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Dominator Builds from Concept to End Game Build

oedipus_tex

By oedipus_tex
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oedipus_tex

oedipus_tex

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Posted (edited)

Greetings Dominators.

 

I thought it might be fun and helpful to people to see some examples of how real builds translated from concept to implementation in the real world. I've provided write ups of 7 characters who reached 50, along with original concept, surprises, disappointments, and ultimately an approximate build. The builds are "approximate" because rarely do I ever completely finish a build in game, and I tend to change builds up every few months just to explore, so some no longer match whats in game. Feel free to ask questions or post your own builds below.

 

 

 

Oedipus Tex

image.png.8641aa4744ea9a3df9d2b8892c66e282.png

Concept: My first character needed to settle on a new identity in Homecoming.

Sets: Earth Control/Savage Assault/Leviathan Mastery

Overall Rating: A

 

Backstory: Oedipus Tex was my first hero, which is how he became my namesake. Apparently "Oedipus Tex" is also a character name used by a famous slapstick composer, but I didn't know that at the time. I started with the hat and the name that he would be called "Tex" and searched for rhyming words until I came upon "Rex."

 

He's been a few different powersets over the past 15 years, often centered around Earth Control. When I saw the "soaring eagle" attack in Savage Assault I thought it was too funny not to become his signature move. So, as of the past 4 months he's an Earth/Savage Dominator.

 

Gameplay: Overall I'd say this is one of the strongest Dominators I've built. Earth Control really lives up to the word "Dominate." It's loud, fast, and responsive. Unlike most sister powers, Stalagmites comes out almost immediately when the button is pressed, to devastating effect. Volcanic Gasses is up to be spammed. Multiple sources of the +100% Recharge proc (in Earthquake and in Savage Leap) make the uptime easy.

 

You may have seen my comments elsewhere that I think Plant/Savage is among the strongest combos in the game, and I suspect it eclipses this in one important way: it can Hover. Tex is ground-bound a lot, which puts him at risk another set wouldn't face. Still, end game Earth Control can layer controls on very effectively. I did find survivability shot way up by taking Water Spout, which provided just enough extra soft control to deal with Stalagmites that miss.

 

 

Approximate Build:

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Sarcopha-Guy

image.png.e7a9898c6f1d859f7f4ea79dd379b159.png

Concept: An Egyptian mummy who is ready to party.

Sets: Earth Control/Dark Assault/Leviathan Mastery

Overall Rating: B+

 

Backstory: This is a pun name in search of a powerset instead of the reverse. The costume was then put together. Since I am on a mission to pay every Dominator secondary and Dark Assault seemed like a reasonably okay option, it was selected as his assault set.

 

Gameplay: Not bad. I could have stuck with this character except that he is so close in function to Oedipus Tex (Earth/Savage) but IMO a tad weaker. In fairness, though, retirement only came after hitting 50and deciding I'd prefer an Earth/savage (who became Tex). This guy's build was the prototype for Tex's and how I eventually came around to that design.

 

Wish List: Dark Assault, to me, just feels slightly lethargic. It has a minor heal to help you stay upright, but overall doesn't really distinguish itself on the field. It's not strictly bad. It's just sort of bland. 

 

Approximate Build:

 

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Late Fee

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Concept: An employee of the last remaining Blockbuster Video store absorbs powers from action and horror movies when a satellite (owned by Netflix) crashes into the store.

Sets: Dark Control/Martial Assault/Leviathan Mastery

Overall Rating: B (gameplay) / B- (fun)

 

 

Backstory: I wanted a Dark Control character who drew a stark contrast with the goth and gloom of the powerset. I tried to design a costume with clean, crisp lines that would stand in juxtaposition to the dark powers, colored a gory red. At the same time I wanted some over the top animations for the "action movie" aspect of the character.

 

Gameplay: Aesthetically, it works well. In terms of gameplay the character is fine. Fine, but not great. I love the concept of the character and want to play him more, but in the end Martial Assault just isn't all that interesting to me. I keep hoping to unlock something new about it to revive it in my eyes.

 

Wishlist: Despite looking cool, it's hard for me to give Martial Assault high marks when Savage Assault is similar but so much better. There are a couple of unique powers here, and the animations are fun. However, they translate into game mechanics fairly generically. Despite its unique mechanics, Envenomed Blades adds no special flare. There's no endurance management or healing to be had, and Explosive Shuriken is a huge disappointment. Overall the set isn't bad, but also not as interesting as some others. 

 

Approximate end game build:

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Social Medium

image.png.60ae7a340db065b6171f9faa8f5fc69f.png

Concept: A social media psychic implicated in the Lori Loughlin/Felicity Huffman scandal is forced into a life of heroics.

Sets: Electric Control/Psionic Assault/Mu Mastery

Overall Rating: A- (gameplay) / A (fun)

 

Origin: In this case I had the idea that I wanted to play a Electric/Psi Dominator; the name is a back formation for the concept. The Electric Control powers turned out to do a good job of imitating the concept of content "going viral." 

 

Gameplay: Overall Electric Control is not the strongest set. The set doesn't benefit from Domination as much as other sets do and really struggles with fast reaction time (it has to rely on its sleep patch or else the 240 second Hold for quick reactions). It's a set built for fights that last a long time, and there's less and less of that in City of Heroes toward endgame. Still, the strength of Drain Psyche on an end game build can't be denied, and there's something sadistically fun about being a reverse human battery sucking the energy out of everyone on the battlefield. While not always the most effective character, this one is always interesting.

 

I've wavered back and forth over whether to play him petless or with the Gremlins + Mu Seer. The petless version has a bit more Defense and has Cross Punch for dealing with Psi resistant enemies. The pets aren't very sturdy but they are kind of fun. When I do run with the pet-owning build the pet names allow me to continue the "social media" theme; they are named Like, Share, and Follow.

 

One big point in favor of Elec/Psi specifically is /Psi covering both healing and recovery. This allows this character to run Destiny Barrier (where some other of my Doms run Ageless for the endurance management) and shores up survivability in spite of Electric's rather weak hard controls. 

 

Wishlist: Some of the powers in Electric Control should benefit from Domination. Also, a review of how sapping works overall would be a good thing for all sapper sets. 

 

Approximate end game build:

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Solar Icecap

image.png.3b6cec2c803b58e21ef2fc184b3ad9e5.png

 

Concept: He has ice and fire powers. No really, that's the concept. 

Sets: Fire Control/Icy Assault/Ice Mastery
Overall Rating: C+ (gameplay)/B+(fun)

 

Origin: Sometimes I just want to play a particular combo, and that's what happened here. Both Fire Control and Icy Assault have a PBAoE damage aura and I wanted to see how they'd play together.

 

Gameplay: Eh. I just... hmm. So this is far from the worst character I've ever played. Stuff dies at a reasonable pace, and Mag 6 Flashfire is always welcome. It's....more...philosophical(?)... than that? Thing is, Hot Feet is a power also available on Blasters (so is Bonfire for that matter), where it does about as much damage as it does stacked with the Icy aura here. But Blasters have sustain powers to help their endurance bars and with health recovery, where Dominators mostly don't. So what I have here is a nukeless, healless, endurance bar crashing Blaster with a pretty strong Flashfire and suicidal pets. He does get Sleet, which is a big plus, and mezz protection, which the Blaster has to get from Clarion. And it's still playable, which is why I give it a C+ for gameplay.

 

On the other hand, I have admit that for all the dying and despite Icy Assault being fairly vanilla, this is pretty fun to play. 

 

In case you're wondering, the suicidal pets are named Snowball, Chance, and Hell, approximating their chances of survival.

 

Wishlist: With no disrespect intended to the developers, Icy Assault is kinda boring. There are so many interesting powers in Ice Blast and Ice Manipulation, I'm not sure how we landed on this. As I'm playing it I'm constantly wishing just one power summoned an Ice Slick under the target. Something to set it apart.

 

Approximate end game build: Not currently available. Still deciding whether its worth investing in this character. Build below is a fairly terrible version that has several slots left over and improperly accounts for end redux needs in the auras.

 

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Lawn of the Dead

image.png.373ed6359c6c15d5e86f157eabc76840.png

 

Concept: The lawn is alive and wants your brains.

Sets: Plant Control/Earth Assault/Soul Mastery
Overall Rating: A- (gameplay) / B+ (fun)

 

 

Origin: Another play on a name. This guy has been with me since Virtue on Live. My first Dominator I ever rolled actually.

 

Gameplay: Lots have been said about both of these sets on the boards. Overall I think Plant/Psi or Plant/Savage would be more playable but he's not bad.

 

Wishlist: The endurance consumption in Earth Assault is my only real complaint. 

 

Approximate end game build: Not available. I don't play this character a ton and haven't built out the powers.

 

 

 

 

Green Energy (Controller)

image.png.eda11dc05aefcdeb43b2db6520d19917.png

 

Concept: Min/maxing Plant Control because I can.

Sets: Plant Control/Kinetics/Psi Mastery
Overall Rating: A+ (gameplay) / C (fun)

 

 

Origin: Green Energy was rolled as a Plant/Kinetics Controller mainly because it seemed to me the equivalent Plant/xxx Dominator would not be as powerful (he was originally going to be a Plant/Energy Dom). 

 

Gameplay: It's Kinetics. You either like playing Kinetics or you don't, but almost everyone would agree it's powerful. Strictly speaking I think this guy brings more to most teams than many of the Dominators above. Due to better Controller Defense/Resist modifiers he's also capped to S/L/Rn/Melee paired with Destiny Barrier, which he can pick because he needs to fill neither a healing nor recovery gap. But I also don't enjoy it quite as much. Kinetics isn't for everyone. And he does solo just a bit slower than the comparable Doms.

 

Wishlist: Nothing in particular. Only shared here as a comparison point.

 

Approximate build:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Edited by oedipus_tex
  • Like 4
PainX

PainX

Posted
Posted

the fire/ice in hotfeet i would highly recommend superior avalanche obliteration is a horrible slotting for it i think the same for ISC btw but it is rather costly a fix i would do would involve 5 purples 5 WTO and a kinetic combat in brawl likely havent really built it as that takes me a few hours just off the top of my head

 

VV

VV

Posted
Posted
  On 11/17/2020 at 5:32 AM, oedipus_tex said:

Gameplay: Overall Electric Control is not the strongest set. The set doesn't benefit from Domination as much as other sets do and really struggles with fast reaction time (it has to rely on its sleep patch or else the 240 second Hold for quick reactions).

Expand  

It's funny, a lot of people pick on Elect/, but I find my Elect/Nrg to be one of my most powerful Doms. That sleep patch is total hax, and spamming Jolting Chain + Chain Fences is some serious AOE destruction. With that and Conductive Aura, most opponents are drained of End within a few seconds, and kept there. I combined it with Ice Mastery, and I can barely get through a whole AOE attack chain before nearly everyone is dead. Anybody who gets too in my face gets a Total focus for their trouble. And, of course, she can spam away without worrying about Endurance, so that's nice.

  • Like 1
Wintercat

Wintercat

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 11/17/2020 at 6:10 PM, VV said:

It's funny, a lot of people pick on Elect/, but I find my Elect/Nrg to be one of my most powerful Doms. That sleep patch is total hax, and spamming Jolting Chain + Chain Fences is some serious AOE destruction. With that and Conductive Aura, most opponents are drained of End within a few seconds, and kept there. I combined it with Ice Mastery, and I can barely get through a whole AOE attack chain before nearly everyone is dead. Anybody who gets too in my face gets a Total focus for their trouble. And, of course, she can spam away without worrying about Endurance, so that's nice.

Expand  

I agree. I see nothing weak in elec. Sure, the secondary effect is useless, but since mobs are either sleeping, bouncing like popcorn or busy hitting each other, who cares?

Edited by Wintercat
oedipus_tex

oedipus_tex

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
  On 11/18/2020 at 1:47 PM, Wintercat said:

I agree. I see nothing weak in elec. Sure, the secondary effect is useless, but since mobs are either sleeping, bouncing like popcorn or busy hitting each other, who cares?

Expand  

    

  On 11/17/2020 at 6:10 PM, VV said:

It's funny, a lot of people pick on Elect/, but I find my Elect/Nrg to be one of my most powerful Doms. That sleep patch is total hax, and spamming Jolting Chain + Chain Fences is some serious AOE destruction. With that and Conductive Aura, most opponents are drained of End within a few seconds, and kept there. I combined it with Ice Mastery, and I can barely get through a whole AOE attack chain before nearly everyone is dead. Anybody who gets too in my face gets a Total focus for their trouble. And, of course, she can spam away without worrying about Endurance, so that's nice.

Expand  

 

 

I have 86 levels on my Electric Dominator, more than any other character, so I think the set is reasonably playable. But I wouldn't be being objective if I didn't note some of its issues. Synaptic Overload should Dominate splash targets. Static Field should Dominate on the first pulse. Power cast times on the T1, T2, and T3 are longer than other Control set powers and should be brought into alignment.

 

I also notice you're playing with /Energy, and I am playing with /Psi, both of which are among the stronger Dom secondaries. Where Electric Control takes a serious hit is when paired with a secondary that does DoTs. This interrupts Sleep and downgrades the set considerably.

Edited by oedipus_tex
  • 3 months later
Ankylosaur

Ankylosaur

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 11/17/2020 at 5:32 AM, oedipus_tex said:

You may have seen my comments elsewhere that I think Plant/Savage is among the strongest combos in the game, and I suspect it eclipses this in one important way: it can Hover. Tex is ground-bound a lot, which puts him at risk another set wouldn't face. Still, end game Earth Control can layer controls on very effectively. I did find survivability shot way up by taking Water Spout, which provided just enough extra soft control to deal with Stalagmites that miss.

Expand  

Stalagmites seems the bread and butter of the controls, so feels like earth doms have to stay ground-bound. Any experience with an earth/savage dom that did hover and went more defense oriented with scorpion shield instead of the water spout soft control? Just curious if you think it would be viable and fun - i'm not thinking it would work without stalagmites. (I have a 50 who concept-wise, flies for travel and thought it might help going defense to avoid the occasional mez when not in dom.)

Edited by Ankylosaur

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tidge

tidge

Posted
Posted
  On 11/17/2020 at 3:56 PM, PainX said:

the fire/ice in hotfeet i would highly recommend superior avalanche obliteration is a horrible slotting for it i think the same for ISC btw but it is rather costly a fix i would do would involve 5 purples 5 WTO and a kinetic combat in brawl likely havent really built it as that takes me a few hours just off the top of my head

Expand  

I agree that slotting Obliteration in Hot Feet (at level 8 ) doesn't strike me as a good thing. Perhaps it's there as some sort of compromise? IIRC it has a rather poor %proc rate. It does feel like this build is specifically chasing set bonuses from Obliteration, as it shows up in places I wouldn't expect it.

 

I admit: On my concept Fire/Psi/Psi Dom, I have Hot Feet (also at level 8 ) but it is a power I don't really like that much... I often forget that I have it toggled off most of the time. It's only in my build as a place to slot a set bonus and because there wasn't a comparable power (at that level) I felt would help the build more.

 

The only other comments I'll make on the Fire/---/--- build;

  • There may be too much focus on +Recovery, YMMV. Blah blah blah Perma-Dom-Endurance-refill fishcakes. I have only the default slots in Health and Stamina.
  • I grok the defense bonus from 6-slotting Fire Imps with Expedient Reinforcement, but I stop with 4-slots of Expedient Reinforcement and add the Soulbound Allegiance %BuildUp
PainX

PainX

Posted
Posted
  On 3/8/2021 at 4:46 PM, tidge said:

I agree that slotting Obliteration in Hot Feet (at level 8 ) doesn't strike me as a good thing. Perhaps it's there as some sort of compromise? IIRC it has a rather poor %proc rate. It does feel like this build is specifically chasing set bonuses from Obliteration, as it shows up in places I wouldn't expect it.

 

I admit: On my concept Fire/Psi/Psi Dom, I have Hot Feet (also at level 8 ) but it is a power I don't really like that much... I often forget that I have it toggled off most of the time. It's only in my build as a place to slot a set bonus and because there wasn't a comparable power (at that level) I felt would help the build more.

 

The only other comments I'll make on the Fire/---/--- build;

  • There may be too much focus on +Recovery, YMMV. Blah blah blah Perma-Dom-Endurance-refill fishcakes. I have only the default slots in Health and Stamina.
  • I grok the defense bonus from 6-slotting Fire Imps with Expedient Reinforcement, but I stop with 4-slots of Expedient Reinforcement and add the Soulbound Allegiance %BuildUp
Expand  

i run it on my fire/stone perma combo'd with mud pots for some slowing goodness and yes the end slotting required is immense psi however could perma it in it's sleep with drain psyche hell you wont even need to slot either of them just one target hit brings you to the recovery my fire/rad blaster has with the toggle

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