Overall a pretty good guide but you recommended passing up some key powers and based on your comments I don't think you realize just how fantastic they are and why. The thing you have to realize about Dark is that it excels at making you nearly impossible to hit. It does this in two ways, defense and toHit debuffs. If you don't understand toHit, defense and accuracy then I suggest looking for a guide, but suffice it to say that defense and all of your toHit debuff are for all intents and purposes cumulative.
With Dark you've got a few key powers that hit that area. Most important is Darkest Night which not only includes the massive toHit debuff but the massive damage debuff. The second most important is something you recommended skipping: Fearsome Stare. It has a toHit debuff component identical to Darkest Night and is AoE. Also, unlike Darkest Night, it can't be dropped with a simple sleep, stun, fear or hold. The last one is Dark Servant who not only has Darkest Night, but a Darkest Night that is considerably more powerful.
As far as numbers go you have -11.25% toHit in Darkest Night, -15% toHit from Dark Servant's Darkest Night, -11.25% toHit in Fearsome Stare. With some decent slotting you can easily hit -50% toHit or more total and all enemies have a 50% base which means they're hitting the floor of 5%. It is important to remember that not all of your debuffs will be on every enemy all of the time. Your Dark Servant isn't always great about picking a good target, or casting it quickly, and your Fearsome Stare may miss or you might have your toggles dropped by a status effect. That's why having all of them, slotting all of them for it, and having Shadow Fall as well is important. Defense is, for all intents and purposes, just as good as -toHit, only it doesn't require you to actually nail them with that debuff. By having a combination of -all- of these things you give yourself the overhead and margin for error you need to ensure virtually all of your enemies are at or near the toHit floor almost all of the time. That can't be understated, because accuracy is multiplied by that toHit.
Regardless, you can skip Shadow Fall or Petrifying Gaze and it's really not a big deal. You can of course even skip Fearsome Glare and never have trouble. Then again in reality you could do just about anything and still come out okay as a Mastermind, but I would very seriously look at getting at least Fearsome Glare and using it. I was largely ignorant of the importance and synergy of the aforementioned powers for a long time because it's not really obvious, but it's an absolutely massive amount of damage mitigation we're talking about.
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Darkest Night
This power is very similar to Radiat Infection in that it is a single target massive accuracy, damage and defense debuff that spreads to the surrounding enemies like a plague. Couple this with Tar Patch, and what you have, my friends, is a field of wheat, ready to be mowed down. While you have DN up, you are still using end, so be carefull.
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This is an anchored toggle that is a damage and toHit debuff, not a defense and accuracy deBuff. It also has no synergy with Tar Patch other than keeping them within range of the anchor, but since it has no -KB your Bruiser will change that quite quickly regardless.
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Shadow Fall
Team stealth. That's all I need to say. I don't like it, as it doesn't fit in with my play style. Some do like it, but I don't. I recommend skipping it.
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I think you're forgetting the defense and resists, specifically energy, negative, psionic, and and fear. This is a key power for any Dark. Negative and Psionic resistances are hard to come by, not to mention the defense. You do realize that defense is just as good as a toHit debuff?
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Fearsome Stare
A cone fear attack. I have never like Fear attacks; I find them useless and annoying. All they do is cower and run away. Especially where I don't want them to go. I like herding, and this is very anti-herd. If you like Fear, stack Fear duration into it; otherwise, skip this power.
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You don't like Fear attacks but you obviously have no idea how they work. Fear in CoX is pretty much identical to sleep but with one caveat, if you stop attacking them they go back to cowering rather than staying awake. Fearsome Stare is one of the most powerful powers Dark gets. Not only can you permanently Fear massive groups of enemies so that they can't fight back unless being actively attacked, but it brings with it a very nice toHit debuff. This toHit debuff plays an important role in keeping your enemies toHit at the floor of 5% and keeping you and all of your henchmen alive.
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Petrifying Gaze
Single target hold. It's not bad, as holds go... Paralytic Poison from the /poison set is slightly better, but this is definitely one of the best. It holds bosses about a quarter of the time, depending on type of enemy. I haven't gotten it yet, simply because more important things have been coming up. And, if you follow my srategies, nothing stand up long enough to bother Holding. Still, all in all, a very good power.
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Paralytic Poison is identical. It's another key power in both PvE and PvP. Especially when combined with your Dark Servant you can quite easily keep a boss held down. It's fantastic for keeping your target from fighting back while everything else in sight is too busy cowering in fear to interfere.
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Dark Servant
Yay! Another summon! Unfortunately, it doesn't stick around very long... I've heard about two minutes or so. The recharge is roughly four to five minutes, so he's not around all the time... more in Section IV.
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He sticks around for more like four minutes and the second you hit level 39 you should easily have him slotted well enough to be almost permanent, a down time of maybe ten to twenty seconds every four minutes.
