Filth_EU

Since the test server is down, I bunged together some screenshots of the information about the patron powers. Unfortunately some of the information I most wanted is not there namely, the numbers for the armours; even the Endurance cost is screwy, I've heard it should be listed as 0.16, or it is 1/End per second, or it's just less than 1 since the figures are rounded up, who knows. o.O

On the positive side, and this is almost certainly wishful thinking by me, the icon for the armour power is the one for the 'uber' armour for tankers and scrappers. Does this mean these armours are actually more powerful than you might think? ...hmmm...

Black Scorpion
Ghost Widow
Captain Mako
Scirocco

It was a lot of fun! I've always thought Doms were underestimated in both PvE and PvP, with Domination being the big problem in PvP. The reduced toggle dropping and accelerated domination definitely mean a change in tactics but on balance Dominators are much more potent now; if you read the US forums you'll see "Doms suck now, I'm outta here" because of exactly the same changes, so not everyone thinks the changes are big enough.

We're just as squishy as ever though so PvP before 50 is going to be tricky in RV when every Dom is public enemy number one. As far as last night goes, I was teamed up a couple of times but tended to wander about, mostly to find those Spider Robots; I did get a few tells from heroes which were pretty funny ;>

Extremus has posted this in the test forum for Issue 7, this is just the Dom stuff, apart from a few exceptions Doms are the main toggle droppers for Villains:

Inherent: Brawl: 5% for 1 Toggle
Dominator: Bone Smasher: 5% for 1 Toggle
Dominator: Total Focus: 64% for 1 Toggle
Dominator: Incinerate: 5% for 1 Toggle
Dominator: Blaze: 64% for 1 Toggle
Dominator: Ice Sword: 5% for 1 Toggle
Dominator: Greater Ice Sword: 64% for 1 Toggle
Dominator: Mind Probe: 5% for 1 Toggle
Dominator: Psychic Shockwave: 64% for 1 Toggle
Dominator: Skewer: 5% for 1 Toggle
Dominator: Ripper: 64% for 1 Toggle

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...and also toggle dropping has been reduced across the board so there aren't any 100% toggle drop attacks anymore. Overall I think this is good, this will help Brutes Vs. Blasters.

It does also mean getting into melee is now even more dangerous for a Dominator, but at the same time Domination is more readily available.

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ARRRRRRGH! LMAO, no can't have it all. It's just funny. I'd just learnt to use the toggle droppers in Thorns to effect. Best start re-learning again !!!

And yes, overall, a reduction in toggle dropping is good.

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It is a bit of a shame since toggle dropping was one of the things a Dom brings to PvP, on the upside it does also mean that Doms won't get CJ+Acrobatics, and whatever else (like the Ice PBAoEs for one) knocked off quite so easily, and this also appplies to the PPP armour as well which means more time alive for Doms \o/

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Nope, one single Dominator - Domination not running - and nothing else.

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That's perfectly possible, done this myself - stack holds on someone, keep attacking them, supression kicks in, they run away, I follow and a few seconds later the Hold kicks back in and they're Held again.

...and also toggle dropping has been reduced across the board so there aren't any 100% toggle drop attacks anymore. Overall I think this is good, this will help Brutes Vs. Blasters.

It does also mean getting into melee is now even more dangerous for a Dominator, but at the same time Domination is more readily available.

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having such boosted jump ability is (so far ive seen) in PvP realy usefull. Most powers do -slow, but not a -jump so they still can 'jump out of fighting' fairly easy, often used tactics used by stalkers

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The web grenade temp power puts paid to that :P There are a few -Jump powers but they're not as common, of course a BF will get you out of that as well.

Jumping tests, I made a couple of posts about this:
Combat Jumping & Hurdle

This shows a plan view of distances:
Plan view CJ+Hurdle / SJ

PvP only is fine with me, Domination is not a problem to build up in PvE it's the extremely short life expectancy in PvP that makes it so hard to build up Dom.

...it says

• Targets. Each attack from the Assault secondary power sets adds a bonus of 8 points toward filling the Domination bar over the normal value.

....which means 10 attacks = 80 (+10) = 90% domination?

Well heck...jejeje...at last.

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Whoa, hold on there! So dominators and trollers have similar damage output? That's so very wrong! Trollers get buff/debuff abilities on par with corruptors and they get damage? That's so very very wrong.

Mind you, hearing about these toggle droppers that doms get makes them sound a whole lot more appealing. I imagine they end up playing something like a blapper in PvP, just having to take a bit longer about it?

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That's about right. Defenders have complained about the potential damage output of Controllers, and Dominators are supposed to have about the same damage level as Defenders.

Yes, Doms get (mostly) melee toggle droppers but a Blapper can measure a fight in seconds, a Dom has to measure a fight in minutes usually. Given enough time a Dom can beat almost any other AT, unfortunately a Doms life expectancy 1v1 is somewhere between 2-4 seconds against certain Blaster or Scrapper builds which means sometimes it's just unplayable.

At level 35+ you start getting some great attack powers, unfortunately your survivability isn't any better. I read a great post on the US forums saying that Dom damage felt a bit like 'slowly torturing your enemies to death' because of the super-low damage you do in early levels, it's exactly how it's like for me in Siren's I almost never KO a hero, just torture them for a bit.

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It's the first of May today not April.

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Ok, so you're not a fan...

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I appreciate the effort, but it would have been funnier (ok, I'm being generous...funny) if you had stuck in some powers outside of the powersets and slotted for impossible enhancers, like say Fear in Whirlwind or something.

I don't want to blow my own trumpet, but:
Learn from the Troll Master

It's the first of May today not April.

It's not very long, can't remember if it's 2 or 4 seconds, it's just enough time to take whatever action you want, then you can be affected again. If you have stacked holds/mezzes on you, suppression will stop them affecting you for that short time and then the mezz will kick back in even without more hitting you.

There's not many people who go into PvP zones without a number of Break Frees or Strength of Will, at least not more than once. Most times when I'm in a zone with Bilharzia I don't expect my Holds to work at all in most cases, I just assume people carry stacks of BFs.

Aeronaut is Number One, everyone else is number two (or lower).

Aeronaut, Freaks Unleashed and some Power Ranger buddies take it easy after a triple-Nova hangover in Bizarro world:
The camera's *this way* Statesman...

Asraf, drazt, and Qwoorw!

Glad to know someone else has caught the bug, sounds like you did well. The first thing I'd say is as far as ATs & Powersets goes, a lot is determined by the player, their strategy and tactics so that almost any AT and powers can be playable and enjoyable in PvP; it's always a pleasant surprise when I come across a hero or villain with an original PvP toon since they tend to be less obsessed by their burst-damage-kill-potential and just more interesting to play with or against.

Since you already have Mercs/Traps the first thing I would do is consider how you might tweak your build to make it work better in PvP, and this is generally down to powerpool choices and slotting. I would say you would benefit from going down the Concealment path, Medicine and Teleport (if you haven't done already). This would allow you to hide better, support yourself and your dudes, and TP heroes into your traps. If you want to make a new toon, I would say the biggest need for Villains are support toons played by good players, which generally means Corruptors with Sonic, Thermal or Kinetics. MMs can be effective though, there's a great Merc/Traps "Colonel Sanderz" (I think) who plays in Siren's.

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As other brutes dont lower my brutes Fury, I doubt a squishy pet will

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If you being attacked raises your Fury, then you not being attacked will result in a slower Fury build up.

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Because it's pointless making decisions and complaints on sets that haven't yet been played by anyone?

It's not about pets in general diverting aggro, how do you know that they won't introduce a system where attacks against your pet and attacks your pet does add to your own Fury?

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I think a lot of players plan their toons ahead of time and since we don't get to change patrons, you either wait weeks/months for other players to report back...or you start speculating on the information that's out there. Besides, if people didn't use the the forum for whining no one would post.

I don't know that such a system won't be introduced, but let's pause for a moment and think how barmy that would be...
The fact that pets divert aggro away from Brutes *is* an issue though which makes Brute pets seem like an odd idea.

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How do you even know the pet will steal your Fury? Have you played with the PPPs yet? No. Have the devs said anything about pets stealing Fury? No. So stop whining until you actually play the sets.

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This is about pets in general diverting aggro (like MM pets) nothing special about it. If information about these powers is released early I don't see why responding to them is so awful. Why shouldn't players voice what they want?

One Thermal can take a */Stone Brute to the cap.

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As for the pet... I think they can make it work so that it WILL increase your fury.

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I doubt that, Dom pets don't increase Domination and Fury builds lightning fast compared to Domination.

I was as disappointed with the Dom Patron Powers as the Brutes' ones; the last thing I want with my Dom is another (probably almost useless) pet, more attacks which I don't have endurance for, and AoE attacks, which of course will be pretty wimpy. Brutes will get a lot of value out of the AoEs since they'll pump the damage up.

I wasn't there for long but it was a lot of fun, Filth stretched his legs, crushed his enemies and heard the lamentation of their pets.

Tanks are just not very good in PvP, they become more like a low power Scrapper in addition toggle-dropping means that most tanks can be destroyed quickly by certain blaster builds. This has been pretty much clear and unchanged since the Arenas were introduced and nothing so far has been done to address it, except the reduction in Taunt effectiveness which has made Tanks even less relevant.

Gauntlet *is* being introduced with Issue 7 supposedly, but it will work in a similar way to how it works in PvE as an aggro draw.

Certain tank power sets can do well such as Ice/Energy, some will more problems than others, but it is possible to play them with some degree of enjoyment but you have to get used to the change from PvE. If you want to act as an aggro-magnet for your team you have to be able to move very fast and you should put more slots into Taunt, and perhaps also take Provoke from the Presence Pool. You're not likely to be able to take down a Scrapper with a tank but you will be able to take out a squishy given the opportunity with most of the melee power sets.

Herostats tracks criticals, so you can attempt to disprove your theory.

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Erm, what is the substantial buff youre talking about? I know of some buff coming..to PVP.

Are we talking PVE or PVP here?

In PVE sure, dominators give a whole new meaning to the term "squishy".. Aggroing everything and being unable to withstand anything.. And having naff attacks on top of that.

In PVP I havent noticed MMS to be far above doms in survivability.. Sure it doesnt take much to be above doms, but personally I see only FF MMs have some chance... EDIT: But I may have a bit biased point of view from behind these built-up, aimed power fists

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I must have missed that meeting where it was decided MMs are underpowered in PvE, are there actually MMs that need to remain conscious during PvE missions?

You're entirely wrong about Dominators in PvE, we do fine. Doms that don't do fine are playing it wrong.

In PvP, well apart from say Triage Beacon, Force Field Gen, and Seeker Drones, and I suppose Twilight Grasp, Darkest Night, Shadow Fall, Dark Servant, possibly also apart from Deflection Shield, Insulation Shield, PFF, Dispersion Bubble, Repulsion Field, Force bubble, and well apart from all those arrow debuffs and protector robots, yes, apart from those things MMs have absolutely no advantages above Doms in PvP.

I forgot the Tree! Doms have Spirit Tree of course! we rule!

MMs survivability in PvP is way way above Doms, and with the bodyguard buff (which is in fact not just PvP but PvE as well) they'll be much tougher.