Some interesting points!
I rarely carry more than 2 heal inspirations. I do tend to vary my inspiration load if I have the opportunity according to the intended opponent and my team composition. Break frees are a must for a Dark Defender. At level 50, I rarely have enough. Unless Sappers are involved, I rarely need more than a couple of blues.
Good set of thoughts!
I rarely use more then 2 heals. Seldom use more than 2 break frees. pretty much only use endurance when reviving.
The 3 extra heals are purely backup, as are the extra BF and Endurance. Those being the things that I need, IF I need more. The only time I vary inspirations will be for Sappers in smaller teams that are not capable of dealing with them otherwise. I normally just sacrifice the Dark Servant to the sapper, mind control, or other annoying gods when needed.
Immobilize is the most common status effect that seems to leak past my dark servant, and being a teleporter, I just ignore it. Otherwise I'd be drinking BF's like water.
Defense, Heal, Endurance, Breakfree, Revive
D D H E E
D D B H H
D D B B B
H H B R R
Tactics
This will probably meander. It's built on my template of some control, some blast, some solo, some group. It's my way, but by far NOT the only way. If your looking for a comprehensive list of tactics for every Dark/Dark build, look elsewhere, it's not in here.
[u]Solo Level A[u]
pretty straight forward most the time, TT them and Blast.
[u]Solo Level B[u]
If there are enough, or are hard enough, then I'll open with Fear followed by TT. Then blast. Consider Tar Patch 4'th for Extra damage. However, at easier levels, it can be a waste of time.
[u]Solo Level C[u]
Fear isn't enough, ok, Open with Darkest Night, Fear, TT ... Consider Tar Patch 4'th for extra damage. Also consider Hasten to open up heavy level fast recharge AE damage with strenuous use of TT and NF.
[u] Solo Level D[u]
That's still not enough. Open with Dark Servant, or TP the DS into the group, or Train the DS into the group. Follow up with (DN, Fear, TT) or (Fear, DN, TT) Followed by Tar Patch for Extra Damage, then Hasten and lay down a heavy fire of hastened TT and NF with single target mixed in the gaps.
[u] Solo Level E[u]
This is gonna hurt level. Ack! Open with DS, followed by DN, Fear, or even a heal in support of the DS. This gets knife edge tricky. Which of the three is actually the best choice gets heavily debateable. Typically I'd say DS, DN, Fear, Tar Patch, TT with heals mixed as needed. But that could easily end up Hasten, DS, Heal, Fear, DN, Heal, TT, Tar Patch or Hasten, DS, Heal, DN, Fear, Heal, TT, Tar Patch.
.
With the harder level targets there will come a time where it's hard to decide between Fear and DN as a primary mitigation.
Fear is an imeditate effect and mitigation, however it must To-Hit and anything not HIT will return fire at FULL POWER.
DN is a slower mitigation, however it is AUTO HIT and all enemyes return fire, but at a heavily nerfed accuracy level.
So the question becomes, what hurts less, a few returning fire at full power, or all returning fire with nerf sited guns. Often the few returning fire actually hurts less. However as the level or number of targets increase, the odds of misses increasing, then the pain of fire returned increases. Eventually, DN becomes the better mitigator. Low level targets, or fewer targets, fear is the better choice, higher level or higher number, and DN becomes the choice.
You can also get into situations where you need to pull, and use a well placed Tar Patch to catch the mobs at a corner, and then toss the DS on them from a location around a corner.
[u]Grouping[u]
Tactics and Assault are strongly reccomended. In an 8 man group every 2 copies of assault adds the equivalent of another player to the group. In the same 8 man group every 2 copies of tactics is BETTER than an extra accuracy SO in each attack. That means a group running 4 copies of tactics and assualt has the equivalent of a 10 man team with 4 Accuracy SO's in every attack. This has a tremendous impact on the speed at which you can complete a mission, or alternately the level of mission you can complete. With 4 tactics and 4 assault, +5 level missions "can" be scarily easy.
In Groups I almost always end up more control than blast. Heavy reliance on Tactics, Assault, and Vengeance, as well as heals, DS, and control.
Typically let the tank grab aggro first, it's not overly healthy taking alpha strikes in most 8 man groups, even with your massive debuffs. If the tank uses an AE foot stomp etc, start up your activation as they do, and your's will fire maybe 1 second after theirs, helping lower the Alpha that's directed at you. Otherwise, take care to judge the Alpha generated by both Fear and DN in the current mission at the current difficulty, and use the most apporpriate one for personal survivability, followed by the other. Also don't be shy to use DS to blunt Alpha, just realize you loose a lot of support when the DS is eaten by that alpha. That said, it's better to lose a DS than a Tank to alpha, use the appropriate tool as needed. I've often had to drop the DS either on the tank, or on a second spawn the tank accidentally aggroed to try to cut the alpha in half to keep the silly tank alive. Dropping the DS on the tank, not only can lower the alpha on the tank, but the DS will heal the tank as well, IF the DS lives long enough to do it.
Make sure to understand that which is the better opener WILL vary from mission to mission.
The opening in groups varies on difficulty and speed. In High speed groups the opening is usually Fear, DN, Tar Patch, TT. In really high speed super fulcrum shifted groups, it often doesn't progress past Fear, TT, Blast. In lower speed groups or vs harder targets, it's DN, Fear, Tar Patch, TT. Using DS as supplemental healing, or emergency tanking if an extra group of enemies try to crash the party.
Twilight Grasp also often comes into use more for it's debuff than the heal. TG is a VERY STRONG single target debuff. It can effectively neuter a boss. If there's a stray loose boss, spam TG and he's a non-issue. Drop DN on another boss and they become a non-issue. Drop DS on a third boss or even spawn, and they become a non-issue. Fear another group (but rarely does fear take hold bosses) and it's a non-issue. That's alot of control, a lot of "soft" control, but control just the same.
Arch Villains
TG and HT both have -regen. That means DS has -regen thru it's use of TG.
To successfully hunt +2 and +3 AV's you'll need 2 defenders that are either/or dark or kinetics, OR 1 defender that is radiation. 1 Dark "may" suffice with the use of either DS or Hasten, and 1 Kinetics "may" suffice thru the use of Hasten. 1 defender may also suffice given lower level or easier AV's.
Tactics is also STRONGLY recommended for hunting AV's. Assault is useful, but if it's a choice, Choose Tactics.
Drop everything you have on the AV, never mind alot may miss or not "take hold". There are still usefull debuff components to your skills, even if the primary component doesn't work as well vs an AV. First priority should be to DN the AV, followed by Tar Patch, TG, and/or Fear. Hasten, DN, DS, TG, Tar Patch, Blast is usually enough, but the occaisional fear doesn't hurt.
[u]Inspirations[u]
I typically carry, 5 Heals, 6 Defense, 5 Break Free, 2 res, 2 endurance. If I need a green, I take 3 defense for good measure. If I need a res, I typically hot res and take a BF, Heal, Endurance at the same time. That's about it. The only really "secret" so to speak is realizing that if I'm taking enough heat to NEED a green, then I NEED the 2-3 Purples too. The only other real "trick" is to know that If I NEED to res in or near battle to save my team, then I probably NEED to use that BF, Heal, Endurance just as quick as I can chain them together to get back in the fight at full power.
Cheers. Hope that helps.
Lin