Skyhammer’s airstrike used to have a 60 seconds CD during Steam Closed Beta, but it got raised to 70 seconds due to constant airstrikes and impossibility to get the EV anywhere. Because everyone were starting out and Skyhammer was free, he was an extremely common merc.
As of today, I am still a bit worried about seeing a big Skyhammer CD reduction, as it could quickly lead to some fucked up things when low levels play between themselves. However I think another kind of buff could work : how about splitting the marker’s CD from the actual airstrike ?
As most of you should know, the airstrike can be used like a small grenade indoors. The airstrike won’t be called in, but you’ll get 20 seconds CD instead of a full 70 seconds CD. The idea here is to (sort of) split the ability cooldowns so you can send what I would call an “airstrike dud” (basically the airstrike marker itself without an airstrike call) every 20 seconds, you can only effectively call an airstrike every 70 seconds. We can also add a QoL change that would allow you to switch from dud mode to airstrike mode the same way you switch from dumb mode to guided mod on Javelin’s rocket launcher.
This change would give to Skyhammer the advantage of being a much more versatile merc indoors compared to Arty or Kira. However it also makes Skyhammer a bit harder to fully understand. So he might not be the most fitting starter merc along with Aura.
Could also be paired with a small CD reduction from 70 to 60s ofc.
