My Forever Scrapper Contest (part 1b of 4, Scrapper Secondaries)!

[Bill Z Bubba]

If only we could have claws/shield...

[Ninjaboy]

How easy is it to build out +PSI DEF / RES with /EA ? 

 

It is great /EA is a jack of all trades except PSI.

 

End game PSI is a pretty big deal and avoiding content has always been a ridiculously silly ideology (unless you are a pure farmer).

 

 

[Bill Z Bubba]

32 minutes ago, Ninjaboy said:

End game PSI is a pretty big deal and avoiding content has always been a ridiculously silly ideology (unless you are a pure farmer).

 

You can get 30% resists just from 5 full purple sets. Doesn't look like there's much out there in set bonuses for Psi defense though but anything with Defense (All) like the steadfast and shield wall uniques will give you some. But NrgAura has a heal. You'll be fine.

[Stormwalker]

56 minutes ago, Ninjaboy said:

How easy is it to build out +PSI DEF / RES with /EA ? 

 

It is great /EA is a jack of all trades except PSI.

 

End game PSI is a pretty big deal and avoiding content has always been a ridiculously silly ideology (unless you are a pure farmer).

 

 

 

My initial build for my Energy Melee/Energy Aura had quite a bit of psi resist in it from IO sets.  After a bit of tinkering, though, I ended up determining that I was better off having less psi resist (about 11% now) in exchange for more offense, focusing on taking out the psionic attackers first, and using Energize to heal the damage taken.  You can get psi resist from purple sets (usually it's the 6-piece bonus), the Aegis unique, and the Impervium Armor unique, as well as other set bonuses.  Of course, this strategy works for me partly because of Energy Melee's devastating single-target damage, which definitely helps with quickly weeding out the most problematic attackers in a spawn.

 

Psi defense specifically is pretty hard to come by (the Impervium Armor set gives 1.88% at 3 pieces, so you can slot that in your resist powers if you want), but whatever pool powers you are taking to help soft-cap your other defenses (Weave, Hover/Combat Jumping, etc.) will give you Defense (all); combining that with the two unique IO's Bill mentioned will get you to about 20% Psi defense without any need to specifically chase it.

Edited July 3, 2022 by Stormwalker

[TungstenShark]

12 hours ago, Stormwalker said:

and the Impervium Armor unique

Just a small point...the Impervium Armor: Psi Resist enhancement is NOT unique so you can slot up to 5 of them. Not saying you should, but you can. 🙂

[Yomo Kimyata]

I'm rather surprised that Dark Armor is so low on the survey, which is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong as a ping pong ball.

 

I'm also considering doing a 4-scrapper bracket of the "worst" choices.

[Stormwalker]

Just now, Yomo Kimyata said:

I'm rather surprised that Dark Armor is so low on the survey, which is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong as a ping pong ball.

 

I'm also considering doing a 4-scrapper bracket of the "worst" choices.

 

I like Dark Armor at high level once you have it fully kitted out, but hoo boy is it a pain to level because of the endurance issues.

[UltraAlt]

On 7/6/2022 at 7:19 PM, Yomo Kimyata said:

I'm rather surprised that Dark Armor is so low on the survey, which is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong as a ping pong ball.

 

I'm honestly surprised at how high Bio Armor and Energy Aura are on the list.

I mean very few like the graphics on Bio Armor but I guess Adaption is kind of fun to use.

[Stormwalker]

5 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I'm honestly surprised at how high Bio Armor and Energy Aura are on the list.

I mean very few like the graphics on Bio Armor but I guess Adaption is kind of fun to use.

 

Energy Aura is very strong:

• easily-softcapped defenses to everything but Negative (and Negative is still do-able, just takes more work) and Psi
• Substantially better built-in resistances than Super Reflexes
• A heal with a built-in Conserve Power effect (Energize)
• An AoE endurance steal that also adds a bit of free +defense (Energy Drain)
• A stacking recharge buff, complete with taunt aura (Entropic Aura)
• Built-in Stealth (Energy Cloak)

It's arguably the second-strongest scrapper armor set behind Shield, and unlike Shield it doesn't restrict your choice of Primary.  Plus, it synergizes beautifully with the two most powerful Scrapper primaries:

• For Energy Melee, it offers thematic unity, plus a heal to offset Energy Transfer's self-damage.
• For Claws, it offers +rech (which Claws needs a ton of for maximum performance), and since Claws/Shield is not available, it's without a doubt the top performance choice for Claws.

On top of that, it's fun to play, being more interactive than /SR because of the heal and the end steal, and the Taunt Aura is a very nice QoL feature.  And it looks cool.

 

Energy Aura has quickly become my favorite Scrapper secondary since I created my Energy Melee/Energy Aura scrapper a few weeks ago  (Super Reflexes, my previous favorite, is now second, Willpower is third, DA is fourth).  I wish I'd discovered it before I went and created 35 characters, as I'm short of concepts now to make another one that don't overlap with my existing characters (I really should have made my DB/Willpower as DB/EnA, for one; Energy Aura suits her concept much more closely, given that she is a Technology origin and her defense comes from a skinfield)

[Bill Z Bubba]

And on the Bio side, if you want max damage output, ya go bio. My claws/bio kill times are ferocious. My nrg/bio/soul kill speed is ludicrous.

[UltraAlt]

28 minutes ago, Stormwalker said:

Energy Aura is very strong:

 

29 minutes ago, Stormwalker said:

It's arguably the second-strongest scrapper armor set behind Shield

 

I have it on a Sentinel with energy aura. And I enjoy playing it on that character conception player and an alt-jumper.

I dug through my spreadsheet until I found that I did have a scrapper with Energy Aura. They are Titan Weapon/Energy aura. 

I haven't played them for a while and that is more based on the teams that I'm on more than anything else. (well my Origins Quest project is slowing me down and limited to 5 characters quite often these days)

 

But you have show me why energy armor would be one of the top picks.

 

39 minutes ago, Stormwalker said:

(I really should have made my DB/Willpower as DB/EnA, for one; Energy Aura suits her concept much more closely, given that she is a Technology origin and her defense comes from a skinfield)

 

Could make her daughter, sister or mother? I mean if you are sticking with one gender.

 

... but you could always go with two versions of the same character ... like Jesse Quick ...

 

 

                                                                                                     ... she has both her mother's Liberty Belle powers and her father Jesse Quick's super speed mantra.

 

I have to admit. I have a character in CoH like this, and I had to make two different character to be able to cover the powers. They have the same civilian costume, but two different "super" costumes just like Jesse Quick above. 

 

....errrr... and you know, sometime I duplicate across servers, so the two versions of that character show up on more than one server.

[Erratic1]

29 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

And on the Bio side, if you want max damage output, ya go bio. My claws/bio kill times are ferocious. My nrg/bio/soul kill speed is ludicrous.

 

Not to mention there is a minimal graphics option for Bio, which leaves one power which during its animation obscures your costume for about a second.

[Stormwalker]

16 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

Could make her daughter, sister or mother? I mean if you are sticking with one gender.

 

... but you could always go with two versions of the same character ... like Jesse Quick ...

Interesting thoughts.

 

What I may do is refluff the DB/WP (and probasbly rename her, too, so I can re-use the name) into a concept that is more suited to Willpower, and then remake the original character as DB/EnA.

 

I just need to think of a technological defense that is more suited to WP than EnA... though, actually, one jumps immediately to mind - a combination of subdermal armor and nanite regeneration.  Which means my DB/WP is getting refluffed as a sort of Street Samurai.  That's cool, that's a concept I don't have in my character array yet!

[TungstenShark]

3 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

My nrg/bio/soul kill speed is ludicrous.

He's gone plaid!

[Saikochoro]

Only only voted for two: shield defense and energy aura. Those two are easily the best with SR being an honorable mention. 
 

I believe shield defense to be the best armor in the game. It’s only real weakness is that it restricts attack sets. I don’t consider lack of native healing/recovery to be a weakness. Those are easily covered. It has great defense, great ddr, great resists, + hp, and great damage. 
 

Energy aura is a very close second in my opinion. It has better healing and recovery. Has similarly good defense (sans psi) and similarly good resists. It has + rech instead of + dam. It does have a psi hole, but that can be plugged or healed. Its ddr isn’t as good, but still serviceable. The biggest advantage it has over shield is not locking out attack sets. 
 

Both are incredibly solid armors that won’t disappoint. 

[Thrax]

Claws/sr or db/sr. If it’s your main id do one of those. Sr is let’s you proc out eithe of those and had the ATO proc way mor often. 

[Fire Chief]

On 7/8/2022 at 11:08 AM, Bill Z Bubba said:

And on the Bio side, if you want max damage output, ya go bio. My claws/bio kill times are ferocious.

 

Just rolled one (claws/bio scrapper) could you...would you share the build plz and ty. I'm at lvl 28 and lost on what powers/pool powers to take going forward. Much appreciated.

[Bill Z Bubba]

16 minutes ago, Fire Chief said:

Just rolled one (claws/bio scrapper) could you...would you share the build plz and ty. I'm at lvl 28 and lost on what powers/pool powers to take going forward. Much appreciated.

 

Sure, but it's nothin to write home about. Been meaning to redo it for standard play for ages but never got around to it.

 

Spoiler

This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.1.2.5
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

HK-666: Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Claws
Secondary Power Set: Bio Armor
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Swipe -- SprScrStr-Rchg/+Crit(A)
Level 1: Hardened Carapace -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(3), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(7), UnbGrd-Max HP%(15), GldArm-3defTpProc(25), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(25)
Level 2: Slash -- Hct-Dmg/Rchg(A), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Hct-Acc/Rchg(5), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(27), Hct-Dam%(27), AchHee-ResDeb%(29)
Level 4: Environmental Modification -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(5), LucoftheG-Def(7), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(15)
Level 6: Fly -- WntGif-ResSlow(A)
Level 8: Follow Up -- SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg(A), SprCrtStr-Dmg/Rchg(9), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), SprCrtStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), SprCrtStr-Rchg/+50% Crit(31)
Level 10: Spin -- Arm-Dmg/Rchg(A), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), Arm-Acc/Rchg(11), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Arm-Dam%(31)
Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(13)
Level 14: Adaptation
Level 16: Inexhaustible -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(17), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(17), Prv-Heal/Rchg(46), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(48), Prv-Absorb%(48)
Level 18: Focus -- Apc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Apc-Acc/Rchg(19), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Apc-Dam%(33), GldJvl-Dam%(34)
Level 20: Ablative Carapace -- DctWnd-Heal/Rchg(A), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(21), Prv-Heal/Rchg(21)
Level 22: Evolving Armor -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(23), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(23), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(33)
Level 24: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(34), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(34), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 28: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(42), LucoftheG-Def(42), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(42)
Level 30: DNA Siphon -- Obl-Acc/Rchg(A), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(43), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50), Obl-%Dam(50)
Level 32: Shockwave -- SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg(A), SprScrStr-Dmg/Rchg(36), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), SprScrStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(43)
Level 35: Genetic Contamination -- Obl-Acc/Rchg(A), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(36), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Obl-%Dam(40), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(43)
Level 38: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(39), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(39), Rct-ResDam%(39)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- RgnTss-Regen+(A)
Level 47: Hover -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Evasive Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(45), Mrc-Rcvry+(46)
Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(45), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc(45), PrfShf-End%(46), PwrTrns-+Heal(50)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 14: Defensive Adaptation
Level 14: Efficient Adaptation
Level 14: Offensive Adaptation
Level 6: Afterburner
------------

 

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[Fire Chief]

Thanks it will help other then shield for scrappers not a big scrapper guy...yet 😄

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

Ok, I've made my payments, and selected my choices, both for the "best" eight elimination bracket and the "also ran" bracket of four.  Since effectively choosing twelve is equivalent to eliminating two, I'm taking Willpower and Regeneration off the table.  I really enjoy both of these power sets, but neither one has extraordinary synergy with any particular primary.  Willpower is set and forget and Regeneration is push a lot of buttons, and I'd like to explore a bit instead.  Frankly, I think Willpower is *boring!* and I *really* like Regen, but that's probably a snobbery thing to be honest.  Anyway the top eight:

 

Bio Armor:  Oh yeah, I really love Bio for so many reasons.

 

Energy Aura:  I see why it's so good, but I can't "see" my costume, so that gives me a little pause.

 

Shield Defense:  Like  said, I have a slight bias against click-to-activate mez protection.  I doubt I'll use a macro, so I'll probably skip Hasten on this build.

 

Super Reflexes:  I also find this *boring* but the people have spoken!

 

Radiation Armor:  Currently my second favorite behind Bio.

 

Invulnerability:  Always a solid choice.

 

Ninjitsu:  Not very familiar with this one, so there may be a bit of a learning curve.

 

Dark Armor:  I can't see my costume here either but I don't care as much!  This set is awesome and versatile, but hungry!

 

 

The "also rans"

 

Stone Armor:  I like it a lot, and need to get over the graphics.

 

Electric Armor:  Wonderful on brutes, I need to make it work better on my scrappers.

 

Ice Armor:  I actually really enjoy this, and there is a strong similarity to Energy Aura in my eyes.

 

Fiery Aura:  Just plain fun!

 

Stay tuned for Phase 2!

 

 

 

[Fire Chief]

Thanks!!! Yomo Kimyata for this post/poll I actually found my next lvl 50 😄

[Lyrium]

I was so against Click Mezz protection, too. When I rolled my DM/Shield I set Mezz Protection as the auto power, and manually click hasten. Good thing about a DM/Shield is that you dont have that many powers to click, so having Hasten between my most used powers was easy.

 

Shield is kind of amazing, I definitely recommend it

[Stormwalker]

6 hours ago, Erhnam said:

I was so against Click Mezz protection, too. When I rolled my DM/Shield I set Mezz Protection as the auto power, and manually click hasten. Good thing about a DM/Shield is that you dont have that many powers to click, so having Hasten between my most used powers was easy.

 

Shield is kind of amazing, I definitely recommend it

 

This is also what I do on my /Shield and /SR characters.  Mez protection on auto, manually run Hasten.  I put Hasten on the same bar as my attacks so I can easily see when it's recharged.

[hejtmane]

On 6/27/2022 at 6:34 PM, Sovera said:

 

 

Scrapper forums. Stone does not get a taunt aura. I'd bet two cents that's the reason. Gods know I'd like to try a Claws/Stone.

Wait you been stalking me on my taunt rants and scrappers lol