StrykerX

For general solo leveling, Bots/Dark is a beast once you hit level 32 and pretty good before that. Thugs/Dark is faster in low levels (they get AoEs a lot sooner) but Bots are very sturdy and not that much slower.

For AVs, Bots/Traps is better but I'm sure Bots/Dark can do it. You'll need more set bonuses though... the best way to solo AVs is to taunt them and rely on Bodyguard. Without the extra defense and hold / stun protection in Traps you'll probably need some ranged defense bonuses and maybe +HP to keep you alive while you are mezzed (AV fights are long, so don't assume you'll have enough Break Frees). Get Acrobatics for the minor Hold protection... every little bit helps.

The reason Bots/Traps is so good is the combination of -regen and -resist debuffs (to speed up the fight), hold and stun resist (to maintain your taunts so the AV doesn't wipe your pets), and immobilize (so you only have to worry about ranged attacks). Add in Triage Beacon for enhanced regen and you can actually solo a fair number of AVs with only SO slotting. With /Dark, you're relying on to-hit debuffs that are strongly resisted, whereas /Traps give defense, which is still fully effective.

Poison Trap can provide some mitigation, but that's not really why you get it (not since it got fixed and doesn't spawn multiple clouds). You get it for the -1000% regen debuff... that's an 85% debuff on an AV even after their debuff resistance, and no regen at all against anything lower. It really speeds up killing EBs and can help some against bosses, while also causing a minion or two to puke and stop shooting you for a few seconds.

As for the stun, don't count on it too much. The Protector Bot photon grenades have a pretty long recharge and yours have only a 30% chance to stun. The Seeker Drones have a 25% chance.

I personally would keep Maneuvers since you are already going to have a lot of defense. I'd also try to fit in the Edict of the Master pet defense IO... probably by replacing the Endoplasm in Protector Bots. Protectors don't need that much accuracy, and 5% defense to all pets is better than a slightly longer stun.

Blaster secondaries aren't weak at all. They provide a little utility, Build Up (except Devices), and a ton of damage. The Blaster melee attacks are insanely powerful... dangerous to use, but extremely effective if you know what you're doing. Blasters are the highest damage AT in the game, period. But that's all they do. Well, some sets have a little control, but it's pretty much all about the damage.

Defenders can be significantly better at buffing than Corruptors, or it can be barely noticeable. It depends on the set. Overall I do like Corruptors better because they hit harder and solo better, but for pure team support a Defender will always come out on top.

Some Controllers are a lot like you described... they can lock everything down but take a while to do good damage. Others can deliver very impressive damage... especially Fire/Kin Controllers. With enough recharge to double stack Fulcrum Shift a Fire/Kin is dealing double capped damage... enough to outdamage a Fire/Psi permadom or SS/Fire Brute. (Fire/Kins are the exception to Blasters having the best damage... they can hit for over 700 damage with Fire Ball at level 50, plus around 40 DPS from Hot Feet and their Fire Imps which also do double capped damage.) Also, Illusion/Rad Controllers with enough recharge can solo anything in the game that isn't timed. They may not roll over mobs as fast as a Brute, but being able to solo pretty much any AV or Giant Monster in the game can be fun. (One guy soloed Lusca, though it took several hours. ) Remember that Controllers deal double damage against held, stunned, slept, or immobilized enemies... and they get fast recharging AoE immobilizes at low levels. That means that for all practical purposes after the first couple of seconds Controllers always Scourge (except for some AoEs that only get Containment bonuses 75% of the time). Offensively-built Controllers hit harder than most Doms (Live version, not the boosted ones on Test) or Corruptors.

Scrappers and Brutes are very similar in damage output. Brutes are a bit tougher and tank better, but Scrappers tend to kill bosses faster (depending on power set) due to higher burst damage. Also, Scrappers get Spines, which is a great AoE set... I'm pretty sure a Spines Scrapper has better AoEs than even a high recharge SS Brute.

You're pretty much dead on with Tankers. They're incredibly tough, but they don't hit very hard. The exception being Fire/Fire Tankers... those play more like AoE Scrappers since the Tanker version of Fire Melee has more AoEs than the Brute version.

If you like Kinetics Corruptors, you may like Blasters. You don't get the team buffs but you do get better blasts... Fireball with Aim and Build up on a Blaster hits harder than Fireball at the damage cap on a Corruptor. Plus Blasters get Archery, which Corruptors sadly lack... it's an extremely fun set.

I would suggest avoiding a Stone Tanker. Stone Armor is a royal pain in Granite without a fortune in IOs to offset the speed and recharge penalties, and if you're new to blueside you don't have a fortune to spend on IOs. Stone without Granite isn't bad, but if you're not going to run granite full time why not go Willpower or Shield or something and pop your tier 9 in cases you would have used Granite? A fun Tanker combo is Shield/Fire... you get good damage, a damage boost in your primary, and Tankers can soft-cap Shields a lot more cheaply than Brutes. Shield gives higher defense to tanks than other ATs, so it's really nice on them. Though if you want to really annoy Romans in the ITF, make an Invulnerability Tanker and sit there and laugh as they stab you for Brawl level damage.

Pretty much the only characters that can solo GMs are ones with good regen debuffs who also have a lot of survivability and damage. Ill/Rad Controllers with perma-Phantom Army are the classic example, but I think some higly IOed Rad Corruptors have done it and I know Bots/Traps MMs have. Brutes... not so much.

AVs / Heroes, on the other hand, should be quite possible with a high-end build. You just need to be tough enough to stand up to them indefinitely, have enough DPS to move their health bar, and have enough recovery to maintain that DPS indefinitely. Assuming the AV doesn't have a tier 9 or large heal that recharges faster than you can kill the AV you should be set.

I like Bots/Traps myself. It's a bit more active than /FF but still has good defense and status protection. Bots take care of themselves pretty well so they are easy to learn on. If you want a more active secondary, try Bots/Dark or Thugs/Dark... the Bots die less but the Thugs do a lot more damage at lower levels so they level faster. After level 32 either one does massive AoE damage, but before that the Bots are pretty much all single target while Thugs get AoEs at 12.

Well, it's designed as an anti-Flight power, so the downward smash makes sense when you look at air to air combat.

You definitely will run out. Even well slotted for endurance you'll only get about a dozen snipes off, and no way that will fill the domination bar.

On the other hand, the bar decays slowly enough that you can burn a full bar of blue, use Rest, and burn another bar. That might be enough, and hitting domination will refill the bar.

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1) No. Dominator Damage Cap remains 400% (aka +300


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The percentage isn't changing, but since the base damage of the powers is going up, the capped damage will be going up. Just about everything will be hitting harder at the cap after the changes than now.

I thought the Blaster cap was +400%, or 500% total. Pets are capped at 400% total (+300%).

Since "rain" type powers (Rain of Fire, Ice Storm, Rain of Arrows) use a pseudopet to deal the actual damage, do they use the Pet damage scale and the 400% pet damage cap, or do they use the Blaster scale and 500% cap?

Hmm... I just looked closer at the PvP damage values in Mids and it's just... odd. Thanks to the faster activation times (and resultant lower damage) Ice is indeed pretty weak now. Energy actually looks like one of the better sets now.

Meh... the new PvP looks too screwy to fool with. Ah well, I was never into it hardcore anyway... PvP is more fun in an FPS.

Enforcers' leadership buffs only affect Thugs, not players. The only pets that boost the Mastermind's defense are Protector Bots.

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Actually, there's a lot of base defense ...

[/ QUOTE ]I'm gonna smack you

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Sorry... couldn't resist.

Does VS use the pet damage scale? If so, the changes won't affect it, but since pets have a higher base ranged damage than Dominators (even after the changes) that's no big deal.

Oh, Starsman, just curious... what program do you use to make those charts? It looks like you have some pretty fancy calculations going on that seem like more than just Excel can handle...

Ah, I didn't know they had changed the patron / ancillary armors. I was never that big on PvP... just played around in the zones some, and haven't really fooled with it since I13 hit. I knew about the 40% resist all, but with the armors also blocking everything... yeesh, that's like everyone having Scrapper level resistances with no holes. I guess /Psi will be a bit weak then since in terms of raw burst damage it will still lag behind /Fire and /Energy. The -recharge may be useful, but there are better ways to get that without sacrificing damage... like Ice Corruptors.

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way wrong on the psi again.

elec, in zones, outperforms psi by a huge margin. psi only starts to compete against elec in sustained fights in the arena.

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Where are they getting all this psi resist? I know some sets have it, but a lot more have energy resists. Sonic has no psi resist, and neither does Thermal, and those are by far the most common resist buff sets. The only reason Elec outperforms Psi on Live is because Elec has huge burst damage while Psi has fast firing weak attacks. After the changes Psi will have far better burst damage than now, so as long as the target isn't Dark Armor or standing in a Shadow Fall or something I suspect Psi will do fine.

(Again, I'm talking in zones against soloists (except Dark Armor obviously) and non-optimized teams. A well balanced team will have defenses against all damage types, but if you are talking about organized team vs team PvP it's all about the buffs and debuffs anyway... the right mix of powers turns a tank into a squishy or a squishy into a tank.)

I really like the numpad binds. There should be a link in the guides section... they let you select a pet group with 0-3 (0 = all pets), a stance with 4-6, and an order (Attack, Follow, Goto) with 7-9. I don't use them as my main form of control since they do require taking a hand off the mouse or the movement keys, but they're great for when I need to issue an order I don't use often enough to make a macro for (like Aggressive Follow).

Actually, there's a lot of base defense ...

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stop talking.
everyone has psi resists except downie regen scrappers. welcome to i13.

grav/fire is still gonna have issues hitting. i have one, it rapes anything without defense (it will wreck good mind/psi doms in 1v1s).

elec is still king.

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Probably depends on whether you are talking zone PvP or arena. I have no experience with arena PvP but your average guys running around a zone are probably not going to be in an optimized team so I'd call psi your best bet for getting past resistances there. Dedicated PvP groups? Sure. Random solos and Shivan / Nuke groups? Not so much...

And with the current state of PvP you're more likely to get action ambushing people who are doing Shivan or Nuke runs, badging, or running missions than you are finding dedicated PvP groups on most servers.

Yes. There are also Defense Bonus and Resist Bonus IOs in the Recharge Intensive Pet sets (I forget the names of the exact sets), and those do stack with the standard Resist and Defense Bonus IOs. You can't slot those in normal pets, but Gang War and Tornado take them so if you are Thugs or Storm you can get a double bonus. Gang War is especially nice since you can slot all four auras in it and save all your slots in the main pets for other things. (Technically Tornado is the same, but unlike Gang War you're going to want to slot that for damage.)

DB/SR is also a lot of fun. It has a real "swashbuckler" feel to it (mine has the requisite pencil mustache and goatee ) and Quickness is helpful for getting enough recharge for a good attack chain. Also, Weaken is very handy paired with /SR since it has a to-hit debuff... it really makes a difference in the pre-softcapped game.

Blinding Feint -> Attack Vitals doesn't take a ton of global recharge to pull off and is very good damage. You can also add a Sweep in for large groups... it's a fantastic combo for large crowds. There are better attack chains than BF -> AV, but they require obscene amounts of global recharge (something like over 200% counting Hasten) and they aren't that much better...

Mind/Psi is still psi damage, so it's going to be the least resisted over all. Mind will still have Repel and Confuse, which are less resisted effects. /Psi is also getting a lot more burst damage, so Mind/Psi should still be good.

Grav/Fire might also be interesting. Fire Bolt is getting a damage boost, as is Blazing Bolt (all snipes actually) if you get a chance to pull it off. And you still have Blaze and Fiery Embrace. With the new "phased characters can affect each other" rule, Dimension Shift plus Phase and Fire's high burst damage could be amusing...

Technically even the pet auras apply to you... it's just that they grant you an aura that only effects pets. The aura is centered on you, though, not the pet you slot it in.

Oh, one other thing... remember that Defensive pets return fire if another pet is attacked. This includes nonstandard "pets" like Seeker Drones. A great way to safely open a fight if you are /Traps is to summon Seekers right on top of the enemy from out of aggro range... the enemy will attack the Seekers, wasting their alpha strike. This will set off the Seekers and debuff the enemy damage, while also triggering your Defensive pets to open fire since the Seeker Drones count as pets. It's a fun way to handle 8-man spawns when you don't have a Brute who wants to jump in first... by the time the enemy's attacks recharge the team is pounding them and half the minions are probably dead.

The pet upgrades were changed to AoEs and given a huge increase in endurance cost. You only have to use each one once, but using both unenhanced takes 91 total endurance so you'll probably want two end reductions each.

Were you here for the Genin changes? They don't get bows any more, instead they get extra shuriken attacks when upgraded. There have also been AI tweaks to help melee pets (not sure how successfully since I play ranged primaries). Hand Clap was changed to knockdown instead of knockback on the Bruiser, but last I heard he was still overly fond of throwing rocks at times.

Also, pet recharge rates can no longer be buffed (turns out that was one of the big causes of pet AI hiccups). That makes Chance for +Recharge procs worthless in pets and nerfs the Soulbound set. It also applies to non-MM pets, including Lightning Storm. On the bright side, pets can no longer be recharge debuffed either, so they ignore recharge slows.

Oh, and Poison Trap in /Traps got nerfed (actually bugfixed). It used to spawn multiple clouds, which each had a chance to hold and a chance to set off procs... now it properly checks only once. It no longer does huge proc damage and doesn't hold as often, but it's still a handy power. It does still have massive -regen so it's great for EBs or higher even without the chance to hold.

I think they removed the Medic's brawl attack when he gets upgraded, so supposedly he's less likely to decide to run into melee now. I'm not sure if he still sometimes does though since my Mercs MMs are too low level to have a Medic.

Bots have developed a couple of annoying quirks. Protector Bots seem a bit more likely to decide to run up in an enemy's face now, despite having no melee attack. Also, they tend to get stuck on their own Seeker Drones and have to be teleported or resummoned to get them off (sometimes Goto spammed on the ceiling makes them jump free). Fortunately, in I15 they're removing collision detection from Seeker Drones so that problem is going away soon.