RiverOcean

Don't feel bad. It's a nice build and a fun concept. There really isn't a lot to comment on. You made good power choices and slotting is pretty solid. Also, I bet not a lot people have paired Grav/Dark so there may be a lack of experience with the pairing and how it works.

People tend to comment on builds when there are huge issues.. or the slotting doesn't make sense. Which isn't the case here.

D.S. is just one of those powers that people react badly too. Even when used prudently. It doesn't matter if the caster used it to stop a complete team wipe. Or if he/she stopped a particularly nasty ambush... most of the team freaks out "ZOMG u stopped me from hitting enemies.... noooooes...".

I find it great solo though, but I'll rarely use it on a team. Even if I think it will save someone from faceplanting.

It's not a bad power now, its just highly situational.. so in that respect it hasn't changed.

Blasters normally are hard for me to play... but I really like my low level BR/Energy. I'm only lvl 15 but it has a decent attack change, and build up already. I'm not great with numbers and spreadsheets... but this blaster feels different than others I've played. I'm only taking the non-melee powers in Energy.

I'm at loss for power pools, but so far am just fine with hasten. I guess aid self wouldn't be bad. And sort of goes with my technology theme.

I really try to like the set.. posses is awesome!

But the damned dark-shadow wolf , just kills the entire set for me. I know it's not logical, but even in BETA it killed it for me. Conceptually, there's no reason for Umbral Beast to be a big, giant wolf. You get two phantoms, a possess, etc.. all the other powers have a spectral/ghostly type theme.. then viola-surprise a big wolf!

It' just throws the whole set off for me. I know the pet isn't bad, and he's actually a decent damage dealer. But I just can't see past the fact it's a big snarling dog, in a darkness control set.

Umbral Beast's being a canine, ruins the set of for me. I wish it didn't, but it does!

I'm playing a DB/ELEC stalkers (concept reasons) and I'm pleasantly surprised. I lucked into 4-pieces of the Stalker ATO set, including the hide proc. I slotted them in my assassins strike. The hide goes off enough to grant regular critical strikes.

My new stalker is only level 18, but things I've noticed.
- Seems much more durable than past Stalkers I've played.
- Dishes out a lot more damage than I'd expected.
- The Hide proc is probably the best paired +proc among the various ATO sets. It very much fits the play-style of the set.
- For the first time, I've skipped placate. I might pick it up later, but I didn't feel forced to take it.

Scrappers and Stalkers seem very much evenly matched now. At least in terms of PvE, I don't PvP much so I can't speak to that area of the game. I've played the game for a while, and this seems to be a very well-thought out AT revamp. On par with the Dominator revamp a few issues back.

I'm not sure why more people don't sing the praises of the Bane!

I've been taking my Bane-Spider build through the Dark Astoria mission arcs. Wow... so much fun. And with Musculature and Reactive unlocked on him, this bane does quite well. I like the Bane for soloing hard content, and then I switch to my Huntsman build for team play.

Though I'm thinking of switching to the Degenerative tree, as that -Hitpoint and +Toxic damage look very interesting!

Mind/Dark is working out to be fun. I made a "Vampiri" clone.. lol.

Oh with Electric/Dark I was contemplating the +Regen in the primary with the Self-heal in the secondary. Might make a squishy a little harder to kill ;-).

Yah... I've wanted something similar.. but I think "Device" or "Gadget" control would work out a little better.

With powers like Caltrops, Web Cocoon, Web Grenade, Flash-bomb Grenade..Tear Gas etc... All of these controls already exist in game. My fantasy pet for this would be the clone of the "Big Bot" from the Robotics power set.

You can kind of do this already with an SoA Huntsman build. There are lot of controls in the mace and gun.

But seeing domination hit with some of those powers would be awesome.

So I know everyone is drooling over Darkness Control.. but it's Dark Assault that has me giddy.

I mean we get a Psychic Shockwave clone and a Life Drain... DROOOL!!! Oh and a Powerboost Clone to boost up my controls and self-heal! WoW!


My mind is already spinning, thinking about what primaries to pair with it..besides Darkness control.

Fire/Dark, Plant/Dark, Mind/Dark, Earth/Dark... sorry I'm getting overly excited here.

So anyone played the set to higher levels? And what's everyone think the best pairing is?

I'm seriously considering an Earth/Dark.... so much control...

Dark/Dark/Soul

I've wanted this combo for an eternity....

This might be an interesting tweak for Doms who like to stay at range. Plop D.S at your feet, fire from range. Any heavy hitting meleer that gets close to you will be neutured.

I can also see it as a useful way to deal with over-aggro and ambushes.

If dimension shift were changed to a location AOE (Similar to Distortion Field in Time Manipulation), I'd be happy. Perhaps it even applies some -recharge and -movement when enemies wander through it.

Or even if the phase duration was shortened and a chance for Stun or Fear effect was applied when it wore it off, it would be a lot more useful. It always seemed strange to me that you shift NPC's to another dimension, and they return none the worse for it.

Or even make it a single Target Phase so that it can be used more strategically. Heck, maybe then it could even have the added side effect of 'un-phasing' phased enemies (I'm looking at you Carnie Illusionists).

Anything, anything would be a vast improvement to how it now works. Improving Dimension Shift could make the entire Gravity set better.

I'm kind of jazzed about it. Plus it puts those awful "Autumnal Assault" rumors to rest. I can see a very fun set with lots of slows, - to hit, and HP drains. Having Life Drain on a Dom alone would be awesome. Finally my dark/dark/soul Dom can be made... :-D

The best combo, hands down (IMHO) is:

Thugs/Poison... mostly because the Bruiser makes the perfect melee pet to cast the AoE debuff on.

I played a Necro/Poison for quite a while. In fact it was my first villain. Which was long before the set got buffed. Back then it was strictly single target. I wouldn't reccomend a Necro/Poison or Ninja/Poison for someone starting out with MM's. Ninjas are very squishy and they benefit from sets that add to their defense or have very strong AoE -to hit debuffs.

While I haven't played these sets it seems like they would be good:

Bots/Poison and Demons/Poison

With poison you want pets that can buff themselves (and you).

I like Mercs!

That being said they could use some attention. I can't really add much advice here other than..

Pick a strong secondary! Traps and Dark seem to mesh well with mercs. Remember Mercs have very good long range attacks, but poor defense. Also the Mercs (unlike other MM primaries) don't have a 4th pet power. They get Serum instead, which most people feel under-performs.

Also since there isn't a 4th pet power, you can't slot all four pet unique IO's. Which is a little trick most MM's use to boost their pets resistance and defense. (A lot of people go with Merc Storm to get around that.)

As far as I understand the best Merc combos seem to be:
Merc/Dark
Merc/Traps
Merc/Storm

LoL Great minds think alike.

I've been trying to come with a power combo I like for a Voodoo inspired character. One thing I'm considering is combining the Voodoo mythos with in game Kheldian Lore.

I.E. what if the Loa were actually ancient peoples interpretation of a human being merging with a Kheldian? This could work really well with a human form Warshade... especially since the warshade leeches life force and has 'death oriented' abilities.

It's hard because I want to play a character that has some offense, some control, and some defensive powers. Kheldians (and also Fortunatas) offer those options.

Some other combos to consider

Plant/Psi Dominator
Mind/Thorns Dominator
Dark/Energy Blaster (Presence Pool + Power Boost)

Thanks for the costume shots too... gave me some ideas!

seems like Rad or Dark Blast combined with Time would do the trick.