Leogunner

Just some first impressions: I've never been a fan of "scaling support" type inherents mainly because support is tactical and not always reactive. Sometimes you put out support before it's needed (like FF shields or something like tar patch) and others it's after (like a rez). Relying on a bar built up to increase them feels counter intuitive to support's tactical nature. Also, it gets a power boost type power... Just how weak is this AT's base support? It also doesn't feel intuitive to put power meant to buff support into a powerset that is melee. It'd be like putting Build up into the armor power set. Lastly, why Justicar? The theme has touches of a speedster and 2 power boost effects. It also sounds like the support set would be radically different from normal support variants. Would like to see a full list of one of the sets to get a feel for the AT.

Counter-argument: CoX isn't a good comic book simulator...it never was. It's a good comic character creator tho. What is represented as comic book stories and how represented it is, frankly, shouldn't be considered. CoX is a game first and games tend to revolve around progress and mastery. An argument that diverges from the above is, the game already treats your character as a fleshed-out realized one, narratively (which is what you're arguing). Even as a villain, people treating your character like a chump is mainly a tough face that you usually break past at some points in the story to demonstrate your prowess. And before pointing out a few instances where you're "put in your place", so to speak, only matters if you've got some god complex Mary Sue. If there's one thing Guild Wars 2 kinda got right it's that the whole game is pretty much End-game. Technically, the "building and developing" of your character IS your character because no being is perfect and you're in an arms race against foes out to take you down. There is no "done" if your character has any semblance of intelligence to not fall victim to that one lucky bastard who catches you on a bad day. I've got no argument for the boredom paragraph though. If you just don't want to play that portion of the game, I got nothing. But to me, that "pre-SO/IO slog" has continuously gotten easier and easier the more I've done it to the point I actually enjoy that portion of the game more than re-running the end-game incarnate stuff.

Personally, I think the best way to encourage players to play the content is to give them more content...and customization. Like, if there was a system in the game where playing the content at the appropriate level grants "Rouge's Gallery" or "Arch Nemesis" points (doing them via flashback gives you a discounted amount of points and only 1 time) that can be used to create a custom enemy that sometimes attacks you and your team. These points are not only used to upgrade your rivaled foe's abilities but also grant him custom benefits for fighting them like granting you and your team a small amount of these points, stronger so they're more formidable, groups of cronies that grant bonus inf, exp and/or recipe drops, or even having more than 1 (2, 3 or more) in your list of Arch Nemesis/Rouge's Gallery that will randomly pop up (sometimes even more than 1 of them). Other things to spend these points on are content arc unlocks built for these this system with special rewards and badges (grantable only to those that unlocked them). So the system incentives playing the content when it's available, only grants points to the mission holder (so you have to be running the arc concurrently with the leader), running missions with teammates who have nemesis that will randomly pop in to possibly get some other players more points and have special rewards toward the high level once you've used the points to upgrade your rivaled foes and unlocked their special content. If a player went the quick route and powerleveled past certain levels, they'd have to farm the points which should be balanced to be much slower than just running 2-3 arcs per level range at min (some would go the extra mile and shut off exp to get in 5-7arcs a level range and get all those points). They'd also have dinky rivals that people would 1 shot...they'd almost be an embarrassment to have pop up at all lol.

Ok so people like the idea of a ranged melee teleport. Who would have thought? As for the other ideas posted so far, I like reading new and outside-the-box ideas. Personally speaking though, I don't aim to boost damage (directly or indirectly) unless the set is known for lack of damage. I've always known MA to be a middle-of-the-road DPS-wise set. It doesn't excel at anything (there's usually always a set better than it at things) but it's never the worst. It's got a little of everything for everyone. Some strong KB to make those kicks look painful, mobility hampering skills for the runners, CC for keeping you alive and for the tanks an ability to stack defense. A lot of people are talking about combo mechanics for the set which put a lot of people off. Mechanics like that don't have to be literal combos like Dual Blades or combo points like Street Justice. Things like Radiation Melee's mechanics technically could be considered a combo mechanic or heck, the Stalker Assassin's Focus mechanic is basically SJ's combo point system but limited to 1 power as a spender. There's also concepts like power interactions (kind of like using CAK on a knocked down foe...much easier to land if the foe is KB'ed since they stay down a little longer depending on ragdoll). You can get creative...like if you used the Contamination mechanic from Rad melee and called it "Chi Strike". Striking with Martial Arts attacks has a chance to cut off a target's flow of Chi, lowering their recovery and increase the endurance cost of all their abilities (a reverse END discount...an END tax, so to speak). If you strike foes whose chi is blocked, you gain a stacking END discount (stacked up to 3) and grant END to all allies within a 15ft radius. Technically not a combo, technically nothing meta-breaking but it could be something that would open up builds (Martial Arts + Dark Armor) with alternate slotting. You could also come up with suggestions for more damage but you're rubbing against those that think the damage of MA is fine.

Some extra thoughts on utility: What if Eagle's Claw was a 60ft ranged teleport attack? Make it so the impact+backflip would be near instant but the portion of the animation before that is happening before you teleport. Technically, it's a "leap up" and then BOP! backflip but teleporting is how the mechanic would work. Crippling Axe Kick, I always though, should have some kind of special effect if used on a foe that is knocked down. Imagine if you could apply -special (lowering a foe's ability to buff, debuff and mez) if you knocked them down before crippling them with an axe kick? And I always though Focus Chi could have something like a +mez effect on it that either increases the duration of *specifically* the MA attacks' mez greatly and slightly boosts durations of other mez you dish out for its duration.

Well I was talking about the mechanic of having a whole bunch of different damage types in one set. I don't know how many set vary damage types beyond 3 (if we lump both smashing and lethal as just 1). Not directed at your idea. Very neat. Also wouldn't mind seeing some religious type power effects for CoH too. I say make another thread write-up. Also, I wanted to get into modding CoX too but just got sidelined by my new position's responsibilities, it's gonna take me a few months more to adjust enough to have any motivation.

I remember a powerset suggestion I made on the old forums, Galactic Melee, that was kinda like a Mish mash of cosmic powers as a theme, like Meteor Kick which is a falling attack that does smashing damage and fire DoT, Comet punch which is cold, Void cut which is negative and lethal, etc... All attacks themed after something from space. Your post just reminded me of one of my crappy old ideas.

But Farsight without PB isn't gimped. It's still an effective defense buff when slotted.

And I didn't argue contrary to that. But you also run into the issue of player preference and changing viable characters. It's like in that Energy Melee thread where I was trying to get people to post varied ideas to improve the set, there's a subset of players that don't want bells and whistles added to the set. They just want the old ET animation time. And the bias I was talking about is in regard to your "lethal damage not lethal" thread. I'm assuming you feel the set in question is under performing partly because it does lethal damage, right?

It frankly depends, tho. First point, you yourself are thinking of means to mitigate development by utilizing existing animations for new sets, yes? Do you think a set like Wind Control or a new concept like Atrophy Melee using old animations get more bang for your buck? Which would get you more mileage, Mirror customization for Phantom Army or stronger containment damage on Spectral Wounds? Second point, balance is a difficult thing to maintain so buffs should be scrutinized. Imbalance creates discontent (the more of one, the more of the other). Thirdly, I feel your opinion is a bit biased toward lethal damage. While I do feel lethal damage sets have a hurdle to face, that is more a situation to resolve among foe resistance numbers, not unfairly buffing lethal sets over everyone else.

And this pretty much encapsulates my opinion here. Your view is steeped in late-game min/maxed perspective which, while useful when considering the overall usability in late-game content, is blinded by little things such as concept, 1-50 gameplay, BALANCE, and casual fun. Not saying you cannot perceive these things, but dismissing the knockup/down when, from 12-35, it's likely vital to your survival seems...elitist. The +def is crazy leveling up. And the animation of Soaring Dragon is one of my favorite and most fitting in the set. And which bosses does knockup/down not work on? I know they exist but they aren't as common as the bosses that DO get knocked. It's one of the reasons advocates of Knock- are advocates of knock...because it works on bosses instantly. I'd probably just write this unfortunate misalignment onto build then. Like, what if you swapped the hide proc into GD itself so that the next skill gets to benefit from it? Or, like I said, get a high damaging skill that is ST like Zapp! or Moonbeam. As for the rest, this is exactly why I presume to make GD a longer (or wider, as some suggested) ranged attack, so that it can more easily hit multiple foes so that it can be considered a good AoE. As of now, it's what I call a "luck shoot" which while fun to try to get, it disappointing when you don't. As for hitting people 5 yards away with a sword, perhaps you haven't seen enough anime? If Rending Flurry can hit at 15ft, why can't a 3ft sword? It's not about becoming OP or meta, it's about competing for viable changes. If GD became a 100% crit, there's less opportunity for it to become a viable AoE. I feel NB needs better AoE opportunity than better ST damage. You could say "Why not both?" and I'd say because once you open the gate, the "why not both?" argument then becomes an excuse to be held liable for.

The thing about Kinetics is, back in the day, it didn't seem too out of whack because it doesn't provide much (if any) means of survival and the amount of AoE damage had limitations (crashing nukes, melee sets with mostly ST attacks, no IOs to increase damage and recharge). What makes Kinetics even more OP than it was is everything else which is why I'd say it's grandfathered in. Now that players throw around nukes like nothing, sets with strong amounts of AoE and filling survival limitations with IOs, yeah, I don't think a new modern day Kinetics release would come with a lot of flack.

Are you sure about that? Ninja Blade, while not a spectacular damage set, has great utility with its Knock up, Knock down, +def and the -def in every attack (allowing to slot -res procs). There are sets out there that would be considered lackluster but NB (and by extension Broadsword) are not in that category. And even the so-called "lackluster" sets have their advantages. Then reposition the hide proc. Have you considered other ways to fix this "feel" you have? I asked you multiple times, have you looked at other attacks for your needs? Now I ask, have you thought to swap up your slotting? Nothing you're saying here is justifying breaking the rule that ST attacks are the types that get guaranteed crits. Foolish! Do you know how many players are going to roll Illusion Controllers now JUST because it has the mirror customization option for Phantom Army? Do you know how many players would roll Illusion Control if it were available to Dominators!? I say again, foolish! That's fine. I accept that you made your suggestion. Like I said in my first post, I just disagree with it. As for if it's warranted or not, you've yet to prove. Your only evidence is that it feels particularly bad in your instance. Do you have anymore? You mentioned something about the set underperforming. That would be your next viable argument to back. Well I'm sure having your cake and eating it too has its advantages but...well, we can't all get whatever we want.

You know, I had 50% then edited it to 30% because I remembered 30% from somewhere (maybe was thinking of the old crit chance) but yeah, if you want an example of unnecessarily penalized sets, Spines is one. It loses out on a concept-centric power, Quills (although now, I'd give up Quills for AS any day), it's most powerful ST attack is the moderately slow Impale and it gets a lower crit chance from hide on Spine Burst. It's an exception that works against the set...I'll need to roll up my old Spines/DA Stalker to get back that feeling of how I perceive the set. Although that was way back before Electric Melee was a thing...or inherent stamina (and I excluded fitness on his build). I'll probably rebuild him with a load of procs.

I partially take back my last statement in my previous post. It's mainly an assumption that KM gets a guaranteed crit AoE because of the differences. Unless it was stated at some point... ... But it's odd that the set was released for so long and shipped with that bug for stalkers and yet never fixed. I guess another likely assumption would be it was a bug they just were too lazy to bother with or that stalker was so bad in the metrics, they decided to leave it. Of course that was then... Stalker is a very effective AT now. Some even say it out performs Scrapper.

OK, you say within reason. I think your suggestion isn't within reason because it's asking to break a rule not for the sake of the set being imbalanced, under performing or unnecessarily penalized, but rather you just don't want to use a power meant for the purpose you're asking for (Soaring Dragon). As for changing powers for game longevity, in Coh, longevity is usually achieved by making new powerset, pools or proliferation, not by purposely escalating the power levels. Firstly, GD does crit from hide. Secondly you say it makes the set feel pretty bad. That is the character you built, not the set. The set has a strong ST attack to use from hidden besides AS. Exceptions are good until you give everything a pass then it's no longer an exception. It just means the rule is no longer a rule. FYI, the rule is ST attacks crit from hidden 100%, AoE's is 30%. Kinetic Melee gets a 100% crit AoE because it loses several aspects : a tier 9 that doesn't do extra crit damage, an AoE and a buff power that has stronger damage buff and longer duration. What are you going to give up to get 100%crit GD?

And if everyone just adopts this mentality for whatever buff they feel like suggesting, we get into a whole other realm of power creep. So why can't Eagle's Claw have a narrow cone added as well? And change Eviscerate back so it's also a cone again but also 100% crit's its target from hide? And Burst is a PBAoE that 100% crits all targets, why not make Spine Burst and Mass Levitate and Thunder Strike 100% crit? And then what about Scrappers who are about even with current Stalker? Buff them too? What's to stop runaway buffing like that? As for why the attack would have to become a single target attack, it's because the powers within and across ATs have rules they follow (that being, only single target skills can 100% crit from hide). There are exceptions and I do enjoy exceptions being a thing, breaking the rules for personal convenience is not cool. Have you looked into other ST attacks to fill your build's needs? The snipes do almost as much damage with a shorter cast time.

How does a Super Reflex build get high recharge? Oh, IOs? Yeah, that's outside of the realm of balance discussion on this topic.

That's why I said they'd be the same as the current purple IOs. If, for example, you could slot Coercive Persuasion Legendary into a placate power, it just gives the option to slot that set and get its bonuses. The charged bonus might be that you can also confuse foes with your placate abilities and placate foes with confuse powers. I'm not suggesting create new purple IO sets.

Hmm, a challenging suggestion. Let me just state I'm against incresasing the power curve much further beyond what we have (and in some context, culling some of that power). So what if we had Legendary IOs...but they were exactly like the current purple IOs we have? The difference is, maybe there is a bonus they have that you have to charge somehow to use (so their advantage would be temporary...maybe like 1 hour)? Another advantage? Maybe slottable in a slightly more diverse amount of powers?

How many AoEs outside of Kinetic Melee's Burst, do you use out of hide? Ah, I've uncovered the actual intent of the suggestion! I still don't agree. It entirely depends if you use the ATO instant recharge and actually use CS from hide. From posts I've read, some don't even bother taking CS at all because of its cast time. And you still have to factor in the cast time of BU itself. With the ATO, I find myself often times foregoing using BU because it recharges so often, I'd rather not waste the +dmg of the BU I just used or find myself without BU when moving to the next hard target. I'm not saying it's not useful, just saying it's a general utility aspect of the set, just like having a high damage narrow cone (which I'd prefer being able to more reliably capable of hitting 3 targets) or a moderate damage PBAoE like some sets get. Does it? NB has Flashing Steel which is a wide arc capable of easily hitting over 3 foes, with a relatively fast cooldown and cast. Also, NB gets to cap it's melee and lethal defense which Stalker MA cannot. And please don't spout bull about optimal attack chains since that is literally only taking into account a minute portion of a perspective of gameplay and powerset composition. If you don't like using [EDIT]Soaring Dragon, pick up Moonbeam or something. Have you looked into alternatives for high damage ST attacks to use after your AS placate? Namely Street Justice. It has decent AoE and it is one of the top sets for Stalker ST. Whether that is fair to other sets would then be the course of that argument if you want to head in that direction. You probably don't want to go there, IMO. You don't want to stress the point because if you did, you'd notice that your point falls short. Every set DOESN'T get a 100% crit tier 9 skill. Claws and Spines get cones that get AoE crit chances (Claws even gets docked some of its AoE damage by turning Eviscerate into a long cast ST attack instead of a 90 degree cone). Dual Blades is also a long cast cone with good control. Ice Melee gets a PBAoE with sleep. Psionic Melee is a PBAoE Knock up. Rad Melee is a PBAoE stun. Savage is a teleport PBAoE. And Elec Melee is a teleport PBAoE that has zero chance to ever crit. To emphasize my point, tier 9s are not uniform. Cool, well I'd like my Ninja Blade character to still have his AoE because to get 100% crit on GD, you have to turn it into a single target attack.

Correction: it has the same crit rate as AoEs out of hide. It can crit and it does get a higher crit chance out of hide, it's just not 100% Use Soaring Dragon. The damage isn't that far off. This has a lot of quirks to unpack: Energy Melee doesn't really benefit much from using Energy Transfer from hide since it cannot crit (it only avoids the self damage) and Total Focus gets a partial crit. Kinetic Melee also doesn't get extra damage, just an instant recharge on Build up when it crits. Martial Arts does get its full effect from Eagle's Claw. The caveat is the set has 0 AoE. ZERO. I think the only one out of your examples that might strengthen your suggestion is Street Justice which is unfortunate since it's basically upgraded Martial Arts. I'll help you out. Your list stops at Staff Fighting, Dark Melee, and Fire Melee. Every other set (there's 12 sets out of 17 sets) gets an AoE or an attack that partially crits or grants a benefit other than double damage when it crits. I disagree. I'd prefer the range just be increased by about 5 ft.

Also, Siphon Life is a "reach out and pull" animation. For kinetic melee, it was the first set I thought of when mentioning the whole concept and its -dmg secondary effect. Not saying more than one set can't have -dmg but also the general concept that the attacks don't necessarily have to punch/touch the enemy to relay their effect. This touches on a concept I had for means of creating new sets that conform the the animation times of another set so that the animations of either set could be utilized for either set (ex: Battle Axe's 1-handed animation and a concept set that uses 2-handed animations so one could make a 2-handed Battle Axe user or a 1-handed version of the concept set)....the difference is kind of partial reverse though. You're looking to make a set that might borrow animations but different particles and effects. For instance, I could see Kinetic Melee filling a lot of your needs animation wise, but the effects could be changed from disorient and knockdown to slow and...I dunno, sleep? (maintaining the -dmg). May not fulfill the various "touch" motif but still conveys a similar concept...On the other hand, using the template of dark melee with maybe 2 or 3 animations changed (you might be able get away with just a version of Soul Drain but extended by 1 sec) and the rest just copying DM's animations with just the effects swapped. Not sure where else to take the discussion, either the concept of making "borrowed sets", "booster sets" (pouring effort into new animations but with the prospect of conforming them to old sets so old sets can also benefit from new stuff) or the effects and powers an atrophy type draining set could have. Personally speaking, I'd think the whole atrophy effect would work great as a support set, especially if you could drain a group or target and have some differentiating factors (like if they are at high health or what their rank is or maybe even enemy type/faction) that once debuffed, you can then apply that siphoned power to an individual on your team.

Whether that'd happen or not is yet to be seen because the situation doesn't exist. For all I know, harassment could occur from it. But I don't really agree fully with that rationality anyway. I could see skilled users with a no-animation/cast toggle like described as being very powerful and useful... ...but I don't want the toggle because you people don't need more power (I'm talking about everyone: those that would utilize controlled KB and KB>KD swapping on the fly, and elitists who must keep everything contained in tiny balls to mindlessly AoE stuff down). If you want your KB to be KD, slot for it like you do now. End of story.

You're familiar with "/". The way English works is punctuation can change the meaning of a sentence. "Where's my Stalker with Taunt and damage auras?" means both my interpretation and yours. If I were to re-write your sentence to be clearer, I'd have typed "Where's my Stalker with taunt/damage auras?" as this is a common short-hand that either word/phrase with the "/" between them can be substituted in the sentence to convey the context. That or "Where's my Stalker taunt aura and damage aura?" Anyway, isn't there a taunt aura incarnate ability? Use that. I don't understand why people feel polls mean anything. At best, it means you can see the opinions of the few people who bothered to both read the post and felt like contributing to a useless gesture. At best, polls are forum games and should be treated as such.