Thugs/?

So I'm making a trio of thugs characters with friends of mine. They have both decided on Thugs/Dark. I'm stuck between Thugs/Dark and Thugs/Pain. I think Pain would be good to cover the bases that Dark doesn't hit (Recov, Regen, Consistent spot healing, and resistances) but at the same time I love Dark Miasma with a passion and think that you can't possibly have too much of it. Fear stacking, def buff stacking, Darkest Night and Tar Patch stacking.

Both sets look really good on paper. So I'd like the hoi polloi's opinion. What do y'all think?

Pain is a very buff heavy and pet-oriented set. With the Pet Uniques you will not die often, especially when you reach the end game.


Dark is a huge debuff machine. Enemy's ToHit? Gone. AV's damage? Pfft, doesn't exist. This set is very solid but a little lack luster on already debuff-heavy teams. The same goes for Pain.

It's all preference really.

Pain = Buffs

Dark = Debuffs



Pain can't solo as many AVs in the long run. Thugs/Dark for your AV (and GM) needs.

If you want a heal that is gonna hit without a to-hit check, I might go thermal. It's got a big pbaoe heal that will hit everybody if they are teaming up on targets. The shields would be of use, too, even if used on only your pets and the other masterminds, buffing 20 allies would get old.

If you want a l33t assassin to complement your heal/debuff/dark servant wielding dark miasma teammate, I would suggest poison. A bruiser running around with the noxious gas debuff is a HUGE perk. Signature AVs can be held with Noxious Gas.

I have a Demon summoning/Poison mastermind level-pacted with a Demon summoning/Dark Miasma. There is a distinct synergy. Neither of us can handle groups individually the way we do when in tandem.

Poison in this trio would be the spear tip, the killer debuffer of the hardest targets. Weaken has -special, and envenom adds to the -regen of the dark users. I used my robots/poison to debuff the nictus so it didn't heal as much and Rommie so he resisted being healed. It was actually quite funny.

If you want to solo your missions and fight AVs, Destroy GMs without having to always find help, then go Thugs/Dark. I have one and I have yet to need any help doing anything.

Go Traps

Or if your into it go dark and try a thematic look that you all can agree on.

All those stacking leadership bonuses from the Tier 2 pets will be insane, sounds like a fun team.

I'd say anything but FF will be fine, i.e. you won't need extra defence.

3 Dark Miasma is a little redundant from a pure powergaming analysis... but would be lots of fun. I wonder if 3 Dark Servants could tank the Freedom Phalanx?

Highly doubt 3 Dark Servants would even last the alpha. Remember that AVs have resistance to debuffs, such as ToHit debuffs.