An Experiment

Having run out of ideas on what to use my third build for, I have decided to try an experiment. People often discuss the possibility of playing a Scrapper mostly at range. Now, I'm going to actually try it. Before I even begin trying to make a build though, I want to get a few thoughts on the idea.

What I know:

- It's not the greatest plan. It will not perform as well as a melee Scrapper. That's not a problem. I have two other builds that are made for that.

- It will need a lot of recharge. There aren't going to be a lot of powers available for use, so they need to come up quickly.

- The character in question is a Broadsword/Invuln. That's not the best combination for this attempt. I don't care. I still believe it can be done.

Now, with those things in mind, how would you go about trying to make such a build?

I'm currently leaning towards using Darkness Mastery for Dark Blast, Tenebrous Tentacles, and Night Fall. I'll probably take Petrifying Gaze as well. Blackwand will provide an additional ST attack. I'll use sword attacks in AV fights, since low DPS would hurt the team in that situation. S/L/E/N defense shouldn't be hard to increase. The challenge will be getting it in balance with the recharge needed to function properly. I remember Night Fall having crappy damage, so I'll probably proc it up as much as possible in the hopes of fixing that problem. I am, however, open to suggestions. The only pool I ask that you avoid suggesting is Mace Mastery, as it is blatantly Arachnos-related.

I'd actually prefer nobody post a complete build, since creating one will be a large part of the fun for me. I'm merely asking for some thoughts on the idea.

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

Unless the epic version of Nightfall is vastly different than Dark Blast's, I can't say it's crappy. Nightfall is amazing on my Dark/Dark 'fender. Not the highest damage on its own, but it comes back fast and by god when you start spamming that and Tenebrous together... I can't help but giggle.

Good luck with this! I'm interested to see how it turns out.

It might work. I thought about making a claws/something scraster, and may eventually get around to it. Of course, doing it with no primary contribution will be harder. Good luck.

Well, it's doable. A friend of mine does the ranged scrapper thing on a Claws/SR/Weapons and does quite well. While he acknowledges it's not super optimal, from his viewpoint he feels useful and has fun and from my viewpoint (usually on an in-your-face Claws/SR/Body) I'm happy to team with that toon.

That's AFAIK a nicely IO'd, non-purple build. The survivability of an non-Body SR, a decent ranged/AoE attack set and when needed a good melee ST chain.

For BS/Invuln you'll likely be best served by a lunge-and-recover playstyle... I suspect that movement bonuses may be valuable to keep positioning yourself.

I'd go with Blaze Mastery. Char and Ring of fire are reasonably competitive DPA wise (albeit DoTs) and fireblast/ball speak for themselves.

Night fall actually has a good damage scale. The problem with it is that it's the only attack that uses the scrapper ranged modifier, which is hideously low. In effect, it's been bugged for over six years and no one cares so it hasn't been looked at. I wouldn't recommend using it as a proc mule just because its recharge and endurance are set up as though it's a competent attack, which it is not, so they're vastly inflated. Torrent, also of darkness mastery, is actually the better bet both in terms of the procs that it takes and its larger area. Sadly it also costs boatloads of endurance but at least it recharges faster. Its guaranteed knockback could be a boon for this character. It isn't that you necessarily need the survival on an invuln scrapper, but it might help you keep things at range given that their default behavior is to give you hugs forever.

Laevateinn is correct that the individual powers in blaze mastery are radically better than those in dark mastery, but blaze has one aoe versus dark's three. Seems like dark could be made to work more smoothly as an ad hoc primary, however wonky the resulting build looks.

Invuln does best when surrounded by foes. Why broadsword if you plan on not being in melee?

Have you considered Soul Mastery from the Patron Pools? It has a snipe attack, a very nice ST range blast (basically the DM T2 attack in range form), a DoT Hold, and, of course, Shadow Meld. They are all single target powers, but will give you some nice range versatility.

A thought; while not properly a ranged attack, Spring Attack might contribute to a ranged feel for the toon.

Just a note, I have a KM/FA/Fire Master with a 'at range build' that does rather well. High Recharge does wonders with Repulsing Torrent, Focused Burst, Fire Blast and Fire Ball. Throw in Char and Her Judgement, she can do fairly well at range. She's no blaster, but on a team of blasters i can semi-fit in.