Maelwys

And another one...

"Womble" - INV/SS/Body Tanker.

Cheers!

GRATZ Prof!!

My tanker from Wimbledon Common salutes you, should be joining the 50 ranks tomorrow...

The -endurance doesn't kick in if you can fire another rage off before the first one ends- "perma-rage". The "only affecting self" kicks in regardless of perma-rage... I'm not sure about the -defence. My tanker certainly gets hit more accurately during a rage crash, but this could be due to invincibility's buff being temporarily negated.

Sometimes when I'm herding mobs the enemies will behave as if I'm phase shifted when rage crashes, not attacking me until the crash ends. When I'm fighting one or two enemies I'll normally still get hit.

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So because it works 99,9% of the time it's [censored]?

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If i was to read that as 99.9% of the time for everyone, i'll find it highly optimistic.

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If you have an aura on and are constantly attacking, there is a virtual certainty that you will be able to grab and maintain aggro on an AV or GM within a couple seconds of engaging.


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What part of "virtual certainty" is confusing you?

Honestly, I would not consider dropping taunt. I find it far too useful a power when I'm slowed, -jumped or just plain unable to punch a newly-aggroed void in the head before it takes a liking to our kheldian.

I like to be able to completely lock down my aggro control, and I regularly team with PUGs who don't know when to NOT use Freezing Rain or Rain of Fire. Therefore I need taunt because without it complete idiots can and will cause team faceplants (they can still cause these when I'm spamming taunt... but it gets much harder!)

But it's going to be VIABLE after the changes to tank an AV without taunt. I wouldn't try main-tanking a full missions worth of mobs on an 8-man PUG team without it, but keeping aggro from an AV should be easy.

The Regen powers are fine, apart from revive which will probably never need more than the default slot.
And MoG, which has fine slotting but is a "personal taste" choice.

I'd definately take a 3rd Endred SO in Focussed Accuracy, it's a real Endurance hog.
Teleport Foe seems a bit overslotted.... are you aiming for something in particular with that?

Tough is not needed on a regen, but it can be useful depending on your own playstyle. Claws is fairly endurance light but you don't have Stamina, so running another toggle might give you trouble. If it was up to me then I'd move revive to 49... then drop TP self, TP foe and either MoG/Resilience to pick up swift, health and stamina. With a Flight SO in swift you could cap your speed with 2 SOs in Fly.

Some of the Claws attacks have odd slotting (I don't even think you can get an interrupt reduction into Strike!) but I'll let a Claws user comment on them...

I've had too many "wowzer" moments with Mael to count... but one of the ones that'll have to rank up there was in my early 40s in Kings Row, in i6.

Basically I managed to solo Paladin as a Kat/Regen, without Tough or MoG, no shivans (they were still level 25) and without faceplanting once. I think that's the closest one-on-one fight Mael's ever been in, was touch-and-go about 8 times over the 15 mins it took to whittle him down.

Soloing Eochai and the Kraken would also rank fairly high, but I died at least once during those fights and needed to hospital or hit revive to gradually whittle them down.

In a team? Too many to choose from... that Creys mission with only Paragon Protectors, 6-man team and rest of team planted in the "room of death"... Carnies mission and the (INV) tank refuses to tank the mobs or even just take the alpha strikes... the "10 minute glowie hunt" mission when the rest of the team starts panicing because "we'll never clear that mob in front of the last glowie in time!!"...

I love IH, Dull Pain, Reconstruction, Quick Recovery and Divine Avalanche!!

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My worst solo experience has to be my very first attempt at a Preatorian Elite Boss. Usually Maelwys soloed on Invincible but I had turned it down to rugged because I didn't fancy an AV... I breeze through the mission and get to the last room. Then I realise that my target (Infernal) is a +5 EB... I was level 43, he was level 48.

Now I can handle a +5 Boss no problem, I could probably even survive a normal mission against +5s rather than the +2s/+3s that Invincible throws at you... but here we had a +5 EB. And not only that, but it was INFERNAL- possibly the most damaging EB in the hero side game. I checked this out online, apparently Preatorian EB/AVs will never spawn below level 48, it's a known game "feature".

Right. In typical scrapper fashion... I hit IH and leap in to clear the surrounding mobs, hitting Dull Pain when I get below 50% and spamming Divine Avalanche for all I'm worth. That's when I realise that Infernal likes to use a few ranged attacks even when you're in "melee range"... against which Divine Avalanche is less useful than a Chocolate Teapot: Faceplant.

Rush back from Hospital- 2nd attempt, with 8 +def insps: Faceplant.
Rush back from Hospital- 3rd attempt, with 12 +def insps: Faceplant.
Well you can't say that scrappers aren't persistent.

EVENTUALLY, I decided that there were only three ways that I was going to take this guy down.
+ 1: Level up a few times (this was in i6, when shivans were level 25).
+ 2: get a team. (??!? I'm a SCRAPPER, I don't need teams... teams need ME!)
+ 3. Play a war of attrition, and ignore the debt.

I opted for #3... Countless hospital trips later (at least 10), I had whittled Infernal down enough that I finally managed to kill him with a "4-stacked-def-insp + IH" rush. The portal then fell surprisingly easily (this was before the object +HP buff) and I hit level 44 with the end-of-mission exp bonus.

That was the first time Mael ever saw the debt cap.

He had it all cleared by the end of the next mission though... It contained a +4 EB, who couldn't understand what he had done to deserve being turned into a kebab by a frothing-at-the-mouth, katana-wielding dervish. Suffice to say that no hospital trips were needed that mish...

Looks like you've gotten to grips with ED very quickly!

I'd say that Dull Pain is almost as important as Quick Recovery at low levels, so I'd try and fit it in slightly earlier and slot it for heals. It's a major, major heal that also increases your survivability by increasing your maximum HP for a long time, so even pre-SOs it can improve your chances considerably. Dull Pain is the power that you'll fire off after taking the alpha --> back to full HP and more survivable than before.

Apart from that, I don't see anything up with your build that a few extra slots wouldn't sort out (which you'll be getting over the next few levels). Nice!

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A Scrapper can't really 'tank' as they have no real way to hold aggro

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Well, I'd not quite go that far... I've met Spines/DAs that can hold aggro quite comfortably and can tank better than some Fire Tankers I've seen, but they're the exception to the rule!

The one-dimensional thing applies completely for most /regen scrappers though. A Claws/Regen is essentially a whirling dervish of damage, as seen from a certain "X-man"...

My Scrapper can latch onto bosses like a Katana-wielding Limpet and scrank mobs a bit with Knockdowns, but assuming there's a tank on the team already there's no point in anything other than maximum damage output.

You know a thread's good when the OP is over a year old...

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Ah you have got to love the variations in meaning.

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"I am an idiot please watch me get killed"

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"LEEROY!!!"
(Optional: Several more instances of letter "E", possible "JENKIIIIIIIIINS!!!" suffix)

Translation #1- "I think we can handle them, hurry up chaps!"
Translation #2- "That little furry blighter at the back is looking at me funny, I'll show him."
Translation #3- "I wish to prove how glorious my solo combat skills are, please wait here team."
Translation #4- "I don't think our healer has been pulling their weight yet."
Translation #5- "I'm bored. Can I tank this one?"
Translation #6- "My other toon's a Regen Scrapper..."
Translation #7- "I don't think we've been using enough awakens."
Translation #8- "oh[censored]oh[censored]oh[censored] we're going to DIE!"

Might pay a visit on Red... gotta see if I'm free Friday night first.

I've got a "Sonic Cage" with Miss Lethal's name on it this time Hammer!

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Running Lightform and Conserve Energy will actually take you back to full end when using QF. Don't have Geas on Sundae but I suspect you could get 3-4 minutes using a combo of the three.

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No you couldn't, reason being that after a point it shuts off regardless of your endurance.

When running Geas and Conserve energy I have a FULL endurance bar at the point which Quantum Flight automatically detoggles (it's over one minute but less than two).

It appears that rather than simply shut QF down, it drastically spikes the end cost up to 100% of your endurance bar per tick... when it "detoggles automatically" in this manner my OTHER toggles (such as CJ and Acrobatics) also drop and my end bar takes a nosedive.

(That's also with +10% endurance from the accolades)

Concerning the Epics: You will have a better tohit chance from taking and slotting Focussed Accuracy than you'd get from slotting all your attacks for -defense and spamming them constantly. LBE needs a weapon redraw and so does Energy Torrent, although I still love them on my Kat/Regen for the energy-typed damage.

Scrappers are meant to be fairly one dimensional. They are (mainly melee) damage dealers with decent damage mitigation. Providing you know your mitigation limits, you really can't go wrong when you leap in and thump stuff... particularly with a /regen. I can see some specialist /DA builds requiring more finesse, but /regen is one of the simplest sets out there.

The only scrapper primary that does better from playing as a "scraptroller" is Dark Melee, and even then it's mostly just a matter of lining cone attacks up. For the rest, it's mainly just down to your Damage Output.

Comparing a scrapper to an Empathy Defender isn't really viable: Empaths can Buff, Spam Heals and then blast/hold/disorient/drain depending on their secondary. Scrappers just hit stuff. If you're lucky, Scrappers might hit foes that are going after squishies... but that's about as controllerish as they get.

Quantum Flight shuts off after a while too, although it's well over the minute mark. I can get it to that point fairly easily with a full End Bar by using Conserve Energy and Geas the Kind Ones...

The PB one has progressive End usage increase but practically instant (less than 1 second) activation.

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anything you do after that won't stop it landing even though the attack animation (and matching effect) may not complete for several seconds.

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QFT, I've used Quantum Flight on my PB before in what I thought was "good time" only to have gotten disorientated by a long-activating attack AFTER the "only affecting self" message appeared.

You can probably see this best if you're fighting DE mobs: the "Hurl Boulder" attack is laughably slow, and even when the animation completes you can literally "outfly" the Boulder for several seconds until it connects.

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Ideally you'll want *both* CJ and SS.


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My ideal characters would have superspeed, hurdle, combat jumping and superjump. That satisfies all your movement needs.

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Agree, though I'd like Tp Self too: the "must escape!" power. I've been very glad of it (with a good TP bind).

My PB currently has all 4 travel powers (in one "form" or another! ) and is extremely fun to play. Have to say that I'm actually warming to SS now despite my earlier dislike for it... I don't think I could live on just SS, Hurdle and CJ though. I like slightly more vertical movement capability than Hurdle+CJ "pogo sticking" offers.

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2 - Why is everyone so insistent on SJ?


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Because zones tend to have a vertical component, Katana has no ranged attacks and the GvE jetpack isn't up often enough to catch kiters that will still outjump you even with SS + Hurdle + CJ.

Ideally you'll want *both* CJ and SS.

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All ture, but then I wouldn’t use it in any of theses Situations

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That pretty much rules out any Arena fights and Warburg, since Blasters and Troller/Defender combos are common in the arena and it's free-for-all in Warburg.

In BB and Sirens you won't have access to MoG, so that just leaves RV...
I've seen Stalkers that can AS through PFF in RV... and you're at 25% HP!

On the other hand in RV my Kat/Regen without MoG can quite happily survive being pummelled by a Villain, their Heavy and a Pillbox all at once. I've taken out a gang of a Stalker, two heavies and two Brutes before when DP and IH were running and I was spamming DA...

Never really got the hang of tick damage for a scrapper tbh. I agree that Flashing Steel is a better filler for sirens, I use FS regularly in a PvE attack chain and it's certainly a better option than Gamblers Cut or TLD against single targets.

Given the choice between them I'd choose Flashing Steel. I'd like to take TLD too for PvE but there's not enough slots dammit...

I've 3 cones in my kat/regen build at the moment with Flashing Steel, Energy Torrent and Golden Dragonfly... which normally does more than enough AoE splash damage.

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in my pve build LOD fits better in my attack chain rather than flashing steel!

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I fail to see how that could be the case, given that not only does Flashing Steel recharge faster, but does the same damage and costs less endurance. But if you prefer a PBAoE then that's entirely your choice, I loved the animation for Lotus Drops but just couldn't justify it as a viable power pick.

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surely man its a very good power to have in all situations!

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Most folks here will know my views on MoG.
I will NEVER be convinced that its worth taking unless they remove the health drain and -regen.
For a PvE scrapper with Broadsword or Parry I fail to see any benefit from taking it.

In PvP if you fight a non-AR Blaster and use it, you will likely die.
If you fight an Ill Troller, Mind Troller, Mind Dom, /Psi Dom or /Psi Defender, you will likely die.
Against a defender/troller with a Psionic Epic, you will likely die.
If you use it whenever a Stalker is nearby, you will likely die.

See a pattern?
It's also impossible to turn off for 180 seconds.
And autohit debuffs and toggles will still affect you (Rad/Dark/Cold!)

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!why in your solo build you put 3 acc in DA?you got tactics and FA! its too much accuracy i thing!

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In pvp there is no such thing as "too much accuracy", as Hammerfall keeps trying to tell me... Personally I had major trouble hitting some def-build brutes and stalkers with Focussed Accuracy 6-slotted and one accuracy SO in each attack. I now have two Acc SOs in most of those attacks and still miss when they use tier9s.

You NEED two accuracy SOs in Divine Avalanche for PvE let alone for PvP, it is a defensive power and if it misses then your survivability takes a very large hit. As a scrapper in PvE you should be fighting higher level mobs anyway, so they're going to be tricky to hit.

I can reliably hit MoG'ed Paragon Protectors in PvE now...

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AFAIK this is still the case. If you drop a Mentor partnering or go out of range (door/portal etc.) your higher level pets will **instantly** despawn, just as your pets normally do when your Mastermind switches maps.

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Good stuff, sounds like they've relaxed things a little bit since I levelled my MM then (was back in August ish I think). Does this apply through misson doors as well? I certainly remember many instant despawns at bank doors and CoT portals, was the main reason I soloed so much...

One of my major gripes with levelling my Bot/Dark MM was the fact that if I was teamed up with a higher level, as soon as my mentor went out of mentor range my pets despawned and I needed to completely resummon.

AFAIK this is still the case. If you drop a Mentor partnering or go out of range (door/portal etc.) your higher level pets will **instantly** despawn, just as your pets normally do when your Mastermind switches maps.

It was "interesting" when this happened on my second Mayhem mission... a Necro MM was my mentor, he clicked on the bank door when our team was fighting a Hero just inside the bank ---> "Goodbye pets"...

Hide only gives a tiny Def boost to melee IIRC, something in the region of 3-5%.

The numbers look a bit funny though. 17 out of 328 works out at just over a 5% hit ratio, which is the tohit floor. Against a 3-accuracy-slotted attack, I don't think hide can even get AoE defense up that high.

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To make it worse, it was actually an informed decision

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I can actually picture Gen disco-kicking the baddies now.
Well I guess it fits in with his cossie...

What was it you called Eddie Izzard's character in Mystery Men?
For some reason that's who Gen reminds me of: Casanova Frankenstein's disco flunky.

(:: "Kung-fu fighting" starts playing in the background :

I'm fairly sure that the main attraction of Mr. Poo is for soloing, although he's as thick as his namesake he can quite happily pull aggro from you when you're mezzled.

However about the only thing he brings to the table in teams with a dedicated tanker is piddly damage output and a VERY heavy resistance to Psionic damage. I've seen him used to "tank" purple carnie mobs and the Psi CW king before, though Phantom Army generally work much better.

This is from a melee toon/tanker viewpoint btw: Currently I've only one support toon at 50 and it's a Defender.

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I ended up taking Jump Kick as my travel power pre-requisite

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DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

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Im goin 2use respec then fill wiv SOs.

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Things do get a lot better with SOs.
I wouldn't panic just yet.

(unless you took 'Jump Kick'...)

Air Superiority is a nice fast-recharging filler attack and will somewhat increase your survivability, it's even just about damaging enough to justify the weapon redraw animation.

Agree with Empath about the jumping pool, Fly is pathetic for a melee toon in PvP, and I can personally attest to the uselessness of teleport-self for anything other than an "Oh [censored]!" button.

Tough is not required for a regen by any stretch of the imagination, and more than likely you will not even notice it in PvP other than as another endurance sink.

Lotus drops is next to useless in PvP, and more or less pants in PvE as well. Flashing Steel is better 95% of the time: wide cone rather than small PBAoE but identical damage, faster recharge and lower cost.

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01) --> Sting of the Wasp==> Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Dmg(7) Acc(15) Rechg(39)
01) --> Fast Healing==> Heal(1) Heal(43) Heal(46)
02) --> Flashing Steel==> Acc(2) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Dmg(7) Acc(15) Rechg(39)
04) --> Reconstruction==> Rechg(4) Rechg(9) Rechg(9) Heal(34) Heal(34) Heal(40)
06) --> Quick Recovery==> EndMod(6) EndMod(13) EndMod(13)
08) --> Build Up==> Rechg(8) Rechg(19) Rechg(31) TH_Buf(48) TH_Buf(50) TH_Buf(50)
10) --> Dull Pain==> Rechg(10) Rechg(11) Rechg(11) Heal(21) Heal(21) Heal(40)
12) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)
16) --> Integration==> Heal(16) Heal(17) Heal(17) EndRdx(19)
18) --> Hurdle==> Jump(18) Jump(40)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20) Heal(50)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22) EndMod(23) EndMod(23)
24) --> Hasten==> Rechg(24) Rechg(25) Rechg(25)
26) --> Soaring Dragon==> Acc(26) Dmg(27) Dmg(27) Dmg(29) Acc(29) Rechg(36)
28) --> Instant Healing==> Rechg(28) Rechg(31) Rechg(31)
30) --> Super Speed==> Run(30)
32) --> Golden Dragonfly==> Acc(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Acc(34) Rechg(36)
35) --> Divine Avalanche==> Acc(35) Acc(36) DefBuf(37) DefBuf(37) DefBuf(37) Rechg(39)
38) --> Resilience==> DmgRes(38)
41) --> Focused Accuracy==> EndRdx(41) EndRdx(42) EndRdx(42) TH_Buf(42) TH_Buf(43) TH_Buf(43)
44) --> Laser Beam Eyes==> Acc(44) Dmg(45) Dmg(45) Dmg(45) Rechg(46) Rechg(46)
47) --> Conserve Power==> Rechg(47) Rechg(48) Rechg(48)
49) --> Revive==> Rechg(49)
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01) --> Power Slide==> Run(1)
01) --> Sprint==> Jump(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Critical Hit==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
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The above is how I'd build for mainly Sirens PvP with a bit of RV/Raid stuff.
Slotting order is fairly random but the power pick order is important, as is the final slotting in pre-32 powers.
Bear in mind that Katana is definately not the best PvP primary.

Up until 32 you're really not going to get much more functionality out of your build than that. IH doesn't need heal slots, Jump speed is capped in SJ, Run speed is capped in SS. You can lose Super Speed for Divine Avalanche if you really want to fit it in before 30, but it will only be useful in toe-to-toe melee fights.

After 32 the power picks are really down to personal preference, so you could fit in MoG or Tough there.