Dominators are by far the least played AT, usually when you do /sea, about 1/10 of villains online are dominators.
I'm not sure whether people think that they're gimpy controllers, or do crappy damage or what, but mine certainly rocks.
That should be 'unpopular' 
And dominators are the least played class. Most agree that they're underpowered until they get their pet, and most people don't have that kind of patience. I've probably seen about 5 doms tops in the union server... EVER. And i'm one of them. (I know there's more, but i'm in the mid-20 range, where most will have given up)
The holds are ok, but the aoe holds are a joke (at least the grav power mass distortion is..). The damage output is laughable. With my /psi dom, i'll hit for about 10 dmg with dart, 30 with probe, 25 with scream e.t.c. We only really start up with powers like subdue, psychic shockwave e.t.c, but then it's nearly the end of the levels.
But I still love mine. 
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Most agree that they're underpowered until they get their pet,
[/ QUOTE ]Pets? We don't need no stinkin' pets!
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That should be 'unpopular'
And dominators are the least played class. Most agree that they're underpowered until they get their pet, and most people don't have that kind of patience. I've probably seen about 5 doms tops in the union server... EVER. And i'm one of them. (I know there's more, but i'm in the mid-20 range, where most will have given up)
The holds are ok, but the aoe holds are a joke (at least the grav power mass distortion is..). The damage output is laughable. With my /psi dom, i'll hit for about 10 dmg with dart, 30 with probe, 25 with scream e.t.c. We only really start up with powers like subdue, psychic shockwave e.t.c, but then it's nearly the end of the levels.
But I still love mine.
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*boggles*
I play a grav/enr and regularly and I have no such problems. In fact I team with another grav/enr regularly and she has no problems either.
Holds are a joke, sorta, but they're really not! If you're grav, GET DIMENSION SHIFT. If people whine, tell them to shut it because it's one of the most useful powers in a grav dominators repertoire if used properly. It recharges way faster than Gravity Distortion Field, it's way more accurate, it lasts way longer, and it doesn't really need to be slotted. ... AT ALL.
Slot GDF for acc and recharge, add holds only after having 2 acc and 2 recharge SOs. I won't have it 6 slotted until level 40 just because it's not that good. Still, you now have two holds. DS and GDF, between those and powerboost you can effectively hold mobs long enough for a team to make quick work of them.
DS is particularly effective since it never hits boss mobs. If you have an elite boss with a troop of 12 other lts and minions around them, powerboost and drop a dimension shift on them. Gauranteed the boss will be unaffected but most of the mobs will be because its inherently pretty damn accurate (no penalty like GDF). Then the whole group can safely pile on the boss, and once he's dead (apply GDF where appropriate if DS wears off) mop up the other mobs.
Power boost can turn DS or GDF in a very scary hold. If you stack domination and power boost on GDF, you can expect a very short lived very easy fight.
Meanwhile single target holds can be used on bosses like tank swipers and smashers, rikti comm officers, lost anathema/pariah/abberants, demon lords and more to keep them out of the battle and from killing teammates until the swathes of minions are dealt with. GD is your best friend.
Next up blasting. No problems with that here. Between power bolt, power blast, propel, bonesmasher and total focus and SOs I have no problem dishing it out. I've dealt 200 damage easy just with one total focus hit in groups, and sometimes my propel and TF go over that 200 with appropriate debuffs and domination.
Incidentally, there's more control for you there. Bonesmasher has a disorient chance and TF a huge disorient chance. Stack them on a boss and watch them stagger around.
Use wormhole and whirling hands to stack AoE disorient on top of decent AoE damage. Apply crushing field if you're feeling frisky and want just that extra nudge of damage.
Use crushing field on big groups of held mobs to help your corruptor's AoE take them out even faster. With proper debuffs and/or domination you can do over 500 damage with this power not slotted for damage.
As far as normal blasty? Like I said, between my melee and blast powers once I have them all and slotted, I'll have a total brawl index of... *calculates* 65. There'll be 20 in TF, 15 in sniper shot, 10 in propel. As a grav/enr I can keep up with a corruptor when it comes to single target damage. They outblast me if they get scourge, I outblast them if I get domination.
Heck, I see my dominator as a controller, blaster, and bosskiller all in one. And a good one. I can't compete with my group's corruptor for AoE damage (but help it along a bit) but single target damage I can compete, control is really great between wormhole, DS, GDF and stackable disorient melee powers, and once my AoE hold usefulness wears off you can bet I'll be all over the nastiest bosses you can find to keep their eyes on me and off my teammates.
I'm 31 now and I feel so powerful that sing almost will feel like a nicity. I can 2 or 3 hit white con minions, rip apart bosses while keeping them held and I can squeeze enough control out to save everyone's behind in a bad situation most of the time.
Maybe I just took the winning combination of powersets? 
Although I will admit my damage didn't really take off until I got to a higher level, top twenties. SOs help a lot. Before that you are a slightly gimped controller...
But after it you're a force to be reckoned with which needn't feel inferior to any other AT.
Heck, maybe I should write a guide to grav/enr doms, just to show people that they are in fact very powerful and teams would be very pleased to have one on board.
I team with Augury a lot and, quite frankly, it's fugging scary how much more effective a team becomes when a Dominator's about, never mind two.
Player deaths are significantly decreased due to the holds, Bosses and Lts are picked apart a great deal easier....etc. Yes, they lag behind in terms of damage, but they're a team player; an effective team becomes some sort of juggernaut of unholy destruction when Doms get involved.
I don't think they are less popular than I expected pre-release....
Controllers were one of the least popular COH ATs (I think they tied with defenders). Split that population into shiny pet wrangler (that also solos really well) and something with the control aspect and mediocre damage (compared to most other ATs, at the lower levels) and it is roughly what I'd expect. That being said, I've been on teams where I've parked my corruptor/brute because ... dagnabbit, we need a dominator for this ...
They really only shine in large teams where they split huge sized mobs into bite sized chunks (they can certainly be effective elsewhere, but every time I've had team mates actually rave about my dominator it has been in huge pitched battles where half the room get locked/slept/pushed away). I expect once they get into the 30s, things get a lot better. Anyone who played a controller in COH pre-I (4?5?) and containment knows what that is like...
EDIT: the damage feels mediocre, apart from when in domination. It averages out to about the same but doesn't feel that way (to me at least). I imagine at higher levels it all comes together beautifully but after soloing a controller (mainly) up to 32 pre-containment, I'll stick with SMASHing things solo unless there's a good team going ... in which case my dominator is my favourite villain.
Synaesthetix:if your mum wasn't already dead I would go kill her for bringing
you into the world
My dominator is a bit squshy but doesn't feel underpowered. I'm quite happy with it. In PvP my dominator does better than my controller.
I really should do something about this signature.
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Anyone who played a controller in COH pre-I (4?5?) and containment knows what that is like...
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Ah the good old days, lvling was non exstant pre pets, and after, really was the most powerful AT to play, 32 lvls of real pain to be almost god like was what put most ppl off, but not i!
I stopped playing my dominator for a while cause I feel he's underpowered(mind/en) in both holding and damage.. But he's only lvl 12. I had big hopes in regards of dominators in general but..
I hope this is either a case of dominators blooming late or that devs made cov characters weak at the start so they could buff them upcoming issues instead of nerf..
I dont feel underpowered with either dominator, though pre SO's its harder work than it needs to be, maybe.
SO's made more of a difference than the pet did for me, the pet just made soloing nicer, hasn't really helped as much in team play
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Wha hey!
I love my Dominator!!!!
It's quite satisfying.
Generally I tend to pick up teams on my own instead of the usual waiting around to see if anyone will pick you out of the crowd.
Playing a Mind dom, it's a bit harder since pple don't seem to understand that the ZZZZ means their sleeping and if you hit them with an AOE they'll all wake up. 
But you live and learn.... Or die horribly in most cases.
I know a few other Dom's, but not many either.
There's nothing more powerful than 2 Dom's that know what their about and how to play together though.
Me and a friend could hold off 3 mobs while the rest of the team is happilly pummeling away.
Most helpful in those little scraps where you'r already in over your head and out pop's an ambush.
(I love TK)
I've been checking here everyday myself and was pretty much thinking of posting the same little thread as it's inordinately boring in here, but the General Threads are occupying me enough.
All hail the Dominators!!!!
I have an ice/ice and while I like it, there are a few problems. Some general, some with specific powers.
I don't mind the primary (except for the AoE hold which IS a joke). However, I'm lucky to have Power Boost in my secondary, and Domination makes up for decreased hold durations. So there I think it's a draw with controllers, with Power Boost maybe even putting me a bit ahead in some cases. But not all secondaries have Power Boost.
The secondary is a bit different story. People are comparing the low levels to soloing with a pre-containment controller. This is telling. IMO it should be considerably easier, because we have an assault secondary that's almost ALL about damage. Controllers have very few powers where damage is the primary effect. Ice control in particular is low on damage. I have all the powers from my secondary at this point (lvl26) so I think I should be able to solo at least as well as an offensively built Defender. I don't think I do that. It's getting progressively better, but with 40 levels in the game it's kind of bad if I feel underpowered for over half of them.
Solo, my secondary kill things slowly and eats up all my endurance. Stamina was completely mandatory. Before it I could blow my entire endurance bar fighting 3 even level minions using nothing but Block of Ice and the single target attacks from my secondary. Now that I've got a mix of SOs and DOs and Stamina 3-slotted with SOs, I still run out of endurance a lot if I run Arctic Air (slotted 3 SO endred but still a hog). Also, despite having 5 attacks from the secondary, I still have nowhere near an attack chain.
In teams, especially teams larger than, say, 3, my secondary is little more than a tool for me to achieve domination. That's kind of sad.
I've come to the conclusion that increasing our damage would be bad and stepping on corruptors' toes. However I feel that the endurance cost of our secondary should be brought in line with the damage. I also wouldn't mind a recharge time reduction for some powers. Ice Sword Circle is particularly atrocious with the animation time sky-high as well.
Things are getting better. I was able to raise my reputation to 1 above Villainous. But I'm 26 and won't pretend that the early levels were not a pain, and it's still not great. The primary is alright and makes a difference in teams small and large (or so I flatter myself at least) but the secondary is definitely lacking.
Have to say like my dom, perhaps even more than my corruptor. Althought killing stuff yourself is nice "therapy". Certainly not having much issue getting into groups, and while I cant really kill much myself in a timely manner, I sure make it easy for everyone else.
I am getting bored with soloing my plant/thorns dominator but teaming is great. I once teamed another dominator and a corrupter and we cut through mobs faster than anything I have seen.
I started with a grav/ice dominator, I think she is lvl 19 now, but I really couldn't get on with her.
I think my big problem is that I have come from playing as a controller in COH, and BOTH are amazing in a team. The trouble is picking up a team in COV, I have found it to be City of Solo much more than COH ever was.
So I decided to make a character I could solo, and have made a corruptor, she is great fun and I spend 50/50 time in teams and solo and it works well. With the Dom it has to be 50/50 Team and looking for a team so the progress is too slow.
I am sure I'll finish her sometime as I just hate leaving characters unfinshed, but that will probably be after the PB and WS are done
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I started with a grav/ice dominator, I think she is lvl 19 now, but I really couldn't get on with her.
I think my big problem is that I have come from playing as a controller in COH, and BOTH are amazing in a team. The trouble is picking up a team in COV, I have found it to be City of Solo much more than COH ever was.
So I decided to make a character I could solo, and have made a corruptor, she is great fun and I spend 50/50 time in teams and solo and it works well. With the Dom it has to be 50/50 Team and looking for a team so the progress is too slow.
I am sure I'll finish her sometime as I just hate leaving characters unfinshed, but that will probably be after the PB and WS are done
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Well I'm a few lvl's higher than your Dom, but add me anyway, when I'm online I'm usually making up a team as I hate solo playing and you'd get good xp too
In fact that goes for most players.
I got bored of waiting around once to get a team so i decided to start recruiting for one, now most times I'm online it's not long before I have a 8 player team although some nights are slower than others and to be honest I am trying to get my Hero to lvl 50 so I can get a WS.
But when I'm online send us a tell, I try to include as many as I can and usually when someone drops I have a few on a waiting list to add on.
Just don't over hold my holds and we'll get on fine 
I have no problem picking up people that don't mind being lackeyd either.
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I started with a grav/ice dominator, I think she is lvl 19 now, but I really couldn't get on with her.
I think my big problem is that I have come from playing as a controller in COH, and BOTH are amazing in a team. The trouble is picking up a team in COV, I have found it to be City of Solo much more than COH ever was.
So I decided to make a character I could solo, and have made a corruptor, she is great fun and I spend 50/50 time in teams and solo and it works well. With the Dom it has to be 50/50 Team and looking for a team so the progress is too slow.
I am sure I'll finish her sometime as I just hate leaving characters unfinshed, but that will probably be after the PB and WS are done
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Yeah most of the time I like to solo my Master Mind as I get way better XP per min than if im on a team I find teaming slows down my leveling strange that.
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Yeah most of the time I like to solo my Master Mind as I get way better XP per min than if im on a team I find teaming slows down my leveling strange that.
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(Dramatic Roar Affect)
How DARE you mention MM's here!
Everyone! Target him! Sleeps and holds all around! Those that can Hit Domination!
Hey now they can mention MM's here, as long as its worded "my MM pales in comparrison to Cynic's Dominators" then its acceptable
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
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"my MM pales in comparrison to Cynic's Dominators"
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But other dominators are better, and MMs arent that bad
From my personal experience, which isn't vast, I can see that dominators seem to be less common than most and I think because for most people, it's the not the style of gameplay they're after.
Having played around with my low level corruptor, it's a totally different experience where you can pretty much run in, and kill things, solo wise. With dominators, or at least mine, it's been tougher to do that.
Group wise, it's more about support than dealing out heavy damage, or taking the brunt of it (though the aggro attention is nasty, lol). There's not many people around I think that wanna 'play' like that.
But that's just my take on things. lol. As Ice has increased in levels though, got better slots and better enhancements she'll be fantastic, just takes a while to get there and work out strategies.
Though I really need a respec I think to better work my powers.
I'm still not sure why people say the damage feels slow. It never does for me. Of course I haven't played a corruptor, couldn't deal with MMs and never played a blaster in CoH.
I hit 32 last night and got my singularity and I'm sitting here wondering how a loose cannon is supposed to really make me that much more powerful than normal. It'll probably be good soloing, but do sings do a damn thing for teams?
Also on another note. Levels 1-8 I felt pretty powerful on my dominator. Then it got a bit annoying 9-11. Then at 12 I got a few DOs but it didn't really help too much. I have to admit that the stretch from 12-27 is the worst. At 27 with tricks like respeccing out all your enhances (including DOs you picked up and slotted anywhere they could fit over TOs or empty slots to get full return value) you can - or I did - buy a full set of SOs for all the important stuff.
And then life gets a lot better.
I do agree doms need some love between around 10 and high twenties, because until you get into the high twenties your damage will probably be somewhat inferior and you'll possibly feel like a slightly gimped controller.
Having played my grav/enr dom to 32 though I have to say I would -never- play a controller over a dom again.
I've never really had a slump time with my Dominator, but I think the Mind/Psi set just fits me REALLY well (even though I've only got the power bolt and Drain Psyche form my secondary thus far)
Dominators are not meant to be for damage dealing IMO. Yeh, the damage is lame, but seriously, what was it you expected - they are a mix of controllers and combinations of mostly blaster/defender/tanker secondary, which makes them who they are, although leaning more towards the controllery way. (ie. we only have some of the powers from a particular secondary set - so should we have some of our controller powers taken away too, and get more offensive type holds(more DoT?) or even less variety in the holds (more single target?)? or Should we be allowed to better blasting (that's what the secondaries mainly are) sets since the secondaries do crap damage compared to the Hero versions anyway and since we can have access to all the controller powers, isn't it only fair? But that's for a whole different thread!)
Anyway, back on topic =)
I didn't find the Singularity as good as I was expecting it to be, but that's not to say it isn't useful or effective if you play with it.
It'll happily keep foes busy, even if it's not doing the greatest of damage, constantly Lifting, Holding and Immbolizing - main thing? Don't expect it to do damage - instead use it as if it were a gravity controller.
Also, it's repel effect can be a godsend! Use it to block pathways from mobs who've been aggroed, or even better (and funny!) summon it in the middle of a group of mobs who've been aggroed accidently. Stand under it to help handle melee'ers
I think Singularites need extra loving from devs, and would like them to be heal-able.
At the end of the day, I play an AT that's fun for me and has a variety of powers, who shines in teams.
Have fun playing your dominators!
PS. Do you mean Psionic Dart and not Power Push Crystalwolf?
@Under Control
Every time I look here there's just about not discussion going on. Are dominators that unpopular, or are they just so easy to figure out that nobody has to discuss anything?
Just curious.