Stigma Rifle vs. Corrosive Fists

[Sindrake]

Okay, not to begrudge agents their new chemical attack, and I'm sure this has been brought up before, but humor me for a moment.

Why is it that the Stigma Rifle, whose description states "The Stigma Rifle is a well-known rifle, as it is outlawed in most areas of the galaxy. It fires a small stream of poisonous gas, flaring up on impact" has been changed to deal chemical damage to fit the description, while an entire line of martial artist nanos which imply alternate damage types is being left as is?

Take Corrosive Fists, for example. Its description reads "Surrounds the fists of the target with corrosive chemicals, increasing both Melee and Chemical-based damage attacks by 9 points. Only Martial Artists are able to control this formula."

My fists are surrounded with corrosive chemicals but I still deal melee damage? Okay, it always seemed weird to me, but I just shrugged it off, especially after reading a while back that Funcom had no plans of changing it. But this Stigma Rifle thing kind of opened an old wound. Why change this for agents but not martial artists?

[Cheetra]

Why? because MA's the reh red headed step children of this game, They'd rather make trox forcers tuffer then actually deal with the issue reguarding out class, that's why.

[____________Therpest]

Originally posted by Sindrake
Okay, not to begrudge agents their new chemical attack, and I'm sure this has been brought up before, but humor me for a moment.

Why is it that the Stigma Rifle, whose description states "The Stigma Rifle is a well-known rifle, as it is outlawed in most areas of the galaxy. It fires a small stream of poisonous gas, flaring up on impact" has been changed to deal chemical damage to fit the description, while an entire line of martial artist nanos which imply alternate damage types is being left as is?

Take Corrosive Fists, for example. Its description reads "Surrounds the fists of the target with corrosive chemicals, increasing both Melee and Chemical-based damage attacks by 9 points. Only Martial Artists are able to control this formula."

My fists are surrounded with corrosive chemicals but I still deal melee damage? Okay, it always seemed weird to me, but I just shrugged it off, especially after reading a while back that Funcom had no plans of changing it. But this Stigma Rifle thing kind of opened an old wound. Why change this for agents but not martial artists?

Projectile to Poison was an unneeded change. Though its good. Agents need much more work.

Nowhere in your nano program does it say that the Fists change thier damage type. CHEMICALS are used to do MORE damage... nothing about chemical damage.

[__________starknaked]

Stigma rifles don't do chemical damage, they do poison damage, which works against Disease armor class.

[garpenlov]

Originally posted by Evilwizard

Nowhere in your nano program does it say that the Fists change thier damage type. CHEMICALS are used to do MORE damage... nothing about chemical damage.

CHEMICALS are used to do damage, but it shouldn't be chemical damge.

PROJECTILES are used to do damage, but it shouldn't be projectile damage.

ENERGY is used to do damage, but it shouldn't be energy damage.

FIRE is used to do damage, but it shouldn't be fire damage.


Doesn't make any sense to me. But I don't think changing fist damage types would really help MAs all that much. All I really want now is to team with a NT that can give my MA humidity extractor so I can chain cast the controlled destruction nanos...

[Sindrake]

Originally posted by starknaked
Stigma rifles don't do chemical damage, they do poison damage, which works against Disease armor class.

Thanks for the clarification on Stigma Rifles, I understood poison damage was synonymous with chemical. My bad.

The point, however, remains.

[Sindrake]

Originally posted by garpenlov
But I don't think changing fist damage types would really help MAs all that much.

I'm honestly not sure how much it would help, but the problem with minimum damage post eighty is due the insane AC that a lot of human mobs have. We just aren't doing enough damage to crack it.

It seems to me that the ability to change damage types to something that said mob may be a little more vulnerable to might make a big difference in our ability to solo them.

[________________Togg]

Isnt it interesting that Stigmas do DISEASE damage and not CHEMICAL. After all I will let you go in game and shift right click on the Different ACs. It is cleaarly stated under the Chemical that POISON is included. Then again I have not looked at it since 13.6, has that been changed?

[_____________Entvayn]

I've long since learned that Funcom has no idea what they're doing. My impression is that they wrote down all the game ideas and concepts prior to programming... and then completely ignored them. How else can you explain a nano that wraps someones fist in fire yet does not actually do any fire damage to anyone? They seem to type up these nice little descriptions that give depth to the items... but blatantly state that they have no actual bearing on the reality of the game, except for the stigma rifle.

Everyone knows that MA's have difficulty after a certain level. They cannot over-equip themselves like most classes and hence start doing minimum damage all the time because the mobs are designed to keep up with over-equippers. They've tried to get this through to Funcom but recieve only token attention. Funcom then states that the stigma rifle will start doing the type of damage its description implies. Now... why is it Funcom can do that for the rifle but refuse to change it for the MA's? The stigmas description doesn't imply alternate damage any more than the "fists" nano line.

Changing the damage type of the "fists" nano line is not unbalancing. It's a step toward making MA's playable again. It would allow them versatility. They could alter their damage type to suit their opponent, making up for the fact that they cannot otherwise hurt them much. This seems logical.

I've grouped with Sindrake quite a bit. I know what she's talking about. It's begun to shock me that I (a fixer) have started to out-damage an MA who's 10 levels higher than me. She is slowly slumping into a state wherein the only reason anyone would want her (or any other MA) around it to buff sub-guide on everyone. The number of MA's in the game seems to have dropped, and I can't blame them. If Funcom doesn't soon fix this class there will be no MA's around at all.

Sin... you should post your thread on the MA forum. I invite all MA's to kick up a fuss. It seems like Funcom only listens to the most vocal people and too many MA's just slump away into other classes without making a big enough complaint. Funcom has to be forced to get their act together. The game was released unfinished.... fine. It's been six months since then, I'd expect them to be further along than this. At least the classes should be fixed and playable at all levels.

Entvayn

" Nobody's creepy from the inside, Hazel."
-Death, from "Death: The Time of Your Life"
-by Neil Gaiman