Sugestions for a Newbie Dom on a Budget?

I'm new to Doms. I've got a whole bunch of other 50s (every 'Hero' AT including Khelds, an MM, and a Crab), but I've never played a Dom before. So I'm looking for suggestions for what Primary and Secondary might work best for a 'newbie' to Doms, and at the same time I'm also probably going to be doing this 'on a budget'. Yes, I know 'Perma Dom is the way to go' but that isn't exactly cheap (i'm probably gonna try to keep this between 500-750 Mil Inf tops, if not a lot lower).

So yeah, what would the suggestions from people who know Doms a heck of a lot better than me for primaries/secondaries, especially on a budget?

Thanks in advance.

-Aoide Muse

Perma-Dom isn't that expensive. I'm not the greatest marketer and I get very unlucky with drops but I've still managed to get four of my Dominators to Perma-Dom.

If you want to stick to the budget then Mind/Energy is very cheap to perma-Dom and is quite newbie friendly. Plant/Fire or Plant/Psionic are apparently quite good. You may want to stay away from Gravity (few hard control), Ice (contradictory powers and endurance hog), Thorns (redraw), and Earth Assault and Electric Control (not everyone is comfortable with melee Doms).

Plant/anything. =)

Mind/anything is also pretty solid and affordable. Mind/Energy I've only seen one in action and it was quite potent.

I've never been a fan of Mind/ personally. Yes it is a very strong primary, possibly the strongest for soloing, but I feel that it falls short on teams. Unless you have enough recharge to cycle the AoE hold and confuse seamlessly, the only every-spawn AoE control you have to help your teams is the fear. The problem with that is that unless you have a tank grabbing aggro, it will have you eating an alpha strike unless you can use it from behind a crate or something.

Contrast that with most other sets with a hard control that can be up for every group, which allows you to alpha mez the group without receiving retaliation. That's my main problem with Mind/.

It's a strong set in its own way but not what I would personally recommend as a starter unless it was just for soloing.

The suggestion of Plant/ was solid though IMO. After that I'd put up Fire/ and Earth/.

As for secondaries, it's hard to beat /Fiery. The thing with Dominator secondaries as I see them is that the secondary effects are mostly useless, aside from any interesting IO possibilities they may open up. If the mobs are controlled, all you need is to apply damage. If they're not, your secondary effects probably won't save you. So why not just pick the one that does the most damage?

Well there are reasons. You might want Power Boost, or Build Up, or you might just enjoy another set more. I've played all of them with the exception of /Elec and /Thorny, and I enjoy them all in their own way.

If you prefer to stay at range /Fiery is the best at that, though most of the secondaries can be made to work. For more of a melee focus /Earth, /Energy, or /Elec.

I agree with Supernumiphone's comments. Just wanted to add one thing:

It's also true when leveling. At low level, Mass Hypnosis is the only AoE mez we get and it's not useful to apply it on the mobs your team are beating (but priceless when 2 groups are very close, to avoid aggroing both of them at the same time). Dark Miasma's fear cone has a handul -tohit effect that Terrify don't have, sooooo... it's not impressive either. If Mind/ makes soloing so easy, it's a late bloomer on teams because - even without talking of IOs - you have to wait to get Total Domination and Mass confusion properly slotted to use them regularly (and the latter only comes at lvl 32...). But once IOed out, Mind/ is a sort of swiss army knife

Plant/ is easier to level due to Seeds of confusion being available early, with very good accuracy/recharge/duration for a hard AoE mez. You'll just cry when you face Nemesis xP Earth/ seems to be a good compromise with various AoE mezzes you get throughout your first 26 levels.

I'd also recommend to stay away from Gravity/ and Ice/ which lack a reliable AoE mez up for every spawn (I love my Ice/Psy dom now but wow, the way to lvl 50 has been such a pain...).

Very good advice given thus far.

I would agree that Mind/Energy is a solid combo. It's a great solo'er, good teamer (especially on the LRSF) and is perhaps the easiest dom to perma with. If you'd like, I can post you a copy of my build for a template.

If teaming is something you'll be doing for a majority, I would consider going Plant, Earth or Electric Control and pairing it with Thorns, Psi or Fire.

Good Luck and happy domineering.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

My plant/psi/fire is pretty awesome, and relatively cheap.
I did focus on tip missions for a few days (with a few other characters too) to get 5 LotG, but the permadom is certainly worth the effort.

Just adding a reply here not to clutter the forum with too many " WHAT DOM SHOULD I MAKE " Threads

I am considering making a dominator for my first time, and I have narrowed my power sets to these choices, and am curious from more seasoned dom's which would be the stongest combination

I am interested in Ice Control and Electric Control mainly, and slightly Fire Control, and I am really interested in Energy Assault and Thorny Assault.

Well Ice and Electric Control both benefit from being in melee so out of Energy and Thorny I'd go for Thorny because it has better melee attacks. However, neither Assault option is particularly optimal for Electric Control; firstly Energy Assault has a lot of knockback which goes against Electric Control's strategy of keeping things near you so you can sap, sleep or chain control them, secondly Thorny has a lot of DoT which will break your sleep power. Fire Control is more standard so it'll go well with anything really. To me Ice/Thorny sounds the most interesting, mainly because you can use the crystal customisation in Thorny to look like ice.

I agree. Pretty much every Dominator combination plays differently so it's really a case of trying them out.

I've been building an ice/thorn as well; i have a really hard time sticking with dominators, but the aesthetics of this one are really really pleasing, even if there is very little hard control in Ice/ to speak of. I have a feeling that once she gets her s/l def, she'll be much more my style, and once kitted out she'll even exemplar quite well.

Here's the build i was considering:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Dominator
Primary Power Set: Ice Control
Secondary Power Set: Thorny Assault
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Ice Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Block of Ice -- BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(A), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(5)
Level 1: Thorny Darts -- Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Decim-Acc/Dmg(21), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(23), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27)
Level 2: Skewer -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(5), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(7), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 4: Fling Thorns -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(17), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(17), Posi-Dmg/Rng(19), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19)
Level 6: Arctic Air -- CoPers-Conf/Rchg(A), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(9), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(9), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(11), CoPers-Conf%(11)
Level 8: Shiver -- Acc-I(A)
Level 10: Impale -- Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Decim-Acc/Dmg(13), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(13), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15)
Level 12: Ice Slick -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 14: Fly -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Aim -- Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(A), Rec'dRet-Pcptn(33)
Level 18: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(31)
Level 20: Thorn Burst -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(27), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(29), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Oblit-%Dam(50)
Level 22: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 24: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(25), LkGmblr-Rchg+(25)
Level 26: Glacier -- BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(A), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(33), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(34), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(34)
Level 28: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 30: Frostbite -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(40), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(43), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(43), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(43), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(46)
Level 32: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 35: Ripper -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(36), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Oblit-%Dam(46)
Level 38: Sleet -- Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg(39), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(39), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), Posi-Dam%(40)
Level 41: Frozen Armor -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(42), LkGmblr-Rchg+(42), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(42)
Level 44: Ice Storm -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(45), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), Posi-Dam%(46)
Level 47: Hoarfrost -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(48), Dct'dW-Heal(48), Dct'dW-Rchg(48), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 49: Hibernate -- Heal-I(A)
Level 0: Born In Battle
Level 0: High Pain Threshold
Level 0: Invader
Level 0: Marshal
Level 50: Cardiac Core Boost
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(21), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(33), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 1: Domination
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(34)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(37), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(37)

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Well, I rolled a Elec/Energy Dominator to have sort of a scrapper ish Dominator and to throw people on their backs ( Although Ice/Energy sounds fun as well )

I'm considering making a second dominator as well, since they do seem so varied. Either Plant/Thorn or Mind/Thorn for a more typical control heavy Dominator. I like the concept of Mind better, but it seems like everybody feels Plant is by far the best primary for dominators.