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Ranloth -> RE: =ED= Balance Discussion VIII (5/2/2012 17:57:45)
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My suggestion list, as always. ;) xD
INDEX:
-- Bots [001]
-- Blocking [002]
-- Mercenaries [003]
-- Tactical Mercenaries [004]
-- Bounty Hunters [005]
-- Cyber Hunters [006]
-- Tech Mages [007]
-- Blood Mages [008]
-- Buffers and nerfers [009]
-- Heal [010]
-- Passive Armors [011]
-- Energy draining skills [012]
Bots:[001]
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. Scaling by Focus is much better - surely you don't like seeing Str-abuse with Azrael Bot whilst having Focus 1 or 2 and taking away 80% of your buff + have really high damage, no? Focus 1 - 15%, Focus 2 - 30%, Focus 3 - 40%, Focus 4 - 50%, Focus 5 - 60%.
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. And it actually makes Bots balanced, as they aren't supposed to give you so much power without any effort put into it (stats).
Also Yeti's special should be unblockable, just like Azrael's is and Assault's (Assault must be obviously as it affects you). It isn't fair that it can be blocked and you waste a turn on the effect whilst other Bots make the most out of it. Bot should be useful in the long run, not put at a disadvantage when compared to other bots with alike effects..
Blocking:[002]
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://i43.tinypic.com/2h35reo.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.
Mercenaries:[003]
I'd say Adrenaline needs looking at as well. It's quite useless in 1v1 and the Balance Team has said that if it doesn't do well, you will buff it. Perhaps making Adrenaline reduce enemy's rage by whatever it is at your level? So at Lvl 10, it gives you Rage 20% faster and you could make your enemy get it 20% slower too. In 2v2, it could be tougher but you could just split the effect of reducing between the two so 10% less each, unless there are 2 Mercs so they'd stack to maximum of 20% each on the enemy.
Lastly I'd like to suggest a re-arranged Merc skill tree found here: http://i45.tinypic.com/zairp.png
With this skill tree, you can get to skills you want much easier. Of course, SS needs Berzerker and Bunker before you can get it but you can do Bunker + SS build with high Energy. Atom is now easier to get and so is Adrenaline; not literally easier but it gives you better choice to create other builds instead of old skill tree. I've also taken FC + Multi idea from TLMs as it seems quite good. But main point is - you can make builds quite easier now as you aren't restricted by having useless skills you won't use. SS build need Bunker and Zerker as I said but you don't have to use them, although Bunker can be used as life-saving skill if you even have it at Lvl 1 with Tech build for SS.
There's simply much bettter synergy between the skills and allows you to get better builds without wasting points elsewhere.
Tactical Mercenaries:[004]
FC is weak right? It will be apparently 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.
On the other hand, 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.
Bounty Hunters:[005]
SA has always been a luck-based skill but may not have provided enough benefits for its cost - requirements but also placement of the skill. To slightly buff it up, note that BHs could use small buff, I suggest adding +1% Connect per 2 Levels. Remember that Connect only applies on Strike so skills like CheapShot would not be affected as it's a skill, but SC of CH's would be affected by it - it's a skill but costs no Energy but can give it back + has no other boosts so this SA change would also benefit CHs if they were to get their old skill-tree back as well as provide them with small boost. Lastly BHs due to limited Energy, will rely on their weapons more rather than skills due to no Reroute so chance to Connect on Strike would benefit them especially with BL/SC which is key skill of their skill-tree.
I want to keep SA still a luck-based skill so this is quite a good way to slightly buff the skill up and also the class a bit! :D
Cyber Hunters:[006]
Please refer to bottom of this post for notice about passive Armors before you read this part of the suggestion!
Now CHs! Firstly I'll suggest new skill tree, not much different and people will like it:
Heal - Cheap - Matrix
PA - Static - EMP
Multi - Cond* - Plasma Grenade
Venom - Mass - SA
I fixed EMP and Matrix tiering so this isn't an issue + EMP can stay as PA isn't as effective, in fact as effective as good ol' Technican. Static Charge, currently at 29% and old one was 44% - thinking about it, old 44% would be too much so I'd say waybe 37% would be perfect; it's in the middle and makes it more effective as SC was nerfed due to Plasma so as Plasma is technically nerfed but effective, it can be buffed up. Also Stun and Venom swapped places too for correct fixing. 8% raise should allow you to get more Energy back. If you deal 50 damage before defences, you would regain 38% of it which is 19 Energy. So to get 50 damage, you need 16-20 damage and +34 damage weapon which isn't a lot of Str either and weapon can be any. That's much better, right? :)
SA would get a buff, I added +5% connection chance at Lvl 10 (1% per 2 Lvls) to give it a small buff whilst keeping it luck-based. This also helps SC to hit for CHs and for BHs, they have limited Energy and rely on BL so this goes well. :D
* Conduction was included some people seemed to like the skill. But Malf is good as it is now - you'd be left with no stat boosts nor stat debuffers but reducing/raising Def/Res only which wouldn't seem fair so I'm resting the Conduction idea here and skill could be used for some other class eventually or something.
And lastly, note guys that just like passive Armors do, the reduction would NOT be applied during rage attacks. Just like passive Armors aren't applied in rage attacks now, that wouldn't change to keep it fair.
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:
Conduction:
Energy Required: 14 + 2 per every Level after
Level 1: Reduce Target's Resistance by 1 / 2 / 3 Points
Level 2: Reduce Target's Resistance by 3 / 4 / 5 Points
Level 3: Reduce Target's Resistance by 5 / 6 / 7 Points
Level 4: Reduce Target's Resistance by 7 / 8 / 9 Points
Level 5: Reduce Target's Resistance by 9 / 10 / 11 Points
Level 6: Reduce Target's Resistance by 10 / 11 / 12 Points
Level 7: Reduce Target's Resistance by 11 / 12 / 13 Points
Level 8: Reduce Target's Resistance by 12 / 13 / 14 Points
Level 9: Reduce Target's Resistance by 13 / 14 / 15 Points
Level 10: Reduce Target's Resistance by 14 / 15 / 16 Points
It does NOT improve with any skill, these are fixed numbers. And it does NOT stack with Malf at all.
You will argue it's weaker than Malf as it doesn't affect stats but -16 Res is equivalent to about -60 Tech on Malf which requires very high (abusive) Support build and also maxed to even get there. That's with neglecting all other stats for Malf to be as high which affects your deflection rate (higher) and enemy's falling down as well as debuffing some of their skills. Since abusive Malf is harder to get and affects all the stats, these numbers for Conduction are a bit better than Malf with the same Energy cost but don't affect any other stat but Resistance which is good enough. These numbers should be equal to the same Level of Malf with moderate Support at lower range (depends on your Level and skill's) and gets better than Malf (Res-wise) when it hits just Lvl 4 and starts to dominate over it.
The requirement would also be Technology which is most suitable stat for 2 reasons - it enhances Stun Grenade and Energy Shield which aren't pure offensive skills and cannot give you damage advantage in fight. If we go by PA suggestion, it gives them better damage for their Cannon so it goes together quite well.
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?
Tech Mages:[007]
Due to the OP Caster builds that are dominating Delta V as well, I thought of requirements for skills that will bring their power down, or to be more specific - ability to abuse one stat and not get penalized for it.
Support - Reroute; currently it's Tech which is main stat of most of the TMs so there's no point having it there, and TLMs usually will have higher Tech as well to go with Mineral Armor. Support benefits TMs by Matrix and Malf while for TLMs it's just Multi but having 42 Support requirement at Lvl 10 is not too much as many players go for Lvl 7 which is just 36 Support. Chances are, your equipment will have similar requirement anyway but yet, it brings abuse down.
Strength - Super Charge; currently it's Dex. Seeing as TMs have no passive Armor, it's obvious they will invest in Dex a bit so it won't kill them to invest 42 Str at most at Lvl 10 SC. Seeing as just Malf has Strength requirement, which is already low - being max of 38 Str whilst many TMs and CHs go for Lvl 5-7 then it's 28-32 Strength which is very small amount. CHs would not mind that requirement as their SC depends on damage and they are likely to invest more in Strength while TMs that use Caster builds (Plasma and SC) don't need Strength. If a player decides for Malf + SC combo then he needs to train Str a bit, so that won't kill them either!
Next up is skill-tree which provides poor synergy with some skills and at times, you must train all skills just to get to ones you want..: http://i48.tinypic.com/28879cl.png
Firstly, Dex build can be done as it was before but you must have Bludgeon now. Seems fine as it can be useful since high Dex gives you lower chance for enemy to block your attack so that's nice synergy here. Technican + Reroute together give good synergy along with Matrix because you will always have defensive skills at least even if at Lvl 1 - this again goes good for Dex builds with Technican so we have nice setup for Dex TMs already! Since most builds have Malf with little exceptions, I placed it in same spot as CHs have it now. From there on, you have access to DA, SC and Assimilate. I will explain 4 types of builds in few sentences and their synergy:
Strength - you will need Reroute so you get defensive skills as well if you need to which isn't bad and you may need them. You also get Malf as well as DA and Assimilate which gives you nice synergy and doesn't give you unneded skills like Multi or Stun. Of course Lvl 1 Stun may be useful for some so access is also easy and not forced (current skill tree requires Multi AND Stun).
Dex - Multi and Overload have easy access, you also have defensive skills due to Reroute placement and if you wish, you can get Malf and Bludgeon on the way to give you small buff. And access to DA or Assimilate is also easier if you wish to have them even at Lvl 1 or 2 for personal reasons.
Tech - synergy here is slightly broken down. Now they will need Technican to get to Reroute and with medium Dex, they won't get much out of it. On the way, like on old skill tree, they will get Bludgeon and Malf if they want to which they couldn't before and then access to SC. You may say it's better but since they already can barely max 2 skills + Reroute and Heal, then Malf will be Lvl 1 or 2 if they keep it the same.
Support - They are slightly defensive already so will take advantage of Matrix + Technican, and Reroute is like a must anyway. :P They will also get Bludgeon to get Malf just like before to get Reroute but that's no biggie and they get access to DA and Assimilate as well! Similar to Str build really, and they don't get useless skills on the way. :)
Lastly it's Deadly Aim. It scales too high early on and too slow afterwards so it's very efficient at Lvl 1-3 but much slower progress at higher Level. I'd like to also propose change to its scaling:
Level 1: 5% damage
Level 2: 8% damage
Level 3: 11% damage
Level 4: 14% damage
Level 5: 17% damage
Level 6: 20% damage
Level 7: 23% damage
Level 8: 25% damage
Level 9: 27% damage
Level 10: 28% damage
I've made a progression sheet on how it'd affect weapon damage: http://i45.tinypic.com/sy76yt.png
In mid-high Levels, it's useful almost at any level and still progresses with one or two breaks; where next level doesn't give you more damage. But now it's not as efficient as it was at Lvl 1 or 2 and you have to train it more to get most out of it, just like it should be.
Blood Mages:[008]
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:
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.
Change to DA. Refer to TM section above for more details!
Buffers and nerfers:[009]
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.
Heal:[010]
Support has been severly weakened after deflection was taken away along with Heal improving by Support and now, it's one of the worst stats around when compared to others. My point is that small buff to Support would be making Heal improve by Support again! Not fully by Support, keep it how it is and improves by let's say 1HP/7-8 Support, and that's a buff for all Support builds as well as stat itself which needs a buff - I hope Team also remembers that they made a promise to buff it up after deflection was taken away?
Passive Armors:[011]
First off, since Plasma Armor is staying for CHs, this convienced me to do a revamp and see if it's good to lower their power and allow CHs to be more creative, or same case for all the classes actually. Here it goes:
Plasma Armor:
Passively reduces incoming Energy damage by x%:
Lvl 1: Reduce Energy damage by 2%
Lvl 2: Reduce Energy damage by 4%
Lvl 3: Reduce Energy damage by 6%
Lvl 4: Reduce Energy damage by 8%
Lvl 5: Reduce Energy damage by 10%
Lvl 6: Reduce Energy damage by 12%
Lvl 7: Reduce Energy damage by 14%
Lvl 8: Reduce Energy damage by 15%
Lvl 9: Reduce Energy damage by 16%
Lvl 10: Reduce Energy damage by 17%
So basically how it'd work, reduction, is: Total Damage BEFORE defences - whatever the reduction is - resistance = damage dealt. So let me use an example:
70 damage - 17% reduction (12 damage) - 24 Resistance = 34 damage dealt.
So here we go, you can technically keep it at about Lvl 6 which is fair and not forced for max, or even lower if you wish so, or go for higher if you want a Tank build. 17% reduction may seem big but I'll use 2 examples here:
Plasma Bolt dealing 70 damage - 17% damage reduction gives it 12 damage reduction, may seem a bit better as current Plasma Armor gives +11 Resistance instead. 12 damage reduction = ~48 Tech (possible with good Dex and high Technican)
Attack dealing 20-24 damage with +34 weapon - 9-10 damage reduction which is a bit lower than current Armor. 9-10 damage reduction = ~36-40 Tech (possible with average Dex and mid/high Technican)
That is at maxed Level, so you're putting in 10 skill points into one skill. If I use Level 6 for example instead, results are much better; still worth using but you get more skill points elsewhere:
Plasma Bolt - 9 damage reduction, on par with Lvl 8 Armor. May seem a bit but this is a skill, they get higher damage but cost Energy AND have cooldowns as well.
Attack - 7-8 damage reduction which is equal to Lvl 6-7 Armor.
So pretty much on par but not quite; efficiency goes down if you deal less damage because less damage is reduced rather than fixed 11 at Lvl 10 for current PA. So this is like a skill against high damage (high Str, high Support, abusing skills, etc) but less effective if you use balanced builds. So skill is balanced - can be good but has flaws as well.
Also remember, skill isn't meant to be useful at Lvl 1 either but should be trained to be efficient so this is good example. And lastly, it's as efficient as Technican which is a skill not a passive but there's a difference - PA may be passive, but Technican also affects deflection rate as well as skills so no Tech bonus and being passive is almost equal to Tech bonus and being a skill. (new PA and Technican).
Please note, I'd like very same thing to happen to Mineral Armor but affecting Physical attacks. HA would be affected in the same way, but instead the %s would be a bit different as well as slightly stronger (% wise) due to being split:
Hybrid Armor:
Passively reduces incoming Energy and Physical damage by x%:
Lvl 1: Reduce damage by 1%
Lvl 2: Reduce damage by 2%
Lvl 3: Reduce damage by 3%
Lvl 4: Reduce damage by 4%
Lvl 5: Reduce damage by 5%
Lvl 6: Reduce damage by 6%
Lvl 7: Reduce damage by 7%
Lvl 8: Reduce damage by 8%
Lvl 9: Reduce damage by 9%
Lvl 10: Reduce damage by 10%
Energy draining skills:[012]
EMP with high Tech and even low Level can be quite deadly, or even an overkill, for any build - with Reroute or not & high EP or not. I suggest taking the Tech-improvement away and make it scaled by level + have fixed ranges. So you have to train it to drain more EP instead of now. Numbers would be lowered down as well to match those of Atom Smasher or a bit lower as it's unblockable unlike Atom.
Next up is Atom Smasher. At Lvl 1, it's already deadly due to improvement with Str (higher damage = higher EP drain) so I'd suggest making it based on weapon's damage only and ignoring defences but 80%, nothing else. Keeping %s the same but take away stat damage, so if weapon does 34 damage, enemy has 25-30 Def/Res, and Atom drains 60% then 17 Energy. Currently with decent Str build + Lvl 1 Atom Smasher, it can drain a lot of EP. Yes it can be blocked but drain is variable at different ranges and can prove to be better than EMP.
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