Too Long a Dom

Heh. It's interesting how playing different ATs really changes your outlook on things and gives you better understanding of the game.

I switched back to the tank to do the Christmas presents mission, and I found myself rather...unnerved by his big bag of hitpoints. :P It felt wrong, overpowered even, somehow to just wade through level 52 and 53 Arachnos with nary a scratch, throwing fire swords mindlessly around. Lol.

So I compromised. I noticed air sup was still doing as good a job as ever tossing people around, so I wondered...if I pretend to be a dom and open with air sup (ghetto hold), before I lay down attacks - would it be better for me? And what better place to experiment than with a tank and his big sack of hp, right?

Heh. I think it was indeed better. Invictus is fast enough that he can joust a mob with air sup and keep it on its back, and then launch the incinerate/gfs combo. That meant an awful lot of damage with minimal reply.

Obviously, it was kinda moot. Like why bother on a tank built to withstand an entire 6-8 man group's worth of spawn (even for a little while)? A solo invinc mission is cake. It's just a matter of how often I pump dull pain, is all.

But I found it fun to keep the mob juggled. (Damn, the dom mindset has set in.) And I didn't even have to dull pain when facing the purple end boss. I just kept him juggled, he only had one chance to get in a 354 hp melee attack, the rest were like 100 hp hits, possibly from the minion I was ignoring. And I ended the fight with half my hp left.

In other news, Mal is level 32, taking his time about rising further, but all the missions he's playing around soloing on relentless (and then getting repeatedly invited to group up) is bringing him steadily to 33.

I also find it rather annoying, in a way, this constant stream of invites. Suddenly everyone wants me on my team. Maybe because there's not much choice of people in the high 30s. Or maybe because doms have now come into their own. Or maybe because the other ATs are now finding it difficult to face bosses/heroes/avs, etc. by themselves. It's kinda sad.

Juuuust when I feel I've gained my independence and my ability to solo on relentless has come to fruition with my pet in tow for company, suddenly everyone wants me to team up. :P Where were you buggers when I needed your help in the early 20s and lower? Soloing off by yourselves, of course. :P

I'm starting to want to play another AT, but haven't quite decided what. The corruptor is...meh. It'll take a while for me to get in the mood of playing him. The stalker is interesting, but very very hard to solo, it involves a lot of backstabbing and running like hell, and my favored playstyle is the very antithesis of running like hell, more like screaming defiance and throwing one last punch before dropping dead (go scrappers, tanks and dominators).

I half-feel like bruting, with two factors stopping me. One is that I don't really want to tank. But it seems like the common mindset is to accept brutes tanking in the late term. Indeed as a dominator, I do feel that brutes who can tank have a much better function and role in a team. A brute who doesn't want to tank is better off soloing, imo.

This is how I felt in beta. When the group did stuff and just ignored the brute, they killed fine, and too fast for the brute to build any fury. In a friend's christmas mission, the brute went AFK and we finished juuust fine, a corr, an mm and me. In fact, I think it went much smoother.

Because when the brute was around, I assumed the brute would lead in and take alpha and so on. My bad for assuming, I guess, but every damn brute before this that I've teamed with did so. This particular idiotic brute had schizophrenia, though. He would run around like a tank, leading point and so on, and acting in every way identical to the brutes who liked to tank. He would even jump into groups.

Alas, as I moved in to ice slick as per normal, the bastard DIDN'T stay in place like I expected him too. The mobs were supposed to fall down around the brute. Instead, the brute RAN OFF, back into us, and you can guess what happened. The slick missed half the mobs, and I took full unvarnished aggro of the entire spawn on a squishy. *sighs*

Brute cowards are very hard to predict as a squishy. You feel obligated as a dom to whack that slick down the moment someone has taken aggro - it saves them and nullfies the mobs, and everyone is happy. But the guy didn't know how to play to my strengths. Oh well. Takes all types. :P But I still say brute cowards are better soloing. Less mobs, less fatality, no responsibility, more fury, everybody happy.

So if I don't feel like tanking on a brute, I classify as a brute coward, and I need to stay off teams. I do know that I will be getting invites outta my ears, because everyone else thinks "we need a tank" and will try and invite an unteamed brute. *sigh*

Anyhow the second reason is that I can't decide on a powerset. :P I have a DM/Fire rolled up on Freedom, but I can't quite get into him. I'm not sure if I just haven't spent enough time with him, or his costume turns me off, or if the powerset is not really me. I'm also not sure if I want to delete the DM/Fire because I do like the concept as an alt. But I'm not sure I want him as a 'main' on Freedom. And my char slots are full.

The stone primary is singing to me again. I saw a brute hit fury and his mallets were doing these colossal numbers of 300+. My eyes practically popped out of their sockets. But it's stone. :/ I still have Raggy to level. I made a stoner brute on another server too. Kinda fun, but slow-ish.