Practical suggestion for minor melee talents

[banehammer]

I know this has been discussed at length, and while I do really enjoy being a caster I also love having the flexibility of being able to hit when closed in on.

We currently have tumult and the 2 melee sabre hits. Could we have 4 talents dedicated to making these viable against elites and other players in PVP?

 

Eg.

(1) 1/2/3 points for the sabre hits increasing their damage by 33, 66, 100%

(2) 1 point in making tumult usable against elites/bosses and players.

 

I don’t think that these talents would turn a sage into a melee class but they would give the option for people who wanted it without becoming OP.

 

For your consideration

[sollinton]

There's also the option to roll Balance Shadow, Sentinel, or Guardian for melee.

 

Sages are casters, we are not meant to be in melee at all and those who want the option should have chosen their AC better.

 

If you really want the whole "traditonal Jedi" look then roll a DPS Guardian and equip moddable Light Armor. Done deal.

 

If you really want to be a caster-melee hybrid then roll a Balance Shadow.

 

If you really want both of the above then go play KoTOR.

 

Now you might respond to this by saying "Well that's your point of view, maybe other people don't share it." And you'd be right. However it is not worth BioWare's precious time to be trying to work in a viable way for Sages to do some melee damage. They have much better things to worry about right now so please stop wasting their time.

[banehammer]

It’s a suggestion for existing abilities to be made usable in more situations by Sages.

There’s nothing more satisfying than stunning a ‘strong’ target and roundhousing them with tumult and watching their HP drop.

 

Obviously ongoing development is more important but this is just a constructive suggestion on what might be fun for some players, myself included.

 

Take your little pile of 50’s and get yourself a life.

[sollinton]

Umadbro? First off the game has been out for nearing on 3 months. Having 3 level 50s after that time is nothing. If you don't have at least 1 then I'm sorry you can't level. I work 45 hours a week and I am a full-time college student so if I can fit in the time to level my characters then you have no excuse.

 

No matter how much you may want Sages to be viable in melee, the simple fact is that it will never happen. We may get another ability or two that is similar to Force Wave in that it is short ranged and allows us to get away from our enemies, but that's pretty much it.

 

I don't know if you have ever played any other MMO's but maybe one or two out of the dozens out there incorporate a "mage" style class that includes viable melee attacks. There is a reason for this. Caster classes do not belong in melee.

 

If you want to be a melee then roll a Sentinel, KC/Infil Shadow, Guardian.

If you want to be ranged then roll a Sage, Gunslinger, or Commando.

If you want to be a melee-ranged hybrid then roll a Vanguard, Scoundrel, or Balance Shadow.

 

If BioWare started to make every class viable in melee and ranged then there would be no point in choosing a ranged or melee class. Continuing down that path would be the mistake of what Blizzard did in that every class would become exactly the same and there would be no point in choosing one class over another.

 

Sages have their place. Don't try and convince BioWare to make them this omni-role class that you want them to be.

[banehammer]

Blah blah.. You said all that in the first post. I realise there are melee classes, I dont want a melee class.

I'm simply saying that when you're closed in on it would be fun to have an option to spec to hit hard with an EXISTING melee ability or two, without becomming OP.

 

Speaking of a WoW mage, they had a very similar combo. Freeze with your AoE when closed in on (melee range), then use ice lance which had a DMG bonus to frozen targets.

This is very similar to stunning, then tumult.

 

Another good example of a ranged class that gets a melee talent or two is gunslinger/sniper.

In the shared tree they have 2 points they can put into making the pistol whip ability hit harder (15% I think?). No one can argue that they're not a long range AC (double negative :S) but being able to whack a cpl points into pistol whipping the snot out of someone if you're closed in on is just FUN!

[sollinton]

Speaking of a WoW mage, they had a very similar combo. Freeze with your AoE when closed in on (melee range), then use ice lance which had a DMG bonus to frozen targets.

This is very similar to stunning, then tumult.

 

Actually this is different because Ice Lance was a ranged ability and you did not need to be in melee range in order to freeze enemies. The melee ability you are thinking of (Frost Nova or perhaps Shattered Barrier) was actually parallel to our Force Wave. So you really have no argument here.

 

Another good example of a ranged class that gets a melee talent or two is gunslinger/sniper.

In the shared tree they have 2 points they can put into making the pistol whip ability hit harder (15% I think?). No one can argue that they're not a long range AC (double negative :S) but being able to whack a cpl points into pistol whipping the snot out of someone if you're closed in on is just FUN!

 

You make a good point here. However the spec you are thinking of (Dirty Fighting) is actually a melee-ranged hybrid spec. Not a ranged spec with one or two viable melee abilities. Therefore I need to adjust my above list to include Dirty Fighting Gunslingers in the melee-ranged category.

 

That makes 4 classes that are viable melee-ranged hybrids. How about BioWare just makes every class viable in melee and ranged? Then raiding can be a bit broken because BioWare won't be able to design fight mechanics that incorporate melee/ranged differences.

 

While we're at it lets make each class ability do the same damage and have the same effects. After all why should I take care in choosing the right class for me when I can just have BioWare make my class be able to do everything?

 

This is not a single player game. You don't get to have one class that can do it all. There are going to be differences in classes and some classes are going to be specialized. If you don't enjoy playing a specialized class then reroll to a more versatile class. It's that simple.

Edited February 9, 2012 by sollinton

[banehammer]

BTW I agree that class homogenisation is terrible...

But I really dont think that my suggestion reflects this or would lead to this.

Even JK's and SW's have ranged lightsabre throws... How is being able to use tumult in pvp or making out lightsabre hit semi viable any different?

 

Also, my alt is a BH powertech and he has decent ranged abilities (30m) which hit pretty hard, but the majority of his abiltiies are 4-10m.

 

I would be a little ticked if they turned the balance tree into a melee build because I like playing ranged and heals. Just a couple of talent points to be considered down the track is all I'm talking.

[sollinton]

Right. Obviously you aren't fully understanding what I'm saying and I don't have the time it would take to educate you on why melee abilities for a Sage would either be a bad idea (if Sages were made fully viable in melee) or simply a waste of time and resources (if Sages were just given one or two viable melee abilities). So I'm going to have to bid you good day and hope that we have not wasted too much of BioWare's time with this thread.

[banehammer]

Right. Obviously you aren't fully understanding what I'm saying .

 

Same goes... Making Sages 'fully viable' in melee would be terrible like I said above.