War Mace Scrapper Character Concept. Not Sure About Secondary...

[Bojutsu]

Hi. I am going to make a character based on a baseball player (Andre Dawson). I plan to choose War Mace and use the baseball bat skin. I will give him the bird head/face and wings because his nickname is "The Hawk". The character name will be "Hawk Dawson".  I was going to name him "The Hawk" but it is taken.

I'm not sure what secondary to choose or which one fits best thematically. 

Of course I want to choose Shield, but that doesn't make any sense for a baseball player.

Other sets such as Ice, Fire, Stone, Electric, Energy, Dark, Radiation, Bio, Ninjitsu didn't make much sense either.

I was thinking Super Reflexes fits best thematically, since you must have very fast reflexes to hit a baseball thrown at 90+ mph. I read I may have some endurance issues, and I may be seeing an empty blue bar a lot. I can probably find a power pool to help with that, if it's true.

I guess my next best choices are Willpower, or Invulnerability and Regen, but then I thought of Fire again.

My character is a bird character and Rise of the Phoenix might be a cool power for him to have. I think the animation makes a bird-like phoenix shape. I will also get Consume to help with any endurance issues. 

Any thoughts, if anyone cares?

Thanks!

Global handle Bojutsu

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by Bojutsu

[cranebump]

My baseball bat swinger was Babe Gibson (blessed with the power of Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson). Ended up using WP because nothing else fit. 

 

For Dawson, if the theme is player-based, SR And WP both work, because Hawk was very fast early in his career (a 30 SB threat every year), and then played through pain later on (gimpy knees). He also had a very quick bat (so, SR again) and a cannon arm (so maybe one of his arms is cybernetic?).

 

Great player. Class act. And a Cubby for a few prime seasons so...good call.:-)

[Shred Monkey]

SR only has 3 toggles and one of those isn't until 35.  That shouldn't be a endurance problem any more than any other set.  It doesn't get any endurance help, but you can certainly run it successfully.   I could see other complaints about /SR such as not having any heal or regen, or not having its full protection until level 35.  I might even say that in the endgame it has overkill on defense, and not enough of the other layers of absolute survivability.  But endurance has never been a special concern on any of my /SR toons.  

[Snarky]

On a modern build (use Hyperstrike’s templates) Invulnerability can do everything Willpower does and then more.  Good luck with whatever you choose 

[Doomguide2005]

I'll second the endurance is a not particular problem for SR any more than any other character at  low levels and pre-IO.  If it seems to be an issue add in your end recovery specials (Miracle, Numinas, Perf Shifter, etc.) which should alleviate most issues.  Be sure to slot attacks with endred and enough accuracy to reliable hit.  Adding a Kismet +6% can also help by reducing misses especially as Beginner's Luck tapers off.

 

Edit:  Just wanted to add while it's definitely a defense focused AT I think sometimes the scaling resistances are overlooked in terms of how much the set moves towards being a hybrid of defense and resist in a late game IO build

Edited May 15, 2022 by Doomguide2005

[Bojutsu]

Thank you everyone for the responses and information. 
 

cranebump, thank you for the response, information, and character creation ideas. Go Cubs Go

 

"Hawk Dawson" should be live some time tomorrow on Excelsior. I am currently still leaning toward Super Reflexes since it probably makes the most sense thematically. 

 

Global handle Bojutsu

 

[cranebump]

12 hours ago, Snarky said:

On a modern build (use Hyperstrike’s templates) Invulnerability can do everything Willpower does and then more.  Good luck with whatever you choose 

I thought invulnerability had a psionics hole?

[Snarky]

17 minutes ago, cranebump said:

I thought invulnerability had a psionics hole?

ahem.  yes.  but a great deal is made about this and it (very) rarely affects gameplay.  I have had it become bothersome in Shadow Shard TFs.  and that is literally all I can think of.  There are certain AVs you need to take extra precautions against (inspirations) and that is all.  you give away quite a bit on high end builds getting a little more survivability vs psi and a lot less survivability against everything else running willpower instead of invulnerability.  in my opinion.  wish it was not so, i love willpower.  but math does not lie.

[Bill Z Bubba]

20 minutes ago, cranebump said:

I thought invulnerability had a psionics hole?

 

It does but with all the +psi resist/def single IOs you can plug it pretty effectively. In end game builds, that 6th purple is 6% resist per pop.

[cranebump]

5 minutes ago, Snarky said:

ahem.  yes.  but a great deal is made about this and it (very) rarely affects gameplay.  I have had it become bothersome in Shadow Shard TFs.  and that is literally all I can think of.  There are certain AVs you need to take extra precautions against (inspirations) and that is all.  you give away quite a bit on high end builds getting a little more survivability vs psi and a lot less survivability against everything else running willpower instead of invulnerability.  in my opinion.  wish it was not so, i love willpower.  but math does not lie.

True. But I’d say that invulnerability doesn’t fit the theme if it’s based on Andre Dawson. I don’t know math much. But baseball? I’m a walking mids.:-)

Edited May 15, 2022 by cranebump

[ZeeHero]

So you want a baseball theme? why not willpower?

[GM Impervium]

Moved to Scrapper subforum

[tidge]

11 hours ago, cranebump said:

True. But I’d say that invulnerability doesn’t fit the theme if it’s based on Andre Dawson. I don’t know math much. But baseball? I’m a walking mids.:-)

 

While the Baseball Bat weapon skin exists, the War Mace swings are IMO far less "Baseball" than the Invulnerability secondary....as far as flavor goes. YMMV.

 

I don't mean to yuck-in-the-yum, but be prepared for somewhat slow/clumsy attack chains without Recharge.

[cranebump]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

 

While the Baseball Bat weapon skin exists, the War Mace swings are IMO far less "Baseball" than the Invulnerability secondary....as far as flavor goes. YMMV.

 

I don't mean to yuck-in-the-yum, but be prepared for somewhat slow/clumsy attack chains without Recharge.

This is true. It's someone using a bat as a mallet, since it has no 2-hand swings. As for the secondary, if we are focusing on baseball skills, SR would probably be the most applicable. Throw in some speed, and you have something approaching a "5-tool player" (well...with the exception of throwing, which makes me think now that maybe SS [with Hurl]/SR and Speed pool would give you that - just wouldn't have the bat unless you purchase St. Louis Slammer temp). Hit, Hit with Power, Run, Throw. Not sure where "fielding" comes in, unless we assume that's drawing aggro ("catching" enemies).

 

All this makes me want to revisit Babe Gibson.:-)

[Bojutsu]

Thanks again for all the responses. "Hawk Dawson" is currently in character creation for Excelsior. I have chosen Super Reflexes since I feel it fits best with the baseball player theme. Willpower was my 2nd choice...

Also, yeah, War Mace is a one handed weapon, and the swings/animations won't look very baseball-like. However, there is no better option. 

It's good to know there is a baseball bat temp power I can add to my character. I do wish I could rename it the "Windy City Slammer".

 

[Bojutsu]

Hawk Dawon is live on Excelsior...level 4 and currently in the air above Ms. Liberty....please feel free to add him to your friends list. Thanks

 

Edit - I usually play on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays

Edited May 17, 2022 by Bojutsu

[Bill Z Bubba]

1 hour ago, Bojutsu said:

Also, yeah, War Mace is a one handed weapon, and the swings/animations won't look very baseball-like. However, there is no better option. 

 

So titan weapon needs a baseball bat option.

[Greldek]

I was thinking staff could possibly use a baseball bat skin, but thinking about animations I think you're right and TW is probably better.

[Outrider_01]

Wrench is where its at