Most Melee Dom Combo?

[VV]

Well, we talked about the most blastery dom, so I thought this would be a good subject. I have a Dark/Savage melee dom and it is ridiculously fun and powerful. Now I'd like to make another melee/dom and wondering your thoughts on the best combo to achieve this. I am thinking maybe Ice/Earth, maybe? What are the primaries & secondaries with the most melee stuff?

[Coyote]

Earth, Savage, and Martial are the most melee secondaries. Martial not for single-target, but for its two melee AoEs. You might also put Thorns in there, it does have two melee AoEs plus a short-ranged drop AoE.

 

Ice, Electric, and Fire are the primaries with PBAoE auras, and Plant is a "seed'em and mow'em" primary that leaves you most free to facesmash. But I'm not sure that Fire is strong enough defensively to fight in melee consistently, and I'm also not sure about Ice, though with a good defense layering "you didn't hit me" with "you can't attack again for a while" could work. But it might be a late-game build with mature defenses, while Plant and Electric are good to go into melee range from the teens.

 

I'm running Ele/Earth, and it's pretty much all melee although it has ranged attacks, because shutting mobs down with PBAoE drain is just too useful. Note, that this character or any other who has a power boost can get a few seconds of improved Defense at the beginning of the fight, which can make a big difference for someone wanting to charge into melee, so going /Earth has an additional defensive advantage, not only the attacks.

[Phalanx480bc]

I think Electric/ lends itself to being in melee range with conductive aura and Static Field, as does Hot Feet in Fire and Ice Slick or Arctic Air in Ice.   And of course Seeds in Plant allows for carefree melee action.  Of the four, I think it really depends on whether you are focusing on AoE or ST melee to decide.  If AoE, you'll probably want Plant so they don't fight back.  Then Electrice, Ice and Fire in that order based on their ability to fight back. 

 

As far as melee sets, I think the best are subjective based on feel and theme.  My favorite is Savage, but I'm assuming you are looking for something fresh after your Dark/Sav.  My other melee favs are Earth, Martial, Electric and Rad, with Earth being the most melee-focused set of all, in my opinion.

[Chelsea Rorec]

I'm currently running fire/ice and ice melee is a mixed bag with 3 melee and 2 ranged with the top 2 most damaging powers being ice slash(melee) and Bitter ice blast (ranged).

When i get my recharge up i can see my combo being ice sword,ice slash,bitter ice blast with ice sword circle for the pbaoe.

 

Elec Melee if you have perma dom it's charged brawl,havoc punch,thunder strike all day long if melee is your bag.

[serxiom]

/Energy or /Rad probably most melee feeling sets for doms. I do have a Dark Rad and PBAoE melee feels great when going to melee. 

Energy with bone smasher and Total Focus probably the closest set to feel like a blaster. 

Check both you can't go wrong with these

[ThrillMill]

Self-proclaimed Melee Dominator aficionado here with my .02

If you're going into melee on a dom; it's my personal belief that you should bring a primary with a PBAoE Aura with you. As other's have mentioned, Electric, Ice and Fire are the only Primaries that afford us one. They're all wonderful (when fully slotted) and complete endurance hogs but become incredible when paired with their corresponding incarnate Interface option. I've recently built the T3 Cognitive Interface on my Ice/Earth/Ice Dom and find the increased confusion procs helpful when paired with those that occur naturally in Arctic Air. Additionally, I've likewise paired Conductive Aura with the Preemptive Interface and Hot Feet with Reactive. This won't happen until Late Game but it's been well worth the time and effort in my opinion.

As for Secondary choices; I've become a firm acolyte of the Stone and Energy Assault sets. Both offer hard hitting melee attacks that have additional mitigating secondary effects (such as KD/KU/Hold with Stone and Disorient/Hold in Energy). The hold effect in both Seismic Smash and Total Focus are affected by Domination as well; allowing for one-shot boss holding. The extra Fx of Stone is also a compelling reason to choose it. It evokes a kind of epic primal aggression that some other sets can sometimes lack (looking at you Psi :P). That being said, Psi does supply Drain Psyche & Psychic Shockwave + 2 decent melee attacks in Mind Probe & Telekinetic Thrust. Well worth wading into melee combat with. I've got a 50 Ice/Psi/Ice that's rather wonderful and allows for some big game hunting. 

Whatever you choose; know that you can't really go wrong with your choice. 

[oedipus_tex]

While there are several secondaries with melee powers, the one that stands out to me is /Psi, because of Drain Psyche. I feel like the Dominator AT largely gets "priced out" of harder high level content because it can't keep up with survivability as things approach +4x8. Enemies are tuned to punch through Tanker and Brute armors and even a couple of hits can drop you quickly with no healing going on. Even at the Defense caps and Dominating every spawn you can, hits still get through, and they can drop a Dominator trying to hang out in melee unless you've got a good HP recovery source. Psi is really the only secondary that supplies that. And even with Psi you'll still have situations where you're alive until suddenly you just aren't, because a boss threw 2 lucky attacks.

 

This is not to say other sets are bad or unplayable, but I do think Psi will have a much easier time than other secondaries climbing the difficulty ladder. The closest other one I can name is /Fire, which is ranged, lacks healing, but at least has endurance recovery in Consume. 

[Mezmera]

2 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

While there are several secondaries with melee powers, the one that stands out to me is /Psi, because of Drain Psyche. I feel like the Dominator AT largely gets "priced out" of harder high level content because it can't keep up with survivability as things approach +4x8. Enemies are tuned to punch through Tanker and Brute armors and even a couple of hits can drop you quickly with no healing going on. Even at the Defense caps and Dominating every spawn you can, hits still get through, and they can drop a Dominator trying to hang out in melee unless you've got a good HP recovery source. Psi is really the only secondary that supplies that. And even with Psi you'll still have situations where you're alive until suddenly you just aren't, because a boss threw 2 lucky attacks.

 

This is not to say other sets are bad or unplayable, but I do think Psi will have a much easier time than other secondaries climbing the difficulty ladder. The closest other one I can name is /Fire, which is ranged, lacks healing, but at least has endurance recovery in Consume. 

Tex you really need to get out more!  

[Coyote]

21 hours ago, ThrillMill said:

It evokes a kind of epic primal aggression that some other sets can sometimes lack (looking at you Psi :P).

 

OMG, I SO agree.... only thing I hate about my Fire/Psy is how he THINKS mobs to death. I want MOAR SMASH!!!. Earth, on the other hand, is just awesome and really feels powerful.

[Herotu]

21 hours ago, ThrillMill said:

 The extra Fx of Stone is also a compelling reason to choose it. It evokes a kind of epic primal aggression that some other sets can sometimes lack (looking at you Psi :P). 

Indeed, sometimes CoH did a great job of evoking that feeling of power that SHOULD come from fantasy games! I love the visceral sensations I get from my Super Strength tank. 

 

Perhaps we need a list of these powersets (something for another thread, perhaps?).

[oedipus_tex]

9 hours ago, Mezmera said:

Tex you really need to get out more!  

 

Is that a quarantine joke? 😄

 

Looks like I'm not going anywhere for about 2-3months. 

[chadius]

I had an Ice/Psi on Live and my Ice/Savage is on HC. Both are very survivable in melee.

 

My Ice/Psi would drop an Ice Slick, jump into the mob, Drain Psyche and Psychic Shockwave. Jump back a bit and use Psychic Scream (or whatever the cone is) to flatten the minions, then hop in to melee the Lt/Boss. Feels good, but you have to joust a lot to nuke enemies.

 

My Ice/Savage usually skips the Ice Slick - Frozen Aura is always on anyway and Savage Leap gets the party started. Do some melee attacks to max out my frenzy and then drop the PBAoE to finish off the minions. By then Savage Leap has recharged and I can either kill an Lt or tag a runner.

 

In both cases, Jack Frost helps out a lot by being a tank with frozen aura and melee holds. You can aim most of your attacks in his direction.

[VV]

Good stuff! I was originally thinking of Earth/Earth, but I'm not so much a fan of those big earth blobs from the control set. Now I'm thinking Ice/Earth sounds like a lot of fun. I do love slow, and having the slow aura is awesome. All of the opponents trying to run up and punch you with their big hit are like, IIIIIIIIIIIII''''mmmmm coooooommmmmminnnnggg toooooooo geeeeeeeet youuuuuuuuuuuuuu. It especially messes with the Minos and Cyclops in the ITF. Hilarious. Thanks for all the tips and ideas!

[Herotu]

Could this be described as the blapperiest dom?

[Coyote]

2 hours ago, Herotu said:

Could this be described as the blapperiest dom?

 

Why would this dom be especially prone to high levels of debt? 😄 😝

[Herotu]

6 hours ago, Coyote said:

 

Why would this dom be especially prone to high levels of debt? 😄 😝

Melee + no defences = blapper style.