Solo Dominator: Fire/Fire vs Ice/Ice

[Rajah]

Going to make a solo toon and it's either going to be fire/fire or ice/ice. Which is better for an unsupported solo dominator? Obviously fire is going to do a lot more damage, but the ice/ice seems to be safer?

 

In terms of smoothest solo leveling, which is the preferred dominator between these 2?

[Coyote]

I am playing a Fire/Fire in the 20s, and it is ROUGH (and it was rough since the early teens). Damage mitigation is really low until you get Bonfire at 26, you don't have the slots to stack up defense-oriented set bonuses, and many of the powers are slow-activating (Flashfire, Combustion, and Fire Breath are all slow... so will Bonfire be, also). Once the character makes 26, things will improve a lot, but right now it's my weakest character by far.

 

It is also a late-blooming set, with its best control power at 26, its second best (Flashfire) with a pretty slow activation, not enough Endurance to leverage its damage potential with Hot Feet until maybe Consume is available at 28, and its best two single-target attacks are Blaze and Blazing Bolt, at 35/38. Imps will help, but they're also in the 30s. So... for solo leveling, it's a pretty late bloomer, the first 25 levels will be pretty hard. After that, the damage starts piling up in the 30s, and in the 40s it should be a high damage character with reasonable defenses. But until then... ouch.

[Greentea]

Ice have really low DPS, not sure if you want to solo with low DPS. Icy assault's very heavy on end costs, it's crazy.

 

I suppose Ice/Fire can do good, but I recommend Mind/Fire. Mind is the #1 to solo and Fire have high DPS, no clue on the new sets such as Radioactive or Savage though.

[Sovera]

It's not the answer you want, but plant as a primary will do you so much better than fire.

[Frosticus]

of those two? fire/fire because it will eventually have as much or more control than ice and waaaaaay more damage.

 

neither solo's well until deep into the 20's though. Or later depending on your definition of solo'ing well.

 

Unsolicited advice:

Pick a primary with a confuse (plant, dark, mind) because it is very efficient damage

Pick a secondary with a solid +dam and/or +tohit power because missing really hurts doms and despite the solid base damage they are nowhere near the damage of blasters/scrappers.

-def can really help doms too, so earth control and/or rad assault (rad also offers up a +dam/tohit power and a situational heal).

 

Those factors matter less when you are high level, but could make or break a solo leveling experience.

 

I'm solo'ing a dark/fire myself. I wanted a strong ranged attack chain otherwise i'd have gone dark/rad for smooth leveling. But insta snipe changes has me rethinking rad assault

 

[oedipus_tex]

Fire/Fire is probably safer than Ice/Ice because Bonfire is incredibly overpowered with a kb to kd proc. Ice Control at present is a fun set, but it significantly lags most of the other control sets in pretty much all categories: hard controls, damage, and safety.

 

That said, I used to main an Ice/Fire/Fire Dominator. I enjoyed him a lot at the time, and the set hasn't technically gotten worse, Bonfire just became (significantly, hugely) better than one of its main powers.

 

Icy Assault on the other hand is a set I can do without. Mediocre damage and nothing really stands out except Power Boost and the terrible, terrible PBAoE slow aura with a 10ft range no one uses.