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Exploding Penguin -> RE: =ED= Balance Discussion XII (10/18/2012 0:34:37)
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The buff to reroute is mainly for TLMs to be rebuffed because they're obviously slightly underpowered compared to other classes: I don't think it'd help casters that much considering they already have trouble balancing skill points out between field medic, plasma, supercharge, and reroute, and they rarely have extra skill points to put in reroute, unless they want a weaker heal, supercharge, or plasma bolt, in which the build is still in the same state as it currently is from my perspective. Also, maxing out reroute currently, and even with the buff I suggested wouldn't make it at all overpowered, because I often run out of skill points when I make builds, and I've easily made over 300 different TM builds. I've never raised reroute past level 7, and if I did I'd definitely be short on skill points in my heal, malfunction, technician, or deadly aim. I find max reroute pretty useless as it is compared to 7 reroute, where you trade 3 skill points for approximately 5-7 energy overall. Heal-looping tactical mercs I can see as a problem, but with every class being able to remove energy except for BM, which I suggested a fireball buff for, it's not as plausible as you think it may be, especially with the fact that heals are much harder to heal loop with now. I agree with nerfing assimilation is a bad idea though, now that I think more deeply into it. But, I have to disagree with Mother1 on the bot. I still think it needs to be nerfed, as it can absolutely neutralize support build buffs with reflex, matrix, and energy shield, which helps not only strength builds but others as well. Plus, it may seem like the assault bots and azrael's borg are similar is effects as opposites, but azrael's borg definitely has the higher advantage. It's unblockable and deals minimal damage, gives a small amount of rage, AND reduces the buff. Assault bots merely rebuff the debuff, without giving rage, dealing damage, or any of the like. 50% Might be a little drastic though... what about 55%-60%?
@Depressed Void: The points you make with fireball are truely viable, but I often find that strength builds on BMs really don't work that well anymore, considering the fact that that huge nerf on fireball leaves it at virtually a 33-energy costing special for an unblockable attack that deals barely any more damage than a normal strike, whereas you look at bludgeon, a blockable attack that costs only 10 energy at level 1 and gives +10 damage on a +34-35 primary. IMO fireball definitely needs a buff, but I'm not sure how it should work, especially considering that it can easily become overpowered when trying to fix it from its underpowered state. Maybe a reduction in energy cost by 2-3 would work well with it.
@Mother1: Back to Azrael's Borg. While you said I only use the situation for strength builds (typically strength bounties), it's really rare I actually see anyone who uses any other bot other than gamma/infernal for a focus build, so I'm thinking less than 5% of focus build users use azrael's borg as their bot, if not less than that. Azrael's bot totally crushes support builds, as well as serving strength builds, which it is most used for, as a great tool for countering strong reflex boosts and matrixes.
Since I'm on the topic of support, I'll also say this: I believe support is slightly underpowered as of now. Since it increases at the same rate strength does, and the critical hit chance is a +1% per 7 more support points compared to your opponent, increasing support to a moderately high 75 or so will result in a low chance of getting a crit even a single time in a fight against a balanced focus build. My favorite class is actually TM, which I am now, so I've tested hundreds of builds, and while there's a single support build I made that dominates with the right weapons, attempts to create support builds on other classes are definitely not nearly as strong as they should be. First, most defensive buffs rely on support. As I stated earlier, Azrael's Borg can neutralize most of these. Second of all, Infernal Interdictor's massive strike got nerfed from dealing an extra 25% damage off of the enemy's starting resistance/defense to an extra 15% damage. The spreadfire guns definitely help support builds a LOT in 2v2, but I still find support builds underpowered in about half of the classes, if not more.
I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and I realized the problem I had with TLMs and reroute. It's not that they run out of energy and have trouble resupplying it, it's their difficulty in dealing damage. Comparing to TM, which also has reroute, it's an obvious comparison that TM will win in most occasions. This is because when comparing the 2nd passive of both classes, in this case a passive armor and deadly aim, pretty much nothing can get in the way of deadly aim. You can get +9 damage on a gun at level 6 deadly aim, where you reach its max efficiency, whereas it requires max mineral armor for a +10. Right now, they're at a pretty balanced standard, considering you save 4 skill points in deadly aim, but it's also apparently weaker than mineral armor, especially when you can't use your gun as soon as it's done cooling down, which often happens. BUT, passive armors are totally ignored on rage. Meaning that tactical mercenaries literally have no skills which even have a slight potential of dealing high damage while tanking. Stun grenade is useless, frenzy is only on basic strikes, artillery strike only deals good damage with support builds, which typically ends up in you only being able to use a single multi and heal in one battle, poison was nerfed, and surgical strike was never that strong. In this case you get into the problem of a class that can tank well and heal, but they can easily be killed by any class with a debuff/deadly aim, as their only buff is blood shield, which isn't that good unless you level it up. In this case, I think the best way to fix the problem is to probably bring back smokescreen onto TLMs, rebuff poison, or replace a current skill with one that actually has the potential to deal good damage, like bunker. Even with an assault bot, it gives the opponent a turn to attack again, gaining more rage, which leads to the problem I explained earlier about ignoring passive armors.
As I said before, I believe in order to make the game balanced, each skill itself has to be balanced within each class, rather than having classes with some overpowered and underpowered skills.
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