LVXYZ
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Honestly, compared to every other class, Blood Mage seems to be the most balanced. There's only one problem about this...every other class in the game has some type of powerful exploit. With the Golden Yeti Tournament now open...this is pretty bad in my case. (Aside from the fact I'm level 33 going against mostly 35s, but I could usually beat them anyway.)
Sure you can abuse STR/Support as BloodMage, but Fireball does bad damage compared to Plasma Bolt, Bludgeon gets Blocked so many times on my end, and a Gun can get Deflected, especially by Tech Mages.
There is no sure-fire powerful build for BloodMage as I've seen. Sure, people abused STR for Bludgeon, but again, that's not as good as a Double Strike/Zerker build with STR. I personally have a 5 Focus build that leans on Technology for the Plasma Cannon and Robot. It's the most reliable build I can think of at the moment, and I like using my Omega Dark Yeti's high damage with the Omega Slayer's passive.
To sum up my experience so far...(Almost Constant Losing Streak by the way)
VS Tech Mage - Almost obvious. Same build across the board now virtually. 100+ Technology total, use Plasma Bolt, then Supercharge. My build was designed to utilize Technology instead of Strength, but not by THAT much. With the new Resistance balance, Plasma bolt shatters through my Resistance as if I had none, Despite it being at around 37 in total. And with their Reroute at max, it'd be useless to try to actually LOWER their energy with something like the Energy Shot gun core. They'd usually have enough energy to simply Plasma Bolt AGAIN, instead of Super Charge, which tends to do more damage for its energy requirement. If not that, then a Malfunction/Technician/Plasma Bolt build. This basically centers around Plasma Bolt, and is is OP considering you have lower Resistance and the opponent has a ridiculously high amount of Plasma Damage.
VS Bounty Hunter/Cyber Hunter - Not as obvious of a build, but Smokescreen/Malfunction will always be involved. Massacre still seems to do a lot more damage at level 1 than any other ultimate skill at level 1. (Seriously, I always take at least about 40 damage from that skill without SmokeScreen on me, while a level 1 Surgical Strike does like 25 most of the time, and a level 1 SuperCharge does around 30 at least to me.) Now MAX that skill, or even have it at level 7? That's power. Also, for Cyber Hunters, that passive Resistance buff makes it harder for one to actually kill him/her fast enough. Not to mention that they not only have a Resistance Buff, but a Resistance debuff to unleash on you. Mix this with Massacre and you've got a pretty hard-to-fail build. I know Massacre got a recent % debuff... but in my opinion, it probably could do with exact number range damage, as the % damage appears to be the EXACT reason why it's the stronger ultimate skill.
VS - Mercenary - Despite the new STR reduction, STR/Double Strike/Berzerker builds still work well. Not as well as the Tech Mage builds, but still. Thanks to my DEX, I can sometimes block one if not both skills. Usually, this doesn't happen, so I can die in a matter of two turns. Although, there's now the Tech Build (yeah, almost ironic), where a Merc leans on Technology to empower his Bunker Buster, and Surgical Strike (the skill becomes a threat if leveled with high Tech). To tell you the truth, I don't really find this one that overpowered at all. (Unless you ABUSE tech, which a lot of people with this build do, so it becomes OP.) Then...there's the Support build. Okay seriously. This one can probably go for a lot of classes, but I hate it the most from a Merc, as they actually have an ATTACK that relies on Support. Couple this with Support's Crit Chance/First Strike Chance/ Rage Gain/ Aux Damage Increase/ Stun Reduction, and you have a pretty ridiculous Merc. The way things usually go, is that the Merc goes first (always), and usually uses his/her Auxilary weapon. It deals a massive amount of damage despite my Defenses/Resistance, and I proceed to attack. On the turn after that, the Merc uses Artillery Strike, which improves with support, and does ridiculous damage as well. I'm dead by this point.
VS Tactical Mercenary - Meh. Tactical Mercenary is probably the second most balanced class currently in my opinion. Sadly, they too can abuse Support and do the same thing Mercs do. Some even abuse Strength and use Double Strike/Frenzy to live longer. Reroute allows Tact. Mercs to utilize their skills more often also. I don't see many abusing tech for Surgical Strike, though, which probably isn't that ideal, anyway.
VS Blood Mage - I find the most different builds from my own class, but the most popular one seems to be a str abusing Bludgeon/Deadly Aim build. Honestly, since BloodMages are an offensive class, I'm not sure if I should even call it "abuse". But anyway, this build was actually more OP when Omega first released, and isn't that great now, when I compare it to my own build. (I even caved in and tried it. Waste of Credits.) The build in itself does a lot of damage. Thing is, I block (and get blocked) Bludgeon a lot. When this is the only really STR skill you can rely on (Compare FireBall to Plasma Bolt, Fire Ball is virtually useless.), and your gun, it can fail pretty easily, as Deflections and Blocks can happen quite often. There's not much else that's "OP" about this class. If you abuse Tech, you won't get very far, either, as Plasma Cannon would be the only skill going for you, and that's it. Blood Mage is meant to be offensive, so it doesn't have any defense debuffs, or passive defense buffs, but rather Intimidate, which is a STR debuff. Becuase of this, Blood Mages seem to be meant to out-attack their opponent, instead of out-live them. It's a very good idea, but when you couple in the exploits of every other class...it'll be pretty hard.
So there you have my experience with Blood Mage. I actually may not give up on it, as in typing this I've regained a little dignity in the class. Although, the Golden Yeti Tournament is as good as impossible for me. I rarely go against other Blood Mages, and those are the ones I have the easiest time beating. I refuse to try taking advantage of any exploits just to win. As much as I'd like a Golden Yeti, I'll have to just say "Forget about it." Unless I have a miracle, or the ED crew puts out a HUGE fix compared to everything so far (btw you guys are doing great, don't get me wrong), getting CLOSE to the top 100 is almost fiction in my case.
< Message edited by LVXYZ -- 2/23/2013 12:07:00 >
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