What if we buffed Dominators' Range Damage?

[blue4333]

For damage scales, Dominators are at Melee = 1.05 & Range = 0.950.

 

Would increasing the range scale to 1 be overpowered? Considering that Blasters are sitting at Melee = 1 & Range = 1.25.

[twozerofoxtrot]

Not sure what would necessitate this?

 

I mean who doesn't love a good ole fashioned straight damage buff. Sign me up, I love Doms.

 

But where is the issue? Doms already do pretty well in the "damage dealing CC" role they fill, and if you know how to build them they can abuse the wide array of %damage procs in the CC sets.

 

Usually these kind of straight buffs are for underperformers.. and I don't know that there's a wide consensus out there that Doms are lacking.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Probably a 0.05 buff to dominator damage won't move the needle in a visible way. 

AOE damage is the one kind of damage at which dominators do noticeably lag several other ATs. A change that would help dominators do noticeably more AOE damage would be to lift the target caps for targeted AOEs in the secondary assault sets to 16 targets, which is the usual number for blasters, defenders, and corruptors.

[Heatstroke]

Im not sure this would really benefit Dominators in any meaningful way. I play most of my Dominators as Ranged Controllers. almost never taking a melee power.. and since locked down foes cant hurt me... Im never really in any danger.. Sure it might take an extra blast or two to take a foe down.... but thats never an issue IMO

[LightMaster]

TBH increasing the Dominator’s damage scales runs the risk of making the AT overpowered and away from it’s main role, since such main role first and foremost is “damage dealing CC” as twozerofoxtrot pointed, and not one of the damage dealing ATs, with Scrapper, Stalker, Corruptor and Blaster from tied 3rd for Scrapper and Stalker, to 1st for Blaster. If we increased the Dominator’s damage scales, they’ll end up forgoing CC most of the time because they will deal too much damage.

 

While a smidge increase on Ranged Damage is fine, that scalar is ultimately good enough as is due to still doing enough damage to finish off targets and fight at a safe distance. It helps that Dominator have access to a Snipe in most Assault sets, too.

 

Unlike Heatstroke, I’m taking advantage of the Assault the way it is meant to be; a nice mixture of Blast and Melee sets of the same theme, making Dominator one of the only true mixed ATs alongside the Blaster and the Epic ATs. I’ve been told in the Discord server of Homecoming that Assaults and most Manipulations (the Blaster’s secondaries) tend to have the same best melee powers as their Melee set counterparts, too.

 

If anything, it gives a Dominator a sense of duality one must take advantage off on both solo or on a team. On one side, a Dominator can off Crowd Control often if the foes aren’t resistant to mezzes, then finish them off with their Assault powers. On the other side, on a team with already lot of CC or if the foes are resistant to mezzes like AVs, then pelt them with your Assault powers while shooting your CC powers time to time if you are on Domination.
 

Perma-Dom (increased magnitude, resistance to mez for the Dominator, and insta-full End on activation) helps a lot in this regard as the Domination meter fills faster by using Assault Powers than with Control Powers iirc.

 

If anything, the Controller is the underperforming one in the past, not the Dominator. Both can fill up some good Damage-Procs on their CCs, but the Dominator already have good damage on their own as well, giving the latter AT a bigger edge in a damage-oriented meta today, whereas the Controller have to rely on Containment, their pet damage and buff/debuff sets to significantly contribute beyond Crowd Control, and Overpower is inconsistant vs Domination.

 

At least Defender have a much stronger buff and debuff than all other ATs, especially if such Defender can inflict -Def or -Res on foes. The Controller doesn’t have a luxury, only equal to Corruptor’s buffs and debuffs but with far less damage potential. It doesn’t make the Controller bad, I’ll say it is still good all things considered, just doesn’t hold the candle compared to other ATs.

 

tl;dr Dominator is already in a good spot today, doesn’t severely need any buff, and already does better than Controller, an AT that is good but overshadowed.

Edited Friday at 04:08 PM by LightMaster

[Heatstroke]

3 hours ago, LightMaster said:

 

 

Unlike Heatstroke, I’m taking advantage of the Assault the way it is meant to be; a nice mixture of Blast and Melee sets of the same theme, making Dominator one of the only true mixed ATs alongside the Blaster and the Epic ATs. I’ve been told in the Discord server of Homecoming that Assaults and most Manipulations (the Blaster’s secondaries) tend to have the same best melee powers as their Melee set counterparts, too.

 

 

 

 

Ranged tend to be my default playstyle. I did once make a Ice/Thorn Dominator who played much more like a scrapper and I found that build very fun. 

 

When i play that mixed AT playstyle lately I tend to lean toward Sentinels. 

[Championess]

I'd up the damage scales to 1.15 melee and 1.0 ranged and an increase of damage cap an extra 100.  They're an unarmored class with control and blaster-lite assaults.  I don't see why they can't get bonus preference to melee since its more dangerous.

 

Blasters got a plethora of improvements long ago and I don't see a small buff to damage being all too much to ask for when you see the damage Blasters and armored classes can pump out melee AND ranged.

[aethereal]

On 9/2/2025 at 2:04 AM, blue4333 said:

Considering that Blasters are sitting at Melee = 1 & Range = 1.25.

 

Blaster's ranged scalar is 1.125, not 1.25.