Idris

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The All Dom team avoided this and the only requirement was that you had to be a dominator. Powersets were down to the player to decide. As a result we have had great fun and are continuing to meet on a weekly basis and this has been running since august. The mix of powersets really keeps things interesting for everyone IMO.

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Yeah, and although no restrictions were made, we ended up with at least one of every primary and secondary in our team of 8, which is really cool.

I recommend giving people as much leeway as you can while keeping within theme. I for one would never even consider joining a team where someone else dictated my power choices by level, no matter how über it would be.

I'm interested in the Sewer trial too if done in the right level range for XP. Could bring my illusion/kinetics.

Yeah it's control pulling insane aggro, mostly. When I duoed my ice dom with Blaze's stalker and we'd take on triangled elite bosses, he'd have to hit the EB lots of times before getting the aggro back from me after one application of hold (which didn't even have any effect, to add insult to injury)

I will most probably be there with my elec/elec/elec blaster, 3 lovely holds and Vanguard.

Someone else would be better to give you power specific advice since my mind/nrg is only level 24 and I've never tried Psi. That said the Plant doms in our all dom team really appreciate Mass Hypnosis because it allows them time to line up their cones in peace and then we can assess the situation and ST control anything Seeds missed before they wake up. In an ideal situation we can clear 8 man spawns without anyone getting hit once. It's also useful for dealing with any extras, but I have mine slotted just 1 accuracy so it's basically just to buy a little time to place a more effective control without fear of aggro. Not saying you absolutely need that power but personally I think it's really underrated.

What strikes me in your post is you talk a lot about pulling aggro. Mind and Plant both have great control so in a duo like that, you shouldn't have to worry about aggro with normal spawns. Everything should be pretty much controlled throughout the fight, and especially nasty lieutenants in melee who can nearly 1-shot you. Playing a dom is all about active defence, you need to be alert and aggressive, switch targets a lot and prioritize as needed. Maybe you're duplicating controls?

As for domination, yeah I think you probably pull more aggro then, just due to the extra damage you do.

I won't even begin about the EBs with purple triangles. Yes they're very hard for doms, yes it seems very unfair, moving on.

I very rarely die when solo, usually I'm at least able to run away. I lower difficulty if I find myself running away a lot, for example recently I discovered my fire dom can't reliably handle Scrapyarders at Relentless. In all dom team we do die a fair bit, sometimes more sometimes less, I think mainly because coordinating controls for a 8 man spawn can be very tricky. There are some things (*cough*respec*cough*) that can turn into a debtfest, yet sometimes we can go for hours with nary a death between us. I think it's still less than a dom in an average 8 man PuG, though.

Mind/Psi and Plant/Thorns sounds like a good duo on paper and it seems like you're both experienced players, so not sure what the problem would be. What usually kills you? Is it alpha strikes, ambushes, control running out, endurance running out, getting mezzed? For a duo like that I think especially the plant dom should build secondary heavy, with emphasis on AoE damage.

There's definitely less margin for error in both building and playing a dominator, but that's what makes it exciting for me tbh

Heeeey!! Happy birthday Phil!

Doesn't Terrify let them get a shot at you though?

Me too but I'm not up there yet, and besides it's not up every fight. I slot my Mass Hypnosis with just 1 acc and it's incredibly useful to be used before alpha, or on nearby groups that are in danger of being aggroed.

I love the mass sleep as an alpha strike nullifier since it doesn't aggro. Great power. Everything in Mind rocks, basically, but you have to make choices.

Regarding your questions, I might push back travel power to get Fiery Embrace and Fire Breath earlier and rely om mayhem temps until then. You definitely want the hold enchances in ST hold, Confuse has a very good duration even unenhanced.

Also I think come I8 Hasten will be nearly a must for all dominators and it's a very good pick even now. No idea what to drop to get it in though, maybe get Acro or Consume in the 40s.

Yeah, having now Mind/nrg and fire/fire around the same level I have to say they face totally different problems. Mind/nrg doesn't suffer from aggro problems and has loads of control and excellent survivability. The damage on the other hand is low. I suppose ST damage would get better in time with Total Focus and Power Burst, but AoE damage is always going to be really weak.

Fire/fire on the other hand gets loads of aggro and too little control to deal with it in large teams unless I'm careful. Damage is great, though, and when soloing the control is perfectly acceptable. I will get Aid Self for the fire dom and I think it'll help a lot.

You have gone very control heavy there, which IMO is a bit of a waste with Fire/Fire. Fire/fire dominators do very good damage even before imps if you pick and slot enough damage powers.

Your slotting is very good. Beyondtrial, you can check the slotting here for advice.

The reason I go on about Fire Blast is it's really an excellent attack despite being ranged. It animates and recharges quickly and the damage per endurance is pretty good.

I'm sorry but just looking at that slotting gives me a headache.. decent power picks but again I'd like Fire Blast there.

I'd really like to fit in Fire Blast there as well if I were you. Finding my fire/fire build extremely tight so you're not alone with the problem.

ice/ice: vicious after the pet, relentless in late 30s
plant/thorns: haven't soloed it much but ruthless after Carrion Creepers
fire/fire: relentless after SOs.

Before SOs I tend to play everything on villainous. After that it's really a question of damage output and endurance. Plant/Thorns soloes well because of Seeds, fire/fire because it has the best damage output and its lack of control isn't an issue when solo.

Whoever told you to take Acrobatics instead of Integration should really be told off for spreading such misinformation. That's quite possibly the single worst piece of advice I've ever seen in this game... unbelievable..

Hammerfall, can I make a suggestion since you seem so unhappy with your dominator yet determined to play it?

I think a big part of the problem is that you have decided the secondary is pants and are playing your dominator like a controller with no secondary but instead a few power pool attacks. Maybe I'm assuming too much here, but that's what it sounds like. If that's the case, no wonder you're having a bad time. Why not try to invest in your secondary more, power pick, slotting and playstylewise, and see if that improves things?

Don't get me wrong, I agree with a lot of the suggestions here, I just don't think it's quite so miserable at the moment. Lots of people manage to have good time playing their dominators and in general they seem to be the ones that play aggressively, constantly striving for Domination, and pick and use a lot of powers from the secondaries. Sure, damage is not great, especially before mid 30s, but with enough spamming it adds up.

Ice secondary is really, really nice for pvp. You get good damage, 3 different damage types one of which is very little resisted, fast blasts for domination building, slow and -recharge and Power Boost. Can't really do better IMO.I think I'd go for Mind/Ice actually for a pvp dom.

Have you ever done it right, ie in the right level range, unsidekicked?

Oh yes, don't know how I missed the Ice Slick slotting. Your primary slotting is a bit off in general, slotting slow recharge control powers like Ice Slick and Glacier for endurance reduction doesn't really make sense. Spammed powers and expensive toggles are generally best choice for endred slotting.

No, it has a -stealth element on enemies though

I have ice/ice at level 50 and mind/nrg at level 24, so trying to imagine what the combo would be like. I'm not a huge fan of /nrg because I find it a slow set, but it seems relatively easy on endurance so far, and a good thing is both ice/ and /nrg are melee centric.

First of all, I think you need more attacks from your secondary early on. Otherwise you'll struggle building Domination and killing things, or you'll have to resort to Chillblain for damage, and that will absolutely destroy your endurance. Consider taking Power Blast. In pvp too, ranged attacks rule. While insignificant for damage, you can use them and your slows to kite melee ATs while building Domination. The single target attacks in secondary are a key to building Domination, especially in PvP.

For a PvP build, I'd consider getting Shiver in there. It's not that great in PvE, but for PvP I consider it almost a must have.

Personally I consider snipes a waste for a dominator. With our ranged damage modifier the burst damage is not significant enough, and for controlled targets you have better options for DPS in your melee attacks. For the melee attacks, I'd replace endrdx slotting with recharge unless you're really starving for endurance.

Slot Jack Frost for 1 acc, 3 damage first. Then more acc and hold if you really want to. He's pants in PvP most of the time because he can't keep up. If I made a true level 50 PvP build I'd leave him out altogether. In PvE he's essential, though.

I've had builds with and without Resilience, and getting stunned through Integration in PvE is really rare. Can't remember a single occurrence that would have killed me, in fact.

Hasten makes more difference, although Resilience is underappreciated. But Hasten makes your regen clickys come back sooner, which is always good.

Ice is frankly quite crappy for damage, even with a helpful secondary like Rad.

Anyways I have an Ill/Kin at level 33, it's a really strong toon even with the distinct lack of synergy between primary and secondary. It helps that Illusion is somewhat passive compared to some other controller sets, so I have more time for Kinetics.

Anyway this is approximately my build at the moment. I really like the travel power combo of Siphon Speed, Inertial Reduction and 3-slotted Hover. Rocks

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
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Name:
Level: 33
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Illusion Control
Secondary: Kinetics
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01) --> Spectral Wounds==> Acc(1) Acc(7) Dmg(9) Dmg(9) Dmg(29)
01) --> Transfusion==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Heal(17) Heal(17) Heal(23)
02) --> Blind==> Acc(2) Hold(3) Hold(5) Hold(5) Rechg(7)
04) --> Siphon Power==> Acc(4)
06) --> Deceive==> Acc(6) Acc(29)
08) --> Superior Invisibility==> EndRdx(8)
10) --> Siphon Speed==> Acc(10) Acc(11) Rechg(11) Rechg(15) Rechg(15)
12) --> Hasten==> Rechg(12) Rechg(13) Rechg(13)
14) --> Swift==> Run(14)
16) --> Health==> Heal(16)
18) --> Phantom Army==> Acc(18) Rechg(19) Rechg(19) Rechg(21) Dmg(27) Dmg(27)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(23)
22) --> Speed Boost==> EndMod(22)
24) --> Hover==> Fly(24) Fly(25) Fly(25)
26) --> Spectral Terror==> Acc(26)
28) --> Inertial Reduction==> Jump(28)
30) --> Flash==> Acc(30) Acc(31) Hold(31) Hold(31)
32) --> Phantasm==> Acc(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(33)
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01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Containment==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
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