User:Deathspider
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Hey, it's DS!
I have had a few characters on Virtue, but I'm most known for Deathspider, my absolute favorite, and Cherish Sanchez. I also run (infrequently) with Flesh Storm, my brute, and various other oft-neglected alts. I also have an annoying tendency to write fiction, so check out the story pages, and let me know what you think.
I'm in Atlanta, GA, going to be 30 soon, working for private security companies (but secretely reading comic books, sketching, and writing on the job), and I'm stoked that the Virtueverse has turned out so well.
Hope to see you in-game!
Contents |
Bonus! The Deathspider Dark Melee/Super Reflexes Build!
The build
1. Shadow Punch/Focused Fighting. In this set there is no excuse not to take Shadow Punch, no matter what other people say. It's an accuracy debuff, if nothing else.
2. Smite. An excellent damage attack, with accuracy debuff. Pretty standard.
4. Shadow Maul. Your bread and butter. Never a reason not to take this. Those morons who whine about it rooting you? They're idiots. Take it.
6. Swift.
8. Touch of Fear. Let me tell you something. ToF is stupid good. I suffered prior to I6 being released because I had no idea what accuracy debuffs were and how great Fear is. If you don't take this power, you're worst than useless. You're a liability to your team. This power can stop most anything in it's track, Bosses and AVs with repeated applications. This is what sets you above the other Scrappers. Plus, duh, accuracy debuff. This concludes your basic attack chain until you get your AoEs, Siphon Life, etc. And really, you don't need much else to be effective.
10. Combat Jumping. Because Jump Kick just doesn't cut it. Plus, if you get immobilized, just hit this and you're good. Low endurance, and a smidgin of Defense. Why not?
12. Focused Senses. Now, why do you take this now? Because up till now you can't afford two toggles going, really. Now people start to really shoot at'cha, but you can often times get by without activating it.
14. Practiced Brawler. Best anti-mez/knockdown in the game, bar none, set this on auto, slot it with a couple recharges, and you're good to go.
16. Health. You need this anyway.
18. Agile. Yup. You may want to switch this up if you're leveling through this with Super Jump, because your temp travel powers may disappear by now. That's fine. Just make sure to take it.
20. Stamina. Like everyone else. But especially with /SR, because it's so endurance heavy.
22. Dark Consumption. Slow recharge, yes, but the more you hit with this AoE, the more endurance you get back. Slot it with recharges, accuracy, and endurance modifications, so it comes up quicker, hits more, and you get more endurance off the ones you do hit. Very necessary.
24. Super Jump. Note: Take this at 24, otherwise take it at 18, and substitute Agile here. If you plan on PvPing, you want to have this for Bloody Bay. Super Jump, for me, is the all-around most useful Travel Power in the game.
26. Siphon Life. Don't pass this up. The Health gain isn't that great, but it's an accuracy debuff, and you might need that green to get through a fight. Don't sneer at Siphon Life. It won't fill up your bar like Dark Consumption will, but it can keep you in the fight and save your life.
28. Dodge. Take this now, to complement...
30. Lucky. If you want to PvP, having the full compliment of Passive defenses will grant you the sliding Damage Resistance that SR provides. Plus, hey, you ain't getting your AoE toggle until 35, and you need all the help you can get. Plus, Soul Drain isn't effective for PvP unless you want to unstealth Stalkers, so it can keep for a little bit.
32. Soul Drain. Okay, here's the thing about Soul Drain. Jump into a group of mobs. Hit it. You start to glow. You can hit up to 7 folks with this AoE, and you will get a bonus to hit and damage (not sure of the numbers), and you will defintely see the difference. Accuracy, To Hit Buffs, and recharges will help you. Don't bother slotting for damage. This is your Build-Up, and for me, far superior to Build-up. Lasts longer, and is just all around more useful.
35. Evasion. Your AoE toggle. Take it. Slot 3 damage/1 end rec, or go nuts with the IO sets.
38. Elude. 3 def/3 rec. This is your God Mode, and you'll definitely appreciate the Endurance regeneration while you're at it. Never a reason not to take this.
41. Midnight Grasp. Now you take your big power. Mostly because it's no Eagle's Claw or Headsplitter. What it does do is some decent damage over time, and an immbolization, and oh, look again, another accuracy debuff.
44. Quickness. It pains me to take this so late in the game, but you'll notice the difference.
47. Hasten or Conserve Power. I prefer Hasten. Just makes everything quicker. Focused Accuracy is nice, but it eats a lot of endurance and so you only really can operate it when you've popped Elude, which is good for when you have an Eluding AV or Boss or Stalker in Recluse's Victory, but I've done fine without it.
49. Conserve Power/Teleport Friend/ Or whatever. By now, you pretty much have everything you need. Dipping into power pools is irrelevant, you pretty much have everything you need to solo or be a startlingly effective teammate. You can tank and control some with ToF, and you can dish out some pretty decent damage. You're no Broadsword, but that's not the point. You have more answers than other scrappers to problems (Fear, AoE build up, endurance gain, Health gain, accuracy debuffs), and you're quick and fast enough to avoid most problems. Elude is outstanding, and all your attacks debuff your opponent's accuracy, which adds to your defense.
Slotting
IO Slotting: Crushing Blow for Shadow Punch, Smite, and Midnight Grasp, with a Hami-O acc/dmg for good measure. All those recharge bonuses with a 5% recharge stack, so you'll be FAST.
Shadow Maul works great with Scirocco's Dervish and a Acc/Dmg Hami-O. The recharge, endurance discount, plus the 10% Regeneration and 9% Accuracy bonus is killer.
Siphon Life, Dark Consumption, and Soul Drain - 2/2/2 is a good philosophy. 2 accuracies, 2 recharges, and 2 of whatever it does - Health, Endurance Modification, or Accuracy Buff.
Touch of Fear - Right now I have a Buff/End, a Acc/End, and 5 of the Nightmare Set. This probably could use some tweaking, but it's working fine, and the set bonuses for Nightmare are paying off.
Focused Senses, Focused Fighting, and Evasion: Red Fortune works wonders here. The recharge isn't worth so much, but the endurance discount plus the Defense is far better than the old 3 Def/1 End Rec slotting. With 4 slot each, I recommend taking the Endurance, Defense, Endurance Defense, and the End/Def/Rec to round things out. You don't need these to recharge.
Practiced Brawler - 2 slotted with Recharges works well. It's almost always on.
Agile, Dodge, and Lucky - 3 slot with IO/SO. I feel an IO set is wasted on these. They don't cost endurance, and you won't have enough to get any serious set bonuses.
Quickness - You can get by with one Run boost.
Elude - Slap an entire set of Red Fortune in here, or 3 Def/3 End. The recharge provided by Red Fortune (or Luck of the Gambler, if you can swing that kinda cash) is perfect here, whereas in the toggles it's wasted. The endurance here, though, is wasted, because this power makes you regenerate endurance anyway. Still, those set bonuses are awful nice. Red Fortune gives some pretty nice ones to help you with your overall defense, so why not? It's pretty cheap too. Not as beefy as Luck of the Gambler's set bonuses, but still quite nice.
Philosophy
The philosophy behind the DM/SR build is to leap into the fray. Fuck what the team thinks - you need to do this to be effective. Leap into the group of mobs, hit Soul Drain, and what the hell, Dark Consumption just to get thier attention. Hit the biggest dude with Touch of Fear, lock his ass down. Beat the shit out of him. Repeat until everyone is dead. And the great part is that you don't need the Tank to cover your ass - you don't need that dummy most of the time, unless, like, Lord Recluse is zipping around like a meth head, one-shotting dudes.
You can control (with Touch of Fear), you can mitigate damage with your accuracy debuffs with every hit of your melee attacks, you can also mitigate damage to a degree with Siphon Life, which is an accuracy debuff AND a health gain. Not too shabby. And yes, this build and playstyle is endurance heavy, and that's why Dark Consumption is such a life saver. Plus, hey, AoE. Soul Drain is a far superior version of Build-Up, with a bigger bonus and a bigger duration - you'll still be slugging dudes with supercharged hits long after your high and mighty BS or MA scrapper has petered out to normal.
Speed and aggression is your friend. I can't stress that enough. You need that big group of mobs, so jump right in there, your Defense will help you - trust me. You need them for Soul Drain, you need them for endurance, so take it. You can survive. You'll be okay. And you'll do great damage. Faster attacking, faster XP gain, and you don't have a whole hell of a lot of downtime. Granted, you're no dumb /Regen, so pay attention to your Health and Endurance, but you got answers for that as well.
And sometimes you will be clobbered. Oh well. That's the risk you take, and that's what makes this build so exciting. You don't know what you're gonna get when you leap into that group of red and purple Freakshow, but chances are, you're going to pound them into bloody sludge. Don't listen to the morons who say this is a gimp build. This build is PERFECT - Dark Melee synergizes perfectly with Super Reflexes. Don't tell me Broadsword's Parry and Katana's Divine Avalanche even come close to the accuracy debuffs that Dark Melee provides. You hit a dude enough times, slap him senseless with Fear, he will NOT hit you. And in PvP, shit... People have a very low tolerance for Fear, and a Terrorized opponent is a vulnerable one. Remember though, you don't do burst damage, so don't go thinking you're some Energy Melee or Broadsword dummy who can two-shot somebody, because you're not. You do less burst damage, but very large amounts of damage over time. If they're stupid enough to stick around, they're done, son.
Anyway, I've played DS since May of 2005, and I suffered for not knowing what this build could do until PvP came along. Then I realized the power of Defense, of Accuracy Debuffs, and what Fear can do. By then, I was almost ready to delete him and reroll some dippy FOTM. Stick with this build, and you'll be fierce. If you've teamed with me, you know how potent this build can be.
Give it a shot!
