Katana Scrapper: What Secondary?

[Shadowstorm06]

Returning home after playing on live many moons ago! Looking to run a Scrapper, and Katana has caught my eye. I’ve always enjoyed its mix of flashy style, but CRUNCH when the hits land.

 

That being said, I’d love to chat with everyone about what secondary to pair it with. These are  ones that have caught my eye, but I’m open to suggestions:

 

**Bio Armor**: Kind of a “Bio Blade” concept. Bio wasn’t around on live, so that is interesting. Seems to really pump up the offense, but might be a bit squishier.

 

**Ninjitsu**: There seems to be a ton here. I like the heal and end recovery. My only worry is, will it be too clicky for a weapons set? The T9 actually seems pretty good.

 

**Super Reflexes**: I haven’t ran it, but it SEEMS pretty easy to build and just overall tough. Not a ton of clickies, so you can just katana away.

 

**Stone Armor**: This wasn’t around on scraps before, and the changes seem nice! Nice mix of damage and tankiness. Not sure I can make the looks work though, even with the minimal effects haha.

 

**Electric Armor**: Seems to have all the tools as well! I’m hesitant to build a full resist set on a Scrapper though. Not sure how it works overall. 

I know Energy Aura and Rad Armor are top choices, from what I’ve been reading. I might just want to be a bit different I guess 🤷‍♂️

 

[SomeGuy]

Why does Inv get left out of the picture?

 

I've done Katana with:

 

EnA

Bio

Nin

SR

Inv

Electric Armor

 

As much as I really like Nin and SR, I can't handle them due to a lack of taunt aura. Same with Electric. I haven't done Stone, but it also doesn't have a taunt aura.

 

In terms of squish, Bio is EASILY the squishiest out of all those. It also does gobs of damage. It's a trade-off.

 

Do NOT sleep on Invincibility.

[Shadowstorm06]

3 minutes ago, SomeGuy said:

Why does Inv get left out of the picture?

 

I've done Katana with:

 

EnA

Bio

Nin

SR

Inv

Electric Armor

 

As much as I really like Nin and SR, I can't handle them due to a lack of taunt aura. Same with Electric. I haven't done Stone, but it also doesn't have a taunt aura.

 

In terms of squish, Bio is EASILY the squishiest out of all those. It also does gobs of damage. It's a trade-off.

 

Do NOT sleep on Invincibility.

Wow thanks for the quick response!

 

You know, I ran an Invuln/SS back on live, which was the only reason I probably left it off. I’ll definitely look into it more.

 

I’m planning to primarily team/play with a few friends. Is the lack of a taunt aura a big deal? If so that might bring down the choices for me.

 

Out of the ones you have played with Katana, are there any fave pairings? I’m assuming Invuln is one haha

[PasswordisTaco]

My Katana is Kat/Rad and it’s one of my favorite melee characters. The added defense from divine avalanche really helps the resistance based set and Rad is just overall great. Would definitely recommend. 

[SomeGuy]

11 minutes ago, Shadowstorm06 said:

I’m planning to primarily team/play with a few friends. Is the lack of a taunt aura a big deal? If so that might bring down the choices for me.

 

 

I solo. A lot. So a taunt aura is a must have for me. That's a personal thing to some. If Stone Armor didn't have it's...interesting...costume choices I'd go with that. It has really good toughness and gobs of damage.

 

My fav kat combo? Depends on what I'm in the mood for. If I'm solo-ing, Kat/Inv. Legacy sets and all. If I do join a team, and based on their make up, I might drive my Kat/Bio.

 

I haven't done Kat/Rad, but that HAS to be a really good option. I've done Rad on a lot of different characters and it's a solid darned choice.

[Shadowstorm06]

46 minutes ago, SomeGuy said:

 

 

I solo. A lot. So a taunt aura is a must have for me. That's a personal thing to some. If Stone Armor didn't have it's...interesting...costume choices I'd go with that. It has really good toughness and gobs of damage.

 

My fav kat combo? Depends on what I'm in the mood for. If I'm solo-ing, Kat/Inv. Legacy sets and all. If I do join a team, and based on their make up, I might drive my Kat/Bio.

 

I haven't done Kat/Rad, but that HAS to be a really good option. I've done Rad on a lot of different characters and it's a solid darned choice.

Thank you for all the info. 

[StriderIV]

@SomeGuy and @PasswordisTaco are right in mentioning /Rad. I have a StJ/Rad that is awesome. Like Stone Armor though, you gotta have a concept for all the effects haha.

 

I haven’t run stone armor myself yet, but in a team setting where you aren’t solo holding aggro, I could see it being great.

[SomeGuy]

2 minutes ago, StriderIV said:

@SomeGuy and @PasswordisTaco are right in mentioning /Rad. I have a StJ/Rad that is awesome. Like Stone Armor though, you gotta have a concept for all the effects haha.

 

 

 

I'm still shooketh this ball was thrown down a abyss. The people making content for this decades old game seem to be really understanding how important costumes are so I really had to scratch my head what was going on there.

 

For me personally, even if Stone Armor had a taunt aura this oversight by itself would make me question rolling one. And Stone Armor is GOOD.

[Major_Decoy]

The reason I'd be wary about paring Katana with a typed defense like Invulnerability, Stone, or Energy aura is that Golden Avalanche stacks really well with positional defenses but kind of poorly with typed defenses.

[Thraxen]

Mine is kat/wp. DA helps a lot with wp survivability. It is a highlander homage so that’s most of it. 
 

Bio is of course cool , but make sure you look at adaptations in costume creator. They can’t me minimized. Other stuff can aside from the shield power but it comes and goes quickly enough. 

[Maelwys]

Best I've played (for different reasons) have been Kat/Regen and Kat/Bio.

Bio's Environmental Modification buffs your defence to practically everything except Melee/Lethal; which is in turn covered by Divine Avalanche. Obvious Synergy! The -res debuffs from Evolving Armor also stacks nicely with all the Achilles' Heel and Fury of the Gladiator Procs which Katana can slot in abundance; and the -regen debuffs don't hurt vs AVs.

Regen has tons of flat mitigation, but very little scaling mitigation outside of Moment of Glory. So it gains a *lot* of survivability from softcapped defence, and you really don't lose much performance from the rest of your build by doing so if you factor in keeping up a single stack of Divine Avalanche (double stacking is sitll useful on Incarnate trials or vs -Defense debuffs)

[hejtmane]

I have done Katana/Rad it is great for solo easy to do a lot of Task/Force solo I almost never use Divine Avalanche after a point also works great in teams

 

I used him to Duo with a buddy two star ITF and I soloed the ITF with him multiple times and some other TF's

 

DM/SD the healing from DM punch goes while with shield has taunt aura

 

Ice/EA heal, ice patch taunt aura caltrop flop patches are fun

 

I been able to do all types of stuff of pushing my survival limits solo and duo with those three on the regular and they all work in a team environment

 

 

Edited February 27 by hejtmane

[Ringo]

22 hours ago, SomeGuy said:

 

 

I'm still shooketh this ball was thrown down a abyss. The people making content for this decades old game seem to be really understanding how important costumes are so I really had to scratch my head what was going on there.

 

For me personally, even if Stone Armor had a taunt aura this oversight by itself would make me question rolling one. And Stone Armor is GOOD.

You play MA/Stone so you can perform Eagle's Claw while in Granite form

[Major_Decoy]

5 hours ago, Ringo said:

You play MA/Stone so you can perform Eagle's Claw while in Granite form

I didn't think scrappers got Granite form.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I lump broadsword (slower, higher spot damage, one handed so you can pair with shield) and katana (slightly better dps, can’t pair with shield) together in terms of power.  I’d describe them as solid sets that get the job done, but not particularly fancy.

 

Parry/Divine Avalanche is what makes the set for me, and it is the melee defense that works.  It’s stackable so it’s pretty easy to soft cap melee defense.  The problem is that it cuts your overall dps, so I monitor my melee defense so that I’m not throwing another Parry in there when I’m already over 60% melee defense.  I will slot a Lotg recharge, a hecatomb proc (you’ll want as high a ppm as you can get), and enough accuracy to ensure you will almost never miss with it.  
 

When looking at secondaries, I generally like resistance based or mixed use sets rather than defense based.  My original main scrapper was BS/Inv, and some others I’ve taken to 50 are Bio, Radiation, and Dark Armor. Ninjitsu might be something I might look at since you can put less investment in melee defense, and the stealth defense power will give you stalker vibes when you give them the old ninja head splitter.

[Ringo]

13 hours ago, Major_Decoy said:

I didn't think scrappers got Granite form.

Clearly I am in the wrong timeline!

[Story Archer]

On 2/27/2024 at 12:56 AM, SomeGuy said:

 

 

I'm still shooketh this ball was thrown down a abyss. The people making content for this decades old game seem to be really understanding how important costumes are so I really had to scratch my head what was going on there.

 

For me personally, even if Stone Armor had a taunt aura this oversight by itself would make me question rolling one. And Stone Armor is GOOD.

 

I'll never understand why most auras - if not all - don't have a minimal effect option. Seems like it'd be one of the easiest features to implement and I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I avoid entire power sets solely because of what it does to the costume I spent over an hour fine-tuning...

[Linea]

Kat / Any - I'd play Katana / Wet Tissue Paper.  I just love Katana.

 

Kat/Bio - This is probably the ONE.

Kat/EnA - This is probably my number TWO pick for Katana.

Kat / Regen - Classic, but I'd recommend Kat/Bio instead. 

Kat/WP - if you want to split the difference between /Regen and /Bio, and want minimal FX

 

 

[One IV All]

11 hours ago, Linea said:

Kat / Any - I'd play Katana / Wet Tissue Paper.  I just love Katana.

 

Kat/Bio - This is probably the ONE.

Kat/EnA - This is probably my number TWO pick for Katana.

Kat / Regen - Classic, but I'd recommend Kat/Bio instead. 

Kat/WP - if you want to split the difference between /Regen and /Bio, and want minimal FX

 

 

I’ve been torn between running Kat/Bio and Battle Axe/Bio myself. I know you play some Scraps on the high end. Do you prefer one over the other?

[Linea]

Divine Avalanche helps seal up issues with the Heal-Tank armors.   But the new Axe Roomba would also be fun.

[UltraAlt]

On 2/27/2024 at 12:30 AM, Shadowstorm06 said:

That being said, I’d love to chat with everyone about what secondary to pair it with.

 

I like matching super reflexes or ninjitsu with katana.

Both are fun to play.

 

My main katana scrapper before the Sunset was super reflexes with the concealment pool. Ninjitsu has that par covered, so ...

 

that being said, I like to play them sneaking around and getting the drop on enemies.

I'm not trying to wade into a mob solo and let them all jump my character.

[Story Archer]

I'd have to go with a Willpower or Radiation - Willpower for the nukes and bonus Recovery and Radiation for the nukes. I give a nod to WP because the power set doesn;t mess up my meticulously crafted costume 😛

 

Something I always try to keep in mind when making Scrappers (unless they're exclusively for solo'ing) is that its always better to have multi-layered defenses (Defense, Resistance and Healing) rather than trying to max out any one - this is because you always have allies providing buffs but you never know what those buffs are going to be and you don't want to waste their benefit by already being mixed in a particular area at the expense of the other two.

 

Of course, saying all that, I've leveled two /WP Scrappers and one WP/ Tanker to L50 as well as two Rad/ Tankers and a /Rad Scrapper to L50 so now I'm trying out a DB/SR Scrapper to see how it compares... 

[Spaghetti Betty]

23 hours ago, Linea said:

Kat/Bio - This is probably the ONE.

I +1 this! I run it as a Tank and it's a monster. With Scrapper numbers, it would turn into a blender.

 

What a strong combo!