In a word, no, you do not want to put off the resistance toggles; DE gives S/L resistance and Ob Shield is your mez protection, both of which you need ASAP. Murky Cloud could be delayed for a little while, but I wouldn't recommend past 20. Dark Regen should also be taken relatively early, IMO.
Death Shroud is another question; I delayed it on my Dark/Mace because of the high end cost, but that was before inherent Stamina. However, IMO it can be delayed until the teens or early twenties. Just be aware that then you won't have an aggro aura, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem if you're mostly soloing.
Cloak of Darkness and Cloak of Fear can be delayed for a while, especially CoF, which many Dark tanks don't take at all. Keep in mind, though, that CoD is your immob protection, so unless you're planning to take CJ you don't want to wait to long to get it.
Travel powers are largely up to you, though a lot of Dark tanks take CJ for the immob protection and its defense. At one point Acro was also needed for KB protection; that's no loner the only option, but definitely plan to get KB IOs or Acro at some point.
Here's a Mid's build just to give you a power order suggestion for the first few levels. Again, you could swap Death Shroud and Murky Cloud, but I'd be hesitant to do that since IIRC Praetoria has a *lot* of energy damage. Eventually you will probably want to take the Fighting Pool both for the additional S/L resistance in Tough and the defense in Weave. Increasing defense by using pool powers and set bonuses is undoubtedly the best way to make your tank more survivable.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 48 Technology Tanker
Primary Power Set: Dark Armor
Secondary Power Set: Ice Melee
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Frozen Fists -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Ice Sword -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Murky Cloud -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Hover -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Obsidian Shield -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Frost -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Dark Regeneration -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Fly -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Taunt -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Death Shroud -- Empty(A)
Level 20: Ice Patch -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Cloak of Darkness -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Build Up -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Oppressive Gloom -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Hasten -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Freezing Touch -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 35: Tough -- Empty(A)
Level 38: Frozen Aura -- Empty(A)
Level 41: Weave -- Empty(A)
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A)
------------
Set Bonus Totals:
My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
Ah, see, I was looking at Death Shroud as an attack; with inherent fitness the endurance cost shouldn't be an issue, and I keep reading people say that damage auras are actually really good attacks... I just have no idea how it compares to things like Frost or Ice Sword. Anyone happen to know how fast it ticks? I should be able to run the numbers from there, but I don't know where to look that detail up.
Edit: And thank you for the advice. (Note to self: thanks does not go without saying, and should've been included in this post to start with. Oops.)
According to City of Data, it ticks every 2 seconds. Death Shroud is definitely a great power, especially because it does pure NE damage, which is not highly resisted. The only question is what you'd be willing to delay to get it early.
I forgot to ask in my previous message...do you have access to any veteran attacks? Sands of Mu in particular can be extremely helpful in the early levels when you don't have a complete attack chain. If you had that it would be less painful to delay one of the Ice attacks in order to Death Shroud.
My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
Sadly, I have no veteran rewards worth mentioning.
Lessee. Run some numbers at level 6, and assuming that TOs are essentially ignorable, and further assuming that the game's listed average damage is accurate...
Ice Sword does 17.33 damage, with a cycle time of 7.584 seconds, for 2.29 sustained DPS.
(And it does its damage up front in a burst, which is a definite plus, but requires more math than I feel like dealing with to properly account for.)
Death Shroud does 2.63 damage every two seconds, for 1.315 sustained DPS against a single target.
If I assume that I'm generally fighting two targets on average, that puts Death Shroud slightly ahead... but Ice Sword isn't far behind, and its single target focus and burst damage means it's better at killing one thing so that thing isn't hitting me.
Frost, on the other hand, deals 21.26 damage with a cycle time of 13.508 seconds, for 1.57 sustained DPS. Which, as it's also AoE, makes it flat out better than Death Shroud.
Conclusion: Skip Death Shroud until I've got room for it; it's good (arguably better than ice sword), but I don't think its small DPS advantage will actually pan out in the wild.
Now, if I had no worries about survival, and could assume that I was fighting groups of three+ and trying to bring them all down at once to maximize my AoE damage, then Death Shroud would win hands down over Ice Sword. But I don't think that's a reasonable assumption for a low level tanker.
1 - Death Embrace
1 - Frozen Fists
2 - Ice Sword
4 - Murky Cloud
6 - Frost
8 - Dark Regeneration
10 - Obsidian Shield
12 - Hover
14 - Cloak of Darkness
16 - Flight
18 - Combat Jumping
20 - Ice Patch
*shrug*
With the thoughts you posted above. Packs a bit of everything.
I put off hover, having another attack is very nice. Plus frost is a pretty good cone attack.
As far as travel powers, Ninja run gets you around Praetoria just fine. Adding Hover makes it even better as nothing is out of your Heigh distance now. Flight is... nice for concept but total unneeded for praetoria zones. Thiers no annoying zones to run in (unlike things like Faultline, Dark Astoria, Hollows etc)
Main: Praetor Imperium Elec/SS/Mu
So I'm looking at trying to make a Dark Armor / Ice Melee tanker, and level (mostly solo) through Praetoria. What I'm not at all sure about is what order I should take my powers in.
For example, I could skip defensive toggles entirely for my first four levels, picking up Dark Embrace, Frozen Fists, Ice Sword, and Frost... but I have no idea if the extra killing speed is worth the lack of defenses, and, if not, which attacks should get put off.
I've made a fair number of brutes and scrappers before, and they get their defensive powers slowly enough (and kill things fast enough) that this kind of question hasn't really been an issue. (By comparison, every previous tanker I've tried to make has gotten deleted by level 6. Hopefully this one will go better.)
The other question is travel powers... I do have ninja run, so I can survive putting them off a bit if I need to, but I'd really rather have hover at 6 and flight (or better yet teleport) at 14... Dunno. Willing to listen to arguments for other travel powers, too.
(And please don't post a data chunk; I don't have access to mids, and am currently most concerned with how do I level up without dying (of boredom or literally, either one). On the other hand, the final goal is to make the character as close to indestructible as I can manage, so I won't turn down advice on that, either...)