Help with my Dark Melee/Shield Scrapper!

[StriderIV]

Hi all!

Since I (finally) have mids, I've been playing around with my builds  rather than just flying by the seat of my pants 😂 I love DM/Shield and the synergy it brings, and this is what I'm currently running.

Some notes: I wanted to have soft capped positions, capped S/L resist and decent damage. I definitely gave up some proc opportunities. I also went with the new Psi Epic pool to grab Harmonic Mind to help with endurance a bit and further justify the Musculature Radial Alpha choice. I felt that I had enough AOE with Shield Charge, Shadow Maul and a proc'd out ToF (thanks @SomeGuy!)

Anyways, would love suggestions or any ideas/easy fixes where I can improve.

 

Scrapper (Dark Melee - Shield Defense).mbd

[Psiphon]

The only change that stands out to me is is recharge in active defence. 

This can be double stacked which includes the DDR. 

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Building off of Psiphon's input, if you stack active defense twice DDR goes into the low 70% range. If you take ageless radial destiny incarnate and bring it to T4, then your DDR goes up into the low 90% range even during the part of the ageless radial cycle that offers the lowest level of debuff resistance. That's very helpful for avoiding cascading defense debuff failures. Ageless radial is also great for the recharge buff and the endurance refill, as well, and so for this kind of character it's a very reasonable pick. 

[StriderIV]

@Psiphon @EnjoyTheJourney Thank you both! I was kicking around the idea of moving another slot over there so I could fit in another recharge IO. I'm going to mess around with the build and see what slot makes most sense!

[EffyOnHeat]

There's a few things i'd change.

 

1. You can slot Membrane exposure HOs in Active defenses, it'll improve your def debuff res plus recharge. double stacked AD is great.
2. I'd put the plus Rech proc in something that recharges faster
3. I don't run Maneuvers for defense, it's so end heavy for what it is.
4. Touch of fear with a bunch of procs seems off to me, i skip that power unless somethings changed since i last ran that set.
5. I also don't take Grant cover.
6. You have slotted 6 LOTG 7.5s but 5 is max.

I can build my version if you so wish. my mains FM/SD Scrap

[SomeGuy]

2 hours ago, EffyOnHeat said:

There's a few things i'd change.

 

1. You can slot Membrane exposure HOs in Active defenses, it'll improve your def debuff res plus recharge. double stacked AD is great.
2. Touch of fear with a bunch of procs seems off to me, i skip that power unless somethings changed since i last ran that set.
3. I also don't take Grant cover.

 

 

1. This got fixed on Live. Doesn't apply any more unless that bug snuck back in.

2. Try it. You can actually make DM viable AOE.

3. What.

 

I'm familiar with SD.

[EffyOnHeat]

18 minutes ago, SomeGuy said:

 

 

1. This got fixed on Live. Doesn't apply any more unless that bug snuck back in.

2. Try it. You can actually make DM viable AOE.

3. What.

 

I'm familiar with SD.

1. Interesting, i pulled the HO and the def debuff didn't change, i missed that change.

2. I like it, i just prefer other options.

3. with soft cap def and double stacked AD i just don't find i get hit enough to feel i need any more def debuff res.

[StriderIV]

19 hours ago, EffyOnHeat said:

There's a few things i'd change.

 

1. You can slot Membrane exposure HOs in Active defenses, it'll improve your def debuff res plus recharge. double stacked AD is great.
2. I'd put the plus Rech proc in something that recharges faster
3. I don't run Maneuvers for defense, it's so end heavy for what it is.
4. Touch of fear with a bunch of procs seems off to me, i skip that power unless somethings changed since i last ran that set.
5. I also don't take Grant cover.
6. You have slotted 6 LOTG 7.5s but 5 is max.

I can build my version if you so wish. my mains FM/SD Scrap

 

17 hours ago, SomeGuy said:

 

 

1. This got fixed on Live. Doesn't apply any more unless that bug snuck back in.

2. Try it. You can actually make DM viable AOE.

3. What.

 

I'm familiar with SD.

Thanks for all the advice. I took out the FF proc from Shield Charge and was able to pick up a bit more AOE defense for the build, bumping it up to 51.6%. I moved one slot from True Grit over to Active Defense so I could drop another recharge IO in it.

[EffyOnHeat]

6 hours ago, StriderIV said:

 

Thanks for all the advice. I took out the FF proc from Shield Charge and was able to pick up a bit more AOE defense for the build, bumping it up to 51.6%. I moved one slot from True Grit over to Active Defense so I could drop another recharge IO in it.

45% defence is soft cap, with doubt AD you don’t really need more. 

[StriderIV]

24 minutes ago, EffyOnHeat said:

45% defence is soft cap, with doubt AD you don’t really need more. 

True, it just ended up working out that way as I finished the set. Maybe I’ll drop a piece and fit in a proc instead!

[Sancerre]

On 4/2/2024 at 2:58 AM, StriderIV said:

True, it just ended up working out that way as I finished the set. Maybe I’ll drop a piece and fit in a proc instead!

if you can squeeze out more defense at no or little cost to your overall build, it is worth it -- especially melee defense.  incarnate story arcs have a higher hit rate for example where 59% is the cap instead.  i will note that building for 59% away from team buffs is unreasonable but 45% is not the end of the line.  also helps against defense reduction... even with 70%+ resistance, it still happens and it hedges against cascading failure.

 

aside from that... the 'optimal' place to do crit strikes proc is on smite for pure dps or midnights grasp for consistency... siphon life is probably a fine middle ground but wherever you put crit strikes proc you should definitely NOT be slotting up recharge in the same power.

 

your s/l resist cap is fake because you have one wit the shield active.  consider slotting true grit differently (4 unbreakable 2 prev medicine, to get a nice big chunk of E/N/F/C/T resists.

 

shadow maul is an odd button... in theory it is solid if you are hitting 2+ targets but................ 7 foot melee cones just suck.

 

i would recommend fury of gladiator -res proc in soul drain for a couple reasons -- the proc rate is virtually guaranteed on every critter every time... also it becomes the button that buffs and debuffs in one go for you...

[StriderIV]

12 minutes ago, Sancerre said:

if you can squeeze out more defense at no or little cost to your overall build, it is worth it -- especially melee defense.  incarnate story arcs have a higher hit rate for example where 59% is the cap instead.  i will note that building for 59% away from team buffs is unreasonable but 45% is not the end of the line.  also helps against defense reduction... even with 70%+ resistance, it still happens and it hedges against cascading failure.

 

aside from that... the 'optimal' place to do crit strikes proc is on smite for pure dps or midnights grasp for consistency... siphon life is probably a fine middle ground but wherever you put crit strikes proc you should definitely NOT be slotting up recharge in the same power.

 

your s/l resist cap is fake because you have one wit the shield active.  consider slotting true grit differently (4 unbreakable 2 prev medicine, to get a nice big chunk of E/N/F/C/T resists.

 

shadow maul is an odd button... in theory it is solid if you are hitting 2+ targets but................ 7 foot melee cones just suck.

 

i would recommend fury of gladiator -res proc in soul drain for a couple reasons -- the proc rate is virtually guaranteed on every critter every time... also it becomes the button that buffs and debuffs in one go for you...

This is all super helpful Sancerre, thank you! Playing with some adjustments now.

[StriderIV]

23 minutes ago, Sancerre said:

if you can squeeze out more defense at no or little cost to your overall build, it is worth it -- especially melee defense.  incarnate story arcs have a higher hit rate for example where 59% is the cap instead.  i will note that building for 59% away from team buffs is unreasonable but 45% is not the end of the line.  also helps against defense reduction... even with 70%+ resistance, it still happens and it hedges against cascading failure.

 

aside from that... the 'optimal' place to do crit strikes proc is on smite for pure dps or midnights grasp for consistency... siphon life is probably a fine middle ground but wherever you put crit strikes proc you should definitely NOT be slotting up recharge in the same power.

 

your s/l resist cap is fake because you have one wit the shield active.  consider slotting true grit differently (4 unbreakable 2 prev medicine, to get a nice big chunk of E/N/F/C/T resists.

 

shadow maul is an odd button... in theory it is solid if you are hitting 2+ targets but................ 7 foot melee cones just suck.

 

i would recommend fury of gladiator -res proc in soul drain for a couple reasons -- the proc rate is virtually guaranteed on every critter every time... also it becomes the button that buffs and debuffs in one go for you...

A couple changes implemented! Going to play around some more, but I really appreciate it!

Scrapper (Dark Melee - Shield Defense).mbd