It pairs well will all secondaries tbh. The most common are Kat/Regen and Kat/SR. However, Inv and DarkArmor are also good choices thanks to Divine Avalanche. Since you're new to CoH maybe Regen is the best way to go. At least 'til you learn the basic stuff and start to get interested in more challenging builds.
@False Fiction - Virtue / Defiant
Current projects - [Glaciologist - Ill/Cold Troller] [Cloudshaper - Storm/Dark Def] [Harald Wartooth - Elec/Psi Domi]
Thanks for the advice, yeh, i say i am 'new' but i played for a short period of time a while back. Back then i played a Kat/Dark Armour scrapper and completely messed him up, so regeneration is probably a good idea 
Thanks again.
Regen's probably the best choice to be honest.
Not that I'm biased or anything....
(My first 50 was a kat/regen scrapper!) 
Divine Avalanche is a great way to "turtle up" when you get in over your head, and the nature of regen means that when "turtled up" you will get back to full strength very quickly.
You'll not get a real feel for it until level 16 when you can grab integration, but from 16-30 it's one of the strongest toons you can play. After 30 the other scrapper secondaries will start to catch up, but really the only thing that a Katana/Regen should find difficult is fighting against AVs or GMs.
You'll be able to solo anything short of an AV, when teamed it's probably best if you stick to the typical "boss killer" role (although Golden Dragonfly and Flashing Steel are quite nice cone-damage when you get used to lining them up). Concerning the /regen powers, you'll want the usual: everything except Resilience, Revive and MoG. Resilience might benefit you if you plan on PvPing against Energy Melee users though.
A properly slotted Divine Avalanche (2Acc/1Recharge/3Defbuff) will let you Pseudo-Tank just about anything. That build will NOT need MoG by any stretch of the imagination! 
You said you wanted to PvP though, so I'd suggest looking at Broadsword instead rather than Katana (unless your heart is REALLY set on Katana). They're virtually identical, except that Broadsword is geared more towards spike damage rather than speed and soft control. Good spike damage is very important in PvP.
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Regen's probably the best choice to be honest.
Not that I'm biased or anything....
(My first 50 was a kat/regen scrapper!)
Divine Avalanche is a great way to "turtle up" when you get in over your head, and the nature of regen means that when "turtled up" you will get back to full strength very quickly.
You'll not get a real feel for it until level 16 when you can grab integration, but from 16-30 it's one of the strongest toons you can play. After 30 the other scrapper secondaries will start to catch up, but really the only thing that a Katana/Regen should find difficult is fighting against AVs or GMs.
You'll be able to solo anything short of an AV, when teamed it's probably best if you stick to the typical "boss killer" role (although Golden Dragonfly and Flashing Steel are quite nice cone-damage when you get used to lining them up). Concerning the /regen powers, you'll want the usual: everything except Resilience, Revive and MoG. Resilience might benefit you if you plan on PvPing against Energy Melee users though.
A properly slotted Divine Avalanche (2Acc/1Recharge/3Defbuff) will let you Pseudo-Tank just about anything. That build will NOT need MoG by any stretch of the imagination!
You said you wanted to PvP though, so I'd suggest looking at Broadsword instead rather than Katana (unless your heart is REALLY set on Katana). They're virtually identical, except that Broadsword is geared more towards spike damage rather than speed and soft control. Good spike damage is very important in PvP.
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Could you explain this spike damage please? I made a katana regen toon last night specifically for pvp - if broadsword is going to be better I can still delete and start again!! Thanks dude.
That post's nearly 3 months old now, but sure...
Assuming you are a melee toon:
When chasing a toon that is kiting you in PvP, or if you're trying to joust through repel effects, you'll frequently only get one hit in at a time. You get close enough to trigger your attack, then the target keeps moving while you are rooted during the attack animation, or you get repelled away so that after that first attack animation finishes you are no longer within attack range of the target.
Katana attacks essentially do less damage per hit than Broadsword ones. Therefore Broadsword is the better set if you're only going to be managing to land one hit on an enemy at a time.
Katana and Broadsword both have a weakness in that neither set does Mez (stun/sleep/hold) which can detoggle a squishy toon (knocking off defensive toggles) and stop it from escaping before you can get a second attack off. They also don't get any -fly or -jump moves, so you're going to be playing "attack tag" a lot.
Scrapper PvP Primaries generally break down like this:
+ Martial Arts gets Mez and a good, fast-animating attack chain (mostly available by Siren's Call)
+ Broadsword has the best spike (one-hit) damage and Parry (good for melee toon duels)
+ Spines gets a strong ranged attack with -fly, and has its most damaging ST attack by Siren's Call.
+ Dark Melee has fairly unresisted damage and fear (doesn't detoggle, but will stop them running).
Generally for PvP purposes, Spines > Claws and Broadsword > Katana.
Thanks for this - makes sense! Sorry to drag you into the past - my flux capacitor is playing up!
All of them have strengths and weaknesses.
Imo...
BS - Awesome Damage
- +Def Power (Stackable)
- Slow Recharge
- No Range
- Acc Bonus
- They do -def
Katana - Not bad damage
- +Def (Stackable)
- Good Recharge
- No Range
- Acc bonus
- Not very end heavy
- All do -def
Spines - Nice Damage
- Ranged attacks
- A -Fly ranged attack (Immobs)
- Toxic damage
- Not bad rech
MA - Not bad damage
- Some animations are dead slot
- So animations are quite fast
- Stuns
- Immobs
- No range
Dark Melee - Not bad damage (could be better)
- Ranged attack
- Immob
- Fear attack
- They all attacks + fear do - acc
- Not brilliant rech
- +End power
- +Heal Power (but its not brilliant)
- Quite end heavy
Hope this helps!
u forgot claws :P
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u forgot claws :P
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That's probably because Claws may be a fantastic power set, but utterly useless in PvP.
In 1v1s, Claws do pretty well. Better than Dark melee scrappers imo.
Oooo...snikt! Had a look on youtube (city of heroes pvp) and no-one seems to be using claws...
ROFLMAO I knew I forgot something
Claws - Quick Attacks
- Ranged Attacks
- Cones
- Damage isn't brilliant
- Umm not sure other people might know more bout it :P
Claws has the highest ST damage of all the primaries, it just happens over time using Follow-up.
- Broadsword -
Slow animating, very damaging attacks.
A few cones and an AoE. Mostly single target. Parry.
Purely lethal damage, no mez. Knockdown.
High endurance cost
- Katana -
Trades front-loaded damage for faster recharge.
A few cones and an AoE. Mostly single target. DA.
Purely lethal damage, no mez. Knockdown.
Mediocre endurance cost
- Martial Arts -
Fast animating, high damage, attack chain.
One AoE. Mostly single target.
Purely smashing damage, with stuns. Immobilise.
Mediocre endurance cost
- Spines -
Mostly AoEs and cones. Two ranged attacks.
Highest AoE damage output.
Lethal damage with Toxic DoT. Immobilise and -fly.
High endurance cost.
- Claws -
Mixture of cones, single target and ranged attacks.
Highest single target damage output over time.
Lethal damage. No Build Up. Knockback.
Low endurance cost.
- Dark Melee -
Mostly single target attacks. Some DoT.
Good balance of Negative and smashing damage.
No Build Up. Fear and immobilise.
Mediocre endurance cost.
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- Claws -
Mixture of cones, single target and ranged attacks.
Highest single target damage output over time.
Lethal damage. No Build Up. Knockback.
Low endurance cost.
- Dark Melee -
Mostly single target attacks. Some DoT.
Good balance of Negative and smashing damage.
No Build Up. Fear and immobilise.
Mediocre endurance cost.
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Mmmm, can't be Follow Up and Soul Drain considered somehow the "Build Ups" for Claws and DM.
Btw, on DM you forgot 2 low dmg AoE's one of them increases ToHitBuff and Dmg and the other one replenishes endurance
Unfortunately unlike Build Up, they need mobs nearby to get the buff. Follow up needs to hit a foe like Parry/DA, and Soul Drain only gives a good damage/tohit buff when you have multiple enemies nearby to "leech" from (it gives +5% Tohit/15% Damage per enemy, Build Up is a straight +20% Tohit, +100% damage buff). That's one of the reasons that those primaries can perform poorly in PvP combat... DM having Negative typed damage offsets this disadvantage slightly, but Claws has no such bonus.
The Stalker versions of those two powersets has Build Up in place of Follow Up/Soul Drain though...
Concerning DA's AoE capability, Shadow Maul is the only attack that can reliably be used to kill more than one foe at a time, and it's a narrow cone. Soul Drain and Dark Consumption (the other "AoE") do negligable damage and have a very long recharge, like Fire Aura's "Consume" they're not really useful as attacks but as utility.
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Unfortunately unlike Build Up, they need mobs nearby to get the buff. Follow up needs to hit a foe like Parry/DA, and Soul Drain only gives a good damage/tohit buff when you have multiple enemies nearby to "leech" from (it gives +5% Tohit/15% Damage per enemy, Build Up is a straight +20% Tohit, +100% damage buff). That's one of the reasons that those primaries can perform poorly in PvP combat... DM having Negative typed damage offsets this disadvantage slightly, but Claws has no such bonus.
The Stalker versions of those two powersets has Build Up in place of Follow Up/Soul Drain though...
Concerning DA's AoE capability, Shadow Maul is the only attack that can reliably be used to kill more than one foe at a time, and it's a narrow cone. Soul Drain and Dark Consumption (the other "AoE") do negligable damage and have a very long recharge, like Fire Aura's "Consume" they're not really useful as attacks but as utility.
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Yep although I still think they "somehow" cover up for Build Up but on special situations.
And yes, the 2 AoE's from DM suck as attacks per se, just thought if you are doing a breakdown of scrapper primaries, should be included and explained a bit.-
Hi, im pretty new to CoH and was planning on makeing a katana scrapper.
I plan to be teaming and doing pvp.
Is there any particular seconadies I should be looking at?
Thanks in advance.