Struggling with elec/shield

[Snakebit]

So I've got an elec/shield, which I was excited about until very recently. (37 now). I've got the right powers and the right slots, use common AO's at the moment because I can't fund any sets. I've got the end proc and a heal proc and the toon plays as expected through the Alpha. I'm running into a kind of weird issue that I haven't had before on scrappers. 

 

Everything falls apart after my alpha and follow through. I lead with BU, LR, Ts, SC, and Chain. That usually will clear out enough of the spawn that I can clean up the rest with the T2 and Jacobs. Usually.  If and when I miss too much, my defenses don't have near the durability of other scrappers that I've played (Bio, Dark, Regen). It's either win fast or lose. 

 

I understand that there's a lot more damage mitigation to be had from 30% def and I've got room to grow resists, but...damn. It honestly feels like I'm playing a durable blapper. When Hasten drops AND I've got to reup Active AND I'm staring down the throat of a Lesser Devoured AND he just hit me for half health... 

 

Do I just need to tough it out for a couple more levels or ? Looking at OWTS it doesn't seem like that's the answer I'm hoping for but maybe it is. 

 

Should I take this set to tank? (I'm not a brute fan)

[Bloodofcaine]

 You will more than likely continue to see this issue until you can soft cap your defenses  (which is roughly 45%, this leaves even leveled enemies about a 5 percent chance to actually hit you)  Defense is really an all or nothing affair,  When it's working in your favor then enemies simply whiff their attacks on you. If things are going bad on the other hand, you can look forward to a painful hit, especially if your resists aren't up to snuff. Capping said defenses will be a good first step to minimize the pain you are feeling right now. If you've not purchased them already there are two unique enhancements that fit in a resistance power slot, Gladiator's Armor TP protection and Steadfast Protection resist/defense. These two will grant you 3 percent defense each which will go a long way to helping you cap your defenses. Unfortunately they are fairly pricey with Gladiator's going for between 7 and 12 million inf and steadfast usually hovering around 6 to 7 million. After that you will probably need to start looking at IO sets in order to help you get to the defense soft cap on your positional defenses.

[Mr. Vee]

Defense softcap is key. I just rerolled my elec/shield scrap (which was itself a reroll of a brute on live) into a stalker, which I'm happier with. Defense was never the biggest problem once the scrap was IOd out - it was pecking away at remaining bosses with no minions/lieuts left alive to charge against all odds enough that my single target powers weren't trash. I also had an elec/shield tank on live which obviously had the same problem. Stalker assassin's strike solves the single target problem nicely. With scrap I'd recommend running without bosses and let it be your large mob purple drop roll toon.

[Rockfall]

Do you have the +3% def uniques slotted? If not, prioritize that.

[Hopeling]

If you want to clear large spawns solo without a lot of set bonuses, you're going to have to use inspirations liberally. 30% defense won't keep you alive on x8, but 30% defense plus a Luck will.

 

At level 37, you can carry 15 inspirations. If you walk into a mission with 15 Lucks, that means you can be softcapped for 15 minutes. In practice, this kind of preparation should rarely be necessary, because clearing large spawns solo gives a lot of inspiration drops. If you have good AoE (which you do), this reaches a lovely point where you get inspirations as fast as you need to use them, so you're a perpetual motion machine of death.

[Snakebit]

Thanks all. I'll aim for Gladiators Armor and Steadfast and see how it goes. 

 

 

[MunkiLord]

12 hours ago, Hopeling said:

If you want to clear large spawns solo without a lot of set bonuses, you're going to have to use inspirations liberally. 30% defense won't keep you alive on x8, but 30% defense plus a Luck will.

 

At level 37, you can carry 15 inspirations. If you walk into a mission with 15 Lucks, that means you can be softcapped for 15 minutes. In practice, this kind of preparation should rarely be necessary, because clearing large spawns solo gives a lot of inspiration drops. If you have good AoE (which you do), this reaches a lovely point where you get inspirations as fast as you need to use them, so you're a perpetual motion machine of death.

I second this. This is how I essentially farmed my Elec/SD Scrapper from 35-50. I liberally abused inspirations and relied on drops to keep my defenses where I needed them.

[Werner]

If you have good but not great defense, purples are God mode. I'm surprised at how many people don't chug a purple or two as they start a hard fight. Purples = destroy the mob that killed the Tanker.

 

With the prices last I checked them, I'd put a Gladiator's Armor and Steadfast Protection in every lowbie while leveling. Or I would if I wasn't so lazy and if leveling didn't happen so fast. Hell, some friends and I were running easy lowbie content, and all of our enhancements went red from leveling, and we were too lazy to go buy replacements. I mean, every five levels you have to waste time going to the store? Lame! We only gave in when we hit level 22. Admittedly, we got a huge boost to damage and survivability once we were slotted up with SOs. 😉

[Rockfall]

10 hours ago, Werner said:

With the prices last I checked them, I'd put a Gladiator's Armor and Steadfast Protection in every lowbie while leveling. Or I would if I wasn't so lazy and if leveling didn't happen so fast. Hell, some friends and I were running easy lowbie content, and all of our enhancements went red from leveling, and we were too lazy to go buy replacements. I mean, every five levels you have to waste time going to the store? Lame! We only gave in when we hit level 22. Admittedly, we got a huge boost to damage and survivability once we were slotted up with SOs. 😉

With how few slots you likely had per power (unless you're dumping all the slots in one or two powers), it isn't like you're really going to notice DOs helping all that much.

 

@cejmp -- The purple insp note is a good one too. I like the uniques because then I don't have to remember to eat (or have) a purple. 6% won't likely do it for you by itself if you have a 15% hill to climb, but if you can find another 3-4%, I bet that will.

 

The other thing you should check for is get your defs on the monitor window so that you can see if you are suffering cascading defense failure. Slotting some of your powers (I think its the mez prot?) with res can help that, but of course you want the mez prot more, so it may have to wait until you have enough slots to go around.

[Mr. Vee]

The defense debuff protection in active defense can't be enhanced but of course the power will stack with itself. The DDR in battle agility will be enhanced by any defense enhancements you add to it. Capped that gives you about 53% on a scrap and 35 on a stalker with one stack of Active defense, which is all Pine's will show (stalker doesn't even have toggle on/off option). Grant cover will give some but also can't be enhanced. Ageless radial epiphany will add more but that of course diminishes over the duration of the buff. Tool tips says Ageless radial gives 21.25 for the last 1:30 of the power and double that for the first 30 seconds. 

 

Can't give complete totals as my stalker doesn't have ageless yet (he's sitting at 71.5 without it, but not everyone will have double stacked active defense and grant cover) and my scrapper, which did, has been stripped of enhancements. Two days ago I could've told you for it too. But seeing as i'll be looking at 93.75 once ageless is in place on a stalker, it's probably something you don't need to be too concerned with once pimped out. Super reflexes gets 95% iirc, not sure if it's capped there or not. Someone less lazy than me could easily find out for all iterations on justin.

Edited August 3, 2019 by Veelectric Boogaloo
typo

[Snakebit]

7 hours ago, Rockfall said:

 

The other thing you should check for is get your defs on the monitor window so that you can see if you are suffering cascading defense failure. Slotting some of your powers (I think its the mez prot?) with res can help that, but of course you want the mez prot more, so it may have to wait until you have enough slots to go around.

Yeah, I keep that window running. 

 

I hit 39 this morning and did a little more testing. I can clear (easily) street spawns in PI at +3, same in AE. I can clear +4 spawns if there's no Boss to deal with. But man, if there's anything standing I've got to play blaster style. Which is ok, I just have to get used to not being /bio I guess.

[Rockfall]

You don't really feel good about defense until you get to 40% def is my memory. 45% is god mode unless you suffer cascading defense failure.

 

I've been meaning to work on a bio scrapper... maybe I should!