Dark Armor Substitute

Hello, everyone!

I have been playing this game for many years and have tried Dark Armor perhaps a dozen times. I keep getting frustrated by an apparent lack of survivability and huge endurance drain that this set has. I keep trying the set with the hope that my play experience will somehow be different each time.

I have read much of what has been written here on the forums, and I've tried to adjust my builds to improve my experience. I just can't seem to match DA's promised performance with reality.

Now, I'm not asking so much for help with builds or the Dark Armor set itself. Also, just to give you perspective please note that I have played the set to a fairly high level (lvl 33 tank that I ultimately deleted).

I have a concept character that is a Broadsword/Dark Armor Scrapper. I loved the character, but I am starting to observe the same problems on my way to lvl 20.

With the advent of power customization, I am considering re-building this character with a different secondary power set. I would even be willing to change AT-types if that makes sense. What I'm looking for is a set that can substitute for Dark Armor in appearance without the huge endurance issues and with (I hope) an improvement is survivability. Note that this character never intended to take "Cloak of Darkness". So, I expect the character to be visible if somewhat obscured.

I look forward to all your suggestions.




Stormistress

Let's see Dark is a resist set with a fair amount of exotic resist/effects resist, a powerful heal and some control.

Fire- Fulfills some of the resist, a powerful heal, and more damage

Elec - Has strong resists, some heals, and a lot of exotic resist/effects

Willpower - Has strong passive healing, some resist, some defense


Those are probably your closest to being like dark I'd imagine.

Since alternate sets have already been suggested, I just want to point out (in case you weren't already aware) that Cloak of Darkness can be changed in the tailor so that it doesn't hide your costume. Just pick the "No Fade/Pulse" option.

As to your end issues, yes, Dark Armor can be downright nasty until you start picking up all the nice IOs to fix that. Until you get a final build going, you'll want to use death shroud and cloak of fear sparingly, as well as managing your other toggles by turning them off when they won't be useful. Your attacks will also need to be frankenslotted highly (Damage, accuracy, and endurance), as they will be using the most endurance out of anything.

And finally, if Dark Armor just doesn't work for you anymore (and you've already done the other sets Sly mentioned), you may want to look into trying a human form Warshade (just don't pick up Shadow Cloak, as you can't change that in the tailor like you can for Dark Armor). The downside to this, obviously, is that you don't get the sword. You can also try energy aura (again skipping the combat invis toggle), as that will have endurance management abilities and can be colored to look dark-ish.

I definitely recommend willpower, if only to put your endurance issues behind you. 2 or 3 slot both stamina and quick recovery, then never look back.

As for a darkness aura, dont forget to look at unexpected choices. Omega or cryogenic could give a smoky/shadowed look. You could also do a jet black body or something, with a pale dark ble ghostly fire. If you are a tier 9 then the elemental sword of fire and ice might look nice in the form of a shadowy smokey blade of energy.

Good luck,

Lewis

From a cosmetic standpoint, my DM/Regen has a fantastic Dark look. Was easy to customize by turning everything to a black/grey color in power selection, and a nice dark tendrils aura on the head and hands (full body looked cool, too, fwiw).

From a playstyle standpoint, Regen is a much more 'active' set that most of the others, since it relies very heavily on click powers and situational awareness. That being said, I LOVE it, and other than iTrial 1-hit deaths, my Scrapper hardly ever dies (unless I am not paying attention, which is more often than I care to admit ). It also does nothing to address any lack of AoE in a primary, but it is fairly easy to hit 32.5% S/L Def and has a bit of resist as well (somewhere in the 20s for common dmg types). And the best part, you will never, ever, have to worry about Endurance.

Not the most obvious replacement for DA, but certainly worth considering.

Tips for making your DA experience more enjoyable:

Theft of Essence proc in Dark Regen. This is huge. Also, I try to get the end cost down to 20 or less. This power needs end redux, accuracy, and recharge, in that order. Heal enhancement should be less of a priority until later on, out of the box it takes you from 0-full on 3 targets. And, don't let your health drop too far- there's a bit of a lag between power activation and health recovery.
Miracle unique at level 20.
Numina unique at level 30.
Pshifter proc when you can manage it (available at lvl 21).
Make sure you're slotting your attacks with end redux.

For BS/DA, I'd recommend playing to 34ish on one build, then respeccing. BS gets its big hitters kind of late, taking both t1 attacks will help you build a low level attack chain that has the side benefit of not being real end-intensive.

As an advanced topic, search for Werner's kat/da builds in the scrapper and brute forums; somewhere there's a 'moderate budget' build he posted that may serve you as a guide. (BS and katana are very similar powersets, info on katana will also apply to BS). I also seem to remember Iggy Kamikaze posting a nice budget sword/da build that I liked, but it's been a while since I've researched this combo...

Hope this helps!

edit to add: you might consider making an inspcombine bind or macro to turn inspirations you use less often into blues. I did this on my DA/SS tank to smooth the levelling process a bit.
another edit to add: for a 'glowing sword' look, you might check out the vanguard swords.

My Dark Armor Tanker is by far my favorite Tanker to play and a strong contender for my favorite character overall (and I have over a hundred at this point). I would suggest you post a build for us, so that maybe we can figure out where you are having trouble and maybe offer some advice. My DA tank had some endurance issues leveling up as well, but once he started IOing out nearly all of that disappeared and now at 50 he's a match for any other tanker I've come up against. I've routinely outtanked guys using Granite with him. So my vote is to stick with it, it really is worth it.

That said, I can clearly see you're very frustrated at this point, and there are many options for passing off other powersets as dark-themed. You've had good advice here on that, I don't have too much to add.

Well, I just wanted to update those watching this thread.

As some have indicated, this character is important to me. So, I have taken the advise presented and kept the character in the same powersets. I have also created a duplicate on another server to test a BS/WP build.

First, the attempt to translate to Willpower. I only have the build up lvl-5, but it has a totally different feel. Tendrils seemed the best to create an illusion of dark power. However, it is a poor substitute. I am positive that this build can be a powerhouse at all levels. I'm just not realizing the feel of darkness that I wanted when I first created the character. So, the test build is parked for now.

I had taken Death Shroud in my BS/DA original build mainly to deal with minions. That may be my major source of endurance issues. So, as has been suggested I have repsec'd my build. I can post the before and after builds if people want me to, but I will give an overview for now.

Since this is a Scrapper build, I switch out Slash with Hack to maximize my burst damage. I removed Murky Cloud and will take that at lvl-20 (the character is presently lvl-18). I placed Dark Regen in its place, and have slotted one AC and two END for now.

I am also doing something that I never do on any of my builds. I am attempting to slot a few I/O sets now instead of waiting until lvl-27. I have enlisted the aid of some of my lvl-50's with influence and merits. So far I have expended 40-mil and about 500 merits. My major problem in this effort is getting Kinetic Combat sets at this level, as that only gives me lvl-20 and lvl-21 to choose from. They can be a little pricey, but I have to wait until they are listed. So, it might take a few days before I can slot my attacks the way I want.

Instead of planning to take Acrobatics, I have slotted two KB I/O's for -7 protection. I have also slotted the Steadfast Def I/O. With two Kinetic sets I will have 12.38 S/L Def, and one Eradication set will give me 8.01 E/N Def.

I have taken Parry (of course) and slotted that with two Serendipities. Melee Def should be about 22, and Lethal near 29.

I have dropped Death Shroud from the build (permanently) and will rely on Whirling Sword and Spring Attack for my area damage.

No testing yet as I am waiting for the Kinetics to show up in the market. I'm expecting good result though, and there may be enough endurance left over to fit in Tough and Weave into the future build.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for all the input!




Stormistress

I strongly recommend putting Death Shroud back in the build after you have your endurance issues sorted out. That power alone accounts for more than a quarter of your character's total damage output.

I'm also not a fan of typed defense on Sword/Dark characters. Positional covers more possible attacks and it's just as easy (or easier) to get good amounts of. If you go with typed, it's pretty much guaranteed you are going to leave a hole to Fire and Cold damage. Positional defense fills that hole nicely. Positional also covers the majority of Psi attacks, and even though you have good resistance to Psi, getting your recharge floored because it's all hitting you kinda sucks.

My BS/DA solos AVs while running 11 toggles, and I've never run him out of endurance in his current build. If I think about it I'll post a build and explain how I handled the endurance issues. Cardiac Alpha was a huge help, but I had my endurance under control before Incarnates even existed.

I assure you, it is VERY possible to do what you want to do here without giving up important powers like your damage aura. If you like, I can give you a demo of my BS/DA on Pinnacle this evening. He's damn hard to kill, and even if he does get killed he pops right back up again.

I may have to send it as a PM instead, since this is my last day as a VIP for a little while.

I actually need to revisit my build in the near future.

With the advent of Enhancement Boosters I should be able to beef up the enhancement values of my crapton of Eradication sets. Awesome set bonuses, but the enhancement values of the set are kinda "meh" because the set caps at level 30.

I'm also looking into building a more or less identical character as a Brute, now that it's possible. More HP and a damage aura that taunts will be a huge benefit. Fury buffing the damage of Death Shroud is nice too.

Also: I haven't run an Incarnate trial in several months now. Once I got my character to where I wanted him Incarnate-wise I didn't bother any further. That might change once Dark Astoria is live, but I'm going to be Premium for at least a month so it's a non-issue at the moment.

I had issues with endurance at first, but what I found was that death shroud was a significant net positive -- because I never had to use an attack on a minion EVER. Also slot more endredux than you think you need, and remember that IOs are much better than SOs. At 25, a single-aspect IO is only 32%, but a triple-aspect IO is 48% total enhancement. If you have three acc/dam/endredux IOs from mixed sets, you have 48% of each in three slots instead of 34% of each in three slots with SOs.

© I Can't Believe it's Not Dark Armor

Hi Stormmistress!

*Disclaimer* I'm a Dark Armor fan. I'm also a fan of "misfit toys" so, take that for what it's worth. Just finished leveling my TW/DA brute and figured I'd copy/paste a list of ways I used to combat her endurance drain while leveling her up. Some of these have been mentioned before, but they're worth mentioning again.

#1) Slot el-cheapo set IOs with end reduction (Frankenslot)
#2) Every time I log on her, I put up a bid for medium blue inspirations for whatever cheap price (500 inf each? 1000 inf each?) in a stack of 10. Collect whatever I bought from the last time.
#3) Keep a Recovery Serum power (really helped in the low levels, 18-25 I was sucking wind, it got better) handy. Buy these in stock too- lowball bids allowed to sit overnight. Buy the low level version or the high level version as the salvage is dirt cheap.
#4) First two alignment merits went to a Miracle +Recovery for Health.
#5) Get the Atlas Medallion.
#6) Theft of Essence +End Proc for Dark Regen.

Just a few ways to help mitigate your endurance burn. I don't think broadsword is any worse than titan weapons. A few tactical tips, if I may (no offense intended, but I sometimes overlook them when I come back to a DA character after playing something that doesn't rely on endurance as heavily)-

1) Your blue bar is also your green bar, thanks to dark regeneration. The more blue you have, the better off you will be as you can convert it to green every 30 seconds or so. The rest of your defenses exist to buy you those 30 seconds, that's it.

2) Treat your blue bar with care. No need to use Headsplitter to finish off a low-health baddie, pick something with a lower endurance cost.

3) Death shroud works for you in crowds, no need to keep it running in between groups. I set up a quick bind to turn it on and off. Kind of a pain in the butt, but might be worth it.

4) Oppresive Gloom (when you get that far) is a big helper. Those crowds of minions are wandering around drunk and not smacking you. Target one as it wanders away, makes a great way to aim cone powers like slice.

5) Dark Regeneration will bring you to full hitpoints from 2-3 minions. HOWEVER, as you know it costs at TON of endurance. So, what makes Dark Armor an exciting set to me, is that there is a "skill" factor. Learn when you need to hit the button at the last possible moment. The lower you let your health go, the bigger the heal. In other words, let's assume my offense lets me obliterate a spawn in 45 seconds. If I trigger the heal 15 seconds in, I have to last 30 seconds before my offense takes me to the end of the fight. However, If I know my own strengths/weaknesses vs. the damage coming in, and I judge it better, I can time it so maybe I don't have to trigger it for 25 seconds into the fight, leaving me with 20 seconds to finish it. Triggering it early may be necessary if I'm starting the fight low on hitpoints (or endurance- the theft of essence proc checks once per target dark regen hits, which means more targets= more chances for it to trigger)- but it also means I have to survive the full recharge time of dark regen. If I wait until the last possible moment, I can effectively take "more" damage. Of course, wait too long and you're dead. But that's why the devs gave us Soul Transfer, right?

OK, I wrote a lot more than I intended to. Hopefully, some of these tips will help you out.

Everything Val said. It bears reiterating though:

The Theft of Essence proc.

Seriously, with a bit of luck, and lots of targets it can be an effective gain in endurance. My /DA is claws, so I cheated a bit with lower base costs. It does get better though, invest in a Miracle, Numina, and ToE proc as base levels and you'll be much happier.

End/Res doubles and attack triples/quads are a great option for levelling as well.

If you are serious about taking a stab at /DA I'd be glad to lend a hand. It's still* underrated in game. Great set.

Check out anything from Dechs Kaison on Dark Armor. He even puts up videos of the insane stuff he does using Dark Armor.

I have played it for thematic reasons a number of times. It does have End issues, and I have always paired it with Dark Melee to partially solve those issues. I believe Dechs uses Claws a lot, so obviously he knows many other tricks. Slotting (for me) is imperative to get right with Dark armor, even if just using SOs. In fact I have a Dark/Dark Scrapper that has only 3 -KB I/Os and the rest SOs, at 50, ran him through enough trials to +3 him (slightly more actually...) and he is a straight up beast. I plan to someday create a big expensive Dark/Dark build with all the shineys, but havent gotten around to it. It is one of the strongest armor sets around, but it takes careful planning to get it to shine. Good Luck.

@OP
Not sure if you're totally settled on a build for your Drow, but if you haven't, you might want to consider Energy Aura. It doesn't play at all like Dark Armour, or obviously, any resist set, but it is very sturdy, has some fun tricks like the energy drain, and the self heal, and the energy aura effects might be able to be coloured to give a better dark effect for while they are active.