New To Dom Ill/Fire/Psi

[WuTang]

So my SG mates wanna do some thematic playing (but practical and playable) where we all roll Doms. I'm down for learning Dom as I've just recently found to really enjoy Fenders and Corrs.

 

I've got loads of questions, but I think just playing the AT will answer most, but I had a couple I wanted to ask before I commit to a build.

 

1. Phantasm, most builds I've looked over skip this pet, why?

and...

2. Most builds I've looked at don't have high resists nor really high defenses, why?

 

I plan on staying at range, but my build may be too heavy on defenses and resists and sacrificing too much DPS.

 

Thanks in advance!

-WT

[EnjoyTheJourney]

In general, dominators tend to have a harder time keeping pet alive than controllers, as controllers have access to a secondary that can often help their pets survive better. Also, controllers have a stronger incentive to take their pets because they're a substantial source of extra damage for an AT that doesn't have a damage secondary or primary. That said, Frosticus has found ways to keep certain pets alive and to build AV-hunting dominators around the ability to do that. You can still find a fair percentage of dominators that take pets, though. 

 

Most who post regularly here would agree that there are multiple reasonable ways to build a dominator. There are some who post fairly frequently who prefer to rely primarily on controls for safety, rather than defenses. It's a viable playstyle. But, having good defenses is also viable without necessarily giving up having good damage. Also, a fiery assault dominator tends to do very well operating at range and there's nothing wrong with making that choice. 

If you're concerned about damage and you'd like to operate at range, then you may want to consider taking fire mastery instead of psi mastery and hover-blasting. Fire breath and fireball (from fire mastery) make a nice 1-2 punch, especially supported with fiery embrace. Melt armor is a good debuff and a self rez is never a bad thing (more fire mastery stuff), depending on how you'd like to put together your build. Hover blasting also allows you to focus mostly on ranged defense and resistances, which lessens the degree to which you may be tempted to sacrifice defenses to get good damage. 

Below is a sample build, in case you're interested. Barrier core Tier 4 adds a minimum of 5% to all defense and resistance totals while active, plus superior invisibility adds a persistent 2%-ish to all defense totals even when attacking. So, the ranged defense total you end up with in-game will be higher than what shows on Mids. 

 

 

 

 

Dominator (Illusion Control - Fiery Assault - Fire Mastery),v2.mbd

Edited July 13 by EnjoyTheJourney

[WuTang]

Got my girl to 28 now. It's been fun. Looking to the future of the build at incarnates and I've got a question about which might be better, Support Core or either of the Control ones?

 

Thanks!

[Frosticus]

Probably neither. 

Phantom army can't be buffed, so nothing from support is going to affect them*

 

Control won't add enough mag to control things that you weren't already able to control

 

You likely want assault (both branches have applications)

 

Or you want melee core if personal survival is desired.

 

*using assault hybrid prior to summoning pets gives the power to them. That includes PA. 

[RelativeQuanta]

@EnjoyTheJourney What's your logic around taking Fire Blast and skipping Consume?  I ask since on my Illusion/Fire/Fire Dom, I've tried a few times to make Fire Blast work in an end game build and I just... can't.  It's just totally outclassed by Blaze which then gets priority for Apocalypse which then means, from a DPA standpoint, that Incinerate is also better.  Blind fills the only hole in my fully ranged chain too, so I don't need Fire Blast for that either.   

 

For consume, I've found that if I exemplar below 45 (or use Barrier Core instead of Ageless), it keeps me from going dry on end and it can slot Synapse's Shock for recharge resistance.   Seems well worth the power and 4 slots.