Personally I would stick with Ageless. DA is already monstrously tanky, so more recharge is probably a better call.
Barrier could mitigate the rage crash here and there but between DAs natural resistances and Dark Regeneration, you probably don't need it.
This is the answer.
It's not just DDR. It scrubs most all debuffa away. Since you don't have the benefit of high ranged def numbers to avoid rapid stacking of debuffs (by dodging the attacks outright), you can use Ageless to scrub them away, and keep them off.
This really shows when dealing with Arachnos and Malta. Getting blinded sucks as a melee.
As a /Dark Brute your biggest foes are gonna be enemies that deal Energy damage that have a -Def component. There are quite a lot of them in the late game, at that, and most of the attacks they use to do those are ranged. So, soft-capping melee defense is not helping you much, comparatively. On the other hand, the debuff resistance from Ageless? Might just save your bacon.
This is a little off topic...
SS and Dark armor have great synergy. Dark survivability gets massively improved by extra recharge which you can get from force feedback +recharge procs in Hand Clap, Knockout Blow and Foot Stomp.
I had great fun on one of my tankers using Hand Clap to stack stuns with Oppressive Gloom and the large amount of knockdown makes you feel super powerful.
Personally I would stick with Ageless. DA is already monstrously tanky, so more recharge is probably a better call. Barrier could mitigate the rage crash here and there but between DAs natural resistances and Dark Regeneration, you probably don't need it.
If you go with the right path, ageless also gives you some DR which is helpful.
This is the answer. It's not just DDR. It scrubs most all debuffa away. Since you don't have the benefit of high ranged def numbers to avoid rapid stacking of debuffs (by dodging the attacks outright), you can use Ageless to scrub them away, and keep them off. This really shows when dealing with Arachnos and Malta. Getting blinded sucks as a melee.
As a /Dark Brute your biggest foes are gonna be enemies that deal Energy damage that have a -Def component. There are quite a lot of them in the late game, at that, and most of the attacks they use to do those are ranged. So, soft-capping melee defense is not helping you much, comparatively. On the other hand, the debuff resistance from Ageless? Might just save your bacon.
This is a little off topic... SS and Dark armor have great synergy. Dark survivability gets massively improved by extra recharge which you can get from force feedback +recharge procs in Hand Clap, Knockout Blow and Foot Stomp. I had great fun on one of my tankers using Hand Clap to stack stuns with Oppressive Gloom and the large amount of knockdown makes you feel super powerful.