perwira

Completely agree as to the basic tactics here. Literally jump into the midst of the mob, lay a Soul Drain getting in as many as you can, and you're off to the races.

I like to work Shadow Maul into the attack chain, particularly very early in the battle where enemies are going to be packed two-deep anyway and you'll likely as not score at least two if not a lucky three enemies in the high-damage melee cone. For more scattered fighting, you can leave SM out of the attack chain.

I also agree with the interesting tactic there with the Soul Drain followed by the Dark Consumption. I usually save SD+DC for the second round (if there is one) for mopping up damaged enemies clustered around me and for endurance recovery if it's needed. But sometimes I'll use it at the outset - I just completed the Vanguard arc and it was very useful to take out those massive mobs of Rikti monkeys in a 1-2 *poof* PBAoE blow.

And to add... because DM is a single-target beast, make sure you pick fast tactical mobility powers. DPS looks nice on paper, but it doesn't figure in the time it takes for you to reach your next target and you want that time to be as short as possible. While it might sound redundant, my DM scrapper has superspeed (the fastest point-to-point tactical, if there are no barriers/beings in the way), combat jumping (for those jumps where you need to get over obstacles or beings to get into the midst of the enemy) and flight (which I included for concept/capability as my DM scrapper is also an aerial combatant with air superiority situationally mixed into the attack chain). All three of these have a defense component too, which is nice. And (as a DM/SD scrapper) my scrapper has a teleport via shield charge to boot! In short, don't short change your tactical mobility. You'll take down a lot more enemies faster if you're able to move very quickly.

Good luck, and have fun. Either solo or in team, DM scrappers are a riot to play.

Likewise, as a fairly new player for about six months, I have rolled only seven characters and only one of them has reached 50. I have others at 49, 45, 43 and 37, with two new ones (one a Peacebringer) reaching 20. I like to savor those last few levels, either in going in SG TF's/SF's or rigorously testing them solo in still-outstanding arcs at higher difficulty levels to verify their effectiveness.

Also, taking your time to reach 50 can allow a character to build up some inf through a little market play and further enhance their sets and/or a respec revamp (which I also haven't done yet for any of the characters).

I go with character concept first, then carefully consider the primary/secondary power sets for how they might perform and complement each other, along with the character's versatility in combined solo/team play. So far, I haven't deleted any characters, satisfied with how they have unfolded over the levels. At this rate, I might not even use up the allotted free slots for new characters for years (even as more are given as veteran rewards!).

50? Sure, but I like to take my time, savoring the journey to reach it and play beyond it.

Yup, I agree. Here's the point where the epic power set can come into play, either solo or in team. If it's the direction you think it should go, give it a go! It will be interesting to see how your leveling and powers progress 40+ up to 50, although it may take a while. You're already at the point of staging towards 50.

In any case, good luck with your solo quest, impressive indeed!

Same as yours! I'm following the same train of thought you are.

Edited to add: I haven't yet put this into practice quite like you have, both in solo-quest and in team, so this is why I'm curious what you've discovered. I have a notion that the Electricity Mastery epic powers might slightly change the complexion of the power sets and attack chain, but we'll find out more as you get there. Out of curiosity considering which epic power set would be best, I had asked earlier in this forum whether the magnitude of the Shocking Bolt hold stacks with the hold magnitude of Tesla Cage and the comments/answers in return suggested that it does (for at least several seconds, if I recall correctly), meaning serious boss/AV holding as well as full endurance draining capability. As you've already experienced with mobs and bosses, you may well have an AV stopper in your hands, short of those with persistent break-hold and massive endurance recovery capabilities.

What's nice about PP is that it provides for both regen and recov, albeit a third to half of each (relative to Health and Stamina), but that's exactly what I've been looking for. It's like having a fully adjustable Numina's regen/recov in a single power.

Funny you mention this. I didn't take flight as a power (only as a temp pack buy), and combined with superspeed, hurdle +jump sure seems to help with very fast tactical movement during battles on different kinds of maps.

Thank you, sir. I've long puzzled over this with a DM/SD scrapper with SL 6-slotted with ToN, and you've given a concrete suggestion about how to improve that. Accuracy (with other set bonuses) hasn't been an issue, but damage has.

Which brings up another point. With the new super-sidekicking rules, we're seeing more top-level characters playing lower-level content, teaming up with lower level characters for specific TF's/SF's or arcs.

Given this, I'm pondering whether it makes sense to have two builds - one for the 50+ content and one for SSK'ing in the lower level content. As shown by the example from the OP here, it'd be quite easy and cheap to put together a very effective SSK build consisting of lower level IO sets, yet also still be effective at 50th level. Thoughts on this?

Yes, the concept you just described is exactly along the lines of what I was thinking when I mentioned a 'balanced' build.

To accomplish this, I'd probably have to drop the leadership pool (there's 3 right there) and/or the Fitness pool (which I wonder if I'd really want to do given all the high endurance-using primary/secondary powers and knowing that Health might be a lifesaver in a combatant role), as well as swap out Power Mastery for Electrical Mastery at the epic level. I'd be curious to know which attack powers you see as becoming less used as you rise up the levels, particularly after you pick up the epic Electricity Mastery attacks. It may be possible to drop one of the lower-end electrical attacks if you already have a full and sufficiently flexible attack chain that includes the epic powers.

Depends on what level.

If you want the top of the line level 35 KC triple-aspect, it's currently going for 55m-60m blueside. But it's 15m-35m at level 34, 15m at level 33, and at or <5m at level 30 and below. The only catch is that it might to take a while (a week or two or even more) to fill a bid at a specific level with the low turnover, where putting spread bids across a few levels might make sense if you want to fill it more quickly.

Note the OP's KC's are level 25, which are current going for about 5m.

5m << 55-60m. That's thrift.

(edited to add) Just checked redside. Level 35 at 50m-60m, level 34 at 10m-15m, and highly volatile (600k-15m) at level 25 and other levels 33 and below. Overall, about the same as blueside, maybe even cheaper with more lowball bids filling, but higher on the impatient bids.

Thank you for confirming what I've heard so many others nay-say! Who knows, you may start a new blue renaissance!

Great to hear how you're progressing. Kudos to you. I'm purposely hanging loose on my 50th level emp/elec's respec until reading your comments and seeing your build in the upper levels. Later, I'd be curious to read what you'd think would be the best 'balanced' build (dual empath party support and electrical blast offense combined), based on your solo experience.

Or just tell them to stand outside the area and stay there. A simple 'go to' or 'stay' command suffices, but like you, I wonder how many MM's even know that given the way they (actually don't) move their pets around.

It'd been better, though, if the team leader did their job and scanned the players on their team roster *before* the start of the mission and deciding then and there if someone didn't fit their preferred team composition, rather than mid-mission.

OTOH, I would never ask someone to leave a team because of their archetype or power set selections. Or, as someone else here mentioned, because of less than skillful play due to their being relatively new to the game and/or the archetype they are playing. Some combinations of archetypes/powers can turn out to be even more fun and interesting to play together.

Just +3? (*snort*)

(*Que Jimi's song, "Hear My Train A'Comin'")

Ah, hah! So you're the comp.

All those 11.7m recipe bids between 13 and 19 came from my very first character (37th level rad/rad corrupter), but he has since withdrawn from the red-side AH proc market. Selling at 20m+ a piece (with the elsewhere high-turnover level 20's going for a lot more), for <12m cost, he picked up a quarter of a tea-cup (1/4 bn inf) in the process.

This is one rare case of putting up spread bids across multiple levels knowing that only a few would fill per week could profit considerably, and it's (or was!) easy, logging in once every other day. Market experiment? Success this time!

I would be tempted to switch the Touch of Fear for the Shadow Maul (I didn't take ToF, although I can see how it would be very useful in some situations). Even though SM has a fairly long animation time, you'll almost always get two if not three enemies with it if you're in the thick of a mob. It's not AOE, for sure, but SM does serious damage once slotted up and makes picking off who's left with single-target attacks a lot easier. I worked 6-slotted SM as well as shield charge into the attack chain, with a lot of emphasis on the recharge speed (just short of permahaste) within the build so that these larger attacks can be used more frequently during a battle. For the tougher opponents, you still have the Midnight Grasp within your attack chain to pin them down.

My scrapper's build looks a lot like yours, almost all the same powers with the combat jumping, except she chose the flight pool instead of the fighting pool, picking up the air superiority attack (slotted with five Focused Smites). Your superjumping (which I did not take although I took combat jumping for defense and mobility) provides just as well as flight for vertical combat mobility. She also chose hasten and superspeed (with a +stealth proc) to maximize attack power recharge time and lateral combat mobility, with SS being the fastest point-to-point short range tactical movement power.

I'm studying your build pretty closely and will take note of comments by others here, who are more expert at this than I am. My scrapper has yet to do a respec (I've liked how she has performed at all levels so far), but she is due for one, not quite being softcapped in defense in most areas, probably her only weakness.

In short, looking at your build, I'd try to find some way to work Shadow Maul into your build and attack chain. I'd also look at some way to work hasten and superspeed into your build, which would mean giving up one of your pool power sets (I mentioned the fighting set as the one I didn't pick, but this may mean not making the defense softcap, I'm not sure). Hasten does wonders to quicken and provide flexibility in the attack chain while superspeed allows the scrapper to quickly zip from one foe to the next without wasting time, as well as providing for some defense bonus.

(Edited to add) I wouldn't worry too much about Grant Cover, unless you need (yet) another placeholder for a defense set and LotG recharge. As far forward as a DM/SD usually is, only the tanker or another scapper would benefit from it. More often than not, a DM/SD scapper will be even further forward than the tanker, pretty much alone "against all odds" in the midst of the mob.

As a fairly new player of six months, I have only seven characters and the DM/SD scrapper certainly exceeded expectations. No regrets at all about choosing this power set, with her capable of taking on both an AV and/or large clusters of mobs well above her level. Before super-sidekicking, she'd be the one who'd play at the lowest level if there weren't enough exemplars to go around.