I love my Kat/DA but I am really biased since she was my first toon.
Check out this thread:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=189427
A lot of good advice and even a few builds.
Thnx for the link; it was exactly what I needed. Also, you refer to your Kat/DA using present tense [[love]], which means that you still play her, right? Well, if you do, given that your join date is at 2008, it means that even after at least 2 years, you still find her playable; which is exactly what I'm looking for: my main blueside toon.
Heya, I'm the OP of the thread you were directed to and I can probably answer some of your questions.
First off, defense debuffs are that build's worst nightmare. With no resistance to them, once you start getting debuffed you are going to KEEP getting debuffed. Against Cimerorans and Council you will find your defenses failing on a regular basis. It's possible to fight through them, but you gotta be quick on your feet and have good timing on Dark Regen.
It's a highly survivable build. I don't recall if I mentioned it, but it pulled off the RWZ Challenge on the first attempt. If you're not familiar, the RWZ Challenge is taking on a spawn of Rikti at +4 that includes a minimum of 3 bosses, using no temp powers or inspirations.
The Blessing of the Zephyr that I used got nerfed since I made that build, so my live build isn't softcapped anymore. However, I'm still sitting at 41% defense to ranged and AoE, so it's still in pretty good shape.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
I hit lv16 and got Dark Regeneration, which I love so far. Damage is not a big issue with my toons, as long as it's not completely gimped, as I give priority to high levels of survivability. I think I'll this combo. Also, one last question: How is this compered to Katana/WP? What does one do better than the other?
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Kat/DA handles burst damage better due to more varied resistances and ability to heal massive amounts at once. It also has more mitigation with some of the oddball powers in the set (Cloak of Fear, Oppresive Gloom). It's rez is better, but if you build right you can and should skip it. |
Originally Posted by xhris
I hit lv16 and got Dark Regeneration, which I love so far. Damage is not a big issue with my toons, as long as it's not completely gimped, as I give priority to high levels of survivability. I think I'll this combo. Also, one last question: How is this compered to Katana/WP? What does one do better when the other?
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Kat/WP is more consistent in survival, and doens't require your reflexes to be as good. In a crowd it's regeneration is better than anything but a Regen running Instant Healing. Ater picking up either Stamina or Physical Perfection it will never have endurance problems (Kat/DA has end issues until heavily slotted)
Kat/DA can softcap to all positions, Kat/WP can softcap melee and all TYPES. Kat/DA can come back from the brink of death where Kat/WP has to either eat greens or hope the RNG is on it's side.
They are both very solid sets.
Kat/WP is much easier to play, with stupid amounts of survivability out of the box. It is one of the most commonly suggested combinations for new players or players new to scrappers. Iggy Kamakaze did a Master of Imperious Task Force with one........solo.
Kat/DA has a steeper learning curve, but can be made just as, if not more survivable. It has just recently become a common combo (thanks in part to Werner and myself, I know of at least 6 people that made either a Kat/DA or BS/DA because of our constant suggesting of it). Werner soloed 11 AVs in a row with it, with no deaths, using no temps and no inspirations.
In short, they are both awesome combos. So far I prefer Sword/Dark, but my Kat/WP is only level 18, so I don't have a solid base for opinion yet. So far it seems very solid.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
Hiya again! You are welcome for the pointer to that thread. I constantly refer to it. As for my toon, yes she still comes out to play on a regular basis especially now that I can use the e-mail system to easily share recipe drops with my other toons on the server.
I chose Kat/DA because I thought that the combo looked interesting. In no time at all I had reached the limits of the trial account so I found a SG that appeared to be a good fit for me (and it was) and the rest is history.
Her build is not complete nor is it soft capped to all but I can still do a decent amount of damage and keep working through mobs like a machine. I recently picked up the Miracle +Recovery and what a difference that has made with the blue bar.
Tactics wise I pick the baddest of the bad out of the bunch and let loose. Usually by the time I am done the little minions have long gone and the LTs are either going or gone. I rarely use inspirations at all unless fighting an AV. heck, I rarely use Build Up but it is a must for taking on the +3/4 range and AVs.
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On paper, I'm seeing MUCH higher survivability from Katana/Dark than from Katana/Will. By comparison, when surrounded by enemies, Iggy's Katana/Will has an I17 survivability score of 2826, while my I16 Katana/Dark had a survivability score of 5603, almost twice as much.|
Originally Posted by xhris
How is this compered to Katana/WP? What does one do better when the other?
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That said, there is a whole lot missing from my survivability calculations, and in practice, Iggy's build seems at least the equal of mine. Both of us can do a double Rikti War Zone Challenge, but he can do it while standing under a pylon and finishing off the pylon first. And you already heard that he did a Master of ITF run, but I don't think it was mentioned that he did it without temporary powers or inspirations. There's no way I could pull that off.
On the other hand, Iggy is magic, and I don't mean his character, I mean HIM.
An Iggy-played Katana/Dark might well do more than I could ever do with mine. So yeah, hard for me to compare.
"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
Videos of Other Stupid Scrapper Tricks
Thanks for the help guys!
I found some pretty good and cheap builds, but I would like to ask something, though. If you had access to unlimited amount of influence, how would your build look like (number-wise) and what could it achieve? I'm more interested in survival, instead of ridiculous Pylon DPS.
Also, I read the extremely good analysis on Scrapper secondaries from Arcanaville. Is DA's performance on SOs still the same as it was back in issue7?
I ran on a mix of SOs and common IOs for quite some time and found that the toon performed very well. Migrating over to sets upped my survivability by leaps and bounds.
My game playing style centers around teaming, both with the SG and PUGs but I never had many issues running solo.
As for an unlimited inf build, I would be interested in that as well.
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Well, it's been broken by the Blessing of the Zephyr and Miracle nerfs, but the unlimited influence build that I'm actually running is in the linked thread (and below), and a couple of things it's achieved (pre nerf) are in my signature and videos. The one really strange thing I did with mine was to sacrifice Golden Dragonfly and Soaring Dragon. I couldn't afford the slots for an extra attack, so I made a chain out of lowbie attacks (Sting of the Wasp -> Gambler's Cut -> Divine Avalanche -> Gambler's Cut). I still average about 175 DPS. It's not going to excite anyone in the pylon soloing thread, but it works well enough.|
Originally Posted by xhris
I found some pretty good and cheap builds, but I would like to ask something, though. If you had access to unlimited amount of influence, how would your build look like (number-wise) and what could it achieve? I'm more interested in survival, instead of ridiculous Pylon DPS.
Also, I read the extremely good analysis on Scrapper secondaries from Arcanaville. Is DA's performance on SOs still the same as it was back in issue7? |
I doubt that Arcanaville's comparison of Scrapper secondaries is very relevant today due to all the changes since then. But there's still a lot of good and relevant information in there, and the thread is well worth reading, even if I wouldn't use it for ranking secondaries.
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"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
Videos of Other Stupid Scrapper Tricks
That build is seriously impressive. Thanks for sharing
May I ask something? Why did you choose Tactics over Focused Accuracy? Is the extra end cost so stiff to pay for a higher acc buff? Also, would the build be viable with another epic, or is Physical Perfection needed?
Conserve Power and Physical Perfection are both needed, and yes, the endurance cost for Focused Accuracy would be too stiff. The build in I16 was ALMOST endurance sustainable. Good enough for AV fights with the very occasional slow down when I got unlucky with the four endurance procs. Endurance is now a problem to be solved because the slotting in Physical Perfection no longer buffs the Miracle Unique. And I also need to get ranged and AoE defense back to the soft cap after the Blessing of the Zephyr nerf.
Now the build WOULD be viable with other epics if you don't care about endurance sustainability. That's important for no-inspiration AV soloing, but not so important for general play.
"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
Videos of Other Stupid Scrapper Tricks
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Honestly? |
Originally Posted by xhris
Thanks for the help guys!
I found some pretty good and cheap builds, but I would like to ask something, though. If you had access to unlimited amount of influence, how would your build look like (number-wise) and what could it achieve? I'm more interested in survival, instead of ridiculous Pylon DPS. Also, I read the extremely good analysis on Scrapper secondaries from Arcanaville. Is DA's performance on SOs still the same as it was back in issue7? |
Mine wouldn't look that different. Maybe add a PvP 3% defense IO to get me back to softcap, and I'd look into a couple purples here and there to help with end recovery. I'd probably be able to take down a pylon (haven't done it yet, mostly due to bad luck and the RNG hating me, I know the character is capable of it though). AVs would be a little easier with the extra recovery. So far I've hit a wall with Siege and Nightstar (50% lethal resistance hurts a build with recharge as low as mine)
If I had unlimited influence I'd be more likely to spend it on characters that need purples (my regens for example) or other assorted sillyness. I'm pretty happy with my BS/DA overall.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
I've tried copying some aspects of these builds onto my BS/DA scrap. Am I expecting too much, or is this power combo just not suited to farming?
My MA/Shield scrapper is able to gather 2 groups of lev 50-52 enemies ( with settings of me = 8 heroes ) usually taking zero to minimal damage and blowing most of them away with shield charge. The /DA scrapper on the other hand just cant take the damage.
Are defense based sets that much better than resist sets, or am I doing something wrong?
131430 Starfare: First Contact
178774 Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name ( 2009 MA Best In-Canon Arc ) ( 2009 Player Awards - Best Serious Arc )
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This power combo is not suited to farming. I farm at about 1/3 the speed of a dedicated farmer on my Katana/Dark. I can totally take the damage, but then, I had soft-capped defense before I17. The defense sets aren't strictly better than the resist sets, but I suppose you could say that they're more straightforward to make good, maybe?|
Originally Posted by Hercules
I've tried copying some aspects of these builds onto my BS/DA scrap. Am I expecting too much, or is this power combo just not suited to farming?
My MA/Shield scrapper is able to gather 2 groups of lev 50-52 enemies ( with settings of me = 8 heroes ) usually taking zero to minimal damage and blowing most of them away with shield charge. The /DA scrapper on the other hand just cant take the damage. Are defense based sets that much better than resist sets, or am I doing something wrong? |
As for "copying some aspects of these builds", your survivability is going to be very strongly impacted by what aspects you're copying. If you're copying 45% or higher defense, you should be very difficult to kill. If you copied "some defense", and ended up at, say, 25%, then you're getting hit five times as often as I get hit. Well, at least by ranged and AoE. I'm assuming you at least have your melee soft capped from Parry. That's not to say you can't make a very survivable build out of 45% melee, 25% ranged and AoE, but it's going to be built and play differently.
"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
Videos of Other Stupid Scrapper Tricks
I went this route purely for concept, but thought that the multiple layers of protection /DA offers coupled with soft-capped positionals through IOs and the large def buff Divine Avalance offeers to compensate for /DA's lack of def debuff resistance seem promising. Does anyone have any experience with this combo? What are its strength and its weaknesses? Does it feel weak against other builds (Inv, SD?) in the survival and/or damage department? And last, does anyone have a sample build the could share?
Thank you in advance for your time and any help you can offer