What's your favorite scrapper, and why?

[Doomguide2005]

8 hours ago, aethereal said:

 

I don't think this is how it works.  I think you check eligible targets at the time of power activation, no matter how long a delay there is before the effect actually fires.

 

If you're on a team, someone else may kill your enemy before your effect goes off, but enemies can't run away from your power during animation time.

Can almost guarantee this is how that works ... how else does the fireball, etc., chase your scrapper/blaster/defender around the corner and nail you while going thru the wall.

 

Edit:  To be clear I mean it almost certainly works as @aetherealdescribes

 

Edited May 11 by Doomguide2005

[Maelwys]

2 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

how else does the fireball, etc., chase your scrapper/blaster/defender around the corner and nail you while going thru the wall.

Fireball only has an ATBE of 0.6s - so its mechanical effect kicks in pretty quickly despite what the motion of its projectile "tracking and homing in on you" suggests.

And to be clear: stuff like "Jousting" tends to work just fine as long as the power is uninterruptable. AFAIK whenever you activate a power the game engine looks at both your current position and the power's specified range + area of effect then selects an appropriate number of targets to affect with it - after which the game waits until the power's ATBE time elapses before attempting to "apply" the power's effects using the caster's and target's stats at that later point in time (e.g. Power Activation + ATBE) . So as long as those previously-selected targets are still capable of being affected by the power once the ATBE time has elapsed its effects will trigger just fine. But problems can occur if any/all of the targets get killed/teleported/phased/KB'ed/whatever in the interim.

Pseudopet abilities like Damage Patches and Rains are particularly susceptible to this issue because of the additional delay caused by spawning a separate entity which in turn triggers the actual power effect (which is why Rise of the Phoenix never deals full damage unless you slot it for KB>KD!) ... but regular PBAoEs aren't immune. 

And Kinetic Melee is sloooo-ooooo-ow.

 

Edited May 11 by Maelwys

[SomeGuy]

On 5/7/2025 at 9:55 AM, Heatstroke said:

Disclaimer 

 

I hate scrappers. There is very little about them as an AT that I like. I understand them.. I just have no love for them. I find Brutes and Stalkers more enjoyable.  I like my Arachons Widow and Bane Spider better as melee based " scrappers " better. 

Now THAT being said.. I have a Titan Weapns/Energy Aura that I absolutely LOVE.. The look. The feel of the attacks.. Love it.. The Weapon looks like a bike energy sword..  so because I love that character to much.. I'm planning to make a companion character im thinking Axe/Shield Scrapper..  The Sword and the Shield... 

 

So that ONE character is making me think about making another scrapper.. 

 

And I HATE scrappers.. 

 

 

lol I like how my favorite TW pairing is why the rest of this is worth reading. Had me in the first half. It's....EA....so it has that durability for it. And it does flipping amazing ST and AOE DPS. And you swing around a Dragon Slayer/Buster Sword/Giant Chainsaw...etc...to boot.

 

Axe/SD...great combo. Really is. But boy howdy does it play different then TW. With that said....not a lot in this game gives the TW feel.

[aethereal]

On 5/11/2025 at 3:33 PM, Maelwys said:

Pseudopet abilities like Damage Patches and Rains are particularly susceptible to this issue because of the additional delay caused by spawning a separate entity which in turn triggers the actual power effect (which is why Rise of the Phoenix never deals full damage unless you slot it for KB>KD!) ... but regular PBAoEs aren't immune. 
 

 

You have a misunderstanding.  The reason why damage patches and rains are particularly susceptible is not that the summoning of the pseudopet adds more delay (it may or may not -- the game is perfectly capable of summoning a pseudopet quickly, or it can be delayed just like a normal effect does), it's that the pseudopet does a separate power execution, so the targets that were in range of the initial power are not fixed, as they are with a normal AoE that has a delay.

 

So here's the situation:  Targets are checked on the execution of the power.  Even significantly delayed effects do not re-check range from the power, and apply to that target no matter what (though you are right that things like resistances are checked at time of the effect going off, not the initial targeting).

 

But with a pseudopet power, the target of the initial power is the pseudopet.  The pseudopet then checks targets for its own power at the time when the pseudopet is created, which may indeed be at a significant delay, and as a result if targets move between when the initial power is executed and the pseudopet's power is executed, they may now be out of range.  But that interaction is unique to powers that have multiple powers executions within them (most prominently pseudopets, but also redirects), not to powers that merely have delayed effects.

[Maelwys]

5 hours ago, aethereal said:

The reason why damage patches and rains are particularly susceptible is not that the summoning of the pseudopet adds more delay (it may or may not -- the game is perfectly capable of summoning a pseudopet quickly, or it can be delayed just like a normal effect does), it's that the pseudopet does a separate power execution, so the targets that were in range of the initial power are not fixed, as they are with a normal AoE that has a delay.

Both are true here.

Psuedopets have their own inherent ATBE that needs taken into account; which is typically (always?) 0.5s for both basic "Entity Creations with Redirects" (e.g. Tar Patch) and fancier "Power Executions" (e.g. Tanker Lightning Rod). So you take the original ATBE of the parent Clicky power that is triggered by your own character and add another 0.5s to it from the ATBE of the Pseudopet's subpower(s) to get the final point that its abilities actually become active. Some pseudopets are coded as multiple power redirects (see Sleep Grenade) which mean that more than one of its "abilities" kicks in simultaneously... but there's always that 0.5s delay beyond the initial parent Clickypower.

Checking the code it appears that right after a power's fInterruptTime has elapsed (if any) there is a single call performed to GetTargetEntities (which is what does the initial check to see what targets are in the power's area of effect). However there are subsequent additional checks performed to see if each target is actually "valid" (can you Find it? is it on the Ground? is it Dead? etc.) and to see if each target is still capable of being hit by the power (is it Intangible? is it Untouchable? was it Blocked? did it Miss? did it Fail?) which would all be reliant on the relevant ATBEs elapsing.
 

Edited May 13 by Maelwys

[Lusiphur Malache]

I like chasing windmills so my favorite scrapper is kinetic/Regen. It was tough at first, but around level 20 I flipped my attack chain heavy first. That made everything better.

[Heatstroke]

Update... 

 

Titan Weapond/Energy Aura was my first scrapper I truly liked. 

 

I just made a Shield/Savage Melee and I am enjoying that build very much. 

 

I might revisit an old idea from way back for a Staff/ Dark Armor Scrapper.