Exploding Penguin
Moderator
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My bad, I was in a rush earlier and misread some stuff. Here is my critique for the rest of the skill suggestions: -For the resistance increasing mechanic on BH cheap shot and CH multi shot, because of the way defense/resistance works and how they have absolutely no %-based reduction associated with them, it just polarizes the skill to either be amazingly useful or very useless. I understand the point of it is to be weak vs. tanky builds and strong vs. squishier, glass cannon builds, but the degree at which it's too good/useless is way, way too high. The idea is not bad but it has to do with a fundamental problem of ED's defense/resistance system which renders the concept most likely unsuccessful -I'm more of a fan of the whole "very big damage for very big energy cost" identity that massacre has always had. So I'd rather it just having retuned numbers on damage/energy cost rather than a very weird conditional where you can cast it economically but only if you already don't have enough energy. Not to mention that it will function basically as a "even if you drain my energy you still can't stop me" type of feeling which is pretty reminiscent of the old massacre BH that's just "even if you drain my energy I'll just use boosters." And this is my personal preference but I really didn't like boosters. Basically, it makes it more interesting if the cost is still really high for very high damage values since there's a lot more playing around the energy cost with that type of setting. That being said, I'm not saying that the skill doesn't need a buff because it most certainly does, but I'd like to see it in different areas. -TLM Double strike with a pretty decent lifesteal ratio, moderate energy cost, and still keeping its current CD at 1 is projected to be pretty darn strong. If anything it could be really obnoxious in 2v2 since it gives you so much consistently high DPS while returning a bit of health to you. Retune the numbers a bit and I could support it -I'd much prefer TLM of keeping its inability to debuff but having its strengths elsewhere. I'm more of a fan of classes that are very good at certain things with large deficits in other areas, as long as it can still keep up with the other classes and its wins/losses aren't based mostly off of matchup. New atom smasher concept is cool but I'd be much happier if it was used instead to replace another overlapping skill that is also a debuff. -The BH mark of blood change is IMO unnecessary. It's a fine and handy skill but I don't think it deserves that big of a nerf. The basis of the skill is that you expend a lot of energy and commit yourself to an offensive playstyle for the next few turns to make the energy cost worth it. If this is intended to be a buff for caster builds with low strength, running the skill itself on a caster build isn't going to be too effective either since that energy is probably better spent elsewhere. It might seem minor but not having that instant heal just takes away so much power from the skill. If you want to nerf it I would rather increase the energy cost by a bit at all levels. -I don't really have much to say about the BH energy shield change since it's a simple change to it, but I was thinking there is a lot more potential in the skill by having it last 3 turns, but if you apply mark of blood while energy shield is up, then energy shield's duration is increased by an additional turn. This type of suggestion is more in an attempt of reshaping BH to be very centric on Mark of blood if it wants to use energy shield, since the builds that run mark of blood are probably the ones that will want to run energy shield as well, and builds that don't use mark of blood most likely don't have a need for energy shield as well. -For BM reflex boost, it's basically the same thing as BH energy shield. The change itself is fine, but it could have a bit more potential by interacting specially with other skills on BM's skill tree. -I very much like the base concept of the new TLM stun grenade. My qualms with it lie in the previously mentioned "buff the opponent's defenses" mechanic that, as I explained before, I don't really like since it polarizes its effectiveness versus certain builds and can render a large skill point investment somewhat useless. Also, if the stun chance is going to be that low, it probably just shouldn't be there. Low stun chances like that don't do much except translate to a lot of angry people complaining about how they never get lucky or the opponent got too lucky. The current stun mechanic in ED is honestly really darn broken and IMO all stun skills need to get completely reworked, but I can save that for another post in possibly the near future. -I like the current TM defense matrix as of now. It has a nice identity for a low energy cost and just shutting down physical attacks almost completely for the next 3 turns. If anything, it doesn't see much success right now because of the way the meta is. -CH Malfunction: It's cool to add in a new mechanic, but it could have more to it. By that I mean more interesting synergies and special interactions with other skills. I am a firm believer that if most skills in a class interact in unique, special ways with each other, it will make both build making and battling a lot more fun and interesting. Thus, I like where the suggestion for this skill is heading but it could have a bit more to it in terms of its unique properties. -As stated before, I have a huge thing regarding stun skills and how none of them in their current state are healthy for the game. Thus, can't support this since it's basically just a physical version of overload. -Plasma Rain and bludgeon have the same problem I have with the other skills hosting the same mechanic -TM Battery Backup: Scales with support which is always cool. I definitely want support to have more applications than it currently has, and it fits in thematically for it to improve the energy regeneration skill -BM Intimidate: I like it how it currently is with the 3 turns of slightly stronger strength reduction. What would be cooler with it would be that it's actually applied as caster damage rather than strike damage. So, the damage on cast would be unblockable and scale with something that isn't strike damage. -TLM Artillery Strike & CH Venom Strike: The only reason they are suggested to be changed is to "fix" the overlapping skill problem. It really doesn't change them much at all in terms of what role they fulfill or their base function. Same can be said for some other skills on the list of suggestions. The point of getting rid of overlapping skills is to completely reshape the skill's identity or just entirely replace it with another concept, not to just mess around with the numbers a tiny bit and call it a new skill. -CH Shadow Arts: There are other things I would have personally done with reworking this skill but the change you suggested has its own interesting applications so I can't say that I don't support it. If anything it really doesn't change the skill in 1v1 at all and it's still an overlapping skill. Should probably just get replaced entirely by a new skill. -For the last 3 skills on the list, my critique of them is basically already covered by what I've said about the other skills. To me, when we say we want to fix the problem of overlapping skills, it means that we want to introduce new functionality for all of the overlapping skills being fixed. Simply changing the numbers/duration slightly or changing the damage type doesn't really do this. As a side note, I am VERY glad that you are willing to put so much time into suggesting new things for ED. It really means a lot that people still care enough about this game to spend a good chunk of time suggesting stuff that might not even get implemented.
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