Controller vs Dominator

[Rinwen]

Hello, folks,

 

Question regarding Controller vs Dominator.

 

Typically, the Villain’s version of a given powerset is less powerful than the Hero’s version because the Villain’s is a secondary powerset… such as a Defender vs Corruptor.

 

The Defender’s version of Radiation, for example, is more powerful than the Corruptor’s because it’s a primary powerset… similar in scope to Tanker vs Scrapper… the tanker’s Invulnerability powerset is more powerful than the scrapper’s because it’s a primary set.

 

Now… Dominator vs Controller… their primary sets are the same, for example Psi Control.  So, since the control powers are the primary set for both ATs, are they equally as powerful, (excluding Domination)?

 

For these two ATs does it simply come down to wanting a more offensive or defensive secondary since the primaries are equal?

 

Thanks for any help and insight you can provide.

 

[Xaeon]

Dominators and Controllers play almost completely differently. Controllers are gravitated towards powers that can be cast frequently to get their overpower procs and have that 20% chance of getting an extra magnitude of CC and as such favour a more slow paced "grindier" way of going through enemies, supported by their usage of support secondaries.  Dominators are "burstier", while they have lower magnitude CC generally when they're using Domination they can CC anything short of an AV instantly and ignore virtually all enemy CC in return; and Domination can be made permanent for the joys of always being able to lock down anything short of an AV instantly with no saving throw allowed. The dominator's secondary is also meant for pure destruction with a mix of melee and ranged attacks to smack around enemies who can't hit back in any meaningful way.

 

This has lead to a few feeling like the Dominator should be compared more to the blaster; with their ranged primary and melee/control mix secondary; rather than the controller as despite both having control primaries the Dominator uses them entirely differently and Dominators are in essence, an attack AT whose mitigation is making the enemy not able to fight back rather than a backline AT like the Controller traditionally is. Indeed Dominators even get superior melee damage scaling to blasters and generally more workable melee attack chains to boot. And while controllers can be ghetto masterminds with their self buffed pets; Dominators generally consider pets as a neat bonus at most or outright skippable at worst due to the lack of means to buff them or keep them on the field through damage mitigation or nullification.

[Auroxis]

Fortunata may be closer to Controller than the Dominator is, since it has more support elements to keep you and your team alive.

[Trickshooter]

Primary and Secondary really only determine the level that powers become available. It's the archetype modifiers that determine how much better the same effect is between them.

 

Basically, the same power on two or more ATs tends to be exactly the same for its base effects (the effects that aren't specific to the AT, like those coded in for AT Inherent powers). Those base effects are then multiplied by the appropriate modifiers for the different ATs, which then determines the strength for each of them.

 

So even though Controllers and Dominators share the same Primaries, on average, outside of Domination, Controller's control powers will last 25% longer than Dominators because of their higher control modifiers. However, Dominators have higher damage modifiers, so if those same powers do any damage, they will do more damage on average when used by Dominators than Controllers, outside of Containment.

 

Having said that, the two are really very different playstyles, regardless of their shared Primaries. Dominators are more of a damage dealing AT, while Controllers tend to be more of a support AT.

 

There are outlier builds, of course, mostly on the Controller side.

 

 

[Rinwen]

...

 

So even though Controllers and Dominators share the same Primaries, on average, outside of Domination, Controller's control powers will last 25% longer than Dominators because of their higher control modifiers. However, Dominators have higher damage modifiers, so if those same powers do any damage, they will do more damage on average when used by Dominators than Controllers, outside of Containment.

 

...

 

Thank you very much, everyone.

 

This part about dmg is exactly what I was wondering about.

[Coyote]

...

 

So even though Controllers and Dominators share the same Primaries, on average, outside of Domination, Controller's control powers will last 25% longer than Dominators because of their higher control modifiers. However, Dominators have higher damage modifiers, so if those same powers do any damage, they will do more damage on average when used by Dominators than Controllers, outside of Containment.

 

...

 

Thank you very much, everyone.

 

This part about dmg is exactly what I was wondering about.

 

To clarify, when Dominators have Domination active, their controls will last longer than those of Controllers, as well as gain double Magnitude. I think the Domination boost is an additional mez effect, with the same Mag as the normal power, and 1.5x its duration. So instead of having a 0.8 duration multiplier vs Controllers, their Domination effect has a 1.6 duration multiplier as well as having double mag for the 0.8 portion of it.

 

So, when Domination is active, Dominators put out more Magnitude and longer duration than Controllers. When it's inactive, Controllers put out more Mag and Duration.