Suggestions for a Staff/Dark S/L farming build?

[KalChoedan]

A friend of mine has just got on to Homecoming after not playing since sunset. He's just learned about AE farming and decided he wants to make himself a farming toon, but he has a penchant for playing unusual/difficult builds so he wants to do it as Staff/Dark. I've not played around with either of those powersets and I don't really know how either work, so I have no idea how to help him so I thought the folks here might have some clues.

 

Does anyone have any ideas for a staff/dark build for S/L farming? Is it feasible?

[SeraphimKensai]

It can work, although as an active farmer. If I'm using a brute to farm, I typically like to have it have dual damage auras so if I put it in afk mode, it still does a pretty decent job clearing mobs.

 

Rad/Dark or Rad/Elec work well in that regard for S&L. Otherwise you can also build a Rad/Fire to do S&L as well, and then you can get the bonus of burn. 

 

Why I like the passive mode, is I'll have the farmer working while I'm logged on with another account actually playing content or running TFs. So it's a nice means of getting some decent drops.

[KalChoedan]

Yeah - personally I am a fan of Rad/Fire - but my friend just wants to do something a bit different 🙂

[Outrider_01]

On 2/11/2022 at 1:23 AM, KalChoedan said:

unusual/difficult builds so he wants to do it as Staff/Dark.

you are going to need to ask him if he wants fire farm or lethal/smashing, dark armor has the same amount base. Fire you can cap easier, as you will use purples or winter which have 6% stacked up 5x.

[KalChoedan]

I think he's going for S/L just because he can get there with cheaper IOs for starting out. I can see him switching to fire after he's started to make a bit.

[Outrider_01]

15 hours ago, KalChoedan said:

I think he's going for S/L just because he can get there with cheaper IOs for starting out. I can see him switching to fire after he's started to make a bit.

Try this, its relatively cheap on the farmer build to be affective, but requires 2 Brute AT sets so it may run 350m influence (you can hodgepodge anything if you wanted to even cheaper).  Its PVE capable as well farmable, 45% defense smash/level to run +4/8 and I don't know anything for the forms but any one of them looks to be effective; I mainly play SM/Fire for my farmer so understand a combo set up.  No hasten, realized the build has very few clicks so its not really necessary,

 

Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom

-- Slotted for damage procs

-- Endurance heavy on Cloak

-- Oppressive Gloom is light as CJ on endurance, but has a -HP penalty with it. Luckily dark regen has a short recharge and very powerful heal.

 

Spoiler

This Villain build was built using Mids Reborn 3.1.2.5
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Staff Fighting
Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Precise Strike -- SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprUnrFur-Dmg/Rchg(3), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), SprUnrFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5)
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(7), TtnCtn-ResDam(7), TtnCtn-EndRdx(9), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(9), GldArm-3defTpProc(11)
Level 2: Guarded Spin -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Obl-Dmg(17), Obl-Acc/Rchg(17), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(19), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Obl-%Dam(21)
Level 4: Death Shroud -- SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBrtFur-Dmg/Rchg(21), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), SprBrtFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25), SprBrtFur-Rech/Fury%(25)
Level 6: Eye of the Storm -- Mlt-Acc/Dmg(A), Mlt-Dmg/Rchg(27), Mlt-Acc/EndRdx(27), Mlt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29), Mlt-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29)
Level 8: Staff Mastery 
Level 10: Murky Cloud -- TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(31), TtnCtn-ResDam(31), TtnCtn-EndRdx(31)
Level 12: Obsidian Shield -- TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(33), TtnCtn-ResDam(33), TtnCtn-EndRdx(33)
Level 14: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(34)
Level 16: Dark Regeneration -- NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(A), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(34), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(34), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(36), NmnCnv-Heal(36), Acc-I(36)
Level 18: Super Jump -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A)
Level 20: Cloak of Darkness -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(39)
Level 22: Boxing -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(37), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(37), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 24: Tough -- TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(39), TtnCtn-ResDam(39), TtnCtn-EndRdx(40)
Level 26: Innocuous Strikes -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(42), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(42), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Obl-%Dam(43)
Level 28: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def(40), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(40)
Level 30: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(43), RedFrt-Def(45)
Level 32: Sky Splitter -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(46), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(46)
Level 35: Cloak of Fear -- CldSns-%Dam(A), PrfZng-Dam%(48), GlmoftheA-Dam%(48), EndRdx-I(48), EndRdx-I(50)
Level 38: Oppressive Gloom -- PrfZng-Dam%(A)
Level 41: Superior Conditioning -- PrfShf-End%(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- PrfShf-End%(A)
Level 47: Acrobatics -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(50)
Level 49: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(50)
Level 1: Brawl -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(11), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(13), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13)
Level 1: Fury 
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(15), Mrc-Rcvry+(15)
Level 1: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Combo Level 1 
Level 1: Combo Level 2 
Level 1: Combo Level 3 
Level 8: Form of the Body 
Level 8: Form of the Mind 
Level 8: Form of the Soul 
Level 30: Double Jump 
------------

 BEWARNED! This build is endurance heavy, you cannot run all of these toggles unless you have incarnate which I didn't select as its up to the player.  You can turn off Assault and be ok or you both Assault + Cloak of Fear.  Acrobatics is good for missions, if farming shouldn't be needed unless you are running something with KB/KD/KU.  If using in a PVE mission, turn off 2 or it will drain you fast.

 

Note, if you custom build a map; avoid lethal attacks so make sure you check the powers for the bad guys.  Make sure there is no -def or KB/KD/KU; the -def works against you and DA lacks any KB protection inherently (Acrobatics).  Its easy to customize a map to avoid some of the negative aspects of your power combo; Electric armor can do a map with Energy Melee / Energy Blast bad guys, couple of +KB IO protection, a smash/lethal defense to check against the smashing portion of the Energy attacks (split SM/ENG); do not use Electric Blast or Electric melee to avoid endurance sap.

[Outrider_01]

Actually, the last 2 powers are up to you. you could drop acrobatics and assault than move the 2 free slots to the resist/defense toggles to slot some +KB protection.  Can pick any 2 powers for the last 2 options but they would be unslotted mostly; like maybe the laser eyes for a cheap range attack.

[Linea]

Wet Noodle Melee / Fire Armor Brute will be twice as efficient at farming vs Staff/Dark.  I ran an SO only Staff / Fire on live, just because you can.  You can complete self-boot-strap with Staff or Kat / Fire.  I used Kat/Fire to self-boot this time around when HC opened.

 

That said here is a translation of an old Kat/Dark of mine into Staff/Dark.  It should be able to Fire Farm or SL Farm.  One guarded spin will seal up M/L.  Sealing up M works well enough depending on which farm map you run.  Kinetic Dampeners will also seal up SL defense and E resists while you're at it making guarded spin obsolete outside of pseudo-DDR uses.  If you use Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Demonic/WeddingBand/KitchenSink as well as dampeners, then resist to all but Toxic will be capped more or less all the time.  Or at least all the time that it matters.  Resist capped with the best melee heal in the game 8-)

 

This was not intended as a farming build, but instead as a general all purpose durability build.  You can also easily manipulate the build for more M or SL defense, but since defense gets stripped without DDR, I prefer to cap resists first.  (out side of farms, you're plenty safe in most farms.)

 

Staff Dark Brute - Black Cat - Mu 3d - [i25].mxd

Edited February 14, 2022 by Linea

[King Mob]

I'm said friend!  Appreciate all the suggestions and insight - cheers!

 

[Thrax]

You can farm with a ton of stuff. Do what you wants. My ta/a def can s/l solo farm as a nice side effect. I can farm on my staff/wp brute. Not fast but it’s super safe.