UltraAlt

So going with the basic framework that I was suggesting, below is for a Martial Arts/Martial Arts swashbuckler Primary - Melee - Martial Arts T1 - KI-push -Medium damage/recharge melee Attack + Knockback T2 - Focused Fighting - Melee attack Defense +RES (confuse, defense debuff) T3 - Dragon's Tail - PBAoE Medium damage/recharge attack T4 - Practiced Brawler - click -Mez resistance power T5 - Crane Kick - High/medium recharge melee attack T6 - Dodge - Auto - melee Defense + RES (All DMG, Defense Debuff, Special) T7 - Inner Will - Self heal + Special T8 - Stalwart Will - Self Rez T9 - Fist of Fury - PBAoE - Extreme damage - long recharge/high end cost - probably with exhaustion effect (unable to gain endurance for a set length of time) aka "berserk") Secondary - Ranged - Martial Arts T1 - Shuriken Throw - medium DMG(Lethal) + sleep - 40 foot range T2 - Focused Senses - toggle - Ranged attack Defense + RES (defense debuff) + perception T3 - Trick Shot - Ranged (Chain), Moderate DMG (Lethal) - 30 foot range with set based FX T4 - Evasion - Toggle - Self +DEF(vs. AoE), +Res(DEF Debuff) T5 - Focus Chi - +DMG, +To-Hit T6 - Reaction Time - Toggle - PBAoE, Self Absorb over Time, +Recovery, Foe –Rech, -Move, Special T7 - Warrior's Challenge - Ranged, Foe Taunt T8 - Elude - Self +DEF, +Res(DEF Debuff), +Rec, +SPD, +Special (tone down as not a T9) T9 - Masterful Throw - Sniper, Extreme DMG(Lethal), Foe -To Hit - range 50-60 feet

The one for smashing I use for as long as I have a character. It goes to the far right of my enhancement tray 7. I get this weird glitch sometimes when my trays shut down and I only have access to the ones that have enhancements in them at that point. Puting that smashing prestige IO in tray 7 in the farthest slot on the right stops that from happening, and it can't get thrown into the auction house by accident - seriously, I have started using that one for that purpose. The lethal one is the next less useful one. I tend to slot the Psi damage first. The knock down goes in an AoE or cone attack. The Energy damage goes in another attack as slotting allows. I don't always use them because, on some character, the slotting is more useful elsewhere and I don't have any more than my standard 2 acc in each attack power.

The words do look the same if you look at them from a certain angle.

Check out what is on his right hip. I admit I had to dig a bit to find pictures that clearly show him using a pistol. The marvel action figure another company's John Carter action figure .... onto Errol Flynn Pirate prop pistol from "Captain Blood" Agreed. yeah, sorry. I was lumping Confront in with the Tanker Taunt and shouldn't have (even though they both do take Threat (taunt/pacify) enhances if I remember correctly) I did put that in on my list of Secondary Powers that I thought would work for the AT. I put it in the secondary as the primary was was already filling up with armor stuff and I wanted to make sure that the Primary had a decent amount of attacks in it. My listings are generic while yours seem to be set based by the way it was written. That's why I didn't name anything in my listings and simply the powers types - to keep it generic. Of course, powers usually shuffle around in the various power sets of any AT. It has 4 primary set melee attacks and 4 secondary set attacks. It includes and PBAoE nuke in the primary and a snipe in the secondary. Secondary includes a ranged immobilize and the PBAoE damage field. The primary a cone and the secondary an AoE. Rounding out with the standard Melee defense/resist powers types, a self heal, a self rez, and a mez protection power. It's your idea. I'm just giving input for the discussion. Yeah, seems like playstyles within the AT set. Stalkers tend to play in one of those two modes.

You are doing a good job of "running" the unofficial weekly discussions. I'm not trying to step on your toes. I don't use the CoH Discord, so I'm out of that loop as well.

now I'm onto what the AT innate power would be. To go with the Swashbuckling theme, I would think that a get-away power when the character is in trouble would be a good thing. Like once the character go below 25% HP the innate power triggers with works as a breakfree, +run, +jump, and +fly until the character has more than 25% HP. If you already have the Mez resistance power, this would still automatically trigger - if say that was still recharging or you were in mid combat and didn't have time to trigger it. I'm still trying to narrow in. I'm seeing a pirate boarding a ship. They maybe shot an opponent or two on the riggings and jump aboard the target ship. They pull out their swords and fights in melee range, and pull out their pistol(s) from time to time to shot someone is farther away. -or- Indiana Jones just fails with the whip and pulls out a pistol and shoots the guy. Most of the time he is fisticuffs or the whip, but, nonetheless, - always has access to the ranged pistol attacks. To me, Batman is primarily boxing/martial arts and mainly just uses the batarangs for ranged attacks (be that simply hitting opponents with them or spreading knockout gas and the batarangs being of various sizes [and, of course, use as a grappling/entangling item]). I'm thinking John Carter Warlord of Mars, The Three Musketeers, Errol Flynn in Pirate movies (or even Robin Hood - he does pull out a sword in parts of that), etc. So when you do a melee attack it can combo into a ranged attack? (do increase damage, some kind of fx, or maybe increase the range of the ranged attack?) Hmmm. I don't think we really have "get over here" powers other than the taunts. That would be kind of interesting to do a melee attack and then the range attack gains a taunt component that makes the enemy hit need to move into melee range in order to fight your character. Which would mean that if hit them with an entangle/immobilize and they are out of melee range, they wouldn't be able to attack your character until your character moved into their melee range or they were free of the entangle/immobilize.

From the game-meta, armor and ranged attacks have only really had a mix with Sentinels - and that leaves them out on the third aspect, which is the melee attacks. It's a rock-paper-scissors kind of thing, but you get to pick 2. I would also think that the Swashbuckler AT would have higher HP base than squishes based on my understanding of your target is at this point.

@Rudra but I still might me misunderstanding what your actual goal is. I'm reading it like you wanted a reverse blaster, which to me is a melee character with blaster secondary powers and melee class type armor/protection, but I maybe confused still about your actual target.

Yep. I know, but to me. you were talking about it like power sets versus an AT. I agree. I did say that. I'm trying to work with you on this and making suggestions on what you indicated. That isn't to say that I don't think adding the armor in is a bit of out of balance, but I made a closing statement in regard to that (I did update my post a couple of times and you may have responded before I had edited it a couple of times - but the basics of it were all in there when I originally posted). I'm shifting my viewpoint to try to fit your paradigm at this point. My initial posts were based on the way things are currently set-up in the game (balance-wise) and my understanding at that point of what you were suggesting.

Okay. I'm going to take a ground up approach on this. I don't think what you are suggesting is power sets. It looks like to me to be an entire new AT. With a name like Swashbuckling and what is suggested, what comes to mind to me is a character with dual swords primary and dual pistols secondary, but it could be a mix of which ever melee and ranged sets that already exist. Character uses an axe and throws ice attacks at people? Great! Character that fights with melee fire attacks and throws ranged fire attacks? Great! Want to make a martial arts/electrical? that can work too in the comics/adventure/sci-fi/fantasy genre that City of Heroes has become. Primary is Melee. Secondary is ranged. This is based on being able to have access to a pick of a melee weapon type for primary and a blast type for secondary. Primary - Melee T1 - Medium damage/recharge melee Attack T2 - Melee attack Defense or Resistance power (toggle power w/ +special resist based on type of power [ice, street fighting, dual blades, etc.) T3 - Cone Medium damage/recharge attack T4 - Mez resistance power T5 - High/medium recharge melee attack T6- Defense or Resistance power all but ? (auto power but not as strong as the T2 power) T7 - Self heal T8 - Self Rez T9 - PBAoE - Extreme damage - long recharge/high end cost - probably with exhaustion effect (unable to gain endurance for a set length of time) aka "berserk") Secondary - Ranged T1 - medium damage/recharge ranged immobilize attack 40 foot range (can be enhanced) [Base range limited as to not interfere with other primarily "range" attack classes and to make up for the Armor component.) T2 - Ranged attack Defense or Resistance power (toggle - maybe all but ?) T3 - medium damage/recharge ranged AoE attack - 30 foot range with set based FX T4 - AoE defense or resistance Power T5 - Build up (have this boost perception as well as +damage and + to hit) T6 - PBAoE aura attack light damage with set based FX T7 - Confront/Challenge T8 - Click short-time defense or resistance versus all (maybe "all but?' depending on set) w/ high end cost. T9 - Extreme damage Snipe - range 50-60 feet *"all but ?" = except toxic, except psionic, etc <- which is related to that type of power set in the other ATs. Should your character need to change weapons for use of Primaries versus secondarys? Should you use the secondary ranged weapon for melee attacks (like Green Arrow melee fighting with his bow at close range or pistol-whipping, hitting enemies with the butt of your assault rifle, etc.)? There would need to be a lot of balancing on endurance costs, recharge times, damage and defense-or-resistance levels. but I think that crams all the kind things you are looking for into an AT. It allows for the melee attacks, ranged attacks, and armor protection that one would commonly expect in a melee character (melee, ranged, AoE, all, and mez protection). It might seem a little light on attacks, but one can gain more of those from the power pools or P2W powers.

By some of this week's posts it looks like a discussion of Discord might be popular, but you should probably put a link to it on the CoH Discord channel.

Yeah, I know. I need more information before I can help you. One of the main obstacles I can see is the want for Melee attacks, Ranged Attacks, and "armor" in this Archetype. In general, we only get 2 of these in a set. So say we blend armor aspects into both the Primary and Secondary. I"m assuming that the Primary is Scrapper and the secondary part is the secondary blaster part? is that correct? You want to say make a Martial arts (Screapper set)/Martial Arts (Blaster secondary) but with armor mixed into both the primary and secondary sets? Is that correct? I think you see where I'm needing more information from you before I can continue.

Yeah. I think you need to think this one out some more and take game balance into account. No reason not to type it out in the forums as you progress the idea and build on the concept.

Eris is not pleased.

This is why I tend not to play the later levels in the game, and I tended not to play in leagues. I simply could not see what I was fighting through the fog of player SFX; the game was simply a light show of SFX. The only way that I know what I'm targeting in those situation is to look the target window. I'm blindly utilizing powers at that point because I know that they will hit the target even though I can't see them, but that is no fun to me. Also, I'm going to admit that a screenful of flashing lights gives me eye-strain (so does power sets that are all white or have been color customized to be all white. It blinds me, and I have had to leave teams over it) The following works best for me to clear this fog. There is still some powers that have power SFX that are busy that are not removed. 1 = Particles off, 0 = Particles on. <--- which makes no sense to me why the command was named this way, but it is noparticles So in my macros; fx0 = no SFX, and fx1 = SFX on /macro fx0 "noparticles 1" /macro fx1 "noparticles 0" You can turn off the particles at any point, but you have to zone after turning the particles back on for them to be fully restored. Of course, this means that I can't see my own powers SFX, which is annoying. However, I can deal with that because I enjoy playing the game. Most of the time I don't have to turn off the SFX.

What a deal! Where do I sign up?! I know that time is limited and that your prices will have to increase to keep up with the demand! You are providing a great service to THE CITY! Why is your small print so large? I don't want to have to read the small print!

Whichever one it is, he has to be able to pull it out of his loincloth without it getting entangled with the grappling hook he keeps in there as well ... you know... with the rest of his junk. I don't know, but I think he would have to be defense based. He is always knocking stuff out of the air with his sword and jumping out of the way ... if I recall correctly.

I apologize. I didn't see it had been moved to the "Historical section". Which, if you use the link that I provided, is off the top of the screen. I just started from the power name down. But now I do recall getting Presence powers after the chang and being a bit miffed that I had to get the AoE Provoke instead of Challenge. Challenge (single-target) is much more useful for a non-tanker. Not so miffed that I bothered commenting, but I was focused on testing other stuff in that release and didn't notice it.

I like to see what the DEVs are working on and take part in beta testing. I like to help people - if I can - sometimes I'm wrong, but I'm trying to help. Sometimes it is just wanting to take time writing by being part of discussions. If I have questions, I may ask them in the forums or in-game. If it's not imperative to know immediately, I will ask in the forums ... but, usually, after taking time to check the wiki (which is very helpful - thank you @Michiyo!) Sometimes I want to post ideas, bug reports, or text issues. (frequency-wise in that order) A forum regular to me is someone that logs into the forums every gaming session. I think people do it to get a more depth attachment to the game and its development both through making suggestions and taking part in betas. I guess this falls under "an unquenchable need to know". I do most of my forum stuff usually either while waiting for the "the market is busy" message to clear when marketing and at the end of my play session. I'm sure I do, but I don't know if they are forum regulars or not. I always have my masks on, so they won't know if they are gaming with me. There is only one person that I know for sure I game with that I interact with in the forums and that interaction is through PMs and not back-and-forth discussions in the forums proper. I post. I would say pretty much 90% of the time - if I feel like it is worth checking out a topic, I'm going to post on it. That being said, I'm seeing a good number of posts that seem to be intentionally inflammatory, and I'm trying to start not to get involved with them. I only worry about forum reputation of others as a warning of what might be intentionally inflammatory comments. I don't care about my own forum reputation ... but I can't say that I don't look at "reactions received" from time to time. To me, this is the same question as the starting question, so refer to the top of the post. However, maybe I'm missing some subtly in the question.

That's why I indicated /e protest instead of /e holdtorch. I think a peaceful protest is better than trying to burndown City Hall.

Scrappers don't get taunt. Taunt is a Tanker power. Scrappers get a single-target Confront/Warrior's Challenge/Calling the Wolf/etc. that that has a taunt-like affect. (Works like Presence>Challenge) Scrapper>Primary Power Set>Confront/Warrior's Challenge/Calling the Wolf/etc. "Challenges a foe to attack you. Useful to pull a villain off an ally who finds themselves in over their head. A To Hit check is required to Taunt enemy players, but is not needed against critter targets." - https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Energy_Melee#Confront (as an example, but the wording is the same on all Scrapper primary power sets for their Confront/Warrior's Challenge/Calling the Wolf/etc) Presence>Challenge "Challenges a foe to attack you. Use this to pull a foe off of an ally in trouble or away from a mob of foes. Not as effective as a typical Scrapper Confront and Challenge powers. An Accuracy check is required to successfully Challenge a target." - https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Presence#Challenge Scrapper>Primary Power Set>Confront/Warrior's Challenge/Calling the Wolf/etc. works best with range enhancement(s) [since it doesn't require a To Hit check versus non-PVP enemies] so you can use it to pull a single foe out of a mob to attack you. If you see a squishy being attacked, Scrapper>Primary Power Set>Confront/Warrior's Challenge/Calling the Wolf/etc. is powerful enough to agro that target and force them to attack you instead of the squishy. If you are a scrapper and want to agro more than one enemy at time then use Presence>Provoke (https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Presence#Provoke). This does require a To Hit check, so you can somewhat regulate how many you agro by your ACC slotting. But again, this isn't as powerful as a Tanker taunt. These taunt-like powers are not as powerful as a Tanker Taunt. They are not meant to be. Tanks are meant to be the Taunt King. You can, however, slot up these non-tanker taunt-like powers with Threat (Taunt/Placate) Enhancements.

I applaud your enthusiasm, but I was fine with Sentinels even before the changes. There are those that bad-mouth things simply because they like to to bad-mouth things; and those that bad-mouth things simply because "the numbers don't add up" - which come down to the same thing to me. You know what? I'm playing a game to have fun and explore the system and what it can do. I really don't care if the numbers crunch to the highest possible value. I don't care if that is going on with my teammates either. I want to have fun running around with a bunch of heroes fighting together to save whoever, recover whatever, or just defeat the enemy in general (hopefully, by arresting them). Those that feel they are L337 are going to bad-mouth other (characters, builds, archetypes, whatever) or claim how L337 they are. That is just part of being L337. You aren't going to get rid of that by staging some kind of all Sentinel /e protest in Atlas Park (.... and, yeah, there is a history of /e protest in Atlas Park!) Err...what date, time, and server is this protest in Atlas Park suppose to happen?!

With all my running around ... I do have billions of influence. The billions that I do have is squirreled away in items (enhances, recipes, salvage, card packs, and email) on characters, in bases, on the market, and in email. I'm sure most of you know what the term "mule character" means. A "mule" character is one built for the sole-purpose of carrying loot (in all its variations). I don't have any set "mule" characters at this point, but anyone can make thousands of "mule" characters if they want. 34 enhancements with a sale price of 6 million have a market value of over 2 Billion. You can hold 70 enhancements per character in addition to the 2 billion that they can hold on themselves. I haven't run into a limit to the number of card packs that a character can hold. I don't think that I have put more than 100 card packs of a type on a character at any one time - that is 1 Billion on its own (and more so if Winter Packs). I'm sure it's easy enough to create the storage salvage that you are talking about, but, if it goes through the Auction House, I'm assuming it would go through the same "payment" for going through the Auction House as any other kind of salvage ... and that is why you propose having the Merit Kiosk do something that it does not do. The Merit Kiosk only sells, it does not buy. (as far as I know) I don't think it is worth the programing time to add this additional function ot the Merit Kiosk simply to avoid the Auction House fee when that would be a much easier path to implement. I'm not at the pinnacle of marketing, but I see no need to add an addition type of salvage to hold 1B influence and take time to program the merit Kiosk to serve this function. They system already allows me to hold billions. I have no idea how many billions (multiple characters will all their auction house slots full of bids and sales, trays full of crafted items for sale, bases full of crafted items for use and sale, email, card packs...etc.) The storage system for billions is already there in the game (even a level 1 can hold 2 billion; Being renamed does not delete "Excelsior Mule 999" or the 2 billion they are carrying.) I don't see this is as QoL thing, more like a convenience for the 2-percenters who already have way more influence than they need ... or, apparently, know what to do with. (Which doesn't include me as I know what to do with my excess influence)