LEVELING BUILD? - Dark/Dark

[Vulpoid]

Hello, and sorry to bug you...

It seems that everybody races to 50 and immediately slots expensive sets.

I miss leveling builds,  and appreciate advice on what powers to choose and slot as I play through missions and story arcs.

By any chance does anyone have a Dark/Dark Dominator leveling build, or even just advice on SO slotting?

 

Thank you so much!

[Rikis]

I don't have access to Pines' right now at work. But some general advice:

 

Dark Control really only has two skippable powers, the immobilizers since Dominators don't need to set up containment. And even then, the AoE immob can pair nicely with Heart of Darkness. As for slotting, it really is better to start using the basic IOs at 25 rather than SOs, so you don't constantly have to replace them. There is some general slotting advice, 1 Acc (or two if it's an AoE with lower base accuracy), 2 of the mez (hold, stun, fear, etc), 1-2 of the recharge for long cooldown powers or 1-2 end reduction for powers that recharge quickly. I honestly have no idea how to slot Shadow Field as I give it procs as soon as I get it at level 26. Where others might disagree with me is with Haunt. I slot them for damage instead of fear, Dark Control offers plenty of control already. So I would do 1 Acc, 3 Dam, 2 Recharge.

 

I don't have any experience with Dark Assault, but with the amount of AoE control that Dark Control has, it'll give you plenty of opportunities to use and abuse Smite, Engulfing Shadows, and Midnight Grasp. So take them and slot them up. Again, generally speaking, you should be slotting 1 Acc, 3 damage, 1-2 end reduction and/or 1-2 recharge. And Life Drain could use at least one Heal.

 

Sorry, if I had Pines' I could be more specific.

[Vulpoid]

Thank you so much!

I appreciate your ideas and suggestions. :)

[Coyote]

Fearsome Stare should be slotted up for ToHit Debuff... its main purpose is to floor the accuracy of mobs while keeping them in place. Fear is not useful since you will be damaging them constantly.

 

Slotted up and with Gather Shadows active, Fearsome Stare plus Living Shadows add up to almost 40% or so ToHit Debuff, and Nightfall adds another 9%. Even without hard AoE controls, this can pretty much shut down a spawn for the duration of the debuffs, and by the time Gather Shadows wears off and you're using the base values for debuffs, the spawn should be smaller in size, with some of the mobs Held and others Confused.

[Vulpoid]

Thank you! I just got Fearsome Stare, so I will see how it goes.

[marex]

As Rikis pointed out get the melee attacks, the are awesome in the set. The dark power boost is a bit special because

it has a dmg buff too. Plus Midnight Grasp can take the dominator IO sets, so that you could add the +dmg or orb IO there

with a melee dmg IO set.

 

Add some macros to your list that can help certain things. You need to change it for your buiild but as an example for my fire/dark/ice I added:

 

/bind q "powexec_location target Sleet"

 

/bind e "powexec_location target Bonfire"

 

/bind r "powexec_location me Gather Shadows"

 

Sleet is from the epic pool so that when you press q you it will now cast on your target location and r will use the self buff.

Works with other powers too so in case you pickup Spring Attack from the leaping pool you could add it instead for the Fire Bonefire and so on.

 

 

In case you found the howling from the Umbra Beast later annoying you can silence the sound with a null file, no need to turn off the audio. There is a guide somewhere for this and works for any other sound you dislike too

 

 

[Vulpoid]

Thank you so much for this excellent advice!

I am Spooky Girl on Excelsior. I have yet to dabble in Macros, but those are some cool ideas. I will substitute my AOEs for the fire Ice ones ( went I get them, I am only lv 19)

I know how to substitute out sounds. My main was Ghost Owl, and I switched out all the sonic blast noises for actual owl cries.

 

Thank you for your help, and I am still looking for leveling power choices and slotting. I have not slotted anything yet, I am thinking of waiting until 22 and trying to afford lv 25 IOs.

[VoidWolf3]

As Rikis pointed out get the melee attacks, the are awesome in the set. The dark power boost is a bit special because

it has a dmg buff too. Plus Midnight Grasp can take the dominator IO sets, so that you could add the +dmg or orb IO there

with a melee dmg IO set.

 

Add some macros to your list that can help certain things. You need to change it for your buiild but as an example for my fire/dark/ice I added:

 

/bind q "powexec_location target Sleet"

 

/bind e "powexec_location target Bonfire"

 

/bind r "powexec_location me Gather Shadows"

 

Sleet is from the epic pool so that when you press q you it will now cast on your target location and r will use the self buff.

Works with other powers too so in case you pickup Spring Attack from the leaping pool you could add it instead for the Fire Bonefire and so on.

 

 

In case you found the howling from the Umbra Beast later annoying you can silence the sound with a null file, no need to turn off the audio. There is a guide somewhere for this and works for any other sound you dislike too

 

Marex would you mind posting a build? as I myself am keen on the idea of a Fire/Dark Dom and don't know why we don't see more /Dark as it is. I'm tossing up between /Dark and /Rad atm but i'm leaning more for /Dark for the -toHit and PBAoE that seems like it hits the hardest of any PBAoE (of 15+ feet :P)