All rounder - which would be best?

I know there is no "perfect" toon, and all of them have their niche role; however, I'm really trying to pin down a scrapper type that will allow me to do the following:

a) Allow me to farm BM at +2/8 minimum with relative ease
b) Be useful to teams, but if it can do 1) then 2) should follow naturally
c) Solo quest lines for merits

I currently have the following:

BS/WP - lvl 50 (SO'd)
Fire/SR - lvl 48
Claws/SR - lvl 40
Fire/WP - lvl 34
DB/WP - lvl 27
BS/SD - lvl 33

So, as you can see I have a problem with alt-itis I like the BS/WP that I got to 50, and I love it for solo missions, but I don't think its the best farming character out there by a long shot. Sure, I can survive +3/8 BM, but it takes **forever** to kill everything - even on +1 it's fairly painful and slow.

I guess my question is really twofold -

1) Of the remaining 5 scrappers I have that are not lvl'd to 50, would one of them work really well for what I want to do?
2) If not, what combination would work well - I'm not against re-rolling a new toon.

Fire/Shield. Very good survivability. Very good AoE damage. Excellent single target damage. Excellent burst damage.

Thanks Werner, would the Fire/SD have endurance issues? Not overly familiar with SD.

Of those choices, wp/fire is by far the best for an 'all-rounder'.

Regen, mild resists, and +defense from sets takes care of the defense. Fire melee has excellent single target and more than adequate AOE for farming.

If you're rolling a new toon, and willing to commit some resources, fire/sd is hard to argue with.

However, my PERSONAL favorite of the ones you have up there is the bs/sd. Luv that combo.

Yes, it can have endurance issues, particularly if you go with the Blaze Mastery epic for Fire Ball for even better AoE and farming potential. It's manageable, but you'll have to actively work to keep it under control. Definitely take Stamina. While leveling, in the mid 30s, I suggest frankenslotting your attacks with a serious focus on endurance reduction. I took Leadership on my way up, which certainly didn't help in the endurance department. An IO'd out build won't be much easier to manage, as you'll probably have a lot of recharge to spam some really devastating attacks, which is going to cost a ton of endurance, so all those endurance uniques and the like will be struggling to keep up. Again, it's doable, and you can even get to sustainable endurance if you want to go that far. But you have to work at it.

I haven't actually IO'd mine out (just experimenting in Mids' for now), so maybe someone with actual experience on a top end Fire/Shield will have some better input in that regard.

Fire/Shield's endurance issues can be kept under control. The biggest killer in a farming scenario is actually FSC since a lot of folks slot it with 6 Obliterations for both the recharge and the melee bonus. If you slot it something a lot more endurance friendly (Sciroccos, Multi-Strikes, purple set), you can keep your endurance under control. Fireball can also eat up a lot of end as well too, but as long as you slot a decent amount of end redx, it isn't an issue.

Another vote for Fire/Shield: good for farming, good for teams, good for soloing AVs, etc.

As for endurance issues, I went with Body Mastery on mine.

I'll suggest Fire/Shield but you will have an endurance problem unless you go Body Mastery. You'll need 2 reliable AoE powers if you want to effectively farm with a Scrapper. That being said, you're pretty much forced to go for Fireball and wont be able to go Body Mastery...unless you can somehow get your FSC's recharge down a lot with global recharge bonuses.

Personally, I would recommend trying Spines, since you don't have a Spines Scrapper yet. If anything, Spines is pretty well-rounded, decent single-target dps as well as AoE. Spines also offer 2 AoE's so you don't necessarily have to get Fireball, which means you can go with Body Mastery to help with the endurance problem.

Cant say I have end problems at all on my Fire/Shield and I dont have Body Mastery

I do have body mastery on my Spines/Inv though which is my normal farmer but less of an allrounder than the fire/shield. Though its fun on the ITF, it can fight romans forever and a day

I have a Fire/Shield/Blaze. No endurance issues, but I do have both the Miracle and Numina +end recovey IOs and Fire Sword Circle has 5 Scirrocos + 1 end red to keep the end cost under control. It's also defense soft capped. It really is a good all around scrapper.

Thanks for all the advice - I've started a fire/shield today (yeah my wife rolled her eyes when she saw me costuming another new character).

The build that I'm leaning towards is one that Effy_On_Malibu posted yesterday on another thread. Does anybody see any major problems with it? He stated that he can do +4/8 with it so it sounds good. I also favor super jump over super speed - never have been able to get the hang of that zooming around on my feet.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

MeyerWolf: 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: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fire Sword -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 1: Deflection -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(3), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(3), GftotA-Def(15), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(17)
Level 2: Battle Agility -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(7), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(7), LkGmblr-Rchg+(17)
Level 4: True Grit -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(5), Numna-Heal/Rchg(5)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- GftotA-Def(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(11), LkGmblr-Rchg+(13)
Level 10: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Active Defense -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(13)
Level 14: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(15), Mrcl-Heal(50)
Level 16: Against All Odds -- Taunt-I(A)
Level 18: Fire Sword Circle -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(19), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(19), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Oblit-%Dam(27)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(21), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(45), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(45), P'Shift-End%(46)
Level 22: Phalanx Fighting -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(46), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(46), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 24: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25), RechRdx-I(25)
Level 26: Incinerate -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(27), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(31), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Mako-Dam%(34)
Level 28: Cremate -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(29), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(29), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Mako-Dam%(39)
Level 30: Build Up -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(40), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(42), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(42), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(42), GSFC-Build%(43)
Level 32: Greater Fire Sword -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(33), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(33), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), T'Death-Dam%(39)
Level 35: Shield Charge -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(36), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Oblit-%Dam(37)
Level 38: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(39), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(40), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(40), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(48), Empty(50)
Level 41: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(43), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43), LkGmblr-Rchg+(45)
Level 44: One with the Shield -- ResDam-I(A)
Level 47: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(48), Zephyr-ResKB(48)
Level 49: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 0: Ninja Run

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Fire/Shield is indeed great. I went Blaze Mastery so it does cost more end, but it's definitely manageable, I personally never bottomed out on mine.

i say spines/wp
i can farm Bm solo at +4/x8 runnin on a mostly SO's minus a few cheap defense bonuses...im a great help to a team as well

good aoe,good survivability, the only thing lacking is single target dps, but lunge,impale,ripper are all nice

Shazaym, I see lots of places that build can be improved, but first I need to know what kind of budget you're working with. Are you ok buying purples, PvP defense IO, etc? Or would you rather not spend six billion on your build? Once you let me know that I can make several suggestions to improve it.

Yes, having defense plus resistance is very much worth it, but perhaps not in the way you're thinking. Most attacks are flagged with both a position and a type. So someone trying to punch you in the face would be the melee position and the smashing type. The game applies the HIGHER of your positional and typed defense. Note that ALL of your positional defenses are higher than ALL of your typed defenses. Therefore, outside of very rare exceptions like non-positional attacks, the game will always apply your positional defense. The typed defense is then literally doing nothing for you.

So when I say having defense plus resistance is very much worth it, I mean it's very much worth stacking positional defense with resistance. But really, resistance bonuses are pretty small in this game, and not worth pursuing on this build. Taking Tough is a very good idea, and slotting deflection for resistance is good once you've gotten all the melee defense you want out of it, but that's about the extent of it.

You should be able to get a decent, soft-capped build for 400 million. Nothing great, but pretty decent. I think I spent about 100 million on my leveling build for my Fire/Shield, and it was only a few percent away from the soft cap. I'm sure you can get the rest of the way and iron out all my rough edges for another 300 million.

Had a very lucky morning, 2 ragnarok recipes and a soulbound allegiance dropped. That could probably fund another 400-500million, although I would hazard a guess that the ragnarok's would be better kept and used.

My fire/sd is my favorite toon, its a nice mix of survivability, single target dmg and aoe dmg (especially aoe dmg which is the name of the game on teams).

Looking at the build you're using, while its not bad, I have a few suggestions to make your fire/sd experience all that it can be...

For a single target chain, I suggest using scorch, cremate and incinerate. They're all fast hitting attacks, with relatively good end usage and recharge. The quick hitting attacks are nice on teams since you wont be doing any corpse smashing with longer attacks, which means no damage is wasted. I can take down a pylon in about 5 min using that chain. And when you slot your single target attacks, its a waste to use kinetic combats imo - go with full sets of touch of death or makos - they give you a great melee or range def bonus, good all around numbers, and a damage proc to boost your dps.

Get some membrane exposures into active defense for some extra defense debuff resistance. It's also a good idea to get a bit extra melee defense, which your build does seem to have.

Obliterations are fine in shield charge because its not up that much, so the lack of end reduction isnt a big deal. But in fire sword circle, you need some end reduction because that sucker is going to be up a lot and you're going to be spamming it. I go with a full set of multistrikes, or you could go with sirroccos. On a build that is going to be spamming aoes, even with great end recovery, you need to reduce end usage in your aoes as much as possible.

Fire/SD is mosty about offense. I say go all in or go home. Get into fire mastery my friend. If you take my single target suggestion, you save a power by replacing fire sword and greater fire sword. Then drop one with the shield, because once you're soft capped, you won't need it. Then drop conserve power, and make sure your aoe's have lots of end red, and get you some more fiery goodness. You have to take char, but then you get fireblast which is a decent damage range power, and then you get the added aoe glory that is fireball. Slotting fireball can vary wildly, I use 4 ragnaroks and an end reducer, but just remember to get as much end reduction in as possible, as this power will be up almost as much as FSC, and you will be spamming it to your enemy's dismay.

Well based on Werner's clarification on how defense and resistance work together, then I'm starting to rethink that original build. I need to look around a little more on the forums and see if I can find another suitable build that incorporates superjump.

I'm all for "go all in" or "go home" for damage output - after all, isn't that what being a scrapper is partially about (meaning kicking *** and taking names).

If anybody has a build that they would like to share in the 1 billion range I would be happy to take a look.

Well, looks like you've gone FM/SD which is hard to argue against, I've got one myself.

Just in case you change your mind and decide to go with one you've got instead at some point, that FM/WP scrapper you have sitting at 34 would also be a prime choice. My main is a FM/WP scrapper that is softcapped to S/L, has solid resists, ungodly regen and recovery, a ST attack chain that will melt faces and an AoE attack chain of FSC, Shield Charge and Fireball thats not too shabby. Oh, and unlike Shielders, I aint getting hit with the nerf bat any time soon and I can wade into a couple full +4/X8 spawns WITH bosses and then go get a sammich and coke.