InvaderStych

I'm trying to imagine playing this game without Combat Jumping on toons that don't Fly. Nope, can't imagine it. I'm spoiled by being able to change direction mid-air. I must have to have it! 😄

May or may not be a pitfall depending on how you want the character to play, but mine (Psi/Nin) positively sheds aggro, seriously, to borrow an analogy from the motoring world: she couldn't pull the skin off a custard in that department. I don't think I've played anything that has had to chase down more runners. x2 on /SR with Claws. Absolute classic, tho I haven't rolled one here on HC. See also Willpower for a set that has minimal effects despite a ton of toggles. Good broad spectrum def/res that doesn't really specialize in any one thing, but also has no real holes. Invuln might be interesting, but I haven't played it enough to comment, and it's not exactly something I'd associate with a Fox. 🙂 Radiation Armor. When in doubt on "elemental armors" while simultaneously willing to modify concepts, my first suggestion will usually be /Rad. xxx/Rad/Soul makes for an extremely survivable scrapper. The +dmg inside Meltdown is very tasty. Claws loves +recharge which /Rad gives through Beta Decay. You get a decent heal, a very strong absorb, and far more endurance tools than Claws would ever need. Oh, and 1.5 nukes to work with too. It's an opener, basically. On the Psi/Nin it's actually sort of hilarious though because the delayed dmg on Mass Levitate means that the Critical dmg is applied first, then the regular dmg when they hit the ground. You'll get good results on that opening strike, but then it's basically a non-factor until you get to the next battle. Also, I've noticed that I've got more of a window to pull it off with a Celerity +Stealth in Shinobi. It seems to provide more time to position before they notice I'm there. Before the IO I would occasionally get spotted when I hit melee range, get attacked and have stealth drop before I liked my positioning for the pbAoE opener. Go for it. Even with a .... questionable ... primary like Psi/ going with /Nin over /SR (my other choice for that toon) has turned out to be a lot of fun to play. I should team with her more though. I like being able to decide if I want to fight my way through or stealth the map to the objective. I like knowing I can drop an opening AoE Critical with consistency, and I very much enjoy the movement speeds even if I am sort of a clumsy pinball most of the time. 😄 I'm also not a big fan of "Click Mez Protection," and even though it does occasionally interrupt combat it's actually trivial to get it to double-stack briefly, so there's no worry on being without it while it is on cool-down. It also covers Fear and Confuse, which are both fairly common holes (/Rad has none of either, for example) and show up all over Dark Astoria and other endgame content. Also, the +End and Heal powers are quite good. Better than I had expected. Yeah, I'd say go for it. /Nin scrappers are slightly different but seriously fun.

Ok, first of all I love that this thread about Tanker Gods has turned into theory-crafting Scrappers. Second of all, I should stop reading this thread because my Scrappers (and more importantly the player behind them) are not even remotely close to a challenge at this level. 🤣

Also a fair point, although conflating the two things doesn't really address either issue. Having two sets of currency that do the same thing functions only to make the process of getting to those T3/4's easier for the most knowledgeable of the player base while simply serving to confuse and frustrate the new players or the (like me) players who were around back in the day, loved the game, but still kept it pretty casual by comparison. Honestly, how many types of merits do we really need? Reward, Hero, Villain, Astral, Empyrean, Transcendent ... To this day I still don't even know what a Transcendent Merit is, why I would want one, where I would get one, or even how I would use one once I had it. I'm certainly not against pulling back on the rate of endgame progression; I'm all for finding a happy balance between being forced into trials or handing out Empy's like candy for Vet levels. But if we're going to do that can we please simplify the process at the same time by ditching the redundant currency tree? Even just not needing to scroll past the irrelevant crafting choices when creating iPowers that still have Shard based recipes would be an improvement. 🤣

So many fantastic writers in this player base. I love reading threads like this! I know this technically isn't in the spirit of the thread, but I'm going to drop this here because the CoX-Verse needs a Night Vale. Stat. http://www.welcometonightvale.com/ And remember, No Dogs in the Dog Park. No Humans in the Dog Park. Stay Out Of The Dog Park.

Admittedly I could be doing it wrong, but by the time my (comparatively few) incarnate toons get enough Shard tree salvage to meaningfully craft up the Alpha tree, I'm already sitting on both of the T3's I need to build a T4, rendering the Shard tree moot. But more importantly: This. If we're interested in the longevity of the game and possibly even gaining and retaining new players, then we need to get rid of the parallel currency trees. There are already so many freaking currencies in this game, we don't need two salvage trees that do the same thing. Even having played through the incarnate system during the Long, Long Ago when I discovered HC back in March of this year and started looking at the Incarnate crafting system I was extremely confused why there were two salvage trees, but one of them had an atrocious drop rate and stopped being useful for the later tier iPowers. Even now, there's now way I'm able to memorize which events drop which "Notice of the Well" or whatever other Shard tree salvage and how I might make use of such things. I'm willing to devote mental energy to learning 1 salvage tree to build powers with, not two parallel ones that really aren't parallel. Yes, the Maestros and the Elites can work out ways to make the Shard tree useful. For the rest of us Normies the Shard Tree is just "Yet Another Currency" that we have to spend "The Original Currency" (Inf) converting into "A Useful Currency" (Thread Tree) in the event we stack up enough of them to turn into something else. I get that others will disagree with this, and that's cool. I respect your ability to adapt to in-game currency creep. I don't have that ability, especially as I get older. I got other stuff to memorize and limited storage capacity to work with! 🤣

Not completely certain this counts, but I can't be the only player with a tendency to make non-human characters. Aliens, Robots, Demons, Kender or Whatever from [Enter Backstory and Cause of Arrival Here]. Literally anything that's actually not based on a human from Earth. There's tons of this in various comics as both villain and hero. I'd like an option at character creation to just select Human/Non-Human and have that impact npc dialog results. So, instead of DE calling my alien characters "human" they could say something like "You Cannot Save Them!" or "This is not your world!" Clicking random Citizens could generate differently flavored reactions. Minor stuff like that would be easier although still a monumental amount of digging through text and writing additional options. Never mind what it would take a lot to dig into arcs and change those interactions, like the Resistance contact that gets a crush on male characters - that was awkward since mine was stealth-kill-bot warworks/seer hybrid gradually developing it's own sentience. I guess this is sort of like fleshing out origins and having them impact npc interactions on a more varied and deeper level. Not missions or functional game-play, per se, but flavor dialog, basically. Maybe it is just me, lol.

It would indeed. It was also an (admittedly vague) continuation of the "misunderstood lyrics" theme. 😁

Scrappers get the highest % buff. Scrapper - 41.25% Tank/Brute/Sentinel - 33% Don't know the Stalker stats. (Edit: Stalkers also get the 33% tier if Mids is accurate on that account.) You'd have to ask the resident math experts around here if a Tank/Brute benefits more from a 33% buff than a Scrapper does a 41.25% buff.

I made a TW character once, many many years ago. He had spikey blond hair, an identity crisis, and a great big goofy sword. Those Summoning powers from his Epic Pool though .....

Alex The Seal approves of the direction this thread has taken.

Scrappers get 41.25%. Brutes and Tanks get 33%. For what that's worth. Thanks to both of you for taking the time to write those out.

Very curious about this "Highest base ST DPS Rotation (outside of TW):" comment in that discord screen cap. Love my Sav/wp Brute, and he's definitely a high-recharge buzz-saw, but I'm not sure I see that porting over to a scrapper and becoming a ST damage outlier. Anyone got more info on what they're on about? I notice the comments are pretty specific to mention "base" dps, so there feels like more to the story here. Like the set starts to lose ground due to the crit %'s mentioned later in the cap?

Ditto. Different question though. What about max level with regards to enhancement values? The description "This Enhancement's Effectiveness Scales to Level X" doesn't seem accurate. For example, Theft of Essence: Heal/Absorb has a max level of 30. Touch of the Nictus:Heal/Absorb has a max level of 50. On a lvl 50 character of mine they are both showing an identical enhancement value of 42.4%. Not that I am complaining about Attuned pieces providing more enhancement value than their max level, but um ... anyone know the story here? For reference, the Standard (not attuned) level 30 ToE:Heal pieces provides 34.8%.

Not .... uh .... really where I was going with that quip, but .. Congrats! MA/Regen Brute. EternaLee Ugh. I mean you're spot on, but .... Ugh. That show. Never mind, I'll see myself out. 😄

Glossing over the irony that there is still travel suppression in PvE ..... <_< Yeah, I keep trying to read that guide to figure out how to get there and setup the appropriate macros, but then my eyes glaze over and I just go log in to the game and start smacking things with a rusty, radioactive katana. 😄 Which jetpack tho? If that works with small longbow I might revisit it again sooner than later. Annoys me to no end. I actually use it pretty often to zip over to that random mob that thinks acting like a sniper will save it. It was also useful on that TF where you have to defeat the running Witch 10 times, heh. I do like that stopping on a dime thing, although I also like the cool factor of "drifting" past some poor mob as I take it out with a crit from either SD or GD. 🙂 But yeah, nothing like standing on the ground surrounded by Giant things then zooming all the way out and hitting Meld to really lose orientation of who, what, and where you actually are. 😄

Actually very fair point. Looking back at my post, it appears I was being uncharacteristically hyperbolic in trying to have a little fun with my tone, but yeah - /Rad can easily do without it; however, using it opens up slotting flex and if timed correctly, renders some seriously dangerous mobs (Malta Sappers) and effects (Carnie auto-hit end drain) effectively irrelevant. I have zero SS experience, but I know while leveling my Kat/Rad it was a complete upgrade. Doing so also allowed me to forgo slotting attacks for endrdx nearly completely until I was filling out desired sets and such. As it stands he runs 1 P-Shifter (single slot, no other pieces), The Panacea Unique, and the Power Transfer Unique. No Miracle, no Numina. Lots of places to put these pieces, but they're not needed. I'm going to also figure that your Rad/SS build is much tighter than my Kat/Rad. I recently tanked the proc chance on RT on my active build to try to get it to absolute minimum recharge time. (18s atm, fwiw) I've already noticed the effect of the +End proc firing less frequently on the ol' Blue Bar. Yes, PS does give a recovery boost, but it does only last 30s and is un-enhanceable. Yes, I could just use it on CD to keep recovery up, but I tend to use it when I know I need the +absorb. Yes, I know that could be "perma," except that having those extra HP when you're surrounded by minions that can't hit you anyway is a waste. Timing it so that you soak an alpha full of bosses guarding the AV is much more useful for the way I play. 🙂 I consider the +recovery from PS icing on a cake, not a tool to rely upon. Probably another way that my Kat/Rad could be improved. It is also extremely likely that I tend to over-build for the Blue Bar, if it dips below half I start to get anxiety, if tends to hover at 1/3 by the end of a fight, I'm making changes asap. 🙂 I do highly recommend getting one at the level it's available though if you're playing through the road to 50, and I also agree that not every finished build "needs" one even if some builds can leverage it nicely. @hejtmane - Nice setup for the Kat/Rad. I imagine that's extremely survivable. Only comment I have is that while you are getting a little extra +def out of the 6th Avalanche slot you could drop that for more dmg by dropping the KD proc in favor of the -Res from Gladiator's. I'd swap it into GD to keep it relevant against AVs and such, but it would also work just dropping it in WS. F/C defense isn't going to cover much that your Smashing def won't, and you're not losing that much AoE def with the change.

This. So Much This. All This, All Day, Every Day. Never Not This. __________________________________________________ On Topic though: Every time I respec a melee build to try Hover Melee (which I know is theoretically excellent and highly recommended by many) I end up disappointed. I mean, I get it, it's great, and flying runners (or flying AVs) are a non-issue with it ... ... but .... I can never move nearly as quickly or accurately as I can on foot, and the 'follow' button doesn't bring you into sufficient melee range. I just end up annoyed and going back to sprint/cj. Yes, I will fully admit right now that this is a personal quirk, arguably sub-optimal, and yes, I keep trying to get used to it (nearly all of my alts are melee, and nearly all of those have an alt build with hover) and it just keeps being annoying every time. And just to prove I'm completely insane - I'll probably keep trying it from time to time, lol.

Forget pizza. Now I want some of those awesome noodles with curry, shrimp, and pineapple. Will accept the fried rice version if necessary. "Venmo Me and See What Happens." I'll tell you what happens. I'd order me some of them there noodles.

Nice! I'd like to find a little more def, but every time I think about a /respec, I can't break the fear I'll break something. 😄 Hmm.. Now that is interesting. This means that there's a point where slotting it becomes overkill on a scrapper, and I suspect that might be before traditional ED fall-off. Paging @Bopper seems appropriate here. 🙂 I'm sure the resident maths guru already knows the answer. Heh, that would be an awesome bit of serendipity, and I'm fairly sure it was a TF run of some sort but I am pretty bad at remembering names. If you're talking Excel and Jinsoku looks like a bigger, blond version of this with different glasses and color scheme, then "Yup:" _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ On the "OP Scrapper" note. I think I found a Wall. +3x8 Carnies. Also can't quite determine what is happening. It's basically intense, but not difficult until all of the sudden I am dead without warning. I suspect it's when there's multiple Master Illusionists summoning a horde of pets. Still done more with this character in terms of difficulty than I ever really did during Live. Taking a bit of a break from him though as I just rolled a Psi/Nin scrapper on a lark. Will obviously never contend for OP, but I love the sfx of the blades, and the stupid giant fist makes me giggle every time I use TB. I almost wish there were alternate (blade or fist/foot) animations for all of the psi powers. There's a place for campy-looking powers sometimes, but the mix/match of the animations is awkward. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Also, I think a definition is in order. It's all well an good to suggest combos and builds that might be considered an "OP Scrapper," but what is it that we are actually talking about? Max Damage, Max Survivability, Best Compromise between those, Most Surprising? Some other parameter that I'm not caffeinated enough to consider? In the current state of the game there's a lot of X/Y would be "better" as a [tank/brute/stalker] for reasons A, B, and/or C discussion. Personally, when I think about rolling something lately, all I can think is "Yeah, sure, that's probably true, but it's more _interesting_ to me as a Scrapper." Can't really articulate why. Some combination of nostalgia and underdog affinity. Or something. Thoughts?

Disclosures First: -- I have a stalled Rad/Rad tank that I want to like so badly for the AoE potential. But I can't get past the slow animations all over the place. YMMV tho as the set itself has tons of potential, so go for it!! 🙂 -- My Kat/Rad scrapper is an addiction I cannot seem to break. So I'll stick to talking about Rad Armor. -- It helps to be familiar with Procs/PPM mechanics with Rad Armor (and Rad Melee, but that's another story). You said you were new to Scrapping, so I am assuming some level of familiarity. In the event you're not there's an excellent Procs/PPM guide in the Guides section, and it'll be referenced in all those Rad/Rad tanker threads already suggested by others above. With that in mind here are some of my standard /Rad armor tips: 1. Put "Theft of Essence: Chance for +End" into Radiation Therapy. Do this immediately if you have not already, and if someone reading this is leveling a /Rad toon, do this immediately once you are in level range. Game Changer. Some folks will slot RT for damage (via procs), others for Heal/Rech for the uptime and heal. But _everyone_ uses the ToE +End piece. Or at least they should. 2. Particle Shielding is your friend, but don't use it on Auto. (That's for Hasten. You DID take Hasten, right?) In game mine is currently using too many slots, but Heal/Rech or Heal/EndRdX/Rech are your priorities here unless you are looking for specific set bonuses. Yes, technically you could do some fancy macro to have both on Auto, but that's a waste. Practice using PS when you _need_ it. Fire it off for extra HP right before soaking an Alpha and/or dropping GZ. Noticing your Blue Bar is going low? Fire it off for the recovery boost. And so-forth. 3. Hasten. You took Hasten, right? Put it on Auto. You want RT/PS/GZ up as often as possible, and because RT and GZ want Procs that means global recharge to preserve the fire rate. 4. Ground Zero: Slot 1 Acc/Rech piece, boost it to +5 with boosters, and slot 5 dmg procs in the rest of it. I almost skipped this on my Kat/Rad but ended up keeping it for the AoE. I use Shadow Meld and PS to mitigate the extra seconds of "just standing there" because it's activation time is so much longer than it's actual animation. On Rad/Rad Ground Zero is a no-question keeper. 5. Your T9 (Meltdown) isn't there for the extra resistance. It's there for the 41.25% damage buff (on scrappers). The "crash" is easy to mitigate with /Rad's other tools. Pop melt-down before tough fights for the extra damage. 6. I cheated and built only enough +def (positional because katana) to put me in range of hitting the soft-cap via Shadow Meld. Not everyone prefers this, but imo /Rad and SM play very well together, although this does mean forgoing Energy Epics which are what I see most commonly on posted builds. 7. You are spoiled for choice when it comes to slotting the two main -Resistance procs. Get those. Look at the Rad/Rad tanker threads as to where to slot them. I think my Rad/Rad has them in Irradiated Ground, but that might not be the best choice. 8. If you don't already have the two +3% defense unique pieces (Steadfast and Gladiator's), get them. It doesn't take that much +def to give /Rad's heafty resistances a significant boost. Ditto for Shield Wall's +Resistance piece. It might seem like "Hat on a Hat" but it's a lot of resistance out of a single slot. Makes other slotting choices easier. (EDIT) 9. Remember that you are a Scapper rolling a Resistance Set. This means that you are starting off behind the figurative power curve. Lower base resistance values for your powers (reasonably sure I am right about that, someone please correct if needed) than a tank/brute, and lower resistance caps to boost. Couple that with lower HP pool and, on paper, it looks like a Sisyphean task. In truth though it means you have to remember to be a Scrapper. Play tactically. If you're soling x8 you might need to Kite and Pull sometimes. On a team you might need to follow the tanks, or you might be able to lead them if they are fast enough to take over the aggro while you heal up from soaking the alpha and dropping your AoEs. But you can't rely on your armor to save you. You might be able to become Immortal, but you'll never be Invincible. The good news is that you don't need to be. Hope some of that helps.

Some variation of Temporal Mastery for ... um ... I guess ATs that don't already get Time sets? Thinking this through as I type, so plz forgive. On second thought, that doesn't make sense. ATs with Fire Blasts and Controls still have access to a Fire based Epic. Ditto, Cold, Dark, Etc .... So ... Time Manipulation Epics for everyone then. Treat it like an elemental set in terms of "reasoning" and fill different gaps than the other epics in some way perhaps? Would be nice to see melee ATs get some of the buff/debuff AoEs/toggles ported over into an Epic. The more I dig around the sets in Mids, the more I see interesting choices all around actually. hmm... I should actually play some of those time manip alts again ... 😄

Wow, thanks @Bill Z Bubba! Trying to re-frame my responses to things in life. Seemed like a good moment to practice. Although this is truly a "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants" moment, or however that quote about being there because of the work done by those who came before actually goes. Agreed @Troo, there are a couple indexes in the Guides section, though if I had to theorize, I would bet new, frustrated, players end up here first. Mostly out of frustration, totally understandable. I'm sure we've all vented steam before looking up the answer at some point in our lives. I sure as hell know that I have over the years. 😄

Ok. Can I offer some advice? Take a toon to 50. While doing that check out some of the links I'm going to drop as well. First, I know a lot of people in this thread have thrown around terms like "Soft-Capped Blaster," to try to demonstrate that this isn't a "Holy Trinity: Herd Them Mobs and NEVER DEVIATE FROM YOUR CLASS ROLE" type of game. But I'm not going to do that, because there's a more important point here: The beauty of this game is, and always was, that it is exactly not that. There are some extremely difficult challenges (Master Runs, etc) at higher level TFs and Trials where you'll see more strategic play - but outside that it's just not really that critical stick to some sort of arbitrary definition of "class." Here is a very good link to check out. As to earning "inf," I know your experience thus far feels amiss, but as others have said the "inf" game here in the Cities is all about getting something to 50 and building from there. The amount of influence gained (and by extension xp) has - as far as I know - and never has been tied to damage dealt. This is why "Door Sitting" works and why you see so many people asking for farms on their lowbies in LFG channels. It's also one of the reasons that people will dual-box and farm their own alts. Hell, I don't really run farms, but I do frequently solo arcs at +2x8 on my scrapper. If you're on Excelsior you're more than welcome to bring in a lowbie to door-sit a few of my missions as a demonstration. And that will pale in comparison to the gains you'd get with a better player running +4x8 while you ate pizza and drank beer at the door. Further, the value of pretty much everything is so ludicrously higher at 50 than it is at 20. Get a toon to 50, do that task force that drops a purple the first (and only the first) time a toon completes it (Market Crash, iirc). Even if you don't craft and convert for max value, just selling the recipe itself is an easy 10mil+ Hell, the common IO recipe sale prices at Vendors/Quartermasters are, figuratively speaking, exponentially higher at 50 than they are at 20. Not even kidding. Setting aside extreme farming or high-focus marketeering, it is still trivially simple gain plenty inf these days. Even with only 2 50s, holding +/- 50mil across the account doesn't take too much beyond just playing content and selling drops in the right place. When I first discovered Homecoming this Guide was immensely helpful in building initial funds on my first toon's journey to 50. I give this guide the highest recommendation in terms of alieviating your current pain-points. If you only read one guide linked in this post, make it this one: If farming and/or playing the market are your things, there are great guides down the way. Here are a couple: But in all seriousness. Pick one of your toons, and see it through to lvl 50. The low level game is just not even remotely representative of the Potential of the Cities. Less of a problem than you would think. Once you get past that "First 50" hurdle you'll notice that enhancing at low levels (unless you're building with attuned sets that you intend to keep) is rarely worth doing. Join a few teams doing Task Forces - usually a few 50s looking to the the Accolade on the team anyway so don't worry about being "fully enhanced" or "carrying weight." More likely than not the team will steam-roll anyway. And you can turn the Merits into Money. There's a good guide on that too down in the Guides section. If the Weekly Strike Targets are in your level range, do them. More Merits = More Money. Finally, never be afraid to ask for help in real time in the Help channel in game. Lots of folks more than happy to answer questions or help with a challenging mission.