Looking at either claws/energy or spines energy...

[I-Dirty]

Let me know.

 

Im leaning Claws.

 

Also I know I ask for a lot of builds. if it is too much by all means tell me to stop. I dont mind Im married im used to it. Just cant get a feel for what i truly want to play.

 

I loved scrappers before

 

WAY back in the day my very first 50 was spines/invul

 

never played claws.

 

Plus all the new mechanics Im a noob again.

 

[Erratic1]

All the years the game has existed and I only first tried Claws earlier this year. 

 

Its a good set and Follow Up is incredible. Energy Aura is a wonderful defense armor set--gives healing, endurance recover and +Recharge based on how many foes are around you. So leap in, get your Follow Up going, and shred, Shred, SHRED!!!!

 

Spines of course is highly popular too.

[I-Dirty]

Yeah got a concept in mind for my kitty build. Claws/Energy. Time for a build and a test drive

 

[I-Dirty]

And Dirty Kitty is born and on his path to...ah...superness?

 

I shall beg and plead for a build now....ok...was that enough? 😄

[SomeGuy]

I'm biased towards claws and heavily against spines. I've done both at launch, mid game, and twlight. Claws is numerically just a better set. Claws does baller AOE and ST. Spines doesn't even do AOE as good as claws (which to be fair...is a REALLY high bar) and doesn't come remotely close in ST. You can be chugging merrily along with spines mowing down mob after mob and get stopped in your tracks by an EB or higher. This isn't a problem for claws.

 

Spines entire gimmick is AOE, which it doesn't even come in first with. Claws entire gimmick is just being awesome, and anecdotally it does come in first with,

 

Obviously if the playstyle and aesthetics don't jive for you, they don't jive.

 

Energy Aura is just a superb armor set. Can't go wrong.

[I-Dirty]

Already doing claws/energy just need a build now. Already level 10. im l33t....in my mind...;P

[Without_Pause]

On 9/19/2021 at 5:08 PM, Erratic1 said:

shred, Shred, SHRED!!!!

That's Savage. 

 

Took Claws to 50 twice, and /ea to 50 once. Partly why I couldn't stick with Claws/ea was due to how familiar it felt even though it felt great. One of the few scrapper builds I would think of doing if starting over. 

[Solarverse]

I'm going to have to Necro this, but running the numbers, Spines destroys claws in straight DPS. Sure, Claws has a faster recharge, but not that much faster, especially if you take IOs in to account. Somebody please help me understand how Claws is even in the same category as Spines? I really must be missing something here.

[Bill Z Bubba]

5 hours ago, Solarverse said:

I'm going to have to Necro this, but running the numbers, Spines destroys claws in straight DPS. Sure, Claws has a faster recharge, but not that much faster, especially if you take IOs in to account. Somebody please help me understand how Claws is even in the same category as Spines? I really must be missing something here.

 

What numbers are you running? I could see spines having better AoE but its ST damage is freakin abysmal. You taking doublestacked followup into account?

 

Edit: If it helps your calcs, my two chains are Followup, Focus, Slash, repeat and Followup, Spin, Shockwave, repeat.

Edited May 12, 2022 by Bill Z Bubba

[Solarverse]

2 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

What numbers are you running? I could see spines having better AoE but its ST damage is freakin abysmal. You taking doublestacked followup into account?

 

Edit: If it helps your calcs, my two chains are Followup, Focus, Slash, repeat and Followup, Spin, Shockwave, repeat.

 

No, I was looking at straight numbers comparison side by side per each power, minus AoEs. The toxic tics of damage is what pulls the win on paper. But as you point out, that does not take chains in to account.

[Bill Z Bubba]

3 minutes ago, Solarverse said:

No, I was looking at straight numbers comparison side by side per each power, minus AoEs. The toxic tics of damage is what pulls the win on paper. But as you point out, that does not take chains in to account.

 

Roger that. And the +75% damage from doublestacked followup makes a lotta difference, too.

[Solarverse]

5 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

Roger that. And the +75% damage from doublestacked followup makes a lotta difference, too.

 

Yeah, I can see that being a huge game changer.

 

[Saikochoro]

6 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

Roger that. And the +75% damage from doublestacked followup makes a lotta difference, too.

Quoted for truth. The likes of follow up, blinding feint, and soul drain really drive their respective sets. 

[SomeGuy]

1 hour ago, Saikochoro said:

Quoted for truth. The likes of follow up, blinding feint, and soul drain really drive their respective sets. 

 

Soul Drain needs a full 10x stacks to get to the top 10 of scrapper primaries in terms of ST DPS. And it can miss. And it has an incredibly long animation time.

 

Follow-Up and Blinding Feint are same/similar to each other. Soul Drain isn't even close to what they are.

[Saikochoro]

8 minutes ago, SomeGuy said:

 

Soul Drain needs a full 10x stacks to get to the top 10 of scrapper primaries in terms of ST DPS. And it can miss. And it has an incredibly long animation time.

 

Follow-Up and Blinding Feint are same/similar to each other. Soul Drain isn't even close to what they are.

 

Blinding feint and follow up can also miss and require animation time each time they are cast. I did not say they were all equal or that one isn’t better than the other.  I also understand that soul drain is different than the other two. 

 

The main point is that all three provide a constant damage increase with enough recharge that drive their respective sets and should be factored in to their performance. 

Edited May 12, 2022 by Saikochoro

[Bill Z Bubba]

On that topic, while I was running up this claws/stone scrapper, not all that long after running that swipe-only/inv scrapper to 50, I returned to at least pondering claws without followup. It's a clunky power and I'd honestly rather live without it, but attempting to do so would cripple the set's DPS unless I went full bore assault, tactics, kismet on a proced out chain of focus, slash, moonbeam, eviscerate, shockwave or some other such monstrosity of un-sexy. So the ponderings leave as soon as they appear and I go back to the tried and true.

[SomeGuy]

4 minutes ago, Saikochoro said:

 

Blinding feint and follow up can also miss and require animation time each time they are cast. I did not say they were all equal or that one isn’t better than the other.

 

The main point is that all three provide a constant damage increase with enough recharge that drive their respective sets and should be factored in to their performance. 

 

Yeah, they can. Fortunately, you aren't waiting 30s for them to come back up and try again 😛

 

I honestly just wish more people were aware that DM isn't a DPS monster like it is perceived to be and just tweaking Soul Drain could bring it in line. It's a REALLY fun set to me and I wish I never found out the reality of it's performance. Cause you are darn right about Soul Drain should being factored in to performance.