Katana - Preferred Archetype?

[Doomguide2005]

1) Grab 4 slips of paper.

2) Write Brute on one, Scrapper on the next, then Stalker on the 3rd and on the last write Tank.

3) Place all 4 in a hat

4) Pull a slip of paper 4 times

5) Arrange each slip in the order they were retrieved from the hat.

6) Enjoy the fact you have thousands of character slots creating each in turn

7) Don't make me come back and list each Katana wielder with their potential pairing. 🤪

[StriderIV]

1 hour ago, Doomguide2005 said:

1) Grab 4 slips of paper.

2) Write Brute on one, Scrapper on the next, then Stalker on the 3rd and on the last write Tank.

3) Place all 4 in a hat

4) Pull a slip of paper 4 times

5) Arrange each slip in the order they were retrieved from the hat.

6) Enjoy the fact you have thousands of character slots creating each in turn

7) Don't make me come back and list each Katana wielder with their potential pairing. 🤪

Hey Doom, I'd love to hear your opinion on each Katana wielder and what pairs best with them.

 

😉 messing buddy, this gave me a laugh.

[StriderIV]

3 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

Didn't see anyone else mention it or I missed it, but I tend to lean scrapper for katana just because scrappers get a bonus crit chance with golden dragonfly.  You crit a LOT with that power on a scrapper.  I don't believe any of the other AT's get anything special from the power to make up for not having that.  

 

On the other hand if you are looking at dark armor I'd lean brute/tank because dark armor is one of the sets that scrappers don't get a taunt aura on, and that sweet 90% resist cap potential.

Great points Riverdusk. Totally didn't even think about the DA taunt aura scrappers miss out on. If I end up going Katana Scrapper, I'll look to pair it with EA/Bio/Nin or something.

[Captain_Paragon]

My first ever 50 back on live was a Kat/Regen. Fox. Modeled after metal gear solids Gray Fox. (Still love that game and that character in particular). 

 

I too have been thinking about katana and remaking Fox but possibly as a stalker just because he had a stealth suit. Also CoV wasn't out when I first made him. Probably just be Nin/nin just for pure concept plus a lot of ST damage. Was also thinking maybe rad tho just for damage output. Bio sounds good but the animations I can't justify for a robot ninja. *em shrug* Goodluck in your katana character. Hopefully see u out in the streets!

[Doomguide2005]

1 hour ago, StriderIV said:

Hey Doom, I'd love to hear your opinion on each Katana wielder and what pairs best with them.

 

😉 messing buddy, this gave me a laugh.

Honestly I'm the wrong person to ask anyway.  I've only run Katana on scrappers to date and don't think any made it to 50 by Sunset (Altitis for win?).  Enjoyed all of them though (Altitis for the win!).  

[StriderIV]

1 minute ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Honestly I'm the wrong person to ask anyway.  I've only run Katana on scrappers to date and don't think any made it to 50 by Sunset (Altitis for win?).  Enjoyed all of them though (Altitis for the win!).  

hahahahaha my man, I have a serious case of the Altitis as well, but it allows us to enjoy this great game in so many different ways! We can form our own Justice League/Avengers 😄

[Werner]

On 2/21/2021 at 7:47 PM, StriderIV said:

On 2/21/2021 at 6:24 PM, Doomguide2005 said:

A Katana/Dark Armor was one of the first scrappers who I saw doing 'stupid scrapper tricks'.  Some guy named @Werner on his Katana/DA in the RWZ soloing +4 mobs of Rikti 😉

Haha this actually isn’t the first time I’ve heard about his Kat/DA. @Wernerwe summon thee! Any particular builds/advice you’d share? Do you feel a Scrapper is the optimal archetype for that pairing?

Oh, hello! <dusts off his account> Life happened, I've been away from the game for three months, blah blah blah. I just hopped into the game today, and ugh, motion sickness so fast. I need to recondition myself to movement in this game. 

 

I've leveled and played top end Katana/Dark on Scrapper and Brute. I think Scrapper was more fun overall due to crits and front-loaded damage, but the lack of a taunt aura was painful. Brute was more survivable. But my Dark/MA Tanker was more fun and more survivable still, and that in turn paled in comparison to my SD/MA Tanker. I guess I'm recommending Scrapper over Brute, even though the 75% resistance cap can make a meaningful difference to survivability on a top end build, and despite the lack of a taunt aura. But if I were making one today, I'd probably go Stalker, simply because it would be something new for me, and I like how it fits thematically. But I've never played or built a Stalker, so I have zero idea whether Katana/Dark is at the top end, bottom end, or in the middle on Stalkers.

 

Some general Dark Armor advice can be found in this post:

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18072-dark-armour/?tab=comments#comment-200512

 

Your biggest end-game weakness is cascading defense failure, but with Katana, they have to be really good at debuffing to crack open your melee defense. Big packs of Cimerorans, for instance. ITF at +4x8, and you have to monitor your defense and be ready to react at a moment's notice, because there's very little time between them cracking you open and you faceplanting.

 

For builds, I don't have a current-game Scrapper build. My Brute build is around here on the forums somewhere. Well, I guess the danger is it went through a few iterations, and the earlier iterations were really quite bad compared to where I ended up. I'm sure it's on my machine too, but there's like 30 different Katana/Dark Brute builds on my machine, and I forget which one I chose in the end.

 

In regards to parry sucking for DPS, while true, if I remember correctly one of my Katana/Dark Brute builds was doing something like 375 DPS while keeping Parry... I assume just single-stacked, but in the attack chain. Including it allowed for detuning of recharge on the big hitters, allowing them to do more damage per hit than they would in a faster chain, partially making up for the time wasted on a low DPS attack. I'm definitely not claiming you do better DPS with it than without it, but you can do what I'd consider sufficient DPS with it.

[StriderIV]

59 minutes ago, Werner said:

Oh, hello! <dusts off his account> Life happened, I've been away from the game for three months, blah blah blah. I just hopped into the game today, and ugh, motion sickness so fast. I need to recondition myself to movement in this game. 

 

I've leveled and played top end Katana/Dark on Scrapper and Brute. I think Scrapper was more fun overall due to crits and front-loaded damage, but the lack of a taunt aura was painful. Brute was more survivable. But my Dark/MA Tanker was more fun and more survivable still, and that in turn paled in comparison to my SD/MA Tanker. I guess I'm recommending Scrapper over Brute, even though the 75% resistance cap can make a meaningful difference to survivability on a top end build, and despite the lack of a taunt aura. But if I were making one today, I'd probably go Stalker, simply because it would be something new for me, and I like how it fits thematically. But I've never played or built a Stalker, so I have zero idea whether Katana/Dark is at the top end, bottom end, or in the middle on Stalkers.

 

Some general Dark Armor advice can be found in this post:

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18072-dark-armour/?tab=comments#comment-200512

 

Your biggest end-game weakness is cascading defense failure, but with Katana, they have to be really good at debuffing to crack open your melee defense. Big packs of Cimerorans, for instance. ITF at +4x8, and you have to monitor your defense and be ready to react at a moment's notice, because there's very little time between them cracking you open and you faceplanting.

 

For builds, I don't have a current-game Scrapper build. My Brute build is around here on the forums somewhere. Well, I guess the danger is it went through a few iterations, and the earlier iterations were really quite bad compared to where I ended up. I'm sure it's on my machine too, but there's like 30 different Katana/Dark Brute builds on my machine, and I forget which one I chose in the end.

 

In regards to parry sucking for DPS, while true, if I remember correctly one of my Katana/Dark Brute builds was doing something like 375 DPS while keeping Parry... I assume just single-stacked, but in the attack chain. Including it allowed for detuning of recharge on the big hitters, allowing them to do more damage per hit than they would in a faster chain, partially making up for the time wasted on a low DPS attack. I'm definitely not claiming you do better DPS with it than without it, but you can do what I'd consider sufficient DPS with it.

This was hugely helpful Werner. Tysm!