Now for the Energy Assault portion of the Guide.
Power Bolts (lvl 1) - Minor damage, half of Moderate. It uses very little end and recharges quickly and has relatively normal animation time. When slotted for 3 DAM it can get to slightly above the base damage of Power Blast which is a Moderate attack.
Bone Smasher (lvl 2) - Your detoggle melee attack. It will deal same damage as Power Blast, but melee and using different energy/smash configuration. Alone it doesn't deal too much damage, but combined WITH Power Blast it can help create a quick and effective DPS attack chain. It also has a small chance to disorient your target. I use it in PvP with Air Superiority as my method of dealing damage aside from Total Focus which is available only in Siren's Call or Warburg. Combined with -Fly, the Detoggle and TK combo is quite effective in beating an overconfident Scrapper that usually eats squishies for breakfast. it can even detoggle tank toggles to let you hold even though you can spend countless tries at trying to hold with normal Dom/TK/TD combo in trying to overstack their resistances. Terrify helps pin melees so that you can sprint and leap over them with a Bone Smasher. By that time they break out and come after you they should begetting back into the Feared mode for your to land an Air Superiority. If they get sent into a flip, you'll know you detoggled their status resist and you can hover above them waiting for the supression to wear off, or use Tk on'em and stay just out of reach to provoke them into ignoring to put back their status toggle but instead try and land a melee blow, which they won't be able to with TK running. You'll then be able to cast a Hold on'em and begind smashing them up with Bone Smasher/AS and Total Focus. But that's only for all melee builds. Read on for best PvP build.
Power Push (lvl 4) - A ranged guranteed knockback. Though useful it's also very dangerous. And with Mind users is quite pointless and can even hurt you more than help you. Levitate does damage and knocks up while Power Push does brawl damage and knocks back, sending target away from melee attacks and possibly into more enemies which can send pets after them to aggro groups or put the enemy out of reach of your more damaging melee attacks as they blast you. Especially dangerous if you're all melee.
Power Blast (lvl 10) - With 3 DAM it along with Bone Smasher can reach Total Focus' base damage level. not a bad combo for powers reached by lvl 10, with such quick recharges, PB with the ability to fire from range,, you've got a pretty good attack chain in the works dps(damage per second)-wise. And when hitting an enemy with -fly or facing an enemy without flight, it can be a huge boon if they have status resistances. Combined with Knockback you got 2 Moderate damage ranged attacks and a minor ranged attack. And in the lower levels your status attacks will also be contributing some good damage. The best PvP build for Mind/Energy is one who uses a combination of the melee attacks, ranged attacks and for Bloody Bay and Siren's Call, slotting the earlier attacks and slotting them well. I will post a build below to show you what I mean.
Power Boost (lvl 16) - It's been 6 long levels before getting another secondary but you've finally got it. And it's a great one. This power will allow you to stack on Bosses you normally wouldn't, and even perma some higher level Bosses you normally wouldn't especially in lower levels where you have yet to get multiple SO durations in your status affects. It'll also turn mediocre and quite bad AoEs into excellent AoEs. Total Domination in partiucular before this power seemed quite worthless, but with it can be quite effective. Also, when using your STs to fight off multiple enemies far greater than normal, Power Boost will turn a painful battle into just another day as a solo mind dominator. It will extend the status affect durations of all status affects, wether they be primary or secondary powerset, wether they be knockback, hold, fear, disorient, and even boost run speed, flight speed, jump height, etc. Pretty much everyone but acc and damage are boosted a good 100% or so for about 20 seconds. It's got a pretty quick recharge on it with 3 RECH enhancements as well. So when you have the slots, be sure to slot it if you take it. It's more of a PvE power but in Siren's Call where break frees are scarce, it may be the reason behind a victory in making sure that Hold you land lasts a long time before it wears off and supression kicks in, allowing you to keep the enemy held longer than normal and therefore deal allot more damage than you normally would within the Hold timer. I am noticing this allot in my hybrid build which I left Power Boost out after I respec'd out of my PvE build which had it. I can now not kill a Blaster with my Melee only attacks within the Hold timer. But with Ranged/Melee combos I wouldn't need Power Boost for that anyways. Against a Melee though, when Holds are rare, believe me, you'll cherish that extra 5-20 seconds whatever it may be, especially versus a regen Scrapper. Damn are they annoying. 
It also will do wonders with Terrify in PvP vs Melees. Allow you to play Frogger with them and your Melee attacks allow more often before needing to cast TK.
Whirling Hands (lvl 20) - Of all the powers, there had to be one meh, I guess... It's not really useful for damage, or disorientation, but more so for placing end and recharge in it to allow it to keep your Domination bar up when getting rdy to take on an AV or Elite Boss without wanting to try your luck in building it during the fight or rushing from one group to the AV/Elite. It can build Domination on it's own in about 22 minutes. Though you want to go outside missions and Brawl some enemies beforehand and then use Whirling Hands while waiting for others to be ready. For PvE it's actually quite useful that way. Especially since in later lvl 25+ levels you face an Elite or AV in about every 3rd missions which gets kinda rediculous though still fun. Otherwise Domination wouldn't really be needed I suppose.
Total Focus (lvl 28) - Does double Power Blast's damage with an added guranteed disorient so long as target not resistant. It lasts as long as Total Domination's hold but since it's an after affect of an extreme damage melee attack I'd say it's a welcome side effect. For PvE it became my standard damage dealing minimum half of all damage I would deal to enemies. 2 ACC, 1 RECH and 3 DAM or 1 END and 2 DAM depending on your preferance. Either way you don't need stamina to adjust for it. Just don't use it when there's only a small amount of health left. It's really mostly an openeing power or for attacking enemies being attacked by a confused target or when you want to disorient a confused enemey to prevent him to stop attacking another while dealing damage to'em. Don't ask why, sometimes it's just needed for that reason. You'll know soon enough when you play it. In PvP it's basically the only time you'll see a noticeable drop in the enemy's HP bar. It also has 3x as much energy damage in it as it does smashing which is VERY helpful unlike Bone Smasher which is more smashing damage. coupled with it's extreme damage, this is VERY good news for us, bad for our targets. NEVER use otal Focus unless first casting Dominate unless attacking a melee you hadn't yet detoggled. It's duration is horrible and NOT a PvP status affecting power of choice if you want to kill your target or survive to do it. TF is only available in SC and Warburg unfortunately so don't neglect your earlier powers for TF in a respec or you will regret it. TF also has a 20 second natural recharge and 3 second animation timer, so you'll always need those low level powers for best overall dps amounts, especially for the longer battles with higher HP(hitpoint) enemies.
Sniper Blast (lvl 35) - With all your other powers, it's not too useful at this stage in the game. However if you're low on damage attack powers selected and have time to spare between recharges this may be a power for you. it does damage between Power Blast and Total Focus levels and can be used at melee range because your targets are locked down and you can use it to pull groups when multiple ones are stuck closely together where normally you'd have to hold'em all and risk taking damage. TP Foe also solves this problem if you have enough attacks and don't want to use more than a couple slots. Sniper Blast however has the benefit of dealing some good damage in the mean time and allowing for Hover Sniping. Though as a Dominator, sniping isn't too useful for us. The only real need for it is in PvP and in there no enemy is gonna sit still and let us reuse our Sniper Blast over and over again, as it WILL take multiple applications of it to go anywhere. It also is only available in PvP for Warburg and the upcoming Recluse's Victory. I could think of a few early level powers that could use those damage/acc slots and instead place maybe a recall friend or grant invis power there in it's place and get better results in all zones, especially Warburg.
Power Burst (lvl 38) - Does 1/5 more damage than Power Blast, double the recharge, and has a range of 20 as opposed to 80. It does however have double the chance to Knockback than Power Blast and adds yet another attack power to the attack chain. For PvE, I'd recommend it, but for the PvPer who likes the lower Faction zones, I'd recommend sending the slots to the lower level attack powers and place yet another welcome utility power like maybe tactics to detect stealthed enemies. Granted you'd need to place assault somwhere, probably at Sniper Blast but for PvP you'd be pretty set with the lower level powers chosen well before lvl 25 either way.
Important Note: When I talk about PvP zones I talk about Exemping, which also affects PvE when looking to team after reaching cap to help out SG/VG-mates and doing Strike Forces (Task Forces). Not having half your attack powers because you skipped the lower ones for some higher level ones can be quite disabling. Also with SOs slotting your lower level attacks can be QUITE effective fighting in the lower levels since you were already able to do it without any slots at all let alone SOs, doing it again with 4-6 SOs will be an entirely new game and sure make you feel like a powerful Villain.
Will be adding some Builds below in the next few hours. Stay tuned.
I guess before I go any further I should probably explain Domination to you all. When you attack, you get 2 Domination points added to your Domination bar. You could miss and you'll still get 2 points, which does not include toggles but power activations. You do not need an enemy for this either and can cast your click pbaoes away from enemeis to build it, or more importantly keep ir from falling. You need 90 points to unlock the Domination power which has a 5 minute recharge. Every 7 seconds or so 1 point degrades. It's not as fast in buildup or degredation as Brutes's Fury but it is just as powerful. You'll need 45-50 attacks minimum if you can even cast'em that fast to get Domination. A good way to build it is to find a couple lone enemies on rooftops, sleep one, hold the other and starts brawling'em. It'll take about 2 minions your levels to build up Domination with Brawl. Lieutenants are prefered for this as they have most HPs but are easy to keep held.
The affects of Domination are:
- Replenishing of Endurance to full.
- About 50-70% boost in Duration of your status affects similar to Power Boost.
- About 50-70% boost in Damage.
- Duration is 90 seconds.
- Domination is affected by Hasten to nearly 3 minutes and can be stacked with Power Boost.
Below is the PvE only guide for leveling through AI. Though it may retain some PvP possibilities, it is not intentionally designed for that. For PvE/PvP or PvP guide, you'll have to be patient for those to be added below.
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Exported from Ver: 1.7.0.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: MindEnergyGuide
Level: 41
Archetype: Dominator
Primary: Mind Control
Secondary: Energy Assault
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01) --> Mesmerize==> Acc(1)Acc(3)
01) --> Power Bolt==> Acc(1)Acc(5)Dmg(21)Dmg(21)Dmg(36)
02) --> Dominate==> Acc(2)Acc(3)Rechg(9)Hold(9)Hold(11)
04) --> Levitate==> Acc(4)Acc(5)Dmg(13)Dmg(37)Dmg(40)
06) --> Confuse==> Acc(6)Acc(7)Rechg(7)ConfDur(25)
08) --> Combat Jumping==> EndRdx(8)
10) --> Power Blast==> Acc(10)Acc(11)Dmg(19)Dmg(19)Dmg(36)
12) --> Bone Smasher==> Acc(12)Acc(13)Dmg(15)Dmg(15)Dmg(36)
14) --> Super Jump==> EndRdx(14)
16) --> Power Boost==> Rechg(16)Rechg(17)Rechg(17)
18) --> Stealth==> EndRdx(18)
20) --> Invisibility==> EndRdx(20)
22) --> Telekinesis==> EndRdx(22)EndRdx(23)Rechg(23)Rechg(25)
24) --> Whirling Hands==> EndRdx(24)Rechg(37)
26) --> Terrify==> Acc(26)Acc(27)Rechg(27)Rechg(31)Fear(37)Fear(39)
28) --> Total Focus==> Acc(28)Acc(29)Rechg(29)EndRdx(31)Dmg(31)Dmg(34)
30) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx(30)
32) --> Mass Confusion==> Acc(32)Acc(33)Acc(33)Rechg(33)Rechg(34)ConfDur(34)
35) --> Recall Friend==> EndRdx(35)
38) --> Power Burst==> Acc(38)Acc(39)Dmg(39)Dmg(40)Dmg(40)
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01) --> Power Quick==> EndRdx(1)
01) --> Sprint==> EndRdx(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Rechg(1)
01) --> Domination==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
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Mesmerize - 2 ACC, simple enough, and effective enough.
Power Bolts - 2 ACC, and 3 DAM, a good minor damage attack for when other powers are recharging, dealing some good damage over long periods of time for those tougher HP enemies and when when you ened to finish off just a sliver of an enemy's health with less use of endurance.
Dominate - 2 ACC, 1 RECH for stacking and multiple target, and 2 HOLD, enough to keep just about any AI held for quite a while. A third would just be wasteful for a PvE build.
Levitate - 2 ACC, 3 DAM. Good for keeping enemies off their feet who're a little resistant to status affects or breaking sleep without retaliation while a Hold is recharging and all the while dealing some acceptable moderate damage.
Confuse - 2 ACC, 1 RECH to allow stacking, 1 Confuse to further help with stacking, hitting multiple enemies, and to assure you can confuse and forget, concentrating on other things without having to spend long moments in confuse animations.
Combat Jumping - 1 END, not really neded, but neither is the Jump enhancement. If you're going to be using a combination of Range and Melee, Super Leaping is the best combination for the job. It also allows Immobilize, Knockback and Hold resistances which are often not anywhere over the protection given by Super Leaping powers since they're only AI. Especially not when soloing and only facing 1 or 2 at most enemies with these status affects.
Power Blast - 2 ACC, 3 DAM. A great moderate damage, moderate knockback, moderate range power with moderate recharge and end cost. This is your staple attack power next to Bone Smasher but more so this due to it's range ability.
Bone Smasher - Again, 2 ACC and 3 DAM. Moderate in every way as Power Blast but in melee with a moderate Disorient affect. This and Power Blast will allow you to take on enemies effectively and quickly and will be used from here on out as much as your early single target status affects.
Super Jump - 1 END. Your basic travel power, allowing you good horizontal speed, little endurance cost and some vertical height. No power is as effeicent in all forms of movement as Super Jump.
Power Boost - 3 RECH. Will allow you to recharge it quite quickly, boost your status affects to an amount greater than normal to take on challenges you normally would find quite difficult.
Grant Invisibility - 1 END. Needed mostly just to access invisibility it is also useful in allowing your friends to join you in staying out of danger until they decide to face it. You can even have you team avoid a group ambush when hitting a mission trigger which sends enemies to your location. if invisible those enemies will just stand there and you can move on to your next location of position for a large alpha strike on the enemy. If you have yet to reach lvl 35 and recall Friend this is very useful to stealthing a mission to get to a leader and guards for example. Especially useful for shortening Strike Forces.
If a soloist, you may wish to get Stealth. 1 End slot as well.
Invisibility - 1 END, will allow you to stealth missions to click on items or reach you objective enemy target and save time in getting the missions xp or in getting less xp per mission contact so that you don't outlevel them and miss out on possible storyline content or badges.
Telekensis - 2 END, 2 RECH. You've now reached the point where you can afford End Redux DOs and where you'll need TK even when Soloing to take on Elites, AVs (teaming of course) or even upping the diifficultly to have Bosses in your missions. Taking it earlier is only needed if you intend to strictly Team in PvE from the get-go.
Whirling Hands - 1 END, 1 RECH. Not your most useful power, but you'll be thankful later as a PvE-er who'll need it quite often starting around this level to prepare your Elite/AV battles.
Terrify - 2 ACC, 1 RECH, 2 FEAR, 1 END. A very powerful ability. But with great power comes great responsibility. Don't get cocky and get yourself killed by alpha strikes when in teams. And solo you don't rally need it. So don't use it too often and break fear and take damage when you don't have to. be careful how you use it.
Total Focus - 2 ACC, 1 RECH, 1 END, 2 DAM. Since this build does not use Stamina nd has both Power Blast and Bone Smasher and a fully slotted Levitate and Power Bolt, you don't really need that third DAM.
Acrobatics - 1 END. Will keep you from getting hit by those Location Knockbacks and those annoying Holds that would ordinarilly get your very killed very quickly. Leave your Break Frees for sleeps and disorients. Especially fighting those pesky SpecOps Longbow which for some reason you manage not to Hold before they Disorient ya.
Mass Confusion - 3 ACC, 2 RECH, 1 CON. The best of the best is here and now, you have reached the ultimate goal of your Mind Control powerset. You will now be feared by all as you twist their minds into killing their friends the ultimate betrayal. Muahahahaha!
Recall Friend - 1 END. What else are you gonna put here? That's what I thought.
Power Burst - 2 ACC, 3 DAM. You want more damage? MORE DAMAGE? Well fine. Take this, slot it, love it. Just a suped up Power Blast but whatever works I guess... :/
Will add the Hybrid and PvP Guides tomorrow morning.
Before going any further with PvP, you'll need to understand both stacking and toggle droppings. For some testing done by Bayani, another Mind/Energy Dominator, go here which contains detailed testing of Toggle dropping powers of Bone Smasher and Total Focus as both Blaster and Dominator.
As for Stacking. Each status affect in-game has a Magnitude to it. Melees have resistance toggles and clicks that give tham magnitude protection to about 8-12 depending on the melee AT/Set. A normal Hold will have around 3 Magnitude. So lets say the Melee has 10 Magnitude protection. You'd have to land 4 Holds on'em before he's affected by it and held. Now, with Durations, though your hold will not affect the target until bypassing the Magnitude, it will keep the Hold affect on the target for a while. What you need to do is recast your Holds again and again so that between the time of the first Hold cast and it's duration, you're adding on multiple Holds to add their Magnitudes together to defeat the high magnitude protection of the Melee. So for Holding a 10 Mag Protection you'd need 4 Holds stacked in quick succession. Now, to help you with this, you have TK which is a Toggle Hold, allowing you to keep a certain base Magnitude on the enemy. It also has the benefit of Repel which is unresistable by most Melees but Stone Tankers to keep the Melees at bay while you work at stacking the Holds. Now you only need let's say 3 Holds on top of TK to Hold a Melee. You can also add Total Domination into the mix. And though it has a very tiny duration and will not stay on the Magnitude list for very long you can cast it after your TK and first Hold to ensure that it helps your next Hold land. Once your Hold lands only that Hold will count in starting the supression timer. However in most cases before taking off TK to save end, you'll need to cast yet another Dominate to ensure that it doesn't break when you turn it off. Don't ask me why this is, because I don't know. Once held, all toggles are off and you can begin your Assault. After the hold duration ends a supression affect will take place in which no Hold will affect'em for a while. i think it's around 15 seconds. But am not sure.
Break frees will end the Hold prematurely and give further status resistances to Knockback which you may use to stall the enemy. It does not however protect them against Repel which will keep you safe until it wears off (purple around head goes away) and you can begin a new wave of Holds.
Domination, allows your magnitude to double while active making it VERY simple to Hold even Tankers. Just 3 Dominates and you're set. 2 Dominates for Scrappers.
This is a build that combines some good PvE powers with PvP ones to make a Hybrid build in which you can participate in both areas of the game without losing out in either when it comes to your capability. In any PvP situation you will need two things. 1st is Break Frees which in SC is more of a lunxury. 2nd is Stamina which is a necessity in all PvP zones. It also has the benefit of letting you go wild in the PvE area of the game.
I used a lesser capable version of this build and yet do quite well for himself in both areas. Having the new knowledge I have now making this build will get you even farther than I ever have in PvP and PvE alike in terms of performance. Though it does sacrifice Levitate, it is a worthy sacrifice, one that will allow you to take down flyers and add much needed additional quick dps with less end cost and animation time as well.
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Exported from Ver: 1.7.0.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Lord Morcalivan
Level: 41
Archetype: Dominator
Primary: Mind Control
Secondary: Energy Assault
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01) --> Mesmerize==> Acc(1)Acc(3)
01) --> Power Bolt==> Acc(1)
02) --> Dominate==> Acc(2)Acc(3)Rechg(5)Hold(9)Hold(11)Hold(37)
04) --> Bone Smasher==> Acc(4)Acc(5)Dmg(17)Dmg(19)Dmg(23)Rechg(36)
06) --> Confuse==> Acc(6)Acc(7)Rechg(7)
08) --> Air Superiority==> Acc(8)Acc(9)Dmg(15)Dmg(25)Dmg(25)Rechg(37)
10) --> Power Blast==> Acc(10)Acc(11)Dmg(17)Dmg(19)Dmg(23)Rechg(37)
12) --> Telekinesis==> EndRdx(12)EndRdx(13)Rechg(13)Rechg(15)
14) --> Fly==> EndRdx(14)
16) --> Swift==> Run(16)
18) --> Health==> Heal(18)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20)EndMod(21)EndMod(21)
22) --> Stealth==> EndRdx(22)
24) --> Invisibility==> EndRdx(24)
26) --> Terrify==> Acc(26)Acc(27)Rechg(27)Fear(31)Fear(36)
28) --> Total Focus==> Acc(28)Acc(29)Rechg(29)Dmg(31)Dmg(31)Dmg(34)
30) --> Phase Shift==> Rechg(30)Rechg(40)
32) --> Mass Confusion==> Acc(32)Acc(33)Acc(33)Rechg(33)Rechg(34)ConfDur(34)
35) --> Power Boost==> Rechg(35)Rechg(36)
38) --> Power Burst==> Acc(38)Acc(39)Rechg(39)Dmg(39)Dmg(40)Dmg(40)
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01) --> Power Quick==> EndRdx(1)
01) --> Sprint==> EndRdx(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Rechg(1)
01) --> Domination==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
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Memerize (lvl 1) - 2 ACC, as usual.
Power Bolt (lvl 1) - Don't waste your time with this. It's only use is for when leveling to your other attacks. Don't slot it and eventually remove it from tray once you have the 3 basic attacks of Bone Smasher, Air Superiority and Power Blast.
Dominate (lvl 2) - 2 ACC, 1 RECH, 3 HOLD. The King. Slot this baby up as fast as possible. In PvE, or PvP it is the only thing keeping you alive and key to much of your offense.
Bone Smasher (lvl 2) - 2 ACC, 1 RECH, 3 DAM. A great power. Though it doesn't excel in PvE, with Power Blast it creates a nice attack chain and in PvP it's detoggle is a life saver. 100% chance to detoggle. Use this with Dominate to Hold melees. Though not all use status toggles but instead some use status clicks. In that case TK and Terrify become VERY handy.
Confuse (lvl 6) - 2 ACC, 1 RECH. And that's it. With just these 3 slots you can use it to Hold Bosses, multiple Lts/Minions or cast it on an enemy from an unseen angle so that he doesn't suspect a thing until he starts attacking his own teammates. Not too useful vs Melees unless they're Aura style Tankers with teammates around'em using the Tanker for protection. Confuse may have the ability to affect a Melee where Hold may not but it also doesn't save you from single target melee attacks much at all. On the bright side, you yourself have multiple melee attacks which even when confused can detoggle melees, take down flyers, and finish off the wounded, even disorient squishies. The duration placed in it in the PvE build was more of a luxury as I spend 37 levels without that duration in mine and did fine in stacking Bosses. Confuse is especially useful in the PvP zone of Siren's Call. Without it you couldn't have a Longbow Warden wipe out a whole group. Sometimes even two. The best at this is the Spines with Sonic not far behind as they use plenty of AoEs/Cones. Confusing AI in PvP zones will also allow you to add additional damage to an enemy, setting up ambushed at times. The Wardens in particular who aren't just in Hotzones can deal quite a bit of damage to an enemy. And since they will no doubt be held. It can be very painful.
Air Superiority (lvl 6) - 2 ACC, 1 RECH, 3 DAM. For taking down flyers, keeping them pinned, knocking them around and dealing additional damage. This is the power which will do it all and all while granting you access to Fly.
Power Blast (lvl 10) - 2 ACC, 1 RECH, 3 DAM. Your third starter power and your best overall attack. Though the knockback may be annoying at the limited times where it takes affect it is a very efficient way ot dealing damage and is needed to add to the attack chain for without it you would only do about 75% damage of a Blaster's HP when he's held. With it, you will do that extra 25%. The PvP only build is designed for even greater damage, but this one will do fine for taking out squishies before your Hold timer runs out as the testing I did was with only 2 Hold durations instead of 3 and only the three melee attacks and without power boost.
Telekenesis (lvl 12) - 2 END, 2 RECH. With Stamina you'll do fine without the 3rd END. This power is essential in keeping melees and any bosses at bay while you work on holding them or shutting off their toggles. Sometimes even just to stall them to recharge your powers, wait for teammates or escape. Even placing a target into a pin where your Stalker teammates can get a good Assassin Strike in.
Swift (lvl 6) - 1 SPD. Will allow you to keep up or catch up with those who's fligh you disabled. And further keep out of melee range when you've been hit with -fly for a few moments. Also helps with TK as your flight will be near disabled when using it. To be able to pass the TKed enemy and run cirles around'em is essential to keeping'em pinned in open range. Basically herding him like cattle.
Health (lvl 14) - 1 HEAL. What else are you gonna use? Helps with down time and even with TK can keep you alive in longer fights.
Stamina (lvl 20) - 3 MOD, allowing you to regain end nearly twice as fast. This will allow you to use TK and attack, though not forever it will allow you to pin and burst then recover while keeping your foe at bay. Using TK+Power Blast/Bolt/Burst and then using Terrify to stall'em may be the only way to take down enemies using Click status resists.
Stealth (lvl 6) - 1 END. Though you could replace it with Grant Invisibility. Using Stealth when focused on the task of say, confusing a Longbow Warden may be the only thing to make sure that you aren't caught too much off guard. And when taking off Invisibility to fight in the meantime Stealth may offer some protection from getting swarmed by multiple enemies. Then again Grant Invisibility to teaming will have many greater results in both PvE and PvP. Depends on your style of gaming/teaming really.
Invisibility (lvl 14) - 1 END. Needed to stay alive in just about any PvP zone and access Phase Shift. This power will allow you to both avoid combat and to ambush your enemies who don't have tactics or Goggles. More useful in Bloody Bay but will always have a use due to not 100% of enemies using +Perception powers. Even with Perception it at least allows you to be seen only at closer ranges using the Concealment line. Also after Phase Shifting, turning on Invisibility to help you escape is very needed and useful and doesn't slow down your flight.
Terrify (lvl 26) - 2 ACC, 1 RECH, 2 FEAR. The recharge and fear combination will be enough to ensure Perma-Fear in PvE and so that when feared it lasts a good while, even longer than your 3 slotted Hold, especially useful in PvP where supression takes place after it wears off.
Total Focus (lvl 28) - 2 ACC, 1 RECH, 3 DAM. For best possible damage per second with the power, this slotting will get you there. It's use in PvE and PvP is pretty obviously, mass damage in just a quick hit. In PvE is has the additional disorient affect that can be useful when facing multiple foes. In PvP it has a guaranteed toggle drop with a 20-25% possbility of 1-2 additional toggles. Useful for feared melees in which you sprint/jump to leapfrog over with Total Focus to trun off multiple toggles without retaliation and deal good damage as it's 3/4 energy based extreme damage. The enemy will either try and catch up to you to melee ya or will be forced to try and turn on his toggles in which case you can follow up with Bone Smasher while he's stuck in his long shield animations before Fear retakes him or you decide to TK him if supression just took affect.
Phase Shift (lvl 20) - 2 RECH. Achieved by lvl 30 to grant it for Siren's Call. It is mostly a PvP power as you'll have little use for it any other time. It will save you countless times in large brawls and when hit with a surprise Blaster attack who's using Break Frees.
Mass Confusion (lvl 32) - 3 ACC, 1 RECH, 1 CON. The ultimate PvE control power, allowing you to turn the tide of battle. It will defeat even the toughest enemies and combined with AoE/Cone teammates will allow great xp for no risk. With Cofnuse it'll allow you to Confuse multiple Bosses as well. In PvP it'll combine to allow you to Confuse Imps, or annoy a crowd in a PvP brawl. But really, it's use is for Fire Controllers/Dominators in Warburg or just PvE battles. Any other Con/Dom, just Confuse will do.
Power Boost (lvl 16) - 2 RECH, a great way to make sure your enemies don't break out of Mass Confuse until they kill each other. To get a flight speed boost in PvP to escape enemies. Or just to ensure your enemies don't have time to survive your Hold+Assault combo by forcing the Hold to last that much long.
Power Burst (lvl 38) - 2 ACC, 1 RECH, 3 DAM, for whenever you want that extra damage in the higher levels to either level faster or fight in warburg more often. This is the power for you. It is a beefed up version of Power Blast and is at a slight range to allow combined with TK to stay out of melee range while dealing damage. Combined with all attack powers you'll be doing quite a lot of damage in the later game very quickly. There will be little that will be able to resist your Hold+Assault combo. In PvE, or PvP.
Wow, excellent guide. Thanks for taking the time to improve on your original.
I 100% agree about levitate getting you out of the intro quickly. I also liked your claim about the core PvE powers - your single target controls and your two low level blasts. That is pretty much what I found the most useful too. I didn't even bother slotting in damage or duration until my teens when DOs became available, the best use of those slots with TOs was accuracy and recharge.
I disagree with you about Mass Hypnosis though. I actually find it is a pretty useful tool. It does not cause aggro. With just a single accuracy and recharge DO it is accurate enough and recharged for almost every fight. I mostly use it to disrupt the alpha strike so my team can engage safely - that is almost essential on a large team with a mdest amount of melee sorts. I will also usualy have 2-3 mobs confused or held by the time it passes. Mass hypnosis is also useful for pulling - sleep the mob and then wake up the guys you wish to fight. It can also occasionally be used to bypass a mob you do not wish to engage but is otherwise blocking the way. You just need to remember it is a tool - it will not save your life but it will make some common stuff much easier.
Princess Grace - MA/Inv scrapper
Solana - Mind/Energy dominator
Lyonette - Kat/SR scrapper
Wow! Someone has the guts to post a PvP build. I'm really impressed, and thank you for the guide. A few thoughts on your PvP build:
1) is it wise to wait so long to get power boost? Why not work it in at 16?
2) is the concealment pool that important when you can run a mission in the PvP zones and get a stealth temp power? It lasts 30 minutes, and if you do the mission in off hours in a less trafficed PvP zone like Bloody it's easy to get. Of course you don't get phase shift on invis, but you can sure sneak attack.
3) I like the 2 acc's. Especially in PvP where it's tough to hit, the more acc the better!
Thanks again for the great guide. My Grav/Nrg dom is at 21 and looking forward to obtaining enough infamy to get SOs and do some real PvP!!
Mass Hypnosis is pretty even 50/50 for how many Mind users like it and hate it. I tried to put some reasons why poeple would want to use it as I don't want to tell poeple what not to take just give them all the info they need to not screw themselves over. Hopefully I did enough in that power's description but if not I'm sure others will come post and fix it.
1) No it's not wise, that is the PvE/P Hybrid Build. My lvl 37 respec took out Power Boost and does just fine, but for an all PvP build, you'll want it to ensure death to squishies before your first and only hold lands. If they live through the Hold you will either get killed or never kill'em. Get it before 25 if you can, but before 30 will do fine if you're a Siren's Call buff.
2) The PvP Stealth powers are limited. You do a few Patrols and get'em, but after that the patrols run out and so does your Stealth power and you get no more replacements. For the PvE section it's also key to stealthing missions if you haven't yet reached lvl cap.
3) The best is having 3 ACC of course, if you have Hasten you could ditch the Recharge enhancements for a third ACC. I've found it near impossible to kill even FF Controllers. Defenders are impossible unless you us inspirations. Also helps with all the ACC Debuff Toggles which basically erase the Debuff so that it's like playign with 1-2 ACC again. Those Stone and Ice Tankers can also be annoying with only 2 ACC. It is a luxury though. So don't go out of your way unless you really want to put a dent in those Defense builds.
Will try and find the time to post the Pure PvP section. Maybe add a more detailed explanation on taking on Melees and what sets are easy, which are near impossible, etc. Have gotten pretty caught up in my Corruptor so will be sure to get to it as soon as possible.
Nice! Looking forward to more pearls of your wisdom!
Great info to know. Thank you for improving upon your orginal guide. I'm looking forward to the pvp guide.
Doing a little more testing with TK, Magnitudes, Melee Resistances and what not before posting all PvP guide.
Will be at least a few more days.
A few tips for beginners in this general guide by some fellow Dominator.
How Not to Suck v1.0: A Guide to Domination
This guide is excellent. It really helped out my mind/ice dom, and it answered my TK vs Total Dom worries.
Especially with the 10 second Total Dom duration vs the 30 second Hero Planner claims...Was wonder why it was "better" than my ice con's Glacier... 
This guide is out of date and has some mistakes in it. It will be updated once I test all patron powers.
A Drafted version of an Issue 7 updated guide for Mind/Energy is listed here.
your link is broke
Don't think your going to get a reply. Morcalivan7 has been gone for some time now. (I believe)
@MarvelatMee and @COL Burn
24 - 50s
Too many ALTs
Ok, so there were a few problems with my other guide that I intend to fix by just wiping it clean and making a new guide. This one is not just based on 25 levels of beta experience, but instead 37 to 40 levels of release experienced depending on when you read this. My signature will tell you what level it's base on.
You'll also have your base hold duration increase as you level just as flight does. At first it starts out around 60-65% of controller then goes to about 70%. This is without even adding Hold durations. It's a slight boost but a welcome one. Now, for holding bosses, a TK(Telekenesis) and then Hold will hold'em. But once your turn off TK the Boss will break the first Hold. So once you TK+Hold the Boss into submission before releasing TK to save end you must cast another Hold on'em to ensure that when TK is turned off you'll still have 2 stacked Holds on'em. Now, with 2 or more Bosses, obviously keep TK on and with added recharge and durations to Dominate you should be able to keep minimum 2 Bosses held with TK's help. And since you really only face 2 Bosses in teams when they're red/purple, 2 Bosses is all you're hold as when you face higher level enemies both accuracy and also your durations of status affects are diminished. For minions and Lts when soling though you should at minimum be able to Hold two targets without the need for TK. In PvP, I tested using Dom, Total Dom, and TK to Hold Scrappers/Tankers which worked well so long as they didn't move around too much to prevent me from recasting my Dominate as soon as possible. I also tested without using TK or TD with Dominate but instead my Bone Smasher which is a 100% chance to take off 1 toggle and 50% chance to take off 2 toggles. This is each time it hits. So I would use Bone Smasher to take off toggles then Dominate to Hold the melee with his toggle down. The non-melee way is a little safer, but more of a gamble as to getting the melee held. You will need to Hold the target multiple times if melee, and some squishies may also need to. The builds I have tested have been all ranged or all melee, both PvE/PvP hybrids, but a combination of ranged/melee is the only way to kill a squishie 100% of the time during the Hold time limit. Which is a pure PvP build I will include much later in this guide. For slotting put 2 ACC, 1 RECH, and 2 HOLD. 3 HOLD for PvP. Or you can go 3 ACC, 1 RECH and 2 HOLD for PvP. The RECH is essential for stacking in PvP and hitting multiple or Hold resliliant targets in PvE. You'll see what I mean when facing 4 or 5 Rikti Drones who now are completely invisible even when held and immune to sleep. On top of that they're usually hidden around a Rikti Mind user at different angles forcing you to not hold them until they fire at you in most cases.
Now, the intentions of this guide is to explain every available power, how to properly slot powers if you choose them and if you have the slots available, and to prioritize the slots to certain powers. It is to help you go from lvl 1 to 40, and also to PvP once you reach the higher levels which will most likely require a respec. And since respecs are rather hard in CoV compared to CoH I'm going to try and keep it to one respec as I have yet to defeat the first respec after around 8 tries, yet did the 2nd in only 1 try. This is the case for most poeple which is why I'll try and keep it to 1 respec, but give you all the information available to try and toughen it out with a PvP build from 1-40 or make a hybrid PvE/PvP build which I am currently using to go from lvls 37 to 40 while PvPing half the time. Also, if you aren't too good at making builds I will include a couple to follow for the PvE, PvE/PvP Hybrid and PvP purposes.
To make the builds I now use http://home.comcast.net/~SherkSilver/ which is slightly better than the pevious HeroPlanner and though not as accurate in the numbers and info, is supplies it in much greater detail and for many different status affects, etc.
First up, we have the powersets, explained one by one. With some minor additional enemy info related to those powers. PvE and PvP related info added as well.
First off: For all ToHit powers, place 2 ACC minimum, for all AoEs, place 3 ACC.
Mesmerize (Lvl 1) - Can be used at range to sleep enemies for the longest single target duration for any status affect in-game. However, it is breakable when hit with any kind of damage, knockback, and additional status affects. Debuffs, teleports, and buffs do not break sleep unless from a Clear Mind or similar power. Crey Medics and Sorcerors have this power. So hold them before sleeping anyone around them. In PvP, don't bother, if you're gonna have a status affect land on an enemy make it a hold. Also, don't bother slotting Sleep, though it may be the only power that can land with one application on an AI Boss, it has a long enough base duration that you don't need to waste slots on it. But if you do anyways, one sleep slot will put it to around 40 seconds, the same as a 2 Hold Duration slotted Dominate.
Levitate (lvl 1) - One of the few powers that affect Bosses on a regular basis. Even when Mesmerize doesn't. For example, Huntsman of the Arachnos is very resistant to almost all status affects but knockback. Holds and Sleeps won't stop'em, but a Levitate will. Also, since Levitate only breaks sleep when it lands you can affectively continually pin some Bosses who're Hold resistant by casting sleep, and then just before it recharges hit levitate. if levitate lands and the Boss starts flying upwards, hit your sleep and before he even gets up he'll shake and magically appear on his feet, but asleep. ready to repeat. If you slotted Levitate for damage, this could work well for you. If not, read up on other powers below. As for Levitate's damage. Though it is Smashing, it has some good base damage. And very close to a Power Blast. It does however take more end, is all smashing instead of an energy/smash combo and has a longer rooting animation. However it's knockback unlike Power Blast is upward which is key to keeping enemies in Bone Smasher/Total Focus range. It also looks much cooler and is very useful when facing Bosses which would normally damage you. And in PvP, this power is also key in stalling the enemy. What I mean by stalling is that when you land a status affect aside from Knockback on a player when that status affect wears off you can't reapply it for a few second afterwards. But, since Knockback works on a seperate supression than these status affects of sleep, hold, fear, etc, you can Knockup the enemy with Levitate just before he either attacks you, flees, or turns on his status resist toggle, or uses any inspirations. This will allow you time to deal more damage to finish'em off, or stall'em so that between the Knockup and the next status affect there is less supression time keeping that enemy free.
Dominate (lvl 2) - Your single target Hold. Your bread and butter for PvE and PvP. With 2 durations for PvE you'll have this thing lasting a good 15 additional seconds, 20 with 3. It has a base of 20, so this 15 is a good boost.
For referance: With Domination it takes 2 Dominates to Hold a Scrapper and 3 Dominates to Hold a Tanker. This is without TK or TD. Just pure Dominate combined with Domination.
Confuse (lvl 6) - The reason I play Mind Control. This power doesn't aggro when cast like Mind, though Mind when wears off aggros the target you hit, Confuse does not. Neither does it aggro the enemies the confused target attacks. What it does do is confuse the enemy to attack the nearest non-slept/feared target first, then the slept/feared when none other around. This is why Mind's Mes/Dom/Con combo is so powerful solo as with 3 AI you face 3 AI are all controlled from the get go. First you mes, then dom then confuse. From there you attacked the Dominated, then Dominate the Sleeping, to reconfuse the earlier subject and finish off the 2nd Dominated. You then Dominate the third and last guy to finish him off and move on to next group. With Confuse vs AI one application will get all but Bosses who require 2 applications. When faced with an already aggroed Boss, cast sleep before casting confuse. It'll give you time to recast it due to the single application of sleep most always affecting Bosses and with it's long base duration. When in teams, confuse the Bosses, or if the group is far too impatient or you're facing purple minions confuse multiple Lts, if all purple, you prob will only get 1 lt permanently held by reapplying confuse. You'll also keep yourself allot safe than trying to hold enemies for a few VERY short seconds. Confusing Sorcs and using TP Foe to string them along as you fight to heal you, give you status resist and hurricane/dark debuff your enemies is quite fun to play with as well. Makes your dull solo life into a funny and effective experience. Crey Medics also buff you with Clear Mind. Both are usually Lieutenants. With Confuse you can also battle lvl 32+ Controllers much more effectively. When a Controller summons a pet that pet naturally stays in melee range of it's master unless sent to attack a nearby foe. So, cast a Dominate on your Controller enemy and quickly confuse the pet. If that Controller uses Break Free or not, you'll still have finished your Confusing of a pet in melee ranged of a Controller. If he doesn't use a Break free, well, combining your ranged attacks with his pet's melee attacks will pretty much end'em very quickly before the hold timer runs out. if not, he'll spend much of his time trying to avvoid his own pet which is attached to'em at the hip, heh. Either way you've deal some damage to'em and can continue from there. If he dimisses the pet move in with your melee.
Mass Hypnosis (lvl 8) - Though a good power solo, it's use solo is limited to needed a group sleep. But with your 4 first Mind powers chosen, and even with just mez/dom/con, you can lock down any 3-6 member group without too much trouble. Some Longbow missions have multiple groups of 3 stuck close to each other which even when provoked can be taken down when backing up while casting your status affects. Eventually you'll get rid of a few of them to allow you to not take any more hits once they're down to about 4-6 which is an easy and manageable number. On average though as those groups are very rare and mostly in PvP zone missions, Mass Hypnosis works against itself. It's needed in large groups, yet those groups are for teams and in those teams are members who break sleep and enemies who have higher defense. MH has a reduced accuracy and lasts only as long as an unslotted Dominate. So unless you have large RP/Concept reasons for it or ONLY team, and are sure to 3 ACC slot it, you're going to regret it. Solo/PvE and any PvP, it's of no use for you. And for Team/PvE consistantly, it will only be of use in certain situations. I personally find it not to be any use to a Dominator, but you may like it and may be one who always ends up aggroing multiple groups. This is just a Guide after all so your choice.
Telekenesis (lvl 12) - It's basically a method of improving magnitude to hold bosses, to pin enemies with repel/hold toggle which can hold automatically any minions/lts and repels even the toughest bosses into a corner where AoEs/Cones can be most effective. It also has a near limitless range which can allow you to keep them pinned outside their firing range. So even if some Bosses can't be held the repel aspect may allow you to keep them pinned as a teammate uses Snipe again and again, or for a couple of Stalkers to get up close timing their attacks, who knows. What we do know is that TK drains end like mad, so 2-3 END enhancements are needed. 2 with Stamina, 3 without. It also has a nice recharge on it. so for PvE 1 RECH minimum is needed, 2 is definately needed for PvP as when hit with a status affect the toggle gets disabled. It's especially deadly if you have no rech facing a martial arts scrapper. With TK being your only anti-melee guarantee power, you need it to reactive when hit with a stun as quickly as possible. And to conserve end you'll also need the recharge as sometimes casting it for a few seconds at a time is all you can afford. This is of course of the earlier levels but still applies. When you get SOs you can pretty much keep it on 24/7 without losing end, but if you wonna attack while using it, Stamina is needed. When soloing TK is not really needed and very situational. However, in teams and when facing hard to hit targets TK becomes a godsend. In PvP, using it with Dominate or with Dom and Total Dom will allow you to Hold melees through their status resistances. You can also use it with Air Superiority to pin a former flyer. It has a rather large cone though so watch where your enemy is head, you do not want to provoke additional AI just to keep that target from fleeing. Also, after you deactivate it mind your surroundings, you don't want to keep pursueing any melees without TK recharged unless you have Terrify or the Prescance pool Fear powers to prevent them from meleeing you. Though sometimes you may want to close in on them with Bone Smasher/Dominate. Flight + TK now has been fixed to slow you into a Hover preventing you from encircling your enemy from above to keep them pinned into a spot on the open ground.
Total Domination (lvl 18) - Lasts about 10 seconds. The 30 seconds listed in the SherkSilver planner is wrong. It is an emergency power, or pre-aoe/cone attack power mostly to prevent mass damage to your or teammates. Also for use with Domination/Power Boost. It also has the option of being used in PvP to add some additional magnitude. In general though it requires allot of slots for very little results. I used it with 3 ACC, 3 RECH with Powerboost most times in PvE just because I could or in PvP when facing a Tanker or a particular mobile Scrapper and didn't wonna risk losing my Dominate stacks. It's exceptionally useful Duo-ing with Spines Stalkers. As they use their Spine Burst AoE all held Total Dom targets add 20% crit chance. It also allows a few seconds for the Stalker to escape after the Spine Burst around a corner. Attacking group sizes he normall wouldn't touch. Same goes for anyone using AoE/Cone attacks. But it's long recharge even with 3 RECH prevent is from being used more than once a blue moon sadly. I would recommend skipping it if you can. Even if taken most of your time will be spent without it anyways.
Terrify (lvl 26) - A large cone fear attack which lasts as long as Mesmerize but unlike it and MH it has the ability to rehold the targets after being attacked in only a few seconds later. It's recharge also allow you to perma-Fear a group of enemies so long as you have the ACC for it. 2-3 will do well, though it has a small acc penalty it's not too big to worry about for solo, for team, try placing 3 ACC if you have the slots. 1-2 RECH and 1-2 DUR will also do well. It's base properties work well towards the goal of perma-Fear without too much trouble. And on the bright side, Fear one of the least resisted properties, especially in PvP in which it can pin down Scrappers/Tankers in large numbers, which is actually quite common since most melee tend to all swarm on the ground around a target. And with terrify's massive and I mean MASSIVE cone, it can hit most of them, if not all of them. Which is great for Stalkers' offensive positioning, and any squishies in which the melee was trying to attack. In large teams, not the safest power to use off start as you will take the alpha, so wait to use it after someone aggros the entire group and then fear.
Mass Confusion (lvl 32) - The 'Dear God I wish I could Perma this' power. It will turn a crowd of hostiles into a crowd of corpses with one or two victors for you to hold/kill. With 3 ACC you can hit just about any red group and some purples. So it's a great teaming power. Actually excels in teaming and can be the reason for a team surviving a battle. Really want to use it at the start though to ensure it's duration is best used. And with Power Boost and/or Domination, Look Out! As for when teaming and facing multiple Bosses in the group, this is where Confuse comes in. With 2 Bosses. Confuse one Boss, Power Boost, Mass Confuse, then Confuse second Boss. This will stack confuse on both Bosses. You'll then be able to Confuse the third Boss if there is one. if third you're trying to confuse you probably won't be able to keep multiple Bosses confused but for the alpha portion of the fight you'll see allot of in-AI-damage with 3 Bosses going at it. With 2 Bosses you can keep them perma confused no problem. With Domination of course all that goes out the window. Domination, Power Boost, then Mass Confusion. you could confuse a group of 10 Bosses if you wanted. Mass Confusion also has a base duration which is not diminished like a normal AoE compared to a ST. So you're gonna love it when it's active. 3 ACC, 2 RECH and 1 DUR is the best combo. For PvP it becomes very situational since it's over the lvl 30 limit in Siren's Call. It does however do well when soling to grab scientists in Warburg's tunnels the Web. The Arachnoids are easily confused and usually consist of lts and if Bosses can be fixed with Confuse thrown into the fix. With invisibility or Stealth/Super Speed on your side you'll get those Warburg missile sin no time. Speaking of Warburg PvP, for those lvl 32+ Controllers and Dominators who like to use Pets, in particular the Fire Imps, well, one Mass Confusion later after an initial Dominate on the Controller/Dominator you're pretty much set. For non-Fire use just Confuse of course. Also for enemies that have tactics, the Mass Confusion and Confuse combination may be needed from time to time to land a Confuse on a couple pets. You can use Power Boost to ensure you get more than one. Also, be sure to ALWAYS hold the master first hand for even if he breaks out and attacks you quickly you'll have turned off his Tactics if he has it. Which half the Fire Controllers do unfortunately.
I will add the Energy Assault secondaries in a post below.