Teras Kasi Archive
Thread: Some proposals for TKA
More specifically on VIBROKNUCKLERS
All COMBAT professions in the game can boost their items EXCEPT TKA players. We cannot add tape or slice our hands to make them better. As such we need to be able to either perform at a level that compares to a sliced weapon and taped weapon naturally or VIBROKNUCKLES need to be a painless and invisible item to place upon our hands that does NO extra HAM stuff so thst we can apply those buffs items and then pay our NORMAL HAM costs for when we do unarmed techniques.
So during Beta we got some knuckles to play with to compensate fo the fact that we couldn't enhance anything.
With VIBROKNUCKLES on and sliced and wrapped in an attempt to compete with damage outputs of others it is like we are now getting double penalized in HAM. We pay for using a move unarmed with HAM then we get hit AGAIN with VKs while other combat classes pay only once for their weapon of choice.
Now we have unarmed damage BELOW the par of average weapons and VKs as the solution to bring them UP to the level of ranged attackers. But in this stacking effect to get our damage output up someone forgot about the HEINOUS HAM costs ... I mean really ... 700 HAM a technique? Am I the only one who sees this as a legacy double stack issue??? Tweaking 1 to 2 points of average HAM costs on VKs to me is missing the point. There shouldnt BE any HAM cost or any damage boosts at all. They are just their as a game tool for TKAs to apply slices values, experiment bonuses, and skill tape too.
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Also VIBROKNUCKLES are not even our core issue. Rangedversus melee is.
It doesn't matter whether or not melee should be competing with ranged combat on an equal footing in reality. This is a game and we suspended reality for AE ranged healing, hardcoded in a game mechanic to force players to visit entertainers, and craft PA halls in out back pockets. There is an expectation of some core balance for melee in general that needs to be seen considering that 5 of the 33 professions are pure melee and many more are based off of them.
IMHO we need fixes like this a LOT more than some minor VK tweak.
1) In a tank role we cannot tank. Better defense mods are needed or buffs (from the meditate line) or HAM (from a body line) as part of the class. This would also allow us to close on a ranged player potentially to at least be able to ENTER into combat with them instead of merely being a "victim class" which is not what your orginal design was I am sure.
2) A way to break kiting issue such as a static 5% speed boost per ANY advanced melee class tier so we can stop the newbie CDEF player killing master TKAs or other master meless classes 1 minute after their creation. Allowing melee to close on ranged provides a simple non damage and non defense solution that won't mess up PvE balance, and puts some tactics back into PvP.
3) Adjustment to special moves and combat such that we dont have things like "negative to hit numbers" at zero range, specials that cost MORE than the ranged version of other professions ... apparantly doing a killer technique at range should be rewareded for its ease up use by discounting the HAM costs? Or even the removal of superior melee techniques in other professions like Pistol whip ... why bother with TKA when you have pistols and their cheaper better melle combat line?
When I got slightly more bored than I was today I posted a MUCH longer chat about the balance issues here;
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=311860&highlight=
Ack some how my reply double posted and was incomplete: here is the full version
1. Action Decreased for all moves except KD sounds good but is rather meaningless unless we have some actual numbers to work with.
2. Improved chance of a defensive move firing - This is good if it increases our ability to tank. With KD nerfed, a TK has no means of tanking a Mob, you have to wait till a fight is at the very least half way done before you jump in because all Mobs will immediately aggro you. If this means we get to evade a SIGNIFICANTLY higher number of hits then this is a good thing and should be a good replacement for the KD nerf.
3. Vibroknucklers -
The increased range is nice. What will be the total range for Lunge with this change??
The Action and Mind changes aren't "different" they are "worse". C'mon man, at least call it what it is lol.
If all these changes to VKs come as a package deal, you can keep em. As if the KD nerf wasn't killing our mind enough as it is you want to offer us something that does it even more. Why would anyone voluntarily want to increase the cost of a HAM pool that can't be healed for all special moves while equipping VKs?? I hope I am reading that wrong because that has got to be the the dumbest thing I have seen since Rocket Launchers with an ideal range of 0.0
Bring Knockdown down to Pistol Whip levels (~96 HAM). You have given us no other way to compete against constantly-running ranged users. Isn't it bad enough that we can't even TOUCH them except by surprise? Now, even if we do surprise them, we have to worry about losing all our HAM to knock them down so we can actually do some damage.
Knockdown is still the problem. We still have not been fixed at all vs ranged users, and now our knockdown has been more heavily nerfed than that of any other class. BHes felt they were in the same boat---but wait, they can just switch to a CDEF carbine to Knockdown with greatly reduced cost.
Activate Defensive Mods for ALL CLASSES. They DO NOT WORK (with the exception of melee defense/ranged defense and Toughness). This is not a TKA only problem.
All that other stuff...who cares, if the above isn't fixed?
Fix one thing at a time,
Guys, focus on fixing our class first, then focus on fixing the Ranged / Melee problem.
- Holo, I believe I read that the current HAM ratio with KD and VKs is bugged. Is this accurate?
- If you looked into the Meditation Line you would see it is not working correctly and could provide a useful area for the devs to work with.
- Get Powerboost working effectively, have it increase our HAMs in ratio to our med level.
- A novice could have their HAM increased by a few hundred each.
- At master it would be significant, say doubled, and for more than the 20 seconds it currently lasts for.
- Either that or take it in a new direction and have Powerboost increase our general toughness against damage for a duration in ratio to our Med level.
- Force of Will is just useless in PVP; you get up faster, they still kill you. This dead skill could also be reborn with usefullness along the same lines.
- By incorping the changes into this skill line you would be effectively fixing two problems at the same time, which means you are done with us quicker!
Bumping for Dev tracker purposes only. Holocron reply within. Please don't report me for bumping. 
This is NOT a PvP issue on melee versus ranged. The game is designed around ranged combat on the balance aspects even in PvE.
At high levels what a ranged player can do solo a melee player cannot as the designers took melee mobs and BOOSTED them in HAM to provide a challenge in teh expectation of kiting tactics.
Putting us in a stand up fight with the ability to survive is the issue. Thus the ranged versus melee debate is KEY. If the designers don't see that then it is up to us to remind them.
I have enve been kited by NPCs with blasters as a melee class with no hope of ever reaching or fleeing from them. Basic issues ... the TKA fix here completely misses the point of why we are hurting.
The problem Gim is that the costs for moves need to be compared when such a unfair comparison is made...
when ranged peeps who already have the game stacked in thier favor get ways to overcome thier extreme move costs when we can barely survive and cannot use our special moves when other classes can literally spam thier moves non stop and take no HAM hit.. there is a severe problem...
I play a master CH/Pistolleer on bloodfin.. i can non stop use all my most damaging moves in PVE and PVP and literally destroy anything that gets near me... I can spam KD and not use much if any HAM..
But when I play my TKA i cannot even use it 3 times let alone use any other moves but lunge and dizzy which still nearly kill me..
On top of that the patch notes clearly stated TKA and brawlers were getting a damage Increase... we didnt we got a damage loss instead....
Pistolleers can still hit near 400s with the 75% damage reduction while im hitting for 49-200 using my specials... soemthing is wrong here....
Im more worried about PVE than I am PVP on my TKA as I knew we were not a PVP class in the eyes of the Devs from the beginning but when im being outdamaged by ranged classes in PVE casue they can spam thier moves on top of having weps that do for example (FWG5 65-199 1.9) unsliced on bloodfin... sliced this wep went to 65-240 1.9) and it can spam moves that do huge amounts of damage over and over again...
Health costs down.
Action & Mind costs up.
So REDUCE the costs on the one line that we have enough on the secondary stats to minimize the costs on and heal them back quickly and RAISE the stats in the lines we are weak in and have a harder time recovering from.
Ahhh ... okay ...
it makes so much more sense now ... this is one of those call a NERF a BUFF doublespeak things we heard so much about in out "1984" reprogramming SOE education classes.
Sorry guys, None related to the post but did I just see what I think I saw?
"Kevin "Q-3PO" O'Hara" 