I come to you hat in hand, unsure of what to make

So since the day I decided to roll my Fire/Shield this has become sort of a permanent home for me (not my first or my last scrapper, but easily my favorite toon) and I come to you asking for help.

I know I want a new melee god, but I am quite unsure as to what to make.

I'm almost completely sold on /elec, but past that I'm unsure as to my primary and even if I should be a scrapper or a brute. Not to mention I'm easily swayed, so this may still change.

I want as much ST DPS as I can get, in the worst scenario (so only fighting 1 hard target possibly). Everything else would just be icing to be honest (well, other than survivability, that is the first priority).

I've done builds, math, and looked at other's threads and builds and I still haven't seen the light...

KM seems to be the best, but then sometimes I put together chains or builds and DB comes out ahead. Not to mention KM has to leverage it's +dam

If I'm not mistaken DM leans on Soul Drain a bit much for what I'm describing here, and Kat tends to want DA for more survivability.

Then Brutes get higher survivability, higher max damage, and gloom. Whereas Scrappers get consistent damage, crits, and don't need to chase fury.

So, can anyone point me in a more correct direction?

<.<
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Claws.

I'm gonna go ahead and recommend DB. It has very nice ST damage and some amazing AoE to boot. If you don't like the combos then I'd go claws, you just have to deal with the knockback then.

Putting in a vote for km/ - power siphon isn't that hard to leverage, just think of it as fury for scrapppers.

I definitely would not suggest KM, though some seem to love it. I hated the build up dynamic of the set, and the sound of it makes me think im playing an old atari game. I guess its ok if you're soloing most of the time with the sound off.

I've seen claws and dual blades do great single target with lots of recharge.

DM is great too, and it will signifigantly boost your survival which seems very important to you, thanks to siphon life and some stacking to hit debuff. Plus a lot of its damage is less resisted negative energy damage. The sets drawback is not much aoe ability, but if you're soloing, especially at low levels, you can mow a few enemies down pretty quickly with shadow maul. Soul drain is pretty damn nice even with just one or two enemies.

Katana is nice but its more of a jack of all trades, good st, good aoe, good survivability boost, etc, but not great at any one thing.

From what you're describing I would suggest dm.

Haha BillZ, what a compelling argument.

Thanks so far, but I must comment on FM for now. My problem is not that I have one already, that doesn't bother me. My problem is that I just don't see it. My FM/SD even with saturated AaO and solid build/procs/the 2nd best DPS chain is only clocking in at 268 and I feel like a different primary (or maybe a damage aura/the best chain is that big a deal) would mop the floor with that.

If I did DB I would probably not have many available combos anyway since unless I'm mistaken the top chain doesn't have any anyway so it would be just what I could fit after that.

And yea, DM was definitely looking nice for the -tohit and siphon life, but wasn't sure if just 1 target for soul drain would make it at all AMAZING as far as DPS goes.

The sounds might bother me for KM, but I don't know as I've yet to play one.

The difference between 1 target and full saturation for the dm/shields in the pylon thread was enormous, IIRC.

Fire definitely does not have the best ST dps, but it has very good ST combined with very good AoE.

With DB, Kat, and Claws, you have to factor in enemy resistances to lethal damage. So realize that with the dps you see in mids, you will need to remove a certain percent because of that resistance. I have no idea what the average resistance is. With KM this is less of a problem since it is smash/energy, but both of those are somewhat highly resisted as well.

Yea, that's what I was remembering too.

And yea, I do love FSC among other things, but fire's ST seems to lag behind, and I've got the fire/shield if I want pure AoE carnage with a healthy dose of ST

And yea, definitely was thinking about that, though I'm never sure how much is doomsaying and how much I really need to worry about my chain getting resisted and by how much on average.

Didn't MA offer pretty hefty single-target DPS? No fodder required, no gimmicks, just straight smashing damage by the ton and only one attack with an attack time over 2 seconds. You can bring the recharge on Focus Chi down quite a bit, too. MA/Elec should be pretty decent.

Kat/elec. Kat has solid enough ST damage and DA does wonders for a resist set.

stone/elec brute

I have one. After all the "swoosh!" aoe of a fire toon, the smash! of stone is refreshing.

Hit guys with giant hammers. Smash the ground and make whole spawns fall down.


Seismic smash.

If you invest in IO's, you can use seismic smash a lot. I like to use seismic smash a lot.

Claws?

Hell, about a year ago the forum was dissing on claw/electric as the worst AT combo ever. It took the fun out of playing my 34ish toon, thinking I'd never be anything with her, and I deleted her. Unless claws or electric has been buffed by the devs, I tend to agree with what I was told then.

That said, MA./Inv gets dissed endlessly here and everyone I know enjoys theirs. Heck, I could /e lotus on the wall at Cimerora with my gal. You have to understand MA to appreciate it.

I've always wanted to make a Kat/elec, but I have a kat/wp and a BS/SR and I just don't want anymore of that primary for a while.

I am going to remake my claws/electic one day. Same with my spines/dark that I got frustrated with.

Wait...was all of that off topic?

The only issue Claws/elec has is using Shockwave to knock things away from your damage aura. This would be the same, or similar issue Claws would have with /dark, /fire, /invul, and /wp. Now, if it was before Energize got added in then I can see why people didn't like */elec. Claws has been, and always will continue to be awesome.

I've retired my Kat/Regen and I now keep debating Kat/Elec (Link) or Kat/Wp (Link).

Katana is a jack of all trades but with some money and time effort to get both -res procs and reactive interface it can do great ST damage it has fast animations.

Dizzy