City of Heroes (Dark Servants)

In a small changeup, I have to share my opinion on the class defining power of Dark Servant for Dark/Dark Defenders (DDD) in City of Heroes.

Simply put, this is the holy grail of DDD’s. You have put up with some significant challenges and problems with being a jack-of-all-trades but master of none. You’ve had trouble with endurance and being tasked with all of kinds responsibilities, which leave you doing next to zero damage. Sometimes you might have even forgotten about the defense you bring to the table and felt like you weren’t providing as much benefit to the team as you should. Any complaints or concerns you might have had about putting so many hours into your DDD is about to go away.

Everyone loves their primary character and have a desire to sell you on their merits. A few minutes with a couple of Dark Servants and anything I write won’t mean a thing. They sell themselves with the variety and quality of powers. A Dark Servant (Fluffy) is a near clone of their masters. They don’t have all of your powers, being restricted to Tenebrous Tentacles (TT), Twilight Grasp (TG), a trimmed down version of Dark Night (DN), and a highly effective version of Petrifying Gaze (PG). They also have a minor aura of damage that is primarily good for grabbing agro away from their masters. This reduced power set is compensated for by unlimited endurance. The little energizer bunnies just keep going and going.

The one behavior that is sometimes difficult to handle is their desire to jump into a battle before you are ready. Sometimes my Tanker teammates will want to do some herding and Fluffy will use TT and mess up the flow. I just have to be careful and move farther away before the herding starts.

I don’t see much or any benefit out of them using DN or TT, I tend to do my own crowd control, so I’ve probably already lain done a TT or Fearsome Stare (FS). Whatever Fluffy adds to that is rarely helpful. But they do a wonderful job of healing with TG. If I happen to be hit, which isn’t very often, I know that Fluffy will apply one or more often three heals onto me immediately. They definitely do their best to take care of my health. Prior to Fluffy I sometimes had trouble with bosses, particularly ones that heal themselves. I just didn’t do damage fast enough to effectively overcome their defense and heal powers. Now I find myself taking down bosses that are in a perma-hold pattern. It’s almost laughable to see a big tough boss that can’t even move. This doesn’t matter so much from a defensive perspective because they can’t hit me anyways, but it keeps them from healing and that does matter.

I’ve found soloing to be a totally different activity now. I’ve been conditioned to be careful about oranges or above and to avoid groups of 10 or more. Now I only worry about purples and the occasional red boss. The size of the group almost doesn’t even matter anymore. I recently took a room of about 20 yellows and a couple of oranges without breaking a sweat or even being hit.

You can give Fluffy the task of absorbing the alpha strike and know that they will usually survive. Stand near them and grab a few extra heals if you happen to need it because as soon as they are attacked the healing will follow. This allows you to abuse them more than their somewhat meager hit points would suggest that you could.

When soloing I prefer to jump in and do a little crowd control before they start breaking apart. Sometimes I take a hit or two before my powers take effect but Fluffy helps out and I’m back at full health before I can start plowing through the mobs. Plus it provides a bit of excitement to put yourself out front.
Between the four of us hitting with attacks (that also de-buff) and the crowd control I often times don’t even worry about using DN anymore. It is a major endurance drain and I’m not even being attacked, so why bother. If the fight features a boss I’ll start with DN until the fight is under control and then turn it off so that I can pour more endurance into attacks. This is a major shift for someone who used DN in every fight from L4 on.

You can read different slotting advice, but I go with 4 recharges to keep three Fluffies active most of the time. Sometimes I forget or I am delayed by other action, in which case I deal with only having two for a bit. Once I reach 34 I will add an accuracy and endurance reduction. That will make things a bit cheaper and more efficient. I can’t even imagine why someone wouldn’t put six slots into Dark Servant as early as possible.

Now that you’ve reached 32 it’s time to enjoy the DDD as he is meant to be played. Everything you’ve gone through will be worth it. I was close to quitting City of Heroes a few times or at least quitting my DDD. Now I’m excited about playing again and I want to enjoy the character that I’ve worked so hard to create.

Daddy & Donuts

This morning I went to Summer’s school for a Daddy & Donuts get together. For reference, Summer is my girlfriend’s daughter. I think it was a first for both of us. My first time participating in this kind of school activity and her first time having an adult male who was happy to attend.

Summer is a monkey bar fanatic, so she wanted to play with me on them. While we were playing I overheard children asking friends where their father is. Sometimes the answer was the equivalent of, “He wasn’t able to come.” My dad was always available while I was growing up, so it was my first time seeing how sad the no-show dad’s make their children. I can’t help but think that Summer was one of those kids with her Dad, who doesn’t participate very often.

I wonder if the donuts are needed to lure the fathers into showing up, or whether it’s a bonus? I’d like to believe that it’s just a happy bonus. Krispy Kreme probably sees it as a great marketing opportunity.

It’s been many years since I spent any significant amount of time at an elementary school. Probably back in college helping my mom in her kindergarten class. I’m surprised that I still feel comfortable in the school environment.

In the fall I will be attending the parent/teacher conferences, which should prove valuable. My experience with teachers is that they want your support in helping your child to learn and they want you to respect them and the job they are trying to do. I respect and am in awe of the job that teachers are able to do, which is probably why I’ve always had great relationships with them.

Skydiving Followup

So much for making a post every Friday! I guess my brain doesn’t work on a schedule. I envy artistic people that can write constantly and produce unique art.

Continuing from two weeks ago, my skydiving team finished first in our division. A nice finish, but not as impressive as finishing third in a higher division last year. This time I filled the role of coach, so there was some extra pressure on me, but my team was able to jump out to a big lead on the first jump and the rest of the day was comfortable. It was cool that my Dad was on the team, so I helped him win a gold medal as well.

We made one error by calling our team Aerofiles (spelling error was NOT my fault, I swear). Replace the A & r and you end up with another word that is not flattering.

I'll have to see if I can find any team pictures, otherwise I'll grab something from the video and post it. The slower pace of a pickup team was great as compared to the highly competitive team I was on last year, so I'd say I made the right choice during the off-season.

BLUE SKIES!!!