Overall perception of dark control/assault for doms

Hi all! I just wanted to get an overall opinion from the community relating to dark control/assault. My dark/dark dom is lvl 30 and I'm finding it's not as fun as I thought it would be.

What's the call on the sets? Is it good/bad/neutral? Want to see what the consensus is.

Thanks all

i think its a decent set, the only thing i REALLY hate about the set is the umbral beast

the beast is VERY noisy, does terrible dmg, and dies very easily, and the worst of all its a freaking dog, which i feel is not even close to being dark themed

to make it easier to see, i am gonna rate it on aspects with 1 being worst and 10 being best

pet: 1/10 for reasons mentioned above

control: 6/10, the set utilizes a lot of soft control and the immob is a cone instead of a target aoe

useablity (how well powers work with each other): 7.5/10, the sets powers work pretty well together and utilize a lot of -tohit and can work in many situations

overall: 5/10, its not the best control set but its not terrible either so i would rate it pretty smack in the middle

The pet is insanely useful, does decent damage, and tanks pretty well. Not to mention you also have haunt for a couple other pets to stack even more damage.

Dark Control, like Dark Miasma, focuses on -tohit debuffs primarily and more "soft" controls such as fear instead of overpowering everything with holds like Earth does. It does its job very well and can also put out respectable damage on it's own.

Dark Assault, on the other hand, is the same old boring and bland dark blast/dark melee abilities we've had for years. It adds even more -tohit into the mix, so chances are most stuff you fight will be debuffed to the point where they can't even hit you. Or they'll be busy dealing with your doggy, who floors their tohit as well. Or they'll be distracted by your haunt pets. And then you can confuse one guy, fear the rest of the group, and hold the rest.

It's a great set, but if you're expecting a earth control or whatever the FotM perma-dom build is then you won't be happy. Then again, if you're looking for TEH UB0RZ BUILD you wouldn't be happy with anything other than a FotM perma-dom build in the first place.

Have to say, I was disappointed with dark/dark. The controls seem awfully soft to me, and it feels like I'm spending far too much time locking stuff down before I can really get down to attacking. I dipped into the ice epics for a decent "lockdown" power (sleet), a good second AoE, good armor, and decent heals.

Which leaves me wondering why I bothered with about 80% of the powers I have in the primary and secondary.

If I knew then what I know now, I might choose dark for either the primary OR the secondary, but definitely not both.

Hi,

I must admit, I rolled a Dark/Dark, and did not enjoy it too much, BUT rerolled Dark/Ice and I now love it! I would say Dark assault is a bit bland, but Dark control I find awesome. Not quite sure why people go on about it being only soft control? Heart of Darkness is the same Stun as earth has, only Pbae, but with Fearsome stare, that is not an issue, as they are feared as you run in, and also their -to hit is debuffed nicely.

They also get a power similar to voltanic Gasses, but this one IS effected by Domination, just like most of the Dark primary (well all, except the pets). This will lock down Bosses instantly pretty much, even without domination. Then there is 3 pets.... so not bad damage from a control primary.

Finally,the number of times I would have loved a single target Confuse on my Earth controller. Well guess wahat? Dark control gets one, and it has the coolest animation/graphic you could imagine. Until you turn that Sapper or Healer into a pet, you dont realize how good this power is. It also does not draw agro, and stacks on most bosses.

All in all I find Dark control an awesome powerset. It has great - to hit, 3 pets, great hard controls, a host of layered soft controls on top. Also Dark Control is THE most "Domination effected" primary that a Dominator can get.

Once you get a quick recharge build with some defence, it is amazing, and I would say it is one of the best Dom/Troller Primaries, and I have played most to high level.

I used to love Mind doms, but missed having the pet, now you can get all the fun of a Mind, but with pets aswell!

I just have a low level d/d, but so far I really like the primary, mostly for the terrific animations.

Dark Assault is, as noted, the same ol' same ol', with the added problem of the animations looking stale and tired next to the cool ones in the primary.

Dark Control is really good. Not plant, but good. I am running incarnate content at +3 x4 currently. Now that I am perma-dom I could probably go higher, but since the overlap is still small until I get my purples sometimes I blow it hitting Hasten and dom drops so I keep my settings at x4.

Having a fast recharging single target confusion that doesn't cause agro is amazing to open with on those double boss spawns. One of the strengths of the set is being able to start havoc with confusion without causing agro, but in missions with ambushes this isn't as useful.

The only issue I have run across with Dark Control is Nemesis since they are resistant to Fear and Confusion - my go to powers.

Dark Assault is okay. At least it has both a PBAoE and a cone for AoE unlike some sets. It lacks the additional PBAoE of psi, but it has a self heal which is unique as far as Dominators go.

i must be one of the few poeple who love dark assault more than dark control then lol

dark assault imo is pretty comparable to fire assault, not as high of dmg but many similar powers but dark assault also does tohit debuff

dark control is ok but its kind of disapointing, cone immob, the awful umbral beast, pbaoe stun...idk it just feels like things were thrown together and things work against each other like the cone immob and the pbaoe stun, you cant be in pbaoe range and effectively use the immob and likewise you cant use the stun from range to set up the immob

Both sets, taken individually, are good as they offer a secondary effect not available to doms in a large amount before.

Together, they feel like extreme overkill (do the the -to hit) which is why I prefered rolling dark/psi and ice/dark as opposed to dark/dark and then something else.

I get the feeling I am one of the few people who are blown away by Fearsome Stare. That power alone with no recharge bonuses other than the power itself can keep entire spawns perma feared. I don't have anything like that in Fire/ for example. Only Mind/ and Plant/ have anything similar, and Mind gets it much later. And the Ice Patch knockdown power; that's also very good.

Thanks everyone for the feedback; it has been really useful. I wish they had done dark assault a lot different and made it more ranged instead of this half & half thing. That's one thing that I liked a lot about earth assault; it was mostly melee and very little ranged. I think they should've focused more on range then going half way in-between.

Now will be the hard decision on whether to lvl this toon past 30 (where she's at now). Maybe I'll get to 32 and see how the Umbral pet is and then make my final decision then!


Thanks again all!

I think Dark Control hurts a lot due to its low debuff values on a Dominator compared to how it performs on a Controller. Also, Doms don't have a Debuff secondary to back it up and /Dark Assault doesn't fill in that gap really.

Dark Control (and Dark Assault) struggles until you throw +Recharge and +End at it. Engulfing Darkness is impressive alone b/c it's like a Dark Version of PSW and you get it WELL before level 38. Night Fall is the one power in the set that tends to rub many players the wrong way....but every other power in the set is pretty awesome.

My Issue with the pairing is the fact that I end up out of END if I really cut loose with the combo I also don't feel as if my soft controls are up often enough until the late-late game.

TL;DR- Great sets but you have to be willing to suffer for quite a few levels. It's not as easy or forgiving as Plant/Thorns.

dark/dark/mind is fan-freakin-tastic. I can solo +2/+3/8 packs in DA with relative ease. The mind shield thingy that I forgot gives me over softcap for all sorts of things, and really bumps my pets up to REALLY TOUGH. Only +4 packs manage to kill my pets, or the occasional +3 pack in DA. But the wolf lives pretty much forever.

By far, dark/dark/mind is my favorite combo, followed by elec/psi/ice.

Dark Control, while maybe not the #1 control set, is a very good set, plus it has the best Dark graphics among the Dark Sets

Dark Assault, functionally it is a very decent set, where it suffers is that doesn't offer a lot we haven't seen before