CI or HP?

Hello again, my Scrapper friends.

I'm looking at various single target attack chain options for leveling my Elec/SD scrapper and it seems Chain Induction is invariably suggested over Havoc Punch. I can see Charged Brawl being suggested over HP, because it has better DPS, but CI recharges in more than twice the time of HP, costs more to use, and deals the same damage as HP to a single target. Does CI get suggested over HP because of the collateral damage? For a ST chain, that doesn't seem like a very good reason. Is it because CI animates a half-second faster? I can see how that would help edge it out over HP for a gapless attack chain, but is the high recharge requirement really worth it for that half-second gain?

It's not worth it, in my opinion. For ElM/SD scrappers, I like CB - HP - CB - JL with Conserve Power much better than any other option.

Basically it all boils down to whether you're willing to sacrifice ST damage for a little bit of more AoE (with a low-to-medium recharge build). Ask me and it's yes because I didn't roll my ElM/SD to solo single tough targets, but rather to decimate big spawns of weaker enemies.

You also have to realize that the optimal attack chains are for full IO slotted lvl 50 builds, not necessarily for leveling builds. IMO I would have all 3 (and in my case used all 3 for leveling plus boxing).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Sure, the devs are supposed to listen to their customers, mister business 101 out there. And if I decide to start suggesting that the devs change the game from being about superheroes and supervillains to being about clowns that is my right as well, and technically Paragon Studios is supposed to pay attention to me. But I hope strongly that they assume a meth-head somehow managed to hack into my forum account and make paper airplanes out of my posts, because I hope they recognize stupid when they see it. I assume they will recognize futile just as accurately.

Thanks for the input, folks. My build is a little tight and I couldn't decide between the two powers. Obviously, I am focusing on AoE, but I wanted to see what the best ST chain was for leveling to mop up those few in large groups who survive the AoE attacks. Like EBs. I think I'll use HP. After playing with CI on a couple of other characters, I find I don't like the awkward style of CI. It sure is cool-looking, though.

My build uses cb, hp, jl, and ci, with a t-strike ramped in there if needed, not sure where you're not fitting them in. Its a leveling build, you'll be teaming a lot to do so, so i'm sure you don't need tough/weave in there so early which is why i'm sure you're so tight on power choices right now.