MinMin

Day 22 - OMG, the Rikti, they're Purple!
Capella gets a good workout on Lt Demitrovich's missions and I solo through most of them this evening. Later on I get asked to join a team running missions in the RWZ, so I give that a go.

The team is being led by an MM, and we quickly pick up a Scrapper, another MM and a Tank buddy of mine. The missions are tough going. As normal with MMs he's got his difficulty cranked and the mobs are alternately red minions + purple lieutenant + bosses and all purple. My AoE controls are not hitting much and when they do they don't last for long, but at least until the Tank got there they were good enough to take the aggro. Wormhole proved very useful for dropping more mobs on the Tank which I'm sure he appreciated and I also tried the Wormhole to the same spot trick which had mixed results.

Another annoying issue was with the Rikti Monkeys. The team was very light on AoE damage so these were quite a problem. I have none at this point and was constantly hit with the decision of whether to "waste" an AoE control on groups that were mostly Monkeys ...

Overall, I was quite happy with the performance of Capella Rising here. She only bit the dirt a couple of times, and during the entire thing I was having a fairly heated conversation about Soldiers of Arachnos with the Tank player (I like them, he doesn't) and the whole PUG was still moving along quite well with the two of us leading most fights.

Anyway, with high level mobs, much XP was gained and I was half way to L29 before the end of the evening. L28 was predictably Seismic Smash.

Re: Power Boost

At this point I'm using it pretty much every time it's up and I want to use either Wormhole or Gravity Distortion Field. Longer holds and longer stuns are good things. Later on, if I go that route, Power Boost + Aid Self is a nice combo.

Re: Wormhole

Yes, it's primarily an AoE Stun. That's why most people refer to it as Gravity's signature soft control. The group TP Foe effect is nice, but it's not the point of the power. Take it. Unfortunately it may be close to being Gravity's best power.

Tron.

Lilo and Stitch would make a distant second ... "Oh good! My dog found the chainsaw!"

Day 20 - Maintenance
I do get on ... 5 minutes before Maintenance and about 15 minutes afterwards. As I was very close to L27 at this point the one mission I do brings up 27 and I spend my remaining time outfitting with L30 SOs.

Day 21 - Bat'zul!
I spend my first 20 minutes of this evening doing newspapers and a mayhem to unlock another Nerva contact, but after all that's done I'm wanting to do something a bit more interesting, so I gather some VG mates and we line up the Virgil Tarikoss SF.

We have two L15 Widows, a L50 Thugs/Pain MM and Capella Rising now L27. One of the Widows and the MM have never done this SF before so I elect to go slow. There's a few lessons learned on this one.

Firstly, of that group above, I wouldn't have picked the Dom as the alpha-striker, but in nearly every case that was how we would play it. Typically this would involved a Domination or Power Boost enhanced GDF, but this was down as often as up, so a typical alpha strike for me would involve holding or lifting the boss and then target-switching like heck. The Pain MM saved my butt more times than I could count, but at least at L20 a mostly single-target Dom could be the tank (at least until the Widows stole all the aggro).

Secondly, Gravity is very hard to see, even with bright power customization. When the team goes up against Infernal we get the comment "Is he just going to stand there?" I'm thinking, while queuing up yet another layer of Gravity Distortion, "Yes. Yes he is". Some of the team really has no idea what I'm actually doing there ...

Finally, and not related to Grav/Earth, Virgil Tarikoss is a superb SF. I've done it so many times that I could do it in my sleep, but I highly recommend doing it with players who've never done it before. It's a great thing to see through new eyes.

At the end of all that I'm approaching L28 and Seismic Smash ...

Your concept is sound and I actually think you're probably underselling what your final role would be, particularly if you go Earth/Earth as you suggest.

However, I don't recommend the Freak pile a la AE for Doms without significant team support. The group you hit the target cap of your controls with is not necessarily the same as the group that is trying to hit your aggro cap.

That being said, if any Dom is going to do it, an Earth/Earth built for capping ranged defense would be a good option.

With Ice Slick and slows to deal with mobs while still keeping the Brutes happy, and all the -def in Thorns, you've got yourself a pretty good team build there. Jack will only add to the fun.

We have on topic chat on the Australia channel?!

We have a topic??!

There's a few everywhere, but I started on Pinnacle as well. Like others, moving to Justice was good and I've never looked back.

Day 19 - What could go wrong?
I really dislike levels ending with a 1 or a 6. They almost make me want to waste the relatively limited playing time I have by crafting IOs 10 levels or so before it makes sense to do so. This evening things are a tad rocky.

I start with catching a RWZ raid for which I bring along my Vanguard clotheshorse character (a L44 Mind/Elec Dom). The raid is highly successful from a merits point of view and the character now only lacks the belt before her costume is complete. (Currently has the gloves, shoulderpads, face detail and boots). After that I move on with Capella Rising and through the Doc Buzzsaw missions, which prove to be a source of frustration.

In particular one of her early missions has me taking on the Legacy Chain and it's in a warehouse map that has a (thankfully) rare triple spawn point. So I'm facing 8-9 yellow and orange Legacy Chain Kaolin of Earth. If I was smart, I would have just whacked on Super Speed and completely bypassed them. However, I'm playing a Gravity Dom, so I'm demonstrably not smart. I started by hitting Domination and Power Boost and Gravity Distortion Field while keeping an eye on duration. I manage to hammer down 2 Kaolin before the rest look like waking up so I throw a Wormhole around a corner and attack what's left. Well, that was the plan. What actually happened was that Legacy Chain uber-magic sneered at the power of Gravity and a very large number of rocks appeared over Capella's head.

Unfortunately even after I rezzed, the missing streak continued and I ended up coming back from hospital and pulling the mobs in 1s or 2s. This is strategy I would normally use 10-15 levels earlier, not at L26 and not against only yellows and oranges. I remind myself that I'm deliberately playing a gimp here and it's a tough level anyway, so I'm ok.

The next big challenge of the evening comes with "t3h S00p4rFr34k!". Nothing to do with my build this time; I just happen to miss two Gravity Distortions in a row while out of Domination. Against an ordinary Freak Tank, that's painful. Against an Elite Boss variant it's kind of fatal.

Finally I get to do Buzzsaw's last mission with the three Freak Tanks with Liliaceae trailing along with his brand new Plant/Earth Dom. This is a lot of fun, and with the both of us on damage output, GDF and Wormhole get a workout and I get a lot more confidence in my team performance. Wormhole will be brilliant once I get some more slots in it.

Day 18 - Wormhole! Finally ... I still suck?!
Ah, it's not as much a surprise as I make it out to be. I'm L26, with yellow SOs and only one slot in a key power. L27 will make a big difference. But I'm jumping ahead.

With the big race over and all going well (plus I had some money on the winner - yay!), I get to go home a bit early and play for a bit in the late afternoon. Solo only at this point; I'm not a big fan of leaving teams waiting while I sort out kid issues. The afternoon session is enough to let me do all of Darla Mavis's missions, including defeating Aurora Borealis, my first PToD EB on this character. It's actually the end of mission bonus on that one that tips me into L26 and Wormhole.

Later that evening, I grab Doc Buzzsaw's first mission, but before I get to do it, there's a bloke shouting out on the Justice for All global channel about a monster team forming in Sharkhead. Sounds like fun, and it's an area I haven't tested Capella Rising's performance in yet. There ends up being ten of us and in quick succession we take down Eochai, then Scrapyard and then Jack (yes, I know that's incredibly quick to spawn Jack). After all that I head off to do the Ourobouros missions and then I head to bed.

So how did Capella do against the GMs? About as well as any Dominator does really. They pretty much ignore your controls so it's all about damage output. Stone Spears on Eochai-scale is truly ironically awesome; it looks like you've just hit him with some awesome tier 9 power. There was some comments made about the crystal Earth Assault effects as well. I may not have been doing the lion's share of the damage, but I certainly looked like I was, and that's good enough for me

Fire/Fire is a good choice for any Dom whether you perma it or not. It's a little lacking on control, but it more than makes up for it with damage. Some quick tips:

* Grab Flashfire as soon as it's available and 5 or 6 slot it early.

* Put off Hot Feet until after Stamina.

* Be careful with Fire Cages; early on you may not be able to deal with the aggro it will bring. Also, spamming it can hurt your endurance.

* You can safely ignore the to-hit debuff in Smoke; it's really small.

I'd be very happy if they just stuck with the Thursday one, making an effort to keep it as short as possible, and making patches as infrequent as they can and on the scheduled day.

They've indicated that this is what they intend and I'll be thrilled if they can carry it through.

So why ask the question in the first place if you're just going to do a Grav/Energy Dom?

I have trouble thinking of that combo as "best" of anything.

Day 17 - Respec and the Night Before
This session was always going to be a short one. The first Tuesday in November is the biggest work day of my year and I need to be at work very early (and every Aussie reading this would now know what industry I work in).

Given that with limited time I'm not going to get a team started anyway, I do the threatened respec and dump Propel for Combat Jumping and slotting up Lift this time. Then I do a bunch of newspaper missions in Nerva and the Independence Port Mayhem. It's a subtle change, but quite effective. Using Lift more works well, and I'm very much trying to get over my dislike of not seeing immediate orange numbers. I'm also very much looking forward to a real AoE control.

That's not a simple question and the question itself is ambiguous. You could be asking either:

1. Which is the best performing Dominator combo at Permadom level recharge?

and

2. Which is the best Dominator to perma (ie., which is the easiest/cheapest to perma)?

If it's #1 (which is kind of implied by mentioning Fire/Psi because that combo is hard to perma), you should probably define what you mean by "best performing". Best performing on a Master of X SF is almost certainly not best performing for L50 farming for instance. There's also the question of what level of recharge are we talking about? Just perma? Or heading into permahasten territory?

If it's for all round flexibility and shear awesome than my vote is still for Fire/Psi, but as I said, the question is not that simple.

Aha! Beat you by a minute!

Day 16 - New Band
With L25 a new band (L25-29) is nigh and I need to do some cleanup on open L20-24 contacts. I spend the first 45 minutes online doing just that; finishing an old Darrin Wade mission and then nearly finishing his early arcs as well as finally clearing up the Cap au Diable invention tutorial. Then I get tempted by an ITF which I haven't done for a while so I flip to my 50 Crab to have some fun with that.

After 40 minutes I'm back and I head towards unlocking the 25-29 contacts in Nerva. I'm extremely surprised to note that Doc Buzzsaw is now in my active contacts. I normally don't unlock her until L29 or so. Her missions are always fun, so I'll probably knock those off in the 25-29 period.

I'm about half way through L25 and looking forward to Wormhole.