and stick a couple procs in there. I use 5xPositron's Blast and the Crushing Impact damage proc. -
Honestly, if you want a firing squad, please do yourself a favor and roll a mastermind. Go Mercs/Traps/Mace, and actually enjoy pets that don't stink.
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I gotta recommend Ice/Fire. Proc up Frostbite, throw it, Fire Breath and Combustion and watch whole packs BURN. Near blaster-level damage, plus full-tilt control, and Consume to help with the rather endurance-heavy ice control set.
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Really, every dom's AOE immobilize is worth slotting/procing, in my opinion. 5 pieces of Positron's Blast and 1 additional damage proc. With a nice big target cap and huge radius, it easily can compete with your largely single target blast rotation for damage infliction. Plus with fast recharge, you'll get a lot of mileage out of those procs.
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One more vote for 'Terrible'. The damage isn't bad, but honestly, the delta in each set's damage isn't that enormous. It's the secondary effects and extremely inconvenient nature of voltaic sentinel that make it such a dog. If you want a set that does pure energy damage, take Radiation Blast, you can throw the Achilles Hell procs in most of your powers and make stuff actually die faster.
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DEFINITELY slot BFR for damage, not hold time. The 9 second hold from BFR will be enough to get an instant 2-shot mag 6, which is what you want the combo for. From then on, you can rely on the regular freeze ray to keep bosses frozen, since the enhanced duration should be approximately 2-3 times its recharge rate. In the meantime, you can insert Bitter Freeze Ray into your regular damage rotation, get respectable damage out of it, as well as the mitigation of holding the target.
I'll also come out with an endorsement of cone powers. They break even in terms of Damage per activation and damage per endurance at between 2 and 3 targets, making them really a solid pick even when soloing, and they're fantastic when you're in bigger teams, where you're almost certain to hit the target cap with good positioning. Plus, it's a great place to put Positron's Blast.
I also think Frostwork is a great power. 5 slot it with Doctored Wounds for the global recharge, and you can easily give 4 members of your party an extra 1000 hit points. Let's put it this way: The health it gives a target is 5 times as good as casting Warmth, is cast pre-emptively (keeps you doing more useful things during combat), and also boosts their regeneration rate (for yet more healing). Is it really necessary when you're steamrolling easy content? Of course not. But it's worth its weight in gold when you're struggling. -
Quote:I think you're overlooking the secondary benefits of permadom, namely the huge influxes of free endurance and near-immunity to status effects. Also, it's worth pointing out that stacking recharge for permadom also stacks recharge for your holds, which makes you better at digging through the purple triangles on EB/AVs.
I wouldn't say that not having perma-dom is necessary for all doms. In fact, I only have 3 powers from my primary that benefit from being permadom.
Play your toon how you want, but for my money, no amount of defense is worth giving up Permadom, because a mezzed enemy has a 0% chance of hitting you. -
I'm not in favor of it. Storm is a good secondary, but AR is a bad pairing, imo. Storm thrives on chaos and knockback, which means you'll hard-pressed to line up your cone powers (Full Auto and Flamethrower are your staples). You don't have an immobilize, so Ignite drops into uselessness, which leaves you with a rather weak single target set.
It's not without nice synergies. Thunderclap stacks mag with beanbag, so you can throw a mag 5 stun on a boss while stunning all his minions with a mag2, not without merit. You also can use buckshot, slug, hurricane and lightning storm to keep anyone interested in melee at arm's reach, which will result in a fair amount of passive mitigation for you and your team. And Freezing Rain->Flamethrower->Full Auto will tolerably vaporize most big groups.
That all said, I think Archery will work a LOT better. It also has a stun to stack with thunderclap, a much easier to use rain power, and generally faster-animating powers. You'll find that Freezing Rain->Rain of Arrows->Explosive Arrow works for groups just as well, and is much, much easier to position properly. The higher target cap and faster animation time of explosive arrow more than makes up for the lower damage when compared to flamethrower. -
Presenting the contrary point view. Defense, while not bad to have, is not something I'd slot for aggressively. For Dominators, the best defense is the other guy being a piñata. Focus on recharge for maximum mag stacking, and perma-domination in particular, and virtually no one will lay a hand on you.
If you're positively made of cash and have exactly the right combination of powers, you might be able to pull off being capped to S/L/Ranged while still keeping permadom, but if you chose being defense capped instead of being perma-dom, you have FAILED at Dominator. Remember, the purple pills are still there if you need them. -
I'd go with Radial, rather than Core. Yes, you're giving up 8% to your immobilization duration and damage, but as you say, you're gaining ~13% to-hit debuff and another 22% boost to both AM and Stamina. Considering your entire team gets the benefit of AM and RI, I'd say it's well worth it. Everyone pays attention to damage, it's the flashiest contribution to the team, but the thing is: everyone brings it, so killing the mobs a fraction of a second faster pales in comparison to making sure your team has ample endurance and protection vs tougher enemies.
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IMO, a good Dom build should emphasize recharge, damage and control, in that order. Defense, while nice, isn't really worth worrying about too much. If you're doing your job right, most of your enemies spend the fight unable to fight back.
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That doesn't necessarily negate my point. Hey, if you want to take the holds because you've got an awesome set to drop in them for the bonuses, enjoy. Just don't bother to pretend they're good powers, they're not.
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Quote:Why bother when you can just debuff them into irrelevance anyway? If you're soloing your /Dark, you're not likely to be meeting double boss pulls solo, in which case just throw out Fearsome Stare, Darkest Night and Twilight Grasp to heal back any health you lost from the alpha. The boss is basically reduced to 6% of his normal damage, and if they get a lucky mezz off, you pop a break free.
Why? There's a number of corruptor combos that can mezz bosses.
You're going to have Fearsome Stare and Darkest Night slotted up for To-Hit debuff anyway. Slotting Petrifying Gaze and Suppressive Fire just to take away the last 6% of threat that a boss presents is just kind of a waste, in my opinion. There's better places to burn those slots. -
I love my Grav, make no mistake, but I do agree that it underperforms in control and really doesn't make up the difference in damage. Three changes I would suggest:
1) Shorter animation for propel. Yes, it's an awesome power, but it's just too long.
2) Increase Wormhole radius to match the other control AOE stuns, ie: 25 yards.
3) Replace Dimension Shift with a targeted AOE knockdown, sort of an AOE lift. Give it enough range and a fast animation so it can put mobs off balance to mitigate the alpha while you follow up with Wormhole. -
Carnifax is dead on here. I have 5 pieces of Positron's Blast, including the energy proc, and the chance for smashing proc from Impeded Swiftness. Gives 6.25% global recharge and gives you a hugely wide AOE pseudo-nuke. When you're solo, it's some free damage when you use Crushing Field to manage mobs. When you're grouped, you can spam it.
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Quote:Base endurance cost of charged bolts: 5.2
take a look at elec blast numbers. The end cost is high and the end return as secondary effect is low
Base endurance cost of power bolt: 5.2
Base endurance cost of fire blast: 5.2
Base endurance cost of aimed shot: 5.2
Base endurance cost of burst: 5.2
Base endurance cost of dark blast: 5.2
Base endurance cost of ice bolt: 5.2
Base endurance cost of x-ray beam: 5.2
Base endurance cost of shriek: 5.2
All the blast powers have comparable endurance costs when you compare similar powers. Your main problem with electric is that all its AOE powers are 16 target capped, instead of the usual 10 target cone most other sets have, and, of course, Voltaic Sentinel, which is 9 tons of overkill against anything that isn't an AV.
Get your elec/storm in a nice big team, however, and you'll crush. Freezing Rain + Short Circuit + Ball Lightning is on par with the crashless tier 9 powers. -
Corruptors are way better, imo. Blaster do more straight up damage, but pay for it with having no defense whatsoever. Having played both a lot, Blasters basically live or die by their initial volley. If you can kill everyone before they're able to shoot back, you win. If not, you die. Corruptors have more flexibility, and bring far more to a team, and far more staying power solo.
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The above build can slot out JC/Superjump for Hover/Fly, if you like, I enjoy having the ability to float contemputuously above the battlefield, but the stuff I've slotted can just as easily go in Superleap/CJ as Fly/Hover. Over 100% global recharge, Capped Smashing/Lethal, plus solid defenses in other areas, +17.5% global damage buff (plust more when you slot your Alpha Slot Musculature), and the ability to perma root entire spawns, bosses, AVs and all, while you barbecue them with Ignite. Plus, for extra snideness, you've got hold procs in Slug, Burst and Web Grenade, which Will comprise your single target chain on AVs/EBs anyway, while you melt them into slag with Ignite. Snipe lets you drop irritating minions like Sappers when you solo, far more effective than Beanbag, and can be inserted into your single target rotation when you're not worried about interrupts.
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I don't think the fighting pool is a particularly awesome pick, TBH. Yes, Weave is great, but you pay a lot to get there, and honestly with Scorpion Shield, FFG and Maneuvers, and hover/cj, you're at the Smashing Lethal Cap anyway, so you really don't need it.
Here's my build for my AR/Traps corrupter:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Death-Machine: Level 50 Magic Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Assault Rifle
Secondary Power Set: Traps
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Burst- (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage
- (3) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (5) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (9) Devastation - Damage/Endurance
- (34) Devastation - Chance of Hold
- (A) Gravitational Anchor - Immobilize/Recharge
- (39) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge
- (39) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Recharge
- (40) Gravitational Anchor - Immobilize/Endurance
- (40) Gravitational Anchor - Chance for Hold
- (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage
- (3) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (5) Devastation - Damage/Recharge
- (9) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (34) Devastation - Chance of Hold
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (7) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (7) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
- (11) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (34) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Damage
- (13) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Interrupt/Range
- (13) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Interrupt/Recharge
- (36) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (36) Sting of the Manticore - Chance of Damage(Toxic)
- (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance
- (15) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge
- (15) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge
- (25) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
- (37) Red Fortune - Defense
- (39) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance
- (17) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge
- (17) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge
- (31) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
- (40) Red Fortune - Defense
- (43) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (19) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (19) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (25) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (46) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold
- (21) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Recharge
- (21) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold
- (23) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold
- (23) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
- (46) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
- (48) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
- (48) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
- (48) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
- (50) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (27) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (27) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (29) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (29) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (31) Recharge Reduction IO
- (31) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (33) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (33) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (33) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (37) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage
- (36) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Endurance
- (37) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Recharge
- (50) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (50) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Recharge
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (A) Red Fortune - Defense
- (42) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
- (42) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge
- (42) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge
- (43) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance
- (43) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (A) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge
- (45) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Immobilize
- (45) Enfeebled Operation - Endurance/Immobilize
- (45) Enfeebled Operation - Immobilize/Range
- (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
- (A) Healing IO
Level 1: Brawl- (A) Empty
Level 1: Sprint- (A) Run Speed IO
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
Level 2: Swift- (A) Run Speed IO
- (A) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
- (A) Jumping IO
- (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
- (11) Performance Shifter - EndMod
- (46) Endurance Modification IO
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That's not synergy. Any secondary can do that. /Fire will, in fact, do that a lot faster than /Energy. Yes, power boost makes any dom's primary controls better for a short period, but as you say, you can perma-sleep a whole spawn as Mind/ anyway, so what's 15 seconds of +100% base duration on your controls if you've got everyone perma-snoozing to begin with?
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I'm going to go and recommend DP/Rad, the build I'm currently working on. It doesn't have quite the resist debuffs that Sonic has, but it does have an awesome crashless Tier 9 power, a great 15% resist debuff with Piercing Rounds, and a complete menu of possible secondary effects with Swap Ammo. You get your pick of damage debuff, recharge debuff + slow, DoT, or Knockback + defense debuff.
Your Brute pal isn't going to have problems pushing out damage against a tough AV, but he might have problems taking the beating. So switch to toxic ammo, and debuff his damage by 30% or more, while still debuffing 15% of his damage resistances, before you begin to consider the effect of Enervating Field or Accelerate Metabolism.