Werner

Kat/WP.

My experience was that Oppressive Gloom was better for Katana/Dark through the mid levels, but Cloak of Fear was better in the end game.

In the mid levels, I started with Cloak of Fear. But I just couldn't afford the endurance, or the slots to make it work better, and ended up respec'ing into Oppressive Gloom when that became available. MUCH better. Oppressive Gloom costs almost no endurance, since it hits your health instead. It pulses every two seconds instead of five, and has better accuracy, so it did a much better job of keeping the minions out of the fight with even the default slot. And I do think that it was preventing significantly more damage than it was causing, though I never tracked it, so it depends on how much you trust my butt-o-meter. The main danger was actually for Divine Avalanche - my target would often wander away through a crowd, forcing me to give chase, and sometimes delaying me enough to drop my double-stack, which was a danger. Also, it was simply annoying to me having them wander away and get unstunned, fire off a ranged attack (to which my defense was low), and then run back in.

In the late game, I respec'd into Cloak of Fear again. By that point I was heavily frankenslotted for endurance reduction and had enough slots to make things work. I was VERY happy with the switch. It didn't cause an endurance problem. I felt that the attacks from feared-but-attacked mobs caused less incoming damage than from the wandering stunned/unstunned mobs. Again, no actual numerical analysis was made, just my impression. I wasn't taking the damage from my own power, which by that point, with all of my defenses and resists coming together, was really starting to be noticeable. And the biggest breath of fresh air was not having to worry about Divine Avalanche. Feared mobs stay put. Oh, and of course that means they stayed in range of The Lotus Drops, and since I wasn't chasing stunned mobs, I could stay in the center of the melee. So my damage output was higher.

IO'd out with soft-capped defenses, I'm convinced that Oppressive Gloom would do more damage to me than it would ever prevent. Cloak of Fear is only moderately useful, but it seems more useful than beating myself in the face with my own power. And hey, it's kind of fun seeing cowering mobs.

I haven't ever run them at the same time, so I can't comment from experience on how well they work together. But my educated guess is that you really wouldn't want to do it. Sure the mobs won't attack you, but either way they wouldn't have been attacking you MUCH. In the mid levels, adding Cloak of Fear is spending a ton of endurance for just a little more mitigation. In the upper levels, adding Oppressive Gloom is beating yourself in the face to prevent negligible amounts of incoming damage. I'd stick with one or the other. Doesn't hurt to try if you're curious, though.

Well, I'll at least answer some questions, even if I'm not posting a build - I never plan my leveling builds.

You won't be squishy in the long run. Parry helps a lot here.

One accuracy SO should be enough for normal content. Two is nice, but rather than go that route, I'd frankenslot. I usually frankenslot in the mid 30s.

I wouldn't take Aid Self while leveling up. Maybe in an end game build, but you'll only need it for crazy stuff. Double-stacked Parry at a low level, and single at a high level should cover you.

Do fit in Tough and Weave, though they're probably a mid to high level thing. If endurance is a problem, frankenslotting will solve the problem.

As far as slotting priority, and for that matter power selection, on a lowbie Scrapper, the best defense is a good offense. Concentrate on your attacks.

Oh, and a warning in case you weren't prepared - lowbie Scrappers are just another squishy. The teens seem to be particularly bad, with a lot of dying and running out of endurance. Parry will probably smooth things out a bit, though. And once you're in the twenties, and have Stamina and SOs, things should start coming together. The thirties and up should be great.

Broad Sword/Shield Defense was the most fun I've had soloing from 1 to 50, so I think you've made a good choice. On the other hand, all Scrappers are good choices.

Most scrappers are just another squishy until the mid levels. And so you're warned, I usually find the teens to be much worse than the earliest levels, so it'll probably get worse before it gets better. But once you hit the low to mid twenties, it should start getting better. By the time you're in your 30s you should be solid.

I do think that red side ATs were designed for soloing more than blue side. And Brutes will always have a survivability advantage over scrappers. But you'll be fine once you get past the ugly early levels. In your case, lean hard on Divine Avalanche. That should get you through most things.

Since it apparently doesn't come across in the text dump, all of the Hamios are level 53. It's the difference between 44.8% and 44.96% AoE defense. Nothing you'd notice, but it's taking 3% more AoE damage if you stick with 50s.

I have minor endurance issues. For instance, I ran out of endurance towards the end of the double Rikti War Zone challenge, though that probably could have been avoided had I remembered to turn off Cloak of Fear once the minions were down. Pylons are OK since I can turn off a lot of toggles. I've barely started on AVs, so I don't have much to report there. I do have to chug my blues if I'm farming at full speed.

Some differences with ClawsandEffect's excellent build:

• Over 10 times the price
• 6 seconds faster recharge on Dark Regeneration
• 45 more hit points
• 7 hit points per second better passive regeneration
• 17% higher to-hit
• 5% higher weighted average resists
• 4 points more knockback protection
• I do no knockdown/knockup
• I probably do lower DPS, but haven't calculated
• Cloak of Fear vs. Oppressive Gloom (personal preference, easy swap)
• Probably some endurance differences, but difficult to calculate

Overall, I'll still say that ClawsandEffect has the better build, because price IS a concern for most people, and he hits the same highlights (soft-capped defense in a practical build with travel power and AoE) at a VASTLY lower price point.

One possible difference for you, dume, is that I have my full attack chain by level 8, since I skipped the Katana big hitters. So in that sense it may exemplar better. But it was not designed for it.

My build by request.

The two sets are extremely similar, with the most noticeable difference being feel. To me, Katana feels quick and precise, while Broad Sword feels slow but brutal.

To oversimplify, I'd say that Katana is slightly better in every way in PvE. You can do higher DPS, better AoE, stack Divine Avalanche faster and higher than you can stack Parry, get more knockups/knockdowns faster. If combining with Regen, the shorter attacks will let you click that heal a tiny bit sooner. Recharge requirements for top chains are lower.

That said, I'd recommend leveling one of each into, say, the teens. Stick with whichever you're enjoying more. The differences aren't so big as to trump fun or concept unless you have something very specific that you're building towards.

I'm pretty sure ambushes don't ignore aggro caps. I occasionally run a mission with multiple ambushes triggered from one boss. I play on x8. I end up completely surrounded by dozens of bad guys who are just... standing there... hanging out... checking out the scenery. They sometimes even form a well-defined ring around where the original boss was killed.

Not sure. However, a mass of Jaegers can put you in a massive toxic cloud. Might that have been the problem?