I24: Switch Boxing or Kick with Tough

Or what if Tough stayed tier 2, but changed it so that Boxing reduced the endurance cost of Weave and Kick reduced the endurance cost of Tough?

Or Boxing added 5% psionic resist to Tough and Kick added 5% toxic resist to Tough?

Yeah, never mind to that as well.

Here's something else that just occurred to me:

A while ago it was suggested that this is no different from the Healing pool not opening up Aid Self immediately, and how if it did, everyone would have it. Fair enough, fair enough. But the pool still isn't gating it behind two copies of the same thing. It's not like it was before, where your choices were "help another player" or "help another player differently" between Aid Other and Stimulant. Right now, we have Aid Other and Injection, which IS an ally buff, but also works as an enemy debuff, as well. I am, in fact, given an option. If I want to take options that benefit me and I want Aid Self, I'm no longer forced to take a team-only power.

To my eyes, Aid Other and Stimulant were no different from Kick and Boxing - the same power twice over. Yes, their effects were different, but their mechanics were the same - stuff I do to help other people which doesn't help me. Since I don't want powers that don't help me in any way, that pool was more or less closed to me. This has changed, because now I have the choice between "a power which helps others" and "a power which helps others sometimes and me all the time." Now, I have a choice and now, I AM going to take those powers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I'd love to be able to pick and choose which powers I take from a pool with no restrictions. I don't mind nabbing boxing even though it will get no slots and never be on my tray. That's the deal with pools. You want the "good stuff" you have to take something else.

Pre-req's on pools are fine IMO; they're a good thing.

As for changes to Tough or Weave, Arbiter Amish did say during the Coffee Talk where these changes were announced that those two powers are good as they are. Honestly who can argue (reasonably) that either of them need a buff at all?

I like the idea of merging boxing and kick.

I don't expect us to be able to get Tough as a 1st tier power pick.

I like the idea of replacing the old kick with something new... maybe even just a passive that gives +perception and 3% to-hit (enhanceable!) so those AT's who can't just tactics/kismet their way to perma-fast snipe have an option to fill that 5% gap they inevitably have. They could call it combat awareness or some such.

Even non snipe users can benefit from some extra +to-hit and +perception isn't exactly doled out alot so why not? And as a passive this power requires no art time!

While you're at it, might as well change the name of the pool to "More Def and Res", since that's all most of the playerbase seem to think of it as. :roll:

(Concept, what's that?)

Okay, so it's a badly designed pool from the start. Still bugs the hell out of me when people take it (or advocate taking it) for no reason other than min-maxing of utility, like non-speedsters with Hasten, because Hasten.

So I would like to float an idea past the thread to see if I'm in sync with everyone else here, or just crazy.

It seems to me that we don't want to mess with boxing and kick, because there's now synergy effects in Boxing and Kick that escalate up to the tier 5 attack, and there are people that like Boxing and Kick for various reasons. But it also seems to me that we don't have to mess with boxing and kick, because there's no reason we can't provide an alternate path to tough and weave by simply adding another power to Fighting that unlocks at 35 and acts as a prereq. This way we don't eliminate the prereq, but we don't require people to take an attack they don't need.

The question is what can we add to Fighting that is conceptually consistent, interesting enough to be useful, but not so powerful that it will be perceived as necessary? That's the idea I want to float. Assuming we add one more power to fighting to allow an alternate way to get to tough and weave, what do you all think about this power:

Tempered Focus:

Passive: 50% Res(Hold, Sleep, Stun, Terrorize, Confuse), 15% Res(Defense), +50% runspeed (enhanceable), -50% runspeed (unenhanceable)
Fighting Synergy: Increases stun duration on Boxing, Increases Knockdown chance on Kick, and Cross Punch debuffs foe Strength(Hold, Stun, Sleep, Terrorize, Confuse, Immobilize, Endurance) by 30% for 6 seconds and has a 50% chance to debuff KB strength by 100% for 6 seconds.

Power also grants:

Click: Mag+1(Confuse, Terrorize) for 15 seconds. 120s recharge.


The idea is to create a power that would appeal to players likely to be taking Fighting anyway, appealing enough to be interesting for players that were not thinking about it, but not so powerful that it would be a must take and force people into Fighting. So:

1. If you are a squishy without mez protection, 50% mez resistance is interesting, but not mandatory.

2. If you are taking Fighting to get Weave, DDR is probably interesting to you.

3. Unless you're SR, in which case being able to periodically break Confuse and Terrorize is interesting to you.

4. Tempered Focus has its own interesting synergy with Cross Punch: it causes Cross Punch to weaken the mez ability of anything it hits and has a chance to shut off the ability for the target to generate knockback. Which is not as interesting for melee with mez protection, but *very* interesting for a squishy wanting to mix it up in melee range. For the melee archetypes, I slipped in Endurance: the effect will also reduce the drain effects on targets it hits.

5. The +50%run/-50%run is there to ensure the power is actually slottable for something. By default these two effects cancel each other out. But you could slot run in there and get increased run speed, since the negative buff is not enhanceable. Or you could ignore the power's slot if you don't want to run faster. And I'm inclined to allow it to be slottable with universal travel.


So is this too powerful? Too weak? Totally ridiculous? I've tried to find the line between "overpowered" and "worthless" and I hope I landed on "interesting for those that don't want Boxing or Kick." Did I get close?