Bruting the Earthen Devil Way - DM/Stone, V 0.9

Bruting the Earthen Devil Way - Dark Melee/Stone Armor, Version 0.9



About Earthen Devil

Earthen Devil is a character I conceptualized towards the end of beta, if my memory isn't mistaken. I found the idea of two very cool powersets I had never played previously mashed together appealing. Especially since I saw some decent synergy between them.

The fact that he'd be an evil earth-warrior/Satan incarnate of sorts, playing opposite to Captain Planet and the like, was just icing on the cake.


Dark Melee

Dark Melee is a unique powerset, to be sure. It's a powerhouse, but at the same time offers a nice smattering of control, not to mention its handy accuracy debuff. It's rather quick to mature, but this can also be a downside if you like having a wide variety of attacks at your disposal. Its other main downside is lack of AoE ability. Also, depending on circumstances, its dual damage types can be a blessing or a curse.


Shadow Punch

You wrap your fists with Negative Energy channeled from the Netherworlds, then perform a quick punch that deals minor damage. Shadow Punches cloud the target's vision, lowering his Accuracy for a short time. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Fast

Use it or Lose it?: Use it!

Opinion: The big thing about this power is that it's quick and dirty. It has both a fast animation time and a relatively fast recharge, perfect for building Fury. The accuracy debuff is a nice bonus.

Smite

You wrap your fists with Negative Energy channeled from the Netherworlds, then perform a Smite that deals more damage than Shadow Punch, but has a longer recharge time. Smite clouds the target's vision, lowering his Accuracy for a short time. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Moderate

Use it or Lose it?: Use it!

Opinion: Smite is your big smasher, which is a boon considering you can get it at level 1. With high Fury, you can reach very impressive damage levels. As it says right there, it's slower than Shadow Punch, but not prohibitively so. Once again you get a nice accuracy debuff.

Shadow Maul

You wrap your entire arms with Negative Energy channeled from the Netherworlds, then perform a series of blows that deal a lot of damage over a short period of time to multiple targets in front of you. These blows cloud your target's vision, lowering his Accuracy for a short time. Damage: High(DoT), Recharge: Moderate

Use it or Lose it?: Use it!

Opinion: While some feel that Shadow Maul isn't particularly good for a Brute, I like it. It works as a nice attack to put inbetween Shadow Punches and Smites. Not to mention its usage as a tenderizer - once you slot it out, and at average Fury, one Shadow Maul and one Smite will slay Minions and Lieutenants nicely. And, since it's DoT, I like its ability to kill off running mobs without me having to chase them. Yes, the animation is a bit long and roots you, but the potential to hit more than one enemy at a time is nice, not just for the damage, but also for the ever present accuracy debuff.

Touch of Fear

The Netherworld is one scary place, and with but a touch, you can give your enemy a glimpse into this dark world. This will cause them to helplessly tremble in Fear. Foes in this state of panic have reduced Accuracy. Recharge: Moderate

Use it or Lose it?: Probably Use it!

Opinion: Touch of Fear is a little...meh. If there's one thing I'd say, it's to not take it particularly early unless you feel you really need the damage mitigation, as the endurance cost is a bit high. However, I like it as a demi-mez, that's for sure. The ability to temporarily lock down and debuff accuracy on things like PPD Ghosts is very good to have. I personally wouldn't slot for Fear Duration, it lasts pretty long already. The recharge is also pretty good too, in my opinion. My slotting as of now is 1 Accuracy, 1 End Reduction, and 1 Accuracy Debuff. Not only do I use to lock down troublesome mobs, but I also like to spam it on Bosses, Elite Bosses, and Heroes/AVs, along with those ever troublesome escaping mobs.

Siphon Life

You tap the power of the Netherworld and create a life transferring conduit between a foe and yourself. This will transfer Hit Points from your enemy to yourself. Foes Siphoned in this manner have their Accuracy reduced. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Slow

Use it or Lose it?: Use it!

Opinion: This is probably the most versatile skill in the whole powerset. With high Fury, the damage might very well be worth slotting for, and you can instead consider the healing effect a bonus, just like the accuracy debuff. I myself have it slotted for all heals. I'm not sure how a partial damage/healing set-up might work but I'd recommend an Endurance Reduction regardless.

Taunt

Taunt foes to attack you. Useful to pull enemies off allies and keep them attacking you to raise your Fury. An Accuracy check required to Taunt enemy players, but is not needed against critter targets. Recharge: Fast

Use it or Lose it?: I'd Lose it!

Opinion: While you do have very good defense from Stone Armor, you are definitely not a Tanker. At least probably not until you get Granite Armor. If you plan to team a lot, especially with squishier ATs, I would recommend this as a simple aggro management tool, but in small groups and especially solo, you don't really need it.

Dark Consumption

The dark power of the Netherworld allows you to tap the essence of your foe's soul and transfer it to yourself. This will drain the Hit Points of your enemy and add to your Endurance. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Very Long

Use it or Lose it?: Your choice.

Opinion: When it comes to Dark Consumption, it's entirely up to you whether or not to take it. It wholly depends on whether you get Stamina, slot Stamina, and/or slot for Endurance Reduction. For me, I didn't plan on slotting my armors for Endurance, and while I did get Stamina, I only used its base slot. I would definitely slot for Recharge and at least one Accuracy if you do plan to use it a lot. But I wouldn't waste any slots on Endurance Modification. Two enemies hit will bring you up most of the way, and three will just about do it. However, I've rarely used this power when I'm near empty on End, I'll always use it a little earlier than that so a few foes will still get me filled up to full. If you're really aching for Endruance though, put in some blues.

Soul Drain

Using this power, you can drain the essence of all nearby foes' souls, thus increasing your own strength. Each affected foe will lose some Hit Points and add to your Damage and Accuracy. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Very Long

Use it or Lose it?: Your choice.

Opinion: Personally, I like this power, but it's definitely not essential. The main aspect that it brings to the table for me is a solid alpha strike on a larger mob, which will give me both immediate aggro and a quick jolt of accuracy and damage before Fury builds all the way up. However, I do find it rather pointless unless you have three or more targets, the bonus you get from just two enemies isn't enough to justify the animation time and endurance cost. If you really want some AoE damage, you could attempt to slot this for it and get decent results.

Midnight Grasp

Mastery over the forces of the Netherworld allows you to create dark tentacles that can Immobilize a foe and continuously drain his life force. Damage: Superior(DoT), Recharge: Slow

Use it or Lose it?: I'd Use it.

Opinion: Midnight Grasp is a very interesting power for a Brute to have. For one, it's a control. Very helpful when it comes to running mobs, obviously, along with setting up Shadow Mauls, Dark Consumptions, and Soul Drains if need be. However, I have a little more interest in the DoT aspect of it. Unlike Shadow Maul, the DoT here is applied slowly and after an initial burst and you can change targets after the intial cast. This means you can play around with the dynamics of being in two places at once. You can keep one foe alive, but debuffed, immobilized, and slowly dying, while beating the tar out of another. If you time it right, you can kill two mobs at the exact same time. This can theoretically net you slightly more Fury without costing you any extra time. And of course, the DoT aspect is also handy for interrupting attacks that can be. The only problem I have is that the animation seems to have a bit of a tail on it, in that you stay in the animation slightly longer than it takes for the attack to affect the foe. This leads to it mucking up my attack chain timing slightly.


Stone Armor

Stone Armor remains one of the best defensive sets in the game. You have protection to pretty much everything. It also arguably has one of the best, if not coolest looking final tier power.


Rock Armor

Your skin becomes stone while this power is active. Stone Armor protects you from Smashing and Lethal attacks. They are less likely to land and affect you. Stone Armor also grants you resistance to Defense DeBuffs. Cannot be active at the same time as Granite Armor. Recharge: Fast

Use it or Lose it?: You have to Use it!

Opinion: This is your bread and butter. You'll pretty much never want to stop wearing this armor. The endurance cost is very managable and the defense is pretty significant. This is the only damage type armor you'll have for a while, and it's great at what it does.

Stone Skin

Your tough skin is naturally resistant to Smashing and Lethal damage. This power is always on and costs no Endurance.

Use it or Lose it?: Your choice.

Opinion: The numbers on it are decent enough, and if you can fit it into your build, I would take it. However with my personal streamlined build, I don't have a purpose for it.

Earth's Embrace

You are so connected to the Earth, you can draw upon its power to add to your own health. Activating this power increases your maximum Hit Points, and grants you resistance to Toxic Damage. Recharge: Very Long

Use it or Lose it?: Use it!

Opinion: There's never been a +Total HP power I didn't like, and this is no exception. When you can afford the slots, I'd definitely recommend 3 Recharge and 3 Heal. The only downside is that it seems like the animation time is a bit slower than equivalent powers, which can lead to you splatting before it goes off if you're using it as a panic heal.

Mud Pots

While this power is active, you draw upon the geothermal power of the Earth to create a bubbling pool of hot mud around yourself. All foes in melee range will become snared and entrapped in the mud, Immobilizing some and slowing others. The boiling heat from Mud Pots may also deal some damage over time to the snared foes. Damage: Minor(DoT), Recharge: Fast

Use it or Lose it?: Your choice.

Opinion: On one hand, this could possibly fill Dark Melee's AoE gap if you slot it. On the other hand, it has a high endurance cost, a negligble mez component and looks and sounds ugly. It's really up to you and whether or not you take it, and if you can support its cost. It really didn't fit my playstyle, so I skipped it.

Rooted

While this power is active, you merge with the Earth and draw forth its power to become resistant to Knockback, Sleep, Hold, Disorient and Endurance Drain effects, and increase your Hit Point Regeneration rate. You must remain in close contact with the Earth, so you will move extremely slow and you cannot active Fly powers, Sprint, Super Speed, or Jump powers while this power is active. Rooted also grants you resistance to Defense DeBuffs. Recharge: Fast

Use it or Lose it?: Use it!

Opinion: Stone Armor's blessing and curse. While the need for it to have such an annoying -Speed component is dubious (when compared to similar powers, IMO), it's also very easy to get around using pool powers. The actual regeneration component seems a bit slow to me, but that could just be preception. My big complaint is that if you're using it on and off like I do most of the time, the status protection doesn't kick in until after the animation has totally completed, leading you to getting mezzed just as it's about to actually turn on. Otherwise, it's a solid power and another cornerstone (hehe) of /Stone.

Brimstone Armor

While this power is active, your skin becomes encrusted in cracked magma. Brimstone Armor makes you highly resistant to Fire and Cold damage. Cannot be active at the same time as Granite Armor. Recharge: Fast

Use it or Lose it?: I'd Use it.

Opinion: It's a topical armor and resistance at that. However, with fire-wielding Circle appearing around the time you get it and Longbow Flamerthrowers just about everywhere, it can be quite useful. Plus, it looks pretty cool (heh, no pun intended, please don't hurt me). I personally only have used its base slot, however.

Crystal Armor

While this power is active, your skin becomes encrusted in various quartz crystals. Crystal Armor makes Energy and Negative Energy attacks less likely to hit. This power also grants you resistance to Defense DeBuffs. Cannot be active at the same time as Granite Armor. Recharge: Fast

Use it or Lose it?: I'd Use it.

Opinion: Slightly more reliable than Brimstone Armor since it's defense, however Energy and Negative Energy aren't particularly common except with the Circle and the occasional Longbow Warden, plus a few Heroes. Once again, it looks cool and I only used its base slot.

Minerals

Activating this power summons several rare earth rock Minerals to orbit around you. These Minerals can disperse thought patterns and make Psionic attacks less likely to hit. They also bring clarity of the mind and increase your Perception to see hidden foes, and grant resistance to Confusion. Cannot be active at the same time as Granite Armor. Recharge: Fast

Use it or Lose it?: I'd Use it.

Opinion: Just like Crystal Armor, it protects against a relatively uncommon damage type. However, it can be helpful when Psychic damage does pop up (such as the occasional Fortunata or, more importantly, Night Widow). Plus the Perception can be handy against the assorted foes who use it. Unlike the other topical armors, it doesn't look all that cool, and once again I'm currently only using the default slot.

Granite Armor

When you activate this power, you are transformed into a massive bulk of unyielding Granite. Your incredible mass makes you almost completely invulnerable and resistant to most effects. However, you also become quite heavy, cannot fly, your attack and movement speed are Slowed and you do less damage. Granite Armor also grants you high resistance to Defense DeBuffs.Cannot be active at the same time as other Armors in this set, Fly powers, Sprint, Super Speed, or Jump powers. Recharge: Slow

Use it or Lose it?: I'd Use it.

Opinion: I haven't actually taken this yet. However, it'll definitely be helpful when you're in a bind and need to be a Tank for a little while. The big difference is that unlike a Tanker, this doesn't really remove the need for your other armors. A Tanker can still tank with Granite on all the time. However, it specifically strips you of your Bruting ability, while your topical armors do not.


Pool Powers

The power pools available are as follows:

Fighting
Fitness
Flight
Invisibility
Leadership
Leaping
Manipulation
Medicine
Speed
Teleportation

Ten pools. That's too many. Let's knock out the ones you won't ever need.

Fighting
Fitness
Flight
Medicine
Speed
Teleportation

Fighting

If you're building a Tanker build (though I personally wouldn't), you'll probably want this pool for Tough and Weave. They're End heavy, so you'll have to adjust for that.

Fitness

Take it and love it. Swift will help overcome the speed debuff in Rooted and Granite Armor, while Stamina is always nice to have if you plan on running lots of toggles. For me, I only use the default slot on Stamina and Dark Consumption can do the rest. I also don't bother to slot my armors for End Reduction. This means that I can keep going near infinitely, excluding these three factors:

- Lots of damage types. The more armors I have to run, the worse my End will be, obviously.
- End Drain. Duh.
- Fighting a single tough foe. EBs/AVs/Heroes will run me out of endurance if I'm not careful.

Hurdle is less useful since you can't jump with Rooted. I personally chose Health to compliment Rooted and provide some minor Sleep resistance if I happen to be caught not using Rooted.

Flight

Get Air Superiority if you need something to fill out your attack chain. Flight is only really useful if you want to get the drop on mobs. This isn't as efficient since you cannot activate Rooted until you're on the ground.

Medicine

The only reason to get this is Aid Self. That's it. Or if you're working on the healing badges. Personally, I don't really see the need for Aid Self, but if you want the extra security, it's not a terrible power choice.

Speed

The only reason you're going to want to pick this is for Hasten, and just maybe Super Speed. Hasten will help you deal with the lack of attacks as well as Granite's Recharge debuff. Super Speed is a good second choice for a travel power since it generally keeps you on the ground and provides a little stealth, good if you want to zip into the middle of a mob and then turn on Rooted. However, you can't use Super Speed with Rooted or Granite Armor.

Teleportation

The best travel power for Stone Armor users. Totally negates Rooted and Granite's speed debuffs, though it requires an extra slot or two to be friendly. TP Friend is handy, but TP Foe is a good tool for those times where you need to pull a runner back to you (or down, in the case of flying enemies) or thin a mob in the early game.


Basic Attack Chain

My most basic attack chain, and really the only one worth sharing is this:

0. All this assumes medium to full Fury.
1. Teleport (Into the middle of the group, if using Rooted. Otherwise running in is fine.)
2. Soul Drain (If the group is large enough.)
3. Smite + Shadow Maul Target 1
4. Shadow Punch + Midnight Grasp + Siphon Life Target 2
5. Repeat as necessary.


Alternate Builds

One of the best things about Dark/Stone is that it's very versatile. If you want a fuller attack chain, you can get Pool Powers. If you want to focus more on control, you can. If you want your endurance as stable as possible, you can shift slots around as you like. If you really just want to tank, you can do that too. Hey, even if you want to use pool powers I didn't list, you can go that way.

I really don't see me as the god of Dark/Stone builds or playstyles, so I leave all of that up to you.


Credits

Thanks muchly to NoFuture for the power information, especially the long help texts.

Hey, thanks for posting a guide for this combo, as thin as it may be. I just started a Dark/Stone brute. To give an example of another character theme that works really well with this combo, he's a waterlogged zombie pirate encrusted with rocks, shell, and other bits from the bottom of the ocean; like a member of Davy Jones' crew from movie PotC 2. Rock Armor looks brilliant on Barnacle Bart.

There is a bit of synergy with Dark Melee's -Acc ability and Stone's primarily +Def based armors. Recharge times for Dark's bread-and-butter attacks are the same as Fire's; while not the best, they're not the worst either and that doesn't hurt when in Granite.

Shadow Punch, Air Superiority, and Smite are good all-purpose attacks and I would recommend getting all three. Newbies avoid the temptation of picking up Shadow Maul right away. The three others I just mentioned will serve you much better. It's a cool power, but taking it too soon will only slow you down. Shadow Maul is most useful as a Big Shot after you've built up some fury and can afford to lose some. The animation is so long that you will see your fury bar drop even if you hit with it. You can catch more than one enemy with the power, but it helps to be tricky and use the environment to clump enemies together. The normal spread of enemies surrounding you in melee will usually be too wide for Shadow Maul to catch more than one, so you need to be proactive in your herding. The slow effect from Mud Pots could assist with clumping.

I recommend this progression for the first 6 levels:
1 - Shadow Punch
1 - Rock Armor
2 - Smite
4 - Earth's Embrace
6 - Air Superiority

Level 8 is the earliest you should consider taking Shadow Maul. And I would recommend Air Sup for basically any melee character, it's so awesome.

My troubles are with the 'utility' powers in Dark... I don't have any experience with them yet, and can't decide which ones to take and which to leave behind. Siphon Life, Touch of Darkness, Dark Consumption, Soul Drain... I'm not going to take them all. I figure I can make room for three.

Of the four, I figure Touch of Darkness and Soul Drain will be the most useful. I plan on taking Swift > Health > Stamina, so the question is whether I'll want the extra health more, or the AE damage and endurance boost of Dark Consumption.


any tips, anyone?

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any tips, anyone?

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Personally, I find Siphon life and Dark Consumption to be invaluable. Soul Drain is probably skippable, the +acc doesn't make a huge difference if you've double slotted for acc in the first place, and the damage bonus seems pretty insignificant compared to a near-full fury bar.
I haven't taken *Touch of Fear* yet, (at 30) and it's actually not even in my planned build to 40. I will probably pick it up in the 40's for the additional to-hit-debuff, which should be quite helpful against Hero-class enemies.

Siphon Life and Touch of Fear are the two you should definitely take.

As I said, SL can be either a full-on attack with a heal bonus or a heal with a slight damage component. The big advantage/disadvantage is that it's 100% Negative Energy damage.

And Touch of Fear can be used to lock down what kills Dark Melee / Stone: Accuracy debuffers (PPD Ghosts must die), foes that muck with recharge, and anything that uses slows. Plus the ability to add, I think...a 13~% To Hit debuff onto a target on top of the stacking 5~% ones is great.

After that, it highly depends on your slotting. If you're going to get Stamina and fully slot it, and also stick an End Reduction or two into a few of the toggles, I think the need for Dark Consumption is reduced greatly.

Soul Drain is best for alpha strikes, before you have over half Fury. You get a nice bonus to accuracy (which can be handy for foes that have annoying defenses, ie, Earth Thorns) and damage, while also gaining all that aggro immediately. And while I haven't tried it, I think slotting for damage would work pretty good. It's up often enough and if you're not going to slot for To-Hit, you can make an AoE attack out of it.


Also, love the character concept.

Well, as you can see by the sig, my Dark/Stone Brute has turned out to be one of my favorite characters so far. I see the combo as the most surviveable powerset combo CoV has to offer, and is an excellent AV/Hero-killer. My build centers around making the most out of Granite Armor, and working around its downsides.

Now, while the OP has some good points regarding the powers for a pre-Granite build, things change quite a bit once you can become an Unbeatable Killing Machine at 38. I personally run Granite almost 24/7, and have set up my powers and slots around this fact to squeeze the most I can out of it. Once you get Granite, it's my opinion/playstyle that you _should_ play the pseudo-tanker, and love it. Remember this one important fact: Fury (your biggest way to increase your overall damage output) increases every time you attack, whether it hits or not, and every single time you are attacked, whether you are hit or not. One way to get the most out of Stone Armor (post-Granite) is to be an aggro magnet, and build Fury like crazy. You can easily withstand the onslaught of as many mobs as possible. Most of your teammates can't say the same. And who else on your team actually gets stronger the more they get shot at?

So, my thoughts on the tools that will help you the most in a post-Granite Dark/Stone build:

<ul type="square">[*]Mud Pots. Mud Pots. Mud Pots. Yeah, I know. Little tiny damage numbers, great big endurance cost. I was used to it getting me in trouble with too much aggro pre-Granite, and thought about dropping it. Then I got Granite, and started looking at HeroStats, and was amazed. Slotted only for endurance, Mud Pots was showing up consistently as my 2nd-best overall damage power. Seeing that, I added one ACC and 2 DAM slots, and now it always lists as my #1. So it's your best form of offense, and it serves as a great Fury-builder, keeping nearby mobs aggroed on you. I know there's some debate about the usefulness of damage auras, but for Stone Armor, take yours. Take it, slot it, love it.[*]Taunt. For some brutes, Taunt is infinitely skippable. But not for this one. As mentioned before, you thrive on ticking mobs off. Think of it not just as a Taunt, but as a kind of mini-Build Up that recharges in 10-15 seconds, that costs 0 endurance. Also, it's one of the few ranged tools you have in your arsenal, which is something to think about when your mobility is limited by Rooted/Granite.[*]Dark Consumption. Post-Granite, you only really dread three things: Slows (talk about insult to injury ), psi damage, and endurance loss. No endurance = no Granite = dead Brute. But DC is a huge help for that. You can quickly refresh yourself after yet another %$#! Sapper / Spec Op / Mu draining, which is all you seem to get in the 40s, or just as importantly, you can keep up that sustained, Hastened, Full-Fury Beatdown on that AV/Hero without even having to munch on your Blues. For the latter case, I even slot 2 EndMods into DC. It's a little overkill, but 2 nearby enemies will give you a full bar of end, and even if it's just you and the AV/Hero mano-a-mano, 2 EndMods will give you about 2/3 of a bar of precious endurance.[*]Siphon Life. 1/6 or so of your health bar back every 15ish seconds, what's not to love? Again, versus minions it's not of much use, but this is one of those powers that lets you crank up the difficulty and face down those AVs without fear. And speaking of fear...[*]Touch of Fear. Very specific uses for this. Quickly lockdown that psi-wielding/endurance draining minion that gives you fits (great when combined with Teleport Foe for no-worry Sapper extermination). Pile it on EBs/AVs/Heroes for that ToHit Debuff (and if you're lucky, a great screenshot of them cowering before you )[*]Swift. Seems obvious to me, but the OP glossed over its usefulness. 3-slotted Swift greatly counteracts the pain of dealing with Rooted and, later, Granite. Without Swift (or merely 1-slotted), Rooted makes you wonder if you _really_ need that mez protection after all. 3-slotted, you can bear it.[/list]
Just my experience with my nearly-50 Brute. Again, playstyles vary, and this is coming from the completely different point of view (post-Granite) of the OP, but I'd been thinking about doing a guide of sorts to this build, and thought I'd at least interject some opinions since someone else was doing one. I'll post my own build later if I get time.

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Swift. Seems obvious to me, but the OP glossed over its usefulness.

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By glossed over you mean explicitly mentioned, right?

In version 1.0 I'll put that part in bold.

I think what may contribute to the different viewpoints is which AT you might have come from in CoH.

My benchmark for performance for scrapping ATs is my dear MA/Regen.

I could see someone who has played a Tank being more comfortable with 24/7 Granite.

There's also a wide gap between difficulty setting preferences. In general, I stay on Heroic/Villainous and might possibly change it to Tenacious/Malicious if I want some extra XP. This allows me to slot just one accuracy per attack and mow down gobs of minions without having to worry about wiffing all the time.