BS/Regen Help!

So after something like a two year sabbatical I've returned to my level 50 BS/Regen Scrapper and I want to start getting into Incarnate stuff. I respecced him without looking at guides or anything and did the story arc to unlock my Alpha slot. The respec and the slot got me some questions going.

First, is Parry worth having at 50? It didn't used to be all that useful, so I specced out of it, has that changed?

Second, is Body Mastery a good choice? I intend to stay hero side with him, so my choices are the epic power pools, is one a better match with Regen? I liked the accuracy toggle but I could probably live without it if there is another pool that gets me good defense or resistance.

Third, what are some good power pool choices? I grabbed Speed so I could get Hasten and Burn Out, and currently respecced into having Fighting for Tough and Weave, and Leadership for the defense and damage toggles(don't remember their names).

Fourth, and last for now, what should I be looking to put into my Alpha slot? I feel like I need more resistance or defense but at the same time the slot only enhances my existing powers so I don't know how much benefit I'll be getting.

I don't have a build made through any tool or anything, will try to get to that later if people want to see what I've got going on presently. It was a lot of fun to settle back into this character so I'm excited to get some feedback on the current state of things so I can have fun with him in trials and stuff.

First of all, welcome back! I hope you enjoy the new features of the game.

Now, to your questions:

1.) Parry is incredibly useful for this powerset combo, and always has been. Slotted up, you can soft cap your melee defense with 2 active Parrys IIRC. With Invention Origin set bonuses, you can bring that down to 1 Parry. You've been gone long enough that you probably aren't familiar with the soft cap concept since you left before we got access to the real numbers for in game powers. The soft cap is the point at which an enemy has only a 5% chance to hit you, which is the minimum chance allowed for in the game. For typical play, this will be about 45% defense. You want Parry, and you want to use it.

2.) Body Mastery isn't bad really. However, you are missing out if you don't allow yourself to get the Soul Mastery Patron Pool. It features a power called Shadow Meld, which is sort of like a mini version of Moment of Glory. For obvious reasons, that's a good power to have. It doesn't take long to go villain, run the arc, and then come back to hero. It also comes with a respec, so that might be handy anyway.

3.) Your pool choices are decent. You probably don't need Burn Out, and you might want to add Combat Jumping from the Leaping pool.

4.) You want Spiritual on a BS/Regen. Faster recharge and more effective heals.

As a side note, if you look back a page or two on the Scrapper category you should be able to find a thread Werner started on a Kat/Regen Scrapper. The thread is very long so you don't really need to read the whole thing. However, you should find the builds in that thread very useful.

@Rorn ---- Blue Baron ---- Guardian

Edit: Vauluur beat me to punch while I was busy writing a book, and I agree with pretty much everything he says. lol

Werner's thread is pretty good, but you want to be careful of trying to port a Katana build over exactly, as some of the better ones are probably built around reaching specific recharge values on powers for Katana's optimal damage chain (which only uses three attacks.)

First off, welcome back to the game.

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Originally Posted by Tyrant_Protocol First, is Parry worth having at 50? It didn't used to be all that useful, so I specced out of it, has that changed?

Parry's primary value is in giving your passive regeneration more time to work, which lets you stretch your click heals out a little further. It can be a noticeable, boost to your survival when soloing, but you need to keep mobs in melee range to benefit from it unless the attacks have a Lethal tag.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyrant_Protocol Second, is Body Mastery a good choice? I intend to stay hero side with him, so my choices are the epic power pools, is one a better match with Regen?

If your options are limited to Blaze, Body, Darkness or Weapon Mastery, you could do worse. Conserve Power and Focus Accuracy are both decent situational powers, and Physical Perfection can slot another Performance Shifter: Chance for +End proc. The survivability it will give you through regen is fairly negligible, though.

It is probably worth mentioning Caltrops from Weapon Mastery with a Ragnarok: chance for knockdown proc can be a decent boost to your survival, but I'd have a hard time justifying taking the pool just for that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyrant_Protocol Third, what are some good power pool choices? I grabbed Speed so I could get Hasten and Burn Out, and currently respecced into having Fighting for Tough and Weave, and Leadership for the defense and damage toggles(don't remember their names).

You picked most of the good ones, imo. Hasten increases uptime of your clicks, Tough, Weave and Maneuvers increase your survivability by giving you additional 'layers' to give your healing some time to work, and Assault is free damage for you and your team. Combat Jumping can eke out a tiny bit more defense, but probably isn't noticeable on its own.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyrant_Protocol Fourth, and last for now, what should I be looking to put into my Alpha slot? I feel like I need more resistance or defense but at the same time the slot only enhances my existing powers so I don't know how much benefit I'll be getting.

This is where I'll defer to someone else that has more experience with the incarnate system, as I haven't really delved into that enough to feel comfortable giving you a full recommendation. Playing around in Mids would suggest that Musculature for the damage or Spiritual for the Healing and Recharge would be your two best bets, though... especially in regards to Dull Pain, which you want to be as close to perma as possible since it radically increases the efficiency of your passive regeneration.

Awesome! Thanks for the feed back guys! I won't be able to put your advice to use tonight(Child's Play charity dinner!) but hopefully tomorrow I can hop on and respec back into having Parry and move some powers around to try to grab Combat Jumping. Then I'll focus on trying to get to villain to get that patron pool. I didn't realize I could still use those if I switched back to blue side.

Another question I thought of is about Incarnate stuff again. I know that the Dark Astoria revamp is supposed to help solos get Incarnate stuff, but is there any way right now to get Incarnate stuff while solo?

I'll +1 everything Valuur said as far as your original questions.

I also agree with Kenji that you don't want to just take a Katana/Regen build from that thread, switch primaries, and call it good. That said, these builds should be sporting enough recharge for the good defensive Broad Sword chains (1+ Parry every 10 seconds). So switch the primary, switch to Hack instead of Slash, and I'm guessing (haven't confirmed), that they'll be just fine like that. Be aware that some of the builds are INCREDIBLY expensive as shown. There are some less expensive builds, but I doubt that anything in that thread would ever be mistaken for a budget build. I haven't looked at the builds from that thread in a while, though. Oh, also, they were from before the Resilience buff, so really, they all need at least minor tweaks.

You can solo to at least tier 3 on the alpha slot. It takes quite a while as the drop rate on incarnate shards is quite low. I don't remember how much time, but let's say that getting tier 3 alpha is like soloing from 40-50? I don't know. It's a lot more than gaining a level, anyway.

I haven't heard of the Dark Astoria revamp, but I mostly don't pay attention to what's coming down the pike, so no surprise there. I'm desparate for some solo incarnate content. I love playing my 50s, but mostly soloing. I burned out quickly on the original iTrials, and haven't even tried the new iTrials, and may never. I really need a viable solo path for advancement (and a reason to advance). For now, I'm just spending a lot more time leveling alts.

Again guys, I can't thank you enough for all the feed back. I looked over the Katana/Regen thread for a bit earlier, so I've got some ideas of where I want to go. Going to respec and slot as best I can but I don't really have a lot of inf floating around so I'm going to be very budget build and just have to try to grow into it as I work on incarnate stuff.