DC Universe Online Mental Powerset Information Guide

DC Universe Online Mental Powerset Information Guide by frzn

“You must be mental”

The first two versions of this thread were created by Anoxia who, in response to the lack of accurate in-game tooltips, decided to create a place for players to share useful information on the mental powerset.  I have mixed in parts of Anoxia’s work with some writing of my own.
If you have information to add to the front page, an inaccuracy to correct, if you deserve credit and I missed you, etc. please send me a pm.

General Information
Roles – General

“In the Controller role you gain 350 Vitalization, your Dominance is increased by 65% and the strength of all controller effects is significantly magnified.” – this tooltip is correct.

When it says that control effects are magnified, it means that all enemy effecting mental powers will now have a crowd control effect, and the durations of your mental crowd control are greater than they are in the dps role.  Many powers also gain debuffs in the control role.  Debuffs of the same type to not stack, with one exception (see Roles – PvP).  What isn’t explicitly stated is that you no longer gain the effects of using powers in the damage role (in the damage role all powers grant a temporay damage buff between 35% to 60% after activation, as listed in their descriptions).

Roles – PvP

“While in the Controller role you have a special advantage versus Nature and Sorcery users.  When targeting them with your super powers you severely reduce their ability to heal in the Healing role.  Attacking them may inspire Confidence with you, briefly increasing your damage by 35%.” – this tooltip is correct.

What the tooltip doesn’t tell you is that tanks in the tank role have a high chance to ignore any crowd control or debuffing effects used on them, and that they get a Confidence bonus against controllers.
The reduction in healing against Nature and Sorcery players is around -60% and stacks with the -25% healing debuff found on some powers to give a total of around -70%.  This is because the debuffs are applied sequentially.

Dominance

“Dominance increases the number of health points lost by a target before a Control effect ends.  At higher levels, Dominance must be higher than enemy Willpower to be effective.  2 Dominance = 1 additional damage before control breaks.” – this tooltip is correct.

There are some rumors floating around that dominance increases the duration of control powers and that it increases the energy cost to break free of them in pvp.  These are both incorrect (I have a feeling that I inadvertently started the second rumor myself when I suggested that it should have that effect).  Some powers apply their damage component after their crowd control component and so tend to break themselves, making them look like they have shorter durations than they actually do (mass levitation, for example).  With sufficient dominance, they will not deal enough damage to break themselves but will still break more easily from damage than other powers which apply damage before crowd control.  At level 30 your inherent dominance is 0 and it can be raised through equipment, passive skills, and one iconic power.

Dominance is rarely useful in pvp as players almost always break out of control effects before the effect is broken through damage.

Dominance appears to be related to aggro in some way, but the mechanic is unclear at best.
[unconfirmed bug]  Dominance may decrease the duration of your debuffs.

Hard mode alerts that require 200 Dominance to land control powers
Arkham Asylum, Smallville, Striker’s Island Penitentiary

Raids that require 350 Dominance to land control powers
Batcave: Outer Caverns, Batcave: Inner Sanctum, Kahndaq

Vitalization

“Vitalization increases power healing effects.  10 Vitalization = 1% power generation increase.” – this tooltip is correct.

The mental powers Telekinesis (from the Telekinesis tree) and Psychic Blades (from the Illusion tree) will restore power over time to each group member (including yourself) in range when activated in the control role.  This is done by granting a 20 second buff (indicated by a green lightning bolt icon under your supercharge bar) which will restore 14 power every second.  Since 10 Vitalization = 1% power regeneration increase, every ~71.43* Vitalization will add 1 power per tick.  Ticks of power restoration can critical for an extra +25% power restored, but is reported not to be effected by any kind of critical enhancements (healing or damage).  Your inherent Vitalization at level 30 is 0 and you can raise it through equipment, passive skills, one iconic power, and being in the control role.

* The game grants power in units of 1 and will round your score down so any Vitalization below the threshold for a tick is wasted.  For this reason, always round up when calculating the necessary Vitalization to increase your power generation.

Passive Dominance and Vitalization

Iconic powers
Intimidating Gaze: +25 to Dominance (Requires Level 22)
Wisdom of Solomon: +50 Vitalization & +100 Power (Requires Level 22)

Weapon trees that give passive Dominance
Brawling: Dominance in Tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock, then 3 Points to max. Gives +21 Dominance total.
Dual Wield: Dominance in Tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock, then 3 points to max. Gives +21 Dominance total.
Staff: Dominance in tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock and then, 3 points to max. Gives +21 Dominance total.
Hand Blaster: Dominance in Tier 5. Costs 4 points to unlock then, 3 points to max. Gives +21 Dominance total.

Weapon trees that give passive Vitalization
Rifle: Vitalization in tier 3 and 5. Costs 2/4 points to unlock and then 1/3 points to max (7 points total). Gives +19 Vitalization total.
Dual Pistols: Vitalization in tier 3 and 5. Costs 2/4 points to unlock and then 1/3 points to max (7 points total). Gives +19 Vitalization total.
Two Hand: Vitalization in tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock and then 3 points to max. Gives +15 Vitalization total.
One Hand: Vitalization in tier 5. Costs 4 points to unlock and 3 points to max. Gives +15 Vitalization total.
Bow: Vitalization in tier 2. Costs 1 point to unlock and then 1 point to max. Gives +4 Vitalization total.
Dual Wield: Vitalization in Tier 2. Costs 1 point to unlock then 1 point to max. Gives +4 Vitalization total.
Staff: Vitalization in tier 3. Costs 2 points to unlock and 1 point to max. Gives +4 Vitalization total.

DPS

Unlike the other two roles, controllers receive no damage penalty in their non-dps role, meaning they will often come in right behind the dps role players in raids and alerts.  This also raises the question if it is better to go for the might or crit skill passives.  The simple answer is that it’s best to go with whatever trees grant you the most useful passives with the fewest useless prerequisites.  The slightly less simple answer is that might and crit passives are fairly well balanced if your damage is evenly divided between your weapons and powers, so if you’re dealing more weapon damage crit is more beneficial and if you’re dealing more power damage might is more beneficial.  This generally, but not always, means that crit is better for pve and might is better for pvp.

Might – at 30 your base might is 572.  Each point of might at level 30 adds +0.45% to the base damage dealt by your powers.  To calculate how increasing your might will effect your skill damage, divide your intended might by your current might and multiply by 0.45%.  You can increase your might through equipment and passive skills.

Critical Attack Chance – at 30, your base critical attack chance is [unconfirmed] 5% and it applies to both your weapon and skill attacks.  For damage over time effects (DoTs), each tick of damage has a separate roll to crit.  To calculate your dps added by increasing your critical attack chance, subtract your current critical attack chance from your intended critical attack chance and multiply by your critical attack damage.  You can increase your critical attack chance through passive skills and one iconic power, and tree specialization.

Critical Attack Damage – at 30, your base critical attack damage is 25%.  This is the additional amount of damage added on a crit, and it applies after all other damage enhancing effects (such as might).  To calculate your dps added by increasing your critical attack damage, subtract your current critical attack damage from your intended critical attack damage and multiply by your critical attack chance.  You can increase your critical attack damage through passive skills, one iconic power, and tree specialization.

[unconfirmed]  Might may increase the duration of your debuffs.

[magnitude untested, seems to be different for different attacks]  Most attacks (powers and weapons) that hit multiple enemies will do reduced damage to each individual based on the number of enemies hit.  Many of the aoe powers have a target limit as well (for those that have a limit, it’s typically 4 enemies).

 Passive Might and Criticals

Iconic powers
Weapons Expert: +3% to Critical Attack Chance (Requires Level 22)
Tactical Genius: +10% to Critical Attack Damage (Requires Level 22)

Weapon trees that give passive Might

One Handed: Might in tier 3/5. Costs 2/4 points to unlock and then 1/3 points to max (7 total). Gives +70 Might total.
Bow: Might in tier 5. Costs 4 points to unlock and then 3 points to max. Gives +60 Might total.
Hand Blaster: Might in tier 5. Costs 4 points to unlock and then 3 points to max. Gives +60 Might total.
Rifle: Might in tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock and then 1 points to max. Gives +10 Might total.
Dual Pistols: Might in tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock and then 1 points to max. Gives +10 Might total.
Martial Arts: Might in tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock and then 1 points to max. Gives +10 Might total.
Staff: Might in tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock and then 1 points to max. Gives +10 Might total.

Weapon trees that give passive Critical Attack Chance

Rifle: Chance in tier 5. Costs 4 points to unlock and then 3 points to max. Gives +3% Chance total.
Staff: Chance in tier 5. Costs 4 points to unlock and then 3 points to max. Gives +3% Chance total.
Two Handed: Chance in tier 5. Costs 4 points to unlock and then 3 points to max. Gives +3% Chance total.
One Handed: Chance in tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock and then 2 points to max. Gives +2% Chance total.
Bow: Chance in tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock and then 1 points to max. Gives +1% Chance total.
Brawling: Chance in tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock and then 1 points to max. Gives +1% Chance total.
Dual Wield: Chance in tier 4. Costs 3 points to unlock and then 1 points to max. Gives +1% Chance total.

Weapon trees that give passive Critical Attack Damage

Dual Pistols: Damage in tier 1/5. Costs 0/4 points to unlock and then 1/3 points to max (7 points total). Gives +14% Damage total.
Dual Wield: Damage in tier 1/5. Costs 0/4 points to unlock and then 1/3 points to max (7 points total). Gives +14% Damage total.
Martial Arts: Damage in tier 1/5. Costs 0/4 points to unlock and then 1/3 points to max (7 points total). Gives +14% Damage total.
Brawling: Damage in tier 5. Costs 4 points to unlock and then 3 points to max. Gives +12% Damage total.
Bow: Damage in tier 1. Costs 0 points to unlock and then 1 points to max. Gives +2% Damage total.
Hand Blaster: Damage in tier 1. Costs 0 points to unlock and then 1 points to max. Gives +2% Damage total.
Two Handed: Damage in tier 1. Costs 0 points to unlock and then 1 points to max. Gives +2% Damage total.

Tree Specialization

You are considered specialized in a power tree (Illusion or Telekinesis) when you have more power points invested in it than in the other tree.  In the event of an even distribution you will be considered specialized in the tree into which you had invested more points before spending the last point which evened them out*.
*If you had 5 points in illusion and 4 in telekinesis you would be specialized in illusion.  If you then added a 5th into telekinesis, you would still be specialized in illusion.  If then you added a 6th point into telekinesis, you would be specialized in telekinesis.  If you then added a 6th point into illusion, you would remain specialized in telekinesis.

Notes on testing method

Damage and duration testing was done in control mode on target dummies in the hall of doom with 25 replicates for damage powers and 10 replicates for power interactions.  Damage has been rounded to the nearest whole number and uses telekinesis as the standard* (more exact numbers and useful comparisons are available in the chart at the end).  More testing is very welcome (for any power sets or movement set), but please report your testing method, raw data (including casting times), and please use the power telekinesis as your basis for comparison.

Power costs were tested by emptying the power bar, regenerating power at the slowest possible rate (a single rmb gave 10 power 9 times), and then activating a power the instant it became available to empty the power bar all the way to 0.  After that, power was again regenerated at the slowest possible rate and the power in question (or another power to mark its place if the power being tested was the type that doesn’t appear in the combat log) was activated immediately upon becoming available.  The power generated between activations was then counted.

Cast time refers to the duration of the animation.**  Recast time in (the power description, the charts at the end are slightly different) is the time between the beginning of the casting animation and the time when the power can be used again.  It takes into account the cast time and the cooldown, as well as any overlap between the two.  Bost were tested using a frame-by-frame analysis in windows movie maker (videos recorded with fraps at 30fps).  Anything with a time component that does not have two decimal places was timed with a stopwatch and rounded to the nearest 1/4 second.

* You could also say this is your damage at 1084 might.  Or that the damage that telekinesis does has been defined as a 117 and everything else has been normalized against to that.  Most powers have a 95% confidence interval of <5, a few are at <10, tk bolt against helpless/encased targets is 15.5.

**After the power button was hit the right mouse button was clicked as quickly as possible.  The time between when the character first started to move to the time that the first white damage appeared over the target’s head is considered the animation.  In other words, it is the time during which your power activation prevents you from dealing damage with weapon attacks.

Telekinesis

“Specializing in this tree grants +1% critical attack chance and +35 power” – this tooltip is correct.

Telekinesis
“Lifts and holds enemies helplessly in the air while hurling nearby objects at them.
[Control Role] Restores Power to group members over time
[Damage Role] Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets (at least 5 seconds)” – this tooltip is incomplete.
tier 1 – 200 power – single target – 10s/4s cc duration (control/dps – time before being dropped) – 1.20s cast time – 1.20s recast time – 117 damage
Applies a -500 defense/toughness debuff in control role (500 defense ≈ 7% damage mitigation).
If a throwable object is nearby, it will be lifted and thrown at the enemy for damage.  The damage is not equal to regular thrown item damage, and is effected by the size of the object thrown.  Weaponization (from the Super Strength and Neo-Venom Boost iconic powers) does not increase the damage.
See vitalization for information on how it restores power.

Psychic Resonance
“Unleashes a pulse of telekinetic energy at nearby enemies.
[Power Interactions] Helpless enemies take additional damage; enemies in Ice, Nature, Mental, or Gadgets encasements will explode and damage other enemies.
[Damage Role] Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets (at least 5 seconds)” – this tooltip is correct.
tier 2 – 300 power – wide cone – 15s/4.5s cc duration (control/dps) – 1.16s cast time – 1.20s recast time – 123 damage
Prerequisite for Pyrokinesis and Cryokinesis.
Only ccs the target mob in the dps role.
Helpless enemies take 173 damage.
Encased enemies take 193 damage and a portion of this [magnitude unconfirmed] to nearby enemies.  Note:  a very large number will pop up on screen that doesn’t appear in the chat log – this is the damage done to the encasement effect itself.
2 target limit for the control portion.

Telekinetic Push
“Projects a cone of mental energy that damages and knocks down enemies.
[Power Interactions] Helpless enemies take additional damage.
[Damage Role] Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets (at least 5 seconds)” – this tooltip is incomplete.
tier 2 – 200 power – narrow cone – 15s cc duration (control) – 1.16s cast time – 1.20s recast time – 118 damage
Prerequisite for Telekinetic Bolt and Mass Levitation.
Helpless enemies take 178 damage.
Knocks back enemies in both control and damage roles.
2 target limit for the knockback+control portion (both are applied to the same enemy).

Psychic Empowerment
“Restores Power to the three most fatigued group members.
[Damage Role] Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets (at least 5 seconds)” – this tooltip is correct.
tier 2 – 300 power – 1.27s cast time – 1.60s recast time – effects up to 3 group members
Prerequisite for Thought Bubble and Telekinetic Shield.
Does not root while casting.
The amount of power restored per person decreases with each additional person who gains power.

Does not restore power to the user.

Bolt Barrage
“[Requires Level 8]
[50% Supercharge Cost]
Devastates nearby enemies with a rapid-fire series of telekinetic bolts.” – this tooltip is correct.
tier 3 – 0 power – wide cone – 1.08s cast time – 3s recast time – 80 damage per bolt
Fires 10 bolts which spread out in a wide cone.  Enemies can be hit by multiple bolts (potentially all of them).
Each bolt causes knockdown.

Telekinetic Bolt
“[Requires Level 8]
[Vulnerable to Interrupt]
Blasts out a cone of telekinetic energy.
[Power Interactions]
Helpless enemies take additional damage; enemies Encased in Ice, Nature, Mental, or Gadgets encasements will explode and damage other enemies.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 60% until the hit counter (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is incomplete.
tier 3 – 425 power – cone (wider than it appears) – 10s control duration (control) –  3.34s cast time – 4.10s recast time –350 damage
Requires Psychic Push.
Prerequisite for Mass levitation.
Knocks back enemies.
Has a cast time of 3s.
Does not do reduced damage against multiple targets.
Has a limit of 4[?] targets.
Deals 530 damage to helpless enemies.
Deals 476 damage to enemies encased by thought bubble and a portion [magnitude unconfirmed] of this to nearby enemies.  Note:  a very large number will pop up on screen that doesn’t appear in the chat log – this is the damage done to the encasement effect itself.

Bastion
“[Requires Level 8]
[Usable While Controlled]
[100% Supercharge Cost]
Protects all teammates from damage with ethereal telekinetic bubbles.”  – this tooltip is incorrect.
tier 3 – 0 power – effects all group members – 15s duration or until it breaks
Protection includes the controller.
Absorbs 900 damage.
Costs 50% supercharge rather than 100%.

Pyrokinesis
“[Requires Level 12]
Causes an enemy to burst into flames.
[Power Interactions]
Inflicts Burning to cause damage over time.  Helpless enemies take additional damage; enemies Encased in Ice, Nature, Mental, or Gadgets encasements will explode and damage nearby enemies.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 45% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is incomplete.
tier 4 – 300 power – single target –5s/2s cc duration (control/dps) – 1.25s cast time – 1.25s recast time – 117 damage + DoT
Requires Psychic Resonance.
Prerequisite for Cryokinesis.
Applies a -25% healing debuff in control role.
Gives a small DoT  (~6 damage) and a larger DoT (~30 damage), both of which tick 13 times over 13 seconds to deal 434 additional damage.  They stack with eachother, but not with themselves.
[bug?] Will occasionally hit multiple enemies who are standing very very close to each other.
[bug?] Will overwrite any other pyrokinesis or psychic flames DoTs on the target, even from other players.
Deals 169 damage to helpless enemies on the initial hit, and regular damage on the dot.
Explodes encasements, doing regular damage to the target and and spreading the DoT to nearby enemies.  Note:  a very large number will pop up on screen that doesn’t appear in the chat log – this is the damage done to the encasement effect itself.
Always uses its own +45% damage boost in dps mode rather than the one that was active when it was cast.

Thought Bubble
Encases an enemy in a force field
[Control Role]
Reduces enemy defenses
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 45% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)” – this tooltip is correct.
tier 4 – 300 power – single target – 15s/8s cc duration (control/dps) – 1.13s cast time – 1.13s recast time
Requires Psychic Empowerment.
Prerequisite for Telekinetic Shield.
Applies a -500 defense/toughness debuff in control role (500 defense ≈ 7% damage mitigation).
Encased enemies do not take damage from normal attacks, but will take damage if picked up and smashed into other enemies or the ground.
Encasement effects take more damage to break than other cc effects.

Cryokinesis
“[Requires level 16]
Roots enemies around your target.
[Power Interactions]
Inflicts Frostbite to make enemies vulnerable to freezing effects; may encase Frostbitten enemies.
[Control Role]
Decreases the targets damage output.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 45% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is  correct.
tier 5 – 475 power – 2 target aoe – 15s/10s cc duration (control/dps) –  1.20s cast time – 1.20s recast time – 116 damage
Requires Psychic Resonance and Pyrokinesis.
The damage debuff is -25%, possibly only effecting precisionMay not work in pvp.
Encased enemies do not take damage from normal attacks, but will take damage if picked up and smashed into other enemies or the ground.
Encasement effects take more damage to break than other cc effects.

Mass Levitation
“[Requires level 16]
Levitates nearby enemies helplessly into the air.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 60% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is incomplete.
tier 5 – 400 power – medium aoe – 15s/5s cc duration (control/dps – time before being dropped) –  3.54s cast time – 4.17s recast time – 353 damage
Has a cast time.
Does not deal reduced damage against multiple targets.
Deals damage after the cc effect, meaning at low domination it will only cc for a couple seconds and at high domination it will break easily through additional damage.

Telekinetic Shield
“[Requires Level 16]
[Usable While Controlled]
Surrounds you with telekinetic force, preventing damage
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 50% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is correct.
tier 5 – 350 power – self buff – 15s buff duration or until absorbs its limit of damage – 2s cast time – 40s recast time
Absorbs 600 damage.

Illusion

“Specializing in this tree grants +5% critical attack damage and +1 stealth” – this tooltip is correct.

Psychic Blades
“Flings a trio of Psychic Blades to assault enemies in their path.
[Control Role]
Restores Power to group members over time.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is incomplete.
tier 1 – 200 power – cone – 2s control duration (control role) – 1.53s cast time – 3.00s recast time – 97 damage
The blades spread out in a cone.  They appear to be physical objects and so are blocked by objects in the environment, pushing against them and hitting them multiple times for massive damage.  They are not blocked by players and will pass through them, but it is possible (and very difficult) to hit an individual multiple times with this power.
Deals 149 damage to enemies affected by terror.
See vitalization for information on how it restores power.
No target limit for the control portion.

Menace
“Increases the odds of immobilizing your enemies with fear.
[Control Role]
Increases the stun duration on Terrified enemies.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is incorrect and incomplete.
tier 2 – 200 power – self buff – 2s/2s control duration (control/dps) – 1.73s cast time – 1.73s recast time – 20s buff duration
Prerequisite for Phantom Flames and Mass Hysteria.
Will proc on ~20% of weapon attacks.  Note that this is the attack and not the hit, so with an aoe attack all enemies hit by the attack will be stunned at the same time.  Each enemy that is hit by the attack will be the center of an aoe stun.
Enemies are stunned rather than immobilized.
Enemies affected by Terror are stunned for 3s in the control role.  [unknown if this also works in the damage role]
Appears to take less damage to break than most cc powers.
No target limit.

Illusory Forms
“[Out of Combat Only]
Disguises you as an anonymous or enemy form, allowing you to use special surprise attacks”  – this tooltip is woefully inadequate.
tier 2 – self buff
Prerequisite for Terrorize and Mass Terror.
Grants 2 shape-shift forms: Civilian and Scientist.  2s cast time – 15s recast time (separate timer for each form).
Grants the generic ability: Disguise.  1.5s cast time – 15s recast time.

In the shape-shift forms you move at a walking pace, can not activate your movement powers, can not block, and can not roll.  You are granted a customizable power bar (appears in the loadout section) which includes 3 new abilities: Ambush Sleep, Ambush Pain Blast, and Return to Normal.  Using any ability besides Ambush Sleep and Mass Hysteria will remove the disguise.  Some of your normal powers [list unavailable] will not be able to be placed on your shape-shift bar.

Ambush Sleep will put an enemy to sleep for 30s.  This is a ranged single target cc that breaks on damage.  1.5s cast time – 15s recast time.

Ambush Pain Blast is a short ranged attack which deals a large amount of damage [magnitude untested] with a high chance to crit.  0.75s cast time – 15s recast time.

Return to Normal will remove the disguise.

Mobs will not attack you unless you get very close to them (they will be more likely to spot you if you approach from the front).  Players will see you as an npc, which works pretty well in places where they would expect to see npcs (open world pvp) and very poorly where they wouldn’t (such as arenas).

The Disguise ability will grant you the stealth-like ability of the shape-shift form against mobs without changing your loadout bar and allowing you to block, roll, and walk at normal speed.  Attacking, using a power, or activating movement mode will end the effect.

None of these moves cost any power.

Grandeur
“[Usable While Controlled]
Fills nearby enemies with awe compelling them to attack other targets, frees you from control effects and prevents damage for a short time.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is correct.
tier 2 – 250 power – self buff – 1.36s cast time – 30s recast time – 4s buff duration
Prerequisite for Psychic Shock and Reflect Pain.
Absorbs 375 damage.
Does not root while casting.
Grandeur removes your current aggro but does not prevent you from regaining it, meaning enemies will continue to attack you if there are no other targets around.  The damage prevention appears to either be complete damage immunity or a huge damage shield.

Mass Hysteria
“[Requires Level 8]
[100% Supercharge Cost]
Bestows a spectral form with increased offensive capabilities and powers of illusion
[Power Interactions]
Inflicts Terror to stun and render enemies vulnerable to illusions” – this tooltip is incomplete.
tier 3 – 0 power – self buff – 20s buff duration
Increases power regeneration.
Summons 3 illusionary specters which draw mobs attention away from you.
[unconfirmed, bug?] Prevents Psychic Blades and Telekinesis from giving power to your teammates.

Terrorize
“[Requires Level 8]
Freezes an enemy with fright
[Power Interactions]
Inflicts Terror to make enemies vulnerable to illusions
[Control Role]
Reduces the targets damage output
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 40% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is correct.
tier 3 – 250 power – single target – 15s/8s control duration (control/dps)– 1.13s cast – 1.23s recast – 115 damage
The damage debuff is -25%, possibly only effecting precision.  May not work in pvp.
Damage is applied after the control breaks.

Psychic Shield
“[Requires Level 8]
[100% Supercharge Cost]
Protects you and groupmates from damage with a mental projection.” – this tooltip is incomplete.
tier 3 – 0 power – effects all group members – 15s duration or until it breaks –1.5s cast time – 30 damage per retaliation.
Protection includes the controller.
Damages attackers up to 8 times each.
Absorbs 1050 damage.

Phantom Flames
“[Requires Level 12]
Psychically assaults your target with the conviction they are aflame
[Power Interactions]
Inflicts Burning to cause damage over time; Terrified enemies take additional damage.
[Control Role]
Reduces enemy defenses.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 45% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is correct.
tier 4 – 300 power – small aoe – 15s/3 control duration (control/dps) – 1.70s cast time – 3.06s recast time – 93 damage + DoT
Requires Menace.
Prerequisite for Mass Hysteria.
Applies a -500 defense/toughness debuff in control role (500 defense ≈ 7% damage mitigation).
DoT ticks 7 times at 1/1s for a total of 111 additional damage.
DoT does not stack with itself.
Deals 146 to terrorized enemies on the initial hit, and regular damage on the DoT.
2 target limit for the control portion.

Psychic Shock
“[Requires Level 12]
Convince enemies they are being electrocuted
[Power Interactions]
Electrifies enemies, making them vulnerable to Electrified Power Interactions; Enemies afflicted with terror have their maximum health reduced.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 45% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is unconfirmable but believed to be incorrect.
tier 4 – 250 power – small aoe – 15s/2.5s cc duration (control/dps) – 2.00s cast time – 3.10s recast time – 119 damage
Requires Grandeur.
Prerequisite for Reflect Pain.
Deals 177 damage to terrorized enemies.
The maximum health reduction does not appear to actually work, but it is very difficult to test, particularly if the magnitude is small.
2 target limit for the control portion.

Horrific Visage
“[Requires Level 16]
Disguises an enemy as a monster to terrify and confuse their allies.
[Control Role]
Reduces the targets ability to heal.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 50% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is questionable.
tier 5 – 300 power – 8s/8s control duration (control/dps) – 1.11s cast time – 8s recast time
Requires Menace and Phantom Flames.
Turns an enemy into a non-aggressive monster, who will in turn stun and transform other enemies.  Each enemy, including the original target, is controlled for 8 seconds.
After an enemy reverts back to their normal form they are given a short duration immunity to being transformed again.
May not give a healing debuff.
Gives a –precision debuff icon, that appears not to debuff precision in PvP.  Unconfirmed for PvE.
Limited to affecting 3 mobs.

Mass Terror
“[Requires Level 16]
Inflicts debilitating fear on multiple enemies.
[Power Interactions]
Inflicts Terror to make enemies more vulnerable to illusions.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 50% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is correct.
tier 5 – 400 power – large aoe – 5s cc duration [broke on last tick of dot] (control and dps) – 1.43s cast – 1.43s recast – 358 damage
Requires Illusory Forms and Terror.
Deals damage over 3 ticks (ticks once per second after 2 seconds).  Stacks with itself.
Tends to break itself with its own damage more so than any other mental powers.  With higher dominance it lasts through more ticks [full duration unknown].
2 target limit for the control portion.

Reflect Pain
“[Requires Level 16]
Deflects damage back at your attacker when you are not blocking and prevents some damage.
[Damage Role]
Increases all damage by 50% until the hit counter resets (at least five seconds)”  – this tooltip is vague.
tier 5 – 350 power – self buff – 5s duration– 1.36s cast time – 20s recast time – 64 [different testing method]* damage per retaliation
Requires Grandeur and Psychic Shock.
Absorbs 250 damage over 5 seconds.  Retaliation charges last after damage shield has been consumed.
It retaliates 4 attacks over 5 seconds.  Absorbsion shield lasts after retaliation charges have been consumed.
*Tested against other enemies, then used other attacks to determine that targeting dummies were absorbing ~33% of incoming damage, then normalized damage using this.  It also seems clear that the outgoing damage is not calculated based on the incoming damage (or the mentalist’s defense).

Other
Damage Comparisons

Tene wrote:

Let’s pick a standard prec might and weapon. And then chose a weapon attack filler.
So for example we choose rifle mortar and stipulate it’s a 208 hit or whatever.
Then we can go to each power:
Effective Damage = Power Damage – (Mortar Dps * Power Cast Time)
Effective Damage per Power = Effective Damage/ Power Cost
So if a pyro is doing 558 damage, it has an effective damage of 255 damage, as that is what we gain over mortar spam.
This should give us the powers sorted in such a way that we can easily look and craft both a max dps and max efficiency rotation.  It would also let us weed out the -dps powers that cluster in the tree.
Which would be interesting to see. Gotta wonder how many powers in each tree should just be replaced with the words ‘use mortar instead’

The charts use a 76.1 dps weapon, 200 precision, and a 1.9x weapon combo.  This gives a weapon combo dps of 121.73
I can add other combos as requested.  As above, damage is in based off of telekinesis (1084 might) and against sparring dummies.  All attacks are calculated against a single target.  Recast times are calculated to let DoTs tick for their full durations (taking into account stacking and non-stacking).

Mental Powers

Mental Combos
Calculated from power data.

The Data

You can download a copy of the data spreadsheet here (last updated 3/12/11).  The statistical analysis cells are static and adjusting the data itself will not change them.  To change the might and weapon combo the sheet is based on, go to the mental data page and adjust the numbers in red (these are the only cells I recommend adjusting).  Here’s what they are:

Target TK: rather than the chart being set for a specific might value, it’s set for a specific damage dealt by telekinesis.  By adjusting this value, the might value will change to whatever might would be required to have telekinesis deal that much damage on average.  You can adjust this cell to reflect any power by going into cell B3 and replacing the reference to cell B49 with the 0 might value(s) of whatever power you’re interested in (if it’s a power with multiple ticks or a hit and a dot you’d have to take that into account as well).

Alternative 1: simply type a % into cell B3.

Alternative 2 (the best option for most people): input your might into cell B4 and replace the contents of cell B3 with this formula: =100+B4*0.45

Weapon dps: this is the dps value on your weapon.

Precision: the precision stat

Combo multi: this is how much damage your weapon combo does versus just regular weapon spam.  Although it is now outdated, you can check out tehm’s thread to get an idea of what you should enter here (the value of interest will look like #x BASE DPS).
Thank you for contributing data and information,

Anoxia, Aebrams, Capca, Cbonner, Clusternut, CTEN, cwg9, DastionNightshade, Ender, Fenrirw0lf, Fluhi, Gundrik, Jahboy, Nall, Sledeau, Tehm, Terrornaut, The Other Ted, Tene, XWingMitch0 and anyone else I missed/forgot (pm me and I’ll add you!).

And thank you to everybody participating in the discussion

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1 Response

  1. Iby says:

    in the spelloverview with numbers you wrote psychic push instead of telekinetic push.;)

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