viscious strikes is bugged and not changing tooltip or power when ranking also can only spend 3 advantage points into the energy builder
one hundred hands should be a single target attack there are already enough aoes in this set, makes much more sens being a single target flurry of blows than an aoe
One hundred hands could either stand to have a little defense penetration added, or possibly increase the damage just a little. As it stands it will hardly go through things like VIPER X's invuln, or any sort of hard defensive passive.
Open Palm Strike knocks down on tap, but does not give a resist to knocks on tap.
Get rid of this. Defense penetration should be abolished from the game, not permitted. Give it a resistance debuff while active or something to that tune, but do away with defense penetration.
Kind of lulsy ccoming from some one who does t4 PvP in defiant. Either way, the damage is a paltry DoT. Not like it dealing an extra 20-30 damage every few tics is going to make it suddenly frightening to Invuln or Defiant + IDF.
Get rid of this. Defense penetration should be abolished from the game, not permitted. Give it a resistance debuff while active or something to that tune, but do away with defense penetration.
Resistance debuffs should be capped at the target's damage resistance and then scale up to 200% or so.
So, i'm a pretty big fighter fan and i think the palm strike and rising uppercut are supah cool! IIRC the advantage for palm strike is like an EX fireball.
Wait, how can you have an EX fireball without a default fireball? Or do you mean it's like a 2 in 1 EX Combo? That would make more sense.
I only have two problems with these new powers and animations.
One is that they all seem entirely too slow. Especially the end builder. I get that maybe you guys were going for a realistic, precise martial artist, but that doesn't really work when almost every other power in the game is fast paced and frantic.
My second issue is that they don't seem to synergise well with each other. For example, I can pop thundering kicks, switch to Dragon Kick and finish with Inexorable Tides, and it's fluid and looks FANTASTIC. This? Aside from Open Palm Strike being a nice looking finisher, none of the powers really mesh that well together.
This is a problem with many charged powers (such as Dragon's Kick), but occasionally the animation will play when you press the button to begin charging (for no damage) and again when it is finished charging.
I'm not sure how to replicate this. Maybe I am quickly pressing the button twice.
viscious strikes is bugged and not changing tooltip or power when ranking also can only spend 3 advantage points into the energy builder
one hundred hands should be a single target attack there are already enough aoes in this set, makes much more sens being a single target flurry of blows than an aoe
This is a problem with many charged powers (such as Dragon's Kick), but occasionally the animation will play when you press the button to begin charging (for no damage) and again when it is finished charging.
I'm not sure how to replicate this. Maybe I am quickly pressing the button twice.
Happened here too. I am not sure how to replicate that either.
Burning Chi Fist is about the same, but a bit better on Tap now. DoT still stinks though. Could use more work, considering it's the set's single target heavy hitter.
Leaping uppercut needs to jump higher. It also seems to suffer badly from that bug where it doesn't knock your target, but gives them stacks of knock resistance anyway. Also, can we get a cooler name for it? Really don't have much more feedback than this, it's a pretty solid power.
100 fists is extremely amusing. The animation is awesome and the damage on it is really nice. This will probably end up replacing something in my current Unarmed character's build, probably Thundering Kicks. The ghost hand effects don't seem to always happen when ranking up, why or what triggers it I do not know.
Thundering Kicks is still meh. But if I remember correctly they said they're working on a long term solution for all the T0s, so whatever.
Vicious Strikes looks pretty good, but the animation... ...I dunno, something is off about it. The attacks look kinda slow and mechanical. I do like how it's a more serious martial artist looking power, I think I'm going to make another unarmed character when this goes live, and he'll use this.
I'm a little disappointed in Rising Knee. It's just the knee-to-crotch attack the Resistance guards use. I was honestly thinking of something more along the lines of Sagat's Tiger Knee when I heard the name. Basically a defensive looking knee attack with a little hop attached. Damage and effect is nice though, it's not bad for a click power on a short recharge.
Elbow Slam is alot better, it's something I think I could see Adon using, but it's still not very martial artsy looking. Both of them could use to look a little more martial artsy, or at least more defensive. I dunno, they just seem like like they'd be better suited for a "Brawler" set. Aside from that, this power is pretty good.
Backhand Strike is... ...I dunno, something is seriously off about this power. It's an interrupt, the cooldown is longer than Rising Knee and it costs more energy. This doesn't seem right considering knock ups basically do the same thing as interrupts, and they disable the target briefly. The Animation for it is excellent though, and like Rising Knee the damage is good for a click power.
Open Palm Strike is awesome and without the fireball advantage we don't have in game yet it reminds me of Shiva's special attack. You can do an Uppercut -> Haymaker type combo with it and Leaping Uppercut as well.
That's all for now. I will definitely have more feedback later, especially when the advantages make it in, and/or existing ones get some work. Given how nice some of these powers seem, I can't wait to see what advantages you come up with for them.
One Hundred Fists is a close-range Gatling Fist. Deals two damage packets every .5 seconds - gets swallowed whole by Invuln and IDF, sure, but it eats evasion alive. The damage also seems very nice when running with a Martial Form and WotW, as I was in my initial run-through. Henchmen ablate away with satisfying rapidity, and it does respectable if not ridiculous damage to larger foes. Seems like it only activates things like Subtlety of the Tides or Fists of Righteous Flame once per tick, though, so no more effective with those sorts of advantages than any normal melee maintain. Sadfayse.
It does, however, have the badass thousand-strikes animation I was praying for, 'least at ranks 2 and 3. Thank you, Cryptic. Your brownies will be in the mail tomorrow.
That said...let's talk about Shuriken Storm, Cryptic.
We have another of the hax Ranged Brawler attacks that irritate the PvP folks to no end. That doesn't bother me, since I'm not a PvP folks, but you'd best be ready to get some complaints about dat one. The thing that bothers me is that, once AGAIN, the attacks damage isn't readily boosted by any means save lucky-ducky Quarry. Or Aura of Ebon Destruction.
It'd be pretty boss if you could, like...stop doing that, actually, guys. That works for Hurl and Shuriken because those attacks are more for their secondary effects than for damage, but Shuriken Storm is clearly trying to be Lead Tempest in a ninja suit and failing pretty damn hard. It's a cool concept, and the animation isn't even that terrible, but the attack's only reason for existence is wide-area AoE damage. A job which it's actually pretty lousy at currently, outside of Quarry builds built pretty much specifically to support it. Admittedly, those could be pretty fierce, but that's an awfully limited application pool for the thing.
Unless Storm gets some manner of really helpful advantage to tempt people into carting it around, which os more or less cheating, it's already destined to sit in the rubbish bin most of the time. Which is really sad; I like the Shuriken moves, they're great for a very popular set of concepts, but it'd be awesome if you could make up your minds where the damage on the things is concerned.
I hope there are more fixes coming for thundering kicks and crashing wave kick. The +5 to dodge and avoidance rating from each stack of ebb and flow with CWK's advantage is too marginal at level 40. Similarly, the flat dodge bonus from thundering kicks is nice but it takes too long to apply. A 2 second combo for an 8 second buff? Compare this to combo attacks that grant Defiant, like cleave or defensive combo without it's advantage. At least in those cases the Defiant buff lasts 20 seconds, which justifies doing the combo.
[4:02] Your Burning Chi Fist deals 17 (139) Dimensional Damage to Size Queen 28.
Ffs... buff that useless attack already, it's advantage needs major buff too.
As for new attacks... why damage on all of them is SO LOW when compared to similar powers? Same with old kick attacks (thundering kicks<<<<<<ego weaponry for example)
Also that interrupt attack... it takes too long to cast it, needs to be a quick 0.5 activation to be worth taking.
Pretty neat new powers. I think the DPS seems comparable to many other skills in game. [STRIKEOUT]For instance, Shuriken Storm deals more damage than Lead Tempest, but tapers off very quickly. It hits really hard at 15 feet, and less beyond that.[/STRIKEOUT] Duh, forgot that there's a strength bonus. If so, they're still fairly comparable.
The animation for Shuriken Storm is a bit goofy, with the twirling and flinging. I'm guessing it isn't final.
One Hundred Fists is pretty good too. I compared it to Sword Cyclone and it has a bit higher average DPS, far better DPE, but obviously limited to an arc.
Vicious Strikes could do with a slightly faster animation. Righteous Fists was a bit too hyper, and this is a bit too slow. Can we have something in-between? Thanks. :P
Then we have the Ryu and Ken abilities. Ater all the Marvel clones, get ready for... MARVEL VS CAPCOM!
Vicious Strikes: The animations feel too slow. It's like watching really old Power Rangers.
One Hundred Hands: Probably the best new addition. Great DPS to targets without flat damage absorb. I prefer the rank 1 look without all the ghostly hands.
Backhand Chop: Glad to see it has a cooldown to avoid the spamming of interrupts. Unfortunately the damage seems low and the animation cheesy. The quick spin backhand chop should be replaced with just a quick backhand chop... no spinning required. Lower the activation time to 0.5 seconds so other powers can actually be more easily interrupted.
Elbow Slam: Nice simple animation, but the power itself doesn't seem to have a purpose. There are other, better single target attacks that may cost more... but that's the name of the game here in CO. Disorient makes sense (sorta) for flavor but doesn't make sense for set synergy.
Leaping Uppercut: Rename to "Bunny-hop-cut". The damage isn't bad and the knock on tap is very useful.
Rising Knee: Single target attack that deals ok damage and knocks the target down on a short cooldown. Animation is decent but much like Elbow Slam there's not much point to the power in the set. Doesn't always seem to knock the target down.
Shuriken Storm: Now Brawler role toons can spam huge AoE just like an Avenger w/ Lead Tempest! I'll never understand why ranged powers are tagged as melee. I don't know what I'd do to fix it, but the animation looks very silly to me. *SPIN!*
Open Palm Strike: Aside from the fact it's an obvious clone of Haymaker (tooltip states you will gain two stacks of Enrage after a fully charged Uppercut) I like this power. Damage seems low for a tier 3 power. I like the animation a lot and I look forward to seeing what the adv does. Currently does not respect or add knock resist.
Burning Chi Fist: Costs more and deals a tiny bit more damage than Dragon's Claws and Dragon's Wrath. Is the DoT on Burning Chi Fist really valued as much as the ability to proc the Rush buff with Focus?
Overall the new power animations feel slow and don't seem to flow together well. With the exception of One Hundred Hands and possibly Backhand Chop there isn't anything new mechanics-wise that's useful either. Even Open Palm Strike is overshadowed by Burning Chi Fist... which in turn falls behind Dragon's Claws and Dragon's Wrath since it doesn't proc the Rush buff.
Also, would it be possible for Subtlety of the Tides and the Fists of Righteous Flames buffs to proc on damage instead of per period? It would at least give One Hundred Hands a reason to have its damage split into two ticks of damage per 0.5 seconds.
Pretty neat new powers. I think the DPS seems comparable to many other skills in game. [STRIKEOUT]For instance, Shuriken Storm deals more damage than Lead Tempest, but tapers off very quickly. It hits really hard at 15 feet, and less beyond that.[/STRIKEOUT] Duh, forgot that there's a strength bonus. If so, they're still fairly comparable.
The animation for Shuriken Storm is a bit goofy, with the twirling and flinging. I'm guessing it isn't final.
One Hundred Fists is pretty good too. I compared it to Sword Cyclone and it has a bit higher average DPS, far better DPE, but obviously limited to an arc.
Vicious Strikes could do with a slightly faster animation. Righteous Fists was a bit too hyper, and this is a bit too slow. Can we have something in-between? Thanks. :P
Then we have the Ryu and Ken abilities. Ater all the Marvel clones, get ready for... MARVEL VS CAPCOM!
Scarab Tunneling...? I don't have a particular desire for something specifically "Scarab" themed, but I'm hoping there is a different animation for entering the earth here...and maybe the "Scarab" part can convey other things through color customization. <fingers crossed>
tl,dr; version: Animations mostly good, mechanics needs fine tuning in certain things. Here's hoping the advantages (and sound effects) really bump them up.
Vicious Strikes: Energy builder! looks nice, but a tad slow for my taste. Definitely much better appearance-wise than Righteous Fists (and feet), though.
One Hundred Hands: Love it. I am somewhat curious as to why it does two ticks every 0.5 seconds instead of one tick every 0.25 like Minigun or something, though.
Backhand Chop: Looks like it could be useful for PVP or somtehing, but not something I'd really bother with. Animation feels a tad stiff and high, oddly enough. I was hoping this would be a little more.. Diagonal. Like a NECK CHOP.
Elbow Slam: Love the animation, but not really sure what to use it for mechanically outside of a Heavy Weapons Unarmed build or something.
Leaping Uppercut: Feels a bit too "light" in the jumping animation, but it does its job mechanically.
Open Palm Strike: The animation makes me think it should be a ranged attack of some sort, but mechanically I have no idea what to do with it.
Shuriken Storm: Feels like an inferior Lead Tempest damage-wise. No missing within 15 feet is nice, though. Although spinning usually makes EVERYTHING BETTER, it actually looks rather silly here.
Rising Knee: WAT DO I really have no idea what this could do better than something like Inexorable Tides.
With Jet Boots activated, Rising Knee has no animation.
I'll stick to animation comments only, as the mechanical effectiveness discussion is going to take much longer to hash out.
Vicious Strikes: Thrilled to finally have a third choice of non-epileptic energy builder (sonic blaster and Ego Lash being the other abilities that don't whip your character into a complete frothing frenzy animation-wise).
One Hundred Hands: Good stuff. Super-speedsters everywhere rejoice.
Backhand Chop: Interupt probably needs to take place at the moment the power is registered by the server - interupts are just too sensitive to latency, especially in a game as fast as CO. Ok, sorry, back to the animation comments.
Elbow Slam: Doesn't seem meaty enough.Like to see a much deeper stance on landing. More sense of follow-through.
Leaping Uppercut: Fully charged, this desperately needs a finishing spin as you are comming back to the ground. Again needs that extra sense of follow-through, because the simple drop to the ground looks like you were jumping up to try and brush the ceiling with 2 fingers, not putting a villian into low orbit.
Rising Knee: More savagry please. And this animation looks really, really flat if delivered while flying.
Shuriken Storm: I like this better than I expected. While flying there is a distinct hitch int he animation as the character is facing backwards, but the finish animation while flying is just about perfect.
Open Palm Strike: CAPCOM called... they say they are flattered by your sincerity. Love it.
Now make any of these relevant in PvP and we're well on our way .
While most of the new toys seem to be a tad unfinished for now, I will note that the most noticeable was 100 Hands. it needs some kind of finale once the maintain completes, I think.
I object to shuriken storm being tagged as melee. Brawler role gets a plus because it doesn't apply to ranged, if it starts applying to ranged it basically has no drawbacks.
I object to shuriken storm being tagged as melee. Brawler role gets a plus because it doesn't apply to ranged, if it starts applying to ranged it basically has no drawbacks.
Yeah, remove the "this is ranged but gets melee damage boost" bit from both this and Shuriken. I think Hurl has it too, but Hurl sucks for damage.
Ranged knockdown on its own is strong enough as-is, even if shuriken had the brawler damage penalty for ranged attacks.
Also, can we have it so that if Hundred Hands does enough damage to kill the target, their head explodes at the end of a full maintain?
Vicious Strikes - It needs to be as swift as a coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon. It needs to look like you have the strength of a raging fire, but what you did here is mysterious as the dark side of the moon.
To be less cryptic, it just needs to hit faster. You wonder why people to this day still don't use steady shot? Well this is why. Also, trash the 4th elbow hit. It looks ridiculous and more like you're posing for a magazine photo shoot.
Backhand Chop - "Might not work on powerful targets"? Then what's the point of it? Inexorable Tides can interrupt a cone of enemies with a knockup up to Master Villain rank. In the case of PvP, where knockups sometimes don't work, this has some value (if the interrupt always procs), but really, the chop needs some sort of PvE value.
And unless the opponent is charging a Haymaker, it's really hard to get this off correctly.
Rising Knee - Has the exact same issue as Backhand Chop does. What would you take: A power that sometimes knocks a single target down and has a cooldown, or a cone attack that does half damage, but serves the same purpose while almost always knocking targets up (sometimes even scoring fall damage)? Granted, Rising Knee has the (honestly slightly obtuse) advantage of proccing MSA, but really, a MA build can do that enough just by using moves like Bountiful Chi Resurgence and Evasive Maneuvers.
One-Hundred Hands - For the ghost hands, the graphic really should be in a fist instead of open-palmed. It would make the move just look better for super-speedsters who aren't necessarily Martial Arts-Based, and also is more congruent with the actual character animation.
Elbow Slam - It needs to drop faster, I think. That's about it for the animation. On the flipside, it also needs more in-set definition. Something interesting: Increased critical chance? A critical severity bonus? Activates half-length rush? Anything, really. Disorient doesn't play off anything MA has to offer at all.
Leaping Uppercut - The synergies that this move promises with Might are honestly kind of scary: It hits quite a bit harder than might's Uppercut does. Though, the knock not always applying and what seems like a slightly slower animation might easily offset that.
Open Palm Strike - Like Falchoin said, it can stunlock if you tap it, even after targets reach full knock resistance. Can't wait to see what the ranged advantage looks like on this. I can wait to see the 8302 Ryus and Kens, though.
Shuriken Storm - Rename to Super Shuriken Shinobi Ballet. I would've hoped for a backflip-cone attack akin to Breakaway Shot, but in lieu of that, I'd recommend adding a cooldown on this or something.
Vicious Strikes: Speed it up. Just a little bit. I personally don't like the Elbow at the end, but, hey, it's better then Bugs Bunny Kung Fu.
One Hundred Hands: There is nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. Easily my favorite power in the new pass.
Elbow Drop: Drop the Disorient, Make it a KD. Nice animation though.
Rising Knee: How...disappointing. At least add a tiny bit of hop to this. It's, like was mentioned before, The Resistance Guard knee to the groin. Not terribly martial arts-ie
Open Palm: Oh yes. Now that's some fancy Chi use there. I question why MA powers grant stacks of Enrage, but that's just me.
Leaping Uppercut: I don't mind this power, but the animation seems lustlacker to me. Maybe a twirl or something at the end?
Shuriken Storm: Really? I won't go into this. But I am disappoint, Cryptic. Very, Very Disappoint.
Vicious Strikes: Speed it up. Just a little bit. I personally don't like the Elbow at the end, but, hey, it's better then Bugs Bunny Kung Fu.
One Hundred Hands: There is nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. Easily my favorite power in the new pass.
Elbow Drop: Drop the Disorient, Make it a KD. Nice animation though.
Rising Knee: How...disappointing. At least add a tiny bit of hop to this. It's, like was mentioned before, The Resistance Guard knee to the groin. Not terribly martial arts-ie
Open Palm: Oh yes. Now that's some fancy Chi use there. I question why MA powers grant stacks of Enrage, but that's just me.
Leaping Uppercut: I don't mind this power, but the animation seems lustlacker to me. Maybe a twirl or something at the end?
Shuriken Storm: Really? I won't go into this. But I am disappoint, Cryptic. Very, Very Disappoint.
IMO, make Elbow Drop a stun instead. That way Unarmed has both single target and AoE powers of the knock and stun varieties.
Oh, and the Open Palm Strike doesn't actually grant enrage, at least I don't think. From what I can tell, Open Palm Strike is basically a heavily modified version of Haymaker and they accidentally left in some of the tooltip text.
Shuriken Storm is fairly meh...both in looks and how it works.
My idea. Make it a toggle similar in mechanics to Electric Personality. The toggle would last for like 10 seconds (maybe with a cooldown). What the power would now do, though, is anytime you are hit with a ranged power during the duration of the toggle, it would retaliate with a shuriken. Activating the power would have a minor cost, but each shuriken thrown would cost energy.
This would be a great power for when you get a bunch of henchmen that insist on spreading out.
I object to shuriken storm being tagged as melee. Brawler role gets a plus because it doesn't apply to ranged, if it starts applying to ranged it basically has no drawbacks.
I object to there not being a proper hybrid offensive stance that would properly support mixed aspect attackers.
And yes, I also object to there being ranged powers being built cockamamie to try and get around this oversight. Fix the problem, rather than break the rules.
One-Hundred Hands - For the ghost hands, the graphic really should be in a fist instead of open-palmed. It would make the move just look better for super-speedsters who aren't necessarily Martial Arts-Based, and also is more congruent with the actual character animation.
I was thinking the same thing. The animation is with fist so the ghost hands should be fist as well.
Make it so.
I object to there not being a proper hybrid offensive stance that would properly support mixed aspect attackers.
And yes, I also object to there being ranged powers being built cockamamie to try and get around this oversight. Fix the problem, rather than break the rules.
There's this thing called common sense. Nike happens to be using it in this case.
The power of a shuriken would be determined by the throwing strength of the user, therefore powers that boost melee damage (aka your character's physical strength) should boost the power of a shuriken throw. Much like they should (And do) boost the power of a thrown chunk of rock, or a thrown car, or any number of thrown things.
The power of a shuriken would be determined by the throwing strength of the user, therefore powers that boost melee damage (aka your character's physical strength) should boost the power of a shuriken throw.
We're talking game balance here. A role that boosts melee damage and reduces ranged damage should not boost ranged damage.
I was thinking the same thing. The animation is with fist so the ghost hands should be fist as well.
Make it so.
If you look closely, the animation is actually a combination of fist and open-hand chops.
Unfortunately, this is an area where there is a very real engine tradeoff.
Basically, I can either make a static right and left fist-- and everybody gets the same fists (men, women, aliens, robots-- be they big or small); or else I do what I'm doing now and grab geometry off of the character. I like this option because it works for everybody; but the downside of this approach is that I have no access to the character's skeleton; I can only call geometry in its base pose. I can angle it or move it in the world, sure-- but I can't make it deform.
So, it's either one-kind-fits-all fists, or character-accurate palm-strikes.
If you look closely, the animation is actually a combination of fist and open-hand chops.
Unfortunately, this is an area where there is a very real engine tradeoff.
Basically, I can either make a static right and left fist-- and everybody gets the same fists (men, women, aliens, robots-- be they big or small); or else I do what I'm doing now and grab geometry off of the character. I like this option because it works for everybody; but the downside of this approach is that I have no access to the character's skeleton; I can only call geometry in its base pose. I can angle it or move it in the world, sure-- but I can't make it deform.
So, it's either one-kind-fits-all fists, or character-accurate palm-strikes.
Can we just get rid of the ghostly hands completely?
We're talking game balance here. A role that boosts melee damage and reduces ranged damage should not boost ranged damage.
Then what you do is adjust the damage of the special Meleerange powers so that it is balanced with the appropriate boosts to Melee damage in mind. Not just tag them as Ranged because someone is a stickler for semantics.
You tag them ranged, they stay weaker forever. Keep them melee (with appropriately set damage ranges) and they power up as your character does, like powers should.
Can we just get rid of the ghostly hands completely?
If you look closely, the animation is actually a combination of fist and open-hand chops.
Unfortunately, this is an area where there is a very real engine tradeoff.
Basically, I can either make a static right and left fist-- and everybody gets the same fists (men, women, aliens, robots-- be they big or small); or else I do what I'm doing now and grab geometry off of the character. I like this option because it works for everybody; but the downside of this approach is that I have no access to the character's skeleton; I can only call geometry in its base pose. I can angle it or move it in the world, sure-- but I can't make it deform.
So, it's either one-kind-fits-all fists, or character-accurate palm-strikes.
That's actually pretty elegant. The solution within the constraints then is to adjust the animation of the character so they are also delivering "un-deformed" strikes and the whole thing lines up.
Just my quick thoughts on the various powers, won't go into real detailed testing until the advantages hit. Warning, lots of nitpicks, silly suggestions, and serious suggestions ahead.
Righteous Fists:
Unlike most people I think the animation fits more agile fighters, and effect wise it's fine. -No change[i/]
Vicious Strikes:
Works for the more 'natural' martial artists though like others I wouldn't mind seeing a slight increase in swing speed. Game play wise it's fine. -Speed up animation slightly
Crashing Wave Kick:
No complaints on animation. No complaints on base power, its a stun, it does it's job well. The advantage I do have a complaint about. Namely it's well useless. If it's buff was cut in half to 2.5% dodge, 5% avoid and allowed to stack and NOT be consumed on dodge but also that each new stack of the buff DOESN'T refresh the stack I think it'd be worth it. That way you'd be able to get a few small stacks of dodge boost up all the time so long as you cycle the power into rotation. -Allow the advantage to NOT be consumed on dodge, perhaps lowering dodge chance to compensate
Backhand Chop:
Animation wise it looks okay, I'd almost prefer for it to be a flat out 'judo chop' but a spinning judo chop works fine too and it will probably grow on me with time. Effect wise it works well except for one minor thing, the activation is too long and thus the 'interrupt' portion of the effect will more often then not just be dumb luck and will rarely interrupt most charges once lag and human reaction and charge times are factored in. I think simply halving the activation time perhaps at the cost of a minor damage nerf would make this power perfect. -Halve the activation time, perhaps lowering damage a bit to compensate.
Elbow Slam:
Animation wise it looks sorta disappointing, I was hoping more for a heavier elbow slam or at least an acrobatic flip into an elbow slam, this looks more like a light bonk on the shoulder with the elbow and just looks weak. Effect wise I really don't like that it is a charge attack, which only makes the animation problem look worse. Not to mention there are enough charge heavy sets and unarmed MA was nice in that it only had ONE charge and this power especially just doesn't fit with the whole charge idea. I'd much rather see this be a simple click at 75% max charge damage, always disorient, and a short timer tacked on. -Rework animation
-Remove charge
Shoryuken, I mean Leaping Uppercut:
Animation wise it looks perfect although the knock seems mistimed with the punch up (as in I'm on the ground by the time the guy gets knocked). Effect wise once again I really don't like it being a charge effect although this power can barely be reasoned to be a charge unlike Elbow Slam as the animation lends itself to powerful. But I'd rather it not be a charge as we have enough charge heavy sets. -Remove charge
Hadoken, I mean Open Palm Strike:
Animation looks perfect and does match knock to animation. Effect wise I think it's perfect and I do think this lends itself well to being a charge power as it looks like you are focusing your chi into a massive blast and it does fill the role of spike ST damage in the set. -No change so far
Tatsu, I mean... wait there is no Tatsu clone?
Really you have 2 of the 3 Shoto powers but not this? Come on, it can't be that hard to clone sword cyclone and replace the spinning with arms out with spinning with leg out. Not to mention a heavy hitting pbaoe would complete the set without having to resort to shuriken which some people would rather avoid. -Add this power
Burning Chi Fist:
Always loved the animation though wouldn't mind if the 'explosion' fx was made more impressive. Effect wise it's always been meh. And it still is. The change to the dot is nice but it really needs it's dot damage doubled to see it being useful, even if it ignored ALL resistance at it's current amount it just won't do much of anything in PvP or PvE but double damage with 50% ignoring resist would make it a painful dot to keep maintained but not be overpowering. As for the advantage, I'd like to see it be a 100% chance instead of 50, leaving the damage the same, and allow taps of BCF to refresh the buff on you by 6 seconds or allow the buff to be 20 seconds by default, 12 seconds is too short with how many similar 'use every x seconds' type of power rotations are in the set. -Increase Advantage's effect chance to 100%, increase duration of advantage to 20 seconds or allow taps to restore 6 seconds.
Rising Knee:
Looks fairly unimpressive, if perhaps a minor 'smash' burst was added I think it'd be fine. Effect wise, it'd probably be good, if knock downs weren't vastly useless due to their total lack of damage compared to knock backs/ups. Using this before say Open Palm Strike or Lunging Uppercut is a quick way to vastly reduce the damage of those powers that this power in no way shape or form makes up for. Thus leaving this power well, totally useless like all knock downs. I do think the power itself is fine but so long as knock downs and tos share immunity stacks with knock ups/backs, knock downs and tos will always be useless. -Let knock downs/tos have different immunity stacks then knock backs/ups.
One Hundred Hands:
Animation is perfect. Effect is almost perfect, I personally want to see it have a 0.25 second tick rate to more accurately reflect the number of fist hits, that or see it getting the gatling gun treatment where you have 3 'ticks' per tick, or both! I want to see a sea of numbers! ... okay thats just a pipe dream, the power is fine as is but hey if you are looking for advantage ideas, maybe make it thousand strikes and do the above suggestion thus trading some damage resist beating for dodge beating, and style. Aside from that, challenging strikes would be great. -MORE DOTS!*
-Challenging Strikes added
Dragon Kick:
Animation is great. Effect is great. Advantage would be great if the effect's duriation was longer, as mentioned earlier, there is too many powers with 'use every x seconds' which is fine IF the duriation of said powers is long enough on the buffs. If this was 4 seconds longer the advantage would be great. -Increase advantage duriation by 4 seconds.
Shuriken Throw:
Animation is fine, great at rank 3. Effect is great. Advantage is not. As with Rising Knee, knock to's suffer the same problem as knock downs do, they vastly cripple the real damage effects of knock back/up to provide a minor control effect and its far better to kill then to control for a second. -Let knock downs/tos have different immunity stacks then knock backs/ups.
Shuriken Storm:
Animation is okay, I'd like it if it was a bit more 'random' like lead tempest then a slow circle spin, as is it just seems kinda.... lazy and not pinpoint crazy martial arts accuracy. Effect wise it's fairly disappointing. It's high energy cost for it's effect especially considering how high it's miss chance is. I normally don't like comparing powers but lets look at lead tempest, its twice as accurate at 15-30 foot range but same accuracy otherwise. It is only 20 less damage a tick but 2 energy cheaper which doesn't sound like much but is a huuuuge difference, especially when you factor in other things like Killer Instinct which I would compair against form of the tempest.... except you can have KI AND Form of the tempest for Lead Tempest but not for Shuriken Storm. I hate to say it but Lead Tempest is just far superior as is. Shuriken Storm would be better if it was either less energy, and say more accurate within 25 feet but less beyond that. And Minor nitpick but this should be Ranged Area Attack catagory. -Lower energy cost per second
-Increase accuracy within 25 feet, lower it beyond that
-Move to Ranged Area Attack Category
Inexorable Tides:
Animation is fine. Effect is okay but suffers GREATLY being a very low knock up amount. With increeeedibly high strength this power works great but at even 200 str it doesn't do that much, as such it pretty much is a slightly longer knock down which means well the same thing I've said 2 times already. I'd either increase the base knock up, or just change this to knock down and rework the immunity stacks. -Increase base knock up
OR
-Change to knock down
-Let knock downs/tos have different immunity stacks then knock backs/ups.
Fury of the Dragon:
Animation and effects are the best in game. Effect is crazy good. Advantage is very lack luster. I'd rather see the advantage be reworked slightly to increase the main 'gimmick' of the 4 ma sets, aka leave the bleed effect, increase dodge chance for a time, increase crit chance for a time, and maybe lower charge times by 0.5 seconds for a time? -Rework the advantage to be more appealing
Bountiful Chi Resurgance:
Effects don't bug me unlike others. Effect is fine. Advantage is great but maybe a tad too valueable, never even heard of someone ranking to 3, perhaps increase the base power and lower the adv slightly? -Increase base healing, lower adv healing slightly.
Lightning Reflexes & Way of the Warrior:
Please please please stop using Dodge Rating, just make it a flat, simple to understand Dodge Chance. The less complicated things in game the better. Further for both of these powers I'd like to see their Dodge amount increased. Lightning Reflexes values are easily achieved as is and thus rarely taken but a boost of perhaps 25% dodge chance at rank 3 would make it alot more viable. As for Way of the Warrior if it had much higher dodge chance compaired to Quarry it would actually be competitive with it instead of just being a weaker lower brother. Quarry would be more glass cannon while WotW would be more damage and survival mixed. -Remove Dodge Rating, replace with Dodge Chance
-Increase Dodge on both
Form of the Master:
Animation is fine. Effect is okay but lets face it, there needs to be a review on forms, aspects, and the other toggles. Advantage is great too. Ranking up the base power however could use some love, perhaps buffing the energy gain per stack or allowing more stack, or something.... as is its very rare to even want to rank this power up -Increase the appeal of ranking the base power
Masterful Dodge:
It's great. But the advantage doesn't seem to work right, you only gain one stack of the damage buff max which means that with it's low damage boost it.... just isn't worth taking at all. If it was one stack a second max, it might be worth it. -Allow the advantage to stack, perhaps limited to one stack a second.
Smoke Bomb:
Animation is fine. Effects are horrible. So much so I'd massively buff it namely I'd make it have a flat energy cost of 25 to not punish people who pick Rec as a stat focus or happened to be teammed with someone using AoPM. I'd also remove it's out of combat effect and replace it with a mass placate with time of 6 seconds, rank increasing by 2 seconds to 10 at r3 ontop of the threat wipe effect. And finally I'd VASTLY increase the strength of it's stealth. This would allow players to actually be able to use Smoke Bomb in an emergancy, would buy them potentially quite a bit of time to heal, enter Sneak for real, or simply get the hell out of dodge or just dumb threat. As for the advantage, I'd remove it as it just gets you threat and the whole point of this is to run away. I'd simply swap the advantage with Smoke Grenade's. -Remove equilibrum cost and replace with 25 energy cost
-Remove out of combat effect
-Add placate effect
-Switch Advantage with Smoke Grenade's
-Vastly increase stealth strength
Sneak
Graphics are great, though needs to be color tintable. Effect wise.... it's beyond terrible. To fix it needs a radical change. First Dexterity needs to boost Perception Stealth as well as Aggression Stealth. Second, the base amount of stealth needs to be increased a bit. Ideally it should be that at 300 dexterity with rank 3 you should be able to walk up into a pack of elite mobs and not be seen at all, but ANYTHING short of that would let you get spotted. Then Sneak needs to be useable in combat in all ways shapes and forms, it doesn't need to threat wipe as other powers can help with that, but it needs to not be canceled if a teammate enters combat, and if you are already fighting you need to be able to go back into it to possibly use it's damage boost several times in a fight not just once ESPECIALLY for boss fights. And to do that, I'd increase it's charge time to 2 seconds and make it interuptable but also lower the lock out on Sneak to 10 seconds from 15. Lastly, I'd give two different damage buffs, a 80% damage boost to melee attacks, and a 40% damage boost to single targets, stacking if melee single target for 120% damage boost. Lastly, change it so the base power works at full default run speed, but advantage allows use of travel power with Sneak. -Have Dexterity increase Perception Stealth as well
-Allow Sneak to be used in combat in all forms
-Increase base stealth effects so that 300 dexterity with rank 3 lets you walk safelt around in packs of mobs on elite
-Increase charge time to 2 seconds, make it interuptable
-Lower lockout timer to 10 seconds
-Split the damage buff, and increase it vastly. 80% for Melee, 40% for ST
-Remove movement penalty on Sneak, but prevent travel powers from being used unless taking advantage
Parry:
Looks fine. Effects could use some minor tweaks to really be great. The Parry effect itself I'd first explain the actual formula for reflecting damage, perhaps making it reworking it to an effect similar to mindlink with dexterity instead of ego, rank increasing the return rate. I'd also lower the Parry timer to 4 seconds, and each rank lowering the timer by 1 more second. As for the advantage, I'd increase it's duriation by one more second to give a tiny bit of grace to help cover lag and linking charge attacks. -Explain or rework the Parry effect itself to be simplier to understand
-Lower the Parry timer to 4 seconds, each rank lowering 1 second more
-Increase Elusive Monk's duriation by one second to help with lag and charge attacks
Thunderbolt Lunge:
Dynamic Entry! Without any of the fun. Its a lunge. Its like an end builder, useful, but not thrilling fun. It stuns, it roots, it snares. It does it's job, thats it. -Nothing, though here's hoping lunges get more interesting one day.
Overall
The set needs a few charge powers removed, this is martial arts, fast, agile, precise, not hulking brutish and slow bestial or might or heavy weapons. It's sad Claws are so charge heavy as is, we don't need unarmed becoming might lite.
I'd REALLY like to see an Active Offense added. With the Chi theme of the set maybe make a "Chi Surge" or something and give it the typical Asian 'flaming glowing body' thing. But a good Active Offense to boost melee damage would be so nice, having to use Lock and Load not only looks weird dropping guns then punching someone but it just doesn't synergize that great. One built for melee would be a dream.
Likewise I'd love to see a reverb for melee in general, Focus stacks and Rush help somewhat but not everyone builds around Focus either stat wise or effect wise, and Rush mostly just pays for itself, not other powers. Even if the reverb was just 'Increases energy generation by 100%' it'd be something.
And of course the Tatsu move I mentioned above, aka "Foot" Cyclone. That would really round out the set well, and well finish the Street Fighter theme.
If you look closely, the animation is actually a combination of fist and open-hand chops.
Unfortunately, this is an area where there is a very real engine tradeoff.
Basically, I can either make a static right and left fist-- and everybody gets the same fists (men, women, aliens, robots-- be they big or small); or else I do what I'm doing now and grab geometry off of the character. I like this option because it works for everybody; but the downside of this approach is that I have no access to the character's skeleton; I can only call geometry in its base pose. I can angle it or move it in the world, sure-- but I can't make it deform.
So, it's either one-kind-fits-all fists, or character-accurate palm-strikes.
Thanks for explaining that, Splosions. Heh...and for my part, I both prefer the current character-correct implementation, as well as really like the phantom-hand animation and will be sadfayse if it goes away.
So, it's either one-kind-fits-all fists, or character-accurate palm-strikes.
Then leave it as it is. Its a cool looking power either way.
*shrug*
Open Palm Strike
[i realize that i cant fairly critique this power until the advantage shows up]
Very cool looking but overshadowed by the other big chi attack (BCF).
I wish this power had some kind of utility other than knock (knock melee powers are a dime a dozen, especially in MA) The damage is Meh and the knock is not enough of a reason to use the power.
This is clearly a Chi attack (even more so than BCF) i would like to see it have some kind of interaction with BCF or give it the ability to set targets on fire like BCF
Over all:
Do something to give me an excuse to use this power often. I would go as far as to say that i would like to see it compete with BCF as a bread and butter attack. What ever you do Please realize that Open Palm Strike and One Hundred Hands are very cool looking powers and should be very functional as well because they are probably the main thing that will make the unarmed ATs attractive.
I was cracking a joke before I tested it, though I have a toon who is going to LOVE this whole pass... and possibly he may have some friends (I refer to the upcoming ATs since I actually play a few)
Comments
one hundred hands should be a single target attack there are already enough aoes in this set, makes much more sens being a single target flurry of blows than an aoe
Open Palm Strike knocks down on tap, but does not give a resist to knocks on tap.
Kind of lulsy ccoming from some one who does t4 PvP in defiant. Either way, the damage is a paltry DoT. Not like it dealing an extra 20-30 damage every few tics is going to make it suddenly frightening to Invuln or Defiant + IDF.
Wait, how can you have an EX fireball without a default fireball? Or do you mean it's like a 2 in 1 EX Combo? That would make more sense.
One is that they all seem entirely too slow. Especially the end builder. I get that maybe you guys were going for a realistic, precise martial artist, but that doesn't really work when almost every other power in the game is fast paced and frantic.
My second issue is that they don't seem to synergise well with each other. For example, I can pop thundering kicks, switch to Dragon Kick and finish with Inexorable Tides, and it's fluid and looks FANTASTIC. This? Aside from Open Palm Strike being a nice looking finisher, none of the powers really mesh that well together.
Just my 2 cents.
This is a problem with many charged powers (such as Dragon's Kick), but occasionally the animation will play when you press the button to begin charging (for no damage) and again when it is finished charging.
I'm not sure how to replicate this. Maybe I am quickly pressing the button twice.
Uh, Unarmed has 1 other AoE.
Happened here too. I am not sure how to replicate that either.
Burning Chi Fist is about the same, but a bit better on Tap now. DoT still stinks though. Could use more work, considering it's the set's single target heavy hitter.
Leaping uppercut needs to jump higher. It also seems to suffer badly from that bug where it doesn't knock your target, but gives them stacks of knock resistance anyway. Also, can we get a cooler name for it? Really don't have much more feedback than this, it's a pretty solid power.
100 fists is extremely amusing. The animation is awesome and the damage on it is really nice. This will probably end up replacing something in my current Unarmed character's build, probably Thundering Kicks. The ghost hand effects don't seem to always happen when ranking up, why or what triggers it I do not know.
Thundering Kicks is still meh. But if I remember correctly they said they're working on a long term solution for all the T0s, so whatever.
Vicious Strikes looks pretty good, but the animation... ...I dunno, something is off about it. The attacks look kinda slow and mechanical. I do like how it's a more serious martial artist looking power, I think I'm going to make another unarmed character when this goes live, and he'll use this.
I'm a little disappointed in Rising Knee. It's just the knee-to-crotch attack the Resistance guards use. I was honestly thinking of something more along the lines of Sagat's Tiger Knee when I heard the name. Basically a defensive looking knee attack with a little hop attached. Damage and effect is nice though, it's not bad for a click power on a short recharge.
Elbow Slam is alot better, it's something I think I could see Adon using, but it's still not very martial artsy looking. Both of them could use to look a little more martial artsy, or at least more defensive. I dunno, they just seem like like they'd be better suited for a "Brawler" set. Aside from that, this power is pretty good.
Backhand Strike is... ...I dunno, something is seriously off about this power. It's an interrupt, the cooldown is longer than Rising Knee and it costs more energy. This doesn't seem right considering knock ups basically do the same thing as interrupts, and they disable the target briefly. The Animation for it is excellent though, and like Rising Knee the damage is good for a click power.
Open Palm Strike is awesome and without the fireball advantage we don't have in game yet it reminds me of Shiva's special attack. You can do an Uppercut -> Haymaker type combo with it and Leaping Uppercut as well.
That's all for now. I will definitely have more feedback later, especially when the advantages make it in, and/or existing ones get some work. Given how nice some of these powers seem, I can't wait to see what advantages you come up with for them.
It does, however, have the badass thousand-strikes animation I was praying for, 'least at ranks 2 and 3. Thank you, Cryptic. Your brownies will be in the mail tomorrow.
That said...let's talk about Shuriken Storm, Cryptic.
We have another of the hax Ranged Brawler attacks that irritate the PvP folks to no end. That doesn't bother me, since I'm not a PvP folks, but you'd best be ready to get some complaints about dat one. The thing that bothers me is that, once AGAIN, the attacks damage isn't readily boosted by any means save lucky-ducky Quarry. Or Aura of Ebon Destruction.
It'd be pretty boss if you could, like...stop doing that, actually, guys. That works for Hurl and Shuriken because those attacks are more for their secondary effects than for damage, but Shuriken Storm is clearly trying to be Lead Tempest in a ninja suit and failing pretty damn hard. It's a cool concept, and the animation isn't even that terrible, but the attack's only reason for existence is wide-area AoE damage. A job which it's actually pretty lousy at currently, outside of Quarry builds built pretty much specifically to support it. Admittedly, those could be pretty fierce, but that's an awfully limited application pool for the thing.
Unless Storm gets some manner of really helpful advantage to tempt people into carting it around, which os more or less cheating, it's already destined to sit in the rubbish bin most of the time. Which is really sad; I like the Shuriken moves, they're great for a very popular set of concepts, but it'd be awesome if you could make up your minds where the damage on the things is concerned.
Quoting for emphasis.
Ffs... buff that useless attack already, it's advantage needs major buff too.
As for new attacks... why damage on all of them is SO LOW when compared to similar powers? Same with old kick attacks (thundering kicks<<<<<<ego weaponry for example)
Also that interrupt attack... it takes too long to cast it, needs to be a quick 0.5 activation to be worth taking.
The animation for Shuriken Storm is a bit goofy, with the twirling and flinging. I'm guessing it isn't final.
One Hundred Fists is pretty good too. I compared it to Sword Cyclone and it has a bit higher average DPS, far better DPE, but obviously limited to an arc.
Vicious Strikes could do with a slightly faster animation. Righteous Fists was a bit too hyper, and this is a bit too slow. Can we have something in-between? Thanks. :P
Then we have the Ryu and Ken abilities. Ater all the Marvel clones, get ready for... MARVEL VS CAPCOM!
One Hundred Hands: Probably the best new addition. Great DPS to targets without flat damage absorb. I prefer the rank 1 look without all the ghostly hands.
Backhand Chop: Glad to see it has a cooldown to avoid the spamming of interrupts. Unfortunately the damage seems low and the animation cheesy. The quick spin backhand chop should be replaced with just a quick backhand chop... no spinning required. Lower the activation time to 0.5 seconds so other powers can actually be more easily interrupted.
Elbow Slam: Nice simple animation, but the power itself doesn't seem to have a purpose. There are other, better single target attacks that may cost more... but that's the name of the game here in CO. Disorient makes sense (sorta) for flavor but doesn't make sense for set synergy.
Leaping Uppercut: Rename to "Bunny-hop-cut". The damage isn't bad and the knock on tap is very useful.
Rising Knee: Single target attack that deals ok damage and knocks the target down on a short cooldown. Animation is decent but much like Elbow Slam there's not much point to the power in the set. Doesn't always seem to knock the target down.
Shuriken Storm: Now Brawler role toons can spam huge AoE just like an Avenger w/ Lead Tempest! I'll never understand why ranged powers are tagged as melee. I don't know what I'd do to fix it, but the animation looks very silly to me. *SPIN!*
Open Palm Strike: Aside from the fact it's an obvious clone of Haymaker (tooltip states you will gain two stacks of Enrage after a fully charged Uppercut) I like this power. Damage seems low for a tier 3 power. I like the animation a lot and I look forward to seeing what the adv does. Currently does not respect or add knock resist.
Burning Chi Fist: Costs more and deals a tiny bit more damage than Dragon's Claws and Dragon's Wrath. Is the DoT on Burning Chi Fist really valued as much as the ability to proc the Rush buff with Focus?
Overall the new power animations feel slow and don't seem to flow together well. With the exception of One Hundred Hands and possibly Backhand Chop there isn't anything new mechanics-wise that's useful either. Even Open Palm Strike is overshadowed by Burning Chi Fist... which in turn falls behind Dragon's Claws and Dragon's Wrath since it doesn't proc the Rush buff.
Also, would it be possible for Subtlety of the Tides and the Fists of Righteous Flames buffs to proc on damage instead of per period? It would at least give One Hundred Hands a reason to have its damage split into two ticks of damage per 0.5 seconds.
Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Ultimate Arcade Edition EX
Vicious Strikes: Energy builder! looks nice, but a tad slow for my taste. Definitely much better appearance-wise than Righteous Fists (and feet), though.
One Hundred Hands: Love it. I am somewhat curious as to why it does two ticks every 0.5 seconds instead of one tick every 0.25 like Minigun or something, though.
Backhand Chop: Looks like it could be useful for PVP or somtehing, but not something I'd really bother with. Animation feels a tad stiff and high, oddly enough. I was hoping this would be a little more.. Diagonal. Like a NECK CHOP.
Elbow Slam: Love the animation, but not really sure what to use it for mechanically outside of a Heavy Weapons Unarmed build or something.
Leaping Uppercut: Feels a bit too "light" in the jumping animation, but it does its job mechanically.
Open Palm Strike: The animation makes me think it should be a ranged attack of some sort, but mechanically I have no idea what to do with it.
Shuriken Storm: Feels like an inferior Lead Tempest damage-wise. No missing within 15 feet is nice, though. Although spinning usually makes EVERYTHING BETTER, it actually looks rather silly here.
Rising Knee: WAT DO I really have no idea what this could do better than something like Inexorable Tides.
With Jet Boots activated, Rising Knee has no animation.
Vicious Strikes: Thrilled to finally have a third choice of non-epileptic energy builder (sonic blaster and Ego Lash being the other abilities that don't whip your character into a complete frothing frenzy animation-wise).
One Hundred Hands: Good stuff. Super-speedsters everywhere rejoice.
Backhand Chop: Interupt probably needs to take place at the moment the power is registered by the server - interupts are just too sensitive to latency, especially in a game as fast as CO. Ok, sorry, back to the animation comments.
Elbow Slam: Doesn't seem meaty enough.Like to see a much deeper stance on landing. More sense of follow-through.
Leaping Uppercut: Fully charged, this desperately needs a finishing spin as you are comming back to the ground. Again needs that extra sense of follow-through, because the simple drop to the ground looks like you were jumping up to try and brush the ceiling with 2 fingers, not putting a villian into low orbit.
Rising Knee: More savagry please. And this animation looks really, really flat if delivered while flying.
Shuriken Storm: I like this better than I expected. While flying there is a distinct hitch int he animation as the character is facing backwards, but the finish animation while flying is just about perfect.
Open Palm Strike: CAPCOM called... they say they are flattered by your sincerity. Love it.
Now make any of these relevant in PvP and we're well on our way
Yeah, remove the "this is ranged but gets melee damage boost" bit from both this and Shuriken. I think Hurl has it too, but Hurl sucks for damage.
Ranged knockdown on its own is strong enough as-is, even if shuriken had the brawler damage penalty for ranged attacks.
Also, can we have it so that if Hundred Hands does enough damage to kill the target, their head explodes at the end of a full maintain?
Yes, I mostly agree with what's been said here.
Vicious Strikes - It needs to be as swift as a coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon. It needs to look like you have the strength of a raging fire, but what you did here is mysterious as the dark side of the moon.
To be less cryptic, it just needs to hit faster. You wonder why people to this day still don't use steady shot? Well this is why. Also, trash the 4th elbow hit. It looks ridiculous and more like you're posing for a magazine photo shoot.
Backhand Chop - "Might not work on powerful targets"? Then what's the point of it? Inexorable Tides can interrupt a cone of enemies with a knockup up to Master Villain rank. In the case of PvP, where knockups sometimes don't work, this has some value (if the interrupt always procs), but really, the chop needs some sort of PvE value.
And unless the opponent is charging a Haymaker, it's really hard to get this off correctly.
Rising Knee - Has the exact same issue as Backhand Chop does. What would you take: A power that sometimes knocks a single target down and has a cooldown, or a cone attack that does half damage, but serves the same purpose while almost always knocking targets up (sometimes even scoring fall damage)? Granted, Rising Knee has the (honestly slightly obtuse) advantage of proccing MSA, but really, a MA build can do that enough just by using moves like Bountiful Chi Resurgence and Evasive Maneuvers.
One-Hundred Hands - For the ghost hands, the graphic really should be in a fist instead of open-palmed. It would make the move just look better for super-speedsters who aren't necessarily Martial Arts-Based, and also is more congruent with the actual character animation.
Elbow Slam - It needs to drop faster, I think. That's about it for the animation. On the flipside, it also needs more in-set definition. Something interesting: Increased critical chance? A critical severity bonus? Activates half-length rush? Anything, really. Disorient doesn't play off anything MA has to offer at all.
Leaping Uppercut - The synergies that this move promises with Might are honestly kind of scary: It hits quite a bit harder than might's Uppercut does. Though, the knock not always applying and what seems like a slightly slower animation might easily offset that.
Open Palm Strike - Like Falchoin said, it can stunlock if you tap it, even after targets reach full knock resistance. Can't wait to see what the ranged advantage looks like on this. I can wait to see the 8302 Ryus and Kens, though.
Shuriken Storm - Rename to Super Shuriken Shinobi Ballet. I would've hoped for a backflip-cone attack akin to Breakaway Shot, but in lieu of that, I'd recommend adding a cooldown on this or something.
Vicious Strikes: Speed it up. Just a little bit. I personally don't like the Elbow at the end, but, hey, it's better then Bugs Bunny Kung Fu.
One Hundred Hands: There is nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. Easily my favorite power in the new pass.
Elbow Drop: Drop the Disorient, Make it a KD. Nice animation though.
Rising Knee: How...disappointing. At least add a tiny bit of hop to this. It's, like was mentioned before, The Resistance Guard knee to the groin. Not terribly martial arts-ie
Open Palm: Oh yes. Now that's some fancy Chi use there. I question why MA powers grant stacks of Enrage, but that's just me.
Leaping Uppercut: I don't mind this power, but the animation seems lustlacker to me. Maybe a twirl or something at the end?
Shuriken Storm: Really? I won't go into this. But I am disappoint, Cryptic. Very, Very Disappoint.
IMO, make Elbow Drop a stun instead. That way Unarmed has both single target and AoE powers of the knock and stun varieties.
Oh, and the Open Palm Strike doesn't actually grant enrage, at least I don't think. From what I can tell, Open Palm Strike is basically a heavily modified version of Haymaker and they accidentally left in some of the tooltip text.
My idea. Make it a toggle similar in mechanics to Electric Personality. The toggle would last for like 10 seconds (maybe with a cooldown). What the power would now do, though, is anytime you are hit with a ranged power during the duration of the toggle, it would retaliate with a shuriken. Activating the power would have a minor cost, but each shuriken thrown would cost energy.
This would be a great power for when you get a bunch of henchmen that insist on spreading out.
I object to there not being a proper hybrid offensive stance that would properly support mixed aspect attackers.
And yes, I also object to there being ranged powers being built cockamamie to try and get around this oversight. Fix the problem, rather than break the rules.
I was thinking the same thing. The animation is with fist so the ghost hands should be fist as well.
Make it so.
The rules you made up, not them.
Let's make that part clear.
There's this thing called common sense. Nike happens to be using it in this case.
The power of a shuriken would be determined by the throwing strength of the user, therefore powers that boost melee damage (aka your character's physical strength) should boost the power of a shuriken throw. Much like they should (And do) boost the power of a thrown chunk of rock, or a thrown car, or any number of thrown things.
Common sense.
What part of "I throw something" meets the definition of melee in your universe?
Words: they have meanings.
If you look closely, the animation is actually a combination of fist and open-hand chops.
Unfortunately, this is an area where there is a very real engine tradeoff.
Basically, I can either make a static right and left fist-- and everybody gets the same fists (men, women, aliens, robots-- be they big or small); or else I do what I'm doing now and grab geometry off of the character. I like this option because it works for everybody; but the downside of this approach is that I have no access to the character's skeleton; I can only call geometry in its base pose. I can angle it or move it in the world, sure-- but I can't make it deform.
So, it's either one-kind-fits-all fists, or character-accurate palm-strikes.
Can we just get rid of the ghostly hands completely?
Then what you do is adjust the damage of the special Meleerange powers so that it is balanced with the appropriate boosts to Melee damage in mind. Not just tag them as Ranged because someone is a stickler for semantics.
You tag them ranged, they stay weaker forever. Keep them melee (with appropriately set damage ranges) and they power up as your character does, like powers should.
...You be quiet.
No.
That's actually pretty elegant. The solution within the constraints then is to adjust the animation of the character so they are also delivering "un-deformed" strikes and the whole thing lines up.
Righteous Fists:
Unlike most people I think the animation fits more agile fighters, and effect wise it's fine.
-No change[i/]
Vicious Strikes:
Works for the more 'natural' martial artists though like others I wouldn't mind seeing a slight increase in swing speed. Game play wise it's fine.
-Speed up animation slightly
Crashing Wave Kick:
No complaints on animation. No complaints on base power, its a stun, it does it's job well. The advantage I do have a complaint about. Namely it's well useless. If it's buff was cut in half to 2.5% dodge, 5% avoid and allowed to stack and NOT be consumed on dodge but also that each new stack of the buff DOESN'T refresh the stack I think it'd be worth it. That way you'd be able to get a few small stacks of dodge boost up all the time so long as you cycle the power into rotation.
-Allow the advantage to NOT be consumed on dodge, perhaps lowering dodge chance to compensate
Backhand Chop:
Animation wise it looks okay, I'd almost prefer for it to be a flat out 'judo chop' but a spinning judo chop works fine too and it will probably grow on me with time. Effect wise it works well except for one minor thing, the activation is too long and thus the 'interrupt' portion of the effect will more often then not just be dumb luck and will rarely interrupt most charges once lag and human reaction and charge times are factored in. I think simply halving the activation time perhaps at the cost of a minor damage nerf would make this power perfect.
-Halve the activation time, perhaps lowering damage a bit to compensate.
Elbow Slam:
Animation wise it looks sorta disappointing, I was hoping more for a heavier elbow slam or at least an acrobatic flip into an elbow slam, this looks more like a light bonk on the shoulder with the elbow and just looks weak. Effect wise I really don't like that it is a charge attack, which only makes the animation problem look worse. Not to mention there are enough charge heavy sets and unarmed MA was nice in that it only had ONE charge and this power especially just doesn't fit with the whole charge idea. I'd much rather see this be a simple click at 75% max charge damage, always disorient, and a short timer tacked on.
-Rework animation
-Remove charge
Shoryuken, I mean Leaping Uppercut:
Animation wise it looks perfect although the knock seems mistimed with the punch up (as in I'm on the ground by the time the guy gets knocked). Effect wise once again I really don't like it being a charge effect although this power can barely be reasoned to be a charge unlike Elbow Slam as the animation lends itself to powerful. But I'd rather it not be a charge as we have enough charge heavy sets.
-Remove charge
Hadoken, I mean Open Palm Strike:
Animation looks perfect and does match knock to animation. Effect wise I think it's perfect and I do think this lends itself well to being a charge power as it looks like you are focusing your chi into a massive blast and it does fill the role of spike ST damage in the set.
-No change so far
Tatsu, I mean... wait there is no Tatsu clone?
Really you have 2 of the 3 Shoto powers but not this? Come on, it can't be that hard to clone sword cyclone and replace the spinning with arms out with spinning with leg out. Not to mention a heavy hitting pbaoe would complete the set without having to resort to shuriken which some people would rather avoid.
-Add this power
Burning Chi Fist:
Always loved the animation though wouldn't mind if the 'explosion' fx was made more impressive. Effect wise it's always been meh. And it still is. The change to the dot is nice but it really needs it's dot damage doubled to see it being useful, even if it ignored ALL resistance at it's current amount it just won't do much of anything in PvP or PvE but double damage with 50% ignoring resist would make it a painful dot to keep maintained but not be overpowering. As for the advantage, I'd like to see it be a 100% chance instead of 50, leaving the damage the same, and allow taps of BCF to refresh the buff on you by 6 seconds or allow the buff to be 20 seconds by default, 12 seconds is too short with how many similar 'use every x seconds' type of power rotations are in the set.
-Increase Advantage's effect chance to 100%, increase duration of advantage to 20 seconds or allow taps to restore 6 seconds.
Rising Knee:
Looks fairly unimpressive, if perhaps a minor 'smash' burst was added I think it'd be fine. Effect wise, it'd probably be good, if knock downs weren't vastly useless due to their total lack of damage compared to knock backs/ups. Using this before say Open Palm Strike or Lunging Uppercut is a quick way to vastly reduce the damage of those powers that this power in no way shape or form makes up for. Thus leaving this power well, totally useless like all knock downs. I do think the power itself is fine but so long as knock downs and tos share immunity stacks with knock ups/backs, knock downs and tos will always be useless.
-Let knock downs/tos have different immunity stacks then knock backs/ups.
One Hundred Hands:
Animation is perfect. Effect is almost perfect, I personally want to see it have a 0.25 second tick rate to more accurately reflect the number of fist hits, that or see it getting the gatling gun treatment where you have 3 'ticks' per tick, or both! I want to see a sea of numbers! ... okay thats just a pipe dream, the power is fine as is but hey if you are looking for advantage ideas, maybe make it thousand strikes and do the above suggestion thus trading some damage resist beating for dodge beating, and style. Aside from that, challenging strikes would be great.
-MORE DOTS!*
-Challenging Strikes added
Dragon Kick:
Animation is great. Effect is great. Advantage would be great if the effect's duriation was longer, as mentioned earlier, there is too many powers with 'use every x seconds' which is fine IF the duriation of said powers is long enough on the buffs. If this was 4 seconds longer the advantage would be great.
-Increase advantage duriation by 4 seconds.
Shuriken Throw:
Animation is fine, great at rank 3. Effect is great. Advantage is not. As with Rising Knee, knock to's suffer the same problem as knock downs do, they vastly cripple the real damage effects of knock back/up to provide a minor control effect and its far better to kill then to control for a second.
-Let knock downs/tos have different immunity stacks then knock backs/ups.
Shuriken Storm:
Animation is okay, I'd like it if it was a bit more 'random' like lead tempest then a slow circle spin, as is it just seems kinda.... lazy and not pinpoint crazy martial arts accuracy. Effect wise it's fairly disappointing. It's high energy cost for it's effect especially considering how high it's miss chance is. I normally don't like comparing powers but lets look at lead tempest, its twice as accurate at 15-30 foot range but same accuracy otherwise. It is only 20 less damage a tick but 2 energy cheaper which doesn't sound like much but is a huuuuge difference, especially when you factor in other things like Killer Instinct which I would compair against form of the tempest.... except you can have KI AND Form of the tempest for Lead Tempest but not for Shuriken Storm. I hate to say it but Lead Tempest is just far superior as is. Shuriken Storm would be better if it was either less energy, and say more accurate within 25 feet but less beyond that. And Minor nitpick but this should be Ranged Area Attack catagory.
-Lower energy cost per second
-Increase accuracy within 25 feet, lower it beyond that
-Move to Ranged Area Attack Category
Inexorable Tides:
Animation is fine. Effect is okay but suffers GREATLY being a very low knock up amount. With increeeedibly high strength this power works great but at even 200 str it doesn't do that much, as such it pretty much is a slightly longer knock down which means well the same thing I've said 2 times already. I'd either increase the base knock up, or just change this to knock down and rework the immunity stacks.
-Increase base knock up
OR
-Change to knock down
-Let knock downs/tos have different immunity stacks then knock backs/ups.
Fury of the Dragon:
Animation and effects are the best in game. Effect is crazy good. Advantage is very lack luster. I'd rather see the advantage be reworked slightly to increase the main 'gimmick' of the 4 ma sets, aka leave the bleed effect, increase dodge chance for a time, increase crit chance for a time, and maybe lower charge times by 0.5 seconds for a time?
-Rework the advantage to be more appealing
Bountiful Chi Resurgance:
Effects don't bug me unlike others. Effect is fine. Advantage is great but maybe a tad too valueable, never even heard of someone ranking to 3, perhaps increase the base power and lower the adv slightly?
-Increase base healing, lower adv healing slightly.
Lightning Reflexes & Way of the Warrior:
Please please please stop using Dodge Rating, just make it a flat, simple to understand Dodge Chance. The less complicated things in game the better. Further for both of these powers I'd like to see their Dodge amount increased. Lightning Reflexes values are easily achieved as is and thus rarely taken but a boost of perhaps 25% dodge chance at rank 3 would make it alot more viable. As for Way of the Warrior if it had much higher dodge chance compaired to Quarry it would actually be competitive with it instead of just being a weaker lower brother. Quarry would be more glass cannon while WotW would be more damage and survival mixed.
-Remove Dodge Rating, replace with Dodge Chance
-Increase Dodge on both
Form of the Master:
Animation is fine. Effect is okay but lets face it, there needs to be a review on forms, aspects, and the other toggles. Advantage is great too. Ranking up the base power however could use some love, perhaps buffing the energy gain per stack or allowing more stack, or something.... as is its very rare to even want to rank this power up
-Increase the appeal of ranking the base power
Masterful Dodge:
It's great. But the advantage doesn't seem to work right, you only gain one stack of the damage buff max which means that with it's low damage boost it.... just isn't worth taking at all. If it was one stack a second max, it might be worth it.
-Allow the advantage to stack, perhaps limited to one stack a second.
Preferable to a Martial Arts power sucking in Brawler.
Works for me. Avenger blows goats, so improvingi it is not exactly a big risk to take.
Animation is fine. Effects are horrible. So much so I'd massively buff it namely I'd make it have a flat energy cost of 25 to not punish people who pick Rec as a stat focus or happened to be teammed with someone using AoPM. I'd also remove it's out of combat effect and replace it with a mass placate with time of 6 seconds, rank increasing by 2 seconds to 10 at r3 ontop of the threat wipe effect. And finally I'd VASTLY increase the strength of it's stealth. This would allow players to actually be able to use Smoke Bomb in an emergancy, would buy them potentially quite a bit of time to heal, enter Sneak for real, or simply get the hell out of dodge or just dumb threat. As for the advantage, I'd remove it as it just gets you threat and the whole point of this is to run away. I'd simply swap the advantage with Smoke Grenade's.
-Remove equilibrum cost and replace with 25 energy cost
-Remove out of combat effect
-Add placate effect
-Switch Advantage with Smoke Grenade's
-Vastly increase stealth strength
Sneak
Graphics are great, though needs to be color tintable. Effect wise.... it's beyond terrible. To fix it needs a radical change. First Dexterity needs to boost Perception Stealth as well as Aggression Stealth. Second, the base amount of stealth needs to be increased a bit. Ideally it should be that at 300 dexterity with rank 3 you should be able to walk up into a pack of elite mobs and not be seen at all, but ANYTHING short of that would let you get spotted. Then Sneak needs to be useable in combat in all ways shapes and forms, it doesn't need to threat wipe as other powers can help with that, but it needs to not be canceled if a teammate enters combat, and if you are already fighting you need to be able to go back into it to possibly use it's damage boost several times in a fight not just once ESPECIALLY for boss fights. And to do that, I'd increase it's charge time to 2 seconds and make it interuptable but also lower the lock out on Sneak to 10 seconds from 15. Lastly, I'd give two different damage buffs, a 80% damage boost to melee attacks, and a 40% damage boost to single targets, stacking if melee single target for 120% damage boost. Lastly, change it so the base power works at full default run speed, but advantage allows use of travel power with Sneak.
-Have Dexterity increase Perception Stealth as well
-Allow Sneak to be used in combat in all forms
-Increase base stealth effects so that 300 dexterity with rank 3 lets you walk safelt around in packs of mobs on elite
-Increase charge time to 2 seconds, make it interuptable
-Lower lockout timer to 10 seconds
-Split the damage buff, and increase it vastly. 80% for Melee, 40% for ST
-Remove movement penalty on Sneak, but prevent travel powers from being used unless taking advantage
Parry:
Looks fine. Effects could use some minor tweaks to really be great. The Parry effect itself I'd first explain the actual formula for reflecting damage, perhaps making it reworking it to an effect similar to mindlink with dexterity instead of ego, rank increasing the return rate. I'd also lower the Parry timer to 4 seconds, and each rank lowering the timer by 1 more second. As for the advantage, I'd increase it's duriation by one more second to give a tiny bit of grace to help cover lag and linking charge attacks.
-Explain or rework the Parry effect itself to be simplier to understand
-Lower the Parry timer to 4 seconds, each rank lowering 1 second more
-Increase Elusive Monk's duriation by one second to help with lag and charge attacks
Thunderbolt Lunge:
Dynamic Entry! Without any of the fun. Its a lunge. Its like an end builder, useful, but not thrilling fun. It stuns, it roots, it snares. It does it's job, thats it.
-Nothing, though here's hoping lunges get more interesting one day.
Overall
The set needs a few charge powers removed, this is martial arts, fast, agile, precise, not hulking brutish and slow bestial or might or heavy weapons. It's sad Claws are so charge heavy as is, we don't need unarmed becoming might lite.
I'd REALLY like to see an Active Offense added. With the Chi theme of the set maybe make a "Chi Surge" or something and give it the typical Asian 'flaming glowing body' thing. But a good Active Offense to boost melee damage would be so nice, having to use Lock and Load not only looks weird dropping guns then punching someone but it just doesn't synergize that great. One built for melee would be a dream.
Likewise I'd love to see a reverb for melee in general, Focus stacks and Rush help somewhat but not everyone builds around Focus either stat wise or effect wise, and Rush mostly just pays for itself, not other powers. Even if the reverb was just 'Increases energy generation by 100%' it'd be something.
And of course the Tatsu move I mentioned above, aka "Foot" Cyclone. That would really round out the set well, and well finish the Street Fighter theme.
Thanks for explaining that, Splosions. Heh...and for my part, I both prefer the current character-correct implementation, as well as really like the phantom-hand animation and will be sadfayse if it goes away.
Don't know if you've spotted the pattern in recent reviews, but what set a power is in matters significantly more than what type of attack it is.
Can you now preform a super special attack?
Shoryuken!
... get it, sure you can? get it? I slay me.
Then leave it as it is. Its a cool looking power either way.
*shrug*
Open Palm Strike
[i realize that i cant fairly critique this power until the advantage shows up]
Very cool looking but overshadowed by the other big chi attack (BCF).
I wish this power had some kind of utility other than knock (knock melee powers are a dime a dozen, especially in MA) The damage is Meh and the knock is not enough of a reason to use the power.
This is clearly a Chi attack (even more so than BCF) i would like to see it have some kind of interaction with BCF or give it the ability to set targets on fire like BCF
Over all:
Do something to give me an excuse to use this power often. I would go as far as to say that i would like to see it compete with BCF as a bread and butter attack. What ever you do Please realize that Open Palm Strike and One Hundred Hands are very cool looking powers and should be very functional as well because they are probably the main thing that will make the unarmed ATs attractive.
Yeah, you might want to sign on the PTS.
It's... not. I wish it was, but it is not.
I was cracking a joke before I tested it, though I have a toon who is going to LOVE this whole pass... and possibly he may have some friends