Ice/Psi suddenly goes *click*

Hi folks,

*In my quest to get a domi going beyond the teens I've turned to Ice/Psi. It's been a bit of a struggle but finally went click yesterday when I DOed it up. I've made a Mids build (not available at the moment since I'm in work) and have a few questions.

1) Planning to avoid the Fitness Pool. With Drain Psi up at least 50% of the time I figured I don't need it at all. Instead I'm looking at Aid Other/Self for levelling and then Tough for stacking with a Patron shield. Good idea or silliness?

2) Patron Power pool. Normally I'd say Dark without hesitation, Soul Drain & Psi Shockwave and Psi Scream and the Patron AOE seems like an amazing combo. But Mu Mastery looks like it could suit him even better. A very good Resistance shield, an excellent AOE and then a God Mode whose crash can be overcome by Drain Psi. Plus a pet with a heal. Have people tried this (I assume they have), did it work well or did the Doms relatively low HP total mean that even with the stacked Resistances and massive Regen they were still a bit squishy?

3) How is Jacks AI at the moment? Fly Trap is really annoying me with its cowardliness, does Jack still suffer from the same reluctance to get in close and use his big hitters? If so should I just plan to include Recall Friend into the build to corral him?

4) Set bonuses. I know people usually say "Recharge, recharge, recharge" but those sets are expensive. Would it be worth aiming for +HP, +End and +Recovery bonuses instead to give extra ooomph to his defenses? The build I made had +25% HP, have others tried this approach with their Dom and how did you get on (no idea of the costs mind so could still be a non-runner for me).

I've also found myself being a bit bossy on teams and asking non-plant & non-Grav doms to try to avoid using Cages on Ice Patch. (Gravs don't matter and Plants can't really help it since so many of their pets have -knockback patches). What's the best way people have of broaching the subject?


Edit : Quick Suckerpunch SO build:
+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner v5.0
+ http://planner.cohtitan.com/planner
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Archetype: Dominator
Primary: Ice Control
Secondary: Psionic Assault
+----------------------------------------------------------------

01: Block of Ice => Accuracy(1), Hold(3), Hold(9), Hold(15), Accuracy(43)
01: Psionic Dart => Accuracy(1), Damage(3), Damage(43)
02: Mind Probe => Accuracy(2), Damage(5), Damage(15), Damage(34), Accuracy(43)
04: Telekinetic Thrust => Accuracy(4), Damage(5), Damage(9), Damage(34), Accuracy(42)
06: Hasten => Recharge(6), Recharge(7), Recharge(7)
08: Shiver => Accuracy(8), Recharge(36)
10: Mental Blast => Accuracy(10), Damage(11), Damage(11), Damage(37)
12: Ice Slick => Recharge(12), Recharge(13), Recharge(13)
14: Super Speed => SpeedRunning(14)
16: Psychic Scream => Accuracy(16), Damage(17), Damage(17), Damage(31), Recharge(31)
18: Arctic Air => EnduranceDiscount(18), EnduranceDiscount(19), EnduranceDiscount(19), Confuse(23), Confuse(31)
20: Drain Psyche => Accuracy(20), Recharge(21), Recharge(21), Recharge(23), Heal(37)
22: Aid Other => Heal(22), Heal(40)
24: Aid Self => Heal(24), Heal(25), Heal(25)
26: Glacier => Accuracy(26), Accuracy(27), Hold(27), Hold(37), Recharge(46)
28: Subdue => Accuracy(28), Damage(29), Damage(29), Damage(46)
30: Boxing => Accuracy(30)
32: Jack Frost => Accuracy(32), Damage(33), Damage(33), Damage(33), Accuracy(34)
35: Tough => Res_Damage(35), Res_Damage(36), Res_Damage(36)
38: Psychic Shockwave => Accuracy(38), Damage(39), Damage(39), Damage(39), Recharge(40), Recharge(40)
41: Charged Armor => Res_Damage(41), Res_Damage(42), Res_Damage(42)
44: Ball Lightning => Accuracy(44), Damage(45), Damage(45), Damage(45), Accuracy(46)
47: Surge of Power => Recharge(47), Recharge(48), Recharge(48), Res_Damage(48)
49: Summon Guardian => Recharge(49), Recharge(50), Accuracy(50), Damage(50)

+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Inherent Powers
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01: Brawl => Empty(1)
01: Sprint => Empty(1)
02: Rest => Empty(2)

I'll try and answer a few of your queries:

1. With Arctic Air, personally I think you really need Fitness. Dominators aren't like Controllers, they should be throwing powers out constantly and that's a massive drain, especially the AoEs. My Mind/Psi/Scorp perma-Dom's only toggles are 2 Leadership powers and an armour, that's a fraction of your cost of Arctic Air's plus armour, and he still needs Stamina with Drain Psyche charging as fast as it does. At the very least I would suggest if you want the Stamina-free route to work for you, slot EndRed in your attacks, not just in AA.

2. Surprisingly, Ghost Widow the Dominator patron has always had a so-so set of powers for Dominators. Until the pools were recently expanded, Scirroco's PPP was universally better in every respect than Ghost Widow's. Now, the gap between the two is closer and they each offer something different, but Mu Mastery still has a much better pet and a shorter recharge on its endurance drain power. Whichever pool you take, you can't rely on the AoE damage power to become part of your regular attack chain - the recharge is too long. I've not tried the Psi Assault/Mu combo, but I've tried them on seperate characters and they both add a lot to your survivability. Don't expect to be invincible, but it should be a good mix.

3. Jack's dandy right now. He's a lot more active.

4. Yeah it can be expensive, but my Mind/Psi/Scorp hit perma-dom without resorting to a single LotG and without altering his power selection, just his slotting. It can be done. That said, my current Dom (Grav/Ice/Mu) doesn't even have IOs slotted and is still a demon. I'd say play your Dom first, and see where you're lacking as you level up. Wait until level 26 or 32 before finalising a IO build plan, as those last two primary powers turn the Dom's fortunes around. As Ice/Psi is quite a close range set, +HP, +Regen and +Res/Def couldn't hurt. And without Stamina EndRed and +Recov are a must. You're on the right track with your idea.

Yeah, /seconding the "Take fitness." While I tend to think of AA as not all that needed (depending on secondary) for Controllers, for a Dom - especially a /psi -you're going to be in close, and you're going to want it. Yes, between Domination and the Drains you can keep END coming in pretty well - but you'll still want fitness. At least IMHO.

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Hmmm. Cheers folks. The point about needing to slot for End with slots being so tight (seriously, it's like my Warshade all over again) going Fitness would probably be the better route alright. Don't want to be spending my precious slots on -End if I can help it.



Now how am I going to manage to squeeze it in?*

You really do not need fitness with /psi. I got an ice/psi right now in the low 30's with around 50% rech. I really do not feel I needed to take fitness on the toon.

If you are that strapped anyway just pop some blues. But I know a lot of people with ice/psi with no fitness pool at all cause with DS is can work easily.

I have a fitness-free ice/psi. To do so, I've found the Mu mastery is a must for the Power Sink power. I noticed you didn't list that one. I'd take it over the healing pet any day as he'll spend more time healing jack then you.

I've got an ice/psi with over 1000 hours of playtime, so feel fairly confident with my advice.

Ice is end heavy, especially if you run AA a lot. During leveling, definately take Stam. DP isn't up often enough for it to be your only form of endurance recovery. When you reach perma levels of recharge, and slot DP for hefty recharge, then you can quite easily survive without Stam if you have a secondary end recovery power then good.

However, unless your recharge is high, DP is not a reliable source of end, as it only lasts 30 seconds, so unless you have a small gap, you fill find your end flagging unless you hit Domi again.

When you get into crazy recharge levels like mine, I have about a 2 second downtime on DP, and that's without optimal recharge slotting. I run AA, SS, Manoovers, Tactics, Patron Shield and CJ and none of those are overly slotted for end rdx, and I have no secondary end recovery power at all. Yes sometimes I run out of end in spectacular fashion, but even against one mob, with 1 end IO in DP, I still get good recovery.

So, while leveling, get Stam, it will help. When you get high recharge, you can easily survive with DP just slotted with one end mod IO (thats all it really needs, capped recovery vs 4/5 mobs) and a secondary power, even the GW one will serve you very well.

As for the patron, I went with GW because I wanted Soul Drain, so took the shield, Soul Drain and Dark Oblit. Soul Drain so nicely fits with the PBAoE melee playstyle that ice/psi practically demands.

So have an awesome time playing it, it's a lot of fun!

Thanks all. Mixed advice there, but I see where peoples differing playstyles are coming from. Now level 22 and the last couple of levels have made me click even better. The teens were not pleasant. Now she's great fun though.



I think for the moment my plan is to avoid extra toggles like Weave when levelling and skip Fitness (Weave isn't much use without a Vet armour to stack on top of it really) and use Drain Psyche, Domination and Insps to keep me topped up, haven't really been struggling for End since I got Drain Psyche slotted up a bit. Going to take some more experimental powers as I go. At 41 I'll take Soul Drain to test drive it and at 42 do a respec to take something approaching the build I posted, using Power Sink as a supplement to Drain Psyche. If I love Soul Drain too much (and I do on my WS and Dark Brute) then I'll have to do some juggling and fit in Fitness instead.


No intention of bothering with Permadom to be honest. I don't have the attention span to.... ooh, a brown dog outside!!*

Had a LOT of playtime with an Ice/Psi (took her to 50 before XP smoothing and then 3 months or so to make her permadom - when permadom meant you did decent damage all the time).

Running AA 24/7, no stamina ever. Never missed it. DP was slotted for healing (final slotting: 1 acc+5 Doct Wounds), because you get so much recovery from it already, I capped my recovery numerous times without endmod slotting. I had aid self too but didn't use it much after IO'ing her, I used it quite a bit before because I was very aggressive with her since SOs, some game buddies said I was an aggro machine, DP slotted for healing let me take lots of alphas.

I only had some end problems in those missions where when you die, you get imprisoned and you have to break a door (I turned AA off on those occasions of course), but maybe it won't be so bad now that doms had their damage buffed, haven't played her since i13. And even staminaless I've duoed AVs with another /psi dom in some patron arcs.

I only got stamina later (after permadom, after all the IOs) because I decided to PvP with her, or else I wouldn't have bothered.

Of course YMMV.