Do Dominators Need a Buff?

[blue4333]

As the topic stated above, do you guys feel that Dominators need a buff? Given that Controllers provide team multiplicative effects with their buffs/debuffs, Dominators do sub-par damage and do not have nukes. 

 

How do you guys feel about Dominators and their role?

Edited January 31, 2021 by blue4333

[Supertanker]

Dominators need consistency. I want to play them but I don't like the part-time superhero feeling.

[Heraclea]

I played one to 50, made a good concept, spent the inf and merits to get her to perma-dom, and hardly ever log in to the character.  Perma-dom is too nervous and fussy for my style.  A moment's inattention and you blew it and are back to zero.  Without perma-dom the character is a weaker version of a controller with worse endurance issues.  I do not enjoy the AT and have no desire to roll another.

[Snarky]

not sure, but i think we have to nerf Regen

[blue4333]

6 minutes ago, Heraclea said:

I played one to 50, made a good concept, spent the inf and merits to get her to perma-dom, and hardly ever log in to the character.  Perma-dom is too nervous and fussy for my style.  A moment's inattention and you blew it and are back to zero.  Without perma-dom the character is a weaker version of a controller with worse endurance issues.  I do not enjoy the AT and have no desire to roll another.

Yep yep, I really agree that the current state of Domination is a hassle when we are not able to auto fire both Domination and Hasten. It's a shame because Dominators would suit many concepts e.g. Psychics, Mages or pretty much most elemental/reality manipulators out there.

[Sailboat]

They did buff Dominators in a patch already.  That doesn't mean it wasn't sufficient,  I guess, but they are better than they once were.

[Effusion]

Domination should probably have either a bar or a cooldown but not both because it makes the gap between permadom and not permadom (and slow clicks) too wide. I'd attribute the dominator's lack of value in endgame groups primarily to the lack of challenging content for fully kitted out characters devaluing crowd control, and that may be better addressed by having sufficiently challenging content due to the broader benefits it would bring to the game. 

 

Being able to set multiple abilities to autofire would be an excellent quality of life change for all archetypes though.

[Force Redux]

53 minutes ago, Heraclea said:

I played one to 50, made a good concept, spent the inf and merits to get her to perma-dom, and hardly ever log in to the character.  Perma-dom is too nervous and fussy for my style.  A moment's inattention and you blew it and are back to zero.  Without perma-dom the character is a weaker version of a controller with worse endurance issues.  I do not enjoy the AT and have no desire to roll another.

This in a nutshell. 

[Greycat]

1 hour ago, blue4333 said:

As the topic stated above, do you guys feel that Dominators need a buff? Given that Controllers provide team multiplicative effects with their buffs/debuffs, Dominators do sub-par damage and do not have nukes. 

 

How do you guys feel about Dominators and their role?

I think dominators are fine, in general. They don't need nukes.

 

I'd be perfectly fine with people never being able to permadom on their own, though. Make friends with a kin or three if you want it that bad.  Absolutely zero of mine are perma, zero of mine on live were perma, zero of mine will be perma. On a team, it's up and ready enough. Solo, I like the gameplay of deciding if/when to use it. And for all those buffs/debuffs for controllers, doms solo better, and don't have to worry that they picked a secondary that's just not needed or particularly useful in the later game.

[LastHumanSoldier]

I wouldn't mind getting rid of permadom.

But losing mez protection would make me strip all my doms immediately and never play the AT again.

 

[blue4333]

Getting rid of permadom will greatly hampen Dominator survivability. Without buffs/debuffs that a Controller has and damage to kill before getting killed, Dominators are pretty much sitting ducks when their controls are recharging. 
 

Not to mention the assault sets encourage melee. 

[Greycat]

57 minutes ago, blue4333 said:

Getting rid of permadom will greatly hampen Dominator survivability.

Given I play without it and don't have issues with my doms survivability... no, it won't. Use your controls.

 

The fact this statement has been made tells me too many people rely on permadom as a crutch.

[nihilii]

Dominators do pretty close to Blaster damage as is. In fact, with some outliers you even start wondering what is the point of a Blaster, given that you're getting a truckload of additional perks for being a Dom (perma mez protection, fantastic controls, and so on).

 

Having said that, I don't play my Dominators much and I don't really click with the AT. Having an active primary and an active secondary (and an active inherent) fills your trays with so many options it's sometimes tough to choose the right tool.

 

Controllers are probably weaker in the overall game today, yet they're more comfortable to play for the very reason their secondary is a secondary and not another primary. Even Blasters don't get it as bad, their secondaries may be active, but they're not *as* active.

 

I don't have the strongest case for these feelings, but this is how I rationalize my own struggles with the AT if nothing else. It begs the question if Dominators can truly be "fixed" or if their design is "schizophrenic" to the point players who don't like them now couldn't like them until the AT was changed so much players who currently like them would be disappointed.

[Supertanker]

20 minutes ago, nihilii said:

Having said that, I don't play my Dominators much and I don't really click with the AT. Having an active primary and an active secondary (and an active inherent) fills your trays with so many options it's sometimes tough to choose the right tool.

I like the wealth of options and ideally that should lend to many different ways to build and play Dominators, but somehow that doesn't seem to be the case.

[Pzn]

3 hours ago, Greycat said:

Use your controls.

They are now half magnititude and my survivability is lower

[nihilii]

3 hours ago, Supertanker said:

I like the wealth of options and ideally that should lend to many different ways to build and play Dominators, but somehow that doesn't seem to be the case.

Yes, I think you're putting the finger on what I had less success expressing. I have the same predicament in the end: there's all those tools, but more than half of them remain unused while I stick to the "better" options (subjective as that may be).

Even worse, said better options are influenced by disparities in powersets. i.e. for me there's a wide gap between the two primaries with fast activation ST holds (Mind, Fire) and everyone else, because I make the ST hold a staple of my rotation. The /ice epic is too good a choice with Sleet and everything else.

[Greycat]

1 hour ago, josh1622 said:

They are now half magnititude and my survivability is lower

Use your controls better than that.

[Carnifax]

7 hours ago, Heraclea said:

I played one to 50, made a good concept, spent the inf and merits to get her to perma-dom, and hardly ever log in to the character.  Perma-dom is too nervous and fussy for my style.  A moment's inattention and you blew it and are back to zero.  Without perma-dom the character is a weaker version of a controller with worse endurance issues.  I do not enjoy the AT and have no desire to roll another.

This, although I did it twice because the first time I went pure ranged and thought "maybe that was my issue"

 

Endurance is a nightmare on both, chasing / monitoring Domination is a pain and in building having to chase recharge so much railroads your build. 

 

Plus they have poor AoE and the Assault tier 9s are underwhelming (with Martials blowing all the way through underwhelming to land in a bit crap).

[Snarky]

8 hours ago, Heraclea said:

I played one to 50, made a good concept, spent the inf and merits to get her to perma-dom, and hardly ever log in to the character.  Perma-dom is too nervous and fussy for my style.  A moment's inattention and you blew it and are back to zero.  Without perma-dom the character is a weaker version of a controller with worse endurance issues.  I do not enjoy the AT and have no desire to roll another.

Alignment powers that you can pick.  Like Patron powers.  That would fix this permanently.  Because the Villain Alignment power kicks aDom back into Dom mode.  It always irks me that Brutes and Doms only get the full benefit of the power if they are true villains, but 90% of the game is Blueside.

[The_Warpact]

8 hours ago, Supertanker said:

Dominators need consistency. I want to play them but I don't like the part-time superhero feeling.

I'll respond to this in only remind you that Dominators are a villain AT and were designed as such.

 

Dominators are a fly by the seat of your pants AT, I never played one on Live because I didn't take the time to learn the AT.

Now I have one and a second that I am lvling, the AT is fine, controls with damage make an effective combo with or without perma.

While perma obviously makes it nice to have mez protection up, if a build is done properly this dogged desire to have an op AT lessens.

 

I ran a Dr.Q this weekend and didn't have perma, while I did die a couple times this was because I didn't effectively use my controls.

 

Controllers themselves are an easy safe AT so trying to compare any it to a dom is like comparing a brute to a tanker, similarities exist but they ARE different and should be treated as such.

While controllers are safe, doms are not they are a roller coaster ride with no safeties. If you play it as such it is a very fun exciting AT, but, it takes patience and an actual desire to learn the AT.

All too often I see posts desiring something to be changed because people want it easier or don't like because they want it changed to fit their style.

How about leave it alone if you have no desire to truly learn something and make it your own, then pass it up and go roll something that fits your style of play. 

[Coyote]

Doms are generally fine. Their only general issue is a lack of need for control in the end game.

If the usability of Domination were changed so that it were more easily used, I wouldn't mind at all. But between cycling Hasten, Domination, and Power Up at lower levels, even before a Dom is perma, they have options to be powerful in every single Boss encounter unless you're playing at a high enough level to face Bosses in every spawn. And soloing. And if you're doing that before running a perma-Dom, then hopefully you're up to the task.

Their defenses are definitely weaker than that of Controllers. And... so? Their offense is stronger. How is this unbalanced?

 

For their concept of being a Control/Damage AT, they do it well. They control well, usually better than Controllers, and they do very good damage with their Damage set. The only think they "lack" is a nuke. Eh, a nuke would be nice, especially on an AT that chases Recharge, but lacking it isn't turning the AT into a low-damage AT. I mean, my AoE attacks on my Doms compare in damage to my Blasters (before Defiance), and the best ranged attacks from Blasters (BIB, Blaze, Snipes) are available to them also.

[Grouchybeast]

Doms are fine the way they are.  Relatedly, there's nothing wrong with people not liking to play every AT, or every powerset.  Variety of playstyle is good.

[LastHumanSoldier]

45 minutes ago, Grouchybeast said:

Doms are fine the way they are.  Relatedly, there's nothing wrong with people not liking to play every AT, or every powerset.  Variety of playstyle is good.

Best answer. Leave doms alone.
And *You know who I am referring to* get off the "better than thou" high horse.

 

[wjrasmussen]

Doms should first take a shower.  After that, we can see if they are worth waxing and buffing.

[DougGraves]

Doms are great solo characters.  Are they broken at level 50 or with IO sets compared to other ATs, probably - everything is broken at level 50 or with IO sets.

 

Permadom should go away so that doms are balanced without it.  Domination should be very short, like a build up.  It should give you great control for 10 seconds so you can use a couple of control powers with it.  The mezz protection could last 60 seconds.