Dark/elec

Hello Defender class of 2009. I am not new to CoH, but I am a bit new to the defender class. I have one other defender which is and Emp/Rad. I forgot about her and didn't really want to touch a defender AT again. I am generally a Tank and a scrapper type. I have a few 50s under my belt with the Tanks and scraps.

Something about Dark Miasma/Electric intrigued me. So I have one now up to lvl 26. He's been fun to play...I think. I always manage to get on a team with tons of trollers and defenders. I went in knowing that a Dark/ defender would be a thankless toon. You know, all the healers, FF, and sonics get the praises while Dark is the black sheep of the gang.

I know what Dark/ is good at, but I wanted to get a little more advice from the defender veterans on what I might want to consider when building my toon. Here is what I do know about rolling a Dark/Elec

- I get two pets. Fluffy and the voltaic sentinel
- Dark Miasma is a debuff/slow defender. Darkest night gets less and less use the higher I
get because the others can kill quicker as well. But Darkest night still helps alot. On AV
fighting this is a heaven sent and a must (In my opinion)
- I may skip petrifying gaze OR I can stack that with e tesla cage for bosses and such.
- Fearsome stare may need 2 acc enhances to get the minions and Lts.
- tar patch doesn't affect everyone. Know my enemies.
- Defender attacks weren't really meant to be killers but rather a support to the support
(support being me, a defender) I chose elec because I can stun foes and give me and
team time to get in another attack.
- I chose the fly pool so I can be above the fight and also give out heals better without
totally putting myself right in harms way.

So what things would you suggest? slotting? Powers? Play style? Let me know. I am kind of new to defenders remember. And please do correct me if I am wrong. Thanks!!

A few tips:

Skip Black Hole, it has very little use when teaming. Taking both holds (in your case Petrifying Gaze and Tesla Cage) is useful against bosses or taking two annoying lieutenants out of the fight. Put three recharges in Tar Patch, and use it whenever possible. -30% res. is great.

Electric Blast is kind of diverse slotting wise, as you can go for the sapper playstyle and use Short Circuit (slotted with end mod) and Ball Lightning to drain endurance. Elec's damage isn't the greatest but I've always thought Thunderous Blast was cool. (Never had that nuke on a Defender mind) I would advise taking stamina if you haven't already and possibly Assault for some extra damamge for you and your team.

I was thinking about going the sapper direction being that my secondary wouldn't be that noticeable to begin with. I think sapping goes unnoticed as well, but when an enemy can't attack, how can you not notice that.

So with a lvl 50 Dark/elec/dark I can have good -res, good -tohit, good -spd, a few holds via pet gaze, fearsome stare, Tesla cage, tentacles, decent sapping power when slotted right, and one self centered heal. I also get two pets.

When I look at the whole picture this seems like a beast of a defender even though it's more controller-ish. I should go the sapping direction so I can get some more endurance. Running two pets, darkest night, and all the other power can run me end low.

What do you think?

With just the elec set, sapping takes longer than most teams will give you.......plus dark controls well enough to not really need it. (To get the group, you're looking at 2 applications of Short Circuit prior to potentially getting Powersink).

I'd slot your attacks for damage and use the gluttony of -tohit and control that Dark gives you to put in more damage, particularly on bosses and Lts. Plus, if you do get hit, you have a very nice area heal that effects yourself to fall back on (for that reason, Dark doesn't have to play quite as safe as sets that mostly affect others).

Fearsome Stare by itself takes care of most of the pack, throw a PG + Tesla at a boss, repeat as necessary, and blast the rest of the time.

One of the benefits of Dark Miasma is you're not babysitting your team. You throw down your debuffs, launch a heal if necessary (usually not), throw controls where necessary and then go about the damage.

To not actively look for damage opportunities with Dark is kinda slapping the set in the face. It rarely needs more control or safety than the set provides by itself, especially once you get Fluffy to help. At that point, what you need is more damage.

I see. I used electric, so I didn't know it would take that long to sap the end out of the baddies. Especially since Dark Miasma makes it a quicker time killing mobs.

Local Man, my main handle, is a level 50 Dark/Elec. I still pull him out quite often for TFs and other stuff. Plus, I have a Kin/Elec in the upper 40's and several other Dark Miasma characters in high levels . . . I have played both Dark and Elec quite a bit.

Personally, I like having Voltaic Sentinel a/k/a "Sparky" in my build. Sparky adds quite a bit of damage overall, and is very efficient both in time and endurance. In effect, Sparky shoots out 10 Charged Bolts for the endurance cost of only about three, and for the casting time of about 1.5. Even better, since I can cast Sparky before going into battle, the overall cost for that damage is even less. It is quite common for me to be busy doing other Defendery things, and glimpse over to see that Sparky has finished off a foe for me. Besides, I really like being able to tell my team about my two pets, Sparky and Fluffy.

One of the best aspects of a Dark/Elec is the ability to quickly hold a Boss. Fearsome Stare controls all the minions and Lts. Then a quick casting of Pet Gaze and Tesla Cage locks down a Boss. Even a lot of controllers have trouble handling an entire spawn this easily.

I originally tried to have an Endurance Drain build, but I found that I died a lot trying to run in and drain endurance with Short Circuit. Because Fearsome Stare is a Fear power, running in with Short Circuit allows those foes to take a pot-shot at you -- not good. I now use a different method -- Thunderous Blast + Power Build Up will fully drain the endurance of any foes who survive the nuke. It's not up all that often, but it works better, in my opinion, than trying to use two shots of Short Circuit while foes are shooting at me. I've though about trying to slot up my other powers for Endurance Drain . . . but my Dark Miasma powers mean that the foes aren't hitting very often, so the lack of Endurance Drain is is far less important because of the ToHit Debuff. (Now in my Kin/Elec, the entire focus of the character is on Endurance Drain.)

My Dark/Elec plays mostly like a Controller with blasts. He plays mainly at a short range and mostly stays out of melee. This is dictated by the cone size of Fearsome Stare, easily the most important power in the set. There are certainly other ways to play the character, but this is what I have found to be fun and effective.

Hey Local_Man,

I like reading your take on the electric powers.
My Emp/Elec didnt even start trying to drain until his 30s, mostly because having poor defenses meant getting into melee range too much (or with too many foes at once) was painful. But on my solo build I focused alot on defenses and by the 40s, I had over 20% defense and with my healing, its not too bad being in melee range. But I will always pick a target to hit with Tesla while I am running into melee and take him/it/her out right off the bat.

For me its usually a matter of focus, I use Tesla and my blasts to drain the hard targets as fast as possible and let SC take care of all the trash mobs. Usually after I have polished off the problem mobs (and fired SC several times), everything else is dead, running around playing cat-n-mouse with a small amount of health, or just looming over me with no endurance trying to make scarey faces.

That being said, certain Mob types still really suck. Malta with their sappers and LOTS of stuns, and Carnie Master Illusionists. Heh, multiple Illusionists is just plain rude. Or multiple Gunslingers plus a sapper. I imagine a Dark/Elec would have a much easier time with these.

Interesting take on that Dark/Elec build Local_Man. I like the details.

your choice of powersets are very flexible (i guess most are, but Dark is known as the "Jack of all Trades" powerset) and you can go any route you want to, to general team debuffer or AV/GM support specialist, to pet-user Soloist. Of course, you can also get a balance of all that in.... its really up to you in what direction your playstyle will take you....

A couple key things will be Twilight Grasp. If all else fails, your heal hopefully wont. Make sure you have the ACC up REAL high in order for that power not to fail, or in a tight situation, you or someone else may die. Have it on a fairly good recharge too....
Having it more available is more important than the amount it heals, cuz it already heals a significant amount....

Darkest Night is the best damage mitigation toggle a defender has imo. Yes, Rad Infect has higher -ACC but no -Damage(which EF has, but at a lower percentage). Early on, its hard to develop defense or -ACC enuf to make the mobs miss consistently. DN will shine for the amount of Damage it debuffs. This will be extremely apparent w/ AV's and GM's, when they do whack someone, which is usually often, considering that -ACC will affect AV + GM classes on a much lower scale.....

Howling Twilight is an interesting power. If coordinated right, it can make you into literally a team rezzer. You can dip into the Teleport and either TP friend to mob and rez, or TP Foe a mob to teammate/team to rez off of. Non-Dark defender players usually dont know about the -Regen it also performs. In order to be a legitimate -Regen'r for AV/GM teams, you want to get this power to 100% recharge to get the most out of it. Unslotted -regen usually wont be enough. It is also proven to be resistable by Dark Energy resisting AV's......

Your Fluffy (if you're gonna use one) is best used as a controlling pet. He reliably kicks off Tenebrous Tentacles and Petrifying Gaze and Twilight Grasp. Other powers, not too reliable. Someone had mentioned she tested the damage done, and equated to about 1/20th the damage you do - which looks right. So dont bother trying to squeeze damage out of him.... Otherwise his debuffing/healing powers should about match your ability - he becomes a phenomenal support pet vs AV/GM's and between you two, should keep everyone well-healed and Petrifying Gaze stacking (if you plan to get that power)....
Take a look for Fluffy Slotting Threads in getting the most out of him in the way you want

gah, forgot my fav power in Dark Miasma
Fearsome Stare..... this is a must-have, which you prob found out already. Post 30, teammates will be powerful enough to crush down mob groups pretty fast, and your DN may serve the team very little. Fearsome Stare will basically be your Bread'n'Butter lead in/Tank in power. The traditional slotting for this is 2 ACC SO's, 2 -ACC SO's, and 2 Recharge SO's. This allows you to control/debuff every mobgroup you encounter with a team. The damage mitigation is usually high (especially if you follow w/ a TT attack) that you wont even need to drop DN or heal the team during that attack....

Fluffy offers strong flexibility in IO sets - Healing, Hold, Immobilize, ToHit Debuff, Accurate Healing, & Accurate ToHit Debuff.

For cranking up Recharge, Fluffy can take in the Hold or Immob Purp.
Otherwise, Dampened Spirits or Dark Watcher's Despair will be a step up from SO's, and will give you a Recharge hit....
He presents a very flexible option when making an IO build and avoiding over-stacking stats....

Scratch that TT remark, forgot your not Dark Blast :P
If you DO pick up VS, and working in Purple sets, you'll be able to pull off an easy one with it, using Soulbound Allegiance. Its not gonna get you a recharge bump, but some other stuff at least. Either a 6slotted Efficacy Adaptor or 4slotted Call To Arms(unique pet def also) / Expedient Reinforcement (unique pet resist also)

Fearsome Stare Stat crunching:
ACC Base: 75% / 2 ACC IOs: 137.5%
-ToHit Base: -18.8% / 2 -ACC IOs: -28.1%
Rech Base: 40secs / 2 Rech IOs: 21.8secs
45degree arc, 70' deep