Safest scrapper combo

[Kinvesu]

Hi there. I was wondering what the safest scrapper combo of powers is? I will be soloing probably. Will worry about grouping later when I have the time. I haven't gotten past 34 in my few years of off and on playing. So basically newbie.

 

I have tried ma/nin (up to 26 and it is so squishy), ice/ice (only up to 20 so far, seems good with ice patch but drains end pretty fast from ice attacks/ice armor toggles).  I have tried /energy up to 26, but it costs a lot of endurance so my toggles fall off a lot. I am just looking for something I can use to be survivable from 1-50. DM/shield to 20, so far so good, though I am bummed there is no dark obliteration for an extra aoe to pair with shield charge and not a fan of soul drain and dark consumption.

 

Was trying to think of something thematic. kat/nin/weapon I built in mids and it seemed cool with shuri/exploding shuri. A rogue mm jounin, but on my /nin chars, its so dang squishy I get frustrated. Don't care for spines, don't like the animations of claws, didn't seem very claws like,

 

Or if you think it would be better, I don't mind doing a tanker. Just i don't like tanking, so I will not group with tanker, though I do love the survivability and just being a powerhouse or taking damage. inv/ma I built in mids seemed amazing, same with shield/ma, since shield gives more damage.

 

Thank you for reading and/or trying to help. I appreciate it.

[biostem]

6 minutes ago, Kinvesu said:

I was wondering what the safest scrapper combo of powers is?

This may be my bias showing, but I'd say something like savage melee/bio armor or /radiation armor.

Edited April 21, 2023 by biostem

[nihilii]

My own pick would be /nin... 😅

 

I guess we'd need to narrow down on what feels squishy about nin for you. By lvl 20 shield is mostly weaker, but you like your DM/SD. So I'm thinking, perhaps you're playing on SOs without insps and the -tohit and Siphon Life from DM are helping to the point shield feels stronger?

Perhaps kat/nin could replicate that experience, as the +DEF of Divine Avalanche can be more potent than the -tohit of Dark Melee.

[Kinvesu]

58 minutes ago, nihilii said:

My own pick would be /nin... 😅

 

I guess we'd need to narrow down on what feels squishy about nin for you. By lvl 20 shield is mostly weaker, but you like your DM/SD. So I'm thinking, perhaps you're playing on SOs without insps and the -tohit and Siphon Life from DM are helping to the point shield feels stronger?

Perhaps kat/nin could replicate that experience, as the +DEF of Divine Avalanche can be more potent than the -tohit of Dark Melee.

I just die a LOT more than I would like on /nin. Yes, like I mentioned I am new, so I don't have billions to kit out stuff 😕, so yeah, just DO's and SO's for now. I take a lot of hits and it gets frustrated so I end up logging off. I LOVE the theme of nin. Like I said, I really want to do kat/nin, cause of theme, I just get wrecked.

 

I did try ice/nin once, but it was so long ago, I forgot how it was and apparently didn't like it cause it was deleted lol.

 

Was just looking for something I can play that will be safe, easy, new player friendly, and I can just go in and kill things and only have to worry about dying if I do something royally stupid.

 

1 hour ago, biostem said:

This may be my bias showing, but I'd say something like savage melee/bio armor or /radiation armor.

 

Thank you. I will look into those then.

 

I did try brutes (ma/elec was pretty cool), but I don't like the rage mechanic. I frequently stop multiple times since I am a single father of 2 teens(They are always talking to me and/or asking for stuff). So I don't like having to get my rage back up each time.

[biostem]

1 minute ago, Kinvesu said:

Thank you. I will look into those then.

To elaborate, savage melee has a mechanic called "blood frenzy", which provides a recharge reduction and end cost reduction buff with each attack, then some powers use up these stacks for added effects.  I tend to try and maintain the stacks, as I much prefer the buffs than the bit of extra damage or other effect you get from using up those stacks.

 

With regard to the armor sets, look at it like this:

 

Radiation armor is the more straightforward of the 2 armors I mentioned;  It's mainly resistance-based, but offers a self heal and end recovery buffs, not to mention a fairly power absorption shield and a self heal, to keep you on your feet and fighting.  You also get yet another recharge reduction buff from the set, so in conjunction with savage melee, you're powers will be up & ready very often.

 

Bio Armor is a bit different - It does much of what radiation armor does, with the key difference being the "adaptation" power.  This power allows you to switch between 3 different modes - efficient, offensive, or defensive.  These modes impact how your other armor powers function - they can even add additional effects or boost your own damage.  You get a little defense, some resistance, and other effects.

[Captain Fabulous]

The "safest" Scrapper is clearly Mace/Regen. It's so safe you won't have to ever worry about dying cause you'll already be dead.

[Kinvesu]

4 minutes ago, Captain Fabulous said:

The "safest" Scrapper is clearly Mace/Regen. It's so safe you won't have to ever worry about dying cause you'll already be dead.

 

haha ouch.

[ClawsandEffect]

In regards to not being a fan of Soul Drain: It doesn't deal very much damage because it's not intended to be an attack. You get a damage boost for each enemy you hit with it. 

 

You should be using it at the start of a fight. 

[Kinvesu]

2 hours ago, ClawsandEffect said:

In regards to not being a fan of Soul Drain: It doesn't deal very much damage because it's not intended to be an attack. You get a damage boost for each enemy you hit with it. 

 

You should be using it at the start of a fight. 

Oh yes of course. I just don't like having to use it all the time at the start of the fight or my attacks will be weaker. I know, its just a me thing.

[biostem]

2 minutes ago, Kinvesu said:

Oh yes of course. I just don't like having to use it all the time at the start of the fight or my attacks will be weaker. I know, its just a me thing.

Out of curiosity, do you tend to avoid build-up type powers as well, because besides needing targets and dealing damage, they kind of serve the same purpose...

[Yomo Kimyata]

3 hours ago, Kinvesu said:

Was just looking for something I can play that will be safe, easy, new player friendly, and I can just go in and kill things and only have to worry about dying if I do something royally stupid.

 

Try Willpower as a secondary.  Invulnerability works too.  Bio and Radiation Armor are incredible, but require some maintenance and investment to really shine.  Willpower on SOs will get you through most stuff.

[Kinvesu]

1 hour ago, biostem said:

Out of curiosity, do you tend to avoid build-up type powers as well, because besides needing targets and dealing damage, they kind of serve the same purpose...

No. I just like using it when I want. The more I think about it now though, yeah it is the same huh? But I feel like dark melee relies more on soul drain to do good damage and the other sets still do good damage without their build up. I am wrong aren't I? I suck at explaining. I feel like with DM, I have to immediately use soul drain or I am not as strong, as with other sets, I can jump in, still do good damage and only use build ups on bosses.

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

Try Willpower as a secondary.  Invulnerability works too.  Bio and Radiation Armor are incredible, but require some maintenance and investment to really shine.  Willpower on SOs will get you through most stuff.

Thank you. This is what I thought. I had a nagging feeling that willpower might be the only one that will do what I want at first until I get enough money to deck out another power set.

[biostem]

38 minutes ago, Kinvesu said:

But I feel like dark melee relies more on soul drain to do good damage and the other sets still do good damage without their build up. I am wrong aren't I?

I think the confusion stems from soul drain being BOTH an AoE AND the source of your damage and tohit buffs, so it feels kind of counterproductive to use it right away, while it itself can't benefit from the damage and tohit buffs, so it almost feels like a wasted AoE.  That being said, I don't think the other dark melee attacks, nor the set as a whole, underperforms by any significant margin...

[SomeGuy]

2 hours ago, Kinvesu said:

 But I feel like dark melee relies more on soul drain to do good damage and the other sets still do good damage without their build up. I am wrong aren't I?

 

 

You aren't wrong at all.  I'm laughing that someone inexperienced with the set noticed this. I've measured it.

 

Thankfully, DM is really fun for me to play, cause I know where it stands. But the set is a lot of fun to me.

[smnolimits43]

Anything matched with Invulnerability, can be quite safe. However, i would slot out your attacks first.  Also, Bio Armor is possibly the safest to play, but i warn you the animations are butt ugly.

[SomeGuy]

23 minutes ago, smnolimits43 said:

 Bio Armor is possibly the safest to play

 

 

....bio armor is really squishy and rad armor is seriously one of the toughest melee sets in the game.

[Sir Myshkin]

Just to touch on it since no one else really did, you mentioned feeling squishy and on a defense-based character (to me) that tends to mean the character isn't utilizing their fullest capacity. You have that character at least up to level 26, so it is 100% viable for you to have that character reach 45% to Melee, Ranged, and AoE, and once you do that a lot of your "squishy" feelings will magically disappear.

 

And no you don't need to spend a fortune to do it.

 

 

This example here is built on just standard SO's and includes just two cornerstone IO's in Bo Ryaku that each give 3% defense. As shown this is 38% to M/R/A which, at level 26 is often good enough for a casual, but I don't know what kind of settings you're trying to challenge yourself with solo. The only investment this needs to get better is 6% defense to each of those categories. That's two Touch of Deaths, two Mako's Bites sets, Scirocco's Dervish in Dragon's Tail. Or you could leave it on SOs and pick up Maneuvers and Combat Jumping and be covered.

[Kinvesu]

9 hours ago, Sir Myshkin said:

Just to touch on it since no one else really did, you mentioned feeling squishy and on a defense-based character (to me) that tends to mean the character isn't utilizing their fullest capacity. You have that character at least up to level 26, so it is 100% viable for you to have that character reach 45% to Melee, Ranged, and AoE, and once you do that a lot of your "squishy" feelings will magically disappear.

 

And no you don't need to spend a fortune to do it.

 

 

This example here is built on just standard SO's and includes just two cornerstone IO's in Bo Ryaku that each give 3% defense. As shown this is 38% to M/R/A which, at level 26 is often good enough for a casual, but I don't know what kind of settings you're trying to challenge yourself with solo. The only investment this needs to get better is 6% defense to each of those categories. That's two Touch of Deaths, two Mako's Bites sets, Scirocco's Dervish in Dragon's Tail. Or you could leave it on SOs and pick up Maneuvers and Combat Jumping and be covered.

Thank you. I truly appreciate the help. I will see about trying to power thru a little and get these IOs. I build a lot in mids, but I don't actually know how or where to get all the IOs. I seem to spend more time building builds, then I do actually playing. So I was able to get max defenses and great resists in the builder, but no idea how to get all those IOs in game. And just getting up to that point felt squishy, but I will go work on it now then. Thank you again. I really do like my ma/nin guy, though I think kat/nin would be better to me cause it goes together better.

[Kinvesu]

Thank you everyone for the help. Like I said, I truly appreciate it. I will work on my /nin, but I am also going o start a /rad. I will see how much different it is and if I like it better. I was gonna go rad/rad though cause I think its theme, for me is better than sav/rad, even though savage is a good set by the numbers. I do a lot of research and buildings in midsreborn, but like I said, I have very limited actual gameplay after 20. I will start figuring out where to get some money and then how to get these IOs for my level range.

[ClawsandEffect]

If you buy attuned IOs you won't have to worry about what level they are. And the ability to boost them doesn't sound like it's something you need to worry about for a while, if ever. 

 

If you play on Excelsior I'd be happy to take you on a couple farm runs to get some cash built up. If you don't want to level that way you can shut off XP gain and just gain influence. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

18 hours ago, Kinvesu said:

No. I just like using it when I want. The more I think about it now though, yeah it is the same huh? But I feel like dark melee relies more on soul drain to do good damage and the other sets still do good damage without their build up. I am wrong aren't I? I suck at explaining. I feel like with DM, I have to immediately use soul drain or I am not as strong, as with other sets, I can jump in, still do good damage and only use build ups on bosses.

 

I haven't run the numbers, but that would make sense from a balance perspective.  Dark Melee, like Kinetic Melee, has an effect that adds to your defensive abilities.  That added survivability comes at the expense of a bit of damage.

[Sir Myshkin]

9 hours ago, Kinvesu said:

I will see about trying to power thru a little and get these IOs.

Message me with your in-game global handle and I'll e-mail you the two defense IO's, that'll get you moving in the right direction in a hurry.

[Thrax]

Dark/sr is the answer. Maybe dark/inv. Dark something for sure just cause of the -to hit and the heal. 

[Thrax]

Also, what keeps me interested in a character isn’t if it’s the best, or highest damage, or most survivable. It’s the theme around the toon, the concept, the combination of power sets. This is somehow true even though half my toons have the same outfit on. 
 

Play what is fun. If sucks at at first it will get better later as you get more IOs in more powers and start getting the great procs as mentioned. Unless it is /regen they it will likely still suck but I’ve heard can still be fun but I don’t see how. 

[SomeGuy]

I recently (last two days) took a DM/SD and DM/INV for a ride on brainstorm. I can say the DM/INV did "better"? I didn't measure it, but I was confidently getting through +4/x8 Arachnos missions. Whereas I had to be super selective with the DM/SD. And...I went to the hosp more than I'd like with it.