Mind/Earth Dom?

Making another effort to level a dom and looking for feedback. I havent seen much in the way of a Mind/Earth dom so was wondering what you think?

I leveled a fire/psy until the nerf on the tier 9 and she now sits in limbo (at least until GR when I may take her blue side). I figure the Mind/Earth may be more to my liking as most of the time I play my scrappers and brutes.

When people talk of mind/energy being a single target control king they probably actually mean mind/earth as it eclipses it due to seismic smash's hold and powerboost.

I personally think it is single target control overkill, and would sacrifice a small portion of that control for way more damage with a mind/fire, but then again I also wouldn't fill my needs with mind as (ime) it is a distant finisher in aoe control.

That said, if you are seeking amazing single target control, decent aoe control, decent single target damge and a very "crunch, smash" attack set then it sounds like gold to me.

Earth Assualt is very smashy if you like melee you will love Earth (it seems to be mostly pirated stone melee anyways).

Might I suggest a different primary? Mind is great and will work good but there are two other primaries that show good synergy with Earth assualt in particular. Gravity and Ice show the best synergy. Ice because with artic air/shiver/iceslick you can get up close and unleash you melee attacks. Ice would be my top pick to pair with Earth Assualt. My current toon is Gravity/Earth and he is a blast to play. Gravity is good because the immobilizes still allow for knockdown/knockup which Earth is jammed full of.

My grav/earth is a blast to play fun animations, fun powers and you leave a trail of rocks and propel waste everywhere. If you have any leaning towards a min/max dominator I would look elsewhere, but if you want a different playstyle/versatile toon Ice/Earth or Grav/Earth might be for you.

Fire would be a good combo too, forgot about it but your ranged attack chain will be nonexistent unless you can afford to load up your immobilize with procs (Gravity and Ice let you slip in the extra slow damage procs which is nice). You get your stun much earlier and with the new power colors it looks good too. I still think Ice would work best.

I had just gone gravity as I had never played the set out of the teens before and was curious what singularity was like. It has been a pleasant suprise. It is in no way an uber combo but it is different and very versatile.

Let me pitch to you why I like Gravity:
1)Full ranged attack chain by 10. Long animations but so sexy, between propel, hurl boulder and stone spears. Just flat out wow.
2)Awesome melee damage. I can't swear to it, but I picture a permadom with fighting could have a full melee attack chain boxing/smallmallet/bigmallet/sesmic smash (can't remember name of mallet attacks darn it).
3)AOE control comes late but is close to fire with some neat tricks you can pull with wormhole. I like to teleport low level minions over my groups in low zones while singing "It's raining men" in chat. In fact I am going to do this to the Cap black market as soon as I post this. The neat thing is with powerboost you can stun teleport a group from around corners and out of sight.
4)Ranged AOE hold, not pbaoe which is a real underated benefit. With powerboost in secondary you can slot for maximum recharge with SO's till later on too.
5)Singularity is great control, but so/so damage. With him, your single target hold, and seismec smash you can lock down bosses fast.

Now for the negatives:
All smashing damage is sucktastic and no matter how good the animations look they are long. Did I say long, I meant LOOOOOOONG. You will die more than once while hurl boulder and propel are activating. Don't get me started on how you always eat the alpha after you activate wormhole, that makes no sense and borderline makes the power unusable in the wrong situation. Add knockback to wormhole and if your fighting in open maps you will be hated by teams and loathed by brutes (I highly suggest practicing sticking them into walls and corners).

Gravity is just a quirky set, that blooms late and even then not as good as some other sets. I will say that it seems perfect to match with earth assualt, in that earth assualt gets a noticeable lack of ranged attacks unlike other dominator secondaries. With Gravity offering Lift/Propel it gives you a full ranged attack chain early on. BIG DISCLAIMER: If you are not a veteran player who knows how aggro works and how to use controls well this toon will be a debt magnet. Your best attacks are all melee and of course you have no shields.

I am excited by this toons ceiling because of this, I am dreaming of permadom/tough/weave/patronshield and IO bonuses. Can you picture that? A melee toon with ranged attacks and aoe controls. A true inbetweener blending of classes type toon. Probably a pipe dream but a fun one at this point.

Just to bring it full circle this is why I think mind would be an all right pairing with earth assualt, but I see more synergy with ice and gravity. The ranged damage and being psy is a good compliment, my only knock against it is the soft aoe control is not very good combo if you pick up the aoe attacks (which are relatively weak but fun to use in teams). Which is why Ice would be perfect, with artic air/shiver/ice slick you can get in close to use your melee attacks and aoe attacks more effectively.