Don't see much talk about Martial arts/reflex so I made one and...

[Nyght]

I'm lv 20 and he seems very sub par in the  damg area plus I seem to miss alot ( hence low damg I assume).  Why is this?  I have the first 4 attacks and all are sloted 1 acc, 2 damg. Missions are set on normal. But I am always missing and when I do hit damg seems low.  Any thoughts??

[Redlynne]

Martial Arts/Super Reflexes is a "late blooming" combination, mainly because in order to be really effective you need ALL of your slots ... and you don't get all of those until Level 50.  The combination also struggles until you get to Level 22 and can finally (finally!) start slotting some SO strength enhancements.  DO strength enhancements just don't cut it on those powersets (let alone TO).

 

Just keep going.

[Mansome]

I highly advise you to get another alt to fund this character and IO him/her out as you level with attuned enhancements. SR is worthless until you get closer to the defense cap which is 45% defense for normal content. Martial Arts is kind of meh now that we have things like Street Justice and Savage Melee. You pretty much have to make Eagle's Claw crit every time to be worth playing the set.

[Croax]

Super Reflexes is great.

Martial Arts will be good once you have the attack that helps with the crit chance. I don't remember the name any more, was it eagles claw?

[Haijinx]

MA ST damage is excellent.  MA received several buffs to its attacks during the live years, giving it attacks with decent DPA.  Contrary to the other posters' suggestions, Id recommend skipping Eagle's Claw entirely. You can get a lot of snappy hard hitting attacks, it just slows you down. 

 

The big downside is you have zero AOE.  And no AOE mitigation.

 

SR is late blooming, but strong.   EA matures a lot faster, if that is a consideration.  

 

One of the newer Primaries would be easier for all around play.  

 

[Arkterusss]

My playstyle is a little different, but Eagle's Claw can be Skippable, or not.  I choose to go with it, but use it solely as an "opener", from hide, with build-up and any time I proc a Hide from the ATO.  

Other wise, you should be able to get enough Recharge, with Hasten to simply cycle Storm - Cobra - Storm - CAK indefinitely for single targets, which outputs pretty impressive DPS.  I skip Crane Kick entirely; it's not needed. 

 

And so your rotation should look something like BU - Eagle's - Storm - Cobra - Storm - CAK - AS Quick Crit.  

If you Proc Hide? Eagle's Claw and start over.

If you don't proc Hide?  Continue with Storm - Cobra etc. 

 

Overall I think MA fits Scrapper better, because they get Dragon's tail, which can you can use by leveraging Claw's crit boost, you'd just dive into a mob with Build Up, Eagle's Claw something, and Dragon Tail right afterwards to crit almost everyone around you with it.    

[Redlynne]

4 hours ago, Arkterusss said:

Overall I think MA fits Scrapper better

I'd counter that a SR/MA Tanker is superior to a MA/SR Scrapper when it comes to Incarnate Trials and the like, simply because Storm Kick adds Defense for 10 seconds on the Tanker, rather than having a slightly boosted crit chance on a Scrapper.  Also, on a Tanker you get +Damage for 3 seconds out of Eagle's Claw, which can apply to up to 3 attacks following Eagle's Claw (Thunder Kick, Storm Kick and either Cobra Strike/Crippling Axe Kick/Dragon's Tail) for a "guaranteed crit" style of damage magnification following an Eagle's Claw, rather than just a chance to crit for the 1 attack that follows Eagle's Claw.

 

My thoughts on the topic can be found HERE ... although I'm almost certainly going to need to update and repost after the Tanker Buffs from Pineapple are pushed onto the Live servers for Homecoming.

[Arkterusss]

On 9/26/2019 at 9:30 AM, Redlynne said:

I'd counter that a SR/MA Tanker is superior to a MA/SR Scrapper when it comes to Incarnate Trials and the like, simply because Storm Kick adds Defense for 10 seconds on the Tanker, rather than having a slightly boosted crit chance on a Scrapper.  Also, on a Tanker you get +Damage for 3 seconds out of Eagle's Claw, which can apply to up to 3 attacks following Eagle's Claw (Thunder Kick, Storm Kick and either Cobra Strike/Crippling Axe Kick/Dragon's Tail) for a "guaranteed crit" style of damage magnification following an Eagle's Claw, rather than just a chance to crit for the 1 attack that follows Eagle's Claw.

 

My thoughts on the topic can be found HERE ... although I'm almost certainly going to need to update and repost after the Tanker Buffs from Pineapple are pushed onto the Live servers for Homecoming.

Making a Stone/MA Tanker just so I can Eagle's Claw with Granite Armor on is on my list of things to do, and I think MA will fare better if Dragon's Tail gets a radius increase along with it.

[ILIWAPCT]

I've recently made a martial/rad and enjoyed busting out of the Zig. 

 

Or how I learned to stop worrying and try every powerset.

It will take a while, but that is not a problem I enjoy COV 🙂

Everyone has a different definition of "fun"

Guides help but theory and practice are two different things.

 

After I find the primary that fits my play style then I have to match it with the perfect 2nd!

[Shred Monkey]

One thing that has me constantly considering MA on a stalker is that it has several attacks at 10 seconds and they're all high-ish in DPS.  This means you can build a chain that always critical hits with your assassin's strike.

 

However, the thing that keeps me from building one is the lack of AoE damage that just comes with the stalker AT in general.  If I did decide make another stalker though, MA would be where I started.

 

 

[Erydanus]

My original stalker was martial arts/ninjitsu. This was before MA got adjusted and cobra strike - the stun - was real low level. This is way back before several mechanic changes happened, so being able to stun a guy, or use an extra placate to run and go back into hide was really desirable. The sets synergized nicely for that kind of Stalker 1.0 playstyle. But, with the changes to mechanics and the archetype ATOs, I feel like both of those sets are in "functional but not great" places now. Super Reflexes similarly is kind of a dated set. It works, but you need every darn power thus is quite late blooming, whereas newer sets like Willpower are up and running earlier. Thus overall I think your build will be ok at 50, but it may be a bit of a slog.

 

Therefore, I would ABSOLUTELY make a priority getting the two proc ATOs, one resets build up, the other is a chance of hide.  Standard ATOs are attuned out of the box, don't even worry about them being in sets just them and jam them into your build. The one that is a chance of hide you can either put into your assassin's strike for a chance of re-hide, or just put that in whatever attack you use the most though that means you might hide and when you want to use AS you'll use the slower/high damage version. (This is what I did and I'm still on the fence of if I want to move the ATO to AS.) The other one can go into any of your stalker attack powers and all of your archetype attacks have a chance of resetting build up. So, use buildup whenever it resets! That'll help your damage a lot.