Tossup between Grav/Earth or Ice/Earth

I've been thinking about making a new alt recently, and thought about going back to the archetype which I've barely touched - the Dominator.

So far, I have concepts for either a Gravity/Earth or Ice/Earth. Is there any significant pros and cons with the two?

Someone opened another can of worms. Will someone please think about the children!!??!

Kidding aside, if you check in Hirsh's thread about /earth AV SOLO killer, his Ice/Earth took over Luminary with relative ease but it took a long time - about 17 minutes.

Folks LOVE to poo-poo Gravity a lot here. Sure, Gravity has it's faults (long animations, no real hard control, wonky targetting on Wormhole) but it is a fun set. The pet is arguably the most durable out of all the control-type pets and Gravity's immobilize will not affect another dom's -KB powers like Ice Slick or Earthquake, so you won't be getting many >.> when using it.

Ice has some faults too (immob negates Ice Slick, AoE sleep not really good on teams, pet isn't the smartest). But, the single-target hold animates relatively fast, Arctic Air works wonders with a the right procs in it and you can cast Ice Slick out of LoS, so it's a good alpha sponge.

The Earth secondary is the most fun I've had on a Dominator. SMASH SMASH SMASH! Also know it's pretty single-targetty, so with the soft controls of both Gravity and Ice, it may seem a little lacking. The good thing is that Seismic Smash's hold component stacks with your primary holds for extra control. Plus, Seismic is the biggest single-target damager from all of the Dom's secondaries - the title was previously held by Blaze. According to Mid's, Seismic has a base of 207.9 smashing damage and Blaze give 102.5 plus x5 ticks of 9.51 fire damage=168 total. I may have misunderstood those numbers, but that's what it looked like to me.

That's my opinion, I'm sure there will be other to help further confuse you.

Either one is just fine. But Gravity/Earth becomes unexpectedly synergistic as the build matures. Especially after singularity. You have a very strong ST hold set combined with supremely powerful ST damage set. Boss killing will be your thing with this build.

Final Vote:

If you like to melee, Grav/Earth especially post singularity. Fun and interesting but one heckuva a rollercoaster ride.

Ice/Earth is much more utilitarian and brings much needed aoe control into the picture. Much more safe and a more even ride as you level.

I must warn you if you go Grav/Earth You will forget your AT and think you are a brute! I've seen it happen!

I was thinking of rolling an Ice/Earth myself because I liked the idea of having both Artic Air and Mud Pots. Artic Air to confuse and make the foes want to run while Mud Pots actually helps keep there.

Plus Power Boost to make Artic Air that little bit more effective.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger Quote: 16. Has Paragon Studios redefined "player" to require your mouse to subscribe separately from your keyboard? If your mouse has greater processing power than your gfx card, the answer is yes.

Ice does have some unique benefits over all the other control sets.

Its staple control power, Ice Slick, does not scale down in effectiveness against higher level enemies, which is very handy if you're fighting +4s and +5s.

All the powers do -Recharge which means it contributes against PToD enemies, even if the team can't hold them.

Sorry, I should probably post. I rolled an Ice/Earth in the end, and she's doing fine. A combination of ice and earth is lovely, though I wish I could get the crystal effects more like ice. Oh well.

Thanks for the help!

I really like that costume. Well done. The backstory fits nicely, as well.

I really like the costume too it's super cute!