Frosticus

You aren't alone

I've been thinking about perspectives on a set like MA and I'm prepared to support Donna's position to an extent. I think she hasn't been doing a very good job in portraying her position, but that doesn't mean it lacks merit.

MA is a set that numerically under-performs...a pretty small amount. However, to close this gap some fairly significant changes would have to happen. Or at least some fairly significant changes are being thrown around.

MA has solid enough representation in the game, I'm confident the primaries have a fairly even distribution. Additionally, the people playing it seem to enjoy it (I like mine). Are there improvements that could be made? Of course, but that stands for every single powerset in the game.

If you want to play a martial artist you will. MA is strong enough where that decision isn't going to cause you a negative gaming experience because like any and every scrapper primary and secondary, it gets the job done pretty well.

So the question is; are you seeking change for the sake of change? Balance for the sake of balance? If you understand change management, you probably wouldn't, well at least not if you care about the people using the set anyway. But that is implied by understanding change management.

Not to point fingers, but Umbral is an example. He has stated he doesn't play MA and this discussion is purely academic for him. If that is the motivation, one could pick any set out of hat and do the same thing lobbying for tweaks, changes, fixes, and adjustments. I'm not passing judgment on that motivation anymore than I judge the motivation of someone who likes the set as is, or who hates the set as is. For what it's worth, my motivation for seeking change in this thread has been for change's sake. I don't honestly believe it will make me enjoy MA a whole lot more because I already like it. I also don't believe it will make a lick of difference in who does or doesn't play the set. My MA scrapper has never felt slow compared to other st scrappers because it is extremely difficult to detect the difference that is present in a team environment. The only place you'll feel it is during confined testing. To which I propose the question - big whoop?

This post has the potential to run very long if I touch on some of the specific power changes being sought so I'll wind it up with two last comments. MA has been weighed against DM and people have noticed that it falls behind in utility/control and damage. That might be indicative that MA needs improvement, but it might be indicative that DM need to be pruned back. Check out the shield thread to see what Castle said about DM performing so strong in one specific scenario...

Lastly, for those not seeking tweaks, but actual heavy changes to the set: Are you dynamiting the mountain because you honestly believe the scenery will be more beautiful after, or are you doing it to fit your own vision of how the landscape should be?

I think you need to focus on one play environment or the other. A pvp build can work adequately in pve because pve is really easy, but a pve build usually won't work in pvp.

If you are aiming for pvp then you should think about pushing your kb protection up to around 41, keep nice high hp, get around 50% global rech, tactics, and hibernate.

In addition to that you need to slot hasten, swap LS for end draining IO's.

If you are aiming for pve then I think you've put too much focus into hp and non-essential bonuses. ie full set of lady grey, or the full set in tactics, or the full set of lotg in sup invis.

Steamy+stealth IO is on par with sup invis, better in some ways, worse in others, but costs way less endurance.

I'm not a fan of picking the psi app unless you are actually going to use it. That means focusing a lot of your build around improving Indom Will's uptime. If you are just fitting in two underslotted powers then hib+ice shield or even conserve power + temp invuln would be better imo.

You should try to fit an achilies -res proc in FR. It will make you munch through tougher targets very quickly.

Anyway, just a few thoughts I had.

I think if they just flipped the load order from highest to lowest that would naturally help the several hundred to a few thousand new players that will be showing up soon lean toward a more "player rich" experience. As much as that is possible any way.

Aside from that I prefer to view the non freedom/virtue servers as 2% full rather than 98% empty. Just perspective.

I can't wait to take my brute through Paragon City, it is going to be like a whole new game!

Neat

Let's be honest, this isn't even in the same spirit as the original CoP. Are you calling it CoP so that you can claim to have given it back to us in some redeeming maneuver?

Whatever this trial turns out to be, it isn't a return of the CoP as we knew it.

I'm going to call whatever this thread was attempting to do Cathedral of Lame. Why is this even in the PvP section? It has nothing to do with pvp. Is this some lame attempt to get pvp'ers to kneejerk resubscribe to the game because they hear that the CoP is back in action? Thanks for pissing in pvp'ers cornflakes by taking away one of the coolest pvp integrations (probably the coolest) in the game. And now throwing it in our faces...Unimpressive.

This is a pve update and should be in a pve section. Where is that new sheriff mod12 when they are needed?

mod12 is the new sheriff in town and he/she don't take no guff from pvper's. I've gotten more mod action in the last 2 days than in the previous 6 months. Welcome mod12 indeed!

I think you need to post the data chunk because the link isn't working.

Thanks for the heads up that you are continuing to ignore pvp in its entirely. That removes the 0.01% chance that you weren't.

An unfortunate bug considering the devs recently went through and adjusted the sets that caltrops and trip mine accept for MM's, but adjusted them incorrectly.

1 step forward and 2 steps back.

It's better than arctic air alone, but not so good that I would feel compelled to pick the /psi app just for that power. And depending on what you want to do with the toon, it may not be worth picking up in exchange for any of the other powers in that pool.