TK Changes April 2004

April 7
/berserk1

Now adds 112 (and apparently a fractional amount) to normal attacks. Duration is 20 seconds.

/combo1

Interesting data was produced while testing VK damage changes: Combo1 splits 90% damage between Health and Mind, but over a series of attacks places about 65% of the damage into health, making Combo1second only to Head Hit in directed pool damage, and slightly better than Leg Hit. Base HAM cost for Combo1 is 52, which is 11 points less than Leg Hit and 19 points less than Head Hit.

/warcry1

Now has a chance to pause attacks of non-player opponents for 10 seconds or until they are attacked. An interesting concept of crowd control which has potential, but is tricky to use and near useless at the moment because the most likely target to be affected by warcry is the target you are attacking. Affecting opponents around the target (the crowd) seems only marginally successful for affecting 1 target, and is less likely to affect multiple targets. The warcry target appears to be the epicenter of warcry. Affected targets will continue to pursue, but won't attack.

Knock Down and Lower Stance Attacks

KD bug is back so that an opponent who is knocked down then hit with KD or stance attack again will recover to standing. 30 second timer prevents a single opponent from being successfully knocked down or stance-changed by any KD or stance attack. Consider using Dizzy before a KD.

Vibro Knuckler HAM Encumberance

Changed so that HAM encumberance is lower for earlier skills and higher for more advanced skills. Exact formula is not known at this time. For most skills, the HAM encumberance will be lower than it appears on the VK stats. Teir 4 and TKM skills may cost more HAM than is on the VK stats. ONLY attacks draw HAM costs - skills such as berserk, power boost, intimidate, taunt, center of being and warcry do not draw extra HAM encumberance from VKs.

Vibro Knuckler Damage

The biggest change for TKs in Publish 7 is that equipping VKs now produces 2 multipliers which increase the damage range for all attacks. Minimum damage is now firgured as ((minimumCharacterDamage + minimumKnucklerDamage) x 1.5). Maximum damage is now figured by first multiplying the VK damage spread (vkMax-vkMin) by 1.5, then adding minimumCharacterDamage + minimumKnucklerDamage, and finally multiplying by 1.25. I've created a DPS calculator which incorporates VK damage.

TK Changes November 2003

November 24
Center of Being (CoB) Update

CoB now works. Details will be posted as tests are completed. At first blush, a TKm sustains CoB for about 10 seconds and evades or counterattacks about 1-in-3 attacks. There is an indication of exceptional results such as Stun on an opponent.

/berserk1

Damage has been reduced from 2x to 1.27x.

/powerBoost

Upramp for Mind changed so that Mind heals to normal value during 1 minute upramp, then pops to boosted level. Therefore, at 1 minute after initiating /powerBoost, all three HAM pools are at boosted level. Previously, Mind healed to normal during the 1 minute upramp, then healed to the boosted level.

November 17
Force of Will (FoW)

FoW now has a 60-minute timer which is started upon successful recapacitation. Fow can be attempted once per incapacitation. The 60 minute timer does not start if an attempt fails. Upon recapacitation, remaining HAM is equally distributed between HAM pools (like the Zabrak inate ability Equalize - something TKO can be proud of since it was a TKO member who promoted Equalize for FoW). So, if your Health has been depleted but you have 600 Health and 300 Action remaining, upon recapcitation you will have 300 in all pools ((600+300+0)/3).

Center of Being (CoB)

The so-called Tank Ability of all melee professions is broken at the time of this writing. Supposedly the skill will increase melee ability to dodge and counterattack. The skill (/centerOfBeing) is gained at Novice Brawler and each melee profession has a separate (CoB bonuses between melee professions won't stack) to the CoB attributes: Center of Being Duration, Center of Being Effectiveness and, possibly related, Defense Acuity.

TK Changes October 2003

Knock Down and Lower Stance Attacks

Lunge and knockdown attacks have all received a lowered HAM, increased damage pass. MOBs may now take longer to recover from lowered-stance attacks. During testing, it was noted that the 30 second timer seems to apply only to one opponent, meaning you can rotate lower stance and knock down attacks between multiple opponents.

/unarmedLunge1

The usefulness of Lunge has been restored with significantly reduced HAM cost and 1x damage. HAM cost is now on par with /unarmedStun1, /unarmedBlind1 and /unarmedSpinAttack1 which appear to have a base HAM cost of 8/12/8. The HAM cost change should reduce your cost to 1/4 prepatch costs. Range remains 15m.

/unarmedKnockDown1

Usefulness has been restored to KD1 as well with a reduced HAM and slight increase in damage. HAM costs are about 1/3 prepatch, and a base cost of approximately 15/22/15. Damage has been increased from 1.75x to 2x.

/powerBoost

Now very useful, /powerBoost buffs HAM by 1/2 Mind value for 10 minutes, and works 100% of the time. /powerBoost must be inititated during meditation, but there is no need to stay in a meditative stance. /powerBoost has 3 essential phases which occur over a 12 minute period:

1. Upramp (1 minute):
   Health and Action max are increased by 1/2 current Mind stat value. Mind is temporarily decreased by same buff amount. Health and Action 'heal' to new buffed max over 1 minute upramp period, while Mind heals back to normal stat level. At the end of the upramp, Mind receives the same bonus as Health and Action and begins to heal to the new max level.
   
2. Plateau. Duration 5 min + (meditation skill mod/100 * 5min) :
   Health and Action maintain buffed levels. Mind 'heals' to new max level (appears to heal at normal regeneration rate and is affected by stance and HAM penalties from armor, etc).
   
3. Downramp (1 min):
   All HAM depletes over a 1 minute period to normal stat max levels. HAM damage is retained after downramp.

/unarmedCombo1

Damage has been doubled from 1.25x to 2.5x putting /unarmedCombo1 more on par with /unarmedHit2 for usefulness.

/unarmedKnockDown2

Restored usefuleness with HAM costs cut in half, and damage increased from 2.5x to 3x.

From the Test Center

TC reports the following changes to TKA which are likely to be implimented mid-November.

Defense Acuity: An additional ability which randomly determines a dodge, block or counterattack.