Bracers of Mighty Striking: Near Useless?

[theNater]

Of course it still sucks being a human, having an extra at will and then whenever you have to choice going for basic attack instead of at will (even makes the heavy blade opportunity feat and one of the sword master paragon path powers quite useless)

Yes, a character with Heavy Blade Opportunity is not going to get a lot of use out of these bracers. In other news, a ranger is not going to get a lot of use out of exalted armor.

Dwarven fighters with greataxes or mauls will probably enjoy these. An eladrin fighter with a longspear and Polearm Gamble will probably love them. It's a question of selecting the gear for the character, not grabbing a character and a piece of gear and seeing if it works.

The bonus should really go to standard action attacks to be a nice compensation not having +2 AC/Ref and the magic shield power (maybe reducing them to +1/+2/+3 to not make them an overcompensation).

The compensation for not having +2 AC/Ref is the ability to wield two-handed weapons. No further compensation is needed.

 

[phloog]

I'm sure we'll see more powers that qualify as basic melee attacks in the Martial Powers book in October.

This is a bit disturbing to me, since I've seen it used in support of several things now - the whole point that Power X or Item Y or whatever will suddenly make sense or have value once a subsequent book is released.

I may be the only one who has a problem with this, but doesn't this mean that the game is incomplete, or that you really need to shell out far more than $30 for the 'Player Information'?

I didn't like how 3.5 tended to get broken with the deluge of additional books, but you could ignore all but the core...it seems like we're seeing things in 4.0 where the game is broken UNTIL you buy more books...?

Actually that's probably a bit harsh, but how are new players (one of the target audiences) supposed to understand that a given power is NOT as good as another, but will get much better if you buy another book? I also worry that if a power can improve from weak to viable with the addition of a book, it becomes more likely that another power can move from viable to horribly broken, and what have we gained over the 3e sea of books?

 

[Nikodemus]

This is a bit disturbing to me, since I've seen it used in support of several things now - the whole point that Power X or Item Y or whatever will suddenly make sense or have value once a subsequent book is released.

In theory, I understand your concern. I practice, I don't think it applies here. The item makes sense and has value now. Its a great item for a two handed fighter available at a very early level. In addition, there is no reason to assume that the original assertion (that the martial power book will include several at will powers that are basic attacks) has any degree of accuracy.

 

[Mirtek]

It's a question of selecting the gear for the character, not grabbing a character and a piece of gear and seeing if it works.

However there is not much beside that bracers that a 2h guy can use in his shield slot.

The compensation for not having +2 AC/Ref is the ability to wield two-handed weapons. No further compensation is needed.

Unless the 1h weapon dealing the same damage than the 2h weapn AND allowing a shield is merely 1 feat away. At the moment there's no compensation at all for certain 2h weapons, the bracers might have been a compensation if they could be applied to standard action attacks instead of basic attacks

 

[Maximillian]

I'm sure we'll see more powers that qualify as basic melee attacks in the Martial Powers book in October.

Do you really think so? I always thought the Magic Missile and Eldritch Blast were allowed as ranged basics because they were meant to be no more powerful than basic ranged weapon attacks. They both appear to be pretty on par with the longbow in the hands of a proficient user, with a better range in the case of MM.

I think granting additional power to a fighter's basic melee attack using a weapon would be a kind of power inflation. I hope we don't see these.

 

[Victim]

Except if he took Tide of Iron as an At-Will, isn't the shield needed for that power taking up the bracer slot?

Only if you have a magic shield.

Most fighter types will be using basic attacks for OA and combat challenge, for charges, with certain powers, or when none of their other powers seem very good. Unless someone is running with the right warlord ally or Polearm Gambit, the items aren't a must have. But they're still handy some of the time.

Sure, if you have a Sword Master with Heavy Blade Opp, then the item is pretty much useless. But a magic wand sucks for that character too. Not all characters will want all items; it's not a big deal.

One thing to consider is the the low level version is quite cheap. Unless you have a pressing need for one of the other items in that slot, the cheap bracers seem like a very cost effective item to use.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Forgive me if I'm missing something here (I hope I am), but the Bracers of Mighty Striking seem really bad to me. Two more damage on my basic melee attacks? Well, I guess that applies to OAs, but basic melee attacks are used so rarely otherwise that I'm having a hard time seeing the point of this item.

I'm playing a warlord in an upcoming game, and I'm prettymuch going to weld a set of these onto the greatweapon fighter first chance we get, whether she likes it or not. I have an at-will /and/ an encounter power that grant an ally a free basic melee attack (with a damage bonus - which the item bonus will stack with). The fighter has the best basic melee attack in the group, already, and the fighter's OAs (also basic melee attacks) would only be a stronger deterent once the enemy feels the effects of mighty striking and Combat Superiority. Oh, plus, they also aply to a Charge attack, as well.

But, to any character who doesn't base thier class attack powers on STR, they're pretty worthless. The 'Artful Dodger' rogue, for instance, would get little use out of them, since, even when he does get an OA or other basic attack, he's just not very good at them.

 

[Terramotus]

Sorry, yes, this item falls into a new category for 4E items known as Stupid and Useless.

While not utterly useless, since they provide a numeric benefit of some sort, I can't see ever wanting this item when any other arm slot item is available or any other item at all, for that matter. The bonus is negligible, and it doesn't even do anything cool and dramatic. It's like all of those +number items in 3E, only it doesn't really even help you.

Their name is horribly misleading as well. The only character likely to ever get any serious use out of them is a Fighter making opportunity attacks... so why not call them Opportunistic Bracers or something? I think that's what annoys me so much: they have a name that makes them sound awesome when they're not.

+1 Dwarven Armor is also a level 2 item. The Shield of Protection is level 3. Since the new paradigm seems to be that the players make a list of items they want for the DM, why would I ever want to put that item on my list and risk getting it instead of the Dwarven Armor? Yes, there are some specific class/power combos that involve multiple characters to pull off that can achieve some use out of the item. That doesn't make them non-crappy or even worth their gold piece value.

The Bracers of the Perfect Shot are actually significantly better, although similarly misnamed. Since Wizards can use Magic Missile as a ranged basic attack, and the Warlock can use Eldritch blast as a ranged basic attack, then they contribute damage to something decent.

 

[FadedC]

Sorry, yes, this item falls into a new category for 4E items known as Stupid and Useless.

While not utterly useless, since they provide a numeric benefit of some sort, I can't see ever wanting this item when any other arm slot item is available or any other item at all, for that matter. The bonus is negligible, and it doesn't even do anything cool and dramatic. It's like all of those +number items in 3E, only it doesn't really even help you.

Their name is horribly misleading as well. The only character likely to ever get any serious use out of them is a Fighter making opportunity attacks... so why not call them Opportunistic Bracers or something? I think that's what annoys me so much. They have a name that makes them sound awesome when they're not.

+1 Dwarven Armor is also a level 2 item. The Shield of Protection is level 3. Since the new paradigm seems to be that the players make a list of items they want for the DM, why would I ever want to put that item on my list and risk getting it instead of the Dwarven Armor?

The Bracers of the Perfect Shot are actually significantly better, although similarly misnamed. Since Wizards can use Magic Missile as a ranged basic attack, and the Warlock can use Eldritch blast as a ranged basic attack, then they contribute damage to something decent.

I must strongly disagree that this item is anything resembling useless. For my fighter I will happily take this over a magic shield at least at low level. By boosting the power of my AoOs, this items lets me do my job way better then some daily magic item use that's a standard action and competes with all my other daily magic item uses. My attacks only hit for 8.5 on average, getting a 25% damage boost is huge.

And since when do players make a list of items they want to their DM? Just because it happens at your table doesn't make it the new paradigm, I've never even heard of that before.

 

[JesterOC]

How is he getting +2 damage from something that increases melee basic attacks by making ranged basic attacks?

He doesn't get +2 damage to ranged attacks he gets +2 damage to melee attacks when he uses his pact blade as a melee weapon. Since the at-will powers of the Warlock are ranged attacks, if he gets surrounded, we will open himself up for OA if he uses them.. so he will attack with his pact blade (a Dagger) and use a basic melee attack. Thus getting him a +2 on damage.

This makes the bracers well suited for magic users that don't have melee at wills. Which is propably why they are bracers as in previous editions bracers where much more common for magic-users(Wizards).

JesterOC