Silas

t Fiery, Yeah, I know, weird idea huh I just like the idea of /DA and I've never made one before. I know come GR Banefire will still be a much better farmer. I just kinda...like the idea of a FM/DA/Blaze. I may wind up getting it to 50 then not liking it though, like my FM/Elec/Blaze >.>

What kind of defense do you think would work best? Melee? You built your spine/FA for melee right?

Right now it looks like defense would be a good way to go, so I wouldn't take OG. I drew up a full-recharge build last night but it just demonstrated how little I know about /DA >.>

I know it won't have the same AoE damage as my Elec/SD or a Spine/Fire, I'm just wondering how big the difference will be. You know I'm a speed freak, do you think I'd find it a slow killing combo?

t Kioshi, Isn't Dark Regen autohit though? I see Desmodos recommends accuracy and so do you, but Redtomax lists it as autohit for Scrappers (link: http://coh.redtomax.com/data/powers/...k_Regeneration) , but no mention of it being autohit for Brutes/Tankers. I've got no access to Mids atm so can't check there. Weird. The Scrapper page is probably a mistake, but I want to be sure.

Haha, cool, thanks. Srsly though, it's for that reason I vastly prefer Corrs to Defenders and Brutes/Scrappers to Tankers.

Given how easy it is to get full stealth, especially with a stealth aura in your secondary, yes, you should have it.

Even if you never stealth missions, it'll allow you to take your time and perfectly line up your opening volley without getting shot in the face as well as generally reduce the amount of aggro you have. That's important for a squishy.

Brute and Tanker resist caps are 90%, VEATs and HEATs are 85%, everything else is 75%.

Adeon is right, a stealth proc and Shadowfall = full invis. I personally go SS with most of my characters because I'm a speed freak and Hasten is fantastic.

If Fly fits your concept better, go with Fly. Do try and fit in Hasten at least though, it really benefits a Fire/Dark for pumping out the AoEs and all the DM goodness faster.

Good stuff, cheers Bud for organizing this.

That doesn't require you to be an MM or level 50 though >.>

Awesome, thanks Kioshi. I'll take a look at the build when I get back from work.

Since the character would mostly be for farming (BM warriors, Council Earth, Nemesis maybe? I dunno if /DA can handle Nems) and the occasional TF, I'm not sure how big a deal the energy issue would be.

On the one hand, it's one of the most common damage types. On the other, for stuff I'll be fighting most of the time they don't have any energy damage and I can always hit DR if I need to.

I've got literally about 10 minutes of experience using OG, (back on my D3 before I axed him, haha), so I've got a few questions. You said it totally took the minions out of the fight and I can believe it, but if you weren't with a Fire/kin to lock them down, wouldn't the stagger be an issue? Also how rough is it on the green bar to be running OG in the middle of an 8man spawn?

I'm thinking, (assuming I can run OG sustainably against x8), maybe +recharge and +hp is a good way to go, since I'll only really be taking fire from the few Lts/bosses.

I am a total DA noob though, so all of this is purely theoretical and probably inaccurate DA experts, chime in please

My only similar experience is from farming with my SS/FA. /FAs resists are poo, but I can farm +2x8 Nemesis and Council quite easily mainly due to the KD from Footstomp every 5ish seconds and Healing Flames if I need it every 10-15ish seconds. So what I'm wondering is, since DR is such a powerful heal, while I won't have the constant KD/KU mitigation from SS, do I really need to build for defense?

I'm a recharge glutton so the temptation to just go crazy and get perma-Hasten levels of recharge is huge >.>

I also frequently read and hear that the Theft of Essence proc in DR is a godsend. I'm sure if I hit a whole spawn with DR I'll probably get the end cost back, if not more. So how do people usually slot DR? A set for bonuses and the ToE proc? Frankenslotting for end/heal/rech?

The more I think about this combo, the more I like it >.> Quick, someone burst my bubble before I have to PL and IO out a new lolmelee character :3

So I have an Elec/SD/Blaze but the lack of ST damage drives me nuts. I don't really want a Fire/SD because of lolconcept reasons...

So I was thinking: since Spines/DA is an old classic for farming, how would Fire/DA/Blaze compare? You lose the second damage aura but FSC >>> Spine Burst. I've never farmed with a Spiner though, so I don't know how much you rely on Throw Spines for damage.

If it helps, I'm making this character for a farmer/PL character who I could also very occasionally bring on TFs and not feel useless on. I've got a SS/FA Brute villside but he's a little squishy for most TFs, it seems with IOs /DA is much more sturdy.

I realise it wouldn't be as fast as a Fire/Kin for straight minion/lt munching when farming, but hoping being able to kill bosses quickly might make it at least competitive.

This would be a no-budget build btw, with the exception of the Glad Def +3% IO. Not really sure how to build it though, never done a /DA before. Should I build for defense or just full recharge and rely on DR to keep me alive? I know hefty end rdx and +rec are a given.

Anyone have one or any advice about it? Or is this just a totally hare-brained idea?

Sonic Blast is a very solid set, but it really shines on a team where it'll be a huge force multiplier for the whole team.

It doesn't have the offensive oompf of something like Fire or Ice, so you might not like it.

The thing about Sonic is it's very single target focused. It's specialty is burning down single hard targets. It's got one cone which is decent but nothing special. /Dark however is very AoE focused, so they're not a great match imo. It'd be an incredibly safe soloing combo since you could debuff and then sleep an entire spawn and then dismantle them at your leisure.

But with /Dark controlling/debuffing entire spawns, you might find Sonic pretty slow as you're forced to mostly take down 1 guy at a time.

Go Fire/Dark. IMO it's far and away the best Dark Miasma pairing. Fire is highly offensive with no defense, DM is highly defensive with little offense, they go together perfectly.

Nectotech, a few build tips:

Swap the Entropic Chaos in Ice Bolt for Decimations. Decis give much better set bonuses, enh values and the heal proc is unfortunately garbage.

Swap the Kinetic Crashes from Lightning Storm to Gale. Frankenslot it for dam/end/recharge. Thunderstrike and Devastations are great for this, especially with the Devastation hold proc. Some acc is good too, but Freezing Rain takes care of most of the accuracy issues.

Take a slot from Snow Storm, it only needs 3-4 slots. 2 end rdx, 1-2 slows.

Move the Ragnaroks from Blizzard to Ice Storm and swap the Ragnarok Damage for the KD proc. Put a 6 slot of recharge into Blizzard. This means you'll have more mitigation using Ice Storm, (Blizzard already has KD by itself and most stuff you use it on will die anyway so the extra mitigation would be overkill).

Take the Regenerative Tissue proc out of Health, it provides very little benefit to a character without significant +hp.

For Freezing Rain, I'd recommend you redo the slotting. You're not getting nearly enough recharge out of it and for slowing stuff you have Snow Storm. Put in an Achilles proc and then frankenslot to get the best values you can for the recharge, end redux and defense debuff (in that order).

In BiB, swap the Apoc Damage for the proc. The Apoc set by itself brings you to the ED cap so the proc will benefit you more.

Swap the BU proc in Aim for a recharge. Better to have Aim up faster than having a chance for a small BU effect when you use it.

You can drop Bitter Freeze Ray, you can easily hold a boss with Freeze Ray and the long animation is a killer. If you're just taking it for the recharge bonuses then you'd be better off grabbing Combat Jumping for a LotG 7.5 and more mobility.

Pick up Steamy Mist, plz. Actually, pick up Steamy Mist where you've got Bitter Freeze Ray.

In Power Sink, frankenslot 2 end/recharges. Getting more endurance consistently and having it recharge faster is better.

Also don't skip Hurricane. The sound can be annoying but it's a fantastic power, both for debuffing and mob positioning. More info in my Storm guide in my sig. /shameless plug :3

Hope that helps

6 Elec/Therms and 2 Elec/Kins would be able to sap the FP and not get smooshed in the process to boot.

Everyone would have capped res to all, dmg cap for most of the SF and more than enough end drain.

I can see again!

But what I see makes me cry :C

And now tears cloud my vision and I cannot see again.

Srsly though, what Kioshi said. Worst thing is the Healing Flames slotting. You really want maxed heal/rech/end in Healing Flames. Not much point having high s/l defense because as soon as the sh*t hits the fan, (which it will, without debuff res and how slow you'll kill stuff with that slotting), you won't be able to heal back damage well.

Take the Obliteration DAM out of Footstomp, replace it with a FFB proc.

With your Blazing Aura slotting you're going to be sucking wind crazy-fast. Drop the Damage IO, swap it for an end rdx. I'd consider frankenslotting it with dam/ends. IIRC, I've got mine slotted with Scirocco Dam/End and Acc/Dam/End and the same IOs from the Multi-Strike set.

KO Blow and Haymaker are way underslotted. You'd be much better off building for recharge with Crushing Impacts or melee defense with Touch of Deaths.

Take the Siphon Insights out of Dark Obliteration. While Rage+Fury does give you good damage, you still want to slot a good damage set in your attacks. Go for Posi Blasts and put an additional end rdx in it too.

Drop Soul Tentacles unless you're putting Grav Anchs in them for cheap recharge, pick up Gloom. It's a phenomenally good attack for a SS/FA, especially for farming.

Overall, you want to be building a SS/FA for recharge first, recovery second and then +hp. SS/FA benefits so much from +recharge it's not even funny.

You get Healing Flames up faster, you get more mitigation from knocking stuff down more often with Footstomp (with a FFB you get even more recharge from that too), brings FE up faster for killing faster and brings Consume up faster for endurance problems.

Then recovery and end rdx so you can sustain the high level of recharge and +hp so you don't have to heal as much.

My eyes!