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My earth/thorns is only mid-30s, but I still feel like I am going to end out taking all of the secondary, as in-elegant as that makes me feel.
THorny darts is required, so whatever.
Skewer and ripper seem like too high damage to ignore.
Aim is aim, and I <3 it.
Impale recently got improved, and it seems a shame not to take it when you can pair it with thorn barrage.
And thorntrops is like quicksand to keep guys in earthquake, only it also does damage, so I have to take it.
Thorn burst is AOE, and AOE is still AOE. I can't make an AOE chain out of just fling thorns by itself.
So, I end out with a lot of secondary I guess...
Ordinarily, I like to snip it down more and come up with a tighter attack chain and ditch redundant assault powers. Frustrating...
"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
Fling Thorns -> Dark Obliteration is enough of an attack chain, in my experience.
I like the melee attacks. I've also thought of /Thorny as a "scrapper light" set. And the contrary I find Mind/Thorns just begs for getting up "close and personal" to most mobs. Also Mind is loaded with up front cone damage. I don't miss Thorn Burst at all.
My level 50 Dominators:
Madame Mindbender 50 Mind/Energy
Fly Agaric 50 Plant/Thorn
Nate Nitro 50 Fire/Psi
Thorn Burst is the one power from /Thorny that I'm leaving out of my build. The 3s cast just seems way too long (I'm not a fan of Combustion, either).
Looking forward to Thorntrops, but then I tend to like DoT slows (Rain of Fire, Freezing Rain).
Suggestions:
Super Packs Done Right
Influence Sink: IO Level Mod/Recrafting
Random Merit Rolls: Scale cost by Toon Level
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Looking forward to Thorntrops, but then I tend to like DoT slows (Rain of Fire, Freezing Rain).
[/ QUOTE ]There's an illustrious comparison that is also going to be somewhat disappointing.
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Looking forward to Thorntrops, but then I tend to like DoT slows (Rain of Fire, Freezing Rain).
[/ QUOTE ]There's an illustrious comparison that is also going to be somewhat disappointing.
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Talen is right - thorntrops is the exact same power as caltrops with a different animation. It's maximum damage potential is high but it's spread over 45 seconds where the rain powers only take 15 seconds.
I still think both of them are neat powers as they can be constantly up with no extra slotting and my /devices blasters use them as a melee denial tool with great effect (throw them at your feet, enemies get at MOST 1 shot with melee before turning and fleeing - if they close with you at all) which would work even better with a dominator, I just wouldn't waste any slots on them.
Globals: @Midnight Mystique/@Magik13
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Looking forward to Thorntrops, but then I tend to like DoT slows (Rain of Fire, Freezing Rain).
[/ QUOTE ]There's an illustrious comparison that is also going to be somewhat disappointing.
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Talen is right - thorntrops is the exact same power as caltrops with a different animation. It's maximum damage potential is high but it's spread over 45 seconds where the rain powers only take 15 seconds.
I still think both of them are neat powers as they can be constantly up with no extra slotting and my /devices blasters use them as a melee denial tool with great effect (throw them at your feet, enemies get at MOST 1 shot with melee before turning and fleeing - if they close with you at all) which would work even better with a dominator, I just wouldn't waste any slots on them.
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Ok, difference noted. I've not had caltrops on a character yet (picking it up on my DB/WP when I get to 41 just for kicks, but not quite there yet) so the other two powers were the closest comparisons I've had experience with. I use RoF not only for the damage but for the mitigation (yes, I'm strange like that), so I do like that aspect of trops. It might not be bread and butter but I'm sure I'll find uses for it.
Suggestions:
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Influence Sink: IO Level Mod/Recrafting
Random Merit Rolls: Scale cost by Toon Level
yeah with sands of mu/axe i find my dom in close / melee most often than at range...
have to admit only reason for spirit tree is to slot +rech io set 
all things considered why is thorn barrage so wimpy... my vet power blackwand does more dmg than it does...
Saber Spectre Inv / EM Tanker on Guardian
Wraith Scimitar EM/ EA Brute on Guardian
Attack of the s00p3rphr34k ID 49744
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all things considered why is thorn barrage so wimpy
[/ QUOTE ]It's got a long animation time, it does mostly lethal damage, it's single target, and it's got guaranteed knockback. I am honestly flummoxed as to what this power is doing in the tree at the rank it is - there's no surprise and delight, no oomph to thorns at that point. It's very similar to Power Burst, too.
I don't get it. I really don't. If it had perhaps some kind of long-lasting toxic DoT, or the like, it might make more sense, but as it is, level 38 powers continue to be a spectrum of great-or-totally-irrelevant.
Personally I love it just for the animation.
Winner of Players' Choice Best Villainous Arc 2010: Fear and Loathing on Striga; ID #350522
My Plant/Thorns is only 32, so I'm not entirely qualified to talk here, but I get a lot of mileage out of Fling Thorns. Absolutely terrific attack.
QR
Weatherby_Goode - "Heck, Carrion Creepers negates the knockdown from Carrion Creepers."
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all things considered why is thorn barrage so wimpy
[/ QUOTE ]It's got a long animation time, it does mostly lethal damage, it's single target, and it's got guaranteed knockback. I am honestly flummoxed as to what this power is doing in the tree at the rank it is - there's no surprise and delight, no oomph to thorns at that point. It's very similar to Power Burst, too.
I don't get it. I really don't. If it had perhaps some kind of long-lasting toxic DoT, or the like, it might make more sense, but as it is, level 38 powers continue to be a spectrum of great-or-totally-irrelevant.
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Thorn Barrage should be like Throw Spines 
I actually thought it was a Throw Spines clone until I looked in Mids, my plant/thorns dom got deleted at 35.
The Throw Spines clone is Fling Thorns, IIRC. Been wanting a /Thorny dom forever because of that power alone, but I worry about the redraw issue.
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My Plant/Thorns is only 32, so I'm not entirely qualified to talk here, but I get a lot of mileage out of Fling Thorns. Absolutely terrific attack.
[/ QUOTE ]Yep, but it unlocks at 4. It beggars my imagination. At one point, before I had any 50s, I genuinely asked what was the point of levelling a dominator past 35 - at the time, with the patron pools the way they were, there was no reason to drive on to Thorn Barrage and beyond.
Thorn Barrage should simply be a very narrow cone.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
Hmm... A narrow cone a la Headsplitter would be pretty cool.
That might make me like my Fire/Thorn even more. If that's possible after this latest round of changes.
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Leet speak, and generally difficult to read posts will be not be read.
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It'd certainly fit the animation... and my AoE-built plant/thorns sure as hell wouldn't complain.
QR
Weatherby_Goode - "Heck, Carrion Creepers negates the knockdown from Carrion Creepers."
I have an Earth/Thorn sitting at lvl 48 and I have to say myself during the late game it kinda hurts...maybe like other have said if it was packed with more Toxic dmg but on red side during the late game moss spawns brush off lethal attacks.
Okay. So.
Getting through my mind/energy and my fire/fire's builds and getting to grips with what made them tick? Not so hard. I still want to change some things (like ditching Power Sink and maaaybe Consume on the fire/fire), I'm happy with how they work, and they feel very distinct. I put them as first priority because the fire/fire is still levelling up and the mind/energy had a truly ridiculous amount of global recharge, so I was curious as to how the changes were going to work out.
Setting those two aside, this leaves me with my first 50, my first permadom, and the whole reason I stuck out six months on Virtue and became so solidified there. Battlebriar. He went through about... six builds, and has changed a lot over time, and this big change has made me re-evaluate everything I could. I just used his second build to spec into a SO-only powerset; he has every power in his primary except Entangle, Spore Burst and Spirit Tree, with everything in the secondary (heck, you could just look at the build here). This was so I could see what things were like, and avoid falling into the familiar pattern I had before - ie, never touch impale, it's [censored].
I then went out and did some Borea missions and tried out a few combat styles. What I have learned, and I really do want to hear what people think and how they've experienced differently. Or even numbers. Numbers are good. I'm formulating a plan of how I want to build his main build to hum, and this is what I'm finding:
The Good:
Impale and Thorn Barrage now have a bit more kick to them, as does Thorny Darts. If someone was to play a /thorn dom who eschewed the melee powers, Skewer and Ripper and Thorn Burst, they're probably going to do fine, especially since Barrage and Impale happen to both keep opponents at distances.
The Bad:
Despite the change to the ranged powers, I still don't see myself giving up melee. Ripper does about a quarter more damage than Thorn Barrage, and about a third more than Impale, and it's an area damage power. The melee stuff is just so good by comparison. If I was playing a more active primary - something like Mind or Gravity, where I need to be constantly swapping between primary and secondary modes, I could understand wanting to keep range more - indeed, or just plain preferring flight.
The Ugly:
Thorn Burst still feels like it's not worth it. Even with Soul Drain, I hate this power. The 3-second cast time just doesn't feel like it has the same kick as other PBAOEs - I even prefer combustion to this power. Thorntrops breaks flow, so unless I'm fighting an AV (and hey, I figure it's only a matter of time before we see AV-soloing dom threads that don't take eighty [censored] minutes), I don't see myself ever throwing it out there, meaning its (comparatively) high damage is pretty meaningless. I don't need the control its slow provides.
Which means, overall... Thorn Barrage and Impale are better, Thorntrops and Thorn Burst are still bad, and Thorny Darts does pretty much nothing for me. I'm exactly where I started, but at the same time, I feel like there are more options. I definitely hit harder - bosses are not an issue of whittling, and I take them at a similar pace to my other characters.
Pretty happy with the changes, but I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised by one of the ranged attacks.