I love the theory of Darkest Night on brutes but application I find lacking a bit after using the power awhile.
On teams I find myself attacking more then worrying about toggling the power on a boss or AV. However, DN is very nice for the Rikti MotherShip Raid once those Magi start coming around. Every bit of mitigation helps with those terrible EBs.
Solo, it's a nice power to have to give a bit more survivability against really tough foes but spawn to spawn with just bosses it's really not needed. Not to mention the endurance drain can be a problem for some builds that don't have +recovery set bonuses or a end management tool.
Since you're going ELM, I would think Electric Fences and Ball Lightning would be more conducive to your primary and providing max AoE damage. Only because Lightning Rod has a longer recharge and won't be up every spawn unless you have some fantastic recharge. While LR is recharging Elec Fence + Ball Lightning + Thunderstrike is a sturdy chain.
Long story short, you'll probably dig more attacks. 
EDIT: i r teh gud spelr
if you plan to soft-cap, the -tohit of DN becomes redundant
Mu for the higher targeted AoE dmg
I will definitely be stacking up my Defenses, but I doubt I will hit the soft-cap with only 1 mob in range of Invincibility, which is why DN is attractive to me.
If I do choose Soul Mastery for DN, and decide I don't like/need it, and respec into Dark Obliteration, how does the damage of Soul Tentacles and DO compare to Fences and Ball Lightning?
IIRC, Soul Tentacles does only a little more damage then EF due to minor upfront damage. Like real minor, can't test atm.
Ball Lightning out damages Dark Obliteration due to some DoT (DOb has zero DoT). 42.5 vs. 37.5 damage IIRC.
Both EF and BL offer minor -end to the target. I don't think ST applies a -tohit debuff but DOb applies a 5.6% -tohit debuff. Which is nice for defense toons since it's an AoE.
I have an energy melee / willpower brute; I took Mu powers at first because I liked the looks, but have recently (at level 47) switched to soul mastery. So, my experience is limited, and you should take the rest of this post with a grain of salt. Your mileage may vary. Etc.
For me, the end drain on mu powers was basically useless - with no other source of end drain, it simply didn't help, which left me with just damage. For you, with electric melee, the end drain may (if you're actually draining things dry) prove a more useful damage mitigator than the to-hit penalties from soul mastery.
Soul Mastery - For starters, I'm not defense capped. Nor do I expect I'll ever have enough inf lying around to become so. Thus, for me, the to-hit penalties on gloom, dark obliteration, and darkest night, provide a noticeable boost to survival. If you're defense capped (or plan on being so) then you're left with just the damage penalty applied by darkest night - and I wouldn't think that's strong enough to justify taking soul over mu.
Of course, the end drain on darkest night is fairly high - so I use it to cover my weaknesses rather than as a constant effect.
Namely, I use it as an alpha absorption mechanism: Open with darkest night on a minion. It provides its bonus for the alpha, the minion dies, and it hasn't cost me much endurance at all.
Darkest Night also makes a nice emergency survival buff - willpower has no heals, but with its regeneration, the sudden dropoff in damage darkest night provides is usually enough for me to recover from near death.
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I have an energy melee / willpower brute; I took Mu powers at first because I liked the looks, but have recently (at level 47) switched to soul mastery.
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Wait, you can respec out of PPP's? I didn't know that.
Yep, believe the ability to respec into/out of PPPs came in Issue 14 or 13.
I've loved using Darkest night on my DM/SR if only for the -DMG, which is 21% (!!!)
The only time it is useful is against an AV, or when messing around with the AE seeing how many tough guys I can take on at one and fell like I'm the AV and the game is trying to take ME down as with a team.
However, statistically speaking, even the 21% damage reduction it offers (unresistable as far as I know) still does not match the survivability that aid self gives me on my alt build.
Just my 2 cents. Oh and gloom is just plain awesome single target damage against bags of hp.
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I've loved using Darkest night on my DM/SR if only for the -DMG, which is 21% (!!!)
The only time it is useful is against an AV, or when messing around with the AE seeing how many tough guys I can take on at one and fell like I'm the AV and the game is trying to take ME down as with a team.
However, statistically speaking, even the 21% damage reduction it offers (unresistable as far as I know) still does not match the survivability that aid self gives me on my alt build.
Just my 2 cents. Oh and gloom is just plain awesome single target damage against bags of hp.
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The damage debuff can be partially resisted by AV's.
For an Invul I wouldn't choose Soul for Darkest Night. The set can be an endurance pig as it is, and DN is costly. Choose Soul because of Gloom or not at all.
The damage debuff is useful against the mobs used to saturate PBAoE powers such as invincibility or Soul Drain when fighting AVs not the AV itself.
Good to know. I thought -dmg was unresistable. Definitely explains the lack of survivability. =)
I guess damage debuff resistance should be added to:
paragonwiki
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I have an energy melee / willpower brute; I took Mu powers at first because I liked the looks, but have recently (at level 47) switched to soul mastery. So, my experience is limited, and you should take the rest of this post with a grain of salt. Your mileage may vary. Etc.
For me, the end drain on mu powers was basically useless - with no other source of end drain, it simply didn't help, which left me with just damage. For you, with electric melee, the end drain may (if you're actually draining things dry) prove a more useful damage mitigator than the to-hit penalties from soul mastery.
Soul Mastery - For starters, I'm not defense capped. Nor do I expect I'll ever have enough inf lying around to become so. Thus, for me, the to-hit penalties on gloom, dark obliteration, and darkest night, provide a noticeable boost to survival. If you're defense capped (or plan on being so) then you're left with just the damage penalty applied by darkest night - and I wouldn't think that's strong enough to justify taking soul over mu.
Of course, the end drain on darkest night is fairly high - so I use it to cover my weaknesses rather than as a constant effect.
Namely, I use it as an alpha absorption mechanism: Open with darkest night on a minion. It provides its bonus for the alpha, the minion dies, and it hasn't cost me much endurance at all.
Darkest Night also makes a nice emergency survival buff - willpower has no heals, but with its regeneration, the sudden dropoff in damage darkest night provides is usually enough for me to recover from near death.
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only DN has -tohit. the others are -acc
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only DN has -tohit. the others are -acc
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Really? Huh. Looking it up on ParagonWiki, it does say -accuracy for gloom and dark obliteration - but the link at the bottom to see the actual numbers on cov.redtomax.com shows -toHit for all of them.
I wonder what the actual in game numbers display shows? I may have to test this at some point.
I still have a long way to go before I actually have to decide, but I am planning the build on my Elec/Inv Brute, and want to devote 2 slots for Patron powers. I have zero practical knowledge of the PP's, and I am deciding between Mu or Soul Mastery.
Thematically, Mu fits better, as an extension of my melee attacks. I would probably take Fences and Ball Lightning to enhance my PBAoE focus. I am contemplating Soul because of Darkest Night, which looks to be a really good power to enhance survivability, which I would normally put priority on if I were a Tank or Scrapper. But maybe the mechanics of the Brute calls for more offense?
Any suggestions, or pros and cons?