MA/Elec, think it'll work out?

Well with I16 it looks like we're getting our hands on /Elec, which is IMO one of the flashier and generally cooler looking defensive powersets. Even moreso now that we have power customization. And MA has generally been considered one of the flashier powersets, so I figured I'd make an MA/Elec!

Thing is, I'm not really sure how well the two powersets will play with each other or how it can be expected to handle. I've heard neither MA nor Elec can generally be considered the best of the Scrapper powersets by any means, and I'm not sure how the two of them combined is going to work out.

Any tips/advice/what have you? All I've figured so far is that Tough, Weave and Stamina would all help a great deal, but Power Sink may somewhat cancel out the need for Stamina. That said, it still seems like I'd get quite a bit of use out of it. What about Aid Self, or where one should go with IO's? Truthfully I've yet to try IOing out a character but it's always nice to know what my options are.

Really I guess I'm just concerned that it's not going to be able to dive into large swarms of enemies and commence with kicking everybody through walls, instead stuck fighting 2 and 3 man spawns when solo or something, but maybe I'm just worrying too much.

Hmm.. it's not going to be one of the superior combinations, but there's no reason why it shouldn't work.

Take a look around for some MA/Dark or MA/Fire builds or guides. Both will provide a good idea how a MA/Elec will work - not exact, of course, but they should be a good starting point.

Things to keep in mind...

/Elec is a resist based set, so you will work best by minimizing incoming damage. You will probably want to work Cobra Strike and Crane Kick into your build.

Lightning Field will help with MA's poor AoE game.

Power Sink is a long way off... even if you eventually respec out of it, you are going to want to have Stamina to get there.

Just some spot observations. Have fun!

It would definitely be a much sexier alternative to "Electric Melee."

It's bound to muster a lot of 'class' points once you hit 30 and get auras.

Cobra Strike, Crane Kick... Air Superiorty seems like it'd be pretty useful too right?

And yeah, the sheer visual awesomeness of the combo is one of the chief reasons I'm making it.

I think it should make a good combination, in fact I am planning one with just an SO build incorporating Air Superiority, Energy Torrent and the MA tools for dmg mitigation (mainly Crane Kick and Dragon's Tail) all that paired with Power Sink and I hope he should work fine. If he does, will consider making him a set build, but still, I guess he shouldn't need it and do fine with just SO's.

Wow, the more I play with this in Mids' the more complicated it looks... trying to fit in Stamina + Weave + Grounded (which I assume is important) and Lightning Field (which seems to help with MA's lack of AOE)... and AirSup not to mention Cobra Strike and Focus Chi... hrm. This is gonna take some effort.

Reading over this all I can think of is a female version of Raiden from Mortal Kombat. Especially with that conical hat comment. Makes me chuckle.

Something that's bugging me is that I just can't see to fit everything into the build. Is dropping Stamina practical for a build with Power Sink? Between Focus Chi, Air Sup, Cobra Strike, Stamina, Weave, basically the entire secondary, a decent number of attacks...

Anybody happen to have any example builds by any chance? Should I be skipping/dropping Thunder Kick at some point? (Even though I rather prefer how it looks compared to just plain ol Kick from the Fighting pool.) Usually I'm alright at designing builds, but I can't seem to find a decent way to do this one and not making it horribly weak when exemplared down. though I suppose there's always Dual Builds for that...

One thing you can probably do is drop some attacks. Since you have to take it anyway, boxing can stand in for thunder kick (boxing is better than kick, looks less dumb, and while it's not as good as thunder kick, it's still passable). Similarly, you probably don't need to take all of storm kick, crane kick, CAK, and eagle's claw if you already have boxing and air sup - especially with the recharge boost /elec provides.

As far as stamina goes, I'm not sure. I'm planning my tanker build without stamina, but he only has tough, not weave. Hopefully someone has some experience trying this on a brute and can chime in.

There's a thought, though part of the reason I love MA is because of the animations. (Yes, I even kinda like CAK, though I suppose I could skip it if I had to. And there's no way I'm skipping Eagle's Claw.) So skipping a bunch of attacks from the primary isn't something I'm too keen on doing. Thunder Kick and CAK maybe.

You will definitely want Storm Kick, CAK, and Crane Kick. With some goodly amount of recharge these will give you the best MA attack chain, which is a damned impressive amount of damage. Dragon's tail is amazing mitigation and a must have in my opinion. Thunder Kick I usually respec out of once I have a few attacks, because it kinda sucks. I never take Cobra Strike. Eagle Claw is the way to go if you want a stun, and some good burst damage; looks awesome as well. Air Superiority if you're going for flight is okay, but nothing special.

Hmm... I thought Air Superiorty was a great solo tool due to the potential migation, but if it's really not that great with, I think I'll go Combat Jumping and Super Jump. I love Super Jump way more than I do Fly.

Crippling Axe Kick and Air Superiority are both useful in knocking down flying targets, so you could use one or the other if you need an extra slot.