My first Dom?

First let me thank you in advance for any advice and/or suggestions you give. But now to the main point of my post: I am considering making my first redside toon, and Doms (and possibly Corrs) seem to fit my blaster/controller/scrapper personality well, so which primaries and secondaries are good ones and which are bad ones? By good, I mean ones that can be played solo, and are team-friendly, as well as playable/fun from levels 1-50. And by bad, I mean... well, bad. I like damage, and Doms seem to do quite a bit, but since I don't have a concept for the character yet, any combination of primary and secondary are acceptable.

Hello Limestone.

I think your best bet will be actually making whatever catches your interest, and run them a bit....I say this because everyone here is a unique individual with differing likes, dislikes, and quirks. For example, Thugs Masterminds are supposed to be great, but if I am asked to give my opinion on them I will say they are simply horrid... A fire Blaster who has died one too many times may come to the forums and write a "ZOMG, Fire blasters are no good" post.....you get the idea.

That said, I am enjoying my Mind/Fire Dom

She is only level seven right now, but she is a tough level seven, and looking at her future powers I think each level will find her more interesting and very powerful . .hopefully in that order

Also, give Earth Melee, or whatever they call it, a try. It is very good for ridding yourself of stress. I paired it with Mind control, yes, I love Mind control, and she is very, very, very, effective at locking down and smashing her victims.

Good luck to you.

Lisa

Gravity has a few problems on teams since it lacks a straightforwards quick recharging AoE mez - it gets Wormhole and DImension Shift instead. Its main selling point for Controllers is its high damage output, this is wasted on a Dom.

Mind lacks a pet, which can cause solo-ing issues when Elite Bosses with purple triangles start turning up in the later levels. On the plus side, you get a single target aggro-free Confuse, which is very nice for sneaking up on an EB and building up Domination, as well as building up Confuse that will kick in when their triangles drop.

Neither of these sets are BAD bad though, both are a lot of fun in fact. Just a couple of points to bear in mind.

If I remember correctly, the Dominator with the highest overall Control AND damage is a Mind/Fire.

Mind/Fire is excellent for starting out. The same goes for Mind/Elec. My first was plant/fire...but that dom takes some learnin' lol. He to this day is the most faceplanted dom I have ever had(excuse the pun). Now since I've learned how to play him he's a friggin' Monster on Teams His AOE Carnage makes other toons stop and look at me with Awe...or it could be the fact I look Like a BDSM Jack O' Lantern :P.

/fire is all about damage, and has some decent AoE to it. It has a good long damage boost in fiery embrace.

/Psy has has okay ranged, okay AoE, and some okay melee. It's a jack of all trades. The AoE's can hit more stuf than others, so there is that. You can skip stamina and heal yourself with drain psyche.

/Elec gets buildup for more damage, but its AoE damage is very concentrated. (You need enemies packed in for full effect)

/Ice is okay for slowing stuff. Extra mez oomph with power boost. Lacks real damage 'oomph' but slows stuff down.

/Thorns also has AoE, with aim to help you hit stuff. It's a bit more meleeish at times.

/energy is more single target, with some stuns for more control and extra mez oomph with power boost.

Me? I like psy for its flexibility and health/energy management. /Fire is more damaging, but it lacks mitigation. Take that as you will.

I feel that mind has more than enough mitigation to make up for your secondary. I don't Mind/Psi Toons are...I can't explain it but to me the two didn't quite fit well together. Ymmv though. I couldn't stand those two together I've tried and deleted both of the toons I attempted lol.

Plant/Thorns is good all around and it is good very early.

A nice Melee-ish combination is Ice/Earth.

The only sets to avoid on your first Dom are Mind and Grav. Mind because, though it's a good set, it has a very different play style from every other Dom primary. Best to go with a more classic set first, then try Mind later on. Grav because before you get Singy, the set, shall we say, isn't the best. It's a fun set though, but only for the most experienced and skillful Dom players. Singy makes the set godly, and with lots of skippable powers the set is nice and loose. 32 levels of pain to get there, though.

WARNING: I bold names.

For a first dominator I would suggest a plant//thorn. That was the first dominator created as only a dominator by the developers. The combination will give you a good feel for game play as a dominator as well.

Plant/Fire and Earth/fire would be my suggestions

I think Mind, Ice and Grav are difficult to start out with. This is my opinion. I know plenty of people love their Mind, Ice, and Gravity Dominators (I love mine). I just think these sets are less than ideal for a player new to Dominators.

Mind in particular I find rough, at least if you have a secondary which has a lot of area-of-effect (AOE) damage. Mind has LOTS of control, but no regularly-available hassle-free area-of-effect "hard" control. Now, I define "hard" control a bit different than others. To me "hard" control is that from which the enemy cannot retaliate. So, an AOE stun *IS* "hard" control, despite the fact that the foes wobble. An AOE confuse is also "hard" control to me. The foes may be running around doing stuff, but they can't hurt you or your allies while affected. Mind Control gets an AOE Sleep and an AOE Fear, but as soon as you attack the slept/feared foes, they start getting a chance to retaliate. Mind Control has Telekinesis available each fight but the push-back effect makes it non-trivial to use. Mind Control also has Total Domination and Mass Confusion which are "hard" control in an AOE (to me) but they are on long timers. By the endgame, with enough recharge, having these 2 to alternate is *almost* like having reliable "hard" control, but its not quite the same.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that Mind Control is unique, but not an easy first set for a Dominator *IF* you throw around lots of area damage to wake foes up from your "soft" AOE controls. If you are willing to use Confuse (single target) at range a lot to simulate an area confuse with some prep-work, it might be more palatable. If you are running with a single target assault secondary like Energy Assault, then Mind Control is actually a pretty good starting primary set for a new Dominator. Otherwise, it is a rough first pick.

Ice Control also lacks an AOE control that prevents retaliation. If you like every-fight bread-and-butter area "hard" control, Ice never gets it or even approximates it. You do get Ice Slick, but foes can retaliate, especially as you open with it (tho you can use the around-the-corner trick) and its not quite the same. You can also run in with Arctic Air and get lots of mitigation that way. You do have an AOE hold on a long timer, and lots of effects that slow the foes. Still, its a different kind of control and Ice Control probably feels the most different from every other Dominator primary, and it never really (IMO) gets enough different types of control (like Mind gets) to make up for the feeling. I know plenty of people like their Ice Doms, and I like mine (Ice/Psi level 40) but I'm just saying it can be rough. I deliberately paired mine with a secondary that lets me recover HP and Stamina, just because I wanted more mitigation.

All I'm saying is that Ice Control is tricky.

Gravity Control's main problem is that a lot of its control comes late. Its not bad at all, and the pet is pretty unique (extra single target hold potential for you). Also, the bread-and-butter AOE stun ("hard" control) it gets lets you teleport foes and control foe position on the battlefield. So, it has got some flavor, but it all comes way later than other Dominators, so the ride can be a bit rough until you are around level 31-33 (once you get Wormhole and Singularity going strong).

Fire Control is kinda middle of the pack. It has a regularly available AOE stun (yay!) and a long timer AOE hold, and a nice slow/damage aura (heavy on endurance) so its got most of the bases covered, and the pets are cute and fun. It has great damage potential once you get used to it. So, this isn't a terrible set to start with but isn't the most ideal either.

I think Plant Control and Earth Control are the easiest overall to start for a new Dominator player.

Plant gets a frequently-available AOE confuse from level 8 that makes general game play a breeze. I think Plant may be the go-to Dom for new players. It was my first Dom (Plant/Fire) and it was so much easier and usually so much safer than other sets. The pet is crappy, but that is made up for with Carrion Creepers (a cool pseudo-pet). Your AOE Immobilize also does respectable damage in comparison to the AOE Immobilize powers in other sets.

Earth Control is one of the best overall control sets. You get your bread and butter AOE "hard" control at level 12, but you get tons of other area control: AOE knockdown, AOE slow, the best long-timer AOE hold in the game, and a decent pet. Earth is a solid choice for starting out.

So, again, any primary works but they are very different. I think Plant Control and Earth Control are the easiest to play for a first-timer. But that's just my opinion. You could randomly pick a primary and secondary (see my .signature) and do fine, I'm sure of it.

Lewis

I would disagree on Mind not being newbie friendly. On vanilla difficulty they can easily shut down a 3 man group from level 4, and with minimal slotting and downtime between powers to boot.

On teams their mass control abilities are more lacking until they get Terrify, but they can cycle through their first 4 control powers pretty effectively until then.

Thanks for all the opinions/advice/feedback! I experimented with a couple different ones, but Mind/elec actually seemed good to me. Perfect part of that is it fits my toon's backstory well!