Any Scrapper can be made to make enough money to get the influence to buy the enhancements to make a great Scrapper. Personally, I'd just tell you to pick whatever pair of primaries you think is interesting and fun to play and then play it. Eventually, you'll make enough money to buy everything you need/want. I can make impressive inf/min on my DM/regen scrapper and many people will tell you that it's the worst possible build for AoE killing (I run the Cimerora wall). My only recommendation would be to avoid Spines/* and */Fire. Spines/* is great for farming but horrible for AVs, as is */Fire except for a few.
1. many combs can do this- its more about style - whats yours?
2. most scrapping farmers are spines or fire primary then dark or fire secondary- I'm sure there are others
3. Combine the two? dark/shields, fire/shields, fire/sr, claws/sr - these come to mind as balanced AoE and single target damage.
4. I'm kinda biased to dark/shields as a catch all - good heal with siphon life and sheild charge, tools, and shadow maul for AoE
5. Wait for others opinions
Miss Arc #147491: Rise of Bedlam
AKA Iron Smoke @Champion Server
1- DM/shield is currently the King for Av soloing. Really though, Any scrapper can achieve this. (And has)
2- I've got a Spines/Dark I use for Wall farming in Cim, he was cheap to put together and is an AoE god. I'd advise against Fire for your secondary, as it's survivability is lower despite the extra damage it'd grant you.
3- An AV soloer is a very tight, refined build. Very few sets are good for both. Fire?SR for instance can be used to make a very cheap AV soloer, but I wouldn't want to try soloing with one. Likewise DM/Shield, the current AV soloing king would again make a lousy farmer, add a billion inf and that would be a different story, but you're not starting with a billion inf, we're rying to make it quick.
Short Answer, Roll two different toons, and start sidekicking the second when the first hits 46.
4- Okay, so basing this on the fact we're talking about two different toons in all likelihood,
For the farmer I'd again suggest Dark Armor for Survivability, it's a very early blooming set.
But for the AV soloer, I'd recommend Fire/SR, SR is a late bloomer, but can easily reach the softcap, and much more survivable at later levels, and the cost to bring it up to AV soloing level is low. (it's really just a matter of adding CJ, Weave and Aid Self, and could probably be done with generic IOs, though I wouldn't want to try)
Yeah, if we're doing two, I'd say Spines/Dark farming for a Fire/Super Reflexes. Spines/Dark is one of the best farmers. Spines/Fire is probably better, but more difficult. Fire/Super Reflexes is no temps no insps AV soloing on a budget, so you won't need to farm like a madman forever. And when you're all done, you'll have an AoE specialist that can tear it up on a team, and a single-target specialist that can destroy almost any hard target. Not a bad thing.
Not sure about which one scrapper would do both well, as they're kind of opposite ends of the spectrum. Something like Fire/Shield might be a good compromise?
"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
Videos of Other Stupid Scrapper Tricks
DM/SD isn't really the King of AV soloing, it's just the fastest, which makes it great for people like me with the attention span of a hummingbird hopped up on caffeine and diagnosed with ADD. There are combos with a higher success rate.
Thanks to all for their replies!
My Ideal Scrapper:
1. Long term goal to make an AV scrapper
2. Short term goal to make a farmer to afford #1
3. Hope that I can turn #2 into #1 and not level another toon
4. Would like survivability, while levelling, as I solo alot (rl gets in the way); yet, a late blooming scrapper is appealing also.
So someday, I would like to try an AV. With what I have read, buying the enhancements needed amounts to a small fortune. Hence, I will need a scrapper able to farm for this small fortune along with selling whatever drops. I am returning to the game and will skip farming questions until I reach a higher level.
The scrapper mindset appeals more than the rest to me. I would rather jump right in, dust off, and move to the next mob.
That's also why I would eventually like to try and fight an AV. The David and goliath concept, along with the challenge, also made my scrapper decision easier.
I am game to trying several scrappers to see which are fun for me. I ask for help only to narrow down the choices to help me accomplish my goals (not sure if all scrapper types can do an AV).
Any words of wisdom from the Master Scrappers would be very appreciated as I am only a humble grasshopper. TYVM for your help.