Werner

I don't PvP, and I suspect you shouldn't go anywhere near PvP with a Katana/Dark, and particularly not with one optimized for PvE. Even if it doesn't suck as bad as I suspect, it would still take a completely different build approach than PvE.

This isn't the build I'm running. This is my aborted attempt to fix my defense and endurance problems after the various IO nerfs. At this point, I'm taking a wait and see attitude, and hoping that I19 will let me fix everything without gutting my DPS. I want the purple set plus Achilles' Heel in Gambler's Cut like I have on my current build. I don't plan on fiddling with it until I19 actually hits, though, since I don't trust that the rules won't change before then.

Edit: The main strength is that it's seriously survivable outside of defense debuffs, and the double-stack of Divine Avalanche has you high enough to mostly handle the weakest debuffs, plus you can stack it further as necessary to at least have some response. Still, heavy defense debuffs suck on this build. The main weakness is that damage output is quite mediocre, with DPS probably around 140-150 (I haven't calculated it or endurance for the below build), and just a single AoE. Think of it more as a DPS tank with no aggro control, and you're probably in the right ballpark. Or just build a DPS tank - I just have a soft spot for Scrappers. And if you DO take the build below with no modification, be aware that I haven't calculated endurance consumption. I suspect it's sustainable or close, but if you're planning some no temps no insps AV soloing, you want to KNOW that it's sustainable.

I'll say Fire/Shield. It's almost at the top of the charts for DPS, has a harder hitting attack than Head Splitter, uses Build Up for great damage in 10 seconds. AoE for Fiery Melee is probably merely decent, but Shield Defense adds Shield Charge, and you can always pick up Fire Ball. It can be a rather effective farmer with an appropriate build, and without giving up other categories of damage. I suspect it's the best all-rounder for damage output.

I always think of burst damage as X time span, where X is a short time frame, such as the length of a single Build Up, or perhaps a handful of seconds.

And no, I don't think that means we're talking about DPS, even if it's time for an attack chain or even two. Compare Broad Sword and Dual Blades, for instance. Pulling numbers out of thin air because I've long since lost the actual comparison, but I compared a Broad Sword with about 170 DPS to a Dual Blades with about 230 DPS. The break even point was around 17 seconds. Any shorter than that, and Broad Sword won the damage race. The reason, of course, is the difference between Build Up and Blinding Feint. And to me, the difference between Build Up and Blinding Feint is burst damage.

You can talk maximum single hit damage, but I put that in its own category, with its own name. I also consider it a useless measurement in PvE, though perhaps more so in PvP. When we're talking burst, I'm thinking short time frame, five to ten seconds. When we say DPS, I think very long time frames. If you sit there and pound on something forever, what will your average damage per second be? Then to me, there's this vast gulf between burst and DPS where the advantages cross over from one to the other.

I also don't make any rules outside of time scale. I consider it a bit artificial to add something like "wouldn't include any give power used twice". I use Gambler's Cut after ever attack. Does that mean my burst damage is limited to Golden Dragonfly -> Gambler's Cut? That seems too short, even if it plays to my advantage against someone spamming five different attacks in a row, where the later attacks are lower damage. Or at least if it isn't too short, then the comparison should be on that particularly short time scale.

I'm not sure it's important to nail it down, though, as long as we all understand how damage changes over time, and how some primaries have very hard hitting single attacks, and some are good at front loading damage, while others ramp up slowly instead. And I think most people in the "what is burst damage" argument understands the underlying facts, turning it mostly into semantics.

All I'd suggest is that if somehow we ever come to a consensus, that if that consensus is that burst damage is a single attack, then we're desperately in need of another term for damage over a short time frame. Perhaps front-loaded damage or something. But I think it's easier and more clear to give a single attack the alternate name.

I took Body Mastery. Super Reflexes wants more healing and recovery. Body Mastery provides. Focused Accuracy is also a decent mule for the Gaussian set if you can't find a better home. Just avoid Laser Beam Eyes and Energy Torrent to stay on concept.

I don't have experience with it, but on the surface it seems like just what most Regens need in an IO build. You should be swimming in recharge, which lets you take best advantage of it, and defense is the next thing you need after recharge. It's yet another click to manage, but that's kind of what Regen is all about - picking and hitting the right click really, really fast.

In I18, Physical Perfection can be worth it to put together a no-Fitness build. In I19, Fitness will be inherent, and Physical Perfection will be more of what you're already swimming in - recovery and regeneration, and therefore not very helpful.

Weave is worth it to get IF you have other defense to stack with it, which generally means if you've been pushing with your power pools and getting at least a few set bonuses. Since you say you aren't doing that, I'd only pick up Weave if there's nothing else useful to get.

I personally like stacking Resilience with Tough. Lots of people don't bother. I think it's arguable either way.

It depends on what you mean by "most effective". It's probably the most recommended soloist on the Scrapper forum - it's easy to build, easy to play, easy to level, plus gives up nothing on top end power for that simplicity. But it's fairly middle of the road for damage output. The most effective soloer, at least in terms of speed of leveling, is probably combining a much more AoE-centric set with a damage boost and enough survivability to not waste a lot of time on the hospital. So Electric/Shield for instance, though there would be a lot of other examples.

Just FYI, I'm not running the I19 version, so I'm not certain I'm looking at all the right stuff. I'm also no expert on Kinetic Melee, so I'm mostly restricting my comments to the survivability side of things.

Mid range budget, I gather.

Take Fighting even though the first power is a total waste. Tough adds so so much to a Regen, and Weave is very good to IF you're going with some other defense, which obviously you are. There are several great slotting options if you want to turn Boxing into a set mule to make it feel more useful - Absolute Amazement, Stupefy and Razzle Dazzle.

Too much effort spent on hit point bonuses. With accolades and Dull Pain up, you are WELL over the hit point cap. Those extra hit points are usually literally doing you no good whatsoever.

"Needs" more recharge. Much more recharge. Regeneration thrives on recharge, and I have no idea what you're talking about as far as diminishing returns. You honestly can't have too much recharge on a Regen. As a slotting for instance, Doctored wounds in Reconstruction, Dull Pain and Instant Healing. Absolute Amazement or Stupefy in Boxing. Luck of the Gambler in Weave. Another recharge in Hasten.

Moment of Glory is a core power, but you appear to understand that since you laughed at the suggestion that it be removed. However, it comes with so much resistance and defense out of the box that slotting for it is essentially pointless. It typically gets a luck of the Gambler global, and then just straight recharges until you're happy.

Don't target regeneration bonuses. It's not that it's bad for you, but more regeneration is your lowest priority on a Regen since you're already swimming in it. What you need is recharge, recharge, more recharge and defense.

Gaussian set in Tactics.

Blessing of the Zephyr is still worth consideration even after the nerf.

I'd slot a Kismet unique, though if you take Tactics and don't hunt +4s, you can probably get away without it.

I wouldn't target psionic defense. It's the second least common type of damage (cold is the least common), and you aren't particularly weak to it (unless you count the hole in Moment of Glory). I've beaten both Malaise and Mother Mayhem on my ancient Katana/Regen with no special emphasis on psionic defense, and with much much lower recharge than I'm advocating. Psionic is not a problem.

I'm personally in the "don't take revive powers" camp. I don't die often enough to find them useful, and I'd rather spend the power pick keeping myself from dying than recovering from death.

Leadership is good, even if it plays second fiddle to Fighting. I wouldn't take Vengeance personally since I mostly solo and when I don't, the people I play with don't die much. Your teams may vary. And if I really needed an extra power pick, the next on the chopping block would be Assault, though obviously more damage is a good thing. I'd find a way to keep Maneuvers and Tactics.

Here's what I consider a simpler rule of thumb with almost no math:

1. Install Mids Hero Designer if for some reason you haven't.

2. Options -> Configuration -> Exemping & Base Values -> Base ToHit -> Enter the number for how high uplevel you're fighting:

+0: 75%
+1: 65%
+2: 56%
+3: 48%
+4: 39%
+5: 30%

3. Try out both the to hit buff and the accuracy buff you're considering. Mouse over the powers to see which helps your final chance to hit more.

Actually, there's an even simpler rule of thumb:

1. To hit buffs are better than accuracy buffs.

There! Sure there are exceptions, but it's just a rule of thumb.

Another write up is here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics

Whoah! RWZ challenge on the first try!

Mind you, I spent half the fight in the red, and even had to deal with the One with the Shield crash detoggling me, but I made it. Unexpected!

I think with some practice, it might be possible to finish a spawn before the crash, because there was only a badly-injured boss and a drone left at that point. A little more target switching between bosses to take better advantage of all the AoE, and I could do it. On the other hand, a little more target switching between bosses and I might have been dead before I got a chance to crash.

The build has been almost complete for a while now. Most of the Hamios are still level 50. That's the only issue at this point, but it means my melee defense is 44.59% instead of 45%, so I'm getting hit almost 10% more often in melee than I should. I need to finish it up and maybe do some RWZ challenge runs specifically for speed. Surely I can get under 2 minutes.

No video. I certainly wasn't expecting success, and probably got lucky.

No, I'm pretty sure the streakbreaker still isn't killing you. I'm not confident how it works, but let me take what seem to me to be the two most likely interpretations.

1) The count of misses is associated with you and each enemy.

This almost seems to be what you're suggesting with the idea that suddenly the streak breaker will make a LOT of enemies hit you, all at once. If so, the streak breaker doesn't do ANYTHING in our example - soft capped +1x8 with bosses. A +1 boss has a 5% * 1.1 * 1.3 = 7.15% chance to hit. That is well below the 20% limit for allowing 100 misses in a row. If you can't put down the entire spawn in the time it takes a boss to attack and miss you 100 times in a row, you must be off making a sandwich or something. Also, the chance of that boss missing you 100 times in a row is only 0.06%. It's not happening. This isn't killing you.

2) The count of misses is associated with you only.

You fight your way through several spawns. Everything has less than a 20% chance to hit you. There's more than bosses involved, so the chance of something hitting you is a little lower than the 7.15% we computed earlier, making a streak of 100 more likely. But even if it were only minions, there's still only a 0.35% chance. So at worst, every few hours of solid farming, one enemy will hit you that otherwise wouldn't have. Most likely a minion. This isn't killing you. Or just compare this chance to the general chance of enemies hitting you. Heck, let's say that EVERY boss hit had this 0.35% chance added. You think that's going to make the difference?

Or are you suggesting that when this DOES happen after several hours or days of farming, somehow all the attacks within a few seconds will auto-hit because of the streak breaker? That seems unlikely, and if so, is almost certainly a bug. The streak breaker should force ONE attack to hit. Not all attacks in a short period of time.

Now, I'm open to the idea that neither of these interpretations of the streak breaker are correct. But I'm hard-pressed to come up with an interpretation with any reasonable chance of killing you, ever. Possible? Yes. Has it happened ever in this history of all players playing CoH? Of course. Is it a reasonable thing to be concerned with? No. It's like saying you really need one more hit point to farm bosses, because the lack of that one hit point keeps killing you.

Streak breaker isn't killing you. Randomness is killing you. Eventually, the bosses get lucky, and a bunch hit you in a row. It's the nature of random numbers.

If you're rich, I think the Shield Wall +3% resistance IO is good bang for a single slot. That's about all I do to specifically target resistance with IOs. Always nice if I "accidentally" pick a little up, of course. Main thing on a Regen is to raise your global recharge so that you can have Dull Pain up any time you want (more hit points is basically equivalent to more resistance) and so that Moment of Glory (high resistance) cycles more often. It's also great for your other clicks and for attack chains, of course.

Welcome back!

TL;DR - Katana/Willpower

Fire/Fire is pretty squishy as Scrappers go. Still, if you're running out of endurance and dying quite often on a Fire/Fire on default difficulty settings, you likely do not have appropriate powers, or they are not appropriately slotted. So one answer is to post your build, and we'll tell you how to fix the problem. But if you think the problem is more general, and you'd dislike the character even if it wasn't dying and running out of endurance, then you can certainly start over. Fire/Fire certainly wouldn't be my first choice for a solo run to 50.

As far as fixing endurance problems, you can take Consume. You can (and should) slot an endurance reducer in each attack. More if absolutely necessary. Similarly, an endurance reducer in each toggle (more should not be necessary) except for Combat Jumping, which is so cheap it doesn't need help. For soloing, you can take the Blaster "kill them before they kill me" route, or you can work on your survivability more directly. I'd want Combat Jumping, Tough and Weave in addition to the powers from my secondary. I also recommend slotting a Steadfast Protection unique. If you have one IO, that's the one in my opinion. The second would be the Kismet unique, though that's more important if you start turning up your difficulty.

I usually wait until the mid 30s, but you could start frankenslotting IOs in your attacks. Shop for cheap IOs that enhance two or more aspects of the power. Mix and match, not worrying about set bonuses, and just try to get decent accuracy, full damage, and as much recharge and endurance reduction as you can.

Oh, you have a billion influence. Yeah, that's plenty for a mid-range end game build, so you're in good shape. While leveling, you could could consider purchasing some sets with some smashing/lethal defense. But still, all I usually do while leveling is frankenslot and put in those two IOs. Well these days I also have some of the endurance-helping IOs stored and slot them as necessary - Numina unique, Miracle unique, Performance Shifter proc. Grab those and you probably won't need Consume, but Consume is the quick fix.

I consider Fire/Fire one of the easier combinations as far as endurance management. It has endurance-efficient attacks (good damage per endurance) plus an endurance recovery power (Consume). There are combinations that manage endurance even better (Claws/Regen probably tops the list), but now seems as good a time as any to learn how to fix endurance problems rather than relying on the combination to do the entire job for you. Again, only if you're otherwise enjoying your Fire/Fire.

Electric/Electric is probably going to be very similar to Fire/Fire. Both are high damage, low survivability combinations. Electric Armor, though, doesn't get its endurance recovery (Power Sink) until level 35 instead of level 20. I'm in too much of a rush to look up the endurance efficiency of the attacks, but I think they're a little lower than Fire. So it'll probably be worse for endurance while leveling overall. (Edit: Oops, forgot about Energize.)

Hmmm, I should probably mention that I'm not recommending Claws/Regen. It might be easiest on endurance 1-50, but it'll also face plant a lot. There's nothing specifically wrong with Regeneration as a secondary, but it IS a school of hard knocks.

I think you're on the right track with Willpower in most of your mentioned combinations. It doesn't get its endurance recovery power until level 20 (Quick Recovery), but it should be smooth sailing after then, particularly if you also pick up Stamina. Claws/Willpower will be your best endurance choice of what you listed. However, for easy survivability and solo leveling, particularly with someone new, Katana/Willpower is the consensus recommendation. Also, it gives up absolutely nothing on top end power, so even if you later turn into a complete power gamer wanting a maxed-out level 50, you're still in good shape. The endurance consumption will be worse, and levels 1-20 will probably be particularly painful in that regard, but then it should still be smooth sailing after that. And it should have significantly better survivability than Claws/Willpower due to Divine Avalanche, which (stacked) can boost your melee and lethal defense (two of the most important) absurdly high. The down side is that it's low on AoE potential, which will make solo leveling a longer slog than on some builds. But it should be easy, and you can probably up the XP per hour by bumping up your difficulty level significantly once you get your core powers taken care of and get practiced in what you're doing.

Yeah, pretty much all the attacks are very nice except for Thunder Kick, which is merely so-so. In an end game build, you might want to choose between Crane Kicka and Cobra Strike, but I'm running both for my leveling.

As far as being similar to Broad Sword, I suppose maybe on paper? But Broad Sword actually has faster recharge on several things. And I sure never think to myself, "Hey! This is just like Broad Sword!" while playing. It feels rather different to me.

Easy - try to get as many enemies in the cone, and as quickly as possible.

As far as specifics, I'm the opposite of most people in my cone use because I like to be right next to my target because I'm a tab follow kind of guy. So I've gotten used to using my cones from standing right next to my target. Not as easy to line up, but another possibility.

Hopefully doing it quickly is obvious. You want to move right on to other attacks. In fact, while it might not be optimal, I give a fraction of a second key press, then hit my cone whether it's lined up or not. I'm moving on. I have other things to do.

Yeah, I kept fiddling with it for a few more minutes after I posted, and I ended up with Enzymes in the defense powers for the reason Elegost gave - not needing the hit points. I put two in each because I like chasing defense. But that might be overkill. Maybe two in Weave, one in Combat Jumping, one in Maneuvers. Add the super-expensive uniques and a Panacea set in Instant Healing. I'm guessing you can get better defense, better resistance, and better recharge that way, for the low low price of probably seven billion more influence. Haven't actually tried it out in Mids', though.

But yeah, by the time you can purchase the Gladiator's Armor, even if you put in a 2 billion influence bid now, it'll probably be I19, and you get to make a different plan.