[Dragar]

I recently tried a similar starting strat with arco, but I had the bull with high dominion and no earth. I think Dom 9 and nature 5 from memory. For an awake pretender SC I think you really need to have the dominion push from high dominion, and the extra hit poitns stacked very well with the personal regen I went for first up. Protection is lower but you have awe, so need it less, and with regen and recuperation you can take a few hits.

It possibly has less utility later without the earth, but is dominant early, meaning you have strong dominion all game (promote your good scales and keep bad ones out) and if you happen to die you are only dropping 1 path rather than 2.