Recommendation for 1st Dom

[The_Warpact]

So...I have plenty of experience with masterminds, trollers, and to a lesser extent tanker/broot.

I am going to level this toon the old fashioned way to fully learn how to play and the mechanics involved of the AT. That being said my prior experience is watching doms (mind) really put the whammy on States and the other heroes on an LRSF. So very minimal experience although I watched 2 doms during a base raid really tear apart the invading VG.

 

I read parts of the Mind thread and thought Mind was the shizz but apparently not really? I would like a set that could really lockdown AV/GM as that's my primary thing that I do to test a character out. I have masterminds and trollers that I solo GMs on as a way to really test them out. I run alot of TF's/SF's so something across all levels because I will attune IO's.

Any advice is appreciated. 

[Mezmera]

There's lots of good controls they all tend to have their own flavor particular to the users tastes.  My first taste of Mind control was seeing someone play it and how awesome it was before there were villains to play as so when Dom's became a thing I knew Mind was for me.  

 

Mind is very potent but it's all about control.  It's a very fluid power set and you don't have to keep any pets on a leash.   If you enjoy blasters Mind has more of that feel to it, sprinkle in whatever necessary control that is needed and then fight away.  

 

The go to control is Plant, it's real hard to make a bad Plant dom.  Then there's Earth, Dark, Mind.  Mind being the most controlling of the powers, Dark the more damage focused and Earth a little in between.  There's lots of controls you can make your own with experience.  

 

As for assaults this is where a good pairing really dictates how well you like the character.  Fire assault is the tried and true always been good always will be assault but there's plenty of other good power sets, it's best to get a good pairing on a dom so you don't get some awful one and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth for the AT.  Do remember though your assaults are best late so damage wise the AT is a late bloomer with more control feel until say level 30 or so.  Level 30 is where I will typically respec any dom I make and start slotting IOs to achieve perma-dom.  

 

Hope you like whatever you come up with.  

Edited October 22, 2021 by Mezmera

[The_Warpact]

25 minutes ago, Mezmera said:

There's lots of good controls they all tend to have their own flavor particular to the users tastes.  My first taste of Mind control was seeing someone play it and how awesome it was before there were villains to play as so when Dom's became a thing I knew Mind was for me.  

 

Mind is very potent but it's all about control.  It's a very fluid power set and you don't have to keep any pets on a leash.   If you enjoy blasters Mind has more of that feel to it, sprinkle in whatever necessary control that is needed and then fight away.  

 

The go to control is Plant, it's real hard to make a bad Plant dom.  Then there's Earth, Dark, Mind.  Mind being the most controlling of the powers, Dark the more damage focused and Earth a little in between.  There's lots of controls you can make your own with experience.  

 

As for assaults this is where a good pairing really dictates how well you like the character.  Fire assault is the tried and true always been good always will be assault but there's plenty of other good power sets, it's best to get a good pairing on a dom so you don't get some awful one and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth for the AT.  Do remember though your assaults are best late so damage wise the AT is a late bloomer with more control feel until say level 30 or so.  Level 30 is where I will typically respec any dom I make and start slotting IOs to achieve perma-dom.  

 

Hope you like whatever you come up with.  

Yeah I am.leaning towards Mind, I've had plant on trollers and its a fun set and probably pretty different on doms.

But, I keep coming back to mind I dont have many mind/psionic type attacks on any of my characters so its something I want to try.

Secondary wise I'm still up in the air, I hear good things about fire and energy. 

 

Thanks for the advice.

[Mezmera]

4 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

mind/psionic

 

I will say I have seen countless Mind/Psi doms and not as many with a non Psi pairing.  I'd say buck the trend and look outside of that pairing, while they can be real good they are both on the more boring side when paired together.

[The_Warpact]

I meant more along the lines of Fortunato, psi melee, psi attacks on other ATs than that specific combo on a dom.

I typically don't do same/same power choices ie; fire/fire, ice/ice, etc on any AT.

[Without_Pause]

Mind/ea since you would get Power Boost. That's what you are using to lock down AVs and such.

[The_Warpact]

4 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

Mind/ea since you would get Power Boost. That's what you are using to lock down AVs and such.

Was thinking along those lines. Probably Mind/Nrg/Psi.

[Mezmera]

19 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

Was thinking along those lines. Probably Mind/Nrg/Psi.

 

Dom's have access to probably the best Epic pool powers available amongst all of the AT's.  Get a feel for your dom and have a good look at all of those pools, they can round out your toon real nice and are capable of some unique things if you think outside of the box.  

 

My Mind/Nrg goes with Soul Mastery, there's just so much win in the pool.    The epic pools are like a mini secondary for doms but you can respec them so you get to play around with all those fun toys.  Definitely experiment with them.   

[Voltak]

2 hours ago, The_Warpact said:

Yeah I am.leaning towards Mind, I've had plant on trollers and its a fun set and probably pretty different on doms.

But, I keep coming back to mind I dont have many mind/psionic type attacks on any of my characters so its something I want to try.

Secondary wise I'm still up in the air, I hear good things about fire and energy. 

 

Thanks for the advice.

_____________________________________________________

Dark Control has everything but a sleep and the equivalent to Earthquake or Ice Slick. 

I would also place Dark control ahead of Mind.  Not only does the set of control shine as a whole package but the To Hit debuffs are just too good.  

Let me give you an idea --  
When you hit Gather Shadows (assuming you took Dark Assault, the secondary, as well) your Shadow Field will be doing 36% to hit debuffs and up to ALL the critters the field touched, the debuff lasts over 42 seconds (after enhancements). 

Add to Shadow Field the massive AoE fear has a solid 23% to hit debuff, no other fear in the game has this.  So , they might want to fight back after fear if you attack them but with a significant disadvantage.  With Clarion Radial as incarnate , which I also have, Shadow Field will debuff critters chances to hit you by more than 50%, that is better than a standard Hurricane by Storm.  Fearsome Stare then becomes a much stronger debuff and with both of them on the critters, you just tossed upon them an 80% to hit debuff combo.  Again, this is with Gather Shadows and Clarion Radial.   


The Fear recharges relatively fast.  

Dark has an incredibly useful big area stun that does decent dmg , especially proc'd out.  You can stun them and they will not be able to fight back at all.   
It recharges relatively fast so you can have it ready for each mob group that you move to. 

Dark has the best animation for a confuse, but it is called Possession.  That Shadow Field above  can be, arguably, the games best AoE hold for Dominators. The area is huge and the debuff is massive and it is practically auto-hit. 

Dark has 3 pets that help control critters as well. Their powers also debuff the chances to hit of the enemies. 

If you even want to solo AVs on a regular basis, Dark control will  probably be better than any other Primary for Dominators. 

Go with Dark/Dark 

Dark assault also has their version of power boost.  It is called Gather Shadows, as was mentioned above. 

________________________________________________

Earth control is as much or more control than Mind, this is especially true when talking about hard controls for crowds, and with semi hard controls ( I explain below). 

Earth has an awesome hard control available with relatively short amount of recharge -- the good area AoE stun, a nice hard control with a LONG duration of a stun, and, I say again, with a relatively short recharge, definitely shorter than any of Mind's AoE HARD controls.  You can hit them, whatever, they won't hit you back. 

It has a decent AoE hard control in the form of hold. This is standard in all sets. 

It has a very neat form of ( very close to hard control) critter disabler in the power "Earthquake" and this power, or, to be more precise, similar power to this one is only available to Ice, Fire, and Earth, yet only Ice and Earth has Knockdown by default, Fire needs an IO to make that a knockdown.   While they are bouncing , they are not fighting back so you can just attack at will and it will provide with a decent amount of mitigation. 

Earth also has a sleep which is a nice emergency button in case your other controls are on recharge but you need to immediately deal with an incoming group of mobs, so you sleep them then continue to work on the other ones you were already dealing with. 

Earth's pet is perhaps the pet that hits the hardest by itself, Dark's pet (dark Beast)  being right behind or right by it. (not tested this yet but Dark's pet hits very decently) 

Earth's slow patch is also a nice form of soft control and a tremendous defense debuffer, all of Earth's powers, or most of Earth's powers are defense debuffers  


 

Edited October 22, 2021 by Voltak

[The_Warpact]

@Voltak damn thanks for the write up on those sets. Alot to think about. 

[Voltak]

36 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

@Voltak damn thanks for the write up on those sets. Alot to think about. 

You are very welcome.  

Check it out for yourself 

1) 54s x 8 Map full of Carnies  solo - NO inspirations used. 

2) Vs a lvl 54 AV -  also a Carnies AV solo 

 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by Voltak

[The_Warpact]

1 hour ago, Voltak said:

You are very welcome.  

Check it out for yourself 

1) 54s x 8 Map full of Carnies  solo - NO inspirations used. 

2) Vs a lvl 54 AV -  also a Carnies AV solo 

 

 

 

Thats pretty cool, is it dark/dark/soul?

[Voltak]

3 hours ago, The_Warpact said:

Thats pretty cool, is it dark/dark/soul?

 Yes, Dark/Dark 

But in the two videos above,  

That's Dark/Dark/Psy 

[kelika2]

Plant/whatever is good for beginners

plant/energy is my main dom

Check to see if the name Nature's Fist is available on your server and go Plant/Earth.  That one Overhand smash attack earth gets is a hold, and with domination up you can hold while you hold and maybe proc for holds.  go flame mastery and recolor your earth crap to magma and check to see if Wrath of Nature is available because Nature's Fist is probably taken

[MoonSheep]

mind/fire, why choose anything but the best? 😇

[Voltak]

On 10/22/2021 at 5:44 PM, The_Warpact said:

@Voltak damn thanks for the write up on those sets. Alot to think about. 

All right, so I talked about Dark/Dark and provided some examples, game play videos for you to get a feel of scope. 

Here is a video about Earth Dominators doing extreme challenges and performing vs enemies who are extremely difficult to control 
The video also illustrates the high level of utility in these circumstances 
 

 

Edited October 24, 2021 by Voltak

[The_Warpact]

29 minutes ago, Voltak said:

All right, so I talked about Dark/Dark and provided some examples, game play videos for you to get a feel of scope. 

Here is a video about Earth Dominators doing extreme challenges and performing vs enemies who are extremely difficult to control 
The video also illustrates the high level of utility in these circumstances 
 

 

Yeah it seems finding a good primary and secondary can lead to some really great results.

[Voltak]

3 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

Yeah it seems finding a good primary and secondary can lead to some really great results.

 Totally, good sir.   

Dark and Earth are absolutely great. 

This last earth video... see the whole thing.  It's relatively short 

Cheers, and good luck and, most of all, enjoy the game.
Welcome to Dominators !

Edited October 24, 2021 by Voltak

[BurningDezire]

On 10/24/2021 at 8:39 AM, MoonSheep said:

mind/fire, why choose anything but the best? 😇

Does anyone have a video of this build in action? Never played a Dom before but am leveling one that's Mind/Fire. Could use tips on how to play a Dom. I am used to playing controllers but not a Dom yet.

[The_Warpact]

7 minutes ago, BurningDezire said:

Does anyone have a video of this build in action? Never played a Dom before but am leveling one that's Mind/Fire. Could use tips on how to play a Dom. I am used to playing controllers but not a Dom yet.

So far and this is coming from me playing trollers alot to this start out on a dom.

Is hit the enemies, and then again, and then a couple more times. Seriously I'm lvling 2 right now and just continually pounding the baddies seems to work great. It is a very aggressive playstyle. 

[tidge]

On 10/22/2021 at 11:00 AM, The_Warpact said:

I am going to level this toon the old fashioned way to fully learn how to play and the mechanics involved of the AT. That being said my prior experience is watching doms (mind) really put the whammy on States and the other heroes on an LRSF. So very minimal experience although I watched 2 doms during a base raid really tear apart the invading VG.

 

I definitely encourage the part of the quote I bolded above. Keep in mind that Dominators play very differently at different levels of the game, because perma-Domination is so transformative. I think a case can be made that Dominators are better at Control in 50+ content than other ATs, for what that is worth. Your mileage will vary for different content levels.

 

[The_Warpact]

21 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

I definitely encourage the part of the quote I bolded above. Keep in mind that Dominators play very differently at different levels of the game, because perma-Domination is so transformative. I think a case can be made that Dominators are better at Control in 50+ content than other ATs, for what that is worth. Your mileage will vary for different content levels.

 

I have 3 accounts and some builds I pl up to whatever lvl based on what they are going to be used for.

That being said I don't do the AE baby thing and lvl toons that I don't understand, to do so is going to lead to frustration and ignorance. 

 

Sometimes the road traveled is the most enjoyable part of the trip. Including the destination. 

[MoonSheep]

4 hours ago, BurningDezire said:

Does anyone have a video of this build in action? Never played a Dom before but am leveling one that's Mind/Fire. Could use tips on how to play a Dom. I am used to playing controllers but not a Dom yet.

 

i haven’t got any videos, though the key points would be:

- every power is ranged, helps you stay out the way of chaos, only +rech is needed in the build to be effective and have a good time

- very high damaging attacks with some of the lowest animation times in the game. it’s great fun obliterating bosses which is your main role in a team

- mind has so many powers to lock down huge mobs. the AoE sleep is a great one to have as it’s a nice enemy toggle dropper

- psi damage is handy for foe which pop a +all res type power. i slot the ST sleep for damage

 

i’ve played my dom solidly for over 2 years and have amassed over 8,000 merits from playing so many TFs. now that i’ve finally made my third alt (a scrapper) i really realise the power of a dom

 

a key dom takeaway for any combination is that you’re mez and damage. sometimes the most effective thing to do is mez (e.g CoT ghouls with -acc), sometimes dishing out the massive ST damage on bosses is what helps most

 

i have veng and sleet on my dom - therefore it has mez, high damage, team buff and group debuff, very good fun