Aaaanybody? I know I'm certainly not the first person to try this combination.
Broad Sword/Shield was the most fun I've had leveling 1-50. It should be excellent IO'd out as well, but I didn't bother since it wouldn't do anything that other of my Scrappers couldn't already do. Broad Sword gets you the defense you need before Shield Defense comes into its own. Then IO'd out, you could either skip Parry, keep it to make soft capping easier, or keep it to deal with enemies with extra-high to-hit.
"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
My main is a BS/SD and it is a great time. I've got a heavily IO'd build in him, but haven't yet respecced out of inherit stamina to give you an idea when I built the character. He isn't impossible to kill, but he is hard to kill. I strongly suspect there are other combos that are harder to kill (DM/SD comes to mind) but there's few other combos with as much classic/cliche costume and background synergy.
It's quite capable out of the box and with some IO investment it can get really good... my BS/SD is by far my most durable, highest damage scrapper. At the def soft cap he's tough enough for moderate tanking, I've tanked the ITF with him a few times, and he outputs considerable amounts of damage.
Now my build isn't cheap, but compared to some of the multi-billion inf builds I see out there it seems downright bargain basement at times; I think I have around 700 million in it at today's prices. At the time I built it I paid around 300 million but that was several issues ago.
I routinely solo +2/x8 missions on him; Carnies, Malta, Council are all easy enough to handle while Nemesis with that stacking Vengeance and Arachnos are a lot tougher.
On the IO front I used several sets of Gift of the Ancients in my armors to solve my endurance problems; Mako's Bite in my single target attacks and Scirocco's Dervish in my AOE attacks. For melee defense I leverage Parry; one hit will soft cap me.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
Well, this all sounds pretty awesome really! So thank you for the advice! I do have one more small question, does Phalanx Fighting increase your defense at all when alone, or only when surrounded by others? According to Mids' it seems to increase defense slightly even when standing by yourself, and more if others are near you. And I'm a little confused as to if this is actually true or not...
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It's (I think for scrappers) 3.5% def unenhanceable that applies always and the rest is the "per ally" in range and IS enhanceable. This is a power you want soon, but there's no need for any slots. It's a great place for a Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge if you have the cash... since the only portion you can enhance is the per ally buff there's no reason to invest slots.
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Originally Posted by Digito
Well, this all sounds pretty awesome really! So thank you for the advice! I do have one more small question, does Phalanx Fighting increase your defense at all when alone, or only when surrounded by others? According to Mids' it seems to increase defense slightly even when standing by yourself, and more if others are near you. And I'm a little confused as to if this is actually true or not...
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COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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...unless you're doing some kind of dedicated team thing where you'll be able to rely on having 1 or 2 partners close by, in which case it might be worth another slot or two.|
Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
This is a power you want soon, but there's no need for any slots. It's a great place for a Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge if you have the cash... since the only portion you can enhance is the per ally buff there's no reason to invest slots.
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Regarding the powersets as a whole: Parry. I mean that as a verb -- use the Parry power, a lot. I found that it added a shocking level of survivability to the character. Slot it for damage too -- you'll be using it over and over. It's not particularly hard hitting, but that's okay -- everything else is.
Skip the tier 2 attack (Slice) but take and slot and abuse Hack, the tier 1, as it's a very hard-hitting and fast single-target attack (probably the best Scrapper tier 1).
Remember that Disembowel's knockup and Shield Charge's and Headsplitter's knockdowns are helpful mitigation too, so chain them accordingly (i.e., with a filler like Hack in the middle so that just as the enemy is getting back up, you knock him down again) when you need mitigation.
After that it's just clang-crunch-clang-win! Broadsword has a certain pacing...it feels like you're swinging something heavy, unlike Katana -- but there's a payoff when it hits. If the animations seem a trifle long, fill the time by thinking of snappy banter like "Here it comes, Khan."
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
I would also note that back before I understood exactly what defense DID (I was a noob at the time, for sure) I made a BS/SD and took him through Agent G's arc, solo. Three EBs in that arc, all beaten (After some trouble) by someone who didn't understand EXACTLY how their toon worked.
I deleted the toon eventually, but made a new BS/SD in his place.
Well, I've never been the biggest fan of /Shield, largely as I've never been able to come up with a design that I liked the look or feel of. But one night I was tinkering with the character creator and finally happened upon a design that just screamed "I must do this.". So I am!
Now I've heard /Shield is a little squishy compared to others, and I know BS/ is considered slightly weaker than Katana, but I heard in another thread that BS/Shield is an amazing combination since they play off of each others strengths so well. I've also heard with IO's, Shield can become something of a nigh-invincible destroyer of worlds.
So I'm basically wondering how this combination will actually play, and what I could push it to if I tried to IO it out. I really like the design I've got, so I'd like to take this character to the highest level of power I possibly could.