SR: No damage buff beyond that 20% recharge from quickness. Vastly superior defense debuff resistance. Dam-res only functions when health gets low.
SD: Nice damage buff from AAO, more difficult to softcap, more reliable dam-res. Low defense debuff resistance.
Either choice will be pure win.
Be well, people of CoH.
Not entirely true, Bill. You can get somewhere around 85% def debuff res on Shields with perma-double-stacked Active Defense and Grant Cover.
While true, in order to have perma-double stacked AD, you need:
duration 120
recharge 200
new recharge 60
60 = 200/(1+X)
60X = 200-60
233% recharge? ouch. 3slotting it for recharge will get it down to around 135% needed. That's a whole lot of recharge.
So yea, possible, but at a huge cost. With SR, you get capped DDR by having powers slotted that you'd normally slot without any need for recharge.
Flip side to that is with that much recharge, shield charge is also going to be up a lot more often for more aoe bashing fun.
Be well, people of CoH.
I'd probably say for low to middle budget, go with Super Reflexes. It's easier to make awesome. Above that, go with Shield Defense. It's harder, but awesomer. 
"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
[ QUOTE ]
I'd probably say for low to middle budget, go with Super Reflexes. It's easier to make awesome. Above that, go with Shield Defense. It's harder, but awesomer.
[/ QUOTE ]
This for sure. My soft capped Spines/SR feels horribly weak compared to my two other Soft capped/high defense scrappers (DM/SD and Spines/Inv)
What werner said,
let Budget be your guide.
I softcapped my /Shield, but her build is close to 2Billion Inf. (and you will need to spend at least half that for any build that doesn't sacrifice damage and recharge to be at the softcap.)
And I softcapped my /SR.
Which can be done with generic IOs. But it's probably better to still spend a 100mil to negate making trade-offs. (which is the approx price of my current /SR)
so yeah, if you're wondering about how to afford it, go /SR
I'd say go SR if you want to be really tough, if you want to sacrifice some of that toughness for extra damage and an AoE attack go with shields.
Virtue: @Santorican
Dark/Shield Build Thread
I love shield defense. I love the idea behind it. And yet... My lowbie BS/SD scrapper feels extremely weak when compared to any other secondary (outside of same level regen). It may get really good once I can outfit it fully with SO/IO, but right now it's 11.25 defense gets bypassed easily, and negated even easier by anything with -defense.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
Like most scrappers, it gets better.
A LOT better.
My BS/SD has been great (currently 47). I soft cap melee with one Parry, and ranged and AoE are around 33% I think. I do have the Steadfast Protection and Kismet uniques, but that's it for set bonuses. Other than that, I have frankenslotted attacks and a mixture of SOs and common IOs. It's very very solid, perhaps my most solid character at that level. I think I remember Werner being better, but I can't remember which version of Regeneration he was using in the 40s, so it probably doesn't count. Other than that, I think BS/SD is my most solid scrapper yet at that level, and probably from the 30s on.
"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
[ QUOTE ]
I'd say go SR if you want to be really tough, if you want to sacrifice some of that toughness for extra damage and an AoE attack go with shields.
[/ QUOTE ]
If you have the budget you are actually much tougher as a /SD than you are as a /SR....and you have the extra damage and AoE attack.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'd say go SR if you want to be really tough, if you want to sacrifice some of that toughness for extra damage and an AoE attack go with shields.
[/ QUOTE ]
If you have the budget you are actually much tougher as a /SD than you are as a /SR....and you have the extra damage and AoE attack.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't agree that Shileds are much tougher. I'm not even convinced they're tougher. Shields does have extra hit points and resistance. But Super Reflexes has scaling resistances that really shouldn't be sold short, particularly stacked with Tough. Against a fairly constant stream of incoming damage, a Super Reflexes in the orange or red is VERY difficult to finish off. Frankly, I think the survivability side could be a wash, even with soft-capped Shield Defense.
But I'll agree that once you have your survivability nailed down, Shield Defense really pulls ahead in damage output, both from Against All Odds and from Shield Charge. I can only imagine the glory of Soul Drain + Against All Odds + Shield Charge.
"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
SR's scaling resists do contribute enormously to general PvE survivability, and when you are getting whittled down i.e. death by a thousand cuts, you will be tough to defeat. But the main issue I have playing my SR is a big smack to the face when I'm about 60% health. The overall extra hit points and constant resists in SD is better at absorbing the big hits.
I managed a softcapped DM/SD build for roughly 55 million inf, succumbing to the buy it now mentality often. I had a Steadfast Unique I didn't have to buy and used Merits for a level 20 Miracle unique. Otherwise everything came right off the market.
Poisonous Ice 50 Ice/Rad
Icy Jax 50 Ice/SS
Jaxon Penn 50 Shield/Mace
Cpt Clax 50 Thugs/Dark
Lady BlackIce 50 Dark/Cold
Lady Black Ice 50 Dark/Ice
Bella Jax 50 Storm/Sonic
Operative Jax 50 SoA
Level 50 Trick Arrow Alts
TA/A-Plant/TA-Bots/TA
Level 50 Claws Scrappers
SR-Regen-DA-Invul-WP-FA
My own BS/SD is softcapped without parry and tough as hell. I used lots of set bonuses to get there. My wife's claws/SR is also softcapped, she got there easier and honestly we both feel like tiny gods in the middle of tons of +mobs. The main difference is that when we exemp below a certain level she loses most of her AoE defense whereas I don't.
edit: I spent less than 100M inf to softcap my BS/SD scrapper; the expensive bits I bought with merits that I gained incidentally while playing the game. In addition, some of the things I bought (perf shifter + end, Celerity +Stealth) were expensive but not need to cap defenses. So don't worry that it costs the world to cap out your defenses; some of my attacks have multistrike in them XD
I know that my character isn't optimal or perfect, but I feel like I do just fine without worrying about eking out every last possible benefit. My goal was to cap defense and not gimp myself; I feel I accomplised that.
you both need to share those builds, because i can not build a sub 100m capped /sd anything in mids.
This is the original idea that I have at work, at home is a more refined idea geared towards how I play. One more thing, I had one Mako's damage proc laying around, I'm not sure what that would run in the market. I'm till fairly sure with that and a Steadfast the build is less than 100 million without the recovery unique, and I'm not sure that is needed with Dark Consumption.
I'm still pretty low level and having the IOs encourages me to stick with it until I get high enough to be able to take off. I've given up on DM/Regen, DM/SR, and DM/Invul over the years.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
Jax black: Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Dark Melee
Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Smite -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(3), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(5), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), T'Death-Dam%(42)
Level 1: Deflection -- S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(A), S'dpty-Def/Rchg(7), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(19), S'dpty-Def(23), S'dpty-EndRdx(40), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(50)
Level 2: Shadow Maul -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(3), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(5), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(7), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25)
Level 4: True Grit -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(17), Heal-I(42)
Level 6: Boxing -- Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(48), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(48), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(48)
Level 8: Siphon Life -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(9), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(13), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Mako-Dam%(25)
Level 10: Active Defense -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(11)
Level 12: Battle Agility -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(13), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(19), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(23), RedFtn-Def(40), RedFtn-EndRdx(42)
Level 14: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 16: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(21), P'Shift-End%(46)
Level 22: Phalanx Fighting -- Ksmt-ToHit+(A)
Level 24: Against All Odds -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 26: Soul Drain -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(27), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(27), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(37), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 28: Dark Consumption -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(29), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(29), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(34), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 30: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam(31), RctvArm-EndRdx(43)
Level 32: Midnight Grasp -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(33), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 35: Shield Charge -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(36), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(36), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(36), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 38: Weave -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(39), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(39), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(39), RedFtn-Def(40), RedFtn-EndRdx(43)
Level 41: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(50), Zephyr-ResKB(50)
Level 44: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 47: Grant Cover -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 49: One with the Shield -- EndMod-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
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Poisonous Ice 50 Ice/Rad
Icy Jax 50 Ice/SS
Jaxon Penn 50 Shield/Mace
Cpt Clax 50 Thugs/Dark
Lady BlackIce 50 Dark/Cold
Lady Black Ice 50 Dark/Ice
Bella Jax 50 Storm/Sonic
Operative Jax 50 SoA
Level 50 Trick Arrow Alts
TA/A-Plant/TA-Bots/TA
Level 50 Claws Scrappers
SR-Regen-DA-Invul-WP-FA
Going dark melee. With that in mind, shileld or SR for soloablity? Pros? Cons?