UnicyclePeon

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In fact doms AoE's across the board got dinged. Energy got seriously buffed.

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Really?

I expected it for /Psi but I think all the other ones already did crappy AoE damage. They made AoE worse, AND made endurance costs more?

Woof.

I'm kinda glad my 2 main Doms are 50 (retired) already and that I havent played my half-dozen or so level 35-42 range Doms in *just* long enough that maybe I'll forget and therefore have no mental comparison when I take the AT back up again (when I15 comes out).

Lewis

I think Thugs/Pain + Thugs/Dark is a good combo as well. Un-targeted AOE heals, plus targeted AoE heals, plus Acc debuffs, plus control. Nice. The /Pain can be following while "rockin the aura" or whatever.

Another option would be 2 Thug/FF just for the crazy defense. Its too bad you couldnt do 3 accounts. Then you could do Thug/FF x 2 PLUS a Thugs/Pain.

Lewis

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Yes, it's vague and subjective...but it's one of the rationalizations I have for why there these particular powers don't require a 'draw' animation, and why they don't support 'weapon' customization...even though there's not a technical restriction or limitation for either of those things.

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I can understand that,but some of us view our control over the elements as precise, so the ugly blobby stone melee weapon may not be appropriate. It would be nice if one could get a smooth well-formed two-handed stone hammer as well.

Lewis

Its a hard feeling, being responsible for a pet, having a loyal friend, doing all you can, and then it ends.

Sorry for your loss.

Lewis

I'm worried about how the supposedly heavier endurance cost of Dominators with the changes will interact with the fact that Fire Control is already an end heavy set, not even counting Hot Feet. Then add in Hot Feet. I'm nervous. Oh well.

Anyway, yes, Hot Feet definitely adds to my Fire/Thorns (50) and Fire/Psi (50) damage. It's a good power. It does crush the end bar though.

Lewis

Thanks for all the replies. It looks like there will be more damage and more endurance use, and so its less end efficient over time, from what I'm seeing. Nasty. I mean, I'm sure the feeling of power is better, but I'm unlike most players. I'll take Stamina, Power Sink, Transference, a Miracle and a Numina unique, and 20% recovery bonus (or more) from other set bonuses, because I cant stand using END or seeing my blue bar move. I hate it.

I also happen to be broke red side. So I expect these changes will push my end useage beyond the point I can already tolerate, and I could already barely tolerate the end useage on my dominators since I'm using generics red side.

Basically, I admit I am overly sensitive to end costs (HATE) so this may actually put me in the minority of people who like their dominators LESS after the changes.

Still, I'll try it myself when it goes live, and worst case scenario, I'll just stop playing Doms. I've been more in a Mastermind mode this year anyway.

Thanks all!

Lewis

I'm not sure where I should ask, and I've been kinda away during the test process, but I wanted to find out what effect the changes have on endurance consumption? The one post I saw a redname reply to that was Dom feedback was that the endurance useage was even more of a hog than ever at low levels. I also happened to notice some patch notes about damage going up (yay), recharge going up (boo) and endurance going up (boo) on some of the powers.

As frustrating as it is as a dominator having little plinky attacks at low levels, heck at all levels, at least I get to use them quickly. I can't stand slower attacks or heavier endurance useage, and the one post where Castle (I think?) said "this is feedback I can use" the complaint was of harder endurance useage at low levels.

So, in a nutshell, in a sentence or two, what are the results of the change? With damage, end, and recharge going up, is it the same damage over time only it feels like more? Or is it really more? Did the end cost actually go up? Does it feel slow?

I just havent had time to get on test (life keeping me busy) but I'd like to know what I'm in for when I get a chance go jump back in (which will be post I15, most likely).

Thanks,

Lewis

I still find it unsatisfying / crappy, but I cast it anyway because it looks cool, which is reason enough.

Lewis

Oh, ok, I already knew about that change and didnt find it satisfying, so I guess it was a case of my expectations being too high. I just ran a solo mission and the pet was the same effectiveness that I remember. (Mine has max acc and dam, and the achillies heel proc thingy in it).

Lewis

Were there changes put in? I must have missed it. Last I played, it was still crap, but I havent played in like, 3 weeks. Can someone direct me to the changes? Which patch? Or are my standards just too high?

Lewis

I think one of my Fire Controllers have the acc/dam/rech just to squeeze in the 25% recharge in on the fire imps in 4 slots. Bummer. Is this permanent / deliberate? Or is this a bug? *shrug* I've been playing a lot of Titan Quest this week. I guess I need to read up on the COX stuff.

Lewis

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I guess the question comes to this: "Do you believe that Castle would nerf a very popular power, which has been in the game for almost 4 years without a change; has a high likelyhood of severe backlash, another player exodus, all in the name of trying something different (or rebalancing as its been called)?"

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Yes. Yes I do.

I base this on the changes to Energy Transfer and Energy Melee, among many other examples. That is why you are getting threads, both for and against, that are reacting to the changes NOW instead of later. People are pretty convinced it is coming.

Not only are people convinced it is coming, but the previous mechanism for such changes have all boiled down to scaling the powers to match what other similar powers do. This gives a likely prediction as to the results. That is why you see people reacting as if they have knowledge of what the changes will entail. Right or wrong in the assessment, it's been done that way in the past, so people will base their reactions on that.

Lewis

I just want to give a big THANK YOU to Mids. Not only did his application make the game more fun to me to play, but honestly, it made planning a character into an hours-long fun mini game in and of itself. I cannot count how many times I've been entertained for half an evening or more SIMPLY due to the pleasure of planning out and tweaking out character builds that I may or may not actually play.

What an incredible tool for the imagination!

Lewis

Illusion/Storm and Earth/Storm are my favorites.

Fire/Rad is a close #3, and Plant/Storm is #4.

Lewis

My favorite /Storm controllers are:

Illusion/Storm
Earth/Storm
Plant/Storm

In probably that order, tho its really close, and on some days I like the Earth/Storm more.

Lewis

Cool. THanks for all the additional replies. I'm gonna stick with WP and I appreciate all the input!

Lewis

I'm not interested in a Thugs/Storm trio. For one thing, I have a Necro/Storm trio in the 30s already, and a Ninja/Storm trio in the teens. I also have a "War Trio" which consists of Robot/Storm, Merc/Storm, and AR/Rad. I also have a Thug/Storm in the 30s already who I play on his own without a team.

So, I'm not looking for another Mastermind Storm Trio. I already got some.

Lewis

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well why does your concept need elec melee? Just wondering as the secondarys you chose seemed a little eclectic

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I picked the primary simply because I had always wanted to try an Electric Melee brute. I picked the secondaries I did because I want to have endurance recovery powers available to me the whole game.

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Sheild plays to elec melees strengths, WP doesnt really, you would be better choosing a different primary

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Be that as it may, /Shield doesn't have any endurance recovery powers available to it. Also, using equipment of any kind is in opposition to both the concept and the look I want the character to have.

Lewis

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Is this going to be multi-boxed, or is this three people playing at one time?

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Multi-box. That's why /Poison and /Dark for the 3rd don't work for me. They are a bit too busy.

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for multi-box, I would make one of the FF into pain-dom, since heals can be done fairly easily with macros/binds.

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/Pain would be great on auto, but I already have a Thugs/Pain that I solo/team with, but that I dont multi-box with. I'm not looking to make another one. In theory, I could just exemplar down with the one I have, who is level 42, but I kinda want a themed trio that plays together from the ground up.

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and for the primary, I vote for thugs. multi-gang war is nice, but also, having an army shooting guns at the target all at once is just an awesome feeling.

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Yeah, I think I want to go with Thugs also. Just because it is more wacky, and because Gang War x3 = silly fun.

Lewis

Thanks for the replies. Additional replies are welcome. I'll dwell on it for a bit.

Lewis

I'm thinking about a Mastermind Trio. Which would be the more silly / zany / fun combo?

Thugs/Traps
Thugs/FF
Thugs/FF

OR

Robots/Traps
Robots/FF
Robots/FF

The masterminds themselves would achieve the same basic crazy good stacked defense numbers in either case. However, the Bots combo would have -regen from the top robot (I believe) but Thugs would have the crazy stacking maneuvers (for the pets only) from the enforcers. At least I think the enforcers' auras affect the thug pets of other masterminds.

Which route would you try?

Lewis

I think to retain balance (whether you agree with whether its balanced or not) they should just unlock all patron powers at level 40 as if you were simply getting epic masteries. I mean for villains on blue side. That way the dev balance of the power selections remains the same, but you can just pick whichever you want with no quest.

Lewis

Fire/Radiation and Fire/Empathy are both appreciated by teams. However, Fire/Radiation is the more versatile character, and Fire/Radiation is also the one that will probably be desired more for big task forces and the like, especially if there are Archvillains or Giant Monsters involved.

I'm not trying to discourage you from Fire/Empathy. I have one at level 50 and she is one of my faves. However, my level 50 Fire/Rad is much more versatile in terms of solo, team, utility powers, etc.

Either way you go, you dont absolutely have to follow a build. Just jump in and try all the powers. Later you can respec out of the ones you dont like.

Lewis

I didnt think /SR could be defense debuffed much. At least, on scrappers, I think by the time you are level 50, you have 94% defense debuff resistance. So anything that floats at 47.4% or so defense is still at 45% after you get as debuffed as you can be.

Though maybe I didnt understand it correctly.

Anyway, don't Brutes get strong defense debuff resist in /SR also?

Lewis

I'm not interested in Elec/Shield at all. I am already aware that /Shield is the new uber toy. My character concept just doesnt allow for it. Also, I want a secondary with endurance/recovery powers in it. But mostly, I refuse to go /Shield because it is antithetical to my character idea.

I guess for now, I'll stick with Willpower. I can't really think of a good reason to switch to /Elec or /EA.

Thanks to all!

Lewis