Nephryte's Dark/Rad/Dark Defender Notes

Based upon the same style as my ice/ice blaster " guide ", the following is one example of a Dark/Rad Defender.

When I decided to level a defender I was not sure what kind.
I carefully reviewed everything and started to focus on radiation and dark because I liked each set. I had a fire/rad troller at the time, so I shied away from a rad primary for my defender and that sort of snapped it into place for a Dark/Rad.

I then adopted my first female character, and gave her sort of a sad, tragic background that pushed her into striving to prove herself as a hero. And so Nephryte was born (Nephrite being the type of mineral in dark green jade - I thought it fit dark/rad).

And?
I love the build, and had tons of fun playing it! Tons!
Enough that I went to CoV and built a Rad/Dark Corruptor (which for those not familiar with the ATs there this mix provides access to the same power selections). This ended up being Nephyrte's sister who handled her mutations in a much different way. Anyway, enough rambling, what follows are my basic thoughts on the set.


Dark Miasma
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Twilight Grasp
A targeted heal - pulls energy from a foe to throw green numbers around your position.
Will you pull your hair out when this misses and your key heal does not hit? Yes.
Will you pull your hair out when the team mate you meant to heal is out of range, or runs away just before your heal fires? Yes.
Will you learn any technique you can to make heals not as necessary? yes
Will you learn to keep track of the enemy, finding the easiest target to heal from in relation to the team mate that needs the heal most? yes.
It is a great tool to teach you about the flow of battle, and tactical awareness. Every defender should play Dark Miasma even for a few levels.

Tar Patch
Access to this power presented a defining moment for who Nephryte would be in Paragon City. This is a great power, but I decided that she would not be a def-troller, and skip any of the soft or hard hold powers that would come up for her. Her powers would be focused on team defense and accuracy. Now, selfishly, this was because I had just leveled a blaster focused on holds and slows and I didn't want to the play anything too similar. (OTOH, Nephryte's Corruptor sister will be relishing the hold powers to give me a different feel with the same sets.)

Darkest Night
I love this power.
Pop it on a foe, and it and all nearby mobs have their accuracy reduced. Pair this with any defense boosting you may be doing and your total damage threat falls quickly. Also a great tool to herd with as it will get you aggro fast (hint: try to drop it just as - or after - the tank goes in).

Howling Twilight
Foe targeted, area of affect, +disorient, causes damage, and will rez any ally in the area. Nice.
Discussion of Howling Twilight can go on forever. Is it a Rez that debuffs? Is it a debuff that Rezzes? These are matters for Socrates or Plato to debate. What matters is you can pull 2 or 3 or 4 or 7 allies to their feet at once. And you will feel so heroic doing it. You will dive into certain death swirling over your fallen friends knowing that they will rise and win due to your sacrifice. You will see allies getting wounded and fire this off, before anyone has fallen to create mass disorientation and draw aggro hoping to buy time for heals, and buffs, and damage. Much fun.

Shadow Fall
Centered on you, an aura that provides some stealth, limited damage resistance, and +All defense to your team. The resistance is particularly nice because it protects against damge types that are rare in general and particularly at the point you can pick it up (Psi the best example). A sweet early power, and it really helps define the set.

(A side note on slotting this one - mostly because I am something of a heretic. Many seem to lean towards slotting this for resistance, for while it is limited damage types the numbers are higher and it includes Psi which is important. The base defense is not particularly high, but it protects against ALL. Combine this with any other buffers on the team, Maneuvers, Darkest Night, and Dark Servant and you start not having to take as much damage and it matters 100% of the time rather than for only certain attacks.... I slot for Defense as primary and work in Resistance to back it up.)

Fearsome Stare
A tough call, because I like this power, but keeping with the concept of the character I skipped it.

Petrifying Gaze
In keeping with the concept of the character I skipped this.

Black Hole
In keeping with the concept of the character I skipped this.

Dark Servant
Your sheep is your friend. It throws heals, holds, tentacles, its own darkest night...
Once Dark Servant arrives you can solo comfortably, get him slotted and you will be on unyielding or even invincible solo.
You cannot slot damage (which sucks because this rules out any IO sets for this pet), but there are a ton of other options - heal, hold, to-hit debuff,... mix and match to your heart's content. He also expires, unlike many other hero pets but a single rechar SO and it is easily always ready when he leaves.


Radiation Blast
===
Neutrino Bolt
Fast recharge gives this a nice DPS, even for a Defender. With some -Defense thrown in. *glee*

X-Ray Beam
Eye beams! sweet! So sweet, my aura is eyes leaking a radiation glow.

Irradiate
I looked at the slots I had planned and something had to go... I did not pick this up.

Electron Haze
A targeted cone effect, this is a nice power. Not only do you get to drop -Defense on multiple targets, it has a damage mitigating knockback effect. Solo, that can often be critical, and in a team it helps even when it annoys folks. It takes practice, however, to keep it from scattering around the tank or scrappers. (I gimped it some to help with the latter by never slotting it for knockback.)

Proton Volley
I skipped this. I debated it at length, but given Neph's tendancy to stay near the action to support the team it just didn't feel like a power I would use much.

Aim
A nice pick-up - more accuracy and a slight damage boost. 'nuff said.

Cosmic Burst
An excellent power, and I think critical to the set. Its extreme damage gives the build some punch and its disorient is reliable with only a single enh boost. This fits nicely with hitting the foes and increasing defensive mitigation by putting the target into a 'drunk dance' rather than attacking someone.

Neutron Bomb
AoE damage is always nice, and this has a reasonable range and good numbers, plus it has the standard -Defense effect of rad. Its a good lead toss into a spawn to help the initial assault from the team.

Atomic Blast
I initially took this power, and it is a pretty reasonable nuke, though, as a defender it clearly lacks punch over what I have seen from blasters. It does come with a nice hold effect, though, which makes it a handy tool for indirect damage mitigation. However, the hold did not fit with Nephryte's concept and the damage result was a let down, and tended to leave me exposing my squishie self and team more than I liked (toggles would drop). I respec'd and dropped this.
(Strategy-wise, however, it works very well with the Epic Dark Consumption. If you have at least 1 'Take a Breath', you can run in to drop Atomic Blast, pop the blue, and then Dark Consumption will restore your endurance off of the held victims. Laugh Out Loud fun.)

Dark Mastery
===
Dark Mastery was a must. By the time I reached this point I was wishing I had made Nephryte a Dark/Dark, so embracing the Dark epic was a natural.

Oppressive Gloom:
This looks like a nice power for people looking to get melee range consistently and the +disorient effect is probably nice. However, I skipped it because the last thing I wanted was to consistently look to get close and the -HP angle would be too much of a threat to keeping this defender on its feet. (I'm squishie enough as it is, durn it.)

Dark Consumption
Handy and slick! When the Endurance dips - jump into a spawn, toss this power, and fall back with a nicely buffed blue.

Dark Embrace
Ah... what to say about this? +Resistance against negative, toxic, smash, and lethal. My health bar was never happier.

Soul Drain
Have not used this as much as Dark Consumption, but it is nice. Some quick localized damage and a to-hit buff is never bad.

Pools
===
Leadership: Nephryte has all 4 from the leadership pool, with Maneuvers a cornerstone of regular use in accord with her concept.

Fitness: I wish that Stamina wasn't so darn useful - so many slots spent to get it but Nephryte can and does run all 3 leadership toggles, Shadow Fall, Darkest Night, and Dark Embrace at the same time and still contribute blasts and heals and not break a sweat in a team setting. Solo, I tend to skip all but maneuvers - just flipping them on as needed.

Accolades: So far, just the The Atlas Medallion but so very, very close to Portal Jockey...

Travel: take to suit. I focused on Flight, sort of at random. This ended up working later when happenstance got me Freebird IOs with +stealth - added to Shadow Fall I can pretty much go where I like... but Recall Friend is nice when trying to use the targeted Howling Twilight or keep Vengeance effecient, so I also have that.

Medicine: popular with defenders in general, the only thing I ever had from this was Stimulant. This gets a bad rap, I think, due to its interrupt problems, but it is a useful tool to get stunned and held allies back into the fight. I dropped it in a late respec though as I found I was using it less and less.

Inventions
===
Little advice here - whatever suits, or build on the drops you get.
However, I have managed to look things over and focus on mez resistance to get me back in play as quick as possible. I have also tried to focuse on regeneration and recovery bonuses.



Now, what are the weaknesses of this build?

I love the build, but it isn't perfect.
First - it plays really slow solo until you get your pet at 32. Really slow. Without a team you are in for some long missions.

Second - you will draw aggro in any team. Your heal is targeted and generates aggro, Darkest Night draws aggro , Howling Twilight draws aggro, plus any attacks you launch. Be prepared to take hits.

Third, and probably biggest weakness, is a nearly complete and total lack of Mez protection. I know this is a common complaint, but you support your TEAM with your toggles and these disappear if you get held.

There is nothing as sad as getting held and, while being blasted to pieces, watching your team of green friends drop to yellow, orange, and head into red as you hit the floor.... You do get the immediate satisfaction, of course, of being able to say "see, I was making a difference" though, somehow, it isn't the most satisfying of satisfactions....

Going for acrobatics on this build would probably be more than worth it, and in retrospect would make jumping a preferred travel selection.

CONCLUSION
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Well, that's it.
This concludes today's random Dark/Rad/Dark thoughts for your Defender fruit salad.

you said you had wished you were dark/dark, why? what in dark blast would have been better than rad blast?

By the way dark/sonic is awesome and I soloed invic from 22 on, so if you want soloability look at that combo

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After skipping Tar Patch, Pet. Gaze, and Fearsome Stare, I'm not all that surprised it was difficult to solo before the pet. I understand you were going for concept, but things are bound to be tougher going when you skip most of the utility powers that keep mobs under control, and more importantly not attacking you.

I understand your going for your own concept character, but do realize you just skipped PG and FS. Two of the most useful powers in big teams. PG allows for great Boss holding, and FS keep enemies fear locked for massive abuse. I wouldn't recommend any new Dark def, skip those two powers. As for Blackhole, its extremely situational. Regardless "concept" should never stop you from skipping main powers. Thats like a fire blaster skipping Nova, for concept...thats just stupid.

Actually, most Fire Blasters tend to skip Nova.

They take Inferno instead

No offense but shouldn't a guide offer the writer's opinion on all the powers within the primaries and secondaries as well as dip into a variety of power pools and finally touching upon some of the apps?

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Actually, most Fire Blasters tend to skip Nova.

They take Inferno instead

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Yay you made a funny! good for you Daniel-san. Nova= lvl 32 power for every blaster.

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Actually, most Fire Blasters tend to skip Nova.

They take Inferno instead

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Yay you made a funny! good for you Daniel-san. Nova= lvl 32 power for every blaster.

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Actually, Nova is the level 32 nuke for Energy Blast. So, his comment was accurate.

My critique of this guide is that while it may be useful if I was looking to create the OP's character, it is not particularly helpful as a guide for dark/rad defenders in general.

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Actually, most Fire Blasters tend to skip Nova.

They take Inferno instead

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Yay you made a funny! good for you Daniel-san. Nova= lvl 32 power for every blaster.

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Actually, Nova is the level 32 nuke for Energy Blast. So, his comment was accurate.

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Lacrymosa probably meant nuke instead of Nova...

As for the guide...it seems to be just outlining the concept behind your character as opposed to letting players know the strengths and weaknesses of a Dark/Rad/Dark Defender.