I've finally decided to retcon my Scourge-Based FF. I've got most of the powers locked into stone. This build seems viable for most PvP. I'm wanting some advice, as well as some pointers on whether or not it seems workable. The powers are not all set in stone, I'll mention the ones that are. (Shouldn't be too surprising the ones I want to make sure are incorporated).

What I need:

1. Do the selections make sense?
2. Is there a good feeling of synergy between most of the powers?
3. What powers would you recommend swapping out?
4. Do the Super Stats make sense?
5. Do you think this build would be viable in PvP?
6. I gear for mainly Rec/End, but also Con/Int. Is this a good idea? If not, what gear would work better?

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Scourge FF Build: Level 40 Champion

Superstats:
Level 6: Super Intelligence
Level 13: Super Constitution

Powers:
Level 1: Infernal Bolts -- Toxin Overload
Level 1: Devour Essence -- Phlebotomist, Rank 2, Accelerated Metabolism
Level 6: Pestilence -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 6: Teleport
Level 8: Epidemic -- Rank 2, Outbreak
Level 11: Supernatural Power
Level 14: Aspect Of The Infernal -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 17: Defile -- Rank 2
Level 20: Locust Swarm -- Festering Bites
Level 23: Resurgence -- Evanescent Emergence
Level 26: Rebirth
Level 29: Inertial Dampening Field
Level 32: Ebon Void
Level 35: Void Shift -- Nailed to the Ground, Crippling Challenge
Level 35: Flight -- Rank 2
Level 38: Vile Lariat/Any other power that might help/round out the build

Talents:
Level 1: The Scourge
Level 6: Brilliant
Level 9: Enduring
Level 12: Energetic
Level 15: Healthy Mind
Level 18: Quick Recovery
Level 21: Tireless

With this build, I have 5 advantage points left for use.

The Essentials
Infernal Bolts w/Toxin Overload: Standard EB, advantage lets me have a chance to poison with every shot, instead of just the first.

Devour Essence @ R2 w/Phlebotomist, Acc. Meta.: The primary single target damage dealer. Phlebotomist roots them while I drain health.

Epidemic @ R2 w/Outbreak: Primary AoE/Mob damage dealer. Outbreak reduces maximum maintain time by 1 sec, and a full maintain doubles stacks of Deadly Poison.

Pestilence @ R3: Increases toxic damage by 28%, and deals up to 291 toxic damage every 2 seconds, scaling up as the target's health gets lower. Reduces foes resistance to toxic damage by 1% for each stack of poison, and reduces healing effects.

Supernatural Power: Energy Unlock, 'nuff said.

Aspect of the Infernal @ R3: Primary buff alongside Pestilence, increases toxic damage dealt by 18%, and grants Infernal Strength buff, which stacks when I poison a target.

Defile @ R3: Tap to debuff target's toxic resistance, if they insist on staying away, I charge it for more damage.

Void Shift w/NTTG, Crippling Challenge: Lunge to close with an opponent/enemy so I can spam Epidemic or Devour Essence. NTTG and Cripp. Challenge help in PvP.

SS Con/Int: Con for the health, scales on powers, Int for lower energy costs and recharge.

Non-Essentials
Anything not listed above. I'll provide my reasons for choosing the powers I didn't mention above.

Locust Swarm w/Festering Bites: Hold/Paralyze, deals toxic damage to them while held, advantage gives 15% per damage pulse to inflict Deadly Poison.

Inertial Dampening Field: Slight bubble to soak up damage that I'm taking. However, generally not a problem due to the havoc wreaked by Epidemic, mainly as backup.

Ebon Void: Block enhancer. No advantages as I don't block much, because I don't need to. By the time they reach me, start hitting me, they're dead mostly. Mainly there to help reduce damage from a Master Villain or higher's power attack.

Resurgence w/Evanescent Emergence: Self-heal, advantage gives Breakfree damage. Helps if I need a health boost to be able to finish off enemy/mob, or get closer to use Devour Essence.

Rebirth: Self-Rez, in case of soloing/teaming death, paired with increase in damage, and the power of Epidemic, this can offset the loss of life it inflicts.

Vile Lariat: Power to bring the enemy closer so I can Devour Essence them. Mainly for PvP, although sometimes pulling a major badguy can help me start to take them out faster. This power can definitely be replaced for something else.
------End------
What do you think? How can I improve it? Any suggestions as to powers I should take?

I dont agree with charged holds. Thats about it really.

Infernal blast can be used to refresh all poison stacks on target, even with a tap and no advantages. Pretty useful if you play with others and have fight legendaries/cosmics. Also, holds are pretty useless for DPS types.

I would personaly grab enrage and gear for some str to buff your damage and drop the charged hold for unbreakable, and maybe get suport drones or some sort of self heal instead of vile lariat

I'm a big fan of Devour Essence on relatively toxic builds. I might swap that in for Locust Swarm. It's a hold that does do damage, but as you're using Epidemic, you'll be killing things so fast that the only thing you'll need to hold for them is last rites... :)

I made an FF that is effectively the AT for the sake of testing if I'd actually like the AT when I go silver.

The AT itself is very pvp viable, and one of the strongest in AT pvp. Even in unrestricted, you can't be ignored however even with the extra hp, running an offensive passive does make you susceptible to spikes nonetheless.

Pestilence, Defile, Epidemic, supernatural power - these have been my core powers.

I won't claim to be an expert as I haven't run this build or the powerset for long, but I was just shy of 200 player defeats last I checked.

Your SS's should basically be decided on whether or not you incorporate rage stacking. I personally hate the hassle of relying on a "macro" since there's no auto-toggle. 8 Stacks provide quite the boost if you can keep them up, and strength for scaling works well to make the most of it. Since you've got no dodge scaling or major resist (aside from toxic) Con works well regardless if you've got it for enrage stacking (duration scaling) or not. It also makes the use of imbue practical.

I can't recommend intel because you don't have any real cool downs, or are unlikely to. Sure you can bring costs down, but you'll need rec regardless. Supernatural power scales with rec, and if not for its limiting to toxic powers, it probably be one of the most used unlocks in the game. You also need rec for the higher equilibrium.

You'll need a nailed to the ground (nttg) and right now that's generally hurl or force geyser. It's not very thematic, but the 100ft range and the knock pretty much set them apart from the rest.

If you use a hold, there are a few that are popular, and none of them are charged. If a hold requires charging, it becomes far less useful and makes the user far more vulnerable.

Defile & Pestilence r3 - can't see any reason for them not to be
Epidemic r2 and outbreak - double stacking poisons for completing maintain are devastating where they need to be

You're lunging strat will work against weaker targets, but may also set you up for failure. There will be times when getting next to an opponent is the last thing you want to do. Using it as your primary nttg carrier is a bad idea.

Also with flight, that opens up options for aerial assaults - locking your CC into a power that forces you into melee vs 1 that has 100ft range...

Don't waste the points on the energy builder adv - you shouldn't be using your ebuilder often enough with your energy unlock and a decent amount of rec.

My main's been an inferno, so gearing for rec is something I'm familiar with. At a certain point your rec will increase your equilibrium beyond your energy bar, meaning it goes to a bit of waste without the added endurance to extend the bar. I'm content with the standard rec/con SS of the AT. However, if I decided for an enrage variant it be str/con. Gearwise, rec/con would be priority. It takes a lot of intel to get significant reduction costs, and as you're not benefitting from MSA, you just don't get enough value out of it from my experience as far as this set is concerned.

Currently I'm even using a Tak Offense passive - It's not much more damage than adding straight stats, but I'd have to re-purpose my utility to have more end to make the most of the added rec (in my case).

The reasons I put the hold(s) in there is for PvP purposes. Not that I do tons of PvP, but I don't want this character to completely get whooped in PvP. And as for boosting strength, does boosting strength affect elemental damage? I was under the impression it didn't.

I chose the Charged Hold because the Maintain ones I saw didn't do damage while they were being held.

And stacking Enrage? What benefit would this produce, why would I stack it, and how would I go about doing so?

((I don't use Enrage on any toons yet, so I'm a little baffled.))

enrage boossts all damage and the boost scales with your str, my con int pestilence char gets around 11% per stack of enrage from 163 str, its a very nice damage boost, and it should be very easy to keep it up for you also with con int ss... as for rec i have around 100 and i find it to be quite enough... Edit: oh and about the charged hold, yes it might seem betetr cuz it will damage your opponent in pvp, but the thing is that in most cases you wont be able to charge it xD

Build by championBuilder 0.4.1

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: Level 40 Champion

Superstats:
Level 6: Super Constitution
Level 13: Super Recovery

Powers:
Level 1: Infernal Bolts
Level 1: Infernal Blast -- Crippling Challenge
Level 6: Pestilence -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 6: Acrobatics -- Rank 2, Versatility, Rank 3
Level 8: Devour Essence -- Rank 2, Phlebotomist, Accelerated Metabolism
Level 11: Ebon Void
Level 14: Aspect Of The Infernal -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 17: Rebirth
Level 20: Supernatural Power
Level 23: Epidemic -- Rank 2, Outbreak
Level 26: Dark Transfusion -- Blood Sacrifice
Level 29: Force Geyser -- Nailed to the Ground
Level 32: Inertial Dampening Field
Level 35: Resurgence -- Evanescent Emergence
Level 35: Flight -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 38: Defile -- Rank 2, Rank 3

Talents:
Level 1: The Scourge
Level 6: Enduring
Level 9: Brilliant
Level 12: Energetic
Level 15: Quick Recovery
Level 18: Boundless Reserves
Level 21: Amazing Stamina


In PH testing, it handled a 5-man hard opponent group without much troyuble. Haven't tested PvP Viability yet

You never hold for damage, you hold for the crowd control - charged holds mean until you fully charge, your target (or something else) can disrupt you negating the chance of hold and getting you killed.

Only reason to stat STR on a scourge build is if you center around enrage, but those are pretty technical and a pain to maintain so its generally recommended for advanced pvpers. I myself won't bother because I hate having to maintain stacks and devote stats specifically to that.

You'll generally want tele/acro or tele/flight - teleport is practically a requirement in lvl 40 pvp.

Don't get dark trans, you won't need it on a heavy rec build, and the dmg boost from the adv isn't worth the -neg hp.

You could consider using imbue, which would have the same cd, and yet do more damage - since you're naturally statting heavy con, a 100% crit chance with sev based on con only makes sense.