Dark Armor vs Engy Armor

[Washuchan]

I was wondering if I could get some advice on you which power to use with boardsword. I was looking at Dark Armor and Engy Armor, but I have very little time using these powers and I have seen some good stuff done with Dark Armor, but I can say the samething about Engy Armor to. I was looking for the armor that would be better for the late game play, soloing pve, farming, tf's etc. Which one is better for overall game play and no PVP.

[hejtmane]

1 hour ago, Washuchan said:

I was wondering if I could get some advice on you which power to use with boardsword. I was looking at Dark Armor and Engy Armor, but I have very little time using these powers and I have seen some good stuff done with Dark Armor, but I can say the samething about Engy Armor to. I was looking for the armor that would be better for the late game play, soloing pve, farming, tf's etc. Which one is better for overall game play and no PVP.

They will both do fine I played with both back on live  Dark Armor you need acrobatics or IO's or combo deal with no Knock back resistance. The set is resistance base and you really still want to get softcapped s/l. The best scrapper set for Psionics and you have an option of cof or OG to help mitigate damage from minions.

 

Energy Aura is a defensive set easy to cap everything but negative energy has a +recharge to help your attack note the set has a taunt in that aura weaker much like Will Powers in that power. I personally skipped the stealth power but that is an option

 

They both have heals Dark Armor can be an endurance hog but can be worked around Energy aura less endurance intensive and an endurance renewal pbaoe

 

Energy aura easier to add 5 LOTG's for global recharge ; Dark Armor has an aoe damage aura

 

The end of the day it  really comes down to preference they both work and work fine.

 

I am to the point I would personally take energy over dark armor as a scrapper and I use to love dark armor had two level 50's DA on live in the old days.

[Washuchan]

Thanks for the heads up hejtmane. I have been playing coh from issue 0 just few a weeks after launch. I never got off my butt to really try out dark armor and then engy armor. Some of it was just being lazy and I had other characters I was playing. Again after doing some research and talking with other players I was going to give engy armor a run. So my plan is going with boardsword/engy armor/darkness mastery for this new character. So I was plan skipping the engy cloack and overload if i can. If not I will try and rework overload in my power set. This time i'm not going ot miss out.

[hejtmane]

2 hours ago, Washuchan said:

Thanks for the heads up hejtmane. I have been playing coh from issue 0 just few a weeks after launch. I never got off my butt to really try out dark armor and then engy armor. Some of it was just being lazy and I had other characters I was playing. Again after doing some research and talking with other players I was going to give engy armor a run. So my plan is going with boardsword/engy armor/darkness mastery for this new character. So I was plan skipping the energy cloak and overload if i can. If not I will try and rework overload in my power set. This time i'm not going ot miss out.

Those are easy enough to skip with a good IO build.  i really liked EA but as you see I got one to 50 in the old days when I remade my katana character I had some unfinished business with a level 28 katana/wp i never finished so that is my new project

Edited June 1, 2020 by hejtmane

[Without_Pause]

I would lean /dark more as a brute since resists work better on a higher HP pool. If you don't mind going Stalker, that's where I would lean with /ea and BS would hit like a truck coming out of Hide. BS/ea would still be great as a scrapper though with added in ATOs. I don't have many preferred defense sets, but I like /ea a lot. Just started working on /dark.

[r0y]

Dark Armor is for more advanced play.  Better grasp of set bonuses, proc'ing things out, etc.  EA is more forgiving.  I play and love both of them.

 

For a scrapper, I'd lean towards EA, as @Without_Pause mentioned, Dark Armor will do better on higher-hit point toons.

 

One thing about Dark Armor:  turn the Dark Regen (heal) into a PBAoE nuke.  Add a Theft of Essences +end proc, the rest damage procs.  You'll not be sorry.  It becomes part of your attack chain, and with enough mobs, a full end bar.  The heal is so ridiculously powerful, you really don't need to enhance the heal portion (think it's 30% base hp per mob!).  Maybe do 5 procs (1 being the +end, 4 damage ones) and a Acc/Dam IO from one of the proc sets (so you get a 2-set bonus, at least).

 

EA has to use Energy Drain a lot, thankfully it's easily perma.  Don't focus much on defense enhancement with energy drain, focus on end mod set bonuses.  The only defense I'd put in it is a LotG def/global.

EA's heal is crap on anything but stalkers, as the recharge is too long.  Very difficult to get near perma (for the end discount) on other ATs (e.g. scrappers).  Still, it's your only heal, so that's a bit of a drawback (the 120s recharge, esp. considering dark armor's 30s!!)

 

Both sets have a stealth power, functionally identical (you'll get about 6% def to all, same end cost).  EA is better because it layers in with the other defense-providing powers (which also provide a bit of resistance).

 

The other MAJOR benefit of Dark over EA is the Debuff Resistances.  Dark has no defense debuff resists (like EA does), but it has AMAZING end-drain/debuff resist (almost 70% endurance debuff and 70% recovery debuff).  EA has a less (25% each).  That's significant in end-game stuff.  Laugh at sappers, or "be concerned" about them.

 

I think DA is better for the exotic enemies:  Malta, Carnies, etc.  Stuff people don't really like to do.

I think EA is better for the standard enemies:  Council, Freaks, etc.  Stuff people often do.  YMMV.

 

I would love it if tanks for EA, but I can see why they don't.  It's a lot of power without having to work hard to get it (like DA can be).

 

[Frostweaver]

@r0y:

 

I would like to point out that the new power transfer chance to heal self, absolutely kicks butt when slotted into both ice and EA's Energy Drain. To the point where I sometimes just.... skip EA's heal altogether. (Not ice though! It's perma double HP!) although I don't do that often, since it's good for emergency spikes while the ED heal just keeps up easily with casual dps penetration.

Edited June 5, 2020 by Frostweaver

[r0y]

17 hours ago, Frostweaver said:

@r0y:

 

I would like to point out that the new power transfer chance to heal self, absolutely kicks butt when slotted into both ice and EA's Energy Drain. To the point where I sometimes just.... skip EA's heal altogether. (Not ice though! It's perma double HP!) although I don't do that often, since it's good for emergency spikes while the ED heal just keeps up easily with casual dps penetration.

Did it change recently?  Last I tested that proc it went off only 1 time, even in AoE situations, so I was getting ~90hp or whatever per shot.  It was so bad.  I was truly hoping it was awesome, but last I knew they limited that proc and "fixed" the sleep one to do the same (esp. in AoE's).

 

The only place I use the PT-proc is in a tanker's Stamina, for the every-10s hp heal (which is great on high-hp toons).

[JayboH]

On 6/4/2020 at 1:18 PM, r0y said:

I would love it if tanks for EA, but I can see why they don't.  It's a lot of power without having to work hard to get it (like DA can be).

 

Reminder that tanks have SR

[r0y]

47 minutes ago, JayboH said:

Reminder that tanks have SR

EA is so much more than SR!  Not just positional vs. typed, but EA has decent resists, but several utility powers to boot.  Sure, SR is the king of defense, but even with it's resistance scaling and def-debuff resists, there's not much else it offers by way of layers.  I believe EA is a more complete set, but I do love SR (when it works).

 

I think EA is spread out to cover more (and thus not as strong as defenses), where SR is sole-focused on one thing.  In the ATs they are available for, I almost always choose EA (e.g. Brute, Stalker, Scrapper, Sentinel).  I think I've played both on all ATs (well, never did SR on stalker) and EA feels more "secure" to me (e.g. should something go wrong, I have other layers to fall back on).

 

[JayboH]

22 hours ago, r0y said:

EA is so much more than SR!  Not just positional vs. typed, but EA has decent resists, but several utility powers to boot.  Sure, SR is the king of defense, but even with it's resistance scaling and def-debuff resists, there's not much else it offers by way of layers.  I believe EA is a more complete set, but I do love SR (when it works).

 

I think EA is spread out to cover more (and thus not as strong as defenses), where SR is sole-focused on one thing.  In the ATs they are available for, I almost always choose EA (e.g. Brute, Stalker, Scrapper, Sentinel).  I think I've played both on all ATs (well, never did SR on stalker) and EA feels more "secure" to me (e.g. should something go wrong, I have other layers to fall back on).

 

I've mentioned this elsewhere: I had (and have) an SR/Ice tank that can handle the incarnate trials as well as any other - now sure, Ice has a lot of mitigation, and I use Rebirth Destiny, and just in case I have Melee Hybrid but I really never use it.  You can use regular IOs to reach incarnate softcap and since there is zero fear of cascade failure with SR I just thought I would mention it as a reply to your comment about "It's a lot of power without having to work hard to get it"

 

...oh, also, it's not like SR has no resists

 

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by JayboH

[hejtmane]

On 6/7/2020 at 7:21 PM, JayboH said:

I've mentioned this elsewhere: I had (and have) an SR/Ice tank that can handle the incarnate trials as well as any other - now sure, Ice has a lot of mitigation, and I use Rebirth Destiny, and just in case I have Melee Hybrid but I really never use it.  You can use regular IOs to reach incarnate softcap and since there is zero fear of cascade failure with SR I just thought I would mention it as a reply to your comment about "It's a lot of power without having to work hard to get it"

 

...oh, also, it's not like SR has no resists

 

 

My only thing is I can not play /sr scrapper any more; I am addicted to taunt auras and EA has one kind of weak compared to some but has one in entropic aura and scrapper /sr none

[Frostweaver]

There's pretty much no reason Tanks shouldn't have /ea.

They have Ice armor, which is very, very similar, and they have Shield defense, which is somewhat similar, and SR, which is nothing like it but still leads to some mean tanks.

Tanks REALLY need EA so they can prove that they are as strong and Pretty as Brutes. WM/ICE is close, but just not the same.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Frostweaver

[JayboH]

On 6/8/2020 at 7:44 PM, hejtmane said:

My only thing is I can not play /sr scrapper any more; I am addicted to taunt auras and EA has one kind of weak compared to some but has one in entropic aura and scrapper /sr none

That's an easy port fix of course...

[Microcosm]

On 6/5/2020 at 5:51 PM, Frostweaver said:

@r0y:

 

I would like to point out that the new power transfer chance to heal self, absolutely kicks butt when slotted into both ice and EA's Energy Drain. To the point where I sometimes just.... skip EA's heal altogether. (Not ice though! It's perma double HP!) although I don't do that often, since it's good for emergency spikes while the ED heal just keeps up easily with casual dps penetration.

So I was playing around with this proc on one of my ice characters, and I noticed that it heals for the same value when I have hoarfrost up and when I don't. I calculated it out, and the heal is doing 5% base, unenhanced of max hp. I expected 5% of current max hp. Am I new to the party on this? If you're running at hp cap that's a significantly smaller heal.

[Frostweaver]

yeah, I think that's a bug

 

[ninja surprise]

On 6/7/2020 at 4:15 PM, r0y said:

EA is so much more than SR!  Not just positional vs. typed, but EA has decent resists, but several utility powers to boot.  Sure, SR is the king of defense, but even with it's resistance scaling and def-debuff resists, there's not much else it offers by way of layers.  I believe EA is a more complete set, but I do love SR (when it works).

 

SR also has +recharge, +speed, massive resistance to slows, and I know I'm forgetting something else. At softcap fighting Carnies, Malta, Knives of Artemis, and most Psi attacks, you'll barely notice they are any different than any other foe and run across a giant pile of Caltrops like they aren't even there. Rarely get hit with an end-drain. But if you do, and you kept Elude, Elude is like hitting yourself with Speed Boost, Accelerate Metabolism, and two big purples all at once topped with a double backflip.

On 6/8/2020 at 6:44 PM, hejtmane said:

My only thing is I can not play /sr scrapper any more; I am addicted to taunt auras and EA has one kind of weak compared to some but has one in entropic aura and scrapper /sr none

And that's my big hang-up these days too. I was primarily a Scrapper on live, then gave Tanks a try and just love being an aggro magnet so I don't have to go chasing everything so I can punch it. I wish Scrappers got Taunt; Confront just isn't the same.

 

Back on topic: I got a Battle Axe/ Energy Aura Scrapper pretty high before the visual fx of the shields really started to annoy my eyeballs. Especially that pulsing stun shield, couldn't run that at all.

[r0y]

1 hour ago, ninja surprise said:

SR also has +recharge, +speed, massive resistance to slows

Yes, these have all been mentioned; however, with SR you really end up taking the entire set.  My SR's skip Elude, and have since long ago, back on live, when perma elude went away...

 

I was comparing defense-based sets.  Sure SR is the only set with "damn fine" def debuff resists.  Period.  The resistance to slows is similar with other +recharge (Quickness) powers that other sets also offer.  It's a great 1-slot power.

 

Here's what I tell SR tanks/scrappers/brutes:  go do Apex and see how you do w/o backup on that first mission in the sewers.  Let me know.  I've done it on my SR/Dark tank, but just barely.  It ain't easy.  Now do it on an Rad Armor or Dark Armor.  Like night and day.  Even WP shines in there.  And of course Bio.

 

SR is fine, but it's not really great.  It's great if you stick to PI and run radio missions, sure.

[Bopper]

On 6/11/2020 at 8:59 PM, Microcosm said:

So I was playing around with this proc on one of my ice characters, and I noticed that it heals for the same value when I have hoarfrost up and when I don't. I calculated it out, and the heal is doing 5% base, unenhanced of max hp. I expected 5% of current max hp. Am I new to the party on this? If you're running at hp cap that's a significantly smaller heal.

It's always been intended to be 5% of Base HP. All other +HP procs work that way, except Panacea.

[Microcosm]

4 hours ago, Bopper said:

It's always been intended to be 5% of Base HP. All other +HP procs work that way, except Panacea.

Seems like a description change is in order then, although it seems like it would be fine to work off actual max hp.

[Bopper]

38 minutes ago, Microcosm said:

Seems like a description change is in order then, although it seems like it would be fine to work off actual max hp.

At base HP, slotting it in Stamina makes it better HP/sec than every regen unique (PT proc > +25% regen tissue) and in some cases its better than Panacea. That applies for every AT.

[Sir Myshkin]

On 6/15/2020 at 8:14 PM, Bopper said:

At base HP, slotting it in Stamina makes it better HP/sec than every regen unique (PT proc > +25% regen tissue) and in some cases its better than Panacea. That applies for every AT.

Gotta piggy-back this with the possibly-missed-obvious for those reading in: PT: End Mod + Heal Proc set bonuses an additional 6% Regen, toss in Perf. Shifter +End and ride the wave of new 'Stamina Standard'.

 

This has become my go-to slotting on Health and Stamina:

[hejtmane]

9 hours ago, Sir Myshkin said:

Gotta piggy-back this with the possibly-missed-obvious for those reading in: PT: End Mod + Heal Proc set bonuses an additional 6% Regen, toss in Perf. Shifter +End and ride the wave of new 'Stamina Standard'.

 

This has become my go-to slotting on Health and Stamina:

I been using those too as much as possible for a while know I always take the Body mastery pool so I been dropping Panacea there most the time  and as soon as  the power transfer heal came out I put it in my builds; I guess I was a little ahead of the curve

[Sailboat]

On 6/5/2020 at 6:51 PM, Frostweaver said:

@r0y:

 

I would like to point out that the new power transfer chance to heal self, absolutely kicks butt when slotted into both ice and EA's Energy Drain. To the point where I sometimes just.... skip EA's heal altogether. (Not ice though! It's perma double HP!) although I don't do that often, since it's good for emergency spikes while the ED heal just keeps up easily with casual dps penetration.

 

I slotted the Power Transfer chance to heal self into a Scrapper's Energy Drain and so far I haven't seen any effect from it.  Am I doing it wrong or is my sample size too small?   Should I move the slot to Stamina instead?

Edited June 17, 2020 by Sailboat

[ninja surprise]

On 6/15/2020 at 1:46 PM, r0y said:

Here's what I tell SR tanks/scrappers/brutes:  go do Apex and see how you do w/o backup on that first mission in the sewers.  Let me know.  I've done it on my SR/Dark tank, but just barely.  It ain't easy.  Now do it on an Rad Armor or Dark Armor.  Like night and day.  Even WP shines in there.  And of course Bio.

 

Just did it on my SR/Electric Tank without problem. 

My Rad/Rad Brute isn't high enough yet. It's too squishy during leveling and I get frustrated and switch back to my Defense toons.