Argentae
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Posts
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Joined
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Having played with Fade more on live than I did on Beta, I have to admit I really like the CURRENT version quite a bit. It's exactly the right amount of time for me to get a large spawn (esp ones that have a group off to the side where I can't see/get to them) pulled together and locked down. It's up for almost every spawn, but that's because it takes me a while to chew up a +1/+5 spawn by myself
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I don't even have it slotted out at all, just the LotG in the default slot and the +60ish global rech. So once I get actual slots into it it would be up quite a bit more and sheer size of the +def buff makes slotting it for def tremendously powerful.
The new version is certainly an overall buff and I definitely look forward to the Dam Res, but the current version is by no means a slouch.
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Quote:I understand what you're saying, I'd like to have the ST immob for dmg when soloing, but it's really not needed as Dark/ really isn't a low damage controller at all. 6 slotted Haunt is a very high dmg power indeed.Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
2 != soloing
I just find the lack of the immob very noticeable before I get the Epic blast on low damage controllers, even with the 2 Vet attacks.
I've leveled up Shadow-Fallen largely soloing, and some teaming with my kids and (vary occasionally with a PUG). My best xp tends to come from soloing missions. I just changed from +0/+5 to +1/+5 and really had no trouble clearing the mission. Even with all 3 Vet attacks I don't use them much on +1 and up mobs because of the accuracy issues. I HAD Tactics in the build, but swapped it out for Combat jumping so I could get the last LotG slotted.
I've found that by waiting until most of the minions are dead and THEN bringing in Haunt, the shades (maxed out for DMG) do an excellent job of helping me take down the LT's esp if they are all confused and beating on each other while I spam Living Shadows and pick one at a time to beat down with the ST hold.
If there's a boss in the spawn then I'll target Haunt on him before I start in on the spawn and they will pretty much keep him occupied while I lock down (FS + DN + Tar Patch + Living Shadows) the rest of the spawn.
I don't even have the Beastly Puppy yet and I'm having a blast soloing.
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Still loving the Dark/DAff combo. Didn't get too much time to play over the last few days, but I got Shadow-Fallen up to 27, got the final LotG (buying 5 from the market was soooo the way to go!) slotted as well as getting a 4 pack of Dark watcher in Darkest Night, a 5 pack of Exp Reinforcement in Haunt and a 4 pack of Clouded Senses in Fearsome Stare.
All told, she's up to 61.25% rech and it's making a BIG difference.
Haunt and Possess continue to shine. I'd love to take the ST Immob for the dmg and pinning A/V's to the ground, but with 3 slots going to LotG/Def powers I simply don't have the space yet.
Played a bit more with Shadow Field and it remains totally meh. I'll have to try it out on a test build with heavy slotting to see if it's worthwhile, but as I had to respec anyway, I swapped it out for Heart of Darkness, I'd rather put the slots into HoD anyway as a solution for mobs that resist the fear based alpha eliminator that is FS (yes, yes it IS a Nemesis plot, thank you for asking).
I just love the flexibility of the set, works equally solo and teaming. Hopefully I'll get her up to the late game before Beast Summoning comes out and I get the twitch to try yet another new alt.
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Great feedback all, I really appreciated it!
I ended up with:
4 pack of Dark Watcher in Darkest Night
5 Expd Reinforcement in Haunt + a Rech SO (for now will probably replace with a franken slot for +rech/end)
4 pack of Clouded Senses in FS + a lvl 30 siphon insight Acc/ToHit Debuff
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Quote:Just wanted to clarify: Are you under the impression that you don't get drops from mobs that have had confuse/possessed mobs defeat them? Unless you're planning on doing ZERO damage to those mobs AFAIK that's simply not true. :-) As long as you are doing some form of AOE (spamming Living shadows with or without procs works GREAT for this), you most certainly DO get the drops as well as a highly disproportionate amount of the exp from the mob defeated/damaged by the possessed/confused mobs.Originally Posted by Awesome_Clawsome
As for possess, its great for those who don't mind skipping on a possible good drop. As for me, I'm greedy, plus I don't have room for another power.
Seriously, Confusion based powers are the best thing for buffing your XP/inf/drops over time. Possess is one of the best powers in the set IMO. Having a single target confuse is a huge benefit, esp when you can use it to reposition trouble mobs (they will run over the the main body of the spawn to attack someone), turn buffing/debuffing mobs to your side etc.
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Dark/Dark and loving it. Such a flexible and versatile set, and the synergy with /DAff is very tasty IMO. :-)
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Darkest Night is probably the easiest IMO. I'm thinking a 4 pack of Dark Watcher? Are they any useful procs/globals to consider?
Haunt is trickier. I can't remember is proc slotting is worthwhile for pets, and I know there's a whole world of pet slotting tricks that I lack background on. The + def/+res pet uniques for instance, I have no idea what options there are. My default for pets tends to be a 4 pack of exped reinforcement IIRC, but it's been a long time since I looked at pets, so I'd love any insight folks here can provide.
Fearsome Stare. What to do with this beast? I don't have the inf for the Clouded set atm and my normal fear set (Glimpse of the Abyss) would be a waste as the fear is NOT to point of FS, the -ToHit is. I'm thinking maybe a 4 pack of Dark watcher + a 2 set of something else to bring some Acc and Rech and/or useful procs? I don't think I want to slot any dmg procs as having it as an alpha eliminator is too useful.
TIA for any help/insight the controller community can provide. :-) Loving Dark/Dark!
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Had a GREAT time playing (when I had time) this weekend. Played quite a bit with the kids (Nrg/Poison Corrupter and a Willpower/MA Tank), and really appreciate the hand Annie Wildfire lent the kids when I was already on a team and had to finish the mission before I could join them. :-)
Shadow-Fallen is up to 26 and with a lot more soloing and teaming time under my belt I have a few more comments regarding Dark/Dark.
So far the sweet spot for difficulty lvl is +0/5 equivalent so I get really large spawns of +0 or +1 mobs. FS (1 Acc, 3 -tohit debuff, 1 rech) + Darkest Night (1 endred) seems to be enough for dmg mitigation, and spammed Living shadows (with the 2 procs) takes care of the minions while the ST hold (1 Acc, 1 hold, 3 dmg) and judicious use of Posess takes care of LT's. I usually throw in Haunt part way in if there are no bosses so that they are still around to help take down the LT's at the end.
6-Slotted Living Shadows are now slotted with a 5 pack of Posi Blast + Trap of the Hunter Lethal Proc.
I've got 4 LotG +global rech in: Shadow Fall, Fade, Hover and Maneuvers. Between them and the +rech from the Posi Blast set, I'm getting close to 40% global rech which is enough to really start making itself felt.
I LOVE Haunt. I've currently got it slotted 1 Acc, 3 Dmg and 2 Rech SO's. Surprisingly flexible powerÂ… I Use it to totally occupy/kill a boss, I've used it to help clump up a spawn and/or eat the alpha from a secondary clump of a spawn. The ONLY time I don't like Haunt is after I've finished a spawn and I'm travelling to the next. The shades are MASSIVE aggro magnets, so it's actually a good thing that they don't stay around too long.
Fade: I'm going to buck the tide here and say that I really love it JUST the way it is. It may be short, but it's just about the right duration to get me through the initial setup time and it's up often enough that I can use it for almost each spawn when soloing (LARGE size spawns, but that's just so much FUN). I'm actually not looking forward to the update on Fade, though it'll still be quite useful. I'll miss the MASSIVE +def up at the start of just about every spawn.
Shadow Field: Meh. I've only played with it very briefly, but so far it's looking like it might be one of my very few /skip powers in Dark/Dark. So far I'm just not seeing when/why I would want it given it's uber long rech and lack of real power as a hold. I'll need to play with it slotted up, but it's not looking to favorable atm.
Now that I've got SO's I'm thinking I could probably drop Tactics, maybe trade it out for Combat jumping (5th LotG)? Dunno though, Tactics is super handy if I need to use vet attacks or if fighting Arachnos with those blasted blinding smoke grenades.
So far Haunt is one of the powers that's grown on me most with slotting. It's flat out awesome for single target dmg, and really reduces the need for more single target attacks (like the ST immob). It would be fantastic if their AI could get a tweak to get them to prefer higher ranking mobs when selecting their next target. If they would focus on LT's instead of wasting their time on minions it would make them even MORE amazing.
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I think I'm going with Posi+Trap lethal proc for now, I had paragon points sitting around (and all those enh are on sale atm) and having a scaling IO set is just too handy.. Not to mention I really need the +Acc global fromthe Posi 5 pack.
I may revisit that in a final build, the Clouded set would be great!
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Ran through some missions and street sweeping last night with the kids and then some more solo and got Shadow-Fallen to 16, so she got her quasi-namesake power. There are a LOT of Outcasts in Skyway that are heartily sick of being nigh unable to hit anything while trembling in abject terror.
Continues to be a quite fun combo, though I'm feeling the lack of any -Def powers since I don't have access to SO equivalent enh yet. I'm thinking I'll probably plan to pickup Maneuvers (LotG mule) and Leadership for the +ToHit boost. Given that she's an Angel I felt like I needed to pickup Fly, but now I'm second guessing that. I'd probably be better off with Hover (LotG) and keep using Ninja Run. Maybe put a celerity +stealth IO in sprint to pair with Shadow Fall.
My kids are really enjoying the opening sequence of calling out "Tremble in fear!" before triggering FS, then Elizabeth loves the black porcupine of Darkest Night and the reaching hands of Living Shadows. Good times.
I find myself using Possess a LOT more as a positioning power than I ever did with Confuse on any of my stable of Mind/ Controllers and Doms.
Two more levels to Haunt!
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Quote:I'd love to do that, but I don't see myself having a set of WOTC any time soon!Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
I personally would put Will of the Controller in it, for recharge and defense. I feel that despite the unusual shape, its a fantastic tool. I love it.
Lewis
I think I'll just have to stick to either Posi + the clouded Proc or a 4 pack of Cloud Senses with the Posi Proc and Trap of the Hunter Proc. I hate to give up the dmg enh that comes with Posi, but it might be worth it to fit in the 3rd proc and still get 6.25% +rech.
One advantage to Posi is I can just buy a set with Paragon points I already have, not sure what a set of Cloud Senses is going for on the market, I'll have to check next time I'm in game.
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Quote:Excellent tip thank you! Being able to fit a 3rd Proc in will make quite a bit of difference. :-)Originally Posted by Pitho
Cloud senses, the accurate tohit debuff set, also has a negative energy damage proc. So you can fit up to 3 damage procs in it. Cloud senses also has a 6.25% recharge bonus at 4 pieces, and +2.25 max end at 3 pieces.
Looking at the set you could, say, take the acc/end/recharge, tohitdebuff/end/ recharge, the damage proc and either accuracy/tohit debuff or accuracy recharge, then the trap proc and the positron proc.
3 damage procs, some end reduction, accuracy and recharge, a recharge and max end bonus, and a bit of tohitdebuffage as a bonus. Note that each damage proc is worth about a 60% damage enhancement on average in the aoe immob. That's assuming you have containment, without containment it'd be 120%.
@PleaseRecycle: Don't underestimate Living Shadows. The cone is surprisingly easy to use, I find with minimal effort I hit virtually the entire spawn when working with hazard zone sized spawns (Perez Park etc). With the procs in it, Living Shadows pretty much MELTS spawns. Just target any bosses with the STH and ST immob and confuse any LT's to pump up the damage a bit and you're golden. Keep in mind this is it lvl 12-14 when I don't have access to SO's or decent IO's yet. With the slotting suggested by Pitho above, Living Shadows should work excellently in the mid/late game as well.
To put #'s on it @about 14-16 with Tar Patch down I was seeing up to +5/+5 numbers scrolling up from Living Shadows, it pulses what, 3 times? So that's about 30 dmg to everything in the spawn at a rapid spammable rate? And that's not even counting the extra dmg (considerable) being kicked out by the GR Pre-Order enh procs. One of those procs is a knockdown vs dmg, and they are only 10% for minor dmg (17 ish?) so you've got 4 10% procs.
Pitho's slotting would get you up to 3 20% procs IIRC that would do quite a bit more dmg.
IIRC Living Shadows does dmg on the same order as Plant's Roots, and when proc'd out it's definitely more than worthwhile.
::tosses two shiny coins in hat::
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I've mentioned elsewhere that I'm using Living Shadows 6 slotted with the 5 GR Pre-Order enh + an Acc DO. Once I hit 20 those enh will stop procing so I need to be looking/collecting the procs etc to replace it. What/How many procs can you slott in Living Shadows?
5 of Posi Blast (with the proc) and the (Lethal?) proc from cr@p of the Hunter?
Is there a better combo to shoot for in optimizing Living Shadows?
TIA for any suggestions/insight!
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Didn't have too much time to play last night, but I got Shadow-Fallen up to 12 just running around Perez Park street sweeping.
FUN.
I LOVE Fearsome Stare as an opener followed by Darkest Night then Living Shadows. Confuse any outliers at the edge of the spawn either before or after that AOE control chain and they will run into the center so you can get them locked in place near the Darkest Night Anchor. At that point it's just a matter of lining yourself up right and spamming Living Shadows till they drop. Having all five of the GR Pre-Order enh slotted in Living Shadows is fantastic (+an Acc DO) . I'll have to think about what procs etc to slot it with once I hit 20 and the GR Pre-order enh stop procing.
I just can't say enough about how much I love the new animations in Dark Control, Possess totally rocks, can't wait to see Haunt etc.
So far I've taken no powers except Pri/Sec ones, using Ninja Run for a travel power. The -Tohit synergy between Dark/ and /DAff is just too tasty to skip any of the early powers. Still have to pick up HT.
Currently she's:
DARK Control:
Shadowy Binds
Dark Grasp
Living Shadows
Possess
Fearsome Stare
Dark Affinity:
Twilight Grasp
Tar Patch
Darkest Night
Shadowy Binds was one of the last that I picked up, totally worth it for locking bosses in place and as part of a decent ranged attack chain. I may respec out of it when I get to the late game and can pick up an APP/PPP ST blast, depends on how indispensible everything else is.
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::shrug::
Personally I solo quite a bit, sometimes I solo more than teaming sometimes the other way around. While soloing I find the ST Immob to be invaluable, it's far more end efficient than the vet attacks, and can be slotted to be quite useful. It's a decent attack with an excellent side benefit.
Late in the build I'll generally respec out of it and replace it with a APP/PPP ST blast, but on the way up I generally take it.
On Dark/DAff I had more important things to get till 10 or 12, but I still picked up the ST Immob to help (a lot) with taking down bosses/LT's when solo.
That said, depending on the build/playstyle driven priorities it can certainly *be* skippable.
Black Hole on the other hand, is a hands down and walking away kind of skippable.
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Quote:The Fearsome Stare FX are decent, but I agree that the Possess animation is certainly my fav of the entire Dark/DAff combo, and IMO easily in the top handful in the game. I love the reaching hands animation of Living Shadow as well.Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
Really?
I think the fearsome stare is one of the more lackluster ones. I like the aoe immob more, and I think the single target confuse is the best animation. Maybe even contender for best in game. But not the new FStare. IMO.
Lewis
I can totally see how the animations of Dark/ and /Time would mesh beautifully. I really hope they do free up the resources to make the animations of /DAff match Dark/... But really the animation for Possess instead of the old confusion animation is just awesome. It's soooo much clearer, more immersive and totally intuitive to me at least. Without my kids really even having any idea what it was, they could tell what it was doing immediately, a poster child for good power fx design.
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So, at long last I finally get a Dark controller: Shadow-Fallen.
An angel that couldn't deal with the no intervention policy and came down to earth to kick so bad guy butt. :-)
Big shout out to Zwill from all of us (myself and both kids)! He showed up on Triumph and started a flying disk party in the lawn in front of Ms Liberty. My son had spent some of his hard earned money to BUY the flying disk about 10 minutes before Zwill showed up, so: Awesome. Perfect end to an evening of family gaming and it was the kids favorite thing in the game so far. If the Flying disk showed up in the power tray's immediately it would be perfect. :-)
Did a couple missions with my kids (10 year old shell script writing IOS and Android app developing son, and 9 year old hysterically funny author/artist daughter, I'm the luckiest dad around :-) ) last night. Awesome. My daughter tried her first tank (she plays MM's mostly) and LOVED it, showed real promise on holding aggro and even a bit of herding! My son was on his Nrg/Poison corruptor, and also did a great job once he got over his soloing blaster type tactics. ;-)
Anyway, back to the point Dark/DAff:
Only got her up to lvl 9 as playing with the kids isn't optimal for xp gain though it was a LOT of fun. Towards the end of the evening gaming time I hit Perez at lvl 7 and it was hard taking down a large spawn, but doable with a tray of insps and Living Shadows 5 slotted with the GR pre-order enh. Got lvl 8 and picked up FS to pair with Darkest night.
OMG.
I was just mowing 'em down. Open with FS. Follow up with Darkest Night on a mob (boss by pref) in the middle and "possess" any LT's and just spam Living Shadows while beating on the boss (if there was one) with STH and vet attacks. It was a great fun watching the entire spawn being unable (floored acc) to hit me. Living Shadows with the Going Rogue pre-order enh 5 slotted (+ an acc TO) for the procs worked wonderfully for mass AOE dmg. Twilight Grasp was totally able to keep up with the incoming dmg.
Obviously that's a temp situation as the enh procs stop firing at lvl 20, but the Darkest Night + FS combo was AWESOME for opening a fight and was PERFECT as a alpha eliminating tool.
Love the new animation for Possess, best animation in the set.
I'll post more as I get deeper into the set, but the initial impressions were that it was a very fun, well balanced combo. Versatile, but not OP. Without the GR pre-order procs the dmg from Living Shadows was totally balanced, and the -acc effectively neuters a spawn much as an Elec/Elec controller can totally sap a spawn to end-lock.
Thumbs up to the Dev team! -
Shadow-Fallen the Angel that just couldn't deal with the no-interference rule lives!
My first Dark/DAff controller for playing with my kids on Triumph is created.
That reminds me that I need to create a thread about using the Going Rogue Pre-Order enh with a Controller AOE immob.
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Just logged in. Enjoy all!
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LAST 24 hours! Whoo Hoo!
Bring on I-22 and all the darkity dark goodness!
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I think I'm going to do the full Dark option. I've been drooling over a Controller with Fearsome Stare since I-2 (IIRC), and I've just gotta have Fluffy.
That said, I've been having a TON of fun with a Beast/Time MM on the Beta server, I can totally see how Dark/Time would be awesome, and as mentioned the FX would pair very nicely as well.
Fire/Dark would also be awesome... I mean Imps with a heavy Def shield AND all the -ToHit in /DAff(esp the -ToHit Fluffy brings to the party)? WITH a great heal? Great combo.
Sooooo many tasty Dark/ and /DAff combos, but I'm going with the pure super dark combo out of the gate.
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March 6th!
3 days left!
Another one (counted) down...
And I'd go Dark/DAff Controller. Come on... A Controller with Fluffy!? It HAS to be done.
More seriously I totally feel the same about D/D Controller or Dom. A Dom with heavy -ToHit debuff and a self heal?! VERY tempting.
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Well, to avoid subduction into the sucking swamp of semantics I agree that the changes to /DAff make quite a difference.
Plant/Storm was my most recent 50, so I'm disinclined to start with a Dark/Storm out of the gate [internal dialog] though I probably should dust off and finish Lavan Fire/Storm, I think he was like 42ish?[/internal dialog].
Which brings me back to either Dark/DAff or Dark/Time. I guess I'm leaning towards Dark/DAff at this point, partially because I think it'd be great fun to have Fluffy as a secondary pet on a Controller. I don't see Dark/DAff being nearly the AOE machine that Plant/Storm is, but I think it might be an ideal combo for playing with my kids. A Controller with both strong single target and AOE control AND massive -tohit debuffing and healing? Sounds kinda perfect for keeping a less than min-maxed uber optimized team on their feet and fighting.
To me Dark/DAff looks like it may be one of the most well rounded Controller combos yet. It's got a bit of everything and should make for a VERY versatile controller.
I've got zero experience with /Time, but I'm guessing that Dark/ really won't need the extra control that /Time brings to the table in the form of single and AOE control. The big question mark in my mind is the impact of the self +Rech from /Time vs the stacking of -Tohit coming from /DAff and Fluffy.
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Heh. Thanks for pointing out the delay, managing expectations is a very important part of successful parenting.
Well I suppose I'll have to look forward to her enjoyment of summoning lions... But I'll be able to play some Dark control in the mean time when "The Improbables" does SG missions, that will bring some wonderful freshness and give me something to play with while I exercise patience. Patience, the most import power in the build of a parent teaming with their pre-teen kids!
Arg