Dark Armor question

I've been considering a Dark/Dark melee toon for a while now. I'm not interested in the Stalker version. I generally prefer Brutes over Scrappers or Tankers, but I'm concerned about the Mez auras and Fury.

If I'm running OG and/or Cloak of Fear and jump into a group, will I take an alpha strike, spiking my Fury bar, or will I mez the group first?

EDIT: Assume that I'll be running Cloak of Darkness and Combat Jumping with a Stealth IO, meaning that in most cases I won't be seen until the enemies are being hit by my auras. If I'm not stealthed, I'd expect to take the first few hits before I even reached melee range.

I think you'll take a few hits no matter how stealthy but you have two heals to to mitigate any damage and by that time most enemies, save for bosses, will be stunned or feared.

Just don't run Death Shroud with CoF because the tics of damage from DS will break the fear component for a brief period allowing the enemies to attack.

I'm not worried about the damage. I want the attacks to hit, to build fury faster. I just mentioned the stealth because I'd be likely to have it, and I was worried that I'd go from "You can't see me!" to "You can't attack" too quickly for them to build any fury for me.

I've been using a Dark/Dark brute for quite a while now, and I can honestly say that Fury has never been an issue while using OG. I also use a stealth proc in conjunction with Cloak of Darkness.

Personally, with my current build, OG goes more damage to me with my aggro capped than the minions can do unless they are 3 or 4 lvls higher than me. At which point Death Shroud takes care of all of the minions by the time i've taken down a boss and an Lt with single target attacks. (Once fury is full, Death Shroud will tear through the minions)

I wouldn't worry about it so much. Just make sure you have enough +recovery to support Dark Armor effectively. The +endurance accolades do wonders too.

Nex Amiculum: Virtue, 50 Brute, Dark/Dark

I have a lowbie Dark/Dark Brute my self, and im itching for higher levels, and to see how ugly a decently filled Fury bar and Soul Drain will do with Death Shroud.

Yoshikazu has made mention of this already, but I want to see it in action!

From just the math iv gathered on a full fury bar, soul drain, and at the very least 3 damage SOs in death shroud, the damage should be extreemly nasty!

Soul Drain adds a automatic 40% damage to all attacks for 30 seconds, and a additional 8% per enemy hit of a max 10, making the total if all 10 are hit is 120% damage boost, due to a additional 80% bonus.(Im sure some people know this informationa already, but its here for those who dont either way.)

If my math is correct, then a full fury bar would grant 300% bonus damage, then the 120% from Soul Drain, added with the 9 base damage the death shroud gives at level 50, it should be somewhere around 38 damage a pulse?If my math is wrong please correct it, and since im fairly new to Brutes, I have absolutly no idea if damage enhancements are effected by Fury.(Could someone tell me if they are?)

Anyhow, its a diffrent melee experiance for me so far, im very used to Tankers, and never touched the dark sets before.Its a Old New thing for me i guess.

Personally though, I seem to be having more fun using the lesser used sets in the game.Probably because they are rarly seen, and new to me, because i never touched them in the past.

The damage bonus from Fury is 2%/1% of the bar filled, or 200% at a full bar. Realistically, keeping the bar full is near impossible. 80% is easily maintained though, and with the right playstyle, 90-95% can be as well.

I run a dark/dark stalker who doesn't do a whole lot of stealth, and I can say that breaking the fear isn't an issue if you combine both auras.

The fear also packs a decent to hit penalty and if you slot for that instead of fear duration, let them attack. They'll mostly miss and give you more fury to beat them down with.