I have a almost pure dark/dark brute. Well i have combat jump super jump and acrobatics. Your build has to match how you play or get to play. Mine herds, builds fury fast cos of the near death experience at herdpoint then heals and then cleans up. Worst thing i have faced is the SWAT team in a Mayhem mission who reduced my accuracy better than what CoT do. 6 slot dark consumption and then 6 slot dark regeneration and work on keeping fury up (in teams i have been thru a mission with almost a perma full bar) and go with a kill or be killed attitude.
Great fury is great damage per endurance and keep it up by herding ahead just enough for team to come and before mobs are fully finished go get some more, in fact you never hang about to clean up, merely start the fights with aggro control and do a bit of good damage.
I wont show people my builds not that it matters cos getting the most out of them is playstyle but my shadow maul which is a multihitter and my dark regen and dark consumption are my main powers that were 6 slotted asap.
Elite bosses whom i have ran out of end on whilst solo i have merely gone and ran into more mobs and dark consumed then fought them whilst fighting an elite boss. Also i had taunt early and tanked GMs off the bat with no res slots in my build using nearby mobs to leech my heal from.
There is something you should be aware of though and thats your limitations, in some teams other players can lower your survivability or increase it and when solo there is a optimum level of enemy that your build and playstyle gives you your best xp/time with.
Fury increases your damage per endurance. Dark Consumption is better end recovery than stamina providing it hits, I could be low on end running into the next mob but right at start of next mob is best time to recover end before they all acc debuff me silly. Dark regen puts back hitpoints no matter what the type of damage and recharges fast and death shroud and shadow maul multihit.
Debt can come from bad timing and bad dynamics and so not necessarily a bad build.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
Awesome Shannon. That was exactly what I wanted to know. I'm having a lot of fun with the build...it's nice to know that you can survive without stamina as long as you keep the mobs coming.
-jared
Solo you can play to be optimal almost all the time cos you can choose your terms but when teamed you dont always get your best terms but id rather look at the "how a build is meant to work" with as little outside power picks as possible and play to it so that there is a huge gap between one toon and another and out of my brutes dark/dark is the most fun to play.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
By the by, Shannon, how do you slot your Dark Regen/Dark Consume? 2 accuracy, 2 recharge, 2 health/endurance mod?
Just curious.
-jared
Dark consumption is 2 acc 3 rechg 1 end mod.
(i like to use this running into more mobs before i am tohit debuffed and alphas neednt exist neither cos i can flyby taunt them and make them come to me one by one but sometimes use it on last 3 with a yellow)
Dark regeneration is 2 acc 2 rechg 2 end red.(why i herd 10 cos its bound to hit half of em and give a great heal)
I choose to fight numbers so i am bound to hit half of them and it all adds up and after not playing my dark dark for a bit i have had times where i have gone into first mob and got defeated but its cos i am a little out of practise 
Trick is in the whole build, timing and movement imo many a time i (and this is quite typical of me) i herd fast, lose almost all health, dark regen, clean up (then run into next lot possibly on low end so dark consumption) herd fast, be at almost no health, regen, clean up and this when soloing is a typical picture if i stopped to text at anytime in the fight i am dead.
In teams things can go almost too well with no hitches to having your leech moments taken away from you so if ya can get ahead, get ahead.
I was hastened till i realise i couldnt ever quite give it its 3 slotting and given the effect soul drain had against mobs that i am used to either teamed or what i work to when solo (we all have a best level for best xp rate when solo) i stopped needing it so much and got rid of it but haste helps alot and i prolly put it back when i can afford its slotting.
There maybe some rest moments in ya game but if ya go use the rest button now you will find its superb regen and recovery in almost no time at all. My elec elec has been a complete pain for needing it.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
Thanks for all the great advice Shannon. I got my Dark/Dark almost to level 18 last night...and I see what you mean by mob balance/control. Dark Regeneration has totally flipped a losing battle around several times now and as soon as I respec my toon I'll be grabbing a few more Dark Melee powers I missed earlier. (I very early on took Kick and Tough, mostly for the Smashing/Lethal res stacking...something I'm finding unnecessary at the moment) Problem is there's just not enough room for me to get everything I want.
Right now I'm trying to prioritize Death Shroud, Touch of Fear, and Oppressive Gloom. I can't take all of them but I like them all quite a bit. From the looks of things if I ever get this toon high enough I'll most likely be skipping the patron powers only so I can fill in the gaps in my primary/secondary. Any input would be awesome. Basically what will keep me trucking longer:
Death Shroud, Touch of Fear, or Oppressive Gloom?
(If I plan on snagging and slotting Cloak of Fear as soon as I get it...do I still need touch of Fear?)
-jared
Update: Holy [censored], Shannon. You were right. My Dark/Dark hit 18 tonight and I finally got a taste of the Dark Regen/Dark Consume combo. Sweet Lord, it's awesome. Both of them aren't slotted anywhere near where they should be (or at all in Consume's case) and still I see what you mean about not needing stamina. I was skeptical, but I can see that with a bit of slotting and IO tinkering, I really don't need it. Nothing made me happier tonight than being out of endurance and almost out of life and bouncing back to almost full on both by just switching on those two powers at the right moment. It's not perfect yet, but man, I went through a very long mission only having to endurance rest once. Considering how I used to have to do that after every mob...
(The other trick was I did a bit of IO slotting to sort out my endurance/accuracy issues, that helped, but not as much as having dark consume on tap)
Thanks again.
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Nothing made me happier tonight than being out of endurance and almost out of life and bouncing back to almost full on both by just switching on those two powers at the right moment.
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I like not having every toon the same and having to think my way past a problem as its what keeps toons very different, challenging and spices things up abit. Living on the edge makes a toon fun for me. The erps rate of dark consumption can be made higher than stamina but with one flaw and that is it has to hit but with Soul drain being what it is I wont worry about missing too much and once I am 50 Soul transfer will be another source of endurance.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
Ok I lied. Lots of questions.
I dusted off my Dark/Dark brute the other day...and now that he's level 14, I need to sort something out. I know that I'm going to snag Dark Regeneration & Dark Consumption...are these, if slotted right, enough to keep me standing with enough endurance to spare?
Right now I run 4 Toggles when necessary....Dark Embrace, Murky Cloud, Tough (for the smashing/lethal stacking), and Obsidian Shield. I only use the last one when fighting enemies with holds, sleeps, or psionics...so it's not "ALWAYS" on like the others are usually.
I assumed that I would need stamina but can a Dark/Dark keep himself happy and in the blue and green with the Dark Regen/Dark Consumption combo?
Right now I could grab Stamina as early as 22...but is it 100% necessary? If I do grab stamina will that and the above mentioned powers keep me going if I also snag Cloak of Fear or Death Shroud later on (neither of which would be on "all" the time, like my Obsidian Shield? How good is Dark Consumption?
-jared
"who thanks you for answering his rambly questions"