Windenergy21

Originally Posted by SStingray

Yeah, at 40% you've gone from 50% to 10%, a full fivefold decrease, as you've said. But at 45%, you've gone from 50% to 5%, a full tenfold decrease. So yeah, that last 5% blocks as much as the first 40%.

Or was it a different math problem you were having trouble with?

Originally Posted by Negescape

I should have been a little more specific then. Actually, no, "uniques" should have been specific enough. I meant the Numina/RT/Miracle uniques. Those will not work when exemped down unless they're in range. Not sure if their slot matters O.O

Originally Posted by Phoebe_Ponderas

Why must this be so hard to decide? Massive AoE of course sounds tasty, but so does massive single-target damage. The clincher I think is that while Massive single-target can take out a large spawn (albeit slower) a massive AoE setup has trouble taking down one hard target. Not always true though. And being able to take out spawns fast is nice, but so is being able to take out an AV fairly easily. Dark Melee is definately safer as far as making it harder for them to hurt me, but it might not matter so much if elec blows them all up.

T_T oy

Originally Posted by Phoebe_Ponderas

/thread or not, I still need to figure out how to squeeze at least grant cover into that build >.> and maybe even shadow maul

Originally Posted by vinque

I am still relatively new so I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I've been playing with the various scrapper secondaries in Mid's and all seem to have their weakness except shield defense. Am I missing something? I mean, I'm guessing it's something that I'm missing "on paper", because it has very good defense combined with good resistance, all status prot covered, and a boost to offense. All this with reasonable endurance toggles. I did a quick and dirty build of /SD and got capped melee and ranged def w/40% AOE def; 30% s/l res w/20%(approx) res everything else, 10 or more status prot in all but taunt,placate, and teleport; 65% res def debuff; and 220% Regen/155% Recov. All this with a built-in (Against All Odds) boost to primaries. I really hope I'm missing something. *scratches head and wonders why first char was /SR*
*scratches head and wonders why I didn't download Mid's sooner*

Originally Posted by Sarrate

Grant Cover has 30% rech resistance.

Originally Posted by Catwhoorg

One of the issues I suspect is that people knew purple prices would tank with the new slider settings, realized a lot of inf from purple inventory and its was hard to keep that amount of inf 'active' in lesser priced items.

Me, I just got lucky with mine and got some drops and lowball bids at just the right time.

Originally Posted by StratoNexus

The ITF lacks mezzing and is readily and easily achievable for an all blaster team.

A LGTF would be annoying, but enemies won't last very long. Rikti mez a lot, but they aren't going to mez the whole team, and since it only takes two blasters to wipe the spawn, the Rikti would have to mez better than 6 of 8, which is unlikely. The Hami might be tough, but everything else should be readily doable.

Originally Posted by MutantX_7

I don't plan on running tough early on until I can spend some slots on it, it will be a mule for the Std Fst unique, at that point. then I will have the 3 toggles (Deflection, Battle Agility, and Weave slotted with lvl 25 LoTG's (I already have them purchased def/end, def/rech, def/end/rech, and def). Which give me +30% regen and +45 HP.

This is all still a work in progress, and my plans are everchanging, who knows what I'll think to do, I'm only at lvl 15 right now so, plenty of time to change plans.

Originally Posted by MutantX_7

I have T-Strike in my build now, I plan on respec'ing at lvl 25 and thats when I'll pick up boxing/tough/weave and drop T-strike, so I would only be losing the mitigation from it for either 1 or 3 lvls (26 or 28, whether I go T-strike or AAO at 26 then the other at 28). Right now with 3 lvl 15 def IOs, CJ and the std fst unique, im sitting at 20 def to all at lvl 15 w/ t-strike to knockdown. It's amazing how different building my SD/Em tank was compared to this one.

Originally Posted by Frosticus

I wish T-strike had a bigger aoe as I've only ever used the blaster version which has a 12ft radius compared to the 7ft one for elec melee.

I'm undecided whether I like the st nature of the blaster version better than the aoe nature of the scrap version. I do like the kd rather than the kb though.

I almost think I'd reverse the two of them (while making both kd) as /elec manipulation already has tremendous st damage and could use a bit more aoe and elec melee already has really solid burst aoe and could use a bit more st damage.

that opinion may very well change though as my elec/fire scrap is only lvl 14 and I know I usually appreciate aoe damage later in the game so I'll probably like elec melee t-strike soon enough.

Still wouldn't object to a bigger radius though, it really feels like it should be at least 10ft.

Originally Posted by Exxar

Some general advice on powers:

Lightning Field - a must have power, it contributes great damage and you won't have endurance problems because of Power Sink and Energize.

Grounded - optional with -KB IOs, but a great place to put the Steadfast +3% def IO.

Energize - frankenslot it with 4 heal/recharge IOs or put 5 Doctored Wounds in it. Fire it off as necessary as a heal, and since that will be often enough you'll have decent mileage out of its end redux.

Power Sink - slot it with 4 Performance Shifters and together with Energize watch all of your endurance problems disappear, provided you took Stamina.

Combat jumping - put a LotG +rech in it and it will provide you with +2% defense to everything. I consder it an essential power on all brutes and scrappers because of that, and the fact that you can stuff Zephyr into it (which you should, at least two of them).

Travel power - put the entire Zephyr inside. Very nice set bonuses, not to mention additional KB protection.

Stamina - if you can spare 4 slots, put 4 Performance Shifters inside, including the proc. If not, 3-slot it with the Perf proc and 2 lvl 50 endmod IOs. The proc is better then a third endmod IO, and even on par with the first one as well as being immune to recovery debuffs.

Health - for the Miracle and Numina uniques, in that order. Unless you have enough end ofcourse.

Fighting pool - if you're going for typed instead of positional defenses, you'll want to stuff 4 Kinetic Combats into boxing as a mule. Tough and Weave are nobrainers, put a fourpack of LotG into the latter (including the +rech one) to get a nice accuracy bonus, but you can skimp on the 4th slot if you really can't spare any. Tough gets 4 Reactive Armors if you're going for typed defense, or 5 Aegis if you're going positional.



Now, on to some specifics of your last build.

Titanium coating is usually not worth slotting for +hp from my experience since there are plenty other sets that provide that 1.5% bonus in addition to the stuff you also want from them.

Move that Steadfast from Charged Armor over to Grounded. That IO in Grounded is giving you almost nothing, and you'll be able to stuff something nicer in Charged Armor.

Lightning field - erm, what are you trying to pull here? You can get better AoE bonuses elsewhere, so you can stuff Obliteration inside for +def to melee and +recharge. Energy Manipulator proc... Really, get Obliteration inside and don't worry about end usage, you have Power Sink and Energize, remember?

Power Sink - No. Will not do. You need as much recharge in there as possible - see my guidelines above.

Power Surge - In my experience it is better to replace it with another power, even just for muling sets, as it doesn't get much mileage. If it does, you have wrongly built your toon :P

Ancillary Pool - If you need to hold something with Petrifying gaze that means you're doing something very very wrong since you could already have killed it. Dark Blast - I can see you picking this power if you want to have a bit better single-target efficiency than the standard Spines/ scrapper. In my opinion you go Spines/ if you want to be an AoE deathmachine so stick with the concept. You can go Body Mastery for Perfection of Body (although I don't see it of much use here because of /Elec) or try to stuff in Fireball. Otherwise, rearrange those two power and slot picks for better set bonuses.

Static Shield - ... yeah. Get it at 10 and stuff in a useful resistance set.



I'll post an example build if I get the time.

Originally Posted by Enamel_32

Wait, I'm confused. The ammount of damage a damage aura does isn't as important as if it kills something?

Originally Posted by Jeminiks

And you show me where the damage Aura KILLED anything or did anything besides dropped the mobs health 2% before you two shotted the group as a Spiner.

Damage Auras are nice, but people take Herostats way out of context. Fractional Overkill.

If I have a Mob with 150HP, 2 AoE attacks that deal 100 and 75, and Im running DoT Auras that tick for 10hp every second, I dont need the DoT Auras (Gross Oversimplification, but it explains my point) The only thing DoT Auras tend to be useful for are Finishing the Sliver of Health enemies, or eliminating them, but Honestly with how quickly Throw Spines recharges vs Having both DoT Auras running, one more TS finishes a group, Not to mention when grouping You have additional AoE covering you.

The *only* time Ive seen DoT Auras really be useful is when Im farming on my Spines/DA with a Kin buffing me. Watching me shave ticks of 50 between my Auras is kinda nifty on groups Ive herded.

Originally Posted by Jeminiks

Also all this love for Damage Auras doesnt really give the truth. Theyre nice, and Lightning Field coupled with Power Sink will help keep enemies sapped, but Sans farming, they wont be doing anything worthwhile. Mostly saving you Fractional Overkill but even then their end costs over time might not be worth it.

Play with the Auras and figure it out for yourself, I never took them in PvE on my Spines/Dark but Im looking forward to Lightning on my Spines/Elec for Sapping.

Also for Endurance issues...really? Youre not going to have any with Power Sink and Energize, youll be firing them off nearly every group so you should be topped off.

Lastly Tough and Weave are definitely worth it over an Epic. Spines has Redraw and if youre IOing, even Franken Slotting, youll have enough attacks to fill any holes that Epics wont make a difference. The survivability boost from Fighting is worth more than the extra attacks you likely wont use.

For general play, Dont Auto Energize, just fire it when you need a heal, your Endurance doesnt start tanking til Throw Spines shows up (Unless you decided to just opt into the DoT Auras early, then youre gasping for an effect thats hardly noticeable teaming) and right after Throw Spines is Powersink. 3 Slot with recharge and you get a free Blue Bar Refill every 30 seconds.

Originally Posted by Tenacious_T

Well, like I mentioned, I already have about 22% melee def from bonuses. If I take weave & cj that means I won't be able to have an epic power pool. Or I'll have to get rid of some other stuff like lightning reflexes, but I don't want to.

The set bonuses I get from either dark blast or nightfall aren't that stupendous. And, while I like nightfall a lot with other characters, I'll already have a bunch of cones, aoe, and 2 auras. I suppose survivability will definitely be a factor in regard to aggro, too. I'll have to think about that. I'd kind of like to put a kismet: 6% to-hit in there somewhere, too, now that you mention cj...

Edit: good thinking with +rech on power sink. That makes more sense.

Originally Posted by Tenacious_T

Didn't realize how important it was to get that right away. I suppose if I'm in the thick of things I'll probably want that sooner. Good thinking!

I was thinking that this is really toggle-heavy. I don't have CJ, but I'm running all the defensive toggles and two damage auras on top of that. I'm wondering if I should be going with Body Mastery instead because of this. That'll give me Physical Perfection for the extra +end, and I can put a Performance Shifter proc into both it and Stamina. What do you think?