Athanatosis

I was initially gonna pair it with DM because I thought those AoE drains would provide good taunts on everything. But now I'm also considering Mace or EM (preferably EM) to combine with Oppressive Gloom and turn it into a stun bot. Also up for other suggestions.

I don't want to do FM or SS because I've done them before. I'm worried SM is going to be too END heavy with DA.

Also, I'm wondering if maybe I'd prefer DA on a Scrapper instead, since I have no experience tanking. I've wanted a DA toon for a long time now but have never been able to decide what to make it. (A Scrap, Brute, or Tank, or what power set to pair with it).

Was thinking maybe doing a Spines/DA Scrap but I can't see any real reason to choose DA for Spines over FA or especially ELA since it's so great with END in comparison.

That's a ton of recharge necessary to triple stack acid mortar, how much would that build cost?

How exactly does traps work? It seems like every ability requires enemies to walk by. Is it difficult to use or fairly simple? Is it fun? I've never used it or seen it used before.

I'm willing to go for things that simply boost primary damage formidably, such as -resist or +damage, rather than just attacks. I've been inspired to make a damage dealing MM after reading that someone's bots/storm did 350 DPS in the Rikti Pylon thread. I'm not entirely sure, but I think that Demons have the potential to give more DPS than bots, especially if I'm attacking constantly with the whip and stacking -resist.

Right now my Demons MM is /Dark because I like the idea of having an extra pet with the Dark Servant. After doing some research I'd assume that /Thermal and /Storm would also offer either nice damage or nice damage buffs. My issue with /Storm was that it seemed to require very careful planning with any class that couldn't provide the controls (immob especially) to make sure things don't get tossed all over the place. What pushed me away from /Thermal is the idea of the constant buffing all of the different pets + teammates every couple of minutes. That just sounds like a huge hassle!

On the other hand, /Thermal would provide shields, and my least favorite part of my MM at the moment is the fact that the three weak demons especially are dying practically every pull... Will they die less frequently at a later level with /Dark, or is constant pet death an issue all MMs suffer from forever?

Thank you for the alternative build Ideon, I think I'll stick with the first one since the choice between Melt Armor or Fire Blast isn't going to be too a big deal for me. I was just curious if I'd be able to apply the same IOs. Since I can't then the switch between them probably isn't worth it.

Wow, you really hit the nail on the head with what I was looking for Ideon. I happen to hate Fire Breath, and you even managed to fit Hasten in which is something I'm going for. I'm very impressed, thanks so much. Got the build saved and I'll be working for it.

Just for reference, so I know how much to begin saving, how much should I expect to be spending on this build? I've never purchased set IOs before, and I'm only looking for a rough estimate. Just the nearest 100mil off the top of your head, no intense research necessary!

I want to add a question, too. This thread has inspired me to roll a DP/MM for massive AoE.

The thing is, I HATE cones. I would prefer to never, ever use them. To entirely leave them out of my sets, even. I like PBAoE or targeted AoEs. IF I choose never to use any cones, would DP/MM still be the best AoE choice for Blasters? Or considering a no-cone build (for any set) would another powerset combo shine?

Thanks guys! I appreciate the speedy response.

One last thing, when I'm working on MIDs and say I have 30% melee defense and 8% energy defense. Does that mean against a melee energy attack I have 38% defense? Or only 30%? If I'm supposed to combine the two then reaching softcap won't be as hard as I had thought.

I'm trying to build a Fire/SD Scrapper focused entirely for doing maximum AoE and single target damage on 8 man teams. Going for Fireball for my Ancillary, etc. The builds I've come up with that accomplish my intended goal usually aren't able to fit in tough or weave, which leaves me below the defense cap with normal IOs. If I were to only be at about 35% defense or so, would that still be good? Or would it not being soft capped make me not so great in PvE? Considering that I'm never planning to either solo or tank on this guy, I don't know how important soft capping it is.

I assume that anything below EB can be affected easily enough by any sort of debuff, but are there any debuffs that are more or less entirely useless against EBs and AVs?

I have read a lot about -DEF being useless after low levels. BUT, if you have a set where you can pretty much guarantee a significant -DEF debuff at all times, wouldn't that remove the need for maybe an entire +ACC enhancement in your attack powers? I know that's pushing it, as that still doesn't make up for how worthless it is to anyone besides you, and it's not like they're going to begin slotting 1 less ACC enhancement just because they MIGHT have a -DEF debuffer on their team.

By the way, can -RES go negative? Like if I do 10 damage and they for some reason have -100% res (assuming they had 0% res to begin with to simplify things) would I then do 20 damage? Or would the increase cut off once they reached 0%?

For Defenders specifically, I was looking into -tohit. Does the -tohit from Dark Blast hold its own, or does it require Dark Miasma to really shine? I was wondering if I could go with a primary that offers a lot of -RES (and maybe a heal), then try to stack as much -tohit as I possibly could with Dark Blast.

But I don't want these questions only answered with Defenders in mind, because in the future I may want to plan other ATs around their potential debuff capability.

-Recharge seems like it could be powerful if you can get it stacked high enough but I'd still be more comfortable with something that made it so they didn't hit me at all rather than simply less often.

Thanks Blood! I understand now why DB probably wouldn't be the best. I haven't ever read up on or tried the powerset, same with ice armor, so I thought it'd be cool to combine the two. But I haven't tried Ice Melee either, so I achieve the same effect either way.

I assume that Ice/Ice is also less tight of a build that will allow me to take the power pools I need? Is Frozen aura also a "taunt aura"? I thought pretty much everything tanks could do offered some sort of taunt.

I'm an AoE fanatic and as such I only really enjoy full teams with tons of enemies. If I can't get a team, I don't play. I have barely any experience with TFs, but I'm probably going to do them all at least once to learn the lore and experience the game's story.

I don't see myself soloing until I can handle x8 missions. Otherwise I'd be bored!

Thanks for the heads up on the tight build, but all the powers DO seem pretty interesting so I won't be too upset about taking them all. I can do my best to live without Stamina until level 26, and I just picked up Ninja Run so even going without a travel power for a while is plausible. What power pools did you feel I'd need or want, besides a potential travel power?

I've been wanting to make a tanker and this is the only combo I was really curious about, but I've heard nothing on it and there aren't any guides for this combo specifically.

Would it do well for a tanker? Too END heavy or anything like that? I was at first considering Ice/Ice but Ice Melee has no AoE and that's what I want most.

Thanks everyone. This answered my question entirely.

I'll be doing Tri-Form for now but I like the idea of a generally all-human Warshade somewhere down the line. Perhaps one that still occasionally relies on forms for a few things, but generally remains human. I initially felt it would be stupid to play a form changing class and not use the forms, but I really like the way human form Warshades look with all their interesting powers.

In one of my threads asking for a fun AT, I got a lot of recommendations to try out a WS but nobody said PB. What is it about WS that makes it more fun than PB? Also, does PB involve as much form dancing as WS?

With Elec for AoE is the single target damage still good enough to fulfill that "highest single target DPS" role?

Is it a set people rarely play or something? If so, why? I was looking for an interesting secondary to try out with a new bots MM, (is necro any good in comparison, btw?), and couldn't find a single guide for it on the thread.

Considering how END heavy the set combo is I want to know, as roughly as necessary, what sort of influence pool I should be looking at before I roll one if I want to make the leveling experience and smooth as enjoyable as it should be.

Does it exist?! For some reason Elec/Nin came to mind. Does L-Rod benefit from the hide-crit?

I want something that can handle AoE on top of single target, and something that will actually be able to pull its weight so people don't all hate me.

That sucks that the patron pools can't give another pet! How disappointing.

Well, do the fire imps spawned by hellfire show up in the pet menu or are they just on their own?

I want to make an MM with /Dark secondary for the extra "pet" and then do Mu Mastery or something (I forget which other ones give some form of pet) so I've got a gang of 9, including myself, in total. Any way to get more than that, btw?

What Primary would work best with this? I really wanna do DS but I don't want to pre-order GR. If DS would be the best for whatever reason, please say so. Then I'll consider the pre-order!