Martial Arts/

Okay...many of you might think this post is basically useless (I'm wondering that myself) but I was just too excited to keep it all inside me!!! I feel like I have to share my joy with everyone. My new scrapper is Martial Arts/ and I am crazy about it. I had heard about the speed and relative power that comes along with Martial Arts but never have I ever seen anything like this. I recently picked up Focus Chi (build up) and tried it out with my attack chain...wow. I was able to fit 6 attacks into the small window that is given under Build Up and literally floored the orange lieutenant in front of me. God forbid I get a critical hit and can move on to the next enemy with 2 attacks left!!! I love everything about MA...the speed, the animations, the strength, the fairly low end cost. I'm kind of obsessed with it. Okey doke, my little rant is over. Carry on.

I must agree, Martial Arts looks really pretty. Eagle's Claw is such an "in your FACE!" attack, as the animation is epicly LONG =P

Nothing has more style then Martial arts.

MA is my favorite power in the game. I PvP on an MA/Regen, and it is amazing! Especially during a 1v1 against a WP Brute. It is hard for him to build fury when TK and EC are dropping hit RttC so fast he only has time to keep clicking it back on. lol I love it!

Here you go Myramani...so you don't have to pull out a dictionary

MA = Martial Arts
PvP = Player vs Player
WP = Willpower
TK = Thunder Kick
EC = Eagle's Claw
RttC = Rise to the Challenge

MA is getting new power animations, which will breathe even more life into it. The future looks great for MA players.

Erm...maybe its just me...but my MA/Regen scrapper is nothing compared to my katana/regen...I find MA is far slower. Its more powerful per attack but i don't find that it outweighs the drop in speed from Katana. Can I ask what your attack chains are? Maybe I'm just haven't found the right chain...

I also find that the animations are too long for me to hit my heals in time, not a problem I've had with my other kat/regen...

But obviously you guys are finding different. Am I expecting too much compared to kat/regen, or do you think I'm not using him right? I haven't been able to get all the acolades for him yet, so he doesn't have all the base regen/recovery boosts my kat/regen has, but I never found a huge difference between my kat/regen having them and not having them...

It also has to be said that MA has been marginalized compared to the rest of the Scrapper primaries. It still does a does a decent job for the role of the Scrapper, but outside of its stylish animations, it doesn't distinguish itself from the rest in terms of performance. You compare it to BS, BS will have the better burst damage. You compare it to Katana, Katana will have comparable DPS but with better AoE and DA. You compare it to Spines, Spines has better AoE capabilities, etc. Still, many players do have fun playing MA/ Scrappers and play them very effectively even if the set itself doesn't have a performance niche of its own.

That said, any buff to the set, even if it is just cosmetic, will get people excited.

I have to agree with the OP. My main is a MA/SD and I love how it "feels". MA/ might not be as quick to eliminate mobs as other sets, but it's still quite nice. Plus, with the new animations coming, things definitely look good for MA/ users.

I have to mention that my experience with MA since hitting 50 is strictly PvP outside of Accolade hunting. I don't know how it stands in PvE once set bonuses are added in.

MA/SR was my first character in COX. It's also my oldest toon.

With the most recent changes in PvP, Martial Arts is probably one of the top scrapper sets, in part to its animation times (which also impacts top damage) and soft-controls.

It's still good in PvE.

My first, oldest, and main toon is a ma/sr, and it is by far the most fun toon ive ever made or have. He is about the only 50 that ever sees game time in the 48 months ive been playin.

And this was pre IOs and pre MA buffs several months ago.

And MA does have a distiction from the other sets. Mostly thematically. No weapon for one. Not sure if redraw actually causes u a penalty time wise or not, but I don't really care as i just hate it either way. Its good for a natural character. It doesn't look like bananas comin out of your every pore, which this is kinda changin shortly.

I just think for me it mirrors some of my favorite scrapper comic characters that dont need all these fancy powers/weapons, and just get in there and Kick @$$

If I were to change anything to MA (or Martial Arts Primary for Scrappers for the noob that needs definitions) it would be to add a chance to stun to all the attacks, or at least most, similar to what Energy Melee (here after referred to as nrg) gets. I love that Eagle's Claw (here after referred to as EC) has 100% chance now, but I think it would give the set a theme overall, even if it is similiar to nrg melee.

I think this change would make a lot of players happy and try it out more. But with all the animation changes, even though very brief and untested personally, and the performance boosts, I'll take what I can get really.

I would have more than one MA toon, but I just live in fear that I would want to play it more than my main, and I love him too much for that.

Well, I have a 50 katana, a 50 broadsword, a 50 fire melee. My next 50 scrapper will probably be my MA/Invul, who's 41 now. But I have at least 3 other MA scrappers in the 20-30 range, so I do have fun playing the set. ^_^ With power customization it'll be easier to justify having so many different MAs since I can make each one feel a bit different.

Martial Arts is my favourite Scrapper set by far.

I've got two character with distinctive fighting styles out of it - one is basically human with Thunder Kick (slotted with the Stupefy KB proc, yee-ha!), Crane Kick, Storm Kick Dragons Tail and Cobra Strike.

The other is a super-flexible super-strong android (think Pris from Bladerunner for fighting style) with Jump Kick, Storm Kick, Crane Kick, Dragons Tail, Crippling Axe Kick and Eagles Claw.

Both are a joy to watch and have their own distinct personality through the animations. Both are highly effective despite having compromised a bit of efficiency for style.

No other powerset for any archetype has given me two distinct styles like this. Thats how cool Martial Arts is.

You mean aside from having to chase stunned mobs all over the place? Stuns are basically uncontrolled knockback. At least with knockback you can choose where the enemies fly off to. Stuns are pretty useless for scrappers/tankers in my opinion. They don't work on anything you'd actually need to stun, because it's either squishy and dead in a hit or two, or really tough and resistant to mezzes. If we're going to get a new secondary effect, why not get something that helps, rather than hinders, our killing ability: slows, improved damage, improved criticals, -res, etc.