help improve my shadow, as I head for Dominus cruel.

Don't want to RIP to this roadblock of a boss.
Appreciate any help.

Note: yes, I am an experienced player, but I only got past the bastard once in HC out of 5 previous attempts.
Also, my PC is extremely slow and freeze/desync-prone, so I need as much good odds as I can possibly get.

Bump for tips.
Hopefully, this turns into a good survival guide.

You have pretty decent gear, a staunch in flask, etc. I ended up using teleports to slowly bring him down.

Best of luck.

1.)Could run some kind of movement skill i.e lightning warp.

2.) Could also run a totem for defense or a bit of extra offense. ie flame totem+ blind, decoy totem or skele totem.

3.) Could run a defensive curse for tough mobs ie enfeeble or temp chains.

Here's how I'd develop your skill tree up to level-80:



Since you're not going for a Discharge build, I think you have enough crit nodes, and need more Life and Spell Damage nodes. I'm also recommending Point Blank to turbocharge your Power Siphon at mid to close range. That matches the short range of both Freezing Pulse and Lightning Trap. If you're not entirely sold on Freezing Pulse, I think you'd love a 5L Cold Snap Trap:



Deerstalkers are dream boots for a trapper, but you could use a 5L chest with a Trap gem instead. As you've probably found with Lightning Trap, Multiple Traps is indispensible for gobsmacking the mobs, and it neatly sidesteps Cold Snap's cool-down timer, allowing you to lay down three Snaps at once.

Skele totem is the key.
BTW such squishy chars are better to be babysit at dom. Find someone to help you.

any form of additional entities always help soo so much at dominus. his lightning attack is always directed at one thing. i had a pretty rough time against dominus in palace map. then i tried to place a flame totem. from that point on he never hit me anymore :D.
same thing should hold true for cruel dominus.

some more:

try rolling an instant heal pot and swap it out for the quicksilver.

imo level to level 53 and roll quality hallowed flasks, you won't switch them out anymore so you dont lose anything if you spend a bit of currency rolling them.

check vendors for a replacement for the coral ring (should be doable)

use another gem instead of power charge on crit against dominus, you will have trouble keeping charges up (added chaos/lightning should do well)

manual cast frostbite

First stage dom is just like 1st stage normal Dom if you can kill that in normal you can kill him here it will just be slower.

Second stage dom is a gear check so leave a portal by him and teleport out if you ever feel the need to. Try to get a granite flask for this stage you could also switch knock back to life leech for your freezing pulse skill drop a searing bond down for more damage if you have one. I always try to kill him as fast as possible to reduce the risk of death.

great tips, thanks guys :)

@Slayer, I assume you meant Lightning Warp by "teleport", or was it town portals?

@Byten,
1) definitely will.
2) can't. a skelly totem in a Dominus fight will basically make the game a slide-show for me, bringing my FPS below zero.
3) definitely will. maybe both.

@RogueMage, thanks for a great tip old friend :)
and the boots are awesome. I'm using those on my trapper.
Shadow is Freezing Pulse though, so I think I'll keep my current boots.

@torturo, no carrying.
I used a party to get my HC (then Nemesis) main past Cruel Dominus, and felt so bad about it I had to later come back and solo him, just to prove to myself I can.

@SVD, great tips man. sadly though, I can't do the totem thing, for the reason I mentioned.

@GodTheUndead, when I fight Dom on Cruel and Merciless in SC, his first form kills me twice more than his second.
the reason, is that Lightning Stream.
I don't fear Touch Of God, learned to avoid the exploding minions even if I end up on the top of the screen for some reason, and am even aware of his crazy ice bond totems of doom.
but that stream, man.
that stream lagging me just a bit - and I'm dead.
that's the thing which scares me the most, in the entire fight.
I need to be able to tank the stream, because with my hardware and the overall 5-FPSness of the entire fight, it's near impossible to dodge it.

John, as a keeper of a small cemetery, inhabited with the roaming souls of solo played HC characters, I have no shame anymore. I do play SF solo as well, though it doesn't stop myself to ask for help about Dom.

I'm online atm, PM me if you need a clean kill. Be smart.