Can someone explain how you're meant to kill Dominus?

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Xavderion wrote:

OP not telling us his HP makes me believe he doesn't have enough of it.

I had around 2.2k if I remember correctly, which is higher than most people I have spoken to around my level, I should also mention that I am playing in the Nemesis league where gear is sparse at the moment, but somehow some people are still managing to kill it. My HP pool wasn't really the problem, I'm not getting one shot - it is the rate at which it goes down, my life leech, life on hit and potions can't keep up with the damage over time.

Anyway, I've spoken to a few people and ended up paying for someone to kill Dominus for me and apparently he really just is a big DPS check. If you can kill him within the opening 10 or so seconds of phase two then he doesn't have a chance to stack bleeds or spawn minions, etc.

The thing is for new players and anyone starting in one of the new leagues and playing solo, I really don't see how you're supposed to pass this gear check by yourself unless you get really lucky with drops. Right now there are a few players able to do Cruel Dominus in Nemesis and they're charging people to kill it for them and making a tonne of chaos doing this because there are so many people who just can't do it by themselves. (and so many people who have lost level 55ish characters to the same boss)

I'd like to chime in here. Aside from the terrible, maddening DC's I've had with this fight, and the mechanics skewed toward tanky high DPS melee Toons, the fight is just broken. My summoner char was getting completely rolled by this fight, so I committed to cheesing him merely to get to merc. I used Temp Chains and Vulnerability with MI skeletons with Chance to Ignite and Increased Burning Damage. Simply drop skeletons on him and let them pop (the ol' Drop N' Pop). It all was going (albeit painfully) well until his second form. After I died upon returning from town to refresh my pots before I could even get another TP up, I had to run my ass off to get back up stairs. Setting my TP on the level below, I rushed through the door. He cast his blood rain immediately when I entered at the bottom of the stairs and I died before I could even get to him. I then proceeded to set a TP down stairs, run upstairs, get close enough to cast one or two sets of skeletons, die, and wait for the skeletons to pop and the burning to end. Repeat 15 or so times. He cast blood rain right when I entered the top level
Every. Single. Time.

WTF.

Now, I'm lvl 58 and destroying lvl 51 Merc. At the time, I had 1300 life, 850 es, 75 all res, and 24% shield block (hey, I'm a caster, not a tank).

The first time I met him I died about 20 times. So, I took a deep breath and studied his patterns. This is what I have gathered so far (in Domination league).

Whenever fighting Dominus stay on the other side of where the minions come from. If they cannot see you they will not run towards you to explode. If, however, you see the minons, deal with them as you deal with the exploding Alira bandits in act 2. Trick them to explode or kill them before they explode.

Phase one
First, Dominus does one out of three things.
1. Summons totems on or around you. If you get caught in them, use leap slam or run out as soon as possible.
2. Moves towards you. He might start to shoot his lightning bolts, if so then run around himIt is safe to move into him and start attacking.
3. Teleports next to you. You have about 1 to 2 seconds before he does one out of two attacks.

Lightning bolts.
This attack starts with Dominus raising his hands up and backwards. It gives you enough time to anticipate it.
You can tank Dominus while he casts the lightning bolts if you have around 8% life leech with decent damage. If you cannot tank him run around him and you wont get hit. When you anticipate that the attack will end run in to attack him.

Lightning slam.
This attack starts with Dominus raising one of his hands. As soon as you see this, run away or leap slam out. It does more than 10000 damage as lightning on merciless so I guess it does enormous amounts of it in cruel as well. When the attack is over you can get close to him and start attacking but always look out for his next attack.

It might take some time but by anticipating the two attacks you should be able to avoid most damage.

Phase two
From what I can tell Dominus' second form does three types of damage.
1. A normal attack that does decent damage.
2. A bleeding attack. It causes bleeding, which is physical damage, and they can stack up to seven times. The only way to get rid of them is to use flasks that remove bleeding. If you can wait until you are on low life, use one of these:


From what I can see, he only uses this attack when the blood rain is going on.
3. Blood rain. This happens only outside the bubble that surrounds Dominus' second form. Damage is same as number 2 and the bleeding stacks up really quick. Either get inside the bubble, use Remove Bleeding flasks or use town portal.

For melee, always use Life leech support gem on your main attack.
I always prefer to stay inside the bubble. In order to not get hit I use Blind and Enfeeble curse. This makes you evade most of his attacks and so avoiding the bleeding damage. If you are using unwavering stance though, equip enough Removes Bleeding flasks and use them only when the bleeding stacks are reaching five or more. If you run out of bleeding flasks, make sure you have a town portal set up.

Occasionally minions that do not explode are spawned around Dominus' second form but I find that you can dispatch them quite easily, but do it as soon as they arrive so you don't get surrounded.

I hope this can be of some help.

I'm having some troubles with Merciless Dominus with my CI crit shadow... Lv 76, I have around 5.3k ES and capped 75% resist. First three stages are relatively easy, I can dispatch the unique minibosses and first form of Dominus with no deaths, but I get killed at least 10 times by his 2nd form. Usually if I die, when I re-enter the zone, the blood rain starts immediately, and I lose more than half of my ES pool just trying to get him (and get under the bubble), so I get killed easily after.

Is there some way to get around this? I don't mind having to tank him (I can tank for some time with life leech from blood rage and enfeeble + surgeon's granite flask of iron skin), but what kills me is having to start the fight with already less than half ES pool...

Since the blood does bleeding damage, does that mean that is physical damage? So can it be mitigated by armor?

Where do you open the portals? on the floor below (and then take damage from blood rain on the stairs trying to get to the bubble) or on the boss floor?

I think that the fight is harder for pure ES characters (like CI), since we usually have low to no armor (except granite flasks), and can't use flasks to regenerate ES... LGoH doesn't work either, and the constant DoT prevents ES recharging (and no ES regen if you can't get Zealot's Oath, which is usually pretty far from a usual CI melee build)...

As for the other stages of the fight:

-1st stage, kill the sporker fast, then the fireballer, leave the cycloner last (Always kill the most damaging enemies first);

-2nd stage, kill the machine gun micreation fast, the other two are not that dangerous;

-3rd stage, stay as far away as possible from top part of the room where the adds spawn, and don't try to facetank Dominus unless you know what you're doing. Try to avoid the lightning smash (it's easy, has a fairly long animation) and the lightning bolts (as soon as he starts shooting them, just run in circles unless you have enough life leech). Jump out of the totems ASAP, you shouldn't take too much damage from them. Pay attention, and he goes down in no time.

Just keep mobile, and have a mobility skill like leap slam or whirling blades, and hope it doesn't lag too much :P

Be level 65 in Cruel.

I find the first phase much more difficult, if you are dying in the second phase it is either because he has stacked a bunch of bleeds on you with his claw (you should have enough regen to handle 2x bleeds, but 4x will drain you pretty quick), OR it's tittybitchs that he has summoned machinegunning you and you just don't notice. You have to break off from him to kill the tittys, or at least reposition yourself to the other side of him.

Using any attack linked with blind on the second phase will also help a ton. You don't have to use it as your main skill, just switch over to it every few seconds and hit him with it a couple of times.

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reboticon wrote:

I find the first phase much more difficult, if you are dying in the second phase it is either because he has stacked a bunch of bleeds on you with his claw (you should have enough regen to handle 2x bleeds, but 4x will drain you pretty quick), OR it's tittybitchs that he has summoned machinegunning you and you just don't notice. You have to break off from him to kill the tittys, or at least reposition yourself to the other side of him.

Using any attack linked with blind on the second phase will also help a ton. You don't have to use it as your main skill, just switch over to it every few seconds and hit him with it a couple of times.

Thanks, gonna try the blind support, as well as some more stauching flasks... The problem arises when I die or have to portal out: as soon as I re-enter the area, it starts the blood rain, and I bleed half of my ES pool before I can get near him... Do you open a portal close to him on the top floor?

I'm also a bit worried about killing Cruel Dominus. My character was able to kill him easily in normal, but so far things aren't looking good in cruel. Even Piety was a bit difficult, and that's not a good sign. In the Scepter, progression is slow because I'm taking so much physical damage. Elemental damage is of no threat, strangely.

Level 52
Duelist
Point Blank Archer spec
1900 life, 3750 armor w/Determination, maxed resists. Only 600 DPS with Burning Arrow.
Gear:


I want to make sure I'm at least 53 before facing him so I can use Hallowed Flasks, but I suspect that I'm going to have to grind quite a bit more than that to get the great gear that GGG obviously expects us to have at this point. I have one free passive point currently and I'm not sure where to go with it. My best guess is to head over to Blood Drinker and the two 12% life nodes. If I get lucky, I'll find gear that'll let me respec a few of the points in resists.

"

The problem arises when I die or have to portal out: as soon as I re-enter the area, it starts the blood rain, and I bleed half of my ES pool before I can get near him...

Either
1) Bring a quicksilver flask to get to him as soon as possible when you enter the portal. Or:
2) When you enter, stand there. The grace period of invulnerability will last longer than the blood rain, and then you can move to him. I'm pretty sure you can use a portal scroll (but not a portal gem) without ending the grace period.

Edit: I guess I'll go grind Dread Thicket. I'll still get full EXP there for this and the next level, the monsters are easy, and there's frequently a large chest at the end.

Edit: No, I guess I'll grind Docks, since the monster level makes it possible to find 6L items.

I don't think it's possible solo unless you're a very specific build or are overleveled with amazing gear. Just get a party.

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Zadmeir wrote:

Level 52
Duelist
Point Blank Archer spec
1900 life, 3750 armor w/Determination, maxed resists. Only 600 DPS with Burning Arrow.
Gear:

Spoiler

The game has been surprisingly forthcoming over the past couple of hours. My new stats have me quite a bit more confident:

Level 54
Build
2575 life, 4250 armor w/Determination, max resists, 700 DPS burning arrow.
Gear:


Coral Ring, Leather Belt, Quiver , and armor are new. Armor was found, the rest were chanced.