Need Expert Advice to Build a Mind/Energy Dominator

[Chirikiti]

On 12/19/2019 at 12:16 PM, MoonSheep said:

Late to the party, but signed in for the first time to counter a lot of the truly awful advice on this Dominator forum from people who seem to only play brutes/scrappers and nothing else

 

If you're building a dominator for defense, you're wasting your time and should stick to playing Brutes. The beauty of a dominator is its ability to lock down mobs, especially when you've achieved permadom. A mezzed enemy deals no damage. My main is a mind/fire dom, as it was back on live, easily solo's taskforces, story arcs, trials etc. Build a dom for +rech and +acc so you can use your powers to their best. If you're dying often, you need to click your mez powers once in a while

 

The generic advice spouted of "bUiLd fOr SoFt CaP" is poor advice from people who don't understand Dom's and don't know how to play anything other than a melee fighter

I like this post so much and the last half of the opening sentence is so true.

 

Vet level 670 Dominator (Same AT build I play on live) here:  I'm not even near the defense-cap and my one of my main attacks is the melee one. First one to the EB, first one to the AV. Tucked in right close.

 

'The beauty of a dominator is its ability to lock down mobs, especially when you've achieved permadom. A mezzed enemy deals no damage"- Exactly

 

"If you're dying often, you need to click your mez powers once in a while"- omg this. Please. Why am I watching Doms on TFs with me never or rarely using their holds etc?  (p.s. I never die)

 

 

 

[oedipus_tex]

In fairness, on the live servers soft capping simply made sense, because it was the most optimal use of the available slotting. Putting procs in long recharge powers was a waste, so no one did it. The optimal build was almost always a trifecta of Recharge, Endurance Management, and Defense. 

 

Procs have mixed that formula up, in a good way. 

 

The thing with Dominators is:

 

• You can't mezz AVs or GMs in many cases
• You won't be getting inspirations during those moments, so:
• At least some Defense makes sense

 

Domination is not armor. It's good. It's effective. But it's very fallible. Reducing the incoming damage and secondary effect rate by 50% or 75%or what have you is a very good strategy for a Dominator, just maybe no longer the absolute perfect strategy. If nothing else, grabbing Defense where it is feasible is good planning. Just don't sacrifice the whole build for it.

 

For me, that sweet spot is somewhere around ~35% defense.

Edited December 27, 2019 by oedipus_tex