Snowzone

It's still possible to farm with almost anything thanks to Incarnate stuff. I even farm on my Elec/Elec/Mu Dominator.

Really looking forward to the new Incarnate arc, the new story arcs in King's Row, Brickstown and St. Martial, the new IO sets and bonus improvements, Pool Customisation and, hopefully, some secret general quality of life improvements.

Amazing.

It's not like Earth or Ice Control NEED Caltrops because they already do a ton of -Speed. It's just Thorntrops with the Metal Spikes customisation - is it really needed? If you skip Caltrops and Masterful Throw then that's 18 levels of no secondary power. If I remember correctly Dark Assault originally had Moon Beam at level 28 which, alongside the aura that Engulfing Darkness replaced, resulted in 8 levels of useless secondary powers. The only difference in this is that Dark Assault had a somewhat useful utility power (Life Drain) whilst Martial Assault's (Caltrops) is either overkill or power destroying.

You can tell that Synapse made Dark Assault whilst Hawk made Martial Assault - the former was competitive with other Assault sets once Engulfing Darkness was added, whilst the latter will need a lot of work to be competitive.

Smite = Melee, High DMG (Smash/Negative), Foe -To Hit
Ice Sword = Melee, Moderate DMG(Cold/Lethal), Foe -Recharge, -SPD
Stone Mallet = Melee, High DMG(Smash), Foe Knockdown
ABone Smasher = Melee, High DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe Disorient
Skewer = Melee, High DMG(Lethal), DoT(Toxic), Foe -DEF(All)
Mind Probe = Melee, High DMG(Psionic), Foe -Recharge
Incinerate = Melee, High DoT(Fire)

If it remains the same Thunder Kick = Melee, Minor DMG(Smash), Foe Disorient.

If it's made to be High DMG then why not just use Cobra Strike (some variation so it's not just Shuriken/Kick), Crane Kick (a more exciting animation), or Martial Combat's Storm Kick (again, a more exciting animation)? As it is, I think the melee attacks picked don't have any Punching customisations.

As for the Utility power, I firmly believe that some of the powers, such as Chilling Embrace, should be given the Blaster secondary treatment to make them competitive with Drain Psyche. Caltrops doesn't do anything for survivability, in my opinion, because it's a location DoT with no useful mitigation. A melee character may love the aggro it generates but a Dominator won't. I feel the exact same way about Thorntrops but it's a bit too late to get that changed. Replacing it with Burst of Speed or even Reaction Time would be better.

If Martial Assault is not going to ever get a secondary effect then its damage better be comparable to Fiery Assault's to make up for it. Even then, Lethal damage is more resisted and I doubt Envenomed Blades will make up for this by much looking at the numbers from the Coffee Talk - around 7 or 9 Toxic damage if I remember correctly. This was on a Dev hacked character too.

As for the snipe... No To-Hit buff in Envenomed Blades seriously hinders its usage, so you'd have to rely on IOs, Tactics and Soul Drain in order to make it useful. No thank you. It's a shame that the effort put in to make it look cool is a complete and utter waste.

Facing cone? No thanks. This is another case of missing the point completely - Dominators get a ranged cone that can, you know, hit more than one enemy at a time. The fact that it's a facing cone will even make that unlikely if an enemy decides to run away just before you click the power or if you're in mid-spin from using a power in a different direction. Sure, the set does get a chain blast but that is a lot slower than the AoE damage that a cone could put out. If I was designing it then I would have made a Shuriken cone attack and put in a superior damage Melee attack instead of the snipe.

I'll be campaigning for some sort of secondary effect, a usable cone attack, removal of the snipe (if there is no domisnipe) and Thunder Kick changed to the high damage attack, like what other Assault sets get. As well as swapping Caltrops for something infinitely more useful as a utility power.

The one thing that makes me doubt it being a statue is the aura on the hands which, coincidentally, isn't on the smaller version. It could be a contact.

Or you can just take whatever makes sense for your character.

I go for Hasten, a travel power, a combat travel power, Stealth, Aid Other and Aid Self. I skip the Medicine pool if I have another way to heal (like Life Drain).

I don't think the extra damage from Envenomed Blades is a DoT - I think it just shows as a separate number for clarity.

"Fix all" was a joke. Stop getting your hopes up.

My favourite sets are Control sets, after that it's Assault followed by Support. So for me it's very much the AT - Dominator is by far my favourite AT. I do like Controllers but my preferred style of play is solo so I don't make them very often.

To me Devices, Traps, Bots and Munitions are all technology rather than natural. Sure, you could get someone firing laser beams and creating robots, but that would go better with a Rifle Assault set rather than the shuriken and martial arts based Martial Assault. To me a natural control set would use some low-tech throwing weapons like Bolas, some melee pressure point strikes and possibly some things around presence and force of will.

I'd like both but right now something thematic with shuriken and martial arts would be better than just giving us robots and mechanical devices.

How about the "pet" is a toggle that has a chance of firing off a proc that does three things:

1) Repeat the power you just used with its damage, mez magnitude and buff/debuff values reduced by a third.
2) Create an FX tied to the same proc which creates an after-image of you using the power (similar to the Dual Pistol's after-images).
3) Give a decent positional defence buff to compensate for the lack of an actual pet distraction.

Making the pet something like a ninja or an Oni is more restrictive on concepts than having a dog for a Dark Control pet, so the after-image thing could fit anything from ninjas or Batman-type characters to super-speeders and time manipulators. Making the toggle give a defence buff compensates for the other thing that a pet does - be a distraction - whilst also fitting in the concept of an agile fighter. If it's too much work (which it probably would be) then rather than create an FX it could be a translucent, shadowy, phased, immobile and untargetable pet that is summoned on your character's position that can only use the attack that you just used before being unsummoned.

I'd imagine this to use bolas for the single target immobilise, a blow dart for the single target hold, a choking cloud for the AoE hold, flash bomb as a confuse, a sand cloud for a stun (like Martial Combat), maybe some sort of Placate power, and possibly a trap of some sort. I'd do something a bit different for the pet - it would be a toggle aura that summons Shadow Simulacrum type things based on your character for each enemy in the aura up to a maximum of three or four. They'd have minion HP and damage, use only Storm Kick and Shuriken Throw, and only last a few seconds. The idea behind this is that they are the character attacking rather than a summon. After all, the Conservation of Ninjutsu dictates that a Ninja is only successful when alone. This is one thing that the Ninja Summoning set gets correct

Martial Assault seems really boring - Caltrops, a snipe, boring martial arts animations and no debuff. The only thing it has going for it is the extra toxic damage and Trick Shot. I would much rather have another melee attack than a snipe because, as it is, it's a pretty melee centric set with the stupid facing cone so it may as well play to that strength.

Martial Combat gets lots of fun stuff... Martial Assault gets Caltrops and four lots of shuriken.

Yawn.

On the minus side: No Martial Control makes it a very unattractive choice for me, personally. I like having the pairings.

There have only been three Control sets added to the game since Issue 0 - Plant Control, Electric Control and Dark Control. Unless there are sets that weren't leaked alongside Water Blast, Nature Affinity, Bio Armour, Psi Melee and others. then it will most likely be a very long time before any Control sets are added.

In one of the more recent coffee chats with Synapse, someone asked about new Control sets. He said that Control sets are difficult to make so there's nothing original coming up.

Something simple like that is most likely going to be free with i24, like the Chainmail/Leather and the Olympian set.

Did we really need more mohawks? We have the fauxhawk, the tall mohawk, the small mohawl, the Resistance mohawk, the two Cybertech mohawks and now this one...

Agreed on the whole, though recently there has been one player on Defiant being very disrespectful to one of our much loved female friends.