OhGodtheRats

Hola! I've got a Mind/Psi but let me just give you some tips on IO's. Well, I'll try.

Don't feel you NEED to complete sets. I've got two different sleep sets slotted in my Mesmerize because I wanted more control of my enhancement rather than all the set bonuses. Sure, it works out almost the same...IF you were going to slot a "Sleep Duration" into Mesmerize.

Did the same trick with most of my sets...I'm short a few set bonuses but I got to fully set up on IO's on a budget. With what you've listed here it will be super expensive because almost all the sets you've decided to shoot for have some rare components or are in serious demand, which skyrockets the price.
(This is why I usually focus on Mez sets...fewer people after them, relatively speaking....so they're generally cheaper.

By the by...I quit playing for a month and a half and now that I've returned a lot of the rare stuff is crazy high. (Like I used to be able to snag Chance for ___ IO's for around 500k-200k, now they all seem to be in the millions.) Apparently all those goofy veterans who said "IO's aren't worth my time" changed their toon. Either that or I keep missing the "Recluse gives you 10 million infamy" missions. Of course the flip side of this is that you can sell the rare stuff you get for a hell of a lot more, so I guess it balances out.

While I do alternate from enemy to enemy with each attack (if I can easily) I'm not sure if the Dark Armor options of "Oppressive Gloom" and "Cloak of Fear" count as a taunt Aura. I don't know if tanking is just keeping the enemies attacking only you or if it counts if you keep 70% of the mob mezzed with fear and stun.

Aren't taunts usually a waste of time with Brutes anyway? Just jumping into the mob first and taking the alpha of doom is usually enough to keep their attention for a bit and get my fury all the way up. I've never taken a Taunt with any of my brutes and from most of the brute guides on the forum they're kind of downplayed as being useful.
:shrug:
my 2 cents.
-jared

Have you seen Gangwar in action yet?

By the by, the earlier you get vengeance the more fun you get to have with it. On CoV I snagged it at level 20 with my Brute (don't ask) and it's seriously worth it's weight in gold. The buffs are sort of crazy but more importantly it's turned the tide when a teamwipe was looming on the horizon.

The downside is that if you get on a GREAT team you'll never have a chance to use it. But whenever I think of respec'ing it away, I always stumble upon some doom mission where it ends up being vital.
My Leadership toon is level 35 now...and people die a lot less frequently in the 30's than they do in the 20's from my experience. City of Heroes might be different from City of Villains in this regard, but on the villain side Vengeance is more useful before everyone gets their upper-tier doom powers. You know, because they die much less frequently.


Just my 2 pennies.
-jared

Oh Tam. I'm so proud of you. To out and openly admit you have a problem.

We're here for you. Just give us the keys to the respec cabinet and the healing can begin.
-jared

You crazy *******....congratulations.

And thanks for introducing me to PVP.

Oh lord, I almost forgot....Terrify is golden in pvp. My Mind Dom might not be able to do much damage, but it's fun to smack a fear effect on some godlike brutes and scrappers when they're coming to get you. Is it only /dark armor types that get fear resistance?

Btw I didn't know that /ice came with powerboost. That's very nice...I made a Grav/Energy just to get powerboost didn't notice it was lurking in other secondaries.

I love confusion in PvE, but in PVP it just....well, it only works if you've got a team and the team is on the other side. I've had some serious fun with other Dom's pets and Mastermind Minions with it, but it hasn't helped out too much because my enemies just tilt their camera so I'm the only one on their screen, thereby mostly negating the effect. Mostly.
-jared

I'm an internet using ninja: I found it here:

http://fury101.the-yarn.net/?p=3

I don't know about Flavor of the Month, but I've found Mind to be a good primary. None of this "immobilize" business. And Telekinesis is the bane of, well, anyone facing a Mind Dom. There's only 3 powers in the game that even give you a chance against it and your other mind powers can detoggle 2 of them so they stop working (an advantage to having a Sleep Mez attack as your 1st power).

But that's my 2 cents. My Dom is fun in PVP and usually does well. Well, that is when a stalker doesn't one-shot him from behind. There's not helping that.
-jared

Warning: All of this is just my experience so hey, it might be wonky.

I guess it does come down to playstyle. My dark/dark brute doesn't bite it too often, usually has full fury, and can usually deal with enemy bosses 3 levels higher (A recent discovery while patrolling Primeva like a fiend and NOT faceplanting). I've also ALMOST perfected my endurance issue...I still run out once every few mobs but it's fairly infrequent.
The big freaking flaw:
My build doesn't take down entire mobs quickly, so the idea of 4 hit killing an entire mob is just, well, not something I can do. Sure he can usually survive whatever a big mob can dish out, but this is due to have 2 inherent heals and debuffing attacks (and shields) like crazy.

Here's my "Speedy Out-Heal your enemies" Dark/Dark build

Attack Chain:
Shadow Punch -with knockdown IO & Touch of Death Damage IO
Smite -with knockdown IO
Brawl -with knockdown IO (getting to see a pattern?)
Midnight Grasp -with knockdown IO though I only use this in my chain if I NEED to speed up the killing process...I need to slot if for endurance reduction and I don't have the slots yet)
I respec'd shadow maul out because it took so long to animate and I found I usually died while waiting for it to finish so I could heal. With what I have combined with my pool powers, I can spam that like crazy, debuffing accuracy and knocking everyone on their backsides.
Life Siphon-2 Recharges, 1 Accuracy, 3 Heal
This is the usually way I stay in the green. When it comes to taking the alpha:
Dark Regeneration (slotted mostly for accuracy and recharge).
Pool Power that's important:
Hasten. Seriously. You'll need it to recharge your endurance, Life Siphon, and Dark Regen if you're up against a "serious" enemy mob.
I also have a few +recharge rate IO Set bonuses, so my build might be working better than a non-IO build.
Endurance Recharger:
Dark Consumption: 1 Accuracy, 3 Recharge, 2 Stamina Mod

Dark Armor:
The basics:
Dark Embrace -with KB protection IO
Murky Cloud
Obsidian Shield

The Biggie: Cloak of Fear -3 endurance reduction, 1 Accuracy, 1 Glimpse of Abyss Damage IO, 1 Fear Duration
This is what keeps me alive in mobs. Feared enemies only attack when you attack them, so unless I use one of my area effect powers (Dark Regen or Dark Consume) they usually just dish out their alpha damage and then get feared. It's not a real defense but it seriously keeps mobs under control. Oh and so does having a 20% chance of knockdown in every one of your attacks. Enemies on the ground don't attack you either.

My Pool:
The standard:
Sprint, Health, Stamina.
Hasten (3 recharge) Superspeed

The weird thing I took for RP purposes:
Leadership:
Assault, Tactics, & Vengeance.
All useful when you're a team brute and, well, vengeance is awesome.

How I keep fury: Find a mob, take the alpha, life siphon/dark regen so it's all OK, spam speedy attacks to keep fury up (possible without Shadow Maul), kill them all, run to next mob and use Dark Consumption...and repeat.


Skipped powers due to Roleplaying or lack of space that would still be good:
Cloak of Darkness (would have made my character a dark fuzzy blur), Soul Drain, Death Shroud.
The last two I would totally have if my concept didn't require me to have leadership from the pool sets. Before 1 of my respecs I had Death Shroud...I'll totally grab it later if I can. The first? What can I say. Appearance matters to me.

OK, I'm done talking about myself.
-jared

[ QUOTE ]
Which is fine and dandy after level 35, getting to there with your end bar running out all the time isn't fun though

[/ QUOTE ]

And thus one of the other great advantages of Dark Armor comes to light. Getting an endurance recharger at level 18 is just golden.

Oh and good luck with the Stone Melee. Very smashy and fun to watch...and don't skip out on Fault. Besides being a nice way to scatter a mob (which is useful sometimes, despite some people's hatred of all think KB) it looks infinitely smooth.
-jared

It's the stalkers who don't team well that cause me to mutter the word "hate" now and then. This has a lot to do with the "My only attack is Assassin Strike and when I can't do that for a one-hit kill I should run away" mentality. It's an awesome move and yes, there are times to run and re-hide. There are also time that you shouldn't leave your teammates with the huge mob you just aggro'd and led into them.
Really it depends on the team. If you're a small team the re-hide thing doesn't work too well, particularly if the other members are squishy. That's just the way it usually plays out with me.

I can't express how many times I've been on a team and we were all getting ready when suddenly a stalker runs past us with a mob or two of carnies behind them. It's not the rehide strategy that I don't like. It's the whole "doesn't think of the team" aspect of it.
If that makes any sense.
-jared

I've always had a blast with my Dark/Dark. What kind of playstyle are you looking for or what's wrong with your current build?

(My character Longbone lives by the whole Lifesiphon,Dark Recovery/Consumption spam, with Cloak of Fear and Death Shroud doing the voodoo it does so well. I"m constantly hitting the yellow on my health bar but with Hasten and those powers I mentioned I keep going right back to 100%. Of course, my damage output blows when compared to most of the other Brutes I run with. But I'm usually the last one standing, which has to count for something.)

All I can say is that you've made a few changes that makes Traps look a bit like my favorite secondary, Trick Arrow. Making the 1st level powers the same (Projectile net for Traps and Entangling Arrow (net arrow) for TA) sort of destroys the uniqueness of the either powerset. There are temp powers for LOTS of abilities, including top tier powers...I'm not sure the existence of a temp power means something needs to be changed.
Your second level also sounds remarkably like a powered-down version of Oil Slick Arrow. You know, it creates a slick that slows people down and it can be set on fire. Making secondaries overlap more than they already do...I just don't know.
-jared

PS: Shouldn't this be in the Suggestions area?

Color me weird, but I'd suggest an Ice/whatever (Thorns gets my vote) Dominator. Or even just an Ice/Cold Domination corrupter. Gah, even an Ice corrupter would work.

Since you'll be all range and defense, having an ally that can totally retard the [censored] out of enemy mobs will be pretty much cake. Most Ice sets do that very nicely. If it's a corrupter you're partnered with, I'd suggest traps. It's a nice swiss army knife tool and it'll stack it's defense on top of your secondary's own.
As for the Dominator, if it's not a pure ice/ice, I'd actually suggest thorny assault. The attacks all debuff something keen...and an impaled/immobilized enemy is doomed when surrounded by a swarm of laser-toting robots.

Just my 2 cents.
-jared

I've been a Scrappermind or a MasterBrute (or whatever hell you want to call them) for a little while now with my Robotics/Dark....
It's very easy to do and a lot of fun. Basically I call it my "abuse of Bodyguard mode" build and that's a pretty good description. I think it's less a build than a playstyle, though. I've gotten already established MM to pretend they're a tanker and it almost always goes incredibly well.

So I guess I'd say have fun and tank as opposed to over-think how exactly you're going to be the best tanker possible.
-jared

Melee Mastermind IS fun. I failed myself and rolled a Robotics/Dark Brawler (Mostly for the Debuffs and for the "Ghost in the Machine" theme). A couple of pool melee powers (Air Superiority and Flurry) and I'm totally ready to abuse bodyguard mode.

The worst thing is I'm already lusting for Whirlwind. I'll get it around level 22 and dear God its just going to make Melee Masterminding so much more fun.
-jared
"Melee Mastermind, Rock and Roll Robot, currently level 10"

Damn you. Now I just want to make a Mastermind with a bunch of pool melee attacks and thug bodyguards. Must...resist...urge...to make another....goofy ...alt.

Agreed. And weirdly enough, I also agree with ShadowGhost, who I'm not sure is arguing for or against what I'm saying. (Except for the fact that yes, if you're roleplaying on the Test Servers, the War has already begun)

Just to be clear, by "optional" roleplaying I just meant that not everyone roleplays and, if you don't want to have to "Deal With" the Rikti War, then don't play your RP characters. Or don't roleplay them during the invasions..or go Hide in Pocket D. I think that would be a missed moment of RP fun...I'm still looking forward to my RP main looking up and asking the team "What the hell is that?"

All I'm saying is that you can ignore it, but not having control of 100% of what you have to deal with is just part and parcel to my roleplaying experience.

[ QUOTE ]
but would YOU happily face the prospect of the way you do something being changed by events beyond your control?

[/ QUOTE ]

You mean like Reality? Don't you ever go for realism in your roleplaying?
I mean, part of it is escape but if you have control of everything it loses value somehow. That's just my opinion. I'm looking forward to the roleplaying aspects of this. It just feels epic...and I like how my characters have no say in the matter. War is coming. Deal with it....that kind of thing.

(Or ignore it totally, that's the joy of optional roleplaying)

Because all the Mastermind Powers are ranged attacks? To be fair, a bow does the same kind of damage as your Ninja's crossbow/shuriken (minus the poison if memory serves) so it does make a bit of sense.

That said, maybe you should pitch a "melee" mastermind powerset in the suggestions category. Considering the stuff you can get away with using the bodyguard mode, it's not THAT insane.

My stupid advice is pretty much what's already been said here. Find a gimmick that's counter-intuitive to how one normally plays the game and make it work. I've got a friend who made a Corrupter that's a Kinetic Scrapper (outheals enemies, found out scourge inherent applies to melee attacks), I've got a Petless Mastermind thing that was a blast (and really difficult), and a couple folks have melee-only dominators running around out there. I don't know...it does increase the difficulty but it seriously changes how you'd play the game. My petless MM had to cat & Mouse his way through certain enemy groups...but it was never boring. And there's a sense of accomplishment when you achieve something that every else things is crazy.

Just my 2 cents.

Spot on. I saw last night what you were talking about...an Elite Boss couldn't be held but got positively retarded slow when he tried to chase us. Thanks for the clarification.
-jared

Totally weird question. I've got a new Dominator (Grav/Energy, melee flavour) and noticed something on the Tomax guide. My single target hold (and immoblize, but lets focus on the hold) Gravity Distortion has the secondary effect of give -50% Movement Speed (running, flight, jumping) for 12 seconds. Now I'm a little confused. If my hold hits, isn't this kind of pointless as they'll, you know, be held and unable to move at all? Or does this apply when the hold hits but the magnitude isn't enough to actually hold the target in question? Or what? I've read a rather adept PVP Dominator guide that says this secondary effect is the most useful thing at time...but obviously I'm unclear on how this comes up because I can't seem to slow my targets...only hold them completely with this power.

How does the slow movement aspect of some of the gravity powrs work...as they're all linked to powers that completely halt movement if they work properly?
-jared

Reality is keeping me busy...I've made time to help finish the Dom Respec trial, but this week I need to keep my CoV addiction in check. See you guys next week. (Or tomorrow, with the Domination)
-jared