Quote:
I wouldn't call any Scrapper secondary bad, but in terms of pairing with MA there are a couple of options that stand out to me:|
Originally Posted by Vanyr
Alright, since i'm seriously tired of Stalkers, i figured i'd make a MA/??? scrapper. Any advice for a secondary, and why you choose that secondary? And also any advice for scrappers in general? Thanks in advance.
|
1. MA/SR, the obvious conceptual pairing, particularly for people wanting to focus on "natural" origin character.
2. MA/DA gives you the opportunity to stack stuns with TK and Cobra in MA, and Oppressive Gloom in Dark Armor. Dragon's Tail also helps keep things nearby for PBAoE toggles and Dark Regeneration.
3. MA/Will is another potential possibility for natural characters although RTTC is slightly conceptually iffy. It can mature into a stronger combination than MA/SR, although in my opinion MA/SR starts off stronger when you're still in SOs. Willpower also has quick recovery, and even with stamina endurance can still be an issue until you get slotted up with inventions.
Besides MA/DA, though, MA doesn't have a lot of very strong synergies with any other secondary, but I see that as having no penalties associated with picking whatever secondary you want. You're basically free to pick the secondary you think you'll like independent from MA, and the combination will probably play just fine.
Unless you're aiming for a special concept for the character, and except for a few particularly strong synergies such as Electric/Electric (drain) or DM/SR (heal for the secondary without healing and tohit debuff stacking on defense), every Scrapper powerset combination is going to have pros and cons. They'll all be at least pretty good. I would tend to pick the primary I want in terms of the offense I want, and then pick a complimentary secondary based on the kind of defense I want, and secondarily on the kinds of extra utility powers I want. I.e. I might want Shield Charge, or Fiery Embrace, or Invincibility. I don't usually worry about picking "wrong" or even "not right." And in particular, I think MA is probably the most "neutral" Scrapper primary in terms of working well with everything, but not synergizing especially well with any one thing.
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
Yeah i've been thinking about MA/SR. How would MA/SD work? It looks like it's got some good skills. I just looked at DM/DA. Looks interesting. I might run both a DM/DA and a MA/SR though. What powers from both are worthless, and what are the key powers if i may ask?
Quote:
Amusingly, DM/SR and MA/DA might be more interesting combinations. DM/SR has long been considered an excellent combination because as I mentioned you get a heal and tohit debuffs stacked on defense.|
Originally Posted by Vanyr
Yeah i've been thinking about MA/SR. How would MA/SD work? It looks like it's got some good skills. I just looked at DM/DA. Looks interesting. I might run both a DM/DA and a MA/SR though. What powers from both are worthless, and what are the key powers if i may ask?
|
But DM/DA can work and MA/SR certainly can work. MA/SR is the more straight forward of the two. Basically, you'll want to take everything in SR. The three toggles plus the three defense passives have all of your defense to melee, ranged, and AoE, and you probably don't want to skimp. Practiced Brawler is your mez protection, that's a given. The only two really optional powers are Quickness and Elude. I happen to think Quickness, while technically optional, is not a power to skip. It not only has recharge buff (+20%) it also has movement buff and slow resistance (40%). In fact, I slot Winter's Gift on SR to end up with 60% total recharge and movement speed resistance. Not only are you really hard to recharge debuff, which is always annoying when it happens, but the movement resistance means you just walk right off of caltrop patches. For a set that relies on defense, being able to walk away from autohitting patches is a good thing.
Elude is the 50/50 power. Its a great power, but it crashes and can't be made perma. And it only really offers more defense. Which is good when you don't have enough defense, but less useful if you eventually build to soft-cap. Elude can have a benefit against tohit buffs and incarnate content with 64% base tohit, but I usually pack lucks instead. But really, you can't go wrong building for the soft cap and skipping it, and you can't go wrong taking it.
MA is a little more interesting. You have two big decisions with MA. The first is whether to take either Crane Kick or Cobra Strike, or both. They both do the same amount of damage and activate in almost the same amount of time, so they are practically interchangeable as attacks. But one does knockback and the other does stun. You could take Cobra if you don't want knockback, or you could take Crane if you like knockback and would rather have it than stun. Or you could take both, but powers will start to get tight if you take everything, because you will be taking almost everything with SR.
Which leaves Eagle's Claw. As an attack, it frankly sucks. Its DPA is not good as scrapper attacks go. I love it because I've played MA so long I can't live without the backflip animation. Its primary advantage in modern MA is that its critical boosting effect (it boosts the critical chance of your next attack by a whopping 33 percentage points - so like from 5% to 38%) works on all MA attacks including Dragon's tail. If you precede DT with EC, you will boost your AoE output in a significant way, which is noteworthy because the set has only one AoE.
But the catch is that unless you queue the next attack while EC is still animating, the critical boosting window is so short it will expire before you have a chance to trigger another attack. And even that big crit boost is not enough to prevent EC from lowering your single target offense if you're not using DT. Its big enough to make the loss tiny, but its there. If there is a skippable MA attack, its Eagle's Claw, unless you want it for style points.
DM/DA is a much more interesting thing to build around. You've got a lot of options here. Some people hate Shadow Maul and skip that power. I like it myself, but unless you like constantly positioning yourself to catch multiple things in Maul's arc, it will underperform as a single target attack. And a lot of people do not like the fact that no matter how good it is, it roots for a long time. A lot of people don't like to be rooted for 3 whole seconds.
You could skip Touch of Fear, but I wouldn't. Its one of the best melee mezzes in the game. Although its "only" a fear, it fears a really long time and its easy to stack, so you can fear bosses with it. You'll basically be able to shut down one, and then later with enough recharge and fear slotting at least two bosses with it.
Given your secondary is Dark Armor, and you will want to have as much endurance as possible to power Dark Regen, I would take Dark Consumption.
Midnight Grasp used to suck, now it doesn't. I'd take it unless you run out of power choices.
Siphon Life is one of the best powers out there, but you're playing one of the few combinations where its really an optional power. You have the most powerful heal in the game in Dark Armor, Siphon Life might be superfluous. I'd take it anyway unless you run out of power choices, but its droppable in DM/DA. In sets without a big heal like SR and Invuln, Siphon Life is great, and its effects are multiplied by the mitigation in those sets.
Dark Armor is basically take the top half and then think about the bottom four powers: Cloak of Darkness, Cloak of Fear, Oppressive Gloom, and Soul Transfer. Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom are PBAoE toggles. Most people like OG, most people have issues with CoF, but both have issues. CoF has an accuracy penalty and a lot of people don't like fear. OG costs almost no endurance but has a small health drain when in use, and it also stuns and stunned targets often wander away - out of range of Dark Regeneration and OG itself. Ordinarily, most people would probably recommend taking OG if anything, and skip CoF. But in DM/DA if you take Touch of Fear I would recommend taking CoF because now you can stack fears. Mag 3 from ToF + Mag 2 from CoF means an immediate terrorize on bosses, and now you can start thinking about really fearing lots of targets if you want by combining CoF and ToF. I'd go that route, and I'd consider OG skippable.
If you believe Scrappers never die, skip Soul Transfer. If you believe Scrappers are supposed to fight harder and harder things *until* they die, take Soul Transfer if you can fit it. Its possibly the best self rez in the game. It transfers health from targets in the area to heal you, so the more stuff around the more health you get back and its easy to rez right back to full. Normally, the problem is that you'd then get shot to pieces by those same targets before you could even get your toggles back up, but Soul Transfer comes with a ludicrous mag 30 stun on all targets in its huge 25 foot radius. They are not going to be shooting back at you. Even EBs will be stunned. The only thing this won't bring down are AVs with purple triangles up and things immune to stun.
As to Cloak of Darkness, I don't think its defense is strong enough to automatically take it. Its a completely optional power in that you can take it or leave it, and that choice is pretty neutral. The biggest reason I could see taking it normally is to be a set mule for LotG +recharge. DM/DA is always going to want more recharge. Unless you're crazy and are going to build a DM/DA for the soft cap at 50, in which case you'll probably want to take all the defensive powers you can get.
But you'll probably be taking acrobatics because DA doesn't have KB protection (unless you are going to try to get away with just using inventions to cover that) and so you will probably want to make room for the power choices you'll have to burn to get that. Cloak of Darkness would be high on my list of powers worth dropping to make room for other stuff.
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
Thanks for the detailed response! Lots of info. So how does MA/DA and
DM/SR work? Cause i dont like having to pick up every power in a set..especially for both)
My original character, from release, is an MA/SR scrapper; lvl 50+3, pimped out and yadda yadda yadda. Basically...I've put a lot of hours behind the wheel piloting MA/SR over the years.
Both MA and SR have gone thru various nerfs and buffs over the years. It's been very solid for a good while now. MA is good. SR is good. MA + SR is good + good.
MA has some competitive advantages over some other melee sets. Namely, it has a tool boxy collection of attacks that allow a good variety of IO set slotting and can combo in different ways with other abilities; it has a diverse set of power animations allowing some variety (I like the punching animations, personally); Focus Chis is a workhorse build up effect, no gimmicks or weirdness; Eagles Claw has some custom logic granting a small window of crit bonus to your next attack if you queue it right away while EC is winding down; Crippling Axe Kick (in its current version) is practically as good as a t9 attack, making FC+EC+CAK a vicious combo.
MA has some downsides as well. The buffet line secondary effect options lack focus. It is all smashing damage, all the time. It has weak AoE...you get Dragon's Tail (though coming off Stalkers you likely wont notice). EC is sweet and both of it's animations (punching and kicking) look great, but has a long animation that hurts its overall DPS (I still love it and use it though).
SR has some advantages...the main one is DDR. You will be effectively immune to defense debuffing, assuming you take all 3 toggles and all 3 def autos (and you would be foolish not to). If you are cheap or on a budget, you can softcap SR easier than anything. If you take all 3 auto def powers you gain a scaling resistance buff as you drop below...60% health or so...1% RES per % below the threshold; it's harder to reason about than straight up RES, but it does help your survivability. If you take Quickness you get a nice global recharge buff, movement buff, and debuff resistance for both...it's very nice. SR has a nice "Minimal FX" animation set which is convenient for thematic / conceptual reasons on some toons.
SR has some disadvantages...such as no click heal or END management or Taunt aura. You need to take 7 of the 9 powers and should also take Quickness, and prior to softcapping you'll want Elude too. I slot the 3 toggles w/ 4 total slots (LotG x4), the Autos with 2 slots (IO DEF x2), Practiced Brawler w/ 2 (IO RECH, IO END), and Quickness w/ 1 (RUN)...so it will put pressure on your build no matter what you pair it with. All you've got is DEF, so auto-hit powers and cheaters like the Rularuu or Devouring Earth Quartz pet will mess you up real fast. Elude, if you need it, has a hard END crash. Other sets can get as much DEF, plus other stuff...they just have to work harder for it and get by with half as much DDR (or less). Your mez protection is a click; back in the day when toggle mez protection could get de-toggled click mez was actually a pretty good deal...but now its just annoying IMO...your attack chain will get interrupted for a stupid freaky-styley pose animation over and over again...and if you get defeated and rez back up...oops no mez prot until Practiced Brawler recharges.
Finally, while both MA and SR are good and they don't work against each other, neither do they provide any particular synergy to each other. There's no compelling mechanical reason to put them together...or not to put them together. They are basically orthogonal to each other.
So, personally though I still enjoy my MA/SR, the next time I feel like making a Martial Arts character I'll make a Street Justice character instead. And the next time I want to make a DEF based character, I'll make an Invulnerability character and softcap with I/O's and Invinvibility.
YMMV. Good luck!
Quote:
I wasn't going to respond just yet, but I read this and had to. | Siphon Life is one of the best powers out there, but you're playing one of the few combinations where its really an optional power. You have the most powerful heal in the game in Dark Armor, Siphon Life might be superfluous. I'd take it anyway unless you run out of power choices, but its droppable in DM/DA. In sets without a big heal like SR and Invuln, Siphon Life is great, and its effects are multiplied by the mitigation in those sets. |
I cannot disagree with this assessment any more strongly.
Do NOT skip Siphon Life, even if you have Dark Regeneration available. It is the second best attack in the set, and will be a HUGE part of your single target attack chain.
If you're running DM/DA you would want to take it and slot it as an attack, ignoring any slotting for healing. As mentioned, you would have Dark Regeneration for when you really need a heal, but if you skip Siphon Life because you have it you'll be gimping your damage output.
Siphon Life is not droppable in ANY Dark Melee build, because it is just that good as an attack.
Quote:
|
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. |
How about Shields? Good defence plus AAO and Shield Charge. ++Damage.
Awesome!
Virtue and Freedom
Hi, my name is Northman, and I am an Altoholic. No wait, I'm Lost Nova, no wait, Arc Havoc, no, Dragon Moon, no, Lord Fury......
Quote:
I have a ma/sd scrapper that I play fairly regularly. She hits like a freight truck on steroids. The AoE damage is a little light, but that is easily taken care of by the occasional judgement power and you can always include a Patron/App power if you like. The character is versatile and is just solid. I did have a MA/Wp scrapper that I enjoyed, but this one really takes the cake when it comes to having a blast. Fully Saturated Against All Odds means everything in your arsenal is supercharged. If you can get around the thematic shield (some models are discreet) you will have a winner.
|
Originally Posted by Northman
How about Shields? Good defence plus AAO and Shield Charge. ++Damage.
Awesome! |
Words to the wise aren't necessary- it's the stupid ones that need them.
"You're right...I forgot...being constantly at or the near the damage cap is a big turn off. Definitely not worth it."
- Vitality
Here's what I did with my MA/DA scrapper, if you're interested:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=260325
Build is a little out of date (live, I've revised the enzyme by dropping a botz for a 4 lotg's. It could likely be improved with ATOs) but should give you an idea for power picks, etc.
Shield Defense is great. I have an Stj/SD Scrapper I just started, and a level 50 SD/SS Tank.
Things to remember is Deflection has both your Melee defense AND S/L Resistance. I like to six slot this power, 3 Luck of the Gamblers and 3 Aegis'.
True Grit has your exotic resistances, but I prefer to slot heals into it to boost your HP unless I need to mule a set or Steadfast +Def Proc.
Phalanx Fighting is a good place for a LotG Proc or a Kismet Proc. However you should only one slot it; It'll 3.75% defense unless someone else is nearby. Adding defense to this power will only boost what you get from nearby people.
Grant Cover should be taken and at least be given an End Red IO. I like 3 slotting LotG in it. Grant Cover grants your allies, but not you, defense. What it does do for you is boost your Defense Debuff Resistance. On teams you should have it on all the time. In solo you can leave it off unless your facing mobs with Defense Debuffs; ie Cims.
One With The Shield is skippable, but still useful. It crashes, but not as hard as most T9s and it boosts resistance, not your softcappable defense. Recharge doesn't effect it any though.
My MA/DA is hands down one of my strongest characters ever, but it was also the most expensive. I originally envisioned doing the whole stun stacking thing but oppressive gloom ended up being a one slot power, rarely used. Instead what makes it such a good combination is that building for the s/l softcap makes dark an astonishingly survivable set, especially in incarnate situations. Building for enough recharge to run SK -> CS -> SK -> CAK and taking ageless for endurance sustainability means BU -> DT -> Fireball -> DT is being tossed out almost alarmingly frequently, alongside death shroud, for the kind of aoe people accuse martial arts of being unable to produce. It's really a jack of all trades, master of most kind of character, for a meleer at least.
Quote:
Siphon Life has the third best DPA in Dark Melee, behind Smite and Midnight Grasp (even without the DoT, it still edges out Siphon Life slightly factoring in arcanatime). And I'm aware of the optimal chain for DM, but that optimal chain is build-specific. I personally would almost always take it, but I don't consider the power to be an absolutely mandatory take.|
Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
I wasn't going to respond just yet, but I read this and had to.
I cannot disagree with this assessment any more strongly. Do NOT skip Siphon Life, even if you have Dark Regeneration available. It is the second best attack in the set, and will be a HUGE part of your single target attack chain. If you're running DM/DA you would want to take it and slot it as an attack, ignoring any slotting for healing. As mentioned, you would have Dark Regeneration for when you really need a heal, but if you skip Siphon Life because you have it you'll be gimping your damage output. Siphon Life is not droppable in ANY Dark Melee build, because it is just that good as an attack. |
Edit: but I should point out that's just my opinion, and there are lots of dissenting ones.
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
Quote:
Historically, DM/SR has been seen as one of the few really interesting synergistic scrapper combinations. You have defense in SR, and then your offense in Dark Melee is going to be stacking tohit debuffs on everything you hit. That alone could have you basically soft-capped against many targets before you slot a single invention. And then you have an attack that heals you in Siphon Life, which adds a heal to SR which doesn't have a heal.|
Originally Posted by Vanyr
Thanks for the detailed response! Lots of info. So how does MA/DA and
DM/SR work? Cause i dont like having to pick up every power in a set..especially for both) |
So you have defense + tohit debuffs + heal. That's already a great defensive combination.
On the offensive side, you have a set that has a lot of pretty high DPA single target attacks, but that high DPA comes from fast cast times and that means it can be hard to generate a full attack chain without recharge buffs. Which SR can help you out with, because it has six separate powers that can take LotG procs (and you can only benefit from five). Defensive sets tend to be a little easier to use to build recharge, and DM loves recharge.
The main issue with DM/SR is that you don't have much in the way of AoE. But you will be a single target monster and very hard to kill, and you'll achieve that strength relatively quickly.
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
I would agree that Martial Arts and Shield Defense is a terrific combination. My son put together such a character for me and in the Mids program it looked like it would be okay but nothing great. But the two sets work really well together. I also added in Fire Ball from the epic pool. So I have very good single target attacks and then cycle through Dragon's Tail, Fire Ball and Shield Charge for AOE. What makes it work so well is that Dragon's Tail recharges fast and keeps everyone knocked down and close. The extra critical chance from Eagle's Claw is also an occasional bonus. It is probably one of my best all-around damage-producing scrappers. With great defense on top of it all.
Thanks for all the responses guys. I made a MA/SD guy for now. But what moves are the core powers, and which ones are skippable? I plan on making a DM/DA guy soon too, so help on that is appreciated. Also need a bit of help on slotting. Never ran any of these before.
Quote:
For MA I skip Crane Kick myself. I hate the knockback. Cobra Strike now has the same damage, activation time and recharge as CK, with stuns, so it's my preferred choice. Some people also like to skip Thunder Kick. I don't, but that's just me.|
Originally Posted by Vanyr
Thanks for all the responses guys. I made a MA/SD guy for now. But what moves are the core powers, and which ones are skippable? I plan on making a DM/DA guy soon too, so help on that is appreciated. Also need a bit of help on slotting. Never ran any of these before.
|
For SD you do not need One With The Shield, but I would take the rest. Yes, even Grant Cover. Grant Cover has about half (IIRC) your Defense Debuff Resistance, as I said earlier.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Vanyr
Thanks for all the responses guys. I made a MA/SD guy for now. But what moves are the core powers, and which ones are skippable? I plan on making a DM/DA guy soon too, so help on that is appreciated. Also need a bit of help on slotting. Never ran any of these before.
|
ma/sd is an excellent combo.
I'd skip crane kick and eagle claw. Mix and match the rest as you like, but be sure to take storm kick, it's VERY nice.
If you are happy with your aoe from shield charge and dragon tail, get body mastery. I find ma/sd to be fairly end heavy, and being able to slot two more performance shifter procs makes a BIG difference: Your Mileage May Vary.
If you want more AOE, choose a thematically appropriate epic, or, take spring attack from the leaping pool. Spring attack/shield charge/dragontail is a surprisingly potent combo, especially if you pop a focus chi after the spring attack.
What slotting advice are you asking for? I'd advise you to tinker something together in Mid's and toss it up for people to sniff over.
Quote:
I'd recommend AGAINST Spring Jump if you have Shield Charge. Spring Attack is just a watered down version of SC. Sure, it's still good to take if you lack AoE (MA/SS/DM) but SC just outclasses it.
|
Originally Posted by mauk2
ma/sd is an excellent combo.
I'd skip crane kick and eagle claw. Mix and match the rest as you like, but be sure to take storm kick, it's VERY nice. If you are happy with your aoe from shield charge and dragon tail, get body mastery. I find ma/sd to be fairly end heavy, and being able to slot two more performance shifter procs makes a BIG difference: Your Mileage May Vary. If you want more AOE, choose a thematically appropriate epic, or, take spring attack from the leaping pool. Spring attack/shield charge/dragontail is a surprisingly potent combo, especially if you pop a focus chi after the spring attack. What slotting advice are you asking for? I'd advise you to tinker something together in Mid's and toss it up for people to sniff over. |
Quote:
So what? There's nothing wrong with having a bigger AoE arsenal. Spring Attack is a good AoE and the cooldown on Shield Charge isn't short enough for it to overshadow Spring Attack. Use them all together and wreck everything.
|
Originally Posted by DoctorWhat
I'd recommend AGAINST Spring Jump if you have Shield Charge. Spring Attack is just a watered down version of SC. Sure, it's still good to take if you lack AoE (MA/SS/DM) but SC just outclasses it.
|
Quote:
I'm not saying Spring Attack isn't good, just that SC is better and I, personally, do one or the other to save on power choices/slots.|
Originally Posted by Polydeuces
So what? There's nothing wrong with having a bigger AoE arsenal. Spring Attack is a good AoE and the cooldown on Shield Charge isn't short enough for it to overshadow Spring Attack. Use them all together and wreck everything.
|
Of course I can only recommend he not use both. He's free to make his character as he wants.
Quote:
With it's increased crit chance a chain using EC + CAK is only 4 DPS behind MA's highest attack chain, with much less recharge. If you have a secondary that doesn't require recharge you can do a lot of good things concentrating on other bonuses, probably enough to make up the DPS loss. In addition, having a chain with EC let's you use EC before Dragon's Tail and having the increased crit chance on all Dragon's Tail targets is pretty good and probably does more for the build (since that is MA's only AoE) then a DPS loss of 4.|
Originally Posted by KillerShrike
M
EC is sweet and both of it's animations (punching and kicking) look great, but has a long animation that hurts its overall DPS (I still love it and use it though). |
I posted my DPS times with and without pets using my Eagle's Claw attack chain in the Pylon thread and they were very competitive. At least I thought so.
Also, while DT is MA's only AoE, don't underestimate the effectiveness of spamming Dragon's Tail for AoE in a build with good recharge.
Moonlighter
50s include MA/SD, MA/SR, DP/Elec, Claw/Inv, Kat/Dark, Kat/Fire, Spine/Regen, Dark/SD
First Arc: Tequila Sunrise, #168563
Quote:
Ya, I use Focus Chi+EC+CAK+SK+(repeat until FC is up again and start over) as my main attack chain, and it works great for me.|
Originally Posted by Moonlighter
With it's increased crit chance a chain using EC + CAK is only 4 DPS behind MA's highest attack chain, with much less recharge. If you have a secondary that doesn't require recharge you can do a lot of good things concentrating on other bonuses, probably enough to make up the DPS loss. In addition, having a chain with EC let's you use EC before Dragon's Tail and having the increased crit chance on all Dragon's Tail targets is pretty good and probably does more for the build (since that is MA's only AoE) then a DPS loss of 4.
I posted my DPS times with and without pets using my Eagle's Claw attack chain in the Pylon thread and they were very competitive. At least I thought so. Also, while DT is MA's only AoE, don't underestimate the effectiveness of spamming Dragon's Tail for AoE in a build with good recharge. |
I just slide DT in after EC when there are 3 or more opponents within range as needed. Global recharge bonus is 97.5 without hasten on, 167.5 with hasten on.
Rather than start a new thread, I'll just ask here since there is some discussion about MA, SD, and StJ.
I have a 50 MA/SD that I retired, re-named, and scavenged to re-make as a StJ/SD when the set first came out. The re-born character has been sitting at 39-40 for quite some time now, and I'm debating on whether this was a good idea in the first place, or not.. How does StJ compare to MA?
"There's villainy ... and then there's supervillainy. The difference is performance."
-Doc_Reverend
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by _Toxa_
Rather than start a new thread, I'll just ask here since there is some discussion about MA, SD, and StJ.
I have a 50 MA/SD that I retired, re-named, and scavenged to re-make as a StJ/SD when the set first came out. The re-born character has been sitting at 39-40 for quite some time now, and I'm debating on whether this was a good idea in the first place, or not.. How does StJ compare to MA? |
I have my aforementioned MA/SR scrapper. I have played my buddies StJ/SR scrapper and the two are very close in terms of total capacity and effectiveness.
I also have a StJ/Wp Brute 50+3, and several lower StJ alts, and I beta tested StJ pretty thoroughly prior to live release.
So, I don't claim to be an expert, and I can't give you hard number break downs, but speaking from personal experience they seem to be very comparable sets.
For me, it comes down to preference.
For starters I really love the StJ animations. They feel very fluid and dynamic and chain together well. Also the sound effects for StJ sound meatier / crunchier than MA's sound effects. The net effect is that my StJ characters feel much more like hardcore beatdown artists than my MA characters to me.
For seconders, I really like the StJ combo system. I _don't_ like most of the combo type systems in the game, but they got it right with StJ in my opinion. It's very flexible, it rewards you for using it, and doesn't seem to punish you for not using it per se...though according to city of data StJ does less straight up damage than MA. A numbers person could probably make the case that MA does more consistent damage overall; Cobra Strike, Crippling Axe Kick, and Crane Strike are all very respectable damage dealers and beat out their StJ equivalents one for one. The big damage dealer for StJ is Crushing Uppercut w/ Combo: 3.
For thirders, kind of a corollary to the seconders, I normally don't like gimmicky Build Up effects (really, just +ACC + DMG is enough, thanks), but Combat Readiness gives me a build up and a tactical option. However...its a 50% boost while Focus Chi is a 100% boost.
For fourthers, I never get tired of Crushing Uppercut. Pushing that little round button and launching a ragdoll towards the ceiling makes me unreasonably happy. Never gets old.
For fifthers, the secondary effects of StJ are less varied than MA, but more pragmatic in my opinion. Several powers have knockdown and / or stun. In particular Rib Cracker applies a -RES and -DMG debuff for 5s to its target...and is a respectable attack...and builds combo points...nice.
So...I could go on, but it's all pretty subjective. Both sets are good; I recommend you play the one that feels best to you.
Alright, since i'm seriously tired of Stalkers, i figured i'd make a MA/??? scrapper. Any advice for a secondary, and why you choose that secondary? And also any advice for scrappers in general? Thanks in advance.