Orodreth

Completely hilarious.

Those of you taking this post seriously:

Read this thread:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....e=1&fpart=1

Now go to dictionary.com and look up "satire."

O'Hakubi, you are my hero.

[ QUOTE ]

I am a complicated tapestry of known emotion and hidden mystery, surrounded in an azure haze of should be's, would be's and broken wishes, lovingly sprinkled with vibrant undercurrents and winsome exuberance, voraciously packaged in a lithe and willowy shell of heated reality.

In other words, an unabashed [Censored].

[/ QUOTE ]

My only remaining wish is for you to have my babies.

The slender, black-haired man in the corner checked his watch for the fifth time. It was late evening and the coffee shop was almost empty. Outside, the fading sunset made the exposed girders of Faultline sparkle, as if they were made of silver and not rough steel.

The front door banged open, and a woman in on official-looking tan power suit approached his table, dumping a bulging handbag on top of it , rattling the table and spilling his coffee.

He looked up. His eyes were hidden behind an extremely dark set of wraparound shades. The metal of the collar round his neck gleamed in the flourescent lights. A tiny green light winked slowly on and off just under his chin.

"Agent Branson?" His voice was low and halting.

"That's me," she said, shrugging off her overcoat and draping it over the back of the chair. Her tome was clipped, precise, and managed to convey a sharp dissaproval.

"Coffee?" he asked, lifting his damped cup slightly.

"No." She slid into her seat and retrieved a bulging manilla folder from the handbag, which left it mostly deflated. Flipping it open, she pulled up the cover sheet, and began reading from it in a staccato voice.

"Okay, so, Thomas Wraith, also known under the pseudonym Nox Noctis, being latin for darkness. Cute name, I'm sure you picked it yourself. I see you were released on your own recognisance five days ago-"

"Excuse me."

She looked up sharply. "Yes? what?"

"You haven't told me your name."

There was a pause. "You know my name."

"Your first name."

"You don't need to know my first name. You can continue to call me Agent Branson. If that won't do, you can call me Ma'am."

"You know my name."

She shut the folder with a snap and laced her hands on top of it.

"Yes Mr. Wraith, I know your name. I have, of course, read your file. Which means I also know why you are here, and why you are wearing a class five superpower inhibitor collar."

The silence which followed had a very heavy quality. The man with the dark hair sat back.

"You don't like me."

She spread her hands. "Should I, Wr. Wraith? A lot of people are dead because of you. Some of them were bad people. Some of them were trying to do the right thing. Have you forgotten about Stanley Hammond? His mother hasn't. I hear she lost her house after his death, did you know that? Or shall we discuss Alicia Grosvenors husband, who committed suicide after-"

"Stop." His voice cracked slightly. She did stop. There was another pause.

"Mr Wraith, I am an officer of the Paragon city justice system. I am not your friend, I am not your confessor, and I am not here to give you a shoulder to cry on. I am not here to give you absolution. I am here to ensure that you are not still a threat to society. I am watching over you on behalf of Stanley, Alicia, and all the other people who, thanks to you, can no longer accuse or remind you of your crimes."

She was leaning forward now, her eyes boring into the dark eclipse of his sunglasses. Her eyes were very green and very bright.

"I am aware of the work you have done for Vanguard. I know why they have elected to release you. I do not concur with their decision."

The parts of his face that were visible around the sunglasses were set and white.

"Then why, Officer Branson, are you...assisting with my rehabilitation?"

She pursed her lips.

"The Metahuman Rehabilitation program is very new. It has attracted a lot of very young, talented, idealistic law enforcement officers. They believe that they can make...people...like you into productive members of society."

He cocked his head slightly.

"You think they are wrong."

"I think they are wrong in your specific case. If I didn't believe in what the MRA was doing, I would be in another department."

"That doesn't answer my question."

She swept the file off the table and back into the bag.

"In short, then: I am here to watch you. I am here to keep you in line. I am here because I think your case demands an agent with experience and...a paucity of idealism."

"PPD agents say 'paucity'?"

"They do when they read classical literature. Don't try to insult me, Mr. Wraith, it would take more wit than I think you have. do you think you're the only person educated at an ivy-league school?"

He bowed his head stiffly.

"I see. Are we about done, Agent Branson?"

"Just about. Our next meeting will be here, 5:30PM in exactly two weeks." She began gathering her things and stood up. Wraith leaned forward and stared into his coffee cup.

"and...my collar?"

She stopped, her coat slung halfway on.

"You already know the answer to that, Mr. Wraith. Why bother asking?"

"You don't even have the key, do you?" He looked up and gave a smile that looked as though it had been soaked in lemon juice, it was so sour.

"I wouldn't tell you if I did. Goodbye."

Looping the handbag over her shoulder, she walked purposefully out.

The slender man with black hair sat looking out of the window for a very long time.

Sample builds:

This first build is my own build for Blackwraith. I chose to use fly for my KB mitigation, and because of the slotting that required, I chose not to take cloak of fear. I put off death shroud because I simply didn't see how I'd have the end to run it, and siphon life got put off because, well, something had to be. I would have loved to take it earlier but could not figure out how.

No, I don't have end reduction in most of the toggles. I have both done the math and playtested this, and they don't make any noticeable difference. The slots do more good elsewhere.

Notice I put hover off until late-I found KB isn't really a serious problem in the early game. I didn't have to take it until the late twenties and wasn't running it consistenly until the late thirties.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name: blackwraith
Level: 46
Archetype: Brute
Primary: Dark Melee
Secondary: Dark Armor
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Shadow Punch==> Acc(1)Acc(3)EndRdx(11)Rechg(13)Dmg(29)Dmg(39)
01) --> Dark Embrace==> DmgRes(1)DmgRes(17)DmgRes(17)
02) --> Smite==> Acc(2)Acc(3)EndRdx(11)Rechg(13)Dmg(29)Dmg(39)
04) --> Shadow Maul==> Acc(4)Acc(5)EndRdx(5)Rechg(15)Dmg(31)Dmg(39)
06) --> Air Superiority==> Acc(6)Acc(7)EndRdx(7)Rechg(15)Dmg(31)Dmg(40)
08) --> Touch of Fear==> Acc(8)EndRdx(9)Rechg(9)
10) --> Obsidian Shield==> DmgRes(10)DmgRes(40)DmgRes(40)
12) --> Murky Cloud==> DmgRes(12)DmgRes(31)DmgRes(34)
14) --> Swift==> Run(14)
16) --> Health==> Heal(16)
18) --> Dark Consumption==> Acc(18)Acc(19)Rechg(19)Rechg(36)Rechg(36)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20)EndMod(21)EndMod(21)
22) --> Dark Regeneration==> Acc(22)Acc(23)EndRdx(23)EndRdx(36)Rechg(43)
24) --> Fly==> Fly(24)Fly(25)Fly(25)
26) --> Soul Drain==> Acc(26)Acc(27)Rechg(27)Rechg(37)Rechg(27)
28) --> Hover==> Fly(28)Fly(37)Fly(37)
30) --> Cloak Of Darkness==> EndRdx(30)
32) --> Midnight Grasp==> Acc(32)Acc(33)EndRdx(33)Rechg(33)Dmg(34)Dmg(34)
35) --> Oppressive Gloom==> Acc(35)
38) --> Soul Transfer==> DisDur(38)
41) --> Death Shroud==> Acc(41)Acc(42)EndRdx(42)EndRdx(42)Dmg(43)Dmg(43)
44) --> Siphon Life==> Acc(44)Acc(45)EndRdx(45)EndRdx(45)Rechg(46)Rechg(46)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Fury==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------



And here is a build using Super-leaping. notice how the savings in slots allowed me to slot up my attacks earlier, and to take powers like Cloak of Fear that require heavy slotting.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name: Blackie Two
Level: 46
Archetype: Brute
Primary: Dark Melee
Secondary: Dark Armor
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Shadow Punch==> Acc(1)Acc(3)EndRdx(7)Rechg(11)Dmg(19)Dmg(34)
01) --> Dark Embrace==> DmgRes(1)DmgRes(15)DmgRes(15)
02) --> Smite==> Acc(2)Acc(3)EndRdx(7)Rechg(11)Dmg(19)Dmg(34)
04) --> Shadow Maul==> Acc(4)Acc(5)EndRdx(5)Rechg(13)Dmg(34)Dmg(39)
06) --> Combat Jumping==> Jump(6)
08) --> Siphon Life==> Acc(8)Acc(9)EndRdx(9)EndRdx(13)Rechg(17)Rechg(17)
10) --> Murky Cloud==> DmgRes(10)DmgRes(39)DmgRes(39)
12) --> Obsidian Shield==> DmgRes(12)DmgRes(40)DmgRes(40)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)
16) --> Hurdle==> Jump(16)
18) --> Health==> Heal(18)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20)EndMod(21)EndMod(21)
22) --> Dark Consumption==> Acc(22)Acc(23)Rechg(23)Rechg(31)Rechg(40)
24) --> Touch of Fear==> Acc(24)EndRdx(25)Rechg(25)Fear(45)Fear(45)
26) --> Dark Regeneration==> Acc(26)Acc(27)EndRdx(27)EndRdx(31)Rechg(42)Rechg(46)
28) --> Soul Drain==> Acc(28)Acc(29)Rechg(29)Rechg(31)Rechg(42)
30) --> Acrobatics==>
32) --> Midnight Grasp==> Acc(32)Acc(33)EndRdx(33)Rechg(33)Dmg(37)Dmg(37)
35) --> Cloak Of Fear==> Acc(35)Acc(36)EndRdx(36)EndRdx(36)EndRdx(37)
38) --> Soul Transfer==> DisDur(38)
41) --> Death Shroud==> Acc(41)Acc(42)EndRdx(43)EndRdx(43)Dmg(43)Dmg(45)
44) --> Cloak Of Darkness==> EndRdx(44)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Fury==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
[b]---------------------------------------------

Section three: Pool Powers

Medicine: For most other brutes, medicine is a good choice to supplement their main heal. For DM/DA brutes, it's redundant. You'll have access to a heal through both primary and secondary-take and slot them both, skip this pool.

Flight: This is one of the two power pools that can help brutes deal with the lack of KB resist (the other is leaping).

Hover: Costs minimal end (.1), offers a slight defence boost (2.5%), and most importantly, being hit with KB will only flip you over in the air, causing minimal or no disruption to your attack chain. Extrememly strong knockback powers, like those used by Longbow Ballista, will actually push you back a short distance. As KB becomes more common, you'll need to run hover more and more often, so slotting for flight speed enhancement is eventually neccessary. With hover three-slotted and swift with the base slot, you will hover a bit faster than you run without sprint on-this speed is perfectly zippy in missions. Beware of -fly attacks-with hover shut off, you will have no defence against KB at all, so this is not recommended for PVP. For PVE, though, it works well.

Flight is a safe, if slow, travel power that requires flight speed enhancements to reach maximum speed. Swift is highly recommended if you take this pool.

Air superiority is an excellent attack that can help you deal with bosses and can be made a staple of your attack chain. I have mine slotted with some recharge reduction enhancements and have put it on auto.

Leaping: This is the other pool that can help with KB.

If you take combat jumping, then you can skip CoD (if you want) as your immobilization resist will already be covered. Combat jumping costs no end and offers a slight defence bonus (2.5%). Additional slotting is not recommended.

You will want acrobatics, a toggle power that confers resistance to hold and knockdown. Acros end cost is a bit steep for a toggle (.3, three times more than hover), but it requires no additional slotting (unlike hover).

Avoid jump-kick. It does a decent amount of damage (41.7 smashing) and has a small chance of knockdown (15%), but suffers from a lengthy animation (3 seconds, as long as shadow maul!).

Super-leap is a fast travel power that works great outdoors (but not inside enclosed spaces) and requires no slotting to be workable.

Super-speed:

Flurry: Avoid. It has all the problems of shadow maul and none of the advantages.

Hasten: Can be useful for getting slow-recharge powers like Dark consumption back up, but it will aggravate your already-considerable end problems.

Super-speed: will stack with CoD to give full invisibility. This is a good choice for secondary travel power if you decide to PVP. Requires no slotting, and swift is recommended.

Fitness:

Hurdle or swift: Depends on what travel power you are taking. If flight, choose swift. If Leaping, choose hurdle.

Health: Will help offset the penalty from oppressive gloom. It's useful for minimizing downtime.

Stamina: Essential. Take it and three-slot it as early as possible.

Patron Power Pools: The PPPs don't contain anything you really have to have, though some of the powers can be useful. The immobilize powers can help in conjunction with Oppresive Gloom, and having ranged attacks to pull is nice. A lot of people take Ghost Widow for thematic reasons, and because the -acc stacks.

Section two: Dark Armor

Dark Armor is perhaps the most nonconventional brute secondary to play. It offers a number of resistances to unusual damage or attack types, such as endurance drain and psionics. It also has a varied toolbox of other powers-a damage aura, two auras that inclict status effects, etc. Instead of a tier-nine "god-mode" power, it offers an unusual self-res.

On the plus side, the set offers resistance to just about every damage type, including unusual ones such as toxic and psionics. It also offers resistance to endurance drain effects, such as those used by Malta sappers. Fear and disorient auras can render enemies who come too close helpless, and there is also a stealth and +perception power.

On the downside, the resists overall tend to be low-15-22% base depending on type of damage. It lacks knockback protection of any kind, which forces players to use pool powers to cover this weakness. The self-heal is powerful, but relies on hitting nearby enemies, which can make it unreliable. The tier nine is dissapointing and not terribly useful.

DA has a very large number of toggles-depending on the powers you take, you could have five or more toggles, not counting any toggles from pool powers. It's therefore essential to practice toggle management, turning on toggles as you need them and turning them off when done to conserve end.

The Powers:

Dark Embrace:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: .104
Cast time: .57
Recharge: 4 secs
Type: toggle

This is your basic shield. It offers SM/L (22.5%), Toxic (15%) and negative energy (15%) resist. Essential, take it, slot it, use it.

Suggested Slotting: Three resistance. Most people will put an end reduction in here, I don't see the point, considering the already low end cost.

Death Shroud:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: 1.04
Cast time: 1.17
Recharge: 4 secs
Type: toggle

Death shroud does decent negative energy damage (8.34 every 2 seconds) to all nearby enemies, but is an end hog. I've seen some interesting strategies using death shroud and cloak of Fear together to slow down enemies attack rate, yet keep them from not attacking at all. Still, I consider this an optional power. Even if you take it, you won't be able to run it all the time.

Suggested Slotting: one to two accuracy. If you want to run it all or most of the time, two to three end reduction. Fill the rest with damage enhancements.

Murky Cloud:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: .104
Cast time: 1.17
Recharge: 4 secs
Type: toggle

Your next basic shield, Murky cloud will protect you from fire and cold (22.5% resist), negative energy and energy (15%), and will also offer you 69% resistance to end drain. Take it, slot it, use it.

Suggested Slotting: Three resistance. Most people will put an end reduction in here, I don't see the point, considering the already low end cost.

Obsidian Shield:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: .104
Cast time: 1.17
Recharge: 4 secs
Type: toggle

Offers the bulk of your status resists, all at mag 10. Sleep, Disorient, hold, and fear. It also confers a base 37.5% resistance to psionic damage-your highest resistance by far.

Suggested Slotting: Three resistance if you want o maximize your psi resists. Most people will put an end reduction in here, I don't see the point, considering the already low end cost.

Dark Regeneration:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: 33.8
Cast time: 1.17
Recharge: 30 secs
Type: click

This is DAs version of a self-heal. It's an AoE power, centered on you, that does a very small amount of negative energy damage (8.34, not worth enhancing) to all enemies nearby, and grants you 449.76 hp for each enemy hit. With just two or three enemies, it can restore you to full health from almost nothing. Take it.

Suggested Slotting: It can't heal you if it doesn't hit, two accuracy. It drains nearly a third of your end every time you use it, put at least two end reduction into it. You can slot it with a bit more recharge or end reduction if you like. The heal generally doesn't need enhancing, and the damage is miniscule.

cloak Of Darkness:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: .13
Cast time: 1.17
Recharge: 20 secs
Type: toggle

A highly unusual power, cloak of darkness does a number of things: stealth, a defence bonus (3.75%), +perception, and mag 10 immobilize protection. It also completely obscures your toon when activated, making you look like a fuzzy shadow.

Should you take it? That depends. If you don't take the leaping pool, you'll need this for your immob resist. If you're going to PVP, the perception bonus will come in handy regardless of what else you have. If neither of those applies, it's completely up to you. I like the stealth for scouting.

Suggested Slotting: the defence buff is tiny and not really worth enhancing, the end cost is so low it doesn't really benefit fom reduction, and the other aspects are unenhanceable.

Cloak Of Fear:

Base Accuracy: 67%
End cost: 2.6
Cast time: 1.17
Recharge: 4 secs
Type: toggle
special: 5% acc debuff, mag 4 fear

This is the first "status aura" available to you. CoF will fear any minion that comes close to you. The magnitude is not high enough to affect bosses alone, but it can be stacked with touch of fear. It also has what I consider one of the coolest animations in the game-little screaming faces will float around your toon.

The downside is the atrocious base accuracy and monstrous end cost. The debuff it offers is barely noticeable.

I'm of the opinion that all DA brutes should take one of the status auras. Which one you take depends on taste. CoF will keep minions within easy reach but mostly helpless. However, it's an end hog and requires a lot of slotting to overcome its inherent problems.

Suggested Slotting: It will need two to three accuracy to get an acceptable hit rate. If you want to run it for lengthy periods, you'll need two to three end reduction-even then, it's expensive to operate.

Oppressive Gloom:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: .156
Cast time: 1.17
Recharge: 8 secs
Type: toggle

The alternative to CoF is OG. It inflicts a mag two disorient on any enemy that comes close. this will send minions reeling, but won't affect bosses alone. It has much better accuracy and costs much less end than CoF. However, it does drain a tiny bit of your health (4.17 unresistable damage every two seconds). With a brutes hit points and the health power from the fitness pool, this is not even noticeable.

The real drawback of OG is the disorient itself. Enemies are not stationary, and will wander off out of the radius of the effect. This makes immobilize powers like Midnight Grasp very useful.

Both this power and CoF will slow or stop enemies from attacking, thereby hurting fury generation. Take one anyway. You needn't run it all the time, but there will be times when you'll need more damage mitigation than your resistances can grant.

Suggested Slotting: OG requires very little slotting to be effective. One or two accuracy enhancements and away you go.

Soul Transfer:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: 0
Cast time: 1.17
Recharge: 300 secs
Type: click
special: 289.14 hp, 30 end per target

Some Sets offer tier-nine powers that can drastically improve your surviveability for short periods. DA is not one of them. Soul Transfer is a combination of self-ressurrect and AoE power. It's not particularly good at either function. For Soul Drain to work, you must be dead. And there must be enemies near your fallen body-if there aren't, and you activate the power, it will do nothing and be wasted.

If there are enemies nearby, ST will return you to life, with health and end based on the number of enemies nearby. You will be invulnerable for a few seconds, and be protected from XP debt for 90 seconds. The enemies will take a modest amount of negative energy damage (41.7) and be hit with a base 10-second, mag 35 stun-powerful enough to stun even bosses.

This all sounds great, but in reality, ST is an awkward, difficult power to use, and often leads to a second death in short order. It works best on teams, where there are more likely to be enough enemies neaby to return you to full life and end. Solo, there will be so few foes nearby you'll come back severely weakened. It's entirely possible for mobs to move away so fast that there is no-one in range when you activate the power, leaving you dead and the power wasted. Optional.

Slotting: While the power certainly benefits from slotting, you need to ask yourself: should I spend slots on a power I can only use when I'm dead? Drop an end mod, heal, or disorient enhancement in the base slot and move on.

Introduction:

Maybe you're an old hand at bruting, and looking for a challenge. Or maybe you're shiny-new to brutes, and looking for something unusual. Either way, you've come to the right place. DM/DA is challenging, versatile, and fun to play. It also looks damn cool.

DM/DA has a bit less raw damage output than many other sets, such as Super Strength. It's also something of a late bloomer-there are many good powers in both sets and most of them need heavy slotting to shine. What it does have is a highly unusual toolbox of auras, debuffs, and other tools that will help you cope with situations that would send other types of brutes scurrying for cover. Malta sappers? Yawn. Longbow spec Ops? Pushovers. Psionic bosses? Please.

Section one: Dark Melee

Dark melee is almost entirely single-target attacks. There are only two AoEs in the entire set: Dark consumption and Soul Drain. Both of these powers are more valuable for their non-damage effect, and typically don't get slotted much for damage.

The damage can also seem lackluster when compared to other sets that have more reliable or longer lasting accuracy and damage buffs, such as super strength. DMs equivalent, Soul Drain, requires enemies nearby and the benefits can vary in strength. This means that compared to other brutes, you may take longer to take down targets.

On the plus side, most dark melee attacks typically inflict a small accuracy penalty when they hit-in the neighborhood of 5%. The debuff usually only lasts a few seconds, but it does stack, and hitting your enemy over and over again can put a noticeable dent in his accuracy. Due to the short duration and small amount of the debuff, however, actually flooring enemy accuracy to the 5% threshold is going to be difficult if not impossible.

Most of the attacks do a combination of smash/lethal and negative energy damage, or pure negative energy. Negative energy is not a commonly-resisted damage type.

The set is particularly notable for having an endurance-recovery power. Brutes love end almost as much as they love SMASH. With the large number of toggles in DA, endurance recovery is going to come in particularly handy.

A sidenote: The base accuracy numbers for both parts of this guide should be interpreted as "the percent of base accuracy this power gets." Base accuracy varies depending on wether or not you are in PVE or PVP. In PVP, base accuracy is 50%. In PVE, base accuracy is 75%. Touch of Fear has 120% accuracy, therefore it has 90% base accuracy in PVE, and 60% base accuracy in PVP.

The Powers:

Shadow Punch:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: 4.368
Cast time: .57
Recharge: 3 secs
Damage: SM/L (14.17), negative energy (20.85)
Debuff: 5%, 6 seconds

A fast, quick recharge attack that does respectable damage and offers a slight debuff. Shadow Punch isn't spectacular, but it's great for building fury and the damage is well worth slotting for. An attack you'll use from 1-50.

Suggested Slotting: one to two accuracy, one to two end reduction, zero to one recharge reduction, two to three damage.

Smite:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: 6.864
Cast time: .97
Recharge: 6 secs
Damage: SM/L (13.34), negative energy (41.7)
Debuff: 5%, 10 seconds

A slightly-improved version of Shadow Punch, smite does quite a bit more negative energy damage. Another great attack you'll use throughout your career.

Suggested Slotting: one to two accuracy, one to two end reduction, zero to one recharge reduction, two to three damage.

Shadow Maul:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: 8.528
Cast time: 3.07
Recharge: 8 secs
Damage: SM/L (11.23), negative energy (11.23) every .625 seconds
Debuff: 5%, 6 seconds

This is probably one of the most unusual attacks in any of the brute sets. When you activate this power, your toon will perform an animation similar to the flurry attack from the Super-speed pool. It lasts three seconds and you won't be able to do anything else while the animation is going. If you hit, you'll do a signifigant amount of smash/lethal and negative energy damage, spread out over the length of the animation. If not, you'll stand there like a tool, pinwheeling your arms at nothing.

The power is also a cone-you can hit up to five targets, but the cone is narrow, so they must be standing *very* close together.

While the lengthy animation is annoying and sometimes lethal, SM is still a good power to take. It does more damage than almost every other power. Highly recommended.

Suggested Slotting: one to two accuracy, one to two end reduction, zero to one recharge reduction, two to three damage.

Touch of Fear:

Base Accuracy: 120%
End cost: 8.528
Cast time: 1.17
Recharge: 8 secs
Damage: none
Debuff: 11%, 20 seconds

An extremely unusual power, ToF does no damage at all. Instead, it inflicts a high-mag fear effect-high enough to fear minions and leutenants in one application, and bosses in two. It also has the highest and longest-lasting accuracy debuff of all the DM attacks. Note it's higher-than-average base accuracy.

Many newcomers to DM don't see the point of a single-target fear attack. ToF is best used against bosses, elite bosses, Avs, and particularly nasty minions such as sappers. It's not an "every-fight" power, but when you need it, you'll need it badly. It's also quite possibly the only DM attack worth slotting for accuracy debuff. Highly recommended.

Suggested Slotting: You'll need it to stack, so a combination of fear duration and recharge enhancements are best. You can probably get away with only one accuracy due to the high base. The end cost is a bit high, so one or more end reduction is also recommended.

Siphon Life:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: 11.96
Cast time: 1.93
Recharge: 15 secs
Damage: negative energy (41.7)
Debuff: 5%, 10 seconds
Heal: 149.92

Siphon life does a lot of things, none of them particularly well. It does the same amount of negative energy damage as smite, but no smash/lethal. If it hits, it will also heal you, but not for very much. It has a very high end cost and a very long recharge.

Still, siphon Life is a good power. An additional bit of self-healing is a help for a brute, especially coupled with a bigger primary heal like Dark Regeneration. Considering the low resists of Dark Armor, it looks even more attractive.

slotting: This power requires some heavy slotting if you plan on using it regularly. the recharge and end cost are going to need enhancements, one or, preferably, more. It doesn't heal if it doesn't hit, so two accuracy. If you've got any space left over, you can enhance either the heal or the damage-your choice.

Taunt:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: 4.368
Range: 70
Cast time: 1.67
Recharge: 10 secs
Damage: none
Debuff: none
Duration: 20 secs vs critters, 5 secs versus players.

there are endless discussions on the boards about taunt, I won't go into what it does. Is it worth taking? Doubtful. Your DM secondary will have lots of ways of generating aggression if you need it, and more importantly, your low resists usually mean more aggro is just what you don't want. Optional.

Suggested Slotting: one to two accuracy, if you pvp, if not, a taunt enhancement in the base slot.

Dark Consumption:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: .52
Cast time: 1.03
Recharge: 180 secs
Damage: negative energy (33.36)
Debuff: none
Special: 25 end recovery for each target hit

Possibly the most coveted power in the set, Dark Consumption is an AoE that will return 25 end for each target hit, as well as doing a modest amount of negative energy damage. Who doesn't want this?

Suggested Slotting: you want it to hit as many foes as possible, two accuracy. the recharge is incredibly long, so three recharge. If you have slots left, I recommend enhancing the end recovery. Take it, slot it, love it.

Soul Drain:

Base Accuracy: 120%
End cost: 15.6
Cast time: 1.03
Recharge: 120 secs
Damage: negative energy (41.7)
Debuff: none
Special: 5% to-hit buff and 12.5% damage buff for each target hit, lasts 30 seconds

DMs answer to build-up, soul drain is a quirky power that will boost your damage and accuracy depending on how many enemies it hits. While it has the potential to confer very large bonuses, the reality is that the benefit it offers is pretty variable, depending on how many enemies are near when it's up and how many it hits. Still, it's the only self-buff you have, I recommend you take it.

Suggested Slotting: Accuracy, of course, is required (although note the higher-than-average base accuracy). the recharge time means that even with three recharge enhancements, there will still be a gap when it expires and won't be available. Slot it for recharge.

Midnight Grasp:

Base Accuracy: 100%
End cost: 11.96
Cast time: 2.07
Recharge: 15 secs
Damage: negative energy (53.37) initial, 4.58 every second for nine seconds
Debuff: 5%, 20 seconds
Special: 10-second immobilize

Some sets are desired entirely based on their tier-nine power. DM is not one of them. MG is not a bad power, but I feel it works signifigantly better for a scrapper than a brute. Like Shadow Maul, this power does Damage over time, but unlike that power, the damage is considerably spread out. It also immobilizes the target in a ring of undulating tentacles. The immobilize is most useful in conjunction with Oppressive Gloom, from your secondary. It will keep targets from wandering out of your aura. Opinions are mixed on this one-some people feel DoT is not worth the bother, others point out that altogether, it does much more damage than any other DM attack. Take it if you want it.

Slotting: one to two accuracy, one to two end reduction, zero to one recharge and damage to taste. I wouldn't slot it for immobilize-usually, your target is dead before the immob wears off.

A general guide to the defender AT:

Watchmen on the Walls: the Defender AT

Watchmen on the Walls: A Guide to the Defender AT

Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey, hardship our garment, and constancy and valor our only shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible.
-Churchill


The defender is one of two hero ATs (the other is controller) with an emphasis on team support. This makes defenders popular on teams, and our inherent power, vigilance, offers us benefits in a team setting. Defenders are probably the most variegated AT. While all defenders are focused primarily on team support, each primary power set does this differently. A Storm defender, for example, plays very differently from an empathy defender. Some sets are focused on buffing allies, others, on debuffing enemies, and still others on "soft control" (powers that are not full holds but have similar effects) to keep enemies from attacking or harming teammates.

Most of the Defender primary powersets are also controller secondary powersets:
<ul type="square"> [*]Radiation Emission[*]Kinetics[*]Storm Summoning[*]Empathy[*]Force Field[*]Trick Arrow[*]Sonic Resonance[/list]
Some defender secondary sets are blaster primaries:

<ul type="square">[*]Sonic Blast[*]Energy Blast[*]Electrical Blast[*]Archery[/list]Sets that aren’t shared:
<ul type="square">[*]Dark Miasma (primary)[*]Dark Blast (secondary)[*]Psychic Blast (secondary)[*]Radiation Blast (secondary)[/list]This is a good deal of cross-AT overlap, and can make it hard to decide what you want to play. Defender with a storm primary, or controller with a storm secondary?

It helps to think of it in these terms: Defenders are a hybrid AT. We are primarily team support with a side of direct damage. If you are the kind of person who wants to do team support but also wants to be able to mix it up a bit, this is the AT for you.

Defender primary set powers tend to have one or more of the following types of effects:
<ul type="square">[*]Healing: Most, but not all, defender primaries have a power that heals damage. Defenders have a love/hate relationship with their healing powers.
[*]Buffing: The power increases or improves some aspect of one target or the entire team. It might improve the recharge rate, increase defense, or improve accuracy or damage resistance versus one or more types of damage.
[*]Debuffing: These powers are more aggressive and degrade some aspect of your enemies abilities. It might lower their regeneration rate, accuracy, defence, or damage resistance.
[*]Mez attacks: While defenders are not controllers, many defender powers can hold, disorient, knockback/up, slow, or fear enemies.
[*]Resurrection: Some, not all, sets have a power that can resurrect fallen allies. Some just bring them back from the dead, others have some sort of secondary effect.
[*]Damage: Very few primary set powers do direct damage, but they do exist. [/list]
Defenders Vs Controllers Vs Blasters

Comparisons are odious
-John Fortescu

With so much overlap between defenders/blasters/controllers, it's logical to ask, what is the difference between a particular powerset used by a defender versus a controller or blaster?

As a general rule, Powers that buff, debuff, or heal are numerically stronger in the hands of a defender than they are in the hands of a controller, but not by a large margin (12%-25%, depending on the power and the situation). However, the "soft control" effects of defender powers, such as disorients, will function better/longer in the hands of a controller than they will in the hands of a defender. This leads to situations where some defender sets are arguably superior for controllers, like Storm Summoning, which has lots of soft control but very little buffing/debuffing/healing. A fuller discussion of the statistical differences between controller secondaries and defender primaries can be found here, and is recommended reading.

Generally, those looking for a "pure" team support role are better served by playing controllers, especially if they have no interest in direct damage. Controller secondaries are very close to defender primaries in terms of effectiveness, and actually better in some cases. Plus, controllers can also use their primary to support their teams by holding/mezzing enemies and providing pets. Those who don't want to be corralled into a pure team support role and want their own toys for smacking bad guys around will like defenders.

Blasters and Defenders also share powersets. For the blast powersets that are shared, defenders do about 65% of blaster damage. However, if the blast set has a secondary effect, such as endurance drain or accuracy debuffing, the secondary effect will generally, but not always, be stronger in the hands of a defender.

Blueeyed says:

[ QUOTE ]


Blast Sets :
# Damage : Defenders do 65% of Blaster.
# Endurance Drain : Defenders do 125% of Blaster
# Knockback : Defenders do 100% of Blaster.
# Damage buff (melee, so only Aim) : Defenders do 80% of Blaster.
# ToHit buff (melee, so only Aim) : Defenders do 133% of Blaster.
# Resistance debuffs : Defenders do 154% of Blaster.
# Mezzes : Defender mezzes last 125% of the duration of a Blaster mez.



[/ QUOTE ]

If you want to do appreciable damage, blaster is the AT for you. If you want to be able to blast but you also want a bag of tricks for helping teams out, defender is for you.

Your Role as a Defender

But who is to guard the guards themselves?
-Juvenal


Your role on a team is to use your powers, mostly your primary powerset, to support the team. Your focus should be on buffing/debuffing/using soft control to help your allies and hinder your enemies. Buffers should be making sure their buffs are operating at all times and are affecting as many members of the team as possible, debuffers should be looking for groups of enemies or particularly tough foes to weaken or hold. That being said, often, you'll find yourself with all your primary powers used or placed-this is when it's time for you to blast. Don't get too distracted doing this-your primary is generally what the team wants you for in the first place. There are also times when the team is trying to out out as much damage as possible-when this happens you can shift into almost 100% damage mode, but that's rare.

In the larger sense, try to watch out for the team as a whole. Other members of the team can get caught up in fulfilling their own roles and can forget how the rest of the team is doing. Even if your healing power is lousy, watch out for people's health and try to fire one off if they get badly hurt. Warn the team if it's getting overextended. Call for breaks if someone needs one and seems too shy to say something. Most of us want to be defenders because we like to help and support others-remember that your powersets aren't the only way of doing that.

Vigilance: The Defender Inherent power

Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
-the first epistle of Peter

Like all ATs, defenders get an inherent power. Our particular power is vigilance, and is entirely team-oriented. In a team situation, as your teammates loose health, you will gain a reduction in the endurance cost of your powers. A chart showing the ratios is here.[/b]

As you can see, having only one ally at 50% hit points grants you almost a 40% reduction in the end costs of all your powers, which is nothing to sneeze at! The drawbacks: you must be teamed for this effect to work-it does nothing for the solo defender, and your allies must be taking damage. Powersets that work to stop damage before allies sustain it, like dark miasma or force fields, will have a hard time benefiting from this power.

For most defenders, this ability is most useful in the early levels of the game, before stamina. Most of us still get and slot stamina as well as endurance reduction enhancements, since we can't control when this power operates.

Geko has posted some of the reasoning behind this power here.

Defenders and Healing

We are healed of suffering only by experiencing it to the full.
-Proust

Most, but not all, defender primary sets offer defenders some form of healing power, usually early in their career. These healing powers vary greatly in how they function. Some will heal single targets only, some are AoE centered on the defender. Some require that enemies be nearby and will make a to-hit roll, some do not. Some sets don't even get any sort of healing power...force field and trick arrow, for example.

Unfortunately, a lot of the people outside of the AT (and, sadly, a few inside of it) do not understand all this. People tend to import assumptions from other games, where "support" is usually synonymous with "healing." In CoX, there are all kinds of ways to support a team that *don't* involve healing, like debuffing enemy accuracy so that enemies can't hit or hurt team members in the first place!

Despite this, a lot, perhaps even the majority, of players continue to think of healing as the only valid team support. Some groups will even kick defenders whose sets have no heal, or who did not take their healing power, but have plenty of other group support powers.

There is little that can be done. Some defenders will try to gently educate others on the benefits of the other primary powers and the drawbacks of their healing ability, but if a group expects a defender to be a heal-bot, then often the best solution is to gracefully exit the team.

The Offender

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
-Shakespeare


Many people think of defenders as the guys who sit behind the line of battle, using buffs, debuffs and blasts from a distance. But there exists a class of defender, commonly called the "Offender" that likes to use their abilities more aggressively. Offenders are not afraid to go toe-to toe with bad guys, and tend to use their primary much more aggressively than other defenders.

Offenders often take the same powers and even slot them the same as other defenders-it's as much a mindset as a build. That said, some sets make better offender sets than others. Because defenders lack physical damage mitigation and mez protection, aggressive defenders need ways to destroy or neutralize enemies quickly. Accordingly, popular primary powerset choices are Radiation Emission, Dark Miasma, Storm summoning, and Kinetics. These sets contain aggressive powers that can render enemies dead or helpless.

Making Your First Defender

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
-Oscar Wilde

Many newbie defenders fall into the trap of making an empathy defender because they’ve bought into the “healer” stereotype. Empathy is a great set, but this is the wrong reason to take it. Healing becomes less important as the game progresses and other ATs develop their own defenses. At that point, teams are looking for ways to kill faster and more efficiently, and are more interested in buffs/debuffs.

The single most valuable thing you can do is read the different guides on the defender powersets. Learn what powers are in each set and what they do. Consider what sort of role you want to take on…are you more reactive, and want to use powers that strengthen the team? Primaries like empathy might be for you. Do you want to knock bad guys on their keisters? Force field or storm summoning might be your cup of tea. Do you want to aggressively weaken enemies so that they are helpless? Sonic, Radiation, or Dark Miasma might be your thing. Read the boards, ask questions, and don’t be afraid to junk a defender you aren’t enjoying and try a different primary-again, they all play differently, so you may find a particular powerset doesn’t mesh with your playstyle.

((OOC: jeez, I'm gone for a few days and the thread explodes...))

5:00 PM. Sarah scooped her keys into her purse and thumbed off her laptop. The day had been every bit as exhausting as she was afriad it was going to be, and if she didn't hurry, she'd be late picking Alec up from daycare.

As she stood, slinging her oversized purse over her shoulder, her heart sank. VanLoosen was coming this way.

Great, this is all I need...

A sick feeling settled into her stomach like a bad smell settling into a dark corner.

Go away, she thought at him, her annoyance and fear sharpening to a point.

Leave me alone.

To her astonishment, he stopped suddenly, a look of confusion washing over his handsome face, as if in answer to her unspoken command. Then he staggered a few steps to the left, as if someone had just hit him over the head. He stared straight at her for a few seconds, blinking stupidly, then turned and moved unsteadily in the opposite direction, staggering slightly, like a man who's had a bit too much to drink.

what the hell was that? she wondered. Was Vanloosen doing drugs at work? It was the only explanation she could think of for his strange behavior. She shook her head and left her office, flicking the light off as she shut the door. She was suddenly *very* tired, and was definitely going to be late. The late-shift workers were already coming into the building...she passed a huge man with slightly grubby clothing, bending over a printer and muttering to himself. Sarah had heard his name was Moss or something. He gave her the creeps, but she smiled brightly at him as she passed. Picking a route that passed by Morgan's office, she tried to peep unobtrusively in as she passed, and glimpsed morgan shutting her laptop and looking satisfied, which gave her a twinge of envy. she noticed Penny was still here, talking to one of the other office assitants and looking like she'd been the victim of domestic abuse...where *had* she got those bruises?

Sighing slightly, she moved down the hall to the elevator and pushed the button.

[ QUOTE ]

Walking up to Sarah's door, which was open, Khell rapped politely on the doorframe and then leaned in.

"Hello, miss," he said. "Just checking to see if everything is alright."

[/ QUOTE ]

Sarah looked up and gave her first real smile of the day.
She liked Khell-he reminded her a little of her own grandfather, long dead now.

"Oh, fine, just having one of those days, Khell..."

His pager cut her off, and he hurried away with an apologetic look. And it was then that Sarah noticed that there seemed to be a great deal more activity than usual...people running back and forth, hurried conversations...what was going on?

she stepped out of her office and flagged down a breathless intern.

"Where's the fire?"

He looked at her as if she'd grown horns.

"Big meeting...Theromar's called all the heads of departments...been on the schedule for weeks..."

Sarah let him go, feeling like an idiot. Of course. The entire department had been talking about it since she got here four days ago. Thank god VanLoosen wasn't head of her department.

Sarah hurried across the parking lot, her high heels making soft crunching noises in the newfallen snow. She'd gotten here late, and had to park in the backlot again, which meant a fifteen-minute walk to the building. It couldn't be helped-Alec had thrown a tantrum again when she tried to leave him at daycare, and the guilt his angry tears aroused had led her to stay longer than she should have trying to comfort him. she hoped every day wasn't going to be as bad as the last three-they needed this job. Donnie still wasn't paying any of his child support, probably because he hadn't any money to pay.

For the umpteenth time, she thought about Big Falls. It would have been so *easy* to stay there, live with mom and let her mom help with Alec. But of course, she'd have had to look into her mothers face every day and see the accusations of failure written there, endure her mothers constant, patronizing criticisms of her parenting abilities, until she'd been ground to powder by the weight of her contempt...Sarah bowed her head and hurried faster. No. She didn't deserve that. Mom was right, marrying Donnie was a huge mistake, okay, fine, but it was done, And she could never bring herself to regret Alec. He was *everything* to her. This job at Theromar meant a new life for both of them. It was so hard to find management jobs when you had so little experience...she should never have let Donnie persuade her out of looking for work after college...there was so much catching up she had to do...but Alec needed her too...was it wrong to want a career? Was is so much to ask for? Was she a bad mother, as her own mother would have said?

Preoccupied, she barely noticed when the gate guard waved and called her name. At the last minute, she looked up and flashed him a brief smile, hurrying past into the warmth of the main lobby.

Theromar. It was a huge corporation, and Sarah could list all the major products and divisions by rote. It had a hand in everything from nuclear weaponry to dog food. She was junior project manager now, but there were opportunities for all kinds of advancement, if she could play her cards right. but the place still made her uneasy.

When she was a child, her mother and father had owned a large plantation house on the outskirts of Charleston. Entire wings of it had been closed off, filled with furniture covered with dustsheets, like lumpy ghosts. Theromar felt like the old wing...cold, empty, despite all the people bustling through it's enormous halls.

Sarah strode quickly through the lobby, her heels making little "click click" noises on the tile floor. Looking up, she saw that the nearest pair of elevator doors were closing. she made a mad dash for it, her purse streaming out behind her, her heels marking stattaco on the floor. she just made it. As she was trying to rearrange her purse and coat, a male voice said "So good to see you Sarah. I'd've held the door if you'd just asked."

Dread filled the pit of her stomach. [censored], it was VanLoosen. Despite the faint nausea in her stomach, she gave him a sunny smile. "Hi, Mr. VanLoosen. it's okay, made it in the end."

He gave her a smile she didn't entirely like. She'd never been able to decide if Vanloosen was smarmy or just overfriendly. So many male executives didn't seem to be able to grasp the concept of boundaries, and got hurt and sulky when you told them off, however nicely you did it. Men, just little boys at heart...

"Did you see that report on cell phone media?" she asked, anxious to put the conversation on some neutral footing. "I thought there were some really good ideas..."

He made a face. "That thing? Christ, I've never seen such rampant speculation. I read my kid bedtime stories that have more facts in 'em."

"Ah..." she said, trailing off. Were her instincts wrong? The net was humming about the new media capabilities of cell phones, there could be a vast untapped market...or so she thought.

They passed the marketing department, and through the doorway, Sarah glimpsed morgan Calloway, evidently on her way into her own office. Sarah gave a small sigh. why couldn't she be working for someone like Morgan? Smart, sassy, in control of her own fate, and smart, plugged in...Morgan *got* it. She could learn so much from someone like Morgan, who had survived and thrived playing a man's game and yet hadn't betrayed herself by stooping to their level.

She trailed after VanLoosen, thinking longingly about a job in marketing. Maybe she could transfer, later, when she had some more seniority...

VanLoosen was saying something to her. She put the pleasant fantasy away, reluctantly.

"...couple of us going out for drinks after work...I thought you might like to come along, meet some people."

Innocent invitation? Or innuendo-laden ploy? Sarah still couldn't decide, so she dodged behind the most convenient excuse.

"Oh, I'd love to, but I have to pick my son up from daycare. Maybe some other time."

He smiled (leered?) and moved off with a polite rejoinder. Sarah slumped at her desk. It was 8:15AM and she was already tired. It was going to be a long day...