Everybody is playing scrappers.

I just rolled a Shield/Mace Tank to replace my Nerfed Willpower Scrappers and Tanks (when your main tanking power RttC doesn't work in PvP zones, you were Nerfed).

Anyway, liking SD/WM so far. Probably not enough defense for PvP, but I will work on it. My other current alts are 2 Blasters and a PC Dom.

When Scrappers get Stone Melee, I'll be back.

I've been playing blasters more then scrappers lately.. although other then the fact that I can be more then 7ft away from my targets now, you wouldn't know the difference from my playstyle.

The majority of my chars are Scrappers, with Controllers being my second favorite AT.

I sometimes want to play a Blaster or Defender, but don't get past the pool selection screen.



Do people think it's easy because it tends to be less "clicky"? I feel kinda bored by playing low-level Scrappers, too. You usually are trying to get a bunch of toggles or passives. It probably comes down to:

Brawl -> T1 single-target punch -> small cone -> brawl -> T1 ...


Meanwhile your ranged class at this level is probably mixing damage types, holds, etc.

I think that "Intelligence" was just a poor choice of word, the better word would be "thought"

Which AT I play at any time depends on the mood I'm in and how much effort I want to put in; a support AT (including Tanks) tends to need more thought because by playing that AT you accept responsiblity for the whole team not just yourself.
You need to monitor others health and act accordingly.

With a Scrapper or Blaster you simply take mobs out as quickly as possible - apart from the odd glance at your own health you're mainly concerned with the rapidly declining health of your target.
Some Scrappers need more though/input due to the clickiness of the secondary (Regen).

That's how I see it anyway.

Why would people not play Scrappers? Of the two traditional damage dealing ATs, Blasters and Scrappers, Blasters are paying through they ears for the privilege being mainly ranged.

Remember the old joke about Spines Scrappers being the best Blasters in City of Heroes? Even with the new improved Defiance, that still rings true to a large degree.

Compare Spine Burst with Short Circuit: Same activation time, range, recharge, endurance cost. Spine Burst have 82 damage where as Short Circuit does 56.

Spines tier2 v. standard Blaster tier1: Same recharge, endurance cost, melee v. range, 1.63 act v. 1. Spines damage is 88, where as the blasts do 62.

Impale v. Power Burst: 8 v. 10 rech, 5 v. 10 endurance, same range, 2.4 v. 2 act. Spines do 138 damage, Energy does 132.

Throw Spines v. Frost Breath: 12 v. 16 rech, 13 v. 15 end, 30 v. 40 range, 90! degree cone v. 30, cast 1.63 v 2.67, Spines does 100 damage, Ice does 87.

Then Spines have a melee range wide cone (Ripper) that does not compare to anything in the Blaster arsenal. Sufficient to say that its damage is comparable to Fire Blasts Blaze (for a single target, much more if hitting several).

A Spines blaster will clearly outdamage a middle of the road set as Energy Blast by a pretty huge margin both v. single targets and v. several foes. Add then that the Scrapper has a defensive secondary that make his survivability manyfold that of the blaster and you see part of the reason Scrappers are popular.

All these imbalances are going to make this game easy to leave even after several years to be honest.

This has always been a City of Scrappers.

Many other ATs can do what scrappers do, and sometimes do it better.

But scrappers "flow" much better from beginning to end than any other archetype. That, plus top-notch endgame performance, equals popularity.

Scrappers are a 100% broken AT (all reward and no risk), but to nerf them would mean driving away a gigantic chunk of the playerbase.

Most of my level 50s are melees. I have 2 Brutes, a Scrapper, a Widow, and then a Crab (who is also a Bane) and a Blaster. I honestly don't care for my Brutes much.

Scrappers are my favorite, but they need more options. I'm eagerly awaiting Elec sets. I'd also like Energy Melee and Ninjitsu.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Extor_Prime That, plus top-notch endgame performance, equals popularity. Scrappers are a 100% broken AT (all reward and no risk), but to nerf them would mean driving away a gigantic chunk of the playerbase.

This, to me, is kind of funny. Scrappers aren't broken or overpowered. They're one of the most balanced ATs there are. Literally. They don't excel at anything more than anyone else. They don't cap out at damage, don't cap out at survival, and can't mez or buff. They're intentionally at least second place in everything.

Controllers, by and large, are more broken than Scrappers. They have the damage, as well as the survival, but also mez and buffs. There are several ATs that do more damage than Scrappers, and at least two (if not more if you count Controllers and such) that are more durable.

Even so, Scrappers are balanced well and have the right mix of durability and damage. In general, though, this is only overly useful while solo. What can a Scrapper offer a team that a Blaster cannot? That a Brute cannot? That a Controller cannot? Yet, each of those things also offer something that the Scrapper cannot, whether it's more damage, aggro control, or mez/buffs.

If Scrappers are so broken, why is it there's no real role for them to fill on a team? True, it's not like they don't get invites. I often invite them anyway just because Blasters die a lot and Scrappers don't. But the fact is this game isn't that hard so it doesn't really matter who I invite because it'll usually work anyway. The "all reward and no risk" really only applies to soloing. Teaming, what real risk is there most of the time? If anything, an AT that excels at soloing and isn't that useful at teaming is balanced.

Scrappers are popular because they're easy to play. They don't usually die, and they do damage that doesn't make fights boring. They're a well-balanced, non-overpowered class. Scrappers are easy, but they are less powerful than some harder to play characters like many well-built Controllers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

I don't actually have any scrappers (although I will start one eventually) but overall I think they do make a solid contribution to any team. They are considerably more self sufficient than most ATs which means they can counter threats that other ATs have trouble with solo.

Personally I tend to view the combat breakdown of the ATs like this:
Tankers and Controllers are the Anvil concentrating the enemies in one place
Blasters and Defenders are the Hammer smashing them to pieces
Scrappers are the Flankers dealing with runners or darting in to pick off high priority targets

I've run Scrapper heavy TFs on a few occasions and they were a blast. The scrappers invariably ended up splitting up into smaller groups to clear maps faster but as long as they were competent it doesn't matter.

See, I believe in equivalent exchange to a degree... (+Rep to whoever gets the reference first).

There were times in my Ill/Rad's life when I wanted to tear ALL of my hair out and delete him, except I knew exactly what he would grow into and kept going. Same goes for the Warshade...

The Ill/Rad is an anti-hard target god now... a few months and a billion influence later...

The Warshade will be an AoE god someday... probably ten billion influence later...

I have a blaster too, he still makes me cry inside a little even at level 50...

Scrappers, they just FLOW. From the beginning to the end. There's very little risk. You start strong and finish stronger. And faster than anyone else. Plus, most ATs have to choose their primary and secondary with care and planning for the future. Do I want to crack hard targets? Or perhaps annihilate large groups of scrubs? Hold aggro like a champ? Support and buff?

Scrappers have to choose between Awesome and Awesome+2.

I'm not saying "nerf scrappers", gods forbid, I don't wish nerfs on anyone. But there's no denying that scrappers have easier life than anyone else, and have to give up comparatively little to gain A LOT.

My first heroside 50 is a Claws/SR scrapper. By the late game Rularuu were about the only enemy group in the game that she didn't devastate every single time, and although there were times I enjoyed the sheer power and survivability, there were a lot more times when, after a mission or two, I'd switch to a more interesting character.

Enter mission > run to first group of enemies > cycle attack chain until they die > repeat until mission complete.

This was most noticeable when I was soloing, when the mob spawns are at their most predictable. Ironic that the supreme soloing AT turns out to be the least interesting to solo.

City of scrappers?
Nah.. i would say city of Fire/Kin trollers

Scrappers are good solo characters from level one on. All the other characters are balanced in some way favoring play on teams. Its funny but it can be hard to get an AE invite for a team. Scrappers are just not as good at tanking difficult content, they don't last as long and they don't taunt as well. They don't do as much AoE damage as most blasters (Spines might be an exception). Scrapper control and buffs are few and far between. Scrappers make great filler because they hold their own. But they don't play a pivital team role. So I find that its hard to get picked up as a scrapper doing difficult content.

For the most part:

Blasters do more damage, but don't really have the defense to survive the aggro they create on large teams. So with Controllers controlling and Tanks taunting. Blasters can use their large AoE damage attacks to the best possible benefit. Also the Controllers and Defenders can often help keep their Nuke crashes to a minimum.

Tankers have disappointing damage numbers, but are very survivable. The bigger the team and the harder the content the more important having a tank that can taunt the aggro off of other players are more and more important.

Controllers are a super support archetype till they hit later levels and then they tend to be able to solo pretty well. They are next to impossible to solo at low levels because they burn through endurance with their holds and their damage is fairly low. Buffs and Debuffs are almost as good as Defenders. Containment helps with their damage at low levels and can make them unfair at high levels. They are the games great late bloomers. They are the most well rounded and bring the most to teams at late levels.

Defenders get their buffs and debuffs earlier than Controllers. So at low levels they are slightly better to get that synergy role going. Defenders don't have controls so they tend to focus a little more on buffing and debuffing. As the game goes on though they are mostly dwarfed by Controllers ability to control and thus provide themselves and the team mitigation. As well as containment, buffing and debuffing provides Controllers generally better late game damage dealing. Definately the more Defenders you have the better the team will be though. Defenders always make the best healers though.

I'm always a scrapper. Blasters, masterminds, tankers, dominators, I play them as scrappers! Except if they are srappers, 'cause that would just be banal.

Scrappers are simple, fun, and effective. That's all there really is to it. Other AT's have flashier powers, or more complex team roles, and may ultimately be more powerful, but scrappers are simplistic, straight line, brute force problem solving at the most basic level.

After the responsibilities of playing a tanker, controller, or defender, it's extremely relaxing to just hop onto one of my scrappers and just kick the living **** outta guys. Hey, there's one of those guys that gave my defender all manner of problems! A few horrificly viscious kicks to the head, and I've avenged my defender.

Scrappers are fun, easy, and rewarding. It's not hard to see the appeal. Afterall, if brute force isn't working, you're not using enough.

I find it "super" to drop a room quickly. More awe-inspiring, and giggle-worthy. My high level scrappers are single-target dwellers. By the time I've taken out a tough target, he's been whittled away by the AOE of the Tankers, Blasters, Controllers and Defenders on the team. I often can't run to the next hard target fast enough to participate in the carnage satisfactorily enough to keep the game fun on my scrappers at high levels. So, even though they're very survivable throughout, they just become less fun than teaming my controller with a fire blaster, let's say.