ketch

Ah, that's the beauty of the Ice APP. You can get Hoarfrost and the same amount of smashing/lethal defense with Ice Armor that you get from Scorpion Shield. It also has a nice AoE in Snow Storm and a handsome debuff with Sleet. I'd say it's, hands down, the best epic for doms.

What is your epic/patron pool? I use Ice on my earth/fire, which caps hp most of the time with Hoarfrost. That gives me two ways to heal myself and takes better advantage of the +regen in the Radial Branch. Just a point of comparison as well, an HP capped dominator has 1606 hp vs a scrappers base hp of 1338 hp.

Looking at the other branches you can rule out Clarion, domination covers your mez protection and gives you excellent control duration, and Barrier, more defense would only be useful in limited situations. Ageless is a bit iffy as well, presumably you already have excellent recharge and domination again takes care of many endurance issues.

I'd say Rebirth is really the Destiny power you can take the most advantage of. The choice between Radial and Core is dependent on what you're using for you APP/PPP.

I've played all the control sets to 50 with the exception of Electric (I'll get to it). Gravity to me was the least enjoyable of them all. While Dimension Shift is certainly a sore spot in the set, I also had trouble with its bread and butter control: Wormhole. It has a full 3 sec animation vs. 2.3 and 2.1 secs in Stalagmites and Flashfire. It also has a significantly smaller radius, 15 feet vs 25 feet. There's also a very brief, .75 sec, intangible after the teleport, which usually goes unnoticed. Frankly, I think it needs its activation shortened, its radius increased, and the intangible moved to the beginning of the power rather than after the teleport in order to prevent enemies from firing back. Oh, and it would be nice to get the power at level 12 when other control sets are getting reliable AoE.

I will admit Singularity is a very nice pet, but the rest of the set needs touching up. Until it gets some attention, I won't be rolling another.

This was a must have for my magical girls.

I hadn't even considered how pb'ed force fields will benefit from this. I generally pb'ed and shielded in groups of two to hit everyone with stronger bubbles. Now I can reserve that PB for holds and other effects. This also comes as a very nice boon to my fire/ff'er. Bubbling imps just got much more simple.

This change will certainly benefit my kin. Now I can focus more time keeping Siphon Speed up to keep pace with all those speedy teammates. So they've eliminated my number 1 peeve about playing /kin.

I'm working on an earth/fire/ice dom as well with many of the same goals in mind (perma-dom, perma-hasten, and 45% lethal/smashing defense). I had a build that I thought was pretty good, but yours inspired a few alterations. For one, I had not left room for Hoarfrost. So I found myself dropping Consume (which I rarely have the need for, surprisingly) in order to get it. There are some interesting differences as well. For instance, I prefer working at range and Fire Breath has been an important part of the build. Combustion, on the other hand, fell to the wayside. I also left tough with room only for the + 3% def IO's; with solid controls, soft capped defenses, and capped health at most times, I wouldn't go for the extra mitigation.

A few considerations: Quicksand could probably use an end. reduction more than the recharge. It's also possible to enhance the -def using a Hami-O. In regards to procs, Achilles' Heel is generally a good choice. Lockdown: +2 mag is a nice proc for Volcanic Gasses and will have the chance to fire many times, especially considering VG loses out in regards to Domination. I would actually veer away from Vysires' advice in utilizing damage procs and favor those that add debuff effects.

I'm taking ice primarily due to theme (an elementalist capable of wielding earth, fire, water (the ice APP), and air (Ionic Judgement and Barrier Destiny)). However, it wasn't my sole consideration. While Fiery Assault meshes well with the Fire APP by boosting damage in Fireball and Rain of Fire, Sleet is a nice boost to damage not only for myself but the entire team. Ice Armor also let's me achieve soft-capped smashing/lethal defense.

As for Earthquake, it's handy for when Stalagmites are down. It's also another opportunity to use Achilles' Heel -res proc, which I also use in Sleet. Though the proc won't stack with itself using them in conjunction gives me a better chance at hitting more of the mob.

Thanks for all the input. I ran herostats while I played my earth/fire dom this weekend and found I was getting far more (2-3 times as much) damage from Fire Breath. These were some fast moving teams so some of Combustion's ticks were probably lost to defeat. Even more so I was feeling the pinch casting Earthquake, Sleet, and Fire Breath left little time to charge into melee.

On a Fire/Fire or Ice/Fire I could definitely see it getting much more use.

I've been playing an Earth/Fire dom (planning to take the Ice APP) and questioning whether Combustion is worth it. With Earth I mostly play at range and it allows me to line up the cone in Fire Breath. The activation time on Combustion feels so slow (3 seconds!) that I rarely use it after firing off Fire Breath and blasting a little. With some nice AoE coming from the Ice power and picking up more with Incarnate powers, would I be gimping myself by skipping Combustion?

Here's another tip: let sleeping dogs lie. Doms and controllers can get a good bit of use out of their sleeps here if teammates recognize sleeping mobs and leave them alone. In the end, everyone is safer and happier.

You know, despite this part of the trial's "emphasis" on control, I find most leagues would do just as well with little control at all. In fact, at times it's more counter productive than anything, trapping some mobs here while the next group runs there. Slow patches, knockdown patches, and placeable mezzes seem to serve the best for creating nice clusters at the choke points; at which point AoE damage becomes the most important element as the league attempts to mow down minions and lieutenants alike.

Same thing here. On my level 32 dom, no bonus experience or extra reward merits. Another teammate (level 50) reported not receiving a Notice of the Well. Petitioned and received the stock response.