Street Justice / Fire

So, Street Justice is a power set now in my grubby little hands.

I've been tossing around ways I want to use it. (I try not to double up on power sets). And I think I've settled on Scrapping (as opposed to Bruting, Tanking, or Stalking).

Now, because I don't want to double up on power sets (and since there's so few armor sets) I've decided to go with Fiery Aura as it's one of the few armor sets I've not really used.

Unfortunately, I can't find any guides on Fiery Aura. Or even Street Justice (no surprise there, it's pretty new).

I have a few caveats:

• No Hasten
• No Medicine Pool
• No Fighting Pool
• Only Single Origin Enhancements. No IOs.

Some thoughts, having played both sets independently of one another:

For SJ, you pretty much want to take all of the attacks. When you get to 28 and shin breaker you might consider respeccing out of initial strike, as even without lots of global recharge you can always form a chain by integrating finishers without stressing about being at combo 3 every time. Combat readiness is also more important to SJ than build up is to BS, for example.

How committed are you to no IOs? My first suggestion for fire is to get a single karma and put it into combat jumping. You can live without it by taking acrobatics instead but it makes your life soooo much easier. That aside, slot healing flames relatively early for heal and recharge. If you're not going to have a lot of defense, healing flames is going to get you out of a lot of scrapes. Don't be afraid to use lucks, either, as fire is not known for being the sturdiest set out of the box.

I think you're going to want confront. It lets you split up blobs of enemies that will be tough for you to deal with all at once in the mid levels especially. Also, time that enemies spend running over to you as you hide behind a corner to jump 'em is time that healing flames spends recharging. Basically take all of street justice and all of fire, apart possibly from temperature protection depending on how you feel about its recharge resistance. Once you have consume, burn and fiery embrace slotted up you're pretty much home free.

Try it as Brute, I got one and I love her and /FA works much better for Brutes.

Also with Scrapper's burn mobs run like crazy, while they stay around you with the Brute's burn and they falls like dominoes.

Even with Tough/Weave, my /Fire brute is ultra squishy. Acrobatics is not optional. Every damned attack you face past about level 20 will have knockback/knockdown to it.

well, it sounds fun.

(honestly, it sounds more fun than Hasten/Tough/Weaving it all over the place. I like trying to find function *within* sets... though I'll take Acrobatics, since I love Superjump and all..)

Honestly, if you're set on making a scrapper without Hasten or the Fighting Pool, FIery Aura is easily the squishiest possible set you could choose.

Cons:
-It has no native defense powers, so you'll be getting hit quite frequently.
-It has lower base resistances than a tank, so you'll be taking 70% of the damage of what you get hit by.
-It has no taunt aura for scrappers, meaning one of the best powers in the set will be less useful (Burn)
-No KB protection, making Acrobatics mandatory if you aren't going to use IOs.

Pros:
-You'll put out a LOT of damage. Especially after you get Fiery Embrace.
-You have one of the better self rezzes in the game, which doesn't require enemies in range to work. (unlike Soul Transfer)

Now, I frequently skip Hasten myself and it doesn't really hurt me that much, but I like to have the Fighting pool on any melee character I make.

You're very much going to be forced into he playstyle of "kill them before they kill you" which is going to get a little rough prior to level 38 and getting your self rez.

I won't tell you not to play it, just wanted to make sure you know what you're getting into before you do. Fiery Aura can be an amazing set when you add pool powers and IOs, but on just SOs alone it's at the bottom of the scrapper heap as far as survivability goes. On SOs even Regen survives better. But you will have damage, there's no doubt about that.

In fairness it does sound like Lxndr knows what he's getting into. Choosing to make a pre-I9 build at this point puts you firmly into the concept character camp in my opinion. Looking at it that way, he actually has advantages that one didn't back then. Inherent fitness, for example. Taoe ally buffs and the proliferation of maneuvers on teammates. The fact that street justice is of the new breed of primary that combines reliable mitigation with solid damage, a no-no back in the olden dayes (except when it wasn't). Sounds like a fun project to me, though not one I'd play myself.

Yeah, pretty much all my characters are project characters.
I'm not big on the numbers; I just like to know where I'd fall, even if it's not "optimum." (I do like to be at least passable within the constraints I set myself).

And perhaps I will go Brute after all. Y'all have at least convinced me of that.

Then when Staff Fighting comes out - Staff/SR scrapper!