One of the Vet rewards I picked up was the choice between the Undead Slaying Axe and the Sands of Mu.
Now, I could already tell you from Lynn (who was lucky enough to get stuck with the SoM while temp powers were “stuck” on) that SoM isn’t a game-breaker. It can’t be buffed (at least not enhanced), so it misses a lot more often than Shadow Maul — and that whiff-whiff-whiff effect can be maddening. That said, I found it a worthwhile addition to the attack chain.
(In fact, when I signed in briefly yesterday with Lynn to run a mission, I went ahead and took it for her — and realized I had an hour and a half left of my actual temp one, which means she now has two instances of SoM. To add to the amusment, her mission was the Nemmy Staff one, so she now has that, too.)
I decided, for character purpose, to go with the Axe for Unchained Path. I was disappointed to discover, after the fact, that I don’t get any Containment bonus with it — but it’s still a decent Lethal attack. Similarly prone to missing.
One place where these extra weapons will be nice is with new characters. On a whim, I built Clark Bronze, a Doc Savage knock-off (he looks pretty good with his ragged martial arts robe a must). Fun to find out that, yeah, SoM is available for Level 1 characters, which instantly adds to the attack chain for them. Nice.
At any rate, they are nice little add-ons, but are completely optional — they don’t turn the game upside down, but they give a little something to the character. Which is exactly what the Vet Rewards are supposed to be about.
And, by the bye, (Wings + Kheldian = Fun Angelic Powers). That’s what Kheldiel says, at least.
I don’t mind the Sands of Mu as such (Mu: Ancient Lemurian verb for “to flail about ineffectually”) as a temp power in itself — it just seems a bit silly that that option that’s supposed to add a little something ‘unique’ to characters… and then they give you two options, which is just going to make SoM and the Axe dull-as-dirt.
What I feel bad about is all the Dark Melee scrappers and Brutes — Sands of Mu looks identical to their signature attack, which pretty much obliterates any of the ‘cool’ inherent in their signature attack. The Axe doesn’t look like the Tanker Axe — they should have picked powers that don’t look like normal powers in all cases. On top of that, SoM is in my limited polling Far and Away the more commonly selected power.
Re: Angelic Peacebringers. I’ve had “Amaciel” in Outbreak for six months for exactly that reason — I just need to go back and re-costume him with fancy wings — problem there being that I’ve already tried an all-human peacebringer and know they get owned by mezzes at around level 30.
The only real frustration with wings in general for me is that, knowing that wings weren’t available, I didn’t create any characters for whom wings made sense, which means that the (very cool) wings are unfortunately pretty much useless for everyone :(. Wish they had a ‘jetpack’ option in there — that, I could totally use.
Well, a lot more characters *punch* than wave *axes* around, so that’s not surprising. And while SoM is the same as Shadow Maul, so’s Flurry of Blows. Except that everyone thinks that sucks (though it really doesn’t).
I know there are animation issues/limits, but I’d love for them to make some added variants. Maybe a (substandard) sword in a couple of styles, a souped-up punch, something.
Of course, it would be nice to have a punching hero who’s not (a) SS Tank, or (b) DM Scrapper.
Energy Melee! 🙂
And…
Yeah, that’s about it.
Actually, gets back to my Clark Savage character …
If you want a guy who just Punches Really Well … what are the options?
Energy Melee is fine … for tanks. And if your concept includes “bright glowing fists” …
(Not denegrating the power set — that’s what Eliza D has, on the brute side.)