Darkity's Guide to Dark/Dark Defenders [I12]

Darkity's Guide to Dark/Dark Defenders! (D3s)

-or-

"If you're going to die, die in a pile"

v.beta, last updated 08-08-08

THIS GUIDE HAS BEEN UPDATED. LATEST VERSION CAN BE FOUND HERE

Table of Contents:
1) Preface
2) Dark Miasma (Primary)
3) Dark Blast (Secondary)
4) Which Epic Power Pool Should I Take?
5) Thoughts
6) FAQ


1) Preface

I'll admit, I was gone from the game for a long while. I started playing in beta, and played on a shared account with two other people until the account's owner just up and vanished off to a foreign country (Texas). I admit, it wasn't exactly kosher, but MMOs were still a new thing, and I had trouble justifying $15 a month back then. To give you an idea as to when this was, Defenders were Empathy or nothing, you could not run more than one defensive toggle at a time, Fear made stuff run away, Howling Twilight still rezzed people with a sliver of HP, and Fluffy didn't move. Yes, I played lolDark. Uphill both ways! In the snow! AND I LIKED IT. Now get off my lawn!

Flash ahead to an I9 homecoming, and I like Dark even more. Actually, it's probably safe to say that I'm so much in love with Dark/Dark that it's kind of unnatural. I found out very rapidly that the Invention System was not always very.... kind to the two matched powersets, making powers with diverse effects difficult to slot IOs well. Accuracy enhancements, for example, being completely wasted in powers like Tar Patch and Howling Twilight, both auto-hit powers, making large parts of sets that might be slotted, useless. Powers like Twilight Grasp, a heal that DOES need Accuracy enhancements, not being able to reap the benefits from slotting entire Numina's or Miracle sets, for example. I have gotten used to Fluffy being motile, I love the new- relatively speaking- Fear, and still am kind of dismissive about Howling Twilight's rez effect. (And despite my still not understanding what makes Texas tick, I do have in-laws there who are slowly educating me what it means to be a Texan.)

With I11, ToHit Debuff sets are now added into the mix, with one set that seems almost tailored for Dark/Dark; Dark Watcher's Despair. While I would like to say that the D-man don't look out for his own, I confess, testing this proc in everything has caused me more headaches than Black Hole ever did.

When you play through as a Dark/Dark Defender, a lot of the abilities that you'll be taking will have secondary, even tertiary effects. Most of the time the secondary effect will be -ToHit, but the additional effects include -Regeneration, -Damage, Immobilize, Fear, Stun, Healing, and Raise. Oh, and damage, too. Dark/Dark has a heavy emphasis towards coneblasting, and abusing large groups of enemies at once.

Finally, a word regarding -ToHit. It's not flashy. It's not obvious. The effects of it are the same as throwing soap bubbles around your teammates, but even the most knowledgeable player will forget that the Dark/Dark is doing something other than [censored!] the enemies with tentacles, simply because the team proceeds to steamroll everything in its path. Many is the time that I've heard from other fellow Dark/Dark defenders as well as tells sent to me afterwards from teammates that say something along the lines of, "Yeah, the team broke up after you left. We just kept dying and wiping." Players won't see you debuffing the critters' ToHit; they will see you Immobilizing, Fearing, debuffing Resistance, Slowing, and Healing instead.

Just keep in mind that the modern Dark/Dark is not a set that is powerful in the sense of "O hai, I killed^H^H^H^H^H^H arrested all teh mobs 4 u." Rather, it is powerful in the sense of, "They're all crippled, defeat them with impunity." (Back when you could summon more than one Dark Servant, yes, you could slot your pets for control, and your blasts for damage.)

Recommended reading:
Guide to (Tohit and) Defense v1.10beta , by Arcanaville.

Acknowledgments:

Blackest Night, wherever the heck you are, this goes out to you.
Arcanaville, for spelling out ToHit.
Philotix, for some perspective on Cage-type powers.
@Exdeath, just because~
@

Feedback:

I welcome feedback on the guide, post below! Just make sure you don't quote the *entire* guide, or this thread will become very text-heavy indeed! If I'm not responding, feel free to message me.

2) Dark Miasma

Twilight Grasp
Available: Level 1
Range: 80 feet to target, 20 foot radius PBAoE
Cast Time: 2.37 sec
Recharge: 8 seconds
End Cost: 7.8
Effects At L50: 238.81 Heal(PBAoE), -6.25% ToHit to target(20 sec), -12.5% Damage(all)(20 sec), -50% regen(20 sec)
Personal Slotting: 2 Accuracy, 2 Heal, 2 Recharge
Description:
There are no bigger AoE heals than Twilight Grasp. Period. Despite this, it requires an enemy target to use, and also has to hit as well. Unlike Kinetic's Transfusion- which also shares this trait- your heal is centered on yourself, as opposed to the mob you target. Your power also adds a -regen aspect of the power. Significant amounts of anecdotal evidence have shown that just adding another Defender with this power can mean the difference between taking down an AV, or that AV wiping the floor with you. (As of 8-1-08, I just did it again, Swapping from my Sonic blaster to my D3, we were finally able to take down a +5 Anti-Matter.) Like most of the other powers in the two sets, it has a -ToHit component. You will never slot -ToHit enhancements in here. The other aspects of this power are so much more important. Lastly, there is a -Damage aspect to this power, which is also helpful.

When slotting this power, always, always, ALWAYS slot for Accuracy first, just so that when you use it, you don't miss. Healing enhancements are secondary, as the amount of HP healed will always outstrip the equivalent heal generated by either Radiant Aura or Healing Aura. Recharge enhancements are to the taste of the players; some like to use it as part of their ST debuff attack chain, like me. Others just want it to heal for as much as possible. Take this power at level 1.

Tar Patch
Available: 1
Range: 90 feet, 25 feet radius AOE
Cast Time: 3.1 seconds
Recharge: 90 seconds
End Cost: 7.8
Effects At L50: For 45 seconds: -90% Runspeed, -50000% JumpHeight, -5.25 MaxRunSpeed, -10 Fly, -30% Resistance(all)
Personal Slotting: 3 recharge, 1 slow
Description: At this point, you should begin to get an idea as to how controller-y this set is. Between the -Resistance boosting your damage, and the slow effect keeping things in place, you can be assured that your team will appreciate its use. The base amount of slow is sufficient to make any critter's life trouble, but I like to add one extra enhancement just to make life more troublesome for everyone on the wrong side of it. This power will make you popular among KHTFs in the 30-34 range when fighting Mary and Co.

The only problem is that you must take extra precautions when using it. For example, if you should go out to Striga Isle in the 20-30 range,be aware that the wolves will be an annoyance, as they resist both slows and immobilizes. Very frequently, you will have the rest of the mob locked down in place, while the wolves run about and cause havoc with their stunning/detoggling/knockback attacks. Fortunately, for the rest of the critters in this game, it will function perfectly well.

This power should really be slotted for recharge, as soon as possible. By the time you slot DOs, it should be up once every two fights, and should be up every fight by the time you start to slot SOs. It will not be permanent, but instead will be down for about one to two seconds, which is more than acceptable. Three recharges, MINIMUM! Anything else is salt.

Darkest Night
Available: 2
Range: 70 feet, 25 foot radius
Cast Time: 3.17 seconds
Recharge: 10 seconds
End Cost: .26 end/sec
Effects At L50: Toggle:-37.5% Damage(all), -18.75% ToHit
Personal Slotting: 3 pieces of Dampened Spirits (+2% damage buff)
Description: This power theoretically should be very straightforward. It is a enemy-toggled -Damage aura, with a -ToHit. No, I didn't make a mistake. Originally, when this power was first introduced, it was effectively just a -damage toggle, since the -ToHit part was not enhanceable. (This was a bug, mind, but it really sucked.) Unfortunately, it gets a LOT of undeserved criticism because of how it works and what it does. Probably the biggest complaint about this power is that its cast time is too long. This criticism is not undeserved, but you do have to understand that what it does warrants a long cast time. At the beginning of your career, it will be useful because not everyone can decimate entire 8-man spawns, single-handedly, in -3.17 seconds, nor can anyone tank the entire 8-man spawn without a scratch. Up until about the late teens and low twenties you will find yourself using this power less and less, as defenses solidify, attacks flesh out, and recharges drop. Until then, anything you catch in its area of effect will fight as though you and your party have roughly an additional 20% defense, and almost 40% resist. That is significant to everyone, from the Tanker, right down to the Blaster during those first few levels. Once you get up in levels, (read: You get Fearsome Stare) you will begin to use this as a -ToHit power MUCH less. This is expected. Regardless, it still retains its usefulness throughout the remaining levels of your career to toggle pull spawns around corners in complete safety, and as later still as a dedicated debuff for single hard targets like EBs, AVs, and GMs, and even normal bosses like Paragon Protectors, if you cannot take them down before they use Moment of Glory. Generally speaking, the enemies that you really want to hurt you as little as possible. Most often, you will want to pair this with Tar Patch to keep critters from running around causing havoc, until you get Tenebrous Tentacles and Fearsome Stare.

Three interesting things to note regarding this power:
1) If your target should ever phase shift while under the effects of Darkest Night, they will no longer suffer it's -Damage and -ToHit effects. This is not a problem, since typically, they can't attack back. However, everything else around them will still suffer impairment. (Critters that this apply to include, but are not limited to: Fake Nemesis, Illusionists, Council Ascendants.)

2) Critters under the effects of this power, whether as a target, or being in the area will have their interruptible abilities... well, interrupted. This means it is even MORE valuable at the low end against critters like Embalmed Cadavers, and to a lesser extent, Life Mages, as they will not be able to kamikaze against you.

3) Tar Patch and Darkest Night interact peculiarly. Because of how the game engine is presently coded, if a critter under the effects of -damage is hit with a -resist as well, the -damage magnitude increases. This is particularly nice against, again, single hard targets like AVs, who will severely resist all your -ToHit powers. Fortunately for you, the -Damage and -Resist are not. People have exploited this to great effect with Dark/Sonic. It's one of those dirty little secrets that everyone knows, but keeps hush-hush, so consider yourself notified.

Slotting this power should be some combination of at least two -ToHit enhancements, and your choice of an Endredux or another -ToHit. For what it does, however, it is cheap on the endurance cost. By comparison, Maneuvers 3-slotted provides 7% defense, but costs .36 end/sec to run. Dark Watcher's Despair would be a good thing to slot in this power, so long as you also put one into Fluffy as well.

Howling Twilight
Available: 6
Range: 80 feet
Cast Time: 3.17 seconds
Recharge: 180 seconds
End Cost: 25
Effects At L50: -62.5% -Recharge/Slow(30sec), 9.04 Negative Damage, Stun(mag2)(15sec)
Personal Slotting: 3 Recharge. 2 Stun
Description: Let's get this out of the way. This is not a rez. This is an auto-hit AoE stun/slow. And it just happens to be capable of resurrecting multiple players at once as well. Hence the subtitle, "If you're going to die, die in a pile."

While the stun effect is only Mag2, meaning it will stun up to Lieutenants without mez protection, it is an auto-hit AoE. Combine this with several other powers, and that party wipe is.... well, no longer a party wipe. Those that are not affected by the stun are slapped with a slow effect, however, helping mitigate yet more retaliation.

Lastly, this power stops--or at least puts a large dent into--the regeneration of any mobs that it hits for thirty seconds. It's another one of those powers that makes or breaks whether or not a team will be able to take down an AV or not.

Considering how cool it is to throw out this power amongst a pile of dead bodies and suddenly see them all get up with an "I LIIIIIIIVE!" pose, it is definitely recommended that you pick up this power and say something like, "RIIIIIIIISE, MY SERVENTS, AND STRIKE DOWN MY ENEMIES!" and cackle madly. However it is not necessary to get it right away. You will have a lot of excellent powers at the beginning of your D3 career. This can even be pushed off until around level 24; but no further. After that, you're starting to push into Fluffy territory, and you will want him as soon as possible.

Be aware that although it is an auto-hit power, if you use it against something that is Untouchable, such as Council Ascendants, Fake Nemesis in their hamster balls, or Carnie Illusionists at the wrong time, it will not affect them. However, it will still affect everyone *around* the phase-shifted critter.

Shadow Fall
Available: 8
Range: 40 foot radius, PBAoE
Cast Time: 2.03sec
Recharge: 15 sec
End Cost: .26 end/sec
Effects At L50: Stealth, 5% Def(ALL), 20% Res(Negative, Energy, Psi), 216.25% Res(Fear), -Fear(mag8.65)
Personal Slotting: Aegis 20%, Steadfast -KB, Steadfast Res/Def, Impervium Armor Res/End, Impervium Armor Res, Resist
Description: Would you kindly note the last word in the power's effects. Combined with the Psi APP, you can attain the highest amount of personal Psi resist in the entire game. The group buff to Psi is nothing to sniff at, either., as it is easily buffable to at least 33% resist. One-third! of all psionic damage, gone! Tanks/Scrappers will appreciate it if they can get it; after all, you're immediately reducing all incoming psionic damage by 1/5, straight out of the box. That in itself would be gravy, but Shadow Fall also adds +stealth to everyone standing in it. Couple this with either Superspeed or an Stealth IO, and you will be able to step on the toes of any mob without +Perception buffs. (Rikti Drones, etc) This will be especially nice as you learn to line up your cones, because you'll get as much time as you need to position yourself without getting shot at. It also helps your team as well, for when those "whoops, I accidentally hit the R button" moments occur. The Fear resistance is somewhat less useful. Only one critter that I know of uses Fear effects, and that's Hamidon. And generally, as a Defender, you are going to be on Blue duty, not Yellows.

Slot this one however you like, whether for Defense or for Resistance. My slotting wavers a bit, as I used it to slot the Aegis 20% mez resistance and -KB IOs early on. I retain the special IOs there so that I still have them when exemping down, as the only other place you'd be able to slot them would be Tough, or the APP resist toggle.

One last footnote: Shadow Fall is a very visually "noisy" effect. Please turn it off at Wentworth's or the Black Market, or I will be forced to hunt you down, revoke your */Dark Miasma/* license, and then kill you. You may not think it, but it does slow down you, and everyone else around you, regardless of how fast your computer may or may not be, ESPECIALLY when loading a large amount of rapidly-updating data from WW/BM. */Storm/* users? I'm looking at you too.

Fearsome Stare
Available: 12
Range: 70 x 70 degree cone
Cast Time: 2.03sec
Recharge: 40sec
End Cost: 8.53
Effects At L50: Fear(mag3)(22.35sec), Fear(Mag1)(14.9sec)(20% chance), -18.75% ToHit(20sec)
Personal Slotting: 5 slot Glimpse of the Abyss (Omit proc), 1 Recharge
Description: Fear is an excellent motivator. In this case, for villains to stop struggling, lay down, and be arrested quietly. This is the arguably, the power that makes Dark Miasma so.... well, feared. It is a massive cone fear that will spoil you downright rotten, being as large and as deep as it is. There have been times where I fire off the ability, expecting to miss a few mobs very close to my front-left and front-right sides, only to see them suddenly cower. It will see a lot of use throughout your career. Coupled with Shadow Fall, you WILL get the first shot, and root the mob in place.

Fear now causes an enemy to stop attacking, and cower. Trust me, this is a lot better than it was Back In The Day. These days, Feared critters are effectively Held, especially once you get your other debuffs down. Best of all, fear cuts through mobs that typically resist normal methods of mez, like Council Warwolves. And even if they do swing, they still have the -ToHit to deal with.

Regarding slotting: There is NO reason to not slot Glimpse of the Abyss out to at least five slots. With five, Fearsome Stare will be perma, stretch even longer than its already impressive range, as well as increase the accuracy of all powers by 9%, and improve the recharge of all powers by 6.25%. Adding the Chance for Psi Damage proc will add an additional 3.13% to your Psionic resistance; however, considering that the IO's proccing on mobs will give them a free swing at you, it may behoove you to use the last slot elsewhere, or add a recharge or ToHit Debuff enhancement in its place. I, personally, omit the proc. I confess that I have not experimented too much in regards to a more optimal slotting of Fearsome Stare, but that's probably because it has served me so well.

Petrifying Gaze
Available: 18
Range: 70 feet
Cast Time: 1.67sec
Recharge: 16sec
End Cost: 7.8
Effects At L50: 11.92 second Hold(mag3)
Personal Slotting: 4x Neuronic Shutdown (omit Acc/End, proc) Paralytic: Acc/Hold/Rech
Description: Your single-target hold. With just one hold and one recharge, it will be perma, so feel free to use any of the Hold IO sets to maximize your set bonuses. Fluffy has this as well, so the two of you together can stack this onto a boss critter and hold him in place. Fortunately, Fluffy tends to target his abilities based on threat at any given time, so the hold typically gets applied to the biggest critter anyways.

One hold, recharge, one accuracy is the bare minimum. I advise at least 4 slots worth of enhancements, but slotting this power is a bit flexible. You can see that my personal slotting goes for the +7% accuracy bonus from Neuronic Shutdown.

Black Hole
Available: 26
Range: 50 feet, 20 foot radius sphere
Cast Time: 1.03sec
Recharge: 120sec
End Cost: 13
Effects At L50: AOE Foe Intangible(30 seconds)
Personal Slotting: 1 rech 1 acc 1 end
Description: Black Hole is widely misunderstood. Don't get me wrong, I've used it to great effect to set up very tricky mobs that I don't trust Fluffy or myself to survive long enough after opening. Considering the exasperation I get when using Detention Field, a ST Phase Shift.... I'm not willing to stress out and deal with the team yelling at me for Phase Shifting an entire mob of critters. To ensure a minimum amount of waiting for Phase Shift to drop, the power is not slotted to extend intangibility duration. That being said, this is a power that is generally recommended that people avoid by the large majority of Dark Miasmists. I hope that a use for it is found soon. because it is horribly underutilized and neglected.



Dark Servent
Available: 32
Range: 60 feet
Cast Time: 3.17sec
Recharge: 240sec
End Cost: 26
Effects At L50: Twilight Grasp, Tenebrous Tentacles, Petrifying Gaze, Chill of the Night, Darkest Night
Personal Slotting:
Pre-47: Trap: Acc/Immob/Rech, Ess. of Curare: Acc/Hold, Immob, 3x -ToHit
Post-47: Dampened Spirits: -ToHit, -ToHit/Recharge, Recharge, Healing, Lysosome, 2x Endoplasm.
Description: Joe Cool, Audrey, Rock, Sing-sing, and the Chipmunks. By comparison, Dark Servant has a pretty lousy nickname, but there is *nothing* lousy about this power. Dark Servents are *exceedingly* well-behaved compared to the other pets. Think about it. How often have you ever heard someone complain about how the poo-man never closes to melee, or how Frosty doesn't cycle his melee attacks properly? Here's a quick breakdown of what it does, power-by-power.

Fluffy's most powerful ability is just *existing*, thanks to a PBAoE aura called Chill of the Night. You should know it quite well, after having fought against CoT Spectral Daemons, Death Mages, and the odd Dark Servant from a Carnie Master Illusionist. This is the exact same power, and it severely saps -ToHit. It also makes slow ticks of damage, generating aggro and directing it towards itself, and say, away from you. Allegedly, this power is auto-hit, but it will suppress if Fluffy is ever mezzed.

Fluffy's other four powers are clones of your own, Twilight Grasp, Darkest Night, Tenebrous Tentacles, and Petrifying Gaze. DN and PG are fairly intelligently distributed, aimed at the most dangerous threat in a given mob of critters. Fortunately, this means that whatever target you need to stack your own Petrifying Gaze on will have already been targeted by Fluffy. Unfortunately, this also means that Fluffy will not just turn on Darkest Night and leave it, and will move its target around, leaving short gaps in coverage while it recharges.

Tenebrous Tentacles and Twilight Grasp are self-explanatory. Tentacles helps to lock things down in general, and keep things right next to Fluffy, and Twilight Grasp significantly helps Fluffy to tank spawns all by himself. (In the past, this power was downright disgusting. Between pre-ED recharge, and the ability to have multiple copies of him out and following you, Dark Defenders became steamrollers, clearing large mobs of enemies in complete safety.)

Slotting is difficult for Fluffy, since he does so much, but limits you to only six slots. My suggestion is that once you get him, immediately six-slot him. First, with an accuracy to ensure that his powers hit, and then at least 2 -ToHit Debuff enhancements to increase your debuffing ability. Most old-time Dark/ defenders will insist upon 3 -ToHit debuff enhancements, but I feel this is more a guideline, really, given that IOs are now an option post I9. I personally have found success in using single pieces of IOs that improve 3 or more aspects, in this case, Essence of Curare Acc/Hold/Rech, Enfeebled Operation Acc/Immob/Rech, and Doctored Wounds, End/Heal/Rech, which effectively gives me 1 SO of Accuracy, 1 SO of Recharge, a DO of Hold, and DO of Immobilize, and a DO of healing, in the space of three slots. The remaining slots, I have filled with ToHit Debuff IOs.

If you have Darkest Night slotted with a Dark Watcher's Despair, you will want to throw one in here as well to bring the -recharge up to an acceptable magnitude. In my testing, critters did not significantly attack slower unless both powers were slotted and running, which only makes sense, since the powers in sets like Psionic Blast that really put dents into your powers refreshing have -Recharge effects like:

Mental Blast(T1): -37.5%
Psionic Lance(T3): -18.75%
Psychic Scream(T4): -62.5%
Psionic Tornado(T7): -37.5%
Psychic Wail(T9): -87.5%

Out of all those powers, only Psionic Lance, the sniper attack, has a -Recharge under 25%, and each goes off every single time. Since procs do not stack from the same caster, slotting the proc into Fluffy and putting one additional one into any other power is the only way to get it to stack. Just keep in mind that given Fluffy is always running that -ToHit passive, make sure he sits right in the middle of mobs you want debuffed, or right next to that hard target.

Remember that Fluffy's summon radius is equivalent to that of Darkest Night, which means that given Shadow Fall or some other form of stealth, you can drop him right into the middle of a mob to soak an alpha in perfect safety.

3) Dark Blast

Dark Blast
Available: 1(Auto)
Range: 80 feet
Cast Time: 1sec
Recharge: 4sec
End Cost: 5.2
Effects At L50: 36.15 Negative damage, -9.375 ToHit(6sec)
Recommended Slotting: 1 Acc IO, or 1 Acc, 2 Dam, 1 Rech if you're going to keep using it.
Description: This is your standard T1 blast. It falls in line with all of the rest of the blasts. Average accuracy, average damage, 1 second cast time, average recharge, average endurance cost. Slot this one however you like. I personally don't dedicate too many slots to it.

Gloom
Available: 2
Range: 80 feet
Cast Time: 1.1sec
Recharge: 8sec
End Cost: 8.53
Effects At L50: 8 x 7.95 Negative Damage/3.6sec, -9.375% ToHit(10sec)
Recommended Slotting: 2 Acc, 3 dam, 1 rech
Description: Unusually, Gloom hasn't recieved the same cast time normalizations as the other shared blaster/corrupter/defender sets. It comes out unusually peppy, with a 1.1 second cast time, but recharges at the same speed as most of the other T2 blasts. This is probably to its detriment, leaving a bit of an unsightly pause that alternating with Dark Blast cannot *quite* fill, assuming both are slotted equally. The payoff to all this is this a slightly harder-hitting power, almost double the base damage of Dark Blast, although it might not feel like it, since the power is a moderate DOT. The -ToHit debuff also lasts a correspondingly longer as well. And let's face it, any power that lets you throw a skull at someone trailing dark wisps has got to be awesome. It's a good solid power, and whether you take this or moonbeam is up to you. More on that...

Moonbeam
Available: 4
Range: 175 feet
Cast Time: 1.33sec, 3sec interrupt
Recharge: 12sec
End Cost: 14.35
Effects At L50: 99.7 Negative Damage, -9.375% ToHit(10sec)
Recommended Slotting: 5x Sting of the Manticore (omit proc)
Description: ...here. Moonbeam is a snipe. Now, under normal circumstances, while snipes in general may be highly situational, they are less so when using Dark Blast, and even less so when paired with Dark Miasma. While? -ToHit. Typically, once you've laid down all of your debuffs and are proceeding to systematically dismantle everything, they can't hit you, and you can fire off your snipe with impunity. It's also visually impressive, a thick blast of dark energy. Regardless, it all boils down to what you want. Unfortunately, despite the fact that it is a snipe, and therefore inherently accurate, you will probably want to throw an extra DO's worth of Accuracy enhancement into it, via IOs, set bonuses, or some other mechanism, as Dark Blast lacks an Aim effect.

Dark Pit
Available: 10
Range: 70 feet x 20 feet sphere
Cast Time: 1.07sec
Recharge: 60sec
End Cost: 13
Effects At L50: 11.92sec Stun(mag2)
Recommended Slotting: 2 Acc, 2 stun, 2 rech, or see below.
Description: Dark pit is an AOE stun, but has a few quirks to it. Firstly, it deals no damage at all. Secondly, it suffers from an accuracy penalty. which will require additional slotting for accuracy relative to the other powers. Combined with all of the other mitigation in the set, you will likely not need it. If you do get it, however, it is suggested that you pair it with Howling Twilight, and Oppressive Gloom from the Dark APP, as a mag 2 stun is rather anemic by itself, and therefore completely skippable, if it doesn't fit your playstyle.

Because everyone already knows about Dark Pit's inherent lower accuracy modifier, and lack of damage, (and if you didn't, you know now!) I will then resort to anecdotal evidence, with a little bit of numbers to help you decide whether or not to even try it. I have Dark Pit. I use it a lot more than I ever used Oppressive Gloom. I also note that I respecced the hell out of Oppressive Gloom post-haste, because I REALLY did not want to fire Dark Pit, jump in to tag everything with Oppressive Gloom, jump back out to fire Tenebrous Tentacles and Nightfall, then jump back in to refresh Oppressive Gloom, and so on and so forth, just to ensure that everything in a given mob be stunned. Firing cones at critters from inside a mob is not efficient.

It should be noted that -ToHit can only do so much. All Malta and Knives of Artemis, for example, have an inherent +20% accuracy modifier. Rularuu have inherently high accuracy as well. And some mobs, such as Malta Gunslingers, have an inherent +100% accuracy. (Data via Arcanaville.) Sometimes, therefore, it is best to just take them out of the fight completely.

Tenebrous Tentacles
Available: 16
Range: 40 feet x 40 degree cone
Cast Time: 1.67sec
Recharge: 10sec
End Cost: 10.19
Effects At L50: 8 x 3.61 Smashing Damage/7.10sec, 5.06 Negative Damage, -9.375% ToHit(8sec), AOE Immobilize(Mag3)(22.35sec)
Recommended Slotting: 2 Acc, 3 Rech, 1 ToHit Debuff
Description: This will be the power that people will see and recognize the most. This is probably a good thing, since you will be using it. A lot. And then some more. And then some more. And you get the idea. Let's go into a brief explaination.

First off, unlike all the other powers in this set, it is listed as doing dual-typed damage. This is a bit misleading, however. Instead of equal parts Negative and Smashing damage, the way Sonic Attack does, only the initial hit of Tenny Tents is Negative. All the following damage ticks are Smashing. It's good, because despite a relative lack of critters that resist negative damage, when you do come across them, they will resist it HEAVILY, making that smashing damage all the more valuable. Otherwise, you would be standing there for a very long time, slogging away single-digit-damage-style at those critters. These include COT Spectral Daemons, Death Mages, various Banished Pantheon, Nicti, Council Darkwolves, Vampyri, Galaxy, and of course, various Skulls. Again, this power is a DOT.

It's also the cornerstone of setting up the lockdown on mobs. One interesting thing to note is that there is no -KB in this power's Immobilize effect, akin to Gravity Control. By extension, this makes this power- and indeed, the set as a whole- a good fit for Storm Summoning, letting you herdicate critters with a minimal amount of running amok.

Consdering that the immobilize stacks with itself straight out of the box, only minimal enhancing is needed for Immobilization. You may wish to slot for recharge instead, so that the immobilize can be stacked rapidly and thickly, for holding mobs that run around like chickens with their heads cut off in place. Council Wolves immediately spring to mind.

Night Fall
Available: 16
Range: 60 feet
Cast Time: 2sec
Recharge: 10sec
End Cost: 13.1
Effects At L50: 10 x 3.98 Negative Damage, -9.375% ToHit(10sec)
Recommended Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Dam, 2 Rech
Description: In the past, the only way that you would know why you were hitting so few critters after laying down Tentacles would be if someone told you that this power had a longer and narrower cone than Tentacles. The detailed power display makes this less of an issue now, so let's set it out of the way: When firing this power, take about three or four steps back before firing, in order to place the widest part of the cone right on top of the most critters at any time. Like Tentacles, this power is a DoT, but a very fast one, comparable to Sonic Attack's Scream. It does have a somewhat stiff endurance cost, and the damage is equivalent to that of a Dark Blast, so make sure that you try and get at least three critters to break even on the damage to endurance ratio.

Torrent
Available: 28
Range: 80 feet x 30 degree cone
Cast Time: 1.03sec
Recharge: 15sec
End Cost: 14.35
Effects At L50: 14.46 Smashing Damage, -9.375% ToHit(10sec), 10.386 Knockback
Personal Slotting: 4x Kinetic Crash
Description: At first glance, this power is rather useless. With all of your other powers focusing on creating a controlled environment to neutralize critters, knockback *does* seems counter-productive, but it does work as an opening attack to let you do things like get off Darkest Night's long cast time while they get back up, in order to toggle pull. Please remember that Tenebrous Tentacles does not carry a -KB componant, which means that adding this power to your usual mix of attacks can lead to disastrous results, like knocking a mob out of Tar Patch, or Darkest Night. The damage is not even half that of Dark Blast, either.

Stormies have used Knockback to great effect as mez. Energy Blasters have done so as well. And other powersets, like Earth Control, Ice Melee, Ice Manipulation, and the like know that if a mob is always on their back, they can't attack back. You should also take note that the cone for Torrent is 30 degrees, right between Tentacles and Nightfall. This power is..... not recommended unless you know what you're doing. If you've played a Energy/ blaster, and know how to manage your knockback, by all means, it is a legitimate power choice for positioning. I do confess that this power is a bit of a lemon, but during the time that I had it, I four-slotted it with Kinetic Crash to take advantage of the passive -3 KB protection. I, personally, would have appreciated it more if this power were a single-target knockback for getting that one thing out of my face, RIGHT NOW!-style, without messing all my hard work standing right behind the offending critter. Council Wolves and Warrior Lieutenants and Bosses come to mind.

Life Drain
Available: 35
Range: 60 feet
Cast Time: 1.93sec
Recharge: 15sec
End Cost: 11.96
Effects At L50: 36.15 Negative Damage, 101.738 Heal(self), -9.375% ToHit(10sec)
Personal Slotting:
Description: I've mentioned that Dark Blast is a good set to pair with Storm Summoning before. Here's another reason why: A self-heal power. And while people may go on and say that a good stormie doesn't need a self-heal, I will argue that it is always nice to have one available to you. My only complaint is that it comes so late in the set, forcing people to slog through more than half the game before they get something that would be much more useful at the low end for sets lacking a self-heal. I would not suggest that you take it if you are pursuing a Dark/Dark defender, but will insist that it is handy for other sets.

As a Dark/Dark defender, you have very little reason to take this power. By this point, you should have already gotten and slotted Dark Servant anyways, and since Fluffy has a Twilight Grasp as well, it makes this power a bit moot.

Blackstar
Available: 38
Range: 25 feet radius
Cast Time: 3 sec
Recharge: 360 sec
End Cost: 20.8
Effects At L50: 36.15 Smashing, 72.29 Negative, 54.22 Negative(75% chance), 54.22 Negative(50% chance), -62.5% ToHit(20 sec), -1000% Recovery(20sec), -100% Endurance(self)
Personal Slotting: 3 Rech 3 Dam, if you're going to use it often. 3 Dam 3 ToHit Debuff, if panic button.
Description: Blackstar defies the normal role of a nuke. It's damage is not phenomenal, after all, it *is* using a .65 damage scalar. But like a lot of your powers, the best part is the secondary effect. Even a Boss Malta Gunslinger is going to feel the -62.5% ToHit debuff, Accuracy modifier or not. This gives you two options for slotting Blackstar, either as a damage power, or as a panic button.

Combined with Fluffy's continued debuffing, Blackstar is, in my opinion, the safest nuke in the entire game. None of the other secondary T9s has an effect that is capable of completely neutralizing any surviving critter without the Purple Triangles of Doom. However, it's not necessary to Defenders as a whole.

A few additional notes: It's a fun power with a visually impressive effect. It makes a good costume-change power. Just make sure there are no critters in the area, so you don't get the -recovery effect.

I highly suggest against using this power if you have a large number of toggles. While it does play very well into abusing large numbers of enemies, especially with a Tar Patch on the ground, re-activating seven toggles (Shadow Fall, Assault, Tactics, Maneuvers, Oppressive Gloom, Dark Embrace, Sprint, and as-needed, Darkest Night) is, to put it lightly, annoying.

4) Selecting an Epic Power Pool


Dark Mastery

Dark Mastery is purely powers ripped from the Scrapper Dark Armor powerset. They are useful, yes, but after 41 levels of Dark, you may be ready for something new. (Conversely, Darkness Mastery is powers ripped from Dark Miasma and Dark Blast.) Like Dark Armor/Dark Melee, the powers will help you continue your career of abusing large groups of enemies at once. It's thematic, too. My personal suggestion is that you steer clear of Oppressive Gloom. See the FAQ section for why. Dark Consumption will help with your endurance bar, Dark Embrace adds smash/lethal/negative resists, and Soul Drain adds ToHit and Damage buffs, for every critter hit.

Power Mastery

You can't really go wrong with Power Mastery. Conserve power helps with the high Endurance costs of your powers, and Power Build Up makes your powers more efficient with both a Build Up and a Power Boost effect. The set's mob-independant effects are also excellent as well. In contrast to Dark Mastery, you won't need to keep running into the mob to fire off effects, only to move back out to line up a cone again. And, of course, stacking Total Focus with your other stun powers will let you incapacitate EBs, easily.

Psychic Mastery

I cannot endorse Psychic Mastery, as the powers are somewhat all over the place. It does not synergize very well, nor does it come with any form of endurance modifying effect. Dominate can stack with Petrifying Gaze and Fluffy, but the reality is that you will have a full plate of control effects to throw around by the time you get to 41. Mass Hypnosis is also problematic, as it breaks as soon as you use any one of your damage-dealing cones. While it might be good to use to open a fight with, incapacitating mobs while you go about throwing down Tar Patches and Darkest Night, Fearsome Stare fulfills the same role as a fight-opener, but persists beyond the first Tenebrous Tentacles that go down. You do already have enough mez to handle anything that comes your way, by this point. The few bright points are Mind Over Body and Telekinesis. Combining Mind Over Body with Shadow Fall will turn you into a psionics-soaking machine. Well-slotted for resistance, you can attain roughly 60% resist(psionics), which is well in excess of anything that a tank or scrapper can muster.

Electricity Mastery

Were I less content with Dark Mastery, I might have taken Electricity Mastery instead. Charged Armor, despite having the lowest resistance numbers of all four sets, provides resistance against the three most common damage types, S/L/En. Also, Power Sink. I don't think I need to quantify that statement, do I?

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5) Thoughts

Some random assorted thoughts that don't really fit in anywhere else:

Dark/Dark is a bit of a glutton when it comes to endurance. I hate to say it, but you may actually be thankful for Vigilance when playing. Stamina is pretty much a given, too.

Fluffy's recharge is fast, very fast compared to how long he lasts. Which means that at no point in time should you ever be afraid to re-summon a fresh Fluffy to do things like sit in the middle of a mob and have him tank for you. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why Darkest Night becomes a little obsolete at mid-game.

Recall Friend is, well, your friend. Remember "If you're going to die, die in a pile"? Shadowfall will let you get close to the critter you'll be targetting, Recall Friend will let you stack the bodies, and Howling Twilight stuns the critter and his friends, and brings the team back to life.

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6) FAQ

*Why shouldn't I take Oppressive Gloom? I can stack it with Dark Pit and Howling Twilight!

Dark Mastery's Oppressive Gloom is identical to the Scrapper version; it will stun Minion-class critters without mez protection. It has a miniscule endurance cost, which is offset by the HP cost of the power. As scary as that may sound, however, it is a non-issue. Even-con mobs will only pulse you for about 3 HP per. Not only can you offset the HP cost with Health, but you also have Twilight Grasp and Fluffy as well..

Choking Cloud, this power is not. The only tangible benefit is to make the aggroed minion critters not hit you when they step into your personal space, something that should happen very rarely given your array of controls.

You cannot use stacking Dark Pit and/or Howling Twilight with Oppressive Gloom as a justification for Oppressive Gloom. The nature of this toggle is that it requires you to be standing right next to a critter, making a funny face at them, and going "neener-neener-neener, you can't hit me!" at them. (Although this might just be me.) This probably also means that you will probably want to be standing in the middle of the mob in order to ensure that all of the critters get hit. Now, since Dark Pit, and Howling Twilight are both targeted AOEs, this is not seem to be much of a problem. After all, you can just fire both abilities at any one of the critters in melee range, hitting everything around you. But when you consider that the other major abilities that Dark/Dark has are cones, like Fearsome Stare, Tenebrous Tentacles, and Nightfall, you are not using an optimal placement. I highly doubt you'll hit any significant numbers of critters with Nightfall standing in the middle, considering the nature of the long, narrow cone that it is. Sure, you'll hit some critters if you use it from the middle, but you'll be missing all the critters that are behind you; ones that you could have hit if you were standing outside, shooting in. (Fluffy can afford to do this, because he has that wonderful -ToHit passive aura, and debuffs just by *standing there*. The rest is gravy.)

The deck isn't completely stacked against Oppressive Gloom, though. In my opinion, it has it's uses, just not as a Dark/Dark. Consider, then, if you were using /Elec instead. Heck, let's consider a Dark/Elec, that Sith concept that was floating around back when the crappy Star Wars movies came out. All of /Elec's AOE attacks are proper non-cone AOEs, whether Targetted (Ball lightning), PBAOE(Short Circuit, Thunderous Blast), or ground-target(Voltaic Sentinel). Considering that Short Circuit also requires large numbers of mobs to be most effective, as a result, standing in the middle of a mob, yes, Oppressive Gloom works great for it, because it means /you can stay there/.

But it is my opinion that you should not take it as a Dark/Dark. You're going to need to do enough constant repositioning to line up cones anyways. Especially when you throw the two Dark APP attacks into the mix.

*Why "-ToHit" and not "-Accuracy?"

The Smart-Aleck Answer: Because they are not the same thing.

The Long Answer:

To quote the esteemed Arcanaville, "Defense, ToHit, and Accuracy, and how they function in the tohit algorithm, are collectively among the least understood mechanisms in City of Heroes."

Arcanaville has done a large amount of research into the subject of Accuracy, Defense, and ToHit, and has written up a guide that is accurate as of I7, and is being updated to I10, and includes information regarding IOs, how players and critters both calculate whether their attacks hit or not, and so on and so forth. Fairly warned, while it is well within the grasp of algebra, you may need a scientific or graphing calculator to help you along.

I won't go into full detail as to how the chances of something connecting are calculated, but suffice it to say that the only two variables in a critter's attack roll that the player can affect are the critter's ToHit and the player's Defense, both of which cancel eachother out. An additional 1% of defense is equivalent to a 1% penalty to ToHit.

*Why "-ToHit" and not "+Defense?"

Because stopping to apply buffs every four minutes is not everyone's style. I used to play DDO, after I left CoH the first time. I'm perfectly fine playing a Cleric in D&D, a healzorz/buffer, because in D&D, buff duration tends to be dependant on the level of the Cleric, lasting longer as the Cleric gets higher in levels(i.e., 1 min/level), as well as have access to abilities enabling me to extend the durations of said abilities. With the lack of these kinds of meta-abilities or enhancements, I can't stand to play those kinds of powersets in CoX.

*Why does Darkest Night suck so badly?

It doesn't. What does happen however, is that everyone starts sucking less as they progress in levels. As I said before, by the time you hit the 30s, this power isn't needed for every single fight anymore.

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You know that you only have X number of hours to modify a post before you can't modify it anymore, right?

Anyways:

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That being said, this is a power that is generally recommended that people avoid by the large majority of Dark Miasmists. I hope that a use for it is found soon. because it is horribly underutilized and neglected.


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Just off the top of my head, probably the BEST use I can think of for this power immediately is saving a team that accidentally aggroed a SECOND mob. Just go and Black Hole the center of the second mob. By the time you're done with the first mob, the second should be ready to attack!


P.S. Thanks for the credit in your guide.

Before they normalized all the cage powers to 30 seconds, I might have agreed with you. But given that once you get to a level that you CAN take Black Hole, you already have so many different powers to use, that if you can't hold off a second spawn for another thirty seconds... I think that taking another control power is not going to help. What's more, is Fearsome Stare just makes it not worth it. I have the same complaint about Torrent and Life Drain; they come FAR too late in the set to be of any real use to the budding /Dark Blast player. (That, and Fearsome Stare is just godly.)

And as regards to the being able to edit things, it looks like I can still edit it... And besides, I'm pretty sure I can ask ZombieMan or Ex Libris to change it for me, no biggie.

Hey, you're the expert, I've never even touched Dark anything.

This is just me thinking aloud how I figured it would work in THEORY. If you have experience juggling multiple spawns successfully on your own without phasing any of them, well... more power to you!

This is a very good guide. I particularly like your usage tips and insights: it's clear that you know the power sets very well.

I think you may have actually undersold Dark Miasma a bit. I think it's worth emphasizing that it provides more control than some control primaries, and that powers like Fearsome Stare, Darkest Night and Dark Servant are powers that anybody of any archetype would be delighted to add to their power sets. They should be taken and slotted heavily.

In particular I'd like to point out just how excellent Darkest Night is.

Assume an even-con minion who has only one attack which does 200 damage per hit. He has a 50% chance to hit you by default. Over time, his attacks average to 100 damage per hit on somebody with no defense or resistance. So let's look at what Darkest Night does to the damage you take.

Darkest Night unenhanced: -37.5% Damage, -18.75% ToHit
200 damage becomes 125.
50% chance to hit becomes 31.25%.
This averages to 39.0625 damage per hit over time. So by applying unenhanced Darkest Night to this even-con mob, the defender has increased his survivability by 2.56 times. Another way of stating this is to liken it to a 61% resistance to all (averaged over time). Tankers, especially during levels 1-20, when slots and enhancement power are scarce, will love you for using this power.

Darkest Night enhanced with .56 ToHit Debuff increase: -37.5% Damage, -29.25% ToHit
200 damage becomes 125.
50% chance to hit becomes 20.75%.
This averages to 25.9375 dmg per hit. By applying Darkest Night enhanced for ToHit buffs to this even-con mob, the defender has increased his survivability by 3.86 times. Seen as a damage resistance equivalent (over time), this is 74% resistance to all. Every tanker, even at level 50, would love to be able to say they had this kind of mitigation*.

Of course, to your teammates who already have defensive powers, the benefits are even greater.

* The caveat is that, because this mitigation is achieved through a debuff, it is diminished when you're fighting mobs who are higher level than you and who resist debuffs (Archvillains/Heroes in particular). Darkest Night is also subject to the vagaries of a targeted AoE toggle debuff, such as mobs running out of its radius (use Tar Patch!), mobs getting knocked back, the anchor dying, and so forth. But skill, experience and education can diminish some of these drawbacks.

Scrap

I'm very aware of how excellent Darkest Night is. Given how fantastic it is, if the cast time were any shorter, I think you can be assured that it would be promptly sodomized with the nerf bat, faster than you can say, "F7!"

On the other hand, I think you might have undersold the rest of the powers. It is for that reason that Darkest Night's cast time is far too long to use on your mid-level, standard 8-man, steamrolling team. I've tried it. I've used it. But more often than not, between Fearsome Stare putting out the equivalent -ToHit numbers unenhanced, and teams raining all sorts of AOE death on Tar Patched Enemies, once you hit the middle of your career, it doesn't make much sense to spend 3.17 seconds plus salt standing there, casting your toggle on a critter that most likely will die about two seconds right after you finish casting. It therefore makes sense to start scaling its usage back against the whites, yellows, and oranges, and reserve it for the reds and purples, things that won't die in -3.17 seconds.

I'm aware that every tanker would love to be able to have this kind of mitigation, and to have it up supporting them at all times. But each power in Dark Miasma has a purpose, and I guarantee you that if critters are dying fast enough, they won't miss Darkest Night.

(On the gripping hand, if a Tanker can't hold up while being supported by the combined effects of ALL of the rest of your tools, Continually cycling Tenebrous Tentacles and Nightfall, running Shadow Fall, Fearsome Stare, Tar Patch, and yes, even Twilight Grasp, I would say the Tanker has some serious issues.)

At the same time, however, I know and understand that Radiation Emission users have not one, but two such toggles that they use on a regular basis. As I have never played Radiation Emission with any sort of intensity, I have been meaning to get in touch with Jock_Tamson to get some perspective from him on how Rad plays, but as of yet, have not had a chance to do so.

My first, and only, blue-side level 50, a Dark/Dark/Power Mastery Defender (who has burned every respec he's ever had available playing around with these great sets) wholeheartedly endorses this guide! Very nice, and nice shout out to Blackest Night, whose D3 guide is still one of the best.

One mistake I noticed was with Howling Twilight. Magnitude 2 only stuns up to minions, not lieutenants.

I'll update this post as I find things. I'm just reading through it now, but I know I'll forget by the time I reach the end.

Edit: Good guide.

Heh, my opinion on oppressive gloom is a bit different, but that's perhaps because I have experience as a Dark/Rad, and I'm always sitting in melee sticking my tongue out at the enemies saying "you can't hit me."

A note about Black Hole, you CAN phase AVs with it. They actually don't have any special protection against phase, the PTOD don't cover it. Of course, Black Hole means you'll get everything else along with it, so it's not really optimal.

My opinion on Petrifying Gaze is also different, but again: Dark/Rad. I have a love affair with Cosmic Burst, so I find P-Gaze to be both redundant and terrible.

I am making a guide to Dark/Rad, and it's interesting how things differ with just the change in secondary. I'm sure you'll agree once you see how I view and use the set.

Thank you for your compliments.

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One mistake I noticed was with Howling Twilight. Magnitude 2 only stuns up to minions, not lieutenants.

I'll update this post as I find things. I'm just reading through it now, but I know I'll forget by the time I reach the end.

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Somehow, I remember Howling Twilight being slightly more potent in practice than on paper, but that might just be because of how I always immediately follow my Howling Twilights with a Dark Pit chaser. That'll be fixed in the next version, thanks.

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Heh, my opinion on oppressive gloom is a bit different, but that's perhaps because I have experience as a Dark/Rad, and I'm always sitting in melee sticking my tongue out at the enemies saying "you can't hit me."

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Remember this is a guide about Dark/Darks. Radiation Blast has Neutron Bomb, which doesn't matter whether you're in their face or 80 feet away, and Electron Haze, which is a 15 foot PBAoE, which means you HAVE to get in their face to use it. (And the nuke, but that's a given.) For Dark/Dark, it isn't the same thing, as there is only one PBAoE(Blackstar), which means there is no other offensive reason to close to melee range.

One thing I omitted that really irks me about Oppressive Gloom is the self-damage. I don't like them. At all. The amount dealt is minuscule, to be sure, but when you play a set that's all about abusing large numbers of critters and ensuring that none of them ever connect with you, to suddenly see a metric crapload of ticks of damage causes me to flip out and go into Full Defense mode, thinking that I caught aggro from outside my control zone, in the form of a Nemmy Cuirasseur or Hussar or Dragoon, or something. (It depends on what I'm fighting.) And then I would remember that I was running Oppressive Gloom.

So in the end, I respecced out of it post-haste, mostly for that reason.

The other thing about the power that irks me is the bug that the self-damage ticks are massive against critters a lot lower level than you, but deal -1s against higher level enemies.

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...
Somehow, I remember Howling Twilight being slightly more potent in practice than on paper, but that might just be because of how I always immediately follow my Howling Twilights with a Dark Pit chaser. That'll be fixed in the next version, thanks.

...

One thing I omitted that really irks me about Oppressive Gloom is the self-damage. I don't like them. At all. The amount dealt is minuscule, to be sure, but when you play a set that's all about abusing large numbers of critters and ensuring that none of them ever connect with you, to suddenly see a metric crapload of ticks of damage causes me to flip out and go into Full Defense mode, thinking that I caught aggro from outside my control zone, in the form of a Nemmy Cuirasseur or Hussar or Dragoon, or something. (It depends on what I'm fighting.) And then I would remember that I was running Oppressive Gloom.

So in the end, I respecced out of it post-haste, mostly for that reason.

The other thing about the power that irks me is the bug that the self-damage ticks are massive against critters a lot lower level than you, but deal -1s against higher level enemies.

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Regrettably, it took me a long, long time to discover the magic of stacking stuns (after I reached 50 really), but Howling Twilight + Dark Pit is wonderful. Totally aggree with you about Oppressive Gloom: While I had no problem moving in and out of melee range, I kept thinking "I'm a D3, combat should be more dignified for me than this!"

And to Mr. Q: Yeah, I'd trade Petrifying Gaze for a dark version of Cosmic Burst in a heartbeat if I could ...

I think I've miscommunicated, because it seems like my post was understood as a correction, which was not my intent. My intent was to provide a little more information to enhance the points you made in your guide, Darkity.

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I'm very aware of how excellent Darkest Night is.


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Your understanding of the benefits of Darkest Night is very clear. My intent was to provide some numbers to support your arguments. I've seen far too many characters with Dark Miasma in the early levels who never used it.

Interestingly, I have never felt that the cast time is particularly long, perhaps because I typically apply it after Fearsome Stare, so I have a lot of time to work with, or because I'm opening with Darkest Night, and I don't seem to take any hits until the debuff is applied.

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Darkest Night's cast time is far too long to use on your mid-level, standard 8-man, steamrolling team. I've tried it.


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Agreed. I generally find that teams like that don't need the debuff in the first place, so I reserve it for hard targets or serious threats and instead use either Fearsome Stare every other spawn or Tar Patch to accelerate the damage.

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I'm aware that every tanker would love to be able to have this kind of mitigation, and to have it up supporting them at all times. But each power in Dark Miasma has a purpose, and I guarantee you that if critters are dying fast enough, they won't miss Darkest Night.


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We are in total agreement. "Every tanker would love to have this mitigation" doesn't mean the same thing to me as "use Darkest Night in every fight."


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Radiation Emission users have not one, but two such toggles that they use on a regular basis.


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This is an interesting point. I love my Rads, but as a mitigation scheme, Darkest Night is superior to either of Rad's toggles (not superior to both, however). Each of the Rad toggles is both mitigation and offense, so to get the full offensive benefit or the full mitigation benefit, both have to be applied. They'd be much more versatile if one was an acc and dmg debuff (like Darkest Night), and the other was a def and res debuff. But that would be pretty over the top.

I think this is a top-notch guide.

Scrap

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Thank you for your compliments.

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One mistake I noticed was with Howling Twilight. Magnitude 2 only stuns up to minions, not lieutenants.

I'll update this post as I find things. I'm just reading through it now, but I know I'll forget by the time I reach the end.

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Somehow, I remember Howling Twilight being slightly more potent in practice than on paper, but that might just be because of how I always immediately follow my Howling Twilights with a Dark Pit chaser. That'll be fixed in the next version, thanks.


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You may want to also add a note about the -regen in Howling Twilight. -500% regen for 30 sec. I hit it as often as it comes up against AVs, even if I'm not trying to unsquish a blapper.

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Thank you for your compliments.

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One mistake I noticed was with Howling Twilight. Magnitude 2 only stuns up to minions, not lieutenants.

I'll update this post as I find things. I'm just reading through it now, but I know I'll forget by the time I reach the end.

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Somehow, I remember Howling Twilight being slightly more potent in practice than on paper, but that might just be because of how I always immediately follow my Howling Twilights with a Dark Pit chaser. That'll be fixed in the next version, thanks.


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You may want to also add a note about the -regen in Howling Twilight. -500% regen for 30 sec. I hit it as often as it comes up against AVs, even if I'm not trying to unsquish a blapper.

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.....I have no idea how I forgot to include that part in the power's effects field. I mean, I mentioned it in the explanation, but.

Thank heavens this is a beta version, so it doesn't have to be perfect yet. <.< >.> <.<

Another thing about Howling Twilight is that it has -3000% regeneration in PvP, which is probably just a decimal error, because most -regeneration powers have less regen in PvP. However, regen and willpower toons will hate you for it, because it basically turns off their regeneration, and nerfs their recharge as well.

History Note:

At one point, another decimal error occured in Howling Twilight, also a PvP error. Instead of being a mag 2 stun, it became a mag 20 stun, effectively stunning anyone not in a god mode with a mez shield on.

Nice job Darkity, I've only got one observation; I've found that by slotting range into my cones I greatly increase their utility... Fearsome Stare particularly benefits from this. I slot 5 of the Glimpse set like you do, but for the 6th slot I toss a range in... it allows me to cower the entire room. My experience is that I get great benefit out of slotting cones for range... the cone lengthens and widens.

For Ex Libris: OP has been updated.