Unanswered Pummit Questions

I have to say I really like the sounds of Dark Control, Dark Assault, and Dark Affinity. Dark Affinity's new powers almost sound good enough that I feel Dark Miasma users get gypped.

Dark Control looks and sounds like a good set. I look forward to playing with it and I may just make a new Dom. My current Dom is Plant/Earth/Fire. Will a Dark/Dark Dom top that? We'll have to see!

Also thanks for stopping by and talking to us and answering some questions Synapse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

Let me ask this, Darkness Control is not going to be what replaces Illusion control for doms? Or is this seperate? While it sounds good and all I just do not want it to be what pain domination was compared to empathy when some villains really wanted empathy.

It does. Thanks Hawk.

I really don't like a couple things about the Dark/Dark combo for Controllers, as detailed.

On Dark Affinity:
I really, really dislike that Dark's niche of being one of the control-heavy support sets is going to be removed almost entirely. Why? Is this really being viewed as overpowering? Time Manipulation retains a single target (Mag 4!) hold with a rare debuff attached to it, and has an AoE control field which serves a very similar purpose to Fearsome Stare (reducing the attack frequency of a large group of mobs).
Furthering that, I also don't particularly care for either of the powers Dark Affinity is getting to replace, to me, what is/was the beating heart of the set. Neither one seems particularly useful to me, honestly. A short burst +defense effect is going to have a similar result as just using Twilight Grasp in optimal circumstances and will leave the intended target dead anyway if they get unlucky. Furthering that, how exactly will the defense numbers even compare to traditional buffs? Are we talking, suddenly soft-capped to everything? How long will this last? I ask because it wouldn't surprise me to see something that looks like Farsight but neutered.

+Regen/Recovery for defeated foes doesn't sound like it will be practical in a combat environment, because they won't have noticeable effects until the majority of the enemy is dead unless the buff magnitude is extremely high, due to the nature of the beast with those two attributes, and by the time the majority of a spawn is dead... they're not really helpful attributes. Sure, maybe it will reduce down-time at low levels when everyone is sucking wind due to poor slotting (assuming this even ends up available at low levels?), but towards the higher end of the game it sounds pretty useless to me.

Meanwhile, why are we keeping the one power in the set that is almost universally hated by the playerbase: Black Hole? If anything should be outright replaced (and I mean, for all archetypes, not just Dark Affinity), it's this.

I'm sorry if I seem overly critical of these ideas, but I have been waiting a very, very long time to see Dark Miasma make it to the Controller archetype, and, as it stands, it's not only not even the set that I wanted anymore, it doesn't even look like a very good set anymore, which is very disappointing considering how powerful and versatile the most recent addition to the Support lineup is.

On Dark Control:
The Immobilize being a cone will be very, very annoying, especially when paired with the secondaries that require you to be in melee range to utilize well.

The Disorient being a PBAOE will make that problem even worse because of the classic problem of "jump out, target for cone, angle character correctly, fire, jump back in, PBAOE," that already plagues sets that mix and match cones with PBAOEs. It's very annoying, and in a Control set, it's not just lost DPS as it is in most sets affected, it's potentially losing you enough damage mitigation to get killed before getting that Disorient off.

Edit: As a piece of constructive criticism, maybe you could put Fearsome Stare back into Dark Miasma, and make an Area version of Possess in Dark Control instead? It could be very cool and thematic. Maybe an Anchor style power, you flood a target with nether spirits, Possessing (Confusing) it, and causing it to pulse a wave of Confusion (non-stacking from same anchor, like the debuff anchors), to all targets within X range every Y seconds. Toggled controls are very under-utilized material, in fact, the only one I can think of is Telekinesis, which is also extremely annoying due to the nasty Repel effect.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.