DM is a good single target set, in that Touch Of Fear keeps one targets acuracy really low.
Broadsword has parry so is better against groups.
But this that in mind DM's damage boost requires a group to get high numbers, so you have to have a good regen build to be able to survive after hitting Soul Drain.
I found my DM/regen too good and got bored of it, so I guess that's saying its powerful. BS has some satisfying one hit kills, which looks damn impressive.
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
This probably won't help, but it impressed me.
I rolled a BS/SR at the weekend and took it to fifth and did the usual Hollows run. I was about to tell Wincot to stuff his missions when I thought I'd give it a go seeing as I hadn't been in the Hollows in ages.
Took his first kill 10 Outcast mish and merrily plodded off hunting. Ran into a group of 10 even level outcastes, 8 minions and 2 lieuts and thought I'd run in and kill a couple and run out again. It might have been luck, or it may have been SR, but I wiped the entire group in less than a minute. I was stunned.
I've been to the Hollows numerous times and always struggled with those first hunt 10 X mishes. I'm guessing what did it was the cone Slice attack from BS. Its a good wide arc and deep enough and I could hit at least four a go AND it doesn't drain End too much. I reckon each hit was taking roughly half their hits.
I don't think any of the BS attacks are not worth taking, but respeccing out of the first one might be worth it at higher levels when you have a good chain going with higher damaging attacks.
Also, BS attacks do minus DEF, so it just gets easier and easier to hit.
The advantage of DM tho' is that there is no weapon to draw, so chaining attacks with others such as Air Superiority interrupts your chain much less.
I love the sound and animations of DM, but one of the first three attacks (the Flurry clone, Shadow Maul) really put me off because if it misses it seems to take an age to animate and without it you are missing an attack in a set that doesn't have as many attacks as others to begin with. The minus ACC of DM is very defensive tho', very useful, but then BS has parry which gives a great boost to your hero's DEF in melee.
Try them both to 10th level (wouldn't take long with a regen) and take all the early powers, that would give you a good feel as to whether you prefer the animations of one over the other.
One last thing, BS does get boring, DM probably has more interesting powers.
PLayed both, DM to 50 and BS to 32+, both as regen.
DM is very good because you can do a bit of everything, you have a immobilize/slow in Midnight Grasp (slows Bosses that don't get immobilized). You have an extremely useful fear attack in Touch of Fear. You have a PBAoE that does some damage, debuffs accuracy and buffs your accuracy and damage. You also have an end recovery power. Problem with that is with all the extra stuff you are rather short on real damage. Thats not to say that you don't have any, mainly because in the PvE game Negative energy is hardly resisted, so you are useful, good to solo and pretty good in a team. Oh and avoid Siphon Life its pants.
BS on the other hand has no real other function but damage, and it does damage very well. Two cones one wide one narrow and one AoE make it fairly versatile, very good for dropping bosses and densely packed groups. And even now at 32 with less than optimal slotting I can do stupid amounts of damage. Bad side to BS is the lethal damage that it does, most resisted damage type in the game and while this is supposedly being looked at in I7, I don't know if that will make a big difference. Its also slow, the attacks take a long time to animate and the chain feels disjointed, quite often you use an attack then hang around for the animation to end before queuing the next attack. Its also considered end heavy, though how badly that will effect a regen is debatable, personally I took stamina (one slot) at 26 not having needed it before then. Hasten on the other hand is IMO pretty much essential, especially as the three best attacks are slow recharges.
To a certain extent it's a matter of picking strengths and weaknesses.
Is dark melee strong against bosses? Yes provided you have friends to keep any minions off your back.
Dark Melee has several advantages that make it good against single bosses and Lt's. It dishes out a nice accuracy debuff and the cower effect of Touch of Fear can tie up a boss while your team-mates mop up the minions. Another nice thing is the dark energy damage which few enemies have significant resistance too.
Dark Melee will have some difficulty against mobs, the shortage of area effect powers means that you mostly have to work through opponents one at a time (unless you get a decent cone grouping for the flurry attack).
Broadsword is simple vanilla damage in spades. With the knockdown effects of the last two attacks you can almost keep a boss bouncing and unable to attack. Broadsword will carve through most mobs with parry and Slice (a wide pointblank cone attack) doing most of the work early on.
Broadsword faces two problems. It's slow, you will not get in as many attacks as other scrappers, although your damage per hit tends to compensate for this. Damage type is the big pain which you'll notice. Broadsword deals out pure "lethal" damage. A fair number of opponents will have high lethal resists, most notable are Clockwork, Council robots and Crey powersuits. Against such foes Broadsword does significantly less damage, buildup will compensate for a few seconds but you will learn to respect mobs of Zenith Mechmen.
Its a tough choice firsty. SIPHON LIFE! why not? its the main reason im going for DM cos of
A. lots of fun powers to play
b. the siphon life which would give me a 4th heal
DM is kinda meh when it comes to real hardy attacks though i think
i have a lvl 30 katana/invul scrapper but the katana is ok but its not uber for me really.
i think having a BS/regen is in a way more professional?
maybe the way i was bought up in coh but i think lvl 50 BS/regen is VERY powerful n...yeah but i dunno if im too keen on the actual broadsword itself
i dunno i wil try the get em both to lvl 10 thing
why not get siphon life?
siphon life is long, its heal is [censored], and its end cost is relatively high. all the more reason not to get it, is that you get a better heal in your secondairy (reconstruction) You'd be better of taking another damage attack (as DM lacks those a bit) take shadow punch and slot it like any other attack before you even consider taking siphon life. As an SR i could see you picking it because the set doesnt have a self heal, but regen IS healing, inv's got DP, and dark armor gets the best self heal in the game with DR.
BS or DM is really what you like playing, BS is more dishing out raw damage and high numbers, whereas DM is a more scraptrollerish set, with acc-debuffs and a fear attack. Also, Soul Drain is the best build up in the game provided there are enough mobs around you.
@Shift
Shift 50 DM/DA Scrapper ][ TTL 50 Kat/Reg Scrapper ][ Shabriel 50 Peacebringer ][ Ion Shift 46 Rad/Rad Corruptor ][ Thermal Shift 35 Fire/Fire Blaster
"A Scrapper is a lot like a chainsaw. Somewhat hard to handle, incredibly dangerous, and by far the most fun when wielded by the slightly insane."
I played a DM/Regen to 50 in very short time. I soloed every Elite boss excet Diabolique and Tyrant (as I was in a team at the time)
I had no touch of fear....
DM is not light on damage by any stretch if it is played right
A regen does not need siphon life (it is a fairly slow animating attack with a large end cost)
Broadsword doesn't do it for me as it just seems a nit ponderous, though i will play one to 50
[ QUOTE ]
Its a tough choice firsty. SIPHON LIFE! why not? its the main reason im going for DM cos of
A. lots of fun powers to play
b. the siphon life which would give me a 4th heal
DM is kinda meh when it comes to real hardy attacks though i think
i have a lvl 30 katana/invul scrapper but the katana is ok but its not uber for me really.
i think having a BS/regen is in a way more professional?
maybe the way i was bought up in coh but i think lvl 50 BS/regen is VERY powerful n...yeah but i dunno if im too keen on the actual broadsword itself
i dunno i wil try the get em both to lvl 10 thing
why not get siphon life?
[/ QUOTE ]
As was said on Arena chat earlier today (if you had listened to everyone), Siphon Life isn't very useful for a /regen as it is less powerful than your regen heals and as a result isn't needed.
Siphon life is an easily forgettable power and even for a regen I'd call it a waste of time and end. I stupidly respec'd it into my DM/Regen build with I6 cause I thought regen wouldn't be enough and now I want a real attack instead.
With my SR am thinking of taking it at 49, cause I have nothing else to take, and that's where I'd put it into a regen build too, dont waste time on it, dont waste end on it, do something usefull instead.
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Same here got it with I6, and have used it maybe four times since. Actually only use it when fighting Vamps as then I can suck their life away when they do it to me. 
It migh have a use with SR but regen is much better off without it and either set (DM/BS) would benefit from a better attack or utility power. The other thing to remember is it has to hit to be of any use, in PvE that isn't an issue you can use it on a minion, but in PvP you need to slot it and I can garantee that you will have better uses for you slots than this power.
About the only time I would ever take it is as a throwaway lvl49 power, though personally I'd take revive at 49 if I had nothing else to choose.
Swarms............ the one time I had to use siphon life since I took it was when I tried herding a room of DE (using provoke) and they clearly fixed the no eminators problem as a big bundle of swarms slowed down my other heals. I think thats the only time I used it since I took it
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
[ QUOTE ]
Oh and avoid Siphon Life its pants.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have a level 40 DM/Inv and use Siphon Life fairly regularly. It's useful, it heals 250 damage at 40 with 3 SO's. Not bad, and not as slow as some people seem to make out. I like it.
DM gives a good three-attack chain at low levels with punch, smite and maul and this will be your bread and butter til you hit 50. After picking up these three attacks, the rest of the powers are up to you and your own play style. Personally, I don't use Touch of Fear or Provoke and have respecced out Midnight Grasp. I find that I can easily cope with pretty much anything with the three attacks in DM, Air Superiority which is great for leaving mobs on their [censored] while you beat their hp away. For large groups, soul drain is a fantastic power and should be made compulsary for all scrappers.
BS I find a fairly one-sided set. As people have mentioned several times already, lethal damage is easily resisted and you'll find times when opponents you'd expect to defeat easily have that annoying slither of health after your attack chain which allows them to get that last attack back at you. Animations are long and recharges are slow. Still, it does a shed load of damage!
Your choice.
"Pride is all well and good but a sausage is a sausage"
For Lent I gave up...
Hope
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Oh and avoid Siphon Life its pants.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have a level 40 DM/Inv and use Siphon Life fairly regularly. It's useful, it heals 250 damage at 40 with 3 SO's. Not bad, and not as slow as some people seem to make out. I like it.
[/ QUOTE ]
It might be useful for /inv, but definately not for /regen.
[ QUOTE ]
Personally, I don't use Touch of Fear and have respecced out Midnight Grasp
[/ QUOTE ]
you WHA????
oh dear..... somebody hold me back....
for real, MnG is one hell of an attack. nice damage, immobilize, and pure negative energy damage, which means it will get resisted very little, and will thus hit just has hard, or sometimes even harder than BSs headsplitter will.
As for ToF. a button to put 1 boss out of the fight? gimme please.
@Shift
Shift 50 DM/DA Scrapper ][ TTL 50 Kat/Reg Scrapper ][ Shabriel 50 Peacebringer ][ Ion Shift 46 Rad/Rad Corruptor ][ Thermal Shift 35 Fire/Fire Blaster
"A Scrapper is a lot like a chainsaw. Somewhat hard to handle, incredibly dangerous, and by far the most fun when wielded by the slightly insane."
Dont use Touch Of Fear? *scratching his head* Dont you want the fights to be easier? It is without a doubt the power that makes DM what it is. It means you dont need the healing of siphon life, mitigates the damage much better, it is the attack to grow to love in the set
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
I've played DM to 47 and BS to 14.
IMHO, DM is good, but I only have only taken 3 pure DM attacks (smite Shadow Maul & MnG) I have touch of fear to save a mob for later and soul drain for ubber glowieness.
Other than that, I have skipped the other 3 powers.
To bulk up my attack chain (and to get tough) I have punch. With hasten I find I rarely have any down time.
On the BS side I have found the 1st and 3rd attacks very good. Being able to 1 shot even lvl minions is useful. On the down side, it is slow draw, slow animation, slow recharge and last of all, It is an ugle set. The actions and animations are awkward and ungainly (just like my typing) Plus I have never been able to make a female toon that lloks goot with the BS.
And just for infor the DM was DM/DA and the BS I tried both RGN and DA. ( I'd stear clear of BS/DA. slight end issues)
Hope this helps.
[ QUOTE ]
IMHO, DM is good, but I only have only taken 3 pure DM attacks (smite Shadow Maul & MnG) I have touch of fear to save a mob for later and soul drain for ubber glowieness.
Other than that, I have skipped the other 3 powers.
And just for infor the DM was DM/DA
[/ QUOTE ]
Just a quick question: You saying you skipped dark consumption on a DM/DA? :S DC is one of my favorite poewrs. combined with soul drain and dark regen, it rocks!
-jump into huge pack of foes.
-hit soul drain
-take alpha
-hit dark regeneration
-heal every damage from the alpha
-hit dark consumption
-get that soo precious end back that your toggles + soul drain + dark regen cost you.
et voila, 3 powers, nice damage and accuracy buff, full hp and end, and the alpha strike soaked up. time to pummel away! (and if you have death shroud, that now just murders minions
@Shift
Shift 50 DM/DA Scrapper ][ TTL 50 Kat/Reg Scrapper ][ Shabriel 50 Peacebringer ][ Ion Shift 46 Rad/Rad Corruptor ][ Thermal Shift 35 Fire/Fire Blaster
"A Scrapper is a lot like a chainsaw. Somewhat hard to handle, incredibly dangerous, and by far the most fun when wielded by the slightly insane."
my toon looks fab as a BS Scrapper!
Defiant 50's
Many and varied!
@Miss Chief
DC is just as essential on an SR, normally after I've Soul Drained (now that you mention it) or after Elude has caused the end crash. DC isn't usefull to a Regen really, DM isn't end heavy enough to cause regen any sort of end issues.
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
yup, but he said his was a DM/DA, in which case im trying to figure out how he made it to where he is without DC :/
@Shift
Shift 50 DM/DA Scrapper ][ TTL 50 Kat/Reg Scrapper ][ Shabriel 50 Peacebringer ][ Ion Shift 46 Rad/Rad Corruptor ][ Thermal Shift 35 Fire/Fire Blaster
"A Scrapper is a lot like a chainsaw. Somewhat hard to handle, incredibly dangerous, and by far the most fun when wielded by the slightly insane."
I had DC for a while, but found I never really used it (partially forgot, partially never needed).
So when I picked up conserve power I dropped it in a respec.
I would tell people to get it, but I didn;t personally use it.
For info I have an end redux in all attacks. Did have double acc, but with foc acc dropped one for an end redux.
FA 3x end rdx
CoF, OG, DS, OS, DE, MC, Acro 2x end rdx
CoD, CJ 1x end rdx
Smite/Maul/MnG 1x end rdx
And i cant go full force without running out of end after 4 or 5 groups, DC helps A LOT for me...
then again, i like toggling everything on and just going mayhem. Adrenalin Boost is my heaven ^^.
@Shift
Shift 50 DM/DA Scrapper ][ TTL 50 Kat/Reg Scrapper ][ Shabriel 50 Peacebringer ][ Ion Shift 46 Rad/Rad Corruptor ][ Thermal Shift 35 Fire/Fire Blaster
"A Scrapper is a lot like a chainsaw. Somewhat hard to handle, incredibly dangerous, and by far the most fun when wielded by the slightly insane."
[ QUOTE ]
yup, but he said his was a DM/DA, in which case im trying to figure out how he made it to where he is without DC :/
[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe he's built end light like my DA brute.......... but IMO that wouldn't make for a very effective scrapper cause without Fury I wouldn't survive.
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
DA? End light? How! 
Have been thinking about making a cool regen scrapper because I just like to fight but I dont know what to choose from.
Dark melee looks very fun to play with all the buffs etc but broadsword is tempting because its so powerful.
Althought with the dark melee I can get a 4th self heal and a terror touch
Broadsword rips apart bosses fast n easy but desnt look as good
Anyone got an opinion on the two sets?
Is dark melee strong vs bosses and luts?