Farming: Fire for easy, Dark for hard.
Survivability: Dark
Damage output: Fire
[ QUOTE ]
Farming: Fire for easy, Dark for hard.
Survivability: Dark
Damage output: Fire
[/ QUOTE ]
What do you mean fire for easy, dark for hard? As in Farms that are easy/hard?
Also, wanted to interject, where do you think Spines/EA will sit between these two Aura Dmg builds with it's own aura dmg?
Elec is terrible compared to Fire and Dark. Lack of a self-heal and mediocre smash/lethal resistance kills it - though it could be decent against Freakshow.
@macskull, @Not Mac | XBL: macskull | Steam: macskull | Skype: macskull
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
[ QUOTE ]
What do you mean fire for easy, dark for hard? As in Farms that are easy/hard?
[/ QUOTE ]
Fire is a pure resist set with a good self heal. It does not do terribly well out of the box against tougher opponents; if you want to make life super easy set up a fire-melee opponent spawn so you have 70% resistance and try to up your defense a bit.
Dark comes with arguably the best self heal in the game (on a shorter cooldown), two minion-cancelling auras (optional, so you can skip them if you hunt bigger game), stealth (so handy, especially when you double stack - getting picked off from range was one of my quibbles with my spines/fire even after I slotted her with a +stealth IO) and minor innate defense, plus the same S/L resist base as fire.
Dark is more flexible and survivable. Fire can be fine tuned to trash very specific enemies very well with minimal IO investment. You can heavily IO either ( I toyed with a 40% melee def spines/fire ) but even with substantial IO investment they're not going to be happy against 54 S/L bosses the way an /invuln will. With IO's you can close the gap somewhat.
Anyhoo. Fire's squishier, but has more damage. If you get very picky about your opponents or IO heavily, it can do pretty well.
Spines/Dark is great for carnies, 
I went with the 40-45% melee defense on my Spines/Fire. As long as you get the enemies into melee range, it's pretty much a walk in the park. Any taken damage will be healed right up with Healing Flames, from my experience. I've never tried Dark and wanted to, but I was worried about endurance issues. I can't way which is best, but I do hear a lot of people from other threads saying Spines/Dark too.
OK, so survivability wise Dark has it, but, what is the diffrence in Damage output, is it great, negligible, middle of the road?
Well... /Fire, if you still haven't figured it out, has Fiery Embrace. =/ Meaning another damage boost.
Anyone who has played both, can you tell me what the diffrence in dmg dealt on a farm is? Are we talking minor diffrence in damage, major diffrence in damage, or it's about middle of the ground?
Fire does more damage and dark is a lot more survivable, depending on your playing ability and budget either one will suffice for whatever you want to do.
Virtue: @Santorican
Dark/Shield Build Thread
I understand those basic concepts, what I want to know is how much more damge and how much more survivable. If its 6 one way half a dozen the other, then I don't care, but if it's a big diffrence either way I do care. If the survivability is manageable through IO's but the difference in damage HIGH then I like fire. IF, the diffrence in Survivablity is HIGH, and the damage is meh in diffrence, then I like Dark. So far, ....lol, I can't get this answer.
Really depends on IO investment. *shrug*
Fire can be made very survivable against certain types of attacks, but dark can't replace fiery embrace.
Go fire if you're ready to commit tons of inf, go dark otherwise - the survivability is kind of important.
How much faster (including possible deaths) can a /fire out kill a /dark in say 52 Boss farms?
[ QUOTE ]
How much faster (including possible deaths) can a /fire out kill a /dark in say 52 Boss farms?
[/ QUOTE ]
Spines isnt really a boss killing set, its more of a mass LT and Minion lawnmower. A mob of +2 bosses is going to take a little while to chew through on either set and being able to survive a full spawn on +2 bosses on either set will require heavy IOs or inspirations
I got both Spines/Dark and Spines/Fire, I like playing my Spines/Dark more especially since I slotted the Panacea chance for +hp/+end into Dark Regeneration
Cool, thanks. . . I didn't say I'd be soloing though, I'm no idiot, I'd have a tank with me for sure, or like 3 trollers.
Spines/Dark or Spines/Fire. . .which is better at farming? Which is better at Survivability? Which is better at overall Damage output? Discuss away.