Seldom

Ohohohohohohooo...this is a HUGE boost to dominators who are in the know.

It should certainly be a small boost for stalkers, especially lowbie ones who don't have strong end slotting yet.

To be fair, none of your responses have taken into account any of my points either, rather dismissed them. I'm not bothering to site everything, and admit I assume a bit of familiarity on what I'm referencing based upon your activity on these forums...I assume you are familiar with much of what I'm alluding to to. If this is an unfair assumption, I apologize.

Would devs allow discussion of farming on a theoretical level? they have no reason not to. But the situation I alluded to goes more to the trouble of distinguishing what activity is being labeled as 'farming' as that varies from the "totally okay!" to the "nobody should hear about this and an exploit fix is on the way." In short, it goes not to discussion on 'farming,' but discussion on FARMS.

....And what farms are allowed is far more difficult of a subject to pin down. It's all based on how they perform. If you make a farm that can get you from two billion inf in five minutes every run, and you post about it, the post will probably removed, and the arc will most likely be locked. If you make a farm that gives you the same amount of xp/influence as doing repeat newspaper mission, it will almost certainly not be locked. If you make an arc that gives you rewards at 2X that of a dev story arc? Nobody will say if the performance is allowed or not. You'll find out if the threads are scrubbed and if the arc is locked. It all comes down to what the devs feel is an exploit. We can't post about exploits, after all.

To go on a tangent a bit, (I will bring it back) this comes back to the way devs and players approach farms. While the devs' goals and those of the player that is farming are not diametrically opposed, they're still not best buddies. Devs like equivalency, fairness, baselines, whatever you may call it. Whenever leveling speed or performance is discussed, they talk about whether people are doing something 'too fast' or 'underperforming.' You can't say if something is doing either of those unless you have a standard of what rates are 'supposed to be.'

Players who 'farm' are usually repeating content to achieve a goal, and in many circumstances they choose what they repeat based upon whether that is the most effective content to repeat to reach their goal. To rephrase, it's simply finding the "fastest way." When their 'fastest way' breaks the devs' unspoken speed limit, the devs decide that it's an exploit, nerf the content, change the mechanics so it can't happen any more, and/or penalize the player who 'went too fast.'

Actually, I think how much can be discussed about this might relax, based upon the "MARTy" system. Up until now all the "Speed monitoring" has been manual. The television arc is overperforming? Reduce Family enemy experience. The AE all boss farms are overperforming? All boss factions give reduced rewards. It seems they've grown weary with this whack a-mole approach, and would rather install "speed monitoring cameras," to follow the speeding metaphor. The manual changes are tricky, as though they affect the 'overperformers' they also affect the players operating at the median, which means balancing is tricky. If they can automate the process, and only stop those that are 'speeding,' and let the other go unaffected, they reach their goal. Hence, "MARTy."

Basically, if there are no exploits possible in discussing farms, then all discussions of farms will almost certainly be allowed. I doubt that can be said at this point, so I doubt an unequivocal answer on the subject will be delivered.

It might not be the answer you wanted, (a yes/no from a redname) but for the reasons above holding out hope for a definitive/final answer on a grey area topic is just not very realistic.

*shrugs*

Is my opinion valid, then? What I mentioned is hardly off-the-cuff. The 'alternate progression' in AE, NOT superior progression is right straight from the whole immediately post AE debacle, stated by various devs, showing they didn't want the AE to be a shortcut machine. The intention that it's for creative stories is hardly groundbreaking, and the way so-called 'farm arcs' compete with story submission can be seen over and again on these very forums, if not in the way arcs get juggled via ratings. The exploit part is also hardly new news. People who found 'exploits' and used them for progression did so by farming, and were (and often are) referred to by the community in shorthand as 'farmers' rather than 'exploiters.'

Is it fair? No. But when somebody says 'boss farm,' 'monster farm,' ,monkey farm' etc, and people complain about farmers, the link is there.

My point is simply that the terminology 'farming' in relation to the AE has the meanings/implications that make it pretty darned sticky for the devs to give approval for. What you may call farming might be running a validated AE arc...but when somebody else says 'farming' they may mean a "exploitative" loophole used repeatedly. It's then hard for Positron to come in here and say "Feel free to discuss all your farming stuff!" The devs seem to have taken the canny way around it, and use their discretion in what's allowed to be shared on a case-by-case basis.

Timed toggles already exist, and would be the perfect solution, if it's mechanically possible in an 'enemy toggle' power. (the bought jump boosters, the pool self-shifting power are timed toggles) The problem with dimensional shift is not the lockdown, but with the timing. It often leaves unaffectable foes in times when the team is ready to have at 'em... and you are left tapping the watch until they are shift back in.

A timed toggle fixes this perfectly: shift the mob you don't want yet, untoggle to bring them back into play. Giving a timed ceiling means the power has a top duration, and since toggles only start recharging after they go off, you can't permanently shift anything. (This solves both griefing and exploits, like permanently shifting recluse's towers) Giving a set period also fixes the issue of the end cost being raised to match a power that would give essentially total safety forever.

I thank you for this taking the time to do this, I did send this link to the gentleman I mentioned above shortly after the long walkthrough. That said, it's a patch to resolve an issue all new players will encounter, and few of those will come to the forums, much less to the above fix.

To be clearer, fleet/seismic were suggested deliberately to be melee/physically focused, as many characters (especially melee archetypes) do not have blasting powers, and all existing judgments use some sort of big elemental blasts.

Psy judgement (I felt) should be a bit more control-based, so extending the duration to pulses mean a broader availability of that effect. The trade off is dual: first, things might live long enough to counterattack. Second: having an extended duration means it cannot be based off of a target. If it was, it would be 'wasted' if the target were weaker, dying quickly and killing the judgement. Having a PBAoE pulsing effect means not only does it continue so long as you survive, you can also easily adjust the position of the effect, and can hit newer enemies even after the first targets die. The closer-range nature means it is most likely to hit the more dangerously positioned foes, a good thing with a control component. Plus, it's coming from your brain. having you at the center reinforces the source of the waves. Also, the "over time' nature makes it unique from other judgments.

On a side note, my mind/psy gets close anywise for drain psyche, but to each their own.

Gravitic judgement: coolish ideas, but oddly specific. It only suits one, maybe two powersets from two, maybe three archetypes. Doesn't hurt to throw it out there, though. I will say this: as cool as a huge propel of an entire junkyard would be, the number of models from a whole league make me hesitate to consider....Yeh, I'm a wet blanket at times.

sorry, sorry.

Actually, during (wasnt it I6 when ragdolling was introduced?) closed testing, someone posted about testing energy blast characters being able to keep enemies permanently ragdolling against walls in a warehouse map. I believe they even showed a video of a boss basically getting hit, ragdolling,hit,ragdolling/etc. Every single attack that had knockback made the foes go limp for several seconds, and there was no limit. The enemies were completely helpless so long as the knockback was triggered.

No offense, but for the longest time ANY PvE nerfs/changes were blamed on PvP. (and vice versa)

Hmmm...
Force bolt:
The huge (almost 19 mag) kb puts this power squarely in the 'made to send things flying' camp. The primary use is to knock things back. Removing enhanceability invalidates most slotting, of its primary purpose. Also, while knockdown is friendlier to placement, it is inferior for safety, as it does not cause the foe to spend more time closing in. Also, the unresistable idea is cool, but would never be allowed on high rank foes like AV's and such. (with good timing you could then cause an AV to spend a fight falling all over itself.) The idea to add bruising may not be in theme with the rest of the set, but it is in-theme with the power, and gives the power a use in an AV fight, or against tough foes. Force bolt is to push away dangerous foes. The bruising would make the foes also more easy to defeat, so it increases the power's utility in pinpointing and taking out one particular priority target. As both KB and +defense have a threshold of stackability, it also gives forcefields a tool that has no easy stacking threshold at which utility falls off.

Detention field: this power is insane. Yes, you have to time it well, and it can be easily misused. But the fact that it can single-handedly remove as high level threats as it can is almost absurd. Making it able to do so without any threat of repercussions or timing? Such things seem glaringly like the balance for the ability to remove the foes, considering the recharge/magnitude. (To rephrase: you can remove absurdly high level enemies from a fight, but they always get a slight window to return fire)

Repulsion field: unsuppressed knockback WAS available when ragdolling was first implemented, but it was deemed too powerful. Entire groups of enemies could be kept in infinite knockabout against wall invalidating any threat whatsoever without any skill or timing involved. even in this select power, especially since it's a toggle, I would not see them giving an exception that allows the exact scenario they wished to prevent to happen. A chance for stun seems more than doable, though.

Repulsion bomb: honestly, this power has great knockdown mitigation with more than reasonable damage for being in a set as it is. I'm not certain this power needs the help.

Force bubble: removing the knockdown...I'm not sure. It does help as a foe slowly fighting the repel can get close, only to get flipped and be repelled back as they do so. A slow gives cool set possibilities, but the knock +repel combo is incredibly potent. In fact, this power is so strong I'm not sure it needs a hand.

Detention field: this power is situational. But it's so good in those situations, that making it a hold would actually decrease the safety the power provides. More safety most of the time, less safety in extreme circumstances? It seems a fare trade, but it's a tradeoff I'm not certain needs to be made.

Repulsion field: a debuff seems fair. I would certainly not argue against it. In all honesty, this power is at present pointless with force bubble around.

Repulsion bomb: See comment earlier. A debuff would be cool, but this power is more than respectable at present.

Force Bubble: I like the debuff, but even a token one seems hard to justify on an ability as strong as force bubble.

Forgive me for saying so, but such people may well have spent a great deal more on travel, as well as taking a great deal of time for an event associated with the game. Such do not, in my opinion, represent the situation of most players.

For me: The price is to high. Someone went into an existing power and altered the duration of it, and you charge that much? The time/effort disconnect with the pricing is astounding. Will all the pricing be not "How much is it worth, as measured by our effort" but "What's the highest we can ask before they say no?"

Folks, I've said it before. Don't aim for the few big spenders. Make moderate prices the masses will pay, you get not only a better return, but you also keep a better relationship.

Holds: The best for this are Mind control and Earth control for sheer lockdown. That said, there are no 'bad' lockdown sets for a dominators.
(I would advise against starting on an ice/ or gravity/ dom, though, as those are more challenging to wrangle, fire/ as well to a lesser extent.)

Healing: Dominators are only capable of team hp recovery through spirit tree, (plant control) and self hp recovery through drain psyche. (Psy assault)
Healing isn't a dominator thing- in fact, dominators play almost identically to blasters with control powers, that just happened to trade in some nukes/attacks for controls.

DPS: Anything works here. Fire is highest damage, no mitigation. /Earth is high control, high close damage. Thorns has decent AoE, with a medium-range bent. /Psy has a great survival buff/enemy debuff, with a great mix of effects and ranges. (AoE/ranged/close) Electric has a damage boost and good ranged/close damage. (Less AoE) Energy has lots of mitigation, and good ST damage. Ice has another mix of ranges, and some unique debuffs.

Team support: The funny thing is with doms, you have about the same team support as self support. You lock things down, and kill them. Locked down things can't hurt you OR your team. The best sets on team are ones with lots of quick enemy lockdown, usually enough to be regularly available. The winners here are in order (With a lower budget) Earth, Mind, Plant, Electric. Earth has lots of lockdown, and does great on SO's. Mind has tons of options, and great follow-up ST controls. (can be slower on AOE lockdown without IO's) Plant has seeds just about all the time, and carrion creepers to distract/damage. Electric has confusion and a pulsing sleep patch, and a sapping aura.

It has also been said that few archetypes give as much in return for investment in io's as doms. +recharge in particular helps controls/attacks come up faster, thus helping your own team/self survival through enemy control and defeats. Oh, and it boosts how often your "Awesome" button recharges.