Story Archer

Oh, I'm not trying to force a round peg in a square hole, but I want to play ALL of the AT's, and find something I enjoy in each of them... trying to keep an open mind to the recent changes. At the moment, I'm thinking that SS/Bio might make a fun combo that's not available as a Scrapper.

FWIW, I've gotten turned around big time on Bio, but I still haven't managed to stir up any enthusiasm for Brutes. Did the recent patch narrow the gap a bit?

I imagine different people/playstyles get different mileage from different builds. And I have to acknowledge that I'm speaking from the more specific experience of the two sets working in concert rather than a distillation of either. But let's not forget the mitigation you gain from simply killing quicker, and no armor let's you kill quicker than Bio. Part of the issue with evaluating the defensive prowess of this build is that it has a lot of 'invisible' mitigation that don't show up in in raw Def/Res numbers. You've got all of the KB which dramatically reduces the rate of incoming attacks, you've got two substantial absorb shields, you've got the significant damage debuff from Genetic Contamination, etc... and, of course, all the death. As for Shadow Meld, it's activation time can be annoying, yes, but fortunately the animation doesn't root you, so I simply click it whenever I'm moving on to a new mob. The 2-3 seconds or so it takes to go from one to the other is 'dead time' anyway, and the power recharges so fast that its pretty much up every mob. As for inspirations, I've already got her limited to only accepting Accuracy and Damage, so they're definitely not what's keeping me alive. FWIW, I love proc'ed out AoE's and damage procs in general - nobody makes uses of them like my Rad/SS Tanker - but I find that the set bonuses help address some of that survivability you may have found lacking. I've no doubt that Ball Lightning works wonderfully as you describe it (especially considering how hard proc'ed out Psionic Tornado rocks on my Tanker) but I just don't need it, as my attack chain works pretty much seamlessly with Follow-Up and the two AoE's I already have. I hear what you're saying about the benefits of a dedicated farmer vs. a character build that can do both, but remember that Scrappers have a more limited AoE target cap than Tankers, so there's a set rate at which you'll be able to farm regardless. Trying to squeeze out that last 1% Tanker-style often times means that you're simply taking more incoming fire, not necessarily killing things quicker. I admit that I'm not not the kind of guy who has multiple accounts and a bunch of heal or AoE bots following me around on auto-fire. I like to play and from time to time I like to farm. If I'm farming +4/x8 quickly and efficiently with a build meant for general content, I'd say that's a strength, not a weakness.

I'm sorry that I don't have time to put together a potential build right now (and I have zero experience with Savage Melee) but I do want to throw out the random caution that you should make sure you are fine with the visuals created by Rad Armor. For some people it doesn't matter in the slightest, but for others it can ruin their visual concept of the character (since there are no 'min fx' options with Rad) to the point that it's unplayable. Might not be an issue, but just something to be aware of before you invest the time.

Just jumping in to relate the actual played experience of the build... I routinely solo farm +4/x8 with this character, usually asteroids or city blocks depending on how much time I want to invest, and she plays anything but squishy. Now, proper building helps. No, I don't have the Patron Pool AoE's, but given how fast my two AoE's recharge and how hard they hit I don't really need them. How I use my tools depends on what I'm facing, but between Shadow Meld and the Barrier Core and Melee Core incarnates I have WAY more survivability than I need. Truth is, I often end up not even bothering with them because of the effective mitigation that Shockwave gives me. Shockwave (under 3 second recharge) and Spin (3.5 second recharge) combined with the damage aura are actually so effective that I usually end up only slamming Pyronic when I accidentally pull more mobs than I wanted to. There's a lot of nuance in Bio-Armor that people tend to overlook - like the Damage DeBuff from Genetic Contamination that lets you run over the top of Resistance caps or just how far multiple Absorb Shields can carry you even without the Incarnates helping out. More to the point, Offensive Adaptation gives you a better damage bump and thus more defeat mitigation than just about anything else out there. FWIW, the newest version of the build actually drops leadership and instead invests in the stealth pool, as you mention. It gave me an additional mule for a fifth LotG IO and freed up an additional IO slot to put Superior Avalanche's KD proc into Genetic Contamination - my foes spend more time on their backs than they do attacking me. Funny thing is I didn't even do it for farming purposes, it's just a nice side benefit.

For some reason MIDS isn't showing any of the damage from procs for me. Is anyone else having this problem? I can find anywhere in the settings where I might have that disabled...

Very, very true. I put together a completely unkillable MA/Dark tanker that pretty much capped Defenses, Resistances, had that huge Heal up every 15 seconds or so AND could either stack fear or stun AoE. Just insane.

Just interjecting that this is one of the reasons why Bio-Armor is so popular with some, particularly on Scrappers (and Stalkers, I suppose, I don't play them) - it contributes to 'defeat mitigation' in a big way and provides some sneaky defensive benefits that can help you get past traditional caps, like the damage debuff caused by Genetic Contamination.

Also throwing out there that Defense is generally considered better than Res because it protects you from stacking debuffs, BUT there are also a lot of stacking Defensive debuffs out there which can crash you hard (often referred to as 'cascading defensive failure'), so you need to keep DDR in mind and try to layer your defenses as much as possible with Defense, Resistance, Absorb Shields, Heals, damage debuffs, etc. That's one of the reasons why I've come to love Bio-Armor so much, those Absorb shields are golden. I'm actually a huge fan of Rad Armor (my favorite Tanker and most prolific farmer is a SS/Rad). The main reasons why some people tend to love Rad so much are as follows: Highly resistant to Energy drain/Recovery debuffs which are a PAIN when you have to deal with them, especially solo. Highly resistant to Energy damage which can be a difficult thing to achieve in many other builds. Big absorb shield to compliment its Resistances. Meltdown is a great T9 power with no downside, which usually isn't the case. Beta Decay is a really nice power that does a lot for you that's easy to overlook. Ground Zero is easily proc-able into a potent fast-recharging mini-nuke, and if you're creative, you can do the same thing with Radiation Therapy as well. Until recently I'd say that the last reason is the biggest one by far, but with the recent patch I haven't checked to see how much those proc bombs have been affected yet, so that might have diminished its allure a little.

It's a very good power, your most damaging one from a burst standpoint, with a higher than normal chance to Crit. However, it also has a longer activation time than anything else in your arsenal and roots you while it goes off, which diametrically opposes the playstyle encouraged by Claws as a whole. Claws has fast recharging, fast activating powers which can be very efficient when fully taken advantage of. I used Eviscerate for a long time and promoted it, but when I finally dropped it in favor of Shockwave, my entire approach (and my entire appreciation) of the Claws set really elevated. Against large groups, a Claws character is much more effective using Follow-Up and Spin, jumping/moving back a step and using Shockwave to knock everyone down before jumping back in. Your survivability goes through the roof with this approach - just make sure you have a KB to KD IO slotted into Shockwave. Against solo foes, Shockwave and Focus usually give you enough cycling KD to keep a guy on his back for most of the fight. Eviscerate can admittedly hit hard, but every time you use it to deal 500 damage when you only needed 150 damage to finish off a guy, it's a waste of time and energy. Chaining together Claws' faster, lighter attacks is usually much more efficient. As far as armors go, I play mine with Bio - like you, I initially had no interest in it, but eventually I got turned around and now it's my favorite Scrapper armor. Generally speaking though, I suggest Resistance-based armors for Brutes & Tankers and Defense-based armors for Scrappers and Stalkers, so of the two you mentioned, I'd recommend going with EA. There are some nice IO slotting tricks that you can use to boost your defenses with that set even further. Ninjitsu is also a good choice because of its useful toolbox and the fact that it uses positional defense instead of typed defense.

My favorite character - Ladyshrike, a Claws/Bio Scrapper - is a deadly solo farmer even though that's not what she's designed for, strictly speaking. Bio-Armor benefits from having lots of mobs to target with its various abilities and the combination of fast-recharging Spin and Shockwave can be utilized (along with Genetic Contamination) to the point that you really don't need any additional AoE's. Follow-Up -> Spin -> (step back) -> Shockwave -> (step up) is a seamless attack chain that becomes second nature after a little while. I usually keep Pyronic Radial Final (Incarnate) as a reserve nuke to use in case I draw too many mobs at once - it's ultra-fast cast time makes it perfect in that regard. Moving in and out of melee range while repeatedly knocking down mobs with Shockwave actually ends up being better damage mitigation than any armor set I've seen. I've also found that it is easy to overlook the level of protection that absorb shields give you until you've actually played with them, and a lot of people forget that Genetic Contamination comes with a hefty -11.25% damage debuff as well. Not only is that like a free 11% damage resistance, it applies even when you've reached the DR hard cap. If needed, dropping the occasional Shadow Meld (Soul Mastery EPP) or Barrier Core Epiphany (Incarnate) will help keep you up and running in even the toughest of farms. Here's my current build, if you're interested - again not optimized for farming, but I've found that it doesn't need to be. [Ladyshrike] alt.mbd

Plus it will eventually take the Coercive Persuasion set with its ridiculous Contagious Confusion proc, +5% Ranged defense and +10% Recharge...

Hopefully this helps - she's my current badger and 1A main. I farm +4/x8 solo with no problem. She's my second strongest Scrapper. [Veil of Blades] new.mbd The Heal and Recovery clicks come back up fast (18 seconds & 24 seconds respectively) and Rune of Protection goes a long way in shoring up the defenses in those -Def fights. Melee Core Embodiment (when you get to Incarnates) also does wonders for your damage resistance and you'll have one of the two of them up 75% of the time. Blinding Powder is decent mitigation on its own and offers a wonderful enhancement set in Coercive Persuasion. Shadow Meld and Kuji-In Retsu are more for muleing LotG but they have their place in the rotation from time to time as well. I can't speak to what Street Justice brings to the table, but I'm not using any defensive mitigation from my offense, so this is purely Ninjitsu. I will ask this - do you need all those power selections from Street Justice? I've never played the set (I think it's animations look cool, though), but I've found that one of the keys to building a strong scrapper is to get as efficient as possible with your attack chain(s), not just when it comes to rotation, but also when it comes to slotting. Gaining an extra power slot or two and another half dozen or more enhancements free can go a long way towards optimizing your build.

My Snipe from the Epic pool crits all the time...

Is this the best place to track the status of the badge tracker? It's actually my favorite addition to the game, but I've only seen it work once (on Excelsior).