Spines/Dark El Classico

[Black_Assassin]

Any of you who have experience in both Spines and Dark on scrappers able to assist and lend an eye to this build please? Unsure where it best for the 50% proc, otherwise aimed for 45% def and then as much global recharge as I could. Would proc loading be better?

 

Scrapper (Savage Melee - Dark Armor).mbd

[Uun]

• Aiming for 45% defense with Dark Armor isn't worthwhile. The set has no DDR (defense debuff resistance) and your defense will be stripped away quickly. It's more productive to max your resistances (your En and Tx resists are low). Because scrappers have a 75% resist cap, I prefer Dark Armor on tanks and brutes (which have a 90% cap).
• The best place to put the Critical Strikes proc would be Barb Swipe. It has the shortest animation time after effect, allowing you full use of the 3.25s critical window that follows the attack. 
• Put a 4th Shield Wall in Cloak of Darkness for the  4.5% E/N resist bonus.
• Instead of Psi Mastery, consider Soul Mastery for Moonbeam and Shadow Meld.
• I wouldn't bother with Maneuvers other than as a LOTG mule and would drop Assault and Vengeance entirely. 
• Consider swapping Super Jump for Mighty Leap and then build to Unleash Potential. 

[Black_Assassin]

I know its got no DDR, my thinking was that up until its gone, its good to have the softcap 🤷‍♂️ thinking on this though, I am only safe from melee debuffs and not debuffs fired at range.

 

I had considered soul, but I am well aware of the endurance issues on Dark, was thinking that the endurance cost reduction and extra +end slot would help towards alleviating this.

 

Had not considered running unleash potential though. that could be a play, will have to build from scratch with this in mind. I dont necessarily want to rely on ageless, but would having no harmonic mind still be viable with just ToE proc in dark regen to keep me topped up?

 

Good point on barb swipe animation though, will make amendments accordingly, thanks for the expertise. 

Edited Thursday at 06:17 PM by Black_Assassin

[Uncle Shags]

If you have a hankering for the spines, go for it.  The double damage aura and nostalgia factor are tempting.  I haven't messed with it so I can't say much.  Although I think Lunge or Ripper might both be better than Impale for single target damage, unless you're sold on the range idea.

 

But I love me some dark armor!  It's awesome.  And I have found it benefits greatly from defense in addition to resistance (especially in conjunction with oppressive gloom and the much maligned cloak of fear (gasp!)).  I disagree with the "it doesn't have ddr so don't bother" concept.  If ddr mattered that much the only people that should go for defense at all would be SR or Shield toons.  Just because a head on collision with a mack truck would likely kill me doesn't mean I shouldn't still wear my seat belt every day.  Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Etc, etc...  Also, you can always get ageless radial if you're planning on tanking -def enemies.