Reversal command
Another way to counter grapple

It appears that at the moment the grapple is locked in and it has gone from friendly chat to choking/snap that someone who uses the MA skill is forced to use it utilizing STR.

I don't know about anyone else, but your opponent assuming a martial arts stance almost seems like broadcasting that choke/snap is the solution to all your problems. By the nature of MA the stat that they are going to be using to break out of the grapple is going to be equal to or less than the stat they are using to hop around like a jackrabbit ninja. They can dodge and dodge and dodge but once the grapple is locked on it's over. Their Martial Artist stat check goes from AGI to STR, which will be lower because if their STR was anywhere near their AGI they'd just be a brawler.

There needs to be hope for martial artists to actually win in a grapple.

Why are you vehemently against any way to fight against and break out of a grapple?

You have stated that in response to pulseguards being able to break grapple that your knee-jerk response will be to flatline players and ruin their gaming experience more often because your "I WIN" button stopped being as effective.

You've shot down every complaint about the system with statements of "that's not how it works" without offering any proof or statements of how the system actually does work.

Now you are arguing that if the fundamentally broken system is fixed, that martial artists are somehow "nerfed" in some other way in response to make sure it remains "balanced".

So I'm going to ask point blank:

Why do you not want grapple victims to have any chance to actually escape?

And with your vast and extensive knowledge of the combat systems and mechanics, what should be changed to make grappling more fair to the victim?

Now that I've written that, I would point out that brawling generally and necessarily does not do that. If you making it so MA is on par with brawling for holding onto or breaking out of grapples, then you are weighting the stats there even more. And running into balance issues when up against strength.

Your MA's hope of escaping a grapple.. is not getting grappled. And that works, imo, from a balance perspective.

What you grapple me? Sure thing, here's an elbow to the kidney and a knee to the rib. Still wanna try and choke me?

I like to think of a grapple as open to interpretation on what that grapple is. While I think anyone who has baseline training in say Muay Thai knows how to break a clinch, or in BJJ knows how to work on getting out of a rear-naked choke, I do also appreciate the explanation given on the balance issue and agree that not every style of combat can or should be equal.

"Much to think about".