Idiot Dominator Questions

[Gulbasaur]

Hello. 

 

I like fortunatas and tankers and defenders and controllers and peacebringers and corruptors and controllers and stalkers... 

 

I don't like blasters or sentinels or brutes or scrappers or masterminds or warshades or soldiers of Arachnos, largely because they play like things I like but worse (subjectively). 

 

Dominators are next on my list. I feel like I should like them because they're very, very hybrid-lookin' and I like hybrid gameplay. At the moment, they look like fortunatas but worse (subjectively) but I'm willing to try. 

 

Please can someone answer my idiot questions:

 

1. I like the look of gravity. I would go mind but I had a mind controller on live and fortunata takes a lot of powers from mind control so been there done that. Is gravity good? Looks very blasty, but I have blasts. Is it good at locking down enemies? 
2. Is energy a good secondary? I just like the glowy hands. I don't care that there is knockback. I like knockback. I am a horrible person. I just want to pew pew and punch stuff on the same set. 
3. Is dark/dark good? I have a dark/dark tanker and a dark/dark corruptor so I know that pissing -ToHit all over your opponents is good. 
4. Ice/Ice or Earth/Earth were my other choices. Ice has an aura and I like auras. Earth has a nice crystal motif and I like nice crystal motifs. 
5. How do you not take a trillion attack powers? It seems like I have a trillion attack powers to choose from.
6. How is the fireball thing on the ATO? 
7. Is it worth chasing super high defence, knowing I can lock most things down? 
8. Is the confusion aura in the psi ancilliary power pool absolute trash? Can it be made good? Contagious Confusion looks like a natural fit for it.  

 

That is all. Thank you for your infinite generosity and essay-length responses. 

[SeraphimKensai]

Always chase recharge to have permadom. After that defense for survivability is good.

 

World of confusion has like an 8 foot range and low mag so it's only really useful when stacking with other source of confuse.

 

You'll likely take more attacks then what will be your attack chain, but you can set mule as necessary.

 

Grav is really good at locking things down with singularity. Energy assault is decent, you can mitigate knock back with imobs, and you get a power build up.

 

Ice control is good control but low damage.

 

Dark control is great. Dark assault alright.

 

/Psi assault is a really good set.

[Gulbasaur]

14 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Energy assault is decent

Eeeey

14 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

you can mitigate knock back with imobs

Ugh fine

14 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

you get a power build up.

How good is it on a dominator? I only really know it for its ability to absolutely break (the already fairly broken) Time support set.

15 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

/Psi assault is a really good set.

If Mind  (or anything) matched Psi visually, I'd probably go for it. I like having sort of matchy sets, even if it's only visually. 

 

Thank you. 

[Crasical]

I've got an earth/fire with about half her incarnates and a Dark/Savage at level 40, so this is going to be answers from that direction: 

 

4) Earth control is pretty good. It's a little different than a lot of other dominator primaries because a lot of its powers summon pseudopets, and thus, as far as I can tell, *don't benefit from Domination*. You still get the mez protection and end refresh, but you can deploy that more tactically (when you get mezzed or run out of end) instead of investing heavily to have it 'always on'. 
5+7) Depending on your secondary and what attacks you pick, you're gonna determine if you spend most of your time in melee or at range. /fire only has a few close in attacks, so I built heavy recharge and a decent amount of ranged defenses, and then just used control to keep anyone from ever going into melee. Savage has only 2 ranged attacks, a cone, and an attack that *zooms you into melee*, so I'm building him to drop fearsome stare into a mob, teleporrt into their midst, and follow up with a Heart of Darkness for a massive AoE stun that I want to make perma so I can savage enemies to death at my own pace periodically reapplying the big stun. It's not working great so far but never mind that. Take the attacks that reinforce what you wanna do.

6) It's not great. I can't really tell if it's doing anything.
8 ) It's not great. Single digit psi damage, a 1.5 second mag 2 confuse every 4 seconds. As for the proc:
Probability to Proc = PPM * ActivatePeriod / ( 60 * (1 + Radius * (11*Arc + 540) / 40000) )
39% = 4.5 * 10 / ( 60 * (1 + 8 * (11*360 + 540) / 40000) )
39% chance to proc, and if it does proc I *believe* it has a 30% chance to become contagious. My proc-fu's not strong but I think that's only a 12 or 13% chance it'll do anything on a given 10 second tick.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

 

1. Gravity has lift, which has the best DPA of any T1 in a control set. It is an excellent single target DPS set. Singularity improves the control power of the set.  But, even with singularity control is not as strong for gravity as it is for some other dominator control sets. Since control is part of a dominator's defenses, that can sometimes cause problems in higher end content because of all the aggro a dom can draw. But, you can substantially mitigate defensive challenges in  a variety of ways and wormhole is a fun power to use. 

 

Although some don't find gravity to their tastes, it wouldn't be a mistake to play it. Just don't take propel because its DPA is substantially lower than you can find in other attacks that could be taken instead. 

 

2. Energy assault has top tier single target DPS. If you wanted a single target damage machine then consider pairing energy assault with gravity, mind, or fire control; all three of these sets have T1 powers that have short cast times and potentially excellent DPA (especially when proc'd up). AOE is passable for energy, but definitely not a strength of the set. You'll probably want to lean more heavily on the mastery to shore up AOE if you choose energy assault. 

 

3. Dark / dark is a *very* strong combo. It plays unlike basically every other kind of dominator when it is played to its potential. Search for dark / dark builds by Voltak. He has multiple builds from which you can choose. 

 

4. Both ice / ice and earth / earth provide a lot of battlefield control. They can both do quite reasonable damage while also having solid defenses. They have a common link in that when players evaluate how these set combinations can affect the flow of battles they probably think primarily about their hard controls. But, for both of these powerset combinations it is how they can sharply limit enemy movement that keeps themselves and teammates much safer. Ice / ice / ice also substantially reduces mob recharge, as well as slowing down their movement.

 

Topography has an excellent earth / earth build in the thread entitled "Questions on making a melee-centric earth / earth." I have an ice / ice / ice build and a bit of commentary about it in the second post on the second page of the thread entitled "Pylon times and trapdoor runs for dominators - Let's generate some data." 

 

5. I prefer a fairly minimalist approach to the number of attacks taken so I can give at least most of them six slots and maximize the damage for each attack used. One approach is to take the attack powers with the best DPA potential and leave out the rest, while also ensuring the availability of single target attack powers is such that there aren't meaningful gaps in the single target attack chain. 

 

6. Fiery orb is a good choice for an AOE immobilize or other powers cast by a dominator that have high target caps and good recharge. It will noticeably boost AOE damage and clear speed when soloing. Orbs make good distractions for mobs so they focus on damaging something other than your dominator, as well. Fiery orb is not good for pseudopets because the activation rate will be very low. Check out the "Pylon times and trapdoor runs for dominators - Let's generate some data" thread for more discussion about fiery orb, starting near the bottom of the first page of the thread. 

 

7. The "How much defense do you need" question is often debated in this forum. Some say it's not needed, while others routinely build for strong defenses. It really boils down to how you like to play the game. If you love the journey to 50 and you're on to the next alt shortly after that or if endgame content consists of +0 speedruns then defenses are modestly helpful, but could be replaced with inspirations in many cases. Also, if you'd rather build for DPS then you'll probably at least somewhat lighten up your dom's defenses. But, if you like harder challenges, especially in endgame, then you'll want stronger defenses. 

 

There are basically three solid defensive schemes for dominators.

 

Def 1 - You can softcap ranged defense and play largely from range.

Def 2 - You can opt for a " defense" mastery such as ice mastery and focus on getting to or near the softcap for smash / lethal, while also building up ranged defense to a level you find comfortable. 

Def 3 - The strongest defensive scheme by a fair margin is to select one of the four assault sets with a "power boost" equivalent (dark, earth, energy, ice), take the "force of will" power pool and the fighting pool, and select a mastery that offers a "resistance" shield (ie: soul mastery). Use the "power boost" equivalent power just before casting "unleash potential" and rotate that with barrier destiny, plus choose melee core hybrid to put together a strong combination of defenses. Get the clicky accolades that boost defenses and the usual "passive four" accolades as well, to make your dominator even sturdier. 

 

A variation on the above schemes would be to select electricity control and use drain, which can be used together with the second and third choices above. 

 

Of the four assault sets mentioned above, dark assault leads to building a particularly sturdy dominator because it is one of the rare assault sets that offers a heal and it also debuffs mob to hit. However, the damage mitigation potential of ice shouldn't be undersold, especially if it is paired with a control set and a mastery that also interferes with mob movement and debuffs mob recharge. 

 

Check out the "Pylon times and trapdoor runs for dominators - Let's generate some data" thread for example builds featuring two out of the three defensive schemes above. There is an earth / dark / soul following defensive scheme #3 on page 1 of that thread. And, there are plenty of builds following defensive scheme #2. 

 

8.  The radius is too small and the duration too short for the psy mastery confusion aura to make much of a difference for a dominator. Given its limitations, if that was regularly a big difference maker in battles then I would probably need to be doing something substantially wrong with all the other tools at my dominator's disposal. 

Edited June 23, 2022 by EnjoyTheJourney

[Mezmera]

27 minutes ago, EnjoyTheJourney said:

2. Energy assault has top tier single target DPS. If you wanted a single target damage machine then consider pairing energy assault with gravity, mind, or fire control; all three of these sets have T1 powers that have short cast times and potentially excellent DPA (especially when proc'd up). AOE is passable for energy, but definitely not a strength of the set. You'll probably want to lean more heavily on the mastery to shore up AOE if you choose energy assault. 

 

Agree.  I LOVE where Energy is at.  Total Focus, Power Burst and Snipe is a vicious ST attack chain that'll give any blaster a run for their money.  I'd also suggest Dark control for some serious ST damage output. 

 

As far as aoe damage yes the only passable thing is Whirling Hands which they had overtuned when they first revamped Energy Assault which they've since got it undertuned but that's alright Energy is known for being stronger ST damage.  When they nerfed WH I just put Darrk Consumption from the Soul Mastery pool into my attack rotation and added more damage ability.  Between Soul Drain, Dark Consumption and Dark Obliteration I feel no lack of aoe from not taking the ones from Energy.  

 

The knockback in Energy Assault really isn't all that annoying since the best stuff is ST and they get knocked half the time.  It's a nice set to slot the force feedback proc but all of the attacks recharge so fast this proc is wasted except for in the snipe which is where I have one.  

[Luminara]

3 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

World of confusion has like an 8 foot range and low mag so it's only really useful when stacking with other source of confuse.

 

1 hour ago, EnjoyTheJourney said:

8.  The radius is too small and the duration too short for the psy mastery confusion aura to make much of a difference for a dominator.

 

I tried WoC when I was leveling my Dark/Martial and was really disappointed in it.  In the last update, they enabled Domination for it and I gave it a second look, and I have to say I'm much happier with it now.  Possess isn't in my build, but with the Coercive Persuasion proc and Domination, I can skip using Fearsome Stare on every spawn (how i hit the soft cap to all damage types with this character) and just run in and start punching, kicking and throwing.  It's not Link Minds good, but it's better than it was.

 

But that assessment is from the perspective of strictly melee combat, ranged characters probably won't get enough value out of it to warrant the toggle cost.  And this was a power I wanted for thematic fulfillment (this character was inspired by DC's Huntress, and a PBAoE confuse adds that element of enemies panicking and wildly swinging/shooting), so for this character, I'm biased in favor of the power.

[SeraphimKensai]

8 hours ago, Gulbasaur said:

How good is it on a dominator? I only really know it for its ability to absolutely break (the already fairly broken) Time support set.

It's a buildup that also boosts the strength of your mezzes in addition to your damage and tohit and any defense buffs. So yeah it's a no-brainer if you go with that set.

[Gulbasaur]

Thanks everyone so far, particularly @EnjoyTheJourney for the small essay. Magnifique. 

 

Dominators are a real "I know I should like this but I don't" set for everything I've tried over the years. Energy doesn't have enough knockback to feel like I'm playing with knockback, which actually bothered me. The visuals are 10/10, but I was expecting ragdoll-a-go-go. I wanted ragdoll-a-gogo. I'll probably persevere with it up to 20 or so. 

 

I might try Dark/Dark next. Soul Noir goes with everything. A couple of the control sets have this casting animation that looks like you're handing someone a cup of tea over a tall fence that I really don't like so I'll play with the animations and see what looks good.  I remember that putting me off Fire/ and Elec/ but I haven't really played with Dark/.

 

This game is, how can I put it politely? not balaced around gameplay balance? so picking for aesthetics is ultimately one of the safest choices for vibing with a character, in my opinion. (I know the irony of saying that but maining a fortunata that is a gnarly mashup of about five powersets and has no visual cohesion whatsoever)

Edited June 24, 2022 by Gulbasaur

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Many seem to find the earth assault visuals satisfying, as do I. The terms "smashy", "crunchy", and other such adjectives come up a lot for earth assault. The knockback on hurl boulder is quite strong, which by the visual you would pretty much expect because a very large boulder is ripped out of the earth and thrown at high speed at the target. That's the only power with knockback; multiple other powers have knockdown. Stone spear launches mobs into the sky quite well after a bunch of rocks thrust up from the ground underneath them. Overall the visuals match quite well with the "knock" effect of each power. You could go earth / earth / ice for a northern yeti kind of look and feel, earth / earth / psi for better defense and to run a kind of sentient earth creature, or earth / earth / soul for a literally and figuratively darker vibe. All would provide a very different visual aesthetic than a fortunata. FWIW.

 

Ice / ice / ice tends to look quite misty by default. Ice swords (giant or usual sized) are a taste issue. You'd know if you like them or not. Bitter ice blast visuals suggest somebody throwing (or casting) ice. It's a very literal "these visuals show me doing just what you expect, given the power I'm using" powerset combination, overall.

Edited June 24, 2022 by EnjoyTheJourney

[Janos2001]

On 6/23/2022 at 1:49 PM, Crasical said:

I've got an earth/fire with about half her incarnates and a Dark/Savage at level 40, so this is going to be answers from that direction: 

 

4) Earth control is pretty good. It's a little different than a lot of other dominator primaries because a lot of its powers summon pseudopets, and thus, as far as I can tell, *don't benefit from Domination*. You still get the mez protection and end refresh, but you can deploy that more tactically (when you get mezzed or run out of end) instead of investing heavily to have it 'always on'. 
5+7) Depending on your secondary and what attacks you pick, you're gonna determine if you spend most of your time in melee or at range. /fire only has a few close in attacks, so I built heavy recharge and a decent amount of ranged defenses, and then just used control to keep anyone from ever going into melee. Savage has only 2 ranged attacks, a cone, and an attack that *zooms you into melee*, so I'm building him to drop fearsome stare into a mob, teleporrt into their midst, and follow up with a Heart of Darkness for a massive AoE stun that I want to make perma so I can savage enemies to death at my own pace periodically reapplying the big stun. It's not working great so far but never mind that. Take the attacks that reinforce what you wanna do.

6) It's not great. I can't really tell if it's doing anything.
8 ) It's not great. Single digit psi damage, a 1.5 second mag 2 confuse every 4 seconds. As for the proc:
Probability to Proc = PPM * ActivatePeriod / ( 60 * (1 + Radius * (11*Arc + 540) / 40000) )
39% = 4.5 * 10 / ( 60 * (1 + 8 * (11*360 + 540) / 40000) )
39% chance to proc, and if it does proc I *believe* it has a 30% chance to become contagious. My proc-fu's not strong but I think that's only a 12 or 13% chance it'll do anything on a given 10 second tick.

Not to be nitpicky (and it probably doesn't change anything in the end), but Savage also has the Eagle Attack, which is ranged, and (yes, I know the damage is piddly comparatively, but it does give a -Def), the Bees lol.  

[Crasical]

On 6/28/2022 at 11:56 AM, Janos2001 said:

Not to be nitpicky (and it probably doesn't change anything in the end), but Savage also has the Eagle Attack, which is ranged, and (yes, I know the damage is piddly comparatively, but it does give a -Def), the Bees lol.  

Yeah, I said "Savage has only 2 ranged attacks and a cone". The bees (which you have to take anyway), the hawk, and the raven cone.