So Dark Armor was probably a mistake

Goalposts have shifted a lot since the old days. What is considered "decent performance" now is quite a bit different than what was considered "decent performance" in Issue 2. You can still play the game the way you used to with nothing more than SO slotting and be at least as effective as you used to be (in the case of Dark Armor, it's quite a bit better now than it was). It's just that many people aren't satisfied with SO-level performance now that there are so many ways to exceed it. Sounds like you're one of them.

But not everyone plays that way, and they are not wrong or bad for having a different expectation of fun than we do. Let's keep that in mind.

Except for a few specific IOs (like the ones mentioned by others) I get to level 27 and then slot lvl 30 common IOs in almost everything. I hate having to change out SOs every few levels so I craft the common IOs, slot them and then begin collecting the stuff I want by level 50 on the Market.

Unless they drop for you a lot of the stuff you want might not even be available until lvl 50 anyway. That being said, another point regarding Brutes is with regards to Fury and slotting. I personally prefer to slot for Acc, End Redux and Recharge before slotting for damage. Dark Armor is such an End hog you might want to consider the same idea. 1-2 Acc, 1-2 End Redux and a Recharge (some Claws attacks are fast enough to skip the Recharge) might serve you better than the more traditional 1 Acc, 1 End Redux, 1 Recharge 3 Damage setup.

In any event, good luck

Once you bring IO's into the mix, it's not really that Dark Armor is all that great, it's that you're experiencing the joys of capping out defense. That's my main complaint with people that paint Dark Armor as being this awe inspiring great set. I've yet seen anyone that claims it that hasn't decked out for extra defense with IO sets.

Don't get me wrong, it definitely has it's strengths. I joke about how horrible it is, but it's not unplayable. After all, I got mine to level 50 shortly after Inventions were introduced, but went the entire way on SOs. It just, on an SO build to SO build comparison, underperforms in personal practice.

And yes, I realize, "MATH!" has determined that it's one of the greatest sets, because it has "the best self heal in the game". But the entire set is crutched up by the one power, in a way few other sets experience. Sure, every powerset has "Must take" powers in common opinion, but Dark Armor's reliance on Dark Regeneration is much more severe. One reason I had a negative experience was because I ran for a long time (longer than I should have) without DR.

Add in the fact that DR has some unique problems as a self-heal that other sets do not have, and in my own personal experience, the set fell short.

This is something I absolutely agree with. On a comparison with all other damage aura powers, it just -sucks-.

I should point out that as much as I rag on Dark Armor I still play it pretty much daily while Im subscribed. It "works" without IOs as long as you keep your difficulty levels fairly close to the default.

(Actually, the most enjoyable thing I've found with my DA brute now is setting the difficulty to -1 with no bosses, but setting the spawn for a team the size of four. This is on a build devoid of any IO Set bonuses. I have "plain" IOs replacing my SOs so I can maximize slot efficiency and one Steadfast to help with Knock, though it still occurs.)

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I'm not sure how to say this any other way: you're wrong. What's more, it's clear that you still don't understand why you are wrong. You should go read some of the math that you keep dismissing, because it explains how layered defenses work and layered defenses are what Dark Armor is all about.

Dark Regeneration contributes to the survivability of Dark Armor, but it doesn't constitute the whole of it. In fact, Dark Regeneration is only as powerful as it is because the rest of the set exists. You say that people sing Dark Armor's praises only because they're stacking defense from IO set bonuses, but that only reveals that you haven't considered why they are doing that. It's easy to get large amounts of defense from IOs, but getting good healing or damage resistance values is hard because IOs suck at that. Since those are the things that DA offers, it stands to reason that of course the set benefits from heavy Invention slotting - IO set bonuses fill the defensive layers not already covered by DA powers almost perfectly. Knockback vulnerability? Handled. Defense softcap? Handled.

What's more, IOs are also good at giving you lots of recharge, which (surprise surprise) lets you cycle your active survival tool - Dark Regeneration - much more often. What's that? Too endurance intensive, you'll be sucking wind after the first click? Inventions also let you cram a ton more endurance reduction and recovery into a build than SOs do and offer neat things like the ToE proc to make that issue go away. You think this is evidence that DA is weak, but it's not - it's evidence that DA is uniquely positioned to take full advantage of practically every bonus that the Invention system offers in quantity, because its weaknesses align neatly with those things that the Invention system does best.

Compare it to Super Reflexes: no active mitigation tool means that SR can't take advantage of all that +recharge you've been stacking, and the one defensive layer that IOs do well (defense) is the one you already have. SR is positioned poorly to capitalize on those things the Invention system does best. Every set has weaknesses, but not every set can so easily fill all of those weaknesses the way Dark Armor can. It's no worse right out of the box than anything else, but maybe no other set has such a high maximum performance potential and the ability to easily achieve that performance potential with the tools available in-game. Every time an enemy gets near me my CC aura kicks in, limiting how often he can attack me. Every time he attacks me he has to hit me, and my defense kicks in. Once he hits me I take damage, and my resistances kick in. Once I've taken that damage I can mash my active healing, and erase that damage - and the more often I can hit that button, the more invincible I make myself. Invention bonuses are a part of that, but they're building on the suite of powers I already have to create the whole package. To say that DA relies on Dark Regen for its survival is to focus entirely on the last link in the chain and give it credit for everything that came before. It's just wrong.

But hey, maybe you're right. Maybe I'm totally off base. If you think DA's survivability is all bound up in one power, go run a couple missions with the resistance toggles, CC toggles, CoD and Death Shroud turned off and let us know how it goes. You can go ahead and use Soul Transfer all you want, though. My guess is you'll have plenty of opportunities.

Well... you managed to go a mini-paragraph without bringing up IOs.

See, now that sounds like a challenge. What server do you play on? And do you have a level 50 /DA Brute where I can lay out a counter challenge?

Edit: (Actually, server doesn't even matter, we could copy over to test.)

You're trying really hard to score points here. It ain't working.

Check my sig. Those are my 50s. My brute has been max level for years. I leveled him right after CoV came out, before the Invention system ever existed and all we had were SOs. No powerleveling. It was a fun and blisteringly fast ride.

I have no interest in whatever challenge you can dream up, though. I know how powerful Dark Armor is. My own experiences bear out the math, just like plenty of other people here. I don't need or want to prove it to you because you've already made up your mind and, frankly, I don't care if you like it or not. I just don't want you spreading misinformation and turning other people (like the OP of this thread) off of it.

My guess is unless I got rather hell bent on getting a DA to 50 with just plain SOs I wouldn't do it with inherit fitness and with no Incarnate and IOs. Add Incarnate and even just the +end proc and things get much easier. Add in more IOs and I'm looking to make it my main tank for a server. Yes, it can be played on SOs. I just prefer not to do so on a build that frustrating. Note my tank is Dark/stone.

Not even remotely.