Author: Abyssal
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Dark Melee Guide
Intro:
Dark Melee, introduced with issue 7, is a Primary powerset for Stalkers. It does exclusively Negative and Smashing damage, and almost all attacks have a –Acc component to them, making this a very useful utility set. In addition to the obvious accuracy Debuffs, it has an immobilize power and a self heal. The powers work well and are commonly used with all Stalker secondaries – though Regeneration, Ninjitsu, and Dark Armor seem to be prevalent. More on combinations later.
But, about the guide itself, it's pretty crappy, and is written only to see how well I can do one - the answer being, evidently, not well at all. THanks for reading, if you go any farther than this. :-P
Powers:
1 - Shadow Punch
Melee, Minor Damage (Smash/Lethal)
Foe –Acc
Enhancements:
Reduce Endurance Cost, Enhance Recharge Speed, Enhance To Hit Debuffs, Enhance Damage, Enhance Accuracy
This is one of the two powers available at level 1, along with Smite. Shadow Punch does minimal damage, but costs very little also. I use it for when there’s just a sliver of health left on the enemy’s bar and none of my other attacks are recharged. Not useful for general combat.
1 - Smite
Melee, Moderate Damage (Smash/Lethal)
Foe –Acc
Enhancements:
Reduce Endurance Cost, Enhance Recharge Speed, Enhance To Hit Debuffs, Enhance Damage, Enhance Accuracy
This is essentially a better version of Shadow Punch. It does about 4 times more damage, but, obviously, has a slower recharge. At lower levels, it can take out minions in one hit from Hide, though as you go up, it will progress to less than half unslotted. I’d recommend taking this at level 1, if only for its initial usefulness.
2 - Shadow Maul
Melee, High Damage Over Time (Smash/Lethal)
Cone, Foe-Acc
Enhancements:
Reduce Endurance Cost, Enhance Recharge Speed, Enhance To Hit Debuffs, Enhance Damage, Enhance Accuracy
This, available at level 2, is considered either a godsend (by most people) or useless (by highly logical people). This is because it has quite a few bad qualities in addition to its good ones, such as its relatively high damage. These bad qualities are, namely, the fact that it has a long animation: 5 seconds. While it’s being used, you remain immobile – never something a stalker wants. It’s Damage over time (DoT) – 5 ‘pips’ over as many seconds – a slow attack. But, in its defence, it has one of the highest damage powers available to the Dark Melee set. I, personally took this power, because it is quite useful in early levels up until late 20’s, when you have no other attack that damaging. Another aspect of Shadow Maul’s usefulness is that it is a cone attack – targets in a near straight line on in front of the other can both be hit at once, and, though I’m not entirely sure, I believe both can critical for double damage.
6 - Assassin’s Eclipse
Special Damage (Smashing, Negative)
Melee, Self +Endurance
Enhancements:
Reduce Endurance Cost, Enhance Recharge Speed, Enhance To Hit Debuffs, Enhance Damage, Enhance Accuracy, Reduce Interrupt Time
This is your signature move, one you should get immediately (level 6) and keep for the rest of the game. It does very minor damage – less than Shadow Punch. But, if executed while Hidden, it will instead do its damage, then a critical, then Assassin’s Strike. The Assassin’s Strike component means it will instantly kill non-resistant minions unslotted, and with 3 or 4 SOs, non-resistant Lieutenants as well. It takes time to perform, which is a downside. But with Hide’s +Def bonus, there’s a chance that any already aggroed mobs won’t hit you while you’re executing this (don’t count on this, however). More on its usage later.
8 - Build Up
Special
Self +Damage +Accuracy
Enhancements:
Enhance To Hit Buffs, Enhance Recharge Speed, Reduce Endurance Cost
Build Up is another power that is unarguably necessary. For 10 seconds, your damage will be increased by 100% - double damage. This is necessary for resistant lieutenants and bosses, and can be used after the initial AS to kill minions quickly. Get this at 8, if possible.
12 - Placate
Ranged
Foe Placate, Self Stealth/Hide
Enhancements:
Enhance Range, Reduce Endurance Cost
This is part 3 of the ‘AS Chain’ (Build Up, Assassin’s Eclipse, Placate). It essentially makes a foe stop attacking you and ignore your presence. It also hides you, allowing you to quickly pull off an Assassin’s Eclipse. This power is unimaginably useful, allowing you to escape from a boss, perform a second AE on a boss, kill the second part of a group of two, or many other things. Get at 12.
18 - Siphon Life
Moderate Damage (Negative)
Melee, Foe –Acc, Self +Hit Points
Enhancements:
Reduce Endurance Cost, Enhance Recharge Speed, Enhance Heal, Enhance To Hit Debuffs, Enhance Damage, Enhance Accuracy
This is the one power I never take. It has a high endurance cost – in fact, second only to Assassin’s Eclipse and equal to your level 32 final attack– and does less damage than Smite. The healing it gives you is minimal, and probably the worst heal I know of. Dark Miasma’s Twilight Grasp – a level 1 power – heals more. I recommend skipping this one.
26 - Touch of Fear
Melee Fear
Foe –Acc
Enhancements:
Reduce Endurance Cost, Enhance Recharge Speed, Enhance Fear, Enhance To Hit Debuffs, Enhance Accuracy
Touch of Fear is, as the name would indicate, a simple, decent cost single target fear power. If you’ve Dark Armor secondary, you can do better with Cloak of Fear, and Ninjitsu has a better mez with Blinding Powder. However, if you lack either of these secondary sets, this can be a nice power to pick up. Fear Magnitude 1-2.
32 – Midnight Grasp
Superior Damage Over Time (Negative)
Melee, Foe Immobilize, -Acc
Enhancements:
Enhance Recharge Speed, Reduce Endurance Cost, Enhance Accuracy, Enhance Damage, Enhance ToHit Debuff, Enhance Immobilization
This is your most damaging non-AE power, and, in addition to that, also immobilizes your unfortunate victim and does 10 ticks of damage over time (also, like most dark attacks, it also reduces foe’s accuracy). Instant kill on Minions out of Hide, or with Build Up. As with most of these powers, try to get ASAP.
Usage:
AE Chain
The AE Chain is my name for the use of Build Up, Assassin’s Eclipse, and Placate to destroy enemies quickly. This is fairly rudimentary, and I wouldn’t bother if you’re an experienced player or have good knowledge of stalkers.
Examples:
Group of one Lieutenant and two minions
Use Build Up + Assassin’s Eclipse to kill the Lieutenant (Shadow Punch should finish him if that doesn’t), then kill the minions with the remaining duration.
Group of two Lieutenants:
Use Build Up, AE the first Lt., and then Placate the second and use Midnight Grasp. The damage from Midnight Grasp, combined with Build Up, should kill the second one easily.
Boss
Build Up, Assassin’s Eclipse, Midnight Grasp, Shadow Maul, Shadow Punch, Placate. Use the attack powers in order of damage they do, highest to lowest, so you can benefit the most from Build Up. If the Boss isn’t dead (and odds are it won’t be), rinse and repeat. If it regens too fast, you may need to scrap a bit. Depending on your defences, you may need to enlist the help of Inspirations or Accolades (such as Demonic Aura)
Anyways, just my little bit on common enemy groups and how to off ‘em.
Things to watch for:
Circle of Thorns
Spectral Daemons (minions, Lts, Bosses). These have a high resistance to Negative as well as smashing – your two main damage types. A single Assassin’s Eclipse may not be enough to kill these.
Banished Pantheon
Most Banished are resistant to Dark, from Minions upwards. Shamans are the exception to this, that I have seen.
Powerset Combinations:
Dark Melee/Dark Armor
This is a very useful set, because it comes with more utilities that benefit you, such as AoE Fear and Disorients, one of the game’s better self heals, a self Rez, and, best of all, *complete* resistance to Hold, Sleep, Disorient, and Fear, as well, as very good resistance To Psionic, a rare quality. This is obviously used with dark, for thematic reasons. It’s a good choice, and a common one.
Dark Melee/Ninjitsu
From what I’ve seen of Ninjitsu, it is a very powerful set, with a heal, Tier 10 “God Mode” power, slow downs, an AoE Placate, a Confuse power, and other utilities. Better info on this set available from [LINK]. I’d well recommend this to anyone who doesn’t like the idea of Dark/Dark.
Dark Melee/Regeneration
Regeneration is a solid secondary powerset for any Stalker build, and provides, as the name implies, a variety of good heals and some resistance powers, though few of them and not as good as any other sets. Comes with a self-Rez at 35, which is always useful.
Dark Melee/Super Reflexes
I’ve had no actual experience with SR, but form what I’ve been told, it’s an excellent powerset, providing defence bonuses to the point many enemies have difficulty hitting you at all. It sounds like a set good for both ‘scrapping’ and stalking, so pick it up by all means.
Dark Melee/Energy Aura
All right, what’ve we here? An AoE Knockback? Two Endurance managing powers? Perhaps the game’s best Stalker god-mode power? Sounds good to me. Anyways, form what I hear, this is a pretty good, even great, set, though it lacks the mez and stealth-rerated options of some other powersets.
[B][/B]
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