Story Archer

Rad/Stone was my first L50 Tanker and I still love him. Shield/Stone seems intriguing, I could definitely see myself experimenting with that, especially since my Rad/SS is getting all my Tanker love these days and she doesn't exactly play like a 'traditional' Tanker. I personally prefer Bio on Scrappers & Stalkers, though.

I'm seriously considering a DM/Bio Scrapper. I feel like it could be a real boss...

I'm sorry, I'm just seeing this. If you're still interested, this is an updated version of what a 'no budget' Kin/Sonic Defender would like like if I were building it. There are many knowledgeable and experienced folks on these boards who might offer a different perspective, and I've always learned a lot from them so (if any of you are glancing in) I'd love to hear it! Basically on offense, your primary focus is, of course, FS and even without Hasten this build will have it up for you every 20-25 seconds. After that, you either chain together your three cones at groups or chain together your three single target attacks at the hardest target in the room, applying Transfusion & Transference if or as needed. Between fights you refreshen everyone's Speed Boost and Increase Density. In my opinion, Kin/Sonic is one of the best post-50 builds because so many characters have their defenses and Endurance issues already figured out, and the most welcome assistance you can offer at that point is to speed everything up for everybody. 90% of the time that means keep them fighting at the damage cap and stack -Res debuffs on your enemies while staying alive yourself. Teleport gets you across the board in the fastest way possible and Teleport Target is so damned convenient on teams I really miss it when I don't have it. As for Incarnates: Cardiac Core Paragon increases the Range on your cones which can make a huge difference and helps you smooth out your potential Endurance issues. I like the Pyronic Core Final Judgement because of its fast activation speed and superior damage. As an alternative, the Void Radial Final Judgemenbt is a killer follow-up to Dreadful Wail and a very effective area-wide DeBuff when things get hairy. I find Degenerative Core Flawless Interface to be the most effective Interface option. Longbow Core Superior Ally is a powerful, complimentary Lore option, but if you like smaller Lore pets, I'd probably go with Talons of Vengeance Core Superior Ally. I selected the Barrier Core Epiphany Destiny to do my part on teams that like to try and rotate them. For Hybrid, I like the Assault Radial Core because you get more bang for your buck with it and none of the other Hybrids really benefit you all that much. [K-D1VA].mbd A couple of minor edits: I like to slot the Celerity Stealth IO in either my prestige slide and the Quickfoot Run speed/End Redux IO in the other, so I can toggle back and forth depending on whether I'm currently Stealthing it. Also, since I tend to only use Amplify in conjunction with Dreadful Wail, I've moved that Rech Redux IO from there to Fulcrum Shift to get it up a few seconds faster each time.

...plus having the added benefit of stacking Holds, just in case. It really is an amazing Tanker build. I remember how proud I was for having figured out all of the little synergies... and then I turned around and everybody else had figured out the exact same thing.

PTR?

Yeah, good point about it stopping runners - as a Scrapper, that might benefit me more than the greater mitigation of Confuse even if I have a ranged attack or two.

Yet, for some reason, every metric tells me that my damage auras consistently deal more damage with damage procs than with sets alone. In my particular case, it's a mix of set bonuses and damage procs, and I'm not running a Tanker. I didn't want to get too specific because I was curious what other perspectives people might have. Let's assume that someone wants to just be a lunatic and actually slot procs that affect enemies into a damage aura - apart from straight damage procs, are there that are available to everyone which you would suggest? Ideally focused on some combination of mitigation and damage?

So you're a melee type with a damage aura and in the first five slots you've got your accuracy, endurance redux and damage all pretty much sorted out - what's the best thing to do with that final slot? For discussion's sake, let's assume that whatever piece you select, it won't be adding to any existing set bonuses. Fury of the Gladiator (Chance for Res DeBuff) I was unable to find the duration of the DeBuff, but -20% to multiple targets at a time is nothing to sneeze at. Overwhelming Force (Damage/Chance for KD) Seems like a legit option. The chance for KD would at least provide some mitigation when surrounded by mobs, and you get a little damage bonus besides. Cupid's Crush (Damage/Chance for Confuse) Seems like the strongest overall option to me right now. I couldn't find the PPM rate for this, but near as I can tell, the duration is just under 12 seconds, which is pretty legit mitigation, certainly more than simple KD. The Damage increase is also greater than that offered by Overwhelming Force. Thoughts?

I appreciate the head's up there. Honestly, I don't know if this is even a bug or not. It might have always been a thing. Or, like I said, I might just have some setting turned off that I don't know about. I'm hoping someone who's particularly knowledgeable/experienced with MID's can pop in and give me an idea what's up, or whether they can even replicate the issue...

Definitely using the latest.

I've been noticing a number of issues with MIDs lately and I'm trying to figure out if its buggy, if these are known issues or if this just a case of gross user error. I'll post a 'for example' build below and then mention the specific issues I've come across, in case somebody might be able to shed some light on what's going on with it. [Ladyshrike III].mbd Issue #1: Super Jump not registering. When I toggle Super Jump on or off, nothing changes in the Misc Buffs tab of the View Totals window. The Jump Height and Jump Speed numbers remain the same. Hurdle, by comparison, significantly affects them both. Issue #2: Adaptation stances not registering. The various effects of Adaptation don't all seem to be functioning. For instance, when I toggle on Offensive Adaptation, I see a 7.5% bump in ToHit but the damage bonus shown in the Misc Buffs tab of the View Totals window doesn't change, nor do any of my Defense or Resistance numbers. Interestingly, the damage listed for the individual powers does change, but seem to do so rather erratically. Strike, with a base damage of 78.38, jumps from 241.6 to 300.8, a 75% increase over the base damage. Spin, with a base damage of 114.7, jumps from 330 to 418.2, a 77% increase over the base damage. Spring Attack, with a base damage of 93.84, jumps from 353 to 473.2, a 128% increase over the base damage. unenhanced Brawl, with a base damage of 22.52, jumps from 44.68 to 78.95, a 152% increase over base damage. The numbers continue to be even more erratically affected depending on whether I've got things like Follow Up or Musculature toggled on and off, and not by any formula or pattern that I can detect. Are these known issues, recent bugs, or do I just have some wonky settings I'm unaware of? TIA for any assistance or insight.

Another great and much-appreciated response! [EDIT: I took your thoughts and some of the ones offered by others and went through the build again, managing to slot both Genetic Contamination and Spring Attack, while keeping Shadow Meld and shifting my Destiny Incarnate over to Ageless Radial... Reduced Moonbeam, though not significantly numbers-wise and added Maneuvers. Altogether, she seems to be giving me the best of both worlds now and, I gotta say, after one night of running her, she bangs like no Scrapper I've run before. Loving her! [Ladyshrike].mbd Back to the original response...] A couple of quick things: First off, I'm glad you're an unabashed min/maxer. That can make speculative conversations or debates about the effectiveness of going one route over another much easier and more productive as, like me, you're always looking for anything that can give you a reasonable edge even if you weren't necessarily the one who came up with it (rather than taking differing perspectives personally). I can't tell you how many times I was sure that I had a build locked up and someone just came out of the blue with an approach I had never even considered before. I'd suggest that you give Spring Attack another serious look, even though your current build doesn't have you taking a travel power at all. Putting aside it's ability to mitigate an alpha (or simply additional damage when using it mid-fight) or its occasional utility to simply get into a particular spot, let's look at it in comparison to Genetic Contamination from a purely damage angle. With everything else in our two builds being equal (1x FU, same crit chances, same Incarnates active, etc.), GC as you have it slotted looks like it deals about 47 points of damage per tick on average and ticks every 10 seconds, so let's say 282 dpm (47 x 6). By comparison, Spring Attack as I have it slotted deals an average of 476 points damage per pop and can be used every 40 seconds or so. That works out to 714 dpm, using it three times every two minutes, except that it's even better than that because all of its damage is front-loaded: after 10 seconds GC has done 94 damage while SA has done 476 after 50 seconds, GC has done 235 damage while SA has done 952 after 90 seconds GC has done 423 damage while SA has done 1,437... Plus SA has the advantage of a 15' radius (as opposed to GC's 8' radius), though - its worth mentioning - it does lack the DMG debuff that GC provides, which is legit. Personally, I'd like to take Genetic Contamination if I could - so much so that I'm actually considering giving up Moonbeam for it, since my attack chain is already pretty much seamless without it. The only reasons I haven't is that it would also eliminate Shadow Meld as an option and I worry it'd drop my single target damage a bit too much (especially considering how heavily resisted Lethal is). Speaking of Shadow Meld, on the surface it seems like a great power, and I haven't used it enough yet to truly decide if its as much of a no-brainer as I once thought. The pro's are obvious, but consider the con's: 1) I already have Spring Attack as my opener, so I don't need it for that, 2) I'm taking Barrier as my Destiny Incarnate, I've already got a longer lasting more effective option that essentially serves the same purpose, and 3) that 3 second activation time can be a little frustrating in some of situations. With most of my defenses already pretty high, and the Barrier Core Incarnate to boot, I'm not sure I'm getting that much out of it except as a LotG mule. On the flip side, I'm a big fan of the Ageless Destiny - especially with Bio lacking DDR - so if I were to decide to swap over to it, that might go a long way towards making Shadow Meld more integral to the build. I don't like Shockwave. I've tried to like it and I just don't. I think it's one of those things that comes down to playstyle. I don't generally like cones, I don't like having to take the time every time to reposition myself to use it (and then to reposition myself back to use Spin), I don't like having to waste an enhancement slot that could be getting me +10% Rech or a FF proc for a KB/KD converter, and I've already got my opener with Spring Attack. Just gotta be a pass for me there. On the flip side, there's Eviscerate. I'm with you on the annoyance of being rooted for its animation, but it's one I've learned to live with for my most consistently damaging power - and I can promise you it takes less time than moving away, activating Shockwave and then moving back. It's integral to both my single-target and AoE attack chains, and it's increased ability to potentially crit multiple foes really appeals to me. My two attack chains are very tight. Without ever getting a bump from the FF proc in Focus, they look like this: Single Target: FU -> Focus -> Eviscerate. There's a half-second gap in there for me to fire off whatever I might need (Ablative Carapace, DNA Siphon, Parasitic Aura, Hasten, Moonbeam, an Incarnate, whatever) if and when I need it, but all three repeat every 5 seconds if I don't interrupt them. AoE: FU -> Spin -> Eviscerate. These three repeat every 5.5 seconds if I don't interrupt them, with no gap in the chain whatsoever. I find that keeping my attack chain as tight and efficient as possible frees up at least one power selection and numerous enhancement slots that can be used elsewhere. I keep Strike in the tray that I reserve for exemp'ing down and that's the only time I use it. BTW - do I have something set wrong, or does MID's not really account for the variations of the different adaptations. When I toggle on 'Offensive Adaptation' for instance, it reflects a ToHit and damage boost but nothing moves on my defense or resistance totals. For that matter, Super Jump getting toggled on and off doesn't move the needle at all when it comes to my Jump height or speed. Bug or just user error? Thanks again for your response above and any future thoughts. It's all been very helpful.

No, I don't think so - and I really appreciate you taking the time to respond in such detail. One of the things I try to figure out when looking at different builds is which decisions were made as a result of personal play style and which as a result of one decision being objectively better than the other. Again, thanks for sharing your build and the reasoning behind the choices you made. It's offered a great deal of insight.

Alright, roping you two into this same reply. I'm posting the most updated build I'm currently using below, and I'm going to have some questions specific to the builds you guys are using in comparison to my own - not necessarily saying that one is better than the other, just pointing out my reasoning for what I did so that you can tell what I'm missing, if anything. Note: the two empty IO slots will have FF +Rech procs in them, I just leave them out to keep them from skewing my recharge info. [Ladyshrike II].mbd So first off, the defensive side of things. I've been accused of chasing defensive numbers on my Scrappers a little too much, and I'm fine with that so long as I'm not sacrificing any obviously greater benefits elsewhere. I notice that my defenses are considerably higher than either of yours, specifically with regards to E/N/F/C (46.2% for me vs. 34.1% for Camel and 31.8% for SomeGuy). We're pretty even everywhere else except for SomeGuy's 50% S/L Res, which Camel and I basically have soft-capped at around 75%. I can't find any other aspects of the build where I'm lagging (like recharge or offensive output), so I'm assuming that's all good? I tend to value defense very highly because of its ability to mitigate debuffs and other secondary effects, but since Bio has no DDR, I don't want to lean too heavily on it. Camel, I noticed that you took the Ageless Incarnate - was that why, or do you just like the additional Recharge? Next, Genetic Contamination. I see that both of you took it, though you did different things with the slotting. I chose to use that power slot and those enhancement slots on Spring Attack instead. My reasoning was that 1) the damage from one Spring attack is the equivalent of about 10-12 ticks from Genetic Contamination (closer to 15 if I make that last slot a damage proc), but I get the benefit all at once, and I get it every 35-40 seconds instead of spread out over 1-2 minutes, and 2) the initial KB helped me avoid the threat of alpha strikes whenever I engaged a new mob which could jumpstart a cascading defensive collapse. I know that GC grants a damage debuff against your foes in addition to its damage - how noticeable is that in terms of your survivability? You both took Maneuvers - was that primarily so that you could slot another LotG +Rech IO? Between Maneuvers and GC, your endurance totals are notably ahead of mine. Are you noticing any issues with that, or does Parasitic Aura perform so well that its not a problem? I think you guys also both took Shockwave. I've kind of avoided that power as I'm pretty happy with my attack chain as it is. For single targets its just FU -> Focus -> Eviscerate and for groups its FU -> Spin -> Eviscerate. Those chains really don't have any gaps, and just throw in Moonbeam whenever it comes up in either instance. I'm guessing that you took and use Shockwave in the same way that I use Spring Attack, as an opener to help mitigate alpha strikes? I can't help but notice the HUGE Psi hole we all have in our defenses. Has that ever actually been an issue for either of you guys? Is there anything obvious in the build that I linked that I may have overlooked or might not properly understand when it comes to slotting? Thanks again for your insights!

Yep, that's working for me. Thanks. I always find it interesting, the different approaches people take in their builds. Two quick questions - first, how do you feel about the performance you're getting with things set up this way and secondly, do you mind some build-specific questions and comparisons between the one that I posted and this one?

I think that this is an important point to emphasize. The massive single-target blasts are ideal against GM's, AV's and EB's... but against everyone else, they often overkill your target (especially once you start factoring in Incarnates and critical hits), all while expending more endurance and tying you up in longer animation times while less damaging attacks might have already allowed you to move on to your next target. This is why I rank Katana and Claws as my favorite primaries, despite the more frequently resisted damage type (not that energy is very far behind in that regard). Katana grants more opportunities for -Res slotting and provides a strong defensive option while Claws has better AoE, a built-in ranged attack AND a built-in ranged AoE attack to boot. Both generally feature quicker animations that let you be more efficient in your attacks.

The two biggest consideration between those two options would seem to be 1) the playstyles feel very different imo, with one being super tanky and the other much quicker and offensive-minded (if I were to run a /Stone anything, it'd be on a Brute or more likely a Tanker) and 2) how you feel about the two power sets assorted visuals.

I'd love to see the build, but for some reason I've never been able to make the 'data chunks' work. This is what I'm currently working with, and how I'm currently planning on slotting those attacks: [Ladyshrike II].mbd

Interestingly, I'd argue that /Rad and /Bio offer the most damage-wise, or at the very least are right up there with /Shield. I hear you about the aesthetics of the two sets - I really had to work to come up with a cool concept for /Rad, but now I've got three (2 Tankers and a Brute) since I tend to favor Res-based armors for those guys... the mini-nukes are incredibly effective when properly used. I finally got over my aversion to what Bio looks like and gave the set a chance (Ninjitsu has been my go-to for Scrappers and Stalkers), and I've actually found some very appealing visuals to take advantage of. Sure, I'd love to be able to have a 'minimum fx' option for some of the armors, but I've made the visuals that go with offensive adaptation synergize beautifully with my claw concepts and now she's one of the coolest looking characters I've run - so there is hope!

On that point and as an aside, do you think that a more exotic power set like Dark Melee gains a noticeable advantage over the more commonly resisted S/L sets? Not against every mob, obviously, but over the life of the character? To the OP, I am REALLY digging my Claws/Bio right now... she feels as strong or stronger than any scrapper I've played to date.

A Claws/Bio is exactly what I'm working on. Do you feel like the various procs fire off often enough when slotted this way to outweigh the benefit of a FF proc or damage proc in Focus? I'm planning on keeping a full set of Superior Winter's Bite in my snipe...

I actually think they (the buffs) only last for 5 seconds or so...

That's kind of my standard slotting (what it is now). I was just looking at the possibility of all three attacks giving a potential boost to each other when chained together, and shifting the CS proc to Strike was the only way to pull that off without unravelling the entire enhancement structure I've got going on... but you're right, when I'm in 'AoE mode', my attack chain is Follow Up -> Spin -> Eviscerate, so I'd want it in there regardless.

Yeah, I'm considering that too. The only reason I dropped the FF proc in was to help cycle through non-attack abilities a bit faster (Hasten, Ablative Carapace, DNA Siphon, Parasitic Aura). I've got decent +Rech, +155% w/Hasten, but Hasten isn't perma, so I was thinking every little bit would help.

I understand how the recharge rates affect procs and (of course) I slotted for recharge in all three of those attacks, meaning that the procs will fire less frequently. I'm just curious which of the two slotting options are more likely to deal the greatest damage over time.