Picking my first 50 scrapper

[Kinvesu]

Hey everyone, I have a question. I am used to playing masterminds. I love a pet class, especially probably the best pet class ever in a game, the MM, but my main love is melee. I have only ever taken a MM to 38 on homecoming, 50 on live. Tons of other low levels. So I don't have a vast fortune to send to my other characters. Think I have 2mil inf right now lol.

 

I spend all my time making builds, rather than playing. I think I have 100s and 100s of builds, but they are great in the builder, not so much playing them from scratch at level 1. Almost every scrapper I make, I die multiple, multiple times before getting to level 10. It's frustrating. Like I made a katana/ninjitsu/weapon(basically a ninja with exploding shuriken/reg shuriken) in the builder and I wanna play it. But I am dying over and over and I am not even level 10 yet.

 

I love the Tanker, but I don't wanna tank and their damage is a lot lower(It really doesn't bother me as I won't be soloing +4/x8 anyways, like maybe half that and with EBs). Though I do love their survivability.  Don't like brute or stalker(I know, I said I like a ninja, just don't really care for the stalker powersets or how the class works). I take frequent breaks to interact with my kids as I am a single father, so hate having to rebuild fury, even if it isn't that hard too.

 

I don't like cones. I despise them and refuse to use them. So I don't like sets that need to use them, like claws or TW . I just like the no hassle of pbaoes or targeted aoes. 

 

So my question is, since I want to just solo most of the time until I maybe find some friends or an SG, what is the best scrapper for me to start off with, that won't get me killed a dozen times, or more, before I get the build going? Or should I just stick to tanker, with better survivability and who cares about lower damage?(like shield/broad or shield/ma)

[Kinvesu]

Can a mod delete this? If you want. I apologize. I already asked this a couple years ago.

 

(I was ran over by an SUV a while back and have trouble remembering stuff sometimes)

Edited August 17 by Kinvesu

[Story Archer]

The smoothest levelling experience that I can think of for a Scrapper from 1 to 50 would probably be Katana / Willpower, especially if you put Divine Avalanche on auto-fire. It was the first 50 I ever made, Scrapper or otherwise. I know you said that you don't like cones, but honestly if you just treat Flashing Steel like a single target attack, you'll still constantly be racking up 'bonus' hits without even trying.

[Plutonix]

On 8/14/2025 at 9:43 PM, Kinvesu said:

Can a mod delete this? I apologize. I already asked this a couple years ago.

 

(I was ran over by an SUV a while back and have trouble remembering stuff sometimes)

Sweet lord, I'm sorry you went through that. I'm on multiple medications that effect memory so I know how fickle it can be....

[Kinvesu]

On 8/16/2025 at 9:41 AM, Plutonix said:

Sweet lord, I'm sorry you went through that. I'm on multiple medications that effect memory so I know how fickle it can be....

Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah it sucks. I also developed cauda equina syndrome from it. 2 collapsed lungs, cut liver, fractured right foot in 7 places, right wrist in 5, ruptured l5 disc, pinched s1 nerve too long and developed CES.

 

 

On 8/15/2025 at 8:16 AM, Story Archer said:

The smoothest levelling experience that I can think of for a Scrapper from 1 to 50 would probably be Katana / Willpower, especially if you put Divine Avalanche on auto-fire. It was the first 50 I ever made, Scrapper or otherwise. I know you said that you don't like cones, but honestly if you just treat Flashing Steel like a single target attack, you'll still constantly be racking up 'bonus' hits without even trying.

Thanks for the suggestion. So far, I have made my Kat/Nin, Ice/Ice, both have died countless times before 10. Maybe I should focus on a resist set first, since defense usually needs investment? I was gonna try a staff/Invuln, but decided to make it a tanker, because I liked the numbers a lot better. So far haven't died. Same with my Shield/Ma.

 

It feels like I am just getting EXTREMELY unlucky all the time.

Edited August 17 by Kinvesu

[Thraxen]

Play on a team and should be fine. Get divine avalanche and spam it. That will carry for a long while. 

[WuTang]

On 8/14/2025 at 1:30 PM, Kinvesu said:

But I am dying over and over and I am not even level 10 yet.

 

Hmm... Are you getting the prestige enhancements from the START vendor? They add alot in the early levels. And are you keeping SO enhancements leveled up? By default I always have 2 heals in Health and 2 endurance mods in Stamina. At least 1 Acc in each attack. Ninjitsu should do you right pretty early, not a fan of the set, but I've seen it work. I don't know if you are doing what I used to, but I used to focus on attacks and then survival, I'm the other way around now and my early leveling experiences few deaths as a result.

 

What difficulty to you run on? Maybe lower it?

[Kinvesu]

8 hours ago, WuTang said:

 

Hmm... Are you getting the prestige enhancements from the START vendor? They add alot in the early levels. And are you keeping SO enhancements leveled up? By default I always have 2 heals in Health and 2 endurance mods in Stamina. At least 1 Acc in each attack. Ninjitsu should do you right pretty early, not a fan of the set, but I've seen it work. I don't know if you are doing what I used to, but I used to focus on attacks and then survival, I'm the other way around now and my early leveling experiences few deaths as a result.

 

What difficulty to you run on? Maybe lower it?

Thank you for the response. I forgot about those actually. I got them now. I was doing the double exp though. Yes, i am keeping my enhancements leveled. I rotate between adding slots to defense then attacks every odd level. I am also on the default difficulty. So I regularly fight white and yellow named guys. I think my problem is, I don't run away to fight another day.

 

I'll try to just put all slots to defense first, then slot attacks later.

[Due Regard]

7 hours ago, Kinvesu said:

I'll try to just put all slots to defense first, then slot attacks later.

 

Low level, I recommend the opposite, actually. Dead mobs don't do DPS, but the paucity of slotting/enhancement on defenses doesn't do a lot to aid surviveability.

[Without_Pause]

I don't slot before 10 unless I have an attuned IO which I can slot in at 7, and honestly, I'm lazy and likely just slot it in at 10 anyway. I solo at base diff setting for that of level. Hitting level 10 is easy enough. I would say on average I might die once getting to level 10. Something wonky might of happened if I die twice. You get so few slots for Inspirs, I typically chew through them like candy to keep spots open. All the more so if I have the Inspire(?) power you can get for free. I can't recall the power name since it's been ages since I rolled something new and got the power.

[Story Archer]

Also, focus on Accuracy over Damage early on when it comes to slotting your attacks. You don't have the Endurance or the Health to constantly be whiffing on attacks and you can't crit if you don't hit.

[Kinvesu]

Thanks for all the help! I rerolled my kat/nin(katana being left handed was getting to me) to ma/nin, future weapon mastery, and focused on defense first, with only accuracy in my attacks. I am having a MUCH better time now. Way way easier. I haven't died at all and even survived with 1 hp once against a couple opponents. Level 12 now.

Edited 23 hours ago by Kinvesu

[Story Archer]

58 minutes ago, Kinvesu said:

Thanks for all the help! I rerolled my kat/nin(katana being left handed was getting to me) to ma/nin, future weapon mastery, and focused on defense first, with only accuracy in my attacks. I am having a MUCH better time now. Way way easier. I haven't died at all and even survived with 1 hp once against a couple opponents. Level 12 now.

 

I'm just going to throw this out there before you get too far...

 

I personally prefer Scrappers over Brutes, BUT in the case of Martial Arts, Brutes get a pretty significant +7.5% bonus (unstackable) to all defenses whenever you use Storm Kick (Tanks get +10%, Scrappers get nothing). That's actually pretty huge when it comes to survivability while levelling and it costs you nothing.

 

Also, if you haven't grabbed the free damage/recharge enhancements from the P2W vendor in Atlas, you should definitely do that and slot them into your attacks. There are 5 in total, four with damage procs and one with a KD proc.

 

 

Edited 22 hours ago by Story Archer

[Kinvesu]

14 minutes ago, Story Archer said:

 

I'm just going to throw this out there before you get too far...

 

I personally MUCH prefer Scrappers to Brutes, BUT in Martial Arts case, Brutes get a pretty significant +7.5% bonus to all defenses when you use Storm Kick (Tanks get +10%, Scrappers get nothing). That's actually pretty huge when it comes to survivability and it costs you nothing.

Thank you! Yeah I know about that. I do prefer to have that buff lol. I was gonna go with Tanker for my first melee 50, as I figured that would be better to play the general game with and casually farm, to generate income for other builds, but just can't figure out what would be the best first time tanker for that. I was thinking maybe SD/MA or Invuln/Staff(the damage seemed too low though, cause I heard gaussians in invincibility doesn't proc enough). Among others of course.

Edited 22 hours ago by Kinvesu