Martial Arts Damage + Accuracy question

Okay, first question really is whether or not Martial Arts is wasted in PvP. Its the single most heavily resisted of any damage type in the game (smashing) and given most PvP opponents have impressive defensive abilities, you find misses are all too common.

Second question is, if its not wasted then how best is it to slot martial arts attacks to make sure they make their mark? All of my Martial Arts skills are slotted with 90% damage or higher as well as (at absolute minimum) 80% accuracy. Yet it seems a good hit only comes with Focused Accuracy active in RV or a lucky critical (which can't be resisted anyway).

And finally, any tips for getting past those evil enemy defenses? I figure if I can land some decent hits on a Super Reflexes scrapper or stalker, I'll be able to hit just about anything. What are the best moves for this and are there any non-epic abilities which can help me?

Thanks in advance guys.

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Characters:
The Heroic Mary Grace (50)
The Mystical Thunderspark (50)
The Candy-loving Little Jenny (50)

MA is the best dueling scrapper primary imo because it has great control which is excellent against squishies (sun with cobra strike or eagles claw then crane kick to knock them back), and no drawing time. All scrapper primaries are mainly smashing or lethal (except some Dark Melee moves) so MA isnt at much disadvantage in that regard.

Your slotting is as good as its going to get without HOs or IOs. Best advice is to slot build up for tohit and maybe take tactics if you're still struggling (against tier 9 powers like elude you'll struggle to hit through consistently even with BU). Most things in PvP need aim or build up to hit through defence anyway MA is no different.

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thePhilosopher Martial Arts/Regen/Fire Scrapper
theRegulator Empathy/Energy/Soul Defender
Total Inertia Ice Blast/Kinetics/Psy Corruptor
Total Inferno Ice Blast/Thermal/Leviathan Corruptor

... I don't really know why you're having that much trouble hitting, my Scrapper's slotted for about 90-110 damage, 40-80 acc (iirc), I have FA and a handfull of +acc bonus' I think. Now that's all Acc, not ToHit bar FA. While FA is a reasonably massive boost, you shouldn't be having a huge amount of problems. I've gone through powerboost'd defender Rad Infection without build up on my toon.

MA may seem to be lacking at damage vs resists, yes, but it's got a good attack chain, pretty sweet damage on Crit's and it stuns quite a lot too.

Any chance you can let us know what IO's and IO sets you're using? I'll see if I can find my build and post it up for you, maybe you'll get some ideas you've not thought of to try.

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MA is the best dueling scrapper primary imo because it has great control which is excellent against squishies (sun with cobra strike or eagles claw then crane kick to knock them back), and no drawing time. All scrapper primaries are mainly smashing or lethal (except some Dark Melee moves) so MA isnt at much disadvantage in that regard.

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What the man said. I also consider MA as the best all-rounder scrapper primary.

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Your slotting is as good as its going to get without HOs or IOs. Best advice is to slot build up for tohit and maybe take tactics if you're still struggling (against tier 9 powers like elude you'll struggle to hit through consistently even with BU). Most things in PvP need aim or build up to hit through defence anyway MA is no different.

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Okay, time for a little power information...

Most of my attacks are slotted like this:
3x Damage IO (Lv 50), 2x Accuracy IO (Lv 50), 1x Recharge Rate IO (Lv 50)

With two exceptions:

Dragon's Tail: Multi Strike IO set (All Lv 50, All 6 slotted)
Storm Kick: 3x Damage IO (Lv. 50), 2x Accuracy IO (Lv. 50), 1x Touch of Death (Chance for NE Damage)

I also use Tactics slotted with two Lvl 50 To-Hit IO's for roughly 47% bonus (mostly for the perception though, for those pesky stalkers).

Now, here are the serious stumbling blocks when im battling:

Stalkers / Scrappers: Ignore the fact they're invisible for 99% of their playtime, lets focus on attacks. Many stalkers choose defensive abilities designed to DODGE attacks, like Super Reflexes. I don't think I need to go into details, but suffice to say they have plenty of skills to dodge melee attacks. Stalker Regeners would be easy prey if they'd just sit still long enough to die quietly, but scrappers are always tough to beat.

Brutes / Tankers: Enough smashing defense to make even a well slotted MA scrapper cringe. They're basically built to take punishment from the outset, the clue is in the name, but damaging them is only half the battle. The other half is hitting in the first place!

Masterminds: Biggest pain in the neck with these guys is that whole shared damage thing. In order to bring one down I need to level half his minions first (unless he crazily left them in offense).

Other archetypes cause me problems, but those have nothing to do with accuracy or damage. Its usually a case of getting in close enough to actually HIT anything (Slowing moves, immobilize, holds, terrorize).

Sadly, im a regen scrapper meaning I have no real defenses except my own rapid regeneration (which really isn't all that rapid when you're under fire, save for Instant Healing).

I'm discounting Focused Accuracy since I don't PvP in RV, so epics are out. Maybe I'd be more inclined to do so if I wasn't molested by impossibly tough archvillains.

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Characters:
The Heroic Mary Grace (50)
The Mystical Thunderspark (50)
The Candy-loving Little Jenny (50)

Thats the scrappers lot tbh, they are relatively average when it comes to killing power. If you are a scrapper get used to draws or enemy escaping to heal somewhere. Its not really martial arts' fault, scrappers jsut are like that. Ps. your best defense is movement and heals in that order.

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