My D/E was more concept (army of fluffy/sparky pets, before the "only one pet" change) than made to be a Sapper. With Dark's acc debuffs I don't even try to sap endurance since the mobs can't hit me when they can attack.
For my solo build I like having both AoE attacks (Ball and Short Circuit) slotted for damage. Since they can't hit me I can be in PBAoE range rather safely. Add some +dmg set bonuses or procs in the AoE's if you want to boost damage a bit more.
Honestly, I read the title of the thread, and my first thought was, "re-roll."
That isn't to say that Dark/Electric is a bad combination, because it isn't. It's not spectacular, though, and if you're not enjoying it yet, then I think you should bite the bullet and choose a different secondary. In that vein, some suggestions would be Dark/Ice, Dark/Sonic, Dark/Rad, or Dark/Archery. All of those have the high-damage short-range single-target blast, which should help a lot solo. By virtue of being Dark/*, they are all awesome on teams.
If you do decide to stick with /Electric, I also suggest lots of damage slotting. I might skip Short Circuit entirely, however, because is has a very long animation. Then again, I love AoE attacks, so I guess I probably wouldn't skip it after all. 
In my opinion, Electric is good for Short Circuit and Voltaic Sentinel, but I have never been a fan of VS. They changed him relatively recently, but I still don't like him. And, as has been said, end draining is pretty mediocre when they already can't hit you, so that doesn't leave much to recommend about Electric. You'll be useful on teams all the way to 50 because you're Dark, but you honestly would probably be more useful with one of the other combinations I suggested above, and those combos all solo very well, too.
Bye, everybody!
*Champion*
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So, I have this defender. Dark/elec, pretty fun on teams, and I'm about to hit level 30. Certainly I'm not the best at solo missions, and I'd like to be better. Electric blast is really not the best for damage, but I did like the idea of being a heroic sapper.
Do you guys have any build advice for a level 30 dark/elec? I have a fair amount of cash for IO's on various characters, so sets are certainly doable, though the rare ones may be out of my range.
Re-rolling is certainly an option. It wouldn't be the first time I've re-rolled a 30+ character, but I do want to keep the Dark/ primary.
Thanks! 
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I'm gonna have to agree with the person who mentioned re-rolling. I played a dark/electric defender up to lvl 39ish and its dreadfully slow. I picked the build purely out of concept.
Electric blast is not for the faint of heart. You have 2 mediocre attacks, a damage over time aoe which is low damage to begin with, short circuit, which is entirely unnecessary with the debuffs from dark, an unnecessary hold, and VS, which takes like 3 or 4 seconds to cast EVERY 60 SECONDS.
That being said, I think the set could instantly be brought up to par if they made VS perma.
You're welcome to give it a shot, but since my ill-fated dark/elec was retired, I've never seen a high level dark/electric. And I think its for good reason.
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So, I have this defender. Dark/elec, pretty fun on teams, and I'm about to hit level 30. Certainly I'm not the best at solo missions, and I'd like to be better. Electric blast is really not the best for damage, but I did like the idea of being a heroic sapper.
Do you guys have any build advice for a level 30 dark/elec? I have a fair amount of cash for IO's on various characters, so sets are certainly doable, though the rare ones may be out of my range.
Re-rolling is certainly an option. It wouldn't be the first time I've re-rolled a 30+ character, but I do want to keep the Dark/ primary.
Thanks!
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I'm gonna have to agree with the person who mentioned re-rolling. I played a dark/electric defender up to lvl 39ish and its dreadfully slow. I picked the build purely out of concept.
Electric blast is not for the faint of heart. You have 2 mediocre attacks, a damage over time aoe which is low damage to begin with, short circuit, which is entirely unnecessary with the debuffs from dark, an unnecessary hold, and VS, which takes like 3 or 4 seconds to cast EVERY 60 SECONDS.
That being said, I think the set could instantly be brought up to par if they made VS perma.
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As opposed to something like /sonic which has an attack which takes about 3 seconds to cast EVERY 10 SECONDS? Or /rad which is full of "mediocre" attacks with the exception of one. That electric is full of damage over time shouldn't be an issue because as has been said, you aren't getting hit. A 2nd hold isn't what I'd call unnecessary. I think electric blast works pretty well on a defender because unlike a blaster, burst damage on a defender isn't as important. But to each their own. 
All that said, yea dark/electric will probably be a bit slower than some other possibilities. If you really want to be as quick as possible with a dark/ and solo, dark/ice is probably the best. /sonic is raved about, but unless it is a really hard target you have a chance to build up the -res on (purple boss, EB, AV), I think /ice beats /sonic for general solo killing speed. Plus it is hard to pass up tar patch + blaster level ice storm and blizzard.
Thanks for the great advice guys. I'm thinking I'll go with dark/ice as a re-roll. Shouldn't take long to get back up to 30. The electric secondary looked good on paper, and I do like the effects, but it just doesn't do what I'd like I guess.
Thanks again!
I'll agree with electric being a bad pairing for dark.
I mostly posted so I could counterpoint VS on the casttime angle though. Casting VS doesn't actually stop you from moving. If you always cast it while you're moving forward it's fine and doesn't actually have a "cast time" like other long cast time things.
Dark/elec was my first, and still holds the record as my only 50. Can't solo, but is amazing on team, completely slaughters accuracy, and then, with short circuit and power sink from the elec mastery, no one ever has end.
Life is easy.
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this brings back some painful memory's. my dark/elec slowed to a crawl around lvl 30 also. I remember Ball Lighting having very poor damage..
I ended up keeping mine cause i thought sparky would wreck everything in sight! It didn't, but at lvl 35 i couldn't turn back :P
perma jump is ---> /up 1
So, I have this defender. Dark/elec, pretty fun on teams, and I'm about to hit level 30. Certainly I'm not the best at solo missions, and I'd like to be better. Electric blast is really not the best for damage, but I did like the idea of being a heroic sapper.
Do you guys have any build advice for a level 30 dark/elec? I have a fair amount of cash for IO's on various characters, so sets are certainly doable, though the rare ones may be out of my range.
Re-rolling is certainly an option. It wouldn't be the first time I've re-rolled a 30+ character, but I do want to keep the Dark/ primary.
Thanks!