What Would You Change About Dominators?

[XaoGarrent]

1. Doms get their T9 pets early. This really is more of a solo/small team thing. Also, Mind gets its AoE confuse earlier. Really, it would be nice if it got that psychic vortex pet that Penny has, but... Cottage rule makes that hard.

 

2. Doms get a higher consistency/uptime version of whatever their set's soft AoE mezz is. Shorter cooldown, higher base accuracy, more consistent knockdown, stuns roll to last longer on each target, etc.

 

3. Yet a little higher damage. Frontloading DoTs could help with this, but I think maybe focusing on the Assault sets would be a better idea. Especially the lower tier powers, which tend to be lackluster altogether. Some of the recent changes did already help with this, though, namely the sets that got reduced animations with little or no tradeoff.

 

4. Port Illusions to Dominators. ...A man can dream.

 

EDIT: Also, making sure Domination works on everything in some way is a real good idea. That's a good suggestion.

 

Domination rework:

 

People probably aren't going to like this, but... Basically, domination is now a toggle. Some very important other things change, too, though. Dominators now get most of their mezz resist as part of their passive, and domination just increases it a bit. The Domination meter is split into 4 bars, it can be activated any time you have at least one bar, and when Domination is active it slowly drains. Deactivating Domination will eat whatever is left of your current bar, but you keep any full bars in reserve.

 

Domination...

• No longer can be perma'd
• Still requires some commitment to use

But also...

• No longer is all or nothing, can be activated earlier, and can be managed
• No longer is required for mezz resistance

Edited September 21, 2020 by XaoGarrent

[oedipus_tex]

Redirecting-ish here to a long discussion being had in the game balance forum. Dominators have come up for discussion a bunch of times throughout the thread. Posting this here in case the conversation gets redirected.

 

 

 

[OrionX]

To me, when I'm not permadomming, being a dom is not fun at all and you don't really contribute to the team.

With that being said, it is worth the time and money to slot your dom to be perma 100% of the time...very rewarding playstyle.

I prefer to go overboard to have dom without hasten or ageless turned on, as I like to run teams and when I recruit i routinely miss the "click" window.

 

My only complaint that when endgaming if you want to SK down to just run with friends on lower level TFs you lose all of those bonuses that keep you perma.

Usually for me it is anything below the mid-40s that breaks my perma.

 

Perhaps you increase all of your Primary power magnitudes to dom level and get rid of the Dom endurance buff.

Therefore you get all of the hold power but you need to slot other things for endurance and recharge.

 

I'm squishy, I find most of the melee powers in the secondary set to be useless.

 

Almost forgot...I would love to have the Nuke missing from the secondary power set.

 

Edited October 7, 2020 by OrionX

[DreadShinobi]

On 10/7/2020 at 6:54 AM, OrionX said:

My only complaint that when endgaming if you want to SK down to just run with friends on lower level TFs you lose all of those bonuses that keep you perma.

Usually for me it is anything below the mid-40s that breaks my perma.

 

Attune all your IOs and grab the recharge base buff +20% whenever you exemp to lower level on dom. 5 purple sets and 5 attuned lotg recharge and sg base buff = 107.75% global recharge at lvl 25. Attuned Basilisk's gaze in an aoe hold is another 7.5% recharge that exemps to lvl 10. Preventive Meds 8.75% recharge and Positron's blast 6.75% recharge also exemps to lvl 20. These are all easy to fit in, provided you have the catalysts to attune your IOs.

 

The higher your recharge on dom, the more endurance you have access to as well, which makes exemping an endgame dominator pretty smooth, what holds them back is that often their heavy hitting attacks often come so late. Playing /Fiery without Blazing Bolt (lvl 35) and Blaze (lvl 38) can be quite disappointing.

[carroto]

I'm not sure I have anything new to add.  If I could do one thing it would probably be to normalize the first three powers most control sets get to the lower end of animation time.  Any bread-and-butter power on a short recharge that has a long animation affects the feel of playing the set in a strongly negative way.  There are control sets I can't bring myself to play because of how clunky that makes them feel.  I did manage to take Earth Control to 50 on a Controller, but that was mostly because I wanted the pet.  That and it has an interesting variety of other tools.

 

It's the same reason I can't bring myself to play Kinetics.  There's a lot about the play style that appeals to me, but the main powers I'd be using over and over regularly have unnecessarily long animations that make the whole thing feel sluggish and clunky.  It's the opposite of what a set like that should feel like to play.

 

Next I would certainly like to make all control powers benefit from Domination if possible.  I think I said earlier in this thread that I started an Electric Control Dom but shelved it when I learned that the confuse doesn't dominate.  Same for Ice Control.  If the ST hold were sped up and the toggle benefited from Domination I'd want to play one for sure.

 

There aren't that many control sets to choose from, and unfortunately many of the choices have one or more things that make them clearly inferior choices.  Not just numerically, but seat-of-the-pants fun as well.  So I keep coming back to the same few primaries, but I've done them all already.  So I tend to not roll up many Dominators, even if I'm in the mood to make a new one.

 

I also agree that the difference between perma-dom and not feels too large.  After I fully IO and perma-dom one of my Doms it feels like a different character altogether.  I mean really.  It's like I spent all that time leveling it up only to swap it out for a different one when I got there.  However I don't think I saw any suggestions I really liked in this thread for changing how Domination works.  I guess just removing the need to build Domination would address the main problems, but somehow that doesn't feel right either.  I don't have a better suggestion to offer at the moment.

 

I will say that having Domination on auto and having to remember to keep on top of clicking Hasten when it recharges, or else losing dom and starting from scratch...I don't care for that whole part of playing a perma-dom at all.  But the benefit of doing it is too great to not do it.  The whole thing feels so gimmicky.  I wonder if that's not part of the reason Doms aren't more popular.  You are shoehorned into one specific style of building that even when you get there is kind of a fiddly hassle.  But not doing it means you're a low-HP squishy without a good way to stop a boss from eating your face, so you kind of have to do it.

 

[OrionX]

DreadShenobi "Attune all your IOs and grab the recharge base buff +20% whenever you exemp to lower level on dom. 5 purple sets and 5 attuned lotg recharge and sg base buff = 107.75% global recharge at lvl 25. Attuned Basilisk's gaze in an aoe hold is another 7.5% recharge that exemps to lvl 10. Preventive Meds 8.75% recharge and Positron's blast 6.75% recharge also exemps to lvl 20. These are all easy to fit in, provided you have the catalysts to attune your IOs."

 

That really helped I can now permadom down to level 19.

I've also heard there is a recharge temp power I can get too.

[Tantricsecrets]

More damage!

[Weylin]

What if the Domination bar was changed to be a resource?

The ability would be a toggle that consumes the resource at a certain rate, and being proactive extends the uptime of it.

The ability itself wouldn't have much of a cooldown at all, it would just be locked out until 90-100%

So you could turn it off at 50% if you're not using it, and get back up to 100% far more quickly

 

The Domination paradigm shift that happens over a 1% change in recharge rate to completely bypass the crash just doesn't sit right with me at all.

 

[tidge]

On 11/15/2020 at 5:35 PM, Weylin said:

What if the Domination bar was changed to be a resource?

The ability would be a toggle that consumes the resource at a certain rate, and being proactive extends the uptime of it.

The ability itself wouldn't have much of a cooldown at all, it would just be locked out until 90-100%

So you could turn it off at 50% if you're not using it, and get back up to 100% far more quickly

 

The Domination paradigm shift that happens over a 1% change in recharge rate to completely bypass the crash just doesn't sit right with me at all.

I understand the feels around the quantum leap when achieving perma-dom (or being short of perma-dom), but I don't know that adding another health/endurance bar tied to a toggle is viable.

 

I have a strong (negative) opinion about requiring a Dominator to be (even more) 'active' to maintain perma-dom. As it is, many builds require using powers with the Force Feedback +Recharge %proc (occasionally in powers that don't require targets) and/or balancing Domination/Hasten clicks. 

[...]

23 hours ago, tidge said:

I understand the feels around the quantum leap when achieving perma-dom (or being short of perma-dom), but I don't know that adding another health/endurance bar tied to a toggle is viable.

 

I have a strong (negative) opinion about requiring a Dominator to be (even more) 'active' to maintain perma-dom. As it is, many builds require using powers with the Force Feedback +Recharge %proc (occasionally in powers that don't require targets) and/or balancing Domination/Hasten clicks. 

Yes.

 

I don't really want domination to change. I like it how it is. Any change will come with some form of a nerf.

[DSorrow]

On 10/7/2020 at 4:54 PM, OrionX said:

To me, when I'm not permadomming, being a dom is not fun at all and you don't really contribute to the team.

This is my major gripe with Dominators. Every build needs to be loaded with +Rech to be fun, and missing a Domination cast or getting slowed down stops fun for a bit.

 

I'd probably change Domination to work without Recharge or having to click it: at 25% of the Domination bar the power activates and you get one third of current Domination's effect. 2/3 at 50% and full effect at 75% and above. So long as you keep using abilities, you'll probably stay at around 100% and then the bar starts emptying if you've been out of combat for a bit. 

[Hardship]

I like the way that Dominators play. I think that having a unique game mechanic makes the set fun to work with. I get that it can be clicky and the penalty for JUST missing the domination recharge is discouraging -- I hate it when I hear that domination dropping sound and my sparkles go away -- but I really would hate to see this changed from how it is now. I just "feels" like such a sense of accomplishment when you get perma-dom and manage to keep it through the mission(s).

[Coyote]

I've had very playable characters before they were perma-Doms. As I said, having Domination available, plus Power Up, plus Hasten, means that even with low recharge, there is always some buff available to make tough fights easier. And Domination can be hoarded, as you don't really need the double Mag, until you get to a boss fight. So unless you're in a team where the spawns are large enough to always have bosses, you're still effective, then you boost up to kill the boss spawn. And then when it drops, you use Hasten. And so on. It's quite effective, enough so that I'm not greatly worried if Domination were to be changed so that there is less of a jump from non-perma to perma-Dom.

Actually, the only times I've had problems are when mobs are resistant to some major control that I depend on, like Plant going against Rularuu, or when I'm facing missions with multiple ambushes so I get shot before I get to throw out controls. A lack of perma-Dom hasn't really been any major problem.

[Calzano]

I wish they would make domination permanent without having to set it up for clicks when you have the recharge neccesary.  It would make life a lot easier

[tidge]

I finally thought of something I'd change about Dominators: I'd like them to be able to customize the visual appearance from the ATO and Winter IO sets. Not every Dominator wants a Fiery Orb, and not every AT wants to see Ice effects. This is extremely low priority for me.

 

Spoiler

I am aware that some folks think the ATO pet spawns (Fiery Orb, Energy Font) are trash, but I am not one of them.

 

[PoitVok]

Are people still considering Domination emptying the dom bar on cast and you have to build it up again to maintain permadom? I personally like this idea because there are so many times, before I reach perma, that I'm 10 seconds off or something like that. As it stands now, that is in actuality 10 seconds + however long it takes to build up the domination bar again. If you can have a full dom bar once domination ends....all you have to wait on is the remaining cooldown. Which is far more manageable than requiring permadom.

[tidge]

On 12/28/2020 at 5:08 PM, PoitVok said:

Are people still considering Domination emptying the dom bar on cast and you have to build it up again to maintain permadom? I personally like this idea because there are so many times, before I reach perma, that I'm 10 seconds off or something like that. As it stands now, that is in actuality 10 seconds + however long it takes to build up the domination bar again. If you can have a full dom bar once domination ends....all you have to wait on is the remaining cooldown. Which is far more manageable than requiring permadom.

I will never like this idea, because it means that a player can't "take a break" from fighting to maintain Domination. No thanks, but I don't want to have to desperately attacking every mob I encounter as a travel between missions.

[...]

1 minute ago, tidge said:

I will never like this idea, because it means that a player can't "take a break" from fighting to maintain Domination. No thanks, but I don't want to have to desperately attacking every mob I encounter as a travel between missions.

To be fair, unless a player has permadom without hasten (123% global recharge I think?) they'll lose domination if they leave their keyboard for more than 90 seconds. 

 

There's really nothing perma about perma dom at all, at least as most of us get it (via hasten). 

 

So it comes down to whether or not a person is more annoyed about potentially losing domination during travel (as you are), vs losing it because you missed the click by 1-2 seconds.  

 

Personally, I tend to lose domination more often due to the second circumstance (but I use hasten and have all my keybinds set to switch my auto power back and forth between hasten and domination... it's just that I almost always have a second power queued, so sometimes the auto doesn't fire and I lose domination). 

 

Anyway, not a big deal to me personally either way. 

[tidge]

4 minutes ago, Vooded said:

To be fair, unless a player has permadom without hasten (123% global recharge I think?) they'll lose domination if they leave their keyboard for more than 90 seconds. 

 

So it comes down to whether or not a person is more annoyed about potentially losing domination during travel (as you are), vs losing it because you missed the click by 1-2 seconds. 

Players can click Hasten (or rely on movement toggle/binds) without having to go street sweeping between missions. Writing only for myself: I do eventually click Hasten to maintain perma-dom, but such a thing is trivial when compared to hoping for encountering enough enemy mobs to refill a Domination bar.

 

I routinely play my lvl 50+ Dominator at x8 lvl 45+ content, but at lower levels I'm not sure I'd even be facing enough in-mission mobs (outside of PUGs) to maintain Domination.

 

This suggestion feels like it has a LOT of underlying assumptions that wouldn't apply uniformly to all players. Some folks may not like having to build towards Global +Recharge with powers/IO slots, but at least that is a goal shared by all Dominators with all play styles.

[...]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

I routinely play my lvl 50+ Dominator at x8 lvl 45+ content, but at lower levels I'm not sure I'd even be facing enough in-mission mobs (outside of PUGs) to maintain Domination.

This is a good point worth considering: how long does it take a solo dom playing at 0x1 to fill the domination bar? I haven't tested it recently, but my guess is that it is much longer than 90 seconds. 

 

In which case, the whole proposal falls flat and I would not like to to be changed. Thank you for bringing up this point. 

 

1 hour ago, tidge said:

This suggestion feels like it has a LOT of underlying assumptions that wouldn't apply uniformly to all players. 

Agreed.

[PoitVok]

5 hours ago, tidge said:

 

I routinely play my lvl 50+ Dominator at x8 lvl 45+ content, but at lower levels I'm not sure I'd even be facing enough in-mission mobs (outside of PUGs) to maintain Domination.

 

This suggestion feels like it has a LOT of underlying assumptions that wouldn't apply uniformly to all players. Some folks may not like having to build towards Global +Recharge with powers/IO slots, but at least that is a goal shared by all Dominators with all play styles.

Very good point that I hadn't considered. 

 

What if domination went the opposite way then? You start out with a full domination bar that replenishes on attacks and automatically when domination isn't toggled but, otherwise, drains when domination is active.

 

Maybe add some fun scaling damage as the bar gets lower too? Some sort of tradeoff since this idea would have domination on a low CD.

Edited January 1, 2021 by PoitVok

[Ukase]

The only thing I would change would be for Domination to go off automatically without needing to be clicked, or allow the dom to auto fire two powers instead of just one. 

[Hew]

Anything that strips the ability to have perma mez protect would instantly tank any desire i would have in playing the AT.

[Nemitri2]

Has anybody suggested making domination behave like brute's fury? hear me out, instead of gaining more damage the bar fills but, Dominator control sets have a higher chance to apply extra magnitudes of the power?(or perhaps they last longer with more domination bar) domination would become a passive ability at this point, the Archetype still benefits from recharge, but not mandatory like before. as for the mezz protection, perhaps as the domination bar fills out you get more magnitude protection from crowd control? I love this approach, as it something less Doms would need to mircormanage to be honest.

 

Also would love to see attack sets that are either entirely melee or ranged, I dislike this wishy-washy approach, for example Mind/Psi has a weird mix of powers that reward you for being at long range, then there are  powers that are up close such as drain psyche and psychic shockwave!

[tidge]

3 hours ago, Nemitri2 said:

Has anybody suggested making domination behave like brute's fury? hear me out....

>fingers in ears< ....la la la la la... ...not listening.... >fingers in ears<

 

To offer some explanation:  The core mechanic that I don't like about Fury is having to maintain it to maximize performance. In a game that includes chatting and travel between missions, I like that it is possible to invest in a Dominator (to maintain perma-Dom) without having to be hyper-active.