Sailboat

Uhhhh...

Air Superiority appears to be knockup, looking at City of Data. Ripper is knockdown; neither is knockback, that's what I was trying to convey. Ripper should only work like knockback when used on low-level stuff or sometimes knockback-vulnerable stuff (Clockwork are the only ones I can think of offhand).

2) In practical terms, do KB invention sets noticeably increase the effectiveness of Ripper's knockback? If an enemy's level is what determines whether Ripper produces KD or KB, will an enhancement set convert the former to the latter?[/QUOTE]



KB invention slotting will indeed convert KD into KB (at some point; I'm not sure if it takes a certain percentage of enhancement). But if you like knockdown, don't slot +knockback into Ripper.

Not "seriously."

Well, my tongue-in-cheek point was that Vigilance affects all powers and is much, much less desirable than Scourge. Conversely, Scourge doesn't work for some powers but is nevertheless pretty good.

Conclusion: fix Defender Vigilance before spending coding resources on making Scourge, already a good inherent, Even Better™.

I think it's a great argument -- much better than "give buffers a pet!"

Buffers and debuffs each have a major but not definitive area of weakness, and one is weak where the other is strong. I never specified soloing AVs, just fighting them, and frankly the argument that neither debuffing nor buffing defenders can solo an AV seems to me to invalidate the OP's argument that there's an imbalance between the two, more than it refutes my point. If neither can do it, that's balance. The buffer is less able to solo, and the debuffer is somewhat less useful on teams, and dramatically less useful on teams fighting AVs.

I can't speak for other posters, but one reason I dislike it is that I often get "Can I join your team?" requests when I'm, you know, not teamed. Since you can tell by the search tool who does and does not have a team currently, this indicates to me that the person asking either can't be bothered to think for a moment, or doesn't understand the search system, which sometimes (not always) indicates the kind of confusion that means I'll have to tiresomely explain everything. You know, should I invite the person, which means I'd form a team, find something to do, and start herding cats.

But I'm never rude to the people who do this -- it's a small world, and I may be teamed with them some day soon.

So far I haven't tried to invite myself onto teams of strangers (friends are another matter). I do form my own teams often enough, and for Task Forces, if we need more to start, I even will send /tells to strangers who don't have their team flag set -- although I don't send any to people the search tool indicates already have teams. I try to be as polite as possible when so doing, though.

In return, when people are polite or thoughtful in inviting me, I make an effort to join; and even if I can't take them up on it (say, I'm leving the house in a few more minutes), I make a player note about that player, because the good ones are worth remembering.

Maybe you can. My bio space is prime real estate and it's always used up.


*Smacks forehead* I always forget that I can put a player note on myself! Brilliant idea.

I've seen several people say this, and I feel compelled to point out that DEBUFFING Defenders get the shaft when fighting AVs -- debuffs get reduced by the AV's gigantic debuff resistance, but buffs retain full value.

Does that mean that buffers and debuffers are balanced? I don't know. But the world's debuffers are painfully aware they are at a stark disadvantage fighting AVs; buffers are not. The Devs know it too, and may possibly be unmoved by special pleading to allow buffers better soloing if we're not going to help debuffers.

I don't use Mids', so I can't comment on specifics.

Is that with one foe in range of Invincibility, I assume? Because an Invulnerability user's defense numbers change with the proximity of enemies, I find it useful to be specific about what circumstances enable one to hit those numbers.

That's fine; it's skippable.

My experience with exemplaring my Inv/SS Tanker quite a lot for task forces and lower-level content has been that even at fairly low levels, the character seemed quite strong -- even before Tough and Weave, even without set bonuses, even with degraded enhancement values. Part of it may be that one is almost always on a team for such exemplaring, and Inv benefits nicely from almost any kind of support or buff. But even after my teammates fell on Synapse, I was able to fight off hordes of end-draining Clockworks surprisingly well. I think Inv is genreally well-suited to exemplaring.

I wouldn't worry too much about taking Tough and Weave late, but that may depend on the definition of late, and I can't see your build. I'd try to get to Weave before the 40s, at least. My understanding is that you don't want Build Up to come much later than Lightning Rod, however, since using them together is so nice.

Generally, you aren't playing to a Scrapper's strengths with a "go make a sandwich and whittle them down" playstyle. Scrappers have less durability and make up for that with offensive output. Many Scrappers do just fine fighting big crowds of foes as long as they are actively putting out damage and taking down enemies (thus reducing the incoming damage) but would not do so well just standing there sucking up damage and waiting for the aura(s) to slowly melt the foes. Damage output is part of a Scrapper's mitigation.

If you play Spines/Fire aggressively, using the regular click attacks as well as the damage auras, you will find that you still can't stand in a crowd long enough for someone else to make a sandwich -- because the crowd is GONE, baby. That works well enough as a strategy, but it might not be what you want.

You might find something like an Invulnerability/Fire Tanker with Fire Sword Circle set to auto works better for true "wander away from the keyboard" killing.

Note that you'll have to set the attack on auto manually for each fight -- because FSC doesn't need a foe in range to go off, you won't be able to move around a map without the damn thing activating and stopping you in place. :P

I agree with Ad Astra, well-presented idea. I'll go further and synthesize the three posts I quoted above: why don't you go back to the drawing board with this very suggestion and recast it as an AT or a Mastermind powerset? You've already given it some thought; take these posts as guidance instead of criticism, and expand on your idea. It proabably would be overpowered as a pool, but it might do just fine as a powerset or an AT.

If "FoA" is Fistful of Arrows, City of Data says it has a 10-target cap. But that doesn't invalidate your point, of course. Sorry to nitpick.

Ripper won't send even-level enemies out of range; it's normally knockdown, but that translates to knockback against enemies of lower level than the character. Fight whites and above and you won't have any trouble from Ripper.

Generally, every time Ripper recharges, I get a good feeling. It's nice when your biggest damage attack is also an AoE and also your best mitigation (as far as the primary goes). Big damage, on a bunch of guys, knockdown, toxic damage over time, slow recharge, slow movement.

Plus the flip! Never forget the flip.

Hey, that's more complex than most Scrappers.

On a Defender (unlike a Controller) I see value in adding some slow even though it only slows movement. Defenders have fewer stacking slows and fewer controls in general. I might frankenslot 2-3 End/Rech/Slow pieces into SS (really, End/Slow would be better -- you don't need the recharge -- but apparently they don't make any).