Yes yes I know it’s Magic Missile, god, shutupshutupshutup. Yes so okay. It’s interesting that I’m doing this guide so late, as I’ve been playing Dark Miasma for basically forever.
How long? Long enough that daddy doesn’t want to talk about what it was like back then, don’t drive daddy back to the liquor, stop asking questions baby please. FORTUNATELY, somewhere along the line I discovered corruptors (I am the Columbus of Archetypes, you see) and I realised just how much more awesome Dark Miasma really could be. Protip: SO AWESOME.
See, here’s the thing. My raving, frothing-at-the-mouth distaste for Defenders aside, this set really does shine on Corruptors because they have the offense to take advantage of all the defence that DM brings. But if you –really- want to play it on a Defender that is okay. I guess. Maybe. But don’t expect me to like it. Amy.
Without further ado:
Why Dark Miasma Rocks The ******* House:
• Massive –tohit debuffs
• Lots of control through fear, stun and hold
• Delicious –slow –res AoE patch
• A pet which does bunches of stuff for you so you can slack and no one will notice
• Brings a lot of support to a team by just doing your thing, no clicky clicky buffs to maintain on the team
• Defensive powerhouse, allowing you to focus on blastyness
• Represents the eternal darkness of your tortured soul because you received insufficient quantities of Hug as a child.
• Maybe you were an ugly baby? I don’t know.
Twilight Grasp: foe -dmg (all) -tohit -regen PBAoE ally heal
Slotting Recommendation: You want good healing and accuracy values for this. This is because it has to hit when you need it to and the animation is slow enough that you want it to count when it goes off. Touch of the Nictus is a great set for this because you can frankenslot it with other heal sets and get great values.
How To Use:
Offensively: While it is primarily a heal, the debuff is great. Spamming it on an AV will flatline their regen and it’s also worthwhile to chuck on a rampant boss to debuff their damage and tohit. If the boss already has Darkest Night on them, hitting them with TG is just cruel. And by cruel, I mean hell of awesome and also great. But still a little cruel. Just because no one needs healing doesn’t mean you should neglect TG.
Defensively: To keep yourself and your team mates alive. TG does have a tohit check -and- the animation is kindof slow, but the upside of this is that it heals like uh, a..heal…train? I don’t know, whatever. At 50 it will heal for about as much as Cauterize but in AoE. Delightful. Hitting a boss once or twice with this, especially if they’re already under DN means you can bust out
the RDLV Seizure right in front of their faces and there is nothing they can do about it. That’ll learn ‘em.
Tar Patch: targeted AoE –speed -fly -res (all)
Slotting Recommendation: Max out the recharge. If you want to enhance the slow you only need 1 or 2 enhancies to do so, so that’s nice. I personally didn’t bother because stuff dies fast enough that things skedaddling off the patch like they’re Benny Hill isn’t much of an issue. Unless they’re War Wolves. In which case there is nothing you can do but sigh and reach for your Petrifying Gaze button. Mmmmmmrooooooownnnn. Scary.
How to Use:
Offensively: Drop under a spawn so they melt faster. And my, how they will melt. A spawn with Tar Patch under it will burn at all ends, they will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--It gives a
HELLISH LIGHT
Muahahahhaha!
Wait, where was I?
Oh, yes.
:3
*ahem*
Defensively: Dropping it under a spawn not only means they go tubby-bye-byes in a hurry but also that anything trying to get into melee to smash face will do so at a glacial pace so you may dismantle them at your leisure. That’s leh-sure, by the way, not lee-sure. Thank you please come again. (That is not what she said)
Darkest Night: foe based toggle, AoE -tohit -damage (all)
Slotting Recommendation: Get good values for -tohit debuff and endurance reduction. While DN doesn’t eat as much endurance as say, the Radiation toggles, it does add up. I went with a set of Dark Watcher’s Despair because it gives good values and bonuses for few slots. Das pas waarde voor je geld, man.
How to Use:
Offensively: Ev ev ev every day I’m DN-pullin’, every day I’m DN-pullin’. Chuck it on a dude, back off and warm up your larynx for the maniacal cackling as they all run towards you where they will bunch up to be annihilated. Yaaaaay. The (sadly unenhanceable) damage debuff is also sizeable, so if I’m not using this to pull pretties into my web of destruction I’ll probably chuck it on a boss to make them hit less hard and often.
Defensively: To make a spawn hit like kittens and make them go down like… wait, what, no. Okay, let’s start again. If slotted DN is on a spawn, their hit rate will go down the toilet and whatever hits do get through won’t hit hard at all. The biggest baddie in a given spawn is generally the best choice to put DN on because a) they probably hit the hardest so yay damage debuff and 2: they’re likely to live longest so the debuff gets the most use.
Howling Twilight: targeted AoE foe stun, slow, –rech, minor damage (negative) -regen, ally rez
Slotting Recommendation: While the stun duration (relative to the recharge of the power) is nothing to write home about, this power is a great set mule with the added bonus of being deserving of the enhancing it gets from the sets. I went with Absolute Amazements in mine because it makes the stun last MUCH longer, gives great recharge values and the -tohit proc is actually not garbage in Howling Twilight! INCREDIBLE!
How to Use:
Offensively: To stun a spawn. Unlike most rezzes which are only useful when, y’know, someone needs rezzing, Howling Twilight is almost always awesome. The stun will instantly neutralize a spawn for more than enough time to burn them down.
Defensively: As a stun. Har. Okay, okay, maybe a little as a rez sometimes I guess. Seriously about the stun though, if another spawn is aggroed Howling is a great panic button to deal with it. Neuter the first spawn with Fearsome Stare, emasculate the second with Howling Twilight. Feels good, man. Well, not for them. But they’re AI so who cares what they think. At least, until the Robot Revolt turns violent, but we’ve got some time before then.
Shadowfall: PBAoE +def (all) +res (energy, negative energy, psy) +stealth
Slotting Recommendation: Good values for the resistance and endurance reduction. This can be fairly end-hungry and imo the defense is small enough to not bother slotting for. The resists fully slotted out will still only be about 20% which is nothing major, but its enough to take the edge off when you need it. The fear resistance is also very nice on Hami raids.
How to Use:
Offensively: Not really.
Defensively: Run in conjunction with another stealth for full invis so you can get the drop on spawns as well as positioning yourself well for your cones/AoEs. I generally run this all the time even if not fighting heavy psy/neg/nrg damage dealing enemies just because stealth is really handy. If you are fighting primarily psy/negative dealing enemies whatever lolmelee is attempting to take point will probably appreciate the added resistances. Especially against something like Numina/Sister Psyche/the Clockwork King. Oh, also make sure to run it when freeing Sister Solaris. Don’t turn it off, ESPECIALLY when she is freed. Trust me, people will love you for it*
Fearsome Stare: Cone fear -tohit
Slotting Recommendation: The fear duration/recharge/tohit debuff on this are already pretty decent at base, so imo it comes down to set bonuses. I went with 4 Cloud Senses with the proc for the recharge bonus and a tohit/end/rech from Siphon Insight. Why go with tohit debuff sets rather than say, Glimpse of the Abyss? Because while Fear is yummy, the base duration on FS is fine, fear gets broken fast and the –tohit on Fearsome Stare is huge. 15% huge (which, dear reader, is the same as Darkest Night and 3x as much as Twilight Grasp). Enhancing the –tohit will do much more for your survivability than the fear.
How to use:
The way Fearsome Stare works there’s a lot of overlap when using it offensively vs defensively so I’m not gonna break it down. Hit a spawn with it when you’re jumping in to minimize any alpha-strike sass when you unload Fireball/Rain of Fire. Which you have, because you’re fire/dm, right? Yeah, that’s right. I thought so. Using Fearsome Stare proactively like this will drastically lower the incoming damage and is less fiddly than Darkest Night if you’re on a fast moving team. Since it recharges faster and has a large AoE than Howling Twilight, this should be your first panic button. If a second spawn is aggroed, FS, bam, threat neutralised. Unless someone goes and attacks them. Which should totally be you, fyi. Get stuck in with your AoEs. Rawr. Even if there is so much damage flying around the fear will never stick for more than a second or two, still throw this out for the tohit debuff.
One important thing to note is that the cone is rather large. And when I say rather large, I mean absolutely hufuckingmongous. Even moreso if you’ve got it enhanced for range from set IOs. This means if you’re too close to the spawn you’re using it on, you may catch one or two dudes from the next spawn over. Not a big deal as whatever it tags will be feared and debuffed, but worth being mindful of.
Petrifying Gaze: foe hold
Slotting Recommendation: The hold/rech values on this are pretty poopy at base so if you plan on making any serious use of it be sure to enhance them well (as well as Accuracy). I went with a set of Unbreakable Constraints mostly for the set bonuses but justified by the fact that when I do use PG, I want it to be good.
How to use: Similar deal as FS, not breaking this one down. If this bothers you feel free to copy and paste this segment into a Word document, arbitrarily divide it and then continue to read. The animation on this is not glacial, but its slow enough that I rarely use it, especially given the huge amount of mitigation in the rest of DM. I mostly use it to hold a troublesome mob like a lt, sapper or wolf that insists on zooming around like a turbocharged Audi r32.
If a mob is dangerous enough that you don’t want to just debuff its tohit and take your chances, use PG: It can also come in handy to make your DN anchor sit still.
Black Hole: AoE foe intangible
Slotting Recommendation: Don’t. If you don’t take this, you can’t slot it and then everyone wins.
How to use: Don’t. See above. Enemy phases are of limited utility to begin with, but this one being AoE makes it much more so plus a bunch. Unlike a Sonic or FFer, you can’t just phase one troublesome target without phasing all his buddies too. Any time you would need Black Hole, Fearsome Stare or Howling Twilight would be better and still let you kill the enemies. Please, don’t take Black Hole.
Dark Servant: summon Dark Servant pet
Unlike say, a Fire Imp, the Dark Servant has a bunch of powers that do a bunch of things so I’ll list them below.
• Tenebrous Tentacles: Cone immobilize -tohit minor negative DoT
• Chill of the Night: PBAoE -tohit minor negative damage
• Twilight Grasp: Same as yours.
• Darkest Night: Same as yours, funnily enough.
• Petrifying Gaze: OH MY GOD WHAT IS GOING ON HERE**
Slotting Recommendation: The Dark Servant can take a whole slew of sets, I went with Dark Watcher’s Despair because it affects all of his powers and the bonuses are nice. If you’ve got a spare slot, the Clouded Senses proc can be quite nice, but bear in mind it will only check on the Servant’s -tohit powers that have an accuracy check (TT, TG, CotN) In addition you want high accuracy in the pet, because DM has no -def and there’s no point having a pet who can do a bunch of stuff if it misses everything all the time. Unless you like to watch hopeless, pointless struggles. In which case go read a thread about building a tanker for damage. Ho ho ho.
How to Use:
Offensively: Given that the Servant has no melee or PBAoE powers except for its toggle, as you’re running around it will always be at range. Despite this, you can still use it offensively by summoning it into the middle of spawns. Its damage aura will debuff them, damage them and it will take the aggro for you so you can go nuts. Don’t worry about it dying, the Servant is surprisingly resilient with its -tohit coupled with your own.
Defensively: Just summon it and go about your business. It’ll spam its powers leaving you more time to blast away. Its Twilight Grasp spam can keep you topped off if you stand next to it, but don’t rely on it to heal you when you need it. The Servant is about as intelligent as a Scrapper, with the upside of at least having powers that help the team. Oh man, I’ve been dogging on the melees hard recently. Good times.
How to Not Be Awful:
• DN pulls DN pulls DN pulls. Dark Miasma profits so, so much from good pulls with Darkest Night. The hefty tohit debuff means a lot of the fire that will come your way will miss, and the damage debuff means whatever does get through won’t hit too hard. Unless you use it to pull like, a spawn full of 54 Praefectus. In which case, you have balls. I like your balls. Pull stuff to a corner with DN, lay down Tar Patch, hit them with Fearsome to ensure minimal sass then proceed to show them what time it is. (Hint: IT IS THE INFAMOUS GO TIME)
• Twilight Grasp used to have a suuuuuper slow animation, but it’s still on the slow side. If you wait until you’re at really low health to hit it you’re probably still gonna get smooshed. I generally hit it when I’m at 1/2-3/4 health to stay topped off. Same for healing team mates with it.
• Speaking of Twilight Grasp, I sometimes use it even if I don’t need the heal, because of its tohit/damage debuff. Very nice on bosses. Spam on AVs for the -regen. Rejoice in a power that does all kinds of stuff and does it well. Laugh at powers that do only one thing and do it badly. Haha, Repel.
• If you only ever use Howling Twilight as a rez you’re wasting it 90% of the time. Even if it is super ******* epic when you rez like 3 or more people at once. (So epic). It’s great big honking stun. So unless people are dying left and right and you’re likely to need it as a rez, use it as an AoE stun. Use it as a panic button when another spawn is aggroed. It will instantly take a whole bunch of dudes for its duration, which is pretty respectable if slotted for stun (good set mule to put Stupefys or Absolute Amazements) giving you more than enough time to take them apart.
• When things are getting nasty, stand by the Servant. Its power spam (especially Twilight Grasp) makes it very resilient and you standing by it means you can heal it too. As long as it has enough accuracy to hit reliably the two of you will be very hard to take out. Conversely, if you’re always standing outside of its range you’ll be much squishier.
• Against AVs your –tohit will be scaled down to near-uselessness, but the –damage components in Twilight Grasp and Darkest Night will not. Keeping DN up and spamming TG (which you should be doing anyway for the –regen) will make the do defender level damage. Haha.
• While I mentioned it in the power, it bears repeating. The range on Fearsome Stare is huge. 70” huge, aka 10” less than a standard blast. If its within attacking range, its within Fearsome Stare range. If you’re right next to a spawn you might want to back up before hitting Fearsome to make sure you 1: tag the whole spawn 2: avoid tagging the spawn behind them.
• Tar Patch is fairly easy to perma but still has a longer recharge than Sleet/Freezing Rain so exercise judgement in throwing it down. If a spawn lasts long enough for it to recharge while you’re still fighting, if there’s only a few dudes left its probably best to hold off on it so you can drop it under the next spawn.
• Petrifying Gaze use. Yes, not a phenomenal hold, but still worth having. 2 hold and 2 rech IOs will be enough for you to keep a particularly nasty boss held. Or instantly taking a troublesome mob out of the fight.
What Goes Well With Dark Miasma
Well uh, not to be belabourin’ the point but I’m o’ the opinion that Fire Blast is the best for blastin’ with Dark Miasma. This is because o’ the large amount o’ defense that Dark is bringin’ to the table so all the offense that fire is workin’ in goes great. With Dark you’ll generally be wantin’ a blast set that brings a lot of firepower to the table. Ice is also worth considerin’ because *GASP* oh god I can’t do it anymore
Phew.
Intense.
Okay, so where was I? Right, Ice. Less AoE damage than Fire, but brings good control with it. I personally don’t think you really need the extra control given how Dark is, but PG and Freeze Ray is not a bad combo. The Ice Storm slow would also stack with Tar Patch for maek happy fun shredded enemies tiem.
The other blast set I’d recommend is Radiation. This is for several reasons. First of all, the –def goes great with Dark as Dark doesn’t have any and it’ll help your and the Servant’s stuff to hit. Also respectable AoE damage and Cosmic Burst will stack with Howling Twilight to stun a boss.
While it fits thematically I would
not recommend Dark Blast. The damage is butts and it brings utility you don't need because basically everything it can do Dark Miasma does better.
I've also gotta give a nod to Sonic here, not because of any particular synergy with Dark Miasma, but just because its all-round very solid blast set. Very cheap on endurance, fast cast times on the Tier 1 and 2 blasts and the -res will stack with Tar Patch. I would however note that if you
really want to make the most of Dark, pair it with a set that has boss AoE. So uh, Fire, Rad and uh, AR (I guess >.>)
How Silas Be Doin’ It
Observe:
My Setup
Notes
• Recharge. More recharge = more Tar Patch, more Fearsome Stare, more Howling Twilight. You want a lot of recharge. Not striiiiclty as much as I have since I wanted tonnes bozillions, I would say aim for 50% or so for a noticeable difference.
• Accolades. More hp/end means you’ve got more breathing room for Twilight Grasp and increases your endurance recovery. Both great for dark, especially with an end heavy primary like Fire.
• Since I use Howling Twilight as much more than a rez (and you should too, dood) I didn’t put it way off to the side. Keep it visible, use it often. So p. much do the opposite of what you do with your junk.
• Power binds. Since Dark doesn’t have any shields, all I’ve got bound is Twilight Grasp bound to Q so its easy to hit.
Disclaimers :
* : Incorrect.
** : Dude I do not even know hold me I’m scared
Silas: Yes, I would like to see you build if that's alright.
