I have both spines/dark and claws/dark and if claws was about as good in the golden days of AE boss farm with stacked groups of dozens of mobs, spines is a lot better overall because simply of the range. It's very easy to hit the target cap on the cone and pbae while for claws, the cone does a kb and the pbae has a very small radius (despite being awesome damage). That + the damage aura makes Spines a lot better imo.
I can't say muchabout Fire/ and Elec/ as i haven't leveled either of them but i sure don't feel like anything could go much faster than spines/dark when it comes to farming, usually in+2/3x8 setting. It's more a matter of playstyle than real speed at this point.
Dark armor lover.
The Claws/DA Scrapper guide.
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I have a Spines/Fire scrapper who is at around lvl 30 right now. He seems like he'll be a great farming toon when he reaches 50 and I can afford to fill his build with IO sets. Right now though, he's horrible to manage in terms of end usage.
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Spines is my top pick for AoEs if we exclude Shield builds.
I'm waiting for Spines for Brutes. I wanna reroll my Spines/Fire as a Brute, it would be really awesome with a taunt aura.
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Quote:
I concur. A good elec/shield build can be played in such a way as to optimize damage output above anything else in the game. (Fire/Shield may be a close 2nd).|
Originally Posted by Nihilii
Spines is my top pick for AoEs if we exclude Shield builds.
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However, I think in general game play on teams where things tend to scatter, and may not be all together in neat piles, I vote for spines. I especially like spines combined with another damage aura. My level 50 spines/electric scrapper is currently my first choice when I log in each evening and would be my first choice anytime I run a kill-all level 50+ mission.
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Spines /DA, /Fire, /Elec are all beasts in terms of aoe hotness. Elec and Fire /SD are great with burst aoe whereas the spines combos just continually pour out relentless aoe damage.
But to answer the OP's original question, in terms of primaries, yes, spines is still the aoe king, imo.
I've been searching the forums for the past 10 mins. to find some advice on a good Spines/Fiery Aura build. I have a guy with those powersets who I just got to lv 23, and so far he's kicking *** but I think he could do better, and I'm interested in seeing what other players work with for this build, or if anyone has a suggestion for what they think is THE build. Thought this might be a good thread to ask on, my searches aren't turning up much.
I know how hard it is to quantify AOE DPS.
But is it the generally accepted positions that Spines is still the AOE DPS leader int he face of Electric melee and Claws, and firey melee?
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!