Shadowfallen TNG: Tremble in fear of what you. Can't. Hit.

[Argentae]

So my first projects when I discovered Homecoming were:

Lavan: Fire/Storm 36. My favorite project I never quite finished on live servers because of altitis.

Shadowfallen: Dark/Dark 47 The main distraction towards the end as I'd been yearning for a Dark Control for years.

 

Also recreated my original main (Argentae: Mind/Kin 26 still a tactical control grandmaster class) and a few selected other projects like Veridicane: Plant/Storm 20 <- I know what she grows into, late blooming * cough* with Carion Creepers and Tornado/LS. Super fun.

Gaea's Revenge: Beast Master/Kin 39 MM <- lot of fun but can't handle really large spawns nearly as well as Shadowfallen.

Styxian: Dark/Psi Dominator, oddly my only Dom so far. Pyropsius Fire/Psi was my Villain main, one of the early advocates of PSW back before it was (justifiably) rebalanced. My only Permadom IIRC.

 

Anyway, today's topic: Dark/Dark Controllers and the *POWER* of soft control.

 

Seriously, I'm not sure if anything can stack as much -Tohit as Shadowfallen and her brethren?

 

I've never played a Control primary character where the synergy between primary and secondary so rendered the Status effect control so optional. My first time through with the original Shadowfallen, I took her all the way to 50, did DA content (which was hugely thematically appropriate), and generally played her like a normal control primary, AOE stuns were her mainstay in the late game with ST controls as appropriate and the army of pets (went Leviathan then too because Waterspout is just under appreciated by most people that haven't played much /Storm, love the knock UP and the -Def is lovely).

 

For Shadowfallen TNG, I took a step back and really LEANED into the -ToHit. Egads. Not sure when I last used an AOE Stun despite the fact that I have two (and Howling Twilight is a DANG good Swiss army knife of an AOE control).

 

I've slowly come to the realization that I was ignoring the real power of the build, which is amazing given how effective it was before. Fade is a hugely powerful AOE +Def(all) that stacks so well with -ToHit it seems OP.

 

Almost everything in a full large spawn attack chain stacks -ToHit and so do all the pets. Fearsome Stare slotted with just two -Tohit SO applies about -21 ToHit debut and becomes an alpha eliminating nigh perfect opener, Living Shadows drops another -7.5 -Tohit right off the bat, so you have -28.5 which stacks with the +9.4ish Def from (unslotted) Fade and +3.75 Def from Shadow Fall for a combined -42ish to the chance for mobs to hit you AND the entire spawn is trembling instead of fighting, giving you plenty of time to set up Darkest Night on the Boss (now at -57 or more) or centrally located Lt to add ANOTHER -15 ToHit (unslotted). 

All that is before Umbral Beast (Ms O'Leary) and Dark Servant (Fluffy) stack in their AOE -ToHit and Haunts 1 and 2 start stacking their ST version on your chosen target (they that must die first).

 

The long cones of FS and LS work better than a circular AOE with the geometry of a majority of spawns while still working well for clumped up circulation spawns as long as you hit from the edge of your range.

 

The real kicker came when I looked at Shadow Field and realized that it's more useful as a (surprisingly powerful) -ToHit AOE than as a hold. IIRC, it's another -15 (unslotted) over a large AOE and lasts for like a minute? That puts that trembling Boss (and most of the mobs) at -72 (without counting the -ToHit from Fluffy and Ms O'Leary) to hit me, and that's with nothing but FS slotted for -ToHit, and ZERO IO sets and global bonuses. 

 

Anything that DOES get though is already mitigated by the -Dmg of Tar Patch, and a good hit with Soul Absorption (which works off of mobs AND DEAD BODIES) can make you a pocket /Regen as well and making End a non-issue.

 

If another spawn aggros, or a surprise Boss shows up, you still have *plenty* of reserve mitigation left in the bag, and Pets everywhere to pull the aggro in another direction, while you get the situation back under control.

 

Shadow Fall works so well with Fluffy and Ms O'Leary to let you set everything up geometry wise that it feels like cheating.

 

So, now that I've evangelized sooooo much about how Dark/Dark just oooooozes soft control mitigation, I'm starting to get serious about late game build options. This is obviously a build that will be able to handle +4/8 spawns once it gets FULLY mature (the second Boss at +8 is too irritating on just SO enh and no incarnate). 

 

I'm thinking LS may be well suited to slotting up with procs, I think I can get one from a immob set, one from a ranged AOE set, one from a -ToHit set? Any others?

 

Bile Spray is a major AOE damage source so will probably take a full set (maybe Ragnorok? Picked up one of the Rag recipes last night, which is what started me think I'm about ready to start collecting Sets.

  

FS is probably a -ToHit set with one or two Procs tossed in? Maybe Dark Watcher and Frakenslot?

 

Any thoughts on the plethora of pets etc? Maybe the +Def pet global?

 

Fade (other than LotG +Def)? Shadow Fall (other than LotG +def)?

 

I don't know that I need to build much for Def given all the above, some would be nice, but I think the primary goal is +rech and maybe dmg from procs in AOE attacks to increase her ability to mow down large spawns solo.

 

Thank you for your time and attention, and I hope I've encourage someone to give Dark/Dark a second look, it won't disappoint! 🙂