Redlynne

You've been hanging out with Arbiter Fabulous again, haven't you ...

Um ... Leo? You do realize this is pretty much going against the grain of what Synapse is trying to do ... right?

Hidden AS is (to be) 2 seconds interrupt + 1 second cast time = 3 second animation for nasty damage with auto-critical hit and demoralize.

UNhidden AS is (to be) 1 second cast time and NOT interruptable to allow it to be used while scrapping in mainline combat.



For the record, I'm not all that "keen" on the Assassin's Focus mechanic as presented, because it feels ... Kludgy. I just have the feeling that "there's a better way to do things" than the Assassin's Focus mechanic as presented to us at the Player Summit which would achieve much the same goals. Arcanaville's "Reverse Fury" seems like a much better option (to me, anyway) at first glance.

That was my idea, that critical hits when NOT hidden would Placate the affected $Target(s) of the (Primary powerset) attack and put you back into Hide without dealing extra damage on the UNhidden attack. That then "sets you up" for an immediate 1-2 freestyle combo of the following attack gets a 100% chance to crit because you'd be attacking from Hide. It's basically a "Crit to enter Hide when Not Hidden" ... rather than a "Crit to do Extra Damage" ... which then chains into a set up to "Crit for Extra Damage from Hide" sort of system. It makes the Stalker(s) "flicker" in and out of Hidden Status, and gives them something akin to Brute/Tanker Punch-voke ... except that for Stalkers it would be best thought of as Placate-voke (or Hide-Crit, if you prefer) that would make greater use of the Placate game mechanics (if not the Placate power itself) and increase the importance (and relevance) of Hide to mainline scrapping combat (which is approximately 95% of the game).

For the record ... I managed to snag both Synapse and Arbiter Hawk after the Powersets Panel and the Summit and put the notion to them as an alternative means to achieving the goal of "enhancing Stalker performance" to what they had announced during the panel on the Stalker Improvements slide. Synapse was ... intrigued ... enough by the idea that he asked Arbiter Hawk to come over and get in on our 1-on-1 discussion, and had me explain the mechanics and behaviors of what I was talking about to Arbiter Hawk. What's interesting is that both of them seemed to (at first) get off on the wrong track in mentally modelling what I was suggesting, but then after just a little bit of clarification both of them were nodding and thinking that something like this might actually work and be do-able ... at some point.

Now, to be fair ... they couldn't exactly "promise" anything on the spur of the moment ... nor did they have the time to run playtests and analysis to find out if the entire idea was fatally flawed in some way, or horribly overbalanced in some other way which would prevent it from being entertained as a release candidate possibility. We were just standing around in a room with chairs and no internet access at the time that we were discussing this. But at the very least, both Synapse and Arbiter Hawk seemed interested in the notion of modifying Stalker Criticals in a way to better leverage Hide in mainline combat and as a means of "freestyle combo-ing" (my words) extra critical damage for Stalkers in a way that didn't work exactly like the mechanics for Scrappers.

One way to accomplish this goal (extra damage on crits) which would work on a sliding scale is to "borrow" some of the thinking, if not the exact mechanics, behind Scourge. Something akin to:

• Determine fraction of Current Hit Points / Max Hit Points of target.
• Do a 1-HP% mathematical operation to determine bonus damage% to apply on critical hits (ie. +0% when Foe is at 100% of Max HP, and +99% when Foes is at 1% of Max HP)
• Apply extra damage buff when making a critical hit (that does damage)

This would advantage Stalkers as "finishers" when scrapping out hostiles, where like Corruptors they do more damage as the target weakens ... albeit through their Critical Hit mechanics, rather than on every hit like Corruptors do with their Scourge. So similar effect, but different means and different method.

Probably because the DEFensive advantage of 27 vs 25 on the enhancements themselves wasn't all that much (we're talking like teeny tiny fractions of a percent here) and so it just made more sense to go "as low as possible" in those cases. It's been a while since I reviewed the build at an in-depth level.

Pretty much. I just wanted the "always on" damage boost, rather than the Proc "chance to crit" damage boost. I've often found that my playstyle prefers more "reliable" damage throughput than then Procs tend to support. The extra range is pretty much incidental (although helpful when dealing with runners). I just prefer to slaughter my Foes wholesale, rather than retail.

... on the Moon(base).

I think we have a winner.

Ever seen a Generic Hero? Players *DO* report these kinds of behaviors to the GMs, and it isn't all that hard for the GMs to have a "three strikes, you're out" policy for this sort of Public Offensiveness.

Bamboo wood staff. Does not need to be a "whippy" type of bamboo, since the animations are all for hard wood staves.

Buck-and-a-quarter Quarterstaff. Only needs wood grain texturing, no metal or endcaps.

Babylon 5 styled Minbari Fighting Pike (Denn'Bokk). Scene of Marcus using his beginning at 4:27 on youtube here. Gotta have a "tech" option for Staff Fighting.

Tabula Rasa Guardian Staff ... for those of us who are Tabula Rasa Veterans (or in my case, TR War College Veteran!). Came in Kinetic (Crushing Damage), Pulse (ie. anti-technology EMP), Virulent (Toxic Damage), Electric (Energy Damage), Incendiary (Fire Damage) and Cryogenic (Cold Damage) varieties. Excellent youtube video featuring a Guardian using a Staff here. Note that the Tabula Rasa Guardian Staff was both a melee and a ranged weapon, which if pursued here in CoH could mean developing a Staff Blast powerset which could possibly use the Dual Pistols Swap Ammo system for achieving the variety of damage types seen in Tabula Rasa. And yes, I wore my Tabula Rasa t-shirt and dog tags to the Player Summit. And oh-so-conveniently enough ... NCSoft is still sitting on the rights to Tabula Rasa, so no worries on that front.

This one perhaps ...?

Btw, just in case it is relevant, I have no permanent attachment to PERC 23 Base, so feel free to "reclaim" anything and everything you can from it before deleting it.

I think I might have figured out a way to do this ... and not the way that Kitsune is talking about.

Ever watched Wormhole "scoop up" a bunch of Foes and toss them onto the target area/point? Ever noticed how they don't come OUT of the Teleport Foe effect spread out the way they originally were when they went IN?

YEAH ...



Here's what I'm thinking. We "borrow" most of the functionality/coding of Wormhole (ie. Target AoE Teleport Foe) and use THAT as the "core" of the Black Hole (Dark Miasma, and proliferations) *and* for Dimension Shift (Gravity Control).

Here's the "basics" of how the power would work:

Black Hole (Dark Miasma) / Dimension Shift (Gravity Control)
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Teleport, Hold, Intangible

Level 26 (Dark Miasma), 12 (Gravity Control)
Type Click
PvE damage scale 0.000000
Accuracy 1
Modes required
Modes disallowed Disable_All
Range 60 feet
Activate period -
Interrupt time -
Cast time 1.17 seconds
Recharge time 90 seconds
Endurance cost 13
Attack types AOE
Effect area Sphere
Radius 25 feet
Arc -
Max targets hit 16
Entities affected Foe
Entities autohit
Target Foe
Target visibility Line of Sight
Nofity Mobs Always

Target:

0 Translucency for 1.5s (after 0.5 second delay) [Non-resistable]

4.1 Teleport (mag 3) (after 1 second delay)

+10000% Res(Teleport) for 15s (after 1.1 second delay) [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs] [Non-resistable]

3 Intangible, Phase, Phase, Immobilized for 28.5s (after 1.5 second delay)
If target.enttype == critter

-1 ThreatLevel for 30s
If target.enttype == critter

3 Intangible, Phase, Phase, Immobilized for 8s (after 1.5 second delay)
If target.enttype == player
Suppressed when Untouchable, for 15 seconds (WhenInactive)

-1 ThreatLevel for 4s
If target.enttype == player
Suppressed when Untouchable, for 15 seconds (WhenInactive)



Something akin to this ought to work.

Zenyth ... CALM DOWN. You are already mischaracterizing the interaction I had with Arbiter Hawk by blowing things out of proportion with your own personal take and spin on events that you're hearing about second hand two and a half days after they happened! You're overreacting (badly) here, and I know you're better than ... this.

Actually, he DID have things to say ... but I don't want to put words into Arbiter Hawk's mouth (or keyboard, as the case may be) as to what he himself said to me over 48 hours ago (and it's more like 60 hours ago now, by the time I post this). I'm not censoring Arbiter Hawk here, although it may seem like it to anyone who wasn't party to our conversation ... instead I'm trying to leave him the maximum room to "maneuver" should he decide to start up a conversation with us here in the Kheldian Forum. I feel like he would be much more articulate ... and better understood ... if he could present his side of the conversation we were having about Peacebringers himself, rather than filtering things through my biases and impressions (which are already fading in my memory with the passage of time).

To me, at the time, it felt like I was bringing him up to speed on a lot of the things the Kheldian Community has been talking about (of late) ... while at the same time, it also felt like he could only but say "so much" without risking giving away something he shouldn't (ie. future developments which aren't finalized yet), or because he had to keep track of "multiple moving parts" where making modifications weren't quite as Cut And Dried Simple as I was making them out to be, due to internal concerns the Powers Team had which I wasn't privy to (nor should I be, necessarily).

That's why I'm relaying my *impressions* of MY side of the conversation, without getting into exhaustive detail of what Arbiter Hawk actually had to say (or what he agreed with me on). I'd prefer to give him the opportunity to do that himself ... if he wants to ... without me pre-empting what he might have (or want) to say by editorializing it with my personal take/spin.