Sovera

No need to white knight, my good internet person. Nothing that was said even borders on rude, it takes being 2020 to be offended if speech is not flowery. The very first answer was thorough and complete, including even numbers instead of a vague 'and it gives defense'. I'm not annoyed by the person asking a question and misunderstanding the answer (the term 'environmental' is pretty niche), but the timely jump to salvage their honor and the reputation of the CoH community, was funny. In the hilarious way.

You don't -need- to farm, broseph. Plenty of people here have amassed fortunes just playing the game. Check my signature for some tips because if you played the game to 50 you may be richer than you thought. If your first 50 is a farm baby, well, that's something else. Now if you -like- to farm it's something else altogether.

I'll be honest with you: tanking is a state of mind, not an AT. I've had a recent stint as a Stalker and while fun I could just not get into the mindset of having mobs ignore me and wander off. Now I'm leveling a(nother) Scrapper and I was confiding to a friend how much I was enjoying once again grabbing agro (weak(er) agro aura sed agro aura), which led me back to how I usually play the game: jump into a pack, brush myself against all the mobs like a cat marking territory, settle down hitting the hardest thing while unleashing AoEs. Everything nice and clustered, keep an eye on squishies and their HP (it's pretty common to see that the team split up and someone's HP is dropping and for me to drop everything and run over to help before things reach their lethal end). Once just a few minions left jump ahead for the next group so the team arrives and finds a nice clustered ball of NPCs. Repeat. I'd say don't feel -obliged- to play a Tanker to be a tank.

Yes, that's what I've mentioned above with just barely (0.2-ish seconds) left to activate one of StJ's finishers (which might be cutting it too close considering possible network lag). But I ask this because despite the common sense you've espoused, and which I agree with, the popular opinion appears to be throwing the Critical Strikes proc into a set's heavy hitter. I did not ask if this was done because heavy hitters usually have a longer animation and/or longer recharge which lends itself to triggering procs or laboring under the assumption that 'proc goes off, that means my big hitter just got boosted by it'. It would make more sense to place it on the set's second hardest hitter so it benefits the harder hitting one.

I sees it. After seeing yours I started a Fire/Bio Scrapper myself. An Annihilation -res in Genetic Corruption might help the times a bit. I'd try it over the test server myself but I think it's still in lockdown for free incarnates. (Ignore FA, it's just for friendly RP duels, Parasitic can replace it)

@Bopper, this is a bit of a niche info, but perhaps you've come across it in your meanderings through all the PPM data. Do you happen to know when the Scrapper's Critical Strikes proc happens? Is it: 1) - Skill activates, proc goes off, skill gets to use the proc but the animation time of the skill eats into the 3.5 duration of the skill 2) - Skill activates, proc goes off only once the animation is over but the skill still gets the effect of it. 3) - Skill activates, animates, proc only goes off at the end of animation and the skill did not get the effect of it. I'm curious because this is something I've pondered before regarding where to place that particular proc so it benefits as much of my attack chain as possible. Currently I'm trying an StJ Scrapper and the first most logical placement for it would be Crushing Uppercut, but I don't want to put it there for a couple of reasons. One of them is that the skill is too high up and when I exemp down I would simply not have access to it and the second is that in an AoE situation I would be spending my combo points in Spinning Strike so the proc would not be used. Shin Breaker is not a good choice either because it's my first skill in the attack chain (I was intending to go with Shin Breaker, Rib Cracker, Heavy Blow, then with the three combo points use Crushing Uppercut or Spinning Strike) and 3.5 seconds does not last long enough to still affect CU/SS. This leaves Rib Cracker. With Rib Cracker if it goes off the proc would affect Rib Cracker itself(?), Heavy Blow, and then barely barely eke out enough to still affect CU/SS. Depending on which of the three scenarios above works out.

Pretty decent. We live in a land of riches when 2 minute pylons are sniffed at 😄 Outside of a vaccuum and anyone who adds the -res to the target will boost those numbers. Could you show us what build you used?

That's a common theme with Market Crash. The hits from the Crimson Prototype debuff HP. They don't really hit all that hard, but after a while we are down to 500 HP and then we get one shot. Time to run around waiting for the debuff to pass.

Did you try one of these without Melt Armor?

Ice/Bio Stalker. Musculature 45%, Degen 75%, Assault (not clicked), 2:30 2:46 I've tweaked the build for occasional duels so it is overshot with accuracy and I removed Genetic Corruption (since it does so little for a Stalker) and took Focused Accuracy. The core of the build is present though and the times aren't very impressive for one of the Stalker's heavy hitter sets. I think Frost is to blame here but I had problems making an attack chain until I included it. For regular play Frost does great 'splash' but for pure ST the 2.5 second animation hurts and the -res proc doesn't make up for it. Changing epics and taking an ST attack from one of them might be better. Rotation was AS - Freezing touch - Frost - Ice Sword. Ice Sword skipped for Build-up when it was up. It's still a great build to play assassin with. FT and AS one-shot +4 minions on crits making roaming around killing sappers and surgeons a satisfying affair.

DNA Siphon only gives regen/recovery on corpses. In a farm this is fine since there are always lots of those around.

What times did you get when you tried just FU, Focus, Slash?

- For the raw stats of the Mako. The Superior Scrapper's Strike is split in half to get the 3 piece 5% defense bonus twice. - Hasten is not perma out of the box because of the sacrifices needed to lift S/L defenses on /Bio. But it becomes so by playing thanks to the Force Feedback procs in Focus and Shockwave. This build relies on Barrier to reach 45% defense to all (Barrier always gives a minimum of 5% and once T4 this is permanent). - I prefer Physical Perfection. I find I don't need Parasitic Aura since /Bio is sturdy. Taking Parasitic is perfectly doable though, just put two +5 recharges in the slots. - Musculature 45% damage, Degenerative T3 75% chance to lower HP, Assault damage buff, Barrier 120 seconds, Lore whatever. - I like Hover. Easier to manage when speedboosted, we can hover out of Caltrops or ground effects, we can chase flyers, I like the easy maneuverability, and it turns cones into PbAoEs. It's not necessary though, Combat Jumping/Super Jump works too.

3:34 without T4 Musculature? Hot momma 😄 Though you did turn on Assault. Let us know how it goes at T4 without Assault on, please?

I didn't overthink my answer, @oldskool, but it wasn't a dig aimed at you and your answer was a lot more elaborate than mine to begin with. I just meant what I said that so far Rad has been the best damage I managed to eeke out from Sentinels in a purely ranged build (btw, 6 minutes without procs) while also being very satisfying for AoE.

As an academic thing it's fine to look for -the- most unkillable thing, but in practice you don't want -the- most unkillable thing, just unkillable -enough- for content. Which is why I look at Tankers and dither because once we can throw ourselves at +4/x8 content and thrive the idea of needing -more- survivability is moot. Path of Exile works in the same system. Only niche builds aim for maximum uberest survivability. Everything else aims for survivable enough and then damage/utility/speed.

I might not agree with @oldskool's rankings. Has any purely ranged set actually beaten my Rad/Ninja 4 minute pylon time? I know @nihiliihad better times incorporating melee attacks. Rad/is also one of the best for AoE, IMO, on top of allowing for triple procced ST attacks. I'd still go and advise Sonic/Bio for the fun and easy factor.

I have a small number of tips in my signature for new players. Welcome aboard!

That's exactly how it works.

*headscratch* ...why wouldn't you invest on endurance reduction and recharge? Anyway... circular argument. It's much easier to show than tell. Quick and dirty screen capture grab who decided to play in fast forward, but clicking on the little gear and reducing the playback speed to 0.5 makes it go at normal speed. I hadn't touched my Claws character in about a month so it's sloppily executed but it should show the lack of swiss cheese involved and the spam of AoE that can be done, when I wasn't spazzing around. Hovering over the enemies instead of being in the middle of them works a lot better and is going Focus - Shockwave - Spin to try fitting everyting in the Critical Strikes 3.5 second proc. My only Incarnate is T4 45% Musculature so T4 33% should help if not playing /Bio with the extra Recovery attached to it. This is as far as I'm willing to entertain this conversation though because I feel I'm not getting through after the line about using Shockwave on an AV.

Well... Yes. I didn't want to call aspersions on their build. God knows ITF is the achille's heel of all my /Bio's characters and where my Claws/Bio Scrapper is the only one who just tackles on a spawn without having to kite since nothing much moves until I decide to. I do love my Ice/Bio Stalker (my current fad) but even Ice Patch is not on par with Shockwave who not just mitigates but does lovely wide AoE at the same time. And don't get me started on fighting Battle Maiden and be able to just sit there spamming Focus + Shockwave when she sits on a blue circle. In the meanwhile my Stalker is all 'c'mere, c'mere!! Coward!' 😄

Mmmyes, I'm not going to change your mind and it makes sense since you don't want to slot a KB>KD and prefer Eviscerate. You do you. Focus is the only ST attack in the AoE rotation though. I should have used a paragraph: AoE - Focus, Spin, Shockwave. Repeat through infinity without gaps. Not many attacks are received since the mitigation you speak of is still present with the animation of mobs falling down and getting up pretty much exactly as long as it takes for Shockwave to be used again. Single target - Follow-Up, Slash, Focus. Repeat through infinity.

This quote pretty much explains all that needs to be said. Try it sometime. Follow-up, Spin, Shockwave. Single target Follow-up, Slash, Focus. You -are- slotting Shockwave with a KB>KD, right?

Do you want to not do AoE until level 32? Definitely pick Psi then.

A set having good AoE is not based on the number of AoEs it has, but how well they can be chained and the damage that they do. Spin is obtained early and is the standard with a good recharge, Shockwave is a super fast animation coupled with a fast recharge. Anyone who has played Claws knows that the set is an AoE blender other sets (even Spines) can only aspire to reach when an AoE rotation is Follow-Up, Spin, Shockwave, repeat. Bonus points if having Hover and floating on top of mobs so that Shockwave acts as PbAoE. As a Scrapper I expect my BU + Spin + Shockwave to have killed all minions and probably lieuts if there were crits involved. Quills does tip the balance for Spines, but it doesn't have the fast animations and fast recharge, and Claws boasts of good ST damage -as well- which Spines can only eye longingly.