Fire/Fire, Fire/Rad, or Fire/NRG?

[JnEricsonx]

Compare and contrast?

[nihilii]

Fire/Fire is an absolute powerhouse. It can deal blaster level ST damage at range. AoE still forces you into melee. Combustion doesn't feel particularly impressive because much of it is DoT, but it actually gets the job done pretty fast coupled with Hot Feet/Fire Cages.

Fire/Nrj has big hitters all over the place. The new energy focus (or whatever it's called) mechanic is fairly clunky, sometimes it will go away before you get a chance to use it and there seems to be an undocumented cooldown in the 10-15s range before you get a new stack. Nonetheless, between a sped up Total Focus, an energy focus boosted fast snipe, and an energy focus Whirling Hands, you get several powerful feeling attacks delivering large orange numbers.

I haven't played Fire/Rad.

[Coyote]

I had problems leveling both Fire/Fire and Fire/Rad, because neither of those secondaries help you survive (Rad's heal is clunky and undependable). I switched to a Fire/Psy and it leveled much more smoothly.

 

If looking only at an end-game build, all three options put out very good damage. /Fire does it directly and with +Damage, /Rad uses Achilles Heel to help it catch up to the other two, and /Nrg has the Energy Release mechanism which is a bit clumsy but when it fires well it does a lot of damage in both single-target and AoE scenarios. So if looking only at the end game, I don't see that much difference in stats, it's more about how to play them: Fire is more ranged, Nrg definitely requires melee since Total Focus is the dependable Energy Stored mechanism, and Rad is mixed.

 

For leveling up, I would personally run Fire/Nrg. Getting a lot of Force Feedback procs helps get perma-Dom earlier, the knockbacks and Stuns help with the low mitigation that Fire has before perma-Dom status, and damage is okay early and solid after you get Total Focus and can leverage Energy Release on Whirling Hands. Damage mitigation from your secondary is more relevant when leveling up than when running a level 50 perma-Dom build with good bonuses for Defense.

[Frosticus]

 Good question. 

Fire/fire does a LOT of damage. It kind of sucks until you get blaze/blazing and good uptime on embrace of fire. 

 

One of the highest ranged damage builds you can make though. Like, blasters can be jealous kind of damage with pretty decent control.

 

I want to like /rad but atom smasher is way too slow as is devastating blow. The set has issues with flow imo. 

 

/nrg is much improved - and like its cousin energy manipulation for blasters - it is never a bad choice. 

 

Imo if you are looking toward late game performance the fire/fire is my choice (and is why I did that combo). Add fire epic for direct aoe damage, or ice for great debuffage. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nightmarer 2]

Fire/Earth, you're welcome

[QuiJon]

Why no Fire/Dark? I ended up being really surprised with how much i love my fire/dark dom. With perma dom he is a beast and can farm and has soloed 25 AVs. You take the mace pool just to get the defense and between what you can buff added to the inherent -tohit in dark and you are barely even touched by enemies. I kind of feel fire/dark is as good as fire/psi without all the hella long animation times that Psi has. 

[Hjarki]

My thoughts on sets mentioned so far:

• Fire is a primarily ranged set - to the point where you probably don't want the melee/pbaoe abilities at all. This makes it the preferred set for 'control-centric' Dominators - players who are leveraging Domination to lock down spawns. However, it is very late-blooming - you don't even complete your single target rotation until level 38.
• Energy. I'm not a big fan of this set. It's got a mix of melee/ranged and never really does either particularly well.
• Radiation. This is arguably the strongest ST damage of any set. However, it is a melee-centric set, making the Cone AE relatively useless and its PBAoE isn't one of the better ones. It does have a self-heal, which can come in handy.
• Dark. I'd say this is defensively the strongest set but offensively the weakest. Normally, this puts it low on the totem pole since ST damage is what you really need from your Assault set.
• Earth. This another melee-centric set, albeit one with stronger AE than Radiation. It also has a damage aura, which is handy for 'farm' builds designed to just grind through large spawns.

Fire Control itself is... problematic. Hot Feet + Bonfire give it great AE performance, but Hot Feet especially can be very disruptive - it tends to scatter spawns rather than concentrate them.

 

Of your preferred options, I'd probably go with Fire/Rad.

[Coyote]

Funny.... 5 expressed preferences for the secondary to pair with Fire... and they're all different 😄

[Hjarki]

22 minutes ago, Coyote said:

Funny.... 5 expressed preferences for the secondary to pair with Fire... and they're all different 😄

Well, my preference would be for Fire/Earth since it solves some of the issues with Hot Feet via Mud Pots and if you're going for a pure AE farm-style build, might as well go all in. With that in mind, I don't tend to view Fire as a particularly good primary for a Dominator because you tend to just end up making a gimpy Scrapper.

 

[QuiJon]

2 hours ago, Hjarki said:

Dark. I'd say this is defensively the strongest set but offensively the weakest. Normally, this puts it low on the totem pole since ST damage is what you really need from your Assault set.

I dont see this at all. Sure fire is prob the best for strait damage, but with quick snipe, 2 pretty strong AOE single target attacks, and the PBAOE fire/dark is a great melee centric set IMO. 

 

2 hours ago, Hjarki said:

Fire Control itself is... problematic. Hot Feet + Bonfire give it great AE performance, but Hot Feet especially can be very disruptive - it tends to scatter spawns rather than concentrate them.

It really is not a problem at all. Fire/dark, approach from range hit AOE Stun (maybe fire cages to hold them in place but not really needed IMO. Then drop Bonfire on the middle of the mob. Now they are flopping around not moving, You run into middle and hot feet widdle them down with PBAOE and the two melee attacks and the snipe. Now i am sure that its ability to kill a AV is not unique to dark, but the fact that it can IMO means that you are doing more then enough damage output, even if it isnt the highest of the secondaries. 

[Hjarki]

13 hours ago, QuiJon said:

I dont see this at all. Sure fire is prob the best for strait damage, but with quick snipe, 2 pretty strong AOE single target attacks, and the PBAOE fire/dark is a great melee centric set IMO.

A Dark rotation might be Dark Blast/Midnight Grasp/Dark Blast/Smite/Moonbeam. This would be 1.188 * 2 + 2.244 + 1.188 + 1.33 = 7.138 sec requiring +244% recharge for a total of 44.61 * 2 + 100.5 + 169.2 + 237.7 / 4.5 * 2.67 = 500 damage or 70 dps.

 

FIre's rotation is basically Flares/Fire Blast/Flares/Blaze with Blazing Bolt used opportunistically. In practice, this ends up being something like Flares/Fire Blast/Flares/Blaze/Blazing Bolt/Fire Blast/Flares/Blaze. That would be 1.188 * 2 + 1.452 * 2 + 1.188 * 2 + 1.33 = 8.986 sec requiring +161% recharge for a total of 46.37 * 2 + 105.4 * 2 + 152.4 * 2 + 237.7 / 4.5 * 2.67 = 749 damage or 83 dps.

 

A Radiation rotation might be Neutrino Bolt/Devastating Blow/Neutrino Bolt/Contaminated Strike/Proton Volley. This would be 1.188 * 2 + 2.904 + 1.056 + 1.33 = 7.666 sec requiring +319% recharge for a total of 63.4 * 2 + 258 + 120.7 + 237.7 / 4.5 * 2.67 = 647 damage or 84 dps.

 

A Stone rotation might be Stone Spears/Heavy Mallet/Stone Spears/Hurl Boulder/Seismic Smash. This would be 1.188 * 2 + 1.848 + 1.716 + 1.716 = 7.656 sec requiring +161% recharge for a total of 44.61 * 2 + 169.2 + 101.8 + 218.3 = 578 damage or 75 dps. However, Stone has two PBAoE (with KB no less) and a damage aura, making it dramatically better than any set except Martial for AE. If you go up to +270% recharge, you've got Stone Mallet/Heavy Mallet/Hurl Boulder/Seismic Smash, which yields 1.848 + 1.848 + 1.716 + 1.716 = 7.128 sec for a total of 100.5 + 169.2 + 101.8 + 218.3 = 590 damage or 83 dps.

 

Now, I can't analyze every possible rotation for every possible set, but the above are the 'basic' rotations. In theory, you could replace some of those T1 attacks with Char/Ring of Fire, but this would require slotting them as damage (which is almost certainly not what you want to do). I also don't include powers like Toxic Dart or Energy Transfer which could bump the above numbers up a bit - doing every possible rotation for every Dominator set is a project better suited to a community (or at least someone willing to take the time to write the code) than an individual responding to a post.

 

Lastly, I tend to consider all Dominator Assault sets except Fire 'melee-centric'. Fire is the only Dominator set that both has a high dps non-Sniper attack and lacks a high dps melee attack (technically, Incinerate is better than Flares but the slight increase in dps is rarely going to be worth the enormous stress it places on your build to move from all ranged to 'melee for this one not particularly inspiring attack'.)

 

14 hours ago, QuiJon said:

It really is not a problem at all. Fire/dark, approach from range hit AOE Stun (maybe fire cages to hold them in place but not really needed IMO. Then drop Bonfire on the middle of the mob. Now they are flopping around not moving, You run into middle and hot feet widdle them down with PBAOE and the two melee attacks and the snipe. Now i am sure that its ability to kill a AV is not unique to dark, but the fact that it can IMO means that you are doing more then enough damage output, even if it isnt the highest of the secondaries. 

Almost everything you're talking about has little to do with Dark Assault. In terms of AE, I'd rate three sets (Ice, Martial, Stone) as 'strong' and the rest of them as 'not strong'.

 

Ice, Martial and Stone all have multiple AE they can use while fighting in melee range. The other sets tend to split their AE between narrow arc ranged cones and PBAoE, which are fundamentally incompatible. In melee range, that 20/30 degree arc is rarely going to catch more than one or two targets - even if you're willing and able to play 'pop up' games. You can't realistically dance between 70 yards out and melee range to rotate between the two attacks. So you really end up with an either-or scenario where you choose either your PBAoE or your Cone (and it's almost always your PBAoE since Dominator sets, in general, operate in melee range).

 

In any case, I wasn't claiming that Dark Assault was unplayable. I was pointing out that, compared to other sets, it's generally going to be lower damage.

[QuiJon]

55 minutes ago, Hjarki said:

Almost everything you're talking about has little to do with Dark Assault. In terms of AE

Sorry maybe i missed something in the OP. Was this only asking about AE performance? My point is only that in most cases i consider most of the assault sets to be equal. Most as you point out have similar builds to how the powers are organized and chosen. I get that dark perhaps does a bit less damage, though having many doms i am not sure it is how much you show it to be, but even if it is, I have personally soloed 25 different AV/Hero class characters with a fire/dark dominator. I personally see this as if i can solo a enemy made to be taken on by a team, even if i am on the lower end of the DPS scale, i am doing enough damage to where that extra doesnt really matter to much and it becomes about the fun of playing more then the uberness of the character. 

 

And  you can say that dark is "not strong" and you might be right who knows, its kind of an opinion thing. However the standard dom build for farming even back on live was Fire/Psi a build you dont consider strong. And yes if you want the fastest AE killed guess what, role a brute. None of them will compare to a good spines/fire brute. That doesnt mean doms are not "strong" in comparison. 

[QuiJon]

1 hour ago, Hjarki said:

A Dark rotation might be Dark Blast/Midnight Grasp/Dark Blast/Smite/Moonbeam. This would be 1.188 * 2 + 2.244 + 1.188 + 1.33 = 7.138 sec requiring +244% recharge for a total of 44.61 * 2 + 100.5 + 169.2 + 237.7 / 4.5 * 2.67 = 500 damage or 70 dps.

 

Oh, i can not say i have ever worked out a "best" attack chain but with the recharge levels the way they are i find I am rarely using Dark blast at all. My attacks are mostly Smite, Midnight Grasp, Moonbeam, Engulfing Darkness (since i position myself in the middle of mobs), and then if i need it for a gap either Life Drain or Gloom. Obviously keeping Hot feet running and a Bonfire burning. Dont know if this would make a difference but like i said, i dont feel gimped when i am taking down A Black Scorpion or Ms Liberty solo. 

[Coyote]

Just to add a few notes about AoE:

1: Savage is high AoE and performs reasonably well, because its cone is mid-range and you can keep backing up while you're using it, then Feral Charge from max range into Rending Flurry. So you alternate 3 powers... while you have to move to get them all working, Unkindness doesn't root you and Savage Leap eliminates the closing leap that you normally have to do when going from a cone into a PBAoE. So you one have movement in one direction between RF to Unkindness, which isn't bad for 3 powers. 3 powers/1 movement action, rather than the usual 2 powers/2 moves that you would get from a set with 1 PBAoE and 1 cone.

 

2: Thorns is also surprisingly good at AoE when paired with a primary that will use an AoE Immob (or maybe Bonfire). You have two melee AoEs (one cone and one PBAoE) and one cone, but the DPS lost in moving is made up for by Thorntrops doing its DoT, and Thorns has a short wide cone (90 angle, I think, and only a 30 range, so it's a VERY short move in and out). It can move in and out from PBAoE to cone faster than other sets. While I hate its aesthetics, its stats are good and it pairs superbly with Plant.

[Frosticus]

For me it is /fire for a damage build. Doesn't matter where you stand /fire does more single target damage.

/savage for mobility and fun

 

I haven't looked closely at the above posted "attack rotations" but at a glance I can tell you my fire/fire doesn't use flares, my grav/dark doesn't use dark blast, and my plant/earth only uses stone spears cause I like the animation.

 

Dominator assault set t1's are (for me) throw away powers on late game builds. I can't think of a single assault set where I wouldn't prefer to flip the t2 with the t1 (yes even /fire) as many of the t2's are still great in late game and you would still have access to  the current t1's for leveling. Pretty similar issue that tanks have with their attack sets. 

 

 

[Hjarki]

6 minutes ago, Frosticus said:

I haven't looked closely at the above posted "attack rotations" but at a glance I can tell you my fire/fire doesn't use flares, my grav/dark doesn't use dark blast, and my plant/earth only uses stone spears cause I like the animation.

The point of such rotations is to better understand the nature of the sets in a objective way, rather than relying on 'feels'. So while you might not use Flares, Dark Blast or Stone Spears, that doesn't actually say anything about their utility for single target damage.

 

For a Fire/* Dominator, all three of those attacks are generally inferior to Char/Ring of Fire (as I noted). However, I excluded these for two reasons:

• They're common across all builds with that primary. While this does change the balance a bit between sets with a weak T1 (most of them) and those with a strong T1 (such as Radiation), it's not really necessary for a basic comparison. I excluded pool attacks for the same reason.
• Slotting them as attacks imposes a huge burden on the build. Sets like Gravitational Anchor, Unbreakable Constraint, Basilisk's Gaze, Entomb and Lockdown are all great choices (depending on build). Those are all better choices than your third choice once you've already slotted Apocalypse and Winter's Bite (and, depending on build, Winter's Bite may not be worthwhile).

In any case, those 'filler attacks' tend to be necessary if you want to maximize your dps because otherwise you need to slot too many attacks or need too much recharge. */Stone manages to pull it off because it has unusually long activation times.

 

Consider the comparable no-Flares */Fire rotation. This would require +346% recharge to run Incinerate/Fire Blast/Blazing Bolt/Blaze, for 123.8 + 105.4 + 237.7 / 4.5 * 2.67 + 152.4 = 523 damage over 1.848 + 1.452 + 1.188 + 1.33 = 5.818 sec or 90 dps. It's not impossible to hit these numbers, but doing it on an otherwise functional build isn't likely - especially given you're transitioning from an all-Ranged build to one that also needs to function effectively in melee range.

 

If you think you've got a better scheme, then you should outline what it is so we can take a look at what you're doing. As I said, the rotations I posted are the simple ones. A basic rotation tends to be A/B/A/C, but Dominators have unusually long recharges on powers like Sniper attacks so this ends up being A/B/A/C/D. So those (with the exception of the one Earth rotation and the Fire rotation I posted above) are the ones I used.

 

4 hours ago, Coyote said:

1: Savage is high AoE and performs reasonably well, because its cone is mid-range and you can keep backing up while you're using it, then Feral Charge from max range into Rending Flurry.

This sort of strategy only works out if you're solo - and tends to be overly convoluted to yield the results it does even when you are. In most situations, the perfect set-piece battle you're imagining is a lot more chaotic and you're going to lose a lot of damage when things don't work out in precisely the order you need them to. In contrast, sets like Earth can simply stand there and inflict large amounts of damage without disrupting the spawn or requiring all that dancing around.

5 hours ago, QuiJon said:

Oh, i can not say i have ever worked out a "best" attack chain but with the recharge levels the way they are i find I am rarely using Dark blast at all. My attacks are mostly Smite, Midnight Grasp, Moonbeam, Engulfing Darkness (since i position myself in the middle of mobs), and then if i need it for a gap either Life Drain or Gloom. Obviously keeping Hot feet running and a Bonfire burning. Dont know if this would make a difference but like i said, i dont feel gimped when i am taking down A Black Scorpion or Ms Liberty solo. 

As I noted above, the reason we work out a "best" attack chain is so that we can get away from the sort of "my team is the best!" comparisons you're talking about. As I pointed out in the post, I don't have a definitive answer for what the "best" attack chain is for every Dominator Assault set. But if you're going to claim that your particular attack chain is better, it's helpful to know details about that attack chain beyond "I don't use Dark Blast".

[QuiJon]

2 hours ago, Hjarki said:

As I noted above, the reason we work out a "best" attack chain is so that we can get away from the sort of "my team is the best!" comparisons you're talking about. As I pointed out in the post, I don't have a definitive answer for what the "best" attack chain is for every Dominator Assault set. But if you're going to claim that your particular attack chain is better, it's helpful to know details about that attack chain beyond "I don't use Dark Blast".

I get that what you are doing is more pure numbers then feelings. My point is that really who cares about numbers. This post was not asking "hey i want to farm, what is the best" and if all we are wanting is a AE build that kills fastest then no one would make a dominator anyway because 2-3 brute builds out class absolutely anything any other AT could do in a farm. 

 

I base my builds and comments on game play and the feeling of playing it because frankly to me that is what counts. Wheni am farming and care about attack chains and DPS and XP per Minute etc, is when i am working not playing. Farming is working. When i play i want to try and challenge myself and to do things others dont or dont think they can do. Make builds i dont see often. If all anyone cared about was numbers every AT would have one ultimate build of power selections and build outs and no one would ever make anything else. I am not disputing that your numbers are right, what i am saying is i dont give a rats butt about the numbers. I have enough attacks no matter what they are that i have a constant chain of attacks, i have enough control that i can lock down mobs at +4/8 and enough recharge that i can run perma-dom and enough damage mitigation to live through what damage does come my way. 

 

I dont need to know your numbers and attack chains to make a character that over comes AV level regen and damage resistances. So why not just make the character i think is the most fun to play and not worry if i would have gotten 9 more DPS from a /fire build rather then the /stone or whatever i made. You can do as much number crunching as you want, but none of the differences between the sets constitutes a character becoming unplayable. And pushing the numbers just creates a thought process among players that dont experiment that making anything else must gimp you and so you end up with a ton of fire/fire doms instead of anyone being original. 

[Hjarki]

1 hour ago, QuiJon said:

I dont need to know your numbers and attack chains to make a character that over comes AV level regen and damage resistances. So why not just make the character i think is the most fun to play and not worry if i would have gotten 9 more DPS from a /fire build rather then the /stone or whatever i made. You can do as much number crunching as you want, but none of the differences between the sets constitutes a character becoming unplayable. And pushing the numbers just creates a thought process among players that dont experiment that making anything else must gimp you and so you end up with a ton of fire/fire doms instead of anyone being original. 

Because there is no negative to knowing the numbers and often a positive. There are plenty of reasons to play */Dark - but maximizing dps is not really one of them. No one is saying what you're trying to do is 'wrong'.

 

There are plenty of players who simply choose sets based on how they look, and that's perfectly fine. There are plenty of players who look for certain abilities because they like their style, and that's perfectly fine. But it's always better to know what the trade-offs you're making are rather ignoring them.

 

[Frosticus]

He's playing a fire/dark, in no scenario is dark blast a priority attack once you have perma dom levels of recharge. You are better off with small gaps than delaying better attacks to fit in dark blast. That is true for almost all dominator t1s.

 

For instance you are better off sitting there watching blaze recharge for over half a second than you are delaying that attack so you can fit in a flares .

 

Can you expand on why neutrino bolt is a better t1?

[Hjarki]

2 hours ago, Frosticus said:

He's playing a fire/dark, in no scenario is dark blast a priority attack once you have perma dom levels of recharge. You are better off with small gaps than delaying better attacks to fit in dark blast. That is true for almost all dominator t1s.

 

For instance you are better off sitting there watching blaze recharge for over half a second than you are delaying that attack so you can fit in a flares .

 

Can you expand on why neutrino bolt is a better t1?

A no-Dark Blast rotation might look like: Smite/Gloom/Moonbeam/Midnight Grasp. At 122% (perma-Dom) recharge, this would give you 100.5 + 78.5 + 237.7 / 4.5 * 2.67 + 169.2 = 489 damage with a cycle time dependent on Moonbeam of 20 / 2.22 = 9.01 sec for 54 dps. At perma-Hasten, this would drop to a cycle of 20/2.75 = 7.2727 sec for 67 dps. Which is lower than just running the Dark Blast rotation I listed.

 

Nor is this universally true for T1 Blasts in Dominator sets. For all of them, it really depends on how much recharge you have and your alternatives.

 

Now, the above math isn't quite accurate. It actually overstates the dps you get from the priority list method you're recommending because the simple math can't account for potential conflicts delaying activations. To get a finer picture, we need to sim it.

 

For Fire, we have the result I listed above at 83 dps.

 

Using a priority list:

• Perma-dom. No Flares priority list drops you to 67 dps.
• Perma-Hastern. No Flares priority list drops you to 78 dps.
• Recharge Cap. Priority list is justified here, with the no Flares priority list running 109 dps vs. 97 dps for the Flares-included priority list.

So you're correct - if you're intending to play at or near the recharge cap (which is effectively unreachable except with the kind of buffs you'd only experience in a full League).

 

Given all this, I'm forced to ask why you believe differently. The notion of 'rotations' - as opposed to priority lists - is and has been a key element of CoH play since it came out. You're proposing a completely different model at odds with this notion and I'm curious if you have any justification for your beliefs.

 

Neutrino Bolt is a better T1 because it's a higher damage T1. It's also got a slightly slower recharge and more proc opportunities if you're going that route.

 

As a side note, due to the enormous recharge demands imposed on Dominators coupled with the defensive burdens they face, simply throwing away a power pick is often untenable even if it did lead to a higher dps method of play.

 

Note: For support AT, priority lists are far more common because the gaps you're filling with low dpa attacks on a dps AT are instead filled with support activities.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Hjarki

[Frosticus]

He's playing a fire/dark. you are pretending he is playing a nothing/dark.

1 hour ago, Hjarki said:

Given all this, I'm forced to ask why you believe differently. The notion of 'rotations' - as opposed to priority lists - is and has been a key element of CoH play since it came out. You're proposing a completely different model at odds with this notion and I'm curious if you have any justification for your beliefs.

A t1 rotation chain for dominators is like diarrhea. Sure it keeps flowing, but is that what you really want?

It's not a belief, the notion of rotations that you are talking about stems from  some melee builds that just sit there and duke it out  and an overwhelming belief that pylons somehow translate to a common encounter.  That just isn't consistent with how dominators (and many other AT's/builds) play in my experience. 

2 hours ago, Hjarki said:

Neutrino Bolt is a better T1 because it's a higher damage T1. It's also got a slightly slower recharge and more proc opportunities if you're going that route.

I'm gonna wager a guess you haven't played /rad and are just looking at mids or the in-game info. Unless you mean higher than flares and psi dart? That is a pretty low bar for "higher damage" and "slower recharge"

True it can take more procs than most other t1's, though I don't imagine many players proc out their t1.  Although; I have been tempted with call swarm as it actually IS a higher damage t1 and takes even more damage procs. Then again none of my /sav doms have needed that attack either.

 

2 hours ago, Hjarki said:

As a side note, due to the enormous recharge demands imposed on Dominators coupled with the defensive burdens they face, simply throwing away a power pick is often untenable even if it did lead to a higher dps method of play.

Enormous recharge? they run about the same global as pretty much every end game build +/- a bit. 

Defensive burdens? I guess this carries over from your t1 rotations that assume doms have no primary. 

 

[Hjarki]

1 hour ago, Frosticus said:

He's playing a fire/dark. you are pretending he is playing a nothing/dark.

There really isn't anything that interferes with a single target rotation in Fire. Everything's long cooldowns, AE or maybe tossing a Hold. Dominators simply don't spend all that much time with their primary set powers unless they're doing AE with them.

1 hour ago, Frosticus said:

It's not a belief, the notion of rotations that you are talking about stems from  some melee builds that just sit there and duke it out  and an overwhelming belief that pylons somehow translate to a common encounter.  That just isn't consistent with how dominators (and many other AT's/builds) play in my experience. 

Why would anyone value 'your experience' given the fundamental lack of understanding you've displayed thus far about the game mechanics? It's certainly not a valid basis for any argument you're attempting to make.

1 hour ago, Frosticus said:

I'm gonna wager a guess you haven't played /rad and are just looking at mids or the in-game info. Unless you mean higher than flares and psi dart? That is a pretty low bar for "higher damage" and "slower recharge"

Neutrino Bolt has 53.36 dpa. Flares has 39.04 dpa. In most of those rotations, if you were able to use Neutrino Bolt would yield 10% - 15% higher dps for the rotation as a whole. I don't care what 'bar' you're using, that's a significant chunk of damage.

1 hour ago, Frosticus said:

Enormous recharge? they run about the same global as pretty much every end game build +/- a bit. 

Defensive burdens? I guess this carries over from your t1 rotations that assume doms have no primary. 

Every other non-Epic AT in the game can get recharge, defense or both from primary, secondary or both. Dominators cannot. They must get all of their recharge and defense from pool powers and set bonuses.

[ninja surprise]

On 6/24/2020 at 4:57 PM, Hjarki said:

• Radiation. This is arguably the strongest ST damage of any set. However, it is a melee-centric set, making the Cone AE relatively useless and its PBAoE isn't one of the better ones. It does have a self-heal, which can come in handy.
• Dark. I'd say this is defensively the strongest set but offensively the weakest. Normally, this puts it low on the totem pole since ST damage is what you really need from your Assault set.
• Earth. This another melee-centric set, albeit one with stronger AE than Radiation. It also has a damage aura, which is handy for 'farm' builds designed to just grind through large spawns.

Fire Control itself is... problematic. Hot Feet + Bonfire give it great AE performance, but Hot Feet especially can be very disruptive - it tends to scatter spawns rather than concentrate them.

 

What is AE?

[Hjarki]

1 minute ago, ninja surprise said:

What is AE?

Area Effect - powers that affect multiple targets at once.

[ninja surprise]

2 minutes ago, Hjarki said:

Area Effect - powers that affect multiple targets at once.

Ah Ok, hadn't seen AoE shortened to AE before. Thanks!

I like your summaries. I'm leveling an Earth/Earth right now and was a bit dismayed at the dismal damage, but I don't yet have most the powers in that attack chain you posted. Got the controls and I'm just picking up the attacks. Looking forward to the 30's / 40's!