Supermax

Bump. For some reason it says I posted this "yesterday" even though it was only a couple hours ago.

I just came back to the game after several months of being gone, and after several years of not doing any PvE, for the most part. I'd like to try PvE again, and I've decided that a scrapper would best fit my goal: solo-friendly, good damage, and good survivability.

The only way I have any chance of actually leveling up a new toon is if both powersets are new to me. And because I've played almost everything already, that leaves only a few choices.

For secondaries it's between elec and shield (leaning towards elec), and for primaries it's between elec, fire, and MA (leaning towards elec again). Any suggestions on what would be best to play and what to pair with what? I definitely prefer to have great AoE damage, rather than ST damage. I know fire is probably the best for that, but how does elec compare? I'd prefer to avoid fire, since I already have a /fire tank, but if it's just twice as good as everything else, I could probably deal with playing it.

Most likely I'd be playing casually, so the toon will never have the best IO's...probably just SO's. So keep that in mind when you answer. For example, I know shield is probably stronger overall than elec with a huge investment, but what about straight out of the box with just SO's?

I have very extensive experience with BS/regen, DM/SR, and claws/regen. So perhaps you can compare the other sets to these in terms of damage/survivability, so it'll be easy for me to relate.

Thanks!

It's totally useless. Skip it for sure.

conflict = smart

Hey man, this was post-DR, so all those buffs actually did pretty little. No idea where Ronin is. He came back for a while in I14 or something, but sirens kinda died in the last few months, so I guess he took off again.

You play a TA. It's not very hard to be part of a team when the only thing you realistically contibute is glue+acid. They are good powers that turn many people into easy kills for your team. But they're not rocket science. The only skill in TA comes in not getting farmed, and that's why you probably prefer the safer fly. It makes sense.

But try playing a flying buffer or someone that actually has to engage in combat for more than 2 powers. It's a different story.

Fine, I'll chime in too, at least regarding zone PvP.

I used fly on most of my toons for a couple issues starting with I13. In zones, it is definitely an alternative to SS/SJ. It does have advantages, but mainly it has disadvantages.

First of all, I think if you take fly, you have to take TP. SS just doesn't fit well with fly. Fly+TP work much better together. So that means no hasten (fitness, fly, tp, concealment), which is of course a huge deal. But whatever, you can still get some +recharge from sets.

Due to TP, you can get from point A to point B faster than anyone. But it's hard to chase someone that actually knows how to evade. Yes, really bad players can still be chased when they just run in a straight line all the way from one base to the other. And you can TP ahead of them, cueing up a snipe (very difficult move that only one person in the game can do!!!). But yeah, chasing someone that isn't an idiot is almost impossible. Fly is too slow, and TP has too little control. You have to predict where the person is going to go, which is simply not reliable against good players.

For the same reason, it's hard to be a part of a team. People change direction a lot, and everything suppressing you becomes even more noticeable than usual. Teaming works really well only with other fliers, which means teaming with noobs for the most part.

So yeah, those are the cons. For the pros, I agree it's safer. You can just sit at the top of the map, and nobody will attack you! Then you can brag about not dying a single time. But it's only safe like stalkers are safe....because you can choose when to attack. When you actually do attack, you're at a severe disadvantage. It is really easy to get away with fly+TP though. When in trouble, you simply phase and TP wherever. And there is basically zero chance that someone can get you. You can just keep TP'ing, and you stay totally safe. But while this does accomplish the goal of you not dying, you're also 100% useless. You add nothing to the fight. And if someone decides, they can keep you out of the fight like this forever. Yeah, they'll never kill you, but you will never kill anyone else.

It's a tradeoff. Most people prefer to use SS/SJ and simply keep moving "like they're jacked up on caffeine", because pressing WASD is really not very hard. And then they can actually move while fighting, contribute to a team, chase people, run away if needed, etc.

Fly+TP was a fad of mine for a while, and I did enjoy it, and it did work well for me. Ronin and I tore sirens up on our flying blasters in I13, and many copied us. At some point in I13-I14 probably 80-90% of blasters in sirens had fly. You almost HAD to have fly to even participate in PvP there, because most of it took place in the air. And I still had fly on my blaster as recently as I15, and had great success in RV too. TP'ing out of hibernate is basically an auto-getaway, as I discovered.

But in the end, it's simply not as good as SS/SJ. The cons outweigh the pros. If you are good with both options, you will be better off with SS/SJ in almost 100% of situations.

Yeah, take phase instead of aid self (use greens to heal), and take webs and shatter armor from the epics.

And you'll need elude too.

temp invuln

That's actually a pretty good summary. One clarification though, regarding this...

"Most folks just steer around him and keep on going... "

Most folks actually do that with ANY melee toon, unless they severely outnumber him. A well-built tank or brute or regin scrapper is basically unkillable 1v1, unless he's really bad. Yes, there's a small chance you might kill him, but in that time, you could probably kill 3 other people. It's simply not worth the effort. For example, If I'm on my stalker, I AS someone, and it takes off only like 20% of his health, you're damn right I'm gonna just ignore him.....unless I get a chance to attack him with others

Point is, zylo's just another melee toon with a huge investment. Like you said, it's all +HP and regen.

But that would actually go against their blatant goal of making the game into a pure "haves vs have-nots" situation. Can't do that, sorry.

I think in about I14 my friend PL'd me a blaster on Virtue. I played there for a couple months. I think I ran into one total stalker that had anything more than hide. I would get into solo fights against 3 stalkers at the same time, and kill all 3 of them. It was awesome.

Then I moved the blaster to Freedom during the free transfers and haven't played him since. An SO'd lvl 38 blaster simply can't hang on freedom

lol, zylo. Yes, if you invest like 15 billion into your build, you can survive 4 really bad SO'd players attacking you. That's not a good measuring stick though. I've seen zylo play. He's pretty horrible. He just stands in one spot, spamming attacks. All it takes is one good player on a good build, and he's helpless.

DP is pretty horrible. Think of another blast set you'd like to play.

FYI, psy blast is by far the best for blasters. For defenders, it's between psy, sonic, and rad.

Con summed it up pretty well. I've played a regen stalker for like 4-5 years. Your plan is simply not realistic.

Too bad everybody in the zone has more than 1000 HP. All you'll do is hurt someone, they'll heal, and you'll be dead.