Need concept help please :)

I haven't played a stalker since like 2 months after CoV came out (been gone a while,) and I'm wanting to make one that definitely requires a sword for a weapon, and a secondary that doesn't have "major" constant visual effects on the costume. From what I've been reading, broadsword isn't really a favorite primary for........anyone, but I'm not ruling it out. I played katana on a scrapper way back then, and it felt like I was playing tennis (backhand, wait, forehand, wait, etc) but I don't know if ninja blade is like that or not. Looking at dual blades as well. Secondaries it seems like SR, Regen, and WP are the choices, and maybe Nin.

Any thoughts on decent primary/secondary combos? I'm pretty open minded, and can have fun with nearly anything.

Thanks all.


Edit: I guess the word I was lacking when I meant combo recommendations was by way of symmetry between the two.

Personal opinion, and not one I follow myself, as I just don't 1) have a concept for 2) feel the need to make it, for best combo...

ELM/WP

Team happy AOEs, good ST DPS, mez resists to everything except end drain (with softcapped defenses and +END Procs isnt a problem).

IA has +HP and Defenses.

Out of your suggested, possibly DB/WP.

While I haven't played them on Stalkers necessarily, I have played Broad Sword, Katana/Ninja Blade (practically the same set with the same animations), and Dual Blades (your three sword choices).

As you say, Katana is anything but the flashy weapon you see used in movies like Equilibrium, or Kill Bill. The animations do not link together well, and there's that obnoxious "return to neutral" stance befor executing the next attack. It's a nice power set, just dated in terms of animation.

Broad Sword just isn't that fun unless you are building an armor clad medieval knight. Then the slow, chunky animations look about right. The set packs a punch, but it also defines "hack and slash" combat in that it feels like that is all your doing. You get the sense that this is a big weapon, that doesn't need to be precise because it will damage the enemy regardless.

Dual Blades is the most flashy of the three, and the animations link together well. Definitely gives the illusion that the character is light on its feet (so a Huge model using dual blades can look kind of funny).

I recommend rolling one of each, taking each through a quick Death From Below trial, and deciding for yourself.

As for combos, I recommend SR or WP, but that's because I am not a fan of the constant clicking you have to do with a /Regen. Passive buffs are my friend.

There's my 2 cents.

Thanks for the thoughts you two. I was looking on the servers I play tonight, and it seems the variations of my chosen name are already taken. I suppose when I made Captain Morgan back in 2004/5 it may have been original, but no longer (my costume then was pretty dang acurate, I must admit.) Oh well.

I guess now I'm wondering if there's a primary that's particularly good for assassin type play, and if there's one that's particularly good for sustained dps. Perhaps one that can excel at both dependent on the build? I played a rogue on wow for a while, and had different builds for 1on1 quick kills or stun locking, and one for sustained dps. Anything something like that for CoH?

Street Justice is awesome on stalkers. As for swords, I liked katana/ninjitsu.

Claws is perfect for an assassin concept, too.