Cloak of Darkness, bad for a Tank?

Something to remember: you are stealthy with the power running.

Obvious perhaps, but if the lead tank is stealthy and the squishies right behind him are not, disaster can often follow. Nothing as spectacular as watching the stealthy tank rush into melee, while the rest of the team is obliterated by the spawn before he can get there.

I just started up a DA/BA tanker, and I'm still on the fence on whether to get CoD. From my /DA scrapper I know Immob is the bane of my melee enjoyment. On the other hand, he'll be getting CJ/SJ.

The basic thing to remember is that stealth and aggro are not diametrically opposed. What stealth does is reduce your chance to get aggro in the first place. Once you have aggro, however, stealth is no longer applicable to the battle. This is true for a Stalker as well as a Tanker, sure a Stalker's stealth is so good they can stand right in melee with a foe and not be seen (and this is true only for Stalkers, and stealth + SS) but once he makes that attack, his foe can see him and outside of Placate there's nothing he can do to lose aggro.

I actually came up with the concept of a stealthy Tanker prior to Dark, and played a Stone/Axe Tanker with the Stealth power. The basic idea was that I could approach the enemy spawn, getting very close to melee, and avoiding ranged counterfire until I was almost right on top of them. I did have to be careful to warn my teammates not to attack until I made my move, as otherwise they'd be a lot more visible than me. Once the fight began, though, anything I aggroed stayed aggroed on me. The same has proved true with my Dark/Dual Blades.

Even if it weren't for the stealth, CoD provides Immobilize protection, enhanced Perception, and Defense that does not suppress. Sure, it's only 5%, and there are better places to put slots, but as long as your teammates understand the strategy of letting the Tanker grab aggro before opening fire, you're not going to be penalized for keeping it up.

The only argument I ever had against it, that it makes your character totally invisible, can be changed at the Tailor.

I have a level 31 dark/axe tank, and with a few IO bonus's CoD, CJ, and weave I am running about 20 percent defense versus Melee, now CoD and weave are not fully slotted up yet. All that being said I have found just that bit of defense has made a huge difference to his surviability. That has made CoD worth it, and when it gets slotted up even more so (hush about defense debuff attacks its my happy little world)

CoD looks cool and offers perception and Def. Why wouldn't you love it?
I mean: Dark has proper Resistances, Mez Auras and a massive heal, as we all know. If you add Def to the mix, you can almost make it into a kind of Granite without the penalties. A little End-Heavy if you do so, but that can be fixed with IOs. Also: If you're using a secondary that offers whatever kind of weapon, you get extra coolness. My Dark/Stone is an invisible Mist of deep red with glowing eyes attacking with a hammer floating in mid-air. How awesome is that?

I might as well ask here: the 'no fade/pulse' (or whatever it's called) option for Dark Armor, does that eliminate the 'stealthy' graphic associated with CoD?

The perception alone is enough to draw me to CoD. Being blinded is more frustrating than any other status effect in the game for me. As others have mentioned, you don't have to completely soft cap to reap great rewards from defense. 20-30% alone will net you significant returns and 8% is a hefty start.

If I weren't so fond of combat jumping for in battle maneuverability I would more appreciate the immob protection on CoD.

Good power!

Sounds like most of the posts are right on target here. Cloak of Darkness, in my experience, is a fine power. My main is a SS/Will brute, which I take fly on, and drop freebird +steath. CoD is about the same as that stealth, plus some defense, +other cool stuff. It will noton a well run tank, affect your agro management. I have just leveled a dark/dark to 32 and plan to take the build to 50. I do run the build as a tank/troller, meaning I use taunt and all 3 agro auras. I tank for 8 teams and have no problem holding agro. Not the most subtle tank, I combat jump into a mob and spam taunt. Lots of fun.

Also, I see a lot on the discussion of defense. I would argue, in my opinion, that Dark armor is neither a defense set (obviously) or a resist set. It could actually be argued that it is a heal based set. (maybe not argued successfully, but still.....) Here is where CoD comes in handy. With my aforementioned tactic of jumping into a spawn, hitting taunt, and waiting. I generally take a huge alpha. If my health is gonna bottom it will be here. Hit heal, and I am back up to full health, even if at 1% health. Suppose the baddies are still clawing at me hard? As a dark/dark, I work my combat punch little heal, wait 15 seconds for my major heal again (I am not I/O'd yet) What I cannot afford is any more agro. The CoD makes sure I get no more. While my taunt and 3 agro auras ensure I hold all that I already grabbed so my team is okay. It, in effect, becomes part of my personal agro management tool box. Until I want more agro, I do not collect more agro. Even if the next mob is darned close. They cannot see me until I want it and am ready for it.