Focused Feedback: Powerset - Dark Armor

[AmbiguousOmen]

Any chance the name of "Obscure Sustenance" can be changed?

It sounds like my hero/villain likes to eat a brand of cereal that nobody has ever heard of.

Obscure is not a good synonym for dark in most cases.

 

I'd suggest "Grim Sustenance" instead, for a power that is meant to evoke the life-force of one's foes. 

[StarkWhite]

48 minutes ago, AmbiguousOmen said:

Any chance the name of "Obscure Sustenance" can be changed?

It sounds like my hero/villain likes to eat a brand of cereal that nobody has ever heard of.

Obscure is not a good synonym for dark in most cases.

 

I'd suggest "Grim Sustenance" instead, for a power that is meant to evoke the life-force of one's foes. 

 

"Obscure" comes from the Latin "obscurus" which means "shadowed" or "dark."

[Wavicle]

5 minutes ago, StarkWhite said:

 

"Obscure" comes from the Latin "obscurus" which means "shadowed" or "dark."

But we aren’t Romans. In English obscure means hidden or little known.

[Shin Magmus]

1 minute ago, Wavicle said:

But we aren’t Romans. In English obscure means hidden or little known.

   Clair Obscur is literally an oxymoron that is basically Light Darkness.  With all the popularity of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I am a bit surprised this knowledge is still so... obscure.  But yeah, I'd rather get all the numbers ironed out than try to fight with the dev team on a power's name this late in the game.  Soul Sustenance has alliteration if we're changing everything.

[StarkWhite]

5 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

But we aren’t Romans. In English obscure means hidden or little known.

It can mean those too. 🙂

Webster puts "dim, dark" as the primary definition, though.

[Wavicle]

1 minute ago, StarkWhite said:

It can mean those too. 🙂

Webster puts "dim, dark" as the primary definition, though.

 

To be honest, I find it fascinating that this definition is...somewhat obscure itself.

Oxford says "uncertain" or "hidden".

[StarkWhite]

17 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

 

To be honest, I find it fascinating that this definition is...somewhat obscure itself.

Oxford says "uncertain" or "hidden".

English suuuuuucks

[Ryko Nailo]

Release Candidate 1 Feedback and Bugs

 

Bugs:

• Long Description on Obscure Sustenance claims it needs a target to heal off of as well as no mention of endurance recovery, or debuff protection. "You can tap the dark essence of the Netherworld to drain a small amount of life essence from a single nearby enemy, thus increasing your regeneration rate. This power is mutually exclusive from Dark Regeneration."

• Soul Transfer's long Description doesn't clearly state that it revives you if you die within 45 seconds of using it while alive. (For the sake of space won't include it all as it's long)

• Debuff Resistances (ToHit / Recovery) from Soul Transfer scale to enemy Level making it very weak against higher levels and very powerful against lower

• Using Soul Transfer while alive then dying while still under the buff, upon revive does not stun any nearby enemies. Nor does the revive scale based on number of enemies. Not sure if intentional.

• Obscure Sustenance, the middle duration recovery and regen buff (The one that lasts 20 seconds) doesn't take buffs or enhancements. Not sure if intentional.

• Enhancing Cloak of Fear with Fear enhancements continues to claim it increases duration on tool tip on enhancement screen and does not show the increase in magnitude in detailed info.

• Cloak of Fear power tooltip is missing all changes, on Sentinels it adds "Low-Accuracy" after Toggle:
  "Toggle: PBAoE Foe Fear, -ACC"

• As Tank, attempting to slot Taunt Enhancements in Death Shroud, Cloak of Fear, or Oppressive Gloom in the tooltip has a blank base value. Detailed Info does correctly show it increases duration.

• Shadow Dweller on Sentinel claims to increase All Defense, provide Immobilization Resistance, and increase Perception in pretty much all areas from tooltip, to buff icon, to long description. It does not in fact do most of that (it does buff SOME Defense)

• Sentinels cannot choose Dark Regeneration at the same level Obscure Sustenance comes available (16), and instead becomes available at 20

Feedback:

Prefacing this by saying due to not being able to escape it, I have decided to read feedback on the changes here to see what points others / devs have made. I still stand by most of my opinions though I will say Monos King's point about PvP was a good point and one I didn't think of so I will adapt a bit to his ideas.

 

Dark Armor in General

On live, dark armor as a whole is in a pretty good spot with really four problems, first Dark Armor is ironically weakest to Dark powers due to Dark powers inflicting -ToHit and Dark Armor has no inbuilt -ToHit resistance which is only made worse by the fact Dark Armor REALLY needs to be able to hit for it to work well. Second, it had a small issue with two powers namely Cloak of Fear was simply trash and needed an upgrade while Oppressive Gloom didn't offer a reason to invest slots into it outside maybe Set Bonuses. Finally, it had a pretty big Knockback hole, but this wasn't the worst thing, there are plenty of ways around it, from Acrobatics / Hover, to IO sets, to just using Cloak of Shadows and Oppressive Gloom / Cloak of Fear to hopefully mez enough things that you'd hopefully just not get knocked. Lastly, due to the sheer number of toggles and Dark Regeneration's high cost, Dark Armor was pretty high on the end drain, which makes you have to juggle toggles a bit while leveling or investing in IOs. Overall Dark Armor was in decent shape and while it could use some TLC it was okay.

On test, the changes do help make Cloak of Fear not just usable but good. Oppressive Gloom is still left wanting. SOME Dark Armor users will see the -ToHit weakness fixed a bit but other will be left high and dry. Knockback has been solved in a fun and unique way. And the Endurance issues have been aided a fair bit with multiple solutions too. Soul Transfer becomes an absolute mess of a power although it's original use is left thankfully unaffected, and Dark Armor still has that -ToHit weakness there just only slightly resolved for some. I think the changes make Dark Armor good but there are still some unresolved issues as well as new problems created. I think it's close to being great but not there yet however I don't think it will actually take much to fix everything up nicely.

Cloak of Fear

This power has struggled due to high end costs, low accuracy, and low tick rate. These changes fix all that. Further they improve the power greatly by making the -ToHit autohit, a bigger aura, and the knockback protection / debuff added is just icing on the cake. It does feel a little odd to me to put knockback protection / debuff here but really tyhis is the only power that it could go on and not tilt things too much besides this is Cloak of Shadows or Obsidian Shield (if you can find a way to make the debuff not draw agro) and both those powers do plenty as is too. Cloak of Fear is already a debuff power so adding one more fits. The fact the knockback protection scales up isn't much an issue as this power can fear up to LT mobs by itself as well as lower's their accuracy, that's a huge amount of mitigation by itself meaning you should be taking very little knock back even on an alpha strike and at worst you might get knocked once early on the fight and that's it. I don't think Dark Armor needs to or should have it's knock back vulnerability completely fixed and this is more then an acceptable solution

 

Shadow Dweller / Tenebrous Regeneration
The added regeneration is a nice touch for both Sentinel and Stalker, though it's not game changing and might not make up for the loss of Death Shroud's added damage. Consolidating these powers in name is a nice touch in theory to make talking about the set as a whole better however the two ATs are radically different powers so the idea just falls apart. Shadow Dweller for Stalkers is Cloak of Shadows with Regeneration instead of having extra stealth since they already have Hide. Sentinels however already have Cloak of Shadows and thus their version of Shadow Dweller is missing almost everything aside from the newly added Regen, and the very minor defense to some types. Simply making Shadow Dweller the same on both ATs won't work as long as Sentinels still have access to Cloak of Shadows which as stated above is almost the exact same power and thus the powers would double up. I'd almost consider giving Sentinels Death Shroud over Shadow Dweller but I know Sentinels don't get Damage Auras. Still there's a wide array of dark powers out there, surely swapping Shadow Dweller for something would be better.

 

For Stalkers however, the change is simply a great little addition.

Soul Transfer

This power honestly didn't need any tweaks, it already is the best reset button for a fight with only Howling Twilight an equal contender. I understand with all the other self rez's getting function while alive that you'd want to give Soul Transfer something too. This however is just turning into a mess to be frank, it does so many different things that it becomes hard to figure out when you would want to use this power. Absorb doesn't pair well with Dark Armor compared to Max HP although it's highly useful in PvP, more so then even the rez portion of the power, although the short duration doesn't help it's case. The -ToHit resistance that Dark Armor desperately wants shouldn't be on a short duration long recharge power that is also your rez / mitigation. Further since you most likely want this resistance most when you are already debuffed and you need to HIT to get the resistance it just functions terribly. In addition to this there is also Endurance resistance but Murky Cloud already offers nearly capped Endurance and Recovery Resistance so this portion doesn't actually do anything.

 

This is just... a mess... If you want to make Soul Transfer have a useful function while alive, it's very simple. Make it a reverse Soul Transfer, use your HP to let it cause the same magnitude / duration Stun while alive as it would have while while dead, that's it nothing else needs to happen. Now you have the choice, try to preemptively stop a potential team wipe, OR a chance to recover if it's already going down hill.

 

Obscure Sustenance / Dark Regeneration

Overall I love this being a choice added to all ATs, and I think most of the changes to this power have made it a valid option, Dark Regen is better for spikes and potentially better healing over time, but Obscure Sustenance is nice for overall sustain and helping ease the endurance burden of the set. The fact it works without target and has regeneration resistance helps to ensure this also is a more guaranteed heal unlike Dark Regen that needs to hit to heal and can be debuffed. Where I think this choice gets thrown off balance is the addition of -ToHit resistance. Dark Armor desperately needs -ToHit resistance and Obscure Sustenance can provide a permanent source of it. It's a bit odd it's even there since, as mentioned earlier, it's Dark Regeneration that actually needs to hit and Obscure doesn't and by virtue of taking it you actually lessen the demand for Dark Armor's need for ToHit Resistance since that's one less "hit check" you need.

I think that -ToHit Resistance should be taken off of Obscure Sustenance and given to something else instead. Personally I think putting it on Oppressive Gloom would be the best choice, especially if it also gains a small ToHit bonus per foe in range, as that would solve that power's need for a reason to want to enhance the power as well. It could also justify making the health drain of the power be increased a bit so its actually more of a cost.

Dark Embrace / Murky Cloud / Obsidian Shield
An unexpected surprise to see Dark Embrace and Murky Cloud's recharge reduced but a welcome one as that greatly helps when reviving to be able to retoggle. Though I have to wonder why Obsidian Shield was excluded since Mez Protection is probably the thing you want up ASAP.

Edit 1: Cleared up some text to be easier to read. (I still suck at writing)
Edit 2: Added missing sentences to DA general feedback

Edit 3: Changed Soul Transfer suggestion to mention sacrificing HP on the stun while alive

Edited Thursday at 07:42 AM by Ryko Nailo

[Snarky]

On 6/9/2025 at 3:00 PM, Wavicle said:

 

To be honest, I find it fascinating that this definition is...somewhat obscure itself.

Oxford says "uncertain" or "hidden".

Es ist undeutlich...

[Captain Powerhouse]

8 hours ago, Ryko Nailo said:

• Using Soul Transfer while alive then dying while still under the buff, upon revive does not stun any nearby enemies. Nor does the revive scale based on number of enemies. Not sure if intentional.

 

Hello @Ryko Nailo

 

Thank you for the very comprehensive writeup. Just fixed multiple things based on it.

 

8 hours ago, Ryko Nailo said:

• Using Soul Transfer while alive then dying while still under the buff, upon revive does not stun any nearby enemies. Nor does the revive scale based on number of enemies. Not sure if intentional.

 

This is intended. A goal with the power is that it grants some desirable benefits when used to potentially get you over a sike of damage. Still want there to be some decision making on regards if to use it to save your skin or go down and use it at full strength (and spend time re-toggling). I still did not want to leave the player entirely out of a rez if the absorb fails to do it's job, though. Arguably Max HP would had been better than Absorb, but honestly too much so. Synergy with Dark Regeneration would had been way too good.

 

And on that topic: -ToHit Resistance is being given very carefully to this set. Dark Regen is an absurdly powerful heal on an extremely low cooldown. -ToHit debuffs are one of the few things that can make the set fall off the immortality tier, so it's not likely the set will get full time -ToHit resistance outside coupled with Dark Regeneration, and why it lives specifically in Obscure Sustenance and as a temporary buff in Soul Transfer.

 

[Ryko Nailo]

Just trying to do my part and got a little lucky spotting bugs and things this round.

As for Soul Transfer, I totally get there absolutely should be a choice and risk between when you use it and when it's not. Truthfully I think Soul Transfer has always been too powerful an ability only held back by the slight inconvenience that you must die to get it. It's simply too massive of magnitude a stun that lasts a pretty long time for it's strength. So trying to make a use that competes with that ability is a tough act.

I don't think more HP would have push the set too far because of Dark Regen, though you are absolutely right in it's strength but slotted up it only really needs 2 enemies to near / actually full heal. Dark Regen also costs alot of energy, and needs to hit, if it misses you are dead most likely which actually makes it more risky when its a tough boss or you are hit with a wall of debuffs. Having more HP would mean you need probably 3 targets to heal up but also give you a little more of a buffer incase things don't work well and it helps benefit the regen part of Obscure Sustenance as well. Speaking of, I don't think Dark Regen is too powerful compared to Obscure Sustenance as it can already eclipse Dark Regen in a single target situation thanks to it healing half your health and then the regeneration boost will more then heal the other half over time when its slotted up. I didn't save the exact numbers but I think it was in the ballpark of healing more then Dark Regen after 20-25ish seconds. That's not even factoring in that Obscure Sustenance does more then heal you.

That said I don't think Dark Armor should be getting a buffer of HP, Absorb, or any other real increase in Resistances or Defense at all. It is a set that relies on survivability through making your enemies suffer and taking risks. Bolstering it's survivability directly would make it too strong I feel. That's why I think making Soul Transfer's active ability do some sort of mez, or debuff would fit the set better. I personally like the idea of actually sacrificing your hp to do so as it not only feels thematic but quite directly forces you into a choice, sacrifice a bunch of health and a powerful rez for a powerful debuff / mez but also potentially bring yourself closer to death which you now have used up the ace in your sleeve. Hell, have it give you heal resistance if needed.

As for -ToHit resistance, I understand the caution as Dark Armor in it's current form I have felt had the potential to be too good but I don't think giving it -ToHit resistance will be the thing that tilts it too far. I think it makes thematic and practical sense the Dark Armor should have some protection against -ToHit just like Ice Armor should have -Slow Resist. I'm not talking a ton either, I think the 30% you currently have on Obscure Sustenance IS the right amount, it's a noticeable amount that isn't too overwhelming. I don't think Dark Regen is the reason that it shouldn't be added either as mentioned above it really just needs to hit 1-2 people to full heal so outside of being absolutely floored with debuffs or against a single target, you probably are healing if you have even a smidge of accuracy and well Obscure Sustenance heals better and doesn't need accuracy at all. It's the mez toggles that actually are the things in the set that want to hit, afterall if they enemy are mezed then thats less damage coming your way and thus not needing to heal in the first place.

Honestly this is why I keep coming back to Oppressive Gloom, I feel that's actually the problem that's capable of pushing Dark Armor too far. It's health cost is basically zero, its end cost is the same, it doesn't need anything slotted up to be good beyond the default slot having accuracy. With Cloak of Shadows, you basically start every fight taking half the mob out of it entirely for the low cost of nothing. Stunning all those minions is actually a huge deal, not only do they have no opportunity to act until they drunkenly stumble away, but minions actually make up a huge amount of damage and debuffs, particularly the alpha strike, so all that is effectively removed from the entire fight in all but the toughest fights where minions have time to stumble away. Atleast with Cloak of Fear, the fear effect has gaps in it's mez, particularly when you attack, letting the enemy fight back but Oppressive Gloom's stun is just constant and stops everything from the minions. It's why I suggest increasing that health cost but giving it ToHit in tiny dose per foe. That might incentivize people to slot it up for that ToHit but also at the same time give you the opportunity to directly stop Dark Armor from getting out of hand by increasing the self harm so that it's literally draining your health, forcing you to be more proactive in healing or else you might die for it. Essentially, you using the power for a buff or a stun means the enemy that otherwise can't fight, does in fact still hurt you which frankly right now they don't.

But if Dark Regen really does worry you so much, then might I suggest changing it's healing so that the first target hit heals the most and the rest are a lesser amount. To be frank, I think it would also help reduce the sillyness that is healing for 3x your health and make the power more manageable on your end for balancing in the future as you can fine tune the single vs horde healing potential of it. Really it might just make the power better for both balance and for use.

Sorry if this is a bit rambly at this point, haven't sleep in days. But thanks for taking the time to even reply in the first place, I'm sure you are busy, and well if you take the time to read all this, then thanks again. Have a wonderful day.

Edit 1: Mentioning possible heal resistance on soul transfer idea

Edited Thursday at 03:16 PM by Ryko Nailo