Looking for a solo survivable scrapper...

I throw in my vote for Kat/WP being the absolute most casual-friendly and solo-friendly scrapper build, period. BS/WP might be a close second or even equal, but IMO Katana just looks nicer and feels faster, and is a much better "style" match for a Ninja Run travel power if you've plopped down $10 for the Martial Arts booster pack.

Even at the high end, as others have noted, you *can* tweak out a Kat/WP build to let you fight at a fairly high level of difficulty. Certainly for casual play even at L50, it's more than enough horsepower even with mostly common IOs or Frankenslotting on the cheap. And getting to L50 is a smooth, fast ride. And CHEAP--you can do the build I list below for less than 4 million INF total spent on training enhancements, lots of DOs to keep you "in the green", and then a full set of level 25 IOs (at level 22) that will take you all the way to level 50 before you need to think about improving your enhancements further.

I say this after having recently leveled up a Kat/WP scrapper to 28 in an amazingly short amount of time (just a few real-time days), which is impressive since I'm a fairly casual player. I died maybe 3x total, due to carelessness each time.

/WP is smooth as silk for many reasons, mainly the super-high regen rate from just two skills (looking at the numbers for Fast Healing and especially a 3-heal-slotted Rise to the Challenge in Mids Hero Builder is impressive), coupled with the 30% base endurance regen rate from Quick Recovery at level 20 (without needing to use two other powers from the fitness pool just to get to the lower 25% base end regen of Stamina), coupled with decent all-around mitigation even to status holds and exotic damage types.

/WP is easy mode from level 1 through the mid 30s, whereas by comparison going with /SR or any of the other "uber" secondaries at the level 50 "crazy" gameplay levels is just a slog through pain all the way through your mid 30s. I don't know how many times I've tried a /SR scrapper and given up by the mid teens or mid 20s because it's so painfully terrible mitigation at low levels.

But Katana really smooths out the early game leveling because of that wonderful Divine Avalanche skill that you get at level 8. Suddenly, you have an easy, constant 30% resistance mitigation to smashing and lethal that is applied with every fast-recharging attack that does solid damage output in your early (pre-26) attack chains. I'm sure Broadsword's "Parry" power is similar but can't remember at what level you get that one.

So once you hit level 8, which comes very very quickly, Divine Avalanche enables you to instantly set your difficulty rating to +1 levels above your own, which means every mission is yellow and orange minions, and mostly orange and red lieuts, that you can chew through without stopping for very fast xp gain overall.

The other nice synergy of Kat/WP is that you can actually skip Stamina if you like, despite all your endurance-heavy toggles, because Quick Recovery is actually *better* than Stamina. Although to be fair, it's very easy to fit Stamina in too, which means you will never, ever sweat your endurance rates, not even for a moment. Even before getting Stamina, once you grab Quick Recovery and put even just one End Mod in it, you can run all your toggles + sprint (and combat jumping) fullt-time while fighting and never, ever run out of endurance even against foes that do mild/moderate amounts of endurance draining attacks. And that's spamming all your availlable attacks, even your AOEs and Cones in an unending attack chain, even against single targets. (Naturally you use the cone and AOE only when your DA and GC aren't recharged yet.)

When you hit level 22 and stick a full complement of basic level 25 Common IOs in every slot, you become god-mode (for leveling).

FWIW, here's the Ninja Run-based build I've used so far. Tweaked to optimum mitigation/regen levels in Mid's (For example, there's less bang for the buck for additional 2nd and 3rd slots in Quick Recovery and Stamina, so they're both only 1-slotted at first and neither gets a 2nd slot until 25 and neither will get a 3rd slot until post-30, if at all, etc. Likewise, adding Healing from the Fitness pool adds a mere +15% regen boost on top of what Fast Healing and Rise to the Challenge already give you, so I skipped Health entirely.

Main benefits of plunking down $10 for the Martial Arts booster pack to get Ninja Run are:

1. You get a "good enough" travel power by level 6: mid-50s mph (versus the travel cap of 78 mph) when jumping, and when you add Swift at level 14 you can run nearly as fast as you can jump. It's like having Super Jump at level 6, and having your choice of both Super Jump or Super Speed, as desired, by level 14. I don't notice the slight speed difference from real SJ or SS at all, frankly, and it's hella fun navigating around buildings and obstacles with Ninja Run. Just totally fun getting from point A to point B compared to every other travel skill. It's a hoot and worth the $10 all by itself.

2. You can skip Combat Jumping and Super Jump, using those typical early slots instead for two powers (Hurdle and Swift) that enable you to zip around in large mission areas (translating to faster XP income rate), to do tactical LOS pulls more effectively (tranlating to safer leveling and less dying), and to pave the way for a very early Stamina compared to builds that use Combat Jumping and Super Jump. We're talking Stamina at 24 instead of at 35.

3. Ability to have a "free" slot for a "utility" power (such as Hasten or Recall Friend, etc.) at level 30 instead of more like the late 30s. A note about Hasten. You don't *need* it for your normal attacks, especially once you pick up your last two hard-hitters at 26 and beyond. But with 55% base end regen from both Quick Recovery *and* Stamina, you can easily keep Hasten on Auto-fire for the sole purpose of making Build Up nearly permanent (by putting 3 recharges in Build Up too). This effectively *doubles* your damage output all the time rather than for just 10 seconds here and there. Hasten also makes your PBAOE and your final hard-hitting attack come back just that must faster, for even more total DPS over a given amount of time, and with your massive endurance recovery rate it's no problem at all even with all your toggles + sprint + (an eventual post-30) Combat Jumping and Fighting Pool powers, etc.

Really, by level 28, with a bunch of level 25 common IOs slotted in, you're ready to sidekick with L50 characters and you won't get beat up in L50 missions too badly (unlike some other builds I've had, like Claw/Regen, where your'e still tissue paper by that level if you go play L50 missions with someone.

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Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.803
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Level 29 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Katana
Secondary Power Set: Willpower
Power Pool: Fitness

Hero Profile:
------------
Level 1: Gambler's Cut
(A) Accuracy IO: Level 25
(3) Accuracy IO: Level 25
(7) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25
(11) Damage Increase IO: Level 25
(21) Damage Increase IO: Level 25


Level 1: High Pain Tolerance
(A) Resist Damage IO: Level 25
(29) Resist Damage IO: Level 25


Level 2: Flashing Steel
(A) Accuracy IO: Level 25
(3) Accuracy IO: Level 25
(7) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25
(15) Damage Increase IO: Level 25


Level 4: Fast Healing
(A) Healing IO: Level 25
(5) Healing IO: Level 25
(5) Healing IO: Level 25


Level 6: Hurdle
(A) Jumping IO: Level 25


Level 8: Divine Avalanche
(A) Accuracy IO: Level 25
(9) Accuracy IO: Level 25
(9) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25
(13) Damage Increase IO: Level 25
(23) Damage Increase IO: Level 25


Level 10: Indomitable Will
(A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25
(11) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25


Level 12: Build Up
(A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 25
(13) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 25
(15) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 25


Level 14: Swift
(A) Run Speed IO: Level 25


Level 16: Rise to the Challenge
(A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25
(17) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25
(17) Healing IO: Level 25
(19) Healing IO: Level 25
(21) Healing IO: Level 25


Level 18: The Lotus Drops
(A) Accuracy IO: Level 25
(19) Accuracy IO: Level 25
(23) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25


Level 20: Quick Recovery
(A) Endurance Modification IO: Level 25
(25) Endurance Modification IO: Level 25


Level 22: Mind Over Body
(A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25


Level 24: Stamina
(A) Endurance Modification IO: Level 25
(25) Endurance Modification IO: Level 25


Level 26: Soaring Dragon
(A) Accuracy IO: Level 25
(27) Accuracy IO: Level 25
(27) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25


Level 28: Heightened Senses
(A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25
(29) Defense Buff IO: Level 25


Level 30: [Empty]
Level 32: [Empty]
Level 35: [Empty]
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl
(A) Empty


Level 1: Sprint
(A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 25


Level 2: Rest
(A) Empty


Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 4: Ninja Run

Two other tips if you go Kat/WP or BS/WP or any set that has good resistance to smashing and lethal:

1. Go Magic Origin because it keeps you away from your nemesis damage types (such as puking toxic Vazilosk).

2. Try to do mostly radio missions levels 5-22 and choose foes that are mostly smashing/lethal damage, such as Lost, Outcast, Trolls, etc. Avoid any Circle of Thorns or Vazilosk mission or Tsoo missions at first.

By the time you hit 20 and especially 22, it's less important who you fight. Thorns, Banished, and Tsoo become dirt easy by now. And once you hit 28 and get your exotic mitigation from Heightened Senses, you're ready for anything.

If you roll up a character in the new i18 zones, it doesn't matter what you fight or what origin you take. None of them seem to do much other than smashing/lethal, and the leveling curve is fast to 20.

The other reason katana and broadsword are so nice, the weapon customisation options are great.

and one other thing to keep in mind is the upcoming change in I19 making stamina inherent. so some sets, like regen and wp that may not even need stamina, now get it for free any way. so those sets will have absolutely no endurance problems from lvl 1 up.

I like Spines/regen for the attack availability and healing/defense
I also enjoy anything/SR because you hardly get hit and if you do you don't take a lot of damage

Claws/SR is just great. Nice soft capping for defence and claws...is the bomb!

My second choice would be fire/wp. Fun toon. A little end heavy sometimes but wp is pretty much easy mode from 1 - 50.

ymmv