Is combustion necessary?

Hi folks!

I'm rather new to the Dominator archetype (never made it past 17 with one). Right now, I'm creating an Earth/Fire dominator. I have a level 50 Earth Controller, so I understand the control aspects, but I'm not sure about the /Fire powers.

As the title states, I'm wondering if Combustion is necessary in this kind of a build. It has a long animation time, slightly high endurance cost, and a moderately long recharge time.

Also, I assume that Blazing Bolt is skippable? I plan to take all of the other powers. It's just these two that have me wondering.

As for sets and stuff, I'm not worrying about that till 40+, though I may use what I pick up along the way. I usually use SO's/Basic IO's till 30, then frankenslot till 40, then worry about sets.

When you drop Earthquake or Volcanic Gases, then Quicksand, while standing around a corner. They are all mezed Up or bouncing about, you run in, Combust


Its a good power for Earth Controllers, since Earth is very AOE Control intensive.


JJ

I think it's important to keep in mind that Combustion, like Flares, was nerfed in the revamp of Dominators. Like Flares, it does less damage, takes longer to recharge, and costs more Endurance than Combustion before the change. The problem is that most Fire Assault attacks get extra damage because they do addition DoT after the initial hit. This DoT costs no Endurance and doesn't add to recharge. Flares and Combustion, though, got this additional DoT reduced to almost nothing, perhaps as an error in calculation.

This doesn't mean you can't use Combustion, though, go ahead and use it. Just be aware it's a bit more End costly than other attacks and slot it accordingly. Since you're new to the set, you won't be expecting it to act like it used to, so it shouldn't bother you. Personally, I never even picked up the attack, I'm more solo oriented, so I chose to concentrate on single target damage. That doesn't mean you should do the same thing.

Blazing Bolt does a LOT of damage, (that DoT again ) but I know a lot of people suggest skipping Sniper attacks. I wouldn't dispute that. Again, I wanted single target damage so I took it, but Blaze is more useful overall.

I guess in the end the answer is neither attack is absolutely necessary, but they have their uses.

Combustion's animation is annoyingly long, but if you can be in relative safety (i.e. in the middle of a mezzed group of NPCs) while using it, it's worth it.

I didn't really like Combustion because of the long animation and rather slow DoT dam, but I took it on my old plant/fire dom, because I had the room for it (and slot it properly) and all in all it provides decent AoE dam.
Atm I am running a earth/fire dom and I took it again, although after the I15 changes the power got worse. Still, it synergizes particularly well with earths heavy AoE control and therefore not a bad pick. Never swap it out for Firebreath though. Firebreath is just brutal (tip: slot some range in it).

I skipped it on my Earth/Fire because I hate running in for combustion, standing still for a few seconds while it goes off, and running back out for fire breath. Instead, I slotted Fire Breath with 5 Positron's and 1 generic recharge. This gives me a standing still attack chain of flares, fire blast, fire breath, ST hold.

I could see taking it with other primaries though, especially Fire or Ice. If you're standing around using Arctic Air or Hot Feet on stuff anyway, it's just gravy. I'd really rather have Fire Sword Circle in that slot instead - more damage on a longer recharge would make it more worth the fiddly nature of the power.

Don't use it on my Plant/Fire which I play similar to an earth troller.