Fire Melee/Rad Scrapper Build critique

[TommyG]

Good afternoon fellow CoHers!  I recently created a Fire/Rad scrapper and while it is still very low in level, I started working on a build for it.  Because I am pretty unfamiliar with how the character plays still (Its only level 6) I decided I would get a rough draft build going of what I think I would want at 50.  A lot of this may change as I play the character and get a better feel for the powerset.   This character is going to be for pretty general use.  TF's, Radio, Story Arcs that kind of stuff.  While I may run +4/x8 content with teams on this character it is not intended to be a farming character or anything.

 

I generally like characters with good survivability, but I also tend to lean into that too much sometimes.  Because its a scrapper I wanted to lean into the DPS side of things and slotted my primaries' accordingly (I think).  I also proc bombed Ground Zero and Radiation Therapy but I am still learning about really utilizing procs in powers and am not 100% sure I did it correctly.  I did spend quite a bit of focus trying to get S/L/M Defenses softcapped (or just shy of) and am worried that it may have cost more slots than it's worth.  Not only has it left my Psi resistance hole quite a bit larger but it caused me to do things like 5-slot Brawl to get that last little bit of defense.  I am curious if other /Rad users feel its better to sacrifice those defenses for better chances at Dam and Accuracy elsewhere.

 

In terms of recovery and regen I *think I am okay on those.  /Rad seems to have an abundance of ways to keep you going so I didn't focus too much on slotting for recovery although I did a little bit for end reduction just to keep EndUsage low.  I think this should be sustainable in combat without having to pop a ton of blues, but I am not great and determining that through mids so could be wrong.  If it is an issue I can use Radiation Therapy to top off.

 

Judging by the CD time of FM's attacks I figured I only needed 3 ST attacks for a rotation and took Ball Lightning to use with Fire Sword Circle in a AoE rotation.  I ended up choosing Greater Fire Sword over Incinerate but if anyone has more insight into this that would be great!  I figured its something I would pick up as I play the character more.  I slotted Scrappers Strike in Fie Sword, but I am thinking ill switch it with cremate for the (barely) longer CD.  I am pretty unfamiliar with scrappers so slotting Scrappers Strike is still kind of a mystery to me.  I know it applies to the next attack when it procs so my thought process was it would go (As currently slotted) Fire sword - Big attack (like Fire Sword Circle or Greater FS) but would love some insight on this!

 

Finally I decided to go with the Def Melee Hybrid under the idea that Meltdown can fill the Resistance gaps in panic moments, and Melee Hybrid can fill the def holes in panic moments.  But I also considered the possibility that if I took the Resistance Melee Hybrid I could alternate between Meltdown and that and pretty much constantly have those holes filled so would love to hear some thoughts on that too.

 

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Scrapper (Fiery Melee - Radiation Armor)2.mbd

[Zect]

On 9/18/2023 at 6:36 AM, TommyG said:

Because its a scrapper I wanted to lean into the DPS side of things and slotted my primaries' accordingly (I think).

 

You have the general idea correct, but there are some issues with your design technique. Your build looks like it time travelled from late 2012 (heavy SL def). That doesn't work so well anymore after they fixed the cheese where SL def dodges all the energy blasts that have a little smashing damage in them.

 

More generally, you want to avoid getting def/res from set bonuses as much as possible, because these bonuses and especially res bonuses tend to come from attack sets, and thus directly compete with damage procs and other desired set bonuses such as acc/rech. That means exploring means to get def/res from places outside of IO sets.

 

For a scrapper on a res armor that wants high survivability (and I preface this by saying I intensely dislike telling people to change epics/pools because I understand this is often a concept/playstyle thing), it is nearly impossible to beat shadow meld from soul epic. Shadow meld is not permable, but that's fine because you are a scrapper. It lasts 15s and is up often enough to absorb every alpha. What you want to do is when you are running forward you use particle shield, shadowmeld, build up then you engage and use rad therapy, ground zero, etc etc, and murder the everliving shit out of everything in sight within 15s, then all you have to tank is the 1-2 survivors of nuclear warfare. With permahasten levels of rech, you can afford to use rad therapy both at the start of an engagement as an attack, and at the end to heal up after you have taken some damage.

 

Secondly, you took agility alpha and melee radial embodiment. Don't do that. Agility counts as rech in the PPM formula and reduces proc rate. Melee hybrid is not perma. If you really want def that comes specifically from incarnate powers, take barrier. Core epiphany is perma 5% def and 5% res to all. 5% def is usually a 5 or 6-slot bonus, 6% res is usually 3 or 6 slots, so we're gaining literally dozens of slots worth of set bonuses, and these are just the most slot-efficient options, that come from unique sets like purples and ATIOs. And that's just the weak part of barrier, the last 60s. The first 60s is very strong and acts as a second alpha absorber and ghetto DDR. Of course, barrier competes with ageless which is also a strong choice for procbombers, so pick your poison.

 

Thirdly, generally don't take meltdown unless you know what you are doing. Scrappers don't have a high enough resist cap to really get value out of it.

 

Fourth, think about some slow resist. Def sets don't worry about this as much since they double-dip by having def also dodge debuffs. Res sets need to worry about it more.

 

I threw together a quick example of what I am talking about:

 

 

I hate providing build downloads or imports; I'm here to instruct, not do your building for you, so finish it yourself. The locations of the attack sets are whatever. Move them around as you like.

 

I want you to look at the resists. We're at 67% ish on most major damtypes. This leaves open some options for you to cap: you can use barrier (5%) and the remaining 2-3% is made up by reactive defenses since you will take damage and not always be at full HP. You can also use a defense amp, AKA the 8 hour inspiration, which is 7.5% res to all and caps you outright. You can eat a small orange - hopefully you can utilize the very powerful resource stream that is insps dropping for you. No insps no temps is suboptimal, inefficient, and designed for epeen-stroking and forumite egotism over practical "real world" play; it's more efficient to build to reduce insp usage below a certain threshold. For hardmode, just enjoy your teammates' buffs.

 

Some players prefer 75% SLE and neg undercapped, in which case you will replace 4x shield walls with 5x lotg. Some players prefer to cap the SL res at least - I'm sure you can find a way to do it yourself, for example slotting 2x celerity in sprint and prestige sprints - yes it does go in prestige sprints. However in general, do not cripple your build for 1-2% resists. Going from 85% to 90% resist on a tanker is a big deal, going from 70% to 75% really isn't. Just kill faster.

 

I also want to point out the theft of essence proc in rad therapy. This can proc >1 time per power usage, and when used in a crowd completely refills your endurance bar. I don't use this in my own builds, because I am obsessed with optimizing for single enemy fights, but you should consider it; enjoy before it gets nerfed. (If there actually is a patch live right this moment on brainstorm or cryptic with nerfed theft of essence, I would like to clarify that I have not read any patch notes; I'm just very prescient. Don't ban me.)

 

You can also switch up the pool power layout a bit. This build, as shown, does not necessarily need tactics because rad therapy has 3.0x tohit and ground zero will always be used together with BU (they have the same base rech). Tactics is more necessary when your procbombed attacks have normal acc and are not always used during a BU window. So in this case, you can consider dropping leadership. Or, if you do stick with tactics, which is not a bad option either, then try to get more value out of it by replacing the purple sets with even more procs and using ageless to make up for the lost rech and to fuel the attacks. Have I mentioned how endurance intensive procbombed attacks are?

 

So you can conceive a sprectrum of defense to offense, where on the defense side you have the builds with barrier and normally slotted attacks, and on the offense side the tactics/ageless/more heavily procced builds. Oh, and think about hover/fly/evasive instead of jumping; it's +1 lotg.

 

 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Zect

[InvaderStych]

5 hours ago, Zect said:

Thirdly, generally don't take meltdown unless you know what you are doing. Scrappers don't have a high enough resist cap to really get value out of it.

 

This probably qualifies as "Unless you know what you are doing," but Meltdown's real value for a Scrapper is the 41.25% damage buff. 😉

Edited September 19, 2023 by InvaderStych
Stalker reference removed: They get 33% like Tanks/Brutes according to Mids?

[SomeGuy]

Meltdown is a MUST have. I've done Rad Armor a LOT. From a damage perspective, you want Meltdown up as often as possible. It gives a really good % boost when active. @InvaderStych is 1000% right with they they say about it.

 

Here's a first pass. Hopefully you get some ideas. Oh, Rad Therapy has a 3.0 multiplier for ACC instead of the more common 1.0 for stuff. And it being proc bombed like that is actually some really good AOE, especially early on if you Cat the non-PVP/VRare procs. Also, this is defense soft cap assuming your target gets all of the -TOHIT debuff  in Beta Decay. This WILL dump out DPS.

 

This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.6
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Science Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fire Sword
Level 1: Sprint
Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon
Level 30: Double Jump
------------

 

• (A) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage
• (13) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance
• (15) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (15) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (43) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
• (45) Empty
  

Level 1: Alpha Barrier

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (3) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
• (3) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
• (11) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance
  

Level 2: Gamma Boost

• (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
  

Level 4: Proton Armor

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
• (5) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
• (5) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (9) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance
  

Level 6: Build Up

• (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
• (7) Recharge Reduction IO
• (50) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 8: Combat Jumping

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (9) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
• (46) Kismet - Accuracy +6%
  

Level 10: Fallout Shelter

• (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
• (11) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
  

Level 12: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (13) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 14: Boxing

• (A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage
• (46) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance
• (46) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge
• (50) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 16: Radiation Therapy

• (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• (17) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage
• (17) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage
• (40) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage
• (40) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage
• (40) Fury of the Gladiator - Chance for Res Debuff
  

Level 18: Fire Sword Circle

• (A) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Recharge/Critical Hit Bonus
• (19) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (19) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Damage/Recharge
• (21) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (21) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 20: Beta Decay

• (A) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff
• (45) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff
• (45) Dampened Spirits - To Hit Debuff
  

Level 22: Tough

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP
• (23) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
• (23) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
• (39) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
  

Level 24: Weave

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (25) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance
• (25) Reactive Defenses - Defense
• (50) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage
  

Level 26: Incinerate

• (A) Superior Critical Strikes - Accuracy/Damage
• (27) Superior Critical Strikes - Damage/RechargeTime
• (27) Superior Critical Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (34) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• (37) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (39) Gladiator's Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage
  

Level 28: Particle Shielding

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb
• (29) Preventive Medicine - Heal
• (29) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance
• (31) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime
• (31) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
• (31) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
  

Level 30: Super Jump

• (A) Winter's Gift - Slow Resistance (20%)
• (48) Winter's Gift - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range
  

Level 32: Greater Fire Sword

• (A) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• (33) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance
• (33) Hecatomb - Damage
• (33) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (34) Gladiator's Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage
• (34) Superior Critical Strikes - RechargeTime/+50% Crit Proc
  

Level 35: Ground Zero

• (A) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage
• (36) Obliteration - Damage
• (36) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
• (36) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (37) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (37) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 38: Meltdown

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (39) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 41: Moonbeam

• (A) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• (42) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance
• (42) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (42) Sting of the Manticore - Chance of Damage(Toxic)
• (43) Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic)
• (43) Decimation - Chance of Build Up
  

Level 44: Shadow Meld

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 47: Maneuvers

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (48) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance
• (48) Red Fortune - Defense
  

Level 49: Assault

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Critical Hit

• (A) Run Speed IO
  

Level 2: Rest

• (A) Empty
  

Level 1: Swift

• (A) Run Speed IO
  

Level 1: Health

• (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance
• (7) Miracle - +Recovery
  

Level 1: Hurdle

• (A) Jumping IO
  

Level 1: Stamina

• (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
  

Level 49: Quick Form

Edited September 19, 2023 by SomeGuy

[Zect]

7 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

 

This probably qualifies as "Unless you know what you are doing," but Meltdown's real value for a Scrapper is the 41.25% damage buff. 😉

 

*snort* Sure. So that's about half a BU, and on an extreme-rech build you can have maybe half uptime on it.

 

Well, on second thought, that's actually very good on a 1.125 damage scale AT and since it also carries unbreakable guards, that helps trimming even more EN res bonuses elsewhere. Disregard my comment above. I am very excited to completely reconsider my evaluation of this power.

[InvaderStych]

5 hours ago, Zect said:

Well, on second thought, that's actually very good on a 1.125 damage scale AT and since it also carries unbreakable guards, that helps trimming even more EN res bonuses elsewhere. Disregard my comment above. I am very excited to completely reconsider my evaluation of this power.

 

Hmm. Not sure how to interpret this half given the first half, but let's go with benefit of the doubt that the "Disregard" moment is genuine. 🍻

 

It's a 60s duration, which is significant when you start stacking in other, much shorter duration buffs. BU/Gaussian's only last like 10s each, and you can get two firings of BU within the Meltdown window if you fire the first immediately. A decent build can get BU recharging in 35-40s or so, a bit less less on extreme recharge and when getting lucky with FF procs.

 

Edit: Gaussian's duration is 5.25s if Mids is to be trusted. Too lazy to fully correct the following paragraph, but that just makes the peak windows ever so slightly shorter. 🤷‍♂️

 

So, when inside Meltdown we're at a base of +41.25. Fire BU at the start and we're at +141.25, get lucky with Gaussian's and we're at +241.25. Let's say we're firing Assault Hybrid Core in there, just wearing the T4 (15%) brings that to 256.25 for those 10 seconds. It maxes out at 85% after a few swings, and by then BU/Gauss have likely expired so were now sitting at 126.25 until the next BU window hits, which peaks at +326.25 if we're lucky with Gaussian's again or +226.25 if we aren't. This is before any +dmg set bonuses (pretty sure 20-30% here is an easy ask), temp powers, amps, team buffs, or insps.

 

A well timed solo Scrapper can near-as-makes-no-difference-to cap their own +dmg bonus inside Meltdown. Don't need to gulp a stack of reds, leaves room for purples/oranges to supplement def/res if needed. It makes a difference when solo hunting big game. 😉

 

Doesn't hurt that the "crash" is basically irrelevant even without using a ToE in RT (why would you not?), and that it cycles nicely against Shadow Meld for alpha soaking.

 

Meltdown is underrated simply because we're all trained to skip most T9 armor powers because they're either pointless (adding more +def to a def set, for example) or the crash isn't worth the benefit (pretty much most of them).

 

This thread sort of makes me want to finish the build update on my Kat/Rad. 😄

 

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by InvaderStych
correcting myself ... mostly

[SomeGuy]

11 hours ago, Zect said:

 

*snort* Sure. So that's about half a BU, and on an extreme-rech build you can have maybe half uptime on it.

 

 

 

Look at it in a different way. Build Up's duration is 10s for 100% dmg. Meltdown is 41 % for a 60s duration. You might get four BUs in a minute with a VERY high recharge build. That's still really good.  I think that's roughly 80% boost for the minute assuming BU is used on cooldown? Now add the DMG buff from Meltdown. That goes up to 122% for the minute. That's...a lot. That will more than double all your damage for a minute. Whereas if you only use BU you are only adding about 80% to all you damage for a minute.

 

That and Meltdown does other really great things.

 

But if you're really shifting your mindset to the damage side you can add another 10% running assault. And another building Assault Hybrid. It's PASSIVE boost is 10% more damage. So you can be cranking out roughly 142% damage (not counting procs) when Meltdown is active.

 

Take Meltdown.

 

Also, lol. @InvaderStych said the same thing just different.

Edited September 20, 2023 by SomeGuy

[TommyG]

Thanks for the replies everyone!  I'm taking it back to the drawing board and gonna work on it a bit!

 

On 9/19/2023 at 12:53 AM, Zect said:

Your build looks like it time travelled from late 2012 (heavy SL def).

 

Not inaccurate at all lol, I have a tendency to do that.  Trying to break myself of the habit, it gets a little better each time but old habits die hard!

On 9/19/2023 at 12:53 AM, Zect said:

For a scrapper on a res armor that wants high survivability (and I preface this by saying I intensely dislike telling people to change epics/pools because I understand this is often a concept/playstyle thing), it is nearly impossible to beat shadow meld from soul epic. Shadow meld is not permable, but that's fine because you are a scrapper. It lasts 15s and is up often enough to absorb every alpha. What you want to do is when you are running forward you use particle shield, shadowmeld, build up then you engage and use rad therapy, ground zero, etc etc, and murder the everliving shit out of everything in sight within 15s, then all you have to tank is the 1-2 survivors of nuclear warfare. With permahasten levels of rech, you can afford to use rad therapy both at the start of an engagement as an attack, and at the end to heal up after you have taken some damage.

This was exactly what I was looking for so thank you!  I have no issues changing Epic Pools and it seems in this case Shadow Meld is just far too good to not take.  This kind of rotation is what I think I was really missing from being inexperienced with the powerset.  I was thinking too static in terms of defenses instead of relying on the tools of my powers and specialty of my AT.  This will be extremely helpful as I take it back to the drawing board.

 

On 9/19/2023 at 12:53 AM, Zect said:

I hate providing build downloads or imports; I'm here to instruct, not do your building for you, so finish it yourself. The locations of the attack sets are whatever. Move them around as you like.

 

Totally understand!  I've always been more of a "Teach me how to fish" kind of person anyway.  Ill be plugging the example build above this into mids and playing with it more from there.  I see 9 open slots so this should give me lots of room to play around.

 

On 9/19/2023 at 12:53 AM, Zect said:

Oh, and think about hover/fly/evasive instead of jumping; it's +1 lotg.

Strongly considered this originally and if I end up dropping Tactics I will likely switch to get that extra lotg +recharge.

 

On 9/19/2023 at 12:53 AM, Zect said:

So in this case, you can consider dropping leadership.

Any particular suggestions to replace it?  I have a habit to stick with the same power pools and so I am very unfamiliar with them.  Ill play around with a few options but if you have any suggestions im all ears!

 

On 9/19/2023 at 10:04 AM, SomeGuy said:

Here's a first pass. Hopefully you get some ideas. Oh, Rad Therapy has a 3.0 multiplier for ACC instead of the more common 1.0 for stuff. And it being proc bombed like that is actually some really good AOE, especially early on if you Cat the non-PVP/VRare procs. Also, this is defense soft cap assuming your target gets all of the -TOHIT debuff  in Beta Decay. This WILL dump out DPS.

Thank you I appreciate you posting it!  I just loaded it up and am looking it over.  I noticed you put the Scrappers Strike proc in Fire Sword Circle.  I was having a hard time figuring out where to place it and would be curious for your reason for placing it here.  I also noticed Ground Zero wasnt proc bombed in this build, do you just feel between Rad Therapy and the increase of procs in the ST powers just makes it unnecessary or is there a mechanical reason? (I am very unfamiliar with scrappers/procs/rad in general if you cant tell haha)  Thanks for taking the time to reply and post this build! 

 

23 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

A well timed solo Scrapper can near-as-makes-no-difference-to cap their own +dmg bonus inside Meltdown. Don't need to gulp a stack of reds, leaves room for purples/oranges to supplement def/res if needed. It makes a difference when solo hunting big game. 😉

Great info here, ill be planning the entirety of my rotation around this!  Thanks for replying this is going to have me focusing on getting BU's CD as low as possible

[SomeGuy]

20 hours ago, TommyG said:

 

Thank you I appreciate you posting it!  I just loaded it up and am looking it over.  I noticed you put the Scrappers Strike proc in Fire Sword Circle.  I was having a hard time figuring out where to place it and would be curious for your reason for placing it here.  I also noticed Ground Zero wasnt proc bombed in this build, do you just feel between Rad Therapy and the increase of procs in the ST powers just makes it unnecessary or is there a mechanical reason? (I am very unfamiliar with scrappers/procs/rad in general if you cant tell haha)  Thanks for taking the time to reply and post this build! 

 

 

 

 

ATO1 (Scrapper Strike): Well, the ATO1 is a passive global and the 5pc for that set is something I like, a lot. As much as I love the Oblit set, to get what I mostly want out of a set, it only costs 5 instead of 6 slots. I can get more damage out of the other attacks and I really want the 5pc Bonus and everything that comes with it. Recharge and S/L? Yes please! And I personally don't value AOE as crazy much as some folks, so i'm not likely to proc bomb attacks normally for AOE, and I get the ATO1 proc with all that too..FSS is just a natural fit for me. I've done FM/SD and FM/BIO. It goes there on both and its a great spot for how I build. Now getting silly and proc bombing powers NOT meant to murder a room...I just find hilarious. I've been playing this game since launch and I've never seen an AOE situation shut down a team. I've seen a single high HP target do it..a LOT.

 

Ground Zero: The Obliteration set is just amazing to me. And Ground Zero was an easy fit there. Even on a very high recharge build, GZ isn't up a crazy amount to me, but those set bonuses from Oblit are (almost) always there. It IS funny getting the Healing badges on accident as a scrapper cause of this power. But, if I have to NOT take a power in Rad Armor, this is always it. I'm hoping this statement helps you know how I value things.

 

Rad Therapy: Actually, there is a mechanical reason I do this, on top of the fact it can be a VERY exemp friendly AOE when low level. You can slap a PVP -RES in it. And Rad Therapy has a pretty high base recharge. So that proc has a good chance to go off every time you use it. Combined with the fact Rad Therapy does a...-150% regen? You can really put some hurt on a hard target. And since the rest of Rad Therapy is bombed out, whatever that target is will also take some damage.

 

I'd be shocked if Fire/Rad isn't one of the fastest high hp killers in the game. Fire/Bio low minutes. Fire/SD mid minute. And Rad is more DPS as a secondary than shield. You've got a very amazing pairing.

 

Also, TAKE MELTDOWN.

Edited September 21, 2023 by SomeGuy

[Zect]

On 9/20/2023 at 8:51 AM, InvaderStych said:

 

Hmm. Not sure how to interpret this half given the first half, but let's go with benefit of the doubt that the "Disregard" moment is genuine. 🍻

 

 

I'm not disagreeing with anything in your post, though I am surprised that people think I'm being sarcastic by thinking out loud. It did result in you posting a detailed analysis which is, of course, a plus.

 

Just to be absolutely clear, I am very pleased to change my opinion on powers, builds, slotting options etc. One of the best things that can happen is to be be debunked by someone, who comes along with a better understanding or more facts, and can just state why and how I am wrong. I greatly enjoy the resulting eureka moment, because it opens up new horizons and possibilities, and that naturally leads me to benefit by being able to enjoy more varieties or more powerful builds.

 

Now, it usually doesn't happen at once, because humans innately resist change. The immediate response is often "*snort* Yeah, sure. You're wrong," only to be followed up with "Wait a minute..."

 

It's very interesting to retrace all the little things that can combine to form a misleading, or at the very least severely outdated assessment. See, tankers, brutes and stalkers all get only 33% from meltdown, and they have lower melee damage scalar. It's very easy to forget that scrappers get more oomph out of their personal damage buffs, and just fix the 33% figure in your head. Like I always think of rage as 80%, but if scrappers had it, it would be 100% instead. Then it's easy to condition yourself just not to think of the T9 as an offensive tool. There are builds that use it to substitute for defenses from IO sets and fill the attacks with procs, but usually one doesn't think of it as a damage buff. And that combines to result in a moment where the facts need to come in. I am actually off to rebuild some tankers with meltdown. The last time I had it on a tanker was when they still had 0.8 melee damage scalar and build design was much less advanced. Now, I am intrigued by the possibilities.

 

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

RE: Meltdown.  It's a great power but keep in mind what it enhances.  It takes Endurance Mod sets, but the recovery is not affected, so don't bother slotting it for end mod unless you want a set bonus or a proc.  I've found that slotting it for resistance is a bit of a waste, since it will pretty much take me to over 75% on whatever I'm looking at.  The damage bonus is nice, but I also very much enjoy the endurance recovery, even unenhanced.  I'll usually slot it with 2x lvl 50+5 recharge.

 

 

[TommyG]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!  Here is the newest version.  I need to rearrange the powers still as this was just me loosely picking everything I wanted in no particular order.

 

Between orange inspirations, using meltdown for the damage boost, and if necessary using the defense amp I feel like my resistances are in a comfortable spot.  Especially with the idea in mind of dead enemies cant hit you.  With Shadow meld ill be soft capped def too for most alpha strikes.

 

The slotting is a little strange in some spots.   I really liked the idea of throwing Scrappers Strike +Crit into Fire Sword Circle like @SomeGuy mentioned but because I ended up proc bombing out Ground Zero I wasnt able to get a little bit of S/L resistance and damage bonus from Obliteration.  So I have some weird frankenslotting going on.  I ended up dropping Tactics for Assault as I really wanted to try and get my damage bonus up to 20-30% but if it seems like im whiffing my FM attacks a lot I may switch.  Im hoping the +to hit in Moonbeam and Fire Sword can help a little bit with that.  I was able to get BU under 30 seconds with hasten up and just below with it down.  I plan on taking Ageless to help make up for some of the +recharge I lost procing a few ST attacks.  I tried to really put what everyone mentioned here into practice and to shake up my normal style of making builds.  Let me know what you guys think!  

 

EDIT:  Ignore the double slotted Beta Decay.  I was experimenting around with that and forgot to remove it before finalizing!

 

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Scrapper (Fiery Melee - Radiation Armor)Revision.mbd

Edited September 25, 2023 by TommyG

[SomeGuy]

wtf is a *.mbd file?

 

So, you can set the enemy level up to +4 in mid's. I try to aim for about 95% chance to hit, so I set it to +3 (since my goal is to play 50+1 at a minimum). That normally means around 39% global acc and a kismet, or the 7.5% to-hit bonus if in Offensive with a Bio Armor character. The -DEF from beta decay helps out MASSIVELY since -DEF is, unless I understood it incorrectly, a 1:1 to basically give you a better chance to hit. So if a target is taking the full -DEF from BD that's pretty much another 15% chance to-hit. That's pretty huge.

 

 

This is for FM/RAD. As you can see, I've just got it set to +3 which is what I normally will square off against. Tohit is definitely more valuable than ACC, I forget the exact ratio off the top of my head.

 

Basically, you can't hit, you can't crit. Until you hit the global ACC you need, set bonuses like the 9% in Oblit, or 15% in the 3pc of ATO2, are extremely valuable.  Off the top of my head, Adjusted Targeting is another really good 5pc that gives recharge and 9% ACC on the way to it.

 

I know with the way I like to build Rad Armor, I try to 3 slot Beta Decay. One -RES proc and two -TOHIT debuff IOs that are +5ed.

 

*I totally forgot Fire Sword also does -DEF now. I know you want to slap an -RES proc in that for sure.

[TommyG]

@SomeGuy Good point!  Especially with dropping Tactics that extra -def will probably go a pretty long way.  I should be able to re-arrange a few slots and squeeze some more out without changing things too much.

 

EDIT:  Was able to pretty easily get it 3 slotted without losing much.  I have a few options.  Currently I dropped one of the Superior Avalanches from Fire Sword Circle and then the proc from Greater Fire Sword.  I changed the remaining Superior Avalanche to an Oblit to get the +9% Acc but did end up losing some slow and recharge resistance.  My other thought process is keep the Super Avalanches in Fire Sword Circle, and drop a single ST Proc from Incinerate and Greater Fire Sword.  I am sure both will work out fine but I am curious what you think would be more noticeable as someone more experienced with /rad.  Will I miss the damage boost of the procs more than the resistance to slow and recharge (Recharge seems very important in this build so I am not sure if giving up some resistance to it is the best idea)  Currently im leaning to dropping the ST Procs.

 

EDIT 2:  One final thought.  I could also drop the +tohit from Moonbeam and get BD 4 slotted with 2 -def and -tohits.  Think thats overkill?  My thoughts is the -def of BD is likely to make my "to-hit" higher than the occasional proc boost from Moonbeam but I am still learning so this is just a guess

Edited September 25, 2023 by TommyG

[TommyG]

EDIT: Changed a few things and this is the build I am currently running at 50+1.  I really appreciate all the advice everyone gave me, I am very happy with where the build ended up and could not have gotten here without the help!  I have found with most enemy groups proper alternating of Particle Shield and Shadow Meld makes keeping momentum from one enemy group to the next very easy to maintain while still dishing out a ton of AoE damage.  On more annoying enemy groups they need to be stacked but luckily with how long Particle Shield lasts you can usually time it so after Shadow Meld ends you can pop a fresh Absorb.  This way loses some momentum but will keep you alive.  The discussion of Meltdown being used with BU is just *chefs kiss* so much fun to use.  Watching an entire group of enemies keel over instantly while using Meltdown + BU and rotating through the proc aoe damage is just too much fun.  Currently I have the Defense amp up at all times.  I like to think this character literally burns money to play as a little head canon, really though 20 million for 8 hours of defense is very sustainable. 

 

It runs at +4/x8 far better than I would have expected too.  Arachnos take some proper rotation management and the occasional inspiration but were more manageable than I was expecting.  It even solos AV's decently well (At the same level.  The one +4 AV I tried put me to sleep really fast)

 

Playing on teams it is a wrecking ball as well.  While it solos great and is fun to play solo, it really shines on teamplay which is exactly what I wanted.  I often dont even need to use Shadow Meld or manage Particle Shield when teaming.  I just have to dish out as much damage as possible which it does very well

 

Thanks again for the help everyone!  Currently one of my favorite characters to play and it plays so differently than what I usually have built for in the past

 

EDIT 2:  The power arrangement is closer to what it actually is in game but still not 100% accurate.  Respeccing in game gives me a better idea of how I like to arrange the powers for Exemping and things like that.  This is just a rough idea based on memory as I was not currently in game when I finalized it.

 

 

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Scrapper (Fiery Melee - Radiation Armor)Revision.mbd

Edited September 27, 2023 by TommyG

[Sovera]

On 9/25/2023 at 11:56 PM, TommyG said:

EDIT: Changed a few things and this is the build I am currently running at 50+1.  I really appreciate all the advice everyone gave me, I am very happy with where the build ended up and could not have gotten here without the help!  I have found with most enemy groups proper alternating of Particle Shield and Shadow Meld makes keeping momentum from one enemy group to the next very easy to maintain while still dishing out a ton of AoE damage.  On more annoying enemy groups they need to be stacked but luckily with how long Particle Shield lasts you can usually time it so after Shadow Meld ends you can pop a fresh Absorb.  This way loses some momentum but will keep you alive.  The discussion of Meltdown being used with BU is just *chefs kiss* so much fun to use.  Watching an entire group of enemies keel over instantly while using Meltdown + BU and rotating through the proc aoe damage is just too much fun.  Currently I have the Defense amp up at all times.  I like to think this character literally burns money to play as a little head canon, really though 20 million for 8 hours of defense is very sustainable. 

 

It runs at +4/x8 far better than I would have expected too.  Arachnos take some proper rotation management and the occasional inspiration but were more manageable than I was expecting.  It even solos AV's decently well (At the same level.  The one +4 AV I tried put me to sleep really fast)

 

Playing on teams it is a wrecking ball as well.  While it solos great and is fun to play solo, it really shines on teamplay which is exactly what I wanted.  I often dont even need to use Shadow Meld or manage Particle Shield when teaming.  I just have to dish out as much damage as possible which it does very well

 

Thanks again for the help everyone!  Currently one of my favorite characters to play and it plays so differently than what I usually have built for in the past

 

EDIT 2:  The power arrangement is closer to what it actually is in game but still not 100% accurate.  Respeccing in game gives me a better idea of how I like to arrange the powers for Exemping and things like that.  This is just a rough idea based on memory as I was not currently in game when I finalized it.

 

 

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Scrapper (Fiery Melee - Radiation Armor)Revision.mbd 44.45 kB · 43 downloads

 

 

Not ALL mixed attacks now ignore S/L defenses. Only some attacks of certain factions do. It was to combat the rampant building of S/L, but since not all attacks received that pass and since S/L is still the biggest chunk of damage thrown at a character nothing has really changed. I would never suggest someone NOT to build S/L defense since it is another layer of defense and should not be that arduous to build without sacrificing much.

 

That said Shadow Meld is an option too. I never took it (over 3 seconds animation, wat?) but the duration usually lasts long enough to jump into a group and whittle half of it down before the duration ends. Again, not something I (personally) bother with. Under level 50 it does not matter and at level 50 if I'm in trouble despite 40/45% S/L defense on top of the build's natural defenses I pop Barrier. This frees me for Focused Accuracy and become immune to ToHit debuffs (which is not a prevalent worry in the community but it is for me).

 

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So I did some mostly cosmetic changes to the last build. Bit less recharge, knocked some slotting that did not improve the build much, added some damage procs, minimal damage loss on Ground Zero for 9 seconds less recharge, etc.

 

I did not want to mess with your power picks but Ageless on a Rad Armor build feels superfluous. You don't need the extra endurance and don't particularly need recharge. I would take Barrier 120 seconds instead and use it as a panic button that can be alternated with Meltdown. If you decide to do that take out the dmg/rech from Fire Sword Circle and add a damage proc and you'll be mostly at res cap for S/L and E/N with Barrier's 5%.

 

Considering exemplaring I rearranged the power picks as it makes more sense to me.

 

Scrapper (Fiery Melee - Radiation Armor)Revision2.mbd

Edited October 31, 2023 by Sovera

[SomeGuy]

5 hours ago, Sovera said:

Ageless

 

 

Something else to think about is the OTHER Ageless that has Debuff protection.

Edited October 31, 2023 by SomeGuy

[TommyG]

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Like SomeGuy said Ageless is mostly a ghetto DDR for me.  The endurance can be helpful post Meltdown although isnt necessary, and the slightly faster recharge is nice if I farming and want less downtime between the big AoE rotation.  Those are both just secondary bonuses though the main thing ill use it for enemies putting out a lot of -def.  Its not ideal by any means but with the amount of damage the build pumps out generally the enemies are all dead before the diminishing effects happen.

 

Ive actually made a few more changes to the build since the final update.  Mostly just got BU and GZs CD to line up that way they can always fire together and a few other changes but small enough decided against uploading it.

 

@Sovera Ill take a look at this when I get home as ive been considering a more defense oriented secondary build.  As is the build is quite a bit more surviviable than it appears but there are a few tasks (mostly soloing certain TFs) that it cant pull off as easily as id like and basically needing Defense Amplifier isnt the most ideal situation either.

 

Every other situation though Particle Shield is usually enough to eat enough of the Alpha that I can wipe whatever enemy group surronds me. The -tohit of Beta Decay and Interface add a decent amount of survivability too.  Really though its offense is what shines through.  A full AoE rotation with BU+Meltdown will defeat all but the bosses of most enemy groups at +4 and the bosses arent far behind.  Its ability to solo certain Monsters is rather satisfying too.