dombegone_

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Which in turn means doms as farmers are likely a thing of the past.

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till they nerf Fiery Assault, you're wrong

not every dom that farms is /psi

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You can farm with anything you want in this game.

I should have said:
Doms as a top tier farming build are likely gone.

You would have been much better served by posting a link of a /fiery clearing a map as fast as a /psi or SS brute. But Dr. Cox is good too I guess.

Here's why /fiery will never be a top tier farming build. And yes I have a earth/fire that I've done a whack of pl'ing with during 2x xp events.

They don't have the survivability to not use a primary control power (ie aoe stun). So that cuts your farming speed drastically. /psi has DP and PSW mitigating.

/fiery must use breath and combustion which means lining up a cone and then using a very slow pbaoe, that delivers very slow dot damage. Top farming builds aren't necessarily the absolute fastest mob clearers, but they all are very easy to use+very quick. If you look at ss/fire, fire/kin, and fire/psi they all have one huge commonality. They just stand in pbaoe and deliver death, then move to the next spawn and do it again. Jousting and lining up attacks reduces efficiency and that is pretending that the attacks you use are great, which combustion certainly is not.

You can use whatever you want to "farm". I've seen people "farm" with MA scrappers lol. When I say farm I'm not talking about the bush leagues, but rather what the big boys will use. Of which doms will likely be a thing of the past.

I'll support fire/elec blasters.

fire/kin corrs are also capable of some pretty disturbing damage.

Actually thinking IO'ing one out for some high def would be a fun project.

Basically you want Blaze and you want it ofter. It is that good.

Top 20

It would seem that not everyone agrees he is the plague to end all plagues.

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perma doms still weren't near the top of the list of desired teammates

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There's no way you can know that, which means your argument is based on a flawed premiss.

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Of course I can only know it as well as say an elec melee, or spines stalker knows it,or a /traps corr knows it.

I never said it wasn't flawed, but so is 99% of all posts on these boards because we simply don't have all the information.

Subjectively based on having played multiple perma doms a spines stalker and a /traps corr I'm confident when I say they all land in a similar range of team desireability.

Stalkers were and largely still are viewed as the suck in teams. So having a decent aoe build is pretty meaningless in the eyes of most.

Dom's are larely perceived to be the suck overall, so even advertising what you are capable of seems to have little impact.

Sorry I have doubts that a buff that really does very little to their team performance abilities will have much of an impact overall on their team desireability.

Yes of course that is imo, just like every single post on these forums that isn't red or Arcanaville.

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Unless perma doms have a different icon next to their names than regular doms do there's no way to judge how the general public views the teaming capabilities of perma doms.

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ya just like there is no way to tell what kind of corruptor you are recruiting...

Once you solve your end issues hotfeet will be great.

-res toggle on an imp+st -res on harder targets and you'll melt spawns.

fire/son is an end pig though, maybe even higher than fire/storm, which when I did was pretty painful.

bonefire is pretty lame. some really like it, but meh.

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Ok, so my bro and I both made Sonic/Pain. We are only lvl 7 right now.

We do not like Share Pain. I was really looking forward to this power as it is kinda unique.

I see I got hurt quite a bit but what I did not know is the 100% resistance to healing for 15s?? Are you kidding me? 25% Damage Buff isn't THAT much and it only lasts 15s.

Is it me or I feel Pain Domination is kinda weak? We are still going to keep lvling but Share Pain is really kinda sucky.

I mean they can at least make damage buff last longer or reduce the healing resistance to like 5s. 15s immue to healing? WTf??

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Share pain works much better for MM's due to bodyguard spreading the -health out and because their soothing aura power is +regen, rather than a heal. So while share pain does -regen it is only 100%, which is very easy to overcome.

The corr version of soothign aura is +regen in pvp as well, which imo makes it a much better power than in pve.

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I see because you can have +regen higher than 100% but you can't have healing % higher than 100%.

I don't know...I feel Pain is quite weak right now. Share Pain is quite a disappointment. I already hurt myself when I use it but what's worse is I can't get healed at all for 15s? You gotta be kidding me.

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I haven't used it outside of MM's. But ya my understanding is that it works much better on them.

I did draw up a pvp pain corr that has just shy of 800% regen thanks in part to soothing aura being regen in pvp rather than a pulse heal. It actually seemed like it could be pretty snazy. But alas, lolpvp.

I don't see the draw of playing a pain corr personally, but for MM's it seems like a very great set. I mean even solo you get to use everything, which as an ally centric set is pretty nice.

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Am I the only one who thinks that this particular dom overhaul is totally tangential to reality?

The number one dom issue in the dom issues thread is our hefty weakness vs hard single targets like EBs/AVs, and this has certainly been my experience 40+. A tweak to damage isn't going to help me where I need it most. It will get me through the map just a little bit faster where I can have just as much trouble as before with the endboss.

The whole thing feels like a mostly-irrelevant sidegrade, even as a not-perma-dom, and gives me no reason to salvage my dominator.

I'd love to hear that I've misunderstood.

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dude, the basic premise of the "buffs" is to make the dominator the first primary/primary AT in the game, which means a control primary and a damage primary. Yes dominators get boned on the whole AV potds but the increase in base damage gives dominators a significantly different role right from level one.

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If you look at the numbers this will have minimal impact from the 1-20 game due to how scalars work. Which is one of the main dom issues. It will be most useful in the 20-40 game while SOLO.

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To that end, I am proposing the following changes to Dominators, effective in the I15 release. The overall effect of these changes will be refocusing the AT from Control primary with Damage as a weak secondary, to effectively giving the Dominator dual primary purposes of Control and Damage. While this sounds unbalancing, it is apparent from how the ATs are being used that this is actually the proper method of addressing the issues of this AT.

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You are not supposed to be able to solo AVs on any AT anyway, its a team objective, that said some can do it easier than others but such is life. Personally I have already drawn up a defence heavy IO build for my new fire/fire ready to take advantage of the new changes and its infinately cheaper than a permadom build.

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The known changes do next to nothing to address dom teaming viability and popularity in the 30+ game.

Think about it this way:
If doms will now be doing similar damage to a perma dom, yet perma doms still weren't near the top of the list of desired teammates how will that equate to new doms being more popular teammates?

It will certainly open up new build flexibility in the IO game, which is great, but domination still offers mez protection and "i win" control strength.

I'll still be aiming for perma dom (or not changing my existing set ups much). You'd have to get very high def numbers to equal the mitigation of their active abilities in perma dom. I mean aoe boss strength mezzing and one shot holding bosses = what 40-45% def in actual play?

The high recharge brings up said active mitigation more often too, which is more beneficial to teams than self preservation through high individual mitigation.

I *might* adjust it down so that my builds are barely perma dom and then dump the excess room into other stuff, but then again maybe not.

Unless you are specifically niche building for things like Av soloing, but there are so much better options available than doms for that.

I certainly won't say no to the known buff, but from what I can see it actually does very little to address the core issues that doms have.

Neither. I wouldn't touch /psi with a ten foot pole until Castle has finished with it and we get sloppy seconds.

The chances of /psi remains a top tier farming set are pretty low. Which in turn means doms as farmers are likely a thing of the past.

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Ok, so my bro and I both made Sonic/Pain. We are only lvl 7 right now.

We do not like Share Pain. I was really looking forward to this power as it is kinda unique.

I see I got hurt quite a bit but what I did not know is the 100% resistance to healing for 15s?? Are you kidding me? 25% Damage Buff isn't THAT much and it only lasts 15s.

Is it me or I feel Pain Domination is kinda weak? We are still going to keep lvling but Share Pain is really kinda sucky.

I mean they can at least make damage buff last longer or reduce the healing resistance to like 5s. 15s immue to healing? WTf??

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Share pain works much better for MM's due to bodyguard spreading the -health out and because their soothing aura power is +regen, rather than a heal. So while share pain does -regen it is only 100%, which is very easy to overcome.

The corr version of soothign aura is +regen in pvp as well, which imo makes it a much better power than in pve.

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How about in RV when the last person takes over a Pill Box an option window opens and you get to choose what to turn on or off in the zone (DR, Heal Decay, TS, PvP resist, etc...). It will give the pillbox a better reason to be in the zone.

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How bout y'all just get the eff over it already and deal with what we have?

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In all honesty someone would be hardpressed to make pvp worse than Castle did even if they were trying to screw it up.

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Aw man, am I gonna have to update this antique?

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We don't know.

Graphics updates can mean two things:

The devs have found a way to update the engine so that overall performance is increased. This would be new.

The devs are dumping more crud in to make everything prettier and more cluttered as they did with CoV and the subsequent CoH texture upgrades. This is the normal MO and what I expect to occur. This means that yes, everyone will need to upgrade in order to maintain the performance they have now.

I started a thread in the tech forum about this topic but no information of worth came from it.

We'll know when I-16 goes live and we log on to test.

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This seems most likely.

Unless they have a super secret plan that is gonna make subs jump through the roof I doubt we'll see the "expensive" option.

As for the potential prophets, well it was pretty obvious after the PR fallout of MA that they would have to let something really big out of the bag.
a/ power customization
b/ side switching
Spin the wheel.. it turned out to be b/

That also doesn't factor in that b/ is the obvious choice considering side switching has been possible since CoV launched. Or have we all forgotten the occassional errant blue side player in the rogue isles and visa versa?

Also factor in that "that other game" has been boasting power customization that seems like it will far exceed what eventually happens in this game. You end up with:

1. The need for a really big announcement to put out the fire
2. One of Two big options
3. One of which the competiton is already pushing
4. The other, already in place, highly lauded, and something that the competiton can't offer.

While calling it is a bit better than predicting the sun will rise tomorrow, I doubt they'll be registering you as a paranormal

I never said CoX was at 1/5th I said some other games from the dinosaur age of CoX that are considered on life support are at between 1/5th and 1/10th and still posting similar subs to CoX.

CoX has never soared high or fallen. When it was at 220k did that factor in the EU and/or the asian subs that have since been shut down?

I think a better question to ask rather than just blindly stating that non-fantasy fails to attract big numbers is WHY?

Supers and comic based media are all the rage right now, practically every super powered movie has done well-verywell and even a number of graphic novels turned movie have shined.

Why has CoX as the only super powered MMO failed to capitalize when the world can't get enough super powers? I think partially because the vast majority of super spin off games have been total trash, it has hurt the genre. But with everyone's eyes on Supers *if* CoX is truly great it should have rose like a bat out of hell.

I think the reality is, while a really fun game for many of us (me included, I'm just shy of my 3.5yr mark) CoX really isn't that great.

You're free to bash Jack all you want, but bear in mind very few people will even know who he is, or why some people hate on him. I won't for a second pretend he didn't make some colosal mistakes, but imo he delivered us all a fun game that during his time felt a lot more super powered than it does now and it used to have a lot more exciting and electrified atmosphere. Now everyone hides in instanced missions and you are dumb to venture into the streets.

Where are all the supers?
Plugged into the VR machines across town.
Oh.

I feel bad for all the people saying that size doesn't matter.

It has always mattered and always will matter.

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You're operating on the assumption that there is gonna be a CoX2. There are many reason not to go that route and to "simply" update the existing game, not the least of which is that every sequel MMO (that I can think of) has been a failure, especially when compared to its predecessor.

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The devs spout off about risk vs reward all the time like they are some kind of risk analysts. So lets think about it like that.

How many games and/or MMO's have had a heart transplant when they are in the geriatric ward (massive multi-million overhaul when they are hella old)?

Of those games (if they exist) how many have had a massive resurgence?

I'm not saying there will be a CoX2 at all, just that if they are actively seeking a new engine it would make sense to drop it in a new version of the game, rather than trying to perform cpr.

To be brutally frank (everyone here likes this game) at 150k subs, I don't really see how CoX2 could do worse... Some MMO's that are considered to be on life support, or new ones that have been total flops are still pulling sub numbers in that range.

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And I never suggested that we didn't have to pay for the last expansion. Again, Reading Comprehension 101 comes in handy. What I said was that we haven't been told anything that is coming down the pike except for the expansion (which, of course, we have to pay for just as we did the last one). That doesn't tell us anything about what we can expect in future issues, which is something this creative team has done several times over the last year or so.

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Positron stated in an interview he was working internally on Issue 18.

He also hinted at demonic summoning and dual pistol power sets coming in the future (happens to be the sets of the two characters featured in the CoHGR vid: a dual pistol blaster and a demon summoning master mind)

There was also a strange note about: "all I can say is that power customization was something we were not able to do while we were under cryptic, that's all I can say right now" (but I think if this comes it will be exclusive to people that buy the expansion.)

The Issue 18 being on the works is enough hint to know they are working on much more stuff to come, though.

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To play devils advocate:

It isn't hard to plan 3-4 issues ahead when they consist of a single TF/SF and a handful of new costume/faces

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I disagree with a complete 'no movement supression' - There needs to be some advantage to running SR, taking swift/hurdle, or bringing a kin along. i12 supression was perfect the way it is.

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It was certainly pretty close to ideal and much better than now.

I'd have slapped an unresistable movement suppression on melee range attacks from the armored AT's (brutes, tanks, scraps, not stalkers tho) and combined with the -range of taunt would have called it a day.

Melee was always an excellent choice for zone pvp, what you gave up in killing power you gained back in being unkillable.

The -range and ability to impede movement of people even buffed by kins possibly would have given them a team role as well.

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I have confirmation from a couple of my friends who have seen advertisements where they live for the "posi team" looking for game engine developers... Although this *may* or may not mean there is an overhaul in the game engine, I do think this confirms that they have at least looked into the possibility of it in the future, for whatever reasons they may have for future releases or games.

"The One"

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The logical question is "when" were these ads put out? If they were one to two years ago then sure it might be for CoX. If they are more recent it is probably for something else like CoX2.

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if we get the engine overhaul I'm expecting.

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See, there's the problem. You're setting expectations and setting yourself up for disappointment.

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Yeah, NCSoft doesn't throw huge piles of money at stable online games.

That would almost make sense...

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Stable or otherwise, I'm not sure if 150k subscribers is something you throw a lot of money at.

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150,000 more than Tabula Rasa has, and how much money did that cost?

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Citing one failed project and waste of resources is hardly what I'd call evidence to support possibly wasting it again.

Seriously think about it. How much would an engine overhaul cost? How many additional subscribers would be required to offset that?

Right now we have CO soon to be release. DCUO sometime next year and Marvel Online reannounced. That is 2 very name brand competitors and one not so name brand, but highly focused on giving players everything CoX has failed to deliver and marketing it as such.

We all know that as the tide comes in it raises all ships, but in all fairness I think this is "The Coming Storm" that CoX has talked about for years lol. This game holds at about 120-150k subscribers in a competition-less environment.

While a new engine may or may not be necessary to compete with the new entrants I think it would be much better to put those resources into CoX2. People speak very highly of Posi and crew, surely they have the ability and know how to make cox2?

That is only talking about direct competitors and speaks nothing of the other new entrants in the MMO market that are offering as fast (or much faster) game play than CoX, which this game has always been near the forefront of compared to other western MMO's.

It also speaks nothing of this game's age. Sure they are plenty of long lived MMO's, but most of them had a heck of a lot more subs at their prime than CoX. Now they are operating at 1/10th or 1/5th of their heyday and still have similar numbers to CoX.

This isn't a doom call, as CoX is still going to be running for some time. It is just a reality call. "The Coming Storm" is on its way, it is just in real life rather than in game.

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*Which* issues actually become material issues the devs will have to address isn't obvious to me at the moment.

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The (if it ever happens, new) dominator vs. blaster issue seems pretty obvious to me, but blasters are apparently popular, so they may be able to hold on to their popularity even vs. (if it ever happens, new) dominators.

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When they make doms capable of massive aoe damage is when they will start to seriously threaten the blaster team role.

As it is right now dom2.0 is a great choice over a blapper, but not a blaster. And blappers are niche players on teams.

At's/powersets that focus on st damage and produce low aoe have historically not been very popular outside of solo players.

Doms are awesome and have a very fun playstyle (likely for more experience players though), but their lack of easy to use aoe damage will be theirdownfall imo. I say "easy to use" because they can actually do ok aoe, but cumbersome powers like slow cones+slow pbaoes really show their weakness on teams using targeted aoes and easy to use pbaoes.

Great choice for solo players though, but they have pretty stiff competition in that department too. Including three AT's so strong in solo play that they reputably solo the hardest content in the game.

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if we get the engine overhaul I'm expecting.

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See, there's the problem. You're setting expectations and setting yourself up for disappointment.

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Yeah, NCSoft doesn't throw huge piles of money at stable online games.

That would almost make sense...

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Stable or otherwise, I'm not sure if 150k subscribers is something you throw a lot of money at. I doubt we will see a new engine. A new engine would allow so much more to be added that you may as well just build cox2.

That said, I think they will find a way to give us limited power customization with the existing engine. And yes I've read the past posts on this subject. It won't be customization like making lightning come from your hand and then changing it to come from your eyes and changing it from a st attack to an aoe. Rather it will probably just be color change options. Which would still likely appease many of the people asking for it.

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qr

I'd avoid /psi until we see how it comes out in the wash.

I'd actually hold off on any new dom until we see how they come out in the wash, but that is just me.

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imo, doms are the most fun you can have in this game. i'd ride the wave one last time and if they gut them just leave.

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good point.

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there are better ways to craft challening (in some cases, EXTREMELY challenging) mobs with MA than just setting all spawns to be bosses and calling it a day.

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Yes, like all EB

nah I hear what you are saying and agree. But setting everything to be a boss is very easy to do. For people looking for an experience that is harder than vanila pve, but don't want to spend very much time playing around with MA settings going all-boss is a great choice.

That doesn't mean they can't also run other missions, or won't play around with various settings later.

Of course in the sea of crap that is MA, once you find something you really like it might not be worth searching further for some people.

Like for instance, I love the spicy peanut noodle dish at this one restaurant. I'm sure their other dishes are good too and have been told as much, but I haven't strayed yet. And that is with the assurance that I'd very likely enjoy the other stuff, it only gets worse when you will likely have to wade through heaps of things you don't like to find another enjoyable experience.

qr

I'd avoid /psi until we see how it comes out in the wash.

I'd actually hold off on any new dom until we see how they come out in the wash, but that is just me.

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There's good and bad things about MA/EA. Some of the player created arcs are really fun and creative. However the majority of the people I run into just want to do a Boss farm over and over again. I keep getting told that they've already gone through everything else so they want something knew, but I fail to see how running the same boss farm from 1-50 is any more exciting than going through the zones. I think MA/EA had and has the potential to be great, it's just being used in ways that weren't intended.

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For the avg player a MA arc filled with painstakingly hand crafted story is going to be exactly the same as running existing dev created content because most people don't read the story anyway. They just zone in and start killing mobs.

So an all-boss map is actually a different experience from the normal pve game and quite frankly one that actually offers some degree of difficulty compared to the normal minion munching fest. Whether that makes it good enough to play over and over again... well that is up to the individual.