Stalker/Ninja Blade/Golden Dragonfly Change

[TC]

Ninja Blade has a niche problem that many probably don't care about but it's a rather huge flaw with the set that can be fixed easily. Quite simply, Golden Dragonfly does not crit when attacking out of hide. The reason for this is because GD is a cone, and not a single target attack. But it is a tiny cone, and rarely used as a cone. The cone is a rare occurrence that feels kind of cool when it happens, but is not really much of a feature of the power. Unfortunately, this small "feature" makes it so that GD does not crit when used out of hide. Which, when compared to many other sets, is a massive drawback that is pretty unnecessary. Just about every stalker uses AS out of hide, but this is then followed up typically with a placate and then their quintessential level 32 power for even more burst. For Street Justice this is Crushing Uppercut, for Energy Melee it's Energy Transfer OR Total Focus, for Kinetic Melee it's Concentrated Strike, for Martial Arts it's Eagle's Claw. The list goes on; just about every set (except for Broad Sword, that has the same exact issue that Ninja Blade has) their 32 extreme damage power does, in fact, crit when used out of hide or placate. Many of these powers already have a leg up on Golden Dragonfly simply because they're not S/L. My proposed change is simply to allow Golden Dragonfly to get the auto-crit when used from hide or placate; it feels really bad as-is. Especially considering the unique Stalker AT IO that randomly grants auto-hide... when you're in the flow of a rotation and you get that auto-hide just before you use GD and don't get the benefit of the IO proc because GD doesn't crit out of that randomly granted hide... that feels really, really bad.

 

Tl;Dr: Golden Dragonfly doesn't crit when used out of hide due to a small technicality and it's unnecessarily harsh.

 

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[Leogunner]

3 hours ago, TC said:

Ninja Blade has a niche problem that many probably don't care about but it's a rather huge flaw with the set that can be fixed easily. Quite simply, Golden Dragonfly does not crit when attacking out of hide.

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%

 

3 hours ago, TC said:

But it is a tiny cone, and rarely used as a cone. The cone is a rare occurrence that feels kind of cool when it happens, but is not really much of a feature of the power. Unfortunately, this small "feature" makes it so that GD does not crit when used out of hide. Which, when compared to many other sets, is a massive drawback that is pretty unnecessary.

Use Soaring Dragon.  The damage isn't that far off.

 

3 hours ago, TC said:

Just about every stalker uses AS out of hide, but this is then followed up typically with a placate and then their quintessential level 32 power for even more burst. For Street Justice this is Crushing Uppercut, for Energy Melee it's Energy Transfer OR Total Focus, for Kinetic Melee it's Concentrated Strike, for Martial Arts it's Eagle's Claw.

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.

 

3 hours ago, TC said:

The list goes on; just about every set (except for Broad Sword, that has the same exact issue that Ninja Blade has) their 32 extreme damage power does, in fact, crit when used out of hide or placate.

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.

 

3 hours ago, TC said:

My proposed change is simply to allow Golden Dragonfly to get the auto-crit when used from hide or placate; it feels really bad as-is. Especially considering the unique Stalker AT IO that randomly grants auto-hide... when you're in the flow of a rotation and you get that auto-hide just before you use GD and don't get the benefit of the IO proc because GD doesn't crit out of that randomly granted hide... that feels really, really bad.

 

Tl;Dr: Golden Dragonfly doesn't crit when used out of hide due to a small technicality and it's unnecessarily harsh.

 

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

I disagree.  I'd prefer the range just be increased by about 5 ft.

[TC]

37 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

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%

If this is true, through countless hours of play-testing it's really not much higher, and doesn't affect my point much.

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Use Soaring Dragon.  The damage isn't that far off.

This is where we get into the nitty gritty of Ninja Blade/Katana. People who are really passionate about NB/Katana do not take Soaring Dragon as it's actually sort of bad. It has by far the longest animation time out of all of the single-target abilities in the powerset (which is what NB/Kat does) and when you do the math on an IO'd character it's actually a DPS loss. GD (the main selling point for the entire set, aesthetically and ability-wise) has a recharge and animation time that is extremely quick and fits perfectlywith Sting of the Wasp/Gamblers Cut, which all combine together to charge up the AS 100% crit Stalker passive incredibly fast. SD is a net-loss on DPS for NB/Katana. I'd like to say that hey, maybe it's worth taking to take advantage of the hide proc, but the reflexes to stop the regular attack chain to utilize it would be insane as the regular attack chain for NB/Kat moves extremely fast; it's the main selling point for the set. Also, to top it all off, SD knocks a lot of enemies into the air high enough that your attack chain is broken for about a second.

 

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Kinetic Melee also doesn't get extra damage, just an instant recharge on Build up when it crits.

This is still a very useful reason to go for the guaranteed crit.

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Martial Arts does get its full effect from Eagle's Claw.  The caveat is the set has 0 AoE.  ZERO.

So... this kind of supports the idea that Ninja Blade should probably excel at ST, especially considering AoE is meta, and that GD deserves to crit out of hide, like MA Eagle's Claw does.

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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.

So, both MA and SJ support my argument.

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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.

Staff Fighting gets Sky Splitter, Dark Melee gets Midnight Grasp, Fire Melee has Greater Fire Sword. Fire Melee is the best comparison; Greater Fire Sword is a Fire attack that, according to MIDS, does more base damage than GD, AND it's fire/lethal, AND it gets the auto crit out of hide. I said I could go on, I just didn't want to stress the same point for every set. I guess I had to though. Again, a partial crit is still a crit. TF from EM partially critting from the hide proc or from placate is still really, really useful compared to GD's... well, very little crit boost.

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I disagree.  I'd prefer the range just be increased by about 5 ft.

 

Er.... I'd like my Ninja Blade character to remain a melee toon and not whack people with a sword that has a 5-yd invisible extension.

Edited January 19, 2020 by TC

[Leogunner]

33 minutes ago, TC said:

If this is true, through countless hours of play-testing it's really not much higher, and doesn't affect my point much.

How many AoEs outside of Kinetic Melee's Burst, do you use out of hide?

 

33 minutes ago, TC said:

This is where we get into the nitty gritty of Ninja Blade/Katana. People who are really passionate about NB/Katana do not take Soaring Dragon as it's actually sort of bad. It has by far the longest animation time out of all of the single-target abilities in the powerset(which is what NB/Kat do) and when you do the math on an IO'd character it's actually a DPS loss. GD (the main selling point for the entire set, aesthetically and ability-wise) has a recharge and animation time that is extremely quick and fits perfectlywith Sting of the Wasp/Gamblers Cut, which all combine together to charge up the AS 100% crit Stalker passive incredibly fast. SD is a net-loss on DPS for NB/Katana. I'd like to say that hey, maybe it's worth taking to take advantage of the hide proc, but the reflexes to stop the regular attack chain to utilize it would be insane as the regular attack chain for NB/Kat moves extremely fast; it's the main selling point for the set. Also, to top it all off, SD knocks a lot of enemies into the air high enough the your attack chain is broken for about a second.

Ah, I've uncovered the actual intent of the suggestion!

 

I still don't agree.

 

33 minutes ago, TC said:

This is still a very useful reason to go for the guaranteed crit.

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.

 

33 minutes ago, TC said:

So... this kind of supports the idea that Ninja Blade should probably excel at ST, especially considering AoE is meta, and that GD deserves to crit out of hide, like MA Eagle's Claw does.

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?

 

33 minutes ago, TC said:

So, both MA and SJ support my argument.

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.

 

33 minutes ago, TC said:

Staff Fighting gets Sky Splitter, Dark Melee gets Midnight Grasp, Fire Melee has Greater Fire Sword. Fire Melee is the best comparison; Greater Fire Sword is a Fire attack that, according to MIDS, does more base damage than GD, AND it's fire/lethal, AND it gets the auto crit out of hide. I said I could go on, I just didn't want to stress the same point for every set. I guess I had to though. Again, a partial crit is still a crit. TF from EM partially critting from the hide proc or from placate is still really, really useful compared to GD's... well, very little crit boost.

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.

 

33 minutes ago, TC said:

Er.... I'd like my Ninja Blade character to remain a melee toon and not whack people with a sword that has a 5-yd invisible extension.

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.

Edited January 19, 2020 by Leogunner

[Haijinx]

Alternative to the extension might be to open the arc up a little bit.  

 

It would be nice if they added a bit of AOE to the older sets, since the newer sets still have theirs. 

 

 

 

 

[Galaxy Brain]

1 hour ago, Haijinx said:

Alternative to the extension might be to open the arc up a little bit.  

 

It would be nice if they added a bit of AOE to the older sets, since the newer sets still have theirs. 

 

 

 

 

(Turn all the pencil cones into shatter clones plsthxbai)

[TC]

2 hours ago, Haijinx said:

Alternative to the extension might be to open the arc up a little bit.  

 

It would be nice if they added a bit of AOE to the older sets, since the newer sets still have theirs. 

 

 

 

 

This doesn't seem too bad, it would probably be fun, but it doesn't really solve the synergy issue with the hide proc feature from the AT IOs. A lot of my procs just go to waste since GD is my main damage dump 😕

[Haijinx]

I don't think you are going to get the kind of synergy you see in Street Justice.  

 

That's unfortunate.

 

Helps to remember NB dates back before all Stalker buffs.  

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

Yeah no terrible push for sameness in power sets in the quest for so called balance.

 

Stalkers even sword stalkers are among the top DPS builds in the game. especially for single target killing. Your complaint about the synergy reeks of wanting optimal attack chains just handed to you. Stalkers already get the perk of AS, the sword sets are some of the few that didnt suffer a loss of a serious power to adapt to the stalker system. look at claw and dark melee as an example, the price they paid to be made into stalker sets was the loss of powers that basically defined their unique approach so they could have mere build up.

 

And your here asking for a set that already does damn fine for stalkers to be made better because of a paltry little attack chain issue. I mean if your goal is max dps meta, why even touch a lethal dmg set in the first place?

[TC]

2 hours ago, Bentley Berkeley said:

Yeah no terrible push for sameness in power sets in the quest for so called balance.

 

Stalkers even sword stalkers are among the top DPS builds in the game. especially for single target killing. Your complaint about the synergy reeks of wanting optimal attack chains just handed to you. Stalkers already get the perk of AS, the sword sets are some of the few that didnt suffer a loss of a serious power to adapt to the stalker system. look at claw and dark melee as an example, the price they paid to be made into stalker sets was the loss of powers that basically defined their unique approach so they could have mere build up.

 

And your here asking for a set that already does damn fine for stalkers to be made better because of a paltry little attack chain issue. I mean if your goal is max dps meta, why even touch a lethal dmg set in the first place?

I'm not sure why you seem so upset, it's just a personal suggestion. I care more about how a set feels than anything else, and watching my hide procs go to waste because GD can't crit out of hide feels bad. Not to mention it would still be a lethal set and still outclassed by other sets, even with this change, lol. I simply don't see why it shouldn't be made, it's a buff to a lethal set, just let it happen. Lethal sets need some love, across the board.

[TC]

6 hours ago, Haijinx said:

I don't think you are going to get the kind of synergy you see in Street Justice.  

 

That's unfortunate.

 

Helps to remember NB dates back before all Stalker buffs.  

Exactly! Modern times call for modern solutions.

[Microcosm]

I think it would be awesome if the range on GD (and other narrow cones like it) could be enhanced so you have a greater opportunity to feel the AoE value of it; but you'd have to turn it into a single target only attack to get the 100% crit. I'd rather keep it's quirkiness. Just use Soaring Dragon after hide. If you don't want to use Soaring Dragon because you have a build where it's not optimal, not to be a jerk, but that's your own build choice. I use it in my proc-based build and that build was one of the highest single target builds I've tested on stalkers.

[TC]

2 hours ago, Microcosm said:

I think it would be awesome if the range on GD (and other narrow cones like it) could be enhanced so you have a greater opportunity to feel the AoE value of it; but you'd have to turn it into a single target only attack to get the 100% crit. I'd rather keep it's quirkiness. Just use Soaring Dragon after hide. If you don't want to use Soaring Dragon because you have a build where it's not optimal, not to be a jerk, but that's your own build choice. I use it in my proc-based build and that build was one of the highest single target builds I've tested on stalkers.

Not sure why some people seem to think you have to turn it into a single target ability to allow it to crit out of hide. They have made much crazier changes on the server. Hell, the changes on other servers are way more drastic than what I'm suggesting. I don't see why we can't have both the crit and the tiny cone. It's probably entirely possible and I don't think the change would really make the set even close to OP. Elec Melee/Shield characters can Lightning Rod/Shield Charge entire groups to death on repeat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but there's no nerfs or intentions to change that. I simply don't see why we can't have both.

Edited January 20, 2020 by TC

[Leogunner]

1 hour ago, TC said:

Not sure why some people seem to think you have to turn it into a single target ability to allow it to crit out of hide. They have made much crazier changes on the server. Hell, the changes on other servers are way more drastic than what I'm suggesting. I don't see why we can't have both the crit and the tiny cone. It's probably entirely possible and I don't think the change would really make the set even close to OP. Elec Melee/Shield characters can Lightning Rod/Shield Charge entire groups to death on repeat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but there's no nerfs or intentions to change that. I simply don't see why we can't have both.

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.

[Razor Cure]

8 hours ago, TC said:

Lethal sets need some love, across the board.

Kinda agree. I had a NB Stalker waaay back when I started playing on CoX (I had vills, and not CoH, back when they were seperate purchases). Granted, that was a long time ago, before the ATOs and stalker buffs, but I did IO my stalker (not with super max purp sets or procs, more mid rangeish), but from what I remember..NB was not really good damage at all. Granted, this is playing redside (longbow, archnos) but it really felt weak, even more so when compared to my Kat scrapper (also before ATOs, but he had normal IOs too). Obviously all teh new stuff will help there, especially the stalker changes.

Would it be possible to make GD 100%crit on the FIRST target hit, and less on any others? In a similar way to how some toggles get the big % from target one, and then less?

[Haijinx]

Contrary to some weird sort of theories thrown around - I don't think there is any balance based on damage type at all.

 

SS doesn't get rage because its smashing damage, it just gets rage.  

 

Attack damage is basically scaled based on Recharge, with tweaks over the years to try and smooth out the animation times hits. 

 

Some sets get bonus damage for combos, set ability and stuff like that.   But really if we wanted to fix NB for doing lethal damage, there's a lot where that came from. 

 

I think Capt PH was suggesting instead they might normalize the DR of baddies some.   

 

 

[TC]

5 hours ago, Leogunner said:

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?  

I think this is a good thing, but within reason, of course. Changes are healthy and good for the game, in my opinion. Lots of games buff and rebuff their classes quite often and this adds game longevity as the game is changing and offering new things to try out for players. These changes should be reasonable, of course. I think Eagle's Claw getting a cone would be a bit silly, but personally I think it could use a light damage buff; it's damage is not up to par with it's animation time. Eviscerate getting a cone and the 100% crit also seems very reasonable to me. These are all S/L sets that could use some love and still likely would not make the classes meta; especially when compared to things like Electric/Shield, Fire/Kin, tanky Blasters that don't even get end drain when nuking entire groups with 25s CD ults on repeat, etc. I don't see any reason to not give some of the Stalker S/L classes this kind of treatment, at all, which is why I'm suggesting this change. 

 

Going the distance and giving large PBAoEs the 100% crit modifier is a bit much, however, and this would be a good place to draw the line.

5 hours ago, Leogunner said:

 

And then what about Scrappers who are about even with current Stalker?  Buff them too?  What's to stop runaway buffing like that?

Scrappers are tankier than Stalkers, and that's where the difference should lie. But if the counterparts need some numbers tuned, by all means, tune the numbers. Either way, relatively minor changes like what I'm suggesting aren't necessarily "runaway buffing" in my opinion.

5 hours ago, Leogunner said:

 

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.

Exceptions are good, and should be made for as many powersets as possible to make sure they all feel good within the current iteration of the game. GD not critting out of hide, especially randomly proc'd hides that appear during the attack chain and come from an IO set not originally in the game, feels pretty bad. 

[Galaxy Brain]

KMs burst is an AoE that has 100% crit from hide already 

[TC]

1 hour ago, Galaxy Brain said:

KMs burst is an AoE that has 100% crit from hide already 

I wasn’t sure on this and didn’t have time to check but thanks. I was pretty sure there were already some exceptions to the rule.

[siolfir]

1 hour ago, TC said:

I wasn’t sure on this and didn’t have time to check but thanks. I was pretty sure there were already some exceptions to the rule.

There are several exceptions, but Burst is the only one that's an exception to the advantage of the Stalker.

[Leogunner]

8 hours ago, TC said:

I think this is a good thing, but within reason, of course. Changes are healthy and good for the game, in my opinion. Lots of games buff and rebuff their classes quite often and this adds game longevity as the game is changing and offering new things to try out for players.

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.  

 

8 hours ago, TC said:

Exceptions are good, and should be made for as many powersets as possible to make sure they all feel good within the current iteration of the game. GD not critting out of hide, especially randomly proc'd hides that appear during the attack chain and come from an IO set not originally in the game, feels pretty bad. 

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? 

Edited January 20, 2020 by Leogunner

[Leogunner]

2 hours ago, Galaxy Brain said:

KMs burst is an AoE that has 100% crit from hide already 

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. 

[siolfir]

46 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

FYI, the rule is ST attacks crit from hidden 100%, AoE's is 30%.

50%. Spine Burst is the only 30% crit rate from Hide.

[Leogunner]

16 minutes ago, siolfir said:

50%. Spine Burst is the only 30% crit rate from Hide.

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.

[TC]

2 hours ago, Leogunner said:

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). 

But I am claiming it is imbalanced and underperforming. It is clearly a lackluster set compared to it's peers. I've stated this multiple times and drawn multiple comparisons. This is true for just about every lethal set, or AoE lacking set, in the entire game. Also, my main reason is how it feels more than anything else. Again, with the way attack chains work in CoH, I cannot reasonably utilize SD for the hide procs even if I wanted to. The attack chain moves way too fast and the procs are way too random. It's not just because SD deals suboptimal DPS (but more burst). It's because often the procs just get flat-out wasted because GD is next in my chain and it procs .2 seconds before GD activates. It's negative synergy.

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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.  

This is not true for veteran players as evidenced by decreasing player numbers. You can only re-roll so many times in a game that came out in 2004. Rebalancing powersets or adding new features to existing powersets and making the game more challenging are the two most important things that can give this game longevity, in my opinion.

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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. 

I never said the set felt pretty bad, I said this instance in particular felt pretty bad. Overall the set is very fun to play. My suggestion is one that I mainly desire for gameplay feel, but it's the cherry on top. And it's a warranted cherry on top, as evidenced by blatant balance comparisons you don't seem to want to acknowledge. Single-target focused Stalkers are potentially the least desired team AT in the entire game and many AoE focused builds from a large number of powersets are able to solo +4/x8 content quickly.

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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? 

I propose to give up nothing. The set simply deserves a buff, like the vast majority of lethal sets, and this would be a way to do that that would also feel great while working within the AT IO set they introduced to the game. Also, it does not feel like 50% crit rate at all. I don't know where I can check this number, but from personal experience it feels like 30%. Either way, I'd rather just make it crit and not roll the dice.

Edited January 20, 2020 by TC