Does dark armor maybe in need of a buff

My /dark is missing one of the critical armors (murky) and only has one of the auras (only went with fear not stun), and she is one of my top survivable characters even so.

I'd be really interested in any math that could show /Dark needs a buff compared to other sets. It's quite solid if a build-idiot like me can make it work.

ToE = Theft of Essence; Chance for + endurance.

If you haven't read Jebe the Pirate's Dark Armor guide, I suggest you do so. My Dark tank takes a lot of cues from his guide, especially the +recovery/+endurance suggestions. My current Dark/Dark build gets over 4 end/sec recovery, not including the two P-shifter Chance for Endurance procs.

Obviously I'd love to see a buff to Cloak of Fear's accuracy and endurance consumption but it is already obscenely powerful, it needs those caveats for the sake of balance.
On my tank, I have it 5 slotted with a 95% chance to effect +4s and it costs 0.26 end/sec to use. With good slotting, it is comfortable to use. In return, you get a taunt aura, the ability to neuter all surrounding minions, and a decent to-hit debuff to anything not neutered that stacks with Cloak of Darkness nicely.
That makes it one of the most powerful abilities in the game, it has to have some pretty big drawbacks to compensate.

The only thing i would like to see is the removal of the GFX on cloak of darkness, making you some darkish walking glob with 2 red eyes (alike warshade).

Side effect is that the set has no -slow/-recharge resistance, i kinda miss that on the set.

I'm in love with Dark Armor since i first played it.

First, the set scales VERY well with IO and sets. As a number cruncher i love it for that. The set is utter crap to play with SO, i'd never play it if i didn't have the plan to make a full IO build. DA benefits and gains survivability from everything, recharge (mmmh that heal) and defense (soft cap is doable). The various auras and stuff allow for a lot of sets options as well.

The playstyle is really awesome and i like the feeling of watching the health bar go down then *poof*, full health, it's like playing a /regen without the annoyance of multiple clickies and having a set with no offensive option. Self rez is mandatory, i'm so used to it i hate playing characters without one now.

On top of that DA is quite rare compared to the plethora of willpower, fire aura, etc... toons. And it's quite an atrocious set for anyone not experienced and interested enough by the mechanics to understand how it works. But my spines/dark softcapped to s/l with 80+ global recharge and all the fancy powers i like is so epic i'd cry if they ever change dark armor, even if they buff it somehow.

I don't even think about playing another armor set and whenever i roll a new scrapper it ends up something/dark whatever were my initial plans, as i just can't bring myself to think of anything another set can do that is better and more fun than /dark for me

I'm leveling up a DA tank now, building up bonuses as I go, easy enough since Eradications and Kin Combats cap at 30 and 35 respectively.

Now at 38, with s/l/n/e coming up on 40% def, I have a different perspective than I did before the IOs, when every first contact with a large-team spawn was a knuckle biting experience.

Anyway, more than getting more Negative resists, I'd like to get resists for Neg's secondary effect: -ToHit. Ice Armor resists slows, Elec Armor resists end drain and -rec (DA does too but not nearly as effectively as ELA), getting some resists to tohit debuffs would be nice.

Getting repelled is a bummer too. You don't see it a lot, but I just did Katie Hannon tf and was just hunting Marcone bosses in St M, so I've been pushed around a LOT these past few days. Looks like only about half the armors have repel protection so I won't say it's some great injustice DA not have it, but it is a bummer. Please note I'm talking about Repel and not kb.

I think y'all misunderstood me. I was in no way advocating switching the Negative and Psi resists numbers in Dark. I was thinking that I could see the "devs" doing it, not that I wanted it done. Sorry if that wasn't clear enough.

Other then Cloak of Fear, I'm perfectly happy with the Dark Armor. If you read the end of my message I mentioned this about CoF: " if anything deserves a second look in Dark Armor, here's where I would start."

I have a Dark/Stone Melee tank that is just brutal.. In all honesty the stuff I can survive is very surprising. I just need to get him some more Incarnate love for the End Redux and Reistance line and he will be golden.






PS
Im disappointed.. it took Dechs almost TWO whole hours to find this post.. lol

The fact that I was able to softcap my DA/DM tank positionally, without completely neutering him, is a testament to what you can do with the DA.
No end problems, and can double as a tanktroller in large spawns, whats not to love.


Still building my Claws/DA brute. The pure fun of this toon is incredible. I did somewhat dismantle the tank, at least short term, as a few IOs are stupid expensive and I don't feel like saving up for a month for another Glad 3%.....

Only thing that's putting me off is worries re low resists to energy damage, especially with iTrials full of it.

How do others handle it? Scrappers take Shadow-Meld maybe or is there another way?

Re the original question I hear a lot of good things await those who are patient with DA or can invest some infamy.