Dark Armor Overview for Scrappers (Issue 8)

Dark Armor Overview for Issue 8.

The following is an overview and commentary regarding the Dark Armor powerset. It is entirely my own misguided opinion. I must acknowledge the great debt I owe for anything of worth in this document to the many wonderful and insightful posters in the Scrapper forum and the many robust discussions fostered there.

This will be a largely qualitative rather than quantitative guide, if you want numbers and slotting suggestions for any Scrapper Secondary then you should have a look at BuffyASummers Scrapper Secondary Info in I7.

Dark Armor is a varied powerset providing a good base of Resistance powers and a number of other threat mitigation and utility powers with a bit of a controllerish edge.

Dark Amor has a reputation for being End intensive, which is not entirely untrue, but which has been somewhat reduced by a general cut in the End costs of powers following I5 and which can be further reduced by careful use of the right power at the right time. My basic rule is that if I am finishing fights with lots of HP and no End then I was probably running too many threat mitigation toggles.

I would recommend any serious student get as many views of a powerset as they can, (the Scrapper guides and faqs thread is a good place to start) and as long as you keep in mind the changes to the powerset as summarised below any Dark Armor related guide will be able to give you ideas.

As always I would advise people that the point of making a character is to have fun, my idea of fun is almost certainly not exactly the same as yours and you should be guided by your own sense of what will and won’t work for you at least as much as what some bizarrely named internet forum non-entity has to say.


Dark Armor Changes.

For those already familiar with Dark Armor I include this summary of the significant changes to Dark Armor over the last few Issues (3 to 8).

The only important changes to Dark Armor IMHO are to Cloak of Darkness and Cloak of Fear.

Cloak of Darkness becomes not a great return for slots since I5. The power is still not bad, but a Single Origin Defense Enhancement gets you 0.75% additional Def, so not a high priority for slots.

Cloak of Fear has been nerfed a couple of times. Currently it only Cowers Minions, it hits a level+0 Critter 50% of the time and the To Hit debuff was reduced (from 25% to 10% and currently seems to be 5%). IMHO it is line ball as to whether Cloak of Fear is worth the End cost to run and three Single Origin Acc Enh only give an 85% chance to Cower level+1 Minions, leaving you with three slots to Enhance the To Hit debuff or cut the sizeable End cost. If you are not prepared to 6 slot it then don't take it. If you are planning on running Oppressive Gloom, which will stun all the Minions anyway, then Cloak of Fear also becomes fairly lack lustre.

Changes which are interesting, but are unlikely to affect your choice of powers or slotting:

All toggles can be run simultaneously.
Dark Embrace gives Resistance to Toxic.
Murky Cloud protects from End Drain, this is actually quite nice. Fire and Cold Res reduced slightly. Energy Res reduced a bit more.
Obsidian Shield protects from Fear.
Cloak of Darkness gives Immobilise resist and increased Perception vs other Stealthed characters.
Soul Transfer got a couple of improvements, but not enough to change anyones mind who was or wasn't going to take a Self Rez power.


The Powers.

Dark Embrace - Resist Smash, Lethal (Very High), Resist Negative Energy, Toxic (High)

You get it at level 1 and it is not a bad level 1 power. Dark Embrace provides quite reasonable protection vs the most common Damage types in the game and some protection vs Neg Energy and Toxic. Three slots of Resistance and maybe one of End reduction should be your target, not ahead of slotting your attacks, but soon.

Death Shroud - Negative Energy Damage (Minor PBAoE DoT)

Available at level 2 this power does damage to all Critters in melee range to you.

While it has a reputation as a high End cost power for an AE Attack Death Shroud is not unreasonably End heavy for an offensive power. It does damage equal to the average Scrapper Primary PBAE attack over a period the same as the recharge of the PBAE and for less End.

Running Death Shroud early in a fight means that Critters you engage towards the end of the fight will take fewer single target attacks to KO and Critters that might have hung around on a sliver of HP attacking you and your team will KO possibly without you ever having to target them.

Death Shroud can be hard to run continuously at low levels, but will always give good value for End whenever you are in melee with 2 or more Critters. Like any power once you can slot Single Origin Enhancements it really comes alive. I would slot it pretty much like I do any attack, currently I am running with an Acc, an End and 3 Damage.

Death Shroud is a good addition to any Primary. It adds AE damage to powersets that are lacking in it, ie Martial Arts and Dark Melee, and adds Neg Energy damage to powersets that deal out the more often and more strongly resisted Lethal Damage, ie Spines, Claws and the Swords.

Murky Cloud - Resist Fire, Cold (Very High), Resist Negative Energy, Energy (High), Resist Endurance Drain.

Available at level 4 this provides good Resistance to a wide range of damage types and Resistance to Endurance Drain, which is very handy at higher levels.

This is a power that you should take and slot. I would recommend 3 Res Enh and maybe an End reducer, but you don’t have to hurry to get them in, late 20’s is fine. While the majority of damage in CoH is Smash or Lethal some factions of Critters do use high percentages of non S/L damage. And in the level 40+ range some use entirely non S/L damage.

You could even skip Murky Cloud, but I would recommend getting it before level 40 for protection vs the very annoying End drains of some Critters.

Obsidian Shield - Resist Psionics (Extreme), Resist Stun, Sleep, Hold, Fear (High)

The primary Status Effect resistance power for Dark Armor. It becomes available at level 10 and you will probably find that between level 16 and 18 the Tsoo will make you want to take it.

It gives you a good base Resistance to Psi damage, which is rare, but handy to have when you come across it. Worth slotting up eventually, but you can wait until the late 30’s to get them in.

Dark Regeneration - Negative Energy Damage (Minor), Heal (Very High)

Available at level 16, but hard to use effectively until you can get a few Single Origin Endurance reducers in it. Dark Regen costs 33.8 End per activation so is a bit of a pain to use without at least 2 End reducers in it. However once you can get the End cost down a bit it becomes a great power, especially for when that opening volley of damage drops your HP bar to Red.

Dark Regen returns about 30% of your HP for each Critter hit. This means that it is a good idea not to miss, that it works pretty well vs groups of Critters, and that unless you want to try to use it vs single Critters slotting Heals is probably not worth while.

IMHO the base recharge of 30 seconds is short enough for any reasonable fight, but if you are prepared to spend the End being able to use Dark Regeneration more often gives you some powerful threat mitigation.

Cloak of Darkness - Stealth (Moderate), Melee Defense, Ranged Defense , AE Defense, Smash Defense, Lethal Defense, Fire Defense, Cold Defense, Energy Defense, Negative Energy Defense, Psi Defense, Resist Immobilise, Increased Perception.

Available at level 20 if you want a Stealth power then take this one. It provides basic Stealth, resistance to Immobilise powers and an increase in the range at which you will see other Stealthed characters.

The Base Defense for Cloak of Darkness was lowered significantly in I5 and slotting a Single Origin Defense Enhancement now gives around 0.75% additional Defense, IMHO not a good return. Cloak of Darkness is still a good power for what it does, but I would slot other powers first if I was looking for threat mitigation.

Most of what Cloak of Darkness does can’t be enhanced and the things that can be enhanced don’t give great returns so you can probably delay slotting it until you’ve got nothing else interesting to slot.

Cloak of Fear - Mag 2 Fear PBAoE Aura, PBAoE Accuracy Debuff (5%)

Available at level 28 Cloak of Fear is one of the main unique powers that Dark Armor gets, and while not the game changer that it use to be can still be used effectively if well slotted.

Cloak of Fear pulses every 5 seconds with a base 50% chance to hit level+0 Critters in melee range. Each Critter hit gets a Mag 2 Fear effect for 7.45 seconds and a 5% To Hit debuff which lasts 5 seconds. If the Critter is a Minion the Fear will cause it to Cower stationary and if damaged the Minion will retaliate about once every 10 seconds. LT’s, Bosses and more powerful Critters will not Cower unless they are hit with another power that puts a Fear on them, but do have their Accuracy reduced.

I use to be a big fan of Cloak of Fear because it was so Dark Scrapperish and possibly because it was overpowered. I have several issues with the current version.

Firstly I like my Threat Mitigation powers to be reliable. When I turn on Focused Fighting it always gives me an increase to my Def, when I turn on Temporary Invulnerability it always gives me an increase in my Res. When I turn on Cloak of Fear I pay a pretty heavy End cost to get a chance that Critters near me will be less of a threat.

Secondly I feel there is a now too much overlap between this power and the next, Oppressive Gloom. Cloak of Fear use to affect LT’s, which Oppressive Gloom doesn’t, and it use to have a significant effect on Critters that it didn’t Cower and now it doesn’t. Basically if you are running Oppressive Gloom then the extra that you get for the quite high End cost of Cloak of Fear is IMHO not worthwhile.

On the other hand some people don’t like Oppressive Gloom because the Stunned Critters will wander sometimes moving away from melee range.

If you want to use Cloak of Fear and have it reliably hit Critters then you will want to find 3 Single Origins worth of Accuracy for it. If I was going to try to incorporate Cloak of Fear into my build as a major source of threat mitigation then I would probably slot it 3 Acc, 2 To Hit Debuffs and an End. At the moment I have CoF slotted 2 Acc, 1 End, 1 Fear and 2 To Hit Debuff and use it occasionally, generally in larger teams.

Oppressive Gloom - Mag 2 Disorient PBAoE Aura, Self –HP.

Available at level 35 Oppressive Gloom is Dark Armors other Critter control style threat mitigation power. Oppressive Gloom has a low End cost, a very minor HP cost and is effective without a lot of slots. A single Acc can make it perform strongly; I prefer an Acc and a Stun Duration.

Oppressive Gloom stuns Minions that come into melee range. I think this is great. Some people don’t like it because Stunned Critters can tend to wander away, but while they are wandering they aren’t attacking and I often find that if they do wander far enough to get out of the PBAE they will take one ranged shot at you then run back into the OpGloom field and get stunned again.

From level 35 onwards Oppressive Gloom will save you from a lot of Damage. Whether you are solo or in a team a large proportion of the incoming Damage from the average Spawn of Critters will come from the Minions and Oppressive Gloom will stop about 80% of that. And like all toggles in those situations where it isn’t helping you can turn it off.

OpGloom is particularly good for Martial Arts Scrappers as the Stun will stack with the Stuns from their other attacks.

Soul Transfer - Neg Energy Damage (Moderate), Heal (Very High), Endurance Bonus (High), PBAE Stun, Special Temporary Invulnerability and Special Temporary Debt protection.

Available at level 38 this is a Self Rez. Personally I am not thrilled by Self Rezes and this one is a bit quirky, as suits the Dark Armor powerset.

You can only use Soul transfer when there are Critters nearby. Sounds Bad. Using it throws a strong PBAE Stun and makes you temporarily immune to all damage. Sounds Good. That temporarily immune to damage thing, it doesn’t always work. Sounds Bad.

Issue 5 added a period of grace from Exp Debt to all Rez powers and inspirations to encourage people to try to get back into fights and not just lay on the floor until the fight was over then get up. I believe for Soul Transfer that period is 20 seconds.

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What Powers should you take.

Well I think all the Dark Armor powers do what they do reasonably well. I have personal reasons for not being excited about a couple, but overall none of them are total duds.

IMHO you will want at least all of the Resistance shields and either Cloak of Fear or Oppressive Gloom to construct enough threat mitigation to be a viable Scrapper.

Death Shroud adds End effective DPS to any Scrapper.

Dark Regen is a great oops power for when you get hit hard early in a fight.

Cloak of Darkness is a good Stealth power, which if you chose Dark Armor for concept or theme reasons is something you would probably want, it stops you getting Immobilised as easily and it gives you a small amount of Defense as a bonus.

And Soul Transfer is a quirky Self Rez that if you want one will probably do the job for you.


Slotting.

Powers generally need to be slotted well to function well and most of the Dark Armor powers follow this rule.

I would suggest that you -

Slot anything that needs to roll to hit with enough Accuracy Enh to be close to the Hit Chance Cap vs whatever you usually fight. That is one Single Origin Acc on most powers if you fight mostly level+0 and level+1 Critters and two Single Origin Accs if you fight mostly level+3 and higher Critters or PvP. Cloak of Fear needs one more Acc due to its horrible base Accuracy.
Slot all Resistance powers with 3 Resistance Enh.
Slot powers that primarily do damage with as 3 Damage Enh.
Slot any toggle (except Op Gloom ) with an End Reducer.

Death Shroud I would slot like any attack, I prefer 1 Acc, 1 End and 3 Damage.

I would recommend at least 2 End reducers in Dark Regen, you might want to put 3, and an Accuracy.

Cloak of Darkness leave with an End reducer in the base slot, don’t slot unless you have nothing else to slot.

Cloak of Fear you will need about +100% Acc to hit anything reliably. You can slot 3 Single Origin Acc Enh or get Focused Accuracy. Or forget it.

I have found that Oppressive Gloom functions well for me with only 2 slots, Acc and Stun Duration.

Soul Transfers primary ability will work probably just as well without slotting. If you are getting KO’ed enough to be thinking a lot about how you are slotting your Self Rez power then I suggest you may have other problems you should be concerned about.


Endurance Costs.

Toggles cost End. But Attacks cost more.

The best source of End cost numbers I know is Red Tomax's City of Data Site. Note the End costs for Toggles are in End per tick so you have to divide by the Tick time to get End per second.

Putting an SO End reducer in any power will cut it’s End cost to 75% of base. The larger the End cost the larger the End saving.


Summary.

Dark Armor gives you a pretty varied and interesting set of tools to keep your Scrapper upright and kicking [Bleep]. It has powers that work by messing the Critters over before they can mess you over. It gives you the opportunity to take a Stealth power without using a power pool. Dark Armour has rare and interesting Resistances to Psi damage, Fear and End Drain.

What doesn’t it have? Dark Armor doesn’t have resistance to KnockDown/Back. This drives many players crazy. Personally I find KD/B to be more of an annoyance than an automatic death sentence, but if you are already pushing the bleeding edge then any disruption to your combat actions can result in a KO.

The two easiest ways to mitigate KD/B are Acrobatics from the Leaping Pool and Hover from the Fly Pool. Both are toggles with some End cost. Hover doesn’t stop you getting KnockedDown/Back, but it does eliminate the need for you to struggle back to your feet, which is about 95% of the disruption a KB/D hits you with.

Dark Armor has no passives. Everything is a Toggle or a Click. This means if you want an effect you are paying End for it. Working out which powers you need to get through a fight and just using those is a part of learning how to use Dark Armor effectively. As I said earlier my general rule of thumb is if I am finishing fights with high HP and low End then maybe I can consider turning off a toggle.


Primaries.

Finding synergies between your primary and secondary is something that can give you a lot more bang for your buck. In no particular order:

Spines – Offensive AE and Defensive AE, what could work together better. And the Spines Recharge Debuff will add to the control powers of DA to make you an even better oblique defender of your teams squishies.

Dark Melee – the funky powers primary and the funky powers secondary, sounds good. The Fear and To Hit debuff of Touch of Fear and Cloak of Fear stack, all good. Dark Consumption can help offset your sometimes out of control End costs.

Katana and Broadsword – Mathematically To Hit Debuffs and Defense work really well together, making Divine Avalanche/Parry and Cloak of Fear a synergising combo. Also I can sort of see a tactic using Cloak of Fear to pin a pack of Critters then Broadswords high single target damage to KO them one at a time while their friends look on horrified, could be slow and boring but might be safe.

Martial Arts – MA’s Stun will stack with Op Gloom to make you a Stunning machine.

Claws – can’t see anything particular good, although if you get Follow Up running permanently it should give a decent boost to Death Shroud as well.


Pool Powers.

Pretty much whatever Pools you liked for your other characters you will like for your DA Scrapper.

Hasten doesn’t add much to DA as most of the powers are toggles not clicks so Recharge isn’t really an issue.

If you find you like having Stamina on other characters then you will probably feel some need for it on your DA Scrapper. If you don’t like having to manage End then I would recommend that you keep Stamina in mind, if it doesn’t worry you that much then you may be able to do without.

Fighting. IMHO DA provides you will all the defensive options and capabilities you will need to survive most reasonable fights. If however you want to fight Critters greater than level+2 with some security or to solo spawns meant for teams of more than 4 players then some additional threat mitigation would probably be worthwhile and the Fighting Pool provides it.


Movement Powers.

Many DA’s end up in the Leaping Pool to get Acrobatics and fill Dark Armors lack of KnockDown/Back protection. If you really hate getting knocked down then this might be for you.

Super Speed is another popular choice. Since many Scrappers take Hasten it is easy to take another power from the same pool and the Aggro reduction from Cloak of Darkness stacks with the Aggro reduction from Super Speed to make you practically undetectable to normal Critters. Some Critters, like snipers and Rikti Drones will still see you, but you can bump right up to normal Critters and they won’t see you.

Fly and Teleport are probably less taken, but if you like them as movement powers there is nothing wrong with them and other than the IMHO minor things mentioned above there is little to recommend any particular movement power to a Scrapper so chose something you are comfortable with.


Auxiliary Power Pools.

See my Scrapper APP's; A brief overview.


Good Luck and have Fun.

Regards, Screwloose
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

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Spines DA builds from Pre I3 to I8.

I hadn’t wanted to really concentrate on builds in my ramble, but I get PM’s every so often asking me what powers I took, so here is some more about that.

Screwloose – the pre I3 build that I took to level 50.

Archetype: Scrapper
Primary Powers - Melee : Spines
Secondary Powers - Defense : Dark Armor
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Lunge /Acc, End, 4xDam
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Dark Embrace /End, 5xRes
Slot[03] Level 2 : Death Shroud /Acc, End, 4xDam
Slot[04] Level 4 : Spine Burst /Acc, 5xDam
Slot[05] Level 6 : Hasten /6xRecharge
Slot[06] Level 8 : Build Up /2xRecharge
Slot[07] Level 10 : Impale /Acc, Range, End, 3xDam
Slot[08] Level 12 : Obsidian Shield /End, 5xRes
Slot[09] Level 14 : Super Speed /Run
Slot[10] Level 16 : Hurdle /Leap
Slot[11] Level 18 : Health /Heal
Slot[12] Level 20 : Stamina /6xEnd Recovery
Slot[13] Level 22 : Quills /Acc, End, 3xDam
Slot[14] Level 24 : Dark Regeneration /Acc, 2xEnd
Slot[15] Level 26 : Cloak Of Darkness /End, 4xDef Buff
Slot[16] Level 28 : Ripper /Acc, End, 4xDam
Slot[17] Level 30 : Cloak Of Fear /Acc, End, 3xTo Hit Debuff
Slot[18] Level 32 : Throw Spines /Acc, 5xDam
Slot[19] Level 35 : Oppressive Gloom /Acc, Disorient
Slot[20] Level 38 : Whirlwind /End
Slot[21] Level 41 : Recall Friend /Empty
Slot[22] Level 44 : Teleport /End
Slot[23] Level 47 : Swift /Run
Slot[24] Level 49 : Teleport Foe /Empty
Slot[25] Level 1 : Brawl /Dam
Slot[26] Level 1 : Sprint-Prestige /Leap
Slot[27] Level 2 : Rest /Recharge


My goal after I had chosen Spines and Dark Armor was to see how well they worked with a minimum of Power Pool reinforcement.

I liked the look of all the Spines powers, except Taunt (now Confront) as I didn’t want to be that sort of Scrapper, and I decided that I could probably do without one of Barb Swipe or Lunge.

All the Dark Armour powers looked pretty useful too. Except that I decided changing between 3 non stacking shields would probably be a pain, so I would drop Murky Cloud and just live with the pain of that decision. Soul Transfer also was never in my plan as I dislike self rez powers.

I had a pretty tough time of it from levels 20 to 30. After level 20 I found it not worth while to turn off ObShield as there was so often some minion that would have a chance to Stun me taking down all my toggles. Shortly after taking Cloak of Fear I noticed someone posting about the strength of it’s To Hit debuff and gave it a go, after one mission it had become the foundation of my tactics vs Bosses.

Once I got OpGloom I hardly ever turned it off and it made my life much easier, nullifying a huge proportion of the minions that I faced after that.

My power selection after 35 was pretty much just filler powers. By that time we had some indication that the APP were coming so I didn’t want to take anything that I would like so much it would be hard to drop, and I still wanted to see how well Dark Armour could protect me without something like the Fighting pool.

It also probably helped me because I didn’t put any slots into those powers so my earlier powers became very heavily slotted, something I wouldn’t be able to do once I was taking APP powers at 41+.

As it was I enjoyed TPort and Swift so much that I decided to drop Superspeed and Hurdle and change to TPort as my movement power.


Screwloose – post I3 respec, with Stacking Shields and Darkness Mastery APP.

Archetype: Scrapper
Primary Powers - Melee : Spines
Secondary Powers - Defense : Dark Armor
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Lunge /Acc, End, 2xDam
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Dark Embrace /End, 5xRes
Slot[03] Level 2 : Spine Burst /Acc, 5xDam
Slot[04] Level 4 : Death Shroud /Acc, End, 4xDam
Slot[05] Level 6 : Build Up /Recharge
Slot[06] Level 8 : Hasten /6xRecharge
Slot[07] Level 10 : Impale /Acc, 3xDam
Slot[08] Level 12 : Recall Friend /Recharge
Slot[09] Level 14 : Teleport /End
Slot[10] Level 16 : Obsidian Shield /End, 4xRes
Slot[11] Level 18 : Swift /Run
Slot[12] Level 20 : Quills /Acc, End, 2xDam
Slot[13] Level 22 : Health /Heal
Slot[14] Level 24 : Dark Regeneration /Acc, 2xEnd
Slot[15] Level 26 : Stamina /6xEnd Recovery
Slot[16] Level 28 : Ripper /Acc, 4xDam
Slot[17] Level 30 : Cloak Of Darkness /End, 3xDef Buff
Slot[18] Level 32 : Throw Spines /Acc, 5xDam
Slot[19] Level 35 : Cloak Of Fear /Acc, End, 3xTo Hit Debuff
Slot[20] Level 38 : Oppressive Gloom /Acc, Disorient
Slot[21] Level 41 : Murky Cloud /End, 4xRes
Slot[22] Level 44 : Petrifying Gaze /Acc, 2xHold
Slot[23] Level 47 : Dark Blast /Acc, End, 2x Dam
Slot[24] Level 49 : Tenebrous Tentacles /Acc, Cone Range
Slot[25] Level 1 : Brawl /Dam
Slot[26] Level 1 : Sprint-Prestige /Leap
Slot[27] Level 2 : Rest /Recharge

This is a Respec build from 50 so order of the powers is less important, until I am Exemplaring.

Trying to get Hasten, a movement power and Stamina all in early does push back powers that I would like to take as soon as they are available. I would like to be able to do without Stamina, as I have on some other characters, but even I found the drag of End too annoying to deal with as a Spines Dark Armour.


Screwloose – the Post I6 Respec Build (adapting to ED). Still currently in use.

Name; Screwloose
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary Powers - Melee : Spines
Secondary Powers - Defense : Dark Armor
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Lunge /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Dark Embrace /End Red, 3 x Res
Slot[03] Level 2 : Spine Burst /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red, Recharge Red
Slot[04] Level 4 : Death Shroud /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red
Slot[05] Level 6 : Build Up /3 x Recharge Red
Slot[06] Level 8 : Impale /Acc, 3 x Damage
Slot[07] Level 10 : Obsidian Shield /End, 3 x Res
Slot[08] Level 12 : Recall Friend /Interrupt Red
Slot[09] Level 14 : Teleport /End Red
Slot[10] Level 16 : Dark Regeneration /Acc, 2 x End Red, Heal
Slot[11] Level 18 : Quills /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red
Slot[12] Level 20 : Cloak Of Darkness /End Red, Def Buff
Slot[13] Level 22 : Swift /Run
Slot[14] Level 24 : Health /Heal
Slot[15] Level 26 : Ripper /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red, Recharge Red
Slot[16] Level 28 : Cloak Of Fear /2 x Acc, End Red, Fear, 2 x To Hit Debuff
Slot[17] Level 30 : Stamina /3 x End Mod
Slot[18] Level 32 : Throw Spines /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red, Recharge
Slot[19] Level 35 : Oppressive Gloom /Acc, 3 x Stun
Slot[20] Level 38 : Murky Cloud /End Red, 3 x Res
Slot[21] Level 41 : Petrifying Gaze /Acc, Recharge Red, 2 x Hold
Slot[22] Level 44 : Dark Blast /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red
Slot[23] Level 47 : Tenebrous Tentacles /Acc, 3 x Damage
Slot[24] Level 49 : Hover /3 x Fly
Slot[25] Level 1 : Brawl /Acc
Slot[26] Level 1 : Sprint /Run
Slot[27] Level 2 : Rest /Recharge Red.


Okay this is my current power selections and slottings. I have to say I was slightly surprised when I looked at them because I have done a few things that I would normally advise people against, but not so much that I have bothered to use my I7 Freespec to change anything.

This build is tailored towards efficient fast repeating waves of AE damage while keeping solid performance vs single targets.

Stamina. I usually say Stamina is not required for any character, but that if it makes the character less un-fun for you then take it and that is pretty much what happened here. As Screwloose was my first strongly levelled character I followed the main stream wisdom and wedged Stamina into his build, it also helped that I could identify 3 relatively early powers that I knew I didn’t want to take.

I have tested without Stamina and it is possible, but it requires a lot more toggling on and off and frankly that just gets to be a pain in the posterior. Since Murky Cloud has become such a useful power I lost one of my 3 early droppable powers and so Stamina comes in to this build later, but still in time for Sirens Call.

Murky Cloud I gave a lower priority not because it is a lesser power but just because you have to stick something at the bottom of the list. It is well worth while to get in before level 40 as it’s End Drain resist is almost as valuable as Obsidian Shields Psi resist vs level 40+ mobs, maybe even more.

I took Darkness Mastery because I am a tactical tool junkie and it gave me a lot more interesting tactical tools to play with. Petrifying Gaze reduces the number of mobs I am facing and lets me help shut down Bosses quicker with other Hold throwing Team members. Dark Blast replaced Brawl on my hotbar (Yes, I was Brawling until level 44), gave me another Ranged attack and an attack that wasn’t Lethal damage. Tenebrous Tentacles just looks Cool and is an additional wave of AE damage to add to my opening AE volley.

I took Hover at level 49 because there wasn’t much else I really wanted and I thought it might be handy in the “soon” to be released top level PvP zone.

Note this build has no KnockBack/Down Protection for most of it’s levelling career If you want that then you are going to have to try to get Hover in earlier or change to the Leaping pool and squeeze Acrobatics in as well.

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Good stuff! Recommended reading for anyone wanting to learn more about commanding the forces of Darkness.

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Nice overview! As simple and obvious as your comment regarding End use and finishing fights with more Health than Endurance is, I have really never looked at it that way. Duh.

My Katana/Dark (Maya the Eternal on Justice) just hit level 35. I'm very impressed with Oppressive Gloom to be everything I wish Cloak of Fear was. It has proven very effective at keeping the minions off my case while Death Shroud whittles away at them, leaving me to focus on the single target I want to destroy the most.

I still haven't taken Murky in my current build. I found I was leaving it turned off for 80+% of the fights. It'll probably get squeezed in at a latter point. I'm actually seriously considering a respec that focuses entirely on my two big single target attacks, sacrificing a few of my lower level ones. With as much hurt Death Shroud puts out over the course of a fight, it might work out great! Kinda scared of gimping my current main, though. Hmmm...

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Gj on the Work

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Hey Screwloose, I'm coming back to my DM/DA after a fairly long hiatus (since the Great CoF Nerf in fact). Good to see you're still kicking around, and thanks for the nice summary of changes.

I had hoped CoF might have gained back some fraction of its former effectiveness, but I guess I'll be respeccing for OG. Ah well.

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I agree with most of your comments on the dark secondaries, but I find CoF works quite nicely.
I started my original build with Death Shroud, then respec'd it out at lvl 16, respec'd it back in at 38, and almost immediately took it out again and took an extra attack (Crippling Axe Kick) that I hadn't looked at before, and haven't looked back since.

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
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Name: Dant3
Level: 50
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary: Martial Arts
Secondary: Dark Armor
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01) --> Storm Kick==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Dmg(5) Rechg(7)
01) --> Dark Embrace==> DmgRes(1) DmgRes(7) DmgRes(9)
02) --> Cobra Strike==> Acc(2) Acc(9) DisDur(11) DisDur(11) DisDur(13) EndRdx(13)
04) --> Murky Cloud==> DmgRes(4) DmgRes(15) DmgRes(15)
06) --> Recall Friend==> Range(6)
08) --> Focus Chi==> TH_Buf(8) TH_Buf(17) TH_Buf(17) Rechg(19) Rechg(19) Rechg(21)
10) --> Crane Kick==> Acc(10) Acc(21) Dmg(23) Dmg(23) Dmg(25) Rechg(25)
12) --> Obsidian Shield==> DmgRes(12) DmgRes(27) DmgRes(27)
14) --> Teleport==> EndRdx(14) EndRdx(29) EndRdx(29)
16) --> Hurdle==> Jump(16)
18) --> Health==> Heal(18) Heal(31) Heal(31)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(31) EndMod(33)
22) --> Dark Regeneration==> Acc(22) Acc(33) EndRdx(50)
24) --> Cloak Of Darkness==> DefBuf(24) DefBuf(33) DefBuf(34)
26) --> Crippling Axe Kick==> Acc(26) Acc(34) Dmg(37) Dmg(37) Dmg(39) Immob(39)
28) --> Dragon's Tail==> Acc(28) Acc(34) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) EndRdx(37)
30) --> Cloak Of Fear==> Acc(30) Acc(39) EndRdx(40) EndRdx(40) TH_DeBuf(40) TH_DeBuf(42)
32) --> Eagle's Claw==> Acc(32) Acc(42) Dmg(42) Dmg(43) Dmg(43) EndRdx(43)
35) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(35)
38) --> Assault==> EndRdx(38) EndRdx(46) EndRdx(46)
41) --> Tactics==> TH_Buf(41) TH_Buf(45) TH_Buf(46) EndRdx(48) EndRdx(48) EndRdx(48)
44) --> Conserve Power==> Rechg(44) Rechg(45) Rechg(45)
47) --> Focused Accuracy==> EndRdx(47) EndRdx(50) TH_Buf(50)
49) --> Energy Torrent==> Acc(49)
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01) --> Sprint==> Jump(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Critical Hit==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
01) --> Power Quick==> Jump(1)
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See you on the Australia channel :-)

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