Best Slotting for Dark Servant?

[VV]

My first time trying /Dark secondary and I have no idea how to slot Dark Servant. I am doing Plant/Dark, if that makes a difference. It takes such an odd assortment of sets, but Mids does not provide any details about it.

[Camel]

So I have mixed feelings about it. In the past, I slotted a 4 piece of Basilisk's Gaze for the recharge. But recently, literally every single one of my /Dark Affinity builds is rocking a 6 piece of Gladiator's Net. Not only does it offer a 7.5% recharge bonus, bit it also offers a AoE defense bonus. Which, recently, I've found to be a huge reason that all of my /Dark Affinity builds are able to reach 45%+ defense to all positions (Melee, Ranged, AoE), which is hard to do now since Fade no longer receives defense buffs from powers like Powerboost or Ageless.

 

[Parabola]

4 slot cloud senses including the proc seems ideal to me. Recharge bonus and enhancing tohit debuff which is kind of the point of fluffy.

[VV]

So, if he has a damage proc slotted, he will do damage,  but if he has no damage proc, he will not, is that correct?

[Camel]

7 minutes ago, VV said:

So, if he has a damage proc slotted, he will do damage,  but if he has no damage proc, he will not, is that correct?

His auto-power does minimal damage. You will hardly notice Dark Servant having procs or not, especially in content where you are teaming. A general rule of thumb is, as long as the set you are throwing in there offers good set bonuses, it's hard to go wrong. My personal opinion is that Hold, Heal and -To-Hit sets are far superior than anything else. But again, unless solo, you will hardly notice whichever set you put in it. My Fire/Dark rolls through content at +4x8 so quickly, Dark Servant rarely play a pivotal roll.

[Coyote]

8 hours ago, VV said:

So, if he has a damage proc slotted, he will do damage,  but if he has no damage proc, he will not, is that correct?

 

His Tenebrous Tentacles does some damage, but I think even slotted it's like 10 DPS and it's a DoT, so.... a 400 health minion would take 40+ seconds to kill. Not that a single Cloud Senses proc does too much, but at least it affects multiple powers so they add up to a much bigger increase from a single IO than you would get from a damage IO.

[VV]

This is all great stuff, thanks!

[Omega-202]

I usually go with 1 lvl 50+5 Accuracy and the Cloud Senses proc.  It doesn't add a ton of damage, but its something and does add up.  Pet procs will only trigger on powers that can be enhanced with that attribute and all of the DS powers are Tohit Debuff enhanceable, so all of his powers gain the proc.  

 

You could use him as a slot mule if you prefer.  4 slot Basilisk, 5 slot Doctored Wounds or Panacea, 5 alot Glimpse of the Abyss all give a recharge boost.  But generally, I dont find that he needs more healing, hold duration or fear duration.  

[Coyote]

That's why I use Cloud Senses, only 4 slots for a nice Recharge bonus, and it enhances the main ability that Dark Servant has (-ToHit), and adds the damage proc and some Accuracy. 6 slotting also gets you a Ranged Defense, though usually a /Dark Controller won't need to squeeze out set bonuses to have good defense.

[Camel]

5 hours ago, Coyote said:

That's why I use Cloud Senses, only 4 slots for a nice Recharge bonus, and it enhances the main ability that Dark Servant has (-ToHit), and adds the damage proc and some Accuracy. 6 slotting also gets you a Ranged Defense, though usually a /Dark Controller won't need to squeeze out set bonuses to have good defense.

While this is true, I've found that building for positional defenses is a lot more beneficial now. Fade no longer receives +special, so you need to purposefully build for 45% defense to Melee, Ranged and AoE. It's not easy, but you can get perma-hasten, Fade and Soul Absorption while also having 45% defense to all positions.

 

[Coyote]

19 hours ago, Camel said:

While this is true, I've found that building for positional defenses is a lot more beneficial now. Fade no longer receives +special, so you need to purposefully build for 45% defense to Melee, Ranged and AoE. It's not easy, but you can get perma-hasten, Fade and Soul Absorption while also having 45% defense to all positions.

 

 

It's true if you feel that you must be capped, but between Darkest Night and Dark Servant, there is enough -ToHit out there that 30% or higher to everything is effectively capped except against ambushes. Not that I'd turn down higher defenses, but they're not nearly as important to a /Dark Controller as they would be to, say, a /Cold or a /Thermal.

And against AVs you can nerf their damage and get mez protection from Clarion... and still give them about 10% -ToHit. So having 45% isn't necessary even against AVs, if you're a /Dark. Maybe against multiple AVs, where you can't stack as much -Damage, but in most cases against a single AV you nerf their damage, and against non-AVs you put out huge -ToHit debuffing, so... 45% is only needed against ambushes or adds where you may not yet have had the chance to debuff them.

 

Now, on the other hand, building for damage via procs often eats into set bonuses. But for Controllers, building for proc damage is a good way to push their usual low damage limits... so it's a trade-off between uber defenses but limited damage, and solid defenses but also solid damage. The more powers that you're able to slot up with procs, the closer you get to a real damage class... but the harder it is to get both good Recharge and good Defense stats. So what I'm saying is that a /Dark Controller has a better opportunity than most to walk the Path of Practicing Proctology, while still having very solid defenses.

[Uun]

4x Clound Senses / 2x Touch of the Nictus. You want to enhance tohit debuffs and heal (Fluffy uses Twilight Grasp quite a bit), both of which benefit the whole team. The tohit debuffs don't require a tohit check, but Twilight Grasp (as well as Petrifiying Gaze and Tenebrous Tentacles) does.  

[Dr Causality]

It really depends on what playstyle you want.    It's doesn't work nearly as well after the Fade nerf,  but /Darkness Affinity can be played as an effective pet class.     You can still get your team and  pets:

 

• +26% Def
• and between +11% to +33% Resistance

 

So if you fit the 4 Pet uniques in you can bump that up to:

 

• +36% Def
• and between +31% to 53% Resistance

With Powerboost that used to mean full Soft Cap Def,  so post nerf you probably need to go Hybrid Support now to make the pets as sturdy. 

 

This might not seem worth it at first glance, but it's not just Fluffy and Fly Trap, it also means sturdier Carrion Creepers and Lore pets, both of which can put out significant Dmg compared to most of your other Controller options.    Between the burst debuff of -500% Regen from Howling Twighlight, and the periods of stacked 2 * -30% Resistances from Tar Patch, Banished Pantheon's Ravager has the DPS to solo most AV's, you just need to keep him alive...

 

I'd rather play other sets like /Time after the nerf.  But if was going to try to salvage and play my /Darkness Affinity character again I'd definitely consider going Soul Mastery for 'Dark Oblit' to stack more -Tohit and Summon Seer for another pet, offering more slots for all the pet IO's.     It's a weird build but when you have Spirit Tree, Soul Absorption, Twighlight Grasp heal, buffed Dark Servant Heals, and the pets IO's stacked with all your +Def, +Res -Dmg, and -Tohit, all together your pets and Carrion Creepers become almost unkillable.  

Edited July 4, 2020 by Dr Causality

[r0y]

Here's how I would slot Dark Servant, based on number of slots dedicated to the power:

1 = Endoplasm Exposure (Endo, a Hami-O for Acc/Mez) OR Cloud Senses Proc

2 = Endo + Cloud Senses Proc

3 = 2 Endo + Cloud Senses Proc

4 = 4 Cloud Senses (always incl. proc)

5 = 4 Cloud Senses + Endo

6 = 4 Cloud Senses + 2 Touch of Nictus (Acc/Heal + Acc/End/Heal)

Unless you want a specific 5- or 6-pc set bonus, the above is a solid choice for the slots allocated.  As others have undoubtedly said, the Cloud Senses proc will get a lot of usage, as most of Fluffy's powers have a -ToHit component, and thus a chance to fire it off.  For 1-slot configurations, I think it's a toss-up between acc/mez and the cloud senses proc.

[Doc Ranger]

4 Cloud Sense. Pretty much always.

[Coyote]

10 hours ago, Doc Ranger said:

4 Cloud Sense. Pretty much always.

 

4 Cloud Senses in general for me, but sometimes 6 for the nice Ranged Defense boost. I'd use it on more builds, but /Dark Affinity is such a strong defensive set anyhow that I don't know if the extra defense is all that useful. Still, 3.75% for two slots is a steal.

[Doc Ranger]

Agree. If I have spare slots I will 6 slot it. 
 

[VV]

I went with the 4 Cloud Senses. Plant/Dark and it rocks. Kills stuff way faster than I was led to expect.

[Doc Ranger]

Yeah my Plant/Dk is ridiculous.