So, I want a Dominator.

And I'm thinking Earth/Fire/Fire currently. Both controls and damage seem spectacular for this combo, and I haven't taken any of the sets to 50 yet (although *Fire/Fire resembles Fire Blast a lot).

Before I get around to working out a build, is there anything I should know about this particular combo? Strengths and weaknesses? And would something else be a better suited primary for a Dominator whose goal is to lock down the spawn and then proceed pretending to be a Blaster?

Fire/fire resembles fire blast in that you will lean on the same three attacks all the way to whoopsie.

The only concern you might have is that your controls are going to overkill any 1/0 spawn, but until you get into your higher level ranges, your AOEs are going to suck for large groups.

Earth Control is really the big mack truck of control sets; it has pretty much no finesse, no refinement; it instead chooses to shake the board like a gorilla, making sure everything is locked down. When you hit a spawn with a control power and you have one runaway who it didn't affect, you're only going to have the option of tagging him with your ST hold.

On the other hand, this is somewhat of a silly complaint; while Earth Control spends all its time swatting flies with sledgehammers, it doesn't really matter because the set is made up of pretty much seven sledgehammers. Quicksand is a great early pick because it needs no slotting to be good and represents SO level accuracy.

Don't bother looking at -res procs, since for the most part, they don't propogate well and your attacks can't be socketed for -def. Just be happy with not needing acc boosts after Quicksanding someone.

Fire blast is the little black dress of assault sets. It goes with everything. It has stellar single target damage, an almost-build-up effect, a really good chain for endurance consumption, Consume (which is very nice), and even two non-awful AOEs (that will be outshone by your high-level AOEs in the epic pool). It only has one real turkey power, and that's the snipe, which I'm sure you can find a use for in sets.

So I guess what I'm saying is you're building a gorilla in a little black dress.

An awesome gorilla.

Heroes, Villains ♦ Reviews ♦ Retrospect

Hehe, pretty much what I thought then.

I'm so far planning to only use ranged attacks: Blaze, FBlast, Fossilize for single targets and Fire Breath, Fire Ball and Rain of Fire for AoEs. For control, well, I'll probably cycle the following combos as needed: Stalagmites + Cages (most probably QS here, too), EQ + Quicksand, Gasses + Cages (again, QS is likely). Should have one of those available at every spawn even before getting my hands on IOs, I think.

With Consume and Domination, I don't think I'll need Stamina even before IOs which isn't bad news.

Now to whip up a build...

On my E/F/F I took Incinerate leveling up and ultimately dropped it since it was my only melee attack. If you want to go all ranged I'd still recommend taking it until you've got Blaze. I didn't take it when I leveled my Mind/Fire and couldn't believe how much faster my Earth/Fire leveled with it. It really is that good.

I didn't take Combustion (stand here for 3 seconds for crappy damage) or Consume (forever long recharge until well slotted).

Other than that you can't really mess up Earth/Fire unless you use Cages on Earthquake... Don't be that guy.

On my fire/fire, I've found Consume is a great love-tap power to follow up the fireball/Rain AOE chain, that also happens to top you off for Endurance.

Heroes, Villains ♦ Reviews ♦ Retrospect

Guess I could take Incinerate while leveling up, then. I never like Combustion, though, mostly because of the enormously long animation time which doesn't even look cool. I wouldn't mind it if in the space of those 3 seconds my character ripped the hearts out of every enemy within radius, set those hearts on fire and put them back in their chests. Because that doesn't happen I'm not going to take Combustion, it seems.

Consume on the other hand seems really nice because two SOs is enough to make the +recovery part perma and I only need to hit 5 enemies for it to equal Stamina. I was thinking that Consume + Domination would do the trick, but I could just as well resort to Stamina. Back to tinkering with Mid's...

Incinerate is only good if you have extra slots to put in it for set bonuses. Spamming flares and fire blast and fireball does enough dmg

I didn't take incinerate until later either. You can totally get by without it if you want. I picked it up mainly so that later I'll have set bonuses. Its a good attack though.

Here is the build I'm running with on live. I'm just using generics and frankenslotting right now. Whether I actually snaz it up with recharge, I dunno. But my power picks and number of slots match this currently. Its pretty awesome!

Lewis

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.803
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

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I know Incinerate is a good attack, I really like it on my FM/SR Scrapper. I'm not sure if it'll be worth picking on a Dominator, though, if it's going to be my only melee attack.

I'm thinking of going all out Recharge on the Dom so attack chain would probably look something like this: Fossilize > FBlast > Blaze with another FBlast added if my global Rech isn't sufficient to run that chain.

Incinerate is a decent attack for killing bosses very quickly, but it is most certainly skippable. Fire can easily get away with making a pure ranged build, since it has 3 good single target attacks, and a ranged Cone.

Combustion is actually pretty decent until you get your APP AoE's, since otherwise all of your AoE is coming from Firebreath. Might consider taking it, then respecing it out when you get Fireball and Rain of Fire. Not necessary though.


As for Consume, I really like it. That extra endurance is always useful, and Earth likes to burn through the end. Toss 1 Acc in it if you don't think you have many end problems, and use it for emergencies.

So, here's what I'm planning to pick power-wise until APPs. When I hit 41, I'll most likely respec out of Combustion and Incinerate and concentrate on ranged attacks instead. With all of my 3 AoEs working from range as well as controls, I don't really see a point in picking Incinerate as the only melee attack (I really don't like Combustion's long animation ). Slots I'll use as I see fit.

Going to use Ninja Run as travel mostly, only picked SJ because there was nothing else I would've taken. As for sets and what I'm going to do post 41? I'll start playing with a build that has loads of Rech and possibly some Ranged Def...

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1,803
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 37 Magic Dominator
Primary Power Set: Earth Control
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Assault
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Fossilize -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Flares -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Incinerate -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Fire Breath -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Quicksand -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Fire Blast -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Stalagmites -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Embrace of Fire -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Earthquake -- Empty(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Combustion -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Hasten -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Volcanic Gasses -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Stone Cages -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Combat Jumping -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Animate Stone -- Empty(A)
Level 35: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 38: Blaze -- 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