Fixing The Dominator

Sorry about the thread necormancy, but this seemed like an appropiate place to post this:

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There is a positive change for Dominators in Issue 7.

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-Positron

Source.

Speaking as someone who damn near got her grav/enr dom to level 40, I'd have to say:

1. I never had problems doing damage. Soloing was smooth after I got singularity. Of course, grav/enr always felt like the most damage heavy powerset combo doms get.
2. I can't remember the last time I ran out of end. I do have Stamina though.
3. I can't remember dying any quicker than corruptors, stalkers or MMs, mostly died when things went bad and everyone else pretty much died too. I did run CJ and Maneuvers slotted for def though.

On the flipside, I'll say I didn't get into domination mode enough, and being grav/enr while mitagating a lot of other stuff left me gimped as far as control went. I figure unless you're a tricked out plants dom that most of the time corruptors can do a lot of what you do while DPSing a lot better.

So the Doms can use the help. Heh.

It's not so much a case of the Dominator being completly useless, it's just that they suffer badly compared to controllers.

1. My controller has a much better damage output than my Dom.

2. My controller never runs out of endurance, but dom frequently runs out of endurance (even with Stamina and 1-2 endrecs in most powers).

3. My controller has enough control left in reserve to often recover a situation that is going pearshaped.

4. My controller can solo AVs, my dom finds bosses tough.

While I agree that dominators have too many weak spots, I ahve some thoughts:
Damage, yes, they are weak, but it is difficult to compare the damage output to that of controller, I know trollers outdamage dominators in the early game easily because of containment, but Doms get their more damaging attacks only later in the game.. And trollers damage is less comparable after others start getting their high/extreme damage attacks..

Endurance: I tend to run out of endurance quickly, and it is in relation to weak damage; if you are weak, need to hit opponent more often, paying endurance for each attack..

I soloed Sea Witch elite boss with my mind/en dom when I got the mission..

and lastly, can we please DROP the damn soloing AVs thing?

Yeah, I can solo regular EBs like Sea Witch, the downgraded AVs with thier mez resistance are another matter.

At the moment both my controller and my dominator are both level 37, and never at any level has my dominator ever gotten close to my controller in terms of damage per second.

What sets you use might have something to do with that, both on the dom and the controller. Like I said doms need work, but I think there are a few overstatements of how much help in this thread.

Sea Witch, at least the one I encountered later on in the game, was an actual AV toned down to an EB. I would've soloed her, except her damn push attack meant I got a few too many adds and died. Should've cleared first.

And yes, she was mez resistant.

As far as DPS, proof that it depends on your set/slotting: my MA/SR scrapped has about 4.7 DPS. my grav/enr dom has about 4 damage per second, calculated for biggest DPS output with attack chains. I can't say that's rather bad.

Hell with domination up her damage would far outstrip my hastened scrapper's.

Like I said doms could use a little love. I'm all for that. But I don't want people to decide not to play a dominator because they somehow get the mistaken idea from this thread that they're gimped; which I can say at least grav/enr isn't, so long as you're not looking too hard for control. (and if you look hard enough, you'll even find plenty of that)

I actually think between dominators and controllers the latter simply got a way too powerful innate AT ability. Containment is so much better than Domination because it's always on, and you'd be silly to waste your end attacking something that -isn't- contained.

I'd personally like to see if controllers with containment built for damage could outdamage scrappers or blasters. I don't think that's as crazy as it sounds.

There's a thread about doms soloing elite bosses on US forums at the moment. There's even videos about someone soloing Indigo, Sea Witch and Ice Mistral there. Makes me want to play a fire/fire dominator.

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There's a thread about doms soloing elite bosses on US forums at the moment. There's even videos about someone soloing Indigo, Sea Witch and Ice Mistral there. Makes me want to play a fire/fire dominator.

[/ QUOTE ]....Since when can you fight indigo and ice mistral? And where?

Wait... is it from one of the badge contacts? The respec guy or the villain one?

I think it's Arbiter Leery. I misremembered by the way, the videos were of Wretch, Indigo and Ice Mistral.

Yeah, they are in Arbiter Leery's Arc. He is on Primeva next to Mu'whatisface and you need to have done a respec and be level 35+.

Ice Mistral kicked my butt, but I guess she is cold resistant.

Tried to solo Infernal last night too. he was level -1 to me but still kicked my butt.

Maybe us Icy assaulters have too low damage. Some people did report soloing a multitude of EBs with /ice too, though. I haven't even tried soloing many EBs with mine because I always preferred to team. Controlling is just more fun when there are actual crowds to control.

Those fire dom videos were fun to watch, though. He did use a lot of inspirations. Indigo was a Hero and took him forever to take down, he had Domination at the start and hit it again halfway through, and was perpetually out of endurance. Don't fire doms get Consume? He seemed to do very nice damage and looked extremely blasty for a dominator, but I'm not familiar with most fire animations.

Leery's L35+?! Damn, thought I'd outleveled him...time to kill some EB's!

I took out Indigo easily though.

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I took out Indigo easily though.

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Elite Boss or Hero?

Anyway it could be a rock paper scissors thing. For example my decidedly non-gimp EM/Fire brute had huge trouble with Professor Echo arc - she couldn't do much due to being perpetually on her backside. Eventually managed to beat the EB version by munching 8 lucks. I'm sure it wouldn't have caused my dom to even blink.

+1 EB.

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Tried to solo Infernal last night too. he was level -1 to me but still kicked my butt.

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That's because you're missing a recharge in PA

No, with my dominator, not with Purple, who has yet to become aquainted with Infernal. I expect Purple Sprite will solo him as a +2 AV though.

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No, with my dominator, not with Purple, who has yet to become aquainted with Infernal. I expect Purple Sprite will solo him as a +2 AV though.

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Good luck! Soloing AVs ain't what it used to be though

There is much more complaining about Doms on the US boards so you can get a distorted view from that. My view about Doms is that they are mostly OK in PvE but sub-par in PvP, on the whole because of the difficulty of getting Domination; since your life expectancy as a Dom in PvP at melee range (against a scrapper or blaster) is between 2-4 seconds its a game of constant avoidance.

It's worth noting that the complaints about Controller damage started with Defenders so I think it's less an issue with Doms being out-damaged by Controllers and more that Controllers just being able to do high damage. At high level I would be very surprised if Controllers out damage Doms, certainly with my two high level attacks I can take out a squishy in seconds in Warburg, as compared to a minute+ in Siren's. I have no capability against stalkers so I've spent minimal time in Warburg but the late attacks make a big difference.

I bet a controller with the Ice Mastery EPP could outdamage a level 50 dom.

I'm tempted to try and see how much damage I can squeeze out of a controller, but then I'd never get to 50 anyhow so it'd be an exercise in futility.

Five words: fulcrum shifted fireball with containment

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I bet a controller with the Ice Mastery EPP could outdamage a level 50 dom.

I'm tempted to try and see how much damage I can squeeze out of a controller, but then I'd never get to 50 anyhow so it'd be an exercise in futility.

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Well hang on! Doms can't get to 50 yet As nutty as getting another pet is (not really keen on that) if a Toxic Tarantula pet does similar damage to the PvE TT then a Dom with one of those will be doing tons of damage. Two hits from a TT takes me out. At level 40 with Domination I am reasonably confident I can outdamage a Controller.