Need help with a solo scrapper build please.

I came back to COH after a five year break. I played back in 2004 for about six months and then got bored and quit.

I restarted about two weeks ago. I have always been a fan of fast jump in the action and beat them up play style. So scrapper is a natural choice for me.

In the last two weeks I created two scrapper a BS/SR got him to level 12 and frankly got bored. The killing was too slow for my taste.

Second has been Fire/Fire scrapper and have got him up to level 31. But find him to get quite boring and even though I have health and stamina 3 slotted, I find that I run out of End and die quite often, even though I have not tweaked the difficulty level. I have read every F/F Scrapper guide I could find, and got him appropriately slotted with SO's.

I have read thousands of posts and got my hands on every guide I could find. I want to start a new Melee AT that I will Solo about 90%. I want to stay on COH side, since that's where my friend is, so Brute is out.

As a gamer, I'm definitely the kind of player that wants to feel powerful. I want the game to be fast paced with minimal downtime, and I have to be able to solo most of the time.

From what I have been reading I think the following ATs would fit the bill, all scrappers:

MA/Regen or MA/WP
DB/WP
Claws/WP

Could I please get some suggestions from the vets and level build ideas please. I definitely want to melee, I have never been a range or fan of support roles.

Thanks

GR let's you bring a brute blue side and hitting 20 is like 3 play sessions. Claws to me still feels like the fasted paced melee set. I can skip the tier one attack on it for a brute and still build fury during the lower levels. DB would be my next pick since it's like Claws and plays better with WP.

Soloing is the slowest way to level. Most builds don't get efficient at killing until their 30's or even 50 when they get IO sets. With automatic sidekicking, grouping is easier than ever. Everyone is brought up to 1 level below the mission holder's level. This means fewer people care about a level difference of 10 or even 20 levels.

That said, most power sets don't feel very survivable until they get IO sets. The power sets that are better at leveling can have some major flaws at 50. Willpower and Invulnerability are generally better at lower levels than the other sets. Invulnerability gets smashing and lethal resists early, but lacks psionic mitigation. Willpower gets high regeneration like the Regen set and gets some resistance and defense, but is vulnerable to -regen debuffs that are more common later in the game.

If you want something with the potential to be more powerful with IO sets at 50 than the two mentioned above, Shield Defense, Super Reflexes, and Fiery Aura are good choices. Shield Defense has an AoE damage ability and a damage buff. It is weak to endurance drains, but most sets are. Super Reflexes has a bit more base defense and a passive recharge buff. Fiery Aura's Burn was recently fixed so it no longer makes enemies run away. The extra AoE damage is very useful.

I soloed my elec/elec Scrapper to 50, completely soloed, i did use an AE farm but it was still soloing.

to make solo viable, you got to be able to tackle multiple foes at the same time as opposed to rapidly killing one guy at a time. Electric for me did this very well, it does lack slightly on single target damage but it compensates well with it's superior AoE abilites, even before lightning rod. after 32 i was confortably soloing +8 mobs.

Thanks for the replies. I don't mind grouping, I just rather not. I enjoy having my own pace, and I like doing the Hero Story Arc's, with a radio mission thrown in.

I did group for several levels, and the leveling is amazing I'll admit, I went from 28 to 30 in about 90 minutes, in a 8 person group.

Speaking of IO, at what level do most of you start buying sets. I'm about to make 32 with my F/F scrapper, should I convert from SO's to IO Sets? Influence is not an Issue, my friend who unfortunately looks like going to quit, has given me almost a billion influence. Not sure if that a lot for IO Sets, but from shopping the Auctions I think I can afford what I need.

I read most people talk about IO sets at level 50, does that mean you stick with SO's until then.

I haven't read much about Elec/Elec Scrapper, how is the Endurance management, is it as bad as Fire/Fire?

I'm searching for a Elec/Elec Scrapper build example, and I cannot find one. Found some post on Elec/Shield and few other Elec combination. What am I missing? Can someone share their build please.

I couldn't find Elec/Elec Scrapper guide, but I found one for Brutes:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...775#post265775

Would the build work the same way for scrappers?

On a side note, anyone know why the servers are down?

Welcome back!

TL;DR - Katana/Willpower

Fire/Fire is pretty squishy as Scrappers go. Still, if you're running out of endurance and dying quite often on a Fire/Fire on default difficulty settings, you likely do not have appropriate powers, or they are not appropriately slotted. So one answer is to post your build, and we'll tell you how to fix the problem. But if you think the problem is more general, and you'd dislike the character even if it wasn't dying and running out of endurance, then you can certainly start over. Fire/Fire certainly wouldn't be my first choice for a solo run to 50.

As far as fixing endurance problems, you can take Consume. You can (and should) slot an endurance reducer in each attack. More if absolutely necessary. Similarly, an endurance reducer in each toggle (more should not be necessary) except for Combat Jumping, which is so cheap it doesn't need help. For soloing, you can take the Blaster "kill them before they kill me" route, or you can work on your survivability more directly. I'd want Combat Jumping, Tough and Weave in addition to the powers from my secondary. I also recommend slotting a Steadfast Protection unique. If you have one IO, that's the one in my opinion. The second would be the Kismet unique, though that's more important if you start turning up your difficulty.

I usually wait until the mid 30s, but you could start frankenslotting IOs in your attacks. Shop for cheap IOs that enhance two or more aspects of the power. Mix and match, not worrying about set bonuses, and just try to get decent accuracy, full damage, and as much recharge and endurance reduction as you can.

Oh, you have a billion influence. Yeah, that's plenty for a mid-range end game build, so you're in good shape. While leveling, you could could consider purchasing some sets with some smashing/lethal defense. But still, all I usually do while leveling is frankenslot and put in those two IOs. Well these days I also have some of the endurance-helping IOs stored and slot them as necessary - Numina unique, Miracle unique, Performance Shifter proc. Grab those and you probably won't need Consume, but Consume is the quick fix.

I consider Fire/Fire one of the easier combinations as far as endurance management. It has endurance-efficient attacks (good damage per endurance) plus an endurance recovery power (Consume). There are combinations that manage endurance even better (Claws/Regen probably tops the list), but now seems as good a time as any to learn how to fix endurance problems rather than relying on the combination to do the entire job for you. Again, only if you're otherwise enjoying your Fire/Fire.

Electric/Electric is probably going to be very similar to Fire/Fire. Both are high damage, low survivability combinations. Electric Armor, though, doesn't get its endurance recovery (Power Sink) until level 35 instead of level 20. I'm in too much of a rush to look up the endurance efficiency of the attacks, but I think they're a little lower than Fire. So it'll probably be worse for endurance while leveling overall. (Edit: Oops, forgot about Energize.)

Hmmm, I should probably mention that I'm not recommending Claws/Regen. It might be easiest on endurance 1-50, but it'll also face plant a lot. There's nothing specifically wrong with Regeneration as a secondary, but it IS a school of hard knocks.

I think you're on the right track with Willpower in most of your mentioned combinations. It doesn't get its endurance recovery power until level 20 (Quick Recovery), but it should be smooth sailing after then, particularly if you also pick up Stamina. Claws/Willpower will be your best endurance choice of what you listed. However, for easy survivability and solo leveling, particularly with someone new, Katana/Willpower is the consensus recommendation. Also, it gives up absolutely nothing on top end power, so even if you later turn into a complete power gamer wanting a maxed-out level 50, you're still in good shape. The endurance consumption will be worse, and levels 1-20 will probably be particularly painful in that regard, but then it should still be smooth sailing after that. And it should have significantly better survivability than Claws/Willpower due to Divine Avalanche, which (stacked) can boost your melee and lethal defense (two of the most important) absurdly high. The down side is that it's low on AoE potential, which will make solo leveling a longer slog than on some builds. But it should be easy, and you can probably up the XP per hour by bumping up your difficulty level significantly once you get your core powers taken care of and get practiced in what you're doing.

if you want to AV solo i would suggest Kat with ether regen or WP.

If you want to farm with high single target an good AOE i would suggest fire / shield.

If you want to Farm only i would suggest Electric / Shield.

I see some one suggesting claws an i will say that i have played claws an its redraw time is a bit of a pain.

I have also played MA it is not a bad set i just like Kat more.

I read the Fire/Fire guide from JamoUp and used his leveling build. I really didnt like Fire Breath so for my 2nd build I didnt take it. I do have consume and have 3 slotted at 31.

I think for me dying is bigger issue then endurance But it sounds like Fire/Fire was not the best pick for a scrapper joining the game after not playing for over 5 years Thanks for the advice on Elec/Elec, it sounds like its more or less a similar build to my current fire/fire.

I have read a lot about Katana, so I will give it a try.

fire armor is very squishy till you get it fully IOed.

least with Regen or WP you have a good amount of HP recover where you take the hits.

An yes Fire Breath is garbage i do not have it on my lv50 fire/shield scrapper ether.

You will find Kat real easy an it does have a few AOE attacks but its not the best at AOE.

Would a a DB/WP built be close to a Katana/WP? I like the idea of having deadpool

I have tried DB up to lv30 i did not care for it as much as kat.

Another thing i should mention is WP is a lot less click intense an with the buff it has gotten it scales a lot better then it did.

I created a Katana/WP build and got it to lvl 5 so far. I really like it. WP definitely makes things easier.

I'm running a Kat/Willpower and just got her into the 20's. Just crazy effective at low levels compared to other scrappers.

With High Pain Tolerance, Fast Healing, Health and Rise to the Challenge (all by level 16) combined with nothing more than the defense buffs from Divine Avalanche you're set to solo more effectively than anyone else pre-SO's that I've encountered.

I have to ask though - why does Katana get such a bad rap as an AoE set? At 2nd level you get Flashing Steel which routinely hits 5+ foes and once slotted with a single Recharge SO/IO its up every 4.5 seconds. Combined with the very solid Lotus Drops and eventually Hasten the ONLY drawback I see to it is that the damage is the more heavily resisted Lethal.