Fire_Minded

I personally have Tech using, or armored characters my self.I find using Technology more fun, as well as Natural Origin characters.

I dont find wearing tights, and being capable of just "Genetically" being capable of throwing a Fireball all that appealing to me.

I like Lex Luthor and Iron Man types, and occastionally a magic user, or Psychic, but I do not like Superman, or those born with power they didnt earn.

I dont use pen & paper to make a build, I use the power set description, the individual powers info chart by pressing the "Info" button during creation, and I make my choices by reading from there.Its acctually a very simple thing, and no, I will not get off Mid's.

Mid's is for people who have no imagination, or are poor at math, or possibly both.

I find it funny that people have to sit down and chart out a character, or use Mid's for it, scratching there heads like monkies as if its Rocket Science.

What I like about this game, that Mid's does not tell you, is the fact that not a single combonation is a poor choice to play compaired to any others within any given AT.Thats why alot of people call Fire Armor, and other sets like it weak, because they dont know how to use it, and gosh darnit!Mid's says its bad, or another player does.

So Mid' can take a flying leap.

If you dont like how I talk about Mid's, simply stop listening.You complain about my comment/s on Mid's and ill tell you exactly how I feel about it.Its that simple.

I was not raised to use Diplomecy, or use Tact.They are utter wastes of Time for our society to keep using them.

The main reason why the Hero side is so full of people who absolutly need a Tank, or a Empath, are due to a younger crowd, and absent minded players that came from DDO, Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, EQ, and WoW type games.Where you needed that Tanking person up front, and needed that Healing person follwing that Tank, just to get anywhere.

My gaming experiance has been a bit diffrent compaired to most, on the before mentioned games above.

You can commonly spot a bad player, because they cant use Heroes well at all, and require someone else to help them, and I play blue and red side nearly equally, and what iv noticed, is the types of players in both sides.

In blue, your going to have more people, because they veiw it as theres plenty of help everywhere, and fail to opperate, or even learn the capability of there character, even after it dings 50.

In red, you have a diffrent ball game.You have players that dont commonly have much help, if not any help at all, and theres way less players red side, making the red side player learn the capabilities of there character, because they have to, or they wont survive.

I on the other hand got tired of joining a 8 person PUG, and not only was the leader poor at his job, so was the Tank, and they would commonly blame the healer, or healers for not doing there job, and wipe 2-5 times every mission that we stepped into.

I sat back and watched over a period of time, and something in my head clicked.I started watching the best I could on how the players where acting, and even the builds that came into the teams, and noticed how much they where all the same power sets, over and over again.

They lacked Defense and Debuffs that would effect the enemies they faced, to have ST damage and healing, which is commonly a bad idea, no matter how you slice it.

So, I took a leason from playing red side.

I started Soloing, Alot.....

I also started taking alot of unplayed combonations that you just dont see blue side using at all, and found extreem strengths to use to my advantage while soloing.

I remeber taking my Traps/Rad Defender to level 24 Solo, then after I felt compitent enough with it, I threw it on a team, and the end result was being praised by the entire team, and the no attack having Empathy asked to get another character, because he barly touched his healing aura button.Then to top it off, the Plant/Fire Controller in the team could focus more on his attack runs, which he also made mention of, and praised my Traps, and asked questions about it, because it seemed really cool to him.

This by far, wasnt the only time iv faced this kind of recognition, and it was only because I started to play my Heroes, with more intellegence, and a bigger understanding that they are capable of so much more, then even half the Villian ATs on red side.

Red side has a smaller population, and usually a better crop of players, because they are forced to learn there characters, and fight for every scrap they get.

I took Shield for my Axe brute for Theme only, and might possibly be taking it with a Broad Sword scrapper, but most likly ill go SR with Broad.Not a huge fan of SD either, but I finally made a concept that looked good with it.

Anyhow, I remember back to my old Fire/Fire Scrapper, and im puzzled as to you being dissapointed with it, and it being too wimpy.

I never really had a issue playing mine, but then again im a risk/rewards player, and I have a high survivability on builds other people cant stay alive on if they where paid to.A Fire/Fire Scrapper being one of them.

You seem to be wanting a total juggernaught package in your Scrapper, and from how you describe your issues, you dont seem like a risk/reward player.

You seem to want damage, and survivability for your build, and to be good at both of these at the same time.

The only build I could suggjest for you, that I suggjested to another player before, would be a Spines/Willpower build.

Youll have a AoE damaging Aura by level 18 in your Spines Primary, and it Crits, as well as at mid levels, to higher levels, youll be capable of "Off Tanking".The more things that surround you ampliphy your Regen, and your AoE attacks will more then cause alot of damage to your enemies, as well as some ranged powers that will make it easy to reach a target, or give a alpha strike on a Boss, or Lt.

Or go with Spines/Regen if you dont like the WP feel, or perhaps go with Spines/Invln, and have the capability of Tanking at later levels, even before considering IOs.

The only Scrapper I have right now is a Claws/Invln, and it does a decent job at Taking Alpha already, even at level 24 when a PUG I join cant find a Tanker.

But for you being in the "Survivor" mind set, you may want to consider my suggjestions for a Scrapper.

I could go on exsplaining my self on this issue all day, but ill just give a exsplination for both parts of this quote.

I dont see anyone challenging anything when they come to the boards using Mids.If thats the acctual use you use Mids for, then thats good, but the majority of people who slap a Mids build up, commonly only focus on the popular sets that people feel will optimize there power builds, so they have less challenges in the game.When the reality is that you can make anything powerful, and it doesnt attribute to using Mids at all.

Not 1 power iv come accrossed is described badly, nore are they missleading in any way.The only powers I can think of that could be seen that way, would be powers like Step Mine.Its easy enough to see what kind of damage itll do, its detination radius, and whatever else it causes, including KB, or KD, depending on the Con of the target, by "Using" it.Or, you could just read the Description, and go from there.It worked in the past, why wouldnt it today?

Its like people bringing up the Argument that Psi Blasts for Defenders can and does get out damaged by a Controllers Mind Control Primary.Doesnt happen, no matter what Mids says.The numbers on damage are diffrent for each AT, and a Controller doesnt out damage a Defender, unless its got a huge damage buff behind it, like Fulcrum Shift.Which is yet another very popular set that people play, and slap up a Mids build with.

I rarely see anyone breaking away from whats considered the best of any build, or power set, mainly because they want the best.Sometimes people fail to realize, that high numbers, for anything, dont get calculated correctly on Mids, and alot of really good sets go un-used, mainly due to the fact that Mids dont favor there numbers.

Even more so, when I jump on any of my Characters, I see builds that focus on ST damage and Defense.Mids does Favor these sets, because the numbers look big, so the player takes it, based on those numbers.

Theres a major issue with those numbers, and they go from everything from damage resistance of a enemy, to the fact it hits 1 thing at a time.

Thats why people who use Mids will most likly make a WP/SS Tanker, and slowly grind a mob, and eventually win, but when facing down a player using a better damaging build for a Tanker, all the sudden its a Scranker, and they arnt a Tank.

Im sorry, but when I jump onto a team with my Fire/Fire Tanker, and the leader adds another person he feels is a better tanker to the team, and I end up taking the Alpha, and doing alot more damage then the other tanker does, clearing the mob almost by my self before running right into the next one, I tend smirk when I see that build being described in Mids on the Boards.

I end up being the strongest player on a PUG most the time, even with my Defenders, because I dont stick with a ST build, or power set combonation that would make me that way.

I see alot of ST Tankers on Pugs, and they completly suck at holding Agro, commonly WP/SS or Invln/** Builds.I watch Kat/SR clones run in and try Tanking, scattering the mob.Then I dont even want to mention how many none attack power Empathy Defenders, who offer no debuffs through there attack powers, and there healing powers that are so longed for on PUGs, wont even help the team survive mob to mob before half the team dies, or wipes complelty.

The average player copies a Mids user, and the Average player usually face plants 3-5 times in every PUG they play on.

Im a Average Player, and me bringing a Defender of any type into a PUG, and being the Only Defender the majority of the time, without Healing capabilities, able to keep a entire team alive from my attacks, and primary set alone, should be proof enough that Mids, as well as Traditional Damage + Heal approuch doesnt work for this game in general.

If you want to be "McGuyverish" in how you play this game, start playing with your Toes.It would be more productive then using a flawed program.

As for the Popularity of a build being why I wont play it?Theres 2 reasons behind it.

1) Im having a bit of fun being someone who sticks out in a crowd and doesnt use the same clone builds or cookie build everyone else is sporting.Its a nice little attention getter, and makes people say things like "I could make one of those.....if I felt like it.." or "Iv always wanted to make one of those." to the more common "Whoa!Iv never seen a <incert build here>!It looks fun!I almost want to make one now!"

2) Why would I want to play something I have seen, watched, and am not impressed with?That and the fact seeing so many clones of it makes me not want to play it even more.Nothing to exsplore.

As for cool kids being on a bridge?I wouldnt be there with them.Unless im crossing that bridge, I would find it pointless to be standing on a bridge doing nothing but staying there, with a bunch of people who do it for whatever reason.

Side Note : Im the guy who used to beat the cool kids up in school, so im not one to worry about what they do, as long as they dont target me to make them selves look "Cool" in front of other people, they got to keep there teeth.

I like Mace on a Brute, but my only issue with it, is the fact the only cool looking Mace out of them all is the Fantasy Mace, and in close 2nd place, is the Warhammer.

Thats just my Opinion anyhow.

This is why I was thinking of HOs.

6 Slots in my attacks is desirably avoided if I get the Proper HOs.I could narrow it down to 4, or 5 Slots per attack, and get more bang for my buck with IOs on the Shield half of the build.

The Cost for the HOs, and for the IOs to gear this toon for what I want it for, is not a issue.I will add that what I want for this toon is rather simple.

Ill also add, that after years of playing this game, im going to shamelessly make a a Farmer, just to buy what I need for my Brute, and iv never made a Farmer before.
(New Account, Vet Player.)

For the Sheild Defense side of the build, I want to cram Recovery, Def %, and Regen.Thats about all im looking for when it comes to IOs, due to my Offensive playing nature, I dont exspect to let things live long enough to be a major threat, so Soft-Cap, or near Soft-Cap, will make very little, if no diffrence to me at all.

Im used to Resistance Builds when it comes to Scrappers and Tankers anyhow, so iv learned how to hit fast, hit hard, and capatlize on the damage or midigation of my builds, and The endurance issue of this build is stopping the damage from flowing the way I like it....Constant.

Im rather sure ill get some minor, to moderate boosts in other areas, like Global Recharge, ect., and as iv already stated, cost doesnt matter to me.Ill get it eventually.

The more I play my Axe/SD Brute, the more I ignore my other Alts.So im prolly going to end up making this my main character for quite a while.Its the perfect excuse for a Brute iv came up with, and cant says im dissapointed with its damage so far, but I am with the End useage.its not bad enough to warrent deleting the Brute either way.Im used to sticking it out with Tankers, and this Brute just seems easier to stick with cause of the Theme.

Now if I could only do a few Ritki Invasions for my Ritki Axe, id be a happy man!

BrandX, you poor missguided soul.I give you a moment of silence for your lack of knowledge on Tankers.........



Anyhow, to the OP, Play a Fire/Fire Tanker, or a Elec/Elec Tanker, and you wont feel the sting so bad when it comes to Tankers.

From the Power Sets youv erased, and just didnt like, mainly because you wanna kill something, you definatly went the wrong way about it.Which is a missconception, even for Veteran Tankers, who belive in Being 2 mobs behind the other tanker that just wipes the floor of Baddies as it goes.

Id get bored too, and feel pretty week spamming jab, punch, and haymaker for several levels my self, especially if I didnt have a damaging Aura, or something else to help killing along at lower levels.

Both Tankers I suggested do good damage, in there own way, and offer plenty of AoE power, and even get a little early on compaired to the more popular WP/SS types of builds.

A pure Fire Tanker, can dish out decent damage at low levels, and towards the middle levels of there careers, they get 2 BUs that total a 180% damage boost to all your Fire Damage attacks, and Blazing Aura.
Not to mention at very early on, you can take Healing Flames, the best healing power in the entire game, because of its fast recharge, and Health recovery value.

Then a little further down the line, you get your higher up attacks, and no Tanker will compair with your damage.Youll feel like a Scrapper with more Health, and more Damage Resistance, and a bigger heal.

I often wonder if they will Nerf Fire/Fire Tank players, because the damage they can deliver is almost a crime.

Then youv got the pure Electrical Tanker build I mentioned.Its good Resistance, high Endurance Draining on the baddies, so they dont swing much after a couple hits, and Lightning Rod, Chain Induction, and Thunder Strike more then make up for any other Tankers lacking in the area of damage.

This build offers the best balanced tanker I can think of when it comes to overall capabilities, and damage, where as the pure Fire build is focus more on straight damage.Many people will dissagree with me on this build, and the pure Fire build, but I say let them.If they call these builds weak by any shape or form, reguardless if there long time Tank players or not, they have absolutly no clue about it, and should be avoided in any future postings on such power sets contained in this reply.

Thats not a Stab at the Tanker population, but it is a Fact, that people who play mainly Willpower/, and Invln/, and typically use Super Strength, or some other ST melee power, have no real experiance playing the more damaging/risk builds that me and other players like to play.Nore do they have the mind set for it.I just dont belive they should push others to not touch these sets, and allow them to make the choice of offensive or defensive on there own.

If any long time Tankers get offended by this, I apologize up front, but I wont retract the facts.

Ok, now iv heard it all.

Mind/ Controller Primary can out control a /Psi Blast Defender, but by no means can it out damage it, nore can it do the same amount of damage.Not even with containment, not ever.This is also not including the Nuke /Psi gets.

I have no idea where you came up with this, or where anyone else would say that it can do what youv claimed.

Id also like to address someone saying there are no pets in the Defenders sets.Again, just like the OPs statement about Psi Blasts doing less damage, or the same damage as a controllers Mind Primary, your wrong.

Dark Servant, is in the Dark Miasma primary for a Defender, its also a "Pet", and can be accessed at level 32, just like a Controller Primary that gets a pet/s at level 32.

But WAIT!Theres more!

What about Traps?

Force Field Generator is a pet.

Acid Mortar is a pet.

Seeker Drones, short lived, but are pets.

Storm Primary for Defenders offers up Tornado, and even Lightning Storm as well.Both considered pets.

"But Fire_Minded!Those cant be pets!They are short lived and are limited in there function!"

"Ahhhhh, then what do you call Controller pets?They are pets that have limited functions, and are short lived as well."

I think people get the Idea that a pet only counts as a pet if it follows you, and fights for you, instead of just assisting you for brief amounts of time.Which if you look at alot of Controller Pets, they have a specific function, and are as simple as a Defenders Pets.

Even the Secondary for a Defender has a short lived pet in the Electrical Blasts secondaries.Blaster get it as a Primary, and Corrs do to.Lets not forget that Blasters even get 2 pets in Devices Secondary.

Targeting Drone Classifies as a pet, the same way Voltiac Sentinal does, and lets not forget the Gun Drone.

Controllers, Defenders, Corruptors, Blasters, and Dominators, all get a limited list of pets, in some way or another.

Masterminds are the ones that can have the "Most" pets out of them all.

Alot of people that say that its just this way, and that AT cant do this, or this is better then that, need to acctually know what the hell they are talking about.

Theres soo many things, that I dont even want to continue any further, mainly because its taking way to freaking long to point out the things people know nothing about.

Please, play what you slander before making a complete boob out of your self.

Well, I made a Axe/SD Brute that is a Cybornetic Enhanced, and he has Cyborg Costume parts, as well as the Tech Shield (first version), and I think after playing him for the last 15 Levels since I wanted the Ritki Axe, and its just going to fit the build completly.(Id be level 30 by now, but my Sattelite Uplink hasnt reconnected me yet.)

I use Ninja run on all my Builds, mainly because it saves buying into a travel pool, and saves additional slots to be distributed elsewhere, and I dont have to sacrifice and wait a few more levels to get my travel power by level 14 either.

Ninja run puts my shield in front and hunches my Brute down, and puts my axe behind me ready to swing, and just looks Thematically correct to me, and I definatly want that Axe.It would complete the look of my Brutes Tech motif.

Since it doesnt really look like an Axe, and looks more like a short sword that uses a Laser edge, its going to look good!

So I have to get a Accolade for the Axe?Fine with me!

By the way, Thanks for showing me that Page with the pictures of weapons on it.Im going to make a few more Characters, and quest for certain costume weapons, because they match some character concepts I have in mind.

This is going to sound weird, but if you wanted a strong Scrapper, play a Fire/Fire Tanker.It plays like a heavy Scrapper, and yes, it does ALOT of damage.Just without the Crit going off, and the AoE, no problem.

Even though I use my Fire Tanker to Tank, its still a viable damage dealer, and feels very much like a Scrapper cause of how nasty it hits for damage, and it survives the Alpha easly to wipe a mob more effectivly then a Scrapper of the same sets.

Takes a few more levels to get your hands on Fire Sword Circle, and your higher ST attacks, its still very well worth the wait.

Just a thought.

WHOA!

I think I just went cross-eyed and started drooling a little!

I WANT IT!

Now THATS funny!

Im not one for Defense based toons in the first place, but, I guess /SR seems like it would make a interesting Brute.(For some reason I cant get into SR when it comes to Scrappers.)Even though I may end up making 2 Brutes, because EA and SR would be the more uncommon builds.

I get the feeling that Endurance is going to be a issue early on, so ill brace my self for that impact.

Also, iv got the thought in mind to make the 2 Brutes Tech Origin based, and with both the armor sets in mind, thats not a hard issue to make them "Techy".

I guess that the issue is now double trouble, because now i need to find 2 diffrent melee sets to match up with these armors.

I guess SS could be combo'd with SR, mainly because I can see a man with cybornetic implantation having Robotic Strength, and Enhanced Reflexes.From what iv been reading on the resistance % for SR's defense, makes it seem like this wont be too much of a issue in the long run, when Rage crashes.(If it causes a severe drop in my Def %'s that im not seeing, someone let me know, please.)

If SS gives to big of a Def% issues, ill prolly switch to Elec Melee.

Then theres EA.I may go with Energy Melee, mainly because no one takes that route anymore, everyone complains its broken, and I could make a Robotic Brute that uses energy from a internal power source.Plutonium, Nuclear Energy, Plasma Energy, whatcher I choose for the back story on his capability to use Energy that much, and use the Fury bar as a "Energy Catalist", and not a Fury bar.More like saying the energy builds up over time with alot of use, or gets hotter, or something like that.

Good things I have Self Destruct.it matches the Energy Robot Brute Thematically.Not that id use it a whole lot though...

Hence why I mainly run my Traps/Rad Defender.

It does plenty of Damage, and the AoE capability is more then helpful.

Im only at level 25 right now, but when I attack a mob with Irradiate, and small numbers like 4,5,6,and 7 pop up all over the place, its all x10 baby!

Then the Electron Haze Power, even at my half leveled cpability, does 55-70 damage in a wide cone, and tends to knock everything down.Which gives some midigation, and if you Cone close up and hurl a mob backwards, you can trigger Irradiate immediatly after it, and it hits them all as if they where still standing in that spot.

Then Proton Volley.....Need I Say More?

Ok, I will!

When you run up, and use it in the face of a Boss that just hit your traps, its not uncommon to dish out alot of damage.I usually drop a Freakshow Tanker to half HP from this snipe.(Even con'd Level)

When you trigger it and it goes 65, 65, 65, 65, the Tanker is hurt pretty nicely.(Freakshow Bosses, and higher Lts, are hurt more by pure energy based attacks.The minions, dont have this weakness.)

Iv also been a decently high contributing factor in AoE for many teams iv been on.Many of the players iv been around latly, have been taking Scrappers with Kat, and not taking the AoE, or Energy/Energy Blaster, they dont take the AoEs, and we dont even have to say anything about Tankers not being ST, because if they arnt AE PL'd toons, they are most likly running with a armor/melee combonations that offer absolutly no AoE at all, especially at the middle road of the game.(Builds like WP/SS, or Invln/Mace.)

I also like to call Rad secondary for Defenders, the "No Miss Set".Even if you hit once, you rarely miss after that, meaning higher con'd baddies arnt immune to your blasts, just resist them more.

Aim + Irradiate on a team facing down a +4 mission, is a God send, and barly anyone notices that I just gave them the capability to hit everything, and my FF drone and all my Traps kept the team alive.

"Wow!That was the easiest +4 mission ever!Thank God we had a Healer!", even though the Healer rarely popped off a heal, its what urks me the most when I contribute a huge amount of buffs, and debuffs to the team, but, im getting used to it now.Such is the life of a none healing Defender.

Anyhow, im side tracking again.Rad Secondary on a Defender is hard to get used to, and the piddly damage at lower levels makes it seem like its going o be horrible, bit its anything but horrible later on, and very well worth taking in combonation with most, if not all Defender Primaries.