I Miss My Consume & Healing Flames

Since I had so much fun with my now level 50 fire/fire Scrapper, I decided to build another one a couple of weeks ago. I now have a level 29 Kin Melee/Shield Defense Scrapper. Don't get me wrong by my title for this post, I love my KM/SD so far. The thing though that I loved about my fire/fire was her ability to get end and health back rather quickly with Consume and Healing Flames. It's nice to know that I didn't have to keep popping inspirations all the time to make up for this.

For my KM/SD though it doesn't seem I don't have that luxury. Yes, maybe I can build up my defense through SD to give me some edge there but dang, that Consume was something I loved when my end would drop. As a Scrapper, we know you can get into some very heated battles and cannot afford the tiniest pauses in end or health without making sure we have enough inspirations for the battle. As I said before, I have no complaints for my KM/SD as this is only my second Scrapper build. I think the only real way someone can learn about what these Primary and Secondary's do is build one and try it out, which is what I have done on a lot of my toons.

Anyone else have some thoughts on my missing these two guys, Consume and Healing Flames?

[Med Pack]
[Recovery Serum]

Most scrappers are a bit fragile early on: SD is especially prone to this, because it is a heavy defense-based set.

However, once SD matures it is very nice, and once it is fully constructed it becomes a true monster. Getting accolades and healing powers can help as well, as noted above.

Yes, it is nice to have 'clicky' powers to refill your status bars, but it is even nicer to be at the point where you can simply ignore those bars completely.

A km/sd should have serious damage potential and the defenses to handle the crowds to make it shine. It will NOT be cheap or easy to reach the upper ranks with such a build, however. Also, Shield Charge will cover up many issues with it's sheer awesome.

I will recommend that you look at a claw/willpower, or after I19 hits, perhaps a claws/inv. Both of those are a bit of a struggle early, but once they get mature are RIDUCULOUSLY sturdy and also very nice on the damage output.

I have a 50 /fire brute and a 50 /shield scrapper.

The scrapper is 100 fold more survivable

Hasn't Shield Charge been totally nerfed?

It's still awesome. Like reason to play the set awesome.

Dark Melee / Shield would have been more like the feeling you are used to then.

Siphon Life and Dark Consumption would fill that gap.
But then again, your AoE abilities would not be anything like Fire Melee.
At least not until you get an AoE from the epic pool and Shield Charge at 35 (of course).

I have a BS/SD 50 and a KM/FA who is at 34.9 right now and I can say that the Shield Scrapper was (for me) significantly more durable and fun to play. I'm really having a hard time with the durability of my FA Hero. Going to wait a few more levels to fully IO him though.

Those same reasons are why Fiery Aura is my favorite set in the game...It can be made amazingly tough with clever slotting. Add a 675HP Heal on a 13 second recharge to 35% Smash/Lethal or Melee Def and you've got an amazing combo...Burn is pure win, and Consume's new buffed Energy Drain Res component (+Recovery) makes that gap much smaller.

...The only issue is Psi damage, which is pretty common end-game....but that's what insps are for anyway.

I have a 50 Spines/Fire Scrap, 50 Elec/Fire Scrap (Burn > Shield Charge), 36 Fire/EM Tank, 50 Fire/SS Tank and 27 Claws/Fire Scrap.

I need to make a broot....suggestions anyone?

I keep dying horribly on other melee toons since I've taken my DM/SD so far, and am pretty much completely used to the stamina drain and heal. If you have decent but not perfect mitigation, siphon life is really handy. It heals about 16 percent quite often while also doing good damage for me (Frankenslotted it to heck). As long as it doesn't miss, it should be comparable to healing flames. SD would of been a lot more annoying without Siphon Life, although it went from generic to the moment I hit 35. You can oneshot +2 spawns of minions if you use it after a couple siphon's. I was doing that unslotted with Soul Drain. Now it oneshots the LTs, too.