Story Archer

I can offer a little bit of insight, though I prefer my Dual Blades to be Ninjitsu-flavored... I'll post the build of my main first and then talk to you about some things you might want to consider. [Veil of Blades] new.mbd As far as attack combos, for most of the build's life, I incorporated into my single-target and AoE attack chains what I consider to be the two most effective and easy to get off combos: Single Target attack chain: Empower Combo [Nimble Slash -> Ablating Strike -> Blinding Feint] ->Sweeping Strike AoE attack chain: Blinding Feint ->Sweeping Strike -> Weaken Combo [Nimble Slash -> Ablating Strike -> Typhoon's Edge] This worked superbly well for me. I only respec'ed out of it once I had gotten my girl all sorted out with IO's, Patron Pool Powers and Incarnates. I personally like the Power Slice animation better and I get a very smooth attack chain with the four attack powers that I have (especially once I toss in Moonbeam from time to time). I also don't think that you need Hasten either. I respec'ed out of it and haven't missed it once. I feel like leaning so heavily on Kinetic Combat IO's ultimately gimps the effectiveness and efficiency of all of your melee attacks. The S/L defensive buffs are great but you're losing a lot there and, as a Scrapper, the best defense you have is dead enemies. Also keep in mind that the Weaken combo results in a significant 10% ToHit DeBuff to everyone within melee range (this will stack with your Rise to the Challenge debuff), so definitely some potential overkill if you're using that. I'd also like to suggest that you consider splitting Superior Scrapper's Strike into two different AoE attacks, putting three into each along with three from eradication. That'll net you +10% S/L defense as well as +6.25% E/N defense. The only reason I don't do that here is because I'm not chasing positional defenses (which I generally try to avoid anyway). Additionally, you can get a LOT out of temporary defensive buffs from Rune of Protection and Shadow Meld (Soul Mastery EPP) and eventually the Barrier Core Incarnate - between them WAY more than enough to handle any defensive concerns you might have, so keep that in mind when it comes to how you're slotting your attacks. If those are damage procs you're putting in there with Mako's Bite, I suggest subbing in Touch of Death procs instead, just because Negative damage is less heavily resisted. Don't neglect ranged attacks whenever you can find them - not to use, necessarily, but because you can mule an extra 6% F/C res from each of them with minimal investment. If any specific questions come to mind, feel free to hit me up here or DM.

Bio Armor says that there is a penalty to both Defense and Damage Resistance when Offensive Adaptation is toggled on, but I can't find hard numbers anywhere. For some reason MIDs seems to be getting increasingly difficult to use.

Rad is one of my favorite Armors and Claws one of my favorite offensive sets, though I've only played the two together on a Brute. I thought the combo was solid, though my approach was quite different. My favorite character right now is a Claws/Bio Scrapper which really plays very similarly to a Claws/Rad. Could you post the build? I have a number of questions and it'd probably be easier for me to answer them myself with a quick glance rather than typing everything out. And are you open to suggestions, or is this just a celebration of the fun you're having (which is, of course, 1000% fine 😊).

I found this out with my Claws/Bio Scrapper. She has pretty strong defensive stats for a Scrapper, but nothing exceptional... and I discovered that I can farm +4/x8 (S/L) with her because she just tears through things so fast.

And Claws gets that increased Crit. chance for its T8, it's highest damage attack capable of hitting multiple foes at once.

Just throwing this out there - while I personally prefer Scrappers to Brutes, I find that Resistance-based armors and sets with heals both generally do better with Brutes due to their higher base Health and higher Res caps. I'm also going to strongly encourage that you grab the Energy Mastery APP and slot Stamina, Superior Conditioning and Physical Perfection all with the Performance Shifter +END proc, because Dark is hell on Endurance. As another option, the Theft of Essence chance for +END proc can also be effective when slotted in either of Dark/Dark's heals. I personally think that damage auras are a bit over-rated most of the time, and Dark Melee isn't as AoE gimped as it once was if you proc out Touch of Fear and side step or back step occasionally when using Shadow Maul - it's wider arc really make a difference. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try it out, but if you don't feel like it's giving you the bang for the buck that you want, don't hesitate to respec out of it. On many characters, I've actually gotten much better mileage out of a proc'ced out Spring Attack because it frontloads the damage and a FF +RECH proc can help get back some of your longer clickies that much faster. Lastly, with no DDR, chasing defense is only going to give you moderate returns, but it can still be an effective strategy - just consider eventually pairing it with the Ageless Radial Epiphany Incarnate to compliment the effort.

I've never played TW, so I wasn't sure. I left MA out because this particular question was Scrapper-centric, but yeah, Storm Kick is a STRONG benefit for the beefier guys. I'd be a lot more tempted to play MA because of it, but for some reason I just hate the T9 animation so much...

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but for newer players considering this thread, offensive power sets that provide additional defense (Katana, Broadsword and Staff) provide particularly good synergy with Resistance-based defensive sets (Bio, Dark, Electric, Fire, Rad, etc.). Dark Melee can also do this, but in a different, less consistent way. If you take the Soul Mastery Epic Power Pool, you gain access to Shadow Meld, who's huge but brief bonus to Defense will give you the chance to get in there and get your +DEF offensive powers up and running.

Just tossing this out there - Ninjitsu also has a nice little +Stealth component which, when combined with something like a +Stealth Celerity IO in Sprint makes you almost undetectable. Very useful for stealthing missions which can be a valuable asset, especially if you solo a lot.

It's funny how different people's play experiences vary. My first 50 was a SR/Dark Tanker and I thought that was the most boring character I'd ever played. The animations for Shadow Punch, Smite and Touch of Fear couldn't be more generic and I felt like I spent literally half the game rooted in the Shadow Maul animation. Meanwhile with Claws I have a ranged attack, a ranged cone attack, a melee AoE attack and a very cool animation heavy hitter in Eviscerate, plus I've been able to make some of the coolest costume options that I could never hope to have made with DM. Different strokes, I guess, but that's one of the things that makes this game so great.

It's 117.5% without Hasten and has the T4 Ageless Incarnate. [Lady Wormwood] alt.mbd

At the moment my final build has +117.5% global recharge, and I generally try to pop the Ageless Incarnate (topped out) whenever it is up. I haven't had any problems maintaining perma-Dom, but that sounds about right, doesn't it? That should be enough to reliably maintain it barring extraordinary circumstances?

I've played about a dozen Scrappers to 50 over the years and my favorite one for most of that time was my Dual Blades/Ninjitsu. I can't say enough about that build and all the things I like about it. However, my aversion to Bio-Armor stemmed from my personal distaste for its visuals and my failure to fully appreciate how Absorb shields worked. Having discovered that there was a 'minimal FX' option for Bio Armor, I finally gave it a shot (Claws/Bio-Armor), and I have to say she's become my favorite Scrapper and one of my top two favorite builds of all time. She is just so, so very lethal. I've got her maxed out now and I just can't stop playing her, so much so that I've made her my 'new' badger just to have a reason to always have her out. Her survivability is great, she's not as 'clicky' on defense as I feared (I don't care for high-maintenance defenses), but I think the thing I like most about her is her efficiency and versatility in combat. Having a fast-recharging ranged attacks (with KD to boot) as part of your regular attack chain is such a big deal for melee types and Spin has got to be the best AoE attack among all the scrapper options. My standard attack chain is fast, efficicent and incredibly tight, regardless of whether I'm fighting single targets or groups.

New to Sentinels and not sure what pitfalls there are to avoid... TIA. [Killa Hurtz] alt.mbd

It's right there at perma (0.2 seconds off, not counting for casting time), but the Ageless Incarnate more than puts it over the top.

Tossing in another approach, just to give you some different things to consider. Dominator (Plant Control - Fiery Assault) L50 alt.mbd I'm going against the grain a little bit by not taking Hasten, Blazing Bolt or Fly Trap and slotting Strangler for damage. My plan is to use a steady rotation of Strangler, Fire Blast and Blaze for my single-target attacks. Blazing Bolt's recharge is too long and it's endurance cost too high imo. My global +Rech without Hasten is 110% which should be adequate to keep Perma-Dom, with the Ageless Incarnate essentially serving as a stand-in and keeping my Endurance up. I'd like to have my Ranged Defense a little higher (35.6%), since I plan to run with Hover/Evasive Maneuvers, but I feel like I'd have to give up too much in the places where I can do it. This is definitely going to be my most expensive build yet, but hey - it's only influence.

Is there any difference between slotting a 'Slow' damage proc and an 'Immob' damage proc?

This is, of course, discounting the benefits of the Ageless Incarnate. I'll have to experiment with Ageless to see what it would need to be if I wanted to use it in place of Hasten. I'm building a Fire/Plant/Fire, and the version of my post-50 build without Hasten has 117.5% global recharge. Wanting Seeds and Rain of Fire available as often as possible and Creepers perma'ed, the instinct was to go with perma-Hasten, but Ageless does the trick to close those gaps and offers more besides. Presumably between the Endurance bar refilling when Domination pops and the +Recovery from Ageless, I shouldn't have any Endurance issues. On a side note - do you know anything about Fiery Orb? I was thinking about putting it in my sixth Creepers slot, but I'm not sure if the proc fires when I use the ability or if it procs like the other damage procs do, continuously throughout its activation... [Lady Wormwood].mbd This is the build, just to put it out there. It's looking like it'll be my most expensive build ever, with 6 purple sets plus, but hey - it's only influence, right? Note: Build updated 04/17 to reflect actual in-game post-50 build.

If you don't take Hasten, what amount of global recharge do you need to make Domination perma?

Here's a truly bad@ss Fire/Atomic Blaster (the best primary and the best secondary imo). Soft-capped Ranged defense and Hover/Flight ftw! [Starsprite].mbd

These are two pretty confusing powers individually, but in concert? Way past my pay grade. And is Fiery Orb ever a worthwhile consideration? I've never used it and never seen it used. I'm currently slotting Creepers like this (see below) and I'm trying to decide on that final slot. Right now it's between another damage proc (like Ice Mistral's Torment or Explosive Strike) or a wild card like Fiery Orb. Carrion Creepers: Trap of the Hunter (ACC/Rech) Trap of the Hunter (Lethal proc) Javelin Volley (Lethal proc) Bombardment (Fire proc) Positron's Blast (Energy proc) [Empty]

Thank you - the text describing it as granting a damage bonus was one of the things that was confusing me. The ToHit bonus seems like a non-factor with its relatively limited duration, so basically it's the increased duration and magnitude of your mez effects as well as protection from mez effects yourself. Does anyone know its duration/recharge? It seems a little bit confusing, the fact that the bar empties when it does and needs to be refilled, but the power also needs +recharge. From what I can tell, it needs about 100% recharge to stay perma, but you really need Hasten to be perma for that to be consistent - is that right? And if there's nothing to attack/mez, then there's nothing to refill it regardless of whether it's up or not, correct?

Unenhanced Duration & Recharge, Damage bonus, etc.? Mids has it wrong. TIA.

For those enjoying this thread: my updated 'pre-50' Plant/Fire/Fire Dom with perma-dom, featuring NO Hami-O's or purple IO sets. Budget friendly(ish) and ready to rock, he got me through levels 1 - 50 and has held me in good stead while I save up for my suite of purps. Dominator (Plant Control - Fiery Assault) pre-50.mbd

Take a look at this, please, and tell me what you think. [Lady Wormwood].mbd I'm going against the grain a little bit by not taking Hasten or Fly Trap. My global +Rech without Hasten is 117.5% which should be more than enough to keep Perma-Dom, with the Ageless Incarnate essentially serving as a stand-in for Hasten and keeping my Endurance up rather than draining it. I plan to run with Hover & Evasive Maneuvers most of the time, so I figure 38% range defense will hold me in good stead. This is definitely going to be my most expensive build yet, but hey - it's only influence. Note: I updated this build and this post on 4/16.