Seldom

I'd always thought about the lack of purple resistance/defense/healing sets, and had wondered how one could handle a purple resistance/defense set, as unlike all other purples those two have only three values to enhance. The solution I thought of was for such a set to have extra "effect" enhancements, and I thought a resistance+"taunt aura" purple IO might make sense. This would also perhaps grant a more convenient place for such an enhancer; resistance tends to be in toggle form, giving such an aura persistence- but as an aura it would still allow you to pick and choose when/where things were taunted or not.

Heh, I wasn't aware you weren't the original developer, but your work is appreciated nonetheless. I recommended the program time and again to players way back when, especially mastermind players...but I gave up on it as the game progressed as I thought it had been abandoned. It's good to see that such a helpful tool is being kept alive, and thank you for the initiative.

*edit* Though I'm not sure why this update is being posted as a question.

Spacebar, forgive my rudeness for not mentioning earlier my thanks and appreciation for this application. As mentioned I've used it for my masterminds, and the ability the binds offer in minion control vs. without them is night and day, and incredibly easy to access.

...In fact, it's what allowed me to spend 1500+ hours on my mastermind, and pretty much the sole reason I even play the archetype. Without it the basic controls feel to fumbly/limited, and I've been spoiled by how much I can set actions of my minions. I know the binds are out there and able to be created manually, but this program does in seconds what it would take me hours in browsing/trial and error to get together. So thank you very much!

I think the 'cheaty' nature of the super stunner rez is completely negated by the fact there's a way around it. Smart positioning and awareness is rewarded, and you don't have to bother with dealing with the stunners twice.

The powers I'd label 'cheating' are the malta stun grenades. The duration is so long you can literally be taken out for the duration of two fights if you don't have status protection or a break free. I still wonder if there's a decimal error on that duration.

Team 1
1) @Amygdala - Kinetics/Energy Defender (Cimerorans, Rebirth, Support)
2) @Cobalt Azurean - TW/WP Brute (Warworks, Rebirth, Melee or Assault)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

Team 2
9) @Jitsurei - Electric control/psi manipulation Dominator (Cimeroran, Rebirth or Barrier, Assault)
10) @Placta - Elec/elec blaster (??, ??, Assault)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
16)

Team 3
17) @Queen Frosteen: Queen Frosteen, Ice/Ice blaster (Cimerorans, Rebirth, Assault)
18) @chicagodoodler: Dreameater, Mind/Psy dom (spectral r-t4/reactive c-t3/seers c-t4/phantasms r-t4/clarion r-t4/rebirth r-t4/assault c-t4/control c-t4)
19)
20)
21)
22)
23)
24)

Having started on defenders and then moving to dominators once they were created, I have to say it's funny you choose between the two. On teams you have very different abilities, but I'll tell you the 'style' especially on teams, can be quite similar. First, you live or die by your primary in both cases, though your secondary, especially solo, plays a major part as well.

Dominators are solid in their primary's control, but also pretty binary. Usually stuff isn't doing something, or is. Very little in-between. A hold hits, the enemy does no attacking until it expires, or if the hold misses. If the enemy resists the control due to rank, they will just keep on attacking. (bosses are harder to hold, elite bosses harder, and archvillains and monsters even moreso)That said, you can target one enemy, control them, then focus damage on what is fighting back.

Defenders are different-they survive on their primary, but the reduce the danger foes pose, not STOP it. On the plus side, this means that it's less binary than a dominator. A debuff that slows attacks will slow anybody's attacks, regardless of rank. (Well, until you get to archvillains, they have special resistances to debuffs) Likewise powers that increase you or your team's strength work regardless of your enemy. But you will only be reducing damage, not stopping it as much.

So dominators are more wholesale, defenders are lesser but far more reliable, as far as primaries go in general. All Dominator primaries involve being aware of your enemies, and controlling them. Some defender primaries are more ally-centric, and require you to watch both enemeis and allies. Every defender primary plays incredibly differently, while dominator primaries are varried but a bit more similar. (usually involving a mix of a ST hold, and AoE hold, then softer controls like stuns, sleeps, fear, etc.)

For dominators, Earth control is a very good starter set. it does less damage, but has a lot more reliable/'fire and forget' controls. As a downside, all the controls it uses that make patches (volcanic gasses, quicksand, earthquake) don't get bonus control when in domination. This isn't a glaring weakness, just something to be aware of. Ice is an odd set, as it has some controls that can conflict with each other, (don't use the immobilize with ice slick) it relies on an endurance-heavy close quarters toggle control (artic air) that is hard to maintain. I usually don't give such point-blank advice, but I will here: Ice/ice doms are best used once you are very familiar with the game and archetype. Do not start with an ice/ice dominator. Learn the ropes, then try it later.

For defenders, the sets you chose are very debuff-centric, with some control as well. Storm is VERY control-centric, but you have to be very canny about how to use its repel and knockback powers to your advantage. Storm has some area powers that are negated if you don't control where you knock things back. You have no way to heal or buff yourself, so you must be canny about using your powers to keep yourself alive solo. Radiation emission is a far easier starter powerset, but has a few oddities to it. It's dependant on debuff toggles that will drop if you get controlled, so always carry break frees. Also, a toggled enemy may run away into a new group, starting trouble, so be ready to turn off their toggles to not start new fights. Also, you want to toggle the enemy that will last longest in a fight, which may not be the toughest one, at least on a team. Scrappers and stalkers love killing bosses.

For secondaries:

On dominators, fiery assault is a go-to for a lot of folks. it is also one of the most straightforward. You damage stuff. (And consume lets you draine energy to damage stuff if you tire) It's good at that, but offers no other tools. With a good primary, you may not need it to do more than kill stuff. Icy assault is far trickier, with good (but average) damage, a power that boost your controls and debuffs (power boost) and a debuff aura. It is slower, and more utility-oriented than straight attacking.

For defender secondaries, energy blast is good. But bear in mind it knocks things back, which is good for solo survival but shares the same issue with storm...you don't want to knock things out of your debuff areas, so you would have to be more aware of how or where you use the powers, and position yourself to use it best. Radiation blast is more straightforward, just doing damage, though it does have a high damage stun and a knockback cone. Radiation blast is more built for continuous fast attacks that are lower damage, than bursts of damage. So radiation blast may feel lighter on damage, just because you use more attacks more often.

Going to playstyle, defender are lower damage, though they do get higher damage if solo. Still, you will have to use your attacks more often, and fights won't be very fast. Dominators have high damage, but it takes a while for all their attacks to become available. Defender start with a lot more survival, and dominators need to wait until they have all their controls and get good slotting in those until they truly start to hit their potential. Defenders' debuffs are strong enough to protect early on, but don't ramp up far past that. Dominators focus on locking down enemies, so that won't change much when on a team. (though it's good to also focus on locking down foes with controls that are hitting allies) Defnders tend to have team powers that you will have to learn to time well when on teams, and your powers, especially toggles, may need to be used differently on teams. Storm summoning must often be far more restrained on a team than when solo, and radiation users might get miffed when the team members kill the target of their debuffs, taking away what weakens an enemy group.

Dominators get 'domination' that when you attack or control, build up a bar, that when full allows you to for a limited time control even bosses in one hit, resist all control, and refill your endurance. It even breaks free from control. It's a good power to have to react to a situation. Defenders get vigilance, which gives bonus damage when solo or on a small team, and gives endurance when team members are low on health.

All in all, here's how I'd rank the picks for a starting character:

1. Earth/fire dominator: easy, straightforward, just be aware of your enemies and learn your powers.
2. Rad/rad defender: you can weaken enemies, and help allies and yourself. Toggle management and learning how to survive might be more difficult, but it's very doable, and you'll always be welcome on teams.
3. Storm/energy defender: powerful debuffs, with controls and damage too. Positioning yourself with your powers will be necessary to work well, especially on teams. You will not just need to learn your powers, but WHEN to use them as some can conflict with each other by scattering foes out of debuffs, into new groups, or away from allies' reach.
4. Ice/Ice dominator: strange and varied, you'll have quirky and limited control and a mix of debuffs with your damage. Endurance management, leveraging your limited control, and knowing which foes to prioritize will be important.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope that gives you a good idea what to expect.

For those that aren't aware, the summer event (see thread here)

is bringing one new little IO:


It gives any damage attack without knockback the chance to knock things down...but it turns any damaging knockback power into a knockdown.
(per positron)

I know, old news to some, and one little IO, right? But now as I've been playing, I've been looking at powers in a different way as I level. My peacebringer has a love/hate with reaction to solar flare, especially when teamed. It does great damage, but many times I have to wait for the right position to use it, or until someone locks down with a -KB power. My fire dominator likes bonfire for concept/visual reasons, but as an area denial power it has few times when its KB is actually put to good, full use. My dark/Storm likes his tornado, but it scatters from his control if things aren't immobilized. My assault rifle blaster likes the damage from M30 grenade, but it has to be used in a certain order or it undoes some positioning for other AoE's. My rad/rad characters always shied away from electron haze as it scattered their toggles. All of these powers would work very differently if they knocked things down while not scattering them.

A similar thing happened when the ATO's were introduced, all of a sudden my tankers were redoing their attacks to slo tthe +res IO, same for my dominators and their +damage proc, and stalkers with their +hide IO.

I know it's fickle, but has a new invention set, or even new singular IO ever had you redo how you build a character? (From redoing slots up to taking entirely new powers?) If so, what IO and how did it change your character?

In the non-permadom sphere of things, control core would help, giving +1 mag to all controls when up. Of course it's more than that...the resistance is there, but the other fun part is the pseudo-containment you get, even if it is psy. I took it and enjoy it, even with my Mind/Psy permadom, though I will admit is was partially for theme. Not as many resist psy damage, and even to those that do, it's still extra damage. Mind/ has AMPLE means of setting up the sortof-containment, so it's giving you two things at once.

But that gets to the next part...one of the 'weakness' of /psy is the lack of +damage. As such I want for core assault as well, which at tier 4 gives a passive +10% damage as well as up to 5 stacks of 15% +damage from it when toggled on. Throw in the ascendancy of the dominator +damage catalyzed, with its up to 3 stacks of 21.25% +damage, and that can net you up to almost +150% damage if consistently attacking. Mind you it makes me feel like I've become a pseudo-brute chasing the +damage stack from attacks, but it's fun nonetheless.

I should be around, and can bring an appropriate character to thin out those pesky telepathists, or herd away from consoles.

In all honesty, because they put all their eggs in the 'multiplayer' basket for incarnate trial direction, and they cannot at present diverge without endangering all that they've made as of yet. The incarnate trials have to have lots of people to work, and any change that diverts people away from the trials has a cascading failure.

The fewer people running trials, the fewer that try to run trials, the fewer trials are run, it all collapses from there. As such the devs seem reeeeaaaly interested in making as much of a prerogative for people to keep staying involved in the trials. My personal thought is that if/when they can make global LFG functionality for incarnate trials, ensuring they can pull willing players from all servers at once, then they may relent on providing new/better incarnate avenues to solo/small team players.

As of now, the trials are only for level 50's of VIP status on the present single server...that's a pretty limited pool when looking at all possibilities, and the devs seem to look at solo content as a threat to the incarnate trial system by making that available pool smaller still. Hence why the solo incarnate stuff is as limited/time gated as it is, it seems the devs do want the speed/availability/etc of the trials in comparison to push people to keep involved in them.

I think ranged/AoE damage is a specialization for blasters. Obviously they shouldn't be able to one shot everything, but they should provide team/self mitigation via fast enemy defeats and in a few cases soft controls/utility powers.

They should provide consistent AoE damage, consistent single target damage, and burst damage via nukes and snipes. (In my opinion, the latter should be done without disadvantage, as that is part of the blaster role, not a 'perk.') While other classes could approach blasters performance via IO's, buffs, debuffs, a blaster should be guaranteed to supply a single target damage from afar, a steady stream of AoE attacks, bursts of very high AoE/ST damage, and quick death or mitigation against any foe that gets close.

I find myself going time and again to robotic drones, just for concept. Just about any character can pull out a few drones they found/bought/built, it makes a lot more sense than all of a sudden having romans/seers/rularu/nemesis/etc. show up to help them.

That said, I like the fact that the radial shield drone gives its shield to the whole team, not just me. Also its heal is mixed with 'stimulant,' which actually protects from all status effects making it darned handy, especially for squishies.