Neogumbercules

The catagorization of casuals in the OP got a little ranty and off topic. I'm not sure where I fit in.

I refuse to pay buy it now prices. I get almost all of my salvage from AE tickets.

I look for IO sets primarily for set bonuses so I'll look through the list and buy recipes at levels where they are less desirable. I don't need level 50 everything, though I'll go for higher level ones where it's important, like getting a level 50 defense from red fortune if I have lower levels for the rest of them.

I bid low on recipes and usually get them if I wait long enough.

I've fallen prey to buyitnow! one once. I was like 1 recipe away from being capped to all positional defenses so I just snagged what I needed and crafted it.

I used to vendor on my lowbies to buy me DOs back before AE drove the prices of common salvage to ridiculous levels.

I don't flip

I don't go for badges

I have played tons of AE for tickets and rolls to make money

I activated my second account in preparation for I16 and plan on making a killing on selling drops I get from leveling my other account.

I've got about 500 million liquid and about 200+ million invested blue side.

I've got 400 million liquid and about....30 million invested on my main redside.

(those numbers don't include about 6 LotGs, a Numi, couple of miracles I got and slotted as lucky drops)

I guess my main goal has been to afford the build I want. So I work towards getting something to kick *** with, not just the simple collection of wealth.

Unfortunately the best sets for defense are gonna be costly. Regen shouldn't be too hard since those bonuses are usually awarded with only 2/3 parts of a set. However, for defense you should be looking for:

Gaussian's Syncronized Fire Control
Scirrocco's Dervish
Touch of Death
Blessing of the Zephyr
Obliteration
Numina's Convalescence
Performance Shifter
Red Fortune
Mako's Bite
Steadfast Protection 3% defense unique
You can get about 3% defense from a 3 slotted Combat Jumping with 3 LotGs and get some +HP and +regen out of it.

You don't need utility or mitigation in your primary when your secondary is storm. Elec doesn't add anything to /storm other than a matching concept. Fire doesn't "add" much, either, but it'll kill everything A LOT faster.

Freezing Rain, Rain of Fire, Fireball, Fire Breath. Minions are dead, LTs are scourging and about to die, and bosses are flopping around or getting harassed by the brutes/doms. Cycle ST attacks on bosses and fire another fireball to finish off the leftovers.

It comes down to your preference and concept ideas. Hands down Fire is numerically and mechanically superior in just about every scenario.

I was thinking about DM/Shield/Pyre, and was considering how much of a monster it's going to be at the high end. It might not have the AoE of spines/fire but Spines/Fire can't touch it in ST or survivability. It might not be the hands down most survivable, either, but I think that all around an IOd out DM/Shield/Pyre is going to be the go-to Scrapper.

With enough investment you will have:

Extreme damage buffing. AaO+SD. DM/Shielders now are already showing how amazing this can be.

Soft-capped defenses with a fast recharging self-heal that is part of your attack chain.
tons of +HP and slotting for extra regen with accolades and tons of HP you might as well not even have a green bar.

Extreme ST DPS. Again, DM shielders are already doing this.

Two great AoEs. Fireball and Shield charge would probably be enough to drop everything but bosses with enough damage buffing.

It's got what it takes to perform extremely well in:

AV solo
Rikti Pylon killing
Farming
General PvE solo and teams
Tanking

Now any scrapper could pass at all of those tasks, but DM/Shield/Pyre is going to be absolutely brutal at performing all of them. It's going to be a very flexible, interchangeable, and downright fun scrapper to play.

It's like The Perfect Storm.

And awesome.

These articles usually don't hit until issues are right around the corner. Must be getting close to release. I'm guessing some time next week the pre-downloader will start.

Wondering where it is, too. Said something about how he'd be crazy to announce something big in the weekend news cycle...

The best things I can think of would probably be to aim for ranged defense, recharge then try to get some global accuracy.


Of course between your attacks, darkest night, fearsom stare, and fluffy, anything you're fighting is probably already at the to-hit floor against you.

Probably prioritize recharge. Get tar patch and fearsome stare back faster while boosting your damage output.

You can hit the soft cap on /SR with just ONE IO. Steadfast protection res/def. Just do some AE missions and get a bunch of tickets and do 10-15 bronze rolls until you get one. You'll probably get a few KB protections that'll sell for a few million while you're at it.

3 slot for defense:

the toggles and passives
weave
CJ
Manuevers

According to mids, with the steadfast in tough you'll be at 45.7 to everything.

Blah rage posting. It seemed like he got lucky with that attack every time and my defense was debuffed well enough for him to smack me around. Would have axed that punk if he didn't have dull pain...

Just you wait, Shadowhunter. I'll be back, and I'll have an AV solo'ing build ready to put you in the dirt.

with everything but STONE PRISON!!! Which is apparently AUTOHIT (not really but eff'n hell)

WTF.

Defense fail...

Well if it makes anyone feel any better I just used the greens I had in my tray at the time....

Maybe if I were DM or something...but no self-heal is rough!

Here's my scrapper solo'ing crap rule:

Is it dead? Good job.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814187058

Maybe this one? It's passively cooled and definitely better than the ATI 9200 you ahve.

My vision of a hero mastermind, the Commander, would be something like a frontline or direct participant in combat. He/she gets less "henchmen" and would be encouraged to participate in battle alongside his/her fellow fighters. I think the powers would have to be thematic based on the primary, so a solider style commander gets rifle attacks or a bruiser type commander goes into melee with his men.. The secondaries would be team boosting leadership powers like what SoAs have, and other powers that strengthen your fighters.

To make it even more thematic, you and your soldiers would share a bodyguard like HP pool. As long as you're alive, your henchies are. As they take damage, so do you, and likewise. You are "defeated" when the HP pool is gone and all members of the squad, including yourself, take a trip to the hospital. This futher deviates it from the "resummon and upgrade" feeling of disposable soldiers. In fact, you don't summon your guys at all. with I16's ability to have your pets follow you through zones, your guys are ALWAYS there with you. Soon as you enter the tutorial zone, bam, there's you and 3 soldiers. This gives you the feeling that you're not just one dude with the ability to control other dudes, but an actual living breathing squad. They never leave your side.

I think that fits thematically with a hero style mastermind, without just recycling the AT and giving it a new name.

To all 3 positions? I don't even want to think about it :P

Maybe just to melee would be a less impossible goal.

Screw the potential problems with /Rad. GIMMEH!

Sarrate made a good point, though. Those Romans have humbled me before. I was lucky enough to have a good sonic on the team though, and the Cysts are surrounded by the laughable Nictus that can barely harm me.

250 DPS? Daaaaayum. That's pretty ridiculous. I suspect the procs in all of my ST attacks helped out a lot, and not to mention getting about 10 AaO buffs from being surrounded by monkeys. Much higher than I thought it would be. Thanks for the math help everyone.

Server: Freedom
Loc: CT
ISP: Cox
Lag: Absolutely unplayable during several points today. Multiple huge lag spikes, and mapservered several times, both during an ITF and when playing in AE in Atlas. I usually never have these issues, even during recent times on extremely heavy population times running around in Atlas farming with all the billions of other people in Atlas.

Meteor Shot, my level 50 Fire/Shield scrapper, hit 45% to everything today (does 44.99% and 44.37 to ranged/aoe count?) and I decided to stroll over to the RWZ and take on one of those big bad pylons that knocked my Claws/Dark around a while back. It was mano y pylon for a 5 minute 15 second battle. I used my cell phone stop watch to time the fight. The strategy was basically gather up some Monkeys to fuel AaO and go to town. I had to pop a few greens here and there to stay up, but I managed to kill the thing in glorious fashion! Woot!

Anyway, could someone use the pylon DPS calculation to figure out the DPS of the chain I was using? 5:15 is how long it took. I don't have that thing handy or I'd just plug in the numbers, but I'm sure one of you has it nearby...

I cycled scorch, cremate, incin, and GFS as they came available. With hasten running something was usually recharged and ready to be used. With hasten down I had a bit of a gap in my chain, but I haven't really built this guy for hardcore ST DPS and high recharge. It's pretty much an afterthought. The main goal for this build was to make him ready to survive 8 man missions solo come I16. The build below is pretty much what I have on live minus a couple of the LotGs and I haven't gotten around to getting 4 more Numina's (I have the triple and the unique).

One important thing I learned from this fight is my endurance use is extremely good. I went the entire duration of the fight without ever having to use blues or conserve power, and that was with nonstop chaining and two hasten crashes to deal with. When it was over I still had a hefty chunk of endurance left. I estimate I could probably go a good 7 and a half minutes straight, no blues, no conserve power with all my toggles up and constantly chaining my attacks. This makes me a happy camper. It basically means I can run myself dry, hit CP, have unlimited endurance for it's duration, and then last long enough to hit it again before I run out of endurance. Anyway, here it is:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Scorch -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(3), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(3), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), T'Death-Dam%(7)
Level 1: Deflection -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(7), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(9), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(9), LkGmblr-Rchg+(11), RedFtn-EndRdx(11)
Level 2: Cremate -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dam%(13), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(13), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(15), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17)
Level 4: Battle Agility -- RedFtn-EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(17), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(19), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(19), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(21), RedFtn-Def(21)
Level 6: True Grit -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal(23), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(31), Numna-Heal/Rchg(50), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 8: Build Up -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(25), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(25), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(27), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(27), GSFC-Build%(29)
Level 10: Active Defense -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(29)
Level 12: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 16: Against All Odds -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(50)
Level 18: Fire Sword Circle -- RechRdx-I(A), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(31), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(33), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(33), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(34), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(34), P'Shift-End%(34), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(46), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(46)
Level 22: Phalanx Fighting -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Incinerate -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(36), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Mako-Dam%(37)
Level 28: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 30: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(43), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(48)
Level 32: Greater Fire Sword -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(37), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(39), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), T'Death-Dam%(40)
Level 35: Shield Charge -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(40), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(40), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(42), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 38: Weave -- RedFtn-Def(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(43), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(43), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(45), Ksmt-ToHit+(45), RedFtn-EndRdx(48)
Level 41: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 44: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 47: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Grant Cover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit


Edit: I ran another one. kept GFS out of my chain. I don't know if it was maybe me getting lucky with performance shifter or what, by my endurance never went below 85%. I also had a pretty smooth chain of scorch, cremate, incin, scorch, cremate, scorch, incin.

So I go to Cim and broadcast "level 50 fire/shield scrapper lf ITF"

I get a tell back from someone, and our conversation went something like this:

"You shouldn't say Fire/Shield, you should just say level 50 scrap"

"Why not?"

"Because shield is squishy and people don't want them."

"Not according to my being defense soft-capped to all positions. "

"Just saying...help you find teams faster."

"Ok. Well thanks. Good luck to you."


Between my broadcast and this conversation happening I did get invited to a team just fine. I know /Shield when well built is anything but squishy, just thought it was an odd conversation. I thought people had kind of forgotten the "Shields is squishy" mantra.


Oh and by the way, I solo'd several of the cysts on the second mission, and we completed the thing in 32 minutes. I didn't die once, and I don't really ever remember getting out of the green in terms of my HP. I'll chalk that up to a good tank and having a rad, a sonic, and a kin on the team, though.

There's an accurate healing IO that gives a chance for +end. Put that in Dark Regen and you'll probably end up gaining endurance for using Dark Regen on a large spawn.

Gotta set your mids export to phpbb/zetaboards.

I, for one, would like to see pyre mastery.