Quote:
LOTG were changed ages ago, from their initial design of only allowing one which gave a much larger Recharge bonus into allowing 5 (that's your cap on them per character) which each give a 7.5% bonus. So you're safe enough getting 5 of them, it's by design.
|
Originally Posted by ZaurenXT
I'm an old player who came back, and rolled up a dark melee/shield defense. I last played DM when it was rather more garbage, and was quite happy with the larger Shadow Maul (I used to hit 2 with work, now I can hit 3 or 4), and Siphon Life actually being good damage. Shield Defense was great at 12 with the damage boost, too.
I just hit 35, and suddenly can oneshot orange spawns by going Soul Drain -> Shield Charge, without any enhances in Shield Charge beyond an acc/recharge. This made me look at this less as a solo char, and more as a main char. I'm going to respec in the near future, and am mostly curious on slotting. What should be at what for level 36 to 38? Also, Dark Maul seems to be used a lot less often... with Midnight Grasp fully enhanced, I tend to go something like smite-midnight-smite-siphon-shadow punch with Hasten up. Shadow Maul is only to hit two or three things. Is it worth it DPS wise if it's not single target? Last is Luck of the Gambler +Recharge. I only just now realized they don't have a one per character limit. Is this an oversight that is going to be fixed, or a long term thing? I spent hero merits on one, and don't want to start getting more if someday they will be patched out to only one per char. Edit: Oh gosh darnit, I somehow ended up in the Stalker forum after registering. Can someone move this? Worst case, can a friendly Stalker answer the Luck of the Gambler question? |
Quote:
I actually ended up dropping shadow maul on my DM/Regen, but with the Fitness Pool going inherent in I19 I might have to pick it up again. The optimal attack chain for DM is smite->MG->smite->Siphon Life, provided you have enough recharge. Your attack chain is nothing to sneeze at, though - looks a lot like mine.|
Originally Posted by ZaurenXT
I'm going to respec in the near future, and am mostly curious on slotting. What should be at what for level 36 to 38? Also, Dark Maul seems to be used a lot less often... with Midnight Grasp fully enhanced, I tend to go something like smite-midnight-smite-siphon-shadow punch with Hasten up. Shadow Maul is only to hit two or three things. Is it worth it DPS wise if it's not single target?
|
On your respec you might look to getting six slots in each of your single target attacks so you can start working towards getting some positional defense IO set bonuses in there from Touch of Death and/or Mako's Bite. Shadow Maul, Dark Consumption and Soul Drain are perfect places to slot six Obliterations each for an extra 11.25 melee defense if you slot all three powers. Touch of Death will give you some ranged defense and you can slot your defense powers with Red Fortune for additional ranged defense.
Try to pick up combat jumping, tough and weave for extra toughness and defense, and aid self is also good if you can fit it in.
Basically, if you can use sets and extra defense powers to push your positional defenses to at least 45% then nothing will ever touch you, making the soul drain/shield charge combo ridiculously easy to pull off.
Check the guide in my signature for some really good siphon life slotting advice from some of the best names in scrapperdom. (Note that I'm not including myself in that)
Now, having said all that about getting six slots in your attacks and softcapped defenses, consider that a long-term goal.
You're probably going to be happier putting at least a couple slots in Shield Charge, because it's all that and a bag of whoopass. Plus, three complete sets of obliterations will likely take until you're fifty to complete, so there's no hurry there, either.
If you hang out on the scrapper forums long enough you'll see at least four or five threads with DM/Shield builds. Look in particular for threads started by Santorican - he's been getting advice on his DM/Shield recently. Any build of his would serve you well.
The Scrappers' Guide to Dark Melee | Kheldian Binds and Strategies
I'm pretty sure we've had it on redname authority that they're working as designed. (If I'm correct, it was a long time ago now - not sure I could find it.) They were changed very early on (I9 beta?) to their current stats. They are not intended to be unique.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Thanks a lot for the clarification and tips. Stalker forum is quite nice to an accidental visitor, I might have to dust off one! I'll investigate the other dark/shields more, although those seemed more aimed at maximizing level 50 (And I'm still working towards that!)
I'm an old player who came back, and rolled up a dark melee/shield defense. I last played DM when it was rather more garbage, and was quite happy with the larger Shadow Maul (I used to hit 2 with work, now I can hit 3 or 4), and Siphon Life actually being good damage. Shield Defense was great at 12 with the damage boost, too.
I just hit 35, and suddenly can oneshot orange spawns by going Soul Drain -> Shield Charge, without any enhances in Shield Charge beyond an acc/recharge. This made me look at this less as a solo char, and more as a main char.
I'm going to respec in the near future, and am mostly curious on slotting. What should be at what for level 36 to 38? Also, Dark Maul seems to be used a lot less often... with Midnight Grasp fully enhanced, I tend to go something like smite-midnight-smite-siphon-shadow punch with Hasten up. Shadow Maul is only to hit two or three things. Is it worth it DPS wise if it's not single target?
Last is Luck of the Gambler +Recharge. I only just now realized they don't have a one per character limit. Is this an oversight that is going to be fixed, or a long term thing? I spent hero merits on one, and don't want to start getting more if someday they will be patched out to only one per char.
Edit: Oh gosh darnit, I somehow ended up in the Stalker forum after registering. Can someone move this? Worst case, can a friendly Stalker answer the Luck of the Gambler question?