What would a Lash Melee set look like?

If it's good enough for Ghost Rider and Spawn, it should be good enough for this game! And no offense to the devs, but the whip looks and sounds a lot cooler than kinetic melee. Why have it only on MMs?

The challenge would be that players would expect two types of lash: the hellfire lash currently used by MMs, and the chain whip of Spawn and the movie's Ghost Rider. The issue is that the two would clearly employ different damage types. What to do? They could allow players to select which type of lash they want via costume selection, but this seems a bit overpowered. Or, they could have players select their damage type at character creation and be stuck with it until they respec.

Possible effects of each type of lash:
Hellfire: Fire damage; -Res; Toxic DoT
Chain: Smashing damage; -Res; knockdown

Powers:
1) Quick Lash (quick, low damage)
2) Lash (as the current power, middle-range attack)
3) Crack Whip (cone)
4) Thrash (slow, more powerful)
5) Buildup
6) Leg Swipe (minor damage, snare, possible knockdown for Hellfire or guaranteed knockdown for Chain)
7) Whip Circle (PBAE)
8) Flay (multiple whip slashes to a single target. Superior damage)
9) Engulf (player wraps the whip around the victim, draining their life force, same animation as Hell on Earth. While this power is active, the victim is Held but the player can take no other action. The victim takes massive damage over time. The player is granted a significant +recovery while this power is running. The power still works if the victim resists the Hold, until they move out of the player's range.)

Thoughts? Think they'll still make more power sets?

As I recall, they said that the whip attacks were a huge pain in the rear to create. And they only had to do 3. Now your wanting 9 whip attacks? Are you trying to give them a fit?

Not sure if 'whip' would end up being a melee set either. The first 3 whip attacks quite clearly aren't melee. One's a definite blast, and the other two are still not melee range.

I don't know what a lash set would look like but I sure do know what the characters with that set will look like. Let's just say we'll have a flood of Indiana Jones look-alikes running around in AP or MI. That or scantily clad female dominatrix styled characters. The human psyche is so easy to predict sometimes.

Then you'd be wanting 7 new whip powers, when the devs admitted that making the current 3 whip attacks took way more time and resources then they expected. I ask again, are you trying to give the devs a fit?


And for your tier 9, no player would ever use it. You stipulated a power which is a PLAYER hold. Why would anyone use an attack which means they can't do anything else, not even move?

I wouldn't. I don't know the limits of the engine. Don't know what can and can't be done. But I'm fairly sure they either can't, or wont make powers which affect the enemy AND take you out of the fight at the same time.

Now lets say this, what if someone was crazy enough to work up some good animations for them, per say as an example, do you think this would get devs to do it? Im sure to avoid trouble it would have to be some time of an elemental whip so that they can .... f u d g e ... some of the animations. Do you think that would expedite this kind of set being created?

They stated the three whip attacks we got were hard to do. They learned *how* to do them, but was still hard. I'd imagine an entire set would be worse. Think I remember BAB saying something along the lines of "Oh god, no" in regards to a full whip set. Could be wrong though.

They have 3 attacks, and also one that used whip "hell on earth".
And lets be real, most of the sets use existing animations from other sets or even same powerset so, they have to take advantage of those cool animations and make a mid range melee set like kinetic.
One would be build up, and one challenge/taunt, so there are just 7 attacks.
They should do it.
Weapon customization would include chains, leather lips, plant vines, etc...

Or give Desdemona and Maelstrom their own Rogue/Vigilante patron pools.

I found this little tid bit:

Thanks... Now I want winged horse riding Cephalopod henchmen.

I find that frustrating at times when they say we won't do something because we can't use existing animations, or we can't with what we have and so on. I have played for 4 years, so obviously I like the game, but I hate when they give out explanations like that. Too much work, can't with engine, blah, blah, blah. Polearms/staves/nunchuks, and so on would be great for powersets on their own or customization. If they tell me the ROI is not acceptable, then that I can accept. So how about the Devs tell us what types of powers are doable instead of us suggesting them.

The groundwork has already been layed with demon summoning, no matter how challenging it was. Rounding out a full 9 tiers might be challenging, but it should be easier now that they've done it once.

As for the damage type, clearly smashing as a base. Then I'd like to see mutually exclusive power picks that allow you to convert half of the damage to an elemental type. At first I thought a bundle of toggles you can choose from a-la dual-pistols would be good, but completely duplicating it would take something away from DP. So just force the player to choose one type (or none) and stick with it. They could get 1 or 2 other types via alternate builds, and of course respec.

I'm of the opinion that a mid-range whip set would fit Dominators better than the melee classes. It could also be a ranged set for Blaster/Corruptor/Defender.