Nalrok_AthZim

I suppose I should mention that usually, said squishy is busying himself while I'm in the middle of another spawn. Somewhere in the squishy mentality development, every damage-oriented ranged class gets the idea that, while the designated tank is in one group, they're safe to pull more. If I'm at the aggro cap (which I usually am) it's going to end up being his face that plants.

I doubt it.

I did, and... I'm not happy with it. While it's clear he's made his Dark tank into a veritable wall of fun, there are a lot of things he forgets to mention and quite frankly, his opinion on Soul Transfer is pretty bad IMHO.

He doesn't mention the GIGANTIC Psi resist values in Obsidian Shield and instead goes on to say it needs Steadfasts slotted into it for KB protection, when you could easily slot a Karma into Cloak of Darkness or take Acrobatics (since he mentioned the Leaping pool).

He doesn't mention the EQUALLY GIGANTIC Endurance Drain resist values in Murky Cloud, which can really make a difference when fighting Carnies, Malta, Freaks, and anything with a substantial Endurance Drain in it's arsenal. (I laugh at Sappers.)

He doesn't mention the two most crucial parts about Soul Transfer:

-It's Autohit
-Magnitude 30 stun!

Soul Transfer is quite possibly the BEST way a Dark Tank can soak an Alpha, even if it does require dying in order to do it. Just hover your finger over that thing when your health goes red and then hammer is when it flashes red. Before that spawn has a chance to turn and attack your allies they're hit with the biggest stun of their lives, allowing you to mercilessly pick off each one of them before it wears off.

Plus, I can't remember when they implemented Darkest Night for Soul Mastery so I'm going to assume he didn't have the opportunity to mention it, as it's the keystone for my (and several of my friends') Dark Armor characters.

I'm not saying it's a bad guide. I'm just saying he's either unaware or apathetic to a few of Dark Armor's biggest key points. I'm hoping for the former, because the latter is just sad and does little for his know-how of DA in my eyes.

You're a far better person than I am. Whenever a squishy decides to yank aggro before me I let them die... THEN take aggro. When they complain I simply ask who the tank is.

I love their response, every time: "I was pulling for u!"

No, you weren't.

I'm new to Traps. I had a 41 Thugs/Traps MM but I couldn't make it work for me what with the Arsonist being a total idiot. He was the third villain I ever made so I can safely say I have very little knowledge of what's good and not good in Traps. Since you brought up such good points, I'll rework the build ASAP.

Questions for you: How should I slot Seeker Drones? I personally loved Trip Mine on my Arch/Dev Blaster, and would like to keep it. Would you take Trip Mine at 47 instead of Seeker? Also I may replace Focused Acc for Acrobatics.

Fury has been modified since that reason was given and would actually be just fine when working with a massive amount of slows. The modified Fury is a perfect reason to look at Ice for Brutes again, and this has been mentioned time and time again in the Brute forum.

I know I'm arguing from a personal view. Unfortunately a lot of other Brute players don't like EA for the same reasons I do. I've been able to make all of my Brutes/Tankers incredibly survivable (save for my Fire/Fire Brute, I don't want him to be survivable: :P ) without taking Tough, Weave, or softcapping to anything. With EA I have to skip a Travel Power in order to snag Fighting. I know that'll change in I19, and maybe I'll try an EA then. For now it's still a very sub-par set as far as a melee AT is concerned.

So did my DM/DA Brute before all the happy DM changes. Not a fun combo to play back then, or back before Darkest Night. But I did it. I could not, however, make EA work for me.

One: I don't have enough time to soft-cap any of my characters. I find that in order to do that I have to take powers I don't want and slot things in ways that I don't really agree with.

Two: Maybe on a tanker the defense numbers would be better. I got a SS/EA Brute to 39 before deleting him out of hate. He wasn't soft-capped, but it still felt like I was running at 10% defense constantly. He got hit way more than any of my other defense-based characters and when he got hit he got hammered. This was, of course, before the heal added in to the siphon.

Conserve Power is already redundant in the set, what with the AoE endurance siphon. It'd need to be changed anyway in order to not conflict with the APP's. In all honesty the set itself needs a serious change. If it stinks on a Brute it won't be much better on a Tanker. Right now the only reason to roll /EA is if you have a crapton of time, sweat and money to put into it OR if you're rolling it because it's nice to look at.

I have the Soulbound Proc in my Ill/Kin's Phantom Army. It affects the pets individually. It's also fun to watch the Phantoms suddenly do more damage.

Utterly off topic:

I love Dr. Steel.

EDIT: Of course his Avatar changes when I post this. Disregard post.

Or anything Dechs has written about it.

For a casual player with just SO's, Energy Aura is nice.

If you want to min-max it, Energy Aura blows.

It's like having massive plates of armor covering tissue paper. If something gets through you're toast.

You don't want it, trust me.

I know it doesn't, and I mention that.


So... your point?

"Oh crap, a door. Cluster up boys."

*mastermind takes out a large device and ports the entire group to the other side of the door*

"There we go."

"Sir, don't you think that's an excessive waste of--"

"Corporal, do you want to be stuck in the lobby? Do you?!"

".... no sir."

"Fall in then, soldier."

Dechs notwithstanding.

Besides, don't you do that so you can covertly go "LOOK WHAT I CAN DOOOO!"?

:P

Valve is kind of iffy when it comes to native Mac clients. (See Half-Life 2)

I do that anyway. Who doesn't see a Malta Sapper and immediately fly into an unstoppable murderous kill-mode?

Ah, my bad. Sorry dude.

Fair enough, but you don't really need to laugh at me. Thanks.

I don't mean "run both constantly at all times." I mean "run Disruption while Bruiser is in combat, and drop Repulsion if someone gets too close." Slot for endurance redux, and definitely use Stamina. Besides, it's not like you can't eat blues (unless you're out of them).

I understand what you mean, but it doesn't necessarily boil down to "sorry it won't work ever."