Amauros' Guide to SR Scrappers (and stalkers) 3.5
By
5th_Player,
Posted on: 2006-02-03 06:57 in Player Guides
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Also, there is one other slight error in the post: The run speed boost from Quickness is about 10-20% less than what you get from Swift. This is easy to test as there are lots of people with Swift in the game.
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Eternity ago we got numbers from Geko, Swift and Quickness are both 25%, Sprint is 50%, the difference is that Swift also scales up with level (to 150% of its own base i think), which would explain your observation.
I have both, and serious problems playing other chars, they are all so SLOOOOOOW!
That's really odd, I've never seen that documented anywhere before. I have a huge project for school due this upcomming week, finals after that so I'm kind of busy for a while, but I'll try to get some time to test and see if I can duplicate those results.
Swift and Quickness both increase your base run speed by 25%. However it's your base run speed which increases every level, not the effectiveness of Swift or Quickness, which remain at a constant 25% at all levels. 
edit: I did testing on this with my MA/SR on Test months ago. If there has been a chance since then, I'd love to read about it, or see some testing which proves that today.
Amauros' guide to SR Scrappers / Stalkers v 3.7
Updated 3/5/06 - Issue 6
Purpose of this guide
This guide is intended to be "math lite" meaning I will round off numbers and use simple examples. I will provide all known base values and include the values with SOs slotted. All examples will be assumed to be in PVE unless noted otherwise
Definitions
<ul type="square">
BTH - Base To Hit. This is defined as 50% chance to be hit by an opponent.
Defense - Avoidance of damage, as compared to Resistance. Directly reduces the chance to be hit.
MTH - Modified To Hit The final chance to be hit after all modifications from Accuracy and Defense
Resistance - Reduces incoming damage by a percent, assuming the resistance is against that particular form of damage.
"Positional" Attack - Attacks that are classified by attack form. These are "melee", "ranged" or "AOE".[/list]
CoX Combat - Simplified - or - How SR keeps you alive
Every time an attack is launched there is a base 50% BTH. ACC increases that chance while Defense reduces it. As an example, 12% Defense would mean your MTH was 38% (50 - 12 = 38)
No matter how much Defense you have, there is always a 5% chance to be hit, this is referred to as the "floor". There is no "cap" on Defense, instead there a maximum effective amount you can really use. As of I7 this appears to be about 45% Def, before taking into account ToHit buffs.
Base Values and Enhancements
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Power Base 3x Def
Focused Fighting 12.5% 24.5%
Focused Senses 12.5% 24.5%
Evasion 22.5% 35%
Dodge 5% 7.8%
Agile 5% 7.8%
Lucky 5% 7.8%
Evasion 45% 88.2%
Hide ** Special
</pre><hr />
In short, each SO you put in FF or FS provides 2.5% bonus each. Each SO you put in Dodge or Agile provides 1% each.
Please note, the values for Lucky / Evasion are expected to change with I7!
Changes to Passives (Resistance as your health drops)
As your health drops, your passives start to generate Resistance to all except Psi, Tox. The actual formula is
(60 - (current_health / maximum_health)) / 3
As a fudge factor, you can use the following chart
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Health 1 Passive 2 Passives 3 Passives
60% 0% 0% 0%
50% 3.3% 6.6% 10%
40% 6.6% 13.3% 20%
30% 10% 20% 30%
20% 13.3% 26.6% 40%
10% 16.6% 33% 50%
</pre><hr />
The powers
<ul type="square">
Focused Fighting (FF) (Toggle): This Toggle provides Def against any melee attack. An example of Melee attacks are Punches, Kicks, Swords and the like. Some attacks can hit more than one target but are still concidered Melee attacks. The majority of all attacks in the game are Melee, so this power is very valuable to you.
The base Def of this power is 12.5% It will accept End Reducers and Def Enhancements only. This power grants Resistance to Confusion type powers while it is active. Confusion will still affect you, but it will wear off faster than other players.
Recommended slotting: 1 End, 3 Def. Personally I recommend you have this at least 4 slotted by level 22 (when you get SOs).[/list]
<ul type="square">
Focused Senses (FS) (Toggle):This power works the same as FF execpt it is available starting level 2, protects against Ranged attacks.
When you should pick up this power depends upon your play style. Most ranged attacks do less damage than Melee attacks so many players wait until later in their career before picking this up. My personal preference is to wait until the mid 20s to pick it up and assign slots slowly. I had 3 slots by time I was in my 30s and didn't put the final slot in until 40+. This power also grants +Perception meaning you will see opponents who are Hidden, Cloaked or Invisible further than other characters, therefore this power is very important in PVP.
Recommended slotting: 1x End and 3x Def[/list]
<ul type="square">
Agile (Passive): This is a passive power, it is always active once you pick it up. This power will protect you against all ranged attacks, even when you are stunned, held, disorientated or otherwise distracted. It provides 5% base. Each SO you place in will add only 1% DEF, you are usually better off slotting your toggle before your passives.
Recommended slotting: 3x Def.
[/list]<ul type="square">
Practiced Brawler (PB) (Click): PB provides both protection and resistance against Hold, Mez, Knockback and Disorients and is available starting level 10. Once you activate this power it requires no additional endurance and cannot be turned off until it expires. Not only are you less likely to be effected by the protected powers but they will wear off faster than other characters. This power is concidered the best status protection in the game. The level of protection it provides scales with your level, generally speaking it reaches it's maximum protection by level 40.
It is recommended you pick up this power sometime in your mid to late teens, generally when you start fighting the Tsoo.
Recommended slotting: 2x Recharge Enhancements and this power will be available all the time. The end cost is significant (15 end) but it is paid only when you start the power. Slot End reducers as you feel necessary, personally I have only 2x Recharge.
[/list]<ul type="square">
Dodge (Passive): This power is the exact same as Agile except it covers Melee attacks (like FF) and is not available until 16.
I recommend you take this power as soon as possible, either 16 or shortly after.
Recommended slotting: 3x Def [/list]<ul type="square">
Quickness (Passive): This power is not available until level 20. This power will provide a small boost to the recharge times of all your powers, approximately equal to one DO enhancement, and will also boost your innate running speed. The exact value is a 0.2 Reduction (compared to Hasten, which is 0.7)
Recommended slotting: 1x Run Speed. Run speed is the only enhancements you may place in this power. For characters who wish to make a "natural" character with no obvious travel power, it is commonly recommended to slot up Sprint instead. The run speed increase appears to be the same as "Swift" from the fitness pool.
[/list]<ul type="square">
Lucky (Passive): This power is not available until level 28 and will protect you from all AOE attacks. It is highly recommended you take this power at 28 as you have no Def against AOE attacks until this time.
Recommended slotting: 3x Def.
[/list]
<ul type="square">
Evasion (Toggle): This power provides very high Defense against AOE attacks and is not available until level 35. Example of AOE attacks include Fireball, Cone attacks, etc. It is highly recommended you take this power at level 35.
Recommended slotting: 1x End, 3xDef
[/list]<ul type="square">
Elude (Click): The final power in the set, it is not available until level 38. It is highly recommended you take this power at 38, the benefits are hard to overstate.
This power does several effects, first and foremost it provides a very large (45%) Def bonus against all attacks. This power, as a click, cannot be turned off even if you are held, stunned, etc. It also provides a boost to your Run speed, Jumping hight and Endurance Recovery. This power has a duration of 180 seconds and a recharge of 1000 seconds.
Recommended slotting: 3x Recharge. Def enhancements as you see fit.
When you have slots to spare, you could put DEF enhancements in but that would rarely be of use. The Run speed and Jumping are significant already and I have never run out of End while this power is active (even with end drain from Carnies dropping around me left and right). Slotting End Reducers into this power is not recommended, it will not impact the end drain at the end, only reduce the initial cost of this power.
Warning: When this power wears off, you will lose *all* endurance, all of your Toggles will turn off and you will be unable to regen Endurance normally for 20 seconds. You can still use Catch a Breath (Blue) Inspirations during this time. +End regen powers like Stamina or Recovery Aura do not work during this time period as well.[/list]
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Base Values and Enhancements
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Power Base 3x Def
Focused Fighting 12.5% 24.5%
Focused Senses 12.5% 24.5%
Evasion 22.5% 35%
Dodge 5% 7.8%
Agile 5% 7.8%
Lucky 5% 7.8%
Evasion 45% 88.2%
Hide ** Special
</pre><hr />
In short, each SO you put in FF or FS provides 2.5% bonus each. Each SO you put in Dodge or Agile provides 1% each.
Please note, the values for Lucky / Evasion are expected to change with I7!
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Couple things with this table.
1. You have "Evasion" in the last slot. Should be "Elude"?
2. A couple of the calcs for 3xDefense are off. Multiplier (assuming even level, which is what you have in the passives) is (base x 1.56). That puts FF, FS at 19.5 (instead of 24) and Elude at 70.2 (instead of 88.2). Your statement after the table of 2.5% per SO for rough additions to FF & FS even reflect this.
Minor nits I'll pick so whenever you post a new thread with this most excellent guide, it'll be even more sweet.
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Base Values and Enhancements
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Power Base 3x Def
Focused Fighting 12.5% 24.5%
Focused Senses 12.5% 24.5%
Evasion 22.5% 35%
Dodge 5% 7.8%
Agile 5% 7.8%
Lucky 5% 7.8%
Evasion 45% 88.2%
Hide ** Special
</pre><hr />
In short, each SO you put in FF or FS provides 2.5% bonus each. Each SO you put in Dodge or Agile provides 1% each.
Please note, the values for Lucky / Evasion are expected to change with I7!
[/ QUOTE ]
Couple things with this table.
1. You have "Evasion" in the last slot. Should be "Elude"?
2. A couple of the calcs for 3xDefense are off. Multiplier (assuming even level, which is what you have in the passives) is (base x 1.56). That puts FF, FS at 19.5 (instead of 24) and Elude at 70.2 (instead of 88.2). Your statement after the table of 2.5% per SO for rough additions to FF & FS even reflect this.
Minor nits I'll pick so whenever you post a new thread with this most excellent guide, it'll be even more sweet.
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I was looking at that as well and wondering. He posted this at around 3:00 am so more than likely its just a typo. ^^
Well, I work 7pm - 7am, so actually it was a hurried edit during my lunch break
Yeah, 1.56 multiplier (including ED factor) I don't know why I used 1.96 (the other ED factor). See, I knew I wanted to post it in this thread for comments before creating it's own thread
Well, despite the cause it was a minor error and very informative. I've taken a recent interest in the deeper workings of defense in the game, defense has always been good to me and mine. However I felt that it was high time I was more informed about the way it works and now thanks to your guide, Arcanaville's guide, and Iakona's charts, and countless others who added to the information I feel much more secure about defense and knowing what it really does.
Thanks to everyone out there who has contributed, I wish I could help too, and if I can please tell me how.
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The addittion of RES to the passives was so significant I felt it best to create a new section just to discuss this aspect.
When CoV launched the Passives were changed to add Resistance to all damage types except Toxic and Psionic, but this RES scales as your health drops lower and lower, because of this change, taking all of your passives is much more effective than they ever were before. It is hard to describe how big a benefit it is when you have all three passives! The RES won't do much against attacks from AVs or Elite Bosses but attacks from minions and lt's will be lowered so much you can effectively ignore them until more dangerous targets are taken out first.
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This is not a correction to your guide, Amauros, but I thought for the insanely curious, I would amplify on this just a bit.
Statesman first mentioned that SR passives would get a scaling resistance long before they were added to either the SR scrapper or SR stalker sets. The way Statesman described them was very defiance-like: the passive resistances would start off at a low level, and then jump upward in stages as health crossed certain critical levels. The original post is here.
Back when CoV was still in beta, the passive resistances were added to the SR stalker passive defense powers. When the passive resistances were first introduced in the stalker set, they were actually more powerful than they are now. They were scaled to max out at 25% resistance per passive (which would mean all three in the scrapper set would max out at the scrapper 75% resistance cap), and they were Res(All), not Res(All -toxic -psi). Also, then as now, they didn't jump in stages, they changed in a relatively smooth way from zero to 25% (it wasn't easy to test its behavior at those extremely low levels either).
Right at CoV launch, SR scrappers got the resistances added to their passive powers as well, and at that time, they were adjusted in both sets to max out at +20% RES per passive, and were changed to be resistance to all except toxic/psi, instead of resistance to all. Neither changes was ever, to my knowledge, acknowledged in any patch notes.
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Thank you very much for all this lovely info. I have recently started my 1st scrapper ever, an MA/SR, and when looking for a guide at first all I could find were guides with references to 'perma-elude' and other now impossible things. Lo and behold, this appears right when I needed it.
A friend in my SG who made 50 with his actually suggested to me that the passives are worthless, but with those Defiance-like res buffs I just don't see how that could be the case, as well as adding an extra %5 to def.
Looking forward to getting this toon going, thanks again for all your hard work.
It's really just a matter of which powers you could take INSTEAD of the passives, and how much do the passives benefit you by comparison. IMO, adding extra slots to the passives is a total waste, each SO gives about +2% def. The dmg res might be handy, but better to kill things faster, and not get hit much, and carry some greens and oranges.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
Muahahaha, I have your avatar, Wav!
Well, I understand why people don't want to 4 slot their powers however for SR, I think its almost necessary. Call me crazy however when I respec'd in January, I had 1 reduce end and 3 def buffs. Ever since then, I was wiped out on a REGULAR basis goign against 50 Bosses. Even 52s were almost impossible to fight. I know my build is screwed up but I have no respecs anymore so I have to wait for the Devs to give one out whenever that is. Going against a 52 Lt would dominate me, however before I respec'd into my stupid build, I was tearing through them. I added a cytoskeleton in my reduce end slot and my defenses wetn back up. Not as good as initially but way better than my messed up build. My main problem was jumping in a mob, without that 4th def buff, I would basically die within a few hits literally. With that extra slot, I'm not longer taken out by initial hits, I last way longer. I don't know the math behind this because i'm too lazy to figure it out. So from personal experience, 4 slots on your toggles are a must if you want to be a non-squishy.
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Well, I understand why people don't want to 4 slot their powers however for SR, I think its almost necessary. Call me crazy however when I respec'd in January, I had 1 reduce end and 3 def buffs. Ever since then, I was wiped out on a REGULAR basis goign against 50 Bosses. Even 52s were almost impossible to fight. I know my build is screwed up but I have no respecs anymore so I have to wait for the Devs to give one out whenever that is. Going against a 52 Lt would dominate me, however before I respec'd into my stupid build, I was tearing through them. I added a cytoskeleton in my reduce end slot and my defenses wetn back up. Not as good as initially but way better than my messed up build. My main problem was jumping in a mob, without that 4th def buff, I would basically die within a few hits literally. With that extra slot, I'm not longer taken out by initial hits, I last way longer. I don't know the math behind this because i'm too lazy to figure it out. So from personal experience, 4 slots on your toggles are a must if you want to be a non-squishy.
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I'm afraid to say that the phenomenon behind this effect is more commonly known as the "placebo effect." There's essentially no way for that fourth defense slot to have that dramatic of an effect on your performance. In fact, prior to ED it still wasn't possible for a 4th defense slot to have that dramatic of an effect on SR's performance.
I have some difficulty understanding how a single level 52 LT can kill you, also. A single level 52 LT (assuming you are level 50) doesn't have the damage potential to kill you quickly even with no defenses (my guess is the average solo +2 LT should take almost a minute to kill you even if you don't fight back and turn your toggles off).
Most SR scrappers are likely to have either combat jumping or hover. Adding a fourth slot to each toggle adds about 0.375% defense to all (0.675% to AoE until I7). Adding those three defense slots to CJ or hover would add about 1.4% defense to all (assuming they were originally 1-slotted with end reduce). If you really want more defense, throw slots into your power pool defenses instead of slotting past the ED cut-off in your toggles or passives.
Although to be honest I would sooner add end reduce into my toggles than either 4-slot for defense or slot power pools for defense, unless I had an incredible amount of spare slots.
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Good news for SR, it has been confirmed that PB _does_ stack with itself. Previously everyone knew you could get 2 icons on your screen but it was difficult to confirm that you would benefit from both, Stargazer has done some testing and confirmed that while both icons are stacked your mez protection is doubled.
Future versions of this guide will include those details and explain why to concider 3x Recharge in PB.
I read somewhere that Quickness also improves fly speed, but I'm guessing that's just wishful thinking. I mean, 4 slotted hover would be nice again...
Can anyone fully deny this so I don't have to contemplate getting Hover anymore?
Quickness _only_ increases run speed, it is not a generic speed increase (like Speed Boost). You don't have to try building a new character.
If you'd like to try you can always copy a version over to test.
If I'm reading things correctly, slotting a third Defense enhancment in your passives provides less than a 1% bonus to each form of defense. Is that really necessary?
I'm currently running a level 33 DM/SR scrapper on the Test server with my passives only 2-alotted for Defense and I'm not feeling any more threatened than I do on my scrapper on Justice with passives three-slotted. In fact, having those extra three slots in attacks means my enemies drop faster.
The inherent to-hit debuff secondary effect of DM may be helping to mitigate what would be a more significant loss of defense for SR scrappers with other primaries. Thoughts?
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If I'm reading things correctly, slotting a third Defense enhancment in your passives provides less than a 1% bonus to each form of defense. Is that really necessary?
[/ QUOTE ]
The last slot slotted in the passives that increase SR defenses from about 29.5% to 30.4% defense is an incremental damage mitigation boost of about 4.6%. I.e. someone with the slot takes 4.6% less damage than someone without it.
Does about 5% less damage matter? Depends on who you ask, really.
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[ QUOTE ]
I read somewhere that Quickness also improves fly speed, but I'm guessing that's just wishful thinking. I mean, 4 slotted hover would be nice again...
[/ QUOTE ]
Swift and Quickness WILL boost Fly speed sometime soon if they do not already (I believe the patch is on Test already). So, this might be worth considering again.
"Superman died fighting Doomsday because he allowed his toggles to drop, and didn't beat Doomsday before Unstoppable wore off, sad really..."
Yep, I guess I was getting premonitions of the future again. Better lay off the drugs... lol
You forget that even though they still have 22% chance to hit you, one minor purple can cancel that.
Two minor purples can cancel minion even con from hitting you unless under that 5% margin.
It's easy to cap with inspirations. And if you don't like that, then take weave.
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You forget that even though they still have 22% chance to hit you, one minor purple can cancel that.
Two minor purples can cancel minion even con from hitting you unless under that 5% margin.
It's easy to cap with inspirations. And if you don't like that, then take weave.
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I'm not sure what you're replying to, or what you're trying to say exactly, but you should at least know that luck inspirations are mislabelled: lucks are half the strength they are labelled with.
No, that's not a guess.
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Future versions of this guide will include the fact that Quickness now buffs Flight speed as well as run speed. Daemon might have been seeing the future but people have been requesting that for a long time (and ED made it even more relevant).
Only partially relevant but I haven't seen if anyone can confirm that Swift/Quickness/Lightning Reflexes increases your speed when you are under the effect of someone else's Group Flight. It should, according to everything we know about how powers work, but I haven't seen it confirmed yet.
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Hasten = .70 reduction in recharge, slightly better than 2 SOs
Quickness = .20 reduction, slightly better than 1 DO
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Good, that's a bit more reasonable, IMO.
Accelerate Metabolism is .30, so that's not shabby.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA