Eldorado

At this point, I'd have to say "we need to know more about your build."

I've got both a Dual Blades/WP and a Claws/WP scrapper running Focused Accuracy, Tough, Weave, Combat Jumping, Sprint, and the four Willpower toggles, all the time.

Admittedly, they've both got a Numina's Unique, Miracle Unique, three Performance Shifter procs, and Physical Perfection.

Both took Spiritual, neither has END problems in long sustained AV fights.

April 15th has fallen on Friday before -- probably about 1/7th of the time.

"Taxpayers will have until Monday, April 18 to file their 2010 tax returns and pay any tax due because Emancipation Day, a holiday observed in the District of Columbia, falls this year on Friday, April 15. By law, District of Columbia holidays impact tax deadlines in the same way that federal holidays do; therefore, all taxpayers will have three extra days to file this year."

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/...233910,00.html

I think I just found my new "sig."

If cash isn't a problem, I like to triple slot Stamina with a Performance Shifter: Recovery (same boost as a generic IO End Mod), Performance Shifter: Chance for +End, and a generic End Mod IO.

It's the same amount of recovery, but with a +5% run speed/jump speed/jump height/fly speed bonus -- which admittedly isn't much, but if I do something similar in Quick Recovery, that's 10%. <shrugs>

If "half of a 33% bonus" works out to be more like 10% in actual in-game-stabbing-things numbers, is two-thirds of a 45% bonus REALLY going to be 32.25%?

I'd have thought (at first reading) that "half of 33%" would have been more like 16.5%, and that "two-thirds" of 45 would be 30, but I'll freely admit that I'm NOT a CoX math whiz, either!

Top definition for "work" over at dictionary.com: "exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil."

That sounds a lot like the effort needed to get the best loot in the game to me!

The same source also defines "entertainment" as "the act of entertaining; agreeable occupation for the mind; diversion; amusement: Solving the daily crossword puzzle is an entertainment for many.

I find their example vaguely wrong because of all the people that I know who like crossword puzzles, they all want there to be SOME degree of effort required to complete the puzzle or else they complain that it was too easy. And the New York Times crossword is generally known for being easiest on Monday and becoming more difficult as the week progresses. So those things make crosswords seem somewhat like "work."

If the OP wants pure entertainment without any sort effort, there's always television and movies.

Because DB/claws would be a whirling juggernaut of total destruction, but with no defenses whatsoever?

[Yes, that should have read "...have been a DB/WP and a claws/WP!" -- fixed it above, too. Ooops.]

My two favorite scrappers for the past year or more have been a DB/WP and a DB/claws!

[Edit: Okay, that should have read "...have been a DB/WP and a claws/WP!" I was apparently looking forward to playing one in-game instead of actually proofreading. Doh! ]

Like most of my characters, I've worked them up to level 47 with [almost exclusively*] single origin enhancements before investing a billion or two in IO's once I decided I was going to play them a lot after 50.

With both SO's and VERY similarly slotted IO builds, it's my perception that the claws scrapper can eliminate a _/x8 spawn a little bit faster thanks to the higher damage from Spin, but that the DB scrapper can survive a higher level/x8 spawn thanks to the knockdown mitigation from Attack Vitals and Sweep.

With Dual Blades, if I alternate those two combos, focus on the boss and let my AoEs handle the rest of the mob, I can potentially knock the boss down with 3 of 6 attacks and knock down a bunch of minions with 2 of 6. Since they're simply knocked down and not away from the character, Rise to the Challenge keeps healing, whereas if they're knocked away with my claws scrapper's Shockwave, they're not.

And if the boss and/or some of the bad guys are knocked down and getting back up, they're not attacking me either, meaning I can usually set the difficulty one level higher with my DB scrapper.

Admittedly, I play the DB scrapper the most, and I've had a couple of claws/WP scrappers point out that if I used Shockwave and a nearby wall more often, I might get similar results.

Just my observations, with only willpower as a secondary. Your mileage may vary.

[*Since I've got way too many alts, I normally don't spend much time working on low-level IO builds as I'm levelling, preferring instead to throw some "Quality of Life" unique IO's into the build as needed. -KB for squishies, a lowish level Miracle or Numina's proc for endurance, and maybe a Performance Shifter proc or two as needed. If I decide I like the character at 47 or 50, I'll swap those out for some higher level ones and recycle the lower ones to a new alt; if the character never even looks like it will make it to 50 I just yank them, delete the character, and start anew.]

Oh, me too! And then if I can sell a crafted IO for a 20 million profit from that slot (which is easily doable) then I just got my 20,000 INF back times a thousand!

I have to chuckle at people hoarding various items for varying reasons. I much prefer hoarding INF across various alts, and then spending it when I want to. I find it a LOT simpler to buy stuff when I know how much "cash" I have on hand, but that's just me.

Totally unscientific, anecdotal side note based on people I know and forum posts that I've read: it appears to me that a lot of the multi- and mega-billionaires in CoX tend to hoard INF whereas the people who hoard "stuff" often seem to be poor, or else to perceive that they are poor when in reality, they're not.

"How can you just afford to blow a billion plus on IOs for a character when you hit 47th level like that?"

"How can you NOT afford to finish IO-ing out your half-finished character when you hit 47th? You've got multiple sets of [insert various pricey IOs] filling up your base storage?!?"

"Well, they're for...and I MIGHT need them for...and they might go up in price...and I just started a new alt..."

There's thousands of ways to play the game, and none are wrong. My way works well for me, which is what counts. Your mileages may vary.

If I'm selling junk for 1 INF, I'll also empty out my inventory ever-so-slightly faster than the person selling the same junk for 5 INF....

...which might get me my extra market slots a couple of days quicker. Maybe. But I have to pay 4 INF per item for the privilege.

I've seen some common salvage going for single digit prices this week, but in the long run, it's NOT AT ALL profitable to run to WW's, check prices, run to the vendor, sell, and then run BACK to WW's to make 18,000 INF.

Like a lot of others here, I dump my common and even uncommon salvage for 1 INF each, and for rares I might take a few seconds to stab a flipper in the back. "Last Five: 2,100,100, 3,000,000, 3,000,000, 2,100,100, 2,100,100." Flippers are paying 2.1 million, Buy It Nao-ers are paying 3 million? I'll list it for 2.2 million and probably get 2.5 or 3 million. If I get 3 million, that's 810,000 more than I'd have gotten from a flipper. If that's for a stack of three Pangean Soils, it's like I sold four instead!

I also think paying 10,000 INF for an Auction House transporter is a bargain, even if I have the day job power. If I'm in the RWZ or at Portal Corp, I can stab enough bad guys to make ten times that much in the time it takes my teammate to superleap around and zone to Talos, then leap to WW's. I can stay behind, beat up more bad guys, then push a button and beat him there anyhow.

I'm not sure how much external recharge you'll really need to drop PS from your chain -- my guess is "not very much" since you've already got almost three LotGs' worth of recharge from Quickness.

I've also teamed with some DB/SR characters that commented on my DB/WP's [old] need to have to "fill" with the Sweep combo when they didn't have to, though I'm not sure quite how much recharge they had at the time.

[5 LotGs and a Spiritual Alpha slot later, when I run BF -> AV I sometimes joke that my DB/WP is now "impersonating an SR scrapper -- but with a LOT more regen!" But that level of recharge on DB/SR seems fairly doable, and with Quickness on top of it I'm curious as to what chains would be available.]

With his three positional defenses between 23.9 and 25.8, I think he's using Mako's and Oblits for ranged and melee defense respectively, which makes perfect sense if someone's IO'ing a toon that's already got some positional defenses.

However, Willpower's only innate defense comes from Heightened Senses, which is TYPED defense, and benefits more from boosting those instead of positional defenses. (Like quite a few other people here, I tried building my WP character for typed defense about a year ago and had the error of my ways pointed out as well! )

As BrandX points out, you'll get a nice boost to Smashing and Lethal defenses from Kinetic Combat sets instead -- and since a LOT of late-game incoming damage contains smashing and lethal components, it makes a noticeable difference to aim for typed defenses instead.

I don't think the OP is "worrying" about Fire and Cold defense at all. Reading between the lines and the assumption that this character is built around positional defense, it appears that his relatively high Fire and Cold defenses are merely a side effect of:

Slotting 3 Aegises for a little AoE defense
Slotting 6 Multi-strikes for AoE and Melee defense
Slotting 5 Aegises for a little AoE and then some more AoE defense
Slotting 5 Miracles for AoE defense

My recommendation is to rethink more along the lines of BrandX's suggestions and aim more for S/L over postional defenses. You also might consider dropping a Miracle: +Recovery in there as well to boost your End recovery, as well as a couple of Performance Shifter procs.

From what I learned from two other threads in the Scrapper forum here and over here, the short answer is: "no."

Attempts to compare them is apparently like comparing iPods to oranges, but certainly results in a ton of math and a lot of arguing.

A minor question of (and fun with) semantics: when you fire off Conserve Power it's not going to instantly refill your endurance bar like a giant inspiration. It's more like your endurance costs drop dramatically for the next 90 seconds, so you'll burn a lot less with attacks and toggles and your recovery can regen endurance back almost as if you were standing still. (I've never actually done the math: Mid's says "+End Redux: +119.2% (Self)" -- does that take an additional 59.6% off your endurance for the next 90 seconds?)

Anyhow -- I'm sure that YOU already know that, but didn't want anybody else stumbling into the thread late to get the wrong impression that "popping CP" worked like "pop an inspie."

And here's hoping that CP will indeed get your end bar back to full in those 90 seconds that it's active -- though I don't see why it wouldn't!

I'm really not quite sure why you've got TWO end reduxes in RttC like that -- I'd think they'd be of more use in your Fighting Toggles, which have a higher base endurance cost than your secondary toggles. You might consider moving them around, or perhaps you can use one or both for extra damage in another attack.

I'm also not entirely sure why you've got two end reduxes in Maneuvers when the "old" conventional wisdom was that one was plenty, but I'll admit I'm not an expert on the Leadership pool either -- but you might get by with only one in there?

I will admit to not quite getting the three Regen Tissues [besides the proc] in Fast Healing, though. (And I'm guessing it's not for the 4% run speed or the 20 paltry hit points. ) They're only giving you 60.9% to your healing since they're "only" level 30 IO's. If you leave the proc in there, you could get 56.5% from just a Numina's Heal (50) and a Numina's Heal/End (50), PLUS a 12% regen set bonus. According to the Totals button, that takes your overall regen from 616% to 634% and would save a slot for use elsewhere!

Just my two cents' worth....

Yours might be the minority opinion around here, but I'm glad someone enjoys them!

Offhand, I'd guessed that the little hiccup in MY attack chain is probably somewhere between an eighth to a quarter of a second, and I learned to overlook it pretty quickly. And of the many things I like about these forums is the give-and-take of ideas -- your idea of putting a recharge IO in BF to speed it up now has me thinking about replacing my extra Mako's Acc/Damage in BF with a Crushing Impact Acc/Dam/RECHARGE. So thank you for that little idea!

Sounds like a pretty good plan from here, especially based on what BrandX said above.

The procs have a 20% chance to fire every 10 seconds, so if the Random Number Generator is completely random, once every 50 seconds is correct. Of course, the RNG IS completely random, so when you have two or three Perf Shifter procs firing like I do, you can actually watch the endurance bar bounce around a little bit as it dips a little when they don't go off, and then perhaps two will fire at the same time and the end bar refills.

Based on a friend's DB/WP with the Fighting and Leadership pool, I personally think that leaving 11 toggles running at once (12 if you leave Sprint on) is going to be a huge end drain and I'm not sure how sustainable that will be in a long fight. Then again, if you're like him and you don't mind micromanaging toggles in combat, you might pull it off, or perhaps you'll find a combination of eight or nine toggles that you'll normally use until you need a little extra something in a particular fight.

Lastly, I do find it kind of amusing how fast you've gone from "budget build" to tossing a 1.5 BILLION INF (and up!) Panacea proc in there. I can't speak from experience since I don't have one, but you might want to check around to see if that's really a very cost effective IO. I'm assuming that like any other proc you'll get the most benefit from having it in an "always on" power like Fast Healing, but you'll get a bigger benefit from the Numina's proc for only 60 or 65 million for the recipe (current price as I write this.)

But I think you're at least off to a good start with your build!

Thanks, but I get it now! As I mentioned above, I'm blaming 75% of my failed reading comprehension on a general lack of coffee, 20% on my multi-tasking and setting up for Double XP Weekend, 33% general goofiness which I'll blame directly ON Double XP weekend, and maybe 2% bad wording.

Hey -- waitaminute! That's...130%!!

/e stops multitasking and drinks still more coffee

Oh, even better! I'm blaming my math up there on ED!! Muwahahaha!

Okay, and "whew." So it IS simply "another fast animating, high DPS filler attack" as I'd suspected, which might be a better way of describing it to a certain person who hasn't had enough coffee before Double Expee Weekend, and I'm NOT losing my mind completely. At least, not YET.

/e coffeemaker

/e facepalm

I meant to address the +Damage and +To Hit buff components of Blinding Feint in my post, since they add to the other attacks and thus a big part of the total DPS. I think I got sidetracked as usual with too much other stuff in that post, including my "History of Pylon Soloing, Parts 1-6."

DOES it actually speed up the recharge in the subsequent attacks, though? I never knew that and Mid's doesn't make any mention of it, but that's interesting to know!


And sure enough -- a better solution for "second best DPS chain" -- good deal and thanks!

Actually, no -- Combat Jumping was one of the three "extra" powers I picked up with Issue 19 and inherent fitness. I'd always liked Fly for that character (despite it not being the fastest travel power) and I'd respecced out of Air Superiority when I got the City Traveller veteran power, which lets you pick up a travel power directly from the power pool without a prerequisiite power first. CJ was just an extra layer of defense....

...just like Physical Perfection was an extra source of endurance for when I face Malta or Carnies! I'd been cruising along for a couple of years without it, leaving Sprint and Focused Accuracy on full-time in combat, and still never really noticed my endurance bar dropping in long fights. Got to love Quick Recovery and two Performance Shifter procs firing randomly -- PP let me slot a third one and take maximum advantage of the one slot. (Stealth was the third power I picked up, since that and CJ it let me cram a fourth and fifth LotG: 7.5 into my build.)

Maybe it wasn't badly phrased -- maybe I just read it badly. Still, I don't think my advice on how to kill time while building up your IO collection is entirely bad. Fun = good. Arresting bad guys = profitable.

On to the actual question, though: I'm not an expert on AV soloing, but from reading a lot of threads here I see where BF -> AV seems to be the highest DPS chain available for Dual Blades. Reading about the Crazy Scrapper Tricks™ in this forum first got me interested in the idea of soloing a pylon, and I know how my personal journey went on that one:

1) Gradually build up enough defense that I could withstand a lot of other PvE abuse.
2) Go flail (uselessly) at a pylon using my favorite (everybody's second favorite?) attack chain of AV combo -> Sweep combo ad infinitum without the debuff proc in Ablating Strike.
3) Sneer at the pylon but be content with at least a "draw." I couldn't hurt it, but it couldn't hurt me either. Go back to drawing board, plot revenge.
4) Get some recharge in the form of three LotG 7.5s (pre-i19)
5) Go flail uselessly at a pylon some more using Blinding Feint -> AV and notice the long gap in the chain. Realize futility of exercise, try experimenting with other slower attack chains like Power Slice -> Attack Vitals.
6) Repeat Step 3. Grumble quietly while plotting some more.
7) Get even more recharge with my i19's new build and two more LotG 7.5s.
8) Go flail pointlessly at a pylon using Blinding Feint -> AV and notice the now shorter gap in the chain.
9) Repeat Step 3. Grumble and plot even more. Consider investing billions in purple sets, decide that my defense, regen, or other attacks would suffer as a result. Spend billions on other characters instead.
10) Open Alpha slot, get Common recharge boost. Repeat Steps 8 and 9 again.
11) Gather more shards for Uncommon recharge boost for Alpha Slot, flail uselessly at a pylon using Blinding Feint -> AV and notice the now REALLY SHORT gap in the chain. Watch pylon's heath bar refuse to budge. Wonder if pylon is mocking me. Decide that pylon probably is, or at least would if it weren't an inanimate virtual object. Try not to draw parallels between Charlie Brown and the Kite-Eating Tree.
12) Repeat Step 3. Think about the problem some more and notice that most of the successful high end scrappers soloing pylons have significant debuffs and/or a debuff proc.
13) Buy an Achille's Heel: Chance for Resist Debuff proc and slot it in Ablating Strike.
14) Go stab a pylon repeatedly using Blinding Feint -> AV, still with really short delay in attack chain. FINALLY watch the pylon's health bar start to drop significantly. Grin like a maniac.
15) Take screenshots twenty minutes and five seconds later after finally defeating pylon solo. Laugh out loud and grin even more.

Later I added:
16) Spend entirely too much influence on Fury of the Gladiator: Chance for Resist Debuff PvP IO.
17) Stab pylon with BF -> AV and two debuff procs, watch pylon's health bar drop faster.
18) Calculate difference in DPS between old time of 20:05 and new time of 16:35, determine that I essentially only gained a lousy 5 DPS.
19) Divide price of PvP IO by 5 for "hundreds of millions spent per point of DPS."
20) Shake head in disbelief, before deciding that "it's only play money anyhow." Resume grinning.

So -- since I hate guesswork, I can't really tell you what other attack chains WILL be effective in soling AV's, but I can and did share what eventually worked for me.

Hopefully someone else will have a more elegant and effective solution for "second best DPS chain"?

As usually happens, this post went on for far too long. So if you'll excuse me, I've got to go get a kite out of a tree.

Nobody seems to have answered this first part:

All of the consignment houses on the 11 US servers are connected*, and as of recently it's the same market whether you're heroside or villiainside. Both of these are good news because there's more items for sale, which keeps prices down.

If the former hero vs. villain markets are any indication, if the consignment houses weren't shared across servers there would be a lot fewer items for sale and very high prices for them on smaller servers, but luckily that's not the case!

*All of the EU servers' consignment houses are also connected to each other, but they ARE NOT connected to the US servers.

As far as raising money goes, the Market Forum has a veritable wealth of information available, depending on how much you care to read and learn. There are basic strategies like "take five minutes each time you sell recipes and learn which ones are worth A LOT MORE if you craft them" and "don't sell your rare orange salvage to vendors." Vendors will pay you 10,000 INF, other players will pay you up to 3 to 4 million INF for some of those this week. Or, you can learn to play the above-mentioned City of Stockbrokers on the side and rake in a billion INF or more in a week's time.