Seldom

@Dechs...Gotcha.

Res/defense, then, are easy enough to calculate. They're based off of crunching the numbers of how much incoming damage there is, and it's accuracy, and comparing that to how much an armor will reduce/deflect that. While +res/+def powers skew the recieving scale, the debuffs -dam/-tohit change the incoming scale. The only trick is perhaps taking into account how much the foes resist these effects. All that seems easy enough.

+regen is basically the opposite of damage over a time period. Heals can be averaged into a regeneration-like value, based off of their recharge.

Wouldn't mez, then, be somewhat similar to how heals work? Disregarding immobilizes, all other mez stops an enemy from attacking you for a certain time. As such, the calculation would be what % of the time is an enemy incapacitated? If the power recharges in 30 seconds, and lasts 15, that's 50% damage survivability, assuming it hits. With full accuracy you're right about the 5% hit chance, but that doesn't apply vs. the second mez laid down. I'm betting the chances or two powers @95% accuracy missing the same target is a bit low.

The perma-dom, especially a perma-Mind dom sporting 3 AoE controls on fast enough recharges, is an extreme example. But since you brought in a dark armor character, I wonder how oppressive gloom and cloak of fear stack up? Or a dark miasma character that has an AoE fear/-tohit alongside +res and -dam/-tohit.

Hm. Fear is an odd one, as it's basically a -rech in function...for a certain duration, the enemy can only cower. Every 10 second, or when damaged, they have an action chance before they are returned to the cowering status. This continues until the fear duration is up.

Yikes, that gets complicated in a hurry.

To the question of Mind/ on doms...
yes, the RSF is a place where you will be 'needed.' but that's only a part of the puzzle.

Mind/ is so control-heavy it's not funny. On controllers, that's often too much as they get damage mitigation in their secondary. Doms? They just kill stuff. So more mitigation= more survival.

Mind/ is also the best AoE control out there: on teams, the dom can make a big difference using terrify/total dom/mass confuse. The sleep is great for mitigating alphas and/or ambushes/secondary mobs.

Mind/ also fits concepts quite directly: the character that messes with minds to make them helpless. Psychics, evil geniuses, spiritual/magical beings...it all works.

Mind is early blooming. unlike other control sets, which often have to wait some time for a control roundout, Mind/ can give you many means of mitigation early on, especially for solo play. Mesmerize, dominate,confuse,levitate- (levitate stops something from attacking for a pretty good moment.) These make dealing with foes easy.

Hm. I've wondered about how these things compare when using differing kinds of mitigation. How, for instance, would you compare a dominator with permanent domination and mass control overlaps to a softcapped character?

Kinetics and electric blast. Kinetics contains two endurance drains, electric blast comes with a -recovery to keep the end away. All blasts drain endurance.

Energy melee and dark armor. High on endurance, but with plenty of mitigation...and with all attacks being stuns, the toggle stun makes any attack stun bosses in one shot.

Kinetics and radiation blast. All kinetics need a hit check, so the -defense helps a lot. Plus three of the AoE's can be used from the center of a fulcrum shift.

Katana or broadsword with regeneration. The +defense from the swords goes a long ways with regeneration's damage recovery focus. The extra time not being hit is extra time filling up you health bar.

Dark melee with stone armor. Stone armor is end heavy without a self heal...dark melee has an endurance refill and a heal.

Dark melee and fire armor. Two heals, two endurance refills, and an immobilize to strap down enemies in a burn patch. Yum!

Fire/fire dominators. fiery embrace gives bonus damage not just to your attacks, but to your damage aura and all controls. The breadth of things you can kill with fire is amazing.

Archery/EM: boost range makes all you attacks hit from far away. Archery hits everything from far away. Boost range>buildup>aim>rain of arrows is the snipe nuke of doom.

Fire blast/mental manipulation: AoE's to the nines, with a +regen/recovery to boot.

forcefield/pistols (on chemical rounds) cap everyone's defense, then lower the damage of all your foes.

This is footage caught this morning of an attempted robbery in steel canyon, at approximately 11:00 am. Suspect entered Subgenetics demanding 'Cute new mutant fluffy tails' she'd heard about, and threatened to use force if necessary. The store clerk alerted her to the fact they were not yet available, whereupon the suspect fled the premises. The suspect is considered armed and extremely adorable.

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Well, the reason robotics/ stacks well is the exponential nature of layered defensive buff mitigation. As such, Thugs/ is an easy one. That said, Demons may work well...layering your defense with their resists seems a good thing. Oh, yeah..the big demon is defensive based, so there's some good defense stacking for you. Necro/ may work well once you have self heals...they get hit less, but can heal when they do. You'll just have to be careful with the knockback parts of /ff, as necro/ is melee.

Yeah, the only way I run out of end on my Mind/psy perma dom? running fly, stealth, the patron armor and telekenisis, fly/stealth unslotted for endurance. even then, I can keep it up for a while before gulping a blue.

Yeah, for dominators you can get respectable damage, but most sets will give you very few. Dominators are balanced more by ability than numbers: They have ranged damage only outshined by blasters, and melee damage outshined only by scrappers. They can make entire groups for a full 8 man team helpless indefinitely.

On paper this seems overpowered: until you realize that they usually only get 2-3 AoE powers, 2-3 melee attacks, and/or 2-3 normal ranged attacks. All but 2 lack buildup, one has aim. So while what's there is crazy strong, it's often pretty even damage overall due to recharges and lack of damage multiplying powers.

That said, they are quit fun for taking on/out large groups do to dominators' unique form of mitigation: total mob control. It's something that appeals to some, not to others.

Ocho: ...yeah, Tyrant! I TOTALLY showed him who's boss! I went through a portal, saved a hero, and gave that guy a knuckle sandwich like This! and THIS!! He was toataly like "Ochooo....don't hurt me more!" Seriously, he was cowering like this-
Resistance member: Mm-Hmm.....
Thinks to self: Dude, I am SO glowing right now. I am so bright. Like I forget what it's like to turn on a light, I glow everywhere. I'm my own night-light. When I took that shower in my armor in the dark? Sooo cool. Man I am awesome....

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My personal takes on AV's:

First remember that the rank carries with it massive inherent damage, HP, and resistance modifiers.

My taboos:
Buildup of any sort.

Resurrects. You beat them once, fair enough. Twice? no dice.

Masterminds sets. Mastermind foes are the 'weak point, so taking them out takes out their summons. An extra tough summoner is punishing and not rewarding according to the trouble.

Endurance drains. These are long fights, being unable to use powers is no fun.

Debilitating/long term debuffs. Light ones maybe, but thing like melt armor, heat exhaustion, weaken, lingering radiation, or benumb? Please don't.

Also be careful about debilitating controls that leave the player vulnerable, as that can lead to frustration. AV's can pose a long, hard fight, so being killed by a tough for that keeps you from fighting back is not fun.

When making an AV, I tend to look to archetype balance for inspiration. I you wish your AV to have controls, make sure they have low damage. High resistance? parse out the high-tier attacks. High damage? lower the resistance.

On a side note, I've found what I might term the 'better' AV: Elite bosses, with more complete powersets. That way the purple triangles are replaced with armors or other mitigating effects: These are very tough fights, but are tough because of the bosses' abilities, not the overwhelming stats AV's provide. Just make sure people know what to expect: few players are used to enemies that pull some of the hijinks that player powersets provide.

Whilst there were interpretations that this pack would offer more monstrous/bestial options, looking past that the bioluminescent does look freaky and mutated. I like it a lot, and think it fits perfectly with the pack. I personally never thought mutant=bestial, just that mutant~organic. Which brings us to the other set...

The organic armor looks nice, but it looks far more twisted/sharp than organic. Admittedly the look lends itself well to the demonic coloring-this doesn't mean it's demonic. That said? If the intent was to make armor that looked like it 'grew' out of the character,it looks a bit too layered to achieve that effect. 'Shard armor' or something of the like might be more accurate.

To the developers and players, I have to say I'd hoped that the 'missing' bestial options- wolf and fur pieces, new bestial heads outside of the wolf/bat options, better aquatic possibilities, etc. would be included in the Going Rogue expansion, so said concepts weren't locked to a peripheral like booster packs. If not, then I will be a bit disappointed, and hope such options make their way onto the art department's radar.

Side note, I only recently noticed dominators' melee damage mods outdo all other archetypes except scrappers. Earth assault being melee heavy is not a bad thing.

If you're going for defence, put in your bids for the kinetic combat sets ASAP. Those are hard to find, and the black market moves slowly. Bidding ahead is in your best interests, and that set gives very good smashing/lethal defence @ 4 slots. As an /earth dom, you'll have a fair number of power that can take the set.

Also: Earth/ benefits less from domination than other sets, so it's actually a popular defensive build choice.

I didn't see the latter build, but if you're going high-recharge permadom, you will not need to touch the fighting pool. Mind/ has so much mitigation that once you have your controls up all the time stuff won't be touching you much. Drain psyche heals up what does get through.

Telekenisis is also very handy vs. AV's once you reach perma-dom status. Mass hypnosis is the best opener you can find, so letting that one go will hurt big time.

All my emails disappeared yesterday, I hope this was unrelated.

I'm assuming that the question is regarding 'Drain psyche,' sooo...is this for a dominator, or blaster?

If it's a dom, 5x doctored wounds +1 Accuracy IO are good for +recharge, which is especially good for doms. If a blaster, then the +recharge isn't such a big issue.

...and no matter what, drain psyche is well worth the investment. Survivability via +regen and better offense output through good recovery are always good.

Word to the wise: Fire's immobilizes remove knockback. On the plus side, this lets you immobilize a group, put a bonfire under them, and get some okay damage that way. (Renewing the immobilize often to prevent scatter.) On the downside, if you throw out your immobilize, none of your energy blasts will knock them off of their feet for the first bits of the immobilizaes' duration. Not good/bad, just so you know. Oh, and /Energy is probably one of the earliest blooming sets, so you have that going for you.

Well, fire/thorns should have a fair number of AoE's, and should function well in the thick of things. Electric gives you buildup for damage, but it's a pretty blappy set. Energy should have plenty of stuns to stack with flashfire. (Your primary mitigation.)