What kind of Melee?

seriously if you want group control I love love love Dual Blades scrappers. It takes a while to get them to the point where they have all the chains needed but once there I can keep an entire group bouncing on the ground and almost never getting a shot at me. DB has multiple knockdown attacks. Sweep PBAOE knockdown. Vengeful Slice cone knockdown.

But the most important part of it is that even without global recharge bonuses you can use sweep often enough to keep any non tiny mob from ever climbing to their feet. The only ones I have trouble playing earthquake with are redcaps. And I can even manage them with a lot of maneuvering and timing and I probably wouldn't even need that with some global recharge.

Okay, so you like blasters and controllers best... allow me to work from that model to give you a suggestion or two...

Spines/Fire Scrapper - AoE masters of disaster. If you ever got a glean on for a Fire Blaster, then you might like this choice. The major difference being you are in the middle of the carnage. At higher levels the damage gets well-nigh ridiculous... Picture this... you leap into the center of a spawn with both Quills and Blazing Aura doing auto-damage to everyone within range at the same time... you let loose with Spine Burst to decimate the minions then throw Impale at the strongest enemy to Immobilize them near you... hit Burn which does surprisingly good damage over time to those still living... then, in case you're running a bit low in the tank... hit Consume which does yet more AoE damage while helping to replenish your endurance. The trade-off is Fire isn't the best defensive set protection-wise so you will likely face plant a bit more often than your average Scrapper... but you're used to playing blasters so you may be used to being squishier.

Energy Melee/Electric Armor Brute (or Tank) - As close to a control set as you can get from a Brute. Electric Armor has some of the best endurance drains in the game. Combine this with the natural stun capabilities of Energy Melee and you have a set that has some very strong synergy. I typically wade into battle and strike first with Whirling Hands, a PBAoE attack which has the potential to stun everyone it hits although mostly you'll only see minions staggering about. I follow this up with Power Sink which not only drains your enemies to practically nil endurance, it also replenishes your own. I have Lightning Field slotted mostly with Accuracy and Endurance Modification. The main advantage of LF is NOT to do damage to your opponents but to keep them from replenishing their endurance once you've drained it. I call the En/El Brute a control set because it is great fun to stand in the middle of a spawn of enemies who can only stand and stare at you while you pound them, unable to get together enough endurance to do more than scream in terror.

Just a couple ideas you could try.

Ok this is rapidly becoming a great thread and very informative chaps. Thanks for all your feedback.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rabid_M Brutes are Fire. They're an awesome force to behold once they're going, but they need to consume everything in their path. If they have nothing to feed on, they fade away to nothing. Playing one means you always want to keep hitting things, and if you stop you become a very weak scrapper until you get rolling again. Tanks are Earth. They are the rocks upon which others shatter themselves. They're not fast, but they're dependable. Playing one well means you can survive things that would kill just about anyone else, and that's where the real fun is. Scrappers are Air. They move as they please, landing in an area, filling it with chaos, and then moving on when they're ready. They can't take the damage a Tank can take, but they don't need to work to keep themselves going like a Brute does. Impulse and luck are the Scrapper's way. Stalkers are Water. They may seem all wet, but once they get into your house, you'll soon find that the "harmless little drip" does a lot of damage. Squishier than most, playing one solo is mostly about jumping out and going "Boo! Got your spleen!", and then dealing with your victim's upset friends. Playing one on a team means you may not get to use your big attack very often, but you can still do good damage to start things off, or help with stealthing missions. Except for ambushes, playing a Stalker tends to let you pick and choose if you really want to bother with most of the fights in a mission or not.

I love this. The Devs should use this on the we page! Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelclaw Okay, so you like blasters and controllers best... allow me to work from that model to give you a suggestion or two... Spines/Fire Scrapper - AoE masters of disaster. If you ever got a glean on for a Fire Blaster, then you might like this choice. The major difference being you are in the middle of the carnage. At higher levels the damage gets well-nigh ridiculous... Picture this... you leap into the center of a spawn with both Quills and Blazing Aura doing auto-damage to everyone within range at the same time... you let loose with Spine Burst to decimate the minions then throw Impale at the strongest enemy to Immobilize them near you... hit Burn which does surprisingly good damage over time to those still living... then, in case you're running a bit low in the tank... hit Consume which does yet more AoE damage while helping to replenish your endurance. The trade-off is Fire isn't the best defensive set protection-wise so you will likely face plant a bit more often than your average Scrapper... but you're used to playing blasters so you may be used to being squishier. Energy Melee/Electric Armor Brute (or Tank) - As close to a control set as you can get from a Brute. Electric Armor has some of the best endurance drains in the game. Combine this with the natural stun capabilities of Energy Melee and you have a set that has some very strong synergy. I typically wade into battle and strike first with Whirling Hands, a PBAoE attack which has the potential to stun everyone it hits although mostly you'll only see minions staggering about. I follow this up with Power Sink which not only drains your enemies to practically nil endurance, it also replenishes your own. I have Lightning Field slotted mostly with Accuracy and Endurance Modification. The main advantage of LF is NOT to do damage to your opponents but to keep them from replenishing their endurance once you've drained it. I call the En/El Brute a control set because it is great fun to stand in the middle of a spawn of enemies who can only stand and stare at you while you pound them, unable to get together enough endurance to do more than scream in terror. Just a couple ideas you could try.

I think I already said I've got an all-elec brute - Scarlet Shocker reinvented for Exalted. (The original is an all elec blaster of course - and over the years I've had a love hate relationship with electric as a set but once you know it's capabilities and limitations Elec is very cool - except in PVP nowdays.) but you have totally sold me on a spines/fire armour scrapper!!! Thanks


Brilliant stuff!

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

Well I've gone with two suggestions so far:

John Bull is a spines/fire scrapper and I've got to say he's a blast... I've run him through a DFBs and he's doing great. I slotted spine burst with the KD enhancement and that's added to the fun factor

Matilda Sherman is an Ice/SS tanker and she's actually not so bad - but a lot slower but is in very large part due to the fact she's soloing the low Praetorian content. But she is able to take a hammering, and although her DPS isn't high she's proving interesting.

One thing I'd not factored in is the Blackwand and the Nemesis Staff. They've just been part of my attack chain with the Nem being a good "go away and never bother me again" mitigation tool, but they come into their own with either getting attention or knocking over the last couple that have decided to wander off.

Thanks to everyone for their advice here

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

ok and also Invincible Woman

she's a scrapper but is Kin/Inv... and I'm liking that despite it not seeming to be very controlly/AoEy but still fun. I guess to be truly invincible she'd want to be more tanky but hey...

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk