The Dark/Dark Defender's Bible (Issue 5)

Purpose

There are a lot of Dark/Dark guides out there but I wanted mine to be a little different just so that the average player could get a feel for what he/she wants to do with their D3. D3s are very versatile and besides the 4 or so powers that probably shouldn’t be taken, you really can’t go wrong choosing the “cool” powers.

So what does a D3 have to offer and why should you want to be one? D3s have the luxury and privilege of being in the upper echelon of Primary/Secondaries because we have so many tools at our disposal and because we are balanced nicely between offensive and defensive ability. D3s can perform many roles within a team and does many of them quite well but if you want to know what we’re best at it comes down to this: safety. Unlike the Empathy Defender that heals all the damage that a team takes or the Force Field Defender that gives everyone high defense, Dark Defenders prevent the enemy from hitting you with their myriad of –Accuracy debuffs or they simply stop the enemy from attacking with a variety of control powers, much like an actual Controller. In addition, they are the only non-Controller with true pets and those pets are quite versatile, much like the D3 themselves, that also do a ton of debuffing and controlling. In addition, D3s have the ability to fine tune themselves to a couple of distinct roles and each role is noticeably different. So, while I will do the typical “here’s the power, when to take it and how to slot it” jig, I’m also going to give you how I feel it would be best used if you’re a “Controller” D3 (CD3) or a “Buffing” D3 (BD3, though it’s more like a De-buffing D3 but that would become a D4 and there’s already a D4 out there, but I digress).

Here’s how I classify the CD3 vs. the BD3.

Controller D3s are all about controlling the enemy and making sure that they’re, in some way, mezzed into submission. This can be done through the wide variety of powers within both the Dark Miasma and Dark Blast sets. The general rule here is that if there is a “hold” (hold, disorient, sleep, fear, stun, etc.) power that comes up at the same time as a Blast power in the Secondary, the CD3 will, within limits, take the hold power over the attack. Similarly, in battle, the CD3 will use a control power over an attack, if all things were equal. This doesn’t mean that they completely ignore their secondary or that they don’t attack in battle or can’t solo, it simply means that they’re primary concern is to take foes out of the fight.

Buffing D3s are not quite opposites of the CD3s but are different animals entirely. They will rely more on the toggles (Darkest Night/Shadowfall) to insure their (and their team’s) safety instead of spamming holds or fears. This isn’t to say that they skip the holds, it’s just that they rely less on them. The BD3 is content with flooring accuracy to the 5% basement on mobs and playing the chance game with hits, kind of like a pure defense set like Super Reflexes or Ice Armor. However, by playing this game of death, they are freer to take attacks and slot them up instead of taking all the holds. The BD3 can also rely on his attacks to do the de-buffing, meaning, they will probably attack more than the CD3 if only to get more –Acc on their foes.

Both D3s are great and one is not necessarily better than the other. I would have to say that CD3 is a bit more team friendly and is “safer” than the BD3 but the trade-off there is that the BD3 will have more powerful attacks and probably solo faster. This isn’t to say one is not team friendly (the BD3 still rocks) and the other can’t solo (the CD3 will still do great) it’s just that in certain areas, one will be more efficient than the other.

I would also like to mention at this point that the BD3 and CD3, despite their class-distinction will overlap considerably. The BD3 will probably still get Fearsome Stare and Dark Servant (henceforth known as Fluffy) in addition to a sometimes handy Petrifying Gaze. This gives them a wide-array of controlling powers already. The CD3 will simply expand upon that by using Howling Twilight as a mezz power and grabbing Dark Pit while possibly skipping Darkest Night altogether (why debuff an enemy that can’t fight back?) due to its endurance drain. The slotting of the CD3 and BD3 will also be different but that will be covered later.

This guide is designed to help both sides of the D3 by listing a power, telling what it does and giving it a star-system for how useful it would be for a CD3 and BD3. Some powers will heavily favor one side or the other and some will be great regardless of what kind of D3 you want to make. It’s still all your decision though. Have fun and experiment to see which one you enjoy the most!

Dark Miasma

Dark Miasma is great because it’s the only unique Defender set that isn’t shared as a secondary with Controllers. It’s a useful combination of holds, fears, heals, and –Acc debuffs that really turn enemies into whiffing machines. Darks are sometimes called the most defensive of the Defender primaries and this is for good reason. They lack any form of buffing an ally and all their attacks affect enemies and not the team itself. Tar Patch may reduce resistance (the only form of damage boost we get) but other than that, teams will probably not even know that your powers are at work. You will forever be the unsung hero because it’s hard to tell that enemies are missing you. Big green numbers, glowing buffs and bright green anchors are the tell-tale signs of the other Primaries but not with you. You just sit back and watch the enemies miss, something often underappreciated by teams.

The powers are as follows:

Twilight Grasp (Level 1)

From everything I’ve heard, the base heal on this nifty little power is 22% of your life and that goes a long way when you finally get a few Heal SOs in it. It’ll save your butt on many occasions but there are two things that you, and your team must know about it. First, it has to hit. Your ability to heal is directly proportional to the enemies you fight. If you’re in the deep purple range, don’t expect to heal often. If you’re fighting whites and lower, this is a very reliable heal. Always, always, always, slot an accuracy enhancement in here, before anything else (heals included) so that when that critical need comes and you have to be healed, it doesn’t whiff completely. Secondly, the effect of the power is a fairly small radius around you and if teammates want healed, they have to be within about 10-12 feet of you. It’s very difficult to heal others as they run like chickens with their heads cut off in a battle so try to warn the team if you’re the primary healer. Speaking of, I wouldn’t recommend being the primary healer due to the fact that the heals, while normally reliable, aren’t guaranteed. Also, while Twilight Grasp does heal a good chunk of life for you, it won’t be as significant to a Tank or Scrapper with higher max HP. Just remember that if they’re on the verge of death. Finally, TG has an added minus regen effect that will slow/stop regen for about 10 seconds. This is absolutely critical for high-hitpoint enemies that can regen 100s of life per tick (because it is percentage based). Using this on a Boss isn’t a bad idea even if no one needs the heal for this reason alone.

Overall: 5-Star Power. Take it and love it. Slot it up with 3 or 4 early and respec out of those slots later in the game when Fluffy can do some of that for you. This goes for both BD3 and CD3 types.

Tar Patch: (Level 1)

With the addition of the –resistance aspect of Tar Patch and the –fly/-jump, this has become a must have power for anyone that wants to increase their damage.It has a 45 second duration and a 90 second recharge. For those playing at home this means that perma-hasten and the initial slot with a recharge SO means that it’s ready to go the second it runs out. This also means that if slotted up really well, this little beauty can stack upon itself for a little while giving you and your team a really impressive damage boost because you just dropped mob resistance 60%. Triple stacking is possible with perma-hasten, 6 recharge SOs and a little help from a buddy with Speed Boost or Accelerate Metabolism. Also, more than one Dark/* can double up on Tar Patch duty and just spam as many as they can to increase efficiency. Now, the –resistance is the reason to get the power but the original power had a slow effect that really helped in controlling enemies. Basically, you would lay a Patch down and snipe the group so that they ran through the Patch. Melee attackers would take forever to get to you and you could blast them on the way in. This was also helpful to Melee teammates who didn’t want their foes to run. Slotting comes down to whether you want to have more Tar Patches out (which is what I recommend so you can use it every battle) or if you want to increase the slow aspect of the Patch. You can’t slow enemies past 10% of their normal walk/run speed so don’t go overboard. I have 6-slotted this baby with all recharges and it’s up every 21 seconds or so. Double-stacking is freaking beautiful so I recommend it highly if you can manage it.

Overall: 4-Star Power. The –resist is absolutely awesome and I highly recommend it for any D3. If you’re using it just for the slow/-fly/-jump aspect then:
CD3: 4-Star (anything not held won’t be going anywhere)
BD3: 4-Star (keeps large groups near your anchor)

Darkest Night (Level 2)

For the BD3…this is your Promised Land. To the CD3…it is a waste of endurance for anything less than an AV. Darkest Night reduces Accuracy by 35% and reduces the damage of incoming attacks by 37.5%. It is a somewhat expensive toggle that requires an anchor but affects a fairly large area around the anchor. When fully slotted out with To Hit Debuffs, this monster can floor just about anything (within reason) to the 5% Accuracy basement and what this means is that you can fight with near impunity against anything +4 or so and below. However, this cornerstone of Dark Miasma has it’s downfalls. First, it is endurance heavy. You will notice the sharp contrast between fighting with it on and off. Early on, I say just slot it with endurance reducers and throw it on a boss that is giving you trouble. Once SOs open up, you can do a few things. 6-Slot it with To Hit Debuffs and cause everything you’re up against to miss wildly or you could be more modest and only 2-3 slot it with an Endurance Reducer and a few To Hit Debuffs. Basically, pull it out when things are getting hairy as a “big gun” to help give your team the edge. Or you could skip it entirely, something I don’t recommend but if you’re CD3, it might make sense. My current set up is 1 End Reducer and 4 ToHit Debuffs. It’s still wildly effective and cost efficient.

Overall: I still say it’s a 5-star power that is the cornerstone of the set. The damage reduction alone is worth taking it for.
BD3: 5-Star power (I cannot stress enough how important this is for you)
CD3: 2-Star power (might be nothing more than an endurance drain but situationally useful against tough foes)

Howling Twilight (Level 6)

This has a few things going for it. One, it’s an auto-hit, area of effect Rez that resurrects an entire team instantly to full health and endurance. Two, it’s a mag 1 disorient and does significant -recharge of all foes in its area. The only downside to this power being used like a pure controlling power is its recharge. Even maxed out with 6 SOs and perma-hasten this will only come up once every 50 seconds. If you just use it as a rez and throw a recharger in it with perma-hasten…it’s up every 90 seconds. It does require an enemy to hit to get the rez so remember that you can’t just rez anybody at any time.

Overall: 3-Star Power. This is arguably the best rez in the game due to being able to rez multiple people to full health and endurance in addition to its other effects.
CD3: 4-Star Power (Recharge slightly too long to make it an every battle weapon but auto hit is really nice)
BD3: 2-Star Power. (A very nice rez but skippable until later)

Shadow Fall (Level 8)

This nice little area of effect power has some really great abilities. First off, it’s a team stealth. This gives everyone around you a stealth factor greater than Stealth from the power pool. Secondly, it provides a tiny amount of defense (2.5%) which always helps. Thirdly, and most importantly, it gives Negative, Energy, and PSIONIC resistance at a base level of 25%. Since Psi resistance is nearly non-existent to everyone else, this is a rare commodity for Tanks and Scrappers looking to fight Psychic Clock Kings and whatnot. To begin with, slot it with endurance reducers and try to run it as much as possible. The defense and stealth is simply too good to pass up. This used to have a movement penalty but that is gone as of Issue 5. Eventually, once Negative, Energy, and Psi become more common, I’d slot this puppy up with resistance enhancements. With one endurance reducer and 5 resistance SOs, you get 50% resistance to all of those damage types. Also note that turning on Super Speed while running Shadow Fall is the same as running Invisibility. So, if you want to stealth through missions, turn them both on and click the glowies, find the boss and his gang, etc.

Overall: 5-Star Power. Too many good things to pass up in this power and it’s not terribly expensive. Very team friendly and gives Psi resistance.
CD3: 5-Star Power. (Helps with the initial alpha of holds in addition to what’s been previously mentioned)
BD3: 5-Star Power. (See overall)

Fearsome Stare (Level 12)

While grossly overpowered in I4, Fearsome Stare is still a cornerstone power of Dark Miasma. This bad boy does two things and does them very well. First, it puts a Fear effect on baddies within a HUGE cone. This fear makes enemies cower and unable to attack unless they are attacked first. Even if they are attacked, they can get one attack off and then must resume the “fear position” thereby having a –recharge effect. What this amounts to is a pseudo-hold that, if you are smart, can turn into a hold by not touching the other feared mobs. The fear lasts 20 seconds and has a 40 second recharge. It’s also pretty cheap. Secondly, it puts a modest –Acc debuff on enemies, somewhere in the order of 15%, which also stacks. So, you can easily get a -30% debuff on most foes just by using two applications of Fearsome Stare. Slotting is more of an issue now, however. With perma-Hasten alone, it comes up every 23.5 seconds but that’s not enough to make it stack. Adding a Recharge will drop it to every 20 seconds but it still would run out the second it came up again. My personal preference is 1 Accuracy, 1 Recharge, and 1 Fear Duration as it would give the power good accuracy, a 20 second recharge and a 26.6 duration, meaning self-stacking. More slots would make the power more useful but duration is all that should be slotted for as a recharge SO would only drop it another 3 seconds while Fear Duration ups it 6.6 seconds.

Overall: 5-Star Power. Huge cone, cheap, massive debuff and Fear effect, this power has it all. Takes a few slots to make great, however.
CD3: 5-Star (a great, maybe the greatest, control power in the set)
BD3: 5-Star (a great debuffing power, but the control is gravy)

Petrifying Gaze (Level 18)

The only true “hold” of the set, Petrifying Gaze is a power that takes some slots to make useful. It’s a mag 3 single-target hold, meaning that you’ll be able to lock down lieutenants and minions in one application. Its base recharge is 16 seconds and has a duration of 12 seconds. That means that it won’t be able to hold a boss without a bit of help. Perma-hasten brings it down to 9.4 seconds and allows self-stacking but only for a few seconds and that’s really not enough to make it a boss-holding power. A Recharge SO would bring it down to 8 seconds while a Hold Duration would extend it to 16 seconds. This, in my opinion, is enough to make it useable but it won’t be as powerful as Controller holds. Dark Servant also has this power but because you can’t enhance their Petrifying Gaze, it won’t be near as effective as yours. However, Fluffy will help you lock down the occasional minion or lieutenant, which always helps.

Overall: 3-star Power. Without slots/Hasten, it’s useful but not great.
CD3: 4-Star. Slotted up, a good hold but you’ll still be jealous of Controllers.
BD3:3-Star. Still practical and 2 slots aren’t that hard to find.

Black Hole (Level 26)

Well, to say this is the lame duck power of the set is about right. Yeah, it can be used to turn a group of enemies intangible for a brief amount of time and take them out of the fight but the duration (20 seconds) isn’t worth the massive endurance cost and the long recharge. Basically, this power sucks not only because it’s worthless but because it’s worthless and expensive! The only thing I could really see this power being used for is for that CD3 that wants to be as “controller-ish” as possible. Even still, it’s situational at best. Try it on Test and see what you think but I personally wouldn’t get a Moonbeam snipe’s distance near it.
Overall: 1-Star. Completely useless in 90% of the situations you’ll encounter and that 10% where it could be useful can be covered by other powers, namely Fearsome Stare.
CD3: 1-Star. (I’d still say it’s totally useless)
BD3: 1-Star. (Ditto)

Dark Servant (Level 32)

Totally reworked in Issue 5, Dark Servant was drastically reduced in power by disallowing multiple instances of them. Also, Petrifying Gaze was reduced, just like the Primary Power. Dark Servants have a 4 minute recharge and duration, unlike the Controller level 32 pets that have virtually unlimited duration. They will follow you up elevators and through portals, however. Fluffy can also be unsummoned by typing /release_pets.

Dark Servant, as a utility pet, works best if you can realize his/her/its limitations and work around them. It has 5 powers: Twilight Grasp (identical to yours), Petrifying Gaze (also identical), Darkest Night (similar in power but only affects one target), Tenebrous Tentacles (vastly reduced damage but otherwise the same), and Chill of the Night, the aura that does minor damage and rumors to have incredible Accuracy debuffing capability. Chill of the Night will always be on and Fluffy will cycle through the various attacks in no real particular order. He will also follow you quite religiously and usually attacks the closest thing next to him. He has more health than you do and can be used as an “alpha-strike” absorber or as a small meat-shield while solo-ing.

Fluffy will partially replace the need to debuff and control enemies but not as much as it used to. Properly slotted (see below), a Dark Servant can be very effective but don’t expect it to do your job for you. I would never recommend dropping Dark Servant altogether but there will be various camps on how to slot it.

The first theory on how to slot Dark Servant is to be minimal-istic and stick with a “base” pet. Powers that used to not require slots to be effective (i.e. Petrifying Gaze and Fearsome Stare) could be patched with slots from Fluffy. Therefore, this camp would say to keep Fluffy at either base or 1 slot. An Accuracy would be very helpful and a Heal or ToHit Debuff would be optional to get slightly more mileage out of him/her/it.

The second theory is to maximize Fluffy for Debuffing. One Accuracy and 5 ToHit Debuffs would make everything that Fluffy does (minus Petrifying Gaze) seriously drop the accuracy of enemies. Chill of the Night, Darkest Night, Twilight Grasp and Tenebrous Tentacles all have –Accuracy debuffs and this means that, more often than not, Fluffy can be a Debuff bot on top of your own personal debuffing abilities.

The third theory is to make Fluffy an all-around stronger pet by slotting for Accuracy, Hold duration, Heals, and ToHit Debuffs. Instead of super-charging any one aspect of Fluffy, they boost everything to make him more effective with every power.

Overall: 5 Star Power. A very nice utility pet that will help you a lot in your upper-levels. Can be made very powerful or left at base and still be useful.
CD3: 5-Star. Helps you hold a little but debuffs enemies, something you might not have a lot of at this point in your career. Any help is good help.
BD3: 5-Star. Can be enhanced to be a very powerful Debuffer but the heals and holds are always welcome.

Dark Blast

Dark Miasma can stand on its own as a powerful (one of the top) Defender Primaries and the reasons were given above, but why would you want to take Dark Blast over the other Secondaries? The first, and probably the most common, reason is for concept. There is nothing that quite says “I’m a bad-a**” than being completely dark and evil yet still fighting for good. Many people love having dark characters so this just naturally fits for them. The next reason is probably the most practical: Dark Blast synergizes very well with Dark Miasma. The –Acc on Dark Miasma’s debuffs will stack on top of the Dark Blast’s –Acc in its attacks. By simply attacking targets, you’re helping your Primary and vice versa. Also, Dark Blast features two “controlling” powers in Tenebrous Tentacles and Dark Pit that Immobilize or Disorient and a crowd control power in Torrent. In terms of damage potential, Dark Blast is on the lower end of the Secondaries. It does not have any way of boosting its own damage via an Aim power nor does it have an innate accuracy boost like Radiation or the “weapon” attacks. What it does have, however, is have the best or second best secondary effect for blasts. The –Acc can add up as you spam attacks and this increases your own survivability by merely doing what you were going to do anyway: kill the enemy. Every time you hit, they have a lower chance of hitting you back. Finally, Dark Blast is known for its Cone attacks and for good reason. Tenebrous Tentacles and Nightfall can be used back to back over large crowds to do substantial damage over time. Because Tentacles immobilizes foes, the enemies are held in place for Nightfall and another shot of Tentacles. Doing this over and over, you get tons of numbers flying over the enemies’ heads and if you add Tar Patch on top of this, you’ll feel almost like a Fire Tank’s Burn.

Dark Blast (Level 1)

The power this set is named after is going to be your single target bread and butter from level 1-50. It’s equal to most of the Blast Secondaries’ first attack in that it does moderate damage (2.7778 Brawl Index at base) and has a quick recharge time (4 seconds base). It does 100% Negative damage which isn’t as resisted as many of the attack types but those that are resisted to it (Banished Pantheon for example) are highly resistant to it. This is one power that you should slot up early with the recommended 1 Accuracy/5 Damage rule and use it against everything. With Hasten, it comes up pretty quick and the damage isn’t huge but it adds up. If you’re skipping Gloom or Moonbeam, make sure to compensate by getting this baby slotted up ASAP.

Overall: 3-Star Power. You have to take it and it never becomes a monster in damage but you can lean on this attack and squeeze off a few rounds to make the enemy squirm a little.
CD3: 4-Star. As a CD3, you may skip other attacks so this will be your bread and butter for many levels. If that’s the case, get as many damage slots in it as you can if you want to be able to solo. If you team a lot, this isn’t as much of a problem but still devote a few slots early to it.
BD3: 3-Star. If you plan on taking a lot of attacks, don’t neglect Dark Blast. You’ll use it more than any other in most battles so make sure it’s doing moderate damage. Slotting a ToHit Debuff might not be a bad idea either if you don’t intend on using it as a damage dealer but as a debuffer.

Gloom (Level 2)

This is one of those attacks that takes some getting used to. Gloom is 175% stronger than Dark Blast (just shy of twice as much) but many times it doesn’t feel like it because the damage is delivered over about 4 seconds. Compared to most of the other second tier Blast Secondaries, Gloom does slightly more damage (on the order of 7.3%) but because of its DoT, some people don’t see the trade off as worth it. However, in the Dark Blast Secondary, Gloom is the second highest single-target damage attack and you get it at level 2. The tricky part, however, is that you have to wait to see if Gloom finishes off a target if you want to save endurance and impatience may make you throw out a Dark Blast. This causes some endurance issues in the beginning but as you use this power, you’ll learn to judge if it will kill a foe or not. Another problem lies in the fact that many times your Gloom will be ticking away and will kill the enemy but a teammate will run in and finish them off anyway. This leads to endurance problems for them because they didn’t need to attack. Still, this attack is a diamond in the rough and I suggest taking it at level 2 to give yourself a one-two combo of Dark Blast and Gloom that cycles fairly quickly and packs a decent punch.
Overall: 4-Star Power. Does more damage than Dark Blast but the DoT is tricky and sometimes bothersome. Fully slotted with 1 Acc/5 Damage SOs, it becomes a remarkably potent weapon so use it often.
CD3: 4-Star. Still a great buy early on and it will help you get past some of the rough spots in your solo career. Slot it as you are able.
BD3: 4-Star. The Debuff on Gloom is greater than that on Dark Blast and lasts longer. So add a ToHit Debuff if you feel it necessary. I still would rather have flat out damage but that’s your call. Take it early and slot it up as you have the opportunities.

Moonbeam (Level 4)

This is your Snipe and it comes at level 4! Like all Snipes, Moonbeam suffers from the same pros and cons of having awesome damage at extreme range for an interruptible and long animation time attack. Here’s a few things to get you thinking though: Moonbeam is tied with having the longest range in the game (even among Snipes) and it has a significant Accuracy debuff attached (meaning that the foe you just shot might miss you on the return volley). Also, to reiterate, it’s available at level 4! Most sets have to wait until they’re 16 or 20 for their Snipe. Also, Moonbeam does the same exact same amount of damage as Dark Blast and Gloom combined (base) so if they’re slotted the same, you can know exactly how much damage a follow-up One-Two punch will inflict. If Moonbeam one-shots a baddie, than a Dark Blast and Gloom will do the same. Moonbeam is great if you want to pull a group or lay down some heavy fire. Unlike most Snipes, using Moonbeam in battle isn’t that difficult because enemies will be unable to interrupt your animation due to the –Accuracy on them. I use it all the time mid-battle to inflict a nasty reminder that Defender’s can do some decent damage from time to time. Used in conjunction with Tar Patch, a fully slotted Moonbeam can one-shot an even minion and can lay down some serious hurt on a lieutenant. I recommend taking this but you may not like Snipes. If you have to choose between Gloom and Moonbeam, I would personally take Gloom because it will be used more often and it is safer to use but Moonbeam isn’t bad either.

Overall: 3-Star Power. This is a love/hate relationship and I simply love it because I can actually get a big hit in from time to time. Pulling is nice too. I also like the fact that the actual graphic for it is a big-beefy blast rather than the pencil-thin bolt like the others. It’s impressive to watch it follow an enemy as they run.
CD-3: 2-Star. Again, Gloom is the better choice if you have to choose but you’ll actually get some use out of Moonbeam because enemies will be unable to interrupt you.
BD-3: 3-Star. If you’re not taking another Control power for awhile, throw Moonbeam in at level 4 and have a triumvirate of death dealers.

Dark Pit (Level 10)

One of the odd things about this “blast” power is that it does no damage. Instead, it causes a Mag 1 disorient over a decent area of effect that causes foes to stumble around like they’re drunk, unable to retaliate. Unfortunately, it has an innate -20% accuracy built in that puts you down to the 55% range of hitting an even minion instead of the usual 75%. Basically, this means that you literally have to put Accuracy enhancements in here (2 SOs minimum) if you want it to be reliable. For the CD3, this is an additional crowd control power that, in conjunction with Tar Patch, Howling Twilight, and Tenebrous Tentacles, you can pretty much turn a group of enemies into a dark pile of disoriented goo. The Tar Patch will slow them down and –resist them, the Howling Twilight will add its own Mag 1 disorient in addition to debuffing and Tentacles will hold them in place for other powers (once you get it). This combo would cause lieutenants to become disoriented as well. Many people lead off with Dark Pit, followed by Fearsome Stare to control the majority, if not the entire, group. Disoriented mobs can run away (at high speeds sometimes) so the Immobilize of Tentacles is a welcome addition. I suggest slotting two accuracy and a few recharge reducers into it as it does have a 60 second downtime and you’ll want it to start nearly every fight.

Overall: 3-Star Power. The accuracy penalty is hard to overcome early on but once it is accounted for, this becomes a very nice opening move.
CD3: 4-Star. It’s a control power so you really do want to have it. Enemies that are stumbling around don’t fight back.
BD3: 2-Star. It doesn’t debuff and the slots could go elsewhere. I respecced out of it in my 20’s and haven’t looked back. It’d be nice to have from time to time but I have lived happily without it.

Tenebrous Tentacles (Level 16)

Most D3s swore by Tentacles back in the day because it was their first “cool” power that not only did damage but immobilized and was nearly the defining power for D3s in general. Most would still agree it is the staple power of the Dark Blast set and as such, I’ll go into some detail on how this power is used. First off, it’s a Cone attack, something to be loved or hated depending on your school of thought. Positioning is key when using it to make sure you get everything you want/can get in the Cone. Tentacles has a very broad cone, somewhere along the lines of 120 degrees in front of you and about 20 deep. As such, you needn’t be too far away to get a large group within its slimy clutches. Tentacles is a somewhat dubious attack power because it does roughly the damage of Dark Blast but over about 8-10 seconds, making it not the greatest attack power out there. For pure damage, it will never become a show-stopper but when facing large groups, a Dark Blast over the head of 10 enemies is worth it. Most people love the fact that it immobilizes foes and keeps them from running. This is especially helpful to melee classes and those with such powers as Burn. Tentacles also does primarily Smashing damage, the only non-Negative damage you get. Also note that the duration on the Immobilize is far greater than the recharge time, meaning that you needn’t spam the power to keep the immobilize going. Although Fearsome Stare will be a better control power, Tentacles will also help you control the battlefield by making sure enemies don’t go anywhere. Slotting is something kind of tricky, despite what you might think. If there is one attack power that you could pull slots from, I say it’s this one. Since it does the least amount of damage of any of your attacks, you’ll get less of a benefit from slotting it. This is true of the opposite: pulling slots out hurts your damage less than pulling it from other powers. I have pulled 2 slots from it to fuel Soul Drain’s recharge, for example. It still does nice damage over large group, however, and if you want it more for the Immobilize/Debuff factor, I say go with 1 Accuracy, 1 Immobilize duration, 1 To-Hit Debuff and maybe even a Range Increase. That way it’s roughly the same “depth” as Night Fall, which helps in positioning your cones. Either way, you can’t go wrong.

Overall: 5-Star Power. Still the defining Dark Blast power, get it at 16 and start feeling powerful. Getting used to the Cone takes some time but positioning yourself won’t take long to master. Slotting is your preference but I do suggest investing at least two more into it beyond base.
CD3: 4-Stars. Fearsome Stare will probably do 85% what Tentacles does so adding this may seem redundant, however, Tentacles will keep enemies from running which Fearsome Stare does not do all the time and it recharges much faster. Just add it to your impressive list of controlling powers.
BD3:5-Stars. See CD3 but also add on that the Debuffing factor of Tentacles is nice in addition to keeping enemies near your Anchor. Whether you take this as an attack or a debuffing tool, you can’t go wrong.

Night Fall (Level 20)

A long misunderstood power that in any other set would be near useless makes a nice niche in the D3 set. Night Fall is a pure damage dealer that happens to be in the form of a narrow but deep Cone. What makes it unique is that it synergizes incredibly well with your existing cones (Fearsome Stare and Tentacles) if you simply take a few steps back before firing. It also does roughly Dark Blast damage (actually just about 10% more and 15% more than Tentacles) but it’s a very quick Damage over Time. The numbers fly up like a Burn patch and are over with in about one full second so to say this is Damage over Time is a little bit of a misnomer because it is only slightly less than instant. Where the Single-Target blasts had the one-two punch of Dark Blast and Gloom, the Area of Effect blasts are also paired together intimately. Tentacles can hold the group in place and Nightfall, after positioning, can hit the same group with more damage. The two attacks cycle fairly quickly and you can melt large groups easily (especially with a Tar Patch underneath). This is costly, however. Nightfall costs a whopping 19 endurance per use and Tentacles uses 15 so each time you use this one-two you’ve burned a third of your endurance for what comes out to be just a little over two Dark Blasts in damage. This might not seem like a good trade-off but think of it this way: if there were 10 enemies in a group, you’d have to shoot them 10 times with Dark Blast to equal one Nightfall. The rule of thumb I like to use is that I don’t use Nightfall on anything less than three targets. After 3 targets, the damage per endurance becomes positive versus Dark Blast and applying Nightfall is to your advantage. Once Stamina comes into play, you’ll find that spamming Tentacles and Nightfall over and over to kill groups is not as costly as it was and you’ll be able to kill faster than ever. Like all pure attack powers, I suggest 1 Accuracy/5 Damage if you can spare the slots.

Overall: 4-Star Power. I consider it to be just under Tentacles in usefulness in the long run, especially if you want to take out large groups in the shortest time possible. It, too, takes some getting used to for positioning but once that is down, you’ll find it to be a great tool to have.
CD3: 3-Stars. Skippable if a controlling power comes up and probably skippable if you don’t intend to be a Cone damage dealer. Still, I recommend it if only to solo better.
BD3: 4-Stars. In addition to the damage, the debuff is also nice and spamming Tentacles and Nightfall is doubly debuffing the whole gaggle of enemies. Again, if you want to add ToHit Debuffs to this, it’s a great power to have because it spreads all that debuff around to a ton of enemies.

Torrent (Level 28)

For a level 28 power, this is a bit of a let down. Unlike the Energy Blast/Torrent or the Radiation Blast/Electron Haze, this Cone “attack” does virtually no damage at all but instead has a very good chance (somewhere around 90%) to knockback foes should it hit. I’ve tried this power out on the Test server and, while occasionally useful, I found that it simply sat unused 90% of the time. This, unlike the aforementioned Cone “Torrents”, is a control power and should be treated as such (like a Power Push or Gale). When used, it sends a black cloud of mire toward the enemy, much like Tenebrous Tentacles and those caught and hit within it go flying back a good distance. Higher level foes will not be pushed far but lower level foes simply get launched. This is a good “Get out of my face!” power if melee attackers are trying to get close enough to count the number of eyelashes you have. If you have an Anchor, this could be used to launch foes back toward the anchor or if you have a Tar Patch down, it could throw them back into it. However, more often than not, you’ll probably throw them out of the anchor or Tar Patch. As with all Knockback, teams that rely one aggro and control will dislike you for throwing foes around every which way so be mindful of their tactics. This, too, has a small debuff on it but not enough to warrant using it for that sole purpose alone. Personally, this is a fun power to have when you’re level 49 and have nothing else to take so you can impress the newbies in Atlas Park by launching level 1 Hellions 300 feet back. Outside of that, I wouldn’t recommend this power. Should you take it, I recommend an Accuracy (to make sure that if you’re using it to save your butt that it hits) but really nothing more unless you want to send that Hellion 600 feet with another Knockback enhancer.

Overall:2-Star Power. It’s usefulness is limited in most situations and there are a host of other powers to take at level 28 so I suggest skipping it entirely. If it came earlier, it would be better (i.e. switch Dark Pit and Torrent) but since it is not, it loses its luster.
CD3: 3-Star Power. As a controlling power, you might want to take it to position enemies within Cones or whatnot. However, this again, is situational at best.
BD3:1-Star Power. Simply doesn’t add anything you can’t get elsewhere and throwing people around is a bad thing with anchors. Skip it.

Life Drain (Level 35)

Oh the power that has absolutely no business being in with a D3. This power could possibly make up for not having a personal heal in your Primary (a la Storm and Force Field) but even then it costs a ton for very little health. Being a D3 that already has a heal power that has to hit in Twilight Grasp, this power is 100% worthless. It doesn’t do any more damage than Dark Blast, costs 3 times as much and recharges over 3 times longer as well. There is simply no redeeming quality in the power. So, alas, your level 35 power is a lemon but consider yourself lucky. Because you don’t take this power, you can take just about anything you missed along the way right here. Also, 6 slots will open up over the course of the next to levels to finish slotting out things that are lacking. So really, it is a blessing in disguise.

Overall: 1-Star Power. Worthless in every way shape and form but the slots are nice to have.
CD3: 1-Star. Perhaps even more worthless to a CD3 because it doesn’t control anything.
BD3: 1-Star. Nope, not even going to say “it debuffs.” Worthless.

Blackstar (Level 38)

At level 38 you get your Nuke and like the others, it has its drawbacks. First, it drains all your endurance and you’ll be unable to recover for a few seconds. Two, anything you don’t kill will automatically be aggroed to you in your vulnerable state. However, IT’S A FREAKING NUKE!!! A lot people don’t use it often and probably would get more use out of another power but how can you skip your level 38 uber attack? Initially, it does very unimpressive damage but once you slot it up with 6 Damage SOs (no Accuracy, all damage) it will drop yellow minions and with a Tar Patch (or two) under it, orange. This power is pretty much a “cool” power to have worth little practical value but having it never hurts. Since you’ll have Fearsome Stared, Tentacled, Nightfalled, and Tar Patched the group already, in addition to Fluffy’s Holds and Debuffs, you’ll actually be safest “Nuke-r” around. If anything is left standing, Fluffy will automatically target them and since Blackstar puts a massive accuracy debuff on everything it hits, you might not even get hit by return fire. Of all the Nukes in the Defender Secondaries, Blackstar is probably in the middle but in addition to Fluffy, it becomes a contender simply because you can use it without as much fear of dying afterwards. Take it, show it to your friends and impress the masses. Later on, you may get Soul Drain that will add an additional 100% of damage to Blackstar (if you max it) and if you add in the Tar Patch –resist, you’ll really go boom. That doesn’t happen to a minimum of level 47 but once you get it, it will be impressive.

Overall:3-Star Power. Granted, you don’t have to take it but it’d be a crying shame if you didn’t. Shame on you for thinking about skipping it! It’s a nuke, man! A Nuke!!!
CD3: 2-Star Power. Does no controlling but heck if you’re not cool when you blow a group of 30 guys away.
BD3: 4-Star Power. It debuffs too! Plus…it BLOWS $*^& UP!

Pool Powers

There is only one mandatory Pool to take (Fitness) but Speed is incredibly useful so I highly recommend it. Outside of those two, the sky’s the limit. I personally took Fly for concept reasons and having the vertical movement helps considerably. In all, I only took 3 pools (Stamina, Speed, and Flight) and my 4th is currently Recall Friend. Here’s my picks and reasoning behind them:

Fitness

Swift: Once incredibly useful because Shadowfall had a movement penalty, Swift is now just optional rather than encouraged.

Hurdle: Same as Swift, whichever you believe will help you more.

Health: With the new boost on Health, it’s kind of silly not to take it. It gives +40% Regen and some protection against Sleep. I take it at level 18, after Tentacles so I can get…

Stamina: …at 20 (a.k.a. ASAP). This is what makes your life as a D3 enjoyable. Without it you’ll suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Slot it up as fast as you can without neglecting your primary focus (Controlling/Debuffing). Once slotted up, you’ll be able to go from group to group with much less downtime and you’ll be able to spam attacks and control powers much better.

Speed

Hasten: A necessary evil in my book as it costs 5 slots and a power. But, if you want to maximize Tar Patch, this is necessary. Since many of our powers have longer recharges as of Issue 5, Hasten also becomes a little more “mandatory” in order to use them fairly quickly. Also, all your powers will come up quicker, especially the ones that are incredibly useful like Fearsome Stare, Tentacles and Petrifying Gaze. You’ll heal faster, do damage faster, and…burn through endurance faster. Be mindful of your blue bar but once Stamina is 6-Slotted with SOs, you’ll find that you’ll be just fine.

Super Speed: Not only a nice travel power but Shadowfall + Super Speed= Invisibility. You’ll be able to stealth around missions which is very handy for finding glowies or scouting. Since I have Fly, this gets me around faster and I just turn Fly on to get over obstacles.

Flight

Hover: It’s nice to get away from melee attackers and be able to attack in the air. Cones are kinda funky when coming from above but you’ll figure it out. It’s a prerequisite to Fly so I took it.

Fly: Yeah it has a lot of negatives about it but as a Magic Dark/Dark Defender that is bristling with black magic, it seemed only natural to fly. Getting around in missions is especially nice and the endurance cost, once obscene, now doesn’t dent my endurance bar with Stamina. Suppression should be noted here: if you attack while flying, you’ll get reduced to base hover speed for 4 seconds. Toggles do not cause suppression though.

Group Fly: Looks cool but has no real value unless you’re in the Shadow Shard or teamed up with a lot of lowbies. It is slower than Fly but costs less and some teammates might get annoyed with it.

Leadership:

Maneuvers: Now fairly worthless, this isn’t worth the endurance to run it, let alone slot it. I’d have to check the numbers again but I want to say it’s 2.5% or something. 7.5% if fully slotted with Defense Buffs…a.k.a. worthless.

Assault: Defenders get about an 18% boost to base Damage or about a DO. Considering you have to take one Leadership pool power before Tactics, I suggest this. Just put an Endurance reducer in it and run it when you feel it’s worthwhile.

Tactics: Definitely worth it as you could possibly take out all your Accuracy enhancements (or at least one of them if you had two in a power). This effects Fluffy too meaning you could possibly slot him/her/it with an endurance reducer, a heal, or a 6th ToHit Debuff. I’ve experimented with a Tactics build that allows me to take a slot from every Secondary power and 3 from my Primary powers to 6-slot tactics and 6-slot Fluffy while keeping the rest of my powers as is. It’s a nice build but it depends on Tactics to be running and endurance usage can get hairy. I took Conserve Power to offset this and it worked pretty well.

Vengeance: Any power that requires a death to work is just not cool in my book but the buffs from this power are incredibly good and it provides mezz protection. Still “meh” but it has it’s uses I guess.

Concealment:

Stealth: Useless, Shadowfall already does it.

Grant Invisibility: Not useless but Shadowfall gives team stealth. Take it if you’re on the path to Phase Shift.

Invisibility: Since you’ll already have this in Shadowfall + Super Speed, this too is redundant but if you want to look more invisible, I’d take it on the way to Phase Shift.

Phase Shift: Since it was changed to a 30 second timed toggle, this has seriously diminished it usefulness. I don’t think it’s worth 3 power picks but some people might. It still costs a ton and has somewhere around a minute recharge (I think) and personally, the drawbacks outweigh the advantages.

Fighting:

Tough/Weave simply don’t put up the numbers like Scrappers and Tanks. Wait for the Ancillary Pools and take the Armors there because they’re much more impressive. Boxing and Kick are even more worthless to a Defender.

Teleportation

Recall Friend: Incredibly valuable as you can Teleport your Fluffy around but since he can go up elevators now, it’s not as bad as it was before. Still a team-friendly power that is useful from level 6-50.

Teleport Foe: I guess you could pull with it but I wouldn’t recommend this power as you don’t necessarily want any enemies up in yo’ grill.

Teleport: The fastest travel power when slotted correctly, this takes some getting used to and probably needs a bind to really work as well as you’d like. When I have used teleport, I bound it to my left shift button so all I have to do is hit shift and then click. It is costly when you first get it but if you want to slot it up, it’s insanely fast and will get you across large distances quickly. However, it isn’t easy to go exactly where you want to go, especially if you want to go somewhere in mid-air.

Group Teleport: Probably among the more useless powers in the game, it doesn’t have the distance of Teleport and it costs a lot for how much distance you travel. It might be useful if you have Howling Twilight and want to group rez but other than that, no use for it.

Leaping

Combat Jumping: Nice early power to have and it gives defense and immobilization protection. If you go the Super Jump route, there is no reason not to take this. It’s also dirt cheap so you can run it all the time.

Super Jump. IMO, the best Travel Power because it gives good vertical movement with great speed. Plus, it’s not that expensive to run.

Acrobatics: Some Mezz protection is better than none and knockdown can get annoying. Is it worth a toggle power? Maybe, but I don’t recommend it.

Ancillary Pools (Levels 41-49)

Ancillary pools, in my opinion, should be totally your decision and what you want to do. I know I will go with the Dark Pool for concept reasons but also because there are some cool possibilities with my current powers. Power Mastery is also a popular set because every power in it is useful and wanted. I have little experience with Psychic and Electric Mastery but since they’re much like their counterparts in the other sets, I think I can assume what they do.

Dark Mastery

Oppressive Gloom: A toggle that causes all nearby foes to become disoriented at the expense of your Hit Points (the more foes in range the more it drains you) and a very meaningless amount of endurance (something like .12 end/sec). Now that Issue 5 has reduced most Mez powers, Oppressive Gloom is kind of worth something as an added control feature. If you stack it with Howling Twilight and Dark Pit, you should be able to disorient Bosses but since Howling Twilight comes up so infrequently, you’re best to stick with Dark Pit + Oppressive Gloom to take out Lts. It looks cool too!

Dark Consumption: Unfortunately, this power is not like the Scrapper version. The base recharge on this power is 6 minutes and this, in my opinion, kills any usefulness it might have had. The only way this power is useful is if you 6-slot it with recharge reducers and have perma-hasten. At best, it comes up every 97 seconds, 90 seconds if you +3 all your enhancements. That doesn’t take into consideration an accuracy that the power should have in it or endurance recovery enhancements to make the power more worthwhile per mob. If you leave it at its base slot and slot one accuracy in it, it will recharge at the exact same rate as the base recharge of your Nuke. So you could use it as an “after-nuke” power. But, because Nukes take all your endurance now, you won’t be able to use it, even if it only takes 5 endurance or some small number to use. Even though this power is very situational, it’s still “better” than Oppressive Gloom, in my opinion. I picked Oppressive Gloom out of frustration for this power and because I like to glow red.

Dark Embrace: The sweet, sweet armor I’ve been craving for so I don’t die instantly becomes available at level 44. Like most Ancillary armors, it gives good (25%) Smash/Lethal resistance but it also gives Negative and Toxic resistance as well (25%). Couple this with Shadowfall and you can put up some modest resistance numbers. The only thing that you won’t be protected against is Fire/Cold damage. Not bad for a squishy. I would suggest 1 Endurance Reducer and 5 Resist SOs which would bring you to 50% resistance to Smash/Lethal/Negative/Toxic and if you slot Shadowfall up with 5 resistance SOs then you’d have a total 50% to Smash/Lethal/Toxic 50% to Energy/Psionic and finally 100% resistance to Negative(!). Since Defenders can only get 75% resists, this isn’t doing too shabby. Note, however, that running both Dark Embrace and Shadowfall with one Endurance Reducer in each will drop your overall endurance gain by 1 endurance per second (from 2.92 endurance/sec to 1.99 end/sec). Practically speaking, it’s almost like turning Stamina off. If this is too much, slot another reducer into one or both.

Soul Drain: This is probably the reason you took Dark Mastery, if you’re like me and want to do a ton more damage. Soul Drain, like the Scrapper Secondary power, pulls the essence out of foes around you and increases your damage and accuracy, while also doing damage and debuffing them. The effect lasts 30 seconds and you get ~5% (tested at around 4.88%) more damage and accuracy to your attacks per mob that it hits. Basically, it’s a combat “Build-Up,” something we D3s don’t have it all besides Tar Patch. Since the most targets you can hit is 10, you could theoretically add 50% Damage and Accuracy to all your attacks for 30 seconds. Since you’ll want this on as much as possible, I suggest slotting it out with as many Recharge Reducers as you can. According to my HeroPlanner, it has a +20% accuracy built in so an Accuracy in it would also make it very reliable even in the red-purple range. What I’ve done, beyond the normal “use at the start of a fight and kill stuff” is to fire off a Fearsome Stare, throw down Tentacles and Tar Patch (maybe cast Darkest Night on a lieutenant in the group), run in and Soul Drain then fire off Blackstar. With Tar Patch and Soul Drain, Blackstar (6-slotted for Damage) should blow most everything away and those that survive will be seriously debuffed. Plus I have a Fluffy behind me doing mop up and watching my back.

Power Mastery

Conserve Power: This a really difficult power to pass up, even from among the other Ancillary Pools. Basically, for the 90 second duration that it is up, your endurance costs from all powers is cut in half and this translates to virtually unlimited endurance because with 6-slotted Stamina, you’ll regain faster than you lose. You can blast, debuff, hold, cast Fluffy, whatever to your hearts content and not even blink at your blue bar. This power is so good that you’d be a fool not to have it up as much as you can. 6-recharge SOs and perma-hasten will get the recharge down from 600 to about 160 so it will be up 90 seconds and down 70. If you get all +3 SOs then it drops to 150 and it will be up 90 and down 60 (so up 2/3 of the time). With it on you can run every toggle and keep blasting so this is a very nice power to have.

Power Build Up: Another gem of the set, PBU not only gives you Build Up (+80% damage and +60% Accuracy) but affects all secondary functions of your powers. Heals will go up, -Accuracy debuffs will increase, Holds will hold longer, Immobilizes will last longer, etc. It’s an all-around awesome power to have. It lasts 15 seconds rather than the usual 10 for Build Up but has a 4 minute down-time rather than a 90 second one. If you want it to function at the same level as Build Up (time-wise) then you’ll have to have 3 recharge reducers and perma-hasten to get it to a 90 second recharge. The best you can get it down to is 60 seconds with 6 +3 SOs but the slots are going to be needed elsewhere.

Temporary Invulnerability: This is just like the Tanker version except that it gives 30% to Smash/Lethal. That’s all it does. No Energy, Toxic, Fire/Cold, Negative…just Smash/Lethal. It’s still nice to have however so do take it and slot it with an endurance reducer and the rest as resists. You could get your Smash/Lethal up to 60%.

Total Focus: Much like the Blaster/Tanker version, Total Focus is an extreme damage single-target attack that also has a Mag 3 Disorient built in (will affect a boss). It does require melee range and has a long animation time but those are its only downsides. If the Brawl Index is the same for Defenders as it is for Tankers, it would be at 9.8889 (compared to a Snipe at 7.6667) base and could be enhanced up to 26.5 with 1 Accuracy/5 Damage. Basically, it will be your single-target monster damage. However, I suggest taking it at 47 instead of 49 if you intend to slot it because the level 47 power can get 6-slotted while the 49 cannot. So you’ll have to choose between Temporary Invulnerability or Total Focus at level 47.

Psychic Mastery

Dominate: Foe Hold plus Psi damage (in the same league as Dark Blast), this would either replace Petrifying Gaze or be used in conjunction with it to hold a boss in short order. Since it is a “Controller” Hold, it already has a +20% bonus to Accuracy but it recharges just as fast as Petrifying Gaze. For CD3s, this is awesome because you’ll do damage while holding. If you take this, I suggest one Accuracy in the initial slot or going all out and pump it full of Damage. It’s kind of an all-or-none thing.

Mass Hypnosis: This power puts a large group to Sleep, which means that anything that affects them will wake up, somewhat like the Fear effect on Fearsome Stare. Good for crowd control before a battle, this power (like other mass control powers) has a 10% accuracy penalty and will need to make up for it in an Accuracy SO. I currently have no experience with this power so I can’t even begin to say how to use it. Since all AoE Holds have been reduced, I’m out of the loop on the numbers for this power.

Mind Over Body: Like the other Ancillary Powers, this one gives Smash/Lethal/Psi resistance at 25% each. Unlike other sets, you already have Psi resistance in Shadowfall so this would increase it even more. Again, 1 Endurance Reducer/5 Resists if you can spare the slots.

Telekinesis: Another power I have no experience with. I gather that it’s an incredibly expensive toggle that is an AoE Hold. Whether it was affected in Issue 5, I don’t know but if it is as expensive as I assume, endurance reducers would be in quick order.

Electric Mastery

Electric Fence: Possibly the most useless Ancillary Power for a D3, Electric Fence simply Immobilizes a single foe and does minor damage to them (with a terribly small endurance drain attached). All I can say is to skip it because it just doesn’t do anything you can’t do already. Plus the power that could be taken in its place is so much better.

Thunder Strike: One of the more impressive melee attacks from the Electric Secondary of Blasters, Thunder Strike is a superior, near-Snipe level, damage close-quarter area of effect attack that disorients the target and hits everyone around them and knocks them down. Unfortunately, like most of the heavy hitting melee attacks (Total Focus, etc.) this has a longer recharge (20 seconds) and heavy endurance usage (21.5), This also drains a fair amount of endurance although it’s nothing compared to the next power. One Accuracy and 5 Damage is my personal suggestion and you’ll have a great melee attack should you want it at level 41.

Charged Armor: Much like the other Ancillary armors, Charged Armor gives you the standard 25% resistance to Smash/Lethal/Energy and since those are the most common damage types, it’s possibly the most useful of the 4 sets. Adding Shadowfall into the mix would give you some very good numbers across the board but would get you to the cap for Energy damage. This power looks pretty cool and causes you to “spark” all over and the noise of running it isn’t annoying like some of the others. Like all the armors one endurance reducer and as many resists you can spare should go into it.

Power Sink: Works much like Dark Consumption in that it draws endurance from foes around you and the more foes the more endurance, however, this one does no damage but instead actually drains endurance from enemies. It naturally drains about 75% of the endurance from even level foes and you can fill up from about 3 mobs. It also appears to be an auto-hit because it doesn’t take accuracy enhancements. I’ve never seen it miss so, I think it has very high accuracy (like Burn) or auto-hits. This power only has a 60 second recharge and Hasten drops it to 35 seconds already so one more recharge would make it available every 30, or about once a fight. From there, you could add Endurance recovery enhancers to get more endurance out of every foe (requiring less foes to get you to full) or endurance drain enhancers to drain enemies more. Personally, I would only add a few slots and fill your remaining powers with the slots you saved but if you 6-slot this you’ll have a great power too.

Miscellaneous

Tips

- Early on it’s best to slot all your toggles with endurance reducers because the boost to the actual is so minimal that you’ll hardly notice it. While the same can be said for how much Training Enhancements reduce the amount of endurance you’re being drained, endurance is a much more valuable commodity than the debuff. I heard this a long time ago from an Supergroup mate and he told me a very simple rule: don’t buy Training Enhancements. Save your influence until level 12 and buy Duel Origins. The boosts you’re getting from Trainers are minimal and you’ll be fine with what you find doing missions or hunting.

- Know what you’re going to choose for a power or what you’re going to slot far in advance. Use a HeroPlanner or similar program to chart out what you’re taking and when and also how you are slotting it. Having a build laid out in advance can save you a lot of frustration later.

- It’s very tempting to slot out attacks but try to put slots in your Primary early on so you don’t have to later. Again, Training Enhancements don’t do a hill of beans in the long run so slot out your Primary and get the slots in before slots become a premium.

- Fluffy AI: Like all pets, Fluffy suffers from some silly AI but there are a few things that you can almost always count on. First, he almost always lead offs with Tenebrous Tentacles and he attacks the closest enemy. What this means is that they will aggro large groups do to the cone nature of Tentacles which can sometimes be his undoing. Their second attack is usually Petrifying Gaze and he will cast it on the enemy he just Tentacled. At this point he will check his own health and decide whether to cast Twilight Grasp. If he takes any damage whatsoever, he will use Twilight Grasp as soon as it is available and on the enemy he has been attacking. This heal will interrupt his “routine” of Tentacles and Petrifying gaze as it take priority over other attacks. Thirdly, he really likes to avoid melee range. Even though he has a personal aura, he rarely gets in range to use it. If you want him in melee combat, you pretty much have to cast him in it. How he uses Darkest Night is a bit of a mystery to me because I just never notice that he’s using it as it never jumps out when he does. One thing I do know, however, is that if he uses it, it only lasts about 10 seconds on any particular enemy and then it shuts off so he doesn’t keep it on all the time. And finally, the best piece of advice I can give you is this: kill the enemy he’s attacking. He doesn’t switch targets often so if you want him to affect another enemy, you have to dispatch the one he’s preoccupied with. Just make a routine of taking out his targets so he can hold and debuff the next.

- Know your own limits. It is sometimes very tempting to run ahead of your team because you know you can control most groups however, you are still a Squishy. You simply cannot take the damage of most alpha strikes later on and will find yourself eating dirt if you get overzealous. With Fluffy, this isn’t as much of a problem because he can heal you but still, let the Tank or Scrapper draw the initial aggro. At the same time, many mobs are clustered when they spawn and almost always perfectly arranged for your cones. Again, hang back and let someone take the initial alpha strike before tossing out a Fearsome Stare or Dark Pit because should you miss any great number of them, you’re going to face plant. Darkest Night is the exception here because it auto-hits but if you haven’t slotted it incredibly well (or at all) enemies can still hit you with a little luck.

- Don’t be surprised if teammates don’t understand your powers. I’ve had to explain what I do many times so don’t take offense if they simply don’t understand. Many times, seeing is believing so just get into the mission and show them what you do. If they still want that Empathy or Bubbler, let them try to get one without complaining. If you do your job, the Empath will say “I have nothing to do” and you’ll know that you’re getting it done.

- Feared mobs don’t fight back. If you can help it, after Fearsome Staring, take targets out one at a time because if you don’t attack the Feared enemies, they just stand there cowering until affected. This can be hard to do with Fluffy or if the mob is just screaming to get Tentacled/Nightfalled so just be a good judge of when you can do this.

- Team Play. When on a team, debuff/control before attacking (as a general rule) as your damage will pale in comparison to any Scrapper/Blaster worth his salt. Once your primary duty is fulfilled, blast away for two reasons. One, you’re adding damage, even if it isn’t stellar and two, because the more you attack, the more you’re debuffing the enemy’s accuracy, which in turn creates safety. So even by attacking, you’re fulfilling your main duty. Don’t believe, however, that the –Accuracy on your blasts will be enough to ensure team safety because at best, they’re only going to get up to 15-25% -Accuracy versus a Fearsome Stare or Darkest Night that does 20-35% by themselves. Adding that additional 15-25% on top of your Primary is what keeps everyone safe so know your role and fulfill it.

- CD3s. A well built CD3 will rival just about any good Controller so don’t be afraid to call yourself one. Yes, you don’t get the chance to “critical” a hold or get Containment but you will most definitely be able to control just as well and mitigate damage just as efficiently as some Controllers. If you’re on a team and they call for a Controller, just say “I’m already pretty good at that” and explain that you can fulfill that role. Once you get Fluffy, they’ll really begin to understand (because pets are supposed to only be for Controllers) but in the mean time, act like a blasting Controller.


And then, finally, there is Blackest Night himself. He is a bit of a variation on the BD3 and leans toward the Offender side of the coin. I play him like a CD3 but don’t have all the powers to make him one. At any rate, he kicks butt so I’m not complaining. This is what Blackest Night looks like at level 50. I still haven’t respec’d him as of Issue 5 because I’m toying with Tactics but here’s the proposed build.

Exported from version 1.5B of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Ranged : Dark Miasma
Secondary Powers - Support : Dark Blast

01 : Dark Blast acc(01) dam(3) dam(3) dam(5) dam(5) dam(7)
01 : Twilight Grasp acc(01) hel(7) hel(9)
02 : Gloom acc(02) dam(9) dam(11) dam(11) dam(13) dam(13)
04 : Moonbeam acc(04) dam(15) dam(15) dam(17) dam(17) dam(19)
06 : Darkest Night endred(06) thtdbf(19) thtdbf(21) thtdbf(21) thtdbf(23)
08 : Hover fltspd(08)
10 : Swift runspd(10)
12 : Fearsome Stare acc(12) recred(23) ferdur(25)
14 : Fly fltspd(14)
16 : Tenebrous Tentacles acc(16) dam(25) dam(27) dam(27)
18 : Health hel(18)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(29) endrec(29) endrec(31) endrec(31) endrec(31)
22 : Shadow Fall endred(22) damres(33) damres(33) damres(33) damres(34) damres(34)
24 : Night Fall acc(24) dam(34) dam(36) dam(36) dam(36) dam(37)
26 : Petrifying Gaze acc(26) recred(37) hlddur(37)
28 : Hasten recred(28) recred(39) recred(39) recred(39) recred(40) recred(40)
30 : Super Speed runspd(30)
32 : Dark Servant acc(32) thtdbf(40) thtdbf(42) hel(42)
35 : Tar Patch recred(35) recred(42) recred(43) recred(43) recred(43) recred(45)
38 : Blackstar dam(38) dam(45) dam(45) dam(46) dam(46) dam(46)
41 : Oppressive Gloom acc(41)
44 : Dark Embrace damres(44) damres(48) damres(48) damres(48) damres(50) damres(50)
47 : Soul Drain acc(47) recred(50)
49 : Recall Friend inttim(49)

-------------------------------------------

01 : Brawl Empty(01)
01 : Sprint Empty(01)
02 : Rest Empty(02)

The Tactics Build, which is quite a different, takes all the accuracies out of every power (the slots themselves) and that fuels 6-slotted Tactics and 6-slotted Fluffy. I picked up Conserve Power from the Power Ancillary for endurance issued associated with the extra toggle. On Test, it works pretty well. Here’s that build:

Exported from version 1.5B of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Ranged : Dark Miasma
Secondary Powers - Support : Dark Blast

01 : Dark Blast dam(01) dam(3) dam(3) dam(5)
01 : Twilight Grasp hel(01) hel(5)
02 : Gloom dam(02) dam(7) dam(7) dam(9) dam(9)
04 : Moonbeam dam(04) dam(11) dam(11) dam(13) dam(13)
06 : Darkest Night endred(06) thtdbf(15) thtdbf(15) thtdbf(17) thtdbf(17)
08 : Hover fltspd(08)
10 : Swift runspd(10)
12 : Fearsome Stare recred(12) ferdur(19)
14 : Fly fltspd(14)
16 : Tenebrous Tentacles dam(16) dam(19) dam(21)
18 : Health hel(18)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(21) endrec(23) endrec(23) endrec(25) endrec(25)
22 : Shadow Fall endred(22) damres(27) damres(27) damres(29) damres(29) damres(31)
24 : Night Fall dam(24) dam(31) dam(31) dam(33) dam(33)
26 : Petrifying Gaze recred(26) hlddur(33)
28 : Hasten recred(28) recred(34) recred(34) recred(34) recred(36) recred(36)
30 : Assault endred(30)
32 : Dark Servant thtdbf(32) thtdbf(36) thtdbf(37) thtdbf(37) thtdbf(37) hel(39)
35 : Tar Patch recred(35) recred(42) recred(42) recred(42) recred(43) recred(43)
38 : Blackstar dam(38) dam(39) dam(39) dam(40) dam(40) dam(40)
41 : Tactics endred(41) thtbuf(43) thtbuf(45) thtbuf(45) thtbuf(45) thtbuf(46)
44 : Conserve Power recred(44) recred(46) recred(46) recred(48) recred(48) recred(48)
47 : Temp Invulnerability damres(47) damres(50) damres(50) damres(50)
49 : Super Speed runspd(49)

-------------------------------------------

01 : Brawl Empty(01)
01 : Sprint Empty(01)
02 : Rest Empty(02)

So there you have it! One of the most complete guides to the D3 out there, I hope this has helped. Have fun with your D3 and I hope you get as much enjoyment out of them as I did!

Hope to see you around so we can team!

Endurance Problem Solving *Addendum*

Toggles

Depending on how you use your toggles, you can save endurance by not relying on them less but by knowing the situation you're in and making a decision on when having the toggle up is more detrimental (as it drains endurance) then having it down (and possibly taking damage). For many situations, the "cut-off point" is smudged and you can never be truly sure if/when dropping, say Darkest Night, will breach your personal/team safety but there is usually a time in every battle where you or your team begin feel that the battle is under control. At this critical point, you have the opportunity to start dropping toggles to regain lost endurance.

For example, let's say that you and a Blaster are in a mission fighting Freakshow. There are 6 of them, a Freak Tank, two Lieutenants and 3 Minions. You start off with a Fearsome Stare on the whole group which Fears all but one of the Lieutenants (Freak Tanks can be feared with one application). The Lieutenant blasts you with electrical energy, giving you the heads up that you missed one. Immediately, you lock down the Lieutenant with a Fearsome Stare. The Blaster follows your Stare with an AoE (say Fireball) and this causes all the Feared enemies to retaliate. The Blaster is Alpha'd and goes down to yellow health, which you heal using the Tank as as the target to slow his Regen. Sensing that another Alpha like that may kill one or both of you, you put Darkest Night on the Tank and then turn on Shadowfall to give both of you Energy resistance (which the Freaks are using). With both toggles running and the effect of Fear, the battle goes smoothly and you drop all the minions and one Lieutenant with ease. All that is left is the second Lieut. and the Tank. This is the critical point I'm talking about. This battle, most likely, has gotten over the "dangerous" phase and is in the "clean up" phase. You know that you can now control the Freak Tank and the Lt. without the use of Toggles. Now, you may miss with a Fear or a Petrifying Gaze which means that having the toggles up could save you. That is your call to make. However, barring a bad string of misses, the toggles have become more detrimental in the long run and you should probably turn them off. Having battlefied presence of mind is among the greatest assets you can have and will go a long way to saving you endurance.

Finally, I'll mention it though I shouldn't have to: turn Sprint off in battle. It's a meager endurance drain but a drain nonetheless. Combat Jumping is definately ok and so is Hover. Any Travel Power is also a waste of endurance in battle with the supression factor now so turn them off as well.

Attacks

Toggles may drain you but gratuitous use of power is likely the culprit of why you're out of blue bar. Simply put, spamming unneccessary attacks is the number one killer of endurance so knowing when/where/why to use your attacks is critical. In my experience, not waiting for the damage over time from Gloom and Tentacles (to an extent Nightfall) causes me to become impatient and use a Dark Blast to finish the guy. That's 7.5 Endurance I could have saved. Also, there are certain powers that come up so frequently and have so many good uses that you use them every time they refresh. The perfect example is Fearsome Stare. The Fear effect lasts 15-20 seconds easy so using it again before that time just for that purpose is wasteful. It also has a Debuff associated with it and that's why I like to spam it, but, if I'm running Darkest Night, using Tentacles/Nightfall and have already Fearsome Stared once, I probably have most enemies to the 5% Accuracy cap anyway. A second application for the debuff alone is inefficient. Little tricks like that go a long long way in saving endurance.

Don't take Hasten

Hasten, while I strongly encourage it for many reasons, does cause you to burn through endurance faster. With so many useful powers at your disposal, Hasten just brings them up faster and causes them to scream "Use me!" all the time. I personally had to discipline myself from using Petrifying Gaze every time it came up because I found I was really getting hurt endurance-wise. Having Hasten is great if you can control your need to always be doing something. Compulsive use of powers is your worst nightmare in Endurance Land.

Team Tactics

What has already been said is very good advice, especially when fighting anything a few levels higher than you. Since your damage will drop off sharply when fighting +3 or 4s, it is best to use your endurance to control or debuff. However, once you hit the purple range, accuracy also begins to drop off so you aren't as reliable at hitting with Petrifying Gazes or Fearsome Stares (or heals for that matter) and you'll want to rely more on toggles that are autohit.

That is why I still suggest that CD3s get Darkest Night because it always hits. Granted, against +4s the 35% Debuff is scaled down to 17% but that's better than the zeros that you're getting from missed Fearsome Stares. Enhancing Darkest Night just adds more cushion of safety so that is also why having it slotted up becomes noticeable. 6-slotted, 1 End/5 ToHit brings you to 90% -Acc on an even con and 43% to a +4.

Finally, pets will get you into more trouble than anything. Many times you’ll be standing there, everyone stealthed because of Shadowfall, and your Fluffy will decide it is a good idea to Tentacle the pack of +3s and 4s in front of you. Instant aggro, instant scrambling and many times, instant death usually entails. I honestly don’t cast Fluffies if the enemies are high enough to the point that their AI is more of a liability than their powers are an advantage. This happens a lot on missions where the Tank could easily herd the room but my stupid pets decide to immobilize one third of them as the enemies chase after the tank.

YAAAAAA!!!!

I'm going to respec tonight into your CD3 build. Thanks a ton for the guide and making one of the coolest powersets even better!

Great guide BN!
It's up to the benchmak you set with your first dark/dark guide.

Heres my current build, which is a bit different. It isn't the most powerful D3, or the best, it's just the one I have the most fun with and don't die too often

Exported from version 1.5B of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Ranged : Dark Miasma
Secondary Powers - Support : Dark Blast

01 : Dark Blast acc(01) dam(3) dam(5) dam(7) dam(9) dam(11)
01 : Tar Patch recred(01) recred(13)
02 : Gloom acc(02) dam(3) dam(5) dam(7) dam(9) dam(11)
04 : Darkest Night endred(04) thtdbf(13) thtdbf(25) thtdbf(31) thtdbf(36) thtdbf(37)
06 : Twilight Grasp acc(06) acc(37)
08 : Shadow Fall endred(08) damres(25) damres(31) damres(36) damres(43) damres(43)
10 : Hover fltspd(10)
12 : Hasten recred(12) recred(15) recred(17) recred(17) recred(19) recred(19)
14 : Fly fltspd(14) fltspd(15) fltspd(34)
16 : Swift runspd(16)
18 : Health hel(18)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(21) endrec(21) endrec(23) endrec(29) endrec(29)
22 : Fearsome Stare acc(22) acc(23) ferdur(31) ferdur(37) recred(34)
24 : Tenebrous Tentacles conrng(24) acc(39) dam(40) dam(40) dam(40) dam(42)
26 : Night Fall acc(26) dam(27) dam(27) dam(36) dam(39) dam(39)
28 : Super Speed runspd(28)
30 : Petrifying Gaze acc(30) hlddur(43)
32 : Dark Servant endred(32) acc(33) thtdbf(33) thtdbf(33) thtdbf(46) thtdbf(34)
35 : Howling Twilight recred(35)
38 : Hurdle jmp(38)
41 : Power Buildup recred(41) recred(42) recred(42)
44 : Temp Invulnerability endred(44) damres(45) damres(45) damres(45) damres(46) damres(46)
47 : Total Focus acc(47) dam(48) dam(48) dam(48) dam(50) dam(50)
49 : Conserve Power recred(49) recred(50)

-------------------------------------------

01 : Brawl Empty(01)
01 : Sprint Empty(01)
02 : Rest Empty(02)

A bit of explanation is in order.

Superspeed and hurdle were powers I picked up from pools I already have..I could have taken two leader powers, but I wanted powers that I wouldn't be slotting up.

No Blackstar - Tried it in I4...meh...It needs 6 slots to be worth it and even then, I hate the idea of using 6 slots for a power I was only using as a panic button. My final conclusion...defender nukes just don't ring my bell.

No Moonbeam..actually dropped this power at level 33 and havn't looked back. Damage was nice but it seriously dropped the bottom out of my attack chain.

No Teleport...dropped this along with Moonbeam - recall friend was super-useful back when fluffy couldn't figure out elevator buttons, now, just not handy.

Power Mastery power pool - Okie...could've slotted Buildup and conserve power better..really wanted to 6 slot total focus to get it up to obscene damage levels and 6 slotting temp Inviln was a no-brainer.

Fearsome Stare...love the power and wanted it back..admittedly 5 slots may be considered going too far..just couldn't not do it.

Petrifying Gaze - has become a catch-breath power (along with FS), I mainly use it to take someone out of the fight for a small spell while I either clean up or get it together by swallowing Enhancers

Tactics
Fearsome stare stacks nicely, tar patch stacks a little. basically throw them both, and start spamming TT and Nightfall.

Use Darkest night for the big bad guys (and for bonus points, do /em newspaper for about a minute aferwards) and then lay buildup/total focus on them.

Conserve power is situational when end is getting low.

Fluffy gets to play a lot with the minions who with fluffy and
fearsome stare find their to-hit dropping though the floor .

Hope someone finds this useful

Nightdreamer -L50 Virtue

Awesome Guide, Thank you for all your hard work!

Great guide BlackestNight! Thank you very much for taking the time to contribute this.

I'd like to add a couple comments from my experience...

I do find Teleport Foe useful as a D3. Though arguably not the most efficient use, it's handy to grab a straggler who's just escaped my cones' reach. But where it really shines is in dealing with the more annoying mobs in the game, in particular, Sappers. I'll often use Teleport Foe to grab one of these pesky buggers from around a corner and drop him right on top of Fluffy. Between Dark Servant's debuffs and Petrifying Gaze set to auto-fire, I can typically neuter a Sapper faster than they can get a shot off. And even if I draw aggro from the remainder of the spawn, at least I'm pretty confident I've got that one sucker under control. (Works great on snipers too!)

Also, as compelling as your argument is for taking Blackstar, I'm really not fond of it. For me, the liabilities and its situational nature simply outweigh the benefits. There's never really a good time for any player, much less a Defender, to bottom out on endurance unless the threat from the mobs you're fighting is so trivial you can be relatively certain you're not putting yourself (or your team) in significant peril. If that's the case, then from my perspective, a couple extra seconds spamming Tentacles/Nightfall should be just as effective. In short, let the Blasters nuke - they're infinitely better at it than we are, AND more accustomed to face planting when things go awry.

Lastly, and you're welcome to give me a hard time on this, but I like Life Drain. Sure its damage is relatively anemic in relation to its end cost, but the longer recharge somewhat balances that out. And yeah, its heal stinks, but damn it has a sweet animation and sound effect! As a stubborn D3 who refuses to take Hasten, I find it useful as a third attack in my single-target chain. In short, is it efficient? Nope. But is it still practical? I dunno, but I certainly use it a hell of a lot more often than Blackstar. I definitely wouldn't recommend it though unless you've got one "fun" power to spare and a few free slots to beef up its damage.

Oh... and a couple notes on Psychic Mastery. This is the Ancillary pool to take if you're lamenting the i5 "adjustments" to Dark Miasma's control abilities, especially Petrifying Gaze. Though it stinks to break the Darkity-Dark theme, this set is all about control, control, control.

Dominate is simply an awesome hold. It recharges faster than Pet Gaze, it does damage, and may indeed have an ACC bonus (I'm a little skeptical on that one, but it's possible).

Mass Hypnosis definitely has its uses, though sleep powers can be quite situational if your team is inexperienced, trigger happy, or wading around with damage auras. I can't confirm if the Ancillary pool shares this trait, but one very significant advantage the Mind Controller version has is it's a completely non-aggro inducing power. This can be mighty useful if you're trying to sneak past a spawn, or keep two separate while pulling.

I don't have much to add about Mind Over Body, but here's a picture of it for those curious what it looks like (yes it's pink).

As for Telekinesis, this is possibly one of the very best holds in the game. Though it's limited to a maximum of 5 foes total, it can conceivably keep them locked down *indefinitely* so long as you have the endurance to maintain the toggle. That said, the cost for this power is insane - higher than even Phase Shift. Don't bother taking this unless you know you'll only need it for very brief intervals or can spare the slots to fill it up with endurance reduction enhancements.

Thanks for all the replies! I love how people come on to this Guide and share how they use their D3. I'm pretty stubborn when it comes to being "efficient" and I drop or don't take a lot of powers in the name of Efficiency.

Player_101 (didn't you go by a different name awhile back?) had some good points about Blackstar and that my "reasoning" for taking it is as mature as a 5 year olds. I just feel that if a Defender doesn't take their nuke then they are submitting to the "Defenders are weak" mentality. When a Defender can drop 16 guys at once, it shows the other ATs we have some meat to our bones. It's more psychological than practical.

I tried dropping Blackstar on Test for a Hover/Tactics build and while the build was great, not having Blackstar for certain times was "de-flating" I guess. Kind of like, dang, I couldn't take them all out with one shot. Anyway, thanks for the support...

Carry on!

Like Mana from Heaven, Blackest Night comes through with another awesome D3 guide. Thank you very much for the hard work and time you put in to this great guide.

Outstanding Guide!!!!!!

I love it.

Working on my first Dark/Sonic now, not tied into an EPP yet. This guide and the prior version very VERY helpful.

Thanks for taking the time.

Wow terrific guide, thanks. Two questions:

[ QUOTE ]
Fearsome Stare (Level 12)

Slotting is more of an issue now, however. With perma-Hasten alone, it comes up every 23.5 seconds but that’s not enough to make it stack. Adding a Recharge will drop it to every 20 seconds but it still would run out the second it came up again. My personal preference is 1 Accuracy, 1 Recharge, and 1 Fear Duration as it would give the power good accuracy, a 20 second recharge and a 26.6 duration, meaning self-stacking. More slots would make the power more useful but duration is all that should be slotted for as a recharge SO would only drop it another 3 seconds while Fear Duration ups it 6.6 seconds.


[/ QUOTE ]

I dont know alot about how slotting works but going by your description wouldnt it make more sense to slot this with 2 fear duration instead of 1 fear duration + 1 recharge? If I understand your explanation correctly then the former would give you 23.5 sec recharge and 33.2 sec duration roughly, as opposed to the latter 20 sec recharge and 26.6 sec duration.

Also just want to make sure, for Shadowfall, you gain all the benefits but the only thing that transfers to your teammates is the Stealth correct? The Def and Res dont apply to others? Or do they?

Great guide man. Just wanted to drop a reply real quick to facilitate adding this to my favorites... when I finally get around to leveling my D3 (so many alts, so little time), this is sure to be an invaluable resource. Until then, I guess I'll go back to the Scrapper boards...

Thanks,
Dr. Rob

[ QUOTE ]
Wow terrific guide, thanks. Two questions:

[ QUOTE ]
Fearsome Stare (Level 12)

Slotting is more of an issue now, however. With perma-Hasten alone, it comes up every 23.5 seconds but that’s not enough to make it stack. Adding a Recharge will drop it to every 20 seconds but it still would run out the second it came up again. My personal preference is 1 Accuracy, 1 Recharge, and 1 Fear Duration as it would give the power good accuracy, a 20 second recharge and a 26.6 duration, meaning self-stacking. More slots would make the power more useful but duration is all that should be slotted for as a recharge SO would only drop it another 3 seconds while Fear Duration ups it 6.6 seconds.


[/ QUOTE ]

I dont know alot about how slotting works but going by your description wouldnt it make more sense to slot this with 2 fear duration instead of 1 fear duration + 1 recharge? If I understand your explanation correctly then the former would give you 23.5 sec recharge and 33.2 sec duration roughly, as opposed to the latter 20 sec recharge and 26.6 sec duration.

Also just want to make sure, for Shadowfall, you gain all the benefits but the only thing that transfers to your teammates is the Stealth correct? The Def and Res dont apply to others? Or do they?

[/ QUOTE ]

My planned slotting for Fearsome Stare will be 2 Acc, 3 Fear, 1 Rech with perma hasten this maybe overkill but I hate missing.

As for the Shadowfall, stealth, defense and damage resistance applies to all teammates if they stay close enough to you.

[ QUOTE ]
I dont know alot about how slotting works but going by your description wouldnt it make more sense to slot this with 2 fear duration instead of 1 fear duration + 1 recharge? If I understand your explanation correctly then the former would give you 23.5 sec recharge and 33.2 sec duration roughly, as opposed to the latter 20 sec recharge and 26.6 sec duration.


[/ QUOTE ]

But the one recharge brings it back faster incase you miss.

Fearsome Stare:

The reason I say one recharge as opposed to two fear durations is more of a quality of life issue. 3.5 seconds of recharge vs. 6.6 seconds of longer fear doesn't seem like much of a choice: the longer fear wins out right?

In some cases yes, in others no. Solo, I say the two fears are better because you can launch your fear and have over 30 seconds to wipe everyone out. In teams where multiple mobs are involved, the faster recharge allows you to the ability to lock down more groups faster. 3.5 seconds doesn't seem like much sometimes but it could make or break your team in large-scale battles. At the same time, 6.6 seconds of extra fear doesn't seem like all that much either. Either case, you don't "lose" anything per se, you just trade off what you believe to be more advantagious.

More fear duration equals more "breathing room", quicker recharge means you can lock down multiple mobs or mobs you missed faster. It's a matter of playstyle.

I prefer more versatility over longer fear because 26.6 seconds is more than enough for my playstyle. Enemies simply don't last 26.6 seconds in most scenarios. The extra 6.6. does me no good. However, 3.5 seconds of faster recharge means I can use the power more often and lock down more enemies.

So the moral of the story is this: playstyle determines slotting. Your mileage may vary.

Cool, thanks for the detailed explanation. I agree the 3.1 second difference is not huge, but it didnt make sense to me when I read it which is why I asked. The multiple mobs thing makes perfect sense. Thanks.

Thanks for such an excellent guide! In particular, thanks for the detailed power comparisons. For instance, I knew moonbeam was an impressive power, but I never realized how good it was until now!

Thanks again, BlackestNight, for updating this guide!

I've found all of your guides incredibly helpful, and I recommend everyone that uses Dark to read this thoroughly.

As per usual...

Is there anything I can clear up or expand on to make the guide better?

Feel free to ask questions in this thread...it won't hurt my feelings, I promise!

Just to let you know that my work is never done, I've already been tooling around with Blackest Night himself to squeeze out every last drop of efficiency from every power. I've been going over every power and trying to tool it to the most efficient "min/maxed" build that I can attain.

I'll let you know how it goes. Suffice to say, I might be dropping a power and using the slots to max out powers that are close but not quite 6-slotted. I'll see what happens on Test.

Anyway, thanks for all the support thus far! Keep the questions coming!

I love this thread, everything I ever needed to know about my D3 in one convenient place.

How about the medicine pool? The Aid powers don't appeal much, but I usually duo with a Blaster and am thinking about Stimulant as a way to give her some mez protection when it's really needed.

Great guide! Thanks for the I5 Update.

BTW have you had Cuppa list this in the Player's Guide thread? Maybe I missed it but I didn't see this one there.

Damn you BN... this hasn't helpe dme at all with my alt-itis.

[ QUOTE ]
I love this thread, everything I ever needed to know about my D3 in one convenient place.

How about the medicine pool? The Aid powers don't appeal much, but I usually duo with a Blaster and am thinking about Stimulant as a way to give her some mez protection when it's really needed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow...it never dawned on me that Medicine Pool could be a viable choice for a D3...major oversight on my part.

Medicine

General thoughts: The Medicine pool would tool your D3 to be more team-friendly and more versatile as a traditional "healer" but my interpretation of Dark Miasma is that if you're doing your job, heals should not be a huge part of gameplay. Except for Stimulent, Dark Miasma contains "better" versions of the other 3 powers. I'll explain in the detailed descriptions of the Pool powers themeselves:

Aid Other: While Twilight Grasp is an excellent heal, a targeted heal (even if it is interruptable) can be valuable should Twilight Grasp miss the target or you're not in range of your teammate. However, Twilight Grasp costs less, recharges faster and heals multiple people in range. The only thing Aid Other has that is better than Twilight Grasp is that it doesn't miss, if it doesn't get interrupted. Both powers have a drawback to them but I'd have to say Twilight Grasp is far and away the better heal power, and that's not taking into consideration the debuffs associated with it.

Stimulent: The one power that really would be useful in a team setting where squishies are involved or the Scrappers/Tanks haven't gotten their Mez resistance yet. I have little experience with this power and couldn't tell you how long the resistance lasts but even if it's only 10-15 seconds, that's incredibly helpful if you're getting mezzed all the time. Of all the powers in the Medicine Pool to take, this is the only one I'd suggest.

Aid Self: A self-heal that is interruptable. For the same reasons as I said above in Aid Other, Twilight Grasp is still the better heal. This could be good if you like to play a tank mage role and do intentionally take hits for the team. Other than that, stick with Twilight Grasp.

Resuscitate: For the same reasons the other Heals in the Medicine Pool are different but inferior to Dark Miasma's counterparts, this too is inferior in every way but one: it doesn't take an enemy nearby to use. Howling Twilight's main drawback is the reason this power shines a little brighter, but you'd have to spend 3 powers to get it and the rez itself is far worse than Howling Twilight's. Resuscitate is the same cost, same recharge as HT but the rez itself is far inferior (half hitpoints, no endurance as opposed to full for both with HT).

Overall, the pool is skippable in my opinion or if you had an extra pool and an extra power to grab, Stimulent could be worth it.