Moraelin_EU

Hmm... True. Personally I've never bothered enhancing the secondary effects so far, but I can see how some people would find those useful.

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or have an end-heavy primary

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Which reminds me, wouldn't it make more sense to put end reducers in the primary first, then? Even with MA, for example, when I'm doing damage in a burst, the endurance/second use of my attacks out-classes any toggles by a pretty large margin.

For example I just threw together an attack chain in the hero builder: DT, EC, SK, CK, TK, AS, SK, TK. The attack chain planner says it uses 5.08 endurance/second, before end reducers.

By comparison, the 3 SR toggles are 0.24 e/s each, so a total of 0.72 e/s. That's about 7 times less endurance per second than the attack chain.

I.e., it seems to me like even just one end reducer in each attack would save me about 1.25 e/s, while 3 end reducers in each toggle saves me about 0.3 e/s. So the former seems to me like it offers more return on investment. In fact, about 4 times more return for half the investment (slots.)

Ah yes... the &lt;bleep!&gt;ing streakmaker... err... streakbreaker. I could swear that the thing never worked right.

But yes, basically you've understood it perfectly well. That's exactly how it works.

Well, except for the number of Lucks needed. In I7 two lucks will floor _any_ NPC, AVs included, and leave a bit of a margin for -defense debuffs. Downside: a floored AV still has more than 5% to hit nowadays.

Yep, the 300% cap has been common knowledge on the US forums for quite a while. To put it in perspective, it takes 12 small inspirations to hit that.

Flurry has its uses for characters which don't have a full attack chain anyway. It's good damage per endurance, and if you're going to have 4 sec holes in your chain anyway, fitting a 3 sec Flurry instead of a 1.5 sec Air Sup between two of those, meh, doesn't even start to lower the DPS in the long term.

Unfortunately that mostly means tankers, and even then the varieties that don't have to re-draw a weapon after it.

E.g., if you're a Stone/Stone Tanker with two attacks until the mid-20's, the 3 second animation time on Flurry doesn't even _start_ to cramp your style. Stone Fist is on a 4 sec recharge, Stone Mallet is 8 or, if you took that instead of SM, Heavy Mallet is 12. Squeezing in Flurry during one of those long waits for recharge, doesn't really lower the DPS.

But, yeah, for a Katana/SR Scrapper it's a bit of a bad choice.

Well, it's sorta like this. _If_ I could take all the powers suitable for a given level, like on WoW, I'd certainly find some use for MoG too. Heck, I'd probably even take the self-res, just so I don't have to carry an awaken any more.

But, as it is, well, it's sorta hard to decide what else to kick out of that build to make room for MoG. Those DR and defense powers keep me from needing an "oh [censored]!!!" kinda power in the first place, they're on 100% of the time, and they don't prevent me from healing or getting healed. Getting rid of one of them just for a power that might... do the same in a really tight spot, but then again might get me killed instead... well, it's a tad hard a step to take.

Personally I found MA/Regen to be easily the most fun toon I've played, so your pal is on the right track. Bear in mind, though, that I only play PvE, so I have no clue whatsoever what's needed for PvP and what not. I can, however, vouch that it was great fun in PvE.

Anyway, the way I went on mine was sorta like this. (Bear in mind that it's been a really long time, though, so I'm sorta struggling to remember it all.)

- got TK and SK immediately, just like on yours

- got Air Sup from the Flight pool as soon as it's available, i.e., at level 6. It already gives you a pretty nice attack chain. (Level 4, was, of course, Reconstruction.) This will mean taking Flight, but then I like flight.

I should explain that all along the plan was to _not_ need Hasten. In I4 that just meant lots of attacks, later I had enough slots for recharge reducers. And especially in I6, I really don't like Hasten. I like to have a continuous attack chain all the time, not just half the time when Hasten is up.

- I got CK and CS next, at levels 8 and 10 respectively. I respecced CS out later, but seriously, it's a _very_ nice power to have in the teen levels. It's a Tsoo Sorcerer killer. *SMACK* one dizzy sorcerer who can't tp, heal or debuff (whirlwind drops.) He's dead, he just doesn't know it yet.

I.e., personally I'd say: consider taking it now, not at 35. In fact, if you got to 35 without it, you can probably forget about it altogether. Focus Chi, Eagle's Claw, Crane Kick is a Sapper killer by itself, and I can't really think of anyone else I ever wanted to mez after 35.

On the bright side, one ACC is enough in it, which frees up slots for your main attacks.

- So far, my build didn't include Focus Chi or Dull Pain. I took those much later. In fact, I only took them in the 30s. Not necessarily the best build, but it worked for me.

- Personally I skipped CAK altogether. Mind you, that was originally in I4, where CAK was useless.

Still, I've tried it later in I5 and early I6 and seriously, CAK and TK are equal DPS and the lowest DPS of MA at that. You don't really need both for a good attack chain, so I'd get rid of one or the other. Personally I got rid of CAK.

- level 12 was QR. At this point I already had a good continuous attack chain, and plenty of endurance for it. Fun.

- Level 14 was, of course, the travel power.

- Levels 16 and 20 were respectively Integration and Resilience. (Resilience really helped, IMHO.) I think I squeezed in Swift at 18.

I like running towards my target fast by just hitting the "follow" key, and not needing Sprint for that. There are good arguments to be made for taking Hurdle instead, but then Swift was more convenient for me.

- Levels 22 and 24 didn't have anything really useful, and with Integration and all those attacks I was starting to occasionally run out of endurance, so I took Health and Stamina there. Taking Stamina put me on infinite endurance right there.

- Level 26 and 28 are, obviously, Dragon's Tail and Instant Healing. Not much room to wrangle those, since one is the only AOE and the other one is the one that gets you alive out of a bad charge or pull or add.

DT is also an AOE knock-down, so it really also counts as a defense power. Gives you time to pop an inspiration, hit Reconstruction or hit your travel power and run for your life. I'd really take it at 26 again any time.

- level 30 filled in the DP lack, and 32 was, of course, Eagle's Claw. I think I took FC as late as 35.

---

At this point I used a respec to go for a more "light tank" kind of a build. I swapped Flight for SJ, got rid of CS, and got started on Fighting. Namely, I got Boxing and at levels 35 and 38 I got Tough and Weave.

It may not sound like much, but Tough+Resilience, both 3-slotted for damage resistance, are worth 27% damage resistance to Smash and Lethal. Those are the most common damage types on COH. You can actually notice the improvement in survivability.

CJ and Weave, both 3-slotted for defense, are 9% defense. It may sound like useless, but there goes more than 25% of the damage from minions and about 25% of the damage from Lts right there. In I7 it'll be worth even more.

Basically together they're two extra layers of damage mitigation, which means you can take a _lot_ more damage and heal it right back. It means that at equal level, anything short of an elite boss doesn't even start to need IH or even DP.

Anyway, it made the 30's a _lot_ more fun.

---

Other comments about your build:

- Be aware that only half of DP's effect and only 25% of IH are enhanceable. I.e., look at those heal slots there and imagine that for DP, SOs have the same worth as DOs everywhere else, and for IH, SOs make as much of a difference as TOs do anywhere else. I.e., it's enough to make me seriously consider using those slots somewhere else. Personally I do just great without them there, anyway.

- Where I used those extra slots was for 1 endurance reducer in each of my attacks. Integration, Tough and Weave got 1 each too. With all those defenses _and_ Focused Accuracy, I was starting to run out of endurance eventually. Putting the endurance reducers there put me back on infinite endurance again. Fun.

- This means that I also never needed Conserve Power. I mean, seriously, it takes a Sapper or soloing something like Infernal's summoning portal for my endurance to even drop below half. Conserving something I have plenty of, makes no sense.

- Personally I consider MOG to be a joke. Other than a relatively brief test, I've never used it and really never missed it.

Hmm... It just occured to me that my Ninjas essentially work by Stalker rules. The Jounin even placate (much to my annoyance when I'm the one getting the aggro) and then crit, and there's even a power to make any of them use a smoke flash to crit. Wonder if giving them invisibility would allow all of them to open the fight with a crit.

So people play what works and avoid what's anywhere between non-fun and plain old broken. Big surprise there.

- Empath is the easiest to find a group as (partly also because they're almost guaranteed they'll actually do their defender job, instead of insulting your intelligence with fairy tales about how their blasting is more useful to the group.)

- Regen is pretty much the only flavour which doesn't suck more *** before SOs than the vaccuum toilets on the space shuttle. No, I do _not_ find it fun to be out of breath every 5 minutes. Add SR being basically broken against Lt or higher before I7, Inv having been nerfed to death in I5 and I6, and Dark being pretty much on par with Inv but needing more end/sec than even SR, and there you go. Now you know why Regen is popular.

- Stone is the only tanker flavour which wasn't nerfed into near uselesness by I5 or I6.

- Blasters actually have a lot more variety than you credit them with. Ice/Energy and Energy/Energy blasters are the easiest to solo. You know, for those times when one isn't in the mood to put up with a pick-up group that acts like they're on hard drugs. But even then, they're not _that_ dominant. In fact, if there's a FOTM, Fire comfortably outnumbers both Ice and Energy combined.

You see variety in controllers because 4 out of 6 primary sets do the _exact_ same thing with different graphics. So there isn't all that much of a difference between taking Ice or taking Fire. Both do the same thing. But even there, Illusion is the eternal FOTM, and easily accounts for half the controllers out there. And it accounted for about 80-90% of controllers before Containment. Same deal: it was the only soloable one pre-32. At the opposite end of the spectrum, with how many Mind Controllers have you grouped so far? Right. Now those are a rare breed.

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Come on states, swing that nerfbat! harder! again, again!

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1. Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it. I've defended certain nerf actions in the past, in a mis-guided faith that surely this time States and the gang will do the maths and finally have a well balanced game.

The problem is: they just can't do maths. They'll blindly swing between stupid extremes, and create new problems for each one they solve.

E.g., the "fix" for tanks being freaking useless and less tough than a scrapper since I1, just produced the uber-tanks of later that could herd whole maps, and those produced the rampant PL-ing problem.

E.g., the I7 fix for Defense is overshooting the mark again. Now SR outclasses not just Invuln Scrappers, but even Invuln _Tankers_. You can easily get 95% damage mitigation to _all_ damage types, where an Invuln Tanker is capped at 90% and needs 8 powers and a pool to get there for smash and lethal only. Heck, play a bit with the ice epic in the character builder, and see how it also creates the possibility to make a _Blaster_ or Controller with more mitigation _and_ damage output than some "scranker" Tankers. I.e., exactly the tank/mage combo that States shoots his mouth about not wanting. Mark my words, I8 will be "nerfing defense back again."

Every single bloody "issue" just created another problem for the next issue to "fix". Every single FOTM was just replaced by another newly-created FOTM.

Frankly, at this point I fail to see any reason to cheer for a nerf any more. This utterly _clueless_ approach to balancing has just messed with everyone's characters for no actual benefit: the game still isn't any more balanced than I1 was. It was all annoyance and zero benefit.

So frankly, I just wish they'd leave the game alone already. They can jolly well code a new set, or a new zone for all I care, but all this random nerfing some and making others uber overnight, is just getting on my nerves already.

2. Frankly, I fail to see the purpose of "balancing" as being "let's make the game suck for everyone." Seeing how utterly useless or annoying some of the other sets used to be, "Come on states, swing that nerfbat!" strikes me as... mis-guided at best.

Even for balancing purposes, I'd rather see the negative parts fixed than a round of nerfing all that's still fun to play. Nerfing everyone into sucking exactly as much as the least fun combination, well, I fail to see why I'd keep playing something like that. I don't need to pay a monthly fee to have a miserable time.

Do I bother checking anyone's powers in a group? No, not really, except when I'm curious about the theme.

E.g., if someone's named something like "Dark Shadow" (just an example, sorry if anyone actually has that name), I might be curious what combination of dark/* or */dark they took. And be thoroughly surprised if they're something like Empathy/Electric

I'll notice in the fights if it actually works or not. I'll also tend to be _amused_ if they're a tank lacking both Taunt and an aura. It happens more often than you'd think, and not only in the teen levels. I remember grouping with people in the 40-50 range who had Granite and Rooted, but I never saw Mud Pots at their feet.

Will I feel safer if they _do_ have Taunt _and_ their aura? Yes, of course. If anything, it's some indication that they do intend to function as a party tank, rather than as a Scrapper with extra damage resistace. You know, being ready to chuck a Taunt at anyone adds aggroing the Blaster, and that kind of thing.

Still, as I've said, I'll see in an actual battle how that works. If noone dies, heck if I care what exact powers everyone took and how they're using them.

Did I take it on my inv/ tanker? Yep, being that it's a I4 character, I've had it proudly since level 4.

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So who would you send in to fight a Malta Sapper in issue 7?

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I'd probably do my standard Leeroy Jenkins routine as any of my scrappers and do it personally. As I've said, as long as you kill them first and kill them fast, getting hit once is a non-issue for my Regens. Getting hit twice just means I have to pop a Catch-A-Breath, which the rest of the time are beyond useless to a Regen. Having RA or AM or whatever cast on me, may well mean I don't even need to do that.

And there's always only one Sapper per group, so short of the occasional overlapping groups or patrolls adding, it's very feasible to be sapper free by the time you got hit twice.

'Course, if the SR or anyone else wants to help, it's very much appreciated.

Good question, though I'm pretty sure I've seen them miss me before. Not too often, though, and it could be that I was just wrong.

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In all MMOs people will whine about the stealthers

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Noone's whining yet, except you. You're the one whining that other people can hunt you just like you hunt them. OMG it's so unfair that taking a whole 4 powers doesn't automatically make you safe from everyone on a whole PvP map. Well, then don't go PvP, if you can't take what everyone else is taking there. It's that simple.

A PvP zone was never supposed to be the kind of place where just hitting one power makes you invisible and un-attackable by anything short of carpet bombing the whole area. You're vulnerable there, like everyone else. If that's too much for you, why are you there? There's a whole PvE game out there to play.

Want to make PvP less of a "being hunted all over the map by groups of 8 [censored]" case? Fair enough, we can talk that too. But then for everyone, not just for one AT. The Stalker is just another AT, nothing more. There was no "only you can hunt others, noone else can hunt you" description when you picked that AT.

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you should be glad stalkers aren't like rogues in WoW, they could kill tanks with ease if they were(and good).

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"You should be glad I'm not asking for something even more unbalanced" is a pretty poor argument. The idea to prove is in which way would improve COH for everyone, not in which ways it could be even worse.

Again, get this: you're just another AT, nothing more. You're not some royal blood caste that has a right to exploit others. You're not exempt from others doing unto you exactly what you do unto them. I.e., basically, "be glad that I'm not asking for even more advantages over you all" is entirely the wrong approach to "balancing" the game.

Balance means sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It also can mean a rock-paper-scissors setup. You can kill some people, other people can kill you. You can hunt some people, other people can hunt you. One class having a right to win against everyone as long as they hit a "make me invincible" button isn't anywhere near balanced.

And if you compare it to WoW, I dare say you got WoW all wrong. Their Rogues are a far more complex and all around balanced class than any COH or COV class, Stalkers included. The rogues have their advantages, yes, but other classes have theirs. The COH Rogues rely on a helluva lot more than 4 powers to do their job, and each of them can be counteracted if the opponent plays right. And their rogues aren't a one-trick PvP pony either. It's an all around good mix of stealth and main damage dealer, PvP _and_ PvE prowess (Rogue may well be the most played PvE class), soloability and group value. (Although somewhat shafted by being one of too many Rogues when looking for a group.)

And more importantly, WoW's mechanics are a lot less simplistic and taken to extremes than COH's mechanics. A Rogue doesn't have or need a 6x damage boost on their Backstab, and half their powers and gameplay revolve around fighting pretty darn well while _visible_, not on placating and running away. Their Backstab is just an initial advantage, not something on which your very life and death depend.

In a way, a WoW Rogue is closer to a MA/SR Scrapper with Stealth than to a Stalker.

Compared to WoW's rogues, yeah, you got shafted. I feel for you. COH's Stalkers are a one-trick pony, and not even a well thought out one. But taking it to an even more ridiculous extreme isn't IMHO the way to fix it.

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Also I think the only reason people whine so much about AS is because you don't see it coming, I could go make an invis blapper and get much the same result( I'm leveling one to try it out), blappers and scrappers can often 2/3 shot villains who are all squishy except for brutes(in hp terms) on a regular basis.

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Again, noone's whining. If you can't take a debate, just don't start it.

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(jessh go play WoW against rogues, you can't see them ever without being either a human or having buffs from 2 classes only).

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Again, methinks you haven't played WoW much.

A) Seeing or not seeing them isn't the alpha and the omega. There are ways to counter one even if you took a backstab or a sap. As I've said, more than half the fight will happen after that.

B) Even there any Rogue worth his salt doesn't come from the front and expect to be guaranteed at -perception for everyone automatically. They too use the terrain and come from behind, if they want to survive.

C) They aren't all that impossible to detect, unless you're signifficantly lower level. (Though, yeah, ganking people 12 level lower _is_ a sort of a national sport there.) If you can tell me that Rogues are at an automatic -perception cap for everyone, I dare say you haven't actually played one.

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I tried ninja's 4 times, I wanted to like ninja's but they kept running out of melee for no known reason, and as I wanted to be dark that wasn't helpfull

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Yeah, with Dark they're not all that useful, as they get spread all over the place. Put some FF bubbles on them, though, and they can go toe to toe with an Elite Boss with very little problems.

Because

1. Ninjas are inherently _cool_. Now maybe a pirates MM set would be even cooler, but in the meantime we all have to do with ninjas

2. Because Ninjas have a built-in +def that stacks nicely with FF bubbles. Even the Genin's "only" +7% def makes actually a lot of difference when it's added to a 14% deflection shield or +17.5% insulation shield. Throw in a 4.29% Maneuvers too, and you'd be surprised how hard they are to kill even by anything short of elite bosses. (And survive a fair bit against those too.) And so far we haven't even talked standing close enough so they're in the big dispersion bubble, which adds another 9% or so to it all.

Most of the time you just have to hang around and watch them do your mission for you. Maybe throw in a heal from Medicine now and then, just to cut down on the downtime. The vast majority of solo missions I don't even have to re-summon them and re-upgrade them.

Robots are another tough cookie, since they have some very weak bubbles of their own (but again, they add to FF bubbles), but they have damage resistance too and add to your own defense too.

3. Because with Ninjas you can safely forget about the Genin once you have two Jounin and an Oni, if you're not in the mood to haul them along as extra meat shields. Or when you're in a group that doesn't appreciate a horde of minions standing in the way.

The same applies to Robots again.

With Mercs the third grunt is your medic, so you get to grudgingly summon the trio no matter what.

On the contrary. Because of the non-linear returns, CJ is worth a lot more for a SR than to anyone else. The difference between, say, 27.3% and 31.2% defense (SR without CJ vs SR with CJ) , is a _lot_ bigger than that between 0% and 3.9% defense. The difference between 27.3% and 31.2% defense is freaking huge when you fight bosses or even higher level lts or even minions with to-hit bonuses or (in spite of your partial resistance to that) defense debuff. Because it shaves the last bit of an already small percent to be hit, the difference in average damage taken is a lot higher than it seems.

So for a SR, yes, it's very much worth it to take CJ and it's very much worth it to slot it.

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This is from Quiet_Ninja on the US stalker forum:

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Duly noted, so I'll mock _him_ then.

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stalkers are the only AT's that have 4 powers in each set that are required to take, which makes our builds very tight.

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&lt;sarcasm&gt;What, he needs to take a whole 4 powers (or 8, depending on how you read the "in each set" part) to win in PvP? Whoa. That's sooo unfair. Oh, the injustice. He obviously _deserves_ to need just 1 power, a big button that says "Win now!", preferrably at level 1.&lt;/sarcasm&gt;

I routinely play characters that need more than 4 powers from the primaries and secondaries. Some from the pools too.

Fire tanks and knockback protection, anyone? Yeah, you even have a pool pre-selected for you to just do your job. (Getting knocked back out of aggro range of the whole group is a way to team-wipe.)

SR Scrappers? You need at least 6 secondaries just to have protection from all 3 attack types. (Melee, ranged _and_ AOE.) And even then Lts and Bosses hit you regularly. Add 2 powers from Medicine which are all but mandatory, CJ is all but pre-selected too (it makes a huge difference for a SR), 3 powers to get Stamina, and if that wasn't already sucking all your power picks and endurance, 2 powers to get Tactics too if you want to PvP. Grand total? 14 so far, and we haven't even taken any attacks yet.

Want to talk PvP? Being seen with Tactics is too much for him? Well, that's two powers just to get Tactics, plus Stamina to keep it running, so a total of _5_ that someone is required to take. And that's not even counting that they need defenses or some kind of attack to fight thereafter.

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WE ARE THE STALKERS, nobody else should be hunting other players thats our job

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Well, gee, he should be the only one who has a free ticket to kill everyone and never risk retaliation. Exactly where is the challenge or balance than? Oh, wait, lemme guess, he doesn't want balance or challenge, he just wants to grief with impunity.

Sorry to rain on that parrade, but Stalker is just another AT. Nowhere in its description does it say that it's god-mode for griefers. _Noone_ is some privileged caste supposed to be the only one hunting other people with no risks. And _noone_ is supposed to have an auto-win with no personal skill involved. A Stalker is just another player, and just another AT. No other AT gets an auto-win, so Stalkers don't either.

Learn to use the terrain and LOS. Don't approach your target from the front and expect the game to give you an automatic win. Learn to use the terrain and come from the back. Most people aren't zoomed out to kingdom come all the time, so they can't see you there.

But you know what disturbs me more there? If one can't take the heat of being occasionally hunted, how _can_ one demand that everyone else is there just to be hunted with impunity? Mind boggles.

There's a medical name for the kind of personality who sees other people as just unimportant NPCs, there just to be used, hunted, whatever, for his personal enjoyment, and is able to rationalize that to heck and back with a straight face. It's called the Antisocial Personality Disorder, a.k.a., Sociopathy. Look it up some day. But even there most are subtle enough not to tell you outright, "you're the worthless peon that's here to be hunted, I'm the one supposed to be the one hunting you with impunity."

So, seriously, I don't know if games can turn a non-psychopath into a psychopath, but I'd worry if I started showing those symptoms. I know that's a post copied from someone else, but if at any point you find yourself thinking that way, if you find yourself able to rationalize that other players are there just to be the hunted ones... I'd say it's time to take a break, look in the mirror and ask yourself in all seriousness if that's what you want to become.

And incidentally there you have the last part of the answer to your earlier question: why I don't like PvP in an RPG setting. Half of it I've already said: because I like the competition to be about personal skill than artifficial stats and bonuses. The other half is that, for all it's being an all-out free-for-all war, Unreal Tournament actually attracts a _lot_ less psychopaths than MMO PvP does. When you have people able to hide behind their character's artifficial numbers, I don't know, maybe half the people are still nice and normal, but the other half exhibits sociopathic behaviour to a _disturbing_ degree. It's not the kind of people I find fun to be with, regardless of whether they're friend or foe.

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i'm not saying that it's terrible at lower levels, but it's not the most satisfying of sets.

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Actually I did find it the most satisfying set at lower levels, because of QR. _Easily_ the most satisfying set.

Sure, my SR had shields and the Inv had damage resistance, but:

1) I was out of breath all the time. In I4 for example I'd run out of endurance as the SR just with the two actives and Sprint on, for crying out loud. And in I6, let's just say my shiny new SR with the shields on, now has endurance for a whole two groups of 2-3 minions when soloing before getting detoggled for lack of endurance.

Seriously, it's like playing The Amazing Asthmatic Avenger. I might as well go to the tailor and make that character fat, pasty white and pimple faced. And ask the devs for a "sucking on the inhaler" animation.

(No offense to the asthmatic or over-weight people, of course. They have all my compassion. Just not the way I picture a _Super-Hero_.)

2. Here's what really gets my goat: those shields didn't even _do_ much before SOs.

3. Mez protection? Yeah, SR gets that earlier, but before SOs it's not even possible to have it permanent, or not without 6 slotting it at the expense of your attacks and respeccing the slots out later. So in terms of who gets a _permanent_ mez protection, Regen wins by, oh, 4 levels or so.

I'll take the clicky heal instead of that any day, thank you very much.

I don't even have MOG and I eat Sappers for breakfast with, say, my MA/Regen. Focus Chi while running towards the sucker, Eagles Claw, Crane Kick. Dead Sapper. Chances are good (60%?) he's Disoriented after the EC, so being that they take while to aggro, most of the time they don't even shoot at me.

And if I actually were worried about Sappers, I'd take Cobra Strike again, not MOG. *SMACK* One disoriented minion or Lt.

But honestly, even that's not the main trick. The main trick is to hit them first. Even if you miss once, all's still good if they're dead after they shot once or twice. (Pop a catch a breath if you got hit twice so you don't detoggle. Or just take the hold when soloing. Two minions left and a turret won't kill you.)

Pay attention to the sound, for a start. The Sapper jetpacks make a characteristic "*hissssssss*" sound. So you can know one is around the corner or up the stairs you're about to take.

Sprint+Swift goes a long way towards closing in before they shoot. Super Speed is even better, if you have it.

If you're not sure where around the corner the bugger is, pop a Luck and have a CAB ready. As I've said, even if hit twice, your endurance has to actually hit zero to get held.

More importantly, "know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to _run_." You have a short while before your endurance hits zero. If you have no chance of getting the Sapper before that (e.g., you got ambushed before even seeing where he is), use it to get the heck out of there. Hit the travel power if needed.

So basically there are non-MOG ways of getting a Sapper.

Upon rereading, I'll say another thing, though: soloing _does_ get repetitive, boring and pointless for me too after a while.

So, hmm, have you considered moving on the US servers? On EU evenings, yeah, the EU servers have more people. But if your playing hours are all out of sync with EU, you may find a _lot_ more people on the US servers. Might just make it possible to have a bit more of a social life, plus allow playing some group-oriented builds like tank or "healer".

I.e., one way or another it might bring a bit more variety into it.

The main downside is that you can't transfer your account or characters, of course.

Let me also say that at level 7 it's pretty hard to actually tank, anyway.

1. A lot of tanks don't even have a taunt aura yet. If you're, for example, an Invuln, you don't get that until level 18. So in the meantime you just don't have anything you can lock the enemy's attention with.

Taunt is also at level 10 nowadays. Not that it would do that much yet, though. Taunt is _great_ for getting the enemy's attention, but unreliable at keeping it by itself.

For starters it has a 5 target cap anyway. So if you're trying to lock 10 enemies with it, heh, good luck with that one.

Second, the way Taunt (and Gauntlet, a.k.a., punch-voke) seems to work in COH is pretty radically different from WoW or EQ. It doesn't actually build long lasting aggro/hate/whatever-you-call it. (And personally I doubt that such thing even exists in COH: the enemies show too short attention span for that to be the case.) It just forces enemies to target you for X seconds. After that's over, they're free to turn around and shoot the blaster in the very next millisecond.

So basically while you _are_ guaranteed to instantly steal aggro with a Taunt, you'll really need an aura to lock them on you. So basically if you want to tank, take your set's aura ASAP. E.g., if you're Stone, take Mud Pots ASAP, and so on. They're not there just to give you some extra damage output.

Chances are all you have is Gauntlet... well, it's certainly good for generating extra taunts, but it's short lived and short ranged. It will force everyone next to the punched one to turn towards you, but half a second later they'll turn and shoot the squishy. Again, don't imagine that you're building some long lasting aggro with it that'll last you for the rest of the fight. Regardless of the Scranker fairy tales you might have read on the US boards, you're _not_ going to be able to reliably hold aggro only with that at any level. Ever. And definitely not at level 7, when you might have 2 attacks total and 4 second breaks between them.

2. You don't have either the HP or the damage mitigation to actually tank yet. Much as tanks can get great damage mitigation on SOs, you get a sick joke instead when you're on Trainings. E.g., the difference between having 40% damage resistance and 80% damage resistance isn't just twice, it's actually taking 3 times more damage. But a lot of builds won't even have 40% at level 7, or only against smash and lethal. (I.e., don't imagine you'll tank Outcasts that easily.)

I.e., it'll be a hard life until you're on SOs.

Probably your best bet at low levels are small groups, so you don't end up taking damage from 10 minions and 5 lieutenants at the same time. You just don't have the damage mitigation for that yet, or not without a defender's full time attention.

Also don't be affraid to leave a group of idiots who've set an 8-man Frostfire on Invincible "because it's teh l33t xp!!!111oneleven" Don't kid yourself, it won't even get you appreciated as a dedicated team member there. By the time everyone takes their 6'th run back from the hospital, blame starts being passed around, or at least everyone starts thinking everyone else is an idiot. And chances are the group will fall to pieces anyway before you even see Frosty's fire monkeys.

Well, let's think about the origin for a moment. You've said magic origin. Well, then IMHO you don't need to worry about purity considerations. You can heal, regenerate, be shrouded in back clouds, fly, shoot beams with your eyes, whatever. It's magic.

Personally I'm a fan of Regen, mainly because of QR. With QR and Stamina you can be pretty much on infinite endurance, and keep attacking non-stop for hours once you have a full attack chain. Broadsword can be fairly end-heavy because of the cone and PBAOE attacks, so regenning that endurance right back can be useful.

Regen is also supremely easy and fun to solo at all levels.

On the other hand, as a Regen you're closer to a WoW "rogue" than "warrior". You're a damage dealer in a group, not a tank, not even a light tank.

SR... well, SR promises to be very powerful in I7, but SR is sorta the opposite of Regen. Instead of getting an endurance regen early, you get some powers which suck unholy amounts of endurance and don't even protect much until you're finally on SOs. So SR is going to be a freaking nightmare in the teen levels.

SR also completely lacks a heal, so you'll end up having to skip some powers to get Medicine. Again, it's something you won't even have power picks for until much later, so that's even more grind to get there. By comparison Regen gets a very nice heal right away.

SR also has a build in semi-Hasten, yes, but I wouldn't base a choice on that one. The sheer number of extra powers you have to take as a SR, including that semi-Hasten... well, let's put it like this: if you just took attacks instead of those, you'd have a full attack chain without it. And Broadsword has plenty of attacks.

Pretty much the only primary I currently see SR as being palatable to pair with is Dark Melee. Between DM's heal, endurance replenish and the accuracy debuff that stacks with SR's defenses, they seem to be made for each other. But since you've already picked Broadsword, that's out of the question.

Don't get me wrong, SR has its good points too, but you can count on at least 20-30 levels of being permanently out of breath before you can reap the rewards for that grind. Your decision if you want to put up with that for the later benefits.

Well, fun is a very subjective thing, so unless you're a bit more speciffic about the problem you have (too repetitive? too hard? what?), I can only take wild (and probably wrong) guesses.

One such uninformed guess would be that maybe it isn't the scrapper, but the level. Level 40+ just becomes a lot more of a pain to solo, since the mission are split between:

- AV missions or whole bloody AV arcs (though I think lately they've been toned down to Elite Boss)

- lots and lots of Sappers and Carnies. Even my Regen got occasionally drained to zero endurance by Ring Mistresses (and regularly if they're +2 levels), so an end-heavy set like Dark... I feel your pain. A challenge is good. The same challenge every single group of enemies, it gets old.

- hunt missions and outdoor instances that just get boring fast for me lately. Spending one hour finding 50 carnies in PI can be boring as heck, and just irritating as you fly/jump/ss past hordes of Rikti and Nemesis, but no Carnie in sight. Or the city section mission maps were cool the first time, but the 100'th time I have to comb something the size of KR... it gets boring.

As I've said, I'm not sure it's a Scrapper problem, though. A Scrapper is the best soloer, IMHO, though Controllers can be very powerful in the 40's too. Trying to solo the same things as, say, a defender... eh, I hope you have either luck or tons of patience there.

Another such guess would be that maybe you just got bored of the scrapper as such. If you want something that's as far from a Scrapper as it gets, try a Mastermind. Unlike the frantic clicking of a Scrapper, if you pick, say, Ninjas, Force-fields and Medicine, most of the time you don't even have anything to do. Once those guys are shielded, you'll mostly just hang around them trying to not pick too much aggro, while they do your mission for you.

Just wait until you're both on SOs, although even on DOs it's almost there. But on SOs, two FF bubblers == god mode for the whole team. You'll be able to snipe all the time even if you do get aggro, because they have to actually hit to interrupt you.

To address the other question, the downside is the same as for any other non-Empath. "R u a healer???" 'Nuff said. I've had ice tanks or SR scrappers (i.e., people whose defenses do stack with the FF) leave the team in protest, because they just have to have a healer. Or I've had trouble convincing people to invite a second FF defender I knew -- and you've seen what kind of pwnage that means -- because while they were gracious enough to accept that they invited one non-empath, they weren't going to do the same mistake twice.

Expect this problem to actually rise through the 20's and peak somewhere in the 30s.

Well, IMHO a Controller is soloable in sorta the same way Stealth is a travel power. It certainly can get you there safely, but you really need to have patience