Gauss Dominator in the simulator is probably the toughest cruiser for AI ships in the simulator. It exploits the weaknesses of cowardly AI behavior well.
So I tried it a few times vs Elite champion, and it was about as bad as I remembered. The champion would vent in its face, and by the time it was finished, the poor Dominator had fluxed itself with its Gauss guns, then proceeded to get nuked or zapped. But on one attempt, the champion got stuck in 'backing-off mode' and got plinked to death. So I see where you're coming from. It's not putting Gauss cannons on Dominators that's the issue, but rather the dominator being unable to punish/deter venting. Didn't Pilums do 500 explosive pre-0.95? Maybe that was a credible enough threat to deter venting. The loadout seemed to be out of date.
I figured triple Harpoons would do well on a support class, but the AI would just spam away the harpoons for nothing. Not a behaviour I've ever seen with other ships.
Triple breach was effective, but did not deter the opponent from venting. So I tried one typhoon, and that pretty much did it. Adding two breach pods seemed to help it too. This new variant could actually solo the hellbore dominator, as well as champion_Elite, which was very impressive! It does however get hard-countered by shield-shunted dominators and champions. Not that that's a thing you would ever run into.
tldr, Gauss dominators would not be a joke with a few nukes.
Oh, and here's the loadout ...
Spoiler
(https://i.imgur.com/wIf4qXO.jpg)
[attachment deleted by admin]