Dark Armor Question

I have a DM/DA Tanks in the 40s and I'm considering a respec soon. I don't currently have Cloak of Fear because of the added End cost. As I was tuning the build on Mids it occurred to me that if I DO take CoF and it hits, then the Fear will be broken as soon as the Death Shroud ticks over.

Are CoF and DS working against each other in this sense? Is it worth it to have both or should I dual-build and have one on each?

Thanks in advance for the help.

The fear doesnt end, it just they get to attack 1 for every time they get damaged or something like that. Its more like 1 attack every few seconds. Also keep in mind the power works on minions only. That in itself is reason to not even bother with it. Honestly I just wish they would finally realistically address the end costs of this powerset. I have tried multiple builds and the set just isnt fun to play for me. Its like playing like you have to have an asthma inhaler with you at all times. Not fun at all. Maybe with a tier 4 incarnate it might be a little more bearable but I doubt it.

Death Shroud doesn't cancel out Cloak of Fear as much as you'd think. I can't give you any specific details about how it works on a tank, but I respec'd into oppressive gloom long ago and never looked back.

The fear duration on CoF is kind of weak against anything higher than a minion so the saving grace is the -tohit component it also has. So my question is are you planning to go incarnate with your tank? If the answer is yes, skip CoF. Instead, take up Diamagnetic 100% chance for -tohit when you go incarnate. Death Shroud would serve dual purpose then, not to mention a bit of relief for your endurance bar. Lastly, if you have a lot of other AoE attacks, you can stack enough -tohit on entire mobs to make fear just about a moot point when it comes to mitigation.

Cloak of Fear also does a small to-hit debuff, which isn't shabby to have working around you along with the fear effects. I would certainly agree that DA is end heavy, but you can build toward that well, and Cardiac is helpful for a resist set, anyway (when you get to your Alpha slot).

*added*

Hmmm, didn't see the last couple of posts, so I guess I'm chiming in more than giving new info. Oh well.

As mentioned by others, you can use CoF and Death Shroud together and it works...okay. Think of CoF as an attack-speed slow and a minor to-hit debuff and it's less disappointing, but really it's just too pricey for not enough payoff. The magnitude 2 means that unless you stack it with Touch of Fear from your primary it won't be doing much to anything other than minions, and the end cost is very high. I'd skip it.

With just SO slotting Dark Armor can be an end-hog. But if you're willing to invest more heavily in it via Inventions and a Cardiac Alpha it can become a very high-performing set.

It's a 6-slot or skip power IMO. It has abysmal base accuracy, so you have to slot it to the ED cap for accuracy, or as close as you can get it. If you don't it could end up messing with the streakbreaker, which may or may not be an issue for you. Then again you have a damage aura too so it may not matter.

It also has a high endurance cost and two main enhanceable aspects, though you could easily choose to ignore one and focus on the other. If you really want to get by on as few slots as possible HOs are the way to go IMO.

I saw a video someone made showing the difference between a mob's regular attack rate versus when under the fear effect. I doubt I could find it now, but the difference was very noticeable. Yes mobs can attack back when you break the fear, but only once every so often so it will slow down the rate of incoming fire, albeit from minions only.

As for the tohit debuff, I'm becoming less and less of a fan of those as time goes on, aside from ATs that have access to really huge numbers on those debuffs. The current dev trend seems to be having us face a lot of +3s and +4s, which reduces the effectiveness of the small debuff in CoF to insignificance.

I find that the fear has several aspects that I like a lot. As mentioned it has a -tohit. This is team friendly, even if you don't need it, it will protect your allies.

Most important, and why I take it over the stun every time and twice on sunday, is that IT STOPS ENEMIES FROM RUNNING AWAY. The cower kicks in and they stand still. That stun causes them to stagger away. I'd rather have the enemy standing still.

At least until the devs finally cave in and change the AI so it isn't a complete coward. Seriously. Especially those warwolves.