Opinions on TW/EA vs (???)/Bio.

[Seroster01]

So I've been wanting to make a Scrapper again after shelving my WM/Bio for a while, but I can't really think of a build I want to put together. There's 2 scrapper sets that I'm interested in, TW & Bio. I know together theyre considered one of the strongest combos in the game, but TBH I don't really want to play them together. /Bio, on paper at least, is a set I really like... but I like the the Sentinel version of /Bio so much more than the Scrapper version that it makes me lose motivation on that front. If I do make one, my first thought is to make it with Katana primary, though I'm open to suggestions on this topic. Other options I've considered:

 

Street Justice, though I'm not sure how strong it is. 

 

Psi Melee seems like a fun set after you get the lvl 32 power, but I hear a fair amount of dislike for Psi damage sets because it seems to be have an issue of enemies that are resistant to it are VERY resistant to it & I guess at high levels it's more common to run into such mobs.

 

Also a bit interested in Rad Melee, but I've played that one a bit in the lower levels & the animations seem really slow. 

 

As far as TW goes, I've had a hard time picking what secondary I want to go with it. I know Bio's the most popular pairing for TW but I've already capped out a WM/Bio & didn't really like the end consumption on it. Given that I hear TW end consumption is worse, I'm  not real enthused in doing that one (plus the combo just doesn't interest me for whatever reason). My original thought for a TW pairing was /WP, being entirely passive & having a strong passive buff to end recovery. I also have some memory of it being one of the less end-intensive sets, but I'm not sure of that's right or not. Lately however, I keep hearing  very positive things about Energy Aura & when thinking about what to pair with it I thought TW may be a good idea there. I know it's one of the better sets for Endurance management (eventually at least?). That being said; I've never really looked at EnA, so I'm curious what y'alls opinion on how well it would work paired with TW. I know it's a typed defense set, and a cursory glance at the power list leads me to believe it has little-to-no Psi mitigation. Obviously capping S/L defense is the top priority for typed sets, but should I push to the Incarnate cap? I think Defensive Sweep doesn't get used in most TW builds, but would it be worth taking it in a EnA build as a CDF buffer? Is it worth the build resources that it would require to soft cap any/all of the other types? I was just thinking that I can't recall any Psy defense set bonuses, to the extent that I'm not sure if there are any at all? Maybe a unique I guess? 

 

Anyway, there's my standard wall-o-text for feedback on these questions. Looking forward to hearing some responses!

[Seroster01]

I'll throw another powerset in the pot of "things that might go with /Bio": Claws. Seems like Claws has a pretty good reputation around these parts, & I've never had a Claws Scrapper that I can recall. Had a Widow that I ended up feeling pretty meh about. Not sure how different it would be, but seems like it could be an interesting option.

[Sovera]

Easy enough.

 

EA: Much easier to soft cap with EA. Endurance woes much alleviated at 35 with the caveat you're 'wasting' your heal instead of having it when healing is needed.. Squishier than /Bio (imo).

 

Bio: almost forced to pick Ageless which does not mesh well at all with /Bio's difficulty in raising S/L defenses. Scrappers get Shadow Meld which pumps up the defense for 15 seconds but with an abominable 3 second animation and that does not mesh well at all with Momentum. BUT (I never tried this so take it with a grain of salt) not needing to dip into epic pools for AoE it should be doable to rely on DNA Siphon for regular play with Parasitic Aura for an extra oomp in Recovery and defensive values, while also going into the Body Mastery pool for more extra recovery, finally this all allowing to pick Barrier instead of Ageless which allows /Bio to only aim for 40% letting Barrier add the last 5%.

 

That said WM nearly as TW good with much less clunkiness and if you were not enthused by it then TW might not be your cuppa. The endurance requirements are much higher than WM.

[Haijinx]

WM can do shield.  Which in a couple of ways is in between EA and Bio since its defense based with a damage boost.

 

Though without an End power sadly.  

[Seroster01]

1 hour ago, Sovera said:

Easy enough.

 

EA: Much easier to soft cap with EA. Endurance woes much alleviated at 35 with the caveat you're 'wasting' your heal instead of having it when healing is needed.. Squishier than /Bio (imo).

 

Bio: almost forced to pick Ageless which does not mesh well at all with /Bio's difficulty in raising S/L defenses. Scrappers get Shadow Meld which pumps up the defense for 15 seconds but with an abominable 3 second animation and that does not mesh well at all with Momentum. BUT (I never tried this so take it with a grain of salt) not needing to dip into epic pools for AoE it should be doable to rely on DNA Siphon for regular play with Parasitic Aura for an extra oomp in Recovery and defensive values, while also going into the Body Mastery pool for more extra recovery, finally this all allowing to pick Barrier instead of Ageless which allows /Bio to only aim for 40% letting Barrier add the last 5%.

 

That said WM nearly as TW good with much less clunkiness and if you were not enthused by it then TW might not be your cuppa. The endurance requirements are much higher than WM.

I'm curious why you think EnA is squishier than /Bio. I suppose it's the regen/absorbs & such? Cause on paper it seems like EnA would have higher defenses, be much easier to soft cap (allowing one to put those build resources elsewhere) has significantly higher resistance to defense debuffs, & the damage resists would be less individually powerful but hit more types.

 

Anyway, my questions were more about how TW/EnA would compare to (something else)/Bio. Would Energize & Energy Drain be impactful enough to make end usage for TW a non-factor after I reach those levels? Or would picking some other set that isn't so Endurance intensive & pair it with Bio be a better option for my next Scrapper project?

Edited December 26, 2019 by Seroster01

[Sovera]

/bio has better ish resists, both have softcaps, EA's heal is a trifle too long and the fact it is used for Recovery means it is often 'wasted' and is not present when healing is needed, while /Bio's Ablative Armor triplea as heal, absorb and regen.

 

But for regular play I don't think my perceived squishyness in EA has a bearing and it will do just fine. I just stress test it and it does not keep where /bio in the same setting does.

[Haijinx]

As far as the end tools EnA is unequalled.  So yes.

 

You can if you wish build Energize to be perma.  You also can slot some End IOs in Energy drain to give you essentially a 100% blue bar on use. 

[Krazie Ivan]

tried several times to like TW/Bio, but every build attempt i got through a 1st-draft with had too many "meh" results. they just weren't tough enough for what i was expecting to achieve, & when i gave-in to go hard into Dmg, they looked gutted to the point i'd be happier on a Blapper. i could be looking for more than what most will accept, since others seem plenty happy with their builds (which i eventually looked at, & still came away disappointed)... and who am i to say they aren't.

TW/EnA could be fantastic for you ...i think Elec/TW would be a somewhat fair comparison if built for +Def melee cap, & that's the only Tank i ever enjoyed in 15yrs of CoH. no End issues, for sure. EnA's DDR was the missing link on that char.

in the end, i went with TW/Rad this time... saving the idea of /Bio for another char & primary (TBD).

[Seroster01]

3 hours ago, Sovera said:

/bio has better ish resists, both have softcaps, EA's heal is a trifle too long and the fact it is used for Recovery means it is often 'wasted' and is not present when healing is needed, while /Bio's Ablative Armor triplea as heal, absorb and regen.

 

But for regular play I don't think my perceived squishyness in EA has a bearing and it will do just fine. I just stress test it and it does not keep where /bio in the same setting does.

Yeah IDK, my WM/Bio's main defensive issue is that he seems to get easily face melted via CDF just about any time he ran up against -def enemies, and he devoted A LOT of his build resources towards having to get 45% S/L def with nothing  to start with. EnA, after enhancing, starts with 20% S/L defense from kinetic shield, & another 5% or so from the Energy Cloak. That's A LOT fewer set bonuses needed to reach 45%, & it's enough of a difference that the 59% cap for Incarnate stuff is probably within reach if that's a goal. On top of that, EnA has 51% defense debuff resistance at base, compared to /Bio's 0 DDR. I'm not sure if that's enhanceable like the DDR in /SR is, but even if it isn't, that's a pretty big deal in a lot of content. 

 

I can certainly see Ablative Carapace being a big difference maker in survivability, but when you need 25% less S/L to get to whatever cap youre chasing it seems like there's a lot of other bonus types you could push instead. I'm also curious how different /Bios SL resistance is after factoring in Offensive Adaptation...

 

I really wish I was in front of my PC to play around with these builds, but ofc I'll be in another state for the next few days. 😢

Edited December 27, 2019 by Seroster01

[Redlynne]

Titan/Ninjistu Scrapper

 

Do it ... you know you want to ...

[Haijinx]

4 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

Titan/Ninjistu Scrapper

 

Do it ... you know you want to ...

Surprise, giant rocket hammer to the face!

[Seroster01]

2 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Titan/Ninjistu Scrapper

 

Do it ... you know you want to ...

You seem like you're joking, but I'm not actually sure. As to /Nin Scrapper, think I remember giving a cursory glance at /Nin for Scrappers, but can't remember it well. I remember being pretty impressed with the Sentinel version & as such I can't seperate which AT has what powers in my head. I don't think it had very much DDR did it? And would it be able to deal with the end issues from TW? I'm a sucker for powers that boost hover speed, and I believe Nin replaces Stalker's hide with one. Also pretty sure every version of Nin has that Heal+End clicky. But that's all I can remember.

[Sovera]

6 hours ago, Seroster01 said:

Yeah IDK, my WM/Bio's main defensive issue is that he seems to get easily face melted via CDF just about any time he ran up against -def enemies, and he devoted A LOT of his build resources towards having to get 45% S/L def with nothing  to start with. EnA, after enhancing, starts with 20% S/L defense from kinetic shield, & another 5% or so from the Energy Cloak. That's A LOT fewer set bonuses needed to reach 45%, & it's enough of a difference that the 59% cap for Incarnate stuff is probably within reach if that's a goal. On top of that, EnA has 51% defense debuff resistance at base, compared to /Bio's 0 DDR. I'm not sure if that's enhanceable like the DDR in /SR is, but even if it isn't, that's a pretty big deal in a lot of content. 

 

I can certainly see Ablative Carapace being a big difference maker in survivability, but when you need 25% less S/L to get to whatever cap youre chasing it seems like there's a lot of other bonus types you could push instead. I'm also curious how different /Bios SL resistance is after factoring in Offensive Adaptation...

 

I really wish I was in front of my PC to play around with these builds, but ofc I'll be in another state for the next few days. 😢

That was exactly my reaction as well. And plus not needing so many sets allows to aim for different goals with an EA. That said your 'mistake' was aiming for 45% since the last 5% are a bitch. 40% is the sweetspot allowing for some more freedom in recovery and recharge bonuses.

 

As for /Bio's S/L resistance it hovers around 63-65% with Offensive up, add another 5% if going the Barrier route. I'd personally not aim for incarnate softcap. 45% is fine for most everything and a small purple throws us at near incarnate cap, and those can be easily replenished between missions.

 

Defense debuffs are /bio's big weakness though, no lie. ITF is that achille's heel. But depending on the build it can work, we can't just act like the build is immortal to *everything*. WM in particular can face the ITF thanks to all the CC. Mobs aren't attacking if they are on their back and the hard hitting WM does is killing them in droves while they flop.

[Redlynne]

19 hours ago, Seroster01 said:

I don't think it had very much DDR did it?

Ninjitsu on Scrappers has *some* DDR, but not the heaping helping quantities that Shield and Super Reflexes have.

T1 Ninja Reflexes grants 17.3% DDR (unenhanceable).

T2 Danger Sense grants 17.3% DDR (unenhanceable).

19 hours ago, Seroster01 said:

And would it be able to deal with the end issues from TW?

Also pretty sure every version of Nin has that Heal+End clicky.

Ninjitsu on Scrappers has a Click power to add endurance called Seishiteki Kyoyo that becomes available at Level 16.  Click to add 30% endurance.  Arcanatime for casting is 1.98s.  Recharge is 60s, which with a recharge empowered build can be brought down into the 20-30s range.

 

Kuji-in Sha is the Click power to heal ... which also adds Toxic Resistance AND takes Resistance sets(!), meaning you won't need to take Tough in order to slot in the pair of +3% Defense procs from Resistance sets.  This means that the Click to heal and Click to endurance powers are separate powers, rather than a single combined power.  Arcanatime for casting is 1.188s.  Recharge is 60s, which with a recharge empowered build can be brought down into the 20-30s range.  No need for the Medicine Pool and Aid Self and/or Field Medic.

 

Blinding Powder may look pretty worthless at first glance ... due to it being a 45º angle 25ft Cone with a recharge time of 120s ...

• MAG 2 Sleep (after 0.25s) for 11.92s
• -7.5% ToHit for 15s
• 50% chance of MAG 2 Confuse for 23.84s
• -90% Perception Radius for 20s

... but that's only at first glance.  Take a look at the procs that can be slotted into it ...

• Cacophany: 3.5 PPM 71.75 Energy Damage
• Malaise's Illusions: 3.5 PPM 71.75 Psionic Damage
• Coercive Persuasion: 4.5 PPM Contagious Confusion(!!) of MAG 3 Confuse for 10s(!)
• Cloud Senses: 3.5 PPM 71.75 Negative Energy Damage
• Dark Watcher's Despair: 3.5 PPM -20% Recharge for 20s

If you follow that up with proc chances for all those procs, at 0% recharge you get the following:

• 3.5 * ((120 / ( 1 + 0 / 100 )) + 1.07) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 25 * (11 * 45 + 540) / 30,000))) = 90% (Pre-clamp: 428.84%)

Which then begs the question ... how much recharge do you need to enhance with in order to get down to a 90% proc chance on 3.5 PPM procs in Blinding Powder?  Well ...

• 3.5 * ((120 / ( 1 + 393.03 / 100 )) + 1.07) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 25 * (11 * 45 + 540) / 30,000))) = 90%

So the answer is you'd have to have 393.03% enhancement slotted into Blinding Powder before the proc chance for 3.5 PPM procs to fall below 90%.  The important thing here being that you'll want to frankenslot and load up Blinding Powder with Accuracy/Recharge so as to be able to use Blinding Powder more often and use the procs you've slotted into the power as often as possible.

 

Now I don't know about you, but I look at those 5 procs and think that 4 of them (minus Dark Watcher's Despair) would turn Blinding Powder into a "waste your alpha strikes on each other, boyos" power that's good for neutralizing entire spawn groups while you mop them up.  And since you'll have a stealth power (Shinobi-Iri) and can put a Stealth IO into Sprint, you'll be able to maneuver into position to use Blinding Powder "at will" against most spawn groups that can't perceive you through stealth.  So while soloing you can use Blinding Powder as you opening attack to give yourself enough breathing room to build Momentum with your Titan Weapon attacks.  All you need is lots of recharge ... and you can slot Force Feedback procs into a LOT of the Titan Weapon attacks for that.

 

 

 

So yeah ... some tradeoffs versus Shield or Super Reflexes on the DDR front ... but you also get the necessary "bag of tricks" to mitigate those losses in other (more active) ways ...

Edited December 28, 2019 by Redlynne

[Haijinx]

Kb protection, and a blue bar heal.  Ninjitsu is def better on Scrappers. 

 

 

[BrandX]

22 hours ago, Haijinx said:

Kb protection, and a blue bar heal.  Ninjitsu is def better on Scrappers. 

 

 

Should be noted, the KB protection isn't the best.  However, being a Defense based set, I never found it to be to much of an issue and I usually put a KB Resist IO in somewhere to add to Ninjitsu's KB Resist.

 

Though, I never minded the occasional KB.  It's when it's chained non stop that I can see frustration. 

[BrandX]

I think it should be said, Street Justice is awesome!  I've loved the over 1k hits on Crushing Uppercut. 🙂

[Microcosm]

Tw/elec worked really well for me, with the same infinite endurance and solid survival. I would put it above Ena because the +def from tw can stack better with a resistance set and because it has a damage aura. That said, you don't get def debuff resistance, so either need to pack an extra luck insp or use ageless radial in those situations. Luckily Tw also provides a good amount of kd. I would say this is not the easiest combo to level though, and it really wants to get to 35 for power sink. However, with significant investment you're looking at a devastating character.

[crkohl]

On 12/26/2019 at 8:48 PM, Redlynne said:

Titan/Ninjistu Scrapper

 

Do it ... you know you want to ...

I actually have major interest in rolling this combo thematically. However, the three clicks in Ninjitsu seem like they would not work well with TW’s Momentum mechanic in the slightest. The animations are decently long, and the redraw can be brutal.
 

Thoughts?

[Redlynne]

57 minutes ago, crkohl said:

However, the three clicks in Ninjitsu seem like they would not work well with TW’s Momentum mechanic in the slightest. The animations are decently long, and the redraw can be brutal.
 

Thoughts?

 

On a slightly more serious note ... ask yourself this:

How OFTEN would you be using those three clicks that you're finding objectionable?

 

Now ask yourself the follow up question:

How long will your Titan Weapons attack chain take to animate before repeating?

 

 

 

The reason I'm pointing to this is because it's going to matter for the "pain point" of the redraw that you're citing.  Specifically, if the clicks that prompt redraw are needing to be used once every single rotation, then that's probably bad and you'd want to rethink your opportunities/priorities.  However if the clicks happen every 2 or even 3 rotations, that might not be "often enough" to cause you redraw problems like you're suggesting would be objectionable to you.  Additionally, consider that you won't be using all 3 in succession every time they're recharged necessarily ... and Blinding Powder (once slotted for procs) becomes something that's either used to engage or disengage, rather than something you're necessarily going to want to use in the "middle" of a fight that's already in progress (although, obviously, you could if you needed to).

 

However, different Players have differing tolerances for the "annoyance" of redraw.  Some people can't stand seeing any of it at all ... in which case you'd want to blend Titan Weapons with a "fire and forget" Secondary such as Super Reflexes or possibly Willpower or any of the other "all toggles/passives and no clicks to bother with" secondary powersets.  If, however, your tolerance for clicking powers other than just your primary powerset attacks is higher than that, you may want to consider to what degree (or frequency) you're willing to put up with weapon redraw in order to access "other goodies" in your secondary powerset (and pools) ... and THAT answer is going to be different for different people.

 

Just remember that so long as you're not redrawing after every attack, the "lost" time is merely perceptual (to the Player) since the time spent on redraw gets "compensated" for later on any subsequent attacks that don't require redraw.  It "feels" loss-y/clunky when it actually isn't really, as far as the server computing the game mechanical effects of what you're doing is concerned.

 

The bigger concern would be needing to click so many powers that aren't attacks that you lose Momentum.  Now THAT would definitely be a mistake!

[Likara]

On 12/27/2019 at 7:08 AM, Redlynne said:

Ninjitsu on Scrappers has *some* DDR, but not the heaping helping quantities that Shield and Super Reflexes have.

T1 Ninja Reflexes grants 17.3% DDR (unenhanceable).

T2 Danger Sense grants 17.3% DDR (unenhanceable).

Ninjitsu on Scrappers has a Click power to add endurance called Seishiteki Kyoyo that becomes available at Level 16.  Click to add 30% endurance.  Arcanatime for casting is 1.98s.  Recharge is 60s, which with a recharge empowered build can be brought down into the 20-30s range.

 

Kuji-in Sha is the Click power to heal ... which also adds Toxic Resistance AND takes Resistance sets(!), meaning you won't need to take Tough in order to slot in the pair of +3% Defense procs from Resistance sets.  This means that the Click to heal and Click to endurance powers are separate powers, rather than a single combined power.  Arcanatime for casting is 1.188s.  Recharge is 60s, which with a recharge empowered build can be brought down into the 20-30s range.  No need for the Medicine Pool and Aid Self and/or Field Medic.

 

Blinding Powder may look pretty worthless at first glance ... due to it being a 45º angle 25ft Cone with a recharge time of 120s ...

• MAG 2 Sleep (after 0.25s) for 11.92s
• -7.5% ToHit for 15s
• 50% chance of MAG 2 Confuse for 23.84s
• -90% Perception Radius for 20s

... but that's only at first glance.  Take a look at the procs that can be slotted into it ...

• Cacophany: 3.5 PPM 71.75 Energy Damage
• Malaise's Illusions: 3.5 PPM 71.75 Psionic Damage
• Coercive Persuasion: 4.5 PPM Contagious Confusion(!!) of MAG 3 Confuse for 10s(!)
• Cloud Senses: 3.5 PPM 71.75 Negative Energy Damage
• Dark Watcher's Despair: 3.5 PPM -20% Recharge for 20s

If you follow that up with proc chances for all those procs, at 0% recharge you get the following:

• 3.5 * ((120 / ( 1 + 0 / 100 )) + 1.07) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 25 * (11 * 45 + 540) / 30,000))) = 90% (Pre-clamp: 428.84%)

Which then begs the question ... how much recharge do you need to enhance with in order to get down to a 90% proc chance on 3.5 PPM procs in Blinding Powder?  Well ...

• 3.5 * ((120 / ( 1 + 393.03 / 100 )) + 1.07) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 25 * (11 * 45 + 540) / 30,000))) = 90%

So the answer is you'd have to have 393.03% enhancement slotted into Blinding Powder before the proc chance for 3.5 PPM procs to fall below 90%.  The important thing here being that you'll want to frankenslot and load up Blinding Powder with Accuracy/Recharge so as to be able to use Blinding Powder more often and use the procs you've slotted into the power as often as possible.

 

Now I don't know about you, but I look at those 5 procs and think that 4 of them (minus Dark Watcher's Despair) would turn Blinding Powder into a "waste your alpha strikes on each other, boyos" power that's good for neutralizing entire spawn groups while you mop them up.  And since you'll have a stealth power (Shinobi-Iri) and can put a Stealth IO into Sprint, you'll be able to maneuver into position to use Blinding Powder "at will" against most spawn groups that can't perceive you through stealth.  So while soloing you can use Blinding Powder as you opening attack to give yourself enough breathing room to build Momentum with your Titan Weapon attacks.  All you need is lots of recharge ... and you can slot Force Feedback procs into a LOT of the Titan Weapon attacks for that.

 

 

 

So yeah ... some tradeoffs versus Shield or Super Reflexes on the DDR front ... but you also get the necessary "bag of tricks" to mitigate those losses in other (more active) ways ...

Holy crap, I have a Kin/Nin, PSI/Nin, and TW/Nin Scrappers at 50, and never even considered putting procs into Blinding Powder, instead I've used it as a mule for a Cloud Senses set for the bonuses. Time to rework a few builds... and yes, I'm LOVING my TW/Nin Scrapper, it's one of the most anime combos out there XD I tend to open with Build Momentum and Whirling Smash, love seeing so many crits thanks to the in-set stealth power.

Edited December 29, 2019 by Ritikesh

[Seroster01]

On 12/27/2019 at 9:08 AM, Redlynne said:

Ninjitsu on Scrappers has *some* DDR, but not the heaping helping quantities that Shield and Super Reflexes have.

T1 Ninja Reflexes grants 17.3% DDR (unenhanceable).

T2 Danger Sense grants 17.3% DDR (unenhanceable).

Ninjitsu on Scrappers has a Click power to add endurance called Seishiteki Kyoyo that becomes available at Level 16.  Click to add 30% endurance.  Arcanatime for casting is 1.98s.  Recharge is 60s, which with a recharge empowered build can be brought down into the 20-30s range.

 

Kuji-in Sha is the Click power to heal ... which also adds Toxic Resistance AND takes Resistance sets(!), meaning you won't need to take Tough in order to slot in the pair of +3% Defense procs from Resistance sets.  This means that the Click to heal and Click to endurance powers are separate powers, rather than a single combined power.  Arcanatime for casting is 1.188s.  Recharge is 60s, which with a recharge empowered build can be brought down into the 20-30s range.  No need for the Medicine Pool and Aid Self and/or Field Medic.

 

Blinding Powder may look pretty worthless at first glance ... due to it being a 45º angle 25ft Cone with a recharge time of 120s ...

• MAG 2 Sleep (after 0.25s) for 11.92s
• -7.5% ToHit for 15s
• 50% chance of MAG 2 Confuse for 23.84s
• -90% Perception Radius for 20s

... but that's only at first glance.  Take a look at the procs that can be slotted into it ...

• Cacophany: 3.5 PPM 71.75 Energy Damage
• Malaise's Illusions: 3.5 PPM 71.75 Psionic Damage
• Coercive Persuasion: 4.5 PPM Contagious Confusion(!!) of MAG 3 Confuse for 10s(!)
• Cloud Senses: 3.5 PPM 71.75 Negative Energy Damage
• Dark Watcher's Despair: 3.5 PPM -20% Recharge for 20s

If you follow that up with proc chances for all those procs, at 0% recharge you get the following:

• 3.5 * ((120 / ( 1 + 0 / 100 )) + 1.07) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 25 * (11 * 45 + 540) / 30,000))) = 90% (Pre-clamp: 428.84%)

Which then begs the question ... how much recharge do you need to enhance with in order to get down to a 90% proc chance on 3.5 PPM procs in Blinding Powder?  Well ...

• 3.5 * ((120 / ( 1 + 393.03 / 100 )) + 1.07) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 25 * (11 * 45 + 540) / 30,000))) = 90%

So the answer is you'd have to have 393.03% enhancement slotted into Blinding Powder before the proc chance for 3.5 PPM procs to fall below 90%.  The important thing here being that you'll want to frankenslot and load up Blinding Powder with Accuracy/Recharge so as to be able to use Blinding Powder more often and use the procs you've slotted into the power as often as possible.

 

Now I don't know about you, but I look at those 5 procs and think that 4 of them (minus Dark Watcher's Despair) would turn Blinding Powder into a "waste your alpha strikes on each other, boyos" power that's good for neutralizing entire spawn groups while you mop them up.  And since you'll have a stealth power (Shinobi-Iri) and can put a Stealth IO into Sprint, you'll be able to maneuver into position to use Blinding Powder "at will" against most spawn groups that can't perceive you through stealth.  So while soloing you can use Blinding Powder as you opening attack to give yourself enough breathing room to build Momentum with your Titan Weapon attacks.  All you need is lots of recharge ... and you can slot Force Feedback procs into a LOT of the Titan Weapon attacks for that.

 

 

 

So yeah ... some tradeoffs versus Shield or Super Reflexes on the DDR front ... but you also get the necessary "bag of tricks" to mitigate those losses in other (more active) ways ...

So I got to thinking more about /Nin, specifically Blinding Powder; does hitting groups with Confuse effects still functionally cause lessened XP/inf gain? I have a vague memory that at some point in CoHs lifetime Confusion effectively lessened rewards because they were lessened based on the damage  from non-pet NPCs based on the % of HP they did or some such. 

 

IE if a your group did damage equal to 25% of an enemies & a confused mob did the other 75%, you'd only get 50% of the normal XP/Inf for that mob.

 

IDK if this still exists, if I've conflated this from one of the gazillion other MMOs I've played, or whatever... but it's always left me reluctant to use sets with prominent Confusion effects.

[HelenCarnate]

It lowers the XP but not by much unless you do almost no damage.  The gains you get in kill speed more than make up for the minor loss of xp.  Even if you only do 10% of the damage you still get 30% of the XP.  But in most cases, confused mobs only end up dishing out 10-15% of the total damage (unless you are just kicking back spamming confuse) and even at 20% confused damage and 80% your damage, you still get 95ish% xp.  (Details here https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Confuse_(Status_Effect) On my TW/Ninja I went crazy with recharge so I could go Musc ans still get perma hasten.  I went with the Body epic pool for conserve power (up half the time) and physical perfection for more recovery and another slot for performance shifter.  That plus Ageless and I hardly ever have to worry about endurance.  With capped defense and decent resists I don't have to heal often either, but I do make sure to keep a few purples on hand just in case I get hit with defense debuffs as those can spell certain doom if they start stacking. 

 

 

Edit because I can't math.

Edited December 30, 2019 by HelenCarnate