An old DM/DA returning

So I've been away from CoH for awhile (pre-IOs) and recently decided to come back.

Along with trying out some of the new player sets I wanted to upgrade my old DM/DA (lvl 50) scrapper.

Just been reading Des's guide, which helped out a lot, but still have a couple of questions.

I use to have the Body Mastery as my Epic Pool and see it's been changed about a bit, how good is the Physical Perfection power for DM/DA? I'm assuming even if I got it Stamina would still be important?

Second Des added a little disclaimer at the end of the guide:

Quote:

DISCLAIMER: All the builds in this guide use BoTz as the guide was written long before the nerf. While these builds are certainly good they are no longer quite as good. In the next version of this guide, I will be placing greater emphasis on Typed Defense over positional. This will cause the builds to look significantly different. See scrapper forums for on going discussions on the subject.

Could anyone give me a quick summary, or point me in the direction where I can find out more information about this? Since I'll be essentially redoing my scrapper with IOs (which I'm just now learning about)figure may as well get it as close to right as I can the first time.

Body Mastery is awesome for Dark Armor because /DA eats endurance like no one's business. But PP is weaker than Stamina, so you better have both if you're going that route.

My DM/DA has a pre-Siphon Life buff build so I want to respec her, but using darkness mastery and adding defense. I have planned like 10 builds and I'm still not happy with the recovery in any of them, using PP instead of darkness mastery would solve my issue but I want to keep my tentacles and dark blast. And should you get PP, slot it with end mod IOs (one of them being the Performance Shifter +end proc, if you have one slot for PP just use the proc).

But so far, I managed to make better builds with emphasis on positional defenses (melee/ranged/aoe) than typed (smashing/lethal/energy/negative/fire/cold). Des prefers typed, there are many ways you can build a DM/DA.

One thing you shoud know about IOs is that you have to set a clear goal for the bonuses first. I have seen builds that cost 5 billion with bonuses all over the place which wouldn't perform much better than a regular SO build.

For example, on my mind/emp troller i went for maximum global recharge bonuses only - on my fire/kin troller, smashing/lethal defenses and then as much recharge as I could. On my DM/DA (which I'm still tweaking, maybe I'll manage to make a decent build until next year lol), I'm going for recovery, defense, +maximum HP and then recharge.

Get Mid's hero designer at cohplanner.com if you don't have it yet, best tool ever.

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I'll have to dig through the different IO sets and see where I feel comfortable. I know that if there is a decent way to plug the Knockback hole I'm taking it

I never took Siphon Life, used to always be fairly meh, but my understanding is that it's been buffed, I'll have to look into it.

As for the planner already downloaded it.

Yup, Siphon is a great attack now. When I respec my DM/DA I'll take shadow punch out and slot siphon for damage and accuracy, since I have dark regen, as you, we don't need to slot healing in siphon.

Ways to plug the knockback hole with IOs:

- Steadfast protection: knockback resistance IO in any power that accept resistance enhancements (like dark embrace, murky cloud, obsidian shield...)

- Karma: KB resistance IO in any defense power (Combat Jumping, Hover, Cloak of Darkness...)

- Blessing of The Zephyr: KB resistance IO in any travel power or Combat Jumping or Hover.

The Karma IO is usually the cheapest, but Steadfast isn't very expensive either. The BoTZ one is VERY expensive.

You can use any level, a lvl 50 anti- KB IO or a level 20 one will do the same thing. Just be sure to place it in an early power if you plan to exemp (like ,if you have weave at level 49 ,don't put the anti kb IO there, put it in combat jumping which you took at like level 10 - I'm making up the levels and the powers you took lol, but just an example).

Each IO gives 4 points of KB protection, which I find enough, I rarely get KB'ed with one. Des l ikes three for 12 points. YMMV.

Ok, quick question, the knock back protection from an IO, is it only active if the toggle associated with it is active? Or does it offer passive protection even if the toggles not active? I'm guessing it doesn't but just want to make sure.

Thanks again.

It's always on even if slotted in a toggle and the toggle is off. The only time you lose the -kb protection is if you exemp more than 3 levels below the level of the IO.

It is an always-on buff. Regardless if the power you put it on is turned on or off.

Oh that is nice.

Hrm I need to try and work on some builds and apperantly start farming for influence heh.

Feel free to post a build if you would like any build advice.

Standard note for -KB IO's:

These drop from the BRONZE 10-14 range recipe rolls at the AE, 60 tickets a pop. If you do a mission arc or two you can easily have thousands of tickets, making rolling for these cheap and fast. Sell or delete the weak stuff you don't want, you will get a -KB Io pretty quick.

Buying these recipes at the market can be enormously exorbitant by comparison.

Well here's an inital re-build, based some what on Des's guide, no slots yet. Still trying to figure out what would be best for slotting.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.704
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 48 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Dark Melee
Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Smite -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Shadow Maul -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Death Shroud -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Siphon Life -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Obsidian Shield -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Hover -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Fly -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Dark Regeneration -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Murky Cloud -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Soul Drain -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Cloak of Fear -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Cloak of Darkness -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Midnight Grasp -- Empty(A)
Level 35: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 38: Tough -- Empty(A)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- Empty(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- Empty(A)
Level 47: Energy Torrent -- Empty(A)
Level 49: Weave -- Empty(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 6: Ninja Run


My old/current build I actually have air superority, and shadow punch as part of my single target chain. Going to be intresting to go without it.