The best of the "old school" scrappers

[Jolin]

I was thinking of rolling an "original" scrapper meaning trying to only use the combinations that were there early on. I had a Dark/Inv back in the early days (I started at I1 a couple of months after launch), but didn't make another scrapper until Dual Blades (DB/Will). I tried re-rolling the DM/Inv, but since I have been spamming Sands of Mu it's lost that loving feeling. 

 

What other combinations did y'all play in the early days before power proliferation? What do I need to roll to get the scrapper experience? I have mained a defender and Khelds most of the years I played. Since I don't really have the time to commit to a team any more, I would love to experience a more scrappy side of the game. What would y'all recommend?

[Haijinx]

MA/SR 

Claw/Regen 

BS/Invul

Those are some real classics

 

 

 

 

[Meph]

I was one of the unfortunate saps that played MA on release. I loved the animations until I realized other classes were about twice as fast and did more damage, but alas MA/SR fit my theme. Then I found the the power of BS/DA.

 

But Katana/Regen and Spines/Regen were far and away the most popular.

[Uun]

My main was MA/Inv and I also had Claws/Regen and Spines/Dark. I have re-rolled the MA/Inv on Homecoming, but only up to 38. BTW, MA was buffed considerably in I18.

[Hopeling]

/regen was the original Scrapper-only secondary, and you don't see many people playing it anymore. I know some people think that turning IH into a click power ruined the set, but even after that it offered high performance. IIRC, @Werner's Kat/Regen was soloing AVs quite well for years.

[Haijinx]

1 hour ago, Hopeling said:

/regen was the original Scrapper-only secondary, and you don't see many people playing it anymore. I know some people think that turning IH into a click power ruined the set, but even after that it offered high performance. IIRC, @Werner's Kat/Regen was soloing AVs quite well for years.

Regen seems popular with Sentinels for some reason. Maybe the early Recovery bonus.   

[biostem]

5 minutes ago, Haijinx said:

Regen seems popular with Sentinels for some reason. Maybe the early Recovery bonus.   

Well, radiation and bio armor offer that too, and other benefits as well.  If I had to guess, it's probably fewer toggles to have to worry about and less "must have" powers, if you want to dip into pools a bit more...

[Hopeling]

1 hour ago, Haijinx said:

Regen seems popular with Sentinels for some reason. Maybe the early Recovery bonus.   

The Sentinel version of /Regen is significantly different from the Scrapper version, and arguably more appealing, or at least easier to use.

[Nightmarer]

DM/SR

Kat/Inv

DM/DA

MA/DA

 

Not from the beginning though, I started playing during I7

Edited August 31, 2019 by Nightmarer
Typos, typos everywhere

[Murcielago]

Spines/Dark for the endurance lose

[biostem]

My namesake was a DM/Regen scrapper.  I also had a rad/rad defender early on that was really great on teams.  I also played an ice/stone tanker a good deal that was very smashy and had good survivability.

[Werner]

10 hours ago, Hopeling said:

/regen was the original Scrapper-only secondary, and you don't see many people playing it anymore. I know some people think that turning IH into a click power ruined the set, but even after that it offered high performance. IIRC, @Werner's Kat/Regen was soloing AVs quite well for years.

Yeah, my namesake Katana / Regen was a fun build to play, and could do silly things with the best of them, but it took a LOT of attention. After that I moved on to Dark Melee / Super Reflexes (Sergei), which took very little attention, but also wasn't really any better. And then I went to Katana / Dark Armor (Alexei), and that was my favorite until the game shut down, but damn were defense debuffs my kryptonite. I do remember a thread where I think there was some collaboration on coming up with the best Katana / Regen possible. On paper, it was much better than the Katana / Regen I did all the AV soloing and other Stupid Scrapper Tricks with. Almost good enough to tempt me away from my Katana / Dark Armor. Almost, but not quite. 

 

These days I'm spending all my time on a Super Strength / Fire Brute, and it's reasonably solid outside of things like psionic damage, but it's not built to do Stupid "Scrapper" Tricks.

 

I came up with a Kinetic Melee / Super Reflexes Brute build for a friend, and was so happy with how it ended up that I was like, "Now I'm jealous. I want one." So I'm currently fiddling around with a possible Titan Weapons / Super Reflexes Brute build, but I haven't even started one.

 

I haven't fiddled with Regen in the current game, but I suspect it could be built to be very solid. Well, maybe "solid" isn't the word for a set that requires laser focus to stay alive when things get ugly. But very capable.

 

I think Dark Melee / Super Reflexes would be a very solid old-school Scrapper. That's probably what I would build if I wanted to go old school.

[Frostweaver]

I remember Claws/sr was retarded powerful and fun to play. I had to set up a keyboard Macro for auto-followup, but nothing lived long enough to really be a threat.

[Murcielago]

3 hours ago, Frostweaver said:

I remember Claws/sr was retarded powerful and fun to play. I had to set up a keyboard Macro for auto-followup, but nothing lived long enough to really be a threat.

Dude on live boards named monkey something had a claws/sr that was really good

[Keilis]

A classic Scrapper I always wanted to play but never did was MA/DA.  With MA's lack of AoE the damage aura would be especially welcome, Dragon's Tail would help keep Oppressively Gloomed enemies from wandering too far too quickly, and since OG's an aura, you could jump into a spawn and CC a boss in one click with Cobra Strike.

 

Hmm... ya know, maybe I will finally make that.

[thegee]

is claws/sr still decent?

[Haijinx]

37 minutes ago, thegee said:

is claws/sr still decent?

Sure 

 

Really good on brutes too.  Maybe better tbh.  Better relative DPA since they used longer recharge.  And SR on brutes has a better level progression.  

 

That was my last project on live.  

 

Night widow is basically a claws srish scrapper as well.  Bit more fragile, more damage.

[thegee]

49 minutes ago, Haijinx said:

Sure 

 

Really good on brutes too.  Maybe better tbh.  Better relative DPA since they used longer recharge.  And SR on brutes has a better level progression.  

 

That was my last project on live.  

 

Night widow is basically a claws srish scrapper as well.  Bit more fragile, more damage.

Never made a Widow. Is it that more "fragile" than a scrapper?

[Constantine]

47 minutes ago, thegee said:

Never made a Widow. Is it that more "fragile" than a scrapper?

It's definitely noticeable. Widows have lower base HP. An equally slotted scrapper will have roughly 300 hp more at level 50, and while that might not sound like much, it certainly makes a big difference when you also consider the scaling damage resistance. Also, widows have virtually no defense debuff resistance.

On the bright side, widows provide excellent team buffs and their base costume comes with a buttcape, which is always a plus in my book.

[Frostweaver]

Widows feel slightly more fragile, although they tend to be slightly better on teams due to their leadership buffs, Their spin has, by default, better DPA and their buffs increase that, but they lack crit capacity but the addition of buildup can make a big difference. More of your attack chain will be devoted to building your damage than using it compared to a scrapper, though.

On the whole I think that they could potentially outdamage claws/sr scrappers, but I couldn't be sure without building both and then doing extensive real-world farm testing, Something I am just not ready to spend the time on Sunday morning doing.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Frostweaver

[MunkiLord]

14 hours ago, Werner said:

I think Dark Melee / Super Reflexes would be a very solid old-school Scrapper. That's probably what I would build if I wanted to go old school.

I recently remade mine, and it is indeed very solid. Softcap is stupid easy to attain, lots of room for Luck +7.5, so there is a lot of freedom in such a build.

7 hours ago, Murcielago said:

Dude on live boards named monkey something had a claws/sr that was really good

I don't like the way he spells "monkey"

[Leogunner]

Kat/SR is still my RP main and still fun to play.  And with how relatively cheap builds are in Homecoming, I tried something new with him: give him a build for the 2 different swords he has.

[Haijinx]

6 hours ago, Constantine said:

It's definitely noticeable. Widows have lower base HP. An equally slotted scrapper will have roughly 300 hp more at level 50, and while that might not sound like much, it certainly makes a big difference when you also consider the scaling damage resistance. Also, widows have virtually no defense debuff resistance.

On the bright side, widows provide excellent team buffs and their base costume comes with a buttcape, which is always a plus in my book.

It is noticeable.  That said I made it to 50 on my Widow in pugs/TFs/etc with only 2 defeats.  So its not squishy by any definition.   

 

The damage is excellent.  But not as good as a Stalker.  

 

 

Edited September 1, 2019 by Haijinx

[ericc191]

On 8/31/2019 at 12:24 PM, Uun said:

My main was MA/Inv and I also had Claws/Regen and Spines/Dark. I have re-rolled the MA/Inv on Homecoming, but only up to 38. BTW, MA was buffed considerably in I18.

Spines/Dark was the only combo with a double damage aura?

[Bill Z Bubba]

On 9/1/2019 at 2:35 PM, MunkiLord said:

On 9/1/2019 at 7:20 AM, Murcielago said:

Dude on live boards named monkey something had a claws/sr that was really good

I don't like the way he spells "monkey"

Think you both misspelled Bill Z Bubba.

Claws/SR is still glorious.

Damage is better on the scrapper, mitigation is better on the brute. As it should be.