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From the PoV of a Spines/Bio Stalker: Leveling wasn't easy, but the stalker aspect made it fun. I absolutely agree that the combination is much more fun & effective once it has the full compliment of level 50 options (slots, enhancements). I know this is true of many ATs, but I really feel it with this character. One of the two things I disliked about this combination (that I think also applies to Scrappers) is that I initially (during leveling) felt I needed Weave (taken at 30) for Defense and Hasten (taken at 28) for Offense.. which ended up delaying DNA Siphon until lvl 38. IMHO DNA Siphon is simply too good to put off until such a high level, so I respec-ed swapping the power (level) picks of Hasten and DNA Siphon. I have no regrets: DNA Siphon can be turned into a very reliable PBAoE attack (with %procs) that also increases personal performance. Stalker-specific gripe follows, forgive me: The other thing I don't like about the combo (on Stalkers) is Spine Burst. It's fine to have on fast moving PUGs, but it strikes me as out of place on Stalkers. I'm not sure I really grok the reason why the Stalker gets a PBAoE attack at lvl 2 instead of the single-target Impale. (-Fly would be so much more useful when CoT start showing up). I can appreciate the theory of making powers with certain damage scales available at certain levels, but Spine Burst was one of those powers I wasn't happy with until I could use it to hold a Very Rare set. I still grumble on low level SF/TF when I have to use it as part of my attack chain!

Neat idea, but I'd prefer to get conversion/pooling of Hami-Os first.

Oh I absolutely don't want to dissuade anyone from making a Tanky Bots/Dark. I believe that at shutdown that was a very survivable combination; I haven't made one on Homecoming.

I have found that Robots/Traps is somewhat tanky. The 'Bots can all accept Knockback->Knockdown IOs, which contributes to their survivability in most situations. The traps will either disrupt enemies or also draw aggro. The FFG doesn't need much extra slotting to be a big contributor to pet defense.

I agree with @TheSpiritFox. I have a Thugs MM and I think I'd really have to change the concept to make it a viable Tankermind. I just don't think the Thugs behave well enough to be trusted! However, if you want to stick with it... I wouldn't pass up Tough and Weave. Even with Scorpion Shield you will need more slots to add Global IO pieces (as well as set bonuses). The Endurance issues you encounter are real for MMs. Look for +MaxEnd bonuses (sets, accolades) as well as Endurance discounts from set bonuses. If you want to Tankermind, you need to be able to grab aggro... My observation is that rapid attacks will drain your Endurance faster than anything else. My Tankermind (Robotics) didn't even pick attacks until level 30. My Thugs MM attacks only come from an Epic pool. I should be explicit that I went Bots/Traps for a Tankermind since I had lots of ways to grab aggro before personal attacks, and I could (eventually) leverage the attacks into being AoE knockdowns/debuffs to support the ranged-only Robots. With Thugs/Fire, I generally do keep the Thugs on defensive and I try to draw attention with proc-bomb attacks... but because the Thugs have a mix of close/range, they will very rarely stay near me, so I have a harder time balancing offense (from them) and defense (for myself) with them.

FWIW my SJ/WP scrapper had all the power picks I really wanted by level 35. I didn't need/want much else for the concept, so for the next power choices, I went with lvl 38 Tough (2xUnbreakable Guard) <- End discount bonus, plus a mule lvl 41 Shadow Meld (LotG, IO Recharge) <- Mule lvl 44 Weave (6xReactive Defenses) <- Nice bonuses, plus a mule lvl 47 Assault (IO End Reduction) lvl 49 Vengence (LotG) <- Mule I'll toggle Tough and Weave for harder content, and use Shadow Meld only occasionally (see posts above). I forget I even have Vengence, but if I'm in a high-level PUG I'll try to have it ready. Assault is one of those things I will try to toggle for PUGs. I did have to take a fighting pool attack earlier in the build, but I had a gap choice at level 30. I do wish that it was possible to take Cross Punch after only one prior Fighting pool pick. It seems weird to me that a Cross Punch is allowed after taking one attack then one toggle. I have a different Scrapper where I'd rather delay (or opt out of Tough) to get Cross Punch earlier.

I have a vague recollection that (on Live) the argument against allowing the change of the 'stabby' colors was to keep the violence as 'cartoony' as possible.

There is no guarantee that any particular Talos Island mission door on Citadel's TF will spawn close to the Dark Astoria gate, but when it does it is usually after the team has exhausted their Team Teleporter. I will often pop there after the "Defeat Council in Independence Port" mission.

Dark Astoria is available to sub-50s so we can use the Dark Astoria Base portal to get to one corner of Talos Island on Citadel TFs. To have to run all the way across Talos Island would be self-gimping.

I still don't ask permission before porting Dyned-up Supa Trolls into stores.

Please try to keep the Incarnate discussion out of this threads "balance" discussions, because there is no reason to seriously consider changing Homegame balance as long as Incarnates are part of the discussion. I may be on a different side of this particular discussion, but I want to point out that you are arguing into a dead end when discussing level 50(+) builds and game (im)balance.

The NPCs (e.g. Council Marksmen) that tower above tall/monstrous characters has always bothered me, so often I will also make my characters taller. Or, I just adopt Ninja Run so that my characters are always crouched. Alternately, I will make "kids" or "teen" heroes, and carry the illusion that they aren't done growing. The height bothers me far less than the typical waists of female characters. There isn't enough room in there for any inspirations!

Heh, it was my Vet Level ?? Dominator that helped out the new player who needed help unlocking his Alpha slot.

/callback You misspelled 'minions'.

I have yet to build a no-heal Scrapper w/ Unrelenting (Presence Pool), but I have done it with a SR Stalker (and Fortunata). Unrelenting is a pretty decent power (it also provides a +DMG and +Recharge boost) but it is has an inherently long recharge time... IIRC my Stalker build with it has it available roughly every 2.5 minutes. Typically for a melee type, I will take the Presence pool powers in this order: Provoke (I like the chance hitting multiple targets with it, and I like the Mocking Beratement set bonuses) Intimidate <- Unfortunately as a single-target Fear (with bad Enhancement choices), this is pretty much a waste of a power Unrelenting <- I try to get this between level 20 and 30, and 5-slot it with Preventive Medicine. Pacify can very rarely be useful (1-on-1 with VERY HARD targets), but in my experience that is only in solo content. It is a no-brainer to not waste slots on it. Intimidate can almost serve the same purpose (to get a breather), but the trade off is that it can stack with teammates' Fears but has to overcome enemy Mez resistance. I know that this is not a particularly well-loved set (It would be SO MUCH BETTER is either Invoke Panic or Unrelenting could be the second power pick) but it is something that I'll consider for a variety of builds.

I'll file this into the category of "But Why?" I'd like to have a similar "Hazard Zone" connecting Cap Au Diable and Port Oakes. It would be Red Side, so it would be doubly ignored, but it always bothered me that it wasn't possible to travel between those zones without Ferries, Helicopters, whatever.

I feel like I avoided this part: The pieces that go into Defense/Resistance sets aren't procs, they are globals. A Global piece will generally work down to the lowest level that the piece it will work at. For a PVP or attuned piece, if the set can (typically) be slotted at level 10, it will work down to level 7 (I'm nearly certain of this, but I haven't actually tested). You also don't need to have the power available to get the bonus. For Resistance, I prioritize slotting: Gladiator's Armor +3% Defense (This is a PVP, but can be attuned) Steadfast Protection +3% Defense (and some Resistance) <- This is a low level range piece (10-30), so it can be slotted early, but it may as well be attuned Unbreakable Guard +7.5% Health <- More HP is always useful, and 2-pieces of this set give an Endurance Discount, 4-pieces add resistance to NRG/Neg/S/L. Depending on the AT and Primary/Secondary, I will consider adding the Psi/Mez Resists. I always take a travel power, so if I need Knockback protection I usually use Blessing of the Zephyr in the travel power instead of Steadfast Protection. Okay, so now to answer: "Why don't I toggle Tough?" Now that you know that for a character with few Resistance powers I have taken Tough and slotted it with global pieces, you should be able to see that Tough is providing S/L at only slightly above it's base (11.3% ?) resistance (with some improvement if the Steadfast Protection piece is in it)... so for a majority of fights, Tough being toggled on means that when facing enemies that do S/L damage, instead of 200 points of damage I would take 174 points... if they hit. While there ARE enemies where I want the extra S/L resistance, I generally feel that for high DPS characters the 'best resistance is a dead enemy'. Since Tough is only working against S/L, and I play against all sorts of content across levels, I only toggle it on in very specific circumstances. Bio has the option to switch to Defense Adaptation, it already has Hardened Carapace, and the Global Defense piece Reactive Defenses Scaling Damage Resistance will kick in with damage taken. EDIT: I forgot this wasn't the Bio Scrapper thread!

The LotG Def/Gobal Recharge piece is a little different than many other "Global" pieces. The LoTG piece is NOT unique, so you can have as many as you want! But,.. ...by itself, the piece grants a particular type of bonus, and only the FIRST FIVE of any particular type of bonus will "work" within a build. Not that the 7.5% boost to Global Recharge is different than 7.5% boosts from having slotted multiple pieces from a single set and getting a "set bonus" that way. This "five is the limit" is why you can't get +60% global Recharge from Superior ATO and Very Rare sets.... but for many ATO you can get 50% from the Very Rare/Purples and NOT attune the ATO set for +57.5% should you desire (and still add five LotG pieces!) Some powers are more 'natural' for using different enhancement sets than others. Some commonly seen suggestions: I explained my Defense and Resistance choices above, but with so many good 'Global' pieces I almost always mix and match It is common to 5-slot a Very Rare set in an attack, and add a Very Rare %proc as the 6th piece long-ish recharge AoE for low damage scale AT can improve their damage output by adding reliable "%damage" procs, because the proc damage isn't tied to the AT scale (often this is less useful for high-damage-scale AT, unless the AoE isn't a high-damage attack, like DNA Siphon) Holds specifically have many %damage procs, Long-ish recharge (or many-target) AoE attacks often can benefit from a %debuff. I'm not as quick to add this to all of my toons, since "resistance resists resistance debuffs", but I won't argue that it doesn't help. I've only seen relatively few advocates for increasing the size (length) of ranged cones, but I'm a true believer here. So few sets will have pieces increase range by themselves so going outside of sets is a necessity (obviously, this advice is less important for Scrappers) Have fun, and be sure to visit the Market forum to get some ideas how to afford all of the different pieces you want for your builds! SCRAPPERLOCK FOREVER!

I have a StJ/SR Stalker, so it isn't exactly the same, but I can point out some differences. That toon is one of the ones where I have 2-slots each in Health (Panacea, Miracle) and Stamina (Performance Shifter, 50+5 IO), so it runs 'hot'. I also have Evasion 5-slotted, but with Reactive Defenses, for an Endurance Discount. This includes the Scaling Damage Resistance piece. I also have Tough very late in the build (lvl 49 for me), but I don't toggle it on. I use it to mule Steadfast Protection, Gladiator's Armor and Unbreakable Guard. I don't use Confront. I like taunts, but in practice the auto-hit single-target Confront has very narrow uses where it will be necessary (or useful). Super Reflexes isn't (IMO) a great set (for a Scrapper) to try to hold aggro from single AV/GM opponents with... just PUNCH 'EM! FULL DISCLOSURE: My StJ/SR Stalker has Provoke (Presence Pool) 6-slotted with Mocking Beratement (I like those set bonuses better than Perfect Zinger). Provoke requires a ToHit check, but it can hit multiple targets. I tend to use this power on low-ish level content with PUGs that can't well-handle alpha-strikes or are otherwise drawing too much aggro. Above a certain level I find that it is only useful for protecting a Controller/Defender that gets in over their head. I very rarely slot more than the Global Recharge pieces for Luck of the Gambler. My reasoning is: Generally, extra slots in a Defense power is overkill... I find this is especially true for toggles and powers that don't provide any extra effect. I'm not crazy about the multi-slot set bonuses from LotG (mileage varies depending on AT, and Primary/Scondary) I can get more of the precious Defense/Endurance Reduction/Recharge by boosting common IOs or using PVP Shield Wall. For example, I have Focused Fighting with only 4 slots (1 LotG, 3xShield Wall). With all that said: if Enhancement Diversification is cutting in, I will occasionally 3-slot LoTG (if the Global Recharge piece is desired/planned in a power)... this isn't a point of dogma for me. Agile is an auto-power, which makes it a perfect place to slot teh Kismet +accuracy (really +ToHit). You don't have a Snipe, so this is less important. If you intend to only have 2 -slots in Combat Readiness (I have 6 slots on my StJ/WP Scrapper, I like Gaussian's set that much - it contributes a further Endurance discount, damage buff and defense buff at 4,5,6 pieces) I suggest that you replace the ToHit piece with pure recharge IO (boosted). You will get more mileage from having the power available more often than by just boosting the To Hit. Flight Speed hits the speed limit quickly, so You may have an extra slot that can be pulled from there, or different slotting choices could be made in Fly. (I don't think that Regeneration from the Freebird set bonus is as valuable as other options, YMMV) I have 5xHecatomb and 1xUnbreakable Constraint (%smashing) in Crushing Uppercut, and the ATO sets in Heavy Blow and Rib Cracker.

To add to the small number of limited circumstances where I have found Group Fly to be helpful: Until Immobilize or -Fly comes into play, the following Redside GM/AVs are best chased with Group Fly (by Masterminds): Caleb (Nerva GM) Colonel Duray (Silver Mantis SF) Extremely circumstantial, but I have activated the rocket boots on the Robots to go after these two.

On my Fire/Psi, I have the 6 pieces slotted in Flashfire. I believe the Superior version, even with all the slotted recharge still has better than an 80% chance to proc (per target). Flashfire is one of those AoE powers that doesn't really benefit from a +Damage boost, IMO. Flashfire is a good candidate for %damage procs, but... Ignoring somewhat typical franken-slotting in Bonfire, I felt I only had one primary/secondary power that I could 'afford' (from my Global Recharge 'budget') to frankenslot with a diversity of %damage procs while increasing the potential area of effect. I instead opted to use a couple of Hami-O Centrioles to increase the cone of Psychic Scream (from 60' to 80'+) and load it with the %damage procs (plus Ragnarok's %Knockdown) that could have gone into Flashfire. The total damage is ~5% less per target (as opposed to multi-slotting a specific set) but I feel like the increased cone size makes up for this. Obviously I'm relying on Global Accuracy and Recharge for this power by franken-slotting.

I have a few characters where I placed bids on rares a LONG time ago, I should go see if they filled. I typically only make limited bids on rare salvage that isn't already horded in the SG base, when: crafting a specific PVP or Very Rare recipe a limited number of Rare recipes that I know will sell without conversion I will craft less valuable Rare recipes, but only when the SG base's storage needs to be trimmed down of specific rare pieces. There are always a couple of rare salvage items where I end up having 15+. Otherwise I stay away from investing 350+ Kinf in a recipe when the raw materials for a common (including 2 converters) is under 150 Kinf.

You should definitely try it and see how it does. It looks like you should be able to have fun with the build. The only specific area where I will quibble is that I feel like you have a few too many extra slots dedicated to Recovery (and +End, for many builds one %+End Performance Shifter is 'enough')) and Regeneration. Of course, I don't know how 'hot' you intend to run (or at what content level), but my experience has been that with the Accolades you should play fine for most content. As I wrote above, an unslotter is a small price to pay to check this on a 'complete' build. I have just one area where I feel a little more serious: The small number of slots that you could free up in from the extra recovery can be used to make Build Up available more often... and that will be a tremendous boost to damage from your primary attacks. (Keep the Gaussian's %Build Up there, IMO this is one of the few 'high-level-only' sets that is worth keeping in a low level power). As a Scrapper, typically you want to be able to excel at damage dealing and the Build Up (w/ 90% proc chance) is key to this. Don't sell your primary short! Remember that you can toggle your Bio-focus between Offense/Defense/Recovery.