MA Weapons

A place to discuss and compare items, armors, weapons, etc., and see how to combine them
Doomcow

MA Weapons

Post by Doomcow »

yo, around what level should a MA start using weapons?
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Alphacenta
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Post by Alphacenta »

Late on imo. From L210 you can use BoBs (Blades of Boltar). IP will be tight. Keep at least one evade maxxed :)

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Post by Hyde »

4 decent weapons for a MA:

1) Fists ... which are very good until late on, but suffer against Hecklers from Ely up

2) Torturing Tools ... which have great min dmg, low max dmg (since its the same as min dmg) and very nice crits ... but will require IP into 1HB and so won't be cheap. TTs are mainly for PvP twinks getting them on early or Heckler fiends who are worried about their DD. The problem with TTs is they are a random drop from QL100ish to 200 (very rare) from Morgan Le Fey in Camelot ... yes ... in the PvP part of Camelot. That means she's killed at least every 9 hours and you can be killed while trying to camp them. Additionally, your attack rating will suffer unless you continuously max your 1HB as well as MA. Attack Speed is about the same as fists.

3) Parry Sticks ... also use 1HB (meaning you can use TTs and Parry Sticks interchangeably). They have bad min dmg (but in some cases like Hecklers they may be about the same min as fists), they have good max dmg, they have TERRIBLE crits, and they are SLOW. The main use is when you're in something like a high level raid where you don't -want- to take aggro and need big buffs to your Evade. You don't want to use these in any normal situation.

4) Blades of Boltar ... they're like Torture Tools (good min dmg, good crit) without needing the 1HB IP ... but you can't get them until 210+ and have to attend around 25 APF raids for each of them. Your attack rating will stay high, and you'll hit more often, but the hits with the BoBs will suck on "normal" mobs compared to fists, especially fist crits.

My recommendation for any MA would be to stick with fists until 210 unless you have a high level main to camp TTs.

Any other MA weapon is a waste for a MA ... they're semi-useful for other professions that are using MA as their attack skill (docs, MPs, occasional engi, etc). Even for them, -most- of the MA combined weapons suck due to split attack ratings and sometimes even using the wrong inits.

Fists won't do you wrong as long as you keep up with your dmg type changing nanos and +crit nanos/gear.

Did I say fists?
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Post by Groovymaker »

thank you DH very helpful :!:
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Re: MA Weapons

Post by noobas »

I don't agree with hyde.

If I were to make another MA, I would from very early on use claws.

Piercing should be maxed as early as possible because it is extremely useful with sneak attack in a pvp alpha.

Piercing +MA AR isn't bad, but, pvm the damage is like WAY moer than just fists. If you can twink on a higher QL set of claws you'll be laughing ODing everyone from lvl 50 to 210.

I even told a level 214 MA to try them, during an inf mission (these were QL 190ish claws I think) and his damage increased. 40 attacks per minute vs 30.

For most level ranges, the additional damage you get from increased number of attacks outweighs the lesser max damage and slightly lower crit on the wep.

In the most extreme case, where MA skill dmg is in the 9000-10000 range, and shenstick dmg is limited by the max dmg+crit, even then, the combined attack does more dmg per minute.

I have not yet been able to OD a MA with comparable skill and equipment while using only 1 shen to his 2, or my 0 to his 1.

Hence, if it works at 220, it should work at 50. (especially when you consider the twinking effects of equippping a wepon with a higher max dmg than fists.)
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Re: MA Weapons

Post by mytefe »

my lvl 60 ma, linshu, has claws. total totw pwnge. ma/piercing skill, physic init. 3 attacks. left claw, 500 hit, right claw 500 hit,(normal hits, can do upto 700 hit) ma hit 800(highest is about 1k). crit 1200( can crit with each attack) so crit crit crit = 3600 damage on a mob.

i also have east wind katana, but dont use yet. that is also physic init and looks vvv cool :)
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Re: MA Weapons

Post by noobas »

I think those katanas are low min dmg. Pack on the arul sabas and barrow strength and all the add dmg you can find to bump your dmg. totw is awesome for add dmg.

CoH weps+ add dmg ftw.
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Re: MA Weapons

Post by Forcenum »

Nooba, my man. Im helping my friend twinking a 150 MA atm, and we have been thinking about using claws, but what are these claws you talk about?
Auno has a few diffrent ones you see. There is the Mangler Claw, the Jagged Claw and the Hazangerine Claws.

Also, we consider going fists only, for aliumz, and bow for some PvP. i really doubt we have enough ip to use both claws and bow. what do you recomend?

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Re: MA Weapons

Post by mytefe »

forcenum, those are the claws. they start out at low ql called Hazangerine Rat Claw, then go all the way up to ql200 Hazangerine Bear Claw.

http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=160279

mangler and jagged dont use ma skill so is not good for ma.
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Re: MA Weapons

Post by noobas »

forcenum:

Considering the only real reason for STAYING 150 is to farm/be proficient at sector 10, I would highly recommend a pvm setup.

Mytefe is right, the best claw to go for is the hazangerine bear claw.

A couple things to note:

1. if he doesn't have enough IP, it's because he wasted some (a lot) on matter metamorphosis and matter creations. (do an IP reset because horde, and cohort buffs are useless, so are AC buffs)

2. The only other ip line the claws will use is piercing. (which he should be getting anyway if he's really interested in pvp

3. The beauty of going with claws is that he can go to a full crit/evade/add dmg setup without batting an eye at AR. Since the Claws have a set max dmg they won't benefit from an increase MA skill, and, since they account for 2/3 attacks, the MA skill can basically just be maxed, and doesn't need to go higher.

4. The corollary to 3. Since the claws are a weapon, and, as such have a max dmg, he will REALLY benefit from getting the short duration MA attack buffs (like grace of emperor crane (add 206 dmg)) Also, at 150, there are some killer items for maxing add dmg, think 2x arul sabas, MoTR, barrow strength, augmentation combat/offensive, offensive Hud 3, spirit focus from smugglers den, 2x dmg rings, 1000 token board, plus a few pieces of CM, and MA add dmg buffs.

You see where I'm going. add some self buffed crit to that ensemble, and youre looking at a real war machine. Just make sure he maxes phys init for full defence fighting, and when he's soloing to exchange the defence hud for the offense hud, and he'll be laughing all the way to the bank.



4.
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Re: MA Weapons

Post by noobas »

ohya.. and if he is doing dual claws, tell him to perk disharmony... he'll he healing so fast just on drains everyone will congratulate the doc in the team for doing sucha good job.
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Re: MA Weapons

Post by Alphacenta »

Sounds rather interesting Im gonna try it on my testlive MA Alpharts I think. :)
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Re: MA Weapons

Post by noobas »

ya let me know how it goes.

I'm interested to know how the dpm stacks up against say: no weaps, fist only with 300 higher AR.

I've got a feeling the damage will be unparalleled by any other setup.

I guess the thing to get would be a Dchest.. that would be the cake on this setup.

I'm not sure what dmg type the hazangerine claws do, but it might be chem dmg, in which case, it'll be necessary to use a "fist" buff dmg type, to allign the damage type with the combined MA attack.

Chem dmg wouldn't be bad.. and definitely get 2x chem arul sabas, they'll give 36 extra dmg each. you can realy max out the add dmg to get a huge result
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Re: MA Weapons

Post by Mardonge »

Looks to me like the claws are Fire dmg, witch incase would be optimal agains aliens and support the AC Debuff (Dragonfire). Might also do a test transfer of my 150 MA to test this, looks like a real interesting idea. He's already got the DChest and fire aruls, just need to farm the claws and the IS pads.
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Re: MA Weapons

Post by Alphacenta »

I forgot to ask this. I also have a pair of Torturing Tools, would they be better than the Hazangerines? Maybe dualwield one TT and one Haz?
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