Okay, FINE. Whip Melee.

Personally I don't get it. The whip animations are cool and all, but I don't have a huge need for them to be extended into an entire set.

(I wouldn't mind them being developed into a new APP, or even rarity of rarities, a new PPP (maybe of Desdemona)? I don't have the lore-stick-up-my that insists players be unique and special snowflakes. The named characters still get the screentime, even if we're the ones supposedly saving the day.)

Aside aside... That's good! Because they won't be. If the scalar so often quoted is correct -- animating one requires 1/X the effort of animating an entirely new powerset, where X is 1, 2, or 3 -- then they'd be a terrible business investment.

Buuuut... as it turns out I'm really good at cheating. So here's how I'd cheat for Whip Melee.

First, we have four Whip animations already. I'm counting the animation for Hell on Earth in that. I'm going to add a mythical fifth animation, representing a good chunk of the time spent on this set (since the four existing ones shouldn't need much alteration).

Then I'm going to mulligan Taunt and Build Up. Build Up doesn't get a whip at all, and Taunt gets the first part of Crack Whip's animation (the jump spin thing).

Hey, sweet. We're up to seven powers.

The last two powers don't get actual whips. We're going to be calling this "Energy Whip Melee" anyway (Edit : Actually, this would be a great opportunity to make another Fire, Negative Energy, or Toxic set -- so Infernal Whip Melee, or Shadow Whip Melee, or Brittney Spears Whip Melee, or whatever. There are like four or five Energy sets for melee already; why not widen some of the other damage types just a nudge?), since the whip is going to disappear each time it isn't in use (the "combat animation" will be little trails of fiery energy going around the character's arms). So one of the remaining two is going to be something like Hell on Earth, except angled downwards -- the character channels a thin tendril of whip-energy into the ground and bam, PBAoE tentacles. I think Omega Red might've done something inexplicably like that at one point, and I remember Ivy from Soul Calibur having a couple attacks in that form.

And the last one is just going to be Whip Mastery (think Staff Mastery). Yes, even though the set already has Build Up. Why? Because I didn't want to do this in the first place, that's why. You forced my hand, what with provoking someone into telling you it can't be done.

Now what do all these neato animation-stolen powers do? And how will whip-stances fit into the whole concept?

Well! That's the best part!

...I honestly don't care.

I need this.
Or a Whip assault set for dominators.
Im even thinking about leveling a useless petless MM, lol.
I agree with you, we only need like 2 more powers, or even reusing one of the animations, or part of them.
/signed.

If you look at the track record of the dev team and consider some of the whip assets are already in game; I'm about 110% sure that Whips will be coming. The only thing I'm not sure of is if it will be Melee, Assault or a combo of both like we are seeing with the Martial set.

And judging off the last few sets I know there will be a new mechanic for it, so we can help the devs out by coming up with a suitable one now .

I like your idea... still prefer tentacle melee, but would be happy (enough) with a whip set like this.
/signed

@Redcap

Oh, if you want like, an actual whip, or a plant thing or whatever, this totally won't work and I really wouldn't expect to see it in the next couple years.

But if you're interested in Fire Whip or whatever, this'll do you. With a fire whip.

I would prefer this NOT be just energy whips ... I had in mind an Indiana Jones type character - not Desdemona.

I also dont care for these new mechanics, where you have to build up "points" for powers to be fully effective. Personally, I'd rather have 1-2 combos, do power X first, then power Y has an extra effect. Like martial arts, where one power gives a greater chance for subsequent powers to critical. Or the 1-2 combo in dual blades.
So, yes to taunt and buildup, no to the "Power of" whatever.

So, conceptually, I actually prefer this as an Assault (dom) set, but it's more sellable as a melee set. I'm not positive but I think Brutes, Scrappers, and Tankers have a population three times greater than the entire dom population... each. Stalkers are probably comparable. This would get some new Doms, but I still suspect it would be much better business-wise to make it a melee set.

Now making it ALSO work for an assault set and a blaster2 set seems pretty doable to me to at least the extent it works as a melee set, but whaaaoooahh animation duplication.

Something just occurred to me.

The four* existing Whip power animations we have in game are often cited as having taken as long to develop as an entire powerset.

But since we already HAVE 4 whip animations, that means that we only need about 4 more (Not counting 1 for taunt or whatever build up like mechanic the set may include).

That means they could develop 4 new whip animations, and recycle the existing whip animations and have a whip powerset in roughly the same amount of time as building a different set from the ground up. (Standard code rant.)



*Corruption, Lash, Crack Whip, and Hell on Earth (there exists a shorter version of HoE's animation that is used by Carnival of Light bosses as a ranged hold named Judgment).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack_NoMind So, conceptually, I actually prefer this as an Assault (dom) set, but it's more sellable as a melee set. I'm not positive but I think Brutes, Scrappers, and Tankers have a population greater than the entire dom population... each. Stalkers are probably comparable. This would get some new Doms, but I still suspect it would be much better business-wise to make it a melee set. Now making it ALSO work for an assault set and a blaster2 set seems pretty doable to me to at least the extent it works as a melee set, but whaaaoooahh animation duplication.

Well, Melee sets already share the same animations across ATs (with certain exceptions, such as Assassin's ____), and Dominator sets also generally just reuse the standard animation for any powers they recycle. Thus I don't see the duplication as an issue really, given the extent that it already exists in game.

@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too

whips are more likely to happen as an epic pool, thereby allowing it to be on several AT's potentially some meelee ATs and some ranged or control ATs.

this will happen by combining it with other "Hellfire" powers the demons use. these attacks are varied enough and can be mixed and matched with the 3/4[if 4th is altered or not] whip powers to cover AT epic pool needs.

maybe. imo, this is most likely to happen to any actual 9 power whip set.