The Official Fighter Enhancements Discussion Thread!

[SisAmethyst]

Kensei


"Autogrant" row:
Weapon Mastery (Pick your specialization weapon group)

this was actually quite irritating and will probably be for lot of players as we are meanwhile used to the lower bar being autogranted.



Moreover the fact that if you try to get the 'Kensei Exotic Weapon Mastery' e.g. for Dwarven Axes or Bastard Sword it is all but obvious how to unlock it. The first step to 'Kensei Weapon Specializsation' is fine and straight forward, but that for the 'Kensei Focus' you have to go zig-zag and first click on the usually autogranted bar right below isn't. I wonder if it would be possible to move the whole line one step to the left and add a second step in between, making it more obvious? I mean you could put it at 0AP as a requirement or reduce the AP points for Exotic Weapon Mastery by 1.

If not at least put in the comment a line indicating where one would find that Kensei Focus...

[SealedInSong]

For those who don't have a Llama client up. Note that you don't automatically get the Core Abilities enhancements. You have to pay for them after the first level.

I wish people put these up for the other trees, it's immensely helpful for those of us without access.

[SealedInSong]

One With The Blade (Your Focus weapons are considered centered for Ki stuff)

@.@

That. Wow. Is. Woah. the very first time. ! That I've been almost speechless on the forums.

That is great. Well-done, devs.

[HungarianRhapsody]

I wish people put these up for the other trees, it's immensely helpful for those of us without access.

I'm working on it, but I type slowly. I just logged on to my Ranger/Monk/Rogue, so I'll have some more screen shots and descriptions up in a bit.

[HungarianRhapsody]

1. Where is haste boost?!?!

1. In the Ranger Tempest tree

And you have to choose between Sprint Boost and Attack Speed boost. You can't have both.

[Davelfus]

Still downloading the **** client...

my impression or did the stalward stance lost the up to +6 str/con bonus and the 20%hp?

[Cetus]

Additional comments:

There isn't any action boost expansions either. Currently, kensei gives you one extra action boost per tier. It is gone in this tree.

The extra critical damage before multiplier effects that kensei currently provides seem dumbed down to just +3 in this tree. Currently its like +12 or something (give or take).

Also, that confirm critical hit line is garbage. Nobody is ever going to pick that up - might as well attach a damage portion to it to close the gap. 2/4/6 would be ok - still not great, but ok.

Furthermore, Reed in the wind looks terrible. 9% dodge for 6 seconds? That has zero practical value. If you have displace, ghostly, etc....that extra chance to get missed is reduced significantly, let alone for only 6 measly seconds.

Lastly, shattering strike looks like a very desirable ability, but with current EE saves, there's no way that a tactics dps fighter can achieve a meaningful wisdom for that to land reliably.

Why in the world would you make it wisdom - at least give full character level and 1/2 wisdom mod instead of the full blown wisdom mod. Just simply won't be able to take advantage of that ability at all on a weapon wielder. Handwrap user, sure - but a weapon wielding fighter whose main stat is strength with some tactics like stunning blow and trip...no way a good wisdom is going to happen for EE content.

My suggestion: Make it strength/wisdom, whichever's higher so that both str based and wisdom based builds can use it effectively.

Final question: Do these new tactics add to the master's blitz counter?

Thats all I got so far

[orakio]

Bit of Feedback on the Stalwart Defender line:

The cost of old stalwart stance is WAY too expensive. 2 ap per rank, 3 ranks per stat, 6 different stats that require this boost. It is 36 AP just to get the old tier3 Stalwart stance and literally 0 other abilities.

I would suggest you either cut the costs in half (18 AP) to allow room for some other REALLY cool stuff in the tree, or at the very least combine the 3 different effects so that it is just 2 each for improved stalwart defense and greater stalwart defense lines (24 AP).

Other than that, the shield striking->reprisal line is cool. Not a huge fan of Counterattack being an action boost though, and Block and Cut is an amazing top end ability.

[Cetus]

Partially removed. The max tier only requires Greater Weapon Focus (No more Greater Weapon Spec or Superior Weapon Focus). Though with the to-hit scaling change it's only Superior Weapon Focus that was insanely annoying waste of a feat. The other two focuses always felt like prereqs just to open the damage feats. Though this does mean you have to be at least Ftr8 (Greater Weapon Focus req) to get all the Kensai nonCore bonuses.

Well that's still pretty good, even though we still have to take the 2 weapon foci. Have those feats been updated by any chance, or are they still entirely useless with their entirely insignificant +1 to hit per feat?

Thanks in advance, I don't get off work til late to check this myself.

[Cetus]

So this layout suggests that capstone abilities no longer require you to be pure, is that correct?

[HungarianRhapsody]

So this layout suggests that capstone abilities no longer require you to be pure, is that correct?

The tier 5 abilities do not require you to be pure.

The Core Abilities (the very bottom row) do require 12/18/20 levels in class to buy the later abilities.

[Cetus]

The tier 5 abilities do not require you to be pure.

The Core Abilities (the very bottom row) do require 12/18/20 levels in class to buy the later abilities.

ah, gotcha - thanks

[rest]

Thanks for removing haste boost from Kensai. All that doublestrike is really doing me a pantsload of good on my Kensai/AA.

[blerkington]

Hi,

HungarianRhapsody, thank you for taking the trouble for posting screenshots and descriptions of these abilities. +1 to you.

Why this couldn't have been done by someone from Turbine, I don't know. It would be an excellent first post at the start of each of these threads.

Thanks.

[Qezuzu]

Thanks for removing haste boost from Kensai. All that doublestrike is really doing me a pantsload of good on my Kensai/AA.

This. I don't even have a fighter, but a Rogue, and it's not a stretch to think that if they're removing haste boost from Fighter then there's a chance Rogue will lose it too.

I was a little hyped for the enhancement revamp, but now, not so much. Not with all the nerfs.

[Henky]

Where is my haste boost? You are killing my kensei fighter, even tacticals DCs are lower than on live.

Spend points prerequisite (5/10/20/40 i think) is too high. At least 5/10 should be lowered. Or just make Racial Tree + first tree count together for Spend Point Prerequisite.

[xrampage]

Ok I can live wihtout all those extra action boost charges (5), but no haste boost? That's a big no on my list right now.

[NytCrawlr]

Playing around with it some, it seems to me that you have to take at least one tier in Attack Boost, and at least one tier in the Meditation thing to be able to progress any further once you have taken all of the weapon enhancements. You can also go the Dodge route too, but if you are playing a build that neither has Dodge, nor benefits much from the Meditation line, you are kind of stuck in taking abilities that you may never use just to meet the point expenditure requirements.

Currently the way it is set up breaks the Zerkul build as well, which is what I am currently playing on my Stalwart, but I can live with that one some if they can lower some of the point expenditure requirements, or dress up Kensei a little more.

I do like that it's going to open up some interesting fighter/monk combos and I tip my hat off to the Devs for that addition, but currently I just don't like the fact that you are forced to take abilities that you may never use to progress fully in this tree.

For the most part I like Stalwart, I just think either the main Stalwart stance abilities need to be lowered in price, or it needs to go from a 6 chain to a 3 chain and then add in some other abilities or adjust in other ways.

Pretty much said this and more in my survey too.

Addendum: Also obviously the lack of haste boost in either tree, yet still keeping the alacrity capstone and adding additional ways to get doublestrike seems weird to me. If you want Rangers to be faster, I am good with that, but give fighters at least a watered down version of their haste boost or buff rangers and give fighters what rangers have currently (haven't looked at Ranger yet, but saw elsewhere they have haste boost and also not sure of the bonuses for it, but hopefully you get where I am going with this).

[Jay203]

Crossbow is missing from the weapons specilization for Tier 2+ btw

[sephiroth1084]

The ability to treat a non-standard weapon as a Ki weapon should be much lower in the Kensei tree. Yes, it can be quite powerful, but it's also the sort of thing that you'd want to build for pretty much from level 1, which means you either have a bunch of wasted build decisions until half-way through your character's life, or you build your character one way, and then make a bunch of feat-swaps or do an LR. That isn't good design.