I can't decide on a Dominator to play

[ZorkNemesis]

I love the premise behind Dominators and the concept behind them, but for whatever reason when I try to play one I can never get in to them (with one lone exception being a Fire/Earth back on live servers).  Most Dom combos I've tried I've fizzled out in the 20s and move on to something else (crippling alt-itis is a thing)  I want to commit to one as Dom is currently the only core AT besides Sentinel (which hardly interests me at all for some reason) that I haven't gotten to 50 on HC but I can't seem to find a combo that works for me; even my old Fire/Earth doesn't feel right anymore.

 

So far I've rolled Dark/Martial, Ice/Electric, Mind/Fire and Fire/Earth and each time I get to around 26-27 and just stop and play something else.  This time i'm trying Gravity/Electric but i'm still a bit worried i'll end up in another rut.  While fun is subjective, would anyone happen to have any suggestions for a combo that would be fun to play and somewhat solo-friendly? (I play a lot of red and gold and do keep to myself a fair amount).  I'm not asking for builds, I tend to make my own as I go and I don't farm so I don't need an AE friendly set, just something that maybe I can try and not drop after two or three sessions.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I don't have any high level dominators yet, as I am slow to level and an altoholic, and like you said, fun is subjective, but here's my 2 inf:

 

My grav/energy dom is probably my most fun dom so far. She's only level 22 and I've mostly only teamed with her, but she's just a blast (harhar) to play! Grav feels a bit like a blasty set, and then I make things go boom with energy and even at her lowish level she feels like she's putting out a fair amount of damage compared to some of my other doms.

 

My elec/earth dom is probably my second most fun. Even without end mods slotted she does a pretty good job draining mobs and earth assault just feels like it's hitting things really hard (and for me, the sound effects and visuals are immensely satisfying). And she's both team and solo friendly.

 

I have a fire/martial at 25 that is just sort of collecting dust; she's a total end whore and even though the combo has seemed fun at times, I can't solo much with her and have not found the combo as fun lately even on teams. Could be that I'm playing her wrong or the combo just doesn't click for me anymore. Would love to find a good primary for martial that I feel I can stick with. Also trying to figure out a good pairing I might like with earth; thinking of trying earth/fire. My other doms are too low level/have too little time invested in them to feel out if they're fun or not, some, like my dark/savage, feel as if they may take a while before they might get there.

 

To me, part of the thing with doms is just learning how to get into their playstyle--that the AoE immob is not really necessary while you're soloing (you really want to invest more in holds/confuses/fears/etc.); that you're often going to be using your secondary as if it were your primary; that you're not looking to spam your controls, just lock mobs down enough to beat them up and "arrest" them, one by one if need be. While I've grown to love doms, especially if I get on a team with a Kin or ElecAff user for that +recharge bringing my lowbie doms closeish to permadom, it's still got a bit of a learning curve that I have to remind myself how to play. Which is probably why I like my grav/energy so much because she plays more like a blapper than a confused troller, lol.

[Mezmera]

First, a couple of things.  You probably fizzle out because the best attacking abilities doms get bloom from 28-40.  The early levels are all about getting your controls situated.  Controlling the battefield can get a bit boring if you don't have the ability to set them up then knock them down.  

 

I'd recommend Energy Assault.  It's extremely fun when you get the mechanic down but still it's a late bloomer so you'll want to stick it out until at least 40 before you see how you really like it.   As for what control I'm always a big fan of Mind control, the power activations are all so seamless.  There's a lot of good control sets though I think your enjoyment will be dictated more by the assault set that suits you.   

[fitzsimmons]

I love my fire/earth and I'm about to make a dark/dark/soul troller (I know it's not a Dom).  However I am considering a mind/nrg dom as well.  I think I had one back on live.

 

Fire/psi or Ice/psi doms are pretty good too but I'd have to say my fire/earth is my favorite.

[Coyote]

The most fun Assault sets IMO are Savage and Energy, and both play well also. Psy is powerful, but feels boring. Earth is also pretty good, and it's fun to knock down mobs over and over again.

 

For control, I like Plant because it frees you to spend most of your time smashing. Earth is a lot of fun, and I like Electric's constant knockdowns. Dark is strong, but has less of a visual impact.

 

Pick some combination of the above... I played Plant/Savage, Dark/Savage, and Ele/Earth, and all seemed both fun and impactful.

[ZorkNemesis]

2 hours ago, Mezmera said:

First, a couple of things.  You probably fizzle out because the best attacking abilities doms get bloom from 28-40.  The early levels are all about getting your controls situated.  Controlling the battefield can get a bit boring if you don't have the ability to set them up then knock them down.  

I think this is part of my problem with the AT.  I'm expecting them to do more damage early and they kind of don't.  Controls don't do damage (usually) and Assault sets are usually single-target focused (with the AoEs often being melee or short cones that come late) which I guess makes them feel less effective than I feel they are, especially when compared to a Blaster or Corrupter.  I know they get real good late game, I recall being able to cleave through max level spawns on my old Fire/Earth on live without much trouble but that took a lot of effort to reach that point, mostly involving the AoE blasts from the epic pools (fire mastery was fun).  I feel like I probably need to find a way to get past that hurdle but I keep ending up wearing out before I can.

 

I ought to revisit some of those on-hold Doms of mine and see if I can figure out how to roll with them again.  Maybe giving them a new outfit and rethinking their themes might help.  I also see a lot of people repping /Energy.  Is it really that good?  I did always like Energy Melee attacks and their power to stack up stuns.

[Mezmera]

Well Energy Assault is on par with fire for the highest damage assault, especially with the new mechanic.  You have to venture into melee though yes to get the most out of your pbaoe melee power.  You won't be doing too much aoe damage until you do get those Epic pool powers but the Dominator epic powers round out the AT nicely.  

[Toxis]

14 hours ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

My grav/energy dom is probably my most fun dom so far. 

Awesome time with this combo here :)
 

I have a lot of fun combining Energy Assault with Soul Drain (from the patron pool). Wormhole baddies into a compressed pile.. pop Soul Drain > Total Focus (Gives Stored Energy) > Whirling Hands (Uses Stored Energy) is always a blast. 

 

Total Focus has a mag 6 stun IIRC which helps you alternate trouble mobs. Stun one, hold the other. I am often switching between targets and dealing damage to the one in melee (Total Focus, Bone Smasher) and one at melee/range (ST Hold, Snipe, Power Burst). Both locked down. Now the only powers I use with KB are Snipe/Power Burst which are ST, and any mob I bounce away from the group I can easily finish off myself. Normally I avoid KB heavy sets but this one works just fine.

[FUBARczar]

13 hours ago, ZorkNemesis said:

I ought to revisit some of those on-hold Doms of mine

Revisit your Mind/Fire

[oedipus_tex]

This is just IMO: 

The "sum it up in one post for a new player" version is I'd say the two strongest Dominator primaries are Dark Control and Plant Control and the two strongest secondaries are Fire Assault and Psi Assault. So any matchup between those sets is likely to result in a very powerful character. Plant/Fire, Plant/Psi, Dark/Fire and Dark/Psi make up my round up of top picks. And any secondary or primary combined with one of those sets is likely to be very good.

 

My second tier grouping would be Fire and Earth Control (for the control sets) and Savage and Energy Assault (for the assault sets). 

 

You also have sets like Mind Control that to me are hard to classify. It's not bad solo, but long recharges on some key powers make it not particularly suited for fast moving teams the way the above sets are. It would rank higher for me were it not so similar to Dark Control but (IMO) mostly weaker.

 

That isn't to say you can't still roll other characters. It's just that a lot of other builds (IMO) you really need to study the powers and have a good idea of what you're getting into. Ice and Electric Control particularly fall in this category.

 

As for Gravity, you're unlikely to end up with a truly bad Gravity Dominator; however, what you can easily end up with is a "Gravity Dominator who would be x4 more powerful as a Controller," because Gravity is a blast/control hybrid set. That bothers some players but not others. In my experience there are a few Gravity Dominator combos that work really well and a few duds that would be served better by rerolling as /Kin, /Cold, /Poison, /TA, or /Storm trollers.

Edited September 7, 2020 by oedipus_tex

[Hopestar]

It may be a question of how you're playing it to be honest. Some sets tend to prefer melee while others can do both. For example, pairing a melee set with Mind or Stone will let you safely take down a group while they're asleep, Mind being better at moving fast as it's half the recharge time. As far as fun, Savage is hands down the best Assault in my opinion both in damage and fun, though the most fun is locked at 38 when you pair it with Speed of Sound's Jaunt and you can dash back and forth in and out of groups and while that's not the best DPS strategy, it's still fun to do.

Stone, Fire, Psi and Savage are all powerful at level 10. The rest kind of need to be level 20 to be really good, while Martial eh... kind of requires lvl 35.

I do think people are overreaching saying Energy is top damage or equal with Fire as the numbers simply don't support that, but I'll let them have it since Energy Assault is the best form of Energy attacks we have right now.

 

I'd recommend Plant/Mind/Stone/Dark as primaries for solo play as they help most with your survivability. Grav/Elec/Fire/Ice don't really help you stay alive or at least not until much later. So yeah, revisiting your Mind/Fire you might have fun with or maybe something new like Stone/Savage. Or maybe even re-create your old one from live as Stone/Fire instead of the reverse!

[Mezmera]

2 hours ago, Hopestar said:

II do think people are overreaching saying Energy is top damage or equal with Fire as the numbers simply don't support that, but I'll let them have it since Energy Assault is the best form of Energy attacks we have right now.

Well my Mind/Nrg would like to have a word.  Total Focus, Power Burst and Snipe out ST damage anything /Fire can get you.  Then there's the Energy Release mechanic which doubles the damage on Whirling Hands, which'll make it the hardest hitting pbaoe power a dom can use, far better than any aoe powers in Fire's arsenal.  

 

Additionally as a /Fire dom you're kind of locked into taking the Fire APP for Fire Ball to get the most out of your Fiery Embrace.  Whereas /Nrg doesn't lock you into that so you could get great use out of something like the Soul Patron pool and take Soul Drain which ups all of your damage 100% along with doing fabulous damage on use, then there's 2 other aoe powers in that pool to take on top of that.  

Edited September 8, 2020 by Mezmera

[Zeraphia]

19 minutes ago, Mezmera said:

Well my Mind/Nrg would like to have a word.  Total Focus, Power Burst and Snipe out ST damage anything /Fire can get you.  Then there's the Energy Release mechanic which doubles the damage on Whirling Hands, which'll make it the hardest hitting pbaoe power a dom can use, far better than any aoe powers in Fire's arsenal.  

 

Additionally as a /Fire dom you're kind of locked into taking the Fire APP for Fire Ball to get the most out of your Fiery Embrace.  Whereas /Nrg doesn't lock you into that so you could get great use out of something like the Soul Patron pool and take Soul Drain which ups all of your damage 100% along with doing fabulous damage on use, then there's 2 other aoe powers in that pool to take on top of that.  

Fully agree and this is all true, but I'm going to say this in Fire's defense... It is safer than Energy.

 

Energy requires you to be in melee range, which can be "scary" for a Dominator at times and force you into bad situations when teaming on a stream rolling team where you'd want to go straight into attacking due to your controls not keeping tempo with the group. Can result in unwanted deaths. Certain AV's before you can lock them down will inevitably annihilate you with this set. Buyer beware.

 

Energy also has slow animations, and this can be deadly for a low-hp Dominator. Say another group gets aggro'd to you and you're mid-way through TF, that can very well also result in an unwanted death.

 

Personally, I've done Fiery Assault before, tried Energy Assault, explored both. I think there are definite pros and cons, especially with respect to EA's much harder hitting AoE, but for me and my friends, we've found the safety and speed that Fiery delivers makes it safer, leads to less deaths, and allows for faster burst damage. 

[Mezmera]

23 minutes ago, Zeraphia said:

Fully agree and this is all true, but I'm going to say this in Fire's defense... It is safer than Energy.

 

Energy requires you to be in melee range, which can be "scary" for a Dominator at times and force you into bad situations when teaming on a stream rolling team where you'd want to go straight into attacking due to your controls not keeping tempo with the group. Can result in unwanted deaths. Certain AV's before you can lock them down will inevitably annihilate you with this set. Buyer beware.

 

Energy also has slow animations, and this can be deadly for a low-hp Dominator. Say another group gets aggro'd to you and you're mid-way through TF, that can very well also result in an unwanted death.

 

Personally, I've done Fiery Assault before, tried Energy Assault, explored both. I think there are definite pros and cons, especially with respect to EA's much harder hitting AoE, but for me and my friends, we've found the safety and speed that Fiery delivers makes it safer, leads to less deaths, and allows for faster burst damage. 

A few things here.  There's only one slow animation in Energy in your attack chain and that'd be Total Focus and it has been sped up from what it used to be.  It still hits real hard and sets you up automatically for the Energy Release mechanic.  

 

The overlooked benefit Energy has over Fire is the Power Boost ability.  On top of the +dmg added it allows you to control much better than Fire and it also boosts things like defense.  So if you build your dom right you can powerboost Unleash Potential which mine gets me 31% defense to all to pair with all of my other defenses as opposed to it netting you 21% on a Fire dom.  Then I have Barrier to cycle in once Unleash wears off then after a minute Barrier's best bonuses wear down and back comes Unleash. 

 

At almost all time I'm running around with 56+ positional defenses along with 50+ elemental defenses paired with high resists.  Energy caps my defenses Fire does not so it's far less "scary" than you think.  

Edited September 8, 2020 by Mezmera

[CFIndustries]

I'd say "depends on your playstyle."

 

I enjoyed playing a Mind/Psi dom through 50, even limited to SOs. More of a team setup and playstyle, solo'ing him isn't as much fun to me.

 

Turned-around and rebuilt him as permadom (with the help of a friend, and on a relative budget) and enjoy him even more.

 

I find my playstyle and this build meshed well: lots of AoE control to help teams, fair bit of damage when control isn't needed. I control or blast (or melee!) as the team/circumstance allow. Very tactical.

 

I've played an SO-only Earth dom and those are (BOOM) just alot (RUMBLERUMBLE) of fun (GURGLEGURGLE).

[Toxis]

47 minutes ago, Mezmera said:

A few things here.  There's only one slow animation in Energy in your attack chain and that'd be Total Focus and it has been sped up from what it used to be.  It still hits real hard and sets you up automatically for the Energy Release mechanic.  

 

The overlooked benefit Energy has over Fire is the Power Boost ability.  On top of the +dmg added it allows you to control much better than Fire and it also boosts things like defense.  So if you build your dom right you can powerboost Unleash Potential which mine gets me 31% defense to all to pair with all of my other defenses as opposed to it netting you 21% on a Fire dom.  Then I have Barrier to cycle in once Unleash wears off then after a minute Barrier's best bonuses wear down and back comes Unleash. 

 

At almost all time I'm running around with 56+ positional defenses along with 50+ elemental defenses paired with high resists.  Energy caps my defenses Fire does not so it's far less "scary" than you think.  

This sounds spicy.

 

Hows your endurance holding up with this set up? As a Grav/Energy I find myself quite reliant on Ageless to keep me going, however I keep Super Speed on during combat which I would probably drop if I were to try Unleash Potential. Swapping to barrier would be useful if I could manage it.

[Mezmera]

41 minutes ago, Toxis said:

This sounds spicy.

 

Hows your endurance holding up with this set up? As a Grav/Energy I find myself quite reliant on Ageless to keep me going, however I keep Super Speed on during combat which I would probably drop if I were to try Unleash Potential. Swapping to barrier would be useful if I could manage it.

Well yes endurance runs hot on this dom which I found was the Achilles heel of my build but I typically only team so never found a reason to optimize it in case I solo at first.  Unleash Potential gives you +recovery when in use so I'm not gasping when that's active.  I found when I do run hot it's typically when Unleash isn't active and domination is still a ways off from recharging so I can refill my bar that way.  What I did to fix my endurance was to drop Vengeance and take Dark Consumption which standing close with just 2 bad guys it refills my bar when I need it along with domination.  It's worked out quite well, I only have 2 slots in it with the Efficacy Adaptor's chasing end mod/recharge/accuracy.  Also my Alpha is Agility so I'm getting nice end mod/recharge already along with the defense to boost all of my defense powers.  

Edited September 8, 2020 by Mezmera

[Toxis]

1 hour ago, Mezmera said:

Well yes endurance runs hot on this dom which I found was the Achilles heel of my build but I typically only team so never found a reason to optimize it in case I solo at first.  Unleash Potential gives you +recovery when in use so I'm not gasping when that's active.  I found when I do run hot it's typically when Unleash isn't active and domination is still a ways off from recharging so I can refill my bar that way.  What I did to fix my endurance was to drop Vengeance and take Dark Consumption which standing close with just 2 bad guys it refills my bar when I need it along with domination.  It's worked out quite well, I only have 2 slots in it with the Efficacy Adaptor's chasing end mod/recharge/accuracy.  Also my Alpha is Agility so I'm getting nice end mod/recharge already along with the defense to boost all of my defense powers.  

Yeah, I am running Dark Consumption already which helps a lot between Dom and Ageless. I think I may give it a try without Barrier to start, and see how well it goes. I have a bit of flexibility in my build already so it may work out. 

 

Thanks for the info!

[oedipus_tex]

Energy is very good but what makes Fire more attractive, for me, is Consume, for the blue bar refill + 50% resistance to endurance drain. It's not quite as strong as it used to be because endurance tools have gotten better, but it's still a "gap closer" that pretty much makes makes Endurance costs negligible.

 

Energy is definitely one of the stronger sets though. Total Focus comboed into Whirling Hands is really impressive. Energy is one of the few sets that I feel earns the right to be in melee. The payoff is high enough to justify it. 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2020 by oedipus_tex

[Mezmera]

53 minutes ago, Toxis said:

Yeah, I am running Dark Consumption already which helps a lot between Dom and Ageless. I think I may give it a try without Barrier to start, and see how well it goes. I have a bit of flexibility in my build already so it may work out. 

 

Thanks for the info!

With the +recovery from Unleash active for you half the time it'll push off your reliance on Dark Consumption so that when you do need the endurance it'll always be available for you.  You should have no problem swapping in Barrier.  

[Saikochoro]

I tried a few dominator combinations into the 20s and early 30s, but never really found one that clicked with me. 
 

I finally tried a plant/savage dominator and found that it is very satisfying and fun to play. It feels strong and visceral. Deletes entire spawns pretty fast and has strong single target to boot. Never really had much fun with doms until I tried this combo. 

Edited September 9, 2020 by Saikochoro

[quantumnukacola2]

Been having a killer time as Dark/Fire/Ice!

[FUBARczar]

On 9/8/2020 at 12:20 AM, oedipus_tex said:

You also have sets like Mind Control that to me are hard to classify. It's not bad solo, but long recharges on some key powers make it not particularly suited for fast moving teams the way the above sets are. It would rank higher for me were it not so similar to Dark Control but (IMO) mostly weaker.

Nah it is better, 😜, Mind is the only set that can control 4 different mobs/spawns at once (Mass Hypnosis, Total Domination, Terrify, Mass Confusion).! Also it sucks that Dark's AoE immob is a cone, especially when Heart of Darkness is PBAoE.

 

IMO - I would categorize Dark along side Fire and Earth.  The closet to Mind would be Plant b/c of Seeds and Spore Burst.  

 

On 9/8/2020 at 12:20 AM, oedipus_tex said:

My second tier grouping would be Fire

Wow Fire is definitely tier one for me because of damage and control (hard and soft) --- Flashfire, Hot Feet and Bonfire seal the deal.

[MoonSheep]

On 9/8/2020 at 6:02 PM, Mezmera said:

Well my Mind/Nrg would like to have a word.  Total Focus, Power Burst and Snipe out ST damage anything /Fire can get you.  Then there's the Energy Release mechanic which doubles the damage on Whirling Hands, which'll make it the hardest hitting pbaoe power a dom can use, far better than any aoe powers in Fire's arsenal.  

 

Additionally as a /Fire dom you're kind of locked into taking the Fire APP for Fire Ball to get the most out of your Fiery Embrace.  Whereas /Nrg doesn't lock you into that so you could get great use out of something like the Soul Patron pool and take Soul Drain which ups all of your damage 100% along with doing fabulous damage on use, then there's 2 other aoe powers in that pool to take on top of that.  

 

However, Total Focus takes a whopping 2.52 seconds to activate, which when done the team has moved onto the next mission. Blaze takes only 1.00 seconds, combined with Blazing Bolt on quicksnipe and Fire Blast means Fiery Assault is leaps and bounds ahead of Energy Assault

 

Fiery Embrace also gives +85% damage for 30 seconds, vs Power Up providing a tiny 35% for 10 seconds

Some people enjoy playing the higher-impact, slower pace sets like Energy, Radiation Assault, however if you’re wanting raw damage output and pace, Fire is the way to go. Having everything as range is also a huge plus.

 

Also fiery assault doesn’t lock you into any of the mastery powers, you can still choose any of them (with Ice being pretty much the only sensible choice for teamplay)

Edited September 11, 2020 by MoonSheep

[Toxis]

9 hours ago, MoonSheep said:

 

However, Total Focus takes a whopping 2.52 seconds to activate, which when done the team has moved onto the next mission.

 

Damage #'s aside, this is hyperbole. (Unless you don't plan on running 54 content/TFs)

 

I have no issue with finding a boss mob to pummel to the ground and the energy stored from that lets me destroy the minions and lt's with whirling hands if needed. However I may be built differently where I can handle an alpha strike in melee range and don't have to wait for the team to move in first. It is not going to be as safe, especially with certain damage types, however it is fun and effective.

 

Despite Power Burst and Snipe being strong, I wouldn't recommend Energy to be played at range.

 

EDIT: That does not mean it is bad at killing enemies at range, you just want to be proc'ing Energy Stored which requires a melee target for the most part. Perma stunning a melee boss and shooting down a perma held boss at range is something I have a lot of fun doing. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by Toxis