Scrappinator or Dominapper??? Secondary?

[VV]

Hey, y'all know what a blapper is, right? Ridiculous idea of ignoring the range power of a Blaster and focusing on melee. Well, I want to do the same thing with a Dominator, make a Scrappinator, or maybe you want to call it a Dominapper. Anyway, something that focuses on melee damage in the secondary, rather than ranged. I'm thinking Dark/ for the primary. It has some good controls, and the -ToHit debuff will be good to keep me alive while I am too close to the bad guys. So, I am wondering what is your recommended secondary for best melee combat? I am looking at Savage, Martial, Energy, Thorny, maybe even Rad or Earth. Any thoughts on which one is best are appreciated! 

[Doomrider]

Scrapinator for sure. My vote goes for /earth, it's quite satisfying. Seismic smash and the mallet attacks all feel weighty and hit hard. Lots of KD and spots for Force Feedback procs.

[Coyote]

Martial, Savage, and Earth are probably the best melee. I prefer Earth, it has good safety in melee with a great Hold and multiple knockdowns, but Martial is also very good with the knockdowns. Savage isn't as safe though it has a self-heal. Earth does have a great feeling of SMASH!!! and the ability to slot multiple FF procs (as does Martial).

[Frosticus]

I have a fire/savage that plays almost entirely in melee. The tele-attack is one of my favourite things in the game and is excellent both for offensive positioning as well as defensive positioning.

 

Not much mitigation from the attacks though. But between bonfire and flashfire and hotfeet it usually isn't too much of an issue. 

 

Damage is pretty good. spot prey w/ gaussian is better for team play than power up from earth imo. Though seismic smash is one of the best attacks around. 

 

I originally went dark/sav, but ultimately rerolled into fire as I wanted a less active primary so I can just scrap. Bonefire lasts so long and is often "enough" mitigation with hotfeet, while also contributing ok aoe damage. 

 

edit - blood frenzy is also a not-insignificant recharge boost and end discount. Which benefits doms nicely. 

Edited November 17, 2019 by Frosticus

[mbre2006]

2 hours ago, Coyote said:

Martial, Savage, and Earth are probably the best melee. I prefer Earth, it has good safety in melee with a great Hold and multiple knockdowns, but Martial is also very good with the knockdowns. Savage isn't as safe though it has a self-heal. Earth does have a great feeling of SMASH!!! and the ability to slot multiple FF procs (as does Martial).

Energy got a buff where it attacks stacks increases the damage. Even if you pick a range attack it contributes to the melee attacks. Energy is the best Melee damage wise for doms.

[Mezmera]

I'd have to agree about Energy.  The buff it got is real nice!  Total Focus hits hard and is a bit faster but the new mechanics gives Whirling Hands great damage.  Power Burst and Snipe hit super hard you can just jump into melee and load up and any stragglers just tab targets with these two.  

 

I jump into a mob, drop an aoe hold as I'm landing, pop Soul Drain, Total Focus and Whirling Hands then mop up anything left with Power Burst and Snipe.  

 

Also to note any dom with a power up effect can take Unleash Potential and have 30% ranged, melee, aoe AND damage typed defenses.  All before counting any other defenses you can pull from powers or bonuses.  If you want to scrap on a dom this'll surely help.   

Edited November 18, 2019 by Mezmera

[hakurr]

does anyone have a build for this concept it sound very fun 

[noogens2]

I just added a couple of vids to the Fire/Earth thread if you want to see how that plays.  I can see Dark/ being safer to pair with Earth.  I haven't tried Energy Assault after the changes so it might be my next project.  

[Styrbolg]

On 4/10/2020 at 3:13 PM, hakurr said:

does anyone have a build for this concept it sound very fun 

Sure! Heres an Elec/Earth I'm workin on.  Should deal damage + be survivable.

Now featuring some self healing thanks to the new procs!

 

You will need the MRB unofficial patch to look a the new enhancements. Found here: 

Build here:

Dominator - Electric Control - Earth Assault.mxd

Edited April 13, 2020 by NeoLeeroy

[Dauntless]

I've had a lot of fun lately with a dark/martial build and a earth/elec build.  Both have a decent compliment of melee attacks that, once you are well slotted with IOs, give a "complete-enough" attack chain that you can pretty much attack continuously on a single target.  And they both have the perk of a build-up power so opening with an aoe mez is pretty easy.

 

As much as I love energy assault, if your goal is to be melee-centric and to leave out the blasts you will likely be disappointed.

 

I haven't played earth assault yet, I need to find a concept that seems fun.