damage Why is Dominator’s Max Damage Bonus the same as Support ATs’?

[LightMaster]

I played Dominator and I enjoyed it, one of my top 4 most fun ATs alongside Sentinels, Corruptor and Blasters, if not my top 1 most. There is one thing that I am concerned about though…

 

The title tells you something. While I get Defender, Controller, Mastermind and the Epic Archetypes as they are not involving damage or melee, the Dominator is limited to 300% Damage Bonus (400% max damage) at most, or 200% in level 1, while the Dominator have no only more damage oriented than Controller, but also have melee powers within their Assault secondary power sets.

 

Was it because Perma-Domination, or even just Domination, could make them way too good if they have the same damage bonus cap as the 500% ones? That’s despite the fact that not only Dominators tend to have higher end cost than other ATs from my experience, but also mord of a glass cannon than even Blaster and Controller.

 

It’s not a big deal in the long run, but I do find it odd given that the Dominator is meant to be the far more offense oriented counterpart to Controllers that compensates for much less damage for stronger mezzes, controllable Tier 9 Pet as off the Issue that gave us Pyrotechnic Control and Psionic Armor, and support secondaries.

 

[arcane]

Could be worth consideration since I don’t think anyone considers Dominators overpowered right now outside of Pylon tests. 

[Glacier Peak]

Ah another damage meta victim. Why control a target when a player can just defeat it without locking it down?

[LightMaster]

18 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

Ah another damage meta victim. Why control a target when a player can just defeat it without locking it down?

My suggestion isn’t to make Dominators triumph the likes of Blasters, Corruptors and Scrappers damage-wise, but to make Dominator consistent with the damage-dealing ATs (and Tankers) for maximum Damage Bonus.

 

Locking down targets is a thing just so they won’t scatter and allow AoE powers to kill more.

[SeraphimKensai]

Easy solution would be to combine all the ATs except for Brute under the same theoretical maximum damage.

 

It still requires significant buffs or red inspirations to get there even after heavy investment of +damage in IO bonuses, so the end result would likely not see much unless teamed with a kin, or such.

 

You wouldn't really see significant increase based on self buffs and damage unless the damage modular scalars were changed, but that makes sense to have them vary based on intent of the AT.

 

I don't particularly see an issue with letting an Empathy Defender hit a 500% damage cap under extreme buffs as it's still defender level damage scalars.

Edited July 7 by SeraphimKensai

[LightMaster]

On 7/7/2025 at 12:54 PM, SeraphimKensai said:

Easy solution would be to combine all the ATs except for Brute under the same theoretical maximum damage.

 

It still requires significant buffs or red inspirations to get there even after heavy investment of +damage in IO bonuses, so the end result would likely not see much unless teamed with a kin, or such.

 

You wouldn't really see significant increase based on self buffs and damage unless the damage modular scalars were changed, but that makes sense to have them vary based on intent of the AT.

 

I don't particularly see an issue with letting an Empathy Defender hit a 500% damage cap under extreme buffs as it's still defender level damage scalars.

But of course, given that the damage scalars alone already grant damage differences between archetypes, so the different maximum damage cap can be overkill as it’s just a “rich get richer” scenario between melee + Corruptor + Sentinel Archetypes and the other Archetypes. Brute’s case is understandable due to Fury providing large Damage Bonus at high Fury.

 

Like I get Dominator’s lower damage cap due to potential of Perma-Dom, but in a damage-oriented meta, having the same damage cap with the other DPS-oriented ATs and Tankers isn’t going to spell doom to the meta, given that Dominator have factors like high end cost, lack of survivability and inability of buffing teammates to take into account - latter two also applying to Blasters to an extent - making Dominator still difficult to master but, imho, truly sastifying to pull off.

[DrRocket]

It would seem to me, if you are not melee, you are support by definition; and thus the caps assigned to the class follows this sad rule of thumb.

 

it suxors for all