Is TW/DA Viable?

I delved about seven pages back and didn't see anything so I figured I'd make a new thread.

The title of the thread really says it all. Has anyone played a Titan Weapon/Dark Armor toon? Is it fun, is it viable, is END usage manageable on it while still being survivable?

Thanks.

I don't have experience with Titan Weapons. However, with Defensive Sweep basically taking the role of Divine Avalanche, I assume it would have similar survivability to Katana/Dark, if a little weaker to defense debuffs (due to so many of them being ranged lethal). Katana/Dark with a top-end end-game build is extremely survivable, and can be built to recover endurance while fighting at full speed.

That's end game, though. As for leveling up, my guess would be a little painful on endurance but manageable, kind of like most Dark Armor builds. I'd bet on it being solid defensively the whole ride.

Again, no Titan Weapon experience, so apologies if I'm way off base, and take anything I say with a grain of salt.

I have a 50 TW/DA and she's one of my favorite brutes. Lots of AoE, Good Survivability and a combination you don't see often. There are, however, reasons for that.

The early-mid 20s were pretty painful with just SOs. Once I IO'ed it in the mid-30s (with a frankenslot build) it got a lot better. Physical Perfection/Superior Conditioning was another improvement and by the time I got my Cardiac Alpha, Endurance was no issue. My blue bar (now) hardly moves.

There are a lot of tricks I used to get through the rough patches early on. I'll see if I can find my list of tips somewhere.

Bottom line, go into it knowing you'll have end issues early on but you'll be progressively better as you go along. Don't be discouraged. It will get better.

Ah-ha! Found my "tips and tricks" I used to work my TW/DA brute up. I'll copy the rest of my post from our SG boards because it pretty well summarizes my answer to the questions you're asking and it shows how I felt about the character while I leveled her up.

"My TW/DA Brute is 43 now and her end burn is pretty manageable (Shock Treatment and Superstunners are problematic, but no real end problems otherwise). I did have problems leveling up, but found that there are many cheap ways to mitigate the end burn.

#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.

Once I got rolling it got progressively easier. With Superior Conditioning and Physical Perfection, it should be cake.

She's a rolling can of whoop-a$$ just like my other brutes, only with lots of AoE whoop-a$$. Survivability is good against most things (although the Romans beat the snot out of me in the one ITF I ran- those boss crits hurt BAD) and solo, most hard targets can be killed pretty quickly (and the minions are wandering around stunned from OG). She's definitely got at least as much "Oompf" (subjectively) as my WM/Shield brute did at that level, unfortunately, the survivability isn't as good (WM/Shield was softcapped by then). I'll be doing a rebuild of her shortly to try to get her defense up and we'll see how it all hangs together then.

So, with some pretty cheap steps (with the exception of the 2 alignment merits on the miracle) even an "End Heavy" set like DA can make Titan Weapons work and work well. The WHACK and knockdown from all the AoEs is just awesome. Right now, she's my second favorite character (I only like the WM/Shield better). As always, different strokes for different folks."

It sounds like a good combo to me, but the endurance issues probably force you down a particular build path, which limits what you can do compared to other combo's.

That said I would think it has great potential, if you like Momentum (Which I don't).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggelakis PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"

I built one to 50 softcapped against S/L and IO'd out. Felt very lacking on +4/+8 -- things like Arachnos and Carnies tore it apart. Rebuilt as TW/SR and felt much better. TW/ELA would be more awesome as well.

It is absolutely awesome on a brute...I built it softcapped to S/L/E/N and it mows everything down...I took energy mastery for superior conditioning and physical perfection to run the end, plus agility alpha...I went ageless radial for the Def Debuff resists and never looked back...

GREAT COMBO, will take some work to get it right though...but it is easily accomplishable.