[Different Axe builds, but which to choose?]

In scrapper-land, I don't actually have a battle axe/radiation armor which I actually find sort of surprising.  It should be amazing, and you should hardly need to worry about defenses with all that knockdown.

 

I have two different axe/ninjas due to scheduling error.  I'm making one into a thematic hover blaster which is unfairly effective, but yeah, the hide aura is annoying.  I want to see my outfit!  I don't think I have mastered the art of ninjitsu at high levels of performance yet -- I would appreciate a little more spot healing.

 

I have a lvl 50 axe/energy who is a Carnival nemesis.  It's an incredibly strong build.

 

Also for your consideration, how about Axe/Ice?   They come for the Axe Cyclone; they stay for the Chilling Embrace!

 

 

[Scrapper Early Game]

In my experience, 1-15 goes very quickly.  It goes even more quickly when you have three or more attacks.  If you can afford SOs, then I will generally slot:  accuracy, damage, recharge, damage or endurance.  If you need more than four slots to absolutely destroy content that was designed against characters that are either unslotted or have training enhancements in them, well then you may be playing a different game of checkers than I am.

[Why is Kinetic Melee still bad?]

1 hour ago, ZemX said:

 

You appear to be correct according to City of Data.  There is a 20% chance to recharge Power Siphon in Concentrated Strike's effects list.  It is not tagged with a Scrapper "crit" tag, meaning it is not affected by Critical Strikes global chance mod.

 

And that, my friends, is a stone cold drag.

[Why is Kinetic Melee still bad?]

2 hours ago, Sovera said:

Sure, for Stalkers and Scrappers you use CS, maybe get your crit, get your BU reset, etc. But what of Brute and Tanker? No crits, and no changes to CS either. It gets all the downsides of CS but no reset to the BU meaning what point is there to use it?

 

This is an incredibly valid point.  I also *believe* (i.e., haven't wasted enough time getting data) that the Critical Strikes ATO does not affect Concentrated Strike crit chances (and therefore resetting Power Siphon).  I will be happy to be proven wrong, but anecdotally I get about 20% when the CS proc is active as opposed to 70%.

[Why is Kinetic Melee still bad?]

7 hours ago, nihilii said:

i.e.:

- Concentrated Strike now has the longest animation of all comparable attacks. It used to be it was one of the most powerful Scrapper attacks too, but many powerful Tanker sets were proliferated since

- Power Siphon was great back in the day, but Musculature Alpha + Assault Hybrid + damage bonuses + Gaussian BU have taken a lot of wind out of builds that rely on constant +damage buffing

- likewise, the existence of epic snipes also hurt KM relatively, in two different ways. First it forces a tradeoff between using a snipe and maintaining max PS buffs, a choice other Scrappers don't have to make. Second it lessens the value of your native ranged attack in Focused Burst

- Burst was a very slow animation and poor AoE to start with, and as a couple of other laggard sets got buffs, KM is now firmly last spot for AOE power

- no real "tier3" attack option without proc abuse, Focused Burst animates a smidge too slow

 

I find it interesting that 80% of your points are literally about power creep of other sets, not about the mechanics or playability of Kinetic Melee itself.

[Best AT / Powerset to Solo content]

22 hours ago, JCServant said:

Indeed Vibal & Yobo. So my question is, do you all have favorite ATs and Powersets that allow you do all of that?  Essentially, what are your best choices for being able to solo all of the content. Or, better yet builds you're willing to share?  

 

Yobo?  YOBO?!?

 

My answer is generally always going to be scrappers, because that’s how I roll.  But in general I’d say play something you like and figure out how to make it work.  Soloing an AV becomes easier if you throw the kitchen sink of the P2W vendor at them!

[Scrapper Rock T9 (Geode) bugged breaking]

I don't know if it is bug or not, but I rarely get more than a second or two out of Geode before it pops, so I respeced out of it.

[From 0 to full build using the Market - An example]

Can you do us a favor and talk about how you are slotting your character as you go along?  Clearly at this time you can afford SOs if you want them.  When do you like to add staples like Steadfast Protection or ATOs?  I think that additional commentary would help a lot of recent returnees who are having trouble with funding while they level.

[Best AT / Powerset to Solo content]

On 3/18/2024 at 9:16 AM, JCServant said:

Ah... I think I need to clarify.  In my humble opinion, nearly any class can solo most story arcs at default settings. But which class can solo the most content - i.e. task forces - which would require taking on full arch villains and the like? Since if one solo's a task force, that is likely to be the hardest part to get through as there's no way to turn off A/Vs in task forces.  That's why I mentioned AV in my original post. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if one solo's a task force, they are facing AVs, right?

 

It sounds like you are geared towards doing TFs/SFs.  Depending on what you mean by "default settings" then there are two primary goals for a build and then for me an important secondary one.

 

1.  Defeat all the cannon fodder.  Generally, TFs are going to have a lot of opponents, although generally not particularly difficult ones.  In this case you are going to want to focus on AoE damage and surviving the waves of cannon fodder.  Of course, this is where your choice of how many heroes you want to fight as becomes important -- by endgame I'm running x8 but I'm not going to run a Synapse at x8.

 

2.  Defeat the end AV/AVs.  Now you need a build capable of defeating an AV.  Not all AVs are alike, and a +0 AV is significantly easier than a +4 AV.  In this case you are going to want to focus on ST damage, some debuff (particularly -regeneration), and maybe some crowd control, like immob.  There are some AVs you will spank at +0 and you will find "unbeatable" at +4.  

 

3.  For a long while, this game has been modified to make it easier for players to build extremely powerful characters, and the devs have responded by making tougher enemy groups.  To me, my third characteristic for soloing story arcs at a high level means I need to be prepared for massive debuffs.  

 

My game play is to play pretty much whatever until 50, and then I will run the characters I like at +4/x8 through the endgame arcs I like.  In lots of those arcs, you are dealing with enemies who are going to crush you with sheer numbers of debuffs unless you are able to assess your threats.  A mission of +4/x8 Crey nowadays is no cakewalk, and in comparison someone like Countess Crey is a welcome diversion.

 

 

[State of the Market, post announcement]

We should be coming up to right around the point where it gets interesting.  Based on some completely anecdotal evidence, players who started earlier this year post-announcement should be hitting 50 on one or more characters right about now.  Do they make new alts and equip them, which is good for higher demand?  Do they dip into marketing themselves which is good for higher supply?  

 

There should be an on-staff economist making predictions!  "Economist" is a job title where you can be wrong 75% of the time, and yet still not get fired.

[Psy Blast or Sigh Blast?]

T9:  Sarcasm.  Oooh, THAT'S a useful superpower...

[Psy Blast or Sigh Blast?]

Sigh Blast is the T5 attack from the upcoming Passive Aggressive Blast set.

[Marketer's Rollcall]

20 hours ago, Psyphon said:

but I'm curious if there are other players out there who pop out 500+ large transactions a day (I'm talking 10 M or more each).

 

Do you mean 10mm or more profit each (which would be very impressive!) or 10mm in capital each?  Don't forget the /AH vig; if you buy something at 12mm and sell it for 15mm you are only clearing 1.5mm a trade.  Don't get me wrong, that's not a bad profit, but you can make something for under 300k and sell it for 2mm for the same profit with a lot more volume and a lot less risk.

[Guide for PI radios. Let me know what I got wrong.]

I'd like to see you add Paper Missions in Grandville as well.

 

I'd like to see possible enemy types for each location, and probable map types.  For example, I never select CoT in PI because I just assume they will be in a cave.  What percentage of their missions are actually in buildings?

[DDR available in any Pool/Epic?]

21 minutes ago, Dolla said:

Thanks for the answers. I will get the ageless ,does it negate debuffs already on you? I.e. if I notice my defense is debuffed I can click ageless and get it back?

 My experience has been that it helps prevent future debuffs, but current debuffs need to expire.

[How is one supposed to beat Silver Mantis?]

8 minutes ago, nihilii said:

Many of them do. Silver Mantis' is crashless.

 

I know "standard" EBs crash (like Minotaurs, etc.), but I'm unaware of AVs that crash?  Note that here Silver Mantis is an AV that got demoted to EB and thus still has purple triangles of doom.

[How is one supposed to beat Silver Mantis?]

Unstoppable and Dull Pain are a tough combination for an AV (or AV demoted to EB in this case).  In particular, they don't get a crash after Unstoppable wears off like players do, so your best tactic is to pour on as much damage as possible after it comes down and before it recharges.  

[Wealth as a power set]

Actually, I just purchased Cascade Archipelago from the Homecoming team.  I figure all it needs to double in value is a little trickle-down economics.

[Add a vendor with "Training" origin enhancements]

Or you can buy them with AE tickets.

[We all need to leave this game. It's too good]

32 minutes ago, cronus said:

Can I haz your stuffs?

 

Damn it, you got in there first!

[Auction House (/AH) price refresh seems less effective.]

13 hours ago, Number Six said:

 

blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah GINGER blah blah blah...

 

That's fantastic and great work on your part!  We all really appreciate it, although it puts more information in the hands of dumb money retail investors.

 

(I actually understood more of that than I thought I would, but you got to go for the Far Side reference when you can!)

[Blasts are too weak]

Counterpoint:  the controls and debuffs on my blaster are too weak.

[Another question for you more Experienced Players out there (Scrapper Secondaries)]

On 3/12/2024 at 8:30 AM, KITANYA said:

Which ones are regarded as Top 3 Defensive Secondaries (out of all of them) by the General Playerbase?

 

I suspect that the G.P. will rank them Super Reflexes, Willpower, Energy Aura, but I would personally rank them Energy Aura, big gap, Super Reflexes, big gap, Willpower.

 

Super Reflexes is an I win button for casual play, there is no denying.  It's pretty straightforward to soft-cap your defenses and max out your defense debuff resistance, so you will generally only be defeated when either sheer numbers overwhelm the RNG and you breakdown, or you run into something that is designed to work around defenses.  Your secondary defenses (like resistance, healing, etc.) are minimal.

 

Willpower is the monarch of set and forget; once you have your toggles going, you will be set for the vast majority of content and it will be layered mitigation, so you've got some defense, some resistance, some healing.  The problem is that it is very easy to get over your skis with Willpower in the endgame, and the T9 is not a very good power to hit when you get in trouble.  For casual content, it's awesome, but it's also very easy to faceplant in end game.

 

Energy Aura is a much more active secondary, and has a lot of active tools to manage your character over and above protection, namely endurance recovery.  It probably has a much higher learning curve than the other two, but rewards that learning with performance.  I wish the defense power didn't provide stealth, but it is what it is.

[State of the Market, post announcement]

I logged on yesterday and noted that some staples that have been meticulously maintained for years have dropped in price and with a large umber of offers.  Not all staples, but a few.  Looks like someone with a large inventory got tired of holding and whoever was maintaining the market got swamped.

[Suggestion: horse head]

It's doable, but it's not a slam dunk: