Dominating Blow

Smoke mine nerf makes this pretty much unplayable due to insane scattering mobs do.

Sad.

tried to play with build a bit more. smoke mine currently is useless so decided to replace it with something.

what skill goes well with ~100% increased duration and few minion nodes?



currently have no links nor chromes to tinker with them to setup it properly but as a minimum

Inc Duration + Ani Weapon should do all right (if no link Ani Weapons do 'ok' as meat shield it is already enough)

due to how this scales ill ditch hatred for anger thus resolving linking issues a bit. anyhow - unexpected synergy and probably a nice build idea for people sobbing after Smoke Mine early demise

update: managed to reroll few sockets and now have Ani Weapon + Inc Duration. effect? skill lasts 74 sec. this is a looong time and covers the inherent weakness of entering map alone for the first time (or after TP to town). few ani weapons really make a difference

If I link dominating blow to my minions will they be able to use it?

there two ways to build DB character:
- you deal lots of dmg yourself and have feeble minions that just quickly vanish and are just a distraction and an rare aura from time to time for short time bonus. this guide is not about this style of play
- you deal 'enough' damage, your minions (hordes of these) deal 95% of total damage. this guide is about this playstyle.

PROS:
- does not need any specific item besides good enough mace (Kongors is my item of choice)
- works perfectly with 5L. 6L is not needed, but ofc helps. Is effective with 4L
- INCREDIBLE fun factor!
- surprisingly high clear speeds once you learn how to manage minions
- ignores content level. if it works in fellshrine it shall work in lvl79 maps. it is just question of you staying alive and doing enough dmg to tag enemies for conversion
- incredible staying power.
- Rare mobs auras stay with you
- (not tested myself yet). Incredible synergy with vaal auras
- mob uptime = 75seconds.

CONS:
- starting a dangerous map is always a challenge. but once you have 2+ minions it is all easy
- leveling with DB is not that great because Duration this build is based on is available rather late. sadly the easiest way to build this char is to use free full respec.. ofc it is not impossible to do it 'legit' but it simply is a build that clicks together at some level and previously is just meh
- going to town == minions die. this requires strategic thinking when clearing maps with very dangerous bosses. easy to remedy this with Vaal Summon Skeletons if you have socket for that
- probably not party friendly. my usual army size is 50+..


first: Dominating Blow is a FANTASTIC skill. most people know it already but it is worth repeating so people who havent yet had a chance - give it a try


second: this and Detonate Dead are probably the only builds that are 'content-level independent'. that is - your strength comes from your enemies so it works just as good vs lvl66 mobs as vs lvl80 mobs. they just kill themselves. the only difference is your survival

- Increased Duration passives and gems. Passives (near scion) +45% are build defining. Increased duration also interacts nicely with few other casts and Immortal Call (not used in this build at all, there is no need, esp with Lightning Coil). Tree placement of said nodes is such that it pretty much forces Maraduer (phys nodes/life/reduced mana) or Witch (EB, more summoner). Scion is always a good option but i rather pretend this class does not exist.

- DB requires serious mana investment. calculated it with BM gem and it does not add up. BM gem
a) removes one dmg link (or two if your life leech from gear/tree is not enough)
b) lowers your damage AND your minion damage (As they use the same links as you). Your minions ARE your damage.
c) has interaction with minions' health that reduce their survivability
Mana is from my perspective the only choice. Soultaker - probably the best weapon for this skill. Prioritize SLOW weapons to ease the mana cost. you wont be attacking that much yourself once 30+ minions are there

- Reduced Mana Cost of Skills passives are mandatory (or EB, but EB has its own problems, mainly placement and getting enough phys dmg). i have ~45% reduced cost

- DB Links:
- DB, quality helps end game. not really needed prelvl60 (your inc duration gems/passives are not yet there anyway)
- melee splash (see below for details). quality very highly recommended
- melee phys dmg. not a must but makes YOU kill a bit better. you need to get that army up anyway yourself
- culling strike. +%damage. your minions shall be melee/ranged/spell/degen - all dmg bonus is VERY nice as unlike other supports affects ALL your minions. quality nice to have. cull in all is very nice as it means roughly 10% more damage and indirectly helps with boss fights (makes them quicker and less risky)
- 6th gem of choice. be wary of mana cost! faster attacks look nice on the tooltip but open can of mana issues. my recommended choice: increased area of effect (helps splash tag targets for conversion)

why no multistrike? several reasons:
- affects only melee attackers. this is only a subset of your minions!
- affects you:
- - increases your dps
- - decreases your mobility (need to do all 3 swings no matter what) - this applies to minions too!
- - mana cost
- - cull is much better

remember: this is not about YOUR damage! you need to kill some stuff from time to time, but most kills is done by minions. you just need to 'tag' enemies for conversion

- keeping minions alive. i went for 3% leech node near scion + vitality (quality if possible) + pots of Animation. because i do not mind spamming pots i use hybrids that both heal me, my minions and replenish mana (That even with my horrid investment can go down from time to time). vitality is the least important - but due to no aura nodes it and PoElements are the only two auras that interest me. Convocation and Rejuv totems provide splashes of healing on demand.

- melee splash. it both multiplies your minion dmg output and eases aiming but also helps YOU 'tag' targets for DB. this build has 'negative feedback loop' - the more minions you have the faster they kill stuff (and as such YOU cannot Dominate them) -> the less minion you have. to cut this you need 'aoe' passives and melee splash support.

- weapon. I use this:

a) for 5/6Link
b) for free resolute technique! no accuracy investment needed, several points saved

- CWDT + Desecrate + Bone/Flesh Offering combo. socket them in THAT order (CWDT procs in certain order, experiment to find out it for each link setup). free uber dmg/survivability for minions. add Increased Duration (build already has 45% from the tree) for a VERY long lasting bonus

- dual curse. i went with Temporal chains. minions' issue is the targeting. the fastest they move/the slower the enemy the better. if i had a link id socket Quality Ice nova to chill mobs but have no spare socket for that. second curse of choice. Punishment does not work so dont waste your time (it does work but the dmg reflected is like 0.0005%)

- survivability - i use Lightning Coil and play dangerously (To proc CWDT) and it is really difficult to die. really. get used to spamming flasks and get used to being the 'behind' guy. your minions deal FAR more dmg than you, you are needed just to tag for conversion, nothing more

- starting a map. after you kill first two-three mobs it is cakewalk. use Ani Weapons! these deal huge dmg and with build's inherent increased duration and gem - have uptime of 70+ seconds

- dmg aura - Hatred. affects most minions youll have. CON: crit+hatred==shattered corpse. this hurts when it happens to juicy rare with good aura you wanted.

- Necro Aegis. unreachable by marauder, possible to get as witch and scion. dominated minions are not fragile enough to prioritize it and due to mana cost/etc only useful to Soul Taker users. as anyone knows Necro Aegis is VERY powerful minion augmentation

- Convocation. JUST GET IT NOW! Mandatory gem. place it without any support anywhere. just do it now.

build also possible as Witch + minion nodes + EB


This is not a build for beginners. IT requires some counterintitive mana management, flask spammage and has low paper dps. also it is not that great for leveling and starts to 'click together' around 90-100 points

current gear:


current tree:


in action:



Honorable Mention:

THE weapon for Dominating Blow if (and this is a big IF) someone can overcome incredibly low base dps of it (heavy ele auras? + lots of phys gear?)

I have tried both a Facebreaker (ign: Fists_of_Domination) and 2h (ign: Moltyn, since respec'd for DD) variation of builds using DB. And I have to say it has been some of the most fun I have had in PoE. However, many builds that could use this skill are severely limited by the mana cost. With supports and bloodmagic (I have tried without BM and it sucks even with mana leech/reduced skill passives) the skill can cost anywhere from 400 life or more on a 5L. I would really like to see a reduction in the cost of the gem at lvl 20 from 46mana to around 20-30 mana. I feel this would open up many more build possibilities (perhaps not using BM).

Have anyone killed atziri/uber atziri with dominating blow yet? In my opinion, this skill needs a buff in some way to kill boss. Let me point out the design flaw of this skill.

1) In most bosses map, there are not enough minions to dominate and help kill the boss.

2) Dominated minions last too short. I think the minions can't even lower the boss health down to 75%.

3) Frozen monsters cant be dominated. They just shattered and gone..?? Where are my minions now..

So back to the questions again, how to use this skill to kill boss (atziri/uber atziri/map bosses)

Would love to see the minions changed from their current graphic to a 'spectral' version so it's easier to tell them apart from actual enemies.

That could also allow them to have the icon that floats above them to be removed or changed as it clutters up the screen a bit too much in my opinion.

Extremely fun skill .. if you have Soultaker.

I'm going to attempt a mana-based Eldritch Battery build with this skill using a Chober Chaber. The idea is to not deal any damage, but refresh the half-second debuff constantly while my minions actually kill my target. I will be taking every aura node, most non-maximum life minion nodes, and Resolute Technique. I will also test out Cast when Damage Taken + Convocation with it. I'll come back with my results soon.

Oh yeah, and does anyone have any recommended tricks for the first few kills after entering a zone. I would love to use Conversion Trap but I don't know if it'd be effective enough. I am also considering defensively-supported zombies.

"

Iao wrote:

I'm going to attempt a mana-based Eldritch Battery build with this skill using a Chober Chaber. The idea is to not deal any damage, but refresh the half-second debuff constantly while my minions actually kill my target. I will be taking every aura node, most non-maximum life minion nodes, and Resolute Technique. I will also test out Cast when Damage Taken + Convocation with it. I'll come back with my results soon.

Oh yeah, and does anyone have any recommended tricks for the first few kills after entering a zone. I would love to use Conversion Trap but I don't know if it'd be effective enough. I am also considering defensively-supported zombies.

most probably in 1.2 DB cost shall go down enough so EB is not needed

as for your questions:

- that 'refresh' stuff is very difficult to sustain. if you want to maintain any efficiency with DB your army has to be 20+ strong. containing as many rares/blues as possible. tagging while attacking constantly is difficult enough (without multistrike your attack is slow, with multistrike - you have little control about what you actually hit). i do not expect this to be very effective..

- auras etc are ok, but remember that auras work for melee stuff/attacks, while your main dmg dealers shall be casters that ignore auras. the best auras to use with DB are actually haste and defensive ones. with damage ones you are limited to 'attack' mobs. what use is of 20 slow zombies even with uber auras? better make them fast - flesh offering is not enough in most cases (and you dont get many corpses anyway)

- first few kills? conversion trap - do not. it is a defensive skill (and VERY good one) but converted minions are not 'minions' so they do not get ANY bonuses from your passives. zombies - are ok. but ive used skeletons (just because i like them). for my build (you can check it there: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/912652/page/1) first 1-2 kills are the only situations when my DB army cannot take care of itself. or experiment with animate weapon. this is also the nice way to level as leveling with DB is very weak (due to duration that comes from passives/gem level/inc dur gem level - you simply cannot get it high enough before 50-60)

- convocation: i strongly suggest copying my CWDT setup from the guide: desecrate/flesh offering/inc duration/cwdt (experiment with order of gems - it MATTERS and as it works for different links differently, you need to experiment)

the most important note: INCREASED DURATION. MAX IT!