Teras Kasi Archive

A big part of the upcoming rebalance of all weapons, combat, professions, etc will be player feedback as to what role we want our profession to play. So, in the interest of getting the conversation started, I'd like to know how you guys see Teras Kasi evolving, what you'd like the strengths to be, what you'd like to weaknesses to be, and how you see them fitting in with the other brawling professions.

I'd recommend against askingfor TKAs to be the best at everything. It's not going to happen. TKAs will be balanced with the other brawling professions. We'll be better at some things, not as good at others. Regardless of whether TKAs are supposed to be FS and fight jedi, regardless of the EU and whatever may or may not be in there with regards to TKA superpowers, TKAs use up the same number of skill points as the other brawlers, and for that reason, we will have the same overall power level.

So for instance, where do you see us in terms of attack speed, toughness, overall DPS, crowd control, MOB debuffing, area attacks, accuracy, etc., compared to the other brawling classes?

Honestly I think we are extremely balanced right now.

We deal out a lot of damage but it's one type of damage with a max of AP1.

We can absorb lots of melee damage but we get shredded by ranged attacks.

We have no bleeds.

We have a useful, but not overpowering meditate line.

We have specials that can be devestating but that have a high HAM cost.

There is a lot of stuff I could add but I'm at work now so I can't go into super detail

Seriously, what niches do we have a choice of? I like how well balanced TKA is now. I don't see how you can differentiate the melee classes too much more. I don't want to be all defense with little to no offense. I don't want to be all offense with liitle to no defense. I want to be in the middle. Where we are now.

It's niche is fighting no armor/light armor opponents and dealing alot of damage quick. TKA's are the sprinters of melee.

Personally I think how we are (TKA) is fine now.

It is the other melee professions that need to be improved.

Are main advantage should be speed (which it is), with average damage per hit.

Pikemen should be longest range but slowest speed, and probably average to high damage.

Swordsman and fencers should be high damage (due to weapons they use) but atreduced speed (fencers faster than swordsman due to one handed weapons) and slightly longer range than TKA (after all they have the weapon length as well).

So it balances to

TKA = Speed

Pikeman = Range

Swordsman = Damage

Fencers = Damage

Swordsman and fencers are similar in roles, but they each have independant bleed attacks so each covers a certain role as well.

attack speed - We should be the fastest. We have no sword/axe/pike to slow us down. We should be the Bruce Lee's and Jackie Chan's of Star Wars.

toughness - For toughness, I think we should be a bit above equal to the other melee's. Ever see those Monks in in Asia take a 2x4 to the groin and shrug it off like it was nothin? Yeah, thats what I want.

overall DPS - We should do less damage per hit than say a Swordsman with a heavy axe, but we should be hitting MUCH faster than the guy with the axe.

crowd control, area attacks - I'd like to see more usefullness in our area attacks, being able to take on multiple melee targets at once.

My vision - TKA is the tank. We are quick, agile, and can absorb a lot of damage, while being able to give back a decent amount as well. Our weakness comes primarily from our vulnerability to ranged attacks. Id trade lunge for more effective area attacks.

If things are balanced and going well, TKA's should throw their support behind another botched up melee profession like Pikeman. Support the melee brethren!

-Ex

I agree with mega... BUT if iHAD to make a choice i would have to say that TKA should definatly be the fastest, Not neccarly the most powerful (that should be pikemans job) but the fastest. On top of that i also think that we should not be big A$$ damage absorbers (that should also be pikemans job), we should be blocking dodgeing and conterattacking (kind of like how fencer is now but without having to use CoB). Possibly have some kind of penalty for wearing armor also... TKA should not be a class that wears armor, whens the last time you watched a Jet Lee movie or Bruce Lee and saw them wearing a set of 14th century battle armor. armor is heavy and should slow you down....martial artists have always been about speed, focus, and disipline. Also, if changes like this are going to occur they we are going to need some way to do other damage then kinetic... that is a major issue.

As far as where we stand vs. the other melee professions...we should kind of be the oposite of pikeman....they should be slow but deal a hell of a lot of damage.... also they should get hit often but be able to absorb it well. As far as swordsman an fencer...they can kind of be like the inbetween professions.... fencer can lean a little bit more tward TKA and swordsman can lean a little bit more twards the pikeman side.

So basicly if you really wanna do this logicly we should be all about speed and not power.... if someone punches you in the face as hard as they can you might get knocked out and have one hell of a black eye when you wake up, but have someone thrust a sword through your head and i dont think your going to just have a black eye from that.... If we dont use weapons we should not be very powerfull but we should be SUPER fast and be very good at dodging, blocking and counterattacking, but if we do get hit it should have a bit of sting to it.

flame and do what you must this isjust my personal opinion

I think that our class's focus should be on defense. Speed over power in attacks as well, but primarily defense. our pool-targeting attacks should remain weak (although AP1 wouldnt be out of the question), our damage types limited (kinetic, and possibly stun) and we should never get bleeds. Leave these abilities to the 3 weapon-brawlers and suddenly our defenses and speed are pretty balanced. Our damage is fine as it is, possibly could be reduced, although if it is reduced the HAM costs on specials need to plummet.
The vibro-knuckler vs unarmed question I'll leave for a different discussion although I really would like for there to be a reason (by master anyway) to go truly unarmed.
1 additional move we might want to consider (to possibly replace a useless move or just as something to throw out) is an unarmed stun 2. Greater chance for stun to work, and it does "Stun" damage instead of kinetic. This would be weaker overall damage than our unarmed hit specials, but at least give a teras kasi master ONE move against a kinetic resist monster.

My only suggestion would be that perhaps TK range should be shortened a touch. A TKM being able to hit something 9-10 meters away seems a bit of a stretch (literally! heh) Otherwise, I think that everything else is balanced quite well. In fact, of all the advanced combat professions I've tried, I've found that the TKA has the most even progression. At novice, they aren't "uber" but are certainly capable and can be a force to be reckoned with, while a TKM is an opponent that should rightfully be feared within their baliwick (close range hand-to-hand combat). I just wish that all of the professions could be so well structured.

Just my 2 credits!

Cheers!

Fencers are by far the worst damage-potential melee profession. The only saving grace they have is the Stun Baton, which isn't great damage... but its stun damage. /shrug

As it stands now there is techincally no difference in speeds at Master with Master Brawler. All will hit the 1.0 second cap on auto attack. TKA and Fencer just hit it faster due to naturally low weapon speeds. The only speed differences are specials... and I'm pretty sure fencers can do specials every second just like TKA can, if not then they are close with +95 speed mod.

I also like where TKA is now. I think its a good balance. I contend that TKA and Fencer are balanced to each other. We do good damage, but not great. We have middling defense and no bleeds, but Meditation is arguably the best skill in the game.

I also think Fencer is in good shape, butI definitely wouldn't be adverse to giving them something better than a Vibroblade for light AP. They don't do wonderful damage at all... but they have defenses out the wazoo, and bleeds.

Swordsman is not as good as it could be, but I wouldn't say its bad either. Something needs to be balanced in terms of defenses vs. offense. One needs to be increased, and I'd personally rather see offense be increased a smidgen.

I really don't know what to do about Pikemen. I really don't. All I know is that they need help. Maybe something in-between Fencer and Swordsman. Good damage but not great... good defenses but not great. Make them the crowd control profession, give them an AOE KD that works. Make them have better accuracy (how hard is it to hit something with a long stick, really?). The potential for pikeman is there... their high-end weapons are great if they didn't have horrible accuracy mods.

Anyway I went off on a tangent... I apologize. But I think TKA is in pretty good shape. Fix CoB and DA, leave us like we are, and fix the other professions.

change nothing

Please do not decrease the range unless client synchronization and PvE melee-kiting issues can be fixed.

If TKA's are supposed to be "the damage dealers" asmentionedin TH's post, we need more than one damage type and bleeds. If TKA's are supposed to be masters of defense (what Ihad assumed from them before I started playing), we need better passive defenses and defense vs. X modifiers. Right now we're in a jack of all trades sort of situation.

It's a complicated question because currently defenses can be increased through dabbling while offenses generally can not. If we're made to be the tanks, all the other melees will be able to add a couple of our trees and match our defenses with their superior offenses. If we're made offensive, we'll be able to do the same to whomever is made defensive.

With that consideration, I'd rather us be "the damage dealers" as defensive professions are generally on the short end of the stick in this game.

I think overall we are pretty much balanced as we are, but I do have a couple issues with some of our special attacks:

1. Unarmed Combo(s)- I dont know about the rest of you, but I like focusing on one HAM bar. I used it one time and never sawthe use of it.

2. Unarmed Spin Attack(s)- This is again one of those that I used once and never saw the use of.

Defensive Wise- I see in my stat mod box (TKM btw) all the bonuses I get with Combat Equilibrium and Defensive Acuity, are these2 skills even working? Even fighting a blue con creature (i know it only lives for a few seconds) but it never misses me. Being TKM I should be able to freaking dodge/counterattack/block a flesh eating chuba.

FoW- Its a great skill comes in handy, but the one hour timer seems a bit much, considering all the BF you take when using it. Maybe every 30mins or so, but one hour com'on. There is no timer on Power Boost, yet it can be just as important.