Scrapper Issues List - Welcome to Issue 18!

Long time no see. Aside from some animation fixes and a couple changes, I didn't really feel like enough happened since practically Issue 16 to really go through and do a new list. But clearly with the coming of Going Rogue and new powers and lots of changes, a new list must be made. Here we go!

As always, let me know if I missed something in the update. I'll fix it.

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(updated August 21, 2010)

This thread is not for balance issues against other archetypes. It is for balance within the Scrapper power sets. It is for reporting bugs that affect Scrappers.

Please note: this is not a substitute for /bugging it. I am not a developer. Always /bug a problem you've noticed as well as reporting it in this thread or on the scrapper forum!

For the love of Positron, please do not quote this entire post to reply.

Please feel free to submit PvP issues and opinions.

Updates are written in lightgreen.




Notes for Balance Issues

• Attacks are balanced, DPS-wise, on recharge time, not activation time, and whether they're AOE effects or single-target. Secondary effects aren't consistent in how they affect this - Stupid_Fanboy, 2006-02-15
• The following equations are the ones used to create costs for attack powers in PVE (powers whose primary function is damage)
  AREAMOD = (1+(0.75*(RADIUS/5))-(((0.011*(RADIUS/6))*(360-ARC))/5)
  DMG = (0.2*((RECH*0.8)+1.8)) / AREAMOD
  END = 5.2 * DMG
  - have fun with these guys -SF
• 
  DPS for your attacks should be calculated using not the cast time listed in the game, but the "Arcanatime", Arcanaville's eponymous game stat. This is calculated as:
  Arcanatime =[RoundUp(CastTime / ClockInterval) + 1] * ClockInterval
  
  Cast Time is the in-game cast time.
  
  Clock Interval is a constant with a value of .132.
  
  This is very important because actions are reported to the server and back at certain invervals. If your action takes place in the interim, you have to wait the miniscule fraction of a second for the server to do its magic. So a 1 second attack really takes ((1/1.32)+1) * 1.32 = 1.188s
• All characters, regardless of archetypes, should be able to solo a mission on 'heroic' - generally, spawns of three even-level minions, or a lieutenant and a minion - clarified by Arcanaville, 2006-03-08
• Defensive sets are balanced against the base to-hit chance of minions, which is much lower than the base to-hit chance for characters - in PvP, all players were granted a +25% bonus to base Defense - clarified by Arcanaville, 2006-03-08

• Bug: Scrapper inherent description is incorrect - should read, 'Scrappers have a chance to critical hit a target for double damage. Most scrapper attacks have a small chance to critical hit minions, pets, and other players, and a higher chance to critical hit more powerful foes.' (plus more detail if desired) - Arcanaville, 2006-09-01
• Bug: Enemies being feared seem to attack if you attack anyone, not just the feared enemy - Silver_Snake, 2005-10-24 - partially fixed, for Touch of Fear but maybe not Cloak of Fear? - Stupid_Fanboy, 2005-11-29 - while ToF'd, will run away and buff - Stupid_Fanboy, 2006-06-06
• Balance: There appears to be a large discrepancy between the levels of resistance and defense achievable with IO bonuses. Perhaps resistance bonuses should be paired up like defense bonuses were – Daolong, 2009-02-10
• Balance: Short term offensive and defensive buffs are penalized by the activation time of the power which can 20% of the buff's time away, making a 10s buff more like 8s. All such powers should still be applied when the power is clicked but have their durations extended by the animation time of the power itself. - Nihili, 2009-10-07
• Wishlist: Would be nice if power icons had some kind of indicator when your target is out of range for that power - Shadow_Stone, 2005-12-13
• Wishlist: It would be nice if eventually, all weapons could be used with Shield Defense – combined from several hundred people
• Wishlist: Complete elimination of redraw from all primaries, secondaries and pool powers would be nice – combined from several hundred people

• Bug: Powers with Knock effects can ragdoll the target through or into objects on the map, making them difficult or impossible to target afterwards. Targets will also sometime be immune to knock effects if they are at a certain part of their recovery animation when hit. They will stand up and fire attacks as though the effect never hit them. combined from several other notes – SF
• Bug: Target Reticles for Single Target and Cones need to be positioned better on NPCs as you can find yourself unable to hit with both Cones and ST attacks depending on your relative position to the target. This is particularly noticeable with very large targets, like the Jade Spider – Nihili & Desmodos, 2009-02-17
• Wishlist: Female Scrappers with Weapon Sets shouldn't run and jump like males when the sword is drawn - huge models suddenly acquire perfect posture as well - combined from several other patch notes.- SF
• Wishlist: Removing redraw from Scrapper Ancillary pools would be nice and allow all primaries equally to use every pool – combined from several hundred people

• Wishlist: It would be nice to be able to hit very large enemies, i.e. giant monsters, up in the faces rather than always having to go to the hitbox located around the feet. (suggested by Houma, 2005-03-09 - NotABunny notes that there is a narrow layer above footstomp AoE where a flying/hovering scrapper can still punch/kick the giant monster, 2005-06-01

• (home of future balance issues)

• (home of future balance issues)

• Wishlist: Would be nice if Shadow Maul could interrupt Embalmed Vahzilok's detonations, it doesn't because it's a DoT - Desmodos, 2007-05-22

• Bug: The Empower combo does not work well with high level of +Recharge bonuses. If the combo is initiated less than 6 seconds after the previous one, it will not work – Nihili, 2009-02-10
• Wishlist: Would be nice if each power's description explained what combos it was a part of and in what order. Combos are a vital part of DB attacking and should be explained in game – CrazyCorsaire, 2009-02-17

• (home of future balance issues)

• Bug: Greater Fire Swords costs 0.83 more endurance than it should. - SF
• Bug: Fire Sword Circle costs 0.666 more endurance than it should and it recharges 0.8s too slowly. - SF
• Balance:Fire Melee DoTs are not taken into account in the Crit damage at at. - Kyria_Shirako, 2010-08-13

• Wishlist: Lack of AoE attacks limits the kinds of IO sets that can be slotted. Status Effect sets are little consolation as enhancing for their effects at the cost of Damage, Accuracy, End Cost and Recharge hurts the Scrapper's build - SpiderTeo_OC, 2009-02-10
• Balance: Storm Kick seems to cost too much end (7.0044, should be 6.864) for its damage - Arcanaville, 2006-07-24
• Balance: Martial Arts status effects are not nearly as consistent in application as other sets - SamChoice, 2005-10-31, clarified by Arcanaville
• Wishlist: Crippling Axe Kick has a chance to immobilize, but no visual indicator - Impact_Hazard, 2006-07-26
• Wishlist: Crippling Axe Kick's impact sound is wimpy - TheArtifex, 2006-02-13
• Wishlist: Thunder Kick's disorient was more useful as a 100% chance of a mag 1 disorient which could then be stacked with Eagle Claw's disorient or Cobra Strike's disorient, than a 10% chance of a mag 2 disorient. - reported by Heroic, corrected by Arcanaville, 2006-12-08

• Bug: Combat chat for Crippling Axe Kick says it slows attack rate, which the power doesn't do - Arcanaville, 2007-04-05 - Castle aware and fixing
• Balance: Lacks AoE attacks but doesn't have more single-target damage compared to other sets - SpiderTeo_OC, 2007-09-07
• Balance: Martial Arts lacks a general secondary effect (Katana and Broadsword have -Def, Dark Melee has -Acc, Spines has Slow, Claws is faster and less END-costly) - SpiderTeo_OC, 2006-07-03
• Balance: Cobra Strike does too little damage for its recharge time, compared to utility powers in other sets like Divine Avalanche, Follow Up, and Impale. Mag 3 stun is useful but lacks a consistent stun power that can be paired for bosses - Arcanaville, 2006-03-10

• Bug:Enemies are no longer showing any hit effects from being attacked with Quills. No graphical changes, no damage numbers, no debuff effects. - katten, 2009-10-07
• Balance: Attacks with notably long cast times compared to damage/effects: Spines/barb swipe
• Wishlist: Would be nice if Spines/Quills noise faded away like other togglable AOE powers (Death Shroud) do - Hellblaze, 2006-01-21

• Balance: Click Mez protection powers lost some of their luster when toggles were changed to not turn off when Mezed. While the click powers are still active when mezzed, the players feel that allowing them to be clicked when already Mezzed keeps them on more equal footing with Toggle Mez protection. - from several people - 2009-10-7
• Wishlist: Regeneration/Integration and Fighting/tough and other defenses should not emit /tarzan animation, this is a character role-play issue. This is okay for trolls but not for many superheroes - can work around by moving while toggling these powers - VoodooCompany, 2007-03-27
• Wishlist: Click powers in secondaries, like Reconstruction, Dull Pain, Practiced Brawler, etc.. , all cause weapon redraw which is really annoying in combat - combined from several other notes - SF
• Wishlist: Click buffs can sometimes be triggered during death, never giving their potentially lifesaving buff to the player but still entering a potentially long cooldown. It would be nice if the buff was applied when the cooldown was triggered - combined from several other notes - SF
• Kludge: Self-heals with slottable toxic resistance, such as Reconstruction, are unable to benefit from Enhanced Heal Invention set bonuses due to current game mechanical limitations - Arcanaville, 2007-04-26

• Balance: Scrapper Cloak of Fear was diminished in magnitude to only affect minions instead of lieutenants; given low accuracy, high endurance cost, might be nice if it were rebalanced in some fashion - Wyvern, 2006-08-18
• Wishlist: Most other dark attacks in the game has -tohit as a secondary effect - why not Death Shroud, Dark Consumption, and Dark Regen? - hudsonsmith, 2006-01-07 - Desmodos added other dark attacks that lack -acc for players, 2006-11-01 - Desmodos removed Soul Drain from list because powers cannot have both +hit buff and debuff, 2007-03-23
• Wishlist: Mag 4 knockback protection in an auto power would be nice – Hejtmane, 2009-02-12

• Balance: Electric Armor concern : with a resistance cap of 75%, the set is much weaker against energy damage than the brute version, which was the original design. Power Surge is also a much weaker power, suffering a very heavy crash for the relatively few resistances it offers. While Invul and Fire suffer from the same issue, Elec pays the price twice as it is affected in both its normal resistances and its tier9 power. - Nihili, 2009-09-22

• Bug: Unstoppable's +Recovery is flagged as unenhancable even though the power accepts end mods - Sarrate, 2007-08-15
• Balance: Would be nice if Temporary Invulnerability were swapped with Resist Physical Damage. It's a small amount of resistance, and TI would give Invuln scrappers a good defense power out of the gate - Defense_Options, 2006-06-08 - Liquid points out two other scrapper sets get more effective powers out of the gate, moved to balance issue 2007-08-17
• Wishlist: Would be nice to have teleport foe resistance, i.e. on Unyielding - Sky_Hawke, 2007-04-12

• Wishlist: Mag 4 knockback protection in an auto power would be nice – Hejtmane, 2009-02-12

• Balance: Post-Enhancement Diversity, is it still necessary that regen powers have both enhanceable and unenhanceable healing? - MAS0N, 2005-10-11
• Balance: In comparison to the Regeneration % that Willpower can achieve, is it still necessary that regen powers have both enhanceable and unenhanceable healing? - SpiderTeo_OC, 2009-02-10
• Balance: Resilience seems useless as a power with the very small, limited resistance and status resist provided - VoodooCompany, 2005-07-18 - Castle commented none of the passives in protection sets seem popular - 2006-07-16
• Wishlist: Revive: Revive is not a good power for resuming a fight immediately. Without some defensive power or inspirations, it is better used when the enemy has left the area. A Short large defensive or regen buff in addition to the HP and End recovery would be nice. from several requests - 2010-09-21
• Wishlist: Regeneration is the only secondary set that does not have some sort of resistance to the debuff that affects its main strength, in this case Recharge or Regen. from several people – 2009-10-07

• Bug: Phalanx Fighting doesn't show buff numbers when hovering over the icon – Kractis_Sky, 2009-02-10
• Wishlist: One With the Shield: It has no heal to go along with the +HP of the power. A small enhanceable heal would be nice in this power – Rhysem, 2009-02-10
• Wishlist: One With the Shield should have defense debuff resistance. That's one of the situations where Shield Defense can be hurt badly and having protection from that in OwtS would help greatly – Rhysem & Daolong, 2009-02-17
• Wishlist: We can appreciate having a powerset that helps out teammates more than the other secondaries, but encouraging us to take the “team” powers by putting effects in them that are necessary for the solo Scrapper is bad design. We should want to take the power because it is good for teaming and interesting when solo, not because something vital like resistance against defense debuffs and -recharge – many people

• Balance: Mind Control's Dominate and Illusion's Blind seem to have extremely high accuracy or are autohit - noted by Patient_V, 2006-03-10 - Sockem notes per Arcanaville/Castle PMs, these powers are not categorized as Melee/Ranged/AoE - 2006-06-06 - moved to balance issue per Arcanaville, 2007-05-22
• Balance: SR has mainly defense slots, reducing options for other forms of mitigation and IOs compared to other sets - Arcanaville, 2007-04-05
• Balance: Super Reflexes toggles take too long to activate, compared to other sets' defensive toggles, especially Evasion - Arcanaville, 2007-01-13
• Balance: PvP: SR is very vulnerable to enemies with accuracy buffs, i.e. Aim, Build-Up, Focused Accuracy, Super Strength/Rage, accuracy inspirations - Colette, 2005-10-06 - Arc_Salvo, 2006-02-22
• Balance: SR is a power set where you must take almost every power to succeed, made more true by the fact elude can no longer be made permanent. Every other defensive power set gives you some choices. Even as small a change as adding 5% defense to all in Practiced Brawler would allow SR scrappers some choice about which powers to take and slot heavily - Arcanaville, 2005-07-22
• Balance: Devouring Earth Quartz emanators give what appears to be a 100% to-hit buff increase to nearby enemies, which devastates any defense-based scrapper - updated by Arcanaville, 2006-07-01
• Balance: Super reflexes AOE defense is gotten fairly late in the game - with increased damage from boss AOE attacks in the 30s, now more important to get AOE defense earlier - noted by PicassoCat
• Wishlist: Would be nice if SR could apply highest type of defense (melee, ranged, AOE) against attacks that combine several types (enemy melee cone attacks) similiar to stacked force fields of different types using highest defense - Arcanaville, daolong, 2005-08-02
• Wishlist: Since it is easy to get defense from other sources such as force fields and inspirations, it would be nice if defense specialists like Super Reflexes scrappers and Ice tankers got a higher cap for defenses, i.e. a lower to-hit floor, than other archetypes. (Arcanaville 2005-05-04)
• Wishlist: Super reflexes/quickness should give 33% recharge reduction. Because SR must run three toggles, but does not receive an innate endurance recovery power like regen, giving recharge reduction is its way of substituting for having to put an end recovery SO into powers to achieve the same effect. However, a 20% recharge reduction is barely more than a DO.
• Wishlist: Allowing Damage Resist IOs to be slotted into the Passives, even if they do not affect the scaling resists, would help SR slot different IO sets – many people

• (home of future balance issues)

• (home of future balance issues)

• (home of future balance issues)

• (home of future balance issues)

• Bug: Nightfall appears to be using the Scrapper's Ranged Damage modifier. All other Scrapper ranged attacks in primary and ancillary pools use the Scrapper's Melee Damage modifier

• (home of future balance issues)

• Let me know what you guys think of the i18 MA changes! - SF
• Feedback on anything with Kinetic Melee would be great too. - SF
• 
  
  

Patch Notes: August 16th, 2010
Issue 18: Going Rogue

• Ancillary Power Pools are now available to all characters that reach Level 41, regardless of Hero or Villain status.
• Once a Patron Pool has been unlocked as a Villain, it remains unlocked even if you later switch sides.
• Scrappers get Stalker Patron Powers, and vice versa.
• Kinetic Melee is a melee attack set based upon siphoning your opponent's energy and using it to power your own attacks. Each individual attack adds a damage debuff to the target (strength and duration dependent upon the tier of the power used) and Tankers inflict even stronger debuffs than the other ATs. Additionally, if Power Siphon is active, the caster gains a damage buff.
• The following Kinetic Melee powers are intended for Scrappers, Tankers and Brutes:
  Quick Strike,
  Body Blow,
  Smashing Blow,
  Taunt,
  Repulsing Torrent,
  Power Siphon,
  Burst,
  Focused Burst,
  Concentrated Strike
• Fiery Embrace power now adds bonus fire damage for all Melee Power Set attacks instead of being a normal damage Buff. All Melee Power Set attacks made for 20 seconds after activating Fiery Embrace will do bonus damage based on that attack's damage. This bonus damage IS affected by enhancements and outside buff/debuff effects. At low levels, this means Fiery Embrace will have lower impact than the old implementation, while at high levels or on teams with lots of +Damage effects, you will see increased damage output.
• Critical damage is not affected by the new Fiery Embrace
• Spines Toxic Damage Over Time effect is not affected by the new Fiery Embrace
• In PvP, Fiery Embrace uses the previous Damage Buff version.
• Fixed Thunder Strike Fiery Embrace bonus - it was not properly applying the split radius effect.
• Electric Melee - Corrected combat spam for Lightning Rod
• Shield Charge: Made several changes to correct balance problems introduced a few months back: Scrapper Version: Damage broken into 2 stages -- stage one has a 5' radius and does scale 2.7 Stage 2 has a 20' radius and does scale 1.9125
• Fiery Aura: Burn. *changed power substantially: Added initial hit damage, Removed Fear effect, Decreased tick rate by 4 (now ticks every 0.8 seconds, instead of 0.2 seconds)
• Consume: Added Recovery boost per target hit and flat Endurance Drain Resistance value.
• Martial Arts/Cobra Strike. Decreased Recharge Time from 20 seconds to 10 seconds, Increased Endurance Cost from 10.14 to 10.19, Increased damage scale from 0.25 to 1.96, Reduced Stun chance from 100% to 75%
• Scrapper's Martial Arts/Eagle Claw: Eagles Claw now increases the Critical Chance of Martial Arts attacks by 33% for 2 seconds after it has been activated.
• Scrapper's Martial Arts/Crippling Axe Kick - increased recharge to 11 seconds, and increased damage and endurance cost appropriately. Added 10 second scale 1 Defense Debuff.
• Scrappers will no longer "Drift" more than other AT's when coming to a stop while Flying or Hovering.
• Power Pools/Fitness/Health - Fixed a bug that made this power selectable at level 12 instead of level 14.
• Purchasable Raptor Packs are no longer usable on 'Master of' attempts
• To reduce the travel times involved in larger zones, we've made a couple QOL changes to some movement powers: Increased base Flight Speeds by 50% , Sprint now improves Runspeed by an additional unenhancable portion equal to its previous value (0.5 scale enhancable + 0.5 scale unenhanceable buff)
• PVP: Tanker and Scrapper versions of Fiery Embrace were set to cause Travel Suppression in PVP, while Brute and Dominator versions were not. The Tanker and Scrapper versions have had the Travel Suppression flag removed.
• Players now have the ability to set all Auras to "Combat Mode".
• Pocket D - The Tiki Room - Trina the Body Sculptress has looked into a mirror and didn't like what she saw. She's undergone a fabulous makeover.

• Shield Defense (all) - characters will no longer walk on air when jumping with a shield drawn.
• Fiery Aura Fiery Embrace will no longer cause Travel Suppression in PVP
• Broadsword and Shield Defense - the Head Splitter power will no longer play the Air Superiority attack animation when flying with a shield readied.
• Katana - Weapon draw animations now work correctly again.

• Blessing of the Zephyr: This set's bonuses were significantly decreased as the 2 and 3 piece set bonuses were far too powerful, allowing players to easily stack 5 copies of these buffs for minimal slot usage.
• Decreased the 2 piece set bonus from this set from +3.125% Ranged Defense, +1.563% Energy and Negative Energy Defense to +1.25% Ranged Defense, +.625% Energy and Negative Energy Defense.*
• Decreased the 3 piece set bonus from this set from +3.125% AoE Defense, +1.563% Fire and Cold Defense to +1.875% AoE Defense and +.938% Fire and Cold Defense.
• Player Buff fix. Some buff powers had been recently changed to affect a max of 16 player allies (including pets), which had implications in some groups and in large outdoor fights. These are now fixed to affect up to 255 targets. The powers affected are:
• Stealth and Invisibility powers will now cause your character to cast no shadow. This does not apply to the Stealth from SuperSpeed.
• It is no longer possible to use Teleport Foe on enemies while they are inside Hospital recovery rooms.
• You now respawn with full health and endurance when you spawn in a hospital in Bloody Bay, Siren's Call, Warburg, and Recluse's Victory.

• Fixed animation used by Nemesis Staff and Blackwand in Shield Combat mode
• Invulnerability (all ATs) - Invincibility: restored some missing/incorrect FX
• Fixed animation issue with resting while in Shield Combat mode while Ninja Run is active
• Fixed issue that caused some falling animations to loop when in Shield Combat mode
• Fixed jittering flight/hover animations with Shield mode
• Natural Super Booster pack costume change emotes should now play if in a weapon combat mode.
• Invulnerability sets - updated FX for Invincibility
• Custom Color Palette was not defined for Martial Arts - Eagle's Claw
• Fixed an issue with Custom Animations for Super Strength and Martial Arts that would prevent them from playing while in Shield Combat mode.
• Fixed a bug that would cause Numina's Convalescence: +Regen/+Recovery to have its effects boosted by being slotted in a power with enhancements that would increase regeneration or recovery rates.
• The Vanguard Katana can now be purchased for use with the Dual Blades and Broadsword power sets.
• The Vanguard Broadsword can now be purchased for use with the Dual Blades power set.
• The Vanguard Dual Blades can now be purchased for use with the Broadsword power set.

• Added Shield (without weapons) and Claws/Pistols animations to Ninja Run.
• Players using the minimal Visual FX theme for Invulnerability powers will now have sound effects when activating Invulnerability toggles.

• Flight - Fixed a bug with windup animations while flying. (They were being interrupted by pre-flight animations, which were then interrupted by the windup animation, etc.)
• Shield Defense (All) - Fixed a bug that made leaping animations and sounds stutter while a character had a shield out.
• All references to 'Talsorian' in the game have been changed to 'Vanguard'. Any character that currently uses any of these costume pieces or custom weapons will be required to change them when they make any changes at the Tailor/Facemaker.

• Flight / Hover : Fixed a number of minor issues with Hover animations when using Shields and Weapons
• Spines / Quills: Restored some of the visuals and sound for the hit effect.

• Invulnerability (all Archetypes): Invincibility will now play the activation sound only when the toggle is first turned on.
• Willpower/Resurgence: Fixed a bug that would cause this power's animation to play multiple times.
• "Fx in PVP only" now works correctly on all Invulnerability powers.
• Shield Defense - Shield Charge: Modified this power's damage to have it correctly be multiplied by the Scrapper damage modifier. The end result is a large increase in damage to this power.

• Electrical Melee (all ATs) - Jacob's Ladder should look correct on male, female, and huge models now
• Obliteration will now sell for the proper amount of influence/infamy during a respec.
• Dark Armor now has a "No Fade or Pulse" theme, which will allow players customizable FX without the dark light pulses of various powers or transparency in Cloak of Darkness
• PVP - Scrapper - Super Reflexes - Practiced Brawler's protection versus debuff effects should last the full 120 second duration.
• Electric Armor - The help text for this power set no longer states that it contains any healing powers. Instead it states that it offers no defense enhancing powers.
• Darkness Mastery - Night Fall: This power should no longer state it accepts To Hit Buff enhancement sets and should correctly accept To Hit Debuff and Accuracy To Hit Debuff sets.

And now we wait for the sticky change.

Thanks for this post... I'm still reading through it but it looks like there's been a lot of changes.

I think Kinetic Melee is good overall, but everyone seems to be in agreement that Repulsing Torrent is worthless. Admittedly, the rest of the set is good, but it'd be nice if something happened to the power to make it more worthwhile.

As for Kinetic Melee's secondary effect, I agree that the duration is too short. It'd be nice if they were all standardized to be 10 sec or so.

Kinetic Melee - Burst does knockdown but doesn't take knockback enhancements or sets. On the other hand, it takes stun sets yet lacks a stun effect.

Yeah that secondary effect is pretty terrible, its a very small magnitude debuff so if you don't get alot them up the dmg decrease isn't even noticeable. This is almost impossible with the durations of the effects combined with the fact that the powers also have very long animation times.

Most people are gonna go on a 10 second rotation and right now in the best case scenario you will get 3 debuffs up at once like that and the 3 stack will only last for about a second before dropping back down to 2. 2 seems to be the average you can keep up at any given time.

At least keeping the +5 offensive dmg stacks is fairly easy though.

Kinetic Melee could definitely use some tweaks. I would even prefer a lesser magnitude dmg debuff if the durations were doubled or tripled so you could keep up a nice -25% on the enemy for the whole fight. Repulsing Torrent has to go, and even Focused Burst is incredibly mediocre. I doubt you'll see many folks going out of the 4 attack combo with Burst for AoE and ditching the 3 other KM powers, even moreso since most will be forced to already get a Ranged Nuke for Shadowmeld.

We should add a section for Patron Powers as we now get them. And appearently from this thread:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=235256

There's an issue with sharks and criticals.

Glad to see this on there, S_F. Thanks for the work.

Just FYI, I don't have time to do it right away, but I'm going to review every entry with my name anywhere attached, and also review things like MA specifically and try to get updates posted to the thread in the next day or so. Thanks S_F for keeping the list alive.

Wish - I'd love to see repulsing torrent be buffed a little. Right now, I see no reason to choose it over Energy Torrent other than it keeps the PS counter up. It would be great if the animaton was shorter. Necessary? No. It has a nice recharge and from a mitigation stand-point it works well enough (not Shockwave nice). However, with reasonable recharge, I believe Energy Torrent is better since you can sacrifice PS tally and Knockback for just Knockdown.

yea the animation to kinetic melee is 100% not worth the debuff it gives, i mean i guess im ok with it but one of the two have to change, either make the animations faster or give the powers a more stronger debuff, and how about changing siphon power, its pretty hard to get that first hit on the bad guy if he has high defence and by the time you acctually did hit him the siphon power is already gone.

Okay, here's some of my preliminary thoughts on Martial Arts as well as a little bit on Regen....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stupid_Fanboy Martial Arts - unresolved Balance: Lack of AoE attacks limits the kinds of IO sets that can be slotted. Status Effect sets are little consolation as enhancing for their effects at the cost of Damage, Accuracy, End Cost and Recharge hurts the Scrapper's build - SpiderTeo_OC, 2009-02-10

Move to Wishlist, as IO sets would significantly affect other ATs as well as Scrappers. This issue is mostly due to the Eradication and Obliteration sets, as they provide two of the most desired kinds of set bonuses, compared to just one for Single Target Melee sets (Eradication has +def(Eng/Neg/Ranged) and +def(AoE/Fire/Cold); Obliteration has +def(melee/S/L) and +recharge).

Quote:

Balance: Martial Arts status effects are not nearly as consistent in application as other sets - SamChoice, 2005-10-31, clarified by Arcanaville Balance: Martial Arts lacks a general secondary effect (Katana and Broadsword have -Def, Dark Melee has -Acc, Spines has Slow, Claws is faster and less END-costly) - SpiderTeo_OC, 2006-07-03

With the major changes to Cobra Strike, this one power has helped to redefine Martial Art's niche among the other primaries. Though the raw stunning capabilities of the set has gone down slightly (Cobra Strike's 100% to stun dropped to 75%), the set's ability to consistenly perma-stun bosses has dramatically increased with Cobra Strike's recharge cut nearly in half. This gets even better with Eagle's Claw and possibly Thunder Kick as possible attacks.

This allows a more consistent application of Martial Art's now generally accepted secondary effect in the form of a damage mitigation/soft-control effect in stunning, without sacrificing damage potential in the process.

Quote:

Wishlist: Thunder Kick's disorient was more useful as a 100% chance of a mag 1 disorient which could then be stacked with Eagle Claw's disorient or Cobra Strike's disorient, than a 10% chance of a mag 2 disorient. - reported by Heroic, corrected by Arcanaville, 2006-12-08

This could be left strictly as a Wishlist since Martial Arts has been remade with consistent stunning capabilities, though adding a better stunning attack wouldn't be turned down either.

Quote:

Martial Arts - IN PROGRESS Balance: Lacks AoE attacks but doesn't have more single-target damage compared to other sets - SpiderTeo_OC, 2007-09-07

Testing this out as we speak. At early levels (with comparatively low recharge as well), a strong attack chain can be establish by level 8 (maybe even level 6). I will be testing out my new MA/Shields Praetorian along the levels and see how it goes up to 50. I've tested my IO'ed L.50 MA/Regen on a Rikti Pylon to get an effective 186 dps. Also according to Bill Z Bubba's The Results Are In... Take 2 thread, it does seem to have respectable single target damage at low- to mid-level recharge, ie "standard slotting w/out Hasten."

The changes to Cobra Strike and the damage buff to Crippling Ax Kick (from comparing the numbers from City of Data and from the new Mids, the damage buff is close to ~+17.7%!) allows for a little more flexibility in attack chains and overall increased damage.

For now, I am testing the new MA's performance from low levels (using Storm Kick, Cobra Strike, and Crane Kick), to mid-levels (replacing Crane Kick for Crippling Ax Kick) with low- to mid- +recharge. High level and high recharge testing will also be tested on my MA/Regen. I won't be doing any heavy number crunching, but I will be checking out perceived performance against tough targets (bosses, EBs, pylons, and maybe AVs). So far, this issue seems to be close to being resolved, but I don't want to make any definite comments until I'm done testing.

Quote:

Balance: Cobra Strike does too little damage for its recharge time, compared to utility powers in other sets like Divine Avalanche, Follow Up, and Impale. Mag 3 stun is useful but lacks a consistent stun power that can be paired for bosses - Arcanaville, 2006-03-10

I would definitely say that this issue has been resolved. Cobra Strike can now be used in the top damage attack chains for the set. Plus, its lowered recharge time allows it to stack upon itself with either a moderate enhancement to recharge time or stun duration. Alternatively, it can be stacked with Eagle's Claw to quickly stun a boss.


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I remember saying in a thread a while back that one of the changes to help make Martial Arts a contender was "just to something, anything, to Cobra Strike." Despite the buff to Crippling Ax Kick and added Critical potential of Eagle's Claw, Cobra Strike has went from a purely optional power to redefining the set as a whole, putting it up there as a "must-have" power like Storm Kick. I am pretty contend with the set now, since it does very respectable single target damage, as well as consistent damage mitigation on its own.

I do want to add just one little item as a wishlist for the set though:

• Wishlist: Since Crippling Ax Kick now has a Defense Debuff effect, could Defense Debuff enhancemetns and IO sets be slotted into it? - SpiderTeo_OC, 2010-08-27

Quote:

Regeneration - unresolved Wishlist: Regeneration is the only secondary set that does not have some sort of resistance to the debuff that affects its main strength, in this case Recharge or Regen. from several people – 2009-10-07

I would personally like this to be made as a Balance issue after comparing Regeneration to all the other Secondary sets available. Even though Regen benefits greatly from +recharge buffs and suffers just as much from -recharge debuffs, I can accept not including Recharge Debuff Resistance within the set from a purely thematic perspective. However, not to include any form of native debuff resistance, even against -regen debuffs, seems to be overlooking the set's balance with other secondaries. Below is a list of each set with their native debuff resistance (outside of tier 9 powers), as well as other perks whether they are thematically appropriate or not:

• Dark Armor: END Drain resist, +perception (effectively -stealth on foes)
  
• Electric Armor: -recovery debuff resist, END drain resist, -recharge debuff resist, -slow debuff resist
  
• Fiery Armor: -recharge debuff resist, -slow debuff resist
  
• Invulnerability: defense debuff resist, -recharge debuff resist, -slow debuff resist, -recovery debuff resist, END drain resist
  
• Shield Defense: defense debuff resist, -recharge debuff resist
  
• Super Reflexes: defense debuff resist, +perception, -recharge debuff resist, -slow debuff resist
  
• Willpower: -regen debuff resist, +perception, defense debuff resist

Now Regeneration doesn't have any native debuff protection at all. It does have a redundant status protection and resistance for Stuns in Resilience, but even if the power is skipped, the scrapper has more than the usual amount of status protection from Integration.

Other sets have some form of useful debuff resistance, even ones that have no real thematic purpose to be in the set, other than the name of the power. Even Willpower has -regen debuff resistance and defense debuff resistance to help keep its layered damage mitigation functional. Regeneration's Fast Healing doesn't even have any -regen debuff resistance, unlike Willpower's power of the same name. This is compounded by the fact that Regeneration's strongest form of damage mitigation is extremely high +regen. Most -regen debuffs in the game will easily floor a Regen Scrapper's +regen rate, even with Instant Healing up. Then the Regen Scrapper has two or three clicks to survive without any other native damage mitigation. That Willpower does have -regen debuff resistance while Regeneration has none seems to be an overlooked detail in the set's design.

Okay, /end rant. If Regen were to get any kind of debuff resistance, thematically, -regen debuff resistance, -recovery debuff resistance, and END drain resistance would make sense, given that Regen's theme seems to keep on going, like an endless battery source or supper high metabolism. In a more practical sense, some -recharge debuff resistance would be nice given its clicky nature.





NEW Regeneration unresolved issue...

• Balance: Regeneration's self-rez (Revive) is a clearly inferior power compared to other self-rez powers in other secondaries; it only restores 50% health and endurance with a 4 second immobilization, while other sets' self-rez have useful effects to be used in combat, ie. temporary buffs (even with a crash later), AoE damage + KB effect, AoE stun, untouchable to self to avoid instant alphas. - SpiderTeo_OC, 2010-08-28

With GR we deffinately need to add a section on the Patron Powers (Stalker's version) now offered to Scrappers that switch factions.

As a general rule I would say self-rez powers should be the last things to focus on of any set. If it ever came down to helping the other powers or the self-rez, I'd always choose the former.

That said, the self-rez could include a brief +def time (10-15 sec) after it's used.

I am happy with Dark Armor as is.

An explanation of arcanatime might be useful to include at the beginning with the damage formulas.

Bug: Burn does not grant immob protection or end drain resist and does not lay down a burn patch if there are no enemies in range when the power is cast.

The tanker version seems to work fine.

before I post a new one for i19, does anyone have anything else to add?