My favorite scrapper is my Broadsword/Shield scrapper named "Bull Shield." Perry makes it easy to softcap for fairly low cost because you can focus on sets that give Ranged and AoE Defense, since you can easily softcap melee with one shot of Perry.
Nothing wrong with Broadsword at all. It is just that Elec/Shield scrappers are all the rage now for farming.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
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It's not inept. There are just better choices. For a character that resembles a knight or armored warrior with a shield, broadsword is the only choice since katana can't be paired with shield. |
Originally Posted by MeleeMadness
However, I don't want to make a character that is now inept.
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If you don't mind me saying this, it's silly to let other people's opinions dictate what you roll. I roll all sorts of non-optimized combinations because they a) fit a concept b) I want a choice that's off the beaten path c) I want to try power sets I haven't tried before.
Also, broadsword has been around for a while. The people who have made broadsword characters, and are still playing, probably rolled theirs years ago.
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^ this|
Originally Posted by Fury Flechette
If you don't mind me saying this, it's silly to let other people's opinions dictate what you roll. I roll all sorts of non-optimized combinations because they a) fit a concept b) I want a choice that's off the beaten path c) I want to try power sets I haven't tried before.
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Is why I have a katana/Fire scrapper, a stone/Ice tanker, and a DP/Ice blaster
The Story of a Petless MM with a dream
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Originally Posted by Deus_Otiosus
This entire post should receive some kind of award for being both hysterical and fantastic.
Well done. |
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DP/Ice would rock.|
Originally Posted by RedSwitchblade
^ this
Is why I have a katana/Fire scrapper, a stone/Ice tanker, and a DP/Ice blaster |
I've just rolled a BS/DA. I absolutely love Katana and mine is about to hit 50, probably tomorrow night. Parry = DA and BS has so many more weapons customizations that I have to do BS. Though I do have a love/hate with [edited]Dark, I'm going to stick with it this time.
If I do delete this toon, I'll make a BS/Wp. Though I need to get some of my non-scrapper alts on up to 50 rather than make another [another another another] scrapper.
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Yeah, I have a BS/SD scrapper and it seems sinfully overpowered. It doesn't have a lot of AoE attacks, but it's softcapped in all three positional defenses with one Parry active. And it's very cost effective: It uses one each of the pricier Obliteration and Mako's Bite sets, and the rest of the sets I use are pretty darn cheap (Scirocco's Dervish, Red Fortune, Aegis, Crushing Impact, etc.). The most expensive thing was Membrane Exposures for Active defense (the fact that those affect Defense Debuff resistance seems to be a bug, so I wouldn't be surprised if the devs change that at some point).|
Originally Posted by Local_Man
My favorite scrapper is my Broadsword/Shield scrapper named "Bull Shield." Perry makes it easy to softcap for fairly low cost because you can focus on sets that give Ranged and AoE Defense, since you can easily softcap melee with one shot of Perry.
Nothing wrong with Broadsword at all. It is just that Elec/Shield scrappers are all the rage now for farming. |
Getting so much Melee defense out of Parry really helps a lot. The other primaries don't really have anything that compares.
Oh yes, we're certainly gimped now all right. 
My main is a BS/Regen. I love her to death, but having tried katana and ninjablade I can say that I'll never make another BS toon of any AT just because the speed of the attacks is so frustratingly slow by comparison.
But it is a great set, solid numbers, and the customization is unmatched.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
I still do , Vova Factor on Virtue is at 43 right now and wil eventually hit 50 sometime this year ( dang altitis )
my new fave is my lev22 bs-wp scrapper.
procs and S.o.s really make me feel awesomely strong.
the animations are smoother than i remembered.
it seems like a set that can mule some good i.o.s.
i even think he makes my claw/ willpower brute seem lack luster.
trust me baby, this guys goin' all the way.
now stop reading and start rolling, Homeslice.
BS is fine, it's just that Katana is better. Katana animates quicker and can thus take advantage of damage procs to a much higher degree. Going off memory, I believe Broadsword has the ability to excel before you add in IO's, but once you do Katana blows it out of the water.
My BS/WP is currently at lvl 44, and I've loved playing him so far. Can't wait for him to hit 50, so I can make him the IO'd beast he deserves to be. Just because a powerset isn't all the rage right now, doesn't mean it's no good anymore. BS is still great, and I personally love mine.
Contact me in-game: @CheeseSlicer
I like my BS/Shield quite a bit. The only thing that bugs me is the redraw right after Shield Charge, but what can you do really.
I find the sets that have no weapon of any sorts look silly with shield regardless of how effective they are.
The nice thing as mentioned is that Parry lets you easily softcap melee. If you set it up so 1 use softcaps that will afford a lot of build flexibility for elsewhere and also sets you up so that the second will provide significant protection in the event you start getting debuffed as it takes considerable work to get Shields' ddr up high.
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Eh, it's not like the enemies are doing anything in that timespan. |
Originally Posted by Frosticus
I like my BS/Shield quite a bit. The only thing that bugs me is the redraw right after Shield Charge, but what can you do really.
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Broadsword/Shield feels to me like it has a lot of tools. Slice recharges very quickly for a Scrapper PBAoE, which is nice; Parry is awesome defense; Disembowel gives a surprising amount of mitigation too if you time it right and use it on the right enemies. Headsplitter is all kinds of awesome: a cone, huge damage, knockdown, defense debuff, extra crit chance...and it's back up again really fast if you slot it right. Shield has a ton of offense generally, decent defense that becomes studly with Parry, and some AoE help with Shield Charge. And even some aggro management of sorts with AAO. I've been running one on a Hardcore team, where we delete the characters if they die, and he's still alive at 32 and climbing, outliving numerous Tanks. He's often the aggro manager, main damage dealer, principal alpha eater, and AoE support for the medium-to-small teams we've been running.
I have numerous Scrappers with a wide variety of powersets and I think BS/Shield is quite tasty. You can play the character with confidence.
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
Broad Sword is numerically inferior to Katana is nearly every way. Slightly. It's not enough to keep me from playing Broad Sword since I love the SMASH CRUNCH of it. I have just as many Broad Swords at 50 as I have Katanas (2 each). Broad Sword/Shield Defense was the most fun I've had 1-50. And yeah, I rolled my other L50 Broad Sword years ago. No real reason to avoid it. It's a great set.
"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
Videos of Other Stupid Scrapper Tricks
How is it numerically inferior?
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Originally Posted by GangstaBlade
How is it numerically inferior?
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Katana has Less damage, but faster animations + faster recharge = slightly higher DPS.
I'm assuming.
But I'm also a lover of BS. I'd choose it over Katana.
The wording of that Werner used, make me think that he pretty certain, that he thinks and probably has some paper to back himself up that Katana is better, but I think BS is stronger.
Werner's statements are made from the position of someone measuring DPS, which is at its most meaningful when contending with large individual targets with a large individual quantity of hit points, such as Giant Monsters, AVs, and Pylons.
The ability to one-shot a trio of minions may be meaningless to the scrapper players who care about such thing, but that's not what most people mind. OP, you'll have a blast.
Stupid question but.... what does OP mean?
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Originally Posted by MeleeMadness
I never see posts about BS or see them in game anymore unless it's for concept?
Does BS suck now or what? I want to make a BS/SD scrapper and use the Ruurlrurrrluurruurl, or whatever its called, weapons and shield....for concept of course. However, I don't want to make a character that is now inept. |
BS by itself is a very good primary. It has an excellent mix of single target and AOE. It also does notable levels of defense debuff, which means that you will add considerable utility on leveling teams. All BS scrappers are mild scraptrollers, with all the bonuses that brings.
More importantly, it does notable levels of burst damage, which is more effective damage against 'soft' targets than many sets. Fire, for example, puts out HUGE damage, but a lot of its output is in DOT's. I find myself wasting a lot of damage on fire toons.
Versus katana, BS has somewhat lower single target sustained DPS once you get a crap-ton of recharge, but that's not the whole story.
BS can take shield defense. Suck it, katana! Muahahaha!
Yes, /sd is slated for the nerfbat at some point, but AAO has raised no concerns I am aware of. With Against All Odds saturated and buildup, Broadsword excels at pounding out big numbers, RIGHT NOW.
Which is fun.
Indeed, DS/sd go together so well it's hard to believe they were designed so many years apart. It is a top-notch combo.
You will not be "inept" due to any shortcoming in the toon, I promise you.
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Original Poster.|
Originally Posted by GangstaBlade
Stupid question but.... what does OP mean?
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And there is one other way that BS is inferior to Katana and is the real reason that I won't make another: Animation times.
In teams way too often. Way, way too often I start an attack, another person moves up, starts their attack, theirs hits first, kills the enemy. We both turn to a second, and repeat of before. Disembowel and headsplitter I have rarely landed on teams unless I split off from the group. It's basically all parry, slice, whiff, parry whiff, whiff, parry, slice, whiff.
Extremely frustrating.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
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No, it doesn't suck, for any reasonable measure of suckitude. It's just not as flashy as Katana, and not quite as DPS-y as Katana, and yet what it and Katana do for the user are otherwise functionally identical.|
Originally Posted by MeleeMadness
I never see posts about BS or see them in game anymore unless it's for concept?
Does BS suck now or what? |
Unless you're planning to make a career of soloing AVs and Rikti Pylons as fast as you can, the performance difference between the two really isn't large enough to care about. If you like the idea of BS or it fits your concept, you should absolutely roll a BS Scrapper. If you end up not liking it, it's definitely not going to be because it can't kill stuff.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
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Quite true. My main is a fully Io'd out BS/Inv and is a beast. You will never be "Inept" with BS as a powerset since it does have some serious crunch power. Broadwsword as a set is very flexible and symergizes well with a lot of secondaries. Parry adds additional protection to SR and shields for increased defense and in the case of DA , Electric, Fiery aura or Regen offers a form of mitigation otherwise lacking in the secondaries. The knockdown in attacks like headsplitter and disembowel are useful mitigation tools. The one shot burst damage of BS is some of the highest in the game. The AOE potential of BS is respectable if not spectacular. The set also works very well with shield melee for even more dizzying levels of damage. The "problem" with BS is that is not really the best at anything other than knocking out soft targets quickly. Fire and katana have higher single target DPS against bosses and larger, Spines and Electric melee are much better at AOE, Dual blades has better DPS aoe and ST but does not seem to synergize as well with some secondaries. |
Originally Posted by Fury Flechette
It's not inept. There are just better choices. For a character that resembles a knight or armored warrior with a shield, broadsword is the only choice since katana can't be paired with shield.
Also, broadsword has been around for a while. The people who have made broadsword characters, and are still playing, probably rolled theirs years ago. |
Another factor with broadsword is the age of the set. A lot of people who want a BS toon already have one. My aformentioned main is over 4 years old as an example. The set goes through renaissance periods occasionally when a new secondary is released such as Willpower or Shield Defense or when a set is improved such as Inv. BS became popular for a short time after the release of shields until other sets stole its thunder for thier specific performance in specific areas such as Electric melee and Fire Melee.
I am sure if you look hard enough thier are plenty of broadsword builds out there that can solo a lot of crazy stuff.
I have a BS/SD scrapper sitting at 49, I find it to be a decent combo.
Shield Charge and Whirling Sword to mop up the minions and LT's, the burst damage from attacks like headsplitter to take care of bosses. It won't mow down AoE or ST like some of specialized builds, but it works for both.
I never see posts about BS or see them in game anymore unless it's for concept?
Does BS suck now or what?
I want to make a BS/SD scrapper and use the Ruurlrurrrluurruurl, or whatever its called, weapons and shield....for concept of course. However, I don't want to make a character that is now inept.
Night Goblin 35 lvl BS/Regen Scrapper
Slag Heap 38 lvl Fire/Axe Tanker
Energy Anomoly 23 lvl Energy/Energy Blaster