Help me roll a dom

No, I don't want a bunch of Mids builds posted. What I need is ideas. I have tried Dominators a bunch in the past, and could never really get into the playstyle. As a controller who liked to buff, it was hard for me to make the adjustment to damage dealing instead of buffing. Now after a 5 year hiatus, I am back with none of my prior prejudices. But I'm a little overwhelmed by the choices on Dominators. So I'd like some help please.

I am not too particular on the primary or secondary, its defining the playstyle. I've read a few of the topics in this forum and it seems you need to decide if your going to kill at range, or in melee. I'm not really seeing a hybrid, although most builds appear to have those token one or two powers they are forced to take. I'm open to either playstyle, and would actually prefer Melee (I did mostly ranged in my previous experiences and trying new things) however I'm not opposed to a fun ranged build. Because Fun is my main requirement. I need this to be fun. I assume all toons eventually become powerful, so I'm not worried about power level and performance. Nor am I worried about off the wall combo being rejected, I have good people to team with.

So basically:

What would be a fun Dominator to roll for a returning player after a 5 year absence that won't require a massive learning curve?

Thanks in advance!

Well, this might be fun, and it might not be, but I'm really enjoying my low-level Mind/Stone Dominator. Decent amount of control at low levels, and still has a bunch of smashy goodness.

There are a LOT of good Dominator choices out there.

For a NEW Dom, I'd suggest Plant control. It gets Seeds of Confusion at level 8, and Seeds is basically a cone version of Mind control's Tier 9 on a much shorter recharge (enemies will attack one another and turn into a big angry riot of confusion). Plant also has pretty solid damage for a control set, especially if you spam Roots, the AoE Immobilize power, anc Carrion Creepers. The only thing you might not like is that a lot of its powers require you to be in the ground to use.

Mind Control is always a strong option. It's got a nice combination of control and damage and pairs well with most Secondaries. It's also one if the best sets for creating a "Permadom" build that slots enough global recharge bonuses from IO set to make Domination recharge before its effect runs out.

Just about anybody will tell you that the best ranged secondary for Dominators is /Fire, and they'd be right. It gets solid damage from the get go, and you don't have to go into melee for fear of missing out on damage. It also has Embrace of Fire (like build up for fire attacks that raises them by a large amount), which turns the Fire Ancillary Power Pool into a source of terrifying carnage.

Electric Assault is a great set for wading into melee and dealing damage to mezzed or otherwise preoccupied foes. It can also drain endurance as a secondary effect, which means it pairs well with Electric Control.

Personally, I love my Electric/Ice Dominator, but it was a long, occasionally tough road to 50 and its current Permadom build. I'm currently toying with a Mind/Fire Dominator for the sake of variety, but eh.

So I decided to go with Plant control, having never taken it all the way up to 50, over Mind Control (which I find to be boring). Seeing as how the majority of my toons are ranged, I opted to go for a melee set, and choose /Earth as it looked to have some great melee attacks.

Went to level 15 yesterday and had a blast with it. Kinda fun to sit there and punch people in the face while they are stuck in plants.

Thanks for everyones help and insight, I appreciate it!