Katana: Favorite secondary/archetype?

[StriderIV]

Hi heroes,

 

I’ve been mulling over a Katana hero for a while. Mostly because it’s sexy, but also because it seems like it’s very satisfying to play. Seems to have a nice CRUNCH to it.

 

So I was curious: What archetype do YOU like to play Katana on? I’ve heard that it is a wonderful fit on scrappers, but I could also see it’s +Def and quick animations working well on a Brute.

 

Following up on that, are there any secondaries you love to pair with Katana? Energy Aura and Bio seem to be front runners for me. Rad seems like it has a great bag of tricks as well. I’m sure a lot could fit though! Kat/Elec Brute just seems thematic 😂

 

Anyways, I’d love to hear others thoughts and opinions!

[JJDrakken]

6 hours ago, StriderIV said:

Hi heroes,

 

I’ve been mulling over a Katana hero for a while. Mostly because it’s sexy, but also because it seems like it’s very satisfying to play. Seems to have a nice CRUNCH to it.

 

So I was curious: What archetype do YOU like to play Katana on? I’ve heard that it is a wonderful fit on scrappers, but I could also see it’s +Def and quick animations working well on a Brute.

 

Following up on that, are there any secondaries you love to pair with Katana? Energy Aura and Bio seem to be front runners for me. Rad seems like it has a great bag of tricks as well. I’m sure a lot could fit though! Kat/Elec Brute just seems thematic 😂

 

Anyways, I’d love to hear others thoughts and opinions!

 

The original classic.  Katana/Super Reflexes Scrapper.  Just be sure to set your Status pro power to fire of automatically. It's a mistake I see folks still making.

 

Scrapper - Katana - Super Reflexes.mxd

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by JJDrakken

[Psyonico]

I really like my kat/bio scrapper.

 

Classic combos are /SR and /Nin since both are positional defense, Divine Avalanche stacks nicely with them

[SeraphimKensai]

Katana's Divine Avalanche gives a reasonable case to easily soft cap melee, which leads me to think pairing with a resistance based powerset (which means either Brute or Tanker, because 90% is a world higher than 75% res caps) would present a great entry into layering defenses.

 

You could go Invuln, elec, fire, dark, rad, etc for this purpose based on other factors you may consider regarding power interactions or theme. I actually have a DA/Katana Tanker that built for melee on top of having very high resistances.

[Without_Pause]

2 hours ago, Psyonico said:

Classic combos are /SR and /Nin since both are positional defense, Divine Avalanche stacks nicely with them

Or once you have Melee capped you can skip DA and get better DPS.

 

I really need to roll more Kat builds. I only had one(Kat/sr) at 50 on live. I like Scrapper since the crits help with lethal being resisted like it is.

Edited April 8, 2022 by Without_Pause

[Frozen Burn]

I love my Katana/Dark Armor Scrapper.  Deadly and hard to kill.  

[StriderIV]

16 minutes ago, Frozen Burn said:

I love my Katana/Dark Armor Scrapper.  Deadly and hard to kill.  

Very cool thematically as well!

[InvaderStych]

47 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

Or once you have Melee capped you can skip DA and get better DPS.

 

Or keep it with around 3-4 slots and use it to either hit iCap or shed debuffs as needed.  Definitely not a tool for a regular rotation, but I have found it useful to shore defenses on demand.

[Arcadian-Prime]

I always thought Kat/Rad seemed like an ideal set up on a Scrapper, but after @Linea noted the weakness of the resist set on a Scrapper compared to other options for Kat, I'm not so sure anymore.

[Arcadian-Prime]

I am curious how the new Stone Armor holds up.

[Riverdusk]

Kat/Ninja scrapper is a nice one as mentioned (and thematic).   The melee defense of divine avalanche matches nicely as noted (instead of only stacking lethal).  Also, probably the main weakness of ninja is its lackluster DDR.  So, being able to overcap melee defense is nice when you get hit with those defense debuffs.  

 

I do tend to prefer katana on a scrapper in general due to the natural extra bonus crit chance golden dragonfly gets.  I don't think any other AT gets anything extra.  But not a big enough deal that other AT's wouldn't do fine with it. 

 

Stone armor is an interesting idea as well with the buffs it got and being able to add some non-lethal damage into the mix.

 

Also had good luck with willpower if you want a pure "natural" character. 

[Arcadian-Prime]

3 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

Kat/Ninja scrapper is a nice one as mentioned (and thematic).   The melee defense of divine avalanche matches nicely as noted (instead of only stacking lethal).  Also, probably the main weakness of ninja is its lackluster DDR.  So, being able to overcap melee defense is nice when you get hit with those defense debuffs.  

 

I do tend to prefer katana on a scrapper in general due to the natural extra bonus crit chance golden dragonfly gets.  I don't think any other AT gets anything extra.  But not a big enough deal that other AT's wouldn't do fine with it. 

 

Stone armor is an interesting idea as well with the buffs it got and being able to add some non-lethal damage into the mix.

 

Also had good luck with willpower if you want a pure "natural" character. 

Thanks for this breakdown!!! Stone does seem interesting. I’m wondering if Kat’s +Def would be redundant… always good for dealing with defense debuffs I guess. Or you could just skip it.