Werner

Well, I really enjoyed playing my Broad Sword/Shield Defense, but it looks like he's now shelved at 50 because there's almost nothing he can do that my other toons can't do just as well. Dark Melee/Shield Defense is a single-target DPS and survivability beast. Fire Melee/Shield Defense is just a beast.

As for making Dark Melee/Shield Defense work from a costume standpoint, the dark shield looks as much like a weapon as it does a shield, and fits in visually with the powers of the set. I personally went with the energy shield in the darkest red, and I think it looks fine visually with my costume, even when I'm spamming Shadow Maul and Sands of Mu.

Fiddled with my power colors and I'm playing +2x4 for now on my L38 Katana/Dark. Mayhems are trouble. Got killed once by a DoT from the named boss after she was defeated with no greens left. Kind of cool, actually. Also ran out of time after a couple missions. Otherwise doing OK with inspirations. I do need to fix my endurance situation now that fights are lasting longer.

It's going to be tough on a scrapper. That's not to say you can't do it - in a recent thread, a number of us found +4x8 to be a really fun difficulty level. But it's going to be risky, and you'll need to be able to work out and afford a top tier build.

Ideally, you'd have something that scales up in large crowds. Shield Defense scales up your offense. Willpower, Dark Armor and Invuln scale up your defense. Not sure about the primary. Dark Melee would be nice for the heal, but with mostly single target attacks and a cone, it won't plow through the crowds quickly. Fire would put out some nice damage, both single target and AoE, but you'd probably need Aid Self.

Katana/Willpower might be nice. Katana has good single target and decent AoE, and Willpower scales up nicely. Willpower is also easy on the endurance bar, which can be important for very long fights with only very short breaks.

I'm personally working on Katana/Dark Armor with the intention to run +4x8, but I'm still fiddling with the build.

It's going to be safer on a Tank. Slower to plow through the spawns, but safer. So I'd say Tank if you want to play it safe or don't have a large budget. Scrapper if you want to do it faster, are willing to take some risks, and have the influence and build to pull it off.

I'm playing with one knockback IO on my Spines/Dark and my Katana/Dark. No problems. I don't do KHTF. I very occasionally get knocked back, but not enough for me to waste another slot while leveling. I'll probably go with two or three if I ever fully IO the characters.

Althought Greater Fire Sword is a great attack, if it were my build, I'd probably be going for the Incinerate -> Scorch -> Cremate -> Scorch chain. It's good DPS, fairly easy to achieve and is light on endurance. That would let me focus more attention on other aspects of the build.

I've heard that it works out better on paper than in practice, and least when you bring the presence pool into the mix. However, Touch of Fear is said to be excellent, and should only be better combined with Cloak of Fear.

If you can spare the power choice and want to lower your required recharge I don't think it's a bad idea. Sweeping Strike is a great attack.

And what could possibly be more fun than pure, German efficiency?

I have different numbers than you, Umbral. That's new!

Looks like you have the wrong Arcanatime for Power Slice. It should be (roundup(1.03/.132)+1)*.132 = 1.188. Since it's shorter, the required recharges are shorter. I have:

BF: 1.452 sec Arcanatime, 12 sec base recharge, 7.128 sec required recharge, 69% +rech required
1K: 3.432 sec animation, 15 sec base recharge, 5.148 sec required recharge, 192% +rech required
PS: 1.188 sec animation, 5 sec base recharge, 7.392 sec required recharge, 0% +rech required
TE: 2.508 sec animation, 12 sec base recharge, 6.072 sec required recharge, 98% +rech required

I haven't done any math, but I'd probably go with Physical Perfection. It's a small power, but it's always there, and in general, I prefer steady performance. It's a great spot for a Performance Shifter proc, and I'm always hurting for ways to get my endurance usage sustainable. And a little extra regeneration is always nice, particularly if you don't have a self heal.

In a way it's silly to have a scrapper with the primary focus being damage mitigation. After all, if that's your primary interest, why not roll a tanker? And it seems like that's what you've chosen to do.

However, scrappers focused on survivability overlap with tankers focused on DPS, so if you're looking for something in the middle, either can do the job. I like something in the middle, and scrappers are my preference.

A lot of the forum regulars focus on serious scrapper survivability (not just on DPS), and we should be able to tell you just how to achieve whatever you want to achieve. There are a lot of combinations that can pull it off, so you aren't particularly limited. I haven't fiddled with Electric Melee yet (waiting for it to go live and thus be “final”), but Invulnerability can be made very solid. It's easier to make it solid with one of the sword primaries (Katana or Broad Sword), but you can certainly do it with other primaries, as Nihilii has demonstrated very well doing crazy things with Dual Blades/Invulnerability.

Yeah, prices seem awfully high on IOs these days. But I've always taken weeks to assemble my IOs. For my current project, it looks like I'll be taking even longer. I've started bidding on the more expensive pieces, like the Gladiator's Armor +3% defense (a week ago, one sold for 2 billion, the influence cap). I'm only level 36, but I might as well get the ball rolling.

Anyway, on the original topic, I don't have a build and I'm not sure what I'll be shooting for if I ever get my Spines/Dark to 50 (currently 44) and decide to IO him out. So I'm not much help.