Umbral

The Envoy isn't particularly solo friendly for 1 big reason: Healing Flames. You've got 60 seconds to deal 20% of his life, excluding his regeneration, or else you're never going to kill him. He's another of those horrible to solo, but not too bad on a team AVs that just don't solo well (especially if you're fire or neg damage).

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It looks like the FM/Shields build debate is dead. I think it got concluded between what Rankin and Werner both did by the looks of things.

Next?

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Suggestions phase, go! Let's get some suggestions going on! I want something truly thought provoking, capable of making me spend a few hours crunching numbers before my D&D game tomorrow!

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Wow that build is nice but it has very little in recharge bonuses.

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The nice thing about Katana, especially if you go with double stacking DA, is that you don't really need much recharge to get a good attack string going. You can have a perfectly functional and highly effective attack string with just SOs.

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Just get two scrappers and screw tanks....

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I didn't know you were so gung-ho about forced sex. :P

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What mission has you save a hospital from a GM attack?

Was more into suggestions thinking of zonal/server events like the rikti dropships/zombies etc.

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I was referring more towards your initial list than your suggestion. For zone events, I think it would be interesting to have more reactive and continually rewarding zone events. In general, most people only do a zone event until they get the badge and then they leave it be. Getting thematic temp powers and/or buffs would be pretty interesting.

The only one of those that isn't already in game is the meteorite shower. I know for a fact that, blueside, you actually stop a couple superpowered viruses/diseases (one of which is actually nanites).

Personally, I'd like to face a few more doomsday organizations rather than doomsday situations. Rather than fighting one really strong person trying to bring about the end of the world or another single really strong person trying to take it over, I'd love to see more stuff involving a large number of reasonably strong (re: EB rather than AB) level entities that you've got to fight at once before they can shatter reality or somesuch.

Of course, something involving Rularuu and the Shadow Shard would make it even better.

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The reason why the Fighting pool is generally considered requisite for softcapping is because Tough is the only pool power that will accept the Steadfast and Gladiator's 3% +def IOs and Weave is the most powerful +def pool power. That's 11.85% +def(all) that you're knowingly abandoning by not taking those pools, not to mention the rather significant benefits that taking Tough can have for an */SR.

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Bah I do not miss the tough/weave on my fire/shield either but I was going for damage my +40% damage buff for 1 target makes up for what I lost from tough yes I am softcapped

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Shield is a bit easier to drop the Fighting pool with since it's got +res powers to take the 3% +Def IOs so you're not losing nearly as much possible +def. */SR doesn't *get* to slot resistance in any of its powers.

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All that work? My first time on a team of first timers (well 6 out of 8) completed it in 45 mins.

I can see this being done in 20-30 mins easily.

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Much better than my 8 hour experience.

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All 4 of the blueside ReichsTFs I've run have taken roughly 45 minutes on heroic and about 1:15 on unyielding when we kill everything we see. I can't imagine how any group could take that long without having too few people.

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My idea, and I don't think I am the sole originator, is to revamp CP to include an enhanceable heal/+HP component (lesser version of Dull Pain) while halving the endurance discount portion.

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That would actually seem rather interesting. It wouldn't really break Cottage Rule, but it would definitely merit some degree of name change for the power (not that powers of the same name have to be the same). It might actually be better to contemplate making it a +recov/+hp/+heal power. Think mixing Dull Pain and Quick Recovery.

Basic numbers to think of would be 10% enhanceable +hp, 10% unenhanceable, 30% enhanceable heal, and 15% +recovery all on a 4 minute cooldown with a 60 second duration. The +hp is half of Dull Pain's, the heal is 75%, the +recov is half of Quick Recovery's, and the basic uptime ratio is 25% rather than 33%. The heal is, itself, better over time than Dull Pains would be, meshing well with the +res of the set, but the +recharge requirements to get it permanent would be a good deal higher to make up for the diverse attributes.

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Or land on concrete and they don't even have to roll to dissipate the energy.

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Depending on the comic world, some heroes use inertics to disperse the energy across every atom of the body at once rather than having it pass through in a wave.

The reason why the Fighting pool is generally considered requisite for softcapping is because Tough is the only pool power that will accept the Steadfast and Gladiator's 3% +def IOs and Weave is the most powerful +def pool power. That's 11.85% +def(all) that you're knowingly abandoning by not taking those pools, not to mention the rather significant benefits that taking Tough can have for an */SR.

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Conserve Power is pretty useless on a Brute or a Stalker if you IO them out with +recov bonuses, Endurance reducers and Accolades for max end, though it could help in a tight spot. Without IOs, it does help, but it takes forever to recharge.

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You're giving Conserve Power a really bad rap like most people do, especially considering that the power set has Quickness to increase the uptime. Even in IO builds, it's not uncommon for Conserve Power, with just 2 slots, to be capable of reversing a .6 end/sec deficiency. Conserve Power, considering how much endurance attack strings use, is actually a very powerful, especially when you've got internal +rech to get it back even more often.

What I think most people neglect to see about Electrical Armor is that it's actually better for endurance than Willpower, Regeneration, or any other set out there. It's weaker defensively because it's got more outright utility than any other set brings to the fore. The 2 main resist toggles are actually more effective than similar toggles in other sets (35% to 3 common damage types before AT mods rather than 30%). What makes it "weaker" in most people's eyes is that, beyond the basics (mez protection, 2 survivability toggles), it focuses on attributes that are ignored through normal means of determining balance. It's like saying that Fire Armor and Shield defense are weaker but only because you choose to ignore their offensive additions. Electrical Armor is actually well balanced, if you actually consider the additional endurance capabilities and passive benefits.

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Electric Armor-Low resists,no defense, and no regen/HP bonus on a low HP AT? lolwut?


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Agreed LOL Lets not act like Brutes couldn't use the help either

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Because it pays to ignore the fact that the power set brings in 3 incredibly powerful support utility powers. Lightning Reflexes (omg! more recharge!), Conserve Power (which provides a huge boon for endurance problems), and Power Sink (more than twice as good as Dark Consumption and Consume!). Electric armor is sub par in the region of personal defenses because it's packing major benefits elsewhere.

Tanking is not just an issue of being able to survive a hit. It's also the ability to attack hate from the enemies, something which a Scrapper will never be able to match. Gauntlet is just too awesome at. The only teams I've actually had that ran well with a Scrapper "tanking" were generally teams that didn't have much need for anyone to be tanking in the first place (generally by having boatloads of +def and +res buffs being tossed about).

Remember that, even if you get Tanker level hp with massive amounts of +hp, your self heals (including green insps) will still be using the base value of your HP, you'll never be able to get the same level of resistance (75% cap v. 90%), and you'll never be able to get aggro as well (every Tanker attack taunts nearby enemies; even if you've got a taunt aura, you can't make up for that).

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I don't want falling to hurt ME more, but I would really love it if enemies knocked off rooftops did take serious damage and possible even got defeated. Exploding police cars already do significantly more damage to NPCs than they do to us, which makes it cool to blow up cars near them. It would be cool if, in the same vein, falling damage, or at least falling damage while being knocked back, would hurt a LOT more.

Use the excuse of landing badly. When an enemy jumps off a rood, he lands on his feet, so presumably he takes a lot less damage. When ragdoll-knocked-back, however, he often lands on his head, so it can be assumed he'll take a LOT more damage. Make knocking things off high places fun, rather than annoying and counter-productive.

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IIRC, before the devs actually fixed this, it wasn't uncommon for energy Blasters and teleport pool users to solo substantially higher level enemies without any real effort by knocking and teleporting enemies off of tall rooftops. Falling damage was changed in order to prevent it from being a very high form of unresistable damage that was incredibly low on the risk scale to use.

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yes that is understandable but then the same can be said that if i use superspeed and then run into a wall i should take damge for hitting a wall at 80 mph or the same with fly and run into a building but we dont in the game. Im not sure though if you are getting my point

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I think we get your point plenty well. You think that Super Jump should make you immune to falling damage. I don't really agree with that, mainly because I agree with the logical implementation in game: you can fall slightly further than you can jump without taking falling damage. If you're jumping way higher than you can actually jump, you should still take falling damage. Just because you know how to resist the damage jumping/falling such and such height, doesn't meant that you are capable of resisting the damage from twice the height.

If you really want to avoid falling damage while you're traipsing about, just end the arc of the jump slightly earlier. You still move forward at the exact same speed no matter what portion of the jump arc you're in, so it's not slowing you down. Of course, this is if you even think that falling damage is an issue. I barely notice it, if I even do. It's almost nothing to a high level character.

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Only 5 of the Kinetic Crashes should work.

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He' referring to a single instance of 6 slotting Kinetic Crash into a power for the 7.5% +rech set bonus.

As previously stated, the set bonuses are completely different than any of the "set bonus IOs". As long as the benefit is itself a different name, you can stack 5 of each of them. If you really wanted to, you could get 5 BotZ +KB prot, 5 Steadfast Prot +KB prot, 5 Karma +KB prot, and 5 Kinetic Crash 4 piece set bonuses and they would all stack because they're actually different "powers" as the game sees them.

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Oh, absolutely, but it wasn't *that* bad. My build's at home, but I think the biggest sacrifice I had to make was Hasten, cuz I needed Maneuvers for the last few points. You'd likely be better off sitting at 41~42% and have Hasten, but I was on a mission.

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I be curious to see FM/FA softcapped to all from a pure concept perspective. It's going to be rather crippling and rather expensive I imagine, if it's even possible. The only builds without +def in the secondary I've been able to softcap to all are Kat/* and BS/* because Parry/DA allow them to focus exclusively on ranged and AoE defense only. I'm not even sure it's actually possible to create a sustainable, playable Scrapper softcapped to all exclusively from pool powers and set bonuses.

If you're going for the classic "I'm super strong and incredibly resilient", your best bet for a vampire is probably Dark Melee (if you ignore the black fuzz, you get super strength and super natural speed via the punches, "blood drain" via Siphon Life, mezmerizing/frightful stare via Touch of Fear) paired up with any of Super Reflexes (super agile vampire), Regen ("human" vampire that just heals fast), Invulnerability ("your weapons don't affect me"), Willpower (blend regen with Invuln types), or Dark Armor (scary/magical vamprire).

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It's sad but true: even the "experts" don't always know what they're talking about.

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Especially when the "experts" are purposefully ignorant of certain variables. That why I like us over here in the Scrapper forums. We're one of the few groups of number crunchers I've seen that, if pushed, will put our noses to the grindstone and incorporate all of the previously ignored variables just to show how little they actually mean, especially within the context of stable, survivable builds.

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Certain attacks in the game diminish based on distance, so it stands to reason that it might be possible to have the aura diminish as the distance from the user increases.

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I don't believe that there are any attacks in game that have diminished damage based on range. It's technically possible (creating nested cones), but I don't believe it's ever actually been done.

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Lightning Rod does more damage at the center compared to the edges. At least, that is popular opinion. I haven't verified this myself.

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Popular opinion would be wrong. Lightning rod creates a single effect with a specific area and deals the same amount of damage to everything within that range. As it stands, there are no attacks in game that deal varying degrees of damage based on distance from origin.

There have been a number of write-ups using existing mechanics (as demonstrated by how Gauntlet is incorporated) in order to achieve a similar effect, but, as of yet, there are no attacks that actually take advantage of this.

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Maybe Werner or another numbers guy could chime in with the with the actual numbers needed to ease your worries.

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Werner gets all the number crunching love even though I've been doing it for DM for a lot longer. GrumbleGrumbleGrumble...

As to the actual request: MG>SP>Smite>Siphon>SP>Smite
MG requirement: 6.6 sec needed, 15 sec base, 128% +rech required
Siphon requirement: 6.732 sec needed, 10 sec base, 49% +rech required
Smite requirement: 3.168 sec needed, 6 sec base, 90% +rech required
Shadow Punch requirement: 3.3 sec needed, 3 sec base, 0% +rech needed

First off, perma-Hasten can be done. It's just really hard and will have a rather hefty opportunity cost associated with it.

As to the optimum attack chain, it depends heavily on how many DA stacks you want. DA>GC>GD>DA>GC>SD will stack DA up rather heavily but be slightly worse damage while GC>GD>GC>SD completely ignores DA but is the best solo attack chain you can manage. The first chain is going to be pretty easy to get the +rech for since the only attack that requires much in the way of +rech is GD which needs ~81%. It's an SO attack chain that will work quite well, even with IOs. The second chain is going to be a bit tougher because it requires a decent bit in GC (90%), slightly more in SD (136%), and a rather significant quantity in GD (250%). For the second chain, you're pretty much going to need Hasten. For the first, you wouldn't need it at all. For attack strings in between (re: less DA for better damage), you'd start getting greater +rech requirements.

Concerning hit points, perma Dull Pain, the +hp accolades, and tangential +hp set bonuses will set you nicely. The problem therein is getting perma-DP (200% +rech). 5 piece Doctored Wounds (all but Heal/End) will get you nearly halfway there (102.5%). Hasten with 3 level 50 rech IOs will get you a bit more (~45%) that gets better as you get more +rech. Around 45% global +rech with that slotting in Hasten will get you perma- Dull Pain (but still quite a bit from perma Hasten).

To Deranged: Sting of the Wasp isn't taken by most Scrappers-in-the-know for good reason. It's not altogether a great power. You're much better off switching it out for Gambler's Cut.

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Problem is, I wasn't able to stop myself from going “look, you don't know what you're doing”. Which means I'll probably be ignored, and will have to leave the thread rather than get stuck in a flame war that I contributed to. I suck.

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The problem is that Kruunch really has no clue what he's talking about, and Stars is completely unwilling to actually admit that most people that care about the numbers use attack strings rather than priority lists. Kruunch really needs to just learn what the hell Arcanatime is. His constant blathering of "add 1.25 seconds" was making me facepalm while reading it (plus his arguments that we're being idiots because we're calculating the numbers using variable inclusive formulas and that anyone that does math professionally is perfectly willing to fudge it pretty damn significantly).

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Hey, look!

Bunny rabbits!

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You're making me hungry...