Official Thread: Domination Changes


Aggelakis

 

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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.

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It's the other way around. Doms are broken. If the mean of the game is X and Dominators are X-1, then what you do is not nerf everyone to X-1. You add 1 to Dominators and then you're done.

The game is fine for most ATs. Dominators are fine in Domination and weak outside of it.

The game has a nice progression where you get stronger and are able to deal with bigger threats as you progress. This is exactly what Statesman said in I5. That by the high levels you should be able to handle +2 and +3 where a low level is handling +0 and +1s. In other words, a skilled player should be able to handle Invincible.

Sure you can do that with Doms at high level. But it's so much more reasonable with other ATs.


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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Serious reality check needed here:

Is the buff that increases Domination build with team size actually working?

I just did the five AV Viridian mission with a full team of 8, and Domination didn't seem to build any faster than when I was soloing.


 

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To reiterate, since the thread was snipped:

On a full team of 8, I was getting only 3 points to my Dom bar per attack. I should have been getting about 6.5 points.

Can anyone confirm that the team size buff to Domination is working for them?


 

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I played this change solo on test, then with a 4 and 5 man team last night.

It does provide domination (if used) more often, adding more end and being a damage buff. I think this will help the low level doms a lot, as they struggle with low damage attack chains and lower durations on holds.

However, this didnt address certain problems:

1) The AOe controls are rarely taken, and certainly arent as useful as many pool powers. If they are going to fire 1/mission, can thay at least be very powerful (ie, mag 6, longer duration, acc bonus, etc)? Right now, flashfire is a MUCH stronger power than cinders, mainly because its available for use. With the very long recharge, very short duration, and acc penalty, these powers arent worth taking. I understand the logic behind AOE holds not being able to overlap (total spawn lockdown), but if they arent going to available for use or be useful till 6 slotted, they should be stronger.

2) Doms dont do well in PVP, because of BFs, stackable CM, and the hero epics granting mez protection. Basically, this breaks the dom set for PVP. While some enjoy the challenge, the dom AT is much weaker than any other in PVP. There needs to be some brainstorming on how to let a control AT use control in PVP. I think the problem is that too many high damage ATs (ice/nrg blasters?) have holds. How about raising the player mag in PVP to a base of 6, then make BFs just remove a hold. Basically, while a player may survive a dom hold until suppression starts, they wont survive a ice blaster's hold, or an nrg tank's stuns, etc. Note that troller X3 damage from containment could be reduced to X2, making their damage about the same as a doms. Durations could be adjusted as required.

3) Doms struggle to be useful against PTODs (ie, AVs with the triangles that raise their mez resistance). At the least, a suppression type system would be more consistent with PVP, and also allow a dom to use the hold tactically. In other words, give AVs resistance to set how long you want holds to last, then use suppression to provide the downtime. 50 immune and 25 vulnerable, IMO, is too little to help a dom. Further, many ATs can get the hold during the downtime, while having other powers for the triangle up time.

Doms stink mainly in cases where control isnt allowed to work. If the devs can find a good method for allowing controls to work better, these other changes would not be as required. The I8 change is nice, but misses the mark IMO.


 

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To reiterate, since the thread was snipped:

On a full team of 8, I was getting only 3 points to my Dom bar per attack. I should have been getting about 6.5 points.

Can anyone confirm that the team size buff to Domination is working for them?

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I've tracked down the issue and am working on a fix.


 

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To reiterate, since the thread was snipped:

On a full team of 8, I was getting only 3 points to my Dom bar per attack. I should have been getting about 6.5 points.

Can anyone confirm that the team size buff to Domination is working for them?

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I've tracked down the issue and am working on a fix.

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Good news for the Doms. Since I am going to roll one out for the new release, and the Dom revamp. Hopefully we will get some good news on Pet issues for MMs and Controllers as well from Castle or another Dev.


 

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I've tracked down the issue and am working on a fix.

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You absolutely rock. Thanks.


 

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I didn't notice that big of a difference in a group of 8 to be honest. However, soloing I did notice a huge difference. But I have to confess that this was with my level 32 Fire/Fire Dom. I was contemplating posting in the Dom thread anyway at how easy some Dom's are to play versus others since I have 4 of them. Fire/Fire is by far the easiest to level with. I won't go into that here. Still, Domination came up a lot faster. The new point buff is greatly appreciated. I haven't had the opportunity to test it out against an AV yet.

As far as a Dom's effectiveness against the PTOD... all I can say is that I think people are expecting an awful lot of this AT for some reason. I'm kind of torn on the topic because while I understand how the lack of a Dom's effectiveness will prevent this AT from being invited to a LRSF, I think a bypass of the PTOD by a Dom would just make it overpowered. I can't think of a happy medium other than to AT LEAST offer a bit more damage to their secondary attacks. I believe this has been recommended so many times that it deserves to be engraved on a plaque by now.


 

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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!!!

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This is completely true. Something I'm sure all ATs would appreciate, not just Dominators.


 

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Yeah I agrea fire is definitely easy to solo with. At least my fire/en has been much easier to solo with than my grav/en. After I got the imps most non-triangle relentless missions were very very very easy to solo. So easy that I could quickly outlevel troublesome critters with triangles. I know this is not what was intended but since the triangles are a cheat then its fine with me. Of course this doesn't help with the RSF but I'm waiting to see how my fire/en does against level 53 FP. And its been much much easier to solo my fire/en dom than my rad/rad def.

Edit: Forgot to add that while I still haven't teamed yet the new buff made it alot easier for my grav/en to solo.


 

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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!!!

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This is completely true. Something I'm sure all ATs would appreciate, not just Dominators.

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Actually, when the triangles go away is when a mez attack will actually do something. Purple triangles mean that they are completely immune to mez. No triangles means they are vulnerable to a certain amount of it, which is still fairly high and almost impossible to single-stack.


Have you or someone you know been the victim of Nerd Rage?
Find answers, get help.

 

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Actually, when the triangles go away is when a mez attack will actually do something. Purple triangles mean that they are completely immune to mez. No triangles means they are vulnerable to a certain amount of it, which is still fairly high and almost impossible to single-stack.

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Actually, when the triangles expire, they appear again except pointing downwards. Not that it matters, since the triangles are so unobtrusive you can't see them up or down. I dunno, would it really break immersion to have a big arrow over an AVs head?

And now I feel bad for not actually teaming up with my dominator to see if the boost actually worked. ._.


Arc #41077 - The Men of State
Arc #48845 - Operation: Dirty Snowball

 

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Here's my gripe: does the boost to gaining domination on a team in any way make that dom (if the only one on a team) more capable of handling an AV? And by more effective, I mean overcome the PToD. If the answer is no, then the buff was a failure.


 

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I dunno, would it really break immersion to have a big arrow over an AVs head?


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How about a big [vulgar reference done with the hand] directed at dominators that floats over the AVs head? Only the dominator would see this icon though.

Just a thought. That would get the point across well to the dominator, and make them enjoy the AVs demise all the more. Really, who doesn't enjoy the demise of someone who just flipped you off non-stop for the past few minutes?


 

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I just had a Wailer King who did that last night to me. FLipped me off whilst he killed me. I was trying the Ruthless setting so it was a subtle hint.


 

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To reiterate, since the thread was snipped:

On a full team of 8, I was getting only 3 points to my Dom bar per attack. I should have been getting about 6.5 points.

Can anyone confirm that the team size buff to Domination is working for them?

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I've tracked down the issue and am working on a fix.

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Thank you, and thanks to Lady Sadako for bringing this up to Dev attention with no delay.


 

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I appreciate the buff by no means. Hell, since the introduction of dominators, they have been getting nothing but buffs, which I do appreciate a lot, instead of playing an AT that constantly gets nerfed.

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And yes, Positron that means being able to solo on Invincible easily.

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My mind/fire dom can solo on invincible rather easily. Probably because I am mind, but hey, I can do it. And of course not on solo invincible on AV missions, but every other one is fine. And the invincible soloing began after SOs, which I can understand that every AT is like this.


 

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I would like to point out that both MasterMinds and Brutes can easily solo on Relentless long before SOs. My MM go directly to Relentless at level 6, otherwise the game is just too easy. This is solo of course. On a team of 8 all my level running missions on relentless, the pets die to the AoEs to fast to make it much fun. The constant resummoning just gets old.


 

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I have a Lvl 50 Mind/Psi on victory well known for being played extremely well. He's is incredable in PVE because I am very willing to stay on top of things and have to think alot to be good. I love this new boost I finally feel like I am the god my toons supposed to be.

While I do hate the purple triangles of doom; I was on the LRSF with a very good team and I find in teams even against heros a dom has it made. Since you have to have 8 people they take all the aggro so your squishy self doesn't take a beating. You just have to not make the first strike. You can't get close enough to take down the purple triangles but really you're on full team missions not everyone can do everything it makes you need someone to contribute to the team effort, no you can't take out the triangles but they don't last long when they are receiving a beating from the others in the group.
During that LRSF I was able to hold/sleep/confuse/terrify etc any enemy including very much so the heros. I was able to contribute immensly especially by keeping the heros with pets in my control because that brutally criples them.
In the first mission I was able to keep confused and/or heald the bosses and Hero with little touble. In the second the best way I contributed was keeping the gunslinger confused so his pets hammered on him and noone else which pretty much wins the battle for the team if they were having trouble. The third mission I was able to keep Numina confused and held while they killed her and when the others attacked I was able to keep Sister Psyche on our side. The fourth mission was easy I love confusing swan and it is very important a dom keep Mynx still while it is her turn to die because her running around is a pain in the [censored] for everyone especially the brutes who we all know needs to remain in melee range and keep their attacking constant for fury. As far as the last mission goes it was going fairly the same way as the above mentioned but we were having those disconnection problems that has seemed to become very often even for us who hardly ever DC and everytime we'd get going good two or three people would DC in the middle of the battle, so you can guess hoe that went. Over all, everything except the last mission went beautifully and I was actively able to see my contributions, not to mention I have been complimented on the LRSF before even prior this new content.

However I will still vouch that we as dominators are brutally at a disadvantage when it comes to other things. I don't mind being dependent, oh no. I don't mind that dominators are not for everyone, or as a matter of fact are not for most people because they are ofen played poorly. I like having to work hard to be ubertastic. But I used to beable to solo on relentless thats right a mind dom that could solo on relentless not set for one but for two. When the i7 came out the new enemy groups were so very immune to my mind/psi I can't solo on villainous because when I get to the bosses even with domination, all the inspires I can pop, demonic aura, and megalomania I can't deal enough damage and I can often hardly hold them. I mean a dom only need take 2-5 hits before they are dead. The carnie bosses are so immune to me it is discusting. I am thinking perhaps this cripling came from being a mind/psi but I think I should beable to overcome everything with enough smarts and hard work and inspires. This total inability is discusting and humiliating.
Also the way in which I am inable to survive even breif seconds in PVP is gross. I am killed in two shots and even with break frees and all the other tricks I can pull I never survive for more then a few seconds and very often less then the blink of an eye. I have had enemies stand perfectly still for me while I hold and attack them and I can hardly do anything. The brutes and tankers especially the dark secondary shields make me ABSOLUTLY worthless. I have tested it with a secondary brute of dark, energy, invunrability, and electricity, having them just stand there. With megalomania and three accus in almost any given hold I couldn't hit them hardly ever the same holds true for my attacks. I really don't mind working hard to be uber even if it means thinking far more then the next AT but I don't at all like it when there is absolutly no way I could possibly overcome them.

So while I did deviate from the subject here is my sum up. Yes doms are now useful on teams and on the LRSF but there are huge weaknesses that are beyond unfair, humiliating and cruel to at least some of the dom types if not all that I am very sure needs to be addressed.


 

Posted

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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!!!

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This is completely true. Something I'm sure all ATs would appreciate, not just Dominators.

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I would really like to see a single triangle in the target box for AV/Heroes/EBs that have them.

This triangle will point UP when they are up and DOWN when they are down.

The triangles as they stand are nearly impossible to see without getting too close to the AVs.

Doesn't fix the problems with the PToD but at lease we would be able to see them.


 

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Doms are broken. If the mean of the game is X and Dominators are X-1, then what you do is not nerf everyone to X-1. You add 1 to Dominators and then you're done.

The game is fine for most ATs. Dominators are fine in Domination and weak outside of it.

The game has a nice progression where you get stronger and are able to deal with bigger threats as you progress. This is exactly what Statesman said in I5. That by the high levels you should be able to handle +2 and +3 where a low level is handling +0 and +1s. In other words, a skilled player should be able to handle Invincible.

Sure you can do that with Doms at high level. But it's so much more reasonable with other ATs.

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Agreed.

As an aside, I've begun running my ice/ice dom with Empowerment Station buffs fueled by the salvage my high level toons have been ignoring. With top tier smash and lethal resistance, plus a recharge buff and a recovery buff, my Ice/Ice is pretty good (but not overpowered) outside Domination. I have decided that this is an acceptable tradeoff for me and I plan to keep using Empowerment Station buffs near-perma until I can't anymore.

Given that the Empowerment Station buffs aren't of large magnitude, I feel that all that would be necessary would be some small tweaks to Dominators' base stats and they would likely be fine. It doesn't require a sledgehammer.

- Protea


And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines

 

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Wow, now that I've played a fair amount with this buff it helps out in general PvE quite nicely despite it apparently being broken and not receiving the large team benefit. It is almost too easy now.

Perhaps we don't need that large team slip differential after all.

(Wanna bet 5 infamy I get nuked into oblivion for making that statement?)


Princess Grace - MA/Inv scrapper
Solana - Mind/Energy dominator
Lyonette - Kat/SR scrapper

 

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Nukes? Never. A slap for saying something is too easy...maybe. Just up your rep unless you were referring to PvP. Or if something is easy for you, at least supply what difficulty you are working at so the impression isn't given that something is too easy and it grabs the wrong attention that incurs a nerf. THEN, yes... I would Nuke you.


 

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Duminators R ...er.....ya


 

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I truly think that any buff to this AT is a good one. (This reminds me of the days when controllers were "broken"!)

I kinda think it was not needed. I enjoy the power I have playing my Dom (ATAX lvl 45atm Freedom) and I rarely "needed" to hit domination to be effective, even in Boss and AV fights. I used domination as a fun change to the pace of the battles and never relied upon it, so i never missed it when it wasn't there. So now I will really enjoy the new buff for PvE. but....

I truly think the problem lies in how our powers "work". I think dominators should get a buff on our "control" like powers. Our holds could be shaken off just as easy as they are now but they would be more effective. This would also help us in PvP. Allow the dominator to dominate their opponents. We take longer to kill a target so we need to balance with the fact that our domination like powers are more effective and can hold you down so that we can beat you down.


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