Werner

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I'm regretting that I asked.

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Put simply, you started it when you insulted the advice of the very experts who could best answer your questions. Had you not been insulting, I suspect you wouldn't have been mildly chastised as you were.

You may not have intended to be insulting, but I think what you wrote was very easily read that way. So if it wasn't your intent, you may want to be more careful with your word choices in the future.

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Paragon wiki gave a stat of purples dropping 1/5000 from mobs that can drop them. So if you are out to kill things to get them how rapidly can you kill around 1100 enemies to give you approximately 90% chance of getting 1 *

* All calculations were approximate and performed mentally if they are off they are off it has no impact on the process of reaching the decision

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The chance of getting at least one purple in 1100 enemies is:

1-(1-1/5000)^1100 = 18.13%

(I agree that it has no impact on the point you were making.)

Streaks are a characteristic of randomness. When most people try to come up with random digits, they usually come up with a sequence that is much less random than they think, and one of the reasons is that they eliminate the streaks. “Well, I just wrote a 2, so I shouldn't write another one.” Why not? There's a one in ten chance that the next digit is a 2, same as the chance for any other number.

What would be surprising is if, with all the purples that drop, there WEREN'T occasionally seemingly unusual streaks in the drops.

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But it sounds like the only thing that can help wp with the alpha strikes and such is to use purples


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yes the Alpha Stikes can be bad for /WP and purples are the best for it. But after you get all of your /WP powers and slotted it should be a lot better

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In the long run, Willpower has high hit points, good resists, and good defense. Alphas will eventually be no problem because it takes too much to take you out quickly. I've heard that some people have problems AFTER the alpha, where their hit points don't recover fast enough to deal with the rest of the incoming damage. I haven't found that to be a problem myself, but if it is a problem, purples are probably the best choice to resolve it.

As BrokenPrey says, Pick up Rise to the Challenge as soon as you can. It's pretty much the set-defining power for Willpower, and its absence is probably the reason for your trouble.

As far as this goes:

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Okay so other then the guy that can solo the Statesman TF, does anyone else have an ideas for WP for tougher encounters.

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Let's try some analogies.

Financial Advice - "You're a self-made millionaire, so I don't want your advice on how to make money. I'll just ask my friend on welfare how to get rich quick."

Car Trouble - "You're a professional mechanic, so I don't want your opinion on what the problem is. My next door neighbor changes her own oil. I'll ask her instead."

See the problem?

Also, it's not like we only play twinked-out level 50s and have forgotten what it's like to level up. I level up a LOT of characters. I just don't usually have PROBLEMS with them, because I understand how this game works and how to make a strong character for cheap.

Charge in, kill everything.

If for some reason that isn't sufficient, well, go after the boss or lieutenants first, leaving minions for Rise to the Challenge buffing. Make sure you're in the middle of the spawn, not off to the side plinking away. Purples are your go to inspiration of choice, and should be much more effective than greens overall. If that STILL isn't doing the trick, you may want to adjust your build for a higher level of survivability, as unyielding really shouldn't be an issue, at least post SOs.

Heh. You'd think Invuln tanks would be aware of not only their strengths, but of their weaknesses. Probably most of them are, but I guess the few that aren't could be pretty amusing/frustrating to play with.

Bah, I'm off topic again. Uh... Dark Armor is teh roxxors!

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got it. that being said, this really is the funnest character ive ever played. i dont have a 50 yet and this may be it. why doesnt everybody play scrappers?

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I think some people like taking more specific roles on a team, or enjoy the challenge of being a glass cannon, or like being able to go AFK in the middle of insane spawns, or what have you. While scrappers are my favorite, I also enjoy blasters and to a lesser extent tanks.

Oh, wait, that was one of them rhetorical questions, wuddnit?

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I am amazed as to some people not picking Elude. I think it is one of the best "Save your [censored]" clicks a SR build can have.

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Once you're soft capped, about all Elude might do is help temporarily against foes with a lot of to-hit. But I have a hard time seeing where that would be useful. Some AVs/EBs have to-hit, but as EBs, you should tear through them anyway, and as AVs, Elude won't last long enough, so you're going to crash and then die. Some Architect Entertainment custom enemy groups have to-hit. But you're not going to make it through a mission in three minutes, so you're dealing with the crash. That's probably more likely to kill you than the bad guys unless you pay close attention and stop fighting when it gets close to the crash. And as a scrapper, I'm not big on sitting around and doing nothing.

Well, you could use it as a fake travel power, I suppose. But I'd pick up a real travel power if that's your intent.

It might also serve as a set mule. I try to avoid set mules, but sometimes they're a necessary evil.

Death Shroud is an AoE attack that you don't have to interrupt your attack chain to use and that costs half as much as regular AoE attacks. You couldn't ask for a better power.

Most people seem to compare the endurance to other toggles instead of other attacks, see the small ticks of damage, and conclude that the power blows. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's an indispensable part of Dark Armor's arsenal.

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What the heck is "softcapped Fire Resist"?

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It's just like capped fire resistance, but kinder and gentler.

And that's why I'm shooting for 75% melee defense if I IO out my Broad Sword/Shield Defense. I want to be able to wade through Architect Entertainment content nearly as easily as regular content.

I was following my usual “no temps no insps” rule, so reds were out. I'm not sure how much it would have helped anyway. My build isn't really a DPS build, so the fights were pretty long.

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Speaking of which, Werner has said he doesn't notice cascade failure on his Kat/Regen, so it's not WP's def resistance that's making the difference, rather DA.

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Oh, I NOTICE it. I have to, or it'll kill me. I monitor both base and melee defense. Base is only there to get my attention. The moment I see base defense go red, I spam Divine Avalanche until I'm back over 45% melee. That almost always works. If that doesn't, I also have Moment of Glory. 15 seconds of extreme defense will almost always interrupt a cascading defense failure. I do still occasionally have a problem – high level Rikti heavy assault suits, Silver Mantis and Positron have all taken me out in the past with defense debuffs. But I don't think Cimerorans have yet (very close but so far so good).

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Whoops, sorry about that Werner; my memory failed me there.

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Or I might have posted something simple like “I don't have problems with cascading defense failure.” Lots of ways to read that, and no memory failure involved. But it's similar to “I don't have problems with lots of incoming damage.” I don't, but it's because I'm clicking the right things at the right time.

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Her big mez will demolish you if it hits. There is simply no way to have enough mez protection to keep it from affecting you or to break out of it. I've lived through it at least once on my Regen (probably Dull Pain + Instant Healing), and someone with Willpower was able to consistently survive it. I haven't heard any other reports of surviving it.

So yes, on a Super Reflexes, it's keep trying until she fails to land it for the entire fight. I personally gave up after 40 or 50 failed attempts. She's doable, since I've had her down to I think 10% health, but I just got bored with it.

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Yay I haven't been forgotten about, even if I'm too lazy to post half the time :-)

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Ah, I couldn't remember who it was. Of course it was you.

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And I've personally never been outlasted by a anything/regen, but that's just me, I'm a crazy kat/wp.

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You've obviously never played with a crazy good, equally well built Kat/Regen.

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On the other note, Werner's on a different server :-p Where else am I going to find an equally comparable Kat/Regen? I guess no katana/regens are on my level then...

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Heh. I actually don't think my Katana/Regen is any better than your Katana/Willpower. I used to think Regen won at the top end challenges, but then I looked more closely at some top end Katana/Willpower builds like yours. I now think they're equivalent, and to be equivalent, I have to be at the top of my game.

Buff Regin!

I tried it a few times on both of my main scrappers (Invincible, RWZ challenge rules). Not much luck. If I IO out my Broad Sword/Shield Defense, I think he'll have a better shot at it. I intend to be running about 75% melee, 45% ranged and AoE defense. Resistance on Shield Defense isn't great, but at least it has quite a few hit points, which is functionally similar. I do plan to have Aid Self.

Her big mez will demolish you if it hits. There is simply no way to have enough mez protection to keep it from affecting you or to break out of it. I've lived through it at least once on my Regen (probably Dull Pain + Instant Healing), and someone with Willpower was able to consistently survive it. I haven't heard any other reports of surviving it.

So yes, on a Super Reflexes, it's keep trying until she fails to land it for the entire fight. I personally gave up after 40 or 50 failed attempts. She's doable, since I've had her down to I think 10% health, but I just got bored with it.

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although since these attacks have to hit to get the buff I can see a case for slotting a kismet even for DB/Claws.

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That's my reasoning. That and I hate missing, even when it's something like a bubbled level 54 Rikti drone. It might not be optimal to put so much focus on hitting things, but ARGH! Missing! Bleah!

(That and I seem to have more Kismets than I know what to do with (on Virtue anyway). I used to hand those and Steadfasts out like skittles to my supergroup before it fell apart ("Welcome to the team. Here are your uniques."). I think I'm out of Steadfasts, but I think I have like ten Kismets still.)

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QR

As a side question, is the 6% to hit IO better than a 9% accuracy set bonus? I just realized I could drop a 4th LoTG and grab that IO if its better.

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Yes, it's better. I wouldn't make a build without it.

Ablating Strike can slot an Achilles' Heel, yes.

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I'm also not aware of any base accuracy change that accompanied the redraw change.

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The improved base accuracy was done a long time ago (back in the Jack Emmert days) to account for an old problem wherein you had to use up activation time to get in stance for some attacks. MA, BS, and Katana all have base accuracies of 1.05 rather than 1.0. The same applies for Archery and Assault Rifle. They're all 5% higher than they would be otherwise.

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Ah, gotcha. I didn't pay attention to the numbers back then, so I didn't realize that that's how it came about.

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Most of the time when I see claims of /Regen power its a Kat or BS. When your primary caps you in 1/3 of your positional defenses Regen synergizes very well because none of it's mitigation is defense based. Willpower/Unvul doesn't synergize well since it is typed defense and SR/SD can cap without Parry/DA.

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Though really what I meant is that I'd love to see some kick [censored] non-Parry/DA videos or read some stories of Regen feats like AV killing.

(While I'd love to see some Regen action in the RWZ challenge, it's my experience that Shockwave really makes a huge difference there so I suspect it would be a Claw/Regen scenario. Not that it isn't impressive to do with Claw/Regen.)

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Then I present to you one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

The Iggy_Kamakaze Swipe/Regen RWZ challenge.

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Speaking of which, Werner has said he doesn't notice cascade failure on his Kat/Regen, so it's not WP's def resistance that's making the difference, rather DA.

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Oh, I NOTICE it. I have to, or it'll kill me. I monitor both base and melee defense. Base is only there to get my attention. The moment I see base defense go red, I spam Divine Avalanche until I'm back over 45% melee. That almost always works. If that doesn't, I also have Moment of Glory. 15 seconds of extreme defense will almost always interrupt a cascading defense failure. I do still occasionally have a problem – high level Rikti heavy assault suits, Silver Mantis and Positron have all taken me out in the past with defense debuffs. But I don't think Cimerorans have yet (very close but so far so good).

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...the only other famed */regen I know of that uses DP in a similar manner (re: actually letting it fall on a regular basis), Werner, is a Kat/Regen. DA/Parry allow for some very different set ups, but I wouldn't recommend a play style like that to anyone that wasn't also a Kat/regen or BS/Regen because no other set provides the same levels of additional defense as DA/Parry cane.

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I recommend perma Dull Pain to almost everyone, and along with that recommendation is that hit points that take you over the cap with Dull Pain up are very situational hit points, so should probably only be in your build as a side effect of other set bonuses that you were after.

Still, most perma Dull Pain builds don't have 20 seconds of overlap. Many of them are probably right on the borderline of having Dull Pain drop. Given that I also recommend holding off on hitting Dull Pain until you're injured, chances are that you're going to be sitting there without Dull Pain up and with fewer hit points than you'd prefer. But the majority of the time, Dull Pain is going to be up, so the logic is the same – those extra hit points are situational, not a constant benefit like most hit points. So generally speaking, I'd recommend going after other bonuses.

And yes, I handled things very differently on my own Katana/Regen because I went for defense over recharge. My Dull Pain drops for a pretty noticeable period of time, during which I would be pretty vulnerable without some other hit points to fall back on, so I went for a whole lot of hit point bonuses that are wasted while Dull Pain is up. By a similar token, I went for a whole lot of regeneration bonuses to help further reduce the frequency with which I would need to hit my clicks. Whether or not it was the best build and playstyle decision, I'm not certain, but it works for me, and I did compare a whole bunch of different builds before settling on that approach.

Even with Katana or Broad Sword, though, my standard recommendation is to get perma Dull Pain, as much additional recharge as you can, not worry much about hit points over the cap with Dull Pain up. Defense is your second priority once you have insane amounts of recharge.