Voltak

Not sure about best now that Illusion is here with Doms. It also depends on which specific content it is. Like I have said, hard mode content is very varied. But solid all around choices, Illusion Dark Mind and then Plant _____________ Basically Confuse is super good of a control power. Illusion now on Doms is a serious thing to appreciate now for different reasons as well. Illusion, Dark , and Mind, being the only Dominators that I would place bets to be able to SOLO the ITF (classical) and the Lord Recluse SF at max diff settings, with no insps, no deaths, and no temps. The other sets do not have a chance at doing these solo. I have done and I can still vouch for Earth to clear mission one and mission 2 of the ITF solo at max settings, but that's it. Parts 3 and 4... no way. EDIT *** meaning, completion of both, not one or the other. parts 3 AND 4 must be completed to successfully do the ITF classical. Does NOT count if you do part 3 alone and you give up on part 4. ____________________________ Earth Elec Are good runner ups, but there is a gap between Earth and Elec, but again, it depends on tactics. If you are solo, Elec's sleep is AMAZING !

THIS THIS. You can also go the vomit route as others, and myself have stated. A vomit and a debuff effect for the power ( to replace the sleep ) Just another option. You can also go immob You can also go fear as viable options

Two lore pets you cannot go wring with , perhaps never ever 1. Longbow , the regen debuff is strong, and the other debuffs are useful 2. Banish Pantheon , overall good dmg even AoE and decent resists debuffs __________ Honorable mention goes to Carnies, that BOSS blaster is an uber blaster.

City of Heroes is a beloved game indeed. Since live it won the hearts and mind of many of us. I am happy it came back to life. I know a lot of the game is easy, but especially made much easier since the introduction and further growth and integration of IOs. For those of you who would like to challenge yourselves a bit more with Dominators, kudos. Dominators are not the easiest Class or AT to play but they are more a finesse type and they reward a more strategic approach. They control and damage, rinse and repeat. The most important factor for their safety being crowd control. Here are a few ideas to challenge you and it can certainly improve your skills as well. 1. If you want to team, make your teams small, the smaller they are, the better. *** Even in smaller teams, if things get too easy, everyone will have a chance to do something. In teams of 8, when things get too easy, some may be doing most or all the engagements and others might do little. This is seen a lot when doing radio missions, and you see a team of 8 and they are clearing everything so fast. My suggestion to make things a little bit more edgy is to make the team smaller. 2. If you want to go at it solo, then increase the number of mobs gradually until you can do the max. 3. Increase the level of the mobs , gradually until you can comfortably do +4s. 4. Little or no inspiration usage. 5. Little or no usage of temp powers. _________________________ Eventually work your way towards fighting AVs by yourself. Right now, if you do exemp down to do story arcs or task forces , the developers have made it significantly easier for you. You get more powers earlier on. You get more slots and more of the benefits of IOs And, to the levels this applies, you get your pets much earlier than you could before, very significant. So, for example, doing Penelope Yin Task Force is now significant easier to do alone than before. Having more slots, having more bonuses/more IOs Having your pets available These things have made it much easier for you Take advantage of that. ____________________ NEW SECTION - SOLOING AVs with dominators. Here are a few ideas on how to approach those battles or what strategies to keep in mind when doing this: 1. Pets - Earth Control I did earlier on, way before the changes came to the game on when and how many powers you received as the character levels up, I did some of this. When I was doing the AV fights at earlier levels (before 50, but especially lvls 15 and above) WE HAD NO ACCESS to pets. Then later, when the changes came, you could see players doing those same battles but with a lot more advantages as I mentioned above -- more powers, more IOs, more slots, more bonuses , and pets. Having access to pets is an advantage. Having access to a PET that DRAWS ALL or ALMOST ALL aggro AWAY FROM YOU is a superior advantage. That is wha Earth has. This makes a hell of a lot easier to fight a single AV vs you. You won't even need inspirations if all the aggro is taken away from you. You will most definitely need to worry about is taking care of your pet Join other groups or other players who seek out hard mode. Playing in teams , even smaller teams, is, for many , a whole lot more fun than going solo. The kryptonite for Earth is when you are facing more than one AV by yourself. Your pet might not help you survive that fight, especially without inspirations or temps. This may very well be true in fight with 3 enemies like 1 AV, and 2 Elite bosses vs you. 2. Using Dark or Illusion dominators. The key here is that you have NO PET that draws aggro away from you. Illusion for doms is not like Illusion for controllers. Players who use Illusion controllers to solo AVs or GMs rely decisively on Phantom Army to get the aggro off the player and Phantom Army soaks the dmg that could potentially kill the controller. Thus the idea of Earth control above. Developers took that taunt power off the Phantom Army for Dominators. Phantom Army is still very useful for Dominators. It certainly distract AT TIMES the AV and the AV might focus for a bit on them. These two dominators will have to rely on making sure they can tank or they have some form of mitigation vs the incoming attacks. So when I was soloing, for example, the Carnies AV, I had to tank or mitigate the dmg or attacks that were focused on me , not any of my pets. Inspirations were a must, I got no pet to make the AV ignore me. The pets are only there to mostly help with DMG and in some very very few times distract the AV. So what makes them good for these fights ? The build, of course, might certainly help for you to tank, but in addition to that, if there are other enemies around, you can posses or confuse those enemies to help you kill the AV. That is why Dark, Illusion, and even Mind Dominators have a vast and, perhaps a decisive advantage, over Earth Control in these scenarios of multiple AVs together, or 1 AV and a couple of Elite bosses around. You confuse or posses one AV to help kill another AV, or, you posses one Elite Boss to help you kill the AV. 3. Mind Control -- No one can stack the combinations of holds and confusions faster than a Mind Dominator, and if we talking holds alone, fire control is perhaps the only one that can compete in speed for casting the holds. But I am going to leave fire out of this since it lacks a confuse power. While doing testing vs lvl 54s AVs, we witnessed the speed that a Mind dominator can stack the holds to overcome the purple triangles of protection. We tested hold, sleep, hold, sleep, hold, sleep, and the number required to reach breach of the triangle in order to permanently hold the AV was acquired far faster than any other dominator could possibly do it, again, leaving Fire out of this discussion. But, again, mind can confuse another AV in order to kill some other AV. I can use an example, not a solo vs AV example, but to illustrate this point -- 4 Dominators doing the ITF at 2 star difficulty. Twin fight at part 3. The mind Dom and my Dark dominator joined forces to quickly permanently confuse one of the Twins. Watching the dmg one of the twins did to the other was awesome, and the other twin quickly died. This idea is useful when you want to solo groups of AVs with a dominator that has confuse. But Mind has an additional useful instrument --- Mind Dominator sleeps all AVs, and tackle each AV one by one, or sleep all , then stack the confuse on one of the AVs, then use that AV to kill another. The only other Dominator that I know of who has solo'd the Lord Recluse Strike Force, besides me, he or she did it at 0+ difficulty settings with inspirations. But this is exactly the tactic used. ______________________________________ Secondaries to solo AVs -- For a prolonged fight such as this, endurance is a big deal, among other things. The only set that gives you a significant boost of endurance in your secondary (assault ) set is Psi assault. Drain Psyche is UBER UBER UBER. Vs lvl 54 AVs, your regen debuff is vastly resisted but still contributes , but your endurance help is significant because it allows you , if you are level 50, to use other incarnates for your destiny instead of using ageless to help your endurance. For example, you can use barrier to help you and your pets be even tankier and much more sturdy. If you are not using Psi assault, you have other choices but the most important choices will be sets that include self healing Dark assault Radiation assault They both do excellent damage. ____________________________ Secondaries with no heal I just don't like them because that self sustain help is really useful, but... to each his own. Fire Energy Earth assault Certainly do excellent dmg and earth assault will even help you stack the holds on any AV especially with the very fast cast that Seismic Smash has. ____________________________________________________ Completing the Master Lord Recluse Strike Force at MAX difficulty settings, no insps, no temps, ZERO deaths. _____________________________________________________________________________ First and Only Dominator so far to verifiably complete the Master ITF at Max difficulty settings, no insps, no deaths, no temps ________________________________________________________________________ Is it possible to tackle lvl 54 AVs WITHOUT having a pet or pets that draw all aggro away from you ? It is possible, but you will need either Other nearby bosses or elite bosses ( I used this technique to use the EBs in LR SF for the fight vs Kronos the GM in the Lord Recluse SF, the MALTA GUN SLINGER is UBER UBER STRONG vs Kronos ) for you to posses them and have them help you kill the AV or GM (such cases you don't have to use inspirations ) Or , even better, a friendly Super Hero like Imperious in the ITF ( who can help you kill Rommy , or Daedalus in part 3 who can help you kill either one of the AVs in the ITF ) Or, you will need inspirations to help you mitigate the focused dmg coming at YOU from a lvl 54 AV. (Important to note that Master Illusionists are useless in helping you kill and AV. Why ? Once they summon their minions, the minions are going to fight the Master Illusionist) _______________________ Other Hardcode challenges, but certainly not limited to these, that you can pursue or engage with your Dominator :

A couple of options 1. Irresistible to hit debuff or dmg debuff blended in with the vomit idea from traps 2. Wormhole idea

In our runs in hard mode, elec control is always appreciated. The drain is very strong and contributes. The reapplying sleep is good as well.

Obviously, I cannot vouch nor will I vouch for the sleep in Arsenal set to be used as an attempt to stack it over itself , not by yourself nor by someone with the same set. I never did I mean that at all. The only stacking here that is possible is from another set, as I have said before, in another post. Now, I do vouch for the dmg component of the sleep to be eliminated. ( @ShinMagmus ) I do vouch for the mag to be increased for the sleep. There is no need for this set to go down the path of symphonic, which ended up being underwhelming. I don't know if the devs will interpret changes being "warranted" as changes "they personally want or will accept". There is a chance here to make the set as great as Dark Plant Earth Illusion Or there is a chance to be a set a little better than Symphonic

Diversified teams was no issue, Doms could not repeat power sets. When enhanced combat is the rule then Mind and Arsenal could stack with Arsenal reapplying Also, to repeat, the sleep reapplies itself, this worked great with elec and arsenal together.

Kaizen, this idea was proven to be important to us when we tried to do all Dominator runs for the ITF 4 star or For the blasters/Dominator runs or for the Controller/Dominator runs The TWINs fight , after figuring out that once split up, it was only a matter of time before the other Twin who was out of the fight automatically directed his attention to us and joined the other twin for the fight... ... so once that was established a while ago , then when we could, when we had Dominators with Sleep, we figured we give the try to sleeping the one that was alone, to make sure he was totally out of the fight until the other Twin was dead. This idea then surged up again for the theme runs of natural or enhanced combat sets, like Arsenal now is. The Purple Protection Triangles do not include sleep protection. If needed, the sleeps could be stacked using multiple Doms to get the same effect if needed. I am posting in good faith here. Just trying to give some optimist vibes concerning this new Dominator set and the use of the sleeps.

I can certainly see this. I, for the purpose of grinding, I would jump on board with your suggestion.

Brother, I am not even trying to do that. But do please try to understand where I am coming from. Why push the devs or critique them in this creation which is a creation made in a game that it is just too damn easy to play ? For how the game is right now, most of it super easy, anything can work , yep, anything. So, for my view, it can be adjusted for more difficult content, but for the vast majority of the game, the set as is works to get the mission done. I would add domination to the confuse , like all confuse powers, but even if that is not made, it works fine for a game that is too easy to play and the vast majority of players play the game that way. To each his own or her own. I am not looking down, but actually kind of giving the positives of the set as is.

The vastly biggest reason for this is that these ATs are among the most difficult to play. The other main reason is that most players play the straight up dmg dealers, which , again, are also the EASIEST ATs to play with. This is closely linked to the fact that the vast majority of players in the game only play CoH in EXTREMELY EASY MODE. They are not interested in playing very challenging stuff. Most players will not ever be interested in playin CoH the hard way. That's not the fault of the game developers at all. I know people that the only thing they do is FARM Do ITF kill most Do some of the incarnate trials Do Radio missions that's it. In other words , the easiest and most brainless things to do in the game. For such things straight up dmg dealers and dmg buff ATs are played. So how Arsenal Dominators are built will not have anything to do on how attractive the AT becomes for such a group of players. There are other players who like a better challenge There are other players who like ATs that are a lot more of a finesse , tactically, and strategically, to play.

This is an important point. In our group, which is a group to do hard mode content, many times I cannot bring any of my Dominators or Controllers . WHY? Because we have not had yet any power set that is a "Natural " or "Enhanced combat" category. It would not fit any of the themes we were going to run. FINALLY the wait is over. Finally we got Assault Rifle themes or Enhanced combat themes. We needed this.

Dark assault is THE MOST heavily resisted dmg in the iTF 4-four stars. Thorns after the changes is very good, enough melee and enough range for balanced and still enough to play as Domper. Illusion second behind Plant for four stars, no question. Psi dmg is TOO GOOD for the ITF. Phantom army at the cysts is super good. Phantom army vs hostess is par excellence. ________________________ Earth is a lot of defense debuffs in a task force that is way over the top for defense buffs for the enemies. The AoE hold, like I said, can be permanent and it can stack with the ST hold to make quick work of hostless and any other EB in the task force ___________ If we could get 3 ice control dominators in the team, that would surely rock Artic Air Confuse with Domination x 3 = lots of confuse anywhere , even with the EBs

This being my specialty , especially the ITF 4 stars, having done so many I frankly lost count .... But as far as primaries go... PLANT is still the king , way way far and away ... Creepers is just amazing for parts 1 and 2 , nothing like it for Doms Seeds can be stacked and recharges reasonably well and frankly two plants in same team are stronger than any other Dominator primaries in twos. The sleep in spores to handle ambushes and allow for getaway or buy some significant time is pretty nifty The immobile in plant , if you want to sue it, is still the highest DMG immob in the game ***************************************** Illusion is incredibly strong , just far and away not nearly as strong as plant for the ITF , specifically for the ITF. **************************** Earth , 60% of the time when doing Domper runs for the ITF 4 star, I go earth. The defense debuffs are super important in the ITF Quick sand is a weapon that Cimerorans have no answer, no solution for The sleep is great for ambushes (blend that in with INvis like I do) when they coming, you go ahead and get close to them , jump in mid pack and cast it. The only ones to worry about are the EBs, that makes it a lot more manageable for your team to handle them. Earth AoE hold blended in with the ST hold should make short work of even the EBs and especially of the Hostess Nictus. _______________________________________________________ For pure Domper, Psionic assault secondary simply has to bow out of this race because for domper everything beats Psi and also beats Fire because there are just not enough great options to be a Domper here. Having said that, 1. ULTIMATE SMASH -- EARTH assault 2. Savage because melee is very nice and so thematic 3. Energy assault with energy Epic only, not one without the other. Energy assault without Energy Epic feels like there is a lot missing. 4. Radiation assault and Dark assault but these are your secondaries that are resisted the highest in the ITF. 5. Thorn assault with the new changes , OH YEAH OH YEAH ... 🙂

Ice/Savage/Psi Is my first vote and suggestion This is a monster for the easy content of the game, absolute serious stuff in fun factor and diversity, as well effective clear the easy stuff in the game. Ice/Earth/Ice , because sleet is freaking amazing and Earth SMASH works great with the Ice Patch and arctic air. Ice/Earth/Psi - double confuse and SMASH ice/Thorns/Psi - double confuse and perhaps the best AoE secondary for Dominators Ice / Arsenal -- please wait for this one but it has very good potential , and igniting stuff in the ice patch has got to be UBER

I am going to disagree with the vast majority of players on this one. The AoE sleep is good, and it is useful. This is especially true in hard mode content, and it is also true in cases of ambushes, and it is also true when somehow somewhere more aggro has been engaged than you might want and your other instruments are just not enough. This is also good when taking on 2 or more AVs, and if given the chance of a single target or multiple target sleep, I would always pick the AoE, unless it is Mind Control, in that case I recommend both since dropping the useless TK is a given. It is great when trying to get your team to stealth their way at the same time to some objectives without wasting your more important AoE controls while doing so. The confuse power should be empowered by Domination. Adjust the recharge time as necessary.

Hard Mode is not a single mission Hard Mode is not a single task force Hard Mode is not a single trial Hard Mode is not a single AV Hard Mode is not a single GM Hard Mode encompasses a lot of things and in diverse ways. ITF 4 stars AEON 4 star or relentless They represent SOME THINGS in hard mode but not all hard mode by itself Hard Mode can also be A. A single dominator doing the Lord Recluse Strike Force alone at 54x8 , no inspirations, no deaths, no temps. The dominator is the only AT that has done this so far. B. Two Dominators doing the Tin Mage trial , no inspirations, no deaths, no temps, 54x8 in quick time. So far, in our chnl, the fastest time between Doms and Controllers, Doms are the only ones who have done it in 30 (thirty) mins or under that time under such conditions. So far, in our chnl, only Dominators have been able to do this, no controller duo yet. C. Three dominators doing APEX , no inspirations, no deaths, no temps, 54x8 in 20 (TWENTY) mins or less as the conditions or requirements, again, no controllers have done this in our chnl, the dominators have done it. Again, this is comparing controllers to dominators. D. Doing one of the AE challenges solo with a Dominator. Like when I created one of the challenges that even @Luna, who is a grand master at creating and doing these, not even Luna with any of Luna's super tanks was able to do this alone without dying. Enter a lonely Mind Dominator and solo's the whole thing without dying once. E. Could be doing the classical ITF with only two players, yep, a duo, with no inspirations, no temps, ZERO DEATHS. Between controllers and doms , doms have done this in the fastest times at 54 x 8. F. Hard mode can also be doing the ITF 4 stars under the following conditions --> A full team but NO AT can be repeated. No power set can be repeated either. 5 deaths or less, in under 60 minutes. I can go on and on and on. So, @arcane, there is certainly room for Doms AND Doms can do well in Hard Mode, if you keep a proper or more precise view of what HARD MODE actually is.

Controllers do not get Domination. Dominators can lock bosses down in one shot, even in AoE, 100% as long as the accuracy check is made and as long as the mobs are not resistant to mez. As far as dmg goes, again, pylon is a single target, with very little practical similarity to what happens in game. The problem why illusion trollers can't reach the levels of damage like others in practical game scenarios is that trollers cannot control or manipulate where all the possible dmg is going unless there is only one target to focus that. Dominators, blasters, corruptors, defenders, mastermind... they can focus their dmg. Illusion trollers have pets which cannot be commanded or directed. Do you feel what I am saying ? In hard mode challenges , in settings where there are many targets, your dmg is among the bottom of the team because of this inability that illusion pets have. Now, when the team finally gets to a one target scenario things change, but even then there are others who can do it while still be better DMG in other scenarios. All the rest of the time, which is the vast majority of the time, there are a vast number of targets that need to get killed ASAP. Those are the scenarios you don't want a controller if given the choice among ATs. To name one example , there are many others In the ITF 4 star runs that we do for different challenges, the ones where we have controllers are among the slowest in time to complete, even with illusion. WHy? Lack of ability to control the targeting, to control and directly manipulate where all the dmg is going. Corruptors, defenders, Blasters and Dompers will have better times when they are in the team replacing controllers.

Among the vast number of hard mode challenges we have done in very small teams like Duos or Trios, we have done ---> We did an ITF 2 Star (Hard Mode) It was a trio with this specific make up Fire/Cold Corruptor (Raw) Ice/Cold Corruptor (Voltak) Fire/Kin Corruptor (Fubar) _ We have done many other challenges with different toons or power sets

For the hard mode content, for example, like the ones we do in our Master chnl, the dmg as measure in pylon testing for controllers, you will find that it is not practically useful. What truly shines in group hard mode is the Fade and the Heal and the debuffs. Multiple targets makes single target DPS something which is best left to specialists , specifically those you can control where all the dmg is targeted. If I had to offer advice to anyone building a character for the hardest content around, I would advise to stay away from controllers because they are not able to control to any significant degree where all their possible dmg is directed unless there is only 1 target around or so. That's where blasters, dominators, corruptors, defenders, even Master Mind (MMs can control where the dmg is focused) shine. Granted, they are solid solid toons and when we do groups where controllers are a requirement for the team make up or when we do challenges where every AT must be diversified (so no repeat of any AT) and so on, controllers like this one you mention, do truly shine. Now, if you making it for your own hard mode personal challenges, knock yourself out. You cannot go wrong with just about anything in the game, since you can tailor make what will be hard mode for you.

Fubar is among the best teammates in the game hands down for hard mode content. He is among the best, if not the best Blaster to play with in the game for hard mode along with @Raw and @EV-300 Please look us up in the Master ITF chnl There are many experienced vets there WE do the absolute hardest mode content in the game. Come learn, enjoy, and do harder and harder challenges as time goes by. @EV-300 comes up with more difficult challenges for us to do all the freaking time. He's our masochist for fun GOAT.

Make your own hard mode Go and try to do the Lord Recluse Strike Force solo , try different difficulty settings or go max settings. Go try to do the classic ITF solo, try different difficulty settings or go max settings. Try no inspirations, no temps, no deaths. Try doing Malta arc, or Carnies arc, max settings, no inspirations is an option. If you encounter an AV or two in those story arcs, take them on solo OR..... You can join us doing all ITF 4 STARS , ONLY DOMINATORS. In those cases be aware that Dominators with Confuse , especially AoE , but ST confuse as well , is super good and useful since they will stack and can overcome even the EBs or the AVs. Electric control is also super good for this, 2-3 Elec Doms can very quickly zap groups of mobs of all their endurance Secondary set for dmg is important of course. ________________________ I did the earlier TFs, the ones before reaching lvl 50, with one of my doms. But I did this WAY BEFORE the developers made this a lot more easy for doms. So dominators now, for example, can do Penelope or Sister Psych task force a lot easier than before because the amount of powers they have access to for those task forces is now greater than before when you exempt down the amount of slots is greater therefore the amount of IOs and IO bonuses are greater now You can have pets out now sooner when you exempt down. __________________ If you want to do these things , like 4 star ITFs, or the occasional group 801 challenges at the AE, or running small teams of task forces , like 2-3 man teams of dominators only, feel free to join us at the Master ITF chnl in game.

Heat Loss is nigh perma in this build. Heat loss is an important debuff Also, the endurance buff is ENORMOUS for anyone in range.

You are very welcome