Hopeling

The biggest problem I see with using Darkest Night to effectively softcap yourself is that you have to activate it all the time. It has a slow cast (3.17 seconds), and if the anchor dies you'll be without the debuff for at least a few seconds until you get through the recharge time + cast time to reapply it.

Phalanx Fighting gives 2 seperate defense values. It gives 3.75% flat all the time, which cannot be improved by enhancements, and it gives 2.25% for each ally in range, which can be improved. The second number is 0 when there are no allies nearby, but the first number will still be there and Mids does account for it (except with the bug in ranged defense as I mentioned above). When you set it to 1, it means there is another player nearby. 0 means you're by yourself.

I might be missing something, but it looks like you have Phalanx Fighting set to 1 to get to the softcap. Without that you're a few percent short on melee and AoE defense. (Your ranged defense is ok, it will be 3.75% higher than Mids' says because scrapper Phalanx Fighting is bugged in the builder and does not add the base value to ranged defense.)

It's Grounded that requires you to be on the ground to get the Immob/KB protection.. Annoyingly, Lightning Rod apparently removes you from the ground for a moment, because my brute frequently gets knocked down the instant the animation completes.

The ranged version of pistols and a hypothetical melee version of pistols would almost certainly be different sets, requiring a whole new set of development. Considering that melee has gotten the last three new powersets, it's very likely that future love is going elsewhere.

Also, a Pistol Melee set is only slightly more logical than a Katana Blast set.

I know some people are fans of the idea, but I just don't see it happening.

I'm pretty sure a redname somewhere said that pistols would never be a scrapper set, for one

Moreover though, a melee set with some ranged attacks is not the same as a ranged set pretending it's a melee set.

What level are you? At level 10, Practiced Brawler becomes available, which provides you with protection from status effects. At 20, you can get Stamina which helps a lot with endurance issues, although you need 2 other powers from the Fitness pool first. Also, make sure you have the best kind of enhancements available - from level 12-21 that's Dual Origin, and at 22+ it's Single Origin. Don't worry about IO's yet.

If you're running out of endurance, more recharge won't help you, you'll just run dry faster. It's worth noting that for endurance problems, damage enhancements are useful as well as endurance reduction enhancements: both of them increase your damage dealt per endurance spent. It's best to slot some of each.

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Next, how much can be added, I'm guess there must be a hardcap as well.

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Technically there is a hardcap at 200.38%, but unless you pop a whole tray of purples you will never reach it so it doesn't really matter.

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Meanwhile the Scrapper should be off soloing the next mob because the Tank is too slow.

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My teammates always think I'm joking when I say I'm going to do this, then they finish loading the mission to see "Mission Complete!"

As president and only member of the just-now-founded Gravity Geyser Fan Club, I feel I should point out that people who need flight to get around the Shadow Shard, are wusses.

And shields never redraw at all, the thing is glued to your arm as long as the toggle is on.

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When I first started this post Doomhawk was bout the only one who was talking sense and reasonable post. Ive been in PM's with him trying to figure out where my build is going wrong. I tried what he was talking about with dropping 3 of one kind of set and slotting 3 more of a different kind of set.

Example: Battle Agility- Red Fortune Defense/End, Red Fortune Defense, Red Fortune Defense/End/Recharge, Shield Wall Defense, Shield Wall Defense/End/recharge, Shield wall Defense/End

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That's not quite what I meant
Battle Agility only does one thing, defense. Slotting it entirely with one set is great if you want the set bonuses.
Powers like True Grit or Deflection do more than one thing. 6-slotting Deflection with a Resist set basically wastes half the power, because you're not enhancing the melee defense part at all. It's those multi-aspect powers that you really want to mix sets on.

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Of course Im going to snap your head off if you disrespect me, you sayin you would sit there and take it with out saying a word? yeah right....

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Against my better judgment, I just have to comment on the above.

Respect must be earned. Obsession with 'bein dissed', is an amazingly immature approach to life. A person who hasn't outgrown their concern with this by the time they make it out of grade school, is probably not likely to make it very far in life.

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I was thinking of a different angle, here: this is the internet. There will always be someone ready to disrespect you! The best way to deal with it is to ignore it.

Kioshi, you're not helping.

BeeKeeper, from curiosity, what's your primary, and are you softcapped?

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whatever bud, I play the AT EVERY day so I know what it does and doesnt do.

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As do I, and most of the people on these forums.

There's really no need for the hostility. If you want to discuss whether Shield is underpowered, present math and/or evidence, and we can engage in civil discourse. At the moment, the burden of proof lies with you, since the general body of evidence says /SD is okay.

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One with shield is pretty much useless in PVP and barely useable in PVE. The Risk VS reward using it is void. Whats the point of a greater recovery if you loose it all when it drops?! It last no where near as long as moment of glory, elude, or any other Scrapper secondary uber power.

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Moment of Glory lasts 15 seconds, just so you know.
And man, if you think OwtS's crash is bad, I have to ask if you've ever used one of the other godmode powers. Elude takes *all* of your end and reduces recovery to zero for 20s afterwards, and Unstoppable does that plush crashing you to 10% health.

I don't know what your threshold for 'ahead of the curve' is, but you're probably setting it too high if people soloing AVs and pylons doesn't meet it.

Density control probably mutated into Gravity, and Light Control into Illusion. Air Control may have become Storm.

The others would be awesome, though!

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The Gladiator proc has a 20% chance to add an extra 20% damage to a every attack after it for 10 seconds (2 full cycles of the attack string, if you're curious). That's (728.32*.2*.2) = 29.13 damage. Of course, there are some diminishing returns because there is more than 1 proc attempt per 10 seconds. Because it occurs exactly halfway between the duration of the proc (where the attack string is concerned), the second proc only adds (728.32*.2*.2/2) = 14.57 damage.

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I might be misunderstanding this, but shouldn't those numbers be doubled since the proc lasts for two iterations of the attack chain? 728.32*2*.2*.2 = 58.26 damage, or 29.13 for an overlapping proc.

To add a little more math to that, we can figure out the real average value of the proc. Whenever the proc goes off, there is a 20% chance that it went off in the previous chain. So you have a 20% chance of getting the lower number, and an 80% chance of the higher number. If my numbers above are right, then the average damage will be .2 * 29.13 + .8 * 58.26 = 52.43 average damage total. If I'm wrong and Umbral is right, then the number is half that, or 26.22. Or if I've screwed up the math entirely then you can disregard this whole post

EDIT: Also worth noting is that the Fury proc will increase in effectiveness when Build Up is active, while the purple proc stays static.

A purple proc does 107.1 damage 33% of the time, or an average of 35.3 damage per hit.

The value of the -res proc will vary depending on how much DPS you do. Let's say 150. When the proc goes off, your damage increases by 20% for 10 seconds. In 10 seconds, you'd do 1500 damage, so the proc adds another 300. Effectively, the proc deals 300 damage with a 20% chance, or an average of 60 damage per hit.

There are a couple other things to consider. For one, the value of the -res proc is affected by how much it will overlap with itself, because if it procs again when the debuff is already up, the remaining time on the first debuff is essentially wasted. Somebody else might have exact math for this.
Also, the purple proc may do a less-resisted damage type than your attacks, which will make the purple proc relatively more valuable.
Also, the resist proc gets better (or worse) depending on how much DPS you do without it.

And yes, the Fury proc does stack with the Achilles proc.

The thing that makes frankenslotting useful is the fact that multi-aspect set IOs give a larger total bonus than a single-aspect IO. Slotting a level 25 accuracy and a level 25 damage will give you 32% of each, but using two level 25 acc/dam IOs will give you 40% of each. Three- and four-aspect IOs give even more total bonus.

Yes, that occurred to me after I posted it...

Still, he didn't get any help from other archvillains, anyway.

I don't have a /shield, so I might be misunderstanding this, but I believe Mids doesn't know how to calculate Phalanx Fighting for 0 people in range. Without somebody nearby you're actually a couple percent shy of the softcap. Also, Detailed Info shows the 3.75% base defense from Phalanx Fighting is unenhanceable, so you might pull a slot from there.

How attached are you to Recall Friend? Trading it for Conserve Power could help with endurance problems.

Also, see if you can find a slot to put an Achilles' Heel proc into one of your attacks. Not a must, but very nice for single-target damage.

I fought Chimera with my BS/Inv earlier, and I was thinking what this must look like from the other side...




Chimera: Okay guys, he's zoning in. Now remember, his mission objective is to kill me, so all we have to do is keep me alive. Think we can handle that?

Co-ca-trice: np

koka thrice: but how we have no heals

Chimera: Well, I keep trying to tell Tyrant we need to recruit some support, but you know he doesn't listen to me.

basil isk: lol ur just a sack of hit points rite?

Gore Gone: Yeah, like he can get through your regen.

(Several minutes pass.)

ba sellisk: hey boss he's not killing us just kind of running around and hitting a few groups

Chimera: Well good, follow him! Gang up on him!

Chimera: Never mind, he's coming to me now.

Chimera: Well, gang up on him anyway!

(Chimera attacks, dealing a small portion of the scrapper's life bar.)

Chimera: Oh fantastic, another lethal-resistant scrapper. Why did I have to roll a lethal damage primary?

Chimera: You know, Mother Mayhem never has to deal with this.

(Chimera lands a few more hits as his minions close in on the scrapper.)

gorgg awn: lol he's dying

(Dull Pain!)

Chimera: He has a self heal? This is going to be an annoying fight.

Chimera: I hope it's not slotted for recharge, those enhancement things are bull. Totally unfair.

(A few minutes pass, with little damage being dealt besides the DoT from many caltrops.)

Chimera: Wait, I thought this guy was resist-based? Why can't I hit him?

Chimera: Oh, I get it. Guys, see those rays of light coming out of him? That's Invincibility.

Co-ca-trice: he's invincible? hax

koka thrice: wtf, I quit

Chimera: No no, he can be damaged.

koka thrice: nm I take it back

Chimera: But my point is that he's getting a defense bonus from being in melee with us.

Chimera: I need you guys to back away.

gorgg awn: but then we can't attack

Chimera: So use your wussy little throwing stars.

gorgg awn: but they're wussy

gorgg awn: it's better for us to melee him

Chimera: No, listen to me.

basil isk: lol /ignore chimera

Chimera: Oh, forget it.

(Several minutes pass.)

Chimera: This is ridiculous!

ba sellisk: yarly

Chimera: He gets high resist, high defense, and a self heal? Come on, how is that fair?

Gore Gone: Can't you use Build Up to hit him?

Chimera: No, I didn't have room for it in my build. I wanted the bow attacks.

Chimera: Concept reasons.

Gore Gone: Well you should get BU.

Chimera: Yeah, I might respec after this.

Chimera: You know, if this fight ever ends. Shouldn't he be dead by now?

gorgg awn: he regens faster than we hit him

gorgg awn: and he has that stupid big self heal

gorgg awn: when you hit him

Chimera: I'm at 1/4 hp, this isn't going well.

Chimera: I need to get away and regen for a bit, but I'm backed into a corner. Can you guys move a little so I can get away?

(Nothing happens.)

Chimera: Well now I'm dead. Thanks guys.

koka thrice: oh sry wuznt watching chat lol




[SuperGroup]Chimera: Can someone help me with my build? I want to be able to solo scrappers.

[SuperGroup]Marauder: As an archvillain? Ha! Good luck with that.

(Thanks for the advice on my build, Scrapper forum! )

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Strike needs zero additonal recharge
Slash need 48.5%
Follow-up is the hardest with 84.7%
Focus needs 71.7%

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Shouldn't that be 184% in Follow Up?