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Darkness Help please
bluecenturion
Posts: 60 Arc User
Hi, new player here. I chose to make a Darkness Tank. I have leveled him to 13, and like it. But am unsure how tpo proceed.
My tentative build plan is:
1) Shadow Bolt
1) Shadow Blast
6) Shadow Embrace
8) Invulnerability
11) Spirit Reverberation
+ all purcchased already, and only slightly unhappy with Shadow Bolt, since I can grind most stuff easier just leaning on Shadow embrace.
Invulnerabilty is a must for me. My play style.
I have chosen Con/ (very sure) Ego, (pretty sure) and have no idea for the third stat.
My plan for the rest is:
14) Life Drain
17) Shadow Shroud
21) Ebon Void
25) Resurgence
30) have not decided, maybe Inertial Dampening Field?
35) Planar Fracture
40) Have not decided at all
My first questions are:
1) What should my super stats be? CON I know., the oher 2, hmmm.
2) Should I take Life Drain, which is the 1st Presence based ability in the build.
3) Should I not take Life Drain and lean on Resurgence instead?
4) Is IDF right for this build?
5) Is there a must have power I am missing?
6) Should I drop Shadow Blast and substitute Ebon Ruin?, or Keep Both, or Just use Shadow Blast as my main ST?
I am a pure PvE player, mostly a soloer except I like a good Task Force... errr, ok I'm from CoX, whatever you folks call Task Force equivalents. I solo'd the 1st of the 3 storyline 94xday) mission on a level 12 Behemoth (on easy/standard) It was painful, i lost all my stars so many times i was ready to scream, but I ground the whole thing. I enjoy soloing, but I know there are some dailies or something, so being an off tank for a team is a good role for me when I do team. I can lead tank if I know the content and the team knows their job, otherwise, no.
At 13 I am enjoying the build SO much. The Shadow Embrace is a dream cone, they mostly just run right into it, and it even kills Master Villains. The Energy Bar practically fills itself, with me having to Prime the pump once in a while. I took the Despondency Advantage on Shadow Bolt, and 2/3 ranks on Invul, but am saving the rest of my points in case i want to buff the 14th pick. I would almost drop Shadow Blast, except it is guaranteed Fear, and i am actually considering using it as my main ST attack.
Thanks for the help, I am really out of my depth building in this system.
My tentative build plan is:
1) Shadow Bolt
1) Shadow Blast
6) Shadow Embrace
8) Invulnerability
11) Spirit Reverberation
+ all purcchased already, and only slightly unhappy with Shadow Bolt, since I can grind most stuff easier just leaning on Shadow embrace.
Invulnerabilty is a must for me. My play style.
I have chosen Con/ (very sure) Ego, (pretty sure) and have no idea for the third stat.
My plan for the rest is:
14) Life Drain
17) Shadow Shroud
21) Ebon Void
25) Resurgence
30) have not decided, maybe Inertial Dampening Field?
35) Planar Fracture
40) Have not decided at all
My first questions are:
1) What should my super stats be? CON I know., the oher 2, hmmm.
2) Should I take Life Drain, which is the 1st Presence based ability in the build.
3) Should I not take Life Drain and lean on Resurgence instead?
4) Is IDF right for this build?
5) Is there a must have power I am missing?
6) Should I drop Shadow Blast and substitute Ebon Ruin?, or Keep Both, or Just use Shadow Blast as my main ST?
I am a pure PvE player, mostly a soloer except I like a good Task Force... errr, ok I'm from CoX, whatever you folks call Task Force equivalents. I solo'd the 1st of the 3 storyline 94xday) mission on a level 12 Behemoth (on easy/standard) It was painful, i lost all my stars so many times i was ready to scream, but I ground the whole thing. I enjoy soloing, but I know there are some dailies or something, so being an off tank for a team is a good role for me when I do team. I can lead tank if I know the content and the team knows their job, otherwise, no.
At 13 I am enjoying the build SO much. The Shadow Embrace is a dream cone, they mostly just run right into it, and it even kills Master Villains. The Energy Bar practically fills itself, with me having to Prime the pump once in a while. I took the Despondency Advantage on Shadow Bolt, and 2/3 ranks on Invul, but am saving the rest of my points in case i want to buff the 14th pick. I would almost drop Shadow Blast, except it is guaranteed Fear, and i am actually considering using it as my main ST attack.
Thanks for the help, I am really out of my depth building in this system.
Go Kill, Hunt Skulz.
Post edited by bluecenturion on
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Comments
For a tank, Summon Shadows can be a nice source of extra healing. They have an advantage that transfers life to you every time they hit an enemy.
Lifedrain is decent. It's not going to give you as much healing or damage as Devour Essence, but it does have the advantage of 50ft range. It's power hungry though. You should consider an energy stat like Int or Rec as your third stat to support it. If you're primary Ego, take the Insight advantage and go with Rec. If you're primary Con, go with Int and look into ways to increase your energy gain, like taking Dark Transfusion.
Have you considered Ebon Rift or Ebon Ruin? Rift is good for pulling enemies into your Shadow Embrace. You probably shouldn't take the advantage for Rift because your damage won't be high enough for the knock to be worth. Ebon Ruin on the other hand has a very nice damage debuff and good single target damage. It's quite a bit more power hungry than Shadow Blast though.
As for using Shadow Embrace, it's nice in easier content due to the large AoE size, but in Alerts you may find the damage lacking.
For forms, Invul should be enough to cover the small hits. Inertial Dampening Field might be worthwhile on an Aura of Radiant Prot or Defiance tank, but with Invul you should really be worrying about the very big hits, not making small hits even smaller. You can safely take Concentration here and let your Ego boost your damage to help you hold aggro, and it will help with sustaining LIfedrain too.
Ebon Rift is a no-no. It's too weak to be of any use. Yes, even the "do 'massive' damage and knock everything back a million miles" advantage isn't worth it.
Grabbing a SS like int or recov is nice, but I've found while playing around with my darkness/sorcery character you don't really NEED them. Give yourself a piece of gear with cost discount/cooldown reduction and slap a recovery mod onto a piece of gear and you already have about 75% equilibrium. Testing between SS Int and SS Pres with no int was only like a 5-6 energy cost difference.
As far as the rest of your stats go, if you're going to be a tank, why not grab presence? Increasing life drain's heal even more will be handy, since you'll be able to use it to draw aggro from both damage, crippling challenge, and healing. If you can get it powerful enough, you might not even need resurgence for a heal.
For energy, I'm hesitant to recommend Dark Transfusion only because you're playing the tank. The power will boost your max energy/equilibrium to near max and it can be used every 15 seconds, but it also makes it so you can't really be healed by anything aside from drain effects (Life Drain), so it would only really work out if your life drain is good enough to let you survive on your own for 15 seconds.
The rest I'm not sure I can answer. I don't really play tank characters.
Pinny Foxfang - 60 Guardian Fighter
Pinny Foxfire - 60 Scourge Warlock (Temptation)
On IDF, you already have some flat damage subtraction from Invulnerability, more will not help much. Inv will already reduce insignificant damage to 1, and adding the paltry amount IDF provides will not increase greatly the amount of enemies you can ignore. Further, defensive passives provide no damage boost, so NOT using a damage toggle in favor of IDF will not be a good tradeoff. If going range and minor SS Ego, use Concentration.
Since you seem to have little in the way of energy issues, how about 2ndary SS Dex; more crit chance is a good thing, as maximizing damage in CO involves crits, especially if you are not using an offensive passive and role. arri suggested Presence, which would also be a decent choice, for the reasons mentioned.
FYI, freeform characters get two more powers than Archetypes. I assume this also applies to a paid-for FF slot, if you went that route, but I cannot say that for sure.
You'll want a defensive click power, and Masterful Dodge is the best of these.
Speaking of dodge... the "secret" to building in CO is to stack bonuses. Defensively, that means stacking different types of defense. You already have flat damage subtraction from Inv. Inv and the "defense" stat give you damage resistance, which is a % reduction of damage. Dodge and avoidance are a different layer of defense. As you level, when you can pick up a primary defense item with +Avoidance, do so. Then, if it can be modded, put a Gambler's Lucky Gem mod into it (this boosts dodge).
Defense layers go like this: raw damage --> shields (like Protection Field and Mindful Reinforcement) apply --> dodge checked, if it applies, damage reduced by avoidance percentage; --> damage resistance applied ---> finally, remainder gets the flat damage subraction taken off (if this reduces the damage to 0, a minimum of 1 damage is applied).
Imo Conviction is a better heal than Resurgence. It will need to be used more often, but the thing is, it can be since it's CD is 6 seconds, and CD reduction from gear will lower that. It can be a good supplement to Life Drain for when you want to focus on using heavier hitting and/or AoE powers.
On Ebon Void, take the 1 point advantage Voracious Darkness, which will provide a lingering damage resistance buff.
Must have power? Not so much, but if you ever intend to grab aggro while teaming, you'll need a Challenging Strikes advantage on an AoE and a Crippling Challenge advantage on a single target attack. Darkness offers few options, with CS available only on Embrace and CC only on Shadow Blast. The problem with taking those advantages is that they will apply in team play even if you are not tanking.
Imo, Planar Fracture is a waste of a pick. It does not perform well, and has a long CD.
I been a long time leaving but I'm going to be a long time gone.
Willie Nelson
T.U.F.K.A.S. (the user formerly known as Scarlyng)
Wrong on the CO forums since November, 2008
On a lv40 character with 5 Int and no gear:
Devour Essence costs 26 + 20 energy / 0.5 sec
Lifedrain costs 33 + 25 energy / 0.5 sec
That doesn't look like 10 times more expensive to me, more like 0.2 times less expensive
But I just brought in Devour Essence as a benchmark, because it's the go-to lifesteal power right now. It doesn't work with a Spirit Reverb build
Ebon Rift lasts for twice as long as it is maintained. While its DPS during the commit time is low, its net contribution to DPS as a DoT is among the highest you can get in the Darkness set. For long fights like Gravitar, Ebon Rift helps a lot if you can risk standing within 50ft of her.
Like Ebon Rift, Planar Fracture has uses as a DoT. Trouble is, very few crowds of mobs stay still long enough or last long enough for it to be worth it. But picture something like:
You should get very good burst DPS with that combo. Not so practical on normal mobs, but on bosses like Bronze King/Vikorin/Grav it helps a lot. Probably better on a Radiance/Revitalize build though
On my Darkness character with 222 Int, 75 Rec and 139 Cost Discount:
Ebon Ruin costs 65 Energy per 2.5 seconds, or 26 Energy per second
Lifedrain costs 18 + 14 Energy per 0.5 seconds, or 29 Energy per second on average
Concentration gives 32 Energy per 4 seconds, or 8 Energy per second on average
Spirit Reverb gives 37 Energy per 3 seconds, or 12.3 Energy per second on average
So even in the best case scenario of always hitting a feared target, with Ebon Ruin I get an average energy deficit of 15 Energy per full charge, and with Lifedrain I get an average energy deficit of 34.7 energy per full maintain. These numbers will get worse with lower Int.
The reason the OP doesn't have energy issues right now is because Shadow Embrace and Shadow Blast are low energy cost powers, but especially on a non-Defiance tank build, energy will be an issue later on with the higher tier powers being recommended.
On Shadow Blast, I don't use Shadow Blast myself, but it's the only 100ft Fear applier, so it has its uses.
Is that accounting for Phletobomist or without? Pretty sure DE heals more with Phletobomist.
The reason I will level it flawed is I obviously have much to learn, and the topics brought up in this thread make me realize how much research I need to do to understand how to build strong for this CO universe.
Even my no brainer (to me) decision to use CON as the 1st superstat (based on my love of high HP caracters, tanking, and spirit Reverb) now seems like a decent possibility, but not the only good build choice or the obvious best. I will stick with it, because I know my playstyle, but I definitely appreciate the insight into other ways to approach this powerset for solid Tanking.
I did not know about the 2 extra powers for Freeform. At what levels do you get those?
The wiki is kind of thin. Sorry, but I am very used to the much loved old CoH wiki. It seemed that had a lot of people who regularly tended and added to it. (Can any user add to the CO wiki? I may put in the basic stuff when I find it, for me and other refugees.) The Freeform page could stand just one more paragraph or sentence about when you get those two powers for a total of 14. Also, I tend to be great at understanding formulas and horrid at remembering them. When I get a really good one (copied from smart peeps like those replying above of course) tacking it onto the appropriate page would be sweet.
One thing I could do with an extra power slot that I did not see mentioned is utilizing Grasping Shadows. I can pop that onto a field of out of the way minions at the start of a big fight. It has a good area, 100% fear, and does Dimensional Dot. End Battery anyone? In theory that seems way cool to me, but I may be wrong about if it is effective based on a dozen or more things I do not understand about the game.
I've got dozens of thoughts like that one going through my head right now, just about this one build. As I have time (1st week of Jan is rough for me, reports) I will try to figure out which is good, bad, ugly, and just plain noobthink.
Thank you so much for the pointers. This type of thoughtfulness required for a strong and clever build is one of the things I immediately started missing when...
Sorry, took me back to a dark time when I felt a great disturbance in the gaming world, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened. Uh, what was I saying?
Anyways, off to grab some levels and throw more experiments onto this thing. Cyas.
If you don't level past level 20, fixing your old skills will be relatively cheap. If you're gold, you get a free retcon at 40. Otherwise, it's around 550Gs to fully redo a character.
One thing you could try is to hit the Powerhouse at level 20 and experiment with different powers until you're happy with what you've found. At level 20 you should have access to all Tier 3 powers.
Primary Con is a good choice for a tank and a Darkness character. Don't worry about it
Try taking a look at the Powerhouse builder at http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html
It can be used that way, especially on weak spawns. The advantage of Ego Sleep is that it has a shorter cast time. No DoT though.
You're right about that. However it requires the target to be bleeding or poisoned for the extra healing. I prefer an always on 20% damage/heal boost (extra rank) over a situational 50% heal boost which is probably why I didn't think about it.
(Crit strike gear and mods can make even a character with 10 Dex achieve ~25% crit rate)
@CanisErectus- Scampering around, biting bad guys since July 2011.