Depends on your budget. If you want to get really serious, you drop Divine Avalanche and use a chain of Golden Dragonfly -> Gambler's Cut -> Soaring Dragon -> Gambler's Cut. That takes +250% recharge in Golden Dragonfly (3.43 seconds), and recharge is expensive, but that's the highest DPS chain. Then get to 45% positional defense with power pools and set bonuses. Take and slot Tough. Steadfast Protection in Tough. Try to fit in Aid Self if you want to do stupid scrapper tricks. If you can pull all that off, and it's probably possible, then you have the best DPS you're going to see combined with no temp no insp AV soloing survivability. Makes for a very nice package. If you're not going to do stupid things like that, then green inspirations are just fine, and you can skip Aid Self. Technically you can skip it anyway, but it's easier to do stupid things if you have Aid Self.
Red Fortune is a nice set, yes. Gaussian Synchronized Fire Control is good. With enough influence, the Gladiator's Armor +3% defense is good. Luck of the Gambler's are good for recharge. Purple sets are good for recharge. Try to pick up some hit points while you're at it, and if you decide to not take Aid Self (I hate it personally), pick up a lot of regeneration as well. The body pool is nice for Physical Perfection, and you can put the Gaussian set in Focused Accuracy, though you may not have the endurance to run it, and I'm not fond of set mules in general. I prefer Leadership for Tactics, but that's probably not happening if you take Medicine. Lots of things to balance.
For a budget build, I'd give up on the top chain, maybe keep Divine Avalanche, in which case yeah, focus on ranged and AoE. But you could easily soft cap melee without Divine Avalanche, so it may be a non-issue. Everything else pretty much like I mentioned, just the low budget version, so no purples, no Luck of the Gamblers, no PvP IOs. Fortunately, Super Reflexes can be very solid on a budget. It'll lack the recharge to pull off top DPS, but it'll still be a good build.
"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
I'll chime in on this as my main is a Kat/SR. I'm starting to think other combos might be better, but I have yet to give up on my main 
Anyhow, as Werner says, you can get the top attack chain, capped def, some S/L res (in tough), and aid self - but it's a little costly and I could only do it by sacrificing travel powers.
If you go this route, the build kicks butt. I'm also curious (although I haven't downloaded the I19 mids) how things might change with I19. Anyhow, I of course, recommend tweaking your Kat/SR build and join the fight. If nothing else, you will have a somewhat uncommon build that raises an eyebrow or two.
For survivability, I'm gonna echo the advice to pick up Tough. /SR has scaling resists the lower you get on HP, remember! So reducing damage on a different mitigation vector helps. (And the Steadfast Protection IO is really nice, to boot.)
Personally, I never used Divine Avalanche later on. You could also drop that if you want a different power pick, and /SR has a lot of ease in getting to the softcap so it could really be a feasible option. Touch of Death has melee bonuses. Multi-Strike has both melee and AoE bonuses in it. Gaussian's is as much of a necessity as the Steadfast unique IMO, and Red Fortune is an excellent option for Ranged defense. (I'm also with Werner and prefer Tactics over FA now, for endurance reasons, and take the Body pool for Conserve Power in lieu of FA to get Physical Perfection. But there's also Targetting Drone if you lean towards the Weapon pool.)
Fully slot the passives - one or two slots for a few extra points of defense is worth more than six-slotting for a set bonus. Look at other defense-granting powers, like Combat Jumping and Weave - IIRC you just have about 10% in each position to go to hit the softcap, so every bit helps. (Don't slot Combat Jumping, though if I take Weave, I usually slot it.)
Aid Self is, from experience, good on /SR since high defense means you're less likely to be interrupted. It really took a lot of pressure off of some fights I've been in. (One of the Stupid Scrapper Tricks I've pulled off is surviving a team wipe against the 4 Rikti Riders in the LGTF long enough for the team to come back from the hospital! I would have not been able to do that with greens, I think. It's a very nice power if you like tenacity like that.)
(And Werner: I'm actually taking both Medicine and Leadership once I19 rolls around! Gotta love having an extra pool pick.)
Frequent boards reader, once-in-a-blue moon poster.
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Anybody play around with a i19 version that would be something like this? I have way too many alts so I don't generally drop that much into any one build, but would be interested in seeing what a build would look like and the price range for it. The build is 40 so I have to level some and gather the resources for the build anyway, but I have the time with i19 still being down the road. Assume preferred travel power is SJ. I don't really need extra attacks in the epics. He's a monk type character anyway so tossing around Fireballs would be odd.
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Originally Posted by Werner
For a budget build, I'd give up on the top chain, maybe keep Divine Avalanche, in which case yeah, focus on ranged and AoE. But you could easily soft cap melee without Divine Avalanche, so it may be a non-issue. Everything else pretty much like I mentioned, just the low budget version, so no purples, no Luck of the Gamblers, no PvP IOs. Fortunately, Super Reflexes can be very solid on a budget. It'll lack the recharge to pull off top DPS, but it'll still be a good build.
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I haven't played with any of the I19 stuff, but it's going to make a budget SR build even more insane. You can soft cap on SOs by adding only the Steadfast Protection if you take Combat Jumping, Weave and Maneuvers. In I19, you'll be able to do that AND take Aid Self. That'd be amazing for almost entirely SOs. You can also feasibly do it by level 36, giving you 14 levels of immortality even if you retire characters at 50.
"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
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At least in my head you can soft cap with SOs, but I'm not sure about end usage. I haven't even added all of the stuff I need to soft cap and I toss in GotA sets to help with end cost. It just seems like a lot of toggles to run with just SO slotting and Stamina.
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Originally Posted by Werner
I haven't played with any of the I19 stuff, but it's going to make a budget SR build even more insane. You can soft cap on SOs by adding only the Steadfast Protection if you take Combat Jumping, Weave and Maneuvers. In I19, you'll be able to do that AND take Aid Self. That'd be amazing for almost entirely SOs. You can also feasibly do it by level 36, giving you 14 levels of immortality even if you retire characters at 50.
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Hi,
thanks for all the advice, it is truly appreciated. I don't have a huge budget but I have a much better idea of how to develop him, even if it takes a while.
Grateful regards,
S.
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I think you're right, but I think it would take either skipping Fitness (or I19) or significantly overslotting all your defenses. I think it's much better to just spend a few million on a Steadfast Protection, even if that's your only IO. We could then say that you're better off getting a Gaussian set and so on, but the cash and complexity starts mounting quickly. It's just a matter of how far down the slippery slope you want to slide, and I think it's worth taking at least that one, initial step.
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Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
At least in my head you can soft cap with SOs, but I'm not sure about end usage.
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"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
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Yeah, dinged 41 tonight and I'm just mostly taking token powers to a degree and waiting for i19 before I really worry about an official build. I just don't want to drop "x" amount of influ for it to be changed around within a couple of months.
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Originally Posted by Werner
I think you're right, but I think it would take either skipping Fitness (or I19) or significantly overslotting all your defenses. I think it's much better to just spend a few million on a Steadfast Protection, even if that's your only IO. We could then say that you're better off getting a Gaussian set and so on, but the cash and complexity starts mounting quickly. It's just a matter of how far down the slippery slope you want to slide, and I think it's worth taking at least that one, initial step.
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You could build it now and just respec with the free one we'll definitely be getting when Fitness goes inherent. (there is absolutely no way they would make a change that will affect 100% of the characters in the game without giving out a freespec) |
Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
Yeah, dinged 41 tonight and I'm just mostly taking token powers to a degree and waiting for i19 before I really worry about an official build. I just don't want to drop "x" amount of influ for it to be changed around within a couple of months.
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The only thing you would have to buy new IOs for would be whatever 3 powers you pick up in place of Fitness. If you have a decent build already you'll probably be reusing the rest of the IOs anyway.
I'm still working on my Claws/Regen's S/L defense build, even though i19 is still a ways off, because I'm quite sure that the only thing that is going to change is my ability to get Combat Jumping and Super Jump back (I dropped them in favor of other powers, using Ninja Run to get around). And that will still leave me with a power pick...I might pick up Revive again just so I don't have to hit the hospital if I drop without a wakie or enough stuff to make one. It needs no slots and it's basically going to be a free pick, so why not?
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
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I don't even need the forthcoming respec. I have respecs to burn as a 5 year vet. I'm not ever sure if the build in question has done any of the respec trials. I was thinking of putting the i19 build in the alt build slot so that way I just finish it off when i19 comes and then switch.
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Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
You could build it now and just respec with the free one we'll definitely be getting when Fitness goes inherent. (there is absolutely no way they would make a change that will affect 100% of the characters in the game without giving out a freespec)
The only thing you would have to buy new IOs for would be whatever 3 powers you pick up in place of Fitness. If you have a decent build already you'll probably be reusing the rest of the IOs anyway. I'm still working on my Claws/Regen's S/L defense build, even though i19 is still a ways off, because I'm quite sure that the only thing that is going to change is my ability to get Combat Jumping and Super Jump back (I dropped them in favor of other powers, using Ninja Run to get around). And that will still leave me with a power pick...I might pick up Revive again just so I don't have to hit the hospital if I drop without a wakie or enough stuff to make one. It needs no slots and it's basically going to be a free pick, so why not? |
Most points have been touched on, but I'll throw a bit more out there.
As far as optimizing Kat/SR, I consider it almost a sin to choose /SR as your secondary and then still resort to lowering DPS significantly by still using DA to softcap Melee at levels where Pool Powers, wise slotting, and a Steadfast +Def IO are available to get you to the softcap (see Werner's earlier post).
Essentially, the goals should be: softcap all three positionals without DA since this is so easy on a /SR, raise your HP, regen, and resistance levels as high as you can to help you survive when the RNG hates you, build up +recharge high enough to run the GD>GC>SD>GC chain (the most expensive goal), and fit in Aid Self, if you can stand the tri-corder animation.
I built this for someone else that wanted a build that used the top DPS chain, was endurance sustainable, had a travel power, and used no Purples and no PVP IOs (moderate influence budget), and did not use Aid Self, as they hated the animation. Though the build is not I19, the three extra power picks would allow for Aid Self, and lets say Assault, to be stuck in easily to up both damage and survivability without needing huge slot investments.
I figure, even if you don't use it, it might give you some ideas.
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Hi,
I have recently returned to CoH after a 12 month break. I have been having fun running around with my Kat/SR scrapper. He has one full set of Mako's Bite and the rest standard IOs. With his main defenses toggled and the +15% melee/lethal from Divine Avalanche he is already pretty robust in close but suffers from AoE attacks. With all those juicy set bonuses out there, he could be a lot better.
I have had a read of all of the Kat and SR guides I could find, but there wasn't anything recent on kat/SR as a combo.
So, what is the current thinking on the best way of improving a Kat/SR survivability? He is capped melee/lethal without any set bonuses so I assume I should focus on the other positional defenses (Mako's Bite and Red Fortune for Range? Siroccos Dervish x2 for AoE?), and maybe pick up a bit of accuracy along the way? Four-slotting some of his defenses with Luck of the Gambler seems worthwhile, if a bit expensive.
Any advice?
Cheers,
S.