Savage meele/dark. Is it any good?

[trogenion]

Came up with a character idea. And was wondering if this combo is any good

[eknudson]

Anything/dark might require a little different playstyle on a brute, it seems like.  There was even a guide on the old boards on why you shouldn't play a dark armor brute... as i recall a lot of it involved how /dark is a little fragile without one of its defensive toggles-- oppressive gloom or cloak of fear-- and both of those defenses inhibit fury since they reduce incoming attacks. 

 

If you can invest enough inf to add good defense to dark's good resistance, then never mind.

 

Edit-- here's the old dark armor post-- http://web.archive.org/web/20080621195328/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Number=10200470 

Edited August 7, 2019 by eknudson

[trogenion]

Would it be better on a scrapper then perhaps?  And 8 can easy set up a farmer if i need inf heh

[eknudson]

Dark can work much better on a scrapper. There are just so many /dark powers that are at best not ideal on a brute-- cloak of darkness? A stealthy brute? Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom reduce incoming attacks and so reduce your fury, and your T9 is a self-rez.  

 

Dark Embrace, Murky Cloud, and Obsidian Shield are solid amounts of resistance to all but those 3 alone are just inferior to many other set's defensive abilities.

[Scrapulous]

I am skeptical of this old wisdom, especially given the current fury mechanics and the fury ATO. I don't yet know but suspect that if you put the fury generation ATO in Death Shroud that you will have no problems with fury management or stealth. Even if you don't buy my argument, Cloak of Fear provides a tohit debuff to enemies it hits, so at worst it gives you a choice - you can keep it off to keep your fury high and stay in damage mode, or toggle it on if you find yourself taking more damage than you expected from the content you're running. I'm also a proponent of Cloak of Darkness: it provides defense equal to Weave, and so enables dark to build up to softcaps much more easily than other sets.

 

On 8/7/2019 at 5:03 PM, eknudson said:

Dark Embrace, Murky Cloud, and Obsidian Shield are solid amounts of resistance to all but those 3 alone are just inferior to many other set's defensive abilities.

 

You're ignoring Dark Regeneration, which is a very strong heal.

 

Here's the build I sketeched out for my sav/dark brute:

 

Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.2
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Savage Melee
Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Maiming Slash -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(3), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(3), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), CrsImp-Acc/Dmg(5)
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(7), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(7), UnbGrd-Max HP%(9), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(48), StdPrt-ResKB(50)
Level 2: Shred -- SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(9), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(13)
Level 4: Death Shroud -- SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBrtFur-Dmg/Rchg(13), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), SprBrtFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(48), SprBrtFur-Rech/Fury(50)
Level 6: Blood Thirst -- GssSynFr--Build%(A), RechRdx-I(19)
Level 8: Vicious Slash -- Hct-Dmg/Rchg(A), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Hct-Acc/Rchg(21), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Hct-Dam%(23)
Level 10: Obsidian Shield -- GldArm-ResDam(A), GldArm-End/Res(25), GldArm-Res/Rech/End(25), GldArm-3defTpProc(27)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-ResDam%(27), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(29)
Level 14: Murky Cloud -- Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(29), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Ags-ResDam(31)
Level 16: Dark Regeneration -- ThfofEss-Heal(A), ThfofEss-Heal/Rchg(31), ThfofEss-Acc/Heal(33), ThfofEss-Acc/EndRdx/Heal(33), ThfofEss-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(33), ThfofEss-+End%(34)
Level 18: Rending Flurry -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(34), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(34), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Obl-%Dam(48)
Level 20: Cloak of Darkness -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def(36), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(37)
Level 22: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Tough -- Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(37), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Ags-ResDam(39)
Level 26: Hemorrhage -- SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(40), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(40)
Level 28: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def(40), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(42)
Level 30: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def(42), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(42)
Level 32: Savage Leap -- SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprUnrFur-Dmg/Rchg(43), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), SprUnrFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), SprUnrFur-Rchg/+Regen/+End(45)
Level 35: Superior Conditioning -- PrfShf-End%(A)
Level 38: Tactics -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 41: Physical Perfection -- PrfShf-End%(A)
Level 44: Energy Torrent -- SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(46), SprFrzBls-Rchg/ImmobProc(46)
Level 47: Vengeance -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(17), Mrc-Rcvry+(17)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(19)
Level 1: Blood Frenzy
------------

 

Scrap

[eknudson]

1 hour ago, Scrapulous said:

I am skeptical of this old wisdom, especially given the current fury mechanics and the fury ATO. I don't yet know but suspect that if you put the fury generation ATO in Death Shroud that you will have no problems with fury management or stealth. Even if you don't buy my argument, Cloak of Fear provides a tohit debuff to enemies it hits, so at worst it gives you a choice - you can keep it off to keep your fury high and stay in damage mode, or toggle it on if you find yourself taking more damage than you expected from the content you're running. I'm also a proponent of Cloak of Darkness: it provides defense equal to Weave, and so enables dark to build up to softcaps much more easily than other sets.

 

 

You're ignoring Dark Regeneration, which is a very strong heal.

 

 

At 50 and with all this in place, you've gotten great S/L defense, and as I said above if you have that kind of inf available for this build then ignore my concerns.

 

You're not actually running Cloak of Fear here, though. Not sure if you've tried running CoF on a /dark prior to heavy IO investment. My god that's a heavy toggle, requiring heavy slotting to overcome its terrible base accuracy and when already running dark embrace, death shroud, murky cloud, obsidian shield and cloak of darkness you'll have a hard time doing any attacking. 

 

Doesn't look like you have knockback protection until 50 when you get sets, which is annoying. Especially when knocked back just before launching Dark Regeneration. That's a death sentence.

 

Once at 50 with these IO's and the Energy Mastery epic pool you're in good shape. Getting to 50 is the hard part. I had to run Oppressive Gloom on my scrapper because it's so much more effective with limited slotting and the end cost is trivial. OG is absolutely anti-fury but without it or CoF the three resistance toggles just don't let you live between Dark Regen cycles.

[Scrapulous]

Yeah, Cloak of Fear definitely wants investment if you're going to take it. It costs the same as Death Shroud and  I wanted the slots elsewhere so I didn't take it.

 

28 minutes ago, eknudson said:

Doesn't look like you have knockback protection until 50 when you get sets, which is annoying. Especially when knocked back just before launching Dark Regeneration. That's a death sentence. 

 

Oh, I don't wait until 50 to start slotting critical pieces. The Steadfast Protection knockback protection IO (or Karma or whichever I have handy) goes in very early. I also don't usually level with my endgame builds. When leveling I take powers as I need them, in part because attack chains often need more attacks while leveling than later on, and in part because it gives me the opportunity to try out powers I don't have much experience with or don't like much to make sure I am making informed decisions about them. I took Acrobatics on my fire tanker while leveling to handle knockback, for example. I won't do that for this character, because she already has the kb protection IO slotted.

 

One reason I was interested in this combo was the endurance discount buff that savage melee gives. So far it seems to help a lot - I run the three armors, and Death Shroud and don't have end problems yet running TFs in teams. I'm worried about my Dark Regeneration slotting - the set I'm using only brings it down to 22.54 end cost, but the chance for +Endurance proc in it can help with that. It just means I'll need ~20 end to use the ability, depending on how many stacks of savage melee buff I have at the time.

 

Anyway, it's fun and effective so far.

 

Scrap

 

[Nightmarer]

On 8/6/2019 at 8:43 PM, trogenion said:

Came up with a character idea. And was wondering if this combo is any good

Dark Armor is awesome set but it needs serious set investment to make the most of it. I love it on any melee char, playing it on a Brute just needs a bit more of patience and maybe playing it slightly different than other Brute secondaries, but it's equally awesome. Not personally keen on Savage Melee, I've found it disappointing at high lvls but if you like it, go ahead. FYI, you can get a similar end stance with Staff.

[trogenion]

Well it is more concept than function. but savage meele does have -end so that may help as i heard dark armor is end heavy.