EM?
How about anyone of these first?
Dark Melee
Kinetic Melee
Claws
Dual Blades
Broadsword
Katana
Electrical Melee
Fiery Melee
War Mace
Battle Axe
Titan Weapons
Staff Weapons
Street Justice
Water Balloons
ok, so I ran out of ideas after water balloons...but any of those are all more viable DPS contenders than Energy Melee for a high end build...I will concede that water balloons would be a close match narrowly edging out Energy Melee by a hair. That is, of course, unless you fill the water balloons with gasoline...then they are fiery water balloons and fiery water balloons wins handily.
Currently Playing:
Rage King - SS/Regen Brute (50+3)
Soulfire Darkness - Dark/Fire Tank (50+2)
Deaths Final Embrace - Kat/Dark Brute (50+3)
ULTIMATE REGEN GUIDE I22
Frankly, you're criticizing the wrong aspect of EM. It does totally competitive single target DPS, on par with a lot of those sets. It just sacrifices to do so, and your AoE is crap. But it certainly does more ST dps than water balloons, crushes BS, slaughters ElM, and certainly can keep up with brute claws and DB, katana, and Axe. Even though you don't like the set, at least lodge legit criticisms, like "the attacks take too long" or "the AoE sucks" or "ET hurts me," but the single target DPS has never been bad on EM
The ST DPS is only marginally inline with the very median average of sets...it's barely above BS, Electrical Melee is the lowest ST DPS so comparing the 2 is hardly interesting...everything is better than ELM.
It cannot keep up with claws...period. DB is running the highest DPS with ELA right now, so explain to me how it keeps up?
Katana is better DPS than Axe, and has always been near the top tier of sets in that regard, EM is nowhere in the same ballpark.
What about StJ, TW, and MA? EM is nowhere near them...
The AoE is terrible...the animation times are garbage, and ever since they nerfed it years ago, the ST DPS has been on the lower side of the middle. It always will be, and it will never be what it once was...EM is terrible as a set and sacrifices too much for no reward.
Currently Playing:
Rage King - SS/Regen Brute (50+3)
Soulfire Darkness - Dark/Fire Tank (50+2)
Deaths Final Embrace - Kat/Dark Brute (50+3)
ULTIMATE REGEN GUIDE I22
MOVING BACK to the original topic of discussion, what to pair with DA, I have a crazy answer:
Energy Melee (gasp!)
Before you write me off, look at the synergies. Every attack in EM does a stun, stacks with OG. The -hp in ET is negligible thanks to the best heal in the game. EM has a very low end cost thanks to ET's ridiculously nice EPS.
Also mixing light and dark energy seems pretty badass.
I know EM is almost certainly the worst set brutes have, but DA makes it seem kinda awesome (or at least does for me)