BrandX

Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood

This is very true, I tend to make characters with a height of about 6' (I like the classic square jawed hero look ) and I've noticed that I seem to tower over a lot of other characters (tanks and brutes being the main exceptions).

Originally Posted by Umbral

Dark Melee is only the best ST damage set because of Soul Drain having such a high potential uptime ratio as compared to Build Up. Where the DPA of the various powers is concerned, MA is actually quite good, especially considering the sheer awesomeness of Storm Kick. The problem exists insofar as MA lacks the endgame potential of the other ST damage sets (re: Claws/DB have FU, DM has Soul Drain, BS/Kat/Claws/DB have Achilles' Heel, Fire is just pure facebeatery), the best attack chains for MA require the repeated use of a KB power (which inhibits ST damage considerably unless you've got a wall to back them up against), and MA only has a single standard strength sphere PbAoE (re: the standard allotment is a sphere and a cone).

Looking at the numbers, I wouldn't be completely against some kind of improvements to MA. The AoE issue wouldn't be particularly easy to solve since the devs have shown a certain recalcitrance to changing the IO set category of a power, which precludes simply changing one of the other powers into a cone (most likely Thunder Kick or Crane Kick) to address the AoE power discrepancy, and improving Dragon's Tail to the point where a single power is the AoE equivalent of multiple powers would probably be pretty problematic from a balance perspective.

Where ST damage is concerned, a reduction in Eagles Claw's animation time to such an extent that the power actually has a DPA that would make it useful (considering that tier 9 is supposed to be a capstone, not a largely redundant piece of flash) wouldn't be out of place (especially if they allowed BABs to do it by simply speeding up the "I'm hovering in the air while I get ready to kick you" part of the animation to make it look more natural). A blanket increase in crit rate would probably be a bit too strong, though, if base damage were reduced a bit to reduce the impact of the improvement slightly, it could work.

Of course, none of this really addresses the fact that MA doesn't even have a cohesive secondary effect. It's really just a grab bag of tricks that don't really work well together, and it's not really possible, without a complete redesign, to give the set one without either overpowering it or generating overlap with other preexisting sets.

Originally Posted by YO SON I GOT DORITOS

i am not make build with noub power just 2 fite noubs liek u. not my fault if ur 2 bad at ppvs and need 2 take phace shift to survive

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Here's the thing: The hardest two-shot a Martial Arts Scrapper can pull off is Eagle's Claw + Crane Kick. Eagle's Claw has a scale damage of 2.28 and Crane Kick has a scale damage of 1.96. That's a combo altogether of 4.24 scale damage.

The hardest two-shot an Energy Melee Scrapper would be able to pull off is Energy Transfer + Total Focus. Energy Transfer is scale damage 4.5 and Total Focus is scale damage 3.56. Together, you have 7.86.

First of all, that's more than a Stalker's Assassin's Strike. A regular Assassin's Strike is 2.5 scale damage for the attack, and another 4.5 scale damage for the Assassination critical, for a total of 7.0. Currently, the only people who can pull off an Energy Transfer + Total Focus are Brutes, Tanks and, yes, Stalkers. Brutes have a damage mod of 0.75 and Tankers have a damage mod of 0.8, so both lag behind Stalkers, who have a damage mod of 1.0. Scrappers have a damage mod of 1.125, so they would do even MORE damage with that combo. Not only that, but JUST Energy Transfer deals more damage than Eagle's Claw and Crane Kick combined, and Total Focus comes close.

I honestly don't know what Castle could do to mitigate that. Certainly I would like to see a Scrapper wielding Energy Melee just for the sheer awesomeness this would produce, but I just know we won't ever see this much concentrated awesome. Energy Melee has too much spike damage and too much reliable hard control.

Originally Posted by Ultimo_

Well, I've been trying very hard to enjoy my Controller, but it's really much like trying to enjoy root canal. Thus, I've been thinking of recreating him in a different AT, and I thought I'd see what you all had to suggest.

The idea is that he's supposed to be a mystic. The original Champions (pnp) character had a multipower with virtually all the powers in it, so versatility was important. The comic book inspiration is Dr. Strange.

The character is currently a Controller (Grav/Rad), with Teleport, Concealment and Flight (just Hover). However, he does so little damage and is unbearably weak if attacked (he often gets one and two shotted by MINIONS). I mean, as a Controller, his only defense is to not be attacked (by controlling his foes); but half the foes in the game are immune to holds (anything Boss level or higher, zombies, spirits, ghosts, daemons, etc.), so he's basically dead much of the time. Personally, I don't find this to be much fun.

Thus, I come to you. I'm considering making him a Defender, but my experience of Defenders is much like my experience of Controllers. No offense, no defense. I've considered him as a Blaster, but that's not quite in conception, as a character who is able to aid his allies, and I hate the Blaster AT in general (too squishy).

The requirements, as I see it, are thus:

He needs Stamina, Teleport, Hover and Phase Shift.
He needs to have the capability to help his team (via healing or what have you).
He needs to have some personal survivability, as he will be soloing most of the time (this can come from the option of a second build).

Any thoughts?

Originally Posted by Werner

Well, lethal damage is at least as highly-resisted as smashing, and there are a lot of lethal sets. But yeah, Martial Arts seems lackluster. Not bad, just not particularly good either. To me, the main thing it needs is more consistent secondary effects. Maybe replace Crippling Axe Kick's immobilize with stun, and add stun to Storm Kick and Crane Kick. I don't want to use a useless attack (Cobra Strike) just to get some reliable secondary effects. Still, if they're porting over Energy Melee some day, maybe they don't want to have two stun sets. If so, Martial Arts just needs some general buffing to make up for the mess of mostly-useless secondary effects.

Originally Posted by Sentry4

I'm used to dueling friends, hell i'm pretty friendly with everyone i've ever dueled. I don't mind giving them a recipe if it costs me nothing. I know if i was in their situation i would hope they were nice enough to fight to the death if they knew there was no chance of them winning.

If i didn't say it here, it's somewhere else. Phase is perfectly fine as an offesnive power....like waiting for demonic or unstoppable to wear off. Even waiting for something like MoG or BU to wear off is smart too. But if you need to hit it because your going to lose, it's not going to help you too win.

I'm not afraid of dieing. If anything your respected less for being a coward for never accepting death.

Hibernate is completly different because, when slotted correctly, you can get to high health quickly before they can heal.

There was a fight with an ice/SS tank, and everytime she was about to die used hibernate. The fight went on and on and she had no chance of winning at all. Yep, i memorized the global and name and put a negative note of em. I don't respect that kind of fighting at all. It was not die and stay a tie, or die and let me get some rep and possibly a recipe.
Heck i've even gone longer and risked it not hitting phase on my stalker and got the kill because of it.

Yea i guess your not aware of a brutes or scrappers damage. Espically when they dont need to run for their life to heal as often.

Personally my brute KoBs the target so stalkers can jump in, not taunt and run.

Originally Posted by SoulTouch

I agree, but if we agree before the match no acco's no insps and then he goes over that, it's a bit un fair. Not that I care now I was more interested to here peoples opinions on phasing scrappers :P

Originally Posted by Rush_Bolt

You may get the occasional "I wanted XXX, but got YYY instead! D:" but, personally, when I'm building a team (well, building a pug team which is kinda odd for me) I'm more interested in AT rather than power sets. And then I'm more interested in if you're willing to join rather than AT.

If I'm looking for a Controller, I don't really care what kind. Just as long as it can control stuff and/or provide (de)buffs, that's good enough for me.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon

To me, it's a question of animation more than anything as nebulous as damage type. Take our old friend the bokutō. It's quite plainly made of wood and has no cutting edge, and, as such, should (by your lights) never ever ever ever ever be made available as a skin for Katana. And fair enough. Except...

The problem there is that a bokutō is, by definition, a sword made of wood - the name literally means "wooden sword" - and is expected to be wielded in exactly the same way as the metal slashy-slashy version. The great samurai Miyamoto Musashi (1584?-1645) killed more than one of his dueling opponents that way during his career. The animations, as it were, are the same. If you were to take a bokutō and wield it like (e.g.) a War Mace, you would very much be Doing It Wrong.

As you can see, this example leaves us at something of an impasse. Obviously, judged visually, such an item belongs with the Katana set. Obviously, judged by game mechanics, it has no business there. For myself, since I can see the power animations but the game mechanics happen behind a curtain, I'm going to go with A and leave B to go hang. A potentially inappropriate damage type is going to bother me a lot less - not at all, in fact, because I can't see it and frankly don't give a damn about that whole mechanism.

Originally Posted by IanTheM1

Tina McIntyre, stop the Lab Raid or something like that. Not Malta, Anti-Matter Clockwork. That's the only mission in the entire game that's meant to be failed. FWIW, you get an SO for completing it, as I recall.

Originally Posted by Supernumiphone

I'm thinking get PL'ed to 50, accolade yourself out, then restart, enjoying the use of the accolades on the trip up.

Also you could get PL'ed to 50, unlock whatever costume bits or weapons are essential to your concept, then restart and enjoy them from the start.

Originally Posted by Dr_English

I believe I specified that I do indeed take, use, and enjoy my defender nukes. I have played every defender primary to a significant level and can appreciate what the nuke adds. I am in no way saying they are lacking or bad. I am saying that I am disappointed to see many defenders either skip or not use their nukes, and this makes me sad. Perhaps something small like this would prompt them to use the power more often. I'm not saying this is true of my good defender friends, but of the majority I run into while pugging. The suggestion is a fairly minor modification and would not have a huge impact on how I use my defender nukes, but it would be useful and might possibly get some previously unblasty defenders to pay more attention to that bomb in their pocket.

Maybe instead of ignoring their nuke, at the very least when mezzed they might say "Hey, may as well nuke!"

As to the list of primaries that are more compatible with nukes, it's true that some defenders risk less by popping the bomb. If you are mezzed your toggles are already dropped though, and you aren't actively contributing with clicky powers either. Nuke your way out of that mez! Now there is a situation in which it would be desirable for any primary to nuke! Sure you have no end when it's over, but you've accomplished something useful where you would otherwise have been standing there mezzed for as long as the crash recovery lasts anyhow.

Originally Posted by magikwand

I like the idea, and I agree that it is near the top of the list of impossible things that would never happen. As game breaking as it could be, there could be balance if there were a list of truly arduous, non-speedable things that would need to be done.

Originally Posted by ReclusesPhantom

Tbh, yours sounds freakin' awesome! But, we can only hope to wait and see, I guess.

Originally Posted by Baby_Phoenix

I have always played the game blue-side since that is where I started and was always where I felt most comfortable so I had a main alt (Fire/Fire Tanker) who I decided to kit out with IO's etc. This progressed well until I felt the pull of Villainy...

Now I have a lvl 50 SS/WP Brute and a lvl 39 Shield/Elec Brute who are great to play and most of my last 6 months have been spent roaming around the Rogue Isles.

Therefore, my quandry is - should I carry on IO'ing my Tanker and make her as good as she can be, or should I start anew on a Brute? It seems I can have one damn good alt, or two pretty good ones.

Home and work commitments mean I dont play any where near as often as I would like (a few hours a week on average) so the gain of inf is quite slow so the idea of 'just do both' would take forever!

Any advice on which option to take would be greatly appreciated!

Originally Posted by magikwand

I will research to see what the changes were, but I thought they were kicking around the idea of modifying Scrapper and Tanker shield charge to add more damage. I thought the changes had even been implemented.
And to correct one thing, it doesn't suck for Brutes when they hit the damage cap with AoA, 90% Fury and socketed enhancements- it is actually quite nice.

Here are the notes for the Shield Charge patch. I would suspect that one is in the works for lightning rod as well.
October 14: Shield Defense - Shield Charge: Modified this power's damage to have it correctly be multiplied by the Scrapper damage modifier. The end result is a large increase in damage to this power.
Similar for tankers basically. Except for a large increase, the language expressed a slight increase in damage.
Doesn't this address the issue for Shield Charge?
Link here: http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/pat...00909303t.html