new to doms, mind/psi advice

Read the super thread here:http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...=236428&page=2

but i had picked these powers solely on character premise reasons (they look exactly right for the character..)

I've never played a dom, so i don't know how to approach it. Will i be in melee often with this combnation? Is that viable or it is normally a ranged approach?

If melee, i assume a s/l/e defense is what to priority (and just RANGED if kept out of melee?)


what can i expect from these powers?

You can stay ranged using Psionic Dart, Subdue and Mental Blast along with Levitate, Dominate and Mesmerise but you'll be missing out on Mind Probe, Telekinetic Thrust, Psychic Shockwave and Drain Psyche. If you've ever played a Blapper then you can play Dominators like that.

In terms of what to go for, Perma-Dom is always a priority. Defence is less of a priority because if they can't attack you then you have unlimited defence anyway.

What you can expect:

Steam-rolling early on because you have solid control options to lock down most of a mob and kill any that remain uncontrolled, by using Dominate on one, Mesmerise on another and then attacking the third.

Your easy life will continue for a bit until you start coming across EBs/AVs, things that resist psionic damage such as Rikti Drones and other robots, and Carnies, and things that resist your main controls like Rikti Mentalists and Nemesis resisting confuse.

I've played my mind/psi without any defense and am quite successful with it. However, I do have 190% global recharge and perma DP. MH a mob to cap your DP then backing off to use Terrify, TD, or MC before starting to kill off the mob will keep you pretty safe.

To more specifically answer your question, Range or Melee are viable playstyles. That said, the melee attacks in the dom secondaries do quite a bit more damage compared to the ranged attacks. This isn't a problem because mind/ is one of the safer primaries to play with.

My own mind/psi/psi is built entirely to be ranged. I built for a ton of global recharge so I have perma Domination without hasten since I didn't want to rely on hasten to keep it perma. That said I am actually considering adding hasten back to my build just so I have a bigger buffer of time on Domination (to counter -recharge effects that could stop my Dom being perma). And while he isn't soft capped he does have over 32% ranged defense.

My single target attack chain is Dominate, Subdue, Levitate. I chose to go this route for a number of reasons. First, Dominate is always my lead off and i have it slotted with a mix of io's and hamis to get as much as I can out of all aspects of the power as a hold and as a damage attack. Second, I wanted to have a source of non-psi damage and Levitate fit the bill nicely. Subdue works as a my hardest, non snipe, hitter.

My aoe options are Terrify, Psychic Scream and Psionic Tornado. While psi-tornado isn't my favorite choice it does decent damage and at range. During the time I used to have Psychic Shockwave it always annoyed me having to jump into and out of melee range to use it and my ranged cone attacks. Psi tornado allows me to stay at a fixed ranged spot and aoe effectively.

You can build to be entirely ranged and entirely effective. You can also build to hybridize melee attacks into your playstyle for more dps. The choice is entirely up to you. Whatever you decide, with the right build virtually anything is possible.

Mind/Psi is a fun Dom. Cerise Dawn was a good character, and no, she didn't get into many melees. And the Domination is *fun*x4 at least. She was built ranged, though.

/And she was 50 before the Fren, so she's even more awesome than yours will be. So there.
//Was a grind towards the end, though...

all sounds promising!

i'm thinking i may try melee because it sounds viable, and i think it fits my idea of the character a bit better.

there are some powers i HAVE to take for the idea, levitate is one of them.

(he's based on Todd ingram from scott pilgrim, thusly he MUST be able to hurl someone into the air, and have wavy spirally mind powers!)

I'd love to see a few builds if anyone wants to post em, and what powers i may be able to skip for a melee type (blapper? blapinator?) build.

Is mesmerize needed once you have aoe sleep/confuse and potentially a single target sleep as well?

Is there a way i can refine my targeting controls (atm i just have tab, or "target closest" i think i kind of need better options like target boss or lt first?)

Thanks for the feedback so far. (and for not just telling me to look at search forever. I did read 2-3 pages you know!)

Mesmerise is amazing for sleeping AVs so I'd keep that. I find that Telekinesis from Mind Control is pretty skippable. I'm also pretty sure Mental Blast and Subdue do the same damage and have the same recharge so I find that you can skip one of those, depends if you want more recharge debuff (which you have plenty of) or a single target immobilise (which your primary doesn't have). You can also skip Psionic Lance.

For targeting I find it's easiest to survey a mob first before charging in if you're solo, if not just look for the most threatening; it's pretty obvious most of the time.

My Mind/Psi/Mind goes into melee all the time and survives so it's very viable.

Unless I'm making a scrapper or tanker, I usually avoid melee attacks whenever possible. For the most part, I approached my Dominator like a Blaster.

I got every power in the Mind Control set. Whenever possible, I slotted for ranged damage, specifically with Mesmerize, Levitate, Dominate, and Terrify. The only powers I slotted for a status effect are Mass Hypnosis (which I just left with one slot, considering in groups they don't normally remain untouched for long when teaming), Total Domination (which I slotted with the Ghost Widow hold IO set for the psi damage proc, for concept purposes), and Mass Confusion. I did get Telekinesis, however I also left it with one slot (which I slotted with an end reduc IO) because it is sometimes useful, you just have to know when to use it to not anger people by pushing enemies away from melee types.

As for Psionic Assault, I picked up Psionic Dart, Telekinetic Thrust, Mental Blast, Psychic Scream, Drain Psyche, Subdue, and Psionic Lance. I use them all regularly and have them all 6 slotted for damage with the exception of Telekinetic Thrust. I'm not entirely how many slots I have on the power (I'll post a pic of my build after this post), but it was the only melee power I took. Like I said, I don't care to have melee attacks on ranged toons, but I use Telekinetic Thrust as my "oh **** power". I have it on auto fire (which wasn't a problem for me, since I don't have hasten or a like power to have on auto), but it functions as an emergency power to knock back melee opponents. I've found it infinitely useful in this way. If I'm attacking something far away and another enemy runs up to me and attacks, all I have to do is hit Esc to untarget the ranged fellow and hit tab to target the nearest enemy and he's automatically knocked away. I love it. Another reason I have this as an auto power is simply because I don't have room in my trays to make it easily accessible in such a situation.

As far as Psionic Mastery goes, I got all of the powers except World of Confusion. I don't allow people close enough for it to be effective.

My Build: http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ndpsibuild.jpg

ok forum ate my post asd987123!@#^%#!@

anyhow, here is my attempt at a build, keep in mind i have no idea what im doing, and what powers are really important (is the single target confuse useful once you get aoe?)
177.5 rech. crap defenses (16 s/l 18 e/n) i need more slots somewhere i think... one or 2 more in indom will would make it perma for status protection....

crazy accuracy, 4.8 end rec second with drain up (2 seconds from perma) Stealth from combat jumping and superspeed (hover was a LOTG mule also occasionally useful, vengence also a mule)

intended to mostly be in melee with perma Drain p, so i'm not certain if subdue is worth taking either (atm ive got it 5 slotted for a hold set.) without it i'd still have a healthy 167.5 rech with hasten so i suppose i could drop it.)

anyhow, i'd love some imput from a seasoned user of this set.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Todd ingram: Level 50 Natural Dominator
Primary Power Set: Mind Control
Secondary Power Set: Psionic Assault
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Levitate -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg(11), FrcFbk-Acc/KB(13), FrcFbk-Rchg/KB(40)
Level 1: Psionic Dart -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Dominate -- Decim-Build%(A), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Decim-Acc/Dmg(5), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(13)
Level 4: Mind Probe -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(7), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(7), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(25)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- Ksmt-ToHit+(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(27), ULeap-Stlth(50)
Level 8: Mass Hypnosis -- FtnHyp-Plct%(A), FtnHyp-Acc/Sleep/Rchg(9), FtnHyp-Sleep/Rchg(9), FtnHyp-Acc/Rchg(23), FtnHyp-Sleep/EndRdx(25)
Level 10: Confuse -- Mlais-Conf/Rng(A)
Level 12: Super Speed -- Winter-ResSlow(A)
Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(15)
Level 16: Psychic Scream -- Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Posi-Dmg/Rng(17), Posi-Acc/Dmg(17), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(19), Posi-Dam%(27)
Level 18: Total Domination -- UbrkCons-Hold/Rchg(A), UbrkCons-Acc/Hold/Rchg(19), UbrkCons-Acc/Rchg(21), UbrkCons-Dam%(21), UbrkCons-EndRdx/Hold(23)
Level 20: Drain Psyche -- Numna-Heal/Rchg(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(31), Nictus-Acc/Heal(42), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(43)
Level 22: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 24: Mesmerize -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), LgcRps-Acc/Sleep/Rchg(42)
Level 26: Terrify -- Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(31), Posi-Dmg/Rng(31), Posi-Dam%(34), Posi-Acc/Dmg(36)
Level 28: Subdue -- GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(A), GravAnch-Immob/Rchg(36), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(36), GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx(37), GravAnch-Hold%(37)
Level 30: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), HO:Cyto(43), HO:Cyto(45)
Level 32: Mass Confusion -- CoPers-Conf%(A), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(33), CoPers-Conf(33), CoPers-Conf/Rchg(33), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(34), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(34)
Level 35: Tactics -- GSFC-Build%(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(37), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(46), GSFC-ToHit(46), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(46), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(48)
Level 38: Psychic Shockwave -- Oblit-%Dam(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(39), Oblit-Dmg(39), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 41: Indomitable Will -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 44: Mind Over Body -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), HO:Ribo(45), HO:Ribo(45)
Level 47: Psionic Tornado -- Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Posi-Acc/Dmg(48), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(50), Posi-Dam%(50)
Level 49: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A)

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