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I have two Scrappers, a Claws/Regen and a Katana/Dark. Both play very differently and are perfect for when I only have a few minutes to play and want something simple to get into. That said, balancing all of the toggles/endurance issues in the Dark secondary can be challenging.
As for Scrappers in teams, yes they can be boring but then it depends on how much responsibility you want to assume. When I team with my Scrapper I appoint myself as squishy guardian. The Tank will most likely be in the thick of it, taking most of the aggro. But the tank can't always keep an eye on everything (or they might be a poor tanker...) so sometimes things are going to get free and go straight after the poor Blaster, Controller or Defender. That's where you can jump in and play back-up tank. Playing like this not only feels very heroic to me but also has garnered me compliments from squishys who don't expect Scrappers to be looking out for the rest of the team. Sure, I like the hack and slash of it but when I'm on a team, I want to be a team player and keeping an eye out for the less well defended players helps me to feel fulfilled in my role. The old scrapper-lock does kick in sometimes but if a team-mate's bar starts going red, it normally means something is going wrong and I may well be the most mobile at that time and able to help. (By the way, this is not meant to be patronising, I have several squishies myself and they are very capable of defending themselves. Sometimes though, they can get overwhelmed.)
As for weapons and damage, it depends on how you use your concept. My Katana/Dark's sword it completely blunt. However it is enchanted and deals 'illusionary' wounds to its foes in the same way Spectral Wounds works. Helps to make me feel less guilty for cutting up bad guys. 
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I agree with this, and I played my MA/SR like this a lot of the time. My usual method of play was to get the mezzers down as quickly as possible, then protect the backline - thus maximising the team's damage/control/buff/debuff capability.
This strategic approach seems as though gameplay would be more interesting if I'm doing the empath health watch thing as well as targetting major threats. I'll have to give it a go. On e of the reasons scrapping has left me cold is that once the team is in a fight I feel as though all I have to do is fight and stay alive. When I've played as other ATs I've always felt as though the needs of others were part of my job. Maybe my thought process has been part of the problem in that I see scrappers as solo fighters who happen to be in a team. It could come from meeting so many kill frenzy types I suppose; no offence to you psycho types
BF
Personally I love Scrappers, tho these days I gravitate more towards Blasters and Defenders. A new Scrapper primary wouild reveal me as the AT wh*re that I am
scrappers can scrap, alot of scrappers play solo in a team, in fact a lot of players seem to play solo in teams regardless of AT.
however i find that a team based scrapper is really fun and rewarding experience, do it well and you can come out of fights with a sense of achievement in a scrapping done well, x y and z all didnt die because you scrapped the hell out of the mobs on their cases.
heres a AT comparison, a empath just heals the top three of the team, a controller only targets bosses, both are doing their job but neither are doing it well, the empath that heals the whole team and the controller that locks all the mobs down do it well... a scrapper who just next targ next targ isnt doing the whole job, yep they do some of it but a scrapper that does this wont be missed in a team because they are effectively soloing in a team, a scrapper who looks after the tank by laying the smack down on numerous big hitting baddies, a scrapper who trims out all the chaff hitting the support characters, they do a good job. stand in the middle and hit stuff... to me that eityher means the scrapper doesnt really care for the rest of the teams aggro, or the scrapper is too high level for the mobs.
to me, the single target specialisation of scrappers means they have to be more aware of aggro on team members than tanks, as every tank hit is an aoe aggro tool, they have taunt aoe and they have their real aoe move too.
@ExtraGonk
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scrapping solo or in small teams is ok but in big teams I find it tedious and chaotic--maybe it's just me.
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I find big teams tedious and chaotic no matter what character I'm using. I tend to solo or stick to smaller teams, the xp per second is probably not as good but I enjoy smashing people in the face, not watching a bar slowly fill as I play anyway.
Personally, I can't stand playing as a controller or a defender. It feels like I'm spending my leisure time making it easier for someone else to play a game, which I just don't find satisfying. Don't get me wrong, it's great playing with them and I can understand someone enjoying their AT, but it's just not for me. That's why there's more than one AT, I guess.
Well, thanks to all of these helpful replies I've had some fun with my new Ka/Sr scrapper--I'm sure it's more down to a change in attitude rather than anything else. I'm enjoying the toughness and damage dealing I'm capable of although I suspect I shouldn't have got three attacks by lev 5--no problem I can change that later or start again if necessary.
The next issue that I'm trying to get used to is the chaos of being surrounded by loads of mobs. In other ATs I avoid it unless I'm a tank and then it's not a big problem most of the time. What can I do to help make sense of these situations or is it just a case of getting used to the AT play style?
Thanks
BF
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The next issue that I'm trying to get used to is the chaos of being surrounded by loads of mobs. In other ATs I avoid it unless I'm a tank and then it's not a big problem most of the time. What can I do to help make sense of these situations or is it just a case of getting used to the AT play style?
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you do know its just a game dont ya? 
Yes, that's why I post here instead of talking to my fellow crime fighters.
BF
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Yes, that's why I post here instead of talking to my fellow crime fighters.
BF
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nice comeback 
EDIT: Oh yeah, it probably is just a case of getting used to the AT, and its playstyle..... attack anything that moves
the chaos is good - you have a strong character there, the player who inspired me to play SR was a katana SR
once you've got your toggles up to strength SR is amazing good fun
what helps make sense of it? hmm tricky one, but in essence i'd look at it as what would take you out first if you were a squishy? aim for those first, although you wont ever get thanks for good scrapping as someones said earlier a scraper pinning down the squishy danger mobs is a really good role to slot into.
other things i'd try to do (although this is where my opinion differs from plenty scrappers), is not boss lock, by this i mean dont just select the boss first and hit till dead, the tanks and togglers will use this mob to debuff and taunt anchor off, if you kill it it means more time the mobs are not debuffed.
what i'd recommend is getting used to squishy protection - so take out the juicers, the holders, the stunners the sappers, and follow the tank, kill all the Minions then the LT's then the Bosses, this way your tank will very very quickly get less total incoming damage on them.
so in a way you protect the tank from taking too much on, and culling the minions fast also allows them to keep at their aggro cap on the rest of the group - safer for team and country
at least thats what i try to do and it works pretty well so far
@ExtraGonk
When debuffing I always toggle Ltns cause the blasters forget about them and I notice less anchors dying, so with that in mind my DM/SR always runs right for the boss. Its well suited for taking down anything one on one and doesn't need support for bosses.
Now my DM/Regen played differently and I'd use large attacks on minions and other attacks on Ltns while the charged ones were coming back. But then I liked the agro on me, but I'd rather the big hitters (bosses) swung for someone else
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Thanks to all of this advice and the varied viewpoints I now find that I can enjoy scrapping. However! The more I look at my play style and preferences, I think that a blapper may actually be the right scrapper for me. Now, I know it's not the same by a long way but since starting this experiment I've also been playing a fire/energy blapper and it seems to offer a lot of what I want. Okay, the toughness isn't there but I can melee with one or two mobs and my damage capability is pretty impressive. From what I've seen of power choices, there are a few other ways I can go to allow rp/ic freedom. Having said all of that, I suppose it's pretty difficult to make a blapper that functions as well as a true AT.
Anyway, I'm not done with scrapping but blapping is a wonderful new toy for me and I think it's probably what I've been looking for since I started playing the game.
Thanks for all of those wise words and hints!
BF
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My choice for something a bit different from the normal Regens you'll have seen a lot of is DM/Regen. I'm currently levelling one up and it really is a whole lot of fun to play.
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I can recommend this now, though I wouldn't have previously. My Dm/Regen was a total pain, constantly low on endurance and with an apparently very low ability to hit anything. I think they received some love while I was away, because he's a lot nicer to operate now than he was.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
Constantly low on end? That is pretty hard for any Regen...
I don't get it either, tbh, but that was his problem. It didn't help that his accuracy was so poor so there was a lot of whiffing.
Now, for no easily explained reason, the only way I can get his endurance to look dodgy is chain teleporting down IP.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
That is odd. I just finished taking a DM/Reg to 50 and had no issues with End whatsover.
Mind you I only had it for a few months and don't know if anything changed in the DM set before I got it. Regen was as I remembered it from previous experience, in relation to End.
Proud member of FOXBASE ALPHA and coalition associates.
Hero 50's - 25
Villain 50's - 1
If I had to guess, I'd say the global endurance reduction that happened with ED probably pushed something over a threshold between 'just a bit too much to recover' and 'what endurance drain'. Regen is a very threshold related set.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
Regen was more severely hit by ED than other sets as it lost the ability to 6-slot Quick Recovery as well as Stamina, going from a total end recovery per second of 4.548 to 3.553 - a reduction of 28%, which is over double the global endurance reduction which came with I6. Characters with only Stamina only lost 17% of their end/sec.
DM is high end cost, before Dark Consumptgion its a pain (or used to be with regen, not played mine in ages)
Once you get that top up every 2 minutes or so (3 minute rechargem, 3 recharges and taking into account needing people to drain from) there is no end issue with regen.
DM is how ever the only powerset I recall having acc issues with, but those seem to have vanished as my DM/SR only has 1 acc in each power. I dont remember a change over
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
I don't have Dark Consumption on my current build (for some reason) and still have no problems. I'm thinking they did something to accuracy and that's flattening the mobs before I have to worry about endurance.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
I've played and enjoyed a wide range of scrappers in my time in CoH, and have loved pretty much all of them (apart from all the /regen ones I've played, but that's just me)
If it's AoE carnage you're looking for, then both Spines and Claws are more than capable of ticking all the correct boxes, and when paired with a complimentory secondary set like DA (for Death Shroud, another nice mass orange number maker) or Invuln (Ooooo a built in taunt aura which makes you both harder to hit and more accurate, always nice)
I find myself drawn to Claws as a primary more often than not, mainly because I like the way they look, but also for handy powers like Focus (nice damage, nice range, and it knocks enemies down, perfect opening attack imo) which would serve well for when you play 'squishie guardian'