DarkCurrent

The GMs hate paying customers apparently.

WTF is all I have to say.

Not sure why so many are picking grav control as weak in regards to damage. It has more attacking powers than most of the others. Look at ice control if you want no damage. Ice has what? ST immob, AoE immob, ST hold and pet. Oh yeah, it has Flash Freeze that does damage (whose brilliant idea was that?). Shiver = no dmg. AA = no dmg. Ice Slick = no dmg. Glacier = no dmg.

Grav gets dmg from everything but Dim Shift, WH and GDF. Crush = dmg. Crushing Field = dmg. Lift = dmg. GD = dmg. Propel = dmg. Sing = dmg. And sing is way tougher than Jack will ever be. I'd also say grav has more control ability than ice.

So if you want a weak controller combo, I'd go Ice/Emp. At least you'll have 3 heals for Jack cuz he needs em.

Welcome to CoH: City of Homogenization

The game where everyone is the same. It's been moving in that direction for the last couple years. Just look at the revamps and power changes made in that time and you'll see it plain as that zit on your nose.

Dominator Revamp - no more up and down ride that made them unique
Defender Revamp - more damage so they can solo instead of being team-oriented like they used to
Blaster Revamp - more HP, more damage and some mez protection so they don't need outside buffs anymore
Stalker Revamp - make them more 'scrappery' and less reliant on their unique stealth talents

Toss in the Invention System and Incarnate abilities and now no one has weaknesses, everyone has a nuke, and everyone has pets. Nobody needs anybody anymore!

And don't forget AE farms, the difficulty slider changes, and patrol xp being added so the leveling journey is a blink and everyone is level 50!

Woohoo!

The only thing keeping me going are the new powersets and new missions/arcs we get tossed every now and then. Gives me a reason to start the whole process again.

Will it include any information on the exciting news for dominators?

It sounds like you're planning on being lvl 50, purpled, perma and incarnate slotted from the get-go. If that's the case (you're being PLd), then your current plans can work especially if teaming... although you're still not going to get as much out of this build as you could by making some changes.

However, if you're planning to play from 1-50 without a lot of PLing and need to build up inf to buy the IOs you want and get your incarnate powers, I think you'll find your damage and control output lacking for a good 30 levels with your current build.

While cycling your immobs as attacks is a good idea for a ranged dom, they're not slotted for damage, so you'll be only doing baseline. The AoE immob is an end hog to boot and a huge aggro magnet. If you lead with that, you'll get alphad to death.

I just noticed you didn't take your ST hold Tesla Cage. Was that on purpose? It's your bread and butter control and essential hard control. I also see you don't have the AoE sleep patch, either. I missed that last night when I was first replying. Not having either of those severely limits your ability to control. Paralyzing Blast is on a long recharge, so that'll only be up every other spawn. Conductive Aura can drain end from enemies, but you have to be in melee and it'll take a few seconds. If all the control you're bringing to the table is immoblize and end drain, you're going to face-plant. A lot. Also, if you are going for Perma only 3 of all your powers will benefit from domination (the 2 immobs and the AoE hold). That's wasted potential imo.

I highly recommend you go with one travel pool set, and get yourself more control. Also, if you want to stay at range, then slot your immobs for damage at the very least.

I don't want you to take this as me beating you up. But this is your first go at a dominator and I see you're making a lot of rookie mistakes that'll have you cursing your existence. That said, it's your character and you have to build it how you feel is best. Just don't let your goals of maxxing recharge and/or defense rob you of effectiveness at dominating (holding and touching enemies firmly).

May I ask what your previous experience is with control sets? If it's as a long time controller, you'll need to throw that mentality out. Think like a blaster, but with a lot more control options and fewer AoE damage options.

Not enough attacks. Unless you're planning to get PLd this will be a long slow stumble to 50. You have only 2 ranged blasts for the first 23 levels. What will you defeat your enemies with?

You add a little more damage at 24 and 28, but your snipe will see minimal use and give you more of the slow painful leveling feel. Gremlins will give you a little bit more damage at 32, but they're 'meh' overall. Not worth the 6 slots you're giving them.

You finally add more damage in your 40s with BL, Mu pet and VS. But I think you'll find those last 2 pets aren't all that, especially with just a single slot each.

Now, looking at your power pool choices, you have too many imo with 9. You're taking two full travel pools with CJ, SJ and Acro from leaping, and Hasten and SS from running. You're also tapping into leadership for maneuvers, and then fighting for Kick, Tough, Weave. Unless you're planning to PvP, don't bother with 2 travel pools.

If it were me, I'd take just hasten and SS, then buy a jetpack from GV for vertical travel. You can also get one from AP mayhem, plus jump jet from KR mayhem. There's also a couple early missions that award temp jet packs. And you can always craft one, plus log off in GV to earn the day job jet pack. Any of those options will let you drop SJ.

Next, you can get yourself a KB protection IO from the market. That'll let you drop Acrobatics. There's 2 powers opened without much investment. I'd keep CJ... can use it for a defense set IO like LotG and I see you're looking to give yourself some DEF.

I like that you're going into the Fighting pool for more protection. Tough and Weave are good pick ups. However, don't bother investing slots in Kick. I wouldn't even put it on my tray.

Instead, use the 2 powers you freed with dropping leaping powers and get yourself a couple of your elec assault punches. Five slot both. You have plenty of extra slots you're wasting by 6 slotting things that don't need it like the blasts and immobs. My rule for 6 slotting is only do it to AoE controls or powers that you're adding procs AFTER you've slotted up their primary focus.

I like you're using your last two pets for the special pet IO buffs... not sure those are global though. But if they are that's very clever. However, I'm concerned that even if the DEF and RES buffs are global, I'm pretty darn sure they're only functioning when the pets are summoned. And the problem with that is the two powers you're using them in are the ones with the 'perishable' pets. If you want to buff gremlins, then you might want to use both of those IOs there and slot the other 4 with Expd Reinforce for the rch boost.

Okay, a major mistake you're making is something that wont show too much here on paper, but your slotting of Conductive Aura should be your clue. I see you're looking to make the power a +regen focus. Okay, not sure on the numbers of that vs using it as a +recovery instead... either could work I suppose although I prefer the endurance... but think about that a second. Your plan seems to be you want the extra HP regen, but remember that power is PB AoE. Therefore, you need to be in melee. However, you have only Kick as a melee attack! I fear you're going to find yourself getting face planted over and over trying to leverage that regen buff. So going back to my earlier suggestion... pick up a couple of your elec punches and 5 slot them! Heck, Thunderstrike takes KB sets iirc. If so, you can get KB protection from the Kin Crash set (I think it's 4 IOs) and you can even get 7.5 rch if you go with 6 slots. It's going to KB anyway, so you might as well send em flying!

Three slotting Maneuvers is a waste. If all you want is the LotG bonus, then just put that. Also, look at Stealth from concealment. I think you'll get more mileage there instead of Maneuvers. It'll stack with your SS and give you invis for ghosting missions. Def numbers are about the same as are the end costs.

Your ST immob is overslotted and probably skippable. You'll already have the AoE version, so that'll be good enough for those situations you need to immob a foe. I'd ditch that power as well, or slot it as an attack if you're insistent on staying at range.

If you do drop it, pick up the confuse or jolting chain instead. You could get the purple confuse set pretty cheap and get the rch bonus. It'd provide way more control use than the ST immob. JC is also a worthwhile power. You can get away with 2-3 slots in it as well.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Good luck!

Two weeks later and the protest is still going strong! I look forward to today's Ustream to hear if they'll announce overlooking proliferation of illusion control to dominators was just a horrible oversight. I'll also wait to see if they'll announce anything about a new set coming like the low hanging fruit that is /dark assault.

Keep the faith! Hopefully we won't have to grab our pitchforks and torches this afternoon.

I'm glad this thread came up because I've been suffering from this bug a ton lately (the last month or two). I've seen it with lightning rod and shield charge on my brute, plus with sleet and ice storm on my dominator.

It reminds me of the old teleport target bug from years ago when you couldn't place the target on textured objects (sides of buildings) because it would get confused where a flat surface was. So you'd get the pink No Target symbol.

This bug is similar, but aside from the No Target symbol, I experience the target getting 'stuck' on the ground and being unable to place it where I want. Then mobs start moving and I have to relocate the target and it's stuck again.

It's making certain characters very difficult to play. I suggest everyone posting here /bug this so the dev team can fix it ASAP.

Look if blasters getting Dark Manipulation (a NEW set) doesn't piss you off and make you want to protest, I don't know what will.

It was stated that blasters got DMan because it was full of 'low hanging fruit' Okay, then tell me an dark assault set for doms isn't low hanging fruit as well. All the powers for such a set are in game TODAY. The set could be released TOMORROW.

But NO we're supposed to wait until AFTER I21 for something really cool. When the hell is that??? Next year?

That's too long. I want it now. At the latest, I want it when everyone else gets their new/proliferated sets.

Like I said in my OP. I'm a VIP now. A PAYING customer. And I've been one for 7 yrs. I want my new/proliferated set now, not next year and I have every right to demand it and launch this protest.

Some of you sound happy to be treated like second-class citizens. You're satisfied with promises of soon (TM). Try that argument at your next Xmas celebration.

"Don't be upset that you didn't get anything this year. I promise I'm going to get you something really cool next year, Donny the Dominator. Yes, I know that all your brothers and sisters got presents. But hey, your Blaster brother is SO much easier to shop for than you. You understand, don't you?"