Time to try a Dominator! Deciding on a secondary...
By
DarkCurrent,
Posted on: 2012-03-02 20:36 in Dominators
Energy, earth or ice (even if I think ice sucks) are all good compliments to Elec Control and sapping. They all have power boost, which super charges your drains and can flatline a boss in seconds.
Earth might work best, since it is mostly melee, with an immob toggle also, to keep them in conductive aura range. Also, the recovery would help offset the heavy end cost of earth. Depends if you like, or want a lot of melee...you did say you have a lot of scrappers..
Energy gets some great melee attacks, the very useful Power Thrust and decent blasts. The kb, which always seems to happen just when you dont want it, can get annoying though.
Ice..as I said..I wouldnt recommend to anyone at all.
Also..the new Dark Assault set looks quite nifty..you might want to wait till next week when i22 hits?
The Fire APP is good for more AoE damage particularly when paired with Fiery Assault for Embrace of Fire. However, the Ice APP is also a very attractive option, offering a defense based armor, Sleet, a self-heal/hp buff, and a decent AoE attack. Overall, I think it shores up weakness in a dom build a bit better than Fire does.
Of Psi and Electric assault, I personally prefer Psi better. I'll admit though that a lot of my preference hinges on Drain Psyche, which is potentially the strongest -regen in the game.
Ahhh, right, Drain Psyche has a crapton of -regen and -recovery too. But it looks really hard to get to perma level. My biggest concern with Psi is what looks like reletively low damage at the lower levels, although I've heard good things about Psychic Shockwave.
Low damage as compared to? My elec/psi is 28 now.
Single target: Never really felt low...okay...sorta low, mostly because I'm not slotting psionic dart and was waiting for subdue. Also slot starved at the moment.
Aoe: Here my damage feels lows I'll be honest. Fire or the like probably would improve this as it gets its aoe earlier, though I'm not sure static field and combustion would play well together. But I know it will get better. And because I'm a masochist with patience I've been running at 0x6 for the last few levels. It's possible, just a bit slow, still, elec makes its very safe. All in all outside of robots I've never felt totally weak.
Just from a glance I'd say elec assault across the board is weaker.
It's already been mentioned, but I think Dark Assault would be great; the new PBAoE is pretty yummy (think Tremor with a faster animation, added DoT, and -tohit instead of KD), the best attacks are melee-range while still leaving you the option of going pure range effectively, it has a self-heal built into it with Drain Life, you get a weaker version of PBU on Build Up's recharge, and it's one of the secondaries that lets you slot the ATO proc in a good attack that you'll probably want to use often anyway (Midnight Grasp) for the stacking +dam and the rest of the set in the primary for the set bonuses.
And I agree about the Ice APP being better overall than the Fire APP, but my Fire/Fire Dom just had to go //Fire... with Pyronic and Reactive...
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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A few things: Electric control is a very potent control set, just be warned that many of its controls will NOT benefit from domination. Static field is a patch pet, so no domination on it, and synaptic overload will only be boosted on its first target, not subsequent targets. Besides this it has gremlins, jolting chain, and Conductive aura, none of which get a domination boost. Still, you get mez protection, a full endurance bar, and good magnitude on your holds/immobilizes.|
Originally Posted by Digito
So in continuing my personal quest to try more AT's that aren't Scrappers, Brute's or Masterminds, I've decided it's about time I gave Dominators a try after hearing about how insanely awesome Permadom is, and it seems like a good long term goal to be able to work towards. I could have sworn I made a topic about this some time back, but I got sidetracked with other things and I can't find the thread, so maybe I'm just imagining it... anyways!
So from my understanding, a Dominator is about two things. Controls and Damage, and they're really, really good damage dealers. Also the Fire APP is insanely awesome. That's about the extent of my current knowledge of them. I do know Electric Control is a really good primary, and IMO also looks very very cool so I'm pretty sure that's what I want to go with. The secondary though is proving a bit tougher, Elec/Elec is a strong sapping combo as I've heard, and aside from fitting thematically also happens to look pretty cool. Elec/Psi however I've heard has even better end-sapping, along with Drain Psyche. On the other hand, I sort of worry about Psi's lower damage early on, and I do kind of like how Elec Assault's powers look a bit more. (Although telekinetic thrust looks like a very fun power.) So I'm just wondering how Elec Assault and Psi Assault stack up compared to each other, I guess. I'm also open to the possibility of other secondaries though, and I'm sort of assuming Doms are a bit like Scrappers in that they're pretty much all awesome if you build and play 'em well. Aside from figuring out the secondary though, I'm also wondering about the first couple of powers. I can probably work out a basic build myself, but is the single target immob worth bothering with? That's the last question to come to mind right now, so thanks! |
I have both /electric and /psi, and can honestly say /psi is better reliable damage, despite /electricity having buildup. I guess /electricity is a bit more 'bursty' though.
A lot of people's ideas on /psi are a bit outdated. Psionic scream is the highest damage AoE of the set, not Psy shockwave. (Helloooo issue 15 dom revisions!) Mental blast and subdue are twin tier 2 ranged damage attacks, of equal speed/damage, tk thrust shares their damage. Mind probe is your biggest ST heavy hitter aside from the snipe. /Psy tends to go for the 'dependable, jack of all trades' approach. Its two AoE's together do good damage, it has plenty of ranged damage, and one high, one medium melee power to use with your pbaoe drain/pbaoE damage. Because you get no build up, and most damage is medium, (But ALL attacks are either medium or high, sans psi dart) you will be doing more of a continuous string of similar damage.
The 'Power boost" power in /earth, /ice, and /energy assault will also help electric control. Not only does it boost control durations, it boosts endurance drains, one of your stand by methods of control while playing electric control.
A side note on the /fire app...it does decent AoE damage, just be warned that its damage over time will negate your slee*p patch.
*Edit* Your St immobilize is the only immboilize to provide -KB to the target, so that things don't get knocked back out of your electric aura/sleep patch. It's good for KB powers like /psi's TK thrust, /energy's kb blasts, and /earth's boulders and such... using it first will keep them close if you wish.
If you want to stay on the safe side and go with what you're comfortable with, melee, then look into elec/earth/primal forces. Lots of melee. Lots of control. Lots of powers that will take sets with +rch. You can pick up Tough along the way to boost your survivability.
Please buff Ice Control.
For Electric I would consider waiting a few days and going with Dark Assault. Lots of good synergy there and you're unlikely to really miss the cone (its kind of narrow and not my favorite). I haven't kept track of how many powers are DoTs but Gather Shadows is basically a Power Build Up clone (+special and +damage) that lets you bodyslam enemies while you passively drain their endurance in huge gulps too.
Other secondaries are good too, of course.
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There are two: Gloom and Engulfing Darkness - the PBAoE.
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Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
I haven't kept track of how many powers are DoTs...
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Night Fall.|
Originally Posted by Snowzone
There are two: Gloom and Engulfing Darkness - the PBAoE.
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And the DoT is a secondary effect of Engulfing Darkness, the up-front damage is scale 1 (same as Tremor).
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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Forgot about Night Fall, but Engulfing Darkness still does sleep-patch-breaking DoT regardless of whether it's upfront or not
EDIT: Think I also forgot Midnight Grasp.
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he might be thinking of Psi Assault 1.0, originally the set was extremely back loaded. Since then they have spread the damage accross the set, Psychic Shockwave is still the best PBAE doms have, but not quite the fast recharging, crashless, mini-nuke it once was. Psi for the most part is a solid set, its only shortcoming really is the all or nothing Psi resists you see in mobs, and thats not unique to Psi Assault, but hey every set has its shortcomings and strengths, and its not a bad choice.|
Originally Posted by slythetic
Low damage as compared to? My elec/psi is 28 now.
Single target: Never really felt low...okay...sorta low, mostly because I'm not slotting psionic dart and was waiting for subdue. Also slot starved at the moment. Aoe: Here my damage feels lows I'll be honest. Fire or the like probably would improve this as it gets its aoe earlier, though I'm not sure static field and combustion would play well together. But I know it will get better. And because I'm a masochist with patience I've been running at 0x6 for the last few levels. It's possible, just a bit slow, still, elec makes its very safe. All in all outside of robots I've never felt totally weak. Just from a glance I'd say elec assault across the board is weaker. |
In terms of secondaries, there a lot of good choices, although I may hold for Dark Assault to come available if he rolling a new Elect/* dom
Earth Assault - Hits like freight train, nice control options, but more melee oriented
Dark Assault - overall a nice set as it stands now on beta, but as mentioned its cone is long and narrow, and will need range enhancements to give the cone an acceptable width
Energy Assault - Very good ST damage, and secondary effects, will require you to learn how to control knockback, kind of weak in AE damage, and IMO works better with the Epic Sets than the Patron Sets, in that they give you two AE's vs. one, which helps out a lot here
Ice Assault - good middle of the road set, its main down side, is that its always has been good about emptying your end bar, Elect/* might actually balance this out pretty good
Fire Assault - Good news, lots of damage, bad news lots of damage, that is no secondary effects to help mitigate damage
Elect Assault - its an OK set I guess, its ST damage is decent( when combining melee and ranged attacks), but while Thunderstrike is a fine attack for ST damage, it is not the best for AE, and while Voltiac Sentinal has its fans, I'm not one of them, I'd have much rather have had a tier 3 ST ranged attack instead
Thorn Assault - a very solid middle of the road set, but depends on how comfortable you are with the redraw
the various utility powers the sets have are all decent and depends on what you want
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Yes, but the sleep patch puts them back to sleep after the DoT wakes them up, mobs that died in the initial burst don't need sleep patches, and it at least makes it harder for the mobs you just woke up to hit since if it breaks the sleep it also applied a tohit debuff.|
Originally Posted by Snowzone
Forgot about Night Fall, but Engulfing Darkness still does sleep-patch-breaking DoT regardless of whether it's upfront or not
EDIT: Think I also forgot Midnight Grasp. |
Besides, Sleet and Ice Storm or Rain of Fire and Fireball's DoT will wake things up also but you normally don't see a lot of people saying "don't take those, you'll wake mobs up!"
And both of us forgot Midnight Grasp. I feel
now.
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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Also of some note since it's electric, you can jolting chain, then aoe, to reduce the damage you'll take as usually you get the aoe off before they get up and they fall right back asleep and given some patience you can drain them first, then aoe and the dots breaking sleep wouldn't hurt much.
So in continuing my personal quest to try more AT's that aren't Scrappers, Brute's or Masterminds, I've decided it's about time I gave Dominators a try after hearing about how insanely awesome Permadom is, and it seems like a good long term goal to be able to work towards. I could have sworn I made a topic about this some time back, but I got sidetracked with other things and I can't find the thread, so maybe I'm just imagining it... anyways!
So from my understanding, a Dominator is about two things. Controls and Damage, and they're really, really good damage dealers. Also the Fire APP is insanely awesome. That's about the extent of my current knowledge of them.
I do know Electric Control is a really good primary, and IMO also looks very very cool so I'm pretty sure that's what I want to go with. The secondary though is proving a bit tougher, Elec/Elec is a strong sapping combo as I've heard, and aside from fitting thematically also happens to look pretty cool. Elec/Psi however I've heard has even better end-sapping, along with Drain Psyche. On the other hand, I sort of worry about Psi's lower damage early on, and I do kind of like how Elec Assault's powers look a bit more. (Although telekinetic thrust looks like a very fun power.) So I'm just wondering how Elec Assault and Psi Assault stack up compared to each other, I guess. I'm also open to the possibility of other secondaries though, and I'm sort of assuming Doms are a bit like Scrappers in that they're pretty much all awesome if you build and play 'em well.
Aside from figuring out the secondary though, I'm also wondering about the first couple of powers. I can probably work out a basic build myself, but is the single target immob worth bothering with? That's the last question to come to mind right now, so thanks!