Kaeladin

DB is quite strong on scrapper; it has a bit weaker ST damage than the stalker variant (although still quite strong compared to other scrapper sets), and stronger AOE than the stalker variant. BF - Attack Vitals chain is your go-to at lower levels of recharge for both ST and AOE. At higher levels of recharge (probably about 170%+ or greater added global recharge), you can switch to BF - Ablating - SS - Ablating - repeat for ST and keep the Attack Vitals chain for AOE.

Wow, this thread has really taken off since I last checked. I've been MIA due to the new FFXIV expansion (top notch, FYI). But I'll be back once I hit a content lull. I've seen a number of requests/mentions about my War Mace/Bio scrapper build. Here's the latest iteration that I made (also one of my Live characters) before I stopped playing for a bit. To be honest, the fire/cold softcapping (via the 6th slot of superior blistering cold) was more for funsies. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Scrapper Primary Power Set: War Mace Secondary Power Set: Bio Armor Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Pulverize -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(3), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(5), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(7) Level 1: Hardened Carapace -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A), UnbGrd-Max HP%(7), UnbGrd-ResDam(9), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(9), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(11) Level 2: Inexhaustible -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(11), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(17) Level 4: Environmental Modification -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(15), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(17) Level 6: Boxing -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(19), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(21), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21) Level 8: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 10: Adaptation Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(23) Level 14: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), RctArm-ResDam(23), RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx(25), RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(25), RctArm-EndRdx(27) Level 16: Ablative Carapace -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg(27) Level 18: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-Def(29), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(29), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(31) Level 20: Evolving Armor -- RctArm-ResDam(A), RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx(31), RctArm-ResDam/Rchg(31), RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(33) Level 22: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-ResDam%(33), Rct-Def(33) Level 24: Jawbreaker -- Hct-Dmg(A), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Hct-Acc/Rchg(34), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(34), Hct-Dam%(36), TchofDth-Dam%(36) Level 26: Build Up -- GssSynFr--Build%(A), RechRdx-I(50) Level 28: DNA Siphon -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg(36) Level 30: Clobber -- SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg(A), SprCrtStr-Dmg/Rchg(37), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), SprCrtStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), SprCrtStr-Rchg/+50% Crit(39) Level 32: Crowd Control -- SprScrStr-Dmg/Rchg(A), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), SprScrStr-Rchg/+Crit(40), Erd-Dmg(40), Erd-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Erd-%Dam(42) Level 35: Genetic Contamination -- SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg(A), SprScrStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42) Level 38: Shatter -- Arm-Dmg/Rchg(A), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), Arm-Acc/Rchg(43), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Arm-Dam%(45), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(45) Level 41: Parasitic Aura -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg(45) Level 44: Moonbeam -- Apc-Dmg(A), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(46), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), Apc-Acc/Rchg(46), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(48) Level 47: Soul Storm -- UnbCns-Hold(A), UnbCns-Hold/Rchg(48), UnbCns-Acc/Hold/Rchg(48), UnbCns-Acc/Rchg(50), UnbCns-EndRdx/Hold(50) Level 49: Shadow Meld -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Critical Hit Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A), Pnc-Heal/+End(13), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(13) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(15), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(19) Level 10: Defensive Adaptation Level 10: Efficient Adaptation Level 10: Offensive Adaptation Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon Level 50: Assault Radial Embodiment Level 50: Barrier Core Epiphany ------------ I switched to Barrier (from Ageless) after further testing revealed that A) I didn't need the recharge or endurance of Ageless to sustain my WM/Bio chain to any reasonable degree and B) it would allow me to softcap a host of defenses with less slotting and cap my s/l resistance in-game.

First, regarding the Claws question (about my spreadsheet), please read the Special Cases (highlighted in blue) section. I did model follow-up in that (along with Blinding Feint for dual blades), and it does reasonable mid-level ST damage but has excellent AOE. War Mace is one of my all-around favorites; it has excellent ST and AOE damage, and it's quite strong. It's one of the most underrated sets of this time, IMO. Also, what buffs/debuffs are you referring to that the sheet didn't model? The self-damage buffs from the sets (outside of build up) were modeled, in the Special Cases section. As for debuffs, -resistance wasn't calculated either from procs or from StJ/TW's -res attack (but it's easy to just calculate yourself depending on the level of the mob you're fighting). Assume that any sets that have -res built into its set will do a bit more damage on any sustained target than the numbers assume, but there aren't many situations where you're hammering a target for more than 20+ seconds. Finally, Psi Melee is just not in good shape. Both numerically, but especially from a "real gameplay" mechanics standpoint, insight is awful in its current implementation and the set ends up playing more from its "mediocore DPA powerset" than its "great (during insight) powerset" due to that factor of insight uptime.

In a sustained ST DPS situation? Yes. In real gameplay? They're close enough. Martial Arts has the higher base DPA chain, but katana is up there. MA has a slightly better damage typing IMO (smashing), while katana already has two decent AOE options (a cone and a PBAOE) to MA's one (PBAOE). However, MA is a good candidate to take Cross Punch (fighting pool) as an additional cone. They're close enough, though MA is a bit more end heavy.

Yep. Savage melee is extremely strong on stalker.

Looks like a soul mastery power. Oops, yeah this was an old entry from when I was testing out fast snipe (the current version, not the test one) to see if it'd be worth the investment for a set like radiation melee.

Please read the Special Cases section for Claws (and Dual Blades, Dark Melee, etc.). I specifically stated this in the FAQ and the actual recharge condition sheets themselves. Claws is only low in this sheet because of low base DPS values on the moves of its chain, but that section has the numbers with follow-up stack(s) calculated.

I did explicitly state that Arcanatime is calculated. The info in each of the sets reflects the tooltip info for their times, but if you look at the actual rotations modeled you'll notice that they're using Arcanatime values for their moves in the actual attack chain modeling section.

Beta Server (Justin) Martial Arts/Bio Armor Scrapper (Part 2) T4 Musculature Core Paragon T4 Reactive Radial Flawless Interface T4 Ageless Core Epiphany T4 Assault Radial Embodiment (I did not use the clicky/toggle on any tests; just the passive damage bonus) Offensive Adaptation No outside buffs, no recovery serum, no inspirations. Strictly just what my character has. I only had a measly 3 attempts when I did Martial Arts last time. This time, to compensate, I wanted to provide a few more samples to the previous attempts + test a new condition (with a number of repetitions). So first off, let's continue from the last series of attempts I did. How I started every attempt: Hasten + Ageless (prepull stage) - Begin timer as soon as I hit Build-Up. Attempts with following rotation: Storm Kick - Crippling Axe Kick - Storm Kick - Cobra Strike - repeat. (Old) 2:35 = 380.19 (Old) 2:26 = 395.44 (Old) 2:49 = 359.7 Attempt 4: 2:31 = 386.74 Attempt 5: 2:20 = 406.70 Attempt 6: 2:24 = 399.09 Attempt 7: 2:14 = 418.96 Attempt 8: 2:31 = 386.74 Attempt 9: 2:09 = 430.05 Attempt 10: 2:23 = 400.95 Much better! While times still tended to range a bit lower than the fiery melee times I posted, this was still a pretty respectable showing for another set that relied solely on raw DPA to prove its might. Now, I mentioned a second condition earlier. Are you ready for this? ...Eagle's Claw. Ok, stop. Put the pitchforks do...yes, you too! Drop it! Here's the rationale: Eagle's Claw is a long animating, mediocore (by MA standards) DPA move. However, there's one component of it that was pointed out to me in another thread (link here): https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,5692.0.html (towards the bottom of page 1) Essentially, the idea is that Eagle's Claw provides a VERY short duration 33% increased crit chance buff to what is essentially your next move. For ST, this would ideally be storm kick. For AOE, this would be dragon's tail. Another way to think of this is that, statistically, Eagle's Claw provides (over many samples) a "33% damage increase" to Storm Kick. Unfortunately it's not quite the same consistency as, say, just multiplying the move by 1.33x, but over time the math should pan out over enough repetitions of the same condition. In addition, Eagle's Claw has the highest PPM of your Superior Critical Strikes proc, and is therefore an ideal candidate to take the full set in theory. But how would this actually do in practice with a small sample? Attempts with following rotation: Eagle's Claw - Storm Kick - Crippling Axe Kick - Storm Kick - repeat Attempt 1: 2:19 (139) = 408.67 Attempt 2: 2:18 (138) = 410.67 Attempt 3: 2:26 (146) = 395.44 Attempt 4: 2:20 (140) = 406.70 Attempt 5: 2:23 (143) = 400.95 Attempt 6: 2:31 (151) = 386.74 Attempt 7: 1:59 (Didn't miss a single main attack!) (119) = 455.03 Attempt 8: 2:36 (I missed 6 SK, 1 CAX, and 3 EC) (156) = 378.61 Attempt 9: 2:25 (I missed 1 SK, 2 CAX, 2 EC) (145) = 397.25 Attempt 10: 2:18 (I missed 3 SK, 1 CAX, 1 EC) (138) = 410.67 Towards the latter attempts, I had the bright idea to start logging my parses to see how many attacks I missed in a given attempt in order to better explain time variance. And sure enough, the very first one I did was the one where I didn't miss a single one! What are the chances... In any case, it's a pretty interesting comparison; at the very least, I think it shows that Martial Arts is capable of a bit more damage (especially given it's purely raw, no -res proc shenanigans) than I might have initially let on. Gooo...Eagle's Claw? /Ducks

Savage is definitely far from low; it's actually reasonably high (for scrappers), great on brutes, and superb on stalkers. As for psi, pylons have 20% resistance to all damage types (including psi); that means no damage type is advantaged/disadvantaged on pylons. Psi can do "fine", but if psi can "murder" then a lot of other sets can do murder more efficiently.

Hey all: After weeks worth of iterating and work, I'm very pleased to present to all of you my Scrapper version of Kezeal's DPS spreadsheet, but modeled under two (realistic) recharge conditions and containing a BOATLOAD of notes/observations based on both statistics and playtesting. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1av2vWL9UVgGw183BbjFNweJze7N5P3Tn8tYSppdFQgE/edit?usp=sharing Also has some applicablity for brutes and tankers, though there are some notable differences in their versions of the kits. Not applicable to stalkers. Enjoy!

Beta Server (Justin) Battle Axe/Bio Armor Scrapper T4 Musculature Core Paragon T4 Reactive Radial Flawless Interface T4 Ageless Core Epiphany T4 Assault Radial Embodiment (I did not use the clicky/toggle on any tests; just the passive damage bonus) Offensive Adaptation No outside buffs, no recovery serum, no inspirations. Strictly just what my character has. "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Abraham Lincoln After finishing my late night snack of plain toast and a glass of milk, I decided to continue onward with another classic; time to grind the axe! The first word that comes to mind, from both a numerical and aesthetic perspective of battle axe, is "Average." In every sense of the word, it is neither greatly lacking in, or excelling in, any of the areas of melee damage and efficiency. To me, battle axe (for scrapper) defines the midpoint of all sets in terms of its characteristics. However, average is not bad! And in the right hands, an "average" weapon can still do a "great" job in City of Heroes given that this game does not require "meta" picks at all to do well. So how does my definition of "average" do? How I started every attempt: Hasten + Ageless (prepull stage) - Begin timer as soon as I hit Build Up Attempts with following rotation: Gash - Swoop - Chop - Gash - Swoop - Cleave - repeat Attempt 1: 2:15 = 416.84 Attempt 2: 2:09 = 430.05 Attempt 3: 2:41 = 370.97 Attempt 4: 1:59 = 455.03 Attempt 5: 2:25 = 397.25 Attempt 6: 2:16 = 414.75 Attempt 7: 2:20 = 406.70 Not too shabby! One nice feature of battle axe is that A) you can put a -res proc into Cleave (which definitely helped for this testing) and B) it has access to Pendulum, which is quite similar to War Mace's Crowd Control (a great 180 degree arc attack). It actually does more DPA than CC but at the cost of slightly less range (8 vs. 7). After testing these two weapons, I'm going to go back at some point to retest Martial Arts as I think it was the one with the smallest sample and I "think" it could have done more damage than what I saw. I'll look at my slotting for its attacks to see what I can improve, if anything. Chop, chop!

Beta Server (Justin) Broad Sword/Bio Armor Scrapper T4 Musculature Core Paragon T4 Reactive Radial Flawless Interface T4 Ageless Core Epiphany T4 Assault Radial Embodiment (I did not use the clicky/toggle on any tests; just the passive damage bonus) Offensive Adaptation No outside buffs, no recovery serum, no inspirations. Strictly just what my character has. "Broadsword, what is best in life? To crush the pylon, see it blow up before you, and hear the lamentation of the Rikti." Credit: the_timepants After indulging in the hedonism of youthful, experimental (and perhaps unpolished) sets of some days prior, I decided to go back to the roots of 2004 and hit up an original; it's broad sword time! I'll be frank; I didn't expect much from broad sword. From a DPA perspective + examining its rotation on my spreadsheet, I saw it an inferior version of katana. It required more recharge than katana to pull off what was essentially an identical rotation (due to Hack being the primary "filler" move, while also being the set's highest DPA move, but also having a much higher base recharge). Its AOE kit was worse in DPA than katana's; in short, I came in expecting suboptimal performance from broad sword. So how did it do? How I started every attempt: Hasten + Ageless (prepull stage) - Begin timer as soon as I hit Build Up Attempts with following rotation: Hack - Head Splitter - Hack - Disembowel - repeat Attempt 1: 2:27 = 393.65 Attempt 2: 2:49 = 359.70 Attempt 3: 1:59 = 455.03 Attempt 4: 2:09 = 430.05 Attempt 5: 2:24 = 399.09 Attempt 6: 2:12 = 423.30 Attempt 7: 2:05 = 439.56 Attempt 8: 2:25 = 397.25 Better than I expected! I will say, this massive variance aside, that there's a few notes about this particular set that favored this type of testing condition: 1) Similar to katana, broad sword can fit in two -res procs which helps is greatly in this sustained ST DPS fight (in fact its slotting was almost identical to katana) 2) Unlike katana (which requires a much more moderate level of recharge and doesn't benefit at all from ageless), Hack requires a LARGE amount of recharge in order to achieve "gapless"; for a normal bio armor character, you won't normally achieve this. But any recharge beyond what I have within my typical global loadout helps; ageless provides this and therefore provides a "boost" to broad sword's damage in this situation 3) I still do believe katana is a strictly superior version of broad sword in all the important categories (both in ST and AOE), but broad sword's ST damage is nothing to sneeze at. In any case, if you like a big (but not titanic) sword to go with your bowl of plain cheerios, broad sword just might be your thing! Gooo...Hack?

Tossing a power analyzer on a pylon reveals 20% resistance to all (including psi and toxic). Not sure if this was an update at some point, but it might at least save a little face to what psi melee has.

An excellent point, and this is also one of the reasons why the high DPS sets even without -res procs (e.g. Martial Arts, Fiery Melee, Ice Melee) are still pretty strong because of what actual damage they can output in a real gameplay setting. Pylons are fun to beat up, but they should be taken with some measure of caution (and for fun observations, particularly about how the sets actually operate e.g. psi melee). A combination of sustained ST DPS, "feeling the sets out" in a general gameplay setting, and spreadsheet data (which I'm still working on finishing mine) can be used in combination to draw some reasonable conclusions about how the sets are doing. And at the end of the day, concept + a good build supercedes raw potential numbers, from my perspective. Much as I will continue to emphasize, and discuss, the numerical aspects of the game, we each define what is our version of "fun" and actualize it to the best of our abilities. This data can simply help us make more informed decisions and comparisons, when called for.

Adding stalker AND brute into this comparison is a bit wonky, as brute and scrapper are closer to each other in terms of their melee kits versus stalker. Instead, I'm going to offer a few thoughts on which kits I think have a good niche on scrapper vs. stalker: 1) Claws: this set has decent ST DPS and excellent AOE DPS in the scrapper/brute kit. For stalkers, it loses an enormous amount of that AOE kit and does not excel in ST DPS (compared to the other stalker kits). 2) Dual Blades: this is a special case. This set is excellent on stalker for ST DPS and has passable AOE. For scrapper, it also has very strong (not quite stalker level) ST DPS and stronger AOE capacity due to a much better Attack Vitals combo chain. 3) Martial Arts: in the stalker kit, this becomes purely a ST DPS set-up with zero AOE capacity and there are other sets that do its ST DPS job better. In scrapper, and especially brute, it retains a decent PBAOE in Dragon's Tail while still doing reasonably strong ST DPS. Noteworthy for brute (+ tanker), it provides a +defense buff for 10s when you use its best move, Storm Kick. Notable mentions for War Mace and Titan Weapon, which are not accessible on stalker and are superb (TW obviously being a pretty big outlier in terms of damage) sets.

Ice is actually a really solid set for both ST and decent AOE. The lowest sets that I can think of for scrapper are: Psionic Melee (See my recent posting on the pylon thread) Kinetic Melee (I really, really do not like this set on scrapper; it's far better on stalker) Broad Sword (It'll have better ST than these other two, but it's an inferior katana in every respect)

It's totally understandable if the aesthetic or "feel" of the set isn't your preference. However, its actual numerical performance is a different story; Titan Weapon is VERY much above and beyond all sets in both ST, and arguably AOE (whirling smash primarily being the culprit, with arc of destruction being a secondary factor). As I've been developing my own iteration of Kezeal's DPS spreadsheet (soon to be disseminated), it has become evident that it does far more ST damage than its closest competitors (Katana with 2 -resistance procs, War Mace with 1 -resistance proc, Fiery Melee, Dual Blades with 2 -resistance procs); it annihilates bosses and crowds alike in general PvE play in general PvE play while also producing mind-boggling times on things such as the pylon challenge. The descriptor of "slightly less/more damage" is not accurate in this case. It is a lot more damage. Again, aesthetic and feel are fine and valid ways to compare sets. But numerically, Titan Weapon (especially in conjunction with bio) is in a league of its own.

I remember hearing about that as well. Regardless of whether the two procs stack or not in this specific case, I did fit an achilles into my irradiated ground during my testing.

Beta Server (Justin) Savage Melee/Bio Armor Scrapper T4 Musculature Core Paragon T4 Reactive Radial Flawless Interface T4 Ageless Core Epiphany T4 Assault Radial Embodiment (I did not use the clicky/toggle on any tests; just the passive damage bonus) Offensive Adaptation No outside buffs, no recovery serum, no inspirations. Strictly just what my character has. And finally, we come to the scrapper version of Savage Melee. In testing SavM as a stalker, I knew it was a superb set in their hands; it had excellent ST DPS while while still retaining decent AOE capability. I had a feeling the scrapper variant would be a bit weaker on the ST front, given that it had a worse version of hemorrhage compared to stalker + stalker having AS + stalker's savage strike (for some reason) scaling better with crit compared to the scrapper version. In general, I also knew that SavM's crit scaling (on each of its moves) was not the same as other sets; whereas a crit Clobber does double damage (x2), for example, a crit Vicious Slash only does 1.6493x more damage. However, SavM moves tend to be stronger in DPA when compared to most other sets. So how did it do? How I started every attempt: Hasten + Ageless (prepull stage) - Begin timer as soon as I hit Blood Frenzy (Build Up) First Series attempts with following rotation: Vicious Slash - Maiming Slash - Savage Strike - Vicious Slash - repeat (using hemorrhage at 5 stacks of BF) Attempt 1: 2:32 = 385.07 Attempt 2: 2:27 = 393.65 Attempt 3: 2:34 = 381.8 Attempt 4: 2:22 = 402.84 Attempt 5: 2:26 = 395.44 Now at this point, I was about to end my testing here as it felt like these results had given me "some" confirmation that this set was definitively weaker in ST than its stalker variant by far, but still produced some reasonably solid ST output for scrapper. However, something bothered me about the rotation: the VS - MS - SS - VS rotation required a fairly hefty amount of recharge in Vicious Slash to achieve "gapless" (close to 280% recharge in Vicious Slash), and my Vicious Slash was an important move because it was used 2 times to every 1 of the others + it had been slotted with the full Superior Critical Strikes set. Hemo really seemed to slow down the rotation, despite its theoretical DPA gain at 5 stacks of blood frenzy; I then remembered that blood frenzy's two effects were to provide an endurance discount AND increase recharge. At that point, I decided to buckle down and do one more series of tests. Second Series Attempts with following rotation: Vicious Slash - Maiming Slash - Savage Strike - Vicious Slash - repeat (no hemorrhage; maintain my stacks of blood frenzy) Attempt 1: 2:14 = 418.96 Attempt 2: 2:16 = 414.75 Attempt 3: 2:16 = 414.75 Attempt 4: 2:10 = 427.76 Attempt 5: 2:14 = 418.96 Whaaat? Now it's entirely possible that, in my tiny hemo testing sample, I had just gotten very unlucky and received the "lower performance" range of testing during those times and the opposite for the non-hemo condition. However, this did make me consider the real benefits of maintaining blood frenzy for scrapper (in terms of what you'd gain: increased global recharge + a solid endurance discount), and what I could gain if I dropped hemorrhage completely and utilized those slots elsewhere. If it ended up being virtually identical sustained DPS, then I know which decision I would make! Overall, I believe this set is still stronger in the hands of the stalker (and probably brute, given that brute doesn't have to worry about its crit scaling issue on its move but can take full advantage of its high base damage values) but this is still not too shabby! Reasonably solid ST damage and some decent AOE tools, along with excellent endurance efficiency (and the recharge bonus is nice), makes for a decent set for scrappers. Gooo...not hemorrhage!

Beta Server (Justin) Radiation Melee/Bio Armor Scrapper T4 Musculature Core Paragon T4 Reactive Radial Flawless Interface T4 Ageless Core Epiphany T4 Assault Radial Embodiment (I did not use the clicky/toggle on any tests; just the passive damage bonus) Offensive Adaptation No outside buffs, no recovery serum, no inspirations. Strictly just what my character has. And another one of the new sets; this time Radiation Melee is up! While facing a somewhat similar consistency issue as Psi Melee, I knew that Radiation Melee's "contaminated" mechanic was at least a bit more noticeable in terms of its proc rate. However, testing it (to understand the mechanic) made me realize that, even when the contaminated effect is active on a target, you do not always benefit from the extra damage (and burst) it is supposed to give your moves. Similar to Psi Melee, its moves via tooltip and Pine's assume constant uptime on contaminated, which is not true. By virtue of the contaminated mechanic, and its toolkit, it has some reasonably good AOE. But what does its ST DPS look like? How I started every attempt: Hasten + Ageless (prepull stage) - Begin timer as soon as I hit Fusion (Build Up) Attempts with following rotation: Devastating Blow - Proton Sweep - Radioactive Smash - Contaminated Strike - repeat 1) "Kael, why not do DB - CS - RS - CS - repeat?" you might ask. The reason is that, by using two CS, you end up with a pretty notable delay on your next DB at the recharge levels I'm modeling at (about 262.5% recharge in devastating blow). Proton Sweep actually ends up utilizing that "gap" space quite well, while doing more damage (despite having less DPA), and therefore ends up doing more damage with the recharge level I have. 2) "What about radiation siphon?" you might also ask. While it's a nice move, especially for the self-healing component, it does also remove the contaminated effect on the target. Since the damage of all of radiation melee's ST moves is contingent on contaminated being up, I wanted to maximize the amount of uptime on contaminated; my hypothesis is that adding radiation siphon would slightly decrease overall DPS. Attempt 1: 2:42 = 369.502 Attempt 2: 2:34 = 381.797 Attempt 3: 2:40 = 372.46 Attempt 4: 2:37 = 377.04 Attempt 5: 2:13 = 421.11 (I didn't miss a single move on this attempt! How do I know this? I'll show you in a moment...) Attempt 6: 2:30 = 388.437 Attempt 7: 2:52 = 355.741 Not too shabby! If they tweaked contaminated to be more consistent with its proccing, this would probably end up doing reasonably strong ST DPS AND having nice localized AOE. As it is, it's a bit erratic in its mechanic but it can produce some nice ST and AOE output. Before I conclude, you may wonder how I knew I didn't miss a single move on that 2:13 attempt. Well dear readers, it's because of... Go check it out if you're interested! Its tracking of your damage abilities, particularly in terms of how much each move contributes %-wise, as well as stats such as hits/misses, is really nice for this type of testing situation! Gooo Devastating Blow!

Beta Server (Justin) Psionic Melee/Bio Armor Scrapper T4 Musculature Core Paragon T4 Reactive Radial Flawless Interface T4 Ageless Core Epiphany T4 Assault Radial Embodiment (I did not use the clicky/toggle on any tests; just the passive damage bonus) Offensive Adaptation No outside buffs, no recovery serum, no inspirations. Strictly just what my character has. Ah, Psi Melee. One of our new sets, and also with some wonky documentation attached to it. I'll be perfectly honest; I had done some homework on this set. I knew that Pine's + the in-game info was incorrect; it always calculated the extra insight-based damage in each case (meaning it was greatly inflating the DPA/Damage of psi melee's moves). But the question was; what kind of uptime could we model for psi melee? At first, I initially pegged insight's uptime at about 40% (meaning the psi melee moves were benefiting from insight additional damage 40% of the time). After modeling this, I decided to test it out myself on these pylons to see what we got. As always, the build used a pretty standard template similar to my other /bio scrappers, oriented towards general PvE (e.g. softcapped s/l defenses). This one was almost a carbon copy of my fiery melee/ice melee characters (in terms of slotting). How I started every attempt: Hasten + Ageless (prepull stage) - Begin timer as soon as I hit Build-Up. Attempts with following rotation: Psi Blade - Telekinetic Blow - Psi Blade - Greater Psi Blade - repeat Attempt 1: 2:43 = 368.05 Attempt 2: 2:47 = 362.42 Attempt 3: 3:29 (yikes) = 316.28 Attempt 4: 3:12 = 332.52 Attempt 5: 2:57 = 349.44 Attempt 6: 2:51 = 357.04 Wow. For comparison, CLAWS did better ST DPS consistently while packing a stronger AOE kit. So what's going on here? Insight. Specifically, insight uptime. Psi Melee is effectively "two" sets; it's either a very mediocore set (DPA-wise) outside of insight, and a great set within insight. It's obviously very satisfying to see a large insight-boosted greater psi blade chunk someone. But consistency is the issue here; I originally modeled insight uptime at about 40%, but this turned out to be a substantial overestimation. It has a lockout of 15s after it's triggered (either from naturally wearing off or being consumed by greater psi blade). However, there would be stretches where I'd literally wail on the pylon for 15+ seconds, OUTSIDE of lockout, without triggering insight. I'd place insight uptime probably closer to 15-20%, and that actually still might be an exaggeration. You'd honestly see better results with something like psi blade - telekinetic blow - psi blade - mental strike (lol) and completely phase out greater psi blade, but I'm not entirely sure and it'd still be aggressively mediocore. In real gameplay, psi obviously has the advantage of being a damage type that isn't commonly resisted. In addition, you have time between pulls for your lockout to wear off. However, it also brings the disadvantages of insight being unreliable in its proccing, and when psi damage is resisted (e.g. Rikti, robots), it is resisted hard. This is definitely a set where I hope the devs will be able to do a a pass on, at some point. It's a cool set aesthetically (although I prefer psi blades more than psi fists!), but it has some mechanical issues that are detracting from some of its potential strengths.

Whoops, that was an error. Go ahead and put a -res proc in place of that eradication proc.

After looking at some of the other examples posted, I took my own crack at this one. Take a peek; it's pricey though. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Scrapper Primary Power Set: Martial Arts Secondary Power Set: Invulnerability Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Storm Kick (A) Superior Critical Strikes - Accuracy/Damage (3) Superior Critical Strikes - Damage/RechargeTime (3) Superior Critical Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (5) Superior Critical Strikes - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (5) Superior Critical Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (7) Superior Critical Strikes - RechargeTime/+50% Crit Proc Level 1: Resist Physical Damage (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) Level 2: Cobra Strike (A) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage (7) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance (9) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (9) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (11) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime (11) Superior Blistering Cold - Recharge/Chance for Hold Level 4: Temp Invulnerability (A) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP (13) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (13) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (15) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance Level 6: Focus Chi (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up Level 8: Dull Pain (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance (37) Panacea - Heal (40) Panacea - Hea/Recharge (42) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (43) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge Level 10: Resist Elements (A) Reactive Armor - Resistance (34) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance (36) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Recharge Level 12: Boxing (A) Empty Level 14: Tough (A) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance (15) Reactive Armor - Resistance (17) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge (17) Reactive Armor - Endurance Level 16: Unyielding (A) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance (23) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Recharge (34) Impervium Armor - Resistance (50) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge Level 18: Crippling Axe Kick (A) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge (19) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (19) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Recharge (21) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance (21) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative) (23) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative) Level 20: Resist Energies (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (25) Titanium Coating - Resistance (46) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Endurance Level 22: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (25) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (33) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (34) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge Level 24: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 26: Dragon's Tail (A) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Accuracy/Damage (27) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (27) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (29) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage (29) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (31) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge Level 28: Invincibility (A) Reactive Defenses - Defense (31) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance (33) Reactive Defenses - Endurance/RechargeTime (33) Reactive Defenses - Defense/RechargeTime (43) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime (43) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage Level 30: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (31) Recharge Reduction IO Level 32: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 35: Tough Hide (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (36) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) (36) Shield Wall - Defense (37) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance Level 38: Cross Punch (A) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge (39) Armageddon - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (39) Armageddon - Accuracy/Recharge (39) Armageddon - Damage/Endurance (40) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage (40) Fury of the Gladiator - Chance for Res Debuff Level 41: Crane Kick (A) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Damage/Recharge (42) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (42) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Recharge/Critical Hit Bonus Level 44: Moonbeam (A) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage (45) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/RechargeTime (45) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (45) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (46) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime (46) Superior Winter's Bite - Recharge/Chance for -Speed & -Recharge Level 47: Soul Storm (A) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold (48) Superior Entomb - Hold/Recharge (48) Superior Entomb - Endurance/Recharge (48) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold/Endurance (50) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold/Endurance/Recharge (50) Superior Entomb - Recharge/Chance for +Absorb Level 49: Shadow Meld (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Critical Hit Level 1: Prestige Power Dash (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Slide (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Quick (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Rush (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Surge (A) Empty Level 1: Sprint (A) Empty Level 2: Rest (A) Empty Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift (A) Empty Level 2: Health (A) Miracle - +Recovery (37) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery Level 2: Hurdle (A) Empty Level 2: Stamina (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon Level 50: Ageless Core Epiphany Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface Level 50: Assault Radial Embodiment ------------ Features: 1) Softcapped to s/l/e/n/f/c defenses 2) Utilizes musculature core alpha/ageless destiny (important for end management); pretty typical "optimal DPS" pairing for an end heavy set (which MA is) 3) Hardcapped s/l resist, solid (64%) fire/cold resist (though not super important) 4) 153.8% global recharge (with hasten); more than enough to run the Storm Kick - Crippling Axe Kick - Storm Kick - Cobra Strike - repeat chain 5) If I wanted more endurance management until I could get ageless destiny, here's what I'd do: drop the soul mastery tree in favor of the body mastery tree, put 2 slots into stamina for end mods (+ take conserve power and physical perfection, the latter which I'd put a performance shifter proc), and that should cover it reasonably well until ageless. Hope this helps.

Actually, a few things: You CAN chain storm - crippling axe kick - storm - cobra strike - repeat. It's the most optimal rotation for raw damage. For this one, you need approx. 225% recharge into storm kick (so let's say 90% or 100% from slotting, then 135% or 125% from global recharge including hasten which is easily achievable). This will allow you to use a mere 3 moves, your highest DPA attacks at that, for more damage. Also in terms of Arcanatime, Crane Kick and Cobra Strike are identical (despite the veeery slight tooltip difference; in arcanatime, they end up being exact copies in terms of DPA).