So Uh...Spines?

IMHO, the biggest problem with spines isn't with spines.. it's with the NPC run away AI which makes spines beyond annoying to play. If they boosted the runspeed debuff to prevent runners from getting way (I mean REALLY REALLY slow them down) then it'd actually be a pretty sweet boost for more then quality of life reasons ... they'd turn around but not escape... that could work like a ghetto hold power.

So we can all agree to speeding up the animation for Barb Swipe and Lunge?

I like the Barb Swipe animation... for Ripper. Give Barb Swipe a new animation. Shorten Lunge and Impale.

I probably still wont play my spines/vuln that much either way though.

Ice Ember

I know I said this somewhere else in the last couple of weeks here, but:

Castle's viewpoint on Spines was that (paraphrase a long since lost quote here) "The [set] is performing at an above-intended level in some aspects. While the animations do need to be revised in comparison to [everything] else that we've been working on, if [we] look into Spines, it will not be the same set when it comes back out of the meat grinder and I don't feel this will appease those who've been asking for a revision."

Basically that on an AoE standpoint, the set was still "WAI", but it did need a "review". Most of the old--and by old, I mean all sets prior I6--were revised in their animation times to work around stuff like redraw poorly impacting performance. This is what lead to the much-recalled "buff" to Claws (wasn't really a buff, but a performance adjustment that turned out looking like a buff). All the Slows, Toxic, Mez effects that come packed into Spines--per Castle--would most likely be stripped down or all together removed from most, if not all, of the powers. What Castle believed needed to happen completely went against everything the player-base wanted, so he left this one alone to appease the masses because he felt there was no way for him to win with anyone; and that once he "looked at it", there was no turning back.

He did acknowledge it was "under performing", so take that for what it's worth.

I know there is now a "new" person running the show and the vision they follow is slightly different, but all changes still had to clear the same operations-desk (which is also, incidentally, a new person now), so Castle can't really be 100% blamed for anything anyone didn't like that happened; or yell at him for not having ever addressed Spines.

If everyone keep /em Crai, over Spines, eventually they will revise it, but I'm not sure [we] are all going to like what comes out of the extractor when they're finished. I want to love what could be, but it's hard to love an expectation when we all know that right now is probably the best we're going to get out of it.

Some things I'd like to see balanced in Spines:

Give Spine Burst a mechanic that coincides with Quills. Have Quills emit some kind of "Toxin", and when Spine Burst hits, it checks for that status toxin and if found on a target applies an "Immobilize" in the nature of a paralytic. Each Application of Spine Burst increasing the duration. Throw Spines should come with a reasonable Slow attribute. A Toxin that hits the system and starts impeding your targets nerve responses so they react "slower" making it easier to keep a mob clustered together so you have time to get in the middle, quills to fire off, and trigger Spine Burst.

Ripper needs to be toned down from a Cone into a ST with lower End/Rech (upping its potential for consistent and performance-beneficial use). Reduce and alter Impales Animation/Time to something more appropriate than a base-ball pitch. Honestly, Lunge and Impale need to be switched graphically as their names are not appropriate to their animations. Fix. Barb. Swipe's. Damage. This is a global-consensus for sure. Take away most of the secondary effects from these three powers and the previous mentions for AoE effects will fit without creating some kind of imbalanced monster. Although a good way to add a hair more balance would be: If a target has been imbued with Quills' toxin, ST attacks will have a chance for +Toxic damage DoT (Like Disintegrate). This will empower the AoE nature of the set while opting for a chance at improving the ST DPS of the set at the same time.

I have to have a concept that works for me or I can't play Spines.

The ability to change the look of the spines was a huge boon for me. I'd love for scrappers to get Ice Armor so I can use it combined with the crystal spines.

Actually, I do like Spines' look. If I hadn't liked the look I never would have taken my scrapper past 10.

Except for barb swipe. A quote I remember from 2004 was something like "It makes you look like you're throwing a tantrum at someone's face."

I would like to see Lunge moved to level 1 (unchanged otherwise), Barb Swipe's damage/recharge/endurance modified to account for it's longer animation and moved to level 2 and finally shorten Spine Burst's animation.