What got you into playing Dominators?

[StriderIV]

2 hours ago, Voltak said:

Dark control is a true monster.  Fire assault is well, FIRE !  Super powered indeed !

 

2 hours ago, Voltak said:

The sounds and visuals, as a combo, is probably the best in the game

for that Earth/Earth Dominator you played

What are some Dominator combos you'd recommend for some of your tough "Do it all" challenges Vol? Dark/Dark seems like a shoe in. Any others you'd recommend?

[Voltak]

2 hours ago, StriderIV said:

 

What are some Dominator combos you'd recommend for some of your tough "Do it all" challenges Vol? Dark/Dark seems like a shoe in. Any others you'd recommend?

As much as whole lot of people think Plant is OP , it falls apart when facing an AV by itself, and when mez resistant (to confuse) is present, it needs something else. 

Dark/Dark can take on AVs even some very difficult ones. 
It can take on 7 AVs one by one as I did in the LR SF , 54x8, no inspirations.  

So, to do a whole task force, Plant cannot do it alone with those settings in place.  
Possession or Confuse is the king of all controls in the game, but single target is still the MVP since it can be useful for all levels, because of the super fast recharge compared to seeds of confusion. 

Also, as you increase in difficulty challenges, your defenses become more important than your offense. 
Enter the massive to hit debuffs that Dark/Dark dominators command. 

With a recent pylon testing of 1.28 average time to kill a pylon, dark/dark is sitting along with the best damaging combos.  
Just like fire, it can kill a lvl +4 AV with only range attacks, the melee attacks also hit very strongly. 

3 pets can be useful, the fear (with a massive to hit debuff) is all useful. 

Dark lacks a sleep and a power like ice slick or bonfire, so it is not perfect, but it is very well rounded. 
Very strong levels of dmg, instruments for mitigation, and excellent controls. 

Dark/Dark 
Dark/Psi 
Those two would be a very good pick if you want to climb higher and higher the ladder of difficulty. 

If Plant had a single target fast charging confuse, it would easily demolish every other combo without question.  

So Mind and Dark are the only ones capable of soloing hard TF's with a pack of AVs at the end, but Dark would beat Mind when it's time to kill the AV, it will kill it faster. 

Earth is in a special place, it's a  set of controls outside of possession or confuse. 

Ou side of that, Earth reigns as king for control, again, outside of confuse or possession because they are the strongest forms of control in the game. 

If you really want to disrupt Cimerorans or Black Knights (Black Knights are extremely tough to mez), and even Nemesis with stacked vengeanceou ( they make you miss a lot ) ... ENTER THE EARTH control set. 

Quicksand and earthquake together combine for an irresistible form of control in so many cases when holds won't work. 
It will make quick work of Nemesis high defenses and Cimerorans will have their ridiculous defenses shredded as well. 

That combo is so strong that an  Earth Dominator can clear part 2 of the ITF alone without any team mates with quicksand and earthquake doing 90% of the work. 

THose are my two cents.  

I am sure other challenge seekers have their own experience. 

Edited July 1, 2022 by Voltak

[DocMidknight]

  I started playing doms when I saw a video of a mind/energy dom taking down AV's solo and thought it was the coolest thing ever back on live.....so I made one. Even though I made it to 50 on live it didn't really connect for me until HC came around I started seeing more combo possibilities and themes I could build and from there it became one of my favorite AT's, especially after seeing all the awesome videos being posted of ITF and other AV takedowns being done to really make me appreciate what doms have to offer . Dark/savage is my favorite pairing for dom followed by my mind/dark(council vamp) with other builds thrown in dark/earth(hits like a freight train), dark/dark(nasty), dark/psy, fire/earth. I'll eventually make a fire and dark pairing but just started a new dark/martial and liking the potential it has.

[Voltak]

10 hours ago, DocMidknight said:

  I started playing doms when I saw a video of a mind/energy dom taking down AV's solo and thought it was the coolest thing ever back on live.....so I made one. Even though I made it to 50 on live it didn't really connect for me until HC came around I started seeing more combo possibilities and themes I could build and from there it became one of my favorite AT's, especially after seeing all the awesome videos being posted of ITF and other AV takedowns being done to really make me appreciate what doms have to offer . Dark/savage is my favorite pairing for dom followed by my mind/dark(council vamp) with other builds thrown in dark/earth(hits like a freight train), dark/dark(nasty), dark/psy, fire/earth. I'll eventually make a fire and dark pairing but just started a new dark/martial and liking the potential it has.

I really like that concept of Mind/Dark
That just might be what I do next 
Possibly so 

[tidge]

I don't have many Dominators... the ones I have are because I had an idea for a character concept that leveraged some of the 'control' sets but I wanted a peculiar bit of offense.

 

I am leveling up a Plant/Electric Dom right now... Without all slots, accolades, or 50+ set enhancements it's been a fun, combat-oriented puzzle dealing with certain arcs (The Envoy of Shadow made me recall how much trouble that guy was on early Live!) The heresy for this character has been: in the absence of perma-dom (please no stories on how you achieved permadom at level 25, thanks in advance) I've primarily only been using Domination to refill the blue bar and/or to break free of mez. This is only a tiny fraction of what it is "for", but this character is (essentially by design) peculiarly fragile.

 

I also find an odd challenge in Dominator builds in that quest for perma-dom... selecting enhancement bonuses for global +Recharge is, if I'm honest, too much of "simple constraint" on build choices for my taste. I understand (for all AT) wanting to be able to have maximally efficient chains of powers, and minimal cycle times on certain key powers... but I don't grok maximum Recharge, except in the case of Perma-Dom. On many of my oddball concepts, I simply like to see effects that I'd have to do without if I simply wanted to minimize clear times and/or maximize survivability (again: I don't need any particular rebuttals about how you "have it all" on your builds... thanks in advance)

[Voltak]

4 hours ago, tidge said:

I don't have many Dominators... the ones I have are because I had an idea for a character concept that leveraged some of the 'control' sets but I wanted a peculiar bit of offense.

 

I am leveling up a Plant/Electric Dom right now... Without all slots, accolades, or 50+ set enhancements it's been a fun, combat-oriented puzzle dealing with certain arcs (The Envoy of Shadow made me recall how much trouble that guy was on early Live!) The heresy for this character has been: in the absence of perma-dom (please no stories on how you achieved permadom at level 25, thanks in advance) I've primarily only been using Domination to refill the blue bar and/or to break free of mez. This is only a tiny fraction of what it is "for", but this character is (essentially by design) peculiarly fragile.

 

I also find an odd challenge in Dominator builds in that quest for perma-dom... selecting enhancement bonuses for global +Recharge is, if I'm honest, too much of "simple constraint" on build choices for my taste. I understand (for all AT) wanting to be able to have maximally efficient chains of powers, and minimal cycle times on certain key powers... but I don't grok maximum Recharge, except in the case of Perma-Dom. On many of my oddball concepts, I simply like to see effects that I'd have to do without if I simply wanted to minimize clear times and/or maximize survivability (again: I don't need any particular rebuttals about how you "have it all" on your builds... thanks in advance)

Interesting take indeed.  For grinding 1 - 50 plant can be a challenge indeed and paired with Electric , that's another level of challenge as well. 
Kudos to you for grinding that out, much respect. 
You are going to love, if you ever grind a Dom again, a Dark Dominator or a Mind Dom or an Electric Dom.  
Those are super fun to grind and powerful even defensively. 

 

[TNT]

My first toon was an elec/elec blaster, which I played primarily at range.  While it was fun, I thought it could be better. So I started perusing the blaster forums and learned the joys of blapping. On that toon it was all about locking down the biggest threat with holds and draining the endurance of the group while hitting them hard. 

 

That being said,  I didn't try a Dominator for a long stretch. I got into the game of getting a 50 for all AT's and Dom was down the list a ways.  It was a great deal of fun when I finally devoted a lot of time to one.  It plays an awful lot like that first blaster. Living at the edge with low hp and only active mitigation, versus the shields that melee characters get, really scratches the itch. 

 

I will be the first to assert that I am not anywhere near the top of the totem pole for high-end play. For me concept trumps power and there is much to love about this AT. 

Edited July 18, 2022 by TNT
Grammar correction

[Chi]

Greetings to the Most

 

I never played Dominators during Live. I guess I was just two young to understand the mechanics . 

But sense May 2019 I made like 6-7 and there after like 5 more . 

 

I write the same build for all of them sometimes takes a few days or weeks to get right spec's , I write for high resists , defenses and somehow all of them end with perma'dom . 

 

Dark x 3 , Earth , Electric , Fire , Grav x 2 , Ice , Mind x 2, & Plant . 

 

Dark/Dark @ lvl 23

Dark/Nrg @ lvl 31

Fire/Earth @ lvl 27

Electric/Fire @lvl 20  and all of them will have as well get Psi Epic when time ... Lots of fun to level and can at times be challenging. 

 

@ lvl 50+ Over spent Over SLotted,  boosters , catalysts, &  Filled with Fun Fun fUN 

Dark/Dark/Psi

Earth/Thorns/Psi

Gravity/MA/PSI

Gravity/Electric/Psi

Ice/Ice/Psi

Mind/Savage/Psi

Mind/Psi/Psi

Plant/Rad/Psi

 

Blessing

 

 

[Bill Z Bubba]

On 7/1/2022 at 12:23 PM, Voltak said:

The sounds and visuals, as a combo, is probably the best in the game

for that Earth/Earth Dominator you played

 

Ran my earth/earth last night in an ITF with the SG. She needs a respec but even as is, I still absolutely adore playing her.

[Voltak]

4 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

Ran my earth/earth last night in an ITF with the SG. She needs a respec but even as is, I still absolutely adore playing her.

Yeah, that combo has to be the funnest in the game if we include in it the sound FX and the visuals

 

[oedipus_tex]

I started playing Doms around the time Going Rogue came out. At the time, I was playing Controllers a lot. I didn't like red side content very much so I didn't start playing Dominators too often til you could switch sides.

 

At the time, Doms were in a bit of a heyday. Blasters and Defenders were yet to receive their significant buffs. Dominators could get mezz protection where few other squishies could. It was a good place to be, but of course change is the nature of this game.

 

If I'm being honest I now view Doms a bit less favorably than when I started. They're still fun, but I think of a lot of them are like less popular builds in a game like Diablo, technically able to run dungeons in interesting ways, but often difficult to play relative to other classes. I've been running hard mode ITFs recently, and in that content I think a lot of the Dominator's weaknesses hit stress points: low HP, very little mitigation outside of controls, often needing to close distance to do damage, and usually no armor or debuff resistance built in. I don't think I'll be bringing most of my Dominators on those future runs, because the main fail points of that type of content tend to be areas Dominators don't really contribute that much too.

That said, I did enjoy playing the new Ice Control at a 2 star challenge level. And I do have an awful lot of Dominators, for the same reason I enjoy playing offbeat builds in Diablo and Torchlight and so on. They can be an interesting and strange class to play.

Edited July 21, 2022 by oedipus_tex

[PyreElf]

My last alt I made on live was an Earth/Fire Dom which I was never able to fully IO. Now with homecoming I've built My Earth/Fire, a Grav/Fire and some other combos. My Earth/Fire can lock down and slowly kill 3 mobs at a time. I felt like I discovered the potential gem of the Dominator AT with the Earth/Fire. Very hard to match the level of damage and control combined in a single AT. Now I'm on to play a Symphony/Fire and cone the mobs to death!

[Guffnat]

On 7/21/2022 at 3:09 AM, Voltak said:

Yeah, that combo has to be the funnest in the game if we include in it the sound FX and the visuals

 

 

I have an Earth/Storm and Earth/Dark Controller ... Stalagmites + Thunderclap or Stalagmites + Howling Twilight are also super satisfying concerning the VFX and SFX.

 

I'm really torn between Mind/Dark and Dark/Dark right now. I will probably end up leveling both. 😄

Edited August 31, 2022 by Guffnat

[Six-Six]

I only started playing when I found out about Homecoming (Yup, I'm newb compared to all of you Live folks). I've played a bit of DCUO and that old Marvel one, so gave this a go.

At first, I didn't know what the hell I was doing (and not much has improved since haha). I stumbled about until I found Sentinels. The Sentinel was/is a very forgiving AT to learn the ropes without too many trips to the hospital. After getting my feet wet, I proceeded to try other ranged ATs. Tried Blasters, but kept getting mezzed and dying all the time that it longer felt fun. Took a step back and considered Soldiers of Arachnos which looked to me like Sentinels on steroids. They had a bit more contribution to team play and I got introduced to melee play. So next up were Brutes and Scrappers. I passed up Tankers because I felt I didn't have the skill required to be an effective Tank; I also ignored Stalkers because that blasted AT won't let me see my dang costume.

I realised I enjoyed ranged AND melee not just ranged OR melee. So I mustered up the courage to try Blasters again and played as a Blapper. Blappers showed me the value of cc in an attack rotation and that armour was overrated. Then I tried Doms which were cc + ranged + melee. But it didn't/doesn't end there. Dom's controls gave me experience to try Trollers. I'm currently playing my first Troller now. And because of what I've learned with Doms and what I'm learning with Trollers, I will definitely go revisit my Fortunatas--which I fumbled about with and never really got the hang of.

Somewhere in between all of that, I also tried ranged + support (Fenders and Corruptors). Since I mostly run solo, I felt most of the ally-only powers of the two ATs were wasted on me. But they did help me try out MMs. I also tried PBs and WSs, but couldn't wrap my head around the tri-form play. I did manage to ding a human-form only up to 50. I'm giving them another go with Page 4's no-detoggling patch.

So that's my journey so far. I don't think I can pick a single favourite ATI would pick Blasters. I enjoy all of them for different reasons. More specifically, I enjoy particular power sets for a certain AT and specific toons that have developed their own personalities. I usually switch between 3-5 active toons depending on my mood, all with a healthy dose of solitary roleplaying. So currently, I'm playing an illusion/dark Troller, WS, dark/savage Dom, Bots/Elec MM, and a Psy/Fire Blapper.

[Voltak]

9 hours ago, Guffnat said:

 

I have an Earth/Storm and Earth/Dark Controller ... Stalagmites + Thunderclap or Stalagmites + Howling Twilight are also super satisfying concerning the VFX and SFX.

 

I'm really torn between Mind/Dark and Dark/Dark right now. I will probably end up leveling both. 😄

Dark/Dark 🙂

 

[kelika2]

Plant/energy dom.  I just like beating the shit out of stuff with little chance of dying.  perma hasten, range increase in seeds, etc

[ZorkNemesis]

Back during the Live days, I had always wanted to play a Dom (I love the concept of control and damage) but the AT never meshed well with me.  Some time after Going Rogue I took a look at Earth Assault and noticed Mud Pots among its powers.  I then suddenly decided I wanted to try combining Mud Pots with Hot Feet for a double damage aura and came up with a volcanic themed characrer with the Lava customizations.  Rolled him as a Praetorian and found that I liked the combo enough to stick it out; the heavy damage from the Earth attacks helped me keep going. Once I got him into Fire Mastery pools I was completely on board with him with the added AoE damage.

 

Ironically I respec'd out of Mud Pots shortly after getting it, it wasn't nearly as good as I had hoped and Hot Feet was enough.

 

I still struggle with Doms, I honestly think it's the lack of AoE damage from an AT meant to be a damage dealer.  Controls typically don't cover that damage and Assault sets are very ST focused with usually one melee AoE.  I have found a couple good ones, Dark/Martial is a little clunky but a good close range fighter while Ice/Savage is super fun to play with Savage Leap keeping you in the middle of the fight at all times.

[Clave Dark 5]

I had a couple during Live (redside is best side!) but nothing super exciting that I can recall.  Coming back into HC, I found I was preferring squishie classes and more support-y types and not so much melee.  Playing Doms has weened me off that aversion.  I really like the way they play that feels very swiss-army-knife to me, depending on how you build - controls, ranged damage, melee damage, you've got it.  At early levels I tend to hang back like a blaster, by 50 I feel like I can chew my way through a plate of steel.

[FUBARczar]

On 6/30/2022 at 4:56 AM, Voltak said:

That reminds of me of the player who made an Ice/Savage just so he can run in, confuse and use aura of confusion as well, and get to work.  

I can't remember where he posted the build, but he even farms with that.  

 

You met my twin!?

 

I am a Blapper first, and Domppers are honorary Blappers 😋

Edited September 10, 2022 by FUBARczar

[Clave Dark 5]

Triplets???   🙂

 

[Voltak]

9 hours ago, FUBARczar said:

You met my twin!?

 

I am a Blapper first, and Domppers are honorary Blappers 😋

SOMETHING LIKE THAT, LMAO 

[Crowcus Pocus]

There was a guy back on live who destroyed things with his Earth/Earth domi. Malta, Carnies, Knives - you name it  He was badass.

 

He also was one of the first to solo ITF on +4/8 with a dominator when everyone was doing it with scrappers or Time toons. He had a vídeo of him doing it on his Gravity/Fire which is even more impressive since there was no confuse nor sleep spam tactics.

 

So yeah, his Earth/Earth was deffo the reason why I made one too.

[MistressOhm]

My first Dominator was basically a "player" version of the CoT Succubus.  Mind/Fire.  And I found out right away, that Control comes before Assault.  🙂  But, once Domination came up, yeah, that was I Win Mode.  

 

Of course, I didn't level her very fast, cos RP addict.  But then... I found a group who liked to roleplay while they beat up on stuff.

 

Thus, Bitter December, my Ice/Cold Dominator. 

 

Britt was a sweet little girl who just got in with the wrong crowd.  And then she discovered she -liked- being with the wrong crowd.   

 

And playing her was crazy fun, Arctic Air slotted for Confuse, plus ice slows, holds, and knockdowns... not to mention throwing ice bits at people. 😉

 

I have a similar build on Everlasting - Auntie Freeze, a Praetorian 'Powers Division' cop who takes "Freeze!" to a whole new level.

[Talen Lee]

On 6/28/2022 at 8:31 AM, Voltak said:

Simple as that.  I want to hear your narratives or stories.  Simple or elaborate, I don't care. 
I want to know , curious to know what drew you into playing them ?

It was issue 7, all my friends were playing brutes, masterminds and corruptors, and I thought that it'd be cool to know something they didn't, because I was a twerp. I started on dominators. I failed at dominators for a long time. Eventually, some years after I started playing, my first 50 was a Dominator. It took a few years, and included a lot of alting around to try and find something that made it work.

 

Anyway, I wound up making a scrapper after that to see how quick he could get to 50 and I think it took a month, mostly solo street-sweeping in hazard zones.

 

But by then I'd been bitten by the bug and I kept making dominators and working on the project of getting Permadom - and cheaply. I remember a build of him that relied on Knockback sets to get over the 70% mark.

 

 

[UltraAlt]

On 6/27/2022 at 6:31 PM, Voltak said:

Simple as that.  I want to hear your narratives or stories.  Simple or elaborate, I don't care. 
I want to know , curious to know what drew you into playing them ?

 

I've been playing since about a week before issue 2 dropped.

 

I can't remember if I made a dominator during villain beta or not, but I probably did.

I know I made one of at least each villain AT when the villain side went live.

So, back then, it was more about playing all the ATs.

 

Since the Sunset, it hasn't been so much about playing all the ATs, but I've made one of all of them on Homecoming since being back other than a Warshade, Arachnos Soldier, and Arachnos Widow.

I'm character conception player, so it's mainly about trying to get the powers that fit my character conception. So far that means out of 136 characters 13 are dominators, and one of those non-dominators characters would not have been made as a dominator if I knew that I could get the powers I was looking for out of the dominator set. 

 

But I have to throw in, I would really like to have Whip as a dominator secondary (1 melee single target, 1 ranged single target, and one cone melee are the whip powers already in the game)....

... maybe with 1 or 2 Dual Pistols powers (including Executioner's shot) with some Street Justice powers to round out the set?! (filling in the missing ranged and melee powers that come with most Dominator sets)