What are the actual mechanical benefits of Domination?

[Story Archer]

Unenhanced Duration & Recharge, Damage bonus, etc.? Mids has it wrong. TIA.

[Snokle]

Domination power as per the wiki:

 

Domination protects the villain from Knockback/Knockup, Repel, Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Fear, and Confuse effects, and can be activated even while suffering from them to break the villain free.

Domination doubles the magnitude of the villain's own Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Fear, and Confuse effects for their normal durations, then keeps them going at normal magnitude for half that amount of time longer. Debuffs and other secondary effects are not improved.

 

Also I think for the first 10-20 secs you get a to-hit bonus to all your power as well which MIDS does show when you toggle Domination On.

 

So, 10-20 sec to-hit buff, double magnitude for control powers for 90 seconds, and for 90 seconds have mez protection, which can be activate while under an effect.

[Uun]

Other than the longer mezz duration and increased magnitude, which is listed individually in each power that benefits from it, CoD breaks up the other effects of Domination into 6 entries. The meaningful ones are listed in the first entry. I think the other 5 relate to tracking and filling the Domination bar.

 

Note, Domination hasn't provided a damage bonus since i15 (2009).

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=inherent.inherent.domination&at=dominator - mezz protection, +100% endurance, +15% tohit for 15s

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=inherent.inherent.domination_boost&at=dominator 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=inherent.inherent.domination_dampen&at=dominator

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=inherent.inherent.domination_meter&at=dominator 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=inherent.inherent.domination_mode&at=dominator

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=inherent.inherent.domination_rage&at=dominator

[Story Archer]

2 hours ago, Uun said:

 

Note, Domination hasn't provided a damage bonus since i15 (2009).

 

 

Thank you - the text describing it as granting a damage bonus was one of the things that was confusing me.

 

The ToHit bonus seems like a non-factor with its relatively limited duration, so basically it's the increased duration and magnitude of your mez effects as well as protection from mez effects yourself.

 

Does anyone know its duration/recharge? It seems a little bit confusing, the fact that the bar empties when it does and needs to be refilled, but the power also needs +recharge. From what I can tell, it needs about 100% recharge to stay perma, but you really need Hasten to be perma for that to be consistent - is that right? And if there's nothing to attack/mez, then there's nothing to refill it regardless of whether it's up or not, correct?

[Captain Fabulous]

Increased mez MAG, mez protection, and +100 end are the main effects . You don't need perma Hasten, but IIRC you need about 135% recharge, which you can get from set bonuses. You are correct, you can't fill the bar unless you attack. But if you have enough recharge for perma Dom the bar never empties.

[Uun]

1 hour ago, Story Archer said:

Does anyone know its duration/recharge? It seems a little bit confusing, the fact that the bar empties when it does and needs to be refilled, but the power also needs +recharge. From what I can tell, it needs about 100% recharge to stay perma, but you really need Hasten to be perma for that to be consistent - is that right? And if there's nothing to attack/mez, then there's nothing to refill it regardless of whether it's up or not, correct?

Duration is 90s. Recharge is 200s, which can be reduced via Hasten and global recharge buffs (but can't be slotted with recharge enhancements). With sufficient recharge it can be put on auto and refreshed before the bar empties (aka "permadom"). As stated above, perma-Hasten isn't required and there are permadom builds that skip Hasten entirely.

 

The villain alignment power (Frenzy) grants 100% Domination without needing to fill the bar.

[Championess]

Domination used to boost your damage but the old devs on live didnt think that was fair across all dominators so they just boosted dominator damage at all times and took it out of domination.

 

The main aspects of domination immediately noticeable is the mez protection you gain.  Its seriously tanker level protection, maybe better.  Then your controls are almost all doubled in mag meaning you can control boss level baddies in one shot, unless if they have some kind if mez protection active themselves like shout from the cimerorans or vengeance.  There's still a few controls that arent boosted but they are rare and typically something hard to boost mag on separate like I believe Ice Slick, usually it can be target location powers since I believe they have some kind of pet flag.

 

Another big one is full endurance bar refill which is big since doms can run hot.  A good one also that I found most useful lately with the implement of hardmodes is you'll get a 25% tohitt boost for the first 15s when you activate domination again.  You'll be extremely accurate during this time so I look to get out aoe controls just after.

 

Think that should cover it.  Once you go permadom its hard to go back.

[Story Archer]

4 minutes ago, Uun said:

Duration is 90s. Recharge is 200s, which can be reduced via Hasten and global recharge buffs (but can't be slotted with recharge enhancements). With sufficient recharge it can be put on auto and refreshed before the bar empties (aka "permadom"). As stated above, perma-Hasten isn't required and there are permadom builds that skip Hasten entirely.

 

The villain alignment power (Frenzy) grants 100% Domination without needing to fill the bar.

 

If you don't take Hasten, what amount of global recharge do you need to make Domination perma?

[Uun]

5 minutes ago, Story Archer said:

If you don't take Hasten, what amount of global recharge do you need to make Domination perma?

You need a minimum of 123% (223% including the 100% base), but you'd want a little extra to provide a cushion. With Hasten you need about 90% to keep it perma comfortably.

[Story Archer]

On 4/3/2025 at 2:16 PM, Uun said:

You need a minimum of 123% (223% including the 100% base), but you'd want a little extra to provide a cushion. With Hasten you need about 90% to keep it perma comfortably.

 

This is, of course, discounting the benefits of the Ageless Incarnate. I'll have to experiment with Ageless to see what it would need to be if I wanted to use it in place of Hasten. 

 

I'm building a Fire/Plant/Fire, and the version of my post-50 build without Hasten has 105% global recharge. Wanting Seeds and Rain of Fire available as often as possible and Creepers perma'ed, it seemed that perma-Hasten might be the way I'd need to go, but Ageless may do the trick to close those gaps. Presumably between the Endurance bar refilling when Domination pops and the +Recovery from Ageless, I shouldn't have any Endurance issues.

 

On a side note - do you know anything about Fiery Orb? I was thinking about putting it in my sixth Creepers slot, but I'm not sure if the proc fires when I use the ability or if it procs like the other damage procs do, continuously throughout its activation...

 

This is the build, just to put it out there. It's looking like it'll be my most expensive build ever, with 7 purple sets plus, but hey - it's only influence, right?

Dominator (Plant Control - Fiery Assault) L50 alt.mbd

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Story Archer

[Uun]

21 minutes ago, Story Archer said:

On a side note - do you know anything about Fiery Orb? The only place I can really put it is in my sixth Creepers slot, but I'm not sure if the proc fires when I use the ability or if it procs like the other damage procs do, continuously throughout its activation.

Fiery Orb isn't a traditional proc. It summons a pseudo pet with a 20s duration (if not defeated sooner) that has a 15 ft radius damage aura and a chance for a mag 2 stun. I've never tried it in Creepers. I have it slotted in Seeds on my Plant, Stone Cages on my Earth and skipped it on other 3 doms.

[Championess]

1 hour ago, Story Archer said:

On a side note - do you know anything about Fiery Orb?

 

That ATO is all terrible, the bonuses and the pet proc.  Its a chance to fire out the pet every so often.  If you put it in an aoe ability yeah it'll always summon but its such a paltry thing.  You're going to do lots better if you slotted a dmg proc instead.

 

Though it is good to dabble in all kinds of things to see for yourself what does better for you.  I tried that ATO and quickly respec'd.

Edited Thursday at 09:46 PM by Championess

[Snokle]

As others said the Fiery Orb ATO is nothing to go home about. For creepers the best thing to slot would just be procs, primarly the AOE dam procs as those go off the most for for it. Then others after to fill out what ya need.