Psionic Melee/Shield Defense: Any particular tips?

[Rynjin]

Made a Paladin-y themed character, almost went Fiery Melee but Psionic looked a bit more fun. To be sure I have an idea of the playstyle, it seems like it's focused primarily on burst damage and single target debilitations? Comparing it to Fire it seemed to do on average more damage per hit with stuff like Psionic Blade vs Fire Blade and has some neat knockback tricks and such.

 

Anything in particular I should be aware of? Powers I absolutely should not miss, or alternatively ones I SHOULD, things like that? Hopefully neither Psionic Melee or Shield Defense is one of the few bad power sets I've heard about (apparently the general consensus is Energy Melee is not great?).

[RobotLove]

For Psi, the T1 is skippable. Boggle is too 'cute' to be useful to a scrapper, though there are some nice bonuses in the confuse sets to give at least a little consideration too. The insight mechanic as a whole is ignorable. Greater Psi Blade is too good to not use on cooldown, and the DoTs from the other attacks don't make up for waiting. Finally, if you have the budget for it, get some -res in there (Glad's Fury proc namely). You WILL eventually run into the dreaded Psi resist wall at endgame, and this can help make it a little less painful, if only barely.

 

Shield I don't have enough practical experience with to give nuanced advice towards, but it's a well rounded and strong standalone defensive with some neat tricks.

[Seigmoraig]

SD is a very good set, that being said, I usually skip the Grant Cover power. All it does is give defense to your teammates with nothing for yourself and it has a short range on top of that, like your allies need to be practically on top of you to get the benefit. You COULD get it at 49 if you have a floating power and you wanted an extra Luck of the Gambler mule though but I would only get that after Maneuvers (you know the power that gives +def to your team AND yourself...)

Edited October 8, 2019 by Seigmoraig

[Likara]

1 hour ago, Seigmoraig said:

SD is a very good set, that being said, I usually skip the Grant Cover power. All it does is give defense to your teammates with nothing for yourself and it has a short range on top of that, like your allies need to be practically on top of you to get the benefit. You COULD get it at 49 if you have a floating power and you wanted an extra Luck of the Gambler mule though but I would only get that after Maneuvers (you know the power that gives +def to your team AND yourself...)

I wouldn't skip Grant Cover, it contains a good amount of your def debuff resist, 17.3% of it, in fact. My shield Tanker wouldn't be hitting over 90% defense resist without it, and my shield Brute is between ~50% to ~70% with it, depending on if Active Defense is double-stacked.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Ritikesh

[Rynjin]

22 hours ago, RobotLove said:

For Psi, the T1 is skippable. Boggle is too 'cute' to be useful to a scrapper, though there are some nice bonuses in the confuse sets to give at least a little consideration too. The insight mechanic as a whole is ignorable. Greater Psi Blade is too good to not use on cooldown, and the DoTs from the other attacks don't make up for waiting. Finally, if you have the budget for it, get some -res in there (Glad's Fury proc namely). You WILL eventually run into the dreaded Psi resist wall at endgame, and this can help make it a little less painful, if only barely.

 

Shield I don't have enough practical experience with to give nuanced advice towards, but it's a well rounded and strong standalone defensive with some neat tricks.

Psi damage is heavily resisted endgame then?

 

Bad enough that it's not worth the hassle or manageable?

[RobotLove]

More manageable than some of the screaming of the past might have you believe if you dig around some. Robots are what tend to be called out the most (but there are others), and they resist it hard. But you don't really run into packs of nothing but robots, and most other things they spawn with don't have much, if any resist to it.

Scrappers are in their element focusing down the tougher Lt.s and bosses that survive an alpha nuke, and that's the rank that those enemy types start to pop up (praet BCUs, arachnos drones/spider bots, Council mechs, etc. ) so having that bit of -res helps.

[Nyghtmaire]

On 10/9/2019 at 3:41 AM, RobotLove said:

More manageable than some of the screaming of the past might have you believe if you dig around some. Robots are what tend to be called out the most (but there are others), and they resist it hard. But you don't really run into packs of nothing but robots, and most other things they spawn with don't have much, if any resist to it.

Scrappers are in their element focusing down the tougher Lt.s and bosses that survive an alpha nuke, and that's the rank that those enemy types start to pop up (praet BCUs, arachnos drones/spider bots, Council mechs, etc. ) so having that bit of -res helps.

Is it worthwhile to dip into the fire ancillary to have some additional, non-psi attacks (and an extra AOE regardless) for those limited cases? Or better just to tough it out?

[Infinitum]

On 10/9/2019 at 2:47 AM, Rynjin said:

Psi damage is heavily resisted endgame then?

 

Bad enough that it's not worth the hassle or manageable?

Eh, I don't really notice the heavy psy resists end game and my penultimate main is a psy/Elec brute.

 

Psy is one of my favorite sets.

[DreadShinobi]

My psi/shield scrapper actually gets a lot of my playtime, right after my main and poison defender. It offers a lot of soft control between shield charge, mass levitate, and TK Blow knockups, and the hold from GPB is fantastic for stacking in with anyone else flinging holds around or disabling problematic targets. I don't use boggle at all for lvl 50 content but it is fantastic when exemplaring on lower level TFs, especially with contagious confusion. What really makes the build shine is a 3 button attack chain with TK blow setting up critical strikes and insight for greater psi blade. It is also a very endurance friendly set.

 

My build is general purpose. Confront is mainly there to tank recluse on ms. lib tf, otherwise AAO holds aggro absurdly well all by itself, and the build has no problem tanking all relevant content. You could optimize your single target damage by switching the Armageddon set to psi blade sweep and using a -res proc in the 6th slot instead of the force feedback in mass levitate, the two are pretty interchangeable. I also really don't care for scrapper epic pools personally, so my scrapper builds typically don't include them. I don't have an issue running into psi resistant foes. The most common psi resistant foe you will run into are robots (not clockwork, this build runs synapse tfs faster than anything), which are usually weak to smashing. Mass Levitate is pure smashing and you also get some smashing damage from TK Blow, and smashing/negative damage from damage procs in GPB. 

 

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.5
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Psionic Melee
Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Fighting

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Psi Blade -- SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg(A), SprScrStr-Dmg/Rchg(13), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), SprScrStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), SprScrStr-Rchg/+Crit(17)
Level 1: Deflection -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(7), UnbGrd-ResDam(43), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(45), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(45), UnbGrd-Max HP%(46)
Level 2: Telekinetic Blow -- SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg(A), SprCrtStr-Dmg/Rchg(3), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), SprCrtStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), SprCrtStr-Rchg/+50% Crit(7)
Level 4: Battle Agility -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def(40), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(42), RedFrt-EndRdx(42), RedFrt-Def/Rchg(42), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 6: Concentration -- GssSynFr--Build%(A)
Level 8: Psi Blade Sweep -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(9), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(9), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), Obl-%Dam(13)
Level 10: True Grit -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Heal(46), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(46), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(48), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(48), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(48)
Level 12: Active Defense -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 14: Super Speed -- WntGif-ResSlow(A), WntGif-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng/EndRdx(37)
Level 16: Against All Odds -- Taunt-I(A)
Level 18: Boggle -- CrcPrs-Conf(A), CrcPrs-Conf/Rchg(19), CrcPrs-Conf/EndRdx(19), CrcPrs-Acc/Conf/Rchg(21), CrcPrs-Acc/Rchg(21), CrcPrs-Conf%(23)
Level 20: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 22: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(23), Rct-ResDam%(25), Ksm-ToHit+(43)
Level 24: Injection -- CldSns-ToHitDeb(A), CldSns-Acc/ToHitDeb(25), CldSns-Acc/Rchg(31), CldSns-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(31), CldSns-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(34), CldSns-%Dam(50)
Level 26: Greater Psi Blade -- Hct-Dmg/Rchg(A), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), Hct-Acc/Rchg(27), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(29), Hct-Dam%(29), UnbCns-Dam%(31)
Level 28: Grant Cover -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 30: Aid Self -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(39), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(39), Prv-Heal/Rchg(39), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(40), Prv-Absorb%(40)
Level 32: Mass Levitate -- Arm-Dmg/Rchg(A), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Arm-Acc/Rchg(33), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Arm-Dam%(34), FrcFdb-Rechg%(34)
Level 35: Shield Charge -- Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Obl-Dmg(36), Obl-Acc/Rchg(36), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(36), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Obl-%Dam(37)
Level 38: One with the Shield -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A)
Level 41: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 44: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 47: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Confront -- Range-I(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit 
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- HO:Micro(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run 
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A), Pnc-Heal/+End(50)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-End%(45), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc(50)
Level 0: Portal Jockey 
Level 0: Task Force Commander 
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion 
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve 
Level 50: Agility Core Paragon 
------------

 

 

Edited October 11, 2019 by DreadShinobi