Best Secondary to pair with MA?

Looking to make an MA scrapper and am looking for suggestions on what secondary goes best with it.

I have no preferences at this point and am willing to consider any of them.

Thanks.

Pretty much any secondary will pair well with MA. Dark Armor, because of the ability to add it's stun aura to MA's stuns is about the only one with 'synergy', but they will all work well. I have lvl 50 MA scrappers with Regen and Fire and both do quite well.

Find a concept and go from there. You can't really go wrong with scrappers.

Ok, which has the most synergy? Which covers up the weaknesses of MA the best?

And I guess if I have one goal, it is to survive.

Survival: WP, Inv, SR, any set with enough IO's

Covering MA's Weakness (Lack of AoE): Elec, Dark, Fire, Shield

Most Synergy: probably Dark

Shield

I going to say Shields too

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Shields and Dark Armor are the most synergistic.

Both add more damage in AoE (Shield Charge and Death Shroud)

Martial Arts can suffer from situations where smash-resistant foes make it harder to defeat them, so in that instance having a secondary dealing damage other than smashing is a good thing. This would make Fiery Aura and Electric Aura both possibilities worth considering.

My vote goes for /Shield. It complements well Martial Arts lack of AoE with Shield Charge, it boosts its single target damage, and the both together look really cool.

Below is from my Martial Arts guide, with a few more notes on synergy and weakness. As discussed before in other threads, the apparent "weakness" of the Martial Arts set depends on your point of view and what you are looking for. Its "weakness" could be the lack of useful synergetic secondary effects (could stack stuns, but not as reliable or worth the effort, etc), lack of AoE attacks, or even a relatively high-maintenance build in order to max out its DPS. again, it's your call on how you want to approach these "weakness" when choosing a secondary.

Dark Armor
The significance of this powerset is the Oppressive Gloom power. This toggle has a mag2 Stun aura in an 8 ft. radius. Stacked with Cobra Strike or Eagle's Claw, this power can reliably keep bosses stunned. However, both powers are not necessarily used in MA's optimal attack chain. On low global recharge builds, Eagle's Claw could still be used often for its burst damage, but otherwise a player has to choose between maintaining a DPS attack chain or going more for single target control.

Fiery Aura
Some of Fiery Aura's PBAoE attacks could help round out Martial Art's lack of AoE attacks. MA's only AoE, Dragon's Tail, could also be useful to keep multiple mobs in melee range for Fiery Aura to do its work.

Invulnerability
Invulnerability's highest potential comes in herding multiple mobs around itself, due to the Invincibility power. But this does run counter to Martial Art's focus on few mob targets. Otherwise, the sets themselves are compatible but a player needs to be aware of varying levels of performance through the length of some fights, and whether fighting solo or on teams.

Regeneration
This set is powerful and versatile so it works well with all sets. However, many of its core powers are click activated, which causes redraw for weapon sets. Because Martial Arts does not have any weapons to be drawn, some players who are decided on the Regeneration set might consider Martial Arts as an option. This is also a powerful set in solo or small team settings, which works well with Martial Art's focus. The synergy with this set also comes that Regen directly benefits from high global recharge, which is also necessary for MA's optimal attack chain.

Shield Defense
This set can be used to increase the damage potential of a Martial Arts Scrapper. Shield Charge also supplements another AoE attack to assist Martial Arts against multiple targets. Shield Defense is a late bloomer, so damage mitigation from your primary, such as Crane kick and possibly Cobra Strike, would be useful in the early levels. The consensus here is that the damage potential of this secondary is what's most attractive.

Super Reflexes
This reliable set works well for all primary sets, including Martial Arts. Like Shield Defense, this is also a late blooming set, so using your primary for damage mitigation is definitely recommended, particularly at lower levels. Quickness is a nice for more global recharge, plus the defense powers allow for more opportunities to stack up global recharge bonuses.

Willpower
Just as Invulnerability, Willpower becomes more powerful when surrounded by more targets. And just as Invulnerability, a MA/Willpower Scrapper would need to find a balance between its primary and secondary powersets.

IMO the best secondary with MA is Shields.

But I could also say for every primary that allows it. AAO is just that good, and Shield Charge rounds out much needed AoE.

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Originally Posted by SpiderTeo_OC Dark Armor The significance of this powerset is the Oppressive Gloom power. This toggle has a mag2 Stun aura in an 8 ft. radius. Stacked with Cobra Strike or Eagle's Claw, this power can reliably keep bosses stunned. However, both powers are not necessarily used in MA's optimal attack chain. On low global recharge builds, Eagle's Claw could still be used often for its burst damage, but otherwise a player has to choose between maintaining a DPS attack chain or going more for single target control.

Don't go Gloom + Stuns. At the high end you'll just kill your DPS, even against bosses. The stuns on Cobra and EC are way too short.

The real strength of the set is the heal (best in game for PvE) coupled with an extra defense bonus in Cloak to help push your defense towards cap. If you can build up towards ~35% in melee and ranged the resists coupled with the great heal will make the mitigation very good.

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Fiery Aura Some of Fiery Aura's PBAoE attacks could help round out Martial Art's lack of AoE attacks. MA's only AoE, Dragon's Tail, could also be useful to keep multiple mobs in melee range for Fiery Aura to do its work.

IMO /FA doesn't have the survivability to work well with MA. You can make a fun kick around character, but you won't be able to grind 8 man or hunt big game because you won't be able to survive the higher settings. Leave /FA for primaries with more mitigation like Katana, Broad Sword, or maybe Dark with it's heal in Siphon.

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Invulnerability Invulnerability's highest potential comes in herding multiple mobs around itself, due to the Invincibility power. But this does run counter to Martial Art's focus on few mob targets. Otherwise, the sets themselves are compatible but a player needs to be aware of varying levels of performance through the length of some fights, and whether fighting solo or on teams.

Good combo with MA. It has the survivability and doesn't need MA to contribute to survivability. The set can cap defenses, and MA has lots of single target attacks to slot Kinetic Combat. If you go this combo you'll want Hasten both to get Dull Pain perma and to get Dragon's Tail as low as possible on recharge.

Quote:

Regeneration This set is powerful and versatile so it works well with all sets. However, many of its core powers are click activated, which causes redraw for weapon sets. Because Martial Arts does not have any weapons to be drawn, some players who are decided on the Regeneration set might consider Martial Arts as an option. This is also a powerful set in solo or small team settings, which works well with Martial Art's focus. The synergy with this set also comes that Regen directly benefits from high global recharge, which is also necessary for MA's optimal attack chain.

What he said. MA/Regen is fairly decent if you are willing to throw the money into it to get ~30 melee and 25 ranged defense. I don't like Regen on sets that don't have built in mitigation. The set's mitigation is too clicky. This causes it to cut into DPS, suffer when using long activation times, and die often to lag. There are holes when you are simply out of clicks. Some players love the active feel of the set though.

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Shield Defense This set can be used to increase the damage potential of a Martial Arts Scrapper. Shield Charge also supplements another AoE attack to assist Martial Arts against multiple targets. Shield Defense is a late bloomer, so damage mitigation from your primary, such as Crane kick and possibly Cobra Strike, would be useful in the early levels. The consensus here is that the damage potential of this secondary is what's most attractive.

Shields is king of the hill. Shield Charge is that extra AoE you need so you don't have to take /Fire. Great set, probably the best for scrappers.

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Super Reflexes This reliable set works well for all primary sets, including Martial Arts. Like Shield Defense, this is also a late blooming set, so using your primary for damage mitigation is definitely recommended, particularly at lower levels. Quickness is a nice for more global recharge, plus the defense powers allow for more opportunities to stack up global recharge bonuses. Willpower Just as Invulnerability, Willpower becomes more powerful when surrounded by more targets. And just as Invulnerability, a MA/Willpower Scrapper would need to find a balance between its primary and secondary powersets.

Both of these sets work great with MA.

have a 50 SR and a 41 Shield. Love 'em both equally. That said, I found shield a mite trickier the first several levels, but once I beefed up his endurance reduction and his defenses, and got shield charge, he's been substituting for the AFK tanks on PUGs.