Dx3 Dominator powers

[qwerty1971]

Greetings to all.

I want to make a Dark/Dark/Soul Mastery Dominator but I am wondering what powers from the Primary and Secondary are must haves and which are skippable. I am not as familiar with the dark powerset as I am with others which is why I am asking the collective group. As for my playstyle I tend to favor characters that can fill multiple roles so in this case I would like to be ok at ranged, control, debuffs and melee. I know I cant have it all but close enough is OK as well. Tips are always appreciated in regards to strategies in playstyle and IO slotting. Many thanks. 

[Mezmera]

Well with Soul mastery you'll want to get the most out of the best power in that Patron being Soul Drain which will put you in melee with nice pbaoe damage plus it amps all of your following damage.  I believe Dark control has a pbaoe toggle so that might be helpful.  

 

I've not played Dark control but I have experience on the other two.  

 

For Dark Assault the must haves are Gather Shadows, Moonbeam, Life Drain (you'll want to split this with 3 Touch of Nictus and 3 Apocalypse) and the pbaoe attack.  Maybe the t9 attack as well but it's a ST DoT which I tend not to like.  

 

As for Soul Mastery all of these powers are actually quite nice.  For sure the resistance shield, it's the best armor on doms.  Then Soul Drain and you might run hot on endurance so I like taking Dark Consumption just in case I ever need it plus it's a decent little pbaoe damage boost if you'd like to use it that way too.  The last two I don't as often take but the Seer boss is quite nice too and then there's the standard target aoe blast doms get in their Epics.  

[Coyote]

Dark Control: everything is good, so if you must skip something,  I'd skip the AoE Hold.

Your main defense will be -ToHit debuffing, not controls, so slot up Fearsome Stare for that. With that, Living Shadows to keep mobs from moving and that also adds -To Hit and reasonable Range/Melee/AoE defense of about 30%, you'll effectively be soft-capped to everything. Back it up with the resist shield from Soul and perma-Dom for mez protection, and you're actually going to be pretty tanky. Especially with Gather Darkness increasing both your defense powers and your -ToHit debuffs at the start of most fights.

Take Heart of Darkness and slot it with 3-4 damage procs. After you open up with the cones for debuffing, you'll run into the spawn for PBAoE mezzing and control, and this will combine the two.

Haunt and Umbra Beast are good pet powers, though like all pets they suffer in high-difficulty scenarios. The -ToHit debuffing will help with this, though, and they add extra damage.

Possess is great for soloing at low levels, turning nasty mobs like Sappers or Sorcerors to your side at all levels, and perma-Confusing AVs at the high end.

[brasilgringo]

I posted a dark/dark build yesterday, it may give you ideas.  The AOE hold gets a lot of mileage out of just 4-slot Basilisk's Gaze, including helping your recharge for permadom.  If I were goint to skip anything, I'd skip one of the pets, maybe the Beast.  Keep the Haunts for hard targests like AVs.  I must say, if you plan to team at all, the epic with Sleet (and Ice Storm, Ice Armor, Hoarfrost) is really the best for helping others.  From what I recall Sould Drain is on a very long timer, and honestly if you're teaming you won't get as much benefit from it given the other buffs the team will have.  If it's just concept driven, sure go for it. 

 

I have a Dark/Savage build I posted with a 50+ version and an exemplar, leveling version.  That can give you some tips as well.  My 50+ version is petless, while the exemp version has both. 

Edited October 12, 2020 by brasilgringo