SomeGuy

It is. It exemps perfectly fine. Everything is catalyzed except for the purps and winter stuff. What can be +5ed, is. I don't build something and use it if I can't use it for everything. Exemping, farming, av hunting, whatever. I do know before this guy had anything past T1 muscle and T4 Ageless it was dropping +4 AVs, solo. Ghost Widow being one of them.

Here's my current EM/SD/ZappBL build: Muscle and Ageless. I've gotten turned on to getting a lot of Slow resistance also, and this build has 80% (100 with the cim day job of another +20). You'll most likely get to incarnate cap when doing incarnate content with all the team buffs flying around. Hopefully this gives you some ideas.

I rarely post my builds and rarely give unsolicited advice/opinions. You're saying the exact thing towards me that you're doing yourself. This is a great example of my real life. I go to a new gym, some people there don't know who I am and what I've done/accomplished. That's fine. My actions do the work of that for me. Just like at a chain gym, this game is no different. I see a LOT of amazingly stupid stuff, That's fine, I get it. People don't know and they learn as much as they need to get their happy. I don't see a lot of disrespect in either situation. Keep it that way. People enjoy crossfit, despite the fact it's incredibly in optimal for results. It's their happy and they're doing it. I see builds that I swear were put together by someone with a room temperature IQ, but they're having fun with it. All that matters. That's why I love this game. You can be a brawl 6 slotter or min/maxer and still get the job done.

Yup, they sure are. And I started attacking them with that same mindset. I wanted to see for myself and guess what? They DO translate to overall performance in the rest of the game. The "OmG PyLoN tImEs" is a silly argument, but hey, people want affirmation without effort. I've been doing this back and forth since well before the game shut down originally, it's nothing new. I'm honestly surprised I'm taking this much time to even respond to this,

Literally what I did.

Claws is like politics. Feels and facts are separate things. How ya feel matters, but the facts are facts. And my findings aren't exclusive. Mace feels a lot chonkier than Claws, but Claws definitely wins the DPS game. And those times are averages. They aren't "best".

Burst? Mace. DPS? Claws. AOE? Claws. Claws dog walks most other sets in the DPS department. *this isn't opinion. This is proven fact.

Slash, spin, followup, and focus are all you need out of Claws. The rest is for flavor. Shockwave IS a good power, and I've come to the belief that it is necessary on a proc build (replace Strike in the rotation). Eviscerate is a cool looking power if you like flips and stuff. But other than that, it does pretty bad DPA and destroys your flow. Eviscerate is 100% skippable. Shockwave is skippable too, but if it fits your playstyle GET IT. It's good. Not necessary, just good. Claws does the some of the best AOE, if not the best, out of all the melee primaries and a big reason for that is Spin. Rad Melee may/may not do better AOE but it definitely doesn't touch it on single target DPS. These are my top 5 ST DPS characters (no, I do not have hybrid on for these). That Claws uses Shockwave in it's ST chain. And a proc Claws build does really well. As you can see, the times are all really close to each other, so RNG can move one ahead or behind. I'd imagine Claws/EA would do really well too, since my DB/EA is around 1:32 for a pylon time, and it was WAYYYY less squish.

Oh yeah. Check that BS/SD build up above. It's softcap. @Pzn may have got me on to D-Sync DMG/ENDs...

I've just always thought Broadsword looked cool. Same with Katana and Dual Blades. My DB/BIO and Kat/Bio (proc builds) both do times in the 1:10s. The DB/ENA does around 1:30 something and the Kat/Inv does like...low 1:50s I think? Sword and Board (BS/SD) does look pretty rad to me and I was pretty please with the performance of the combination when procced out. But man, I totally did a BS/SD straight through a while back and was getting times around 3:30. BS/SD procced out is pretty legit acting and looks cool.

Tried a BS/Bio/Snipe proc. Scrapper BS/BIO 1:36 (Degen/Zapp/Proc) Really can't see myself personally favoring Bio over Shield in this instance. Shield is WAYYYYY less squish and still does really good damage even compared to Bio.

Was Hybrid on or off? I've actually been curious how much more DPS the Brute version of my RAD/SS tanker would be without actually going to Brainstorm and seeing.

Got bored and tried a BS/SD scrapper procced out. Did a lot better than I expected. From experience this is about a minute and some change faster than a normal build for BS/SD Scrapper BS/SD 1:56 (Degen/Zapp/Proc Build) *actually tweaked this a little bit. Got the time down to 1:56

What @Pzn said. Clobber is just stupid DPA. Now personally, BS and Shield look AWESOME. Broadsword and Axe aren't great performers, but they look awesome (to me) paired with shield. I do know you can make BS a good performer, but WM is already there out of the box. If almost always solo, maybe you'd like BS more? Not sure. It is the one out of those three that has an attack that will boost melee/smash defense temporarily. And you can slot a LOTG recharge in it to boot. But yea, as for aesthetics, that all comes down to personal taste. I did wm/sd over wm/bio because of aesthetics alone. I have both, and the bio dog walks over shield in terms of damage, but the SD is wayyyyyy less squishy. I've seen some really cool looking BS/SD costumes. Headsplitter feels chocky as all get out. War Mace and BS both feel that way. A big pro, to me, is the amount of -RES you can get out of BS over WM. Taking advantage of -RES is a huge boost in solo performance, but a lot of people don't think about the fact it drastically increases a full team's DPS. The target that has the -RES applied to takes additional damage from EVERYTHING. Not just you. Food for thought. But overall, if you value damage over those other things, it's clearly WM. I wish you could do Kat/Shield. Got bored. Did a BS/SD/Zapp proc build. Just HS-Dis-Hack for the chain. Zapp weaved in when up after Hack. Not sure if the placement for ATO2 is ideal, but whatever.

Build Up on my tw/bio recharges in about 10s. I also have it setup to guarantee the -res proc for Achilles and fury every time. I also figured out how to make them stack as opposed to refresh. I do 40s times without pets. Also, this is complete BS.

Dude. I finally got to try this. Doing FU FOC SNIPE SLASH FU FOC SLASH SHOCK. I'm averaging about the same, but I've had some bests between 1:00 and 1:05. RNG is pretty lol sometimes. Claws is lol. I really like the fact that Shockwave is back in the build.

lol first time doing this with a RAD/SS Tanker and did 4:31 bUt YoU oNlY kIlL pYlOnS

I'm sleep walking doing +4x8 arachnos papers with this thing. This is wild. Carnies were a joke. End is just not an issue with this.

Went outside my wheelhouse. Tried a tanker. @StriderIV looking at you. Average. Not a best. Hybrid off. Tanker RAD/SS 2:58 (Degen/Gloom/Cardiac) *Tweaked the build a tap and got more consistent times.

Mandatory things to take in DB: Blinding Feint, Sweeping Strike, and Typhoon's Edge. Nimble Slash is necessary if going for the Empower Combo (and I'd honestly do this if not enough recharge for the BF-AS-SS-AS chain or doing a proc build if you want really good DPS performance). Vengeful Strike is cool as hell for the animation alone but pretty wanting in terms of actual performance. 1K Cuts is in the same boat as Vengeful Strike.

For regen? Re-roll anything else.

I honestly haven't figured out a good proc build for EM. Seems some sets do amazing with them. Claws, Dual Blades, Martial Arts, Katana, and Radiation Melee stand out to me on that one (for scrapper melee sets, anyways). I've seen Broad Sword do well with procced out. Out of the other ones I've tried, they don't seem to get as much mileage as those.

Umm, EM/RAD is pretty good. Average. Hybrid off. Scrapper EM/RAD 1:18 TF-RT-BU-ET-Snipe-TF-ET-BS-Snipe Always doing Total Focus - Radiation Therapy - Build Up - Energy Transfer -Snipe - Total Focus - Energy Transfer when Build Up is ready. I got a :55s run but threw it out. Rad Therapy and Meltdown make a nasty combo for Rad Armor.

I average 1:16 with this build: It's gotten way lower for a best run. Under a minute with Assault activated a few times. Obviously everyone builds different, but maybe it gives some ideas. I open: TF-BU-ET-Snipe-BS And that's my chain the entire time, except if Fast ET activates or BU is ready (which is only cast after TF and before ET).

I came *really* close to doing EM/ENA over EM/SD but the manhole cover as a shield won out. ENA is a ridiculously good armor set too.