Fixing Superspeed

tl;dr Maintaining superspeed is too tedious and complicated to make it a boon for the scrapper in its current state. Make it follow common boonstacking rules and have it stack up to 2 times in duration.

So with the new traitlines Scrapper mainly got 3 things as its defining features: A somewhat versatile Function gyro, lots of superspeed through Speed of Synergy and barrier for outgoing damage.I got issues with all of these but for this discussion I want to keep it to the superspeed.

Superspeed is a strong mechanic that lets you ignore the movement impeding effects of Cripple and Chill and generally achieve movement speeds in combat that are usually only possible out of combat. Superspeed is required for the Scrapper in order to

a) abuse the 5% damage multiplier in Object in Motion for the purpose of performing as a DPS specb) move swiftly in order to avoid attacks - it's a fragile spec sitting at 12922 basehealth so you cannot let anyone break through your barrier by facetanking anything. Unlike Weaver or other fragile melee specs, scrappers aren't supplied with sufficient innate options to defend themselves so superspeed has to be considered a defensive tool in this regard.

There are mainly 2 things that make Superspeed extremely unfun and thus make Scrapper clunky to use.

a) It doesn't stack in duration. Basically, in order to guarantee superspeed uptime that is needed for Object in Motion you need to time your entire skill usage around applying new superspeed just when the current superspeed is running out. This puts a massive lock on abusing this multiplier in any way and also makes the class more difficult to play and really just revolving around optimising the uptime of that one buff that doesn't stack.

b) It completely ignores the common rules of boonstacking. Let's say I'm running Tools with Gadgeteer traited and use Rocket Boots in a combofield. I first get 5s of superspeed from Speed of Synergy and when I land half a second later, the stack is overridden by 2s of superspeed from the Gadgeteer trait. It seems poor design to me that the usage of a grandmaster trait can lead to such an antisynergy when combined with the minor of an elitespec. Opposed to that, if I have 5 stacks of quickness with 4s and another stack of 2s is applied to me, the 2s stack does not override any of the 4s stacks. That is exactly how Superspeed should work as well.

If superspeed is supposed to be a trademark of the Scrapper 2 things need to happen:a) Superspeed should stack up to 2 times in duration. With a 2-stack limit, managing your superspeed sources still stays relevant in some way but you don't have to worry that each and every of your leaps and blasts you cast while having more than 1s of superspeed left is a waste of uptime.

b) Superspeed stacks should work with the known pessimistic boonstacking system. Highest stack running down first. New higher stack replaces the old active stack. New Stacks not overwriting old stacks with longer duration. You know the drill. Given how the pessimistic boonstacking already works effectively for not making boon stacking too easy (I'm looking at you, Timewarp), it should effectively still stop Scrappers that aren't actually paying attention from running around with no-effort perma superspeed.

I believe these changes are necessary for the gameplay with scrapper to feel as intended. Right now I'm losing and getting superspeed at the weirdest times. The benefit of specifically playing around superspeed simply is too small to pay the price of doing so. While Scrapper has plenty of sources to make superspeed one of its signature elements, the way superspeed works effectively eliminates most of the scrappers superspeed generated both for itself and its group and thus doesn't make it feel as empowering as it could and should be.

I think superspeed is fine as it currently is, specially on scrapper, you get it when you need it. And having to actively make combos for it is in line with what the class has always done.