Werner

Yep, you can have two builds, so if you wanted a top level power build and an exemplaring build, that would be fine. Just remember you need to buy everything separately for both, but of course if you just use SOs and the like, your exemplaring build will be very cheap.

Still, level 35 IOs aren't MUCH less powerful than level 50 IOs. I'd just go with one build myself.

I'd definitely pick up Tough and Weave on your all out power build.

And yeah, the influence is the bad news. Recharge, which is what Regen really wants, is one of the priciest things out there. And defense doesn't come particularly cheap either. You're probably looking at over a billion influence for a top tier build. Maybe two billion.

I've done a Rikti War Zone challenge against +6s with Katana/Regen. That's three bosses plus a handful of lieutenants and minions, all without temporary powers, inspirations, pulling, running, and so on. Linky. I tried +7s back at the time, but they tore me apart. Once you go above +5, things start getting really ugly really quickly.

So the answer is yes, Katana/Regen is capable of the same sort of insane feats as other combinations. It probably isn't the BEST combination for large mobs of seriously uplevel enemies, but it'll do just fine.

I usually wait until 50 to start on sets, but it really depends. I don't exemplar much at all, so I don't care if I lose half my power when I do. If you plan to exemplar, you might want mostly level 35 sets, for instance, in which case you could start slotting out your final build at 32.

Yes, Hasten is pretty much a requirement on a Regen. I don't personally have it, partially because I wanted my build to show that alternate approaches could still be viable, but you'll be better off with it, and I'll probably add it in on my next respec.

As Umbral said, I'm Katana/Regen, but Broad Sword/Regen should be capable of similar feats. As far as me having “no trouble soloing AVs”, that depends on what you mean by trouble. Infernal caused me fits and required multiple attempts. He was definitely one of the harder AVs for me. I don't remember having a DPS problem, but I had a hard time staying vertical for long enough to take him out.

I think that Head Splitter -> Parry -> Disembowel -> Hack -> Parry is the chain of choice in this case. It looks like you have the basics for DPS, with an Achilles' Heel in Hack and Head Splitter, and Parry slotted as an attack. You've gone beyond that and even included Assault. You can replace the damage/recharges in Head Splitter and Hack with a straight damages for higher DPS, but I'm not seeing any other significant opportunities.

From a survivability standpoint, you don't have Tough and Weave. I'd also be using Maneuvers instead of Vengeance, but that will require some slots. And if you can somehow pick all that up, then you may have endurance issues to solve, and so on.

Anyway, you'll probably be able to beat some other AVs without any changes. It looks like a pretty solid build to me, just with more AoE and less defense and resistance than I would use on an AV build. You're probably having trouble with Infernal simply because Infernal is trouble.

Heh. If I were you, I'd probably turn my Spines/Regen into an AV soloer just to show that it can be done. Not that we're saying it can't, just that it would take a lot of investment. But your Dark Melee/Willpower will probably have a MUCH easier time of it.

Yeah, by all means, give it a shot. Maybe you'll love it. As much of a min/maxer as I am, I still end up loving the strangest things – like how fast my Regen can die, the sound that Poison Dart makes on my widow, or my main brute's costume. Maybe you'll love having your enemies all cowering in fear, even if it does technically slow you down a bit. A character you love is going to level much faster than a character you hate, that's for sure.

Buzzsaw builds used to be popular. Then two things changed. First, we learned more about how the server clock works, and how that adds time to attacks in an attack chain, and how that hurts fast attacks more than slow attacks. Second, they changed Siphon Life and Midnight Grasp, making them stronger attacks.

The current top Dark Melee DPS chain isn't a buzzsaw chain at all. Smite -> Midnight Grasp -> Smite -> Siphon Life. That's probably difficult on a budget, so I'd recommend Smite -> Shadow Punch -> Midnight Grasp -> Smite -> Shadow Punch -> Siphon Life. I don't have a build on me for that, but that's very likely the chain you want.

Edit: To run that chain, you need Smite to recharge in 3.16 seconds, Shadow Punch to recharge in 3.3 seconds (no +recharge necessary), Midnight Grasp to recharge in 6.6 seconds (that's the hardest one), and Siphon Life to recharge in 6.73 seconds. That way you have some targets if you have to put your own build together.

I'm not sure that there's a specific ideal. However, I shoot for 95% accuracy or higher against +4s, which would be 183% accuracy as reported by Mids'. I like even higher, but generally try not to make many compromises for it past that point. That may change with I16, though, if I can drop level 55+ enemies into my missions.

Yep. Boom. I had decided not to comment any further, because there's usually only so far I want to jump into a straight up argument. But now that Negescape has flounced the thread, I suppose I can say what I was thinking.

It all finally hit home when he described EXACTLY who all he was tanking for. He's tanking for a pick up group of lowbies with no enhancements, who are all side kicked by the mission level up to 50. He's power leveling the completely helpless. No WONDER he thinks a tank is necessary. No WONDER he has an attitude. No WONDER he thinks everyone around him is useless and he's the golden child. He specifically set up an extremely artificial situation that made it so. The problem comes when he takes this experience and applies it to the game at large, and seemingly fails to believe anyone that says that tanks aren't a requirement for regular missioning. I mean, he flounced right after someone posted an actual story about running an AE L54 boss farm without a tank. What, did it not count because he wasn't powerleveling unenhanced lowbies?

Anyway, given all that, it hardly seems like he was even arguing his own point. It seems like he was arguing the OPPOSITE point by describing the absolute most extreme situation, and saying that in that specific situation, he was necessary. It was just weird.

AE arc 9713 by Arcanaville

I haven't run any numbers, but Dark Melee/Shield Defense already comes with huge damage buffs, so the additional buff from Fury isn't going to help as much as it normally would. So while I'll guess that in general, Brutes would be superior for the job, in this case, I'd probably go with the Scrapper.

I do very little teaming except some duos or trios with friends, so I simply don't encounter these issues. From my outsider's perspective, a couple players throwing a temper tantrum and refusing to continue because people don't want to do it their way, even if their way is the RIGHT way, isn't acceptable. Sitting there while everyone else does the work is leeching.

On the other hand, I SUSPECT that what they wanted to do was just show the team that the team's way wouldn't work. Since there were no more deaths after the kick, I believe the two would have found out that they were NOT as crucial as they thought they were. Either way, someone would have learned something, so I'd have wanted it to go on for another few minutes. But with the team asking for the tank to be kicked, I'd have probably gone with the team's wishes.

Off hand, it sounds to me like the tank and the fire/kin buddy are used to playing as a duo. They've developed their own strategy, don't need to communicate, and plow through everything extremely quickly with no deaths. As a result, they're probably very difficult to team with, because they expect everyone else to play just like them, can't imagine that teams can function in any other way, and have no tolerance for team deaths. I can understand where they're coming from, but I think they need to set that aside on a team.

Scrappers aren't even in the same league as some of these other combinations. Giant monsters essentially regenerate 360 DPS. We can't touch that without serious buffs. Some characters make mincemeat of that. Just because AV soloing is popular on the scrapper boards doesn't mean we're the best archetype for the job.

Well, I'd say it's decent with no glaring holes. But it would be somewhat stronger with higher recharge and defense, which would likely take sacrificing some of the regeneration and damage since you can't have everything. I also haven't verified the endurance consumption, which could be an issue with the attacks being poorly-slotted for endurance. Still, you're a Regen, and you have Conserve Power, so it doesn't seem likely to be a problem. I haven't checked the DPS, but it's probably better than either of my mains.

Here's pretty much what I was saying. You'll need to shift the power and slot levels around a bit since I have Tactics before its prerequisite at the moment. I'm sure it can be improved further, but if I'm understanding what you're after, I think it's at least a step in the right direction.

Pluses:
has an attack chain
attack chain still runs while Hasten is down
8% higher regeneration
8% higher global damage
lower endurance consumption and better recovery

Minuses:
7.5% lower global recharge
4.2% lower defense
5% lower damage slotting in Ablating Strike and Sweeping Strike

Yeah, the build I was working on also had better than soft-capped Ranged and AoE defense, but not MUCH better, just enough to try to cope with defense debuffs. So yeah, it would probably still get torn apart.

Maybe I should level up my Widow. There is something SO satisfying about the Poison Dart. Not sure what it is. It just seems so... evil.

Or I could just stay away from Architect Entertainment. Other than my attempt yesterday, I don't think I've run an AE mission in a couple months. The shine wore off, and I stopped going.

Well, thanks. I feel like I've been slacking off badly recently, particularly in regards to my private messages. They piled up and I started... uh... ignoring them. So for anyone who has written me, sorry! I'll try to reply some month soon here. And I haven't been doing many build reviews, mostly leaving it to others. I appreciate the thought, though.

I don't know much about soloing AVs on other ATs, but maybe a Radiation Defender or a Bots/Traps Mastermind?

Sorry, yeah, it got buried, but not the way you're thinking. I actually looked at it, thought “this could take a while to reply to” and stuck it on its own tab in my browser so that I wouldn't forget. Then I opened up 20 other tabs in my browser, and it got buried that way. *chuckle *

Yes, Super Reflexes is better for Dual Blades DPS because of Quickness. It's pretty much the only practical way to run the best Dual Blades chains. The same is true of Claws as well.

The total +recharge would be your global recharge plus the recharge enhancement in the power. But it's easy enough to just put the numbers in terms of seconds, which Mids' reports directly. Blinding Feint needs to recharge in 4.14 seconds, Ablating Strike in 1.61 seconds, and Sweeping Strike in 4.14 seconds.

Back in +recharge terms, your Ablating Strike is currently at +187% recharge. To pull off the top attack string, you need at least another 86% recharge. Swapping the damage for accuracy/recharge would get you another 30% recharge, but you'd still need another 56% recharge. So you're probably looking at MASSIVE build changes. Like I mentioned, five sets of purples and five Luck of the Gamblers. That and every other recharge bonus you can possibly squeeze in. I wouldn't do it. And I DEFINITELY wouldn't do it if you're trying to mimic what Regeneration used to be before all the nerfs.

So yes, I would drop down to the Blinding Feint -> Attack Vitals chain. Yeah, that's the 214 DPS one in my comparison spreadsheet.

As far as swapping the chance for energy damage for the Gladiator proc, that depends on what you fight. Yes, it will help your DPS, but it will hurt your burst damage. If you do a lot of boss farming, AV fighting, pylon soloing and the like, the Gladiator proc is just what the doctor ordered. But if you mostly run regular missions, where most of your time is spent killing minions and lieutenants, you'd be better off with the regular damage proc.

Something else I would consider, even though it would lower your on-paper DPS slightly, is replacing the damage/recharge with accuracy/recharge in Ablating Strike and Sweeping Strike. You're well over the ED cap on damage in those attacks, so you'd only lose 5% damage enhancement, which would probably end up being something like a 1% to 2% DPS loss. But in exchange, you bump up your accuracy. Mind you, you're already at my 95% target against +4s, so you don't really need the accuracy most of the time. Just something I thought I'd toss out there.

Hmmm, on the other hand, better accuracy in the attacks might allow some slotting adjustments. For instance, the four Luck of the Gamblers in Moment of Glory. You're over the defense cap, so the only point of the defense IO is the set bonus. So if you bump up your accuracy in the attacks, you could drop that IO. Also, swap the defense/endurance/recharge for just endurance/recharge for the same reason.

I'm not a fan of Reactive Armor in Tough. You're getting an anemic 0.63% ranged and melee defense out of it. Actually, I'm not sure I'm a fan of ANY set in Tough on your build. Two Ribosomes approach the enhancement from the set, and three exceed it, so you could save one or two slots that way.

Assuming you want to spend the slots on damage, you're one slot away from +2.5% damage in both Quick Recovery and Stamina. So two slots gives you your 5% damage back in Sweeping Strike and Ablating Strike, plus gives you that damage on Blinding Feint. A third slot could be used on Blinding Feint as well, as five-slotted attacks make me sad. How about replacing the Nucleolus with a couple Pounding Slugfests to bump your regeneration over 800%? Might be better things to do, but it's an idea.

Wait, I should have started with the attack chain. You need to pick up and slot Vengeful Slice. That's where things get ugly. What power are you going to give up? I hate saying it, but maybe Maneuvers. Defense is good, but yours is low enough that it won't be a huge hit to survivability. I'd personally give up Assault instead, but that's not good if DPS is your goal. And then you'll be needing any saved slots from earlier to slot up Vengeful Slice.

For Blinding Feint -> Attack Vitals, you need Blinding Feint to recharge in 5.28 seconds, Ablating Strike in 5.54 seconds, Vengeful Slice in 4.09 seconds and Sweeping Strike in 5.28 seconds. It looks like you're in good shape on all of those while Hasten is up. While Hasten is down, Blinding Feint is a little slow, so there's a good reason to add one more slot to that power.

Swap the heal/endurance/recharge in Fast Healing for a heal/recharge.

I'd swap the Numina heal in Instant Healing for a heal/endurance/recharge. Better to have it up more often than healing ever so slightly more when it is up.