I have recent experience (read: from L1 after I15) with a Mind/Elec. It gets all its good single target attacks early. You get Build Up for damage purposes and Static Discharge is a nice cone attack. I'm even being pleasantly surprised by Voltaic Sentinel.
Fiery Assault is also a good secondary for damage purposes and the two sets combine well (no secondary effects from /Fire is fine considering the abundance of control in Mind).
I'm also a big fan of Psi. It's a good set now, with some early strong powers like TK Thrust (I wouldn't have stopped laughing if you'd told me I'd be saying that a year ago) and excellent utility in Drain Psyche. Mind Probe has always been good and now even Psychic Scream is good. PSW has fallen far, but it's still amongst the best AoE damage powers for Doms.
See, I had heard the Sentinal was dissapointing, but that was back when, nothing of its recent performance. I liked the idea of the Sent because Mind is the only one to not get a pet. That and the WHEE UNCONTROLLED M30-GRENADE TYPE knockback on Thunderstrike, I had heard, really brought it down as a set.
I think I'm going to spin Psi with my Ice dom for a Ice/Psi "you cannot haz power recharge" combo, so doing it again with mind is iffy.
I respecced out of Thunderstrike. I'm no fan of long animating attacks and the KB is just annoying, both to me and my team. It's not as if I don't have a full attack chain without the 4 low level attacks (well, 3, I don't tend to use Charged Bolts) and Static Dischage.
I am can honestly say roll both an Ice/Psi and a Mind/Nrg. I made both since the dom changes and while they are VERY different, the are VERY fun in there own ways.
Active 50s:
Zero Defex: DP/MM//Mace Blaster
Mutant X-7: Fire/MM//Mace Blaster
Running my Kin/EA gloriously
Come on I21!!!
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Sure, the devs are supposed to listen to their customers, mister business 101 out there. And if I decide to start suggesting that the devs change the game from being about superheroes and supervillains to being about clowns that is my right as well, and technically Paragon Studios is supposed to pay attention to me. But I hope strongly that they assume a meth-head somehow managed to hack into my forum account and make paper airplanes out of my posts, because I hope they recognize stupid when they see it. I assume they will recognize futile just as accurately.
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Right with you up until you got to the Mind/NRG part. I cannot in all good conscience recommend Energy to anyone but the crazies who like sub-par builds.
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You are aware Energy got super buffed when Doms got revamped, yes?
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Originally Posted by MinMin
Right with you up until you got to the Mind/NRG part. I cannot in all good conscience recommend Energy to anyone but the crazies who like sub-par builds.
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Head of TRICK, the all Trick Arrow and Traps SG
Part of the Repeat Offenders
Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize
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Yep. I just played a Fire/Energy through to the point of frustration with incredibly low damage output as I described in this thread here.|
Originally Posted by Rush_Bolt
You are aware Energy got super buffed when Doms got revamped, yes?
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"Super Buffed" is only relative to how it was before. It's still vastly underperforming compared to just about every other secondary. (Although I suspect is has achieved parity with /Icy now and I haven't done /Earth yet).
I'm (honestly) curious what you felt was "underperforming" compared to the other sets? The damage was buffed across the board and power push was buffed into next week. Maybe it was the fire/nrg combination compared to my mind/nrg but I've so far liked it better then my Fire/Psi early on and my Ice/Nrg, Mind/Elec, Fire/Elec and Ice/Fire when trying them pre-buff. /Nrg's staple attacks do the same if not more dpa then every others currently and it has 3 to everyone elses 2 earlier on.
Active 50s:
Zero Defex: DP/MM//Mace Blaster
Mutant X-7: Fire/MM//Mace Blaster
Running my Kin/EA gloriously
Come on I21!!!
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Sure, the devs are supposed to listen to their customers, mister business 101 out there. And if I decide to start suggesting that the devs change the game from being about superheroes and supervillains to being about clowns that is my right as well, and technically Paragon Studios is supposed to pay attention to me. But I hope strongly that they assume a meth-head somehow managed to hack into my forum account and make paper airplanes out of my posts, because I hope they recognize stupid when they see it. I assume they will recognize futile just as accurately.
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Well, now that I've gone back and looked at the numbers, I'm curious as well. My last two Doms were /Elec and /Energy in that order and I vastly preferred Elec. Must be Build Up.
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I originally rolled my mind/nrg dom for power boost and the ease of slotting to perma-dom. Since the changes It has become one of my favourite characters. After getting to perma-dom and then some, I kinda wish I'd picked a set with BU instead of power boost. In hindsight I would have made her either /thorns or /elec. I just like the slotting and power options in both sets and both sets offer some added versatility that NRG lacks.|
Originally Posted by MinMin
Well, now that I've gone back and looked at the numbers, I'm curious as well. My last two Doms were /Elec and /Energy in that order and I vastly preferred Elec. Must be Build Up.
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Really all you get from energy assault is pissloads of single target damage, power boost and a ton of powers that can take kinetic crash sets for cheapo recharge bonuses.
If you don't care about perma-dom or power boost then energy may not be your cup-o-tea, but it's not a bad set, just focused.
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I suspect this is the answer. The sets that now have the slower recharging, heavier hitting behavior also lack Aim and Build Up. Fire being a possible exception, although it's somewhere around the midpoint. |
Originally Posted by MinMin
Must be Build Up.
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I think this was always true, though. The sets with Power Boost were more seen as supporting the Primary, instead of being more about damage. Energy was boosted to make it no longer the worst there is, period, but it's probably still about single target damage and stacking a lot of stuns.
It's also true, though, that Fire and Thorns, which both have a damage boost, are more AoE oriented. Electric is single target, but it now does less melee damage than before. Even so, it's still the only single target oriented set with a build up.
Yeah, for me one of the biggest things in choosing secondaries comes down primarily to the 'utility' type powers, then the general choice between AoE or ST. (Though I have to admit, most of mine are concept driven, so I choose by that anywise, and take what I get.)
/Thorns: gets aim. this is great for if you hate missing, and gives some damage. Also great Aoe's, which works out well if you team a lot. (Or post I16, crank to higher team sizing scales.)
/Energy: greater controls via power boost, mostly single target damage. Mind/Nrg gives some of the best control in the game, especially in domination. This will help control on teams, but doesn't offer much if you're aiming for a steamroller build.
/Elec: good damage boost, damage focused on single targets. If you want more damage, this is a build that can give you *oomph* against limited targets.
/Psi: A 'middle of the road' set, has some good Aoe, good single target. Mastery of neither. Drain psyche, however, lets you bypass stamina and helps heal you between controls. My Mind/Psi has no fitness pool, and rarely needs to carry greens.
/Fire: good AoE's, good damage. This gives you a good, long +damage, as well as a way to recover endurance. The downside is that it has no mitigation, but as a mind/ you have that in gobs. The other downside is that fiery embrace works well with most everything, but works better for a fire/ dom. No biggie. Other downside is, this set can feel a tad slow at times.
/Earth: this one's pretty new to me, but it seems to have more mitigation built in, even besides power boost, but seems slower as well. Looks to have mostly St, so again may not be the best 'steamroller' set.
Me? I'd lean toward /fire for helping with large spawns, /psi for longevity, or /energy for control. /Earth helps for the latter as well, just be aware that the damage type is a bit more resisted.
Back when the changes went in Starsman made some nice charts of the relative ST vs AoE damage for all of the sets.
http://www.foundersfallshigh.com/mod...showpage&pid=5
That's the link.
This doesn't take into account utility, but it does give you a good idea of which sets are strong ST and strong AoE.
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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Did Starsman ever figure out how to add in an adjustment for voltaic sentinel? |
Originally Posted by Tsuji
Back when the changes went in Starsman made some nice charts of the relative ST vs AoE damage for all of the sets.
http://www.foundersfallshigh.com/mod...showpage&pid=5 That's the link. This doesn't take into account utility, but it does give you a good idea of which sets are strong ST and strong AoE. |
If not, then the ST electric assault numbers are significantly under-stated, and not trustworthy.
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The only issue i had with Voltaic Sentinel is that the damage of VS is being enhanced by Build Up (build up is averaged up) meaning that VS is slightly overstated, not under-stated.|
Originally Posted by ShoeTattoo
Did Starsman ever figure out how to add in an adjustment for voltaic sentinel?
If not, then the ST electric assault numbers are significantly under-stated, and not trustworthy. |
This thread reminds me, I should update the thing to show Earth Assault... been having too much fun playing it and entirely forgot about the charts myself
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you are missing out then if you mostly did this based on "annoying to team" because fun and damage wise it's great. My "team" isn't lazy they run to where things get knocked back so it's not an issue. I'm sort of saddened by posts people make, where they don't take a power because of a team reason, especially good ones. Though I admit this one has a long animation time, it's not that long to me. I don't know the whole game seems fast in combat compared to other mmos.
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Originally Posted by MinMin
I respecced out of Thunderstrike. I'm no fan of long animating attacks and the KB is just annoying, both to me and my team. It's not as if I don't have a full attack chain without the 4 low level attacks (well, 3, I don't tend to use Charged Bolts) and Static Dischage.
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I'm as annoyed by uncontrolled knockback as the team is. It's not an issue of laziness; it's an issue of optimal performance of AoE damage powers. Thunderstrike + Static Discharge isn't much of a combo 
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Poor /ice, it fell from glory to being the secondary that people completely forget about.
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Originally Posted by Seldom
Yeah, for me one of the biggest things in choosing secondaries comes down primarily to the 'utility' type powers, then the general choice between AoE or ST. (Though I have to admit, most of mine are concept driven, so I choose by that anywise, and take what I get.)
/Thorns: gets aim. this is great for if you hate missing, and gives some damage. Also great Aoe's, which works out well if you team a lot. (Or post I16, crank to higher team sizing scales.) /Energy: greater controls via power boost, mostly single target damage. Mind/Nrg gives some of the best control in the game, especially in domination. This will help control on teams, but doesn't offer much if you're aiming for a steamroller build. /Elec: good damage boost, damage focused on single targets. If you want more damage, this is a build that can give you *oomph* against limited targets. /Psi: A 'middle of the road' set, has some good Aoe, good single target. Mastery of neither. Drain psyche, however, lets you bypass stamina and helps heal you between controls. My Mind/Psi has no fitness pool, and rarely needs to carry greens. /Fire: good AoE's, good damage. This gives you a good, long +damage, as well as a way to recover endurance. The downside is that it has no mitigation, but as a mind/ you have that in gobs. The other downside is that fiery embrace works well with most everything, but works better for a fire/ dom. No biggie. Other downside is, this set can feel a tad slow at times. /Earth: this one's pretty new to me, but it seems to have more mitigation built in, even besides power boost, but seems slower as well. Looks to have mostly St, so again may not be the best 'steamroller' set. Me? I'd lean toward /fire for helping with large spawns, /psi for longevity, or /energy for control. /Earth helps for the latter as well, just be aware that the damage type is a bit more resisted. |
My Characters
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Well my most loved villain is a earth/ice dom |
Originally Posted by Tatmia
Poor /ice, it fell from glory to being the secondary that people completely forget about.
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And i so freakin' love it, icesword circle just kicks ***!
Especially with the procs of armageddon and scirocco <3
I am looking at playing a Mind Dominator, now that Dominators don't need to be in Domination to actually deal more damage than a wet paper towel.
The problem is, I have no idea what secondary to take. I like to blast, but I like to be able to walk up and punch people hard when necessary. I do a lot of teaming, but generally with very high damage builds so mezzing minions beyond the alpha is a waste (as they'll die soon anyways, hence the Mind Domination primary - lots of single target controls for irritating LTs.)
A lot of my work in these teams, from my experience, revolves around firing a blast or two off as my controls recharge, and occasionally running up to finish off a minion.
Just coming back from a long time absence, I have no idea what the relative strengths and weaknesses of the retooled Dominator secondaries are - I mean, Psychic Shockwave isn't the only decent power for Psi anymore? What planet are we on?