You should probably explain your concepts so people can relate their explanations to them....just an idea.
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Pros, cons, what is good in the set, what to avoid, etc.
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Good in the set: Lift (note recent increase to its damage), Gravity Distortion (have to take the ST hold if you want any worthwhile ST control), Wormhole (AOE stun which is up reasonably often but has some drawbacks as well as some advantages), Singularity (control heavy, sturdy pet)
I think you could just take those 4 and call it good.
Other abilities:
Crush: ST Immobilize. Maybe useful for a controller to up containment, but this is not relevant to dominator. With recent improvement of Lift's damage, I would really strongly recommend taking Lift over Crush at the beginning of the game.
Propel: Slow-[censored] pointless attack for a dominator to have.
Crushing Field: Somewhat useful to apply after wormhole, but by no means required.
Dimension shift: Team pissing-off power if for some reason you want to quit but don't want to press the quit button. Just use this a lot and maybe you'll be kicked. Look at you! A master/mistress of manipulation!
Gravity Distortion Field: Somewhat useful AOE hold only hampered by its long recharge.
Note: Gravity immobs do not have -knockback but gravity holds do.
Pros of the set: Solos relatively well. Since there are only 4 good powers, you have lots of room to devote powers to secondary or pools. Wormhole is very cool in concept and does have its unique uses.
Cons of the set: Only 4 good powers. One of the good powers, wormhole, has knockback associated to it that angers teams. Knockback can be mitigated by aiming in corner (which will often split the group), or aiming straight up or straight down (but they will still spread a little).
"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator
Early on, before Wormhole and before Singularity, the set is very difficult to work with. After you get Wormhole and Singy, it's all gravy and it becomes one of the best control sets in the game.
Pros: lots of skippable powers makes for loose builds; has a very solid late game (level 32 on). Singy is the best dom pet in the game. Your own personal Tanktroller.
Cons: weak early game; Dimension Shift truly is one of the most worthless powers in the game. Animations are on the slowish side. The effects can be difficult to see depending on your graphics settings (but if you have your graphics pumped up they can be quite pretty).
The set would be greatly improved by simply moving Wormhole to level 12 and Dimension Shift to level 26. That one, simple change would double the set's early game performance.
Grav/Elec/Sirocco is the official Daemodand build. Singy + Voltaic +Guardian + Guardian's Voltaic + vet wisp = win.
P.S. Very few people have ever seen Wormhole in use, so you can actually wow some newbs with it. 
The best comics are still 10�!
My City of Heroes Blog Freedom Feature Article: "Going Rageless?"
If you only read one guide this year, make it this one.
Super Reflexes: the Golden Fox of power sets!
WARNING: I bold names.
I figured I'd just tag on a note to daemodand's statement.
With grav/, learning to use singularity is really really important. It's a pet, but it also knocks everything that touches it backwards. It's basically a control power disguised as a pet due to the way the AI works. Enemies will try to melee it, get knocked back, get up, try to melee it, get knocked back, get up etc. etc. So it's a big source of control beyond just holding things.
Active (Freedom): Setna (Ice/Psi Dom), Arram (WP/KM Tank), Tesmiel (Elec/SS Tank), Astredax (Robot/Dark Mastermind), Operative Vidali (melee fortunata)
Retired (Virtue): Gaav (Inv/EM Tank), Baqra (Fire/SS Tank)
Alright, from the start, gravitation is a natural phenomenon by which objects with mass attract one another. In everyday life, gravitation is most commonly thought of as the agency which lends weight to objects with mass. Gravitation compels dispersed matter to coalesce, thus it accounts for the very existence of the Earth, the Sun, and most of the macroscopic objects in the universe. It is responsible for keeping the Earth and the other planets in their orbits around the Sun; for keeping the Moon in its orbit around the Earth, for the formation of tides; for convection (by which fluid flow occurs under the influence of a temperature gradient and gravity); for heating the interiors of forming stars and planets to very high temperatures; and for various other phenomena that we observe. Modern physics describes gravitation using the general theory of relativity, in which gravitation is a consequence of the curvature of spacetime which governs the motion of inertial objects. The simpler Newton's law of universal gravitation provides an excellent approximation for most calculations...
... Oh, wait, not that.
Well, what you first need to know is that it's fine.
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After you get Wormhole and Singy, it's all gravy and it becomes one of the best control sets in the game.
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Erm, no.
After Wormhole and Singy, the set is merely adequate. It is surpassed in every way by all the other sets.
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After you get Wormhole and Singy, it's all gravy and it becomes one of the best control sets in the game.
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Erm, no.
After Wormhole and Singy, the set is merely adequate. It is surpassed in every way by all the other sets.
[/ QUOTE ] How?
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After you get Wormhole and Singy, it's all gravy and it becomes one of the best control sets in the game.
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Erm, no.
After Wormhole and Singy, the set is merely adequate. It is surpassed in every way by all the other sets.
[/ QUOTE ] How?
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By control, and in some sets by damage too.
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After you get Wormhole and Singy, it's all gravy and it becomes one of the best control sets in the game.
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Erm, no.
After Wormhole and Singy, the set is merely adequate. It is surpassed in every way by all the other sets.
[/ QUOTE ] How?
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Every single other set has an "up every fight" power that doesn't piss teams off with the knockback, unlike wormhole:
Fire : Flashfire
Earth : Quicksand+Earthquake or Stalagmites
Ice : Ice Slick
Mind : Terrify
Plant : Seeds of Confusion
It's really hard to get by this unavoidable fact. I play my Grav/NRG a *lot* since she is both accoladed and IO'd out, but I often simply can't use wormhole without making the situation worse.
Aiming in a corner is often not desirable as it splits the spawn and confuses people. Aiming straight up or flying up and aiming straight down still scatters, and will confuse people unless you do it right at where the spawn already is (and in that case how did you survive getting there with the presumably uncontrolled spawn.)
Let's face it. Gravity is UNQUESTIONABLY the least desirable team set. There is not even any remotely debateable issue about this. It is hands down the worst, and this is even if you don't use its deliberately team-antagonistic powers like dimension shift.
I enjoy gravity and have a lot of fun with it, but it is really, really weak in teams.
"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator
But if you solo about 90% of the time is it really good?
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After you get Wormhole and Singy, it's all gravy and it becomes one of the best control sets in the game.
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Erm, no.
After Wormhole and Singy, the set is merely adequate. It is surpassed in every way by all the other sets.
[/ QUOTE ] How?
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Flashfire does the same thing Wormhole does, with a shorter animation. It also doesn't aggro the critters before it takes effect, limiting retaliatory strikes. It also has a significantly larger radius, meaning it can effect more critters. It also comes 14 levels earlier. Also, you don't have to find a spot to place the critters, because they don't go anywhere. Finally, Flashfire is not unique in its pros, sharing similarities with powers like Stalagmites and Seeds of Confusion and other less-than-total AoE control powers.
If Wormhole operated differently and had a larger radius and came sooner, it'd be a wonderful power. It can be very fun to punt one group into another group and wail on the both of them, but other than that, the novelty of Wormhole wears off soon.
Another problem with Gravity is that Dimension Shift is pretty much useless. Other primaries have powers like Quicksand or Arctic Air or Hot Feet or Carrion Creepers that give the set a good amount of flavour and adds utility. Gravity gets an AoE pause button.
And even worse, one of the glories of Gravity is its high single target damage when compared to other control primaries, largely through its use of contained Propel. Dominators don't get Containment, and powers like Blaze and Power Push and Thorn Barrage kick Propel in the nuts, steal its lunch money and key its car (or forklift).
In short: It's adequate. Mediocre. Not the best. In fact, easily the worst.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
I'm disgusted at all these reasoned arguments pointing out obvious facts about a set that's weak. I thought we'd all agreed IT WAS FINE.
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But if you solo about 90% of the time is it really good?
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It's okay. Probably the others are all still better than it for a dom, but solo they are all pretty close and you should just go for concept. For a controller, propel is nice with containment and comes pretty early, but this is not relevant to doms.
Basically, it is a fun, quirky non-optimized set. If you played Trick Arrow or Energy Aura before they were buffed, this is the set for you. It has some fun quirks that are not really all that good but that make things more interesting and keep you awake as you play.
"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator
In all seriousness, solo, gravity is pretty good. It's certainly as good as Fire for a soloist. Powers like Dimension Shift aren't a problem when you're the only person they inconvenience, much like Bonfire. I'd rate it above earth for solo, and probably just below Mind. The -recharge and -slow can be really meaningful when you're trying to layer on a rough boss.
Propel isn't even that good for controllers. Before the lift change I found myself doing more damage by using crush + lift, which animate faster and let you move in between strikes.
Crush is a DoT though, so propel has that going for it.
Active (Freedom): Setna (Ice/Psi Dom), Arram (WP/KM Tank), Tesmiel (Elec/SS Tank), Astredax (Robot/Dark Mastermind), Operative Vidali (melee fortunata)
Retired (Virtue): Gaav (Inv/EM Tank), Baqra (Fire/SS Tank)
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The -recharge and -slow can be really meaningful when you're trying to layer on a rough boss.
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There is no -Recharge on any of the Gravity powers.
You're right, I was thinking of the -speed elements alone. Since that's what I actually want out of it, it's cool by me.
(Not that I have a Grav/)
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The -recharge and -slow can be really meaningful when you're trying to layer on a rough boss.
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You're right, I was thinking of the -speed elements alone. Since that's what I actually want out of it, it's cool by me.
(Not that I have a Grav/)
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Why not just immobilize the boss if all you want out of things is -speed? I am confused, unless you are talking about the rather rare immobilize-protected bosses. In any case, fire has a slow in hot feet that is pretty damaging and ice has plenty of slows that also have various other effects as well. I would have a real hard time considering gravity to be the best solo set because of its slows.
And if your argument is that gravity is "certainly as good as fire" solo because it has an immobilize, well, umm....
"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator
I tend to not bother with the single target immobilizes - it's just not something I've felt a need for most of the time. However, when you're kiting a very rough boss on an character with bad ST controls (I think most pertinently of my ice/em blaster against vanguard sword, in this case), that the slows can buy you more distance and time to recharge.
A boss who's immobilized will not try to close. He will instead stand and shoot. However, at the same time, a boss who has melee and ranged attacks, if he thinks he can close to melee, will eschew ranged attacks to make the melee ones. You can see this most on individuals with drawn weapons (like Rikti bosses and Vanguard bosses).
My argument is that gravity's about as good as fire solo. I think Fire contributes more on a team because flashfire, in a solo environment, isn't really all that special (you can usually just char one opponent, char another, kill the third solo), while grav when you upgrade to a team environment lacks anything useful spawn-to-spawn except those same single-target strategies.
So, no, just to clarify, 'Grav has an immob so it's as good as fire solo' is not my argument.
Okay. I still think fire/ significantly outpaces gravity solo, because of fire imps if nothing else.
My non-permadom fire/fire 50 dom will clear missions SOLO faster than my accoladed permadom 50 grav/nrg, and this goes beyond an issue of /fire being better than /energy.
There is always hot feet anyway if you want to slow.
Note that I really like gravity, but this doesn't mean I think it is best.
I think solo all of the doms sets are MUCH closer to each other, but fire/ is still above gravity/ that's for sure.
"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator
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because of fire imps if nothing else.
[/ QUOTE ]*shrug* They scatter around, they don't focus fire, and they need you to control more actively to keep 'em alive. Singularity controls and doesn't do a lot of damage. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
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because of fire imps if nothing else.
[/ QUOTE ]*shrug* They scatter around, they don't focus fire, and they need you to control more actively to keep 'em alive. Singularity controls and doesn't do a lot of damage. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
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*shrug* I guess I will just agree to disagree. I would encourage you actually to roll up one of each though if you don't have them and time how long it takes you to get through missions to compare them. fire/ definitely kills faster I think. Imps have a relatively easy time staying alive solo, since you don't run into the massive team spawns that kill them.
"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator
My individual experience isn't necessarily a useful data point. Neither is yours, to be frank.
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My individual experience isn't necessarily a useful data point. Neither is yours, to be frank.
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Yes, but I think it would be relatively easy (where is Starsman when you need him ?) to show objectively that fire/ is a faster solo set than gravity/. I am surprised you are even arguing the point, to be honest, as you seem fairly level-headed in most of your other posts.
"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator
I am totally unfamiliar with the set. I read some guides, but I would like some more diverse opinions. Pros, cons, what is good in the set, what to avoid, etc. etc. I will be using this set due to concept.
Thank you
I'm only ladylike when compared to my sister.