Dark Armor Scrapper?

[Lhanis]

I don't generally play melee. I've been here on Homecoming for some 6 years now and can count my melee characters that have made it to cap on one hand. A big part of that, I think, is that most of the melee and armor sets I like aesthetically are ones I don't enjoy mechanically.

 

After a recent break and return to find the i28 page 2 changes though, I'm wondering if I shouldn't give it another try. I actually got rather attached to Elec armor on an E3 Sent a while back, and I've always wanted to do something with Dark Armor too... so I'm wondering how people have enjoyed the changes to them. I know resist sets aren't generally the domain of Scrapper, but it's also the only AT I've never really touched before and I feel like this is a good opportunity to fix that if I'm considering melee again.

 

Long-winded preamble aside, I'm looking for:

• Thoughts on the Dark Armor changes?
• What to expect performance wise for a resist set on Scrapper?
• Primary sets that might be fun/pair well?
• Advice for a long time player but first time building Scrapper?

 

That third point is definitely the biggest one on my mind. In a perfect world where Kinetic Melee didn't feel absolutely awful to play it'd be my first choice, but I've been down that road before. Any and all advice is welcome.

[Yomo Kimyata]

2 hours ago, Lhanis said:

A big part of that, I think, is that most of the melee and armor sets I like aesthetically are ones I don't enjoy mechanically.

 

Let me start by asking you to elaborate on this.  What are the mechanics you dislike?  Primaries are generally going to be about some ST attacks, some AoE attacks, maybe a ranged attack, and then some "other" stuff.  Secondaries tend to focus on resistance or healing or defense, and can be active (requiring button pushing) or passive.  What do you think would work for you in this context?

[Lhanis]

46 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Let me start by asking you to elaborate on this.  What are the mechanics you dislike?

That's fair, the way I wrote it is a little vague but it's also not an easy thing to put into words. By mechanically, I mean how it feels to play/tools it has available that I would want. Not necessarily whether or not it has an in-built mechanic like Momentum or Combos.

 

Some examples:
Savage Melee. I adore this set aesthetically, but my experience with it was frustrating. Back when Tanker gauntlet first got buffed, I rolled one with Savage - the End reduction was nice, and Leap is a wonderful tool, but the constant need to play around or against the bloodlust mechanic to keep yourself from getting locked out was not particularly enjoyable.

 

Dark Melee. A generally pretty great set all around (especially on Scrapper, or so I'm told), but a lot of small issues that make it unenjoyable for me to play. Shadow Maul feels like it takes far to long, needing to proc bomb Touch of Fear to have a decent early AoE, and to be completely honost I would rather just have a normal Build Up over having to worry about saturation for Soul Drain. 

 

It's hard to give an example of an armor set here though. Mostly I'm looking at it from a tool perspective, does it have good mez prot, does it have a taunt aura (something I'm sad most Scrappers lack, but oh well), is it to clicky to maintain mid-combat, etc. It's why I clicked so well with Electric Armor initially, it just does everything I wanted it to without having to jump through hoops to get it,  while also having some neat extras in speed and +End.

 

The old iteration of Dark Armor would fall into that "dislike mechanically" catagory, which is why I'm asking about it. Hogs endurance, has to bring it's own KB prot, leans to heavily on Oppressive Gloom... all things that at least on a first glance may have changed. Cloak of Fear looks like it might be a much better pick now and potentially replace OG, Obscure Sustenance could be a huge help with endurance, now has KB prot in Cloak, etc.

Edited 20 hours ago by Lhanis

[Yomo Kimyata]

3 hours ago, Lhanis said:

Thoughts on the Dark Armor changes?

 

They buffed the living hell out of it, honestly.  Functionally Cloak of Fear becomes a real option rather than something you had to work around accuracy and endurance wise.  Little bit of help on the KB protection side, but you still need to bring some of your own.

 

3 hours ago, Lhanis said:

What to expect performance wise for a resist set on Scrapper?

 

With high knowledge builds, absolute top tier.  Dark Armor is just a little behind Rad Armor in my eyes in terms of making everything work all the time.  Sure, you'll need to build for set defense and it really helps to add some other mitigation, but OG and CoF are right there for you.  I rarely play pure defense sets since you've got all your eggs in one basket.  It's a pretty good basket, but I vastly prefer actively managing my defenses and resistance based works like a dream.

 

3 hours ago, Lhanis said:

Primary sets that might be fun/pair well?

 

Pick your poison.  It all works.  People hate on staff but it's one of my faves.

 

3 hours ago, Lhanis said:

Advice for a long time player but first time building Scrapper?

 

Focus on your survival; the damage will take care of itself.  The critical strikes ATO proc in the right spot can and will add a ton of damage.  I'd consider it in Dark Regeneration which will activate all the time!

[Lhanis]

7 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

People hate on staff but it's one of my faves.

 

I don't care if Staff's damage isn't great, Innocuous Strikes is just such a fun animation 🤣

 

9 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

The critical strikes ATO proc in the right spot can and will add a ton of damage.  I'd consider it in Dark Regeneration which will activate all the time!

 

Trouble's post about the ATO procs' placement the other day is actually what started this whole thing for me... it was interesting to see how much of an impact they have on the AT overall, and reminded me Scrapper was something I'd never really given a shot. I'll be honest though... it never even occurred to me that you could slot it in Dark Regen since it deals damage. That's a wild thought. Cheers for that!

[Yomo Kimyata]

3 hours ago, Lhanis said:

I'll be honest though... it never even occurred to me that you could slot it in Dark Regen since it deals damage. That's a wild thought. Cheers for that!

 

There are a few AoE powers in scrapper secondaries that can slot them.  The beauty of Dark Regeneration is when you are fighting three or more enemies since the proc only needs to trigger once, and it will check versus up to 10 enemies in a 20 foot radius.