blasting sets tend to have two pretty quick recharging, lowish damage attacks and a bunch of other bits and bobs that are more situational, so that's the case for everyone. my CoH blaster found that snipe can become useable mid-combat in team situations though.
what are you comparing the damage output to? other sets being used by corruptors, or are you looking at the figures from blasters in CoH? cos we aint as powerful as them, but we have the defensive secondaries to boost our potential one way or another.
also, when comparing attacks in different pools you do need to take account of any secondary effects. fire for example pretty much just does damage, so you can expect it to do a lot of damage per hit. dark, like rad or ice, has debuffing, so whilst there is less pain it's balanced against something else. and look at recharge times, activation times and end cost too. dunno if things have changed recently, but radiation's first blast was able to cause the most constant damage of any single attack in the game because despite being low it fires sooooo regulary and doesn't drain end.
unfortuantely /dark is a very defensive set. something like /kin or/rad would allow your attacks to do more.
I've been comparing damage against other corruptor sets using Character Builder.
Tis true, that the dark powers have a debuff, and I'm not suprised they cause less damage than the already mentioned fire set. However, they still seem to be doing less damage than other sets too (which also have some sort of debuffs).
Although I must admit... comparing the dark set to other sets is a bit odd, as I'm not doing any actual in-game testing, only reading the numbers that Character Builder throws at me.
Overally, PvE, I don't have too many problems. Even against bosses, I can hold my own (as long as I don't get stunned or the like). But taking the enemies down takes time, and that in turn takes endurance. So I'm trying to get the most of out everything (which I fear won't work) and enhance almost every aspect of my powers (from endurance cost, accuracy and damage, as well as the debuff).
What I'm really afraid is PvP. I don't want to have some "uber PvP build", but I'd like to be able to hold my own. After a few duels with my friend from the Supergroup, it seemed I can survive his attacks (as they have a really hard time hitting me), but I can't really kill him due to small damage output. (He was playing a stone/rad brute)
Sure Dark has pretty poor single target damage, but it's all in the AoE's. Position yourself to take advantage of them and see those orange numbers fly! 
AoE?
You mean Night Fall (which I admit, isn't bad), and the Tentacles thing (which does very little damage)?
Or the Tar Patch, which is superb in PvE but seems completely unworkable in PvP (as people simply walk out of it). <- NO DAMAGE
Or that dark aura which decreases accuracy? But guess what, it's not doing any damage.
There could be something else, but I haven't seen it so far. Looks like a set that could use some tweaks if you ask me.
it could be just u.
there again, it could be just me, as i have come from a fire/fire hero Blaster to a dark Corruptor and find her sweet.
turn off ur running when in battle, my endurance goes down like crazy if i leave it on, but stays full if turned off.
i'm at lvl 16 now, and have soloed from day one with no problems at all, unlike the blaster.
and teaming with her is a dream, having said that, u must have a good team, IE: ppl that can stay in the fight like u can.
i'm on Union, and am called Hylau, give us a tell and we can do a bit.
I would say it's the controlling aspects of Dark/Dark that give it the edge - no one attack is gonna do mega damage (except the snipe) but if you can slow em down enough you can pick em off at ease - the acc debuff toggle (never remember names of powers - sorry) properly slotted makes it possible to do several snipes in one fight as they can't hit me and then interrupt. On the whole I'm loving the dark side with my corruptor.
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Or the Tar Patch, which is superb in PvE but seems completely unworkable in PvP (as people simply walk out of it). <- NO DAMAGE
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Sure, people are going to try to get out of tarpatch once it's laid down, however try tenebrous tentacles + tar patch and you've partially solved some of the problems you're complaining about: people walking out of tar patch and tenebrous tentacles doing no damage.
Don't be so obsessed with doing damage. Find someone who does do lots of damage to team with. Your defensive powers combined with their firepower can rip through opponents.
In the arenas in CoH, at some levels the Dark defender is considered one of the biggest pains to deal with.
I think Dark primary suffers as it was originally just a Defender Secondary. Always wanted a 'Dark Blaster' though and now I've rolled a Dark/Rad and it's lots of fun (even if I have skipped some of the Rad powers for now.)
Sure it's not got the highest DPS, but the sets strength is in it's debuffs and AoE effects. Tenebrious Tentacles, slotted for acc debuff, are a good way to sideline a whole group of mobs while you pick them off (or your team does.)
Moonbeam is THE best blaster snipe I've ever used (and I've used them all 
)
I think I'll be slotting my primary blasts with 1 acc, 2 dam, 2 acc debuffs and a recharge. Add in 3 slotted stamina, 3 slotted hasten and AM from the rad set (plus the debuffs from RI and EF)...nasty!
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Sure, people are going to try to get out of tarpatch once it's laid down, however try tenebrous tentacles + tar patch and you've partially solved some of the problems you're complaining about: people walking out of tar patch and tenebrous tentacles doing no damage.
Don't be so obsessed with doing damage. Find someone who does do lots of damage to team with. Your defensive powers combined with their firepower can rip through opponents.
In the arenas in CoH, at some levels the Dark defender is considered one of the biggest pains to deal with.
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Hmm... The Tentacles spell is a very strange spell in PvP.
Let me explain a bit. I was fighting a friend of mine in the arena, and this time he had his low lvl ice dominator. He didn't much stand a chance, as the lvl difference was to big. But because of the lvl difference, I should have hit him more often, no? It turned out that the Tentacles spell missed EVERY single time during that fight.
Then he took out his brute (one lvl lower than me). And again, I coudln't hit him with the Tentacles, untill something went 'click' and it finally started landing (with lot's of misses, but at least I managed to immobilze him here and there).
Now, I'm a bit worried. I do realize it could have been bad luck. But I wonder... what's the propability of that happening?
PS. I NEVER managed to land the Tentacles on ANYONE in Bloody Bay.
PPS. Yey for well sloted stamina!
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PS. I NEVER managed to land the Tentacles on ANYONE in Bloody Bay.
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Apparently, the base to hit chance has been lowered to 50% in PvP zones, to help def-based powersets. It's not surprising you weren't hitting as much. If you're planning on using the character in PvP a lot, you might want to plan on slotting two accuracy enhancements in vital powers, or picking up the Leadership pool and getting Tactics - the benefit there is that you'll get +Perception to help you see invisible people.
Also, keep in mind that at this point, a lot of the heros you're fighting in Bloody Bay are actually higher levels exemped down, and so they're working with much better enhancements. If they have any defensive powers running, enhanced with SOs, it might explain why you're having a tougher time against them. The playing field will level out as people level up and buy SOs, though.
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PS. I NEVER managed to land the Tentacles on ANYONE in Bloody Bay.
[/ QUOTE ]IIRC, There's currently a bug that stops certain cone powers hitting moving targets.
I have hit lots with my tentacles in the arena. Scrapper version thou.
A Paragon Defender
I pvp'd for the first time in Bloody Bay, yesterday and I found that Tenebrous Tentacles was missing about 75% of the time (estimated) but when it did hit the hero was toast in no time flat due to me having slotted accuracy debuffs and the fact they couldn't run away. It may well be a 50% chance and I was just unlucky but I think that's a fair chance or it would be too easy to take down opponents in pvp. In PvE it's definitely handy for taking down melee types. I let em get in close, TT em when they out away their ranged attack and back up for a nice moonbeam to the face. sure, it takes more time than wading in and dealing huge amounts of damage but I'm in no hurry to get to the end of the game, I'm enjoying it too much
Now that I hit lvl 30, I tried some fightin' in Sirens Call. I feel useless, to say the least. 
I can't deal enough damage to kill ANYONE, even if they would stand still. (Well, OK, if they stood still then perhaps I could kill them... EVENTUALLY).
My strongest attack against a tank doesn't make his health bar nudge. The other classes, well, their healthbar nudges when I hit them, but a scrapper hits me for 1/4 of my health, a blaster for something a bit smaller (RANGED!). So, I don't deal damage, and I've got defenses and HP of a fly. The accuracy debuff works only against one target... and not very well at that too (a stun/hold/etc. will turn my debuff aura off, and that's the strongest thing I've got).
It would seem to me, that the dark/dark quite useless in PvP. The aura might be a nice debuff, but it seems to me that there are a lot more negative factors than positive.
As far as PvE goes... with the tougher mobs at lvl 30+, I feel that the debuffs alone won't cut it. The damage of the primary dark set should really be buffed in some way. Currently, it's kind of a joke.
Please, correct me if I'm wrong, or give me some advice. If none is found, I'll start looking for damage dealing templates and respec as soon as the mission is fixed.
... or does this set have very little damage powers?
I picked it up, cos it seemed cool. I had no idea what I was doing at the moment of picking, as I had no expirience with CoH. Now I find that I've got 2 basic attack spells, and that's it. The sniper shot is slow and can be interrupted (good for an opener, and that's it), the tentacles don't really deal too much damage. Night Fall looks like something that can be a bit more useful with some buffs. I haven't got any further than that. I skipped Dark Pit, as it doesn't deal any damage (and has poor accuracy anyway). I've compared the damage of spells using CoH / CoV Character Builder, and it seems like the dark set is one of the weakest sets... The accuracy debuff is nice, but overally, I find it weak.
Or does it get strong at later levels with some SO buffs? Since my char is a dark/dark corruptor, I seem to be swimming in support spells, but little damage.