Guide to the Dominator Patron Power Pools

_Brev__NA · 09-14-2006 02:17 AM

Welcome to my guide to the Dominator Patron Power Pools. Here I hope to explain a bit about the Patron Power Pools; what they are, how you get them, what implications they have, and all that jazz. I'll also look into the main differences between the Patron Pools so you can hopefully make an informed decision about which (if any) Patron you want to permanently associate your Dominator with.

If you spot any mistakes then please let me know and I will try to correct them in a subsequent version of the guide. Any constructive feedback welcomed.

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What I'll be covering:
<ul type="square">[*] Patron Power Pools - an introduction[*] Ghost Widow - Soul Mastery[*] Black Scorpion - Mace Mastery[*] Captain Mako - Leviathan Mastery[*] Scirocco - Mu Mastery[*] Comparing the Powers[*] Summary[/list]
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Patron Power Pools - an introduction

The Patron Power Pools are the Villain equivalent of the Hero Ancillary Power Pools (aka Epic Power Pools). They are special Power Pools that become available for selection from Level 41 and feature a variety of powers that help patch up some of your weaknesses and also provide some novelty.

Unlike the Hero APP's, the PPP's are not automatically available for selection at level 41 - you have to unlock them first by completing a story arc from the particular Patron you have chosen. The Patrons are the four Lieutenants of Lord Recluse: Ghost Widow, Black Scorpion, Captain Mako, and Scirocco. You can do their first story arc at any time from level 40-50. To gain access to a Patron and their story arc, you must first speak to Arbiter Rein, who stands to the right of the three doors that lead into the main Grandville tower (behind the statue of Lord Recluse). He will first instruct you to read the plaques in the tower lobby to familiarise yourself with the powers each Patron offers; upon doing so and returning to him, he will then offer to introduce you to one of them.

Once you have chosen, you then have that Patron as a regular contact and can speak to them in person (they are located in a conference room within the main Grandville tower, accessed through some elevators out the rear left of the entrance hall with the plaques), and eventually by calling them of course. Once you complete their first story arc you will receive a badge that is specific to that Patron, and this signifies that you have unlocked their Power Pool and will be able to pick powers from it from level 41. You are also granted a bonus respec upon completion of the arc which allows you to respec the powers and slots of your character by speaking to the Arbiter in Nerva (it is treated as an earned respec rather than a "freespec", and it stacks with the three respecs you can get from doing the Thorn Tree Trial). The Patron's also have additional Story Arcs for you (which cover both the 40-45 and 45-50 ranges), but only the first is necessary to unlock their Patron Power Pool.

PLEASE NOTE: You can only ever pick ONE PATRON for your character - once you have accepted one as a contact you cannot go back and choose a different Patron later on! Therefore you need to be sure of which one you want, and this guide will try to make sure you know as much about the different Patrons and their powers as possible.

You don't have to pick a Patron at all if you don't wish to - you can either simply never speak to Arbiter Rein, or you can just get as far as reading the plaques and not pick a Patron when you go back to him. Then you can simply choose other powers from you Primary, Secondary and regular Power Pools at levels 41, 44, 47 and 49 instead. You can always go back and choose a Patron later on if you wish - for example you could copy your a Patron-less level 50 villain to the test server four times and then run each version through a different Patron and then respec into each pool to see which you prefer. Once you complete their arc you get that bonus respec anyway which will allow you to pick powers from that Patron from level 41+. You can respec in and out of the various powers in your chosen Patron's Pools, even respeccing out of them entirely if you so wish - you just can't respec into a different Patron Pool.

Like the Hero APP's, the Patron Pools work similarly to regular Power Pools in terms of how their powers become available. Initially only the first two powers will be available, then the 3rd unlocks (once you take one of the first two), and then the 4th and final one unlocks (once you have two of the first three). So for example you could choose the second power at level 41, the third at 44, the fourth at 47, and first at 49. Alternatively you could choose the first at 41, the second at 44, the fourth at 47 and something completely different at 49. I'm sure you get the idea.

So that's basically what the PPP's are and how they work - now I'll go through each Patron in turn and look at their powers.

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Ghost Widow - Soul Mastery

Ghost Widow is the only female Patron, and she commands the Fortunatas and Widows that you will have met already in the game. The powers she offers Dominators are themed mainly around dark blasts, and hence deal mostly with negative energy (and are mainly dark in colour with a bit of subtle purple thrown in, aside from the Fortunata pet who has the usual bright purple/pink Psi attacks).

From level 41 you have the options of Dark Consumption and Dark Embrace. Dark Consumption is mainly an endurance recovery power, although it does deal some damage too (not a great deal though). It basically damages the enemies surrounding you and transfers that to you in the form of endurance. Unenhanced, hitting four enemies will restore your entire blue bar. The drawbacks of the power are that it has a very long recharge of 6 minutes, and quite a small radius of effect (8 feet). If you do take it you will probably be wanting to slot 1-2 Accuracy, 2-3 Recharge, and then either Damage or Endurance Modification to taste.

Dark Embrace is the shield power, and offers resistance to smashing, lethal, negative energy, and toxic damage. Its appearance is a fairly subtle dark aura around you, with Ghost Widow's symbol (an hourglass) pulsing in the aura every few seconds. You will probably want to take the shield of whichever Patron you choose anyway as they will all help increase your survivability substantially. Good slotting for this is 1 Endurance Reduction and 3 Damage Resistance. See the comparison section below for the numbers.

From level 44 you can choose Dark Obliteration (if you picked one of the other Patron Powers at level 41). Dark Obliteration is a ranged, targetted AoE damage power that also slightly debuffs enemy accuracy. It deals slightly less damage than the area damage you will already have access to in your secondary, although the fact that this is fully ranged is obviously a bit of a bonus. It does have a longer recharge and is more expensive than comparable area or cone attacks in your secondary though. If you take it then good slotting will be 1-2 Accuracy, 3 Damage, and then Recharge or Endurance Reduction as you feel appropriate (the tohit debuff is very small and not really worth slotting for).

From level 47 you can choose the Summon Fortunata Seer power (if you have already picked two of the other three Patron Powers at 41 and 44). This power summons a Fortuanta Seer as a pet, though unlike the pets you may have in your primary, this one will only last 4 minutes before disappearing. She has the same powers as a regular Fortunata Seer you will have battled many times, and so she basically has single target Psionic Assault powers, and also a special leadership-like power that increases the perception and confusion resistance of all allies close-by. She herself has a small amount of defence, moderate psionic and mez resistance, and a small tohit bonus. The Patron Pet powers have a very long recharge time (15 mins), although this can be reduced with recharge reducers, hasten etc. Recommended slotting for the Fortunata Seer is 3 Rech, and 1-3 Damage, depending on available slots (Accuracy shouldn't be necessary if you run tactics, but 1 Acc may be worthwhile if you don't as her personal tohit bonus power only grants her an extra 10% tohit).

For full stats on Ghost Widow's powers, check out this site, or look at the plaques in Grandville tower.

Black Scorpion - Mace Mastery

Black Scorpion is a Brute, and he commands the Mace-wielding soldiers and Arachnobots that you will have met in virtually every Arachnos mission. His powers are heavily themed around the Mace and look pretty much identical to the ones the Arachnos soldiers use. Be warned the Mace is pretty large and may look a bit out of place on a smaller character (unless that is what you would prefer!).

From level 41 you can pick Poisonous Ray and Scorpion Shield. Poisonous Ray is mainly a single target debuff power that reduces defence and damage resistance of the target by 15%, though it also deals some energy and toxic damage. It recharges slightly faster than the debuff lasts, so you can keep a target permanently debuffed (though the debuff cannot stack with itself on a single target). Good slotting will be 1-2 Acc, and then 1-3 Rech, 1-3 DefDebuff to taste (you can't slot for damage and the damage is pretty low for a single target power anyway).

The Scorpion Shield is the only Patron Shield that is primarily Defence-based rather than Resistance based - it offers defence against Smashing, Lethal and Energy Damage, while also providing some secondary resistance to toxic damage. Its appearance is a subtle purple aura with Black Scorpion's symbol pulsing in the aura every few seconds. Good slotting for this is 1 Endurance Reduction and 3 Defence Buffs. The small amount of toxic damage resistance isn't really worth investing extra slots in. See the comparison section below for numbers.

From level 44 you can choose Disruptor Blast (if you already have one of the first two Patron Powers). This is another ranged, targetted AoE damage power and it also has a small chance to knock enemies back. It deals both smashing and energy damage and like the other PPP damage AoE's, it has a fairly high endurance cost and recharge time. Recommended slotting is 1-2 Accuracy, 3 Damage, and Recharge or Endurance Reduction to taste.

From level 47 you can choose the Summon Toxic Tarantula power (if 2 other Patron Powers have already been picked). This has the same duration / recharge characteristics of the other Patron Pet summons. The Patron Toxic Tarantula has similar powers as the version you see in the game, and so deals energy, lethal and toxic damage, and also has an immobilize power, though its hold power has been removed in the pet version. Several powers also have a -fly and -jump component. It does a mixture of single target and area damage, and works both from range and in melee. It has smashing, lethal and toxic resistance. It doesn't have the same inherent accuracy buff as the Fortunata and so recommended slotting would be 1 Accuracy, 2-3 Damage and 2-3 Recharge, depending on how many slots you give it.

For full stats on Black Scorpion's powers, check out this site, or look at the plaques in Grandville tower.

Captain Mako - Leviathan Mastery

Captain Mako is a stalker with strong connections to the Coralax Hybrids, and Sharkhead Isle in general. The powers he offers Dominators are mainly water themed and if you have fought the Coralax before then you will recognise most of his powers from them.

From level 41 you can pick Water Spout or Chum Spray. Water Spout is basically a clone of Storm Summoning's Tornado power but with snazzier graphics. It is a pseudo-pet that lasts just 30 seconds and chases down enemies while dealing a continuous stream of damage over time, applying heavy knockback and disorient, and also debuffing defence. It can be a very chaotic power, but that can be both good or bad, depending on how you look at it. Most of the Dominator primaries have powers that can negate knockback which can help to contain the mayhem somewhat if you wish (the fire, ice and plant aoe Immob's can be good in particular). It has a base recharge of 3 minutes so cannot be out all the time, but it can be a very useful tool when it is. It can be particularly useful in PvP due to its very high inherent accuracy and multiple effects. Recommended slotting is 2-3 Recharge, 2-3 Damage, and then possibly Endurance Reduction or Defence Debuff to taste - well worth 6 slotting the power in any case.

Chum Spray is a cone damage power and so isn't quite as flexible as the other Patrons' ranged damage AoE's, though it does have a fairly decent range (it is the same size cone as Psionic Assault's Psychic Scream). It makes up for this by doing slightly more damage than the other Patron AoE's. It deals purely toxic damage and thankfully doesn't have a 'puking' sound, but more of a generic water splash sound. It looks like a typical Coralax Water Spray power, though it does have extra 'chunks'. It has the same endurance cost / recharge as the other Patron damage AoE's.

Note: Chum Spray actually got renamed to Bile Spray before Issue 7 went live, but a lot of people hate the new name so still affectionately refer to its original name .

From level 44 you can pick Shark Skin, Mako's Shield power (assuming you have already picked one Patron Power). Despite being a 3rd tier power rather than 2nd like the others, it doesn't actually differ particularly from any of the other Patron Shields in either operation or effectiveness - it is still a toggle and it offers resistance to smashing, lethal and cold damage. Its appearance is a subtle blue aura with Mako's symbol pulsing every few seconds. Slotting is the usual 1 Endurance Reduction, 3 Damage Resistance affair. See the comparison section for the numbers on it.

From level 47 you can pick the Summon Blue Coralax power (if you already have at least 2 of the other 3 Patron Powers). Again, same duration / recharge times as before, and the powers are the same as the Lt-class Blue Coralax you may have met - it deals mostly smashing and lethal damage but also has a cold damage cone attack that also debuffs movement speed and recharge. It is at its most potent in melee (and deals reasonable damage to both single targets and in a cone), but also has some ranged damage too (again both in single target and AoE form). It has no special innate accuracy and so recommended slotting is 1 Acc, 2-3 Dam and 2-3 Recharge, depending on spare slots.

For full stats on Captain Mako's powers, check out this site, or look at the plaques in Grandville tower.

Scirocco - Mu Mastery

Scirocco is a Corruptor and has strong ties to the Mu who you will have met several times by now. All his powers are themed around the characteristic red electricity of the Mu and deal pure energy damage.

From level 41 you have the option of Power Sink and Charged Armor. Power Sink is basically the same as the power that electric armor Brutes get, although it is on a longer recharge of 2 minutes. It is a straight forward endurance drain power that transfers endurance from surrounding foes to you. It deals no damage but has a chance to halt endurance recovery in anything it hits, and it autohits all enemies in range (and therefore needs no accuracy slotting) - it has a slightly larger radius of effect (10 feet) than Soul Mastery's Dark Consumption. Although it only needs to leech 4 foes to completely fill your blue bar, this power can also be used offensively to drain foes of endurance completely - especially if you have a secondary with Power Boost (as it increases the amount of End Drain). If you 3 slot this for Endurance Modification then you will almost completely drain all foes it hits - and with Power Boost you will be able to completely drain full blue bars (though in PvP the drain effects aren't quite so large).

Charged Armor is the Scirocco Armor and offers resistance to smashing, lethal and energy damage, therefore making it quite popular for PvP (where Energy Melee can be a particular concern). Its appearance is basically the same as the first Brute Electric Armor power - red electricity flickering over your character's body, but with Scirocco's symbol pulsing every few seconds. Usual slotting of 1 Endurance Reduction, 3 Damage Resistance is recommended. See the comparison section below for the numbers.

From level 44 you can pick up Ball Lightning (if you already have at least one of the first two Patron powers). This is another ranged, targetted AoE damage power that deals a moderate amount of energy damage. It also drains a small amount of endurance from targets and has a chance to halt endurance recovery for a short while too - it doesn't transfer any endurance to you however. It has the same endurance / recharge as the other Patron damage AoE's. Recommended slotting is 1-2 Acc, 3 Dam, and then endurance reduction or recharge as required.

From level 47 you can choose the Summon Mu Guardian power (2 of the other 3 Patron powers must be picked first of course). Again, usual Patron Pet recharge / duration - and it has similar powers to the Mu Guardian bosses you will have encountered, though some stronger control attacks have been removed from the pet version. It has only two single target damage attacks (both pure energy and both ranged), one is somewhat stronger than the other. It does have an EM Pulse attack that can disorient enemies around it and deal damage to robot enemies - it very rarely uses this though. Uniquely among the Patron Pets though, it has a single target heal (which it can use on you, your pets, and your team-mates, and is smart enough to only use it on someone taking significant damage - it is also enhanceable). It can also summon a sentinel of lightning pet of its own that has extra energy attacks, though this also appears to be currently bugged as it reportedly never summons it. Unlike the other Patron pets, the Mu can also fly. Recommended slotting would be 2-3 Rech, 0-2 Acc, 0-3 Dam, 0-3 Heal, depending on how many slots you can spare and what aspect of it you would make most use out of (e.g. using it as a "heal bot" you could slot 3 rech/3 heal and ignore its accuracy and damage). Synthetic Hamidon Enhancements (obtained by beating the Recluse SF) are like 2 or 3 different types of SO rolled into one, and can be particularly useful for Patron Pets, and the Mu Guardian in particular (the Acc/Dam type especially).

For full stats on Scirocco's powers, check out this site, or look at the plaques in Grandville tower.

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Comparing the Powers

Well by now you can see that all 4 Patron Pools offer variations on the following 3 powers:<ul type="square">[*]Resistance and/or Defence Shield[*]AoE or Cone Damage attack[*]Pet Summon[/list]and then each Patron has 1 further power that varies quite considerably. In this section I'll be comparing the power types that they all share:

Shields

The shields are fairly easy to compare, and basically the 3 pure-resistance shields are pretty obviously very similar:

Dark Embrace - 23.38% Smashing, Lethal Resistance and 12.75% Toxic, Negative Energy Resistance
Shark Skin - 23.38% Smashing, Lethal, Cold Resistance
Charged Armor - 23.38% Smashing, Lethal, Energy Resistance

When slotted with 3 even-level damage resistance SO enhancements, each shield will offer about 36.7% damage resistance to smashing and lethal damage, and similarly for their respective bonus damage resistance type.

The only real difference (aside from the bonus damage type), is that Ghost Widow's shield has two bonus damage type resistances instead of one, and hence has smaller resistance levels for each of them. So the 'best' resistance shield will be the one with resistances to the damage types you most frequently encounter - e.g. in PvP this is likely to be Charged Armor due to all the Energy Melee (smashing/energy damage) you tend to see.

Black Scorpion's Shield is mostly defence based and so is a bit more difficult to compare with the other shields, but these are the numbers for his shield:

Scorpion Shield - 12.75% Smashing, Lethal Defence and 8.22% Energy Defence and 14.88% Toxic Resistance

When 3 slotted with 3 even-level defence buff SO enhancements, Scorpion Shield will offer about 20% Defence against Smashing/Lethal and 12.9% Defence against Energy.

Note that the smash/lethal defence will work for any attack that has a smashing/lethal component, not just pure smash or lethal attacks. So you will have the same level of defence against Fire/Smash attacks, or Ice/Lethal attacks as you do against just Smash or Lethal attacks. Also a Smash/Energy attack will use the higher smashing/lethal defence number too instead of the lower energy defence.

Comparing the effectiveness of resistance and defence shields is a bit tricky as it inevitably involves some maths, but for the sake of simplicity lets initially compare the smash/lethal performance of the shields against even con minions only (who have a base tohit rate of 50% and no accuracy bonuses). I will assume all shields are 3 slotted with even level SO's of the appropriate type (I'll treat the resistances as 37% for the sake of simplicity).

Let's consider a total of 100 attacks directed at your Dominator, each capable of dealing 10 damage. Now the 50% tohit rate of even con minions means that with no shield, on average, only 50 of those will actually hit you, but any that do hit will do so for the full 10 damage each. So our baseline total damage sustained would be (50 x 10) = 500.

With the 3 resistance shields (offering 37% Resistance to Smash/Lethal), we will still receive 50% of the incoming attacks, but we will only take 63% of the damage from each one, and so our total damage sustained will be (50 x 6.3) = 315. This simply works out as 63% of the 500 we would take without a shield, which is what we expect - resistance is easy .

With the Scorpion defence shield however (offering 20% defence against Smash/Lethal), the mobs no longer hit 50% of the time. Instead our defence rating is subtracted from that, and the mobs will now only hit with 30% of their attacks, although any that do hit will do so for the full 10 damage. Our total damage sustained would therefore be (30 x 10) = 300, or a mitigation of 40% compared with the baseline 500, which is actually pretty similar to what we saw with the resistance shields. The defence shield effectively 'piggy-backs' the basic 50% tohit rate, which is why it acheives similar results despite having a much lower % number.

So what changes when we are thinking about Lt's, Bosses, and AV's; and for enemies above our level? Well not too much in fact - as they all still have the same basic tohit of 50% (which is still reduced to 30% by the slotted scorpion shield), but they have differing accuracy bonuses which are multiplied to the tohit value to give the "Net_tohit". It basically works like this:

Minions: 1.0 x LevelBuff x [50% - Defense]
LTs: 1.15 x LevelBuff x [50% - Defense]
Bosses: 1.3 x LevelBuff x [50% - Defense]
AVs: 1.5 x LevelBuff x [50% - Defense]

And the LevelBuffs are:

+0: 1.0
+1: 1.1
+2: 1.2
+3: 1.3
+4: 1.4
(beyond this it gets more complicated and is beyond the scope of this guide, though suffice to say the defence shield quickly deteriorates in performance)

[These numbers come from Arcana's Guide to Defense v1.4]

So if we consider a +2 Boss for example, he has an accuracy bonus for being a boss (1.3), and for being +2 to you (1.2), so his basic "Net_tohit" ends up being (1.3 x 1.2 x 50%) = 78%.

With no shield, 100 attacks of say 50 damage each, will deal (78 x 50) = 3900 damage (I'll assume this is over a long time and you were healed during the time ).

The resistance shield will still work in the same way as before (as its effectiveness doesn't vary with the relative level of the mobs) and it will reduce that total damage by 37% to 2457.

The defence shield will reduce the +2 Boss's Net_tohit value to (1.3 x 1.2 x 30%) = 46.8%. Total sustained damage will then be (46.8 x 50) = 2340, a mitigation of 40%.

In this case defence is just as effective as it was against the even minions. In fact Defence retains its effectiveness until enemies become so accurate they start to hit the tohit cap (95%), at which point a lot of the defence begins to become irrelevant as the enemy can hit you regardless (this is particularly obvious in PvP with powers like Aim and Build Up that skyrocket your opponent's tohit directly).

For example the +4 AV's you will face in the Recluse SF have such high accuracy bonuses (1.5 x 1.4), that they have over 100% Net_tohit anyway (which is capped to a maximum 95%). The resistance shields will still reduce incoming damage by 37%, but the Defence shield will now only mitigate 34% of incoming damage. This is of course largely academic since neither shield will do much good against the amount of damage a +4 AV deals out - it is quite relevent in PvP though, where tohit buffs are a major weakness for defence, and some powers will effectively negate scorpion shield entirely.

Overall though, the Defence and Resistance shields offer pretty comparable performance to smash/lethal damage (outside high tohit buffs). The defence shield has the added bonus of reducing the chance of mezzes and other debuffing attacks landing on you too, as well as providing protection against a wider range of damage types - since it also protects against multi-damage type attacks that include a smash, lethal and/or energy component. If those attacks miss, you don't take damage from any element of the attack. The resistance shields on the other hand will only ever reduce the damage taken for the specific damage types they resist - e.g. you will still take the full fire damage from a fire/smash damage attack with the resistance shields, whereas the defence shield improves the chance of the attack missing you altogether.

Don't worry - that's the last of the maths

Area Damage

All 4 Patron Pools offer you an area damage attack to supplement your existing area damage capabilities. Three of them give you a proper ranged AoE attack (which no Dominator Secondary has), while Mako offers you a Cone attack (which most of the secondaries already have access to) instead.

All of the attacks have the same base endurance cost (18.98) and recharge time (32secs). The three ranged AoE's also share the same base range (80feet), and blast radius (15feet). Mako's Cone attack has a shorter range of 60feet, and a fairly narrow cone angle of 30°.

The main area in which they vary is the damage they deal (both the type and the amount), and any secondary effects. This is the total unenhanced damage they each deal (including any damage over time) at level 50, along with the damage type(s) and any special secondary effect:

Dark Obliteration: 32.53 (negative energy); 5% tohit debuff for 10 seconds
Disruptor Blast: 36.14 (energy / smashing); 20% chance of knockback
Chum Spray: 43.35 (toxic)
Ball Lightning: 32.84 (energy); small endurance drain from target, 30% chance to halt endurance recovery for 4 seconds

A nice way to compare damage is to use the Damage Scale system (as used by the Dev's to define powers in the first place), and we can convert the damage numbers to this format by dividing by the Dominator ranged Damage modifier for level 50 (36.15) to give us the nice and clean 'DS' numbers:

[For more information on the Damage Scale system, see iakona's Power Data Standardisation v2.0]

Dark Obliteration: 0.9
Disruptor Blast: 1.0
Chum Spray: 1.2
Ball Lightning: 0.908

So Chum Spray comes out on top in terms of damage for the Patron attacks, but this is offset as it is a cone (and therefore less flexible for targetting), and has no secondary effect. The others are all pretty similar.

For comparison, here is how Chum Spray stacks up with some of the Dominator Secondary cone attacks:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre> Ang Rng Acc Act Rech End DS
Fire Breath 30° 40ft 1.2 2.67s 16s 15.184 1.75
Frost Breath 30° 40ft 1.2 2.67s 16s 15.184 1.4
Chum Spray 30° 60ft 1 2.67s 32s 18.98 1.2
Psychic Scream 30° 60ft 1 2.67s 12s 11.856 1.04</pre><hr />
You can see that it is the same size cone as Psychic Scream, and although it does more damage, it costs a lot more and has a slower recharge.

None of the Patron Area Damage attacks offer particularly high damage by any means, but they nevertheless supplement any area damage you already have. There also isn't a huge difference in the damage most of them do, though if you don't mind the cone nature of Chum Spray (perhaps you already have a cone attack which you could chain it with, for example), then it does offer 20-33% more damage than the other attacks.

Pets

Again, there are a number of similarities between the 4 Patron Pets - they all last 4 minutes and have a base recharge of 15 minutes, and they all have the same hitpoints. The main differences are the particular resistances and inherent buffs they have, the type of attacks and damage they deal, and any extra powers they have besides damage dealing (which is the primary focus for all of them).

Of the four pets, two are based on "Lt-class" mobs (Fortunata Seer and Blue Coralax Hybrid), and two are based on "Boss-class" mobs (Toxic Tarantula and Mu Guardian). In pet form however, this class difference is largely transcended and they all con as 'Pet', share the same hitpoints, and have similar levels of performance (the 'Boss-class' pets do not inherit all of the powers of their respective mob, most notably losing access to single target hold/stun powers).

Here is a summary of the sort of attacks each pet has, showing what ranges they cover, the damage type(s) they deal, and whether they are single or area damage focussed:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre> Range Damage Type Attack Type
Fortunata Seer melee-100' Psionic Range preferred, single target only
Toxic Tarantula melee-80' Toxic, Energy, Lethal Range/Melee mixed, ST/area mixed
Blue Coralax melee-80' Smash, Lethal, Cold Melee preferred, ST/area mixed
Mu Guardian 60'-80' Energy Range only, single target only</pre><hr />
You can see full details of their powers on the Patron Plaques in the Grandville tower lobby area.

Besides their attacks, each pet has particular resistances and additional powers:

Fortunata Seer: Small Defence to all, resistance to mez effects, 10% tohit buff, ally perception/confuse resistance toggle
Toxic Tarantula: Small smash/lethal resistance, moderate toxic resistance, immobilise / -fly / -jump / -recharge in some attacks
Blue Coralax: Moderate cold/psionic resistance, a slow / -rech cone attack
Mu Guardian: Moderate energy/negative energy resistance, flies, ally heal, (should) summon a sentinel pet, point blank area of effect hold attack (EMP) - though *very* rarely used.

Two of the pets (Fortunata and Mu) are clearly single target focussed, tend to remain at range, and offer some buffs to you and your team; while the other two (Tarantula and Coralax) offer some area damage too and tend to get a bit more into the action with some melee attacks (especially the Coralax).

The duration / recharge are of quite a concern to many people, and some may well consider not even bothering with the pets as a result - but they are very valuable additions to your arsenal when they are available (making them very useful for tough fights with Elite Bosses / AV's etc.), and with recharge reduction (and possibly hasten and any external buffs like Accelerate Metabolism and Speed Boost), their downtime can become pretty reasonable. With just 2 recharge reductions for example, the pets will be available to you over 40% of the time, and with 3 recharge that goes up to over half the time. Hasten and other buffs can improve that even further. They typically deal similar levels of damage as you do with your secondary (though obviously some of them are single target only).

Don't expect them to transform your game in the way your primary pet may have done, but they are a nice bonus for those trickier situations.

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Summary

As long as you aren't expecting some 'uber' powers, but rather some novel and fun things from the Patron Power Pools, you hopefully won't be disappointed. That said, each of them have some rather useful powers and the pets are certainly very welcome for those tougher situations where you just wish you had a bit more 'oomph'.

All of the Patrons offer pretty similar levels of performance (pretty much identical performance in the case of the shields), so the fact you are only allowed to pick one of them isn't quite as much of an issue as it might otherwise be. Just make sure you are happy with your choice before you click 'Yes' to accept one as your contact!

I hope this guide has helped you learn a bit more about the Patron Powers than you get from the Plaques in the Grandville tower lobby, and that you are happy with the Patron you end up choosing - just don't be too hard on them when the time comes

_Rahne_ · 09-14-2006 05:13 AM

Jeebus, that's a nice guide! Thanks for all your work!

Ivan · 09-14-2006 07:05 AM

Awesome guide.

Savage_Blade · 09-14-2006 10:05 AM

Great guide. When are you going to do the Patron guide for the other AT?

Natsuki · 09-14-2006 10:19 AM

Great guide Brev. Wish I saw your draft sooner, I have one addition. Shouldn't the 'special' for Chum Spray be listed as DoT Damage?

Much like how Spines, Thorns, and Fire has bonus DoT Damage.

Damage Proc Mini-FAQ

Just noticed Damage Proc Mini-FAQ wasn't working with new forums, it's been updated.

Ivan · 09-14-2006 01:41 PM

I have a question on defense versus resistance. When you stack a power like Hover or Maneuvers where the description just says defense with a power like Toxic Shield do those general "defense" powers stack on top of the numbers for Toxic Shield (i.e. is your smashing defense # the sum of the Toxic shield # + the Hover # + the Maneuvers #)?

If this is the case then I could see a reason to actually slot these powers for defense if I have the extra slots even though every single guide I've ever read tells me this is a waste.

_Brev__NA · 09-14-2006 03:54 PM

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Great guide Brev. Wish I saw your draft sooner, I have one addition. Shouldn't the 'special' for Chum Spray be listed as DoT Damage?

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Well I listed its total damage including the DoT. Unlike Fire, Thorns etc. it always has exactly the same number of ticks (unless the target is defeated before they are all delivered of course). I was basically meaning the 'specials' to be anything over and above the total damage that they do.

[ QUOTE ]
I have a question on defense versus resistance. When you stack a power like Hover or Maneuvers where the description just says defense with a power like Toxic Shield do those general "defense" powers stack on top of the numbers for Toxic Shield (i.e. is your smashing defense # the sum of the Toxic shield # + the Hover # + the Maneuvers #)?

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Yes, defence powers will stack, as long as they are providing defence against the same thing. I.e. Scorpion Shield provides defence against smash/lethal/energy, so will only stack with other defence powers that have defence against those same things.

I believe Hover, Manoeuvres etc. do provide (minimal) defence to those (along with other types), though I could be mistaken (they may only give positional defence, which won't stack with the typed defence that scorpion shield gives - but they will act alongside).

Natsuki · 09-14-2006 04:05 PM

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Great guide Brev. Wish I saw your draft sooner, I have one addition. Shouldn't the 'special' for Chum Spray be listed as DoT Damage?

[/ QUOTE ]
Well I listed its total damage including the DoT. Unlike Fire, Thorns etc. it always has exactly the same number of ticks (unless the target is defeated before they are all delivered of course). I was basically meaning the 'specials' to be anything over and above the total damage that they do.

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Oh, neat, I didn't know that. Thanks for the info

Damage Proc Mini-FAQ

Just noticed Damage Proc Mini-FAQ wasn't working with new forums, it's been updated.

iakona_NA · 09-15-2006 11:23 PM

Quick note about the Soul Mastery pets: the Prima guide is WAY off on the defense and to-hit buffs. The actual values are 1.0 * Melee_Buff_Def, or 10%, for Psionic Defense; 0.5 * Melee_Buff_Def, or 5%, for Melee, Ranged, and AoE Defense; 1.0 * Melee_Buff_ToHit, or 10%, for To-Hit buff. You might want to revise your next version to not call this a "high" to-hit bonus.

_Brev__NA · 09-16-2006 02:02 AM

Ah thanks for that iakona! I hadn't noticed the tohit bonus not being so high for mine as that character has tactics too.

Edit: In fact I was able to adjust the original post - looks like there's a bigger window for editing than there used to be.

Ivan · 09-26-2006 06:21 AM

Hey I just re-read the Arcana's Guide to Defense post and noticed that I missed somthing.....
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[/ QUOTE ] Special Note on Power Boost

The power Power Boost (both the blaster energy manipulation version, and the epic power pool version) boosts defense powers while power boost is active. The boost is equal to the base value of the defense power being boosted. For example, if you have hover running (2.5% defense) and you trigger power boost, hover gains 2.5% additional defense. If hover was 5-slotted with defense SOs (net 5% defense) the boost would still be 2.5% (to 7.5% total defense).
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I wonder if this apply's to the patron armors as well?

_Brev__NA · 09-26-2006 06:34 AM

Yes it will - but only to Scorpion Shield. Power Boost doesn't affect +Res powers, but any +Def power will be boosted. It will only affect toggles for the duration that Power Boost is active though, which isn't very long. Should be enough to boost your Def for the first few seconds of a fight though.

iakona_NA · 09-26-2006 08:04 AM

Arguably the best defensive use for Power Boost on a dominator is with Vengeance, rather than with toggle shields. Here's the Defense (against ALL attack types) numbers for Vengeance with 3 even-level defense SOs, for each AT (at level 50):
Brute 29.25%
Stalker 29.25%
Mastermind 35.10%
Dominator 33.15%
Dominator with Power Boost 64.81%
Corruptor 33.15%

Power Boost will also boost the defense debuff portion of Poisonous Ray from Mace Mastery. The base debuff is 15%, but with 3 even-level SOs and Power Boost at level 50, it becomes a 51.6% debuff.

_Brev__NA · 09-26-2006 08:17 AM

Impressive numbers on Vengeance!

However I thought Powerboost didn't affect defence debuffs (or any other debuffs for that matter)? Looking back at the list of things you have previously said that Powerboost affects:

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Power Boost: 1.0 * Melee_Stun for the following attributes:
Stun
Sleep
Confused
Terrorized
Immobilize
Held
Knockback
Knockup
Repel
RunSpeed
FlySpeed
Defense
Melee_Attack
Ranged_Attack
AOE_Attack
Smashing_Attack
Lethal_Attack
Fire_Attack
Cold_Attack
Energy_Attack
Negative_Energy_Attack
Psionic_Attack
Heal
ToHit
Endurance

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...or does the Defense entry count for both buff and debuff?

iakona_NA · 09-26-2006 08:23 AM

Defense buffs and debuffs share the same attribute, so anything that boosts one will boost the other. This is why enzyme (end/debuff) HOs work in defensive shields. This is also why -recharge ignores strength modifiers; if it didn't, Hasten would act as a Power Boost for -recharge. Same goes for damage resistance powers; they don't allow any outside strength modifiers (outside of enhancements) because damage buffs would then buff resistance powers.

TerminusEst13 · 06-30-2007 04:21 PM

A wonderful guide, definitely helps me a lot in deciding what I should pick.

Question, does Power Boost affect the Damage Resistance debuff of Poisonous Ray? I'm trying to pick between Black Scorpion or Captain Mako, and both the Poisonous Ray and Water Spout look tempting.

_Brev__NA · 07-02-2007 07:48 AM

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Question, does Power Boost affect the Damage Resistance debuff of Poisonous Ray?

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Nope, Power Boost doesn't affect any Damage Resistance buff/debuff powers I'm afraid.

Peacemoon · 02-19-2008 11:47 AM

Great guide, ty