Reyne_Maker

oh yeah, if i don't see some flame-age i might just explode

yeah, i was hoping for a little more Flame war action, but then no one ever accused me of being a nice guy.

so gosh darn it, start with the stabbing and the gore already

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Both have a lowish but noticeable amount of defense, a lot of recharge, perma Dull Pain, and all of the clicks. Those are kind of the Regen basics.

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Yeah, I was probably long winded about it, but that's exactly what I was saying, mainly about the defense/mitigation (I still call IH skippable, but it's apersonal taste thing, and there are good reasons to disagree)

Theres been a bit of Regen bashing on these forums lately, but the truth is Regen Rocks!

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playing a dual blade scrapper . I want to solo my whole life away. I was thinking about regen since it has so little down time but can you really solo with it at later lvls? would SR be better i see people talking about it all the time.

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Regen starts out very strong, whereas SR takes longer to mature, though is awesome when it does.
Both will be able to solo pretty much and only get stronger with more levels (don't all secondaries?)
But yeah, Regen equals zero down time, and allows you to skip stamina. Whereas SR will probably see you chain die in your teens.

Sure, there are other sets, but there are already too many DB/WPs out there, Shields isn't an option and theres a reason noone picks FA.
And as for the other two, DA has 'gaps' and is End heavy, and Inv requires almost all the powers in the set to begin with along with Stamina, which leaves you no room for your primary picks

Which is the single best reason for /Regen.
DB is a very 'fun' set, but you're going to want all the combos for that 'fun' factor. Which means you'll have to pick 8 out of the 9 powers.
Which doesn't leave much room for pool powers.
But /Regen is amazingly complete as a set, so yeah, GO Regen!

PS - because I know I picked on many of the secondaries there, it's important to reiterate that there are no bad secondaries.
But you were specific with what you asked, a good secondary for a solo DB player, and most other secondaries benefit more from facing bigger groups of enemies, while Regen (and SR) benefits from keeping enemy numbers small.
Of course AV soloing might be a lot harder, but then DB probaby isn't the best choice for that anyway.

PPS - Regen Rawks!

Personally I hate using any power as a mule for set bonuses.
But Claws is right, Werner and Umbral are very clever people (though Umbral is frequently grumpy) and very clever in the ways of Math Fu.

Anywho, I never played "old" regen, but my first 50 was claws/regen, and another of my current 50s is BS/regen, so I have deep abiding love of the set.

For regular gameplay it is VERY easy to get the regen to phenomenal levels, but your problem will always be how do you manage the Alpha.

It doesn't matter if you can heal 2409 HP in the next 30 seconds when the alpha hits you for 2410.
Theres a reason that regen has "Revive" as a power option.

So it is VITAL to have that extra mitigation there.

The good news is that Tough, Weave, the Steadfast unique, CJ/Hover and a few set bonuses will buy you more than enough mitigation for most circumstances.

There will be times when you'll need reconstruction and DP, but personally I tend to drop IH in faovour of other powers, specifically new MoG, which is awesome.

So yeah, while I wouldn't build it the same way Werner has, I've learnt to trust the man.
And speaking from experience with "new" regen, you'll never be able to tank the ITF, but you WILL be able to tank when needed.
All it takes is that little extra slice of mitigation.

What werner said,
let Budget be your guide.

I softcapped my /Shield, but her build is close to 2Billion Inf. (and you will need to spend at least half that for any build that doesn't sacrifice damage and recharge to be at the softcap.)

And I softcapped my /SR.
Which can be done with generic IOs. But it's probably better to still spend a 100mil to negate making trade-offs. (which is the approx price of my current /SR)

so yeah, if you're wondering about how to afford it, go /SR

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*looks at thread, mouth agape*
*sighs*

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love it,

Oh, and there may be no "I" in "Team" but there is a "Me", it's just mispelt, but then I'm a scrapper, and I've got no time for correct spelling, now kill faster damn you

so a few people have already mentioned the different approaches.
On mine I used IO bonuses for extra regen and HP, with integration running and using ingame numbers, it's over 4% regen, which is a full heal almost every 20 seconds or so.
It's not a high cost build, and I'm sure I could get more from him. And then there are still the wonderful fallbacks of Reconstruction Dull Pain and MoG.
(BTW, if you haven't played your Regen in that long, MoG is now a definite must have, no crash, an End buff, and instant Res cap = pure awesome)

So yeah, the heal rate is awesome.
(even without IOs and set bonuses it is over 3%, or around 30sec for a full heal)

But it doesn't matter if you can heal 2200HP in 20 secs if you get hit for 2201 by an alpha, which is where Willpowers other bonuses will help you out, of course, it doesn't have a heal for when you get in trouble.

Short story, yeah, IO your Character out, it will make a huge difference,
Don't go overboard on price, but the Regenerative tissue and Numina's uniques are important (and the two most expensive IOs in the aforementioned build)
And I'd say make Regen, HP and Heal bonuses your priority, with Recharge coming next,

Most of my characters use hover,
(in fact it's part of the concept for my BS/Shield scrapper.
And she is VERY effective at dealing out the damage.)
Yes you'll want to boost it's speed a little, but Swift helps, and SR has Quickness.
So yeah, at 17, maybe not fully viable, but a few levels later with SOs and Swift it is very workable.

And the Defense bonus is pretty decent.

On a note about looks though, Dual blades is very, very beautiful when coupled with Hover, thing is SR and DB both require you to take almost all the powers in the set, which would make it a very tight build.

On the note on Inv Vs SR, personally I'm a bigger fan of Inv. both only really have the tier 9 as 'skippable' and sure SR has the aforementioned Quickness (love that +Rech) but Inv doesn't have the same vunerability to those lucky hits getting through. (my Dark/Inv is equivalent to a non-IO granite when it comes to general survivability)
But when it comes to their appearance, Inv has a pretty glow that will fit well with a pixie style character, so I wouldn't worry about rerolling.

and on the choice of primary, Both BS and Kat have Parry, which will aid your survivability, especially in lower levels, & BS will require more recharge in general, so benefits more from SR, but overall they are both awesome sets, and honestly I think Katana is prettier (and a little quicker, which doesn't hurt)

But yeah -
Hovering Scrapper = Awesome

'Nuff said

Yes, the Kismet unique buffs ToHit, which is what makes it so chock full of awesome.

And i was going to make a longer post on the rest of the build, but it can all be summed up with "your attack chain is still lacking"

look at the recharge values and activation times in mids.
And remember that recharge doesn't begin till AFTER activation. then think about what attack chain you're using here?

honestly, put aside dreams of perma-hasten or AV fighting till you have either a billion inf to spend, or can roll a Fire/SR, drop the medicine pool, and focus on the attacks from your primary pool.
Then at some point you can invest in a few purples and the big uniques you'll need, but for now I'm not sure that this build could overcome a Pylon in RWZ let alone an AV

Oh yeah, totally, Tanks are ALWAYS too slow.

And I'm just as impatient and always itching to start on the next mob, the way I figure it i'm just feeding targets to the AoE machines right?

Sure, for a while I'd gotten a reputation with my SG mates as perma veng bait. They'd tease me about "not being a tank" but now I spend a bit more Inf on my scrappers, and build for survivability.
Which means I CAN dictate the speed, herd quickly, and just generally do a better job of lead tank than most tanks do anyway.

Tanks can eat my dust, and the rest of the team can mop up whatever's left over by the time they get there (If anything is left over)

Leeroy FTW!!!

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Don't even get me started on Phalanx Fighting,
That's another power in the set that could use a good buff.
You will never, ever have an ally close enough to boost the bonus you get from it. Never.

for the record, I quite often pick up the leadership pool, and have recently rolled a Night Widow in prep for 'going rogue' as it'll be a Scrapper-with-multiple-Auras/Team-buffs,
But Grant Cover?
Hate It!

Granted, it also seems an easy fix, make it grant a small bonus to self, something comparable to weaves 3.75%, and all of a sudden it would become a must have.
Which would also help the set be more comparable to most other secondaries in terms of survivability.

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it already does give an unenhanceable 3.75% buff to self if you are skipping the power you are robbing your self of no endurance cost defense equal to unslotted weave and more than manuvers

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Phalanx Fighting offers the 3.75% bonus to self, not GC (being why I choose that number) GC does nothing for you, other than the debuff protection.
and I'll still say it does very little for your team.

To put it another way, Shields, as a set has three PBAoE powers, GC, AAO and PF. all of them have ranges that are much smaller than they should be, so the number of bodies you can fit into the area directly around you at any given time, to feed these three auras, is grossly limited.

Or to put it another way, correct positioning is super important with any set, and even more so with Shields.

So (and discarding talk of superteams or duos) there have been some really good points made on why this is a useless power.
Most specifically, under no circumstances should a scrapper or tank need to buff their allies defense. That aggro should be on them.
Not their allies.
Them!
Heck, That's what Taunt is for (on tanks especially), and AAO is one hella taunt aura.
(I can't count the number of times, that while standing next to a WP tank, that I was the one getting the Aggro due to AAO)

And to bring it full circle, you really should be using proper positioning to begin with to limit any excess aggro or leaking enemy damage from cone attacks and the like.

Proper positioning though means actually playing the game and moving around occasionally, which might be a hard concept for some.

The idea of running grant cover for your allies seems just as lazy as being an Empath who puts their heals on Auto and hits follow.
It's a cop-out.
There are far superior tools immediately available to you.

If it at the very least boosted Ally Damage, or offered some other kind of enemy debuff (-tohit even) then I'd probably be saying something different.
But it doesn't.
It sucks.

Please buff it.

Last thing Scrappers need is another Darn Smash'lethal set.

But Psychic Melee/blade? Or something with the debuff potential of /Rad? now they would be very nice.

And as a bonus it wouldn't requires a lot of new animation.

my fingers are crossed for going rogue,

Broken Prey has already touched on this, but your attack chain will will have big Gaps.
(your Recharge on Hack is 3.4sec, which is not nearly enough for HS-Hack-Dis-Hack, which is where you should aim)
The cheap solution here is, drop Elude (wasted if you hit the soft-cap anyway, and that Crash will Kill you in an AV fight) and pick up Parry, this should also allow you to drop the Leaping Pool in favour of Hasten.
(and put you well above the needed Melee defense)

That allows you to chain HS-Hack-Parry-Dis-Hack-Parry
(Parry should overlap this way, and the AH proc from Hack should still be up most of the time)

Frankly this will limit your DPS a little still, but at least you'll be ahead of the AVs regen, and it will become possible. Expect a long fight with the AV though, which also means you will probably want to devote more slots to Aid Self,


PS - One other thing, your global +Acc is only 22%, I'd consider +29% (3 x 9% bonus) the bare minimum needed, and a Kismet unique wouldn't hurt either, as it is you're going to miss frequently, and noone wants that.

PPS - Good luck

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Let's move on to something less controversial, like Siphon Life slotting...

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I currently use 4 Kinetic Combats and 2 Theft of the Nictus (including the chance for +End) it strikes a compromise between damage and heal, with good recharge and accuracy, but I'm still wondering if I could get more from it?

Discuss -

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in theory the stun mag does stack,
(though it might be good to ask a Math-fu Guru)

Remember though it is also a "chance for" so not gauranteed,
And my experience of the power is that it mezs them rarely enough as it is anyway, so a bit extra certainly wouldn't hurt.

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You're wrong on both counts. The stun in OG is set to not stack so, no matter how much you increase the duration, you won't be able to stun anything but a minion without some outside help. Secondly, OG is not a "chance to stun". It is simply a stun with normal accuracy. If it hits, it puts the stun on them.

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when I said "chance for stun" I was referring to any proc placed in ythe power, not OG's effects itself.
Which is more liekly because I misread the original question and am up way past my bedtime than anything else.
I know a number of other hold/stun/fear type powers can stack the mag of mez, so it's sort of a pity that that isn't the case here, it's also why I'm not a fan of the power itself, anything that will be mezzed by it won't live long enough to be a problem, and anything I do need to mez is going to resist it anyway.
Bah, humbug!

find a place to bring in the kismet unqiue (maneuvers?) and it should be okay for Acc

But far more seriously, No Shockwave?

in theory the stun mag does stack,
(though it might be good to ask a Math-fu Guru)

Remember though it is also a "chance for" so not gauranteed,
And my experience of the power is that it mezs them rarely enough as it is anyway, so a bit extra certainly wouldn't hurt.

Focused Accuracy has become a bit of a Dud power.
It's End Cost is Huge, and it is easily replaced by a few decent IOs such as the Kismet Unique.

Conserve Power is definitely the better option there, and as it also solves most End woes, it probably answers the first question too,

Single best thing for defense on a /Inv is slot Kinetic combats in your attack powers (u can forget the proc and use the last 2 slots however)
Most Defense powers benefit most from 2 Hami Enzymes, but there are other options, especially if slots aren't a worry.
For Resistance, you'll still want Tough in the build, which should help you hit the Res cap if you want.

Below is a copy of the build I'm currently working towards, and even though it's a work in progress, and much of it is still generic IOs, the survivability with only 30% S/L def and 60% S/L Res is just ridiculous.
Anyway, hopefully it'll give you a few ideas

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

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Dark: Level 50 Natural Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Dark Melee
Secondary Power Set: Invulnerability
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Smite -- (A)(3)(7)(7)(9)(9)
Level 1: Resist Physical Damage -- (A)(3)
Level 2: Shadow Maul -- (A)(11)(11)(13)(13)(27)
Level 4: Temp Invulnerability -- (A)(5)(5)
Level 6: Dull Pain -- (A)(37)(37)(37)(39)
Level 8: Siphon Life -- (A)(31)(31)(34)(36)(36)
Level 10: Swift -- (A)
Level 12: Hasten -- (A)(15)(15)
Level 14: Resist Elements -- (A)(31)
Level 16: Unyielding -- (A)(17)(17)
Level 18: Health -- (A)(19)(19)(21)(39)
Level 20: Stamina -- (A)(21)(23)(23)
Level 22: Shadow Punch -- (A)(27)(43)(43)(46)
Level 24: Resist Energies -- (A)(25)(25)
Level 26: Soul Drain -- (A)(40)(40)(40)(42)(43)
Level 28: Invincibility -- (A)(29)(29)
Level 30: Boxing -- (A)
Level 32: Midnight Grasp -- (A)(33)(33)(33)(34)(34)
Level 35: Tough Hide -- (A)(36)(42)(42)
Level 38: Tough -- (A)(39)(48)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- (A)(50)
Level 44: Dark Consumption -- (A)(45)(45)(45)(46)(46)
Level 47: Combat Jumping -- (A)(48)(48)
Level 49: Weave -- (A)(50)(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- (A)
Level 1: Sprint -- (A)
Level 2: Rest -- (A)
Level 1: Critical Hit

Don't even get me started on Phalanx Fighting,
That's another power in the set that could use a good buff.
You will never, ever have an ally close enough to boost the bonus you get from it. Never.

for the record, I quite often pick up the leadership pool, and have recently rolled a Night Widow in prep for 'going rogue' as it'll be a Scrapper-with-multiple-Auras/Team-buffs,
But Grant Cover?
Hate It!

Granted, it also seems an easy fix, make it grant a small bonus to self, something comparable to weaves 3.75%, and all of a sudden it would become a must have.
Which would also help the set be more comparable to most other secondaries in terms of survivability.

Yeah, Grant Cover is pretty useless.
Frankly, if the team needs it, then the Tank isn't doing it's job properly.
And any squishy who needs it's cover is going to be in one hella shock the moment a scrapper bounces to the other side of a mob, to say kill a surgeon on an ITF.

Shields comes with Shield Charge, one of the single best attacks in the game, it's that and AAO that make the set shine, but GC? Useless!
And I agree with the comments on it being underpowered defense wise, it's hella expensive to softcap, (either in terms of powerpicks, slots or Inf) and does need a slight buff in survivability terms.

And to give a little context to this, I just got of an ITF with a Shield Tank. I was on my Blaster (yeah, i've only got one, too many slots used by scrappers I guuess, anyway) He had GC, and yet, somehow, was also Chain Dying, don't know what his slotting was like, but he had all the nescessary powers from his primary, no supporting secondaries, and yet, was still Chain Dying.

Now seriously, if that's happening to the Tank version, which is far superior to what us poor scrappers get, then it surely screams "Buff Meh!"

Oh, and with specific regards to GC, being close enough to benefit meant being close enough to be hit by their AoEs, stray aggro and the occasional mez
Which kind of defeats the point really.

There really aren't a lot of bad scrapper options out there, so you're not going to go wrong. but based on what you've said

Claws is probably the one you want, at extreme levs of Recharge (ie, lots of Follow-up) it becomes a very strong AV killer (I'm pretty sure it's Excelerate who's been posting the videos using his claws scrapper)
And on the pwning large mobs (ie farming) side of things it has more cone and AoE attacks than any other set than spines, you'll need a bit of practice, and probably CJ to make it work, but master Shockwave Knockback effects and you will tear through large mobs incredibly quick.

But honestly, if low budget is a concern, take Dark Melee of Fire Melee, both are VERY strong straight out of the box, Both are very rarely resisted by enemies. Fires Damage is nigh unmatchable on low-mid cost builds, and Dark Melees secondary effects give you a world of options most scrappers lack.
(and on the plus side, Fire/SR with Aid self can solo AVs with only the most basic IO slotting)

Neither of them have a Rularuu options though, Claws does, and it's very pretty, as does Broadsword/Shield.

Meh, my advice, try em all, but extra character slots if you need to, and go nuts,

I'm with Miladys on this, as Tier 9s go, it's only meh. It's certainly no MoG, but as the crash is only 60%, it is still worth using (unlike Elude or Invincibility)

When I did have it as part of my build it got used frequently, its a good survival buff, and the the End Recovery is very useful, especially to cover the gap before Conserve Power pops again.

With all that said, it's not part of my current build and is one of SD's droppable powers, especially if you're soft-capped.

As you seem to be relatively new to Mid's my best advice would be to flick over to the "totals" tab, you'll see your Defense, Resistance and Recharge listed there.
I honestly can't remember the best Katana attack chain of the top of my head, but I do know it requires significant recharge.
You're /Inv, so you want to get Smash/Lethal Res and def up as high as possible.
There are not a lot of sets that enhance Resistance, and the numbers on those that do is low, so your best bet for upping your Resistance is Tough.
(like i said, you're /Inv, so if the final number isn't approx 70%, you've gone wrong somewhere)

The second step will be to enhance your Defense, CJ and Weave will help considerably here, and defense is a lot easier to get IO bonuses for, Kinetic Combat is a good option, only need 4 to get the extra 3.75% smash/lethal bonus, and that leaves 2 slots to frakenslot to get decent bonuses for the power itself.
(on this note, forget about the positional defenses, worry about your typed defenses, again this is because you are /Inv)

And then comes the recharge, Hasten is your best bet here, but a lot of sets offer the bonuses needed Crushing impact, Obliteration, Red Fortune, LotG.

Oh, and a quick note on Accuracy, pick up the Kismet unique, most ?Inv powers take it, and will solve most Accuracy woes

And once you've made all the trade-offs to squeeze all of that in, you'll still want Aid Self for AVs, Conserve Power for long Fights, Purples because you can, and well, you can see how it will become a tight build quick enough.