Earth Assault

Overview

Earth Assault is a secondary powerset for Dominators that will be included with Issue 16: Power Spectrum.

The following powers have been confirmed to be in the Earth Assault set by Comic Con attendees.[1]. Note that power effects may be altered from their original versions, as is often the case with Assault sets.

Power Tables

Dominator

The Earth Assault powerset is available as a secondary set for Dominators. The following table shows which powers are available and at what level:

Power	Level	Effect
Stone Spears	1	Ranged, Moderate DMG(Lethal)
Stone Mallet	2	Melee, High DMG(Smash), Foe Knockdown
Tremor	4	PBAoE, Moderate DMG(Smash), Foe Knockdown
Hurl Boulder	10	Ranged, High DMG(Smash), Foe Knockback, -Fly
Power Boost	16	Self +Special
Heavy Mallet	20	Melee, Superior DMG(Smash), Foe Knockdown
Seismic Smash	28	Melee, Extreme DMG(Smash), Foe Hold
Mud Pots	35	Toggle: PBAoE, Minor DoT(Fire), Foe Immobilize, -SPD
Fissure	38	Close (Targeted AoE), Moderate DMG(Smash/Lethal), Foe Disorient, Knockback

Powers

The following powers are in the Earth Assault powerset.

Fissure

This powerful stomp can cause a seismic disturbance. This will crack the earth itself and send a fault towards a targeted foe. Affected targets take moderate damage and may be thrown in the air and possibly disoriented.

Damage Moderate (Smashing/Lethal) Recharge Slow Minimum Level 38 (Dominator) Effects Close (Targeted Area of Effect) Foe Disorient, Knockback Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Knockback Distance Enhance Range Increase Attack Rate Enhance Disorient Duration Set Categories Ranged AoE Damage Stuns Knockback

Heavy Mallet

A more impressive form of Stone Mallet, the Heavy Mallet deals more damage, but is slower to swing. It has a greater chance of knocking down opponents.

Damage Superior (Smashing) Recharge Slow Minimum Level 20 (Dominator) Effects Melee Foe Knockdown Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Knockback Distance Increase Attack Rate Set Categories Melee Damage Knockback

Hurl Boulder

You are able to tear up a chunk of ground beneath your feet and Hurl it at an enemy. This attack deals moderate damage, and can knock foes back and even drop them out of the air if they are flying.

Damage High (Smashing) Recharge Moderate Minimum Level 10 (Dominator) Effects Ranged Foe Knockback, -Fly Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Knockback Distance Enhance Range Increase Attack Rate Set Categories Ranged Damage Knockback

Power Boost

Greatly boosts the secondary effects of your powers. Your powers' effects like heals, defense buffs, endurance drains, disorients, holds, immobilizes, knockbacks and more, are all improved. The effects of Power Boost last a short while, and only the next couple of attacks will be boosted.

Note: This power improves the strength of your Heals, Endurance drains and gifts, Runspeed powers, Flight powers, Defense buffs and debuffs, and ToHit buffs and debuffs, as well as the duration of your Sleep, Hold, Disorient, Immobilize, Fear, and Confuse status effects. It does not increase the strength of your Knockback effects. That part of the power description is outdated.

Recharge Long Minimum Level 16 (Dominator) Effects Self +Special Enhancements Reduce Endurance Cost Increase Attack Rate Set Categories None

Mud Pots

While this power is active, you draw upon the geothermal power of the Earth to create a bubbling pool of hot mud around yourself. All foes in melee range will become snared and entrapped in the mud, Immobilizing some and Slowing others. The boiling heat from Mud Pots may also deal some damage over time to the snared foes.

Recharge Fast Damage Minor Damage over Time(Fire) Minimum Level 35 (Dominator) Effects Toggle: Point Blank Area of Effect Foe Immobilize, -Speed Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Increase Attack Rate Enhance Slow Set Categories Melee AoE Damage Slow Movement

Seismic Smash

This massive attack hits with all the force of the Earth itself. It deals tremendous amounts of damage, and may Hold the target if they are not defeated outright.

Damage Extreme (Smashing) Recharge Slow Minimum Level 28 (Dominator) Effects Melee Foe Hold Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Hold Duration Increase Attack Rate Set Categories Melee Damage Holds

Stone Mallet

Your control over the earth allows you to form a mallet of solid stone. This Stone Mallet deals heavy damage, and can knock down weak foes.

Damage High (Smashing) Recharge Moderate Minimum Level 2 (Dominator) Effects Melee Foe Knockdown Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Knockback Distance Increase Attack Rate Set Categories Melee Damage Knockback

Stone Spears

You can cause Stone Spears to erupt around an enemy target. The Stone Spears deal moderate lethal damage.

Damage Moderate (Lethal) Recharge Fast Minimum Level 1 (Dominator) Effects Ranged Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Increase Attack Rate Set Categories Ranged Damage

Tremor

You can cause a localized earthquake immediately around you. This will deal moderate damage to every foe in melee range, while knocking them back.

Damage Moderate (Smashing) Recharge Slow Minimum Level 4 (Dominator) Effects Point Blank Area of Effect Foe Knockdown Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Knockback Distance Increase Attack Rate Set Categories Melee AoE Damage Knockback

Developer Quotes

According to Castle, Earth Assault was a personal project to help Sunstorm learn the ropes when he first started. Once the project was complete, they went ahead and proposed it for the (then) next round of Powerset Proliferation [2]

Sunstorm then made the following statement [3]

Never played a more "tankish" feeling dominator, despite it having no armors. ... Earth Assault will be a very melee heavy set. Also opted for the regular Hurl boulder Animation, since the Propel Boulder animation uses the full 3.5 second long propel animation. Now I may be a huge fan of propel for my grav doms/Trollers, but the thought of having 2 versions of it didn't seem too fun.

In a Dev Diary released on August 13, 2009, Castle confirmed the power lineup of the set, and again commented on the creation of Earth Assault:

Earth Assault began life as a training exercise for Jonathan "Sunstorm" Courney. Shortly after he began working here, he decided to build a new assault set for Dominators in order to help familiarize himself with the powers system. He spent some time picking the powers, dreaming up new ones and testing them, and in general just doing some really innovative and crazy things with them. After a while, he decided to take his test bed and turn it into something that could be released to the fans. This led to a lot of rebalancing, rebuilding, and when he was finally satisfied with it, he pitched it to me. Although it's taken awhile for it to be implemented, we're happy that we're finally able to include it with Issue 16.

Earth Assault, like other Assault sets, combines a good mix of Ranged and Melee powers. It has a healthy dose of soft control, good damage, and with Mud Pots - one of the best Damage Auras available.