Electricity compells me.

So Im nearing the end of my IO'ing journey with my elec/wp (damn LoTG 7.5's) and I put my dm/elec on hold to build it. Now that I may get some time here in the next week or so, I was thinking about going back to the dm/elec, but something else */elec sparked my interest.

In another thread Werner mentioned a db/elec being somewhere near the top on the dps charts, which got me thinking...how would kat/elec fair in terms of dps? DB is something that always eludes my interest after 20 something levels, and I can't say Iv'e honestly had a kat/ scrapper. So why not put the two together?

So my question is, what kind of dps would we be pushing with a decent build? Would kat/elec be anywhere close to db/elec? After playing 50 levels of elec/ I need something that throws out the AoE as well as the single target damage :P

On the subject of /elec in general, my theory with dm/elec was to bolster the AoE output by a soul drained lightening field and fireball. Am I completely off, or does it actually do something nasty? Im lvl 42, so before I truck the next 8 lvls, I'd like to know if im just off in my understanding.

I haven't done any calculations, but I'm going to guess that Katana/Electric is capable of around 260-270 DPS. In the better DPS column, I believe that Katana can pull off a little better raw DPS than Dual Blades, and at a lower level of recharge, possibly allowing for additional +damage slotting. In the lower DPS column, Katana won't be boosting Lightning Field nearly as much as Dual Blades. I'm figuring it'll work out around even.

The TROUBLE is that if you have a DPS build, you may not have the survivability to take on a pylon. On the other hand, you can always grab a spare tank to help out if all you're interested in is seeing your DPS, and NOT treating it as a survivability exercise as well. And also, Dual Blades/Electric doesn't have any more survivability than Katana in that regard, so it probably just takes doing a few runs until you get lucky.

I'm leveling a Katana/Electric myself, though he's just a lowbie. Not sure what I'm going to do with him, if anything, but it just sounded like fun. Electric/Fire is my current addiction, though.

Isn't a DPS build also just looking at ST damage? I would assume Kat could do rather well in the ST damage department, but DB has the better AoE options. I went DB/elec for the end game teams that steam roll. It's currently 28, so I have a little more ways to go before I really get a better feel for the character. I purposely held off on the AoEs until late 20s so it's just coming into it's own since I'm at a point where 3 out of 4 powers will be AoEs.

Yeah, on Katana/Electric, I think I'd go with enough recharge to run the DPS chain, but try to keep Divine Avalanche in the build. Then you can drop back to at least being a fairly survivable Scrapper, even if most of the IO action is supporting DPS. I agree with Amy that Dual Blades has better AoE options if that's an interest. Survivability vs. AoE, I suppose. I'd think Claws/Electric would behave similarly to Dual Blades/Electric, though with a lower DPS potential.

I play my Electric/Fire with a level-pacted tank, so I'm playing it as a blapper with mez protection. All offense, no defense. I don't have my tier 9 attack or Fiery Embrace yet, and it's already an AoE death machine (level 30). It's going to be great in about five more levels and frankenslotted into its final offensive specs. But God help me if I try to leap into a giant uplevel spawn by myself. That's fixable, of course, to some extent. But it isn't a build priority since I'm almost never solo and only need to deal with aggro bleed, not with full spawns.

I wouldn't think that Dark Melee/Electric would be particularly strong no temps no insps. Overly simplistic, but to me, adding survivability to a resistance set is done with defense rather than a heal. You can do a lot with IOs, of course, but almost certainly not soft cap it, at least not practically. You could probably make it so that a single purple soft capped you, and be seriously badass for regular missioning WITH inspirations, but I suspect it would always have only middle of the road survivability without them.

DB/Elec is actually surprisingly survivable when built that way. At least mine is.

I went for Soul as my PPP to get Shadow Meld and the strategy I'm basically using is popping SM and then jumping into the spawn and draining them of endurance with Power Sink. Combined with my ~30% S/L Def (without SM) and good Resistances, I don't die very often. I should probably add that slotting EndMod in Lightning Field helps a lot, because its ticks help keep the Endurance down so that they don't get to attack me often.

I'm usually soloing at +1/x6.