First Dominator....help!

Alright, so lately I've been feeling the bug to diversify and play other types of characters, and Dominators seem like they could be a good fit. Only thing is, I don't know my butt from my elbows when it comes to them, so looking for some advice/ideas on ways to start so I don't accidentally make a gimp/unfun build.

My play style before has been primarily Brutes/Scrappers, and my only 50 is an SS/Inv Brute. I've been having some fun with a DP/Devices Blaster who is at level 27 right now, enjoying the planning needed instead of just jumping in and smashing.

So, ideas for good builds to start with for doms? I'd like to feel powerful, though fun is usually a higher priority. I usually run in small teams (solo to 3 people) if that matters.

Ice/Fire or Fire/Ice seems like it could be interesting, but other than that no idea. So, any base line advice?

This is a partial quote from a guide in the Dominator Guide section. I am peeling thru that info ffor my odd build. Hope this helps.

Potential Suckfest #1: Dealing with Active Defence

If you've never played a Blaster before the concept of Active Defence will be new to you. Not new in a "Wow, what is that?" kind of way. But new in a "Jeebus, what the hell is that sharp pain in my rectum?" kind of way. Only two ATs in the entire game rely on Active Defence. The Blaster and the Dominator. Active Defence means you must specifically address every threat to your toon at any given moment with an active power. Every other AT in the game has a method of generating passive defence. Whether through armours / defensive toggles, anchored debuffs, pbaoe debuffs, a private army of pets, etc etc. These are all methods of defending yourself and increasing your survivability that require little to no further input from the player after being "flipped on". They are constant abilities that aren't typically hampered by durations of effect.

Blasters and Dominators are different. They must specifically address each threat, each mob, with an active power to defend themselves. With Blasters their best defence is a great offence. With Dominators, or defence is Control. We must use an active power on every threat to our person. Every mob needs to be targetted directly or indirected. Every mob needs to be addressed with a Hold, Disorient, Sleep, Confuse, Knockdown, etc. After which each mob, if still alive, will have to be re-addressed before the duration of Control expires. If we fail to do that, we die. Death on a Dominator is the result of you, the player, losing control of the situation around you. You've either missed a mob, failed to notice a mob, let a mob get a loose or been surprised by a mob. Your first and only level of defence is suddenly forfeit. There's no armour, toggle, debuff, anchor or anything to that effect left to save you. Unlike our Controller cousins who possess a Defender set loaded with any number of buffs, debuffs, heals, toggles and so on that can increase their surviability.

Ironcially, a Blaster coming over from CoH will probably have the best playstyle mindset to deal with a Dominator. Rather then a Controller. Who's life is actually much safer.


Potential Suckfest #2: Poor Power Choices

There are some suck powers in every Controller set. They won't cripple you or anything but they may prevent you from choosing better options. There's also some powers that in all frank honesty, just aren't of much use to us. Lastly, there are powers which ARE good but not until later on in the game when SO's, slots and Stamina are available. Controllers have already been using our primaries for over a year. Our best point of reference for which powers are good and which are passable is the Controller community. If you're unsure about a particular power you should read the associated Controller guide before bothering to ask on the Dominator forums. The Dominator community is a bit on the small side and our population is a bit on the low side. Not to mention half the advice given there is completely horrible. Whereas Controllers, as I said, have already been using these powers for a year. They've already debated all these powers to death. Read the advice of those that came before us. Even if they are filthy heroes.

I'll go more into specifics about power choices in the next chapter.


Potential Suckfest #3: Poor Slotting

Probably one of the most critical failures. To put it bluntly: 90% of our primary powers suck out of the box. They need slots. They need enhancements. Your core control powers WILL need 5-6 slots. Single target control can get away with 5 slots. AoE control NEEDS 6 slots. Your secondary, Assault, can maintain a solid amount of effectiveness using 4 slots for single target powers and 4-6 for Cone / AoE powers depending on the power and your perference about it.

Once again, I'll go into specifics next chapter.


Potential Suckfest #4: My damage sucks!

Honestly, it really doesn't. With proper slotting our damage is perfectly fine. We also have a snowball's chance in Hell of ever seeing any sort of significant boost in damage. So you'll have to get over it or go play a Corruptor. We're a support AT. We do deal a good amount of damage but we're not going to topple high damage ATs. Nor should we. If you really feel you aren't doing enough damage then pick Energy or Fire as a secondary. Both are heavy hitting and Fire has it's own inbuilt damage buff. Either that or wait for your pet. Most of our pets can contribute a significant and even surprising amount of damage.



Potential Suckfest #5: Not all Dominators are created equal.

Finally, and sadly, not all sets make a good Dominator. Simple as that. If you're looking for uber damage, Psi Assault probably isn't the way to go. If you're looking for control, chances are you shouldn't click on Gravity. Yes, it's unfair, but thats the way things are. Once again I refer you to the Controller community if you really want to know how a set stacks up. However, I will, bluntly, advise you to steer clear of Gravity. I know some of you love it and some of you will disagree with me. Even I love the graphics for it. But the painful truth is it doesn't make a good Dominator set. Even as a Controller set it's needed love for a long time. It's long animation times, few soft control options and a pet which isn't going to provide you with that which you'll likely be lusting for ( More damage ), you may as well save yourself the frustration.

Lastly, if you're truely unsure which set is going to do it for you in the long run, I suggest Plant Domination. Plant is the only primary that was specifically designed for our AT. Thus it's built for us and contains all the tools the devs felt Dominators needed. You can't really go wrong with it.



3. The Care and Feeding of Dominators

Building a Dominator doesn't have to be rocket science. But it does take some knowledge of the game and some trial and error. Chances are by the time you hit 24 you'll have something you want to respec out of now that you've had a good test run with it. Heck, you'll likely feel the same by 34 as well. 1-24 is more forgiving then 24+ and will serve as a good test drive for you to see what works, what doesn't work and which powers you picked just don't suit you. Or outright suck. All that being said there is a core Unholy Trinity of powers every Dominator should try and have. The minimum required to effective. These are a Single Target Hold, AoE Hold and some form of AoE or Cone Soft Control. You should try and have one of each of these by level 18-20. 26 with Ice. Having these 3, and having them well slotted, will be your core tools and the key to having a decent Dominator at higher levels. Which powers fit in each of the 3 differ from set to set. But should be pretty evident by glancing at your list of powers. Still, I'll elaborate:

Thanks. Been looking through some threads, but hadn't hit the guides just yet. I'll head over there too and look now. Thanks again!

When my interest in certain ATs sparked again with the promise of new sets with Going Rogue. I found that the Electric Control/Electric Assault dominator was very satisfying. EC doms have a new power in static field that is just amazing. I don't hesitate to suggest folks give it a try.

Elec is definitely an interesting set, but I don't think I'd recommend it for a dom newbie. For a first introduction to doms, I'd pick one of the more traditional control sets, probably earth/, and pair it with something straightforward like /fire. With those, take all of earth except the sleep and AoE immob and take all of fire except the snipe and you're golden.

The excepted text above is a very good starting point for how dominators play. If you've played a controller, forget about anything you learned there, as doms really don't play the same at all. It is very much like 'blapper with controls' - you're squishy, but only if something actually has a chance to take a swing at you. If you're liking the planning and thought that your blaster requires, you'll probably like doms, as there's a lot of the same stuff there.

One other thing to note, is that doms are *not* a ranged AT. The melee damage modifier is actually higher than the ranged one, and we generally get some good melee attacks in our assault sets. Melee on a squishy may seem risky, but if your targets are controlled there's no more danger there than at range, and going into melee lets you unleash your full arsenal. Don't be afraid to melee things.

Another good resource is Liliaceae's dominator powers guide:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=236428
Not much on playstyles or general dom info, but a comprehensive discussion of every single primary and secondary set we get. I disagree with some of the conclusions reached, but it's still a useful reference.

I'd say that guide is a bit dated. Damage as a Dom doesn't suck. In fact my Fire/fire dom is the most damaging toon I have. It beats my en/en blaster and my brutes easily. I rarely target minions at all as they are hit by AoEs and just melt.

I wanted to post here again and thank everyone for the help. I took the plunge over double XP weekend and rolled an Ice/Fire Dom to give it a shot. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I felt as useful to a team. Sure, there were problems at times (out running enhancements, and getting used to how things work) but hitting a Domination Ice Slick, and then cycling BOI and Chill Blain to help lock down the groups, and keep the bosses from hurting people was awesome. Throw in some fire breath and it was just a lot of fun.

Only got my dom to 26 (just picked up the AOE hold), so looking forward to seeing how that works when I get more free time to play.

So, thanks again for the tips and guides. I feel I may be converted for life here.