New to Earth/Earth doms, need lvling build help!
By
Muon_Neutrino,
Posted on: 2010-03-24 12:19 in Dominators
So no help at all guys?
I wouldn't really worry about IOs yet, save that until you've gotten used to the game again and are ready for something new. There's no rush, SOs still work as well as they did before, after all. The only thing I would worry about for now in regards to the IO system is to sell your salvage and recipes on the black market to help fund your SOs. Just drop your stuff on, see what prices people are paying for them, and if it seems worth it, sell it. If you get a lucky drop, you could net millions of inf and set yourself up with SOs for a long time.
Alternatively, if you want to get slightly more ambitious, look into 'generic' IOs. These basically do the same thing as SOs, except their strength doesn't degrade as you level - you can use the same level 25 generics all the way to 50. Level 25 is where generic IOs equal the power of SOs, so I often slot those at 22 instead of SOs. A level 25 generic usually costs more than an SO (although making it yourself instead of buying it pre-made often lets you get it cheaper), but you'll usually save money in the long run since you don't have to replace it every 5 levels.
As to which powers to take, I would skip stone cages, salt crystals, and mud pots. Everything else from earth/ and /earth I would take. Doms don't get containment, so absent that need all stone cages is really good for is drawing copious amounts of aggro from immobilized but still shooting foes on to your squishy self. Salt crystals is just a mediocre PBAoE sleep, and mud pots has a tiny radius, minor damage, and totally redundant mitigation considering you shouldn't be meleeing unmezzed opponents anyway.
Slot fossilize, stalagmites, and volcanic gasses as controls - a mix of accuracy, mez, and recharge. All three are worthy powers to 6 slot. Stone prison is just for immobilizing pesky EBs - 1 acc is fine, add an end if you like. Quicksand should get 2-3 recharge and optionally 1-2 slow, depending on how many slots you have available. Earthquake only needs 2-3 recharge, and stoney should have 1-2 acc, 3 dam.
All of your attacks can be slotted more or less the same - 1 acc, end, and rech, 3 damage. Some people don't like tremor and hurl boulder on account of their longish animations, but I would say at least try them first - as you said, respecs are plentiful. If you end up not wanting to use hurl boulder, you could slot up stone prison as an attack and use it instead - it's damage is DoT, but it still does scale 1 damage overall. Power boost should get 2-3 recharge - its best use will be with stalagmites, so try to keep their recharges balanced.
Once I get back to my home computer later I can post what I would do for a leveling build, as well as some overall tips on dom playstyle.
@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
Awesome info man, thanks for the insite, and Im looking forward to the build your gonna post later, it helps a ton.
Alright, here is the basic build I've whipped up. I will stress that this is a framework and a basic outline, no more. I haven't gone over this with a fine-toothed comb to wring every last drop of efficiency out of it. That said, it should be more than enough to give a basic idea of what powers I consider important, how I would slot them with SOs (I usually use set IOs myself), and roughly what levels I would take them at.
Regarding specific design decisions, the most notable is that I put off super jump (of course, you can substitute whichever travel power you like best) until 35. In my opinion, this combo just has too many good powers available early on to jam in a travel as well, but that is personal preference. If you want to move things around to fit it in earlier, powers you could put off until later might include power boost or stone prison. Also, since you've been gone for a while, you probably aren't aware of the 'super boosters' - basically, special origin-themed packs of costume pieces and other minor goodies, available for 10$ each. The 'natural' booster is ninja-themed, and includes a power called 'ninja run', which is basically about half of super jump and super speed, combined. A great many people are using it as a substitute for a 'real' travel power, especially since it unlocks for all of your characters at level 4. If you don't mind spending 10$, using ninja run until you get super jump would also be a viable path.
I chose mu mastery simply because I think it has a nice variety of useful tools, the radial (as opposed to a cone like leviathan has) AoE meshes well with the radial AoEs you already have, and red lightning is cool. Of course, that choice is completely up to you. Leviathan for water spout/hibernate or soul for soul drain are also good options, and while I'm not a fan of the mace or the redraw it entails, mace for PFF and poisonous ray may also be useful. You may also wish to spend one of your level 40+ slots on hasten, if you didn't take super speed, since you have all these controls (plus your inherent!) that are on long recharge timers.
I used generic IOs for simplicity. Everywhere you see a level 25 generic IO, you can substitute an SO easily. The level 50 generics in ball lightning, charged armor, and surge of power are there for a reason, however. Level 45 or 50 generics have significantly better enhancement percentages, which is what lets me get away with only 2 resistance in charged armor or 2 damage in ball lightning.
Without further ado, the build. Afterward I'll include some more general comments on playing a dominator.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Smashing things with hammers for SCIENCE!: Level 50 Science Dominator
Primary Power Set: Earth Control
Secondary Power Set: Earth Assault
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Fossilize -- Acc-I:25(A), Acc-I:25(3), Hold-I:25(5), Hold-I:25(7), RechRdx-I:25(17), RechRdx-I:25(40)
Level 1: Stone Spears -- Acc-I:25(A), EndRdx-I:25(3), RechRdx-I:25(9), Dmg-I:25(36), Dmg-I:25(37), Dmg-I:25(48)
Level 2: Stone Mallet -- Acc-I:25(A), EndRdx-I:25(5), RechRdx-I:25(9), Dmg-I:25(25), Dmg-I:25(37), Dmg-I:25(43)
Level 4: Tremor -- Acc-I:25(A), EndRdx-I:25(7), RechRdx-I:25(17), Dmg-I:25(36), Dmg-I:25(37), Dmg-I:25(46)
Level 6: Quicksand -- RechRdx-I:25(A), RechRdx-I:25(50)
Level 8: Swift -- Run-I:25(A)
Level 10: Hurl Boulder -- Acc-I:25(A), EndRdx-I:25(11), RechRdx-I:25(11), Dmg-I:25(31), Dmg-I:25(36), Dmg-I:25(46)
Level 12: Stalagmites -- Acc-I:25(A), Acc-I:25(13), Dsrnt-I:25(13), Dsrnt-I:25(15), RechRdx-I:25(15), RechRdx-I:25(40)
Level 14: Health -- Heal-I:25(A)
Level 16: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I:25(A), RechRdx-I:25(42), RechRdx-I:25(50)
Level 18: Earthquake -- RechRdx-I:25(A), RechRdx-I:25(19), RechRdx-I:25(19)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:25(A), EndMod-I:25(21), EndMod-I:25(21)
Level 22: Heavy Mallet -- Acc-I:25(A), EndRdx-I:25(23), RechRdx-I:25(23), Dmg-I:25(25), Dmg-I:25(34), Dmg-I:25(43)
Level 24: Stone Prison -- Acc-I:25(A)
Level 26: Volcanic Gasses -- Acc-I:25(A), Hold-I:25(27), Hold-I:25(27), RechRdx-I:25(31), RechRdx-I:25(34), RechRdx-I:25(42)
Level 28: Seismic Smash -- Acc-I:25(A), EndRdx-I:25(29), RechRdx-I:25(29), Dmg-I:25(31), Dmg-I:25(34), Dmg-I:25(43)
Level 30: Combat Jumping -- Jump-I:25(A)
Level 32: Animate Stone -- Acc-I:25(A), Dmg-I:25(33), Dmg-I:25(33), Dmg-I:25(33)
Level 35: Super Jump -- Jump-I:25(A)
Level 38: Fissure -- Acc-I:25(A), EndRdx-I:25(39), RechRdx-I:25(39), Dmg-I:25(39), Dmg-I:25(40), Dmg-I:25(46)
Level 41: Power Sink -- RechRdx-I:25(A), RechRdx-I:25(42)
Level 44: Ball Lightning -- Acc-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(45), Dmg-I:50(45), Dmg-I:50(45)
Level 47: Charged Armor -- EndRdx-I:50(A), ResDam-I:50(48), ResDam-I:50(48)
Level 49: Surge of Power -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination
Ok, so now you've got your dominator. How do you best set about wreaking havoc with him?
Dominators, in my book, tend to play somewhat similar to blasters. Neither AT has much of anything in the way of *passive* damage mitigation, so they both have to rely on active and preemptive mitigation through mezzing and defeating foes before they harm you. While they share primaries, I find that they don't really play like controllers - they have a much more 'flat out' and 'on the edge of your seat' feeling.
In practical terms, this means that you have to actively apply mezzes and/or hammers-to-the-head to every foe you want to keep from attacking you. You need to get used to keeping an eye on the pulse of the entire fight, getting a feel for where mezzes will be needed, how soon they'll be wearing off and from which foes, and where the damage is likely to be coming from, all before any of it actually happens.
To me, playing a dominator is an exercise in exhilaration. If you're on your game, you're untouchable, but make a mistake and your lack of passive defense could easily see you splattered against the nearest wall. It's got all the excitement of playing a blaster, but with (usually! 
) less debt. You're an offensive force with a hide of tissue paper - but as long as you keep it going, no one will get a chance to exploit that.
But make no mistake, you can splatter things just as much as you can be splattered. Dominators nowadays are pretty competent damage dealers, at least if you aren't too timid to wade in and use the melee attacks - and with /earth, you *will* want to use those beastly attacks. For me, playing a dominator in normal content is some of the most fun I've had in this game.
I would be remiss, however, if I didn't mention the downside - those annoying foes at the end of the normal content which is so much fun. Elite bosses which are downgraded AVs retain the AV mez protection (commonly called the purple triangles of doom, or PTOD), which makes them an absolutely royal pain in the butt for doms to solo. Basically, for 50 seconds out of every 75, they are effectively immune to every mez except immob and sleep. Even inside of domination, you're not realistically going to hold them. And since any uncontrolled EB is *easily* capable of ripping your face off in 25 seconds, let alone 50, that's a problem. Simply put, your primary is *not* capable of keeping you alive against the vast majority of PTOD EBs.
So what do you do in those cases? Well, that's where your insp tray comes in. If you know you're coming up on a PTOD EB fight, stock your tray with purples and reds. 4 small purples or 2 medium purples will cap your defense for 60 seconds, and loading up on reds will aid you in killing the EB before your purples run out. Medium purples are especially effective since you only need half the space, allowing you to go twice as long before running out. I stockpile these as I get them, keeping 4 on hand at all times and putting the rest in either my base or auction slots. You can also usually buy these on the market for reasonable prices - if you've used some, just place some bids for 5-10kish inf before you log out and you should have them next time you log in. PTOD EBs are certainly a nuisance (and some of them are more annoying than others, too), but they're definitely not deal breakers if you know how to handle them.
On the other hand, EBs which do *not* have purple triangles (the most common of which is probably the longbow ballista) are fun fights. They take 3 applications to hold (2 under domination), so it's doable but they'll likely get free if you miss - which to me makes it more of a fun challenge rather than an annoying slog.
Now, as for your inherent. I'm sure you've already figured out the basics, but just in case, I'll go over them. You will notice an extra bar under your health and endurance bars - this is your domination bar. It fills up as you use controls and attacks, and decays (very slowly) if you don't do anything. Once it reaches 90% full, you get a sparkly aura and the domination power itself becomes usable (assuming it's recharged from the last time you used it, anyway). Click that and you've got 90 seconds of awesome. While active, dominaton gives you mez protection, increases the magnitude of your mezzes so that you can more easily catch resistant mobs like bosses or fortunatas in one shot, and increases the duration of your mezzes to boot. When you click it, it also completely refills your endurance bar. It can even be used while you're mezzed, so it can act as a kind of breakfree, as well. It has a 200 second recharge, so by default it can be up for a maximum of 45% of the time - if you can find sufficient enemies to fill the bar before it recharges, anyway.
I find that I tend to build up domination and then hold it ready for dangerous situations. When you get mezzed without a breakfree, when that extra spawn comes barreling in from the side, when you've got a room just full of baddies staring you down, when that nasty (non PToD anyway) EB decides he wants your face for lunch, or when you find yourself out of end in a big fight - that's when I find domination most useful. You can, of course, use it whenever you want - and I would suggest doing just that until you get a feel for how long it lasts and what can do do with it. You'll also probably find yourself using it for endurance refills significantly more often during the pre-stamina levels.
While I find myself saving it mostly for emergencies, you can get away with defining 'emergencies' pretty broadly, because it doesn't take *that* long to recharge. In fact, the requirement to have enemies to beat on is actually usually more of a hindrance than the recharge is. As long as you keep the remaining stocks of foes in your mission in mind, you can easily use domination fairly often.
@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
Thank you for this great post, I was debating whether to make my first dom and after reading this post and a few others, I went ahead and made mine earth/earth, and even though he's only 7 levels in, he is by far one of the most fun toons I've played in a while.
Like the title says, I am new to Doms in general, I have been away playing WoW since about I8, and am liking the changes made so far and am looking forward to the new ones as well. But my question is for lvling what are the proper powers to take, and slotting to be done onna Dom? my main was a Tanker, and have other 50s, but are a WS, and a scrapper, so Doms/trollers are new to me, as are the craftable IOs and such. A good lvling build would be great to help me out, loving the class so far, and have more than enough vet respecs to change my earth/earth around for better lvling. Thanks in advance guys!!