Well, obviously I like Katana/Dark. Dark Armor has resistance and healing, but is missing defense. Therefore, you add Katana or Broad Sword to it to pick up the defense it lacks for maximum survivability. I don't know that maximum survivability equates to the most fun (or I'd be playing Tankers), but I DO like Katana, so it works well for me.
That said, Broad Sword/Shield Defense is the most fun I've had 1-50. I can't really point to WHY it was so much fun, but it just was. Also, with the new soft cap being 59%, Broad Sword/Shield Defense can do a better job of hitting the new soft cap than Katana/Dark. With Barrier, though, I'm less than one small purple away. And I am new-soft-capped to melee and lethal, at least when I have time to run my attack chain. Actually, once I get the tier 4, I'll be new-soft-capped to melee with one hit of Divine Avalanche for one out of every two minutes, and only a couple percent away the other minute. I may need to fiddle a bit. It would be nice to get there with a single hit all the time. I probably won't make any decisions in I20, though. Two trials isn't a huge amount of new content to go by.
My Katana/Dark leveled pretty well too. But I suppose Katana/anything levels pretty well due to Divine Avalanche. The endurance problems were annoying but solvable.
"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
Videos of Other Stupid Scrapper Tricks
DA is a great secondary, not only do you have a heal, damage resist and defense to survive but also PBAoE disorient and fear toggles. Couple DA with Spines and you have a minitature wrecking ball that can tear through crowds. Nobody seems to like the idea of loading up on "Chance for Damage" procs on Quills, Dark Shroud and Cloak of Fear because the chances only occur once per 10 seconds. But it does bring me joy reading the Damage Inflicted window when there is a flurry of bonuses like this (I added the smiley faces):
Cloak of Fear missed!
You blast Legionarii for 118.86 points of bonus fire damage! 
Death Shroud deals 28.25 points of negative energy damage to Legionarii.
Legionarii bleeds for 79.63 points of bonus lethal damage!
You crush Legionarii for 79.63 points of bonus smashing damage!
Quills deals 20.69 points of lethal damage to Legionarii.
Death Shroud deals 28.25 points of negative energy damage to Centurion.
Quills deals 20.69 points of lethal damage to Centurion.
You blast Praefectus Castrorum for 79.63 points of bonus energy damage!
Death Shroud deals 28.25 points of negative energy damage to Praefectus Castrorum.
You blast Praefectus Castrorum for 79.63 points of bonus energy damage!
You crush Praefectus Castrorum for 79.63 points of bonus smashing damage!
Quills deals 20.69 points of lethal damage to Praefectus Castrorum.
Death Shroud deals 28.25 points of negative energy damage to Legionarii.
You blast Legionarii for 79.63 points of bonus energy damage!
Quills deals 20.69 points of lethal damage to Legionarii.
You blast Legionarii for 79.63 points of bonus energy damage!
You blast Legionarii for 118.86 points of bonus fire damage!
Death Shroud deals 28.25 points of negative energy damage to Legionarii.
You crush Legionarii for 79.63 points of bonus smashing damage!
Quills deals 20.69 points of lethal damage to Legionarii.
You blast Void Seeker for 35.03 points of bonus negative energy damage!
You blast Void Seeker for 71.31 points of bonus fire damage!
Death Shroud deals 12.43 points of negative energy damage to Void Seeker.
Quills deals 12.41 points of lethal damage to Void Seeker.
You blast Legionarii for 79.63 points of bonus energy damage!
Death Shroud deals 28.25 points of negative energy damage to Legionarii.
Quills deals 20.69 points of lethal damage to Legionarii.
You land a critical hit with your Quills for an extra 20.69 points of lethal damage!
Quills missed!
I currently have 8 Chance for Damage procs (but may increase to 10 on my next respec) running at the same time between the 3 toggles (With HamiO's acc/dam or acc/mez filling the remaining slots). End/recovery was a big problem but usiing Miracle +rec, Numina +reg/rec, Cardiac Core Alpha, Physical Perfection and miscellaneous set bonuses makes this toon run smoothly. It's also nice to know you're dishing out some pain even when you're taking a couple of seconds to heal yourself.
My very first toon I ever used was a Kat/DA. She taught me a lot about endurance management and defense -- lessons that have carried over to all of the other toons I have now. Even after a couple of years I still play her at least once a week. I love that I have a self heal, disorient, and damage going all at once. Plus the katana just looks cool.
Simply put, for me it's all about spawn diving. While other set do well spawn diving, I feel Dark Armor does it's best damage and survivability by diving into the center of spawn...and that makes me happy
DM/DA is my favorite. DM is light on AoE...not any more; Soul Drain + Deathshoud = ravenous minion muncher. Add in recharge and Fire Ball...scrapper heaven. Throw in Incarnate Pyronic and Reacive....HA! HA! HA! HA!...
BS/DA, much like Werner's Kat/DA, just....slower.... Still get an evil smile off hitting 3-5 mobs with Headsplitter...that never gets old. Fun set, very durable....just slow.
Claws/DA takes a bit to get used to. Shockwave can be counter productive to spawn diving...but great for gather up mobs, particularly in doors. It does require hopping out of the spawn to line up Shockwave, then diving back in for Spin 
If I had understood this when I made mine, I would have named her Kangaroo...or Joey, cause I'm hopping all over the place when I play her...lots of fun though.
Electric/DA, the ultimate spawn diver. Lightning Rod right in the middle for perfect placement every time. LR not up yet...meh, Thunder Strike is a close second 
Suddenly Chain Induction looks like an evil version of "duck, duck, goose"
DB/DA, now this is death by 1000 paper cuts. Look at all the purdy orange numbers...Sweep Combo never looked so good...all those knocked down mobs still sprouting up purdy orange numbers... It's more like dancing, except your moves are so sexy everyone on the dance floor just falls over dead.
Spines/DA...I'm gonna stand in the middle eating my sandwich, you guys fall over dead, just send in the next spawn, please and thank you.
I play other secondaries.....I swear it.
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Quote:
My dark is a stalker, but what I like is being able to ignore sappers. I believe Dechs Kaison summed it up best in the tanker forums when someone complained about them and he said "this is where I say neener neener poo poo".|
Originally Posted by Granite Agent
Been reading up on DA and agonizing over how to make a fun, powerful toon. I know Werner loves his Kat/DA.
My problem is that I've always used the other scrapper secondaries. Right now I'm *this* close to rolling up a BS/SD ... but I'm really trying to see if DA could be the awesome scapper secondary I'm looking for. What do you like best as /DA toons and why? -G.A. |
The endurance issues aren't nearly as bad as people say if you manage your attacks properly.
It really has so many options and abilities that it does a little of everything. You can build defense onto it, it has very respectable resistance, the heal is amazing, it stuns, fears, resists psi, becomes nearly immune to end drain, etc.
It is not godly out of the box, but you can customize it to be almost anything you want it to. For me, that is really the appeal. Now, if only I didn't suck so bad at builds =)
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
Quote:
Ooh, yeah, that's nice. Same for ignoring the endurance drainers and debuffers on the Lambda trial. Well, I don't ignore them. I try to take them down fast because I know they're a big problem for some people. But they're not a problem for me specifically.|
Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
My dark is a stalker, but what I like is being able to ignore sappers. I believe Dechs Kaison summed it up best in the tanker forums when someone complained about them and he said "this is where I say neener neener poo poo".
|
It's also nice being able to run Carnie missions without endurance trouble. I still hate them because it takes forever to take down Illusionists and Master Illusionists due to their phasing, but endurance isn't the problem.
"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
Videos of Other Stupid Scrapper Tricks
Been reading up on DA and agonizing over how to make a fun, powerful toon. I know Werner loves his Kat/DA.
My problem is that I've always used the other scrapper secondaries. Right now I'm *this* close to rolling up a BS/SD ... but I'm really trying to see if DA could be the awesome scapper secondary I'm looking for.
What do you like best as /DA toons and why?
-G.A.