Ice/Thorn/??

[Scarlet Shocker]

I'm trying to build The Glass Fox - see

for reference

 

I went for this form of Dom because on paper it seemed to fit the bill in terms of performance and more importantly concept, but I've got limited dom experience so I'd appreciate input from those who know better than I.

 

At face value this seems like an outstanding support toon but I'd like to ensure it has high solo survivability.

 

She needs to be very stealthy (think Thief) and mobile - I know that Ice has a stealth power but is that sufficient? I also quite like Weaken Resolve as an early opener to give me that extra debuff, and Combat Jumping for when fighting

 

I'm not familiar with Ice Control, and less so with Thorny Assault but from the description of the powers Thorny Assault looks like it gives a good range of melee powers and Ice also lets you get up close and personal so that might be an area to explore. As for EPP/PPP Im undecided but it must reflect [sic] the concept of glass.

 

GRateful for all input, thanks

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Ice Mastery seems most easily re-colored to represent glass. The function of different ice mastery powers could be argued to be the function of glass, as well. 

To fix a potential mis-perception, ice control does not have a stealth power. Illusion does, though. Perhaps illusion control could be re-imagined as the effects of using mirrors and other types of glass to confuse, debuff, and control others. 

[twozerofoxtrot]

1 hour ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

I also quite like Weaken Resolve as an early opener to give me that extra debuff

As a Dom, your opener should be controls to keep you alive and not debuffs.

You need to be active and aggressive with controlling enemies (particularly while solo) because you'll have a dearth of defensive abilities. Those you can pick will be from pools and endurance-inefficient. Pair that with the endurance consumer that Arctic Air is, and you're having a bad time. 

Control into heavy damage. Debuffs should be tertiary until you can bring Sleet (from Ice Mastery) online. Even then, you should lock down your targets first (lest they squirm away).

Edited-in Additional Advice:
 

• Place the three damage procs Cold Snap can take into it. This will make it a fairly rapid cooldown aoe damage and control power. Not a terrible one to open with but you will take an Alpha even if you land it thanks to how Fears work.
• Flash Freeze is another decent control to proc bomb, and you can even work a heal proc into the lineup for some extra survivability.
• Humble Ice Slick is going to do a tremendous amount of work for you. Don't underestimate it. Use it often. Do not slot it for accuracy. The knockdown portion is autohit, and every 0.2 seconds it rolls for an 8% chance to knock an enemy down. If on a budget, just throw recharge into it. The damage portion is probably too low to matter.
• Ice Mastery is basically a must. Many people won't build a Dom without it, due to how oppressively good Sleet is, but as the poster above mentioned, Frozen Armor (which isn't a bad defense toggle) can be used to make you theme appropriate as well as mule valuable sets. Depending on how much freedom you have for power picks late in your build, Hibernate and Hoarfrost can be good sustainment tools, or even just one-slot mules. 
• Thorns is an interesting beast. It's slow but heavy hitting, with a lot of -DEF which while of course nice for procs, is also helpful when you're in a low-challenge setting for sticking more controls down.
• Be aware that Thorn Burst is hot garbage; while it does do a lot of -DEF in a wide radius, you're going to animation lock yourself for over 3 seconds for pithy damage. 
• Thorntrops would usually be a skip for me, but layered on top of Ice Slick it would be absolutely hilarious.

 

 

Edited January 1 by twozerofoxtrot
I had so much to share.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

If you opt for ice control then vigor or cardiac alpha incarnate can be a good choice to better manage endurance. Vigor would generally be my choice over cardiac, for ice control, because the accuracy boost from vigor allows for more flexible slotting for IOs. 

[Scarlet Shocker]

6 hours ago, EnjoyTheJourney said:

Ice Mastery seems most easily re-colored to represent glass. The function of different ice mastery powers could be argued to be the function of glass, as well. 

To fix a potential mis-perception, ice control does not have a stealth power. Illusion does, though. Perhaps illusion control could be re-imagined as the effects of using mirrors and other types of glass to confuse, debuff, and control others. 

 

Yes I'd considered Ice Mastery for exactly the thematic reason but I'd also given some thought to Psionic and Primal Forces though they are less comfortable thematically.

I misread Arctic Air re stealth and I might have been confusing it with Arctic Fog from Cold Domination (not available to Doms) so thanks for the correction there.

 

5 hours ago, EnjoyTheJourney said:

If you opt for ice control then vigor or cardiac alpha incarnate can be a good choice to better manage endurance. Vigor would generally be my choice over cardiac, for ice control, because the accuracy boost from vigor allows for more flexible slotting for IOs. 

 

I try and avoid Cardiac as a matter of course because it seems that it solves the Endurance problem but at the cost of a lot of flexibility. I often look at Agility, and hadn't considered Vigor here but both might work, thanks!

6 hours ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

As a Dom, your opener should be controls to keep you alive and not debuffs.

You need to be active and aggressive with controlling enemies (particularly while solo) because you'll have a dearth of defensive abilities. Those you can pick will be from pools and endurance-inefficient. Pair that with the endurance consumer that Arctic Air is, and you're having a bad time. 

Control into heavy damage. Debuffs should be tertiary until you can bring Sleet (from Ice Mastery) online. Even then, you should lock down your targets first (lest they squirm away).

Edited-in Additional Advice:
 

• Place the three damage procs Cold Snap can take into it. This will make it a fairly rapid cooldown aoe damage and control power. Not a terrible one to open with but you will take an Alpha even if you land it thanks to how Fears work.
• Flash Freeze is another decent control to proc bomb, and you can even work a heal proc into the lineup for some extra survivability.
• Humble Ice Slick is going to do a tremendous amount of work for you. Don't underestimate it. Use it often. Do not slot it for accuracy. The knockdown portion is autohit, and every 0.2 seconds it rolls for an 8% chance to knock an enemy down. If on a budget, just throw recharge into it. The damage portion is probably too low to matter.
• Ice Mastery is basically a must. Many people won't build a Dom without it, due to how oppressively good Sleet is, but as the poster above mentioned, Frozen Armor (which isn't a bad defense toggle) can be used to make you theme appropriate as well as mule valuable sets. Depending on how much freedom you have for power picks late in your build, Hibernate and Hoarfrost can be good sustainment tools, or even just one-slot mules. 
• Thorns is an interesting beast. It's slow but heavy hitting, with a lot of -DEF which while of course nice for procs, is also helpful when you're in a low-challenge setting for sticking more controls down.
• Be aware that Thorn Burst is hot garbage; while it does do a lot of -DEF in a wide radius, you're going to animation lock yourself for over 3 seconds for pithy damage. 
• Thorntrops would usually be a skip for me, but layered on top of Ice Slick it would be absolutely hilarious.

 

 

 

Thanks. This is gold. I typically try and avoid using damage procs, I've always felt there's better alternatives but I guess this is an opportunity to try something different.

 

Thanks all of you for some great input!

 

Oh and I love caltrop like powers so I think I will take it just to double up with Ice Slick (Caltrops is one of my favourite places to slot the freebie KD proc that P2W gives - and that proves to be excellent damage mitigation )

 

How good is Jack Frost? I found the blizzard sfx to be super annoying but I also figure he can be renamed Prince Rupert (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Rupert's_drop) ) which makes for a very nicely fitting theme (and he looks quite glassy) but I don't know whether he's a good enough pick

Edited January 1 by Scarlet Shocker

[twozerofoxtrot]

38 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

How good is Jack Frost?

 

Relatively tanky for a per with middling damage. Not as terribly important as say, Singularity but certainly worth the pick. If not for the 4 slotting of a high recharge pet set alone.

 

I didn't seen Blizzard on Jack's powers list, so you shouldn't have to deal with those sfx.

[Scarlet Shocker]

when I say blizzard I'm talking about a sound effect of a howling wind

[Wimbochismo]

I have an Ice/Thorn/Psi at the mid-levels, with her endgame build pretty much fleshed out. I put her in the metallic mini-skirt and changed the thorns to look like ice crystals and omg it just werks. 

 

For Dom's I usually make mine near perma Hasten with ranged defense. I don't always proc out the Control set like I might a Controller. 

 

What I'm finding is that it really helps to pair up Arctic Air with either Cold Snap or Ice Slick on mob engage. Arctic Air has a chance to make mobs avoid/run, so stacking the -spd will keep them around longer. In addition, AA takes time to ramp up and provide defense via control, so the addition of fear or knockdown will help stagger the initial incoming attacks.

 

At lower levels especially the aoe dmg is a bit lacking, unless you take @twozerofoxtrot's advice and proc the control's. All of the control's here have a 2-3s cast time's. I actually don't totally hate Thorn Burst with a lack of aoe options at lower levels. If you consider that aoe confuse is aoe dps, then sprinkling the -def with Fling Thorns and Thorn Burst could help facilitate that. 

 

I will say that maybe my slotting is off, but the single target rotation is a bit wonky. Thorn Barrage, Impale, and Skewer are highest dpa. It's a struggle to get Thorn Barrage's recharge to be sub 5s and fit in seamlessly while having to use 1 slot for kb-kd. Right now I'm kind of considering Ripper as a single target filler attack since the dpa isn't so bad.

 

I also really like Muscle Radial for the dmg, endmod, -def boost. 

[Onlyasandwich]

I like this concept! I had been struggling to find an Ice/ Dom that inspired me, and I think Thorny is the trick.

 

Here's my own take on it:

Dominator (Ice Control - Thorny Assault).mbd

 

The idea with this build is:

• Perma dom of course.
• Slow immunity.
• Controls as primary defensive tool. Frozen Armor provides a useful amount of S/L all by itself without sacrificing other things in pursuit of softcap stacking. Rune is there to save you if you get caught without Dom up in a mez, or to prep for a tough spawn.
• Max hit chance against +3's. Could probably fudge this further if accounting for Sleet at high levels.

 

A typical engage would be Glacier or Ice Slick, followed by Sleet > Cold Snap. The KD fields + Cold snap should provide enough layered mitigation that you have minimal risk from the return alpha. 

 

After your engage, diving in with attacks and Arctic air should thin things out enough to stabilize.

 

This build is focused on proccy damage. Ripper, Thorn barrage, and Impale are really wonderful for this! I especially like that Impale offers a high DPA place to keep the Dom +dam ATO proc. I usually like a proccy hold, but the return is just pretty mediocre for most dom holds. I split the difference here and gave it the purple proc.

 

Frostbite does some good work in incidental mitigation through locking the positions, the occasional hold proc, and the surprisingly strong contribution that aoe immobs can have with Fiery Orb proc. 

 

End support is a little borderline, but should be just fine with Dom refills. You could always switch to Musculature Alpha instead of Intuition as well.

 

Note that I have the FFback powers toggled off to unskew recharge #'s. I have a FFback living in both the aoe and ST rotations. As others have mentioned, Ripper fits nicely into both, as its DPA is so high for a cone.

 

This is by no means a bruiser dom. You can take a decent hit with Rune up, but are reliant on your controls and a little luck otherwise. Fortunately, you have some great tools to layer very reliably here. I played with proccing Flash Freeze, but ultimately valued the 5th purple set bonuses more. If things go south, you have both this and Hibernate to call a stop to the action whenever needed.

 

If you're big on Thorntrops, which I see you are, you could consider dropping sorcery pool for another travel power +trops and Hoarfrost. If you do this, swap the PM proc into Hibernate, and slot Hoarfrost for heal in its single slot. Hoarfrost still contributes to survivability, but to a more modest degree than Rune in my experience. Perhaps the slow running away triggered by trops will make up for it.  Bear in mind you'll be capping slow on mobs already without trops, so it's a bit redundant. The avoid effect is handy at times, but I'd rather have them locked in with Frostbite. Arctic air also has an avoid though, so even that is redundant.

 

Text version:

Spoiler

Selected Powers

Level 1: Block of Ice

• Slot Level 1: Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Hold
• Slot Level 48: Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold
• Slot Level 48: Basilisk's Gaze: Endurance/Recharge/Hold
• Slot Level 48: Basilisk's Gaze: Chance for Recharge Slow
• Slot Level 50: Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing Damage

Level 1: Skewer

• Slot Level 1: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage
• Slot Level 7: Superior Blistering Cold: Damage/Endurance
• Slot Level 46: Hecatomb: Damage/Endurance
• Slot Level 50: Hecatomb: Chance of Damage(Negative)

Level 2: Frostbite

• Slot Level 2: Gravitational Anchor: Recharge/Accuracy
• Slot Level 3: Gravitational Anchor: Immobilize/Recharge/Accuracy
• Slot Level 3: Gravitational Anchor: Immobilize
• Slot Level 43: Gravitational Anchor: Immobilize/Endurance
• Slot Level 43: Gravitational Anchor: Chance for Hold
• Slot Level 43: Superior Dominating Grasp: RechargeTime/Fiery Orb

Level 4: Fling Thorns

• Slot Level 4: Superior Frozen Blast: Accuracy/Damage
• Slot Level 5: Superior Frozen Blast: Damage/Endurance
• Slot Level 5: Positron's Blast: Chance of Damage(Energy)
• Slot Level 42: Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage
• Slot Level 42: Shield Breaker: Chance for Lethal Damage
• Slot Level 42: Touch of Lady Grey: Chance for Negative Damage

Level 6: Arctic Air

• Slot Level 6: Coercive Persuasion : Confused/Recharge
• Slot Level 7: Coercive Persuasion : Confused/Recharge/Accuracy
• Slot Level 37: Coercive Persuasion : Recharge/Accuracy
• Slot Level 40: Coercive Persuasion : Confused/Endurance
• Slot Level 40: Coercive Persuasion : Contagious Confusion

Level 8: Cold Snap

• Slot Level 8: Ice Mistral's Torment: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• Slot Level 9: Ice Mistral's Torment: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• Slot Level 9: Ice Mistral's Torment: Endurance/Slow
• Slot Level 37: Ice Mistral's Torment: Chance for Cold Damage
• Slot Level 37: Ice Mistral's Torment: Damage/Slow

Level 10: Impale

• Slot Level 10: Gladiator's Javelin: Accuracy/Damage
• Slot Level 11: Gladiator's Javelin: Chance of Damage(Toxic)
• Slot Level 11: Apocalypse: Damage
• Slot Level 13: Ice Mistral's Torment: Chance for Cold Damage
• Slot Level 15: Touch of Lady Grey: Chance for Negative Damage
• Slot Level 17: Superior Ascendency of the Dominator: Recharge/Chance for +Damage

Level 12: Ice Slick

• Slot Level 12: Superior Frozen Blast: Recharge/Chance for Immobilize
• Slot Level 13: Superior Frozen Blast: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

Level 14: Combat Jumping

• Slot Level 14: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• Slot Level 15: Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage

Level 16: Build Up

• Slot Level 16: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: Chance for Build Up

Level 18: Flash Freeze

• Slot Level 18: Fortunata Hypnosis: Sleep/Recharge
• Slot Level 17: Fortunata Hypnosis: Sleep/Recharge/Accuracy
• Slot Level 19: Fortunata Hypnosis: Recharge/Accuracy
• Slot Level 21: Fortunata Hypnosis: Sleep/Endurance
• Slot Level 21: Fortunata Hypnosis: Chance for Placate

Level 20: Hasten

• Slot Level 20: Invention: Recharge Reduction
• Slot Level 25: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 22: Glacier

• Slot Level 22: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold
• Slot Level 23: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold/Recharge
• Slot Level 23: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold/Recharge/Accuracy
• Slot Level 25: Unbreakable Constraint: Recharge/Accuracy
• Slot Level 36: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold/Endurance

Level 24: Hover

• Slot Level 24: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 26: Jack Frost

• Slot Level 26: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage
• Slot Level 27: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• Slot Level 27: Expedient Reinforcement: Endurance/Damage/Recharge
• Slot Level 34: Expedient Reinforcement: Damage/Endurance
• Slot Level 36: Soulbound Allegiance: Chance for Build Up

Level 28: Ripper

• Slot Level 28: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage
• Slot Level 29: Superior Avalanche: Damage/Endurance
• Slot Level 29: Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage
• Slot Level 33: Armageddon: Chance for Fire Damage
• Slot Level 34: Touch of Lady Grey: Chance for Negative Damage
• Slot Level 34: Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge

Level 30: Thorn Barrage

• Slot Level 30: Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage
• Slot Level 31: Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• Slot Level 31: Gladiator's Javelin: Chance of Damage(Toxic)
• Slot Level 31: Apocalypse: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• Slot Level 33: Explosive Strike: Chance for Smashing Damage
• Slot Level 33: Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge

Level 32: Mystic Flight

• Slot Level 32: Winter's Gift: Slow Resistance (20%)

Level 35: Sleet

• Slot Level 35: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 38: Frozen Armor

• Slot Level 38: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• Slot Level 39: Shield Wall: Defense
• Slot Level 39: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance
• Slot Level 39: Shield Wall: +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
• Slot Level 40: Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection +3% Def (All)

Level 41: Hibernate

• Slot Level 41: Invention: Healing

Level 44: Ice Storm

• Slot Level 44: Ragnarok: Damage/Recharge
• Slot Level 45: Ragnarok: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• Slot Level 45: Ragnarok: Recharge/Accuracy
• Slot Level 45: Ragnarok: Damage/Endurance
• Slot Level 46: Ragnarok: Chance for Knockdown

Level 47: Spirit Ward

• Slot Level 47: Preventive Medicine: Chance for +Absorb

Level 49: Rune of Protection

• Slot Level 49: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3%

 

Inherent Powers

Health:

• Slot Level 1: Panacea: +Hit Points/Endurance
• Slot Level 19: Miracle: +Recovery
• Slot Level 46: Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery

Stamina:

• Slot Level 1: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End
• Slot Level 36: Performance Shifter: EndMod
• Slot Level 50: Invention: Endurance Modification

 

Incarnate Abilities

Intuition Radial Paragon (Alpha)

 

I also worked up an alternative that drops any pretense of resist stacking at all (not even the uniques!), and instead leans into defense with Unleash Potential. This is sort of interesting, as it gets you to S/L softcap more than 1/3 of the time, and is a more effective proactive tool for mitigation that Rune. It's strong enough to make a good difference in non S/L damage as well, not to mention the solid endurance buff. 

 

Heavy FFback cycling can get this up even more often (almost half the time!). I did have to eat the soulbound buildup proc, which isn't such a big deal. The extra lotg and acc bonus (set is boosted, so won't exemp though) let me go back to a proccy flash freeze. Slightly borderline on hit chance here and there, but good enough considering all the -def in many powers.

 

However, Rune is more predictable. Sometimes you just need to be able to take a bigger hit. Either way, Unleash is something I don't think is considered often enough, and can be quite effective and fun!

Dominator (Ice Control - Thorny Assault) unleash version.mbd

Edited January 2 by Onlyasandwich

[MoonSheep]

as a full time dom player, i wouldn’t go with thorn personally, long animation times and “ok” damage

 

ice/earth, ice/ice, ice/fire or ice/energy would get my vote

 

ice/ice is fun for the combination of arctic air procced out and chilling embrace procced out, just pray to the gods above for some endurance! ice/ice goes really well with your glass theme too.

 

i’d introduce just a really subtle amount of blue-ish green tint to your powers and it would work well

 

definitely go for ice mastery too - defender strngth sleet is a real winner. soul also a banger for soul drain

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Triple ice could work for a "glass" theme and it is functionally a very strong combination. 

The effect of stacked slows on mobs is very noticeable, even dramatic. Their ability to move and their damage output pretty much crater and your dom can really "dominate" enemies at that point. 

I didn't want to be discouraging about thorny assault earlier. But, Moonsheep's experience and my own with thorny assault line up. It doesn't do great damage. It's also a bit hard to reach the ceiling of what the set can do because the cones can be difficult to line up well, at times. 

Edited January 2 by EnjoyTheJourney

[DreadShinobi]

The thoughts around Thorny Assault in this thread are disappointing. 

 

1) Thorny Assault needs few build parameters in order to perform well, once you have enough global accuracy to fully proc load certain powers, there really isnt much else you need other than hitting global recharge benchmarks. 

 

2) Thorny Assault is best with primaries that offer confusion control, because what Thorny Assault does best is apply -def to decrease how often critters miss each other while confused. If your experience with thorny assault hasnt been with Ice or Plant control it just isn't the same. Only Rad Assault can replicate this at all with Atom Smasher which also has a 3 second animation, but also a longer cooldown (22 vs 17) and a smaller radius (10 vs 15), and applies a much smaller defense debuff (12 vs 30). Musculature Core Paragon actually bumps Thorn Burst up to a massive 39.9% defense debuff and used early in your engage will ideally also be rolling to apply fury of the gladiator and achilles heel.

 

3) Dom AoEs are not fast. Assault sets are not blast sets where things need to compete with 1 second cast time aoes.

Engulfing Darkness, Deafening Wave, and Fissure are 2.244s and Tremor is 2.772s and is Thunder Strike. Whirling Hands at 2.64s. Fire Breath and Combustion are 2.904s and 3.168s. Frost Breath and Ice Sword Circle are 2.904s each. If you want to play a dom with any aoes coming from their secondary with under a 2 second cast time you are locked into Martial Assault or interestingly enough... Thorny Assault, with fling thorns. Thorn Burst is very easy to cast safely by jumping as you cast it so you're not a vegetable...

 

4) Thorny Assault isnt actually all that slow. Skewer animation is faster than Blaze (brawl animation) and 5 dmg proc Skewer with a +5 Hecatomb: dmg IO is just shy of being on par with the DPA of 5 Apocalypse Blaze with an extra dmg proc. Except that Skewer also has an incredible 6 second base cooldown which means you can get the recharge down to fit a skewer in between any other action you take that has a 2 second animation or higher. Skewer>Ripper>Skewer>Thorn Barrage>Skewer for example is very easy to reach. At 290% global recharge buff (70% hasten, 20% sg base buff, 100% global recharge (or 85% with offense amplifier), and during a Forcefeedback cycle, you can even Skewer>Impale>Skewer. Whatever you happen to be doing your next Skewer is probably ready, and they hurt. Good positioning and jousting is very important for a Thorny Dom because you always want to be in melee range of a valid target for your next Skewer even if your previous target died or you need to move to avoid damage. 

 

5) You barely notice the set is a highly resisted damage type when everything you can shove so many exotic damage procs into the set, many being negative energy damage and most others being fire/cold/energy/smashing. Then after a Sleet and Thorn Burst opener you have a resistance debuff potential of -82.5% and their defense is floored so you also have a massive amount of dps coming in from your confusion. 

 

6) Thorny Assault has some nice perks compared to other assault sets. 

-It has a Build Up power. Tohit buffs are unique only to Thorny, Rad, Elec, Savage, and Martial.

-It has forcefeedback access. Dark, Fiery, and Icy assaults do not have any access, and other sets aren't as reliable at keeping forcefeedback uptime as Thorny is. 

-You can keep forcefeedback active in your single target rotation.

-For a dom assault set, it isn't that mean to your blue bar. Not relying on a Snipe in your attack chain, or other 18-20 base endurance clicks in most other assault sets is noticeable.

-Tons of flexibility how you want to approach a final build

-It is a set that exemplars very well, again rare for doms.

 

7) So when full time dom player moonsheep describes Thorny Assault as "ok" damage and long animations, an eyebrow is raised at the least. Thorny Assault is a high risk/high reward dom set. Because of reliance on damage procs you're less likely to have as much defensive set bonuses as fiery assault for example that doesn't rely as heavily on procs. And Thorny is not only a melee set running a lower threshold of defensive set bonuses, it is uniquely bound to positioning playstyle. Safely jousting Thorn Bursts. Always using your longer cast times to move your character into melee range for your next skewer. Using Thorn Barrage to fill positioning gaps and finding good multi hit Rippers. I don't use Fling Thorns or Thorntrops, but they both fit the same positioning-esque playstyle. Both your offensive output and your survivability are more heavily impacted by your movement inputs than other sets or archetypes, but that has been a source of enjoyment on this dom rather than a constraint or a frustration. My thorny dom is squishy and frail but lacking in dps it is not.

 

 

8 ) Thorny Assault currently does not have all of the correct IOs available to it and if they ever fix Thorn Barrage to allow Def Debuff IOs and Accurate Def Debuff IOs the set could move up quite alot.

Edited January 3 by DreadShinobi

[Scarlet Shocker]

Some useful info here thanks all.

 

I have to digest a lot of it so it's going to take me a bit, but I think it's important not to get too spiky when it comes to arguments about thorns! 🤣

[Scarlet Shocker]

20 hours ago, MoonSheep said:

as a full time dom player, i wouldn’t go with thorn personally, long animation times and “ok” damage

 

ice/earth, ice/ice, ice/fire or ice/energy would get my vote

 

ice/ice is fun for the combination of arctic air procced out and chilling embrace procced out, just pray to the gods above for some endurance! ice/ice goes really well with your glass theme too.

 

i’d introduce just a really subtle amount of blue-ish green tint to your powers and it would work well

 

definitely go for ice mastery too - defender strngth sleet is a real winner. soul also a banger for soul drain

 

I felt the need to go for something else... in part for the sake of variety as well as all else. But I do appreciate your input. I also have added a bluish-green tint on many powers and costume pieces; great minds and all that.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I've had an Ice/Thorns dom for a long time, and this thread inspired me to pull it back out again.  Currently at lvl 45 and running with Ice as the epic pool.

 

Now, you could write everything I know about dominators on the rum of a shot glass with a blunt crayon, so I've been playing this pretty organically.  Not focusing on perma- anything.

 

Having Ice Slick, Thorntrops, and Sleet is pretty fun.  Set up a macro for casting it on a target or for casting it on your current position.  

 

I went Sorcery for Rune, and I think I will end up with Presence in order to increase fear exposure.  Hibernation is a very fun and useful power, but make sure you activate it early enough!