Earth/.. How could i ever live without you...

With i12 live i decided to roll an Earth/Fire dom.
Last Friday i finally had the time.

And i absolutely LOVE it, so i want to share a few first impressions.
Maybe others can join in, or if they started one right at i12 launch and are somewhere in the 30's, they could even post a rough guide.

Here are just a few things i like :

---Fossilize---
Graphics : Very visual effect, Mob is encased in stone. In any situation its easily recognisable which is a + in my book.

Gameplay : Same as most ST holds i had with dom, just different graphics.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++

---Quicksand---
Graphics: A Sandcolored, rather big slowpatch. Makes slurpy sound when you come close. Unfortunately it seems to not show or is at least hard to recognise on same surfaces. Maybe due to incline ?

Gameplay : Even on its own its awesome and saved me more then once. First, you can have it perma, its ready before it runs out. It has a small non enhancable defense debuff.

But the best part is that you dont need line of sight to cast it. So just stand around a corner, twist your camera and set it between a group and baddies and you.

Agro one and go behind the corner. Watch them creep up one by one, when the last ones arrive, the first ones are already dead.

Good to put into doorways also, especially if you a lot of aoe attacks in group.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++

---Stalagmites---
Graphics : Very nice animation. For every enemy you get 3 earth spikes comin out of the ground, pokin them right where it hurts.

Gameplay : At first i thought its nice to look at but more of a mediocre power. It generates a lot of agro, ( not surprisingly ) and unenhanced the stun duration is too short to be worth it.

Also mobs tend to wander off at incredible speeds when hit by it while moving. Enhanced though it is quiet nice as an oh [censored] button or to negate an alpha.
I might even take the aoe immobilize later, just for the synergy with this.

Also takes down flyers so they can be affected by your earthquake. ( see next power )

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++

---Earthquake---
Graphics : When i used this for the first time i think i think i laughed out loud, it is so awesome and funny at the same time.

It has a small crater in the center from which the earthwaves go outwards.

Every wave has a chance to knock down opponents. It says knockback but magnitude must be below 1.0.

You can have it up most every fight and it knocks down everything including bosses. I can not stress enough how wonderful this power is.

Fortunata Seers ? Arachnos Bosses you cant hold ? Pesty Lost Rectors ? No problem for you anymore

On top of it is has an awesome synergy with quicksand.
Drop one on top of the other to make sure mobs stay in the earthquake for the whole duration time.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++

Volcanic gases i couldnt try yet. I read up on it on the US forums and it seems to be quiet nice.

All in all earth has an amazing aoe shutdown capability.

Also together with fire and the awesome new flares i never really had endurance problems.
Only now at 20 i find myself out of breaths in long fights which can easily be countered by tossing a blue.

I will take Stamina at 22 though. Together with consume from fire and the end refill from domination, i dont think i will ever run into end problems.

So again, this is not meant as a serious guide, just a rough overview from someone who immensely enjoyed the powerset so far.

I really hope others join in, it would be more then interesting to share oppinions and tactics of this new powerset.

I just realised my Username makes sense again now too

aye. earth does seem and from what i have heard and read, is a awesome power. its going to make dominators very intesterting to play.

makes ya wonder, what kind of power secondary would be best with earth. psi, fire, ice? who knows, buts its going to be fun lvling my one.

v va la dominators. woo

Just wait for VG and the Awsome unbelievable Earth Elemental.
The you know what Fun is

I am just an Earth Troller, but there is nothing better.

Braddack

Earth is by far my favorite Control set. It's extremely powerful, and the visual effects are easy to see, unlike for example Gravity. Stone Cages (take it!) + Stalagmites gives you a very sexy ghetto-hold. I've heard good things about Pooman too.
The amound of -def will also help your team much more than you might think.
Volcanic Gasses I haven't really seen myself, but I hear great things about it.

HardRider: Both for thematic and practical reasons I'd go for Fire Assault. VG already does Fire damage and you could easily create a volcanic-themed character this way. Also, Earth Control trades damage (it barely does any...) for, well, control (amazing). Fire would remedy the lack of damage.

[ QUOTE ]
Volcanic Gasses I haven't really seen myself, but I hear great things about it.

[/ QUOTE ]

If its a direct port of the Controllers version its great fun!, AoE hold they stand there coughing clutching at their necks and the volcanic mounds spewing gasses make a lovely hissing noise, throw that down at a chokepoint ontop of mobs in quicksand and they are going nowhere.

rolled a earth/spines didn't quite float my boat tried earth elec next but have finaly gone earth/psi and its great fun

I absolutely love fire together with earth, you get a nifty damage buff, it looks good, it goes well thematically.

I plan on getting VG sometime this week, depending on how much i get to play and the awesome pet this weekend

Not sure about the patron pools though. I initially wanted Mu but the thematics just dont fit.

So i think i will just skip it altogether and take aoe sleep and aoe immobilize from earth also.
That way i could also take concealment or maybe Air Sup...

I just love Air Sup, its like an always ready to go in your face single target control

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Volcanic Gasses I haven't really seen myself, but I hear great things about it.

[/ QUOTE ]

If its a direct port of the Controllers version its great fun!

[/ QUOTE ]

The thing you have to remember with Volcanic Gasses is that the price you pay for it being a being pulsing hold -- long duration, self-stacking so it can keep bosses held outside of Domination, technically possible to hold more than 16 targets -- is that unlike most of the other Control Set AoE holds it's not a great choice if you're trying to suppress an alpha strike.

The pulsing nature means it takes some time to lock everything down, and it does it (I think) five guys at a time. So give your team (even when the team is just you and Stoney) some time to divide the aggro before firing it off, or use it as a followup move to get from some control to total lockdown.

Stalagmites is what you use when you need an alpha supressor.

...also Quicksand is large -DEF not small, that's why you can't enhance it. If you could it would quickly become overpowered, giving 50%+ -DEF or something equally silly

[ QUOTE ]
Not sure about the patron pools though. I initially wanted Mu but the thematics just dont fit.

[/ QUOTE ]

For giggles, go Captain Mako and take Water Spout, first set them on fire and then 'helpfully' put them out

Oh and look, Stone Cages 'helpfully' has -KB so they won't get knocked around whilst you put out the fires

Mu has Power Sink, if you feel you need it.

Water Spout sould work similarly well as Tornado for Earth/Storm Trollers, I believe?

Soul Mastery has Dark Consumption, though Power Sink feels better as it's auto-hit.

All also have a ranged AoE or Cone attack if you feel you need it.

I thought it over quiet a few times now, i wont take any patron pools, none fit thematically, its a real shame.

I don't need an aoe attack i have to heavily slot to be effective. Not many slots to waste for Dom's.

Power sink isn't needed i hope with endurance, the end drain from fire and the refill from Domination.

I rather take all powers from my primary / secondary.

Maybe with i13 we get a little patron pool overhaul

i went with earth/psi. spirit of the earth kinda concept called Pyseismic Shock

Gonna have end issues with Psi as secondary.
Loving the the set so far, very survivable and effective.
Although Psi's have drain psyche - I may still be heading down route of stamina (old habits and all that)

a note abt quicksand - even without hasten, not only is the power up before the end of the last usage, it can also be used before end of last usage - ie 2 areas of quicksand!

The grp immob is confusing - cos the gfx, looking so impressive, makes it look like it meant to hold.

i can already imagine an attack chain of :
quicksand, stalagmites, grp immob OR quicksand, stalagmites, earthquake being quite uesful

cant make up my mind abt a travel though. love fly in CoV cos of all the dangerous vertical distance to cover with a squishy little dom; but the inner troller in me screams for CJ with a KB protect.

I also tend to team alot; so thinking leadership pool, esp.ly with ++acc boost

patron - defo thining of Mu mastery - mostly for power sink and the healing pet. but then again I am paranoid abt end issues.

Would love to try fire or elect secondaries - think both would be fab, synergy wise and thematically.

Hey guys, sorry necro a slightly old thread, but I was wondering what secondaries ppl thought went best with Earth? Ideally I would like the flexibility of being able to both solo and team effectively. Any thoughts, opinions etc appreciated.

Earth's strength is fantastic "control", probably the best of all dominator primaries. ITs weakness is damage output. I would think /fire is a good match to compensate (its the most damage heavy secondary)

Word of advice though, Earth is stuffed full of AoE effects. Its *made* for teaming. I would suggest you consider edging towards a team build (where dominators shine anyway)

Heh. Would the stronger, 20s portion of Fiery Embrace affect Volcanic Gasses, I wonder?

I'm running an earth/fire myself that I've decided to get to 50 now. Earth is very weak in the damage department so any of the more damage heavy secondaries would work.

I wouldn't say the set is more focused on teaming than any other dominator primary though. There's a lot of AOEs, sure, but they serve you well both in teams and when soloing. There isn't much point in slotting the holds and such for damage though (unless you're getting a sweet set bonus for it, I guess.) so you'll be playing it very safe but with less damage output than more ouch-y dominators.

[ QUOTE ]
Earth is very weak in the damage department

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats not quite true.
I farm with an earth/storm controller and i get huge damage from earth alone if you build it properly.

my earth/psi dom has a nice little pet now

Just a couple of comments I love the whole earth set but have removed my groupe immobalise as went against everything else. Earthquake is up realy quickly and I am sloting my stun with as much recharge as I can.

The only annoying thing I find is my powers not being effected by dominating ok quicksand I can understand earthquake mmm would be nice though how do you make things falldown even more than they do. But my group hold where is my domination I want it now "stomps up and down and throws dummy out of window"

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Earth is very weak in the damage department

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats not quite true.
I farm with an earth/storm controller and i get huge damage from earth alone if you build it properly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Same here with my earth/rad troller and hope to do same with my earth/fire domi when getting him to 50. As you say, the right build can squeeze much damage from Earth set (thanks for sending me the build )

Shhh don't tell everyone they'll all want one.

I understand where you are coming from... it is possible to do much better damage from earth/ with the use of proc's in things like quicksand, earthquake, immob, etc. However, its *also* possible to boost damage in other sets in a similar way.

Also, in fairness, /Storm is probably the highest damage secondary set you can get (maybe trick archery pips it to the post).

Even fully proc'd out (and my troller is half proced out so I wouldnt know), its damage always felt the least to me. Its not *unmanagable* - i can solo on it, but compared to other primaries it has always felt the worst. Not terrible, but the worst.

My damage order of primaries feels like:

Plant*, Fire, Grav, Illusion, Ice, Earth,

Mind is ? not sure where to put it due to lack of pet

Plant is technically first due to Seeds of Confusion - gives the most damage to enemies, although of course at a slight xp loss.

Just my feelings,anyway.

I'm glad you get me but you don't FULLY understand how much of a buzzsaw Earth can be.
Nightmarer can confirm this so can other members of my SG who have come with me and all have said "huh thats insane !"
To get the true feel for how much damage it can do let me tell you how many procs you can use.
18 !
Thats how many my build has in it and over half of that is in Earth and theres room for more if you have the cash.
No other set can even come close to the amount of procs Earth can hold not to mention the debuffs.
Storm works amazingly with it allowing you to herd and debuff for AoE madness without the need to use the animated stone at all.

As for my Dom which is an Earth/Elec oooooh i'm just breaking the tip of the iceberg on what she can do.

I do understand, beleive me. But I still draw your attention to the fact that you are using /storm as secondary (high damage, -res debuffs, and full of proc potential) which REALLY skews the impression, and that most of the proc's will be in earths AoE.

There is a world of difference between the output of something like Earth / Storm and Earth / Empathy.

And then look at the potential of other sets. For instance, Gravs AoE immobilise will have procability for immobilise, damage, and slow. Arctic Air can fit in confuse and slow procs in a huge AoE toggle. Fire will leave Earth trailing even without procs.

I dont dispute Earth CAN do reasonable damage, very particularly with a "damagy" secondary like Storm, Kin, maybe Sonic or TA, but out of the box its the weakest damage primary in my book (made up for its strongest control)

PS how many Procs do you count in earth? Looking at pure damage, and exluding purples (perhaps unfair of me), I count 7 damage procs, one of which will be in Volcanic Gasses, hardly "spammable".

EDIT: I humbly submit that Grav has at least "close" to the amount of procs, due to its slow and KB effects.

[ QUOTE ]
I dont dispute Earth CAN do reasonable damage, very particularly with a "damagy" secondary like Storm, Kin, maybe Sonic or TA and tons of procs, but out of the box its the weakest damage primary in my book (made up for its strongest control)

[/ QUOTE ]
Edited for accuracy (and replace Sonic with Rad).

Sonic does more -res than Rad.