Dawn of Genesis: Martial Prowess Epic Power Pool Proliferation

[The Doctor]

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Posting on behalf of El Bee.

Hey folks! I am here to break down the powers of Martial Prowess for Tankers and Brutes. I also wanted give my thought process behind the creation and proliferation of Martial Prowess.

When trying to design the epic pool for Scrapper and Stalker back in Rebirth Issue 1, I tried to keep it roughly within the spirit of other epics available for the ATs when it came to the powers available in it. I also wanted to have a pool that could be more easily made to fit a natural theme while still being applicable to every origin. Martial Prowess specifically came about after a lot of thought being put into the idea that the epic pool was less your character gaining power and more a signifier of your character's mastery of melee combat. For Scrapper and Stalker specifically, I came to the conclusion to make their powers good utility powers for someone focused on scrapping. Finally, I wanted one of the powers available in the pools to be unique to each AT and sort of.. emulate the other AT. All of these concepts carried on for the proliferation to Tanker and Brute.

We will start with the universal powers available to both ATs.

Throwing Dagger - Available level 35
Ranged, Immobilize, Minor DMG(Lethal), Minor DOT(Lethal) Foe -Regen
"Scouts and warriors have used small throwing blades to distract and weaken since metal was first smelted. You throw a knife to strike at a vital point on your foe. This does Minor Lethal damage, immobilizes the target, and inflicts a minor lethal DoT that moderately reduces their regen. Recharge: Moderate"

Design Notes: Most of the ancillary pools for Tanker and Brute feature an Immobilize and a Hold for their first two powers. For this power specifically, I wanted something different than Scrapper and Stalkers version of the power. Fitting the theme while having it immobilize and not using the crossbow took quite a bit of thought. I eventually settled on Throwing Dagger as it's secondary effect could be the minor DoT effect with -regen. Effectively giving tankers and brutes a weaker, infinite version of Envenomed Daggers that can be used when temporary powers are disallowed.

Battle Hardened - Available level 35
Auto: +Max HP, +Max End
Your experience in combat has given you strength and stamina! This power costs no endurance and increases your Max HP and Endurance.

Design Notes: Most of the ancillary epic pools for Tanker and Brute, minus the patron pools, feature an immobilize and a hold for their first two powers. The exception is Energy Mastery with Conserve Power and Focused Accuracy. I wanted to break the format of Immobilize and Hold with the second available power. This power began life as a clone of Warrior's Mark, except with -dmg and -acc. I eventually tried it with taunt added as well. After some thought and playtesting this was scrapped. Tying a debuff to a taunt effect may result in people using the taunt exclusively to get the debuff effect. This would mess with aggro management and might cause issues. Knowing that players would have to pick Throwing Dagger or this power to get into the pool; I settled on an auto power. The Max HP and Endurance giving weight to the idea that your character is tough because they have seen a lot of fighting. Thus, are battle hardened.

Bodkin Bolt - Available level 41 with 1 power pick
Ranged, High DMG(Lethal), -Def (All), -Res(All)
You employ a crossbow to launch an armor-piercing bodkin bolt at your target. This will strike for high damage and leave the enemy with less resistance and defense for a short while.  You must be level 41 and own Throwing Dagger or Battle Hardened to purchase this power. Damage: High, Recharge: High

Design Notes: A ranged attack is a common occurrence in epic pools for melee ATs. This is no exception here. However the crossbow attacks for Scrapper and Stalker were able to play into their inherent effects. Scrappers can crit and have a double base chance of critically hitting with theirs. Stalkers can fire theirs from a hidden state to deal bonus damage. The purpose of these were to finish off a fleeing opponent. While I could have tied a greater taunt effect to Tanker and Brute's versions of the power; I decided to go with something that could offer more utility and debuff. A Bodkin point bolt came to mind. Bodkin points are a real thing used to penetrate stuff. Like armor.

Valiance - Available level 44 with 2 power picks
Toggle: Self +Regen; Ally +Regen, +Res (Fear, Confuse)
You prefer to lead by example; inspiring others by your presence and bravery. While this power is active you will gain regeneration. Allies in your vicinity will gain regeneration and resistance to fear and confuse effects. You must be level 44 and own two other powers from Martial Prowess to purchase.

Design Notes: Gather Chi as the capstone power of Martial Prowess for Scrapper and Stalker was made with their role as a DPS in mind. It was designed to offer potent recovery and regen at the cost of adding its management as a click power to your mental stack with an uptime to manage. Valiance came from the idea of the person doing tanking being the initiator of fights (usually). It is themed that your confidence under fire is inspiring and is made to offer a support option for those who want to run it.

The idea behind the regeneration effects is the concept of morale and the drive to actually fight. You gain regeneration because you are here to be on the front and are confident you can handle it. Your allies gain regeneration and resistance to fear and confuse because you are there on the front. Kind of like if Superior Man or The Bulk was on their team. They have an invincible being or an incredibly heavy hitter on their side, so they feel they can fight on!

Tanker and Brute both have their own unique power available to them in Martial Prowess. Here are those powers in detail.

Art of War - Tanker Exclusive, Available level 41 with 1 power pick
Auto: Global Chance of +DMG (all), +End Discount
Your practiced moves allow you to get into a rhythm that blends a perfect combination of offense and defense. Every attack you make has a high chance of increasing your damage (all) and endurance discount for 10 seconds as your rhythm makes your attacks more efficient. This effect stacks 3 times. You must be level 41 and own Throwing Dagger or Battle Hardened to purchase this power.

Design Notes: Scrapper's Shukuchi allows them to briefly emulate a Stalker by teleporting into a group of mobs with a very short, very high stealth buff that also has a moderate damage buff to emulate the hidden effect. It is not nearly as potent as an actual stalker by design. Art of War allows Tankers to emulate a Brute's bonus to sustained attacks, aka fury. I didn't want to just straight copy fury however, that's Brute's thing! This is where a stacking global enhancement proc came in. This was made to thematically represent that you're less getting angrier as you attack and more that you're just really good at hitting things. This originally had Resistance bonuses instead of endurance discount as you attacked but that was scrapped as Tankers are durable enough.

Reckless Abandon - Brute Exclusive, Available level 41 with 1 power pick
Self +Fury, +Res (all)
You succumb to your rage and begin fighting with no regard for your well-being. This power gives you a large amount of Fury and increases your damage resistance to everything for 30 seconds as you become too angry to feel the damage. You sacrifice a portion of your own health in your ferocity.  You must be level 41 and own Throwing Dagger or Battle Hardened to purchase this power. Recharge: Long

Design Notes: This was the power that was the hardest to design by far. It was originally meant to be the Tanker emulation power for Brutes. I kept running into the issue of how to do that. Just as I had to impose strict limits on Art of War so Tankers wouldn't do more damage than Brutes, I couldn't let Brutes become as durable as Tankers. This would overpower the balance of the two. This power used to have no self damage effect, gave +regen, and did not give as much Fury.

After playtesting, this clashed with the name and proved to be too powerful in terms of durability. This made me change gears on the idea of the power. I dropped the regen, upped the fury gain, and gave it a self damage effect. It went from a Tanker emulation power to a unique choice for a Brute. The ideal time to use this power is when a Brute is in combat and is secure enough that they can lose a large chunk of health to get a bunch of Fury right there. The +resist stayed as it offers a little extra security and played into the theme super well.

That covers all of the powers available to Tankers and Brutes with Martial Prowess. You will find it available in Rebirth Issue 6: Dawn of Genesis!

[Redlynne]

Tanker and Brute both have their own unique power available to them in Martial Prowess. Here are those powers in detail.

Art of War - Tanker Exclusive, Available level 41 with 1 power pick
Auto: Global Chance of +DMG (all), +End Discount
Your practiced moves allow you to get into a rhythm that blends a perfect combination of offense and defense. Every attack you make has a high chance of increasing your damage (all) and endurance discount for 10 seconds as your rhythm makes your attacks more efficient. This effect stacks 3 times. You must be level 41 and own Throwing Dagger or Battle Hardened to purchase this power.

Design Notes: Scrapper's Shukuchi allows them to briefly emulate a Stalker by teleporting into a group of mobs with a very short, very high stealth buff that also has a moderate damage buff to emulate the hidden effect. It is not nearly as potent as an actual stalker by design. Art of War allows Tankers to emulate a Brute's bonus to sustained attacks, aka fury. I didn't want to just straight copy fury however, that's Brute's thing! This is where a stacking global enhancement proc came in. This was made to thematically represent that you're less getting angrier as you attack and more that you're just really good at hitting things. This originally had Resistance bonuses instead of endurance discount as you attacked but that was scrapped as Tankers are durable enough.

Reckless Abandon - Brute Exclusive, Available level 41 with 1 power pick
Self +Fury, +Res (all)
You succumb to your rage and begin fighting with no regard for your well-being. This power gives you a large amount of Fury and increases your damage resistance to everything for 30 seconds as you become too angry to feel the damage. You sacrifice a portion of your own health in your ferocity.  You must be level 41 and own Throwing Dagger or Battle Hardened to purchase this power. Recharge: Long

Design Notes: This was the power that was the hardest to design by far. It was originally meant to be the Tanker emulation power for Brutes. I kept running into the issue of how to do that. Just as I had to impose strict limits on Art of War so Tankers wouldn't do more damage than Brutes, I couldn't let Brutes become as durable as Tankers. This would overpower the balance of the two. This power used to have no self damage effect, gave +regen, and did not give as much Fury.

After playtesting, this clashed with the name and proved to be too powerful in terms of durability. This made me change gears on the idea of the power. I dropped the regen, upped the fury gain, and gave it a self damage effect. It went from a Tanker emulation power to a unique choice for a Brute. The ideal time to use this power is when a Brute is in combat and is secure enough that they can lose a large chunk of health to get a bunch of Fury right there. The +resist stayed as it offers a little extra security and played into the theme super well.

Counter-proposal (for both).

Pound Into Submission (Auto)
Every Brute Primary damaging attack power and every Tanker Secondary damaging attack power has a proc chance to inflict Fear, Immobilize, Stun, +1 Mag to control effects and Psionic damage.

Basically "borrow" from the Hybrid Control Core Embodiment and Hybrid Control Radial Embodiment effects, but those effects only boost the Brute Primary and Tanker Secondary attack powers (instead of applying to Pool/Anciliary/Patron/etc. attack powers) and are Always ON (rather than having a 50% uptime at best). Can be stacked with Hybrid Control slotting for even more powerful stacking of these control effects.