Dark Armor the new Nemesis Plot?
By
Aggelakis,
Posted on: 2012-05-05 08:32 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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This. It's probably the only melee build that can withstand psi. Everything else seems to just.... crumple.
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Originally Posted by Star_Seven
+ 1 in favor of dark armor here...love it. Fun active set. Can be very powerful. Great against psi!
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I'm glad to see so many people enjoy DA as much as I do. My FM/DA tank can solo pretty much everything +4/x8 including the new DA arcs, and he can handle any team tanking responsibility. He is my favorite melee toon hands down.
When I see post like the one from the OP it makes me laugh...it seems like they made a toon put some random SOs in and are confused when they die. Alittle effort and research can do wonders.
DA 4ever!!!
Good god ClawsandEffect.
I've made dozens of passes at Dark Armor in Mids'. That build CRUSHES every past attempt I've ever made.
you know, if relation to the title, it could be. Think about it, take a fairly strong power, give it a little bit of a learning curve and some bad pr, and suddenly nem wouldn't have to worry about dealing with it as much. It would probably be one of his better plots really, trick people into avoiding good options.
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Electric Armor? Willpower? Widows? Any build with positional defense (excluding a few Mind Control attacks). Being able to stand up to Psy isn't that big of a deal, and doesn't really place DA above the others. Not that it's the worst armor set in the game, but I wouldn't place it higher than the middle of the pack.
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Originally Posted by Scythus
This. It's probably the only melee build that can withstand psi. Everything else seems to just.... crumple.
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Dechs must be sleeping. Someone link to his guide! I cannot find it easily on this stupid phone.
Paragon Wiki: http://www.paragonwiki.com
City Info Terminal: http://cit.cohtitan.com
Mids Hero Designer: http://www.cohplanner.com
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Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
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Supermassive black hole|
Originally Posted by Aggelakis
Dechs must be sleeping. Someone link to his guide! I cannot find it easily on this stupid phone.
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"Dark Armor Sucks."
And while End's a bit of an issue on my Dark/SS tank (don't run everything at once, though really, why would you,) the Dark/Dark scrapper is just silly easy.
Im actually shocked that Dechs hasnt shown up yet. I mean come on its page 2 already and he isnt here yet singing the praises of Dark Armor?!!
Sandstone my 50 Dark/Stone Tank has a pretty good IO build and really havent done much incarnate on him yet other than a tier 2 Cardiac to cut down on end use.
Its one of the best tanks that I have every built. Colored the Dark Armor like sand so the theme goes well with /Stone.. Easy to stack stuns on bosses with Fault and Oppressive Gloom running.. Best heal in the game with the Theft of Essence proc to help out on the endurance.
I will admit it needs some IO help and the secondary( or primary depending on your AT ) that you combine with it can definitely help survival...
But it is not the worst set out there..
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
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CoD is base 0.26/s, just like most armor toggles.|
Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Given how situational Cloak of Darkness is, why does it cost .52 base?
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CoF is the only toggle in DA with an abnormal end cost at 0.52/s. And, most builds I see skip it anyway. It and Oppressive Gloom (cheap cost) are pretty redundant.
edit: Most of the End problems with Dark Armor come from the 33 End heal, which can be largely mitigated with one IO.
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Critical Dark....I hate you for having a cool yet simple name that I now want!|
Originally Posted by SmegHead
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You suck!!
I have a tw/dark/body/cardiac scrapper who kicks quite a lot of ***. And pretty frickin tough to kill too. TONS of set bonuses, but way over softcap range/melee and huge resists.
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Hew in drag baby
Without IO sets and inventive craziness that people use to create greater awesomeness...
Dark Armor is another one of those sets that is just different. And people are always going to number crunch and/or try and play it like they play other sets and dislike it for the fact that it is not as efficient to use in that manner as most other sets.
The set really delivers on the thematic element of its power source and focuses on draining, disorienting, debilitating, freaking-out and giving you power more than other melee sets. Yes, it protects you the normal ways, but it also protects you (and empowers you) in different ways... And you either can enjoy that or not... but this game has a wonderful amount of choices that work in different ways and not everyone will like those ways.
IOs and the like can help people enjoy these odd sets in the normal playstyle ways, but the developers can't just make these odd sets equal to other sets for the normal playstyle, because then they'd have to lower its odd benefits, otherwise it'd be too powerful... and then we'd lose another exotic creature as a result.
Save the odd powersets!! They are great! You keep your round pegs and holes and respect the square pegs, please! 
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
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While I don't agree with the OP, the mistake when mentioning end use is the use of incarnate abilities.|
Originally Posted by mammalian
I have a dark spines scrapper on freedom Spinter-cell my main toon. I run 11 toggles with no endurance issues at all. With the right build and incarnate endurance is not an issue. The dark set is great fun to play but needs more management than other sets and coupled with spines he is an absolute AoE monster
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You can build to just play at 50 sure, but for some of us, building just for 50 is not what we care to do...I know I exemp often enough.
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
DA has only one problem and that is END cost
I am going to try and spend 50 million to get a +END IO that might fix that for me.
But the game is supposed to be balanced around SO's, and DA is terrible at lower levels with its massive END cost.
That could be fixed without reducing the actual END cost by making some powers less needed. For instance Cloak of Darkness has your immobilize resistance. Putting that into Obsidian Shield would help a lot
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Even then, you still end up sucking endurance like no ones business. Sure, IOs and Alpha slot might help alleviate some of that, but given that Dark has seemingly lower resistances than other sets, no inherent KB resistance and relies on 'gimmick' toggles that are incredibly end heavy...
Frankly, I don't see why some of Darks toggles are so End intensive. Given how situational Cloak of Darkness is, why does it cost .52 base? And Cloak of Fear, with fear being pretty much useless except when solo (and even then it chops off your AoE potential) The set really could use some examining and love, imo. |
COD cost .26 base slightly more than the armor themselves. Are you thinking Cloak of Fear? That is a .52 base offering a Mag 2 terrorize and a to hit debuff. Even with standard accuracy that one is a bit high. Although with high -end slotting you can get it down to .24ish.
I disagree about the fear being useless however. It's not a sleep where they just wake up after taking damage. It definitely limits the amount of attacks minions will make on you. It is not an efficient power without IO's though.
You are correct about the knock back however if your stuck on SO's
Claws:
Does Form of soul add the end discount globally or add enhancement value to each individual power
Also if you move the miracles from PP to health it should provide you with more regeneration and the proc can be used as low as level 20. No need to wait until PP if you need it while leveling.
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One alignment merit gets you the Performance Shifter proc. Two gets you the Miracle proc and another two the Numina's. Now you're ready to rock.|
Originally Posted by dugfromthearth
I am going to try and spend 50 million to get a +END IO that might fix that for me.
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I've been building up a claws/dark brute and with just those procs and the Body powers, he only occasionally needs a blue skittle or two tearing through at +0x5. It'll be even better once I get his accolades, the Eradication IOs and incarnate powers will be icing on the cake.
Blood Widow Ricki * Tide Shifter * T-34 * Opposite Reaction * Shaolin Midnight * ChernobylCheerleader
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If you're using Mids and raw numbers to tell you whether something will be fun to play or not, you're doing it horribly wrong.
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Originally Posted by Wolfgang_Tao
So when are you guys going to do something with dark armor? After poking around in mids for a while I quickly came to a conclussion, Dark Armor is pretty freaking horrible. Ironic that my first lvl 50 was a Spine/Dark Scrapper. (Yes, I remember having to keep a kin or two on pay roll for SB because of end consumption) ((Also note: this was pre-IO days)) But after looking it over again with Mid's I still don't see any builds that make me say "Wow, that might be fun to play". I decided to muck around with a Dark Tank, still not sure what Secondary to take, I did manage to get a Dark/Ice up to about 35ish but am leary of putting any Set IO's in it. Yeah I know, just get it to lvl 50 and take incarnate stuff to make it work.. bleh - and people wonder why farmers make so much money.
This set could really use some help IMHO, I guess the Tier 9 power as "Soul Transfer" should be taken as a sign? |
Virtue Server
Avatar art by Daggerpoint
Does anyone have a Staff/Dark Scrapper build that is equally 'Hnng' worthy? Defence and Resistances are all well and good on Tanks, given the better scale on them (Although that first build still makes me O_O I love my Invul/Energy to bits, but that thing looks like the wrath of a Dark God...)
But it's the Staff/Dark Scrapper that is making me =/ face at level 27. Yeah, he's good, but he seems way too squishy against standard S/L stuff, more so than any of my other Scrappers/Stalkers
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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Wasn't aware of electric armor's resistance, forgot about willpower, and I don't really count Widows as "melee." I'm not sure what you mean by that last one either.
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Originally Posted by Zandock
Electric Armor? Willpower? Widows? Any build with positional defense (excluding a few Mind Control attacks).
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Widows are at their best at melee range. Widows are very much like Claws/SR Scrappers with the addition of Psi resistance and defense as well as excellent team buffs. Fortunatas are the more ranged version.
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Originally Posted by Scythus
Wasn't aware of electric armor's resistance, forgot about willpower, and I don't really count Widows as "melee." I'm not sure what you mean by that last one either.
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Dr. Todt's theme.
i make stuff...
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And there you've highlighted my point. Widows have so many tricks, it's a disservice to try to nail them into such a narrow hole.
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Originally Posted by Schismatrix
Widows are at their best at melee range. Widows are very much like Claws/SR Scrappers with the addition of Psi resistance and defense as well as excellent team buffs. Fortunatas are the more ranged version.
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Am I late?|
Originally Posted by Mr. DJ
*waits for a certain someones entrance*
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Originally Posted by Zybron1
Wow, 20 posts into a thread about dark armor and Dechs hasn't posted. Is he on vacation?
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Originally Posted by Aggelakis
Dechs must be sleeping. Someone link to his guide! I cannot find it easily on this stupid phone.
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Originally Posted by Airhammer
Im actually shocked that Dechs hasnt shown up yet. I mean come on its page 2 already and he isnt here yet singing the praises of Dark Armor?!!
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WHAT MORE DO YOU PEOPLE WANT FROM ME?!
Seriously, though, it looks like there's not much for me to add anyway. Techbot's misinformation has been corrected, my stuff's been linked, and all the other usual suspects are here. You all are great, by the way.
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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Whatever. If YOU don't like dark armor, don't play it. But don't screw up a set that I like.
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Originally Posted by Wolfgang_Tao
So when are you guys going to do something with dark armor?
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Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
Everytime I see someone taking res/def/heal numbers and claiming uberness based on that alone I think back of those melee types who tell themselves "wow, I'm such an awesome player" when they got outside buffing and wonder what the hell happened when said buffer leaves and they start getting killed.
No DDR, no slow res, low energy res and a heal reliant of having a foe near you everytime you need it are all significant flaws in highend content without relying on others to plug the holes in your build, conveniently overlooked flaws by people turned on by poorly calculated theorical survivability on a spreadsheet but not so much by the playerbase as a whole who actually cares about playing the game, hence why we don't see so many DA around.
Then people go on to tell themselves if most other players aren't playing DA, it's because they are uneducated masses unable to figure out how to understand the profound subtleties of the build or of its playstyle... Because this game is rocket science and so hard to figure out what with everything thoroughly explained since years.
That said, while nobody sane should buy the uber DA hype, it's not a bad set either and any complaint about its performance is misguided. It has potential power, balanced by inconvenience. You can't remove the drawbacks and keep the strengthes, so any balancing would result in the performance being smoothed somewhere in the middle point, and that wouldn't be nice to people who actually enjoy DA and deal with the shortcomings as it is.
This isn't the current version of my Dark/Dark, but the one I'll be respec'ing into soon. With the enhancement converters I'm now in possession of the Glad Armor +3% defense IO.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.956
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Interruption: Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Dark Armor
Secondary Power Set: Dark Melee
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(3), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(3), RctvArm-ResDam(5), S'fstPrt-ResKB(5), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(7)
Level 1: Shadow Punch -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(7), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45)
Level 2: Smite -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(11), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(11), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42)
Level 4: Murky Cloud -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(13), RctvArm-ResDam(15), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(15)
Level 6: Shadow Maul -- Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), Erad-Dmg(17), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(19), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(19), C'ngBlow-Acc/Rchg(21)
Level 8: Dark Regeneration -- Theft-+End%(A), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Heal(23), Erad-Dmg(23), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25)
Level 12: Obsidian Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), GA-3defTpProc(27), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(29), RctvArm-ResDam(29)
Level 14: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(31), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(31), Mocking-Rchg(31)
Level 16: Siphon Life -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(33), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(33), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), Nictus-Acc/Heal(34)
Level 18: Super Speed -- EndRdx-I(A), Zephyr-ResKB(34)
Level 20: Death Shroud -- Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Erad-Dmg(34), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), FotG-Dam/End/Rech(36), FotG-Acc/Dmg/End/Rech(36), FotG-Acc/End/Rech(37)
Level 22: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Ksmt-ToHit+(37)
Level 24: Cloak of Darkness -- GftotA-Def/EndRdx(A), GftotA-Def(37), Krma-ResKB(39)
Level 26: Oppressive Gloom -- HO:Endo(A)
Level 28: Soul Drain -- Erad-Dmg/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Rec'dRet-ToHit(40), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(40)
Level 30: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(42), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(43), RctvArm-ResDam(43)
Level 35: Dark Consumption -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(40), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(43), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(45)
Level 38: Midnight Grasp -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(46), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx(A)
Level 44: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(48), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(48), LkGmblr-Def(48)
Level 47: Physical Perfection -- P'Shift-End%(A)
Level 49: Soul Transfer -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(50)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(50), EndMod-I(50)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve
Level 0: Portal Jockey
Level 0: Task Force Commander
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
Level 50: Cardiac Core Paragon
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Throwing darts at the board to see if something sticks.....
Come show your resolve and fight my brute!
Tanks: Gauntlet, the streak breaker and you!