/dark duo at 20 and counting

I'm actually surprised at the rate my /dark duo (nec & bot) are moving along. They group pretty much 100% with a friends merc/ta, and the three of them have just been working through contacts at vicious. The fact that we've kept a 2 levels/night average all the way up to 20 really surprised me, and I don't think it will continue. These are not hardcore gaming nights either, usually about 2-3 hours, 4 at most.

Yesterday though we did the 15-20 SF with a friend's nin/ta though, and that probably took at least 3 hours itself. It also netted us a full level. The hardest part was, of course, the AV, but not because he was particularly hard. It was because pets love lava! Well, that and the boss kept running back into the lava so all the melee pets were pretty much instantly wiped (even with putting them on passive and trying to call them back to us). We tried to pull him up towards the entrance, but that was evidently a bad idea as he is too tall to move very far into the passage, but somehow able to fall through the floor. What wound up winning the day for us was, suprisingly enough, net arrow. Yes, you heard me, net arrow! Stacked net arrows from the two /TAs kept him locked in a position out of the lava and we were finally able to fedex the smack directly to his giant burning genitals. I died twice (I was the puller - using dark toggle debuff) and everyone else died once I think. Still, a nice achievement overall - the badge was actually working (it's big!) and we did all get SOs.

I made 34 on KV on Saturday I think after a good power session (3-4 hours maybe) of just plowing contact missions. Why? Because I finally got him respecced! Booyah! I swapped assault/tactics/stealth/rez/antidote for grant invis/invis (will get antidote back at 35) and am really enjoying having invis and not having to worry about excess agro from teleports, etc. Another bonus - stamina is doing fine for me without any excess slotting. I'm getting a lot out of the extra slots from not slotting 3 powers, as well as enjoying the extra ground movement from swift, some self healing (finally!) from health and the obvious advantages of stamina. Soo...yes, I wholeheartedly recommend stamina for a ninja or necro with the poison secondary. I can't say for sure if the ranged MMs would have the same end usage as me, but if they use their poison debuffs as frequently, they probably would.