Scrapper Farming Builds

[BurningDezire]

Okay, so I know Brute is the go to farming AT, but I just LOVE seeing tons of crits pop up. That being said, does anyone have any suggestions for scrapper farming combos? I would think for secondaries, powersets with taunt aura would be ideal?

[Meknomancer]

I've seen a rad/rad scrap farming very early on on HC, not sure why you would want to slow down your farming by playing a scrap- doesn't that defeat the whole point of it?

 

[BurningDezire]

3 hours ago, Meknomancer said:

I've seen a rad/rad scrap farming very early on on HC, not sure why you would want to slow down your farming by playing a scrap- doesn't that defeat the whole point of it?

 

Depends on the reason. I want to do it just because it's different and I love scrappers. If I want to farm for speed and efficiency, I have two Brutes for that.

[Wobegone]

The biggest obstacle of scrapper farming is the lack of taunt aura on */Fire scrappers.  Burn sends them running, and the quicker farms are done with Fire armor and Burn.  

 

That said, I have a number of scrappers capable of farming s/l farms.  Mace/Shield and Mace/Bio are probably the best in my stable of scrappers, followed closely by Claw/Bio and Titan Weapons/Bio.  All of them can get the job done.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Ignatz the Insane

[Deuce Spade]

I have a mace/bio that is nice, and feels very satisfying while farming s&l.  My rad/bio is a complete beast, and that's what I'd recommend.  The single target attacks don't feel as good because they're slow, but they are very powerful, and the AOE of rad/bio, assuming you proc out irradiated ground, isn't something I've managed to top. +4/8 melts, as long as they aren't a threat to begin with, which suits farming just fine.  If you grab ageless radial you can handle some rougher +4/8 spawns like carnies and such, though it requires more attentive play.

[Maelwys]

AoE Powersets that rely on Pseudopets which differ according to the AT's damage scale are more damaging on a Scrapper than on a Brute.

Brute damage output (including the base scales on many pseudopets) is largely balanced around having the larger damage cap of 700%, but psuedopets only have a cap of 400%. This means that most Brute psuedopets stop comparing with their equivalent Scrapper counterparts once you get above 400% damage (100% base + ~95% from slotting + ~30% Incarnates +~160% Fury = 385%? So additional buffs from teammates or things like Build Up and Against All Odds or the Gaussian and Decimation procs etc. are largely wasted!).

Think of Lightning Rod. There are Scrapper (~90 dmg) and Brute (~60 dmg) versions of that pet.
Think of Irradiated Ground. There is one version of that pet but it deals different damage depending on its owner's AT (~6.9/tick for Scrappers, ~4.6/tick for Brutes).
Think of Shield Charge. There are Scrapper (~150 dmg) and Brute (~100 dmg) versions of that pet.
But NOT Burn. Burn only has one version and it doesn't care about its owner's AT (~3.34 dmg/tick regardless).

So in theory an ElecMelee/Shield or a RadMelee/Shield would be "better" on a Scrapper for AoE psuedopet damage (Patron pools are a bit of a wash, Water Spout is about the only thing a Scrapper has that a Brute doesn't, but it's rather difficult to leverage for AoE damage whilst farming. So it's probably better to just stick with Elec) ...the only problem with that is that it's also "better" on a Stalker; and they get to crit from hide and perma-build-up!

From my own experience, Scrappers still mainly excel at Boss Hunting. They compete with Stalkers for that, sure, but Scrappers still have a higher base damage modifier than Stalkers and are a bit more survivable. So if you stick a Scrapper with a Taunt Aura on a duoing team with (for example) something like Bot/Kin mastermind which excels at AoE damage and can buff their allies' damage output, but suffers at Single-Target DPS... then you have an almost perfect farming duo. Different than a Brute, sure, but hellava fun.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Maelwys

[Deuce Spade]

Just to clarify, the pseudopet portion of burn has a base damage of 3.34 per tick, but the initial hit of burn varies between ATs.  It's a small quibble, but there you go.

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, Deuce Spade said:

Just to clarify, the pseudopet portion of burn has a base damage of 3.34 per tick, but the initial hit of burn varies between ATs.  It's a small quibble, but there you go.

True that. So on a Brute during regular gameplay, Burn's initial non-pseudopet portion's damage remains in line with what you'd expect via regular Brute damage balancing (e.g. roughly 66.67% Scrapper base damage, but much easier to self-buff damage% via Fury) but its pseudopet portion's damage gets rather grossly inflated (due mostly to Fury). Which means that it's very difficult for a /FA Scrapper to beat a /FA Brute's damage output, at least solo.

I suspect that the ease of self-buffing +damage% bit is why Brutes are king of solo farming. Generally once you start bringing along a pocket /Kin, Scrappers pull ahead (since Brutes only deal  93.33% of a Scrapper's damage when both are capped, and Scrappers cap with a single Fulcrum Shift) and Tankers (with their larger AoE radiuses) will start to give them a run for their money in terms of AoE lawnmowering. There's also the notion that with enough followers; you become able to aggro the entire map simultaneously but there comes a point where you're less "fighting" and more "trying to pull/push/throw everything as quickly as possible into the blades of a roaming mobile blender"...

Edited September 29, 2021 by Maelwys

[Ratch_]

I'd probably put my vote in for rad/bio. Otherwise I'd go claws/bio for spin/shockwave.

[SomeGuy]

I used to do fire farms with a TW/RAD for funsies when I saw I was resistance capped for fire with rad armor. So, Rad Armor caught me off guard being able to active fire farm due to that. Ice Melee is a WAY safer active farmer than people think about due to Ice Patch. I really imagine Ice/Fire/Zapp-BallLightning being a fun farmer. Drop Ice Patch, crit strikes in GFS. Drop Burn, FA, then BL. Runners can't get away in time due to Ice Patch falling around. And the build would also be a ST monster. I have farmed with my Ice/Bio/BallLightning scrapper and it's stupidly safe.

 

Obviously, the best farmer is the one you can tolerate playing for more than a few minutes.

[Deuce Spade]

1 hour ago, SomeGuy said:

Obviously, the best farmer is the one you can tolerate playing for more than a few minutes.

Absolutely.  It's weird, but I find that costume and concept have more to do with being able to have fun playing than build, at least after a certain level of competence has been reached.  I still have a hard time playing scrappers without a taunt aura, regardless of concept/costume, precisely because the PITA factor knocks me out of immersion.  Shelved my EM/SR scrapper for a second time this week, even though I love his look.

[SomeGuy]

3 hours ago, Deuce Spade said:

Absolutely.  It's weird, but I find that costume and concept have more to do with being able to have fun playing than build, at least after a certain level of competence has been reached.  I still have a hard time playing scrappers without a taunt aura, regardless of concept/costume, precisely because the PITA factor knocks me out of immersion.  Shelved my EM/SR scrapper for a second time this week, even though I love his look.

 

Save the costume. Do EM/SR brute for taunt if you don't wanna give up doing SR for a secondary. EM/ENA would have a taunt aura. Not sure if you always stay invis with ENA now or you have the option to suppress that. There is also EM/SD if you want the shield aesthetic. And if you don't, I am pretty sure there are some shield that are VERY minimalistic.

[SeraphimKensai]

You'd have to take provoke but still it would be interesting but not the most efficient method for farming. Pairing it with a brute or tank would allow you to get your crits and control agro.

 

Brutes/Tanks can do it with their eyes closed, with the increased range on tanks aoes and damage modifier it helps tanks close the gap to brutes, not quite all the way but it helps.

 

I've used an ice/fire blaster with a rad/fire or spines/fire following it and absorbing agro and that works as well.

 

Otherwise triple boxing Masterminds can be actually faster than using brutes because of how much agro you can hold at a given time. It's a little cumbersome but once you got a routine it's pretty effective. I linked someone below that pioneered the MM technique that I'm sure can shed more info for you if you're interested.

 @Neiska

[Neiska]

8 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Otherwise triple boxing Masterminds can be actually faster than using brutes because of how much agro you can hold at a given time. It's a little cumbersome but once you got a routine it's pretty effective. I linked someone below that pioneered the MM technique that I'm sure can shed more info for you if you're interested.

 @Neiska

 

Awe, made my morning! Thanks for that. ☺️

[Maelwys]

2 hours ago, Neiska said:

 

Awe, made my morning! Thanks for that. ☺️

Kudos where Kudos is due Neiska - it was your MM Farming thread that I linked in my "mobile blender" comment above too!! 🙂

Farming definitely goes much faster whenever you're able to aggro more mobs simultaneously. There are some AE maps which funnel mobs to you (like the "AFK" fire farm maps that use multiple patrols) but all MMs need to do is run around the map aggroing at least one enemy from each group; and the individual henchmen aggro caps do the rest!

MM farming can be a bit more challenging though. There's obviously a lot more fine tuning required on MMs than on a Scrapper/Brute/Tank (since balancing damage output and survivability of your pets can get tricky without going down the triple-boxing route) and as you've noted in your threads the best AoE pets - Robots - can take a while to focus-fire down tougher single targets which decide to flee far away from the Burn Patches; so "too many runners" can become a concern. 

Thus far I've limited myself to 2-boxing; and my best performing MM duoing setups have been with a Bot/Kin plus either a /Cold or a /Time. However I've found that even with Bonfire and either Sleet or Distortion Field, I still need to pay attention to stuff fleeing out of the Burn Patches. That's why I've actually come to prefer using the Bot/Kin plus a Scrapper/Brute/Tank/etc follower with a Taunt Aura or two and a PBAoE ability on Autofire - it's less flashy and requires the use of staggered Barrier Incarnates to let the pets survive 4+ simultaneous groups of mobs, but there's much less actual concentration required on my part during farming sessions!

Edited September 30, 2021 by Maelwys