Mind/Psi and Soloing ...

A few weeks ago I had an idea for a Concept Character ... a Mind/Psi Dominator who was formerly a member of the Lost who wound up "cured" by a Hero during the Midnight Club Arc.

He didn't want to be cured, however, but when he tried to rejoin the Lost he discovered that the Mutagen no longer had the same effect on him. He gained mental powers similar to what he had lost, but he did not physically change and he had forever lost his link to the Rikti Hive Mind ...

As I stated earlier tonight in another thread, I pretty much like for a toon to be able to solo at Level 4.

Could a Mind/Psi do that? One of the reasons I hadn't made one before now is that the high level of Psi Resistance in certain Arachnos soldiers has made me think that may not be a good set to take Redside ...

You can solo as Mind/Psi, but be advised that (barring the upcoming changes), Psi is rather terribly slow early on.

You will hate robots.

Mind/* sort of makes up where */Psi lacks early on.

Unlike Psi, Mind blooms early (which will smooth things out a bit). Pick up Mesmerize and Dominate as soon as possible (Rikti Mentalists and Mesmerists have both!), and while it may be out of concept (Your choice), Levitate is also a great power to pick up. Lean heavily on the Primary early on, and you can solo with pretty well just that and Psi Dart for damage.

Mental Blast and Psychic Scream would be more 'thematic' choices if you really want them (as Anchorites/Pariahs/Rectors have Psy Scream and again, those wacky Rikti have Mental Blast), but that's totally on you. The damage is less then stellar. You can really rock the 'Can't Touch This!' aspect with Mind/Psi until you pick up Drain Psyche and PSW, but by then you should hopefully have Confuse (even if it breaks concept - it's worth it) and Mass Hypnosis to make it even easier to get into range safely.

To sum up: It's a fairly well synergized combination, and you should do fine. Especially when the damage buffs go through.

EDIT: Though, yeah, you're gonna outright loathe robots and Fortunata/Widows. Rikti are surprisingly not as resilient until you hit the Mentalists/Mesmerists, and even they're not as bad as the above mentioned. Zombies may prove hazardous to your health, too.

IIRC on my Mind/Psi I took both Levitate and Air Superiority. Between those two I had a decent amount of non-psi damage for resistant enemies. Robots do suck for psi users, but they are weak to smashing damage, so having even one smashing attack is a very good idea. If a pool power attack won't fit the build and/or concept, I do recommend taking Levitate at least.

The only downside to Levitate is that it's still typed as a psi attack, so Carnies psi defense, and that of Fortunatas and Night Widows will still apply.

Mesmerize I slotted as an attack, and between that and Levitate, along with Mind Probe, you can get a decent attack chain going even at low levels. In that way Mind and Psi go well together.

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IIRC on my Mind/Psi I took both Levitate and Air Superiority. Between those two I had a decent amount of non-psi damage for resistant enemies. Robots do suck for psi users, but they are weak to smashing damage, so having even one smashing attack is a very good idea. If a pool power attack won't fit the build and/or concept, I do recommend taking Levitate at least.

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... or confuse. Simply keep one non-robot alive to assist in the beat-down of any robots, then kill him.

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IIRC on my Mind/Psi I took both Levitate and Air Superiority. Between those two I had a decent amount of non-psi damage for resistant enemies. Robots do suck for psi users, but they are weak to smashing damage, so having even one smashing attack is a very good idea. If a pool power attack won't fit the build and/or concept, I do recommend taking Levitate at least.

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... or confuse. Simply keep one non-robot alive to assist in the beat-down of any robots, then kill him.

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+1 to what Hack said... Confuse a non-psi resistant member of a spawn to help you take down the troublesome mob. It might be bending your concept just a tad, but hey, the mutagen already worked differently on him right? .

Definitely take Mind Probe though, it's about your best dmg (assuming non-psi res mob) for pretty much the whole time till you get PSW, and PSW is likely to be altered by the time you get it anyway .

And if it helps, console yourself with this: Robots will be a pain, but you will tear Circle of Thorns spectral types APART!

Arg

Mind/Psi was my first Dom. Looking back on it, I would've been better off rolling almost anything else. Mind/Psi should only be rolled once you have experience in one of the more "conventional" Dominator combos. The saving grace of the set is it has a strong late-game (as Dominator late games go...Dominators being probably the weakest Arch in the 40+ game; hopefully the upcoming buff addresses that.)

WARNING: I bold names.

I deleted my Mind/Psi at level 41.

Psychic Shockwave wasn't enough to salvage the character against many of the mobs you run into by the time you get it, and /Psi has two single target attacks that are better than what Mind/ provides (Mind Probe, Subdue). It's not that I couldn't solo with her (I could frequently go through entire missions without ever having a mob attack me), but she just wasn't any fun to play. I later made a Mind/Electric and enjoy her a lot more.

The good: Mind Control lets you start early, because you won't get any better ranged attacks until level 28. Psychic Shockwave does good damage in a large AoE.

The bad: Almost entirely psi damage makes for some really slogging missions when you run into things that resist it (and essentially only lethal damage is resisted more). You'll end up using Confuse for a lot of your damage, which takes away from your experience.

The ugly: If you start one now, it's going to change in i15 anyway. Castle pretty much said he's going to look at things and rebalance them, and that could be a good or bad thing. Some "balance" changes were liked (War Mace) and others despised (Energy Melee); given the popularity of /Psi in farming builds I think it's likely to be the latter. They tend to overcompensate when something is popular.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brillig It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.

I'll also add that Confuse is a good way to deal with Fortunatas; they don't resist it unlike most mezzes . Yes, it takes a while to beat them down, but they won't be able to hurt you.

I've been doing some Oroboros missions with my mind/psy and I remembered why I slotted damage in memorize early on. There are two aspects to soloing a Dom your safety and your ability to take them down.

First your ability to surrvive the fight. At first your control options are all single target. Keep switching targets!!! This advice can't be stressed enough. Your single target hold at that level tend to be a bit on the week side and the single target sleep, while it lasts a while is a sleep. Keep switching targets to make sure that they are controled. In a 3 man group. Keep one held, one slept and one bouncing around with lift. The single target confuse is also really nice. Before you have SOs the AOE sleep is nice to initally control a group but RECONTROL the mobs while they are sleeping because before SOs the sleep won't last long. Last bit, single target sleep the hardest hitting mob, it lasts so long that generally you will have the minions dead before the Boss/luetenant wakes up. Try to pull single mobs if you can.

Ok now the ability to take them down. Mind Probe is a must have, get it as soon as you are able. Lift is a control and damage, I dropped it later on in my build but for the early years, it's nice to have. Many folks are hating on mind dart but it recharges very quickly, costs little to no end, and stacking it over and over again it gives respectable damage AND it's affected by Domination unlike any Vet attack powers you might have. It's also a great way to keep that Dom bar up. Use mind dart for pulling, it's far more likely to pull just one, than other harder hitting attacks.

Best of luck!! play around with the sets and find what works best for you. In the beginning, while you find out what works for you, you will die, don't let that discourage you.

As to the question if Mind/Psy is soloable it absolutely is. I've been running Oro missions on the 4th teir of difficulty without many issues. I'd rather solo a Dom than a controler any day- seriously. No matter what damage set you pick, you will run into mobs with resistances early on, Hellions-fire, Trolls-smashing, Mu-energy ect. . . .

I love your concept btw.