The Widowed
02-14-2006, 06:13 PM
Having attained another Security Level last night (while I continue to avoid the pointless hassle of the "level up" thread), the Widowed finally picked up Evasion, a much-needed power for dealing with Nemesis, the Malta Group and other villains who throw out Area of Effect attacks like beads at Mardi Gras. So she finally has Evasion, hence I no longer need to continue with my plan to use my last respec to get it.
But I've decided to use my respec anyway, simply because I no longer see the need for Thunder Kick. Thunder Kick deals pathetically low damage and has the least appreciable special effect (a tiny chance at disorienting the enemy), and with Quickness loaded and Recharges slotted even Thunder Kick's speedy recharge isn't as much of a benefit anymore; I can still throw chains of Storm Kicks, Crane Kicks, Cobra Strikes and Dragon Tails with frightening speed. :think:
Plus, with the respec I'd like to take Stealth at a lower level...maybe Invisibility as well. The next time I take Widdy to a PvP zone, wouldn't it be nice to beat the Stalkers at their own game? Maybe I could use other Heroes as bait and set up ambushes for them....
So the question is this: When I get rid of Thunder Kick, which power should I use to replace it and how should I tie it into the Widowed's character concept? Her present list of powers is at the very bottom, and the choices I see for replacing her Thunder Kick are these:
Nice Choices for the Widowed:
Crippling Axe Kick -- Being the multiple Black Belt that she is, she has a mess of attacks at her disposal. Why not replace one attack with another? I even heard that Crippling Axe Kick doesn't suck anymore....
Focused Accuracy -- Opponents are finding it increasingly difficult to block, dodge or feint the Widowed's blows....
Grant Invisibility -- "Follow me, stick to the shadows and do what I do."
Assault -- "Hit them. Hard. Like this!"
Petrifying Gaze -- Widdy: "Time to pay for your crimes, you subhuman filth..." Baddie: "GAHHHH! It's the Widowed, coming to get me! Oh pleasepleasepleasedon'thurtme...." *cringes in fear*
Powers which I will not consider:
Web Grenade -- I tried it. It sucks. Come to think of it, Immobilization has to be the most useless negative status effect ever....
Jump Kick -- I tried it too. It also sucks.
Kick -- Too slow for too little pay-off.
Challenge -- No thanks. Mine's better.
Maneuvers -- I hear it sucks. Besides, Widdy doesn't mind playing the human shield. Why do my teammates need that little extra Defense boost when I'm doing everything I can to make sure they don't get attacked at all?
Hasten -- Oh, please. Widdy already has Quickness, and even with six-slotted Stamina it's easy to overwork her endurance with a blinding chain of attacks. Hasten would do more harm than good.
Hover -- Widdy can't fly.
Recall Friend -- Widdy can't warp the fabric of space and time.
Teleport Foe -- Widdy can't warp the fabric of space and time and she already has Warrior's Challenge, which seems to do a better job at luring single baddies into an ambush anyway.
Torrent -- Widdy can't summon waves of darkness that smack people around.
Phase Shift -- I can explain away Stealth and Invisibility: Widdy's such a ninja that she could put the Splinter Cell guy to shame, and two of her four costumes are conducive to hiding in shadows and creeping around anyway. I can even throw together another "disguise" costume to explain Invisibility. But nothing I can say or do can explain why the Widowed--a Natural Scrapper--should be able to assume a ghostlike, intangible state. Maybe I just lack imagination....
Riding the Fence:
Conserve Power -- Six-slotted Stamina keeps Widdy going and going and going, yet she still finds herself running out of endurance in those pitched battles where she has to take on, say, 20 or 30 enemies in rapid succession. Conserve Power would help with that problem--but then again, so do blue Inspirations--and given how uncommon such huge fights are, would this be a waste of a power to take?
Boxing, Flurry and Air Superiority -- If I'm going to replace Thunder Kick with another attack, well, I'm not sure if any of these can outperform Crippling Axe Kick. If they can, I'll consider them.
Aid Other -- Widdy, a pragmatist, is not too good to use devices, and she's all about helping her team. But since she's usually in melee--and a pitched melee is not a good time to be using powers from the Medicine pool--it becomes a less useful and potentially hazardous power for her to use.
Stimulant -- See "Aid Other".
Caltrops -- Caltrops is more useful for Blasters, who want to slow down an enemy's advance, thus buying more time for the Blaster to blast the baddie out of his boots. In my opinion, the only times a Scrapper would use Caltrops would be: 1) To keep lots of enemies from running away (which is moot; Enemies fleeing melee are rarely clumped conveniently tight for an AoE attack) and 2) to slow pursuers should the Scrapper need to flee. Slowing an enemy's advance with Caltrops is a non-issue; Widdy wants them to come into melee. Widdy runs like lightning, so she can easily overtake fleeing opponents or escape pursuers (and don't forget her Invisibility...). Protecting her squishy friends with Caltrops isn't an issue; That's what Warrior's Challenge and Dragon's Tail are for. And the damage from Caltrops is too trivial to be a factor in this decision.
Provoke -- Having the power to taunt multiple enemies at once (as opposed to Warrior's Challenge's single-target capability) is undoubtedly useful for protecting squishy teammates. But is Widdy doing just fine with what she already has? Warrior's Challenge has a greater accuracy than Provoke does, and it recharges quickly with no endurance cost. The rest is just selecting new targets in rapid sucession.
Combat Jumping -- Widdy already has a high Defense (Super Reflexes and all), and she jumps pretty high with Hurdle. Would this power be redundant?
What Widdy has:
Martial Arts: Thunder Kick (but not for long...), Storm Kick, Cobra Strike, Focus Chi, Warrior's Challenge, Crane Kick, Dragon's Tail, Eagle's Claw.
Super Reflexes: Focused Fighting, Focused Senses, Agile, Practiced Brawler, Dodge, Quickness, Lucky, Evasion, Elude. Yep...all of them.
Fitness: Swift, Hurdle, Health, Stamina.
Concealment: Stealth, Invisibility.
I'm pretty content with her slotting, and problems with slotting are easily fixed as I go. So slotting her powers isn't the issue here. The problem is that I only have one respec, I'm trading one power for another and I'd like to make the best of it.
Yes, some of my power choices are unpopular with the City of Heroes Elite Club. The City of Heroes Elite Club aren't as smart as they think they are. They're powergamers who are focused--almost sexually fixated--on dishing out gobs and gobs of damage. I try to tailor the Widowed's powers for versatility and practicality; She doesn't hang with an eight-man team of world-crushing powergamers, so she has to be ready to function both in solo play and in cohesion with an endless variety of teammates.
I won't give up Cobra Strike; Enemies can still get a shot off if I charge them with Eagle's Claw, but they usually can't if I use Cobra Strike...and getting shot at sucks no matter what, especially if the shot alerts all of the other baddies....
I won't give up Warrior's Challenge; Feel free to ask Joe Schmoe over there how many times I used Warrior's Challenge last night to turn tricky confrontations into walks in the park. Plus there's the whole "protect your friends" angle; Widdy (with Super Reflexes) fares better against Sappers than Haze (with Regeneration) does, so it was nice to be able to yank the Sappers' aggro off of Haze, even from halfway across the room (as Haze sometimes found himself when backing away from those goddamned motherlovin' Sappers...).
I won't give up Agile, Dodge or Lucky; When that rare Hold or Sleep gets through Widdy's guard and drops all of her toggles, those auto defenses are all she has. This isn't common with perma Practiced Brawler, but sometimes she's toe to toe with a purple-conning Archvillain, and that one lucky Hold is all it takes....
I won't give up Health; True, it's no Regeneration, but I've had it for 27 levels straight and I can't imagine Widdy's life without it, and sometimes I wonder if that recovery rate isn't really all that good, if it's only a hair above Widdy's normal recovery rate, if she could give up her four-slotted Health and do just as well. But the last thing I want is to blow my respec, get rid of Health and find out the hard way how useful and life-preserving it really is...erm, was.
I won't give up Swift and/or Hurdle; Name one other Pool which offers travel powers capable of boosting your ground speed and your leaping height. That's right...there are none. And I don't care what the Elite say; Swift and Hurdle are travel powers, damn it. There's nothing like racing through industrial zones, leaping over walls and sprinting madly across rooftops like Strider Hiryu on angel dust. Maybe Quickness should be added to the list of travel powers too....
And if you ask me to give up any of the other powers--Crane Kick, Practiced Brawler, Quickness, Focus Chi, Invisibility, Eagle's Claw, Elude...well, you must be out of your friggin' mind. :rolleyes:
In your face, Elite Club.
So...I'm open to suggestions. What should I use to replace Thunder Kick, and why? There's a cookie in it for you.... :)
But I've decided to use my respec anyway, simply because I no longer see the need for Thunder Kick. Thunder Kick deals pathetically low damage and has the least appreciable special effect (a tiny chance at disorienting the enemy), and with Quickness loaded and Recharges slotted even Thunder Kick's speedy recharge isn't as much of a benefit anymore; I can still throw chains of Storm Kicks, Crane Kicks, Cobra Strikes and Dragon Tails with frightening speed. :think:
Plus, with the respec I'd like to take Stealth at a lower level...maybe Invisibility as well. The next time I take Widdy to a PvP zone, wouldn't it be nice to beat the Stalkers at their own game? Maybe I could use other Heroes as bait and set up ambushes for them....
So the question is this: When I get rid of Thunder Kick, which power should I use to replace it and how should I tie it into the Widowed's character concept? Her present list of powers is at the very bottom, and the choices I see for replacing her Thunder Kick are these:
Nice Choices for the Widowed:
Crippling Axe Kick -- Being the multiple Black Belt that she is, she has a mess of attacks at her disposal. Why not replace one attack with another? I even heard that Crippling Axe Kick doesn't suck anymore....
Focused Accuracy -- Opponents are finding it increasingly difficult to block, dodge or feint the Widowed's blows....
Grant Invisibility -- "Follow me, stick to the shadows and do what I do."
Assault -- "Hit them. Hard. Like this!"
Petrifying Gaze -- Widdy: "Time to pay for your crimes, you subhuman filth..." Baddie: "GAHHHH! It's the Widowed, coming to get me! Oh pleasepleasepleasedon'thurtme...." *cringes in fear*
Powers which I will not consider:
Web Grenade -- I tried it. It sucks. Come to think of it, Immobilization has to be the most useless negative status effect ever....
Jump Kick -- I tried it too. It also sucks.
Kick -- Too slow for too little pay-off.
Challenge -- No thanks. Mine's better.
Maneuvers -- I hear it sucks. Besides, Widdy doesn't mind playing the human shield. Why do my teammates need that little extra Defense boost when I'm doing everything I can to make sure they don't get attacked at all?
Hasten -- Oh, please. Widdy already has Quickness, and even with six-slotted Stamina it's easy to overwork her endurance with a blinding chain of attacks. Hasten would do more harm than good.
Hover -- Widdy can't fly.
Recall Friend -- Widdy can't warp the fabric of space and time.
Teleport Foe -- Widdy can't warp the fabric of space and time and she already has Warrior's Challenge, which seems to do a better job at luring single baddies into an ambush anyway.
Torrent -- Widdy can't summon waves of darkness that smack people around.
Phase Shift -- I can explain away Stealth and Invisibility: Widdy's such a ninja that she could put the Splinter Cell guy to shame, and two of her four costumes are conducive to hiding in shadows and creeping around anyway. I can even throw together another "disguise" costume to explain Invisibility. But nothing I can say or do can explain why the Widowed--a Natural Scrapper--should be able to assume a ghostlike, intangible state. Maybe I just lack imagination....
Riding the Fence:
Conserve Power -- Six-slotted Stamina keeps Widdy going and going and going, yet she still finds herself running out of endurance in those pitched battles where she has to take on, say, 20 or 30 enemies in rapid succession. Conserve Power would help with that problem--but then again, so do blue Inspirations--and given how uncommon such huge fights are, would this be a waste of a power to take?
Boxing, Flurry and Air Superiority -- If I'm going to replace Thunder Kick with another attack, well, I'm not sure if any of these can outperform Crippling Axe Kick. If they can, I'll consider them.
Aid Other -- Widdy, a pragmatist, is not too good to use devices, and she's all about helping her team. But since she's usually in melee--and a pitched melee is not a good time to be using powers from the Medicine pool--it becomes a less useful and potentially hazardous power for her to use.
Stimulant -- See "Aid Other".
Caltrops -- Caltrops is more useful for Blasters, who want to slow down an enemy's advance, thus buying more time for the Blaster to blast the baddie out of his boots. In my opinion, the only times a Scrapper would use Caltrops would be: 1) To keep lots of enemies from running away (which is moot; Enemies fleeing melee are rarely clumped conveniently tight for an AoE attack) and 2) to slow pursuers should the Scrapper need to flee. Slowing an enemy's advance with Caltrops is a non-issue; Widdy wants them to come into melee. Widdy runs like lightning, so she can easily overtake fleeing opponents or escape pursuers (and don't forget her Invisibility...). Protecting her squishy friends with Caltrops isn't an issue; That's what Warrior's Challenge and Dragon's Tail are for. And the damage from Caltrops is too trivial to be a factor in this decision.
Provoke -- Having the power to taunt multiple enemies at once (as opposed to Warrior's Challenge's single-target capability) is undoubtedly useful for protecting squishy teammates. But is Widdy doing just fine with what she already has? Warrior's Challenge has a greater accuracy than Provoke does, and it recharges quickly with no endurance cost. The rest is just selecting new targets in rapid sucession.
Combat Jumping -- Widdy already has a high Defense (Super Reflexes and all), and she jumps pretty high with Hurdle. Would this power be redundant?
What Widdy has:
Martial Arts: Thunder Kick (but not for long...), Storm Kick, Cobra Strike, Focus Chi, Warrior's Challenge, Crane Kick, Dragon's Tail, Eagle's Claw.
Super Reflexes: Focused Fighting, Focused Senses, Agile, Practiced Brawler, Dodge, Quickness, Lucky, Evasion, Elude. Yep...all of them.
Fitness: Swift, Hurdle, Health, Stamina.
Concealment: Stealth, Invisibility.
I'm pretty content with her slotting, and problems with slotting are easily fixed as I go. So slotting her powers isn't the issue here. The problem is that I only have one respec, I'm trading one power for another and I'd like to make the best of it.
Yes, some of my power choices are unpopular with the City of Heroes Elite Club. The City of Heroes Elite Club aren't as smart as they think they are. They're powergamers who are focused--almost sexually fixated--on dishing out gobs and gobs of damage. I try to tailor the Widowed's powers for versatility and practicality; She doesn't hang with an eight-man team of world-crushing powergamers, so she has to be ready to function both in solo play and in cohesion with an endless variety of teammates.
I won't give up Cobra Strike; Enemies can still get a shot off if I charge them with Eagle's Claw, but they usually can't if I use Cobra Strike...and getting shot at sucks no matter what, especially if the shot alerts all of the other baddies....
I won't give up Warrior's Challenge; Feel free to ask Joe Schmoe over there how many times I used Warrior's Challenge last night to turn tricky confrontations into walks in the park. Plus there's the whole "protect your friends" angle; Widdy (with Super Reflexes) fares better against Sappers than Haze (with Regeneration) does, so it was nice to be able to yank the Sappers' aggro off of Haze, even from halfway across the room (as Haze sometimes found himself when backing away from those goddamned motherlovin' Sappers...).
I won't give up Agile, Dodge or Lucky; When that rare Hold or Sleep gets through Widdy's guard and drops all of her toggles, those auto defenses are all she has. This isn't common with perma Practiced Brawler, but sometimes she's toe to toe with a purple-conning Archvillain, and that one lucky Hold is all it takes....
I won't give up Health; True, it's no Regeneration, but I've had it for 27 levels straight and I can't imagine Widdy's life without it, and sometimes I wonder if that recovery rate isn't really all that good, if it's only a hair above Widdy's normal recovery rate, if she could give up her four-slotted Health and do just as well. But the last thing I want is to blow my respec, get rid of Health and find out the hard way how useful and life-preserving it really is...erm, was.
I won't give up Swift and/or Hurdle; Name one other Pool which offers travel powers capable of boosting your ground speed and your leaping height. That's right...there are none. And I don't care what the Elite say; Swift and Hurdle are travel powers, damn it. There's nothing like racing through industrial zones, leaping over walls and sprinting madly across rooftops like Strider Hiryu on angel dust. Maybe Quickness should be added to the list of travel powers too....
And if you ask me to give up any of the other powers--Crane Kick, Practiced Brawler, Quickness, Focus Chi, Invisibility, Eagle's Claw, Elude...well, you must be out of your friggin' mind. :rolleyes:
In your face, Elite Club.
So...I'm open to suggestions. What should I use to replace Thunder Kick, and why? There's a cookie in it for you.... :)