City of Heroes & City of Villains - Guide to the Scrapper Archetype
What is the role of the City of Heroes Scrapper?
The official description of the Scrapper is:
No lone criminal wants to cross paths with a Scrapper - because odds are that only the Scrapper is going to walk away. Ferocity and skill make the Scrapper master of hand to hand combat. However, Scrappers do not have any ranged attacks, so they rely on the other Archetypes to help in battles requiring long-range punch. The Scrapper is resilient, though, and after the Tanker, the best Archetype at withstanding damage.
What Primary Powersets Are Available To Scrappers?
For City of Heroes Scrappers, the primary powerset is the offensive set that provides attack powers.
Broad Sword - A heaviest hitting of the scrapper sets. It is primarily single target damage.
Claws - Mainly single target but with a few AoEs, the claws set hits fast and has a lot of knockback attacks. It is not terribly group friendly as a result of the knockback.
Dark Melee - Mostly single target, dark melee has fast hitting, fast recharging punch type attacks.
Dual Blades - This set relies on combos to deal much of its damage. The set is poorly designed and ends up being weak.
Fiery Melee - A weak, badly flawed set at its core. The secondary effect (DoT) is unreliable and random. The attacks are slow animating and do poor damage.
Katana - Not as heavy hitting as broad sword, but the attacks animate and recharge faster.
Martial Arts - Mainly kick based attacks, martial arts does mediocre damage and adds some knockdown and stun effects.
Spines - Spines is primarily an area of effect set, with moderate single target damage. It adds bone-like spines to your character model, so make sure you like the looks of that before picking this set. It can be a lot of fun and is a very solid set.
What Secondary Powersets Are Available to Scrappers?
Scrapper secondaries provide the defense they need to mix it up in close range.
Dark Armor - This is a resistance based set that features exotic protections against end drain and psionic attack. The primary weakness is to energy attacks. It has a powerful self heal (dark regen) that requires a to-hit check. This set is very endurance heavy.
Fiery Aura - This resistance based set is the most offensive of the tanker powersets. Burn and Fiery Embrace both augment the tanker’s offense. It has a nice self heal, but multiple status protection holes and low overall resistance result in the set being ultimately flawed and weak.
Invulnerability - This is a hybrid resistance and defense based set that specializes in protection against smashing and lethal damage (the two most common damage types).
Regeneration - This set mitigates damage by regenerating it back (hopefully before you die). This is the “Wolverine” like defense set.
Super Reflexes - This is a defense based set. The problem with this set is the defenses are not damage type based, which means they do not stack well with other defense bonuses.
Willpower - The newest of the defensive sets, this is a combination of defense, resistance, and regeneration. It is an excellent set - especially when combined with the Fighting Power Pool.
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