For me I would go with soul mainly because I love capping defenses on not only myself but my team mates. The damage buff is really nothing to sneeze at in /Dark but I would rather my damage boost have a small downtime while keeping my teams up time up longer. Also, with Perma Chrono Shift which I imagine you will have the dark consumption is not all that jazzy in comparison.
Dreaded Wail hits things freakin' hard.. i like to hit things freakin' hard... so.. id go Wail... SAVE THE WAILS!!!! - Solar_Lunata
Do you Incarnate out your toons? If so, Radial Core Clarion comes with a Power Boost effect as well. Allowing you to have that juicy capped defense and perma Soul Drain / Soul Consumption.
If not.. Well, I found my Time toons to be plenty sturdy enough with 30~ defense if I was aggressively debuffing with Time's Juncture. Since you have so much E/N Defense I'm guessing you also have a hefty Ranged Defense which helps for those pesky snipers and whatnot.
As for the team.. well.. With all the IO's and Incarnate powers flying around in the late game these days I don't find myself worrying about the extra few points of defense PBU would give them. I know that's terribly un-Defendery of me, but its the cold truth for many teams I've been on.
It is possible to Soft-Cap without PBU btw, though it comes with substantial end drain, and a few pricey IOs.
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I have been incarnating my recent characters, but I'd be going with Clarion Core (Radial is the one with +Special) since Radial's duration maxes out at 90s. I really dislike having gaps in my mez protection.|
Originally Posted by Primantiss
Do you Incarnate out your toons? If so, Radial Core Clarion comes with a Power Boost effect as well. Allowing you to have that juicy capped defense and perma Soul Drain / Soul Consumption.
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After talking with a few people, I think I'm leaning towards Dark. Oppressive Gloom, Perma-able Soul Drain, and Dark Consumption are really pulling me in that direction. Considering how I play my Time/Fire, I think Time's Juncture will cover the lower defense, and the two points that my Time/Fire has trouble with are End management and lowish damage*. Dark mastery addresses both of those.
If I miss the extra defense I've got plenty of respecs.
*He's no Kinetics/ that's for sure.
@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too
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Originally Posted by Oathbound
(Radial is the one with +Special)
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Right, good catch xD
Like you said, you might as well give it a shot and see how it goes. Fortunately we aren't hard locked into our choices in this game.
I personally think you'll enjoy it. It comes with so much utility and damage boosts that cant be made up elsewhere. Whereas there's plentiful other ways to boost your Defense those few last points.
I went Soul on my Dark/Dark.
Two things to consider with Soul Mastery that I haven't seen mentioned.
The second hold for immediate boss lockdown. Soul Storm does have a long cast time, though.
The pet, which is going to benefit from your Farsight and Chrono Shift. You shouldn't have much trouble getting her to near-perma and she churns out a good amount of psi damage.
Either way you go, you'll be in good shape. Enjoy!
For me the question comes down to do you want the pet from soul or perma SD?
I haven't seen that pet in action, so I can't really say as to it's damage. My feeling is that it might be enough to overcome your SD difference between soul and dark.
I think I can safely say it will give you more single target viability with the pet. If she has an aoe or cone, it might make up the difference on the aoe side of things too.
Does anyone know what powers she uses? Or what kind of DPS she churns out?
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Well, Time Manipulation can 2hit hold most bosses anyhow with Time Crawl -> Time Stop... but Soul Storm would give me a third place to slot Basilisk's gaze...|
Originally Posted by Yoru-Hime
I went Soul on my Dark/Dark.
Two things to consider with Soul Mastery that I haven't seen mentioned. The second hold for immediate boss lockdown. Soul Storm does have a long cast time, though. The pet, which is going to benefit from your Farsight and Chrono Shift. You shouldn't have much trouble getting her to near-perma and she churns out a good amount of psi damage. Either way you go, you'll be in good shape. Enjoy! |
The pet is a good point.
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Originally Posted by Shadey_NA
For me the question comes down to do you want the pet from soul or perma SD?
I haven't seen that pet in action, so I can't really say as to it's damage. My feeling is that it might be enough to overcome your SD difference between soul and dark. I think I can safely say it will give you more single target viability with the pet. If she has an aoe or cone, it might make up the difference on the aoe side of things too. Does anyone know what powers she uses? Or what kind of DPS she churns out? |
So ultimately what she contributes is single target damage and single target soft control.
Still something I hadn't considered.
@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too
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With Time/ backing her, you'd almost never get anything from the PW if it's the same AI. |
Originally Posted by Oathbound
Defender Soul Mastery gets the Fortunata Mistress pet. She uses Telekinetic Blast, Subdue, Will Domination, Scramble Thoughts and Psychic Wail (which, if she follows the same AI as enemy Fortunatas she'll only ever activate when low on health (25%ish I think)).
So ultimately what she contributes is single target damage and single target soft control. Still something I hadn't considered. |
Still, might be worth it (going Soul) if you want to AV hunt. It does make the decision for getting Temporal Selection an easy one though.
I have some doubts about Time/Water/Dark as an Av fighter. Time doesn't have the big debuff available for AVs and Water is a touch suspect for single target in my book.
Course with Incarnates all things are possible.
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cold damge is one of if not the least resisted dmg types, between that and the 30-36 -res see water holding its own even without I abilities
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Originally Posted by Shadey_NA
With Time/ backing her, you'd almost never get anything from the PW if it's the same AI.
Still, might be worth it (going Soul) if you want to AV hunt. It does make the decision for getting Temporal Selection an easy one though. I have some doubts about Time/Water/Dark as an Av fighter. Time doesn't have the big debuff available for AVs and Water is a touch suspect for single target in my book. Course with Incarnates all things are possible. |
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Well, don't forget that most Avs will be resisting that pretty heavily too. However, I agree that cold damage is a good choice and you can get a pretty beast ST chain too.
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Originally Posted by Cheetatron
cold damge is one of if not the least resisted dmg types, between that and the 30-36 -res see water holding its own even without I abilities
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Dreaded Wail hits things freakin' hard.. i like to hit things freakin' hard... so.. id go Wail... SAVE THE WAILS!!!! - Solar_Lunata
Not sure which epic to take on my Time/Water Defender...
With Dark Mastery I'd have 33% Def to All with 43% Def to Energy/Negative, and Perma-Soul Drain for a constant 120% Damage buff. Plus there's the added bonus of Dark Consumption.
Soul Mastery, though, would allow me to Power Boost Farsight and softcap defense, but Soul Mastery's Soul Drain has twice the recharge as Dark Mastery's and a smaller damage buff, so I'd only get 96% Damage half the time.
So, which option would you take?