Celidya

I'd say it depends, i usually don't mind but sometimes i think twice about it. Not much about the "secret" thing than the fact some random peoples can come in and copy the build while not understanding anything about it, then end up boasting about a character when they won't have put any work for it in the way of searching and understanding game mechanics.

And a build is a "single player" think as a good build for me is a build that fits the playstyle, theme, and power expectations i have. Almost all my builds have some room where i drop a bit of min/maxing for something i like that fits the theme or character, or just powers i find useful because of how i play.

Ideally i think we should help peoples to make their own build, rather than feeding them with our own builds. I always found discussions like "how to slot that power" always more interesting than "give me XX/YY build pls !".

Tried the AE farm compared to the peregrine one, same map, same mobs, so same time to do it. It sure is effective but how boring. In 2 hours i can fill up 2 or 3 characters with stuff to sell, and i spend more time sorting that mess and crafting than farming.

Yeah i don't care much for stalkers honestly, and even less about who is in the team. I just know i won't play one cause for me the fun comes from AOE goodness. Most content is easy enough that 1-3 good archetypes can do it, then fill the rest of the team with sidekicks, random AT/players, and nobody cares.

However the difference anyone makes to a team is what matters when it comes to how easy it is to group. Any support archetype will usually be welcome in a team, while solo-oriented archetypes tend to fill up the holes. And out of those solo-oriented archetypes, stalker is the least useful as it's the typical solo AT, designed for solo fights against one boss and some minions. They help a bit in a team, fine, but who cares that the stalker can kill one boss fast when most spawns will have several of them, anyway. We'd have to do some maths but i'm sure with 3 boss in the spawn AoE can do more than the stalker ST, maybe even with two bosses. To make it viable we'd need a stalker who can kill all the bosses as fast as others kill the rest of the mobs: it's ridiculous and won't happen.

And the stalker ST damage is nowhere near enough, simply because ST can't hit several mobs while AOE work as well on a single mob, so even an AOE specialist can help well enough on a single target while the ST specialist... well he can't do anything against several mobs.

I invested the inf for the first build, strictly PvE, so i was just thinking about a second build, i didn't invest anything for it yet.

But i guess i'll just wait for another character i like that would be more suited for that, thanks for the answers ^^

Hi there, i was thinking about it for a while but i thought i'd ask here as it's probably the best place.

My main character after a ton of alts is my spines/dark scrapper, now that i'm done and happy with her main build (full purple) and she's where i want her to be for pve, i was wondering if it would be worth it to think about a second build for pvp.

I don't like pvp enough to make a specific character for it (especially since pvp is all about ST focused characters, while i'm an aoe fanatic) so i'm thinking about a second build just to be able to do something when someone wants a duel, or go out in the pvp zone and have some fun.

When i tried a long time ago (like 1,5 years ago) with that character and the cheap IO build she had, it was quite an epic fail, i remember doing some arena vs a bot/dark MM and i didn't stand much chance, neither against other ATs usually. I could survive by superspeeding, build up, throw one attack, heal then run until recharged but that was quite ineffective.

Now with some changes to pvp (i think) i'm wondering if it's always hopeless with dark armor. I read spines is (was ?) somewhat good but the problem is dark armor: it's my favorite powerset in the game and i'd like to find a way to make it work for PvP. Main issue i can think about would be the to-hit check for the heal, and the fast most toggles would drop at the first CC against me. I'm quite good when it comes to kiting and jumping in and out of melee for the heal and i can say for sure DA doesn't need to be in melee all the time, so my main worries would be to make sure it lands.

How does it work these days with the to-hit ? Any hope to make it somewhat effective ? I don't mind losing against good pvpers as i probably will have a lot to learn, however i'd like to stand a chance and be a little threat to whoever i encounter, not ending up completely neutered by to-hit debuffs/high defense/whatever. While i don't care to lose or win, what i want is some good fights more than anything, means not 3sec spike dps fights or paper/rock/cissors where one spec will totally destroy the other one 100% of the time.

Thanks in advance for any info/tip about that combination, and if anyone got it to work well enough in pvp, i'd appreciate a build or some advices. I'd sure be proud to make that character work as i bet nobody ever tries to PvP with that, however i don't have enough knowledge at all about the PvP mechanics for powers to make my own idea if something is viable or if there's no chance to overcome the odds.

Procs only have a chance to fire every 10sec in toggles so it will be quite slow. Unless you plan to make a concept build and use no attack at all, the attacks will kill mobs way before your procs can fire more than a few times, making them almost useless anyway.

ST damage is useless most of the time when all the game is about AOE fights. It only matters for AVs and there it's all about the whole team, debuffs, and not a single stalker dps. I'd rather use the 3-4 hits to wipe a whole spawn then finish the boss with half health.

I had a more "common" build with tough but then i tried the "max aoe" build and did a respec to that:

On my first /dark characters i thought OG was the obvious cost: low end cost, "hard" control instead of "soft", better accuracy. However now i only use CoF as long as the character has endurance under control:

-it looks awesome
-mobs don't wander away when i want them all around me
-can 4 slot for 6,25% rech, some ok bonuses, and a damage proc included (every little bit helps ) while OG needs 5 and no proc
-the acc debuff is better than nothing when the CC doesn't matter

The damage mitigation is "lower" than OG but, more than enough. The whole point is to kill them before they kill me, and i do that just fine with CoF.

After making a ton of alts and leveling them to 50 i now play almost only my spines/dark scrapper, she's just the most fun overall and since power customization she has the most awesome look too, rather than the worst one before it. Only thing i'd miss is a bit of survivability for hard encounters but, they don't happen often enough compared to the joy of aoe wiping all the mobs

I have both spines/dark and claws/dark and if claws was about as good in the golden days of AE boss farm with stacked groups of dozens of mobs, spines is a lot better overall because simply of the range. It's very easy to hit the target cap on the cone and pbae while for claws, the cone does a kb and the pbae has a very small radius (despite being awesome damage). That + the damage aura makes Spines a lot better imo.

I can't say muchabout Fire/ and Elec/ as i haven't leveled either of them but i sure don't feel like anything could go much faster than spines/dark when it comes to farming, usually in+2/3x8 setting. It's more a matter of playstyle than real speed at this point.

While i don't mind joining random teams, if i have to make mine especially for a tf i'd rather have it as good as it can be. I'm probably doing that TF only for merits so the faster it can be, the better. So i tend to prefer teams with a single tank (and not 4 of them), 2 rather specialized supports (usually kin, rad, FF or emp) then fill in with blasters and scrappers. I prefer defenders over controllers as they tend to be more focused on what helps the team the most (buffing/debuffing) rather than useless controls (at lvl 50), and peacebringers/warshades are way too bad in the hands of the average player to be useful to anything but spawning nictus.

Is it needed ? It isn't, of course. But i prefer to run a TF in 1 hour steamrolling everything and herding maps while having fun than doing it in 2 hours and spending half the time running after mobs flying everywhere or unloading my AoEs in a pack of 3 mobs.

Overall though the only teams i will leave (or kick someone from) are the ones with a very annoying AT, or one that doesn't fit at all with my playstyle.

The ATs i like having around the most are kin and FF defenders. Both of them dramatically increase the fun i have either by providing total safety or a massive amount of damage.

I think Throw Spines would do well even in a ST attack chain. Same animation as Lunge but slightly more damage, though the end cost could be problematic. What about Ripper > Throw Spines > Impale ?

I made a MA/dark but i just can't get into it for now at lvl 6. Damn, i forgot how i hated the low levels. I think it even feels worse with fast attacks since i spend most of my time waiting for them to recharge on top of having no combat flow at all.

For DM/DA, i can hardly imagine it being decent AoE at least on my criterias. But then i'm used to Spines. I tend to prefer fast recharging attacks that i can spam very often rather than long ones and playing my DA/DM tank i felt i was always waiting for the interesting attacks. Though i could probably get away with the anims using a fire blast/SL/fire blast/MG chain (i HATE the punching) and it would even be an interesting concept for a melee character, i know i'll just miss a spamable pbaoe attack. And i don't really like the Shadow Maul animation too anyway.

By the looks of it, i'll make everything and just stick with the one i'll enjoy the most in the low levels,

There's a third choice, something like "no impulsion" or something, i don't remember. Anyway, it works well and i choose it for ALL my dark characters It's only for CoD so it won't be in the whole powerset menu. The option is there for Obsidian shield too but i never noticed an effect.

Cloak of darkness used to be an issue for me as well but now thanks to power customization it can be "invisible" so, i don't mind anymore and it it was really the only bad thing about /dark for me.

I'm not an expert with the range stuff but, i thought capping range on the fire breath would make it wider too. I think i read somewhere range enhancements on cone boths improve the range and make them wider, so it would turn it into a 45°, 30 range cone. While nowhere as good or comfortable as a Throw spines i think it wouldn't be too hard to hit 5 targets or something like that. Now i have no idea if it's true or not.

How is elec melee ST dps compared to, Spines ?

Hey there,

I just came up to the conclusion i'd better make a post to have some fresh ideas since i'm stuck on Mid's for a while now and can't decide on what to roll next. As my sign shows and as some posters might have noticed through my other posts, i have a little problem: i'm addicted to darkness. And as a consequence, to scrapping as a whole.

Yeah, right, i just can't force myself to play anything but /dark characters. Sounds a bit laughable but, that's it, once upon a time i used to like defenders/controllers/blasters but as soon as i think about rolling i keep thinking i'll miss the mezz protection, damage, and feeling of a scrapper. So i move to the scrapper primary/secondary choices (for the 150th time) then i list them one by one and always realize i end up with a something/dark.

Why that ? I just like about everything from dark, the playstyle, the graphics, the versatility, and the fact /dark scrappers are fairly rare compared to the uber /shields and easy to play /willpowers, /sr or the old classic /regen. I swear on my server 90% of the scrappers i meet have these secondaries, so i like to stay "different".

Anyway, now that i'm stuck again with /dark, i was wondering which primary would fit for a new playstyle. I already have spines/dark as my main character and farmer, claws/dark as the old main farmer (now that AE is nerfed she doesn't get much love), katana/dark as the AV soloer and tf runner (but i just can't force myself to finish the build with the super expensive IOs even if she already does pretty good), a lvl 42 soon to be 50 and s/l/e/n softcapped DB/dark.

Dark melee is out of the way, as much as i love /dark, i HATE dark/... The animations and the single target aspect make it the primary i'll never do again (got a dark/dark tank to 50, she's now waiting for free respecs before i can finally delete her). That leaves elec, MA, fire and BS. I don't see much point to the last one, while i really liked the *smash* feeling on my old BS/shield, i think it just looks stupid to have a sword in right hand and nothing in left one. Meh.

Beyond the usual performance and build stuff, i was toying with the idea of the "scraptroller", especially with the presence pool AE fear stacked with my beloved Cloak of Fear. Sounds like it would be a fun and very uncommon playstyle, and at the same time be an innovative way to get more survivability without going for the softcap.

Invoke panic doesn't seem like such a bad power, GotA is a decent set, accuracy is easily solved with IOs (i don't go for +4 anyway, my typical setting is +2 x8), a recharge focused build will make it available often enough. I only worry about the end cost, so i'd rather be looking at an endurance efficient primary and build. However it seems a bit counterproductive to the AoE goodness i enjoy if i use it as a mitigation tool on its own.

Considering that, i have some questions:

-do the procs cause their own "chance to attack" for the feared mobs ? I was thinking of a damage proc in Invoke panic, and my usual damage procs in damage aura and AoE powers. Let's say the damage aura ticks and the proc goes off, will it give one chance or two chances (damage tick + proc) for the mob to retaliate ? If slotted in invoke panic, will the proc be taken into account before or right after the fear effect application ?

-my playstyle is fairly aggressive and as a good scrapper i tend to just jump in the middle of the pack, let the damage aura hit as many mobs as it can, then unload all my AoE and chains. I would just throw invoke panic before the AoE chain. Would it then give any real benefit, or be nullified by all the AoE going on ? The goal would be to buy me enough time to let the heal recharge and keep up (and since the heal does damage too, it doesn't help i guess). I have a mindset close to /regen with /dark anyway, i consider that a race between my heal recharge and the incoming dps so, i'd see Invoke Panic as a way to grab the precious seconds i need.

-a bit like the first question but, if going with MA or fire (or even elec) i'd be tempted to add fireball to the mix. I never tried it so far because of redraw but since i'll now try some sets with no redraw, it seems to fit. Would the dot component of the fire attacks count as their own damage source and force a chance to retaliate on the fear ?


Back to the primaries, i don't know much about them. Elec being a villain set for a long time i simply never played it or bothered to know anything about it, only the common knowledge on forums, so this is one of the few sets in this game where i'm totally lacking any experience with it. While i sure would enjoy Lightning rod, i fear i'll never bring it to fast enough recharge to overcome the fact none of the other powers seem very exciting. It has bonus points for a true scraptroller feeling though, with Lightning clap. CoF + invoke panic for soft control, then OG + lightning clap for emergency hard control. That's a mag 4 pbaoe fear and a mag 4 pbae stun with the knockback on top of it. But that's a lot of power picks and it would be a mess on the battle field (and on the endurance bar too), however, it sounds fun enough to be something to consider. Lightning clap seems like such a lifesaver to buy time between the heals when i'm left alone with a herd of mobs on me after a team wipe. Seems like i should take most of the primary powers too, which isn't a good thing as it will make it harder to get pools and epics.

MA is straight forward enough that i see how it will work, just wondering if DT + fireball and damage aura will be enough to not feel anemic. It's often said to be the best scraptroller primary because of stuns, but i'll use fears instead and won't waste power picks or time to animate single target stuns. So it leaves DT as the gem of the set (this attack is beautiful, both for animation and effect i think) and a counterproductive single target KB. I think a fast recharging DT would provide a lot of mitigation through knockdown, too.

I've always been a fire hater but now with power customization i finally consider rolling one. FSC seems beautiful and having the highest damage all around gives it a spot in my scrapper heart. I'm just wondering if Fire breath is of any kind of value for a scrapper, it seems most skip it. I don't like the animation and the narrow cone but, i'm used to cones (so jumping in and out of melee to fire it wouldn't be an issue, though a bit annoying), and the damage/recharge are quite amazing on Mid's. I thought about frankenslotting it to max range enhancement as well, worthless, or could be viable ? Without fire breath that leaves only a single AoE, like MA. It seems like the less "scraptrollery" of the 3, but having good ST and AoE dps on top of the pbaoe fear controlling ? That's a win/win of course.

And here i am, stuck for days now pondering about that. So if you have any input or ideas on that, especially looking at the usual min/maxers hanging around there. It's a mix between a fun build, concept, yet i want it to be a decent powerhouse when it comes to ST and AoE damage. Won't be an AV soloer of course

Thanks in advance.

The mail system, switching sides, new costumes, new tfs and/or gameplay content.

For the rest of the stuff like AE, badges, new powersets, i couldn't care less. I hate to look like anyone else so, i won't roll the new powersets until they're not new anymore. Though the demon summoning looks interesting once i can bring a MM on hero side.

Most content will be the side switching anyway, it will double the amount of characters i can play, as long as i can transfer inf/enhancement. Otherwise it won't solve anything, i hate villain side cause i don't want to have to farm again and twice more to get anything i can get for cheap on blue side.

Check the guide in my sig, you should find enough info there even if it's i15.

Most of the time tanking is just about being the first into the spawn and taking on the alpha. Then everyone unloads and after 10sec only the bosses remain, that pretty much anyone can survive anyway.

Now for AVs it's different and requires a bit more work as well as well played characters. That happens rarely enough that a tank if more often than not *needed*.

I *love* to go with superspeed + hurdle + combat jumping and most of the time sprint on top of that to be at capped runspeed (i don't waste slots on SS for that).

I just can't go with superjump. Mainly because it cancels combat jumping, and i like to use my travel power between packs of mobs, so with SJ i can't else i spend more time playing toggles than i want to. And SS is a lot more practical in most missions and maps. Feels a bit like a minigame to travel at capped runspeed and avoid things on the way, i even keep it in caves or offices maps for giggles. It keeps me on my toes and reactive at 100%. Going through stairs with SS + sprint is a nice challenge.

I love the teleporting concept but the whole pool is just useless and it needs hover to be comfortable as well, meh. If i was a vet and could take TP without a prerequisite i'd take it on some characters.

Fly is meh, though i like fly + combat jumping. It turns fly into a very reactive power and feels faster, though not as good as SS.

Sometimes i just spend time superspeeding through Steel or Skyway for fun and trying to stay on the tram path, follow the road or something. I tend to hate slow running and travel times in usual games so, nothing beats the fun of superspeeding. I dream to have it in other games. Vertical are not a problem most of the point, a jetpack will do it, or more often than not i'll just run around and still be faster than the flier to reach the mission door.

1) Dark armor with a dark blue/dark red color
2) Dark armor with a teal/sea blue color
3) Dark armor with a yellow/pink color