Werner

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Werner, could you post your katana/regen build? I'm really interested in what sets you went for and what bonuses are good.

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I'll post it, but it hasn't been updated since I12, so it's a little behind the times now. My basic plan would be to swap Focused Accuracy for Tactics and then trade all the extra endurance for a lot of extra defense. Might even pick up Hasten, if possible. Anyway, here's what I'm currently running around with, but please take every single thing in it with a grain of salt.

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

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

Werner: Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Katana
Secondary Power Set: Regeneration
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Gambler's Cut -- Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(A), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(15), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Hectmb-Dam%(25), Achilles-ResDeb%(27)
Level 1: Fast Healing -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(3), RgnTis-Regen+(3), Numna-Heal/Rchg(5), Mrcl-Heal(40), Mrcl-Rcvry+(43)
Level 2: Reconstruction -- Numna-Heal/Rchg(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(7), RgnTis-Heal/Rchg(21), RgnTis-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(39), RgnTis-Heal/EndRdx(50)
Level 4: Quick Recovery -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(9), P'Shift-End%(40)
Level 6: Build Up -- HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(7), HO:Membr(11)
Level 8: Divine Avalanche -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(11), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(17), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), Mako-Dam%(19)
Level 10: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(13), Ksmt-ToHit+(50)
Level 14: Dull Pain -- Numna-Heal/Rchg(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(31), H'zdH-Heal/Rchg(33)
Level 16: Integration -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(21), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(23), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(27), Numna-Heal/Rchg(29), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(31)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg(19), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(25)
Level 20: Resilience -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(A), S'fstPrt-ResKB(31), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(34)
Level 22: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 24: Tough -- TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(29), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(33)
Level 26: Soaring Dragon -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(34), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Mako-Dam%(36)
Level 28: Instant Healing -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 30: Stamina -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(37), P'Shift-End%(37)
Level 32: Golden Dragonfly -- Armgdn-Dmg(A), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(42), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Armgdn-Dam%(42), EndRdx-I(43)
Level 35: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(36), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(39)
Level 38: Moment of Glory -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(39), LkGmblr-EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 41: Focused Accuracy -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(43), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(45), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(46), GSFC-Build%(46)
Level 44: Laser Beam Eyes -- Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(46), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Apoc-Dam%(50)
Level 47: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(48), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(48)
Level 49: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit



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IIRC the only scrapper build in the 300 club is dm/sheild?

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Yep, just barely, with a super secret build and under ideal circumstances. Lower 200s is much more typical of even the high DPS scrapper builds.

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edit: forgot to ask. I'm looking to make a clawlz/fire scrap. Is 30% melee def enough w/ fire armor to tag a bunch of them?

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I doubt it, but I haven't poked around much at Fire Armor.

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Incinerate -&gt; Greater Fire Sword -&gt; Cremate

+237% recharge in Greater Fire Sword

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Jeeze what kind of recharge bonus do you need to get 237% in Greater Fire Sword?

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Figure 89% from Hecatomb, 70% from Hasten, so 78% from global bonuses. Five Luck of the Gamblers, five 5% bonuses and Hecatomb puts you at 72.5%. I'd probably grab another purple set for the other 5.5%, but there are certainly other options, some of which may be better. It's going to be pricey.

If only the attack chain is benefiting from that much recharge, I'd probably use Incinerate -&gt; Scorch -&gt; Cremate -&gt; Scorch instead, but that's definitely a step down in DPS, so not really an answer to the question.

I'm about 2 seconds away from perma Hasten, and it was 1.2 billion for me. Like you, that was before the steep rise in the price of purples. Probably 2 billion or more now.

Yeah, nothing wrong with Broad Sword for AVs. We probably don't see it much on the AV builds because Katana puts out better DPS for less effort, but Broad Sword isn't THAT far behind. It also combines well with Shields, which boosts the DPS.

Incinerate -&gt; Greater Fire Sword -&gt; Cremate

+237% recharge in Greater Fire Sword

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wouldnt deflected be ranged attacks and dodges would be aoe/melee?

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Are you telling me you can't dodge a ranged attack?

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Realisticly? No, you can't. If you 'dodged', it means you found cover before the bullet was actually fired. It moves too fast to be dodged after being fired.

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We ARE Super Heroes, you know.

Top DPS for Martial Arts is (Was? No changes in I15, right?) Storm Kick -&gt; Crane Kick -&gt; Storm Kick -&gt; Crippling Axe Kick at +225% recharge in Storm Kick.

Hasten lasts 120 seconds and recharges in 450 seconds. To be permanent, you need 450 / 120 = 375% recharge in Hasten, or +275% recharge enhancement. With 3 level 50 IOs in Hasten, you'd only be at +221.5%, so you still have 53.5% recharge to go. Perma Hasten, while possible, will cost an insane amount of influence and dominate your build.

If using temps or inspirations, anything can do the job. Really, with the right build, anything can probably do the job without temps or inspirations, but there are definitely better and worse choices.

BrokenPrey beat me to it, but DM/SD is the flavor of the month AV soloer, and DM/SR is also very good. Those are out since you don't want DM. Fire/Super Reflexes is probably the best choice in a budget build.

But if you have the influence, the options kind of explode after that. I've had very good success with Katana/Regen. Katana/Willpower is equally capable. Dual Blades/Super Reflexes, Claws/Super Reflexes and Katana/Super Reflexes are all proven performers. Invulnerability can do some pretty incredible things these days. It goes on and on. Did you have anything you were thinking of? Or did you think this would be an easy question with only two or three combinations that were clearly the best for the job?

No, no. You keep it for maximum DPS. But dropping it still allows for a very good attack chain with less of an endurance problem to fix. In other words, yes, you can live without GFS.

But they're so PURPLE! Such a beautiful shade! How can you ignore their purpleness in favor of the set bonuses that you'd rather have?

Purples are just a tool. It doesn't matter how great a hammer is when you need a wrench.

From my non-PvPer perspective, having a completely different set of rules for PvP makes me even less likely to try it out. I don't know if it makes it more casual friendly or not, but the very idea that my character will function completely differently in PvP is a point against it in my book. So if it was done to entice non-PvPers into PvP, my guess (having absolutely no data) is that it was a failure. Same with the PvP IOs, which appear (again with absolutely no data to back this up) to have done nothing but encourage PvP farming rather than actual PvP.

I can't believe I'm complaining about changes that don't even affect me, but yeah. Even as a complete outsider, it sounds like it's taken an already poor add on feature and made it worse. Hopefully I'm wrong, because I think the PvP community deserves better than they seem to have gotten in this game and in the recent changes.

Heh. I don't think we even live on the same planet as far as how we make builds. But it's a big universe, and as long as you're having fun, that's all that really matters. I suppose we min-maxers DO tend to go WAY beyond what is necessary to handle 99% of the content, and then assume that everyone wants to be similarly pointlessly overpowered when they ask for build advice.

Still, to at least explain the min-max powergamer point of view, or at least my take on it...

- You can put out more damage overall with a few well-slotted attacks than many poorly-slotted attacks.
- Your hypothetical 91% accuracy vs. even, 78% vs. +1 drops to 47% against +4, and that's assuming no defense or debuffs. We wouldn't be satisfied with all those misses cutting into our damage output when hunting uplevel.
- 30% defense gets hit twice as often as 40% defense gets hit twice as often as 45% defense. Since it is easy to hit 45% defense on a Super Reflexes, we tend to view it as all or nothing. At even slightly less than 45% defense, you're being hit WAY more often than you would with just a little more effort put into your defense.
- We tend to run repetitive attack chains, over and over, the same forever, so there's little chance of us forgetting a buff attack like Follow Up.
- It seems like many min-max powergamers don't often exemplar, and therefore aren't concerned with having a full set of lower level attacks. Many are also veterans with veteran attacks to fill in the gaps when they do exemplar.

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I'm sure Umbral or Werner can pop in and help with more tweaks, but I hope that helps.

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Personally, the only thing stopping me from getting crazy with the build critiques is that the OP is asking to keep the build under a certain price. I don't really build with price in mind (much less actually pay attention to what price most IOs and recipes are at), so I'm not really qualified to give a price sensitive build. If the price restriction is removed, I've got loads of advice to start giving.

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I'm kind of in the same boat, mostly playing around with price no object builds or SO builds, and not much in between. That and I haven't been looking at too many builds recently. Sometimes I figure I'll just toss out a few quick suggestions, and then it turns into a landslide of “and then this, and then you could do this” and next thing you know, several hours have gone by, I'm deep in spreadsheets doing DPS and EPS calculations, I've turned someone's build into something completely different than they may even want to play, and I've forgotten to actually play the game myself that evening. Combine that with a million unfinished projects of my own, and these days, I'm kind of scared to even look at builds.

So... what everyone is telling me is that I need a DM/SD?

Grats!

First priority is 45% defense, as others have said.

Next priority for a general-purpose build is probably damage, but again as others have said, NOT +damage. You'll get more damage out of +recharge and using your best attacks more often.

For single target DPS, your best attacks are Follow Up, Focus and Slash (with Achilles' Heel proc). The best DPS chain is actually just Follow Up -&gt; Focus -&gt; Slash. However, that requires +314% recharge in Follow Up, so requires billions of influence and a build devoted to the task. That won't be a general-purpose build, so let's set that aside.

Unfortunately, I'm not a Claws chain expert, so I'll let someone else advise you if you want a specific chain and are looking at specific levels of recharge. There are plenty of good ones at various levels of recharge.

After you have your attack chain put together, I'd probably then focus on hit points. Super Reflexes suffers from getting hit too often too fast, and the higher your hit points, the less likely a string of lucky hits will kill you. Tough helps here as well, but isn't a set bonus, so is a bit off topic.

After that, probably regeneration. An alternative is to take Aid Self, but that's probably overkill unless you want to do no inspiration challenges.

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I love the journey to fifty, but for me the game begins at destination awesome (AKA: Level fifty.) Thus, my builds pay almost no attention for IOing as I level.

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Ditto. You know how people advise you to play for a few levels just to get the feel for the sets, and whether you want to keep playing the character? That's what I do, except that “a few levels” is 50 of them. I wing the build till 50 since I'm just getting a feel for it.

I don't think DB/Will is as survivable as Katana/Will simply because Divine Avalanche is awesome defense. That said, there shouldn't be any major survivability issues with DB/Will. Mine was very solid the whole journey to 50, and a whole lot of fun to play.

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WERNER! =)

I'm glad you posted!
That means you weren't offended.

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Yeah, I'm usually hard to offend. I just haven't been on the forums for a few days. I got forced at gunpoint to try WoW for the first time and to keep pace with my leveling, so haven't had time for much else.

An interesting question, and a demonstration of the nice balance we have in scrapper combinations.

Dark Melee/Super Reflexes is a classic, and I believe widely considered to be a top end combination.

Martial Arts/Dark Armor was fairly recently voted the least popular scrapper combination by the forumites, if I'm remembering correctly. Thing is, we also concluded that it would be a great combination.

So DM/SR might be a “safer” choice due to its greater popularity, but either should work just fine.

Sounds like you've already decided though. OK, advice for DM/SR. Three slot your passives, four slot your toggles (one endurance). Not only is it good for defense, but it's also good for your defense debuff resistance and maybe buffs your scaling resistance (I don't remember). Shadow Punch, Smite, Shadow Maul and Siphon Life are all great attacks. Take Tough and Weave. Tough stacks on your scaling resistance, and Weave stacks on your defense, so both offer you a lot. And since you have Dark Consumption, you'll be able to afford the endurance. Soul Drain and Midnight Grasp are also must haves. I'd skip Touch of Fear and Confront, but lots of people swear by Touch of Fear, so if you can work it in and can afford a respec, I'd at least try it out.

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My secret to soft-capping on my MA/SR is to use powers I don't attack with to hit the soft cap (Touch of Death in Boxing for example, although Razzle Dazzle is also a good choice) and then frankenslot the heck out of the real attacks for endurance...

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I would fundamentally disagree with this as a strategy, particularly on a sword set rather than with MA.

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Yeah, I'm not a fan of that approach either. Two no-nos for top end builds - frankenslotting and having set mules. Now, I'm not saying I don't do those things. They are tools in your toolbox, and often get used in my builds. But I consider it a failure every time, because its a big waste of slots (set mules) and a big waste of possible set bonuses (frankenslotting).

Mine wasn't too bad. I was doing a no temps no insps no deaths Mender Silos, and halfway through somehow forgot that I had click mez protection (Hasten is what I have on auto). Poof dead, challenge failed, start over from the beginning. I'd have been annoyed, but I was laughing too hard at my own stupidity.

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You are supposed to take the pylon out near the mob. Lol

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Right. Take out the pylon while surrounded by a RWZ challenge spawn, then finish the spawn. Alas, yet another thing I've come close to but not succeeded at. I can't remember if anyone's done it yet, but from the other things people have posted, I'm sure quite a few could.

Craziness aside, nice job.

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Yeah, you'll be fine with Claws/Invuln. The scrapper combinations are very nicely balanced in PvE these days. There are better and worse choices for various objectives, but there are no clear winners and losers.

I have a theory that Katana/Shield can achieve the highest DPS with billions of influence spent, but I haven't worked it all out yet.

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Let us know when you make that Katana/Shield... I'll be right behind you with a Spines/Shield.

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Oh. I AM retarded. Never mind. Nothing to see here. *chuckle*