Post your experiences with the new Dominating difficulty!

[mattu]

Once I tried playing this game on DOMINATING. Never again.

Finished my DOMINATING playthrough just now. A few spoily remarks below are in ROT-13.

Most of the fun for me was seeing the new things and having the "are you fucking kidding me???" moments. There were quite a few of those and I loved them all. Silent Isle, the guards around the Hanging Rat, gur arj yhexref gung unat bhg va gung pbaarpgvat mbar, the Lunatic shopping mall, ARKE power station, the Tchort fight. More I don't remember offhand. Very cool to have these crazy scenarios to work through. I spent most of an afternoon on the Lunatic shopping mall.

The revised Eye of Tchort is pretty awful. Maybe too much, if there is anything that might be too much I think this would be it. I did get used to it, though. Really glad I [possibly significant spoiler even for experienced players] qvqa'g unaq bire qrgevghf gb gur gpubegvfgf, I wasn't thinking about long run consequences at the time, but boy that was a good call.

I liked that I was pushed to use some new tricks. I never bothered with the doctor's pouch on a non-psi char before, it was my default belt here. Never used riot armor before (well, excepting CAU), made and used some here, quite handy. Ate a lot of burrower burgers that I never bothered with before. My build was energy weapons, and usually I stick tightly to my build concept, but here I used chem pistols and an assault rifle in places. Threw many, many, many grenades. (One thing I should have done differently is take Grenadier earlier.)

Other people have said that DOMINATING feels like playing the game for the first time again. I had a little of that feeling. Wasn't always sure what the solution to a problem was, or if my character would even be able to find one. And there was quite a bit of straight up new content, too. Great stuff.

All that said, DOMINATING is a little too hard and grindy for me to want to play on it regularly. Awesome place to visit, don't think I want to live there. From what I've heard, the new Hard is notably harder than the old Hard, so it may be my sweet spot. I'll try that out on the next (chem pistols) playthrough. I will probably try a heavy armor playthrough on DOMINATING at some point, since I feel like no-stealth tank is a substantially different experience than my usual stealthy approach. I'll be interested to hear what others say about heavy armor on DOMINATING in the meantime.

Thanks much to Stygian for making all these new stuffs available. This was a fun way to spend my holiday time off. Looking forward to the expansion.

[harperfan7]

Currently playing a heavy gunner, and it is not the cakewalk everybody says.  That's mainly due to a) death stalkers and b) huge groups of strong enemies, where you need CC more than single-target damage (bursts aren't CC enough here).  I have max damage threshold and I still get hit by death stalkers every time and even burrowers sometimes.  Heavy armor sure helps, but it's not the "walk into a hail of gunfire and slowly beat people to death while humming to yourself" experience it used to be.

[destroyor]

Currently playing a heavy gunner, and it is not the cakewalk everybody says.  That's mainly due to a) death stalkers and b) huge groups of strong enemies, where you need CC more than single-target damage (bursts aren't CC enough here).  I have max damage threshold and I still get hit by death stalkers every time and even burrowers sometimes.  Heavy armor sure helps, but it's not the "walk into a hail of gunfire and slowly beat people to death while humming to yourself" experience it used to be.

Are you using super steel set? If you are looking for mechanical damage threshold you should try to get a full tungsten set. Best case scenario it's Mech 95%/35 for SS and Mech 95%/61 for Tungsten - you'll lose a lot of energy resist but shield can make up for it. You need one extra strength to wear Tungsten and rathound BBQ can take care of that. Obviously you won't get components with quality that high in a regular game but you should still aim and hunt for tungsten.
____
Super steel metal armor
4X Q160 super steel
Q133 regen vest

Mech 71%/26


Super steel metal helmet
Q160 super steel
Q149 high density padding

Mech 12%/4


Super steel metal boots
2X Q160 super steel
Q149 high density padding

Mech 22%/5

Total
Mech 105% (cap at 95%)/35
____

Tungsten metal armor
4X Q147 Tungsten
Q133 regen vest

Mech 70%/45


Tungsten metal helmet
Q147 Tungsten
Q149 high density padding

Mech 11%/7


Tungsten metal boots
2X Q147 Tungsten
Q149 high density padding

Mech 20%/9

Total
Mech 101% (cap at 95%)/61

[harperfan7]

what armor

Im level 15, havent done foundry yet, and I have something like 70%/39 (88%) if I'm wearing my helmet instead of goggles.  I used quality 80-90 plates.  Obviously I don't mean that I'm maxed out for the whole game, just for where I am.

[Bruno]

Currently playing a heavy gunner, and it is not the cakewalk everybody says.  That's mainly due to a) death stalkers and b) huge groups of strong enemies, where you need CC more than single-target damage (bursts aren't CC enough here).  I have max damage threshold and I still get hit by death stalkers every time and even burrowers sometimes.  Heavy armor sure helps, but it's not the "walk into a hail of gunfire and slowly beat people to death while humming to yourself" experience it used to be.

Do you mind sharing your general build?
Looking at playing the same kind of character, heavy gunner, myself. Always nice to have some inspiration.

[MirddinEmris]

I will probably try a heavy armor playthrough on DOMINATING at some point, since I feel like no-stealth tank is a substantially different experience than my usual stealthy approach. I'll be interested to hear what others say about heavy armor on DOMINATING in the meantime.

It's...different. I'm note exactly sure it is possible. My heavy sledg character still had points in stealth and suit of stealthy garb to help with difficult stuff like Lunatics. Been trying to play with heavy AR character without stealth and even with 10 Con i think it's too much for him. I'm still in first chapter and i don't think that even after i get best armor i can finish the game, mainly because of aforementioned Lunatics. Have no idea how to handle a mall with no stealth and noisy weapon.

[harperfan7]

Do you mind sharing your general build?

Lvl 15, S8(9)/D3/A3/C7/P13/W3/I6
Maxed Guns/Throw/Hack/Lock/Mech/Elec
Mixed Chem/Bio/Tail
I could have put points into stealth or persuasion without much loss here

Conditioning, Aimed Shot, Expertise, Opportunist, Quick Pockets, Juggernaut, Full Auto, Commando, Concentrated Fire

Rapid Muzzled Hornets 7.62/8.6/9mm
Smart Anatomical Bipod Corsair 12.7
Smart Goggles (used adaptive for a long time at first)
Efficient High x2 Shield, working on Efficient Low x2 for meleers
Boots are double plate + dense foam

Stealth Gear:  Muzzled Silenced Jackrabbit 5mm, ninja tabis, hopper soft black leather, black balaclava, cloak device


Utilities are absolutely essential; get tactical with them, and carry at least 15 bear traps anytime you go out

[mattu]

It's...different. I'm note exactly sure it is possible.

Yeah, I have some doubts myself. At least for myself. But I've seen people do the impossible in games often enough to suspect that someone will be able to make it work.

[bati]

Sorry don't have the time to read the entire thread right now but would a high str/con sledgehammer build work on Dominating? I want to try the build out because I've never played it before but I'm currently running 3 builds in parallel on hard and I don't want to do yet another one unless it's on higher difficulty.

[Fenix]

Let's look closely what high Con can privide us? Almost nothing, at least on Domination.
I think my stealth-sledgehammer has more tactical advantages.

[MirddinEmris]

Let's look closely what high Con can privide us? Almost nothing, at least on Domination.
I think my stealth-sledgehammer has more tactical advantages.

Кто о чем, а вшивый о бане.

Sorry don't have the time to read the entire thread right now but would a high str/con sledgehammer build work on Dominating? I want to try the build out because I've never played it before but I'm currently running 3 builds in parallel on hard and I don't want to do yet another one unless it's on higher difficulty.

In theory, yes, but it really depends on specific build and how good you are at the game. I do not recommend playing on Dominating unless you find Hard very easy. Post your build in separate thread and i'll say wherever it is possible for you to finish the game with it in my opinion

[Tygrende]

Let's look closely what high Con can privide us? Almost nothing, at least on Domination.

CON is just as useful on DOMINATING as on Hard, if not more.

Best example I can think of: CON means more HP, more HP means you are less likely to get killed by Death Stalker's sting and can afford to use antidote without dying. You will not be able to avoid them with stealth until you get past their instant detection threshold, which is at least above 120+ effective stealth. Then you need really high detection, slightly above 250 in my experience. I was only able to spot them before they spot me on level 22 with 14 PER and Paranoia, no motion tracking goggles though.

It also makes you generally more likely to survive being hit, which is going to happen more often considering there's a lot more enemies on DOMINATING and they are harder to hit.

[Fenix]

You are absolutely right about Death Stalkers, but what besides them?
Psionics will tear that build apart to smithereens.

On the other hand, IF we will get some Con-based feat that greatly descreasing psionic-induced/inflicted damage, then Con will be great again.

[harperfan7]

What are the real defenses against psi?

Resolve
Bullhead/thick skull
correct padding
sometimes shield emitters
pre-emptive black dragon poison

Frankly I don't know what you're supposed to do when they hit you with mental subversion and summon two dopplegangers.

[Tygrende]

Psionics will tear that build apart to smithereens. On the other hand, IF we will get some Con-based feat that greatly descreasing psionic-induced/inflicted damage, then Con will great again.

CON is one of the very few things that can actually increase your survivability against thought control psi. Dodge/evasion won't work, DR/DT from armor won't work, shield won't work, having more HP will work. Having high resolve and/or Locus of Control will also work, but that's for psi builds only.

You also need to keep in mind that CON increases fortitude, which increases the chance of resisting stun/incapacitation effects that are physical rather than mental in nature. I feel this is a very underrated stat. Now that infused siphoner tabis don't give an immuity to immobilization, I switched to infused big leather tabis (they give a sizeable fortitude bonus) and beat DOMINATING wearing them. At 8 CON and wearing them, I was able to resist roughly 6 out of 10 stuns from Telekinetic Punch and roughly half of stuns coming from crawler poison. This can be a real life saver. You are still susceptible to Mental Breakdown, but you can't have everything.

Frankly I don't know what you're supposed to do when they hit you with mental subversion and summon two dopplegangers.

There are basically 2 options. You either run away as fast as possible, or use morphine, position yourself in a way that makes only one doppelganger able to hit you if possible and suck it up. In both cases having more HP helps, might not matter in the 1st case sometimes.

Or you just fry them with Neural Overload, but that's for psi builds only.