That Combo That Makes You Feel Special

[Crowcus Pocus]

I think we all have a few characters that stand out in different ways. They are not team carriers nor godlike wrecking balls, but still - they feel awesome to play with.

 

Personally, I love to take my MA/Dark out for a spin. He doesn't have a 2-button combo that instantly deletes full spawns, but that's exactly why I love playing him. I get to use every tool I have at my disposal - knockbacks, knockdowns, stacked stuns and more.

 

Each achievement feels more satisfying - whether it's solo or team. Plus, I don't see many MA/Dark around, which is always a plus to me.

 

What about you?

Edited June 11, 2022 by Falsey
Spelling

[Ceejer]

Dark/SR, not the fastest or strongest but you can embrace your inner scrapperlock for a long long time. 

[Doomguide2005]

My favorites in no particular order (except maybe that first one 😁):

1. My Claws/SR 
2. Any of my Empathy characters, my Emp/Fire was leading the pack when the computer bellied up.
3. Earth/Storm Controller
4. Cold/Ice defender
5. Plant/Cold

[Crowcus Pocus]

5 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

My favorites in no particular order (except maybe that first one 😁😞

1. My Claws/SR 
2. Any of my Empathy characters, my Emp/Fire was leading the pack when the computer bellied up.
3. Earth/Storm Controller
4. Cold/Ice defender
5. Plant/Cold

Ooooh, I love my Earth/Storm too. Earth/TA is also up there in my top 3 favorite controllers.

[Bill Z Bubba]

On 6/11/2022 at 5:56 AM, Falsey said:

Ooooh, I love my Earth/Storm too. Earth/TA is also up there in my top 3 favorite controllers.

 

Earth control is just a damn hoot. Think I've got earth/earth and earth/fire doms, and I recently cranked up an earth/kin controller that keeps Poopy (animated stone) buffed up with spirit ward, enflame, speed boost, siphon power and, of course, healed regularly making him one tough ass lump of crap.

 

But, of course, even now, nothin beats my main. Claws/SR for the sexy.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Bill Z Bubba

[Bojutsu]

My EM/FA Scrapper makes me feel silly 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Bojutsu

[Stormwalker]

I also have to vote for my Claws/SR.  There is just something about that combo.  It makes beautiful mayhem.  The fact that "Kitten America" is also one of my favorite character concepts I've built just makes it even better.

 

Dark Melee/Dark Armor is also just way more fun than it has any right to be if you look at the raw performance of the sets involved.  They just work together beautifully, with Dark Armor's damage aura covering Dark Melee's lack of AoE, Dark Melee's To-Hit Debuff boosting Dark Armor's survivability, etc.  

 

Starting to get the same feeling out of Energy Melee/Energy Aura, except that in this case the sets actually have the performance to back it up.

 

DB/SR is starting to get pretty fun as Skyfencer starts to get into the levels where SR comes into its own.

 

But Claws/SR will probably always be my favorite.  There's a reason it's been mentioned three times in this thread already.

 

Oh, and I've been completely shocked by how much I'm enjoying my Ice/Ice blaster.  I never knew a Blaster could be this... capable.

 

EDIT:  Thinking about it, I think I know why Claws/SR is so fun.  You take SR's inherent speed boost, and combine it with the lack of click powers, and you have the perfect platform from which to deploy Claws' seemingly limitless bag of tricks.  Ranged attack?  Got it.  With Knockdown, even.  PBAoE?  Of course.  Freakin' huge cone (with knockback, which can easily be slotted to knockdown)?  Got that, too!  Oh, yeah, and between Focus and Shockwave you can dribble a Zeus Class Titan like a basketball, and who doesn't love that?  SR gives Claws everything it needs - +recharge and a very solid overall defense - and then gets out of its way and lets Claws be Claws.

Edited June 13, 2022 by Stormwalker

[Zepp]

The first toon I rolled was in Ill/Storm troller, and even though I've changed her build throughout the years, she is still awesome. I have found a use for every single one of her powers at some point (in some version of the build) and she is a blast to play with! Also, knocking GMs on their posteriors is just a joy to behold!

For Scrapper, I also like playing around with different styles of play, such as not taking finishers for Staff or Savage. I've found that the stack bonuses for those sets are often better than using the finishers... I have a Staff/WP toon that is just amazing amounts of fun!

[Tacheyon]

On 6/11/2022 at 3:56 AM, Falsey said:

Ooooh, I love my Earth/Storm too. Earth/TA is also up there in my top 3 favorite controllers.

 

Yeah those are my two favorite controllers.  I have almost all the combos of Earth control made.  /Rad, Poison and Traps are also really nice.

[Crowcus Pocus]

1 hour ago, Tacheyon said:

 

Yeah those are my two favorite controllers.  I have almost all the combos of Earth control made.  /Rad, Poison and Traps are also really nice.

Ah, yes! Earth/Rad was my first Earth troller and I loved him to bits as well. I do have a lowbie Earth/Psn but for some reason I wasn't sure it would work well so I kind of parked him. Maybe I'll give him a chance.

[Guffnat]

Back on live I really enjoyed my MA/SR Scrapper. I remade her as a MA/Shield Scrapper and she is still fun.

 

I also love anything Dark/Dark or Ice/Ice (Cold) ... Defender, Controller, Tanker, Blaster. I just love the sheer amount of control those combinations offer. I never had any real fun in other MMORGPs after playing CoH back in 2004 since they are always lacking in the (mass) control department.

[Rejolt]

Electric/Energy Blaster. Power Boost is amazing but pairing it with Endurance Drains feels right at home to me (it was also my main on Live from 2005-2012). With the Electric Blast revamp it is that much better.

When I tried to make several versions of Elec and Nrg coming to HC from Live, I noticed many pairings use them well. An  Elec/Nrg Sentinel can use Alpha incarnate slot for rech, defense and endurance drain/recovery. That sentinel is one of my easiest to use characters in the game. 

EDIT: Notices two weeks later this is a Scrapper question (/facepalm). Yes, an Elec/Nrg Scrapper would be just as easy to use, you just wouldn't have the best ST killing and no damage aura. Consider a Stun proc in Energy Drain to go with Lightning Clap (with a KD proc and +rech in it).

Edited June 24, 2022 by Rejolt

[Aracknight]

So you may be asking yourself, "What is Martial Arts good for?"
Well, a few facts are in order to answer this question...

1. MA Scrappers are mammals.
2. MA Scrappers fight ALL the time.
3. The purpose of the MA Scrapper is to flip out and kill people.

 

Fungah, 1/18/2006

 

Before I even bought the game, back when I was researching it, this excerpt from a post was what stole my heart.  I could read what powersets did and how well it did or didn't do it.  I suspected Super Reflexes was right for my unborn Scrapper because I am a lifelong Spider-Man fan.  But the post the excerpt the above is from is what convinced me, unbought and unplayed, that Martial Arts on a Scrapper was special.

 

Sure, at the time, one attack was ugly (Crippling Axe Kick), one did no damage (Cobra Strike), and one felt like it looked awesome, took a year to go off and would always, at the dramatically appropriate moment...miss (Eagle's Claw).  But that guide taught me about soft controls, about how to layer in Air Superiority, and for the first six months my attack chain was Storm Kick-Air Superiority-Jump Kick (!!!!!!!)-Dragon's Tail-Eagle's Claw (After Cobra Kai, My mind refuses to not call this power Eagle Fang).

 

And it was awesome.  The animations seemed to flow one into the other, I had a lot of soft controls that covered up the fact that I had no idea how to play a Super Reflexes powerset.  I probably did crap damage but the unbridled joy I felt jumping around, flipping around, and knocking trolls around is probably the single greatest time I have ever had playing an mmorpg.  I didn't know about Mids, and when Inventions first came out, I just threw extra stun and knockback into my Scraptroller powers and let it rip.  And then when I did learn about Mids, and I learned about mitigation from many posts by Arcanaville, and that if I build SR correctly, I didn't necessarily need those soft controls and I could just slot for damage and wreck shit.

 

So with my scrapper built, I created five macros, one for each power in my attack chain, and each one of them began with Target_enemy_near.  I would dial up...what is now known as +1/x8, scroll out the camera, dive into a map full of Council,  and watch them FLY.  The camera rotated every time I hit a button, and my Scrapper would kick or punch someone into the air and in the words of the Foo Fighters, he was done, done, and I'm on to the next one.

 

These days I know a little more, and the powers that be saw fit to tweak things, sometimes, that felt specifically for me.  Cobra Strike got damage, but it didn't look awesome.  AND THEN THEY GAVE ME AN UPPERCUT ANIMATION.  Crippling Axe Kick was allegedly part of the best mathematical attack chain, but it's "Smell my foot!  Now Smell it again!" animation was lame to me.  AND THEN THEY GAVE ME A RIGHT HOOK ANIMATION.  

 

Right?

 

So I have enough recharge to run Storm Kick-Crippling Axe Kick-Storm Kick-Cobra Strike and the obligatory single AOE Dragon's Tail for large groups.  I have Crane Kick so I can run SK-CS-SK-CK at lower levels with no real drop off.  I also keep Crane Kick as my finsher, because no matter how smart I get, I will never not love watching a bad guy ragdoll off into the distance, especially if they get stuck on a chain link fence.  He's smooth, cuts through minions in one-two shots max, Lieutenants in two, and I probably aren't even doing it at peak efficiency because I like Tactics better than Focus Chi.

 

My Scrapper is a monster these days.  I would read on the boards how Scrappers were usually run by min-maxer insane geniuses who wanted to do things no one else could do, like solo AVs, GMs, and Pylons.  Some of you might not realize, but there was in fact a time when these things, while plausible, weren't necessarily possible.  And I would try these things.  I don't pull the insane times some of the legends of Homecoming pull, but I can do them.  (Most recently someone yelled at me on Everlasting for fighting both GMs in the Croatoa War zone event by myself without inviting anyone.  It took a while, but I took them both out.)  Then I would go do them on a Stalker, before Going Rogue, and people redside would trip out and watch my Stalker, well, flip out and kill people.  By the roomful.

 

MA/SR is special because it taught me how to play.  It brings me joy no matter what.  I even built a Tank and a Brute version after being inspired by BillZ, though to be honest, I haven't even levelled the Brute and I'm still not very good at the tank playstyle yet.

 

But when I get there, I have a feeling that's gonna be special too.

 

Peace.
 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Aracknight

[Bill Z Bubba]

5 hours ago, Aracknight said:

(Most recently someone yelled at me on Everlasting for fighting both GMs in the Croatoa War zone event by myself without inviting anyone.  It took a while, but I took them both out.) 

 

THIS is scrapping.

[Aracknight]

38 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

THIS is scrapping.

With absolute truth, and no snark, this is the highest praise I have ever received in this game.

 

Thank you.

[smnolimits42]

Cave Slayer:  War Mace/Inv

 

Tuffy the Prophecy Gal:  Martial Arts/Inv

 

Master Kryz Joma:  Katana/Super Reflexes

[Tacheyon]

On 6/13/2022 at 2:38 AM, Falsey said:

Ah, yes! Earth/Rad was my first Earth troller and I loved him to bits as well. I do have a lowbie Earth/Psn but for some reason I wasn't sure it would work well so I kind of parked him. Maybe I'll give him a chance.

 

Earth/Poison is one of the best debuffers in the game.  It can floor anyone's Defense and To-Hit.  Damage is a bit light, but you can proc out Poison trap and pick up Water Spout to help out with that.

[Linea]

Scrapper:  

Kat/Bio - This is as close to my favorite original as anything.  Long long ago in a galaxy far far away this was a Kat/Regen, later rebuilt as Kat/WP, and the latest version was rebuilt as Kat/Bio.

EnM/EnA - This is my current monster.  But Kat/Bio will always have a special place in my heart.

[SomeGuy]

On 6/13/2022 at 1:42 PM, Aracknight said:

Most recently someone yelled at me on Everlasting for fighting both GMs in the Croatoa War zone event by myself without inviting anyone.

 

 

 

This is the scrapper equivalent for doing 2+2=4 and getting yelled at it inconveniencing a flat earther, or someone else that doesn't like facts. You're doing it right.

[Aracknight]

Is...is this what acceptance feels like?

 

Damn, you guys.  

 

Thank you Scrappers.

[ScarySai]

Energy/rad - Looks cool, is cool, can do absurd amounts of damage when played properly.

 

Claw/bio - slightly less ST damage, but an absolute blender of a character. Playing it below +4 feels like cheating.

[SomeGuy]

3 hours ago, ScarySai said:

Energy/rad - Looks cool, is cool, can do absurd amounts of damage when played properly.

 

Claw/bio - slightly less ST damage, but an absolute blender of a character. Playing it below +4 feels like cheating.

 

 

Not sure how you are doing Claws/Bio to be less ST damage than EM/RAD. I have both also. Either way, I frickin' love my EM/RAD.

[ScarySai]

7 hours ago, SomeGuy said:

 

 

Not sure how you are doing Claws/Bio to be less ST damage than EM/RAD. I have both also. Either way, I frickin' love my EM/RAD.

Energy is more bursty is what I meant to say, but I basically posted that and went to bed, lol.

 

I need to dust that character off though. What rotation is currently doing best for claws at the pylon?

[SomeGuy]

5 hours ago, ScarySai said:

Energy is more bursty is what I meant to say, but I basically posted that and went to bed, lol.

 

I need to dust that character off though. What rotation is currently doing best for claws at the pylon?

 

 

lol it darn sure is

 

I run with FU-FOCUS-SNIPE-SLASH-FU-FOCUS-SLASH-SHOCK repeat

Edited June 18, 2022 by SomeGuy

[ScarySai]

I'll try it. Recharge?