Dark Armor w/ Kinetic Melee or Energy Melee Opinions, Tips, and Ideas wanted!

[DrBasics]

Looking for some insight into which secondary to pair with Dark Armor. Kinetic Melee vs Energy Melee. I'm not currently interested in any other powersets due to character concept. I don't have a lot of experience with either set, so can anyone expand on which is better overall, or which shines in AoE and/or Single Target?

 

Also, I really like the animations for Kinetic Melee, but I hear once a person actually starts playing the set, they become annoying.

 

Also (again!), The AOE on Energy Melee seems very small radius and cone comparative to other sets, how does this effect the set?

 

Thanks everyone!

[Sovera]

KM's low key strength is in how you can slot a Force Feedback proc in its AoE. In AoE situations this is constantly going off which speeds the whole build. But neither KM itself nor DA really have anything worth speeding (except Burst itself) with Dark Regen already in a very low timer (though it would reach some absurd 10-11 seconds or so Dark Regen is already at a decent 13-14 seconds to begin with). Burst's AoE KD is also some easy soft mitigation with the mobs bouncing off their butts.

 

KM's damage is low key decent with a pretty darn heavy proc-based approach to make up for this (I actually have a Fire Armor/KM build in my signature you can pick apart for that purpose) to make up for this. I remember getting some 3:30 pylon times which is 30 seconds worse than my current FA/MA, but it also only had one -res proc where MA had two. I've moved on from -res procs due to not finding them useful for play outside of pylon tests and I don't know how both would compare in terms of damage without that advantage but we can see it's close.

 

KM also primes for fast animations outside of Burst. The idea is to stick with the T1, T2 and T3 since the T9 has an absurdly long animation time. The rotation was, if I remember correctly, T3, T1, T2, T1. Repeat. The fast animations are, IMO, more pleasant since if we whiff it doesn't hurt as much. On the other hand we are speed maniacs to kill something.

 

It exemplars better with all attacks available soon, even though Burst is only for level 28. Perhaps you can squeeze in Repulsing Torrent and with an Overwhelming Power slotted in you'll have two AoEs you can spam and keep mobs on their butts. Repulsing Torrent has a pretty narrow 45 angle though, and even with the Tanker inherent it will only go to 60-ish. It's too narrow for me so I didn't take it, but I had Burn to lean on.

 

 

 

EM is the current best ST set we get. Without -res procs my current downs a pylon in about 4 minutes (3 with) and EM did it in 3:15 without -res procs. But, it also has a pretty good interaction with Dark Armor in that the stuns peppered though EM (all the attacks carry a chance for it, including 30% in the AoE) stack with DA's Oppressive Gloom stun. So you can jump into the fray and have a good chance to be surrounded by stumbling mobs as they get repeatedly stunned by AoE and ST. ST alone is enough to make even AVs stumble drunkenly when outside of purple triangles, and Oppressive + Whirling has enough to straight off stun a boss as well (not reliably since only 30% chance for a stun in Whirling, but math backs up that it is pretty damn good mitigation).

 

EM's AoE is pretty poor if you can't fit both PbAoE and cone. Just Whirling is an exercise in frustration to whittle down +1 mobs, but I've reached a point I can't play anything than Fire Armor to press a button and melt half a spawn so take it with a grain of salt. The cone has a huge 120 angle making it a lot more appealing to fit into the build. It also carries a 20% chance for stun, so, again, Whirling = chance for stun, Power clash = chance for stun, Oppressive Gloom I'm not sure if it's a chance or an automatic thing, though by itself it will only work on minions.

 

EM has some long animation in TF but the rest is fine. The rotation I was using is Total Focus, Bone Smasher, Energy Transfer, Barrage (Energy Punch would be better but I could only fit it at level 30 which defeats the purpose), Bone Smasher. Repeat.

 

 

That said DA doesn't hugely need mitigation when it heals to full on two mobs so both secondaries are down to what you want.