My dumb old no defense Fire/Earth brawler

[Onlyasandwich]

Hi there Dominators! It's your best friend sandwich, back for another round of whips and chains with our favorite AT.

 

This time, I'm keen to try on Earth Assault. I have my fair share of fire controllers, but see some special appeal in this mix:

• Really fun theme!
• Tons of FFback opportunity in Earth to fuel controls.
• Super procable.
• Two slow/damage auras! I know a lot of folks poo poo Mud Pots as a waste of end, but I am an aura appreciator, and think we can make it work. 

 

My goals with this build:

• Max hit chance against +3's.
• Max out my Slow res.
• Permadom of course, but I'm okay relying on some amount of FFback firing to get there.
• Pile on any easy to grab resists where I can get them.
• Proc out choice attacks and controls. I could go more ham with this, but am relying on a few purple sets to achieve other goals.

 

What I don't care about:

• Defense! Obviously soft cap builds are great, and even chasing some lower amount is useful. This guy is a rock - he isn't dodging anything. The goal is to rely on domination powered controls, a whole mess of knockdown, and a few backup plans. I'm not saying this is necessarily the optimal plan in all cases, but it works great on teams. It also gives me an edge of challenge that I enjoy, and feel defines the Dominator experience for me.
• Hearing how much you don't like Fiery Orb. I like it! It looks pretty, is thematic here, and has a sneakily decent contribution in many battles. On second thought, tell me how much you hate it! It fuels me. I realize it's not everyone's thing. 😉 

 

Concerns and potential areas of improvement:

• End sustain. I actually think I have it decently in hand between dom refills and Power Sink. Hoping I don't have to lean too far on Power Sink though, as it's awkward/slow.
• I am missing Hurl Boulder! It's a really great power on doms. I had it originally, but needed the slots, and also wanted to proc out Char as a real attack. Char basically holds its place now. Extra bonus that char achieves similar DPA while stacking holds with Seismic, and triggering constant ATO +damage procs. If you see a clear swap for Hurl, I'd value the perspective.
• Bonfire. How useful do you find it now that KD conversion guts the KD rate? I still have it on my fire/storm, but honestly there's so much going on there that it hardly matters how much bonfire is making things flop, so it's hard to tell. I could rely on Cages spam to keep it KD and keep the rate up, but that is very rough on end, and takes focus away from other powers I'd prefer to be rotating. I could remove the KD conversion and use it as a positioning tool or safe zone! Much more situational at that point though.

 

Fun tricks:

• The aforementioned ATO proc in Char. Not really a trick - just kinda how doms work. I don't often get to utilize it so directly though! I'm frequently relying on the set bonus from my ST hold instead.
• Double KD procs in Mud Pots, KD proc in Ball Lightning. If you haven't tried double KD procs in a damage aura, give it a shot! I have tested it extensively, and even when they trigger back to back, they don't seem to stack mag, or at least the chance of them stacking mag is diminishingly low to the point it doesn't matter. Every other thing I throw does KD, even when I'm not doing anything at all! I cooould swap the Overwhelming proc to Imps instead - what do you think?

 

General plan of engagement:

• Get dom rolling, engage with Flashfire, port in, hit cages, Fold Space when it's up, Bonfire, start spamming my aoes.
• If things get tight, I have several backup plans in Cinders or Phase shift. Remember Phase shift? It's that power we used to put in builds long long ago when you could perma it and do dumb stuff. It's actually still really nice!

 

Do I like bulleted lists too much? You decide. While you're at it, I'd love to hear your feedback, or areas you see for further optimization! As always, I have disabled non permanent buffs, and disabled procs in FFback powers. Turn them on once at a time for local damage totals.

 

Build:

 

Dominator (Fire Control - Earth Assault).mbd

Picture:

Spoiler

Text:

Spoiler

Villain Dominator
Build plan made with Mids' Reborn v3.7.5 rev. 21
──────────────────────────────

• Primary powerset: Fire Control
• Secondary powerset: Earth Assault
• Pool powerset (#1): Leaping
• Pool powerset (#2): Concealment
• Pool powerset (#3): Speed
• Pool powerset (#4): Teleportation
• Ancillary powerset: Mu Mastery
  

──────────────────────────────

Powers taken:

Level 1: Char

• A: Apocalypse: Damage/Endurance
• 11: Apocalypse: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 48: Gladiator's Javelin: Chance of Damage(Toxic)
• 48: Ghost Widow's Embrace: Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• 50: Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing Damage
• 50: Superior Ascendency of the Dominator: Recharge/Chance for +Damage
  

Level 1: Stone Mallet

• A: Gladiator's Strike: Accuracy/Damage
• 40: Gladiator's Strike: Chance for Smashing Damage
• 46: Touch of Death: Damage/Endurance
• 46: Touch of Death: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 48: Explosive Strike: Chance for Smashing Damage
• 50: Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge
  

Level 2: Fire Cages

• A: Ragnarok: Damage
• 3: Ragnarok: Damage/Endurance
• 3: Ragnarok: Damage/Recharge
• 45: Ragnarok: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• 45: Ragnarok: Recharge/Accuracy
• 46: Superior Dominating Grasp: RechargeTime/Fiery Orb
  

Level 4: Tremor

• A: Armageddon: Damage
• 5: Armageddon: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• 5: Armageddon: Recharge/Accuracy
• 40: Armageddon: Damage/Endurance
• 43: Armageddon: Chance for Fire Damage
• 45: Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge
  

Level 6: Combat Jumping

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 7: Kismet: Accuracy +6%
• 7: Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage
• 39: Shield Wall: +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
  

Level 8: Hot Feet

• A: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• 9: Superior Avalanche: Damage/Endurance
• 9: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  

Level 10: Infiltration

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 12: Flashfire

• A: Superior Frozen Blast: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• 13: Superior Frozen Blast: Recharge/Chance for Immobilize
• 13: Rope A Dope: Accuracy/Endurance
• 15: Javelin Volley: Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• 17: Positron's Blast: Chance of Damage(Energy)
• 23: Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage
  

Level 14: Hasten

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction
• 15: Invention: Recharge Reduction
  

Level 16: Combat Teleport

• A: Winter's Gift: Slow Resistance (20%)
  

Level 18: Cinders

• A: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold
• 19: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold/Recharge
• 19: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold/Recharge/Accuracy
• 39: Unbreakable Constraint: Recharge/Accuracy
• 39: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold/Endurance
  

Level 20: Heavy Mallet

• A: Hecatomb: Damage
• 21: Hecatomb: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• 21: Hecatomb: Recharge/Accuracy
• 23: Hecatomb: Damage/Endurance
• 37: Hecatomb: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 37: Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge
  

Level 22: Bonfire

• A: Sudden Acceleration: Knockback to Knockdown
  

Level 24: Seismic Smash

• A: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• 25: Superior Blistering Cold: Damage/Endurance
• 25: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• 34: Touch of Death: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 34: Ghost Widow's Embrace: Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• 37: Neuronic Shutdown: Chance of Damage(Psionic)
  

Level 26: Fire Imps

• A: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage
• 27: Expedient Reinforcement: Damage/Endurance
• 27: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• 33: Expedient Reinforcement: Endurance/Damage/Recharge
  

Level 28: Mud Pots

• A: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage
• 29: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• 29: Superior Avalanche: Recharge/Chance for Knockdown
• 36: Overwhelming Force: Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown
  

Level 30: Fissure

• A: Superior Frozen Blast: Accuracy/Damage
• 31: Superior Frozen Blast: Damage/Endurance
• 31: Positron's Blast: Chance of Damage(Energy)
• 31: Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage
• 33: Explosive Strike: Chance for Smashing Damage
• 33: Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge
  

Level 32: Teleport Target

• A: Blessing of the Zephyr: Knockback Reduction (4 points)
  

Level 35: Charged Armor

• A: Invention: Resist Damage
• 36: Ribosome Exposure
  

Level 38: Power Sink

• A: Invention: Endurance Modification
  

Level 41: Ball Lightning

• A: Superior Frozen Blast: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• 42: Superior Frozen Blast: Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
• 42: Ragnarok: Chance for Knockdown
• 42: Positron's Blast: Chance of Damage(Energy)
• 43: Javelin Volley: Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• 43: Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage
  

Level 44: Fold Space

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction
• A: Invention: Accuracy
  

Level 47: Grant Invisibility

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 49: Phase Shift

• A: Invention: Endurance Reduction
  

──────────────────────────────

Inherents:

Level 1: Domination

Level 1: Brawl

• (Empty)
  

Level 1: Sprint

• (Empty)
  

Level 2: Rest

• (Empty)
  

Level 1: Swift

• (Empty)
  

Level 1: Hurdle

• (Empty)
  

Level 1: Health

• A: Panacea: +Hit Points/Endurance
• 17: Miracle: +Recovery
• 36: Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery
  

Level 1: Stamina

• A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End
• 11: Performance Shifter: EndMod
• 34: Invention: Endurance Modification
  

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 04:26 AM by Onlyasandwich

[MoonSheep]

hey, thanks for sharing this

 

i’ve played an elec/earth dom on test for a few years and have found it to be a good combination. the end drain of conductive aura from elec control pairs nicely with earth assault which puts you in melee range frequently. it also pairs quite nicely with earth assault’s power boost - the end drain is an effective damage mitigator after a few seconds. it’s worth considering in my opinion

 

regardless, fire is a good set too. i’m on the train atm but a few observations as a fellow dom player:

- if you can achieve permadom without hasten it really does make a positive difference to your quality of life. being able to idle for a few minutes without it dropping is great

- i would pick up power boost as it gives you +68% dmg or something like that

- i’d personally pick up the ST immob rather than the AoE one. an AoE immob is rarely appreciated in team play

- i’d 5 slot seismic smash with hecatomb including the damage proc and also include the purple hold damage proc

- i’d drop phase shift for smoke, it can be handy in some situations

 

enjoy the procs

[Onlyasandwich]

7 hours ago, MoonSheep said:

hey, thanks for sharing this

 

Thank you for taking the time to review, Moonsheep!

 

It sounds like we have pretty different build goals for doms, which is just fine of course. I find the trade-off in hastenless perma-dom to be too great for my own goals. Specifically here, such a focus would keep me from proccing powers as I like, as well as remove a decent chunk of my slow resist. I'm happy enough to use my rotating auto-fire bind to keep dom rolling.

 

Power up is a 34% damage buff for 10 seconds. This isn't nothing, but not worth a power pick all by itself for me here. I don't have any secondary effects worth boosting to take advantage of its other effects.

 

The aoe immob is a pretty big part of an efficient solo strategy! Judicious usage (ie waiting for things to clump, or just not using it at all there) on teams keeps it from being a bother. It is also the best place for my Fiery orb, as well as a mule for an important set that I'm relying on.

 

Seismic Smash is a very proc friendly power. As currently slotted, it has a 90% fire rate for 3.5 ppm procs, which is why I have it more proc focused in my slotting. I have the purple hold proc in Char instead, as the damage difference for both powers is roughly the same (about 30 more damage on average per application compared to a non purple proc), and char is rotated more often, so more net benefit.

 

Phase shift is a capstone for my investment in Concealment, and a really great power! -perception powers like Smoke can be pretty useful in certain types of rooms, but I'd be more interested if it had a better secondary effect. -3.75% tohit just isn't doing it for me, especially since I am not running defense to stack it with. With phase shift, if things get nasty I can just pop into another dimension and wait for a big control to finish recharging, then pop back out and go to town. 

 

 

One change I'm currently mulling over is:

• Drop the entire teleport pool, pick up Weaken Resolve, Mighty Leap, Unleash.
• Drop Bonfire, pick up Power Up.
• I can steal the slot in fold space and the OF KD proc in Mud pots for Unleash.
• Now I can pop Power Up > Unleash and achieve 30% defense, as well as get an extra end boost. This is further helped along by all the FFBack running.

 

The big losses would be Combat Teleport (not a huge deal for a build that doesn't need to line up cones), Fold Space (very mighty, but not essential), Bonfire (is it madness to drop bonfire? Maybe it's not as important on a dom?), and Phase Shift (goodbye emergency button, but hello another more proactive emergency button). I'd also lose one lotg in the trade.

 

Not sure! I actually love Unleash on doms, especially due to Power Up. I feel like I'd be trading a lot of utility to get there though.

 

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 02:47 PM by Onlyasandwich

[Camel]

I love my Fire/Earth Dom! I made this build two-ish years ago, but have used it to tremendous success! It's not as proccy... and I took some interesting power picks (Hurl Boulder is actually quite good on Earth Assault, it has a 1.5 second animation time.. pretty dang good if you ask me! Especially if you procced it out).

Anyways, I went the Soul Mastery route for Soul Drain, it has a surprisingly good uptime with the natural global recharge stacked on top of FF +recharge procs and Ageless. It's pretty funny to use Power Up before Soul Drain to get godly amounts of +to-hit. I can even bust through Paragon Protectors in Moment of Glory quite handily. 

The build also has nearly 38% Melee defense before Power Up, 44% with it. It's surprisingly sturdy without having to rely on controls, Power Up + Unleashed Potential gimmicks, etc. Another fun thing is using Power Up with the Leadership pool, it makes your team buffs that much better... Let's not even talk about Power Up boosted Vengeance XD. It's a pretty fun take on Fire/Earth Doms in my opinion.

Dominator - Fire Control - Earth Assault.mxd

[MoonSheep]

1 hour ago, Camel said:

I love my Fire/Earth Dom! I made this build two-ish years ago, but have used it to tremendous success! It's not as proccy... and I took some interesting power picks (Hurl Boulder is actually quite good on Earth Assault, it has a 1.5 second animation time.. pretty dang good if you ask me! Especially if you procced it out).

Anyways, I went the Soul Mastery route for Soul Drain, it has a surprisingly good uptime with the natural global recharge stacked on top of FF +recharge procs and Ageless. It's pretty funny to use Power Up before Soul Drain to get godly amounts of +to-hit. I can even bust through Paragon Protectors in Moment of Glory quite handily. 

The build also has nearly 38% Melee defense before Power Up, 44% with it. It's surprisingly sturdy without having to rely on controls, Power Up + Unleashed Potential gimmicks, etc. Another fun thing is using Power Up with the Leadership pool, it makes your team buffs that much better... Let's not even talk about Power Up boosted Vengeance XD. It's a pretty fun take on Fire/Earth Doms in my opinion.

Dominator - Fire Control - Earth Assault.mxd 5.41 kB · 1 download

 

wow, i love that! inspires me to create that elec/earth i've always been messing around with

 

@Onlyasandwich i'm a big fan of procs too, i have a lot on my mind/fire dom main, but consider that if you exemp down, you may find regular damage slotting is more useful

[Caimie]

1 hour ago, MoonSheep said:

 

wow, i love that! inspires me to create that elec/earth i've always been messing around with

 

@Onlyasandwich i'm a big fan of procs too, i have a lot on my mind/fire dom main, but consider that if you exemp down, you may find regular damage slotting is more useful

As someone who also runs an Elec/Earth but with Ice Epic pool, I can confirm it's a fun combo to play.

 

My build is a moderately proc'd out Perma-Dom that exemps fairly well.  It does decent on teams (kinda struggles on melee heavy ones, though) and solos very well.

 

I opted out of Mudpots because I didn't want to crutch an Incarnate power because of a lucky streak of Force Feedback procs. 

 

I also didn't take Gremlins because they're more of a pain to baby sit than they're worth and they're about as sturdy as Fire Imps or Phantasm.

Edited Thursday at 12:47 PM by Caimie

[Onlyasandwich]

Ran some DFB, posi 1, and a sutter last night and have this guy up to 24 so far. He's a blast! I settled on a fun character concept and costume to match, which is 70% of the battle for fun anyhow. 😄

 

Feeling pretty good about the endurance situation. Even without my end support slotted up yet, I get along decently well with dom refills. Depending on how it all goes, I might even consider an epic swap, but for now the idea of Power Sink as a backup for such an end hungry character is still appealing.

 

I'm glad you all are enjoying the combo as well! I was a little surprised to see basically zero topics about Fire/Earth in the dom forums. It seems like such a natural thematic fit.

 

@MoonSheep, what is your concern with exemping and procs? They function just fine even if exemped below their set level.

 

I absolutely understand the other fun goals one could achieve by backing off on procs (achieving meaningful defense, perma-dom without hasten are big ones). However, with this type of character where I'm relying on other measures to protect myself, this is my basic strategy for slotting procs:

• First, absolutely maximize effective damage per application through the most optimal combination of ED and procs (some powers have better return on ED up to cap, others are much higher with procs from slot one).
• Evaluate if I have enough accuracy. If not, adjust accordingly.
• Slot my other powers in the build. Have I achieved my goals? If so, then excellent! If not, then I'll revisit the hyper-focus on damage in procced powers, and replace with sets until I have achieved what I want. I start my revisit with the powers where procs have the most marginal return.

 

In this way I maximize the potential damage of everything possible while still getting where I want to be on everything else.

 

After playing with this guy, I've determined I'm keeping the Teleport pool. The new "gloop" animation for combat teleport is amazing! I colored it orange and it looks like I'm melting into lava and reforming.

 

Still though - what do you think about Bonfire on a dom these days? It's such a long animation time, and only so-so as spawn control with the reduced chances when KD converted. Do you find it a useful supplement? If you have it, do you even bother using it?

Edited Thursday at 03:23 PM by Onlyasandwich

[Caimie]

While leveling early on, Bonfire can be of some soft control use even with the KD converted, but outside of that it's a skip power that will rarely/never get used after that and a waste to slot.

 

This is my opinion, of course, since Dominators can be strapped for slots and animation lock at the wrong time will have you inspecting the floor.

Edited Thursday at 03:38 PM by Caimie

[Onlyasandwich]

That's more or less what I suspected - thank you for sharing your experience, @Caimie!

 

I wonder what an optimal swap might be. Considerations include:

• Power Up. No useful secondary effects to boost, but the damage is at least something. On occasion, the extra duration beyond what dom already provides may be useful.
• Stealth for an extra lotg mule. I probably won't bother running it for the defense.
• Smoke. -perception can be handy at times. The -tohit isn't much to consider.
• Misdirection. A decent little aoe resist debuff! Pretty long cooldown though, especially considering I won't have slots to devote. The placate effect might come in handy as an extra pause here and there.
• Surge of Power. Not super thematic for this guy, but another emergency button might be nice. Could mule Steadfast +def here for kicks.

 

I could always keep it of course. I'll test it for a while and see how much it comes in handy. 

 

Actually, I think an epic swap may indeed be the way to go! 2 end/sec + perf shifter, panacea procs, and dom injections should be reasonably sustainable without the extra crutch of power sink. 

 

I jimmied up a Fire APP version for comparison here:

Dominator (Fire Control - Earth Assault) fire version.mbd

 

The main downside here is that the resist profile isn't as desirable. However, I get more damage, a handy self-rez, a mule for the PM proc, and a debuff I'll actually use in Melt armor. The whole thing is more on theme as well.

Edited Thursday at 04:47 PM by Onlyasandwich