http://marvelheroes.info/build/17113/ Current build(I'm more up to date than the site is!), will update thread...eventually.
Still a work in progress, but no longer first draft.
Skill Point Distribution:
With Current Gear:
So, as you can see, I've gone basicless, with all the DoTs. Having to use Diamond Smash is a massive damage loss, even accounting for the damage lost on the artifacts to obtain the sustain necessary to do so.
Gear
Gearing for Diamond Hybrid isn't quite as obvious as it should be. In fact, you're gearing more for crit and crit damage than anything else, rushing to get rank 50 on Diamond Crush can be an early damage boost, but in the long run costs you far more than it gains, so here we go:
Slot 1:
Kirigi's Katana> Dragon Fang> Soul Sword> White Silk Gauntlets. Cosmics are actually very far from desirable in this slot as they are completely incapable of rolling either crit rating or crit damage, and a cosmic rolled well enough to be a good starting point will be rarer than the White Silks.
Slot 2:
Slot 2 is actually an obvious choice. Emma's own Bodice is exactly what you're looking for here, high health, high damage rating, high base defense, regen, strength, multiple bonus ranks, full package deal. There's really nothing else acceptable in this slot.
Slot 3:
Boring old Recon belt. The power cost decrease is basically mandatory, and it has crit stats. I do wish it came with another +1 all powers though, then I'd feel good about having to use it. Coat of the Skull is very probably better, even without the cost decrease. Stole of the White Queen is an acceptable starting point if you don't have a recon belt.
Slot 4:
Stilettos are an easy choice here, however, by ilvl 69 I'm almost certain Batroc's Savate boots will perform better.
Slot 5:
Claws of the Sisters ends up being the best choice for this slot, as with it you can actually replace Maht's Arrowhead. Mask of Xorn provides more raw damage in the slot alone, but gaining an artifact slot for damage is a big deal.
Ring:
My ring isn't perfect, but it's a sold outline of what you're looking for. Health, crit rating, critical damage, melee damage, brutal rating, brutal damage are the desirable stats essentially in that order.
Medallion:
Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom. Power duration is quite possibly the single best stat Diamond hybrid can acquire, and it's unfortunately limited to essentially the medallion and rune word slots right now. Doom also gives a decent damage rating affix, health, and spirit. If you don't have a good Doom Medallion, and do have a good Sabretooth medallion, that's also an excellent choice, but realize this: if you follow my skill build, and don't have significant amounts of power duration, you actually output more mental damage than physical, so you may want to use mental damage enchants on slots 1 and 5 if you aren't willing to burn Tyr runes.
Artifacts:
This is the section of my gearing that's changed the most since I first posted this guide. The build includes brutals now, so Gem is a no brainer. ESP Box is still here, since it's required for the sustain and crit. Once the total damage vs bosses on TM's guide exceeds 400 and the crit is at least 350 to both types, it replaces the Idol of Khonshu/Maht's Arrowhead, and Lizard's Formula replaces the Advanced Meta to allow for enough sustain to change from River of the Soul to The Power Doop. Happy hunting/trading.
Relics:
Atlantis is the best choice for raw damage. Subterranea and Lemuria are both valid options if you'd like a bit more health sustain.
Insignia:
The primary stat you're looking for on an Insignia is crit damage. An optimal Insignia would be 1k+ crit damage, +1 all skills, then upgraded to cosmic. Insignia aura is entirely secondary to the stats, but the best choice here would like be a Piotr Rasputin.
Runeword:
Defense Uru is the best choice, since Emma's defense, even in Diamond form, isn't quite where it should be, and 200 damage rating just isn't much, especially for hybrid characters.
Power Doop is the go to here, no surprise. However, before you have most or all of the sustain enhancing items above, you'll get much better performance out of River of the Soul, so that should be your starting point.
Legendary:
Power Cosmic is an easy choice. Gungnir is a good holdover option.
Costume Affixes:
This is a no brainer, as usual. Crit damage all the way. For a core, you want 25% health 100 spirit and invulnerability as your primary and secondary affixes, health and life on hit are good tertiaries.
Cybernetics:
You're looking for 8% base health on the green tier, 50 spirit on the blue tier, 3% crit damage or 10% brutal damage depending on omega distribution for the purple tier, +1 all powers for the cosmic tier, and +3 Fighting for the unique tier.
Synergies:
Must have list:
Cable
Moon Knight
Ghost Rider
Loki
X-23
Squirrel Girl
Rogue
Psylocke
Wolverine
For the last slot, it's down to Human Torch, Black Widow, or depending on how high your brutal strike chance is, Hawkeye or Mr Fantastic. The issue with the crit damage synergies is, flat crit damage percentages do not increase brutal strike damage, so the more you brutal, the less things like Hawkeye and the Cybernetic Claws Omega Node are worth.
Blessings:
You have three options for Blessings. Helas are the most damage if you keep brutal strikes, Odins are the most damage if you don't. Fandral is a valid option if you're feeling too squishy and are willing to sacrifice a chunk of damage to help mitigate that.
Enchants:
These are largely preference. Slot 1 and 5 would optimally be Crit enchants, but you'd need to be willing to blow Tyr runes on that. Otherwise, 50 melee damage or 50 physical damage are your best options, and functionally identical here. Health or Spirit on slots 2-5 are whichever you prefer.
Omegas:
I currently have a total Omega count of 3520. 3485 are allocated as follows:
Nanotechnology:
Spintech 10/10
Neural Enhancement:
Neurobiotics 10/10
Cochlear Implant 1/20
Guilt Suppression 2/10
Mutation
Angel 1/5
Warpath 10/10
Frenzy 10/10
The base damage out in this build is almost perfectly divided 50/50 between Mental and Physical. One selecting omega nodes, you want to best damage rating to points spent you can get. 10/10 Spintech for Example, gives 600 damage rating for 470 points, or 1.276 damage rating per omega. Physical or Mental only nodes, such as Deathlok Program are only worth half value overall to this build, so while Deathlok looks like it gives a 1:1 ratio for the first rank, it's actually only .5:1. This massively devalues a lot of popular nodes, and makes things like Focused Strength of Grom complete gutter trash. For raw base damage nodes, you only want to look at SPINTech, Neurobiotics, Combat Rorschach Training, Box, and others like them if there are any. Warpath is the single best node in the game for the cost all the way to 10 after SPINtech because it gives both generic damage rating equivalent, along with brutal rating and damage. Xerogenesis is something you want to avoid until you exhaust most other options because power snapshotting will make the return from the skill much less than an initial evaluation would think.
Cover image courtesy of @Vespyr