..and then I died

But first. My thanks to the Scrapper community on Triumph and these forums.

I'd heard of Scrapper Antics, i'd witnessed them on occasion. It was when inspiration struck me for my Broadsword/SR scrapper that I decided to join you.

Now, my experience comes from firstly an empath defender and secondly an Ice blaster. Both characters focused on doing their job -as far from melee as possible-.

So I have a smell hurdle in mindset. Not too horrible. Broadsword was a given, I appreciated the sheer brutality of it's late level powers. Headsplitter ftw. Super Reflexes was a shoe-in for the secondary. Nothing says Super like standing toe-to-toe with some of the ugliest thugs in the game and never taking a scratch.

The first 20 levels went great. Hell, at 35 I feel fantastic. I decided to try the Elude-Free build philosophy. So far it's an awesome experience.

I had taken a year off, only to return this last weekend. So things have changed. Mission difficulty. Well, it can't be that bad, they give us more flexibility. Now, it's been a while and i'm uncertain how to play, +3 team size and Bosses = Yes should be realistic.

Five minutes in i'm reminded of the SR Curse. Some days you are untouchable. And once in a great while you're a meat paste.

"ooooooh right. SR curse... woops."

That being said, i love Scrapping. Pure scrapping teams are a hoot. Thank you all for your information, your assistance and your encouragement.

Do you have a build for your character on Mid's that you can post up?

Not softcapped yet? Well, not to anything but melee at least?

I'd think that +3 team size with bosses would be realistic. But you're at level 35? Eh, almost certainly not soft-capped to anything but melee then. Might be other issues due to the year off. You might not have Tough and Weave yet. Probably no set bonuses for defense yet. It'll get a lot better.

To address the SR curse, you want more than just defense, though soft-capping your defense (45%) will do wonders for making the curse less frequent (use purples until you get there naturally). You're looking for hit points and additional resistance. Hit points you can get with accolades (and set bonuses if you're ready to start slotting, though many wait until 50 these days). Resistance you can get with Tough (and making sure you have all the passives). Just having some more hit points and a little Smashing/Lethal resistance will go a long way towards keeping you vertical.

I'm not sure how much the devs intended us to use their difficulty slider. When they gave it to us, I think they were throwing down the gauntlet and asking us to pick it up. From I believe the release notes:

"So if you ever wanted to see if your scrapper could take on a map that is populated for an 8 person team, four levels higher than your own, now you can!"

Having played around with the diff setting a little. Normal SOed characters are vastly going to be sticking to what kind of setting were before. I have tried to push how far some of my builds could go only to find me going back to more typical standards fairly quickly and all the more so against certain mobs. If I pump up diff to abnormal levels, I do it either high for +level number, or high in "x" teammates. Even something basic like +2 x4 makes me go, "I'm gonna need IOs for that."

I can appreciate the devs responding to Scrapper bravado. There are times players need that slap in the face. If anything, it lets us tune the challenge now to replicate some of the harder missions in the game.

As for my build, well, it was a napkin process a while ago. Two moves later i don't have the sketch anymore. But I'll pull down Mids later today and see what I can hash together from memory and experience.

Tough and Weave weren't part of my original build strategy. But now that I think about it, they might have to be. Soft cap is where i'd like to be when I hit 50 and drop IO's. Sets come later, for sure.

Apparently I just don't know what I was thinking anymore.

So my current build gives me the following attacks:
Hack
Slice
Buildup
Whirling Sword
Disembowel
Headsplitter

With all the secondaries but Elude

And the power pools for:
Hurdle
Health
Stamina

Hasten
Superspeed

Somewhere in a respec I ditched Parry for more.. 'aoe' from Slice. Aside from that, i'm not sure what I was doing build-wise. I know I was trying to follow some considerations, like having a travel power at 14, in case I wind up doing a Posi, etc.

That being said, i'd happily take a suggestion or two. I think i'm going to try a respec back into Parry, ditch the minor aoe from slice. Whirling Sword should cover that area pretty well.

I believe this is my projected respec.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 34 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Broad Sword
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Hack -- (A)
Level 1: Focused Fighting -- (A)
Level 2: Slash -- (A)
Level 4: Agile -- (A)
Level 6: Hurdle -- (A)
Level 8: Parry -- (A)
Level 10: Practiced Brawler -- (A)
Level 12: Hasten -- (A)
Level 14: Super Speed -- (A)
Level 16: Dodge -- (A)
Level 18: Health -- (A)(19)
Level 20: Stamina -- (A)
Level 22: Quickness -- (A)
Level 24: Focused Senses -- (A)
Level 26: Disembowel -- (A)
Level 28: Lucky -- (A)
Level 30: Whirling Sword -- (A)
Level 32: Head Splitter -- (A)
Level 35: Evasion -- (A)
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- (A)
Level 1: Sprint -- (A)
Level 2: Rest -- (A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 4: Ninja Run

I would take Slice over Slash. I could see taking Slash over Hack if for some reason you are trying to build a continuous attack chain, or something. I'm no BS expert so I wouldn't know between which of the starting two attacks get taken for "uber" builds. For me, Hack and Slice are my two first attacks.

Skip Slash. Get Slice - it has a 130 degree arc, which is easy to saturate, especially if you happen to pull into a corner/box/etc, and since you'll be soft-capping Melee Def, you won't actually need Parry, eventually.

If you're looking at getting IO sets, you can start slotting them at 37. Touch of Death level-caps at 40, so they are excellent to acquire for the final grind to 50 and help your melee def. I also generally slot Oblits in HS and Whirling Sword for the melee Def as well, and a GSFC set in Build Up. The extra few % to get level 50 Oblits/GSFC isn't going to make a noticeable difference.

Also, I would consider getting Focused Senses earlier. It's 20%+ Ranged Def will assist in survival if you happen to exemplar for Posi.

Here's a build I threw together quickly, take what you will from it. It stays soft-capped even if you slot down to level 30 IO sets(for exemplaring down to level 27 if you go this route), +95% DDR, has +95% Acc vs. +4 mobs, It can run the Hack > HS > Hack > Disembowel chain(which is the best DPS chain), 306% regen, sustainable endurance, and only 6.2 seconds from perma-Hasten. I did use purples, and I stuck in the PVP IO FotG: Chance for Res Debuff in HS. Feel free to replace this with a damage proc due to expense.

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So there's something i've been meaning to confirm. Am I to understand, that when exemplaring you no longer keep the set bonuses from your IO's?

You at least keep the enhancement modifiers, right? Is this new?

So, someone I spoke to long ago enlightened me on the idea of the Elude-less SR build. I've been away for a while and things have changed. Is there still a strong reason to go without it, or is it a viable option in the late-game SR designs?

Alright, deeper consideration of my long-term strategy and design structure.
This build with tough/weave and approaching soft cap. Slots allocated for future IO Inventions as they occur/drop.
<edited to redact Elude-build>
Thoughts? Am I missing something?

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Midnight Mask Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Broad Sword
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Hack -- (A)(3)(3)(5)(5)(7)
Level 1: Focused Fighting -- (A)(7)(9)(9)(11)(11)
Level 2: Slice -- (A)(13)(13)(17)(17)(29)
Level 4: Focused Senses -- (A)(29)(31)(31)(31)(33)
Level 6: Agile -- (A)(33)(33)
Level 8: Hurdle -- (A)
Level 10: Practiced Brawler -- (A)
Level 12: Hasten -- (A)
Level 14: Super Speed -- (A)(15)(15)
Level 16: Dodge -- (A)(40)(40)
Level 18: Health -- (A)(19)(19)(21)(21)(23)
Level 20: Stamina -- (A)(23)(25)(25)(27)(27)
Level 22: Quickness -- (A)
Level 24: Build Up -- (A)(37)(37)(39)(39)(39)
Level 26: Disembowel -- (A)(34)(36)(36)(36)(37)
Level 28: Lucky -- (A)(34)(34)
Level 30: Kick -- (A)
Level 32: Head Splitter -- (A)(40)(42)(42)(42)(43)
Level 35: Evasion -- (A)(43)(43)(45)(45)(45)
Level 38: Tough -- (A)(48)(50)(50)(50)
Level 41: Weave -- (A)(46)(46)(46)(48)(48)
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- (A)
Level 1: Sprint -- (A)
Level 2: Rest -- (A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 2: Ninja Run

Take Body Mastery for Physical Perfection and you should be in good shape.