Leo_G

That probably wouldn't help much for feel but not sure about on paper.

Personally, I'd make HoB's secondary effect the set's secondary effect, i.e. each attack gives +def to all (not just positions) but only stackable to 3.

And if you choose the non-dancy animations, n0 d3F 4 j00!1

/shrug

Women generally like manly guys that do the good guy stuff (like being a protector of their family, a provider, doing things that need to get done even if one must get dirty...probably hate when they do the bad guy stuff, like being smelly, scratching their junk, etc) and guys generally like womanly women (carer of offspring...um, sex...I'm sure there's some more in there). That generally translates into what role people make their characters (or what they might wear).

Me? Yeah, a lot of my melee guys often tend to be guys and my support usually tends to be girls. But in the general gist of concept and backstory, it's always the women who are the leaders that run the show and give orders, or are the strongest 'Big Bad' of my roster who are not only powerful, but obsenely intelligent/adept and yet still have 'others' fulfilling orders or running out doing her dirty work.

Hmm, I wonder what that says about me...

I wouldn't even mind if the impelemted solution were simply 'tricking' me to believe it was the same character. Basically, let me pick a couple of alts, link them with some kind of option and simply allow me to switch between any of them without needing to quit or log. You'd technically be swapping to a whole new character but never logging out or dropping to do so.

Make it cost the same as a character slot but with the disadvantages of no extra costume slots, no extra inventory of salvage/enhancements/inf, but getting to share the same name and badges.

Same here.

I have a character also who uses different armors because she's field testing her inventions before creating any type or model for government/law enforcement purposes. But I put an mk1, mk2 and mk3.

I started thinking of expanding my more used characters as well. My main is a Kat/SR but he's also a practiced martial artist so building him up as a MA/SR by the same name...maybe not all the way to 50 just to emphasize he's better with a sword...then he also transforms into a were-tiger that likes to use swords. Right now I just have an alternate costume but I'd eventually like to separate that off into a whole nother character as Titan Weapon/SR...

Yes we're talking about 'AoE damage power' because he's talking about adding in universal AoE dmg to each set.

And there's the new Street Justice set which removes a single target attack (Rib Cracker that does moderate dmg and -res -dmg) for AS.

And then a new set shows up on the block and a couple more sets are proliferated. One statement will remain true while the other becomes moot. /shrug

What about DM? It only has 1 cone, or do you count a long recharging PBAoE with only moderate dmg too?

Perhaps if it weren't for all the double standards people hold to Stalkers. You can't hold some sets as the standard justification for your view while ignoring everything else including the advantage of controlled crits and on-demand burst dmg.

If I'm painting a picture of Stalkers not being disadvantge, then you're painting a picture that Stalkers are crippled. Newsflash: neither is true.

The point I'm making is it isn't universal. It's set by set. Almost universal doesn't equate to slapping in universal buffs.

AS is an attack shared by every Stalker but not all Stalker sets lose AoE. So why should the ones that lose nothing gain more? The addition isn't justified, IMO.


I also advocated guaranteed AoE crits now that KM's burst gets to keep its little advantage there. You can compensate the ST sets in other ways.

FYI, Ripper is still a cone.

And continue on with that question - What sets, in general melee, are considered to have great AoE damage? Well, Elec Melee and Spines are regarded as AoE focused possibly to the extent of being poorer at ST. Then there's Dual Blades, Axe/Mace with its 2 cones + PBAoE. Claws, a strike against Stalkers, with its faster recharging cones and PBAoE. Fire Melee has only 1 cone and a PBAoE but they do more dmg with DoT. Then outliers like Super Stength's Footstomp and armor sets like Fiery Aura and Shields...

MA? DM? Stone? Energy? Kinetic? BS? These are not sets known for 'Great AoE'. Now compare the sets that do 'great AoE' to sets Stalkers currently have access to...

The difference between a Stalker running and a Brute/Scrapper running is, one isn't wholly penalized while the others are. I'm not saying Stalkers should run or fit it into their routines, but that,when one *has* to run, it isn't wasting time. Being dead is more a waste than hopping away for 10-12 sec. If you can say you'd never have to run on Brute/Scrap, then you can probably build a Stalker to do the same.

Because it'd be pretty hypocritical to hold an AT's performance to a set of 3 poster powersets (Energy, Martial Arts, Claws).

It's why I don't say 'Stalkers' have poor or good AoE, but 'sets' have poor or good AoE.

Stalkers do not hace reduced crit values on AoEs. A Scrapper will crit 5-10% on Ripper or Spine Burst. A Stalker will crit 10% on each of those naturally and 50% on those from hide.

10-50% is greater than 5-10%.

I guess, but I'm just not a fan of it. You'd still have players only wanting to use it on a huddle of foes rather than the target that needs to be dead.

I'm not being hostile. If I were, I'd use more CAPITALIZED PHRASES, bolded text self f******* censoring and various combinations of the above.

I'm simply stating a fact and asking you to better express why you feel the contrary.


Your problem is, you think Katana has amazing AoE on non-stalkers.

My main is a Kat/SR like yours. He's adaquate at AoE and that's about it. Lotus Drop, while a nice chunck of PBAoE, isn't going to win any farming contests. The point is the set itself, Katana, isn't an AoE focused set. It just *can* do AoE. This goes for MA, EM, and DM too. The only outlier to the comparison is Claws which can do GREAT AoE except on Stalkers where it can simply do 'some'.

What will you say when Stalker get more proliferation? Honestly, I'd like to know. I haven't really lost faith and am sure the devs have learned some valuable lessons from the past. Just remember, Stalkers haven't had a melee set proliferated since Elec Melee...and BS doesn't count. But more will happen.

The idea is, if you're an AoE focused Stalker, there won't be a spawn left but the couple of hard targets that you finish off. If you're a ST focused Stalker, then you finish the problem foes quickly, leaving mainly just minions and who's afraid of a bunch of minions?

As for the last part, it's really just preference. I don't see Stalkers as being at a disadvantage engaging and I don't see running as a waste of time. One is just what you gotta do and the other is self preservation.

Maybe as an 'out of hide' 'bonus'. Being able to AS 3+ guys? Heh, you think people complain now about how hard AS is to pull off because "It's their signature power! you're *supposed* to be using it every time you can!" just imagine how many will get frustrated because you *have* to hit multiple foes with it or else it's garbage.

Besides, one less downfall to AS and the playstyle in general is you don't have to worry about foe positioning. This will just emphasize the need to herd foes up rather than simply getting the job done.

Sounds like you'd just be chain critting. Hit BU, crit from hide, hit BU again, hit, hit, crit, crit, placate crit, BU....It won't fly, if you ask me.

We're just getting further and further from viable changes, if you ask me. It's just going to be less likely that the devs will consider using these suggestions.

But if I were simplifying the suggestion above, it'd be to swap Assassination and Hide. Hide would be the Passive and Assassinate the toggle. Basically, you get passive stealth and defense that never turns off or need to be reapplied, you'll just go transparent after using an awake or whatever. Assassination would be a -stealth toggle that'd basically give you a free crit when turn it on then 10% crit while you keep it on. You can then lower rehide to 4 sec so, you can crit from hidden, toggle on assassination and crit again, then just fight as normal until you need to hide again.

Prove it.

Stalkers aren't bad at delivering AoE. They're actually pretty darn good if someone else set up the enemies for them. All I know is my Spines/DA stalker is set to +4 by default and goes higher depending on what foes he faces. My Elec/Regen orchestrates mob killing before he even drops LR and although my DB/Nin isn't IO'ed well, on teams, it's quite easy to demolish all herded minions in 2 moves or a LT and 3 moves if you use a red or two with her procced out Sweep combo.

I'm honestly confused when people mention AoE and Stalker. Is 50% chance of crit + a high dmg buff (and hey, pop reds when you know when your boom is going to be biggest!) *twice in a row* not effective? Or are you just comparing across select AoE builds?

To me, dead and dead fast mobs are the same no matter how you do it and Stalkers can do it too. Looking forward to more sets with varied AoE on Stalkers. Fire Melee, Ice Melee, Axe/Mace, Super Strength and all the new sets. If those sets aren't enough to make people get beyond the stigma that 'Stalkers can't do AoE well' I guess I'll just be forever confused...

Just bringing this up since it was only mentioned once. I'd also be disappointed if monsterous legs are left without yet another fitting option as it's either pants or pantsless...and I never pick pantsless >_<

I also have a current female character that really needs something like the male fur pants or just a proper loincloth!! The skirt isn't doing anything for her

Because MY Stalker is covered in ******* DARKNESS and can teleport himself and other things THROUGH SHADOWS! He can drive a damn pick up at you and mask it as a tricycle if he wanted to. Not to mention he can mentally screw with people's senses to make them think they hear or see things they didn't.

How about taking your own lousy argument and explain what hole that Brute pulled a Crossing sign from in the middle of a crey lab in Perigrine Isle DOZENS OF MILES from any type of train tracks, Hmm?

Look, maybe you didn't realize this but, this game is called City of Heroes. I'll explain my own character concepts. I or anyone else don't require your short sighted input.

Wow, someone else that finally gets it. I've been saying the same thing (or at leadt something similar) for a while now. People go on about Stalkers needing to out do Scraps in melee but in the whole scheme of balance, Scrappers are a DPS class too and you can't have one completely overshadowing another or else purpose is lost to invite one. The ATs should be *close* which is how they are.

Heck, even the purposed AoE descrepency won't be anything to complain about once more proliferation occurrs. Once Stalkers can 50% crit Fire Sword Circle, throw on a Fiery embrace, swing around all those cones in Titan Weapons, tossing around mace/axe PBAoEs and eventually Shield Charge, maybe rounding out AoE-weak sets with Patron/epic AoEs + Spring attack...all with the ability to pop reds and hit BU just before that burst then easily do it again after a placate. I honestly don't see the beef with Stalkers and AoEs...some sets are just good at it and we'll be getting more sets in the future with decent to great AoE...

/rant off...I would probably reverse that idea, EG. Make Scrappers into the ST debuffers (as it doesn't even make much sense to me that Scraps would be debuffers at all) while making Stalkers the AoE debuffers. Consider, some of the Scrapper sets don't have big AoEs to attach debuffs to. But Stalkers have a wide-spread AoE debuff already. Just make some sort of qualifiers in combat to trigger different debuffs, like hitting a minion will get current demoralize, a Lt. demoralize+set-secondary debuff, a boss demoralize+secondary debuff and -res and on GMs/EBs/AVs a simple single target -regen/-heal.

That is to say, you don't have to bother with AS and just focus on DPS, but if you choose to take that dmg hit, you could better support a team.

Well, that's kinda Claws/Kinetic's gimmick. Claw's BU recharges in 72sec rather than the standard 90sec and Kinetic has a mechanic that insta-recharges BU with a crit.

Again, rather than completely revamp the AT or sets or whatever, I'd go the route of adding 'moves' to individual sets to give them unique advantages but still in line with the AT's playstyle. What those might be is all a fantasy though, but it's a good step toward making each set unique like the scrapper melee sets tend to feel like vs the afterthought effect stalker melee feels like.


Now that the Paragon Market has it set up to buy ATs, it's a possibility that new ATs might come into existance one day.

Oh dear, I hope I didn't make you mad by pointing out your punctuation problems. I was just saying, if I didn't get what you were trying to say, it was because of that...

But the idea is, if you make a character with a certain concept, more animations would help approximate it better. We don't need it, but we don't need customization at all. I suppose you'd be happy if all the attack options across every set were all the same?

Heh, I said 'fencing' not 'rapier'.

You do realize many fighting styles are derived from one, 'parent', style? Right? How is 'holding a sword with a different grip' not related to the original concept? (keeping the example of BS<>Fencing to make this simple)

As far as advantage to exploit. Perhaps. If looking good is something to exploit...I asked if you feel there would be any kind of balance problems with the revised idea to which you didn't respond. If any advantage is to be gained it is the character showing a heightened prowess with their weapon of choice by wielding it in various ways, be that a sword or dark energies wrapped around their body. Just go google Kenshi Himura or Samurai X. What makes him so unbeatable is he can change and adapt his style of fighting to his opponent...a concept within itself, really.

Lol you mean escrima/espada y daga? Either you don't understand what I'm talking about or you're intentionally being obtuse.

You realize though, many techniques used in fencing are also used by knife fighters. A reform skin for Broadsword animated for fencing would cover this. If you wanted a reverse grip, a costume skin could be made for the fencing set to mix and match thrusts and hammer stabs.

I've already heard the sighs of posters at the mention of Titan Weapons. Players want more 'super powers' and not more 'weapons' to which I can understand. A set with its power balanced to the animation would only technically be a new set and more reasonably be just custom options.

Which neither of my ideas do...so it wouldn't be a new set by your definition.

I personally wouldn't post a topic here on the forums asking 'Can we get a knife melee set up in here?' because then you'd get stuff like 'How is a dinky razor blade super?' or 'Another weapon set!? You just got Staff melee!!' or 'Another lethal set?'. You could try to even spice it up with a cool gimmick and probably see 'Why's everything gotta have some confusing trick?'.

Basically, don't expect to ever see a set of knife animations. Because it's just easier to make new sets, and yet the devs won't waste revamping old sets to accomidate different animations like those.

If you say so. Now show of hands. Who thinks Martial Art's alternate animations look good enough compared to the new Street Justice?

.....

I don't think that's plausible as it's a balancing mechanic to stop exploitation. If it's possible, I'd expect stealth powers being the new 'door sit' power in farms.

Not sure if this problem even exists. I've witnessed targets chasing you even after you're unaggroed but never beyond a certain distance from their spawn point (however they'll occasionally try to hit you anyway). Is that the one you need? I'd say removing placate resists from any mob would do the trick.

Not really a bug, though...more like a QoL change

Most likely unfeasable outside of removing those types of spawns. Better to just balance around them and leave it to the player to find a solution, like Bill.

Can't really argue with that. I and others always say that Stalkers are fine on HP and don't need anymore, but this isn't technically giving them more, just improving their potential.

100% +dmg on BU is an effect of the scrapper's AT mods for melee dmg buffs. Tankers, Brutes, SoA, and Defenders all have a 100% mod for that attribute while Scrappers and Blasters have 125%. I say that's a feature of those ATs.

I would, however, suggest moving around the melee (and ranged) ToHit buffs. Although a nerf, push down Scrapper and Brute down to the blaster mod of 75%, keep Tanker at 100% and push Stalker up to 130-150%. Also, slightly improve the base accuracy of their attacks too. Basically, Stalkers should be extremely accurate, so much so that they could do what Brutes do for damage slotting (i.e. skip it and not feel harmed by it).

For BU itself, the extra 20% dmg is nothing to cry home about. The hindering part of BU is its duration of 10sec. With the oft better DPS option being thrown out (the likes of Soul Drain, Follow Up and Power Siphon), a similar change that Dual Blades could fit. The Empower combo lasts 10sec for other melees but can be kept up while Stalker empower lasts 20sec because it can't. If I were proposing a change that would aim to help the AT, it'd be to extend BU's duration from 10sec to 15-20sec. This is mainly to help with DPS. But if you're aiming to focus on aiding Burst dmg, I'd say there are better options

Well, it's something. But I'd find it all too easy to fight then.

Meh. I'd rather the damage be controlled.

Can't argue with that. It does remove alot of the need to be situationally aware but since a lot of those instances aren't easily avoidable even with awareness, it'd be killing multiple birds with one stone.

A possible solution, but one I'm not sure is feasible. Now that I think about it, I don't know how it's possible..perhaps having all stalker powers grant the foe a temp power that results in a PBAoE +kmeter buff to everyone nearby.

It'd be nice if we got some type of 'killer' buff from defeating foes though...

I guess you meant Scrappers in some of those spots...

I'm always against giving Stalkers Scrapper melee mods, if only because that's their schtick. That and melee dmg. Instead, critical damage is Stalker's schtick and should be focused on. The more I hear for improvements to Stalkers, the more I think crit dmg should be upped for Stalkers. With the ability to have seperate PvE and PvP numbers, simply changing a 50dmg attack with a 50dmg crit to a 50dmg attack with a 75-100dmg crit is simple number changes. I'd even go so far as to sacrifice the scaling team crits for just plain bigger crits. This scales for AS and any critting power btw.

Those are all pretty radical changes though. I doubt any of them would fly. Now I can get behind AS being auto-hit from hide in PvE or some such but any of those really just changes AS into an every day melee tool. AS should be more for utility with great dmg being its boon, not its only redeeming freature.

Instead of trying to refit in powers that were dropped, I'd suggest adding features to the sets' current make-up, just like Kinetic Melee has 100% crit with Burst and insta-recharge BU from a hidden Concentrated Strike.

There's too many possibilities to list though. But it's probably easier than reforming whole sets.

Ah, sound customization. The final fontier. So far we've got weapon custonization, power colorization, animation customization and 'stance'/vehicle/travel customization but not yet sound customization.

I truly hope, one day, the devs give us some form of it...if only so my robots sound like robots, my teens don't sound like grown men, etc. If customization ever extended to sounds, that'd be great, but I have a feeling they're baked into the powers...Maybe there's a way to encorporate that idea with this one? I'd imagine, if you had a silencer on you gun or had lightsabers, then you'd want all your powers to have a similar sound, not mix and match different type sounds?

I can't tell from the costume creator if the sounds of the alternate animations sync up or not (doesn't play sounds)...Anyone want to research this? If they don't, just alternate animations would work that have different sounds/particle FX. You could even give the animation a light trail for energy/magical/special type weapons.

OK, I can barely understand what you're saying because of the lack of punctuation and all...but I'll try and see if I can respond...

You say changing part of a powerset and not the whole will unbalance things? How so? A set is balanced (now) on not only recharge, damage, endurance cost and partially on secondary effect, but on animation speed as well (if only to a degree). Since the reform skin would change much of this (having differing animation times, endurance/rech/dmg being rebalanced to keep it close to its parent set) yet use the original set as a guide, you're effectively left with the same set, not much more different from the difference between Kat and BS.

Or have you added to your stance that it'd be a waste of time? Perhaps. I can't argue if it would be time consuming or not. As was pointed out by another poster, the devs could simply make a new set then organize this extra set in the character creator. My only problem is, I feel it's just repeating the same mistake as BS and Kat. With new tech, this could simply be 'Single Sword' with the ability to change stance of 'one hand or two' and wouldn't be any more advantageous than Dual Pistol's swap ammo, or Street Justice's combos and extreme dmg uppercut that outdamages Assassin's Strike or the new Staff Melee that *will* change stances in a similar way to what I'm suggesting...

That said, I already explained why retrofitting new animations onto old sets might not be the best option.

And again, this isn't about having a 'fast/slow' mode for the old sets. That was only an *example*. This is about *flow*. If the devs added custom options for BS swing in the katana set, it would look *bad* and flow like day old diarrhea. Heck, some of the old sets by themselves don't flow so hot. Alls I'm saying is, you could make some super keen options for existing sets *if* you weren't bound by the times of these legacy sets. You can make them as new sets but then few'll want to play the old ones.

Well, my idea is two fold. The devs can add some free alternate animations to sets that have few options, but after that, we get into heavy stuff. Want to shoot fire from a wand or sonic blasts from a gun? Those type of customizations are harder since powers not coded with a weapon option would need lots more coding as well as weapon customization. I'd expect to pay something for options like that.

Then there's powerset reform, which goes a bit beyond even the above. Changing the animations, animation times and possibly even rebalancing their costs and damage...basically, reforming the powers to fit the new animations rather than the animations for the powers (like what is done now). I'd love a reverse grip ninja-to animation for katana which may only need alternate animations, but an iaido style animation might be wholly different...

Just take one of your favorite sets, think of what it's theme entails then imagine it as a different style. Can that style 'fit' the old set or would you need a new one?

It's like you only read half of what I said lol

So tell me how a Kinetic Scrap or a Claws scrap or a Dual Blades scrap or a dark melee scrap would pull off outright killing that guardian before it drops a quartz, hmm?

But besides general AT make-up, my Kat scrap can only *try* to eleminate that specific mob before it can react. If you miss? If you're spotted? If the *other* mobs summon a carian or +mez mushroom?

I think I made my point with that specific senario, you just seem to think just because scraps have higher melee mods, that completely trumps all and it doesn't always. Sure, you can make a build that will plow through whatever gets in your way with about any AT, but that isn't a failing of Stalkers but a general flaw of the game and the min/max mindset in general.

You can disagree all you want, but you'd still be wrong. There's nothing 'wrong' with Stalkers. I think the reason why you're wrong is because you feel if something isn't seen as 'broken' then no one will 'fix' it. The devs seem to be fine adding improvements to things that are 'alright'.

What!? NO!

See? This is what I mean when I say people probably don't understand what I'm saying...not blaming anyone, just saying this is why I have to be persistent so I'll address this in steps:

Step 1. Clarify. Fire and Ice are not even *close* to the same set. One does fire damage, the other does cold. One has a PBAoE nuke, the other has a Targeted AoE nuke. One has a snipe, the other has two holds...Not only that, but they do not share any thematic ties. Just because they are both elements doesn't mean they're the same element.

Step 2. Explain. For a set to fall under my example of an idea, the powers would have to not only fall under a similar theme but a similar power make-up. I made an example of Katana and Broadsword because they are effectively the same set which share the same power make-up, the same power order and the same theme of being 'single swords'. The only difference is their animation times and speed which are the refitted for endurance/dmg/rech.

Step 3. Example. For fire, an alternate 'style' for the set may be something like 'Spirit Fire', a set that 'shapes' fire into things like birds, fireflies and what not, a theme that may fit well for a magic fire caster or a pyrokinesis user that make pictures and shapes out of their fire. To get a proper impact, flares may cast much faster while fireball migh be slower animating.

That said, I'm not advocating consolidating current sets like BS and Kat, those were only examples to get my point across. The 'powerset skin' and 'reform skin' are *new* sets added to old ones as options.

I don't think a Tanker would even get bodyguard since bodyguard is the inherent of MM...if he had bodyguard, he'd stop being a Tanker with gauntlet and start being a MM with supremacy/bodyguard.

Although I can see a MM with stone armor on as brokeningly defensive, it'd probably be lacking the offensive punch of current MM...cripplingly so. I mean, are MMs not already brokenly powerful defensively and offensively? Take away their pets with an AoE and their ability to heal/buff them and you basically get a MM that's far more defensive at the crippling cost of needing to resummon defeated pets over and over.

Just going by what I hear on the forums all the time. I don't really play MMs much but I hear lots can solo the max difficulty, solo AVs, and all that jazz already but when it comes to incarnate stuff, all you heard was the gnashing of teeth, complaining that they can't keep their pets alive, that they can't contribute without them and so on...and it's not as if MMs get the greatest peronal buff mods either.

And how does Granite not debuff ranged? Because of the speed debuff? Aren't they already looking toward ways to lessen that little downfall when they decide to revisit SA, possibly changing granite all together?

Technically, yes, that's what I'm saying. However the part where you say "the animations would be different so times and effects would be completely different than the broadsword set" is a point you may be seeing some type of radical advantage.

The powers, order and 'tier' would be the same and relate to its parent set, but tweeks for animations might shift it around a bit, maybe making the tier 4 faster but the tier 1 and two a bit slower. The idea is, if I were making a fencing (not rapier, that weapon model is already available. the skin is to give the set a 'style') set, it'd be 1 handed like BS but have animations that depict light,accurate and deadly thrusts instead of big, slow and hard swings. This may or may not translate directly animation time-wise if they were to flow properly. Same would go for Iaido as the katana style which would have the user keep their katana at the waist, draw/slash, then return the sword to the waist, that might be slower for some animations but far faster for others.

What I'm trying to wrap my head around is exactly what you guys are thinking about the idea.

-do you feel, being able to swap styles with a costume change just as one would swap power colors, is overpowered? Why do you feel this way?

-is it just technically difficult so no time should be alotted to anything like this?

-that no one would use such a feature so it'd be a waste of time?

So you feel it'd be overpowered to be able to even respec into a different style? Why do you feel this way?

That's more animation customization. We can have that too but try something...

Go into the costume creator or get one of your characters with all their blasts and swap all your animations to a specific type that isn't the original animation (like all 1-handed). Notice how limited they are visually. They all share a very similar (I wouldn't be surprised if they were identical) stance and emanation FX. This is because of the limits one has under animation customization in that, character cast time, effect delay, root time, ready stance, all of it has to match up with the old set.

What I suggest is the ability to basically put all that aside, work with a clean slate (cast time, animation, etc. but range, effect numbers, are the same) then afterwards, balance the numbers to be even with the parent set.

You ask why not just make a new set, and I'm saying *do* that. I just think, since it's the same set, number-wise and theme-wise, you might as well have the ability to use either. That'd be the old set's gimmick. While Titan Weapons gets momentum, Street Justice gets combos, Staff gets a combination of combos and stance change, Broad Sword can swap between regular and fencing and Katana can do kendo or iaido with but a change in grip. It's not a thematic leap to figure your BS user thinking he might start stabbing instead of slicing...

Then sit down, calm yourself, and *DISCUSS*!

I would love alternate themes for sets so that they can fulfill a *theme* and Trick Arrow fulfills a good offensive gadget theme and could easily fit working with other devices to set off those offensive gadgets, be they from a gun, a wrist/shoulder mount or a bow.

Take it a step further and introduce some archery animations for the gun sets you think exists (lol transform LRM into teleport arrow nuke. I wouldn't use it but it sounds fun). Not that every set can use every type of animation, but hey, there's room for some interesting possibilities.

Two-fold. Some players don't *want* the next new gimmick shoehorned into their sets. Secondly, it just underminds the old sets. No, the new sets aren't 'better' than the old ones, but the new sets most definitely *look better* and that's really all it takes for players to shelve those older sets in favor of the new.

For the exact reason you pinpointed earlier: they'd *have to* have the same cast times. So far, we have no evidence the devs can make a compelling and smooth set of animations under this limitation.

Blast sets? Those hand/etc animations are all the same and boring/uninteresting. They are limited by cast time and delay before damage is applied. If, say, you wanted to have a different length cast that still fit within the cast of the old, you *still* have to account for the delay after while the projectile travels which constrains the animator more.

Melee? Their attacks are better designed as sets since their return stance and flow from one to the other can be accounted for. Making a set of animations that fit exactly within those of another is *harder* than just animating a new set.

Well, that really only covers it up. I don't have a problem looking over that annoyance since I don't spend long amounts of time in the "Choose Primary/Secondary" window.

But yeah, the idea is technically new powersets. Now just come out and say you have no qualms with new sets that function mechanically the same and share close conceptual ties, then I really cannot say anything more since that is the base principal this idea is attempting to consolidate.

Have you seen the alternate animations (or for the Blast sets, alternate animation (singular))? Compared with some of the newer stuff we got at the time (Dual Pistols, Demon Summoning, Kinetic Melee), these alternate graphics/animations we got for free are extremely limited.

The 'skins' you'd be paying for go beyond that free stuff, like rigging weapons to non-weapon animations (like the fire/ice swords). You figgure something that required extra work and effort would be worth paying for...