The S/L Softcap and Doms

A little preface: I've got an elec/earth dom I've been planning on soft-capping at 45.6% s/l defense, but it requires me to run Weave, Stealth, and Maneuvers. I didn't take Ice shield because it didn't fit and I wanted my energy transfer. ENERGY TRANSFER! I spend alot of time in melee, yes. In fact, I'm almost all melee. But do you guys think it's necessary for a character who isn't a tank to really spend two toggles to reach that elusive 45% to s/l? I like not being hit, but at 35% I should be okay, at least for a little, and it'd free up power choices for things like, Stimulant and Aid Self. Any points or counterpoints?

At 35% you can eat 1 small purple inspi and be at the soft-cap. So if you're up for eating/carrying inspis you've saved yourself having to run the toggles.

If you're like me, once I get to 35% I start thinking how to soft-cap between set bonuses (e.g., Kinetic Combat) and CJ, Hover, etc. You need to read the defense write-ups by Aracanville and others -- as do I -- but basically little increases in defense at those levels have HUGE impact on your getting hit .. like 40% to 45% means you get hit 50% less or something. So it can be worth running softcapped.

I have my Fire/MM blaster soft-capped to S/L all the time and it is great.

Necessary? Far from it. Awesome in theory and practice? You betcha! I'm a long-time fan of "always there" defense, the kind that toggles and set bonuses give, so my opinion is skewed in that direction. I really wouldn't build for soft-cap if it's going to force you to take powers you really don't like or skip on powers you do, though. Being incredibly sturdy means nothing if you aren't having fun.

Me? I have Stealth / Man. / Weave and Ice Shield, and after playing at the soft cap on a Dom I don't think I would personally be happy with anything else. My endurance took a beating (I run an Ice^3 for reference), but between the +end mod from the Musculature alpha and Dom refilling my end bar, the endurance has become very manageable. Being Elec/ and potentially having Conductive Aura, I think you'd be in even better position, end-wise.

Presenting the contrary point view. Defense, while not bad to have, is not something I'd slot for aggressively. For Dominators, the best defense is the other guy being a piñata. Focus on recharge for maximum mag stacking, and perma-domination in particular, and virtually no one will lay a hand on you.

If you're positively made of cash and have exactly the right combination of powers, you might be able to pull off being capped to S/L/Ranged while still keeping permadom, but if you chose being defense capped instead of being perma-dom, you have FAILED at Dominator. Remember, the purple pills are still there if you need them.

QR

I wouldn't say that not having perma-dom is necessary for all doms. In fact, I only have 3 powers from my primary that benefit from being permadom. My single target hold, which would hit mag 6, not a bad choice. My AOE Hold, capping at Mag 6 on a presumably 2 minute cooldown for permadom, and the first and only first hit of my confuse, as the rest turn into a pseudopet, and pseudopets do not gain the benefit of domination. My AOE Sleep is a pseudopet; domination does not increase the effectiveness of my Conductive Aura, and my jolting chain only applies knockdown and is a base for procs, such as disorient and hold, which do not apply with permadom.

However, considering that my secondary is /earth, it makes more sense to prioritize S/L defense over achieving permadom. My attacks are only Stone Spears, which has no slots; stone mallet, my first melee attack, heavy mallet, Seismic Smash, and Energy Transfer. My AOEs are all melee too; Tremor and Fissure all require me to be within a really close distance of my target. Fissure applies a mag 2 stun 50% of the time, making it a mag 4 stun during permadom but certainly not a reliable one. Sadly, the dominator version of Seismic Smash is only a mag 3 hold, and only adds 1 mag during Domination status, making it a mag 4.

I would daresay that being elec/ negates the need of permadom save for mez protection and having a consistent mag 6 hold, as the other two powers are a bit on the long recharge side for being useful to a permanent dominator.

The difference between 35% and 45% is only a major issue when facing defense debuffs. They're three times more likely to hit the 35% defense but lucks are cheap enough to eat like candy so no, I don't feel like the softcap should be the priority when you have plenty of hard controls available. Just get it to the point where you don't get hit so often that it isn't fun to play.

I just pulled my perma-dom'd Mind/Psi off the shelf so I could run her over to hero-side for the Ice armor. She's now softcapped and perma-dom'd. The difference before and after is pretty striking. I was running on +1/4 on the way through the alignment changing arcs and now I'm at +1/8. The only time I run into problems is when I get into a troublesome Arachnos spawn (too many resists to confuses, holds, etc.) or when I get slowed (or forget to fire Hasten in time) and dom falls. That will be less problematic when I hit 50 and get purple sets slotted.

I will say that pre-respec I was not at 35%, probably closer to 30%, but it will give you an idea.

elec/ control is kind of a special case because you don't really have very much hard control. The confuse is great but unreliable in terms of locking down a large spawn, your sleep patch is awesome but it's still a sleep, and your ability to sap is great but won't keep a spawn from killing you with it's alpha.

Other flavors of dominator can rely on mez to be their primary mitigation; elec/ has to mix it with soft control from the secondary and with defense. Fortunately conductive aura lets you offset the cost of running defensive toggles, and earth's large number of melee attacks makes it relatively easy (if somewhat expensive) to build for permadom and the s/l softcap.

On my plant/fire I am definitely going through with Perma-Dom. Plant/Fire/Fire will be able to hit the soft control and hard control marks better, and 30% s/l will serve okay on her through perma-dom, methinks. If I can even achieve that. The recharge bonus will make her pet and aoe confuse recharge that much faster, along with my two single target and three aoe attacks.

Yeah, if I had to pick between Permadom and soft cap S/L defense I'd go Permadom in a heartbeat. Even on my Ice^3, truth be told. The end refill and mez protection alone makes it worth it to me.

The original question didn't state that it was an either/or proposition; just that the OP was worried about the end cost of the toggles (or taking other powers they like) vs. the benefits of soft cap defense. So, I assumed they already planned for permadom. If you have to sacrifice one for the other (or aren't willing/able to throw down the inf for both), then yes, Permadom all the way.

I just went for both. Perma-Dom and soft-cap S/L defense (not to mention Perma-Drain Psyche) make me rather ridiculously overpowered on my Dom. Makes all my other toons feel somewhat lack-luster.

Just made a build that has both S/L and permahasten.

I'm running 45% S/L and 125% Recharge for Permadom. Hasten is optional at that point, but I've got it as well. If I had to choose, Permadom would definitely be my first pick. Even at 35% however, I felt pretty good about the amount of def I had. None of it necessary, but very welcome.

Actually, my elec/earth can't hit perma-dom. Not with the way I've her set up. I'm using Energy Transfer, so I can't take Ice Shield or Scorpion Shield and still have modest defense, sadly. And I just can't give up mah energy transfer! It'll be possible after I get to 50 and get some purple sets, but as it stands right now I doubt I could pull off perma-dom.

Edited: Although if someone wants to show me an elec/earth/Primal Forces build that has decent defense and Perma-Dom I'll certainly give it a try!

My Elec/Earth just hit 50 and I have trouble reaching the balance between survival in melee (most of the time) and perma-dom. I actually put more emphasis on survival more than perma-dom but then those Mentalists were driving me nuts with their holds and sleep.

I am going for Mu Mastery for Power Sink so I can Power Boost and drain most foes to zero in two seconds. However, it's hard to reach soft-capped S/L.

Here we are, I think I got one. It meets the 75% haste for permadom, with hasten, and 34% S/L or 37% with the Glad's 3%.

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