InvaderStych

Yes, if max survive-ability is the goal, definitely go Tank. GZ on a tank with the recent buffs they got to AoE radius is utterly insane. Huge target Cap, Huge Radius, Huge Damage, gotta love it. I was going for max damage. With Meltdown, Assault Core (T4, fully stacked), Gaussianed Build-up, and misc set bonuses he can come close to the scrapper damage cap without insps. It was easier with the Villain alignment power (the only useful alignment power, imo) but had to drop that when he went back to Blue. I should probably re-post that build into my own thread for improvements, but it'll be a while before I could rebuild him anyway. Psi definitely needs AoE from another source. Preferably with some soft control if one is pairing with a resist set on a scrapper. I'd love to see Boggle dropped for some sort of AoE (pb or targeted, maybe give it the treatment that Touch of Fear is getting in the current Beta), but that's also another thread, lol. That build is also getting a couple points of +def to all from "Blessing of Tikilu" or however her name is spelled. (Acquired from DA arc) I think that gets shut off with other temp powers for iTrials and challenges though. It was definitely stronger than my Psi/SD is in the early 40s-mid 40s (same slot-as-go approach). She's faltering on Tina/Maria AVs where the Kat/Rad powered through on the backs of the various clicks (RT, PS, SM, Meltdown, etc). I also suspect that Psi/ has an accuracy/hit-roll problem beyond the difference between base accuracy for weapon/non-weapon sets. But I have no data to back that up. Also, if you are moving fast, it is way too easy to trigger ML before you are actually in range of targets and have it fire where you were instead of where you land - missing everyone.

As a general matter of course, not really. DA comes into play against debuffs, the occasional AV fight that last too long, and occasionally certain groups at +4 (usually ones that debuff, lol). I suppose if I really wanted to push my playtime into the realm of extreme difficulty ... all the time ... it would see more use. You are, however, absolutely correct, it does make a difference; when I need it, it's there. Psi's only equivalent would be to spam ML for the knock-up, but without a second, similar power it's tough to lean on that for protection. Downtime for SM inside hasten, before accounting for Beta Decay and Force Feedback buffs is ~37s, which isn't super long until you're *really* in need of it, heh. Originally I didn't want to sacrifice utility in powers like RT for set bonuses. I know, I know, lots of people are all "RT is a nuke!" but not really, only if you fill it with procs. I'd rather take the heal. I recently changed my slotting on RT (build below shows current) to fiddle around with maxing recharge (dropping proc rate) and some dmg procs, but I am not happy with it, and will probably go back to focusing it on heal/recharge like I do with PS. I did proc the ba-jeebus out of GZ though, because why would I not. 🤪 I lean very heavily on the +Absorb/etc from PS slotted to max out the absorb/recharge as well as firing RT often - even without targets it still heals for some - and carry Rebirth (+regen side, even if it's broken because it can be resisted, which is weak sauce, imo) as an additional heal. I want to do more fiddling with iPower options (Hybrid Melee +def looks interesting but initial ITF solo tests did not show good results), but time isn't really available at the moment. When I am in game right now I'm either leveling Psi/SD or playing around with Combat Teleport on Beta. Also, easy to forget - not a tank, not a brute - sometimes I have to play things more carefully when solo, and some stuff I'm still going to need a team (Mot showdown comes to mind) to get through. In fairness, the build on that toon is still a bit of a mess, and it is more of an AV hunter than a +4x8 challenge soloist - so YMMV depending on your goals. It could definitely be improved, but I'd still go the ToE +End/Shadow Meld route even if I added more defense. At that point SM would become a debuff shedding tool just like Avalanche. But to address the original pseudo-question, yes. Resistance sets on Scrappers aren't as numerically good as they are on Brutes/Tanks because of the obvious reasons, but that's what also makes them interesting to play, imo. I've been reticent to post this because it is such a mess. Assume the common Recharge IOs are boosted to +5 (can't get that to work in Mids for some reason, I click the + per instructions but nothing happens) as is the A/R epic in GZ. Hamis are set to ++, fwiw. Kick is slotted as an oh-shit button for situations where I'm under extreme recharge debuffs and need to bring those back down, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Disclaimer to the general audience: I do not recommend copying my build - but I definitely recommend Meld on top of /Rad armor as a tactical choice. I'd really like to see what players who can actually build properly could do with the combo, but that's a topic for a different thread. Hope some of this helps. When I rolled Psi, Rad was my first thought for armor. (Meltdown + Insight + <Crit> GPB, are you kidding me?) I decided go to /SD though because I never rolled that on a Scrapper in the old days and wanted to try it out.

Scrapper. Elec/Rad/<Blaze, Mu, or Soul to taste/needs> Lightning Rod -> Ground Zero -> Rad Therapy -> (Epic AoE if applicable) -> (commence cleanup) -> Repeat for profit. Love /SD and Scrapper Shield Charge is bonkers, but the self-heal and recovery tools on top of strong resists in /Rad are excellent for soloing QoL on a Scrapper.

I tend to roll through toons, but that one was as close to a "main" as I got after CoV launched. Part of that was timing. It hit 50 right when Interface was GAWDMODE and proc'd on every tic of an aura or rain. Yeah, it was an exploit, but it was ludicrous fun while it lasted. Honestly, even after they fixed it, the toon was still a beast. Which is funny because I am probably better at building now than I was then.

Played the ba-jeebus out of mine back in the Before Times. All the AoE, All the time. Mine recently hit her 40s. So much fun. Psi gets more hate than it deserves. I've been running power analyzer on things to see what *really* resists Psi, and what doesn't. Did you know that Neuron's and Anti-Matter's Clockwork mobs don't resist Psi? Most "Bots" have around 60% resist, but not all of them, apparently. That said, between the tons smashing (ML and TKB + SC if you go /SD) and the -Res proc in ML and they go down like an inappropriate metaphor. All that said, Kat/Rad is the new Kat/Dark. Sorry @Werner, but I had to say it. 🤣

Drop the Energy Pool: /Rad doesn't need additional endurance management. Go Theft of Essence +End in RT, go Shadow Meld for alpha-soaking defense, use PS on cooldown for the extra +recovery if you still need it. ML->GZ->RT->Cleanup Bosses. Rinse, Repeat, Profit. My Kat/Rad floats around the mid 20s M/R/A defense, dropping Meld gets to near-as-makes-no difference to soft-cap. RT heals, PS for extra HP (796 more at the scrapper cap), and high resists generally make up for the SM downtime for most situations.

Mostly agreed. Less so on the "grrr" part, more so because I think the the +to-hit is more thematic: "Surprise!!!" "Thwack!" Subjective reasoning: Suddenly appear in front of a hero/villain and they might be able to maintain enough composure to swing back at you successfully, but their "active defenses" (in a narrative sense, not toggles and whatnot) won't have kicked in before you get off your first shot. It's like a sucker-punch. The hero/villain getting hit will probably be able to swing back (no def bonus), but the hero/villain swinging is very likely to land that unexpected hit (+to-hit). Also, my animal brain whispers to me that if they switch it to slot Def IOs they'll feel the need to "balance" it by slowing it down. And that's a hard no from me. 😄 Of course I am willing to admit that the preceding is wild conjecture based on animal brain trying to trick me into getting all defensive about something that really isn't that crucial: just really, really, really fun, lol.

FWIW, the teleport pool is undergoing changes in the near future. Of course it might be a while, but since you're designing around concept this info might help long term plans. For example, Recall Friend and TP Foe are being merged. Discussion thread: Build 2 patch notes copy pasta for the basic rundown:

Gah, of course, RD's Scaling piece. Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks!

Thanks for posting that. I saved it for /SD slotting reference if you don't mind. 🙂 It'll take a while for me to digest though. I'd ask what these 'Amplifiers' are that ppl keep mentioning, but I'm just gonna go log into game in a minute and look anyway, lol. I'm not sure I understand this right, what's the relationship between Resistance and HP? I've never thought about it like that. I'm also not terribly versed in Tanks, but this seems to be the De Facto (is that the right one?) Solo ITF Challenge thread, so I enjoy following it, heh. Lots of other gems in that paragraph, too. Particularly the attack chain stuff, X<Attack A> = Y<attack B> = Z<Attack C>. Figuring out an optimal pattern overall before it goes into muscle memory, or something. Ok, I'm rambling. 😄

One of the last toons I rolled on Live was a /Regen Brute. My memory is fuzzy, but IIRC it made the Keyes trial a lot easier for some reason. Not that many folks are running Keyes these days. Been meaning to circle back to another one, but I can't decide on a Primary. Maybe when the NRG/ changes go live ... NRG/Regen might be interesting.

Heck, I'm still trying to figure out how *anyone* pulls it off under the Buffed/De-buffed rules. Madness. 😄

I have a Psi/SD that gets regular BU+Gaussians+AAO Stacks+Insight Crits with GPB that are approaching that number (not on +4s, to be fair), though those might have been preceded by FotG -Res. ... and she's just dinged 39 recently. Should be insane when post-50 and built.

If I may paraphrase the great Ron Swanson ... "I don't know how much money I have, but I know how many Kilograms of money I have."

It's easy enough to make it targeted via a /macro. I actually like the option of having it location based when I want to move without targeting. Having setup mouse buttons for both worked quite nicely. The <shift>+WASD ideas put together by @ABlueThingy and @Replacement up-thread a ways are very interesting too. Changing the power to where it requires an active target limits it's macro-ability. Also, please no on extending the hover. Some of us don't necessarily fly. 😄

I want to make so many of these. All of them. All of the Scrappers Teleporting into All of the Faces. Not sure what I'll do with EM when I swing around to it eventually. EM/EA is a fun way to test it out though.

Once again you are speaking my language. Dare I pair this with ... ... Whirlwind? 😄 Also, target priority binds just got a lot more interesting to me. I pulled one for Sappers from Help Chat and saved it for future use. I'll have to crack that open again for another look. IMO this is the most important part. Especially if the design goal was to get people to choose the power for its own merits rather than its slotting possibilities, which I think I saw referenced somewhere up-thread. Whatever buff it offers, I don't want to trade that for slowing down the overall pacing of the power. Right now it's in a good place - fast enough to be fun without (as far as we can tell to this point) being so fast as to be abuse-able in some fashion. But even just a touch slower and it not only loses fun factor, but also risks losing viability for use on fast moving teams. The simplest way to make a button for that is basically something like this: /macro Bamf! powexec_location target Combat Teleport This makes a tray button with no graphic that says "Bamf!" in little letters. You can then select a target, activate the macro button and land in said target's face - baseball bat in hand (in my instance). One can use /macro_image to make it look better, but I can never remember right names for all the various button textures, and I was feeling lazy on the beta server. 😄 If you mean like double-tapping an attack to lock the nearest target and then execute the attack, no probably not but I don't really know. I am still figuring out all of the macro syntax. ______ Edit: I should probably mention that if your target is moving you land where they were when you activated CT. In practice you can use the 2nd click (usually enough) to catch them where they decide to stop, turn, and fire from range.

Honestly, I didn't have high expectations. ~11% chance to fire at base recharge, assuming that it isn't bugged (and isn't locked out intentionally) isn't really all that great anyway. I was curious, and it is worth knowing if it is a glitch even though in terms of builds it's not really worth doing. I can confirm that if you macro it to $target it works quite nicely for melee. I have two mouse buttons at my thumb. One I used for targeted CT and the other for location CT for positioning and testing a themematic-bound movement idea. I haven't used camera:max with it yet, but now that I type that I might just to see what it does. It took me a bit to get used to it, and I had to remember to go to a tailor and switch Mace to No Redraw on the WM/Rad scrapper I was using to test. After a bit of practice, and with it bound to a mouse button, going CT to either Whirling or Clobber felt pretty good. Not 100% seamless, but not so much delay as to be flustering.

Subjective feedback on Combat Teleport: I'd still be inclined to take this power even if it didn't buff anything at all. After running with it more practically in DA (as opposed to spamming it around) I feel like the overall pacing is excellent and the minimal delay to activate a queued power feels just right. Outside what it should/shouldn't buff and what sets it could/couldn't take, here's me asking to please not slow down the pacing in exchange for better meta-numbers. Somewhere up-thread there was a reference to the design intent being for us to take it for it's own sake, rather than what it can slot - if that's the case then, imo, the pacing (eg fun-factor/utility) is spot-on and hopefully isn't up for trade-off. And thanks for this excellent new toy! 😄

Combat Teleport is my new favorite toy. So good. I spent some time spamming it both using a $target macro and clicking locations and noticed a couple of things: 1. +To-hit will stack (3x) during the "3-clicks before cooldown" window. All of them wear off before the unenhanced CD expires. There is potential for carrying a decent +to-hit bonus, and I like it. 2. It seems to carry a sort of "rolling counter" for the cooldown. So 1, 2, 3, <CD>, 1, <CD>, 1, 2, 3, <CD>, 1, 2, <CD> patterns seemed to be happening. This may have been a side-effect of a poor connection, but I would have to try it longer to really tell. 3. Gaussian's Proc didn't fire once during either round of testing. This might be expected behavior given the low recharge time and 1 ppm. Not enough time spent to say meaningfully.

Ugh, freaking Throw Spines. I should have remembered that. Kinetic, ok, I only played that for a minute so easy to forget what could go where, but I spent an embarrassing number of hours with a Spines/DA scrapper back in the Long, Long Ago. 😛

Wait. That's a lot of varieties of Purple, I never new that Shockwave was marked as targeted AoE. Not that I gave it much thought, but I would have assumed regular melee cone. That might make Claws the most "Purple-Able" of the Scrapper Primaries. Sure, a couple can double dip in a single power - like Greater Psi Blade taking Melee/Holds can double dip the Epic dmg Procs - but I can't think of another primary that gets a Ranged power and a Targeted AoE power. Interesting.

Ok, finally circling back around to this. It never occurred to me that there were existing flags that could be used for this, but you are right and there are probably several others that could potentially be leveraged. I hadn't considered actual effects for game mechanics, but it would be a way to deepen Origins and give them a bit more impact on the way a character plays which is something I recall many of us asking for from day 0. So, just in the interest of tossing out some random thoughts: Not really replacing Origin, but working in conjunction to flesh out backstory. So you're a Demon? Were you summoned by a Magic ritual that went wrong and you broke free, or did Portal Corp get the math (Science) wrong and crack open your front door? Are you an alien that uses Tech or some set of abilities Natural to your species? It does open a bit of a worm can; some flags might be too generic (Ice Demon vs. Fire Demon), and others might give too strong a benefit - Robots having Psi resistance which is otherwise relatively uncommon. If the list of possible types is known then a subset of "Here's your upside, and here's your downside" could be established and balanced. Though there would probably be some player resistance to taking on a "downside" on an existing character, no matter how minor or what "upside" it comes with. Nothing wrong with that, we all come to games for different things. Actually, knowing the list of these would help flesh out a plan, because I'm sure no matter how long, something that someone can imagine is missing.😄 Either way, figuring out the flavors informs how to edit the text and narrative experience(s). Impact on game mechanics could follow that or not, depending on Dev/Player reception. Adding something to character creation is one thing, but I'd have no idea how daunting of a code problem it would be to grant this selection option to the thousands of existing characters out there. Safe to assume the direction of many forum-based community projects? Heh. Well, I'd be in for some scrubbing for dialog to edit/editing/narrative/etc work as that's more my skill set and a side-project like this leans into some related things I'm working on learning. I'm definitely not a programmer even if I am just tech-savvy enough to hold an extremely brief conversation with one. 😄 It would have to be one of those incremental progress things though, small bits over time. "Harness Frequency" is the term I believe. Anyway, I'm down for some further exploration to see if the idea has legs. If it looks like there's viability and interest then a team could start working on the Flavor Flags and digging around to get a sense of the scope of the text editing work.

Characters I'd think of as "Tanks" I'd probably associate with Invuln - good examples above by others. The literally "Bulletproof" types. Brutes, I think of more as "Willpower" types. Taking 3 bullets to their left arm hasn't stopped them from beating the shooter senseless with the right. Like Punisher when he's in melee. Yes, the weapons training isn't really very Brutish, but arguably his hand to hand fits the bill. So, yeah.. Tank: Invuln/SS Brute: StJ/WP Hard to argue with the scrapper choice; Claws/Regen is one of the original Originals for reasons that need to be elaborated upon. 😄 Defenders/Controllers - lots of cold/weather types tend to fill this narrative role.

So ... the curious case of Psi Melee. I actually liked this set enough to re-roll for a different secondary despite its drawbacks. The animations and sound effects are excellent, Mass Levitate is better than I expected, and Greater Psi Blade hits harder than anything I can remember using in game (as I understand it Rend Armor (?) from TW hits harder but that's about it). This is probably the first power set where I want to have it in different colors on the same character; it looks good in most of the color choices. About the damage type issue: Well yes, Praetorian Clocks are going to be resistant to Psi (and possibly Lethal, I think some bots resist Lethal), but the Smashing from TK Blow and ML tends to balance that out. As does pulling a crit with GPB, it's just a metric ton of dmg, even when resisted. So, while this issue does exist, it's not so dramatic as to completely shun the set. I'm expecting that rolling Psi/SD, between having Charge and ML with significant +dmg, there really should be too much of a problem with endgame stuff. iPowers iron this out even more smoothly. That said, there are several threads discussing builds that are "Blade Only," so the the only Smashing remaining is in ML. Every time I consider that route I look at TK Blow's DPA and decide to keep it. At that point the cone becomes a "sometimes tool," which is fine since it takes some positioning to leverage. It will be interesting trying the rebuilt version (Psi/Shield) against Pantheon in DA when she gets there. Undead are also resistant to Psi, and there's plenty of those in that series of arcs. Dig around in the section a bit and there are folks who've managed to leverage Boggle. I'm not one of them. The potential is there if you are inclined towards controls, then Psi/Nin, Psi/Dark, Psi/Ice or even Psi/Rad might have left-field-thinking possibilities of interest. If you just want to scrapperlock and smash the strongest face that's heading towards your face, skip Boggle. Insight, best described by many forumites as "Random Extra Damage." And that's pretty much it. There are dozens of ways this mechanic could be changed, but as it is, just know that when it is up you get a little extra DoT, and GPB gets buffed by consuming Insight and activating the lockout. Another downside is that ML comes really late, and is really the only AoE in the set. Sweep is technically a cone but it is too narrow and has a small target cap (5). Single Target damage more than makes up for the late AoE (and, as a bonus, ML hits like a bucket of trucks) in terms of trade-off, but in practice you're best off finding additional AoE from someplace to pair with Psi Melee. Damage Auras, Rad Armor, Shield Charge, Epic/Patron AoEs; lots of interesting choices. Edit: Forgot to mention that the blades have minor recharge debuff built in; I'd have to see this with an Analyzer in a prolonged fight to tell if it stacks enough to be meaningful. My gut thinks probably not all that much. Perhaps combined with other sources, but even then most opponents aren't going to be standing long enough for low levels of -rech to be of much impact. The debuff does scale with the level of the blade attack, 9.6%, 12%, and 16%. All for 6s each. Enough I suppose that if you had other sources it could be interesting against hard targets. Tagged as ignoring buffs/enhancements though, so even things that boost secondary effects probably don't boost it. Anyone with more info? So, (mostly) skipping over what I think could be done to improve (more like smooth out) the set (Change Insight, maybe change Boggle, Shave Animation/Activation times from GPB and ML) as that's another thread, if I could summarize or offer a TLDR: Psi is a surprisingly fun, aesthetically pleasing set that is somewhat better than it's reputation with interesting secondary effects for the experimentally inclined, but still sort of wonky and problematic. If one is numerically obsessed the downsides might not be to taste. Personally I'm in it for the big, fat damage, although after writing this post I'm curious about the possibilities of leaning into the secondary effects in some fashion, but that just seems so un-scrapper-y. 😛