Dom curiousity.

It's been two years since I last read up on Doms and I've heard that A LOT has changed, though I'm not sure what. I've heard about domination changes and edited power pools.

The dominator I had been working on before I quit was an Ice/Psi. I've read that Psychic Shockwave is no longer so great due to balancing, and that was really what had excited me about the set. Putting it to use with all those intense controls and AoE spamming the whole place to death. It doesn't even seem like Psi is very popular anymore, probably due to their balancing. I remember it was all the rage once.

So what's FOTM lately, then? I've seen Earth, Plant, Fire, Thorns, all combined every which way.

I've tried to play Plant/Thorns combos in the past but I hate the vomit-green poison that seeps out all over their body every time they do anything. It's the same reason I don't play Spines. It's unpleasant to look at, and I wish there was a way to change that, but even with altering the color of the thorns set it doesn't seem to change one bit. (If there's a way someone please let me know).

Breath of Fire really turns me off to the fire set, it just annoys me, but if it's insignificant in the long run for a certain build I'd consider it. I don't know why I haven't gotten into fire. Maybe I just haven't heard enough about it.

I like the idea of Earth but I don't know how to properly apply it to turn a Dom into a powerhouse.

My ideal Dom is something that both keeps an entire group on total lockdown but still deals a lot of damage.

I really enjoy the control ice was offering me, with the AoE confuse and ice slick making everyone slip constantly. The problem was that Psi offered so little damage I felt like I was contributing more by making the enemies attack one another than I was by actually attacking them myself. If Psi's AoE is just "average" now with the Psychic Shockwave nerf then I'm not so set on Psi anymore anyway.

I have an IO'd out Permadom Mind/Psi and it is loads of fun. PSW isn't the monster that it was before, but it is still a decent power. The biggest downside imho is that PSW grabs you a lot of aggro, and being a squishy that isn't great. However, /Psi still has good powers besides PSW. Drain Psyche can be an awesome power if slotted and used correctly.

I think in the end, Doms are just fun toons in general. You shouldn't decide whether you are going to play a toon or not based on one power. You should make the decision on the overall fun of the toon based both on the primary and secondary. So if you like the Ice/Psi...roll with it.

I'm running a pretty Vanilla Ice/Cold (ugh, I just caught that. forgive me) Dom. She's one of my most effective Dominator/Controllers. It almost seems to me that that combo just syncs so well that I don't need to tweak it to make it work.

I'm a big advocate of the "play what you enjoy" school of thought. Don't worry about the FOTM or what might be the "biggest kid on the block." If you've foung something that works well for you, no matter how far off center the idea may be, give it a try.

I too washed my hands of the Dominator AT many moons ago...

However, I knew, vauguely, of supposed improvements so I gave them another go. My most recent creation, a Plant/Fire, has been one of the most fun evar! You will definitley learn to love fire breath in that combo--confused, and immob'd in a little cluster, you DESTROY.

Also, domination is *much* easier to come by now, even on a small team.

As I am now deciding what my *next* dom will be, I will venture to say that /earth looks like a good solid set...

Keep that Ice/Psy, if you want. There's nothing wrong with it at all.

As for Earth Assault, it it the Bruce Willis of Dominator secondaries.

PSW is no longer absurdly overpowered. However it is still very strong. The devs have stated that it's damage is well above what they would normally give an AoE power with its cost, cooldown, etc.

Ive played 3 doms to 50

A perma mind/ice thats wicked fun. Id suggest a mind/fire over it though just for the added damage of /fire

An earth/fire thats incredibly useful for team play.

And a grav/thorn thats more shtick than anything. Wormhole to thorntrops. Its fun but nothing to write home about.

If I were to roll a new dom it'd probably be ice/psi.
That toon has so much synergy between the prim/sec.

If you dont know. All doms have the same damage in Domination and out of Domination.
Domination gives an endurance refill, double mag on controls and mez protection.
So while perma dom is useful its not the end-all-be-all it used to be.

Doms have (at least in my opinion) lost the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde feel I loved so much but I believe the changes are better over-all for the AT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

For secondaries:

/Fire is the real damage dealer, with an end recovery to boot. No mitigation, though. Not as much AoE as you'd expect, but still decent with some great single target damage as well.

/Ice is a bit lower on AoE, but has slows and power boost to increase a lot of controls. I haven't tried it yet, but have friend who like it, friends who don't. Matter of taste.

/Psi is a jack of all trades, decent AoE, Melee, and range...it gives lots of flexibility, but less 'specialty' in one area or another. Was Psy shockwave better? Sure. It's still the best AoE doms can get, and the rest of the set is better now. Drain psyche can replace stamina, freeing up a pool and three powers. At max targets slotting for +heal, it also beats out instant healing from regeneration. It's THAT good.

/Earth is slow, but heavy hitting, and some darned good 'knock around' soft protection. It's also a more close-quarters set, with a single-target leaning. Power boost ups controls again.

/Energy is more close damage, with a single-target focus, and lots of extra control. As it has power boost too, this gives a crazy ammount of mez.

/Thorns is a close-up set, with many AoE damage attacks and a high tohit/slight damage boost in aim. This is good for making those AoE mezzes on their long recharges hit all they can.

/Electric is sort of single-target, with a few AoE's and build-up for damage. Another close-veering set, this still has some decent range. It has an undamagable single-target pet for its final power. This thing aggroes to you, but does okay damage, from what I've heard.

I like my Plant/Elec, and I'm looking forward to rolling a Praetorian Ice/Earth. Then again, what makes me happy is sometimes orthogonal to performance - I went with Plant/Elec because they look pretty, and I want Ice/Earth because I like knocking things down. :P

Fire/Thorns is not a combo you see much that really does well. I know you hate the "green poison" effect, but I thought I'd toss the idea out here anyway.

Plant/ or Earth/ plus any secondary are great in pve. While /Psi is no longer the beast it was *sniff*...the set still offers nice debuffs (-regen and -recharge). An Earth/Psi dom is a very potent PVE toon. You don't see them too often though. Earth/Psi offers solid control, hefty debuffs, and damage. The only primary I'd really say avoid is Gravity. Gravity is a great set but a slow starter...that can be frustrating for new dom players.

Seconding Earth or Plant/Fire. Immense controls, stupidly high damage.

Earth and Plant are incredibly versatile and adept at locking down spawns and /Fire burns them down really well. Combustion is a little on the slow-animating side, but it and Fire Breath do pretty nasty damage.

One thing to note, I'd imagine Earth/Fire would be pretty end-heavy. I've not played Plant control before so someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems Earth is better for locking stuff down but Plant is more damaging, playstyle would be more fast and loose. Still great at lockdown though.

Plant more or less just relies on Seeds. Carrion isn't bad to open up with either, but it is on a long time so it is usually following you into a spawn and providing auxiliary control/damage. Seeds is pretty amazing though.

Or at least thats how my plant/kin plays, but I don't see any of the assault sets really changing how plant functions.

Earth/fire is a bit end heavy. Consume and domination pretty much take care of it though. Or domination+powersink. The only think I don't like about my earth/fire post dom changes is that you now need to slot all 4 single target attacks if you want a chain (outside of perma hasten builds) that isn't just flares spam. I liked it better before when you didn't even need flares and a mild perma dom would let you just cycle blaze>incin>fireblast. For me that extra slotting for an attack came at the cost of my controls, which I don't really like. But for a new user that wouldn't and shouldn't be a deterrent.

My first 50 was a plant/fire Dom. He was tons of fun to level up.
I'm currently working on an earth/earth. I call him my "Brutinator" because the playstyle of Earth Assault feels very much like my Stone Melee brute's. Lots of smashing, and just generally a blast.

Edited to add: Earth/Earth seems to be very end light so far. I'm only 21, but as soon as I got Stamina at 20 and put just the single DO in it, the character's End problems pretty much vanished.

Wow, I'm so happy to see all these informative responses. I've read them all and appreciate every word.

Here's a question: What are controllers like in comparison to Dominators after the Domination changes?

I'm really starting to like the idea of Plant primary. I want seeds of confusion! I like the idea of the damage fire secondary offers, but I'm still not sure if I'd enjoy the play style...I don't know why I've got such an issue with the fire breath cone, maybe I should give it a chance. Can someone describe Fire to me a bit, the three or four most used fire moves in attack rotations and what they're like?

EDIT: And you're right guys, I should be focusing on fun rather than FOTM. The only reason I asked was because my previous experience with FOTM power combos were positive ones. But I like that this game doesn't really hard press you to be the best you can possibly be and render everything else obsolete. In WoW everyone records your DPS no matter where you are or what you're doing and will get rid of you if you aren't incredible at it. Here it's not like that, and it's a nice break.

For the differences between Dom and Controller.

Dom's controls outside Domination are always weaker than a Troller's. They are much lower duration and Troller occasionally gets a critical hold for a couple extra mag. Inside Domination a Dom wins hands down, double mag controls for every attack is beyond awesome.

However with Troller, especially early game, you will spend a lot of time waiting for low damage attacks to recharge and your first attack on anything will always be low damage due to the need to set up containment. Dom right off the bat is doing damage. Even the single target hold has some punch.

If you don't mind a slower solo play and a purely support role in groups then Controller is for you.

If you can adjust to lower duration control powers (which can be very hard if you are used to being a Troller) then it is worth giving Dom a try. Just remember a defeated enemy is better than a Held enemy. Go for the quick kills while holding the most dangerous target.

Fire Breath cone is pretty small I suggest a range enhancement which can thankfully be found in half the IO sets that FB can slot.

Also some tricks when using FB:

When solo target a held enemy when using it. This way you know where the cone is going and can easily line up enemies between you and the target.

In a group target something at the opposite end of the pack from yourself. Activate FB out of range then move forward into range until it fires off to maximize the potential targets.

What makes you say that Controllers are the best AT in the game? If so, why don't more people play them? I thought they'd be about on par with Dominators. Explain to me what makes them so much more powerful than not only Dominators but every other AT?