I can personally speak for the Earth/Earth combo.
Rocky Martin is one of my better dommies, i think. He's got plenty of control options in Earth Control and I usually have at least something up that will shut down every spawn. I tend to alternate between Stalagmites+Stone Cages and Quicksand+Earthquake mostly, and Volcanic Gasses whenever it's up.
Damage wise, he hits like a 2-ton truck. /earth is a more melee oriented assault set, but it comes with some pretty nice mitigation in the way of KD, stuns, and a mag 4 hold in seismic smash. Plus, /earth is one of the sets that has Power Boost, which just makes your already good controls even BETTER.
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I make about 10-12 characters, muck about with them until the mid-twenties, make 5-6 more and do the same thing, then, usually, one will stand out and yell 'play me!'
Just relax and experiment. There is no rush. 
"The side that is unhappy is not the side that the game was intended to make happy, or promised to make happy, or focused on making happy. The side that is unhappy is the side that is unhappy. That's all." - Arcanaville
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If you are just looking for the easy road, elec/psi/ice (prim/sec/app) is a smooth ride past 12. Past DP, it does better in a higher difficulty (more mobs, not higher level) than it does higher level content (higher level, fewer mobs). For a reference, I can farm anything I want at +2/8 at 50. Some things are easier than others, like s/l mobs. However, I can run _anything_ at that level with that diff at 50. Ice/psi have a few powers that work well together, and you can pick and choose what you want to use. I for instance use very few powers in my primary. I dont even use the hold or aoe hold.... The conducive aura + drain psyche + the confuse are more than enough for me to control the situation. Frequently I dont even use the confuse, I just lay down sleet or storm. Sleet is a massive additional control for a dom to leverage. In any case, I can function equally well at 20 as 50. At low level I utilize my confuse and sleep more often, and pick off targets with hold and st attacks as neccesary. At mid level I sleep, confuse at a distance, then jump in the middle and pbaoe/melee everything in sight. It is truly a wonderful dom to mess with.
edit: I have been known to go mano a mano with AVs as well, and in some cases actually solo them. I tend to forget I have an insp tray, or I probably would do better than I currently do... 
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Hew in drag baby
Honestly, the best combo I have found on a dom for control + damage is */fiery assault and plant, mind or earth control.
Fiery assault not only gets great single target and AoE damage, it gets its powers in a decent order so you don't have to either gimp your attack chain by waiting forever to finish it off or take lesser powers earlier on. Flares + fire blast gives you a decent cycling ranged attack chain and incinerate is a very high damage melee attack that is a nice addition. Fire breath is the highest damage AoE attack dominators get and while its a cone, its a decent sized one that is not hard to use. Embrace of fire is a great damage boost that can be used with the attacks in the fire mastery APP as well.
Plant control is probably the best every spawn control set in the game. Seeds of confusion is gives you a long duration, nearly every spawn control starting at L8 which can be up every spawn once you get some recharge in it. At higher levels you can leverage Carrion creepers for a lot of extra AoE damage and even roots is worth slotting up for damage if you want to - it may only do slightly over 1/2 the damage of one of the area attacks from the APP pool but it has a HUGE radius (30') and is easy to use.
Mind control is the next most control heavy set, although it is single target focused at first. Mesmerize, dominate and confuse gives you 3 great single target controls and mass hypnosis is easily up as often as seeds of confusion. While the AoE sleep isn't as good a control when you are in a group, its great solo. At higher levels, once you get your recharge up to perma-dom levels you can alternate mass confusion, total domination and mass hypnosis for a lot of hard AoE control.
Earth probably has the most overall control of any set, the only real drawback is a lot of it is soft control. You can alternate Stalagmites + stone cages (to stop the stunned mobs from wandering around), earthquake +quicksand and volcanic gasses+quicksand for a variety of control effects and something is likely to be up for every group. Because the last 2 combo's don't lock things down as much as other hard controls you will take some fire, but with careful tactics you can cut down on it. Since qucksand, earthquake and volanic gasses are both location AoE's you can place them around corners, give the hold or knockdown a chance to kick in then move into range and open fire.
I have played a plant/fire, earth/fire and mind/fire dom all the way to L50 and they where great all the way and are a blast in incarnate trials, with a lot of control and damage options you have something to do in any trial. There was almost no time when I felt I was gimping along waiting for the better powers to open up, which I find to be a real problem with a lot of the dom primaries and secondaries.
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For me, I've found I need something where either the concept/feel just clicks, or something that is very easy to use as well as powerful.
Can't help you with the former, but as for the second part Fiery Assault fits the bill perfectly.
Try plant/fire or earth/fire.
both recommended highly by others in the thread so just giving an extra vote. Plant and earth have the most controls. fire has the hurt. in combination you have exactly what you say you are looking for.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
I've been reading the forums for a while now and as it stands I can't seem to level anything past about 20. It's been about 3 years or so since I last ventured in CoX and at that time it took me a few months to settle on getting something to 50(I had a 50 Bots/Dark MM and Ill/Storm Troller), I don't wish to do that again.
Now I really love the dominator archetype and I've read enough to see just about any combination can be viable. Now of course like thousands of others I'll be making a Street Justice character, but until then I'd really like to focus on a dominator.
To the point of this drawn out post I've made so far and Ele/Fire/Earth primaries with fire/psi/earth secondaries. I'm trying to find that sweet spot where I can feel like no matter what I'll be viable control and damage wise, solo and in teams. Maybe I should try some of the roads less taken? I'm not really sure, luckily I still have VIP so I can make things to my hearts content.
If anyone else has ever been stuck in this situation I'd love to hear how you came out of it!