Dual Blades

[BlueBard]

I went ahead and levelled a Dual Blades/Willpower character up to level 6 last night.  I concentrated on DB, so can't really speak to Willpower except to say that DB is end-hungry enough to make Willpower a very attractive choice.

I had a couple of false starts.  The first one came when I realized that in order to get a chain of combo powers as early as possible, I had to start out with the Minor damage power, which I hadn't done.  {Sigh}  Re-do.  Then my second time out of the gate, I forgot to customize my weapons the way I wanted.  But, third time's the charm.

The very first combo you can pull off is the Weaken combo, and the earliest you can get it is level 6.  It requires three powers fired off in succession.  I forget the names of the powers, exactly.  The first very-fast recharge, minor damage strike, then the defense debuff attack (at level 4), and finally the melee area attack (at level 6).

The goodness... the combos look really sweet.  The user interface tweak that helps you figure out which power you need to use next works quite well.  And it is awesome when you can get the combo to fire off in conjunction with a critical strike, especially against multiple targets.  But there is definitely an art to using the combo moves.

The first caveat, of course, is that all three powers have to hit in succession.  If you miss, or if you interrupt the attack chain with another power, you lose the combo and have to set it up all over again.  Accuracy enhancements are going to be crucial.

The second thing is that you have a limited amount of time to execute the combo chain.  If the timer runs out while you're still waiting for one of the powers to recharge, you lose the combo.  I think you have somewhere around 5 seconds in between attacks.  That means you're going to want to slot Recharge in the slower powers.

And all of those attacks use up Endurance.  You know where I'm going with that.

Third, I don't have any idea what the Weaken (or any other combo) actually does.  You get a blurb that says 'Weakened!'  That's all I know.  Probably won't be too hard to figure out, but it was late and I was barely functional.

One plus is that you don't have to execute all of the attacks on the same target.  As long as all of the attacks in the chain hit something, the combo executes.  Weaken fires in connection with the 360 attack, so all of those foes in range get hit with it.

If I were going to do it over, I would have dropped the level 2 DB power (the generic Moderate damage strike) in favor of another defensive power.  I only faceplanted a couple of times and was able to take out mobs of 5-6 even & yellow con enemies at the cost of most of my health and endurance.  But a bit more defense would have given me more breathing room.

Feel free to share!

[BlueBard]

Hm, on reflection, I probably wouldn't have dropped the other attack at level 2.  I can't imagine trying to slog my way through to level 4 with only a Minor damage attack.

True, I can supplement with my Origin and Veteran Bonus powers, but still...

[El Condor]

I don't have any idea what the Weaken (or any other combo) actually does.  You get a blurb that says 'Weakened!'  That's all I know.  Probably won't be too hard to figure out, but it was late and I was barely functional.

Weaken is a to-hit and defense debuff to the enemy.

Empower is a to-hit and damage buff to you.

Attack Vitals is 5 ticks of DoT

Sweep is +damage and knockdown

EC

[Funeral-Pyre]

I have been enjoying my DB scrapper.  It has been a lot of fun.  I have a question for anyone who tried DB out on test.  Both DB and WP seem to warrant taking almost every power in the set.  Would foregoing the fitness line be very problematic.  I wasn't going to, but in an in-game conversation I had with Camma, I started contemplating it.  I know that stamina and health are still vital for Regens.  Any thoughts?

Also, has anyone seen the AS animation for DB?  It is awesome.  I made a DB stalker, and he jams both blades into his target and then cuts them out in opposite directions.  Nice!

[Alaric]

I know that stamina and health are still vital for Regens. 

That's funny... A7 doesn't have stamina, or anything else from the Health pool, and he doesn't have energy trouble...

[Camma]

After our discussion i went back to the drawling board with hero planner (I think im using a BS/Regen template since it isnt updated for I11).  It is already tight, and really really tight with stamina.  My plan is to go ahead with the initial non-stamina build.  If any set CAN do it it would be regen/WP with quick recovery.

But i had the same basic opinion about DB and WP.  You almost need every power in both sets.  I plan on skipping the taunt in DB and the rez in WP but taking everything else (the rez might make it back in but not sure yet).

[Funeral-Pyre]

I know that stamina and health are still vital for Regens. 

That's funny... A7 doesn't have stamina, or anything else from the Health pool, and he doesn't have energy trouble...

That's cuz he's lazy!

[El Condor]

I have been enjoying my DB scrapper.  It has been a lot of fun.  I have a question for anyone who tried DB out on test.  Both DB and WP seem to warrant taking almost every power in the set.  Would foregoing the fitness line be very problematic. 

You don't have to take every combo.  In the earlier stages of test, for example, we found that Empower wasn't really all that beneficial.  It's since been buffed a bit, but it still is good to think of going first by the powers that you find most effective and then the combos that best suit you.  There are plenty of attacks that stand on their own, so this set is not simply all about the combos.  For the defensive set, something less tight and with end mod (like regen) is a very good idea, although a number of brutes found great synergy with DA.  WP, on the other hand, does not necessarily have a natural synergy with DB (largely because it is such a tight build). We can also expect that this is a build will probably be respecced a lot, so don't feel pressured to get it all perfect right away.

EC

[Alaric]

Remember, there's a freespec coming in a week.

[Bujin]

I re-rolled Bujin as a DB/WP scrapper - I'm having loads of fun with him!  :)

[AncientSpirit]

I'm also really enjoying my DB/WP scrapper -- am now level 16 -- and have taken all of the primaries except confront.   EXTREMELY endurance draining, but I'm hoping that clears up once you get Quick Recovery at 20 (and spec it at 21) since that's supposed to be better than stamina, and I've never had endurance problems with characters with stamina.   Also, SOs should make a big difference over DOs.

What I like about the second (moderate) attack at this level, is that when I hit for Power Up or Weaken, its great to strike again with some real damage to it.  Also, by the time I finish with that attack, the second round of combo is available, so you always seem to have a power up or weaken available to execute.

However, my proposed build only includes the Speed Pool with superspeed as my travel power.   (I'm hoping to stretch out the Raptor Pak by using it for only the shortest periods to get around otherwise crazy obstacles.

But I have no idea what Epic power pool would work best with a DB/WP scrapper.   Any ideas?

[Camma]

But I have no idea what Epic power pool would work best with a DB/WP scrapper.   Any ideas?

I was planning on going for Focused Accuracy (forget which set that is) like all my scrappers have, and then laser beam eyes as well just cuz they are cool looking.

[Midnight]

That one's body mastery. Conserve Energy, Focused Accuracy, Laser Beam Eyes and Energy Torrent.

Honestly, scrapper Epic Pool selection sucks.

[Viking]

Another possibility of an Epic Scrapper Pool to go along with Dual Blades is the Weapons Mastery pool, which has the four powers of:

1: Web Grenade
2: Caltrops
3: Shuriken
4: Exploding Shuriken

Regardless of whether this is optimal from a numbers-crunching standpoint, it certainly flows with a dual blades/willpower scrapper concept - especially if he's of Natural Origin.

[Stopman]

Another possibility of an Epic Scrapper Pool to go along with Dual Blades is the Weapons Mastery pool, which has the four powers of:

1: Web Grenade
2: Caltrops
3: Shuriken
4: Exploding Shuriken

Regardless of whether this is optimal from a numbers-crunching standpoint, it certainly flows with a dual blades/willpower scrapper concept - especially if he's of Natural Origin.

Why would you put your blades away???

[BlueBard]

Another possibility of an Epic Scrapper Pool to go along with Dual Blades is the Weapons Mastery pool, which has the four powers of:

1: Web Grenade
2: Caltrops
3: Shuriken
4: Exploding Shuriken

Regardless of whether this is optimal from a numbers-crunching standpoint, it certainly flows with a dual blades/willpower scrapper concept - especially if he's of Natural Origin.

Why would you put your blades away???

Good point.  Weapon draws would stink.  Single-weapon attacks can always use the off-hand, but I don't know what you'd do for DB.   Other than throw shuriken with your toes. ;)

[Midnight]

The AT specific power doesn't redraw, and they're all "throwing" motions.

[Viking]

Sigh... clearly, my statement of Regardless of whether this is optimal from a numbers-crunching standpoint has fallen on blind eyes.

[AncientSpirit]

For me, weapons mastery would work best from a character point of view -- and since Viking refuses to point out that this may not be optimal from a numbers crunching standpoint -- its the one I would go with. if I went with an epic.

Of course, with DB/Wp, it might make more sense to take other regular powers or pools that otherwise wouldn't fit into a pre-epic build.