Earth Assault does have a lot of melee moves. but they all have some sort of soft control to them, mostly knockdown. the slow factor of quicksand is nice, but not helpful when you have to run up to them to attack anyway.
you could always try out Earth/Fire, since there's more ranged attacks that way, might help.
Stay with your earth/earth dom. Trust me, it gets so much better once you have Stalagmites and Earthquake. Here's some tips though...
Don't Take....
Stone Spears: The WORST attack of any of the dominator sets. Has less damage than most, does lethal/smashing damage, and has twice the animation time of other first attacks. Don't slot it. With the three melee attacks and your control powers you wont have any use for it later on anyway.
Stone Cages: Your Earthquake and Earth Assault powers depend on knockdown as mitigation and Cages stop enemies from being knocked down. It also has the worst damage of all the mass immobs and you have no +endurance powers like what fire or mind assault have. Your endurance is much better used in something that actually does damage and doesn't get you killed
Mud Pots: You have no way of pulling enemies together for this to be effective. So it's only a good power for when you're teaming and then enemies die too fast for this to be noticeable. It eats a lot of endurance, has sad damage, and is a very small aoe. This power is ALMOST as sad as Stone Spears.
Hurl Bolder: See Stone Spears
At this point you may be thinking "Ahh hell! Both the ranged powers and the damage aura are terrible?? I'm gonna roll something else!"
Well here are the good points of an Earth/Earth
Fossilize + Seismic Smash + Volcanic Gasses Those are all powers that place a Hold on enemies and with the three of them you'll be able to break through a AV mez protection pretty damn fast and with Power Build up you'll continue to break through that protection even if your domination falls.
Seismic Smash: Best attack doms have. Fantastic damage, fast animation, and puts a Hold on enemies that's affected by domination
Fissure: Enemies escaped your stalagmites? Charging at you? Fissure is there to help! It's a short distance, damaging, aoe that has a stun that's affected by domination.
Quick Sand: Auto hitting slow power that severely debuffs enemy defense. You wont see how much of a God send this power is until you fight Nemesis or AVs later on. It keeps enemies in place, has very low endurance cost, and doesn't cancel your knockdown like what Cages do.
In short, Earth/Earth doms are gods on control. NO other power combination is better at it. You'll need that control because it's a strictly melee set. Both the ranged powers are terrible.
But, if this set isn't for you. As the previous poster said, Fire Assault is also very good and boosts the power of the Fire APP set. And Fire has Consume which wipes away all endurance worries. I would suggest Earth/fire for dominator newbies
"The bird of Hermes is my name. Eating my wings to make me tame." -The Ripley Scroll
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I've just recently returned to the game (never played past the mid-20s) and am trying out an elec/elec, earth/fire, and earth/earth. So far I'm preferring earth/earth even though he's only lvl 10 but I can't figure out a good build. I've come up with the following so far, and not sure where to go from here. Any suggestions are more than welcome:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.803
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Val Richter: Level 37 Mutation Dominator
Primary Power Set: Earth Control
Secondary Power Set: Earth Assault
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Fossilize -- Empty(A), Empty(3), Empty(3), Empty(9), Empty(9)
Level 1: Stone Spears -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stone Mallet -- Empty(A), Empty(5), Empty(5), Empty(11), Empty(15)
Level 4: Tremor -- Empty(A), Empty(7), Empty(7), Empty(11), Empty(15)
Level 6: Quicksand -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Hurl Boulder -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Stalagmites -- Empty(A), Empty(13), Empty(13), Empty(21), Empty(21)
Level 14: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Power Boost -- Empty(A), Empty(17), Empty(17)
Level 18: Earthquake -- Empty(A), Empty(19), Empty(19)
Level 20: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Heavy Mallet -- Empty(A), Empty(23), Empty(23)
Level 24: Hasten -- Empty(A), Empty(25), Empty(25)
Level 26: Volcanic Gasses -- Empty(A), Empty(27), Empty(27)
Level 28: Seismic Smash -- Empty(A), Empty(29), Empty(29)
Level 30: Super Speed -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Animate Stone -- Empty(A)
Level 35: [Empty]
Level 38: Fissure -- Empty(A)
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination
Level 4: Ninja Run
- Should I take anything from the Fighting Pool (Boxing, Tough, Weave)?
- Should I even bother with Super Speed if I've got Ninja Run?
- What Ancillary/Epic Pool is good with this combo?
If you are having trouble playing a dominator it might be helpful to read the following guide on them. Doms take a certain amount of strategy. Active defense like a controller but no self buffing/healing/debuffing is really available.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=114196
Ive created an Earth/Earth dominator and Im having problems. Like a lot of people I am a returning Player, and Im trying to find an Archetype/Power combination that I like.
Currently my Earth/Earth dominator is level 7, but I enter each fight with some trepidation, as a group of 2 even con minions and a lieutenant can nearly take me out. Is this normal? It seems I have to wait between each fight a couple of minutes to regain my health before continuing, and therefore levelling is just crawling.
My past recollection of Coh was that it was not this difficult. Has that game got harder, have I just got worse, or am I just used to easier games. Perhaps its all three :-) Whatever the issue, its not fun at the moment.
So, what am I doing wrong? Is Dominator for me? I like a lot of active abilities to use and mainly play solo. Im not really interested in just turning on some toggles and off I go. I like to think and strategically play. I think some of the problem is Earth Assault needs to be in melee range, and I do not have enough control powers at the moment. The new Undeath mobs run straight though slows. What level does Earth/Earth beginning to be tougher than a wet paper bag?
Or should I try a different power combination or maybe archetype? Any advice will be gratefully received.