MinMin

@Zartain organised a sewer trial last night which @Hard kindly informed me of as I'd mentioned to him that I'd never done one before. Thanks guys for that btw.

But I have to say, I had an absolute ball with this. Easily my favourite hero-side TF and it was relatively economical in time and merits.

So why is it so rare to see it done?

I'm going to be on a plane next Wednesday, so no Bobo on Fire, but I'm looking forward to the RWZ raid the following week.

No Mud Pots is really not worth it.

I went with a Fire/Earth without Mud Pots and proccing up Hot Feet and Fire Cages. Quite a strong build IMO and very good against EBs. I'm not by nature likely to solo an AV ... I simply do npt have that sort of patience, but if I was going to do it with a Dom this is the one I'd do it with.

Hey Ditzy.

Of late I've been levelling a Fire/Earth Dom and having a ball with it. It's well into perma territory even though he's only L46 and I'm also filling him out with lots of damage procs. He's a tad heavy on the endurance but he can easily handle either large equivalency settings or large +level settings and I'm trying to work out where the happy medium is with both in the mix.

As for lack of posting, that's more a function of what I'm doing at work at the moment. With some major deadlines looming, little things like reading the forums at lunch time at work suffer.

I'm might be up for this Hard, depending on what night you choose and how early in the evenings you plan to start.

I got my Energy/Rad Corruptor from L15 to L25 and my Fire/Earth from L44 to about half way through L45.

For once in my life I actually have multiple characters I enjoy and want to level, both hero and villainside and now I even have motivation to get back to my long neglected MM.

If I had to pick a dream team of three Doms I'd go:

Mind/Fire
Fire/Earth
Earth/Psi

This gives you a bit of everything as well as some good synergies.

Mind Control should be part of the mix because of the completeness of its control options. There are no non-AV mobs in the game that Mind can't apply some sort of control too. Earth Control makes a good contribution because of its abundant -def, making everyone more effective. Fire Control is what you go with when you've already got plenty of control and you're looking for damage and it has a nice fast ST hold as well.

As for Assault sets, Drain Psyche is a major plus when taking down AVs, as is Earth Assault with the extra hold magnitude from Seismic Smash. Fiery Assault makes the list for the same reasons it features above: it's a solid source of damage, both ST and AoE. You get that from /Psi too, just not quite so much.

The one big question mark over that trio IMO is the Mind Control character. It could easily be Fire/Fire and in 90% of situations your team would be better if it was; it's just the remaining 10% of the time when you would do anything to have a Confuse or Sleep option instead of the extra damage and pets that sways me that way.

Regarding Medicine I agree, with the notable exception of Ice Control. That set really doesn't have much for dealing with alpha strikes and you tend to take more damage than the other control sets.

Looking forward to having you on board.

Why would you 6-slot all your primary powers? Even many of the better powers can get by with 5 slots.

Many of them simply don't need it and you'll wind up with no slots for your secondary.

The very first thing you should do is to respec into Seeds of Confusion. Most of Plant Control's effectiveness is tied up in this power.

I would also recommend Power Boost. The boost in duration for Vines makes the power a useful substitute for Seeds of Confusion with confusion-resistant enemies. It also has some nice synergy with the Leadership and Medicine pools which are both areas you should consider as you get into the mid-30s and 40s.

From Liliaceae's Powers Guide:

More of a case of looking in to see if you needed commentary on your build. But you don't.

Since most of us probably don't have a build for Ice/Psi just laying around, you're going to get a lot of people thinking "nothing to see here".

As to whether it's a good build; it shouldn't be too bad. The slows and -recharge from both primary and secondary should serve you well and Psi is a good all-round Assault set these days.

That being said, Ice Control is on the low end in terms of control and I wouldn't normally consider it unless I was teaming a lot with Brutes or other Doms. (Ice Control is friendlier to fury generation than most control sets because most of its control is soft).

If you do end up making one, the key powers are Ice Slick, Shiver, Arctic Air, Block of Ice, Mind Probe, Telekinetic Thrust, Psychic Scream, Drain Psyche and Psychic Shockwave. The two bolded powers are your key powers.

Energy is more than just Power Boost, particularly considering Power Boost is in two other sets.

You're right that I'm being harsh about Energy Assault.

Objectively, it's an okay all-round set that offers extra control options, but it's not the strongest Assault set by any means. It's only major let-down is its lack of AoE options.

Subjectively, I'm bitter about the set. I was extremely disappointed the first time round (before I15) as it was meant to be the ST king and was actually nearly the worst in ST and definitely the worst in AoE. Then after I15, it's still not the best of ST and it's still the worst in AoE. (Static Discharge and Whirling Hands do the same damage, but Elec can boost its damage).

Snarkily, it's an okay all-round set that offers extra control options to an AT that has excellent control options already. The set really doesn't excel in any area. Every other Assault set does something better than Energy Assault.

So, in all fairness, I can't use the term "sucks". I should instead use the term "mediocre".

You're forgetting Earth Assault. That's the new ST king right there. It sacrifices range to pull it off, but no set has better ST melee than Earth and it's the only assault set with a Hold for some nice stacking tricks with your primary.

I haven't seen any damage comparison that factors in Build Up where Energy Assault comes off looking good. Certainly my subjective experience with the two sets has Elec out in front by a considerable margin. Any comparison would probably be factoring in Total Focus as well and (again subjectively) the animation time on that makes it a real problem for a Dominator playstyle.

In short, 3 single-target damage contenders:

(3) Lowest damage, lots of extra control, Power Boost

(2) Build up, therefore better damage

(1) Highest damage, lots of extra control, Power Boost, mostly melee

Ice Control is ok, but it's arguably the weakest set control-wise.

Plant/Fire is a early blooming (sorry ) combo that is commonly recommended to new Doms. It's got some nice damage with some excellent early control with Seeds of Confusion.

Other sets you might consider that are good to start out with are Plant Control, Earth Control, Mind Control and (not for the faint-of-heart) Fire Control. Ice and Grav are low control sets without Fire's redeeming damage.

For secondary I recommend Fiery Assault, Psionic Assault and (if you don't mind ST) Earth or Elec Assault. Icy Assault is heavy on the endurance, Thorny Assault has a redraw effect many don't like and Energy Assault still sucks (just not as bad as before).

A more common choice for an all-ranged Dom is Fiery Assault. It only has one melee power, which is a little disappointing because all its damage comes in ticks (nice damage though).

What you want should work as a concept, but I suspect in practice it would be a tad underwhelming. But hey, some people are all about concept.

I hate to say it when you're looking for skippables, but Mezmerise and Levitate are both pretty good. Mezmerise is a Mag 4 Sleep which is invaluable for taking a boss out in one go and the ST knock-up of Levitate can be handy for certain mez-resistant targets as well. They're also both good powers for slotting sets with good recharge bonuses for permadom, particularly a set of Kinetic Crash in Levitate.

IMO, Telekinesis is skippable though. Some folk might tell you that Total Domination is skippable, but personally I wouldn't skip an AoE Hold if you have a secondary with Power Boost.

As far as Earth Assault goes, you really only need the big three (Stone Mallet, Heavy Mallet and Seismic Smash) with Power Boost and the mandatory Stone Spears (another good mule for Kinetic Crash). Hurl Boulder and Fissure aren't horrible, but they're only okay powers compared to the brilliance of the big three.

As far as permadom goes, Mind/Earth should be a relatively cheap combo to pull it off on. Two or three sets of Kinetic Crash plus sleep, fear and confuse IO sets and you'll be pretty close for not very much infamy. It is a tight build though and you'll be wanting to watch every slot.

Good luck with it, this should be an excellent combination.

It's been very flaky.