Moderate Recharge: DB vs. Katana

I'm planning a new scrapper that will be getting a fairly "mid range" IO build (basically, no PvP and no Purples).

I'd like to play either Katana or DB, because I have never played either before.

The build will have about 40-55% Global Recharge, Hasten and I will be aiming for Spiritual T4.


So while not terrible, it won't be the most amazing levels of recharge either.


In which case, I was hoping someone would be able to tell me which one comes out better on ST DPS, DB or Katana, with that level of recharge, no Fury of the Glad Proc, etc.

I also want to know which is better for AoE capabilities, although I'm pretty sure it would be DB by a little bit - while Katana has the advantage of DA (which I'm not particularly concerned about).

Thanks for your help.

The Blinding Feint->Attack Vitals chain from DB gives you a lot of bang for the buck, as it doesn't take significant amounts of recharge(letting you get away with taking Musculature instead of Spiritual) and packs a fair amount of damage.

I don't know what chain you would be using for Kat at that recharge level, but what Auroxis said is true. DB also does have better AoE, as you mentioned.

What I'd suggest will depend on secondary. If your secondary needs defensive help, I'd take Katana. If it doesn't, I'd take Dual Blades.

Both the common one Divine Avalanche and two Divine Avalanche chains are easily reached with that global recharge, depending on how much defense you need. If you don't need defense, the Blinding Feint -> Attack Vitals chain is available at that global recharge if you can slot a lot of recharge in your attacks, and while I haven't run any numbers, I'd be surprised if it didn't beat Katana at that level of recharge. Plus that chain is doing some cone AoE. Plus it boosts your damage aura if that matters.

1 DA: DA -> GC -> GD -> GC -> SD -> GC
2 DA: DA -> GC -> GD -> GC -> DA -> GC -> SD -> GC

If you're going with Fire Armor, I'd say Katana with the use of DA in the chain.

However, DB is easy to get BF-Attack vitals chain going on very little recharge. I run the chain without gaps with just 57% global recharge.

With 40% global recharge, enough RCH slotted into the powers should get you there, and if not quite there, witht he Spiritual Alpha for sure.

Thanks for all of the input so far.

I was leaning heavily towards DB anyway (just because it looks fun really), so the collected input has me feeling good about that decision.

I was debating between Willpower and Invuln, and while I think Invuln has the Defense advantage, I decided to go WP for the added Recovery which allows me to go Spiritual or Musculature instead of Cardiac, as well as WP putting me within 50HP or so of the Scrapper HP cap, with 100+ HPS regen with 10 foes in range of RttC.


Here's what I've got at the moment, using a template that Werner had showed me for Softcapping WP. It currently has Spiritual, for the rech and heal benefits but I'm considering Auroxis' idea and switching to Musculature.


It's not softcapped, because I don't have the Glad Unique, but I got relatively close enough.

Pros:

• 2348 HP
• Regen 109 HPS with 10 in range of RttC
• "Close enough for government work" to softcap for SM/L/Ene/neg

• I don't like how power slice is slotted and might remove the Achilles heel proc from Ablating Strike to add a Nucleus HO to Power Slice.
• Not sure if I can run Tactics all the time, but I most likely shouldn't need it all the time
• OMG WTF 6 slotted Confront & Tactics? Confront was for the set bonuses and because even a single target auto-hit taunt can be useful on teams, if someone has a better idea I'm ready to hear it though. Tactics I took for the set bonuses in gaussian's and because I figured I wouldn't want to miss when it's combo time.

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Updated the Data Chunk to reflect slightly different slotting in the PBAoEs.



I'm...not very good at calculating DPS.

How can I figure out which would be better DPS wise, Spiritual vs. Musculature, assuming Core Paragon?

As BF > Attack Vitals doesn't require that much recharge, are the only main benefits the increased recharge on Hasten and the added +HP & Regen from Spiritual?

W/ Spiritual Core Paragon
2338 HP
109 HPS

W/out
2313 HP
94 HPS


The HP impact is minimal, but 15 HPS is a pretty moderate amount of regen to lose (about -14%)

Musculature always gives more DPS than Spiritual(with DB anyway). I think you can do away with both Hasten and Spiritual and still get smooth DB chains(BF-AV and BF-Sweep).

Seeing as WP doesn't need recharge at all it would be a solid way to go.

I have a DB, BS and Kat scrapper and I like DB the best. I do think Kat and BS has better damage, but the combos from DB sells it for me. I also think Typhoon's Edge is faster at by couple of seconds in base recharge than Whirling Sword or The Lotus Drops. I like the Empower Combo(Nimble Slash, Ablating Strike, and Blinding Feint) and Attack Vitals Combo (Ablating Strike, Vengeful Slice, and Sweeping Strike).

It looks like BF needs one recharge IO in it to fit into the BF-AV chain smoothly with that build, so perhaps find a slot somewhere for it and one for Power Slice as well(I would take one from Stamina and one from SS). Also, VS is .2 of a second off fitting in the chain smoothly without a recharge IO, but that's probably something you could live with.

Going Musculature Radial for the end mod...
Got S/L defense to 45% and E/N at 43.4%. F/C defense went down a bit though.
Got more HP and should run BF-AV no problem.
Price went up a bit though due to the Acc/Rech Heca on BF...
Anyways... here it is

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