The Scrapper that doesn't die.

So my Elec/Fire was a resounding success. The goal, unmatched burst AoE damage, seems fulfilled. My next idea was the scrapper that can't die.

I know this particular combo has been discussed before, so it may be old news by now, but the build I'm talking about is DM/Invuln. I've never made a DM or an Invuln past the 20s before. Maybe it's because I never paired them. This combo looks utterly amazing on paper and it's a little different than what I'm used to playing.

I usually go for the high damage AoE monster Scrappers. DM doesn't exactly put out a great deal of AoE. Maybe the change will be good for me.

I'm looking at...

-S/L/E/NE/F/C soft-cap with fully saturated Invinc. S/L capped at 2 enemies, E/NE just about capped at 3 enemies.
-Capped HP thanks to the Accolades
-Perma Dull Pain
-Near perma Soul Drain
-Near perma Hasten
-Great ST damage chain
-330hp heal (if I'm doing my math right :/) every 3 seconds, which just so happens to also be a part of that great ST attack chain
-Extremely high damage APP with Fire Blast and Fire Ball.

Outside of super expensive purples and the Glad Armor 3% I'm not sure how much I could appreciably improve upon this build. Well... I could make him a Brute. That would give him more HP and access to easier AoE patron attacks as well as Darkest Night. Anyway, any suggestions/ideas/personal experiences for this character build?

"extremely high damage APP" leads me to believe you might go by Mids numbers, so I'll just mention they're twice higher than the actual damage ingame. Fire Blast < Smite and Fireball is a standard damage AoE (with small bonus DoT).

Brute is certainly a lot tougher, and will only become more so judging by the new incarnate slots with I20 - the res/def buff, for example, is going to benefit Brutes a lot more thanks to their higher resistance cap.

As of current typing, I'm past the 34 minute mark of standing in an aggro-capped group of Cimerorans (Lvl 52) on my DM/Inv/Blaze Scrapper (Lvl 51). I haven't done a thing. Just standing there. I think that is tough enough. Go the Scrapper route, get more out of Soul Drain. Perma-Soul Drain, if you can afford it.

Update: I just checked in on my character and it's been over an hour and she still isn't dead.

Don't be afraid to set a longer term goal for those very expensive uniques, such as the Gladiator 3% Defense. I got that one with Alignment Merits and I was getting Inf at the same time. Win win situation.

My Spines/Fire Scrapper rarely dies. I can't remember ever dying without Rise of the Phoenix up. I think it is a good combination of AoE damage and survivability.

I think you are overestimating Invulnerability. Other than the psionic hole, it is basically a defense set when not fighting S/L damage. It looks like Clockwork energy damage is going to be a major part of Incarnate content.

Any Scrapper can be made to be nearly unkillable. It also depends on what you are fighting.

For a Spines/Fire I can see it would depend on what you are fighting... On a DM/Inv it really doesn't matter.

Yep, Dark Melee/Invuln is crazy survivable, and your list looks about right for the near high end (skipping PvPs and the like). The heal sounds about 10% high, though. Also, recharge starts when the attack ends, so you're actually getting that heal every five seconds or so, not three. The potential with the PvPs is basically what you have plus capped to the six standard damage types with only one enemy in range. Which, if you play with large numbers of enemies, will probably only rarely make any difference in practice.

Hey, Bass, how many giant monsters on monster island can you herd and survive for a substantial period of time? They're mostly smashing lethal, I think, so it's right up Invuln's alley. On my Katana/Dark I handled four for about ten minutes, then six for I think another five or so before they put me down. I also recall doing a rough calculation to say that a Dark Melee/Invuln could probably handle about double that. Given spikes, call it ten? What do you think? Mind you, your Siphon Life isn't even slotted much for heal, but I'm still sure you could beat my number. I'm just curious by how much. Love your build.

God I need to start one of these. Oh, wait, I have a Dark/Invuln Brute. I should probably do it as a Scrapper, though.

On the other hand, all the rules are changing with the incarnate stuff, and maybe something else will come out on top. Syntax42 hints at this in regard to common enemy damage types in the "new game".

Also, as far as Invuln survivability goes, I'm really enjoying my Invuln/Super Strength Tanker at the moment. He was stuck at 40 and I hadn't played him in forever because he was boring and slow. Boy did inherent fitness and frankenslotting breathe new life into him, allowing me to actually put together a good attack chain without losing any survivability, and now with I think sustainable endurance. He feels very scrapperish now. I know the damage is lower, but it FEELS like I'm hitting hard (thank you, Super Strength, for your delicious smashiness). I've actually been playing him instead of grinding out shards on my main Scrappers. I feel dirty.

Hmmm, that turned into a giant aside. Yes, Dark Melee/Invuln for the win. Carry on!

Thanks for the advice everyone. Bass, your hour of standing there and not dying is exactly what I'm looking for. Time to come up with a good costume.

Succubus Kali was doing pretty good in the new Trials. Died far less than I expected her to. So when are you gonna start that DM/Inv Scrapper, Werner?

How is that for solo leveling? I don't mean to derail the thread in any way, but I'm in the same boat. I seem to try and make AoE monsters so I'm thinking this right here could sell me on a single target beast.

Solo leveling is, assuming it's easy to get teams (I have no idea), of course slower than teaming. Being a single-target specialist is only going to slow you down even further. I think it personally takes me around 150 hours on average to level a single target specialist Scrapper, which is mostly solo play. If you were instead asking about survivability during leveling, Dark Melee/Invuln feels very solid to me.

After playing a bit further with the new incarnate slots on Test, I have to say I think you can go with pretty much anything and be insanely survivable. Even IOs are almost irrelevant compared to the sheer insanity of the new powers - i.e. the Barrier power is like a crashless Elude and Unstoppable rolled into one, with admittedly a much shorter duration, but it recharges every two minutes. I sat in groups of level 54 riktis (admittedly not the toughest of foes, but can still provide a challenge for a non-DM and old invul build) and I didn't have to even think about using Aid Self or clicking an insp, what little damage I took was healed by my seer pet (which was also buffing me for an extra 5% defense).

Frankly, I think even the best I19 builds will be relatively average compared to, well, the average I20 build - that is, assuming this goes Live like it is and not with a hefty round of nerfs.

Okay, so I'm curious on something, and I figured I can draw this out of those who've spent a lot of time with Invul. When it comes to soft capping the types, how significantly is anyone relying on Invincibility to get there? I've been fiddling with builds for an MA/Inv concept off and on and haven't been happy with them. I can get relatively high for S/L/EN/NE with only one foe in range, but I'm having to crank it up a few to get softcap on F/C; I've not been satisified with this answer. So, instead of cranking through a half dozen more builds, I thought I'd pose the question to see which direction people actually go. If a 5-10 saturation is being accounted for when reaching typed defenses or not.

You CAN soft cap to SLENFC with only one foe in range, and if you have the influence for it, do so without many compromises. But if your play style is to be constantly surrounded by large numbers of enemies, that may not be worthwhile, and soft capping with, say, five enemies may be perfectly sufficient in practice. I'd probably go for it with just one enemy in range for archvillain soloing purposes.

Softcapping typed Defense with only one foe in melee is more of a high end purpose for things such as AV soloing or protection against cascade Defense failure. That test to see how long I could live without retaliating against an aggro capped group of +1 Cimerorans? I gave up waiting to die after over an hour and it was possible because I had 56% Defense to typed Defense. That's 11% Defense that can be debuffed before you even see any chance of cascading Defense failure, not to mention any debuffs are cut by 50%, thanks to Invulnerability's Defense Debuff Resist in Resist Physical Damage and Tough Hide.

If you're lacking Fire/Cold Defense, a 3 set of Aegis is key to upping that significantly.

Ok I like the sound of this scrapper build so far.So my question is anyone going to post their build?

I have a confession to make...

I've had Actin's "new mass AV soloing" build ready for quite a while (I have everything I need, or have the influence to acquire it in short order). With the update of i19, it caps S/L defense with 1 enemy in range, S/L resistance, and runs the Smite -> Fire Blast -> Siphon Life chain completely gapless (going for the recharge alpha slot, she runs it gapless with just the T3! With the T4 I can even squeeze a bit more endredux in it as well).

I kept thinking "I'll get back to it once I've started the rest of my 50s on their way to alphadom."

And I meant it too.

I'd get on to it.

Eventually.

But...

...

...

I'm trapped playing my Dark/Psi defender.

I can't bloody help it! She's just made it to 32 and got Fluffy, too, and now I'm aiming to making it to 35 before next week's WTF and the oomp it'll give her (not to talk about being able to get into ITFs too, which will be the next WTF). She's incredible. Truly, utterly insane. She has the biggest motherf#<ing cone EVER in her arsenal, she makes everything I decide to fight with her completely helpless, I get through defenses like nobody's business (thanks, Psi damage!). She's not a fast killer, mind you, but goodness me - at that level she's the most amazing thing I've played.

A defender.

I have some really cool non-melee-AT toons at 50 already. I have an almost-def-capped /Fire blapper (44.7% melee, 41% ranged, 44.4% AoE defenses), I have a ranged defense capped icy-icy-yummyicy Corruptor, I even have a human-form Warshade that runs around at the res cap and shoots death left and right (not purpled, sadly).

But... This defender just... Woah.

What's the world coming to?