LoreUndone

Currently Dark seems to be the only skill I can use in the game to any degree or with any success, this includes COH (scrapper) also, along with Brute. Currently trying to work on I7 Test server also.

As far as Dark/Dark or in regards to Dark Armor I would have to suggest trying to leave out;

Death Shroud

Here is the explanation of why:

Due to the changes in I6 damage along with everything else is hugely less effective. An increases of 95% from nothing still = Nothing.

The endurance drain for this power does not justify the effect, slots wasted, infamy spent, etc, etc.

Sure at lower levels this may seem to be helping but as you gain levels the overall effect drops off dramatically, basically leaving you with just a power that sucks stamina more than anything else.

As far as people not taking Obsidian Shield? = Nuts

Dark Embrace, Obsidian Shield, and Cloak of Darkness is the Backbone of Dark Armor. Currently the main reason people are starting to leave major powers out of the pools is the insane endurance cost currently being applied. Almost as if the Development Team needs a Math Class or something. : P

Almost everything within Dark Armor is a Toggle and therefore cost a ton to run. However in the end no more than anything else or approximately the same as everything else it seems. Everyone (Brutes) are constantly running out of endurance anyway (even with Stamina). I guess part of the Plan to make everyone the same so PvP will somewhat work. Yes, as many of you I am totally frustrated with the development along these lines as well.

As far as I can tell this Template Above on this Archetype looks more like DISINFORMATION for newbies in order to build a really lame TOON.

Instead of going over the Archetype, and each and every skill that you need, let me just point out what you don’t need with Dark/Dark.

Dark Armor;
1. Death Shroud

Dark Melee:
1. Touch of Fear
2. Taunt
3. Siphon Life

You honestly don’t need any of these above from Dark Melee in order to run properly as the following make up for not having them:

1. Cloak of Fear - This works but you have to slot it.
2. Dark Consumption - This works and you basically don’t have to slot it.
3. Dark Regeneration - This works but you have to slot it.
4. Soul Drain - This works and you basically don’t have to slot it.

I would also highly suggest using Air Superiority somewhere in the MIX, as this gives you another attack even if fly is slow.

However, this is just an opinion, but I don’t seem to have any issues.

PS. This Archetype is basically one of those where you practically have to take everything in order to make it work properly. So in the end you have to figure out what you can live without!

Well unfortunately its hard to convey ones thoughts directly to paper, or print and have it come out as intended, otherwise everyone would have a Best Seller or be a writer. I am particularly well known for this in the industry as I tend to charge strait to the point, therefore they sound a little mean.

I have to thank you for your time and effort in your report, and the original poster. Although I have to give credit to your review I personally believe something has to be wrong here. As if no one checks anyone’s work before its added, or something. I mean this whole Patch is about Balance, [supposedly] so saying that “its here to stay” when the actual results are so imbalanced is not giving the development team enough credit.

That is, unless they are purposely trying to destroy the game.

Clearly, as shown by multiple players, post, evidence, examples, and so on and so on…. Mistakes were made, or left uncheck during this patch, or the code was in error. Its hard for most people, even someone such as myself with a decade of experience in this industry that the results of I5 were the intended, or desired results. If these were the desired results, someone’s vision is sewed and the need to be replaced or removed.

Its one thing to make the game harder, and another to make it impossible. Its also another thing entirely to purposely pick out classes and make them impossible to play, succeed or enjoy. Especially, while others are even better than before, and were already in need of an edit such as this.

I actually want to be clear on this. Many of us understood the need for some edits, but clearly these are not the edits that were needed. Heaven help us if someone ever makes the AI better. Which I might add, what was actually needed first before Nerfs of Skills or characters.

Basically I5 is nothing more than a “Make Work” patch so I guess someone feels better about getting a paycheck this month. 90% of what is in I5 was not even needed, no asked for by the population.

Now in truth, being Dark/Dark for sometime now after hitting Level 20 with characters I did consider myself somewhat UBER [but no more uber than any blaster running around, and less uber than any other scrapper running around].

However, I have to believe players such as the original poster and players such as myself are a the high end of the spectrum which leaves the lowest common denominator out in the dark and unable to use this class. Even a perfect build is basically five steps below that of any other class, even in the same category at the moment.

Now granted, this is Statesman’s Game, and he can build it anyway he wants. However, the trick is to get others to play it, and pay for it. I can tell Statesman one thing for sure; This will not due.

Many people here after CoV hits will be paying approximately thirty dollars a month for this game and the development process and patches are going to have to reflect that cost. Every player of Every Class, Type and Ability are expecting Fair and Unbiased Edits and Implementation of new skills and abilities. Not Temper Tantrums by the development team or ideas and concepts not fully thought out before implementation singling out once class to be the best.

I’m all for balance, but that is NOT what I5 is. I5 is more imbalance, than balance. I5 is more of a purposeful intended attempt to ruin a class and classes and characters of a particular type. Those are just the facts and I’m sorry if Statesman, or the development team do not want to face the facts well…... They will have to face them shortly as more and more accounts disappear.

When you purposely single out individuals and modify them to not function the same as everyone else you have made the first step down the road to ruin and an appearance of bias. Many people will start seeing the game and the developers as Unfair, Bias, Inept, and Incompetent. If one character cannot do just as good as another something is incorrect.

It is actually unthinkable to expect people a year into the game to actually just stop using a character and start all over because a patch has made that character or class unmanageable, or unusable. 9 out of 10 times they just leave and do something else. We all don’t have 24/7 to play this game and actually have jobs and responsibilities that detract from the time we can actually log on and use our characters.

I cannot believe the statement that “this is it”, as I don’t believe anyone is that stupid to shoot themselves in the foot like this and just do nothing about it bleeding to death in the process. Don’t get me wrong, Iv seen it happen, but usually those developers are “one time wonders” and never get another chance and have to go back to work for SONY making <insert colorful remark here> games.

I am sorry, but I cannot share Statesman’s vision on this. The concept is good, the game was better than I thought it would be for its type, but after this I5 fiasco you have to step back and reexamine why you’re here and if these developers can actually do this.

I give this patch a month and after that without some major changes I have to bow out and find something else. The game will not go any further than this with this type of development. Which brings up the point of COV, and if its in this type of condition.

I don’t think it is too unrealistic for many of us to believe that 90% of I5 was not tested beyond the point of Bug screening. No testing of Balance, Effects, and Results were actually done. I sure hope no one was paid to test the balance portion of this patch cause that was money just thrown out the window.

The only other real option I can see at this point is if both Tanker, and Scrapper Classes are going to be this impossible to level compared to every other class they are going to have to only require Half the Experience Points to do so………….. : p Otherwise, who in there right mind would use them.

Which is the actual intent behind I5. If anyone cares to take a look at CoV you may understand why these classes are in the first stages of the attempt to eliminate them from play.

Ruin one game to build another?

I don’t know, you would think for all the money we have been shelling at this game they could hire someone who knew what they were doing. At first I was kind of mad, but actually my anger turned into sorrow. At this point I feel sorry for the development team. These guys have a lot to learn and need a lot more experience.

This experience should be a good example to all the WoodBe developers out there that you have to know more than CODE to develop a game. Just like you need to know more than just how to drive a Car to be an Auto Mechanic .

These guys are in dire need of help if this is the best example of a patch and a balance attempt. They mess up just changing the Oil : P.

As far as I can tell throughout this entire post is more of a repeat of a long ago abilities. A lot of the information is good. However, its misleading and is not reflecting the true results of I5.

Now grated you have to applaud anyone taking the time to report and try to help others, and overall the report is clear, but I hardly think its precise. Moreover this above is just a repeat of older patch notes and results, and not what is really going on.

Dark Scrappers have always been an Offensive Template and originally that was due to the fact that you didn’t get any real defensive properties on your character until level 20- Cloak of Darkness. At this point you desperately needed it as you have basically reached the limit of your Offensive potential.

My Quick Review of Powers under I5-

Dark Embrace
-Resist Smash, Lethal (Very Low), Resist Negative Energy, Toxic (Low).
No matter how much you slot this, or what enhancements you use, it is not [or ever will be] equivalent to any other scrapper damage resistances or skill. Supposedly Dark Embrace was getting an Endurance cost decrease, however results so far have indicated that Damage Resistance has been decreased and in fact Endurance cost has increased slightly over pervious.

This skill currently should be more appropriately named Dark Embarrassment in fact. Its better than a Poke in the Eye, but as far as the post above stating to slot it heavily shows that they are not currently running this type of character.
1. You should never have more than 3 to 4 slots on this before level 20 as the results or desired results from the slots are negligible and you will not notice any difference. Plus you need to save these slots for stuff that actually works and functions. Offense.

Death Shroud
-Negative Energy Damage (Minor PBAoE DoT).
Currently if you take this early it will just end up getting you kill faster that if you didn’t have it at all. For one, you cannot do any real damage with it, and secondly it ends up attracting more villains than you can handle. This was true even under I4.

It’s a nice skill to have, but because you really have no defense anymore [because one or more of the developers had no clue about Dark and what it did or does] you are repeatedly pounded into submission anyway and cannot take on a large mob anyhow [even with Dark Embrace 6 slotted]. Plus the fact that the endurance cost is very high. You can always take this later, but even then your going to get pounded.

Murky Cloud - Resist Fire, Cold (High), Resist Negative Energy, Energy (Moderate), Resist Endurance Drain.
-Actually this is a very handy skill, but you can run without it for a time. Most times you have too anyway, due to the endurance cost of your other armors and your end result of the melee cost of your attacks. However, its actually very effective. You can minimally slot this and still be impressed [compared to your Dark Embrace] as to its effectiveness. Slot no more than 2 or 3 before level 20, and you need to save these slots for stuff that actually works and functions.

Obsidian Shield - Resist Psionics (Moderate), Resist Stun, Sleep, Hold, Fear (Moderate).
-This will become your secondary Armor skill and most likely will run with it on more than any other skill from here on out. Mostly due to the ability to resist STUN and HOLD. It is costly Endurance wise, but not anything like Murky Cloud the true Endurance Hog of this set. Slot no more than 2-3 before level 20 and you need to save these slots for stuff that actually works and functions.

Dark Regeneration - Negative Energy Damage (Minor), Heal (Moderate)-
Firstly you need to bypass this when it becomes available for two very important reasons.
1. You do not have enough endurance to use it in 90% of the situations anway and the overall effect is negligible. Simply put, by the time you have used it, you have already been pounded down to where you started and lost endurance in the process.
2. You need the slots that would go here somewhere else that is actually effective.
Take this at level 26 or later.

Cloak of Darkness - Stealth (Moderate), Melee Defense (Low), Ranged Defense (Low), Resist Immobilizes, Increased Perception.
-Firstly let me say that this was the whole concept behind Dark Armor and why Dark Melee has the worst TOHIT rate of any other character or class within the game. You swing at them and miss, they swing at you and miss. Currently, I have to consider this the worst case scenario out of I5 and the best example of the developers Tomfoolery, and lack of ability to understand the game. Even Tanks were not hit as hard as this. This power was such in demand for and needed for your character even before I5 you had to take this skill over such things like; Stamina. Basically this was a “HaveTo” skill even under I4 at level 20 as your offensive properties are basically peaked and your defenses are peaked and your still getting pounded.

Now if you have managed to get this far with your character here is the point under I5 where you are going to throw in the towel and quit and come and curse the developers. You will probably go a few more levels, but in the end this skill is not functioning PERIOD. Which actually means your character does not function. You have basically topped out and are still doing so poorly that you wont want to continue. You have already taken a bad beating on the way up and not it just going to continue. Everyone else is getting better and your basically stagnate at level 20 for 30 more levels.

The only other solution is have someone Power Level you from 20 to 28 and try again, but the results are basically the same as Cloak of Fear can only effect basically 50% and you are still restricted to small Mobs 3-4 villains of equal level, as you have no defenses and still have a long way to go.

The only real suggestion at this point I can give to anyone is base your character on NOT taking this skill Cloak of Darkness, and take some type of Stealth skill off one of the Power Pools as its at least 10 times more effective. However, if your going to do that anyway pick something else besides DA that actually works and save yourself the trouble. In other words; the developers have taken a Level 20 skill and made it less effective than a skill available at level 6 and 14 level.

The above post indication that this provides 0.65% defense. This could be correct as its below 1% effectiveness and currently its so ineffective I cannot calculate it. Current characters slotted SO’s 1, 3 and 5 show no results defensively from this skill PERIOD. With Cloak of Darkness On or Off no results can be indicated as your hit just as often. Test results have indicated an UNSLOTTED Hover skill has more defensive properties than Cloak of Darkness does.

No real point in going on with the rest of the skills as this class has been destroyed like so many others. The only REAL defensive skill on the Dark Armor tree has been removed and edited not to function. Dark Armor has no real defensives and coupled with the fact that Dark Melee has the worst TOHIT rate in the game just means you are going to die repeatedly on missions as your hit repeatedly and are missing them repeatedly.

Personally, I have found no solution to this yet on all THREE characters, and basically that is because there is no solution. The only real solution is NOT to click DA, Scrapper, and just pay my 15bucks and click a Blaster and [censored], or quit. Maybe I should get a discount and only have to pay 0.65% of that 15 bucks? 98cents, or something like that.

The current satiation with DA and in particular Cloak of Darkness is so horrendous it has to be a mistake, as if someone misplaced a <insert colorful remark here> decimal point. There is no way this type of character will work anymore with its MAIN defensive skill set at 0.65%. Not when it has to stand Toe to Toe with everything as it is a MELEE CLASS.

Now some of you might be saying it cant be this bad. Well, please try it yourself and good luck. : P Most people gave up before level 28 before I5 anyhow. Now????? I wouldn’t even suggest anyone actually even attempt DA/DM. Your better off as a Tank actually. : P

I would actually have to classify DA/DM as the worst class within the game currently with no solution in sight other than a major edit.