Is there any useful ranged Scrapper power?

[Madmarcus]

Actually I'm interested in scrappers, brutes, or stalkers but I figured scrapper was the most interesting to me as I've created more brute and stalker alts.

 

Are there any useful non-PBAOE powers that stalkers can get? Something that is worth using to whittle down mobs when you have to run away (kiting or healing). A hold, sleep, or confuse with enough strength to actually work sometimes would be decent or simply enough damage to be worth spending one of your limited powers on.

[Sovera]

Focus from Claws.

[Nemu]

Why stop at 1 ranged power? Make a whole ranged scrapper and hide behind blasters!

 

 

[Bill Z Bubba]

 

Poster and the likes. My kindred. Focus is the correct answer.

 

Once upon a time right after the great nerfs in the before times, I spent my time as a claws/sr/dark scrapper that was completely ranged because going into melee was pure masochism.

 

Thankfully the devs saw how far SR had fallen due to their decisions and corrected what needed to be corrected so I didn't have to spend much time that way.

 

But point stands, yea, you want Focus.

 

I once ripped off my wings to get hasten. Gods below, I'm old.

[Thraxen]

Shouldn’t need one. Changes coming to the APPs. I’ve been taking the scrap taunt a lot lately is I end up being the only one, including tanks and brutes, that have a taunt, and it comes in handy. Doubles as a ranged attack as it makes them come back and reduces range. 
 

I like having a ranged attack for apex tf. Envenomed daggers is good for this too. Lot depends on theme. 

[HelenCarnate]

My 2 highest DPA attacks on my claws scrapper are Focus and Shockwave.  Both are fast ranged attacks.  Although you do need to put kb to kd in there if you don't want stuff flying all over the place.  And Focus has a crazy fast refresh time.  Both will keep most things from attacking you since they will be on the ground instead.  

 

Staff, Spines, and Stone Melee (edit and apparently Axe) all have a ranged attack but they are all on very long cast times.  You can cast both ranged claw attacks in less time than many of the other sets take to cast a single attack. 

 

As far as secondary, Ninja is the only one with any sort of ranged control.  Blinding powder is a low level sleep and after that wears off a confuse.  Only mag 2 which means minions only.  Buuuuut the purple confuse set in there includes a higher mag aoe confuse proc which will go off most of the time since the power is on a long timer. 

 

Which leaves Claws/Ninja as a potentially fun combo. 

 

Also edit.  Been gone for a few years and had no idea they added range to Cleave.  Looks like its still a pretty slow cast time but does some pretty crazy damage which makes it worth it.

Edited January 24 by HelenCarnate

[nihilii]

For the sake of completeness let's add CLEAVE from nuAxe. The one and only "extreme" level base damage ranged attack available to scrappers. It also AoEs in a tiny radius, and takes PBAoE procs, and is almost guaranteed to KD your targets. All of this with a meaty crunch and a shiny golden hue from the heavens, that sometimes weirdly lingers forever. I like to pretend I hit my enemies so hard I cracked the fabric of reality. What's not to like?

[Madmarcus]

I've never liked the claws animations but I suppose that is the answer.

[Nemu]

You skipped my post and the link didn’t you?

I should add some context:

 

kinetic melee has two ranged attacks, an aoe knockback attack (repulsing torrent) that you can get very early, and a single target knockback attack (focused burst) that you can get soon after. The knockback can be converted to knockdown but the beauty of knockback/down is that it’s a very spammable form of mitigation, which aligns with what you want based on your scenario/use case.

 

You can also take additional ranged attacks from epic pools to make a wacky yet very functional ranged scrapper.

 

You can do the same with claws but Kinetic melee has an unconditional build up type damage boost power, whereas claws require followup, which is a melee attack, for damage boosts.

[Yomo Kimyata]

On 1/23/2024 at 7:14 PM, Bill Z Bubba said:

I once ripped off my wings to get hasten. Gods below, I'm old.

Welcome back, Lucifer!

[Madmarcus]

Sorry Nemu. I didn't actually skip your post or your link but I've been running a /SA tank and sort of dismissed your build due to not wanting to do stone again. Then I started looking into Spines which lead to Stalkers which ended up pushing your build even farther out of mind as Stalkers don't get two ranged attacks from KM.

 

I'll noodle around with KM and a different secondary and so how it looks later today!

[UltraAlt]

On 1/23/2024 at 10:05 AM, Madmarcus said:

Are there any useful non-PBAOE powers that stalkers can get? Something that is worth using to whittle down mobs when you have to run away (kiting or healing). A hold, sleep, or confuse with enough strength to actually work sometimes would be decent or simply enough damage to be worth spending one of your limited powers on.

 

Wait. I'm confused.

Are you looking for info for a scrapper or fro a stalker?

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Ninjitsu#Blinding_Powder - Ranged (Cone), Foe Sleep, Confuse, -To Hit, -Perception

 

These are sort of the things that you seem to looking for ... they keep enemies at a distance from running away.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Spines#Impale - ranged immobilize

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Presence#Intimidate - Ranged, Foe Fear <--- power pool power

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Presence#Invoke_Panic - PBAoE, Foe Fear <--- power pool power

 

They don't do hold, sleep, and confuse, but I also will often used one of these Power Pool powers to get a ranged power on a melee character:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Sorcery#Arcane_Bolt - this one has an inbuilt build-up, so I really like this one on mystical/magic characters

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Experimentation#Toxic_Dart 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Force_of_Will#Project_Will

[Madmarcus]

As far as scrapper or stalker I'd say both just like I said in the first post. My thought is melee alt with a significant ranged ability. A quasi Sentinal if you will. I'm mostly interested in scrapper as I know that many of the stalker sets have lost a ranged attack for the assassin's strike but I wouldn't mind a stalker.

 

The power pools are available to anyone so I was really looking for insight into specific primary power sets. HelenCarnate and Nemu gave exactly the types of answers I was looking for - claws and kinetic melee. Specifically HelenCarnate pointed out that Shockwave can act as a ranged attack. Normally I wouldn't figure a scrapper cone would act like a ranged attack since they tend to have 8-10ft ranges but Mids seems to agree the Shockwave is weird with a 30ft cone. I still don't like some of the claws animations but that does make for an interesting option. Nemu's suggestion of KM is also good. I'm not sold on it but having looked some more it seems solid. For that matter your suggestion of Arcane Bolt is good if it does have some sort of build up effect. However I can't see anything on the wiki or Mids that suggests if has that. It looks like it could be a good way to round out a ranged attack sequence

 

 

 

[Nemu]

Stone armor has an unconditional damage boost via the brimstone proc which is why I chose that combo for my scraptinel (TM)

 

If you don’t want to do SA then ninjutsu for scrappers is excellent choice albeit clicky, with a stealth strike mechanic and better endurance management.

 

I prefer kinetic melee for this concept for the unconditional build up, but claws will be more of a buzzsaw if you mix it up.

[Madmarcus]

I agree that Brimstone fits perfectly but Ninjutsu will almost certainly be my pick with the weaponry ancillary pool to get a couple more thematic ranged attacks.

 

I've been heavy on magic based alts with the sorcery pool so this might be a fairly decent change - KM/Nin/Wea. with stealth and flight powers. I wonder how goofy that will look?

[Sovera]

Though to be fair at this point consider Widow or an Arachnos Soldier. You can be hybrid melee/range or even full on ranged and though there are some downsides imagine a Scrapper with a nuke but that also has Follow-up and Spin.

[Nemu]

3 hours ago, Madmarcus said:

I agree that Brimstone fits perfectly but Ninjutsu will almost certainly be my pick with the weaponry ancillary pool to get a couple more thematic ranged attacks.

 

I've been heavy on magic based alts with the sorcery pool so this might be a fairly decent change - KM/Nin/Wea. with stealth and flight powers. I wonder how goofy that will look?

Pretty goofy if that’s what you are going for. Some of KM’s animations are extravagantly twirly, and then you trow ninja stars.

 

Go for it!

[UltraAlt]

19 hours ago, Madmarcus said:

As far as scrapper or stalker I'd say both just like I said in the first post.

 

On 1/23/2024 at 10:05 AM, Madmarcus said:

Are there any useful non-PBAOE powers that stalkers can get?

 

[Madmarcus]

On 1/23/2024 at 10:05 AM, Madmarcus said:

Actually I'm interested in scrappers, brutes, or stalkers but I figured scrapper was the most interesting to me as I've created more brute and stalker alts.

 

LOL! Good catch!

 

I said what I meant in the first line but then I messed up the second one by saying stalker.

[twozerofoxtrot]

On 1/24/2024 at 12:05 AM, Madmarcus said:

Something that is worth using to whittle down mobs when you have to run away (kiting or healing).

 

Impale from Spines is a chunky single target ranged attack with a mag 3 immob, runspeed slow, and -Fly.

 

That stacks.