Is Martial Arts really that bad?

I hear nothing good about it except that the moves look so cool, and they do, and although looking cool won't help you solo AV's, I need to hear some good stuff about this set.

What's the best dps this set can do? The secondary seems to be a disorient for most of the moves, which is great with me since my main is a EM/WP brute.

What would be the best AT to go with on MA? I'm guessing stalker but have no idea on the actual numbers.

Any head-kicking MA scrappers/stalkers out there in the high levels with some inspiration for me?

Thanks for any info left, I'm probably going to roll one anyway, but I'd like to take one to 50 eventually.

The only thing bad about Martial Arts is that it's all smashing, which is hardly a unique problem.

MA equals awesome whoever told you other wise is either full of it or ignorant.

i've only done the numbers on the stalker version of MA/, and it's not a bad set at all. the only stalker primary set that has more damage per activation time (single target) is NB/.

MA/ beats out all those other primaries when it comes to high end damage dealing, and the numbers will almost assuredly translate well to other ATs.

as an exercise, i'd recommend you make a build in Mid's and use the following attacks for a chain with MA/: crane kick, crippling axe kick (or thunder kick twice, they're interchangeable due to recharge and damage numbers), storm kick.

the set is all smashing damage. less resisted than lethal, and more damage to robots. also disorients/stuns are more reliable than, say, knockdowns, for boss+ fights.

Does the set still do knockback or did it get changed to knockdown?

It has one move that does KB, and one that does KD.

The only problem I find with MA is that, pre-stamina, it's horrendously end expensive. And I mean horrendous, like, reesting after every mob horrendous. MA/SR scrapper, level 15 so far. AND she's slotted for accuracy and end reduction, something I never do except on Brutes, and she still struggles.

That said...its an awesome set.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

MA in my experience is a fantastic set, both Aesthetically and Damage-wise. Coupled with a decent secondary (Shields, WP, etc) It can be a very potent build.

My MA/Shield scrapper merely has to walk into a x8 Mob, Build up, Shield Charge, Dragon's tail and then pick off the leftover Bosses and LT's, each requiring 1-2 hits with the weaker attacks, 3 at the most. Using Eagle's Claw or Crippling Axe Kick, make that 1 hit with some overkill.

Well I really hate knockback on melee characters, so I'm fairly happy I skipped it then. I was considering it for my latest stalker, but went DB instead (I wanted some AOEs anyway).

Ma isn't that bad. the problem is, it's just not that good either.

Nothing about it really stands out, but it'll get the job of kicking butt done. Which is why, i'm thinking, it'll never really get "fixed". There's nothing to fix... it works. Its just kind of a plane jane kind of set.

I think currently the only problem with MA is its lackluster AoE. You only get one PBAoE (no cones or anything) with a short radius. I don't know if the radius of Dragon's Tail is smaller than that of the other generic Scrapper PBAoEs, but it sure does feel like it...

My only 50 stalker is MA. As an MA stalker, you have no AOEs - which some may consider bad. And, as mentioned, you're all smashing, so as you go up, you'll find it resisted more. You might find this irritating, or you might not. (Me, I managed to snag several Touch of Death NE procs and fit them in.)

It's certainly not a *bad* set. It was, however, outshone by Energy Melee for a long time. Then again, so was every other Stalker set.

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MA is kind of like a mini-SS. In a way, a lot of the Scrapper primaries have weaker or less frequent secondary effects. It seemed to be one of those common classic themes that are slowly disappearing as we have proliferation and new sets, like how the "Brutes/Tanks are all about high damage, slow attacks," mechanic poofed with Dark Melee, Dual Blades, and more recently Claws. I think if SS is given to Scrappers, MA will have to be reconsidered.

SS has pretty consistent and powerful knockdown effects, with a guaranteed mag 3 hold on one power. MA is split between knockback and stun, and CAK which is just kind of random.

Then there's Rage vs Focus Chi.

Other sets tend to have a niche, like Fire doing high damage, Katana being highly accurate, DB doing combos, and stuff. MA's niche is stun/knockdown, but it only has a couple powers for each, so it can't reliably do either. And when put alongside SS, it would likely fall behind in pretty much every field.

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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

MA also needs a ton more animation options.

awesome, thanks for the input, peeps. I'm way more intrigued now and I'll probably roll one tonight after spending forever selecting the animations, lol.

The knockback in Crane Kick, if used badly, will occasionally cause you to run a few feet forward. How this is worth any significant level of complaint is beyond me -- it doesn't affect DPS worth a damn, of course, since DPS only matters for high-hitpoint targets like AVs, and they seldom take any effect from knb. It doesn't "scatter," since it only moves one guy and you're a hard-hitting, single-target attacker who will certainly be able to finish off that one guy, yet inexplicably I have heard AoE players complain about it.

Most of MA's good points have already been covered. The other thing about MA that's nice is that it has several hard-hitting single-target attacks (Storm, Crane, Crippling Axe, and Eagle's Claw) and some of them are very quick (Storm, Thunder, and to a lesser extent Crane). The end result is that when Claws and Dual Blades feel like a blender, chewing opponents down, MA can feel like a hammer, BAM-BAM-BAM-there's your drop and exp! I am often surprised at how well it holds up when I am in a friendly rivalry with another Scrapper or two. I definitely see my name in the "kill credit" text spam often enough.

Lastly, Dragon's Tail is your only AoE, but it's a pretty good one. When you get the recharge down pretty far it can be very nice.

I love Martial Arts, my only gripe is that as flashy as the attacks are, I don't feel they're flashy enough. I think cobra strike's animations are excellent; the weak power they're attached to doesn't do them justice.

The only beef I have is Stalkers lose out on Dragon's Tail. Not for the AoE, but the animation. It just looks sweet. But I guess Fist of Annihilation makes up some of that.

My MA/Shield scrapper put a forcefeedback proc in DT and it procs pretty often if I hit a good few enemies and that just helps bring up Shield charge just a bit faster.

Actually, I have 2 beefs with MA. Crane kick. It only kb some of the time. It needs to do it every time.

MA is awesomesauce. Sure, the AoE damage might be underwhelming, but Dragon's Tail is one of the best AoE mitigation tools available.

And Crane Kick slotted out for knockback is epic win.

MA/Nin is an awesome Stalker combo. It's the first one I've leveled past 20 thus far. I'll probably make another Stalker after this because i'm having so much fun with the current one.

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Cobra Strike needs the Clobber treatment. If it got the same buff Clobber got it would easily be the second best power in the set next to Eagle's Claw.

I'm having a lot of fun with my MA/WP. At level 23 he still feels a little squishy, but I know from experience that that will change.

MA's damage isn't stellar, but it's not bad either. It really feels like the set that the rest of the scrapper primaries are balanced around. (kind of like how Energy Blast is the baseline for blasters) Nice grab bag of secondary effects.