dave_p

I used to be a lot more forgiving about insps, and back before ED, I was soloing all AVs w/my Fire/Rad using a tray full of blues. Nowadays w/high def builds being far more common, I think even allowing for T1 insps makes the job far, far easier. Consider a single small purp gives you 12.5% defense for 60 sec. At 50, that's 16 min worth of insps, plenty of time considering you can focus on more DPS w/the rest of your build since you now only need to hit 32.5% def to cap against most things. That's just not that hard, which is to say it's a bit tricky, but not *nearly* as difficult it is to get those last 10% or so (and really, it's the last 5% or so that forces a lot of sacrifices in our builds). Of course, it's easy enough to fill your tray w/T2 purples, and that just makes most fights trivial for a lot of builds.

I mean, if you pop an emergency green because of an unlucky string of hits, that's one thing, but if you go in with a build that's predicated on carrying purps or whatever, I don't consider that a "soloing" build, even if you can in fact solo stuff with it. And the bar, indeed has been raised by ppl like Shred and Werner, so if you're going to post about a feat, it may as well be a worthwhile one, right? Kinda like being a billionaire used to be noteworthy a year or so ago, but now, everyone and his brother's worth well north of that (at least on the market forum ).

W/Fiery Armor, I'd go for S/L def cap, not Melee. I think it's a bit easier to hit, at least it was for my Fire tank. My F/F scrapper isn't quite up there yet (only around 30% S/L def atm, but not even close to fully IOed), but I'm thinking w/45% S/L def, 50%+ S/L resists (75% to Fire, of course) and HF coming back pretty fast, you should be able to handle most AVs that do... well, S/L damage. Which should be most of them, since there's a S/L component to most attacks, but if you go up against pure Psi or something, you're hosed.

While you're of course technically right, I just don't think anyone considers it a great accomplishment to "solo" an AV w/temps or insps. I used to think insps are "valid", but since the def changes, in all my soloing builds I aim for the no temps/no insps rule. Not sure which the OP had in mind, but to be honest, if you're allowing for any type of soloing where a single toon takes out a single AV, a whole lot more ppl than just the upper X% of forumites would be able to accomplish that.

As for the specialized build concept, yeah, I had to specialize quite a bit for my soloing builds, and exactly because of the no insps/temps rule. If I allowed myself to pop an occasional purp or BF (for my squishies), I wouldn't need to build to the exacting standards I currently do. In fact, it really wouldn't be much of a challenge at all.

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Edit: Also just now solo'ed a rikti pylon: 4 minutes 10 secs, had to used 4 blue insps though

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That's an excellent time, gratz! Which epic did you end up taking? I got 4:10 w/Ice (could lower it still if I respecced in Bonfire), but w/Psi and Char not slotted fully for damage, I can't break 5:00. Try w/o insps tho for an "official" time.

Don't forget +recharge buffs. Adrenaline Boost ftw!

Everything else is spot on.

Flares is also usable while mezzed. Bet. IS and Flares, it's sorta no contest for me. Yes, respecs are a PitA, but I still try to get rid of all my freespecs before the next expansion... which should be soon, now that I think about it.

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Better yet, get some +def from IO's like I did, and have capped S/L defense with, or without granite. If things get tough, I can use granite to take the Alpha Strike, then switch to Rock Armor/Rooted so I can do some damage.

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This, tho it's generally far easier to hit S/L def cap w/Weave. Also, out of Granite, Tough helps a lot.

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Don't dismiss /FA. The two shields are easily as good as Regen's Integration and you get the biggest and quickest self-heal in the game with Healing Flames. Not to mention easily softcapped Fire Resist, plus an awesome self-rez.

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Technically, Dull Pain is a bigger heal. It obviously has a much longer recharge, but considering it raises your total HPs, you could argue it does more, esp combined w/a high regen, than a quicker recharging heal for overall survivability. Of course, Regen gets DP & Reconstruction, which is almost the equal to HF.

Truth is, FA by itself is rather squishy compared to the other scrapper secondaries. While you can get it quite uber with pools and IOs (when I got my Fire/Fire to 32, I slotted him w/a bunch of Kinetic Combats and Reactive Armors, the Steadfast +def, a few other shinies and he kicked some amazing booty, all w/o running out of end), the same level of IO'ing w/other secondary makes them even more uber, defensively. Of course, FA outputs more damage (tho SD can get even better sometimes), so it's a fair tradeoff.

At least until I get Tenebrious Tentacles on my Fire/Fire, then all bets are off, cuz it's Burn, baby, Burn time!

I think it used to be a lot worse tho.

You do not need to slot Char for damage, and you do not need a high damaging epic blast to solo AVs. It just takes a bit longer, but LR, EF and your Imps will do most of the work for you. My attack chain is Mental Blast (the weak sister of epic blasts), RoF & Char. Char is 5-slotted w/Unbreakable and 1 lvl 50 dam IO. My Pylon soloing time is 5:35 w/that makeup which beats all but the highest specced scrappers, so I think that's plenty of practical DPS (GMs take me like 15 min, but mostly cuz they run around a lot and things/ppl get in the way). On test, I swapped out Mental for Ice Blast and lowered my time significantly, but gave up mez resists which will kill you against many AVs.

I should note, that's all w/o insps--if you're willing to use BFs, I guess you can go w/Fire or Ice Blast w/your epic. I also like to do other things w/my Fire/Rad than just solo AVs, so I slot for holds in Char, though I did have to give up a few things like Hotfeet & 6-slotting Fire Cages (only 3-slotted, and not used in AV fights obviously). No way I give up Flashfire or Cinders (or EMP) tho, esp since they hold very good defensive IO sets.

PGA is totally skippable. Things don't damage you period when held, stunned, etc, and TA has so many other debuffs I'd rather throw up, by the time PGA was up, everything would already be dead (seriously, this is why I rarely even use Disruption Arrow--most things are dead by the time it's cast).

A 2nd ST hold (3rd? how do you get three w/Fire/TA?) is invaluable for holding bosses w/no aggro, or 2 annoying Lts or whatever, esp when your AoE's not up. Later on, you might not use it as much, esp because it does no damage and has a long animation, but I still would never drop it because there's always utility in sneaking up on a boss and insta-holding it. Just fire off Ice Arrow first, then Char. Assuming you hit, the boss won't start aggroing until the end of IA's animation, and 9 times out of 10, Char will hold him before he gets to fire back at you.

Ice Sword is actually a poor power for a blaster melee attack. Its DPA is a bit better (not a lot) than any ranged tier 1 or 2 blast, but quite a bit below Fire Sword, Energy Punch or Charged Brawl. And since that's the "heavy hitter" of Ice Melee (i.e. no 2nd shot like Bone Smasher or Havok Punch in a 1-2 combo), I rarely feel the need to get in close enough for a melee attack w/my Fire/Ice unless it's to stack Frozen Touch w/Char (or whatever epic hold you may take).

As a comparison, Blaze has more than double(!) the DPA of Ice Sword. Of course, Blaze kicks the holy hell out of any ST attack, but the point is, as Fire/Ice, you already have a killer ST attack and there's really no need to get into melee for a sorta weak one. Now, if you like to live in melee range all day long w/Frozen Touch, CE on, Ice Patch, etc, by all means, take Ice Sword. As implied above, I like to jump in & out of melee, but mostly out, so I find IS pretty much useless.

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You that you're going to need a high dps to take out an AV, especially the more difficult ones.

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You'd have to *try* to make a blaster w/a low enough DPS not to take out an AV, I think (considering scrappers can, and blasters should do flat out more damage). The bigger challenge is staying alive (range, high def, self heal) and maintaining enough end throughout the fight. Then again, there might be a few AVs that are flat out impossible w/o debuffs because of resists and regen.

I thought the OP meant 8 of the same kind. I'd be tempted to go w/Sonic then, tho few things would survive 8 BU'ed Fireballs (and 8 Blazes take care of those), so maybe it's moot.

May I suggest you reroll?

This is a bit stronger stance than I've taken in the past, but I really hate the way a lit OSA makes my pet run away. Now, I'm Earth/TA so my pet can stay at range and throw rocks, but your imps will really freak out, and they can only attack at melee. OSA is far too good a power not to use whenever it's up, which means your imps will be freaking out a LOT.

If you're set on Fire/TA for concept reasons or whatever, then you'll have to just deal with that and hope that the devs finally get around to fixing this ridiculous bug. If you're just trying to settle upon a good combo, I think there are much better ones for both Fire & TA than w/each other.

Oh, I thought it was a targetted AoE. Haven't had it in my build for a while.

You know, I always forget about HOs when frankenslotting. And I have so many Centrioles sitting in my base. Still like 5-slotting Posi's for the +6.25 recharge for my Stone/Ice, but if I weren't Stone, I think I'd prolly go that route.

To the OP: You can cap X defense both as an Invul tank & scrapper at 45%. Tanks have an easier time of this, but it's doable by both ATs. The real difference to me is that tanks cap *resists* at 90% where scrappers cap at 75%. There's a world of difference bet. 90% S/L resists and 75% (as in you'll last 2.5 times longer as a tank). That and tanks have higher HPs to start w/to go w/the higher resist numbers.

Safety, shmafety. If you want zero return fire, play Ill.

Or... QS, EQ & VG can all be cast around corners/over walls (as can Glue, Disruption & OS Arrows). There's your zero return fire.

OSA & VG around a corner, add on EQ & QS for the hell of it, eat a sandwich. Take Arctic Mastery and drop Ice Storm also around the corner. If you only have half a sandwich, drop Disruption (same corner) to end the fight faster.

At least no one's arguing the /TA portion.

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Tanks don't need taunt. They have gauntlet, taunt is a waste of a power pick unless you are going to use it as a holder for IOs...
(ducks)

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That may or may not be true but it doesn't matter because Tanks are an irrelevant AT that no one plays anyway.

*bomb shelter*

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Both scrappers and brutes are mathematically capable of achieving tanker level defense numbers with TO's while still being unstoppable killing machines capable of killing the bizzaro world team-up of statesman and recluse solo in a single hit. Why would anyone want to play a tank? They should just delete the AT and move on.

*hides behind a brute*

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Scrappers? Pfft, my controllers can hit def cap, soak the alpha and outdamage them. Why even play any melee?

*hides behind Phantom Army*

High def builds really don't need purps. I only use the "cheap" purps like Hold or whatever for some added rech and end recovery and whatnot, but aren't required by any means, nor are LotGs or any other shinys, tho they're nice to have.

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Any other [Dual Blade] combo lowers your DPS.

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Despite the stacking bug, Empower->SS is higher DPS than BF->AV. That was before I14, I suspect it pulls ahead a bit more now with the new -res proc (both combos use it, but empower->SS chains attacks faster meaning procs go off more often).

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Really? Damn, I need to recalculate my attack chain then since that'll also recharge faster.

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Edit : all this is a bit offtopic, because on the "WM against DB" debate, I think both sets are close enough in both ST and AoE performance the only concern should be, do you prefer slow and strong animations or quick and nimble ones ?

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Yeah, I tend to agree, and would've leave it at that if this were a scrapper debate. I originally though w/tanks, you're really almost forced to take more powers than is desired just for the AV & Sweep combos, plus BF and the requisite Nimble. If you're doing Empower instead of AV, you can at least dump Vengeful which gives you a bit more breathing room, though not much.

Otoh, I just checked my DB/WP scrapper build and it turns out I use all but 1 attack in the build, a couple as IO mules, so I guess building a WP/DB or Invul/DB tank wouldn't be so different.

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Yeah i noticed that after reading more. I see AV and think immediately to archvillain, what it was meant for. Even in a discussion with dual blades i think we should stricly keep AV as short for archvillain and actually type out attack vitals XD.

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Heh, point taken. Most of the DPS discussions on the scrapper boards treat AV for Attack Vitals, even when attacking AVs.

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but 1000 cuts is awesome! Used for aoe its very nice, nice wide cone. I didn't say its aoe beat WM, though not far behind. I just said i figure DB as MORE of an aoe set, than it is a ST set with ease.

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Yeah, I really wanna like 1K Cuts, but it's soooo damn slow animating, that even though its DPA isn't so horrible, it drags down your overall DPS quite a bit because of its heavier weight on the avg. Still, I agree to the extend that DB has a very nice balance bet. its ST & AoE potential. And yeah, waiting til 38 for WM's 2 cones really sucks. Then again, tanks are used to crap like that (Footstomp at 38, GFS at 38 (at least you get Incinerate before), Frozen Aura at 38...).

Re Ice Patch: For my Stone/Ice, pre-Granite, Ice Patch & Rooted did more for my survival than all my other armors (Rock, Stone Skin, Crystal) combined. I imagine it'd be similar for Ice/Ice pre EA. At 50, I don't use it so much, bit I'd still never go w/o it. Does wonders for Rikti Magi and the like.

For Frost, a real simple solution is 5 slot Posi's (Skip the D/E) and a range IO (will give you 14.1 range at lvl 50). The recharge isn't awesome w/that plan (only like 26%), but you pick up some nice bonuses, incl the 6.25% recharge. If you have enough global accuracy, you can frankenslot all 3 Dam/Range, the Dam/End/Range, and 2 Rech IOs, but only if you have a *ton* of outside accuracies to play with. I think 5-slotting Posi's is the best way to go, personally.

My DB/WP build at 50 hits 45% S/L def (45.7%, I think--don't have the build handy) and has around 750% regen w/1 mob in range of RTTC. Around 50% S/L resist too, iirc. Had to sacrifice Hasten for Maneuvers to get there, so I don't know if I'm fully happy w/it or not. Then again, it's got a gapless BF > AV chain, which is as good as you're gonna get w/o a buttload more recharge, so I'll likely stick w/it (46 atm). Also, the FECN def is less than 40%, which should be good enough w/the high regen and considering most attacks have some S/L component to it. Toxic's a problem, but it's rare enough at the high levels, and I still have the high regen.