Leo_G

If that's a problem, then you've got 2 feet. Storm Kick's animation is like a clockwise roundhouse kick with the right? Well Spinning Axe Kick could be a counter-clockwise kick with the left. Other differences is, Storm Kick is more of a horizontal angled attack while the SAK would be more lateral (and slower because of the animation time of current CAK).

[EDIT]Now that I think about it, you *might* even be able to substitute a hook kick in there too...might not convey immobilization as much but the punch animation we got doesn't either.

Current rules of alternate animations are, whatever they are they have to be the same length as the original. I think another rule is, the impact has to connect at the same point during the animation so the damage occurs right visually.

Tsunade's Painful Sky Leg attack, if animated in CoH, would look slower because there's less to animate. It'd most likely look like the character is hanging in the air longer than natural because the animation would have to be stretched to the same length as CAK.

I hear where you're coming from. Logging in and just watching the animation repeat in the character creator, I can understand how it can look awkward. Just watching the animation at face value or simply using the power like a regular attack (like I do), one wouldn't appreciate fully that what you're actually doing is faking the enemy out so the blow lands like you want.

But bringing back some of the stuff Arcana said, 'just an axe kick' would probably be far too fast for how much damage the attack does (now), not to mention, if it animates too fast, you lose flavor.

Random aside; I don't like Katana as much as I used to. With the speeding up of the attacks (I think they did it twice, once for all weapon sets then again for katana specifically), my favorite attack, Soaring Dragon, is just so blindingly fast now, it looks like a plain vanilla upward diagonal slash. It used to look like you were combining an evasive maneuver with some tactics, concealing the blade in the blind spot of your enemy behind you as you dodge to the right. Then, with some momentum, bring up the blade with speed and force and at an angle the enemy wasn't expecting to send the foe flying. Now, I can't see this barely if at all except the resulting strike, especially if I have another attack queued up...

That said, I'm all for alternate animations that give different flavors of an Axe Kick. Actually, I'd really want another that is more acrobatic for my monkey scrapper. There are other options that could work:
-Flying Axe Kick = that extra feint you don't like is more obvious as after you bring it up you switch feet and kick with the other foot while in the air.
-Spinning Axe Kick = basically an axe kick but with a turn, bringing your eyes around first then following with the kick. Possibly put a jump in there to make it cooler looking
-Aerial Axe Kick = looks more like a trick to me as I've never actually practiced or been taught such a thing but it basically a front flip ending in an axe kick-like attack...I'd actually use that on my monkey scrapper ^_^
-Falling Axe Kick = As performed by Tsunade. Basically leaping up like in Eagle's Claw but falling with the kick.

Or maybe the reverse. An event that strengthens the religious perspective. Something that surpasses the pantheon of 'deities' and extra-dimensional boundaries. The effects don't have to be legality issues but perhaps more along the moral sense along the lines of separate-but-equal racial issues and non-heterosexual marriage rights.

But that's a rather complicated angle as you'll have to be clever working with anything 'religious' in tone.

How does that argument even work? The 'hiding behind a shield' is a dumb idea?

Well how does it not look ugly on a Brute who should simply be whacking everything with it? Or a scrapper who'd probably just throw it and leave it embedded in a lowlie minion?

By that argument, only Tankers should have Shield Defense because it only makes sense that someone who puts defense over offense to carry a shield.

Yeah, your argument makes no sense.

It's a high kick feint > axe kick. It's actually a good way to perform one as, if you're just going to bring your leg down on someone, you have to be blindingly fast or the target isn't seeing it coming.

I'm not arguing the opinion of the look of the power, but it *is* an axe kick. Personally, when you've got legs flying, alternating feet, etc., them come in with CAK, it makes the character look faster than the target, IMO...at least now that the entire set flows so quickly.

Nah, I think he knows the angle he's coming in on. Basically, Rage is borked. It was back then, it is now, on a Tanker and a Brute and will be on a Scrap. The end.

*I wanted to make that last part a Dr. Seuss rhyme but I haven't the time*

ditto...its like people pick up CAK and expect the animation to be you punting an axe at someone's face.

It's an Axe Kick, people.

Thanks for the summary ^_^

It sounds like a decent buff but kind of worried about the 2min (1min with ED rech, I'd guess) recharge. I guess it's basically in line with Soul Drain...Anyway, I was planning on making an Inv/KM tanker so looking at a decent 125% buff max should do him well enough (and -20% res thrown in).

Do /Shield! It's cool looking

They also draw aggro. Solo, it cuts down on the actual time in battle, yes...but Stalkers don't need that. In teams, you're just drawing erroneous aggro which will kill you faster. With the removal of the taunt auras, it actually makes the Stalker *more* survivable in teams. Even for Willpower, not needing to stand in a swath of enemies with low HP to recover that HP is a boon.

How that'll play with future prolifs like Inv and what-not, who's to say?


AoE resistances? Do you mean the scaling res with HP? Yes, it does. Overall, Stalkers don't get very much from that part of the set. Personally, I wish they'd just scale it up so the Stalker starts seeing that less resistance at 75% HP rather than 50%.

I argue the contrary. It's actually not hard to stay alive in prolonged melee if you're not strapping yourself to it. For non-defense sets, if you're willing to step out of melee a moment, this can help greatly on teams. Solo, you can do whatever you want but for the most part, that's not much issue.

If you're not strapped to melee, you're not strapped to aggro. If you're not strapped to aggro, fewer enemies will even be attacking you. When people compare Stalkers to Blappers, that's really what I think they mean. You're not obligated to tank or even clean up every last mob. You're free to slide around the battlefield, targeting things and diverting aggro away from yourself. If used to that extent, as a melee, you're not *that* defensively weak...not if you're using those meatshields like you're suppose to.

Could Stalkers use something? Maybe. I don't think they need *more* damage, though. Would it be nice? I suppose but eventually it's all overkill. You're not ever going to feel offensively superior to a Scrapper or Brute until you're soloing the entire game and/or you nerf either of them with respect to how survivable they are.

A utility buff would be great, though. If Stalker's debuffs/buffs and their controls were superior to their melee counterparts, that is something you can leverage as 'useful to the team' where the others just smash things.

I hope that made sense...

Oh, well *that's* good. I was actually asking, you see >_>...

Really, this helps my MA/Shield even more as he was pretty squishy without some extra mitigation in there. Now that it's rolled into a solid attack, I'll have to frankenslot it for Acc/Dmg/Stun with some End/Rech mixed in.

How much did they shorten the duration of the stun though? Nevertheless, I'll still work it into my build as my MA/Shield needed one more solid attack to make a semi-seamless string of attack and he didn't want to pick up Thunder Kick.

Also, the new Martial Art's Eagle's Claw comes with a short duration 'Set up' bonus that basically improves crit chance by 33%. Not sure if it's only for MA attacks or any Scrapper attack but it really does sound to me that the chance to crit can be buffed or debuffed on the fly now.

But you're not going to 'arrest' them (stick a teleport beacon on them and send them to the zig). What court would prosecute a ghost anyway?

Lol, next you're gonna tell me we can take a flea to court and file for assault if it bites us and sucks our blood. How many years would it get? Possibly a life sentence ^_^

Because the foe is still there to deal with. If the mission calls for you to 'destroy' the target, wrapping it in vines or floating it in gravity doesn't accomplish this.

DMystic's containment sounds more realistic. Either that, or a percentage chance the enemy simply 'gives up' and no longer reacts but is still targetable (like those Family members wearing cement shoes and tied up...they are effectively contained).

Containment isn't awesome enough to outright defeat enemies >_>

If you're in a room, the entirety which is below zero, how does that make it hard to sneak around? It's not like the enemy would be able to tell where the cold is coming from...because cold numbs. At best, they'd just know there was a temperature change.

Besides, your armor is ice so, conceptually, your body is translucent ice. It basically be as if the enemy is trying to look at a glass panel.

Slows benefit short fights even more than long fights. If the enemy is able to toss off a round of attacks in the span of 3 seconds then start another round after 4 seconds, you basically have to burst damage the enemy and dispose of them within that 7 second span of time or else suffer a beta-strike by the enemy.

But if you have slows, the period you have before the enemy can attack again is extended to 14 seconds (just made that up), giving you 17 seconds before retaliation. It's basically extending your period of effective burst damage (if the enemy can't retaliate over a longer period before you defeat them, it's the same as defeating them faster).

I don't know about you, but there are times I cannot defeat an enemy (or group of enemies) before it can strike back. But with -rech, you've got a better chance of doing that. Not to mention, Ice has control that can sleep or outright hold the enemy, slowing their period to retaliate even more.



Ice is far more thematic a set for Stalkers than Energy, Electricity or even Dual Blades for concept and theme. Because Stalkers are not about hitting and running, but about 'misdirection and opportunistic strikes'. Stopping and holding or sneaking up on foes is what Stalkers do and Ice can do this to a tee.

What better than sneaking up on an unsuspecting enemy? Sneaking up on a sleeping enemy.

Think about it.

How is that, at all, realistic?

I was actually going to suggest this myself. If the damage/ToHit buff were scaled down to around 40% of the normal Rage buff but had new crit mechanics added to make it interesting, I'd say SS on Scrappers/Stalkers would actually be unique enough to make me perfectly happy with the proliferation. Far more pleased than with other proliferations we've gotten.

*points to Stalker scaling critical chance with teammates within range*

If a Stalker can have scaling crits depending on how many allies get within 30ft (something that constantly changes in combat), as well as a toggle that alters crit status (look at Hide. while hidden, it can change powers chance to crit to 50-100%)...really there are more examples too but I'm not allowed to talk about it...

Anyway, it's very possible. Crit chance is only hard coded into the power if the devs want them to be.

Perhaps. And it's one reason why I don't care for proliferation as much as others. I *want* changes to proliferated sets so they fit *better* for that AT. I wish they'd have done that so Dark Armor was a better fit for Stalkers (rather than a flub-fix because now they can't go back and redo it right because the cottage rule).

How I'd want Rage for Stalkers/Scrappers: +45% dmg/8% ToHit (slightly less for Stalkers), 100% crit-rate state on next ST attack upon activation, 50% for AoE (think Placate but you can't be knocked out of this by being hit) then +15% crit-rate for the rest of the duration.

Being able to control a crit for Scrapper would be a potent effect (just like how Rage is so potent for Tankers/Brutes). For Stalkers, that's two controlled crits (and I think there might be a chance to double crit if crit-rate isn't cumulative so combining placate and rage for the same attack might result in that possibility) but where it really shines is, with max teammate buff and Rage, that's like 45% crit chance all the time. Pretty potent...maybe too potent >_>

[EDIT]Oh yeah, you'd need to make the crit-rate buff non-stackable (the controlled crit at the start of Rage should be enough). If it were stackable, Scrappers could get around +45% crit-rate and stalkers a maximum +60% crit-rate...and that's with just 1 stack. It'd start getting absurd after that...

You know, I like to figure possible powersets by unique mechanics and one of the things I consider is damage type combination. In that regard, a smashing/toxic set, I'm not against a type of 'Poinsoned Staff' set. So long as the animations work so it looks like a staff, you can consider the weapon covered in toxins, it could be made of corrosive acids or you can just say the weapon hits and causes internal injuries.

All in all, though, if we're looking for a smashing/toxic set, my mind starts to gravitate toward hellfire (fire/toxic damage in this game) and whips. So what about an 'Acid Chain' or 'Hellfire Chain' melee set instead? For some reason, it just makes more sense to me than a poisoned staff. A poisoned spear? It makes a lot more sense but then, we've got Spines for lethal/toxic...

An aside, would people consider smashing/toxic damage (non-DoT) to be an analog for internal injury similar to how fire/toxic damage is 'hellfire'?