New Martial Assault set in i24

Experienced Dominators:

Any thoughts on pairing Mind Control with Martial Assault?

Plant Control might pair better with MA. Seeds will cause mobs to clump together more often than Confuse or Mass Confusion will. It looks like MA will benefit greatly from clumped mobs give the "foward facing cone" and "trick shot" powers. The +Toxic power, which works with our primary, fits thematically with plant as well. Personally, I can't wait to see what this does for Carrion Creepers.

My secret wish is for HTTT to get back together so we can roll another all dom super team through the isles. Last one I was on was some years ago now but I remember it being a great deal of fun.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I'm planning on making a FC/MA. Mostly because I've never had a Fire Control character before.

I just watched the TTV broadcast (in syndication via youtube, obviously) and there was one thing that did particularly stand out to me.

Quite some time ago, there was a thread in which the AS for Stalker's StJ was being discussed...specifically the animation for it that many people didn't seem to care for and would've liked something a bit different. I chimed in with the suggestion of a spinning roundhouse, affectionately known to many a martial arts enthusiast as a Tornado Kick. While there were a few people that actually liked the idea, there were of course the nay-sayers against. "Not suited for practical combat" and such were posted...to which yeah...I would tend to agree with them...in an ACTUAL fight. But being that this is a super hero MMO...it would work.

The devz actually took that very attack and gave it to MC and MA...so....YAY! I'm actually happy to see that.

As far as the sets themselves...I am defintely looking forward to them. Especially the blaster secondary.

Burst of Speed just looks like pure awesomesauce, packaged in a can made of awesome, with a code inside the can you can redeem for even MORE awesome!

The dommy set doesn't look too bad either. Though...like others, I will withold judgement on the melee cone power till I can see it in actual practice. (Damn! Now I'm gonna HAVE to re-install that blasted beta server...AGAIN!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe ::looks at RaikenX's signature:: Something funny.

is it me, or does this sound like a blapper set?

It sounds like I can finally make some ninjas that use ninja magic to make ninjay stuff happen

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

Thanks for chiming in on the Mind Control combo.

I'm still interested but yeah, there's definitely a few clashes between the two sets.

Honestly, as soon as this hits Beta I'm going to be campaigning to change out one of the powers (probably Caltrops) for the teleport power from Martial Combat (Burst of Speed).

If concessions need be made ("too much AoE") then I offer up the tier9 as a sacrificial lamb (it's AoE dot is of utterly trivial value anyhow, and to my notion only serves to conflict with sets that rely on sleeps).

It seems silly to me to spend the time making a new shiny, superawesome power, then give it to one set, and give the other set... caltrops.

@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too

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.

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.

Well I actually like Caltrops because with the right procs it can be turned into a KD patch which adds a lot of safety especially when you stack it. The Damage procs also add up...but again I can also see the issue with it because it doesn't play Nice with Electric Control at all.