Captain Fabulous

Choose the "No F/X" option in the tailor, if available. Set colors to something very dark. Lower particle effects in the game's graphics options. Use a mod that uses reduced graphics F/X

I don't even bother with Arcane Bolt. Treat it like Kick/Boxing -- something you have to take but will never slot or use. The needlessly long animation time kills it for me. Seems like whenever I try to use it my target is dead before it goes off. Flares and Fire Blast are the way to go. Honestly, Spirit Ward is a better choice, even if it's something you'll only use occasionally (like AV battles). Cause that's better than something you won't ever use at all.

It's not a Blast set, so no. 😉

/powercreep

Yes, you should take Evasion. The end cost is pretty low (same as the other two toggles) and it's your only appreciable amount of AoE defense. Also a nice chunk of defense debuff resistance. Stalkers get a higher scaling resistance in Agile and Dodge than other ATs to make up for not having Lucky.

I don't seem to have this problem on my Tank. The target takes damage immediately after the effect hits. Not sure what could cause something like this.

Endurance is a scourge for nearly everyone (except Blasters, cause this dev team LOVES Blasters, like, a lot), so I hear ya. Dark is notoriously end-heavy too. If you're finding DC useful now then continue using it. You can always respec out of it later when you can devote more slots to end reducers (you'll likely need 2 in every attack and toggle) and global IOs that give +end and +recovery. Accuracy and tohit are different things. You can't slot powers for tohit, only accuracy. Tohit adds to your base % chance to hit, which results in your accuracy enhancements working better because they are multiplicative off your base. If at any point you see yourself wanting to consistently hit +2s or higher you're going to need both accuracy and tohit. Soul Drain helps with this because it also boosts tohit, but with so many critters having the ability to debuff tohit (and everything in Dark having a tohit check, which for Soul Drain is a catch-22 because you need to be able to hit critters in order to buff your ability to, um, hit critters...) you really can't have too much unless you're sticking to +1s. @Snarky is a pro when it comes to Dark Brutes. Perhaps he can give his 2 pints of blood here.

Just my 2 cents -- I would drop Dark Consumption and Teleport and take Maneuvers and Tactics instead. The high recharge and low damage on DC makes it not particularly useful as a damage dealer or end recovery power. Maneuvers gets you that much closer to softcap and as Dark is completely reliant upon hitting things Tactics will aid there. If you really must have Teleport I would drop Kick and accept the 15% reduction in damage to Cross Punch.

Steamy Mist is a great power. Anyone who says otherwise is a clown.

Try reinstalling it cause Mids is up-to-date. The correct database version is 2023.5.522.

I have quite a few homage characters. And I agree it's something of a fine line between a ripoff and an homage. I like to think mine are "inspired by". 😂 In my head canon nearly all of them are characters that would be part of the copyrighted character's "family" and not a copy of that character themselves, with their backstories constructed to fit the world of CoH. Then I have some that are straight up parody. And I can't forget the 4 SGs that are dedicated to anthropomorphized animal homage characters. Honestly I don't mind homage characters unless they are really an obvious straight up copy, both in look and name. Knockoff of a knockoff of a knockoff??? That might be a new record. 🤔

Depending upon AT, Weave with level 50 defense IOs is only an extra 0.8925%-1.275% defense for 1 slot, 1.7395%-2.485% for 2 slots, and 2.0468%-2.924% for 3 slots. It's really not worth it. I admit I do have a few builds where I've put 2 LoTGs into Weave (one extra slot), but it's only on characters that gets a 4.25%-5% base. Most of the time you just don't have enough extra slots to give up for ~1% defense each.

All 3 honestly. And then the two +3% DEF IOs you can put in Tough. Hover is a substitute for CJ if you're a flyer. Plop a LoTG in each with an end redux in Tough, Weave, and Maneuvers and call it a day. None of them are worth slotting for +DEF beyond the LoTG. In theory you could have CJ, Hover, and Stealth, with a LoTG in each for about another 7% defense (depending upon AT), but it's really not worth giving up so many slots.

This is the correct answer.

Plant/Nature is a no-brainer.

Thanks man!

If you're on a PC you could use uBlock and tell it to not load media files over a certain size.

Another +1 for Super Reflexes. The effects are really minimal, especially if you recolor them to black/black. Shield is also another good one with minimal VFX.

Oh I'm not saying don't use them, absolutely do. I'm just saying from experience you have to watch your end bar because there will always be that one time you expect it to proc and it won't.

When Performance Shifter procs, yes. But it's not 100%.

It looks like you're potentially already at the recharge cap so I don't think you're going to even notice the loss of one LotG.

It's a good power. I always take it. Ditch Vengeance.

WAAAAAAY overthinking it. The set names are just to be able to distinguish them from similar sets of other ATs. Dominators get Assault sets, Blasters get Manipulation sets, etc. But it's just a name. Pick whichever powers in any given set you wish.

Click the link I provided above. The character copy function is via the website, not the client.

I already have one, and had it since live