DarkCurrent

It's just fine. Extra slow and you get the dmg ticks.

Good work. I knew it was possible, but was too lazy to bother soloing one myself.

One thing I'll add is I think it can be done by a non-perma /earth as well. Just the margin of error is much slimmer. The hold from Seismic Smash makes it possible. I think an earth/earth or grav/earth would be able to permahold even more easily with stoney or singy throwing in their holds. Jack has freezing touch, so that helps ice, but he has one extra attack, so his cycling is less.

Oh, and eat some reds next time.

And another thought... do you have room for some Hami Os in that build? Put mez/dmg in BoI.

Oh yeah, who was doing the heavy lifting in this one? That was about 30 DE I leapt into and herded up for you.

Oh, and there's the beatdown of Zenflower in 100 seconds, too. Only took 5 of us this time. We're getting better at this AV killing!

Are you playing the alpha dog with this character? Because you should be. With proper slotting there's no reason you shouldn't be able to walk up to a spawn and either WH it into a neat corner pile or string them up like puppets with GDF every time.

And what about your placement? Do you have range in WH? Are you breaking LOS when you use it? Are you using Singy as a door blocker?

Grav is all about taking the lead ("dropping mobs in corner, go get 'em", "herding 2nd mob onto this one", etc.) and proper placement (WH, Singy and your own body). It sounds like that's not your style, so I'm not surprised you're having trouble.

I'm not saying it's the best set out there or anything (Dim Shift blows, and WH should definitely come earlier), but by your 30s you shouldn't be having as much trouble as you're saying regardless of what other doms you've played. That line you used about 'traditional role' really struck me because it sounds like you're trying to get grav to fit some preconceived notion of what a dominator should do. And I'm guessing you're wanting to run up to a spawn, hit an AoE control, then charge in and unload AoE attacks. That's not grav's strength. It's the total opposite. It's the stealth set of controls. You hide around corners, duck behind crates, stand under stairs, pop up over railings, and use singy as your muscle.

WH is horrible on outdoor maps. Not much to bounce mobs off of. Indoors, especially tight maps like warehouses and offices, you can place mobs in corners all day long. One fun thing you can do outside is sky shot targets. Adds a bunch of time to your control as you launch mobs on a ballistic arc. It'll scatter them for sure, but if you're desperate, it's the right play.

I've got another one for you from last night.

Woodsman goes 'timber'.

/Earth is officially the new AV killer. Being able to stack holds quickly with your ST + Seismic Smash is to die for.

Just ask Luminary

I've max-leveled 12 of the 14 slots (2 vet slots) I have on Pin, so I've moved on to a new server. The game has gotten so easy to hit 50 and to do so quickly, that the 12 standard slots per server are just not enough. But then it costs too much to add more slots, and what's the point when you can just move to a new server where it's free It's not like starting a new base and getting established in a new home takes all that long (can do it with a couple of alts) considering they reduced all the construction costs and rent.

I wish the game was more challenging and variable, so hitting 50 wasn't a month-long jog. I wish there was new content added for the end game, so there was a reason to break out the 50s, but all we get are more gimmicky SFs that everyone just wants to speed rush. And I wish there was a point to server allegiance, but why stand around twiddling your lvl 50's thumbs when you could roll a new alt and try some fresh powersets?

I have a few characters that still need the badge. If any teams regularly run this SF or are interested in doing so, I'd like to join.

Leave me a PM @DarkCurrent

Thanks in advance.

Useful AoE immobs:
fire with hot feet
plant with seeds
grav because you can still knockdown/back

ST immob isn't a must have. There's a whole secondary for damage attacks. ST immobs have use later vs AVs. Much later. Only old set I'd say needed the ST immob was /psi because dart and MB used to suck. Not anymore. Now I'd say /earth could use the extra ranged ST attack, but then again if you're taking /earth, you're going for melee.

Ice Slick is overrated. Although I will nod to Hack for pointing out last night that it is really good out of the box and with minimal slotting. But I find it's usefulness is lacking in too many situations and grows less useful as time goes by.

The AoE sleep is okay, but far from needed. The AoE hold and ST hold are common fodder.

That leaves Shiver and AA. You only need one imo. AA is an end hog, though, and needs 5-6 to be an every fight power. Even then I wouldn't say it's an awesome 'control' power. I was arguing this with Hack that HF is as good... you get the slow, you get the fear. Then it's confuse vs damage. The confuse is more defensive, while the damage is offensive and defensive as mobs die faster.

Shiver can be skipped. Unless you're playing ranged. Even then I don't like it because it's this huge cone that always overshoots its targets to aggro the ones behind it.

As Min said, the mitigation is all soft control. Not very reliable. You find that out fast with the mobs that can fly or that are immune to slows. Of which, there are a surprisingly large number.

I'm not trying to bash the set. I've played it 3x now, I have one 50 (ice/psi) and 2 30s (ice/ice and ice/earth). It's good enough to get the job done, but seriously, I would take ANY other primary before I rolled another one.

I'd love to be able to go back in time and change most of the dom control sets to include things doms would actually use. Imagine if ice had an ice armor, fire a fire armor, etc. Would be glorious.