BlackStar_NA

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Statesman:

I’m not really sure how I should feel about the Rage issue. As a level 50 Inv/SS Tank, I learned quickly that there were two phases to using this power. First, prior to perma-stun protection, it was a situational power used to finish off bosses or lieutenants, but once I had perma-stun protection, it became a part of my life. Rage is the great equalizer in the otherwise pathetic Super Strength Pool because it balances out the fact that we are frequently forced to resort to the pathetic Jab-Punch-Jab-Haymaker attack combination in order to conserve endurance.

Now, if you’re lacking perma-stun protection, I could definitely see this power going the way of Unstoppable and becoming totally worthless (What good is a situational power if there is a good chance it’ll leave you dead?) until high levels when you’ve got powers to burn. So, I can understand the desire to augment this powers behavior to satiate the newbie dilemma.

However, altering the power from having a small chance to drop toggles (At least with Unyielding, it only occurs when you’ve got a few stun powers already stacked when Rage wears off.) to having a complete certainty of having your toggles dropped by having the power drain all endurance. Getting rid of the stun is a step in the right direction, but endurance drain is not the answer. The Super Strength pool already suffers from horrendous endurance problems (Rage, KB, and FS all cost an insane amount of endurance.) and by altering Rage so that it drains you of all endurance only exacerbates the situation. Not only are you without toggles and most likely about to die, you’re completely without endurance every two minutes which means you’re constantly struggling for endurance—making KB and FS be used even less frequently.

Endruance drain is not the way to “balance” Rage. I’m sensing your line of thought here, and I do agree with it. You’re thinking that since you’ve gone into a berserker rage when you come out of it you’re going to be left disoriented, confused, and tired. Well, the newbies don’t like the first aspect of that line of thought, so we’ll just use the second. Right justification, wrong implementation. Someone earlier in the thread posted an idea I thought was rather interesting—Why not have it slow you?

I’m not sure if the ladies and gentlemen that have posted before me have elaborated upon this notion further, but even if they have, I’d like to throw in my two cents worth.

I can completely agree with adjusting Rage so that it has anyone, or all, of the three changes I mention below, but I believe their length of duration should only be like 15 seconds tops and their net effect shouldn’t be all that extreme, like each not exceeding –10%.

-Speed (Your character has become tired and moves slower than normal.)
-Recovery (Your character has become tired and recovers health and end slower than normal.)
-Recharge (Your character has come tired and recharges slower than normal.)

With these changes, any tank would suffer from the use of Rage, but the benefit greatly outweighs the cost. In my mind, at least, this power exists to compensate for the fact that we SSers only get one actual AOE (FS), and only two other worthwhile attacks (KB and Haymaker).