Possible to "proliferate" Martial Assault to ranged sets?

[Lazarillo]

So this is pretty pie-in-the-sky, but the idea came to me, and I don't think it's as crazy as some set ideas, so I'mma at least say my piece.

And that is: I think it wouldn't take too much to stretch Martial Assault's throwing star powers into an entire "thrown weapons" blast set.

 

In the set, we already have: Shuriken Throw, Trick Shot, Masterful Throw, Exploding Shuriken, and Envenomed Daggers, which I think would pretty much work as straight ports.  Also, I've been told (though I haven't gotten either of my /Martial Dominators high enough to confirm) that Martial Assault's Exploding Shuriken is also similar to Thunder Strike in terms of AoE: it's mostly a single target hit that splashes a little AoE onto nearby targets.  If that's the case, there's a second "Exploding Shuriken" in the Scrapper/Stalker APPs that could also be in a set with it.  Thus, it feels like 6/9 powers are already "ready".  Add in a second low tier clone of Shuriken Throw, a nuke of some kind (I feel like the character animation for Bullet Rain could do the job, as if you remove the guns and it still looks like the hands are throwing a bunch of stuff into the air...though I'm not so sure how effects could be created...probably the biggest hurdle in this?), and maybe a light control power, and bam, you've got a set for more Natural-oriented characters that doesn't involve pulling out a weapon.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Pie-in-the-sky would require creation of completely new animations and FX, but your concept just repurposes things that are already present.

 

To add some fuel to this:

Caltrops (found in Ninjutsu , Martial Assault and Scrapper's version of Weapon Mastery) could work thematically for the control power - but so count Ninjutsu:Smoke Flash and Weapon Mastery: Web Grenade (with different stats possibly)

 

Widow Training has Poison Dart and Dart Burst, both of which could kind of work as the low-tier attack you're talking about.

[Lazarillo]

Pie-in-the-sky would require creation of completely new animations and FX, but your concept just repurposes things that are already present.

Yeah, I don't think there would be too much to be done, at least, from a powers perspective, not more than was done with Sentinels and some of the other i25 proliferations, but finding a way to make FX work for a "nuke"-type power might be the snag, as I can't think of a way to add that (short of maybe ditching my concept for one noted above and having the top tier be "Bigger Exploding Shuriken", or something.

 

Still, since they revised a few of the FX on other powers a patch or three ago, I'd like to think it's not impossible, either.  Whether anyone could be convinced to make it a priority or not, on the other hand...

 

To add some fuel to this:

Caltrops (found in Ninjutsu , Martial Assault and Scrapper's version of Weapon Mastery) could work thematically for the control power - but so count Ninjutsu:Smoke Flash and Weapon Mastery: Web Grenade (with different stats possibly)

I actually considered a few of these (and Throw Sand, too), but since Blasters and Sentinels already both get several of those powers, I figured it wouldn't be a good choice.

 

Widow Training has Poison Dart and Dart Burst, both of which could kind of work as the low-tier attack you're talking about.

That's not a bad idea.  Poison Dart is a little faster (and Dart Burst significantly slower) than most Tier-2 blasts, and I know back in the day, standardized activation times were deliberately put into play when Defiance 2.0 came out, but I don't know if that's a technical limitation and/or how the current team would regard it.