Recommend WP as a secondary or SR.
WP because it's good with minimal IO investment and is a solid all around secondary.
SR because quickness contributes very nicely towards chaining the Attack Vitals combination, which is a very high dps chain.
DB can do fairly nice damage and IMO seems to benefit a lot from +recharge more than anything else since you want to chain combinations seemlessly. While +recharge set bonuses aren't exactly cheap, you can pick up some from doctored wounds and crushing impact (which are both moderately priced). DB also has a ton of attacks that can be slotted with either multistrikes (or the much more expensive Obliterations). Multistrikes will do in a pinch and they're dirt cheap.
Instead of SOs, I urge you to consider cheap sets. Many sets (like multistrikes) provide better performance than SOs and are much cheaper since you don't have to replace them every 5 levels. The other thing to do is to frankenslot several IO set pieces to get the performance you want, ignoring set bonuses. Frankenslotting will yield better than SO only performance and can be done on the cheap as well.
DB/WP works well because of the toggle nature of WP, and the KILL NOW nature of DB. You won't have to stop your combo at any point to click on your heal, or your conserve power, or your whatever. You can wholly concentrate on doing damage. /SR works for similiar reasons.
The combos have been made as easy as possible to execute. The next step is highlighted by an orange ring on the power tray. Fortunately, the combos are not a MUST HAVE. The set works just fine without them.
I've found that END reduction is very useful with the set. DB is fast moving and you can run out of endurance pretty quickly. Maybe consider Stamina as you go up in levels.
On top of everything else, its a flashy looking powerset and just kinda cool to use. Once you get comfortable with it, your scrapper/brute/stalker becomes"Whirling Blades of DOOOOM." Definately try it out
Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.
Yeah, go DB/WP and I guarantee you that you'll have a great time. You're pretty much an indestructible walking mob blender.
Virtue:
Miserya - 50 EM/ELA Brute (Perma-shelved)
Adriana Rayne - 42 Katana/Dark Scrapper
Cyberpulse - 26 Super Strength/Willpower Brute
Steel Heart - 24 Invuln/Super Strength Tanker
Dual Blades/Willlpower is a good combination. I played one to 50 and enjoyed it a lot. For a newcomer Dual Blader, that's probably the one I'd go with. Willpower is very friendly to new players without giving up anything on potential top end power. You may find yourself unhappy in the teens it's a bad time for most scrappers, with endurance problems, not enough survivability from the secondary, and so on. Once you pick up Quick Recovery at 20 (take it at 20), and then once you slot some SOs, you should be fine.
The scrapper forum has a lot of vocal number crunching powergamers with apparently unlimited amounts of influence to blow on the most expensive of IOs. But that doesn't mean that you can't get by on SOs. I level up using mostly SOs, common IOs and frankenslotted attacks, which is the power for cheap approach. I can afford better, but I don't bother except on the occasional level 50. Scrappers are just fine without all that shiny, expensive equipment. The shiny equipment just makes them, well, completely overpowered for 99% of content.
Katana/Willpower IS probably a more survivable combination, but not by so much that you'll notice often in normal play. And the attack chain you would eventually be running on Katana actually does feel very fast, at least to me. But honestly, you may find Dual Blades more fun. I know it's subjective, but I think it's more interesting visually, and just more satisfying somehow.
So my suggestion is to stick with what you have and enjoy!
"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
Videos of Other Stupid Scrapper Tricks
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The scrapper forum has a lot of vocal number crunching powergamers with apparently unlimited amounts of influence to blow on the most expensive of IOs. But that doesn't mean that you can't get by on SOs. I level up using mostly SOs, common IOs and frankenslotted attacks, which is the power for cheap approach. I can afford better, but I don't bother except on the occasional level 50. Scrappers are just fine without all that shiny, expensive equipment. The shiny equipment just makes them, well, completely overpowered for 99% of content.
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I usually go purely with SO's until level 50, save for the occasional quality of life IO's like KB mez and what not. I've yet to have a powerset combination that wasn't viable to play this way or absolutely required any IO's at all.
By level 50 I start playing the character to get the most powerful IO's possible. Therefore, I build every character to be as good as it can possibly be without any regard to how ridiculously expensive it would be to do so. It's really just an excuse to keep playing the character at 50. I don't see a reason to set a cash limit when I'm mostly blowing time anyway. Either way I'm going to be playing this game.
I assume I'm not the only one who does this based on the number of ridiculous builds I see floating around.
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By level 50 I start playing the character to get the most powerful IO's possible. Therefore, I build every character to be as good as it can possibly be without any regard to how ridiculously expensive it would be to do so. It's really just an excuse to keep playing the character at 50. I don't see a reason to set a cash limit when I'm mostly blowing time anyway. Either way I'm going to be playing this game.
I assume I'm not the only one who does this based on the number of ridiculous builds I see floating around.
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You're definitely not the only one. Leveling to 50 is my trial period. If I like the scrapper, then I want to IO him out. But if I like the scrapper, I'm going to be playing him a lot anyway, and for fun, so who cares how long it takes? Oh, noes! I'll need to survive hundreds of hours of additional fun on my scrapper to make him uber! I can't take any more fun once I've hit 50! Stop the insanity! 
So yeah, ridiculous builds just give me a goal and an excuse to keep playing the characters I love to play.
"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
Videos of Other Stupid Scrapper Tricks
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I know it's subjective, but I think it's more interesting visually, and just more satisfying somehow.
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I have to agree. I've got a Katan/Willpower Scrapper and while it is a bit like being indestructible (barring a few things like Rularuu Overseers), I also started up a Dual Blades/Electric Armor Brute because DB is such a fun set to play. It's got a visual aesthetic that makes it a blast to watch, and when all there really is to do in this game is watch your guy beat up stuff, I think that's key to getting the most enjoyment that you can out of it.
I echo the DB/WP comments. It'll be the easiest way to start.
I took a different route and chose to go DB/SR. I'm a defensive freak, and wanted to soft-cap as quick as possible. I'm certainly not regretting my decision, as I can waltz through all but the toughest of challenges. But wasn't even that expensive, either, I spent maybe 50 million on it? It's going to get much worse, though; I love the character so much that I plan on putting a significant amount of influence towards him.
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As for your question, Dual Blades is excellent for a newcomer. The attacks are fairly simple, quite flashy, and fun to watch. The set doesn't come with a Defense-boosing attack like Broadsword (Parry) or Katana (Divine Avalanche), so the early levels are a bit tougher as a result until you get your defenses up and running.
The combos aren't terribly tough to figure out, and they all do SOMEthing. Now, there are many debates as to just how much investment you need to put in to these combinations; many people say that the beginning combinations are not worth it at all. I tend to echo these thoughts; the time it takes to get through the skills, coupled with the possibility of a miss, is often very frustrating. I still liked using the Weaken combination. Yes, it's not extremely useful, but at those early levels everything helps. Plus, it finishes with Typhoon's Edge, which means that if you get into the center of a mob you can send a whole lot of letters flying. That makes me feel like I contribute just a *little* more than those other Scrappers.
The second two combinations are more interesting. Sweep is an excellent power to use in teams, even though it takes FOREVER (One Thousand Cuts takes forever to animate, I'm sorry), but it's a nice little PBAoE knockdown that will help your teammates. I've found it fires off just as a Shield person finishes up with a Shield Charge, or a Foot Stompin' dude fires his off. Nice little bouncing effect. And Attack Vitals does some great damage, and will be your combo of choice once you get your recharge up a little.
In short, it's not bad. Slot for accuracy, hit the combos as you see fit, and have fun. I HAVE found that you'll use your respecs well with this set; I swapped out the lower combos once I could use the uppers, and then again once I started investing in IOs. You'll probably do the same.
Have fun!
<QR>
I vote for DB/WP also. I have one at 43 and she is a blast to play. Hell, I have really crappy slotting(like empty slots and other no-nos) and I have zero problems. I don't think anybody mentioned this either, but DB also has a good amount of knockdown, which is awesome damage mitigation. I like to use the sweep and attack vitals combos.
Also, from a RP point of view, DB is the best fit for some character types.
Examples: (Using Rapier+Rapier/Main Gauche)
Musketeer
Zorro
Pirate (Think 1930's Erroll Flynn)
Using Katana+Katana or Ninjato +Ninjato
Deadpool
Pick an Anime, any anime.
Using Daggers
Street Knifefighter
these are just a few but you get the idea.
Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.
Thanks for the replies, everybody . I'm going to stick with this guy and see how it goes!
How is DB? Any secondary suggestions?
Just having paged through 10 pages of the scrapper forum, I've not seen real topics on it, and I'm not sure if that is because it is unpopular or because people are busy playing it. I'm still pretty new and trying to find a scrapper to play with 2 friends (Archery/MM Blaster and Ill/Kin troller). I like cutting through the LTs while the blaster does more AOE.
I'm drawn to DB for a few reasons -- lots of attacks quickly (I have tried scrappers in the past, and I usually get 1-2 attacks and end up just standing there waiting for cooldowns or using brawl yuck). It also looks pretty cool. And finally, I like the idea of attack chians (although missing one attack and losing the chain sucks).
Last night, I rolled up one (DB/WP) and got to 8. I enjoyed the button mashing and animations. Dmg seemed not terrible not great, but it's still way early.
Final note, I'm a new, and I don't have millions and billions of inf, so it's going to be SOs for the foreseeable future--not that i'm looking to run around soloingi AVs any time soon either. I only mention this because from a lot of threads I've read, it seems some builds are really dependent on very expensive IOs to be effective. So if Katana or BS or something else would be a lot better for somebody who is broke, I'd take that in consideration.