Trans' Balance Suggestions (Full Version)

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Ranloth -> Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/21/2012 10:35:23)

To commemorate start of new Forum, I've decided to re-release my suggestions to the public again. New sections means it's all much cleaner and I can organise it well. :D Feel free to post feedback on any of the suggestions since it took time to make it all and it's always welcome to have some sort of feedback. :P

Some of the suggestions may be a bit outdated now or not as good but I'll leave 'em as they are. :)

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]
-- Stun skills [013]


Bots:[001]
65% may still be quite a lot, whether it's Assault or Azrael 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 65% of your buff + have really high damage, no? Focus 1 - 20% -> Focus 2 - 35% -> Focus 3 - 50% -> Focus 4 - 60% -> Focus 5 - 65%
Focus 4 and 5 makes not too big difference in damage and are exclusive to top Levels with a decent build by then and Focus 3 is very common and easy to get with stat-leaning build. In fact my Caster TM has 32 Support and 35 Strength I believe so I can just put 3 points there and enjoy 50% debuff. Whilst someone like Str abusers who may have Focus 2 at most will not be able to abuse the Bot for their advantage, whether it's Azrael or Assault.
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).

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. 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.

    Apart from that, I've spoken with Death Guard about Mercenaries once and we had good idea of buffing Intimidate to make it unique skill for them as well as simply provide them with a needed buff. We thought of Intimidate working like it is now but add EP regen to it similar to one of Blood Commander (%-wise) so when enemy is Intimidated then % of your damage will be transfered to Energy. It'd provide nice overall buff and make a skill useful in more battles so Mercenaries could gain advantage and compete better. So it'd be useful to preserve Energy since you could still debuff the enemy and get some/most of EP spent on Intimidate back if you can get good source of damage.

    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]
    How about if we drop Stun Grenade for Maul? We know Grenade needs Dex to get stronger and with Mineral Armor, it's really hard to get use out of Dex if it's the only skill that improves with Dex.. Maul would be blockable as it is but you could raise its Stun chance, deal more damage and ignore 20% defences which would give small offensive boost back to the class. Reroute allows looping so if Maul was to be blocked then you can loop it again unlike Mercs with limited Energy. Only reason why Maul was taken away was the combo of Smoke and Maul which was devastating, along with Technician and pre-nerf Frenzy so surely with Technician gone, Smoke gone and weaker Frenzy, TLMs could get at least Maul back to raise their offensive capability a little bit?

    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

    On top of this, I'd like to suggest small adjustment to Massacre which seems to be causing issues recently, despite the fact it was nerfed once before. Allow me to explain:
    Current Massacre values: 50% -> 62% -> 74% -> 86% -> 96% -> 106% -> 116% -> 124% -> 132% -> 140%
    Suggested Massacre values: 50% -> 60% -> 70% -> 80% -> 90% -> 100% -> 110% -> 120% -> 130% -> 140%

    So as you can see, it's a small nerf early on which is good - people rarely max Massacre nowadays - and nerf gets bigger as you get to Lvl 4 and stays the same until Level 7 (6% less) which is still slight difference in terms of damage (say 20-24 +35 gives 55-59 so 6% difference is 4 damage less, always something really. And it gets lower as you get to top level and the same at max Level. Simple change yet can make a difference! :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.
    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?

    For Massacre change refer to Bounty Hunter section!

    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. :)

    Another change I'd like to suggest is directly to Plasma Bolt.. We know how Fireball was changed from Str/3 to Str/4 and it dealt with Str BMs fairly well but above changes could still allow abuse, or if neither were to happen then Casters will always be a problem unless dealt with directly. The best possible solution is to slap them with Tech/4 progression as opposed to Tech/3 as it is now and raise EP cost back to 33 as it should be. 4 more EP and ~8 damage less can make difference because you'll have to deal more damage on them in order to allow them to get to 33 EP as opposed to 29 (4 EP from Reroute is minimum of about 12 damage more taken) and they will still deal less damage than they can now.

    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.Keeping %s the same but take away stat damage, so if weapon does 34 damage and Atom drains 60% then it equals to 21 Energy (20.4 rounded up). 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.

    Stun skills:[013]
    Plasma Grenade* as well as Stun Grenade, being Tier 3 skill, shouldn't have same power as Overload of TMs at cost of higher Energy cost (4 EP). Since difference between Bolt and Overload is 11 damage, I suggest raising both Grenades' damage by about 6 and lowering the cost by 2 Energy. Ain't that much but it's Tier 3 skill and should be stronger than Overload but with minimal raise in EP cost.** This allows CHs as well as BHs to get another unblockable attack which they are lacking since Stun is weak for its EP cost, especially when compared to cheaper Overload which is said to be stronger - which is true since it deals more damage per Energy point.

    * Plasma Grenade and Stun Grenade are exactly the same skills. My suggestion for CH Skill Tree fixes that and puts Stun in Tier 3 whilst Venom is back to Tier 4 like it should.
    ** Since TLMs have it at Tier 2 instead, they get no damage raise at all since it has same damage as Overload but they get their EP cost lowered down by 4 to match that of Overload. So you can still see it as a buff to TLMs since it's more damage per Energy.




  • Scyze -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/21/2012 11:08:59)

    I just am really into the Mercenary's suggestion with Adrenaline. Slowing down your opponent's Rage should help the UP Mercenary people.

    Atom Smasher is a pain in the back side. Although you can block it, it's very useful to Strength build players. EMP is just too strong. Not many people use it but it is still a game killer.

    For the Stunning Grenades, they should also change the chance of Stunning. 3 classes have the skill, but 2 classes and Enhance them with Shadow Arts. The chance of stunning should be changed depending on your level.

    This is one stupid suggestion, but if Field Medic was effected by your Health, it should help a lot of people. The more Health you have, the less Health Points you can get. (Vice-versa for more HP)




    Rayman -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/21/2012 11:47:48)

    I Haven't Readed It All But I Agree 100% with the Trans Bot Idea And The SA Lil Buff Is something Good, BUT You are saying that only on strike and that's fine but what about bot?




    Ranloth -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/21/2012 12:26:45)

    @Malicious Neos

    Yeah EMP is really strong as it is and fixed values + scaled by Level would balance it out fairly nice. Atom is blockable so it has advanatage of lower EP cost but can be blocked which can be disadvantage in the battle, big time.
    Stun Grenades and SA, eh? SA doesn't raise your chance to stun the enemy but lowers the chance of getting stunned by the enemy so if it's 30% and you have maxed SA, it'll bump down to 20% instead. Support does the same really so I don't see much issue here as it stands.
    Heal.. I forgot about that one! xD I know Rabble is working on making it scaled so I'll probably keep it for now. So more Heal IF low base HP and less heal IF high base HP? If Agility was made level scaled, I could see an issue with it for low-HP tanks or glass cannon builds that could abuse it with lower HP and make up in heal for it. I'd just give it back to Support to buff 'em up a little like Rabble is planning to do and buff would still affect everyone (we all train Support even a little + get some from items) which is good enough in my opinion. :)

    @Rayman

    I said at the top that it may be all a bit outdated so you have a point here. :P But would it be fair though? I'm already giving them chance to block which is good at the moment but also small Connect chance that is good enough for those relying on Strike (no pure-damage skills such as Merc or TM), and we know Hunters don't have one like that apart from Multi or Ultimate. It's like a small boost + Bots are deflectable now, their normal attack is usually good as it. Since Hunters are likely to have good Dex with SA, adding higher chance to hit would be a but too much for Bots on top of it. Hope I made it clear. ^^

    @Mother1 (below)

    As I said, some of it is outdated especially after the debuff was lowered. I kept it as it is for now so I will probably take it out later since it wouldn't be as good now, but if it still was 80% back then, then I'd keep to my suggestion. It was just to prevent abuse of either Bots that completely made skills useless back then (80% was a lot) whilst 65% is significantly lower and it allows debuff/buff to be still useful, much more than before in fact. This pushes me towards dropping it completely but I could always adjust the %s to make it "less Focus 5 friendly" but still scaled by Focus such as:
    Focus 1 - 20%
    Focus 2 - 35%
    Focus 3 - 50%
    Focus 4 - 60%
    Focus 5 - 65%

    Focus 4 and 5 makes not too big difference in damage and are exclusive to top Levels with a decent build by then and Focus 3 is very common and easy to get with stat-leaning build. In fact my Caster TM has 32 Support and 35 Strength I believe so I can just put 3 points there and enjoy 50% debuff. Whilst someone like Str abusers who may have Focus 2 at most will not be able to abuse the Bot for their advantage, whether it's Azrael or Assault.

    @Wootz (below)

    That's the beauty of level scaling. If you make it too big then it'd end up OP or do the opposite and it's UP. You're supposed to train it to find it useful, just like Heal; you don't go around casting Lvl 1 Heal unless it'll really save you, otherwise it's pure useless to randomly cast Lvl 1 Heal. As soon as you'd train Conduction to Lvl 3, it's -5 Res which is ~20 Tech. And you build it up as you level up and invest more skill points as well as level up and raise the base numbers by +1. Also faster progression early on allows to have a good use of the skill at lower level + slower progression afterwards prevents abuse of it on the bigger scale. Also did I mention that this would be the skill to go with current Static Charge? ;D




    Mother1 -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/21/2012 12:32:05)

    Trans I can agree with a lot of this, however, I would say leave the azreal's debuff ability as it is now for level 5 focus. I say this because as you claimed before Str BH are the ones abusing this bot the most, and most don't have level 5 focus. So why should the players who aren't strength abusing builds and have level 5 focus suffer a nerf just because one type of build is abusing something. This nerf even at level 5 focus would hurt those who don't abuse the bot since it is a it can be used for both offense and defense.

    I say defensively because while it can nerf blood shield, energy shield, and defense matrix (Pure defensive buffs) It also breaks field commander, blood commander, (pure offensive buffs) reflex boost, and Technician (Both offensive and defensive buffs.) which can make enemy attacks and skill hurt less and sometimes is the difference between victory or defeat against these OP builds.

    But I have to ask is this scale just for the Azreal borg? If so I don't think this would be fair in the least since the rusted assault bot and the Assault bot are two halfs of the same coin, and I come across many stat spammers who use this bot but don't have level 5 focus. If anything this scale should also apply to the assault and rusted assault bots since these bot are more used then even the azreal borg.




    Wootz -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/21/2012 12:42:38)

    Didn't read all of it, but here's from what I read:

    Mercenaries: I really like the skill tree idea, but not sure if decreasing opponents rage gain by 20% is a good idea, if it was less, like 10% it'd be better, since then the skill would just benefit tankers, since rage is the only attack with which you can do a lot of damage to a tank and then tanks opponent would have a harder time to get that rage.

    Bounty Hunters: Supported.

    Cyber Hunters: I support the ideas. Especially for Conduction, and you know that. But I'm wondering how the class will perform at lower levels, especially before level 5, when Conduction would become available, it would clearly suck, as it only has two skills that are actually used as offensive: Static Charge and Cheap Shot. So what I would suggest is replacing the places between Conduction and Defense Matrix or Conduction and Cheap shot.

    I agree with the passive armors. It would make the builds much more creative that way.

    Rarerly anyone uses the energy draining skills, so I don't see that anything needs to be done there. And pure strenght and support builds don't need Energy for it. Since they have huge damage output anyway. But, I'd like to know what would be the fixed numbers for EMP.

    Stun skills, supported.




    Firewallblast -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/21/2012 12:59:54)

    The merc skill tree idea is good, but with most builds until 32-34 mercs abuse Bunker and Berzerker and rarely use SS so placing on under the other would just be overkill. If anything these skill should be moved farther apart. As for Conduction keep it where it is, and maybe lower the amount of resistance reduced by 2-4. The passive armor ideas are good and , I think, should be left alone. Connect chance would really help BHs because luck plays a big role in block chance even with smoke. The blocking idea I don't quite understand, but from what I do I think it's fine maybe just have a smaller penalty to not completely make high dex useless. As for the Tech Mage skill tree it's actually very good, I'm actually using a build that would benefit from it. Deadly Aim scaling is also good. Again a slight lowering of the amount of resistance at higher levels for Blood Shield. How about instead of no strike a reduced strike that doesn't count towards rage for nerfs? Heal is going to be more uniques with support scaling and 7-8 sounds reasonable. AS for stuns and energy skills I agree.




    Pinkie Pie -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/21/2012 17:41:43)

    Well my idea of buffing up the Mercenaries (since they're really underpowered) would be to bring Artillery Strike back to its full glory, this would mostly be for the Tactical Mercenary (or mercenaries, depending if they need it) because it could inspire more creativity in their builds. Not to mention the fact that there are only 3 (maybe 4,if Field Commander counts) skills that Tactical Mercenaries only really use for offensive purposes: Toxic Grenade (does damage too slowly), Double Strike, and Artillery Strike. The rest Tactical Mercenaries use for defensive purposes: Stun Grenade ( used to hopefully get an extra turn), Frenzy (Used as a substitute for heal if heal is unavailable), and Surgical Strike ( used mainly to delay opponents rage).




    Firewallblast -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/21/2012 20:15:05)

    ^Good, if heal wasn't going back to support scaling. If heal wasn't going back this would give reason to use support but with heal and multi TLM wouldn't be as balanced. Maybe a small buff but not the original.




    Ranloth -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/22/2012 2:35:34)

    Old Multi? I think it'd be too much, especially with Heal going back to Support scaling once Rabble makes it not abuseable like before but still decent. And all Multis must be equal with each other so TM/BM and BH/CH Multi would also have to get the buff with it which would be like no buff really (no difference if all deal more damage).

    But how about if we drop Stun Grenade for Maul? We know Grenade needs Dex to get stronger and with Mineral Armor, it's really hard to get use out of Dex if it's the only skill that improves with Dex.. Maul would be blockable as it is but you could raise its Stun chance, deal more damage and ignore 20% defences which would give small offensive boost back to the class. Reroute allows looping so if Maul was to be blocked then you can loop it again unlike Mercs with limited Energy. Only reason why Maul was taken away was the combo of Smoke and Maul which was devastating, along with Technician and pre-nerf Frenzy so surely with Technician gone, Smoke gone and weaker Frenzy, TLMs could get at least Maul back to raise their offensive capability a little bit?




    RageSoul -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/22/2012 8:11:03)

    quote:

    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.

    Well this is fine for me since my TM leveled-up yesterday .

    quote:

    Heal
    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?

    Can this be a help ?


    At level cap ( 35 )

    Level 1 : 27 Base Health Restored , then + 3 to the next consecutive levels , so that's 54 Base Health Restored when Maxed.

    At level 1 ( Character Level )

    Level 1 : 12 Base Health restored ; Level 10 : 39 Base Health Restored

    Then the +1 progression starts at C. Level 6 ( that means when you reach C . Level 6 , the base HP restored now becomes 13 at Level 1 ) ; +1 for every 2 Level Ups ( so it ends when you reached Level 35 ) .

    quote:

    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.
    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

    I like that Connect Bonus . Perhaps making it reduce the opponent's minimum Block Chance ( if his/her DEX is way beyond the difference to get at least 2% ) would make it more useful .




    Ranloth -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/22/2012 12:27:13)

    Yeah, with Heal, that'd work best since you get +1 HP per 2 Levels which is always something, but I'm worried at the base Health used at Lvl 1 and progression would hurt the Heal. In fact at Lvl 35, base is already 33 HP which would mean this is a nerf. AFAIK, Heal improves by +1 for 1.5 Levels, so that'd mean every 2 levels and then 1 level, 2 levels, etc. (rounding up) If it was to work like that and using 17 as base for Lvl 1 then it'd be.. 34 HP which is +1 more than it is now.
    So I'd say leaving Heal as it is now with Level-scaling is fine and slower progression from Support would aid it in many ways, not mentioning revival of Support builds.

    In regards to SA, I'd think that reducing minimum Block Chance would be really pushing it, especially with high Dex BHs that take best advantage of SA. You'd have the chance to be completely unblockable which isn't really fair + Connect chance already is like taking away 5% of blocking (at L10 SA) as it is, which is good enough in my opinion + you still get higher blocking. It's still a luck skill as I said but giving it too much would overpower it.

    Also I've added something to BH section as well as CH in regards to Massacre:
    quote:

    On top of this, I'd like to suggest small adjustment to Massacre which seems to be causing issues recently, despite the fact it was nerfed once before. Allow me to explain:
    Current Massacre values: 50% -> 62% -> 74% -> 86% -> 96% -> 106% -> 116% -> 124% -> 132% -> 140%
    Suggested Massacre values: 50% -> 60% -> 70% -> 80% -> 90% -> 100% -> 110% -> 120% -> 130% -> 140%

    So as you can see, it's a small nerf early on which is good - people rarely max Massacre nowadays - and nerf gets bigger as you get to Lvl 4 and stays the same until Level 7 (6% less) which is still slight difference in terms of damage (say 20-24 +35 gives 55-59 so 6% difference is 4 damage less, always something really. And it gets lower as you get to top level and the same at max Level. Simple change yet can make a difference! :D


    Opinions? xP




    laguna blade -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/22/2012 15:18:10)

    I think i prefer malf with ch than conduction coz some ch use primary ene n gun aux phy so if opponent use energy shield so that they shoot n chance to deflected low.

    If pb n n supercharge relly need nerf better reduce their base dmg instead of change requirement coz there r many staff low lvl or high with dex n tech requiremnt. And most of them has low supp so they easily crited by opp.

    Idk to support or not about other suggestion




    Mother1 -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/22/2012 16:51:54)

    @ Laguna blade

    Plasma bolt yes that does need a nerf Supercharge however no. Right now it is on par with surgical strike so nerfing it would put it behind the other ultimates since Massacre is ahead of the pack while supercharge and Surgical strike are on par.




    laguna blade -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/22/2012 17:09:26)

    So wat about reduce base dmg pb like plasma canon coz both improve with tech not like fire ball that improve with str




    Ranloth -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/22/2012 17:18:36)

    This is already suggested and was suggested by me and numerous number of people in old Balance Thread to do that. I've just edited my 1st post to delete and add some stuff since some was really outdated or changed already. Keep in mind this is to discuss the ideas in the 1st post not suggest own balance changes; that's why there's sub-forum so we can all have our own threads and post our views there/suggest ideas as well as give feedback to people. :)




    RageSoul -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/23/2012 8:44:58)

    The main problem is that STR builds do better in DPT ( damage per turn) tactics , plus they can endure higher damage thanks to shields , which even a Caster TECH Tech Mage can do , still it relies heavily on PB . SC is just a "just-needed" supporting "spell" . But if they can heal high , unfortunately , so do those STR builds .




    ND Mallet -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/23/2012 8:49:10)

    Actually, I think this idea here could help lower the power that strength has if it's worked right.




    deltaknight7 -> RE: Trans' Balance Suggestions (10/25/2012 20:28:57)

    i like the robot idea and maul




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