Caimie

Seeds recharge is working as intended on Dominators. The Vine -damage change makes no difference from it's last version.

After messing around on my Dominator a bit more, I'm still getting Creepers with the initial 1 vine then the delay then the rest appear and it's never been more than 5 vines. I guess I also have a question aimed at the Devs regarding Creepers: Was there any consideration or talk of keeping the spawning the same as it is on Live but only changing it so that Pet IO sets can be slotted into it (so proc bombing couldn't be possible) and then adjusting it's damage modifiers down or up (depending on Controller or Dominator) to bring into an acceptable realm? I don't play Controllers, so I can't speak from that perspective, but the Seeds changes are acceptable and I can make them work. The Vines change with rotating holds doesn't cut it, sorry. It's now more like a 'Creepers Lite with only 10 Calories'. I prefer the original version with the adaptable recharge and if it's damage was lacking, just bring it up to par with the other AOE Holds.

I've been messing around with my level 50 Plant/Ice/Ice Perma-Dom Dominator that I transferred to Brainstorm this morning. I pulled out my 5 piece Unbreakable Constraint from Vines and slotted 5 piece Ragnarok (didn't use the Proc from either one) I then slotted Cupid's Crush into Creepers, since that skill already had 6 slots in it (I originally had 5 piece Ragnarok in it with the Posi blast Proc as the only proc) While I do have Ice Storm on this character, I never used it because I wanted to see what the latest version of Vines and Creepers are like for a Dominator, but for some reason whey I summon Creepers the combat log states I activated Ice Storm power. (screen clip shows what I'm talking about) (A side note on Creepers is that if you summon it, defeat a group them and go to the next then jump over the group, the pseudo pet aggro the group and they turn and attack you) The Creeper vine summon is still slow and the fact the first vine it summons does nothing as far as grabbing the mobs attention before the others spawn defeats the main purpose that I used Creepers for. I don't expect Creepers to do the proc bombed damage it can do on Live, but it does need to be turned up a couple notches at least. I prefer the way it summons on Live, but if that isn't going to happen, at least consider giving it's vines a bit more robustness and the initial summoning vine a taunt to fill the summoning gap between it and the rest of the vines. The AOE Vine Hold change with the rotating holds don't care for at all, on a Dominator. The increased damage is a nice addition, but not really noticeable. I only found it moderately useful if I summoned Creepers first then used Vines. The combo seemed to work 'ok' together, but it's not very efficient. The old Vines is a better version in my opinion. I don't have Spores, Flytrap or Spirit Tree in this Dominator's build (it's my only Plant/ alt I have ), so I can't really comment on those 3 Skills. Edit: I should note that the screen clip is from me messing with some Warrior groups on my way to do Chip's introduction mission that had +3 lvl x 4 group size Blackwing with Bosses (sometimes multiple Bosses) in the groups.

The comments I've been seeing from those on Discord and players on the Live servers that have been on Test, is that the Knock-up effect may be useful for Controllers, but is a pain to deal with on a Dominator. I mostly play Dominators, so I've adjusted to the added knock-up, but it is kind of a nuisance on Dominators that don't have many ranged attacks. The ability to slot something like Sudden Acceleration's unique to change it to knock-down would be useful for them and other melee focused ATs.

I'm kind of confused as to why Spirit Tree was given a taunt, since it's more of a utility skill than anything. Why not give Creepers the taunt by spawning a Vine when it's summoned to taunt, like Glittering Column in Pyro, and when that Vine is defeated Creepers goes back to normal by spawning more Vines. I'd rather see something like that than what Spirit Tree was changed to.

I also agree with this statement. I think using the animation for Whirling hands/ Ice sword circle while having a moderately sized pulsing spark on the hand would be a better fit because it would somewhat give the sense you're doing a wind-up toss. It's not a perfect solution, but seems like a more fitting alternative.

I wouldn't sweat the choice at that level, since you could get to level 20 then respec. I'm a little lost as to what your build entails and what you're trying to do or plan to do with it. For example do you want Perma-Dom, what Epic pool, and what travel pool do you prefer? Sorry if I missed any of that info, but I work a Weekend shift and haven't really been able to pay full attention to the thread. I tried a build in Mids with this combo, but ended up making it a Grav/Fire instead, but I also have an Arse/Arse/Psi Perma-Dom that has Leadership, Leaping and Speed pools, so I could possibly help throw a few build ideas your way. Doms are late bloomers, so doing or attempting to do Notoriety +'s like you would on a Scrapper or Blaster is going to be slow with a lot of downtime and/or face-plants. (power-set combo choices come into play also) edit: fixed typos from early morning lack of caffeine.

While leveling early on, Bonfire can be of some soft control use even with the KD converted, but outside of that it's a skip power that will rarely/never get used after that and a waste to slot. This is my opinion, of course, since Dominators can be strapped for slots and animation lock at the wrong time will have you inspecting the floor.

As someone who also runs an Elec/Earth but with Ice Epic pool, I can confirm it's a fun combo to play. My build is a moderately proc'd out Perma-Dom that exemps fairly well. It does decent on teams (kinda struggles on melee heavy ones, though) and solos very well. I opted out of Mudpots because I didn't want to crutch an Incarnate power because of a lucky streak of Force Feedback procs. I also didn't take Gremlins because they're more of a pain to baby sit than they're worth and they're about as sturdy as Fire Imps or Phantasm.

Intuition Radial Paragon is the go to Alpha for the majority of Dominator builds. It's what I have on all my Dominators after I swapped the 2 I tried Musculature Radial on. It also gives a damage boost, on top of the other stuff Maelwys listed.

Ok, I've noticed a few things, so I took your build and tweaked it. There are some useful Unique IOs missing. First off, it's not going to please everyone and I'll give a brief explanation to some tweaks. Also, everyone builds differently, be it concept, role-play and so on. Assault is a wasted power pick, it's damage boost is pretty pathetic for the end cost. Carrion Creepers is a defining power of Plant/ and can be loaded with Procs. Spore burst isn't all that useful with how Plant/ is set up..there are better Power picks. Quite honestly, I find Force of Will Pool underwhelming and not worth the choice on Dominators. It's proposed benefits aren't that useful and situational at best, but I'll leave that up to you. I swapped it out for Concealment, which can be useful, even with your Stealth IO in Sprint, and it can also mule LotG +recharges. One thing everyone is going to nit-pick is how Combat Jumping is slotted. It's no different than slotting those IOs in Manuvers, a Defense armor and so on. Oh, and the Knockback IO in it helps all around, especially when you exemp down for WST's and such. Is it needed? not really, but I just removed the one you had in the Armor and placed it there. (I have it in all my Doms and it's there just in case) The build attached is your build with my tweaks. It's comparable in stats, has higher Hit Points, fairly exemplar friendly. Slammin' Sammy [Dominator] (Plant Control - Energy Assault).mbd

Old habits are hard to break for some, when it comes to Dominator builds. I'll admit that back on Live my Dominators had the Fighting Pool because the mind-set then was it gave us more survival. Since returning, I've even had people private message me, after looking at one of my Dominator's I.D/info, and ask why I'd gimp myself by not taking Fighting pool...if they only knew the truth. Since I've returned, only a couple of my Dominators have the Fighting pool, but I never toggle on the powers, they're just mules for IO set bonus or Unique IO's. In reality, Tough and Weave provide no more survivability than a thought out build taking advantage of IO set bonuses and using your Mez/Control powers to lock down enemies. My builds tend to focus on getting the +recharge needed for Perma-Dom (as close as possible before Hasten) and set bonuses that give +Hit Points. My mainstay Pool powers are Speed, Leadership and Leaping for Combat Jumping with the 4th depending on what I may need as a possible LotG Global recharge mule. I hated Super Speed on Live, but now using it with Athletic Run & Combat Jumping combo the mobility is actually good and you can just grab the Jump pack from the Start vendor to get to the much higher places. There's also the benefit of being able to slot a Unique stealth IO into CJ to give you fairly decent stealth with SSpeed. I never use Sprint, even if it is a 'free' slot for the Unique Stealth. As far as non-Patron pools, Psionic Mastery and Ice Mastery are my go to pools. Psionic has multiple powers that can mule the LotG Global recharge and that's why I mainly take it. The Ice pool has a toggle heal (Hibernate) that you can slap the Power Transfer or Preventive Medicine Unique into, the shield can mule IO's for Endurance discount (LotG Global recharge and other Unique IOs, also) and Ice storm and Sleet are pretty decent on Doms. Hoarfrost is skippable, but if anything it can mule the Preventative Unique if that one isn't used in Hibernate.

There are many ways to build Dominators, it all comes down to what concept and intended use/ play-style is. Pets aren't mandatory, but they 'can' help and are a decent power to slot in 4 pieces of a set for recharge bonus. There are those that get Fighting or Fighting & Leadership to bolster their survival, but the downside is added strain to to an already Endurance intensive AT when Domination isn't up to replenish it. Your Controls are your best defense and damage resist, imo. Yes, you can crutch Incarnate powers to help, and it is an option if needed. I tend to make my Doms Perma-Dom and fairly exemplar friendly and they do solo fairly well. In that, Dominators are late bloomers (Plant/ is an exception to a point) and can struggle with EB's and AV's. I tend to avoid AV's, but there are those that fight them and tune their builds to do so. I'll include a Mid's EXAMPLE template, of one way I could build it, with your requirement for the Experimentation Pool, and you can see if it helps you with a build. There are some Powers. Epic pool included, that are essentially mules for things like LotG global +recharge (Maneuvers is one, since I never run it), so keep that in mind. I chose sets with the intention of going Perma-Dom and bolstering Hit Points and resistances a bit, to soften some stray attacks that get thru. Template-Dominator (Plant Control - Fire Assault).mbd

I have one that I enjoyed playing, but it's an older build that I should revisit and 'tune' up a bit and it's built towards my play-style. The combo is cone heavy when it comes to a lot of your skills from the power-sets, and less so with aoe stuff, so repositioning will happen fairly often, but single target does fairly well. Since it's built towards how I play and what I do, I can send you it's Mid's build in a message and you can tweak it or use it as a template. It is Perma-Dom and low level content friendly.

The combo is fun to play and can be built multiple ways to suite how you like to play or your concept. I loosely modeled mine after my MA/Invul Scrapper from Live and that's how I played it. I took Leadership instead of Fighting pool, so it's more of a glass cannon type build, and loaded the skills up with Procs, especially those that would take the Force Feedback Proc. It solos well and does good in teams, but can struggle building Domination, at times, on teams that are melee heavy. I didn't take Exploding Shuriken, Phantasm and Shuriken Throw, but took Deceive, Gleam and Flash. Gleam is a great opener and Deceive is very useful if you want to run some solo stuff. It's not Perma-Dom yet and I'm still slotting sets, but it's a blast to play.