Pikeman Archive

More weapons at or past Novice Pikeman. A truely fine polearm at Master Pikeman would give a good brass ring to go for, but make it worth the journey to get there.

Accuracy issues with our advanced weapons make the basic lance the best weapon we currently have. On my server the only weapon due to resources heh.

Block no worky, and only +'s in it at novice and master. Seems to be a long time going without an addition to that skill.

Creatures and non-creatures pop up from our knockdowns before we have a chance to swing again. Either make the knockdown more effective ( it is a leg sweep after all) or speed us up so we can actually gain a benefit from the knockdown.

We have area attacks in 2 skill trees that seem redundant. How bout one area attack to improve upon as we move up, and replace the other area attack with a different skill, unless this area attack offers an advantage I'm unaware of, perhaps a parry defensive stance that avoids incoming attacks but doesn't allow us to do damage. Would give us the ability to be a defensive specialist which a Pike should allow us to do.

--Jewel

All my issues are PvE cause i dont PvP.

1. Give us some ability to tank mobs, MAKE MIND DAMAGE HEALABLE. I'm super tired of having to hide behind some CH's pet because mind damage can't be healed. Being mind incap with full health and action tanking durnis is just LAME, rabbits aren't headshotting riflemen.

2. Accurancy - missing like mad.

3. HAM costs - it's not worth doing any specials while exping. Berserk used to be worth it, but i's not after this patch.

(Condensed version at bottom for those short of attention span)

I am thinking that from my play experience that accuracy will not be an issue when I hit master pike(wo)man. (hehe) What is my justification for this? Ok. Here is my skill tree so far. 4 boxes in speed, 2 boxes in defense, and 2 boxes in the accuracy line. I have the +20 accuracy at the moment. If the progression for the 2nd +20 that I get and the +10 at master goes like the 1st +20 did, then nothing needs to be fixed about our accuracy. I hit. And maybe 1 in 10 mobs do I go on a missing streak. I will keep track tonight and try to get a percentage of how much I do miss and post something later. Don't get me wrong I do believe that in it's current layout that it is painful to be a pike(wo)man until you get an obscene amount of combat xp, which in turn means mastering the profession.

How can we fix this to make it less painful for novice Pike(wo)men? How about dividing up where we get the accuracy modifiers in the tree. Right now it is at the 2nd and 4th box of the combat xp branch. What if we request to have +20's moved into a +10 in each of the boxes in the combat line. Still +40 total for that branch, but makes the progression a little easier. I do NOT want them moved out of the combat xp branch though. That would make us too powerful too quickly. The way it stands right now with speed maxed and the 1st +20 accuracy, I hit every 1.5 seconds or so with a Long Vibro Axe (slice was on damage not speed)for an average of 400ish pts of damage with no styles. (Ok, I swing every 1.5 seconds or so, doesn't mean I hit .) The LVA I currently use has a speed of 4.9! I can't wait to get a LVA made with advanced vibro units and get that one's speed sliced down. This will easily put the speed in the low 3's if done by a master slicer (assuming 25% speed increase). Pardon my math figuring this out...but with a 4.9 speed meaning it swings 1.5 seconds a 3.3 speed LVA would mean I swing every 1.03 seconds ... right? I don't have any formulas for how damage works so I am just using a direct relationship.

Anyways that leads me into something that won't fix us directly, but will allow us to see if we ARE broke after all. How about formulas for what the +'s are supposed to mean. +5 block means what? +5 What? +5 percent? If so, I can tell you I am not blocking 1 in 20 hits. Even 1 in 100. Not even once since I picked up my first wood staff. I have NEVER seen myself block a blow. What if the block messages bugged? If I block does the combat log just show that the mob misses? Kind of hard to figure out if we are broke not knowing what the design calls for. This applies to toughness as well. Just what does that toughness difference between us and the other melees mean? That mobs do 4% less damage? If so who cares? A Night sister one shot me for 2300points!!! Oh yeah, taking 4% off of that will help. Taking away 98 points of damage off of a 2300 point hit still means that I was one-shot.

Condensed Version:

1) assuming accuracy is fine if you are master after getting my first +20 mod
2) Making Road to master less painful could be as easy as +10 to accuracy in each of the combat xp boxes instead of +20 in box 2 and 4. Steady progression instead of "OMG I CAN HIT A GNORT!!!" 1/2 way through the pike(wo)man tree
3) Hard to tell if we are broke if we don't know what we are looking for. What exactly does toughness, block, counter attack, etc do in combat? What are their formulas when used in combat?
4) Would be nice if the accuracy modifier next to your target's HAM took ALL modifiers into account instead of just posture changes and weapon accuracy mods. Getting sick of looking at -50 or -48 all the time.

--Z

Guys Keep rating people's posts so I know which ones you guys care about the most! Also, don't just rate everything a 5... lol

Slistak,

Ah, the helm... That's what is draging your mind regen rate down. Here is my standing on Helms: Only use the ones that give insane amounts of protection to energy and the other ranged weapons, and only wear them when going against players. That's what I do, No one really hits the head specifically like the ranged guys do. At least that has been my experiences. Melee people don't often go for the head, and creatures only hit it every now and then. This may not be the best solution, but it works for me

Khrim...

I'm only a "3" awe... I guess I'll have to work harder!

i think the 10+ accuracy in every box instead of +20 every two boxes is absolutly the best idea i have heard..... and i hope silversurfer rights that down to send it in .... like i said in my earlier post..... i wasnt gonna make a decision about accuracy after i got my 2k combat exp...... well i got it, and instantly ran out of espa (where i trained it) and started fighting....... and just from that one box of +20 accuracy upgrades i went from missing easily 50% of the time to less than 10%.

So from what i have gathered, accuracy is not a problem for pike(wo)men once u get these accuracy upgrades, which is why i think the +10 accuracy in every box is a VERY good idea, helping out with the accuracy at a little lower lvl... as for blocking goes, i can only recall seeing a +BLOCK+ above my toons head 1 maybe 2 times since release.... now granted i havent been looking for it, but i notice -miss- over the mobs head all the time, so i cant be that far off on my count of +block+'s

Accuracy for sure. Also when you tell the devs about accuracy let them know how much you miss with the polearm. For all we know they may think we are like other brawlers and only miss once out of 10. Not 6-7 times in a row.

Smoothkat5 it took me 2 hours to get polearm 2 in the brawler tree because of the low speed and the constant missing. It took me (literally) about 20 minutes to get unarmed 2 because instead of missing 4 times straight I would miss 1 in 4. This was pre-patch so I had vibro knuckles equipped also but you see my point. Unarmed with a weapon took 20 minutes. Polearm with a weapon took 2 hours. What's the point of hitting for a ton if you can never connect.

With the speed of unarmed coupled with the fact that I rarely miss unarmed is so much more easier than pikeman it's absurd.

I understand the need for challenge but there is a difference betwen challange and cheap sadistic torture because of poor development.

Getting killed by a durni 2 feet from him while armed with a huge stick that you are supposed to be the master of because you can't hit him quite plainly sucks.

aargh lack of edit

the last paragraph should read

Getting killed by a durni because you can't hit him, even though he's only 2 feet from you and you are armed with a huge stick that you are supposed to be the master of, quite plainly sucks.

(That should read better than the first post's final paragraph)

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atimes wrote:

Smoothkat5 it took me 2 hours to get polearm 2 in the brawler tree because of the low speed and the constant missing. It took me (literally) about 20 minutes to get unarmed 2 because instead of missing 4 times straight I would miss 1 in 4. This was pre-patch so I had vibro knuckles equipped also but you see my point. Unarmed with a weapon took 20 minutes. Polearm with a weapon took 2 hours. What's the point of hitting for a ton if you can never connect.

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Im not disagreing with the fact that u miss at low levels with a LVA, but what i am saying is that once u start getting polearm support abilities the missing that accurs goes down dramaticly. Thats why it would be nice to start giving accuracy points at a lower level, like 10+ at novice pike and ten for every box in polearm support instead of having to get 30k combat points (or whatever it is) just to get some accuracy boosts....

Although it may seem unfair compared to the other professions, i think pikeman was the only one designed correctly for the most part (excluding the blocking, toughness, and HAMissues) making it very difficult to use a very good weapon right when you get it, the long vibro axe. and u get substantialy better as u get higher up the pikeman tree.... it unfortunate that the rest of the professions do not have to go through that..... i think it would add a little more flavor inthe game, use a weaker weapon with less damagebut hit more often and with less HAM costs, or move up to a weapon u JUST got a cert for and miss all the time with high ham costs but do alot more damage.

I dont think that you should be that good with the LVA right off that bat, and thats what the range modifiers do, but like i said pikemen will always be at a disadvantage becuase it was the only profession designed correctly .... so instead of buffing pikemen maybe they should nerf other clases somehow? what do you guys think?

Silver, please read my other post for my opinion.. youll find in there...

Silver -

The scenario i'm specifically talking about for mind healing, is being a tank for PvE exp groups. Everything you said about versus players makes sense. But when you take a group out going PvE against tough creatures a Pikeman (or any melee for that matter) can't tank compared to a CH pet. When you're getting smacked for 300-400 pts by 1-3 mobs, medics can keep your health and action up fine but you'll be mind incap pretty soon due to a headhits and all the collateral mind damage.

This may be a trivial issue compared to some other issues, but I'd like to see some flair when we do our special moves. The unarmed specials are just so cool looking, but ours aren't too much different from our regular attacks. Couldn't we get some streamers or something?

Oh, and as far as the +accuracy mods, it might be better to have it +5, +10, +10, +15 this way we're not over powered, but we do feel a sense of accomplishment when we start hitting more and doing more damage.

Oh yeah. That would be VERY cool. It would be more work to do the motion capture and all but when I started pikeman I envisioned twirling sticks and ultra cool looking combos. . now that I see it's not. . . sad

Oh and to the poster (sethkat5 i think or something like that). I TOTALLY agree that just starting out you should be getting owned with your weapon.

I guess what I meant is that unarmed with a vibro knuckle is the ONLY easy class. Ever tried shooting a corellian butterfly with a cdef pistol as a noob. It's just like all the others. You nearly get killed. I'm saying thought that once you get those first few boxes you should hit more thanyou miss. That's how it is in the marksman tree. One of my characters is Master marksman and has polearm II. As soon as I got that first box I stopped missing more than I was hitting. With polearm that's not the case. I miss more than I hit and it's only a matter of time before that particular character sells his polearm skills (not to worry I've got another character who I fully intend to advance in the polearm tree with).