Since when?

Iv been starting to hear on the Boards here and there, about how a Dark/Dark Defender is common place, and arguably the most, if not highly powerful Defender there is in the game.

I made a Dark Defender because I never saw one past level 14, ever.Everyone I talked to told me that it is a weak combonation to play on a Defender, and I kinda thumbed through the boards, not finding anything suggjesting that anyone worries about making or playing one.

I run into people in the game who say things like "Whoa!I never saw a Dark Defender before!", and "Wow!How can you take out a mob like that?", or "I have over 50 characters, I was thinking of making a Defender like yours one of these days...".People literally stop to look at me, some ask questions.Others comment on how cool my Dark Servant looks.

Im also on Freedom, one of the more populated servers as well.So my questions here, are simple ones.

If a Dark Defender is the best of the best in a few fields that many other Defender builds lack, why is it iv never heard about it till now?Matter of fact, why dont I see Dark Defenders other then my self running around?

I mean, if there are as many self-proclaimed Min/Maxers out there as iv heard, and seen, why do I seem to be the only Dark people see now days?

Is there something that turns people off of these sets that I havnt heard about?I see mainly Kins, Empaths, ect, and none of them seem to be able to handle what I can handle.I also easly keep teams alive, and make missions simple for them because of my massive -toHit Debuffs, and high burst healing.Whats the gimmick im missing here?

I read one thing, and the reality is something else.Please help me out, I simply dont understand.

lol well most people see it as a debuff set that isnt as "great" as rad. I love the set! Dark has everything that anyone could want it has debuffage, healing, and buffing. It is a great set that some people just dont care to play.


*Its not the healzor set* :P

People learn about the game in stages, usually.

Stage 1: WOWbrain. "Need tank, healer, damage." Mostly concerned with figuring out what THEIR powers do, how to use the train, how to stop running out of mana, like that. We were all there once. Some of us got over it.
Stage 2: Actually noticed something someone else did that wasn't a Big Green Number or a nuke. Most commonly Kinetics, but sometimes Force Fields or rarely Rad.
Stage 3: learned some things that are common sense on the Def boards from someone else (in a SG, or from the boards, or whatever)- like "You need a Rad to take out AV's" or "The really good part of Empathy is the buffs" or something.
Stage 3.5 (optional): Found the forums, started arguing with people.
Stage 4: Started to actually learn something to do with numbers, and what various powersets do.

People in Stage 1-3 - and there are people who've played for years and are still in Stage 1, I've teamed with them- have no idea what Dark Miasma does. They're winning and they don't know why. Heck, I played Force Fields and there were a lot of people who never made the connection between little bubbles around them and suddenly winning. Force Fields is subtle to these people. You can't miss Speed Boost, and it's hard to miss Fulcrum Shift because those are your OWN orange numbers getting doubled. But "oh, my health isn't moving?" They can miss that.

EDIT: I was typing while PC Guy posted. I don't think Freedom is QUITE that bad. I do think it's worse per capita, so it's enormously worse per zone, because Freedom is so big that even if you suck, there's still someone who hasn't heard the news. If you suck on Pinnacle, everyone knows in a week. You have to get better because they won't put up with you otherwise.

Dark is considered the best Mastermind Secondary. So I don't think its any surprise that the Primary is good.

Dark/Dark/Dark is just a very good well rounded toon. It does a lot of things well. Its very survivable and does AoE damage with a lot of small but good controls.

It may sound silly, but I think a lot of people don't like it because the two sets are supposed to go together. People like to think they are putting a combo together that the Dev's didn't design that way.

Either way, Dark/Dark/Dark isn't anywhere near over powered. Its just very good and very well rounded.

My first 50 was a D3, my namesake and it was a hell of a ride. But what I learnt was this:

When it comes to being appreciated in a team, people notice big orange or green numbers. What they don't notice very often is not being hit, something which doesn't have any big flashing lights attached to it. People are very fast to say 'Nice Healing' but I don't think I've ever seen anyone say 'Nice Debuffing'.

Well, every once in a while, your going to run into what i just ran into tonight, and it very much deals with Stage 1 players.

Ok, picture this, I do solo farms on my Defender.Every now and again, I invite a couple players to the team, for some quick exp for them to hop up a bit in experiance, instead of standing around looking for a team.(Defender is currently level 35.)

By no means do I PL anyone, but I do give them a small leg up if they are lower level and want exp.Anyhow, I loaded up a self made farm, of Ghosts, and invited 2 Controllers.Being the guy I am, I suggjested that if they wanted to help me fight, they needed to allow me to tank.

One controller immediatly says "Ok.", and the other, decided to come off and tell me "Defenders are healers, you cant tank.Your support.".

At this point, im already smirking due to that statement.I replied with, "Then your in for a surprise.", and summoned my Dark Servant for the comming attack on the first +1/8 (with bosses) Mob of Freakshow on this run.The moment I start the attack run, the Controller goes into Fly mode, and jets upward.Possibly beliving that I was full of it, and wanting to see me dead, he saw just the opposite.

After clearing out the mob, he lands.I say "Im just a healer that cant Tank, right? ", and he stayed silent.At this point, im thinking maybe, just maybe, he wanted to either see me do it again before he belived his own eyes, or he didnt feel like incriminating him self by saying anything further, either way, I let it drop.

The next mob, he decides to help, which is fine with me.Him being in his mid-20s in levels, and being a Plant/Storm looked like it was going to be helpful.However, he wasnt helpful.He didnt take 3 of Storms most Vitally valuable powers.No Steaming Mist, no Snow Storm, and no Freezing Rain.He did take just about every Plant power from Tier 1 down to his level allowance though.So I figured that will help either way, since its not likly we will get hit due to my -toHit debuffs.

Around the 3rd mob, he gets ballzy, and decides to start jumping into the next mob, without me or the other controller.Which didnt matter at this point, the 2nd controller lost connection, and by the middle of the 3rd mob left me and this nay saying Controller by our selves.Not really bothered by this, I continued the run.

For the next 4 mobs, I had to race behind the Controller that decided he was the Tank, and Aoe Debuff the mobs so the Alpha wouldnt kill him.I was slightly annoyed by this, but did my best to just let it go..... That is, till he said "Controllers can tank, just keep healing me and this will stay easy."

You KNOW what I did next, and it wasnt very polite.

I let him jump into the next mob, and allowed him to take the Alpha.After allowing him to face plant in a matter of seconds, I attacked the mob, and told him "Just a minute, ill help you up.".After clearing half the mob, he felt it was safe enough to use a Wakie.I figured by now he was noticing atleast a pattern, or that he might be wrong about my role as a Defender of being only heals and buffs, but that wasnt the case.

Now not only did I have a large 8 man mob half down, he drags 2 more mobs onto me.Possibly for revenge, or to be a jerk, I cant tell which.If it was for Revenge cause he was smart enough to figure out I let him die, then ok, I have no problem with that, but I wasnt about to let it slide.

I know better then to take on a triple mob on my Defender, ill drop either eventually, or all at once, depending on how long my luck and stamina hold out.So, I launched Dark Pit, and Trenebous Tenticals at the mob one more time, and ran like hell!

They chased after me and where flinging saw blades at me like I owed them child support!

Anyhow, I got away, and survived.He left team and sent me a tell telling me I suck.I just grunted to my self, and put him on Ignore.

I do belive im doing better at ignoring other people, especially when it comes to ignorance, but I still need some practice I guess.I think he caught me at a bad moment with his behavior was all.

Anyhow, I guess maybe I should buy a server Transfer.Who knows...

I think you've just been running into weird people. If you go redside, half of the corruptors and masterminds are dark miasma, and it's not uncommon at all for defenders to use it.

Dark defenders aren't common and certainly not as common as they should be. However, you have to get past the big 3, Empathy, Rad, and Kin. Those 3 will be the most popular played across pretty much every server. Once past those, there is a significant drop off in terms of numbers, but then the other primaries fill in from there.

I don't get the idea of transferring off of the server just because of the reaction to you playing a Dark defender. Do you like the character? Are you having fun? Then screw what people think. I made a Dark/stone tank(known for being end heavy and not really near popular despite being a good combo) and I love the build. I was playing on it and one member kept bragging about how tough my guy was, ie "Brandon is the one in the boogie man's closest. See, he just lets his health get low to give them a false sense of hope." etc... He kept doing it over and over and I was cracking up. The server? Freedom.

And yes, my D3 is on Freedom as well.

Check out this post which has links to my D3 solo farming spawns meant for 8.

Dark Miasma is a bit of an awkward fit with anything other than Dark Blast, so I think that tends to keep the Dark Miasma Defenders down. D3s are a very popular option though; just search this forum for the proof.

DM is much more common redside, where Dark/anything MMs have always been fairly popular, and, after the changes to DM, Dark/Fire Corrs now are arguably the most solo-able Corr.

I'm speaking from experience primarily with Virtue.

Dark Miasma, protectionwise, is enough for me if anyone else on the team is paying any attention. If I get a bonus "oh dear" button from my primary (for instance, tar patch + Psychic Scream hammers their recharge flat; Siren's Song puts most of 'em to sleep) that's gravy. I have a Dark/Psi and a Dark/Sonic that work very nicely for me.

One of the problems I think, is that people don't realize Howling Twilight has a huge -regen debuff.

Even those who play it, don't realize it.

I know on my Dark/Ice/Psi, I didn't realize it.

Now, on my Dark/Sonic/Dark...I do.

The only reason I didn't go D3 on my Dark/Sonic/Dark, was part of the concept is my toon is a exorsist type (not exactly one, but close enough)...and ghosts in CoH resist negative energy damage.

So, that left me with Electric, Rad, Energy, or Sonic as my choices, based entirely on the weakness of ghosts (energy damage).

Dark Miasma is a great primary, and while I've never actually seen a Defender tank (absorb the alpha, sure...but keep all attention on them, no)...I know my Dark/Sonic/Dark was out surviving IOed tanks/scrappers on the ITF, handling three ambushes on it's own.

However, the toon is IOed (not completed) for alot of defense to stack with the -tohit of Darkest Night. And I was told the +Defense on it would be a waste (it's not).