5.5 Psionic Mastery
Overview
Psionic Mastery is a very defensive ancillary pool, with 3 team and personal defense powers, along with 1 attack and World of Confusion which provides a combination of defence and offence.
Essential Powers: Link MindsPsionic Mastery is chosen for its defensive capabilities, which support the caster as well as the team. Link Minds is an essential power because it is such a good team buff.
Disappointing Powers:
The three defence powers together provide a significant amount of protection from psionic enemies.
Powers
- Link Minds is a team buff power which grants all nearby teammates defence against all attacks, psionic resistance and a to-hit buff. It has a long recharge, a high endurance cost, and a long activation time. Suggested slotting is 0 - 2 extra slots with 20 - 55% defence buff, because recharge reduction and endurance reduction enhancements are not slottable.
Link Minds works very well with any defence buffing powers from teammates, which are fairly common, meaning it's often a very useful asset.
Multi aspect enhancements such as invention origin enhancements may affect its recharge, in which case slotting for recharge reduction is also recommended.
- Indomitable Will is a self buff which provides status effect protection and high psionic defence for 90 seconds. It has a high endurance cost, a long recharge, and a fast activation time. Suggested slotting is 0 - 4 extra slots with 0 - 60% defence, 0 - 95% recharge and 0 - 80% endurance reduction.
Indomitable Will is very useful for filling the gaps in a Dominators mez protection when Domination is not available, perhaps most importantly after a defeat, when Domination has not yet been built. Additionally it provides very high psionic defence and is the basis for making a Dominator which is very well protected from psionic enemies.
Its recharge is a bit on the long side, and it seems overall somewhat redundant for any Dominator who has Domination available regularly.
- Mind Over Body is a typical epic shield, see the Shared Powers section. In addition to good smashing and lethal resistance, it provides basic psionic resistance.
- World of Confusion is a toggle power with a melee range damage aura and confuse effect. It has a short confuse duration, a low endurance cost, low damage and a medium recharge time. Suggested slotting is 0 - 5 extra slots with 0 - 95% damage, 0 - 95% confuse duration.
World of Confusion provides some extra damage and protection for a Dominator who regularly enters melee range and an interesting visual effect. The low endurance cost means that it's not a burden to keep active, even if it's not affecting any enemies.
The small radius means most of the time it will have little to no effect, and the weak confuse effect and low damage are not terribly noticeable.
- Psionic Tornado is a typical targeted AoE epic attack, see the Shared Powers section. It inclues a chance for knockup and a strong recharge debuff which is useful for a little extra mitigation.
5.6 Leviathan Mastery
Overview
Leviathan Mastery is a balanced patron power pool, providing offence and defence powers.
- Water Spout summons a short-lived, unkillable, very aggresive pet which knocks enemies up, disorients them, causes them to flee, reduces their defence and deals high damage. Suggested slotting is 0 - 5 additional slots with 35 - 95% recharge reduction, 0 - 95% damage, 0 - 95% disorient duration.
It is useful for dealing with situations that have got out of hand, initiating difficult fights, and dealing damage to tough foes.
- Bile Spray is a cone attack, dealing similar damage to those from the secondary. It has a long recharge, average damage, long activation, long range, narrow angle and high target cap. Typical attack slotting is recommended.
Bile Spray's most important advantage over the cone attacks in the secondary is having a higher target cap. Typically it would be paired with Fire Breath, Frost Breath or Psychic Scream to have two cones of similar shape for ease of use.
The fact that it's a weaker attack than those from the secondary is very disappointing, but it still can make a nice addition.
- Hibernate is a self-preservation power with a fast activation which protects the Dominator from all harm and quickly heals them, but prevents any movement. The effect can be ended at any time, and automatically ends after 30 seconds. Suggested slotting is 0 - 1 extra slots with 0 - 80% recharge and 0 - 80% heal.
Hibernate can be a real life-saver in a nasty situation, giving the Dominator some time to wait for a situation to be sorted out. With its fast activation, Hibernate may provide some tricks to absorb initial aggro, such as that generated by slow control powers.
Its biggest limitation is that it prevents the caster from moving and escaping to somewhere safe. If there are no allies around to get a situation in order, then things are likely to be more dangerous when the effect ends, because control effects may have ended and enemies will have been able to get into melee range. For this reason it doesn't real suit a solo Dominator, and is more appropriate in a team situation.
- Shark Skin is a typical epic shield, see the Shared Powers section. In addition to good smashing and lethal resistance, it provides good cold resistance.
- Summon Coralax summons a typical patron pet, see the Shared Powers section. The summoned Blue Coralax Hybrid has melee and cone attacks.
5.7 Mace Mastery
Overview
Mace Mastery is a balanced patron power pool, giving a mix of defence and offence, with single target and AoE powers.
- Poisonous Ray is a single target debuff with a good resistance and defence debuff, as well as some damage. It has a medium endurance cost, activation time and recharge time, a slight accuracy bonus, and some noticeable damage over time. Activating the power causes the caster to draw an Arachnos mace. Suggested slotting is 0 - 3 extra slots with 35 - 80% accuracy, 0 - 95% damage.
It is useful in the toughest fights such as against EBs, AVs and Heroes, and can speed up some boss fights. This is a real benefit for Dominators who typically have trouble against AVs.
The Arachnos mace animation won't suit all character costumes.
- Scorpion Shield is a typical epic shield, see the Shared Powers section. It has good defence against smashing and lethal attacks, basic defence against energy attacks, and basic resistance against toxic damage.
- Disruptor Blast is a typical epic targeted AoE attack, see the Shared Powers section. It has a 20% chance of knockback, which can be an irritation.
- Personal Force Field is a self-preservation power with a slow activation time, which grants the caster very high defence, high damage resistance, but prevents them from affecting anyone else. Suggested slotting is 0 extra slots with 0 - 40% recharge reduction and 0 - 40% defence buff.
Personal Force Field is a very handy power for escaping nasty situations. Once activated, very few PvE enemies will be able to hit through it, and the user can run and escape the danger. It also has a nice bubble visual effect.
Personal Force Field's long activation time leaves enough time for defeat, so it's best to use it a bit early just to be safe.
- Summon Tarantula summons a typical patron pet, see the Shared Powers section. The summoned Toxic Tarantula has melee and ranged attacks, along with a single target immobilize.
5.8 Mu Mastery
Overview
Mu Mastery is a defensive patron pool, with a healing pet, two personal shields, an endurance management power and a single attack. It has a secondary effect of endurance reduction which is useful when mixed with endurance drain from other Dominator sets like Electric Control.
- Power Sink is a PBAoE endurance drain and recovery power on a medium recharge. It is auto-hit, has a long activation time, a small radius, but a high endurance cost. It is a decent, if unwieldy, power. Suggested slotting is 0 - 5 additional slots with 0 - 95% endurance modification, 35 - 80% endurance reduction, 0 - 80% recharge.
Since it's auto-hit, it is very dependable for refilling endurance in combat, but its high endurance cost reduces its utility against endurance draining enemies who tend to fully drain endurance.
- Charged Armor is a typical epic shield, see the Shared Powers section. In addition to good smashing and lethal resistance, it provides good energy resistance.
- Ball Lightning is a typical targeted AoE epic attack, see the Shared Powers section. It has a small endurance drain.
- Surge of Power is a self-preservation power which grants the user high resistance to all damage types except psionic, and greatly increases their recovery rate. It has a medium activation time, very low endurance cost, a very long recharge, and an endurance crash when it ends. It has an electricity visual effect which suppresses the caster's normal costume. Suggested slotting is 2 - 5 extra slots with 35 - 95% recharge reduction and 40 - 60% resistance.
Surge of power is a dramatic increase to survivability, allowing a Dominator to survive a nasty situation and attack at the same time.
Since it doesn't grant status protection, it is best combined with Domination or some other form of status protection. The weakness to psionic damage means that it's worthless against psionic enemies.
- Summon Guardian summons a typical patron pet, see the Shared Powers section. The summoned Mu Guardian has a single target heal, ranged attacks and summons its own Voltaic Sentinel pet.
5.9 Soul Mastery
Overview
Soul Mastery is a very aggressive AoE oriented patron power pool, which includes a strong self damage buff.
- Dark Consumption is a PBAoE endurance recovery which causes a damage to affected enemies. It has a very low endurance cost, a very small radius, a very long six minute recharge time, good damage and good endurance recovery. Suggested slotting is 1 - 5 additional slots with 35 - 80% accuracy, 35 - 95% endurance recovery, 0 - 95% damage, and 0 - 95% recharge.
Its low endurance cost means it can work even after being sapped by an enemy, and its small amount of damage is nice.
However, Dark Consumption's small radius and long recharge time make it a very marginal power.
- Dark Embrace is a typical epic shield, see the Shared Powers section. It has good resistance against smashing and lethal attacks, and basic resitance against toxic and negative energy damage.
- Dark Obliteration is a typical epic targeted AoE attack, see the Shared Powers section. It has a minor to-hit debuff.
- Soul Drain is a PBAoE attack which provides a large self damage buff for each enemy hit. It has a decent radius, a good damage and to-hit buff, a high endurance cost, a long activation time, and a long recharge. Suggested slotting is 3 - 5 extra slots with 35 - 80% accuracy, 35 - 95% recharge, 0 - 35% endurance reduction, 0 - 95% damage.
Soul Drain can provide a very large damage buff when there are a large number of enemies within range. It is a very useful power against large groups, when combined with AoE attacks.
Soul Drain's longish activation and recharge times make it somewhat unwieldy to use.
- Summon Seer summons a typical patron pet, see the Shared Powers section. It has mostly ranged attacks, as well as an ally perception and confuse resistance buff.
6. Pool Powers
Power pools should be chosen based on player preference, there is no must-have pool, although some are extremely beneficial. The most important pool powers, which all Dominators should consider, in order: Hasten from Speed, because it boosts the recharge of Domination; Stamina from the Fitness pool, to help with endurance problems; Acrobatics from Leaping, because knockback can kill; and Aid Self from Medicine so you don't have to stop. The power pools which offer the least beneficial powers are Fighting, because the values are so low, and Presence, because Dominators get much better control powers in their primaries.
In the late game, especially after level 40, enemies with status effects become very common. AoE mez attacks generate a lot of aggro, which means that Dominators are likely to experience a lot of these status effects. Being mezzed or knocked back can be deadly for a Dominator because rapid response often makes the difference between defeat and victory. For these reasons, many Dominators look to the power pools for additional status protection, because Domination isn't always available. Chief amongst the status protection powers is Acrobatics, which protects from knock* and hold. Hover provides a more limited form of knock* protection, turning it into a falling over effect, without the movement. Aid Self provides an unwieldy stun protection, Health provides sleep resistance, and Tactics provides fear resistance.
6.1 Concealment
Concealment is primarily a matter of preference for Dominators. Stealth is a useful power for opening fights with a well placed AoE control, notably Plant Control's Seeds of Confusion, or convincing a pet to engage the enemy and take the alpha strike, and it combines with Super Speed from the speed pool to give complete invisibility against most enemies. Grant Invisibility, Invisiblity and Phase Shift have no benefit specific to Dominators.
6.2 Fighting
Fighting is a poor choice for Dominators. Boxing and Kick do not provide significant benefit compared to attacks already available in the secondary. Tough and Weave provide low resistance and defence values which make little difference because Dominators have no other defence powers to stack them with until level 41 when patron shields become available. Additional control powers from the primary are usually a better choice for enhancing survivability.
6.3 Fitness
Many Dominators will want to take the Fitness pool for Stamina, since endurance is often the limiting factor in performance. Dominators with confuse powers, high damage pets (Fire Imps), or high damage secondaries may find that it's not necessary, while those with Icy Assault will almost certainly want it. Any two of Hurdle, Swift and Health can be taken as prerequistes depending on preference.
6.4 Flight
Air Superiority is a melee attack which provides guaranteed knockdown, making it very useful in early levels to fill in gaps in control, and in later levels against bosses specifically. Standard attack slotting is suggested. Hover is useful for its limited knockback protection, to keep dangerous enemies out of melee, and to improve Wormhole by directing it straight down thus reducing its knockback problem. Suggested slotting is 1 - 2 additional slots with 80 - 95% flight speed. Fly is a slow, but practical travel power. Group Fly's to-hit debuff makes it undesirable in combat, although it is entertaining when used with Fire Imps. Suggested slotting is 3 - 4 additional slots with 35 - 80% endurance reduction, and 35 - 95% flight speed.
6.5 Leadership
While Dominators don't receive the best bonuses for the Leadership powers, they are quite acceptable and can be useful on larger teams. The biggest drawback to leadership is the notable endurance cost. Assault provides an appreciable bonus for its endurance cost on large teams, but is less beneficial with fewer allies to buff. Suggested slotting is no additional slots with 35 - 40% endurance reduction. Maneuvers's defence bonus is very small, making it not particularly worthwhile since Dominators have very few other defence powers to stack it with, although it is useful alongside defence buffs from teammates. Suggested slotting is 0 - 3 additional slots with 35 - 40% endurance reduction and 0 - 95% defence. Tactics is a nice substitute for additional accuracy enhancements, and its perception bonus is useful in some circumstances. Suggested slotting is 0 - 3 additional slots with 35 - 40% endurance reduction and 0 - 95% to-hit buff. Vengeance can be a very useful power on occasion for a teaming Dominator, especially if it's used with Power Boost which significantly improves it. Suggested slotting is 0 - 2 additional slots with 35 - 95% defence buff.
6.6 Leaping
Combat Jumping provides nice mobility and protection from immobilize for a low endurance cost. Suggested slotting is 0 additional slots. Jump Kick is a poor attack with a long activation time, and knockback which isn't guaranteed. Super Jump is a popular travel power with a nice tradeoff between speed and vertical movement. Acrobatics is an excellent protection power, with a moderately high endurance cost, and can greatly increase survivability at later levels. Suggested slotting is 0 - 1 additional slots with endurance reduction.
6.7 Medicine
Aid Other provides some utility for a Dominator with pets, and can be appreciated on teams. Suggested slotting is heal, recharge, and interrupt reduction to taste. Stimulant provides a lot less utility, because mez is usually harder to identify, and only a problem in combat when the risk of the power being interrupted is high. Aid Self is often useful, depending on play style, and may improve efficiency when solo. It is also significantly improved by Power Boost. Suggested slotting is 3 - 5 additional slots with 0 - 80% recharge reduction, 0 - 80% interrupt reduction, and 35 - 95% healing. Resuscitate is a very mediocre rez power, largely due to it's extremely long activation and recharge times, and a Dominator would be better served by a power to prevent the defeat in the first place.
6.8 Presence
Challenge and Intimidate are very poor powers for Dominators who typically attract enough aggro, and cannot survive it well. Intimidate is a weak single target fear power, with a long recharge, which is not even guaranteed to always affect lieutenants. Invoke Panic is PBAoE with a long recharge, and only affects lieutenants who are weak to fear. Both Intimidate and Invoke Panic are boosted by Domination, at which point they will affect bosses and are quite usable control powers. Considering their limited usefulness outside of Domination, that fear is one of the weaker forms of control, and that a taunt power is required to open the pool, these powers are not a particularly good choice for Dominators.
6.9 Speed
Flurry is a slow and weak attack, with a long recharge time, and a small chance for disorient. Hasten is an excellent power, providing noticeably increased effectiveness when it is active. Hasten is of particular importance to Dominators because it makes Domination recharge more quickly. It is also an important component in attempts to achieve permadom. Suggested slotting is 0 - 2 additional slots with recharge enhancements. Super Speed is a travel power with good stealth as well, which can be useful in the same ways as Stealth from the Concealment Pool, and the two work well together. However, it can be a very frustrating travel power in vertical terrain. Suggested slotting is endurance reduction. Whirlwind is a useful power on occasion, when extra control is needed, as well as being quite entertaining. It can be used to push enemies into the area of effect of drop powers, although at the cost of doing much else. Suggested slotting is 0 - 2 additional slots with endurance reduction.
6.10 Teleportation
Recall Friend can be of use to Dominators with pets, to get them into melee, save them from bad situations, or position them near enemies to start the fight. Teleport Foe is occasionally useful to break up closely grouped enemies, although a ranged attack is almost always sufficient for such a task. Teleport is a somewhat difficult travel power with nothing special for Dominators. Team Teleport can be used to great effect with Singularity, because when teleporting directly into the middle of a group of enemies it will take the majority of the aggro.
7. Glossary
- Aggro is the attention an enemy gives its target. To have aggro means to have an enemy attacking you, and to draw aggro is to cause enemies to start targetting you.
- AV is an Arch Villain class enemy, sometimes also identified as Hero. Confusingly some mobs identified as Hero are really more equivalent to bosses.
- Confuse is an effect which causes a mob to attack friends instead of foes. Although damage from confused enemies does reduce xp received, it is not directly proportional to the amount of damage, and instead favours the player. Furthermore since it reduces the amount of time spent in each fight it actually increases overall xp gain by time.
- Disorient is an effect which prevents power activation, drops some toggles, and reduces movement to a very slow pace. It is also known as stun.
- DoT is an abbreviation for Damage over Time, and refers to damage that some powers do for several seconds after they first hit.
- Hold is an effect which prevents movement, prevents power activation, and also drops some toggles.
- Immobilize is an effect which prevents movement.
- Knock* means all three of knockback, knockdown, and knockup. It's also important to note that knockdown and knockback are the same effect which causes knockdown if its magnitude is less than 1, and knockback otherwise. This means that knockdown powers which are slotted with knockback enhancement will start to cause knockback instead.
- Fear usually means Terrorize, but can also mean Flee.
- Flee is an effect which causes mobs to attempt to leave an area of effect. This does not affect players.
- -Fly is a debuff effect which prevents flight.
- Magnitude or Mag is the measure of strength of a status effect. When a status effect is applied it increases the magnitude of that effect on its target, and when the magnitude exceeds the target's protection to that status effect, the effect acts on them. For example, bosses typically have mag 3 hold protection, and a standard hold has a mag 3 effect. With a single hold on them, their protection is not exceeded, so there's no hold effect, but with two holds there is mag 6 of held being applied to them, exceeding their innate mag 3 protection, and they are subsequently held, unable to move and unable to activate powers.
- Mob is a mobile object, including friend and foe.
- Permadom is when Domination recharges before it expires, allowing the Dominator to activate it again and permanently receive the Domination buff.
- Sleep is an effect which prevents movement, prevents power activation and drops some toggles, but which is ended by healing, damage and many status effects. A new sleep effect won't end an old one, allowing it to be stacked, except for sleep powers that cause damage.
- Status Effect is a general word for hold, disorient, knockback, knockup, immobilize, confuse, terrorize and sleep.
- STH is an abbreviation for Single Target Hold.
- Stun is another word for disorient.
- Terrorize is an effect which prevents movement and prevents power activation, but whose effects are temporarily suspended when attacked.
- PBAoE is an abbreviation for Point-Blank Area of Effect, meaning it covers an area centered on the caster.
I think I would need at least a week to absorb all of this.
Wow.
Thanks again for the great guide 
I'm relatively new to this game, would you mind explaining what "Standard attack slotting" is?
Thanks, this guide has been informative.
@MaskedSecretary
Excellent guide. I was a bit surprised by the negative comments about Thunder Strike, just because friends had been so very positive about it in an elec melee character.
It might not hurt to update the guide to mention inherent fitness, which changes a lot of things for doms.
I just started my first dom (mind/elec) and I cannot say enough about how awesome this guide has been. THANKS!
Great guide! Haven't read through it all yet but I will as needed. Though I do think that earthquake should be put as an essential power for earth control.
I don't know if its new, but I recently respeced into consume, and in addition to recovering endurance, it provides a short duration recovery buff for every enemy hit. I will try to double-check this the next time I'm online, but it isn't mentioned in your guide.
50: Ill/Kin(A+,R,J)-1047 badges RE/Dark(A) Fire/Elec Warshade BS/Regen Necro/Poison Ice/Fiery(A+) Son/Son Bane(A) FM/DA(A) DM/Nin Grav/Icy
lvling: Inv/EM DM/Sheild Arch/MM Bane NW Elec/Earth Grav/Elec Elec/FA Rad/Ice
Paragon Elite/Rogue Elite Joined Oct 2004
Quote:
Yes the recovery buff was added to consume a few issues ago, I think it was before they buffed burn but it could have been at the same time.
|
Originally Posted by Soul_Stormer
I don't know if its new, but I recently respeced into consume, and in addition to recovering endurance, it provides a short duration recovery buff for every enemy hit. I will try to double-check this the next time I'm online, but it isn't mentioned in your guide.
|
Quote:
cool.|
Originally Posted by Colossal
Yes the recovery buff was added to consume a few issues ago, I think it was before they buffed burn but it could have been at the same time.
|
to be clear: consume gives +20 end and +5% recovery for 15s per enemy hit, both enhanceable. it also give 50% end drain resist (if i read real numbers right), which seems like it is also enhanceable.
50: Ill/Kin(A+,R,J)-1047 badges RE/Dark(A) Fire/Elec Warshade BS/Regen Necro/Poison Ice/Fiery(A+) Son/Son Bane(A) FM/DA(A) DM/Nin Grav/Icy
lvling: Inv/EM DM/Sheild Arch/MM Bane NW Elec/Earth Grav/Elec Elec/FA Rad/Ice
Paragon Elite/Rogue Elite Joined Oct 2004
Quote:
cool.|
Originally Posted by Colossal
Yes the recovery buff was added to consume a few issues ago, I think it was before they buffed burn but it could have been at the same time.
|
to be clear: consume gives +20 end and +5% recovery for 15s per enemy hit, both enhanceable. it also give 50% end drain resist (if i read real numbers right), which seems like it is also enhanceable.
50: Ill/Kin(A+,R,J)-1047 badges RE/Dark(A) Fire/Elec Warshade BS/Regen Necro/Poison Ice/Fiery(A+) Son/Son Bane(A) FM/DA(A) DM/Nin Grav/Icy
lvling: Inv/EM DM/Sheild Arch/MM Bane NW Elec/Earth Grav/Elec Elec/FA Rad/Ice
Paragon Elite/Rogue Elite Joined Oct 2004
Great compliation; I strongly disagree with your comments on Earth Assault. I've found it to be one of the hardest-hitting, strongest-feeling secondaries available to Doms. Stone Spears is a quick-hitting lifesaver and Hurl Boulder is a great source of damage and mitigation. I wouldn't call them 'worst' by any standard. The one thing this guide needs to address is it's overall tone; I've seen some people absolutely in love with powers you've named as "worst" or "not worth it." Remember, this is all opinion and shouldn't be presented as fact.
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
Quote:
Isn't that true with everyone's opinion of powers, though? Aside from the ones with blatantly inferior numbers, of course.
|
Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
Remember, this is all opinion and shouldn't be presented as fact.
|
5.4 Primal Forces Mastery
Energy Mastery's unique quality is having two targeted AoE attacks. Energy Torrent is its best AoE attack, since it includes control through knockdown, while Explosive Blast is much like the targeted AoEs in the other sets.Overview
Primal Forces Mastery is a primarily aggressive ancillary pool, providing 3 attacks, 1 defence power and an endurance management power. It adds to the Dominators damage potential, either in melee range or AoE damage.
Energy Transfer really gives a big melee damage punch and can be an excellent tool for finishing things off. It's also got a fun activation and strong feeling to it.
Of course, sacrificing your own hit points to do damage is a risky prospect for a Dominator, and in tougher situations Energy Transfer will not see much use because the risk is too high. The long activation time is of course a serious problem as well, since Dominators are so dependent on combat mobility.
Conserve Power provides a very nice endurance buff for Dominators having trouble with endurance management, and who are presented with a drawn-out battle. Combined with various other endurance management powers, such as Domination, Stamina, Consume, or Drain Psyche it may prove to be very useful on a rare occasion, for when other options have failed.
Its long recharge makes it difficult to use for regular endurance management. Considering that Domination grants endurance back, the benefits of Conserver Power are marginalized.
With its high chance of knockdown and fast activation, Energy Torrent is a very useful AoE attack combining damage and damage mitigation. Its wide and short cone means its appropriate for use at close range.
As for all epic powers, its recharge is a little long.