Pikeman Archive

Well...I have been playing this since day one, more or less, and have kept quiet about most things in hopes that they would get better. Pikeman was a hard choice to begin with, as we had no weapons that were worth anything, especially in contrast to the gun guys. However, I fully belived in the statement under master Pikeman, that eventually we would be one of the deadliest in melee combat (or something to that effect). So I persevered throught the levels, put up with targets that could run away and still shoot the crap out of me. THe only saving grace to all of this was the knockdown. I carry a big freakin pole with a blade bigger than my head (which costs me so much health etc..that two or three swings puts me out), that misses most of the time, and now i can't even knock something down twice. A 30 second timer?? Are they insane. Did some drunk fool wander in off the street and suggest that as a valid change? 30 seconds of combat with a tough opponent (don't even consider 2 or more) and i'm likely to be dead. Especially with my "Best" weapon, the all resource draining, all missing Long Vibro Axe. I am nearly a master doctor, and I can't keep up with the health drains. Perhaps we should all be issued licorice whips to fling at our opponents. Or, we could just sit in the cantina and chat, because we are surely not soldiers, as our title implies. Unless the opposing army were made up of bunnies. (old bunnies, with no teeth). The other changes, which seem to include less HAM costs on specials...where are they?? I seem to have misplaced my update, because I sure couldn't see any difference. Swing the axe, hope for a hit, lose half your stats, oops a big whiff. Before this patch, I could hold my own with a Tusken Raider...maybe even a captain or a chief...if I was lucky and they were lying on their back. Of course this had to be done with my lance, so I could hit them more than 2 or 3 times. Now, with the new and improved pikeman skills, I was killed by a commoner. Sad state of Pikeman affairs. Apparently our board discussions, our new Pikeman Spokesman are all just a waste of time. (sorry Silver, I know you tried). These changes are a broad stroke against an already ailling class. Maybe for the next change I might suggest taking away our polearms, and replacing them with guns. They seem to be the only weapon/class of any interest in this game.

Now...that said, I have a question. Was this knockdown nerf solely done to all classes because of PvP contest that were 'unfair'? I would have to say that if that was the reasoning... who the **** cares about PvP fighting. It is one small avenue of an otherwise interesting game. Could we not have made this knockdown rule only for PvP and leave the rest of the game players to knockdown whoever they wanted?

I also have a comment. Why do we have a special hit that causes our target to bleed. Are we not swinging a giant pole with a blade on it? Shouldn't nearly any hit from that cause bleeding? I guess I shouldn't mention that, the next change for the better will be to change that from a bleed hit to a bruise gently hit. "You swing gently at a Tusken, and gently bruise him." "A Tusken then proceeds to own you all over the desert". "You shrug it off, and declare that you have no wish to hurt his feelings". "A vulture feasts on your remains, and looks curiously at the giant bladed polearm by your side and wonders how you came to such a hideous fate".

Hey There SilverSurfer! Fuziewashe Master Pikeman/Master CH

I am very happy with all the changes with the exception of the KD timer. Not only did they change the time between KD's, they changed how long the effect lasts. Instead of 15 sec, its down to about 5 seconds now. KD is a major part of Pikeman and this latest patch has really decreased our ability to solo. Pikeman have an entire row of skills dedicated to the ability to attack multiple targets, this is now useless as well. If we can't keep them down, theres no use in attacking more than 1 at a time. We are now the laughing stock of both PVP and PVE. I am the only master I know that will have difficulities soloing blue cons.

Fuziewashe
Master Pikeman/Master CH
Wanderhome

Sorry, in my previous post I said we were waiting for something that would even give us a chance against melee, it should have a read

"For us to even have a chance against MARKSMEN"

Sorry for the inconvienience

hehe

The Knockdown timer is pretty much the death of the Pikeman, as it stands right now. There is no way we can stand toe-to-toe with alot of the Mobs out there right now, even with armor, buffs and medics. There are alot of of Mobs that easily do 2000 dmg in a 5 second time frame (about the medic refresh time between heals), even if you are wearing the best armor. And in the HAM costs of just swinging, we stand no chance.

Why even have a melee character in your group?? Why not just send a freakin rockbeetle in the battle and let him tank alot more efficently than any melee character?? And if if the poor rockbeetle gets a little beat up, just put him away and get really serious and pull out the really big boy.

And PvP is now just pretty much futile. The one and only chance a meleer had on a ranged character was to get lucky and hoped the other guy made a stupid mistake or was just plain AFK, and sweep the heck out of him and pray you didn't miss, because your not getting another chance.

It really makes you wonder if the Devs want everbody in this game to become ranged weapon users.I wonder who the Einstein was that said that the meleers were just too powerful??? Did they just see one battle between aPikeman and someone wanting to die to getback to his cloning ctr? Did they even look at these messageboards before the decided a course of action?Or did they just look at therifle mesageboard and see a post from a Noob, that died because he actually let a meleer catch up to him, and shouted it was unfair, and that he should win everytime?

They have just widened and already huge gap between meleers and the rest of the professions out therein terms of power. Why don't we all go make a CH,because that's what Sony wants us to do.All the Pikeman and other meleers need to get together on this and get things changed back. Maybe KD did need a little tweaking, but a 30 second timer? Come on! This just made us obsolete.

Hello Fellow Pikeman or Pikewoman

I just wanted to throw another 2 cents in the pot...to make 6 cents now anyhow I logged on late last night to meet a lady friend of mine. I was already upset at the patch and wasn't in a good mood...but as I stated all this news to my lady friend...I was determined to get over it. However it is what I said that really caught my attention...I told her that I had to go out into the wilds and try and find away to fight again, I have to find a new way something that will let me fight or I am afraid I will just fade away from the game...to some this might not mean anything...but I have played several online games...Asherons Call (I faded away because of the Macroers), EQ (I faded away because I wasn't a Powergamer and wasn't in an uber guild to acquire the highend of the game and see some fo the awesome new areas with the release of PoP), DAoC (I faded away because, well I think I just didn't like it...lots of unbalanced there as well). All I am saying is that what the dev's did was make me feel useless...unless I am a ranged type profession...sorry I am not interested in being a Doctor, Entertainer...nothing wrong with these Professions, and they do appeal to the casual gamer who likes to help others for a couple of hours here and there. I am a meleer 100% I have some ranged attack because I wanted slicing in my trials as a melee type character. I just find myself disappointed it seems...I feel like I am being herded into a profession that seems that the majorityofppl are...Rifle, Pistol, or Carbine...I understand the rule...."why you bring a knife to a gun fight" however inPvP there are times and will be times that meleers are needed...to distract or draw attention...I accept these challenges in PvP and I understand I will be the target of lots of damage but do not make it where ppl will not have to fear us when I am up close...I mean....supression fire slows me down...kiting me is another way to just get me to run around looking like I am a mad person...not counting lots of other ways to make me look stupid for being a melee type...I will get one or two perhaps...but still I will lose more than not.

I ammelee, I will staymelee, and I will fade away as melee....it is up to you dev's to decide how fast that fading away goes....

Posted this earlier, but I don't see it now. guessing the message boards ate my old post. Please forgive me if this is a duplicate.
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I'd like to say that in my opinion, while highly damaging to our profession, the changes to knockdown are reasonable. Knockdown has always been a defensive move in a defensive skill tree. The patch keeps people (including us) from using it offensively and while it keeps pikes from soloing the big nasties, it also keeps pistoleers from whipping TKAs to death. I won't start about whinny PvPers, but one small man with a stick/sword/whatever shouldn't be able to sweep a four-legged, 60ft tall turtle.

The big problem is that we haven't gotten the fixes our profession really needs. We've been relying on knockdown as some kind of crude liferaft. KD was never the answer to melee vs ranged balancing. Its slow, its hard to stay on top of your enemy with, it has high HAM costs, it never did last long enough, and it doesn't always work each time its used.

Losing the KD cheese doesn't change our basic class needs. Things like better running speed, improved weapon accuracy, lower HAM costs, balanced toughness, a working block ability, and more weapons are what will fix the sad state of pikeman affairs. Those are what we should be pushing for because, if we get them, then we won't need KD for more than running away or stalling damage to heal.

I was just about to get my first knock down move, i don't mind not being able to use it again for 30 seconds but i do mind standing there for 5 seconds like a TW&T while they get up again before i can hit them again.

I'm not gonna bother with the knock down move now i'll use my skill point's on another move instead.

And in respone to the guys who said knock down was a defensive move, well it may be in the defensive tree but knock down is and has always been an offensive move ask and martial artist who uses sweeps or polearms. Knock down is an offensive move used throught history by pikemen.

Opps nearly forgot, if i get forced to my knees when i'm being attacked my mobs they don't have to wait 5 sec before they can attack again they just keep on hitting.

I think that the 5 second delay should be removed but the 30 timer is probably not that big a deal.

If the devs want to they could remove the 30 second timer and just make sweep miss for up to 20-30 seconds, no one is going to fall for the same sweep over and over again, once or twice maybee so this would make it more realistic.

i found this intereting tonight when testing out some different tactics for fighting NPCs that kite you around quite a bit.

i hit a yellow con rebel NPC with a knockdown move that did damage. now he must have resisted the knockdown state or the knockdown effect chance did not come through.

what i found out is that even though i did damage through the KD ability but didn't not get the KD effect off on the target, the 30 second timer was active.

i need to test this further on some fellow players with posture/KD resists to make sure.

what this means though is that in the future if a player or NPC resists your posture change or knockdown (even if you hit), you'll still have to wait out the 30 seconds before you can try again. with higher skilled players in the future there will be more players with better defense vs "state" resists. you can also increase these resists through item enhancements.

it just keeps getting better and better.

-max

well it looks like the devs simplified my life quite a bit and even saved me some cash.

i had just gotten to master pikeman last week and was enjoying playing quite a bit except for 1 thing. what do you do after you hit master?

well i decided to try gathering resources for my guild, getting faction points, and PvP. well i quickly found that even though i got owned 9 out of 10 times in PvP unless i had a partner it was still lots of fun. but it anoyed how ineffective i was in PvP even with master brawler so i was planing on getting another account and make a more PvP viable template or just somthing diffternt. well i finaly decided on a combat medic/pistoleer/doctor.

but now i dont need to get an extra account to do this now that pikeman is just about worthless, i can surrender all of pikeman with no regrets.

i guess the sad thing is that in this case the devs probably got exactly what they wanted, one less melee to have to listen to saying their class needs fixed and one more pistoleer to pander to

I seriously suggest NOT surrendering skills, for there is a good possibility the devs will give us stuff like the 'tank' ability and other things which will make us viable once again.

You mean and 'actually make our class feasible?'. That would be a first

hehe, I like that last part......

Buzzard : "That's wierd, he had a big freakin axe! Why is he slain? He must have sucked! Oh well."

Too funny