Dominating Blow

In their campaign to become the dominant order on Oriath, the Templars often faced impossible odds. This led them to master the technique known as the Dominating Blow.

Dominating Blow does nothing exceptional when it strikes, little more than some damage. However, it also binds the soul of the victim to the will of the caster for a short duration. If the target dies with its soul bound, it will immediate reanimate, ready to fight alongside its new master for a time. With Dominating Blow on their side, warriors of The Order were able to overcome incredibly lopsided numbers in battle, often turning half of an army against itself.

Description on the official Path of Exile website

Dominating Blow is a melee attack that temporarily revives the enemy as a minion when it is killed.

Skill functions and interactions

• Dominated monster types: Magic (blue named) and rare (yellow named) monsters can be made into minions using this skill, but unique monsters cannot. Rare and magical monsters that are dominated will keep all special attributes, including auras which will be applied to the player and all allies.

• Support gems: Any support gem that can apply to both an attack as well as a minion skill will function on both the attack made by Dominating Blow as well as any minions who are dominated as a result of the attack. For example, supporting Dominating Blow with an Added Lightning Damage support will add the stated amount of lightning damage to both attacks made by the player using the Dominating Blow skill as well as attacks made and spells cast by minions that have been dominated by the skill.

• Dual wielding: Dual wielding attacks with Dominating Blow will alternate the weapon being swung.

• Duration: buff/debuff duration modifiers will not affect the lifespan of dominated monsters, but skill duration mods will (e.g. from Increased Duration SupportIncreased Duration SupportSupport, Duration
  Icon: D
  Level: (1-20)
  Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 130%Requires Level 31Supports any skill with a duration.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3DivergentSupported Skills have 0.5% increased Skill Effect DurationSupported Skills have 1% reduced Mana Cost
  Supported Skills have 0.5% reduced Skill Effect DurationSupported Skills have 1% increased Duration of Ailments on EnemiesSupported Skills have (45-64)% increased Skill Effect DurationThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Active Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket.).

Gem level progression

Level				Damage Effectiveness	Attack Damage	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	28	42	29	165%	165%	0	0
2	31	46	32	168.8%	166.3%	199345	199345
3	34	50	35	172.7%	167.6%	285815	485160
4	37	54	37	176.5%	168.9%	401344	886504
5	40	58	40	180.4%	170.3%	554379	1440883
6	42	60	42	184.2%	171.6%	477437	1918320
7	44	63	44	188.1%	172.9%	583786	2502106
8	46	66	46	191.9%	174.2%	710359	3212465
9	48	68	48	195.7%	175.5%	1355511	4567976
10	50	71	49	199.6%	176.8%	1138877	5706853
11	52	74	51	203.4%	178.2%	1368233	7075086
12	54	76	53	207.3%	179.5%	1638338	8713424
13	56	79	55	211.1%	180.8%	1956648	10670072
14	58	82	57	214.9%	182.1%	3655184	14325256
15	60	84	59	218.8%	183.4%	3017327	17342583
16	62	87	60	222.6%	184.7%	7759995	25102578
17	64	90	62	226.5%	186.1%	15138193	40240771
18	66	92	64	230.3%	187.4%	26083825	66324596
19	68	95	66	234.2%	188.7%	62620247	128944843
20	70	98	68	238%	238%	211708088	340652931
21	72	100	70	241.8%	191.3%	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	N/A	245.7%	192.6%	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	N/A	249.5%	193.9%	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	N/A	253.4%	195.3%	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	N/A	257.2%	196.6%	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	N/A	261.1%	197.9%	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	N/A	264.9%	199.2%	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	N/A	268.7%	200.5%	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	N/A	272.6%	201.8%	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	N/A	276.4%	203.2%	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	N/A	278.3%	203.8%	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	N/A	280.3%	204.5%	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	N/A	282.2%	205.1%	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	N/A	284.1%	205.8%	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	N/A	286%	206.4%	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	N/A	287.9%	207.1%	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	N/A	289.9%	207.8%	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	N/A	291.8%	208.4%	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	N/A	293.7%	209.1%	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	N/A	295.6%	209.7%	N/A	N/A

Related helmet enchantments

The following helmet enchantments affect Dominating Blow.

Name		Stats	Spawn Weighting
Enchantment Dominating Blow Additional Magic 1	66	Dominating Blow can summon 2 additional Magic Sentinels of Dominance	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Dominating Blow Additional Magic 2	75	Dominating Blow can summon 3 additional Magic Sentinels of Dominance	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Dominating Blow Additional Rare 1	75	Dominating Blow can summon an additional Rare Sentinel of Dominance	helmet 100 default 0

Version history

Version	Changes
2.4.0	6% more attack damage at gem level 20 (not minion damage).
2.1.0	Dominating Blow's mana cost has been reduced substantially. The attack now deals 125% of base damage at level 1, increasing to 155.4% at level 20. Minions created by it now deal 35% less damage at all levels.
2.0.0	Dominating Blow: Minions deal 20% less damage at level 1, with the penalty reduced at each gem level. Base duration set to 20 seconds at all levels. Mana cost reduced at all levels. It now grants 0.5% increased damage per 1% quality instead of affecting duration.
1.3.0b	Fixed a bug introduced in 1.3.0 where Dominating Blow wasn't classed as a melee skill.
0.11.4	Fixed a bug where Dominating Blow could still apply to targets if the attack missed.
0.9.12	Now works with unarmed attacks and has no limit to the number of minions it can create.
0.9.5	Fixed a bug where multiple conversions of one monster would not be applied correctly.
0.9.3	Dominating Blow has been added to the game.