Blue_Fenix

Yes. It actually spawns two different pets, depending on if Domination is up or not.

However, as far as I can tell, only the initial, longer hold is boosted by Domination. The secondary holds that trigger on enemies that stay in or walk into the patch afterwards do NOT benefit from Domination.

I'm basing this info on City of Data: http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...l.Shadow_Field

Cool beans. I am also building a permadom-at-40 Dark/Dark. Perhaps I will post mine when it's done.

I STRONGLY recommend Engulfing Darkness (the PBAoE) either in addition to or instead of Night Fall. The DPA is higher, it's easier to aim, and overall it's one of the best powers in Dark Assault.

Alright, just got my Dark/Dark to level 38 and here's the news:

Midnight Grasp DOES take the ATO set, which means you can put the proc there. I'm not certain of the math but the proc should have a very high chance, possibly 100%, of activating.

Now, the other consideration here is DPA. The top DPA attacks in Dark Assault are, from best to worst (ignoring the snipe):

1) Smite
2) Gloom
3) Midnight Grasp
4) Dark Blast
5) Life Drain
6) Engulfing Darkness
7) Nightfall

That's right, Life Drain actually has bad DPA, because it's based on the ranged version from Dark Blast, not Siphon Life from Dark Melee.

So, for the best ST DPS attack chain, focus on Midnight Grasp, Smite, and Gloom. That said, Life Drain is not that much worse than Dark Blast, has decent utility, and a longer animation, so for builds without insane recharge, Life Drain may still be a better gap-filler than Dark Blast.

Shadowy Binds (the ST immob) and Dark Grasp (the ST hold) do almost exactly the same amount of damage. However, the ST immob animates faster and recharges faster, making it more spammable. The downside to Shadowy Binds, however, is that it's a DoT, but that's not a big deal against hard targets like bosses and AVs.


I'm not sure what's up with your build that you've only got 1 slot in Dark Grasp. If you're using that to help you control bosses anyway, adding a couple slots of damage will give you a significant boost. If you're not using Dark Grasp that much as it is, though, Shadowy Binds will do more DPS for the same level of slot investment.

Your absolute best ST DPS though will come from Shadowy Binds slotted for good acc and max damage.

Note that Haunt also does a lot of DPS and only has to be cast once every minute or two, depending on recharge. Make sure you've got it slotted for damage.

An important thing to note is that Shards can ONLY be used to craft Alpha stuff, but threads can be used for all incarnate slots.

Shards can be converted to threads, though.

I'll add yet another vote for Talos. I spend a lot of time there anyway, as it's a nice, compact zone with an Auctiohouse close to the tram and is easily accessible through tram or Ouro.

The LFG is used plenty for Trials, but if there's not enough people on, it will never go, of course.

I doubt many people are using it for Task Forces, though - most people who do TFs are already used to recruiting a team in the various chat channels. Unless people get in the habit of logging on and setting their LFG before heading out to solo, it'll never catch on.

In other words....

People don't use the LFG for TFs because the wait is forever. And the wait is forever because not enough people use the LFG for TFs.

It's a catch-22.

The Scrapper's crit bonus proc doesn't actually matter which attack you slot it in. It affects all your powers just by being slotted anywhere.

The Brute one, on the other hand, should be slotted in a power with relatively long recharge time, that you will also put recharge enhancements in and use often, to maximize the effect of the proc-per-minute formula.

Yes, it is true - pets do NOT benefit from recharge bonuses themselves. Only the summoning power will recharge faster. So, slotting Hell on Earth for recharge still is useful, because then you can use it more often. But pets like the Demon Prince should not be slotted for recharge.

As for which one you should cast Hell on Earth on, I think the Hellfire Gargoyle is considered a little better, since it's more of a pure damage dealer and will benefit more from the to-hit buff as well. I suspect, though, that the difference between the two is marginal at best.

The Haunt pets last 60 seconds, but are pretty fragile and can be killed. With enough recharge, though, they can be made perma.

http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power..._Control.Haunt
http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...?id=Pets_Shade

Phantom Army, on the other hand, ALSO lasts 60 seconds, but can NOT be killed, which is why it may seem to last longer.

http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power..._Control.Decoy

Umbra Beast, of course, is the same as the level 32 Control set pets such as Jack Frost, Animated Stone, and Fly Trap - its duration is so long that it might as well be permanent (IIRC it's a 23 hour duration or something like that), but it can be killed.

Also, note that there is a bug right now with Umbra Beast (which will be fixed next patch or two, the devs say) where it is in 'defensive' AI mode and will not attack unless it or its owner is being attacked. This makes it less useful when all your enemies are held/stunned/whatever, but the patch will make it just as 'aggressive' as all other controller pets soon.

At best, it's a 20% chance for a 4 second magnitude 2 confuse with each attack (http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Interface_Slot_Abilities).

So, it's mostly only going to confuse minions unless you have a teammate using it as well. Lts and Bosses will only get confused if you're lucky enough for it to proc twice in a row, and then only for a second or two.

That said, it's a fun concept idea, and it does have a chance for Psionic damage as well, so it's not like it's useless.

Unfortunately, even the best farmer is going to be getting iXP and Threads way slower in DA than on trials. The only exception is if you have bad luck finding good trial teams or are on a low-pop server at the wrong time of night when no-one's on.

That said, I expect that any all-purpose farming character that worked well outside of DA will work well in DA too, as long as you weren't depending on something like having capped fire resist and farming only fire demons.

Dark/Dark/Ice Dom is really really nice. The -to-hit debuffs from both primary and secondary stack together, and /Ice Mastery has a Def based shield. /Dark Assault is an amazing assault set for any dom, especially with its great PBAoE attack (which people are already calling "dark footstomp") and Gather Shadows, which is 75% of Power Boost plus 50% of Build Up.

Strangely enough, I kind of had the opposite reaction to the Umbra Beast being a wolf - it inspired me to make a canine-themed character. Specifically, I recolored all the dark control and assault powers to tan, call it sand, and made a desert fox character named "Renard de Sable".

Unfortunately, adding new mechanics to this game is a very daunting prospect for the devs at this point. A lot of that has to do with the fact many of the current devs are NOT the same people who coded the game engine 6 or 7 years ago. There are a lot of things they can't change about how the underlying gears of the game work. Take a look at some of the dev responses over the last couple years to suggestions, and you'll see a lot of "We'd like to, but..."

Make sure you consider the Dominator ATO set - the 6-slot bonus gives a lot of ranged defense.

As for other IO sets, looking at http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/IO_Sets .....

Consider both Pet sets and Recharge Intensive Pet sets for Haunt and Umbra Beast.

Consider to-hit-debuff sets in Fearsome Stare (might get you some recharge that you can drop elsewhere).

Stupefy in the stun for Ranged defense.

Lockdown will give some Ranged defense in either or both holds (though I prefer Basilisk's Gaze for the 4-slot easy recharge bonus).