Oedipus_Tex

This is actually not a bad build. It could use some tweaking, but I give you credit for setting your sights on a specific build goal and sticking to it.

The first issue is going to be endurance. A few powers aren't slotted to their potential for endurance management. I think that, in general, you will find yourself forced into the Cardiac Alpha tree to compensate.

Local Man is correct about Gladiator's Net. The good news is you don't need it. What you want here are probably 4 pieces from the Basilisk's Gaze set. You probably also want damage here in the last slots because you skipped Chillblain and have only Ice Blast as your single target blast.

Arctic Air is autohit, so you can use that last slot for pure endurance reduction. If you get your endurance under control with Cardiac, you could slot Hami-O: Macrofilament Exposure to increase the run speed debuff on +level enemies.

I would drop Assault. That's extra endurance you probably can't afford to spend. You can pick anything you want to replace it. I would go for a one shot wonder power like Recall Friend.

Same for Tactics. Great power but its pushing the limit on a character with so many toggles and high endurance cost powers.

I would replace Vengeance with Combat Jumping. Or, replace Assault or Tactics above with CJ and keep Vengeance. It's a toggle, but a cheap one. More importantly, it keeps you from being immobilized, and allows to loosen up on your slotting for +defense elsewhere.

It appears you are taking Flash Freeze for the cheap purple slots. IMO thats fine but long term I would consider spending money on a purple stun set for Thunderclap instead. Flash Freeze is a real dog of a power, at least in my experience, but more importantly if you slot damage proc Interface incarnate abilities, Flash Freeze breaks as a power due to its damage component automatically triggering a DoT, which breaks sleep. Thunderclap isn't the best power in the world but much better than Flash Freeze.

The Ice APP is fine but if you find yourself wanting more damage, the Earth APP is a terror for this combo. You can also stack stuns between Fissure and Thunderclap, stunning bosses 50% of the time, and stunning Lieutenants 75% of the time (base mag 2 from TClap plus two 50% chances to stun in Fissure). I'm usually more of a Psi APP guy for the mezz protection, but if you find yourself not wanting that this would be a possible way to go.

Once exciting development of Issue 21 is the addition of a new "super fast" Flight power called Afterburners. Apparently it lets you fly faster than is currently possible but puts you in 'only effect self' status (toggles stay up but you can't attack). That's not till October or so and won't help you now but it may be something interesting to you in the future, since you've said you can't stand dealing with navigating the Isles.

Nitpick on some statements in previous posts: Sleep powers provide two chances for Containment. You have to chain two attacks closely together. It does not work with every type of attack. It has been confirmed to work with Energy Torrent + Terrify and Psynado + Terrify, but only if they are cast in that order.

We should also clarify that while Mind Control can Dominate on 8 of 9 powers, Hypnosis hits bosses in one shot anyway, Mass Hypnosis has a base 50% chance to Overpower instead of the normal 20%, Levitate more or less ignores boss protections and is on a different protection scheme, and Mass Confusion is an AoE non-aggro power that stacks with another non-aggro single target power. Also, despite the number of powers a Mind Dominator can dominate with, they still end up with about half as many hard AoEs compared to Dominators with hard mezz casts on much more forgiving recharge schemes. Yes, you can Dominate with Terrify, but so what, a Plant Dominator can Confuse things on the same Recharge table.

I know some people love their Mind Dominators, but IMO in terms of measured benefits, Plant, Earth, and Fire benefit much more from Domination than Mind Control does, because a Mag 6 AoE Stun or Confusion on sets that are so confrontational mean more when they pit you into an immediate fight. I can stand around invisibly on Keyes and Lambda and disable huge groups with my Mind troller, while still supporting a team, because stacking magnitude only has meaning up to the point where you overcome protection. It is much more dangerous for my other Controllers to engage enemies directly in that way because they can't wait until everything is confused to engage the enemy. In other words, the Dominator is faster but in terms of control gets more or less the same ultimate result. I kind of feel like a lot of people are sucked in by how often the word "Domination" shows up on screen more than what the effects of that ability actually are.

My Mind Dominator is still a fine enough character, and very powerful, but so completely different from the Controller I don't know how to compare them directly. The Mind Controller certainly can't be directly replaced by another Controller (or Corruptor) so to me it kind of makes the discussion moot; even if Mind Control was "better" on Dominators in the sense that it can solo or act like a Blaster, it can't support, and Mind Controllers can't be directly replaced by another Controller primary, so there isn't anything you can really do with the knowledge. Arguing otherwise brings you to a statement like "Fire Controllers are better than Mind Controllers," which IMO is ridiculous and in need of an encyclopedia's worth of qualifying statements.



EDIT: I should also add that Earth and Fire Dominators tend to be able to punch through powers like Dispersion Bubble and Plant Dominators are able to tag Nemesis despite their Confusion protection. Which sets are "better" or "worse" is extremely difficult to nail down and depends on what factors you consider. Chances are that every single Dom/Controller pair is able to do something on one AT the other AT would struggle with and vice versa. This is a really complicated topic.

EDIT2: Some edits to clarity.

Keep in mind that as great as perma-dom is, the situations you need it most are where you're most likely to lose it. Did you just die on that iTrial? Oh, enjoy building your Dom bar back up surrounded by enemies who can obliterate you and with a secondary that doesn't contribute a lot to your survival. There's definitely a "Jekyll and Hyde" element to Dominators when you start pushing the limits. And if you're unlucky enough to die 3 or 4 times back to back, the limitation starts to become increasingly apparant.

Another way to do this is to do what is recommended of table top Game Masters when a player starts to excessively min/max: intentionally put the min/max'ed character in situations where the min/max is no longer as ideal and different choices would have resulted in something better. As powerful as some characters get, you really can't have it all.

For example if it's a melee character, try running missions where you have to save or protect an ally, or stop escaping enemies. Or try missions where ALL of the enemies have mezzes, and are able to bust through stack through normal melee immunities.

I think we need to clarify whether we're talking about "primaries" being better, or actual "characters."

In a purely literal sense, with IOs, the "primaries" are universally better on Dominators. They do more damage, last longer, have higher magnitude, and the PBAoEs are harder to detoggle.

If we're talking about "characters" then it's a very different situation. Which is better: Mind/Icy Assault or Mind/Cold Domination? I took both to 50 and can't answer that question. Mind Control by itself is technically better on the Dominator and the Dominator solos better, but the Controller's controls are "good enough," especially on a character who can stack mezz without alerting enemies. For Task Forces and Raids it's not even sort of in question: everyone wants the Mind/Cold because support is rare and damage is dime a dozen. Generally speaking no one gives a damn what your primary is, you're getting invited for your secondary. They'd often be just as happy if you were a Corruptor (an AT that is approximately as analogous to Controllers as Dominators are).

IMO if you look at either AT and think a primary isn't worth playing on one because it's good on the other, you've sort of missed the point.

I really like these.

I've also long wanted either a Gravity Blast set with a Gravity nuke, or (now) a Gravitic Judgment of some sort. Basically something like this:


Gravitic Judgment (or "Big Bang")
Creates an event horizon centered on the targeted enemy. All foes within 20ft are warped to the target's location, then flung violently back outward as the system explodes under pressure. The target at the center of the explosion takes more damage than surrounding foes (extra damage for each additional foe hit?)

I've never before written in the Suggestions forum that a player's idea is "horrible."

But your idea is horrible.

Also, I am blind in one eye.

I'm not sure about a grace period, but the larger point about the respec interface being less than ideal is heard and agreed with.

I'm not a huge fan of this but I guess I can see it. It's well thought out and sort of interesting but I don't particularly like having to die to use a power. I already think Vengeance was a bad idea that introduces perverse strategies (dying on purpose to take advantage of an effect). Nice ideas overall though. Obviously the OP spent some time thinking about it.

Numina: 31
Synapse: 30
Citadel: 27
Statesman: 18 -1 = 17
Back Alley Brawler: 35 +1 = 36
Manticore: 32
Positron: 33
Sister Psyche: 33

I don't think they are directly comparable. The question is kind of like "Which secondaries are better on a Controller versus a Mastermind?" The answer is it depends, because they use their powers to different ends.

That's not to say one or the other isn't better if you specify specific requirements (e.g. ability to farm, ability to solo archvillains, etc). Generally speaking though, any discussion about which "primary" is better is misleading, because characters are only 50% defined by it.

In any case all of the control sets in this game, barring perhaps Gravity, are so strong that even the "weakest" is probably still enough to survive on.

I took a stab at Azuria too, just for fun. I tend to prefer exaggerated looks on characters in general to draw attention to some aspect of their personality and make them memorable and easy to spot in a room. I think these images are a little extreme, but if nothing else someone might get some ideas from them for a different character. Perhaps Katie Hannon. [I'm not posting the costume codes unless requested since these are doodles. Mostly because I'm not really sure how.]

This is a suggestion I've made in various posts over the years but never officially written down.

One of the things I'd like to see added to a few powers is "Target Cap Modification." This is an attribute that causes a target to count as more than 1 target for the purposes of calculating Max Targets in AoE powers. This is a way of increasing the survivability certain characters bring to teams without directly increasing defenses or resistance caps.

Note that "counting as multiple targets" does not mean you get hit by the power more than once. Rather, it means you have the ability to disrupt/deflect/absorb/refract part of the attack so that it is incapable of hitting as many targets as usual.

I see it in the following powers:

Tanker inherent. -- Tankers automatically count as if they are 6 targets instead of 1.

Kheldians & Brutes -- These ATs automatically count as if they are 3 targets instead of 1.

Force Field --> Dispersion Bubble -- Every target inside the bubble counts as 2 targets instead of 1. In large groups, this cuts down on how many people are hit by AoEs.

Super Reflexes --> Lucky -- Your contagious luck adds an additional 3 targets to your base (so a SR Tanker counts as 9 targets instead of 1).

Sonic Resonance --> Disruption Field & Trick Arrow --> Disruption Arrow Every enemy inside the field counts as if it were 80% of an enemy instead of 1. This raises the effective target cap of a power that hits 16 to approximately 20, as long as the enemies fit in the area.


Special notes:

• The bonuses are additive. A Tanker inside a Dispersion Bubble counts as 6 (inherent) + 2 (dispersion bubble) = 8 targets. Two Force Fielders next to each other count as 6 targets total.
• Nukes ignore target modifiers and are capable of hitting the full group.
• When calculating the targets hit, the mechanic is inclusive. For example, if an AoE power with a target cap of 5 rolls on a Blaster(1) and then a Tanker(6), both are hit by the AoE because the Tanker was partially included. If instead it first hit the Tanker (6), it would never hit the Blaster because the target cap was completely absorbed.
• This mechanic applies to most AoEs except those specially flagged, not just damage powers. For example, it affects control powers, AoE endurance drains, Ghost Widow's self heal, etc.