The Effect of the I15 'Revamp' on /Psi Doms
By
Bindweed,
Posted on: 2009-08-07 09:43 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
To quantify these changes to /psi, I’m using just the data from my ice/psi/mu dominator (lvl 50 and non-perma) who ran 3 triplicate sets of test missions: timed Cimemora, timed RWZ, and timed Warburg missions. I recorded in-game statistics using the latest version of HeroStats Unstable, combined the data for the 9 individual missions to obtain an average performance, then analyzed and graphed the numbers using Microsoft Excel.
For the record, the I14 tests took this character 66 min to defeat 283 foes with 843 damaging power activations, while the I15 tests required 60 min to defeat 288 foes with 894 damaging power activations.
Damage % enhancement values for the damaging powers are as follows:
Chilblain 82
Block of Ice 93
Flash Freeze 0
Psi Dart 26
Mental Blast 88
Mind Probe 93
Subdue 85
Psi Shockwave 98
Ball Lightning 102
Assault +11% to all
Before you look at the data, a note about this dominator's tactics pre-I15 and post-I15:
Prior to I15, this character would typically lead with Flash Freeze (AoE sleep) to incapacitate target mobs. Alternatively, she could open with Ice Slick or Glacier (depending on terrain and mob spacing). She would then run in with Arctic Air running (4x procd for dmg) and discharge Drain Psyche, followed by Psi Shockwave (the undisputed best dominator attack in the game). Mobs that weren't stunned by PSW and/or posed a greater threat were then controlled with Block of Ice and Chilblain. PSW was then typically recharged and used again. Mind Probe and Subdue (high dmg ST attacks) followed, then another PSW. If anything was still alive or moving, ST attacks and PSW were applied until they weren't.
Fast forward to I15. PSW has had its damage scale cut, its recharge and endurance cost nearly doubled, and its range almost halved. The reported purpose of this was to allow for buffs to most of the rest of the set (increases in dmg) without overpowering it. However, a look at the patch notes will also show a corresponding increase in recharge and endurance costs for most of the buffed powers. Essentially, the /psi dominator was forced to tradeoff heavy hitting AoE PSW for slower, higher end and higher dmg ST attacks.
This necessitated a change in play style, albeit undetermined at the time of the tests. It wasn't until I analyzed the results for this post that they became apparent to me (and hopefully you). Overall, the dominator still opened with the same AoE controls (sleep, hold or knockdown), but after the initial PSW hit, there was a large gap in the attack chain that was filled with increased reliance on previously underused ST powers (mental blast and psi dart namely).
Please buff Ice Control.
The results (positive numbers indicate an increase with the I15 changes; negative numbers indicate a decrease with the I15 changes):
- Power Usage Change - how often were powers used? A factor of recharge as much as necessity. Will show what effects the increase recharge of certain powers had.
- Endurance Expenditure - how much end did each power cost during the tests? Will show what effects the increased endurance cost of certain powers had.
- Damage Output - bottomline. How much damage came from each power? Can be broken down into DPM. The big weakness of this stat is that it's dependent on how often a power is used. More use generally means more damage. Therefore, 2 sub-analyses were made: Damage/Endurance (accounts for the changes to end of some of the powers... how much dmg are you getting for your investment of endurance) and Damage/Hit (more useful than DPE for 2 reasons: First because AoE dmg depends on how many targets are hit while their end cost remains static and second because it factors accuracy into its equation).
- Power Uses
- End Costs
- DPM
- DPE
- DPH (no data for Flash Freeze as HeroStats did not record its accuracy)
Please buff Ice Control.
After looking over the data, I've drawn a few conclusions. I realize this is just one character and further analysis is required to test these conclusions. But the data do represent a large chunk of playtime against a variety of foes in a variety of environments, so they are representative of an average ice/psi dominator, and by extrapolation the average */psi dominator. I wouldnt go so far as to apply these findings to all dominators. I do have data from 4 other lvl 50 doms that I can breakdown in this fashion for a broader comparison. Hopefully, I have the time to do that in the next couple weeks.
At any rate, from my overall testing, the dom revamp has improved the AT an average of 11% in my hands at lvl 50 running solo missions
From this specific /psi study, PSW was hammered with the nerf bat in 3 areas: recharge (usage fell 36%), endurance cost (cost 15% more end DESPITE being used much less), and damage output (DPE and DPH both dropped as a result of being less available, lower dmg scale AND having a shorter range).
The changes to /psi assault have also led to a switch from PSW AoE reliance to a barrage of ST powers. Pre-I15, the top 3 powers this ice/psi dom used were PSW, BoI and Chilblain. This is because PSW was good enough to eliminate a spawn on its own with little reliance on ST attacks. Now, this dom relies not only on PSW and BoI, but also must stack Subdue, Mental Blast, Psi Dart, and Mind Probe.
The ST attacks of Dart, MB, Subdue, Mind Probe are greater parts of the attack chain. Previously, one could skip 1-2 of those powers and not see a drop in performance. Now, they are all but a necessity for a fluid attack chain. Of particular note is the major increase in psi dart usage. This power was reportedly removed from many /psi users power trays due to its previously low damage (this author is guilty at one time of this). Now its used several times per fight as a filler attack.
Ice Slick becomes much more important to long term control as Flash Freeze only works as an alpha, Glacier still has an eternally long recharge, and PSW is not as reliable as a stunning mez with its longer recharge and shorter range. Therefore, Ice Slicks were often being dropped mid-fight as opposed to as openers only in order to mitigate incoming damage.
When looking at the endurance data, its amazing to see the increases in end use from psi dart and mental blast. This is due partly to their increases in end cost from the set rebalancing. However, its apparent to me that its also a result of their much greater usage after PSWs nerf
an increased frequency that Im not sure was factored into the rebalancing decision. In fact, looking at the large discrepancies between their DPH and their DPE, I think the rebalancing went too far. Compared to Subdue and Mind Probe, the /psi dominator is paying an awful lot of endurance for the damage theyre getting from those 2 powers. I AM pleased with MBs damage increase (now the equivalent of Subdue), but Psi Dart is still a plinker, in my opinion. However, in darts defense, I only have it lightly slotted for damage, as instead I have 3 procs (hold, BU, and end drain) in it so it might be more worthwhile with traditional slotting.
Overall end usage was up 14% when you factor in all the powers and their uses during these missions. This weighed against an overall DPM increase of 24% and begs the question of was it worth it? When I look at the total DPE (total damage done from all the attacks divided by the total endurance cost of all those attacks) change from I14 to I15, its actually a 4% DECREASE. So my answer to that question is, no. I think the damage increase was overbalanced by too much increased endurance costs and perhaps unanticipated increases in ST power usage to do the same job that PSW used to be able to do. To be fair, a couple powers could probably be better slotted for endurance management, but I didn't want to change this build in order to have a controlled comparison.
Despite PSWs reduction in effectiveness, it still is the #1 damage power for this dominator in terms of raw damage. This is good news for /psi doms when fighting large spawns. PSW is significantly reduced in effectiveness when looking at DPE, however. This makes it imperative to use against large numbers of foes if maximum efficiency is desired.
On positive notes, Mental Blast is now a killer. Its increases in DPE and DPH make it a must have early dom attack when once upon a time it was a sure skip power. This will likely impact the early game dominator greatly when Subdue is 28 levels away and PSW 38.
Lastly, Mind Probe and Subdue are solid attacks as well, but might need a slight boost as theyre equivalent to Mental Blast when I would expect them to be superior. Some of this is due to differential enhancement levels on these powers, but theyre all 3 pretty close in damage enhancement percentages.
Please buff Ice Control.
And here's the build I was using. Make note that not all of her enhancers are at maximum level as shown here. It's pretty much a frankenslot build for pre-I15 superteam use (when we ran the all-dom slow team):
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Glaize: Level 50 Technology Dominator
Primary Power Set: Ice Control
Secondary Power Set: Psionic Assault
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Chilblain
- (A) Tempered Readiness - Accuracy/Slow: Level 50
- (3) Tempered Readiness - Damage/Slow: Level 50
- (3) Tempered Readiness - Accuracy/Endurance: Level 50
- (23) Tempered Readiness - Range/Slow: Level 50
- (36) Tempered Readiness - Accuracy/Damage/Slow: Level 50
- (40) Damage Increase IO: Level 50
- (A) Decimation - Chance of Build Up: Level 40
- (39) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50
- (43) Devastation - Chance of Hold: Level 50
- (43) Tempest - Chance of End Drain: Level 30
- (A) Ruin - Accuracy/Damage: Level 40
- (5) Ruin - Damage/Endurance: Level 40
- (5) Ruin - Damage/Recharge: Level 40
- (15) Essence of Curare - Accuracy/Hold: Level 50
- (36) Essence of Curare - Endurance/Hold: Level 50
- (46) Tempered Readiness - Damage/Slow: Level 50
- (A) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage: Level 40
- (7) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance: Level 40
- (7) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge: Level 40
- (17) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
- (9) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
- (9) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
- (A) Malaise's Illusions - Chance of Damage(Psionic): Level 50
- (11) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing): Level 30
- (11) Cacophony - Chance of Damage(Energy): Level 30
- (17) Glimpse of the Abyss - Chance of Damage(Psionic): Level 50
- (19) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50
- (19) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50
- (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50
- (13) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
- (13) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
- (34) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
- (A) Range IO: Level 50
- (15) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50
- (A) Jumping IO: Level 50
- (A) Springfoot - Endurance/Jumping: Level 50
- (A) Harmonized Healing - Heal/Endurance: Level 40
- (21) Harmonized Healing - Heal/Recharge: Level 40
- (21) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge: Level 50
- (23) Performance Shifter - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50
- (25) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy: Level 50
- (36) Endurance Modification IO: Level 50
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50
- (25) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance: Level 50
- (27) To Hit Buff IO: Level 50
- (A) Karma - Knockback Protection: Level 30
- (A) Paralytic - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 30
- (27) Paralytic - Accuracy/Hold/Recharge: Level 30
- (29) Essence of Curare - Accuracy/Hold: Level 50
- (29) Essence of Curare - Accuracy/Hold/Recharge: Level 50
- (33) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Accuracy/Hold/Recharge: Level 50
- (46) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50
- (A) Maelstrom's Fury - Accuracy/Damage: Level 35
- (31) Maelstrom's Fury - Damage/Endurance: Level 35
- (31) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 35
- (33) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
- (A) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep: Level 50
- (31) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep/Recharge: Level 50
- (37) Fortunata Hypnosis - Chance for Placate: Level 50
- (37) Fortunata Hypnosis - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50
- (42) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep/Endurance: Level 50
- (A) Brilliant Leadership - Accuracy/Damage: Level 40
- (33) Brilliant Leadership - Damage: Level 40
- (34) Edict of the Master - Accuracy/Damage: Level 40
- (34) Edict of the Master - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 40
- (37) Slow IO: Level 50
- (A) Run Speed IO: Level 50
- (46) Run Speed IO: Level 50
- (A) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50
- (39) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
- (39) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
- (40) Multi Strike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
- (40) Multi Strike - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
- (43) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
- (42) Endurance Modification IO: Level 50
- (42) Endurance Modification IO: Level 50
- (A) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Endurance: Level 30
- (45) Titanium Coating - Resistance: Level 30
- (45) Titanium Coating - Endurance: Level 30
- (45) Resist Damage IO: Level 30
- (A) Detonation - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
- (48) Detonation - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
- (48) Detonation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50
- (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
- (50) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range: Level 50
- (50) Air Burst - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
- (50) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
Level 1: Brawl
- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
------------
Set Bonus Totals:
- 1% DamageBuff(Smashing)
- 1% DamageBuff(Lethal)
- 1% DamageBuff(Fire)
- 1% DamageBuff(Cold)
- 1% DamageBuff(Energy)
- 1% DamageBuff(Negative)
- 1% DamageBuff(Toxic)
- 1% DamageBuff(Psionic)
- 3.75% Defense(Energy)
- 3.75% Defense(Negative)
- 1.88% Defense(Ranged)
- 0.9% Max End
- 22% Enhancement(Accuracy)
- 1.5% Enhancement(JumpSpeed)
- 1.5% Enhancement(RunSpeed)
- 1.5% Enhancement(FlySpeed)
- 1.5% Enhancement(JumpHeight)
- 13.8% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
- 5% FlySpeed
- 45.8 HP (4.5%) HitPoints
- 9% JumpHeight
- 9% JumpSpeed
- Knockback (Mag -4)
- Knockup (Mag -4)
- MezResist(Immobilize) 2.75%
- MezResist(Sleep) 5.5%
- MezResist(Terrorized) 4.95%
- 15.5% (0.26 End/sec) Recovery
- 4% (0.17 HP/sec) Regeneration
- 2.52% Resistance(Fire)
- 2.52% Resistance(Cold)
- 1.88% Resistance(Energy)
- 13% RunSpeed
Please buff Ice Control.
Side note: black text on blue/red background is painful to read.
On topic: That's some very interesting work you've done there. I expect the most-improved metric for Psi Doms is leveling from 1-38 is far easier now. Keep up the good work DarkCurrent!
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WARNING: I bold names.
Overall, it's positive news. My big concern at this point is the endurance issue. Some of it can be alleviated with slotting changes, but I think a couple of the powers costs need to be trimmed.
Please buff Ice Control.
I still know someone who immediately deleted their Mind/Psi Dom when i15 hit without even testing the new changes. 
Quote:
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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Quote:
You still know them? Were you expecting to forget their existence? |
Originally Posted by Dispari
I still know someone who immediately deleted their Mind/Psi Dom when i15 hit without even testing the new changes.
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http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
Quote:
Still as in "despite all evidence that Doms are better off now and improved a lot, they still said 'psw nerf? ragequite!@' as soon as the issue launched."
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Originally Posted by Fleeting_Whisper
You still know them? Were you expecting to forget their existence?
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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Quote:
I doubt they quit the game entirely, maybe they just didn't like the playstyle change. To each their own. Personally, I liked that the /psi set was so different before, now its just like all the others. I wish they'd quit making everything taste like vanilla and give us real differences back. Outliers aren't bad, they add variety. (feel this way about all the ATs, not just doms)
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Originally Posted by Dispari
Still as in "despite all evidence that Doms are better off now and improved a lot, they still said 'psw nerf? ragequite!@' as soon as the issue launched."
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-Hesh
38 FF/Sonic Def
35 Ill/Storm
35 DM/Regen
1 pan of fresh brownies/gallon of milk
Quote:
Defender: "Wanna trade inherents? Huh wanna?"
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Originally Posted by DarkCurrent
Overall, it's positive news. My big concern at this point is the endurance issue. Some of it can be alleviated with slotting changes, but I think a couple of the powers costs need to be trimmed.
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Quote:
I know they didn't quit the game. They're still on my friend list. What I said is they immediately deleted the character.
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Originally Posted by Hesh
I doubt they quit the game entirely, maybe they just didn't like the playstyle change. To each their own. Personally, I liked that the /psi set was so different before, now its just like all the others. I wish they'd quit making everything taste like vanilla and give us real differences back. Outliers aren't bad, they add variety. (feel this way about all the ATs, not just doms)
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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Quote:
They are bad, and they kill variety. This is something Geko never understood, but thankfully Castle does. Outliers on the underperform side rarely get played and Outliers on the overperform side get played in excess. Thus limiting variety.|
Originally Posted by Hesh
I doubt they quit the game entirely, maybe they just didn't like the playstyle change. To each their own. Personally, I liked that the /psi set was so different before, now its just like all the others. I wish they'd quit making everything taste like vanilla and give us real differences back. Outliers aren't bad, they add variety. (feel this way about all the ATs, not just doms)
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Pretty much all sets should end out in (very roughly) the same place when played by the same player. This is where Scrappers pretty much are with respect to primaries now. Most of the sets do very well, but in different ways so they all get played.
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.
Excellent post, Dark Current.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by DarkCurrent
I found average lvl 50 dominator solo performance increased 11% based on reward rate (infamy per hour).
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Quote:
| This necessitated a change in play style, albeit undetermined at the time of the tests. It wasn't until I analyzed the results for this post that they became apparent to me (and hopefully you). |
Quote:
| It's pretty much a frankenslot build for pre-I15 superteam use (when we ran the all-dom slow team) |
Basically, it seems like there's at least potential for further improvements to the post-i15 performance, which would tend to amplify the differences you've found.
However, it also gives rise to another question. Playstyle and slotting changes can on their own give rise to changes in influence earning rates far exceeding 11%, which makes it hard to know to what degree the i15 changes are obscured by playstyle and slotting (both pre-i15 and post-i15).
Trivial example: The better you were at leveraging the pre-i15 AoE of PSW, the more you'd be affected by the changes to it. They wouldn't affect everyone the same.
I don't see any mention of what difficulty you're playing on. Since AoE effectiveness is highly dependent on spawn sizes, this'd be interesting to know.
(side note: The ability to further increase spawn sizes in i16 is something that can highly benefit AoE heavy sets. In the context of i16, the i15 changes might end up seeming less "positive" for /Psi)
There are also other things that can affect influence earning rate. For example, something as simple as what maps you end up playing on can have a significant impact. Thus it'd be interesting to see what results you'd get if you made another few post-i15 passes.
(side note: I've recently noticed a significant increase in Boss spawning rates while duoing. Has anyone noticed if this is also the case while soloing?)
Quote:
I certainly have noticed it - on many characters I run at difficulty level 2 I have noticed that where a mission would previously spawn a pair of LT's and a minion I am frequently seeing a boss and a minion. First time it happened to me after i15 was in a warriors mission and since the bosses look an aweful lot like the LT's I had a tight moment when the LT I thought I had held proceeded to knock me off my feet and nearly kill me. After that I started checking a lot more carefully and they do pop up fairly often - it will be interesting to see what the i16 changes do to this.
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Originally Posted by Stargazer
(side note: I've recently noticed a significant increase in Boss spawning rates while duoing. Has anyone noticed if this is also the case while soloing?) |
Globals: @Midnight Mystique/@Magik13
Quote:
I don't mind sets being balanced with each other, that wasn't the point I was trying to make. I just get depressed when I look across the various sets within an AT and see mostly the exact same powers with different graphics. (for some things like defiance I can see the need for such uniformity, but not all ATs have this mechanism)|
Originally Posted by EvilGeko
They are bad, and they kill variety. This is something Geko never understood, but thankfully Castle does. Outliers on the underperform side rarely get played and Outliers on the overperform side get played in excess. Thus limiting variety.
Pretty much all sets should end out in (very roughly) the same place when played by the same player. This is where Scrappers pretty much are with respect to primaries now. Most of the sets do very well, but in different ways so they all get played. |
I won't address the part about limiting variety as I think you understood my original post to be something other than I intended.
-Hesh
38 FF/Sonic Def
35 Ill/Storm
35 DM/Regen
1 pan of fresh brownies/gallon of milk
You build is in no way what I would consider optimal.
I can't extrapolate your results to my dom.
I definately lost a great measure of power in my character, but then again
my dom is on a order of magnitude better optimized than what you tested with.
Is it still fun to play? Yes. Is it nearly as powerful as it once was No.
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!
i have plenty of experience with dom's, overall i like what they've done,
Now with regards to Psi.
Before Psi was really underpowered until you got PSW, and whatever problems Dom's had with leveling was more so with Psi. Now Psi is a solid set to level with, at the cost of course PSW being tweaked down some, which I am fine with. I still think even though Psi was brought closer to the other sets, there is still a lot of variety among the assault sets, and it still has its own place. And lets be honest here, between PSW and the upgraded Psychic Scream, Psi is still one of the stronger AE sets available to Dom's, the big difference here, instead of all the power being in one power( and a 9th tier power at that), its more spread out along the set.
My hope is, after doing this with Psi, I hope they take a look at Gravity, I know if they did so, there would be a lot of happy Doms and Controllers. Even if they just swapped worm hole and dimension shift, and maybe increased wormholes radius a little.
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Meh, I deleted my em/fire and my em/regen pretty much the same day ET was gutted. I didn't even log the stalker and the only reason I logged the brute was just to see the animation as I'd only used bitterfreezeray a couple of times a long time prior to that.|
Originally Posted by Dispari
I know they didn't quit the game. They're still on my friend list. What I said is they immediately deleted the character.
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I really didn't need to "try out" the change to know that a toon(s) I enjoyed because of their overall feeling of speed would no longer be fun when that speed was taken away.
Who know's, maybe he hates the psyscream animation or something and realized it would be vital to achieving solid performance and just said F it.
I almost rage deleted my fire/storm troller and my storm/sonic def due to the nerf to LS without even trying it because I can use a calculator
. The only reason I didn't is because they are loaded with lotg's, miracle and other expensive IO's that I'll eventually get around to stripping. I've played each of them less than 1hr since and before they were getting over 90% of my playtime.I mean AE has made it so you pretty much have a "start at 50" button so deleting toons carries far less weight than it used to. If something about a toon PO's you, just delete it and make a new 50 the next day or two. That's where the game is at imo anyway for better or worse.
Quote:
Thank you. I hope there's some useful info in here for you and your team.|
Originally Posted by Castle
Excellent post, Dark Current.
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To be honest, I didn't agree with your rationale for revamping doms as I didn't feel the goals you stated were achievable, but I did want to give them a fair test.
From what I've seen, high level, nonperma dominators HAVE been improved by the changes. IMO, the numbers aren't indicating a huge improvement, but it is an improvement. Therefore, you won't hear me complain about them (although I do think end costs are a bit too high). Nor will I heap praise, though because I'm not concerned about dom popularity as you are (and within your right as a developer to be).
I do hope that now that you guys have revamped the AT as a whole, you'll spend more time providing new sets (like earth assault... good job) and tweaking the old ones (dimension shift pretty please).
The thing that keeps me and other vet doms playing the AT is their edge-of-your-seat playstyle. So as you look ahead to design our shadowy illusion set (why else wouldn't you have proliferated illusion by now?), a whips and chains set (BaBs let slip on that one), a dark assault set (will help you guys when you port dark blast to blasters) and an electric control set (to share with controllers), please remember doms attract an active player who lives and dies by their wits.
Please buff Ice Control.
Quote:
Yes, my ice/psi is by no means min-maxxed with I15 in mind. She was originally a team-built frakenslotted character.|
Originally Posted by Stargazer
Playstyles are often something you sort of grow into. With time, you often make adjustments and tweaks here and there, and it sounds like you haven't quite had time to go through this process here yet. Slotting also tends to be adapted to playstyle, and slotting changes can in turn influence the playstyle.
Basically, it seems like there's at least potential for further improvements to the post-i15 performance, which would tend to amplify the differences you've found. However, it also gives rise to another question. Playstyle and slotting changes can on their own give rise to changes in influence earning rates far exceeding 11%, which makes it hard to know to what degree the i15 changes are obscured by playstyle and slotting (both pre-i15 and post-i15). Trivial example: The better you were at leveraging the pre-i15 AoE of PSW, the more you'd be affected by the changes to it. They wouldn't affect everyone the same. I don't see any mention of what difficulty you're playing on. Since AoE effectiveness is highly dependent on spawn sizes, this'd be interesting to know. (side note: The ability to further increase spawn sizes in i16 is something that can highly benefit AoE heavy sets. In the context of i16, the i15 changes might end up seeming less "positive" for /Psi) There are also other things that can affect influence earning rate. For example, something as simple as what maps you end up playing on can have a significant impact. Thus it'd be interesting to see what results you'd get if you made another few post-i15 passes. (side note: I've recently noticed a significant increase in Boss spawning rates while duoing. Has anyone noticed if this is also the case while soloing?) |
The original tests I did (before the revamp) showed that despite suboptimal slotting (even for I14 and earlier) she was a pretty darn good soloer (2nd place of the multiple lvl 50s I tested). These were all run at difficulty setting 4 (so 5 +1 minions in a typical spawn).
With the new I15 tests I wanted to determine just how much of a change I'd see if I was stubborn and refused to respec her out of mock protest or on the verge of rage quitting (as another poster mentioned above).
And as I found out, she's better. All my doms are. On average, about 11% better. Yeah, I can bump that number even more with reslotting, but then the test wouldn't be accurate in regard to which dom was better (I14 or I15). Because you can bet your bottom I'd be all over this board fuming if the I14 doms were superior.
But you're right with your other points. One of the biggest factors that alters the rate of infamy gain is map layout. I eliminated as much variability by running tests against 3 different factions (rikti, cimemorans and longbow) 3 times each to average them out. The timed missions in RWZ, Cim and WB are fairly predictable in that regard.
So the changes I saw were with all of the doms I tested (5 lvl 50s) and across 9 missions each (so 45 total missions), which encompassed a wide variety of maps and mob compositions. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for me to be certain that the revamp improved the dominator AT, including those using /psi assault.
Please buff Ice Control.
Quote:
There is so much truth in what you say. I agree with you 100 percent. If for some awful reason My CoH ceases to be, my opinion is that AE will be the cause of it with the way things currently are.
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Originally Posted by Frosticus
Meh, I deleted my em/fire and my em/regen pretty much the same day ET was gutted. I didn't even log the stalker and the only reason I logged the brute was just to see the animation as I'd only used bitterfreezeray a couple of times a long time prior to that.
I really didn't need to "try out" the change to know that a toon(s) I enjoyed because of their overall feeling of speed would no longer be fun when that speed was taken away. Who know's, maybe he hates the psyscream animation or something and realized it would be vital to achieving solid performance and just said F it. I almost rage deleted my fire/storm troller and my storm/sonic def due to the nerf to LS without even trying it because I can use a calculator . The only reason I didn't is because they are loaded with lotg's, miracle and other expensive IO's that I'll eventually get around to stripping. I've played each of them less than 1hr since and before they were getting over 90% of my playtime.I mean AE has made it so you pretty much have a "start at 50" button so deleting toons carries far less weight than it used to. If something about a toon PO's you, just delete it and make a new 50 the next day or two. That's where the game is at imo anyway for better or worse. |
I'm updating this post with the data from my lvl 50 Fire/Psi/Mu dominator (non-perma).
Testing was identical as the Ice/Psi/Mu I discussed in the beginning of this thread.
Biggest overall difference was that the fire/psi dom saw almost ZERO change in performance as measured by Infamy per Hour earning while the ice/psi earned 17% more IPH due to the I15 revamp.
I need some time to digest the data to see if I can make sense of why that is the case, but I'm posting the links to the graphs now.
I14 vs I15 results (positive percentages indicate increases with I15, negative numbers indicate decreases):
Power Usage Change
Endurance Cost Change
Damage Output Change
More in-depth data:
Power Uses (Hot Feet was active the entire time)
Endurance Expenditures
DPM
DPE
DPH
I think I'm going to put the ice/psi and fire/psi numbers side-by-side to get a better picture of what's what because it doesn't make sense to me why the ice dom shows so much more improvement than the fire dom when the latter is the superior soloer.
Please buff Ice Control.
This study is a spinoff of my original analysis of lvl 50 dominator performance changes from pre-I15 to post-I15.
The purpose of the original study was to quantify the effects of the following changes made to dominators (I15 patch notes):
- Removed the damage bonus granted from Domination and increased Melee Damage Modifier from .75 to 1.05 and Ranged Damage Modifier from .65 to .95. This will allow the Dominator to deal greatly improved damage regardless if they are in Domination mode or not
After making some interesting observations from my fire/psi and ice/psi doms during the initial study, I wanted to look more specifically for the effects of the changes to Psionic Assault (also from I15 patch notes), which pre-I15 was arguably the best late game dominator assault set:- Psionic Dart: Increased this power's damage scale from .6 to 1.32, increased its recharge from 1.5 seconds to 3 seconds and increased its endurance cost from 3.12 to 4.37.
- Mind Probe: Increased this power's damage scale from 1.64 to 1.96, increased its recharge from 8 to 10.
- Telekinetic Thrust: Increased this power's damage scale from .8 to 1.64, increased its recharge from 6 to 8 and decreased its endurance cost from 10.2 to 8.53.
- Mental Blast: Increased this power's damage scale from 1 to 1.64, increased its recharge from 4 to 8 seconds and increased its endurance cost from 5.2 to 8.528.
- Psychic Scream: Increased this power's damage scale from 1.04 to 1.3, increased its recharge from 12 to 16 seconds and increased its endurance cost from 11.9 to 15.18.
- Psionic Lance: Increased this power's damage scale from 2.76 to 3.56, increased its recharge from 12 to 20 seconds and increased its endurance cost from 14.4 to 18.51.
- Psychic Shockwave: Decreased this power's damage scale from 1.96 to 1.21, increased its recharge from 10 seconds to 20 seconds, increased its endurance cost from 10.2 seconds to 18.51 and decreased its radius from 25 feet to 15 feet.
In short, I wanted to see what the real in-game effects of the nerf to PSW combined with the buffs to overall dominator dmg and the other /psi assault powers were, if any. From the original study, I found average lvl 50 dominator solo performance increased 11% based on reward rate (infamy per hour). The ice/psi dom had one of the largest improvements (+17% IPH), while the fire/psi showed virtually no change (+1% IPH). Regardless, I definitely noticed a change in all the dominators' play style, but none more so than the /psi doms.Please buff Ice Control.