Bobitrons Guide to the Katana/Dark Scrapper

Introduction
For my first guide, I have decided to concentrate on the scrapper AT. Maya the Eternal was one of my very first toons and my second to hit level 50. After countless respecs and hundreds of hours of play slicing everything from infected punks in Outbreak to Lord Recluse, I feel pretty happy with the build and the combination of powersets. Rather than posting a build and justifying my individual choices, I will discuss the sets as a whole and detail the individual powers.

Katana

Let’s start with a discussion of the Katana powerset. It is based around a series of fast attacks that deal Lethal damage. The set contains solid single target attacks with a couple melee AoE’s to help with multiple targets. All Katana attacks have a small but useful accuracy bonus. Most of them also apply a small defense debuff to a hit target. Here is some general advice about the powerset.

-Don’t bother slotting the small Defense debuff effect. It is a helpful side effect, but not worth investing slots into.
-More than a single SO’s worth of accuracy isn’t usually necessary, as the set’s built in accuracy buff of 5% and the secondary effect of most attacks reducing your target’s defense means you will hit more often that the average. Add in a little bit of Accuracy from IO sets and you’ll have a very good chance to hit most targets, even reds and purples.

A side note about Katana’s closest sibling: Broadsword
Most of the basic info in a Katana discussion could also be applied to that set. In general, the powers match up directly, with Broadsword’s higher damage balancing out with Katana’s faster recharge.

I’ll talk about each power individually, then discuss IO slotting.

Sting of the Wasp
Available at level 1, this is my attack of choice for early levels and the only of the three initial attacks I kept all the way to level 50. A fast attack in both animation and recharge, it is a staple of my attack chain.
Cast Time: 1.67 sec
Recharge: 5 sec
End Cost: 6.03
Unslotted damage at level 50: 72.57
Secondary effect: -7.5% Defense to target for 10 sec
Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Dam, 1 EndRed, 1 Rech. If you find it recharges faster than you can use it, drop the Recharge.

Gambler's Cut
Available at level 1, this attack deals its damage in two chunks with a pair of slashes. I always found that Sting was fast enough and deals a useable amount more damage, so once I had access to better attacks this one fell out of favor. There are arguments that the DoT (Damage over Time) is comparable, so I don’t necessarily think it is a bad decision to keep it instead of Sting.
Cast Time: 1.33 sec
Recharge: 3 sec
End Cost: 4.37
Unslotted damage at level 50: 2 x 26.28
Secondary effect: -7.5% Defense to target for 6 sec
Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Dam, 1 EndRed

Flashing Steel
Available at level 2, this is a cone AoE that hits for close to the same damage as Sting of the Wasp, but can affect multiple targets. It has a nice wide cone that makes it easy to use. On a large team or fighting hazard zone sized groups, it can hit up to 5 targets at once, but 2-3 is commonplace. With a reasonable Endurance cost, this can be a valuable part of a single target attack chain as well, particularly at low levels. I respec’d out of this power when in my late 30’s as I didn’t really need it in my attack chain, but I think substituting it for Lotus Drops is a valid option.
Cast Time: 1.67 sec
Recharge: 6 sec
End Cost: 6.03
Unslotted damage at level 50: 61.94
Secondary effect: -7.5% Defense to target for 6 sec
Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Dam, 1 EndRed, 1 Rech

Build Up
Available at level 6, this is a boost to your damage and accuracy that lasts for a few attacks. Most commonly applied as an extra bit of punch for your opening attack or to overcome a target’s high Defense, Build Up is useful from level 6 all the way to 50. It provides a 20% ToHit bonus and a 100% boost to damage for ten seconds, enough time to attack multiple times. I have never found much benefit to slotting the Accuracy buff between Katana’s inherent Acc and Defense debuff.
Cast Time: 1.17 sec
Recharge: 90 sec
End Cost: 5.2
Slotting: 3 Rech

Divine Avalanche
This cornerstone of the Katana set is available at level 8. While it is an attack, Divine Avalanche is most notable for its secondary effect. Each time it hits, you gain a 15% Defence buff against Melee attacks for 10 seconds. This can easily be stacked for even greater benefit, as the recharge time is low. There are some very valid arguments for slotting this like any other attack and just enjoying the Defense buff as a side effect, but considering it is the only sizeable Defense a /Dark scrapper can get I prefer focusing on that. The lost damage is easily overlooked when you have stacked the effect a couple times and your survivability increases dramatically. My normal routine is to put this on auto-fire and let it fill in the gaps in my attack chain while the heavy hitters recharge. Even without heavy recharge slotting it is easy to stack the buff twice. At lower levels when I would often have far more Health than Endurance, I could stop attacking, let Divine Avalanche stack over and over, and just sit in melee and let the bad guys whiff around me ineffectually while my Endurance bar caught up with my Health.
Cast Time: 2.17 sec
Recharge: 3 sec
End Cost: 4.37
Unslotted damage at level 50: 52.55
Secondary effect: +15% Defense buff vs. Melee
Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Defense, 1 EndRed, 1 Rech

Calling the Wolf
Available at level 12, this power is rarely taken by scrappers. A low magnitude Taunt, it hits automatically in PvE and will help you pull aggro off teammates. I agree with the vast majority of scrappers and feel you are better off attacking a target to get his or her attention. Skip it.
Cast Time: 2 sec
Recharge: 3 sec
End Cost: none

Lotus Drops
Available at level 18, this is a PBAoE attack that can hit up to ten targets around you in melee range. It deals decent damage with the initial hit and a couple small ticks of damage over the following couple seconds. Very useful when facing large groups, this power isn’t efficient when fighting just a few opponents due to high endurance costs. Great animation, though!
Cast Time: 2 sec
Recharge: 14 sec
End Cost: 13
Unslotted damage at level 50: 62.56, 3 x 7.51
Secondary effect: -7.5% Defense to Target
Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Damage, 1 EndRed, 1 Rech

Soaring Dragon
Available at level 26, this is the first of your two big hitters. It deals very good damage and has a reliable chance of knocking your target off its feet. Rather than knocking the target back, it deals knockup, which is generally preferable for a scrapper. While not as reliable as Air Superiority, it is of a higher magnitude and still happens more often than not.
Cast Time: 2 sec
Recharge: 9 sec
End Cost: 9.36
Unslotted damage at level 50: 112.61
Secondary effect: -7.5% Defense to Target, 75% chance of Knockup
Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Damage, 1 EndRed, 1 Rech

Golden Dragonfly
Whee! Available at level 32, this is the attack you’ve been waiting for! Actually a very narrow cone rather than a melee attack, it deals excellent damage to a narrow slice of area out to a range of ten feet. It is very difficult to line up targets for consistent multiple hits, but with some practice you can get it to happen a few times per mission. The best tactic is probably to line up two enemies directly in a row and let loose! I normally use it by sidestepping my target and selecting the second enemy back instead of the one closest. This attack also has a chance for some minor magnitude Knockback.
Cast Time: 2 sec
Recharge: 12 sec
End Cost: 11.86
Unslotted damage at level 50: 142.64
Secondary effect: -7.5% Defense to Target, 60% chance of Knockback
Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Damage, 1 EndRed, 1 Rech

Katana IO slotting
Invention sets have been of huge benefit to players of all AT’s (and budgets!), but I think the Katana scrapper might benefit more than most! Since the powers often have a slottable secondary effect, it opens up the door to using more than just melee sets. Generally speaking, I don’t use IO sets until my toon is at or around level 30. If you invest in sets before then, you might find that the benefit they give is less than what you might gain with normal SO’s. This means I mostly ignore sets until I hit level 30.

There are two broad ways I look at IO sets. First, what sort of efficiency can I get from the amount of slots available in the build? Second, what set bonuses can I gain? Slotting for efficiency is much more cost effective. If you are building your toon on a tight budget, ignoring set bonuses means you can hop around between multiple sets both to save money and to focus your investment into the benefits you really want for that power. Here’s an example:

Let’s say I am looking to slot Soaring Dragon. I have put a full six slots into the power, as it is one of my two primary attacks. Looking at the power, I really want to maximize its damage (it is a heavy hitter and my second most powerful attack) and recharge (to get that attack available as often as possible!). I also want the power to be accurate and cut back on the pretty high endurance cost. A tall order!

Crushing Impact is a popular melee set. It has reasonable crafting costs and pretty good set bonuses. Using that as our ideal for the power, we can get the following results by slotting six of the set at level around level 32.

Accuracy +76%
Damage +120%, cut back into the 90’s by ED
EndRed +58%
Rech +40%

Pretty good, huh? Add in some great set bonuses (increased Health, Accuracy, and Recharge) and you’ve made a good choice. But you also spent a pretty hefty amount of cash and maybe over-slotted in some areas and under-slotted in others compared to your stated goals. 76% in Accuracy is higher than we had planned, as is our somewhat wasteful Damage. Let’s move away from Accuracy and Damage a bit and try to increase Recharge and EndRed. Keeping in mind we can’t just trade out our Crushing Impact Acc/Dam for an additional Crushing Impact, let’s look at other sets. By dropping the CI Acc/Dam and putting a Focused Smite Acc/End/Rech in its place, we lose a little bit of Acc, but gain some EndRed and Recharge. The new results:

Accuracy +71%
Damage +98%, cut back a bit by ED
EndRed +76%
Rech +58%

Looking at the sets Soaring Dragon accepts opens up even more options! I can put both Knockback and Defense Debuff in there. While you may not be interested in slotting for either of those effects, don’t ignore a cheap IO when on a budget that will help. Nor should one ignore basic generic IO’s and SO’s. Don’t chase a 1.5% reduction to Stun durations when you can just throw a generic IO in there and get you closer to your ideal numbers on the power.

As for my personal slotting, I use a mix of Mako’s Bite and Crushing Impacts in powers that accept Melee Damage enhancements and a mix of Cleaving Blow and MultiStrike in Golden Dragonfly and Lotus Drops.

The exceptions are Divine Avalanche, Lotus Drops, and Sting of the Wasp. First, since katana attacks have a minor defense debuff as a secondary effect, you can slot the excellent Achilles’ Heel: Chance for Resistance Debuff! These will work just fine in other attacks too, but I felt the following attacks lost the least in overall effectiveness by dedicating a slot to a proc. Lotus Drops has a hit up to ten targets and apply the debuff, and Sting of the Wasp is constantly being spammed while I wait for my big hitters to recharge. A 20% Resistance Debuff is very significant, particularly when you are fighting baddies that heavily resist Lethal damage. A couple of these relatively inexpensive IO’s can make a huge difference over the course of a long Rikti mission! At the time of this writing, they sell for about one million hero-side. While not cheap, it’s a relatively painless way of making your toon much more effective at high levels. I generally wouldn’t bother at lower levels, where big Lethal resists aren’t as common.

Divine Avalanche is the other big exception. As mentioned above, I feel Divine’s most valuable attribute for a Dark Armor scrapper is the Defense buff rather than treating it as another attack. I set Divine on auto-fire and let it whack away. With a little Defense from IO sets and my secondary, stacked Divine provides Super Reflexes-like defense against melee attacks. I slot Divine with a single generic Accuracy IO and the Serendipity defense set.

Dark Armor

Misunderstood and underestimated by many, Dark Armor has a very unique mix of resists and utility powers. At first glance it is a toggle-heavy and underperforming set with some lackluster protection, but with a little experience and care in filling the set’s holes, it can really do well. It has moderate Lethal/Smashing resists, strong Negative Energy resists, good mez protection, and is one of the few sets that offer resistance to Psi damage. The downsides are weak Energy resists and a complete lack of Knockback protection as well as some heavy duty Endurance costs in some of choices. Let’s look at the individual powers.

Dark Embrace
This is your basic shield that will serve you well from level 1 to 50. Especially at low levels, I toggle it on and off depending on what I am fighting to save a little endurance.
Cast Time: .67 sec
Recharge: 4 sec
End Cost: 0.1
Unslotted resistance: 22.5% resistance to Smashing and Lethal damage and 15% resistance to Toxic and Negative Energy.
Slotting: 3 DamRes, 1 EndRed

Death Shroud
Oh Death Shroud, how I love thee! Available at level 2 and one of my favorite powers in the Dark Armor powerset, this is a PbAoE toggle that sends out pulses of Negative energy in a small radius around you, constantly damaging your enemies. Even at lower levels, when fighting large groups this power will deal as much damage as one of your melee attacks over the length of a mission. This is another power that can be toggled on and off depending on how your Endurance bar is looking. It isn’t particularly efficient when you only face 1-2 targets, but really shines when it can hit many enemies. It can hit up to ten targets at a time, but it only affects an 8 foot radius. This is a power that can easily be put off until level 20 when you have Stamina, as the Endurance cost is significant. Once you can afford the Endurance costs to run it, it is well worth six-slotting.
Cast Time: 1.17 sec, activates every 2 sec
Recharge: 4 sec
End Cost: 1.04
Unslotted damage at level 50: 12.51 per tick
Slotting: 2 EndRed, 1 Acc, 3 Dam

Murky Cloud
Available at level 2, this is your second shield that helps protect against less common damage types. This one can easily be put off until later levels and is also worth toggling on/off to save Endurance until your Recovery catches up with your Endurance costs. It does have a nice secondary effect that is particularly useful at higher levels- it gives a sizeable resistance to Endurance drain. Facing Malta Sappers and other Endurance draining foes won’t hurt your blue bar quite as much as some of your teammates.
Cast Time: 1.17 sec
Recharge: 4 sec
End Cost: 0.1
Unslotted resistance: 22.5% resistance to Fire and Cold damage, 15% resistance to Energy and Negative Energy, 69.2% resistance to Endurance drain and –Recovery attacks
Slotting: 3 DamRes, 1 EndRed

Obsidian Shield
Available at level 10, this is your mez protection shield. It will protect you from Sleep, Holds, Stuns, and Fear attacks. It also gives a sizeable resistance to Psi damage. You get access to this pretty early (those poor Invulnerability scrappers have to wait until level 16!) and it is a big help versus those pesky mezzing Lt’s and Bosses. It does not include resistance to Knockback like some others get, though. We’ll discuss that later.
Cast Time: 1.17 sec
Recharge: 4 sec
End Cost: 0.1
Unslotted resistance: 37.5% resistance to Psionic damage, -10.38 Mag resists to Stun, Hold, Sleep, and Fear
Slotting: 3 DamRes, 1 EndRed

Dark Regeneration
Available at level 16, this is a critical power that will serve you well. It hits enemies surrounding you for a small amount of damage and converts that life force into health. Each target hit can restore a sizeable chunk of your green bar. The more baddies you hit, the more it restores! Once slotted up, even two targets will top off your Health, and it recharges fast enough to be useful every fight. The downsides? It requires two things; a nearby bad guy and a hit check. It also has serious Endurance costs. This means some heavy slotting requirements to make it truly useful. IO sets are very helpful here, but starting with multiple EndRed enhancements and remembering to hit this early rather than late is the best advice I can give at lower levels. If you are in a fight with half Health and Endurance left, that is the time to activate. It has a pretty long cycle of about a second and a half to actually animate and return the health to you. That seems like a short time until you are lying on the floor dead because you clicked it too late! Also keep in mind that the End cost is heavy enough that the power will often leave you with a full green bar and a small sliver of blue. Once you can get some good IO sets in here, the power becomes much more useful. Some people seem to prefer not slotting the Heal portion of the power, relying on hitting more baddies to give a bigger heal, but with Heals slotted it is more effective when you only face one or two targets. The most common slotting recommendation seems to be 2 Acc/2 Rech/2 EndRed, which ensures it will hit more consistently and assumes you will use it against multiple targets, over-filling your green bar by sheer number of hits rather than the strength of one or two.
Cast Time: 1.17 sec
Recharge: 30 sec
End Cost: 33.8 (gulp!)
Unslotted damage at level 50: 12.51
Unslotted Heal at level 50: 401.5
Slotting: 2 EndRed, 2 Heal, 1 Acc, 1 Rech or 2 Acc, 2 EndRed, 2 Rech

Cloak of Darkness
Available at level 20, this is a Stealth toggle that also provides a small amount of Defense. There are a couple big benefits here if you chose to use it. Stealth will keep you from accidentally getting aggro from that pesky second mob, eases travel, and makes rushing to the end of missions much easier. The Defense buff isn’t huge, but it does apply to all types of attacks and I’ll take anything I can get! It also provides some Immobilize resistance. It is also one of only two powers in Dark Armor that performs very well without additional slotting.
Cast Time: 1.17 sec
Recharge: 20 sec
End Cost: 0.13
Unslotted Defense: 3.75% (Melee, Ranged, AoE, the list goes on)
Slotting: 1 EndRed

Cloak of Fear
Available at level 28, this is a controversial power that hits enemies around you with a Fear effect, causing them to cower if hit. They will only attack you if they are attacked, and then with a ToHit debuff. Fear is not commonly resisted, so this can be a powerful tool. I have a few problems with the power that reduce its usefulness. First, Death Shroud (and your katana, I should hope!) is constantly attacking targets around you, which temporarily supresses the terrorized effect and basically turns this into an accuracy debuff. If the Fear is still active by the time your attacks finished, the target will go back into a terrorized state, but opponents that take damage from Death Shroud or another attack will still get an opportunity to attack you, although with a small accuracy penalty. Second, the Endurance cost is very high. It also has an accuracy penalty and a short Fear duration combined with a long activation cycle of 5 seconds. I have moved this power in and out of my build a few times and never really liked it much, especially when compared to Oppressive Gloom. If you do want to try it, slot for EndRed, Acc, and Fear to get this power efficient and hitting often to get the most out of your investment. It does have a pretty awesome visual.
Accuracy: 0.67
Cast Time: 1.17 sec, activates every 5 sec
Recharge: 4 sec
End Cost: 2.6
Unslotted effect: 7.45 sec Terrorized (Mag 2), -5% ToHit for 5sec
Slotting: 2 EndRed, 1 Acc, 1 or 2 Fear

Oppressive Gloom
Available at level 35, OG is another quasi-control power to help mitigate some incoming damage. Each time it hits an enemy, it applies a stun that will keep them from attacking for a little while. It has much more reasonable Endurance costs, normal accuracy, and a faster activation cycle than Cloak of Fear, making this my damage mitigation toggle of choice. This power will take most minions out of the fight while you concentrate on the Lt’s and Bosses. For each enemy affected you will take a very minor tick of damage, but this is minimal. OG gives a huge bump to a Dark Armor scrapper’s survivability, especially when facing large groups of minions. It activates every 2 seconds and has a decent Stun duration unslotted, so this is another area where you can get away with minimal slotting.
Cast Time: 1.17 sec, activates every 2 sec
Recharge: 8 sec
End Cost: 0.16
Unslotted effect: 7.125 sec Stun (Mag 2)
Slotting: 1 Acc

Soul Transfer
Available at level 38, this is another controversial choice. A self-rez with a couple important considerations, Soul Transfer needs to activated within range of a bad guy- usually the one who just kicked your butt. It hits targets nearby with a massive Stun strong enough to affect Bosses along with a little bit of damage and brings you back into the fight. You start with more Health for every enemy it hits, but always with 30 Endurance. If the stun doesn’t take out a target, you still have a 5 second window where you are immune to all attacks, giving you a chance to re-activate your toggles. I die often enough that I find Soul Transfer a nice convenience if not a necessity. The biggest benefit to me is saving the travel time back to the mission from the hospital or my base! There have a been a few occasions where the awesome Stun have really turned the tide of a battle and my triumphant return from death prevented a team wipe, but a much more common occurance when teamed is a wasted Ressurection or Mutation when a helpful defender or controller try to rez me while my power is about to go off.
Cast Time: 1.17 sec
Recharge: 300 sec
Unslotted effect at level 50: 62.56 Negative Energy damage, 11.92 sec Stun (Mag 30), 289.142 Heal, 10 Untouchable for 5 sec, 30 Endurance to self, XP Debt protection for 20 sec
Slotting: 1 Rech

Dark Armor IO Slotting
Your shield toggles are pretty easy to slot up. Since you aren’t chasing after the Psi protection from the popular (and very expensive) Impervium Armor, you can utilize the less expensive Titanium Coating and Reactive Armor. Keep in mind that it is difficult to get the same resistance might from generic IO’s with a single set in the same number of slots, as part of you investment is going toward aspects of the power that you don’t care to enhance (like Recharge). You might be better off skipping negligible set bonuses and sticking with generic IO’s. The shields have fairly mild End costs, so you don’t need to go too nuts on EndRed.

Death Shroud benefits from Damage, Accuracy, and Endurance Reduction. Mixing IO’s from the Cleaving Blow and MultiStrike sets gives great results, with over 90% in Dam and EndRed and 60%+ Acc. Scirocco’s Dervish is nice if you have the money to invest for the set bonuses.

Dark Regeneration gets huge benefits from IO slotting. Mixing Heal and PbAoE IO’s from Harmonized Healing and Cleaving Blow or MultiStrike should overcome the huge Endurance costs and boost the Heal and Recharge. I use 5 Harmonized Healing and one MultiStrike and end up at +84% Heal, +24% Acc, +46% Recharge, and 96% EndRed. With a few Accuracy set bonuses, the low accuracy is just fine.

Oppressive Gloom does well with just a single Acc and maybe an EndRed, but I put in two slots of Rope-a-Dope to get a little more Accuracy and a boost to Stun, as well as a Regeneration set bonus.

I haven’t tried Cloak of Fear with IO sets, but some good slotting might turn the power around. An efficiently slotted CoF combined with OG should make for a scrapper that rarely takes attacks from a minion.

Dealing with Knockback
There are two easy options for filling the gap Dark Armor has in this area. First, Acrobatics is a toggle found in the Leaping power pool that gives insanely high KB protection. Second, your toon has both Defense and Resist powers that can utilize the Steadfast Protection and Karma KB Resist IO’s. While they provide only a fraction of the resistance that Acrobatics does, it is enough to resist the majority of KB dealt in the PvE game. With a single KB Protection IO in my current build, I am only knocked around when I face big groups of enemies with KB or in PvP. Obvious places for a KB IO are Cloak of Darkness (Karma) and one of you shield toggles (Steadfast Protection).

KB can be very frustrating, especially for a melee toon. If you don’t want to ever worry about KB, take the Leaping pool and grab Acrobatics. It completely negates any KB you will ever face with a massive -100 KB. By comparison, the IO’s provide -4 KB. It can be overcome. People with very tight builds in terms of power selection but slots and cash to spare will often slot multiple KB Protection IO’s to build up better protection, but I don’t feel it is worth the investment over a single power choice. My recommendation is a single IO or Acrobatics.

Pool Selections
A Katana/Dark Scrapper is pretty complete without having to rely too heavily on pool powers with a couple notable exceptions. First of these is the Fitness pool, which is practically a requirement for just about any build because of its absolutely critical final tier power available at level 20, Stamina. Dark Armor is a very toggle heavy set with some big Endurance costs, so the extra Recovery provided by 3-slotted Stamina is a must, even if you are using very efficient IO slotting to help cut back on those costs. It also gives you access to a Run Speed and Jump buff and Health, which increases your Regeneration rate. Every power in the Fitness pool is valuable in my eyes.

Your other pool selection with probably be a travel pool such as Leaping, Super Speed, or Flight. The choice here is largely one of taste, but keep in mind the need for two types of protection; Immobilize and Knockback. Cloak of Darkness provides some Immob Protection, but many Dark Armor scrappers don’t take the power. The Leaping pool can help fill those gaps with a combination of Combat Jumping and Acrobatics, making it a popular choice. The Flight power Hover also gives a sort of KB protection (if you get hit with KB while Hovering, you just spin around the vertical axis rather than back), but Hover is slow and takes slotting with Fly enhancements to really be useful.

Speed is a popular set both for travel and the very nice Hasten, which gives a massive 70% increase to Recharge speed on all your powers for it’s duration. I haven’t found Hasten to be very useful on this toon, as the attacks are ready quickly enough to give a very nice attack chain and it lacks lots of powers with long recharge.

Epic Pools
This is another area where personal preference will probably be more important than any advice I can give! I chose the Darkness Mastery set to get two powers in particular; Dark Blast, a ranged Negative Energy attack (for a little extra damage vs. targets that resist Lethal and to help deal with runners) and Tenebrous Tentacles, a powerful AoE immobilize cone that deals good DoT and a ToHit debuff. I took Petrifying Gaze as a prerequisite, but rarely find an occasion to use it.

PvP
I don’t have much experience using Maya the Eternal in PvP situations. Many of the things that really let Dark Armor shine in PvE (Death Shroud, Oppressive Gloom, Dark Regeneration) are very lackluster in PvP, where you tend to face a single target. I’m sure there are effective Dark Armor scrappers hunting in Siren’s Call and Warburg, but I haven’t focused on it enough to advise on how to make a good one. My advice for a PvP build would be to try another secondary.



Advice by Level Range
Level 1-5
Not much to say here! Get on a sewer team and have at it. Slot your attacks heavily for Accuracy and Endurance Reduction and ignore your secondary for the time being.

Level 5-12
Run Scanner mission in King’s Row to get your jump pack! Having a travel power at level 5 or 6 takes a lot of the bite out of being a lowbie. I often use temporary travel powers as a means of squeezing more out of my low level builds by pushing back travel powers far into the 20’s. With careful use of the Jet pack and the Zero-G pack, you should be able to concentrate on building up your attack chain at low levels instead of picking travel powers that normally eat up slots. Continue to slot up your attacks, as you will eventually want six slots in each. Remember your Fitness prerequisites so you can grab Stamina at level 20! Move to Steel Canyon if things get a little too easy. Grab Obsidian Shield to help you against the mezzing foes you will start facing at this point.

Level 12-22
Woooohooo! Level 12 means you can slot DO’s, which are twice as effective as the Training Origin enhancements you’ve been using up to this point. I still focus on slotting for Accuracy and Endurance here pre-Stamina and pay more attention to Katana than Dark Armor. Level 15 opens up the Synapse TF, which is a great way to go from 15-20 and Stamina! I really like the Faultline story arcs in this range.

Level 22-30
SO’s! Well, actually, level 25 IO’s. I don’t bother purchasing SO’s anymore. At level 22 I spend an hour or two going over my slotting and finalizing the basics of the build. The level 25 generic IO’s you put into place here are almost the equal of even level SO’s and will never require replacement. With good enhancements and Stamina, now you can afford to start moving slots away from just Accuracy and EndRed and really start pumping up your damage. Stop by Striga and finish up the first arc to get your Wedding Band, a great temp power that gives you some much appreciated extra resistance for those really tough fights. Take time to run the Hess TF and blow up the giant robot!

Level 30-35
Now that you are getting to a point where the IO sets can provide a big enough bonus that they can stay effective throughout the rest of your career, start looking into your sets! You can also start taking advantage of all those extra slots to really start reinforcing your secondary. 30-34 is a great chance to pick up good drops and experience in Croatoa. Level 35 gives you both Oppressive Gloom and opens the door to the Rikti War Zone, which contains enough content to theoretically take you all the way to 50 without ever leaving the zone. Being able to pull teammates from all the level 35+ villains out there is nice, too!

Level 35+
Plenty of content and stuff to do here. Finish up getting your IO sets, run all over Paragon City at the whims of your contacts, repeat scanner mission after scanner mission, run all the great TF’s the game has to offer.

Closing
Thanks for taking the time to look at my guide. Most of the information is pulled from two excellent websites; Red Tomax’s City of Data and the ParagonWiki. Thanks for making such great resources available to the community! Another thanks goes out to Zetargos for his clarification on Cloak of Fear.

Maya is due for a respec before I settle to her final build, but I’m very pleased with her performance. I still haven’t even scratched the surface level 50’s potential options now that the purple sets are around! I’m happy to take any questions, criticism, advice, or corrections.

Good guide! Thank you for putting this together. I was considering making a Kat or DB/DA, so I appreciated your perspective.

Thanks very much! I don't have much experience with DB so far, having only played a couple toons up to 8th or so, but it seems like it would be a good fit with lots of fast attacks and some good AoE's.

I'd sure miss Divine Avalanche's defense buff, though! It helps /Dark quite a bit.

Good guide. I especially like it when guide builders take the time to talk about what you might be doing at certain levels.

Kat/DA still my favorite toon

Thank you, that was a nicely written guide!

-D

Greetings Bobitron:

Thank you for the great guide. While the early levels were rough on endurance, and often near death experiences (when my toon lived), making it to level 22 (3 slotted stamina, SO's), and wow.

It was worth it, and your guide helped tremendously with the directions to go.

Thank you.

Excellent guide, Bobitron! Just started a dark/dark, and the writeup of the DA powers was very helpful!

Thanks guys.

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While the early levels were rough on endurance, and often near death experiences (when my toon lived), making it to level 22 (3 slotted stamina, SO's), and wow.

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Dark Armor is much maligned for high endurance costs and people often try to focus slotting on EndRed in the toggles, which actually have pretty reasonable costs. I would focus attempts to manage Endurance costs in attacks and the Blue Bar Murderer, Dark Regeneration!

I'm glad you all are enjoying /Dark!

Desmodos had some good clarifying information about the way I explained CoF in another thread.

[ QUOTE ]
You wrote a great guide, didn't want to derail it with yet another OG vs CoF debate, hence I did not post anything there.

[ QUOTE ]
First, Death Shroud (and your katana, I should hope!) is constantly attacking targets around you, which temporarily supresses the terrorized effect and basically turns this into an accuracy debuff. If the Fear is still active by the time your attacks finished, the target will go back into a terrorized state, but opponents that take damage from Death Shroud or another attack will still get an opportunity to attack you, although with a small accuracy penalty.

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The above statement, bolded part in particular reads like your stating feared mobs get to retaliate for each attack they receive, which is false. You are correct in that feared mobs can attack you if disturbed but their response is not tit for tat. Typically, I can get off 2-5 attacks before feared mobs will attempt to retaliate a second time, or several Death Shroud tics if you will.

I like to think of feared mobs as being on some sort of attack timer, preventing them from attacking until the timer runs out, allowing for the attack and resetting the timer. Unfortunately, I've yet to come up with any reliable reproducible test method for this as Fear seems to vary considerably from mob type to mob type, I.E. Mook, Family, and Council Marksman will run away to snipe from a distance, but instead of attacking, run off to some corner and cower. Air, Fire, and Earth Casters from CoTs behave similarly. Clockworks seem to have no fear resistance what so ever, while other robots seem to have some level of fear resistance. Against Nemesis, CoF is virtually useless.

With all the above variables, I still prefer CoF over OG as the wander effect from the stun annoys me to no end.

[ QUOTE ]
It also has an accuracy penalty and a short Fear duration combined with a long activation cycle of 5 seconds.

[/ QUOTE ]

This statement is also mis-leading. Yes, CoF tics every 5 seconds, but base duration for the fear effect is 7.5 seconds, though the effect does not stack. This makes the fear effect of the power quite perma while mobs remain in melee range.

Slotting for fear duration, while not practical, can have some rather entertaining effects. While under HO slotting, I attempted heard an entire room of council once and was confused as to how I failed to herd single one upon exiting the room. A SG mate laughing hysterically informed me I'd feared the entire room. It lasted about 3 seconds before the room rushed us.

The Tohit Debuff portion lasts for 5 seconds.

[/ QUOTE ]

CoF is definitely worth trying out on a Dark Armor Scrapper, without a doubt. I might even sneak it into the build on my newest DA toon. I'd advise at least using the power before dimissing it. Like I mentioned above, I've had it in and out of my build a few times, both pre- and post-OG, and decided to skip eventually. But I don't discount it's effectiveness!

Hi bobitron. I wanted to say that I'm very new to the game. I just got the game 6 days ago and as my first character I made Katana/Dark Armor scrapper. Right now I'm 21 and your guide has helped me a lot. Thanks for putting it together.

Great! I'm glad you found it useful. Send me a PM if you have any questions not related to DA.

Nice guide! My kat/dark actually usurped my main at the time and became my new main hero, still getting regular play well after I hit 50 with it. Wonderfully powerful with I/Os, I can race the tanks and brutes to the next spawn without worry and decimate mobs very very fast. I built for end recovery, recharge, accuracy, hitpoints, and regen I/O bonuses.

Like you, I feel sting of the wasp, divine avalanche, lotus drops, soaring dragon, and golden dragonfly are the only needed attacks from the primary and do not really desire cloak of fear from my secondary. Unlike you I chose the body mastery pool for focused accuracy, because I still felt I was missing too much and hate -perception, conserve power because I run hot and non-stop without wanting to worry about de/retoggling, and energy torrent because this attack adds even more really nice knockdown mitigation and AoE damage and I think looks good.

This really is a powerful set combination that allows for personal preference and playstyle. I am glad you took the time to write about it.

[ QUOTE ]
Like you, I feel sting of the wasp, divine avalanche, lotus drops, soaring dragon, and golden dragonfly are the only needed attacks from the primary and do not really desire cloak of fear from my secondary. Unlike you I chose the body mastery pool for focused accuracy, because I still felt I was missing too much and hate -perception,

[/ QUOTE ]

If you take Cloak of Darkness, by the way, it gives +Perc, which is nice against those Red Caps and Arachnos who have -perc powers.

Based on Arcanaville's analysis Dark Armor has some of the best PvE damage mitigation of any scrapper secondary, providing you use the powers well (esp Dark Regen). If you don't, it falls below a couple of other sets. So don't expect it to be a "turn on the toggles and forget about it" set, but I like a set that rewards extra effort with extra performance.

Great guide! Parallels a lot of my experiences with my 36 Katana/DA. The build definitely takes off with OG!

One thing to note: Divine Avalanche also offers its +Defense buff vs. Lethal as well as Melee damage. Which means many of those nasty bullets that longbow fire at you are also deflected

Thank you for the comments.

Good point about Divine's Lethal Defense buff, Fleur.

I'm currently enjoying my second /DA to hit level 38, a Spines scrapper. Lots of fun! After fighting a bunch of Night Widows recently, I will heartily agree with the usefulness of Cloak of Darkness as a Preception booster.

Dark Armor is such a great set that I've barely had to slot the defensive aspects of my secondary yet. Current slotting at lv38:

Dark Embrace- Steadfast KB Protection, EndRed IO, Resist IO
Death Shroud- full six slots, frankenslotted IO's for maximum Dam and EndRed plus a Lethal Proc.
Murky Cloud- EndRed
Obsidian Sheild- EndRed
Dark Regeneration- four IO's frankenslotted for EndRed and Rech
Cloak of Darkness- EndRed
Oppressive Gloom- Acc
Soul Transfer- Rech

That's it! I'm starting to fight a lot more purples/reds, so I'll be putting in a bit more resistance over the next few levels.

Great Guide.

I'm trying something of an 'experimental' build right now. I have a lvl 50 dm/sr scrapper, so I thought I tried to max out my defenses with my Katana/Dark scrapper.

using IO's (4 sets of Mako's, 2 Red Fortune, 3 Scirocco, +3% IO) + weave (5.88%def) CombatJumping (2.33%) Cloak of Darkness (5.88%) and Cloak of Fear (7.5%) = +44.5% vs ranged (if CoF hits) and 34% vs ranged. Toss in Divine Avalanche and you come pretty close to maxing out melee/ranged defense.

There's still a hole in AOE defense, but one thing people seldom notice is that alot of AOE's are actually melee AOE (foot stomps being a good example). Or maybe I'm just lucky and Divine Avalanche has nothing to do with them not hitting me

Also relying on Cloak of Fear for that 7.5% def is a little tricky sometimes, alot of running around corners to get ranged mobs to stack up.

At 43 he does pretty well, still tweaking him though. the downside of going for +defense is that resistances suffer, still haven't slotted up my shields. Also the extra toggles play hell on endurance. Still once I get him all slotted out he should be pretty tough with the +defense and standard DA resists with Dark Regen as a fallback.

hey Bobitron can you post mid's build too that will help few people out thanx man.

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hey Bobitron can you post mid's build too that will help few people out thanx man.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm... I can't say it is a particularly great build in Mid's compared to some people's more focused stuff. You can learn a lot about the power of IO's from looking at the various builds people post in the AT forums.

If I get a chance I'll get a Mid's build up, but it will be pretty basic compared to a more modern build.

Thanks.

Hi!

Thanks for the guide! I read the whole thing and learned a lot from it.

I'm going to roll a Katana/Dark scrapper. Do you have a build that I could take a look at? I'm trying to make one for myself but I'm not very good at making builds

I don't have an IO build to post currently. My Katana/Dark hasn't gotten much play lately and is probably in need of a respec after a few issues!

If you need advice on a particular power or slotting, ask away.

After a bunch of research in the scrapper forum, I recently did a major respec of Maya the Eternal to take her to the defense softcap. This is a good example of a non-purple high end build for Katana/Dark armor. It makes some tradeoffs to get such high defense numbers, so please take a careful look around the scrapper forums- particularly at recent comments by ClawsandEffect, Werner, and myself, as we dicussed the ups and downs of a softcapped Kat/DA and BS/DA in various threads.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Maya the Eternal: Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Katana
Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Sting of the Wasp -- Mako-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx:50(3), Mako-Dmg/Rchg:50(3), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), Mako-Dam%:50(7)
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:40(A), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg:40(7), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg:40(9), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(45), Aegis-ResDam:30(46)
Level 2: Death Shroud -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg:44(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:44(11), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:44(13), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:44(15), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:40(25)
Level 4: Murky Cloud -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:40(A), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg:40(15), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg:40(17), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:30(46), Aegis-ResDam:40(46)
Level 6: Swift -- Run-I:50(A)
Level 8: Divine Avalanche -- Mako-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx:50(9), Mako-Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:50(19), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(21), Mako-Dam%:50(21)
Level 10: Obsidian Shield -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:50(A), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg:50(31), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(33)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- Zephyr-Travel:50(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx:50(13), Zephyr-ResKB:50(17), RedFtn-Def:50(50)
Level 14: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(23), Mrcl-Heal:40(23)
Level 16: Dark Regeneration -- Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(A), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Heal:30(27), Theft-+End%:30(27), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(29), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:50(29), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(31)
Level 18: The Lotus Drops -- Erad-Dmg:30(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(19), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(25), Erad-Dmg/Rchg:30(31), Erad-Acc/Rchg:30(33), Erad-%Dam:30(43)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(34), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:50(48), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:50(48), P'Shift-End%:50(48)
Level 22: Build Up -- GSFC-ToHit:50(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg:50(34), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx:50(36), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx:50(37), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx:50(39), GSFC-Build%:50(50)
Level 24: Cloak of Darkness -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:50(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:50(33), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg:50(36), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(36), RedFtn-Def:50(37), RedFtn-EndRdx:50(42)
Level 26: Soaring Dragon -- Mako-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx:50(39), Mako-Dmg/Rchg:50(39), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:50(40), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(40), Mako-Dam%:50(40)
Level 28: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel:50(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx:50(43), Zephyr-ResKB:50(45)
Level 30: Boxing -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg:30(A)
Level 32: Golden Dragonfly -- Erad-Dmg:30(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(34), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(37), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:30(42), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg:30(42)
Level 35: Oppressive Gloom -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 38: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A)
Level 41: Weave -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:50(A), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx:40(43), GftotA-Def/EndRdx:40(50)
Level 44: Maneuvers -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:50(A), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx:40(45)
Level 47: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 49: Physical Perfection -- P'Shift-End%:50(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit

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