Dark Melee and the lack of "oompf"

[Mezegis]

So I love the tool set for Dark Melee, self heal, damage buff, -tohit secondary effects, its great!  I hate the lack of "oompf" the powers have.  Titan Weapon, Super Strength, Street Justice and more just feel more potent when the animations go off, heck, even the much maligned Kinetic melee feels better then doing some finger waggling.  

 

Is there any way/mods that would allow me to see different animations when I play?  I dont even care if it adds on more attack timing, I just want the set to feel more impactful.

 

Thanks!

[Player2]

13 minutes ago, Mezegis said:

So I love the tool set for Dark Melee, self heal, damage buff, -tohit secondary effects, its great!  I hate the lack of "oompf" the powers have.  Titan Weapon, Super Strength, Street Justice and more just feel more potent when the animations go off, heck, even the much maligned Kinetic melee feels better then doing some finger waggling.  

 

Is there any way/mods that would allow me to see different animations when I play?  I dont even care if it adds on more attack timing, I just want the set to feel more impactful.

 

Thanks!

You attacking with darkness.  It shouldn't feel as impactful, it should feel almost... stealthy.

[Excraft]

Dark Melee doesn't really have the "big hitters" like other sets have which take huge chunks of HP from NPCs with each hit.  I always looked at it like this -  sets like MA or SJ or EM are meant to kill stuff quickly.  Dark Melee is meant to make them suffer while pommeling them to death. 

[Snarky]

A LOT of Dark's hardest hitters are DoT or have a DoT element.  Not All.  Dark Melee has one big attack and it is DoT.   Some people think Siphon Life is not an attack power.  For it's animation it is a solid attack power that heals nicely.  But it is not an OOMPH.  It is more like a ... solid attack.  

 

I run a lot of Dark.  It does not have what you are looking for, Ranged or Melee.

[DougGraves]

It is a "flaw" with the game that the animations and themes are tied to the effects.  So even though I love the look of dual blades I don't play it because I don't like the powers.

 

You just have to live with it.  But with so many powersets you should be able to find a set that you love the theme and the effects.

[UltraAlt]

23 hours ago, Mezegis said:

Is there any way/mods that would allow me to see different animations when I play?  I dont even care if it adds on more attack timing, I just want the set to feel more impactful.

 

Best shot is to mix in some power pool  or START powers.

Fighting will add some more classic fighting animations with chance for knockdown/stun.

Jump kick from leaping also does knockdown.

Personally, I like mixing in the Sorcery pool with Dark Melee - the Arcane Bolt gives you a ranged attack and it charges up for additional damage in addition to having a chance for knock down.

 

I also pretty much always mix dark melee with dark armor. Taunt them and fear them. 

Lots of fun for me at least.

[Riverdusk]

Have to disagree, I find it has 'oomph' enough for me, and feels very 'punchy'.  It is one of the best 'feeling' sets to me.  I like its feel a lot more than street justice personally. 

 

However, that is only if I take both shadow punch and smite.  I know a lot of people skip shadow punch, and when I do that I feel that lack of punchiness and is no longer as fun of a set.  I also find midnight grasp is good as a big hitter and can often one shot things (although I typically play as a scrapper or stalker, so critting with it certainly helps).

 

So that'd be my suggestions, try it with all the actual punches (shadow punch, smite, and shadow maul), and try it with a scrapper or stalker if you haven't already.  Makes all the difference to me.

 

Edited June 4 by Riverdusk

[Herotu]

On 6/3/2024 at 9:09 PM, Mezegis said:

So I love the tool set for Dark Melee, self heal, damage buff, -tohit secondary effects, its great!  I hate the lack of "oompf" the powers have.  Titan Weapon, Super Strength, Street Justice and more just feel more potent when the animations go off, heck, even the much maligned Kinetic melee feels better then doing some finger waggling.  

 

Is there any way/mods that would allow me to see different animations when I play?  I dont even care if it adds on more attack timing, I just want the set to feel more impactful.

 

Thanks!

I am a big fan of the "feeling" you get from some powersets, and I did notice this with Dark. I wondered why I stopped playing it, and you've taught me!

[Jimpy2]

5 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I also pretty much always mix dark melee with dark armor. Taunt them and fear them. 

Lots of fun for me at least.

I like it too, but endurance sucks. Not devastatingly so, but you have to keep watching it until you either go Physical Perfection, Harmonic Mind, or enhancement sets.

[UltraAlt]

2 hours ago, Jimpy2 said:

I like it too, but endurance sucks

 

Not to mention getting knocked up and down and all around.

[Jimpy2]

On 6/4/2024 at 11:15 PM, UltraAlt said:

 

Not to mention getting knocked up and down and all around.

My dark/dark tank has acrobatics. Something like 11 toggles in total

 

[UltraAlt]

9 hours ago, Jimpy2 said:

My dark/dark tank has acrobatics. Something like 11 toggles in total

 

There are set enhancements (https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Blessing_of_the_Zephyr:_Knockback_Reduction_(4_points), https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Karma:_Knockback_Protection, https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Steadfast_Protection:_Knockback_Protection)  and other set bonuses that help mitigate knockback as well.

[Jimpy]

On 6/6/2024 at 10:22 AM, UltraAlt said:

 

There are set enhancements (https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Blessing_of_the_Zephyr:_Knockback_Reduction_(4_points), https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Karma:_Knockback_Protection, https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Steadfast_Protection:_Knockback_Protection)  and other set bonuses that help mitigate knockback as well.

I know, and some of my toons use them, but I figure if my endurance is going to suck, I'm going to own that fact.

[Black Talon]

A while back I decided to replicate an alt I had, Back In The Day, who was a Dark Melee/Dark Armor Brute (blueside), and realized that, under the current mathematical arrangements, he had some advantages (and disadvantages, to be sure) that none of my other power-sets did.  Now, at level 50 with a full set of IOs (How did I pay for those?  IO, IO, it's off to scrap we go...), he's just about the only guy who can take on the Carnie bosses, and Sappers, to a large extent, without fear of being End-drained at a moment's notice.  One of the trade-offs for this has been that I have to allot a considerable amount of time for him to do the end-of-mission boss scraps; even with Soul Drain (when he activates that, I think of the Coming to America Soul Glo commercial - wish I could have that on auto-play when the button get hit), he takes an inordinately long time to put the punks into the cement.

 

Other melee-oriented types I've got have a specific three-power combination in the boss scraps; rinse and repeat, because those three attacks have the highest DPS available and anything else simply is going to fall into the category of diminishing returns.  The Brute...well, after Soul Drain, he's gonna be hitting the three basic attacks in a row, then Touch of Fear, then Midnight Grasp, all for DPS and the purpose of wearing down buddy's chances of hitting on the riposte.  And will hit Siphon Life both for the regen and damage effects, should buddy get a few choice hits in.  And after Soul Drain recharges, go through the routine again.

 

Dark Melee/Dark Armor definitely has its advantages (at End 110, that's for g--dammed sure), but I would advise that there's a learning curve with the power-sets that many others avoid.  Take your time, be prepared for a lot of ER visits in the lower (pre-30) levels, and be assured that the forces of Darkness will rise...

[UltraAlt]

On 6/8/2024 at 3:27 PM, Jimpy said:

I figure if my endurance is going to suck, I'm going to own that fact.

 

I can't argue with that dark/dark is an end hog.

[Sovera]

On 6/9/2024 at 4:39 PM, Black Talon said:

A while back I decided to replicate an alt I had, Back In The Day, who was a Dark Melee/Dark Armor Brute (blueside), and realized that, under the current mathematical arrangements, he had some advantages (and disadvantages, to be sure) that none of my other power-sets did.  Now, at level 50 with a full set of IOs (How did I pay for those?  IO, IO, it's off to scrap we go...), he's just about the only guy who can take on the Carnie bosses, and Sappers, to a large extent, without fear of being End-drained at a moment's notice.  One of the trade-offs for this has been that I have to allot a considerable amount of time for him to do the end-of-mission boss scraps; even with Soul Drain (when he activates that, I think of the Coming to America Soul Glo commercial - wish I could have that on auto-play when the button get hit), he takes an inordinately long time to put the punks into the cement.

 

Other melee-oriented types I've got have a specific three-power combination in the boss scraps; rinse and repeat, because those three attacks have the highest DPS available and anything else simply is going to fall into the category of diminishing returns.  The Brute...well, after Soul Drain, he's gonna be hitting the three basic attacks in a row, then Touch of Fear, then Midnight Grasp, all for DPS and the purpose of wearing down buddy's chances of hitting on the riposte.  And will hit Siphon Life both for the regen and damage effects, should buddy get a few choice hits in.  And after Soul Drain recharges, go through the routine again.

 

Dark Melee/Dark Armor definitely has its advantages (at End 110, that's for g--dammed sure), but I would advise that there's a learning curve with the power-sets that many others avoid.  Take your time, be prepared for a lot of ER visits in the lower (pre-30) levels, and be assured that the forces of Darkness will rise...

 

I found Fire Armor to also be immune to Carnies (and Sappers) since Consume has nearly 100% endurance drain protection. It is recovery debuffing it struggles against and Super Stunners in particular.