Implications of a Melee/Support AT?

So, I was thinking. One thing CoH lacks "class" wise, is a melee supporter class (many MMO's have them in the form of monks, druids, templars, etc etc).

However, given how strong some support abilities are, would a melee/support AT be just too over powered? (Imagine a dark melee/radation emission character)

This is purely hypothetical of course but I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on advantages/disadvantages/problems/etc with a melee/support AT

In other games, I've found melee/support types often don't work well, and go through many iterations and changes as the devs try to figure out just what they want the class to do. This is at least partly because the two things are kind of at odds with each other. To implement it well would thus require a way to make them play nicely together: for example, maybe a melee/support AT could have a mechanic like a Fury bar that fills as they use their attacks, but instead of giving a scaling damage bonus, it gives a scaling Power Boost effect. Maybe the support powers would also have a Defiance effect, so it would flow both ways.

However, CoH plays very differently from the games I'm drawing my experience from in this, and so it might work with very little alteration. After all, some support combos already work well in melee range.

Balance wise, you have to consider also lack of mez protection, how more attacks can hit you in melee, plus what the damage/debuff/buff modifiers are (I can imagine Tanker damage, Controller debuffs).

I want one if only because a lot of my concepts would be perfect for it. Titan/Storm, Claws/FF, Kin/Kin, Elec/Traps..

Kin/Kin would be an awesome defebcer

In this game, being a melee based AT requires significant defense and mez protection because melee damage and mezzes are so prevalent.

If I were designing such an AT it would:

Be named: Guardian

Inherent: Steel Will - The Guardian is resolute in protecting their allies. As the number of allies in the Guardian's party increases, the Guardian gains protection from control effects and additional personal regeneration.

Would give 2 MAG protection to all control effects and 50% regen buff per player on team including the Guardian.

Health: As Scrappers
Melee Damage Mod: As Stalker
Ranged Damage Mod: As Defender

Buffing/Debuffing mobs (both personal and other): As Defender

And ontop of that, I'd probably go through each support set and remove 2 (maybe 3) powers and replace them with thematic powers from the armor set.

It's too late for it to happen, but I think stalkers should have originally been Melee/Support.

With the stalker's Original values, give it Mastermind Buff/Debuff mods. Then, while hidden, give it the ability to:

1. Not notify mobs with Their support abilities
2. Do "Critical Support" while hidden
3. Not lose hidden status while using support abilities

This way, the stalker would have been the Premier Support character while hidden, with the potential for Burst damage while coming out of hide.

Sadly it's too late for that, but that's how I would have done it.

IMHO, you could just select a few appropriate melee damage sets and port them to defenders/corrs with minimal changes

Kin/katana for examplealready exist in game as part of the Tsoo.

Some of the VEAT builds are melee/support, thu I think Geko's Guardian would the a nice addition.

Well, for a quick idea of how a Melee/Support class would work, watch the Tsoo Blue Ink Men in action. They're Energy Melee/Kinetics.

I actually suggested exactly this quite a while ago. It's been two years though, so I'd change a few ideas in my suggestion.

Some of my characters

When the villain epic at's first came out, I designed my widow as a melee/support. Stacking SoA leadership is not a shabby way to go.

I think you'd have to have the buffs affect self much more than they do now in order for the AT to be survivable. Otherwise it might be less survivable than a blaster with lower DPS. If you could bubble or cast shields on yourself as the starting area of effect it might be doable.

Well, Melee/Support has no real use for the Taunt powers in the melee sets, so you could pull that and add in the theme appropriate shield.

Have the Inherent grant 2-4mag protection and 50% resistance for Sleep/Hold/Disorient.

That ups your survivability a bit and prevents constant toggle drop from every random minion with even a remote chance for mez attacks.

Some of the Support sets could use a couple tweaks in addition, but that'd be a more case by case situation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvilGeko Agreed. For example, for Kinetics, I might remove Siphon Speed and Inertial Reduction give Kinetic Shield and Power Shield there instead.

Can't say I'd agree with pulling Siphon Speed, it's kind of a big deal for the set. Unless, you just made their version of Speed Boost a straight up AoE, including self.

I'd pull Repel and ID instead. Repel is entirely counter-intuitive for a melee based character. (Honestly it kinda doesn't fit with any version of Kinetics, they're all very melee centric what with Transference, Transfusion and Fulcrum Shift all pushing you into Point Blank range.)

Interesting note, not a single power (available to players) in the game with Repel or Repulsion in it's name is actually repel. They're all Knockback.

@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too