Stalker Armor Set: Strike Gauntlet

Well, you only asked for the fire melee post but again, why do I have to do all your work?

And if you read a few posts of their's in that thread, BaB's opinion probably mattered more on that round of proliferation. He specifically said they proliferated what would require the least animation work because of all the Power Customization work. If they did Fire Melee, they'd most likely have to put in Fiery Aura too. Broadsword only required the 1 animation so they went with that.

The Onus of proof lies on the person presenting it as part of their position.

-Rachel-

Yeah, I know. When you make statements saying "The devs only gave Stalkers Regen and Elec Armor because the AT *needed* sets and would not have otherwise" shouldn't you have to prove yourself right? Prove that they didn't proliferate those and future sets for thematic reasons?

Ah, sneaky uncertainty statements...Well next time I can simply just quote something like:

"They didn't have enough stalker sets, yet, and made the incredibly odd decision to toss those two in, regardless of their not making sense."

And invalidate the argument with a simple 'No', right?

Not to say anything about the original idea of a giant arm thingy, but why do the devs need to thematically provide anything. Isn't the basic argument against the idea of Power Armor that the proposed set demands too much on your chosen origin based on the methodology of the animations? Yet for Stalkers we need our entire concept explained for us?

How is this for a Shield Stalker thematic; I go invisible because I am a stalker. The end. It seemed to work fairly decently for regeneration.

I could make the argument that I don't think broadsword made sense with Stalker, or that Dual Blades seemed wrong on a brute, but I'd probably be in direct contest with someone else' idea. It isn't as though there's some technical aspect I'm aware of that would disallow a Shield Stalker, so let's have at it already.

Forbin... You're honestly saying I need proof or evidence of my own opinions, beliefs, and conjecture? That's patently ridiculous. And if you are going to be a proctor you're well aware of that.

It is my opinion that this set is a bad idea. Thematically bad. I also believe that the devs haven't put in Shield or Fire defense for stalkers because they are thematically inappropriate. I believe the "Mechanically Inappropriate" argument is faulty since the Devs obviously have no problem altering a set (Dark Armor lost it's AoE damage effect and it's stealth power in exchange for Hide and an always on defense boost)

Sure, BaBs has said he wouldn't mind animating a fire stalker defense set, but it's not his decision. And the evidence presented that Castle might consider it was a sweeping generalization in which he could have been talking about any one, two, three, or however many of the powerset proliferation suggestions in the post.

If this were an argument about simple fact, sure. I could defend my position, and he could defend his. But it's purely a matter of opinion. And my opinion is that the devs shouldn't waste time on thematically inappropriate sets. Specifically the Facepalm set. And that is what I will, forever, call it. If it is implemented I will -still- call it Facepalm Defense.

-Rachel-

The point is that every stalker set has a power called hide and it's up to you to explain what methods you use, which might be unrelated to the set's other powers. Any armor can work with that.

Shield defense is thematically inappropriate because you use Hide based on your powers. If your only defensive power is "I use a shield" it's "I duck behind my shield!" Which blocks you from the targets sight. But if a floating shield, unwielded by a person floated up towards a Longbow agent... It just seems ridiculous. I can buy "Dark" since most of the game is shadow-heavy. I can buy ninjitsu and energy, even SR. But seriously. Floating customizable hunk of metal doesn't draw attention?

Or, worse, Facepalm Defense. "I hide behind my hand!" You even wrote "Peek A Boo!" in the description of the power! Are all the enemies in the game infant level intelligence, now? Where putting a hand in front of your face is enough to convince them you've gone away?

Either every NPC in the game (and PCs but only during PvP) is an utter retard, which invalidates most plots, stories, arcs, and efforts perpetuated by Nemesis (i.e. all of them) or the player gets to try and come up with a mystical and fun reason why putting their GIANT hand in front of their face makes noone else capable of seeing them.

How about a strange and odd suggestion! Try developing a stalker set -without- hide! Give it 2 placate powers, instead. And have one of the placate powers basically revolve around interposing that titanic arm between yourself and your target. Now you can freely give the set -more- defense than any other stalker gets, since he's got to survive combat until most enemies are down before he can use Assassin's Strike. One placate instead of Hide, and one Placate from their primary powerset. It might be ugly. But it's better than Facepalm.

-Rachel-

I was under the impression that Shield defense isn't on stalkers for the same reason that Ice Melee isn't on brutes,The powers that make up the set are counter-intuitive to the mechanics of the AT.

Considering that's why I can't have poison on other ATs, I like the option to customize Sheilds to gauntlets better.

EXCUSE ME, SIR! this is MY cake, and I'll both eat it, and have it, if so please!

Fine you can have the cake and I'll have SD slightly redesigned to work for stalkers

Having reread this old thread, I'm actually quite surprised how big a tool Thirty-seven and Steamp were being about the concept. Especially considering the advances such an addition would have.

Looking back on the idea, the mechanics seem sound and would work well for what a Stalker needs to accomplish, adds a bit of team-aid (just not as much as the other melees), provides customization to explain invisibility beyond some current sets like WP, Electric Armor, Regen and SR while opening up set combos for every melee so you can have your Claws/SD brutes, SD/DB tankers and Spines/SD scrappers.

Not only does it do all that while giving SD to Stalkers, but it would look amazingly cool with a lot of concepts. All you have to do is look at the Dwarf Form claws or the new PPD gauntlet+pauldron combo and see how cool those look.

I'm still interested to hear what people have to say about the limitations of the idea or if they even want to pair sets like SD with Claws or Dual Blades or if using a gauntlet(or gauntlets) with claws is adequate enough a compromise for not being able to hold a shield and on the same node as where the claws are.