OHakubi

So you're saying that I probably shouldn't invite the guy who plays a member of the Fifth Column to my cousin's Bat Mitzvah celebration, then? Alright. He's kind of a dick anyway, so...

Neue Deutsche Harte, symphonic metal, classic rock, 30's big band and swing, blues rock, the few industrial rock bands that are actually good, electronica and video game soundtracks, up to and including a shitton of Touhou remixes (I am not a proud person). Not discounting anything else that sounds interesting. Never listened to The Cape much if at all, alas.

This is a slight dramatization of actual events:



The great steel whale rose from the depths of the sea, its blowhole opening with a metallic squeak, and from out of its depths Tardust flew forth, tank-topped, leather-pantsed and grinning like a maniac. Landing on the shore, he let out an enthusiastic albeit completely incomprehensible cry, surfing across the ground on a glowing purple cloud.

Cresting the hill, he saw the destination of his journey: The Elfin Kingdom. Great towering beasts of rock candy and hemp stood watch at its borders as the elves danced and played within. Their celebration would soon come to an end, however, for they had to pay for their crimes.

Oh yes, Tardust thought. They would pay.

One of the outlying elves spotted him, hopped towards Tardust with the intent to hug. Tardust greeted him by punching him out of the air, sending him flying towards his friends. Enraged, the diminutive hordes advanced, and soon he found himself locked in mortal combat with with nothing but his bare fists to defend himself against the tiny army.

For each he struck down another rose to take its place, clawing and flailing. Their numbers seemed as endless as their anger, and he found his strength waning. Retreat was unthinkable, however; it was vengeance or death, and when he spotted another squad of reinforcements streaming out of the barracks towards him, it was then that he knew what he had to do.

From deep within himself, Tardust called up the spirit of Jorgumand, the Great Serpent, and let spew from his mouth a wave of candy and rainbows and smiling shrimp and shimmering fish swimming through the air. The wave splashed upon the hordes, and they shrieked as they quickly began to melt into puddles on the ground. Fearful of his power, the survivors' ranks faltered before breaking entirely. The world around him exploded into lights and stars and comets as the elves fled in terror and Tardust fell to his knees, fists raised to heaven as the world cheered for him and his victory.

---

Meanwhile, in another part of Monster Island not under the effects of mind-altering drugs, two heroes on patrol were taking a short break in an attempt to rationalize what they had just seen.

"...did he just hit threat level fifty by throwing up on a monkey?"

"I would like to say 'yes,'" his friend said, "but that would mean acknowledging that it just happened."

"Oh. Do you think we should arrest him? Because, you know..."

"Are you kidding? I think I'm getting a contact high just by watching him."



Truth is always stranger than fiction. Except for the parts that people make up.

Either that or you take the soul of one of your conquered foes and bind it to a man-made shell with sigils painted in their own blood, ensuring they exist forever as a mockery of their former selves; looking upon a world with a body that cannot taste, smell or feel, and still aware of their burning hatred for you yet unable to refuse your orders. Called upon to serve their murderer time and again, they will be cut down time and again, returning to a place beyond life and death where nothing exists but their own mind and the cold, yawning abyss until their taskmaster brings them forth for another glimpse at a world that has long forgotten them, an endless cycle that continues until their will is finally broken and they become as dead in spirit as they are in flesh, indistinguishable from the mindless machine that its body once was.

It's a little long for a bio note, though, so you probably are better off with just "magic robots."

Having seen the results of other changes that were once viewed as boons to roleplayers, I wouldn't be surprised if three months after the servers merge and everyone starts playing on Union/Virtue all the remaining Europeans will be entirely in Galaxy, all the remaining colonials will be entirely in Atlas and never the twain shall meet.

"No, don't go to Galaxy, it's full of foreigners. They keep putting 'u's in their words where they don't belong and talking about 'Strontium the Dog' and 'Thirteen' and rat-men and all these other comics I've never heard of. We've moved the Gemini Park rock to the pond in Atlas anyway, so we don't have to worry about running into them. One of them even told me to my face that Captain America was pretty okay, he guesses. Can you imagine?! The nerve of some people!"

I'd wonder why, if you're a super-intelligent AI, you went through the trouble of capturing a known threat alive - whatever that threat may be - when killing someone who would potentially oppose you is easier and probably more conductive to your goals in the long run. I'd also wonder how you acquired all these resources and set up this complex (are there construction companies that handle this sort of thing in the CoX universe?), and more importantly, why you did it when you clearly know better.

After that I'd wonder why you've fallen for the tactic of "do something, then wait for your opponent's reaction" that shows up constantly in bad alien invasion films instead of, again, using overwhelming force to take down threats without waiting for a counterattack. If you happened to wander by in your robot body, I might even wonder why something that exists as a platform for an AI and a support/leadership system for assault drones has to have a humanoid body structure instead of, say, something faster, more durable and agile. Or why it even needs to be present instead of controlling its puppet bodies from a secure location.

Then I'd climb through the plot holes to freedom.

...

I mean, I'd climb through them to reach a safe location, not the server. That would just be silly.

Well, the first thing I'd do is...

Build a base (like a boss)
Mocking laughter (like a boss)
Taunt the heroes (like a boss)
Boring task force (like a boss)
Hide some glowies (like a boss)
My own throne room (like a boss)
Min-max the minions (like a boss)
Powerset synergy (like a boss)

Hit on War Witch (like a boss)
Get rejected (like a boss)
Swallow sadness (like a boss)
Send ambushes (like a boss)
Call the Pocket D (like a boss)
Cry deeply (like a boss)
Demand a refund (like a boss)
Eat a bagel (like a boss)

Minions nerfed (like a boss)
Merit reduction (like a boss)
Fifth of vodka (like a boss)
Puke on Recluse's desk (like a boss)
Buy a gun (like a boss)
In my mouth (like a boss)

...**** man, I can't ******* do it, ****!

***** out (like a boss)
Puke on Recluse's desk (like a boss)
Jump out the window (like a boss)
Suck a dude's **** (like a boss)
Score some 'dyne (like a boss)
Crash my flyer (like a boss)
Suck my own **** (like a boss)
Eat some chicken strips (like a boss)

Tear my IOs off (like a boss)
Black out in the sewer (like a boss)
Meet the Kraken (like a boss)
**** his brains out (like a boss)
Turn into a jet (like a boss)
Bomb the Council (like a boss)
Crash into Boomtown (like a boss)
Now I'm dead (like a boss)

If you wanted to get a little more esoteric you could have it such that said telekinetic can't move anything heavy, i.e. people, anything launched by Propel, &c. Smaller objects, on the other hand, can be moved en masse with no problem. Like, say, grains of sand. Or air molecules, like the ones surrounding that armed man pointing a gun at your character and oh dear, friction between those molecules has suddenly raised the ambient air temperature and caused him to burst into flames, hasn't it?

Pinching off small yet very important blood vessels is another possibility, though that might have to wait until the devs implement Aneurysm Control, and really all of this is probably wildly off-topic, so.

I should either post more frequently or learn to live with massive link dumps. Anyway, went on an updating spree so now you're sharing webspace with Powered Broker, Tiny Activist, Shining Shank, Hamidon-tan and Vortex Absolute (et alumni), the latter of which is probably the closest that any of these will come to the Next Great American Novel length everyone else's page seems to be. Also, Vort hammered out one for Sociopath a little while ago which is - and I'm not using hyperbole at all, here - probably the best thing you've seen all day.

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Hm... "Why you should never, ever play a Force Field Defender"... I think I'm inspired.

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Force Field is actually a pretty good set. Kinetics, on the other hand... a lot of Defenders like it, but how can you defend your team when you only have one power that increases resistance, and a token amount at that? Plus most of the "good" powers need enemies nearby, and they need to hit that enemy to take effect and they only work in a small area of effect around that enemy? Wonderful. "You're nearly dead? Great! Go stand next to that thing that's trying to kill you and I'll heal you!" It's like some sort of sick joke.
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I feel nothing but pity for Kinetics Defenders and Corruptors, struggling to get teams on their quest to 50 only to find out that they're completely unwanted on things like the Statesman and Lord Recluse Task Forces. Maybe they can form a support group with Regeneration Scrappers or something.

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No really man, I had to stop doing research on my new SR build to reply to how much BS this is, most of your reasons for hating regen are completely null and it sounds like you are pulling the n00b mastermind stunt and neglecting your secondaries. I'd like to point out that every other set has more holes than regen (except maybe Willpower, since it's so spread out it doesn't get hit too hard by anything), Invunl has problems with elemental and energy heavy mobs, super reflexes has issues with lucky hits and +to hit, dark armor has problems with... ...actually now that I think about it dark armor is pretty effective once you hit SO level, and most of it's holes can be covered easily.

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Sir, I do not "hate" Regeneration. I am merely very disappointed in it, enough so to warrant me swearing off Regeneration and disavowing all evidence of me ever having a Regeneration Scrapper.
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I mean, for the record, I'm being completely serious. I'm hearing a lot of "OMG UR POST IS WRONG" but nothing disputing the actual numbers or observations in the guide.
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Damage mitigation is possible through three ways: One is by avoiding attacks (defense), another is by reducing damage (resistance) and the third is by preventing them from attacking (mezzes).
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If you're surrounded by five enemies and you've got defense, the five attack you but only two hit, that's 60% damage mitigation.
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If you're surrounded by five enemies and you've got resistance, the five attack you but have their damage reduced by half due, that's 50% damage mitigation.
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If you're surrounded by five enemies and you have some way to stop them from attacking, then the mitigation is variable but tends to be pretty high.
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If you're surrounded by five enemies and you're Regeneration, the five attack you and you take full damage. Zero damage mitigation.
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...and that alone is only a small part of why Regeneration is an inferior Scrapper set. This isn't as large an issue on Stalkers, because A: Stalkers have other, better options for secondaries anyway, and B: Stalkers aren't supposed to be attacked en masse in the first place.

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Well, the point is, everything has weaknesses, something is going to poke you in your sore spot from time to time and with a little effort you can usually get around it (heeeellloo, what are insps for class?).

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Good sir, I harbor no ill will, but I've shown that Regeneration has many, many smaller holes that add up to one enormous hole called "everything." I have seen people such as MagicFlyingHippy spend hundreds of millions of inf on IO builds dedicated to patching these holes and giving the set the defense and resistance it so desperately needs.
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On another note, I agree with Arcanaville's suggestion of giving Lucky to Regeneration and Instant Healing to SR. Considering that most Regeneration Scrappers end up cowering behind Tankers while the real heroes (like Blasters) lead the attack, the only thing they'll have to fear is AoEs targeting the Tanker (not coincidentally, this is why Spines/Regen is such a popular combination: All the ranged attacks mean that they won't have to worry about exposing their weak, defenseless selves to any danger).

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I will always be able to out last you man. It takes real scrappers to play a regen, guess you can stick with being an invuln or something.

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Real Scrappers pick Regeneration? Like how real men drink watered-down domestic beer high in calories, drive huge trucks with poor mileage and trade-in values, eat food so spicy it gives them ulcers and otherwise engage in short-sighted self-destructive activities? Because that's exactly what choosing Regeneration is like.
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You know what these 'real men' end up like at 50? Pot-bellied, out of shape and poor. Just like Regeneration scrappers. Meanwhile, the metaphorical diet of V8s and well-balanced meals, combined with an affordable car that holds its resale value (possibly an Acura TSX or Scion tC, or maybe a Volkswagen Eos if you like convertibles. I've never been to big on them, personally; the wind messes up my hair and I'm sort of agoraphobic), means that Invulnerability will be performing even better at 50 than it did at 30.

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Doesn't change the fact some of his facts are flat out wrong, unlike the guide he's satiring.

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Wrong? Bullcrap. Do you see Arcanaville in here telling me I'm wrong? That's right, you don't. When the game's main numbers guy can't even work up the courage to make an argument against you, you know you're in the right.

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How is being able to heal yourself under performing? We never need to rest after a fight, just keep on scrapping you wimps!

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That's a common misconception. Every other Scrapper secondary is based around reducing incoming damage or avoiding it entirely. Regeneration has no way to avoid or reduce damage from attacks and has to rely on clicks and standing around waiting for your green bar to recover. Other sets are proactive, Regeneration is reactive: You're not being protected by your secondary, you're keeping yourself from dying. This is an important difference and one of Regeneration's obvious failings. Why would you need to rest if you weren't getting hurt in the first place?

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So we are ditching a whole entire power set because of one power, the very last power I might add. Are you aware of how many secondary sets don't have resists or defense against psionic?

And it takes more -regen to hurt us than other sets... lets think of an invuln scrapper hit by a Sapper, blip blip blip, ONOZ! NO END so his toggles fall and he relies totally on his auto resists and defense.... If this is a good argument, then we should all play DA for the end red resist it provides.

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One set doesn't have resistance or defense against psi damage: Invulerability, which is easily solved with the unique Impervium or Aegis IOs. It's a minor weak point in an otherwise superior set. Nice to see you've been paying attention.

...and you start talking about -regen, then switch to -end. Short attention span much? Here's a little secret: SAPPERS SCREW OVER EVERYONE. The only difference is that Invulnerability, Super Reflexes and Willpower have defense, so they have a chance to avoid the attack entirely, and as you said, Dark Armor has endurance drain resistance. What does Regeneration have? Nothing. If a Sapper sees you, you're getting hit, you're losing endurance, your beloved single toggle is dropping and you're going to die. As usual.

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One word. Resilience.

Even if you don't have the self rez, hit a wakie, and by the time the animation stops, you can hit recon, turn on integration, and be scrapping again... no need to sit there and wait for the stun to wear off, or yell for a break free.

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I'm talking about toggles here and you bring up Resilience. Okay, I'll deal with that.

Resilience reduces the stun from using Awakens? It's almost as if the devs knew that you'd be dying a lot in the early game due to your nonexistent defenses, so they gave Regeneration a power that let it use Awakens more effectively. What a sick joke that is.

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Where in the world is this thought coming from? I have never even thought of this point. If you want a lot of hit points, play a tank.

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All this is coming from actual Regeneration Scrappers, translated from their primitive language of grunts, gestures and random flailing on the keyboard.

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How is every other self rez better?
Regen's self rez rezes you to more than half of your HP and End, none of the other rezes do that? By the time u hit the ground from the animation, integration is on, and you have almost full health from regening it.

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Fine, I'll repeat what I said in my FIRST POST: Dark Armor's has a PBAoE mag 30 stun, Willpower's buffs to-hit, damage and recovery, Fiery Aura's deals damage, causes knockback and stun and makes you invincible, Regeneration's has NOTHING.

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Who's Power is great at lvl 1? huh? EVERY ONE takes damage at the beginning, SR doesn't have enough DEF to not get hit, Invuln doesn't have enough resist to take a lot of dmg... so every one will be getting hit and taking damage. So people will be sitting there resting and suddenly, what is that regen doing?... 0_0 he is at full health, how can this be. "Because", says the regen "I have Fast Healing, while you guys can take 50 dmg and reduce it to 45 dmg with your resists, I on the other hand, take 50 dmg, and in two seconds, I regened it back =D"

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You heard it here, folks: +75% regeneration lets you heal back 50 points of damage in TWO SECONDS. I know Arcanaville's a busy person but I don't need to bring him in here to tell you just how utterly WRONG this is.

...and the last time I checked, Dark Armor, Willpower and Super Reflexes all had level 1 powers that would be good enough to warrant getting even if you did have a choice to not get them. Ask any reasonable Regeneration Scrapper if they'd rather have Fast Healing or some other secondary's tier 1 and they'll choose another secondary, hands down. Do you think that those other secondaries would give up their tier 1s for Regeneration's? I doubt it.

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If this is a crutch, it is a gold-plaited cane that is worth over a hundred million inf.
Every one I know, tanks included, take damage. The defense and resist cap make it so. So what happens when people take damage? You heal it back. And this is what we do best.
With this six slotted puppy, I only have to live 30 seconds at a time. and because I regen over 100 hp per second, this is more than enough to keep me alive. And the toxic resist, meh i have never realy seen a use for this, but if it makes you feel better, it can get double stacked. And, we have 2 heal powers you whimps!

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Like I said, six-slot it and stick it under your arm. It's your crutch. You wouldn't need to live 30 seconds at a time or worry about taking damage if you could avoid or reduce it in the first place.

You really do need those two heals because, like I keep saying, Regeneration can't take a hit to save its life. Nor will it ever.

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Derogatory comments aside, QR makes it possible to go through mobs like butter, without having to rest, or struggle along until you hit 20 so u can get stamina. The faster you recover END, the more attacks you can accomplish without resting. This is its shining point until around lvl 30 when every one else has stamina and can slot with dmg, acc and end red.

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Going to level 30 is only about the first third or half of the game XP-wise, at which point everyone else has Stamina and is slotting for endurance reduction. Great, so now your one minor advantange over everyone else is gone and there's still an endgame full of burst damage, psionics and -regen to deal with. What fun.

If you want more endurance without Stamina, there's Willpower, which is far and away a much better choice.

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This over all, reduces the powers you have to take by 2. No hurdle/swift needed, and no health needed. You just pick up QR and you are home free. I made it to 50 without stamina, and you can too.

About the line of taking Tough and Weave. These two powers are ok. Nothing wrong with picking them up. But the thing is, you can do a lot better. The problem is, you need to take a power that, in all likeliness, will never use, ie. Boxing/Kick. I know i never did. Also, the resist given to you by Resilience might only be half that of Tough, but resilience is always on, and takes no end. Next, Weave. Weave gives you boosted defense. YAY less hits means you can heal better cause you arent taking as much dmg. But you have to take 2 other powers before you can get there.


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A Regeneration Scrapper admits that he needed to take Tough and Weave, as well as Resilience. Four powers that, in a better secondary, could be used for Stamina and a power that would keep you alive better than any of those two defensive powers combined.

Even taking the prereqs into consideration, Boxing and Kick are rarely used in attack chains, if ever. On the other hand, Swift eliminates the need to keep Sprint running and you can do some amazing tricks with Hurdle, Combat Jumping and a few Jump SOs or IOs if you feel so inclined.

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This is something i just recently found out from the real numbers finally coming here. Stealth gives you the same defense as weave =0. Now, i hear your brain screaming !!!!!!!!!!!BUT STEALTH MAKES ME SO SLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

heh, that it does. But thank goodness for Invention Enhancements. Gift of the ancients +def/+run speed will make it all go away. so there, we condensed 3 power picks into one.

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I'd rather use pool powers to make a good set great, rather than a bad set good.

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I see that you are a horrible scrapper. Anticipation is the scrapper best power. If you notice your health bar going down, you, as a scrapper, have to know what to do. As a regen, this is easy, if it slowly goes down, hit recon. if it goes down faster than you like, hit DP... don't sit there scrapping away, and the say "Gee, my health is in the red... what should i do, I think i will hit DP" no you are like "YAY, IM TAKING HITS FOR THE TEAM, WHATS THIS, I AM IN THE YELLOW... hmmm taking a lot of dmg, pop, wait nope I'm not anymore, DP rocks the house"


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So... having to watch your hit point bar when on your Scrapper like a paranoid hawk... is good. Rather than run screaming from enemies like a scared little girl activating all my powers in the vain hope of keeping myself alive, I'd rather focus on taking down whatever's attacking me, thanks.

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I guess you are talking about PVP when you say
"There is no protection to fear here, there is no protection to confusion here or anywhere else in the set, there is no protection from taunt, or placate or repel."

There is VERY limited usage of this in PVE... only a few enemies come to mind. If your plan is for a PVP worthy build, grab some IOs that cover that.

Integration makes life a whole lot more fun.

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Fear is caused by Hamidon, Famine: Rider and Ghost Widow - so basically, enemies in all the endgame content and task forces. As for placate... Bane Spiders, anyone? Bane Strike knocking off 80% of your hit points from hide? But since most people will be shelving their gimped Scrappers come 50, I guess it all balances out.

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When i started, i chose not to take Resilience, but later, after thought i grabbed it. This power helped tremendously. It makes council and freaks a breeze.

As said above, this power makes a wakie into a self rez you can use in battle.

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...and like I said above, Resilience has that stun resistance because the devs knew you'd be dying all the time.

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LOL at you. Again, have you ever even played a regen? I can take any amount of damage that a GM dishes out with IH on. i can take at least three to four red and purple mobs before IH shuts down... AND I DON'T EVEN HAVE IT SLOTTED FOR HEALING

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I've seen Regeneration Scrappers with Instant Healing on get two-shotted by AVs and GMs and get cut down like wheat when charging into +3 and +4 mobs WITH FULL IO BUILDS. I don't know what kind of imaginary lolipop world some Scrappers play in, but here we've got something called "burst damage." The almighty regeneration boosts do nothing to stop incoming damage and they do nothing to avoid it, meaning that Regeneration takes it all full in the face and drops like a stone. By contrast, Invulnerability Scrappers can take the hit with no problems to speak of and stay standing.

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I never use this power.


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Resilience and a tray full of Awakens are enough, I guess.

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I have to agree somewhat with you on this point. I have never really enjoyed MoG. It just seems a waste of a power pick. I do have to point out to you that, i *could* take well more that a lieut before it shuts down. More like 3 mobs to be exact.

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Three mobs in FIFTEEN SECONDS.

Right.

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If you would like to enjoy your scrapper in the beginning levels, then take a regen. Resists and def are not needed when you are uber without them. The only reason Pine got to 50 was because he was fun to play with. I could always do death defying stunts because he was awesome. If you would like to team with me, the name is Pine Weasle, on Triumph. Self proclaimed through much controversy, the Best Spine/Regen Scrapper on Triumph. (I mostly say this because I like to think so because I'm sure that there are many more qualifying people there) I am the last one to fall and the first to get up.

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I've already shown that everything that Regeneration scrappers can do, other sets can do as well or better. The beginning levels are just that - the beginning levels. Once you're past that and fighting psychic mobs and regen-sapping lasers and enemies that placate you, Regeneration falls flat compared to sets like Invulnerability, Willpower and Dark Armor. I suppose a good player could make a bad set good, but what's the point of that when they could just as easily make a good set great?

This is, point-blank, a power-by-power breakdown of the Regeneration secondary for Scrappers, in comparison to the other Scrapper sets. The goal is to prevent anyone from ever considering playing the set for any reason other than concept, or the fact they want the game to be a pain in the rear. It'll mostly look at Regeneration's role as a regen-based set and the many, many weak spots it has that render it one of the weakest Scrapper secondaries.

First, you need to ask yourself, "why would I be dumb enough to want to play such a horrible, underperforming set like Regeneration?" I'll go over some of the more popular excuses people have given me when considering this step.

1. I heard that Regeneration lets you ignore damage types and I can see myself possibly doing quite well against all enemies.

STOP. Moment of Glory has a huge psychic damage hole and -Regen completely castrates you. What causes -Regen? Malta. What causes psychic damage? Carnies, Rikti, Rularuu, Arachnos. Once you hit the endgame you're basically hamstrung.

2. I heard that Regeration only has one toggle to worry about. That sounds very cool!

HOLD IT! You probably want to look at the following ATs: Blasters. Corruptors. Defenders. Dominators. These ATs all have little or no toggles to worry about.

3. I have a concept that revolves around being a quick healer and want a powerset that reflects that.

WHAT?! NO! Did you know that when it has ten people in range of Rise to the Challenge, a fully-slotted Willpower has more regen than a Regeneration Scrapper without Instant Healing running? Plus it has the resistances to keep that health around long enough to enjoy it.

4. I want a lot of hit points!

WHAT ON EARTH IS WRONG WITH YOU? Both Invulnerability and Willpower have powers that increase your maximum hit points and don't involve the general weakness that Regeneration entails. Both sets will, with proper power choices and slotting, give you more hit points than Regeneration can.

5. I want to have a self-rez!

NO! HOW COULD YOU BE ANY MORE WRONG?! Every other self-rez in the game is better than the one that Regeneration has.



If you, after reading this guide, still want to play Regneration, please post any questions and I will call you an idiot for having the nerve to contradict me.

Of course, when referring to Regeneration as weak and useless for Scrappers, you have to look at the powers available to the Scrapper in question. So let's go over them briefly and compare them to several other options that are out there before starting your career as a Scrapper. I mean really, the nine powers in your secondary are what determine whether or not your teammates are going to be cursing your name for dying every mob.

1. Fast Healing: You need to take this power, but you'll be wishing you didn't. This is what will be keeping you "alive" in the early levels. This power, unslotted, provides +75% hit point regeneration. No resistance, no defense, nothing that will actually keep you from getting killed. I should point out that melee attacks and smashing/lethal damage are almost always present and that having no resistance or defense to any of it will impair your survivability. Compare this to Invulnerability, which gets a S/L resist passive right off the bat.

2. Reconstruction: This power is a click that heals you. It is, hands-down, the backbone of Regeneration. It's what you - if you're some sort of barely-literate man-child who doesn't know good advice when he hears it - should six-slot and stick under your arm, because it's going to be your CRUTCH. It'll barely prevent you from being utterly worthless in PvE, but for what it does, Reconstruction is horrible. IT is the reason Regeneration is never useful for anything other than dealing with minions. IT is the reason that, when someone says, "hey Scrapper, take that alpha" you will either reply "you need another Scrapper or a Tanker" or try it and die. It sets the stage for what little Regeneration is really capable of: Dealing with the crap every other defenseless AT can deal with.

Unslotted, it takes 10.4 endurance and gives you back 25 percent of your health. That's right. This power takes up a power slot and does the same exact thing as a small green Inspiration, something you can get off of every mob and from every contact for 50 influence. Also, when facing single targets, this miniscule bit of healing is easily knocked off. When are you facing single targets? When... you're fighting an AV or a player; things that will gleefully tear through your nonexistent defenses like tissue paper.

It's only a must-take power because you can't live without it and it's horrible because you only need it when soloing so you can handle the occasional lieutenant. When you're teamed it's a waste of a power: The Tankers will be drawing aggro, Controllers will be locking down enemies and Defenders will be defending your defenseless rear end.

Out of all the melee secondary self-heal powers, it's hands-down the worst in execution.

3. Quick Recovery: Unslotted, Quick Recovery provides a 30 percent boost to endurance recovery. A lot of people point to this as one of the powers that makes Regeneration worth using. These people do not know anything about anything. Endurance recovery is useless if you're unable to stay alive long enough to make use of it and unfortunately, Regeneration can't. So those three power choices you'd normally use to get Stamina with other Scrapper secondaries? Now you can use them to get Tough and Weave and still underperform.

Three-slotted with SOs, Tough and Weave would give a Regeneration Scrapper 17.6% smashing/lethal resist and 5.85% defense at a total cost of .64 endurance a second. Compare this to Invulnerability, which can get 35.1% S/L resistance from a toggle that only costs .26 endurance a second - twice the resistance for less damage. Invulnerability also has a power that grants 5.85% defense when fully slotted: An inherent, which doesn't drain endurance. In addition, Invulnerability has a toggle that grants a defense bonus based on how many enemies are in melee range, something which Regeneration lacks. Even Super Reflexes' positional toggles outperform Regeneration with Weave, with a whopping 21.6% defense fully slotted for that same .26 end/sec cost. Even taking Stamina's slightly lower recovery boost into consideration, Invulnerability with Stamina is much better at staying alive than Regeneration is with Tough and Weave. Would you rather have endurance and be alive or slightly more endurance and be dead? You tell me.

4. Dull Pain: This power is a click that both heals and increased your maximum hit points, shared with Invulnerability. Sounds good, right? It isn't. Unslotted, it heals 40% of your hit points and gives you a 40% boost to your maximum hit points for two minutes. Unfortunately there's a delay between activating it and having it take effect. This will frequently lead to it going off just as the Scrapper gets killed, and will contribute to the comical effect lots of Regeneration Scrappers will see, referred to as "too little, too late!" Compare this to Invulnerability, with its heavy resists and defenses; an Invulnerability Scrapper's green bar will be going down more slowly, so Dull Pain will actually be able to take effect when you need it to. Plus having those defenses apply to 40% more hit points ensures that it can actually survive long enough to win the fight.

5. Integration: This is your mez protection toggle. This prevents you from being held, stunned, slept, immobilized or knocked back. Sound good, right? No. There is no protection to fear here, there is no protection to confusion here or anywhere else in the set, there is no protection from taunt, or placate or repel. The power, for mez protection, has more holes than Bonnie and Clyde's getaway car. Everything Integration does, other mez protection powers do better: Willpower's Indomitable Will protects against confusion, fear AND knockback and gives you psionic defense. Super Reflexes has Practiced Brawler, which protects against everything Integration does, only it's a click power, so if you do get held you still have your mez protection once the hold expires, plus it has Confusion resistance in Focused Fighting. Dark Armor's Obsidian Shield protects against fear as well as provides psi resist. Invulnerability's Unyielding protects against everything Integration does and has resistance to nearly every damage type. It does, however, also hold the only thing Regeneration is good for. A 150% boost to your regeneration rate. Sounds like a great strength for the set, doesn't it? Maybe enemies will wait for your hit points to recover when you get this power if you ask politely.

6. Resilience: This is a passive resist that provides a base of 5.63% smashing/lethal resist and 7.5% toxic resist as well as resistance to stuns for some ridiculous reason. This is the power that you're expected to rely on to reduce incoming damage long enough so that maybe you'll have a chance to heal some of it back before the next hit kills you. Compare this laughable amount of damage mitigation with every other set: Dark Armor has toggles that stun or fear enemies, Willpower's passive has resistances to all damage types, Super Reflexes has defense against all damage types and Invulnerability has passives that boost both resistance and defense. Even for a set like Regeneration, Resilience is worthless. You know it's a horrible power when even the social reprobates who think Regeneration is a good set refuse to take it.

7. Instant Healing: This is a click power that provides a +800% boost to your hit point regeneration rate for 90 seconds, at which point it takes almost eleven minutes to recharge. People seem to think that this is a substitute for resistance, because you're recovering hit points as fast as they're being taken off. These people forget that it's only for ninety seconds and that you're still defenseless the entire time: If something could take you down in two hits without Instant Healing, it'll still be able to do it in two hits with it. Furthermore, there's a maximum limit to hit point recovery and you still need to wait to recover health. As a Scrapper, you're expected to run into situations where you're going to be attacked en masse by enemies, and more often than not this power either won't be up or won't be enough to save you.

Think about that last sentence for a minute while I break out a brief history note. Even after the change to Moment of Glory, many people have called Instant Healing the "real" Tier 9 of Regeneration. But the tier 9s of every other set allow you to either greatly reduce incoming damage (Invulnerability, Willpower) or avoid it entirely (Super Reflexes). Even Dark Armor's self-rez helps reduce incoming damage post-rez with a mag 30 stun. Yet this fake Tier 9 was actually relied on to help keep the user alive.

8. Revive: Regeneration was built around the inevitability that the set provides. With no resistances, no defenses and powers that are all based around you waiting for your hit points to recover, you will be dying. Revive, at this point, provides you with the ability to resurrect yourself with 75% hit points and 50% endurance. Whereas Dark Armor has a magnitude 30 stun, Willpower has a 30 percent boost to to-hit and recovery and a 35 percent boost to damage and Fiery Aura has knockdown, stun, PBAoE fire damage and brief invulnerability, Revive has... nothing. If nothing else, they're keeping the trend they set with the rest of this set's powers. This is the power that is made for that situation where your regeneration rate is easily overwhelmed by enemy mobs. For the sake of brevity, I'm not going to go over the problems with the power in arena matches.

If nothing else, at least this power will let the Defenders focus on keeping other, better teammates alive instead of stopping every two minutes to bring you back to life.

9. Moment of Glory: This click power gives you about 70% resistance and defense to all damage types except for psychic for fifteen seconds. Yes, for fifteen seconds you can pretend that you're a real Scrapper. In lieu of a real Tier 9 we get one that's watered down and a power that a bunch of basement-dwelling goons think passes for a real one. Compared to every other set, Moment of Glory either underperforms or is just outperformed. Super Reflexes's has the defenses, plus it doesn't have the psionic defense hole that MoG has. Willpower's, while not as much of a resistance bonus, lasts eight times as long as MoG. Finally, Invulnerability has the resistances, plus it lasts twelve times that of MoG. Plus all three of those sets can take on multiple mobs before their Tier 9s expire. A Regeneration Scrapper with Moment of Glory can take on a lieutenant... if he's lucky.


It should be pointed out that the issues with Regeneration on a Scrapper cannot be properly pointed out without some comparisons to other sets.

1. Invulnerability: The set features nearly across the board the highest resist numbers of every Scrapper secondary with any possible "holes" that can be plugged with its tier 9. Its weak spot is supposed to be its lack of psionic resistance, one would guess. This can easily be fixed with an Impervium Armor or Aegis IO making Invulnerability, in my personal opinion, THE set to choose if your main concern is survivability.

A quick glance at its numbers, with all resist powers taken, versus Regeneration with all resist powers taken. I'll place the tier 9 boosted numbers for Inv in a separate column. These numbers are for unslotted resists.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Inv Inv w/ Tier 9 Regen
Smash: 31.9 75(capped, true 84.38) 5.6
Lethal: 31.9 75(capped, true 84.38) 5.6
Energy: 13.1 65.6 0.
Negative:13.1 65.6 0.
Fire: 13.1 65.6 0.
Cold: 13.1 65.6 0.
Psionic: 0. 0. 0.
Toxic: 13.1 65.6 7.5
</pre><hr />

Hands down, Invulnerability is the better set. Invulnerability provides a defense against burst damage, which Regeneration does not offer. Invulnerability also provides defense as well as resistance and a "true" tier 9. The only things that Regen does that Invulnerability isn't capable of is faster endurance recovery and a self-rez. Regen, to cover the burst damage and def/res hole, has to invest in three powers for Tough and Weave. Invulnerability covers its hole with two IOs and a single 250 inf inspiration.

To top it off, when the going gets tough for Invulnerability, you click Unstoppable for the above second set of numbers for resists, making you harder to kill. When the going gets tough for Regeneration, you die. It's the way the set is designed.

2. Super Reflexes: This set is a completely different beast from most Scrapper sets. I have stood toe-to-toe, back-to-back and in battle against this set, and Regeneration falls short. Of note is the fact its lack of a heal can be completely undone with two powers from the Medicine pool for Aid Self, and Super Reflexes by design will decrease the likelihood of it being interrupted. Being built around the concept of defense a number comparison means very little; however, one note should be pointed out for endgame play: When the going gets tough for Super Reflexes, you pop Elude, get 45% more defense to all positions, double your running and jumping speed and a bonus to endurance recovery for the duration of the power. When the going gets tough for Regeneration, you die. It's the way the set is designed.

3. Dark Armor: This set is probably the closest, truest side-to-side competitor with Regeneration. It suffers the same lack of a decent ability to exceed its own expectations and is given a self-resurrection power instead. Yet, as pointed out in the Revive notes above, the self-resurrection from Soul Transfer exceeds Revive due to the PBAoE stun. There are a few other reasons that, for a Scrapper, Dark Armor is superior to Regeneration. I'll provided them for you in a bit, but first, let's just match up the numbers.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Dark Regen
Smash: 22.5 5.6
Lethal: 22.5 5.6
Energy: 15 0.
Negative:30 0.
Fire: 22.5 0.
Cold: 22.5 0.
Psionic: 37.5 0.
Toxic: 15 7.5
</pre><hr />

On paper, Dark is overall across the board more capable. Furthermore, once you look past the basics of resistances, Dark Armor provides the Scrapper more of what it needs and less useless, miniscule boosts. Dark Regeneration is completely superior to Reconstruction due to an incredible heal that doesn't even need to be slotted with healing enhancements to be useful. Dark Armor also provides the tool of Oppressive Gloom, which while Regeneration is focused on being overwhelmed by foes, Dark Armor is giving you a way to stop them in their tracks. Finally, Cloak of Fear just flat out says, you're not going to hit me. It's not exactly Invincibility, but it does provide a to-hit debuff and can lock foes down with fear. Meanwhile Fast Healing and Resilience are doing nothing to prevent you from getting hit or taking damage. Bottom line? Regeneration has no resists and says "please don't hit me!" Dark Armor has resists and says "Afraid of me? YOU SHOULD BE!" Now, which do you think is more scrapper-like?

4. Willpower: Willpower is the new shining baby boy of Scrapper Defense. It provides a mix of regeneration, resistance and defense as well as endurance recovery. Its tier 9 is not, admittedly, the Next Big Thing, but it does make it much more durable in a fight. Willpower is a new set and, as such, I'll need to give it an honest shot to see where exactly it falls on the Scrapper chart of defensive sets. Regardless, the combination of resistance and defense will place it well above Regeneration, as shown by a few test runs side-by-side with other Willpower players. It also has the added benefit of having mez protection that resists just about everything imaginable, so there's no need to worry about any holes. Also, Resurgence is of note as being a great self-rez, as it doesn't just rez you but provides you with an actual, tangible benefit instead of just putting you back on your feet and shoving you back into the fray with a mumbled, sarcastic "you're welcome."

In closing, when compared to the other Scrapper sets, Regeneration is complete and utter trash. All sets save for it provide some degree of survivability: Invulnerability has godly resists and defense together in one package. Super Reflexes represents the defense camp, for what it's worth, has a tier 9 to push it to the limit and walk along the razor's edge and can easily fit in a self-heal if need be. Dark Armor represents the "kill it before it kills you" camp. Willpower provides a little bit of everything, complete with a nifty self-rez if things go bad... and Regeneration? Regeneration lets you recover hit points almost as fast as they can be taken off and a self-rez that props you up to get knocked back down by anything nearby.

Think on that when you look over defense sets for your next Scrapper.