Sakura Tenshi

Bit of a foreword As the title says, this is a bit of a conceptualization for my idea of a Shotgun based ranged powerset for Blasters, Corruptors, Defenders, Sentinels, and even a modified version for Dominator Assault. I confess that aside from increased character conceptual freedom, there's not too many big positives immediately obvious for such a set with Assault Rifle, Dual Pistols, and Arachnos soldier already in game for ranged lethal sets, the only big positive, which might be a negative to some, is that it shouldn't need any new animations. I also want to note that while I didn't want to use names which would imply the type of shotgun used, as this would likely use the same weapon customization options as Assault Rifle and other such set, I opted to just go 'we ball', also, I can see this as a VERY AoE heavy ranged set. Blaster, Corruptor, Sentinel, and Defender version Snakeshot: (Ranged, DMG Minor Lethal, Foe Knockdown, Rech: 3.5 sec, Special) - A modified cartridge meant to dispatch with pests and vermin than people dealing minor damage, Underling tier enemies are hit for double damage. Sabot Round: (Ranged, DMG Moderate lethal, -Def, Rech: 6.5 sec) - A shaped slug inside of a shell, it possesses greater range and accuracy though lack the pure stopping power of other shotgun round. Slug: (Ranged, DMG high Lethal, Foe Knockback, Rech: 8 sec) - Fires a single Slug at a targeted foe. Firing a single Slug is slower than firing a Burst, but it deals more damage, is longer range, and can knock down foes. (pretty much taken from assault rifle) Buckshot: (Ranged (Cone), DMG moderate Lethal, Foe Knockback. Rech: 8 sec, Special) - Fires a cone of Buckshot pellets and can knock some foes down. Deals bonus damage to targets within 15-feet. Rock Salt: (Ranged (Cone), DMG minor lethal/toxic, Foe Sleep, Rech: 10 sec, Special) - You blast your enemies with a shell of rock salt, dealing little damage but causing them to writhe on the ground in pain. Rock salt shot is also extremely effective against true undead. (The 'sleep' animation for this would be the Ghoul Tantrum emote on a loop until hit,. figured it'd be sleep than hold since I felt once reminded they're in a fight most enemies would start to power through it. Also thought it'd be interesting to have a power besides ghost slaying axe that dealt extra damage to true undead since we have attacks that deal bonus damage to robots) Aim: +Damage +ToHit (I kind of panicked on ideas here) Flak Shot: (Ranged (Targeted AoE), DMG moderate Fire/Lethal, Foe -fly, -jump, knockdown, Rech: 16 sec) - You fire off a round with a shrapnel explosive that forces aerial foes to ground. Dragon's Breath: (Ranged (Cone), DMG high DoT Fire, Foe Fear, Special, Rech 20 sec) - A special shotgun shell that unleashes a single gout of flame that engulfs and ignites opponents, burning them over a long period and sending them into a panic. Further, enemies on fire have a chance to inflict minor fire damage overtime to additional foes they stand too close too. (Based a bit on real dragon's breath rounds and a meme thread (Warning, NSFW language.) Slam Fire: (Ranged (cone), DMG Superior DoT Lethal, Foe, -damage, -accuracy, -recharge, knockdown, Rech: 75 sec) - Unload eight consecutive shots from your shotgun in quick succession over a wide cone. The volume of flying lead shot knocks enemies down and disrupts their aim and fire reducing their accuracy and damage. Dominator Shotgun Assault Snakeshot: (Ranged, DMG Minor Lethal, Foe Knockdown, Rech: 3.5 sec, Special) - A modified cartridge meant to dispatch with pests and vermin than people dealing minor damage, minion tier enemies are hit for double damage. Buttstroke: (Melee, DMG moderate Smash, Foe Disorient,) - A smash with the butt of your shotgun with a high chance of disorienting. Both Barrels: (Melee, Damage High, lethal/fire, foe Knockback, Rech: 8 sec) - Unleash two shots in quick succession at point blank range) Flechette Shot: (Ranged Cone, DMG high DoT Lethal, Foe -def, Rech 10 sec) - You fire a shell loaded with sharp razors, slicing up foes and inflicting high lethal damage over time. Power Up Spinning Strike: (Melee (Targeted AoE), Heavy DMG(Smash), Foe Knockdown) You execute a spinning attack that first strikes with your fist and finally your heel hitting your foe and all enemies immediately nearby. Spinning Strike deals Heavy Smashing damage and has a high chance to knockdown foes. Skeet Shot: (Sniper, DMG extreme Lethal, Foe Knockback): Using a specially shaped slug, you take aim with a long distance shot with your gun. Like most sniper attacks, you must take your time to aim, so this attack can be interrupted. If you are engaged in battle this attack becomes instant-cast. If you are not engaged, it will do bonus damage. No Mercy: (Melee, DMG superior smash/lethal, foe Knockdown, Rech: 24 sec) - With a sweep of your shotgun you knock your foe to the ground and unload your shotgun while they're prone on the ground. (Animation wise, I imagined sort of a trimmed down version of the buttstroke that just has the forward sweep, followed with the DP executioner shot) 12 Gauge: (Ranged Cone, DMG Superior, lethal/fire, foe knockback, Rech: 16 sec) - You fire a shotgun shell mixed with burning phosphorus, setting them ablaze. I admit, I'm not a theorycrafter, so damage and recharge could us adjustment. And to be honest, the original idea for a Shotgun blast set would have involved a toggle that switches between full bore and full choke, changing some single target attacks into cones, but as I wrote out more, there didn't seem to be enough Single Target attacks to exactly justify it, and I kind of panicked. Though the main blast set itself does contain a number of powers I think are kind of interesting for some of their niche specialties like anti-air, anti-undead, and anti-underling tier.

@Troo and @Forager You want the actual difference of a ninja blade and a katana or the in-game one? Because the in-game is really just that ninja blade is sheathed on the back instead of the hip. Also the default model is a slightly smaller, straighter blade.

Tanker Ninjutsu: include Kage Bushin, indestructible clones that just hold aggro. Instantly best tank set.

My top desires are for some more casual clothing options: hoodies (zipper and pullover types) and turtleneck sweaters/jumpers varsity jackets t-shirts with overhang past the hips. similarly, maybe some basketball jersey type tanktops. better t-shirt textures for women. (Same with Tanker top) Flipflop sandals for all bodies (I think girls have one), can be normal thing type or the strapped hiking variety. a bunch of more hair styles but especially for guys (just adjust Maelstrom and Foreshadow’s hairs and give it to players, they’re plenty unique outside of their hairs!)

I think stalker theme can be a lot more flexible than we first realized, myself included. Of course we always think of the ninja, but you know another type of sneaky executioner type of villain? Slasher movie antagonists. Appear out of nowhere, butcher someone in a gory manner, and vanish with seemingly no trace. And many times they seem a lot tougher than normal for the duration that do appear (Jason, perhaps?) thus, you can have invulnerability stalkers or regen stalkers you can't keep down. Its why I think Titan Weapons, Battle Axe, and War Mace are perfectly acceptable stalker sets.

Gennedy Tartakovsky or Trigger studios for my characters. Probably the former for Gaia Redeemer and the latter for Tuxedo Cat.

Way back on live I imagined a 'Classic Villainous Mastermind' set, which went something like Single Shot (Blaster Beam Rifle) Soldiers (Mastermind Mercenaries) Charge Shot (Blaster Beam Rifle) Equip power (Any mastermind set) Refractor Beam (Sentinel Beam Rifle) Jounin (Mastermind Ninjas) Seeker Drones (Defender Traps) Assault Bot (Masterind Robotics) Upgrade power (Any mastermind) I do realize I broke the rules a bit with using actual beam rifle attacks and not quite in the same tier, but I was more trying to get it in line with an otherwise normal mastermind set. But the idea is that you have your basic soldier mooks, then the 'elite' ninjas, and finally your 'Secret, ultimate weapon' as the pets. I kind of winged it for the level 18 power because I wasn't entirely sure what would work best.

Eeeeeehhhh. I’m not much a theory crafter, but I guess if I were told to go nuts, I’d make it so while rage is active, Knockout Blow and maybe Haymaker became melee targeted AoEs to help with Super Strength’s lackluster AoE. But I really don’t think it actually NEEDS it.

Don't get me started- Oh, too late. I do agree Redside's popularity probably suffers a lot from the overly oppressive and gloomy aesthetics, and while I get that sort of was the point when it was designed, it does undercut a desire to hang out there. There is also writing issues of just "there's all kinds of ways to be a villain" but that's a story for another time, but it does contribute with Arachnos' shadow cast over the player from 1-50 and even endgame with zero reprieve. (No one complained about the Freedom Phalanx, to my knowledge, because most people didn't even start in Galaxy City) Arachnos bases are absolutely hideous and highly impractical, for one is the schizophrenic flooring which seems unable to decide between non-slip grates and honeycomb metal grating (and while forcing female personnel to wear stillettos? Really?) or the fact that the bases are filled with random drops and rises in elevation with no means to ascend or descend that doesn't involve jumping your own body height, the massive, ugly pipes sticking out everywhere with no apparent purpose (seriously, what's Lord Recluse directing through them? Sewage? Incarnate juice?) that even extends outside of Arachnos bases, and honestly I wonder Lord Recluse took over his own country just to escape OSHA. So, my ideas for an actual solution, which I won't be so crazy as to call a full suggestion as it would involve some heavy work and map changes and even story adjustments would probably be something like: Villains start out in a small 'town' built around the Ferry port, giving quick access to other places similar to Atlas Plaza's tram accessibility. For a bit of a gag, newly rolled villains spawn right in the water. Being implied Arachnos booted you out of a flier and into the ocean in a literal 'sink or swim' test. The plaza should have proper buildings, albeit look a bit rough like Kings Row or so, but still livable and have a direct connection to Mercy above, preferrably something more like a road ramp (afterall the new starting plaza is a small town built around docks) instead of just those tiny lifts. Mercy itself should probably be cleaned up a bit to look nicer as it's the area Arachnos has directly invested in and where they're letting the 'elites' of Mercy island live on So you basically end up with a kind of clean trisectional of Rogue isle society: the new Docktown basically being 'middle society', Mercy represents the upper strata, and then you have the ruined urban sprawl of the rest of Darwin's landing, broken up further with Fort Darwin and the Water Treatment plant area. Other suggestions for improving Redside are kind of bias, but focus on my two favorite zones and are a lot more vague: Tidying up St. Martial and Nerva Archipelago, including updated buildings and vegetation Change the sky box from the normal Rogue Isle overcast to the Praetorian skybox for more the 'tropical island' feeling

Not exactly hated for objective purposes, but there’s a hallway/room of tech labs that has the diagonal columns, ending in a door, and I notice there’s a huge among of spawns crammed in close to one another making it hard to take them down one by one if you’re solo and in bigger teams can actually result in faceplants.

Carnival of Shadows be like: Are we NOT a joke to you?

Hmmm... I've more got ideas for adding and revamping old groups, but I will say I've had some ideas for purely original ones, I'll give an overview but only really delve into one. The Thule Society: Basically meant to serve as a villainous counterpart to the Midnighters. Their magic isn't as flashy and grand as Circle or even Legacy chain, but it is meant to involve plenty of debuffs and unusual effects light locational pseudopets. All in all, the core of it was just to have it so Villains wouldn't need to work with the Midnight squad and visa versa. Historically, the Thule Society would even have interest in fighting against the Fifth Column in Cimerora anyway as they were among the groups hunted during the Night of Long Knives. The Black Cats Gang: Meant to be a low level, classy crime syndicate of ladies in black leather coats, martial arts, blades, and guns, in a lot of ways they have a lot in common with the Praetorian Syndicate but the idea pre-dated Issue 18 on live. Admittedly it was also to add a bit of gender equality among enemies, something we see has started to adjust itself so... They kind of lost their place, especially with the third group. The Etoile Resistance: This is a newer idea I had, basically a low to midlevel group of citizens in the Rogue Isles who are rising up against villains and especially Arachnos, partly the idea being just letting villains have more 'heroic' groups to fight. And these are the ones I'll go into detail on. The Etoile Resistance Living under an oppressive tiger-eat-dog system of social darwinism that runs the Rogue Isles without any semblance of safety or consistency, even from supposed police forces, has left the populous coming together under mutual protection and even revolution. Aided by groups like Longbow, the UPA, Dockworkers, and even some types of supervillains and vigilantes who with ideals or see Arachnos as standing in the way, they also drive off just as much aid for their willingness to cooperate with groups like Crey, Freakshow/Freakalok, Sky Raiders, and more to gain the edge needed to bring down Lord Recluse and his generals, creating a mercurial and tense relationship. For his part, Recluse has a surprising respect for the group, though it is not one which he gives quarter to these rebels with the only courtesy being he never asks for any in return. Arachnos orders are clear: Etoile Resistance is to be exterminated on sight by all who wish to be on his good side. Subverting Arachnos' power requires more than just weapons and willpower, though, the group has managed to contract and train under UPA and refugee Syndicate pskyers and other sensitive groups to not only mask their presence from Seers but even assault the network directly, with this, they strike fast and from shadows and retreat as quickly, leaving a wake of devastation behind. They also are heavily dependent on working together, resulting in strong teamwork, meaning it can be important to separate squads to divide and conquer. Mob ideas - Minion: The basic minion members of the Etoile Resistance would be armed with shotguns, pistols, and SMGs, augmenting the damage they deal with incindiary rounds and shot to burn through the polymer armors used by groups around the Isles that might try to stop them. Along with this, it has the benefit of missed shots helping in their goal of torching structures. At higher levels they'll make use of molotovs to create burn patches of area denial. Stat wise, they would be weaker than normal minions of their level and even have a rare weakness to smashing and lethal damage due to being dressed mostly in civilian clothing, but they do have a decent resistance to psionic and toxic damage, the latter being an antivenom counter to their main enemies. Their teamwork also is represented as a self-defense buff that's basically phalanx fighting from shield defense. Lastly, at higher levels, they start keeping emergency medical stims that they'll use to help keep eachother alive (probably on an extremely long recharge so you'd only see them do it once and require they 'cast in melee' with their target) A slight outlier of the minion ranks is an unconventional foe: the spotter. Spotters possess good perception and help alert their allies of stealthed enemies, but more than that, they favor a unique weapon: the flare gun. The specialized flares they fire not only burn bright, but are designed to stick to surfaces as they burn, in this case: a living target. It deals only a moderate amount of damage overtime, but it debuffs a target's stealth abilities making it impossible to hide, and to make things worse, it also ggives them a powerful taunt aura that can override the taunts of tanks and brutes and these spotters have a knack for finding the weak links in parties. Dispatch quickly to avoid calling the attention of a hideout. This is really all I have at the moment, was also thinking at higher levels you'd have bosses who use pieces from PPD shells mixed with a bit of Freakshow and IDF, showing they have committed themselves to their cause by being just a torso in an armor. They're largely natural and tech, but not afraid to delve into mutations, science, and magic. If I fleshed this out I might include a few of such members in the group. The bottom line is just a sort of personal enemy for villains, at least from their standpoints. All the others are ideological, for these guys, they see every Destined One and Arachnos soldier as a blight on the islands.

Hmm, I used Triple H once as a faceclaim for Gaia Redeemer in another RP setting, but he’s also a lot older in that one. I might go with Chris Hemsworth but I think he might still be a bit old for the City of version I imagine. Of course, this doesn’t go into potentially casting past incarnations of Gaia Redeemer which might come up, but that’s a bridge to be crossed.

I kind of despise the logic some players have that "it's good for a powerset to have shitty picks because it makes it easier to skip!" like, that is the dumbest argument to avoid buffing something ever.

Still got money on them having Malta ties (admittedly have not played all the new arcs yet). As a side note, okay, so the 'don't fight where they spawn' aspect was on purpose. Which kind of makes an early bug I had reported about the shield drones not moving feel like it had been intentional. Also, as I keep saying, while I understand why, as someone who likes to play swordfighters and martial artists, it stings to see yet another mob with "big, fat, Smash/lethal resistance".

So, I have an idea for a Medieval Mastermind set, though I got variants of each tier in mind and one's pretty pie-in-the-sky. Tier 1 Pet A😞 Archers - Straight forward archers, their real bonus is they get rain of arrows when upgraded and can basically pincushion huge groups of enemies 'for the cheap'. Tier 1 Pet B): Footmen - Dudes with shields and maces, I imagined their two big ups is that they have phalanx fighting and grant cover, so like thugs, they work best when all together, but also fully upgraded ones would have Shatter and be able to stack -res on crunchier targets. Tier 1 Pet C): Levies - These would be dudes with spears, starting out two-handing them but upgrading to shield and spear, obviously meaning there's animation issues here. But like the above footmen, the idea would be they help support the rest of the pets with grant cover buffs and support eachother as well. Tier 2 pet A): Man-at-arms - Basically the footmen from above with one of the others being used for tier 1. Tier 2 pet B) Paladin - Sword and shield equipped knight, they'd actually only be moderately for offense with their main boon being support they add with a HoT and Mez Resist AoE buff. Downsides would be being too similar to Grave Knights and footmen or levies. Tier 2 pet C): Cannoneers/petardiers - Firearms aren't often thought of when it comes to medieval, but early firearms have been in Europe since the mid-14th century or so (Joan of Arc was also pretty known for being fond fielding cannons), in this case these guys would be carrying a 'heavy hand cannon' (held like the miniguns or Resistance Heavy Barrels) and dispense heavy ranged damage to enemies and potentially other things. Tier 3 pet: Champion - Basically, heavily armored dude with a greatsword (Titan weapons). Awe-inspiring to allies and fear inducing to foes. The personal weapon for this MM set would probably be a crossbow, possibly with the personal attack gimmick being the arrows are 'fire arrows' for extra damage, but also as a signal to archers (non-entity ones only implied to exist) to shoot a burst of arrows on the location making each attack have a small chance for an AoE bonus damage. Not sure what the 'special flavor' power would be exactly, maybe either some form of rallying standard/blowing a horn?

Well, I don't know how feasible some of these are but I'll try to keep it within what I think the devs might be able to do: Powers: Water and/or Kinetic Assault: I think this could be done with existing assets and some retextures. My big concern is actually that they'd be similar to one another that one would kind of exclude the other. Adjustments to Masterminds to improve viability in high end gameplay. Maybe another pass over Sentinels because Opportunity really doesn't feel that helpful in many situations. But this is my personal outlook and others might be able to say otherwise. Arsenal Mastery APP added to Stalkers, Scrappers, Tanks, and Brutes. Bonus idea: ranged attacks for Stalkers in AM would be with dual pistols, scrappers use Assault Rifle, and Brutes and tanks use shotguns. Prismatic Aether rewards: Embiggen! The opposite of the mini-mode, makes your character 50% or even 100% bigger than possible in the character creator. Incarnate system: New Judgements, Interfaces, and/or lore pet options. The former two could use some things that fill in missing damage types, also psionic interface's DoT is pretty weak, if I recall, as a penalty for being psionic. Judgement ideas could include: Photonic Judgement (call down a beam of light for energy damage. Kill sat effect. basically. Also Septic Judgement for toxic and Psionic Judgement) Something to do with loose incarnate threads and shards besides inspirations. Maybe we could cash them in for some prismatic aether particles or something? Costumes: Hoodie sweater top with shoulder options for it being down or using hood options to give it a hood. Also having open, closed, and pull-over variants. Varsity Letterman Jacket Leather loafer footwear, both clean and buckled variety. Skirts and kilts with monstrous legs Enemies: Expand on the level range of Legacy Chain so villains don't have to keep fighting CoT for high level magic origin foes. 'Human' boss for Skyraiders: just gonna plug this old idea Mission Architect: Rogue Paragon Police added to the critter list Adjustments to EXP/rewards distribution of custom critter powers. EAT/VEAT powers added Player bases: Sand and snow floor tiles and mounds Police vehicles

Golden roller, is that you?

You know what I mean: a human outside of a vehicle.

Scenes like this just seem increasingly silly to me as time goes on. I mean, yes, those are also Nemesis Automatons, but this also isn't the first or only of such things like this in the game.

not really infiltration, I think, more just restoring their numbers. I do find it odd that Rikti are a race if powerful psychics and the lost even use psionic conditioning, but we never hear about them influencing things via mind control.

I think the way Ouroboros operates is that they basically send you into a 'new' timeline where you make changes and basically 'save' and 'edit it in' later. So basically, out of thousands, potentially millions of runs through flashback TFs and and storyarcs, maybe a tiny percentage actually makes it into the main timelines we end up occupying. So that TF you abandoned because you kept faceplanting during that fight does not make the 'final cut' of history.

Randomly want to add something I've had an idea for in my head for years. Not sure how well the City of Heroes engine could handle such a thing, but the gist of it is a rather sizeable overhaul of how certain instanced mission maps play out. Offices were the main idea when I thought of this but I could see it working for some other map types like Arachnos and Longbow bases: Elevators/multiple floors are at the center of this. Namely elevators can now travel between all floors on a mission map. The caveat is that once you use it to get to a floor, the elevator is locked down until you clear all enemies on the floor (or perhaps find some security override, more on that later) But if you got the wrong floor once, there'd be other forms of getting between floors depending on the size of the mission map/number of floors. These would be things like fire-stairs, maintenance shafts, air ducts ("how does your max size minotaur fit in?" You figure that out!) and so on. Each time you use one though, that method also gets locked until you do the floor clear or security override. This would also mean bosses and other key objectives wouldn't always spawn in on the top floor (afterall, if this kind of thing happens a lot, it might make sense enemies holding up will act less predictably) Real pie-in-the-sky is that for these kinds of missions, there'd be two entrance doors, one at the ground level and another through the roof. Another aspect would be maps would now include sort additional paths and even 'bonus objectives' unrelated to the mission nature. One of these default bonus objectives would be security stations on each floor where you would be able to do things like shut down automated defenses, open up shutters/unlock doors/deactivate forcefields, maybe even get a helpful guide to your actual objectives. (like a chat message revealing the floor(s) they're on), and as mentioned, override lockdowns. (figure you can only have these Security stations do one action per-stationn/floor) Hallways might be blocked off by security shutters, forcefields, locking doors, and even makeshift barricades. Some of these you can slug it out and just smash through with your powers. Sometimes these barriers might not spawn in until you've completed a certain objective (like if you're kidnapping/rescuing a hostage), As mentioned above, turrets would be more common. Basic automated security systems to provide protection for a facility that you can shut down or claim them for yourself (not sure when or where that'd be appropriate) Lastly, for heroes these bonus objectives can be rescuing civilians not held hostage, but still trapped in a dangerous place or for villains, looting safes and other caches for a bit of personally appointed bonus pay.

Honestly, the fact that Perez Park's surrounding buildings seem in pretty good condition has honestly made me surprised it counts for a hazard zone. Part of why I even suggested that in twenty one years it'd become a normal zone was that, plus a lot of the gangs there both in canon and my own scenario would have become non-issues. Circle of Thorns were apparently massively weakened due to being disembodied souls and Mot basically feasting on them on breaking out during the DA arcs (might not be helped since it seems implied the empowerment of the Tsoo wasn't just their own ancestors but bonding Oranbegan souls too. But that's just my inference) Hydra and Lost would probably be getting rounded up with Rikti traditionalist and Midnighter aid. Vazhilok has been drawn away into Freakalok stuff combined with Vazhilok having been vanquished back in a level 15 or so arc and the Posi TF. Clockwork aggression may have a drop-off due to the events of the Signature Story Arc 2 and Penny having a talk to with CK (possibly getting help) Now outside of those canon things, my headcanon adds: Hellions would have largely disintegrated into smaller, independent gang cells due to loss of faith in leadership (which might also lead to said leadership, if still around, trying to purge them back into line) Skulls seem to be moving onto bigger things, though given the Petrovich siblings apparently grew up there, they might retain a presence as one of the few original gangs. But also the devastation of Skyway city and possibly Steel Canyon in my own timeline would basically prove to be far more appealing places for small gangs to migrate to.

Storywise, I do agree: thugs should be thugs. But this is a situation where gameplay and lore might always find themselves at odds. It'd be a bit unfair to make someone who views their character as 'street level' only allowed to run actual and appropriate content via ouroboros or push them into fighting the same cosmic threats as all the cosmic tier metas. But let's also not forget that this debate was kind of settled back on live in a lot of ways with Freakshow who, cybernetics or not, are really just thugs, still being threats from levels 20 to 50, even in the old City of Villains teaser trailer, the Freedom Phalanx was struggling against Freaks. But then you have other examples in game with the Family having been pushed up to level 50 before the game shuttered, even Skulls were implied to be a growing threat (and why not? Superadyne apparently can do a heck of a lot more than just make someone strong like the Trolls, in lore it's part of how dimensional travel was figured out. It basically seems like a synthetic well of furies in many ways) which seems to be how things are panning out over on the beta server. And in the end, whether something is a 'street thug' or a 'cosmic threat' seems more about how they're written in the grand scheme. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, force users are supposed to be fearsome and powerful opponents in the setting, but of non-force user classes, only the Imperial Agent truly gives the sense of frustrating helplessness and the catharsis of overcoming such opponents, and that's strictly in their class story. Side quests can then treat force users as little more than common mooks for anyone to mow through like B1s from the prequels.