Dark/Time Journal


Argentae

 

Posted

Still not sure if this is the character I'll play with the kids, but over the weekend I made a Dark/Dark Dom and a Dark/Time controller to try out some sets I haven't played with yet.

Have to say I'm really enjoying the Dark/Time controller. As soon as he hit lvl 6 (Living Shadows 5 slotted with the 5 GR proc/enh) I took him to Perez and started taking out spawns with the help of lots of insps from the hospital vendor there.

I LOVE the combo of the Dark and Time FX. I went with a bizzare combo of purple and something chartreuse (ish) for both and they mesh really well. Time's juncture is flat out awesome, and I can only imagine how effective it's going to be when I've got Fearsome Stare to pair it with. I like TJ better than Darkest night because:

1. I can have it going before I start in on a spawn.
2. It doesn't shut off mid spawn as it's a toggle not an anchor.
3. The FX make it easier to see what is being affected than with Darkest Night.

IIRC I had to log shortly before I hit 8th, but so far it's a fun combo.

Anyone with more experience with Dark/Time have any tips? Esp anything relating to synergies between the two...

Arg


 

Posted

Once you get fearsome stare, slot the controller ATO set in it right now the proc has a 100% chance of activating, so you're hitting everyone you hit with FS for around 70(normal version)-120(with the superior version) psionic damage.


Characters!:
Pinny - Scrapper
Shadewing - Defender
@Pinny

 

Posted

Not to try to antagonize Pinny or anything but I highly recommend putting will of the controller into shadow field. It fully benefits from the recharge at all levels whereas fearsome stare, in a high end build, can easily be up far more frequently than you can realistically use it with all of the other stuff dark/time has going on. Fearsome stare only applies one proc per cast, shadow field applies six. I know what you're thinking, "forty five seconds is five proc chances!" Shadow field is unique among 45 second patches in that it applies two procs at zero seconds. Also, I really prefer slotting fearsome stare for -tohit and if your overall strategy is recharge and ranged defense you get a lot of each by six slotting cloud senses in fearsome stare. That's all, like, my opinion, man.

Whew, that said, welcome to my favorite controller combination ever! It's tanky, it's debuffy, it's controlly, and it even does great damage. As you said it looks very good doing it, too. I could write a treatise on its various virtues but for everyone's sake I'll restrain myself. Basic recommendations: if you have purples lying around, this combination benefits hugely from huge recharge as it enables you to perma chrono shift for even more recharge. This is great because dark/time has a truckload of powers with moderate to long base recharge. Here's one of them: distortion field! This power looks pretty lame between its extremely crappy hold and the fact that you already have an excellent slow aura of your own. What that doesn't factor in is that it's a cheap power that can take a ton of damage procs. You don't even need to slot anything but procs in it, if you have lots of global recharge it will be up more frequently than you can cast it. The principal downside to this proc-heavy strategy is that incarnate powers don't benefit it as much as some other combination, which is to say musculature and interface have no impact on two of your most damaging powers. Not a big deal in my view.

Aside from that, take the pets and use the pets. Haunt is very efficient damage and the annoying dog is one of the best controller pets if you can stomach its idiosyncrasies. Time stop is a really bad power and if you weren't forced to take time crawl at level one I would also recommend skipping that: you're a force of freaking nature, trifling with moderate regen debuffs on a single enemy is far beneath you.


 

Posted

I can understand the reasoning behind putting the proc in shadowfield when you're all maxed out with soft-capped defenses and permaeverything levels of recharge, but I'm not using that as "the norm" when I look at slot choices.

One thing fearsome stare has over shadow field even after you perma everything is that You aren't going to be getting the full 45 seconds from shadow field on ANYTHING but an arch villain, and then you're using shadow field on a single enemy. Fearsome Stare is up enough with or without perma everything that you can reliably use it against groups of enemies or a single target.


Characters!:
Pinny - Scrapper
Shadewing - Defender
@Pinny

 

Posted

I'm not fond of putting procs in fearsome stare because it lets enemies retaliate when you use it as an opener. I like it in distortion field, which is like having it in shadow field but with a much faster recharge.