Thoughts of a level 50 Spines Scrapper I1 to I7.

Thoughts of a level 50 Spines Scrapper I1 to I7.

Spines can be a fun and effective powerset. It is slightly different to other Scrapper powersets in that the strength of its AE attacks make it more effective against larger numbers of Critters than powerful single targets, but not so much so that it is ineffective vs single targets.

Spines got me to level 50 in a reasonable time while soloing a fair bit, doing lots of missions, story arcs and task forces and contributing to any team I was in. Most importantly IMHO it was also fun.

The following is a bit of a ramble and all MHO, but might hopefully give some people some ideas as to how to give Spines a go.

Caveat.

This ramble is written from my experience of what worked for me. Just because it got me to level 50 doesn’t mean that what worked for me will work for you. And even if it does maybe it won’t be fun for you.

Your own experience is always a better indicator of what will work for you than what some bizarrely named non-entity on an internet forum writes.

Changes since Issue 1.

Spines has remained practically unchanged since Issue 1.

There have been a couple of changes to the text descriptions of the powers, a change which meant that the Toxic DoT effects were increased by Damage Enh slotted in the attack and the graphics were amended slightly to lessen pauses for redraws which makes the attacks flow a little better.

The introduction of Toxic Resist has also had an impact on Spines, but balanced against the extra damage mentioned above it is a net win for Spiners.

Primary Powers.

All the Spines powers are good. Okay a couple might not be quite so good, but generally you can’t go too wrong taking a lot of the Spines powers.

A quick word on the two less good Spines Powers.

Confront. The new Scrapper Taunt. I didn’t take it when it was the old Scrapper Taunt and I don’t intend to take it in any Respec build because I didn’t want to play that sort of Scrapper, but if you do then it works fine.

Barb Swipe is odd and most people avoid it. I think that there is a place for Barb Swipe in a Spines build that relies almost totally on the AE powers to do damage. If you have Barb Swipe then any other single target attack makes a nearly complete attack cycle that you can use to fill in time while you wait for your AE’s to recharge. Since you are using a bare minimum of single target attacks you have more slots to throw into other things, but it seems a pretty marginal tactic to me.

After that your attacks fall into two camps. Your single target attack cycle and your AE Alpha-Volley.

You need a solid single target attack cycle. Your AE’s cost too much End to use vs single targets and take too long to recharge. Early on Brawl, Lunge and Impale will do a decent job. Add Ripper in later and you should be able to keep a reasonably constant cycle of attacks going. Don’t be concerned that your damage may seem low or slow because hopefully you will be attacking Critters that have already taken a large chunk of damage from …

Your AE Alpha-Volley. This is basically everything AE you have at maximum overload. Eventually it will be Throw Spines, Spine Burst and Quills with Build Up.

You can maximise your AE damage on a normal pack of Critters in their initial standing position by carefully choosing you line of approach and by queuing your attacks.

Try to pick a Critter on the far side of the pack with equal number on either side of the line between you and the targeted Critter. Close in to a comfortable distance just outside agro range. Hit Build Up, Follow and queue Throw Spines. You will fire Throw Spines at the maximum range and if you have the furthest Critter targeted you should cover most of the pack of Critters. As soon as you see the Throw Spines fire off hit Spine Burst. This should get Spine Burst to go off just before you get to the target Critter, again getting a good proportion of the pack in the AE. Hopefully that will leave you with either a pack of KO’ed Critters or give you just a little clean up to do. As they say in the classics, Practise well.

It costs the same End to AE one Critter as it does to AE ten Critters, so if you can survive the return fire getting more Critters into your AE’s is good, especially if you can find a faction and level of Critter that you can KO with just your Alpha-Volley. Wiping out a pack of Critters fast then moving on can be great exp even if the Critters are slightly lower level.

If a pack of Critters is too spread out to effectively AE then you can concentrate them by aggroing them then breaking line of sight by going around a corner or over a fence. They will move to re-establish a line of sight to you which should bunch them up nicely.

Quills is a power that some people don’t like, but I really do. Its damage isn’t world shaking, but it is constant and if you are getting more than 3 Critters in the AE IMHO worth while. I often find that the little hits of Quills damage are the things that KO a Critter that would otherwise have hung around with a sliver of HP continuing to attack me or my team mates. It is also important because of the Recharge Debuff.

The Spines Recharge Debuff is hard to notice when you solo a lot because you just get use to the speed that Critters attack, but vs anything that you don’t take out immediately it is effective in giving you more time between the Critters slow recharging big damage attacks.

By the time you are hitting Critters with two waves of Spines AE and running Quills over them you will be cutting their Recharge rate way down. This is a particular leveller for Spines Scrappers when fighting Bosses and other Critters that you can’t Alpha-Volley KO. It also slows down how often Critters can use powers like Self Heals, which is particularly of use vs AV’s


Slotting Spines

Generally for any attack I find that an Accuracy Enh is a good investment, then three Damage. If you are serious about an attack it should get at least 4 slots, and if you weren’t serious about an attack then why did you take it?

For your AE’s you want to hit hard and consistently, enough Acc to be near the Hit Chance cap then three Damage is my recommendation. If you want to add more then Recharge and End are both good, chose whichever is going to make the power more effective for the way you play.

If you consistently fight level+2 or higher Critters then you might want to think about two Single Origin Accuracy Enh in your attacks. IMHO minimising misses is more important than doing a little more damage so you need to slot enough Accuracy Enh to ensure you are always near the max 95% hit chance.

I found that at low levels the Range on Impale is exactly the same as many Critters agro range. So any Range Enh in Impale meant that I could get my wind up and throw off before the Critter started to react to me rather than having the Critter spot me and start to shoot back while I was still winding up. Once I was opening all solo fights with the Build Up and AE Alpha-Volley this became less important, but in early levels it gave me the option to get a solid hit on a Critter before they even knew the fight had started.

All attacks can benefit from an End reducer. Constantly cycling your attacks is the most End expensive thing that you can be doing, most attacks cost about 3 times what a self only defensive toggle costs and will save you three times the End for a single End reducer.

Quills has a high End cost for a toggle, but about half that of the rest of your attacks if you are using them as soon as they recharge. An End reducer is still good value and if you want to be lazy about turning it on and off then you could easily find a second being worth while too.

Slotting for secondary effect I generally find not effective enough to be worthwhile. If you have a few slots spare and space in an attack then you can throw in a Slow Enh (which only effects the Moment Debuff not the Recharge Debuff), but in general I find the return uninspiring.


Secondary Powersets.

IMHO most of the Primary and Secondary combos for Scrappers are workable, although some do have small synergies that can give extra tactical options.

Regen. It is often said that Spines is an End hog, if so then maybe teaming it with a powerset that has an End recovery power is good. Spines Recharge Debuff IMHO goes well with Regen. Being attacked less often, especially with a Critter’s slow recharging big damage attacks, has got to be good for Regen.

Super Reflexes. I can’t see any strong synergies between SR and Spines, but they both work as long as you take the powers and slot them reasonably so they should give you a solid combination. Again to a degree the Recharge Debuff will help SR as less swings means less chances for you to get snake eyes.

Invulnerability. There is a synergy between Spines and the Invuln power Invincibility. Invincibility makes you harder to hit and more accurate the more Critters are close to you and lots of Critters close to you is where you want to be to maximise your AE’s total damage. Other than that Invuln is a solid Secondary that will work as well for Spines as anything else.

Dark Armour. Well I got to 50 before the changes to DA as well and it is just looking better and better to me. Overall I would say that DA is still going to be a tricky powerset to use. If you like tricky then it might be for you. If you want simple and straight forward then maybe choose something else.

Many of DA’s AE effects can work well with Spines.
If you are going for an AE strategy then why not go the whole hog. Death Shroud can add significant damage particularly in the Alpha-Volley phase when Build Up is active and will double up with Quills to finish off Critters left with a sliver of HP.
Cloak of Darkness can get you closer to the Critters before they aggro on you, generally close enough that you will get Throw Spines off before they aggro on you.
Oppressive Gloom nullifies any minions within range and IMHO works particularly well with Spines as if Critters with any ranged attack (ie nearly all of them) are aggroed with Throw Spines they will start to use their ranged attack and then fall into the Op Gloom field, becoming stunned in a standing attacking pose rather than a walking pose, which seems to limit the annoying stunned wander effect.

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Pool Powers.

Nothing is necessary.

If you are pursuing an AE Alpha-Volley strategy you may gain something from Hasten. You want Build Up and your AE’s recharged fast so you can use them often. Hasten does give you the opportunity to up the rate of your AE damage output in tight situations. On the other hand there aren’t too many situations where you could have laid down two AE Volleys and there still be enough targets left for a third to be worth while.

Spines has no more need for Stamina than any other powerset. If you find you need Stamina for your other characters then you will probably want it for your Spines Scrapper.


APP’s

This is mostly based on pure conjecture. I have taken the Darkness Mastery and was very happy with it. Also written with a slight emphasis on Spines DA.

I think that levelling from 41 to 50 with APP’s is much more interesting and easier than it use to be as the APP’s give you a lot more interesting choices than the regular PP’s that we previously had to fill the 41 to 49 power slots.

-Body Mastery:
*Conserve Power: self, endurance discount
*Focused Accuracy: toggle: self +acc
**Laser Beam Eyes: ranged, moderate dmg (energy), foe -def
***Energy Torrent : ranged (cone), minor dmg (smash/energy), foe knockdown

-Darkness Mastery:
*Petrifying Gaze: ranged, foe hold
*Torrent: ranged (cone), minor dmg (negative), foe knockback, -acc
**Dark Blast: ranged, moderate dmg (negative), foe -acc
***Tenebrous Tentacles: ranged (cone), moderate dmg (smash/negative), foe immobilize, -acc

-Weapon Mastery:
*Web Grenade: ranged, foe immobilize, -fly, -recharge
*Caltrops: Melee (location AoE), minor DoT (lethal), foe -spd
**Shuriken: ranged, minor dmg (lethal)
***Exploding Shuriken: ranged (targeted AoE), moderate dmg (lethal)


I think each APP offers something to the Spines Scrapper.

Body Mastery’s best offers are IMHO Focus Accuracy and Energy Torrent
Focus Accuracy gives you about as much extra Hit Chance as an SO Acc Enh and more in PvP.
Energy Torrents Knock Down will be a useful set up for Throw Spines and Spine Burst or to disrupt a pack of Critters while you wait for your AE’s to recharge.

Body Mastery’s powers will require some slotting.
If you want to use Conserve Energy as a regular tactic then you will need to slot a lot of Recharge reducers in it.
Focus Accuracy uses a huge amount of End so 2 or 3 End reducers are usually recommended.
Laser Eye Beams like any attack to get decent performance requires slotting, I try to get at least 4 slots in any attack I want to use seriously. And if you aren’t serious about an attack why take it.
Energy Torrent. Well one reason is that you might be using the attack for it’s secondary effects. If you are using Energy Torrent mainly for the Knock Down I’d still go for an Acc and a Cone Range Enh.

Darkness Mastery is the only APP I have had the opportunity to take. Petrifying Gaze and Tenebrous Tentacles are good and Dark Blast is a solid dependable attack that fitted straight into my single target attack cycle.
Petrifying Gaze will let you Hold a single Minion or LT. This can remove a seriously annoying Critter like a Sapper from the fight.
Tenebrous Tentacles is a Moderate Damage Cone, with an Acc Debuff and Immobilise, all good. TT, Throw Spines and Spine Burst then stand around while the TT DoT, Quills and Death Shroud finishes the Immobilised OpGloomed non responding Critters off, sounds like a tactic to me and TT has a very cool graphic.
Torrent not quite as useful as Energy Torrent as it Knocks Back rather than Down, but you could use it to sweep Critters up against a wall for maximum AE carnage.

Darkness Mastery will require some slotting.
Petrifying Gaze has a much shorter duration and longer recharge than the Defender version. If you want to get any Hold on a Boss you will have to slot very heavily. IMHO it is probably worth 2 or 3, I will be going for an Acc and two Hold durations.
Torrent’s low damage makes it a poor choice for slotting Damage Enh. If you are going for the Knock Back effect an Acc and a Cone Range are probably worth while, that’s about it.
Dark Blast slot like any other attack you would take.
Tenebrous Tentacles I’d give at least an Acc and a Cone Range Enh. It’s Moderate Damage should give you a decent return for Damage Enh if you can spare the slots.

Weapon Mastery’s Exploding Shuriken is probably it’s pick for Spines, although Caltrops can be useful too.
Exploding Shuriken is a Moderate Damage AE. Another AE attack to add to your Alpha-Volley, excellent.
Caltrops, well there is a reason they are still used. Drop it on some Critters they will be slowed and will spend some time trying to get off the Caltrops. The damage is a bonus. Also a power likely to have a good synergy with Op Gloom.

Weapon Mastery’s attacks will require slotting.
Web Grenade is pretty good right out of the box. Slot an Acc in the slot it comes with, nothing else about it is really worth Enhancing.
Caltrops also are pretty good as is. I’d go for Slow over Damage as the Damage is small and if you Slow them more the Critters will stay in the AE longer.
Shuriken, low damage won’t give you a good return for slots, put an Acc in the slot it comes with and leave it.
Exploding Shuriken, if you have taken this then you should be pursuing an AE Alpha-Volley strategy, so slot it up for all it is worth. I’d go an Acc and 3 Damage.


Missions and Teaming

Spines is good for doing missions solo or in groups.

I missed out on levelling my Spines Scrapper with the Difficulty slider available, but I would probably have gone for only one difficulty increase. More minions are not an issue for Spines when you are going to AE them all.

Warning about the Difficulty slider. If you want to maximise the amount of plot content you see then you will need to not increase the difficulty of your missions. If you get a larger amount of exp for a smaller number of missions then you might outlevel some mission based plot content. If you don’t care about the mission based plot content then go crazy.

IMHO duoing missions can be very good for Scrappers and Spines in particular. You can work well with almost any well played other AT. The Buffs and Debuffs from a Defender or Controller can make an enormous difference. The Critter control of a Controller or Tanker can greatly reduce the threat of Critters letting you KO them with a lot less risk. For a Blaster you can play Tanker and let them do the hard work while you take the Alpha Strike that they have difficulty dealing with. And two Scrappers can be a hoot.

As well as benefiting from your partners powers an extra person usually bumps up the number of Critters without increasing their level giving the Spines Scrapper more AE Alpha-Volley fodder. Try hitting your Find Member button and picking up a loose player. If you do then do some of their missions too, it will make them remember you fondly and get you exp without using up your missions.

In bigger groups Spines Scrappers don’t suffer quite so much from the lack of a role that other Scrappers can. You have more stuff to AE, you just have to be careful about grabbing too much aggro.

If you are the only melee in the team then you can do a decent job of Tanking as your AE Alpha-Volley will grab at least the initial agro of most of the Critters. Again this can be good unless it is too much. And the Recharge Debuff provides some protection to all your team mates by slowing the return rate of attacks.


Being Uber, Not.

Most of my Spines levelling career I picked fights with level+0 and level+1 Critters and mostly in missions. Every couple of levels I would look for some packs of +3 and +4 Critters to see where my limits were and to try out new powers and I was always happy with my success rate.

I have no experience soloing monsters or AV’s.

When grouped without being sidekicked and facing a sea of red and purple I did often get KO’ed if I drew too much aggro, but I also often got comments about how much damage I was handing out to any horde of Critters that were silly enough to pack around the Tanker.

I have no experience herding large hordes of Critters on the streets or in missions. Occasionally my regular team would gather 2 or 3 packs of Critters inside a mission to clear it more efficiently, but our desire to keep everyone involved stopped us from sitting around waiting for the Tanker to herd up the whole floor before KOing it in a single AE volley. Solo I’d much rather try to get the perfect AE Volley “strike” on a naturally standing pack of Critters than herd them into a dumpster and KO them.

I did have fun with my Spines DA Scrapper all the way to 50, probably not enough to want to do it again.


Summary.

Spines is not the prettiest or fastest Scrapper Primary.

It does not do the biggest single target Damage.

It is not always the most End efficient.

However it is very effective and can cause great carnage. You will shine against medium sized packs of Critters and provide good solid output of damage in groups.

There are several guides and faqs regarding Spines and they are all good, definitely worth tracking down in the Scrapper Guides and FAQs thread at the top of the Scrapper Forum or the Guide to Guides in the Guides and FAQs forum.


Regards, Screwloose.
50 Spines DA Scrapper Justice.
“Be the change that you want to see in the world.”

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Spines DA builds from Pre I3 to I6

I hadn’t wanted to really concentrate on builds in my ramble, but I get PM’s every so often asking me what powers I took, so here is some more about that.

Screwloose – the pre I3 build that I took to level 50.

Archetype: Scrapper
Primary Powers - Melee : Spines
Secondary Powers - Defense : Dark Armor
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Lunge /Acc, End, 4xDam
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Dark Embrace /End, 5xRes
Slot[03] Level 2 : Death Shroud /Acc, End, 4xDam
Slot[04] Level 4 : Spine Burst /Acc, 5xDam
Slot[05] Level 6 : Hasten /6xRecharge
Slot[06] Level 8 : Build Up /2xRecharge
Slot[07] Level 10 : Impale /Acc, Range, End, 3xDam
Slot[08] Level 12 : Obsidian Shield /End, 5xRes
Slot[09] Level 14 : Super Speed /Run
Slot[10] Level 16 : Hurdle /Leap
Slot[11] Level 18 : Health /Heal
Slot[12] Level 20 : Stamina /6xEnd Recovery
Slot[13] Level 22 : Quills /Acc, End, 3xDam
Slot[14] Level 24 : Dark Regeneration /Acc, 2xEnd
Slot[15] Level 26 : Cloak Of Darkness /End, 4xDef Buff
Slot[16] Level 28 : Ripper /Acc, End, 4xDam
Slot[17] Level 30 : Cloak Of Fear /Acc, End, 3xTo Hit Debuff
Slot[18] Level 32 : Throw Spines /Acc, 5xDam
Slot[19] Level 35 : Oppressive Gloom /Acc, Disorient
Slot[20] Level 38 : Whirlwind /End
Slot[21] Level 41 : Recall Friend /Empty
Slot[22] Level 44 : Teleport /End
Slot[23] Level 47 : Swift /Run
Slot[24] Level 49 : Teleport Foe /Empty
Slot[25] Level 1 : Brawl /Dam
Slot[26] Level 1 : Sprint-Prestige /Leap
Slot[27] Level 2 : Rest /Recharge


My goal after I had chosen Spines and Dark Armour was to see how well they worked with a minimum of Power Pool reinforcement.

I liked the look of all the Spines powers, except Taunt (now Confront) as I didn’t want to be that sort of Scrapper, and I decided that I could probably do without one of Barb Swipe or Lunge.

All the Dark Armour powers looked pretty useful too. Except that I decided changing between 3 non stacking shields would probably be a pain, so I would drop Murky Cloud and just live with the pain of that decision. Soul Transfer also was never in my plan as I dislike self rez powers.

I had a pretty tough time of it from levels 20 to 30. After level 20 I found it not worth while to turn off ObShield as there was so often some minion that would have a chance to Stun me taking down all my toggles. Shortly after taking Cloak of Fear I noticed someone posting about the strength of it’s To Hit debuff and gave it a go, after one mission it had become the foundation of my tactics vs Bosses.

Once I got OpGloom I hardly ever turned it off and it made my life much easier, nullifying a huge proportion of the minions that I faced after that.

My power selection after 35 was pretty much just filler powers. By that time we had some indication that the APP were coming so I didn’t want to take anything that I would like so much it would be hard to drop, and I still wanted to see how well Dark Armour could protect me without something like the Fighting pool.

It also probably helped me because I didn’t put any slots into those powers so my earlier powers became very heavily slotted, something I wouldn’t be able to do once I was taking APP powers at 41+.

As it was I enjoyed TPort and Swift so much that I decided to drop Superspeed and Hurdle and change to TPort as my movement power.


Screwloose – post I3 respec, with Stacking Shields and Darkness Mastery APP.

Archetype: Scrapper
Primary Powers - Melee : Spines
Secondary Powers - Defense : Dark Armor
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Lunge /Acc, End, 2xDam
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Dark Embrace /End, 5xRes
Slot[03] Level 2 : Spine Burst /Acc, 5xDam
Slot[04] Level 4 : Death Shroud /Acc, End, 4xDam
Slot[05] Level 6 : Build Up /Recharge
Slot[06] Level 8 : Hasten /6xRecharge
Slot[07] Level 10 : Impale /Acc, 3xDam
Slot[08] Level 12 : Recall Friend /Recharge
Slot[09] Level 14 : Teleport /End
Slot[10] Level 16 : Obsidian Shield /End, 4xRes
Slot[11] Level 18 : Swift /Run
Slot[12] Level 20 : Quills /Acc, End, 2xDam
Slot[13] Level 22 : Health /Heal
Slot[14] Level 24 : Dark Regeneration /Acc, 2xEnd
Slot[15] Level 26 : Stamina /6xEnd Recovery
Slot[16] Level 28 : Ripper /Acc, 4xDam
Slot[17] Level 30 : Cloak Of Darkness /End, 3xDef Buff
Slot[18] Level 32 : Throw Spines /Acc, 5xDam
Slot[19] Level 35 : Cloak Of Fear /Acc, End, 3xTo Hit Debuff
Slot[20] Level 38 : Oppressive Gloom /Acc, Disorient
Slot[21] Level 41 : Murky Cloud /End, 4xRes
Slot[22] Level 44 : Petrifying Gaze /Acc, 2xHold
Slot[23] Level 47 : Dark Blast /Acc, End, 2x Dam
Slot[24] Level 49 : Tenebrous Tentacles /Acc, Cone Range
Slot[25] Level 1 : Brawl /Dam
Slot[26] Level 1 : Sprint-Prestige /Leap
Slot[27] Level 2 : Rest /Recharge

This is a Respec build from 50 so order of the powers is less important, until I am Exemplaring.

Trying to get Hasten, a movement power and Stamina all in early does push back powers that I would like to take as soon as they are available. I would like to be able to do without Stamina, as I have on some other characters, but even I found the drag of End too annoying to deal with as a Spines Dark Armour.


Screwloose – the Post I6 Respec Build – adapting to ED.

Name; Screwloose
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary Powers - Melee : Spines
Secondary Powers - Defense : Dark Armor
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Lunge /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Dark Embrace /End Red, 3 x Res
Slot[03] Level 2 : Spine Burst /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red, Recharge Red
Slot[04] Level 4 : Death Shroud /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red
Slot[05] Level 6 : Build Up /3 x Recharge Red
Slot[06] Level 8 : Impale /Acc, 3 x Damage
Slot[07] Level 10 : Obsidian Shield /End, 3 x Res
Slot[08] Level 12 : Recall Friend /Interrupt Red
Slot[09] Level 14 : Teleport /End Red
Slot[10] Level 16 : Dark Regeneration /Acc, 2 x End Red, Heal
Slot[11] Level 18 : Quills /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red
Slot[12] Level 20 : Cloak Of Darkness /End Red, Def Buff
Slot[13] Level 22 : Swift /Run
Slot[14] Level 24 : Health /Heal
Slot[15] Level 26 : Ripper /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red, Recharge Red
Slot[16] Level 28 : Cloak Of Fear /2 x Acc, End Red, Fear, 2 x To Hit Debuff
Slot[17] Level 30 : Stamina /3 x End Mod
Slot[18] Level 32 : Throw Spines /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red, Recharge
Slot[19] Level 35 : Oppressive Gloom /Acc, 3 x Stun
Slot[20] Level 38 : Murky Cloud /End Red, 3 x Res
Slot[21] Level 41 : Petrifying Gaze /Acc, Recharge Red, 2 x Hold
Slot[22] Level 44 : Dark Blast /Acc, 3 x Damage, End Red
Slot[23] Level 47 : Tenebrous Tentacles /Acc, 3 x Damage
Slot[24] Level 49 : Hover /3 x Fly
Slot[25] Level 1 : Brawl /Acc
Slot[26] Level 1 : Sprint /Run
Slot[27] Level 2 : Rest /Recharge Red.


Okay this is my current power selections and slottings. I have to say I was slightly surprised when I looked at them because I have done a few things that I would normally advise people against, but not so much that I have bothered to use my I7 Freespec to change anything.

This build is tailored towards efficient fast repeating waves of AE damage while keeping solid performance vs single targets.

Stamina. I usually say Stamina is not required for any character, but that if it makes the character less un-fun for you then take it and that is pretty much what happened here. As Screwloose was my first strongly levelled character I followed the main stream wisdom and wedged Stamina into his build, it also helped that I could identify 3 relatively early powers that I knew I didn’t want to take.

I have tested without Stamina and it is possible, but it requires a lot more toggling on and off and frankly that just gets to be a pain in the posterior. Since Murky Cloud has become such a useful power I lost one of my 3 early droppable powers and so Stamina comes in to this build later, but still in time for Sirens Call.

Murky Cloud I gave a lower priority not because it is a lesser power but just because you have to stick something at the bottom of the list. It is well worth while to get in before level 40 as it’s End Drain resist is almost as valuable as Obsidian Shields Psi resist vs level 40+ mobs, maybe even more.

I took Darkness Mastery because I am a tactical tool junkie and it gave me a lot more interesting tactical tools to play with. Petrifying Gaze reduces the number of mobs I am facing and lets me help shut down Bosses quicker with other Hold throwing Team members. Dark Blast replaced Brawl on my hotbar (Yes, I was Brawling until level 44), gave me another Ranged attack and an attack that wasn’t Lethal damage. Tenebrous Tentacles just looks Cool and is an additional wave of AE damage to add to my opening AE volley.

I took Hover at level 49 because there wasn’t much else I really wanted and I thought it might be handy in the “soon” to be released top level PvP zone.

Note this build has no KnockBack/Down Protection for most of it’s levelling career If you want that then you are going to have to try to get Hover in earlier or change to the Leaping pool and squeeze Acrobatics in as well.

regards, Screwloose.
"Be the change you want to see in the world."

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Nice guide yet again, utilised one of your really early ones to help with a few decisions when I was playing my Spines/DA. I admit though that for a first toon it was just a little to painful with the non compatable toggles so made up a DM/INV.
Now after getting that one to 50 & a lot of villainy I feel up to trying to get my spiny lil' friend his final 14lvl's, so its nice to have a bit of guidance waiting here for me ...either it will help me make it work or I end up deleting another lvl30+ toon lol

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Great guide, I just created a spines/DA scrapper, I love spines so much. It's tons of fun. I suppose a spines scrapper's best friend is a controller? I think duoing with a troller would be great at the higher levels. Think about it, mass disorients/holds/immobs from the troller to lock down the mobs, then you jump in and finish em off with all your AoEs. It'd be heaven

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Tell me about Cloak of Fear. I have a Spines/Dark and am not picking up Cloak of Fear. Why?

(1) Fear won't be useful with Death Shroud and Quills
(2) The ToHit Debuff is listed in Mid's as 5%

Is the ToHit Debuff auto-hit, or will it require adding accuracy (probably 3 Single Origin Accuracies )?
[*]Scrapper Secondary Info in Issue 7 [*]Tanker Primary Info in Issue 7 [*]The Harsh Reality of PVP

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Fun. I recently respeced my main here lvl 50 spines/da out of the darkness master pool.

I found w/ blackwand i didn't really need it. So I took the leadership pool! NEED. MORE. TOGGLES!

Of course these days I only play him for special events or new TF's w/ my brother's toon who is a mind/emp. Yay for endurance boost powers!

Buffy: I'd recommend not taking Cloak of Fear only because I'm a fan of Oppressive Gloom. From what I've read/seen, CoF is a real endurance drain. OG on the other hand costs less.

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[ QUOTE ]
Fun. I recently respeced my main here lvl 50 spines/da out of the darkness master pool.

I found w/ blackwand i didn't really need it. So I took the leadership pool! NEED. MORE. TOGGLES!

Of course these days I only play him for special events or new TF's w/ my brother's toon who is a mind/emp. Yay for endurance boost powers!

Buffy: I'd recommend not taking Cloak of Fear only because I'm a fan of Oppressive Gloom. From what I've read/seen, CoF is a real endurance drain. OG on the other hand costs less.

[/ QUOTE ]
I went with caltrops, web grenade and exploding shuriken, must have more AoE. These were a vehicle for positron's blast and trap of the hunter for some great set bonuses, and being able to throw spines and explode shuriken on the way in then spine burst is dead handy. I take OG not CoF. I duod a lot with a fire/kin, now that was carnage all the way up, the only concession I made was to delay taking CoD and not run it in the duo to make sure stuff didn't ignore me and aggro on the controller for the alpha as he liked to run in for hot feet and the kin stuff pretty close behind me.

One thing worth considering: if you're not going with set IOs, dam/range HOs can be picked up quite cheaply at WWs and go well in impale and throw spines.

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It's true. This game is NOT rocket surgery. - BillZBubba

Buffy.

I have a hard time recommending Cloak of Fear in it’s current form. I can kind of understand why it is as anaemic as it is, but if you are looking for bang for your power choice and end expenditure bucks then I can’t really recommend it.

Even if you are using Death Shroud and Quills Cloak of Fear will still slow the attack rate of Minions. And the To Hit debuff while not auto hit will be giving a measure of threat mitigation to all your teammates.

Unfortunately for any Scrapper Minions aren’t usually a problem and for a Spines DA Scrapper they aren’t worth targeting, you can usually rely on them KOing quickly just from the AE. And once you have Oppressive Gloom you are totally nullifying Minions anyway with the Stun so it doesn’t matter what CoF is doing to them.

Cloak of Fear should be a good Dark Armor power, it is one of the most Dark Armorish powers I can think of and it looks fabulous, it just doesn’t work.


Farmer Frost

The Black Wand or Nemesis Staff can stand in for a ranged attack, but the power I find most game changing in Darkness Mastery is the Single Target Hold.


Minotaur

I am leaning towards Weaponry for my MA SR Scrapper and it certainly should work fine for Spines DA too.

Regards, Screwloose.
"I am not young enough to know everything."

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