Leo_G

I love my Kat/SR scrapper to death, but were it not for dual-procing his attacks (and he is my main character/concept character) and that I love his costume, I'd probably say it's a tad boring hitting Divine Avalanche every other attack.

Granted, he's already soft-capped to melee ranged and AoE, he still uses it as a filler when foes only have a sliver of health.

The most funnest stalkers I've played so far are my Spines/DA and my DM/WP. Now that I stopped trying to squeeze in caltrops in my tactics all the time, my DB/Nin is getting fun too.

Hyun-ki nodded at the heroine’s words, pushing his square frame glasses up the bridge of his nose afterward.

How about a Stalker or a Tanker?

I had a weird dream last night...that in i19, we'd be getting a certain costume piece kinda like this:



Then I read about the new custom animations we're getting.

Was it really a dream or are we getting a mega-buster?

((OOC: To save you reading 2 extra pages, just skip to the [Present] part))



[The day before]

It was another slow day at his studio, in the northern edge of People’s Park. This place was all he had left that he could call ‘his’. Adorning the entry way, the youth tended to the multi-foot tall bamboo plants framing either side of the door. He tried not to think about how they were simply synthetic and not naturally grown from his home in the east...

The short single story building still blended with the architecture of Praetoria, but he tried to make it his own with a Chinese tiger statue he sculpted himself which guarded the beginning of the path to his place, a Buddha wood carving he had commissioned hanging on the small gate one passed as they entered and other adornments of far away cultures.

Sitting on his knees to dig down into the earth so he could get a good length of bamboo, he heard the familiar heavy footsteps of a PPD interrogator walking up the path to his place. Hyun-ki sighed disappointedly as he snapped the length of bamboo with his fingers, not showing any effort in doing so.

At first, the red-eyed youth was disappointed that the one who approached wasn’t children, seeing as he so enjoyed entertaining and teaching the youth of Praetoria about the language and culture of his home and of other places. But his disappointment was lifted when he finally saw the interrogator approach. Interrogator Kang’s heavy boots stepped along the paved path around a small artificial lake filled with a variety of fish, a small indention in the earth Hyun-ki dug himself.

“Raymond! How are you today?” Hyun-ki greeted which brought a smile to the officer’s bearded face. When they finally met, Hyun-ki bowed deeply then Kang took his arm and gave him a hardy handshake.

“It’s going,” Ray answered after a sigh but covered his hopeless attitude with a smile. “I suppose I should at least be thankful it’s been quiet, as of late.”

“Would you like to come in for some tea?” Hyun-ki offered, taking the bamboo shaft in his hand and giving it a swift skillful swirl before clamping it in his armpit so he could dust off his hands.

Moments later, inside, Hyun-ki had the interrogator seated on a small cushioned bench, pouring the larger man some tea into a small shallow cup that seemed dwarfed in his large gauntlets. The interrogator stared blankly at the cup’s contents.

“I can tell something’s troubling you,” Hyun-ki commented while pouring himself some tea. He took his cup and sat near the open window near the sliding door to the sparring area. “You usually love my tea.”

“Sorry,” Ray sighed again. “I just have a ton of things on my mind. But what about you?”

“Truthfully, not good,” Hyun-ki answered matter-of-factly. “No one has come in all week, several students called in on their lessons last week and I haven’t been able to make my payments on the studio for the month as my beneficiaries’ checks haven’t come in. I hope I don’t have to close down my little shack…”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” the officer replied after a long silence. They both drank for a moment in the faux-tranquility of the silent room before Ray chimed in again. “You know, you could always join the Powers Division again. Or maybe just until the checks clear.”

“I’d rather not…I doubt they need a martial arts instructor and I wouldn’t want to be caught up doing their dirty work.”

Kang cast his eyes down, an obvious look of distress in his eyes. “About that…I came to talk to you about something I learned from a ‘client’ of mine. You’re really the only person I trust that won’t spiral this out of proportion.” Hyun-ki looked up from his tea cup and blinked his crimson eyes at the shift in conversation. “There’s suppose to be some kind of disturbance around the Magisterium tomorrow. I don’t think anyone from the Wardens or Crusaders will be there but this would be a perfect opportunity to cause an incident for the Powers Division and the media will be all over it.”

Hyun-ki tapped his cup persistently with a finger. Powers Division was already on shaky ground with the PPD and without that division, he’d most likely be in trouble considering he was registered with them as a meta. Even if he did nothing, there could be protestors or even the PPD on his front lawn disrupting the tranquility of his special spot in Praetoria.

“What kind of disturbance?”

“Not sure,” Ray answered. “Probably protesters.”

“If it’s only that, I suppose I can make sure nothing gets out of hand.” He paused before quickly adding, “But I’m doing this on my own as a concerned citizen. Not as a member of Powers.”

Kang smiled again. “Thank you. I’m glad I can count on you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Back to the present]

Hyun-ki was walking across the bridge from Imperial City, having left home earlier that morning. Since it was so early, much earlier than the allotted time Kang mention, he figured there wouldn’t be any disturbances or even a hint of one until much later.

When his phone range, Hyun-ki casually examined it before answering.

“Hello?”

“Hyun-ki! Haven’t you heard!? Get to the Magisterium, there’s pandemonium!”

The red-eyed youth didn’t say another word and simply broke off in as fast a sprint as possible, his long brown braided hair dancing in his speed. He could only see some pulse fire from the roof when he got near. He was still several blocks away but close enough to hear the indistinguishable echoes of the spiels of two individuals. With the PPD flanking the civilians, it would be difficult to evacuate everyone without them being sitting ducks to the roof gunmen.

“At least Powers Division made it here on time,” Hyun-ki huffed as he pondered something to save these helpless protesters.

As he reached the outskirts of the Magisterium, the Ministry of Intelligence building dawning on its horizon, this gave Hyun-ki an idea…but it’d take time.

Several minutes later, Hyun-ki was atop the ministry building. He took a few deep breaths, painting the sky with a gentle hand as he focused his form. Then he let his body drop. Through the fall, his breath became shorter and shorter as the ground flew at him. Every instinct in a man would tell them to cower or scream as the end of the fall grew closer and closer but Hyun-ki was a man of much stronger will.

His feet connected with the ground with no visual sign or sound of impact. Only a weak grunt escaped his throat and for a moment, Hyun-ki’s face was gripped with pain. But this quickly subsided when he heard the screams of innocents, gunfire and explosions disrupting the tranquility of Praetoria.

He rose to his full height and turned to the Ministry building. “Ray, I hope this won’t get you and I in trouble.”

In his usual calm stance with his hands behind his back and tucked in the sleeves of his martial arts robe, he ascended the stairs of the building. A sweeper was doing its duty blowing away dirt and dust from the already pristine entryway as Hyun-ki approached one of the columns. “Step aside, please?” he requested before resting a hand on one column. After finding a good point on the stone, he rested a knuckle on it and took a deep breath.

A loud crunch echoed through the tall stone column, a pillar which reached even higher than the ministry building, after Hyun-ki gave it a one-inch-punch like none the world has ever seen. The contained blow broke the column free of the foundation and the side of the building while easily keeping it in one piece.

“Good. Let’s proceed.”

[Seconds later]

Four columns came raining down on the area, all aimed on a specific spot between the citizens and the resistance gunmen that resided on the roof. Riding on one of those columns, Hyun-ki arrived just as Pop Roxxy and the pair of PPD took a strong shockwave that left but a smoldering crater. The black clad youth took a leap just before the column he rode on reached the ground, just in time to stop the monolithic stone’s forward movement with a gentle palm.

He set it down and caught the other 3, doing the same, creating a wall just tall and wide enough to catch any fire from above. He hadn’t realized they had turned their fire on Lady Praetoria, but instead opting to secure the safety of the citizens than try to alter tactics.

“Please evacuate along this path,” Hyun-ki smiled to the panicked protesters as he waved his hand along the shadow his stone wall cast. “Escort them if you will,” he added, turning a crimson eye to the group of PPD to his left.

When I heard of Tin Mage, my mind imagined him as Steeljaw Jack, for some reason. Don't ask me why, Tin's not even evil, but I enjoy his style.

*note: Steeljaw Jack is the guy with the had.

There is no reason to redesign Energy Drain just so you can squeeze a taunt aura into the set. The set wasn't meant to have a static taunt aura and use stealth instead. However, it the set requires it for Tankers (honestly, I'd rather the set be that one defensive set that doesn't), they can simply add it to Entropy Shield and let you slot for it. 2 solutions in one, this gives you your taunt aura and gives something besides rech and endurance redux to slot in that.

Increasing the sets defense to smashing/lethal isn't something you can just add unless you can prove the set should have it. Honestly, that it has decent defense just below the equivalent SR justifies it's huge benefits to endurance management. Although I can get behind boosting its -def resists, which seem pretty low. Around 75% would be great (I think it currently bobs around 55% but not positive).

For the passives, I could imagine combining their effect into one and then changing the buff of the other to an offensive buff like a static +dmg or something interesting like "Chance of adding energy damage 15% of the base dmg of the attack used" but then that'd be violating the cottage rule. So just upping the resistance wouldn't be out of line.

However, just adding and adding debuff resists 'just because' isn't fair. SR has its -def resist and -rech resists...that's it. But you want the set to have -END, -rech, -def resists while having nearly the same level of defense as SR AND big endurance management tools?

They're not going to add a power that's exclusive to another to EA. EA isn't so broken that such a drastic change is even needed.

You're not going to get a redesign of Conserve Power due to the cottage rule. The best you're getting is an alteration/addition to its numbers. You can do several things to it to make the set fun, interesting, unique and NOT overpowered:

-Energize clone with different values. Instead of a heal and regen, maybe just a resistance buff (it'd give you something to slot besides END redux and rech). Or maybe a boost in max HP.
-Make it an offensive power that boosts damage while active. Improving recharge might be out of line though. I like the concept of an Endurance discount power that also adds energy damage ala new fiery embrace tech.
-Create synergy with Energy Drain. Weaken the discount and lower the recharge enough to have it up a lot then you can choose more often to run this power. It could weaken (or stop) the +endurance granted from Energy Drain while boosting the +HP part, effectively giving you the option to switch between an endurance tool to a heal but not both at once.

PS: Kinda sick of how people forget Stalkers. A good change for Stalkers would be to remove the extra non-slottable endurance cost from Repulse (so using it in a group doesn't leave me with no energy). To make it a bit more an in-combat power, I'd even suggest removing the KB and change it to a chance of KU with a moderately long duration -dmg debuff. To keep it as a 'get out of my face' power, maybe give it a one-time pulse of high mag KB upon activating it.

/end rip

Hmm, didn't a lot of people create Tin Mage inspired characters when we first learn about him? I know I did.

The Gentleman robot look isn't bad but I agree that I don't like the feet. Probably would be easier to pull of a robot look without the robot beard but I'm sure there are fans it.

Kind of interesting he wears a tophat too, go with that. My variant, Iron Mage, wears a red renegade hat and looks quite fetching in it as well but is suppose to have a similar style to the original. Mercury Mage is just completely different as he's pretty much just living metal (*one* of my characters had to take advantage of the new Ultra Mode reflections on the metallic skin option >_>).

It wouldn't work anyway as an enhancement can only boost existing effects. There's no slow debuff in Swift so adding a slow enhancement would do nothing.

Gosh, I remember the days when Power Boost affected Knock. I took a partially-slotted-for-KU Lift on my Grav/Ice dom, zoom as far out as possible and fling grey NPCs in Cap near the skyscrappers to 'measure' just how high they went. Some of the heights I saw would result in fall damage if I jumped from the peak of their Lift.

Not sure if you'd take extra fall damage from Lift or not. Anyone know?

I suppose it depends what kind of 'durable' you're talking about.

People will say Ninjutsu but I find that set pretty flimsy when you get hit. Players will say caltrops fixes that but if you don't want to rely on that, all you've got is the defense and heal. This isn't durability, it's utility. But I guess it hinges on if you consider making enemies forget to melee with you for a little while as being durable.

I've always considered Willpower as a more durable set in the general sense. It has a good base to work with IOs, some defense, some resists, you can cap your HP all the time and a worthwhile tier 9 that works even if you manage to cap your defense with bonuses.

Putting some IOs in my /DA stalker to get some 28% defense on him (to varying types...his build isn't done tho), I find his ability to debuff ToHit and fear mass enemies to feel more sturdy than my /Nin with a bit more defense so far thanks to the huge heal and the resistance on top.

This is coming from a stalker player that doesn't have great amounts of experience with /Nin tho, so take that as you will. I'd probably say certain combos are pretty sturdy rather like a DM/Nin or a DM/WP. Kat/Elec would be great too. I enjoy the sturdiness of my Spines/DA thanks to IOs and /EA is easy to softcap with powers/IOs and great endurance management to boot.

So my vote for durable would be Willpower, things combined with Dark Melee (especially Ninjutsu, Super Reflexes and Willpower) and Katana/Broadsword (especially combined with Electric, Willpower and Regen) with outlier stuff like stun stacking with Energy Melee(or Kinetic Melee or Martial Arts)/Dark Armor.

The only way I'd even consider giving away inherent fitness (which is pretty much what you're doing here) is if I could trade it for another pool to be inherent (like inherent Leadership or Inherent teleporation).

There's no real reason for this. You might as well ask for an option to *stop* your base regen and recovery too as being 'natural', there's no way you'd recover from a bullet wound or a fire blast to the face by waiting around for a few minutes.

To counter the comments saying defense is 'better' than resistance(can't really argue there), on the otherhand resistance is far far more 'valuable'.

What I mean is, if you're teaming, the opportunity for defense buffs being thrown around is high. Either from a Force Field/Ice Shield user to a Dark Miasma user or even a Tanker using Grant Cover and Maneuvers, defense is relatively cheap and easy to come by.

But resistance is not. It's rarer and harder to build up. Case in point, the sets you can cap your defense with are pretty much any if you're willing to IO up and pick certain +def powers but sets like Super Reflexes, Shield Defense or even Willpower are easier to cap. But you're not going to be capping your resistance. Even with tier 9s, they usually never cap every damage type and only for a short time. There are sets like Fire Armor which cap your fire resistance or Electric Armor which will cap energy resistance or Invulnerability which can cap smashing/lethal resists with certain powers stacked but chasing after capped resists to everything most of the time is futile.

The best thing to do is get some good base resists values then stack defense ontop of it.