Is Scorpion Shield THAT good?

During the discussions about the Alinment Change Tokens these last couple of days, I've noticed more than one person use the example of going redside to get the Scorpion Shield power and then popping an ACT to get back to blueside with a minimum of hassle.

I've never been a fan of the limited selections and concept-breaking looks/themes of the PPPs, so I haven't paid much attention to them. Is Scorpion Shield that much better than the defensive powers offered in the APPs?

For several ATs, Scorpion Shield is the only +Def armor they can get, with all other sets offering only +Res. With the prevalence of the boards to prefer Def over Resistance (for some good reasons), it stands that this power is good enough to choose that APP over others, especially if you're only getting one or two powers from that pool anyways.

Gotcha, thanks.

Scorpion Shield provides very good S/L and Energy defense (useful in incarnate content) for corruptors, controllers, blasters and defenders, allowing you to soft-cap those defenses with most power sets without excruciating pain. It also has relatively inobtrusive effects that don't obscure your character's costume.

There are other options, such as Frozen Armor for blasters or Rock Armor for controllers. But if your concept doesn't involve ice or stone, or you hate the blocky ice and rock effects around your character, ice and stone are not good alternatives.

To the OP:

Thanks for asking this question. It's been something I was curious about myself, but kept forgetting to ask.

I have several characters who have nothing but Scorpion Shield from epic pools, even though in several cases I wish I could make a workable build utilize other powers.

It's just such a gigantic survivability increase, especially with IOs. I'm also big on incarnate content, and there's SO much raw energy damage thrown around in them you'd may as well have no protection at all if you don't build against either ranged or energy, and no squishy gets positional defense shields.

It's mechanically flat out better than any other defense shield offered in an epic pool, and defense shields are widely held to be superior to resist ones anyway, and it's not conceptually intrusive (as long as you don't hate purple or something).

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

Yes, scorpion shield is /that/ good. It's also for the most part the easiest option to reach softcap for most ranged ATs.

However some ATs can get much more mileage out of resist shields if you can get softcap via IOs, however this is much more difficult. Basically you want softcap in some form or another, however if you can get softcap without scorp shield you can pick up a resist shield and you will be much more survivable. My Fire/Time for example has 45% def to M/R/A defense and uses a resist shield, my Fire/Cold has 45% to M/R defense and uses a resist shield, and my Nin/Dark MM has 45% defense to ranged with a resist shield, all 3 of those toons are much more survivable than any toon that just had a scorpion shield.

Yes Scorp Shield is that good.

In a nutshell, yes it's that good, I have it or plan to get it on just about all my Defenders/Corruptors.

It doesn't really mess with any concepts because three isn't much graphically to it and you only have to choose one other power from the pool. I tend to pick Web Envelope and throw some Enfeebled operation into it for the defense bonuses or default slot it with the purple proc.

I'm planning on grabbing it for my Bots/Storm Mastermind when he reaches that point.

An additional 13.5% Smash/Lethal and 9% Energy defense (before any enhancement, if Tomax is to be believed) will stack nicely with the Bots' bubbles, Steamy Mist, and Combat Jumping.