Primary for SR?
By
AnElfCalledMack,
Posted on: 2010-11-03 20:30 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
Martial Arts gets mentioned a bit. That and maybe Dark?
Do you have any constraints? Like, for example, are you not into expensive IO builds? It can affect your choice some. How about what you plan to do with it? Lots of solo? Want to be better at hard targets, mowing down large spawns, or a mix of both?
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Conceptually, MA/SR just go together as your classic martial artist hero. (I have one named "Kickyer S".) It may not be the most effective build, but it is just a lot of fun.
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As true for all melee toons, anything/SR will work just fine. Some sets have better synergy (Kat/BS with Divine Avalanche/Parry, Dark with -tohit and self heal, etc.) but none of the combos are bad.
A mix would be good. I have no constraints. Issue being...should I roll a MA/SR or MA/SD. and if I go MA/SD what would be next to pair with SR?
Off the top of my head with no weapons for single/AoE mix? I'd say Fire Melee.
If you want a mix of AoE and single-target damage, Fire Melee is probably your best bet. Bear in mind, FM is about damage, damage and more damage. Which is grand if, well, you want to do lots of damage. It doesn't do much to help you, though, other than kill stuff real good.
Electric Melee is more AoE-centric. Some folks don't like how long it can take at beating down a hard target, but it's real good at messing up lots of smaller targets.
Dark Melee is pretty decent at messing up single hard targets, and there's pretty much no attack power that can help keep you alive better than Siphon Life. It also has an AoE +endurance power, which might lighten your build constraints some with IOs. It may not matter if you plan to build for the soft-cap on defense, but Dark Melee's debuffs are also work nicely with defense. Dark is not your top choice for defeating lots of foes at once, however.
Martial Arts is a good contender these days for single-target damage. MA is not very good at AoE damage, with only one AoE. It's got less "swiss army knife" going on than Dark Melee, but IMO it's a nice straight-up DPS set now with a couple of nice tools. Cobra Strike is now a truly excellent power which fairly dramatically changed how the set plays.
SR vs. Shield Defense is a tough call, and again it depends some on your build goals. Tricked out to the gills, SR is probably a ahead of SD on being hard to kill, because of its scaling damage resists and its very high defense debuff resistance. It's also much easier (and so much cheaper) to get SR to the defense softcap. However, Shield Defense has Against All Odds, which can be an exceptionally good bonus to your damage, and Shield Charge, which is certainly a nice attack despite some recent downgrades. One of the most well-rounded damage machines you can make if you trick it out is Fire/Shield. You'll be really very good at both single-target and AoE damage and have really good survivability.
DM/SD is also very good at sustained single-target DPS if it has people around to fuel its two +damage powers (Soul Drain and Against All Odds), but again, it's more for mowing down AVs and not lots of massed little guys. FM/SD can still cut down AVs and take down baddies too - it just won't be giving itself massive self heals in the process. 
Edit: Sorry, I got, ah, a different kind of Scrapper-lock there. The above is focused primarily on Scrappers. Fury means the +damage powers of both DM and SD benefit Brutes a bit less. Shield Charge is more likely to bump into its damage cap on a Brute, especially if you have fury and use Build Up. Fury affects the DoT portion of Fire Melee attacks, but the presence of the DoT isn't counted in Scrapper criticals, so FM favors Brutes. But most importantly, Brutes get powersets that Scrappers currently don't, like Stone Melee and Super Strength. I also completely forgot to mention Kinetic Melee, which both ATs get (and I haven't gotten past level 4 
). I have lots of experience with Stone Melee and a bit with SS, but let's see if someone else will cover those.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Stone/SR brute. Been thinking about one myself as soon as I-19 goes live.
Be well, people of CoH.
/SR can synergy with several sets quite well. It has the most synergy with Dark Melee, which can be done on Scrappers, Brutes, and Stalkers. The self heal and end recovery power helps the fact /SR can be an end hog.
Personally I have a softcapped EM/SR Brute which I enjoy quite a bit. The long recharge of EMs attacks is helped by /SRs Quick Reflexes. Being a defense set, it helps avoid getting hurt while in those long attack animations.
Just pick your favorite Melee set or a set you've never played, thats how I ended up with mine. lol
But to answer your top 3 question:
1: Dark Melee (Most Synergy)
2: EM or KM or SM
3: Elec for its AoE
BS/SR if you want to kill your END bar faster than anything else.
... don't ask me how I know.
Currently running a KM/SR Brute, though, which is a bit of fun. Only in the low 20s ATM though.
Kat/SR Scrapper, personally. Yes, it's been done to death, but Divine Avalanche really does make leveling easier, then you get to drop it once you get to a mature, IO'ed build.
SR gives you soft-capped defenses, high DDR and a 20% recharge buff. Pretty much every powerset is going to like that. One of the problems is that SR takes a little while to mature, so you might consider avoiding attack sets that are also a little slow, or favouring one with a little mitigation in it, like knockdown or stuns - SS/SR Brutes would be very painful to level, I imagine, while Stone/SR or Mace/SR seem fairly promising.
I'd never considered Stone/ with /SR before. Thinking about it, that might be a lot of fun, and would make a sweet earthbending martial artist, Avatar style.
BillZ, what were you thinking of buildwise? Using one of the Claw/SR builds you've posted in the past, i worked up a version that (i think, still using the old mids) has fist/both mallets, 97% global rech + hasten, and 4.28 end/sec using slotted Superior Conditioning and PP (+end procs in both of those, too).
Another AOE would be nice, but the extra end might be needed for end thirsty attacks. I'm also not sure, attack chain wise, if it's better to keep Stone Fist or Stone Mallet. If the end from Energy Mastery isn't needed, then dropping it and perhaps Stone Mallet for Gloom/Dark Oblit looks mighty nice.
50s:
Grimmloch, Tactically Delicious, Ugly Frankie, Operative Tracker, CryoFurnace, Professional Help, Silver Sphinx, Aries Knight, Tachyon Aegis, Jade Sphinx
Currently building:
Any one of half a dozen alts!
I love my DB/SR broot.
Telperion,
Hadn't even come close to working out a build. I would have never considered the combo before fitness going inherent because it will be something of a pain on the endurance front, but I think the mitigation from fault and tremor will be quite handy. As you state, body mastery for SC and PP will be a must, I think. Adding darkest night on top with only stamina and a single perfshifter proc may be a rough ride even though you'll be incredibly hard to kill.
Be well, people of CoH.
Thanks, BillZ. Most of my leveling projects are completed, or I've lost interest, so I've been jonesing for something new...just had no inspiration. Tips get old after a while, if that's all I'm doing.
50s:
Grimmloch, Tactically Delicious, Ugly Frankie, Operative Tracker, CryoFurnace, Professional Help, Silver Sphinx, Aries Knight, Tachyon Aegis, Jade Sphinx
Currently building:
Any one of half a dozen alts!
Pretty much anything can work fine with /SR, so it really depends on concept and what sets you enjoy.
From a pure game mechanics standpoint, assuming you plan to use a moderately expensive (good non-purple sets) IO build, the only sets that really go with /SR are the ones you can't take /Shield with. The reason is simple: once IOed, /Shield does everything /SR can do and more. It's a bit harder (ie, expensive) to softcap, but once you do the only difference is /SR has slightly higher defense debuff resists but /Shield is close if you slot some Hami-Os creatively. Also, /SR is a natural match to weapon sets because it has only one click power to cause redraw.
I personally love Dual Blades / SR. It makes a great swashbuckler type and the attacks are more interesting than Katana or Broad Sword. Among non-weapon sets, Martial Arts and Kinetic Melee are very thematic. I find KM/SR especially appropriate since KM is based on Tai Chi, which tends to rely on dodging and evasion a lot. Dark Melee/SR is a great fit mechanically, since you get a small heal in your attack chain to help with lucky hits and to-hit debuffs to help out pre-softcap and against to-hit buffed enemies. And of course it's hard to beat Fire for pure damage, though on a Brute SS/SR can be nasty with enough recharge (and /SR helps on that with quickness).
If I had to list a top 3 sets to use with /SR I'd go with:
DM/SR (almost unkillable but light on AoE damage)
Spines/SR (great AoE, can't use /Shield)
KM/SR (just because it fits so well thematically)
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
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Im partial to Spines myself.
Brute /w Super Strength/Super Reflexes
Scrapper /w Dark Melee/Super Reflexes
Brute Clawz/Super Reflexes
Whining about everything since 2006.
Ammo switching for Dual Pistols was my idea:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=135484
Dark plays well simply for giving you a self heal as part of your attack chain, and can go towards counteracting def debuffs by debuffing enemy tohit, and puts you towards effective softcapping earlier on.
However it goes lack in AoE a bit...
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Originally Posted by VoodooGirl
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Sans any weapons, what are the top 3 primary sets to pair with SR blue and/or red side?