A Warp(ing) Mind - A Grav/Psi Dom Guide

So, for the few of you who may have looked at this when I first posted it, the whole thing's undergoing a complete overhaul.

Way back when I was first making my Dom, I noticed a huge dearth of Grav/Psi guides. So, when I started my dom, I decided that when I was nearing the end of my run I'd sit down and write something up for anyone who was thinking about rolling a Grav/Psi: What it was like, how the powers meshed, and some general strategies I've found useful.

My dom (who will remain nameless, due to a desire for annonimity,) was meant to be a psion, a sort of uncontrolled mage fueled by his mind breaking, using the pain to twist reality and lash out at those around him. Looking at the powersets, I decided that Mind Control would never work. Too much based on psionics. Plus, with reality twisting, there was only one way to go. I hit Grav control and grabbed lift. Again, with secondaries, there was only one choice: lashing out with the mind? Psi assualt! A little time in the character editor and I was breaking out of prison. Since then, I haven't looked back.

I'm not exactly a numbers person. I know a lot of the numbers, but don't expect to find them here (much). City of Data is a popular place for them, as is Mid's Hero Designer (which I use to plan characters). I'm not much of a person to care about numbers, outside of the main damage/hold/whatever of a power, and you might see me mention this every now and then. Largely, this guide is here to give out my opinions and experience on Grav/Psi doms, and supply a Guide that I wished I had back when I started playing mine.




**Edited for**
*Decided against writing the guide in Duplex
*Noting numbers issues.

Part I: The Early Days (levels 2-6)

I jumped out of the Zig and onto mercy at level two, with a message from Burke to come and see him. Getting to work, I had two powers: Lift and Psi Dart. Psi Dart was the manditory from my secondary - and I'd heard a lot of bad things about it. It turned out not to be *too* horrible, largely due to it being pure psi damage. That said, I found it tended to suck horribly agaisnt Arachnos. Of Grav's two starting choices (Lift - Single Target knockup, and Crush - Single Target Immobilize) I grabbed left. Sure, it does a little less damage, but the mitigation before I grabbed my hold was a godsend.

At level 2, I grabbed Mind Probe. I still remembering giggling manically when I watched the pink goo of a Hellion's psyche come rushing out. It was beautiful, and I still snicker to this day. It does solid damage (A 3.41 on the BI) and entirely Psi damage, too. This meant leaving off my hold until level 4, but I was alright with that. When I got it, Grav Distortion wasn't exactly exciting for me, but I quickly noticed the fact that I was coming out of battles with appriciably more health than I used to. I made it my secondary priority to slot behind the 'Probe.

Level six saw the third attack in what I started to call my "all-range" chain, so far comprised of Psi Dart, Lift, and mind Probe: Propel. I know some of you out there are groaning already.

Propel, I had heard nothing but bad things about for doms. But I had to have it. I'm very much a concept person, and I refuse to go without powers that fit my concept (we'll get back to this in section two). In reality, I found Propel rather useful as a /Psi Assualt. Especially later in my career (during which, for some reason, Psi damage seems to become one of the most resisted in the game,) I found that Propel offered me a choice of doing a different kind of damage - and that choice was greatly appriciated. I don't think I'd recommend it outside of concept to other Grav/* Doms, but for Grav/Psi, I found a very definite use for it. In the early levels, it also helped me mitigate things due to it's knockback component. Council don't shoot right flying through the air.



Part II: Experimentation (levels 6-12)

Because of the vision I had for this character, my power choices (especially in the lower levels) were often really wonky. It also didn't help that I didn't plan their build until around level 19. So, I took and played around with a lot of powers during these levels that I later dropped. I don't really remember when I got most of them, so I'll just take levels 7-11 all in one go, power by power.

The first is TK thrust. (Telekentic Thrust) This power was mildly useful at the mind I took it (level 8, I think,) it gave me more damage, true, but between it, Lift, and Propel I was constantly running after my targets. With careful positioning I could actually use the three of them as a psuedo-hold, and it worked well enough as a tactic. However, it's lack-luster damage (and animation) started to urk me after a while. True, it was half-smashing damage, and I could see it as being a useful and viable power, but I knew a few levels after taking it that it wasn't for me.

Mental Blast I looked at and said No. I remembered this as a Defender, and I remember going "Whyyyyyyy?!" Just no. One of my rare numbers moments here: It does a little less than double the damage of Psi Dart. And takes almost three seconds for fire off. For a comparison, Psi Dart takes close to one. (1.33, technically) And the animation for Mental Blast has this horrible rooting effect. ...Honestly, you can take it, and on my defender I was able to make it not-too bad, and actually with the time and endo (just my opinion). However as a Dom I wanted mobility in combat, I wanted speed, and this wasn't it. Sorry about the mini rant there.

The last two powers I picked up here were Recall Friend (going for Teleport,) and Dimension Shift - supposedly one of Grav's worst powers. As I said, I build for concept, and this one suited it. I have the power three-slotted now, (Acc, Phase, Recharge,) and plan to add another Phase later on. Now, I realize people tend not to like this power - and later on in my career, I understood why it didn't see much action. But, both solo and on teams, I found DS useful when I picked it up at level 12, out of the box. It became my psuedo AoE control. It'd help thin out that second mob, and usually they'd be unphased right as we were getting to them. Even if we had to wait a second or two, most teams didn't mind due to the added safety generated, and I tended to have enough sense not to just use it willy-nill on fast moving teams. Soloing, it's an amazing anti-debt tool. I could fire it off then take a rest and be fully recovered and ready to go by the time the phase wore off. I'd argue it's one of the most under-appricated powers in Gravity Control, and I'd argue that everyone ought to at least try it out, and give it two or three levels before just saying no to it. This is purely my opinion, mind, and I'm well aware that there's a lot of people avidly against it - this guide's based around my own experience. Dimension Shift, for all I sing its praises, is very, very, very much a "your millage may very" power. I advocate that you take it and try it - especially if you do planned respecs - but don't feel you have to keep it on my account.

Part III: Running out of Wind (levels 13-20)

I realize that's a bigger level gap than before. The reason being is that there were so few powers that I picked up that actually did anything to my playstyle in these levels. I didn't even touch my primary and secondary! So, I'm just going to breeze through here, and get on to the good stuff.

Level 14 got my my travel power. For a long time, this didn't really change the way I played - not the way it did the first time I got it, on my D3. (Dark Dark Defender). I was called "the amazing teleporting defender" by a couple of my friends for a while. :P On my Dom, this didn't really happen until later, so I'll talk about that, then.

Levels 16-20 were Hurdle, Swift, and Stamina. I realize I completely bypassed Health. That was intentional, and done for concept reasons. Unless you want to have this little, ridiculously fast moving ball of purple doom (which I did, ) I'd recommend dropping swift or hurdle for health. The regeneration bonus has meant that much to a lot of my characters. Plus, now, with IOs, you can drop a +Regen or a +Recovery bonus in there for some obscene rejuvenation.

Due to the wacked-out nature of my pre-20 build, when I hit the big 2-0 I burned a Vet's reward and respec'd. I dropped TK thrust, moved some power aquisitions around, and retroactively picked up stealth at level 10. Stealth turned out to make a big difference in my life. I've always had a soft spot for character with stealth/Invis (And, sadly, I don't have nearly enough of them. ) plus it just made sense for this character to start phasing out of reality. It'd take baby steps, but he'd get there.

Stealth let me get close to my targets, it helped me line up my knockbacks, it gave me the chance to see around the next bend, to plan where the mobs might run, to give me that extra second to think before the patrol noticed me, and that extra 2.5% Defense. It's made a lot of difference in the way I approached combat, and it was just plain fun. Plus, with Swift and Hurdle (eventually going to be two-slotted) any movement penalty was more than negated.

Part IV: Bending Minds and Reality (levels 21-26)

Ahhh... So now things begin to get interesting. With Stamina behind me, my next choice was Drain Psyche. Oh, what a power! ...I'm still toying around with how to slot it, honestly. It's quite possible (and I even considered doing it,) to build a /Psi dom with Stamina simply due to this power. It boosts your own Regen and Recovery rates by (I think, let me know if I'm wrong here,) A set amount for each mob you drain the Regen and Recovery rates from. ...Given enough mobs, I turn into a pseudo-Regen Scrapper-thingy. Given that I have Stamina, I'm probably going to slot this up for heals in the end (I've got it more balanced right now, with equal parts Regen and recovery) so that I can have an insane healing rate even with only a few mobs. When I change it over, I'll make a note here and let you know how that turns out. I'm still running with only five slots at the moment, but that sixth one is coming Soon(TM).

At level 24 I picked up invisibility. I became a psuedo-stalker, then. I didn't even bother with most mobs in the mission (unless it was a kill all). I leveled and gained more experience faster solo just stealthing the mission and ganking the boss and his friends, or grabbing the glowy. It was great and glorious. I'd recommend Stealth/Invis to any dom who can afford them in their build and for whom it doesn't break the concept.

At 26, I found Grav's most amazing power: Wormhole. I had heard about it, I'd played a Grav controller before, but still - it was a whole new experience on a Dom. Wormhole. Drain Psyche. Giggle. And I did this again. And Again. And Again. After half an hour or so of playing in mercy, I got back to work. I went back to Sharkhead, and started integrating it into my tactics (which I'll talk about at the end of all this mess). It's a great tool, for pull and for its disorient. I've got five slots in it now, looking to add the sixth in the near future. With enough recharge, it'll come back up pretty quickly (quick enough for me to use it about every two-three spawn groups on a really fast moving team, about every spawn or two on my average PuG). Take this, and love it like no other. It's one of the things that makes Grav Control unique. It lets me say where the battle's happening, and makes a great way to get mobs together (with some practice) for Drain Psyche. But more on these happy thoughts later.

Now armed with nearly all of what I considered my core control, I started looking at my now somewhat-anemic attack chain. I'll write that up after I get back - business calls me, sadly.

Until then, take care, and happy Dom'ing!

Part V: Pain and Pets (Levels 27-32)

At level 28 things began to pick up offensively. I got Subdue.

Subdue's a great attack. It does decent damage, is rather long ranged, and has a good chance of immobilizing. Pure Psi damage, again. It seperated out my attacks into two distinctive chains: Psi dart, Subdue, Propel, and Lift became my Ranged attack chain; Mind Probe and Sand of Mu became my melee chain. My melee chain has gaps in it, which were usually filled with subdue and my hold.

At level 30, I got gravity distortion field, my AoE Hold. Out of the box, it was unimpressive, but after some slotting at 31 I found it to be a pretty reasonable power, and good for locking down a hold mob quickly - giving me time to establish single target control on the group's various members. As a Grav/Psi this is another power I recommend. It helped me round out my AoE control abilities, and provided another wonderful tool of getting the situation under my control. Plus, push come to shove, it's a great way to get that boss locked down *now*, especially pre-pet .

Currently, it's three slotted, mostly for accuracy and hold, with some recharge. Once I'm done, at four slots with IOs, it'll be near deminishing returns in all three.

At level 32.... Gravitational Singularity aka Sing. Honestly, this pet had to grow on me. The first pet I ever had was as a Dark Miasma'ist with my lovely little fluffy. It set my pet expectations bar pretty high in terms of coolness factor and utility. It wasn't until, after a few missions, when I forgot to summon my Sing, that I realized how powerful it was.

Sing's basically a mini, Single Target Grav control with a permenant repulsion field around it. That flies. It's powers are Lift, Crush, and Gravity Distortion. To put it another way: Knock up, Immobilize, and Hold. It took me a while to get used to the idea that it was doing something, largely because there's not a lot of vision effects when Sing's doing its thing; rest assured, however, that it is doing it. It's especially noticable when you summon Sing on top of a boss. Even without slotting investments, it'll make enough of a mess of the situation that taking down the boss and his cronies becomes cakewalk.

It's almost universally said that you shouldn't slot Sing for damage - that it's primarily a controlling/tanking pet. I somewhat agree with this, however I've found that I like my Sing focused on three things in slotting: Accuracy, Holds, and Damage. It's currently near ED cap (you know, three SOs worth of +%) on Hold and Damage, and the result is that it'll often be able to kill one or two mobs out of about five or six. Not amazing, but not bad. Plus, given that I do mostly Psi damage, the extra source of smashing is nice.

Part VI: Going for the gold. (Levels 33-38)

With the first prize of the sets gotten, I set my sights on the second and level 38. Given that level 38 meant the end of all AoEs, I decided to get a head start on what AoE aggro felt like.

At 35, I picked up Psychic Scream.

It's not a bad power. It's not terribly amazing, but after I got it and slotted it I found myself going through mobs a bit fast - enough to notice it after a few missions. It's a nice little AoE cone of pure Psi damage. Nothing amazing, like I said, but something I don't regret taking.

A few more levels, and a few more slots later, I was at 38.

The awesomeness of 38 for anything /psi cannot be overstated. I tend to feel it's even more an achievement for the Gav/Psi because the combination is such a horribly late blooming set. ...When I first got this, I went crazy. running around, all over the place, blasting every group I could find. It's a PBAoE, a nice radius around you that does a good chunk (about the same as Mind Probe) of damage to everything in that area. On something like a 10 second second recharge. That can disorient to the tune of (I think) minions. With slotting, you can get it down to 5 seconds. With IOs, you no longer have to worry about sacrificing power for that. Ah, life is sweet.

This is actually going to be the end of this part of the guide for a bit. I'm got a funny schedule, but there'll probably be more within the next day or so. It's my first guide, and already I can see areas that need rewrites. Beyond that, I'm still not at the top myself. I'm nearly 41, and I plan to keep adding on and editing this until I get to 50. The next time I post, though, it'll be about the various tactics I've employed and found useful, as well as some general synergies and theories. All of this stuff is untested, really - it's things I've come up with during my time as a Grav/Psi that seem to be true, or that've helped me. Here's to hoping they might help you, too.