Reptlbrain

I have strategies similar to the above posters, though nearly all my toons now are planned around some sort of defense bonuses.

It is less valuable to slot for +regen and +hp for a /Regen scrapper. If you look at the hp/sec in Mids', you can see +regen bonuses aren't giving you much more survivability at all. If you have perma-Dull Pain and the hp accolades, then you definitely don't need any +hp, as you'll be capped anyway.

The prevailing wisdom on the scrapper board is +recharge is vital for /Regen, though each bit of recharge added does offer you less and less, and +def bonuses are quite valuable as well.

Your primary and power pools should play a role in deciding your set bonuses, too. Stamina? Dark (with Dark Consumption)? Then you very likely don't need any +max end or +recov bonuses, other than the ones you collect incidentally. Weave? Katana/Broadsword? Then you should grab defense to stack with these. With the swords, you could even build for ranged (most) and AoE defense (some), counting on the melee defense from Parry/Divine Avalanche. Do you have a gapless attack chain? Hasten? Then if your DP/Recon/Instant/MoG are recharging fast enough for you, you can concentrate less on more +rech.

If I were to rebuild my retired Spines/Regen, I would focus on S/L defense bonuses, as they're pretty easy to come by (if you have the cash for Kinetic Combats, at least) on a melee toon, after getting substantial recharge.

Oooh, burn. Man, now I feel low.

FWIW, most heroes on Justice, eckchually.

Not so subtle this time, as subtlety doesn't seem to be your metier:

The point was that in power-leveling your toons, you don't learn their powers organically as you go. This seems like it could be the reason you don't seem to grasp that powerset A and powerset B--even from the same archetype--might have entirely different strengths or might play very differently. Solo in the late teens--and sometimes, yes, it is tedious--and you learn at least some end management tricks.

Maybe I was over-estimating your understanding of one of /Shield's buffs. I never claimed I could solo such on my /DA; it's level 38 and solos +1/x6-x8 depending on the foe, and I haven't pushed it further. Perhaps I might be able to solo +3/x8 on an Elec/Shield too, but I don't know.

Sorry, very oblique crack about your bragging--the old imaginary girlfriend from far away. And a tip: it's "lest" you be judged--not that I'm judging you for being ignorant.

Sharker Quint is on the money with interpreting my /vulnerability rant. (Tip: when someone adopts a completely different tone of writing, particularly one larded with internetspeak, they might be being sarcastic...) My /invulnerability scrapper is my namesake, and my second scrap to 50 (when there was a -5% def penalty on Unyielding, fer chrissakes). He's not the sharpest of my IO builds--also the second there--but I'm spending my billions elsewhere, as I play none of my 50s that much.

Er....I don't think it's repetition of content that's boring you.

Congratulations, you can press 1, aim and click the mouse, then press two and aim and click the mouse. I bet you even know that you should start the sequence from the middle of the spawn--rather than tele-attacking into it--to get the max bonus from AAO.

And your girlfriend ... from Canada.

Maybe this will help you understand:

OMG why does invul, more like vulnerability, lol, get three craptastic passives. 7.5% res vs. NRG and NEG and THATS ALL? WTF. that stops like 1/9 incoming dmg on ONLY TWO dmg types, IF I SLOT IT 2 the MAX. what the suck. and Resist Elements practically the same, only w Tox bfd. and 3.75 def? that stop about 1/8 incoming dmg IF SLOTTED UP. this set sux. it dont cost me no end but it barely increase my survivability. and don't get me started on that long recharge heal. wtf? the dark scrap next to me healz TO FULL every 20 secs and I got to wait 3 minutes for a half heal. LULZ. sry, DELETE /vuln, bye.

I believe you can file this under not getting the idea of balance.

Or maybe this is the problem...

Huh. This passage appears to contain many false statements. I remember lots of marketeer complaining about developers when the plan for merits was introduced, with such people predicting what some of the drawbacks of merits might be, including lack of supply at mid-levels as well as an overall reduction of pool 'C's. So I don't think this was a surprise to the readership here. In addition, I remember people bragging that they'd make a windfall no matter what the changes, and probably most earners kept on earnin'.

That a farming map? Or just standard leveling?

Excellent work on teh guides, btw; especially dig the GUI setups. Maybe I do need to make me a painz0r.

You have 4 or 5 billion, but are unable to figure out how to upgrade a build. That's unpossible!

I hope that's a mis-print and is 40m rather than 40k. Especially since I know my low Zephyr bids aren't that stingy!

I'd say it's more useful than that, especially, as someone pointed out upthread, after the mez-BF-AA recharging sequence. I find myself using the PBAoE holds pretty often on all my 40+ trollers, though that may be because they either have lots of recharge and/or a second EMPulse/Arrow.

I do have a Stamina-less Cold defender (a little cheaty with the two heal uniques), but that was a respec after Heat Loss.

Then get to know Basilisk's Gaze (pretty steep) or Lockdown! The Acc/End/Rech Shieldbreakers are gonna be expensive (at least the last I sold blueside went for 30 million). The triples for Malaise's and Ghostwidow's might be a little hard to come by in the mid-levels, though I haven't looked in a long time.

I hope these words have never been written before: the argument as phrased by SpittingTrashcan makes sense, something about the mortality line.

However, in the above equation, you're "giving" the inherent accuracy (or inaccuracy, maybe) of critter attacks to the softcap.

The way I math it:

100 incoming attacks
50 "blocked" by the standard miss
40 additional incoming attacks blocked by 40 defense
45 additional incoming attacks blocked by 45 defense


Would that I had the graph skillz as exhibited above.

True, twice the effectiveness of damage reduction from the point of 40% defense.

No, taking one-fifth of original damage (40 def) is saving yourself from 80% of the original damage.

Taking one-tenth of original damage is saving yourself from 10% more damage. The original 40 points of def is still doing the "work" to reduce the original 80%.



The line was in reference to my previous hypothetical of 10 critters (which should have been minions, since I was using the 5% number) each attacking with 100 DPS (changed from "damage per round"). You still haven't shown defense's non-linear effect of reducing incoming DPS (though certainly the curve bends a bit because of the 95/5 bounds on hitting).

25% defense stopping 250 DPS (terminology simply for the purposes of this exercise) is stopping five times as much damage as (the 5% 40-45) stopping 50 DPS. "Doubling your survivability" is a claim that can only be made with regard to how much DPS you can withstand naturally. If 100 DPS won't kill you, then 50 DPS doesn't "double your survivability."

I beg to differ that Dechs Kaison's guide is "amazing." The discussion of the probability of multiple hits only considers one opponent at a time, something rare in CoX except for the last boss/EB/AV standing. It doesn't take into account how fast enemies die--only the boss discussion supplies a somewhat plausible number of attacks gotten off by the critter in a solo fight.

There is no mathematical proof--the math itself is invisible in the post.

It's not exponential, and no, the last 5% is not really as good as the first 25%.

10 critters attacking doing 100 pts per attack, with no defense, 500 dmg avg per "round."

The same with 25% defense, 250 dmg avg per "round," saving you 250 dmg/round over 0 defense.

With 40% defense, 100 dmg avg per "round."

With 45% defense, 50 dmg avg per "round," saving you 50 dmg/round over 40% defense.

To the OP: Nice builds. I would pick the CJ build because in eight person teams sometimes immobilize can be a death sentence, and the ability to Hurricane where you need to without costing a BF. Presumably on an eight person team there's some other support, but maybe not.

Since Gale is a little underslotted to actually hit everything--suggesting you don't use it that much--maybe you could sub it out for Tesla Cage? On eight person teams it's often a little too chaotic to pick out the mezzing Lts easily (though binds can help), but two holds to stop the psi-hey-I'm-not-a-ranged-attack mezzes preemptively should be useful. And sneaking a slot (from, say the Res in Steamy Mist, giving you only +5% to energy/fire/cold) into Tesla you can squeeze another 1.5% ranged def with a couple Basilisks.

To eryq:
It has been done by a scrapper using only Swipe...

If you want a tiny bit of solo-ability, drop Frostworks for pool attack. In addition, a strong recommendation for frankenslotting your damaging controls--get acc, dmg, hold, endrdx and recharge in Block of Ice.

What I would change right away (besides frankenslotting nearly everything):

Skip the defdebuff in Infrigidate, at least until late.

Endredux (frankenslotted) in Chillblain, if you use it every 3 seconds for an attack.

No recharge in Snow Storm (saves you 3 seconds when Hasten is down), you have far superior controls you'll be firing and stacking slows already. I would personally skip Snow Storm in favor of Frostbite.

No end redux in Ice Slick (without Hasten Slick costs you about as much end/sec as Combat Jumping if fired every time it recharges). The best use of a fourth slot in Slick is probably a range enhancement, which makes finding cover a little easier sometimes.

Flash Freeze's damage is pitiful (especially if you calculate for how slowly it recharges), and shouldn't be slotted. *If* you take Flash Freeze it maybe needs only recharge beyond accuracy slotting. Flash Freeze + Arctic Air might be a viable opener solo (or small team, maybe) when Ice Slick doesn't work.

Arctic Air doesn't need slow enhance--95% end redux and 95% confuse if possible.

I would try to frankenslot Glacier for 95% acc/rech/hold, as the basic duration is fairly short.

Benumb does not need an end redux, not if you fire it once/minute.

Heals in Frostwork don't provide much benefit (for a lot of toons that bonus is wasted).

The worst slotting is Sleet, which needs 3 recharge first, before anything else. Maybe add in accuracy (if you have a proc in it), defdebuff and end redux.

Indomitable Will needs recharge, not end redux.

Once on the last mission of the Ouroborous TF, my team of four wiped in the last room and our Nosferatu pet killed off the remaining two AVs, completing the TF by himself as I was running back from the hospital.

One of my proudest moments in game was beating Ourob AV Nosferatu as a blaster and (Ill/Rad) controller duo. It took a very long time with two blaster deaths.

Mum! Dad! Don't touch it! IT'S A MARKETEER!

This may have been true once, but now the buff icons show.

This is where understanding game mechanics might help. 6 small(?) purples does no better than 4 small purples, unless Black Scorpion has build up or some other to hit buffs.

If your blaster is not /energy, then you also have access to an immobilize, which most AV/EB-class types have low immunity to, and this--spammed--can keep you out of range of the biggest attacks.

Really? Recently? Just scored the triple in a merit roll at 30 redside, and it moved in less than 24 hrs (recipe, not crafted) for about 20 million more than last five average.

Shoulda priced it higher...

Definitely multiples of 5 since you get the capped recipes on those.