Dead Calm

Fury is wonderful.

Tips on using it:

Put brawl on autofire. It is low cost, quick to recharge (plonk a recharge enhancement in there asap) and helps build fury wonderfully.

Take your first attack. It is the fastest recharging, lowest end cost non-brawl thing you have. I soloed entire maps using just Jab and Brawl until getting DOs to cut down on end use and keep fury high.

Save your big attacks for big stuff. When Fury is high, I can happily one shot a minion with knockout blow. Doesn't mean it is a good idea though, as it screws up my whole-as-close-to-end-neutral-as-possible style of gameplay.

Don't enhance for damage, at least not at the begining. End reduction, recharge and accuracy are far more important. Fury will happily look after your damage output.

Get a useful in-mission travel power. Time spent running between mobs is time not spend gaining fury. Some like Super Speed, I personally have gone for Combat/Super Jump, boosted by Hurdle from the fitness pool.

Get the fitness pool and three slot both health and stamina. Bars going up fast are your friend.

For an AT based on the principle of SMASH!, brutes require a significant amount of skill and savvey to play well, but played well they are hugely effective, and most importantly, very, very fun.

Here is my probable new build.

Exported from version 1.5C of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Ranged : Dark Miasma
Secondary Powers - Support : Dark Blast

01 : Dark Blast acc(01) dam(3) dam(3) dam(5) recred(5) endred(7)
01 : Twilight Grasp acc(01) acc(7) hel(9) hel(9) recred(11)
02 : Darkest Night thtdbf(02) thtdbf(11) thtdbf(13) endred(13)
04 : Moonbeam acc(04) dam(15) dam(15) dam(17) recred(17) endred(19)
06 : Hasten recred(06) recred(43) recred(43)
08 : Tar Patch recred(08) recred(19) recred(21)
10 : Shadow Fall damres(10) damres(21) damres(23) endred(23) endred(25)
12 : Fearsome Stare acc(12) recred(25) ferdur(27) ferdur(27) thtdbf(29) thtdbf(29)
14 : Super Speed runspd(14)
16 : Hurdle jmp(16)
18 : Swift runspd(18)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(31) endrec(31)
22 : Tenebrous Tentacles acc(22) dam(31) dam(33) dam(33) recred(33) endred(34)
24 : Night Fall acc(24) dam(34) dam(34) dam(36) recred(36) endred(36)
26 : Petrifying Gaze acc(26) recred(37) hlddur(37) hlddur(37) recred(40)
28 : Howling Twilight recred(28)
30 : Recall Friend rng(30)
32 : Dark Servant thtdbf(32) thtdbf(39) thtdbf(39) recred(39) acc(50)
35 : Hover fltspd(35) fltspd(46) fltspd(46)
38 : Blackstar dam(38) dam(40) dam(40)
41 : Dark Consumption acc(41) endrec(42) recred(42) recred(42) recred(43)
44 : Dark Embrace damres(44) damres(45) damres(45) endred(45) endred(46)
47 : Soul Drain recred(47) recred(48) recred(48) acc(48)
49 : Fly fltspd(49) fltspd(50) endred(50)

-------------------------------------------

01 : Brawl enhancement(01)
01 : Sprint enhancement(01)
02 : Rest enhancement(02)


I'd highly recommend slotting Dark Servant for Acc debuff. They have Darkest Night, which is every bit as brutally effective as yours, and also Chill of the Night, an PBAoE (centred on them, not you, obv.) which does a tick of damage every so often, but also has a Darkest Night level Acc debuff attached. Tenebrous Tentacles also benefits from the acc debuff enhancements. With three slots of acc debuff, fluffy can debuff an even cons AV to the floor if it is next to it. For this reason, I highly recomend taking recall friend.

Couple of points about shadowfall.

Firstly, the consensus is that it is better slotted for resistance. This is particularly relevant vs psi enemies.

Secondly, it no longer has a self-slow component, so you don't need to get swift if you don't want to.

I shall be there tonight to give out a bit of sartorially elegant SMASH!

I shall be there tonight to lay down some sartorially elegant SMASH!

I find quantum fly very useful as a panic button for those sneeky void moments. I'm not sure I'd bother slotting it though, as the speed is easly enough to shoot off without end becoming too much of a problem.

If you are a Dark Defender, only help against Psychic Babbage if you are allowed to call the Fire Tank in the team Mr Faceplanty for the duration of the mission +1 hour.

Dark/dark (actually dark/anything) is good for soloing. You will be able to massivly reduce your enemies accuracy, boost your own damage, and do a bit of controlling as well. You'll be able to heal if you need to, although it is a to-hit heal, so it's a good idea to stick a couple of accuracy enhancements in it.

Rad and kinetics are also good soloers. Not to sure about storm, though I suspect it may be due to the debuffs. I don't think O2 boost is self heal though.

Also, I've found it is dead easy to get on a team with a debuffing defender late in the game, when you really need to team, and I imagine given the recent changes, before long Kinitics players will be treated like some sort of gods, to be given shiney things in exchange for speed boost.

If you get a tell saying "can you heal?", turn it down, even if you have gone for a so-called "pure" empath build.

It will only result in debt.

I've not played a Dark/Dark Corruptor, but I'll have a stab at answering these questions from a D3 perspective

1) Tenebrous Tenticles is worth slotting for damage. Combined with Fearsome Stare and Nightfall it forms a very nice set of cones indeed. The defender damage is by no means massive, but it certainly ok, and should be better on a corruptor anyway.

2) Shadowfall does not stack with stealth. It does, however stack with Super Speed.

3) Fluffy can be slotted in all sorts of ways. Post ED I'm going for 3 accdebuffs and 1 other, which will either be an acc or a recharge depending on what I am doing at the time. Others find putting hold durations or heals in is effective.

The only other points I'd make is that I'd put acc debuffs in Darkest Night over end reducers, especially once you have stamina. Even if it only works at 75% defender value (no idea if it does) it is an awsome debuff. When combined with all the other debuffing you put out, especially if you slot fluffy for it, you should have no problem flooring the accuracy of an even con AV by the late 30s.

I'd also change the endreds in combat jumping and super jump to jump enhancements, as both of them are very end light anyway.

I'm missing.

I'm a Dark/Dark Defender.