Consume

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Dark consumption does not specifically have the same issues as consume in that light. It does not underperform its peers just because its endurance management is inferior - almost the opposite.


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I am somewhat curious, I have always felt that Dark Melee was the safest melee primary but also at the same time the weakest in terms of damage output. What does Dark Consumption add to the melee set and why is an end recovery power in the melee set to begin with in your opinion?

I realize you can only guess at what the original design conept was but what I am specificaly wondering is how you see Dark Consumption functioning with the set as a whole as it stands now after 8 issues of changes.

I'm just looking for your feelings on this, not a proof

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[ QUOTE ]
I am somewhat curious, I have always felt that Dark Melee was the safest melee primary but also at the same time the weakest in terms of damage output. What does Dark Consumption add to the melee set and why is an end recovery power in the melee set to begin with in your opinion?

I realize you can only guess at what the original design conept was but what I am specificaly wondering is how you see Dark Consumption functioning with the set as a whole as it stands now after 8 issues of changes.

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I know this wasn't directed at me, but..

I see this as a side effect of Dark powersets in general being "utility" powersets. They are the swiss-army-knives of the sets, known for DoT damage and features that like normally lie outside the AT or primary/secondary role.

In conjunction with this, I do think that DM and DA were designed to be specifically complimentary. I suspect that DC was meant to offset the costs of Dark Regen. Of course, if true, this isn't a very good design, since it implies that DA isn't effective without an endurance recovery power in its paired primary. That may have been the case, since the devs did come along and reduce DA's costs.

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Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Dark consumption does not specifically have the same issues as consume in that light. It does not underperform its peers just because its endurance management is inferior - almost the opposite.


[/ QUOTE ]

I am somewhat curious, I have always felt that Dark Melee was the safest melee primary but also at the same time the weakest in terms of damage output. What does Dark Consumption add to the melee set and why is an end recovery power in the melee set to begin with in your opinion?

I realize you can only guess at what the original design conept was but what I am specificaly wondering is how you see Dark Consumption functioning with the set as a whole as it stands now after 8 issues of changes.

I'm just looking for your feelings on this, not a proof

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, the devs have stated multiple times that the original intent was for dark melee to have lower damage, but higher control than the other sets. Not utility: specifically control (martial arts is supposed to have the best "utility").

It makes sense for a set with high control and lower damage to have more endurance, because a set that has more control and less damage will fight for a longer time.

Also, the set's control is single-target in nature. It has a single target fear, and its debuffs primarily affect one target. In fact, the more they are stacked, the stronger they get. Which means the less targets it fights, the stronger it is, and the more targets it fights (beyond a certain point) the weaker it gets.

That's interesting, because its self buff (soul drain) and its endurance recovery (dark consumption) both are PBAoEs: they get stronger when you hit more things, and weaker when you hit less things. That means DC and SD vary in strength completely opposite to how the rest of the set performs, which creates a "sweet spot" where the set tends to want to be. You can go lower and safer, or higher and more dangerous, but the set has a built-in regulator on performance: it rewards the skill it takes to operate from its comfort zone, but it makes in increasingly harder to operate farther away.


The devs are not always - or necessarily often - quite that deliberate in their design choices: dark consumption might have simply been a cool idea they threw into the set they thought it was most appropriate for, but that's how I see the set functioning now. The mistake the devs made in dark melee was that they did not, and do not, tend to think about activation times carefully enough: specifically how they relate to recharge. Because Dark Melee has such fast attacks, it benefits the most from slotting recharge. That was a minor issue pre-ED, but post-ED with almost *everyone* slotting recharge, their notion that dark melee should be a low damage set goes out the window: any set with fast activation times and with the discretion to slot recharge is going to be a high damage set: its *impossible* for it not to be, given how the devs design attack powers.

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In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)

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Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.

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The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.

lol @ necromancy

Yes, consume has a silly long recharge, but it comes in fire sets that tend to be overpowered. Hmmm... Difficult to balance.

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"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator

Consume was changed, in fact, long after this thread first appeared, but long before you necro'ed it. It got the recovery buff and the endurance drain resistance, and still has a huge radius and costs far less to activate than Power Sink.

And yeah, necroooooooooooo

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Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.

Holy cow, how does a 5 year old thread even still exist?

I'd have thought it would be purged at some point.

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Dirges

I agree

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Under construction

I look forward to seeing an original ED thread to be ressurected any day now lol!

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"Comics, you're not a Mastermind...you're an Overlord!"

Please no necro threads guys. Whether started by a Redname or not, thread necromancy is rarely appropriate.

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Andy Belford
Community Manager
Paragon Studios