Best Dom for AV/GM Killing

[StriderIV]

Hi all,

 

So I'm recently done a few TF's with Dom's on my team... and watched them basically solo it 😂

 

I've decided to roll my first Dom, and want to make a true AV/GM killer. Are there any Powerset combos you'd recommend? I see a lot of /psi and Drain Psyche being top tier for this. I see things range from Mind/Psi, Fire/Psi and Dark/Psi. But are there any other power sets (including secondaries) that you would recommend? Appreciate it!

[StriderIV]

I could also be completely off in my analysis 😄 

[Snarky]

I am pretty crappy at Doms.  Back on live Fire/Psi was a huge favorite.  Not sure if that was "Farmers Helpers" or AV killers.  Any Pylon DPS threads may have more info.  The other issue is...survival.  I do not know how to do it.  Holds will be worth squat, so that is most of the front half of the toolbox.

[StriderIV]

9 minutes ago, Snarky said:

I am pretty crappy at Doms.  Back on live Fire/Psi was a huge favorite.  Not sure if that was "Farmers Helpers" or AV killers.  Any Pylon DPS threads may have more info.  The other issue is...survival.  I do not know how to do it.  Holds will be worth squat, so that is most of the front half of the toolbox.

Thanks man! Yeah I've somehow seen some Doms just walk into mobs and... not die as the mob melts lol. Not sure how they do it.

 

[oedipus_tex]

Your best bet is probably some kind of permadom Mind Dominator. People used to solo the LRSF by sleeping the Freedom Phalanx and stacking Confuse so they kill each other. I've personally never tried and have heard little about whether it works these days.

 

I think (but don't quote me because I haven't tried it in ages) that Hypnotize will sleep some AVs in one shot. I also forget if you need Domination active to do this. 

 

If I had to pick a Dominator that could possibly do this, it would be something like Mind/Fire (altho DoT might interfere with Sleep).

 

RE: Psi Assault, Drain Psyche on Doms used to be bugged and you could enhance its -Regen to absurd levels. That was fixed a long time ago on HC, might still work on other servers. Psi Assault has attrocious ranged damage and I wouldn't want to try to use the melee attacks.

 

Overall Dominators have a very rough go versus AVs and are the last AT I'd look to try it. Their controls mostly fail, they have few healing, defense, or resist options, they can't adequately protect their set or Lore pets, its just not a clean package. The only thing really going for them is the ability to discreetly stack Sleep/Confuse, mezz protection in Domination mode, and (maybe?) high Snipe damage. 

[Force Redux]

Controller is the Dominator you want for AVs, unfortunately. 

 

Illusion with Rad, Traps, Dark or Cold is the way to go IMO. 

[Frosticus]

I don't want to sound like a debbie downer, but the only doms that can reliably handle AV's are mind and dark by stacking enough confuse and then engaging.

Everyone else is just playing the luck game and hoping they don't get 2 shot. 

 

If your strategy is confuse I'd probably go dark so you at least have some supplemental pet damage you can call on once they are confused.

 

Earth has stoney, which will taunt the AV off of you, but without a support set to buff/debuff he'll still go down quickly. 

 

That said, by the time you've stacked enough confuse to engage most AV's, a more accredited AV killer would already be done with them.

 

*using confuse on the LRSF is certainly handy. Penny can rip through her allies with ease. But the thing is she does so much damage that even a psi melee scrapper using boggle could accomplish this strategy by having her kill her friends while the triangles are down. 

 

/fire certainly has the dps to kill most. /nrg does as well. /psi has a nice -500% regen debuff, but otherwise doesn't do great damage and -regen doesn't matter "that" much vs most AV's, though it is helpful. 

 

dark/fire was my original dominator pick that I had hopes for, but ultimately I wouldn't rate it as a very capable AV killer. GM's even less so. 

[Snarky]

i think the issue is Doms are built to do a completely different job then massive ST fights.  its like trying to find the best tank to go drag racing in.  there are going to be serious issues, even if you make it to the end of the strip.

[Coyote]

You can do pretty well with Fire/Psy and Mind/Psy... both can perma-Hold the AV up to +2 definitely, maybe +3. The lower DPS of having to spam the ST Hold matters less when the AV regenerates less. I'd go with Fire/Psy for this (I have one, he does +1 without trouble, +2 with occasional annoying breakouts from the Hold, and I"m not touching +3s until higher in Incarnate abilities).

 

Mind and Dark can perma-confuse an AV up to +3 without much problem, and with -Regen from DP you can generally solo one. A lot easier on /Dark, as pet damage makes up for eating up about 40% of your attack cycle in non-damaging Confuse powers. Again, -Regen helps a lot here.

 

I've soloed lots of AVs including the Kronos Titan on a Plant/Savage, but the Titan needed Envenomed Daggers, so clearly building for a Ranged Defense build is an option if you also have some sort of Regen power or way to regain health. So you can try for the standard of "fight at range with capped defenses and a way to regenerate occasional hits". This is my Fire/Psy's second option, as I think the build is soft-capped to both Ranged and AoE.

 

So, if you really want to do it, you have several options:

perma-Hold (Mind or Fire, or most primaries if you take Stone Assault as Seismic Smash adds a good amount of Mag).

perma-Confuse (Mind or Dark, at this point damage will be the problem and you want a high-damaging secondary or Psy). I've done some AVs with Mind/Nrg.

Ranged D build (Plant is best due to Tree of Life, otherwise Dark for -ToHit to squeeze out the last few % points, or Fire for damage, and Psy secondary for -Regen/+Regen, or Dark for a ranged self-heal).

 

All of these builds are viable, and will play well in the rest of the game also. Note that they're not going to be top performers in "how fast I took the AV down", as the required Holds/Confuses will eat into damage, Psy is not a high-damage secondary outside of DP's effect, and a Ranged Defense build is going to work as well as a Ranged Defense build on many other ATs but usually without -Regen, Defiance for extra damage, and a tighter build to squeeze out perma-Dom AND defense.

 

So if you're looking to do it, there are options. If you're looking for high performance at it, it won't happen.

[Mezmera]

My Mind/Nrg can solo AV's.  Controls are a bit useless but they do eventually kick in for a time so I'll still work the ST hold and confuse into my arsenal.  Energy has fabulous ST damage plus you can also powerboost your defenses so I'll typically have capped defenses thanks to alternating Unleash Potential and Barrier.  I also have pretty great resists should anything get through and I carry a tray of greens/reds and some oranges.  A big thing you'll want to get is some way to get -resist and -regen that's where I use Weaken Resolve and Envenomed Daggers when needed. 

Edited January 26, 2021 by Mezmera

[oedipus_tex]

If you were very lucky/careful I could maybe see a permadom Mind/Earth having some success opening with Confuse tocreate safety and following up with Dominate+Telekinesis+Seismic Smash+Dominate, which on their own are 22 Mag worth of Hold in around 6 seconds. Earth Assault can Power Up the Holds for pretty good durations. Dominate has pretty good DPA for a Hold. You could throw Mesmerize in there to disable the AV periodically. Been a while since I looked but I think you need Mag 50 Hold to overcome a AV's protection. 

 

I'm not saying it would work perfectly, you're still a mostly unarmored character at melee range with not great stats. It would also probably take forever. But the potential is there. Maybe. 

 

A scheme like that will make short work of Elite Bosses of course.

Edited January 26, 2021 by oedipus_tex

[MoonSheep]

I solo AVs with my mind/fire permadom main, keeping confused layered on the target ensures I don’t get instantly squished. The incredible ST damage from fire makes things go quite well - I bring a bunch of insps with me for any hairy moments.

 

Haven’t built any defense/res into the build as insps are easily available and work well. I leave the armour for the brute/scrapper/tank ATs

 

mind or dark control with fire or energy assault would be the way to go in my view

[Snokle]

I have been able to solo some AVs with my Ice/Psi perma dom, but it is a a bit of a slog. They are usually on par; or +1 ... honestly I would not go much higher than that on it. A lot of this, is leaning into DP and the incarnate powers; while slowly picking away. GMs, I am not sure about at all, it seems like the package to take down GMs in much tighter, so I cannot say for certain. I think the right setup can do it; but it can be rough with one-two shot easy to happen to ya.

[mbre2006]

I would image trying to solo a Gm would take quite a bit of time. Is that even worth it? What would be the purpose of building AV/GM killers singlehandedly? I mean from a numbers standpoint congratulations, but it ultimately has no payoff outside of that. To each their own and all but seems kind of pointless.  It's like watching that video of that person spending so much time soloing a pylon when you can get 4 or 5 people and do it in less than 2 minutes. Good luck either way. Don't want to come off as negative but it just seems counterproductive.

Edited February 9, 2021 by mbre2006

[Coyote]

1 hour ago, mbre2006 said:

Don't want to come off as negative but it just seems counterproductive.

 

Counterproductive to what? Gaining Exp and Inf?

If the goal of the game is to score higher Exp and Inf, then there are far better ways than fighting AVs, as a team or solo. Like Radio Missions, or DA repeatable missions.

If the goal of the game is to face and defeat challenges, fighting AVs is a lot better than fighting poor Council in Radio Missions.

[Frosticus]

4 hours ago, mbre2006 said:

I would image trying to solo a Gm would take quite a bit of time. Is that even worth it? What would be the purpose of building AV/GM killers singlehandedly? I mean from a numbers standpoint congratulations, but it ultimately has no payoff outside of that. To each their own and all but seems kind of pointless.  It's like watching that video of that person spending so much time soloing a pylon when you can get 4 or 5 people and do it in less than 2 minutes. Good luck either way. Don't want to come off as negative but it just seems counterproductive.

I think the purpose is because AVs and GMs represent the big named opponents. It's ultimately a super hero game, so topping out at arresting common thugs is fine for some characters, but falls short of what other characters want to achieve. 

 

At the end of the day I personally RP very lightly, but I imagine some of my characters as the one that they call when a major threat is detected. Some of my characters are more in the background of such fights. Some don't show up at all haha.

 

As far as rewards go? Fire farms eclipse all if that is one's primary motivation. 

[Mezmera]

2 hours ago, Frosticus said:

I think the purpose is because AVs and GMs represent the big named opponents. It's ultimately a super hero game, so topping out at arresting common thugs is fine for some characters, but falls short of what other characters want to achieve. 

 

At the end of the day I personally RP very lightly, but I imagine some of my characters as the one that they call when a major threat is detected. Some of my characters are more in the background of such fights. Some don't show up at all haha.

 

As far as rewards go? Fire farms eclipse all if that is one's primary motivation. 

"Arresting".  Ha!

 

Hero Dominators, how quaint.  

[VV]

On 1/25/2021 at 5:47 PM, StriderIV said:

Hi all,

 

So I'm recently done a few TF's with Dom's on my team... and watched them basically solo it 😂

 

A few things to keep in mind when seeing this. First, though it might look like they are basically soloing it, they are probably still under the benefits from teammate buffs, even if they run off on their own. Second, many ATs can solo TFs.  Depending on the difficulty setting, I would say any AT could solo a TF. Not any powerset combo, but most ATs will have some combos that can do it.  Soloing groups is way different than soloing AVs. I built a Mind/Psy dom to solo AVs. It did alright, but running regular content is a pain. To solo AVs you need to load up on armor, Defense and Resistance, that means sacrificing offense. Also, for AVs you need a really good single target chain. But, when doing groups, that will slow you down. So, some people will make two builds, one for groups, and then the other for AVs.

[mbre2006]

On 2/9/2021 at 10:29 AM, Coyote said:

 

Counterproductive to what? Gaining Exp and Inf?

If the goal of the game is to score higher Exp and Inf, then there are far better ways than fighting AVs, as a team or solo. Like Radio Missions, or DA repeatable missions.

If the goal of the game is to face and defeat challenges, fighting AVs is a lot better than fighting poor Council in Radio Missions.

 

On 2/9/2021 at 1:21 PM, Frosticus said:

I think the purpose is because AVs and GMs represent the big named opponents. It's ultimately a super hero game, so topping out at arresting common thugs is fine for some characters, but falls short of what other characters want to achieve. 

 

At the end of the day I personally RP very lightly, but I imagine some of my characters as the one that they call when a major threat is detected. Some of my characters are more in the background of such fights. Some don't show up at all haha.

 

As far as rewards go? Fire farms eclipse all if that is one's primary motivation. 

I honestly think that's what the architect missions is for. You would gain a far better immersion feeling than in the "open world" aspect. But again I both think you understand where I'm coming from as well as I understand your points. The game was definitely not designed to make soloing Capped AVs and GMs an accomplishable feat. but same thing could be said about completing SF/TF so fast as that was meant to be something that would take days to get through. Yet here we are speedrunning Dr Q like it's nothing. 

[Frosticus]

1 hour ago, mbre2006 said:

 

I honestly think that's what the architect missions is for. You would gain a far better immersion feeling than in the "open world" aspect. But again I both think you understand where I'm coming from as well as I understand your points. The game was definitely not designed to make soloing Capped AVs and GMs an accomplishable feat. but same thing could be said about completing SF/TF so fast as that was meant to be something that would take days to get through. Yet here we are speedrunning Dr Q like it's nothing. 

Not really. Again it is a super hero game and as such I actually like traveling around jumping from building to building, flying through destroyed ruins and such. I don't use mission teleporters, or enjoy simply jumping into the data stream at AE.

 

I actually love taking a run through creys folley every once in awhile and stumbling across Jurassik. Not needing to call in support feels good to me. Similarly I watch the event channels and enjoy jumping in to action when something like "miner strike" pops up.

 

Grinding down x8 spawns of commons isn't what I personally find enjoyable, but I can understand those that like the feel of facing wave after wave and emerging victorious. I much prefer to face the guy that is commanding them. Having a character that can do both is pretty good too because things like the ITF are really fun to solo.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Frosticus

[Voltak]

On 1/25/2021 at 7:47 PM, StriderIV said:

Hi all,

 

So I'm recently done a few TF's with Dom's on my team... and watched them basically solo it 😂

 

I've decided to roll my first Dom, and want to make a true AV/GM killer. Are there any Powerset combos you'd recommend? I see a lot of /psi and Drain Psyche being top tier for this. I see things range from Mind/Psi, Fire/Psi and Dark/Psi. But are there any other power sets (including secondaries) that you would recommend? Appreciate it!

Before the live servers went down and recently after Dark/Dark became available for Dominators 
I made a Dark/Dark Dominator 

I solo'd AVs with Dark/Dark 

The pets ( if I recall, 4 total) plus the self heal , but the dmg and the debuff so you get hit way less, plus the end game uber powers), and it was enough to solo a few before the servers went down 

 

[Meknomancer]

From what i can remember from live Mind/Fire/Ice was the first domi that soloed the lrsf, anything that can take out the entire phalanx should be good for anything else in game. Sleet makes up for not having the - regen from /Psy drain psyche i assume it just pumps out the damage faster than any other secondary. I had one live and one rerolled on HC but i keep taking fire epic for fun i'd assume its even better now with incarnates for soloing. I do know theres a lot of Mind/Psy domi running about that have soloed everything in game with the possible exceptions of Khan/Barracuda. Confuse seems to be the 'I win' button.

[Hjarki]

I'd argue that Elec/Psi would be the king of AV solo'ing for Dominators.

 

The reasoning here is that all you really need to do to solo an AV/GM is shut it down and then beat its regen. If you can do those two things, nothing else really matters.

 

Electric is probably the premiere "shut it down" set between its ability to floor endurance and its Sleep Field. The fact that it also has a decently useful Confuse is just a bonus. Psi provides the -regen.

 

Now, I'm not going to claim this is the highest dps build - or even close to it - but you'll eventually beat almost anything.

[tjknight]

5 hours ago, Hjarki said:

I'd argue that Elec/Psi would be the king of AV solo'ing for Dominators.

 

The reasoning here is that all you really need to do to solo an AV/GM is shut it down and then beat its regen. If you can do those two things, nothing else really matters.

 

Electric is probably the premiere "shut it down" set between its ability to floor endurance and its Sleep Field. The fact that it also has a decently useful Confuse is just a bonus. Psi provides the -regen.

 

Now, I'm not going to claim this is the highest dps build - or even close to it - but you'll eventually beat almost anything.

I'd agree my lvl 50 Elec/Psi can handle EB's quite well. I haven't tried to solo an AV with him, but he was able to deal with Silver Mantis and Valkyrie as EBs. I'm sure there were others, but it's been awhile. /Psi is amazing and would be my goto for a Dom AV killer.