knockback
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City of Heroes shows off the upcoming Kinetic Melee set
Melee characters in City of Heroes have always lacked ranged abilities. Some of this is implied by the archetype, of course -- you wouldn't expect a character built around hand-to-hand combat to be at maximum potency outside of grabbing distance -- but it's a bit of a disadvantage at times when a tanker or brute can do very little but get shot as he moves into range. Kinetic Melee, one of the power sets coming with the Going Rogue expansion, is poised to change that a little. It might not be a blaster set, but it's more than capable of mixing things up at a longer range. Of course, that's hardly the only trick that the new powerset can pull. Kinetic Melee is full of smooth maneuvers that weaken the target with each hit -- and one of the marquee abilities, Siphon Power, strengthens the wielder with each hit. It's a steady chain of the target being worn down and the player character building up, coupled with knockback and knockdowns to keep control of the battle flow. Check out our gallery below, or take a look at the official site for more details on one of the upcoming powersets for City of Heroes. %Gallery-98440%
Abilities I usually wish didn't exist in 5-mans
Most tanks are control freaks. As a matter of fact, you should hope that your tank is a control freak, because the ones who shrug off a mob running around loose are the ones you probably don't want tanking your run anyway. With that in mind, there are several player abilities that, while great for soloing or PvP, don't make the transition to a 5-man very well. Either they make life a real nuisance for your group members due to inherent design, or they tend to do so in the hands of a player who doesn't deploy them in a particularly helpful fashion. Not all tanks will have the same degree of irritation with all of the following skills (for example, I play a druid, and because bears don't have a ranged silence, a knockback on a caster mob is much more likely to annoy me than, say, a death knight tank), but I promise you that they've all been mentioned by my tanking colleagues as abilities with a high chance of blowing a pull.
The Thunderstorm of Thunder Bluff
We've been hating on knockbacks a little bit, but after seeing the video above (from Hellfire-EU if I'm not mistaken) I have to admit they can cause some hilarious situations. This video has certainly been making the rounds- quite a few people wrote in about it, and it appeared in the comments section of our Breakfast Topic the other day.There's plenty of cries of "nerf please!" when people see what happens here, but how often are you going to run across a situation like this? Fifty Alliance tightly packed in a little elevator unable to see what's above them? I think there are three locations like this in all of WoW. Assaulting Thunder Bluff may suck when the Horde knows you're there, but it's not that big of a deal overall. Hilarious when it happens, but it won't happen often. In smaller scale situations like a one on one or a one on two... well, don't get between the Shaman/Mage and the cliff, and you'll be fine, eh?
Breakfast Topic: A knock on knockbacks
The game-changing Echoes of Doom patch brought in a slew of new abilities and some of them included this nifty little feature called 'knockback', which effectively knocks back enemy players and NPCs. It's a whole lot of fun, particularly if you're knocking them off the bridge in Dun Baldar. I've been on the nasty receiving end of a knockback that sent me to my death in Eye of the Storm. I think it's a lot of fun, and it really does create some interesting conundrums in Arenas. Of course, not everyone is thrilled by them. Our very own Allison Robert, bear tank extraordinaire, has torn out about half her hair (poor Allie!) in frustration from knockbacks messing with tanking. She implores you to use these abilities with restraint for the sake of her sanity. It's a level-headed request that Blizzard hears. They've recently hinted at new Glyphs that will remove the knockback effect from certain spells such as Blast Wave, Typhoon, and Thunderstorm. How's your experience with knockback effects? Have you used it to kill enemies in Battlegrounds? Used it to escape some pesky Rogue slicing and dicing your butt? Maybe you've even used it in *gasp* an instance and rearranged the mobs that the tank so painstakingly positioned through the pull. How have you been (ab)using knockbacks? What's your take on the new mechanic? Yay? Nay? Art-fay?
Massively's WAR Camp: Tier 3 Scenario Guides
This week on the WAR Camp, we're hitting the scenarios again, and we're focusing on a couple of the offerings in Tier 3. In Tier 3, knockbacks really start to make a difference, with most classes by this point having received their knockback abilities. This allows for some new strategies in Tier 3 scenarios, and is reportedly the cause of a lot of keyboard-snapping and monitor-tossing, especially in a particular lava-ridden area -- you better believe it's one of the scenarios we checked out! Join us over the page to see the gallery guide from our trip to the molten rocks of Tor Anroc, and after that, we visit Talabec Dam for some bombing-run fun. Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out all of our previous Warhammer Online features, and don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
