Cheap shields?

This is partly me just curious, and partly me fishing for some Mids or other help.

I see a lot of talk about the potential of shields secondary, and I'm curious about trying a fire/shield scrapper sometime. But I am not rich, to put it mildly, and in any event I like taking my time to explore stuff as I level up, since I'm still new to the game.

What does a leveling build for fire/shield (or broadsword/shield, the other I've thought of most often because I like a bunch of the unlockable options) look like - something that can work with SOs? Or is it just the case that shields aren't really to mess with until I have more influence up front?

I just noticed Fury Flechette's thread with electric/shield and fire/shield builds, so I'll confine myself to asking about cheap broadsword/shield builds here.

Don't let anyone fool you. Shields works and is fun with just SOs. I have a Elec/Shields with only SOs and the +3% def IO. The toon is very easy to level and is reasonably survivable. Yes, IOs will make that same toon a raging river of destruction, but I don't have too much trouble with anything I've run into so far.

As far as difficulty, +1/8 is very doable and 0/6 is usually cruise control.

The game is designed around SOs, so you can make just about any build do ok. What people banter about here are thetop tier builds that can solo the toughest material in the game. As long as you can wait for that to happen, just about any scrapper will get you there.

No reason to confine yourself to Broad Sword/Shield here. That thread was more about end game builds, and it sounds like you're interested in a leveling build, which is often a different animal.

You don't need up front influence. You make enough influence while leveling that you don't have to stick with SOs. Check the market value of your drops before vendoring them. Many things are worth a lot more on the market than they are to a vendor.

Here's my leveling build, or as close as I could figure from memory and my current build. Ignore slot levels. Health was overslotted at the very end to make room for the Numina and Miracle uniques. Don't do that while leveling. The IO levels are actual, and therefore indicate approximately when things were slotted, since I was shooting for the highest level IOs I could get. However, I took whatever I could get cheaply. I wasn't a stickler for getting the best.

The focus in this build was tanking rather than damage output. I was team tank. The build had some minor endurance problems, and had to use the level 40+ toggles (Tactics, Assault, Grant Cover) situationally. It can run a nearly gapless chain of Fire Sword -> Scorch -> Cremate -> Scorch, which isn't bad for leveling, even if it won't set any DPS records while soloing a Pylon.

Technically, I took a ten million influence gift from one of my other characters when starting. But I had more than ten million influence from maybe the mid 20s on, so this is basically affordable for what you'll likely earn while you level. Since you can earn millions per hour on a level 50, saving up while leveling isn't necessary - you're better off blowing it on stuff you can use.

This could be turned into a cheapo end game build pretty easily by grabbing a few more sets to get defense those last few percentage points to 45%. Not a great build, by any means, but perfectly serviceable if you want to avoid respecs. I never did a respec on this build, which is something I typically do, so this one can level as is without any of that "before 35/after 35" kind of stuff.

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

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Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Scorch -- F'dSmite-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(3), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(3), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(7)
Level 1: Deflection -- S'dpty-Def(A), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(19), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(21), DefBuff(21), ResDam-I(23), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(23)
Level 2: Fire Sword -- F'dSmite-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(7), F'dSmite-Dmg/EndRdx(9), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx(13), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13)
Level 4: Cremate -- F'dSmite-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(15), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19)
Level 6: Battle Agility -- S'dpty-Def(A), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(25), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(25), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(27)
Level 8: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 10: Active Defense -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(11), RechRdx(11)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- Ksmt-ToHit+(A), DefBuff(27), DefBuff(29), DefBuff(39)
Level 14: True Grit -- Heal(A), Heal(48), Heal(48), ResDam(48), ResDam(50), ResDam(50)
Level 16: Health -- Heal(A), Heal(29), Heal(34), Heal(34), Heal(37)
Level 18: Against All Odds -- EndRdx(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(42), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(42), EndMod(43)
Level 22: Phalanx Fighting -- DefBuff(A)
Level 24: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(39), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(39), TtmC'tng-ResDam(40)
Level 28: Weave -- S'dpty-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(A), S'dpty-Def(40), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(40), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(42)
Level 30: Fire Sword Circle -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(31), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(31), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(33), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(33)
Level 32: Build Up -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(33), RechRdx(34)
Level 35: Shield Charge -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(36), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(36), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(37), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(37)
Level 38: Maneuvers -- S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(A), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43), S'dpty-Def(43), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(45)
Level 41: Tactics -- GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(45), GSFC-ToHit(46), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(46), GSFC-Build%(46)
Level 44: Grant Cover -- EndRdx(A)
Level 47: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 49: Conserve Power -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 4: Ninja Run

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Lucks are very cheap, and can be bought in mass all around Paragon. They will make your leveling experience so much easier. I've put a little bit of money into my Elec/Shields as I leveled her for cheap sets, Multistrike, Bruising Blow and stuff give some nice bonuses for leveling, or just used for frankenslotting, and can be gotten very cheaply, if you can find them on the market. So far, I really haven't had any trouble at all leveling and I've been doing tanking for full Task Force teams for a lot of the way up. I'm 46 now and doing Crimson's Malta missions at +0/x6 nearly effortlessly.

It's probably one of the most fun alts I've ever leveled up, and I've probably put less than 30 mil into her so far. I did kind of splurge and got a full set of ToD in the 30s, and I had a couple of Steadfast +3 defenses sitting around.

Oh, wow, thank you folks.

I'd definitely advise picking up as many Lucks as you can because Shields is a bit on the squishy side until you can get Weave and SOs. If you're soloing, I'd similarly advise running on -1/x6 or something similar, because Build Up + AAO + Fire Sword Circle will usually annihilate the minions and just leave the lieutenants for you to clean up. Gets you a lot of free inspirations.