The Dominator - Subarchetypes
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The Dominator is widely seen as the weakest villain Archetype, making it somewhat unpopular. However, like the Defender on the hero side, it is possible that many players who think that their character should be a Corruptor, or even a Mastermind, actually might prefer to play a Dominator. Although the Dominator is slow and methodical, he greatly exceeds the Corruptor or Mastermind's ability to control and manipulate his foes. And the Dominator is also more likely to use a combination of ranged and melee attacks, making him an all around combat archetype. The Inherent power of Domination can also fit perfectly with villains who prefer to toy with their foes, draw power from them, or tend to turn the fight around just when they are on the verge of defeat.
Mind Dominator: The Mind Dominator is almost on the border between the Dominator and the Mastermind. With the ability to take over the minds of his enemies, he can turn them to his bidding, making his own personal army. Of course, as with the Mind Controller it is possible to lose some XP by turning your foes against each other. Plus, Confused foes cannot be controlled with the same precision as Mastermind henchmen. So while Confusing your foes is a valuable tactic to take individual enemies out of the fight, it isn't the main thrust of the Archetype, as henchmen are. Fortunately, the Dominator has a number of secondary attacks to draw from, so he can join in the fight directly. Plus, he has a number of holds and fear attacks as well. Psionic Assault can represent the same kind of telepathic powers as Mind Control, but Energy Assault could be used for a combination of telekinesis and telepathy. Psionic Assault has one unique power in Drain Psyche, which both debuffs the targetted foe, slowing his regeneration, and boosts your own. This reduction in regeneration can make a foe easier to defeat, acting as a sort of inverse damage boost. As there is currently no Illusion Dominator, this Power Set choice might also fit for an Illusionist, since Mind Control shares with Illusions the ability to decieve foes. Energy Assault matches the capabilities of the Illusion Controller's pets, even though the Dominator himself uses the powers instead of creating illusions of them. Psionic Assault was a very popular Secondary in the past, because of the power of Psychic Shockwave. This power has been reduced in strength considerably, but Psi Assault is still a very AoE oriented set, while still having some powerful single target attacks. Note that Telekinetic Thrust, a power shared by Blasters, currently deals much more damage than the Blaster version.
Gravity Dominator: As with the Gravity Controller, many concepts that would use this power combination might NOT control gravity directly. Instead, they could be telekinetic, or control the forces of magentism. In fact, it might even be sufficient to call this the "Energy Dominator", Energy Assault really has no other counterpart in the available Primaries, and Gravity Control could just be the manipulation of energy fields. Gravity Dominators, unfortunately, are not very popular. While the Propel power looks wonderful, it literally throws objects at your foes, its long animation time means that most Assault attacks simply are better. Mind Control might also fit a Telekinetic concept a bit better, with Levitate and Telekinesis. So until some adjustments are made to this set, it might be best to avoid it unless for concept reasons. The Energy Assault set, which I might as well talk about in this subcategory, has undergone some major improvements recently. Like Psionic Assault, it has a knockback power, Power Push, which does a considerable amount of damage. This is quite different from the Blaster and Defender version. While the set has only one AoE, Whirling Hands, it has the most powerful single target melee attack available to Dominators, Total Focus. In the past, this set was as unpopular as Gravity, and with the new changes, it has become very costly in terms of End use. Still, the amount of damage it is able to turn out has made it much more attractive.
Fire Assault Elementalist: The "Elementalist" refers to a Dominator that uses the elements, Fire and Ice, to control his foes. As with the Controller counterpart, the Summoner, the Dominator can create a "pet" of his chosen element. This pet is more helpful than Mind Control's Confuse, in some ways, but still cannot compete with a Mastermind's henchmen for the precision of their control. The Elementalist can also root and damage their foes, however, which is also very useful to a team. Fire does slightly more damage, while Ice has better holds, but their capabilities are similar. It is in the Secondary, though, that the Fire Elementalist distinguishes himself. While he may have Ice powers in his Primary, or even another Power Set such as Plant Control, he ATTACKS with fire. And fire is the most damaging Secondary, at least in terms of AoE. Fire also has the most powerful damage boost of all Dominator secondaries. Firey Embrace can nearly double a Dominator's fire damage output, and other damage types are boosted by about 2/3. It is important to note, though, that individual attacks are actually NOT as powerful as Energy or Ice. If Energy is the number one choice for single target damage, however, Fire is definately the choice for AoE. Since Firey Embrace effects non-Fire powers slightly less than Fire powers, it may be best to match Firey Assault with Fire Control. However, it can make a good combination with any Primary, including Mind Control and Gravity Control.
Ice Assault Elementalist: The Ice Elementalist is the same as the Fire Elementalist in his Primary, but differs in his Secondary. Icy Assault does not have as much damage potential as Fire Assault, but does have a unique attack with no counterpart in either Ice Melee or Ice Manipulation, Ice Sword Circle. This is a unique attack to Dominators. It also is interesting to note that Firey Assault does not have access to any Fire Sword attack. Ice Sword Circle has greater range than Fire Sword Circle, although it does far less damage. (Fiery Assault does get Combustion, which Ice Sword Circle seems to be comparable to) However, since Energy Assault is potentially more damaging, the Ice Elementalist is more of a concept build. As with the Fire Elementalist, it can be paired with any Primary, including Mind and Gravity. Ice Control is one of the most defensive of the Dominator Primaries, however, and when combined with Chilling Embrace, which also has a defensive aspect (reducing incoming damage as well as attack rate) it can make for a suprisingly resilient combination. Perhaps Mr. Freeze as an Ice Dominator is not such an unusual idea after all...
Earth Assault Elementalist: Earth Control and especially Earth Assault are new to Dominators. Earth Control came over from Controllers, and it took some time to pair it with an Assault set. Earth Control, like Gravity, tends to be very control heavy, and does not have a lot of damage. This works well with Dominators, however, because of their capability to use attacks. As with most Elemental Sets, though, it is the Secondary that makes most of the difference in playing style, which is why I suggest Plant Control as another conceptual match. Plant Control can actually be a very compatible combination because of the ability of Seeds of Confusion to divert away some of the aggro drawn by Mud Pots Earth Assault is in many ways the inverse of Fire Assault, which specializes with range and AoE. Earth specializes in melee, and instead of having a damage boost like Fire, it has Power Boost like Ice. This allows it to boost the control capabilities of the Primary and use them to get into melee with the foe, where the slow but heavy damage melee attacks can be brought to bear. Earth Assault's ranged attacks are actually painfully slow, they take considerable time to cast, although Earth Assault does have the only ranged AoE available to Dominators in their Secondary, Fissure.
Electrical Elementalist: As with the other Elementalists, the Electric Elementalist is defined by his Secondary. Electric Assault is a very fast, low damage Secondary, which recharges quickly, and is very Endurance efficient. This has changed somewhat since release, the melee attacks in this set were originally much slower and more damaging. Combined with the ability of Electricity to drain foes End and return it to the caster, this has made Electric Assault the most End efficient set available. Electricity Assault really does not have a great deal of AoE damage, however. In that it is somewhat similar to Energy. It has a relatively nice cone attack, but its PBAoE attack, Thunder Strike, is really only a secondary effect to a massive single target attack, like Total Focus. In addition, many players do not like Voltaic Sentinel, although the "pet" does make the set somewhat unique. Many people would prefer an attack that does the same damage as a single Power Burst-like attack, however, and become frustrated when the Sentinel aggroes foes with its random shots. Electric does have Build Up, however, which makes it one of the few sets with such a damage boost. Really, Electricity Assault does not have a Primary to match with it, although one may be developed in the future. Gravity Control is mentioned because of the ability of Gravity to represent magentism, as above. Plant Control could also be matched with the set because of the connection with storms and rain. It is a tenuous connection at best, and hopefully in the future a true Electrical Control set will be created.
Plant Dominator: The Plant Dominator has many powers that it's conceptual cousin, Earth Control, does not share. In addition to the expected holds and immobilizes (by clinging vines) the Plant Dominator has an AoE Confuse, which comes much earlier than Mind Control's version. This can be both good and bad, for much the same reason Confuse can be good and bad. If controlled well, it can be a very powerful effect. The Plant Dominator also has the one healing power available to ANY Dominator, although it is in the form of a pet. And a stationary one at that. The Plant Dominator has two other pets, however, including the Fly Trap, the more typical "servant" type of pet that most elementalists summon. As for Thorny Assault, it is one of the few Dominator Secondaries that have a damage boost. As with Firey Assault, it may be logical to think that this means more overall damage, but again, Thorny Assault is mostly an AoE attack set. Aim also does not boost damage as much as Fiery Embrace does, although it DOES increase accuracy. Thorns does have a few fairly strong single target attacks, but overall, it cannot match Energy's single target damage, or Fire's AoE. It may also not fit concept, unless your Plant controller is also a plant him or herself.
Hand to Hand Powerhouse: As mentioned above, the Gravity Dominator concept can be very soloable. Using hand to hand attacks, as well as ranged, also helps the Dominator solo. Thus, like a "Scraptroller", the solo Dominator uses his Primary mainly to hold his foes, so he can close to melee himself. Typically only the single target holds would be concentrated on, although Ice's Artic Air can be a fairly good toggle defense/control power. Mind Control can also be useful for turning foes against each other, cutting down the time it takes to defeat them. The main point of this build, however, it to concentrate as much as possible on the hand to hand attacks in the Secondary. Total Focus from Energy is the best, of course, but Seismic Smash is almost as powerful, and doesn't take as long. Energy has Power Burst, which is fairly short range to start with, but Earth has Mud Pots, and while it does draw aggro, it also slows and immobilizes foes. There is also plenty of Disorient, for Energy, or Knockdown, (and it is knockdown, not knockback) for Earth, to provide some protection. Even so, you might want to take Tough or Combat Jumping for more defense.
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