Dark Maisma

Firing Twilight Grasp

Score

5 of 5

Summary

Select a target, activate, reap.

Heal Percentage

21% of Your Current Life Total (unslotted)

TG is just a cool power. Sure, you're not the uber-healer that Empath Defenders are because you need a target to heal, but as with more dark powers, there are significant benefits to balance the drawback.

In the picture, you can see the effect as it hits my target healing me for 292. My Pet launched TG at the same time healing me for 368 . Note that your heal and Fluffy's are the same strength when unslotted.

First, your target loses accuracy and regen. HUGE benefit when fighting mean things like AVs, other players in PvP, or GMs.

Second, you and any of your nearby teammates or Pets get healed.

This is a great heal and there's no reason not to take it. Even if you didn't want to be in the "team healer" role, you still want it to heal yourself and it has pretty significant debuffing effect on your targeted enemy.

How to Use

You need a target enemy and it has to hit that target. The battle can take a nasty turn when your heal misses once or twice so slot with accuracy first. If you find that you're missing too often, target minions rather than lieutenants and bosses until you can get stronger enhancements or can make changes to your build.

Remember that the heal affects only people close to you and it's the only heal you have that helps others so you'll have to train your teammates to stay close for heals. I find it's easiest just to announce that you'll stay close to the tank or a scrapper (pick which teammate you like more) and if someone wants heals, they need to stick close to the two of you.

If you're hanging out with a melee character, remember to control your Aggro by avoiding attacks when necessary and sticking to heals and debuffs.

Because TG roots you temporarily and there's a short activation delay, you may find that you miss healing some teammates who are moving around a lot. Using the heal is a bit of an art form that you'll learn with practice.

When fighting a boss or monster, stand in melee range with your damage dealers and CTRL click it to put it on autofire so it launches whenever it comes up. This way, even if a long attack chain starts to do damage to you or your team, you have a better chance of the heal hitting in the middle and saving you.

Slotting

Slotting Priority

> > > = =

	You're either using this to heal yourself/teammates or you're using it as a debuff. Either way, you don't want it to miss. Shoot for 50+ percent bonus to accuracy before worrying about any other buffs
	Straight up, after you're happy with your accuracy slotting, slot heal. Go as high as you want, but slot at least 20%. This becomes particularly important late in the game where the gap between the percentage of your heal vs. team mate life totals widens.
	The main reason you'd take this is if you aren't taking Dark Blast as your secondary. If you do, there's little point in buffing this, but if you didn't, this power could end up being your primary acc debuff power and you'll want to think about 30% or better enhancement if you can fit it.
	If you don't six-slot this power, don't go out of your way for End Reduction. You might get some from a , but just consider a bonus.
	Same as End Reduction.
	Same as End Reduction with one exception: If you take a primary with heavy or team a lot with distance fighters (Blasters, other Defenders), then adding range so you can pull off the heal while standing far from the enemy might be useful. Otherwise, not really needed since it has the same range as your basic attacks do anyway.

Score

5 of 5

Summary

Affect on Brawl

260% increase to Brawl

Click the power and then target a spot on the screen and click again. That spot becomes the center of the Tar Patch in which enemies find that they can no longer jump or fly, have slowed reaction time, and lower defense (note that this is auto hit and can't miss though high level enemies are less affected).

Massive black spinning splotch = Tar Patch. It's very easy to see the effective area of Tar Patch

With this in effect, they can't get to you as fast, can't attack as frequently, can't run or fly away, and you can hit them a lot harder. For high level enemies who keep dodging your attacks, throw down tar patch and you'll be able to hit them more often and hit them harder when you do.

I didn't take this power for a long time the first time through and I regretted it because of how useful it is. Not only is it very long range, but the AoE is huge and you can very easily see its range due to the large black spinning section on the ground where you drop it and the "my defense is lowered" orange shield icons that hover on affected enemies (hard to see in this photo because I snapped it at a bad spot in the animation sequence when the shield is mostly transparent).

How to Use

• When playing in a team with a tank, as the team prepares, click Tar Patch and select a spot under the group you're about to fight, but don't drop it yet. Tanks work in one of two ways: they rush up to the group and get to work or they Herd. If they like to just rush in, drop the TP as soon as you see the group notice the tank (meaning Aggro is on him). If your tank is a Herder, wait until they have stopped running and start fighting and drop the patch there.
• If you're with a bunch of Blasters (including Peace Bringers or Warshades), an alternate way to use it is to drop it right under the enemies as your team's opening attack and have all the ranged people immediately attack (or Nova) once it's down. You will probably have to run away the second you fire the power since all enemy Aggro will be on you, but all the subsequent attacks by said blasters will deal far more damage with the Tar Patch.
  Note: open with Howling Twilight instead to avoid the Alpha Strike
• When doing Pulls, enemies will run towards you immediately after the Pulling attack. So before firing, place the tar patch in the doorway, hallway, or on a corner that you know the enemy will run through while trying to get to you. Your goal is both to prevent them from getting to you and to lower their defense for the team to take them out faster.

  Just make sure that you and your team mates are far enough behind the tar patch (or are around a corner) so that the enemies don't stop short of TP to shoot you from the other side. Also make sure that when playing on a team, your team mates know what the Tar Patch is and if they hold their fire until the enemies are in it, the attacks will hit a lot harder.

Slotting

Slotting Priority

> > >

	Reducing damage resistance is this power's best attribute, but you can't enhance that so give highest priority to the slow. Remember that slowing enemies is the same net effect as speeding up your whole team so never underestimate slow effects. Give it a 60% increase at a minimum (though I shoot for the maximum of 98% or so).
	You'll want to give recharge about 30% or more to easily use it once per battle, but shoot for 50% if you want to be able to use it immediately after it expires.
	This is not a priority, but could be useful for rooting enemies in place from a safer distance. With some solid Range increases, you could possibly launch this out of their range (which could have PvP application). For the numbers oriented, your standard Defender attacks have a range of about 60 while the unslotted range of Tar Patch is 90. I don't know the average range of enemy attacks, but if you fully slotted range, you have snipe-level distance on this power.
	It only costs about as much as a first-level attack and you won't fire this often enough for it to matter. Slot End Reduction only if it helps you get a Set Bonus.

What Darkest Night looks like.

Score

4 of 5

Summary

Target a foe, click the power and as long as you don't turn off the power, lose your endurance, or have your target die, the target and all nearby enemies lose accuracy and damage potential. Note that his power is also auto hit (never misses). The only reason I marked it 4 out of 5 instead of 5 of 5 is because it loses its effectiveness when you're teaming.

You can see the darkness effect at the target's feet and a reddish black glow on the chest of enemies close enough to the target to be affected too.

How to Use

This is not a hard power to use. Just hit the toughest or most annoying enemy you see (Sappers anyone?) to make most of their attacks ineffective.

When teaming, it's less of a problem since you can easily let others do the damage and concentrate on debuffing. The main problem is if your team is cutting through enemies too quickly for you to make use of Darkest Night. But really, that just means you don't need to use it so don't waste your endurance.

However, if your team is having to progress slowly due to a particular type of problem enemy or if you've run into something tough, now's the time to use DN. It's also useful for handling enemies that are sniping away at your team instead of closing to fighting distance.

DN also makes a great Pulling move. First, DN has a great range. Second, return fire from your target and nearby enemies doesn't usually hit you and if it does, has reduced damage. If your pull was not effective and you grabbed the whole room, you will likely survive long enough to run since the effective accuracy and damage of many of the enemies will be cut down.

Slotting

Slotting Priority

> > >

	Reducing damage potential is this power's best attribute, but you can't enhance that so give highest priority to the Accuracy Debuff. For best effectiveness against tough enemies and in PvP, try to max it out, but at least give it a minimum of 40% or so.
	This costs enough endurance to hurt you. Granted, slotting end reduction in attacks is best, but if you can spare it here, do it. Try for 20% or better.
	Not strictly necessary, but with a ten second delay before it comes back, it can be useful to slot recharge. Not a huge priority though.
	As with Tar Patch, can be a great opening move and you might want more range for that. I don't really see much point personally so I wouldn't bother with range for Darkest Night.

Rendered them all helpless with a rez. Sweeet!

Score

6 of 5

Summary

Wow. Where do I begin?

Ok, so as a Rez maybe it's not the best since you have to have a "victim" enemy to suck life from, but here's what you get instead:

• Rezzes ALL of your dead teammates that are within AoE range around you. They get mostly full life and endurance, no disorientation (so they are up and rocking right away).
• It does AoE damage to your target and nearby enemies
• It's an AoE slow effect to your target and nearby enemies
• Your target and nearby enemies are stunned for a few moments
• There's no accuracy check, it just works
• It destroys enemy Regen (one of the very few powers around that does)

How to Use

Unslotted Strength

66% of Brawl

As an attack, it's weak. Don't do that. But as an opening move… SHA-ZAM! Think about it! They get stunned and slowed instantly eliminating an Alpha Strike. It's cake to lay down your other debuffs and control with the enemies wandering around stunned (even if it's only a few seconds, that's usually enough).

You can also hold the power until the battle starts getting bad. When it does, select one of your team members who's in trouble and fire it to stun all enemies near their current target (this only works if you're in range of their target). At this point they can retreat (or the whole team can depending) and heal.

Lastly, when you have a group of 3 to 6 sniping enemies who aren't in melee range with your group, hit one of them with HT to stun the whole lot and ease the pressure on the rest of your team for a few seconds. It's also useful if you accidentally Aggro a second group of enemies.

Remember that HT is not interruptible. Even if you immediately take lethal damage, as long as you began the animation, the power will Rez all your team mates.

Even though it won't stun or slow AVs or Monsters much, it's still good to spam HT on them for the strong -Regen effect (thus helping to kill their health regeneration which is usually very strong). If Mid's planner is right, this is a -500% to regen! Use it appropriately.

Slotting

Slotting Priority

> = |

	The major drawback to this power is that it takes 3 minutes to recharge. Fully slot recharge reduction or at least give it as much as you can. My minimum is 80% and that's only because I have set bonuses and hasten too. At max recharge, you'll get to use it every 90 seconds.
	The default disorient duration is very short. Since this is one of the major bonuses to this power, extend it as much as you have the slots for. 40% minimum.
	You've already got Tar Patch for slow, but it's still very useful for when the enemy breaks out of your disorient instantly (or just really fast). The slow effect will give you a few extra moments to launch your other control powers which have longer activations.
	These ~can~ be useful, but your focus is on the other three. Take a bonus to these if you get one accidentally, but don't go out of your way.

Me and the team with Shadow Fall.

Score

5 of 5

Summary

Not only does it give you stealth, but any nearby team members/Pets also get stealth. It also gives defense and damage resistance. The icing on the cake is that the damage resistance includes Psionics! This is one of the few powers in the game that protects against Psi, and it's a team AoE. Right on.

[+] Glory moment with Shadow Fall

Shadow fall can be very valuable to a team as I learned once...

[-] Glory moment with Shadow Fall

When I was in the 40s, I joined up with a group taking on the Psychic Clockwork King. They were busy chattering about how they needed lots of CaBs and needed to be cautious of the massive Psionic damage he put out. I said, "Huh? This guy's cake, come on" and proceeded to show them just how useful an AoE Psi resistance power could be

How to Use

Sneak/TP with my Warshade. Just doesn't work as well.

Instead, warn your team not to move when you begin the TPs and you'll typically be fine. Once everyone is there, you can start the attack.

Slotting

Slotting Priority

> > >

	The damage resistance values are pretty strong without enhancement so give priority to Defense buffs. Shoot for max percentage bonus.
	After you've buffed defense values, take resistance as high as you can go.
	You'll have this power on basically ALL the time so it can really drain you. If you can get additional endurance reduction from set bonuses, do it.
	Fairly low priority. If you happen to get , you'll want this to come back as soon as possible and with a default of 15 seconds to recharge, that can be a problem. Still, it never turned out to be a big problem for me. If I'm fighting a Mezzer, I usually just hit them with Darkest Night.

It's not that scary you wimps

Score

4 of 5

Summary

Point at an enemy, fire it and a wave of fear hits all enemies in a Cone near your target. It also decreases their accuracy.

When I used it, the range was excellent and the Cone width was ample enough to reduce an entire group of 10 to 15 or so enemies into an "afraid" huddle. When under fear effect, they will not attack unless they are attacked first and even then only fire one shot before resuming the fear stance.

How to Use

• Opening attacks - since you won't get return fire except for enemies that the power missed and, even then, they'll have reduced accuracy (I still think Howling Twilight is better for this).
• For halting the attack of a second group you accidentally aggroed
• Or for getting that small group of snipers to stop taking potshots at your group while you're all busy taking out the enemies in melee range.

Note that if you have DoT powers (like Tenebrous Tentacles), this power is less useful for the group you're fighting because every time they take a hit from the DoT, they'll fire back. Granted, it's still slower than before so there's still solid advantage to this power, but less so than if you didn't use the DoT.

Your choices are to avoid a secondary powerset with DoT damage, don't use the DoT on the group you used Fearsome Stare on, or save Fearsome Stare for the "right" situations (like the three listed above).

Slotting

Slotting Priority

> > > |

	This power is pointless if it misses. Make sure to slot this 60%+ for accuracy.
	Recharge and fear duration seem at first to have the same effect, but considering you might want to turn around and hit something else with fear, having it recharge faster is the better choice. 25%+
	After you've given it decent recharge, go ahead and add to fear duration. 25%+
	My attacks lower accuracy, but if you don't take Dark Blast as a secondary, you might get some mileage from adding to Accuracy Debuff. No recommendation, just add as much as you can after the more important three above.
	It doesn't take much more endurance than a basic attack. Not really worth enhancing.
	I'd be cautious about adding range. If you make it too strong, you could end up drawing attention from enemies you're not ready for. Only add Range if you have a specific reason for doing so.

Freeze sucka!

Score

2 of 5

Summary

A true hold power, when you fire it, the target is frozen in a "shocked" position and can't move or activate powers until the power fades. Even though this only works on minions and sometimes lieutenants (rarely if ever bosses), it's great for controlling some of the Aggro and damage that's on you. It also effectively keeps runners from getting away.

How to Use

I actually like this power quite a bit, but dropped it to fit other powers in my build instead. Mostly I did this because Dark Servant has the same power and uses it regularly. Even though I can't pick the target, he does it enough that it controls the group just fine.

The main reason I gave it such a low score is that, no matter how hard I try, I can't freeze high level bosses, monsters, or AVs even though Fluffy (my pet) can (What's the point of freezing a minion?).

For the most part, it only serves to manage annoying non-bosses like Sappers and stuff with mez powers. If I find some really great way to use it, I'll let you know.

Slotting

Slotting Priority

> > |

	This power is pointless if it misses. Make sure to slot this 60%+ for accuracy.
	The effects from PG stack so it's in your best interests to reduce recharge as much as you can. Go for 50% or better.
	After recharge, increase hold duration to increase the time period in which you can stack the power.
	It doesn't take much more endurance than a basic attack. Not really worth enhancing.
	Adding range can be useful for stopping runners in their tracks, but it's not something I would focus on too much.

Phasing enemies out with Black Hole

Score

1 of 5

Summary

When I read reviews and talked to people, the answer was always the same: Don't take Black Hole. Just to see, I copied my character to the test server to see how it works.

The Jaeger in the back is hard to see and smoky because of the effect of Black Hole. He'll attack and move like normal, but won't be affected by anything until he phases back in.

You pick a target and launch the power. The target and nearby enemies have a chance of being "phased out" where they turn partially invisible and can't affect you or be affected. After a little while they come back, but until then, you can effectively cut the numbers of opponents down.

How to Use

The only time I would ever use this power is when soloing against enemies that are too high to take alone, or as an emergency retreat tactic for yourself or a team. The rest of the time, you want the enemies to be able to take damage. What's the use of Cone attacks, AoE's, or Novas if some of the enemies are gone?

Not only that, you have to teach teammates what the power is an how it works so they don't waste their time trying to attack the phased-out enemies. This often proves to be more of a hassle than it's worth. The benefit is just too iffy. If your goal is to take normally useless powers and find a way to make them useful, this would be a good candidate.

Slotting

If you find a good use for this power, then you can share the slotting with me.

Score

6 of 5

Dark Servant a.k.a Fluffy

Summary

You are nuts if you don't take this power. Fluffy is a good pet who follows you around and hits enemies with Twilight Grasp, Tenebrous Tentacles, and Petrifying Gaze. He's also very well behaved. Unlike many other pets from different powersets, he doesn't run around drawing Aggro from every enemy in the room before you're ready (*points at Illusion Controllers*)

Isn't he CUTE?!

His tenebrous tentacles don't hit as hard as yours do, but his heal works very well and can take some of the pressure off you since you won't have to heal as often.

Fluffy's Tenebrous Tentacles

209% of Brawl

How to Use

Simple. Have him out whenever you're fighting. Period. Just be sure to dismiss him before you try to go sneaking around (since your invisibility doesn't extend to him).

He'll obediantly follow you around mostly only attacking if you attack something first or if something attacks him (or you). If you get held, he'll keep them busy until you come back.

Slotting

Slotting Priority

> > > > |

	He's always around tossing heals. You might as well make sure they're doing decent work. 50%+
	He's like a mini-you so make sure he can hit what he targets. Best of all, accuracy helps ALL his powers. 40%+ minimum
	Since he can hold things that you can't (like monsters and AVs), make sure to buff his hold at least some. 20%+
	Not really needed unless you get him killed all the time (which is hard since he heals himself). Don't waste slots on recharge.
	Having him help drop the accuracy of all the enemies he hits is nice. Help him along. 20%+
	He's spendy, but you only summon him once every few minutes so it's nothing to worry much about.
	Eh. Who cares? Don't slot this unless you just happen to get it with a Set IO.