Scrapper Secondary Sets w/ a Strong Melee AoE Attack

[Bojutsu]

Just noticed there are 2 Scrapper secondary power sets that offer a strong AoE attack. Radiation Armor and Shield Defense.

I was looking at a Rad/Rad Scrapper build. I noticed that Radiation Armor has the power "Ground Zero" which does moderate AoE damage in melee combat. I thought how good it would be to have 2 good AoE attacks - "Atom Smasher" from Radiation Melee and "Ground Zero" from Radiation Armor.

Then I saw the Shield Defense AoE melee attack, "Shield Charge", is even stronger than "Ground Zero".

Now I'm thinking that an Electric/Shield Scrapper could have 2 superior damage teleport AoE attacks with "Lightning Rod" and "Shield Charge". One with knockback and one with knockdown. You will also have a high damage AoE attack with "Thunder Strike".

If you get "Spring Attack" from the Leaping power pool, you will have THREE superior damage teleport AoE attacks...all 3 with knockdown or knockback. And "Thunder Strike".

If only there were a way to magically add "Savage Leap" and "Burst of Speed" into the build...

 

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by Bojutsu

[arcane]

Sir, this is the Blaster forum

[Bojutsu]

oh dear. I've made an error and feel silly. please excuse me. I will try to fix this now...wow...

[GM Crumpet]

no probs, moved it to the correct place

[SeraphimKensai]

Spring attack is pretty much garbage. Try it out on test to see if you like it, but there's usually better choices.

 

Radiation Armor can proc slot both Radiation Therapy and Ground Zero with damage procs, so you can turn each power into mini PBAoE nukes. For Radiation Armor though because it's resistance based, I'd recommend making it either a Tanker or a Brute as then you can get your resistances up to 90% as opposed to 75%.

 

Elec/Shield can be fun but I wouldn't make it as a scrapper. If you're going that route, Stalker is the king of that combo as both shield charge and lightning rod use pseudopets to work and this don't break hide allowing you to follow up with a hidden critical right after using both.

 

 

[Bionic_Flea]

3 hours ago, arcane said:

Sir, this is the Blaster forum

I declare this the post of the day.

[SomeGuy]

ElM/SD is definitely a fun combo with two teleport AOE booms. Don't discount Fire Armor. Burn is really wild AOE. And it's a crazy good ST attack too. Fire Armor has a PBAoE toggle too. Just be prepared for runners with Fire Armor.

 

Shield and Rad don't have a PBAoE but they do have their click AOE attacks and also a taunt aura. With Rad Armor, you can proc out Radiation Therapy for just damage procs and it ends up being a pretty darn good AOE, no lie. You'd be surprised how well a DM/RAD's AOE can end up being with a procced out Touch of Fear, Rad Therapy procced out, and Meltdown. And Dark Consumption and Soul Drain slotted for damage.

 

I don't have a DM/RAD, but I do have a DM/BIO and it FEELS like it clears packs just as fast as my EM/RAD. Even has a decent Trapdoor time.

[Cancrusher]

@SeraphimKensai is correct about Spring Attack, but if you want to span teleport-type AOE attacks, it IS one more you can add to the arsenal.  Just be prepared to be very underwhelmed by the results. 

 

As @SomeGuy says, Shield Charge is not a PBAOE.  I must say, though, having recently levelled my first /Shld scrapper, the amount of damage that power does is truly awe inspiring.  Not only is it the best defense set attack I've ever used, it outperforms many mainline attack set powers, as well.  If you haven't tried this set, I must highly recommend it.  It's extremely satisfying to use.

 

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

10 hours ago, arcane said:

Sir, this is the Blaster forum

 

Oh, in that case could I have a Blaster whiskey?

[Greldek]

Elec / shield is very popular but many prefer it on a stalker for a more well rounded elec experience. They get to replace some of elects worst powers with stalker only powers which is nice.

 

Either way shield charge is great fun.

[Sovera]

Fire Armor is one of the reasons to go Brute instead of Scrapper. Burn is very sweet and on a good recharge compared to the 'mini nukes' like Shield Charge who have the recharge of a nuke but do just a bit more than a regular PbAoE (regular PbAoE outdamaging handily Shield Charge in the time it takes to recharge).

 

On a Tanker in particular it makes all the non palatable sets with no early AoEs something that can handle AoE situations.

 

 

The fancy Fire-Armor-for-Scrappers is Radiation Armor because it has -two- pbAoEs in the secondary. Sadly in my experiments Radiation Therapy is not the equal to Burn in making sets-with-no-early-AoE palatable, but once out of that early phase the burst of primary-based-AoE followed by Ground Zero and Radiation Therapy does decimate things.

 

The Trapdoor thread in these Scrapper forums has a lot of data and shows that Rad Armor is the 'new' big fancy, but also that Bio Armor lacks such and still gets about the same times on account of its mechanics (that said Rad Armor is beefier).

[Bojutsu]

I thought the animation for Shield Charge didn't really look like a teleport attack. It is AoE though right?

Thank you all a lot for the responses.  I love playing Stalkers so I may be making an Elec/ Shield Stalker. 

 

Edit - I used to have a 50 Fire Tank. He was my first character ever. Burn was amazing at the beginning of the game. Then it was nerfed and enemies always ran away even when taunted. It sounds like it is back to being good again. I may try a Fire Scrapper this time.

Edited May 21, 2022 by Bojutsu

[ScarySai]

Rad/rad scrapper just kinda melts things by existing. I wouldn't waste time with spring attack, just grab speed of sound if you want a quick gap closer.

[hejtmane]

On 5/20/2022 at 5:16 AM, SeraphimKensai said:

Spring attack is pretty much garbage. Try it out on test to see if you like it, but there's usually better choices.

 

Radiation Armor can proc slot both Radiation Therapy and Ground Zero with damage procs, so you can turn each power into mini PBAoE nukes. For Radiation Armor though because it's resistance based, I'd recommend making it either a Tanker or a Brute as then you can get your resistances up to 90% as opposed to 75%.

 

Elec/Shield can be fun but I wouldn't make it as a scrapper. If you're going that route, Stalker is the king of that combo as both shield charge and lightning rod use pseudopets to work and this don't break hide allowing you to follow up with a hidden critical right after using both.

 

 

Rad has been one of the best secondaries for survive ability for me as a scrapper hands down easy pease I originally did fire/rad but I prefer my Katana/rad

 

Sorry Rad is a house if done right as a scrapper