Buff power dps Scrapper please for fractals and raids

As I am gearing more and more alt's with excessive ascended gears. I want to see more out of the scrapper elite. I really wanted to see more out of scrapper hammers as a legit build and also other scrapper alternative builds. Only fiddling with power scrappers for now.

Power setup:I was able to get around 26k as an opener with the golem but I began doing less for continuous dps maybe 20k-16k dps (I am scuffed trying to upkeep my rotation). Firearms:3,3,2 Explosives:3,2,1 Scrapper: 2,3,2. All boons + profession buffs I referenced using snow crows dps benchmark+ stability (for trait dps). Full Berserker's ascended with force + impact. Foods were butternut + fruitcake tin. Heal gyro, shredder gyro, genenades, bomb kit and motar for skills. I tried using heal turret for the extra dps + blast detonate for opener but fallen short to 16-14k dps for continuing. Maybe with the scribe consumables I can get greater results but I'm not that rich to be heavily invested.

Here's my suggestion for improvement or changes:Hammer:Positive Strike: (After the chain is completed scrappers should get a minuscule amount of barrier)Electro-whirl: This skill is most of my dps with lightning fields. This is a fun skill, the whirl should last longer but the reflection remains the same. (varies on the game mode).Rocket Charge: I did not use this for my dps rotation. It's nice skill to get close the distance from mob/boss. It needs a lightning impact as it's final combo field after the 2 leaps. I also don't understand since it's leap animation also does a whirl. It should've counted as both whirl and leap combo.Shock Shield: This is our main dps buffer to use off-cooldown. It also needs a lightning wall. After channeling the skill, there's a wall, attacks enemies that's on it whilst buff's allies for short amount of time.Thunderclap: Also needs a trait for barrier. This lightning field is great but it's somewhat tricky for me to keep my up time for dps. I was relying mainly on electro-whirl+shredder gyro

Inventions:Experimental Turret: They are a great opportunity for boon support similar to heralds/ boon thieves / etc. I'd like them to output similar offensive buffs as what ranger's spirit utility would output if trait instead of this trait being similar to what boon herald are.

Scrapper:Shocking Pulse: Shredder may be great on large hit box but the super speed can be changed, instead of it's final pulse that they pump out the super speed they detonate an extra lightning field so either the scrapper themselves or/and other players can dish out combination skills for extra super speed.

Perfectly Weighted+Kinetic Stabilizers: These 2 trait are depended on one-and-another. These trait combo sucks without the stability. In raids specifically, Most bosses faces towards the tank, their field of view is shaped of a cone. We cannot expect other classes in the raid to at lease sacrifice 1 of their utility just to pump out stability most of the time. That should be a minor additional buff. All base hammer skills should've get that flat 10% buff but we need a new trait for whenever we receive a barrier, we also gain stability for y amount of seconds.

Expert Examination: (varies in game mode) Do extra dps against vunerable and weakened enemies above threshold: 10 Stacks = 12% damage / Weakened = 8%

Impact Savant: The extra juicy dps proc. No-where near fast enough to activate barriers passively without using bulwark gyro.

Applied force: great only using with experimental turret+concerntration armor for open pve but it's still a dps loss in fotm + raids.

We also need a trait for depending on what skill or toolbelt utility skills (refering to F1-F5 skills) we use dishes out barrier. Scrapper's rely on barrier just to dish out more damage for 5%. Since in today's meta composition, not all the time we will be relying on scourge for barriers as they give out. Also once again, our hammer 1 chain attack Positive Chain needs to give us the scrapper a barrier after 1 successful combo completed. T4 normal is their highest peak but CM they are no good.

I see this elite class a great potential to bring to raids such as Gorseval, Samarog and especially Keep construct and as well as being more useful bringing to fractals. Another thing, they are currently in an okay spot as a support scrapper healer but if the scrapper gets a new trait that magnetically pulls (in a way you pull using Magnet skill 5 using Tool bag kit) multiple down players instead of teleporting them to the scrapper just to revive them, then yes they are in a great and valuable support class that can compete against scourge healers. It's mechanic skill thing that relies on positioning first before reviving.

I don't know how well scrapper condi classes perform since I haven't crafted medium legendary armor to mix and experiment other variations. I'd really like to try out other stats like grievers, vipers mixed with others, etc.

TL; DR: I want to bring a dps class that uses main hammer weapons to fractals and raids, scrapper has the best potential, I hope A-net finds a way to buff hammer scrapper without this class heavily relying on stability+barrier majority of the time just to retain their dps.

Woah, hold on there for just a sec. There’s a few things I would like to change or question in this proposal.

First of all, what rotation are you using? In my own testing, I personally felt that many of the kit skills (and some other random ones) was a dps loss compared to spamming hammer AA. My rotation basically consisted of 5 use-off-CD skills + AA:

• Orbital strike in opener (to boost peak number and is technically a precast offense, otherwise not practical)
• Big ol’ Bomb
• Thunderclap
• Shredder Gyro
• Grenade Barrage
• Electro Whirl
• AA chain

With what I felt was a boring rotation, I managed to easily break the 16k dmg cap (~17k+) without food, and tbh I’m not really much of a benchmarker either (I tend to perform ~80% of max due to latency and extended aftercast issues).

The 5% increase from barrier I don’t think makes Shock Shield worth using since you could do twice the amount of dmg using 2 autos in the same amount of time, and the dmg increase only lasts for 5s max.

The only worthwhile combo to pull of on scrapper (heal turret aside) is probably just lightning field + leap from Rocket Charge for extra cc for break bars or to proc stab from Kinetic Stabilizers. Unless you can mitigate dps loss to create fields other than lightning, whirl finishers are ‘additional’ and shouldn’t be focused on.

On Kinetic Stabilizers, I thought the stab procced on every cc? If cc on enemies with stab/breakbars doesn’t produce an effect, this specific aspect might be something that needs to be addressed.

I’m a bit adverse to introducing sweeping changes like ‘these skills now all proc barrier’ or ‘this trait now has a big 10% dmg mod slapped on to it’. I’d probably tweak the 10% conversion in Mass Momentum (the obvious dmg trait) instead, since Expert Examination already looks like a purposeful PvP trait.

Impact Savant IMO shouldn’t be a necessity for scrapper to achieve mediocre dps, nor do I think that scrapper should maintain a constant barrier. The measly 5% is fitting (unlike Danger Time :angry:).

There’s a range of other specifics you could target on, look at the skill bar for example - Spare Capacitor (Shredder toolbelt skill) is a very viable candidate for a massive PvE dmg increase. Orbital Strike could be buffed since the dmg to casttime ratio is way off (& the delay as well, makes it even worse) - core could also use the buff. Rocket Charge is currently a dps loss, buffing it slightly can make it useable in the boring 6-skill rotation.

The most important thing I wanted to say is that anet is unlikely to make it happen instantly anytime soon; perhaps eventually but certainly in the future.

There's a more scientific way to go about it. Instead of adding things on to a complicated rotation and seeing if that changes anything, add it on to a simple rotation, and iterate from there.

For example: Rocket Charge. If you don't know whether Rocket Charge adds damage or not, you do two DPS tests. First, set up a 1 mil golem and see how high your DPS is using just the auto attack of the hammer.. Then, on the second test, you see how high your DPS is using only auto attacks and Rocket Charge when it is off cooldown.

If you repeat this with a lot of weapon skills and utilities, eventually you'll get the optimum set of skills. Or, at east, a really good approximation. Things get a bit more complicated with the Engi. Back when I last tested it, Rocket Charge is a DPS increase without quickness, and equivalent to the auto attack while under quickness. But, that was years ago, so things may have changed.

The setup I use now is similar to what you guys have:

Healing Skill, Grenade Kit, Rifle Turret (free slot), Shredder Gyro, Supply Crate (free slot)

The free slots are what I replace when a particular utility is needed. since I pug, the Rifle Turret is frequently replaced with things like Elixir U, Battering Ram, Bulwark Gyro, Rocket Boots, etc. To be honest, the only high-end PVE place I ever use the Scrapper in is Dredge Fractal, because that Sneak Gyro makes everything easy.. But, if I were to use Scrapper elsewhere, this is the setup I would use.

The biggest point of contention with this build is that it uses the Rifle Turret over the Bomb Kit. The Bomb has a higher auto damage than the hammer, albeit without as much self-buffing ability, and Big Ole Bomb does a lot of damage for a utility. However, the belt skill of the turret is essentially free DPS. I don't know which one is higher overall, but I tend to favor the hammer because I do PUG runs a lot, and the ability to self-cap might and give self-quickness is really useful when you don't get it from your teammates.

We'll probably never see the scrapper do as much damage as the holosmith. The main benefit of using DPS scrapper is the fact that it inflicts a lot of vulnerability and a lot of might, which makes it competitive on the solo level. But in a group setting where might, quickness, and vulnerability are taken care of, the holosmith will pull ahead.

Well I guess this is a pipe dream now.

@BarnacleBoy.6918 said:Well I guess this is a pipe dream now.Power dps scrapper will literally be the only way to go and it will be the worst way to go.

Because Purity Of Purpose!!!