No Headsplitter?

I'm working on a Broadsword/Fire Brute, and I am toying with the idea of soft capping both melee (with one use of Parry) and S/L. I can fill the holes with 90% resistance to Fire and decent E/N defense.

Do I even need Headsplitter? If Mid's is to be believed the DPArc is mediocre at best, no better than Disembowel or Hack. So far I have had limited success lining up more than one target consistently. I have much better luck just using Whirling, Slice and Burn with Parry for AoE. I am finding limited use for Headsplitter.

If I dropped it I could pick up Slash or Air Superiority for a Kinetic Combat mule, soft capping S/L in the process.

With Hasten up I am thinking my single target attack chain would be something like:

Parry -> Hack -> Disembowel, throwing in Burn as it recharges.

Most of the time I would be skipping Hack and Parry for Slice and Whirling Sword. The only use for Headsplitter would be replacing Parry every other chain for 58 DPArc instead of 51 for Parry. I can't justify the slots in Headpslitter unless it replaces Slice.

Am I crazy? Do people regularly get multiple opponents in Headsplitter? What do people use as a single target attack chain?

If you have the recharge, it has virtually identical unslotted DPS to the standard two-Parry chain. There's a fraction of a second where your second Parry drops, but I suffer through that on Katana with little problem, and you're soft-capped anyway. You could do better DPS if you went with an explicit one-Parry chain (I mean one per ten seconds, not one per chain), but like you say, most of the time you can fill in every or every other Parry with an AoE, which will normally do more damage than an optimized DPS chain.

I don't routinely get multiple opponents in Headsplitter, though I'm sure some people do. For me at least, I'd rather have predictable solid damage then blow a fraction of a second moving right or left for a roll of the dice of if I got it just right. I'm sure it's a skill you can get very good at with practice, though. I'm too lazy.

I say go for it.

I'd say it completely depends on whether or not you feel headsplitter's damage is signifcant enough to include in your chain over slash.

The fact of the matter is that you simply do not have to take it if you do not wish too. Slash would certainly be a more effective AoE ability more often simply, because mobs tend to fan out rather than line up. The AoE portion of headsplitter is so small it shouldn't be refered to as AoE or even a cone. It's essential a line. You can hit two, maybe (rarely) hit three mobs if they are lined up front to back or a middle mob is slight off center from one in the front in back.

Frankly, I typically look at it as a strong single target attack with incidental area damage. The latter is not something I plan for or concern myself with.

I can generally hit at least two enemies with Head Splitter, more if the enemies have a preference for melee. Basically, when the enemies have fanned out in front of you, just quickly step to their side and then execute Head Splitter. It doesn't take more than half a second and the crunchy damage is very welcome.

If you don't mind spending a little extra time, you can also strafe to the left of the enemies and keep going a short distance until they start to chase after you. They'll usually line up single file to chase you, so take advantage of this and knock them all down. You'll get more enemies in your super narrow cone this way and, once again, the damage is *really* satisfactory.

It's also worth noting that you can slot Fury of Gladiator: Chance for Res Debuff in Headsplitter, which stacks with Achilles Heel and can make quite a difference in how quickly you can defeat most enemies.

There's very little point to soft-capping both Melee and S/L.

If you're going to lean on Parry for melee defense, consider focusing other slotting on Ranged defense instead. S/L covers just that, S/L. Many ranged attacks are pure energy, which the way you are slotting you will have very little defense to, and not a great deal of resistance either.

Since many ranged energy attacks are electricity based (clockwork, Mu, Freakshow), you will have issues with being drained. Also: Sapper attacks are flagged ranged/energy as well, so they will have no problem hitting you.

With Broadsword/Fire you probably won't be able to soft-cap all positions, but you should be able to get melee and ranged at least. I'd take your 4 AoE powers (Slice, Whirlysword, Burn, Head Splitter) and slot at least 4 Eradication in them for the ranged defense (1.56%) and max HP bonus (2.25%, largest non-purple bonus) or split the difference and slot 2 Oblit sets and 2 Eradication.

Just my 2 cents, but I really think ignoring ranged and energy defenses are going to hurt you in the long run.

Well, I would keep in mind your intentions for the character.

If you build to what you intend to do solo and then keep in mind buffs that you'll typically have in teams for big game stuff you can really find quite a bit of leeway in what you want to do.

Sometimes a keyed up build is just overkill in many situations.

Doesn't Headsplitter have a high chance to knock down too? That alone, I would take it even if DPA is average at best or a bit less than Slash.

The only high tier attack that makes little sense is Greater Ice Sword on Tanker. That attack is just overall bad.