Inherent Power Domination and the best way to use it

Wanting to access the new content in GR, I decided to build my first Dominator. I was always curious when others would run around with their plant pets or other power sets, how much fun they would be? So I built a Plant/Fire Dominator. Currently at level 5 and having fun so far.

The thing I need to figure out is the inherent button called Domination. Now, I did read the paragonwiki description which said:

"Nothing delights a Dominator more than inflicting pain. When a Dominator attacks, his sadistic nature grows. When your Domination bar is over 90% you can activate this power to unleash his true potential. Your control powers will typically last 50% longer and will more easily Dominate stronger opponents. Additionally, you will completely recover your Endurance. Domination lasts for 90 seconds and recharges in 200 seconds. The recharge can be reduced by self and ally buffs, but cannot be slotted with enhancements.Domination protects the villain from Knockback/Knockup, Repel, Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Fear, and Confuse effects, and can be activated even while suffering from them to break the villain free.

Domination doubles the magnitude of the villain's own Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Fear, and Confuse effects for their normal durations, then keeps them going at normal magnitude for half that amount of time longer. Debuffs and other secondary effects are not improved.A Dominator's Domination level is shown by an orange bar between Endurance and Experience Points. It rises each time he attacks. It rises faster if the Dominator has more teammates. This is a mild effect with one or two teammates, but on a large team Domination can be brought from 0 to over 90% with fewer than ten attacks. The Domination level falls very slowly when not used. It's automatically reduced to zero 90 seconds after Domination is activated."

Well first off, unless I'm color blind, my bar doesn't appear to be orange but a dullish type gray color..hehe. Also, as with my other 12 toons, this is the first one that had required activation in order to use it. All the others are "auto on" all the time which I thought was interesting. Also, the button will be grayed out until my bar does get over 90% full then I can activate it. Based on what wiki states, that if you don't use it, it drops back down. Also, it is best used in team situations and the larger the team usually equals more kills which is the best use you can get out of it as the bar will fill quicker.

Unlike some powers which can drain end if used or once the power runs out, I really don't see any negatives here? How much does it really help when mezzed or with knockbacks? With that being said, when and where would it be practical to use this and what have you guys felt was the best way to utilize this power?

i've only gotten one to level 10 and i save it for the 2nd to last fight to make sure i get extra umph when fighting LTs and Bosses. since low levels are usually quick to clear i figure that's the safest bet. later on, with more recharge, i plan to use it almost everytime it's ready.

I use it for end management far more than I use it because the double-mag is needed. Edit: I think I used it once for its break-free effect.

I don't know about the color, but honestly, the bar always looked identical to the Fury bar to me. It's in the same location, and I think it's the same color. When it fills up, it begins to flash white, and you also begin to be surrounded by "sparkles". There is also a subtle noise which you can hear in the background.

Activating Domination is about the coolest thing in the game outside of a Kheldian transformation. There is a massive white explosion. I always tie my Domination to a costume change, it makes it EXTREMELY clear to me and everyone around me that I'm in Domination mode, it kind of gets back to the Kheldian thing again, and it's just freaking cool. The best way to do this is with a pair of macros, one to activate Domination and change your costume, and another to change costume back when Domination expires. (It is very unfortunate you can't tie a costume change to a power expiring, that would be a cool QoL improvement if the devs added it)

I actually use a macro that I keep in tray slot 0, which in addition to activating Domination and switching the costume, also loads the second macro to change back. You could also define a keybind to do this, which would save having to use a tray slot. Just use bind_load_file to switch between the binds. You want your Domination power to be visible somewhere, though, so you know when it's recharged. (Although you can't activate it until the bar fills, you also can't activate it until it recharges)

Now for the big question. When should you use it? Well, it's up to your playstyle, of course, but I like to save it for tougher battles, while at the same time using it as frequently as possible while still using it efficiently. The ability to refill your End bar is a huge bonus, it can be helpful to JUST slot your character for the minimum needed to keep up his Endurance. Then when you start to run out in a long battle you can just hit Domination to refill. The advantage to being efficient to start with, of course, is that you'll use Endurance efficiently while in Domination as well.

On the other hand, if your End is constantly full, you're not getting as much out of Domination as you could. Pull some End Enhancements out, or reduce the slots on Stamina. (And pre-Stamina, the refill can be very helpful)

You definately want to have Domination ready any time you go up against a Boss. The mez and knockback protection will keep you from being owned in melee with the Boss. On the other hand, if you try too hard to save it for the final battles, you'll be making things too hard for you in the rest of the mission. Look for opportunities to use Domination when going up against mezzers or other problematic foes, use it to recharge End, and when you start getting to the end of the mission, work more towards conserving it for the final battle.

If you have to, if you find the Boss, turn around and go on with the rest of the mission until you build up Domination, then go back to him and use it on him. You can then clean up whatever is left at your leisure.

Domination does NOT fall like Fury. It does decay, but very, very slowly. Your biggest threat of losing your Domination bar is from being defeated. (So if you are close to defeat, the FIRST thing you should do is burn Inspirations to save yourself, and the SECOND thing is hit Domination. Better to use it and not have it later than lose it and not have it later)

In short, it will probably take you about 5 minutes of going from spawn to spawn to build up Domination, and then you will use it and take about 5 minutes more to build it up again. In a team it'll come up even faster, although you still can't activate it more than once every 3 minutes or so without some global recharge. You don't have to worry about charging from one spawn to another, like a Brute, but outside of a mission you will probably see it slowly decay back to zero.

Put it on auto. You can spam attacks to delay it firing if you need to wait a few seconds to take on a special target.

Look in the guide's section for Waybreaker's guide, that'll help. Also, you can check out my power's guide where I describe Domination in detail, link in my sig.

In the lower levels, I tend to save it until I need to refill my endurance. After that, I pretty much just use it whenever it is up, which is usually the second it is done recharging.

I also like to have a separate "dominating" costume I toss on when I enter into Domination. It improves the experience by at least 100%.

In early levels, I tend to use it in three circumstances:
1. When I am mezzed, or when I am about to attack a group that contains a significant mezzer.
2. When I am low on endurance.
3. When I expect to fight a boss within the next 90 seconds.

Later on, I just use it whenever I feel like. Note that on teams, the Domination bar fills up faster.

I could not play Doms for the life of me for a long time. My first I ran to 32, and it was painful. Then I stopped and went back to my standards, brutes. I went through a phase where I ran a Dom of each type Fire/Psi, Mind/Psi, Ice/Ice, etc., and concurrently leveled the eight of them to around 24. Still sucked at it. Back to brutes. I soloed the game with a brute, every story arc, every mission. (Not the 1st time I tried that, but tyhe first time I hit all content.) When i came back to the game after a couple months break, I had a role-playing character I wanted to recreate in the Cities. The concept just naturally was a Mind/Psi dom, based on the other game. And I can actually play him! For me this is a miracle!

I stated all of this as background for my response. It's all about the tactics. You should use the Dom power button regularly, or you will waste it by never using it. Do not save it back too much, or you will find yourself dying and thinking, danged, I shoulda used Dom. On the other hand, (this is where soloing the stories helped a lot) when a big battle looms, having that dom button ready to go is necessary. I have heard people say leave critters alive in side corridors so you can rebuild dom, but that only works solo. Doms are kind of team oriented, and few redside teams have patience for that crap. So, use dom regularly, soon after it pops. (The inspirations you gain from winning these fights can help while dom is down.) Only hoard Dom when you know you got a ugly fight one minute away. (cause you can recharge dom in 2!

I pretty much agree with the TrashCan. My highest Dom is 18, but so far I use it for endurance or bosses, haven't needed to worry about mezzers yet, the few I see I mez first.

I don't know if you use binds, but one I find useful is to bind domination to the numpad enter button. That way I can just tap the button with the thumb on my mouse hand to activate domination. The command should be /bind numpadenter powexecname domination