Erratic1

As the player of an SS/Bio brute, I am curious what would make Bio better for scrappers and tankers.

Bio best practices says if you're in a crowd pop Parasitic Aura so bad things DO NOT happen to you. However I often ignore best practices.

Back in this post I put forth the costume for my Fire/Bio sentinel Mind Blaze. While I liked the costume I still was not completely satisfied with it. It seemed a bit disconnected from the character theme of psychoplasmic flames (physical flames manifested from one's psyche), the colors being too light. Purple (for the psychic) and orange (for the flames) are not the easiest colors to work with. Metamorpho from DC comics pulls it off because I suspect because one is too distracted by the character's physical nature to be pulled into the fact you're looking at orange and purple together. But I really wanted to suggest orange welling up from purple for flames from the mind. I think I have finally come to a costume that does what I intended:

Use the test server. Test the build I gave for StJ/Nin. See if that works for you.

My thought is the opposite. PUGs aren't running +0x1. Groups you face will be big and last long enough that you're not only going to get mileage out of Fury compared to Tankers but out of your survivability compared to Scrappers.

The other reason to make a Brute is the are drop dead sexy. I'm not going to tell him otherwise. I like my teeth firmly in my mouth.

For Rad Melee I ended up dropping Proton Sweep (miserable power) and skipped Devastating Blow due to its excessive animation time, taking Cross Punch to fill (well overfill) the hole left by not having Proton Sweep. Hmmm...wonder if you could get Savage/Bio to a point where you live in Offensive stance? Your F/C/N/E/ T/P resistances would not be good but that is what you have F/C/N/E Defense and Ablative Carapace for.

The raw values of the secondary armor set powers do not change between Brutes and Scrappers though Brutes will have more health and of course there is fury. So they probably are in a better position in the early part of the game. But a few hours of just regular play will take you out of those levels. What holds my attention is the idea of a planned build unfolding and coming together so regardless of AT I am likely to make it to at least level 30, particularly if I can feel them ramping to my hoped potential through their teens and 20s. As a project, I am trying to make a, "The <fill in AT name" roster of characters for myself. So, "The Brute", "The Scrapper", "The Blaster" and so on. Not the only character of the AT I would play but the one that brings me that special joy in how well they work. I was dithering over two Scrapper builds and finally got around to using the Test Server to test builds without investing in fully levelling and IO'ing them out to find out if they worked as expected. But I have both characters sitting in the mid-30s due to seeing them progress in effectiveness as described above. The StJ/Nin I made was crazily effective with me starting testing at +2x4, moving to +3x6 when that did not prove to be a problem, then moving to +4x8 when +3x6 proved not to be a problem. That is with no incarnate powers and no purple, superior, or Winter IOs. His area damage is lacking compared to the character currently filling The Brute slot (my SS/Bio brute who adds Cross Punch and Stalagmites to Foot Stomp ) but the single target damage...OMGWTFBBQsauce!

Its not just about the cap, but the damage scale. Starting with a lower base of damage lowers the impact of having a higher cap.

I made a Savage/Energy Aura scrapper at one point which not only has the same access to healing and endurance but has an aura that boosts Recharge based on the number of nearby foes. I may have to consider remaking him as a brute.

A little over two seeks ago I needed a break from working on my latest Tanker and despite having a number of other characters who are not yet 50 I decided to add to my load making a scrapper to try out a couple of sets I had never played before--Street Justice and Ninjitsu. I was not completely sold on Ninjitsu and could have easily defaulted to a secondary like Shield or Energy Aura but decided after carefully looking it over to give it a whirl. Quickly I discovered you could crit from stealth. Not as powerful as playing a stalker and nothing major given it can only happen every 20s and once you're in combat you're not going to be doing it again until your next fight, but still nifty. Well, nifty unless your evil clone pulls the move on you: In any event, he quickly got up to the mid-30s and was feeling a little bit more squishy and endurance hoggish. Not too bad but I figured I could give him a break, grind out a package of influence on my favorite brute, and touch him up with some IOs to address those issues. While doing that, due to the thread on builds for a newbie I created a DM/Bio scrapper to test out the suggestion I had made. (See how I end up with so many characters?) From the start the DM/Bio's damage was crazy. On the other hand, having negative resistances at low level was extremely unhealthy. Things got better once I grabbed Tough and realized the usefulness of using Ablative Carapace to soak up damage while saturating Soul Drain and going to town. He also got into the 30s, just a few level behind the StJ/Nin, before I got back to grinding out the influence package I had wanted for the StJ/Nin. Until today (tomorrow by the time you read this) I had never made use of the Test Server but I got to thinking about my first two first two IO'd characters. They aren't bad but they aren't great. My third worked out far better, but the memory of the first two had me questioning if I had really learned much or just gotten lucky. Why not test them out if the only cost to doing so was the time to transfer and equip them? Up first was the StJ/Nin. His performance was considerably more than I expected. First at normal, just to see how he played with the planned build. Then at +2x4...no problem...then +3x6...no problem...then +4x8...amazingly still no problem. Now, those tests were not exactly against hard targets as each was The Council. But after my experiences with theDM/Bio, I would come back and try Arachnos and Carnival and they two were no great problem at +4x8. I should probably mention, I am no build god and what I crafted fits my cheapie nature--no purple IOs, no superior sets, no Winter sets. Just stuff I can hope to afford. So getting a character to handle anything at +4x8, no incarnate abilities was a small miracle to me. I was feeling good. So I decided to take the DM/Bio for a spin after upping him to 50 and IO'ing him according to plan. Same progression as before and not really bad. Then I tried the Carnival at +3x6. Not so carefree. In fact, repeated dirt naps. The damage was great but survival was not. Arachnos were so unpleasant the only way I completed the mission was by some serious elevator scumming. His design has him with sub-capped F/C/E/N (low 40s) and roughly 70'ish Resistance in Offensive stance. It seemed that my plan to renew Ablative Carapace every 35s, while useful, was not sufficient. He was okay when Parasitic Aura was popped but that power lasts 45s and has a recharge of 160s on the build. And there is no way to actually make it perma, even at max recharge. His poor performance is why I went back and tested the first scrapper on Carnival and Arachnos. I should have been happy, I not only had a build that was solid but it was on the character I had been planning on focusing on. Still, the second character's defeats nagged me because while the first one could stand in a crowd and work them down, the first one, when not dirt napping, melted crowds. While fooling around in Mid's to see if there were any changes I could make, I noticed that Defensive stance upped the character's defense values. Not as high as on the StJ/Nin who is in his 50s, but to the high 40s. But that was going the opposite direction as what drove considering the character in the first place--being in Offensive stance. Defensive levies a 25% damage penalty in exchange for its increased defense values. The problem here was me. I had gotten used to my SS/Bio brute, who lives in Efficient stance under the notion that never running out of endurance means endless fighting--something he is quite capable of. With the Scrapper I had to accept that living in one stance was not going to get me where I wanted. And Soul Drain is the tool for offsetting the Defensive stance penalty. So I went back against Arachnos and Carnival heading into spawns in Defensive stance, popping Soul Drain to offset its penalty and then some, melting a chunk of them, then being able to switch to Offensive once numbers had come down some. And it worked, at least on +3x6. Still not bold enough to try +4x8 but he does not feel like a failure. All of this to extol the usefulness of testing to those, who like I until now, had not used the test server. For those interested, the builds: Street Justice/Ninjitsu Dark Melee/Bio Armor

Made it to the Test Server (actually just logged out) for my first time ever and gave the build I posted a whirl. Oh my! Yeah, I only tested +4x8 on Council, but he was never under threat. Obviously Hydra, Carnival, and other nasties await. But the build was also not meant to be a finished one but a springboard. So I am quite happy to have something to work towards.

Well, nobody is needed. The question to me is, "Am I having fun?" If not, the quesiton then becomes, "What can I do that is not going to cause someone else distress?" Though I will admit that some of the most fun I have had has been on oddball or incomplete (i.e. far short of 8 players) teams where you really have to figure out how to stretch everyone's abilities. Three person DFB is definitely interesting and I think I've managed a full badge run with only four before.

No, it does not. The part you quoted clearly indicated why it does not.

I see what you are doing here, though I am willing to grant you may not.... You are so wrapped up in being literal you are missing the point. When all the minions and lieutenants are dead and a boss or two are left, everyone is going to focus fire them down very quickly. As a melee, I may get in a hit or two but it is clearly not needed. Heck, I may not even actually make it to the a boss before it is melted. I am not ever sure here what you are arguing against since I very clearly spelled out that my moving forward does not involving running to the end.

I made no mention of +4x8. As for it being a problem, like I said, I have a solution. I simply move on. As for it not being able to happen on every spawn, that is true... ...for a single blaster. But a team can have multiple people on them and more than one can be a blaster. So no, it is not something which only happens on the forums. Edit: And of course there are also the Incarnate abilities which effectively can serve the same purpose, so not just reliant on blasters.

(1) Given people exemplar its possible all the way down to at least the Penny Yin TF as weekend before last my newest scrapper was run through one by a person exemplaring down who was fully capable of handling everything themselves. They only needed me to join so they could kick the TF off. (2) Powersets aren't generally the thing that push things to the point where advancing from the team becomes preferable. The ability to melt foes does. (3) I do not find it bad to be on such teams as I have my solution: Move ahead.

Alas, I lack the ability to know before the team has formed what ATs are going to be on it and what level of power they will have. Or is that a feature that got added at some point I am unaware of?

Are you hinting at being a damage sponge aka alpha-absorber? Assuming the blaster has not just run up and made the entire spawn instantly die... Assuming the controller has not just locked everything in place (most of the time before any of it could be gathered up such that punchvoke or gauntlet would have much meaning)... Assuming defense values have not been pushed through the roof... In said case, sure...I guess I could be the incoming damage sink. On the other hand at the point I have moved forward the group is past needing that and by moving forward and engaging the next group I have in fact taken the alpha...just before anyone else has shown up.

That shouldn't be a problem since all your IOs should be attuned, no?

No, soloing resulting in faster clears means the solo is able to be more effective moving off than staying with the team. I join groups because playing in a team is often more entertaining than soloing but if (a) with the group I am not really contributing much because I keep finding my targets dead before I can hit them and (b) I know I can handle moving ahead without them, then I have been known to move onto the next spawn. Because of (a) my contribution is much lower than it could be. Say I'm dealing 20-40% of my potential damage by staying with the team. If I move ahead I am putting out 100% of my damage. 100% > 40%, so instead of a group total output of 700+40=740% by my staying with the team it is 700+100=800%. Mind you, this is mostly confined for me to my melee characters. When I do move ahead solo I only go one spawn forward, not to the end. And even then engaging the next spawn is predicated on it being trash. I am not going to engage the boss solo even if I could handle it because I do not want to deprive the team of the fight. I also keep an eye on the health/endurance bars of the team to see if they are being hurt by my absences when I first move off. If they are able to handle what remains without me, why shouldn't I move forward as opposed to staying with the group watching things melt before I can do anything?

Both Scrappers and Stalkers get Sweeping Cross and Spinning Strike (so too Brutes and Tankers) the only AoEs in Street Justice. Stalkers lose Rib Cracker. FWIW my Stj/Nin is a scrapper but I suppose once could accuse him of being a faux-stalker since I put Celerity: +Stealth in Sprint and he's undetectable with Shinobi-Iri running on top of getting a 65% chance to crit from stealth.

You are not alone on this one.

For my latest scrapper, The Restless Dead, I had originally gone with jacket and slacks: Still, it did not seem practical fighting super villain in easily shredded civilian clothing. As much as I HATE to draw from previous work, I admit to tweaking a design I had previously used on my character Pearl Wraith Then I figured that since I was paying homage with Pearl Wraith's costume design I could go one step further and homage another comic book character:

According to Mid's, your Endurance Recovery is 3.38/s and your Endurance Use just standing around is 2.92 if you're not doing anything, which leaves 0.46 End/s for attacks. That seems a bit low. If you run up on a group and do Follow Up, Spin, Shockwave (not saying you would actually use that attack sequence) you will have spent 21.03 endurance over 3.883s during which you would recover 1.79 endurance, leaving you down 19.24 endurance. It seems to me any but the shortest fights would leave you out of endurance. But its early in the morning and I may be missing something.