Story Archer

That's a great suggestion for ToF, I never considered that. Back when I played DM many years ago, ToF was the power you never even considered. How would you recommend slotting it? I shouldn't need accuracy for it any more than I do for Siphon Life, so are you just thinking the six damage procs (4 damage, Glimpse the Abyss and Cloud Senses)? I'm pretty happy with Siphon Life the way it is - the full set of Preventive Medicine really gives me some nice stuff I don't think I'd see from any other non-Purple option. The attack chain already deals pretty solid single-target damage and with my Resistances so low, when I do get hit, it tends to hurt. Having an ablative Absorb shield and being able to Heal up for a lot in response really tends to mitigate that one weakness. I'm open to slotting it for damage, I just tend to shore up defenses before worrying about MOAR offense, especially if I'm planning to run solo.

As the build above is shown (except swap a set of Adjusted Targeting in FA instead of Guissian's), with FA off AND no Soul Drain (something very unlikely to ever be the case), Accuracy is at 43% and ToHit at 6%. That puts Siphon Life at 77% Accuracy against +3's and 65% Accuracy against +4's. Again, this is without any purple sets whatsoever and without Focused Accuracy OR Soul Drain. Turn on either one of those and it jumps up to 86-87% vs. +4's and the Accuracy cap (95%) vs. +3's or lower. Honestly, once I upgrade the Scrapper sets and Soul Drain gets close to perma, there really isn't any reason to turn FA on except when debuffed or up against particularly hard targets. Still, it's good to have when you need it.

Yeah, with Hasten the Recharge for it on my L50 build is just under 61s with only one IO, so I'm sure you're right.

It's a little embarrassing to say this, but the +defense that the set provides evens out my Ranged/AoE Defense and that appeals to my OCD. If it helps, in the 50+ build I swap that out for a set of Warp which grants more tangible benefits. I've also decided to swap out the Guissian's to a set of Adjusted Targeting, since the bonus defense really is superfluous at that point. I was under the impression that there was some benefit to be gained from stacking PB. If not then that's a slot that's easily used elsewhere. Thanks for your comments.

After getting a little frustrated with my DM/SR, primarily due to END issues and an understandably lackluster performance given that he was in the mid-to-late 20's at the time, I returned to my 'safe-space' Kat/Will for a while, but now I'm ready to get back on track and push through these growing pains to the sweet, sweet untouchability of later levels. Playing around with different builds, I've been pleasantly surprised to discover how effective you can make them without having to go all-in on purple IO sets, which is good because my alt-itis and somewhat limited time rarely allows me to do so. This build in particular has come along very nicely, and while it's not what I would call a minimal investment, it's fraction of what I could have spent. There are no purples IO sets or Winter sets in this build, with only the lesser versions of the two Scrapper sets. To be honest, even the Scrapper-only sets could be replaced with less expensive IO's without too much of a drop-off in power level, I mainly have them in there for the Global Recharge and Crit bonuses. FWIW, this tends to be my 'solo' scrapper and it's built with that in mind, though I certainly team with him from time to time. I'd appreciate anyone with experience playing such characters to chime in with any thoughts they might have, particularly if they see some sub-optimal slotting (within the criteria mentioned, of course). Hopefully, other players with similar goals and/or limitations will find this useful. (data chunk at the end of the post) There's some pretty good stuff here: 50+% defense to all, along with 84.5% DDR and attacks that inherently reduce ToHit (a little overkill, but that's fine) A self-heal that doubles as a solid attack and grants a chance for an Absorb shield every 4 seconds or so 300+% Regen, not counting a couple of Power Transfer procs A self-recovery that doubles as a solid AoE attack 93.75% Global Recharge which gets you just 12-15 seconds from perma-Hasten Stacking clicky mez protection that doesn't go away like toggles will A very smooth and efficient attack chain featuring a much less-commonly resisted damage type I didn't lean into a Patron pool that gave mezzes or ranged attacks because I don't tend to spend much time controlling when I'm in Scrapperlock and the attack chain didn't need any additions, nor did I need to use any of those options to mule IO sets. Against +3 content or less you don't really even need Focused Accuracy toggled on. This is just straight-up meat-and-potatoes, hit things hard and don't get hit in return. I like that my normal foot speed with Swift/Sprint/Quickness/Combat Jumping (and Athletic Run) is more than enough to get me around locally and the TP really lets me dart across the map when I need to (it also fits the character concept perfectly). Admittedly the damage resistances aren't anything to write home about, so on the rare occasion that you actually get hit you tend to feel it. This is usually lessened somewhat by the Absorb shield that Preventive Medicine gives you, which is why I like having it as part of my steady attack chain, giving you a triple benefit - it deals damage, it heals damage and it potentially sets you up to avoid damage as well. Again, any comments or suggestions are welcome and I hope this helps people trying to muddle through the mid-levels of DM or who are considering SR as a Secondary. Gx1iACwKbHdkGxfH5hpTXgo7yMfLRrxJXQuVHYFzz2iTtL0qPabU+/lzKl/V5OYK/iPdG8fXDqnSI218gJb8hY4bIL7p/Kpaxhcy9BT9hVR7hP0AzQrJI9l/8337pTaRcZHRVQ73u5yui7GfZoMAEwBUV3eyQM8DW8GqVvzZ0p/i3kVV1lam7oRxtSHOmHQ/VS5eQmkmn/dOikXWhwrx9F6I1lIoXOPDY4CsSMBzjxSWby8aBdBDKk0BiuMI+Db0OMsSZ/Ku+kThw6cQ0TesCwjc+anz980oTq3BE/yYIvKCSllZAu2z2gvaX7MP3BJEvY4wnZBwOFfYIWPSX/RI/fC0vXOBALOKlrPdktzutigyF+MQw/0FD4jkGctMZuUrWIP6FaxqzxCEGzsIww31GdTu12oal1n5Kj3bXIp/TGfpd9kW7CriZdu1G2au0t8rXYxzg5E+24QamvvQcibXHZgP0KmbsspLmdJr7G7lareRbqDcZsfTp6TiQdATDu1/Y2Hd/6GuTsLYuCz9w90w25iDwhBPJV/NtfnleNQK71WZEIi5lvgy1xGApy8/lIk8+JQuzoVqWhDsJRu1DzT5IHRZmnCVCVTpXEZe8hWscGuoHFjpXdErCIbL4bx8YSQmVsSnAsM/4wuE8eiS4ycFRt+VJM+y04rlPfShBVyeBqDXQluc+6VOaddc8Rjv1PvD6e68sge7GSWVqDk/UHUKbNXxuD0mJY6uQ7mv0HH48rY34HjvISDKZj9rqTFySqAyptjNQSAZOWYvkARd3BEX+JIE811W6M4+THJHIYS5CXM/c35HZmP8QE5GJ+76YsIMuD09KBqxgj5hRIFUO8r35a9j6qKKjxn9JPmUckJvXFChIXO+JsHujcJupTj/nabhN45z5yeSDwrETPFAzRuIv2RmGmUFJHKHgDPnmBSRgSN4MswoUy3BlpyVH+atjplnzCbcd3YNQAOx4NskuAsYdTkuWM6x9YtgqJb5F6CQsB4TIzh6FFBHaSKNrf0kyZl38L0k+LojnbDcH4aYTlg9qIQavyzrKL6qFsTs0kU68dcv5R0kgWjJJHoBTAdOh8sVZxkSW5hvsl4wuXDvmqXTvcA7xtFtcHTSogeSuMvWZlEJRtq6+KcfeELFwYIAw5j0LUPZNK6qv/bsKTrU/RmbxFoNkfV0o6UrtNWDcROjJjIJv4fSIUX0f8FFbDwKhylDrvEp+ALU/A+roCdYJQYgDF7C1Ut+W1+gdzh8Cw35mXaWx6gfF3CftWjpRDOe+yRNRwh8bVt5wYoI3QPG0S1mr1mkGardcW8bkrUTq1MbQuMlmEVta82Js6JRMynZNlAzV4ipEwHZCkk9fF3/gwEI5FgqhoRFiFETLoqT9aiYtPpllj4moIydTzFwjyZliRB8TN4l0h7OYi9g3LR5XUyAqKwYccrV5kbRAxxDsrsN56T1ZEhtFi7FOncAYPyqk+3rEiOmeZiqvp98aDs3RhAh+ntlhesQdtfIzinaKnwV3YErBslIH7mo0xICukrQm5sQFk5/7yulDWzVOpN7qlh85qCk5M1cy/+ky2ehZxvHmXwyJglm3kWH4bbYudbkBnldW3hNqPgASIzX2YwKPUz+F/Ot6KBqtwNZHpjuC7eWNPZpOQvupFFOqDJ1E8feW/hlvp5/wWqdaDloKJaEZh6SXSrbQvKCI/L55b6k3MjI7cmZ4BrlaEQwqTC84FGbslj6hNoe84xvX/xs+dkE4r/P2PdhYbyOSeZuHyTgCCbHWjpgfohAw773IXHAMkvb9GtYX1oBLOkNdAPjS1/7OwB7ZNZSOGmJekEGRpKWkVtWNF2EGb5OSmQntqlnjwhvB7iydUQzqvdluxG8hwaJIO9vOvDWW2WggiKRKx5S2KkIVho54VyZ5i6K76RxICv/dVoTRe9PdBUw/i1e2s8cMVwfWUmjVSc4m20weQ1OYhibBHuSFESwHsn+NZ9o56OrrqR+/QRMnWZtwfX2OCzpDGNACJ6ML0oG2prUyp1FQNn4mPx5bVYALYnD7HGoP6OQSG7dGI5IjIcEj/PzDk3de1lJXRuwg2RWdlscOB5nB8uFo2Zl10Y9B3rzKuzijJcEb2jiuCAF/7Mm2k+mIPFnzRdAxTI2z8mCGKD09Ga+LNuDwM2XV/qmzsAvFtGX0mBuVZm4Z64Ken8hcO6PK6GDpJ+hn4XpKCNcljHJrwxN7i9j+q+Me967lUD6OsqzO+0/AD+8CjrIbalvIa1Q8uS/bB0XK32YMr2RIKDFIIMeGhwzH5SLBbbUYOjoDlKqB6Rg7qfLerIWmRv1tLQUnbhWwkbZ8mSYLT4Me3uK/W6ScAjoufcB

Hard to argue with Fulcrum Shift, Phantom Army, Speed Boost and Rage. All are excellent and should make anyone's top 5-10. Just can't get away from Seeds for me, though - of course my experience with it is playing a Dominator, so even Bosses get purple clouds more often than not. Creepers might not be top 5 but an argument can be made that they're top 10. As a 1-2 punch I'd say they're right up there with Speed Boost & Fulcrum Shift, though in wildly different circumstances. So, Plant/Kin for the crazy OP?

I suppose I should have been more detailed - edited the OP to clarify that. I meant powers from actual power sets, not generic power pool abilities that any/every build might take. Generic T9 nukes seem like they miss the point as well.

General question and then again with what you think is the ideal slotting. Not worried about getting into the 'OP' debate, just curious what popular choices are. For my money I feel like it's got to be Seeds of Confusion. Basic slotting for Accuracy, Recharge and Range it's pretty ridiculous but at 50 with Contagious Confusion it just gets ratcheted up to a whole new level of domination/control. Gotta figure Carrion Creepers gets an honorable mention here too. EDIT: Okay a couple of qualifiers - it's got to be a powerset power, not something generic that almost every build takes like Hasten. I'd also say shy away from the traditional tier 9 nukes unless they do something distinctive that sets them apart from other Tier 9 powers.

Between being a Defender, taking the Force of Will pool and the Electric Mastery pool that's a wildly different build, but it does open my eyes to a few new things - thank you for posting it.

Thanks for the preliminary thoughts. It's just instinct to try and cap my Ranged/AoE defenses on a ranged character, especially if it's not gimping anything else to do so. The build I posted above was for 50, but the pre-50 version (without the 'Superior' versions of Scourging Blast, Malice, or Frozen Blast) actually has my Ranged/AoE at 42% and 37.5% respectively, and even that is actually a lot lower until 47+ (31% and 27%) when I finally pick up and slot Weave & Maneuvers, so it's good to hear that I won't have to be too worried while leveling up and a lot more vulnerable. Taking and slotting Spirit Shark Jaws and Summon Coralax as I do is responsible for about 8% of both defenses. If defense isn't that important, perhaps I should consider something else with those slots or a different EPP altogether? An alternate version I'm looking at goes Psychic Mastery - it'll give me that second Hold to stack, Mind Over Body to help with Psi Resistance and give me access to World of Confusion (which I love, even though its only moderately beneficial on a ranged character). Leaning into more purps for slotting (Unbreakable Constraint and Coercive Persuasion) let's me jump my Recharge up another 20% and still has me at 40% Ranged and AoE defense. Again, all post-50.

I haven't actually played a Corruptor beyond 10th or 12th level to this point and I figured it was time. Ditto the Ice/Cold power sets. I wanted a character that could stay back, (reasonably) safe at range and either shred the battlefield or pick apart hard targets. I wanted to be effective both solo and on teams with the understanding that the former might drag a bit in the early to middle levels. I'd also never done anything with the Leviathan EPP so I thought that might be cool. I put the Build data at the end of the post. So for AoE, this character seems king - I assume the usual pattern is just Sleet + Ice Storm (or Blizzard if its up), then follow up with a Frost Breath? Single target it also seems quite strong, with three powerful attacks and then Infrigidate and Benumb to work into the rotation when facing a particularly hard target. Spirit Shark Jaws is also there when I need to stack Holds in a hurry. I skipped Bitter Freeze Ray because I hate long animation times. I figure the shields are just a nice bonus, a useful mule to help group survivability early and to top players off late, but I didn't see much benefit in slotting them, ditto Frostwork. Having a pet will be kind of cool, but he's really just there to mule Blood Mandate. I feel like Endurance could be a problem with so many toggles, but I'm hoping the 7.5% Gloabal EndRedux will help. Defensively I'm almost at soft-cap for Ranged & AoE (about 43%) with very respectable Melee as well (32.5%). I think Resistances are solid enough for a character who shouldn't get hit very often, though I would like some sort of heal... I suppose that's what the chiclets are for. As I said, I haven't really played a Corruptor or an Ice/Cold character before - any advice from the vets as I set out on this adventure, or suggested tweaks to the build itself? Data chunk: 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

That makes absolutely no sense to me but I'm going to take your word for it. Thanks to you - and everyone - for responding.

And it's not a half-second benefit, right?

Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but I've been trying to understand this for a bit. One of the things that's confusing me is that Mids says that it grants the power Critical Strikes for 0.5s, which makes it sound like, at best, you'll get one attack with it if it IMMEDIATELY follows whatever triggered the proc. From what is being said here, it sounds like the best use of this proc is to put it in the fastest activating, fastest recharging power that you have with the intent that you'll follow it up with one of your bigger attacks so that it will benefit? I'm running a Katana/Will Scrapper and I figured I'd just put it on Gambler's Cut and set that to auto-fire.

SO very helpful - in a million years I wouldn't have seen that drop-down. Thank-you. So the goal is to get to 95% on your attacks with that drop down whatever you want it to be, correct? Anything beyond that is kind of like going over the soft-cap on defense?

Yeah, that's nothing. Interesting - It doesn't do that much for you, but with so little downside I'll have to consider it. If nothing else, it'll mule a unique IO.

If things work out I'll have three each of the Power Transfer and the Performance Shifter procs. Between the 3x Power Transfer and 600%-800% Regen I think I'll be set.

Does Strength of Will not crash? MIDS indicates otherwise - I wasn't planning on taking it because of that.

Very helpful - thank you!

From what I understand it's the best way to tell if you're maxing - or WAY overmaxxing - your accuracy. When deciding on IO sets that can be important sometimes. I've seen it referenced lots of places, but I can't figure out how to do it.

I read a lot of people talking about setting their base accuracy to .39 in MIDS, but on the configuration options I don't see any place where they allow for those kinds of changes. My search-fu has failed me - was there a recent update which removed that option?

Katana/Willpower Scrapper, though theoretically this could be applicable to any Scrapper considering the Body Mastery pool - we have to take one, so assuming we only slot it with the base slot (End Redux for FA, Rech for CP), which would be the way to go? I'd probably use FA on an 'as-needed' basis unless I found it's endurance cost was, well... endurable. On that topic, the character has/will have Stamina, Quick Recovery and Physical Perfection when all is said and done. If I'm tight for enhancement slots, is dropping a Performance Shifter proc in all three the best way to go? I know that the Endurance pop is technically random, though with three potentially cycling through, I suspect they'll more or less smooth each other out. I don't suppose anyone has an idea what the average Recovery rate would be per minute with those three powers slotted with a straight EndMod IO vs. being slotted with the PS proc? Is there a known base Recovery percentage that each is equivalent to? I ask because I'm in my mid-30's right now and I'm still struggling with End issues despite Stamina and Quick Recovery having both an EndMod AND a Performance Shifter proc in both. I know that things should theoretically get better as I manage to assemble more IO sets, but right now it's getting a little discouraging. FWIW, I'm basically taking Body Mastery for Physical Perfection even though it's numbers don't look overwhelming (equal to about half Health and half Stamina, I think?). I do plan on taking a quick ranged attack regardless of which EPP I chose - am I completely missing the boat on a better option for this particular power set?

So even when Evasive Maneuvers is toggled off?

This question is being asked by a habitual Blaster but would probably apply to any ranged player. I much prefer Flight as my travel power and my playstyle generally has me at range so that I can keep an eye on the whole battlefield. It follows then that Hover is an attractive option for me and that my builds tend to focus strongly on a high Ranged & AoE defense. This has led me to a few questions: Is there any value in looking at the 'other' Flight powers? Assuming that I don't have a good melee mez attack, is Air Superiority a worthwhile option, in case I get a pesky flyer up in my grill? I usually have a few open slots in the build and I'm trying to decide how best to use them. What about Evasive Maneuvers? If I'd like to stay in 'Hover mode', does the increased fly speed and control help make that feasible? As it is right now I'm either too slow to keep up with the group or all over the place if I try to hover everywhere. Also, I read somewhere that Combat Jumping gives you more control when Hovering/Flying - is that true? Finally, if you could only pick two of the three, which would they be, assuming a defensive build with moderately high Global Recharge (60-75ish%): Combat Jumping, Hover or Hasten? TIA

I don't run Blappers, only Blasters, so I tend to keep my guys back and often in the air. The vast majority of the time this means I only take Ranged attacks with a smattering of AoE which means I can focus my defenses there. So let's start with the basics: +1.75% Hover or Combat Jumping (unslotted for Defense as I usually put the Kismet +ToHit unique IO there) +3% Steadfast IO (usually in Tough) +3% Gladiator's IO (usually in Tough) +3.5% Maneuvers (slotted) +5.5% Weave (slotted) That gets us to 17.75% Global. Then I always try to six slot the Gaussian's Fire Control IO set into Tactics. You're taking Maneuvers anyway, and with Tactics slotted this way you not only get +2.5% global defense and the ToHit buff (as do your teammates) but you also get a nice little damage boost from the Build-Up proc. A must-get for Blasters imo. +2.5% Gaussian's Fire Control (6-slotted into Tactics) That gets us to 19.25% Global. It's reasonable to think that you'll probably have three single-target attack powers and two AoE attack powers plus your nuke. Your two AoE attack powers (like Fireball or Energy Torrent) gets a full set of Annihilation for +3.75% AoE Defense each while your three of your single-target powers (Like Blaze or Power Burst) get a full set of Thunderstrike for +3.75% Ranged Defense each. What you do with your nuke can vary widely, but I've gotten consistently good mileage out of six-slotting Eradication for 3.13% AoE defense and 1.56% Ranged defense. That brings our totals to right at 30% AoE Defense and 32% Ranged Defense. Consider this sort of your baseline. There are a number of other ways to add to these totals (I'll list a few down below), but which you take advantage of will depend largely on your particular build and style of play. I deliberately mentioned fairly common IO sets that weren't ridiculously expensive and don't require you to be at level 50 to take advantage of, but there are definitely ways to get both defenses into the low 40's if that's your goal. Keep in mind there will be trade-offs in some cases (potentially higher Global Recharge and other things) and that if you're teaming that you're likely to get at least a couple of global defensive buffs from your allies, so don't obsess over completely maxxing out your defenses unless you plan on soloing a lot. The closer you get to that damage cap the more diminishing your returns can be. Favored Ranged Defense IO sets: Blaster's Wrath (Blaster-only set) Defiant Barrage (Blaster-only set) Numina's Convalescence (best used with whichever sustain ability you have) Preemptive Optimization (best used with whichever sustain ability you have) Artillery Mako's Bite (melee set) Favored AoE Defense IO sets: Aegis (Resist Damage set) Extreme Measures (for Snipes, also boosts Melee Defense) Favored sets for both: Lockdown (a Hold set; grants +2.5% AoE Defense AND 3.75% Ranged Defense - my Fire/Atomic Blaster has three full sets of these and the defense they provide carries him)