Nice buff. I still wouldn't touch this AT with a ten foot pole. I've tried. Seriously I've tried. But I don't understand this fixation with situational buffs like Domination. It's one of the things I despite about CoV.
Dominators need a buff so that they are always a viable AT. And yes, Positron that means being able to solo on Invincible easily. If one AT can do it then they all should be able to.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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Nice buff. I still wouldn't touch this AT with a ten foot pole. I've tried. Seriously I've tried. But I don't understand this fixation with situational buffs like Domination. It's one of the things I despite about CoV.
Dominators need a buff so that they are always a viable AT. And yes, Positron that means being able to solo on Invincible easily. If one AT can do it then they all should be able to.
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I respectfully disagree.
We were promised a fix for Dominators that helps them in the LRSF. Presumably, that should mean a change to make them useful against AVs/Heroes (since the rest of the LRSF is a breeze). The I8 Domination change does absolutely no such thing. I stop short of calling whoever it was that suggested it would a liar, because he may very well have believed this would be useful in the LRSF, but the comment was certainly misleading and resulted in some disappointment and hard feelings among the Dominator community.
I'm not one for looking a gift horse in the mouth, as any buff is a good thing, but we seem to have been given the bait-and-switch here.
I agree.
This is a nice, albiet general, buff. It will make a Dominator much better at the things no one was really remarking about as problem areas.
Dominators will now be able to pop Domination alot more freely, which is good.
However, Dominators will be no better at controlling AV/Heroes when the Purple Triangles are Up.
Dominators will be only slightly better at contributing damage during AV/Hero fights because of the increased damage, however this changes makes them no more survivable and therefore melee damage, which is where the Dominator has his best damage, is still likely to get you killed against an AV/Hero.
And, agreed again, the comments of Positron lead many to believe this buff would take a form more specific to the problems that Dominators have verses AV/Heroes. This definitely lead to a feeling of bait and switch.
I think the Dev team needs to relook the differences between their vision for Dominators and the actual gameplay. Also, add in wildcard of the fact that despite Positron's self stated happiness with the AT, it is obviously not shared with his community as represented by the extremely low numbers of Dominators played on average, let alone all the way to lvl 50.
Dominators don't need mitigation from their secondaries. Even if they did, there's ice (slows), psi (-recharge), and fire and elec (death).
-Talen_Lee commenting on Energy Assault's Utility
This buff does solve alot of the teaming issues, namely not being able to build domination on teams due to things getting you killed, people who constantly go afk. I just wish domination lasted at least twice as long. I still feel that teams will still undervalue doms till the PToD thing is addressed. If the Triangles are not going away then for the love of all that is evil in the game MAKE THE TRIANGLES VISIBLE 100% OF THE TIME!!!111!!eleventy-one!! That one change would go along way with doms and trollers to a lesser extent.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
First things first, a big thanks to the devs for giving doms some attention. In the hands of those who know how to skillfully play their doms, this is a rather huge buff, and it without a doubt makes the AT more attractive to players who are attempting to get their feet wet. Great job!
The only two issues that still prevail IMO, are the recharge timer on domination and the base damage of doms when not in domination mode. The latter is somewhat solved due to the increased availability of domination; however, if the former is in place as a check to avoid more consistent domination, then it somewhat defeats the purpose (unless rapid buildup of domination is intendid for initial use, and not consecutive uses).
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Nice buff. I still wouldn't touch this AT with a ten foot pole. I've tried. Seriously I've tried. But I don't understand this fixation with situational buffs like Domination. It's one of the things I despite about CoV.
Dominators need a buff so that they are always a viable AT. And yes, Positron that means being able to solo on Invincible easily. If one AT can do it then they all should be able to.
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Dominators can solo on relentless just fine, if not safer than some other ATs. With this buff, it just compounds on this ability.
As for the LRSF and PToD, those are issues outside of dominators that need to be resolved. The changes to domination itself are great thus far.
I'd beat the dead horse of the 'Change it so Dominators are useful in AV/Hero/GM fights andthe LRSF' but it's a waste at this point. :-/ If they haven't seen it by now in the ten other topics which were actually not about that, but the Domination buff, then there is no hope for the future of Dominators.
Here's to hoping there's something more useful in the near distant future.
Oh, and as for the changes... they're very nice for groups. I don't need to save Domination nearly as much. Thank you for that. Still waiting for the AV/Hero/LRSF fix though.
While I do appreciate the buff, it really didn't change anything about my playstyle. (Yes, I tested it)
Even with Hasten shortening the down time between dominations I could still rebuild domination in about 45 seconds. Without hasten I would have to wait for domination to recharge, creating a much longer down time.
The problem has nothing to do with domination, the problem is the downtime. Sure, with domination I can solo +2's and 3's, but during that downtime I certainly cannot do so.
Domination needs to be changed from its current All or Nothing status to a Switch. When domination is inactive, Dom's get the damage bonus. At any time, dom's can activate domination and get the control bonus instead of damage. Penalty being, Domination is a 1 minute buff, and dom's will not have the damage bonus for that minute.
It's the only solution I see that makes dom's reliable and doesn't require a damage buff. Without making dom's reliable, it will continue to be 1/5th of the game play in COV that is not being played.
As a side note, Holds need to be revamped to have a damage reduction vrs targets with hold resist. At the current state with Purple Triangles and BF's, Holds offer no protection if it has no effect. This is putting dom's at a huge disadvantage to builds that can protect themselves and team mates via other means.
While I can't speak to the AV battles, my first passes on this buff look like they are a much needed help to my character who has been languishing at 41st/42nd level for a few months while I played other chars.....and other games.
While I'm not a fan of situational powers, my problem with Domination was that it was never there when I needed it. If I was teamed (which was rare) stuff never lived long enough for me to build it (because after a heavy battle you have the obligatory stand around for 5 minutes) or if I was solo, I felt like I had to save it for the Lt at the end (yes, on my Dom I can't play at top diff).
Now, its much more responsive and useful. It's still not the greatest of powers, but it makes my char a lot better when I'm running missions.
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...that means being able to solo on Invincible easily...
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I don't think that any AT should be able to solo on Invincible easily...it's Invincible, it's supposed to be difficult!
The cleavage helps me deflect attacks...its a Hold and Mezz. ~ Diabolic Acid Queen
Remember: Empathy just means you can feel their pain. It does not mean A) You care or B) You plan to do anything about it. ~ NetMinder
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...that means being able to solo on Invincible easily...
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I don't think that any AT should be able to solo on Invincible easily...it's Invincible, it's supposed to be difficult!
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But it's not. Not even with Dominators really. It's just slow. It's laughably easy with all melees, most controllers, corrupters, MMs and Defenders. Only Blasters and Dominators should have any problems AT wide and even then it's not so bad for Blasters who can put out some hurt.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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Nice buff. I still wouldn't touch this AT with a ten foot pole. I've tried. Seriously I've tried. But I don't understand this fixation with situational buffs like Domination. It's one of the things I despite about CoV.
Dominators need a buff so that they are always a viable AT. And yes, Positron that means being able to solo on Invincible easily. If one AT can do it then they all should be able to.
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I respectfully disagree.
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Ditto.
I have to say that balance is NOT everyone the same or being able to do or achieve the same things. balance is about everyone bringing a useful pieces to the puzzle, or team that make sthe game more fun, as well as increases ease. I think that powers like "Domination Button" would be great for most AT's; and might be a better way to achive things like damage bonus for blasters without them having near less then 5% hp to have any real bonus, maybe a instant click for defenders, that give the end bonus only when 50% of the team is in the red. There are several great possibilities. I played a Mind/Psi Dom for a bit, it was pretty nice, and pretty easy to shread through +1 with little effort. I stopped him around 12-13.
I played a Mind/Psi Dom for a bit, it was pretty nice, and pretty easy to shread through +1 with little effort. I stopped him around 12-13.
Um, you do realise that gives you a practically irrelevant amount of experience with the AT?
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
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...that means being able to solo on Invincible easily...
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I don't think that any AT should be able to solo on Invincible easily...it's Invincible, it's supposed to be difficult!
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But it's not. Not even with Dominators really. It's just slow. It's laughably easy with all melees, most controllers, corrupters, MMs and Defenders. Only Blasters and Dominators should have any problems AT wide and even then it's not so bad for Blasters who can put out some hurt.
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I agree and dont agree. Its not that i think Invinceable settings should be easy, they shouldnt. Unfortunately they are for a great many ATs. Just as i dont think contributing to the fighting of AVs should be something that only 2 ATs excel at, but they do. Just as i dont think any AT or build should be a solo PVP power house, but they are.
The problem with doms that i will admit is that they are probably one of the better balanced ATs in the game. However its like 1 well balanced AT against 8 that are totally outta wack most of the time. And that isnt calling for a nerf, its calling for possibly a "lets try it and see" approach to fixing dominators.
Posi, the biggest call of all on dominators has been damage and end consumption, well that those triangles but i dont totally disagree with those and dont know of a better fix so ill leave them alone.
But we have a test server. I dont get why we are only looking at fixing doms in relation to a 90 second time period. By no buff damage some take the buff of damage from domintion and raise the base dominator values for a month on test. Lets research that and see what happens. Get some feed back, data mine.
Same thing test some abilities to a unresitable hold in PVP. Kinda like a critical. See how that goes. Does it over power us or not? Personally i think it would just make us the AT of choice to have on team for detoggling.
I know youplay a dominator and claim to like the Jeckal and hyde value of them. But the majority of your player base says that is the weakness, or the very reason they wont play one. Im sure you can data mine how many doms are being played at any given time, how many have reached level 50 etc. And im willing to bet its the lowest of any AT, accept maybe kheldians. But were in the "give the players what they want" era and honestly i personally feel that the only player getting what they want out of their doms is a developer. And im not quite sure that fits in with the best goals to be set for your product.
I love my two doms. I however dont play them with closed eyes. I dont feel it takes away from my enjoyment to talk about their problems. They use to much end. They use 5-6 attacks to kill what most other ATs use 3-4 to kill. Control at its current nerfed AOE levels (which i dont complain about mind you) is not the city of statues that it once was. Nor is a active defense that can miss a absolute defense that requires the lowest damage levels. Its been demonstrated over and over how much more effective certian corruptor and defender/controler powers are for defense over that of control sets. Yet my MM was soloing Heros before the regen changes. So apparently that level of play is acceptable since the changes didnt change my MM they changed the enemies. Wich means for anything under a Hero or AV my MM is totally capable of fighting with really no threat whatsoever. Mind you im not asking for that on my doms. That is why i stopped playing my MM. Im asking for a buff to put doms between blaster and corruptor levels of damage. Acceptable i believe because doms or most, dont self buff their damage. And if balance is needed lower or remove the damage buff from domination to off set it.
Over all please STOP looking to domination to fix the dom AT. Its honestly what broke it to begin with.
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The problem with doms that i will admit is that they are probably one of the better balanced ATs in the game. However its like 1 well balanced AT against 8 that are totally outta wack most of the time. And that isnt calling for a nerf, its calling for possibly a "lets try it and see" approach to fixing dominators.
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I agree with that. I think the devs really like how villains in general have periods of extreme power and normally are just OK.
I think they would make heroes like that if they could deal with the fallout. One of the reasons the PvPers complain so much about heroes being better than villains is that heroes are usually awesome all the time. Whereas, villains are sometimes even more awesome than heroes, but some of the time much worse.
I know some people like that. I don't. That's all I was saying. I hate being awesome sometimes and weak the rest of the time. And Dominators are weak to me most of the time. I'd much rather they be OK most of the time and better when in Domination.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
Oh and for those that think having domination availible more often is a great gain, i actually went back on the servers and tested it. Sure i can get domination going about 6 times during one mission if i was clicking it everytime it came up. However doing so i got to the end of my mission with Mynx and guess what? It wasnt ready.
So essentially we suffer the same problem, That we need domintion so much for one encounter in the mission that if you risk using it to often you wont have it when you need it.
Same problem as before this fix accomplished really nothing.
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So essentially we suffer the same problem, That we need domintion so much for one encounter in the mission that if you risk using it to often you wont have it when you need it.
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The exact reason I couldn't stand playing a dominator. I know I have a huge performance boost, begging to be clicked, but after it wears off you hit a spawn you really needed it on. Ungh. Waay to inconsistant for my tastes, most villains are. (Might be the reason I only really liked my Corruptor, the most consistant villain AT).
[edit: Also, you can't just wait for Domination to recharge either, you need attacks (and thus mobs) to fuel it. If you hit that "I need it now" spawn with nothing to charge it up on, you're SOL.]
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Dominators need a buff so that they are always a viable AT. And yes, Positron that means being able to solo on Invincible easily. If one AT can do it then they all should be able to.
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Okay, that has to be the most ridiculous statement I've seen in some time. No AT is supposed to be able to solo on Invincible easily. Just because one can manage it does not mean they all should be able to do it.
I think that alot of you are just not getting what EG is saying. The problem is that alot of the other ATs can easily do it not just scrappers. Doms should be able to solo alot better before pets. But for the most part that is not the case. We end up having endurance isses or it just flat out takes too long. I can struggle thru a mission on relentless but I choose not to keep doing this because the time and effort to do it at that setting is just too much. For me the buff did change my solo experience. There was enough uptime of the domination to make difference in how well I can take down mobs now. Mission no longer take forever and a day to do. Doing missions should never be like having teeth pulled. If they are like that then an AT becomes no fun.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
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And yes, Positron that means being able to solo on Invincible easily. If one AT can do it then they all should be able to.
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Key word 'if'. If a build can do that, though, then the build really needs to be nerfed in some way. Or the enemies need buffing. Some ATs should definitely be better at solo'ing than others but if some builds are so much better that max difficulty doesn't give much of a challenge then they are broken.
I really don't feel that Dominators are broken. I think they aren't that popular because some other builds make the game terribly easy. Those are what need fixing. Unfortunately, they needed fixing BEFORE going live. Now you've spoiled the players and many (probably most) will scream bloody murder if you nerf them back to sanity.
Eh, I think the Dominators are doing fine. I think it's the egos of a few players here and there that need a bit of tweaking.
After running a few missions with my level 43 mind/psi dominator, the build-up time of domination is noticeably faster, whether solo or teamed. This is a nice improvement. In one mission I decided to fire off domination whenever it came up. Just moments after it had drained away, I entered a room in a Council cave mission to find an Ascendant Archon boss waiting for me. Figures. :P As others have said, this is one of the problems (or features, if you prefer) of playing a Jekyll and Hyde character. Sometimes the Hyde side isn't there when you want it.
Personamorpher, dominators aren't broken but they could stand some tweaks outside of boosting domination. My 43 did not start to feel strong until he got his level 38 attack. That's a long way to play while doing so-so damage.
I don't want dominators to become controllers with blaster-strength attacks, but I do feel the assault sets could use some minor boosts to their damage output or perhaps secondary effects could be made more prominent.
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Oh and for those that think having domination availible more often is a great gain, i actually went back on the servers and tested it. Sure i can get domination going about 6 times during one mission if i was clicking it everytime it came up. However doing so i got to the end of my mission with Mynx and guess what? It wasnt ready.
So essentially we suffer the same problem, That we need domintion so much for one encounter in the mission that if you risk using it to often you wont have it when you need it.
Same problem as before this fix accomplished really nothing.
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Having domination more available is a great gain. With a single person on my team yesterday, I was able to hit domination at least 12+ times during a mission (albeit it was a destroy hive mish). Simply not having it at all times, doesn't mean its not a helpful buff...its certainly easier than it was in I7, to begin the fight anyway, and build domination within a very short period of time. Leading off with it, though favorable, is not absolutely necessary.
Also too, sad to say, but a team would've made a difference (especially for an EB/AV). I ran a team with 8 people on it later in the night, and the rate at which I built domination was insane. Unless the button hasn't recharged yet, I honestly don't see a major issue with doms anymore.
I personally think dominators are a very balanced AT and currently play out just fine. A bit of tweaking between dom powersets would be nice, but at this point I think it's other parts of the game that need work, along with other ATs. Changing the "weak now, powerful later" nature of doms would fully break the AT and strip it of anything that made it unique...at the most, I say just boost the min. abilities slightly.
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"weak now, powerful later"
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Im sorry, when exactly do Dominators get powerful? I would say thats more "weak now, so so later"
This change still leaves dominators inferior to what every other AT is capable of. Its the problem everyone that has played the AT since the beta has mentioned. To much is given up for a inherent power. What does a brute give up for furry? They are already the highest damage and highest defense in the game? What cost does a corruptor pay for Scourage, it just kinda happens as a nice bonus if i recall correctly? Master Minds buff their own pets, and can play with essentially a nice level of resistances through body guard, and what does that cost them? Even stalkers inherent ablities work atleast in a cooperative arrangement with the ATs purposes. Only Dominators are expected to play the game at inferior levels so that at times they can exceed what a character should be able to do. The base line of what a dominator can and cant do is what needs to be adjusted. This craptastic idea of a inherent ability needs to jsut be ignored until domintors play balanced with out it. Then decide whats a appropriate buff level and how often it should be able to be used.
This thread is for discussion involving Issue 8 changes to the Dominator Archetype.
Please play before you post! Try out the new things and see them for your self in-game before posting. Thanks!
Issue 8 Patch Notes
· Dominators will now build Domination faster depending on the size of the Team they are grouped with. Each member of the team (aside from the Dominator himself) increases the speed of Domination gain by approximately 16%. Note that this bonus does NOT apply to the existing bonus Assault powers gain in PvP. The maximum bonus to Domination will happen in a full 8 person group.
· Base Domination gain increased by 50% (to 3 points per attack up from 2 points per attack.)
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