Mezmera

I have a little experience with this one so I'll give some tips from what I get out of my dom. You'll want the two confuses and the aoe hold, on my 2nd build I slot in terrify for more aoe control, you'll likely want to take the ST hold but on my damage build I'm experimenting with just slotting and using Mesmerize as the Ascendancy proc builder. For Energy I'd take TF, Power Burst, Snipe and Power Up no questions asked and then Whirling Hands is okay and I have Bone Smasher in the damage build, plus the starter blast. I run with the Force of Will pool too and if you powerboost Unleash Potential it nets you crazy defense and then once it wears off I alternate in the incarnate Barrier. With all the recharge, defenses and hp you can achieve with bonuses alternating those defense powers makes you quite tanky especially with all of the controls available to you. For my patron though I go with Soul Mastery. Soul Drain is one of the best powers in all of those pools and there's some good ones plus it fits with the playstyle of Energy. Along with that the resist shield is quite nice and pairs well with all of the defenses you'll have running. Another tool in the kit is the endurance replenish power, doms run hot and I've found myself a little further away from replenishing my bar with another domination than I'd like so I have this to fill in the gaps when needed so I don't skip a beat. Hope this helps. Any questions feel free!

Ah well stalkers aren't AoE kings, even elec assault is just alright. Stalkers are more ST oriented by design, that's just how that flows, you're there to brutalize the hard targets. I'm fine with it there's a litany of other things to play, my EM stalker takes the aggro from tanks even constantly taunting the AVs she's so dangerous.

Invuln stalkers are tanky as all get out. You must not be thinking creative with your build. The Unbreakable Guard 4 slotted nets you 3.13% melee defense plus the two resist uniques will net you another 6% defense on top of taking the defense powers in Invuln and tough/weave. Plus there's things like Unleash Potential and Shadow Meld. I prefer UP, Shadow Meld is short bursts of added defense but the animation time eats a bit into your attack chain and the 15s of defense it nets you. My Invuln stalker caps all my resists (except psi) by just taking about every resistance power available to you in the set. With that checked off I go for defense bonuses which about caps all of my defenses except for only pretty good ranged and psi defense. Then you have the hp capping heal. Invuln stalkers should be eating those pesky romans lunch on any itf, how are you doing this so wrong?

Mind/Energy Dom EM/Invuln Stalker

Doms are pretty formulaic. You'll tend to want to grab your standard aoe controls and a few of the unique powers on the control side and then some of the better attacks. Typically I don't like grabbing more than 6 powers in either the primary or secondary which leaves room for you to build yourself up with the pool powers. Pool powers are big especially ones with defensive powers which you can slot those LotG's into. I haven't played elec control but you'll likely want the ST hold, the AoE hold, I hear the sleep is good so you might want that, then I believe you'll have the pbaoe toggle, then the confuse and last the pet, that's the bones of what I'd take in that control. For energy I have some experience with, you'll have to take the first power and then every power from Power Up and after is a must. Soul Mastery is a great Epic pool for doms, especially yours. Aim for perma-domination which would be Hasten plus I go for another 85%-95% recharge. Then build in those defenses/hp and go to town.

I actually like the Battle Maiden mechanic. We already have a plethora of the standard boring usual fights in this game that this one feels fresh and it's still just a drop of different in the ocean of what is the norm to play. Everybody likes their run of task forces but why does harder have to equate to giving the AV more hp like Reichsman and you just dogpile on top for 10x as long. I wouldn't want more new content skewed all one way, I prefer balance, but if we were looking for better balance we would need to see more fresh mechanics like what you see in the Apex task force than the usual Khan type task forces. Same ol', same ol' still far outpaces "fresh" in this game so melee is quite well off and will be.

I have an Invuln, SR and Ice stalker. SR is nice because it's cheap on the slots, take all of the powers except elude and build it halfway decent and you have an easy to make positional defense capped stalker and the +recharge power is nice as well. I took Run of Protection on this one to pair great resists with those defenses and it does quite well for this one, the only thing I'm left longing for is a heal. Ice is real nice in that it has pretty much every tool in the kit. Strong defenses and Icy Bastion is a fantastic power plus it has endurance management and a heal. The unique ability to this one is that pbaoe debuff -dmg and -rech, this sucker is real nice. It's harder to build a real good ice stalker, there's a lot you can boost but you kind of find yourself chasing too many things and wanting to rely on Icy Bastion more than you'll be used to because of the stigma that it's a quasi t9. Ice is a savants stalker. Invuln is fantastic on stalkers. Tankiest stalker I have easily. I'm able to cap melee and aoe defenses along with all elementals except for psi. I have decent ranged defense and psi defense but low psi resists so if there's any avenue to kill this sucker it'd have to be some pretty good rolls on ranged psi attacks. Even then you still have the heal which is kind of a defense to psi. I took the t9 as a mule for steadfast and any real emergency should I for certain need to cap every resist aside from psi. I've not had to use it but maybe once and other times for giggles. Unreal resists and defenses paired with EM's burst damage, it's by far my favorite stalker. I was choosing between EA and Invuln when I went and made the Invuln. They seem pretty similar except EA forfeits a bit extra in the resistance department for +recharge and endurance management. Also Invulns t9 seems like it'd be more useful if you ever need to max out your resists, EA's t9 seems a waste since you're likely already defense capped. I think there's like 4 at the top that boil down to playstyle and creativity to shore up shortcomings.

/Elec assault hasn't been that great since the nerf on live to Havoc Punch. It used to do really great damage for being just the t2 power and a rather fast animation so after while they decided to nerf it. Ever since then it's been a low tier assault. The animations are long for not really all that great aoe damage, sure build up is a nice power but you can get so much more out of power boost in /Energy. Like the others are stating, with the 3 punch combo which are all extreme damage attacks it's a real hard set to beat especially if you don't mind melee.

Mass Hypno was a nice little power in its day, I even had it for a time once HC came around but the way people grind through stuff now and the additional survivability added in I just find it never factored in unless I wanted to sleep Ghost Widow or something which I can just drag Mesmerize out of retirement. Back before villains on my tank I watched a Mind Controller and was like wow you can do that?! So when villains came about I adopted doms as my baby. Sure I'll be on Letifera then.

Still is a healthy one unless you want to think it's not. To each their own means exactly as it's stated. Was pointing out by not slotting both confuses to the max you're missing out on the full set on the purple one which would be 4% dmg, 10% recharge and 5% ranged defense along with that other 3.13% ranged defense and whatever other bonuses. Between having the aoe hold which you can slot the purple hold set and proc out and Mass Confusion what more aoe control would you need? I add in Terrify in my control build to fill in any gaps, a mass sleep that does no damage and is easily broken by teammates is not an important power for me to consider since the LRSF is so easy nowadays. You say you solo 4/8 content, well so do I. When I do I'll not have to waste my time plucking away at the mobs. With the defenses you can attain on that Nrg dom you can just herd them up tight and drop the hammer. Just pointing out that I'm a full advocate for slotting as many great sets as possible and then pick and choose where to place your damage to the best effect. I'm on Excelsior if you'd like to venture to see my dom's defenses in action.

Okay but if you use the benefits afforded you in these sets with the defense you can attain it won't matter if you happen to miss some of the group and need a gimmick proc to save you or a waste of a power pick in mass hypnosis. I'd think 56+ positional and elemental defenses would push you faster through your soloing but what do I know, to each their own.

Ascendancy of the Dominator is a very good set. The Fiery Orb one not so much, it could get some rework to be allowed into your attacking powers. I do have that one 3 slotted though for the hp buff plus the guy does aggro some targets even though it's a pretty underwhelming quasi pet.

You're robbing yourself of some fabulous bonuses in the confuse sets. Every little increment adds up, I hardly use the ST confuse but the aoe one gets tons of use. Who cares if the confuse reapplies itself? Considering that you should have Domination and maybe Powerbuild Up running that mob should be well controlled longer than it should take to eliminate that group.

This also lets you use the two confuse sets into your confuses. Malaise and Coercive have some great bonuses. I like to put Malaise into the aoe confuse since I'm not intending to be sneaky and the added proc damage is nice then Coercive suits the sneakyness so in that goes into the regular confuse.

Every dominator has access to AoE holds. I wouldn't want them changed in terms of recharge or anything but I wouldn't be opposed to adding damage to every dom's AoE holds somewhere between minor to moderate damage. Maybe for controllers instead of adding damage something else could be added to their AoE holds. I also think the nukes have been made too good compared to how much survivability that has been added which in turn kind of nerfs holds.

I typically like putting mine 6 slotted into my ST hold since I use that control most so I constantly run 1-2 stacks of the damage boost. My AoE hold I like to slot the purple set with the proc along with another proc for some pretty nice damage.

Have to agree on this one. The nukes being made the way they are now have kind of put things out of whack.

I have the Agility alpha slotted so the defense value enhanced is overslotted to like 70%. Without using powerboost I get about 21% defense to all positional and elemental values when I use UP.

You use it as you're jumping into the danger as it's available to use. Being able to cap defenses for a minute every other minute is quite a thing especially on a squishy, then like I said alternate in Barrrier once UP wears off and you're running around with capped defenses at almost all times. You can also get resists to pair with these defenses from the epic shields and bonuses. Tanks and brutes have access to pretty high defenses so I don't feel a need to take it on my tank but my stalkers sure I take one of these Origin powers depending which will round them out best.

Yeah it's a longer recharge just like RoP but UP lasts for 1 minute as opposed to 1:30, the nice thing about UP is that another benefit is that it gives +recovery. No it'll likely be extremely difficult to get it perma but I've got mine down to 2:20 recharge so it's only down every 1:20 which I like to alternate in the incarnate Barrier which that 1st minute of boosts cap my defenses all the same.

Wait until you realize how much survivability is now afforded you through the Origin Pools with their shields that we didn't have on live. Pair Rune of Protection or Unleash Potential with a permadom, poor heroes...

"Arresting". Ha! Hero Dominators, how quaint.

I'll echo what others are saying. If you're set to play a Mind control it's suited well for doms thanks to Domination and access to all of those instant controls. As for secondary I love love love my Mind/Energy dom, best toon I've made, great ST damage. I hear Earth assault is pretty good too maybe Martial and Savage as well. Psi is okay I guess but no real oomph I'd say but some decent pbaoe. Dark is okay, the heal is the reason to go with this one. Rad is meh same with Electric. Haven't much experience with the rest they never fit my fancy. Edit: Forgot the OG Mind/Fiyah. Standard real good damage plays well at range.

As the others are mentioning you don't want your perma to be reliant on a gimmick procing. Sure if you'd like to slot it in extra as a bonus on top of your already perma that'd be fine, typically though once I've got my recharge sorted out the damage procs seem to be most valuable to me. Aim for 90% recharge + hasten then build in other things like defense and hp is how I approach building my doms.

Yeah doms being a bit more attack oriented I can see where if they could leave Ascendancy as it is for the control side but revamp the Fiery Orb set to be able to slot into attacks that'd be a novel idea. I don't play controllers but to be fair then to them you'd probably need to make it so one of their ATO sets can slot into their secondary too.