PoptartsNinja

Kyle steps over the writhing Madcat, the fight forgotten. His finger's brush Kelly's cheek, the blood still flowing from the angry red cut there. "He's unimportant," Kyle says quietly, "A bad memory, nothing more. We need to get that looked at--let's get out of here."

Madcat bounded after Kelly like a rabid dog, his mouth foaming as he started to overdose. With a shriek, the metal bar magnet caught him in the temple. It hadn't been moving at hypersonic speeds--if it had, it probably would've been a deadly blow. As it was, it just knocked Madcat sprawling. Kyle lept, snatched the magnet out of the air; grabbed it with his powers, started it moving again.

Magnetic acceleration was tricky, but using a magnet made it easier. He really couldn't keep anything larger aloft, but--there was a soft crack as the Magnet broke the sound barrier--it was still heavier than a bullet, and moving a good deal faster. Madcat lurched to his feet again, his eyes mad with rage and drugs.

Kyle took him in the kneecap--Madcat's leg bent the wrong way, he fell heavily, his howl of rage transformed to one of pain.

Madcat howled as a bolt of lightning caught him in the back. He ducked, tried to roll away--Kyle lunged, caught his legs in a scissor-kick, tripped him. Madcat grinned, sensing victory, lunged--he was better in a close--

Madcat shook his head, tried to take stock of his situation. His head was pounding, he was on his back on a pile of shattered wooden boxes. Sandy hit him that hard? He tried to clear his head, but the drugs... the drugs... everything swirled, a rainbow of scents and sights that demanded he hunt. He roared, rolled to his feet, simply gave in to his feral senses.

Kyle cursed and rolled out of the way--four bloody lines carved into his back for his trouble. He scrambled to escape even as the cybernetic spiders let up their assault for fear of striking Kyle by mistake. Kyle cursed under his breath--it was all he could do just to keep out of Madcat's reach--then focused.

The soft howl of sand accelerating past the speed of sound filled the tight warehouse, echoing off the jagged boxes and rusting machinery. Kyle swept Madcat's feet out from under him, then lept away--creating some distance and buying himself some time. He frowned, fished the metal bar magnet from a belt-pouch; then closed his fist around it, hiding it from sight.

Kyle's entrance wasn't exactly silent. It didn't matter, Madcat was tugging at the webbing covering his eyes and nose; his new metallic claws digging into his face. Kyle lept, spun--a wave of sand accelerated to several times the speed of sound took him in the back of the knees.

Madcat toppled over, howled in irritation. Without much care, the feral mutant tore the webbing from his face; leaving lines of blood. There would be scars, Kyle thought. His own scarred lips curled upwards into a faint, almost vicious smile. It seemed like poetic justice.

Madcat lept to his feet in a single acrobatic motion, Kelly forgotten behind him. He dropped low, seemed about ready to lunge. Kyle stared at him, didn't bother to drop into a defensive posture.

"Saaaandy," Madcat growled, his lips curling upwards into a sneer. He licked his lips, tasted blood, grinned. Kyle realized Madcat didn't realize it was his own; his pupils were too dialated. The Superadine pump in his chest had kicked in full-force.

"How long until that pump kills you?" Kyle taunted quietly. "The Freakshow use Excelsior for a reason--how long until your body rejects those new implants of yours, Madcat?"

"... Shut up, Sandy," Madcat growled. He lunged, a swift, graceful motion at odds to his large sides. Kyle brought up his forearms, blocked the hit. Winced. He'd caught Madcat on the wrists, and the blow had still numbed his arms. Kyle rolled away, glanced up at Kelly, wondered how long it'd take her to call her children to help. Madcat lunged again, Kyle hit him in the forehead with a grain of sand--he slipped, landed hard, Kyle rolled away again. He could keep this up indefinitely... long enough for Kelly to figure a way out of her chains. Probably long enough to exhaust Madcat's drug supply. He had the energy for a fight like this... his powers may have been nearly useless on their own, but they still gave him an overabundance of energy that most people seemed to find annoying.

Kyle's eyes snapped open as his phone beeped. He nodded, silently, slipped it into one of his belt pouches. He couldn't exactly fly anymore, but then, he didn't expect to need to. The coordinates weren't very far away.

On the way out the door, he snagged the six-inch bar magnet he kept by the door and stalked out into the night. He didn't bother to change. There was no point.

Kyle rolls the paper over in his hands. His eyes are cold, hard in a way they've never been before. "... Alright, Paul," he says to himself, "You didn't even leave me an address."

With an economy of motion, he writes a concise note and sticks it to the fridge with a bunny-shaped magnet on the off-chance Lilah swings by the apartment. Idly, he leans against the fridge, checks his phone for messages--a habit, more than anything--and calls up his e-mail system.

"Has Paul captured you?" he types into the body of an e-mail, followed by "if so, do you want me to come help? If so, what're your current GPS coordinates?"

With a click of a button, he sends the message to Kelly; then sets his own personal timer. Ten minutes. With her built-in internet connection, if she hasn't responded in ten minutes...

"I most vehemently concur, a'ight?"

I personally suggest checking out Van Canto.

They're an A Capella metal band who currently do a lot of covers, but a lot of their original work is really good too.

That's working as intended. The hellions are having a drug deal, and the one selling the drugs always 'runs'. Defeating him before he can get to a 'safe spot' (aka, before he loses agro and starts walking back to his spawn point) will get you a bit of extra influence.

That's been in the game since launch.

Yellows already have a secondary function:
They add a bonus to perception, allowing you to see through Night Widow smoke grenades and other similar effects more easily.

Additionally:
7m * 0.09999 (+7m) = 7.69993 m

That's really not enough of a range modification to be worthwhile.

Edit:
Additional addition:
Enemies will still have a melee range of 7m, so they'll close to that distance anyway; but if they don't and stick with ranged attacks this runs the risk of leaving you suddenly 'out of range' and, paradoxically, runs the risk of turning yellows into a detriment to your combat ability.

Inspirations ... they stack with themselves, you know. You can pop four of something. Or eight of something. Or sixteen large reds and hit the brute damage cap for 10 seconds or so, if you've got them and are crazy. Praetoria is so much easier if you buy purples between missions. Pop three, you're near the defensive soft-cap. Pop three again if that boss-fight is going long.

Another set of 'investigation pool' ideas that'd be worth considering:

1) Investigate
Your keen eyes spot clues that others miss
Auto +2-5% increased salvage / tip drop rate

1) Singleminded
Once you've spotted a lead, very little distracts you from running it down
Auto mag 4 confuse protection, minor perception debuff resistance (or tohit debuff resistance (whichever one actually exists))

2) Situational Awareness
Your situational awareness makes keeping track of someone you're tailing easier even when they try to shake you
Auto, inherent perception bonus (about the same level as a medium yellow, maybe). Perhaps a very small base accuracy bonus. OR Clicky perception bonus (about the same level as a big yellow, or better) but incredibly hard to perma

3) Surveilance
Oh, look, a way for everyone to get it without recipe salvage--it'd have to be weaker than the VEAT version, probably, but still worthwhile (especially to let the team know when the AV's HP Regen is floored, or how many hitpoints he's got left).

I did mention redraw as a possible issue, but IIRC Thorny Assault also suffers from redraw and has a slightly higher damage to compensate. Alternatively, so long as the redraw is kept quick (a 'draw from the hip' animation rather than a 'draw from behind the back' animation), a lot of the redraw issues can be mitigated.

Redraw doesn't have to be that bad, which is why the Tier 9 is actually designed to force redraw (you dropped your sword and pistol!), poking fun at how often the set will have to pull the sword and pistol back out.

Doesn't rage also have a -def during the crash; or am I crazy and remembering something from like, five years ago?

Hooray for Insomnia!

I feel that Dominators are lacking a good weapon set… but what would work for them? Throwing axes? A bit specific and a touch lame. Throwing knives? A bit better, as a lot of dual-blades animations could be re-used, but I think there’s an all-around better option. Sure, there’d be redraw issues (which can be mitigated slightly with the right redraw animation—a more casual ‘draw from the hip’ rather than a ‘pull from behind the back’ could speed things up; or animation times could be adjusted downward slightly to compensate for more constant redraw).

So, just as a mental exercise for me; I decided to create a sword-and-pistol dual-weapon set for Dominators. I’m sure it doesn’t meet any of the damage scale guidelines, since I don’t know the math, so all numbers would be approximate and/or possibly wishful thinking on my part.

Anyways, enough of my pointless insomniac ramblings! On to the powerset!



Swashbuckling Assault:

1) Snap Shot
You fire a quick shot from your pistol, damaging your foe and reducing their defense for a time.
* 4s recharge
* 0.9s animation (to compensate for redraw) or 1s (if Swashbuckling Redraw is kept as short as thorny assault redraw)
* 52.8 damage
* -8% defense for 8s on hit

2) Thrust
You stab your foe with a quick strike of your sword, reducing their defense for a time.
* 8s recharge
* 1.33s animation
* approx 85-100 or so damage
* -15% defense for 5s on hit

3) Spray and Slice
You fire several shots down range while additionally slicing at nearby enemies with your sword.
* 45-degree arc, 40m range
* 16s recharge
* 1.5s animation
* approx 40-50 damage at range, with an additional 20 or so damage to foes within 7m

4) Rapid Fire
You fire several quick shots at your target, which can also reduce the target’s defense (functionally equivalent to ‘burst’, but with only 3 tics of damage)
* recharge 8s
* 1s animation
* approx 3 ticks of 20-30 or so damage
* 50% chance of -10% defense for 9s

5) Boost Attack
You boost the combat abilities of all your swashbuckling attacks.
* Boost Attack is one of the Swashbuckling signatures. For the ranged attacks in the set, it functions as Boost Range. For the melee attacks, it provides the same damage bonus as build-up without the to-hit bonus. It doesn't boost the range or damage of any of the Dominator's primary powers.

6) Feinting Shot
You flourish your blade stylishly to distract a distant opponent, then surprise them with a shot to the legs to greatly reduce their speed.
* recharge 16s
* 2.33s to 3s animation
* approx 70-ish damage
* -60% movement speed, foe -fly, foe -jump

7) Feinting Stab
You fire several shots randomly into the air to catch your foe’s attention, then surprise them with a piercing thrust.
* recharge 16s
* 1.66s to 2.33s animation
* approx 90-ish damage
* has an inherent base accuracy of 90% rather than the standard 75%

8) Execute
A short-range but devastating attack that does bonus damage to foes with less than 33% health remaining
* recharge 20s
* 1.5s to 2.5s animation
* approx 90 damage, plus an additional 50 damage if the target has 33% health or less

9) Grenade Trick
You drop your sword and pistol in mock surrender (bonus points if it leaves a physics object sword and pistol on the ground!), then pull several micro-grenades from behind your back and toss them into the air around you.
* recharge 90s
* 3s animation
* 15m radius PBAoE
* Approximately 80 to 120 or so damage
*75% chance for a mag 0.67 knockback (knockdown). Additional 25% chance for a mag 1.33 knockback (only affects foes affected by the knockdown).



In my mind, Swashbuckling Assault was designed to fill a few niches: The lack of a mostly stabby weapon set to make proper use of the rapier model; the lack of a dominator weapon-set; the lack of a pure lethal-damage dominator set; the lack of a piratey-themed set to counter all the ninja-themed sets; and a sword-and-pistol set just seems... appropriate for an assault set, since they both do lethal and both typically do -defense.

Anyways, thoughts? suggestions? I'm not sure about grenade trick, but without it the set will be a bit lacking on AoEs. Anyway, I'm going to bed.

Part of it also seems to be 'do I have an attack I can use now? No? Morale-hit'.

Hellion Buckshots are awful for this--they fire once, and their recharge is so long by the time they get to attack again their morale has broken and they've started running away.

It was a basic example, Sam, done in two minutes in MSPaint to illustrate how limiting a 'line' shaped attack would be; not to define how the game views cones.