Talk to me about Super Reflexes

[Rainhall]

My new /SR scrapper (now around L20) was dying repeatedly when my brute friends were sailing along just fine in a 3-person team.  Is there something people commonly miss about how to play or spec /SR?  My friends told me it feels stronger at higher levels.

[jack_nomind]

My new /SR scrapper (now around L20) was dying repeatedly when my brute friends were sailing along just fine in a 3-person team.  Is there something people commonly miss about how to play or spec /SR?  My friends told me it feels stronger at higher levels.

 

Your friends are correct.

 

Do you have Tough/Weave already?

[Redlynne]

My new /SR scrapper (now around L20) was dying repeatedly when my brute friends were sailing along just fine in a 3-person team.  Is there something people commonly miss about how to play or spec /SR?  My friends told me it feels stronger at higher levels.

 

You're missing 3 (okay, 4 really) things:

• SO strength enhancement values
  
• Enough slots for your Defensive powers (and your attacks, let's be honest here)
  
• Lucky
  
• Evasion

 

Super Reflexes is something of a "late bloomer" as a set.  It's going to be blood, sweat, tears and more than your fair share of faceplanting until you start getting 3 slots per level up instead of only 2, and can finally start adding 2 levels worth of slots between power picks so as to finally start rounding out your build.

 

SO strength enhancement values don't really arrive until Level 22+.

Level ups that yield 3 slots instead of 2 don't start happening until Level 31+.

You don't start getting 2 levels worth of slots per power pick until Level 33+.

 

Realistically speaking, you're basically "doing penance" until Level 22 when you can finally start to get your footing/grounding with Super Reflexes.  It then takes you getting through the 30s and 40s to finally round out and finish all of your slotting, both for base enhancement levels but also for set bonuses to close the gaps you'll have, before you can become REALLY powerful.

 

So stick with it.  You're almost up to the first major breakpoint where things start (finally) looking up for you.

The funny thing is that if you come back and exemplar the content that has been kicking your butt up to now after reaching Level 50, you'll be left wondering what it was about this time that was so difficult for you.

Answer: enhancement strength and having enough slots in your powers

[Rainhall]

...but also for set bonuses...

Thanks for the replies.  One thing I've noticed about defense sets.  Most of them have +Recharge (on the enhancements, not in the bonus), which seems useless since most defense powers are toggles or always on.  Question 1:  What's up with that?

 

Question 2:  What kind of set bonuses should I be looking for?  An even spread of resistances across different types of damage?

[jack_nomind]

Thanks for the replies.  One thing I've noticed about defense sets.  Most of them have +Recharge (on the enhancements, not in the bonus), which seems useless since most defense powers are toggles or always on.  Question 1:  What's up with that?

 

Support characters very often have Defense powers that are clicks, not toggles, and they accept the same sets.  At one point it was very common to have to cast click Defense buffs individually from FF or Cold, but even now they're useful for Farsight, Mind Link, maybe Vengeance, etc.

 

Question 2:  What kind of set bonuses should I be looking for?  An even spread of resistances across different types of damage?

 

+recharge, mostly; nearly all Scrapper primaries want 70%+ global recharge from set bonuses, getting your per-power recharge to +200%-300% with recharge enhancements and Hasten.  You'll be relying mostly on SR itself and your insp tray for your damage mitigation, but it can be valuable to get +HP, S/L resist, and +Regen on the side (in roughly that order).  The two individual +3% defense IOs (from Resist sets) and +5% Resist and Scaling Resist IOs (from Defense sets) are basically must-haves.

[DSorrow]

Here's my summary of SR:

 

Before decent enhancements (SOs or 25+ generic IOs), it sucks just like all other Defense based sets. Roughly a third of incoming attacks will hit you for unmitigated damage, so while you take the same damage on average as someone who's resist based, your incoming damage is more volatile and it's not uncommon to go from 100 to 0 very quickly.

 

With Weave, CJ and other supplemental Defense powers it starts to shine. Those combined with a decent investment into IOs makes you very tough considering the investment level. There's also a possibility to be soft capped against everything in your 20s if you get Weave early and invest into the two +3% Def uniques. You also get some nice +Rech for free which helps your offense as you get to use long cooldown attacks more often.

 

The downside? Well, the ceiling of SR is debatably slightly lower than something like Shield as it doesn't provide anything extraordinary aside from significant DDR. Shield can also get to the soft cap relatively easily, but it'll also have a bunch of damage resists, +maxHP, +DMG and a great AoE attack to go with that. Basically it just doesn't get quite as much out of extreme IO investments as some other sets with layered mitigation or offensive boosts.

 

That said, if you're looking to build a low to medium budget build capable of soloing AVs, /SR is an extremely good pick.

[Bill Z Bubba]

Just felt the need to hop in and remind everyone of SR's scaling resists. When coupled with tough and the +20% recharge/+movement  from Quickness, it's not quite the one trick pony as everyone describes it.

 

Mostly, yes, but I even have an SR tank now because of how the set as a whole has performed for me over the years.

[Erratic1]

It also does not hurt at lower levels to have a primary which buffs melee defense.

 

While scrappers get lower defense values than Tankers, my SR/TW Tanker soloed Protean on the strength of his defenses.

[Rumors]

Also worth noting, a lot of lower level enemy groups have enemies that use assault rifles.  Almost every assault rifle attack in the game used by NPCs have -Def.  So, they'll quickly cascade your defenses into nothing once one or two of them hit, even if they're just minions.  Around the 20s though, a lot of groups will have shifted to using their own powers and gimmicks instead of common weapons, with some exceptions such as Council, and it gets a lot easier to pick and choose the right enemy groups.

 

So like, for example, if you have a choice, don't fight Warriors or Council.  Fight Freaks or Circle.  It'll get even better once the Family fade away, Warriors vanish as suddenly as they appeared, and Tsoo start getting more mystical and less swordy, among other things.  You'll also start getting 95% defense debuff resistance, so you'll be nearly impossible to cascade.