Earth/ what?

[Elia87]

Hello fellow doms! I started taking interest in earth powers! So i figured it should be best on doms..am i right? What is the best secondary and app for earth? 

Feel free to suggest..thanks 

[oedipus_tex]

It's hard to say what's best, but I'd probably pick one of these:

• Fire:
  • Pro: Good single target ranged damage. Very good self damage buff. Only Assault set that can mostly stay out of melee to deal damage. Good endurance management.
  • Con: No built in HP management.
• Savage:
  • Pro: Good all around as a melee/ranged hybrid. Small self heal for tight pinches. Some minor endurance management.
  • Con: Theme can be offputting for some people (birds, bees, and claws). HP/End management not as strong as Fire or Psi.
• Energy:
  • Pro: Good mix of ranged and melee damage. Has access to Power Up and good damage.
  • Con: No built in HP or endurance management. Arguably the best option of the sets that offer Power Up.
• Psi:
  • Pro: Incredible endurance and HP management if you IO the build.
  • Con: Not great before IOs. Psi damage is highly resisted by some enemies. Requires willingness to melee because the ranged blasts are weak.

 

The other sets that would still be decent but not make my initial recommendation list are:

• Earth
  • Pro: Access to Power Up. Strong extra Hold in Seismic Smash. More AoEs than a typical Dom. Has a damage aura which some people value on toons.
  • Con: no built in HP management. Costs a ton of endurance to make work.
• Dark
  • Pro: -ToHit is a useful secondary effect. Some HP management. Access to Power Up type power.
  • Con: Not particularly good at ranged, melee or AoE damage. HP management still much weaker than a buff archetype or a Blaster.
• Ice
  • Pro: Access to Power Up. Has a damage aura which some people value on toons.
  • Con: No HP management. Overall a very vanilla set with very little to set it apart.

 

 

The remaining sets you could still pick, here's my summarized take. None of these has access to HP Management, Power Up, or Endurance tools, and generally weak utility.

• Electric
  • Pro: Access to Build Up.
  • Con: Endurance drain in a set like this is meaningless without being paired with other sources of end drain. Overall a strange mishmash of attacks that don't pair well.
• Martial
  • Pro: Damage isn't bad. Pretty good AoE for a Dom.
  • Con: Explosive Shuriken I think was supposed to feel awesome, but doesn't. Set feels like it's missing utility power somewhere to make it survivable or make endurance management comfortable. 
• Radiation
  • Pro & Con: Overall just a not great mix of abilities
• Thorny:
  • Pro: Access to Build Up. Damage isn't terrible.
  • Con: Redraw on the thorns powers stops many people from using this.

Edited July 16, 2021 by oedipus_tex

[SwitchFade]

Earth/earth/stone here.

 

Amazing.

[Elia87]

I tried to browse the forum here but i cant decide..I like the feel of earth, heavy and strong but idk how it does in actual gameplay..Savage seems fun..I wanted something that hits and stops mobs from attacking and just melt away.

[Elia87]

I like that Savage secondary as @oedipus_tex pointed out  i saw his earth/sav/lev videos XD!! what primary do you guys think would work great with that? I got almost 50 with my earth/earth/mace dom

Edited July 19, 2021 by Elia87

[Nightmarer 2]

Plant/Savage is fun, so is Dark/Savage

Edited July 19, 2021 by Nightmarer

[Elia87]

2 hours ago, Nightmarer said:

Plant/Savage is fun, so is Dark/Savage

Can you solo AVs or GMs with doms? And would that plant/Savage allow me to do it?

[Uun]

1 hour ago, Elia87 said:

Can you solo AVs or GMs with doms? And would that plant/Savage allow me to do it?

@Chirikiti has soloed almost everything in the game with a Mind/Psi. YMMV.

[oedipus_tex]

7 hours ago, Elia87 said:

Can you solo AVs or GMs with doms? And would that plant/Savage allow me to do it?

 

 

Plant/Savage is more of an AoE character. You could possibly beat an AV if you worked really hard, and used Lore pets, but it's not a particular strength of the combo. 

 

I've not spent a lot of time AV hunting with Dominators, but the two sets that are potentially good at it are Dark and Mind Control. While in Domination mode, their Confusion power can be stacked high enough to Confuse the AV. It takes 51 Magnitude I believe to Confuse an AV. Each cast of Confusion/Possess adds 6 Magnitude. You'd need to stack the power 9 times to get the effect, and all of the previous stacks would need to still be in place. This is slightly easier for Mind because it can also throw Mass Confusion in there, although only once every 60 seconds at top form. Stacking the mezz is much easier vs a +0 AV than a +3. I don't know at what level it becomes unfeasible to keep the mezz active.

 

Dark/Energy specifically seems like a combo to me with some possible potential to tackle AVs while still being very strong at handling general combat. Power Up'ed Fearsome Stare does almost -20 ToHit even before adding IOs, fantastic debuff numbers for an archetype that in most circumstances is denied debuffs. That -ToHit mostly won't work on the AV but it will keep you very safe in general combat. or when dealing with AVs who call in minions. 

 

What I'm still unclear on is whether Bone Smasher's -Special effect increases the duration enemies experience a mezz. At level 50, it applies -37% Confusion strength to the target. I am not sure if this also decreases the enemy's actual resistance. It does apply a very minor amount of -Resist(-50).

Edited July 19, 2021 by oedipus_tex

[oedipus_tex]

BTW if you are interested in killing AVs, you should check out this thread: 

 

[Nightmarer 2]

23 hours ago, Elia87 said:

Can you solo AVs or GMs with doms? And would that plant/Savage allow me to do it?

I don't know and I don't care

 

[mistagoat]

I went with Earth/Fire/Ice and like it the best out out of the 3 set out Doms I have (dark/psy & plant/thorns are the others). It feels the strongest in terms of damage output and control of enemies. The dark/Psy has fantastic survivability ala regen/recovery but I rip through mobs so much faster on the earth/fire. I also prefer a mainly ranged Dom. My def isn't even that good with only s/l at softcap but Earth is your main defense anyway. When everything is held/stunned/falling down and immobilized they can't even get a shot off.

 

I look at it like this, I'm getting all the control I could ever want from my primary and I get my aoe & shields from pools and epics so all I need is strong single target damage from the secondary. This is what fire excels at! So aoe stun > aoe immob > sleet > ice storm and then my single target rotation (single target hold, snipe, blaze) on anything that survives that. Proc up that single target hold, its the strongest attack I have. Consistently stronger than snipe or Blaze, both of which are also very strong. Consume is always handy but I'm on the fence with Firebreath. Its okay damage but its a narrow, sorta short cone and I find I just don't use it very much, I may swap it out for the single target immob as that may have a little more utility.

 

Anyway, I vote Fire!

Edited July 21, 2021 by mistagoat
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