Aracknight

Surrender, Surrender, but don't give yourself away.

It's a bold move Cotton, let's see how it plays out

Upon further review and reflection on other's thoughts about Storm Kick and cones, I'd like to amend this to say : -Some +DEF to Storm Kick like Tankers and Brutes get would still be excellent, even at a lower level than the tanky archetypes get. No cone though, I understand what others mean now about cones and recharge/end. -A cone for Crippling Axe Kick (particularly in it's Hook Punch configuration) makes more sense than it would in Storm Kick. It'd be like Cross Punch. Do this Instead :) Focus Chi could be modified to be a light attack more like Dual Blades' Blinding Feint or Claws' Follow Up. This could address it's "not enough damage compared to newer sets" issue. Or you could do something new: The power lets you pick offense or defense to go on your Storm Kick, like changing modes in Bio Armor or Ammo in Dual Pistols. Choosing Defense gives you a DEF buff from your Storm Kick like Tanks/Brutes get, and Offense gives you a Follow up/Blinding Feint boost from your Storm Kick instead. You could Focus your Chi towards Yin and Yang instead of Offense and Defense if you prefer flavor verbiage.. Focus Chi could also be given a port of one of Ninjutsu's Prayer/Meditation style alternate animations if left in it's current "Build Up" configuration. Warrior's Challenge could use a Matrix-y style "come and get it" alternate animation, if anyone knows a suggestion. Maybe something from Kinetic Melee or something? On Punches and Kicks: -An open handed pushing animation port (like virtually all the T1 blastery attacks have) could be a cool alternate animation for Crane Kick what with the knockback and all. -Typhoon's Edge (without the dual blades, obvi) could be a cool alternate animation for Dragon's Tail. Random: Port Cobra Strike's uppercut animation as an alternate to Flight's Air Superiority. Uppercuts can do Knockup, and it'd look "super."

T2: Toxic Dart (Ranged, Minor DMG(Lethal), High DMG(Toxic)) You fire a toxic dart at your target causing an very minor amount of immediate lethal damage followed by a High amount of toxic damage over time. Recharge: Moderate I like everything about the power except for its animation. I was hoping for something like Poison Dart from VEAT Night Widow Training. We basically got Tranq Dart the Science inherent instead. Any chance for an alternate animation?

1/10. Didn't even put on a hat or wizard robe.

I dunno. Given the timing of Homecoming's appearance and Avengers Endgame, I think there's an argument for a "blip" where all of those things are still true, but a bunch of years passed for everyone except those who were "snapped" at sunset. It'd also explain why technology (cars, cell phones) haven't advanced because no one was on Paragon Earth to advance them. That's how I view it anyway. You make a good argument, either way. A lot of Marvel characters got their start in the 60s, Iron Man, for example, whose cinematic origin was updated to be in Afghanistan instead of Vietnam. Your idea of "x years ago" plays well, but I think there's room for a lot of takes here.

A Psalm of Scrapping (Pscrapping?) RNJesus is my shepherd; I shall not want. Thou keepest me from faceplanting in abandoned warehouses, and Thou leadeth me to the boss far beyond the mission entrance. Thou +Regen my hit points and +Rec my stamina: and Thou leadeth me to the path of victory for Thy name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of debt, I will fear no AV, for Thou art with me; Thy +Res and Thy +Def, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me of the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with SCRAPPERLOCK; and my cup runneth over. Surely GMs and AVs shall fear me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the streets of Paragon City forever.

The Aracknight is somewhere between Spidey, Batman, and Snake-eyes.

I'm from the 915. Which jr high?

Oh, so they were warned, they were given an explanation, and nevertheless they persisted, eh? Sounds like some pancaking pancake right there.

It's all love fam, but at least one comment hit at least two pairs of eyes/ears wrong. You'll probably note I'm being completely oblique about which comment and which readers, which is telling of how easily things can go askew. And I guess it's true that it's all in the eyes of the be-reader. But if it's any consolation, I'm sure glad I brought a smile to your face. See you in the City.

It's funny, in the odd way, not the hilarious way, that some people in this community treat newbies as if they are I1 veterans "who should just know better" and act shocked when people don't know things, and treat savvy veterans like ignorant newbies and then hit them with a wall of text for critical damage. Don't take a poor interaction as representative of the entire community. Our good reputation is well deserved, but there's always those who don't represent the whole as much as they might think they do. I'm not sure where the OP lands in that newbie to veteran range, but everyone is new to something sometime, and my 2 inf is to offer that although the defense offered in Heightened Senses is "Typed" (also and less known as Environmental) as opposed to "Positional" (Melee, Ranged, AOE), Willpower as a whole operates as a Layered Mitigation System. A little bit of resistance, a little bit of defense and a little bit of regeneration which *should* compete with other sets relatively equally. One thing I've read is that 1% defense is considered to be mathematically worth 2% Resistance. So that "little bit" of defense to those typed defenses is worth twice as much resistance to those same types of attacks. Plus, you can pick up some nifty IO and Set bonuses to put in it.

That's good advice! Looking back, I did have more fun with Tanks that I had to work to keep up with, so moving on to the next group while only a couple mobs linger from the last one sounds like the way I want to go. Pulling back the view is a good one, I usually reserve that for when I'm in a PVP zone, but this makes sense to me contextually, so I can try that. "Pets and minions" makes me see now for the first time how the Devs thought that Masterminds were the Tanker Analog for redside, lol. Letting go of the idea that I have to be attacking at all times will be challenging, but I will have to work at that. Virtually all of my CoH experience is in Scrappering, and changing that will be the hardest I think. I do enjoy the AOE immobilizes that PPP/APPs offer though, so jumping in, throwing some Mu lightning fences and hitting a Dragon's Tail (or vice versa) and checking the status of how the squad is doing before moving on sounds like a fun place for me to start. I'm learning that while Scrappers are super focused Math Monsters that like to push the edge and solo the world, Tankers have to expand their world view and consider others a bit more carefully. I believe that after all these years, this could be a worthy thing to learn. It's a bit more pressure that I feel though. It's odd that I can feel completely fearless about attempting (and succeeding!) to solo Ruladak on a solo Fathim TF, but I worry about letting people down by failing to keep an AV's attention as a Tank in a group. Hopefully it's something that experience will alleviate! Thank you so much for your feedback, and if you have any other pointers, I'm happy to hear them. See you in the city!

So I main an MA/SR scrapper, but I was always amazed when I teamed with Tanks that really knew their craft. Not necessarily the "pull to here" guys, but more the ones that controlled the battlefield just by being there. I was interested in learning that craft, so I built a Mark II SR/MA (god that feels weird to type!) alt to give it a go. Now, I didn't grind up the old fashioned way, which maybe was my mistake. I doorsat in AE missions to hit 50 and then built out the same basic build as my scrapper, using Tanker ATOs instead of Scrapper ones obviously where applicable. Being an experienced SR Scrapper, I had a good feel for how survivable it was, and higher Def (50+ without breaking a sweat, plus the bonus from Storm Kick on top of that) and Hit Points just increased my overall confidence. I had the same experience with dealing damage, with Controller-level Assault making up a lot of the ground between Tanker and Scrapper damage, so my solo experience was virtually the same between the two archetypes. Exception: I didn't have to chase mobs! They stood there all mad and I just kicked them down without having to run after them. That was the best! And Then Came Teaming. I was clear in meeting folks and in my bio that I was a newbie at being a Tanker because it was important to me that I be up front about it, considering my level and set bonuses. What I learned though, was that Tanking Vs Scrapping was doing a number on my mindset. As a Scrapper, I lived by the six second rule, and I expected others did too. So, as a Scrapper, my mindset was "Screw it, I'm going losers. Do the other half of the map if you want." As a Tanker, I was....hesitant is the closest word. Instead of "Screw it, I'm going," it was more "D-do I go? Is everyone ready? Is the last group handled? Do I wait till all of the last group is defeated?" I paid way more attention to my team's status than I ever had before and it was super distracting. As a Scrapper it was an afterthought: "Oh, you guys all died? It's fine, I got this while you were recovering." As a Tanker it was a bigger responsibility than this Lone Wolf was ready for. I felt like if anyone ate floor, it was gonna be my fault and THEY WERE ALL GONNA YELL AT ME. So my first few missions as a Tank were like that. Stressful and full of more responsibility than I was ready for. I was about to cash it in and just go back to being my normal Solo Scrappus Devastatus self, when I got a tell that thanked me for "taking care of my squishy self, I couldn't have made it without you." It felt pretty good. I'm not sure I want to be a Tanker Main yet. It's a hell of a change from being a Scrapper since I8 retail. But it was a good challenge and a good experience when it was all said and done. Did anyone else feel this way when they first tried Tanking?

And That's Terrible.

Link Mace Mastery PPP powers to the Crab spider Backpack costume option! So your mace blast, web envelope, etc come out of your mechanical extra arms. :P Alternatively, get rid of the Mace in Mace Mastery PPP so blasts and webs come out of your hands/fists like in Energy Blast or whatever. I feel like this could be done by accident like how Sentinel Katanas/Ninja Swords are invisible. Or, you know, both. It's cool.

Peacebringers. Back in the day, you had to get a character to 50 just to unlock them. Now, the possibility exists that maining a Scrapper ruined me for a lot of things, but after a couple months of work to get my first character to 50, with one of the carrots being unlocking a Heroic Epic Archetype, I was underwhelmed. They looked SO pretty with their auras and their bubbles, but they seemed to do very little damage, they had special enemies hiding in missions to snipe them to death in a single shot, and they didn't seem as sturdy or as fun as my Scrapper. It felt like a serious letdown. These days I read about how awesome they are once built properly, but my brain still always attempts to convince me that all the people claiming that are filthy liars, lol.

Hmm, the form attacks DO already animate in human form when you preview them in the character creator! I had not noticed that before.

Hmmm. Like maybe how on Ice Armor you can be seen inside your translucent icy armors, you could be seen inside a translucenty "aura" of a squid or a lobster?

Can't say I'd be sad if Storm Kick got the same defense bonus Tanks got (Or Parry in Broadsword, for a direct scrapper analogue). I'd also not mind it if they turned Storm Kick into a small cone that could hit, lets say up to 3 mobs at once if you line it up just so (also like Slice in Broadsword). I really don't think Martial Arts is broken, not since Cobra Strike got it's damage put in anyway. But a tweak to make it a little more aoe-y or some mitigation wouldn't suck. The soft controls are cool, and the damage is "okay" (we all want more damage, just admit it).

It wasn't 04 for me. It was I8. I was a veteran of MUD-style text dungeon games and SWG. I read about CoH, and that I would need to get off dial-up to make it work well. While I waited, I read the manuals, read the forums, and devoured everything I could about it. I was a MA/SR Scrapper because I read "On the care and feeding of your scrapper (which I reposted elsewhere)" and a MA guide that said: "So you may be asking yourself, "What is Martial Arts good for?" Well, a few facts are in order to answer this question... 1. MA Scrappers are mammals. 2. MA Scrappers fight ALL the time. 3. The purpose of the MA Scrapper is to flip out and kill people." I was a MA/SR scrapper before I was a MA/SR scrapper. It sounded bad-ass. Like everyone else, I spent too much time perfecting my costume, believing that I just had to have a piece from every option (shoulders, etc) before learning sometimes less is more. A huge Spider-Man fan, CoH helped me bring the Aracknight to life, and I was cah-rushed when it was shut down. I straight up copied Spidey's actual costume, ran a +4/x8 Council warehouse police band mission, and refused to log back on even though there was a month to go until shutdown. I was so heartbroken I couldn't actually bring myself to be here at the end. Then I found Homecoming ( a recent Spider-man movie title) with a shard named Excelsior (the recently departed Stan Lee's catchphrase) and I was indeed home. And my main (and truth be told, at this time ONLY) character, is that MA/SR Scrapper that I was before, during, and after I was an MA/SR Scrapper. I'm very grateful.

Revisited this for the first time in a while. MA/SR. My Attack chain was SK->CS->SK->CK. I use Musculature Core Alpha, Diamagnetic Radial Interface, and Assault Core Hybrid (did not use). Did not use Lore or Judgment. I was able to get down to 7:32 with a DPS of 212. I think I could have been faster had I not tried to slip in Eagle Claw for the first few rotations at the beginning. I also didn't use build up, but I do have Gaussian's chance for build up in Tactics, which I forgot to turn on for the first couple of minutes. I also need to get better at timing Practiced Brawler so I don't get randomly knocked back because I let it lapse. But that's a 2 minute improvement with only minor adjustments (Changed from Support Hybrid to Assault) and no real skill at doing this yet. I think I've learned that this sort of thing not only takes some solid Mids-Fu, but some skill as well. There's some timing and focus involved as well to work more efficiently. I solod Bat'zul at the end of Virgil Tarikoss last weekend, so I thought I'd give this a whirl, though I did use an envenomed dagger or 30 on Bat'Zul, lol.

Why not split the difference and make it a mag 1 taunt with 0 range. That way, if you want to slot it for taunt or range you have the option, and if you don't nothing changes? Is that a thing that's possible?

:/ A taunt aura for scrappers would be a damned nice QOL situation. Chasing bad guys down can be a pain.

Does Zapp really do that much less damage than Moonbeam and Mace Beam? Mids Reborn and Pines both have Zapp doing less than half the damage of the other two.