What primary to pair with Katana

[Arcstone]

I am looking to start a tanker using katana as his secondary because I want to use the chainsaw weapon skin but not sure which primary is the best fit with katana.

 

Any help would be appreciated

[IronJuke]

I made an Invulnerability/Katana Tanker because I played Invuln in Live and I know how to play it.

It hasn't changed and it is really good.

 

There are probably other powersets that are just as good, but I haven't played them.

 

You can't use Shield Defense as it won't pair with any two-handed weapons.

 

I've heard Willpower is good, but probably not better.  I think it depends on what you like to play.

 

Probably any set can be used with proper slotting nowadays though.

 

[Heraclea]

My /Katana tanker is Super Reflexes.  I wanted to try that out as a tanker primary.  You have attacks that give you melee defense, so it seemed a good fit mechanically as well. 

[IronJuke]

If I wasn't picking Invulnerability, which seems to be working out great btw, then I would be looking at trying Bio or Rad.

 

Yesterday I respecced into Leaping and picked up Spring Attack as an AoE opener.

 

 

 

 

 

[cprice]

Thematically I made a Ice/Katana Tanker and I love it. Not because it gets the most DEEEPS or anything. I hold a lot of close aggro, I get a decent cone attack, one small cone attack, and then a PBAoe that does DoT. Icicles is my damage aura and IN MY OPINION isn't too shabby. I've gotten tons of props from the many groups I've played in. The disclaimer is I have yet to take it into Incarnate trials. I've gotten my T4 alpha ability and a few other T3 slots. I have enough resistance built up that when attacks do get through, I'm not dead in the water. I'm all IO set up, but not to the point of having all the purple sets. I have one purple set with Tanker's Might. So, I don't know if it is the best set, but I like it and it's my main.

[Rokkeb]

Ice is by far my favorite tanker primary. It's all around solid. Self heal, soft control, def and resists, sta boost, and dmg aura. And with the minimal efx not bad looking at all.

[Frostweaver]

Ice or Rad. stacking or overlapping.

[Call Me Awesome]

I actually wouldn't pair it with Invuln because the defense buff from Divine Avalanche is Melee defense while Invuln relies on typed defenses, not positional.  It won't be a bad pairing, it just doesn't get the benefit of DA's defense buff.

 

I haven't played Katana but I'm very familiar with Broadsword which is very similar; I'd look at a primary that either focuses on positional defense (SR or Shield... wait, can Kat and Shield pair up?  Probably not since it's animations are 2 handed) or one that will benefit from the defense buff.  Anything that's primarily resistance based will benefit greatly from the melee defense.  Maybe Elec/Kat?  Fire/Kat? Rad/Kat?  Anything with solid resistance will be a good candidate.

 

Personally I really enjoyed the Shield/Broadsword combo and took it to 50 on both a Scrapper and Tanker back on Live, it was a great combination.