Interested in finally trying a Dom - Slightly intimidated, if I'm honest!

[Grizlee]

Whoooo boy, this was an interesting rebuild! 

 

Let's see how it goes 😄

 

 

 

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[Championess]

Yeah that's how I'd slot Total Focus and Power Burst.  Perfectly reasonable to slot the Manticore set into Snipe, though you could probably trim a slot since you'll want that recharge bonus at 5.  I'd swap around Arma to Soul Drain, you'll use Soul much more often and for good reason.  Dark Consumption is an endurance fix and oh look some extra aoe dmg if I need it.  Dark Obliteration is the one I'd change most.  It fits 4 dmg procs which I slot them all plus a Bombardment Dmg and Posi Acc/Dmg 50+5.  Oblit is a bread and butter attack.

 

One other thing I do is with Unleash.  I slot 4 of Shield Walls all the ones with recharge and the unique and also a lotg.  I like to have this recharge as fast as I can get it.

Edited 22 hours ago by Championess

[Championess]

I'd trim some slots off of CJ, Manuevers and Tactics.  I'd put just the lotgs in the two and a 53 HO in Tactics.  I also on my sixth slot of Soul Drain add the Gaussian proc.

[Grizlee]

41 minutes ago, Championess said:

Yeah that's how I'd slot Total Focus and Power Burst.  Perfectly reasonable to slot the Manticore set into Snipe, though you could probably trim a slot since you'll want that recharge bonus at 5.  I'd swap around Arma to Soul Drain, you'll use Soul much more often and for good reason.  Dark Consumption is an endurance fix and oh look some extra aoe dmg if I need it.  Dark Obliteration is the one I'd change most.  It fits 4 dmg procs which I slot them all plus a Bombardment Dmg and Posi Acc/Dmg 50+5.  Oblit is a bread and butter attack.

 

One other thing I do is with Unleash.  I slot 4 of Shield Walls all the ones with recharge and the unique and also a lotg.  I like to have this recharge as fast as I can get it.

 

I've tried to find the 4 damage procs and I can only find 3, total; Posi (energy) - Bombardment (fire) - Cloud Sense (negative). The rest are either Debuff or a buff of some sort. Where can I find the others please?

[Championess]

1 minute ago, Grizlee said:

 

I've tried to find the 4 damage procs and I can only find 3, total; Posi (energy) - Bombardment (fire) - Cloud Sense (negative). The rest are either Debuff or a buff of some sort. Where can I find the others please?

 

Javelin the pvp one

[Grizlee]

1 minute ago, Championess said:

 

Javelin the pvp one

 

SON-OF-A !!!! It's the very first in the series ... I always look at the end! !  Thanks for that 😄  ( makes an eye dr. appointment . . . )

[UltraAlt]

On 1/16/2025 at 3:50 PM, Grizlee said:

As the title says, I want to try. Doms always seem interesting to me, but when I try to concoct a build it just seems crap. 

 

I can never tell if someone is going to create a character to play the game or if the intent is to simply power level to 50 and then "install" a build.

 

These are two very different routes and modes of play.

 

Myself, I not planning on power-leveling and then picking powers.

I'm creating a character to play that character through the game (leveling content) and pick powers as I go. I also pick the powers based on character conception as much as possible and on where they seem to be lacking as they level. I'm going to throw in power pools that work toward the character conception as I feel that I'm able to do so.

 

On my dominators, I'm not worried about perma-dom.

I generally save it for boss fights once I'm low on end.

 

Honestly, on some of my doms I do a costume change when I set off domination - keep the macro in the tray directly next to the domination button.

... but I'm playing for character conception and the comic book action ... and not for the end-game.

[Grizlee]

 I'm always a character forward player in CoH. That doesn't mean I want to ignore the build, however 🙂  I spend as much time as I need to create a costume ( I usually have an idea going in, what the "story" with them is going to be, and that drives the powers choices as well as the costume choices ) I don't power level. In point of fact, I put exp on hold to make sure I get all the badges and story arcs done in a zone that I want. As an example I will always go Savior of Atlas, the horrible Shinning Star line (( OHHhhh how I dislike that group of people, except Dillo, he's the goods )) I do the Kings Row Superdine as well during this time pausing my level at 10 so I can get  Eagle Eye. I grab the Hollows missions during this time to and get it advanced to Flux so I can solo Frostfire. 

[Championess]

Yeah dommies need to be played to fully embrace their playstyle and identify the powers you like most.  They are late bloomers getting all their best attacks later so it can be a little bit of a slog early on.  I'm used to all the ATs so I dont mind getting to 30 right fast then I'll kit it and play them from there.  30+ you can get a feel for it as you level.

[Grizlee]

Ok, once more into the breach! I played 12 levels with Bone Smasher ... and didn't like it much. I prefer the stand off of Power Bolt, especially at lower levels. Oddly I LOVE Bone Smasher on my melee toons. It is what it is, the powers need to serve the build as well as my play style.

 

 

 

https://api.midsreborn.com/build/download/FGpOsrdqSTH2DoQZ

 

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Edited 21 hours ago by Grizlee

[Championess]

The armor I'd slot different.  You wont need the 3pts of kb resist from gladiators seeing how permadoms have some of the best mez protection money can buy.  I like to slot that armor with 4 Unbreakable Guards to get the melee defense and hp unique, then I slot the Steadfast and Gladiators uniques.  

 

For Dark Obliteration your last slot is a pure damage IO.  Why not just use the pure dmg IO from Bombardment and pick up the range bonus.

[Grizlee]

6 minutes ago, Championess said:

The armor I'd slot different.  You wont need the 3pts of kb resist from gladiators seeing how permadoms have some of the best mez protection money can buy.  I like to slot that armor with 4 Unbreakable Guards to get the melee defense and hp unique, then I slot the Steadfast and Gladiators uniques.  

 

For Dark Obliteration your last slot is a pure damage IO.  Why not just use the pure dmg IO from Bombardment and pick up the range bonus.

 

A tad more damage vrs a tad more range. As one of the heavy hitters is melee I opted for a tad more damage being the more consistently used upgrade.

 

[Caimie]

36 minutes ago, Grizlee said:

 

A tad more damage vrs a tad more range. As one of the heavy hitters is melee I opted for a tad more damage being the more consistently used upgrade.

 

Ok, I've noticed a few things, so I took your build and tweaked it.  There are some useful Unique IOs missing.

 

First off, it's not going to please everyone and I'll give a brief explanation to some tweaks.  Also, everyone builds differently, be it concept, role-play and so on. 

 

Assault is a wasted power pick, it's damage boost is pretty pathetic for the end cost.

 

Carrion Creepers is a defining power of Plant/ and can be loaded with Procs.

 

Spore burst isn't all that useful with how Plant/ is set up..there are better Power picks.

 

Quite honestly, I find  Force of Will Pool underwhelming and not worth the choice on Dominators.  It's proposed benefits aren't that useful and situational at best, but I'll leave that up to you.  I swapped it out for Concealment, which can be useful, even with your Stealth IO in Sprint, and it can also mule LotG +recharges.

 

One thing everyone is going to nit-pick is how Combat Jumping is slotted.  It's no different than slotting those IOs in Manuvers, a Defense armor and so on.  Oh, and the Knockback IO in it helps all around, especially when you exemp down for WST's and such. 

 

Is it needed? not really, but I just removed the one you had in the Armor and placed it there. (I have it in all my Doms and it's there just in case)

 

The build attached is your build with my tweaks.  It's comparable in stats, has higher Hit Points, fairly exemplar friendly.

Slammin' Sammy [Dominator] (Plant Control - Energy Assault).mbd

[Grizlee]

It's an interesting version @Caimie. I appreciate you sharing it. I have always slotted Combat Jumping a bit differently on my personal builds. I change it up but usually it's viewed as "other" read: wrong 😄  I get a lot of "Juice isn't worth the squeeze" oriented comments and such. All I know is it's a very efficient endo power for excellent defensive and utility options. It's always on when I have it and I prefer it ( and super jump ) to hover/fly. 

[Mezmera]

4 hours ago, Grizlee said:

 

A tad more damage vrs a tad more range. As one of the heavy hitters is melee I opted for a tad more damage being the more consistently used upgrade.

 

 

Bombardment has a pure 50 DMG IO the same value as a generic 50 IO.  Since you have the proc already slotted why not substitute the generic IO for the set one it'll still be the same value and you net the range bonus.  All gain, no loss.  

Edited 16 hours ago by Mezmera

[MoonSheep]

6 hours ago, Grizlee said:

Ok, once more into the breach! I played 12 levels with Bone Smasher ... and didn't like it much. I prefer the stand off of Power Bolt, especially at lower levels. Oddly I LOVE Bone Smasher on my melee toons. It is what it is, the powers need to serve the build as well as my play style.

 

hmm, not having seeds of confusion would be quite a significant omission from a plant dom, its the primary reason to choose the set. having the AoE hold is also very useful to manage aggro 

 

out of interest, have you considered rolling a sentinel? a key attribute of a dominator are the mez powers, which seem to be getting in the way of what you’re looking for from what i can see - a sentinel would give you much greater defense and lots of blast powers

[Parabola]

Any plant control character not taking seeds or carrion creepers may as well play another set. Those powers are plant control. Also I've no idea where this 'don't take whirling hands' thing came from. Dom's are painful enough to level without waiting until epics for direct aoe (seeds and creepers will provide quite a bit of indirect aoe but you still want a button to push that spreads damage around). WH with it's double tap mechanic makes energy actually decent at aoe. It's almost like getting two aoes in one power, with the benefits that they share slots (very efficient) and are both pbaoes (unlike most sets that awkwardly have to juggle a cone and a pbaoes).

[jprewitt73]

15 hours ago, Caimie said:

 

 

As far as non-Patron pools, Psionic Mastery and Ice Mastery are my go to pools. 

Psionic has multiple powers that can mule the LotG Global recharge and that's why I mainly take it.

The Ice pool has a toggle heal (Hibernate) that you can slap the Power Transfer or Preventive Medicine Unique into, the shield can mule IO's for Endurance discount (LotG Global recharge and other Unique IOs, also) and Ice storm and Sleet are pretty decent on Doms.  Hoarfrost is skippable, but if anything it can mule the Preventative Unique if that one isn't used in Hibernate.

 

 

Second vote from me for the Ice Mastery on Doms. Sleet and Ice Storm are awesome. Some soft control (knockdown) and good DoT. Never leave home without it for my Mind/Fire. I color the ice powers to look like fire so it fits with my theme and have the shield on min graphics so it doesn't look like I'm a flying glacier. 

 

Also, I would be remiss to not explain that Tough and Weave aren't bad choices. I don't personally see them as a necessity, but for a new Dom player it may be beneficial. Even with all the controls in the world, until you really get used to knowing how to use them all and when to use them all you will pull a lot of aggro. 

 

[tidge]

13 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

I can never tell if someone is going to create a character to play the game or if the intent is to simply power level to 50 and then "install" a build.

 

These are two very different routes and modes of play.

 

I also can't tell what the thinking will be. I also "play up" my characters, although if the sets and ATs are ones that I've played before I might go a faster-than-usual DFB+TF XP route.

 

As I wrote elsewhere, I try to achieve perma-dom via +Recharge from set bonuses and use neither Hasten nor %+recharge... so as a practical matter I don't have it until end-build, and lose it below level 23, but this isn't a deal-breaker for me.

 

A side effect for my preferred approach (to Doms) is that (without Hasten) my builds have very little room for %damage slotting. For Plant, I would absolutely install %damage in Carrion Creepers, my slotting would be:

       

 (A) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge: Level 50+5

 (*) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50+5

 (*) Bombardment - Chance of Damage (Fire)

 (*) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage (Energy)

 (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Chance of Damage (Ice)

 (*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage (Lethal)

 

I want to note the following: Despite my deep appreciation for 6xCoercive Persuasion (for the extra positional Range defense) for Seeds of Confusion I sometimes make an exception to only 5-slot it, using the %Energy from Cacophany in the 6th slot. The reason being that dropping any amount of damage on an enemy will result in your character getting on the "drop" table when that critter is defeated, even if by its confused/former allies.

[Championess]

I was mainly focused on the assault and pool powers I didnt chime in about the Plant controls because I just wasnt looking.  I'd have to agree with the others though, not having seeds or not getting the most out of creepers, you may as well play a different set.  Seeds and Creepers are likely the 2 best controls on the game and they are housed on the same set.  I'd take Seeds and slot a full Contagious set then with Creepers I'd proc out.

Edited 4 hours ago by Championess

[Championess]

10 hours ago, Parabola said:

Any plant control character not taking seeds or carrion creepers may as well play another set. Those powers are plant control. Also I've no idea where this 'don't take whirling hands' thing came from. Dom's are painful enough to level without waiting until epics for direct aoe (seeds and creepers will provide quite a bit of indirect aoe but you still want a button to push that spreads damage around). WH with it's double tap mechanic makes energy actually decent at aoe. It's almost like getting two aoes in one power, with the benefits that they share slots (very efficient) and are both pbaoes (unlike most sets that awkwardly have to juggle a cone and a pbaoes).

 

The early 1-20s you're getting your controls which you should be taking Seeds and Creepers like you say.  Mid levels 20-30s Doms start to bloom with their assaults which Nrg starts getting access to its best attacks which are ST, Nrg assaults have a reputation as ST boss killers and thats no different on doms, that should be the focus.  Late levels 30+ you start getting access to epic aoe blasts which blow just about any aoe you find in the regular assaults out of the water.  Once you get access to those you'll never want to use Whirling Hands, and in fact it will conflict with the better release mechanic for Power Burst which amps up your ST damage.

 

If you want to take Whirling Hands early on as you level sure I do that with a lot of power sets.  By 30 though I respec into the form I find I want for the later game then kit my characters.  Late game Whirling is just a wasted power pick in comparison to epic aoes, I wouldnt even take it for a set mule.  

 

Doms are about efficient build choices and Whirling finds its way out, same with most of the other powers in Nrg.  My main attack chain has room for the 3 best ST attacks I can get, showing stats to find the best dpa per attack will narrow things down, even before considering proccability. 

Edited 3 hours ago by Championess

[aethereal]

On 1/17/2025 at 9:05 AM, tidge said:

To get the global recharge necessary for perma-dom, I believe the minimal value is 123%, rounded up, but because it is easy to get 'stuck' in an animation, every little bit above this is useful. Hasten IIRC offers 95% global recharge. Hasten doesn't need to be 'perma' for Dominators.

 

I prefer to achieve perma-dom without Hasten, and also without FF +Recharge pieces, but mileage varies.

 

Hasten gives +70% global recharge while active.

 

To be clear about perma-Hasten:  perma-Hasten requires 90% slotting local recharge in Hasten + 180% global recharge, including the recharge from Hasten itself.  So 110% global recharge outside of Hasten.

 

Perma-dom is, as you say, minimally 123% and probably to avoid fairly frequent drops you want more like 130% recharge.

 

It is in general tough to get 130% global recharge without either Hasten or some other power support for adding global recharge.  Doing it purely with set bonuses runs into this problem:

 

Okay, say you have 5 +10% global recharge bonuses from purples/superior ATOs, and another 5 Luck of the Gamblers.  That's 87.5% global recharge.  Where are you getting another 37.5 - 42.5% recharge from, if not Force Feedbacks, Hasten, or other powers?  5% recharge bonuses are fairly available in sets, but you can only get 5 of them of course, so that's 25% of your remaining.  Then you have to scrounge up 6.25% or 7.5% bonuses, but those are both rare bonuses not easily crammed into most builds in quantity -- and you need at least two 7.5%'s in order to get to 125% global recharge.

 

Now, Doms do offer the possibility of getting both snipes and holds, which can help getting 7.5% recharge bonuses.  I'm sure that people can manage 125% or even 130% global recharge purely on set bonuses if they want to.  But do note that you're talking about trying to get more than 17 different recharge bonuses from sets, most of them deep in sets.  It's almost your entire build.

 

In contrast, if you fall a little short of perma-Hasten, say you're at 95% global recharge without hasten, so 165% while it's up, that will average out to more than enough recharge to have perma-Dom fairly comfortably.

[Frosticus]

Please take Hasten. You are giving up huge slotting opportunities if you don't. 

Use base empowerment and spend the money on the +rech amplifier while leveling.

 

You don't necessarily "need" permadom while leveling but being able to chain it twice in a row will be a big improvement over letting it drop every time and you can get that at a very low level.

Edited 3 hours ago by Frosticus

[tidge]

28 minutes ago, aethereal said:

It is in general tough to get 130% global recharge without either Hasten or some other power support for adding global recharge.  Doing it purely with set bonuses runs into this problem:

 

Okay, say you have 5 +10% global recharge bonuses from purples/superior ATOs, and another 5 Luck of the Gamblers.  That's 87.5% global recharge.  Where are you getting another 37.5 - 42.5% recharge from, if not Force Feedbacks, Hasten, or other powers?  5% recharge bonuses are fairly available in sets, but you can only get 5 of them of course, so that's 25% of your remaining.  Then you have to scrounge up 6.25% or 7.5% bonuses, but those are both rare bonuses not easily crammed into most builds in quantity -- and you need at least two 7.5%'s in order to get to 125% global recharge.

 

How I did it on my most recent Dom:

 

Five LotG pieces for 7.5% each

 

10% from Superior Ascendency of the Dominator

10% from Hecatomb

10% from Apocalypse (I put this in a Snipe FWIW)

10% from Absolute Amazement

10% from Ragnarok

 

5x Decimation in a low-tier attack, for 6.25%

5x Positron's Blast in a low level cone for 6.25% (set includes a Range piece and %damage, range helps the cone)

4x Cloud Senses in a pool debuff for 6.25%

4x Expedient Reinforcement in a pet for 6.25% <- this was added for 'margins', I don't like the level range on this set.

 

4x Basilisk's Gaze in the low level ST Hold for 7.5%

5x Gladiator's Net in the AoE Hold for 7.5% (The AoE holds may look like good %proc bombs, but IMO the base recharge time is far too long even with perma-Dom levels of recharge)

 

6x Reactive Defenses for 8.75%

 

Some comments: 

 

It isn't necessary to catalyze ATO if I don't want to "overstep" the maximum five 10% bonuses to global recharge.

 

Enhancement values from sets that cap out below 50 are still pretty good, so I have no allergy to Decimation or Basilisk's Gaze, especially not in otherwise weak powers. I mention this because (as noted) it is necessary to reach into some corners that may not seem obvious for all players (or anyone).

 

I think I could have had another +8.75% (certainly another 1%) by putting 6x Preventive Medicine in Unleash Potential (instead of franken-slotting) but I think that would have hurt the build more than it helped.

 

Aside from a Resistance piece mule power at level 38, the latest power in the build with multiple slots is at 35 (Link Minds, holding the Reactive Defenses set). I mention this because my general approach is to have my most-used, most effective powers as early as possible. Hasten usually (for my builds) gets in the way of, or delays, another power that I feel offers more utility for the build.

 

I probably should have taken Hasten while leveling up, because a lot of those recharge bonuses weren't there before level 50, but I kinda like learning the combo without perma-Dom.

 

I will admit that there is a juggling act... there are only so many powers that can take certain types of enhancement sets (including ATO) so I'm doing things like using Gladiator's Net where others may reach for an ATO or Unbreakable Constraint, or using Apocalypse in a power than can take Sting of the Manticore or Experienced Marksman.

 

Finally: I fully intended to franken-slot this Dominator's pet (Singularity)... and I can have perma-dom without the 6.25% from Expedient Reinforcement set... but in practice:

• despite having slow resistances, I was occasionally "getting stuck" in an animation (button mashing may have been involved) and missing the auto-Domination
• what I was trying to do with the Singularity wasn't making that much of a practical (or observable) difference

[aethereal]

Note that the global recharge slotting above uses 63 slots, assuming all the superior ATOs/purples are five-slotted.

 

You get 67 assignable slots in a level 50 build.  Plus the inherent 1 slot of powers that slottable powers get (so, if all your chosen powers are slottable, then 24 chosen powers plus a slot in sprint/health/stamina/etc).

 

Like, it's doable!  But again, it becomes overwhelmingly the singular major goal you can have in your build.

 

And you end up with about 50% less global recharge than you would have with perma-hasten.