Dark Miasma skill question(s)

Hi,

I'm playing a Robotics/Dark Miasma Mastermind and enjoying it.
I've just hit lvl 24 and need to pick my next skill.
Do I go for Shadow Fall (slotted for Def) or Fearsome Stare slotted for duration/debuff)?

Fearsome Stare is great (on my Dark/Dark defender anyway), but since the recharge time has been upped I'm not sure if it would be as useful as it once was.
Shadow Fall will probably be less effective but more constant. I'm hoping that with Darket Night and Shadow Fall I (and my henchmen & teamamtes) should be rather hard to hit. Is this the case? So far I'm disapponted with the effect of Darkest Night (3 slots, all DO's, 1 end red, 2 acc debuffs).
Which of these should be my priority?

After this skill, I have 2 more primaries to get and I want Petrifying Gaze and Dark Servant, so thats 4 skills, which should leave me 2 more skills to pick. I'm thinking Assult (from power pools) and the skill that I don't get now.
Does this sound good?

Thanks for any advice.

(Skills so far: 1st 2 blasts from primary, 2 summons and the robot upgrade, Twilight Grasp, Tar Patch, Darkest Night, Hover, Fly, Swift, Health, Stamina)

defence of shadow fall is around 2.5%, so it's only useful for the resist and stealth. Fearsome stare is still damn good power, I'd say pick it first.

my 38 lvl ninja / dark uses em all - fearsome stare rox - and shadow fall along with other debuffs rox... its often the difference between a boss 1 hitting my minions and me being able to heal em back to full b4 the boss gets his next swipe in.

Fearsome stare is indeed excellent. The recharge does mean you tend to only use it once in a fight but I find it invaluable for freezing a group to position my Oni for massive cone damage or just to hold a group down while I work through them. Also its the schnizz for freezing an ambush in place as your escorting a kidnap victim.

Shadowfall is of course also excellent, it reduces over agro with the stealth component, adds resists (larger)and defence (lesser).

Question is, is it worth it which your particular minions. For Ninja, its a gem, they are defence based so any additional is just making them better and of course that means that the resists are also excellent as they dont get them any other way. Robots are resist heavier if I recall and the smaller ammount of defence prolly wont make too much of a difference. Still, the mastermind himself also benefits from the resists and defence.

I would go shadowfall first and then fearsome stare when you get closer to opening your AE capability.

As discussed the defense of Shadow Fall is pitiful, non-existant really. But its Damage Resist vs Energy, Dark Energy & Psi is pretty good.

Personally I'd take Fearsome Stare first (although I have both on my level 24 necro/dark mm). A nicely placed Fearsome Stare can lock down a large group and is great combined with Tar Patch if someone aggros an extra group. Let them wander into TP and then Stare them into trembling wrecks. Then focus-fire your bots on em one at a time to get the most from the Stare lockdown.

As a fellow Rob/Dark, I'd advise picking both up as a priority - FS is still an awesomely powerful crowd-control ability, and SF is especially useful to you - as it provides the Energy resistance that your bots will so desperately need (seeing as it's their main vulnerability). On the balane of things, I'd be tempted to grab FS first, then SF at the next level.

Thanks all.
I took Fearsome Stare in the end.
Obviously AB will be my lvl26 skill. What should I take at lvl28, Petrifying Gaze or Shadow Fall. I hadn't thought about the Energy Resistance it gives you. Although I think a single target hold might be useful. So which do I get at lvl28 and which at 30?

Thanks again.

Petrifying Gaze is useful, but not as much so as Shadow Fall (at least from my own MMs experience). It's good having a single-target hold, but a stealth/defence/resist PBAoE is better

As you are robo/dark, and cant stack holds with your pets on bosses, I'd suggest shadow fall first and petrifying gaze second.