Help with ??/Pain or ??/Kinetic

[Project]

So I currently run a level 25 Fire/Dark Corruptor. And I must say I'm a bit disappointed. The guy pack a punch. Fire does what it promises, however, it's all it does. There is no CC in the set at all, and Dark has some nice synergy (Slow power + Rain of Fire) but ultimately I die A LOT compared to my other toons. He is very squishy and it is very hard to deal with tough enemies as they just kick me around like a ragdoll. 

So was think of going Pain or Kinetic, but I havn't done those before, so whats the ups and gains, and what do they pair well with and why?

As far as I can see Pain has some nice self-healing and both group buff on dmg and resistance and debuff to the enemy, but the last power is a single buff to a team member, and not useful when soloing.

Kinetic seems more rounded, some middle tier powers for only friendlies, but overall it beefs your own dmg and debuffs the opponent. 

But which is more... fun and also what works really well? (I like synergies in my sets 🙂 doesn't have to be Top of the damage chart or something like that, but some synergy and some sensiblity in CC (as fire has zero and it's bugging me greatly (I recently made a Gravity/Seismic Dominator. Dude is throwing people around like dolls, and it's a lot of fun :D)

[TygerDarkstorm]

To start with, what are your goals with the character? Pain & Kin both lean themselves more towards grouping (though they can be played solo, of course). Kin brings buffs that pretty much everyone loves and likes to play up close in melee range; min/max with Kin is to go Fire/Kin.

 

Fire/Dark is also a very solid/strong pairing. You should be getting recharge slotted into Tar Patch and dropping that as often as you can. You should be able to strafe/kite through your tar patch. Take Howling Twilight and wield it offensively; I believe the stun on it is auto-hit. You also have Fearsome Stare for CC; blast that and then single target groups down if your AoE isn't spicy enough to down 'em safely.

 

If you still want to go Pain or Kin (I mean, we've 1000 slots, try 'em all!), then Pain you can pretty much pair with anything. It's a heal set. If you don't want to do Fire, Kin also pairs well with Electric for a sapper style build. But Kin is another that goes with pretty much any blast set that plays well in melee.

[Project]

Thanks - And true /Dark does have some various effects, but none of them are useful against bosses and above. Hold power, only for LT, fear power fine against bigger groups but it doesn't last that long, slow power is rather small, but very effective.

But overall, I would like to team up more going forward (as there are more players to do so with anyways :))

[Uun]

21 hours ago, Project said:

I die A LOT compared to my other toons. He is very squishy and it is very hard to deal with tough enemies as they just kick me around like a ragdoll. 

If this is happening you're doing it wrong. Dark Miasma is one of the safest sets in the game. Are you using Darkest Night? It provides a huge damage debuff and a substantial tohit debuff. Fearsome Stare provides an equally strong tohit debuff (and should be slotted for tohit debuff, not fear). Between the two you should be able to neuter any spawn (including bosses). Your heal (Twilight Grasp) provides more damage debuff and tohit debuff. Once you get Dark Servant at lvl 30, you'll have even more tohit debuff.

 

As far getting knocked around, slot a -KB IO. Steadfast Protection and Karma can both be slotted in Shadow Fall, or Blessing of the Zephyr can be slotted in any travel power.

[Project]

I skipped the healing power (might have been a mistake) but yeah darkest night is great, except for the very taxing end consumption 😞

I might be doing it wrong, but it just seems that it's not really working out for my playstyle. I'll beef him up to level 32 to see where things are going though.

[Duckbutler]

I just bumped a thread talking about Fire/Dark because I didn't know this one was also related. I personally found it to be a blast. I had a necro/dark MM back on the live servers and, thanks to bodyguard mode on MM, she was pretty much a tank. The combination of -toHit from Darkest Night, Fearsome Stare (slot for -toHit), and the Dark Servant is what really did it. The thing to look out for is when you're either punching up against 54's and sidekicked to 49, or up against an AV. Then they shrug off a chunk of the debuffs and I think the math is less favorable than if you had a similar amount of defense.

 

I skipped the single target hold in my current Fire/Dark build. I do not intend to take it unless something goes wrong and I'm looking for a fix.

[TygerDarkstorm]

5 hours ago, Project said:

I skipped the healing power (might have been a mistake) but yeah darkest night is great, except for the very taxing end consumption 😞

I might be doing it wrong, but it just seems that it's not really working out for my playstyle. I'll beef him up to level 32 to see where things are going though.

Why would you skip the heal power? It's one of the most powerful heals in the game, keeps you alive, and also provides debuffs to the mob you're using it on. Use Darkest Night on your hardest target.