Dark Melee, Brute or Tank?

[Snarky]

Dark Melee.  I have my opinion but i want to hear what you guys think.

 

Better on a Tank or a Brute?

[One IV All]

I'm hardly as qualified to talk about DM as you are Snark. That being said, my ASSUMPTION would be Tanker. You get slightly better radius on the AOE's. I have an Elec/DM Tanker, and Shadow Maul is very nice on it. Tankers tend to be able to abuse procs a bit better as well, and proc'd out ToF is very nice.

I've also ran Dark Melee on a Scrapper, DM/Shield. I'm just realizing I've never used it on a Brute, so I might just have to change that!

[twozerofoxtrot]

The Radius and Target Cap increases on Shadow Maul and Touch of Fear are everything. 

 

Tanker, hands down.

[Erratic1]

On 4/30/2024 at 1:31 AM, twozerofoxtrot said:

The Radius and Target Cap increases on Shadow Maul and Touch of Fear are everything. 

 

Tanker, hands down.

 

Is there some offensive powerset not getting area enhancements on a Tanker, or is it Tanker hands down for every powerset?

 

It might be, but thought I'd ask for clarification.

[ZemX]

25 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

Is there some offensive powerset not getting area enhancements on a Tanker, or is it Tanker hands down for every powerset?

 

There are exceptions on a power-by-power basis, but Super Strength is an example of a powerset that gets no area size improvements on a Tanker.  That's because Foot Stomp is already a 15ft radius for everyone.  Other Tanker PBAoEs are either 8ft or 10ft radius and they get a +50% bonus on Tankers.  Foot Stomp stays 15ft.   Hand Clap also is 15ft radius, so it is excluded as well.

 

That said, both powers get the Tanker higher target cap benefit of 16 for PBAoEs.  So they still get some benefit from Tanker inherent.

 

Titan Weapons has three cones and one PBAoE.  Only the PBAoE gets expanded (from 10ft to 15ft radius).  The cones are all already 120 degrees and excluded from getting any bigger.  Shadow Maul in Dark Melee is a little weird in this respect in that it DOES go from 120 degrees to 180 degrees on a Tanker.

[Warboss]

Tanker forum, so I'm going Tanker... But I guess it's more a matter of what you want to do. Overall I enjoy playing Tanks more than Brutes, so the choice is easy for me. The two do play  much differently though.... more ST damage and have the ability to build to Tanker level defenses? Go Brute. Better AoE effectiveness and built in ability to cap Defenses? Go Tank. Attending Tanker Tuesdays? Go Tank. Attending Brutal Thursdays? Go Brute.

 

And, I guess more to the OP's question - Tanker! I've played the set on both ATs (and Scrapper), and (as previously stated) it's Tanker for me.

Edited May 1 by Warboss
Because I tend to ramble...Squirrel!

[Snarky]

8 minutes ago, Warboss said:

Tanker forum, so I'm going Tanker... But I guess it's more a matter of what you want to do. Overall I enjoy playing Tanks more than Brutes, so the choice is easy for me. The two do play  much differently though.... more ST damage and have the ability to build to Tanker level defenses? Go Brute. Better AoE effectiveness and built in ability to cap Defenses? Go Tank. Attending Tanker Tuesdays? Go Tank. Attending Brutal Thursdays? Go Brute.

 

And, I guess more to the OP's question - Tanker! I've played the set on both ATs (and Scrapper), and (as previously stated) it's Tanker for me.

I was leaning to Brute.  (and My Dark/Dark Brute has 1450 badges...)

 

Then i played them both.  I do still love the ST damage on the Brute.  But... Everything else is better on the Tank.  Shadow Maul works.  (and is much weaker on a Brute) Touch of Fear is better.  Soul Drain!  Dark Consumption, Dark Regeneration, The damage Aura, Fear Aura, Stun Aura, better resist values, higher health, better ATOs.  

 

So... just rounded a 1000 badges on the Tank lol.  Should finish Ouro badging today, then about half goldside to Flashback, and 2/3? of story arc achievement through Ouro.  Sigh.  Grind monkey grind!

[Warboss]

Shadow Maul on Tanks is incredible fun, you can hit the guys all the way in the back while they're still trying figure out how to get into melee. Dark Consumption (oops meant) Soul Drain  a Tank is pretty awesome as well (but DC works well too. I think I proc'd it on one of my DMers... gotta' remember which one).

 

I can see leaning Brute, iirc, they can really become an ST buzzsaw (in fact wasn't that FotM build back on live....?).

Edited May 1 by Warboss
because I'm me...

[twozerofoxtrot]

3 hours ago, ZemX said:

There are exceptions on a power-by-power basis...

 

Zem hit them nearly all, and you sort of see the logic where the arc changes are applied. A few more of the outliers are Mace's Crowd Control (already a 180 arc) and Battle Axe's Cleave (deliberately kept to a tight 3' radius).

 

But just as Zem said, the target cap bonuses still apply and that's the real sauce of mass Tanker damage.

[Haijinx]

Scrapper 

[kelika2]

Tank, you get all the dots before level 21

[biostem]

Does the value of the -tohit vary significantly between tankers and brutes? (Not at my gaming computer to check)

Edited May 1 by biostem

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, Haijinx said:

Scrapper 

There is a Dark/Invul Scrap in my future.  Hard ST damage specialist I hope.

[Snarky]

39 minutes ago, biostem said:

Does the value of the -tohit vary significantly between tankers and brutes? (Not at my gaming computer to check)

Just a slight bit lower on Tank surprisingly.  Brute and Scrappers match, and tank is about 90%? of those values on power with -tohit.  Another oddity of CoH

[Erratic1]

13 minutes ago, Snarky said:

There is a Dark/Invul Scrap in my future.  Hard ST damage specialist I hope.

 

That was my original Scrapper and third character Live.  He was glorious. I really wondered back before proliferation how an Inv/Dark Tanker would fare. Guess I could find out....

Edited May 2 by Erratic1

[Snarky]

4 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

 

That was my original Scrapper and third character Live.  He was glorious. I really wondered back before proliferation how an Inv/Dark Tanker would fare. Guess I could find out....

In my opinion a well built Invul/Dark Tanker will be the hardest pvE player driven toon to kill in 99% of situations.  I rad Dark/Invul Brutes on live.  Insane how strong they were. I have a Dark Invul Tank and he is all that, and a side of chips. Just does not fit my concept for vampire main as well as Dark Dark Tank.  

[Warboss]

Wasn't Shield/DM one of the original AV killers? Drag the mobs over to power Soul Drain then pound on the AV (use SD maxed, I think Hover + CJ to max Def (might be able to modify that build now)).

[Erratic1]

Shadow Maul at the door in Posi 1 is just too over the top.

[Warboss]

10 hours ago, Erratic1 said:

Shadow Maul at the door in Posi 1 is just too over the top.

 

Lol, I'm going to have to run that now to see... where did I put my Rad/DM....?

[Warboss]

14 hours ago, Snarky said:

In my opinion a well built Invul/Dark Tanker will be the hardest pvE player driven toon to kill in 99% of situations.  I rad Dark/Invul Brutes on live.  Insane how strong they were. I have a Dark Invul Tank and he is all that, and a side of chips. Just does not fit my concept for vampire main as well as Dark Dark Tank.  

 

Yeah, Invuln/Dark has been a monster from way back. Invuln/Stone with Fault recharged up is pretty tough too. Elect/Dark is pretty nasty too (especially with the End Drain thrown in).

[Erratic1]

I ended up making a Rad/Dark as I have done Inv and Elec paired with Dark previously on Scrapper and Brute. 

[Captain Paragon]

I love my Invun/DM Tank. He is unstoppable (pun intended). Been away from the game since August last year and will be back next week. Already planning a Rad/Dark or Elec/Dark character. Not sure whether to run them as brute or tank though as I don't want it to feel too similar to my Invun/Dm tank but I love the bigger AoE of SM & ToF. 

 

Decisions decisions but happy to be back in the game again. 

[mcdoogss]

Brutes just dont seem to be in a great place right now in general.  For Dark in particular, I have a T4 incarnate D/D Tank and SM/TOF provide pretty decent AOE along with having better defense/resist stats than a similarly built brute would have.  I think the only melee sets Brutes have a relative synergy with are DOT heavy sets like savage given the Fury mechanic boosting dots (crits dont really iirc)

Edited May 25 by mcdoogss

[Erratic1]

Got my Rad/Dark to 50 last night. 

 

While I do have a tentative plan for IO'nig her, I am going to take a little time to play and confirm how I feel about how she plays before rushing to enact a plan.

[Owenknowone]

On 6/10/2024 at 7:50 AM, Erratic1 said:

Got my Rad/Dark to 50 last night. 

 

While I do have a tentative plan for IO'nig her, I am going to take a little time to play and confirm how I feel about how she plays before rushing to enact a plan.

I am interested in knowing what you think of the pairing.  I have Ice/Dark but I feel Rad/Dark might be amazing,  Thoughts?