Dark Armor Stalker Guide for pve (I7)
By
crimsonwillow,
Posted on: 2006-11-30 04:26 in Player Guides
Level Breakdown for a dark/dark stalker build for pve
Character creation and Break out : Pick your sets, in this case,dark melee and dark armor. I chose smite for primary and Hide is the only choice for secondary. Make your costume and most importantly pick a good name. You can change your costume and respec your powers but your name stays the same. Your name is the first thing people have to go one and will make judgements on you based on it. Names are nouns and are capatilized, take the time to do so. If your not sure of the spelling look it up. You'll look like an idiot if you don't. Spelling with numbers, odd capatilized letters, symbols and excessive punctuation will say alot about you.If your trying to be funny or clever,think twice, chances are no one will else will get it. If someone named " dude seriuosly WTH","abefhdbdhbdbbedaaa",or "xD4rkk L0Rdx.." sent me an invite I wouldnt except. As above so below. Take the time to think of a good one. O, and "Dark" and "assassin" in a name is way over used.
So,your in break out,run upstairs grab the explore badge. You can skip the intro running around and go straight outside to get your defeat convicts missions. Do that ,grab the door mission and off to Mercy Island when its done. I choose Burke cause the hatchery mission is challenging.Stop by the trainer and train your second power choice, I chose Shadowmaul.
Mercy Island ( level 2-5) Do your first contacts missions,complete the entire arc or when your level 20 and call him for your cape mission you'll be running back to mercy to finish it before he'll give it to you. Take your time fighting,you have low hitpoints,little defense, and lack assassin strike. Use smite from hide,it hits fairly high and always crits. Learn to use shadowmaul,get used to the rooted animation. If your low on health use a respite before using it as your locked into it for the few seconds it takes to complete.
At the level you get it,shadowmaul is the highest damage melee Ae attack availalable. It's a cone,practice side stepping with melee opponents to line them into a triangle,target the center mob with another mob on either side and slightly behind. It can hit all three and if minions will most likely finish them all off. Shadowmaul can get up to 4 human size targets in its cone but its hard to do,lining up three is easy.At level 3 throw an enhance slot in smite and shadowmaul. Dont bother buying enhancement at this level range,the rate at which you level coupled with the small returns of training origins isnt worth it. Slot mostly accuracy and end reduction when available. At level 4 pick up Dark embrace,throw an end reduction in it. At 5 put 2 slots in smite. At 5th level is when I leave Mercy,I ignore the second mercy contact,grab the explore badges I can reach and high tail it to Port Oakes.
Port Oakes ( lvl 5-12) When you zone in ,you'll get your broker contact. Visit him right away so paper missions under contacts are unlocked. Run paper mission doors until a mayhem is unlocked and grab it from your broker. You should be level 6 by now so stop by the arbiter and train Assassin's Eclipse before heading to your mayhem.Yes ! You now have the signature stalker attack,you'll love it. Finish that and you'll receive a flight pack which is very handy. These travel rewards will let us put off picking up a travel power till much later in our build. After each mayhem your broker will give you a contact. This is the normal way to open up most of your contacts throughout the game,though at some points contacts will also give you others.At 7th throw both slots into your Assassin's Eclipse and at 8th grab build up. The build up plus assassin strike will outright kill almost all mobs but some bosses. There are three badge missions in this range and it can be hard with all the paper missions and mayhems to get them all before you level out of the range. When you hit 9th,put another slot in AS and one in dark embrace. At level 10 you have to decide on wether getting staimna ASAP is a priority for you. With all the toggle powers you'll be picking up in the 20s and 30s I believe it is. So I train sprint at 10th. At this level mayhem takes you to Kings Row and the reward is a jumppack,the last temp travel power given from mayhems.When you hit 11th throw 2 slots into dark embrace. When 12 comes around get placate,its a very important power to have. You can use it to to an extra crit on a boss after an As,to take out a minion or just to drop aggro from a Mob you dont want attacking you. You now have the nucleus of the stalker offensive build,all thats left is to fill out your attack chain. Up till now you may have felt somewhat weak and vulnerable,things will start picking up for you now. Level 12 is also when Dual origins become available. If you have a higher level character to feed you infamy,great buy em for the extra power boost. If you dont I suggest not even bothering with them. As a stalker you can,to a certain extent,pick your fights. Leveling is still fast at this range and enhancements you buy today will be outleveled quickly.The mobs you fight do take a jump in difficulty but not so much that it isnt doable.Somethings to try in Port Oakes; create a group to get your ghost hunter badge to unlock a hidden contact,this will be hard but isnt a challenge fun ? You'll need a full group to do it. Hunt family boss's and under bosses's for badge which unlocks a contact for later on. You can stay in PO for awhile but at 12 I normally move onto Cape Au Diable.
Build at level 12:
Hide- (end rdx)
Smite- (acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg)
Shadowmaul- (acc) (acc)
Dark embrace- (end rdx) (rst) (rst) (rst)
Assassin's Eclipse-(acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg)
Build up-(rch)
Sprint- (run)
Placate-(rch)
Cape Au Diable and Sharkhead( levels 12ish-20ish) Do papers and open up contacts,do some mayhems. There is a couple badge misions to be had in this level range and some fun missions.One of the missions nets you a goldbricker flightpack,giving you three temp travel powers to use. Start grouping and devloping tactics to work with them. Practice as/placate combo's,get comfortable with multi targeting, test yourself on small/medium groups, try taking tough solo bosses. You'll hate goldbrickers as they do energy damage.At this range we will be tightening our attack chains and start to add more of our defensive set.This is when you have to decide on how your going to choose your powers as you progress. Which travel pool do you want to take ? Do you want protection from knockback ? Do you want to take shadowpunch for your attack chain or use a pool attack power in addiditon to or in place of it ? Start slotting up shadowmaul,take another attack-either shadowpunch or a pool power, and select some defensive options.Grab health so stamina is available at 22.The level 20 power Dark regeneration is a must have IMO.
We'll have the tools for assassination,a solid base for a descent attack chain outside of hide , the start of our defense,
a good heal and stamina.At level 22 Single origin enhancements are available, this is when the realization of power starts. If you cant afford a whole batch ( and you most likely will not be able to unless your bank rolled) buy enhancers for your assassin eclipse, dark embrace and end reducers for your heal. Fill in the rest with Do's and To's concentrating on accuracy first.
Build at 22:
1-Hide- (end rdx)
1-Smite- (acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg)
2-Shadowmaul- (acc) (acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg)
4-Dark embrace- (end rdx) (rst) (rst) (rst)
6-Assassin's Eclipse-(acc) (acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg)
8-Build up-(rch) (rch)
10-Sprint- (run)
12-Placate-(rch) (rch)
14-Shadowpunch-(acc) (dmg) (dmg)
16-Obsidian Shield-(endrdx)
18-Health-(heal)
20-Dark regeneration-(acc) (endrdx) (endrdx)
22-Stamina (endmod)
Sharkhead and Nerva (20ish-30ish) With So's the game starts to open up. Do some Sf's,group when possible, refine your skills,fight some monsters,grab some badges. Try to open up some hidden contacts like Doc Buzzsaw.You can skip normal missions in lieu of "defeat boss" paper missions, chaining them together for rapid xp gain.If the random mission gernerator is kind I could average about 10 paper missions per hour ( yes,if your good and you know the maps it only takes about 5 minutes to stealth to the end of one and kill the boss room.) The boss xp and completion bonus's really add up fast. There's two problems with going this route for xp,one you wont be maximizing your infamy gain,and two,and more importantly, the friends you arent making in this range wont be around to help you clear all the elite bosses that start appearing later on.
In this range, as the enemies start to get harder, we will concentrate on our defenses and survivability. The temp travel powers we have are getting low ( a 4th travel temp, a flight pack from a sky raider mission on sharkhead can be earned.) so we will also pick up our travel power. You must make further power selection decisions-are you planning on gaining patron pools later ?, what other pool powers do you want to aid in battles? Do you want tp for mission stealthing?
Dip into the fighting pool for tough ? Haste ? Plan on doing PvP ? Are you getting the soft controls powers from your secondary ?
Build at 35:
1-Hide- (end rdx)
1-Smite- (acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg)
2-Shadowmaul- (acc) (acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg)
4-Dark embrace- (end rdx) (rst) (rst) (rst)
6-Assassin's Eclipse-(acc) (acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg)
8-Build up-(rch) (rch)
10-Sprint- (run)
12-Placate-(rch) (rch)
14-Shadowpunch-(acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg)
16-Obsidian Shield-(endrdx) (rst) (rst)
18-Health-(heal)
20-Dark regen-(acc) (endrdx) (endrdx) (endrdx) (rch) (rch)
22-Stamina -(endmod) (endmod) (endmod)
24-Combat Jumping-( endrdx)
26-Superjump- (leap)
28-Murky Cloud-(endrdx) (rst) (rst) (rst)
30-Cloak of Fear-(end rdx) (end rdx) (acc) (acc)
32- Midnight Grasp-(acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg)
35-Oppressive Gloom-(acc)
St.Martial and Grandville- More of the same but AV,elite bosses become more coomon. You'll need a group for most of these,we just dont have the staying power to go toe to toe with these on a reliable basis. Paper missions and pvp zone missions are still a good source of xp.Our offense is good and our defenses set-up. We are in the end game now and there is only a few selections for powers left in our build. Decide if your going for a patron pool or not. I think they pretty much suck,there are a few usefull skills in them but on this build,I opted to skip it and go with power pool selections.
Build at 50:
1-Hide- (end rdx)
1-Smite- (acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg) (rch) (endrdx)
2-Shadowmaul- (acc) (acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg) (en rdx)
4-Dark embrace- (end rdx) (rst) (rst) (rst)
6-Assassin's Eclipse-(acc) (acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg)
8-Build up-(rch) (rch) (rch)
10-Sprint- (run)
12-Placate-(rch) (rch) (rch)
14-Shadowpunch-(acc) (acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg) (endrdx)
16-Obsidian Shield-(endrdx) (endrdx) (rst) (rst) (rst)
18-Health-(heal) (heal) (heal)
20-Dark regen-(acc) (endrdx) (endrdx) (endrdx) (rch) (rch)
22-Stamina -(endmod) (endmod) (endmod)
24-Combat Jumping-( endrdx)
26-Superjump- (leap)
28-Murky Cloud-(endrdx) (endrdx)(rst) (rst) (rst)
30-Cloak of Fear-(end rdx) (end rdx) (acc) (acc) (fear)
32- Midnight Grasp-(acc) (dmg) (dmg) (dmg) (rch) (end rdx)
35-Oppressive Gloom-(acc) (acc) (stun) (stun) (stun)
38-Acrobatics-(endrdx) (endrdx)
41-Touch of Fear-(acc) (acc) ( -acc) (-acc) (-acc) (fear)
44-Boxing (acc) (acc)
47-Tough (endrdx)(endrdx) (rst) (rst) (rst)
49- Shadowdweller (def)
With this build you have the attack chain of shadowpunch-boxing-smite-midnight grasp with maul to use on multiple opponents. Resists in the form of dark embrace,murky cloud, obsidian shield, and tough. Defense from hide,combat jumping,shadowdweller and the synergy with the acc debuff from attacks,touch of fear,and cloak of fear. Controls in the form of touch of fear,cloak of fear,placate,oppressive gloom,and the low mag immob from midnight grasp.Protection from sleep,fear,stun and holds from Obsidian , pro from immob from shadow dweller and combat jumping,and knockback protection from acrobatics. Backed up by dark regen and the fitness pool to keep us going.
Alternate power selections:
This is,of course,my build which may not be suited to everyone.Some power are easy to replace,below are some suggestions.
Drop shadowmaul to gain a power choice.Perhaps siphon life or haste.
Go the flight route and pick up air superiority instead of maul or shadowpunch. If you do not opt for acrobatics via jump pool you will not have a descent form of kb protection. Hover/flight IMO is a pain with supression and position when used in a fight.
Drop the fighting pool for air superiority and haste or patron pool powers.
Drop Cloak of fear and or Oppressive gloom for another power choice.This would be mistake as what you left with is only mediocre resists and sub par defense. As a set Dark Armor was balanced with these two powers in mind.
Dark Melee and alternate slottings:
Dark melee is a combination of smashing and negative energy damage,the higher damage component being smashing,except for midnight grasp.
Shadowpunch ( level 1) a fast low damage attack. Has a low end cost,a fast recharge speed and the animation time is very short. The beauty of shadowpunch isnt in its damage per se but that it lends itself to a tight attack chain.
standard attack- 1 acc,3 dmg,1 rch,1 end rdx
filler- 1-2 acc,1 rch,1 end rdx
debuff attack- acc,3 acc debuff,2 rch
Smite ( level 1) must have DM attack,hits for good damage and only slightly slower in recharge and animation than shadowpunch.
standard attack in a chain- 1 acc,3dmg,1 rch, 1 end rdx
high accuracy attack- 2-3 acc,3 dmg,maybe throw in a rch in place of the 3rd acc. Its nice to have at least one high acc attack for the times when you are debuffed or facing mobs with high defense(like rikti drones and bubbled mobs).
faster smite- 1 acc,3 dmg, 2 rch for those who need to tighten up their attack chain.
Shadowmaul (level 2) love it or hate it,you decide. For its level is the highest damage power you have and also the most
damaging melee ae. Has a long animation that roots you and a moderate recharge speed. I find it indespensible at low levels but end game dont use it as much as I can fire off sp-smite-boxing-midnight grasp in almost the same time maul would take. Also it doesnt automaticly crit from hide.Maul doesnt lend itself well to alternate slotting. 2 acc,3 dmg,1 end rdx
Assassin's Eclipse( level 6) the one attack you must have. Loads of damage,looks cool, you'll love having enemies eat your skull. Never to be used outside of hide as it is interruptable and does sad damage as a normal attack.
2 acc,3 dmg the last slot is up for grabs, as it isnt a standard attack there isnt much point in an end rdx, hide takes 10 seconds so a recharge isnt of great importance. A third acc maybe to ensure hits. I normally end up putting a 4th damage in it,yea it hardly raises the damage but it does do more with it. Not like there ia another more usefull enhance for it.
Build-up: adds 50% more damage and some acc. Lovely combined with As. Only lasts a short while,enough time for an as,placate,attack-maybe you can sneak another one in.With 2-3 recharges it should be available when you need it. Some slot acc buff in it,ive never seen the need in Pve.
Placate( level 12) another must have for a stalker. Allows an extra crit on a tough boss or another mob,can stop an enemy attacking you. Very usefull. Can placate from range,so you can placate an mob from a good distance away and use the brief hide oppurtunity to crit on a mob next to you. 2-3 recharge
Siphon Life(Level 18) optional. I rarely take this one,its recharge,end cost and the amount it heals not being worth it with dark regen as aback up. Still,it not a bad power by any means. Coupled with a good defense based secondary that lacks a heal it would be quite usefull. Id choose it if I had more room in a build. 2 acc,2-3dmg*,1 end rdx,maybe drop a dmg for a recharge. * I havnt used this since I was an Issue 1 dm scrapper. Then slotting heals wasnt superior to extra damage as they both modified the same % and the heal is based on the damage done. Not sure if this is still the case or not.
Touch of fear ( level 26) Suggest it, I like ToF for a number of uses. As a soft control to manage spawns,as an acc debuff for fighting bosses,and for time to get into hide for an As on a single mob. Its a fast a fast animation and a good recharge speed. Does no damagethough, but its usefullness outweighs this.
light control- 1-2 acc,1-2 fear ( or none),maybe a rch
Hvy control version-1 acc,3 fear,2 rch,maybe drop a rch for another acc.
Boss accuracy debuff- 2 acc,3 acc debuff,1 rch
Midnight Grasp( level 32) a descent attack but I cant help but feel cheated on our 9th tier attack power. It does do all negative energy which is nice as most mobs have some resists vs. smashing.It gives damage up front then ticks for additional damage. Has a fairly fast animation and an ok recharge speed. Comes with a mag 1 Immobilize,which is enough for minions but not Lts or bosses.You'll end up taking this power since we havnt had a pure attack power since shadowmaul at level 2. 1-2 acc,3 dmg.1 end rdx,maybe drop an acc for a rch.
Some final thoughts:
Dark melee matures very early,with its hard hitting fast attacks( in both recharge and animation) and its early high dmage cone attack. DM attacks has a satisfying sound effect that comes with it,it FEELS very brutal when using it. You'll find yourself chewing through enemies at a good clip at the start. As an added bonus all dm attacks put a low acc debuff counter on your opponent,which can stack. Towards the middle of the game DM does start to lag abit as more mobs come with resists vs smashing damage (hate those CoT spectres). Designed as a sustained dps set for scrappers Dm really lacks the burst damage we need. Then again,so does every set but Em.We also loose one of the more desirable utility skills-dark consumption. Still, Dm has the tools to deal with most situations and lends itself well to soloing.
The poor mans controller ( no, im not going to mash stalker and dominator/controller together for some cute name).
With all the soft controls available to the dm/da stalker you can act as a limited crowd control if your group lacks it and/or is faced with a tough spawn or emergency situation. Brutes tend to dislike it as non attacking mobs dont generate fury. What I do watch for is adds,and mobs that are not being beat on by brutes.Tof can be used to single out mobs and neutralize them,even in the heat of battle as its animation is very fast. In a large room faced with large spawns there is often to many mobs to be controlled fast,if your brute doesnt have taunt your healer may get unwanted aggro. This is a good use for OG,toggle it on and run to your healer. Or if you know its going to happen let it run and stand aways in front of them as a sort of Pbaoe bodyguard. In a tough fight if a brute is in danger of being overwhelmed,pulsing Og and/or Cof can defuse a heated battle. With adds you can stay towrds the fringe of the fight utilizing og/cof in the same way. Be mindfull that Og uses your health to stun, getting alot of enemies with it can be dangerous,especially if you are taking aggro yourself.
A hard set to master, the dm/da set has so much synergy together if you take the time to practice with it. Its host of utility comes at the price of lack of specilization. It doesnt have great resists,nor great defense,or strong control options,or cheap means to heal and regain endurance.It has holes in its status protection that have to be addressed. Endurance awareness is crucial. You cant just turn on your secondary powers and forget them, it isnt user friendly that way. You have to monitor it and change tactics with the situation. If you dont Dm/da will bite you and you will most likely face plant it. Da takes time to mature. ( amusing ,in a twisted kind of way, that Dm matures fast and looses potency late game, while Da is the opposite,starting fairly weak and gaining power as you advance.)
Cheers.
Not a bad guide, a couple of comments.
I would recommend slotting attacks with multiple Acc at low levels. When you can slot Single Origin Enhancements one SO Acc will get you to the Hit Chance Cap vs level+0 Critters, but when you are slotting DO or Training Enh it will take more than one and being near the Hit Chance cap is the best thing you can do for an attack. Missing wastes End and gives Critters more time to defeat you. And if you want to fight level+3 and higher Critters or PvP a lot then 2 SOs worth of Acc is worthwhile.
Second I am not sure the second End reducer in the resistance toggles is worth while unless you have done everything else you can to save End. The DA Resistance toggles cost 0.2 End per second. A Second SO End reducer will save you 15% of that, or about 0.03 End per second. That means over a minute you would have an extra 1.8 End, not enough to make a single extra attack.
Regards, Screwloose.
I am not young enough to know everything.
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Just one little thing...you talked about soft control but yet this was your stance on the presence pool... [ QUOTE ]
Presence : ummm. no.
[/ QUOTE ] If you can fit this into a build it actually is an extremely useful tool in both PvP and PvE and stacks well with certain DA (and DM) power choices. Just IMO and IME. So I was curious was this through testing or just looking at the pool itself and saying "hell no, why would I want a stalker with taunt".... like everyone else does?
I recently made a dark armor stalker, it was going to be a name holder for the upcoming issue. She is katana/dark armor. I got toplaying her and fell in love. The defense buff attack divine avalanche is really making it a good solo and team toon. It keeps me up till my self heal goes off, and talk about a carnie shredder, I dont even have much trouble with Dark Ringmistresses. If ne one has a build they'd like to share, I'd like to see it for katana dark
I have found that slotting the resistence shields with two resistence recipie sets for +2.5% recovery, and the defense ones with gift of the ancients is taking care of any end problems I have.
Overview:
Dark armor is a resist based set with the options for soft control, an aoe heal, and minimal defense. It is a flexible set allowing many ways to build and slot it. Many of the powers are situational and you will need to toggle your powers on and off to suit the needs of the encounter and your endurance useage. With 6 toggles the amount of endurance it can eat up really requires constant management. For pve,grouping, and scrapping it out after AS/placate cycle the dark armor set has the tools to get it done. DA offers some resistance to pretty much every damage type in the game, an excellent though expensive heal,and two means of soft control-a pbaoe fear and disorientate,and a personal rez. What the set does lack is protection from knockback, confusion and, unlike the other stalker sets, has no Tier 9 "godmode" power.
The Powers:
Hide (level 1,have to take it): This is, of course, one of the signature powers of the stalker. Turn it on and leave it that way,unless the situation dictates otherwise (such as an escort mission).Offers an excellent level of stealth for exploring, grabbing badges,and positioning for stealth attacks.In pve most enemies will not see you,some exceptions are RIP lts running tactics,Rikti drones, and Raheru sentinel eyes. Being hidden is required for the extra damage from assassin's strike,and most other attacks will do a critical strike if hidden. Attacking, being hit, and clicking on glowies will suppress hide for 10 seconds. Slotting recharge reductions will NOT decrease this suppression time,only the amount of time you would have to wait to activate hide again if it was turned off or dropped. Hide offers minimal defense when active and when hidden a substantial bonus to aoe defense(around 30%ish,if I remember correctly). I use the default slot with an end reducer,some players I've talked to add a few defense slots for a boost. Personally,I dont,but each to his own.
Dark Embrace(level 2, strongly recommend this one) Embrace is the main shield I run and one I never take off.It offers resists to lethal,smashing,toxic,and negative energy. Every faction has at least 1 or more of those attacks types. Get embrace.Use it. Slot with 3 Resist,1-2 end reducers.
Murky Cloud( level 4, question isnt if to get this one but when) This is your elemental shield,offering resists against fire,cold,energy and negative energy,as well as protection from endurance drains. Energy attacks are far more common in CoV and you meet more enemies using it earlier than in CoH. Lost,CoT,Legacy Chain,and Arachnos all use energy damage types and you start facing them from level 5-6 and on.Since early stalker builds are always tight,this one can be skipped for awhile,how long is up to you. 3 resist enhancers,1-2 end reduction.
Shadow Dweller ( level 10, only passive skill in the set)
Shadow dweller adds minimal defense to all attacks, provides resistance to immobilize and adds plus perception. Wether you take this or not will depend on what you have planned for your stalker. If your going the Jump pool route to pick up acrobatics or going with teleport and you dont care about immobs as much, or plan on carrying loads of Beakfree's,you could probably skip this power if your build is tight. If you want to stack perception to see stealth( pvp,longbow specialist,bane spider scouts) you'll want this one eventually.
Obsidian Shield( level 16,you'll need this one as soon as you can fit it in) This toggle shield offers protection from sleep,fear,holds,immobilize,and disorient attacks and resists damage from psi ! 3 resists,1-2 end reductions
Dark Regeneration ( level 20, take it asap and slot it up,this is the baby that will keep you alive and kicking.) Dark regeneration is one of the most powerfull self only heals,you can go from from almost dead to a full bar with only a few enemies to draw from. It does come with a couple hefty drawbacks. First, it has a huge endurance cost (end reduction on this power isnt an option if you plan on using it on a regular basis.) Secondly, this is pbaoe heal that requires enemies to draw from and has an accuracy check. Of any power in DA this is the one that is hardest to decide on slotting. I went with 3 end reducers,1 acc,and 2 recharge.
Cloak of Fear ( level 28, personal choice) One of my favorite power's, this one is a toggle pbaoe fear and is one of the soft control options in Da. Its accuracy check isnt what it used to be but can still be quite effective in helping you survive larger spawns,ambushes,and missions that you need to de-hide from to accomplish. The -acc debuff offers synergy with defense making you harder to hit and can mean less minions and Lts attacking you. This power can also be a group friendly one to use as feared Mobs,unless attacked,wont be hurting your teammates. Has a fairly hefty cost and with the hit to its accuracy,cant be counted on to work when you need it.Slotting 2 acc and afear duration or 2 will help make this more dependable. CoF has a graphic that hides your character in a mass of darkness with the white screaming fear skulls covering it. I think it looks awesome,some people hate it.
Oppressive Gloom ( level 35-personal choice)
My favorite power in the set, a pbaoe toggle stun with a low end cost, be warned though that it does drain some health with each Mob thats disorientated. Doesnt have high enough mag to stun Lts or bosses but very effective against minions. Has saved my life on occassion and the lives of my group. Yea, that right, with this power I actually saved my group. A nasty triggered ambush while fighting a large spawn came from behind.Toggled this on and turned those annoying sappers,tac op,and engineers into drunken fools. Gave the team the time needed to regain their stride. Makes a good save for when your friendly corruptor or dom is getting mobbed by minions,too. Like CoF is also handy for finishing minions after AS'ing the boss and those missions where being hidden isnt possible. Also for grabbing clickies if your in a hurry-find the glowie,AS the lt or boss,placate any others,run OG and grab your glowy and run.With a couple disorientate enhancers slotted you can turn the power on,stun the mobs,then turn it off to conserve health. Consider taking this one,along with COf is one of the things that makes DA unique.
Soul Transfer( level 38 ,personal choice)
A rez for the ninth power.Needs an enemy near to activate.
Gives you a brief while of being invulnearable and stuns mobs near you. Can be handy on ocassion,I guess. With all the power pool choices to round out Da and the patron pools this one is the most skippable power in the set.
Dark Armor and power pools :
Fitness: swift or hurdle, health (to "pay" for Opressive gloom),and stamina ( a must,with 6 toggles in Da not to mention attacking,endurance will be very tight.)
Jumping: a popular choice for DA as it opens the way for knockback protection via acrobatics,and can provide a little more defense and protection from immobilzation. Those looking for a pool power attack to tighten their attack chain may be dissappointed in jump kick. Personally I hate it and will take combat jumping instead.
Speed: Flurry (eh,whatever-good end to damage ratio but...),haste(usefull),Superspeed (love it on mission maps,hate it on city maps-especially Grandville),whirlwind ( on a stalker ? hmm no thanks).
Teleport : handy pool, recall friend for stealthing missions to the end,Tp foe for a pull and in pvp,Tp self is also highly usefull in pvp. no pool attack power.
Flight: Air Superiority( best pool attack power IMO),hover( can be usefull in some cases), flight ( for ease of travel probably the best,though slow and needs slotting)
Fighting: both kick and boxing are a descent attack,though boxing is faster and offers stun over kicks Kb, Tough ( recommend this one if you can fit it in- I like to fight it out after Ive removed the greatest threats in a spawn.) Weave ( for what it costs selection and end wise I dont find it all that usefull)
Leadership: if your going for tactics for + per this would be usefull but on melee builds I generally skip leadership.
Medicine: Aid others ( for healing badge if your that sort),stimulate(offer some status pro for a non-melee teammate), aid self ( with interrupt reduction and 3 heals,this can be a very good self heal,stalker builds being tight Id stick with dark regeneartion), resurrection ( can be handy on occassion)
Presence : ummm. no.
Concealment: Handy especially in pvp for stacking stealth. Stealth( slows movement,adds to stealth,will stack with hide), grant invisibility ( think of 2 stalker partners with this ),invisibility ( not sure if this stacks and with what), phase shift( a save your butt kind of power ).
Some General Observations:
Boss's and minions : on defense based stalkers I found it easier to take out elite bosses and the like ( after popping some purples) then on Da but packs of minions would eat through my defenses( *cough* frikkin longbow and arachnos). While on Da with its resists that can always be counted on and with CoF, and OG for control minions give me little trouble. I could still take most bosses but not with the easy solution of a few inspirations and a 9th teir power.
Arachnos the mixed damage type king and you : this faction has it all : lethal and smashing ? check. Fire damage ? yup
Energy ? O yea. Psi and toxic ? You bet. Luckily you do have resistance to all these types of damage. Assuming even SO's,all shields and tough 3 slotted for resists,your resists will be something like this: lethal/smash=52% cold/fire=35%
energy= 23% negative energy= 46% toxic=23% Psi= 58%
Please note that these figures are to the of my knowledge and may be dated so dont take it as gospel,it will however give you a general idea on where your resist will stand.
Soloing with DA: on my Energy Aura stalker I stealthed every mission I could to get to the boss or end goal.Having to take on all the minions took to much time with hit and run tactics and defense being the way it is taking a stand and scrapping it out wasnt always the viable solution. On my Da I clear every mission,minions are cake with Da. Not only does Da have the offensive tools to take out boss and lt mobs with comparitive ease but also has the tools to stand it out once their down and finish of its minions. With resist based secondary its easier to do a damage assement risk of a given spawn. I know that my shields will resist X amount of damage. Always. Is defense better when it works than resists ? Of course it is. But you cant KNOW when it and the RNB is gonna go your way. This coupled with Cof and Og lets me scrap it out which I enjoy doing. Its still risky but the element of possible death makes it exciting. I also enjoy the cold precision of stalking. This way I get the best of both worlds. I'm not saying that Da is outright the best set for doing both stalking and fighting ,but I will say,that compared to my Ea and ninjitsu stalker the Da comes out on top in a straight up fight more consistently.
Concept and origin: Want a magic concept or backround for your character ? How can you beat dark armor for that ?
Sample fight: Your in a door mission,the sprawling high tech base map facing Longbow post 40. Your soloing on Relentless.
You come to the large central room that has the two ramps going up to circular platform midway up with that power hub thingie,from that platform ramps on either side go up to a circular walkway overlooking the middle platform. Recognize this room ? You have two groups on the middle platform,fairly close to one another as well as a single minion on the right ramp leading up to second walkway.The group on the right has a Nullifier,a special ops,an eagle,and two riflemen. The one on the left has a nullifier, 2 special ops,an eagle and a flamethrower. The single minion is a riflemen,we're worried that if he aggros on us that he will call a third group from up top. The groups are close enough together and spread out enough that both will aggro upon revealing ourself. We go left,and stand behind the nullifier surrunded by his group with the group on the right in sight.All of our defensive shields are on plus tough and acrobatics.We pop a yellow and 2 reds,hit build up, start assassin strike,while the animation is going we target the nullifier in the second group and que up placate.AS hits and takes the first Nullifier down to a fraction of his health, placate fires and the 2nd nullifier is placated.Quickly targeting a minion on my right we take the hidden status of placate and fire of smite which crits almost killing the riflemen.We pop a spare purple as both groups aggro,the spec ops go stealth mode and they open fire on me. I pick another target behind me,sidestep quickly to line up a cone and unleash shadow maul.It only catches 2 but they severly injured.Hit dark regen and top of my health and then I jump over the minions and tuck away behind the power hub thingie breaking the LOS of the second group causing them to move closer in order to attack me.As the first group comes into melee range I toggle on COF,luckily it takes a hold on one.I find one of the injured riflemen and take him out with shadowpunch.Relocate the first nullifier as the second group of Longbow start rounding the corner and togle on OG.Glowy madness. I take out the nullifier with midnight grasp as the minions start wandering around drunk.
Target a one,sidestep to line up a maul,fire it off,finish off the injured ones with smite-shadowpunch-box chains,hitting uninjured ones with midnight grasp as it refreshes to let the dot take effect.Then finishing them off as well.Turn off Og to halt the drain of life,with 3 disorintate enhancers they will stay stunned for awhile.Touch of fear the Nullifier we placated,hit dark regen when it comes up to get us to full health,and finish off the last couple minions.Reapply ToF to nullifier, turn off Cof, wait for hide and AS him.That was fun, we repeat this process with adjustments in tactics depending on map and groups on the top. On a side note-the chain of shadowpunch, boxing, smite is very fast and lets you really put out sustained DPS.
Be flexible and dont panic-words to live ( or die by), work up a plan of attack but be prepared for it to go wrong,if it does dont start jumping around,button mashing and popping inspirations like candy. Think.Act. Force the fight on your terms,make your enemies react to your tactics not the otherway around.And when in doubt.....run.
On grouping as a da stalker( and stalkers in general) some tips: 1) make friends,it will be easier to find groups and more enjoyable,too. Soloing all the time and getting the odd tell asking if you have tp so they can stealth a tf can get pretty old somedays. 2) understand that,hopefully,everyone is here to have fun.Dont demand that you get in position behind that boss before anyone does anything. Don't act like the group is your stalking horse for assassin strikes and taking down the big boys. Don't whine if you rush ahead and do an AS when your group wasnt ready and you die.Cummincate. Don't go off exploring the map(unless asked) while your group is fighting half a map away. Dont get stuck on the boss-killer mentality,sometimes removing an awfull minion ( sappers, tsoo inkmen) will be more usefull to your group.Learn to scan all the enemies,learn which ones can cause problems,adjust to the make up of the group. Got two brutes who bee-line for the boss ignoring the minions,one of which has stuns and holds and locks down your healer ? Take that guy out. You can always placate/crit to add damage to any boss after.Yes, the way stalker AS works puts them outside the normal group dynamic somewhat but that doesnt mean you cant think as a member of the group.Understand not only what the other At's do but what they find fun. Brutes want to wade in,build up fury,and do massive damage while taking hits. Doms want to attack to bring up domination to unleash their holds and such with a fury, corruptors will do their buff/heal/debuff/etc role but love to see those scourge messages appear,especially with Ae attacks,and so on.And what do stalkers love ? Lol that should be an easy one. With some cummunication and some tactics,its quite possible that everyone can enjoy their role. Sadly,some players dont think stalkers can contribute much to a fast paced group. Maybe they've never grouped with many or they got one of the bad ones that colored their views.
As a da stalker,beyond the pretty assassination messages, your presence through OG and Cof(if used wisely) is far more vvisible.Saving your healer from getting mobbed is a good way to get some respect from them.AS the most dangerous target,dont be afraid to use your soft controls and engage in alittle melee action sans hide. You can always pause to slip back into hide for the next group when their busy mopping up the last couple. Be flexible. Learn to adjust.Have fun.and if your group just doesnt get stalkers or are incompetent dont be afraid to leave. Pair up with another stalker, on my non stalker characters when I put together groups I dont care if I have a stalker,not that I wont invite one,but it doesnt matter to me. Two stalkers who know how to work together,however,are godly and makes a huge impact on how misisons go.
Some thoughts on Stalker primaries coupled with Dark armor.
Claws : fast attacks,does lethal damage(for the most part), has 4 single target attacks(swipe,strike,slash,focus) and 2 cones (eviserate and shockwave).Has a range attacked,has a kb attack, lowers defense with attacks.Works ok with DA but not alot of synergy or utility that it doesnt cover.
Ninja Blade: Much like claws in terms of synergy/utility except for Divine avalanche whichs adds some nice melee defense which DA lacks. Some nice synergy with hide,CoF's acc debuff,and shadow dwellers def.5 single target attacks and 2 ae attacks (if counting golden dragonfly) Blade attacks also lower def.
Martial Arts: only played it as a scrapper,somehwat lackluster damage,the oeder in which the attacks are receives as well as the level they get them,puts it at a disadvatage in early to mid levels.Stun on cobra strike is nice giving abit more control ( Not sure how the mags from cobra and Og stack-if anyone does please comment,be cool if they could stun bosses then) and an immob from crippling axe kick.
Energy melee = highest burst damage capable set,has some synergy with Da, the added stun effects will help in controls,a heal can off set the cost of energy transfer,since EM excells at single target damage the controls of DA will help by giving them the time to utilize it.
Spines : sorry,never played spines,so cant make anything beyond educated guesses. Have to read another guide that has more knowledge than I.
Dark Melee: the thematicly matched utility attack set. The minus -acc component helps with Da's Defense, touch of fear adds more control,siphon life another way to heal damage(though I wouldnt consider it a heal as such),shadowpunch and smite are fast attacks and makes a base of a good attack chain. Shadowmaul can be nice,alot of people hate the rooted animation,but there are other attacks that have animations incomparable length.Matures early and lags behind late game due to lack of burst dmage, the last power Midnight grasp being a dot doesnt help and its mag is to low to be usefull.
Well that will end my long winded post, friend of mine couldnt find a dark armor stalker guide so I decided to throw one together. Hope it helps alittle. For those that choose Da I hope you have as much fun as I did. It can be hard in the start but dont give up,when the set is complete it offers alot to different playstyles.
Enjoy.