Dark Armor & IOs: Slotting for performance

Here's what I have done & tested on 3 different dark armor users: ma/da (35), spines/da (42) & ss/da brute (worked on from 26-36).

It's relatively affordable: 3-6 mill, depending on your level, the market that day, and how patient you want to be.

The goal is not to care about set bonuses (I'm not even going to note them) - the goal is to improve your slot efficiency without spending a fortune. With that in mind, I opted for the cheapest sets that had the bonuses I wanted.

All percentages are from the level 42 character, using 36-45 IOs.

Dark Embrace, Murky cloud, Obsidian shield:
Titanium Coating: res/end, res/rech, res/end/rech, res
Approx bonuses: (6 slots in 4) 56% resist, 45% recharge, %45 end

Death shroud:
Multi-strike: acc/dmg, dmg/end, acc/end, acc/dmg/end, dmg/end/rech
Cleaving blow: dmg/end
Approx bonuses: (9 slots in 6) 97% dmg, 70% acc, 20% rech, 97% end

Dark Regen:
Doctored wounds: heal/end/rech, end/rech
Harmonized healing: heal/end/rech, end/rech
Multi-strike: acc/end
1 SO Acc
Approx bonuses: (8.5 slots in 6) 38% heal, 58% acc, 85% rech, 96% end

Oppressive Gloom:
rope a dope: acc/stun, acc/stun/rech
Approx bonuses: (3 slots in 2) 37% disorient, 45% acc, 20% rech

Ingredients required & costs for level 40 IOs as of 052807 HERO SIDE:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
alchemical gold x6 2800 16800
alchemical silver x4 10000 40000
ancient bone x2 25000 50000
blood of the incarnate x5 1000 5000
carnival of shadows mask x1 2000 2000
circuit board x5 250 1250
commercial cybernetic x4 500 2000
corrosive gas x1 500 500
demonic blood sample x4 25000 100000
ensorcelled weapon x3 2500 7500
improvised cybernetic x3 1000 3000
inert gas x6 450 2700
iron x3 250 750
masterwork weapon x7 22000 154000
mutant dna strand x1 250 250
rune x5 14000 70000
scientific law x1 500 500
scientific theory x3 250 750
spell ink x3 10000 30000
stabilized mutant genome x5 250 1250
steel x1 1300 1300
symbol x2 2200 4400

total: 493950
</pre><hr />

None of the above are exceptionally expensive, in fact if you get things at prices close to what they were when I did it most recently, you'll spend less than 500k.

The real killer comes in the cost to create (which I think is at least 25% too high, given the cost of materials for certain items, but that's a topic for another thread). For most items (sorry, I didn't check all these), at level 40, it's about 210k per enhancement. That would leave you with 5.25 mill at level 40, giving you a grand total of 5.75 mill.

Some are definitely less and it will depend on the level of the enhancement you purchase (I only spent about 4.8-5 mill at level 43, and 4 mill at level 35), but this should give you some general ideas.


Addendum: Cloak of Fear

Two of my characters use this, and I already posted an earlier version of this elsewhere, but it does belong here. I kept the costs separate mostly because I don't feel like reformatting everything, but also because most scrappers &amp; brutes I see don't use CoF.

Cloak of Fear
Horror: acc/fear, end/fear (caps at level 30)
Nightmare: acc/fear, acc/end
Glimpse of the Abyss: acc/fear, acc/end
Approx bonuses: (8 slots in 6) 68% fear duration, 89% acc, 97% end

costs (@ lvl 30 for horror &amp; 35 for the other two) HERO SIDE:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>alchemical silver 10000 10000
blood of the incarnate 1000 1000
commercial cybernetic 500 500
conspiratorial evidence 50000 50000
corrosive gas 500 500
holographic memory 25000 25000
inert gas 450 450
iron x2 250 500
masterwork weapon x2 22000 44000
mutant dna strand 250 250
rune x2 14000 28000
scientific theory 250 250
spell ink 10000 10000
steel 1300 1300
stabilized mutant genome x2 250 500
symbol 2200 2200

enhancement creation 438000
total 612450
</pre><hr />

nice!

question: aren't there IO sets that resist KB?

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question: aren't there IO sets that resist KB?

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No. There are individual global/special IOs which add KB resistance, but they are not set bonuses or sets. (Although they do FUNCTION like set bonuses in game engine terms)

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question: aren't there IO sets that resist KB?

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No. There are individual global/special IOs which add KB resistance, but they are not set bonuses or sets. (Although they do FUNCTION like set bonuses in game engine terms)

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What he said. And this guide is for slotting on a budget - if you want to go all out and blow millions, you can get 2-3 of the kb resist IOs (hint, they are very expensive, although I did luck out and get one recipe for 350k after leaving that bid at Wentworth's since I9 came out).

ah, OK. i was just wondering if they were worth it or if i should just stick with acrobatics

I would get acrobatics, put in a low(ish) bid for a recipie, and if you happend to buy or come accross one, respec out of it.

I slotted one kb protection a couple of weeks ago and I haven't been knocked back since. I was knocked down once, but not back. I've been fighting a lot of council, and they used to bounce me around a lot. I think I spent half a million on it, and for me it was well worth it.

I don't see the benefit of having recharge reduction in the shields. I'd rather use a common resistance IO than a res/rech set enhancement.

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I slotted one kb protection a couple of weeks ago and I haven't been knocked back since. I was knocked down once, but not back. I've been fighting a lot of council, and they used to bounce me around a lot. I think I spent half a million on it, and for me it was well worth it.


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I agree, if you've got the cash, these are worth it. I'm looking forward to dropping acro and running Cloak of Darkness soon!

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I don't see the benefit of having recharge reduction in the shields. I'd rather use a common resistance IO than a res/rech set enhancement.

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I use them for 2 reasons:

1. To get the set bonus, lame as they may be. Something like 1.25% lethal or energy defense is technically better than .9% smash/lethal resist.
2. Because that bit of recharge will help me more than 4% of 22.5% (comes out to about .9% resist). As rare as it is, I do get detoggled occasionally, and the longer you have to wait to get your armors back up...well, you know.

I can attest to the knockback protection IO working wonders. I have the defense set one [Kimset?] slotted into Combat Jumping and in day to day PvE I have no problems whatsoever. The only time I have knockback concerns is against an occasional EB and always against Ballistas. However, at those times I just go get a knockback empowerment buff from my base and have no worries at all. That empowerment buff is super cheap for the few times I need it.

I will note that with just combat jumping I do get immobilized some times. I've only noticed it when jumping large/multiple spawns of Legacy Chain, as those minions of earth use entangle. [Level 28 elec/dark brute]

Lobster:
How often do you run Oppressive Gloom? I don't have it yet but I have been making very heavy use of Lightning Clap from the Electric Melee set.

And how useful is CoF for you? I'm debating between that, CoD, and a pool power for a late-game power pick. I'm not sure I'll be able to spare enough slots for it, though. Right now my damage mitigation works very well between a combination of resists, healing, stuns, and knockback/knockdown.

Thanks

[ QUOTE ]
1. To get the set bonus, lame as they may be. Something like 1.25% lethal or energy defense is technically better than .9% smash/lethal resist.
2. Because that bit of recharge will help me more than 4% of 22.5% (comes out to about .9% resist). As rare as it is, I do get detoggled occasionally, and the longer you have to wait to get your armors back up...well, you know.

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I agree that waiting for your armor to recharge can be quite stressful the few times that it really matters. I'm not quite following your math, though. Where does the 4% come from?

Just as an update on the kb protection IO's, I was fighting a lot of BP Masks recently and I did get knocked back a few times. I also fought some avalanche shaman, but I don't remember them knocking me down or back at all. Not enough for me to notice, anyhow.

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I can attest to the knockback protection IO working wonders. I have the defense set one [Kimset?] slotted into Combat Jumping and in day to day PvE I have no problems whatsoever. The only time I have knockback concerns is against an occasional EB and always against Ballistas. However, at those times I just go get a knockback empowerment buff from my base and have no worries at all. That empowerment buff is super cheap for the few times I need it.


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I did recently purchase the Karma kb prot io and slotted it into Cloak of Darkness - and yes, I pretty much never get knocked back. I stood in Serafina's hurricane for the entire fight, and only got knocked once - I suspect when Lighting Storm hit me while I was inside the hurricane.

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I will note that with just combat jumping I do get immobilized some times. I've only noticed it when jumping large/multiple spawns of Legacy Chain, as those minions of earth use entangle. [Level 28 elec/dark brute]


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I run Cloak of Darkness 24/7 now in lieu of Acro (since I have the kb prot in it), so with that &amp; CJ, I can't recall being rooted.

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Lobster:
How often do you run Oppressive Gloom? I don't have it yet but I have been making very heavy use of Lightning Clap from the Electric Melee set.


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I recently respecced out of CoF, and run OG 24/7 now - the health drain really isn't enough to notice, and it neuters minions - with Handclap &amp;/or a lucky hit from one of my ss attacks, it takes care of LTs &amp; bosses too.

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And how useful is CoF for you? I'm debating between that, CoD, and a pool power for a late-game power pick. I'm not sure I'll be able to spare enough slots for it, though. Right now my damage mitigation works very well between a combination of resists, healing, stuns, and knockback/knockdown.


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With the right primary (darkness prolly for ToF stacking), or for a stalker, CoF would be much more useful than it was for me. I did get a good amount of use out of it when herding on small teams - it was the only thing keeping me alive after I bunched up the enemies. However, I opted to 6 slot my attacks (trying for some more spendy sets now ), so I dropped CoF to free up slots.

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I agree that waiting for your armor to recharge can be quite stressful the few times that it really matters. I'm not quite following your math, though. Where does the 4% come from?


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I was just totally guessing off the top of my head, but I think this is what I was thinking:

Dark Embrace base resist: 22.5%

The difference for me, between an extra pure resist enhancement, and a something/res, was like, (due to ed soft capping around 55%ish) 57% &amp; 53%. The total resistance yielded by those numbers is: 35.33%(22.5 &amp; 1.57) &amp; 34.43% (22.5 &amp; 1.53). So, I'm giving up about .9% ACTUAL resist in order to get some other random set bonus.

Very nice! Kudos!

Super guide, it's also given me ideas on how to slot up some of my other heroes with mixed sets.

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I run Cloak of Darkness 24/7 now in lieu of Acro (since I have the kb prot in it), so with that &amp; CJ, I can't recall being rooted.


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Just in case any readers weren't aware, when a KB IO is slotted in a toggle, you don't need to have the power turned on to get the benefit. Some people take Maneuvers and slot the IO in there, and never even turn the power on. My controller has it in Hover and never turns it on, but still gets the benefit.

I give the OP kudos on this.


More people need to make casua IO slotting guides like this.

I often make superbuilds but I have wierd ADHD, where I play a toon contantly into the early 40s then stop and roll an alt. Super IO max builds aren't worth my time when I do things like that.

I use Oppresive Gloom on my Katana/DA scrapper and i find it handy when on large teams, you have to be careful with it because of the health drain. I did take Acrobatice and that seemed to salve my KB problems, combined with cloak of fear I have not been detoggled in a long time. I will copy my build and post it on here in a couple of days. I am impresed with it i can jump into a large mob and still come out alive.

Holy necro post!

While this option didn't exist when the thread was created, for anyone seeing it more recently I'd suggest using Alignment Merits to get a -knockback IO if you are really on a tight budget and hate the market. It makes a huge difference in enjoyability of a DA character. Next step up would be a Theft of Essence +End proc for Dark Regen, helps a lot with End burn.

If you don't hate the market quite as much, consider using the AMs to make something that sells well, such as a Stealth or LotG proc, sell that, and use the Inf to buy the -knockback IO plus everything else listed.