Auras Healing Station Version 2...

(PixelTwitch) #1

So recently we saw a nerf to the healing station that added around 3 seconds setup time before healing would begin. The goal of this was to negate the “jump into the middle of a battle and drop a station” strat that was causing havoc in public servers. Basically this would mean Aura would have an effective HP of 170 if you was to kill the healing station then focus the Aura. However, smart Auras would strafe in front of their station to protect it meaning it could increase the effective HP much higher then that. Sure, a few well placed headshots would negate this but I believe due to the limits of human reaction times 95% of players rely on prediction of movement rather then direct movement when fighting vs Proxy and Auras. This means getting that multiple headshot streak was coming partly down to either luck or low skilled players not making the most of Auras movement…

Anyway, yes, the nerf did address this issue and it did so fairly well to be honest. The problem I have with it is its simply made Aura less fun to play and less viable in competitive play. It seems right now that Splash Damage are determined to keep the healing station close to where it is now when it comes to strength. They seem to want it where standing on it means you should win the fight. I myself am not so convinced by this, especially if it makes Aura clunky and stationary.

Before saying what I am about to say I need to make it clear that I understand why Aura is a light merc, its because if she was a heavy merc with 150 hp and she had a healing station she would be outright broken. With that said however, the current healing station mechanics really clash with her speed and build. As she is now she can quickly get to fallen team mates but would have to charge up the defibs removing any speed advantage she had due to no quick heal ability. Naturally she will get to the front line first due to her speed but then have to wait for the team to push in order to have a chance of setting up a good healing station.

Due to the way falloff damage on explosives is currently, Aura would have to be around DOUBLE the distance away from the blast when compared to a Sawbones if she wants to survive. This in competitive especially drops her viability massively.

Obviously we also have between 10-15 fairly bad bugs at the moment that also reduce her effectiveness so all in all the healing station is really ****ing cool but really ****ing broken.

Now…

I would like to see the healing stations setup time halved.
I would like to see Auras health slightly increase.
I would like to see Auras speed match Proxy
I would like to see the healing station be limited in healing players taking damage.
I would like to see the healing station do a little friendly fire damage on explosion.

One suggestion I had with the healing station would be to have it Pulse every Y/60 and have each pulse heal upto X amount of hp (Have to work out the current heal rate and then divide by Y/60) this would reduce performance hit compared to doing volume traces every tick, handle the problem of near invincibility at range and still allow her to quick pick up and heal.

I also feel that her healing station cooldown could do with a small reduction… maybe know 1/4 off… Currently the explosive spam is causing it to be taking down far to easily.

Just wanted to mention for those that like the idea, its not really a simple change…

The healing station behaviour would be almost completely re-written, Animation tweaked to match setup time, additional audio for pulse and much more.

(Humbugsen) #2

I don’t think so. Right now you can just kill aura under her station, quite easy with good aim. When you fail to aim good, or she is moving good, you’re dead though. That makes it really random (I try to kill her under the station almost every time and it works most of the times).
If she was a heavy medic it would be obvious, you can’t kill her under station, so focus the station or bring explosives.
Aura should really be mobile in my opinion. Give her a passive healing aura, that heals around 15 hp/sec (infight too) would be what i would like to see. Would fit her name and make her more of a escort-medic.
Give the station to a heavy medic. The heavy medic would be the one to hold a position, someone you go back to when you need a heal. Slow movement speed is enough punishment for a medic, because of reviving. And fragger + nader still counter him hard.
Sawbonez would be right in between those two.

edit: aura is also quite unplayable for new players at the moment, but she is the merc you get for free. They don’t know where to use the station effectively and when they use it, they don’t move. either way they don’t have any chance with a merc that is that hard to play and has the lowest hp.

(Rémy Cabresin) #3

Your posts would be a lot less frustrating to read if you used “I” a lot less :confused: no offense but it’s a lot of it, makes it look like a ranting kid rather than good points even if some of them are good points.

That said, when 9/10 players were complaining about Aura being ‘OP’, Sawbonez was already a better medic overall, people just didn’t see it because Aura was labeled OP because of her ability making people(Fragger at the time mostly) just hard to kill in aim duels but now that people learned to instantly go for the station first thats also taken away from her. She’s statistically ‘better’ in almost every way aspect to Sawbonez already, but an ability that requires you to be almost stationary in a game that revolves 90% around being on the movement is just very unlikely(would even say never) going to be a good pick vs Sawbonez. You can give her all the buffs in the world but as long as you have to sit near a stationary object to heal you are just a 'sitting duck’like target. With the 1 Merc rule you are sorta stuck with her because there are no other mercs, but the mobility that f.e Phoenix or Sparks have they already sound like more viable picks imo. As long as her ability remains a stationary object, it will never be a priority pick in SW(in EXE it might be the best thing in the world when defending tho >:D).

Now a solution I would suggest is changing her ability to be more ‘spread out’. You have a healing station that does say 100HP regen per second max(ballpark figure for theory ofc this isnt optimal), but using your ability again rather than destroying your old station divides the station into two ‘mini stations’ that both do 50HP regen per second(it splits the 100HP over 2 stations)leaving the old station and creating a 2nd(you could even do three/four stations and just keep dividing the HP down). Doesn’t make her more mobile directly, but at least on defense she’d be able to offer a much more interesting team dynamic than she does right now(with stationary shes never going to be interesting on attack anyway, a good defending team instantly takes down the station if she plonks it down during a push).

(Protekt1) #4

Based on my experience with the nerf so far, I think it is a lot fairer now.

I haven’t had much trouble with the healing station, and yet on the opposite side of using it, it still seems fairly strong when placed down in advance.

It is much improved, to say the least.

(Violator) #5

Agreed, the OPness is much improved, its still a challenge to remove but not the portable powershield that it used to be.

(Chux) #6

Something I wanted to suggest back in the day, but never got round to it since I took a break from DB back then was to swap abilities between Phoenix and Aura. Made more sense for her to have pulse heal since she was so quick and could get to places fast and revive and/or quick heal teammates.

I do like Pixels idea with pulse station though, I was always thinking along the lines of TF2 Dispenser, a constant heal rate but very slow and much less efficient compared to packs, but again have that constant supply advantage so you dont waste a pack if you get hit early on and stop recovering HP:

(eitsch0r) #7

[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;527767][…]
Due to the way falloff damage on explosives is currently, Aura would have to be around DOUBLE the distance away from the blast when compared to a Sawbones if she wants to survive. […][/QUOTE]
Would you care to elaborate on this? How is the state and how is your statement coming to be the case? I would be happy already if you would supply me with a URL of a search which finds me related posts explaining the current state of this. Also … if you don’t want to water down this thread with a reply in here, you are very much invited to answer via PM. TIA!

(Szakalot) #8

Imo don’t reinvent the wheel.

Station works fine, but atm. is a little TOO vulnerable to AoE, without the previous mobility.

Increase HP and/or AoE radius to enhance her fortification ability.

(poiuasd) #9

What if the nerf that delays the start of healing was reverted and the overall healing rate was reduced? This way Aura could run around patching people up fairly quickly like she used to but with reduced tankiness around the station.

(LiNkzr) #10

My suggestion is that aura station takes 25-50% less damage from AoE abilities so that it can survive more than one haphazardly thrown frag nade or just some casual spam from Nader.