This list reflects the community's belief about what the current Dominator issues are. What's on this list affects you, because the devs are sure to look here when they want to balance Dominators. So, read the list, report new issues, verify discussed issues, and state your opinion.
To ensure the quality of the list, and to make sure that it accurately reflects community feelings, there are strict criteria for an issue to be added to the list. A simple bug-type issue requires two people to confirm that it is a bug, and no reliable negative confirmations. Basic power balance issues, eg "Animation time of Propel is too long", require strong support from many community members, and no serious objections. Bigger balance issues, eg "Snipe powers are not particularly useful" require overwhelming community support, possibly in the form of their own forum threads, and no major objections. Suggestions to change the effects of a power, not just values of existing effects, eg "Propel should have a chance to disorient.", will not be included in this list, because of the difficulty in obtaining community consensus. The criteria for removing an issue from the list are the same as for adding it to the list.
I have intentionally chosen not to classify the issues as bug, quality of life, etc. This is because I doubt this would help the dev team beyond indicating what is most important to the community, and that getting agreement on what is most important is an impossible task. Furthermore, the standard classifications are too subjective for many of the issues.
Some of the items on this list are unlikely to be addressed because they present significant effort due to technical considerations. However, these are still kept on the list because they remind the devs that they are still problems; it prevents players from repeatedly reporting the same issues; and it informs the community of some problems they may not be aware of.
Problem Arises
Add it to the issues list?
Bickering instead.
---Gail_Sieht
General Issues
<ul type="square">[*]Dominators are at a disadvantage when facing most Arch Villains and Heroes (AVs), even in their Elite Boss forms, due to the special mez protection represented by the "Purple Triangles of Doom" (PToD). This is inappropriate since AVs are the most important team content in the game and Dominators are labelled as team-support, being the only villain archetype without a damage primary.
The PToD provide AVs very strong protection to most control effects for 50 of every 75 seconds, during which time most solo Dominators cannot provide meaningful damage mitigation. For the other 25 seconds they have boss level protection to control effects and a solo Dominator can easily keep them held, but the control effects available to all other ATs, notably knockdown, are also effective, making the Dominator's contribution redundant. Unfortunately, if a team is able to survive 50 seconds without control they are typically quite capable of surviving indefinitely without it because they are depending on other means of damage mitigation. Finally, the time when control is ineffective cannot be chosen, reducing tactical options.
Additionally, a Dominator's damage output is also hampered in AV fights, since the best damage comes from melee attacks, but it is extremely dangerous to enter melee range with an uncontrolled AV.
The PToD were created before Dominators, when Controllers were the control AT. They made sense then, because Controller's secondaries are still very valuable in AV fights, but do not any longer because the Dominator's needs are different.[*]The Purple Triangles of Doom, which are very important to Dominators, are too difficult to see.[*]Arch Villains and Heroes have more mez protection when down-graded to Elite Bosses, because their base mez protection is higher (6 for EBs, 4 for AVs).[*]Contribution against enemies with PToD doesn't scale smoothly with the number of Dominators. If there aren't enough Dominators to hold the enemy through the PToD, then their contribution isn't that great, while if there are enough, any more don't contribute a lot. This is because the PToD have only two states, rather than varying more continuously.[*]Sometimes during Domination, the big orange DOMINATION will appear when the Dominator has not cast a control power. There appear to be several possible causes: pets, damage ticks, or the reapplication of control powers such as Strangler retaking effect after its target has been knocked back.[*]The pet window is difficult to find. Ideally it should appear automatically when a pet is summoned, but enabling the UI option by default for Dominators would also help.[*]Domination brings Dominators too close to their damage cap, when combined with Fiery Embrace, Build Up, or Aim. This means they benefit less from damage buffs than other ATs.[/list]
Power Issues
Common Issues
<ul type="square">[*]The AoE holds are very disappointing. There is nothing for which they are particularly well suited, instead there are several things they can do poorly. What's worse is that they must be heavily enhanced to achieve this mediocrity. The structure of missions and consistency of spawn sizes means that most fights are against a single spawn, with the occasional 2 or 3 spawn fight. As an emergency power in a multi-spawn fight, they fall flat because their duration is too short to give the team time to deal with the situation. Their place is clearly not every-spawn control, since there are other powers for that purpose, and that would be overpowered. Naturally there are other possible uses, none of which are particularly impressive: they can be stacked with the single target hold to deal with bosses, but of course Domination is far superior for that; multiple Dominators can alternate them to get every spawn control, which would be an odd tactic given that there would be several other control options available.[*]Snipe powers are not particularly useful to Dominators. Our crowd control powers provide much better openers for battles. Snipes don't fit well in an attack chain with melee attacks, because of the greater risk of interruption at melee range. They do grant additional flexibility, but most come too late for that to be meaningful; by level 35 our tactics are pretty well defined.[*]Powers should state in the description if they are autohit in PvE, but take accuracy enhancements for PvP, otherwise people cannot make well-informed slotting decisions. Powers affected include Smoke.[*]Pool powers are boosted by Domination, but don't float the "DOMINATION" message. Affected powers include Flurry, Boxing, Intimidate, and Invoke Panic.[*]AoE immobilizes can be a pain point for new Dominators. They are always the first AoE control power available, usually at level 2, which makes them very enticing. But misusing them on teams is a death-sentence because they can cause the entire spawn to attack the Dominator. This is particularly problematic in low levels when fewer characters have AoE powers and there is no aggro control. They protect their targets from a variety of control effects, making them more dangerous, and giving them little option but to immediately turn around and attack someone, usually the hapless Dominator. The problem could be somewhat alleviated by explaining in the power description that affected foes are still able to attack.[*]Many of the Dominator mez animations are difficult to see, sometimes don't show, or get overridden by others. This is problematic because visual cues are an extremely important part of combat. The specific problems are outlined throughout the issues list, but the primary concerns are the hold animations for Fire, Gravity, and Mind which disappear when the mob is held by another power, are turned off by knockback, are incorrect in some cases for mobs holding guns and sometimes do not happen at all for unknown reasons. Replacing the mentioned emote-style hold animations with obvious rooted style animations would go a long way to solving the problem.[*]The Domination help text no longer mentions that it grants status protection.[*]The AoE immobilizes (Stone Cages, Fire Cages, Crushing Field, Frostbite, Roots) do not inflict -Fly if they are the first power used in a combat. This was observed against Goldbrickers in Cap au Diable. The -Fly from Roots does kick-in when the mobs return fire.[*]The patron attacks (Dark Obliteration, Disruptor Blast, Bile Spray, Ball Lightning) are all extremely disappointing. Counter to the intent of epic powers, they do not provide any abilities not already available in Dominator's primary or secondary (ranged AoE is not significantly different from cone or PBAoE). In fact they are numerically weaker than the cone attacks already available in the secondaries, due to their excessive recharge times. Additionally, the one virtue of these attacks - range - is at odds with the Dominator's partial melee role.[*]Power Boost recharge feels too long, and does not seem to follow standard rules when compared to Blaster and Controller versions.[*]Visuals for status effects (like the purple bubbles of Confuse) are not lasting the full duration of the effect. It seems that they disappear after the base duration of the power, rather than lasting the full enhanced duration.[*]Some pet powers are missing buff icons: Quicksand, Bonfire, Ice Slick, Carrion Creepers, Thorntrops, Summon Seer, Summon Coralax, Summon Guardian, Summon Tarantula.[*]In Warburg some pets will spontaneously do animations. This is most noticeable with Fly Trap which will replay the spawning animation, or Jack Frost which does a little combat ready stance change.[/list]Earth Control
<ul type="square">[*]Fossilize activation time is longer than root time and animation time.[*]Salt Crystals plays its ending animation part way through the effect when boosted by Domination.[*]Earthquake root time is much longer than activation time.[*]Earthquake is mislabelled Ice Slick in the Pet Hit Rolls channel.[*]Volcanic Gasses is mislabelled in the Pet Hit Rolls channel.[*]Vocanic Gasses doesn't report misses in the Pet Hit Rolls channel.[/list]Fire Control
<ul type="square">[*]Char and Cinders animations are too subtle, especially when the target is also affected by Smoke.[*]A foe held with Char or Cinders who is knocked back does not return to the regular choking animation after standing up.[*]Smoke should take range enhancements.[*]Hot Feet inflicts -Fly on enemies, but this is not stated in either the long or short description.[*]Flashfire's disorient effect occasionally allows mobs a short action, such as a movement, weapon draw or even an attack. This appears to happen because mobs are released from the disorient when they are not grounded, including falling off very small ledges common in caves. It does not make sense for the disorient to lose effect because the mobs isn't grounded.[*]Bonfire's appearance is unimpressive, especially when compared with the large 3D Spirit Tree.[/list]Gravity Control
<ul type="square">[*]Gravity's lack of early practical AoE control means that it can only provide negligible team-support before level 26 when Wormhole becomes available. This is problematic because the Dominator's intended role is team-support. In early levels the single target controls are sufficient damage mitigation for the solo Dominator, but bring no meaningful damage mitigation for a team, especially considering how short control duration is at low levels. The early AoE controls are Crushing Field, which suffers from the problem of all immobilizes, that it actually makes affected enemies more dangerous (see the AoE immobilize issue for details); Gravity Distortion Field, which suffers from the problem of all AoE holds, it isn't useful as every spawn control; and Dimension Shift which is difficult for many teams to work with, since affected foes cannot be attacked. This disparity of AoE control is typically explained as a trade-off for the extra damage of Propel, but this isn't appropriate for Dominators, who have an assault secondary.[*]The hold and immobilize visual effects are too similar. Often the hover associated with the hold does not occur correctly, making it difficult to identify if a target is held or immobilized.[*]Lift's damage is significantly less than that of Levitate, although most other aspects of the power are very close.[*]Gravity Distortion's hold effect occurs a long time after casting, giving the target plenty of time to move or attack before they are held.[*]Gravity Distortion and Gravity Distortion Field animations don't always occur correctly, the held enemy does not always hover.[*]Gravity Distortion and Gravity Distortion Field animations are too subtle.[*]When Gravity Distortion is enhanced with Recharge Reduction enhancements, it is listed as boosting the Slow effect of the power.[*]Propel activation time is far too long.[*]Propel does knockback, but this is not listed in the description.[*]Propel shows different objects to different players, which negatively affects immersion and role-playing.[*]The caster should be able to end the effects of Dimension Shift early. (Similarly to the way Phase Shift is implemented as a timed toggle.) This is unlikely to be addressed due to technical limitations.[*]The Dimension Shift icon has the four cornered border of a single target power, but it's a targeted AoE.[*]Dimension Shift is difficult to work with. The bright glow animation is counterintuitive and highlights mobs for attack, rather than discouraging it. Targetting unphased mobs is difficult, because they must be located visually, but they are obscured in the bright glow of the phased mobs. Other options for locating unphased mobs are not available or practical because the phased mobs can still be targetted and attacked, and the "UNAFFECTED" message is subtle and only occurs after an attack has been wasted.[*]Targets aggroed by Wormhole have the opportunity to attack the caster prior to being disoriented if they have line of sight when it is cast. Most other mez powers don't allow this initial attack. [*]Singularity accepts intangibility enhancements, and yet has no intagibility powers.[*]Singularity makes too much noise when foes protected from knockback by Gravity Distortion are in its Repel field.[/list]Ice Control
<ul type="square">[*]Ice Control lost some effectiveness relative to the other control primaries when it was ported over from Controllers. Specifically two of its fast recharging AoE control powers, Shiver and Arctic Air, were reduced in effectiveness, but are not in any way improved by Domination.[*]Ice Control benefits less from Domination because it has no fast recharging effective damage mitigation power which is boosted by Domination (like Flashfire, Wormhole, or Seeds of Confusion). [*]Arctic Air's confuse effect is not boosted by Domination.[*]Arctic Air's confuse effect does not generate any visual effect on affected targets. The purple bubbles of the other confuse effects should appear.[*]Arctic Air accepts Fear enhancements, while neither Hot Feet, nor the Controller versions do. Furthermore it's unclear if the enhancements actually do anything.[*]Ice Slick disappears if the caster is defeated, which is counter intuitive given the power's description, and a weakness compared with similar soft controls in the other sets.[*]Flash Freeze compares very poorly with the other sleep powers when comparing recharge, duration, and range.[*]The visual effects of Flash Freeze and Glacier are difficult to distinguish.[*]Jack Frost acts very strangely if there are enemies directly above him. He tries to find a way to melee with them, and basically just runs around if that's not possible and achieves nothing.[/list]Mind Control
<ul type="square">[*]When chain sleeping a foe with Mesmerize, they sometimes wake up and attack before the next sleep takes effect. This is unlikely to be addressed due to technical limitations.[*]Dominate and Total Domination animations are too subtle.[*]Foes with pistols drawn (eg RIP) do not perform the correct animation when held by Dominate or Total Domination.[*]A foe held with Dominate who is knocked back does not return to the regular "Aah my head!" animation after standing up.[*]The Telekinesis anchor should be clearly identified, like it is for other anchored powers.[*]Telekinesis pushes enemies partly through walls rather than only against them.[/list]Plant Control
<ul type="square">[*]Strangler activation time is longer than root time and animation time.[*]Entangle and Roots grant -Fly, but cannot be activated against flying enemies. Roots can still hit flying enemies, as long as its target is grounded. This makes Plant Control the only primary without a practical -Fly power, and creates an additional annoyance having powers that sporadically can't be activated.[*]Strangler has multiple disadvantages when compared to the other single target holds, it has the longest activation time, and unlike the other long-activating holds does not have a secondary effect. This is inappropriate for a power that is so critical to the control sets, especially against the toughest enemies.[*]Spore Burst animation is very subtle, unlike the obvious ZZZ of Mind Control.[*]The immovable Spirit Tree doesn't fit well in a game designed for action, where battles are dynamic, fast paced, and where players progress rapidly inside missions.[*]Spirit Tree obscures vision and blocks movement far too much. (Make it smaller, make it intangible?)[*]Some Carrion Creepers damage ticks appear in grey rather than orange.[*]Carrion Creepers continues to generate damage ticks on defeated enemies.[*]Carrion Creepers pet names are always visible. This is irritating since there are so many of them, and there's not much useful that can be done with them anyway.[*]Carrion Creepers causes knockdown, but also protects enemies from that effect with it's immobilize powers.[*]When being affected by Carrion Creepers in PvP the debuff icon is misnamed "Bramble".[*]When being affected by Carrion Creepers in PvP the debuff icon reports a -Res debuff, but not -Jump, which is contrary to the short and long power descriptions.[*]The presence of a Carrion Creepers pet is not indicated in any way (Pet Window or buff icon), nor does it obey the release_pets command, which makes some usages difficult, such as knowing when it's safe to stealth.[*]Carrion Creepers detailed info shows very high damage.[*]Fly Trap will not engage in combat in some circumstances. It appears to be related to her distance from the enemy. The problem exhibited itself when I ran up to the enemy with her behind me, and immediately confused or held them all with the first attack; she would stop a distance away from them, possibly out of range for her attacks, but not so far from me that she felt the need to move, and would just stand there doing nothing.[*]Fly Trap uses Entangle power regularly, which negates knockdown of Carrion Creepers.[*]Fly Trap largely negates the utility of Spore Burst, since it will wake up sleeping enemies with its AoE attacks.[*]Fly Trap's Entangle power is marked as a Fire attack in the detailed info instead of a lethal attack.[/list]Electricity Assault
<ul type="square">[*]Electricity Assault has no power with a 64% chance to drop toggles in PvP.[*]Electricity Assault blasts always appear to hit the target, even when they are missing.[*]Charged Bolt's animation has the hand extended for noticeably longer than the electricity effect.[*]Charged Brawl's animation alternates fists, and yet electricity only appears on one fist.[*]Static Discharge does not accept EndMod invention sets. [*]Voltaic Sentinel does not last long enough. Resummoning it every minute makes the power a source of irritation.[*]Voltaic Sentinel's damage doesn't appear in the Pet Damage Inflicted channel.[*]Voltaic Sentinel is Scourging. (Without Scourge its damage output may become an issue.)[/list]Energy Assault
<ul type="square">[*]Energy Assault has unacceptably low damage compared to the other assault sets, with non-existant AoE damage and marginal at best single target damage, all in commonly resisted damage types.[*]Total Focus has a frustratingly long delay before reporting a miss.[/list]Fiery Assault
<ul type="square">[*]Incinerate compares poorly with the other second tier melee attacks. It is entirely DoT, which takes 10 seconds to happen, and yet only does slightly more damage. The Brute and Tanker versions of Incinerate have endurance discounts and improved damage relative to similar attacks.[/list]Icy Assault
<ul type="square">[/list]Psionic Assault
<ul type="square">[*]Psionic Dart's activation time is too long for such a low damage quick recharging attack.[*]Telekinetic Thrust is too weak. Being a melee attack makes it hard to use, and the animation time is prohibitive in a set already full of long animation attacks.[*]The long travel time of Mental Blast means that it is an often wasted attack.[*]Drain Psyche's recovery buff is resistable, meaning ally buffs which grant protection from recovery debuffs will reduce the recovery it grants.[*]Subdue does not have 100% chance to immob, but Impale from Thorny Assault does.[/list]Thorny Assault
<ul type="square">[*]The Thorny redraw effect interferes with movement. There is a notable pause when drawing the thorns while flying, and a slight twitch when retracting them while running, jumping, or flying.[*]Fling Thorns lethal damage is too low compared to other cone attacks.[*]Imaple does not inflict -Jump, as stated in the description.[*]The immobilize effect of Impale is not buffed by Domination. The "DOMINATION" message doesn't appear, mag is not increased, and duration is not increased.[*]Thorn Barrage doesn't accept Defense Debuff IOs or IO sets.[/list]Leviathan Mastery
<ul type="square">[/list]Mace Mastery
<ul type="square">[*]The Poisonous Ray damage resistance debuff doesn't stack on the same target, which is not mentioned in any description, including the plaques.[/list]Mu Mastery
<ul type="square">[*]Power Sink should not accept taunt enhancements.[*]Mu Guardian should prioritize healing its summoner before other pets.[/list]Soul Mastery
<ul type="square">[*]Dark Consumption should not accept taunt enhancements.[*]Dark Consumption's recharge is excessively long. In particular, it compares poorly to Power Sink. Furthermore, the original plaques listed a 3 minute recharge, which caused some people to choose the patron in error.[/list]
PvP Issues
<ul type="square">[*]Having high damage powers late in the secondary makes the Dominator weak when malefactored for PvP, notably in Siren's Call and Bloody Bay.[*]Suppressing extra player graphics hides hold and other mez graphics on enemy players, making it difficult to see what is happening.[*]Pets are problematic in PvP, they tend to attack the wrong enemies, they are slow to get to the fight, and their long recharge means they often won't be there for a Dominator who is defeated regularly.[*]Slows have less practical effect against jumping than running or flying.[/list]
Invention Issues
<ul type="square">[*]None of the Pet Damage invention sets have recharge reduction, which is the third desirable attribute for Dominator pets, and instead they have endurance reduction which is much less useful.[*]Stupefy: Chance for Knockdown negates the teleport of Wormhole.[*]Poisonous Ray does not accept Defense Debuff IO sets.[*]Some procs do not activate in Carrion Creepers, specifically Positron's Blast: Chance for Energy Damage, Trap of the Hunger: Chance for Lethal Damage, and Debilitative Action: Disorient Bonus. However, Impeded Swiftness: Chance for Smashing Damage was activating.[*]Invention sets which were new in I11 are available as slotting options for pets (Fly Trap accepts Defense Debuff, Singularity accepts Knockback), while older sets are not (Jack Frost doesn't accept Hold or Slow; Singularity doesn't accept Immobilize or Hold; Fly Trap doesn't accept Immobilize). Either non Pet Damage sets should be forbidden, or all appropriate sets should be made available.[/list]
Please post comments/additions in the discussion thread. Do not post to this thread.
Please post comments/additions in the discussion thread. Do not post to this thread.