Ice/Ice/Ice Dom playstyle

[qwerty1971]

I thought if I made an I/I/I Dom I would have a good feel for it since i leveled an I/I/I blaster to 50 pre shutdown. I was wrong. I have no clue what kind of playstyle this toon should take. Focus on holds and ranged and give up the high damaging melee attacks? Focus on holds, ranged, melee at the expense of slotting? Focus on IO bonus sets for survivability? Which powers does this toon absolutely need and which ones can be skipped? I need a Dom tutor since I never got one to 50 before shudown.

Edited February 25, 2021 by qwerty1971

[Troo]

Yep Doms are odd. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Dominator_Strategy

[mbre2006]

It's my favorite dom. And that guide above is outdated I wouldn't even bother using it.

 

Doms at this point in the game can do just about anything depending on your build/playstyle. You can actually make a good tank dom (Although tanking is a tank's job) You can make a good dps or range build. Or you can sit back and do crowd control. Really there are no limits to what a dom can do at this point. 

 

As far as Triple Ice, you have everything you need with the three sets. You have powers that compliment you either range or melee. And Jack does nicely on his own. With my Ice dom I usually stay range distance and also rotate AOE attacks since Jack loves to pull up on your foes. But when it comes to teams and everyone wanting to blitz through everything I sitback and play crowd control and keep enemies held or immob. Truthfully speaking you're not going to out DPS a Corr or Blast. Doesn't mean you shouldn't build for dps, just something to keep in mind.

 

I can post my ice build but honestly it's gonna be one of those things where ymmv.  But this topic has been discussed before.

 

 

[twozerofoxtrot]

57 minutes ago, qwerty1971 said:

I need a Dom tutor

 

*sweats in double entendre*

[oedipus_tex]

As an Ice/Ice/Ice Dom you want to press your main advantages, which in this case are:

 

• You have synergy between Arctic Air and Power Up, where Power Up will increase the duration of the Confusion, allowing fewer gaps in coverage
• Power Up also increases any +Defense armors you have while it is active
  • Not Frozen Armor though, because it contains enhanceable Resistance
• Arctic Air synergizes with Chilling Embrace, the damage aura

 

Using Arctic Air with any kind of effectiveness will require acquiring mezz protection. You can get this from going permadom. Life without mezz protection on an Ice Control character is very rough due to AA's long recharge (15s). Without it, it's typical to see AA detoggle constantly starting in the mid 30s. Even a half second Sleep you'd barely notice on another character can wreck an Ice player.

 

Icey Assault is a surprisingly straightforward set, at least compared to Ice counterparts on other archetypes. Ice on most other archetypes tends to mix in some controls with the attacks. Icey Assault though is mostly just the attacks. They do some minor -Recharge/Slow but you're unlikely to even notice.

Ice Control on Dominators has some issues we should be upfront about. It's much more difficult in my experience to tackle difficult enemy groups as an Ice Control player because the control just isn't there.  Arctic Air is technically nerfed on Dominators; it has a Confuse duration 33% shorter than a Controller when out of Domination mode (typical of control powers) but no ability to enter Domination mode, where it should provide Mag 6 Confuse and 50% longer duration. There is still some value in playing the set, because there's no denying its unique playstyle. I do hope the developers revisit it to make Domination mode more valuable.

Edited February 25, 2021 by oedipus_tex