Best secondary for Dark Melee?

[SuperPlyx]

Interested in rolling a Dark Melee scrapper and wondering what the best secondary would be? What works best? Is there secondaries that you would absolutely not pair with DM? 

[Werner]

It might sound strange, but Dark Melee / Shield Defense is supposed to be awesome. I liked my Dark Melee / Super Reflexes, and it can be very hard to kill if built for it.

[Auroxis]

Bio has a lot of synergy with DM. It has a damage aura you can scale up with Soul Drain (which also addresses your AoE issues) and being a resist/defense hybrid it benefits from the -tohit debuffs.

[Frostweaver]

I second both of those suggestions. Bio (because I love Bio with everything) and shield defense both make excellent pairings, as does radiation armor.... all three tend to add to DM's layered defense potential, and help shore up it's aoe weakness.

[Werner]

It seems like Bio is the current answer to all questions. 😉 I should probably keep leveling my TW/Bio. I started him randomly, just "What are two sets that I've never played?" Then I found out from the forum that the combination is awesome once fully pimped out. It seems like I can't make a bad Scrapper or Brute even when I try. 😁

[Eva Destruction]

/SD also has a taunt aura, which makes things not run away when you're trying to kill them and allows you to kinda tank for teams.

 

I finally got mine to 50 this week and now I'm remembering why I loved the combo so much on live.

[jshmoe1236123]

Keep in mind that Soul Drain doesn't boost Toxic damage(at least the in-game info seems to say this).  So /bio's toggled PBAoE wouldn't be impacted by Soul Drain. I haven't tested in-game if that's actually accurate or just an oversight on in-game text.  

 

With that being said, I have a dm/invul that I feel I can do anything with.  I don't know if they so much synergize, but /invul will keep you all nice and warm as you are pounding away with dm/.

 

 

[Nightmarer]

For me the perfect match is DM/SR, although DM/Shield offers same synergy plus some advantages such as +dmg aura, higher res. +HP... among other things (SR offers +20% rchg though).

Besides these two, I found DM/Inv, DM/Bio and DM/Fire incredibly fun to play and solid performers.

[MunkiLord]

I'm gonna throw in another vote for DM/SR, but I'm biased as that's what MunkiLord is. It's easy to softcap and hit extreme recharge numbers, and the DDR makes it incredibly tough. It will also be the cheapest build to reach high performance, so if influence is a concern I'd probably say it's your best bet.

 

DM/SD will require more investment, but it has a higher ceiling than SR. AAO is pretty amazing, and can take DM to higher places than SR could. Plus the extra resist and Shield Charge are nice.

 

WP is pretty fantastic too. You're not going to softcap as easily(or at all) compared to SD and SR, but those layered tools are amazing. It's really a great all around set.

 

I haven't looked into it, but DM/Fire sounds very interesting. It won't be as tough as the others obviously, but Soul Drain boosted damage aura and Burn make my mouth water.

[Heraclea]

There really aren't many secondaries that aren't improved by Dark Melee, though Fire and Regen might get less out of it than some others.  Two things make DM especially beneficial: sets that don't get a self heal (Shield, Willpower) or have a slow self heal (Invuln); and sets that are oriented towards defense or mixed defense/resistance (Invuln/Bio).  The -tohit debuff in just about all of your attacks, adds the moral equivalent of defense to everything you hit by them. 

[Xyzor]

I love my DM/Regen Scrapper. Not sure why it was mentioned that Regen gets less out of the DM pairing. I'm open to the conversation, but Xyzor is a beast.

[Werner]

One of the nice advantages of Dark Melee is providing a heal to sets that lack one. Regeneration has more healing than it knows what to do with, so it lacks the synergy of some other secondaries. 

[Sancerre]

57 minutes ago, Werner said:

One of the nice advantages of Dark Melee is providing a heal to sets that lack one. Regeneration has more healing than it knows what to do with, so it lacks the synergy of some other secondaries. 

you're looking at it backwards.  DM fills one of the problems of regen by adding -hit (effectively defense) to it.  unfortunately one of the bigger problems with regen is just surviving alpha strikes... which -to hit on attack isnt going to solve.  that said i think willpower and bio are just flat out better than regen anyways.

 

DM is a very mediocre powerset overall.  it has solid single target DPS (slightly above average), but pretty terrible AoE.  the secondary benefits (-to hit, some CC, constant build-up, heal, end gain) are great and so is the damage type itself.  another big benefit is that DM is not a particularly active/combo oriented  weaponless set -- this means hitting other buttons wont massively drag down your dps or generally interfere with damage windows (lookin at you titan weapons).  shield defense is an obvious choice because shield charge fills the gap of AoE damage (even if the cooldown is long) and the heal built into DM helps fill that void from shield defense.  that said, you can also approach the AoE void with just straight damage auras (fire, elec, bio, and others).  but if you are going down to rabbit hole trying to fix it, why not instead just pick a better damage set.

 

generally speaking i dont think there are any "bad" armor sets specifically to go with DM.  its just a very solid all-rounder with its weakness being in AoE damage.  Some armor sets are just lower tier in general (regen).  so my opinion is: either build around a concept/theme and dont worry about the results or avoid dark melee to begin with.

 

as a special note, shadow maul cone warping is especially important if you want better AoE.  basically you just run through a pack with super speed on and shadow maul queue'd up... while doing a mini-jump as you pass through them.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Sancerre

[Heraclea]

5 hours ago, Sancerre said:

DM is a very mediocre powerset overall.  it has solid single target DPS (slightly above average), but pretty terrible AoE. 

I want to disagree, but I have to admit: the set's benefits do a lot more for tankers than they do for scrappers. 

[BrandX]

With the new proc changes, it would seem Dark Consumption can be turned into a long recharge, but high damage, almost no end (.52) PBAOE.

 

That by the DPS numbers, could be substituted in for Smite for a more powerful attack with the same animation time.

 

[Bill Z Bubba]

Remade my em/fa brute into a dm/inv brute. I am already beginning to suspect that this is a very potent combination. Sure, aoe is lacking, but I'll be buffing that a bit with dark obliteration. I've no doubt that it would be just as groovy for a scrapper.

[Riverdusk]

On 9/1/2019 at 7:35 PM, jshmoe1236123 said:

Keep in mind that Soul Drain doesn't boost Toxic damage(at least the in-game info seems to say this).  So /bio's toggled PBAoE wouldn't be impacted by Soul Drain. I haven't tested in-game if that's actually accurate or just an oversight on in-game text.  

 

With that being said, I have a dm/invul that I feel I can do anything with.  I don't know if they so much synergize, but /invul will keep you all nice and warm as you are pounding away with dm/.

 

 

I did test it and correct, Soul Drain has no effect on bio's damage aura.  Soul Drain does not boost toxic damage.  Still a great pairing, but that part was disappointing.

[jshmoe1236123]

20 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

I did test it and correct, Soul Drain has no effect on bio's damage aura.  Soul Drain does not boost toxic damage.  Still a great pairing, but that part was disappointing.

That's a shame.  I'm curious why, though.  But, regardless, I agree, it's a good pairing.  Not boosting the damage aura isn't exactly a deal breaker, IMHO.  You still have bio's offensive stance to pair with Soul Drain for and even more added damage boost on a primary that can have some high ST damage.

[Bloodofcaine]

Can't go wrong with shield, it helps out greatly in the one area DM is lacking, aoe damage. Soul drain into shield charge is a thing of beauty.

 

On 9/7/2019 at 12:54 PM, jshmoe1236123 said:

That's a shame.  I'm curious why, though. 

 

 Best guess in regards to soul drain not boosting toxic is because when the game first came out, there was no such thing as toxic damage. Things like the vahzilok vomit were classed as an unknown damage type if I recall, and it wasn't resistable.  Soul drain being a power that also existed at the inception of the game naturally didn't boost a damage type that didn't exist. Subsequently there were no player powers at the time that did toxic damage so I guess this was just an oversight that never got corrected as the game evolved and it wasn't seen as a priority to correct.

[BrandX]

4 hours ago, Bloodofcaine said:

Can't go wrong with shield, it helps out greatly in the one area DM is lacking, aoe damage. Soul drain into shield charge is a thing of beauty.

 

 

 Best guess in regards to soul drain not boosting toxic is because when the game first came out, there was no such thing as toxic damage. Things like the vahzilok vomit were classed as an unknown damage type if I recall, and it wasn't resistable.  Soul drain being a power that also existed at the inception of the game naturally didn't boost a damage type that didn't exist. Subsequently there were no player powers at the time that did toxic damage so I guess this was just an oversight that never got corrected as the game evolved and it wasn't seen as a priority to correct.

Wasn't Spines always a dot toxic damage?

[Bloodofcaine]

On 9/8/2019 at 5:26 PM, BrandX said:

Wasn't Spines always a dot toxic damage?

 My memory is fuzzy so I dunno since I didn't play spines back then. I just recall things like the vahz vomit not having a specified damage type.

[Murcielago]

Shield Defense for obvious reasons.

1. My main is a Dark/Shield Scrapper

2. The largest thread on the Scrapper forum is a thread for Dark/Shield

3. What everyone else has said in this thread regarding Shield Defense.

[ShardWarrior]

On 9/1/2019 at 12:32 PM, Werner said:

It might sound strange, but Dark Melee / Shield Defense is supposed to be awesome. I liked my Dark Melee / Super Reflexes, and it can be very hard to kill if built for it.

I had both of these back when the game was live and can attest that DM/SD and DM/SR are fantastic combos. 

[ThrillMill]

On 9/1/2019 at 12:32 PM, Werner said:

It might sound strange, but Dark Melee / Shield Defense is supposed to be awesome. I liked my Dark Melee / Super Reflexes, and it can be very hard to kill if built for it.

This doesn't sound strange at all! In fact, DM/SD are a perfect pairing as far as I'm concerned. 

[Lifeblood2112]

On ‎9‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 3:58 AM, Heraclea said:

I want to disagree, but I have to admit: the set's benefits do a lot more for tankers than they do for scrappers. 

I'll say this for DM.  My DM/Sr went 57-1 in the arena duels in live with no purps or the ATO sets we have today.  A self heal and that constant minus to hit left most whiffing while trying to hit me.  It does lack aoe but normally there is other aoe on the team so I focused on the big targets with mine.  I also tanked the ITF more than once on her.