DarkLordNecros

I don't have a lot of experience with Kheldians, and I actually came here looking for some ideas for my own build. But I do have some general knowledge. And I have some things I'd like to address.

First of all, Glinting Eye and Gleaming Blast don't have any real business having a single IO in them. I'd suggest swapping those to Nucleolus Exposures. The Devastation Proc is a nice thought, but with a proc's chance to activate and the overall lack of improvement on the power itself, I don't see it being that useful. Unless you have already put it to practice and found otherwise. But Gleaming Blast, no excuses. Make that a hami. Glowing Touch too. And take the Ragnarok off.

The other issue I have (which is more me asking questions than actually seeing a problem) is that there are an awful lot of powers here that aren't getting any love slot-wise. Some make sense, like Incandescence and Stamina, since you've got Tri-Form going and Conserve Power. Others I don't get. The Nova's ST moves are very lacking, as is any and all Ranged ST. You have the three forms which I get, and plenty of AoE output, but I'd still like to be able to KAPEW one guy. Like AVs or something.

The other thing I'd like to inquire about is why you're going for defense at all. With all defense toggles running you've got from 11.7% to 17.6%. That's a decent chunk, in reality, but with nearly 85% in all resistances I think your IO sets can be better invested elsewhere. Especially since you're only getting 3% to 8.9% from your actual IOs. I'd swap out the Reactive Armor for an Impervium Armor, extra recovery and end.

I'd like to see a Beast Taming set over a Plague, it would be difficult to implement without man-sized Locusts. Something DE-inspired would be cool, but the most logical T1 pet would be Swarms, and what can they do asides sting? Sting more? How specifically would you want these pets to function?

Here's the problem with Mercs. They have mostly Smashing/Lethal damage, and mostly in DoT form in tiny numbers in rapid succession. There are no "hard hitters". The biggest assests Mercs gain are from the Spec Ops, who have some good debuffing and mez from their grenade attacks. But a single-target, no damage Web Grenade takes two minutes to recharge, Flashbangs, a -tohit debuff and not half as devastating as the Malta alternative, has a three minute cooldown, and their Tear Gas has four minutes. Furthermore, the Commando's LRM has a four minute cooldown. If these powers had shorter recharge timers, they would likely see heavier use as a strong mez class, since Mercs has one of the only T2 summons that will dish out mezzes at all.

Second, Trick Arrow is a good set. You have Entangling, Ice, and Glue Arrows, all which cut down movement and attack speed if not mezzing them, plus Toxic Gas and Acid Arrows to debuff enemy damage output and increase your own. The really fun part about TA is the Oil Slick Arrow. The only pet set to NOT have an AoE or cone fire attack is Necromancy, which means you can drop down an Oil Slick in tandem with your mess of slows, and watch some clowns slip around until one of your pets graciously lights it into a sea of fire. I find this most effective with Ninjas or Bots, since the Oni can do this with Rain of Fire, giving further patch fire damage, and the Jounin add two extra slows with Caltrops, or Bots, whose T3 Assault can deploy Incendiary Missiles, creating two massive patches of scary fire.

I think you answered your own question. You want top DPS, and obviously /Devices is more defensive than offensive.

The biggest trick to BR is Disintegration, and if you're using secondary attacks, you're not spreading Disintegration. So something passive like Devices is going to work well here. However, I do agree that compensating for a lack of AoEs can be good, in which case I would suggest /Fire. Other than that, I'd build for attack speed so that you can spread Disintegration as quickly as possible and then cut them down with what AoEs BR does have in one fell swoop.

My second 50 is also an /SR, and I personally wouldn't pair a slow set with it. Since the only thing SR brings is Defense and speed, you need to react quickly if you take a hit... Especially in high-lvl content. For me, this means Aid Self, or an inspiration if I'm taking DoT. My Scrapper's primary is Claws, which has nice, fast animations. Mace has a lot of "heavier" attacks that have longer animations. Plus, both Mace and SR are infamous for heavy end use. You could mitigate this with Elude, but I hate Elude. The crash is beyond debilitating, leaving you with less than 10% defenses and a poor excuse for resistance inverse of HP. If the timing is extremely poor, you could wind up in the middle of a mob with Practiced Brawler almost out when the crash hits. Never pleasant.

Still, I'm curious to see how well it works. Let us know how it goes for you.

I'd agree that Dark Melee is a good option. Since you're /EA, Defenses are divided between damage types, instead of attack types. This can make softcapping a chore, since you have to really push to grab psionic and toxic defenses. In my opinion, it'll also diminish the usefulness of Parry and Divine Avalanche from BS and Katana, respectively. Both sets are popular with defense sets for these two powers, which give +Melee and Lethal defense. But your melee defense will be much lower than your damage type defenses, and a bonus to only lethal is less favorable. Dark Melee's -toHit stacks with your defense, and unlike your defense, picks no favorites based on damage type. Keep in mind though that Dark is mostly Single Target, with only Soul Drain and Dark Consumption being AoEs. Both can do pretty fair damage slotted, but they have more important functions than damage.

It's not a problem if you take BS and -not- use Parry. If it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. You still have the awesomeness of Head Splitter and Disembowel, two very strong attacks. Or just keep Parry on hand for it's speed and to combat defense debuffs... Overkill isn't always bad. Additionally, the defense softcap is higher in post-50 content, such as Incarnate Trials. Food for thought.