Keeping it Heavy (Grav/Dark) - Street Sweepin' in the RWZ

[nonfatalshootings]

Playing CoH is in some ways a meditative thing for me, doing what could seem repetitive to some is a way to let my mind veg out for a bit while I'm taking a break from work on the other monitor.

 

One of the things I enjoy is street sweeping in the north end of the RWZ, particularly in the NE corner, where 51-54 mobs spawn in close proximity and seem to drop lots of goodies.

 

I wanted a toon that felt relatively safe and that could arrest at a *decent* rate and Grav/Dark seemed like an interesting option.

 

My general approach to Rikti crowds goes like this:

• Summon Singularity and Dark Servant.
• Fire off Fade.
• Use one of Indomitable Will, Rune of Protection, or Clarion for mez protection.
• Use Enflame to set Singy on fire.
• Stealth in using +Stealth IO in Mystic Flight in addition to the stealth from Shadow Fall (you're invisible with this combo except for the drones).
• Use Teleport Target to summon Singy roughly in the center of the Rikti crowd (the mobs wonder around a lot and Singy's gravitational pull is so helpful). I have a bind where LeftDoubleClick Teleports Target to my location, and since last thing I did was Enflame Singy it's the active target. NOTE: you need the Sudden Acceleration KB > KD IO in Singy for this to work. This way Singy doesn't fling everyone away from itself and out of Enflame.
• Drop Tar Patch directly beneath Singy.
• If it's a lvl 54 crowd, drop Darkest Night on one of the bosses.
• Use Soul Absorption.
• Start cycling through Crushing Field, Lift, and Gravity Distortion on targeted boss.
• Typically lvl 51-53 Rikti are cooked by the time Enflame expires.
• lvl 54 Rikti last a while longer and I sometimes have a chance to stack another Tar Patch (it stacks, right?) and reignite Singy with Enflame if there's a couple bosses left or I just use Enflame on the one boss left.
• If the crowd is really spread out I'll use Wormhole to grab the ones far away to bring them to the campfire.
• Rinse and repeat.

 

My random observations:

• Singy is crazy tough, I'll go down before it does.
• Dark Servant sometimes lags behind and dances with a single Rikti boss or lt but generally doesn't die frequently, I just have to re-summon after every 1-3 encounters.
• Still learning the proc game. I check the combat logs occasionally, and if any of you have recommendations or thoughts I welcome them.
• This OCD routine of mine is incredibly safe. Unless the RNG is mad at me, I rarely feel in danger. If I'm paying attention, I can usually pound a bunch of green inspirations in time. Twilight Grasp provides a big heal, but it feels like I'm waving my arms through molasses if it's urgent.
• The safety comes from good defense, lots of -tohit, and pretty good resistance:
  • Fade, Shadow Fall, and Maneuvers provide a nice chunk of +def along with the +def IOs (Steadfast Protection and Gladiator's Armor).
  • /Dark has -tohit in so many powers: Twilight Grasp (not a lot), Darkest Night, Soul Absorption, and whatever Dark Servant decides to add.
  • Darkest Night also has a nice -dmg debuff for more mitigation.
  • Shadow Fall adds good resistance to energy and psionic damage (also negative but that's less relevant here), Mind Over Body adds resistance to psionic along with S/L, and Rune of Protection has resistance to all damage types.
• Tried World of Confusion, mainly for the +recharge set bonus from a confuse set, but I simply didn't need it as another form of mitigation and I generally found it underwhelming for the confuse and damage procs didn't seem to add much.
• Otherwise Psionic Mastery is a great choice for RWZ street sweeping for the +def to Psionic in Indomitable Will and the +resistance to Psionic in Mind Over Body.
• Singularity and Dark Servant essentially makes it feel like you're a party of three controllers and the two of them are incredible forms of mitigation through control and aggro management.
• The addition of Vanguard HVAS, Lore Pets (I chose Warworks), and Energy Fonts from the Superior Overpowering Presence IO also speed things up and at that point you're a bootleg MM. One note: Vanguard HVAS has an attack with KB which can be annoying for my preferred "everything sucked into Singy" strategy, but the additional damage more than compensates.

 

Edited: @Uun pointed out that I forgot to mention this whole thing is dependent on having the Sudden Acceleration KB > KD IO in Singy so he doesn't fling everyone away from itself and Enflame. Added above for clarity.

 

If you've read this far, thank you for taking the time! Any thoughts? Are you a RWZ street sweeper with a different approach or strategy? Please share 🙂

 

 

Edited April 27 by nonfatalshootings

[Uun]

It seems to me that using Enflame on Singularity would be suboptimal. Enflame has an 8 ft radius, while Singularity's Repel has a 9 ft radius (although if you have Singularity slotted with kb>kd proc, the kb chance is reduced to 20%). Would it work better to put Enflame on Dark Servant or one of the bosses?

[nonfatalshootings]

I do have the Sudden Acceleration KB > KD proc in Singy, so everyone stays in Enflame's radius and cooks. I should have mentioned that, thank you for pointing it out! You *definitely*  need that proc for this approach to work at all. Essentially the entire idea uses Singularity as a gravity well to suck everyone into Enflame and keep them there. Combined with Singy's repel (which becomes KD) and it's other powers, majority of the Rikti are popcorning for the duration of the encounter. And Dark Servant is holding and throwing out -tohit and occasional heals.

[Dango bobo]

Any chance you could post a build, looks very unique and fun to play