Dominating Blow

with this in mind, throw out melee splash, throw out all kinds of shit, we only need to dominate a couple monsters now since theres no point in dominating a whole pack we can push damage per target up more and just herald of ash the whole crowd and forget about even dominating anymore, just rack up 13 single target kills and there u go ur maxed out and not even dominating anymore, just half a pack of vaal summon skeletons by ur side to keep you cozy while you forget all about all the fun you had dominating packs at a time.

i can also see why it would be nerfed though, minion instability was not meant to be used as a main source of damage and was meant for more of a gag thing like oh it might work for you in your favor sometimes. when they released volatile dead i laughed at the damage percents compared to me igniting a crowd of whites (same corpses you would use to proc the damage on volatile dead) and then they would get dominated, retain ignite, explode and deal 33% life. it was really strong, also the writhing jar would cause damage allowing the dominated worms to explode

what pisses me off the most is they read some random comment thrown in on the last page while they skated through this gem feedback forum and then use the random comment as a function in the build that was not really needed. the normal mobs in a boss fight are the first to die the weakest hits and the least useful. the blue and rare mobs give the best damage and buffs in the boss room but they still will be not included in boss fight because of the nerf you only get 11 normal minions that will die in one hit to any boss in maps. and only a 10% chance to summon on hit, even if you had 100% increased attack speed and all that jazz ur still needing to spam that shit like crazy to get even one guy to pop out and die in one hit almost instantly after. now if you spec for minions too, this will really push your melee damage down even with scourge claws on the minion nodes are just inefficient and too far from the melee damage nodes to make a build work well before level 70 and then still its just average. with the scourge the 140% increased damage feels good and effective and the minions take well to it but when you try to tinker further in the tree its really not making a dent in the dps like the initial boost did from the conversion like overscaling any damage modifier. same thing goes for duration on the tree. theres some nice nodes around but non as good as the damage nodes further out in the tree and trying to snag a build that includes the skill effect duration nodes ends up always stretched too thin and not enough damage and giving up on it because the duration isnt really good for dps directly (BOSS FIGHTS) but indirectly was amazing for pushing and massing an army and sometimes getting this army into the boss room and nuke the boss is fun too.

I've been tinkering with this on an old standard character, and it certainly feels a lot more straightforward now. Easy to support it with typical melee attack supports, you still get auras from rares that have them.

The new notable "Spiritual Aid" has been a clear role player for making this skill work, since you don't have to choose between strong minions and being able to deal damage yourself.

My current set-up is based on running a pile of auras to make minions into powerhouses, (Wrath & Anger are my damage) so I'm using Ruthless / Melee Splash / Weapon Elemental Damage as a simple four-link skill. I think no matter what you want some sort of multi-target on the skill (even if just multistrike) so that you can actually convert a weak crowd quickly. A more straightforward build could go pure physical and enjoy Brutality and such.

Not sure if this is just general minion advice, but I'm finding it useful to have a ranged skill (sunder, in this case) available to direct the swarm when the situation is a little too hairy for me to lead the charge myself. Otherwise they're indecisive on if they'll attack or retreat to me.

Edit: Worth noting that I also have 4 zombies running around at all times so that I'm never completely without support. A blow more focused on Dominating Blow would probably have the attack & defense to not want them around, but I think the issue of being stuck at zero sentinels / getting the ball rolling is something you have to plan your build around. Starting from zero against a boss doesn't seem like it would cut it.

With the new changes in 3.4, Dominating Blow feels 'ok' for mapping however it completely and utterly falls apart fighting bosses.

The 10% chance to spawn a sentinel of dominance is just far, far too low.

I am using a brightbeak, with multistrike, and a decent amount of attack speed on the tree combined together for over 7 APS, and I simply cannot sustain minions even on bosses I am willing to facetank 100%.

To add insult to injury, there are several boss fights with phases and substantial time delays which drop your minion count *even if you go into the fight with a fresh set of dominated minions*. Kitava is a good example. To make this *EVEN WORSE* there are popular parts of the game (such as Izaro, Shaper, and friends) where new instances or the massive lead time involved mean there is absolutely no way to bring minions into the fight meaning you are starting at 0 and need to hammer away at very dangerous bosses to eek out 1 or 2 minions... it's appallingly unplayable in these scenarios.

A much higher proc rate, perhaps even over 50%, would completely solve this problem and make Dominating Blow into a full-game viable skill.

I personally believe this skill should be a support gem instead. It would be much more useful and enjoyable as an attack support I think.

So guys, what about dominating blow and proximity shield monsters? why doesnt work?

As muir said, bosses with phases are the nemesis of this skill. Feels completely useless when you stand there with no Sentinels and just hope youll get one from trigger while attacking. I am using Chaber Cairn and if I am lucky enough to spawn one minion during a boss fight I call it miracle. For that reason I run with 5 zombies so at least they can deal some damage and tank. Elder fight starts the same, no Sentinels cause you load new zone. This killed a lot of joy with playing Dom Blow for me.

Maps seems to be ok, works pretty good. Smash and debuf monsters, your minions finish the job.

Skill's single target nature. It is rubbish. You need Ancestral Call and Melee Splash to make it work somehow, both of which your Sentinels don't use (maybe Melee Splash sometimes? Hard to tell). Giving it AoE tag would help a bit I think.

I'm a level 89 Champion running this in a 6L with 4L Zombies and 3L Herald of Purity. Overall, I very much enjoy the skill.

As others have said, this skill needs a higher chance to spawn a sentinel in hitting uniques. On it's own, it's very lackluster against phased bosses or bosses without significant adds at the start.

Against everything else, it's very fun and very smooth for me. The shield charge is a great addition to the minions, helping them stay in melee with me, and their AI is fairly good (though there are some random targeting issues). It also synergizes very well with Herald of Purity.

On a purely cosmetic note, the skill is beautiful, player and minion both.

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reece_silver wrote:

I personally believe this skill should be a support gem instead. It would be much more useful and enjoyable as an attack support I think.

What I am thinking is something like this. Or make the skill similar to smite / concentrate path aoe. Killing mobs with this gem is just unsatisfying.

You have a gem that needs damage modifiers but some go towards minions and some may go toward more damage the gem actually puts out. Give this gem some love.

Problem with making this a skill i can see is that any build can just slap dominating blow and make it much more powerful potentially.

Either increase the base damage of the gem or allow it have a better aoe damage.

I leveled with smite, and used DB only on blue/yellow mobs and that was fun. But when short on socket links I tried to just use DB and its laughable compared to these other skills.