ClawsandEffect

I'm just going to keep my answer simple:


Yes.

Depends on the build.

My claws/regen doesn't need it at all, because he has more than enough endurance to run FA.

My BS/DA needs it desperately, running FA isn't even an option for him. He's just barely this side of end sustainable as it is running 9 toggles. One more would break him.

If you find that you are ok with just FA then you don't need it. It's really a question no one but you can answer, since you are more familiar with your builds than anyone else.

Too many variables to give a definite yes or no.

Are you going to be fighting uplevel? Do you have a lot of defense debuffs in your primary? Does your IO slotting give you a lot of accuracy? All these questions will have different answers depending on the character, and all must be considered when answering whether or not you need that particular IO.

The idea of someone who has never played the game being able to buy a tricked out level 50 without ever having run a single mission does not sit well with me at all.

AE babies were bad, this would be even worse. Imagine being teamed with someone on an STF or RSF and finding out that the first mission of the TF is the first one they ever ran. Especially if they are filling an important role, like, say, a tank on the STF. Just a little helpful if you know what you're doing in that situation.

Why, yes, yes I am. Thanks for having faith in me Bill

Yep. The tank lost agro for a split second and he nailed me.

I was on an ITF with Cold Shields on and inside a Dispersion bubble, I was WELL beyond the softcap (75% to all), he got lucky and slipped one through. You will be hit 5% of the time no matter HOW high your defense is.

I have all of the things you mentioned and it didn't matter. I would have needed better resistance to both smashing and energy to survive that attack, my 25% to smashing damage didn't really help.

Are you actually serious about this?! The mouthiest, smuggest, most arrogant person I know of on the forums calling someone else out on it? I'm not sure if I'd call this irony or hypocrisy. I suppose it depends on whether or not you are actually aware of your personality traits. People aren't griefing you with all the neg repping....you have earned every bit of it.

And I can guarantee this will NEVER happen. The devs are trying to get rid of RMTers, not give them a way to make even more money. This would just ensure that RMTers will never leave the game. You could email them a build, they would level a character to 50 and slot whatever you want in the powers, then sell it to you for a ridiculous sum. And lazy people all over the place would jump all over it. This is a HORRIBLE idea. If you want a 50, level it yourself.

While that is true, some 60% of the attacks in the game have a smashing or lethal component. The most common ranged attack in the game by far is machine gun fire, which is pure lethal damage. Most melee attacks have a smashing or lethal component, with a few exceptions. And the exceptions are mostly player powers, I can't think of too many NPCs that are going to hit you with Mind Probe, and only a couple have Scorch.

Energy melee attacks are all part smashing, electric melee is part smashing except for a couple powers. Fire Sword (which is fairly common actually) is part lethal. Obviously smash/lethal covers your basic punch and knife or sword attacks as well.

Smashing and lethal defense actually gives you more protection that is readily apparent, since it covers any attack that has a smashing or lethal component, even if it includes another damage type.

Well, the way you said it originally, it sounded like you were saying that NO Dark Armor scrapper could softcap, which isn't true. Had you said "On a spines scrapper I know you can't", I would have agreed, as I have never seen a build that does it. All you said was "a scrapper" which implies that no scrapper can do it. My build is not the norm, and I never said that it was. It is a Dark Armor scrapper that is softcapped, which your original statement says couldn't be done.

Softcap is defined as having 45% or higher defense. How you got there is irrelevant. If you pop a bunch of purples, you are softcapped for the duration of the inspirations. So, the fact that I use Parry to softcap melee defense has no bearing on whether or not I am softcapped. Saying that sotcapping with Parry doesn't count is like saying that perma Hasten isn't perma because you have to click the power again.

And actually, you can't get 700% regen on an SR. Siphon Life is simply a self heal, it does nothing to increase regeneration. If you said "I can heal such and such amount of HP per second" because of Siphon Life, it would be true, since you can average it out to come up with a number. But.....that doesn't qualify as regeneration as the term is commonly used.

I apologize if my previous post was heavy on the snark. I was a little annoyed by being told that a build I spent a lot of time and influence on doesn't count as softcapped because I use Parry to get there.

You mean now we can't hear about how Sir Robin bravely ran away?

Look at the second build I posted in that thread.

And remember to turn Combat Jumping on.

I know for an absolute fact that it IS softcapped, because it is on my live character.

And another thing: Since Parry is part of my attack chain, any time I am in melee to be attacked from that position, I am softcapped to it. If I am not in melee with anything in order to stack Parry, I obviously have no need to have defense to it.

Ranged is at 45.17% on live, and AoE is at 44.9%. Sure you could quibble that AoE is .1% away from being softcapped, but I have NEVER seen a situation where .1% was the difference between being hit and not being hit. I'm sure it's happened, but I've never seen it.

All you said was "On a scrapper I know you can't", referring to Dark Armor softcapping. You never said anything about conditions or primary. As far as your original statement is concerned, my build proves it wrong. You made a blanket statement and it was debunked.

You can debate semantics all day, and it won't change anything. I proved you wrong, and you changed your argument to say that because I used Parry to achieve it, it doesn't count.

The Nem staff is a single target KB on a fairly long recharge.

Energy Blast has 2 AoE KB powers, most of the time it's those powers that are getting the hate.

Damage auras generally don't cause scatter. In the tank's case, their damage aura is usually their taunt aura too, so if anything it prevents scatter. Scrapper auras don't have the taunt component, but generally if nothing else is piling on a lot of damage they'll focus their hate on the scrapper.

AFAIK the only damage aura that causes scatter is Hot Feet.

I concur, that IS pretty cool.

I have no idea what I'm doing yet. I have a name picked out (no one will EVER take it before I do, it's really obscure) but no theme yet.