RiverOcean

It depends...on what you're farming. My fire/psi still handles the "snake" boss farm just fine. Thats a farm that many brutes have trouble with, due to all the toxic damage. I have to admit if things start to go south, its harder to salvage with a dom. But If the dom has some good support they can farm just as well as a brute with the same support. Fire/Psi/Dark or Fire/Psi/Mu are still a damn good farming builds.

Wait a minute..I take that back..Doms suck, Brutes are better..go away please nothing to see here.

Herocon Images and Logos, Wentworths and Black Market Logos, Vanguard Logos, heck logos for all the various NPC groups. They are fun and can easily be turned into icons on fan websites!

I luv NINJA RUN....

I have two toons now that use it as a travel power. Getting to 50mph run speed is easy and more than adequate for a travel power. It also frees up an entire power-set choice by doing so. With Ninja Run and a back up flight pack we're no longer forced into choosing a travel power if we don't want to.

Also, the Ninja Leap with claws is very cool. The jump animation is both arms crossed in front with a fancy "arms out" landing. This is going to work very well for anyone wanting to roll an "acrobatic" concept toon (a'la Beast, Nightcrawler, etc...). Great JOB...Ninja's are indeed cool!

Ice/Thorn is greatly underrated. (I feel /Thorns never gets the kudo's it's due). There's not much to say. If you team alot you should be able to keep pace with a Brute (and someday a tank or scrapper), without breaking a sweat. Add in slows and an exotic damage type (toxic) and this is a pretty efficient build for most mobs. I doubt you'll find any naysayers here.

Doms serve two functions Damage and Control (and to a smaller degree debuff depending on the power sets). When playing a dom think of your controls as your shields. A controlled enemy can't damage. The more enemies you control the less incoming damage you take. Combine that with the doms near blaster level damage and you have a very potent AT. Also Dom's are the only "squishy" AT with complete mez protection inherent "Domination".

Doms pay for this with lower hit points. If Dom's were less squishy they would be insanely overpowered. Many people argue they actually are. However, not all doms are created equal certain powerset combos aren't as strong as others. Also Elite Bosses and AV's can be very tough for dominators to deal with. Mostly due to the fact the PTOD (Purple Triangles of Doom) grant them mez protection. Since Mez is the Dom's main form of damage mitigation.

On an Earth/Earth dom everything should be slowed, knocked down, held, and disoriented. Not to mention debuffed. I haven't played that combo but it seems like once you had certain key powers you'd be quite impressive.

After reading the Dev post and some of the responses to it..I don't see Dark control coming. However, I'm wondering if they are considering porting the Master Mind version of Dark Miasma to Controllers. Since it's already had it's numbers watered down to compensate for powerful primaries. I'm also wondering if Electric Control is going to wow us into not caring about dark control.

For all out pure carnage and damage...Fire/Fire or Fire/Psi. I'd say they are neck and neck in terms of perfomance.

For total lockdown: Mind/Anything....


Plant and Earth aint half bad either....


Gravity still has some problems but if you'd rather blast more than control, its not a bad choice. Mostly because you can skip so much of it...and the pet will most of the controlling for you.

I knew this was coming when Traps got ported to defenders, since the two sets have such similar powers. If you play Traps/ after having played TA you can't help but feel cheated when going back to TA. I have a TA/AR gathering dust now that I have a Traps/Dark defender. PGA should be as good as PGT. I will grant that Emp Arrow trumps time bomb by a long shot..but Traps other mitigation powers more than make up for that.

I do hope someone takes a look at TA/ works on making it comparable to Traps/.

You know I've had nothing but awesome experiences in Cim and RWZ with mixed teams (not too mention the V-Day pocket D missions). Since Villains are so darned self-sufficient and in many cases self-buffing, defender level buffs just push things to a whole new level. I think many heroes who aren't familiar with red side AT's are going to be wowed.

Redside I think blasters and defenders are going to be welcomed with open arms. Nothing redside nukes like a blaster. And like I said, defender level buffs are great on Villains. I predict most people will be looking for the most overpowered team combinations they can come up with.

Let's also not also forget Epic AT's and two new Praetorian AT's will be crossing over as well. This is going to be very interesting....

I think its an interesting build and would work well. However, I think skipping Mass Hypnosis while duoing with a stalker is a missed opportunity. Mass Hypnosis is an up every spawn power that can set help with setting up strategic assassin strikes. Or to neuter the alpha after a successful assassin strike.

I'd love to see defenders get it swapped for the Omega Maneuver power. I've found Time Bomb somewhat useful solo..but completely useless teamed. Most teams wipe out spawns before I can even finish casting it.

Have a level 50 Mind/Energy here..and yes I can vouch an amazing toon. Even before the dom buffs..she could solo on medium difficulty without much trouble. Now shes a monster..and shes non-permadom, mostly SO's and generic IO's. I find perma dom isn't really needed...most things are slept, held, confused, or dead.

Levitate and hold is a great way to juggle bosses...then jumping in and smacking the heck out of em with total focus. Confuse their nearby cronies..and play whack-a-mole until everything is dead. Hmmmm...maybe I need to log-in and that toon a bit before bid...getting an itchy trigger finger!

I just want to throw in that /Earth Assault isn't a bad choice at all. It has lots of "Smash" if that's what you're looking for. I do find /Energy Assault to be harder hitting and faster IMHO. Ice/Earth and Earth/Earth may both give you some of what your looking for as well.

IMHO Mind/Energy is a very good dom combo. Especially since the changes. Earth, Plant, and Fire also make excellent pairings with Energy as well. That being said /Energy is mostly ST damage and Whirling Hands is still just an "ok" AoE. The dom version has had some buffs, but there are better AoE options out there. Such as Electric, Psi, and Fire. In fact they are my secondaries of choice. I've tried /Energy with other doms and haven't found it as fun..but I like AoE's and cones.

If you like playing Brutes Mind/, Plant/, or Earth/ combined with /Energy may be really good choices for you. /Energy certainly has a "smash" feel to it now.

I'd say one Ice/Traps and Dark/Traps teamed would be very....nasty. Slows, holds, immobilizes from the primaries plus all the debuff and defense in the secondary sounds really good. Oh yah and the -recharge.

It looks ok to me..though I'd argue..Flash Fire + Fire Cages, makes for a great (and very early) ghetto AoE hold. It's unconventional, but its served my fire/psi well from the early levels and onwards. For that reason alone I find fire cages useful and a fire/psi is one of the few Dom builds that I'd argue taking the AoE immobilize as soon as you can squeeze it in. Taking bonfire during the early levels (and dropping it later) isn't a bad choice either..Fire has great aoe soft control...and you get it pretty early. I always start with an early "leveling" type build..and respect later for the higher levels....

Oh and I couldn't agree with the advice of taking Soul Mastery... over the other pools. Having tried almost every patron with Fire/Psi...Soul Mastery has worked out the best, hands down. Also the Toxic resist in Dark Embrace is nice to have.

To the OP:

I just don't think Defenders (or any CoX AT) can be pigeonholed so easily. For example, my dark/traps and my Sonic/Sonic play completely differently. Some combos lend themselves to buff boting, others demand more active combat, and still others are hybrid. That's what nice about CoX. The true power of the defender is the diversity of the class and the variety of force multiplying powers they can bring to a team.

I always thought that the HEAT's inherent should be more of a team buff oriented and less "vampiric" and leech like. For example having a PB on a team should increase a teams +To hit and Confuse resistance (due to their cosmic nature and wisdom). Having a Warshade on a team should increase a teams damage and damage resistance (due to their ruthlessness and dark loving nature). Something like that and one or two Khelds on a team would have the same effect as one or two VEATs.....

It's just an idea..not married to it. But I'd try it.