Martial Arts advise

Okay, so I have a 50 scrapper that is claws/regen, I like it and all, but sometimes I have to wonder if the 'grass is greener' so to speak. This leads me to this very post, I love martial arts and dual blades, or rather the idea behind them, so I was wondering if MA is a good build to go with?
Im not entirely sure what to put with it as a secondary, my default choice is something like /WP or maybe /Regen, though I am told it synergies rather well with /SR as well? I'm curious though, what would the scrapper community as a whole advise to couple with MA? Or if its even worth going for in the first place infact..

I deleted my MA Scrapper at 40, then two months later they did the MA changes so I never got the chance to play around with the new MA.

But Mids says it does more damage than Katana with quicker animation cast times and a mag 3 stun that hits like a truck strapped to a train.

Martial Arts is a good set to work with, particularly with the recent changes. It can start off with a decent attack chain fairly early, and then be respecced into a better chain as early as by level 18 or later.

Comparing it to Claws, it will hit harder per attack, and will seem slower in terms of recharge time. Also, it will definitely be more endurance heavy if you like to attack constantly. It also lacks a significant number of AoE attack, so you got to change up your play style on that. It works better on taking out tough single targets, like bosses and Elite Bosses, than on a whole mess of minions or even lieutenants.

As for secondaries, almost any will work with MA. Regen seems to work well on smaller, but tougher mobs, while WP is great for tacking on a whole mess of enemies. Keep that in mind that MA only has one AoE attack, so "herding" sets like Willpower and Invulnerability will have to be played differently than other sets. SR is a late blooming set, but can be extremely survivable in later levels. Using MA's soft controls at the lower and mid levels will help you survive as you are slotting out your defenses. The same can be said about Shields as well, which seems to be the top secondary if you can get it soft-capped, because of it damage-enhancing capabilities and extra AoE attack.

Defense affects everyone. Stun affects one target. I'm loving my newly-improved Cobra Strike, but it's no Divine Avalanche in the survivability department (even if it's more fun and doesn't hurt my DPS the way DA does).

Katana has MA beat on AoE.

And even though Cobra striek a great power to take early and to keep on all the way to 50, its stun is nothing compared to Divine Avalanche's defense buff. I mean, +15% to defense is a nice fatty chunk of mitigation there. Even though I have been able to stun even AVs with the new Cobra Strike, its duration is not long enough to really make a difference.

The Sword sets really don't need any more tweaks. With a decent number of AoEs, -def debuffs, and a couple KU/KD effects, plus good damage and a def buff, it's no question why they are so popular and effective.

You kick a dude in the face! And then just plain kick him off the rooftop! What's not to love!? Slot a full set of Kinetic Crash into Crane Kick for like 170% knockback and you're good to go!

Thanks for all the advise everyone, think I'll keep on thinking on it for a wee while still, recently respecced my Claws/Regen scrapper so have a bit of work left to do with her, luckily this gives me time to plot and plan with my next scrapper project.

I've got the travel power down and all, mainly cause I've been watching X-Men cartoons alot recently, so teleport with Combat Jumping ^_^

Personally, I'd go for MA/Fire. Why? Because you can KICK PEOPLE IN THE FACE WHILE ON FIRE! What more needs to be said?


(Actually, I can see it being pretty good. MA is short on AoE damage, Fire has craploads. Fire is a bit short on survivability, MA adds some through it's controls.)