Post by Kieran on Feb 16, 2011 23:55:03 GMT -5
Introduction:
The Void is the Archetype that I have wanted since the release of FTP. While Darkness isn't the most powerful Framework, I love it to death (HA!) - it has soo many awesome little intricacies and synergies tucked away that it is just a blast to use. One cool thing to note is that this is the first Archetype I've seen that has really good choices for alternate powers. As such, I have devised two builds - one is a DPSer and the other is a Pet Controller. So you choose which one you want. I'm not trying to be mean - I myself really dislike it when guides tell me to pick whatever I think is best, but with this Archetype, it really does come down to personal preference.
Generic Preface:
All of my builds are meant to be equally playable in both PVE and PVP. Because of this, if you're a PVE-only kind of guy, feel free to remove the PVP advantages (mainly Nailed to the Ground and Crippling Challenge) and replace with the next Rank up - or allocate the advantage points somewhere completely different, as it's ultimately up to you. I would like to say though that even though my builds can do PVP, they also built to perform great in PVE, so it isn't like you're losing anything by having that PVP aspect to the build.
DPS Build Powers:
Level 1: Shadow Bolt (Despondency)
Level 1: Shadow Blast (Crippling Challenge)
Level 6: Teleport
Level 6: Shadow Embrace (Dark Displacement, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 8: Shadow Form (R2, R3)
Level 11: Grasping Shadows (Unyielding Agony)
Level 14: Ebon Void (R2, R3)
Level 17: Ebon Rift (R2, Vengeful Shadows)
Level 22: Spirit Reverberation (N/A)
Level 27: Shadow Shroud (R2, Terrifying Visage)
Level 32: Lifedrain (R2, R3)
Level 35: Whatever travel power lights your candle
Level 40: Ebon Ruin (R2, Paranormal Paranoia, Nyctophobia)
Pet Controller Build Powers:
Level 1: Shadow Bolt (Despondency)
Level 1: Shadow Blast (Crippling Challenge)
Level 6: Teleport (R2)
Level 6: Shadow Embrace (Fatal Allure, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 8: Shadow Form (R2, R3)
Level 11: Grasping Shadows (Unyielding Agony)
Level 14: Ebon Void (R2, R3)
Level 17: Void Horror (R2, R3)
Level 22: Spirit Reverberation (N/A)
Level 27: Shadow Shroud (R2, Terrifying Visage)
Level 32: Lifedrain (R2, R3) OR Summon Shadows (R2, Devouring Darkness)
Level 35: Whatever travel power fords your river
Level 40: Ebon Ruin (R2, Paranormal Paranoia, Nyctophobia)
Talents (for both builds):
Endurance/Constitution
Endurance/Recovery
Constitution/Recovery
Endurance/Presence
Constitution/Presence
Recovery/Presence
Quick Note:
I labeled one DPS Build and the other Pet Controller Build, but both are perfectly capable of doing DPS - They just do it in different manners.
Shadow Bolt: While I don't normally advocate spending advantage points on Energy Builders, Despondency is a fantastic advantage. It allows each bolt of your Shadow Bolts to have a 20% chance to inflict fear on a target. As fear increases the damage of a number of your powers and also provides you energy later on through Spirit Reverberation, this is a great advantage to pick up.
Shadow Blast: While this might seem like a great power at first, it ends up paling in comparison to Shadow Embrace and Ebon Ruin. However, a good thing to note is that at a full charge, it has a 100% chance to inflict fear on a target, so it makes a great opener. Additionally, as this is the only power in the Void's arsenal that carries Crippling Challenge, this is an advantage you'll definitely wanna grab on Shadow Blast.
Teleport: I highly recommend this power over any other travel power because it allows you to get out of dangerous situations very quickly and painlessly. Say you’re surrounded and being pummeled to death by a number of baddies – all you gotta do is pop into teleport, launch straight up, and keep going until you lose aggro. If you’re in a building, just use teleport to retreat the way you came until you’re in the clear. Additionally, teleport allows you to skip the hordes of hallway baddies that are a pain in the rear.
Shadow Embrace: This is gonna be one of your faithful spam skills for a long time. Because it applies damage to all targets in front of you, it's a very nice limited-AOE power that does great damage per tick (0.5 seconds). You'll definitely want to take Dark Displacement, as it gives a 25% chance per tick to knock down targets regardless of feared status; allowing you to constantly control your target(s) location(s). You'll also want to take Nailed to the Ground on this to cancel out other people's travel powers. Because of this, while very nice, Fatal Allure just doesn't fit in (as there are no advantage points left over). If you're a PVE only guy, however, feel free to take away from PVP advantages and invest in Fatal Allure.
Shadow Form: A fantastic passive (and a really cool looking one too), you'll definitely want to take Rank 3 to maximize on all of its awesome benefits.
Grasping Shadows: Good lord, everything has the word "shadows" in it, doesn't it? Anyways, this is the Void's only power (other than ones utilizing Fear, that is) that focuses on applying Paralyze to targets. The nice thing about this power is that it's an AOE, so you can hit multiple targets with it. However, the Void has plenty of crowd control already, so I wouldn't really recommend ranking this power up. However, I do recommend grabbing Unyielding Agony, as it allows you to put a reliable DOT on all targets affected by Grasping Shadows. While this DOT does a nice 660 damage to all affected, if you want, you can take the advantage points out and re-apply them elsewhere.
Ebon Void: While most Archetypes' blocks are average, this one truly is great. On top of protecting you, it has a chance to heal you while you're shielding. As it is, I'd recommend going up to Rank 3 on this power, as Voracious Darkness really isn't worth it unless you wanna tank (which is better left to Archetypes like the Savage, the Glacier, and the Behemoth). If you want, though, you can reduce this power to Rank 2 and invest the advantage points elsewhere (like R2 Shadow Blast, for example)
Void Horror or Ebon Rift: This is where things really change for both builds. A person sticking with the DPS Build will wanna take Ebon Rift Rank 2 and Vengeful Shadows (which causes baddies too close to your rift to take massive damage), which gives you an awesomely potent AOE DPS that will continue to do damage even after you fully maintain it. On the other hand, a person going for the Pet Controller Build will want to grab Void Horror, as it does very nice damage and is constantly active (unless it does, but even then you can just reactivate it). Both are very nice powers - the choice of one over the other just depends on your personal preference. One thing to note is that I think the Vengeful Shadows advantage for Ebon Rift is bugged, as it currently does massive damage for every tick, which is pretty much insta-death for bosses. So don't bank on that at all - it's very probable that Cryptic is going to fix this in a patch or two.
Spirit Reverberation: This is a very nice innate passive that allows you to gain energy (scaling with Recovery and Constitution) whenever you attack a feared target (this can only occur once every three seconds). You can't level it up, however, but it's still a very tight form of energy management.
Shadow Shroud: This is an awesome self-buff that increases damage for 15 seconds at Rank 2. In Addition, Terrifying Visage has a 50% chance every second to fear enemies within a 15 foot sphere around you, in addition to having a 10% chance every second to apply Psychotic Break. Psychotic Break is an advantage that can be applied to Shadow Blast and deals 20 damage every second for 16 seconds. In all honesty, it's your call as to what you want - the awesome fear chance and minor DOT with Terrifying Visage is very nice, but so is an extra and guaranteed 10% damage increase and 3 second increase with Rank 3.
Lifedrain: The reason I recommend Lifedrain over Summon Shadows is because Lifedrain is a very, very nice self heal that also does fair damage. The reason I suggest that you grab Rank 3 instead of Rank 2 + Vampiric Sympathy is because the Void isn't meant to be a party supporter - it's meant to do damage and control crowds. Lifedrain is mostly intended to allow you to support yourself if you're soloing or ease pressure off your healer if you're in a team. However, it is good to note that that Summon Shadows can do nice damage, and its Devouring Darkness advantage allows you to be healed for 20% of the damage that they inflict. So it again is your call - but in this case, I'm going to advocate Lifedrain over Summon Shadows, especially if you're the DPSer. However, if you want to stay in theme with a Pet Controller, Summon Shadows can also work. The three Shadows you summon are very, very fast and do fair damage. Additionally, with Devouring Darkness, you can passively regain a fair amount of health while letting your Shadows do damage for you, which is pretty nice.
Ebon Ruin: Oh man, this is a very awesome and new skill that was introduced along with the Void in the most recent patch. It's very similar to Shadow Blast in that it can be both tapped and charged, and it has a range of 100 feet. However, it does significantly more damage than Shadow Blast, which is AWESOME. This power's advantages also ooze with synergy - Nyctophobia increases the damage against feared targets by 15%, Paranormal Paranoia reduces the target's resistance to Paranormal damage (consisting of Dimensional, Ego, and Magic) by 10% and lasts for 15 seconds, and Rank 2 just increases the damage of this power. All in all, it's a fantastic power that serves as a more than adequate reward for achieving level 40. ;D
Talent Explanations:
Endurance increases your over all energy and increases the energy you get from your Energy Builder, Constitution increases your health and also increases the energy you gain with Spirit Reverberation, Recovery increases the energy you go into battle with as well as the energy you gain from your Energy Builder, and Presence increases the healing your receive from Ebon Void and Lifedrain.
I recommend getting the ones listed because by choosing +5s for +8s essentially gives you two extra Talent points than you would get by sticking with +8s (10 compared to 8). Additionally, there is a complex system of Diminishing Returns for most Characteristics once you get beyond 200-220, so over-leveling your stats can have marginal results later on while balancing them out guarantees that you have good, high level stats in multiple Characteristics.
Extra Note:
Unfortunately, due to nerfs, I had to modify the build and was forced to leave Teleport at R1. If you're a PVE only kinda guy, you can spread things around accordingly, but for those who want to do both, I recommend leaving Teleport unranked.
Extra Note #2:
I would like to quote GammaBreaker on the subject of Crippling Challenge's side effect: "Crippling Challenge, while an essential block-breaker in PVP, is also a *taunt* in PVE. It will make whatever you're shooting come over and sock you in the chops. Even if it's a cosmic boss being tanked by a Behemoth."
So please be aware of this when you use a power with Crippling Challenge.
Conclusion:
Well, that’s all for now – if you have any input or advice for improving this guide, please feel free to let me know! Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me either by PM or in-game! And if I have errors anywhere in my guide, please let me know and I’ll fix them as soon as possible!
UPDATE:
It was brought to my attention that Void Horror does not have a travel power canceler, and that this was merely misinformation that has yet to be removed from the tooltip. So I'd like to repeat - Void Horror's Lunge cannot remove travel powers.
UPDATE #2:
Shadow's Embrace was modified without my noticing - special thanks to Puritas for pointing it out. So instead of Fatal Allure, I recommend not ranking up Teleport (IE, leaving it at R1) and grabbing Dark Displacement instead. That will give you a great enough chance to constantly knock your targets down while not sacrificing too much.
The Void is the Archetype that I have wanted since the release of FTP. While Darkness isn't the most powerful Framework, I love it to death (HA!) - it has soo many awesome little intricacies and synergies tucked away that it is just a blast to use. One cool thing to note is that this is the first Archetype I've seen that has really good choices for alternate powers. As such, I have devised two builds - one is a DPSer and the other is a Pet Controller. So you choose which one you want. I'm not trying to be mean - I myself really dislike it when guides tell me to pick whatever I think is best, but with this Archetype, it really does come down to personal preference.
Generic Preface:
All of my builds are meant to be equally playable in both PVE and PVP. Because of this, if you're a PVE-only kind of guy, feel free to remove the PVP advantages (mainly Nailed to the Ground and Crippling Challenge) and replace with the next Rank up - or allocate the advantage points somewhere completely different, as it's ultimately up to you. I would like to say though that even though my builds can do PVP, they also built to perform great in PVE, so it isn't like you're losing anything by having that PVP aspect to the build.
DPS Build Powers:
Level 1: Shadow Bolt (Despondency)
Level 1: Shadow Blast (Crippling Challenge)
Level 6: Teleport
Level 6: Shadow Embrace (Dark Displacement, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 8: Shadow Form (R2, R3)
Level 11: Grasping Shadows (Unyielding Agony)
Level 14: Ebon Void (R2, R3)
Level 17: Ebon Rift (R2, Vengeful Shadows)
Level 22: Spirit Reverberation (N/A)
Level 27: Shadow Shroud (R2, Terrifying Visage)
Level 32: Lifedrain (R2, R3)
Level 35: Whatever travel power lights your candle
Level 40: Ebon Ruin (R2, Paranormal Paranoia, Nyctophobia)
Pet Controller Build Powers:
Level 1: Shadow Bolt (Despondency)
Level 1: Shadow Blast (Crippling Challenge)
Level 6: Teleport (R2)
Level 6: Shadow Embrace (Fatal Allure, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 8: Shadow Form (R2, R3)
Level 11: Grasping Shadows (Unyielding Agony)
Level 14: Ebon Void (R2, R3)
Level 17: Void Horror (R2, R3)
Level 22: Spirit Reverberation (N/A)
Level 27: Shadow Shroud (R2, Terrifying Visage)
Level 32: Lifedrain (R2, R3) OR Summon Shadows (R2, Devouring Darkness)
Level 35: Whatever travel power fords your river
Level 40: Ebon Ruin (R2, Paranormal Paranoia, Nyctophobia)
Talents (for both builds):
Endurance/Constitution
Endurance/Recovery
Constitution/Recovery
Endurance/Presence
Constitution/Presence
Recovery/Presence
Quick Note:
I labeled one DPS Build and the other Pet Controller Build, but both are perfectly capable of doing DPS - They just do it in different manners.
Shadow Bolt: While I don't normally advocate spending advantage points on Energy Builders, Despondency is a fantastic advantage. It allows each bolt of your Shadow Bolts to have a 20% chance to inflict fear on a target. As fear increases the damage of a number of your powers and also provides you energy later on through Spirit Reverberation, this is a great advantage to pick up.
Shadow Blast: While this might seem like a great power at first, it ends up paling in comparison to Shadow Embrace and Ebon Ruin. However, a good thing to note is that at a full charge, it has a 100% chance to inflict fear on a target, so it makes a great opener. Additionally, as this is the only power in the Void's arsenal that carries Crippling Challenge, this is an advantage you'll definitely wanna grab on Shadow Blast.
Teleport: I highly recommend this power over any other travel power because it allows you to get out of dangerous situations very quickly and painlessly. Say you’re surrounded and being pummeled to death by a number of baddies – all you gotta do is pop into teleport, launch straight up, and keep going until you lose aggro. If you’re in a building, just use teleport to retreat the way you came until you’re in the clear. Additionally, teleport allows you to skip the hordes of hallway baddies that are a pain in the rear.
Shadow Embrace: This is gonna be one of your faithful spam skills for a long time. Because it applies damage to all targets in front of you, it's a very nice limited-AOE power that does great damage per tick (0.5 seconds). You'll definitely want to take Dark Displacement, as it gives a 25% chance per tick to knock down targets regardless of feared status; allowing you to constantly control your target(s) location(s). You'll also want to take Nailed to the Ground on this to cancel out other people's travel powers. Because of this, while very nice, Fatal Allure just doesn't fit in (as there are no advantage points left over). If you're a PVE only guy, however, feel free to take away from PVP advantages and invest in Fatal Allure.
Shadow Form: A fantastic passive (and a really cool looking one too), you'll definitely want to take Rank 3 to maximize on all of its awesome benefits.
Grasping Shadows: Good lord, everything has the word "shadows" in it, doesn't it? Anyways, this is the Void's only power (other than ones utilizing Fear, that is) that focuses on applying Paralyze to targets. The nice thing about this power is that it's an AOE, so you can hit multiple targets with it. However, the Void has plenty of crowd control already, so I wouldn't really recommend ranking this power up. However, I do recommend grabbing Unyielding Agony, as it allows you to put a reliable DOT on all targets affected by Grasping Shadows. While this DOT does a nice 660 damage to all affected, if you want, you can take the advantage points out and re-apply them elsewhere.
Ebon Void: While most Archetypes' blocks are average, this one truly is great. On top of protecting you, it has a chance to heal you while you're shielding. As it is, I'd recommend going up to Rank 3 on this power, as Voracious Darkness really isn't worth it unless you wanna tank (which is better left to Archetypes like the Savage, the Glacier, and the Behemoth). If you want, though, you can reduce this power to Rank 2 and invest the advantage points elsewhere (like R2 Shadow Blast, for example)
Void Horror or Ebon Rift: This is where things really change for both builds. A person sticking with the DPS Build will wanna take Ebon Rift Rank 2 and Vengeful Shadows (which causes baddies too close to your rift to take massive damage), which gives you an awesomely potent AOE DPS that will continue to do damage even after you fully maintain it. On the other hand, a person going for the Pet Controller Build will want to grab Void Horror, as it does very nice damage and is constantly active (unless it does, but even then you can just reactivate it). Both are very nice powers - the choice of one over the other just depends on your personal preference. One thing to note is that I think the Vengeful Shadows advantage for Ebon Rift is bugged, as it currently does massive damage for every tick, which is pretty much insta-death for bosses. So don't bank on that at all - it's very probable that Cryptic is going to fix this in a patch or two.
Spirit Reverberation: This is a very nice innate passive that allows you to gain energy (scaling with Recovery and Constitution) whenever you attack a feared target (this can only occur once every three seconds). You can't level it up, however, but it's still a very tight form of energy management.
Shadow Shroud: This is an awesome self-buff that increases damage for 15 seconds at Rank 2. In Addition, Terrifying Visage has a 50% chance every second to fear enemies within a 15 foot sphere around you, in addition to having a 10% chance every second to apply Psychotic Break. Psychotic Break is an advantage that can be applied to Shadow Blast and deals 20 damage every second for 16 seconds. In all honesty, it's your call as to what you want - the awesome fear chance and minor DOT with Terrifying Visage is very nice, but so is an extra and guaranteed 10% damage increase and 3 second increase with Rank 3.
Lifedrain: The reason I recommend Lifedrain over Summon Shadows is because Lifedrain is a very, very nice self heal that also does fair damage. The reason I suggest that you grab Rank 3 instead of Rank 2 + Vampiric Sympathy is because the Void isn't meant to be a party supporter - it's meant to do damage and control crowds. Lifedrain is mostly intended to allow you to support yourself if you're soloing or ease pressure off your healer if you're in a team. However, it is good to note that that Summon Shadows can do nice damage, and its Devouring Darkness advantage allows you to be healed for 20% of the damage that they inflict. So it again is your call - but in this case, I'm going to advocate Lifedrain over Summon Shadows, especially if you're the DPSer. However, if you want to stay in theme with a Pet Controller, Summon Shadows can also work. The three Shadows you summon are very, very fast and do fair damage. Additionally, with Devouring Darkness, you can passively regain a fair amount of health while letting your Shadows do damage for you, which is pretty nice.
Ebon Ruin: Oh man, this is a very awesome and new skill that was introduced along with the Void in the most recent patch. It's very similar to Shadow Blast in that it can be both tapped and charged, and it has a range of 100 feet. However, it does significantly more damage than Shadow Blast, which is AWESOME. This power's advantages also ooze with synergy - Nyctophobia increases the damage against feared targets by 15%, Paranormal Paranoia reduces the target's resistance to Paranormal damage (consisting of Dimensional, Ego, and Magic) by 10% and lasts for 15 seconds, and Rank 2 just increases the damage of this power. All in all, it's a fantastic power that serves as a more than adequate reward for achieving level 40. ;D
Talent Explanations:
Endurance increases your over all energy and increases the energy you get from your Energy Builder, Constitution increases your health and also increases the energy you gain with Spirit Reverberation, Recovery increases the energy you go into battle with as well as the energy you gain from your Energy Builder, and Presence increases the healing your receive from Ebon Void and Lifedrain.
I recommend getting the ones listed because by choosing +5s for +8s essentially gives you two extra Talent points than you would get by sticking with +8s (10 compared to 8). Additionally, there is a complex system of Diminishing Returns for most Characteristics once you get beyond 200-220, so over-leveling your stats can have marginal results later on while balancing them out guarantees that you have good, high level stats in multiple Characteristics.
Extra Note:
Unfortunately, due to nerfs, I had to modify the build and was forced to leave Teleport at R1. If you're a PVE only kinda guy, you can spread things around accordingly, but for those who want to do both, I recommend leaving Teleport unranked.
Extra Note #2:
I would like to quote GammaBreaker on the subject of Crippling Challenge's side effect: "Crippling Challenge, while an essential block-breaker in PVP, is also a *taunt* in PVE. It will make whatever you're shooting come over and sock you in the chops. Even if it's a cosmic boss being tanked by a Behemoth."
So please be aware of this when you use a power with Crippling Challenge.
Conclusion:
Well, that’s all for now – if you have any input or advice for improving this guide, please feel free to let me know! Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me either by PM or in-game! And if I have errors anywhere in my guide, please let me know and I’ll fix them as soon as possible!
UPDATE:
It was brought to my attention that Void Horror does not have a travel power canceler, and that this was merely misinformation that has yet to be removed from the tooltip. So I'd like to repeat - Void Horror's Lunge cannot remove travel powers.
UPDATE #2:
Shadow's Embrace was modified without my noticing - special thanks to Puritas for pointing it out. So instead of Fatal Allure, I recommend not ranking up Teleport (IE, leaving it at R1) and grabbing Dark Displacement instead. That will give you a great enough chance to constantly knock your targets down while not sacrificing too much.
