You literally cannot go wrong with choosing an Assault set now. They are all better than they were in general game play.
I'd even roll Psi Assault again. That's saying something.
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Super Reflexes: the Golden Fox of power sets!
WARNING: I bold names.
/Psi will go down in history beside EM and Devices. For good or ill, justified or not, people will be whining about PSW getting nerfed still three years from now.
/Ice is pretty much identical. Lost a little AoE power, but really not enough to be noteworthy.
/Fire is debatable. It's a fair bit more costly than before and the DoT seems... I dunno, I can't put my finger on it. It feels weaker, yet it's doing more damage.
/Elec lost a lot of the burst damage, but it's a good grinder still. It isn't weak by any means, but the rise of /Energy has made it less of a no-brainer.
Fire probably made out the worst, relatively speaking. DPE went down relative to the old version, and AoE damage went down compared to before while in Domination. Not that bad really but if you had a /Fire perma-Dom you might be wishing for the old version back.
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/Psi will go down in history beside EM and Devices. For good or ill, justified or not, people will be whining about PSW getting nerfed still three years from now.
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Did the 5thSF yesterday with my perma Fire/Psi. PSW is not what it once was, but it's still darn cool and now I can use Psychic Scream with it.
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/Elec lost a lot of the burst damage, but it's a good grinder still. It isn't weak by any means, but the rise of /Energy has made it less of a no-brainer.
[/ QUOTE ] Would you mind expanding on that a little bit? I just made a Ice/Elec(only lvl4) and I mainly solo but if /Elec isn't as good as it used to be I'll reroll(grav/nrg interest me a lot).
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/Elec lost a lot of the burst damage, but it's a good grinder still. It isn't weak by any means, but the rise of /Energy has made it less of a no-brainer.
[/ QUOTE ] Would you mind expanding on that a little bit? I just made a Ice/Elec(only lvl4) and I mainly solo but if /Elec isn't as good as it used to be I'll reroll(grav/nrg interest me a lot).
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Elec is still good guys, it's just that Energy is finally a "contender" to it now. You won't go wrong with Elec still, so don't worry, you're fine.
Basically, Energy is a bit more like, well, energy melee for brutes, in that it packs a lot of big heavy hits. It's good, overall, but you won't really be able to avoid the knockback powers any more. Elec can manage its burst better though build-up, Energy gets Powerboost (which I still see as overkill). Overall, /energy is pretty good.
I do have to respec my mind/energy though. He can't run the leadership toggles any more, but, more pleasantly, doesn't have to.
I guess I'll wait for news on the /Thorns buff? 
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Well now my Fire/Psy will just collect dust until I can figure out if I'm going to delete him or not and my Plant/Fire has gone down on damage out put, slower recharge and now sits at a constant empty blue bar.
Yeah... thanks for the "buff"
Dunno how others feel, but i like the changes.
My mind/elec is tearing stuff apart, maybe its due to his build being tweeked well enough before the changes, but hes taking people/mobs down alot faster in pvp & pve now it seems.
Haven't tested in depth with my other dom's yet due to lack of free time.
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Fire probably made out the worst, relatively speaking. DPE went down relative to the old version, and AoE damage went down compared to before while in Domination. Not that bad really but if you had a /Fire perma-Dom you might be wishing for the old version back.
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This definitely was not the case for me. I only ran a couple missions on test with my perma Fire/Fire, but with Fiery Embrace and Soul Drain I was laying waste to things significantly faster than before. He was pee-in-his-pants happy with the changes. Endurance use was noticeably higher, but it was non-existant before so it still isn't an issue. Any sort of IO'd build is going to have decent end redux slotting built into the attacks, and if you're perma then you get your end refilled every 80-90 seconds.
YMMV of course.
I have actually only played /Fire and /Electric myself, but from feedback from the board and my own analysis of the changes I believe this should sum it up:
Energy - Doing considerably better damage than before. The End costs are fairly high, but as you will no longer be limping along on a subpar Secondary, you should be able to compensate. This is really THE single target damage set for Doms, although it still lacks AoE.
Psi - Overall damage has probably gone down, however you should be able to do significant single target damage, pretty close to Energy. No more waiting for 38 and PSW before the set gets good. Still has good AoE with PSW and Psychic Scream, compared to other Secondaries, although nothing compared to what it once was. End cost is much higher, a reslotting strategy is probably wise.
Electric - The only Secondary to get a "nerf", this is primarily limited to the melee attacks and Thunder Strike. The lower End cost for these attacks and their faster recharge should be a noticable advantage, though. Outside of Domination you should see a definately increase overall, doing more damge for more End efficiency. In Domination the damage is a little less, but if you're using ranged attacks and holds a lot you probably won't even notice. (I didn't, and really, I had plenty of End all the time, I never even had any trouble with it)
Fire - Although for the most part unchanged, it is using more Endurance than it used to. This is still somewhat better than the other Secondaries, because Fire does so much DoT that doesn't get charged against End, but if you're used to what it was costing you before, you will probably need to reslot. I found it was noticable, but nothing I couldn't deal with just by changing my tactics, avoiding Flares and Combustion, and taking a little more time. Again, damage is great outside of Domination, inside there is not much difference.
Ice - This set has gone pretty much uneffected. Ice Sword Circle is a much larger radius attack now, but it also costs more End and does less damage. Overall, though, you shouldn't see any more damage in Domination, and you shouldn't see any more End cost. What you'll probably find is that you kill everything before you even get Domination, and thus either don't have the button ready to refill your End bar, or have used it and need it before it can fill again. You can either reslot, or save Domination for End refill.
Thorns - I'm not really sure about Thorns, some feedback has said that they notice the End cost, but it should be somewhere between Ice and Fire. The changes were not really drastic, and certainly aren't anywhere near as drastic as Energy and Psi. So like Fire, you probably shouldn't require a reslot unless you are really annoyed by End cost.
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Fire probably made out the worst, relatively speaking. DPE went down relative to the old version, and AoE damage went down compared to before while in Domination. Not that bad really but if you had a /Fire perma-Dom you might be wishing for the old version back.
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I couldn't disagree more. Firey Embrace combined with higher base damage modifiers and skills with increase damage scales means that Fire Assault is absolutely insane. It's within reason for a perma-Dom to have FE up for 30 out of 50 seconds.
This was a HUGE buff for Fire.
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Fire - Although for the most part unchanged, it is using more Endurance than it used to. This is still somewhat better than the other Secondaries, because Fire does so much DoT that doesn't get charged against End, but if you're used to what it was costing you before, you will probably need to reslot. I found it was noticable, but nothing I couldn't deal with just by changing my tactics, avoiding Flares and Combustion, and taking a little more time. Again, damage is great outside of Domination, inside there is not much difference.
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I think your summation is pretty good. Just one question.
Q: how are you avoiding using flares? without either having a massive recharge build, or standing around.
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Fire probably made out the worst, relatively speaking. DPE went down relative to the old version, and AoE damage went down compared to before while in Domination. Not that bad really but if you had a /Fire perma-Dom you might be wishing for the old version back.
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I couldn't disagree more. Firey Embrace combined with higher base damage modifiers and skills with increase damage scales means that Fire Assault is absolutely insane. It's within reason for a perma-Dom to have FE up for 30 out of 50 seconds.
This was a HUGE buff for Fire.
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It is far less insane than you seem to think. You need very high recharge to get FE up ~60% of the time, you really aren't dealing much more damage than a perma dom with FE up 60% of the time did on live.
*with the rech required to get FE up that much you were perma dom.
A bit more damage for sure, but the damage boost is not as large as the end consumption increase.
FE+souldrain and/or reds and now we are cooking with heat.
For me /fire is a bit better under extreme recharge, but actually worse under low recharge. Part of that is because I don't like the flares animation and it is now a staple attack.
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Fire - Although for the most part unchanged, it is using more Endurance than it used to. This is still somewhat better than the other Secondaries, because Fire does so much DoT that doesn't get charged against End, but if you're used to what it was costing you before, you will probably need to reslot. I found it was noticable, but nothing I couldn't deal with just by changing my tactics, avoiding Flares and Combustion, and taking a little more time. Again, damage is great outside of Domination, inside there is not much difference.
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I think your summation is pretty good. Just one question.
Q: how are you avoiding using flares? without either having a massive recharge build, or standing around.
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Well, by "taking a little more time", I pretty much meant standing around, as you said. Honestly, though, I used Levitate, and Confuse to fill in the gaps in my chain. Which considering I have always used those powers, didn't effect my End cost in the least. They are already slotted for End.
I actually never even used Flares, until its animation time was changed. So I just went back to not using it as much. I really didn't need to change my slotting that much, although if I had shifted a whole lot into Flares, I would just shift it back out.
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Psi - Overall damage has probably gone down, however you should be able to do significant single target damage, pretty close to Energy. No more waiting for 38 and PSW before the set gets good. Still has good AoE with PSW and Psychic Scream, compared to other Secondaries, although nothing compared to what it once was. End cost is much higher, a reslotting strategy is probably wise.
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Don't exagerrate.
Psi while having better single target, is still pretty crappy single target relative to what else is available for doms.
Psi has pretty decent AoE, Drain Psyche, and is pink.
If you want Great Single Targe, and Great Aoe, go fire.
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Don't exagerrate.
Psi while having better single target, is still pretty crappy single target relative to what else is available for doms.
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Well, most people were reporting that they have a MUCH easier time levelling in the early levels, so I took that to mean single target damage is considerably improved. Mind Probe also does the same damage as Havoc Punch and Bone Smasher, and TK Thrust now does damage, like Power Push. I took that to mean its performance is, if not as good as Energy, somewhat the same in the way it has been changed. (More damage, more End cost)
If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Psi isn't one of the sets I've played. However, in comparison to the way Psi used to perform, it would feel somewhat weaker, since it's not doing massive amounts of AoE any more. This may make it seem like it's not doing much more ST, when it fact you're not going to get the same kind of damage from ST anyway.
Fire, of course, is still fire. In fact, even Energy could be hard pressed to compete with that since it's single target, and costs more Endurance, besides.
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Fire probably made out the worst, relatively speaking. DPE went down relative to the old version, and AoE damage went down compared to before while in Domination. Not that bad really but if you had a /Fire perma-Dom you might be wishing for the old version back.
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I couldn't disagree more. Firey Embrace combined with higher base damage modifiers and skills with increase damage scales means that Fire Assault is absolutely insane. It's within reason for a perma-Dom to have FE up for 30 out of 50 seconds.
This was a HUGE buff for Fire.
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Something I don't see addressed often is this: many of the people who say the changes (especially the increased endurance costs) aren't that bad, seem to be higher-level dominators who already have good builds, already have SO's or IO's, etc. I am a veteran player who has rarely played villains, but I just gave it another go about two weeks ago and rolled a fire/fire dominator. He's only level 11 and I was starting to like him, but now I can't kill more than one or two mobs before my blue bar is completely gone. I've been lucky enough to find a couple of teams, but the population is nothing close to what it is on the hero side. Heck I would even take an AE run to help me get closer to level 20 and Stamina, but the AE buildings are empty.
So I will probably take the easy way out and go back to playing heroes, which is what usually happens. I think higher-level, already-geared doms can roll with these changes...but newer ones such as myself may end up giving up. Playing my newbie dominator is currently not my idea of fun. 
I don't know, I have been doing ouro arcs since the issue went live. I haven't actually had any problems in the 1-19 arcs, which is before DP. It's a lot more liveable with the various damage boosts, and the end cost increases weren't that bad. But then again, I don't think any /psi dom should be crying about end costs, so this might not be all that helpful of an observation.
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)
Early-level Thorns/Thorns speaking.
/Thorns seems to have awesome AoE. Not having played /Fire to a sufficient level, I won't say it has better. But I have great AoE, and no endurance problems, so I'd say it made off fine.
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Weatherby_Goode - "Heck, Carrion Creepers negates the knockdown from Carrion Creepers."
Well, I have little basis for comparison having played only my Plant/Thorn, but in my opinion /Thorn became ungodly. Maybe it's aided by Primary/Secondary synergy, but I've just been tearing things apart, as opposed to pre-I15 when I decided to shelf my Dom indefinitely due to the painfully slow damage output.
But be warned, /Thorn got hit hard with endurance cost...I'm taking Stamina next level to see how it effects my preformance, maybe slotting for reduction if it's still bad. Though while running with Clubber active, it wasn't so bad, so hopefully Stamina will be enough. As it stands, I'm running dry almost every fight (Though I'm also a maniac, your mileage may vary).
Bottom line: Plant/Thorns is awesome. I never thought I'd say this, but I love my Dominator.
The off-beat space pirate...Capt. Stormrider (50+3 Elec/Storm Science Corruptor)
The mysterious Djinn...Emerald Dervish (50+1 DB/DA Magic Stalker)
The psychotic inventor...Dollmaster (50 Bot/FF Tech Mastermind)
Virtue Forever.
My fire/fire's build was a disparate pile of [censored]. He felt like a recking ball last night when I played him. Bosses weren't inspiration fests any more.
my lowbie fire/psi doesn't [censored] his pants if he misses with a ST hold any more.
Seems a win to me.
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Okay, so Energy is now a rather good single-target damage set, and people are still debating Psionic assault... and probably will be ad nauseum.
So... how are the OTHER Secondaries? Electricity, Fire, Ice and Thorns? I know all of them were tweaked a bit, and would like to hear opinions about them...
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Well, before, if you want Power Boost, Icy was a much superior set than Energy Assault but now I think Energy Assault has better ST damage than Icy. Icy Assault has two aoe to play with.
Psionic Assault is still unique due to Drained Psyche. DP's regen debuff is very high, probably the highest in the game?
I am not so sure about Electricity Assault now to be honest. It sort of loses its charm after the changes because other sets have long-recharge attacks now.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
Okay, so Energy is now a rather good single-target damage set, and people are still debating Psionic assault... and probably will be ad nauseum.
So... how are the OTHER Secondaries? Electricity, Fire, Ice and Thorns? I know all of them were tweaked a bit, and would like to hear opinions about them...
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