NightSable

Roll a Dark Defender. Awesome fun and does a little of everything.

Roll a Fire/Dark Corr in Prae and go blue at lvl 20.

Roll Cold/ Def. Ice is decent on defenders due to the rains, or go /Rad or /Psi if you want some potential fun slotting later on. Cold/Son is also a heavy hitter.

I have a 75 month vet badge so now I make alts with specific things in mind. For example, lets say I want to be a big game hunter (hunt GM's for dun), then traps/sonic, rad/son, or Cold/Son defenders or perhaps their corr counterparts come to mind.

I want to become an RWZ specialist as another example. Well FF or Sonic def may be good for the dispersion bubble mez protect (forget what they call it with sonic).

Of course, my scrappers are great for everything, which is why I have so many varieties of them, but I think it is good to plan if you want to build for high lvl tfs, ritki raids, hami raids, etc... Some folks like to specialize in mid range tfs, so I might give very different recommendations.

My personal recommendation however is to create a Cold def. At low lvls, it will be challenging at times, but late game, you will get more tf invites then you know what to do with.

Good luck

Lots of things are left.

Street Fighting (animations where you slam heads into knee, ballkick, headbutt etc...)
Polearms would be cool
Lava Control ( a mix of fire and earth - not to hard to go this one)
Light blasting (kinda like energy, but instead of knockback, you do more -to hit buff, you know with the blinding lights)
Insect or animal control - better for MM, summon wolves, lions and a giant bear for third tier, or swarms of insects
Heavy artillery - like AR, but a bit heavier on the hits or something
Sonic Melee and Sonic Armor
Chameleon Armor - a mix like WP and defense based set with some mimic NPC costume power allowing you to walk into enemy groups (lot of defense since they aren't sure if they should attack you or not) or you could mimic the stone walls or grassy fields.
Teleport melee - allows you to have ranged punch, put hand in disc or something and fist appears and punches enemy from distance
Water blast, water control and water armor - yes, it still needs to be done, the demand is high
Chain or Whip melee - already there with the MM pretty much

They could also revamp a lot of the power pools to make them more useful.
Attacking while invisible is OK
Flying attack power (forget group fly already) as the top tier - call it divebomb
Flurry could have 8 small punches land at same time (so fast, you could not see it) reducing animation time
Jump Kick - More like a frog jumping on prey for animation

New travel powers - Wallcrawling
Choices when traveling - flight allows flying or jet pack animation or rocket boots animation, etc... Teleport could be entering a disc and stepping out the other side.
SS - running, or riding motorcycle, car, etc...



I just thought of these on the fly. Grab any old comic and you will find something new to inspire a powerset.

KM/WP Stalker. Stalker's in general are EZ to solo, very relaxing, and you can go as fast or slow as you choose. Perfect for story content if you are trying to go through all the arcs, and can easily drop EB's. Since solo, you should not get AV's unless you change your settings, but then that would not be relaxing. Good badgers in general. The only problem with stalkers is when you decide you want the MoSTF badge one day. It will be hard to get an invite, but if you don't care about certain badges, they are great fun.

Scrappers are also generally relaxing as they are one of the easiest AT's to play until you start to up your enemies/levels to challenge yourself. At initial settings, they are super easy and good learning toons for the game.


Not relaxing but fun anyway: PB/WS/Blasters/Tanks(if you are a good tank who protects the team)/any healer AT/kins (please sb meh requests)/Earth trollers(best controller, but the control becomes obsessive, and you eventually find yourself locking down everything on the map or I did. It got to the point where if someone could run, I felt a sense of fail)/BRUTES (fury bar sucks me in, so I always want to stay on the hunt)

Fire/Traps is pretty super. The DPS of Fire with the Utility of Traps is a great combo. Softcapping is reasonable. Decent Mez Protection built in. Good for AV and GM hunting. Also, Traps allows for cool IO slotting IMHO which can help those on a budget early on in there gaming career. My Frapper (Fire/Trapper) was pretty godly, even at low lvls. I think the build is tight early on, but because I skip the bombs and the nuke, it opens up late game to lots of flexibility for your build preferences. I also like the fact that it plays godly, but you still do not see as many Frappers around.

Of course /Rad, /Storm, /Cold, and /Dark are all great too, so go for what feels good to you. I think /TA would be good actually late game, although probably underrated. OSA + Rain of Fire in itself has got to be all kinds of yummy goodness. Hmmmmm, maybe a new project is in the works...

Fly is awesome and fun. Here is the problem however. If you ever think you may want to PvP, even for a second, then it is the worst travel power. It is also the slowest one, even with the changes. Better to spend the $10 and get ninja run at lvl 4. Lots of temp fly powers in game, and you can even buy jetpacks.

Hasten to open up SS, and CJ to open up SJ. Both very useful powers there and many take hasten anyway. SS is probably a bit more common as celerity+stealth IO gives full invisibility (big plus there). Hover has its uses, and can be an ok power for the right build. I think TP is much rarer, but if you computer has no lag issues, it is the fastest mover in the game, and you can escape in PvP if you are passing through and someone tries to gank you (Not for fighting). I see some stone tanks use Teleport, and that is almost it outside of noobs, and the 5 of those people who love it.

Fly needs to be sped up and use less endurance to be useful IMHO, but it is still a cool power. No better way to see the zone. Get a jet pack and see the zone if you must though.

I think I would just tell the team that you are a tankermind, and your primary goal is dishing damage and taking in damage and it is fair. Also, forget about it negative players. Usually I find most whiners are actually players who believe that they are good, but actually play terribly. I hope you do bubble prior to AV/HERO fights or in special situations, but I think it's fine overall not to bubble everyone, expecially the brute or tank (if they are half decent, they won't need bubbles except at early levels). Pets running wild can actually be one of the most dangerous things on a team in some cases, so better to control their leash.

Of course, I could argue that a good MM should be able to bubble and control the pets and tankermind ;-P, but a good tank and a good brute should not need a bubble. I bubble squishies and only bubble the tanks/brutes prior to big battles or in early lvls.

P.S. Make your bubbles super bright red or green and then people will not ask for them as much. Make them dark grey and they are barely seen, so people will not notice they are on or off much. Either strategy works pretty well actually for bubble/player relations.

Cheers

See post above and stickies above. The problem seems to be that no one is trying to fix PvP since it has been working poorly since issue 13 a long time ago. I would prefer the devs just revert back the prior version as IO's do help to tip the balance against the power set choices somewhat (notice I said somewhat).

That being said, it is broken so badly, I can routinely take characters without travel powers into the zones and collect badges, do mishes and have no fear of getting ganked. Other than RV and the occasional Sirens match ups, don't see much activity, even on Freedom. I remember even Bloody Bay and Warburg used to be active but now they are zones where people visit prior to collect Shivans and nukes. I miss the day when I would be working on a Shivan to get ganked my a stalker at the last second...

It hits pretty hard, with a nice stun attached. Good for when you have to get scrappy. When you are in HIDE only AS or perhaps BURST (in large groups) should be used first. I think the problem is that you do not see your build up, but sometimes when I notice, it I see a huge damage increase. It would be nice if they gave a noise or something to let you know it activated, but whatever. I think this power only suffers from long animation making it partially situational, although it is a monster in pvp. I use this as a finisher sometimes, not as an opener. I usually open with BU + BURST + placate + AS the boss then CS if still standing somehow (which is rare). On some teams I just BU + burst and scrap it out. Usually solo, or depending on team movement through mobs do I worry about starting with AS. If you view a mob as one mass enemy with a lot of HP, you do more damage with BU + BURST not to mention the sweet sweet knockdown (its like footstomp for stalkers sorta).

I will try to pay more attention and run some experiments to see if CS is triggering as described and acting as proposed. I doubt they would buff it considering how awesome KM is on stalkers compared to the other primaries. If anything, I fear the nerfbat a little.

There are a lot of requests that seem to indicate that players find it unacceptable to get killed in the game. Challenging and tough mishes are sometimes really hard, and people do not know what to do. I think I have a really really really really good solution. While this may be a bit much, being excessive good without any work/practice/skill or just of of the box seems to be important to a lot of people. Of course, as you will see, this is a power that you do not ever have to click, so it allows others to continue on as they see fit. Hey, its your money you spend every month, so you should have a choice now. Hear this out...


Need a new tier 1 power for all players. Basically it allows you to be unkillable and do 1000000% damage. Click the toggle once and it stays activated until you delete the character. It allows you to become lvl 51 automatically, and grants you 200 purple/pvp IO recipes, plus 2 billion inf that recharges every 2 min. You also have the ability to wave you hand and watch all the enemies in a zone drop dead, even if one of the enemies is hamidon. During pvp, you remain phased and have a 100000 hp increase with 100000 regen. You can still wave your hand and eliminate all other players in pvp, even if they are still zoning in or even if they think they may zone in within a few days. Also, any players you kill in pvp die in real life as well if they have not activated there tier 1 by this time. The devs will design special farms for you where every underling drops a purple recipe, in case you wanted to sell them on the market, which has now been named after you as you basically own it. You no longer sell salvage here, but you do sell the souls of other players. Emporor Cole, Lord Recluse and Statesman fight as your pets now. Sister Psyche, Mother Mayhem and Ghost Widow are now your women. If you are a female player, you have an option to change them out to male NPC's or simply remake them male as you see fit or you can keep them female (that's hot!!!). Ritki drop ships can turn into smoke with a wave of your pinkie. GM's fight for you in the arena now. EB's turn into ritki monkey gas if you look at them. You can click your heels and go to any area in any zone. The ritki mothership fixed their engines and took off to get the hell out of here. Shadow cyst crystals explode in fear when you log in. All statues in all zones look like you now (not your character, but actually you). Ms Liberty finally took off her clothes in Atlas and stands there naked in honor of you. All zones are named after you. The morality system is basically been changed into those that worship you and those who no longer exist. All MM pets look like you, unless you make a MM, where they look like bikini girls (or cabana boys if that is your thing). When you play the game, you no longer have to use the controls. You can lead raids into WoW now and kill all just like CoX.

I hope this suggestion addresses all of the requested fixes in the game and best yet, it is with one simple toggle which is a really swell thing and all, because we don't really want to have to click all those buttons and stuff. I also know that dying once and awhile is totally a drag and all. Missing and not one shotting totally is unfair as well and it makes our lives really hard and stuff. It is hard to farm, or pvp sometimes, so I really think it is fair to buff my abilities. Stupid practice and skill could never be an answer to this, so lets just get that idea out of our heads.

So devs, I humbly request that you will take this request seriously to address all of the other requests out there with one simple fix. I would call this the doomsday patch personally, but up to you all as you know best until you give us the tier one power, then we know best. I know that I really did not address bases here or recharge red or interrupt time, but I figured that would be asking for too much. <wink wink> and we can come back to those requests in a future patch if needed.

OK, is it me or does anyone want to set some of the new funky dance emotes with the party pack to go automatically after you AS someone? I need a bind for this, because it just looks like too much fun!!!

PVP - AS, do a lil dance over the corpse of your enemy. Hell yeah beeyatches!!!!

I have a lvl 33 vigilante KM/WP stalker, and I love it. I have recently started getting good at playing her too. So last night, I had a moment that made me swell up with joy and pride.

Citadel TF. Running smoothly. We got a good team. We split accidently as this stuff happens. Me and the brute accidently run off to the right. The blasters, trollers and corrs run off to the left.

Me and the brute (also KM/WP) find ourselves alone in the little jail room with about two mobs swarming. First off, kudos to the brute for surviving the alphas. What happened next? The brute is in the middle of the mob and just stands there, but I was already there. I build up, pop a med red and fire off burst from hide. The brute is suddenlysurrounded by a wounded archon and two lieus (all injured). I placate and AS the archon. The rest of the council move in quick. I pop reconstruction and burst again after a couple of single target shots in between. They are dead.

The brute asks what the hell just happened? I said, well it appears we kicked some ***. He says, well his mouse batteries died (OK< LOL to mouse batteries). He then said, wow stalkers can kick some ***. I gave him a praetorian salute and moved on to the next room. I then went into hide as my eyes swelled with pride.

You got to understand, no one usually ever says anything like wow, nice stalking. Typically you hear, awesome healing dude, or great heals or nice tanking, but never once in 72 months (of course some of these do not count) has anyone ever said nice stalking or the like.

Things that interrupt AS
(1) Stalker getting bumped out of position by other players (sometimes NPCs like citizens running in banks)
(2) AOE attack goes off (caltrops to shotgun blasts to fireballs)
(3) Stalker accidently moves him/herself
(4) Line of site is broken between target and stalker before AS goes off
(5) Some non-damaging auras (Circle of thorn crystals have done it rarely)

As a brute running in, you can cause the stalker AS to go awry potentially. As a stalker player, my advice to you is to ignore the stalker. You are brute, so SMAAAAASH!!!!

Also, tell your friend to lighten up, you appreciate them trying to kill the boss quickly as it helps the team, and then say consider a nice aoe or pbaoe as an opener (lots of enemies with lots of crits), placate the boss and then try to AS or use heavy hitter. People do not like being told how to play, but since they told you first, feel free to correct them in their playstyle.

KM seems best on the stalker IMO. It is like Elec control is better on Doms (IMO once again). The animation on KM AS is awesome. I do agree that the attacks animation time is not that long, but with low hp, the enemies attack you before you fire of the attack in many cases, so you do have to be cautious. In otherwords, the animation time can cause significant pain to some sets. I use my reconstruction power on the earlier side of the battle in many cases.

My KM/WP stalker Praetorian just hit 20 and I headed off to Paragon soon to be the heroic assassin (lol). Lots of ambushes in the Praetorian arcs were a pain, so hard to ever use AS, although I think I died only a couple of times. So, I can scrap it out, but I have all the vet powers to back up my attacks(sands of mu, nemesis staff, black wand). If I was a noobie, I think the set would be more challenging to play.

The only thing that kind of bugs me about the set is that the noises sound like NASCAR to me, but I can live with it.

So I agree if read right, it is pretty sweet, but it is not working. I have stood in mobs of 8 seeing it hit, and I am defintely not regaining any end. My regen looks good. I can be out of end in fact in about 30 seconds. I am sending a request for the devs to look into it. Combat attributes shows the numbers like it is working, but there is no way I would be out of end in 4-5 attacks only. Also, all the other elec controllers I have been playing with seem to run on an empty blue bar best I can tell. It may be that elec very end heavy at the low levels, but this seems counter-intuituve.

Submitting bug reports anyway. As for my damage wish, I know they do not want to create a new farming troller (perhaps I did though).

On my new loyalist elec/kin troller, my conductive field power has proven to be an excellent sapper. However, it appears, none of the regen or end is going back to me. Can anyone verify this. I have stood on groups surrounded by 15 with everyone held, and ran out of endurance. I slotted with DO's currently (only lvl 17) and I have one accu, 3 end mod and 2 health. I feel like a PBAOE malta sapper. I have checked my stats and it reads like I am increasing regen/recov, but this is not like the blaster MM secondary set that is somewhat comparable.

Also, a need for minor (like caltrops minor) damage is really needed for this IMHO. Even with a slow recharge on the damage componant. Since the power uses no endurance, I suppose it is fair not to do damage, but it would really make it a 5 star power. I am currently considering a respec until it is fixed (which may be never, lol).

This is a funny thread. Scrapper and Brutes have all had their advantages discussed pretty well. I would say that if I was running a ITF or LGTF and I was FORCED to pick between a brute or a scrapper (assuming the builds were relatively similar in terms of IO's and such), I would take the brute. Why? Brutes can tank easier than the average scrapper. OK, dodged a tomato there, close one. My scrapper, like many of yours can tank too. Some would say why not just get a tank then. Well, why get a tank when you can have a brute? The logic goes on, so the debate is question is somewhat pointless. I think tanks will have a mild decrease in the population however unless the mission content becomes so difficult it requires a capped tank for the team to survive (like STF, hami raids, a few other etcs...)

Why make a scrapper when you can make a brute? Here are 12 reasons for me.

(1) Katana on my female toon looks dead sexy with the animations. <awaits thong costume piece>
(2) Eagles Claw animation FTW. Yummy
(3) Random crits are like little rewards. It's a psychology thing here.
(4) Regen on scrappers is all melee has for PvP blueside. (ducks a chair being thrown at head by pvp community).
(5) I can get up and pee and not worry about losing fury. Peeing when you need to is always a plus.
(6) The vanguard katana looks like a lightsaber, but sexier than the broadsword lightsaber.
(7) Martial Arts is the most comic book looking power since energy blast.
(8) People don't ask me if I am a tank by mistake as a scrapper.
(9) My female toons don't look bruttish enough. She Hulk smash? Meh, not my bag baby.
(10) Nostalgia. My first lvl 50 was a scrapper. I always figured my last lvl 50 would be a scrapper one day too.
(11) I can turn into a little ball of spikey death with a scrapper. Quills sounds do cause fury however on the other side of the screen.
(12) Why not?

IMHO

Web Grenade - Since it does no damage, this is inferior to the other tier 1 immobs all the other secondaries get. I think it should have a small damage componant or be a pure hold(with no damage). There are some PvP uses here. 2/5 stars

Caltrops - Great power. I like it. 4/5 stars

Taser - Power sucks. It can be used for stacking, but as a blaster, I would rather stack two serious attacks. This power should be removed and reworked completely. 0/5 stars

Targeting Drone - I think this is a good power still. Not what it used to be since IO's, but it is still pretty good. Perception is good too, and for the rare /dev who pvp's, it is a bonus. I would not skip on a /dev blaster still. 3/5 stars

Smoke Grenade - This power is helpful, but also skippable. Others may disagree. I would rather have this replaced with tear gas or sleeping gas even. 2/5 stars

Cloaking Device - Sadly, a once set defining power has been replaced by an IO. So this power used to get 4 or 5 stars, but now I give it zero. For a brand new player who can't afford a celerity IO, this is fine choice, but for many, it's very outdated. The defense is negligible, however I have not tried to soft-cap a devices blaster, so perhaps someone has a use for it. This power would be better if it had defense increased to 10%-ish range and/or offered full invisibility and it did not require endurance. Replace with FFG from traps is my recommendation. 0/5 stars

Trip Mine - Set defining power. It is situational, but excellent in the right situation. I would probably leave as is. 3/5 stars

Time Bomb - Great idea, but complete fail. This power needs to be revamped. If left alone, I think the damage should be extreme extreme to compensate for the suck factor it brings (in other words, make it the most powerful attack in the game, but good luck getting it off and getting a team to wait for you to set it). Better to have a sticky bomb (time bomb you stick on an enemy) or to have a grenade. Personally, I would just drop the power and add something totally new like (thinking off the top of my head), electrical field (this would be an electrical aura with Pbaoe stun for any melee that gets too close. Good damage mitigation at least. I am sure someone could do better than this though. 0/5 stars

Gun Drone - So this is a huge improvement over its predecessor. Its a blaster pet. End to summon is high. This power should not require re-summoning to justify the endurance cost. I would also like it to function more like a typical pet with more than one attack. I like the concept of it however. 2/5 stars.


So interestingly enough, I usually would not pick any power that I give less than 3 stars, so if I was building a devices blaster today, my power choices would only include the following: Caltrops, TD and Trip Mine. I would also choose webnade, because I have no choice. So with 4 powers from the secondary, this would allow a lot of choices from the primary or lots of power pool choices which is the only real positive factor I find in /dev builds. The builds are not tight at all. I might pick Gun Drone becuase it is neat, and a pet to take aggro and alphas has it's uses.

Overall, Devices comes out as the weakest secondary with lots of situational powers. So I would still play it however because it is different, and I like to play non-uber combos sometimes. I would consider it an advanced secondary not for newbies (sadly it attracts newbies due to it's uniqueness). Last comment, the obvious one is the lack of build up just hurts to much. Once you have had a blaster with build up, it is hard to go back to not having it.

Time Bomb could be a better power. I always wished it was a sticky bomb instead where you could attach to the back of an enemy or something. As it is, it is useful solo for very safe bombing, but on teams, the speed of the team (hopefully) makes it less useful. When I soloed my AR/DEV blaster back in the old days of CoH, I used to have the time worked out to set up a time bomb, and then plant a trip mine while stealthed at the feet of my enemies. It is called toe bombing (time bomb not required). A time bomb, plus a trip mine was one powerful supernuke if you will. I would jump back and full auto the mob usually for good riddance. This is fun at first, but after awhile, it becomes tedious, so in that sense, time bomb needs a lil attention. I don't hate the power, but I could think of 10 powers to pick that are better. It is all related to playstyle however, and if you like it, then go on with yo bad self!!!

I love my scrappers. I try to play other AT's, and I get plenty to 50, but all I wanna do is scrap. I have made at least one of all the primaries and secondaries, and I love them all. So my favorite scrappers are my Fire/Shield(Huntress Blaze) for AOE madness, and for tanking actually. My favorites solo specialist is my Katana/SR(Zealott) ( I made long time ago when I had no influence and softcapping was not routine). My 3rd fav is my MA/Regen just for sexy style and not too too bad in PvP (but not the best either, lol). I think I have 14 scrappers now.

Why do I post this? Why should you care? I just love my scrappers so much, I wanted to tell the world. If you love your scrapper, post your favorite combo. Wanna brag about a build, go for it.

Holla at your boy if you love your scrapper!!!

Like all scrappers, any primary and secondary will work well together and be fun and should have not issues leveling as scrappers are probably the easiest AT to get to 50 with since you can solo and team easily. With MA, I would focus on the extra AOE attacks to supplement the lack of AOE that comes with MA. So Shield Defense is my top choice unless you are going to pvp (then regen). MA/Regen can actually pvp decently.

Simple way to take down bug mobs with MA/SD is to run into mob and let AAO damage buff get up there. Focus Chi and Dragon's tail followed by shield charge to same spot to keep damage buff high and then eagle claw the boss or finish who is standing. Two knockdown attacks will not KB, but will put everyone including the bosses on their butts.

Shield Charge does decent damage, so even with single target fights that are long, I may consider dropping a shield charge here and there. MA is really about single target, and I love the animations as well as the feel of the gameplay with it, but the lack of AOE can be bothersome at times. Of course, if you were about AOE only, I would go Fire/SD or Elec/SD. I created the former, and my Fire/SD easily wipes mobs faster, but also solos ritki pylons faster too.

Forget about the whole stun stacking thing with dark melee. It looks cool, but team with a half-decent troller and you don't need to focus on that. A scrapper's job is many, but damage is one of the primary roles, so just decide if you want to be a single target specialist or an AOE nightmare and go from there.

WP is always a good choice too for an all around balanced toon, but I just wanted a bit more AOE, so I had to go shield and that shield AOE is da shiznut son.

Well, I have been able to get in, and I have to completely lower my graphics settings to the bare minimum before I log off and reset them when I enter (except screen resolution). If I forget to do this, then I have to go into safe mode and then restart and reset graphics, once again, when I am in, there is no issue with performance, even in ultramode, so not sure what gives. Passed on to support, but it seems they still have issues.

Never had an issue with I16 and before, and I tried test, and it works fine. Anyway, thanks for the other options for solutions. I think I will lax my game play until NCSOFT gets a more appropriate fix. Having to alter code or reset graphics each time is not a viable strategy to maintain customers. I am guessing mac users are not >10% of the player base, but as I guy who works in business, 10% loss of customers means letting people go, so hopefully someone is working on a solution.

I have a mac. I am not used to things not working. In fact, it is pretty rare thing indeed as most things work properly on the mac. Since NCSOFT claimed and sold a mac edition, one would deduce it would work. Issue 17 has been a horrible experience thus far. I suffer from the blank screen after trying to load CoX. This is how I have gotten around it. I pop open safe mode and then restart to my desktop screen settings. Then I can get in, and put all my graphics back to where I like them, even with ultramode, and everything works fine. If I leave it on those settings, then when I restart the next time, it seems to give me the blank screen yet again. So, I can fully run CoX, however, I can't start it up with those settings.

WTF?

OK, this was all true until yesterday. Now I can't seem to get in at all. I'm a 66 month vet, and really have no wishes to quit, but it seems the game and the devs are quitting on me here. You make something and sell it for a platform, it needs to work and should not require anyone to try to figure out how it works. That's one of the reasons mac users get a damn mac, so we don't have to worry about that kind of cr^p.

Thanks, felt good to vent that out.

P.S. The new market format sucks. Devs, please don't worry about fixing things that work well. Work on the hundred or so things that are still broken instead.