Lousy Dark Powers?


Blue_Note

 

Posted

Just started a Dark/dark corr and was just wondering if the powerset have any powers that you should avoid. Powers that's mostly useless no matter what you do with them.
(for interest sake I'm mostly gonna PvE in teams)

Hope to get some advice so I don't pick something that will justify a repect. =D


 

Posted

From the secondary, only Black Hole is bad, and it's really really bad.

From the primary, the only never take power is Life Drain. Perhaps if you had a secondary without a heal, but you've got the best one in the game, so LD is totally pointless.

As for those which have some use, but aren't amazing:

Moonbeam: Well, IMO, this is useless - horriblly long, interrruptable animation for decent but unspectacular damage? No thanks. But some people love snipes, so I can't put it on quite the level of Life Drain

Torrent: No (well close enough to) damage, cone with knockback. If used properly, it can be a very useful control tool, but if you've ever grouped with a poor energy blaster, you'll know the problems.

Dark Pit: Targetted AE disorientate. Sounds cool. Well, it ain't. Low duration, poor accuracy, hefty recharge and it only affects minions. Witha different secondary, it might be worth considering, but frankly, a /dark has betetr control options (notably Fearsome Stare). However, in combination with Howling Twilight (yes the "rez". I use ""s, cos as far as I'm concerned it's a debuff/disorientate with the added side effect of rezzing), it should be decent (I've not actually tried..). Heavily slot both, and use them together, and you've got a good opener.

Blackstar: Yeah, the nuke. For fun factor, you have to take it, but for effectiveness, you can probably find something better. The damage is good, but the crash and recharge really put me off it. Utterly amazing if you've got a pet kineticist though


 

Posted

I'd agree with Phrox on the ones to definately avoid. Black Hole is useless. Life Drain? Why bother when you have twilight grasp to heal you. Darkest night is ok at best with 6 slots. From its base it has poor accuracy, poor duration and a long recharge time. Probably needs 15 slots to make it good. Torrent, I've personally never been a fan of knockback and I'm sure if you are teaming with brutes they wont thank you for knocking there targets away when they are trying to build up some fury. If you intend to solo it could be useful for getting a mob out of melee range, although I'd say immobilising them with tentacles or fearsome stare and backing up is the better option and you also don't really want to be knocking things out of your tar patch.

Moonbeam and blackstar is where I'd disagree though. Personally I think they both depend on your play style. Dark isn't reknowned for its damage and moonbeam is your highest dmg attack (with the exception of the nuke). Yes it is interruptible but with all your to hit debuffs happening as long as you have your target locked down you can reliably use it mid fight.

Blackstar is the final blast power and your nuke. I'm a defender and I love it. If you want to be a support character, no its probably not worth taking due to the downtime, although use it in the right situations and it is fantastic. For the last 2 levels or so I've been using the play style of herding and nuking. Against the right mobs you can easily gather up 2 or 3 groups, herd them up, lay down a tar patch, activate black star and job done. If you are unsure about it I'd recommend trying it out first and then if you don't like it respec it out.

Other things to note, you should slot tar patch with recharges before slows and make use of the -res. The effect stacks so if you have a long fight you can probably squeeze in a couple to lower the mobs resistance, or you at least want it available at the start of every fight. Slot shadowfall with dmg res and end red, dont bother with def buffs. The defence is too small to notice to be worth slooting, but it does offer psi resistance which is very rare so if you can, 3 slot it with dmg res. Howling twilight is more than a rez, although I only use it for rez it can be used as a very good disorient control power (better than dark pit), if you have slots spare and don't know what to do with them, perhaps consider slotting this (if taken) with recharges and disorients.

Thats all I can think of for now, although all my experience of a dark/dark is with a defender, any more questions feel free to ask


 

Posted

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Darkest night is ok at best with 6 slots. From its base it has poor accuracy, poor duration and a long recharge time. Probably needs 15 slots to make it good.

[/ QUOTE ] I really hope thats a typo

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Moonbeam and blackstar is where I'd disagree though. Personally I think they both depend on your play style. Dark isn't reknowned for its damage and moonbeam is your highest dmg attack (with the exception of the nuke). Yes it is interruptible but with all your to hit debuffs happening as long as you have your target locked down you can reliably use it mid fight.

[/ QUOTE ]I can see your point, but frankly I doubt I could find the time to use it - I've got Dark Blast and Gloom slotted with recharges, ditto with the two cone attacks, FS, TG and PG, so theres pretty much always something I can be doing, and in the time it take MB to activate, I'll have been able to do several things. Some people might use it for pulling, but frankly, if I'm in a group, either someone esle can pull, or preferably, we can just fight the whole lot, or if I'm soloing, FS keeps any unwanted ones off me

[ QUOTE ]
Blackstar is the final blast power and your nuke. I'm a defender and I love it. If you want to be a support character, no its probably not worth taking due to the downtime, although use it in the right situations and it is fantastic. For the last 2 levels or so I've been using the play style of herding and nuking. Against the right mobs you can easily gather up 2 or 3 groups, herd them up, lay down a tar patch, activate black star and job done. If you are unsure about it I'd recommend trying it out first and then if you don't like it respec it out.

[/ QUOTE ]Definately agree with the last point there, try it out...Actually, I love it too - nothing beats charging into a mob of enemies and exploding in a massive blast of darkness - but I find I don't use it much (except when I've got a kineticist - Speed Boost, Fulcrum Shift and Tranference ftw), and while theres just enough room in my build for me to keep it, if I was optimising my build for power, I would consider dropping it. (I don't actually have it slotted up yet - though I have seen what it can do with full slots, and it isn't enough to change my mind - will try to find more slots post-40)

[ QUOTE ]
Other things to note, you should slot tar patch with recharges before slows and make use of the -res. The effect stacks so if you have a long fight you can probably squeeze in a couple to lower the mobs resistance, or you at least want it available at the start of every fight.

[/ QUOTE ]Definately agree with this, though at the moment I'm doing fine with just the default slot as a recharge - will put 2 more in there post-40.
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Slot shadowfall with dmg res and end red, dont bother with def buffs. The defence is too small to notice to be worth slooting, but it does offer psi resistance which is very rare so if you can, 3 slot it with dmg res.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yep. Also, don't bother running it all the time. The stealth isn't great (obviously, use it if you're ghosting missions ), and theres little point in wasting the end if the enemies don't do much en/neg/psi damage (as the def is negligable)
[ QUOTE ]
Howling twilight is more than a rez, although I only use it for rez it can be used as a very good disorient control power (better than dark pit), if you have slots spare and don't know what to do with them, perhaps consider slotting this (if taken) with recharges and disorients.

[/ QUOTE ]I use it as a disor/debuff on tough fights, and if anyone complains about me wasting my rez, they can go to the hospital Again, I've only got the default slot in there atm as a recharge.

Oh, and on the off chance you're interested, here's my build - I'm currently 39, so the last three slots are planned (not certain on the exact slotting, but it's pretty close)

1: Dark Blast (1 Acc/3 Dam/2 Rech)
1: Twilight Grasp (2 Acc/2 Heal/2 Recharge)
2: Gloom (1 Acc/3 Dam/2 Rech)
4: Darkest Night (3 THDebuff)
6: Tar Patch (1 Recharge)
8: Hover (1 End Red)
10: Tenebrous Tentacles (1 Acc/3 Dam/1 Rech)
12: Nightfall (1 Acc/3 Dam/1 Rech)
14: Flight (3 Fly)
16: Swift
18: Health
20: Stamina (3 Endmod)
22: Fearsome Stare (1 Acc/3 Fear/2 Rech)
24: Shadowfall (1 End red/2 Res)
26: Assault (1 End Red)
28: Tactics (1 End Red/3 THBuff)
30: Petrifying Gaze (1 Acc/3 Hold/1 Rech)
32: Blackstar (1 Dam)
35: Howlight Twilight (1 Rech)
38: Dark Servant (1 Acc/1 Rech/1 Heal/3 THDebuff)


 

Posted

Unlike other nukes, Blackstar has the advantage of throwing extra accuracy debuffs around. So it's a bit "safer" to use then other nukes I'd guess.

Than again, I've only seen the nuke from the Fire set, and that's high damage, and little else. Definitely you don't want anything to be alive after using THAT. Whilst it seems you actually may survive using Blackstar and leaving some enemies breathing.


 

Posted

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[ QUOTE ]
Darkest night is ok at best with 6 slots. From its base it has poor accuracy, poor duration and a long recharge time. Probably needs 15 slots to make it good.

[/ QUOTE ] I really hope thats a typo

[/ QUOTE ]

lol.. omg yes! I meant dark pit! You must take darkest night!


 

Posted

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except when I've got a kineticist - Speed Boost, Fulcrum Shift and Tranference ftw

[/ QUOTE ]

Tufty usually has access to that

G-Force


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
except when I've got a kineticist - Speed Boost, Fulcrum Shift and Tranference ftw

[/ QUOTE ]

Tufty usually has access to that

G-Force

[/ QUOTE ]

That is true. Its probably why I love blackstar so much


 

Posted

I only truly realised Dark Miasma's real power when in Croatoa and found myself holding my own against 2 Cabal boss, 4 LT's and 5+ minions. That was post ED. Although the effects and pyrotechnics may not be as obvious as some other sets, rest assured an experienced Dark/Dark Defender or Corruptor won't go down easy.


The Smoking Demon
Ash/Tar Corruptor
Union

@The Smoking Demon

 

Posted

Dark/dark is great for crowd control..you got fearless stare, tar patch and the black tentacles of dhooom, whats not to love, and you have some great debuffs, keep in mind that your res also debuffs regen..great tool for fighting AV's and Heroes ..but to answer the orignal poster question..dark pit sucks so does blackstar, life drain dosnt exactly suck but since you have one of the best heals in your secondaries..dont take that either.

(proud owner of a level 50 dark/dark corr


 

Posted

Sorry folks, but I don't agree with some of the comments on Life Drain. I didn't take it original, but then had a respec and decided to throw it in.

Sure Grasp is more bang for your buck, nothing against that, but as an aggro-grabbing, darkest night-herding, tentacle/fall-spamming son of a gun I'm bounded by law of Sod to have some of the attacks hit me despite the -Acc and when they do I don't want to have to wait the length of Grasp to heal, a quick snap of my wrist and I get a tasty 20% of my health back, and it's pretty quick spam to boot.

Plus nothing feels more corrupting than stealing some Behemoth Overlord's last drop of health to save yourself. Too bad it doesn't do a little -regen like Grasp and Howler though, that'd really open some eyes.

There again I'm also the guy that fires off Moonbeam in the middle of a big fight to take down runners.

Anyway, other points have been quite valid regarding Black Hole, Dark Pit and Torrent. Took these on Test as a laugh going around Sharkhead torrenting Sky Raiders off their base roof.

[ QUOTE ]
Unlike other nukes, Blackstar has the advantage of throwing extra accuracy debuffs around. So it's a bit "safer" to use then other nukes I'd guess.

Than again, I've only seen the nuke from the Fire set, and that's high damage, and little else. Definitely you don't want anything to be alive after using THAT. Whilst it seems you actually may survive using Blackstar and leaving some enemies breathing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd say Dreadful Wail is safer. My son/son jumping into a mob of freaks and nuking leaves most dead, any live souls have bleeding eardrums and bobble-head on for quite a duration. Enough for a team to clean up.

Meanwhile I find my Dark/Dark doing so much else in terms of debuffing and attacking that a one-off nuke would hinder my productivity. Two of the Three major aspects of my team survival are toggles, the three being Shadow Fall, Darkest Night & Fearsome Stare.

Everyone plays a little differently though, though no one should play Darkblackholetorrentpit.


@Drakmarth & @Drakmarth2
Avatar by S. Wall
#415877 - An Uncivil War: Preclude - Looking for Feedback

 

Posted

I think all Drak powers are lousy.


CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>

 

Posted

1. Blackstar is just plain total pants for a nuke. The damage is pathetic (although on paper it should be on par with your average nuke, but that's just a big lie. (even in spite that it does the little resisted neg.nrg dam) 2 combo's of tentacles+nightfall is about same damage...
The huge -accu is nice, but also redundant with your huge numbers of accu debuff already flying around. Defo not worth the end crash which will put you out of play, make you defenceles, drop your precious toggles and prevent you to keep on fighting.
Very, very dissappointing power... Avoid this one imo.
2. Life drain is nice. Very fast activation and animation time. An excellent power to quickly pick off mobs on low health and scourge kill them. And ofcourse with a nice little heal for yourself as well!
I discovered this little gem rather late tbh, because at first i didn't think much of it. But i tried it and learned i'd never want to go to town without it.
Recommended. Slot it well.
3. Torrent. In general hate KB cos of the little knowledge by most users how it can totally screw up fights, but when used well Torrent is a great tool to keep/move mobs on your patches, group m into debuff toggle range and cluster m for (your) cones as well as get nasty mobs out of your face and on their backs. (and also you can slot a force feedback +rech proc in it )
Pick up or ignore this power depending on your playstyle.


 

Posted

I see a lot of people knocking life drain, and I agree that if you look at it as a straight forward heal its not excellent, however, compared to the rest of the dark set it's damage output isn't horrible, especially as Blue says, with a scourge. With a end reducer in there, it can become a handy part of your attack chain


 

Posted

I tend to like Life Drain as well - I consider it as one of my attacks rather than a heal primarily, although it can be a life saver if you are low on health and Twighlight Grasp has missed or if you don't have time for the activation time.

Blackstar I would agree for pve is of very limited use as for a nuke its not high enough damage to be confident the mob will all be defeated with +3 mobs. Its in my build still but the number of occasions where it was actually useful I could count on one hand - with a few fingers missing.
Arena battles it can be very effective especially if the match is set for max recovery.

Moonbeam I like - it is very useful for pulling in pve and can easily be used in a 1v1 duel in pvp or once the mobs have been locked down with all the control in DM.

Torrent and Blackhole I never even tried.


Mind of Gaia lvl 50 Defiant's first Mind/Storm 'troller.
Deadly Doc 50 Dark/Dark Corr
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