Ok first off this is a question to the devs, but I would be deligthed if people also posted their own opinions to the matter.
Now, I've leveled quite a few Martial Artists. And I think it is quite fun to do so, but the only reason it is any fun is because I twink them every 10 levels. Almost.
Now when you do that, it's a very costly process, but your damage is quite good. I also use my high level MA to buff myself MA mastery and Dirty Fighter before I am able to self those.
I however remember my very first character, which was a MA. I was sporting 200 crits on level 60...
And it was not fun at all, so I rerolled...
MA is one of those professions where you can't really get a frost schyte or a stygian and do decent damage. And as we progress even higher into the late levels (200+), a player who's chosen an MA as his first profession will not have the economy and probably not the friend-power to get a good equip.. So they are faced with high AC mobs in SL, doing only minimum damage having low crit chance... The fact of the MA profession: we are DD's we don't bring much to the table but DD.. When we barley outdamage the lvl 203 Doctor whos healing and UBTing, how are we supposed to get teams?
I think alot of people who initially start MA will stop playing it and reroll at some point, sooner or later due to very low damage output and very low healing.
I'm especially concerned about SL and minimum damage, because MA min damage is really poor. I know that this is/has been looked at... But isn't there a way to scale top end damage better with the MA skill that you have, but leave the low end damage pretty much the same regardless of MA skill... So to say you will have a set damage no matter how low your MA skill, depending on perhaps base MA skill?
Let me know what you guys think, and would be great if some FC crew could give me a clearer view of their plans.