SpiderTeo_OC

I got a MA/Regen with Physical Perfection, and the only time I have endurance problems is when hit by a nasty debuff, or if I'm spamming attacks for a really long extended period of time. And even in the last case, I could use MoG for quick hit or deactivate an unnecessary toggle or two (like Sprint or Super Speed).

Combat Jumping is good for its mobility, allowing to turn in midair (I don't know if Ninja Run allows that). The LotG +7.5% and +6% To Hit are better options, in my opinion. Sure, unlimited endurance is good, but if you can get by with just a little short of "unlimited" in exchange for more global recharge (which benefits both your primary and /Regen) and a nice To-Hit bonus, I'll go for Combat Jumping.

If you have a high-recharge build, then the optimal attack chain for MA is:
Storm Kick -> Crane Kick -> Storm Kick -> Crippling Ax Kick

If you don't have that high recharge, then skipping CAK in your build won't gimp it.

I agree with the above posters. Cobra Strike, at least in the later levels, loses its effectiveness over time. Thunder Kick is a nice tier 1 attack, but could also be skipped as you get better options later on, if you have a tight build.

Crane Kick and Crippling Ax Kick are attacks that some people may or may not get, based on personal preference (either for the KB or silly looking animation, etc). MA's optimal attack chain does require both powers, but you won't have a bad build if you skip just one of these attacks, but you should keep at least one of them, if not both, to keep a decent attack chain.

Eagle's Claw might also be skippable in some concept builds. However, you also give up burst damage in your attacks, plus a little of soft-control as well.

I agree with the above posters. Cobra Strike, at least in the later levels, loses its effectiveness over time. Thunder Kick is a nice tier 1 attack, but could also be skipped as you get better options later on, if you have a tight build.

Crane Kick and Crippling Ax Kick are attacks that some people may or may not get, based on personal preference (either for the KB or silly looking animation, etc). MA's optimal attack chain does require both powers, but you won't have a bad build if you skip just one of these attacks, but you should keep at least one of them, if not both, to keep a decent attack chain.

Eagle's Claw might also be skippable in some concept builds. However, you also give up burst damage in your attacks, plus a little of soft-control as well.

Like ClawsandEffect said above, the typical PvP build will likely have enough +To-Hit and +Accuracy buffs to really make /SR very vulnerable. That's not to say that it can't do well against a "casual" build, but you are more likely going to make others slightly annoyed rather than apprehensive with that secondary.

MA, on the other hand, might be a distance 3rd choice, or close 3rd choice (depending on perspective) for a primary, behind FM/ and BS/. It does give decent damage, but its soft-controls in Cobra Strike, Crippling Ax Kick, and Eagle's Claw can give a slight advantage in cases where you need to slow down an opponent just enough to get that last extra hit again, or give you some breathing room when you need it.

I never had it a point to go AV hunting on my primary scrapper (MA/Regen) since given my somewhat limited playing time, I don't want to spend too much time doing trial & error on figuring out how to take out an AV, particularly on a combo that's usually considered not as great as your usual combos, like /SR or /Shields or /WP.

But I had some time to kill and decided to give it a shot today against Marauder and see how long I last compared to the last time I took him on (which wasn't all that long really). I got the Ouroborus mission set with no temps and no inspirations and went to town.

I first tried to pull some of the minions surrounding him away so I don't have to deal with them while taking on the Big Boss Man. I pulled about three, but the next three also had Big M coming with them. So I bite the bullet and decided to let it ride. I took one down fast before Marauder got into melee range. Then I just used Dragon's Tail to clean up the ready and focused on Marauder.

I was surprised how fast his health dropped within the first minute or so, and that I was still able to hang with him. I got to maybe about 40-50% when he hits what seems to be Unstoppable. Well, not I'm doing 2-digit damage, but I keep at him since he can't seem to drop me either. Unstoppable then drops for him and then I continue the assault until his health is somewhere from 5% to 15%. I curse some profanity while I hit my Regen clicks and keep going. But he does eventually get me with a lucky hit and I drop.

But that's not the end. Sure, no temp powers or inspirations, but I got a near useless power called "Revive." I hit it for about a 50%-50% split on health and endurance, then run back to Marauder, telling him, "I got lotta mo'! Got lotta mo!"

He turns and looks at me with still just about 5%-15% health and his Unstoppable almost about to drop sometime soon. "You got one more round. Just one more round. It's overtime, so let's see who wants it more."

With that, we exchange a few more hits, before I drop him as my first AV victim, solo with no temps and no inspirations.

Okay, so he was just Marauder. But like your first kiss, you never forget it. I just wanted to share my experience with the Scrapper community, because unlike my first kiss, I don't think Marauder is going to complain that I told a bunch of people about it over the Internet.

Late!

In my opinion, no scrapper should ever skip Build-Up/Focus Chi. That's your bread & butter power for burst damage. Sure, it's only for ten-seconds, but that's 10-seconds of double damage. Even if you only use it once every minute or so, it's still nice to use to open up a can of alpha-strike, Scrapper-style.

Concerns about smashing damage being highly resisted is even more of a reason for being able to double your damage once every minute or so. You want to do damage, so Focus yo' Chi, and then crush your enemies, see them flee before you, and hear the laminations of their women.

Additionally, however, don't worry if smashing is heavily resisted. Katana and Broadsword also do heavily resisted Lethal damage, and they do fine. Same thing about MA, it does the damage, regardless if it's being resisted or not.

As for Redlynne's take on the power, I wouldn't recommend that view. That's not to say you still can't do it, but if you can't learn to use Focus Chi/Build Up on a scrapper, then you probably need to change sets or even ATs since you won't be hitting your damage potential. I also highly do not recommend Warrior's Challenge/Confront, from a PvE build-stand point. If you want to get single-target aggro, then hit it in the face; you don't need another power to do it for you, particularly when you got the damage potential to grab it anyway.

That said, some "non-optimized" builds are cool with me if you are building around a concept for your toon, whether performance or even RP-wise. Just be ready to state your concept if asked. Don't just make a willy-nilly build without any ideas in mind (unless you really are totally clueless on this game, but you aren't because you're posting on these forums, correct?). You'll compromise your Scrapper's strength with nothing in return.

As said above, the optimal MA attack chain is:
Storm Kick -> Crane Kick -> Storm Kick -> Crippling Axe Kick

This assumes +225% recharge in Storm Kick (and comparable +recharge in the other attacks) so that there are no gaps in the chain.

Provided you can get enough recharge, you can get away with just getting Storm Kick, Crane Kick, Crippling Ax Kick, and Dragon's Tail as your attacks. I personally would also get Eagle's Claw for the burst damage and the cool animation, but a good enough build can get by without it.

As for Cobra Strike, it is best used as a mitigation tool at the lower, maybe to the mid-, levels. At higher levels, you really don't need it, since Eagle's Claw takes care of most of your stunning needs. If you are making a minimal attack build, then dropping Cobra Strike would be first attack to drop before any others. If you do want to get, you 'll have to slot it to make it even remotely useful, and then also determine when and where to use to it.

Check out my signature for my Martial Arts guide, which has a section on Attack Chains, as well as bonus section on using Cobra Strike.

The only punch animation that I actually like is the alternate for Storm Kick. It's a quick gut punch, almost like a quick "one-inch punch" styled strike. But in order to get it, I would have to give up the spinning heel kick animation, which I wasn't ready to do.

Cobra Strike's alternate uppercut animation isn't bad either, plus if you can put in Kinetic Combat proc for the occasional KD, but I still prefer the more Asian martial art-styled strike of using an open palm.

The CAK animation, a leaning hook punch, is probably the best alternate animation in comparison to the original kick animation, though it is still kinda meh compared to the gut punch and uppercut.

Here's my take on an Energy/Cold Corruptor, which mostly based on the /Cold set.

Cold Domination has a combination of slows, debuffs, and ally buffs. However, the ally buffs are done "pre-fight" (Ice & Glacial Shields, Frostworks) so they are generally fire-n-forget. That leaves most of your time debuffing and blasting. That Eng/Cold Corruptor isn't going to save you once those shields are applied, but because those are team buffs, that corruptor is very vulnerable without buffs of its own. That's where it would rely on the KB of Energy to help mitigate damage.

I've never played a Dominator, but it seems to be right if you are worried about the KB. The KB is probably the main thing to consider for a duoing partner, so range would be a good idea unless you want to be more of a support character, like a /Pain Domination toon.

The best IO bonus to get for a /regen scrapper would be +recharge bonuses. The more global recharge you have, the faster your /regen click powers will be up. Yes, +regen bonuses do help, but their effectiveness tends to plateau faster compared to other secondaries because it already has so much +regen to begin with. That tends to apply to both PvE and PvP builds, though with PvP's DR, you might still do best with mixing up which bonuses you can get.

That's why Crushing Impacts and Doctored Wounds are more popular for /Regen because of the +5% bonuses. 5-slot Reconstruction and Dull Pain with DW and you can hit the ED cap for Recharge and Healing as well as get the +recharge bonuses from them as well. Numina's are still good sets, because they have +HP and +regen bonuses that other ATs are more in want of than /Regen scrappers, but they are best used in passive powers or toggles, like Fast Healing and Integration.

On pmgunnerxx's build, in addition to what's said above, I would move MoG to an earlier slot. By the time you can get in at level 38, it's going to very useful from then all the way up to level 50, more so than Boxing or Tough at the very least.

I'd second Werner's suggestion of upping the damage potential in the Mako's Bite set. Can't go wrong for most burst in PvP.

For the OP, I don't know how you would drop Health in order to get Physical Perfection, unless you had originally decided to get all four powers in the Fitness Pool. (This is assuming that you are still keeping Stamina, which is seen as a must on most characters, particularly on a BD/SD).

For me, I'd rather keep Health over Swift or Hurdle for the little extra +regen rather than the extra speed.

As for the Swift vs Hurdle decision, I think it would depend on that character's particular travel power picks. On one scrapper, I have Super Speed + Combat Jumping, so getting Hurdle helps for the extra vertical movement. On another, I have Combat Jumping + Super Jump, so I get Swift to cover the running "horizontal" movement for times when hopping isn't easy, such as cavern and low ceiling building missions.

The first thing to do with IO'ing out a MA/Regen scrapper is to build for global recharge. That will make Regen a stronger set (faster recharge means its click powers are up more often and available) and increase MA's damage potential.

If you want to really pimp out the build, then go for some defense as well. In fact, a few defense powers wouldn't be a bad idea, since you can slot in the LotG +recharge IOs in them (though of course these are also very expensive/sought out).

Sets that provide recharge set bonuses:
5-slotted Crushing Impact: +5%
5-slotted Obliteration: +5%
5-slotted Adjusted Targeting: +5%
5-slotted Doctored Wounds: +5%
5-slotted Stupefy: +6.25%

These are the ones that would most likely fit in most builds, though some sets could also make use of 5-slotted Red Fortune in defense powers and 5-slotted Impervious Skin in Resistance powers (both +5%).

You could easily get 25-30% global recharge from set bonuses. Add this to Hasten's +70% and you'll have a good build to work with.

I've heard that Broadsword is better than Katana in PvP, because it has better burst damage. Katana's DPS seems to matter more in PvE, where the targets are usually more stationary and have a greater amount of HP to dwindle down.

As for the OP's build, I was looking at your choice of Air Superiority. It's a great power to juggle targets, but it causes redraw with BS, and considering the nature of PvP movement, you might be better to just let loose one of your heavy hitting attacks. Now if you are using it as a mule for the +5% recharge in Crushing Impact, then that's cool, but you can drop a slot in that power and put it somewhere else.

I had some old Hami-Os that I was not using and thought to put them into an PvP build for my MA/Regen. Specifically speaking, I have a Peroxisome Exposure and maybe 2 or 3 Endoplasm Exposures.

I know that mez effects drop significantly against PCs (looks like Cobra Strike's base stun duration drops from around 12sec to just about 2.3sec). Normally, I wouldn't bother slotting for mez effects, but since I do have these Hami-Os, would they still be worth it, or should I say them from another toon?

It is a Veteran Reward to be able to get Travel pool powers (tier 1,2, & 3 powers) at level 6. I forgot which month it is for (60 months?).


Edit: Yup, verified it's at 60 months: City Traveler.

There are at least two things that seem to be universal in PvP, and those are +recharge and +to-hit.

The good part about /regen is that +recharge helps makes the set strong, since all its click powers come up sooner, and also provides some synergy with the primary set. Most other secondaries don't get as much benefit from +recharge as /regen does.

For actual build items, get at least Tactics into your build (probably also get Assault as well). Also get Focused Accuracy/Targeting Drone from one of the Epics if you can fit it in and can manage the extra end consumption.

Work toward a more burst damage offensive than planning out optimal DPS chains.

I'm can't help with actual builds, but you could also find more PvP specific information from the PvP boards. Questions about specific powers and combos could still be answered here, but most do have more of a PvE slant.

In addition to Fire/ and BS/, I'll throw in Martial Arts. It might not have the straight-up damage values, but EC's animation ups its damage, plus its controls adds another dimension to your offense.

/Fire and /Shields both will up the damage on a MA scrapper compared to a /Regen, and both sets will add a little more AoE potential as well.

The big difference that you probably see straight up is that /Fire and /SD need more END management than /Regen. Expect to get Stamina on those sets.

The other big difference is that /Regen will probably have better survivability when just considering SO slotting. Even at lower levels, /Regen will probably last longer in a tough fight than the other two, even if it does less damage potential.

However, /SD is a late blooming set, and if you can get it fairly IOed out, and get it as close to the soft-cap as possible, maybe even hitting it, then /SD's survivability matches or possibly exceeds that of /Regen.

Again, it all depends on your playing style and what you want most out of your build, and what you can put into it. On the cheap, go for /regen for survivability, /fire for better damage potential. On more expensive and expansive builds, consider /SD to get a bit of both directions without giving too much up.

My experiences on my BD/SD indicates more nay than yah. The extra resists don't seem to help as much if you are in a really tough battle that would probably drop you without it. It might delay the time you drop or give you some leeway to make a retreat.

It might be a nice little power to use, considering the HP buff and higher +recovery, but the end crash is just too much to worry about. With my BD/SD, end management is a bit tight, and having to worry about a 50-60% END drop is not something I want to deal with. Of course, having a big blue might help out with the crash if you time it in time.

The +HP isn't a heal so it really only affects regen rate. If you already got a strong regen rate on your /SD, then maybe OwtS could be something to increase survivability by a greater margin.

What you got now is not bad. Putting off Focus Chi at level 18 won't kill your build. I got it at level 20 on my MA/Regen.

I'm not too experienced with Invulnerability, but I do know that you probably do want to get Hasten into your build. Not only will it help with your attack chain (MA's highest DPS chain does require a lot of +recharge), but it will help Dull Pain come up more often.

Unless you are going for a concept build or even PvP, you can get rid of the Concealment pool. Get the Speed pool for Hasten, and if you want, then also get Super Speed because that gives about the same amount of stealth as the Stealth power does (that means you would be getting two travel powers, but each has its own purpose for less pool power picks). Slot in a Stealth IO somewhere and your toon has as much necessary stealth to bypass anything that doesn't already have a +perc buff.

If you do plan to respec later, you might want to switch Thunder Kick for Crippling Ax Kick. Not everyone does that, but CAK is used for the higher DPS chains. It's your preference on what you like better.

Consider the Fighting pool for your 4th pool pick. Tough and Weave would add on to your S/L resists and defense, which are already significant on a Invulnerability scrapper.