And Energy Melee departs the penalty box...

My biggest gripes have already been mentioned, but this is the internet so I'm going to repeat them:

1. Long activation times on the big single-target attacks

2. Anemic range on whirling hands. Dominators version is better, why the disparity?

i think just turning ET and TF into target aoes would suffice

BABs actually gets a target aoe version of TF as well as a unique target aoe version of ET (his does no self dmg and unresistable mag 25ish KB, but the point im making is the target AoE)

I asked Arbiter Hawk about EM changes on the stream today and he said it is too early to tell right now.

Things I'd like to see for Energy Melee. Not necessarily all of them, but I think even if it got 2/3, it'd make the set a bit more viable:

1. A speed up on the top tier hits. Not as fast as it used to be, necessarily, but not as slow as it is now. Speed up Total Focus and Energy Transfer (preferably changing Total Focus' animation in the process), and increase the self-damage on Energy Transfer to compensate.

2. Buff Stun. Make it much faster so that you could knock a target right out without having to wait, or increase the magnitude, or both.

3. Add small-area splash damage to Whirling Hands, keeping it fairly weak and close-ranged at its base but making it much more devastating if you had a group tightly bunched. Would probably need an increase to Endurance/Recharge to compensate, though.

As far as 1 and 2 go, I think the ideal would be to reorder the current animations, so we basically got:

• Energy Punch - Change it to the Smite animation.
• Barrage - No change.
• Bone Smasher - No change.
• Stun - Change to the current Energy Punch animation.
• Total Focus - Change to the current Energy Transfer animation.
• Energy Transfer - Change to the current Stun animation.

My main problem with EM is not with it's effectiveness, it is based on the "feel" of the set compared to how it used to be. I have a 50 WP/EM tank and he was one of my favorite toons. I left the game for a while and now that I am back the toon just does not feel like it used to, and the change in feel is enough to make me not want to play the toon anymore, and that is mainly due to the length of the animations of ET and TF.

I understand why they were changed, and I am not really arguing that the changes were needed, but the last 2 attacks just feel too cumbersome to me now. I would be greatly in favor of adjusting the animation speeds to be quicker than they are now and will gladly accept any additional changes needed to the numbers behind the power to keep it balanced.

What was the cause of the original ET change?

Was it maybe too many people complained about being two shotted too quickly in pvp zones?

Personally, I think they should retract the ET change (just give it back its old animation). Hardly anyone pvps anymore in any zone except Freedom and with I Trow A Big **** Fish at you available to lol stalkers at 35, would it really make that big of a difference?

(and for the record I have an Pompoms/Ninja/I trow a big **** fish at you lol stalker but he's on champ so I spend more time looking at Mids and doing back flips in Sirens/Warburg/RV)

Some ideas

Energy Transfer give abit Beam riffle love ET triggers Disintegrade make all Energy melee attacks do more damage for 10 secs and maybe add a small cone to it like headsplitter.
Whirling Hands higher damage same as Burst.
Total Focus as Thunder strike.

Would give it abit more AoE and a way to increase the damage output.


Dizzy

My biggest problem is that I'll often click Energy Transfer or Total Focus and get locked in the animation, take tons of damage, and die.

I think the easiest solution is to make a character immune to damage for about 2/3rds of the duration of the casting time of those two powers, maybe throw Stun in too.

For those who miss good old ET http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ngQ_6HB1o

Personally I think they should just undo the nerfs and allow certain individual powers to be overpowered as long as the powersets don't get out of line. OP *characters* can be a problem but OP *powers* are fun to use, and EM was never ridiculously awesome.

It just got caught up in the senseless normalization mess, but while sets like Stone Melee still had a 'thing' after all their attacks were nerfed, EM is just useless now.

I still play my EM/ninja stalker now and then but it just makes me sad. v.v

...if you want a suggestion that might actually happen, make stun an 0.5 second animation attack (or whatever the 'really fast' value is). Really fast pure control is usable, even on scrappers. I do like the 'kill NAO and *then* wait' idea for ET too.

Glad to see so many people post on this topic. I also have an old Eng brute that hasnt seen play time since the nerf. In fact, I recently deleted a level shifted 50 because I didn't see the point in playing him anymore.

Not sure if the devs intended to make a set so undesireable but they did.

There are some great suggestions on this thread, hopefully we'll get their attention and they'll make necessary changes.

When I think about all the other powers that have been introduced since the nerf of Eng I think "would they have nerfed Eng in today's game?" because even the old Eng wouldn't be the most dominating set in today's game.

Just looking at that video. Nice demo on what that set used to be like. So, why couldn't they just reduce that ET attack from extreme damage to Superior damage?

At least that way the timing of your attack chain is still intact but you're not 'one-shotting' your enemies (which I'm guessing was the complaint?)

God it's like they changed something (reduced damage), didn't check to see it's effect on the set and then changed another thing (slowed ET animation), once again didn't check ....then changed one MORE thing (reduced TF) and walked away from it.