Martial Artist attacks.

[Elyam]

I found it strange that there is verly little info to be found on what MA attacks actually do. Sure, you can find out by looking at several different sites and forums (btw...the info varied a great deal) but I got my own list and figured I would post it here for any MA that is unsure what the MA attacks actually do. It sucks that the description of the attack in the game doesn't actually explain what it does. Although, I do like the haikus and poetry

Some of this info was taken from the AO forums, some from databases, and some I ad libbed. Don't think to hard on it, just read it and it is a pretty good explanation about the different MA attacks.

Sincerely,
Elyam

Angel of Night (AOL)
A Special Attack with main focus of crippling the opponent temporarily
-Lowers the Init, Agility and Sense of the Target
-AOE for a Set Amount of Damage, based on QL of the Attack.(Thanks Khailea!)

Ape Fist of Khalum
Decent Special, with 50% Chance of stunning the Target. Found in TToW.
Book 1: Cultists
Book 2: Cultists Deep inside
Book 3: Acolyte Dominic(Contributed by Flungshui!)
Book 4: Acolyte Amber(Contributed by Flungshui!)
Book 5: Exarch Li-Po

Attack of the Snake
The Basic MA Special Attack. Low Lock time, Low Damage.
-Hits Target for a Set Amount of Damage, based on QL of the Attack.

Bird of Prey (BoP)
A Common Low level damage special
-Hits the Target for a Set Amount of Damage, based on QL of the Attack.

Blessed with Thunder (BwT)
Most MA`s main special attack, used for dealing damage
-Hits Target for a Set Amount of Damage, based on QL of the Attack.
-Hits Target with a DOT that hit 6 times over 10 Seconds, Damage based on the QL of the Attack.

Bright, Blue, Cloudless Sky
A Great Special Attack to lower the Target`s initative with quite a lot.
-Stuns the Target, Duration: 4.32 seconds (Contributed by Xied!)
-Lowers the Target`s Initative, Amount of Varies with QL
-Hits Target fir a Set Amount of Damage, based on QL of the Attack.

Flower of Life (FOL)
The ever popular Flower of Life. Mainly used for its large Self Heal, but it also lowers the Fighting Target`s Runspeed and Add All Def.
-Large Self Heal, Amount based on QL
-Lowers Runspeed and Add All Def on Fighting Target

Karmic Fist
Great to use if you want to stun the target, as it has a 50% chance of stunning. You can find this in Inner Sanctum by gathering the books that drop and give to the NPC.
-Hits Target with 820 Points of Melee Damage
-50% Chance of Stunning Target for 2 Seconds

Following Drop Stats contributed by Britt9081!
Books 1 and 2 Lootable on first floor.
Books 1 thru 4 lootable on 2nd floor.
Books 5 and 6 Lootable from 3rd floor.

Shen
The lesser used Big Brother to Blessed With Thunder. For a Finishing or Alpha Strike it can be quite good though thanks to the many effects.
-Hits Target with Set Amount, Damage based on QL
-Hits Target with DOT and Nano DOT
-Lowers the Init and Run Speed of the Target
-100% Chance of Stunning the Target for 4 Seconds

Tree of Enlightenment
A Fantastic Low-Mid level Special with a instant 290 Team Heal. Very, Very Popular. Don`t leave The Temple Without it!

I've received a lot of contributions for the books, so much that I'm gathering the contributions here instead of the list:

Thanks to Rimax, Kiwu, Flungshui, Guitargirl, Dbum, Kostka and Katrien for contributing Information!

Book 1: Cultists(Atrox in First Room)
Book 2: Malikai the Faithful/Oran The Faithful
Book 3: Reverend Dashell/Acolyte Felid/Acolyte Verona
Book 4: Acolyte Betany/Acolyte Opal/Reverend Saxx/Reverend Dashell/Acolyte Verona/Acolyte Seleen/Acolyte Kalen/Reverend Oluay
Book 5: Acolyte Bryant/Acolyte Seleen/Acolyte Verona
Book 6: Exarch Gevarain/Acolyte Seleen

Upon a Wave of Summer
One of the best MA Special Attacks. Reduces Snares and Roots with a lot, boosts Nano Resist and several other effects. ALL MA`s should know this one.
-Reduces Snare/Root. If the Reduction Time is Greater than the Duration Time, it Breaks it.(That happens about 90% of the Time)
-Increases your Nano Resist and Run Speed
-Lowers the Targets Run Speed
-Chance to Stun the Target, Duration up to 4.32 Seconds

[Elyam]

Okay, I have been playing around with MA attacks for a bit now, and I am gonna give my honest opinion on them. If anyone has varying information, please share.

Bird of Prey is decent from around leve 20 to 50's. You really want to replace this with Blessed with Thunder as soon as you can. Downside to Blessed with Thunder is that you have to invest IP in Parry, which is not used by ANY other MA skill unless you are using parry sticks or a few other melee weapons. Although, I really think parry sticks suck at levels below 200. You do way more damage with fists.

Bright, Blue, Cloudless sky is horrid thus far. The lock time is not worth the debuff. Maybe it is much better at higher qualities, but at quality 65, it is absolutely no help in SL or RK that I can tell. (I actually ran stat analysis techniques on damage done vs. damage received and the variance was incredibly high, thus using this attack is not dependable at all.) It has potential to be really good at higher QL but I can't say for sure given that I am only level 65.

Upon a wave of summer is a good one because the death of an MA is imminent when we are rooted by a ranged attacker (i.e. an NT or a Fixer).

I am still playing around with Flower of Life. Qualitatively, what I am seeing is that it is useful in a group moreso than solo. Reason for this being that when solo, when you get into a fight, you usually use Blessed with Thunder. When your health gets low, you use FA, nano heals, and your MA skill is still locked by this point, so if you are taking fast damage, you usually die before Flower of Life is able to be used. That is, unless you run away to let your MA skill lock dissipate... even so, unless someone else can take aggro and damage, it hasn't been overly useful to me. If you use it and continue to fight, your defense is lessened and if you try to run and save yourself, you run slower... Double edged sword is what this skill is.

I haven't messed around with angel of night yet. Input is more than welcome!

[Alphacenta]

That would seem right.

Also, UaWoS has a % chance of stunning.

Bright, Blue, Cloudless Sky may suck in PvM, but it's a killer in pvp - 100% stuns for the win!

Then, there is Shen, which is basically Blessed with Thunder, merged with Bright, Blue, Cloudless Sky, with a HORRIBLE locktime: almost seventeen minutes!

[Elyam]

Yeah, I hadn't mention shen because I haven't readily used it all that much yet. It is a pretty powerful attack, but the lock-time might not be worth it. It seems like a final confrontation attack. Meaning, you know you are about to die, use Shen, hope for the best for your battle-buddies.

That is just my take on it.

[noobas]

Hmm, I've played a while on MA, and I know some of the attacks pretty well, and I know others less well.

Let me first say I'm a big fan of professional threads, they are an excellent way to learn some ins and outs of a toon you 1, aren't that familiar with, and 2, learn how to pvp better.

A few things about MA attacks

So far, most of the descriptions are pretty accurate, however, you are missing all the LE attacks. At TL7 the LE attacks will make or break you.

From most useful to least useful, IMO.
1. Delerium. lock strength (?) On sef: +300 AAO, -500 AAD
Length 15 seconds. This attacks is great when used in conjunction with ES or DOF. Obviously the -500 AAD hurts, but it is very useful if the target is stunned, or already damaged, in which case they will likely be trying to heal. I use this attack in combination with FOL to gain a very significant advantage on AR vs evade checks, and usually I use this attack vs advy's and keepers. The result against advy is he is perkable, thus you are able to use incapacitate, red dusk, followed by a barrage of damage perks. 95% kill rate if you are able to land this.
Against keepers you can perk, but it is pointless to reduce init. Best for using when keeper at 50% hp and you have all your perks up, similarly, use in conjunction with FOL.

2. Enigma. lock intel On target: -3750 nanopoints, -1200 nanopoints, -750 nanopoints.
Length approx 10 seconds. Can you say doctor/advy killer? If for whatever reason the initial alpha does not kill a doctor (if a doc survives longer than 5 seconds in a duel, chances are youre dead.) use this attack in combination with NR1 perk and blessed with thunder to significantly reduce the targets nanopool. After two hits of this and thunder, doc will only have perk heals left. use this oppotunity to stun/kill.

3. Balance (lock stam) on self +50 aad, 1500 layers
Coon for MA's. when you have minimum hp (7000-8000) this attack is extremely useful, at higher hp, it's mostly useless. use in BS when outnumbered and need escape, use with UWOS to escape the damn agents long range AS.

4. Sappo (locks MA for 3 minutes I think) on target 4000dmg and on self +25 dmg
length: about 20 seconds
Mostly useless, however, cant be extremely useful in a alpha where you just need 1 more hit to finish off a doc. Usually MA skill is locked, so isn't free, but gotta use it sometime.. also, the only pvm attack LE offers.

Other attacks that are incredibly useful, mentioned previously, but need to be reinforced:

1. Bright Blue Cloudless Sky: a beautiful attack vs doc agent and advy. Against an advy whom you cannot land FOL and delirium: hit moonmist and wait for an attack to land, immediately stun with BBCS, AS, SA, dimache for superalpha and hope you won. Likewise, anythign else you can throw in that will land is, at this point, only prudent, for example, I use arrows of albatraum since the check in 20% dodge range (still hard to hit fixers and some MA, but advies just don't have the AAD to dodge it) This will add another 1000 dmg at least and sometimes up to 3000, often the difference between a kill and a definite nonkill.

2. Upon a Wave of Summer: I use QL 282. Highest QL I have seen, some say it's a waste of IP (in riposte) however, this attack has saved my ass more times than I can count. You can NOT underestimate the value of this attack. At QL 282 adds over 1300 NR. I go from 2500NR to 3800. Ok, here is when and how to use this attack:
-Vs. trader, dueling: you can land this on a trader easily, either befor he lands divest, or after, since it checks duck explosive. If you land this nano before he does, you have 15 seconds to wtf pwn him before he even knows what hit him. If you land this AFTER divest skills, you can still have enough time to break his NBG and alpha him, just with no perks.

-Vs. NT dueling: fire at beginning. NT needs to stack -1200 NR's on you 2 times before he can start nuking you. Hence, use at beginning of fight to buy yourself an extra few seconds, btw, a few seconds to an MA is the difference between wtfpwnd and 54321 remains of MA. This is especially true vs NT. vs NT, those few seconds are EVER so crucial. After you use UWoS, next is to use Enigma, thunder, and NR1 perk. This will reduce the amount of nanopool the NT has, significantly reducing the length of the NBG. you will likely have been hit with a double or tipple by this point. use brawl and red dusk then use 100% stun bbsc, you have only seconds to do this, because a tripple has your name on it, and it's getting cast next. you must kill an NT in the time it takes the tripple he just used or the double he just used to recharge.

Smart Nt's will use a double first, because the recharge is less, and often an overzealous MA will use red dusk too soon, thus having run out by the time the NT goes to cast the second (and last triple)

Vs. Doc use UWoS in the beginning of fight, to block UBT and any dots. You should have full hp by the time a doc dies (he can't hit you with normal wep (unless he is using bow with AS) and he shouldn't hit you with dots during UWOS buff). smart docs don't try to do anythign while MA alphas. if you think a doc is smart don't do main alpha right away. Instead trick the doc by using stuff like AS. Doc's are easily perkable. The combination of perks, stuns and a perfectly timed dimache will determine the fight outcome. With doc, there is no time for wep switch. In fact, My opinion is that useing shenstick vs doc is more useful than having hotswap AS or SA. You can smash a good doc for 50% of his hp in seconds with lots of crit. But a good doc can outheal you forever. So, it is important to hit a doc with init debuffs (he cannot remove) and stuns (removable with FM) What to know: you can perk through init debuff, and you can remove a stun and perk quickly. So, with doc it is smart to leave a large arsenal of stuns available for the alpha (brawl, bbcs, tremor hand, big smash, and blindside blow)

You an get really tricky on a doc, it is important like with NT to kill them during the heal/nuke recharge. After using Red dusk make a doc do a big heal, with a crit and a brawl and a fast perk like dragonfire then use big smash and blindside blow. The doc will be in heal recharge while trying to get rid of the stun, as soon as you see the heal, hit them with your alpha, start with perks tremor hand, ethereal touch and the other one, use crave and sappo and hopefully brawl will be up and hit dimache and if they are still alive switch to bow for AS and that should kill them. Doc's are the hardest profs to alpha, third only to enforcer and keeper

Ok back to work.

I don't use angel of night, shen or blessed with thunder, however I had forgotten about thunder and will use it now vs docs.