Melee Confusion Dominator

((Okay, so this gets a bit rambly. Sorry about that.))

So, I was hoping that Dark Assault would be a little more melee friendly to help me create a concept that I've been thinking about recently. What I'm really looking for is a character that wanders into melee, and all of a sudden everyone in the spawn starts attacking each other.

To do this, I was thinking of Ice/something/Psionic, to stack the two (somewhat bad) confusion auras. With Arctic Air holding the Contagious Confusion Proc, going Cognitive Interface eventually, and World Of Confusion, I should have a decent amount of confuse rocking around.

Then I got to thinking, would Elec/ be better for this concept? Wouldn't have the melee confuse aura, but could launch the chain confuse from melee for somewhat similar results. Jolting Chain might help to deliver the Congnitive confuse proc, at least better than Frostbite would be (and it would also have Chain Fences to stack with, and the PBAoEs from Gremlins, I think). And it still at least has a melee aura to help the concept.


And then I am completely befuddled on what secondary to go with for this concept. /Earth, /Ice, and /Elec seem to be fairly melee friendly, especially /Earth, though I don't know if that fits the concept well being so "bulky" of a set.

I've got a costume ready to go here, just can't figure out how to get the concept to work. Any help would be appreciated.

Well I can only speak from experience, but I've currently got an elec/elec dominator up to lvl 35 and that is exactly the style I play with it. First, I find a bad guy in the middle of the group, hit him with the chain confusion power, then run in and start smashing stuff with the melee powers from my secondary. And I have to say, it's a very strong combo even before I got Gremlins. After Gremlins, it became nearly unstoppable.

Rogue Alignment power is a PB AoE confuse btw.

Problem with Ice AA is that is slows as well as confuses, so you'll see a lot more standing around doing nothing that confused guys battling.

I don't think /elec assault will help though. I think you want something that has a dmg aura like Mud Pots or Death Shroud, so you can increase your confuse proc chances. The chain confuse with contagious would be good.

Well, that's why I was kinda looking forward to /Dark Assault. It seemed like it would be fairly melee friendly, but the long cone AoE is throwing me off. Basically, by focusing on melee, I lose a lot of AoE potential. Maybe they'll change it up, who knows.

/Thorny Assault might be a good match, too, but the redraw might be a bit much. Still, a decent amount of AoEs and Thorntrops to proc a huge amount. Hmmm...possible.

/Fire and /Energy are out. /Stone just doesn't feel "right" for her, though would otherwise be a good candidate. She's just supposed to be sort of a lithe demoness, and whacking people with huge mallets might not work. So that leaves /Thorn, /Ice, /Psychic, and /Elec.

Will have to decide between those four at some point, I think, or wait for /Dark.


edit -> Oh, and thanks for the reminder about the alignment power. Not sure how useful a 10 second confuse on a 3 minute timer would be, but it will be very thematic indeed. Probably gonna have to do that.

Anyone have any suggestions for which secondary might be better?

/Icey's Ice Sword Circle animates pretty fast and has ginormous range. If you're going for the confuse proc, that's an extra chance to confuse.

Have you given any thought to Mind primary?

There is an AoE confuse and a single target confuse, an AoE hold and a single target hold, an AoE sleep and a single target sleep, and a cone fear power. If you are going for perma dom its even better AND you can actually take the presence pool AoE fear power. Perma dom makes it worth using.

If you take Icy as your secondary you get power boost which makes all the controls that much better and if you are going to play in melee Ice sword circle is really nice. Alpha Nerve boosts both hold and confuse durations and it makes a Perma Mind/Icy a minor deity.

If the whole concept is to have the confuse be an automatic toggle type thing then Ice/Icy with the the CC proc works very nicely. WoC would be redundant but would be thematic. I'd recommend the presence pool fear if you are perma-ing this dom it also layers nicely with the built in fear in AA.

Edit to add....

/Earth gets Power Boost too and you "can" recolor the hammers to make them white tinted crystal to mimic Ice.

If your heart isn't set on a Dom I'd also recommend an Ice/Rad controller. CC proc in AA, Lock Down proc in Choking Cloud, and Grav Anchor Chance to hold in Frostbite is a thing of beauty. The damage output stinks though.

I know it's not an aura, but Plant as a primary is still worth considering, although obviously it narrows your concept a bit. /Elec as a secondary ought to be fun.

Fortunata as well.

I know you don't like Earth for the toon's concept but I am playing a Plant/Earth/Ice and the way you describe how you want to play the toon is how I play him.

The patches are just either placed at range or in melee for carnage or confusion hilarity.

Evil druids are fun

Thanks for all of the help and input, all. I guess I should probably explain a bit more about the concept and why I've explored some of these options and am still having trouble. I think that the sets I'm really looking for just aren't in the game, and I'm trying to make due with what I've got.

While no expert at prose, I'll try to explain a bit more of what the character's concept is:

"The character was born a mutant with the ability to create goodness in the area around her. People would be healed of illnesses for instance, or if somebody was down on their luck, being around her would change it, and good things would start to happen to them. People around her were inspired to create good in the world around them, as well, for a short time. She was happy that she was able to create such a positive impact on the world.

But then her father got cancer, and her powers did nothing to help him for some reason. No one was able to cure him. So she cried out for help from anyone or anything that could heal him. A creature of chaos answered her call, and offered her a deal: the being would cure her father, but she would lose her power. She accepted too easily, not realizing the consequences. While her father got better, she came to realize that the demon had tricked her, and not only did she lose her power of goodness, he had replaced it with an aura that created pure chaos around her. The people in the hospital started attacking each other, even killing each other.

So she ran. As the chaotic aura got stronger, it even affected her physical form, changing her into a demon of chaos. However, her mind remained intact, and she remembers how she used to help people with her abilities. So now she wanders alone, struggling to help people despite her changed abilities. She came to Paragon City to try to find someone that could change her back to the way she was, but has so far been unable to find anyone to help. How long she will be able to hold onto her sanity is yet to be seen, but so far, she fights against the chaos around her, holding out for hope."



As such, I was hoping for a more "passive" confusion option than something like Plant, Mind, or even Elec, had. Something like World of Confusion is great (though it would be better if the confuse duration was longer than the pulse time). Arctic Air seems perfect, except for the whole recharge slow and afraid component (along with the -recharge from almost everything else as well). Elec/ seems to give plenty of options to proc the Cognitive confusion effect, including the auras on the pets, but doesn't really give that effect from the character.

So right now, I think that Ice/Stone might be my best fit, giving me plenty of AoE options to proc Cognitive, and still having that passive confusion effect. But I'd love to be proved wrong or given other options.

Edit -> Revised concept heavily

It depends on how you look at such a level of confusion, and what other effects it may lead to or be associated with.

Perhaps part of the chaos creature's curse is that those caught in the aura of confusion are also slowed, so as to prolong the agony you and they must endure.

Suddenly being confused to the point of random violence would probably be terrifying if the victims remained aware but unable to fully control their actions, which would be fitting for a curse. This would explain the fear elements of Arctic Air, and the reduction of recharge. As the victims fight to regain self-control, this internal battle causing hesitation, thus slows recharge.

Perhaps the chaos creature is an ice based entity, and his curse affected your mutant genome, causing some of your powers to have cold and ice elements.

If you don't mind adding those elements to the chaos creature's curse then Ice Control would work for you.

A good secondary for that could be Psychic Assault.

It comes with some parabolic powers that would fit well with Arctic Air, and also with the concept of mental disturbance being associated with your abilities.

Drain Psyche could be seen as the mental fatigue generated from the effects of the chaos on the mind of those assaulted and the struggling against it, and it would also help to offset the endurance cost of Arctic Air.

Psychic Shockwave is another parabolic that also has a disorient component, that could perhaps be seen as the confusion overwhelming the targets to the point of temporary inaction.

Those aren't bad ideas, Urchin. Thanks for the help! Still might wait to see what they do with Dark Assault, but /Earth, /Psi, and /Ice are in the lead now.

Ice Control is probably the best pick for this but it will have a lot of residual effects going on: the AA ring itself, the ice slick, blocks of ice encasing enemies etc. Note though that AA's fear isn't the "crouch because I'm afraid" effect, its more like "run around like an idiot because I'm afraid of the caster sometimes, afraid of my own allies other times, trying to kill caster sometimes, trying to kill my own allies other times." IMO AA probably gives the best impression of the true concept of "confusion," aesthetically speaking.

How much enemies attack each other really depends on how much you debuff them. AA itself only lowers their recharge by 50%, which about doubles their Recharge time if they are the same level as you. If they are much higher than you, the amount of the debuff isn't that significant unless you pile it on. They will indeed attack each other and in some cases do substantial amounts of damage. On my Ice/Rad Controller, who does fairly pathetic damage on his own, I only started being able to solo big crowds once I built to survive in melee against enemies I didn't control too much, ensuring they were able to hit each other.

If you are going for this effect specifically I would avoid Psi (for the stacking -Recharge you don't want) and maybe take Earth. Thorns colored white can look like icecycles if you decide you want the Ice look after all but sadly they still spray out green stuff.

Note that a Controller has better durations from AA than a Dom, because the power grants no Domination mode but still takes the Dominator un-dom duration penalty. The issue with this power is usually how easily it is de-toggled, so a source of mezz protection is highly recommended. If you do go Controller, Time Manip would be a great, unobstrusive secondary. Plan to take Indomitable Will for the mezz protection (the Psi defense doesn't hurt either).

BTW, skip World of Confusion, it's terrible. The interface and purple proc are very effective for Ice though in my experience. If you want even more Confuse, go and stay Rogue, you get a PBAoE Confuse up once a minute or two that is much better than WoC. WoC really is that bad.