So I've got a Spines/DA,
And I LOVE my Spines/DA,
So I'm going to vote Spines/DA!
Why?
Well, theres only one reason to opt for spines, its for crazy AoE damage, and the issue with any Defense based set is that enemies still have a minimum 5% chance to hit you, so if you enter a mob of 20, which is not unlikely on a Spines, at least one from the mob will hit you, and you'd be surprised how quickly those "lucky" hits build up.
With Res, sure you get hit, but it's slightly more manageable.
Now, the Thing about DA as a set, and what makes it so good to compliment Spines, is that it offers a mix of Def & Res, while offering a Mez aura, and Mezzed enemies cant hit you.
Now my personal experience with it as a set is that it offers less survivability than most other scrapper sets, and seems to rely heavily on its heal, but thats based on the SO slotted version of the set
But, if you've got some inf to pour into it, it opens a world of possibilities. Oppressive Gloom is a nice power IF you have a large accuracy bonus (but incredibly Meh at low acc). The Def can be pushed pretty high with a few set bonuses, and all that resist is nice to. And slot that heal right, (Theft of essence proc) and it will actually GAIN you endurance.
The other thing about spines, as a set, is that it really doesn't need a lot of +Rech, some sets demand it, but spines not really, because the auras do a lot of damage all by themselves and its very easy to chain a good attack chain.
And yeah, concerns about Endurance are valid, but its really not as bad as you may think. You are going to NEED Conserve power, but the gap while its down is pretty manageable (and its another reason you dont want to crazy on +Rech)
Anyway, below I'll post the build I've been using, it is a phenomenal machine of death and carnage, and a joy to farm the cimeroran wall with (pretty meh against EBs, AVs and such though) and i hope its some help anywho,
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I did roll a spines/DA and will give it a go, it's not like in the old days where it would take two months to reach 50.
I feel like giving a resistance set a try, a bit deeper try since I always give up around mid twenties, because in my (low) experience it's always jump in, health dips, hit the heal, keep hitting, health dips, heal hasn't recharged yet.
The auras and Spines seems a bit counter productive though. We're supposed to be in the middle of the spawn but with the cones we're also supposed to be jumping in and out.
I'm half way with the stun/fear auras, mostly because they do not affect lieutenants and I never felt minions to be a problem (I can't really think many minions would survive a Spines alpha anyway), but CoF seems to grab me more than OG despite OG's low cost.
[ QUOTE ]
but CoF seems to grab me more than OG despite OG's low cost.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm likely the biggest CoF advocate so consider this warning.
If you are not prepared for exstensive IO set investment, managing CoF on a Spines/DA build is extremely difficult to manage. Both endurance and accuracy concerns will require multple bonuses to overcome. If you are not prepared for an expensive IO build, I would recomend NOT TAKING CoF on a Spines/DA build.
That stated, I hated my Spines/DA scrapper when you ran OG. Once I swapped in IOs and switched OG to CoF I now find Spines/DA to be a very fun build.
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@Reyne Maker
Your build looks very nice. But I have to disagree with putting an Obliteration set in Death Shroud... being one of the more End Heavy toggles that DA runs... that set only has one End reducer compared to other sets like Multi Strike (4) or Scirocco's (2).
The only other thing that I might change is that this build seems to be too heavily slotted on dmg and not enough in the defensive abilities. Looking at the bonuses, I'm seeing this might be counter-productive though. I am probably going to play around with this build 
Well, to be completly honest neither OG or CoF really grab me. Like I said they don't touch lieutenants and above and minions, well, I never considered them much of a threat.
Of course with the all lieutenant/boss missions this is even truer. That's why I was leaning towards SR. The loss of damage is present but the survivability of a softcapped build can't be denied, whereas DA seems to rely on good ol' PvE content, AKA spawns with 5-6 minions and 2-3 lieutenants, and then OG or CoF taking the minions out of the equation.
I mostly noticed this when running a ITF with a friend who had a katana/DA scrapper and he died.. so often... It was embarassing because I was the tank at the time.
But the ITF's chockful of bosses who ignored his mezzing and did lots of PBAoE, the minions were mostly ignoring his OG due to their native resistance + all the Shouts and obviously his resistances didn't keep up with his agro. Granted, he's not a min-maxer and it's a old character so I severely doubt he's well slotted.
But, since it no longer takes 2-3 months to reach 50 and as much time to slot a character decently I'm all willing to give Spines/DA another try and see how it comes out. Right now I'm really enjoying the double damage auras.. which is good because Impale and Lunge don't really do much yet
For those who don't know my posting style I tend to do it more like a chat than a hard need for numbers, sometimes I have questions or ideas and I like to hear other people's opinions, so I'm long winded.
For the TL;DR crowd : softcapped SR with enough recharge that Hasten has a 3 second gap against DA's damage aura and DR.
I'm after testing some builds what with the faster leveling MA grants, and I realised I never brought a Spines/DA beyond level 20 (a much death filled trip to level 20 I might add, much more than any other character).
I'm not a fan of resists, being always hit doesn't attract me especially when I get a couple of bosses in a spawn which means even if I'm not being by 600 damage, but rather for 300 it's still 300 every few seconds.
I'm more of a defense fan and in my limited experience (WP being the only partially resist set I played) defense survives better.
So, here I was testing a spines SR build and it's pretty softcap standard until I boggle at the fact hasten was coming up with a 3 second gap. That's a lot of recharge that somehow got in the build. But it's so tight I have no travel power and no CJ so I have to remove the Fighting pool altogether and juggle bonuses back to softcappedness (losing Weave and the +3 def unique was a blow).
Then I messed with DA.
Since I always play defense playing something different would be interesting, I thought. I whip a quick build, around 50% resist to S/L, around 40% to the rest, Dark Regeneration up every 10 seconds with that +end unique in it.
But all the cries about how that combo is hard on the endurance tells me that I will have to whip something else a lot more endurance friendly (incidently losing recharge and resists, I'm sure).
Having a in-built uber heal would be nice, so would be having a second damage aura, but comparing both I'm left thinking if all that recharge in SR doesn't make up for the damage aura while Aid Self and softcapped defense doesn't make it more survivable.