I think that's a fine Dominator in terms of weapon choice and build balance, but I really dislike the flux situation: too much dissipation for the guns, and no caps means the shield can't absorb much damage (and it makes the AI back off sooner!). I'd want another 400 dissipation worth of primary weapons to warrant this kind of investment in dissipation. Both to give it more firepower to kill enemies, but also because if there is any duty cycle issues (like say an enemy getting out of the arc of hardpoints...) then the flux is even more wasted.
So... yeah, same advice as that Eagle: take off 20 vents and put them on caps and I'd bet you'd see a major improvement (that's what, a 40% increase in the flux pool for the shield?). Or swap one of the Hellbores to a HAG: the lower efficiency vs heavy armor doesn't matter because the ship has too much dissipation anyways. Also take off stabilized shields and put it into caps.
I don’t think going higher capacitors helps XIV dominator builds as much as maximizing on flux efficiency. They aren’t really fast enough to retreat, so the overall behavior of a low capacitor dominator and a high capacitor dominator would be similar for hybrid shield-armor tanking. This should be especially true if you follow the suggestion of doubling down on overwhelming the flux dissipation with higher flux weapons like the hephag. The excess soft flux will cancel out the OP spent in capacity if the dominator gets any attention shot at it while it fires. This would work in the dominator’s favor if it’s being ignored by the enemy, but if I want to design a ship to deal damage over sustained presence I feel like a champion, eradicator or sunder would be a better ship to use for that purpose. In general I don’t think the dominator has the versatility (horrible hardpoint mounts, low speed, mediocre burn drive ai) or the natural flux capacity banks to get enough value from a weapon flux overloaded design. Not when compared to a build that is more balanced towards endurance, at least. Not saying a capacitor maxed dominator is a bad build, but I think a flux maxed dominator has many strengths over a capacitor maxed dominator. In particular, a capacitor maxed dominator would work well in a fast fleet that can cover the dominator if it’s taking on too much heat while the higher temporary dps can swing battles, but this more independent build I posted can instead act as a cheap anchor that other ships can use to maximize their own potential damage through its sustained damage and durability.
For an Eagle, going heavy on caps makes a lot more sense, I just disagree that it’s the choice to make for a dominator.
To finalize why I feel this way, the good armor of dominator synergizes well with enhanced shield efficiency and high flux dissipation, allowing it to extend its shield hp more than it would with a more flux hungry setup. Also, I find accelerated shield improves its ability to block incoming HE damage. It could potentially encourage the dominator to drop and flicker shield more often too, but it’s mostly just there because of HE parries.
As for Nemoto’s responses;
Really, phase lances shot into even a low flux shield target is not that much of a waste for 0.8 flux efficiency. It’s not ideal, but it’s well worth the power phase Lance provides, if the build wants phase Lance. Advanced optics phase lances range matches 700 range ballisrics on the Eagle very well. Arbalests and heavy Needlers go hard there. The true thing to worry about with phase lances is the AI’s tendency to shoot it, then back away during the Lance activation, ruining its damage output. That’s why making sure they’re at minimum the same range as your other weapons it’s important, ideally a little bit longer.
Pilums for ships in direct combat are very good so long as the ships don’t get into knife fighting distance. 900 base range dominator with ITU and ballistic mastery is long range enough for pilums. The EMP they can provide is exceptional if you use target analysis elite. You should try it sometime, with ECCM and target analysis elite, at the minimum. It’s very nice and generally worth the investment. This goes extra well since if the dominator ever wins an engagement and doesn’t happen to be near an enemy at the moment, it’ll still be helping with pilums until it’s in range. Furthermore, pilums on a direct combat ship help prevent the enemy from safely active venting from a longer range than annihilators might. Pilums are also cheaper than investing into expanded missile racks and cost less per mount too.
I mentioned it earlier, heavy armor is a bit of an over-investment into armor once you have smods. Though, the build I posted does have armor hullmods. Automated repair unit, armored weapon mounts and reinforced flux conduit are all armor mods. This is more of a hybrid tanking ship, it uses both armor and shields to extend its durability further than pure armor focus would. However, without smods setting up this sort of hybrid tank is too OP expensive and I think the heavy armor wins out. I mentioned in my reply to Thaago why putting some OP investment into shields for a dominator is useful. Not that I think he was questioning that, but it was related to why I maximized flux dissipation.
