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Ranloth -> RE: =ED= Balance Discussion Thread (3/5/2012 12:11:48)
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I'll be reposting my suggestions again, although for one last time so I can use link reference in the future so here it goes! I covered TLMs, CHs (shared with Void), BMs, tried to change blocking and how it works, and change to Bots which could be good for some players and they'd like it.
Bots:
They, are quite strong at the moment. Assault Bot and Heart Borg in particular. As we know, Yeti's special is only useable once per battle. Would changing these 2 bots to once per battle help in the end? In those really long fights, both bots can be used at least twice which gives advantage; even too big if non-Varium.. Giving it only once per battle would make the choices perhaps more wiser as you could not use it again. Perhaps slight change could be good as well. 80% is quite a lot, whether it's Assault or Heart Bot. About 60% would be better. It's much better that way as currently buffers and nerfers serve no purpose as you're most likely to have them debuffed thus wasting a turn and Energy which is important for some classes. If Smoke took away 40 Dex, surely it's better to at least still have -16 Dex rather than -8 Dex which is up to 2 defence. Same with buffers - some of them are turned into pure uselessness due to Azrael Bot which is quite common now. :|
Blocking:
Currently formula is "Block Chance Adjustment = (Defender's Dexterity - Attacker's Dexterity) / 2". We have 10% fixed to add for adjusted blocking chance and it cannot fall below 4% (overall blocking). Going by 3 examples here: 80 Dex build vs 50 Dex & 110 Dex build vs 50 Dex & 100 Dex build vs. 20 Dex (smoked, about -30 Dex) (both Tanks against normal'er build (Str/Support/etc)). First gives 25% chance to block, second gives 40% chance and last one is 50% chance to block. That is for Defender, now attacker on given examples has: 4% chance, 4% chance and again 4% chance. Isn't that quite unfair? Luck plays a role there that our unlucky person will block a lot but it isn't really fair how low it is even if luck didn't play a role in it.
I've thought of different suggestion on changing the fixed and minimum blocking rate which favours training Dex but not to the point where it's abused because it carries a penality - the higher difference, the higher penality will be. I allowed myself to use Excel here and posting a picture of few different scenarios with differences and last one being either abuse or using Reflex Boost of BH's/BM's skill tree at high Lvl + high Support: http://i41.tinypic.com/2vkzrlh.png
Yes I've made Dex decay as the difference is bigger to lower the defensive capabilities of it + make it less abusable for different skills or builds that do take advantage of having certain stats at (very) high level.
Now onto explaining it:
Fixed blocking rate is DEX/10. It's used to add onto total blocking AND is used as minimum. So rate isn't fixed like it is now but allows you to get better blocking (even when your Dex is a lot lower than enemy's, you get higher chance at least and it's fair) and slightly compensates for the decaying at bigger differences (you can see penality (penality = DEX*whatever the difference is on the table there*) getting almost to 1/2 of DEX so makes sense).
Blocking is simply DEX/2 (after accounting penality).
Total blocking is a bit different - you take a total and take it away from your enemy's (so 1st scenario is 51.17647% - 30%) and it gives the final value in "total blocking rate"). As you can see, as DEX gets closer to your enemy's, player with 100 DEX has even lower block rate as the enemy is catching up with the player (DEX wise) which clearly makes sense. Seeing as player with lower DEX has lower blocking, in effect it should go below 0% chance (cannot block), I've made fixed blocking in place depending on DEX now - not luck.
On 100 vs 90 scenario, you can see how both players are close and it's only 1% apart. Simply but, 100 has 91% chance to hit while 90 has 90% chance to hit.
Tactical Mercenaries:
Passive Armors - only classes who should have them is Mercs and TLMs; they are unique for them only
TLMs were OP'ed for long time, got their nerf and they are balanced so far but are you sure? It has passive Armor and Energy regen which is fine, but passive Armor seems to kinda make it still a bit strong with their skill tree. One suggestion for them is taking out Mineral Armor competely and replacing with current Hybrid Armor of Mercs. Why should TLMs get brand new Armor while Mercs have old one? All evolved classes have first tier of skills the same (but CH with EMP, not my point) and making it +6 Def and Res would be perfect for TLMs and would balance them out even further.
You will say it's a nerf. No! FC is useless right? It will be revamped once they get to Merc class and also work on Intimidate which is a buff to BMs as well which they need a bit. Once FC is fixed, TLMs will be even further balanced. Also this will tie in with my Bot suggestion as if you get FC debuffed at current state of bots, it's pure useless just like most of buffers.
Although BloodShield could go, Technican can be put back because it was making Smoke too strong and provided too good synergy with some skills. Now there's no Smoke so it makes sense to put it back + SS build would have a bit better chance as you could boost it a little and defend well.
Liking it so far?
Cyber Hunters:
Now CHs! Firstly I'll suggest new skill tree, not much different and people will like it:
Heal - Cheap - EMP
EShi - Static - Matrix
Multi - Condu - Venom
Stun - Mass - SA
Matrix and Energy Shield both improve with Support so I suggest putting Energy Shield in place of Plasma Armor but make it improve with Tech as well. Having it with Support would make Matrix+EShield quite strong and Plasma already has Tech requirement so Shield could improve with Tech instead.
Static Charge returned to former glory, before all the nerfs to it but ignoring defences just like it should.
Stun Grenade is same as they have now, not BH's version.
Conduction is new skill replacing Malf. Malf and Multi provide great synergy with their Skill Tree already which is why I decided to change it slightly, original idea was mine but Void gladly helped me to improve it which is great! :D
Conduction affects only Resistance alone, not Tech which affects deflection rate and skills, which give CHs a great advantage in fight. Also why can't CH be unique and have new skill as well? Here's how it works:
Level 1: Reduce Target's Resistance by 1 Point.
Level 2: Reduce Target's Resistance by 3 Point.
Level 3: Reduce Target's Resistance by 5 Point.
Level 4: Reduce Target's Resistance by 7 Point.
Level 5: Reduce Target's Resistance by 9 Point.
Level 6: Reduce Target's Resistance by 10 Point.
Level 7: Reduce Target's Resistance by 11 Point.
Level 8: Reduce Target's Resistance by 12 Point.
Level 9: Reduce Target's Resistance by 13 Point.
Level 10: Reduce Target's Resistance by 14 Point.
It does NOT improve with any skill, these are fixed rates. You will argue it's weaker than Malf as it doesn't affect stats but -14 Res is equal to about 56-60 Tech which is a lot more than Malf which requires very high (abusive) Support build and also maxed. I might not have it included here but there would be requirement for it, and not Str. I'd say probably Tech which makes sense with Conduction and could work well as it only enhances Stun Grenade and EMP.
You know people why CH were underpowered before? Because TLM was too strong and every class felt that way, now see what happened because of it? If TLM is balanced, surely old CH can do as good now?
Blood Mages:
I thought of it while thinking on how to make BMs not just Str-oriented which restricts your build a lot so this was quite a good way to make it work. *you can find it in Void's post as well on 1st page*
Blood Shield: Sacrifice your health to activate an energy shield for you or an ally.
Energy Required: 0 (No Cost)
Conversion ( Progression depends on character level ):
Level 1: 4 / 5 / 6 Health transfered to x2 Resistance
Level 2: 5 / 6 / 7 Health transfered to x2 Resistance
Level 3: 6 / 7 / 8 Health transfered to x2 Resistance
Level 4: 7 / 8 / 9 Health transfered to x2 Resistance
Level 5: 8 / 9 / 10 Health transfered to x2 Resistance
Level 6: 9 / 10 / 11 Health transfered to x2 Resistance
Level 7: 10 / 11 / 12 Health transfered to x2 Resistance
Level 8: 11 / 12 / 13 Health transfered to x2 Resistance
Level 9: 12 / 13 / 14 Health transfered to x2 Resistance
Level 10: 13 / 14 / 15 Health transfered to x2 Resistance
Warm Up: 0
Cool Down: 2
So going by that, 1 HP = 2 Res simply. We want to keep same HP cost as it is because BMs can get HP back via BloodLust which provides great synergy. Seeing as Energy Shield costs Energy, it's hard for BMs to play defensively with limited Energy, and also Reflex costs Energy too which makes it even harder in some situations.
At Lvl 10, you could get up to 30 Resistance (depends on your Lvl) by spending 15 HP for 3 turns only. If you look at EShield/DMatrix, they can do that as well at high Lvl or with high Support but you have to pay Energy instead which is not possible to regenerate for BMs. Cooldown is also lowered to 2 turns because it lasts just 3 turns - before it lasted 5 turns and cooldown was 4.
Main reason this is stronger is lower duration of the Shield, therefore we could increase power significantly and it could work for BMs quite well. This could perhaps open possibility for other builds than just Str because BL works with every weapon, not just Primary so you could go for a Tank and use Tech for Plasma, or SC build with BL and BS. Dex improves SC so your weakness would be whichever was lower and you could fix it by using BS.
Void's say on the skill: Blood Shield is optimized for Blood Mages because of the lack of energy, and the mutuality between it and the skill already owned... Bloodlust. Energy Shield is powerful in itself, however Blood Shield is not phased by EMP, allowing more proficient use of other assorted skills that use energy, such as an attack skill like Fireball. This skill does not make the Blood Mages overpowered as it costs both health and a whole turn to use, while not inflicting damage. To make up for this, Trans decided that the added Resistance be a higher value, twice the amount in Resistance in ratio to health.
Buffers and nerfers:
Currently buffers take a turn and do nothing while nerfers debuff you + attack at same time. Would perhaps striking with buffers OR smoke to be applied only so no strike, be better?
As currently it's a wasted turn while nerfers get an advantage, on top of it if you debuff a nerfer then that's another turn wasted and even more damage taken. I'd go for nerfers being applied without a Strike and keep buffers how they are. If one attacks while other has to wait then the attack one is not fair as it gives same thing but nerf + damages you.
And also, if Bot's debuff were to be reduced to about 60%, nerfers did not attack just like buffers but apply the effect, this could make some buffers a lot more useful. But also if you attack someone with buffer on (Dex/Tech buffer) and use Smoke, you technically debuff them and get even higher increase in Rage which is quite the advantage as you still striked which dealt damage.
Sorry for long post, but this will be like my big suggestion post and next time I'll use a link to refer back to it. :3 And appreciate if someone actually reads it all and gives me some feedback as some time was put into it when I made it and took me a bit to balance it out as well.
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