Sell me on your secondary Dark/???

This is a short and sweet request, I'm reading the various guides in the sticky but I'm still up in the air about I want my Corrupter to become.

Little background I'm several year vet who's been playing since day one but subscribing in 3-month chunks every year or so. I've gotten to 50 on four characters and am working on 5 and 6 (Which I left at 47 and 40 back during Issue 15) and among my other Alt's I realize I have no Corruptors in any of my twenty slots on Virtue.

Dropping a failed Brute build I have a slot free and know I want to have a Dark something Corrupter. My poor Issue 1 Dark/Empathy Defender brings back found memories of street sweeping and playing heal bot for teams but since then I've sworn of Defenders because of how sad it made me to have to solo with him. But I like Defenders so lets give Corruptors a try.

What I am looking for in essence is a Corruptor secondary that will support soloing but teams will be happy to have around. Storm is right out because I have it on two other characters and don't want a third with Storm.

Right now I'm deciding between Dark, Cold and Radiation with the fourth spot being given to anyone who wants to sell me on traps or Thermal. I've very leery of having to shield everyone even if the shields last four minutes and it's not a bad as trying to keep up Clear mind on everyone and how little those shields benefit me. But make a good enough argument and maybe you can sell me.

So there's my challenge to you, sell me on how great your secondary is

D3!!! Dark miasma is the #1 soloing/team friendly secondary to me. Traps has a lot of great points as well but I like dark better as a playstyle preference.

Dark gives you some of everything..heal/buff/debuff/crowd control/FLUFFY/stealth.

Dark mastery doesnt give you a 2nd hold BUT it has a much better soul drain plus a self rez. You can turn a team wipe into a massive resurrection party and make a grand comeback.

A ???/Dark corr can tank the ITF without melee on the team.

A Fire/Dark corr can run at -1 x 6 as soon as you have tarpit and rain of fire - level 6/8 ish.

An Ice/Dark corr can tank most things in the game with all of its slows and debuffs and Blizzard/Tarpit is cheating.

Rain of Arrows and Tarpit?

Sonic + Tarpit?

Radiation + Tarpit? So minus defense and Resistance?

Do you like healing, debuffing, slowing, -to hit, -resistance, fear, pets and the damage buffed by 30%?

Stop by your friendly neighborhood Corruptor shop and take one for a test ride.

Yes to repeat, I am committed to Dark/
I don't want Archery, don't want Rad, Fire

I want a Dark/ character but right now I'm not sure what to pair it with
Right now I have one vote for /Dark and no other votes

Dark/Storm. How is this even a question? Dark Pit plus Thunderclap means you get an Mag 4 AOE stun on a 60 second cooldown, one of the best synergies in the game. The self-heal from your primary makes up for one of Storm's biggest weaknesses, no self-heal. Throw on a Spiritual Alpha slot and you're buffing your recharge, heals and stuns, which, incidentally, are your mainstay soft control. Anything that resists stuns inordinately will be quickly at the accuracy floor, courtesy of hurricane and the debuffs from Dark, in the rare instance they'll be standing anyway.

Freezing Rain blows Tar Patch away: More effective vs. flyers, built in damage, and faster base recharge. And don't get me started on the pure, liquid awesome that is Lightning Storm.

I also mentioned and I'll repeat no Storm, I have a Storm Controller and a Storm MM. I'm all stormed out.

My only two requirements is that I'm happy with Dark as my primary, not sure on my secondary, and by the way no Storm. So Dark? And right now the only recommendation is Dark/Dark.

If you've never played Dark/TA, it's an interesing one.

- Siphon Life makes up for the lack of a "Heal Arrow"

- Oil Slick Arrow gives you AoE that Dark/ is lacking in

- With Flash Arrow and Dark's -tohit, you can be very survivable and easily cap defense

The only thing is that TA is much better as a defender with higher base -res that helps make up for the damage gap. Additionally, you get OSA a lot sooner and don't sacrifice any damage in it for being a defender - it's actually higher when you consider that you get more -res from Disruption Arrow and Acid Arrow (-20% each vs. -15% each for a corrupter).

Fire off a Flash Arrow before each fight then start with a TT followed by OSA and you've got immobilized, burning mobs that are on fire, falling down, can't hit you (provided you build up enough Ranged and AoE defense) and have their defense knocked way down. Again, easier on a defender, but still very good on a corrupter.

I tend to look for synergy when considering pairings and other than stacking -tohit Dark Miasma doesn't do much for Dark Blast. Dark Blast is the only blast set with a heal, so I tend to want to pair it with secondaries that lack one. It also lacks Aim, so I like to pair it with a secondary with a defense debuff. These aren't inviolable rules for me or anything, but things I take into consideration.

Dark/Traps has some good synergy. The -tohit works well with the +defense from the FFG. The immobilize from TT helps prevent a lot of the scatter you get from the "avoid" effect in Acid Mortar. There's also the heal it gets you, which really helps to make for an overall very survivable package.

Dark/Cold - The -tohit along with the +defense shields means your teammates will be very safe. You, on the other hand...well at least you have a small heal.

Dark/Rad - The self heal will be redundant but you do get a defense debuff and can stack -tohit.

My favorite Dark Blast Corruptor is my Dark/Sonic, but that wasn't on your list of options.

Dark Miasma is good with virtually anything, and Dark Pit + Howling Twilight works for you as a solo aoe stun, with HT being also good on a team for team rez. Tar Patch + Tentacles + Nightfall = decent aoe damage for mowing through solo mobs. Pick up the self rez in one of the epics and you've got a TPK Recovery kit (self rez, then team rez).

Radiation Emission is likewise good, with -def and -tohit to go with making things easier to hit with your Dark Blast and its -tohit. Plus... you know. It's Radiation Emission.

Neither has to deal with any single target team buffs, which is a plus in my opinion.

Traps

If you don't know why then you shouldn't be playing.. Okay just kidding..

But Traps really. Honestly ANY AT with Traps is godlike and game breaking.

You gain full positional soft defense cap with Traps and some minor assistance from slotting your primaries.

You can solo 0/8 missions easily. Once Alpha slotted I am sure you will be able to handle the highest setting with no problems.

Triage Beacon gives you very good regen. Upwards to 500% which is where Regen scrappers and brute are at.

Every power in Traps is usable. Not many sets can boast that.

Trust me when I say this Traps is that good.

Dark Blast is good. Trading in Damage for the ability to mitigate some damage is always good.

I personally enjoyed pairing it with Thermal, and Trick Arrow.

Trick arrow is a bag of tricks that never seems to run out of options. There is always something available. Dark, to my knowlege though will not ignite Oil Slick arrow, so take apprentice charm or an energy based Origen. But on the overall, Dark/TA can be beast. A little slow to start, but beast in the end.

Thermal. I liked this because I could heal, I could sustain myself soloing, and sometimes the to hit aspect of Kinetics or Dark Miasma's heal is just not reliable enough for me. Plus thermal has some very solid debuffs. I am not a fan of Anchors so Thermal (Although a little more micromanagy because you can shield people) is good for me. Again...a little slow to start but then solid.

What I want to know is if you are making a themed character. If you are then thematicaly certain sets would already be excluded. A demon for instance would benefit from the thermal set for theme and junk.

I'm biased with Dark powers in general, with 8 toons based around it so far, so i'll be voting for /Dark.

I'd also suggest if you were to ever make a /Kin, Dark Blast is a nice choice to pair with it, for mitigation reasons.

Dark/Cold is a great set, but its solo power blooms very late. If you mostly team up to level 36, this is a solid choice. Great buffs, fabulous debuffs. Drawback, it might feel a bit too similar to Storm (or that may be a plus since you like Storm, but want something a bit different).

Dark/Traps is where I would go. Great solo. Great on a team. Great vs. large spawns. Great vs. single hard targets. Tentacles plus Traps is super groovy (I play a defender Traps duo with my wife, I am Traps/Archery but she is Traps/Dark).

Sorry, I guess I didn't read the OP thoroughly enough. Ah well. I'll offer up Radiation as a solid pick. Tentacles the Mace Mastery patron immobilize will keep your toggle anchor and all his buddies in place while you rain hot chocolate goodness on them.

I am a bit partial to dark\kin. I love my lvl 50 corruptor with this combo. Pretty easy to soft cap, toss out TT, then dark pit, run in fulcrum shift, jump back and start blazing away with TT and night fall with the damage buff from fulcrum.

So:
-massive targeted heal (gotta be wiling to get close to use it)
-self speed buff by 10
-speed boost to get yourself on teams (it's really not that bad if you bind it)
-TT + dark pit + Fulcrum + TT + Nightfall (repeat) is just an awesome and safe combo

One benefit of /traps is that the traps themselves can draw aggro so there have been times when I was near death and then the mob started to attack the traps instead.

Dark/dark is just a solid combo. You are literally a tanktrollercorr.

Dark/cold. More on the support side, but T.T. + Sleet is a nice combo. Dark adds -tohit to a set that already debuffs the hell out of mobs. Cold is underplayed for how good it is.

Dark/traps and even /ta really. T.T. again mixes well with keeping mobs in the needed debuff area. /traps will be more defensive, /ta will be more offensive with Oil Slick. I'll point out the biggest TA fanboy that I know of ended up playing a TA/dark defender and absolutely loved it so much they basically didn't play anything else. I don't see why Dark/ta couldn't work out rather well.

So votes for /Kin, more for /Dark and more for /Traps

I'll be rolling up my character tomorrow, so I'll decide in the morning.

I'll try to sell traps a bit by describing the typical fight. Let's say you're soloing at +1x8, you might not need all these tools for easier fights.

You've got your forcefield generator summoned of course.

Summon seeker drones to the edge of the group. They'll draw aggro and completely absorb the alpha strike, while debuffing the enemies.

Meanwhile you run into the middle of the crowd and plant a poison gas trap. Now the crowd has their regen debuffed and are stuck in the puking animation.

BTW, running into the middle of the crowd was perfectly safe because of the distracting seeker drones and your high defences. On teams you'll be right on the heels of the brute/tank into the middle of the crowd.

Plant acid mortar. This pet spams AOEs that debuff defence and resists.

At this point you'll probably throw caltrops and hop out of the group and TT them to keep everyone rooted in the damage patches. Now blast dark attacks on your debuffed, immobilized victims.

Caltrops, acid mortar and poison gas traps all take a few procs for extra damage and control.

Anyway it's a fun set and a safe one, and I don't want you to think it's all about setting up traps and then pulling things into them.

I have a Traps/Dark blast defender. It's the opposite 'good' twin to a proposed corruptor. The -tohit in dark blast really is a fit for traps because traps is lower in tohit debuff than the other debuffs. Traps is a killer set really, extra good on larger spawns. It has superior debuff to regen, resistance, and defense. It has other powers that stun, hold, reduce damage potential, and perception. The pseudopets of seeker drones can and will take the nastiest first attacks from foes reducing your chance of dying on the first assault. Increase in your recharge rate is critical to a traps build!

I think we need to know what you want to do with this toon, teaming, pvp, dueling, soloing? The inherent scourge really helps dark blast so I think even with the recent changes to defender solo damage corruptors still come out as the way to go with this blast set.

I say /cold because sleet is that good, the shields are always appreciated on teams and I hate healing. Also this is a pretty decent dueling build. This combo will take some serious player skill to play and make shine but has a real high ceiling with IO's and late game.

Not a fan of /traps it is insanely good but a bit slow for my tastes. If you want to do solo GM/AV this is the way to go.

I tried dark/kin but I just dont enjoy how clicky /kin is.

/Dark or /rad would work too both are great but I just dont enjoy them that much and I don't know why.

The real answer is /storm the synergy is so good you should honestly consider adding a third storm toon. My biggest beef with dark blast is the single target damage feels really lacking so anything that increases damage does wonders but the lure of lighting storm, tornado is just one of the countless synergies storm brings to dark blast.