Well, Dark Armor Sucks, but I still recommend it every day.
My Claws/Dark is the only brute I've manage to stick with.
It's my personal opinion that the PBAoE stun is far better than the fear. It costs almost no endurance and is much more accurate. You don't need to add any slots for it to be a good power.
Where to now?
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The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
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Here's my opinion.|
Originally Posted by Police_Drone_Y7
Read up on the dated "Why not to use /DA" guide, disagreed with some of the points, so I wanted to know the recent opinions of the two sets and which would be preferred so I can choose one of my Brutes to level and turn into an Incarnate first.
With DA, we have the usual damage aura, lots of constant mez protection, a PBAoE fear, self heal, (useless) PBAoE disorient, and a self-rez. With SD we have an extra chunk of HP, teleport PBAoE, +dmg with -dmg to enemies, +def to allies and gain +def for each ally nearby, and an unstoppable mimic. I know it seems as simple as weighting +def vs. perma-mez, but I know I'm missing something, hence why I'm here asking the question... unless it really does just fall under that. |
DA Can be made to have incredible survivability, most of which is tied to Dark Regeneration and the Stun or Fear toggle.
Unfortunately, unless you go Katana/BS its difficult to soft cap anything beyond SM/L and even then many builds do not softcap that.
You don't need softcap, but it will provide dramatic results.
In addition, DA's only real soft spot is Energy Damage, its difficult to build for significant ENE DEF without sacrificing high end rech. If you don't care about high end rech, its a non issue.
SD can softcap all 3 positions easily, which gives it a level of coverage better than the DEF you will get from DA.
However it has much lower resists than DA, and gets hit harder when it does get it due to lower resistances - it also has no way to recover aside from insps and rebirth (unless you choose DM).
That being said, its not too difficult to build for both significant rech for SD while also being softcapped, and SD with OWTS running has very similar resistances to a typical Invuln brute (unless they are running Unstop) and can actually get up to 2700-2800 HP in that 2 minute period (that plus rebirth will make you very hard to kill).
I think your choice should be made while also considering your choice of Primary, as well as what you think will be an overall more enjoyable playstyle or concept.
Side question: What is your budget and do you have an intent to use IOs?
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Budget is pretty much open at this point, I'll farm the inf I need to afford anything. IO's are going to be a major intent to have, as the Brute will more than likely be my first Incarnate. The only real issue is both of my Brutes are at 34 (Elec/DA and SS/SD), so I'm just trying to decide which to go with first and invest into.
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Originally Posted by Deus_Otiosus
Side question: What is your budget and do you have an intent to use IOs?
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I'd stick with the one you find more fun to play.
Properly built a dark armor brute will might out-survive shield defense. The problem, as others have stated, is that you will have a much more expensive build and you will sacrifice a lot of recharge or some other aspect to build in all that defense.
I have both and personally I like the DA more because it's more fun to play to me. So I guess I will echo the previous poster. Play whatever you find more fun.
Read up on the dated "Why not to use /DA" guide, disagreed with some of the points, so I wanted to know the recent opinions of the two sets and which would be preferred so I can choose one of my Brutes to level and turn into an Incarnate first.
With DA, we have the usual damage aura, lots of constant mez protection, a PBAoE fear, self heal, (useless) PBAoE disorient, and a self-rez.
With SD we have an extra chunk of HP, teleport PBAoE, +dmg with -dmg to enemies, +def to allies and gain +def for each ally nearby, and an unstoppable mimic.
I know it seems as simple as weighting +def vs. perma-mez, but I know I'm missing something, hence why I'm here asking the question... unless it really does just fall under that.