Behold the ultimate character, a casual WM/DA brute.
Highlights:
- purpled out
- can hit 5 mobs with Shatter everytime
- fights psi and endurance drains more often than knockback and defense debuffs in any given mission
- runs Acrobatics, Weave, Hover, Tough, Maneuvers, Tactics, Assault and Whirlwind on SOs while spamming Dark Regen and attacking at full speed due to superior, mathematically calculated endurance management.
Warning : do not look at the WM/DA directly. Do not play the WM/DA at night. Do not allow people with insufficient mathematical skills to play the WM/DA ; to determine who should be deemed worthy to play the WM/DA, look for loud and repeated mentions of the word "math". Experiences may vary with the WM/DA, optimal use of the WM/DA is to look at numbers in a vacuum on a spreadsheet.
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/points and laughs| Elec Armor/Willpower is where it's at. |
Edit: I don't use DA either. Too much micromanagement.
Be well, people of CoH.
Heh.
There's a simple way to know which combos are "the best", just go run the Ultra Challenge.
People aren't posting in that thread right now, but I get a steady trickle of 5-star votes (thanks to you all!) and mission feedback tells, so people are definitely using it all the time.
So far, about the fastest times I've seen at the highest settings are an invuln tank and an elec brute. Those guys must be MONSTERS.
But blasters, widows, warshades, and a dom have also completed it. So just run that and see how fast you go, it's designed to be just as hard on Dark as it is on Elec, Fire, WP, or Invuln.
/plug 
Oh, rats, that reminds me, I was gonna build another one wasn't I.... I suck at this game....
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While not KBed, you do get flipped when using Hover. IOs fill in for DA rather nicely.|
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Because Acrobatics and Hover don't exist.
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If a set as a psy whole, it's still there post IOs. If a set lacks ability to resist end drain, it's still there after IOs. A build sucks a lot of end? That's what IOs and Incarnating is for.
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Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
/points and laughs
Edit: I don't use DA either. Too much micromanagement. |
But seriously, I had an Elec Armor brute and got bored, it was so good at surviving. Then I come back from hiatus and they added a HEAL to it?
The problem though, is it is boring, due the lack of interactivity.
So right now Im working on incarnating out my /DA, because while he is squishier than the other brute, he's more fun to play. Heck, 90 percent of my current griping about the character is over the fact Ive grown to hate Energy Melee whenever I team with other people.
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If you're gonna plug an arc, dude, inculde an Arc ID!
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Heh.
There's a simple way to know which combos are "the best", just go run the Ultra Challenge. People aren't posting in that thread right now, but I get a steady trickle of 5-star votes (thanks to you all!) and mission feedback tells, so people are definitely using it all the time. So far, about the fastest times I've seen at the highest settings are an invuln tank and an elec brute. Those guys must be MONSTERS. But blasters, widows, warshades, and a dom have also completed it. So just run that and see how fast you go, it's designed to be just as hard on Dark as it is on Elec, Fire, WP, or Invuln. /plug Oh, rats, that reminds me, I was gonna build another one wasn't I.... I suck at this game.... |
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LOL!|
Originally Posted by Haetron
If you're gonna plug an arc, dude, inculde an Arc ID!
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OMG, I'm so full of fail....
It's 209245, but be careful, it's designed to kill you.
You Have Been Warned.
I highly recommend you check the 'Architect Ultra Challenge' thread in the Scrapper forum, it lays out the exact powers of every mob in advance, so there's no surprises.
Now I gotta go home and build a smaller one, too, I totally flaked and forgot about it, duhr.
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Never fear, Im /DA, Im designed to die!
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Originally Posted by mauk2
LOL!
OMG, I'm so full of fail.... It's 209245, but be careful, it's designed to kill you. |
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Agreed. I also find DA to be more fun than other brute sets. It provides more interaction to be. IOs made things better for DA.
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Originally Posted by Neogumbercules
I have a claws/DA scrapper with SJ as a travel power and he's nigh unkillable. You do not need to be a pro player to do well with Dark Armor. Out of the box it's one of the most survivable secondaries out there. It has some of the absolute best IO slotting potentional of any armor set. Really. It's pretty amazing.
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Quote:
That's hilarious.|
Originally Posted by Haetron
I've said it before, Ill say it again Dechs. If Dark Armor was half as defensive as the people who preach how great it is, no one would find any complaints with it.
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No, not the part where you obviously aren't very good at playing Dark Armor, the part where you think people on the Internet won't complain about everything. That's comedy gold right there.
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My very first character I rolled up on six years ago is a Katana/Dark Armour and until Inventions came out, I found him nigh on unplayable. I find DA on SOs to be a painful experience and one that may leave you gasping for endurance all the time. One day I'll get him fully IOed out but I've got other priorities at the moment. |
Originally Posted by FlashToo
What should I slot for if I'm using almost entirely SOs? I can't stand all this invention nonsense, it's far too confusing and time consuming and I never bother with it before level 50.
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The IOs that did help and will make a difference are things like:
Theft of Essence - Chance for +End in Dark Regeneration. That heal is a monster but even with optimal End reduction in it, it bites deep each time you fire it. If you're surrounded by a mob, this proc can pretty much make the power pay for itself if it fires. It's definitely worth it.
Any -KB IOs. I used Acrobatics for years but DA is all about Endurance management and being able to drop Acrobatics in favour of a couple of -KB IOs helped.
And +End IOs in Stamina or Health. The extra boost is noticeable.
Otherwise, make sure you slot your attack powers with Endurance Reducers. DA has a lot of toggles but it's the attacks that will kill your blue bar. And (and I know some people will scream at this) if you use Hasten, drop it. I know it's a staple of many builds but it can sometimes cause you to rush through bigger, more end-hungry attacks more often and the crash at the end can be painful if you're on a toon with Endurance issues.
Anyway, that's my two pennies worth.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
Okay, so, hear me out: Don't play Dark Armor.
I'm coming at this from a roleplaying/concept angle, and I think you're setting yourself up for frustration here when you have some better options.
Based on what you said about your concept goal, have you considered Claws/WP?
Cons of /DA for you:
- A click power that will cause you to have to redraw your claws often.
- Doesn't REQUIRE a lot of investment of invention enhancements, but at the same time, it sort of does.
Pros of /WP:
- No click powers. The set runs on passives and toggles, so your claws will stay out.
- Very end-friendly and not nearly as frustrating (not NEARLY) as /DA
- Can be customized to have dark, murky effects.
- Rise to the Challenge states in its description that the accuracy debuff to the mobs around you is because you're scary.
- Lots of built-in endurance recovery will allow you to easily dip into Leadership for both the toggles and the "scare people" power.
tl;dr: Consider going with willpower. You can get what you want conceptually and it'll be easier to play, allowing you to focus more on roleplaying and less on twitching out to stay alive and be viable.
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I'm sorry, but what's the other click power?
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Originally Posted by Doctor_Xaxan
Cons of /DA for you:
- Two click powers that will cause you to have to redraw your claws constantly. |
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
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Soul Transfer, obviously. Since /DA characters die constantly.|
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
I'm sorry, but what's the other click power?
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JUST KIDDNG.
I actually got confused with DM. Home from work today because I didn't sleep last night. Don't judge me. Edited my post, thanks for the correction.
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I used to say all the time that my Dark Armor Tank had Soul Transfer on auto, but that implied way more than it meant. It's just there so that I never stay dead long enough to lose aggro if something from the apocalypse does kill my tank.|
Originally Posted by Doctor_Xaxan
Soul Transfer, obviously. Since /DA characters die constantly.
JUST KIDDNG. |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Doctor_Xaxan
I actually got confused with DM. Home from work today because I didn't sleep last night. Don't judge me. Edited my post, thanks for the correction.
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Just think, though, if DA came with Dark Consumption, you'd never hear people complain about endurance. Well, you probably would, because some idiot would skip the power. But that's not the point.
I don't know what the point is now.
Oh yeah. DA has one click power. And Hasten if you're like my Claws/Dark brute. To be honest I hardly notice the redraw. Then again, I don't use Dark Regen all that often since I have some great defense values. Claws redraw is also very quick.
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
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This is painfully true. My DB/DA scrapper once got a tell from a teammate asking why I didn't take Dark Consumption, "the best power in dark armor." It took some doing to convince them that Dark Armor didn't actually have Dark Consumption, although wouldn't that be nice.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Understandable. Actually, you might be surprised how often this mistake gets made. I think it's because DA and DM get paired so often, people think of them as the same sets.
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If you don't see how awesome Dark Armor can be, then maybe you're just bad? Just saying.|
Originally Posted by Haetron
I've said it before, Ill say it again Dechs. If Dark Armor was half as defensive as the people who preach how great it is, no one would find any complaints with it.
Thanks for the help though. :P Edit: And Invuln isn't that great. Elec Armor/Willpower is where it's at. |
Just like how people always said SS/Fire was good for nothing but farming.
[U][URL="http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=251594"][/URL][/U]
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I see the positives to Dark Armor, but I think people overstate its positive attributes for Brutes (and scrappers to a lesser extent).|
Originally Posted by Fiery-Enforcer
If you don't see how awesome Dark Armor can be, then maybe you're just bad? Just saying.
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Maybe your experience has been different from mine, but in 2 years of playing Redside exclusively, running TFs daily, and now running Trials daily, I can count using one hand the number of L50 Dark Armor Brutes I've come across - excluding my own.
And while you can claim that everyone else sucks, the truth is if it was straightforward and amazing out of the box more people would most definitely be playing it. They are not.
Not to mention that the OP wants nothing to do with IOs.
DA can be great if you really know what you want from it, and if you have an IO build planned out as well as a way to manage the endurance consumption.
For someone who is not interested in IOs and wants something straight forward for a brute, this is not the secondary to be going with.
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You know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe Dark Armor could use a buff.|
Originally Posted by Deus_Otiosus
And while you can claim that everyone else sucks, the truth is if it was straightforward and amazing out of the box more people would most definitely be playing it. They are not.
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How about halving the endurance cost of the toggles (again) and halving the endurance cost of Dark Regeneration. That would take care of the vast majority of endurance complaints. But that's certainly not the only problem, since people complain about dying over and over with Dark Armor.
So first let's fill the knockback hole. And throw a bone to Fiery Aura as well.* It's just not right for everyone else to not worry about knockback.
Then we should boost the resistances to S/L and Negative. I mean, why does Dark Armor not have capped negative resistance anyway?
Either that or buff the defense values of Cloak of Darkness. Who cares that it already costs less endurance than weave for the same benefit plus increased perception and stealth? Dark Armor Sucks, remember? It needs the buff.
Finally, can we just boost the control auras to mag 5 or something? I mean, only effecting minions is pretty lame. I want bosses to cringe in fear.
Speaking of Fear, Cloak of Fear could really use a buff. How about a non-penalizing accuracy modifier and not a prohibitively high endurance cost?*
Death Shroud is also an anomaly. Blazing Aura does more damage, Electric Field does the same damage but has -endurance. Shouldn't this have a secondary effect? Say... a thematic -tohit perhaps?*
My tank and brute aren't powerful enough, I demand these buffs!
*Items marked this way are the only items I actually endorse.
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
Oh no doubt it's not the strongest out of the box, but it's certainly not bad like people claim. Also, I was more replying to Haetron as they also mention Elec Armor.
Once you bring IO's into the mix it simply becomes amazing and you can pretty much do anything with it from tanking hami and regular content.
[U][URL="http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=251594"][/URL][/U]
The only fix I could think of would be upping cloak of fear's magnitude so that it would affect lieutenants, justifying it's high endurance cost.
That kind of change would make cloak of fear quite handy on brutes. Huh, wait....
I like dark armor, having a dark/dark scrapper and having played a dark/dark tank.
It takes a lot more thought and making decisions based around your positions with mobs, powers that are active, that sort of stuff... so it is a much more intense set to play than say shield or invuln where you run around and just shrug at about anything.
I think dark really shines when you consider IO's and the wide variety of unusual IO's it makes availible for any class with dark. If you can't handle IO's, I have to wonder what you're doing playing at all. It's like playing chess with nothing but pawns. Monopoly with nothing but $1 bills. Gonna be a long slow haul for sure.
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The Invention system at this point is very complex and can seem quite daunting to someone who isn't already familiar with it. It took me a long while before I decided that I was going to sit down and dig into it, and a spent quite a bit of time and inf making mistakes before I got comfortable.|
Originally Posted by Comfort
I like dark armor, having a dark/dark scrapper and having played a dark/dark tank.
It takes a lot more thought and making decisions based around your positions with mobs, powers that are active, that sort of stuff... so it is a much more intense set to play than say shield or invuln where you run around and just shrug at about anything. I think dark really shines when you consider IO's and the wide variety of unusual IO's it makes availible for any class with dark. If you can't handle IO's, I have to wonder what you're doing playing at all. It's like playing chess with nothing but pawns. Monopoly with nothing but $1 bills. Gonna be a long slow haul for sure. |
There's no doubt that Dark Armor really shines when you can support it with invention sets, but I take issue with the notion that it can't be effective and fun even without them. It's just not true.
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I played without inventions before inventions were a thing and got into the habit. What with the developers saying the game should remain completely playable without them - and honestly, for every other character of mine, it has - I never felt the need to do all that math and planning when I could just be beating things up.
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Originally Posted by Comfort
I think dark really shines when you consider IO's and the wide variety of unusual IO's it makes availible for any class with dark. If you can't handle IO's, I have to wonder what you're doing playing at all. It's like playing chess with nothing but pawns. Monopoly with nothing but $1 bills. Gonna be a long slow haul for sure.
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I've said it before, Ill say it again Dechs. If Dark Armor was half as defensive as the people who preach how great it is, no one would find any complaints with it.
Thanks for the help though. :P
Edit: And Invuln isn't that great. Elec Armor/Willpower is where it's at.