Leo_G

I'd say the solution to this is, placate something that isn't attacking you. And if must placate something that is attacking you to preserve your own life, well thems the breaks. That mob would go attacking the corruptor after the stalker was dead anyway.

First of all, Stalkers should have no problem with a 'stand and scrap' approach...in fact, that's exactly what the AT is built to do. I mean, they have an armor secondary...they have melee attacks...what else would they do!?

Secondly, yes, I'm nearly 95% sure the devs will replace any damage buff variant with Build up for Stalkers. They did it for Claws, Dual Blades and Dark Melee because it didn't mesh with a self contained burst. That's not he cornerstone of the set tho. It's the secondary effect of the set that will really make the set stand out.

Nope, and I play villain side probably 75% of the time. Never see anyone bother with 'seeking' a pure healer or tank. If they were, they didn't go broadcasting it or even comment about it to the team.

And if that's the case, I don't really care. People have their preferences. If they *really* want at least one someone that can rez/heal on the team, it's no skin off my back. It'd be similar to how I have a preference of 2 or less MMs on my teams. If there is more, I'll politely step out of a team.

Depends. Are they having fun playing baseball with their face? Maybe gives them some sort of enjoyment or fulfillment to deflect a hardball with their teeth. But if they start complaining they can't see because the contusions around their eyes are too puffy and blocking their vision, then maybe introduce them to a helmet or whatever...

Analogies aside, so long as the noob isn't complaining that 'it takes too long to build the right team' or something like that, they can play how they want to....

@OP, simple answer: Play. Villains.

-fire/dev blaster toggles on PFF
-proceeds to dispense Trip mines, time bombs, gun turrets, rains and caltrops from safety.

It is fair balance. It's fair for the AI cause there would be so many points of exploit on the player side.

Well, that's not 'telling the damage type you're doing', that's realizing your damage (on a team) is being resisted. It'd be the same feeling if you used Dark Melee vs ghosts, psi damage vs robots, fire vs behemoths, etc.

This is more a complaint about enemy resists than an argument for balance altering elemental weapon options.



By all means, it could be an interesting exerciser. I was thinking of posting up something myself...

That's a possibility but then, you still got Defenders and their weapon sets who'd arguably be quite powerful with all the -slow/rech or something with a set like Archery which is rife with AoE...but it could work, yeah.

Not sure what you're referring to about a better option. IMO, elemental weapons is just a bad idea and we really don't need the balancing issues that'll come with it. I'd love custom weapon options to use a flaming sword or an ice mace and what not but we don't need the damage to be changed for something like that. Unless you're a combat-log Nazi, you'll never tell what type of dmg you do.

Agreed, but really, as far as IOs, the min-maxers will probably do one of two things: 1. gravitate to the same playstyle like you say or 2. use the new options as alternate ways to get the same end-result build. The 2nd isn't a bad thing and for the non-min-maxers, more options. Win win, if you ask me.

It'd be interesting to have a discussion on some of the possible alternate power choices just for fun. You got Assault Rifle up there, how about another blast or melee set? (let's pretend this doesn't extend to sets like control/armor/buff/pet sets...)

Because Claws can effectively stack lots of -ToHit on a crowd while the premiere utility melee set, Dark Melee, can only effectively debuff a couple if not only one.

Seriously, Spin, Shockwave and Eviscerate all debuffing nearly everything within melee range?

I was talking about the tier 9 nuke. You'd be able to choose Full Auto in any circumstances but the other 'bomb' nuke would probably be balanced in conjunction with the bomb attacks. But it was mainly a generalized balancing statement. Who knows how these powers may or may not be balanced unless we're coming up with theoretical sets.

Well, taking the weapon sets mentioned, Claws with -ToHit is equally as broken.


Really, it's the same as what you posted in the OP about making a Katana user and getting to choose between Lotus Drop and Focus...except with theme powers to branch out on powerset concepts. So Fire Melee would have choices of 'Fire swordy' attacks or 'just plain close-up fiery like incenerate' attacks, AR would get a few more grenades/bombs in place of some shotgun powers, so on and so forth.

And Stalker's Stealth Strike was unique to them until VEATs were introduced. Wah?

Scrappers jealous of Stalkers?

*sits back in chair with smug grin*

Funny, I missed most of the hub-bub because I decided to *play* the game >_>

I guess we have to choose to jump through hoops or get your monthly payment's worth. That said, isn't 'free' good enough prize as it is?

Oh! I'll buy! Can I pay with big fuzzy plush animals? That's all I got...

On the idea of criticals, I always thought it would have been cool if everyone can critical (just that maybe certain classes (i.e. Scrappers and Stalkers) can do it better in some way) and that those criticals could be based on the nature of the powers by taking a D&D type approach.

For weapons, like swords (BS/Katana), they'd be the basis for comparison and crit normally for normal damage. Then you go into bigger/heavy weapons, like Assault Rifle, Axe, Mace and Scythe (*we need this weapon!*) where they crit less often but do more damage when you do. Smaller/light weapons (archery, dual pistols, dual blades, claws) would basically crit for normal damage like swords but crit more often which is counter balanced by just having lower base damage. Unarmed (super strength and martial arts) would crit as often as the light/small weapons but their crits do less than normal; balanced by the fact the set is moderate to heavy on the base dmg.

With that established, branch off into the other powers and help define their nature with the new crit system. Spines might take the nature of the heavy weapons but improving ToHit improves crit damage. Fire powers take their crit nature from the middle sword family but can also crit their DoT. Dark powers could take theirs from the unarmed family but also may crit the debuffs they apply.

etc. so-on and so-forth...

Okay, I change my mind. Now I have to buy the pack the day it releases *just* for that.

*crosses fingers it's after friday...better yet, ON friday*