Scarab
Scarab is my Gadgeteer. The goal of the build is to create a solid core out of the gadget powers and go from there. I went through a couple iterations of the gadget build before settling on this one.
Powers
Sonic Blaster (Rank 1 + Refraction of Sound) — This is a nice energy builder with decent damage (as energy builders go) and a good energy return rate. With the advantage, it goes from a single target attack to a cone and this makes it even better because then it can be used as a carrier for the dreaded Sonic Device.
Gauntlet Chainsaw (Rank 3)— Ok, so I go from being a hero to being that guy in Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Well, I am supposed to be arresting the bad guys, not killing them so… maybe the chainsaw just stuns them! That’s it! It’s a Taser Saw!!! Overblown rationalizations for a silly power aside, GC is a great melee power, perhaps one of the best in the game. It is a high damage, maintained, cone melee attack that ticks every half-second. Its only drawback is the fact that it has a prohibitive energy cost.
I putzed around with lots of different builds with lots of different attacks, and had even tried the Chainsaw and dismissed it because of its high energy cost. However, I later revisited GC and specced into a build with super Endurance and Intelligence. With the extra energy and reduced power cost, I could now run the saw for a full maintain, cutting through bad guys like teens in a slasher flick. If you spec correctly, you can cut through henchmen, villains and even master villains in a few seconds, making this the signature power of the build.
Sonic Device (Rank 1) — Though this power does good damage, its main purpose in Scarab’s build is for crowd control. I charge in with my cone Sonic Blaster and then click on the device and all of the henchmen are either dead or stunned. More fresh meat for the Chainsaw!
Personal Force Field (Rank 2) — PFF is a power that has taken its share of criticism and rightfully so; it is probably the least useful passive defense in the game. Still, I was determined to make use of Personal Force Field and Scarab can do so because of his mix of super Endurance, great crowd control and high damage output. Scarab is hoping to stun and kill (taze) his opponents quickly and only needs the “up-front” defense that PFF provides. Is PFF going to fail me at higher levels? That is part of the experiment.
Field Surge (Rank 1) — This power allows me to regenerate my force field and doubles as an oh crap power when things get dicey. I would never take PFF as my defense without also picking up Field Surge.
Munitions Bots & Medical Drones (Rank 1) — I took both types of bots because I wanted to go with the Power Suit/Gadget theme and I thought robots would be cool. The munitions bots are pretty good pets, doing great cone damage in their immobile turret form. The med drones are ok as a maintenance heal, but when there is an emergency, they are either healing someone else, on a cooldown, or dead. Fortunately, between my highly offensive style, my force field and field surge, I rarely need the drones.
Field Eruption (Rank 1 + Gravitational Polarity) — This power is used almost exclusively as a damage buff.
Stats
Scarab has super Endurance and Intelligence. This combo allows me to run the chainsaw with impunity and has the nice side effects of reducing cooldowns and buffing pet damage (though I think the way pets scale with stats is pretty weak).
Tactics
My tactics on Scarab are pretty simple: energy build, trigger sonic device, chainsaw. On tough enemies, I can use Field Eruption for the damage buff and make sure the bots are in their offensive turret mode. Large groups, or very powerful enemies can surprise me with their incoming damage and so against such foes, I have to keep an eye on my health bar and use Field Surge as soon as I start taking damage (meaning my force field has dropped). Unfortunately, this leaves my
Thoughts
Though it is common knowledge by now, one thing to note about Scarab’s build is that he lacks Experimental Blaster, the default starter attack for a gadgeteer. This is a low-damage, long-charging blast that has a number of wacky effects that have anywhere from a 1-20% chance to proc on an attack. Well, what I would really like to proc is DEATH, so I think this power underperforms. If you save your cash through the first 5 levels, you can respec out of that starter power and get another. I dropped the blaster and got Gauntlet Chainsaw which is infinitely superior.
I have mixed thoughts about Scarab. On one hand, he is fun to play and pretty effective… and a snappy dresser to boot! On the other hand, at level 21, I feel that the build is mostly complete and that any powers I get now are just gravy. This brings up one of the design oddities of Champions Online: there aren’t any cooldowns on attacks and thus, you don’t need to acquire multiple attacks to form a chain. For Scarab, this meant that quite early, I had my full attack chain (Sonic Blaster, Gauntlet Chainsaw and Sonic Device). Similarly, at the moment, I don’t feel the need for any more defenses. That leaves utility powers and there aren’t many. So, though I may be having fun with this guy, being “done” with his build at level 21 is a little disheartening.