Advice for Broadsword / Willpower Scrapping

[BurnTheWitch]

I'm about to get my first level 50 (yay!), and I have learned a ton about the game since coming back (thank you to all who post wisdom on these forums).  The one thing I still haven't wrapped my head around is building out a character at level 50.  Here are the big holes in my understanding of a Broadsword / Willpower scrapper.

 

• To parry or not to parry?  The skill seems great and I use it in both my single target and aoe rotations, but I see a number of BS builds that don't add any enhancements to it outside of maybe a single Acc.  Are hack or slash considered superior, neither of those tend to make it into my rotation when I have recharge buffs and I see that being more the case when I am 50 and have IOs for my level.
  • ST roation priority = Disembowel -> Headsplitter -> Parry -> Hack (seldom get this far unless soloing)
  • AOE roation priority = Whirling blade -> Slice -> Parry
• I never use strength of will, should I drop it or an I missing something?  I can appreciate the skill for a tanker as an emergency button, but as a hitter, I never use this. Do I need to start using it or drop it?
• Any suggestions for a build?  I've made many variations on mids and I feel like I am nowhere near soft caps for a scrapper and my damage seems meh.  I am aware that BD/WP is anything but meta, but I'm way off the mark.  Am I using the tool wrong?
• I went with energy mastery to get more endurance recharge, did I make a mistake as the endurance concerns will be remedied by set enhancements at 50?

 

 

Any help from the wise folk here is appreciated.

[SomeGuy]

Parry: I personally don't use it but it IS a good mule for a LOTG recharge. You could do that, give it a go and see if you like it in your rotation or not.

 

Strength of Will: Same thing as above.

 

Energy mastery: If you don't have Freespecs, it isn't like they aren't cheap to buy. End will be less an issue the more sets and uniques you get in your build. And if you take Ageless recovery (something I do with ALL my DPS oriented characters) it could solve all your end worries. We're talking Stamina literally one slotted solve them.

 

Soft caps: You could go the Soul epic mastery route. Get a Snipe to boost ST DPS and get Shadow Meld9 and SM can take a LOTG recharge also). When SM is active (about 15s) you get a MASSIVE +DEF to all.

 

Broadsword can do good DPS, ST or AOE. Don't let anyone steer you wrong on that

 

I haven't made a WP build since Live. I had a DB/WP when both sets were released at the same time, and a WP/SS tanker. WP is VERY setNforget. pairing it with BS since it has a +DEF attack for smash/melee seems pretty smart TBH. 

Edited February 20 by SomeGuy

[Psiphon]

I always take Parry for the plus defence, it's often the difference between face planting or surviving, especially at low levels. 

If you don't need the extra defence to survive and have enough recharge to not need to use it in your rotation then don't use it. 

I wouldn't drop it though. 

SoW can be useful if you can fit it in your build but not necessary. 

Edited February 20 by Psiphon

[Stormwalker]

I don't have a Broadsword/WP.  I do have a Staff/WP and a Katana/WP, however, and I can attest that attacks that add defense mesh very nicely with Willpower.  I originally created my Staff/WP as kind of a joke character, and she ended up being much, much, much tougher to kill than I had expected, and a whole lot of fun to play.

 

I generally do not bother to soft-cap S/L defense on Willpower, because you've got much more S/L resist than you do other types.  However, with my Staff/WP (my Katana/WP is only level 32, so she's not at this point yet), I do have soft-capped Melee and Lethal with only one application of Guarded Spin (Staff's Parry equivalent, except that GS is a cone).  And Melee defense doesn't cover ALL Smashing attacks, but it certainly does cover a lot of them.

 

I do typically soft-cap E/N defense on a Willpower, because I find that if I don't, endurance drains (Sappers, Mu, etc.) become a major issue.  And also, it's not that difficult to do and you don't have nearly as much E/N resist as you do S/L.  F/C defense is in the "nice to have" category, not really required, but if you're slotting any winter sets, you'll likely end up fairly close to the F/C soft-cap without really trying to.

 

Regarding Energy Mastery: I am personally fond of the set, but if there is any Scrapper secondary that doesn't need Conserve Power and Physical Perfection, it's... well, neither Regen nor Willpower really need them, because both have Quick Recovery.  But, of course, I am one of those people who chooses my Epic pool by Concept, and one of the reasons I take Energy Mastery a lot is its effects are fairly easy to justify compared to, y'know, randomly busting out with a dark or lightning snipe on a character who doesn't have any such powers.  It's really up to you; if there's something in another Epic Pool that you want, Willpower can certainly do just fine without Energy Mastery.

 

I frequently skip Strength of Will, partly because I really don't like crashes (even though SoW's is kind of a soft crash), but more than that because, honestly... I just never use it that much when I do take it.

 

[Nemu]

On 2/19/2025 at 7:37 PM, Eyjafjallajokull said:

I'm about to get my first level 50

Congrats on your first level 50! It's a wonderful feeling.

 

Parry compliments willpower well but at a cost of lost damage potential because you will have to constantly spam this low damage power to keep up your melee defense. If you are using it quite a bit then it is worth slotting, I'd lean towards 5 piece damage set that gives recharge and an LOTG 7.5 but that's really going to depend on how you slot the rest of your build.

 

Typical scrapper builds will take at least tough/weave. If you can build up your melee defense to where a single parry can softcap it then it should be enough.

 

Strength of will is a skippable power, most players skip T9s for most armor sets.

 

You should not have endurance issues if you took and slotted quick recovery. But I can see how one would want to stack passive regen with physical perfection. There are other options if you want to augment survival from power pools though.

 

As for the build, post yours and tell us your build requirements such as thematic powers you want to keep or goals you want to hit, and we can fine tune.

[normalperson]

I like that scrap parry is just as strong as Tanker parry, and multiple applications seem to stack.     I have a sword/shield and even though I haven't done my IO's yet (still level 19) I still see my melee defense hitting 48+% all the time.        For a /WP I guess that would be about where your lethal defense gets to. 

 

If you've got Rise to the Challenge running, that should keep you alive with lots of mobs gathered around, hopefully using melee attacks because they're next to you - and the more of them there are the faster you are healing.         (Even with no bonus to melee defense from WP, parry alone will get you to 30% once it starts stacking.) 

 

Also parry recharges really fast, so you're never standing around waiting for an attack to become available (although running out of End at level 19 is kind of worrisome...) 

Edited February 22 by normalperson

[Zect]

This discussion gives me fond memories of the dawn of the IO era, when people were just figuring out how to softcap and get permahasten. Back then, the state of the art was dropping DA from your kat rotation to increase dps (procs were vastly weaker in that era so dps optimization was mostly DPA optimization), and SR was moderately meta because you could aid self uninterrupted with it to solo an AV for e-cock points. Good times, good times.

[BurnTheWitch]

Thanks to everyone for their input.  i think it's given me a better understanding of where I need to go for what I want to do.  The toon certainly has a concept.  Some things I don't like about the build, any suggestions on how to correct these things?  any other suggestions would also be appreciated.

• Laser beam eyes  - it is literally there because i didn't know what to put there, should I just put a travel power?
• Speaking of laser beam eyes, the energy powers in general are likely superfluous. I've just ended up in a few situations with freakshow that have made me too paranoid about endurance drain. 
• Hack - it isn't part of my main rotation, but with recharge time debuffs it might be needed at times.  It's also better dps than Parry in a race, so we can't ignore it. worth stealing from somewhere else to place some more enhancement slots there?
• I've got a few Def and Res holes, do you have any suggestions as to how to plug them?

Thanks again to the wise folks that skulk in these forums.

 

 

Scrapper (Broad Sword - Willpower).mbd

 

Edit

 

This build is not one you should use if you are reading this in the future!  There are better builds that you should look at further down.  This is, if anything, a lesson in why what looks clean on paper can often be complete garbage.

Edited February 27 by Eyjafjallajokull
helping people in the future not mess up

[Stormwalker]

2 hours ago, Eyjafjallajokull said:

Thanks to everyone for their input.  i think it's given me a better understanding of where I need to go for what I want to do.  The toon certainly has a concept.  Some things I don't like about the build, any suggestions on how to correct these things?  any other suggestions would also be appreciated.

• Laser beam eyes  - it is literally there because i didn't know what to put there, should I just put a travel power?
• Speaking of laser beam eyes, the energy powers in general are likely superfluous. I've just ended up in a few situations with freakshow that have made me too paranoid about endurance drain. 
• Hack - it isn't part of my main rotation, but with recharge time debuffs it might be needed at times.  It's also better dps than Parry in a race, so we can't ignore it. worth stealing from somewhere else to place some more enhancement slots there?
• I've got a few Def and Res holes, do you have any suggestions as to how to plug them?

Thanks again to the wise folks that skulk in these forums.

Scrapper (Broad Sword - Willpower).mbd 39.69 kB · 1 download

 

Can't look at the build right now (typing this response on a break at work), but regarding the Energy Mastery powers, and your observation about endurance drain:

 

In my experience, the best solution to endurance drain for Willpower is to soft-cap (45%) energy/negative defense.  Most end drain attacks are of one of those two types, so if they can only hit you 5% of the time, endurance drain stops being a problem.

 

That said, Conserve Power is always nice to have, even though Willpower doesn't really need it.  And Physical Perfection adds a bit more onto Willpower's already impressive regen, which isn't bad.

 

Laser Beam Eyes is what it is.  It's a kinda OK ranged attack.  Ranged attacks can be useful to have, both for pulling (sometimes when two large spawns overlap you may want to pull to avoid aggro'ing everything at once) and cutting down runners.  I have never personally taken LBE because I've never been able to fit it in my concepts, so others may be able to lend more insight as to its value.  I can tell you from my experience with other Scrapper sets that have ranged attacks built-in (Claws, KM, Staff) that a ranged attack can be a useful asset.

 

Since I can't look at your build, I don't know if you took Focused Accuracy.  It's something of a controversial power pick.  I have always liked it, but before its endurance cost was reduced it was very hard to justify.  Now, with the lower end cost, I take it frequently... not so much for the To-Hit Buff itself, but fot the 40% To-Hit Debuff resistance.  Very useful when fighting Carnie Master Illusionists with their Dark Servants that like to debuff yout accuracy to oblivion.

 

 

Edited February 26 by Stormwalker

[Zect]

Ideal rotation is hack disembowel hack headsplitter, requiring +304% rech in hack (replace a hack or disembowel with epic snipe when available). Low rech builds, especially you with no haste and no rech boost from your armor, can mix in parries e.g. hack disembowel parry hack headsplitter, or even hack disembowel hack (small gap) headsplitter depending on rech and procs.

 

Most BS builds fit double -res procs in the single target rotation (achilles in hack or disembowel, gladiator's fury in headsplitter).

 

Your problems with endurance drain are because you have shit energy def. Energy def is really hard to get on melee toons. Slot EN def and start dodging them elec attacks.

• Try 3x eradications in your aoes (boost to +5, it's a level 30 set so it has weak enhancement values), 3-4x reactive armor in your res toggles
• No steadfast +3% def to all - also gives res enhancement
• Combat jumping 3 slotted and heightened senses 1 slotted. Classic case of throwing away pounds to chase pennies
• 6x makos. Usually slotting positional def (melee, ranged, aoe) def on a typed defense (fire, cold, energy, etc) toon like your WP is a mistake. Positional def bonuses only give half the value in typed def, see. But 1 set of 6x mako's in a ST attack is not bad because EN def is so rare it sometimes is worth it even at half value, and you get SL res and a damage proc to boot.
• 5-6x winter's bite or 3x thunderstrike muled in an epic blast, 5x manticore's in an epic snipe, 4x basilisk's in an epic hold are also potential options depending on what epic you're willing to go with. Most builds don't need to go that far though.

Panacea can go in health, perf shifter/ptransfer can go in stamina respectively to save a slot each

 

Hack and parry are attacks. Slot them like attacks. All the strongest set bonuses come from attack IO sets, so it is rarely worth it to slot them as anything else. You can take 1 slot in parry to use as an lotg mule though.

 

3x impervium armor for psi def is useless, you will never accumulate enough psi def to be worth it. Aegis, reactive armor and unbreakable guards are the way to go.

 

Kismet is permanently on if you put it in a toggle instead of in parry

 

Good epics, assuming you have no strong ties to energy:

• Soul - moonbeam (snipe) and shadowmeld (+def all, short recharge).
• Mu - zapp (snipe) and ball lightning. Notably the only pick that lets you get both a snipe and an epic taoe for those who dislike melee cones.
• Psi - psi lance (snipe) and harmonic mind (regen, recov, endrdx).
• Ice - frozen spear (snipe)

 

Snipes are overpowered, and one of many reasons scrappers are so high on ST damage compared to blasters. When you are in combat, snipes do less damage but are uninterruptible, becoming just another epic blast, albeit an extremely powerful one. Snipes gain bonus damage based on your +tohit buff so they gain damage from your kismet and tactics.

Edited February 26 by Zect

[Stormwalker]

Ok, now I have looked at your build. 

 

This is how I would build your character (using the same powers you did, but in a different order, and with very different slotting).  This build has soft-capped energy/negative defense, soft-capped lethal defense (with one application of Parry), soft-capped Melee defense (with two applications of Parry), 40.8% Fire/Cold defense, and 69% Smash/Lethal resist

 

I'd have preferred to hard-cap the S/L at 75%, but I would have had to change up your powers a bit to accomplish that along with the other things.
 

It also has 95% slow resistance, compared to the 15% in your build.

 

Most importantly, all your attacks are actually slotted as attacks.  If you're going to take Laser Beam Eyes, you need to slot it.  With only the one acc it's useless.  Similarly, if you are ever using Hack as an attack at all, it needs to be slotted appropriately.  Note that using the Superior Winter's Bite set in Laser Beam Eyes gets you 5% E/N defense and 5% F/C defense, along with 15% slow resist and some other bonuses.

 

Other observations: 

• You need to have two heals in High Pain Tolerance.  Willpower is partially a regeneration set, this means you need all the +MaxHealth you can get.  Heals slotted in High Pain Tolerance enhance the +MaxHealth.  Also, the Resistance in HPT is not that much and not worth heavily slotting.
• I'd drop Assault and take either Hasten or a travel power, if it were me, assuming the concept was one where I could justify either of those.  Of course, I don't know what your concept is, or how important concept is to you, so I didn't change any of your power picks.  Either Hasten (which would potentially allow you to run a better attack chain) or a travel power would offer you more benefit than Assault.
• Parry gives a pretty large amount of defense without any defense slotting.  You don't need to slot it for defense.  It's a part of your attack chain; slot it as an attack, otherwise it will be a massive anchor dragging down your DPS.  In this case, I franken-slotted it with 1 LotG +rech, two Superior Blistering Cold for slow resist, and two Touch of Death for E/N resist and a damage proc.  You have options here, though.
• Notice that I split the Superior Avalanche set between Whirling Sword and Head Splitter.  This has two benefits:
  • You get the slow resistance bonus (the biggest reason to slot that set to begin with) twice.
  • You can put 3-pc. Eradication in the other three slots and get Energy/Negative defense and a damage proc.
• The To-HIt Debuff in Rise to the Challenge is mostly a bonus on top of the regeneration it gives you.  6-slotting it with Numina's gets you some nice set bonuses, including very important E/N defense (as previously noted, this is how you protect against endurance drain).
• Willpower has enough Psi Defense and Resist for Scrapping purposes as it is.  If you were a Tanker, you might think about slotting some (but not much, since you'd already have a lot), but you're not, and you have other needs that are more important.
• You put more defense slotting in Combat Jumping (54.16% in a power which offers very little defense) than you did in Weave (41.29% in a power which offers quite a bit of defense).  That's not a good use of your slots.  I changed Combat Jumping to 1 LotG +rech and a Winter's Gift: Slow Resist, and more heavily slotted Weave.
• Three slots in Physical Perfection is overkill.  Toss one of the heal procs in it and call it good.  You have a ton of Recovery already just by being Willpower, and you have Conserve Power.  Slotting heavily for Recovery is wasted.
• If you don't care as much about slow resistance as I do, you can take the two-piece Superior Blistering Cold out of Kick (which I assumed you are not actually using as an attack, and thus slotted it as a mule) and put the extra slot in Tough to pick up a bit more S/L resist (as Tough is slightly underslotted in my build).  I really hate slows, so I went all-out on the Slow Resist.
• If it were me, I'd probably take Focused Accuracy instead of Tactics.  Tactics gives slightly more To-Hit Buff, but Focused Accuracy gives a lot of To-Hit Debuff resistance, and since you're Willpower you already have Fear and Confuse resistance.  If you team a lot more than you solo, though, Tactics might be better because it benefits your team.

 

There are people here who could probably give you a better Willpower build than me.  There are definitely people here who would give you a more offense-focused Willpower build than me.  Take what I say here with a grain of salt.  But I do think my build is pretty solid, and addresses most of the areas I saw for improvement in yours.

 

 

 

Example Scrapper (Broad Sword - Willpower).mbd

 

Hero Scrapper
Build plan made with Mids' Reborn v3.7.5 rev. 21
──────────────────────────────

• Primary powerset: Broad Sword
• Secondary powerset: Willpower
• Pool powerset (#1): Leaping
• Pool powerset (#2): Fighting
• Pool powerset (#3): Leadership
• Pool powerset (#4): Force of Will
• Epic powerset: Energy Mastery

──────────────────────────────

Powers taken:

Level 1: Hack

• A: Superior Blistering Cold: Recharge/Chance for Hold
• 3: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• 3: Hecatomb: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 5: Hecatomb: Damage
• 5: Hecatomb: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy

Level 1: High Pain Tolerance

• A: Invention: Healing
• 45: Invention: Healing
• 46: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3%

Level 2: Slice

• A: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Accuracy/Damage
• 7: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Damage/Recharge
• 9: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• 9: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• 11: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• 11: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Recharge/Critical Hit Bonus

Level 4: Fast Healing

• A: Invention: Healing
• 7: Preventive Medicine: Heal
• 13: Preventive Medicine: Chance for +Absorb

Level 6: Build Up

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction
• 15: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 8: Mind Over Body

• A: Unbreakable Guard: +Max HP
• 15: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance
• 17: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance
• 17: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
• 46: Unbreakable Guard: RechargeTime/Resistance

Level 10: Indomitable Will

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 19: Reactive Defenses: Defense
• 19: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance
• 21: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime

Level 12: Parry

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 13: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage
• 21: Superior Blistering Cold: Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
• 23: Touch of Death: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 23: Touch of Death: Accuracy/Damage

Level 14: Combat Jumping

• A: Winter's Gift: Slow Resistance (20%)
• 25: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 16: Rise to the Challenge

• A: Numina's Convalesence: Heal/Endurance
• 25: Numina's Convalesence: Endurance/Recharge
• 27: Numina's Convalesence: Heal/Recharge
• 27: Numina's Convalesence: Heal/Endurance/Recharge
• 29: Numina's Convalesence: Heal
• 29: Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery

Level 18: Whirling Sword

• A: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage
• 31: Superior Avalanche: Damage/Endurance
• 31: Superior Avalanche: Recharge/Chance for Knockdown
• 31: Eradication: Damage
• 33: Eradication: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• 33: Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage

Level 20: Quick Recovery

• A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End
• 33: Performance Shifter: EndMod

Level 22: Disembowel

• A: Superior Critical Strikes: Accuracy/Damage
• 34: Superior Critical Strikes: Damage/RechargeTime
• 34: Superior Critical Strikes: Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
• 34: Superior Critical Strikes: Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• 36: Superior Critical Strikes: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• 36: Superior Critical Strikes: RechargeTime/+50% Crit Proc

Level 24: Heightened Senses

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 36: Shield Wall: Defense
• 37: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance
• 37: Shield Wall: Defense/Recharge
• 46: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance/Recharge

Level 26: Head Splitter

• A: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• 37: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• 39: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• 39: Eradication: Damage
• 39: Eradication: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• 40: Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage

Level 28: Kick

• A: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• 40: Superior Blistering Cold: Damage/Endurance

Level 30: Tough

• A: Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection +3% Def (All)
• 40: Reactive Armor: Resistance
• 42: Reactive Armor: Resistance/Endurance
• 42: Reactive Armor: Resistance/Endurance/Recharge

Level 32: Weave

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 42: Shield Wall: Defense
• 43: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance
• 43: Shield Wall: Defense/Recharge
• 50: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance/Recharge

Level 35: Maneuvers

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 43: Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage
• 45: Reactive Defenses: Defense
• 45: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance

Level 38: Tactics

• A: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff/Endurance

Level 41: Conserve Power

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 44: Physical Perfection

• A: Panacea: +Hit Points/Endurance

Level 47: Laser Beam Eyes

• A: Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage
• 48: Superior Winter's Bite: Damage/RechargeTime
• 48: Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• 48: Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• 50: Superior Winter's Bite: Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
• 50: Superior Winter's Bite: Recharge/Chance for -Speed & -Recharge

Level 49: Assault

• A: Invention: Endurance Reduction

──────────────────────────────

Inherents:

Level 1: Brawl

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 1: Critical Hit

Level 1: Sprint

• (Empty)

Level 2: Rest

• A: Invention: Healing

Level 1: Swift

• A: Invention: Run Speed

Level 1: Health

• A: Miracle: +Recovery

Level 1: Hurdle

• A: Invention: Jumping

Level 1: Stamina

• A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End

──────────────────────────────
Accolades:

• Task Force Commander
• The Atlas Medallion
• Freedom Phalanx Reserve
• Portal Jockey

Edited February 26 by Stormwalker

[BurnTheWitch]

Wow!  This is one of the reasons that I'm happy to be a part of this community!  Big thanks to @Zect and @Stormwalker for what could only be described as in depth analysis.  If modern sports commentary was this good, people would actually understand the games they watch. 

 

Is there a guide for "how to make a good build" (it would be a magnum opus of a document, eh?)?  So many of my natural inclinations (like going for full set bonuses) are quite wrong.  I never even thought about the reality that most end drain is energy sourced and therefor avoiding it also avoids end drain.  Thanks!

 

I'm indeed not married to energy (the concept of the character is sort of important, but the most important thing is that the toon doesn't have too many flashy looking powers, hence BS/WP), and I think I will respec with Soul based on your recommendations.  The idea of Hasten is also becoming very alluring so it opens up a skill slot.  Would it be preferable to have 2 enhancement slots in hasten or build up?  My intuition says yes, and the math certainly seems to imply that it is, but I'm not certain how to take the hit buff from build up into account.

 

Here is what I have come up with after taking Stormwalker's far better build and modifying it only slightly to accommodate soul and hasten. Anything things we would change if we had to play this toon? 

 

Soul Scrapper V.2 (Broad Sword - Willpower) Designed mostly by Stormwalker.mbd

Edited February 27 by Eyjafjallajokull
correcting grammar and spelling

[Stormwalker]

51 minutes ago, Eyjafjallajokull said:

Wow!  This is one of the reasons that I'm happy to be a part of this community!  Big thanks to @Zect and @Stormwalker for what could only be described as in depth analysis.  If modern sports commentary was this good, people would actually understand the games they watch. 

 

Is there a guide for "how to make a good build" (it would be a magnum opus of a document, eh?)?  So many of my natural inclinations (like going for full set bonuses) are quite wrong.  I never even thought about the reality that most end drain is energy sourced and therefor avoiding it also avoids end drain.  Thanks!

 

I'm indeed not married to energy (the concept of the character is sort of important, but the most important thing is that the toon doesn't have too many flashy looking powers, hence BS/WP), and I think I will respec with Soul based on your recommendations.  The idea of Hasten is also becoming very alluring so it opens up a skill slot.  Would it be preferable to have 2 enhancement slots in hasten or build up?  My intuition says yes, and the math certainly seems to imply that it is, but I'm not certain how to take the hit buff from build up into account.

 

Here is what I have come up with after taking Stormwalker's far better build and modifying it only slightly to accommodate soul and hasten. Anything things we would change if we had to play this toon? 

 

Soul Scrapper V.2 (Broad Sword - Willpower) Designed mostly by Stormwalker.mbd 42.27 kB · 0 downloads

 

Comments:

 

1. Two slots in Hasten (rather than Build Up)  is definitely the right choice if you can only put two slots in one of them.  Hasten makes everything recharge faster (including Build Up) while it's up, so you want to have as much uptime on it as you can.  This goes double when you also have Shadow Meld, which has a very long recharge time.  More Hasten uptime = more Shadow Meld uptime.
2. In this build, Shadow Meld will mostly give you four things:
   1. You can drop Parry from your attack chain while Shadow Meld is running (as you will be soft-capped to almost everything without Parry).
   2. It will push your Energy/Negative defense way above the soft-cap, so it gives you margin for defense debuffs there.
   3. It will push your Fire/Cold defense above (well above) the soft-cap, so it'll be good for dealing with enemies with those damage types.
   4. It will push your Psionic defense above the soft-cap (good for Carnies and Seers) and your Toxic defense almost to the soft-cap.
3. Note that Shadow Meld's uptime is very short, and its recharge is very long, but it provides an immense amount of protection while it lasts, so it can be good for protecting you while you absorb the alpha from a big spawn, or for dealing with a major threat (Carnie bosses come to mind here).
4. Given that Moonbeam will probably account for a more significant chunk of your damage than Laser Beam Eyes would have (it's just a better power outright), you might consider dropping the 6th slot and adding the Apocalypse: Chance for Damage (Negative) proc.  This would cost you 5% Fire/Cold defense, which is a pretty significant loss, but it would also boost the damage you get out of Moonbeam significantly.  It's your call on the trade-off there, whether you want the extra defense or the extra DPS.  I would personally stick with the defense, but I solo a whole lot.
5. I've looked over this a dozen times trying to find a way to get closer to the S/L hard-cap, but I only see one way to do it and I don't think it's a good trade (slotting 5-pc. LotG instead of 1-pc. LotG and 4-pc. Shield Wall).  Still, it's something to consider.  The reasons I don't think it's a good trade are:
   1. LotG's HP bonus is smaller than Shield Wall's,
   2. LotG's S/L resist bonus is smaller than Shield Wall's E/N resist bonus (that said, some would argue the S/L resist is more important than the E/N resist).
   3. With Tactics, you don't really need the extra Accuracy that LotG gives.

Overall, I think this looks pretty good.  Hopefully some other people will weigh in on this, as well, in case I missed something.

Edited February 27 by Stormwalker
fix typos

[Zect]

On 2/28/2025 at 12:59 AM, Stormwalker said:

I've looked over this a dozen times trying to find a way to get closer to the S/L hard-cap, but I only see one way to do it

 

Which is to slot your shield wall +5 res unique.

 

I want to talk about 2 things now that OP changed their epic.

 

Firstly, shadow meld has a very long animation lock at 3.168s. You can move (i.e. you are not rooted) while using it, but attacks will only queue and not execute until it is done animating. Using it in the middle of combat is a dps loss. You usually want to pop it when you are moving in-between spawns, but hold off on refreshing it in-combat unless necessary. This adds a fun element of active play to your more passive 2ndary.

 

Secondly, epic snipes are good but endurance-costly. Moonbeam for example has a base cost of almost 18 end. Your build will not be eps stable with only net +2 eps (since you are a leadership build) and no panacea proc. That's okay however because moonbeam only becomes available at endgame and you will have access to incarnate end management tools. It just means you're more pushed towards taking musc radial (instead of core) for alpha and maybe ageless radial instead of barrier for destiny. Experiment and adjust as necessary based on the severity of end issues you experience.

Edited March 1 by Zect

[Psiphon]

Personally I'd drop LBE and take Energy Torrent. 

Slot it with an accuracy, a KB to KD and a + recharge proc. 

Energy Torrent can be used as an opener for mobs so that the Alpha is mitigated, while they are on their backsides jump in and dish out the damage. 

It can also be used to limit damage if your regen is getting overwhelmed or knock down any troublesome ranged foes. 

Add in the + recharge and it's a no brainer compared to LBE.

[Stormwalker]

5 hours ago, Zect said:

 

Which is to slot your shield wall +5 res unique.

 

 

Dagnabbit, that was supposed to be in one of the two powers with Shield Wall in it.  Somehow I accidentally left it out!  Thank you for catching that!  @Eyjafjallajokull you will definitely want to fix that.  Replace the Shield: Wall: Defense/Recharge in Weave with the Shield Wall unique.

 

I also missed that the Panacea proc was left out when switching from Energy Mastery to Soul Mastery since you lost Pnysical Perfection (where it had been slotted).  I'd advise trying to find a way to fit that proc back in somewhere.  Though, the build is pretty tight, I don't see a lot of options to drop a slot.  One possibility, if you're OK with only 80% slow resist, is to drop the two-piece Superior Blistering Cold from Kick and move the slot to Health and put the Panacea proc there.  I would strongly suggest copying your character to Brainstorm and experimenting with it both ways before spending the inf on the Superior Blistering Cold pieces.

 

Also, with the extra 5% fire/cold resist you're getting out of the Shield Wall unique, you could consider dropping the one of the three Superior Avalanche pieces from Head Splitter (giving up a 6% fire/cold resist set bonus) and adding the Armageddon: Chance for Fire Damage proc for some more damage.  That's purely a matter of preference.

 

This is how it would look with those changes:

Soul Scrapper V.2 (Broad Sword - Willpower) Designed mostly by Stormwalker.mbd

Edited March 1 by Stormwalker

[Nemu]

On 2/27/2025 at 11:08 AM, Eyjafjallajokull said:

the most important thing is that the toon doesn't have too many flashy looking powers

 

If you don't want anything flashy, consider weapon mastery for some natural origin powers. Caltrops is an underrated crowd control tool for when you get into trouble and I find -to hit debuffs to be the death of weaker armor sets that lack additional sources of mitigation. Those armor sets have to fall back to the tried and true "kill or be killed" mentality and to hit debuffs are a huge roadblock.

 

Here's a mock up of what that can look like, I chose to chase +max HP and recharge, and enough defense against most damage types that a single luck can softcap them all. The build has some added AoE knockdown. Those are not super reliable, but every bit helps.

 

For alpha you can choose vigor core for more regen and some quality of life enhancements to accuracy and endurance reduction, or go Musculature radial for damage, defense debuff and more endurance recovery, or even Intuition radial for damage, defense debuff and slow.

 

Natrual BSWP - Scrapper (Broad Sword - Willpower).mbd

 

Edited March 2 by Nemu

[tidge]

Just a short comment on Parry. I'd slot the Kismet +ToHit piece (possibly along with 5x Scrapper Strike) here before using the power as a mule for LotG Def/+Recharge. The LotG isn't a bad choice, and the Kismet could go into something like Combat Jumping at an early level, but so could LotG! You need to make at least one Parry attack every 2 minutes to get the Kismet bonus.

 

My personal preference for Scrappers is to have 3 primary attacks for content like Positron TFs (i.e. before level 15) and getting the extra ToHit is almost always valuable. If a player is exclusively focused on an attack chain (at all levels) without Parry, obviously the Kismet piece won't be a good choice.

 

Short comments on Soul Mastery. This is an easy choice of epic/patron pool for me. I use it often (but not exclusively)

 

Moonbeam is an easy choice of ranged attack. It offers an off-brand damage type to most Scrapper offense. If saves me the trouble of moving to engage something otherwise out-of-range. Since it is a choice in the 30s, it has a wide range of enhancement set choices with an equally wide range of potential set bonuses. I always 5-slot it, sometimes 6.

 

Shadow Meld is a fine addition to Scrappers that don't have a focus on Defense. I tend not to rely on it, its just a bonus. Also, it can mule the LotG piece! (among others) I find it doesn't need more than 2 slots to work for me.

 

[Thraxen]

I’ve got a really good kat/wp scrap. I can post build later when home. It’s posted here somewhere. I don’t go hasten and use DA. Don’t always have to use it though. 

[Stormwalker]

5 hours ago, Nemu said:

 

If you don't want anything flashy, consider weapon mastery for some natural origin powers. Caltrops is an underrated crowd control tool for when you get into trouble and I find -to hit debuffs to be the death of weaker armor sets that lack additional sources of mitigation. Those armor sets have to fall back to the tried and true "kill or be killed" mentality and to hit debuffs are a huge roadblock.

 

Here's a mock up of what that can look like, I chose to chase +max HP and recharge, and enough defense against most damage types that a single luck can softcap them all. The build has some added AoE knockdown. Those are not super reliable, but every bit helps.

 

For alpha you can choose vigor core for more regen and some quality of life enhancements to accuracy and endurance reduction, or go Musculature radial for damage, defense debuff and more endurance recovery, or even Intuition radial for damage, defense debuff and slow.

 

Natrual BSWP - Scrapper (Broad Sword - Willpower).mbd 41.5 kB · 4 downloads

 

 

This is a really good build.  I don't think I could play it, personally - having to rely on purples to not get end drained to death by Malta and Arachnos when soloing would drive me a little spare - but in team play it's almost certainly a better build than mine.  So if you team more than you solo, I'd seriously consider this build.  It also suits the Natural origin better than using Soul Mastery does, I think.

 

My builds tend to be very solo-oriented; I should make a point of noting that when I give build advice.

[BurnTheWitch]

9 hours ago, tidge said:

My personal preference for Scrappers is to have 3 primary attacks for content like Positron TFs (i.e. before level 15) and getting the extra ToHit is almost always valuable. If a player is exclusively focused on an attack chain (at all levels) without Parry, obviously the Kismet piece won't be a good choice.

 

I definitely intend to have my second spec be designed with exemplar in mind, as the ones we've been discussing have certainly been with late game content in mind.  I'd love so hear peoples opinions on a build that is designed for the purpose. 

 

5 hours ago, Stormwalker said:

This is a really good build.  I don't think I could play it, personally - having to rely on purples to not get end drained to death by Malta and Arachnos when soloing would drive me a little spare - but in team play it's almost certainly a better build than mine.

 

This is my noob showing hard here as I really don't have a grasp on the finer points of the game.  I'm looking over each build side by side and I'm not certain why it makes for a better build in a team.  It looks to have better AOE damage, but it really appears to drop a lot of single target single target DPS and survivability. Am I interpreting the data wrong or is the data not the whole story?

 

[Stormwalker]

1 minute ago, Eyjafjallajokull said:

 

I definitely intend to have my second spec be designed with exemplar in mind, as the ones we've been discussing have certainly been with late game content in mind.  I'd love so hear peoples opinions on a build that is designed for the purpose. 

 

 

This is my noob showing hard here as I really don't have a grasp on the finer points of the game.  I'm looking over each build side by side and I'm not certain why it makes for a better build in a team.  It looks to have better AOE damage, but it really appears to drop a lot of single target single target DPS and survivability. Am I interpreting the data wrong or is the data not the whole story?

 

 

In a team environment, you don't need as much survivability, because 1) you won't have all the aggro, and 2) you'll probably have some buffs from your teammates which will augment your survivability.  By contrast, in solo play, you only have yourself to depend on, and you will have all the aggro.

 

As for DPS, the build has more recharge than it seems, because the Force Feedback proc in Disembowel should proc pretty often, thus bringing Headsplitter and Disembowel up more often.  Also, the Res debuff proc in Disembowel will boost not only your DPS in a team environment, but your entire team's DPS.

 

Also, that thing about the To-Hit Debuff in Rise to the Challenge not being that effective?  In a team environment, it's better than it is solo, because in a team environment that debuff protects your entire team, not just yourself.