Some Love for Power Pools

[Arnabas]

I am glad to see more work being done on pools, but I think there is a ton of potential that is being ignored. But first, let's look back a bit...

 

Originally, the devs were pretty clear on wanting melee types to stay melee, ranged types to stay ranged. But Blasters and Controllers always had access to Fitness, Fighting, and Leadership to boost their survivability and later, the Ancillary pools gave even more options like Temporary Invulnerability, while giving melee types a few options for ranged attacks (Laser Beam Eyes, for example). As time passed, it seemed like we were getting more options to allow archetypes the ability to replicate the powers of other ATs. 

 

I don't want to do away with ATs, or specialized roles, but I would love to see the power pools continue in this direction. 

 

My Suggestion

 

Create pools that are mini versions of Primary/ Secondary abilities. For example, I have a Dual Pistol/ Ninjitsu blaster who spends a fair amount of time in melee. I can do it by using my 3 sword attacks, Boxing, Kick, Sands of Mu, Flurry, Air Superiority, and more if I choose to, but that is awkward. I would love to have a Katana power pool with some extra sword attacks to fit this concept. It could even be a generic "Sword" power pool. Or an even more generic "Melee Weapon" power pool. Heck, at this point, I would even be happy to re-skin Boxing and Kick to look like sword attacks, even if none of the numbers/ damage type, etc changed from what they are now.

 

What About Balance?

 

Some will complain that it unbalances things. As I mentioned, ranged characters can already do a whole pile of melee attacks if they want, and more ranged powers have already been introduced that melee characters can take. This would just allow players to do something more in keeping with the design of the character.  Also, consider the fact that players would have to give up a Primary or Secondary power to take the pool powers, so they are still "paying" for them by giving up something that is likely more powerful. 

 

On THAT topic, though, I do think Pool power damage needs a bit of a boost. Maybe not a huge one, but enough to make them more worthwhile. For example, I have a Street Justice/ Super Reflexes scrapper who is mostly  just a highly- skilled fighter, but who has one or two superhuman powers. I took the Force of Will pool for Project Will. I didn't expect it to be massively powerful, but I also didn't expect that this "Medium Damage" psionic attack (that needs to be unlocked) would do less than half of the damage that my Tier 1 "Low Damage" punch does.

 

TL;DR 

 

I would like to suggest that pool powers be re-balanced where necessary, and that they continue to add some new options, or at least allow us to re-skin some of the powers to match our concepts.

 

Thoughts? 

[Hewhorocks]

I have numerous weapon melee characters who I'd like to take kick powers with. The fighting pool kick is an abomination.