My only serious scrapper is a Claws/WP one and he's a blast. Mid 30s now and great fun to play.
Pros :
A steady attack chain, both a single-target one (where Spines can be a bit weak) and a good AOE one. You can be focusing on a boss and letting minions cluster around you to fuel Rise to the Challange, throwing in Spins and Eviserates to thin them all out as you slice the boss up with the single target attacks.
Lots of variety in attacks. You've got good AOE with Spin (superb power), Shockwave (OK, decent power but actually a bit of a disappointment after Eviserate, Spin and Focus) and Eviserate (once you get good at hitting 2-3 enemies with it you'll be addicted), some ranged attacks with knockdown (Focus) or Knockback (Shockwave).
Perma 37 to 75% damage boost with Follow-Up in your attack chain.
Literally you're dancing about in combat tweaking your position slightly to hit as many as possible with Eviserate, knocking spawns into walls & corners with Shockwave to follow up with Spin and Eviserate. You can soft-control a lot of bosses using the knockdown of Focus to keep them off balance. I've even kited a few nasty MA Custom bosses using Focus, Shockwave and the Vet power when they got close to killing me.
Claws looks way nicer than Spines too IMO, the bananas of doom look terrible on a lot of models and the noises Claws makes are very satisfying compared to it. Some of Claws animations are long (Eviserate & Spin) but pretty and the orange numbers following them make up for them.
Cons :
All Lethal Damage. Against some things (Robots, some bosses) this will make you weep. On the plus side street hunting in Dark Astoria was a blast in my 20s. You do Bad Things to Zombies.
Weapon Redraw means Pool Power attacks like Air Superiority aren't that useful (but you've got Focus to do that job). This is true of Spines as well though.
Not much other control or tricks. I'm also playing a Dark Melee/WP Brute and he has way more tricks to keep himself alive when things get hairy (or just to buff himself). With Claws it's all slash, slash, slash with a bit of knockback / knockdown. If you get swamped or caught out of position by lots of ranged enemies taking pot shots at you Claws/WP can easily be overwhelmed. Run away around a corner and Eviserate & Spin them once they bunch up nicely for you.
You cant really go wrong with either one.
Have both at 50 and if I was going to pick one to play and level again it was Claw/WP. The spines is fine at 50 but boy did it feel like a slog to 32 to finish off the attack chains, claws just picks up and improves as it goes.
I do more AoE damage with my Spine/WP but I still think I play the Claw/WP much more. Out of my 7 scrappers at 50 it was the most fun journey and I'd remake it as a brute to do the journey again in a second if they proliferate claws
"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 decided to go with claws. I hate waiting for attacks to refresh, the pauses make me think of new alts I could make instead of waiting :P
Aunt Agony is level 9 right now and very fun. I do not get "smash" feeling when I play with her but except when I tried some MA mishes she did splendidly.
I'd appreciate if you can keep on sending tips or suggestions about playing a claws/wp, like which power to pick first, which difficuly is best for mishes etc.
I discovered last night I wasn't using Focus enough actually. So I switched it and Eviserate on the toolbar. Focus is just a lovely power altogether, nice damage knockdown and quick, quick animation time.
And I think it had a nerf too. What the hell was it like beforehand because it's great!
It was truly amazing before hand, pure awesome
Oh and I took the bodymastery epic because ET lets me knock foes down neatly and then stand in the middle of them before they stand up. I also run focused acc, I hate when Followup misses so I try to keep it at a minimum. Infact followup is the only power I have set IOs in its the core of my chain and all else revolves around keeping it active
"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!"
For pve I have foc acc on my claws/sr but its not constantly running as constantly on is a bit wasteful. Sometimes I can hit a less defensive minion with follow up and sometimes I can't so it's an off, on, thing. At times between targets I wish I had a rechg in it, sometimes the time from one group to whatevers around the corner can be too short.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
I guess that's to do with the secondary, cause with WP I dont ever find end an issue with FA running
"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!"
[ QUOTE ]
It was truly amazing before hand, pure awesome
Oh and I took the bodymastery epic because ET lets me knock foes down neatly and then stand in the middle of them before they stand up. I also run focused acc, I hate when Followup misses so I try to keep it at a minimum. Infact followup is the only power I have set IOs in its the core of my chain and all else revolves around keeping it active
[/ QUOTE ]
That's the one thing I really don't like about Scrappers. The Epics are truely, truely awful. They're so unexciting. Even the Mastermind ones are more exciting. I'll probably pick up Focused Accuracy because it's just a One-Choice option and spend the rest of the 40s completing the Fighting pool.
How come when Castle was fixing the rest of the pools the Scrapper ones didn't get any love? As far as I can see all he added was Targetting Drone, which looks to me like a copy of Focused Accuracy. Eh?
Compared to what he added to the Controller ones which were all excellent (almost too good).
QR
Claws/Willpower was undoubtedly the most fun I had with a toon "out of the box." I'll finish levelling him once my Fire/Fire scrapper maxes out. 
Also, off-topic, props to you, Cynic, for the Tim Minchin goodness in the sig (unless I miss my guess)!
[ QUOTE ]
How come when Castle was fixing the rest of the pools the Scrapper ones didn't get any love? As far as I can see all he added was Targetting Drone, which looks to me like a copy of Focused Accuracy. Eh?
Compared to what he added to the Controller ones which were all excellent (almost too good).
[/ QUOTE ]
You're right about this. The only utility (PvE wise) scrapper epics offer are FA (but then a couple of Acc set bonuses is basically the same) and Conserve Power for those who need it.
Currently out of my 6 lvl 50 scrappers I can't recall any of them having anything out of the ancillaries.
I must add though, why couldn't we get Darkest Night if brutes did? *drool*
- @DSorrow - alts on Union and Freedom mostly -
Currently playing as Castigation on Freedom
My Katana/Inv Guide
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. -Einstein
I normally take FA and LBE but as set mules rather than oft use powers.
FA gets a run out against AVs etc and LBE I use on runners, other than that it's purely set IOs.
I did use dark mastery for a while just for TT, but that was for fun rather than it being decent.
[ QUOTE ]
QR
Claws/Willpower was undoubtedly the most fun I had with a toon "out of the box." I'll finish levelling him once my Fire/Fire scrapper maxes out.
Also, off-topic, props to you, Cynic, for the Tim Minchin goodness in the sig (unless I miss my guess)!
[/ QUOTE ]
Aye, it is Tim Minchin
"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!"
[ QUOTE ]
The only utility (PvE wise) scrapper epics offer are FA (but then a couple of Acc set bonuses is basically the same) and Conserve Power for those who need it.
[/ QUOTE ]Tenebrous Tentacles, Caltrops?
Loved the TT -> Burn combo on my Spines/Fire/Dark, anyway.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The only utility (PvE wise) scrapper epics offer are FA (but then a couple of Acc set bonuses is basically the same) and Conserve Power for those who need it.
[/ QUOTE ]Tenebrous Tentacles, Caltrops?
Loved the TT -> Burn combo on my Spines/Fire/Dark, anyway.
[/ QUOTE ]
I used Build Up, FE, Energy Torrent, Throw Spines, Spineburts on my Spine/Fire/Body which is also fairly effective.
TT makes an acceptable attack on my DM/SR and Dark Blast is lovely as its pure Neg En damage
Never found a use for Weapon Mastery, there's nothing in my mind it does well, the fear in Caltrops undermines their usefulness
"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!"
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The only utility (PvE wise) scrapper epics offer are FA (but then a couple of Acc set bonuses is basically the same) and Conserve Power for those who need it.
[/ QUOTE ]Tenebrous Tentacles, Caltrops?
Loved the TT -> Burn combo on my Spines/Fire/Dark, anyway.
[/ QUOTE ]
Tenebrous Tentacles is nice, I agree, but I don't like the idea of spending 2 powers to get that out of which only 1 could be useful (Dark Blast). At least brutes get their TT equivalent at tier 1 AND Darkest Night at tier 2. Also if TT doesn't please them they could always take the more powerful version of Dark Blast (Gloom) before DN.
Caltrops, while it is nice, the fear is something I also dislike. I have it on my spines/fire/weapons but I'm thinking of dropping it for something more useful once I can figure out if there's anything I need. I barely ever use caltrops anyway. Between cycling my two BU's I don't ned burn that much.
- @DSorrow - alts on Union and Freedom mostly -
Currently playing as Castigation on Freedom
My Katana/Inv Guide
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. -Einstein
Gloom would be lovely, if they could move Dark BLast to T1, have Gloom and Torrent as your T2 choices, then leave TT was your T4 I think Dark Mastery would be sorted
"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 want fluffy as the T4 power :P
Then TT needs to become T2 cause I'm not losing my second imob
"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!"
my CoH/V itch started again and I re-opened my account yet again. CoX brings out the altist in me so I will make more mininons and will try to stick to them this time (sigh).
I have narrowed my choices to 2 this time; a claws/willpower scrapper (I read that it is fun) or a spines/willpower one (never had a spines scrapper).
I'd like to ask for your help on choosing. Which one do you think would be a better choice to keep me entertained enough so that I wouldn't go for another alt and stick with this one? Can you make a pro/con lst or maybe share your experience with 2 primaries. I am pretty set on willpower as it is a new one for me.
as always, thanks in advance.