TABLE OF CONTENTS
(to jump to a section, use the 'Find' function in your browser - Ctrl+F on Windows - to search for the bracketed four-letter combination.)
- <INTR> Introduction
- <YMAR> Why Martial Arts? Why Super Reflexes?
- <MAMG> Martial Arts Move Guide
- <SRMG> Super Reflexes Move Guide
- <GNRC> Generic Power Pools
- <EPIC> Ancillary Power Pools
- <FOES> Enemies
INTRODUCTION <INTR>
Hello!
I'm AstralFire, and this is going to be my first attempt at writing a useful guide. I've only been playing City of Heroes a short while, but I've gotten some heavy playtesting and discussion done about the finer arts of MA/SR on the road to 50... most of which had to be done with an excessive expenditure of time, given that the newest guides I could find were from Issue 6. Information that's still definitely serviceable, sure, but enough time has passed that I felt we needed an update. So here we are.
The main purpose of this guide is to help people with this particular powerset combination in PvE, but it should still provide some useful information for those of you with only Martial Arts or Super Reflexes (you poor unfortunate souls.) I just want you to know that I haven't played either powerset not in tandem with the other (yet), so you should take what I say with a handful of salt.
Now, the title of this particular guide includes the word 'Handbook'. The idea is, I am not going to post my build and tell you to follow it. I think that's a poor idea. Rather, I am going to give you an overview of all the possible choices one can make in their career as a Martial Arts/Super Reflexes, and let you make the decision yourself. I highly suggest making use of multiple respecs so that you can really get a feel for your character. I am much the better for my many gimpspecs than I am for my final sexspec.
One day I would like to update this guide for PvP, but I'll need much more experience before I feel I can do that well.
WHY MARTIAL ARTS? WHY SUPER REFLEXES? <YMAR>
Why Martial Arts? Martial Arts is probably the most visually appealing scrapper set. The majority of its moves demonstrate to their victims that you are both highly skilled and that you mean business. Compare this to Katana (very pretty, but looks about as dangerous as ballet) or Broadsword (dangerous. staccato. ugly?) and it strikes a nice middle ground between the flourish and the fury, the style and the smash.
From a technical standpoint, the Martial Arts set is pretty good at single-target lockdowns - it comes with decent secondary effects to make up for its much lower crowd DPS. This lower multi-target damage is part of what makes Martial Arts more difficult to carry to high levels - it gets an early single-target boost with the extremely powerful Crane Kick at a mere level 8, but taking on groups will be a bit of a chore before you can get Dragon's Tail (26) and your Ancillary Power Pool AoE.
Why Super Reflexes? Super Reflexes is not as immediately appealing as the ever-popular Regeneration, which is crazy out of the gate with its nearly limitless Endurance. SR can be a bit of a chore at lower levels, and it essentially requires a minimum of 8 of its 9 powers taken at bare minimum, greatly restricting your power freedom. Despite these things, if you are willing to stick with Super Reflexes until your mid-20s, you will notice a sharp increase in survivability - even greater than a regen's increase.
This will only improve further with time, as your final pieces fall into place with Evasion at 35, and Elude at 38. Upon hitting 50, I've noticed that I generally outlast other scrappers with Regeneration and Invulnerability in difficult situations. Dark Armor tends to jockey for the pole position, though. In particular, many of the usual tough foes - Carnies and Malta Sappers, for example - won't be so tough. You will have some enemies that tend to just rip you apart, but these are few and far between. With the amount of inspirations you save up from steamrolling Invincible normally, these special critters with high to-hit bonuses are just another splotch on the roadside.
Unfortunately, though, it is true that these two powersets put together do mean that you will be waiting a while to perfect your build - if you're looking to finish your concept early, Martial Arts/Super Reflexes is
not for you. But when they do fill out... enemies will be running from you. And you will give them no recourse.
MARTIAL ARTS MOVE GUIDE <MAMG>
All Power Information is gained courtesy of
Red Tomax's Guide to City of Heroes and
Mids' Hero Designer. I highly suggest that you use one of those two in order to get detailed numbers. Better yet, use both.
Thunder Kick
The fast-recharging and weaker technique of the opening MA pair, Thunder Kick does respectable damage and has a slim (1 in 10) chance of disorienting an opponent for 7 seconds, which is good solo damage mitigation earlier on. Disorients make opponents get a swirly symbol over their heads, and they wander about at half-speed, only occasionally attacking. At only a Magnitude 2, anything higher than a minion won't really notice, unfortunately. Its stun's unreliability makes it nearly impossible to stack the Magnitudes to overwhelm tougher foes, and this makes Thunder Kick a mediocre move in the later game. Grab it to level with for sure; evaluate grabbing a pool power attack instead on a Respecification Trial.
[u]Slotting[u]: Thunder Kick, like all damage attacks for a MA/SR, should be six-slotted. Go for 90+% Damage at least; the others are up to you. I reach for 40-60% Endurance and Accuracy, and fit in whatever Recharge I can. Always try to meet your minimum for Accuracy first. Crushing Impact and Mako's Bite are the best full sets, but you can get good performance out of mixing sets to get the most raw numerical benefit. If you have a free slot, throw in Touch of Death or Mako's Bite's chance for damage IOs. When mixing and matching, realize you can often pull from the much cheaper Stun IO sets.
It is also very possible to slot Thunder Kick with stun sets instead; doing so with Razzle Dazzle will get you some nice bonuses to two of your defenses, and give you a 1 in 5 chance of a Mag 2 Immobilize, which may be more useful if you get Web Grenade, Tenebrous Tentacles or Crippling Axe Kick. However, given Thunder Kick's already low damage and its low chance for stun, I'm not sure how good an idea this is. You would have to spam the attack constantly to get a good benefit to disorient, in which time you might have killed the opponent with a better offense. If you do go this route, I suggest waiting for mid-levels to slot with Stun so that you have a stronger attack chain.
Storm Kick
The slower recharging technique of the opener moves, Storm Kick is fast-casting and hard-hitting - it is the second best attack of Martial Arts for Damage Per Second of Activation Time. (DPS-AT; others refer to it as DPA.) Get this, keep it, love it.
[u]Slotting[u]: Storm Kick, like all damage attacks for a MA/SR, should be six-slotted. Go for 90+% Damage at least; the others are up to you. I reach for 40-60% Endurance and Accuracy, and fit in whatever Recharge I can. Always try to meet your minimum for Accuracy first. Crushing Impact and Mako's Bite are the best full sets, but you can get good performance out of mixing sets to get the most raw numerical benefit. If you have a free slot, throw in Touch of Death or Mako's Bite's chance for damage IOs.
Cobra Strike
Cobra Strike is the closest thing to a 'controversial' move this powerset has. Doing absolutely worthless damage, it has a long duration disorient of Magnitude 3. It can definitely be a useful move at lower levels; the problem is at higher levels. Most Controllers focus on Immobilization or Hold for their secondary effects, meaning that it's harder to stack mags to overcome bosses; at higher levels, the lieutenants and minions die too fast to worry about Cobra Strike.
However, I've always liked the attack - it's a punch! Martial Arts needs more punches! - and RedLynne offers us this:
[ QUOTE ]
Cobra Strike has a 20 second recharge and a 12 second stun duration. With +95% Stun Duration and +86% Recharge Reduction (ie. 3 Stun SOs and 2 Recharge SOs plus Quickness) those numbers "reverse" to become 10.7 seconds recharge and 23.4 seconds stun duration. With that kind of performance you can perma double stack Cobra Strike quite reliably on a single target (such as, say, a Boss) since the recharge is less than half of the duration. This gives you a reliable MAG 3+3=6 Stun that you can maintain for as long as you don't miss with Cobra Strike, and it'll only take you 12 seconds to reach the double stack, perma-Stun point (assuming you don't MISS).
[/ QUOTE ]
Yet another guy more intelligent than me, Scrapulous, notes that things will be a bit harder at higher difficulty levels like Invincible; stuns on enemies wear off much faster. You'll need to to work on high-recharge builds to gain the most advantage from this, either way. It's a very valid technique, and should work well for the /SR going for something a bit different.
Also, on a non-SR note: if you're a Dark Armor secondary, I highly suggest picking this up since Oppressive Gloom stacks to Mag 5 - overcoming bosses - and is reliable, unlike Eagle's Claw, Thunder Kick and Pool Power Boxing/Flurry. Toss in the occasional disorient from those attacks, and you will occasionally overcome Archvillains! I definitely recommend going for it if you can, but given how hard SR is on your power selections, be careful. Your first priority is an attack chain.
As a visual note, Cobra Strike is actually a punch. Those of you going for a more streetbrawler look should consider that.
[u]Slotting[u]: Accuracy, Duration, and Recharge are your highest priorities here if you want things to double-stack. 5 slots, mixing IO sets with standard IOs, will get that for you. I'd throw in a 6th for Endurance, but that could be my time without Stamina speaking. Alternatively, consider high-slotting with Razzle Dazzle or Stupefy for the IO Set bonuses to defense.
Focus Chi
It's Build Up. Get it. Its damage increase will be less appreciable at higher levels since it doesn't multiply bonuses from Enhancements, but effectively +50% damage at level 50 for 10 seconds is still huge, even if it's not as big as +100% damage at level 10.
[u]Slotting[u]: Three Recharges will do until you can afford to get three Membrane Hamidon Exposure Enhancements.
Crane Kick
A slow casting, hard-hitting sidekick, Crane Kick is the biggest boost to young Martial Artists; available at a mere level 8, Crane Kick is both the best Martial Arts attack in terms of DPS-AT, and the best in terms of 'soft' damage mitigation; offering a huge knockback to keep foes off of their feet and away from you. Make sure you learn to position well before using the attack though, or the knockback may irritate teammates. It's also the outright second most damaging attack in the Martial Arts set.
[u]Slotting:[u] See Storm Kick or Thunder Kick. Not much variety on the attack slotting, really.
Warrior's Challenge
If your secondary is Super Reflexes, don't get this. You don't have the powers to waste, and Crane Kick will usually suffice.
If your secondary is Invulnerability, how do you not already have the aggro? Invincibility!
If your secondary is Dark Armor, how do you not already have the aggro? Death Shroud!
If your secondary is Regeneration... I guess if you have powers to waste.
[u]Slotting:[u] Two accuracy SOs or 1 Accuracy IO at 50 will suffice.
Crippling Axe Kick
After Cobra Strike, the second-closest thing Martial Arts has to a controversial move. Crippling Axe kick deals mediocre damage - roughly double Thunder Kick's, with a slightly lower DPS-AT - with a slow cast time and bizarre secondary effects. Immobilize -and- Slow? Anti-Fly? Nothing stacks with your other secondary effects? What? Only a 50% Chance to overcome Lieutenants?
On the whole, I don't feel this attack is worth it - Air Superiority makes a better anti-air attack in so many ways, especially since Martial Artists don't have redraw problems.
Of note, Tenebrous Tentacles in Dark, Web Grenade in Weapon, and the Chance of Immobilize from the Razzle Dazzle set stack with Crippling Axe Kick, which is enough to overcome a standard Boss. Something to think about if you go Dark Mastery.
[u]Slotting:[u] If you're determined to get this, either slot it as part of your attack chain or just grab Accuracy for the Anti-Air function.
Dragon's Tail
Martial Arts' only inherent AoE attack, it also does very minor knockback (knockdown on even-level or higher) good damage, and respectable recharge, making it excellent damage mitigation. Try to pair this with Focus Chi whenever possible to counter the limited amount of AoEs at your disposal. This attack is excellent for damage mitigation.
[u]Slotting:[u] As you would your attack chain. Scirocco's Dervish is easily the best IO set, while Cleaving Blow has respectable set bonuses. Mix and match to get the biggest raw boost to the attack if you wish, especially for higher recharge.
Eagle's Claw
The capstone ability for Martial Arts. I mostly use this as a tough minion killer, to be honest; I find it to be an overrated attack. Its DPS-AT isn't much higher than Thunder Kick's, due to its impossibly slow attack time (3 seconds) even though the raw damage of the attack is high. Its extra critical damage chance isn't as notable against Lieutenants and Higher (all Scrapper criticals raise to at least 10% against things higher than minions), and the stun is often kinda out there. It's best for PvP. That said, I'm glad I have the attack. A lot of people think it looks cool, and it can be, but it often looks goofy as well. It's also good for handling runners, since you only have to be in range when the attack starts.
[u]Slotting:[u] As other attacks. When mixing and matching, realize you can often pull from the much cheaper Stun IO sets.
SUPER REFLEXES MOVE GUIDE <SRMG>
All Power Information is gained courtesy of
Red Tomax's Guide to City of Heroes and
Mids' Hero Designer. I highly suggest that you use one of those two in order to get detailed numbers. Better yet, use both.
Focused Fighting
You have to get this. That's a good thing, though, since this lets you keep up in the opponents' 'bidness'. At low levels, toggle off if you've got health to spare and are running out of Endurance, but remember to put it back on if you need.
[u]Slotting:[u] Three slotted with IOs for Def/End. Unless you have slots to spare, don't bother going for a full set in any of your Super Reflexes powers; the lower slotted effects aren't so great, and it's a lot cheaper to mix and match.
Focused Senses
Exactly the same as Focused Fighting, ranged instead. Don't be in a rush to grab this right away since the lowest enemies have very weak ranged attacks, usually, but try to pick it up early in the game.
Agile
At lower levels, you'll probably appreciate the scaling resists with your beefy scrapper health more than you will the low ranged defense bonus - especially since the resists apply to all damage. Grab this one early. At higher levels, you'll appreciate the IO'ed up defense a LOT, especially when you get toggle-dropped during a Rikti Mothership Raid. Trust me. It will happen.
[u]Slotting:[u] Two to three IOs for defense. Again, don't bother with going for sets unless you've got slots to spare.
Practiced Brawler
A must-have, this is the scrapper's anti-mez. It starts out as the worst protection of its kind as it is click, with a duration appreciably shorter than its recharge. (Avoid Circle of Thorns like hell.) After you get Dual-Origin Enhancements, however, things pick up; once you can get its recharge under 120 seconds, you have access to the best anti-mez of the scrapper sets, since anything that does manage to mez you will not drop the protection from this ability; that means you can Break Free with an inspiration and not worry about immediately being put back under. Double-stacking this power is easy, and triple is doable with exceptionally high recharge builds.
[u]Slotting:[u] Three-slot recharge at lower levels, two-slot with high IOs.
Dodge
See Agile. Melee instead.
Quickness
The only real skippable power in Super Reflexes, Quickness adds an Enhancement Diversification immune DO level boost to your global recharge (includes temporary powers) and a slight movement increase. I went with this over Hasten in the end since it costs no Endurance and is always on, as well as providing a small resistance to slows. High recharge builds grab both, as Hasten by itself adds more than two SO's worth. Regarding high recharge builds, it should be noted that the Recharge Reduction formula inherently has diminishing returns; Recharge Reduction is calculated as 1/(1+X), with X being recharge bonuses. An SO has an X value of 0.33, and Quickness has a value of 0.2.
[u]Slotting:[u] Toss a Run Speed in and forget about it. Don't even bother with Fly. You actually get more bonus to flight speed by overslotting Fly or Hover past Enhancement Diversification limits. It's that bad. If you don't mind always being translucent, you could throw in the Running stealth IO here.
Lucky
See Agile, AoE instead. This one should be grabbed right at 28 to help deal with the growing amount of AoEs you'll be facing. On a respec at 35 or higher (when you get Evasion), though, you can put this one off if you need to.
Evasion
See Focused Fighting, AOE instead. This will patch up the final hole in your defenses. (Only took 35 levels...)
Elude
The Capstone of Super Reflexes, Elude is well worth it, and is one of the best tier 9s in the game; it's definitely the best scrapper Tier 9. (It pushes out Invuln's Unstoppable by virtue of not virtually killing you at the end if you need to keep fighting.) Unenhanced, it immediately takes you to the softcap for PvE defense
even if you don't have a single other Super Reflexes power on. This means that even if you somehow get mesmerized during it, they won't be able to hit you anyway. When combined with the Endurance Recovery boost while Elude is on, you become a fighting machine! Additionally, Elude boosts your Defense Debuff resistance to nearly 100% when all of your normal toggles are up. And finally, you get a huge run speed and jump height buff! I almost never have to turn Elude on, but when I do... people regret it.
After three minutes of Godhood, Elude will crash. If you're still fighting, that can be bad, but it's not necessarily death. When you notice your buff icon about to go, pop a Lucky Inspiration and make sure you have a Catch a Breath or better Endurance inspiration. Use multiple if necessary. Toggle on and get back in the fight! (This is made easier by Conserve Power.)
Make sure to bring Oranges and Reds for your Elude time to make the most of it.
[u]Slotting:[u] Three-slot for defense and recharge, as your build requires. The optimum is to get three Def/Recharge IOs.
GENERIC POWER POOLS <GNRC>
All Power Information is gained courtesy of
Red Tomax's Guide to City of Heroes and
Mids' Hero Designer. I highly suggest that you use one of those two in order to get detailed numbers. Better yet, use both.
Even though Super Reflexes is very demanding in the power selections, you will still have room left over for pool powers. And that is a good thing! That is what makes each character so different.
[u]FITNESS[u]
You're going to want the Fitness pool. Believe me. The Fitness pool is what turns you from gasping for air every fight (and possibly health) to running from battle to battle, hungering for blood. I've done without it on both my original spec and a respec. I regretted every moment, though I got to be a much better scrapper as well for suffering through it. (If you do go without it, you're going to want a lot more End Reduction in your attacks.)
Swift or Hurdle, it doesn't really matter much (for the most part, but more on that below in Travel). Just grab one. Then get Health and Stamina as soon as possible. Health is a tricksy one, though. The obvious solution for both of them is to three-slot each, right?
Well, that's true for Stamina, but reconsider for Health. There are three very good (also very expensive...) Unique IO Enhancements that will fit in your health; they're from the Miracle, Regenerative Tissue, and Numina's Convalescence IO Sets. Respectively, each one provides a 15% Boost to Endurance Recovery, another 25% to Health Regeneration, and a 20% Boost to Health/10% Boost to Endurance Recovery. That may not sound like much, but Health inherently only adds 40% Regeneration, and Stamina only 25% Recovery. Put together, and they effectively are letting you six slot Health and Stamina... for the cost of only three more slots on Health.
I would add those extra slots on Health later on (late-40s), but definitely get them.
[u]TRAVEL[u]
The first consideration for many people when choosing pool powers is how they're going to get around. There are four traditional routes to this, along with one alternative. Of note is the fact that there are temporary power Super Jump and Flight abilities available from the Kings' Row and Atlas Park Safeguard Missions, respectively. These will eventually run out, but careful use combined with Sprint can allow you to wait as long as level 30 to get your method of travel. I wouldn't recommend waiting that long, myself.
[u]FLIGHT[u]
The traditional superhero method of travel; most of the big icons can fly or damn well close to it. Flight is somewhat slow, though not that much; a great deal of its apparent slowness if an illusion caused by being much farther from the ground. Flight is an easy pool to get into with an excellent attack:
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Air Superiority
The best pool power attack, hands down, Air Superiority does more damage than Thunder Kick - on par with Dragon's Tail - and reliably knocks up almost anything it hits underneath an Elite Boss. Regardless of sex.
Anyway, Knock Up (*immature giggle*) is very useful because it makes the enemy spend a lot of time trying to stand; this is especially true for mobs like Freakshow Tank Smashers/Slicers, and Banished Pantheon Totems. The anti-air is only icing. A great attack to have at low levels when your defenses are poor, and a serviceable attack all the way through 50.
[u]Slotting:[u] As part of your attack chain.
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Hover is not recommended as an entry for scrappers; it moves extremely slowly and follow AI is slightly bugged with it, often landing you outside of melee range. However, those trying to squeeze every single bit of defense they can from the pools may wish to take this anyway.
Flight's capstone ability, Group Fly, is worthless to a Scrapper if you're not planning on raiding the Hamidon or Rikti Drop Ships.
[u]LEAPING[u]
One of the rarer methods of travel in the comics; from the big names, I can only think of Golden Age Superman, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Aquaman and Namor who really use this to get around. It's extremely popular in City of Heroes, however, as it is very quick vertically and horizontally.
Jump Kick is a horrible pool power damage-wise; its only saving grace is the high knock-up for damage mitigation. However,
[ QUOTE ]
Combat Jumping
Is a much better alternative, delivering an okay amount of defense at a negligible Endurance cost. It also allows for quick maneuvering of a fight scene, I've found. I don't even have Super Jump and I've made sure to get it.
[u]Slotting:[u] One defense. Two if you have a spare slot.
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Leaping's capstone ability, Acrobatics, is incredibly redundant for Super Reflexes; Dark Armor may wish to get it, or they may wish to leave room open for Knockback resist IOs.
[u]SPEED[u]
Boasting probably the coolest travel effects (burning feet and hands), the Speed pool opens up with two viable but mediocre options: Hasten and Flurry.
[ QUOTE ]
Hasten
I have not found to be worth it; it gets better the more things with really long recharges that you absolutely have to use that you have, and has a huge End drop at the end that is not reducible. You would only really get a noticeable benefit on Elude, Conserve Power, Rest, Cobra Strike and your AoEs. You shouldn't be using Conserve Power, Elude and Rest that often, most don't take Cobra Strike. That's one precious power for a few seconds (at best) off of your AoEs, which you could make up easily with Recharge Reduxes. Two AoEs tend to be sufficient to begin with.
A Hasten/heavy recharge build could aid the Scraptroller style by freeing up TK/CAK/EC to be used in their secondary purpose and focusing on repeatedly hammering Storm Kick and Crane Kick when you need damage; it would require a heavy monetary investment, but it's worth a shot.
[u]Slotting:[u] Three recharge.
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[ QUOTE ]
Flurry
Sporting marginally better DPS-AT than Jump Kick, and only a small chance of a Mag 2 Disorient, Flurry jockeys with Jump Kick for the position of worst pool attack. It only gets an entry here just in case someone's going with a disorient build and wants Super Speed.
[u]Slotting:[u] As your attack chain.
[/ QUOTE ]
Speed's Tier 4, Whirlwind, is fun! But crappy. You want the enemies to be grouped near you, so unless you're trying to herd someone into a wall - I prefer Crane Kick for that - this attack doesn't synergize at all.
When coupled with the difficulty of using Superspeed in areas like Terra Volta, I do not recommend this pool for MA/SR Scrappers at all.
[u]TELEPORTATION[u]
This pool is entirely non-recommended aside from concept builds; Scrappers have no abilities for which they might wish to recall their friends, unless they are doing 'ghosting' runs. Teleport Foe is bad outside of PvP; it won't work on anything stronger than a yellow Lieutenant, and is very slow. Teleport itself is the fastest movement power, though, and can be used cleverly mid-fight. If you have the spare room, sure...
Team Teleport, the tier 4, is entirely useless if you have no pets.
[u]FITNESS[u]
Stop the presses, what? Fitness as a Travel Pool? Yeah, I said Fitness.
The Fitness pool's Hurdle provides a huge boost to jumping forward movement speed. A Super Jumper won't notice, but someone used to running will. Three-slotted for leaping, and Hurdle can actually move almost as fast as three-slotted Fly. It would take a long time or a very bumpy terrain map in order for you to noticeably lag behind a flyer.
This choice has the benefit of practically eliminating a pool needed, since almost all scrappers will want to take Stamina and Health in the Fitness pool to counter their Endurance usage, and you cannot take Stamina or Health without at least grabbing Swift or Hurdle. As of my third respec, I personally combine this with Combat Jumping for maneuverability, defense, and height. It's also just a really fun way to get around.
[u]THE OTHERS[u]
Just a brief run-through:
Concealment: Not recommended; again, this is not an AT Powerset combination with a lot of free powers. Stealth uses a *lot* of Endurance for minimal defense gain; 5x the Endurance of Combat Jumping for the same defense. In general, hiding doesn't really pay in this game if you're not a Stalker, /Dev Blaster, going to get bombs in the Rikti Mothership raid, or ghosting parts of TFs. Ghosting usually requires teleport, which would be a two-pool investment on a tight build.
Fighting: Very recommended. Boxing is a mediocre attack, but there's hardly any difference between it and Thunder Kick. (Kick is not very good; it has a very low DPS-AT). In return, you gain access to Tough and Weave, which will raise your survivability dramatically. Weave is a respectable defense boost when stacked with your other toggles; alone, it's not much. A well-slotted Tough not only takes 20% of the bite off of the very common Smashing and Lethal attacks when they do hit you, but when put in conjunction with a very cheap Unique IO from Steadfast protection, gives you +3% Defense to All. This pool, then, raises your defense 10% more towards the soft cap of 45% - it's easy to hit 30% just off of /SR itself - and raises your resistance. Well worth it.
Leadership: The worst pool for a scrapper. You have enough toggles, these are *damn expensive* toggles, and as a scrapper you're often doing your own thing, even in a team.
Medicine: The team-minded scrapper may find Stimulant or Aid Other to be occasionally useful; the real prize is Aid Self. I am not a fan since I dislike wasting 4 seconds to heal myself 20% - especially with 1 second interruptible, even with a defense build - but I know those who swear by it.
Presence: Challenge isn't noticeably worse than Warrior's Challenge, to be honest, but the same problems do apply. Provoke is probably a better entry point so that you can off-tank, but Intimidate is really bad without Invoke Panic to stack. It's not my thing, but it is an interesting option.
ANCILLARY POWER POOLS <EPIC>
Before you decide what APP you want to take at 41 or higher, you must decide if you want to even take an APP. Taking one means you have room for one less pool, less room for picking up the rest of your primary powers. Do you really want to do that?
In the case of Martial Arts/Super Reflexes, I feel the answer is unequivocably, "Yes." Martial Arts is bloody one-minded when it comes to what it does: beating on people, one at a time. Sometimes, you want to branch out of that, and between a Pool Power and/or Thunder Kick, Storm Kick, Crane Kick, and Eagle's Claw, you should have that down pretty well. That said, as always, your opinion may vary. I encourage diversity of opinion, and feel free to take risks with your respecs. You may find something new and clever.
BODY MASTERY: The most popular Scrapper Ancillary Power Pool, Body Mastery is designed to make the scrapper into a killing machine. Body Mastery requires the most investment, and is best when all four powers are taken. It is well-known for its two entry powers: Conserve Power and Focused Accuracy. Three-slotted for recharge, Conserve Power is up often enough that you will rarely have to rest. It can also be used after an Elude crash (or right before); you'll find that your powers cost 1/2 to 1/3 less while under Conserve Power, and I typically quickly gain back a full blue bar even while spamming my strongest attacks with Conserve Power up.
Focused Accuracy allows the scrapper to practically ignore an opponent's defense stats, especially once three-slotted with Cytoskeleton Hamidon Exposure Enhancements. However, it really eats Endurance. Its inherent cost is more than 4 times that of any of SR's toggles... Conserve Power practically exists to work in conjunction with Focused Accuracy. I find the ability unnecessary, though, preferring to actually use yellows. If you have to make a choice, Conserve Power for PvE, Focused Accuracy for PvP.
Laser Beam Eyes has a base damage equal to Dragon's Tail, and a meh DPS-AT with its 1.67 Second Cast Time. What makes it great is that it is Energy damage, a far less commonly resisted type than Smashing. Against high Smashing resist opponents like the Carnie Strongmen and Rikti, Laser Beam Eyes can do as much as Storm Kick. Additionally, it is ranged, meaning that it is excellent for finishing off a nearly dead enemy that is out of reach - runners, or the victim of a Crane Kick, for example. The defense debuff is okay; I make use of it occasionally, but it's not a big deal. Laser Beam Eyes can slot the Decimation unique IO, a 5% Chance for Build-Up. I've once had that activate while Focus Chi was on... you really rip things up with that combination like no one's business.
Energy Torrent is the capstone attack, and I recommend taking it at 47 if you're going to get it, since it needs heavy slotting. Energy Torrent has slightly less base damage than Dragon's Tail, but can easily hit a larger crowd, and is primarily energy damage; this makes it an excellent crowd killer. You'll have to learn to move and position yourself more if you take this power, but it rounds out one of Martial Arts' biggest holes. Note that unlike the Blaster and Defender versions, this Energy Torrent does Knockdown rather than Knockback (like Dragon's Tail.) It is also red, which makes it very distinctive and cool. I find it easy to work this attack in conjunction with Dragon's Tail to keep a large crowd of dangerous enemies off their feet, as well.
DARKNESS MASTERY: The cult alternative to Body Mastery, Darkness Mastery adds scraptroller elements to your martial artist. I really love this APP, almost as much as Body Mastery. Darkness Mastery requires moderate investment; you can get the best from this with only three powers.
Torrent is probably the ideal entry point. Pretend you're a Storm Defender and use it to herd opponents where you need them to go, blinding them in the process. Slotting with Lysosome Hamis to increase both accuracy and the ToHit Debuff is a great idea; one Knockback might be fun.
Petrifying Gaze is a meh ability; at only Magnitude 3, it stops at Lieutenants. It's mostly useful for stopping runners... once every 32 seconds.
Redlynne adds that it is possible to keep enemies in perma-Hold with Duration and Recharges; while that is true, I really can't name any Lieutenant, Minion or Underling-class mobs that I'd rather keep in a risky perma-Hold like that rather than just kill, one which gets even more risky the higher difficulty that you fight on. Her example is Sappers, which don't really bother /SRs. But you may have different mileage with this; I may find myself missing this attack if I spend more time in the Shadow Shard.
Dark Blast is basically the same as Laser Beam Eyes, only with a more useful secondary effect and faster cast time (and thus high DPS-AT). Get it. It is a great ability for all of the same reasons.
Tenebrous Tentacles is a very fun capstone ability and definitely the best Tier 4 of the three APPs. It turns you into a controller once every 20 seconds, and your controllers will appreciate the Immobilize stacking over an area. Slot for accuracy and duration if you plan on teaming with it, or as an attack if your primary purpose is damage; it's not far behind Energy Torrent in raw damage, though part of it is in Damage over Time.
WEAPON MASTERY: The ninja APP, Weapon Mastery is the least common of the three and probably the worst. But it's still pretty good, and has excellent openers - it just becomes iffy if you stick around for the third and fourth powers. A good choice for someone who wants good APP powers with little investment, and space leftover to round out their normal choices.
Web Grenade and Caltrops are both really good - Web Grenade gives you Anti-Fly without having to do all of that annoying jumping around, hoping you get near enough for Air Superiority or Crippling Axe Kick to activate. Also of definite note is the immobilize (Mag 3, and very easy to self-stack with this one) and the -Recharge (even the bosses will notice.) Duration and accuracy are priority on Web Grenade.
Caltrops... If you've ever fought Tsoo or Knives of Artemis, you understand why Caltrops are evil. Enough said. For true evilness, slot the Positron's Blast chance for Energy Damage IO in this.
Shuriken are the worst of APP Ranged attacks, being lethal, lower range and a lower damage index than LBE or Dark Blast. They throw a bit faster than LBE, but this is definitely a skippable power. I'd rather keep them from running with the other attacks. If you use it, use it to pull.
Exploding Shuriken, with a huge recharge timer - even longer than Energy Torrent and Tenebrous Tentacles - and lethal damage, do nothing really to fill out the scrapper's AoE damage hole, though I've had a friend tell me about pulling with the attack, dropping IO'ed Positron's Blast Caltrops for them to walk slowly over, then Dragon's Tail and another point blank Shuriken. Sounds like a lot of work to me for really slow killing... I would just resign myself to being single target.
ENEMIES <FOES>
A listing of enemies that a Martial Arts/Super Reflexes scrapper will want to keep an eye on (or can safely ignore.) This should help you if you want to farm for XP, Salvage, or Influence. This list is not comprehensive and is under construction. If you'd like to contribute, post below with an explanation. Thanks!
Unusually Easy:
The Carnival of Shadows. The Dark Ring Mistresses will still be a bit of a headache, but what's a game without any challenge? The only thing you should be careful of is getting unlucky and being hit with the End Drain they do on death too much if you kill multiple on a short time. It's not often, but it does happen. I find the Steel and Soulless Strongmen to be a bigger challenge than most of the Carnies, simply because they take longer to go down.
Be careful with Harlequin Fencers - take them down first when you can, or spam your AoE/Ranged attacks. They like to use Parry, which can make them frustrating if you don't. Focused Accuracy burns through Parry though.
Also, be careful with Vanessa DeVore, the head AV of the Carnival. Every thirty seconds, she uses a non-positional attack, which eats through Super Reflexes for more than half of your health bar.
The Malta Operatives: Malta Sappers are traditionally the only thing people hate about Malta, and you'll avoid their attacks most of the time. Go for the Sappers first anyway - because luck isn't foolproof, and your teammates will love you for it - and then eliminate the Malta Gunslingers, who can hit through your defenses if they get lucky.
High-Level Circle of Thorns: They can't hit you, so they can't mez you.
Low-Level Outcasts, Clockwork and Trolls: These guys hit primarily with elemental attacks, as opposed to lethal damage, and are much less prone to dropping your defenses the way Council and Skulls will with their guns.
Unusually Difficult
Low-Level Circle of Thorns: Practiced Brawler isn't very dependable before DOs, and those damned Nerva Daemon Lords are hard to hit and resistant to the damage any scrapper can output (though Dark Melee will really hate them.)
Rularuu Eyeballs: Approach Rularuu carefully if there's an eyeball in the midst. They shred through your defenses like they're not even there.
Nemesis Lieutenants: They're not a threat in small quantities, but if you're facing a large amount of Nemmies with Lieutenants and Bosses rather than Snipers and Minions, the Vengeance-stacking can be murder. Always wipe out the little guys first with Nemesis. That said, I've taken on an entire room meant for 8 of Nemesis by my lonesome, so it's doable if you're careful.
The Vanguard Sword: If you're well-slotted, they won't usually hit you - but all it takes is two lucky attacks and you're dead. I've been hit for 80% of my health before. Go into these fights with lots of Orange Inspirations ready to go.
Devouring Earth (variable): The Crystal and Rock enemies tend to go down fast to high smashing damage, but the Bladegrass-type and Devoured Bosses all take a *lot* of hits. The rock underlings bite it fast to Martial Arts attacks, while the Swarm are a royal pain without a lot of AoEs.
Low-Level Anything With Guns: The -defense debuffs are brutal when you're still new to Paragon City.
Anyway, looks like I'm done! I hope this guide helped you out, and I'll see you in Paragon, eh?
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