I feel like I'm playing Dominators 'wrong'...

[Olly]

I have a similar question about my Dark/Rad dom as the OP. How am I supposed to "feel"?  When I'm on a blaster, I feel like a glass cannon*.  When I'm on scrapper, I feel like a tough, bad-ass, well, er.. scrapper.  My stalker feels slightly squishier, but definitely feels like a ninja-assassin (even if they're built like a brute).  My brute feels like the irreverent younger brother of my tank.  My controller is master of lock down, then ever so slowly** whittling enemies to death...

 

My Dom feels like... ??? Wondering what I should be going for. I read the posts about walking in, locking down, then dispensing dps. Sadly, I don't feel my Dom gives me that feeling, even with IO sets.  I feel like I sort of hold things down, and I sort of kill things, but not a flaming ball of "lock down, smash, all die". Do I need to invest in better IO's? But if so, what am I going for?

 

Posting my build for reference. 

Spoiler

Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Mutation Dominator
Primary Power Set: Darkness Control
Secondary Power Set: Radioactive Assault
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Concealment
Power Pool: Fire Mastery
Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Dark Grasp -- Lck-Acc/Hold(A), Lck-Acc/Rchg(50), Lck-Rchg/Hold(50), Lck-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(50), Lck-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(50), Lck-%Hold(50)
Level 1: Neutrino Bolt -- AchHee-ResDeb%(A), EntChs-Heal%(50), Dcm-Build%(50)
Level 2: Living Shadows -- TraoftheH-Immob/Acc(A), TraoftheH-Acc/Rchg(50), TraoftheH-Acc/Immob/Rchg(50), TraoftheH-Acc/EndRdx(50), TraoftheH-EndRdx/Immob(50), TraoftheH-Dam%(50)
Level 4: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 6: Boxing -- Stp-KB%(A), Stp-Acc/EndRdx(50), Stp-Acc/Rchg(50), Stp-EndRdx/Stun(50), Stp-Acc/Stun/Rchg(50), Stp-Stun/Rng(50)
Level 8: Fearsome Stare -- UnsTrr-Acc/Rchg(A), UnsTrr-EndRdx/Fear(50), UnsTrr-Acc/EndRdx(50)
Level 10: Electron Haze -- Acc-I(A), AchHee-ResDeb%(50), FrcFdb-Rechg%(50)
Level 12: Heart of Darkness -- ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg(A), ScrDrv-Dmg/EndRdx(50), ScrDrv-Dmg/Rchg(50), ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50), ScrDrv-Acc/Rchg(50), DarWtcDsp-Slow%(50)
Level 14: Super Speed -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A)
Level 16: Fusion -- GssSynFr--ToHit(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg(50), GssSynFr--Build%(50), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(50)
Level 18: Tough -- Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Ags-EndRdx/Rchg(50), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(50), Ags-ResDam(50), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 20: Radiation Siphon -- ThfofEss-+End%(A), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(50), KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(50), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(50), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 22: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(50), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(50)
Level 24: Stealth -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 26: Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 28: Shadow Field -- Lck-Acc/Hold(A), Lck-Acc/Rchg(50), Lck-Rchg/Hold(50), Lck-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(50), Lck-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(50), Lck-%Hold(50)
Level 30: Atom Smasher -- ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg(A), ScrDrv-Dmg/EndRdx(50), ScrDrv-Acc/Rchg(50), ScrDrv-Dmg/Rchg(50), ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50), AchHee-ResDeb%(50)
Level 32: Umbra Beast -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(50), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(50), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(50), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(50), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets)(50)
Level 35: Fire Ball -- Ann-Acc/Dmg(A), Ann-Dmg/Rchg(50), Ann-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(50), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50), Ann-ResDeb%(50), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 38: Devastating Blow -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(50), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(50), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50), KntCmb-Knock%(50), AchHee-ResDeb%(50)
Level 41: Fire Shield -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GldArm-3defTpProc(50)
Level 44: Melt Armor -- AchHee-ResDeb%(A)
Level 47: Grant Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination 
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Run-I(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run 
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Quick Form 
------------

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* - True except I use the Winter Sets so I feel a little sturdier since then.

** - damage rate depends on type.

[Mezmera]

2 hours ago, XaoGarrent said:

What you said is akin to saying "the solution to climate change is to move to mars." Removing absolutely all context and real world consideration, yes, anything vaguely related to the topic sounds like a good argument.

 

I told you to read context for a reason. Because the reason why your solution isn't actually a solution is inherent in the context of the posts in this thread.

 

Most of what you mentioned there is either an expensive toggle that confers an absolutely tiny bonus, on a class that has a full attack chain before the level it can even fully slot out Stamina... Or is reliant on being level 50, and is passively assuming we're stacking with IOs. Yes, nobody missed the slimy weasel words, "On top of that there's all kinds of easily attainable bonuses" but you don't specifically state anything because you're thinking of IOs, but you know the OP has already ruled that option out.

 

Nobody's questioning whether these are effective under the context of min maxing for end game, with an ideal, complete build. It's absolutely everywhere else that's being discussed here, because if the OP was in that situation they wouldn't even be here. With the assumption that stacking IO bonuses to min max on top of say, Weave and Maneuvers off the table, and whether we're dealing with leveling or endgame not being clear, you're giving horrible advice whether you realize it or not.

 

You're not arguing the point that's in the thread, you're arguing some point that you made up in your head because you have nothing worthwhile to say and just want to arbitrarily defend something regardless of reality. Please stop doing this.

Yes you'll have to forgive my misunderstanding.  Any time I make a dom by level 25-30 I set it up with IO's and have perma along with a bunch of those defense powers I listed since they also take gamblers.  Unleash Potential is a mini godmode.  My assertion is that you're just throwing your hands up in the air saying doms suck when in fact it's you.  

 

Yes doms are more slot hungry and take a bit to get going because lots of their best attacks bloom late, that's just the nature of the beast. 

 

Throughout leveling you'll take a few of the better controls and attacks then build up those defenses so you can slot those easy gamblers.  Not that hard to understand really.  

Edited March 13, 2020 by Mezmera

[Erydanus]

On ‎3‎/‎11‎/‎2020 at 10:59 PM, biostem said:

 I'm trying to grasp the assault sets and how they're meant to interact with your primary. 

I hope this doesn't come across as too salty but if I can be extremely blunt here, Dominators were not designed very well. Circa the City of Villains open beta test I took one look at them and thought the devs had just bungled the whole AT, but they were not going to rework them that late. The concept they had was something along the lines of the Spider Man villain electro, kind of a blaster with a bit more blapper feel, along with some electric control type powers. But the problem is that Dominators suffered from a jack of all trades master of none setup.

 

Dominators had to get buffed pretty strongly and eventually Domination got totally reworked in order for the AT to truly be playable. That's why literally almost everyone builds for perma-domination. If you don't have Domination up, your experience really sucks. If you aren't a perma-dom Dominator, your character really needs to be on a team and relying on just contributing a portion of the damage. 

 

So the point I am trying to make here is you feel confused about best use of the mix of powers you haven, and have struggled to play it without heavily investing in IOs, this is why. The AT needs heavy investment and it has to be shored up to the point it's minmaxed and pretty much brokenly powerful to "work". And that is the "normal" most people who play dominators exist in. 

[Coyote]

26 minutes ago, Erydanus said:

That's why literally almost everyone builds for perma-domination. If you don't have Domination up, your experience really sucks. If you aren't a perma-dom Dominator, your character really needs to be on a team and relying on just contributing a portion of the damage. 

 

To offer my opinion on correcting some of this:

Electric Control works well early because of End sapping. You don't need to worry about mobs breaking out of a non-Dominated mez that only lasts 8 instead of 16 seconds... because after 8 seconds, mobs are drained. And Static Field doesn't even benefit from it.

Dark Control also works well early because even without Domination you can stack Confuse for difficult Bosses, and otherwise the -ToHit handles non-mezzed mobs pretty well.

Plant Control works reasonably well because while it's nice to Dominate-Confuse Bosses, Seeds has such long Duration/Recharge that it is effective without Domination.

 

Generally, the other powersets really suffer defensively when Domination isn't up. So the majority of Dominators do experience a serious lack of ability before managing a perma-Dom build. I've had no problems with Electric, Dark, and Plant... and little with Mind, but Mind plays more slowly. The other sets are just hard without Domination up, even Earth.

[VV]

1 hour ago, Olly said:

My Dom feels like... ??? Wondering what I should be going for. I read the posts about walking in, locking down, then dispensing dps. Sadly, I don't feel my Dom gives me that feeling, even with IO sets.  I feel like I sort of hold things down, and I sort of kill things, but not a flaming ball of "lock down, smash, all die". Do I need to invest in better IO's? But if so, what am I going for?

This is a legit point, but I think it makes the Dominator experience better, not worse. Remember that the Red ATs were designed to be better soloists and not designed around the holy trinity of teaming, wall/support/damage. So, they all tend to be more versatile at expense of raw specialized power.  When looking at the Red ATs, you need to look at them as combos of that holy trinity. So, a Dominator is like a Controller and Blaster had a baby. More damaging than a controller, but less team support. Less damaging than a Blaster, but more team support.

 

The cool thing about this is, you can decide how you want to play it. You can play more control-heavy, which is especially good with your domination going, or you can play more damage-heavy using controls just to keep yourself on the edge. You can build specifically for one way or another or you can build middle of the road and modify your play as the situation requires.

 

For me personally, I think of my Dominators as Controllers without the bother of having to keep buffs and heals up on my teammates. 

[Coyote]

56 minutes ago, VV said:

2 hours ago, Olly said:

My Dom feels like... ??? Wondering what I should be going for. I read the posts about walking in, locking down, then dispensing dps. Sadly, I don't feel my Dom gives me that feeling, even with IO sets.  I feel like I sort of hold things down, and I sort of kill things, but not a flaming ball of "lock down, smash, all die". Do I need to invest in better IO's? But if so, what am I going for?

This is a legit point, but I think it makes the Dominator experience better, not worse.

 

I kind of agree with this. Controllers are in some ways an AT that has a "what I should be going for" concept. Dominators don't have as much of a "what I should be going for" concept largely because they're in between damage and control, and it's really up to the player which way he wants to go, rather than the AT clearly positioning him for one path or the other. Controllers have gone that way a lot more than their original design, but back when CoV came out, their role was pretty clear, and it was also clear that Dominators were deliberately left ambiguous.

[VV]

Also, I think it's fair to say, there's no real "wrong way" to play a Dominator. As long as you use regular CoX common sense, you'll be good.

[Transsensory]

4 hours ago, Redlynne said:

The solution is keybinds.

You set up keybinds for all of your attack powers (the ones you click) such that they (reading from left to right) execute the attack power and execute domination in a format of "attack$$domination" (overly simplified).  That way, if Domination is recharged it automatically takes priority for casting over the attack.  You then set Hasten on autofire (as normal).

 

Or you do it the other way around ("attack$$hasten") and put Domination on autofire.

Either way, you invoke the "second perma power" in a way that is linked to the keybinds for your click powers you use to attack with.

Can you please explain more about the keybinds you use, for those of us who do not really know about keybinds but play dom. 

[biostem]

1 hour ago, VV said:

Also, I think it's fair to say, there's no real "wrong way" to play a Dominator. As long as you use regular CoX common sense, you'll be good.

The problem is, (for me at least), that with most other ATs, I can be more than "good" - I can be extremely successful with just generic IOs.  Yeah, I'm not going to be top-tier, but I don't feel like I'm up against some kind of wall.  Please don't misunderstand - those of you who can find that level of performance have my utmost respect... I just can't seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel with any dominator I create...

[Erydanus]

3 hours ago, Transsensory said:

Can you please explain more about the keybinds you use, for those of us who do not really know about keybinds but play dom. 

1. The basic command to bind some set of commands to a key is just this: /bind keyname "stuff that you want it to do"
2. If you want to put 2 commands back to back in there or even more you can separate them by 2 dollar signs; so "do something for me$$do something else for me"
3. The game will try to perform the commands in right to left order
4. The syntax for a bind that turns on a power is "powexec_name powername"* or if you want to specifically toggle something on like fly you could also use "powexec_toggleon powername" (underscores in this are optional and just visual spacers)
5. The catch is you can only activate 1 thing at a time with a bind, but you can still do more than one thing if only one of them is firing off a power. For instance you could use a tray swap command and toggle on a Kheldian's bright nova form.

Now, what some people are saying they're doing is making a keybind that tries to use a Dominator primary/secondary power AND also fires off Domination. That way if they hit say the 1 on their keyboard it will try to fire Domination, and if Domination is up it will do that then stop; but if it's not up, then it'll use the other power on the keybind like Crush or whatever they have on 1.

 

You could get really complex with this if you wanted to. People probably have Very Intricate Setups planned. You could actually use the macro image command to create custom macros that look exactly like the standard powers in your Dominator's powerset but are actually "turn on domination or else use gravity distortion if it's not up" commands. You could go deep down the rabbit hole here. However there are simpler options too. I just heard of has someone who bound the tab key to be "target next foe" (like it is by default) BUT ALSO $$ "activate practiced brawler" so that literally every time they target a new foe with tab, if Practiced Brawler has reset, they'll use it. And in this case since there's only 1 power activation command along with a targeting command, it will do both things.

 

So! you could also do that for domination:

 

/bind Tab "target_enemy_next$$powexec_name Domination"

 

If I haven't had a bind fu brainfade, that should make it so everytime you hit tab it'll try to fire off domination if it's up as well as tab to the next enemy to squish with your powers. Now the catch is, you'd only want to do that if you actually have Domination up about permanently. If you're not to perma dom of course you don't want it firing off until you're ready for it. But if you are, it's an easy option. Likewise you could have put Hasten on tab and then just put Domination on autofire - whatever works for you.

 

__________________

* list of all slash commands and their options: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/List_of_Slash_Commands

[SaddestGhost]

11 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Field Medic removes the Interrupt from Aid OTHER ... not from Aid SELF ...

Well dang, that's correct.  I forgot it just adds a recovery buff on Aid Self.

[Chirikiti]

 

On 3/12/2020 at 7:28 PM, XaoGarrent said:

The vast majority of Dom builds really do need IOs, and leveling doms is always going to be painful, even if it's *less* painful than it was on live because at least now you have an easy option of slotting scaling set IOs early-ish. If you're playing a lot of doms, you absolutely want to get a farmer of some sort going so you can fund them.

 

The problem with Dominators is that they're extremely all or nothing, and life is a real struggle until you get your pet(s)... Which aren't particularly commandable, unlike MM pets, so the struggle continues in a new way even once you have that. Dominators work like this in a nutshell: Either you lock everything down completely and basically win because if nothing can attack you you're functionally at the immortality line, or... Well, you die horribly, because at anything higher than +1 even LTs can slap you for almost half your health.

 

Even on teams you're highly reliant on your meatshields having a clue what they're doing, so you can do your job properly. If your tank can't hold agro or can't stay up long enough for you to lock enemies down, you're going to die. A lot.

On 3/12/2020 at 7:33 PM, VV said:

Your entire Dom and MM experience is completely different from mine. Like, everything you said, I find to be completely the opposite.

Mine too. Dominators are strong out of the box. There really should be no 'struggle'

Leveled multiples of them through the content (+3 at level 22+) and hyper-specialized over time with one in particular. 

Survivable, good damage, awesome controls, and this is with old-time SOs. Pets in general suck so I never use em

I always wonder why people seem to have such a hard time understanding them or playing them. Married to old concepts or only experience with controllers maybe. I dunno. 

I find them eminently survivable solo or on a team, and I'm rocking a defensively-compromised build.

 

-Number-Six Vet Level 1093 Mind/Psi Soloer of Everything (well almost a few nigglies left)

[mbre2006]

On 3/13/2020 at 2:02 PM, VV said:

Remember that the Red ATs were designed to be better soloists and not designed around the holy trinity of teaming, wall/support/damage. So, they all tend to be more versatile at expense of raw specialized power.  When looking at the Red ATs, you need to look at them as combos of that holy trinity. So, a Dominator is like a Controller and Blaster had a baby. More damaging than a controller, but less team support. Less damaging than a Blaster, but more team support.

Wow lol. Not sure why I never realized this until now. Probably why I favored redside more than blue during the live servers.

[Olly]

On 3/13/2020 at 2:02 PM, VV said:

This is a legit point, but I think it makes the Dominator experience better, not worse. Remember that the Red ATs were designed to be better soloists and not designed around the holy trinity of teaming, wall/support/damage. So, they all tend to be more versatile at expense of raw specialized power.  When looking at the Red ATs, you need to look at them as combos of that holy trinity. So, a Dominator is like a Controller and Blaster had a baby. More damaging than a controller, but less team support. Less damaging than a Blaster, but more team support.

 

For me personally, I think of my Dominators as Controllers without the bother of having to keep buffs and heals up on my teammates. 

Thanks @VV, but BTW I also mentioned my Brute and Stalker experiences; both of which are Redside AT's.  

 

Having said that, I've felt a similar lack of AT identity with Corruptors as I do with Doms, and probably stay away from the Sentinel AT for the same reason. 

 

I'll try changing my IO sets to lean harder on controls and focus on ST damage. That might give my Dom more identity.

[Zeraphia]

On 3/13/2020 at 12:00 PM, Coyote said:

I use keybinds on movement and power activates that alternates between loading two files, and alternates setting Domination and Hasten as the auto powers, rather than trying to activate Domination or Hasten. That way you don't get the annoying noise and message that the power isn't ready to activate every time you do something.

 

Also, BTW, I also have found Dominators to be pretty easy at leveling... but I'm really good with control characters. I can get by just on the controls until I can slot out defenses and switch to easy cruising mode in the 40s. But I've seen other players who are more used to relying on passive defenses have problems with Dominators. The "build for defense" advice isn't very useful until the late 30s or even later, so the advice for lower levels should be teaching them how to mix control as a defense with damage as a defense... and that really is a pretty long tutorial to go through. For example, mez the Lt and clobber the minion since both are mezzed with the same difficulty, but the minion is easier to kill.

Coyote gives very solid advice for early on with Dominators. I use this same method (link below) and it has made an enormous difference to me as I feel no longer obligated to try to keep up with clicking one or the other and unintentionally lose my perma-dom. This apparently for some reason does not work for Active Defense (which I find... very... odd...) but it does actually work for other powers like Ablative Carapace (the absorb, so you always have a huge health prevention barrier), it's one of the things I used for my TW/Bio Scrapper. 

 

I also would like to say that Coyote's advice in mezzing the higher rated enemy first then going in on the minions is always the best method to go as a Dominator early on. The minions themselves are not going to most likely outright kill you (unless we're talking +4 x8 w/ bosses), but you should always start a battle with either a stun/hold/sleep/confuse on the higher rated target because they are typically tougher and deal more damage, and progress on the minion, the minions will often provide inspirations to help you with the higher rated foe if you even need it (your mezzing can become that good.) 

 

As for primaries, I know that Fire Control has been poo-poo'd on Dominators and I really don't think it's deserved (at all). Fire Control with domination makes Flashfire near permanent on mobs, it gives a wonderful soft but very hardcore control in Bonfire that also deals damage, the minions help you slice through content as well, it has one of the fastest holds that also works well with procs. This primary really keeps up well for damage. It may not be as hardcore in its ability to control an AV, but it actually can do this easier than others with how fast the hold casts.

 

Plant control is also a huge contender, SoC is just... godly... that is a godsend power that I think pretty much every control set would give up and arm and a leg for to get. With Domination, this confuse actually lets you outright confuse bosses in an AoE. If you wanted, you could literally finish the game (sans confuse protected enemies and EB's) by confusing crowds of enemies, let them kill themselves before do a single thing, and only crunch down on the bosses. 

 

Mind Control is also very good it offers a confuse which can be made into an almost AoE with contagious confusion. I quite love that power, it actually enables you to pretty easily stack confuses on an AV and let an AV attack its own allies instead of your team/you, it also has one of the fastest holds in the game and is the only set that has a single target 3.5 magnitude Sleep (this easily sleeps AV's). 

 

Dark Control mostly the same tools Mind does but has a PBAoE stun that works really well with crowds. Has a better AoE hold than Mind, but doesn't have the AoE confuse (to be fair, Mind's AoE confuse is on a very long CD), also comes with more direct pets than Mind, really excellent primary. 

 

I think those primaries are the "overperformers" in some particular category, but that said, Earth, Gravity, Electric, and Ice are still wonderful primaries. Earnestly, pick the primary that fits your theme and your overall design choices the best and enjoy the game! 🙂

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by Zeraphia

[Zeraphia]

On 3/13/2020 at 5:01 PM, biostem said:

The problem is, (for me at least), that with most other ATs, I can be more than "good" - I can be extremely successful with just generic IOs.  Yeah, I'm not going to be top-tier, but I don't feel like I'm up against some kind of wall.  Please don't misunderstand - those of you who can find that level of performance have my utmost respect... I just can't seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel with any dominator I create...

Oh trust me, I get it! Dominators are noticeably late-bloomers, but I think if you just chase the Dominator AT trying to do "everything" they will fail in some aspect. Design the dominator for something you really like, I play my Dominator much like a Blaster soloist with a lot of control. Their pylon times are not far off (like maybe 10-20 seconds off of the Blaster, both are well under the 1:40 mark), my combinations are fire/fire Blaster and fire/fire Dominator, I love both equally. The Dominator is well-respected on teams for a lot of special purposes (hami, keeping people from dying with controls, etc.) and I've never felt unwelcomed. I had a much smoother experience with her than I did my Blaster, but I love my Blaster for its sheer AoE carnage and lack of expectations to do anything but destroy. In terms of soloing, I prefer the Dominator much more due to the fact that when I use Hot Feet, they're totally trapped in the Flashfire + Immob and have absolutely no ways to escape, it is a very satisfying death to watch and very safe, she easily clears +4x8 absolutely no issues at all and has a much easier time with AV's due to the fact she can pretty consistently hold an AV enough of the time.

 

But alas, that may not be your style, you should design a Dominator in such a way that it accomplishes your goal whether that be AoE wreckage, soloing hard TF's, or completely mezzing AV's through purple triangles. Dominators are a "life's what you make of it" type of AT.

[MTeague]

If you are diehard against using set IO's, I can respect that.  I won't say I agree with it, but I can respect it if I look at it as a self-imposed challenge.  I have a small library of such things in other games.

 

Domination will be just as powerful for you as it will be for someone who goes wild with IO sets. However, for them, Domination will have 100% uptime, for you, you will need to be signficantly more strategic and decide when it's time to activate Domination and when it's not.  If you are not going to use sets at all, I would at least look into Primary and Secondarys that allow you to build up some personal durability, and/or which allow you some distraction ability.

• Confuses are a big tide-turner.  Esp if Domination won't be up all the time, it's nice to be able to subtract one form thier side, and add one to your side.  And it's always good to Confuse a Sapper, or a Sorceror, or some other mob with a REALLY annoying debuff.
• Pets to soak hits for you are nice. 
• There aren't many Dom Primary Secondaries that allow for Health Recovery, but they can be nice, esp if you might take more hits from not having everything locked down 100%.

I would really recommend you look at Plant / Psi Assault as a combination.

 

Seeds of Confusion is an amazing power and it's far safer to dance about in melee when you confused a pack on your way in.

You get a permanent pet in Fly Trap and pure chaos temporary pets in Carrion Creepers (which are hugely thematic and fun.... they just need a voice yelling "I am Groot!")

You still get Immobs to keep big nastys away from you. 

You get TWO health recovery options, one in Tree of Life and one in Drain Psyche.  If you only get one, get Drain Psyche.  Hit 4 targets with that PBAE stacks of that and you're practically a Regen scrapper until it wears off.  Tree of Life is also nice on top of it, but is much more into the optional category.  Drain Psyche also gives you a source of -Regen debuffs, to allow you to punch hard targets.

 

Telekinetic Thrust .... without a KB-to-KD enhancer.... is something of a quandry.  Ragdoll Physics in Knockbacks CAN be very useful when soloing as a damage mitigation tool.  And TK Thrust does SMASHING damage, which gives you a good attack to use against Psi-Resistant Robots, Undead, or things with Sky High Psi Defense (lookin' at you, Carnies....)

 

If you are intent on NOT using Sets at all... and thusly, not having Permadom at all.... you may have to just accept that you may not be able to solo certain EB's / AV's, wtihout a pocket Shivan. No matter what your primary or secondary is.  Seriously.  Domination allows you to stack the mag really high really fast.  Nothing else is going to get through purple triangles, and I don't think one cast of Domination will last long enough for certain EB's / AV's.  Plus, Domination gives YOU status protection and Permadom means you have Permanent Status Protection.  That's HUGE for some fights, and is part of what you are giving up by not using sets.  That would be too bitter a pill for me to swallow, but at least go into it eyes open.

[Ariamaki]

On 3/13/2020 at 7:28 PM, Erydanus said:

You could actually use the macro image command to create custom macros that look exactly like the standard powers in your Dominator's powerset but are actually "turn on domination or else use gravity distortion if it's not up" commands.

On a tangent from the rest of this conversation (which is quite helpful for my newly-forged Dominator), how exactly do you go about this? I've seen somebody suggest this before (and I've even seen the result in screencaps) but none of my research has turned up a way to do this. What are the commands involved, what is the syntax for it, to give custom-made macro buttons a power image?

[Rikis]

Am I the only one who shoots for Hasten-less perma Dom? Yeah, I eschew personal defenses for it, but if I'm already going for perma Dom, my recharge bonuses are going to far exceed what Hasten provides (even if Hasten is taken, you still need more than 70% global recharge to reach perma Dom). In fact, with a few exceptions of specific powers that are really nice perma'd (usually in the support sets), I rarely get Hasten on my characters and would rather just build for 60%+ global recharge.

[Olly]

31 minutes ago, Ariamaki said:

On a tangent from the rest of this conversation (which is quite helpful for my newly-forged Dominator), how exactly do you go about this? I've seen somebody suggest this before (and I've even seen the result in screencaps) but none of my research has turned up a way to do this. What are the commands involved, what is the syntax for it, to give custom-made macro buttons a power image?

Here's something I use on my Dom. The powexec_location command is really nice.

/macro_image "UnifiedPeoplesArmy_Infiltrator_TargetingDataAcquired" "D.Field" "powexec_location target Distortion_Field"

 

I think you can just adjust it by adding "$$ powexec_name Domination" in the third part, as shown in the 2nd link.

1. Here is a link to the doc with macro image icons and names.
2. Here is a link to more /macro_image info on another post.

If you want more info,  you can try searching /macro_image or /powexec_location

 

On further reading, I don't think you can execute two powers using the same macro. You'll need a keybind and .txt file to do that.  You might want to start a new Dom topic 

Edited March 16, 2020 by Olly

[Ariamaki]

7 minutes ago, Olly said:

Here's something I use on my Dom. The powexec_location command is really nice.

/macro_image "UnifiedPeoplesArmy_Infiltrator_TargetingDataAcquired" "D.Field" "powexec_location target Distortion_Field"

 

I think you can just adjust it by adding "$$ powexec_name Domination" in the third part, as shown in the 2nd link.

1. Here is a link to the doc with macro image icons and names.
2. Here is a link to more /macro_image info on another post.

If you want more info,  you can try searching /macro_image or /powexec_location

 

 

Thanks a ton, and big ups to whatever dev on I24+ decided to implement the macro_image command.

[VV]

5 hours ago, Rikis said:

Am I the only one who shoots for Hasten-less perma Dom? Yeah, I eschew personal defenses for it, but if I'm already going for perma Dom, my recharge bonuses are going to far exceed what Hasten provides (even if Hasten is taken, you still need more than 70% global recharge to reach perma Dom). In fact, with a few exceptions of specific powers that are really nice perma'd (usually in the support sets), I rarely get Hasten on my characters and would rather just build for 60%+ global recharge.

On most of my Doms, I shoot for 110% global recharge bonus base, not including Hasten. With Hasten running, that hits 180%, which means that Hasten will be solidly permanent with two 50+5 Recharge IOs. I guess I play my Dominators more like Blasters in that I go for "kill them before they kill me" strategy moreso than the "outsurvive them" strategy.

[BluWitch]

I love my DOMs 

 

When that MM teammates' pets aggro the big 2nd mob that nobody sees coming and you turn on your heel and lock them all down in a sea of "Domination" you will know the true difference that even a pre-perma leveling build can offer to a team.

 

I'd choose a blast or corr if you are solo mostly though.

[The_Cheeseman]

To be totally honest, it’s my opinion that if you aren’t going for permadom, you probably shouldn’t be playing a Dominator. With permadom, you can be an immortal god that solos TFs and carries entire teams through tough content. Without it, your a squishier Controller with decent, but unremarkable, damage output.

 

Go big or go home.

[Naraka]

7 hours ago, The_Cheeseman said:

To be totally honest, it’s my opinion that if you aren’t going for permadom, you probably shouldn’t be playing a Dominator. With permadom, you can be an immortal god that solos TFs and carries entire teams through tough content. Without it, your a squishier Controller with decent, but unremarkable, damage output.

 

Go big or go home.

Welp, time to make a dominator and not have perma-dom.

 

I think it's been demonstrated pretty well there are plenty of set-ups that don't require domination up all the time.  Carrying a team, while fun for a while, is practically the same as soloing so why not solo anyway?  And frankly, who cares?  If you've got a Blaster on the team with damage buffed to the gills tossing out spawn decimating AoEs while you're still dropping a mass CC, are you really carrying?  Or merely contributing?