Dark Armor build options

[Metatheory]

Obviously there is no right or wrong way to build out a character, but I am hoping to stimulate a bit of discussion (with or without builds) about building Dark Armor scrappers because there are a lot of options, perhaps more so than the majority of other sets, with regard to specifically which layering to shoot for. Obviously the direction of travel is somewhat influenced by the primary set which can include benefits such as generating defense, crowd control which may be complementary to powers in /DA’s arsenal, etc. Additionally, incarnates, particularly Alpha slot come into play as well.

Dark Armor has solid resistance to most damage types, energy aside, with the caveat that it cannot exceed more than 75%. So a lot of the toughness which is inherent to tanks, and a lesser extent brutes who have to work harder to cap it, is absent from scrappers and there ain’t squat we can do about it directly. Generally pushing the resists as high as possible is a good idea, but is it worth to push for very high energy resistance from set bonuses?

Generally the second layer of mitigation is provided by its heal, Dark Regeneration, which is extremely effective, especially in groups of minions/lts, but is less dominant vs single hard targets. Dark Regeneration is a good example of the options we have. Pretty much regardless it needs to be slotted for some endred and some accuracy, but curiously it doesn’t need to be slotted for healing effect and can instead be slotted purely for AoE damage or as a proc bomb, including damage types, -res, +end, KD, even +health effects for the crazy out there. It can be 6-slotted, hybrid slotted, or just enough to cover accuracy and end issues. Generally recharge can be covered by global recharge, but you can also throw in hasten/alpha/rechred slotting to keep this important power up as much as possible. And its importance as mitigation is a very strong argument for making sure that recharge debuffs are covered by slow resistance where possible.

Dark Armor also brings defense (and stealth). With Cloak, hover/combat jump and weave and a few defence SOs achieving 15% def is a piece of cake. And, it’s def-ALL as well, which means we keep options open for how to build in more def if that’s the way we decide to go. While a complete lack of DDR is an issue when relying on def with a /DA character there is plenty of content where def debuffs are not common and building for some def on /DA character is generally a good idea I believe.

As I see it the options with a /DA are to build for melee defense OR S/L defense. Additionally it may be possible to prioritise E/N defense as a way to cover the energy resistance gap. These are pretty much all achievable; it just influences which IO sets should be slotted, but pretty much all scrapper primaries are a blend of melee single target, melee AoE and possibly also ranged AoE which give plenty of IO slotting options, and +def is also provided by several resistance sets. I am very interested to hear what people think about the relative advantages and weaknesses of pursuing one defense method over the others and how to achieve the best coverage.

Then there are the crowd control powers. As I see it these are all good. You should probably take one, maybe two. Primary symbiosis and theme are important considerations. Slot availability may also play into the thinking if Cloak of Fear is the choice, as it is not really usable as a one-slot-wonder.

Finally there are the ancillary pools which contain quite a lot of good options for adding more mitigation to /DA. Most commonly considered are Body (for endurance management tools) and Soul (DPS/+def boost), but there are other flavorful options too such as Leviathan (Hibernate), Weapon (Caltrops), and Dark (theme/-Acc).

So what about it scrapper forum? Would love to read some thoughts about build options for /DA, and hopefully pick up some tricks and discover a new thought or two.

 

 

[Meknomancer]

I played a few /dark scrappers, slot heavy is how i see them, they also tend to be tougher to survive on than brutes and even more so with tanks (obviously) but without significant damage to back up the squishiness. I don't see scraps in a good place right now unless your going for /bio possibly /sd although the tank still looks better as you'll be hitting more stuff.

Recharge is essential for dark regen but as you say , you lose out on places to slot for def/res which again tanks don't suffer so much from but with all AT's you need a ton of acc+end red in the power to make it useful theres not much left for procs. I usually end up with melee defence its easier to build for, slotting for s/l and looking at kinetic combats crap accuracy makes me sad as i feel like i have to throw in extra bits to make up for the set and i'm already chucking a ton of slots in the secondary as it is. I like oppressive and fear but once your running all those toggles you almost have no choice about the epic pool (unless your one of those players that always runs musc/ageless and relies on blue insps and recovery serum for lower content) I ended up scrapping the scrappers and brutes they're sitting somewhere on a server i no longer play on. Down to a dark/staff tank and a dark/fire.

[Without_Pause]

I think any primary which offers disorients, Stone and EM, will work well with it. Primaries with lower end cost, Claws, Savage, and Staff will work well. Rad will be great for AoE but both the animations aren't going to be kind if you need to click on the heal asap.