Dark Armor question

Between all the melee ATs and options for offensive powers to match up with it, what's the best set-up to take advantage of what Dark Armor has to offer for PVE?

good luck D.B.B.

I think either a Tanker, because it does offer a lot of survivability tricks, or maybe a Scrapper. But I would probably go Tanker.

The auras can interfere with Fury generation on a Brute, though they don't always. And the Stalker set just seems odd to me, since Stalkers are better served by Defense sets.

Actually, my preference is a Energy Melee/dark brute. Post 38, every attack you do can stun bosses. Your auras mez so many things that you can pop up the difficulty and go to town, full fury. The auras mez the rabble, your personal attentions keep the big stuff woozy. Plus, two of your biggest mezzing punches kill well as well. The mitigation from EM/ help with some of the /DA squishiness. Also, the things that damage /DA most are energy attack based..many of these are robots. Which are vulnerable to smashing/energy.

I think an DA/Ice tanker would be an interesting combination. with all the hard and soft mez's, you will be able to toy with spawns. Ice is also a better damage set than people give it credit for.

My favorite has still gotta be the dust ball of death, Spines/DA. IOes can easily offset the high end cost on this build.

I think I might roll a Elec/DA brute sometime in the near future. Elec's big aoe's and the chance to gain more end back sounds like it might play nice with DA.

I personally enjoy my DM/DA Brute, because even though he's difficult to play he's lots of fun. 2 heals (one a PBAoE), 1 PBAoE end booster (slot heavily for recharge, you're gonna need it as often as possible, and also the animation/sound is just cool), and a PBAoE enemy-based damage/tohit buff.

Don't buy into the hype about the mez toggles interfering with Fury; I haven't tried running both because I don't have both yet (and I'm on the fence about OG anyway - see below), but there's no noticeable difference with Oppressive Gloom alone. Which isn't to say it doesn't have its own issues -- wandering enemies is a little annoying and occasionally causes problems for Soul Drain, Dark Regen and Dark Consumption, and the Razzle Dazzle Immob proc doesn't seem to help much (although it's tough to tell when it procs since it has no visual effect). And to echo what Aett said, the mez toggles probably would suit a Tanker better.

Dark armour on brutes has a mag 3 fear, rather than a mag 2; it's something that needs fixing, but has gone unfixed now for... a mere five years or so. So there's that.

Dark armour tanks probably don't want the auras per se, because they can make holding aggro onto you tricky if you move - stunned foes wander, feared foes stand still.

Scrappers on the other hand probably want to shore it up defensively.

'Best?' I dunno. But there are some tidbits.

Edit: Also? If the mez auras interfere with fury, it's not any moreso than Fault would interfere with fury, and I doubt you'll find someone telling you to not run Fault.

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I have a level 50 DA/Fire tanker i have played to bits, love that combo but dont offer much utility beyond DA.

If i where to reccomend anything else it would hands down be DA/Stone melee tanker - Oppressive gloom + fault is an awesome combo that is up often. And both fault and tremor will help you buy time if your heal aint recharged.

The big drawback, pairing two of the most end-costly sets with each other can be a painful experience. Expect to slot loads of Endredux and chase +recovery bonuses...


For scrappers spines is a classic, but fire should work nicely aswell.

I run a DM/DA brute. DA is almost pure resistance and lacklustre at that. However it does have some nice tricks up its sleeve to aid survivability; Dark Regen, Cloak of Fear and if things really go sour a self rez in Soul Transfer.

That being said, because of it's relatively low resistances, its better paired with a high dps set like EM or DM, that way you kill things before they kill you. DM has Dark Consumption which really helps with End recovery, Touch of Fear, which stacks with Cloak of Fear allowing you to have bosses shaking like a jello pudding, and Soul Drain which provides a nice Dam/Acc buff.

On the other hand, EM has a few AoE's which when coupled with CoF make killing groups a lot quicker and easier.

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Surprised Werner hasn't chimed in yet.

I'll say what he's gonna say

Sword/DA scrapper. Either Katana or Broadsword.

Mine is sitting at 41% to ranged and AoE (ws softcapped before the BotZ change) and hits 59% or so to melee with double stacked Parry. Add that to the resists and massive heal and you have a very difficult to kill scrapper.

My Dark/Dark Brute flies through the mobs. I read how dark impacts on fury, but I don't see it. I consistently max out the bar and keep it up. The biggest problem for me is endurance, which I'm working on now. I don't even have the #3 attack - horrible activation time. I run the fear aura and jump into big mobs and just start swinging. I have a D/D tank, too, but it was very hard to get to lvl 25 - it ate endurance like there was no tomorrow. Brutes, get all the good powers much quicker then Tanks or Scrappers. Just make sure you get a anti-knockback proc.

Sword is definitely one of the better sets to pair it with to cover the gaping defense hole. The other option is sets with an AOE disorient to stack with OG; so Stone or EM or Mace to play it like a controller.

I've got a Stone/DA brute and for how painful it is to level, if there was any justice in the universe, it should be able to solo Posi at 50. Unfortunately it only seems to gets marginally less painful the higher level I get and the more IOs I stick in him. I'll probably be lucky to jump into a group of 52 arachnos and survive long enough to get my dark regen off. Ultimately DA has too many holes for just one offensive powerset to attempt to cover.

I think dark armors biggest weakness is endurance consumption. Getting that under control will greatly eleviate alot of DA's percieved weaknesses. Heroside, physical perfection is in both tank and scrap epics. Id stay away from brutes because of this.

Id suggest a da/stone tank for aoe stun capabilities
Or a dm/da anything to help with endurance issues

If unlimited budget builds are allowed id say a sword/da scrap.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

I dusted off my level 36 Dark/Dark Brute. Respec'ed and experimenting with builds. Touch of Fear and Cloak of Fear stacking seems like it could be nifty.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OminousVoice I run a DM/DA brute. DA is almost pure resistance and lacklustre at that. However it does have some nice tricks up its sleeve to aid survivability; Dark Regen, Cloak of Fear and if things really go sour a self rez in Soul Transfer. That being said, because of it's relatively low resistances, its better paired with a high dps set like EM or DM, that way you kill things before they kill you. DM has Dark Consumption which really helps with End recovery, Touch of Fear, which stacks with Cloak of Fear allowing you to have bosses shaking like a jello pudding, and Soul Drain which provides a nice Dam/Acc buff. On the other hand, EM has a few AoE's which when coupled with CoF make killing groups a lot quicker and easier.

By EM you mean Electric Melee? Even if it's not one of the top combos I do like the look of EleM/DA.

good luck D.B.B.

Maybe im naive but theft of essence +end proc, knock protection IO's, kinetic combat IO's (if your not using smashing haymakers to build the survivability of kat/da up) are all VERY expensive IO's.

Ive never looked at yours or Werners sword/da builds in great detail but I think I have an overall grasp of how you all are building them.

My own ma/da IO build is quite expensive (maybe 500 mil) and that was done a looong time ago and prices have only risen in comparision since then.

Maybe I should check out that build on the cheap your suggesting for my own kat/da im working up (lvl 41 now, soo close to PP and hopefully managable end consumption).

Got a link Claws?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

Throw in another vote for DA/Stone tanker. I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but another great thing about DA on tankers is, due to the way Dark Regen works, the bigger HP pool makes an enormous difference.