Level Fifty! Now, how do I stop sucking?

A lot of emphasis has been made on build, but I haven't seen any mention of tactics. I have a D4 (meaning Defender) that I don't solo with much but I have done so. Soloing is not all that fast, but quite safe. A Corr should have similar safety but faster kill speed.

Dark Miasma offers some interesting options for solo play, such as corner pulling with Darkest Night. I'll stick with more basic play for now...

1) With Shadow Fall on, target the mob furthest from you in a spawn. Position yourself in a way that all the mobs in the spawn fit within a 45 degree angle from you. Use Fearsome Stare. This will not only put the foes in a fear state, but also debuff their to-hit by 15% (enhanceable and adjusted by level and rank).

2) While foes are cowering in the fear state, you have practical immunity to drop some addition non-damaging debuffs. Put Darkest Night on the foe most likely to survive the longest. Now to-hit is debuffed another 15% (again, adjusted by enhancements, level and rank) and damage is debuffed by 30% (or quite a bit more depending on Fluffy using his Darkest Night). By this time Dark Servant should be fully engaged adding even more debuffs.

3) Drop your Tar Patch. Now they're barely able to move and their resistance is lowered by 30%. You're ready to commence the killing.

To summarize where you are at this point, if you've enhanced -tohit in FS and DS, even level cons will have -tohit debuffed to a point where you're effectively soft-capped. If they do manage to hit you, it's for 30% (at least) less damage, which is further diluted by your epic armor and Shadow Fall (depending on damage type). If you've been hit, Twilight Grasp can easily restore your HP.

4) Kill em. Spam Tenebrous Tentacles and Nightfall and throw in a Dark Blast and/or Gloom while aoes recharge. These attacks continue to lower to-hit.

The only monkey wrench I can really think of is a fear resistant mob that can mez you (dropping DN). That's what Petrifying Gaze (and/or epic hold) is for. Or the previously mentioned stuns.

* Please note the above is not a recipe for the "best" way to play a Dark/Dark Corr. It's a recipe that will work for 99% of pve solo encounters that I believe will work for someone otherwise struggling, without requiring some high global recharge for, say, relying on Howling Twilight. No offense to OP if the above sounded patronizing, but I can't make assumptions about your familiarity with the powers at this point.

Deacons advice is spot-on. You don't need soft-capped defenses on a Dark Miasma user, they can typically lower everything to the min ToHit floor anyway.

I'd also add "Avoid Nemesis" although red side you shouldn't come across them much at all. Nemmies aren't nice to Dark Miasma thanks to the fear resistance and the ToHit bonuses they get from Vengie.

The reason why i asked for a build and not tactics is simply as messed up build is easier to correct then tactics. Tactics are far more subjective then build advice.

I hadn't played in absolutely forever, so the tactical advice is appreciated. My problem was that I was opening with tar patch and tenebrenous Tentacles to keep the group clustered before opening up with a Fearsome Stare, which was why I was taking so much damage.

Thirding Deacon's advice. Dark miasma comes with great control/debuffing tools, and using them correctly will get you through content before you even care about building in a specific way.

Yeah, gonna go for Deacon's call here. I don't have a /dark corr, but lots of what keeps a Corr alive is knowing the playstyle related to your powersets (and no, thats not a LTP diss). I agree that with dark/dark, -ToHit is your friend, which will in many cases mitigate the need for a high-Inf "softcap def" build. With a little defense (which Scorpion Shield will assist with), along with CJ & Manuevers, you're gonna be doing a bit better. Not invincible or invulnerable, but you should see some more survivability.

Also, if you're going for the Alpha slot, there's a lot you could do. The Musculature Tree boosts Damage straight out of the box if you're hurting for that. The second rank hits the Immobilization part, and by the time you get to the 3rd Tier you're looking at +dmg, +immob, boost toHit debuffs. If you manage to get to the T4, you've got +Slow too.

Not sure what you're end usage is like, so Cardiac would also boost your end discount, along with range and eventually Fear Duration.

Ultimately, you want Musculature Radial Paragon. More end from Stamina, more to hit debuff from, well, everything, and more DAMAGE.

Honestly, my d/d/d corr (respecced from d/d/sm) went easily from 1-50, but out of personal curiosity I took a "different" route with him - I slotted nearly everything on him except Twilight Grasp with -to hit. I was soloing +3 Ballista EBs. If they were lucky, they managed to hit me 1-2 times in the fight, while I just ground them down. My fights with GW and LR were much the same, if a bit longer.

Would you slot for +Defense or -Recharge first, if you where looking at an IO sets build?

I went for a mix personally. With my debuffs, I felt I did not need to cap defenses. Since I planned on using Spiritual, I did not need tons of recharge.

I ended up with 29% ranged defense and 15 to 26% in all the other areas. I have 40% global recharge plus Hasten (downtime with Alpha is 25 seconds), so I normally am at 110% +recharge.

If I were to use Musculature (a great choice for a Dark/Dark) I'd likely concentrate on recharge first and then try to get some defenses (ranged at least) up to 20ish percent.

Oooooh. Today was an enlightening experience: changing my tactics up removed my problems soloing (Except for some end issues), but all my missions currently have Downgraded AVs in them. So the fact that they innately resist 85% of my tohit debuffs means they're hitting hard and kicking the crap out of my corruptor, which is why I was thinking he was having issues. I was too used to my mastermind and Scrapper...

I have some advice for your dark/dark powers...

You will notice on every attack and on some others that they have the ability to slot debuff sets.

You want to slot every power and attack you can with the i believe its called weakness enhancement. Get the lowest level version so you can use it when you are exemplared to low levels...plus it will be cheaper to make.

Switch from suck to blow!



Seriously though, it depends on your build and what you want to do with it.

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Someone says - I suck at using my Corruptor and people give him builds?

He wants to know how to effectively help his team and solo some if he has too - just like all of us.

First understand what you are - a debuffing machine! Dark/Dark is not one for rolling huge Orange numbers - saying that they are very safe to solo and you should be able to roll +1 x 8 without too much trouble.

Here is what you have as tools:

Primary
Dark Blast Ranged, Moderate DMG(Negative), Foe -To-Hit
Gloom Ranged, High DoT(Negative), Foe -To-Hit
Moonbeam Sniper, Extreme DMG(Negative), Foe -To-Hit
Tenebrous Tentacles Ranged (Cone), Minor DoT(Negative), Foe Immobilize, -To-Hit
Night Fall Ranged (Cone), Moderate DoT(Negative), Foe -To-Hit
Torrent Ranged (Cone), Minor DMG(Negative), Foe -To-Hit, Knockback
Life Drain Ranged, Minor DMG(Negative), Foe -To-Hit, Self Heal
Blackstar PBAoE, Extreme DMG(Negative), Foe -To-Hit, Self -Recovery

Secondary
Twilight Grasp Ranged, Foe -Regen, -DMG, -To-Hit, Team Heal
Tar Patch Ranged (Location AoE), Foe -SPD, -Jump, -Fly, -Res(All)
Darkest Night Toggle: Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe -DMG, -To-Hit
Howling Twilight Ranged (Targeted AoE), Minor DMG(Negative), Foe Disorient, -Regen, -Recharge, -SPD, Ally Rez
Shadow Fall Toggle: PBAoE, Team Stealth, +DEF(All), +Res(Energy, Negative, Psionics, Fear)
Fearsome Stare Ranged (Cone), Foe Fear, -To-Hit
Petrifying Gaze Ranged, Foe Hold
Dark Servant Summon Dark Servant: Ranged, Debuff, Special


How?
Look at your tools and in a team you make sure people don't get hit. Drop tar patch and hit them with Fearsome stare. Next Howling twilight to stun them and then Tentacles to freeze them. I would then run FORWARD to the next group and use Darkest Night to pull the next group onto your existing tar patch. Your fear should be up again and now just cycle your cones and heal as needed. I only summon my Pet if I am solo.

Personally I don't get Super Jump I get combat jumping and Super Speed so I am invisible to most while applying darkest night.

Solo you use darkest night to pull them onto Tar Patch and then tear them up with cones and any AoE's you have. You also repeatedly fear them and liberally use Howling Twilight.

If you play like this you will not suck and your build means nothing you can rock with SO's.

Silly note I know, but since we're adding Alpha and such powers here, I thought I'd mention Sands of Mu.

It's a fantastic pick for the vet reward, fits thematically with your character, and provides a nice damage spike against tough target, say bosses. Once you've mezzed the whole spawn, use it to waste its leader - even with the excrutiatingly long animation my D2 corruptor uses it all the time. Definitely brings up those orange numbers we all love so much, even if you can't slot it. Tar patch makes sure of that, and it's just beautiful to Scourge with my fists.

I had a Dark/Dark but right now I am using Sonic/Dark.

I went with the Sonic/Dark/Psychic for the extra hold and the Mass Hypnosis since it isnt aggro and doesn't break my hidden status. At the end of Mass hypnosis I drop the fear while I stun them, tar patch them and lay other goodies. I usually hold my boss with Fearsome Glare and Dominate and keep them in one place. Mass Hypnosis also uses a cheap purple set.


The only hiccup is that I have been told that Tar Patch can be solo-stacked?