Do dominators suck like people say they do?
By
Aleshanee_NA,
Posted on: 2006-07-05 13:59 in Dominators
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Masterminds are sort of the other white Controller. They take the Controller's pet aspect and run wild with it, while retaining the same buff/debuff/heal secondaries. They're not quite entirely worked out yet I don't think, but I like the concept of them.
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One power available at level 32 doth not a pet class make. Controller pets are far more limited then what a master mind can do and is not what the other eight powers of each set being the basis of the archtype: holding foes.
Dominators get some of the same sets as Controllers along with the pets. Do you consider them a pet class as well?
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So where are the devs on this.
States in beta said he would be keeping a close eye on Dom's after all the Dom's are too weak calls.
Then they said in I7 they were still looking and here we are a month later and nothing said.
So where are the devs in all this, it seems like they really dont care much. Its like dom's dont have enough players to be worth spending time on.
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States plays a plant/psi Dom (I think), I don't know what level he is yet. Around the end of April, I started a Fire/Energy Dominator on Justice. I'm level 37 now.
Fun? You bet, and I've played all the AT's in both games at pretty much every level. Dominators are definitely my cup of tea.
States and I -still- keep a close eye on Dominators. Datamining supports SOME of the claims made on these boards, but refutes others. Personal experience with the AT also lends credibility to some of the complaints, while showing others are simply blown out of porportion.
I read a bunch of the posts in this thread, not all of them though (yet). A lot of users hit the nail on the head when stating that you can't think of Dominator as "CoV's Controller". We went through a lot of effort to make sure that the ATs played and felt different between the two games. Dominators give up a bit of control for some good direct damage attacks that Controllers would give their left mouse button for.
Then of course there is the Domination ability, which is the real Jekyl and Hyde of the AT. A mild-manner Dominator with a full Domination bar can, at his or her discretion, become an unstoppable machine of destruction and control. While it never lasts "long enough" (even I am disappointed at hearing the sound effect of it wearing off), I've had missions where I have gotten Domination off four times from mission-entry to having Mission Complete appear on the screen. Good times indeed.
We've got a nice tweak to the Domination ability coming down the pipe (it will crank up your Mez resistance while it is active), and are currently data-mining PvP to see what effect our last set of tweaks to the AT have had.
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Positron, the only problem I have with what you said is that States plays a Plant Dom. As I'm certain you know that Plant is arguably the strongest Dominator Primary out there.
Is there any chance that some of other Dom powersets could get some loving playtime from you guys? Grav doesn't feel right for Doms and I suspect it's because of the damage the set does in return for less control (as designed for Controllers and only exacerbated for Doms).
If you guys do test Grav dom out and find there's an issue... could you look at swapping the places of Dimension Shift & Wormhole? Foe Teleport & Knock powers all come early in one's career while foe intangible powers come at level 20+... except in Gravity in which case they come in reverse order when compared to the game world.
Virtue: multiple characters.
CoH/V: Woot! Maybe Fun is to be had once again.
Ack! RUN! Regen is glowing mean & green!
If it reduces you, it's a nerf.
If it buffs the mobs, it's challenge.
They are not the same.
I'd be interested to hear which complaints your personal play experience mirrors. In other words, what issues do you, personally see?
I have a 40 grav/psi and a mid-teens plant/thorns. I have 2 level 50 brutes, and a couple other level 40 characters. I'd like to start by saying that I do enjoy playing my dominators, but if pressed, the reality is that I do think as an AT, it does indeed "suck". While I'd prefer to phase it differently, that's the question that was asked.
I'm not so sure the underlying issue with Doms in general is going to be adressed with a mez resist boost when domination is up. But yet - I also don't think a 5% damage boost or a 20% control boost will do much for the AT either. Although I do enjoy playing my Dom, and find the playstyle (somewhat) unique, I really feel the AT is simply - for lack of a better word - redundant.
I think to best explain what I mean, you need to look at the relative value of a "control" primary (forget the secondary for a second) within the set of CoV AT's as a whole.
Consider brutes, who are often compared to tankers. In this very thread, someone tried to claim that they are not capable of tanking using some comparative numbers to try to back up the point. The basic problem with this type of thinking is that tankers and brutes do not exist within the same PvE game. Brutes, in addition to being able to easily outdamage tankers, are in a game where 4 of the 5 AT's have a damage dealing primary. Perhaps one could argue that a Brute can't tank quite as well as a tanker if you were to place him CoH, but my experience has been that for CoV, a brute is easily able to fill that role when teamed with other CoV AT's.
Dominators probably do have "enough" control to be effective in CoV if control is the goal - regardless of how the numbers compare to controllers in CoH. To me the issue simply comes down to how neccessary "control" is within CoV. As mentioned, I've leveled two brutes to 50 and not once within those 100 levels of play have I ever been in a situation where I "needed" something locked down. The single best use of a dominator I've come across is to boost stalker damage.
What I think when I read posts along the lines of "the team was having a horrible time until my dom showed up" is simply - must have been a pretty poor team. It seems likely to me that in every one of those cases, a brute, corruptor or MM probably would have improved the team as much if not more.
My favorite post in this thread was from the dom who was planning on (when he got to the RSF someday) handling the 8 AV pull using SoC and sleep. Make sure someone on your team has vengence. But post after post in thread after thread are similar - people saying how by doing X, Y and Z their dom completely "dominated" some PvE content. The funny thing is, in all of those situations a competent brute could just wade in. Or in some cases, a MM.
Perhaps it's just my playstyle, or the guys I regularly group with - but we all have leveled up doms (one even has a fire/fire) to 40 and have no real interest in getting them to 50. Once you've played 9 or 10 different CoV AT combos it's apparent that a control primary, at least within CoV, is something that really only shines on a bad team.
Take the RSF. I've read numerous reports about how a dom was able to hold an AV or two for some time. Yet my brute still has to be able to take the beating when they're not held. I'd rather see that team spot taken by someone who can either buff, debuff, handle agro or pump out damage the entire time to flatten out the difficulty curve rather than spike it.
I think dominators probably sounded good in theory, but in reality they would be much more valuable if they were a controller swap - "defender" primary and "controller" secondary. Getting pets at 38 plus some of the PPP options (and keeping the inherent exactly as domination currently is) would allow some nice damage in the 40-50 game, and much more value in future endgame content (that hopefully resembles RSF) as well as team PvP. It would also correct the glaring issue of corruptor love on the RSF. I can see why the devs went in the existing direction for concept - doms certainly seem more villainous than a flipped controller, but sometimes concept can take a backseat to gameplay.
One last thing, it's getting tiresome to continually reread from the same people over and over how "dominators are fine if you're smart enough to play them". Trust me, dominators are not difficult to play. While I've seen my share of poorly played doms (rofl - the other day on the kill Scirocco mission with all the mu, a dom kept ice slicking the mus), there's just as many poorly played brutes/corrs/stalkers/MMs out there.
I'm sorry if I come across as a hater, as that's not my intent. If anything, it's frustration. As mentioned, I enjoy the dominator playstyle, however I do not enjoy playing a character that - on a very solid team - I will without question be able to contibute less to its success than my teammates.
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We've got a nice tweak to the Domination ability coming down the pipe (it will crank up your Mez resistance while it is active), and are currently data-mining PvP to see what effect our last set of tweaks to the AT have had.
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Coming at this as an outsider (don't have a Dom yet) a little extra Mez protection for a Dom would make a lot of sense to me. Also these cries that Dominators are too week really does scare some of us away that would like to play one.
Here's a question, would the double damage that a controller does for a succesful hold be too much for a Dominator?
Don't mess with Texas!
--moo
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Here's a question, would the double damage that a controller does for a succesful hold be too much for a Dominator?
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Yeah, probably. It's at least semi-balanced for a Controller since they do only 55% of Blaster damage with a comparable power, and have very few direct-damage attacks with which to take advantage of Containment.
Dominators, OTOH, do 65% of Blaster damage at range, and 75% in melee. They also have a whole secondary powerset devoted to direct damage, and many of the powers have FAR higher Brawl Indeces than Controller damage powers (most controller powers are 2.778 BI, while Dominators have several 5+ BI attacks).
So yeah, Containment wouldn't really work for a Dominator.
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We've got a nice tweak to the Domination ability coming down the pipe (it will crank up your Mez resistance while it is active), and are currently data-mining PvP to see what effect our last set of tweaks to the AT have had.
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While this is unquestionably Nifty, I'm not sure it's the right direction to go in addressing the woes of the Dom AT. I think most of us will agree that Domination is already pretty sweet--it's just the rest of the time that we feel lacking. Making our brief periods of uberness more uber won't make the slog in between any better. I'd rather see something shore us up in the gaps.
Here's a thought: Keep the mez protection (I'm hoping it's protection, as opposed to resistance, which is much less nifty). Key it to the Domination bar, rather than the power. When the bar is full, and Domination is available, mez protection kicks in until the bar drops, or Domination is activated. This would present us with a tactical decision: Do I save the bar to keep the protective buff, or do I trigger Domination and go all megalomaniacal on my foes? More importantly, it would ease the frustration during those long periods when we're all sparkly and looking at the little dot of unrecharged Domination.
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Now there's a plan. My dom is still in the teens, but once that button lights up I feel like I have to press it or I'm wasting it. This is a really neat idea. I hope Posi is still reading.
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NOOOOO!!! I just created a Plant/Psi dominator and now we are told that Statesman is playing one. I better delete that character before I invest some time in it. Every character Statesman has played so far has been gutted after a time. Plant/Psi are DOOMED!
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Actually, a few months after States told us stories of his Gravity Controller, we got an AoE Wormhole and reduced animation times.
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So where are the devs on this.
States in beta said he would be keeping a close eye on Dom's after all the Dom's are too weak calls.
Then they said in I7 they were still looking and here we are a month later and nothing said.
So where are the devs in all this, it seems like they really dont care much. Its like dom's dont have enough players to be worth spending time on.
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States plays a plant/psi Dom (I think), I don't know what level he is yet. Around the end of April, I started a Fire/Energy Dominator on Justice. I'm level 37 now.
Fun? You bet, and I've played all the AT's in both games at pretty much every level. Dominators are definitely my cup of tea.
States and I -still- keep a close eye on Dominators. Datamining supports SOME of the claims made on these boards, but refutes others. Personal experience with the AT also lends credibility to some of the complaints, while showing others are simply blown out of porportion.
I read a bunch of the posts in this thread, not all of them though (yet). A lot of users hit the nail on the head when stating that you can't think of Dominator as "CoV's Controller". We went through a lot of effort to make sure that the ATs played and felt different between the two games. Dominators give up a bit of control for some good direct damage attacks that Controllers would give their left mouse button for.
Then of course there is the Domination ability, which is the real Jekyl and Hyde of the AT. A mild-manner Dominator with a full Domination bar can, at his or her discretion, become an unstoppable machine of destruction and control. While it never lasts "long enough" (even I am disappointed at hearing the sound effect of it wearing off), I've had missions where I have gotten Domination off four times from mission-entry to having Mission Complete appear on the screen. Good times indeed.
We've got a nice tweak to the Domination ability coming down the pipe (it will crank up your Mez resistance while it is active), and are currently data-mining PvP to see what effect our last set of tweaks to the AT have had.
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Posi thanks for the feedback and the changes to Doms since i7. I'm pretty sure that alot of the changes came from discussions in these forums (i.e. building Domination faster in PvP; reduced Domination recharge; the upcoming mez protection while Domination is active, etc) so I know that you guys are reading them at least.
IMHO the biggest obstacle to Doms is making a meaningful contribtion to teams when our primaries are largely negated. This is extremely apparent in PvP when opposing teams have mez protection buffs and also against EBs/AVs with purple triangles (esepcially in the Recluse Strike Force).
Personally I believe that Doms need a significant damage increase in our secondaries--even if it comes with the cost of nerfing our Domination damage bonus. Let us contribute something meaninful when we can't mez the AV or opposing player. I'm fine with our mez duration and I don't think the AT needs to be restructured, but I do believe that giving us a damage buff will at least give a fighting chance when our primary ability has gone down the drain.
In addition I'd love to see some changes to our Patron AoE attacks. IMHO these are the most redundant of all available Dom patron powers. Again, I think upping their damage would be a good start, but how about upping their secondary effects as well? i.e. Give Ghost Widow's AoE a massive Acc debuff or Scirocco's AoE a massive -Recovery.
So please please please consider nerfing the big damage boost we get with Domination and add it to our secondaries. Our damage is so sub-par in PvP that we're virtually defenseless against someone with a couple Break Frees. Even with a few Corrupters improving our survivability, we still can't reliably perform our primary function (control) against organized teams--at least make our damage something desirable as well.
Again thanks for finally giving the Dom forums some feeback!
I was not planning on handling the 8-hero pull, maybe you should go back and reread my post.
AoE Sleep, AoE Confuse, AoE Hold, AoE Immobilize, all with Domination popped. Somebody is going to be under a status effect at sometime. And when Statesman is tearing apart Manticore for 10 seconds I might pee myself a little 
Am I contributing as much as a corr in the situation? Sadly, no. But I'm not gimping the team.
It sounds like you're a min/maxer type a player, at least to the extent of 'Even though this AT isn't as good I'm going to Min/Max him'. Yeah Doms will never be part of the Min/Max crowd.
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We've got a nice tweak to the Domination ability coming down the pipe ( it will crank up your Mez resistance while it is active ), and are currently data-mining PvP to see what effect our last set of tweaks to the AT have had.
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While I'm not a huge fan of making an AT so dependant upon one power, This would be an incredible change. Hopefully the mez resistance will be something very significant.
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Then of course there is the Domination ability, which is the real Jekyl and Hyde of the AT. A mild-manner Dominator with a full Domination bar can, at his or her discretion, become an unstoppable machine of destruction and control
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I've long suspected that the peaks and valleys associated with being a dominator have been by design. Nice to get some verification of it.
Thanks for coming to post Positron. 
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I have *got* to remember to stop posting late at night.
Though I think the idea for mez protection while inside of Domination is awesome for PvP and makes sense for PvE, I do think we deserve some good tweaks outside of Domination--one, Controllers have double the amount of Control we have if you include their debuff sets, and two, they have far superior damage if you include their debuff sets, containment, and epic attacks.
If nothing will be done to Dominators outside of Domination, then at LEAST make our patron AoE attacks not be so horrible.
And I will echo many people when they say a lot of the time, Dominators are the ones who want Controller's damage and not vice versa. The only exceptions I can think of are Earth/anything or Something/FF. There are Controller builds that smoke our damage completely, which shouldn't be happening. If we gave up our control for damage that Controllers would give their left mouse button for, could that damage not be so, I dunno, unremarkable?
Sure, after 30 it gets better, but something I didn't know was a Controller with Containment can one shot a white con minion using their epic Power Blast. I'd give BOTH my mouse buttons to be able to one shot something at range. I can't even do that with Total Focus, not even to grays some of the time.
Mainly, though, I'm still reeling over the fact that Positron actually said Controllers would give anything to have our damage when it's clearly the opposite in most cases.
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Personally I believe that Doms need a significant damage increase in our secondaries--even if it comes with the cost of nerfing our Domination damage bonus. Let us contribute something meaninful when we can't mez the AV or opposing player. I'm fine with our mez duration and I don't think the AT needs to be restructured, but I do believe that giving us a damage buff will at least give a fighting chance when our primary ability has gone down the drain.
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I agree, and although this is likely to get me flamed intill golden brown, i say,
Buff Dominators Nurf Domination. i think we cant really expect to see any real improvment in our AT while domination has the ability to +% any changes made so greatly.
Contribution to large team is indeed the problem.
First, let's set aside seeds of confusion and Plant domination.
Now, CoV is a fast paced game. The ATs make short change of mobs because of the general high damage output.
Because of that, groups will go from fight to fight very quickly.
And because of that, it is impossible for a dominator to have reliable AoE crowd control every fight. Except plant. Earth could, but there is no earth doms.
Since the recharge of AoE holds is so slow, and that doms can't control every fight, well, that means that the teams must be able to handle a non-controlled mob. And if teh team can handle a non-controlled mob, well, err... they don't need you.
What of single holds and soft control?
You don't need a dom for that either. Many other ATs have single holds. Ice or Dark corruptors. Mastermind pets. Even brutes and stackers can stun opponents. Same for soft control. Is it normal that a /dark brute with oppressive gloom offers a more reliable control then a dom? Or a /dark MM with Fearsome Stare? How about Siren's Call from Sonic primary?
As a dominator, there are many situations where my teamates just plain outdid me when it came to controlling mobs.
I think that to help dominators, first and foremost:
1- Every set should have a Seeds of Confusion equivalent power (meaning a from of control that would be ready almost every fight). With Seeds, Spores, and Vines, and Creepers, the Plant dom can exerce some control every fight. Not so with the other sets.
2- The endurance issue must be solved. Using our attacks is a good way to lose a lot endurance fast. Even using Domination, i often run out of endo before Domination ends.
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Since the recharge of AoE holds is so slow, and that doms can't control every fight, well, that means that the teams must be able to handle a non-controlled mob. And if teh team can handle a non-controlled mob, well, err... they don't need you.
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you can even take it one step further and apply this same logic to the on/off nature of having a click inherent....
Also for a AT with no passive defence having alot of our good attacks melee ranged just seem plain stupid. this combined with the amount of aggro we get from a simple AoE hold...
My mind/psi dominator is okay, I struggled with her a lot in the 20's and if it hadn't been for a sg friend who plays dominators a fair bit taking me under his wing and duoing a lot I'd have abandoned her. As much to do with bad power choices as much as anything else.
I really wouldn't want to swap a single one of her powers for my controller though. My controller is very fun and outdamages my domi over the course of a mission with no problem! My domi is more comparable with my defender than a controller.
Thanks for posting, Positron. In spite of the fact that I disagree with most of what you said, it's good to see a Dev coming in here to talk.
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Dominators give up a bit of control for some good direct damage attacks that Controllers would give their left mouse button for.
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Huh? Uhhh... high-damage Controller primaries like Fire/ and Illusion/, using Containment, and especially post-41 with APP attacks, can smoke a Dominator in terms of damage dealt. Especially because they have a buff/debuff secondary that allows them to increase their own damage. I dunno about other Dom players, but my Mind/Energy would give HER left mouse button to be able to match a Mind/Kin in damage dealt.
Are there any posts on the Controller boards saying "I wish I had Dominator attacks"? Because there are plenty over here wishing for what Controllers get.
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Then of course there is the Domination ability, which is the real Jekyl and Hyde of the AT. A mild-manner Dominator with a full Domination bar can, at his or her discretion, become an unstoppable machine of destruction and control. While it never lasts "long enough" (even I am disappointed at hearing the sound effect of it wearing off), I've had missions where I have gotten Domination off four times from mission-entry to having Mission Complete appear on the screen. Good times indeed.
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Jekyl and Hyde is a great way to put it. I dunno, I'm not crazy about being largely ineffective when Domination isn't up. Especially when other ATs - like, say the Controllers we're not supposed to be comparing our performace to - have one that works ALL THE TIME.
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We've got a nice tweak to the Domination ability coming down the pipe (it will crank up your Mez resistance while it is active), and are currently data-mining PvP to see what effect our last set of tweaks to the AT have had.
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But wait, it gets better, we can look forward to Dominators becoming even more dependent on an inherent that's only active part of the time. Awesome! 
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Contribution to large team is indeed the problem.
First, let's set aside seeds of confusion and Plant domination.
Now, CoV is a fast paced game. The ATs make short change of mobs because of the general high damage output.
Because of that, groups will go from fight to fight very quickly.
And because of that, it is impossible for a dominator to have reliable AoE crowd control every fight. Except plant. Earth could, but there is no earth doms.
Since the recharge of AoE holds is so slow, and that doms can't control every fight, well, that means that the teams must be able to handle a non-controlled mob. And if teh team can handle a non-controlled mob, well, err... they don't need you.
What of single holds and soft control?
You don't need a dom for that either. Many other ATs have single holds. Ice or Dark corruptors. Mastermind pets. Even brutes and stackers can stun opponents. Same for soft control. Is it normal that a /dark brute with oppressive gloom offers a more reliable control then a dom? Or a /dark MM with Fearsome Stare? How about Siren's Call from Sonic primary?
As a dominator, there are many situations where my teamates just plain outdid me when it came to controlling mobs.
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Wow. As much as I hate the trend of people saying "QFT" without contributing anything else to the discussion, this is pretty much the root of the problems the Dominator AT has in PvE. (It gets a little messier in PvP, but I won't get into that.)
QFT.
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I read a bunch of the posts in this thread, not all of them though (yet). A lot of users hit the nail on the head when stating that you can't think of Dominator as "CoV's Controller". We went through a lot of effort to make sure that the ATs played and felt different between the two games. Dominators give up a bit of control for some good direct damage attacks that Controllers would give their left mouse button for.
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Huh! What? Has he played Controllers since containment??
Mind/Kinetics? Illusion/Rad? Hell, My Fire/Kinetics and Fire/Storm controllers solos like a dream, while Mind/Fire dominators is slow and steady..but...
I am astounded? What game is he playing??
People sometimes tell me I'm both pessimistic and paranoid but I think that's just because all you optimists are out to get me.
I have to ask exactly why it is that the Domination inherant is considered to be viable in a team when the fact is that you're attacking enemies less and less due to allies beating them up first. As it stands Domination and Fury do infact become diminished in a team situation compared to hero inherants which work equally well both on a team and while solo.
The fact is however that I think the difference between domination mode and normal mode is far too distant. Out of domination the AT is slow, sluggish and under performing as they deal defender grade damage and deal less than adequet control unless heavily slotted with SOs. Soon as Domination comes up they're god-like. Having to play for 10-15 minutes of tedium for 2-3 minutes of feeling powerful is not very enjoyable in my opinion.
As i said... Nurf Domination Buff Dominators...
Again I echo that the point is being missed by playing a plant dom, seeds of confusion is one of the best powers in the game and plant doms overpower all other dom primaries in the low to mid level game because of it.
As an aside, our SG has a team in which we all started the same toons at level 1, and only play these toons together one evening a week (currently level 17). Among the team of 8 are 3 doms, one mind, one fire and one plant. As the fire dom there is very little point in me taking any control powers, as all they do is incapacitate mobs that are shooting each other, and SoC seems to be up every fight.
Also Posi's only got to 37, so probably not solod that many Hero/AV cut down EBs. Most ATs can solo these, doms really struggle as their raison d'etre (control) just doesn't work because of the triangles. Also we tried a RSF with 2 doms, and really wished we had 2 more corruptors instead once we got to the last mish.
Compared to controllers, doms actually do way less damage because of containment, compare a fire/fire dom to a fire/kin troller. OK, both kick off with cinders then ? The dom uses his attacks for a reasonable amount of damage, the controller uses fulcrum shift, fireball (epic) etc with containment for mega damage.
Also not to be forgotten, many types of controller can buff their pets unlike doms which makes a huge difference.
Pleasure Demon 50 Fire/FF troller Freedom
and 70+ others including 7 other 50s across CoH/CoV
It's true. This game is NOT rocket surgery. - BillZBubba
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Masterminds are sort of the other white Controller. They take the Controller's pet aspect and run wild with it, while retaining the same buff/debuff/heal secondaries. They're not quite entirely worked out yet I don't think, but I like the concept of them.
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One power available at level 32 doth not a pet class make. Controller pets are far more limited then what a master mind can do and is not what the other eight powers of each set being the basis of the archtype: holding foes.
Dominators get some of the same sets as Controllers along with the pets. Do you consider them a pet class as well?
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Now, now, don't put words in my mouth. I never said the Controller was a "pet class". I simply said the Mastermind makes use of the pet aspect of Controllers and takes it to a new level.
That Dominators' primary power sets are all Controller primaries is also maybe part of the problem. Do you think it's any coincidence that Plant is considered the most balanced (I hesitate to use the word "best") primary when it was also the only one made specifically for Dominators? The devs want us to stop looking at Dominators as the "CoV Controller" but I certainly can't find much reason to do so.
Thanks for posting Positron. I have been one who has really complained about a lack of dev input to the Dom forums and I am glad that you finally gave us some feedback.
I love the idea of some Mez protection/resistance coming our way, but I think it misses some of the boat.
I like the theme since Posi's post of buffing Dominators, not Domination, but I don't think we need to Offer a Nerf to get a buff that we deserve.
Frankly, I think the problem with our control is not with us or our AT, but with the game. Too many other CoV ATs can attain good control without giving up anything. Also, there are too many unimaginative game mechanics in place to gimp control. Reduce the effectiveness of or remove entirely Corruptor control powers and come up with better answers for Break Frees, Suppression and Purple Triangles and I think any and all control complaints will go away.
Our secondary sets are where we need AT internal changes. Our damage is just sub par. It is sad to join a team, attack a mob and have the one or two enemies that you focus on continually finished off for you by a Brute or Corruptor.
Dominators don't need mitigation from their secondaries. Even if they did, there's ice (slows), psi (-recharge), and fire and elec (death).
-Talen_Lee commenting on Energy Assault's Utility
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That Dominators' primary power sets are all Controller primaries is also maybe part of the problem. Do you think it's any coincidence that Plant is considered the most balanced (I hesitate to use the word "best") primary when it was also the only one made specifically for Dominators? The devs want us to stop looking at Dominators as the "CoV Controller" but I certainly can't find much reason to do so.
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So true. Just take Gravity. 2 powers that are attacks when Dominators get an attack secondary? Lack of thinking there.
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So where are the devs on this.
States in beta said he would be keeping a close eye on Dom's after all the Dom's are too weak calls.
Then they said in I7 they were still looking and here we are a month later and nothing said.
So where are the devs in all this, it seems like they really dont care much. Its like dom's dont have enough players to be worth spending time on.
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States plays a plant/psi Dom (I think), I don't know what level he is yet. Around the end of April, I started a Fire/Energy Dominator on Justice. I'm level 37 now.
Fun? You bet, and I've played all the AT's in both games at pretty much every level. Dominators are definitely my cup of tea.
States and I -still- keep a close eye on Dominators. Datamining supports SOME of the claims made on these boards, but refutes others. Personal experience with the AT also lends credibility to some of the complaints, while showing others are simply blown out of porportion.
I read a bunch of the posts in this thread, not all of them though (yet). A lot of users hit the nail on the head when stating that you can't think of Dominator as "CoV's Controller". We went through a lot of effort to make sure that the ATs played and felt different between the two games. Dominators give up a bit of control for some good direct damage attacks that Controllers would give their left mouse button for.
Then of course there is the Domination ability, which is the real Jekyl and Hyde of the AT. A mild-manner Dominator with a full Domination bar can, at his or her discretion, become an unstoppable machine of destruction and control. While it never lasts "long enough" (even I am disappointed at hearing the sound effect of it wearing off), I've had missions where I have gotten Domination off four times from mission-entry to having Mission Complete appear on the screen. Good times indeed.
We've got a nice tweak to the Domination ability coming down the pipe (it will crank up your Mez resistance while it is active), and are currently data-mining PvP to see what effect our last set of tweaks to the AT have had.
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>.<
Once again the other squishy ATs get short-shifted on the mezzing.
Is it really tough to understand that having absolutely no mezz protection as Defenders, Corruptors and Mastermind (innately per AT) really sucks? Even my Warshade and Peacebringer become limp noodles from Crey billy clubs that detoggle.
Probably one of my greatest abilities in Dark Miasma is utterly *USELESS* in the post-40 game, because there is such a prevaliance of mezzing that I can't keep it up long enough even on solo to use it.
Gah. I wonder why I even bother. It's obvious that you guys think that a little bit of mezz protection against minions would totally imbalance the game in the high level instead of just remove the greater aggravation of retoggling that everyone else has to do.
Still here, even after all this time!