Oedipus_Tex

But exactly the same in that there was an ever-ready army to shout down anyone who said they wanted it, because it would "never happen."

Where there's a dollar bill, there's a way.

I won't argue with your style of play. I just think slotting up a whole extra hold power to save approx 1.04 seconds of animation time (1.76 cast time vs 2.71 recharge in Blind) is a little excessive unless you are doing it for the set bonuses, especially since Ice Arrow has such a long base recharge and no damage or secondary effects. I do usually take it leveling up, though.

Just be careful to keep in mind that S/L defense often means S/L defense without S/L resistance, vs Ranged defense with S/L resistance (typically in the 50% range). It's not quite as clear cut as Ranged vs S/L Defense.

(Some few builds can manage S/L resist with S/L defense. I don't know how possible it is on Controllers because to do it and keep recharge up normally takes 6 slots from the Obliteration set. I managed to do it on a Radiation/Fire Blaster with 4 Oblit sets but it cost so much I never actually implemented it.)

You're right. In some ways, MMO AI is a case where spagetti code is partially a good thing (if it is done well). Performance is what matters most. A recent entry into the MMO market supposedly has an entirely seperate server devoted to creature AI in order to help it keep track of the huge invasions it creates.

Going back to the earlier statement about AI only being a few paragraphs of text, the reason I know this isn't so is that pathing algorithms by themselves are pretty lengthy. I don't know what pathing algorithm this game uses, but it is probably similar to a 3-D version of A* (pronounced "ay-star," like "a star is born."). An explanation of the 2-D version can be found here: http://www.policyalmanac.org/games/aStarTutorial.htm.

[The reason I assume this it's something like A* and not a mesh or maps with a baked in waypoint system is because in this game, enemies and players can fly. In a game where you can assume any player must always be on the ground, it's possible to build walkpaths directly into the maps more easily. Its also possible City of Heroes uses both approaches, in particular using A* when enemies are close by, and prefab nodes or meshes when far away (e.g. ambushes). A very long discussion about MMO walkmeshes that is somewhat controversial but shows good examples can be found here: http://www.ai-blog.net/archives/000152.html . You can see criticisms of the method described in the comments section. The short of it is that there is no one "right" way to do it, and that a lot of the time the so-called AI is actually driven by the map, which is why new maps take so long to develop.]

City of Heroes, BTW, introduces another challenge for AI in that unlike many games, enemies and pets here cannot walk through each other. I haven't paid enough attention to see if this affects their pathing. I suspect part of the reason enemies react the way they do sometimes is that despite having an apparant clear path to us, they can't "see" it because other enemies are blocking it at the moment it is calculated. The other possibility is that the "run away" mechanics are there to prevent enemies from running into each other if the whole group were to just charge the player at once. Regardless, I happen to think the creatures in this game are typically a lot smarter about geography than in most MMOs I've played, probably because this game was built with the assumption that players would often be shooting from mid-air.

[EDIT: As for the Mastermind pet behavior specifically, my guess is that they run up to enemies because the AI in general doesn't "know" what powers it has available in total. All it knows about are the powers that can be currently used based on having a target in range. It figures that it is always better to close in, because that might "unlock" powers that are currently unusable. I don't think it is strategic enough to plan ahead to run up and hit you as a specific strategy, for the same reason it doesn't think to queue a power up and jump at a flying player. Basically if the power can't be used right now it's not part of its strategy. Didn't there used to be a problem with enemies with melee attacks staying back at range and refusing to enter melee? That would be the same problem but with logic reversed. As annoying as having pets with no melee attacks run up to targets is, I have to say that as a blanket AI solution, it is more likely to work out for the majority of mobs than the reverse logic. And of course I could be completely wrong about the source of the issue, since I have no inside knowledge of the game's AI.]

Any chance you are getting hit with -Recharge (Psi Attacks)?

It doesn't benefit from Overpower either.

Dominators in one way get screwed on it, because they get the lower base "un-Domination" Confusion time. IMO this is a mistake and the base duration should be 50% longer than it currently is to compensate for the fact that it is impossible to Dominate with it. Elec Control has the same issue with Synaptic Overload, being stuck with lower than Controller values.

The good news for Elec and Ice Dominators is that the mezz protection from Domination means they can use their PBAoE powers more aggressively. And adding a damage secondary to these otherwise extremely low damage sets changes their gameplay rather drastically (esp. Ice Control being freed from the Containment vs knockdown built-in conflict.)

In essence though, Illusion Dominators make more sense than either Electric or Ice did, because their powers don't actually end with lower durations than the respective Controller version. They are all the same or higher.

Anyway I'm way off topic so I will stop now.

Add to this that when you are working on costumes you are costing yourself on purchasing incarnate abilities, unless you rely entirely on the RNG. I tend to think many people fall in the middle on the costumes/abilities scale. I actually envy the people who only want 1 or the other because even with 10 incarnate trials this system is going to be painful.

So only a bit more than the cost of a +3% PVP defense IO plus 205 Astrals?

Actually Flash Freeze is ranged. I have had it at various times on my Ice Dom and always dropped it. The only time it was ever really useful was against Storm Summoning enemies for the detoggle. You're right about it being gimp though: the target must be on the ground and the recharge is twice as long as other AoE sleeps. But the really hilarious part is that in the wake of everyone slotting Reactive (which Ice surely should due to its rock bottom damage) the power doesn't work at all, thanks to the useless damage component (6pts at level 50) triggering a DoT! I think instead of "Domination" the power should announce "LOL"every time it is used.

In essence, the idea of Ice Control being a set that benefits heavily from Domination mag increase is pure comedy. IMO The most useful part of Domination for Ice Control is the mezz protection. Although it is also sort of impossible to argue a mag 6 hold is a poor power for anybody (let alone a Mag 6 confuse in Illusion).

In any case I agree with you about Immobilizes. I do use them... but there is no need to Dominate with them because they recharge in 2 seconds on a kitted character. I have honestly never, ever, encountered a situation where Domination did anything for cages casting a second time wouldn't have done except extend their duration.

Since Dominators live or die by whether they can Dominate with an Immobilize power. :P

Illusion would be awful; I mean, perma confusing an AV and killing it in total safety with the highest single target DPS Control set that also has an invulnerable tank that costs you almost no extra animation time, while netting you perma mezz protection and two easy powers in which to slot Luck of the Gambler and simultaneously freeing you from the limitation of limited AoE Containment.

But you're right it would totally be a drag to play.

[I should mention at this point I have an encylopedia's worth of quotes from players saying such and such will never happen but did happen.]

A possibly better way to do this is to create skyboxes of the major landscapes in various regions so the exterior doesn't add to polygon count. It does raise the question though of why if there is an open window we didn't just climb/fly through it instead of fighting all the way through the map.