Starsman

If you build in a way where you can keep a constant attack chain then your dom building ability should not be affected.

If however you decide to live with the gaps then yes, Domination building will be affected.

At low levels this may be an issue as you may have no much say in the matter, but after having enough powers or ability to build this "forced gaps" vanishes.

(QR)

It's not hard to assume, by looking at both, the powers available and damage modifiers, that dominators were never intended to do optimal damage at range.

Some were able to sustain full chains, but those chains were still lacking when compared to chains that mixed in melee attacks.

So arguing "now I'm forced to use melee attacks" and "why have ranged attacks at all" are both not very strong arguments.

The only valid argument you could ever make is:
The set was able to sustain full, non-stop, ranged attack chain before the changes and I find it unfair they can no longer do this.

That, off course, may be dismissed IF it's proven that you can keep such attack chains with different powers or even mixing powers from your primary (even if you are not fond of it.)

Now, if you do say that you can't keep any sort of attack chain (melee+ranged) without involving primary powers, THEN you may have a very solid argument, note you can't ignore powers when doing this, you can't claim "but i can't do it with 3 attacks" if you have a very valid 4th available.

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Did "cone warp" allow you to break the target cap for cones? You can routinely hit 8 targets with powers like Ripper if you stack foes properly... I'd love to have the old skool broken AE cones that hit EVERYONE, but I'm ok with the current dmg output it offers.

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No, it just allowed cones to cover a much greater area than originally intended.

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Y'know, the timing here isn't exactly something that I can get rid of by a long hot shower.

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Who says the devs don't read the forums

I don't share my builds nor my underwear, but I may later try to make an equivalent Mind/Fire, since I have none of those it wont be like my underwear.

Thing is, though, I share my build today, people seem to like it, becomes flavor of the month, and the prices jack up!!!

I will say one thing some may not like from now: I'm toggle heavy but my end is fine.

My build relies on having Scorpion Shield, Tough, Weave and Combat Jump. Did you know that doms get stronger modifiers for these things than scrappers and brutes?!!! I keep shocking people in game every time I tell about it, at least one player in the teams tend to go "WHAT?!"

Darn some notes I had not seen came into test will have to change this again to reflect the latest patch notes.

By popular demand, here is an analysis that takes endurance into count.

If anyone is pondering, the Endurance Eff columns mean about how much end per damage per second is used. It is irrelevant as to whether or not the set is good at AoE or damage but instead if it is efficient endurance wise.

In short here is how much sets went up or down (relative, does not denotes who is more efficient than who)
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Set ST AoE
Elec +12.55% +09.19%
Ene +01.49% +06.60%
Fire -08.26% -19.45%
Ice +02.97% -00.63%
Psi +07.52% -60.36%
Thrn -09.31% -12.41%</pre><hr />

Positive means the set is now more endurance efficient than before, negative means it's less efficient than before.

Now for those that wants to know who is more efficient:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Set ST AoE
Elec 2.29 1.55
Ener 2.68 1.92
Fire 2.80 0.89
Ice 2.89 1.21
Psi 2.88 1.12
Thrn 2.61 0.75
</pre><hr />

Lower numbers are better.

Mind that your millage may vary. If you decide to use more ranged attacks than melee, your endurance efficiency will be less, if you rather use more melee attacks your endurance efficiency will be better. The calculator will take into mind this efficiency and only use ranged attacks if they are 10% superior to the melee ones.

Disclaimer: I still have some more audit passes to make sure I got all the new endurance costs right but I THINK they are right. Will triple check later once I have a chance to compare in-game numbers.

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Frankly, I like the trilogy system.

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A trilogy is a set of three works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or three individual works.

If each piece can't be seen as a single work, then it's not a trilogy, it's just a Part or Chapter of an unfinished work.

For it to be a true trilogy you have to make it stand on it's own. I can't tell about your arc as I myself have not played it, but this is an offense I see a lot lately. Many seem to think "trilogies are cool" and go out and make 3 chapters that can't stand on their own and try to pass it as a Trilogy. Although not as annoying as one-shots that become successful and suddenly the author claims he always had a trilogy in mind, though... but now I'm derailing so I'll stop.

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I'd like to see Starsman's smash/lethal capped build too.

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My current planned build also will eventually cap energy

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I think for a Dom though there is a question of whether soft-cap really makes a difference. Most things will be locked down, so you're not nearly as at-risk as a blaster. Maybe for corner-case scenarios like 2nd ITF mish (Crystals) it helps ....

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It all depends on playstyle. I can just go into spawns and fight and only worry about lockdowns if i truly need them, focusing all my strength on offensive helping me kill faster.

Also, Fire/Fire must get into melee range to use it's PBAoE hold effectively.

I would recommend focusing on Smash/Lethal defense.

Most melee attacks are one or the other with very few exceptions.
Quite a large amount of ranged attacks are guns, meaning lethal.

As for the poster that says "it's not worth it", My millage varies indeed, a LOT. I got a soft capped smash/lethal defense build and I love it. I15 is just making it even sweeter.

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From a gameplay perspective though, the only redeeming thing about that arc is the giant robot ambush. Fifteen missions of one enemy group over and over might be required for the story, but it detracts from fun factor.

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I don't think that's necessarily true. But off course, if you are going to use the same group you may want to make sure you do some interesting encounters and situations. In fact, I like more arcs that stick to the same faction but work interestingly than arcs that are tossing different groups at me as if they were multi-colored skitters.

Multi group use is the cheap way at variety.
Interesting encounters with consistent foes is the cool way at variety.

First off, thanks for the review, specially for the typo notices. I had a few friends check them and they still slip by.

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The Lost, particularly Mike, are way out of character here. From their first exposure to Shift they are described as being somber and business-like; running around losing money at casinos doesn't really fit.

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There are things I wanted to note about Mike specifically and why he is so out of place, I tried to hint at it in his bio but only had so much room to work with without going into babbling. I guess all I can say there is he is intended to be out of place. The guy has never been "shifted", he just seems to, sort of. As for some one else in the arc, he is meant to be shifted, not shifted yet.


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There's another small issue at the end when Bernhard says Katie's mutation is irreversible: we've got a cure for the Lost now and works up to Pariah stage.

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That is a thing that bugged me a bit when I did this. Thing is I have not seen reference to that cure anywhere out of the arc for the Midnighters. I have come to think it's being kept a bit secret for now, or it's reproduction is not an easy task and has become simply an academic breakthrough that will take years to become public. Otherwise there would no longer by any Lost on the streets and cops would be carrying those awkward wands everywhere in Skyway.

Either way, a lot of NPCs seem to have no clue about it so I figured it would be fine to just set my contact and associates in that group of people.

I also have the option setting a disclaimer saying the arc takes place before the Midnighters's comeback.

I'll consider revisiting these two aspects once I15 comes out as it may buy me some more room to enter extra clues.

I don't tend to do chains, instead tend to use the best available power but for the ranged test I would try to use flares whenever it was up even if it is not the best power for DPS.

I'm not very fond of posting my builds but I have no issue posting the enhancement on my attacks:

Flares:
83.3% DMG
19.0% Acc
42.6% RCH (2.8s)
62.0% END

Fire Blast:
95.8% DMG
37.8% Acc
62.3% RCH (4.93s)
62.0% END

Blaze:
95.1 % DMG
75.8 % Acc
76.1 % RCH (6.81s)
80.1 % END

On top of that I got a lowly 10% global recharge, and tend to have Hasten in Auto although not for the better part of this test (it's not perma on my build anyways)

If I include Incinerate I can just activate the powers in the order of best DPAS and I don't get pauses, there is always something ready to be fired. If I try to do fixed chains, though, I do get into gap issues. If I go with dynamic selection I have none.

(QR)

I finally got to test my high level fire/fire dom (was bussy testing every set's early level experience) and I was easily able to sustain a full attack chain with just Flares, Fire Blast and Blaze. No need for extra powers and that was without activating Hasten.

This was not respec, my flares is only 4 slotted with Thunder Strike, Fire Blast is 5 slotted, also with Thunder Strikes, and Blaze is six slotted with 4 thunder stirkes and the 3ways from Ruin.

I am sure anyone that ran a high recharge build should have at least Flares available to use almost all the time. 100% recharge alone can take the power to 2 second recharge. The recharge needed for perma dom would have the power recharging in much less than 2 seconds from when it's done activating. In my test, I never had to worry about it not being up in between attacks.

Maybe other doms may have issues filling purely ranged chains, but fire is not one of them.

My current fire/fire is not "finished" due to lack of tiem but his build is not too expensive and the final def will be:

I have not pursued perma dom and don't think I'll bother.

45.7% Smash
45.7% Lethal
19.5% Fire
19.5% Cold
42.4% Energy
29.1% Negative
12.9% Psi
23.5% Melee
23.8% Ranged
23.2% AoE

Plus:
19.9% smash/lethal resistance
14.9% Toxic resistance

My live build has only meet the smash/lethal traits, and given almost all attacks in this game containing one or the other, I find my build to be extremely sturdy (until i get touched by a single -def and it cascades to negatives in a heart bit)

Oh right, that post was so lacking I entirely forgot about it containing the word Taunt in it.

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This is off subject but.....wouldn't it be nice if taunt (the actual power) was an inherit? =p

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Don't think I have not proposed this many times.

I would love Taunt being made an inherent (slottable inherent) but (good thing) it would have to be replaced by some power in every set and thats a lot of work (bad thing.)

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EDIT: And when did this turn into a debate on whether or not taunt was needed? That includes so many other variables that are far beyond the scope of the vids I made.


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It didn't, the guy noted he was Off topic. Still would be nice for it to be, given how the power is identical across all power sets.

Edit: Stop editing!!!!

But if nothing else is recharged, you may pause for 2 seconds to gut that dps?

Also, snipes are amazing if activated at the last second of a build up attack chain.

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As some of you know, Lord of the Rings Online has a "lifetime subscription" option that can be gotten as an invitation from a Founding Playing. This gives you the ability to pay $200 for membership and then never pay another monthly subscription.

Why oh why can't COH offer this ? I would gladly pay $200, or more, to get a lifetime subscription for COH.

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Not sure but last time i read that lifetime thing was a very limited edition thing with certain preorders. Not sure if they expanded on it, though.

Anyways: Lifetime subscriptions = gun to the head. You sacrifice future revenue for instant gratification that results in future bankruptcy, not to mention liability should you be forced to cancel but not to go out of business.

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Brimstone's first vid proves my point. About 38sec's in you see the Granite tank loose aggro. He has to reestablish more than a few times, and the mob wasn't even that big. And this is with an Elec blaster. Imagine a fire blaster or an Ice.

On that note , I'd like to thank BrimstoneBruce for the vids and would loved if you kept them up as I wish to use them as further evidence.

Fact; Gauntlet is broken
Aura's arent as strong as most think they are.
If a Blaster can take aggro away, a scrapper should have no problem.
Taunt is needed.

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*headdesk*

Lets ignore that those were out of range, shall we?

Heck here: a blank page. I bet it will be equally usefull to your sack of evidence.

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You realize this won't go over well, right?

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That depends entirely on why Castle and crew and everyone else are so all-consumingly busy at the moment.

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You know, there is this little thing called Work...

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Latest Dev Diary!

'While all of these added customization options are part of the immediate content going into Issue 15, it's really only a sampling of a much larger picture - as hinted by the recent announcement of the Going Rogue expansion. Our players can expect to hear some very exciting news about the new, much larger systems we've been working on to support and expand the customization aspect of City of Heroes within the next few months.'

(sorry to skip to the end, but, well... )

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I don't remember what interview it was, but some one asked about Power Customization in one of the recent ones and Positron said something along the lines "all i can say is Power Customization is something we were not able to do when we were still under Cryptic, that's all I can say at the moment."

So yea, I bet Power Customization will be one of the big selling points of the upcoming expansion pack.

What IF the game is actually a loop that is set to trigger once every .125 seconds. (Most modern games are basically designed this way)

What IF nothing gets changed in between those cycles other than, off course, ongoing processing of the previous cycle.

What if the DoT is explained by the cycle clock simply saying "this many ticks will go on during this cycle, send the client the time stamps it should display them at"?

Here is one thing to leverage from now on:

Perma dom will still be very useful but not as required. This means that perhaps those AoE attacks no longer need to be slotted with perma dom in mind. Unless you had a very very smart build, most perma dom builds i seen sacrifice a lot for set bonuses. Changing at least one AoE power into frankenslotting may result in an attack that has heavy endurance discount without sacrificing damage. Sure, perma dom may be lost without that one set bonus, but that one power you were spamming may jump from a 20% end redux to 95% end redux.

THAT was the real goal of all this: to make forgoing Perma Dom not look insanely stupid. Now you can still build for insane recharge while go for strong endurance discounts on your AoE powers.


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I'm sure with a bit of tweaking to the build it should be ok, though I'm also a bit concerned as I prefer a full ranged attack chain and that needs lots of rech to fuel it as well.

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Some stubborn players may disagree but the ST immob (slotted for damage) can be a good filler. It may be wasted on minions but on stronger foes (usually where people use ST damage the most) the DoT will not be wasted and if you frankenslot it properly you get great damage, strong end discount and they happen to be inherently accurate! (they have a baked in 20% acc bonus) so they require less accuracy to be useful. They also have that side bonus of making 100% sure the boss/eb/av stays at range and just cant get closer.

Edit:
Also, being stone you get an extra leverage out of that single target immob: you can slot achiles heels -res proc on it and using it to fill means you have a great chance of landing it. That is if they ever got around to make that def enhanceable, never double checked on that.
/Edit

Had an argument already with some one that claims using AoE immobs does just as well, but I am sure if you want the damage and are suffering endurance issues, thats definitively not an option.

Additionally, the Fire Snipe is no longer the suckiest thing in the block. If you have the target held, you can use that snipe for some decent DPS, so it can be added into your chain. Sure it's 20 s recharge, but it's a ranged Total Focus! With enough recharge it should be up much more often.

but 80 + 60... oh also hasten.... missed that.

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Any chance your charts could show the EPS burn?

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Not in their current form, would be a bucketload of work as they were not designed with endurance use in mind. I did some math to assume what would prioritize more end effective powers for the amount of foes.

Although I may do something in the future that reflects this it may not be any time soon, and by soon i mean few months.

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hmm one more question though. Any chance your charts could show the EPS burn? (no end reduction slotting is fine for comparison imo).


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Oh there is impact alright. You will notice various sets jumped from requiring 3 attacks in the chain to requiring 4 (not the full secondary as some have tried to cliam.)

AoE damage now works based on hitting more foes for bit less damage, it evens out but those that would only fight 10 foes would find themselves underfperform unless they change that way of fighting (although if they were farmers they may had also taken the PPP aoe that hits 16 so it would had been a waste from the start to only do that)

There will be performance changes to specific builds, some builds will have to change to come out back on top, some cases may just require play style to change a bit.

But the overall potential of the sets, that technically didn't suffer THAT much.