They're stunned, I'm not impressed.

Score

2 of 5

Summary

Keep nearby enemies disoriented while you take continual damage for as long and you leave this toggle on. Hmm… it drains endurance and it drains life at an alarming rate. When I took it on the test server, I found the power to work too slowly, in too small of an area, and drained life far too fast to really be useful.

Worst of all, you have to be in melee range which isn't the best place for a defender to be most of the time. If you take it, it will probably be situational at best and would combine well with the situations where you're hanging out just behind the tank spamming heals. That way, you're constantly healed and the enemies are kept under control.

Skip it unless your other powersets compensate for this power's deficiencies or you're ultra desperate to avoid Stalker strikes in PvP.

The ultimate irony. Sapping a Sapper 😀

Score

4 of 5

Summary

You damage nearby enemies and gain endurance (more enemies = more endurance).

The range is fairly short which isn't a problem for a Dark Defender since you can lock them down, walk into range and use it when needed. The other interesting thing to note is that it appears that the programmers forgot to turn off the Critical effect on this power (since this power was primarily designed for scrappers). Sometimes when you use it, you'll do double damage just like a Scrapper.

How to Use

Unslotted Strength

2.6 x Brawl

It's tempting to forget that it's there and always hold it for the "right time", but that's a waste. Run into melee range, launch it, then retreat. If you're already in melee range because you're soloing or shadowing a Tank/Scrapper, just launch it whenever it comes up. You can always use more endurance, but more importantly, it's an AoE attack that's over twice as strong as brawl unenhanced.

Of course, the best use for it is to use it in combination with your Nova attack to regain all the endurance you just lost. Just be sure to keep a blue inspiration on hand and you can fire your nova whenever you want, pop a blue, and hit Dark Consumption to get rocking again; no down-time.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) I was able to make this perfectly usable with 3 slots. 4 would be better, but only if you have them to spare. 90%   Recharge (90% Minimum) Default: 360 sec With max 100% enhancement: 180 sec It's a useful power, but only if it's recharged. Bring it back as fast as you can. 40%   Accuracy (40% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% You get nothing if it misses. Slot up some accuracy. 25%   Endurance Modification (25% Minimum) Default: 25% With max 100% enhancement: 50% 25% is good, but not a lot especially if you use this right after a nova attack. Granted, you'll get 50% or better from more than one target hit, but I like to have good results with even a single target. 0%   Damage (0% Minimum) Default: 28 points With max 100% enhancement: 56 points For a power with such a long recharge, it's kind of a waste to bother with damage. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Damage resistance. Finally!

Score

4 of 5

Summary

A nice and welcome shield against major forms of damage (smashing, lethal, toxic, and negative energy). The resistance begins at ~25% so becomes significant with a few enhancements. By adding this to your arsenal, you get critical resistance to the most common forms of damage (lethal and smashing), and, most importantly, you will now have resistance and defense against all forms of damage in the game! Assuming you have Shadow Fall from the Dark Miasma set of course.

It's kind of hard to see the armor in the picture… I wonder if I had my graphics turned down.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) 3 is enough to max the resistance and lower endurance at the same time. However, you can get away with 2 if you don't worry about the endurance drain though I used 4 because this was the only power it made sense to slot a -KB proc IO. 80%   Damage Resist (80% Minimum) Default: 27% With max 60% enhancement: 43.2% You have it for protection, might as well get your money's worth 30%   Endurance Reduction (30% Minimum) Default: 0 end per second With max 100% enhancement: 0 end per second As with all toggle powers, make sure to drop the endurance drain of this power some. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 4 sec With max 100% enhancement: 2 sec It already comes back really fast. Not a huge priority. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Damages them, gives me accuracy and increased damage... Nice.

Score

5 of 5

Summary

Whee! Hit everything around you with decent damage, but gain damage potential and increased accuracy for each one you hit! I use this with my dark scrapper as well, and it's very powerful.

How to Use

Damage from Activating Soul Drain

2.8 x Brawl

A great combo is to fire powers continuously until you start running out of endurance, hit Dark Consumption to gain end back, then Soul Drain to do damage and gain accuracy and damage potential (since after using Dark Consumption, you'll already be in melee range). It's a great way to keep the battle going strong .

I glow with power for as long as the soul drain is in effect.

It's easy to make the same mistake with this as is done with Dark Consumption, but there's no reason to hold it. Use it whenever you can during a battle and definitely before starting an attack chain. First of all, it's a fairly strong attack, and second all your next attacks have a damage and accuracy bonus.

Increased Damage (per target target hit)

8%

Increased ToHit (per target target hit)

2%

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) 2 only if you're strapped for slots. 3 would be better. 40%   Accuracy (40% Minimum) Default: 90% With max 100% enhancement: 180% Does no good if it misses. Even though the accuracy of this power starts out high, add some extra for best results. 40%   Recharge (40% Minimum) Default: 120 sec With max 100% enhancement: 60 sec It takes a while to come back, but can significantly increase your attack power so bring it back as soon as you can. 25%   Endurance Reduction (25% Minimum) Default: 19 end With max 100% enhancement: 9.5 end It's a pretty spendy power so lower the endurance at least a little. 0%   Damage (0% Minimum) Default: 30 points With max 100% enhancement: 60 points You're not firing this off for the attack so don't waste your slots. By the time you get this, you won't have a lot of slots to spare anyway. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Your basic attack. Dark Blast.

Score

4 of 5

Summary

This is your basic power and one you have to take. It's a decent attack with a good recharge rate and will be one of your major attacks throughout the game.

Unslotted Strength

3.3 x Brawl

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 4 Slots ) If you have Dark Miasma as your secondary, four slots is enough to max out the combat attributes. Otherwise, a few extra slots devoted to accuracy reduction is not unwarranted. 40%   Accuracy (40% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% As is standard with any regular attack, accuracy is most important so your target, but you'll only need 40% or so enhancement to make sure you hit most of the time. 70%   Damage (70% Minimum) Default: 36 points With max 100% enhancement: 72 points This power cycles fast and you're going to use it a lot so make sure it hits decently hard when you do. 20%   To Hit Debuff (20% Minimum) Default: -9% With max 60% enhancement: -14.4% At nearly 10% to hit debuff unslotted, this power does pretty well already, but the more you give it, the better. Firing this along with other dark attacks on a fairly constant basis helps keep you safe and alive. 10%   Endurance Reduction (10% Minimum) Default: 5 end With max 100% enhancement: 2.5 end At such a low cost, this isn't a huge priority, but it always helps to lower endurance cost. You should easily be able to reduce it by 10% or more using IOs. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 4 sec With max 100% enhancement: 2 sec At only 4 second recharge, you'll barely be able to hit two other powers before this is back anyway. Unless you want to put Dark Blast on auto-fire and just sit there spamming one attack, I don't see a lot of point in enhancing this on purpose. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 80 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 128 Feet 80 feet is a pretty safe distance (a full 20 feet further than many blaster attacks). You can enhance this power's range if you have a point to doing so, but in most cases, it's really not necessary. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Gloom and it's DoT.

Score

5 of 5

Summary

Unslotted Strength

5.6 x Brawl

Gloom is fun. Fire it and your target takes DoT damage for about 3 seconds. The total damage is equal to a bit more than dark blast and when it hits, your target freezes for a moment while they do a "I'm hit and in pain" animation. At times during my build, I've dropped the power to fit other powers in sooner, but always take it again in a later level.

Compare this photo to the one's in the Moonbeam section below. This particular enemy was hit with Moonbeam first and had to come much closer before he was in range for Gloom. This will give you an idea of the difference in range between the two.

Note that due to the animation enemies do when hit, once you fire gloom, you'll have a second or so to activate interruptable powers like the self-heal from the medicine pool or such.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 4 Slots ) If you have Dark Miasma as your secondary, four slots is enough to max out the combat attributes. Otherwise, a few extra slots devoted to accuracy reduction is not unwarranted. 40%   Accuracy (40% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% Standard. Just enhance it enough that you don't miss. 80%   Damage (80% Minimum) Default: 63 points With max 100% enhancement: 126 points As your main attack through the whole game, any amount you can spare in damage will benefit you here. 30%   Recharge (30% Minimum) Default: 8 sec With max 100% enhancement: 4 sec You don't have many single target attacks so it's a good idea to buff your recharge to get this back faster. 10%   Endurance Reduction (10% Minimum) Default: 8 end With max 100% enhancement: 4 end Not too spendy, but if you can lower the endurance cost, go for it. 20%   To Hit Debuff (20% Minimum) Default: -9% With max 60% enhancement: -14.4% Same as Dark Blast, but because of slower recharge and greater endurance cost, fix those first, then worry about this. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 80 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 128 Feet Same as Dark Blast. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Moonbeam activation.

Score

5 of 5

Summary

I love this power. It has the longest range of any attack in the game and it looks really cool. Like most snipe powers, the activation is very long and can be interrupted by things like getting hit or moving. So make sure you've completely stopped moving and that nothing's about to hit you before launching this power or you just wasted the endurance cost of activating it.

How to Use

Unslotted Strength

9 x Brawl

Anyway, Moonbeam is an excellent way to start a battle when teaming since your target will take significant damage (about equal to Dark Blast and Gloom combined) and is such long range that it's rare that they'll be able to return fire before you run and hide behind your team mates or a wall.

It's also a very good way to finish off a runner as long as they don't run behind a wall or off a ledge before the attack fires.

Moonbeam firing.

The key is to fire Moonbeam when you have little to no chance of getting interrupted by damage. You will discover these situations very easily with some practice, but here are some that work for me:

• In teams it's usually pretty easy when you don't have aggro, but make sure to target something that's being hit by someone else too or you might face drawing unwanted attention. Also make sure to pick a target with a fairly significant amount of life remaining or they could go down before your attack even launches.
• When soloing, after you get an activation reduction enhancement or two in it, you can often fire it between enemy attacks if you time it right.
• Because Darkest Night will make your enemies miss you most of the time, you can often fire Moonbeam safely after they've been debuffed.
• The delay caused by the "Ouch" animation that enemies do after getting hit with Gloom can give you enough time to fire Moonbeam as long as you do it very quickly after triggering Gloom.
• Moonbeam also stacks well with Tar Patch if the enemy is trying to run.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 6 Slots ) I love snipe powers so this one gets 6 slots easy. 30%   Accuracy (30% Minimum) Default: 90% With max 100% enhancement: 180% Moonbeam already has a higher-than-average accuracy rate, but it's so depressing when it misses that I still say slot it up as much as you can. 70%   Damage (70% Minimum) Default: 99 points With max 100% enhancement: 198 points When this hits, I want them to feel it. As an opener, you want the enemy you hit to have a little life left as you can. And when you're firing out of enemy range, this will be the only attack you'll have so the more power the better. 40%   Range (40% Minimum) Default: 175 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 280 Feet If you don't use this power the way I do, maybe you don't care, but I like to buff the range as much as possible. First, I can do some amazing long distance Pulls that way. Second, when I'm flying around, there are times when enemies can't hit me, but i can hit them. 40%   Interrupt (40% Minimum) Default: 3 Sec With max 120% enhancement: 1.2 Sec The biggest disadvantage to a snipe is the activation delay. To make it easier to fire in tough battles, reduce the interruptable time span. 20%   Recharge (20% Minimum) Default: 12 sec With max 100% enhancement: 6 sec This power takes a little too long to recharge, but with only 20% or so enhancement, it comes back about as fast as Gloom (unenhanced). 10%   Endurance Reduction (10% Minimum) Default: 14 end With max 100% enhancement: 7 end Expensive especially if you get interrupted (which makes this wasted endurance, but if you have slots to spare, put it towards interrupt instead. 0%   To Hit Debuff (0% Minimum) Default: -9% With max 60% enhancement: -14.4% With the other enhanceable aspects, you won't likely have room for this. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Throwing sticky black confusion blob

Score

3 of 5

Summary

You target something, fire Dark Pit, and it, along with nearby enemies, get stunned for a while (as long as you've slotted some accuracy enhancements and they're not too high level). Sounds a lot like howling twilight without the slow, damage, rez, and a chance to miss (HT doesn't miss). Hmmm…

If you took Dark Maisma as your primary power set, Howling Twilight is stronger and has a ton of secondary effects that Dark Pit does not

I gave this a pretty low score originally, but you may not have taken Dark as your primary and there's nothing wrong with stacking stuns (using BOTH). The last time I Repeced Jordan, I put in Dark Pit and tried it as a stacking stun, but also as an alternate when Howling Twilight was recharging. I found it to be useful for both.

If you already have Howling Twilight and aren't worried about the extra control, you could skip it. Otherwise, never underestimate the usefulness of an AoE stun.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) Two slots is enough though I might have given it 3 or 4 if it was my only stun power (but I took Dark as my secondary so there was no need). 60%   Accuracy (60% Minimum) Default: 60% With max 100% enhancement: 120% You use this power to lock down groups of enemies. Not so useful if it misses. Quite deadly in fact. Considering that and that it starts a little low to begin with, don't skip on the accuracy! 50%   Stun (50% Minimum) Default: 12 sec With max 100% enhancement: 24 sec If the recharge were a little bit shorter, I'd probably say buff the recharge so you can fire it twice as often as compared to buffing stun, but it's not. Once you use this, you want the enemies to wander brainless as long as possible so lengthen the stun first and then recharge if you can. 20%   Recharge (20% Minimum) Default: 60 sec With max 100% enhancement: 30 sec It's a pretty long recharge. Even max enhanced, you'll only be able to use this once every 30 seconds which won't help you much since most battles are over by then. Even unenhanced, you'll probably be able to use it at the start of each battle on teams and when solo, you'll want stun duration not recharge anyway. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 13 end With max 100% enhancement: 6.5 end At the long recharge, the endurance pull isn't that big of a deal. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 70 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 112 Feet Only a little shorter than a normal attack. Enhance it if you must, but it's not a huge priority. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

The cone range of TT and NF.

Score

5 of 5

Summary

Immobilizes and damages enemies in a cone in front of you. Controlling a battle where you have enemies running all over is very hard. Using this will keep enemies you worked so hard to herd together/sneak up on from running all over. Note that it recharges in plenty of time to use it again before the effect from the first one wears off.

You can see that the Tentacles hit this entire group. It has a great cone range, but doesn't go as deep as Night fall. However, Night Fall has a much narrower cone. Look closely and you can see that the 11's are damage from the TT while the 13's from Night Fall miss four or so enemies on the outer edges. To fix this, back up before you fire Night Fall to fit more people in the cone

The cone is nice and wide, but not as deep as I'd like so you an often miss enemies further away. Even the ones you hit can still hit you back (they're only immobilized), but like most dark powers this drops their accuracy.

How to Use

Use this to make sure that your victims don't get away from you. This is especially important when badge hunting or if you've worked hard to herd stuff together into area effects like Tar Patch. It also helps to keep stunned enemies from wandering off or prevents them from getting somewhere you don't want to be.

Unslotted Strength

3.3 x Brawl (each target)

For the endurance cost, this is a waste to use on less than 2+ enemies unless you just want to keep an enemy from moving. One you have Dark Servant (who uses this and Petrifying Gaze constantly), you won't need use TT on anything but 3 or more enemies (which is, of course, assuming you took Dark Maisma as your primary). Though note that if you have endurance to spare (usually at later levels and after careful slotting of IO bonuses), use it at much as you want.

One important note: as an AoE attack and an Immobilize, you have access to a MANY "chance of damage" IOs which can vastly improve your total damage. Even if not that, with so many different effects in the power, you'll have access to other procs that do things like hold or slow, etc.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 6 Slots ) Even with the highest power IO enhancements I could find, I couldn't slot all the stuff I wanted. You'll 6 slot this no matter what you do or UR DOIN IT WRONG! 40%   Accuracy (40% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% It really sucks if this misses, but it comes back really fast which means you can try again. Slot more than 40 if you can, but if you can't, you'll probably be fine. 90%   Range (90% Minimum) Default: 40 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 64 Feet WEAK! Only 40 doesn't get you much. Slot as much as you can so you can get this close to the range of your other attacks or you'll constantly be missing enemies 30%   To Hit Debuff (30% Minimum) Default: -9% With max 60% enhancement: -14.4% Exactly the same debuff as your other attacks, but it's an AoE debuff so it's well worth pumping this up a bit. The more, the better. 10%   Endurance Reduction (10% Minimum) Default: 10 end With max 100% enhancement: 5 end If you use this as a control power only or if you put in the Chance of Damage procs like I suggested, you'll want to fire this a lot. That can eat up endurance if you don't take it easy so slot at least a little endurance reduction. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 10 sec With max 100% enhancement: 5 sec For this kind of power, 10 seconds is not bad at all. You would do fine even if you never enhanced this further, but feel free to do so if you wish. Note that the accuracy debuff duration of dark powers is generally 10 seconds so even without enhancement, you can keep your targets perma-debuffed as well as immobilized and taking damage. However, if you take my advice with the procs, the more you fire it, the more chances you have for extra damage so it may be worth buffing the recharge for that alone. 0%   Damage (0% Minimum) Default: 33 points With max 100% enhancement: 66 points Same damage as Dark Blast, but done as DoT so it doesn't seem as if it's that powerful when you use it. Slot it up if you wish, but consider Chance of Damage procs for extra damage instead. The over-all damage you deal will be much higher in the end. Use this mostly for control (immob) and accuracy debuff instead. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Overhead shot of Night Fall to show range.

Score

4 of 5

Summary

Unslotted Strength

3.6 x Brawl (each target)

It's a cone attack that does great damage in a very short dot. If for no other reason, take this power because of the giant mass of orange damage numbers that will float over enemy heads when you use it .

How to Use

Points to note are that the cone is about half that of tenebrous tentacles, but the range is longer. Back up a bit before you fire it to hit more things.

The range of Night Fall is nearly the same as Dark Blast and Gloom. If you are in a mission where there are clusters of enemies, be careful not to fire it point blank. You might hit enemies in a nearby group that otherwise wouldn't have noticed you yet.

This power works very well with Tenebrous Tentacles. When you come across a group that's already nicely packed, but tends to spread out after your first hit, open with TT to root them in place so you can hit them all with Night Fall immediately after. This combo works exceptionally well for hunting missions or badge hunting when you want to take down large groups in a hurry (something my scrapper can't do even at very high levels).

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 6 Slots ) As an excellent attack that's AoE and hella-fun too, I can't see you getting away with less than 6 slots on this (though with Purple IO slotting, I got it down to 5). 30%   Accuracy (30% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% The more accuracy, the better, but always buff it at least a little. 90%   Damage (90% Minimum) Default: 39 points With max 100% enhancement: 78 points Even though this does only a little more damage than Tenebrous Tentacles, it's only purpose is as an attack so use it that way. The more damage the better. 30%   Endurance Reduction (30% Minimum) Default: 13 end With max 100% enhancement: 6.5 end This is one of your more expensive regular attack powers so buff the endurance reduction as much as you can. 10%   Recharge (10% Minimum) Default: 10 sec With max 100% enhancement: 5 sec If you've got the endurance to spare, try enhancing the recharge a bit so you can fire it more quickly. 0%   To Hit Debuff (0% Minimum) Default: -9% With max 60% enhancement: -14.4% If you manage to buff everything else and can't think of anything else to do, there's always accuracy debuff. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 60 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 96 Feet I've never once thought that I wanted Night Fall to have longer range. If you want to buff this for some reason, give it about 40% to make it the same range as Dark Blast and Gloom. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Blammo! Nice knockback.

Score

3 of 5

Summary

Unslotted Strength

1.3 x Brawl

Torrent does a small amount of damage with knockback in a cone in front of you. This would be good for defenders who find that enemies are getting too close too quickly, but not if you have effects that require enemies to stay in one place or stay close together.

For example, with Dark Maisma as a primary power set, I want foes to be in a nice tight pack, not flying all over. What's the point of using Tar Patch to slow them, Tentacles to root them, and Darkest Night to make their accuracy worthless, if you blow them all out of range of these effects?

On the other hand, if you take a different primary (like Storm), you might like this power. It has a wicked-strong knockback on it (check the distance these Hellions were thrown!)

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( Default Slot Only ) 60%   Accuracy (60% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% The only point to using this power is because you want to move something which won't happen if you miss. 40%   Recharge (40% Minimum) Default: 10 sec With max 100% enhancement: 5 sec Knockback powers are best when they can be used again soon. Slot for about 40% minimum. 30%   Endurance Reduction (30% Minimum) Default: 14 end With max 100% enhancement: 7 end Buff it if you can. 0%   Knockback (0% Minimum) Default: -9 Feet With max 180% enhancement: -25.2 Feet It's got a pretty good knockback value already, but you can buff it if you just like to see stuff fly. Chances are that you won't really have any point to doing so though. 0%   To Hit Debuff (0% Minimum) Default: -9% With max 60% enhancement: -14.4% I don't usually give Torrent many slots so after accuracy and recharge, I don't have room for even this. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 80 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 128 Feet If someone comes close enough for you to hit them, you can knock them back again. That's plenty in most cases since usually you use torrent to get them out of melee range. 0%   Damage (0% Minimum) Default: 14 points With max 100% enhancement: 28 points It's does only about the same damage of brawl and has a really slow recharge. Don't use this as an attack. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

A heal which damages.

Score

3 to 5 of 5 (depending on your primary)

Summary

Unslotted Strength

3.3 x Brawl

Unslotted Heal

10% of Your Life Total

Damages an enemy and heals you.

How to Use

I never noticed this until I did the math, but Life Drain has the same range and attack power as Dark Blast while healing you. If you want another attack to fill your chain or find that you need that extra heal now and then, this might be a good bet.

In practice, I found that I didn't need the attack and that the heals from Twilight Grasp (along with fluffy throwing the same thing) make this unnecessary, but if you didn't take dark as a primary, you might need this. For example, a Storm/Dark (since Storm has no self heals).

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 6 Slots ) As both a strong attack and a heal, if you take this power, max it out! 70%   Accuracy (70% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% When dealing with a heal that requires an accuracy check, you don't want it to ever miss. Make sure to slot this REALLY high. 90%   Recharge (90% Minimum) Default: 15 sec With max 100% enhancement: 7.5 sec Either as an attack or a heal, you want this to come back as fast as possible. Give it max recharge. 40%   Heal (40% Minimum) Default: 10% With max 100% enhancement: 20% If you use this more as a heal, slot this as high as you can. Otherwise, give the enhancement to damage. Either way, prioritize recharge. 40%   Damage (40% Minimum) Default: 36 points With max 100% enhancement: 72 points If you use this an attack, slot this as high as you can, but remember to give priority to recharge. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 12 end With max 100% enhancement: 6 end If you give LD enough slots to afford some endurance reduction, go for it, but this won't be your priority. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 60 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 96 Feet It's got really good range already. Granted it's not as long as Dark Blast and Gloom, but you'll most often use this at closer range anyway either because you're in a melee battle or close to a tank or scrapper who is. 0%   To Hit Debuff (0% Minimum) Default: -9% With max 60% enhancement: -14.4% If you manage to buff everything else and can't think of anything else to do, there's always accuracy debuff. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Kaboom! Hee hee hee.

Score

4 of 5

Summary

It's a nova power that's far weaker than those of blasters, but is still a lot of fun. Besides doing massive ammounts of damage (for a Defender), it does significant Accuracy Debuff to all affected enemies.

Unlike some other nova powers, there is no knockback so even if you don't kill them, they're still nicely huddled for further attacks AND as with all dark powers, their accuracy is debuffed so you have a better chance of surviving even if you do draw all the aggro to yourself.

How to Use

Unslotted Strength

16 x Brawl

That's right. I said 16 times the strength of brawl.

I didn't get a very good shot of a large group of enemies, but you can definitely see how good the effective range of Blackstar is.

See Blackstar in action (Video: 1.6Mb)

Either way you play it, as of issue 6, you can take an endurance recovery inspiration to get a little endurance to use to continue the fight immediately. Though you will run out very quickly, it prevents down time and can give you back your toggles temporarily. Most importantly, if you have Dark Consumption from the Darkness Mastery set, you can suck endurance from survivors to get back in the game at full force.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) For whatever reason, I don't use Blackstar as much as I probably should. I usually 3 slot it, though 4 or 5 would make it perform better. 90%   Recharge (90% Minimum) Default: 360 sec With max 100% enhancement: 180 sec It's a nova. Bring it back as fast as you can. 70%   Damage (70% Minimum) Default: 176 points With max 100% enhancement: 352 points It's already super-powered, but a little more never hurts. Buff it as high as you can. 30%   Accuracy (30% Minimum) Default: 105% With max 100% enhancement: 210% You get an automatic bonus to accuracy, but it's still depressing if it misses. Add a little extra just in case. 0%   To Hit Debuff (0% Minimum) Default: -62% With max 60% enhancement: -99.2% That's not a typo. It really does debuff accuracy by 62.5! If you're tripping over your extra powerslots and can't think of anything else to do, you can buff this, but that's pretty unlikely. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 20 end With max 100% enhancement: 10 end After using this power, you'll be fully drained anyway. The only reason to slot this is if you find you're trying to launch Blackstar at the end of an attack combo that leaves you super drained of endurance (something that I've never experienced in practice). This really isn't a big deal. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Firing Twilight Grasp

Score

5 of 5

Summary

Select a target, activate, reap.

TG is just a cool power. Sure, you're not the uber-healer that Empath Defenders are because you need a target enemy to suck from in order to fire your heal, but as with other 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, damage potential, 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.

Even if you're not the primary healer on the team, spamming heals with TG is a good idea to reduce the enemy's accuracy and especially regeneration (since AVs and Monsters regen so DAMN FAST)

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.

Note that the same power from the same set for Masterminds has a much smaller heal radius than a Defender.

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.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 6 Slots ) This is a six-slot power no matter how you look at it. It's so important and used so much, that you can't afford not to buff it as far as you possibly can. 70%   Accuracy (70% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% You're either using this to heal you and your team or you're using it as a debuff. Either way, you don't want it to miss. Shoot for 70+ percent bonus to accuracy before worrying about any other buffs (remember, you can't enhance it, but TG has a signifigant -regen effect to it so spam it on tough bosses and monsters). 50%   Heal (50% Minimum) Default: 23% With max 100% enhancement: 46% Straight up, after you're happy with your accuracy slotting, slot heal. Go as high as you want, but slot at least 40%. This becomes particularly important late in the game where the gap between the percentage of your heal vs. team mate life totals widens (remember your heal strength is a percentage of YOUR life total). Note that you can make up for some lack of healing power with a faster recharge rate (and firing TG twice as often). 40%   Recharge (40% Minimum) Default: 8 sec With max 100% enhancement: 4 sec It takes almost 2 and a half seconds just to activate TG. If you miss, you might not have much time to react before you die. Having the power come back faster is a good idea if you can. With IOs it's pretty easy to get at least 40% recharge along with a great accuracy and heal. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 8 end With max 100% enhancement: 4 end Endurance is always good to reduce if you haven't got anything else better to do, but considering the end cost is already fairly low for TG and you get an end bonus due to Vigilance, chances are you're not going to desperately need this. 0%   To Hit Debuff (0% Minimum) Default: -6% With max 60% enhancement: -9.6% Accuracy Debuff is a nice extra you get with all your dark powers, but this isn't going to be your main debuffing power and even slotted to the max, it's not that strong. Buff it if you want, but I'd take everything else (even range) first. At best, you get to slot Acc Debuff IOs in here which can help with your overall percentages or if you want to put something unique in (Like Dark Watchers Chance for Recharge Slow) 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 80 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 128 Feet At 80 feet range out of the box, you don't really need to enhance range. I'm sure there's some killer application for doing so, but nothing comes to mind. Over-all this should be your last priority for slotting. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

With Issue 13, the new "accurate Healing" IO sets are your friend. They provide heavy accuracy and healing at the same time allowing you to do more with fewer slots

Score

5 of 5

Summary

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 resistance (note that this is auto hit and can't miss though high level enemies and certain kinds of enemies (like Warwolves) 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 run or fly away, and you can hit them a lot harder.

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 the aggro is on him). If your tank is a herder, wait until they have stopped running and start fighting and drop the patch there.

• 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. This also groups them together as the people who hit the patch first will run slowly allowing the ones behind to catch up.

  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 (before getting in the patch). 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.

• When soloing, using the corner technique is good, but if you're higher level, using Fearsome Stare or Howling Twilight is a great way to open. Both will prevent an Alpha Strike and allow you time to get the debuffs active (Tar Patch, Darkest Night etc) before the enemies start attacking.
• Also note that for missions where you know enemies are going to be in a certain place (Respec Trial, some Croatoa missions, Ambushes, etc.), Tar patch is a useful thing to have down before they get there. Not only does it debuff and slow them, but they tend to get bunched together making for more AoE damage goodness 🙂

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 4 Slots ) No matter how I wanted to slot this power, four slots was enough. 60%   Slow (60% Minimum) Default: -90% With max 100% enhancement: -180% Reducing damage resistance is this power's best attribute (about 30%), 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). 50%   Recharge (50% Minimum) Default: 90 sec With max 100% enhancement: 45 sec You'll want to give recharge about 50% or more to easily use it once per battle, but shoot for 80%+ if you want to be able to use it almost immediately after it expires. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 90 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 144 Feet 90 feet is further than most of your attacks and considering it's pretty easy to just drop this under a Tank/Scrapper (when teaming) or around a corner and lure people, that's probably more than enough. However, there are possibly uses for having it further out so slot range if you feel you have enough slow or recharge (but my guess is that will never happen. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 8 end With max 100% enhancement: 4 end Endurance is always good to reduce if you haven't got anything else better to do, just like TG, it's not a priority. Especially for a power that only recharges every minute or so. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

What Darkest Night looks like.

Score

5 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 (20% unslotted) and damage potential (about 40% unenhanceable). Note that his power is also auto hit (never misses). The only drawback is when you're teaming and killing things too fast to use it effectively (which doesn't matter because you don't really need it in those cases).

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.

[+] My Darkest Night test

By the description, I wasn't too excited. In fact, I waited for my level 24 respec to try this power out on the test server. Here's how the test went: (click the [+] to read the rest)

[-] My Darkest Night test

I went to an active mission and opened by dropping DN on an orange boss with two yellow minions next to him. They immediately run over to smash me to pieces and I just stand there ready to take it. Note that I activated no defensive powers, no attacks or Debuffs, and no heals. I just sat there. And I waited. And waited. For about a minute and a half, this orange boss and two yellow minions went whiff, whiff, whiff probably screaming in frustration that they couldn't touch me. On the occasional hit that landed, the damage was a fraction of its normal punch. I Respec'ed into the power and have never regretted it.

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 their attacks largely ineffective.

Difficult to use in large teams, but killer when fighting AVs/Monsters, soloing, or for PvP

When soloing, it's invaluable to keep them from hitting you but because you have to debuff and damage, you'll lose endurance fast! Be sure to turn off unnecessary powers to save endurance (like fly, super speed, sprint etc).

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.

When your team accidentally aggros another group, Darkest Night can often handle them until the team is ready.

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.

On that note, you can use Darkest Night to HERD! (Yeah, you heard me). Try this sometime: sneak to the back of a room. Use Darkest night on one of the enemies in the back, run out of the room while the effect starts and around a corner. Drop Tar Patch on the corner between you and the enemies. Once the train of enemies shows up, they will bunch up on the tar patch as the first ones in it will slow down and the ones behind will quickly catch up. Now it's easy to hit them all with AOE attacks, but it also makes sure they're all in range of the Darkest Night debuff. Proceed to cut down at your leisure 🙂

Don't underestimate Darkest Night as I first did. This will become one of your most used powers in the game!

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) You can only slot a few aspects, but with 3 slots, you can max the endurance reduction and get at least one set bonus from the -acc sets. 80%   Endurance Reduction (80% Minimum) Default: 0 end per second With max 100% enhancement: 0 end per second Reducing damage potential is this power's best attribute, but you can't enhance that so give highest priority to Endurance reduction. This power eats endurance which becomes an even bigger problem when you're soloing. Buff this to the max if you can. 40%   To Hit Debuff (40% Minimum) Default: -90% With max 60% enhancement: -144% It's pretty strong already, but the more the better. Try to max it out if you can, but at least give it a minimum of 40% or so. 50%   Recharge (50% Minimum) Default: 10 sec With max 100% enhancement: 5 sec The only time I've ever thought ''Wow, I need to have DN back faster'' is when I got stunned and it dropped during a tough fight. That doesn't happen near often enough to be a big issue so this is low on your list of priorities 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 70 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 112 Feet Once again, it's already got a great range and really doesn't need more unless you don't have any stealth ability and you want to do DN herding like I described above. In that case, take this as high as you can to be able to pull enemies without getting too close. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Howling Twilight

Rendered them all helpless with a rez. Sweeet!

Score

6 of 5

Summary

Wow. Where do I begin?

To use this power, you have to target a living enemy nearby (in about the same range as one of your regular attacks). Ok, so as a rez maybe it's a pain to use 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 (though it's a pretty small amount)
• It's an AoE slow effect to your target and nearby enemies
• It does -recharge of 63% to all affected enemies. So not only can they not run fast, but their attack rate is lower too.
• 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

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. 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.

[+] Howling Twilight Games

Click to read about some of the awesome things you can do with HT

[-] Howling Twilight Games

Since HT is a full life and endurance revive with no stun period, it's safe to use it during the heat of battle. One time, I was in a team where our tank and a few others were all in a melee group with a large amount of enemies when the tank suddenly died. Following that, all nearby allies died as the enemies concentrated fire and destroyed them one by one. I ran directly into the crowd until I was in rez range of all three, and fired HT on the first target I could select. While I died immediately after, all three got up and resumed the battle (which we then won). That might have been one of the most awesome moments I ever spent in the game 😀

In other cases that are less dangerous, you can rez one or two team members who've fallen without endangering yourself, but it was still a pretty awesome move :D.

I loves me some dead pile!

In situations where your team is falling, and way too spread out to rez together or you've all run, but you're the only one to have survived, you can pull one of my favorites plays in the game. First tell you team to stay where they are and not to use the hospital or any Awaken Inspirations. Turn on Shadow Fall and sneak within range of the enemies that toasted your team (which should all have returned to their pre-battle positions by now).

Use Recall Friend or other friend teleport power (if you have one) to teleport all the bodies and make a dead pile next to you, select a target, fire HT, then start locking the bad guys down while the team "gets dressed for battle" (they should just need a second or two to hit their toggles and join the fight).

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 4 Slots ) Though this power is very useful and has many enhanceable properties, recharge is your focus. I found 4 slots to be sufficient to max recharge while getting a little extra slow and stun just for fun. 80%   Recharge (80% Minimum) Default: 180 sec With max 100% enhancement: 90 sec 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. 30%   Stun (30% Minimum) Default: 15 sec With max 100% enhancement: 30 sec (This is a Mag 2 Stun which means it wont' typically affect bosses) 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. 30% minimum. 30%   Endurance Reduction (30% Minimum) Default: 26 end With max 100% enhancement: 13 end This uses as much endurance as 3 or more attacks. Even if you can't use it often, lowering the endurance cost isn't a bad idea. 20%   Slow (20% Minimum) Default: 63% With max 100% enhancement: 126% Slow is just icing on the icing as far as I'm concerned. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 80 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 128 Feet One of HT's other drawbacks is needing an enemy to suck energy from. By adding range, you don't have to be as close to activate your power. Granted, you could just pull an enemy instead, but opening with HT is safer. If you're satisfied with everything else, feel free to slot this up too. 0%   Damage (0% Minimum) Default: 9 points With max 100% enhancement: 18 points This does barely less than brawl unslotted and barely more than brawl fully slotted. It's kind of neat and gives you access to slotting any special IOs you want from Ranged Damage sets, but it's really a waste to slot otherwise. It doesn't do enough damage to matter compared to the other things you should be slotting here. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Shadow Fall

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 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.

Related topic(s):

All About Being Sneaky

Remember that no other stealth powers combine with SF, but Super Speed does (and also Stealth IOs)! Man do I love sneak and TP. Better yet, you can sneak and TP without shadowfall, but you might get noticed before you're ready like in this picture (my Warshade did sneak and TP, but one of my guys drew aggro).

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

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 6 Slots ) This is a 6 slot power, no question. If you could slot it 8 or 10, you would. 50%   Defense Buff (50% Minimum) Default: 51 With max 60% enhancement: 81 Unslotted, Shadow fall is already more powerful than a fully slotted maneuvers which is cool because it gives defense verses ALL attacks (like Maneuvers). Slot this up to the max 50%   Damage Resist (50% Minimum) Default: 20% With max 60% enhancement: 32% Energy and dark energy are everywhere in the game so it's highly useful to resist it. But so little resists Psionic that it's worth slotting for that reason alone! 80%   Endurance Reduction (80% Minimum) Default: 0 end per second With max 100% enhancement: 0 end per second I don't know about you, but with the combination of defense, resistance and stealth, I like to leave Shadow Fall on pretty much all the time. Lowering per-second end cost is a must. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 15 sec With max 100% enhancement: 7.5 sec If you get stunned out of Shadow Fall, chances are it's not the very first thing you're going to put back. Recharge really isn't hugely necessary and should never be a priority over the other three. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Fearsome Stare

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, but depending on recharge, you might need to stagger them).
• 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).

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 4 Slots ) 4 slots is enough for everything you'd want to do, though in practice, I use 5 for a set bonus and to make Fearsome Stare an AoE attack with a chance of damage . 60%   Accuracy (60% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% This power is pointless if it misses. Make sure to slot this 60%+ for accuracy. 50%   Recharge (50% Minimum) Default: 40 sec With max 100% enhancement: 20 sec 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%+. 20%   To Hit Debuff (20% Minimum) Default: 19% With max 60% enhancement: 30.4% 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. Considering this is a cone Acc Debuff with a low activation cost (compared to Darkest Night), giving it some power isn't a bad idea. 10%   Fear (10% Minimum) Default: 22 sec With max 100% enhancement: 44 sec The fear component is strong and already lasts for over 20 seconds. Buff it if you want, but I'd focus on everything else first. At best this gives you access to fear IOs (my favorite of which is Chance for Psionic damage which makes FS an attack too!) 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 9 end With max 100% enhancement: 4.5 end It doesn't take much more endurance than a basic attack. Not really worth enhancing. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 70 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 112 Feet 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. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Note that I really like to add "Chance of Damage" procs to Fearsome stare making it both a control power AND an attack.

Petrifying gaze

Freeze sucka!

Score

3 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've never had great luck holding bosses and stuff that I really find dangerous, but it is good for holding problem enemies like sappers and such. It's possible to hold higher enemies with the help of you Dark Servant (who also has Petrifying gaze) or with other holds from teammates. Also, if you can fire the power often enough, you can sometimes hold them and perhaps even lock them down.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 4 Slots ) You might go 5 if you use this enough, but I didn't find that to be the case. 4 was enough for me especially once you get into more expensive IO sets. 60%   Accuracy (60% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% This power is pointless if it misses. Make sure to slot this 60%+ for accuracy. 50%   Recharge (50% Minimum) Default: 16 sec With max 100% enhancement: 8 sec The effects from PG stack so it's in your best interests to reduce recharge as much as you can rather. On single targets the effect is the same, as extending hold, but for multiple targets, recharge is better. Go for 50%+ 20%   Hold (20% Minimum) Default: 12 sec With max 100% enhancement: 24 sec After recharge, increase hold duration to increase the time period in which you can stack the power. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 8 end With max 100% enhancement: 4 end It doesn't take much more endurance than a basic attack. Not really worth enhancing. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 70 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 112 Feet Adding range can be useful for stopping runners in their tracks, but it's not something I would focus on too much. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Black Hole

Phasing enemies out with Black Hole

Score

0 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.

Dark Servant

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 Darkest Night, Twilight Grasp, Tenebrous Tentacles, and Petrifying Gaze. He's basically a spare Dark Defender which effectively doubles your effectiveness.

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.

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.

He'll obediently 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.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 6 Slots ) Six slot power, hands down, no question. He's just got too many attributes to buff though be sure to follow the listed priority. 60%   Accuracy (60% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% He's like a mini-you so make sure he can hit what he targets. Best of all, accuracy helps ALL his powers. 60%+ minimum (considering his heal, like yours, requires an accuracy check) 50%   Recharge (50% Minimum) Default: 240 sec With max 100% enhancement: 120 sec Fluffy, unlike many pets, eventually expires. Fortunately, his summon duration and his recharge are matched so you can keep him out all the time. However, recharge is still useful in case he dies or you have to dismiss him for sneaking or such. 40%   Heal (40% Minimum) Default: 0% With max 100% enhancement: 0% He's always around tossing heals. You might as well make sure they're doing decent work. 40%+ 40%   To Hit Debuff (40% Minimum) Default: 0% With max 60% enhancement: 0% The more you can afford to put here, the better. All his powers lower accuracy and stack with yours. 20%   Hold (20% Minimum) Default: 0 sec With max 100% enhancement: 0 sec After recharge, increase hold duration to increase the time period in which you can stack the power. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 26 end With max 100% enhancement: 13 end Fluffy uses a lot of endurance to summon, but it's so long between summons that it's not something to worry about too much. Most importantly, he has far too many other important things to buff. 0%   Immobilize (0% Minimum) Default: 0 sec With max 100% enhancement: 0 sec There's no reason at all for this. He fires his tentacles (immobilization power) all the time. Becuase of multiple applications, there's no need to lengthen the duration. At best use it for IO bonuses (for example, Trap of the Hunter Chance for Lethal) Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Comments (0)

Fighting Pool

Filed under: Fighting Pool,Kick,Punch,Tough,Weave — Jeremy

NOTE! The strength of any power pool attack varies greatly depending on your AT. However, they are consistently twice or more as strong as any normal level 1 or 2 attack.

Boxing

One to the gut

A strong attack with a disorient. If you're looking for another punch power or need the disorient to fit a concept character, go for it. Otherwise, the only reason to take it is you want Tough and Weave, but not Kick.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) If you use this as a primary attack, slot this way higher. But as a control power, a few slots for accuracy are probably enough. 40%   Accuracy (40% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% Attack standard of 40% buff 40%   Damage (40% Minimum) Default: 0 points With max 100% enhancement: 0 points Again, the total power varies based on your character type and level. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 4 end With max 100% enhancement: 2 end Don't focus on this; it's pretty cheap as it is. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 2 sec With max 100% enhancement: 1 sec It may not seem like it comes back fast, but it really does. It takes a few seconds for your enemy to stand up after being knocked down so with only a slight recharge bonus either in this power or globally (Hasten or IOs) you can practically chain attack with just Air Superiority. 0%   Stun (0% Minimum) Default: 13 sec With max 100% enhancement: 26 sec You can increase the stun if you use this power primarily for stunning, but it's already decent as-is. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

I've notitced that most guides and sample builds take boxing over kick. I expect it's because of the shorter activation time and lack of knockback (which most builds can't handle very well).

Kick

Offa my wall you!

Takes twice as long to activate than brawl and has a small chance to knockback. Good for a concept character that needs either another kick or knockback power and remember it's stronger than your first two primary attacks.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) If you use this as a primary attack, slot this way higher. But as a control power, a few slots for accuracy are probably enough. 60%   Accuracy (60% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% Standard buff of accuracy. 40%   Damage (40% Minimum) Default: 0 points With max 100% enhancement: 0 points If you give it more slots, slot damage next. It's a pretty strong attack so it doesn't hurt to buff it some more. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 4 end With max 100% enhancement: 2 end Don't focus on this; it's pretty cheap as it is. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 3 sec With max 100% enhancement: 1.5 sec Comes back plenty fast. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Tough

Rarr! Bring it!

A toggle power that increase resistance to Smashing and Lethal damage. Useful for up close fighters, not so good for people who don't ever enter melee range.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) 3 is enough to buff endurance and resistance. More is always better. 60%   Endurance Reduction (60% Minimum) Default: 0 end per second With max 100% enhancement: 0 end per second These drains add up. Lower it a bit. 60%   Damage Resist (60% Minimum) Default: 11% With max 60% enhancement: 17.6% You took the trouble to take this power for damage resistance so make it count. Buff as high as your slotting will allow. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 10 sec With max 100% enhancement: 5 sec It is a pain to wait 10 seconds for it to come back, but I still wouldn't focus on this. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Weave

Try and hit me. Go ahead. Try!

A toggle power that increase defense to all damage and helps resist immobilize. Useful for up close fighters, not so good for people who don't ever enter melee range.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) 3 is enough to buff what you need. More is always better. 60%   Endurance Reduction (60% Minimum) Default: 0 end per second With max 100% enhancement: 0 end per second These drains add up. Lower it a bit. 30%   Defense Buff (30% Minimum) Default: 31 With max 60% enhancement: 4.81 It's actually pretty strong so buffing is worth it for this compared to hover or combat jumping for a change. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 10 sec With max 100% enhancement: 5 sec It is a pain to wait 10 seconds for it to come back, but I still wouldn't focus on this. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Comments (0)

Medicine Pool

Filed under: Aid Other,Aid Self,Guides,Medicine Pool,Powersets,Resuscitate,Stimulant — Jeremy

Aid Other

This is the power you see the Crey using all the time where they whip out a little spray gun and heal a cryo tank or something. It takes a few seconds to use and is interruptable, but heals an ally for a decent amount of life. You have to be somewhat close to use it.

There are two ways to slot this for it to be usable mid-combat. One is to halve the interrupt time so you have better odds of firing it while taking damage. If you play an AT that tends to take damage fairly constantly, this is the better option. Then it just becomes a matter of timing for getting the heal in between attacks.

Otherwise, if you can avoid aggro (because of control, debuffs, or teammed with a tanker), you can just fire it anyway. And clearly it's useful after or between battles where you're not going to be interrupted.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) As an interruptable heal, you want to give this at least three slots, probably more. 40%   Recharge (40% Minimum) Default: 10 sec With max 100% enhancement: 5 sec This is a little long for a heal. Especially if you want to heal more than one person. Lower the recharge first. 40%   Heal (40% Minimum) Default: 26% With max 100% enhancement: 52% For most heals, recharge is better than heal so you can use it more often. In this case because it's interruptable, you want to heal as much as you can in every application so treat heal and recharge equally. 40%   Interrupt (40% Minimum) Default: 1 Sec With max 120% enhancement: 0.4 Sec Even with a short interrupt time of 1 second, adding a single IO will drop that to .6 seconds making it much easier to use in the heat of battle. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 6 end With max 100% enhancement: 3 end This is cheaper than most attacks. Probably not a priority. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Stimulant

This frees an ally from hold effects (sleep,stun, etc) and makes them resistant to these effects for a while. This is basically a "grant Inspiration" power.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) It's a bit spendy and slow, but not so much that you'll need a lot of slots. 40%   Endurance Reduction (40% Minimum) Default: 13 end With max 100% enhancement: 6.5 end Again, if you use this on a team regularly, the endurance cost is going to hurt. Drop it down a bit. 40%   Recharge (40% Minimum) Default: 10 sec With max 100% enhancement: 5 sec You only really need to buff this if you're playing defender and want to protect your whole team (which takes a long time at 10 seconds per use). 0%   Interrupt (0% Minimum) Default: 1 Sec With max 120% enhancement: 0.4 Sec Even with a short interrupt time of 1 second, adding a single IO will drop that to .6 seconds making it much easier to use in the heat of battle. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

You want to be able to fire it rapidly because if a teammate gets stunned, it's usually going to happen to another teammate in another second or two. Also, if you're going to enter a battle where there are enemies you know will stun you, you can fire this effect on each team member to "immunize" them to the effect temporarily. The key here is to be able to use it on everyone in a very short ammount of time so the effect doesn't wear off your first team member before you've applied it to the last. Lastly, the effect stacks. If one of your teammates seems particularly weak to stuns or is very important that they don't get stunned (like your tank), you can fire the effect multiple times on the same ally.

Aid Self

Heals you (interruptable). Also offers some stun resistance.

If you have built a character type that can spare 4 seconds in the middle of combat or if you are good at running and coming back after healing, just slot it with heals to get the most out of it each activation.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) As an interruptable heal, you want to give this at least three slots, probably more. 40%   Recharge (40% Minimum) Default: 20 sec With max 100% enhancement: 10 sec You want heals back whenever possible. Bring down the recharge a bit 40%   Heal (40% Minimum) Default: 26% With max 100% enhancement: 52% For most heals, recharge is better than heal so you can use it more often. In this case because it's interruptable, you want to heal as much as you can in every application so treat heal and recharge equally (or edge towards heal) 40%   Interrupt (40% Minimum) Default: 1 Sec With max 120% enhancement: 0.4 Sec Even with a short interrupt time of 1 second, adding a single IO will drop that to .6 seconds making it much easier to use in the heat of battle. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 13 end With max 100% enhancement: 6.5 end This is kind of a lot, but other aspects should get priority. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Resuscitate

Dead on the left, rezzed on the right.

Rezes a team member (not including you of course).

A simple power that's the same as an awaken inspiration. The only slotting that makes sense is to reduce the long recharge time of three minutes. Usually when you're reviving people, it's more than one.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) You can get away with two, but three is better. 80%   Recharge (80% Minimum) Default: 180 sec With max 100% enhancement: 90 sec Hopefully people aren't dying too often, but usually when someone dies, someone else is dead too. Bring it back faster for best results. 20%   Interrupt (20% Minimum) Default: 4 Sec With max 120% enhancement: 1.6 Sec If you can spare it, try to slot this. With 4 seconds to interrupt, you'll be much happier by lowering this a little. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 32 end With max 100% enhancement: 16 end Expensive, but not used often. Don't focus on this. 0%   Heal (0% Minimum) Default: 100% With max 100% enhancement: 200% Ok, why can you even slot for health when they're healed full anyway? Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Comments (0)

Flight Pool

Filed under: Air Superiority,Flight Pool,Fly,Group Flight,Guides,Hover,Powersets — Jeremy

NOTE! The strength of any power pool attack varies greatly depending on your AT. However, they are consistently twice or more as strong as any normal level 1 or 2 attack.

Air Superiority

Whack!

A strong attack for Squishies, but most importantly, it drops an enemy on their butt which keeps them from beating on you. Because of its fast recharge, it can be a very strong control power for ANY AT!

I used to give this a really low rating, but after having seen squishies solo really tough bosses by keeping the enemy on the ground, I gave it a try. Keep in mind Blasters are strong, but easily killed. But not if the enemy can't fight back… (hint, hint!).

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) If you use this as a primary attack, slot this way higher. But as a control power, a few slots for accuracy are probably enough. 60%   Accuracy (60% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% As a strong control power, you really don't want this to miss. Doing so can mean the matter of life or death. 40%   Damage (40% Minimum) Default: 0 points With max 100% enhancement: 0 points If you give it more slots, slot damage next. It's a pretty strong attack so it doesn't hurt to buff it some more. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 6 end With max 100% enhancement: 3 end Don't focus on this; it's pretty cheap as it is. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 4 sec With max 100% enhancement: 2 sec It may not seem like it comes back fast, but it really does. It takes a few seconds for your enemy to stand up after being knocked down so with only a slight recharge bonus either in this power or globally (Hasten or IOs) you can practically chain attack with just Air Superiority. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Hover and Fly

Hover and Fly are basically the same as far as the power goes so I'll talk about both of them at the same time.

Goodbye City of Heroes.

The two powers from this pool that you're likely to take are Hover and Fly, and they have most of the same advantages:

• Fun – There are some views and screen captures you can't ever get without fly.
• You can get to places that no one else except Teleporters can (and flying is much easier than accurate teleporting). Tops of statues, tops of buildings, anywhere you please.
  I flew up to the highest building in Crey's Folly to take my final screen capture before deactivating my account the first time. There, Jordan waits till the time that I can return… *Sniff*… If you read the tells in the chat window, you can even see my good friend Justice Avatar promising not to forget me :*(.
• Unattended travel – Don't underestimate the power of turning on "run" and walking away while your character flies/hovers to a mission, zone entrance, or whatever. If you have to get up every now and then for a drink, potty break, or to do little things around the house now and then, this is for you.

Yup, it's the Hollows, but I'm not getting hit up here.
• Safe – When traveling through dangerous zones, landing in the wrong place with Super Jump will get you killed. Super Speed has a stealth element, but if you get stuck on a land object (like a dumpster or wall) next to a group of enemies for a few seconds, they could notice you and beat you senseless. With Teleport, you run the risk of running out of endurance or teleporting to a bad spot where some enemies were hiding. With fly, you can go high above all buildings and terrain and just fly.
• Useful to solve the vertical problem of Super Speed – I run most of the way and just before I get to an obstacle, hit the fly power to get over it. Then I turn off the fly power to use the speed of Super Speed again. This combination gets you from place to place VERY fast.

Flight helps for the high-up badges.
• Semi invisibility with a stealth power – While Super Speed is the best with stealth powers, in open areas or warehouse or ship missions, flying with Stealth is just as good. I've been able to get to the end of many missions with just hover and Stealth without drawing any fire. The place where this breaks down is in caves where there's usually not enough space to hover over enemies.
• Badge hunting – Finding a certain type of enemy, reaching exploration points, and locating plaques are all easy with Fly. You can also spot Giant Monsters like Babbage, Hydra, Paladin, etc much easier.

Hover

Hover is slow, but can get you anywhere Fly can with far less endurance. It also adds a bonus to your defense though so you can use it as a defense boost during battle. It's a bit slow for movement though so buffing the speed is probably a good idea.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) More is good, but this is enough for basic buffs. 60%   Fly (60% Minimum) Default: 16 MPH With max 100% enhancement: 32 MPH It's SLOW (couldn't find actual speed numbers anywhere!). Give it at least one fly enhancement though two is better or if you have some other fly speed bonuses (Swift or IOs for example) 40%   Defense Buff (40% Minimum) Default: 11 With max 60% enhancement: 1.61 It doesn't seem like a lot, but it's defense against all attacks and will make a big difference over time. It's not bad to slot this up. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 0 end per second With max 100% enhancement: 0 end per second Don't focus on this; it's pretty cheap as it is. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

I often find that slotting one Fly and one Defense is sufficient for mobility and decent defense. The key is to remember to turn it on for battles to take advantage of the defense.

Fly

Nice flying pose 🙂

Fly uses more endurance which is a problem early on as you'll use more endurance than you gain and run the risk of falling out of the air. However, I really like Fly so I took it as my support power for Super Speed (which I kept for Sneaking purposes).

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) More is good, but this is enough for basic buffs. 60%   Fly (60% Minimum) Default: 34 MPH With max 100% enhancement: 68 MPH With some enhancing and a few buffs here and there, I find that I hit the fly speed cap pretty often and don't need more than this. 20%   Endurance Reduction (20% Minimum) Default: 1 end With max 100% enhancement: 0.5 end This is spendy, but as long as you're not trying to fight with it on, this should hardly be a problem. Reduce it a bit so you don't run the risk of running out of endurance while flying, but I've never really had a problem with it at higher levels once I get Stamina or manage my endurance other ways. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

With an Endurance Reducer, I can often fight battles with Fly on, but if it's dropping too fast, I switch to Hover until the battle is over or the end has recovered a little.

Group Fly

I don't know that I've ever seen this used. At best, it can be a good way to bring your pets with you, but in group play, it has just about no use. If you're trying to help someone get to a mission or certain location, you're much better off with Recall Friend from the Teleport pool.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) More is good, but this is enough for basic buffs. 80%   Endurance Reduction (80% Minimum) Default: 2 end With max 100% enhancement: 1 end HUGELY expensive! Drop this as much as you can or don't even bother taking it. Use two slot for endurance reduction and don't even think about slotting fly speed until after that. 0%   Fly (0% Minimum) Default: 26 MPH With max 100% enhancement: 52 MPH I have no idea how fast you can go, but you don't want to go TOO Fast or whoever you're carrying might go to far away and fall. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Comments (2)

Teleportation Pool

Filed under: Guides,Powersets,Recall Friend,Team Teleport,Teleport,Teleport Foe,Teleportation Pool,Testing — Jeremy

Recall Friend

Pranking my friend; TP him midair (Video: 1.7Mb)

A great and commonly used power that let's you teleport a team mate from 1000 yards away to a location next to you. Here are some sample uses:

• Getting a team mate to a mission door fast. Very important early on when everyone's travel is slow.
• For a team mate who shows up late to a mission, you can tp them to the rest of the team rather than wait for them to find you in the map.
• Pulling a team mate who's in trouble from the battle field (out of range of further fire).
• Pulling a dead team mate from out of range of enemies so they can be rezzed or use an Awaken.
• Helping a team mate who's stuck somewhere. For example, I spent 25 minutes trying to get to the reactor in Terra Volta because I only had Super Speed and couldn't figure out how to get up the huge walls. If someone in my group had Recall Friend, we'd have been set.
• For sneaking a mission. You run invisible to the target enemy of the mission (boss or whatever) and teleport the rest of the team to you. This is a great way to cut down the time of those task forces.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( Default Slot Only ) One is all that's required 40%   Recharge (40% Minimum) Default: 6 sec With max 100% enhancement: 3 sec It can take a while to teleport the whole team one at a time, but with a single recharge, it's not that bad. 0%   Interrupt (0% Minimum) Default: 4 Sec With max 120% enhancement: 1.6 Sec This only matters if you're trying to teleport while being attacked. It's not really necessary 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 15 end With max 100% enhancement: 7.5 end It's expensive, but I've never noticed it being a problem in practice 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 10000 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 16000 Feet The only time I've ever failed to recall someone due to range was in Independence Port so they had to travel closer to me first. For this very rare case, I don't see any point in adding range. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

My friend is in trouble, bring him to me.

And here's a bind to help with teleporting team mates. It not only lets them know a TP is coming, but if there's another member of your team helping with the teleports, it lets them know not to do the same one.

/bind f12 "team $target! I am opening a portal through the darkness!$$powexec_name recall friend"

Recently, I've been slotting Winter's Gift: -Knockback in recall friend. That gives me great knockback protection in a power so low level that it works no matter how far I'm exemped

Teleport Foe

A commonly disparaged power that's actually very useful (especially now with PvP). It used to be hated because it would immediately draw aggro from every enemy near the one you teleported, but the aggro range has been significantly reduced and there are ways to use it without worrying about the aggro:

• If an enemy is running away, target them and use TP Foe to bring them back.

  This is very useful for hunting or for "Kill leader and crew" missions if one off the leader's crew tries to run. This is especially useful if the runner goes through another group of enemies or can fly when you can't.

• If you are on a ledge, high building, or top of a ravine and your target is below you, you can pull them up one at a time and deal with them while the others fruitlessly try to get to you.

• Attention Kheldans!. Another use is to open battles by targetting a problem enemy (such as a Void Seeker) and TP'ing them to you for immediate destruction. Even if you aggro any of the enemies near him, he'll be long dead before the rest get to you.

• Use it as a pulling technique. Like any other attack, using TP Foe will usually get the attention of a few enemies near your target. Used properly, you can chop enemy groups into smaller and more managable chunks.

• In pvp, you can teleport Villains to your location to be pummeled by you and your hero friends :).

• You can TP an enemy into a different enemy group so that THEY destroy him (in certain maps or missions where there are enemies fighting each other.

• If you're a controller or defender who's using a targeted area debuff that affects other enemies, it's no good if your target runs away because the debuff doesn't affect anyone anymore and they can aggro others. Usually, you'd just turn off your power, but now you can just bring them back. You can also move them around as needed.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) You need enough for accuracy, possibly more 80%   Accuracy (80% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% Having this miss is very depressing. It's a situational power already, but if it misses, then it's basically useless. 15%   Range (15% Minimum) Default: 200 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 320 Feet I leave this at your discretion, but being able to teleport from further away gives you more time to deal with whatever you bring before anything else arrives, and the technique of standing on a roof only works if you're in range. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 20 sec With max 100% enhancement: 10 sec If you slot this properly with accuracy, you won't have time to use it again while you're destroying whatever you TP'ed so recharge really isn't necessary 0%   Interrupt (0% Minimum) Default: 2 Sec With max 120% enhancement: 0.8 Sec I don't know anyone that uses this while running or fighting so I don't think you'll need to lower interrupt 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 15 end With max 100% enhancement: 7.5 end You'll only use this once every now and then. The end cost isn't really important. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

If you have enough other accuracy bonuses from other places, you MIGHT not have to use two slots for accuracy.

Teleport

The Warshade version of Teleport

Commmonly known as the fastest travel power in the game. Activate, choose a target location on the screen, click: arrive :). Here's the bind I use to make it faster so you don't have to move the mouse to your power bars and back to the screen between hops.

/bind shift "powexec_name Shadow Step"

This activates the teleport power and gives you a target on the screen so you can choose where to teleport. Note that if the target is red, you can't teleport there (though this is really stupid. You should be able to teleport to any location on the screen that the target touches). It's a series of click-tp, click-tp, click-tp, but it's definitely the fastest way to travel (other than advanced techniques

The moment you come out of the teleport, hit the shift key again to bring up your target. You'll have to figure out the timing because if you go too fast, the game gets confused and will spin you around teleporting you to the left or right randomly.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) Each teleportation IO set has 3 only. This is standard, though you CAN get away with 2 40%   Endurance Reduction (40% Minimum) Default: 13 end With max 100% enhancement: 6.5 end As fast as you use this, you're going to drain endurance pretty quickly. Reducing endurance cost at least a little will allow you to make it across any zone without trouble (except maybe Independence Port). 40%   Range (40% Minimum) Default: 300 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 480 Feet Not only does this make you travel faster, but by going further each hop, you'll have to use it less times which also saves endurance. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Note that it's extremely common to take Hover with Teleport since you only get a second or two to select your next Teleport point before dropping like a stone. Hover gives you more time.

Group Teleport

Same as Teleport, but takes all nearby teammates with you. I think this power is difficult to use effectively, but isn't given enough credit. For example, many Teleporters tell me how they can escape battle in an instant with Teleport. What if you could take your whole team with you when you all started to die? Not only would you save a few folks, but the dead bodies would come with you as well (assuming you were all close to each other at the time).

You could also ambush a group or monster by doing a team Teleport right on top of them. For enemy groups that usually do significant damage while you're trying to get close, this is a way to close the distance instantly. And of course this is a way to keep your Mastermind pets from getting killed during travel and having to resummon and equip them.

Anyway, it's a very rarely taken power, but can be useful with some imagination.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) Each teleportation IO set has 3 only. This is standard, though you CAN get away with 2 40%   Endurance Reduction (40% Minimum) Default: 15 end With max 100% enhancement: 7.5 end It costs the same as Teleport and there's no pentalty for anyone else you teleport! 40%   Range (40% Minimum) Default: 225 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 360 Feet Not only does this make you travel faster, but by going further each hop, you'll have to use it less times which also saves endurance. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 20 sec With max 100% enhancement: 10 sec Mid's guide says it takes 1.5 seconds to recharge, but when I used it, it worked exactly the same as teleport. Eh. Go figure... Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Comments (0)

Fitness Pool

Filed under: Fitness Pool,Guides,Health,Hurdle,Powersets,Stamina,Swift — Jeremy

Being able to play without a lot of down time between battles is the primary reason I recommend this pool. Health increases your heal rate and Stamina increases your endurance recovery rate. Together, you won't have to rest between most battles and it's less likely that you'll run out of endurance during a fight.

The other big reason to take Fitness is to augment your travel powers:

Swift

Swift

If you hate running slowly in combat or missions, but don't want to waste endurance on Sprint, Swift gives you roughly the same effect without having to toggle a power.

But the best use of Swift is to make Fly faster. Since Swift can take flight enhancements, you can boost the "slowest travel power" and make it just a little bit faster. Since I have many flying heroes, that's a big bonus to me. At late levels when you start to fly at the speed cap without Swift, you can change your slots back to enhance run.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( Default Slot Only ) Unless you're just tripping over your available slots, you probably don't want to enhance this more than the default slot. 40%   Run (40% Minimum) Default: 35 ft/sec With max 100% enhancement: 70 ft/sec If you don't take any fly power of any kind, always slot for run since it's used any time you run, sprint, or move on the ground. 40%   Run (40% Minimum) Default: 13 ft/sec With max 100% enhancement: 26 ft/sec If you take fly or hover (especially hover), buffing fly speed here is not a bad idea. However, because it's always better to slot fly into the power itself, the only reason you'd add an extra slot here is if you already maxed the fly powers you have or if you want to boost all fly powers (including jetpacks). Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Hurdle

Hurdle

While taking Swift with Super Speed can make you run really fast, if you can't jump over obstacles, you're not going to get anywhere. Also, with Super Jump, Hurdle will increase your jump speed. So generally, I recommend Hurdle for SJ and SS.

Fly doesn't get any benefit from hurdle so you should always take Swift if you want to fly.

As far as Teleport, it doesn't benefit from Hurdle OR Swift, so just take the one you like better.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( Default Slot Only ) Unless you're just tripping over your available slots, you probably don't want to enhance this more than the default slot. 40%   Jump (40% Minimum) Default: 166% With max 100% enhancement: 332% One slot gets you 40% or so with a single level 50 IO. Unless you have a specific reason to up this, that's usually enough. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Keep in mind that if you have either the jump jet pack, Ninja Run, or similar Hurdle may become completely unnecessary

Health

Health

While you could take both Swift and Hurdle on your way to Stamina, you could theoretically skip Health, but I don't see why you would. Having additional regeneration is always a benefit both for times when you're in battle and the time between battles. But in or out of battle, when ISN'T it a good thing to regenerate health faster?

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) One is ok, but two is better. 80%   Heal (80% Minimum) Default: 40% With max 100% enhancement: 80% Depending on your type, you might be using health to get to Stamina and not really need it, but really, it never hurts to have more health. If you're a tank or regen scrapper and really don't think you need it, go one slot. Otherwise, slot it to the sky! Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Ultra-slotting

This is the best possible slotting I've discovered for Health. This helps squishies a LOT!

• Invention IO Heal
• Numina's Convalescence: Heal
• Numina's Convalescence: +Regen/+Recover

Slotted in this way, you get the normal maximum benefit two slots gives (around 84%) but you ALSO get the set bonus for two of the Numina set (another 12% to regeneration) AND 20% regen with 10% recovery from the special enhancement.

In case you weren't counting, that's 116% regeneration and 10% endurance recovery all for just THREE enhancements. Freaking yeah!

Stamina

Stamina

There are very few ATs that can get away without Stamina. Doing so makes you play much slower and work harder to conserve energy (though depending on what you play, the powers you take, and how clever you are with enhancements, you can do it).

Also some powers rebuild or reduce your endurance bar (ex. Regen powerset, or Warshades with Stygian Circle, and PeaceBringers with Conserve Power). Playing without Stamina takes some work and effort and most people try not to do it. While I recommend making the effort, there are some times you just won't be effective without it.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 2 Slots ) One is ok, but two is better. 70%   Endurance Modification (70% Minimum) Default: 25% With max 100% enhancement: 50% It only takes two slots to max this out so give it both and slot it up! Most characters desperately need this to be functional without significant down-time. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Ultra-slotting

This is the best possible slotting I've discovered for Stamina

• Invention IO Endurance Mod
• Performance Shifter: End Mod
• Performance Shifter: Chance for +Endurance

With this, you get the full bonus of 83% possible enhancement with two end-mod enhancements, but you also get a set bonus of 5% speed increase to run, fly, jump, and teleport range. And the real fun is with the +endurance IO which gives you a 20% chance for a 10% bonus to your endurance every 10 seconds! (that's like a free small blue Inspiration every now and then).

Using this slotting, even my storm users can waste powers like there's no tomorrow without breaking a sweat in most cases!

Comments (0)

« Previous Page — Next Page »