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RabbleFroth -> =ED= Upcoming Bot Balance Changes (8/15/2012 12:34:08)
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Disclaimer: None of these are final and are subject to change before going live.
Hey all,
There's a number of changes to bots in the coming update -- wanted to announce these changes early so that I can give
some information about why we're making the changes and answer any questions you all might have about them.
The main goal with the changes is to make all of the bots equally viable for different strategies. We don't want any of the
bots to feel completely worthless or be a "must-have" on most builds because it's just too powerful.
Here are the planned changes, followed by the reasoning behind each change:
* Infernal Android
- Old system: Starts at 70% regular damage, +15% damage per round, 160% cap (unblockable, 3 turn cooldown)
- New system: Starts at 80% damage, +5% damage per round, 150% cap (deflectable, 4 turn cooldown)
* Assault and Rusted Assault Bots
- Debuff reduction lowered from 80% to 65%
* Azrael's Borg
- Buff reduction lowered from 80% to 65%
- No longer affects Bioborg's thorn effect
* Bioborg
- Thorns is no longer affected by Azrael Borg's special
* Pyro Fly
- Increased damage on special attack
* Baby Yeti
- Special is now unblockable
* Gamma Bot
- No changes are planned
Infernal Android
Simply put, we made this bot much stronger than we meant to. After 3 rounds it would deal regular bot damage, and
at round 7 it would deal 160% damage. Coupled with a rage attack and the fact that it was unblockable often meant a
guaranteed kill. Even if it did not secure the kill, 3 turns later it could be used again for the same amount of damage.
The new system will take 5 rounds before it deals regular damage, and won't hit the damage cap until round 15. This
means that it will still be powerful on a durable build, but will take much longer to pull off and provides a more interesting
decision of "do I use it now or risk waiting so I can deal more damage?".
Assault Bot
This special was easily the most useful of all the bots (before the Infernal Android) and eclipsed everything else because
of it. It will still remain useful, but should no longer be far and away the best to use in almost all cases. Depending on your
build, the other bots should be fairly attractive options now.
Azrael's Borg
This follows the Assault Bot, reducing someone's buffs by 80% was just too strong of an ability and an absolute counter to
certain builds. It will remain strong (65% is still a pretty hefty reduction), but allows the buff to still have *some* effect.
It no longer affects Thorns because we don't want one bot to be a complete counter to another. This effectively prevented
the Bioborg bot from being useful in any real way.
Pyro Fly
Because of the random nature of this bot's special, we wanted to make it a little bit more useful than it is currently. We
thought about allowing it to be used more than once per battle, but were afraid that this could easily shut down someone's
ability to do anything (especially in a 2v2), which is not the intention. Giving it a little bit of extra damage on use should make
it worth using, even if it doesn't take away your opponent's best skill.
Baby Yeti
Because this special could be blocked, the tactical decision of when to use it was left to chance. Now, you can choose the best
time to disable someone's gun and aux and know that it will work every time.
Gamma Bot
We feel this bot is already pretty good at doing what it's designed to do, which is to simply deal damage.
Regards,
RabbleFroth
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