Originally Posted by
McKnuckleSamwich
I did just fine with a X1-R4 + Tonfa on testlive - like, I'm talking I won about 150 duels and lost maybe 10 - and that was with syndicate brain in so I didn't have an ideal IP distribution and couldn't even use top heals.
To be honest, I'm completely boggled why MA's on live still haven't picked up on the fact that MA's will perform way better without swaps.
The best setup right now is tonfa+X1R4 bar none for 1 vs 1 PVP. For mass PVP you can do Tonfa+X1R4 or ranged.
For real mass PVP/healer role/tower wars, I'd go all out ranged since you capitalise on all the natural debuffs of zazen which align exactly with the mechanistic 100% crit resistance on towers.
That said, MA's still have by far and away the fastest by miles and miles the hardest hitting instantaneous alpha using tonfa+X1R4,and again, I am totally bewildered as to why people aren't using it.
like, the X1 R4 was gift from the gods when paired with tonfa, but if you try to swap it, the whole MA efficiency is just shot to hell.
I beat advy/sold/doctor/keeper/NT/trader/enforcer can't remember others off hand, but I got my ass handed to me like 8 duels in a row by agent (gg srompu).
Basically I found that you can play very offensively, but in an ad hoc manner: just keep defensive cycles going, and as soon as FOL lands, drop ES/delirium red dusk/incap/brawler perks/ and spam all damage flurry/fist winter flame/controlled dmg (SA/fast attack/brawl/tears/crave/feast/sai fung (or dimach)/UWOS/other perks if not dead.
honestly, I stopped playing MA on test because it was easymode. Everyone on test agreed the changes were significant and the only reason we thought it was balanced was because MA was still limited to melee range in real PVP and with that melee setup you couldn't do well in mass PVP, 1 vs 1 PVP, and zazen PVP.
It was goddamn strong in 1vs 1 PVP though, holy hell.