City of Villains Coldfront (CoH, CoV)

These are just some of the more well-known and recognized features of Dark Melee, but as I will enumerate in due course, these are but a sample of the benefits of this power-set.
If my time spent using Dark Melee has shown me one thing, it is that Dark Melee in the right hands with proper knowledge and understanding can be the most dangerous and lethal Power-set a Brute can select. This notion of Dark Melee as simply “Utility” is both dismissive of it’s capabilities and disingenuous; “Utility” is a just polite way of saying: “It can do lots of other stuff, but its basically crap…cause it don’t have Knockout Blow”.
Let’s be honest, that is a widely held, if not blatantly stated viewpoint. I’m here to prove otherwise. Dark Melee is quite capable of holding it’s own, and even surpasses many of the other favorite Brute power-sets in some regards.

Dark Melee is not a flavor of the month power-set, nor will it ever be (hopefully). It requires too much patience and perseverance to become widely used in my opinion, and that isn’t exactly a bad thing in my mind. There is nothing simple about this power-set. Taking such a simplistic statement as “Utility”, and using it as a descriptor about such a complex power-set is rather obtuse. It isn’t as straightforward as some of the other choices, and it is my belief that this is intentional, and the primary cause for most individuals’ adverse reaction towards it. Often, the greatest rewards come from the hardest of obstacles and the most challenging of trials. If there is one thing about all MMO’s in general that I personally can’t stand, it is the pitfall and inevitability of creating “Cookie-Cutter” builds. In my mind the notion that a particular power-set should be played a certain way is harmful to the game, its balance, and its longevity. This notion that any power-set needs to be played a certain way or slotted in a certain method is harmful in many ways. Although it’s intentions are often founded in helping people get the most from their efforts, as a side effect, it decreases diversity, stifles creativity, turns exciting encounters into boring games of Rock, Paper, Scissors combat, and overall, has the tendency of decreasing enjoyment of the game, because everyone looks, plays, and performs exactly alike. The challenge that comes from braving the unexpected ceases to exist, and with it so does the excitement it once created. That should not be the goal of this game or its players. We should be encouraging diversity of play-style, and we begin that by no longer assuming that only one particular methodology or execution can produce results. We learn to enjoy the game itself, and not in cheapening our experience by turning everyone into a mass horde of mindless clones. It’s time to start thinking outside the box. Now with these claims laid out before us, and that small bit of ranting out of the way, lets start looking into the heart of the matter - the powers themselves

III. Explanation of Power Attribute Descriptors

For quick explanation, every attribute I have listed should be rather self-explanatory. The only attributes that I am using that are anything other than statistical fact or an accepted and established baseline are the Power Breakdown, Pros, and Cons attributes. These attributes will be based on my personal experiences with each power, lengthy testing, actual application in both a PvP and PvE setting, and general information that while in some cases based on perception, is generally accepted as an accurate assessment. In order to qualify my numbers, I have communicated with _Castle_ and have received confirmation for much of the information listed here by way of PM. When we have a way for us to compare and contrast the powers, we can start looking at the powers themselves with more understanding of their key elements.

I will be listing each power as a separate entity. Every Power Attribute Descriptor will include some base numbers that will allow us to statistically compare these powers to other powers from popular Brute Primary power-sets. I will also include the in game description that is listed for each power as a reference. It has been my experience that these in-game descriptions at times, can be somewhat misleading or confusing for some. I will attempt to break down each power according to the following attributes. Please keep in mind that in order to keep this as uncomplicated as we can, all numbers and statistics for powers will be listed at their base (un-slotted) values. Please read these descriptors carefully and completely.

IV. Power Attribute Descriptors.

Level Available: Lowest level your character gains access to a power

Endurance Cost: (in points expressed as a fraction of total endurance pool x/100)

Recharge Time: (in seconds)

Base Accuracy: un-slotted accuracy of the power

Activation Time: (animation speed) Measured in seconds

Damage (BI): using the BI method– Brawl Index value of 1.00

Damage in description: The in game categorical descriptor of the powers damage rank.

DP30s (Damage per 30 seconds): A simple variable where the DPS is extrapolated out to a standard value of damage over 30 seconds. BI damage will be used to establish total DPS. The variable will be stated as x(total) BI /(over) 30 sec(time) = DP30s. This statistic is mainly for the benefit of PvP or PvE minded players with an interest in damage from a single power contributed towards total Damage dealt over the duration of a longer engagement. The reason this is magnified to 30 seconds vice strict DPS is simply because no fight lasts just 1 second. (Unless you count stalkers :-P ) Ergo a broader spectrum is examined to isolate effectiveness in a protracted fight. It becomes easier to evaluate a single powers contribution to total damage in this regard. The 30-second variable was merely selected for ease of math.
*Note*
Fury modifiers, as always, will affect this number exponentially. At this time there really is no quantifiable or credible way to plot that value mathematically as anything other than a table or graph. If a player desires, he/she cross reference BI damage to actual numerical damage, by using the scalar damage tables compiled by Iakona, which can be found here:

Iakona’s Brawl Index Replacement

Power secondary effects: Any secondary effects the power has other than damage.

Duration of secondary effects: (in seconds)

In game Description:

Power Breakdown: A summary of the power based on my experiences and observations

Pros: A list of positive traits and merits of the power

Cons A list of negative traits or drawbacks of the power.

V. The Powers of the Dark Melee Power-set.

Now we get to the meat and potatoes. All 9 of the Dark Melee powers are listed here in order of level availability, with their corresponding PAD statistics. Lets begin:

A. Shadow Punch

Level Available: 1
Endurance Cost: 4.368
Recharge Time: 3.0
Base Accuracy: 75.0%
Activation Time: 0.57
Damage (BI): 2.333 total < 1.3998 Negative Energy + 0.9332 Smashing >
Damage in description: Minor
DP30s: 23.33
Power secondary effects: (-Acc) –10% (ToHitDeBuff / Foe / single)
Duration of secondary effects: (-Acc) 5 sec.
In game Description: You wrap your firsts with negative energy channeled from the Netherworlds, and perform a quick punch that deals minor damage. Shadow Punch clouds a targets visions, lowering their accuracy for a short time.
Power Breakdown: Shadow Punch is a good solid damage dealer over time, as well as an excellent fury builder. The fact that it has a built in accuracy DeBuff effect like most other DM powers is an added bonus. The damage from Shadow punch, even when slotted heavily for damage will still not be anything monumental in one shot however, over time this power really shines. In slotting this power to achieve maximum effectiveness you’ll need to decide weather you would be better served to slot this for maximum DPS, or maximum secondary effect. If your goal is to maximize DPS you might wish to consider accuracy, recharge, and damage, in that order. If your goal is to maximize secondary effects you may wish to consider accuracy, recharge, and ToHitDeBuffs. In my experience either is acceptable, as its DPS is excellent for its endurance cost. In order to make this power more efficient consider doing one or the other, but not both, that way you maximize the application of your purpose for this power, and it ceases to be just average. In either case, endurance drain should not be an issue due to the minimal overall cost.
Pros: Quick Recharge. Low endurance cost. Good Fury generator. Accuracy DeBuff. Excellent DPS.
Cons: minimal overall damage. Short duration for DeBuff. May need to be placed on auto to be effective as a fury builder due to quick recharge.

B. Smite

Level Available: 1
Endurance Cost: 6.864
Recharge Time: 6
Base Accuracy: 75.0%
Activation Time: . 97
Damage (BI): 3.6667 total <2.7778 Negative Energy + 0.8889 smashing>
Damage in description: Moderate
DP30s: 18.3335
Power secondary effects: (-Acc) –10% (ToHitDeBuff / Foe / single)
Duration of secondary effects: (-Acc) 10 sec.
In-game Description: You wrap your fists with negative energy channeled from the Netherworlds, and perform a smite that deals more damage than Shadow Punch, but has a longer recharge time. Smite clouds a target’s vision, lowering their Accuracy for a short time.
Power Breakdown: Smite is quite possibly one of the best raw damage powers in the set. Its damage is delivered quickly, with an effective endurance cost, and it recharges quickly. Smite also features a 10 second duration accuracy DeBuff that lasts twice as long as Shadow Punch. When slotting Smite, you want to consider that this power can be one of the best damage dealing powers you have, for the endurance cost. In order to achieve maximum damage you’ll want priority of slotting to be accuracy, damage, and recharge. Keep this bit of math in mind: If you slot smite with two SO recharge enhancements, you almost cut the recharge of the power in half, thus nearly doubling your damage over time. Add to that 2 Damage SOs, and you will do an extra 2/3 more damage, almost twice as fast. Figure into that, a triple recharge slotted hasten, and well…you can do the math. Here are some numbers for comparison purposes:

The result is higher damage over time by slotting two recharge and two damage SOs, versus three damage and one recharge. That’s something to ponder I think. Your slotting should depend on your goal: slightly higher one time damage, or higher DPS? In either case, damage is a good thing, and the more you can deal the better.
Pros: Solid damage potential, Good DPS, Low endurance cost, Accuracy DeBuff, may do more overall damage due to a large portion of its total damage coming as Dark Energy damage.
Cons: none evident. Simply put, this is one of the best powers in the set

C. Shadow Maul

Level Available: 2
Endurance Cost: 8.528
Recharge Time: 8 sec.
Base Accuracy: 75.0%
Activation Time: 3.07
Damage (BI): 6.0 < 4 x 0.75 Negative Energy + 4 x 0.75 Smashing (3.0 + 3.0 total)>
Damage in description: High (DoT)
DP30s: 22.5
Power secondary effects: (-Acc) –10% (ToHitDeBuff / Foe / single)
Duration of secondary effects: (-Acc) 10 sec.
In game Description: You wrap your entire arms with negative energy channeled from the Netherworlds, empowering them to perform a series of blows that deals a lot of damage, over a short period of time. Like most Dark Melee powers, blows that land cloud a target’s vision, lowering their Accuracy for a short time.
Power Breakdown: Shadow Maul is a very interesting power. It is one of the few multi-target melee attacks in the game, that isn’t an AoE, but is actually a cone affect. Generally speaking it is quite possible to use your surroundings and environment to your advantage and line up a few mobs in order to make this power extremely effective, for it’s cost and recharge. As a damage dealer Shadow Maul is the second highest base damage attack behind Midnight Grasp. This damage isn’t necessarily anything spectacular, but since Dark Melee isn’t really known for it’s mega-damage™ capability in the first place, every little bit counts. Shadow Maul is no exception. Shadow Maul’s one negative quality however, is its animation time. Executing Shadow Maul locks you into a 3 second duration animation, during which you land a flurry of blows on your opponent. During that time you can’t take any other action except to queue up your next power. You can’t move, use an inspiration or any other action. This can be disadvantageous when you find yourself surrounded by multiple enemies needing to heal quickly. Shadow Maul also features a ten second accuracy DeBuff like most other Dark Melee powers. When slotting for Shadow Maul you might want to consider trying to maximize base damage potential, and not DPS. Shadow Maul’s recharge and endurance consumption are not the most efficient in the set, and can be quite taxing on your endurance pool if repeatedly used as available. Using it as a final blow when you have solid medium to high fury built up, can be quite effective. Priority of slotting in order to maximize this base damage should be accuracy, damage, and most likely endurance. Again slotting is entirely up to you, and as always as long as you attempt to maximize the potential of whatever aspect you are going for, you should enjoy this power.
Pros: Moderate damage for moderate endurance cost. Second highest base damage power in the set, Can be quite efficient depending on your environment when lining up multiple targets.
Cons: Long animation time, Cone targeting can be tricky to pull off, Doesn’t recharge quickly enough or execute quickly enough to give much higher DPS than Smite.

D. Touch of Fear

Level Available: 6
Endurance Cost: 8.528
Recharge Time: 8 sec.
Base Accuracy: 90.0%
Activation Time: 1.17
Damage (BI): 0.0
Damage in description: n/a
DP30s: n/a
Power secondary effects: (Fear) Mag 2 (Status Terrorize / Foe / single) &
(-Acc) –20% (ToHitDeBuff / Foe / single)
Duration of secondary effects: (Fear) 10 sec. (-Acc) 20 sec.
In game Description: The Netherworld is one scary place, and with but a touch, you can give your enemy a glimpse into this dark world. This will cause them to helplessly tremble in fear. Foes in this state of panic have reduced accuracy.
Power Breakdown: Touch of Fear is one of the most powerful weapons in the Dark Melee Power-set. Boasting an excellent base accuracy, a relatively quick animation time, and the most powerful accuracy DeBuff as well as the longest duration of any other power in the set, Touch of Fear could very well be the best offensive / defensive power in the set. Its other secondary effect really makes this power that much better. It incorporates a Mag 2, 10 second base duration, Fear status effect along with its ToHit DeBuff. The fact that this power is listed as a magnitude 2 Fear effect, seems to be incongruous with the simple fact that you can fear almost anything in the game with it. In PvE, this power is capable of affecting minions, Arch Villains, and Heroes alike. I have cowered almost every single AV in the game with this power, from The Sea Witch, to Infernal. I would list it as higher magnitude, but until I see something in print along those lines, i'll just leave it as that, and say ignore the statistic, in favor of what it actually does. The coup de grace of this power is that even if the fear effect fails to stick on the mob (or player for that matter), it’s almost a 99.9% chance that the outstanding base accuracy of this power will ensure that the -accuracy DeBuff will. With 3 accuracy enhancements in this power, I can say from experience that you will even hit with it 99.9% of the time in PvP as well. In a recent Arena test, a volunteer and myself tested this power out with my main Brute character, a lvl 40 DM/Invuln Brute (Chiropteran) on the Justice Server. Out of 100 activations of this power, without any accuracy modifiers other than it’s 3 accuracy Single Origin enhancements, it missed twice. That’s right - out of 100 tries - it missed two times. Needless to say, Touch of Fear slotted for accuracy, recharge, and ToHitDeBuffs, is indeed a scary power to fall victim to. With proper application you can keep at least 3 separate Touch of Fear DeBuffs on an opponent at all times. Slotted for maximum ToHitDeBuff potential, this power is capable of stacking for a grand total of -60% accuracy on an opponent at all times, and that’s just base. Slotted for ToHitDeBuffs, that number can go slightly higher than 100%. And that’s just from a single power. Needless to say, in PvP, this power can be an absolute nightmare. It’s only negative feature, is that it deals no damage, unlike the Controller or Dominator “Terrorize” power. Unfortunately you can’t have more than six slots to a single power, otherwise I would give this power 10 slots all on it’s own, I kid you not. Thankfully for your opponents however, that isn’t a possibility. This is a must have. When slotting I would suggest that you avoid the temptation to slot this for increased fear duration if you intend to PvP with this power. The reason for this is that it is a foregone conclusion that as soon as your opponent gets his first taste of this power, he will use a break free to escape from the fear effect and to protect him from further effects for the next 30 seconds, nullifying that slots use completely. For PvE, that may be a legitimate consideration, but For PvP, you might want to focus on increasing the ToHitDeBuff effect instead.
Pros: Almost too many to list. Highest ToHitDeBuff potential in the entire power-set, Includes a Fear effect, Has as good a recharge and endurance cost as Shadow Maul, Base Accuracy is outstanding (90.0%), increases overall survivability exponentially.
Cons: Doesn’t deal damage however, the amount of pros far outweigh this drawback.

E. Siphon Life

Level Available: 8
Endurance Cost: 11.96
Recharge Time: 15 sec.
Base Accuracy: 75.0%
Activation Time: 1.93
Damage (BI): 2.7778 <2.7778 Negative Energy>
Damage in description: Moderate
DP30s: 5.5556
Power secondary effects: (-Acc) –10% (ToHitDeBuff / Foe / single) & Heal (10%) Self
Duration of secondary effects: (-Acc) 10 sec.
In game Description: You tap the power of the Netherworld and create a life-transferring conduit between a foe and yourself. This will transfer health from your enemy to yourself. Foes siphoned in this manner have their Accuracy reduced.
Power Breakdown: Siphon Life gives Dark Melee yet another edge over all of the other Brute primary power-sets; the ability to attack and gain life. Siphon life is a true “drain” power. With it, you attack your opponent, causing them about the same damage you would with a Shadow punch, but you also drain about double that amount in damage in the form of Health, which adds immediately to your own Health pool. Used properly, Siphon Life can serve a dual purpose, although to achieve either specifically, you’ll need to carefully consider slotting. The first purpose of Siphon life could be as a direct attack. Siphon life is by no means the most efficient damage dealer, if anything it could be argued to be the least efficient power in the entire set for that purpose, due to it’s recharge and endurance cost. Siphon life is redeemed slightly by the fact that all of its damage is in the form of Negative Energy, unlike shadow Punch, and Smite. If you really want to increase the damage you do with Siphon life, you’ll need to slot it for both recharge, accuracy, and endurance. You might think that damage would need to be slotted, but in this case, it is actually more efficient to increase it’s recharge first, thereby effectively speeding up the power and allowing it to achieve a much higher DPS. Slotting for endurance reduction will bring down its moderate base cost of 11.96, to something a bit more manageable. Used like this, Siphon life could become part of your regular attack chain, plus have the bonus of becoming a “Maintenance Heal”. Using it in his manner would also allow you to take better advantage of it’s other secondary feature, its –10% ToHit DeBuff. Its secondary effect of healing would simply be a subconscious yet automatic benefit of using the power on a regular basis, decreasing your builds dependence on other forms of healing, such as inspiration use, or secondary power-set heals that normally have rather lengthy recharge times. Siphon Life’s secondary purpose could be as a primary source of healing. If wish to make this power perform in this capacity, you’ll need to give primary concern to accuracy, healing, and endurance use. Regardless of the number of total slots you have to work in, your priority of slotting should be in that manner. Having three slots for healing and none for accuracy would be wasted slots altogether, as in a critical fight against something causing you enough problems to need healing, missing will be counter productive, and could have disastrous results. Keep in mind that siphon life has no predetermined healing value. It is instead based off of your total health statistic. Siphon life always heals 10% of your total health value at maximum. Healing enhancements raise this percentage. Slotted heavily for healing, Siphon life can return between 15 to20 percent of your health to you, in 1.93 seconds. Regardless of which purpose you use Siphon Life for, the fact that it is the only Life regenerative power to be found in any Brute Primary power-set is definitely a plus.
Pros: Replenishes Health, Has a built in ToHit DeBuff, damage is entirely Negative energy.
Cons: Has a lengthy recharge time, High base endurance cost, minimal damage,

F. Taunt

Level Available: 12
Endurance Cost: n/a
Recharge Time: 10 sec.
Base Accuracy: n/a in PvE (always hits if targets are in range) but 50% Acc in PvP
Activation Time: 1.67
Damage (BI): n/a
Damage in description: n/a
DP30s: n/a
Power secondary effects: Taunt / Target / Single / AoE
Duration of secondary effects: (Special)
In game Description: Taunt foes to attack you. Useful to pull enemies off allies, and keep them attacking you to raise your fury.
Power Breakdown: Dark Melee’s taunt is exactly like every other Brute taunt power. The only reason that Dark Melee might need this power even more than other brutes, is Dark Melee’s heavy dependence on Fury to deal heavy damage. The Fury that you can build from regular use of taunt can be quite noticeable however, whether you would be advised to take this power depends heavily on your chosen secondary. Some secondary power-sets allow Brutes to take more hits and damage than other types, thereby giving us more leeway when selecting taunt to use as a secondary Fury generator. Keep in mind, that it can also be used to ‘pull’ ranged targets to you. I won’t belabor the point, but I have seen many brutes include taunt in their build, and by the same token, I’ve seen many that skip it in favor of other powers. It largely depends on your personal tastes and overall needs. If you do decide to take taunt, you might wish to consider lightly slotting this power for accuracy if you intend to use it in PvP, Arena combat, Base raids, etc, and recharge, thereby enabling you to use it more often. Keep in mind that increasing its taunt duration my not even be worth it considering that if a player doesn’t desire to attack you, using a break free will make him or her much more resistant to its effects.
Pros: Useful for building fury, Useful for maintaining and getting Aggro, Useful for defensive roles in PvP (keeping an attacker from targeting a squishier teammate for example). Uses no endurance, has good range, and recharge, a versatile power.
Cons: Deals no damage. May not be necessary for your build in PvE if you are able to maintain aggro through the use of your Secondary set’s AoE toggles. Can be heavily resisted in PvP with use of inspirations (Break Frees)

G. Dark Consumption

Level Available: 18
Endurance Cost: 0.52
Recharge Time: 180 sec.
Base Accuracy: 75.0%
Activation Time: 1.03
Damage (BI): 2.222 <2.222 Negative Energy>
Damage in description: Moderate
DP30s: not a factor due to recharge time
Power secondary effects: +End (Self)
Duration of secondary effects: n/a Instant
In game Description: The dark power of the Netherworld allows you to tap the soul-essence of foes immediately around you and transfer it to yourself. This will drain Health from the enemies, and add to your endurance.
Power Breakdown: Dark Consumption is one of the powers that truly sets Dark Melee apart from other Brute Primaries; it is the only power that regenerates endurance. With every foe hit by Dark consumption you will regenerate 35 endurance points, this is base, without slots for endurance modification. If you catch at least 3 targets in this AoE you will completely replenish your endurance to full. Even hitting 2 targets will give you between 70 and 80 percent endurance back. Simply put, this power maximizes your ability to do damage over time. Without endurance, you can’t deal damage, and if there is anything dark melee does well, it’s quick attacks. To support these quick attack chains you have this power with which to regain some or all of that endurance. This helps you to also keep your fury high, as you don’t need to disengage as often, or stop altogether to rest. When slotting Dark Consumption consider that first, you do not want this power to miss, because if it does, you will gain no endurance back, that could be vital, and two, that this power also has a pretty hefty recharge time. In order to accomplish this you might want to consider slotting this power for Accuracy and recharge. In my experience, you can effectively time this power to coincide with your attack plan in order to maximize the potential to regain the most amount of endurance, and affect the most amounts of enemies, again allowing you to maintain Fury as you travel from mob group to mob group. Slotting for endurance modification can be a secondary concern unless you intend to only use this power against solo targets, and even then I would recommend recharge slotting as a secondary concern ahead of Endurance modification. This power works very well in conjunction with Soul Drain as a follow up to provide you with maximum endurance just after you have used Soul Drain, so that you can take full advantage of the self Buff that power gives you. With two SO recharge enhancements and Hasten with 3 SO recharge enhancements this power will recharge in 56 seconds. Since Hasten also effects itself, you can time your use of this power so that when it is recharging, it is always doing it at an accelerated rate due to Hasten, since hasten will recharge in approximately 3 minutes, and its duration is 2 minutes.
Pros: Only Endurance recovery power in a Primary power-set for brutes, has an AoE effect, useful to also pull or maintain agro, quick activation time and animation speed. Enables you to rely less on use of endurance recovery inspirations thus enabling you to attack for longer periods of time without the need to pause for recovery.
Cons: extremely long recharge, lackluster damage, may need to be slotted with accuracy, recharge, and end mod to be of use in a 1 on 1 encounter (PvP and PvE fights versus Bosses and above)

H. Soul Drain

Level Available: 26
Endurance Cost: 15.6
Recharge Time: 120
Base Accuracy: 90.0%
Activation Time: 2.37
Damage (BI): 2.664 < 2.664 Negative Energy>
Damage in description: Moderate
DP30s: not a factor due to recharge time
Power secondary effects: +Acc (Self) & +Damage (Self)
Duration of secondary effects: 30 seconds.
In game Description: Using this power, you can drain the soul-essence of nearby foes to increase your own strength. Each foe in close proximity affected by this power will add to your Damage and Accuracy
Power Breakdown: Soul Drain is a rather large area of effect power that acts much like the power Build Up acts for other Brute primaries; that being a self Buff. It differs however in a number of ways, instead of being a true buff, Soul Drain is, as the name implies, a drain. For every foe up to the maximum amount that you hit with this power you will gain a percentage to your overall total accuracy and damage. This power combos very well with Dark Consumption, and does a good amount of damage with a decent amount of Fury behind it. It is by no means a primary source of damage, but when you have Dark Melee, every bit helps in the end. As far as the actual numbers for this incremental buff goes, the Brute version of Soul Drain is slightly less effective than the Scrapper power of the same name. The Brute version is approximately 80% of the total buff that Scrappers get from the power. So, looking at that, we can see that 80% of 12 percent per mob hit, is 9.6 percent. For ease of math just consider that each mob you hit with this power will buff your damage and accuracy an additional 10%, up to a maximum of 80% (averaged). This buff affects your base damage, and because of that, it is important to note that with this power active, you will be dealing massive damage once you account for Fury. If you manage to hit the maximum amount of mobs with this power, you will actually get a much larger buff than what the Build-up power provides.
When considering slotting Soul drain you’ll want to follow the same slotting technique you would for Dark Consumption. From my current understanding of this power, it has a higher base percentage of accuracy, so you may only need to slot it once for accuracy to be effective in PvE. Also the power does consume a good amount of endurance, so slotting it for endurance reduction might be a good idea. In either case you’ll definitely want to slot it for recharge reduction to get it below its base time of 2 minutes.
Pros: Increases the damage potential of every other power, as well as further improving your base accuracy, can draw and help maintain agro, larger radius of effect than dark consumption, the more enemies affected the higher the buff percentage.
Cons: Long recharge time, animation speed is lengthy (longer than Dark Consumption but faster than Shadow Maul), deals little damage, might need to be slotted for heavy recharge and accuracy to make it worthwhile in PvP and PvE. Has little impact in a 1 on 1 engagement, Hefty endurance cost.

I. Midnight Grasp

Level Available: 32
Endurance Cost: 11.96
Recharge Time: 15 sec.
Base Accuracy: 75.0%
Activation Time: 2.07 sec.
Damage (BI): 6.3336 with DoT component <3.5556 Negative Energy Damage + 10 tics of 0.2778 Negative Energy Damage – 2.778 Total>
Damage in description: Superior
DP30s: 12.6672
Power secondary effects: (-Acc) –10% (ToHitDeBuff / Foe / single) & Immobilize (Foe)
Duration of secondary effects: (-Acc) 10 sec. & (Immobilize) 10 sec.
In game Description: Mastery over the forces of the Netherworld allows you to create dark tentacles that can immobilize a foe and continuously drain their life essence.
Power Breakdown: For players dreaming of their final level 32 power being as flashy and damaging as Energy Transfer or Foot Stomp, sorry to say that Dark Melee can’t help you realize that dream. What Midnight Grasp does however, is make escaping from you a bit more difficult, as well as dealing some respectable damage. The Damage from midnight grasp is a complicated process. Up front, Midnight Grasp deals roughly half of its damage to your target. After this initial damage the rest of MG’s leftover damage starts hitting your target by way of Damage over Time. 10 tics of Negative Energy Damage hit your opponent every 1.0 seconds. Along with this damage comes Midnight Grasps secondary effects, an immobilize effect, and a negative accuracy ToHitDeBuff. The immobilize effect is an important consideration. This ability serves two purposes. In PvE, this can prevent mobs from trying to escape from you. In PvP, this power can make it a hassle to escape from you as well. Unless your opponent has a break free on hand, or activates combat Jumping, or a similar immobilization nullifying power, this will quickly leave an opponent open to other attacks. While immobilized, or this powers effect is active, using a travel power will reinitiate the immobilize effect. Numerous testing of this power showed its effectiveness against a popular travel power for PvP, that being Leaping. In order to make the most of this power, you might want to consider slotting for accuracy, damage, endurance, recharge, or Immobilization duration. It depends largely on your goal for the power. It may not be as flashy as some other level 32 primary powers but it definitely has it’s uses. And again, the fact that all of it’s damage is completely Negative Energy means that it’s damage is potentially less resisted.
Pros: Deals a high amount of damage, Has a relatively low endurance cost, Quick Animation speed, Has useful secondary effects.
Cons: Damage dealt slowly over time, significant endurance cost and recharge rate, secondary immobilization effect can be negated by inspiration use.

VI. Summary

Well, that’s Dark Melee in a nutshell. I’ve seen a lot of Brutes in my time in this game. As a CoV pre-order player, the first character I ever created was a Brute, whom I never deleted and still enjoy playing, my Dark Melee and Invulnerability Brute. Hopefully the information I’ve shared with you here will be of some use to you, also that you can now see what Dark Melee is all about. Dark Melee is quite capable of dealing damage as any other Brute Power-set, and in some cases is actually more efficient and better at dealing more of it over time. Basically, there is only one job that you have as a Brute, and that is to deal damage. That is what this game is about. You can’t succeed at PvE or PvP, without dealing damage to something or someone. Consider this analogy:

A Swiss army knife is a great little invention, if anything; this little wonder can also be called a utility knife. Why is that? Well, because a Swiss army knife has many many tools. Most models come with s small saw, a corkscrew, a pair of folding scissors, a bottle opener, a screw driver bit, and several other little features like a set of tweezers, and even a toothpick. A Swiss Army knife has lots of Utility. But what is its primary purpose? It’s called a knife for a reason, and that’s because it’s main purpose is to cut things. That’s why we call it a knife. However if you really want a knife to cut something with you face many choices. What are you cutting? Wire? Rope? A steak? Maybe you want to fillet a piece of fish. The point is, that there are many different types of knives to cut different types of things; they are all not made equal. It would not be advisable to use a machete to fillet a flounder, just like it would not be wise to try and forge your way through a dense jungle terrain with a paring knife.

But, another purpose of a knife is to wound, or cause injury; its use by prehistoric man was both as a multi-use tool. In modern times, a criminal who is trying to rob you can just as easily wound you and perhaps even kill you with a Swiss army knife as he can with a machete. A quick jab or slash to your exposed neck can shred your carotid artery causing extreme blood loss; you could die within 30 seconds without medical attention. However, you fear the machete more because it looks intimidating. Does that make the Swiss Army knife any more less lethal? Of course it doesn’t; you are just as easily dispatched by “Utility” as you could be with a Katana. Super Strength, Stone Melee, and Energy Melee, I can liken to a big cudgel. Dark Melee I can liken to a Rapier. A cudgel can kill just as easily as the rapier can, in the hands of those who understand their use. The result is the same. In the world of CoV, where looking big and impressive, accomplishes nothing, dismissing Dark Melee as “Utility”, thinking that you can’t be hurt by it, underestimating a Dark Melee opponent because of his – in your mind at least – damage gimped power-set, can all be equally lethal to you. Speaking from personal experience, I don’t dislike being underestimated at first sight. It makes my job that much easier, and it makes victory even that much sweeter afterwards as well, if they stick around for that long.

VII. Comparisons:

Here is a listing of some of the statistical Information that I have compiled during my research. Everything that went into the power descriptions and my overall feelings about Dark Melee are based off of mathematical evidence, experience, and self-education. In an attempt to prove to myself that what I was actually seeing was honest factual information. What I was seeing was that - gasp - Dark Melee is a viable power-set. I began this whole process by comparison. I simply contrasted Dark Melee with all the other power sets, and tried to see “the big picture’. I have included these tables as reference material for anyone who desires to understand these facets of the game better, or out of sheer boredom. To be cliché, knowing is half the battle.

Table 1: Animation and Recharge Times

These tables list each attack power for every set. The tables omit powers that self-buff, or taunt; i.e. only primary attack powers are listed. The first value is base un-slotted recharge times in seconds. The second number is animation times. Dark melee is faster overall and features better animation speeds (activation times) total. Grand total times, as well as the power-set’s overall average times, are listed.

Table 2: Overall Endurance Consumption & Efficiency

This table looks at all attack powers from all Brute primary sets and breaks down base endurance costs. Each power is given two values, the first value is base endurance cost, and the second value is base damage. Total base endurance costs are listed and presented as Total endurance drain for the power-set. All powers that have an endurance cost are listed for the set, and this value is expressed as OT: (Overall Total Cost). All endurance costs are then averaged against the total number of powers in the set to find average endurance cost per power. This value is listed as T1(Total1). To calculate endurance efficiency I have correlated endurance cost and damage dealt using all primary attack powers. This is a scalar value stated as a ratio representing an average cost among all powers compared to average damage total dealt divided by average endurance consumed among all powers with a damage statistic (avg. end. / avg. dam.). This indicates a rough overall endurance efficiency of the power-set. Total endurance efficiency is listed as T2(Total2) In order to read this ratio effectively, the smaller the first number compared to how large the second number is means the power-set is more efficient. I.E., more damage is dealt for the least amount of endurance used. This is represented as Average CoE (Coefficient of Efficiency) (Avg. CoE= Avg. End ratio to Avg. Damage)

VIII. Epilogue: “Blah Blah Blah Burst Damage”

I’ve been reading these boards an awful lot in the previous weeks trying to gain some insight into what sets our AT apart from all others. Not only what was evidently intended for us by the developers who designed the Brute AT, but also from other player’s perceptions of our archetypes primary role. The only simple answer that I have been able to come up with is our ability to do high DPS and sustained damage; Fury is what makes a Brute. The Brute AT is hands down, the best sustained heavy hitting AT in the game, and of all Brute power-sets, Dark Melee has the potential to become the best Brute power-set at dealing out high sustained DPS. I’ve noticed a lot of posters using the term: “Burst Damage”. We’ve all probably seen the term used as some kind of absolute scale by which everyone seems to measure everything. Here is my quick take on why that concept might work in theory, but in application for a Brute, leaves much to be desired. This tactic may work for a lot of other Archetypes, but sadly this was not the role for which Brutes were designed and created. Brutes will never be as effective at dealing “Burst Damage” as many other Archetypes already are. Ergo, to try and make your Archetype perform in a fashion other than that for which it was designed, in my observations at least, is both ineffective and wasteful. Brutes were made to shine in protracted fights. The recent trend has been to create PvP Brute builds with front loaded damage potential, disregarding the innate attribute of Fury. The argument for creating “Burst damage” capable Brutes, seems to be that it’s too hard for Brutes to build fury in PvP, ergo we should just ignore Fury altogether and load up on Energy Transfer. Some poor misguided souls seem to think that they can do the same damage in one hit, that a Stalker, Blaster, and even a Scrapper are capable of. This simply isn’t possible without Fury. The math and the design of our AT simply does not support this tactic to a level that yields anything other than mediocre results.

My observations from lengthy experience in both PvP, PvE, and arena combat shows me that those persons just haven’t been creating proper Brutes at all; they’ve been creating a gimped pseudo-Energy Melee stalker/brute, that doesn’t even come close to dealing base Stalker damage. In essence, these folks have been gimping themselves even before they began. A Brute’s strength and ability to be viable as a damage dealer comes from his Fury. Our base damage is laughable; it is lower than even the Tanker AT. If you can’t even survive for long enough to build that fury, of what use is it to you? The answer is, none what so ever. It’s time to start playing our AT towards its Strengths, and not towards something it was never designed to do well. It’s time to create a Brute who CAN build fury in a one on one engagement to a level that makes being on the receiving end of it, a scary proposition. And that factor alone is what makes Dark Melee an excellent power set for a brute, because it aids us in survivability as well as dealing damage. Here is the reply I made in that other thread to the concept of Burst Damage. I have included it in this Primer because I thought it was a compelling argument. The math really does speak volumes on its own.

"Burst Damage" Generic Brute X, meet -ToHitDeBuff. It's a darn shame that you guys won't be friends for long...

"Burst Damage" Generic Brute X, when you're already at -53.66% accuracy in the first 3 seconds of the fight, you will become annoyed with -ToHitDeBuffs. Can you say goodbye Build-up? Of course you can. "Goodbye everyone! I did my best, and I'm outta here! Peace out!" 4 seconds after that, when you're at -107.26% accuracy, some newly discovered hatred on your part, will replace your mild annoyance. Good-bye SOs; we'll miss you. 3 seconds after that - about at the 10 second total mark - when you're sitting at 1/3 a bar of endurance and your opponent, Mr. -ToHitDeBuff, now appears mildly amused - after you discover that the only "burst damage" you've dealt has been to some errant air molecules (How Rude!) - you'll start to understand what it really means to hate. Finally, when that little voice in your head begins to chime "DoubleUTeeEff?” and you're sitting not-so-comfortably at the minimum accuracy mark, courtesy of a whopping -151.958% "knockout blow" to your dome from none other than Mr. -ToHitDeBuff, maybe then you'll start to really, really, hate it. When you've been reduced to the not-so-impressive options of: One - Wasting even more endurance without anything to show for it other than a quick trip back to the safety of your Drone guarded hospital bed, or Two - Engaging ludicrous speed and heading back to the War zone Operative to request half a tray of "Insights", you're going to really, really, hate it.

End Result?

A burst damage EM/x FoTM toon, brought to you by "Another cookie-cutter production", just got worked over in short order by - and this is the real funny part:

"Utility"

IX: Acknowledgements:

As a final note, I will be writing a “Guide” within the next few weeks for creating a PvP and PvE capable Dark Melee and Invulnerability Brute. Please consider that I don’t like using the term guide at all, and if this experience has taught me anything, it has been that everyone’s play-style is not alike. So, if you liked what you see here, and want to know more about how all this knowledge has come together to form a very unlikely combination of survivability and finesse, stay tuned. I look forward to answering any questions that you may have about this Primer. In parting I would like to thank some of the individuals who have helped me in numerous ways. Those people in no particular order are:

Tim, Justin, Iakona, _Castle_, Jay, the rest of my SG mates in F.O.E.S., and the good people of the Justice Server. Especially the good sports in the PvP zones that made testing out a “so-called” gimped power set, even that much more fun.

These folks helped me a lot during the lengthy process of testing and number crunching that went into creating this primer. Some of them also put up with a lot of my tirades on our Ventrilo server, but without their support this endeavor would not have been possible. Thanks guys.

X: Sources.

Statistics presented here in this primer were compiled from a variety of sources in addition to extensive testing and unsupported research by the author. The following sources were consulted:

City of Villains Game Manual.
City of Villains/City of Heroes official community forums
CoH / CoV Character Builder – By: SherkSilver (Jay D. Teague) version 1.7.6.0
Cryptic Game Designer – _Castle_