What's your favorite scrapper, and why?

[FFFF]

I've been looking for a new favorite scrapper, and somehow it's been a bit elusive. Back during Live service, I had four or five that I really enjoyed: Spines/Regen, Fire/Shield, Kat/SR, Dual Blades/WP and others. Back then, brutes were considered inferior tanks; I built up an Electric/Shield brute which was okay. I've dabbled with just about all the power sets that were available prior to issue 20. The stuff I wasn't familiar with I've started to play around with.

 

On Homecoming, I've played:

• Staff/SR - stopped playing at level 40 due to feeling staff was inadequate. I still like the character but it took too long to kill ("arrest") stuff.  This is even after a sizeable investment in IOs (about 200+M worth)
• Savage Melee/Rad - just couldn't get into the Savage Melee mechanics. Radiation armor feels better on tanks and brutes in my opinion owing to higher resistance caps. I have three other radiation armor characters.
• MA/Invuln - still playing. Both MA and Invulnerability were two sets I didn't play much on Live. The character is "okay". Not great, not bad. I'll still probably keep playing because I like the character concept. Another combination that I think may be better on a brute or tank due to lower resistance caps. Still the scrapper crit ATO on Cobra Strike is pretty nice.

 

I've also played a lot of brute combinations, and they all feel pretty nice. Battle Axe/Frozen Armor in particular is a bit of a standout on a brute but actually may be better as a scrapper. I also have an Energy Aura brute, and again it feels like it may have been better as a scrapper.

 

What scrapper combination do you recommend that you think works better as a scrapper than either a brute or tank? What combination feels "crunchy"? One of the things I enjoyed about scrappers are the large damage numbers that can be inflicted on hard targets like bosses, elite bosses. Among my current characters, staff has almost no ability to do that while MA can generate some nice numbers. I'm trying to recapture my earlier love this AT.

 

Edited February 26 by FFFF

[TheKiwiBirb]

I currently play a Broadsword/Willpower brute. But I played a broadsword/willpower scrapper on live and it was pretty fantastic. I enjoy the Broadsword's +tohit and -def but most will advise that Katana is better.

 

Battle Axe is pretty fun no matter what AT, good spot right now, might be fun to pair it with Bio Armor or Willpower.

[Shimmer.nFade]

I mained a BS/INV scrapper back in the days of Live with a "modern day Paladin" theme. He was very tough and the broadsword put up some good single target damage numbers. Great thing about Invlun is a well built scrapper can tank pretty well in a pinch, and I often tanked for the team, even in certain TFs. I am unfamiliar with changes from Live to Homecoming, but based on the fun I had with my BS/INV Paladin  back in the day, I highly recommend!

 

I have not played since live though, so I am curious why the consensus now seems to be that Katana is better than Broadsword? IIRC they were considered equal as far as DPS back in my days on live.

 

Edited for typo

Edited February 26 by Shimmer.nFade
typo

[biostem]

I don't generally play scrappers, but I have a 50 katana/ninjitsu scrapper which is very fun to play.  He's quite durable and has some fun tricks in his repertoire to draw from, plus protection against some less-resisted status effects like fear.

[ZorkNemesis]

Lately my top Scrapper is an Spines/Ice/Leviathan.  Needles flying in all directions and excessive slow stacking, as long as Frostwork is active and I can get a good Energy Absorption I can typically survive most things solo and I have Icy Bastion and Hibernate for emergencies and most groups die quickly.  Also being virtually immune to slows myself is really nice.

 

I also enjoy my Mace/Shield Scrapper.  A lot more straightforward but Mace is the de-facto crunchy powerset IMO.  Clobber criticals are hillariously strong, sometimes landing for over 2k on even level targets.  Can be a little sluggish though but a good number of Mace powers can use Force Feedbacks to help with that.

 

Edited February 26 by ZorkNemesis

[Thraxen]

Spines/bio is one of my favorites. My

main is sav/inv but you have to like savage. Db/sr is super fun. Energy/inv is also one of my favorites. 
 

I’m leveling up ba/sd. It’s fun too so far. 

[Erratic1]

War Mace/Ninjitsu has been a ton of fun. Brutes and Tankers do not get Ninjitsu, Stalkers do not get War Mace. So not like you were doing this on anything but a scrapper. It is so very satisfying coming of stealth with an area attack and crit hitting an entire group. 

[nihilii]

I think EM is a great deal of fun on a scrapper, arguably better in a mechanically different way thanks to crits changing power behavior.

I second suggestions of:

1) Battle Axe, great fun as you likely already know, and the potential for burst AoE works neatly with Critical Strikes proc. The 1-2-3 punch of Gaussian BU -> Cleave proccing Critical Strikes -> Cyclone critting in 15ft radius -> Pendulum critting gathered mobs is just great fun, and so is being able to cycle this (minus BU) nonstop.

2) Ninjitsu, Scrappers get a fantastic version of it. It's almost tailor-made to use the T9: click mez protection + free endurance clickie makes crash recovery unconditional, so smooth compared to everything else.
3) Bio Armor, /bio is OP for every AT but most of all on Scrappers. The power of Offensive Adaptation by lvl 10, instantly supercharging your tohit and damage by lowbie standards, gets you into the groove of things and makes anything you do with your primary more crunchy. Ditto with the -res and damage auras later on. You also get endless health, maxHP and endurance to go go go. It's just so well-rounded to propel your damage output, while making no real sacrifice on the defense side.

[StriderIV]

14 minutes ago, nihilii said:

I think EM is a great deal of fun on a scrapper, arguably better in a mechanically different way thanks to crits changing power behavior.

I second suggestions of:

1) Battle Axe, great fun as you likely already know, and the potential for burst AoE works neatly with Critical Strikes proc. The 1-2-3 punch of Gaussian BU -> Cleave proccing Critical Strikes -> Cyclone critting in 15ft radius -> Pendulum critting gathered mobs is just great fun, and so is being able to cycle this (minus BU) nonstop.

2) Ninjitsu, Scrappers get a fantastic version of it. It's almost tailor-made to use the T9: click mez protection + free endurance clickie makes crash recovery unconditional, so smooth compared to everything else.
3) Bio Armor, /bio is OP for every AT but most of all on Scrappers. The power of Offensive Adaptation by lvl 10, instantly supercharging your tohit and damage by lowbie standards, gets you into the groove of things and makes anything you do with your primary more crunchy. Ditto with the -res and damage auras later on. You also get endless health, maxHP and endurance to go go go. It's just so well-rounded to propel your damage output, while making no real sacrifice on the defense side.

/Nin does seem really cool on a Scrapper, I’ve teamed with a couple and they seemed really tough. Nice to know about the T9 as well!

 

As for /Bio, are there any attack sets that you feel pair particularly well with it? Battle Axe seems like one, but any others? I remember hearing Kat/Bio was pretty monstrous.

 

As a suggestion to OP, I have quite loved StJ/Rad Armor and Psi Melee/Shield.

 

The StJ/Rad just seems to combo together really well, nice procable AOE’s and great ST damage.

 

Psi/Shield is just…. Well the rule of cool. Looks awesome. Shield Charge + Mass Levitate is good times.

Edited February 27 by StriderIV

[ZorkNemesis]

8 minutes ago, StriderIV said:

As for /Bio, are there any attack sets that you feel pair particularly well with it? Battle Axe seems like one, but any others? I remember hearing Kat/Bio was pretty monstrous.

 

Dark/Bio hits like a truck.  Soul Drain plus Bio buffs can do so much damage on the heavy hitters plus the -ToHit and Siphon Life help out with survival when Offense is active.  I should revisit this Scrapper of mine but I last played it two years ago and completely forgot what I was doing with it.

[nihilii]

8 hours ago, StriderIV said:

As for /Bio, are there any attack sets that you feel pair particularly well with it? Battle Axe seems like one, but any others? I remember hearing Kat/Bio was pretty monstrous.

I feel the nature of /bio makes it pair well with everything. Hard to think of even better synergies.

[Parabola]

Imo bio pairs best with attack sets that offer some mitigation and particularly those that can slot ff+rech in aoes. You want to recharge your clickie protections as fast as possible and give them space to do their thing. Bio/stone is my favourite tanker and I don't see why it wouldn't work on a scrapper too. Mace, axe, martial arts, etc would also be good shouts.

 

That said my two most successful scrappers have been claws/nrg and mace/shield.

[Maelwys]

Mine's EM/Rad/Soul.

It was originally built on my alt account as a farming companion to my Bot/Kin MM... but it's very nice by itself.

Extremely powerful ST attack chain, with decent AoE in Whirling Hands plus the utter AoE insanity that is Ground Zero. Hardcapped resistances, decent MaxHP and silly amounts of +Absorb, Regeneration, Recovery and Self-Healing Procs. Near-Perma-Hasten with a saturated Beta Decay, plus two Survivability buttons which can push it to the Defence Softcap for a short duration (Shadow Meld and Barrier Core Epiphany) for whenever Beta Decay isn't quite good enough by itself. And finally, Meltdown as a "Solo Berserker Mode" option. Capable of Stealthing Missions and good movement options with both Super Speed and Super Jump.

Scrapper - EM - RA (Moonbeam).mbd

[Uun]

I currently have 4 scrappers:

MA/Inv - remake of my main from live (created in 2004), so I've been playing this combo for a long time. It's a lot of fun, but not top tier performance.

Rad/Rad - very good AoE, but somewhat lacking in ST. Fun, but probably my least favorite.

BS/Shield - lots of fun, looks great, good ST and AoE, indestructible in most circumstances. Currently my favorite.

Psi/SR - result of last year's slot machine challenge. Psi's animations are kind of blah, but the damage is good as long as you're not fighting robots. SR can be built stupidly strong.

[Greldek]

First it was claws willpower, because I was fresh to homecoming, and it was familiar and easy. ( My old main from the before times)

 

Then it was claws/ rad. Because I wanted more engagement with my secondary. And rad was new and exciting, while still maintaining the familiarity of claws.

 

Then an itch grew, and I tried many more... And savage/Sr and savage/energy were occupying my time. I had a disease , and the cure was savage leap.

 

And then , and then, I discovered bio. Claws/savage/ma/bio all getting tons of playing. Learning the ins and outs of that ridiculous set. Savage got fully incarnate, and I made twin tanker alt, bio/sav , and it took is amazing.

 

But that all came crashing down after I returned from a break. And heard battle axe got a revamp. Always wanting axe, but being sorely dissatisfied with it's performance, I thought I'd give it a try.

 

I wasn't even creative, I copied my bio/sav tankers name and costume and swapped out the sav for axe and the tanker AT for scrapper.

 

It's got to be my fastest to lvl to 50.. and it's 2 t4d the rest t3, and I'm still working on t4ing the rest.

 

Not even Oppenheimer could have imagined destruction on this level. Axe/bio is absolute carnage... And I love every second of it.

 

[Shadowstorm06]

2 hours ago, Greldek said:

First it was claws willpower, because I was fresh to homecoming, and it was familiar and easy. ( My old main from the before times)

 

Then it was claws/ rad. Because I wanted more engagement with my secondary. And rad was new and exciting, while still maintaining the familiarity of claws.

 

Then an itch grew, and I tried many more... And savage/Sr and savage/energy were occupying my time. I had a disease , and the cure was savage leap.

 

And then , and then, I discovered bio. Claws/savage/ma/bio all getting tons of playing. Learning the ins and outs of that ridiculous set. Savage got fully incarnate, and I made twin tanker alt, bio/sav , and it took is amazing.

 

But that all came crashing down after I returned from a break. And heard battle axe got a revamp. Always wanting axe, but being sorely dissatisfied with it's performance, I thought I'd give it a try.

 

I wasn't even creative, I copied my bio/sav tankers name and costume and swapped out the sav for axe and the tanker AT for scrapper.

 

It's got to be my fastest to lvl to 50.. and it's 2 t4d the rest t3, and I'm still working on t4ing the rest.

 

Not even Oppenheimer could have imagined destruction on this level. Axe/bio is absolute carnage... And I love every second of it.

 

I like the look of the new Axe Melee. I’ve been torn between Bio, Rad and Shield as the secondary.

[Greldek]

7 hours ago, Shadowstorm06 said:

I like the look of the new Axe Melee. I’ve been torn between Bio, Rad and Shield as the secondary.

 

I have all 3, bio scrapper, rad brute, shield tanker.  Bio and rad are great. They both have fantastic endurance recovery tools to help with axes insane hunger for endurance. Shield does not. So you need to make a lot of slotting sacrafices on that end, and I even ended up taking body master for physical perfection. Cardiac would also help and allow you better mastery choices, but that only helps on 45+ content.

[Drock316]

On 2/26/2024 at 4:40 PM, Erratic1 said:

War Mace/Ninjitsu has been a ton of fun. Brutes and Tankers do not get Ninjitsu, Stalkers do not get War Mace. So not like you were doing this on anything but a scrapper. It is so very satisfying coming of stealth with an area attack and crit hitting an entire group. 

Would you be so kind as to post your build for this? It sounds really cool.

[bAss_ackwards]

DM/Inv. It is an indestructble powerhouse that just doesn't quit!

 

• Regular self heal and -ToHit on everything from DM.
• Softcapped typed defenses which can get to 59% without Barrier, for Incarnate content.
• Capped S/L resists, and 30 to 50% for the rest, including Psi with the use of specific IOs.
• Perma capped HP.
• Taunt aura that gives you +ToHit.
• Can IO out to get perma (or near) Haste and Soul Drain.
• Endurance refill from DM.

[Doomguide2005]

2 hours ago, bAss_ackwards said:

DM/Inv. It is an indestructble powerhouse that just doesn't quit!

 

• Regular self heal and -ToHit on everything from DM.
• Softcapped typed defenses which can get to 59% without Barrier, for Incarnate content.
• Capped S/L resists, and 30 to 50% for the rest, including Psi with the use of specific IOs.
• Perma capped HP.
• Taunt aura that gives you +ToHit.
• Can IO out to get perma (or near) Haste and Soul Drain.
• Endurance refill from DM.

Hey bAss welcome back.

 

Silhouette from the Lethal Ladies

[Erratic1]

6 hours ago, Drock316 said:

Would you be so kind as to post your build for this? It sounds really cool.

 

This is my current target build:

 

Spoiler

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Keep in mind, Battle Axe is the new hotness and should work comparably. I am happy with WM and besides, I have the name Ghosthammer. I think that sounds better than Ghostaxe. 🙂

 

[kelika2]

all i do is group

staff/fire to stack dots, slotted for ranged defense

energy melee/bio for ultimate power, slotted for s/l defense

savage/shield/leaping for a mostly naked female jumping around the battlefield, slotted for 45% def all

[bAss_ackwards]

1 hour ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Hey bAss welcome back.

 

Silhouette from the Lethal Ladies

Good to see you again! Is LL back together in an SG? I returned when the official license news hit. 🤩

[Doomguide2005]

7 hours ago, bAss_ackwards said:

Good to see you again! Is LL back together in an SG? I returned when the official license news hit. 🤩

Yes though not sure how many are back regularly.  I know I see Jane online regularly.  The sg started up on Indomitable.  Most of mine are on Everlasting.

[bAss_ackwards]

1 hour ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Yes though not sure how many are back regularly.  I know I see Jane online regularly.  The sg started up on Indomitable.  Most of mine are on Everlasting.

Shame there isn't a Pinnacle anymore. I went with Excelsior.