Dr Harmony

Targetted Ranged attacks like Fireball, Fire Breath and Rain of Fire have just about the worse selection of possible set IOs.

Positron's Blast is very expensive, and gives a nice bonus +6.25% Recharge on 5 pieces. The actual slotting of the power isnt great though, specifically the Recharge bonus is low.

The other two sets (whose names I forget) are cheap but have no great set bonuses.
On a budget, your best option is to use the other two sets and build good bonuses for the actual power.

e.g. 2 x Acc/Dam and 2 x Dam/rech will give you the equivalent of 3 damage, 1.5 Accuracy and 1.5 recharge normal enhancements. This sort of improvement is actually better than the magnitude of a typical set.

But first, go for Thunderstrike in your single target ranged attacks. Cheap, great enahancment values and great set bonuses. You can't go wrong with it.

Thunderstrike is a very affordable set - its all common and has no expensive salvage.

It not only gives good set bonuses, but the enhancement values to your actual power are close to 3 damage, 2 acc, 2 end redux and 2 recharge.

Stick that in Blaze, then again in Fire Blast - Im sure you can get two sets at least for 30 million. Add to Flares and Ring of Fire (6 pieces each) as well and you have 15% Ranged/Energy Defence, +8% Recovery and +28% Accuracy.

Its by far the best bang-per-buck set for anyone with ranged powers.

(Forget what I said about Ring of Fire... but even three sets will make a difference )

Powersets are often re-interpreted by players.

For example, my namesake is an Earth/Energy Dominator who has Firestorm-like transmutation powers, and thanks to the power customisation available turns the air into diamond around enemies, creates pools of chlorine gas and so on. Being told that only I can help because of my Earth powers would be immersion-breaking rather than helping. And I dont believe that I'm alone in doing this.

Also, a character's core traits may not be reflected in their powersets. A sword wielder may be a talented fighter with a sword, or some kid who wields an Excalibur-like magic weapon, without any change in game statistics. Its hard to think of a mission that would require both as the specialist, unless we take Origin (Natural vs Magic here) or some other clues like weapon customisation into account.

Its a nice idea, but I think would be a lot of work for the development team, and ultimately unsatisfying for many players or characters.

I agree.

They are particularly frustrating on timed missions like Mayhems.

The PPD Ghosts have their ridiculous debuff move, and so are usually the first target to take down, giving the Equalisers time to drop their glue grenade.

You can often just do this by talking to your teammates (or yourself)

"Its ok, I've covered the bombs in ice."
"I've turned the explosives to hydrogen, they're harmless now"

or whatever's appropriate to your powerset.

Thunderstrike and Crushing Impact become available at level 30, and are two of the staple sets for most of my characters. Also, at 27 I usually have enough slots to start filling out my attack powers to accomodate sets for the good bonuses.

I have slotted other sets lower on, eg Kinetic Combat or occasionally Positron's Blast, but yes, they are hard to find at lower levels. There is no real reson why you should hold off if you have them though - the percentage point differences are small.

I don't know if its unusal, but I've enjoyed the Kinetic Combat Chance for Knockdown in Chain Induction on my Scrapper.

Not only does it have a chance to affect several targets, but it suits the animation perfectly when it hits on the first target. The open palm strike looks like you're shoving them over.

I also used to slot the Stupefy Chance for Knockback in Thunder Kick on my Martial Arts Stalker - that was a perfect animation for kicking someone across the room. I'll probably stick one in Boxing for both my current characters, just for fun.

I agree. I've used Jump Kick on two character, both of whom were acrobatic types.
If you're looking for someone who fights like Spiderman or the Beast, its not a bad power. As has been said, it has improved a lot since the early days of the game. Do expect to receive a few "You took Jump Kick?" private messages, and this was on Virtue!

I'd definitely take it over Air Superiority on a rabbit character, despite the lower damage mitigation provided.

I've played on an Empathy duo, and have to disagree with your assessment, SuperJe.

The offensive boost you experience is far more than the small damage bonus from Fortitiude. The recharge from Adrenalin Boost is far superior to that a Kinetics or Radiation duo get, and means you effectively forget about your Tier 1 blast, since you're cycling your more powerful attacks and area attacks non-stop.

The two regeneration powers and Fortitude provide a huge amount of passive protection - so you're rarely wasting time to fire off a Healing Aura.

In short, you're blasting non stop with your best attacks constantly, apart from the few second every two minutes required to refresh Fortitude, Clear Mind and Adrenalin Boost.

I do agree that Recovery Aura is wasted on a pure duo once you have Adrenalin Boost.

A Kinetics duo, in comparison, have little passive protection, but survive by their targetted heals and dmaage debuffs, which require change of focus, animation time and thought. A single area sleep, say from a Lost boss, can spell trouble, since it shuts down all that active protection.

I played a Force Fielder with a Kinetics partner once - that worked very well.

I too really like Knockback, and would hate to see it diminished in any way.

If you want Energy Blast with no knockback, try Radiation Blast. You get bonus accuracy, 3 area attacks, a built in stun in your short range heavy hitter as a your status attack instead of the rather anemic Power Push that Blasters get.

The cone attack does a bit of knockback, but can be skipped.
You can colour it however you like, and the only advantage you lose is the mitigation provided by knockback.

I've recently been playing an Electric Melee/Fire Armour scrapper - she's now level 32 and coming together quite well, and promises to get better with slotted Lightning Rod, Fiery Embrace, Rise of the Phoenix and Blaze Mastery to look forwards to.

I've played Scrappers a bit before - one level 50 Broadsword/Shield and one level 43 Martial Arts/Super Reflexes. The best way to describe Electric/Fire in contrast to these two is a melee Blaster - you have a lot of good area damage and rely on this more than on surviviability. Run into a group, fire off Chain Induction with the Kinetic Combat knockdown enhancement, follow up with Burn and then start pounding. Its chaotic, sometimes the enemies run off from Burn, but not as much as I remember on my old Fire tanker - I think the fear was removed in a recent issue?

Endurance hasn't been especially tight. Solo I tend to turn Blazing Aura off - its my most expensive toggle. I've taken Tough and run it, and that still isn't a big problem for my endurance bar. I've skipped Thunderstrike, so my attacks are fairly cheap. I've also slotted invention sets to get some defence and recharge, which in turn brings down my endurance problems because of the endurance reduction in most sets.

I'd recommend it. Its a lot different from the other Scrappers I've played.