Tulzar

Because this is an Energy Melee guide, not an EM/EA guide. And I chose Hurdle over Health for the movement benefit I get from Swift and Hurdle combined. The amount of healing I get from Health is comletely trivial for a Stalker, particularly when I don't have Dull Pain, thus incredibly low HP, and am a defensive set rather than resist or healing. If I'm in combat for long enough to Health to make a difference, then I'm not Stalking very well...

Now an /Inv Brute, on the other hand...

Hmm, maybe in a future release of this guide I will make it compatible with Stalkers, Brutes, AND Tanks by adding a few things here and there...

Done! Now I need to do the same to my Scrapper guide.

[ QUOTE ]
One thing people should be aware of is that increasing your difficulty gets you more xp from mobs, but the bonus stays the same, and since you do less missions per level, you wind up getting far less influence overall. So, you find yourself and 12 and 22 sucking wind for DOs and SOs.

[/ QUOTE ]I definitely get more XP for Invincible mission rewards than I do for Heroic.

[ QUOTE ]
1) I disagree with the team size advice. There is a bonus to XP [both enemy and mission] for every team member beyond, I think, 3: I only clearly remember the multipliers for 6, 7, and 8-person teams.
4: 1.3 [very unsure]
5: 1.7 [approximate]
6: 2.0
7: 2.2
8: 2.5

What this means is that, if you get N experience points for defeating something solo, you get roughly (N/5* 1.7) or .34N for your 5-person team defeating it, and (N/8 * 2.5) or .3125N for your 8-person team defeating it.

So you're losing 15% XP in return for gaining approximately 60% more firepower . Now 8-person teams are fighting tougher, higher-level spawns, so there's less room for error and everyone needs to be better at their jobs, but with the higher risk is MUCH higher reward. .. and that multiplier also applies to mission completion bonus.

[/ QUOTE ]

The amount of enemies you face are multiplied by the amount of members on your team. 8 memebers, 8x normal spawn sizes. The diminishing return for the experience bonus still applies, however. This means the "sweet spot" is around 4-5 team members.

And as far as the multiplier applying to mission bonuses, it does not. I get just as much XP for completing my mission solo as I do for completing it with 4 additional people in the team.

Part 1: Introduction

I started my Energy Melee Stalker about a month after City of Villains went live. I have a level 50 Tanker who uses Energy Melee as his secondary, so I am no stranger to the set. I solo mostly, but don't shy away from teaming, especially with my Super Group. One thing I do often, though I hesitate to admit it, is to just run newspaper missions over and over again for fast mission reward bonuses. It's an astonishingly fast way to level. I'm a fan of min/maxxing my builds, though I’m just as happy playing a more varied character. I suffered my fair share of deaths with this character on his way to level 40, but I average only about 1 per level (if not less), as I learn from my mistakes. My motivation for making my first guide, Martial Arts - A Comprehensive Guide, was that there weren't many to choose from to help me, but that's not the case with Energy Melee Stalkers. To that effect, I strive to make this guide as valuable and helpful as possible. With the success of my Martial Arts guide, I was inspired to write another one. So this guide is about the primary power set of my main character in City of Villains, Villainous. A fitting name, if ever there was one.

There's only one real approach to this set: fast, high damage to single targets. Stalkers put Scrapper 'boss-killers' to shame, and EM Stalkers put OTHER Stalkers to shame in the 'boss-killing' department. I will emphasize this point several times in the guide, but I can't stress your single-target uberness enough. One thing that is different between this guide and my last is the lack of a section for PvP. While I've played a decent amount, there isn't really anything worth noting in a separate section that can't be said elsewhere. Since I focused on my 'boss-killing' capabilities, it kind of went hand-in-hand with my 'hero-killing' capabilities.


Part 2: Powers

Energy Melee is a pretty impressive set to choose once you get to the higher levels. While it has an odd (but true) reputation of being the "pink pom-poms of death" set, don't be dissuaded by the eye-candy naysayers. They just envy you. EM is a bit different than the other sets because there are NO multiple-target attacks in the set. I'm a bit used to this since I play an MA Scrapper in CoH, but even HE has one AoE attack. What this means is that the rest of your attacks make up for it by dishing out high levels of pain to the one target it DOES hit. Another nice feature of EM is that part of the damage you deal with every attack is Energy-based. Not as many foes resist Energy attacks, while many resist Lethal and Smashing.

Before I list the powers, I will describe the format they will be presented in. After the power's name will be a series of smiley faces. This is my score for the power. It's a 5-point system, with 1 smiley being a useless power and 5 being absolutely crucial. Following the name will be a list of statistics. These can be largely ignored if you're not a number cruncher and just want to pick fun powers to use; my desriptions should be explanatory enough for casual gamers to get the jest of them. I also recommend slotting for the powers, but I'll leave some of the slots empty so you can make your own contributions.

For those who are not familiar with the Brawl Index measurement popularly used on the forums, it is a way to compare each power's damage output to one another. It's based on how much damage a power does compared to Brawl, which has a baseline score of 1. For example, Energy Punch's BI value is 2.7, which means it does 2.7x more damage than Brawl. Add 3 SO damage enhancements to EP (for a +95% boost to damage) and the Brawl Index goes up to over 5.

Barrage
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 2x damage
Endurance Cost: 3.5 endurance
Activation Time: 1.3 seconds
Recharge Time: 2 seconds
Brawl Index: 1.9 Smashing/Energy damage
Status: minor Disorient (foe)
This is a pretty lousy power. It does low damage and should only be used as a filler attack in my opinion. If you build your Stalker like I did, though, you can replace it with Air Superiority, an infinitely more useful attack. Those recommended slots are only if you bother to take it.

Energy Punch
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage
Endurance Cost: 5.2 endurance
Activation Time: 0.6 seconds
Recharge Time: 4 seconds
Brawl Index: 2.7 Smashing/Energy damage
Status: minor Disorient (foe)
Here we go, a more decent attack. This is more useful for finishing off lieutenants/bosses or dealing with minions. Pick this up as your first attack over Barrage. You may want a recharge enhancement in it eventually, because you'll only have a few consistent attacks if you follow my build. Aside from your big-hitters, you'll have this, Air Superiority, and Bone Smasher for finishing off enemies.

Bone Smasher
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage; 1x recharge
Endurance Cost: 8.5 endurance
Activation Time: 1.5 seconds
Recharge Time: 8 seconds
Brawl Index: 4.6 Smashing/Energy damage
Status: moderate Disorient (foe)
Now we're talking! This is your first of many devastating attacks, and it's available at level 2! A critical hit with Bone Smasher at level 2 is a beautiful thing indeed. Often times in the early levels, this can be used as a follow-up to Assassin's Strike to defeat bosses.

Assassin's Strike
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage
Endurance Cost: 14.3 endurance
Activation Time: 4 seconds
Recharge Time: 15 seconds
Brawl Index: 19.4 Smashing/Energy damage (on critical)
Here it is, the reason you picked a Stalker over any other archetype. If you're hidden and you use this attack, you'll do 6x more damage than normal. With this and Build Up, you can cripple a boss to the brink of defeat. I love it when I surprise my team in combat with AS. They hardly notice my stealthed form, and when the boss they are focusing on suddenly drops to 10% health, it takes them a moment to remember there's a Stalker in their team. Mua ha ha! Take this power as soon as you reach level 6. It will make getting to level 8 all the quicker. One tactic that you can use if you've got a recharge rate enhancement or two in it is to AS a boss, juggle him with Air Superiority and hit him with another attack while he's on his back, Placate him, then AS him again. I used to say Scrappers were the 'boss-killer' archetype, but they don't have anything on Stalkers!

Just like Blaster snipes, however, this power is interruptible. Keep this in mind, because if you're twitchy, you may move yourself and stop the animation, wasting endurance. If you're in a team, you have to be wary of cone attacks hitting you, too. As such, I suggest standing behind an enemy when you use this power.

Build Up
Recommended Slots: 1x recharge rate
Endurance Cost: 5.2 endurance
Activation Time: 0.7 seconds
Recharge Time: 90 seconds
Duration: 10 seconds
Status: +50% accuracy (self); +80% damage (self)
Build Up is how my groups know when to charge the enemy. I sit in the middle of a pile of mobs while they stand back. As soon as they see me activate this power, they know I'm about to assassinate a boss and bring all forms of hell upon my hidden self. I suggest slotting it with several recharge rate enhancements so you can use it as soon as Placate becomes available again. While Scrappers don't rely on Build Up to too much of a degree, it is a really useful power for Stalkers. Not only for the added damage to take out a boss quicker, but also to ensure your AS hits, thanks to the +50% accuracy boost it provides.

Placate
Recommended Slots: 1x recharge rate
Endurance Cost: 2.6 endurance
Activation Time: 1.5 seconds
Recharge Time: 60 seconds
Duration: 10 seconds
Range: 40 feet
This is another power to take as soon as possible. Placate makes life so much easier. Did you get the boss' attention despite the Brute on your team's best efforts? No problem! Placate him and then land a critical hit on his lieutenant buddy's head! 3 recharge rate enhancements makes the power even more useful in a team, since you will probably need to use it in combat more than once. "These are not the droids you are looking for."

If you're new to Stalkers and are confused by this power so far, I'll explain. This power is ranged and auto-hits your target. It makes the target no longer aggro you and lasts for 10 seconds. It also makes your next attack a critical hit, assuming nobody hits you in that time (every enemy can see you like normal except for the individual you Placated, so the others WILL attack). I emphasize "HITS you" because misses will not bring you out of your pseudo-hide state. This makes Energy Aura and Super Reflexes more advantageous than Regeneration in this respect. The following 10 seconds can be used in 2 ways. One way is to run from the enemy, assuming he is alone. If you get out of his range before Placate wears off, he will essentially forget you exist. This is good when fighting something that is threatening to faceplant you. The second way is to get a critical hit on one of the enemies near you. The Placated foe will still not see you right away even if you attack the guy next to him, so keep that in mind. And if he's alone, that means you'll have time to Assassin's Strike him. Confused yet? Don't worry, you have plenty of levels to get used to the power.

Stun
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy
Endurance Cost: 10.2 endurance
Activation Time: 1.8 seconds
Recharge Time: 20 seconds
Duration: 15 seconds
Status: Disorient (foe)
Stun lands a high-magnitude disorient on enemies, and one application is enough to drunkify minions and lieutenants. Stun plus Total Focus will make just about anything dizzy. The damage of this power, though, is laughable. Never slot it for damage. Heck, never slot it period. I won't deny this is a half decent power, but I simply don't have the room for it. Placate seems to be good enough. I made it to 40 without it, so you can too. If you PvP a lot, you'll probably enjoy Stun more than me. In Aleksander's Energy/Energy PvP/PvE Stalker (v.1.0) guide, he attests to as much:[ QUOTE ]
...this can definitely put the damper on an unwary, toggle-happy defender or controller. IE, Hurricane-types. Something of a sticking point between PvP/PvE'rs, it doesn't have nearly as much use in PvE as it would in PvP, IMHO. If you have the chance to stick it in your build without putting yourself out from the other 'essentials' (as energy has alot of good powers), then grab it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Energy Transfer
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage; 1x recharge rate
Endurance Cost: 10.2 endurance
Activation Time: 1 seconds
Recharge Time: 20 seconds
Brawl Index: 12.7 Smashing/Energy damage
Status: minor damage (self)
This is one of two reasons why you picked Energy Melee over any other primary set. Energy Transfer does a huge amount of damage in a very short amount of time. The endurance cost is decent for the damage it does, too. It takes a while to recharge, but with an enhancement or two in it, it'll be up quicker, which may not be a good thing considering its drawback. Said drawback is that it does a small amount of damage to you when you use it (on the order of about 7-8% of whatever your max life is). You CAN kill yourself with this power! I've done it before by clicking ET at the same time a boss hit me. The boss' attack would normally have brought me to a smidgen of life, but then ET sucks the rest of it away and before I know it, I'm in the Rogue Isles Hospital being counselled by the in-house psychiatrist. You can counteract the life-draining aspect of this power if you use it while hidden, but that replaces your extra critical hit damage. Yes, you heard me, this power does no extra damage when you use it while hidden. But does it really need to?

Total Focus
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage; 1x endurance cost
Endurance Cost: 18.5 endurance
Activation Time: 3.3 seconds
Recharge Time: 20 seconds
Brawl Index: 9.9 Smashing/Energy damage
Status: Disorient (foe)
This is the second reason you picked EM instead of any other primary set. The damage of this power is on par with Energy Transfer. It takes considerably longer to activate, however, and costs nearly twice as much endurance. I suggest an enhancement to take care of that to a degree. It will always land a high-magnitude disorient effect on anyone you hit with it, plus a very high chance to land an additional minor disorient effect on top of that. This means you can stun bosses with just this one power! A critical hit with this will not yield double damage, unfortunately, but it's still a +30% boost. This means it has just about the same Brawl Index as ET if you use it while hidden. Imagine for a moment, if you will, the sheer damage you can do with Assassin's Strike, Energy Transfer, and Total Focus. Now why on earth would you want to play any other type of Stalker?

Fitness
Due to the nature of a Stalker's playstyle, you won't be in combat for lengthy amounts of time. All your endurance will be spent up front, and between readjusting your position, Placating and moving around, and fleeing to let yourself get hidden again, you will be given plenty of opportunities to recover your lost endurance. If you team a lot and find you have to resort to scrapping, you may find taking and slotting this power to be more useful than a soloer. As much as I dislike scrapping with my Stalker, I have to in a team quite a bit, so I slotted Stamina. Fortunately, I had the slots available.

Flight
Air Superiority fits beautifully into my build, as is mentioned above. It's a great power, doubly so for Stalkers. A common tactic I use on an enemy I don't want to fight is to hit them with Air Superiority, Placate them, then run. Sure it's cheap, but isn't that the point of Stalkers?

Concelment
Stealth stacks with Hide, which is great in PvP combat. It's not so useful in PvE, but there is a small amount of defense bonus from it, which is worth mentioning if your secondary set is defense-oriented. I won't go into length about the 2 powers stacking because there are plenty of other guides out there for PvP Stalkers.

Teleportation
Recall Friend is a very useful power for Stalkers if you plan on teaming up much. I use this power to assist my team with beelining it to the last room of a mission. It helps to skip a bunch of baddies if we find we're somewhat over our heads or such.


Part 3: Sample Build

This is the exact same build I use for my Stalker. It works incredibly well for me. I never needed to respec, so take confidence in knowing that as you rise in levels, the going will never be tough for you if you follow this build. That's not to say you'll err if you deviate, however.

[/b]01) -- Energy Punch -- Acc(1)Acc(3)Dmg(5)Dmg(11)Dmg(15)EndRdx(40)
01) -- Hide -- DefBuf(1)DefBuf(19)DefBuf(19)
02) -- Bone Smasher -- Acc(2)Acc(3)Dmg(5)Dmg(11)Dmg(17)EndRdx(37)
04) -- Kinetic Shield -- DefBuf(4)DefBuf(21)DefBuf(21)
06) -- Air Superiority -- Acc(6)Acc(7)Dmg(7)Dmg(13)Dmg(15)EndRdx(37)
08) -- Assassin's Strike -- Acc(8)Acc(9)Dmg(9)Dmg(13)Dmg(17)Rechg(37)
10) -- Combat Jumping -- EndRdx(10)
12) -- Placate -- Rechg(12)Rechg(25)Rechg(31)
14) -- Super Jump -- EndRdx(14)
16) -- Entropy Shield -- EndRdx(16)
18) -- Power Shield -- DefBuf(18)DefBuf(23)DefBuf(23)
20) -- Build Up -- Rechg(20)Rechg(25)Rechg(34)
22) -- Swift -- Run(22)
24) -- Hurdle -- Jump(24)
26) -- Energy Transfer -- Acc(26)Acc(27)Dmg(27)Dmg(29)Dmg(29)EndRdx(36)
28) -- Energy Drain -- EndMod(28)EndMod(36)EndMod(36)
30) -- Stamina -- EndMod(30)EndMod(31)EndMod(31)
32) -- Total Focus -- Acc(32)Acc(33)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)Dmg(34)EndRdx(34)
35) -- Recall Friend -- EndRdx(35)
38) -- Overload -- Rechg(38)Rechg(39)Rechg(39)Heal(39)Heal(40)DefBuf(40)


Part 4: Closing

I hope this guide can help aspiring Stalkers, if only to give you an idea of what Energy Melee is like. I had fun playing my Stalker up to level 40, and wish others to have as much fun as I did. The guide was fun to write, and if I think of anything else, I'll be sure to add it. Feel free to add comments, as I appreciate any and all feedback. If you find any errors with the numbers I gave, please, please, please let me know! I strive to make this guide as accurate as possible! You can reach me via private message on either the forums or in the game. My Global Chat handle is @Tulzar, and you can also drop me an e-mail in CoH or at transient1024@gmail.com.


~Works Cited
Energy/Energy PvP/PvE Stalker (v.1.0) by Aleksander, 11-07-05
Martial Arts - A Comprehensive Guide by Tulzar, 01-07-06
CoH/CoV Character Builder by Sherkhan (Sherk Silver), 12-23-05

Thanks for the words of support! Between reading all the other great guides out there and reading all the positive replies I get for mine, I am repeatedly inspired to write another one. In fact, I've already gotten well underway on a Stalker guide for my main character in CoV, so look for that in the coming hours.

As far as your mention of Stamina and endurance reduction enhancements for attacks, this is part of the reason I decided to change the way I approach my enhancement suggestions. I used to break down my preferred way to slot each power, but I decided to instead only recommend some basics and leave the rest up to the reader to decide based on his/her secondary, pool powers, and playstyle. This way every MA Scrapper that reads my guide doesn't look the exact same (so to speak).

Personally I don't see why so many people complain about Crane Kick knocking back enemies. I think it's fun! I love kicking a guy in the gut and then stomping him while he's down.

Thanks for giving your own experience with the set; it helps to hear alternative points of view. I'm sure many people who visit this thread seeking pointers will skim the posts and may get something from your post that wasn't mentioned in mine.

Martial Arts - A Comprehensive Guide

This is the most recent version of my guide, compatible with Issue 6.

Part 1: Introduction

I started my Martial Arts Scrapper around late May after the game went live, and got him to 50 in early November of the same year. Up until his mid-40s I played him casually, mostly soloing and duoing with a friend of mine, who played as Fury. His main character was a Blaster, and we meshed well. I'm not a power leveler, though I don’t shy away from easy XP every once in a while. I'm a fan of min/maxxing my builds, though I’m just as happy playing a more varied character. I played a Scrapper solo, even through the times when people said it was near impossible to get a Scrapper to 40 without help. I made this character before Regeneration was FotM, and back when Martial Arts was the worst set. Way back when Martial Arts was less popular than Dark Armor. What can I say? I like a challenge. I've been through every change, every Regeneration nerf, Enhancement Diversification, and gotten through it all unscathed. I suffered my fair share of deaths, but I average only about 1 per level, as I learn from my mistakes. I remember never seeing a Martial Arts guide back when I was just starting out, so most of my experience is through trial and error (though I made extensive use of the test server). I looked at the list of guides in the Scrapper forum (at the time I released the first version of this guide) and noticed that MA was lacking, so I decided to write an extensive guide on what I have learned through my experiences. Why am I telling you all this? To give you a look at the methodology I use when playing, so you can get an idea of where I am coming from when you read this guide.

So you may be asking yourself, "What is Martial Arts good for?"
Well, a few facts are in order to answer this question...

1. MA Scrappers are mammals.
2. MA Scrappers fight ALL the time.
3. The purpose of the MA Scrapper is to flip out and kill people.

In all honesty, though, Martial Arts can be approached in several ways. One way is to go all offense with damaging attacks. In this way, MA Scrappers are just another flavor of melee damage that all Scrappers can deliver. Specifically, with all of our one-hit attacks that do respectable damage, we have a reputation of being the 'boss-killers'. I would say I'm very good at taking out bosses and lieutenants before they get a chance to do any real harm to my party. MA is also efficient when soloing, since the groups of mobs I face in missions are small enough that using AoEs aren't optimal anyway (at least before the difficulty slider is factored in). It’s also great to be able to two-hit a pesky mob like Sappers, or at least Crane Kick them onto their butts before they can do anything. Another approach is to use your status effect powers to shape the battlefield to your liking. Cobra Strike has a 100% chance to disorient enemies (unless they're resistant), and stuns lieutenants with ease. Add to that your Eagle's Claw and/or Thunder Kick and you can stun bosses. You could also make a combination of the two approaches, though the most effective approach is to go all-out offensive in my experience.


Part 2: Powers

Martial Arts is different than other Scrapper sets in that we only have one attack that isn't a single-target attack, and that's Dragon's Tail, our melee AoE. As such, the rest of our offensive powers make up for it with high damage, low recharge time, and cheap endurance cost. This is what gives us the moniker of 'boss-killers'. The only downside to all this damage is that everything we dish out is Smashing damage, which is the most commonly resisted damage type in the game. Another boon to MA, though, is that we have an inherent +10% accuracy bonus. This is great for those who are anal-retentive about always hitting his/her foe. I tend to 2-slot my attacks for accuracy, but with MA, I only need 1. One Single Origin accuracy enhancement of 33%, plus the inherent 10% is enough to reach the cap for hitting +1 minions.

Before I list the powers, I will describe the format they will be presented in. After the power's name will be a series of smiley faces. This is my score for the power. It's a 5-point system, with 1 smiley being a useless power and 5 being absolutely crucial. Following the name will be a list of statistics. These can be largely ignored if you're not a number cruncher and just want to pick fun powers to use; my desriptions should be explanatory enough for casual gamers to get the jest of them. I also recommend slotting for the powers, but I'll leave some of the slots empty so you can make your own contributions.

For those who are not familiar with the Brawl Index measurement popularly used on the forums, it is a way to compare each power's damage output to one another. It's based on how much damage a power does compared to Brawl, which has a baseline score of 1. For example, Thunder Kick's BI value is 2.3, which means it does 2.3x more damage than Brawl. Add 3 SO damage enhancements to TK (for a +95% boost to damage) and the Brawl Index goes up to over 4.

Thunder Kick
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage
Endurance Cost: 5.2 endurance
Activation Time: 1.1 seconds
Recharge Time: 3 seconds
Brawl Index: 2.3 Smashing damage
Status: Disorient (minor) (foe)
This is going to be your basic attack that will fill out your attack cycle and keep you constantly kicking. It'll be doing the least damage of all your offensive attacks, but it's still better than nothing. It comes with a small chance to disorient foes (approx. 20%), but it doesn't have a high enough magnitude to make a dent on its own. Consider the stun to be a pleasant surprise, but don't expect to see it happen often. If you were so inclined, you could replace this attack with Air Superiority from the Flight Power Pool.

Storm Kick
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage; 1x recharge rate
Endurance Cost: 7 endurance
Activation Time: 1 second
Recharge Time: 6 seconds
Brawl Index: 3.7 Smashing damage
Ah, I remember back in Issue 1 when this was the "Smell my foot!" power... The animation was a joke. It looked dumb and took forever and a half to animate. The Developers did MA good in Issue 2, though, and now SK is one of the cooler looking MA powers! It does slightly higher damage than TK, and has a smidgen more of an endurance cost. No status effect, but it doesn't need it. The recharge time has been lengthened in recent issues, which is why I recommend at least one recharge SO for it. It's a good attack. Get it, slot it, and love it.

Cobra Strike
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy
Endurance Cost: 10 endurance
Activation Time: 2 seconds
Recharge Time: 20 seconds
Brawl Index: 0.7 Smashing damage
Status: Disorient (foe)
CS lands a high-magnitude disorient on enemies, and one application is enough to drunkify minions and lieutenants. CS plus a lucky Eagle's Claw will make bosses dizzy. The damage of this power, though, is laughable. Never slot it for damage. Heck, never slot it period. I picked it up at 41 because I had nothing else worth getting, and promptly respecced out of it and into the Concealment pool. It wasn't for me, but after hearing a lot of feedback about this power from other posters, many seem to enjoy it a lot more than I did. While I'm not a fan, tpull wrote some good stuff in defense of this power in Martial Arts / Super Reflexes - The Advanced Guide:
[ QUOTE ]
Cobra Strike (CS) is skipped often, but it is actually very useful. Playing solo, and up against a boss and three minions? You can Disorient the boss and take out one or two pesky minions. That Tsoo sorcerer keeps healing your enemy? Lay him out with a CS and proceed to take out the enemy, or knock out the sorcerer; he can't teleport away while he's stunned. Same effect on Avalanche Shamans and the like. There will be a few levels where it doesn't help much, but when you reach 40+, it comes in handy again. If you can spare the slots, two Accuracy SOs and two Disorient SOs will really make this a good power.

[/ QUOTE ]

Focus Chi
Recommended Slots: 1x recharge rate
Endurance Cost: 5.2 endurance
Activation Time: 1.2 seconds
Recharge Time: 90 seconds
Duration: 10 seconds
Status: +62.5% accuracy; +100% damage (self)
Mmmm, precious Focus Chi, how I love thee. It's MA's version of Build Up. I personally have it 3-slotted for recharge and use it once or twice in big battles on average. It's a great power to have. Try to put any spare slots you have into this power, to a maximum of 3 to make it available every 45 seconds.

Crane Kick
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage; 1x recharge rate
Endurance Cost: 8.5 endurance
Activation Time: 2 seconds
Recharge Time: 8 seconds
Brawl Index: 5.4 Smashing damage
Status: Knockback (foe)
This is one of the defining powers for Martial Arts. A high damage, fast recharge, short animation attack? Sign me up! It's a satisfying kick to the gut with a good chance (60%) to knock foes on their butts about 5 feet away from impact. One of my favorite things to do in Peregrine Island is to jump up to building ledges where Crey Snipers are lurking, get in the right position, and give them a swift kick, sending them off the edge and out of sight. It's comical and I never get tired of doing it. I get a chuckle every time!

Warrior's Challenge
Recommended Slots: 1x taunt
Endurance Cost: 0 endurance
Activation Time: 2.7 seconds
Recharge Time: 3 seconds
Range: 70
Status: Taunt (foe)
I already have a few taunts. They're called Thunder Kick, Storm Kick, and Crane Kick. So yeah, you can skip this power. Unless you team with squishy friends a lot where it would be helpful, your power choice is better spent elsewhere. I personally had it, but that was at 41, and only because I duo with my Blaster friend who goes into his own form of Scrapper-lock, so I have to get multiple mobs off his back constantly. With my recent respec I dropped it from my build again. Oh, and it was nice to pull Lattices from Monster Island with it in Issue 2. Alas, the good 'ole days of soloing monsters in 3 minutes are gone... If you tank in groups more, you'll want it. If you solo more, you can go without.

Crippling Axe Kick
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage
Endurance Cost: 5.2 endurance
Activation Time: 2.2 seconds
Recharge Time: 4 seconds
Brawl Index: 4.5 Smashing damage
Status: Immobilize (foe); Slow (foe)
CAK does more damage than TK and lands a low-magnitude immobilize on foes (or slows their movement speed if the mag isn't enough to immobilize them), but the animation is kind of slow. You could take this power instead of (or in addition to) TK, but your attack cycle will be a little wonky if you ask me. The damage is good, and the activation time was quickened in a recent patch, so this power went from being pointless to being a nice alternative choice. If you take TK, SK, CK, and EC, you don't really need it, because your attack chain will be pretty solid with those other 4 attacks. I have seen a few Scrappers running around with this attack in lieu of the more traditional choices I mentioned, and I have to say they did just as well. If you do pick it up, the only power I can safely suggest replacing with this one is Eagle's Claw. I'm going to quote tpull again on this one, since he makes some good points about this power despite my position on it:[ QUOTE ]
This secondary effect of the power can be used in tandem with the secondary disorient aspects of Thunder Kick, Cobra Strike, and Eagle's Claw. Add in Air Superiority from the Flight Power Pool, and you have a Scrapper designed to stun opponents, with as many Disorient Enhancements as you feel each power needs. Storm Kick can be skipped in this case, or a solo Scrapper might take CAK in place of Dragon's Tail. That said, this is a relatively rare build,

[/ QUOTE ]

Dragon's Tail
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage; 1x endurance cost
Endurance Cost: 13 endurance
Activation Time: 1.7 seconds
Recharge Time: 14 seconds
Brawl Index: 2.8 Smashing damage
Status: Knockdown (foe)
This is the only power that affects more than 1 mob at a time. You'd think it would be an obvious choice, but it really depends on your build. Do you plan on soloing all the time? Do you have a specific character concept this clashes with? My experience with this power is that I went from level 1 to 38 without it, not really thinking it would help that much. It's got a high endurance cost and is situational. Then I respecced and picked it up (if you've been reading up to this point, you can guess that I used all of my respecs, hehe). This power changed me forever. I love it! I can jump into a group of mobs and pound on the lieutenants/bosses while occasionally DTing all the minions around me. Not only does it soften them up for later, but it also slows down their damage output by planting them on their butts (not sure on the percentage, but it's around 80%). Dragon's Tail does about the same damage as a Thunder Kick to every enemy in a 5' circle around you. It's nice to see 1 or 2 of them get hit with a critical hit, too. It isn't uncommon to finish off a boss and have 2 less minions to face solely from the help DT provides. Just be wary of the endurance cost.

Eagle's Claw
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage
Endurance Cost: 10 endurance
Activation Time: 3 seconds
Recharge Time: 10 seconds
Brawl Index: 6.3 Smashing damage
Status:
Ah, I got comments from new players who saw this all the time... This is a nice, flashy power. I love the backflip animation, especially since they shortened it in Issue 2. Some people still don't like the activation time, though, and as such the people who want to maximize DPS (damage-per-second) would skip it in favor of Hasten, but this technique is not possible to the same extent any more. I still like it. It's got an increased chance to critical hit (+15%), plus a good chance to disorient foes (60%). There's nothing like a Build Up-boosted final attack critical-hitting a boss! An even level boss loses nearly half of his/her life that way. Nothing compares...

Fitness
Martial Arts doesn't use too much endurance. To compare, we use less than Broad Sword, but more than Claws. If you're not picking any of the utility powers in the MA set, though, it shouldn't be terribly hard to find room to fit Stamina into your build.

Flight
Air Superiority is one of those things to think about. Sure, it breaks the whole 'all-kick' theme, but combined with Crane Kick and Dragon's Tail, you've almost got a Scraptroller attack style. I personally played this way up until I got Eagle's Claw, at which point I respecced out of AS (and recently respecced back into). It’s just something to think about.

Speed
Ah, Hasten. Everybody picks it... or do they? Well, Claws Scrappers don’t need it, and if you ask me, neither do MA scrappers. I did perfectly fine without Hasten, cycling TK, SK, CK and EC with nary a moment of downtime. Maybe once every 20 seconds I'll have a 1-second downtime, but that's ok for me. One thing to note, though, is that enemies using speed debuffs on me cripple my cycles and really hurt. If you do get Hasten, don't slot it at all and just use it when your speed gets debuffed.

Body Mastery
Focused Accuracy is a power worth considering. I run it with 3 endurance cost enhancements because it's expensive. It's even easier to manage with Stamina in your build. A word to the wise, though: don't take this and remove all of your accuracy enhancements from your attacks! Some people do this so they can put more damage in their attacks, but keep in mind that if you ever exemplar to below level 41, you'll lose the power and be down to the base +10% that Martial Arts bestows by default.


Part 3: Sample Build

I'm recreating this build to loosely match mine, but be able to stand on its own before reaching its prime. Keep in mind that while there are only 3 attacks for the first half of your character's life, you can always add more power pool attacks to supplement them, then respec out of it later by doing the Terra Volta trial (up to 3 times). Your Secondary power set will affect when and how you slot things, but since I'm a Regeneration Scrapper, that's what you'll see here.

[/b]01) -- Thunder Kick -- Acc(1)Dmg(3)Dmg(5)Dmg(7)Rechg(31)
01) -- Fast Healing -- Heal(1)Heal(34)Heal(34)
02) -- Storm Kick -- Acc(2)Dmg(3)Dmg(5)Dmg(7)Rechg(31)
04) -- Reconstruction -- Rechg(4)Rechg(13)Rechg(15)Heal(15)Heal(21)
06) -- Quick Recovery -- EndMod(6)EndMod(11)EndMod(13)
08) -- Crane Kick -- Acc(8)Dmg(9)Dmg(9)Dmg(11)Rechg(25)Rechg(31)
10) -- Dull Pain -- Rechg(10)Rechg(21)Rechg(23)Heal(23)Heal(25)Heal(48)
12) -- Combat Jumping -- EndRdx(12)
14) -- Super Jump -- EndRdx(14)
16) -- Integration -- EndRdx(16)EndRdx(17)Heal(17)Heal(19)Heal(19)
18) -- Focus Chi -- Rechg(18)Rechg(37)Rechg(37)
20) -- Swift -- Run(20)
22) -- Hurdle -- Jump(22)
24) -- Stamina -- EndMod(24)
26) -- Dragon's Tail -- Acc(26)Dmg(27)Dmg(27)Dmg(29)EndRdx(29)EndRdx(50)
28) -- Instant Healing -- Rechg(28)Rechg(39)Rechg(39)Heal(39)Heal(40)Heal(40)
30) -- Boxing -- Acc(30)
32) -- Crippling Axe Kick -- Acc(32)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)Rechg(34)Slow(46)
35) -- Tough -- EndRdx(35)EndRdx(36)DmgRes(36)DmgRes(36)DmgRes(37)
38) -- Moment Of Glory -- Rechg(38)Rechg(40)Rechg(42)DmgRes(43)DmgRes(43)DmgRes(43)
41) -- Conserve Power -- Rechg(41)Rechg(42)Rechg(42)
44) -- Focused Accuracy -- EndRdx(44)EndRdx(45)EndRdx(45)TH_Buf(45)TH_Buf(46)TH_Buf(46)
47) -- Cobra Strike -- Acc(47)DisDur(48)DisDur(48)
49) -- Resilience -- DmgRes(49)DmgRes(50)DmgRes(50)


Part 4: Arena

I have played PvP extensively and have come to conclusions about some of the powers (thanks in part to the free anniversary respec). I'll make a list of everything I made note of, along with a new rating for 2 powers that should be considered separately for PvP use. We are single target beasts. This puts us at somewhat of an advantage in 1v1 fights, where we are at our best. Warrior's Challenge means one less temporary power to lug around, and can be helpful in team battles. The Presence power pool can give you crowd control with fear effects. The Concealment power pool can give you terrain advantage and the ability to sneak up on an opponent (great for smacking a Controller upside the head with, hehe).

Cobra Strike
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy
This power is now infinitely more useful. If your enemy has an annoying toggle up, one fist to the face can bring their whole world crashing down. You can get a similar effect with Brawl, yes, but with Cobra Strike, they can't immediately retreat and put their toggles back up. A one-two combo of Brawl and CS works well, too. Watch that pesky Invuln tank's life start to plummet! I really love this power in PvP. It’s still great with just 1 slot, as the default disorient length is long enough for you to kill anyone.

Crippling Axe Kick
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 2x slow movement
CAK now has lots more potential. If your enemy just won't stay still long enough for you to kill them (don't ya hate when they don't cooperate?), kicking them with this power can put the ball back in your court. It will also keep Blasters, Controllers, and Defenders from getting out of your range. Since the slow portion is rarely resistible with toggles and such, even someone protected from Immobilize is still susceptible to this attack, which increases its value to me. Slot a few Slow enhancements in it and your enemies will fear you.


Part 5: Closing

I hope this guide can help aspiring Scrappers, if only to give you an idea of what Martial Arts is like. I had fun playing my Scrapper up to level 50, and wish others to have as much fun as I did. The guide was fun to write, and if I think of anything else, I'll be sure to add it (edit: which I have)! But now I think this guide is complete. Barring any changes in the game in future Issues, this will be the final version of my Martial Arts guide (edit: there have been some heavy changes, and the guide has had some even heavier ones). After the success of previous versions, and all the private messages I got, though, I’ve felt inspired to possibly write other guides on other power sets I have become familiar with. My thanks go out to everyone who helped with this guide, which includes (but is not limited to) Fury, Aeroth, and the many members of Evolution, the best SG on Guardian! Feel free to add comments, as I appreciate any and all feedback. If you find any errors with the numbers I gave, please, please, please let me know! I strive to make this guide as accurate as possible! You can reach me via private message on either the forums or in the game. My Global Chat handle is @Tulzar, and you can also drop me an e-mail in CoH or at transient1024@gmail.com.

Now go flip out and kill stuff!


~Works Cited
MARTIAL ARTS - EXTENSIVE/REGENERATION GUIDE v3.1 by RisingPhoenix, 02-05-05
Martial Arts / Super Reflexes - The Advanced Guide by tpull, 03-07-05
CoH/CoV Character Builder by Sherkhan (Sherk Silver), 01-07-06

[ QUOTE ]
Great guide, i use the binds a ton, but I was wondering is there a way to set the goto to only include my zombies and grave knights, want my lich to stay in the back. Having trouble setting that up.

[/ QUOTE ]Well, you may be able to change the line in your all.txt file that reads "numpad9 petcom_all goto" to this instead: "petcom_pow zombie goto$$petcom_pow grave goto". I haven't tested this though, so I don't know if it works.

Ooh, thank you! I love Wikipedia.

I was unaware any of the numbers changed. I just recently realized that CAK does twice as much damage, though. D'oh!

I heard about the blending FPS and television FPS numbers from the Discovery and History channels respectively. They were on not too long ago. One was Exploring Eyesight (or something similar) and the other was Modern Marvels: Television. I know I could be wrong about the television part (it was a while ago that I saw it), but I distinctly remember hearing about the eyesight part and discussing it in my Psychology class.

It's just checking the video card; CoH isn't a very invasive game as far as fiddling around with your registry files or anything. Those "not recommended" messages are a general warning.

I'm glad I could help! If you have any questions, feel free to ask here or PM me. My global chat handle is @Tulzar, too.

A Guide to Graphics Options (v1.0)

Table of Contents
Part 1: Intro
Part 2: Graphics
Part 3: Advanced Graphics
Part 4: Closing


Part 1: Intro
Issue 6 has added a lot of options to the graphics menu, and I figured I'd write a guide to all the new features that exist. I will mention each option's impact on performance as well as what it does (to the best of my ability) in the form of the game's framerate (Frames Per Second, or FPS).

A little history on FPS, first. For starters, the amount of frames per second are just that: the amount of individual snapshots of the game that get displayed on the screen every second. So if your FPS is 60, then you see 60 really quick snapshots of the game world as it animates. Slower framerates don't show all of the action; it just shows a portion of what's going on (think of a strobe light).

For reference, the human eye views reality at approximately 30 frames per second. Anything over that is just blended together and is excess. It's all fluid after 30. Some people claim to be able to see a difference between, say, 40 FPS and 60, but I think that's just the power of suggestion. If they're actively comparing the two, sure they'll think they see a difference. Some people just have better eyes, too.

Televisions display TV shows at 24 FPS. Your brain makes up for the lost 6 frames and smoothens out the show, so everything still looks smooth. It's not until around 20 FPS that you'll start to see choppiness, especially on a monitor since you're typically sitting close. Anything lower than 10 starts to become a slideshow.


Part 2: Graphics
Screen/UI Resolution - This is the resolution the game runs at, similar to how your desktop resolution works. The larger the res, the more closely compacted each pixel is to one another. For example the game running at 800x600 will have pixels that appear larger than if CoH runs at 1280x1024. The smaller the pixel, the more detail you can get in the game. The higher the res, the lower the framerate, too. A rule of thumb is to keep this setting at or below your desktop resolution.

3D Resolution Scaling - This slider can be moved from the farthest right to a lower setting. The lower it goes, the more the game fakes being at a lower resolution. Essentially the only purpose this has is to make the game play at a manageable res while the UI (User Interface, or the power tray, menus, etc.) stays at the regular res. I personally witness absolutely no impact on performance whatsoever when I use this feature, so I leave it at max.

Refresh Rate - This determines the refresh frequency of the game (measured in Hertz). Set it to be the same as your desktop refresh rate (if you don't know what it is, right-click on your desktop and select Properties, then go to the Settings tab, click the Advanced button, then click the Monitor tab). The higher the setting, the less chance of the game flickering. A low setting can give people headaches, because while the eye may not be able to see the flicker, your brain can, and it gets strained. Mine is set to 75Hz. This has no impact on gameplay performance. A note: this setting is greyed out if you play the game in Windowed mode.

World Texture Quality - This setting determines how high of a detail each texture in the game is displayed at. Your video card will handle most of the grunt work with this setting. There will be an impact on performance, especially outdoors.

Character Texture Quality - Same as above, but this applies to the players instead of the environment (including NPCs/mobs). There will be an impact on performance, but a significant improvement in character appearance.

World Detail - This slider determines how many of the little details such as trees, shrubs, etc. appear as you play, as well as the detail of the architecture and how far away they can be seen before fading out in fog. This slider drastically impacts performance when outdoors, expecially in more detailed zones.

Character Detail - Same as above, but for characters/NPCs. The farther away you are from them, the blockier they appear. This is something you will want to set low if you're at a big event like a Hamidon Raid or something.

Gamma - This adjusts the brightness/contrast of the game. No impact on framerate.

Max Particle Count - The amount of particle effects from player powers are determined by this. Default is 50000, minimum is 100. The significance of this option has been lessened thanks to the new "Suppress Extra Player FX" option, which disables effects from appearing if they don't directly affect you. So a Fire Tanker's shields will not appear to you, but a FF Defender's Dispersion Bubble will, since it buffs you if you're close enough.

Particle Physics - I don't have a lot of experience with this option, but it won't immediately affect performance. Things like fire attack's little embers that fall on the ground are turned on/off with this option.

Part 3: Advanced Graphics Settings
Vertical Sync - I can't see a difference with or without this enabled. It's recommended to have it on, though, and it doesn't alter my framerate, so why not, right?

FSAA - Full Screen Antialiasing converts jagged pixels around the edges of shapes into a more smooth line. It does this by making semitransparent pixels between diagonal pixels along the edge. You will notice objects become smoother if you enable it, but the performance hit can be significant.

Shadows - The game explains it as well as I could.

Use Geometry Buffers - I can't see a visual difference in the game, but enabling this feature gives me a moderate boost to my FPS, so I suggest turning it on.

Anisotropic Filtering - Modifies the crispness of world textures, making it easier to distinguish fine lines. Doesn't affect framerate, and turning it on automatically changes "Texture Crispness" to Smooth.

Shader Quality - I don't know what this does, but putting it on Low makes my game run better, so Low it goes.

Water Effects - There are 3 settings: None, Low Quality, and High Quality. There is little difference between Low and High, but there is also little performance difference. It boils down to if your video card is well-equipped to handle this type of effect. Some cards may not handle reflective/bendy water at all and will grey out this feature.

Depth of Field Effects - Enabling this will make things in the far distance start to fade out and become blurry. Many older cards will not support this feature, but it's nice if your card supports it. Minor framerate hit.

Bloom Effects - Turning on Bloom will make light-colored objects glow. It also tends to soften up the entire game. This is another feature not supported by older cards, but the newer cards that do handle it do a good job of it, so you don't see much of a change in your FPS. The setting below this is directly tied to Bloom Effects and determines just how much glow there is, though it's hard to tell a difference from my experience. "Heavy" bloom will add a significant amount of bloom to the stuff in the distance, further accentuating the sense that things are fading out as they get farther away.

Part 4: Closing
Here is a split-screen screenshot to show a comparison between what the game looks like normally for me versus what it looks like when I'm taking screenshots. The right side has bloom, depth of field, and antialiasing on, among other things.

Martial Arts/Regeneration - A Comprehensive Guide (v5.2)

Table of Contents
Part 1: An Introduction
Part 2: The Primary Powers
Part 3: The Secondary Powers
Part 4: My Build
Part 5: PvP
Part 6: The Fine Print

Part 1: An Introduction
I started my Martial Arts Scrapper around late May after the game went live, and got him to 50 in early November of the same year. Up until his mid-40s I played him casually, mostly soloing and duoing with a friend of mine, who plays as Fury. His main character is a Blaster, and we mesh well. I'm not a power leveler, though I don’t shy away from easy XP every once in a while. I'm a fan of min/maxxing my builds, though I’m just as happy playing a more varied build. I played a Scrapper solo, even through the times when people said it was near impossible to get a Scrapper to 40 without help. I made this character before Regen was FotM, and back when MA was the worst set. Way back when MA was less popular than Dark Armor. I guess I like a challenge. I've been through every change, every Regen nerf, Enhancement Diversification, and gotten through it all unscathed. I suffered my fair share of deaths, but I average only about 1 per level, as I learn from my mistakes. I remember never seeing a Martial Arts guide back when I was just starting out, so most of my experience is through trial and error (though I made extensive use of the test server). I recently looked at the list of guides in the Scrapper forum and noticed that MA was lacking, so I decided to write an extensive guide on what I have learned through my experiences. I say this to give you a look at the methodology I use when playing, so you can get an idea of where I am coming from when you read this guide.

So you may be asking yourself, "What is Martial Arts good for?"
Well, a few facts are in order to answer this question...

1. MA Scrappers are mammals.
2. MA Scrappers fight ALL the time.
3. The purpose of the MA Scrapper is to flip out and kill people.

In all honesty, though, Martial Arts can be approached several ways. One way is to go all offense with damaging attacks. In this way, MA Scrappers are just another flavor of melee damage that all Scrappers can deliver. Specifically, with all of our one-hit attacks that do respectable damage, we have a reputation of being the 'boss-killers'. I would say I'm very good at taking out bosses and lieutenants before they get a chance to do any real harm to my party. MA is also efficient when soloing, since the groups of mobs I face in missions are small enough that using AoEs aren't optimal anyway (at least before the difficulty slider is factored in). It’s also great to be able to two-hit a pesky mob like Sappers (or at least Crane Kick them onto their butts before they can do anything). Another approach is to use your status effect powers to shape the battlefield to your liking. Cobra Strike has a 100% chance to disorient enemies, and stuns lieutenants with ease. I should specify, actually. It has a 100% chance to apply the disorient status effect to enemies; they might not always be affected if they have resistance to it. Add to that your Eagles Claw and/or Thunder Kick and you can stun bosses. Nothing like seeing a Freak Tank with a hangover! You could also make a combination of the two, though in my experience, the most effective approach is to go all-out offense.

This guide started as solely an MA guide, but the majority of questions I get involve Regen (since I mention it so much), so I decided to expand the guide. With the recent changes in Issue 6, implementing “Enhancement Diversification”, this seemed like a good time to make said changes. Rest assured that I have done extensive testing to get the best out of every slot.

Part 2: The Primary Powers
Martial Arts is different than other Scrapper sets in that we only have one attack that isn't a single-target attack, and that's Dragon's Tail, our melee AoE. As such, the rest of our offensive powers make up for it with higher damage and lower recharge times (hence us being called boss-killers). Aside from the status powers and DT, we have 2 moderate attacks, 1 heavy attack, and 1 superior damaging attack. No minor damage? Woot! Did I mention they all recharge fast (about 4, 4, 7, and 10 seconds respectively)? The only downside to all this damage is that everything we dish out is Smashing damage, which is the most commonly resisted damage type in the game. Another boon to MA is that we have an inherent +10% accuracy bonus. This is great, especially for those who are anal-retentive about always hitting their foe. I tend to 2-slot my attacks for accuracy, but with MA, I only need 1. A single SO accuracy enhancement of 33%, plus the inherent 10% is enough to reach the cap for hitting +1 minions.

Before I get into the power descriptions, I want to talk a little bit about the changes ED has imparted on slotting. I used to slot my attacks 1/5 with acc/dmg, but that is no longer the best route to take. Since Hasten cannot be made perma anymore (add to that the fact that I dislike perma-Hasten builds), those slots that would normally be allotted to damage can instead take recharge enhancements. 2 recharge enhancements in each attack is the equivalent of Hasten’s bonus. Another note is that Stamina is no longer necessary to many builds (even more so to Regen Scrappers thanks to IH becoming a click and the global endurance cost reduction every power in the game got). 3 recovery enhancements in Quick Recovery is enough. To be safe, you can always pick up Stamina and not slot it, or you can use one of your slots in your attacks for endurance reduction. Anyway, I digress…

Thunder Kick
Endurance Cost: 6.5025 - Activation Time: 1 - Recharge: 4 - Range: 5
Brawl Index: 2.7778 Smashing Damage - Status: Minor Disorient (Foe)
This attack does basic moderate damage. An equally slotted Air Superiority does the same damage, as will a BS Scrapper's Slash (also moderate damage). It'll be doing the least damage of all your offensive attacks, but it's still better than minor damage. It comes with a small chance to disorient foes (20%), but it doesn't have a high enough magnitude to make a dent on its own. Consider the stun to be a pleasant surprise, but don't expect to see it happen often.
Usefulness: 5/5
Recommended slots: 6 (1 accuracy, 2 recharge, 3 damage)

Storm Kick
Endurance Cost: 8.67 - Activation Time: 4 - Recharge: 4 - Range: 5
Brawl Index: 3.6667 Smashing Damage
Ah, I remember back in Issue 1 when this was the "Smell my foot!" power... The animation was a joke. It looked dumb and took forever and a half to animate. I read A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking in the time it took this power to finish. The Devs did MA good in Issue 2, though, and now SK is one of the cooler looking MA powers! They also changed the DoT it did into one single chunk of damage. It does slightly higher damage than TK, and has a smidgen more of an endurance cost. No status effect, but it doesn't need it. It's a good attack. Get it, slot it, and love it.
Usefulness: 5/5
Recommended slots: 6 (1 accuracy, 2 recharge, 3 damage)

Cobra Strike
Endurance Cost: 12.5715 - Activation Time: 3 - Recharge: 20 - Range: 5
Brawl Index: 0.6944 Smashing Damage - Status: Disorient (Foe)
CS lands a high-magnitude disorient on enemies, and one application is enough to drunkify minions and Lieutenants. CS plus a lucky Eagle's Claw will stick to bosses. The damage of this power, though, is laughable. Never slot it for damage. Heck, never slot it period. I picked it up at 41 because I had nothing else worth getting, and promptly respecced out of it and into the Concealment pool. It wasn't for me, but after hearing a lot of feedback about this power from other posters, many seem to enjoy it a lot more than I did. So I tried it out again after I had more free power choices (thanks to IH becoming a click, I was able to drop Stamina). It’s a good supplemental power. Throw it on a Lt. when you enter a fight and then focus on the minions. This is especially true in the early levels. I will admit that CS has its uses (such as when soloing enemies, like Sappers or Sorcerers). If you get it, the one slot it comes with could use an accuracy enhancement, but there's no need to put anything else in it.
Usefulness: 3/5, varies by build
Recommended slots: 1 (accuracy)

I have to admit that this power can work. While I'm not a fan, tpull wrote some good stuff in defense of this power in Martial Arts / Super Reflexes - The Advanced Guide:
[ QUOTE ]
Cobra Strike (CS) is skipped often, but it is actually very useful. Playing solo, and up against a boss and three minions? You can Disorient the boss and take out one or two pesky minions. That Tsoo sorcerer keeps healing your enemy? Lay him out with a CS and proceed to take out the enemy, or knock out the sorcerer; he can't teleport away while he's stunned. Same effect on Avalanche Shamans and the like. There will be a few levels where it doesn't help much, but when you reach 40+, it comes in handy again. If you can spare the slots, two Accuracy SOs and two Disorient SOs will really make this a good power.

[/ QUOTE ]

Focus Chi
Endurance Cost: 5.202 - Activation Time: 1 - Recharge: 90 - Duration: 10
Status: +Accuracy (62.50%)(Self), +Damage (100.00%)(Self)
Mmmm, precious Focus Chi, how I love thee. It's MA's version of Build Up. I personally have it 3-slotted for recharge and use it once or twice in battle on average. It's a great power to have. Try to put any spare slots you have into this power, to a maximum of 3.
Usefulness: 4/5
Recommended slots: Up to 3 spare slots (recharge)

Crane Kick
Endurance Cost: 10.8375 - Activation Time: 3 - Recharge: 7 - Range: 5
Brawl Index: 4.5556 Smashing Damage - Status: Moderate Knockback (Foe)
This is one of the defining powers for Martial Arts. A high damage, fast recharge, short animation attack? Sign me up! It's a satisfying kick to the gut with a good chance (60%) to knock foes on their butts about 5 feet away from impact. One of my favorite things to do in Peregrine Island is to jump up to building ledges where Crey Snipers are lurking, get in the right position, and give them a swift kick, sending them off the edge and out of sight. It's comical and I never get tired of doing it. I get a chuckle every time.
Usefulness: 5/5
Recommended slots: 6 (1 accuracy, 2 recharge, 3 damage)

Warrior's Challenge
Activation Time: 3 - Recharge: 3 - Range: 70
Status: Taunt (Foe)
I already have a few taunts. They're called Thunder Kick, Storm Kick, and Crane Kick. So yeah, you can skip this power. Unless you team with squishy friends a lot where it would be helpful, your power choice is better spent elsewhere. I personally had it, but that was at 41, and only because I duo with my Blaster friend who goes into his own form of Scrapper-lock, so I have to get multiple mobs off his back constantly. With my recent respec I dropped it from my build again. Oh, and it was nice to pull Lattices from Monster Island with it in Issue 2. If you tank in groups more, you'll want it. If you solo more, you can go without.
Usefulness: 2/5
Recommended slots: 1 (taunt duration)

Crippling Axe Kick
Endurance Cost: 6.5025 - Activation Time: 2 - Recharge: 4 - Range: 5
Brawl Index: 2.7778 Smashing Damage - Status: Immobilize (Foe), -Spd (Foe)
CAK does the same damage as TK and lands a low-magnitude immobilize on foes (or slows their movement speed if the mag isn't enough to immobilize them), but the animation is kind of slow. Another one of those powers I picked up in the 40s when I had nothing else to get, then respecced out of. I see this as the least practical power in the set. No other powers from MA slow OR immobilize, so you can't stack magnitudes without stepping into your secondary, and I can't think of any powers from the 4 secondary sets that would help it. The only application I can think of is to stop runners, but why not just get Warrior's Challenge instead? Better yet, just kick them in the back. With the changes to running mobs and melee in Issue 3, now you can attack from behind without much of a problem. You could conceivably take this power instead of (or in addition to) TK, but your attack cycle will be a little wonky if you ask me. Now that Hasten can't be made perma, though, another use for this power is a filler if you don't put recharge enhancements in your attacks.
Usefulness: 1/5
Recommended slots: 1 (accuracy)

I'm going to quote tpull again on this one, since he makes some good points about this power despite my position on it:
[ QUOTE ]
This is skipped by most players, but there is a way to use it. It deals about the same amount of damage as Thunder Kick, but also has the potential to Immobilize your opponent (and it will automatically Slow your opponent, according to the game manual). This secondary effect of the power can be used in tandem with the secondary disorient aspects of Thunder Kick, Cobra Strike, and Eagle's Claw. Add in Air Superiority from the Flight Power Pool, and you have a Scrapper designed to stun opponents, with as many Disorient Enhancements as you feel each power needs. Storm Kick can be skipped in this case, or a solo Scrapper might take CAK in place of Dragon's Tail. That said, this is a relatively rare build, and comments from people who have successfully used it would be good testimonials in this guide for this build variation.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dragon's Tail
Endurance Cost: 16.473 - Activation Time: 3 - Recharge: 14 - Range: 5
Brawl Index: 2.7778 Smashing Damage - Status: High Knockdown (Foe)
This is the only power that affects more than 1 mob at a time. You'd think it would be an obvious choice, but it really depends on your build. Do you plan on soloing all the time? Do you have a specific character concept this clashes with? My experience with this power is that I went from level 1 to 38 without it, not really thinking it would help that much. It's got a high endurance cost and is situational. Then I respecced and picked it up (if you've been reading up to this point, you can guess that I used all of my respecs, hehe). This power changed me forever. I love it! I can jump into a group of mobs and pound on the lieutenants/bosses while occasionally DTing all the minions around me. Not only does it soften them up for later, but it also slows down their damage output by planting them on their butts (not sure on the percentage, but it's around 80%). Dragon's Tail does the same damage as a Thunder Kick to every enemy in a 5' circle around me. It's nice to see 1 or 2 of them get hit with a critical hit, too. It wasn't uncommon to finish off a boss and have 2 less minions to face solely from the help DT provided. Just be wary of the endurance cost. As a Regen Scrapper, I can keep a constant chain and not lose endurance, but as soon as I add DT to the mix, I have to watch my blue bar.
Usefulness: 4/5
Recommended slots: 6 (1 accuracy, 1 recharge, 1 endurance reduction, 3 damage)

Eagle's Claw
Endurance Cost: 13.005 - Activation Time: 5 - Recharge: 10 - Range: 5
Brawl Index: 5.5556 Smashing Damage - Status: High Disorient (Foe), +Critical (Self)
Ah, I got comments from new players who saw this all the time... This is a nice, flashy power. I love the back flip animation, especially since they shortened it in Issue 2. Some people still don't like the length, though, and as such the people who want to maximize DPS would skip it in favor of Hasten (not currently possible to the same extent). I still like it. It's got an increased chance to critical hit (15%), plus a good chance to disorient foes (60%). There's nothing like a Build Up-boosted final attack critical-hitting a boss! An even level boss loses nearly half of his or her life that way. Nothing compares...
Usefulness: 4/5, varies with build
Recommended slots: 6 (1 accuracy, 1 recharge, 1 endurance reduction, 3 damage)

Part 3: The Secondary Powers
There are plenty of guides about Regeneration, so instead of rehashing what's already been said, I'll just go over what has changed due to Enhancement Diversification (henceforth referred to as ED) as I describe the powers.

Fast Healing
Status: Auto +Heal Rate(75%)(Self)
If you have spare slots after adding some to Focus Chi, put up to 2 here for a total of 3.
Usefulness: 2/5 (mandatory power)
Recommended slots: 3 (healing)

Reconstruction
Endurance Cost: 13.005 - Activation Time: 1 - Recharge: 60
Status: +Heal (25%)(Self), +Resist Toxic (25%)(Self)
Now that IH is a click power, you're going to want to be using Reconstruction liberally. As such, add 3 recharge enhancements to it. The way ED works with self-heal powers is a bit different than other healing powers. The bonus you get from heal enhancements starts to drop off after the second, instead of after the third. So 5 slots is the most this power needs, or maybe a 6th if you want to reduce the endurance cost.
Usefulness: 5/5
Recommended slots: 5 (2 healing, 3 recharge)

Quick Recovery
Status: Auto +Recovery (0.56%)(Self)
Add 3 slots to it as soon as you can and you're set.
Usefulness: 5/5
Recommended slots: 3 (recovery)

Dull Pain
Endurance Cost: 13.005 - Activation Time: 1 - Recharge: 360 - Duration: 60
Status: Health Boost (40%)(Self), +Heal (40%)(Self)
Now that you can't make this power permanent, I like to use it in a different manner. Instead of having it on as often as possible, I leave it off unless a fight gets hairy. I have heal enhancements in it and use it to raise my max life and heal me at the same time. Combined with Reconstruction, fights that would otherwise go South are manageable.
Usefulness: 4/5
Recommended slots: 3 to 5, varies by build (3 recharge, maybe 2 heal)

Integration
Endurance Cost: 0.66759 (Toggle) - Activation Time: 3 - Recharge: 40
Status: +Resist Disorient, Hold, Immobilize, Knockback, Sleep (Self), +Heal Rate (100% enhanceable, 50% unenhanceable)(Self)
3 heals is the most you need in here now. If you put in 3 endurance reducers along side it, you'll have all kinds of endurance left over for other toggles or beefy attacks.
Usefulness: 5/5
Recommended slots: 5 or 6 (2 or 3 endurance, 3 heal)

Resilience
Status: Auto +Resist Lethal, Smashing, Toxic (5.62%)(Self), Auto +Resist Minor Disorient(Self)
It's not really worth slotting unless you have 2 extra slots after Focus Chi, Fast Healing, Dull Pain, etc...
Usefulness: 1/5
Recommended slots: 1 (resist)

Instant Healing
Endurance Cost: 19.5075 - Activation Time: 3 - Recharge: 480 - Duration: 90
Status: +Heal Rate (600% enhanceable, 200% unenhanceable)(Self)
Slot 3 recharges in it and you're set. Add 3 heals in it if you've got slots to spare. Now that it's a click power, the monster endurance drain it used to have is gone and it's become a situational power.
Usefulness: 4/5
Recommended slots: 3 (heal)

Revive
Activation Time: 5 - Recharge: 300
Status: Rez (Self)
Revive always was and always will be a useless power. This is what Awakens are for. I took it for the sake of having it and freeing up an inspiration slot.
Usefulness: 1/5
Recommended slots: 1 (recharge)

Moment of Glory
Endurance Cost: 13.005 - Activation Time: 3 - Recharge: 1000 - Duration: 120
Status: +Resist Disorient, Hold, Immobilize, Knockback, Sleep (Self), +Resist Lethal, Smashing, Fire, Cold, Energy, Negative Energy, Toxic (40%)(Self), +Defense Lethal, Smash, Fire, Cold, Energy, Negative Energy (80%)(Self)
MoG has always been the antithesis of a Regen Scrapper. I don't understand it. At any rate, it's still not worth taking. Perhaps as an "Oh, sh*t!" power, but it still might not save you.
Usefulness: 1/5
Recommended slots: 1 (resist)

Notable Power Pools
Fitness - Martial Arts doesn't use too much endurance. To compare, we use less than Broad Sword, but more than Katana. Regeneration has its own Fitness pool built-in. If you're not picking any of the utility powers in the MA set, it shouldn't be terribly hard to find room to fit Stamina into your build. Then again, I run Integration and Tough and have endurance to spare with a Stamina-free build.

Flight - Air Superiority is one of those things to think about. Sure, it breaks the whole 'all-kick' theme, but combined with Crane Kick and Dragon's Tail, you've almost got a Scraptroller attack style. I personally played this way up until I got Eagle's Claw, at which point I respecced out of AS. It’s just something to think about.

Speed - Ah, Hasten. Everybody picks it... or do they? Well, Claws Scrappers don’t need it, and if you ask me, neither do MA scrappers, as I mentioned above. I did perfectly fine without Hasten, cycling TK, SK, CK and EC with nary a moment of downtime. Maybe once every 20 seconds I'll have a 1-second downtime, but that's ok for me. One thing to note, though, is that enemies using speed debuffs on me cripple my cycles and really hurt. If you do get Hasten, only 3-slot it with recharge enhancements.

Body Mastery - Focused Accuracy is a power worth thinking about. I run it without Stamina and do fine. How? 3 endurance reducers in it, Tough, Instant Healing, and 1 in each of my attacks. It's even easier to manage with Stamina in your build.

Part 4: My Build
Since I respecced later in my career, I don't have my original power choices. As such, I'm recreating this build to match mine, but be able to stand on its own before reaching its prime (in Issue 3). Keep in mind that while there are only 3 attacks for the first half of your character's life, you can always add more power pool attacks to supplement them, then respec out of it later by doing the Terra Volta trial (up to 3 times).

Here is my current build. I'll only be showing the slots added with the immediate levels in the text breakdown, not stuff added later on, since you can refer to this image of my full build in .jpg form.

01) --> Thunder Kick==> Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Rechg(7)
01) --> Fast Healing==> Heal(1)
02) --> Storm Kick==> Acc(2) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Rechg(7)
04) --> Reconstruction==> Heal(4) Rechg(11)
06) --> Quick Recovery==> EndRec(6) EndRec(11)
08) --> Crane Kick==> Acc(8) Dmg(9) Dmg(9)
10) --> Focus Chi==> Rechg(10)

Of all the Scrapper primaries, your early levels will be easiest in my opinion. TK and SK do good damage and recharge fast enough that even with misses (which will be few thanks to the inherent accuracy bonus), you will be dealing out damage more consistently than, say, a Spines Scrapper. Once you get CK, your attack cycle will be very nice, considering you’re only level 8 at that point! Slot up your first 3 attacks and take Reconstruction to make things easier for yourself. Fighting is easy going in these levels. I should note that when I played, I took Air Superiority at some point around here, as I disliked SK (this was before Issue 2, mind you). You may want another attack before 8, but just hang in there!

12) --> Hover==> EndRdx(12)
14) --> Fly==> EndRdx(14)
16) --> Integration==> EndRdx(16) Heal(17) Heal(17) Heal(19)
18) --> Dull Pain==> Rechg(18)
20) --> Cobra Strike==> Acc(20)

You get to further slot your attacks and QR, plus you finally get your travel power. I bet you hated all that sprinting, huh? I picked Fly due to my character concept (which can be found here, along with all my other character backgrounds), but Super Speed and Super Jump work just as well. And yay, Integration! By now you should be getting used to your build.

22) --> Resilience==> DmgRes(22)
24) --> Boxing==> Empty(24)
26) --> Dragon's Tail==> Acc(26) Dmg(27) Dmg(27) EndRdx(29) Rechg(29)
28) --> Instant Healing==> Rechg(28)
30) --> Tough==> EndRdx(30) DmgRes(31) DmgRes(31) DmgRes(31)

2 new powers that don't get slotted until way later, but another attack to help you out. By now you have Integration slotted up, along with your other attacks. You also get IH, which is situational and doesn't require slots until later. Tough will help now, too. This will reduce the incoming damage, making Integration all the more effective. Between Dull Pain, IH and Reconstruction, you should be all set defense-wise.

32) --> Eagle's Claw==> Acc(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Rechg(34) EndRdx(34)
35) --> Revive==> Rechg(35)
38) --> Stealth==> EndRdx(38)

Not much to look at, but that's because most of your slots are going toward other powers. You get your final attack and have tons of slots to spare to max it out with, though. Everythign after 40 is gravy. Pick what you want and like. By now you are familiar enough with your build to know what will work.

Part 5: PvP
I have played PvP extensively and have come to conclusions about some of the powers (thanks in part to the free anniversary respec). I'll make a list of everything I made note of, along with a new rating for 2 unlikely powers that should be considered separately for PvP use.

In General
We are single target beasts. This puts us at somewhat of an advantage in 1v1 fights, where we are at our best. We are at somewhat of a disadvantage, though, in large team fights, because we can only focus on one person at a time (though this can be a good thing if you need to bring one enemy down quick). Warrior's Challenge means one less temporary power to lug around, and can be helpful in team battles. The Presence power pool can give you crowd control with fear effects. The Concealment power pool can give you terrain advantage and the ability to sneak up on an opponent (great for smacking a Controller upside the head with, hehe).

Cobra Strike
This power is now infinitely more useful. If your enemy has an annoying toggle up, one fist to the face can bring their whole world crashing down. You can get a similar effect with Brawl, yes, but with Cobra Strike, they can't immediately retreat and put their toggles back up. A one-two combo of Brawl and CS works well, too. Watch that pesky Invuln tank's life start to plummet! I really love this power in PvP. It’s still great with just 1 slot, as the default disorient length is long enough for you to kill anyone.
Usefulness: 4/5
Recommended slots: 1 (accuracy)

Crippling Axe Kick
CAK now has potential. If your enemy just won't stay still long enough for you to kill them (don't ya hate when they don't cooperate?), kicking them with this power can put the ball back in your court. It will also keep Blasters, Controllers, and Defenders from getting out of your range. Since the slow portion is rarely resistible with toggles and such, even someone protected from Immobilize is still susceptible to this attack, which increases its value to me. Slot a few Slow enhancements in it and your enemies will fear you.
Usefulness: 4/5
Recommended slots: 3 (1 accuracy, 2 slow)

Part 6: The Fine Print
I hope this guide can help aspiring Scrappers, if only to give you an idea of what Martial Arts and Regeneration is like. I had fun playing my Scrapper up to level 50, and wish others to have as much fun as I did. The guide was fun to write, and if I think of anything else, I'll be sure to add it (edit: which I have)! But now I think this guide is complete. Barring any changes in the game in future Issues, this will be the final version of my Martial Arts guide (edit: there have been some heavy changes, and the guide has had some even heavier ones). After the success of previous versions, and all the private messages I got, though, I’ve felt inspired to possibly write other guides on other power sets I have become familiar with. My thanks go out to everyone who helped with this guide, which includes (but is not limited to) Fury, Aeroth, and the many members of Evolution, the best SG on Guardian! Feel free to add comments, as I appreciate any and all feedback. You can reach me via private message on either the forums or in the game. My Global Chat handle is @Tulzar, and you can also drop me an e-mail in CoH or at transient1024@gmail.com.


Works Cited
MARTIAL ARTS - EXTENSIVE/REGENERATION GUIDE v3.1
by RisingPhoenix, 02-05-05
Martial Arts / Super Reflexes - The Advanced Guide
by tpull, 03-07-05
CoH/CoV Character Builder
by Sherkhan (Sherk Silver), 10-27-05

Version History
1.0 - initial guide
1.1 - fixed typos, spelling, grammar
1.2 - tweaked a few minor errors
2.0 - re-scored Cobra Strike, lengthened Part 2, added Part 3
2.1 - updated old info/errors, made refinements
3.0 - added a level-by-level breakdown to Part 4, new screenshots for powers & builds
3.1 - refined wording, tweaked layout (merged parts)
3.2 - added links/citation, tweaked layout, changed Part 4 to reflect CoH Planner
3.3 - fixed typos, spelling, grammar
3.4 - changed formatting
3.5 - updated to reflect Issue 4, added Part 5
4.0 - final critiques and editing before release
5.0 - added section for secondary, revised guide to reflect Enhancement Diversification
5.1 - changed formatting, removed many redundant links to images
5.2 - fixed typos, spelling, grammar

Now go flip out and kill stuff!

Name: Evolution

Motto: "Take THAT, Darwin!"

Leaders: Madame Veronica, Tulzar

Player Type: Casual to power gamer (mostly casual)

Roleplay?: No, but you can if you want!

Membership levels: all

Supergroup Colors: black and red

Normal time of gameplay: Evenings/nights (EST), and weekends

Other information: We're a casual SG who likes to team together and chitchat. We help out each other and friends all the time and have a general good time. We're looking for more recruits, expecially for CoV.

Recruiting?: Yes, see our website or PM @Tulzar in-game

Website: http://tinyurl.com/6anjv

TODO: Add text.

1) Have you ever wanted to write darker stories for COH, like Frank Miller type stuff? Obviously the CoV stories will be a touch more grim and gritty, but what about CoH?

2) Could you go into more detail about how you thought up some of the stories for the game (i.e. Superadine/Smuggler's Run)? And what was your inspiration (friends/fans/folklore)?

3) What's your favorite AT/powerset to play and why?

The sounds for Sonic Blast are awesome. I love how they sound, with the exception of Howl. It just sounds like reused werewolf sfx, which is lame.

Some people have said that it may be a bit too powerful for defender secondaries. I'm not sure about this, but the defenders seem to be doing quite a bit more damage than usual on test.

Of concern is the -res on the blaster version of powers. I think it needs to cap with one application, because it's pretty much a permanent +20% to damage as it stands.

[ QUOTE ]
Having played on test with both a level 50 eng/eng blaster and a level 10 elec/elec, I can say that the level 10 is benefitting far more from Defiance than the level 50.

At level 10, a blaster has enough hitpoints and the enemies aren't really doing all that much damage yet, so it's entirely possible for me to be fighting at a relatively low level of HP for some time and thus profit from Defiance. For my level 50 it is a different story. There is simply too much damage going on at high levels for Defiance to be of much use. By keeping my HP at anywhere short of maximum, I was risking a single hit defeat by a boss or a quick series of attacks by minions killing me and giving me debt.

I am also very concerned about the teaming aspects of this power. There are a number of posts on these boards lamenting how defenders will concentrate on healing other AT's before blasters because we die so quickly. The added HP helps some but at high levels it is still a matter of 3-4 hits killing me. I can do well when soloing, but in teams with larger spawn sizes I tend to take more damage and die more often. I am worried that my teammates will now have a REASON not to heal me and therefore I will be dying even more often. This is especially worrying with the potential changes to tanks aggro-holding abilities (such as the 5 mobs per taunt issue).

I do not think this power is the answer to blaster's woes. I will live with it if it goes live but I would much prefer to see something else.

[/ QUOTE ]I couldn't have said it better myself. So I won't. I'll just quote you.

A few additions, though.
Instead of boosting damage, why not boost damage RESISTANCE. That sounds more like "defiance" to me, and would actually increase survivability. It also wouldn't tempt players to play Russian Roulette.

As it stands, it's easy to take advantage of. Fly to the skycap, drop, then Fireball a group of mobs while you're doing +500% damage...

1) Size
The new Croatoa badges are HUGE. Nice artwork, but come on, they stick out like a sore thumb! Scale them down to the size of the rest of the badges and just make them zoom in to full size when highlighted. This can be said for Ectoplasmic and last year's Halloween badges.

2) Tabs
There aren't enough. The achievement tab gets way too long when you have a lot of badges. Split them into more categories.

3) Order
The newer badges from Issue 4 and 5 should be placed in and among the other badges, not at the beginning/end of the list like they are now. The 'defeat x' badges should go in the lump with the rest of them (or should be in its own tab).

4) Official list
Could we have a list of all the available badges? An official one? Maybe all of the "???" badges with progress bars could have info on what is needed to obtain it.

5) Progress bar
Some badges have them and some don't. I can see why some don't, like events that don't last forever (read: Halloween), but they should be there for the rest of them. Unless of course the 1 billion mark stays, because some badges would be progress bars from now until eternity, and that would annoy me.

6) 1 billion points
This has got to be either a rumor or a mistake, because nobody will EVER get those. Someone already stated that it would take 230 days of continuous healing to get the healing badge, and the damage taken badge would take a regen scrapper a year of sitting in Tyrant's lava to get (I made up that number, but it's probably accurate)...

7) Datamine
Some people don't have the time to do a task force again that they deserve a badge for.

Well I just got finished reserving my names. On Guardian, I have The Bowyer as my Trick Shot/Archery Defender and dB as my */Sonic Controller. On Protector I also have dB, but as my Sonic/* Blaster.

(dB is an abbreviation for 'decibel', a measurement of sound)

Amentet
Guardian