Pikeman Archive
Thread: Pikeman Concerns II!!!!
forgive me for my horrible typing skillz heh.
The point is people should be able to "tank" at least for some things...Thats the only thing brawler is good at...We cant run away shooting over our sholder. Doing secondary hits with a Creature in front of you still means you have to pick up CH or you can never fight anything good(or always stay in a group). Then even then there is a chance that the creature attacks you. Then your no good at defending yourself.
As for the block I do think it needs to be fixed so its on par with the other professions defensive moves. However it has worked for me...Only once but Im pretty sure it did it said (-block- above my head)
We should also get a better varaiety of weapons
To you who say you shouldnt be able to use vibro weapons untill master....Then whats thepoint of getting certification at a Brawler level (LVA) or at novice(VL)???
The accuracy is really ANNOYING I have gone through 11miss streaks.
Finnaly I find the lack of unique moves in pikeman annoying. Every other profession gets a namesake combat move (Smuggler=lastditch/lowblow) (BH=underhand shot) (TKA=meditation and a ton of others) (Pistoleer=Stoppingshot/disarm) What do we have? "polearmleghit2=this move is more damaging than polearm leghit1" "Polearmhit 2=this move is more damaging than polearm hit 1 and has a chance of stunning the opponent"<----(didnt we already get a stun move?why do we need copies?) Allot of the stuff we learn is pretty sraightforward with no fancy unique things. I mean everyproffesion has a stun. Tons have knockdowns and area attacks...Thats pretty much all we have. I mean polearm sweeps are great but why have them if it doesnt keep them down long enogh to hit with a 75% increase in damage for them being knocked down. I think we should have a lastditch move like the smugglers where we throw a lance at our opponent like a javelin!!!!!I think the greatest move would be to be able to do aNeo thing andrun around our pole kicking everyone in the head!!!At least make the area attack be able to HIT somthing for once. If Im surrounded by cappers (lets say 8) and I do polearm spin 1 capper will die.....What IS THE POINT OF AN AREA ATTACK IF IT ONLY HITS ONE TARGET? If you ask me we should have more reach moves like polearm lunge.Now that had some nice distance, too bad it didnt do any damage.
As a side note Why do polearms drop in the floors of builidngs. I want to display the whole thing
There's nothing wrong with area attacks. They're our saving grace as far as I'm concerned. Come join me at the tusken fort some time - it's easy soloing tuskens 10 at a timewith sweep2. They drop **edit** for loot now, but it's still amusing.
Silver - please include the berserk issue. Please. It has a huge effect on us (and swordsmen), especially in comparison to TKAs/Fencers. I'd be very greatful if you'd just append what I said in my above post.
Thanks,
Silver, the reason I ask here instead of on the brawler forum is that the majority of the people on the brawler forum are TKAs and don't give a rat's @ss about us. The few times my posts have gotten any response over there it's been flames or people crying to nerf pikeman.
I know a lot of people didn't use berserk before, which is why there's not a huge uproar about the nerf. However, it was by far the best way to do damage without depleting HAM. I don't mind it getting nerfed somewhat, but it shouldn't be nerfed just for pikeman due to the nature of our weapons.
Also, someone else pointed this out, but I'd like to reiterate. Theaccuracyproblem is nota lack of the accuracy stat. It is a problem with the range modifiers on our weapons. They are wrong. -55 at all ranges is not correct. They also need to look into extending the range of our weapons. After all, using a 6 foot pole lends one longer reach. If they're receptive to that idea, it will help us out in PVP a lot.
I'd personally like to see something like 4/8/12 for our range on all polearms, and 0/-20/-40 for ourrange accuracy mods on an LVA. Just throwing out numbers that sound reasonable to me.
HeyMadmartagan I agree with you whole heartedly that area knock down is pikemans best move and saves our butts quite often. I was refering to the dmg area attacks 1 and 2 do. They don't seem to distribute the dmg evenly if they dmg multiple targets at all. It seems that most of the time they do very little dmg, which is not what i expect from an elite proffesion special. I would just like this issue looked into. I want to know if its a bug or not ,and If it was intended to be this way thats fine i'm sure there is a reason for it. Oh, and i would love to group with a fellow pikeman. Give me a tell in game sometime. Your welcome to come hunting with me anytime. I'm usually on Dathimor doing the 20k night sister missions. GREAT MONEY heh
Boon, Master Pikeman, Lowca
Ok Already posted once, but this is a more updated version hehe.
1) Accuracy. I agree that we get enough accuracy modifyers (but i like the +5,+15,+5,+15 idea!) but the problem is the -55 at any range on our weapons. It should be that at 0m, we get negative, since it's harder to use a 6 foot pole when your standing just inches from the guy, but at the farther ranges it gets easier to use ) (Just like a TKA should be oposite, up close is better for them, but farther out they have to reach to hit thier target, which isnt as effective, or shouldnt be IMHO) I do think that at least one of those ranges needs to be positive.
2) Block.....we really need block here. As is stands, unless you are a medic or have a medic with you, you can't survive a battle. We need tankability on our own. This is my #1 issue.
3) Weapons certs: We need more weapons.....I mean, we get our best weapon at novice pikeman. Let's get another couple of weapons added in, one for master, and one or two in between. Race-specific weapons would be great too. And be sure to give them a few weapon ideas too when you send this (if this is one of the issues you send lol) so they can't come back and say "Sure, which weapons would you like?" and make us wait even longer...lol. Force-Pike (I think thats right lol)is one example.
4) HAM is too high! (I can see the reply now....."We'll look into this issue for balance"....sheesh lol)
5) I'd like to see us get a speed bonus when in combat. Much like terrain negoitiation, but something diffrent. This would allow us to catch up to our targets easier. (I have a /follow macro setup, but even when playing NPC Stormtroopers, they just run around all the time, and I never get within range.) A speed bonus while in combat that would allow us to gain on a target running away would be great.
I'd like to see a mention of this:
- The damage bonus for hitting ranged weapon users should be the same for all ranged weapons. Currently we get a large bonus vs rifles, a bonus vs carbines and a tiny bonus vs pistols. It should be the same for all three -- the tiny bonus vs pistols means we aren't the masters of melee range combat, pistoleers are.
Well, Ive had a slight change of heart lately about the Pikeman class, I still intend to keep pikeman but only as a secondary means of damage now. I'll probably contiune up the defenses and maybe the offense line a few boxes.
But me dilema is this:
I play in a heavily PVP guild, this typically involves large battles and I do contiune to own HARD with my template (Pikeman/Pistoleer/CH/Medic) but really its gotten old getting waxxed and kited 1 v1 especially when I KNOW I should have won because of superior tactics but loss due to bad game design.
This does not count so much for PvE encounters as a pikeman you should choose your opponent/mob/ et al. according to your abilities/template and win 90% of encounters.
Yes, pikeman miss, hey I miss using a pistol too, no biggie...
For me its all about the HAM costs, they just remains too high to be acceptable, yes I know we do more damage and should accordingly have higher HAM costs, but HAM combined with a LVA or VA are really out of control in PVP....if your wearing armor and using stypes....well, its just really ugly....
Where the rubber meets the road are the skill mods, while HAM can be adjusted based upon acctack choice skill mods cannot, you got them or you dont, its that simple, fact is pikeman skill mods are sub par v other melees. In fact my premise has begun to become I feel incresingly correct for the following reasons:
Rifle
My guildmateis a master in the rifle line, he blocks like crazy, so much so in fact im dropping pistol and developing my rifle skill....rifle block coupled with polearm block I feel is the only option for me personally to remain in the pikeman line at all
So I feel that if you insist on staying pure melee/pikeman and dont take advantage of/get bonuses from classes that are available to you also then you need to accept the limitations youll have
What I'll never understand is why I can consistenetly hit for more damage with headshot 2 or suppression fire and a laser rifle (master rifle in marksman tree) than I can with 2 boxes into pikeman???
**edit** is that? I lowbie noob guy with the right rifle, working rifle line in marksman for 8 hours can hit harder than me and ive been working pikeman since release?....not quite fair...
Experiance differential:
1) I get 25% more exp using ranged weapons than I do using melee if Im killing the same mob, if anyone would like to challenge this assumption Ill gladly provide the excel spreadsheet showing my results.
This is a travesty concidering it takes 250k to fill a box in pikeman compared to 125k in a ranged elite class....this means ONLY that ranged users develop faster, faster development = more enlightenment about your character, = more knowledgeable so you can report accuratly to the SOE /DEVS, therefore our fixes will be slower comming because the grind is harder to make master pikeman and theres dam fewer of us then say...pistoleers...
Now some of you will poo poo this, HEY there are master pikemen here on our board! !!! why look some posted on this very thread....
Yep why you are right, there are, there are a FEW, that went for a hard grind to get master first (for whatever reason) yeah thats great, now lets compare the Master Pikeman v Master Pistoleer per capita of players on those two classes? Are there just as many?
Answer: NOPE
Why?
Look at pikeman on the characterbuilder? As a starting player does that look like an attractive ride to you to master? you need 3 x the exp, cant fight from range, worst mods in the melee line, 3-4 nerfs last patch because of KD and the TKA overpopulation, 1/2 assed broken weapons, huge ham costs....
God forbid a noob read this forum, theres 4 threads on weather we can even wear armor or not, 2-3 on misses, reports of our skill mods bieng to low, HAM costs to hight etc. etc etc.
Noob: "wow, ok I guess ill start using that CDEF pistol in my inventory....kthx"
I love my character, I love the pikeman class, I only want it to be better, but as it stands it is NOT a stand alone class, its only as good as the class is accompanies. Maybe thats how they meant it to be, until the people at SOE figure it out im using a rifle/pistol/pet also......
Augustine
Although I dont think its neccessarily needed, it would be nice. 
Hey can someone throw me a bone here?
when I got Intermediate Polearm support abilities box filled, it gave me Polearm action hit 1. Sounds great, the problem is when I use it, my combat chat channel says it does so much damage, but in reality it actually does no damage to the target. I must have hit a diseased nuna like 3 times with, each supposedly doing more damage than the nuna had health, and no change in it's health meter, I eventually had to just use a reg. hit on it before I died and of course it died with one hit that was way lower than what the Action Hit 1 was supposed to be worth.
Is there something I'm missing here as to why that move takes absolutely NO power, or is that another bug we need to report?
A lot of issues here, lets start with basics.
1. A pikeman like all melee should be more used to getting smacked around unlike little shooting mama's boys. Pikeman toughness is garbage right now. It needs a SERIOUS overhaul.
2. Range mods. Good lord did some TKA bribe you guys when you came up with these? Not to sound like Captain Obvious but a master of a 6-foot stick should routinely put the guy without a weapon on his butt. Of course in the matters of fightning it's the exact opposite right now. Yuck.
3. If we are cursed with these insane HAM costs at least balance it by fixing weapon damage variance or to-hit accuracy. I got waxed multiple times by something stupid because for some ungodly reason an NPC fighting me barehanded managed to dodge me more than 3x in a row... and was /con'd white.
4. Last put not least please remember is POLEARM. You know, someone masting a weapon as long as a person, and in later cases with VIBRO? We should swing slow as a box of rocks and clobber the CRAP out of what we lay into. WHY in the foshizzle are other classes getting weapon damages EQUAL to us? I'm not talking melee only either. Couple it with the fact some of us are stuck on worlds where people can't even MAKE a vibrolance yet and it's no wonder I can't even set foot on Lok or Endor.
/rant 
Cyborg-Shoryuken wrote:
Hey can someone throw me a bone here?
when I got Intermediate Polearm support abilities box filled, it gave me Polearm action hit 1. Sounds great, the problem is when I use it, my combat chat channel says it does so much damage, but in reality it actually does no damage to the target. I must have hit a diseased nuna like 3 times with, each supposedly doing more damage than the nuna had health, and no change in it's health meter, I eventually had to just use a reg. hit on it before I died and of course it died with one hit that was way lower than what the Action Hit 1 was supposed to be worth.
Is there something I'm missing here as to why that move takes absolutely NO power, or is that another bug we need to report?
/tosses a bone
Yeah i noticed that too when i first got it, what it is doing is causing the nuna to bleed. In its description it says its going to WOUND someone, but in fact its just a bleeding shot. I dunno why they changed it or why they diddnt change the description, but thats the way it is
/takes back bone