Pikeman Archive
Thread: Pikeman Concerns
I'm sorry if this isn't the kind of post you're looking for (not sure if you're here to bring up concerns and ideas, or just concerns), but I think the toughness is a problem as well. My idea to make Polearms interesting and give them their true defense ability is to have a skill to protect against all three of the HAM hits. What would happen is you queue up this skill (let's say Head Block). The next meleehit you takewillhave all its mind damageparried (maybe a 5-10% chance of failure or something). There would also be Leg Block and Body Block.
The way this would work is that if you notice your Mind damage getting low and you need to escape, you can spam Mind Block and have a better chance of escaping, or otherwise. This would also let Pikemen serve as the tanks in big game hunting groups, or at least more effectively, and solve the end-game problem of creatures doing ridiculous amounts of damage. This feature could also be extended to other melee classes if that's the developer's vision, and would make a much more exciting melee combat system (Pikemen would be best at it, though).
Italso wouldn't be incredibly imbalanced in PvP because, for one thing, Ranged damage wouldn't be affected (or only partially) and most melee attacks end up hitting more than one stat.
X-Silver, i got a question, lets hear your Opion on Pikemen / Pikewomen. What are you major concerns
Order of my concerns:
1) HAM Costs
2) Blocking
3) Toughness
That the top 3.
The concern i have also is that our knockdown we must wait for the opponent to get up before we can swing again at the person? I see why this is in the defensive ability tree but don't you think we should be able to at least get one good whack in? Also the ham costs for alot of the weapons we have are HUGE. Shouldn't the ham costs be directly proportional to the degree of effect that the style or special move has?
My major concern has already been addressed above. That would be about the certs being out of order (vibro lance and Vibro Long Axe appear to need to be swapped in our tree).
I do not know ANY master Pikemen to ask if the toughness really is an issue yet,so until I get there myself, I will blindly trust SoE's discretion on this statistical balancing. The way I look at it is that we must do some insane damage when we hit Master Pikeman to warrant a play balance of a negative on our toughness.
My annoyance (Not concern mind you, just an annoyance)about this class is the title itself. My little Pikeperson is female, yet the game refuses to give me a "Novice Pikewoman" Title. The way I see it is that the gameis Politically Correct enoughto allow same sex marriages, the least they can do is change my title to reflect my gender. : )
Zheee
Ahazi
As a pikeman I believe that a lot of the modifiers we get are unfair. The orders of the weapon certs are beyond my comprehension, and some stuff about the class doesn't make a lot of sense.Though I trust the Devs, and that they had made those decicions wisely.
As a correspondant, I will inform SOE of all thoughts, concerns, etc. withno bias. I am here to report to SOE your guys' posts so, it does not matter what I believe on the subject, I am impartial to my own whims and personal issues as I will not report my specific needs.
The Way to get my attention, and that of SOE,is to create a dialog with your fellow pikeman, debate it out, and give your opinions on what should be done (and why). The replys so far have been great guys, keep up the good work. 
Soon, I will createa thread with statements from SOE, on what changes will or won't be made. Please guys, before posting in this thread, please read that thread to see if your concerns have been met or at least explained.
Thank you for your time,
Khrim...
Im surprised more of you havent brought up the PvP issues with this game.
SilverSurfer: What modifyers do we get that you think are unfair? You really think toughness is worth modifying?
Personally id much rather be an offensive class than a defensive one, which is what we are now. If a mob dies faster it deals less damage so think of our damage capabilities as defense for the whole group. And lets not get carried away, our defense is pretty darn good, if you soloing pikemen(and women 
) are having problems with downtime, you need to pick up medic skills.
HAM costs are a bit steep but I think that overall they are balanced, considering normal hits from our high end weapons do as much or more damage than other classes special moves. I certainly wouldnt complain if they lowered them a bit but I can live with them as they are now.
Im guessing that the ppl complaining about certification orders and weapons availability are on the lower end of the pikeman tree. I have a regular lance that wasnt even made by a master weaponsmith that had base stats 26-229 4.6speeed or so. I had it sliced down to 3.1 speed and let me tell you, with a few strategically placed special movesI can deal out some serious damage. I have no problems fighting enemies whatsoever.
But the PvP problem is real. I cant see why anyone would prefer to have some hidden stat increased over having the ability to kick some ass in pvp. Toughness schmoughness, HAM bar wham bar, give us the power to put some of those cocky pistoleers in their place.
Ruci wrote:The concern i have also is that our knockdown we must wait for the opponent to get up before we can swing again at the person? I see why this is in the defensive ability tree but don't you think we should be able to at least get one good whack in? Also the ham costs for alot of the weapons we have are HUGE. Shouldn't the ham costs be directly proportional to the degree of effect that the style or special move has?
Ruci, I think your attack speed must be super slow because I have numerous times hit my opponent while he was on the ground after I have sweeped him. Just need to get more Polearm speed and a faster weapon.
Here are my concerns.....
I take a heck of a lot of damage when fighting.... I think a blocking mechanism would be wonderful... there are times when I miss 4 times in a row, and a monster hits about 8 times inbetween that.... so a weak monster still can do some decent damage to me...
Our specials are kind of wack... I enjoy the higher level ones, but when it comes to lower level... they just don't do much... I've relied on polearmhit1 and stunhit1 almost exclusively... up until I hit pikeman officially.... leghit and lunge have been worthless to me...
our weapons... WHERE ARE THEY?!?!? I've been using a metal staff up until recently when someone made me a lance... a lance for a midlevel Pikeman?! That's wrong on so many levels... I should have vibro something by now, but they are nowhere to be found....
Toughness is such a bitch....
Our speed, albiet we are fighting with a big piece of metal, is still kind of slow. I hate hitting once (with a chance at missing) and waiting while the enemy smacks me 4 times... that's annoying...
and as mentioned, we need more help with PvP... a guy on the run with a pistol can easily take me out, even when I'm wearing full bone armour....
"I take a heck of a lot of damage when fighting.... I think a blocking mechanism would be wonderful... "
We have a blocking mechanism, it's called( surprise! ) block. Unfortunately since I've become a novice pikeman I've never seen my char block a hit. I thought that maybe the +5 to block meant i would block 5% of the time, but thats either false or blocking is broken.