I was holding that for a while, but here's my take on DB balance.


(ragnak) #1

So, we all know that there are still some major balance issues in the game (mostly burst rifles) but other minor issues are getting mostly ignored so i plan on focusing on that.

EDIT: I forgot about explosives smoke being WAY too dense, tone it down for christ sake.

Will try to make it as short as possible but it will probably still be quite a wall.

MERCS:

Thunder:

I do think that his buffs went too far, he didnt really need that 10hp more (fragger nerf was what was needed) and his nade is a bit to potent. Either nerfing the duration or speed debuff will probably be enough.

Aura

I always thought that her design is bad and i still do. You either hard counter her or you cant do **** about her station and this is not something i exactly enjoy. I would rather see her having 2 weaker stations that dont turn you into a god when you stand on them and at the same time its harder to counter. Obviously its a risky change but i honestly think that it would be for the better.

Also, i am kinda tired of airstrikes destroying stations without even dealing 1 damage and this bug is here since forever.

Fletcher:

Still overpowered, cant say that i even felt the nerf when i played him. At the very least his stickies should have 2 sec longer CD.

Redeye

I do think that his smoke last too long and the only reason he isnt more popular is because of bugs. His IR Goggles are really bugged so lets make a short list:

-You cant see mines/turrets/markers/pretty much anything that isnt a player (that one might be because of design decision, if so i think its kinda silly).

-Sometimes (quite often to be fair) you cant see enemy players models or rather they are all black aside from their guns, annoying as hell.

  • You cant see enemy hp when you shoot thru smoke. I understand that its probably side effect of the change that enemy players cant see your health when shooting but i find it quite bad.

In any case i do think that his smoke should last 1-2 sec less, other then that i am fine with him.

Arty

I said that in the past but i will say it again, his markers are horrible. I cant see them most of the time, they look cheap and because of lacking sound i rarely can tell where its going to land. On the other hand his targeting is wonky and its a real pain to cast it at times (trainyard is the best example here).

All i really expect here is some QoL changes, but i wouldnt mind if his ability was reworked into ET artillery strikes, currently it simply feels cheap.

Kira

People might argue since her laser is quite bad on most maps but i do think that it currently last a bit too long, other problem is obvious laser bugs. I hate the fact that i cant see that laser is being casted most of the time so i simply die from a laser i couldnt know that is coming, on top of that laser audio cues are horrible and i can never tell where it is, its just a noice that you have no idea where its coming from.

There should be better visual/audio cues for laser, maybe then it wouldnt need duration nerf but right now i just feel cheated most of the time when i die from it.

Rhino

He needs a rework, because no amount of number changes will make him interesting to play. Right now he is really annoying to deal with on pubs (and thats all db have to offer), is overpowered at some situations(especially on aura station) and totally useless for pretty much anything else. I just wish that he had some actual skill celling ;(.

Proxy

I do have problems with “agressive mining” and at the same time i do think that she need it. In any case, my main issues with it are:

  • I cant see her mine flying from her model, its confusing as hell as most of the time i just run away from proxy because i cant tell if she did throw the mine or not.

  • Audio cues from mine reaching ground arent loud enough and are very often lost in noise, i dont think that should be the case.

  • You cant tell if its a friendly or enemy mine before it arms and i find it to be a problem.

Other then that i feel that she is fine.

Sparks

Because of her design she will stay as mediocre combat medic that is mostly used for necromancing as you cant really be consistent enough with her to be a proper combat merc. I always found her revives to be a problem but all those reviver nerfs went to far and unless all you want to do is revive she isnt fun to play. I dont even know what can be done to make her viable as a combat class without people crying about her (just to note, i never had problems with her as a combat merc, she always felt weak to me after damage drop off nerfs and i never saw anyone do anything impressive with her, then again i didnt watch all the cups streams so who knows.

I find rest of the mercs to be fine more or less (skyhammer have derpy markers that i think needs a major change tho), some minor number changes is all they would need (if at all). Latest fragger nerf did put him in a good spot, finally, so i am happy about that.

Weapons

BR16 and stark: A lot have been said about them and i do personally think that they make every single gun in the game obsolete at the moment. I just hope we wont need to wait months for a well deserved nerfs (and it better be something more then 1% recoil increase or any other silly nerf).

PDP: I wouldnt mind some rof nerfs, but i feel that pdp redeye is more of a problem and not pdp in itself.

Blishlok: I still think that its bad, feels inconsistent and the green blob is horrible. It doesnt really need anything major but i find the recoil pattern on it kinda jarring so some changes to that would be nice.

Dreiss: Ok, i will say it, i find it to be the worse gun in the game. At the very least it needs to have less spread from the hip, especially that burst rifles have better burst damage, less spread, less recoil and better iron sights, so i honestly cant see a reason to use it.

I probably did forget about few things but the things that i listed are pissing me off the most, but i need to say that DB is getting pretty balanced if not for some design issues.


(KeMoN) #2

[QUOTE=ragnak;553998]Aura

I always thought that her design is bad and i still do. You either hard counter her or you cant do **** about her station and this is not something i exactly enjoy. I would rather see her having 2 weaker stations that dont turn you into a god when you stand on them and at the same time its harder to counter. Obviously its a risky change but i honestly think that it would be for the better.

Also, i am kinda tired of airstrikes destroying stations without even dealing 1 damage and this bug is here since forever.[/QUOTE]

You have compiled a very nice list. Your points on Aura are the thing I agree with most. Aura is always on my F1, except if I have mission for another medic. (F1 is always medic and F3 is always engineer)

Especially the last sentence is something that bugs me so hard. I always thought it was by design that healing stations are weaker than ammo stations, but sometimes it is really ridiculous. Healing stations getting destroyed although you stand directly next to it and you get no dmg from the airstrike. The ammo station that is closer to the airstrike somehow survives.

Aura is in my opinion definitely the most powerful medic right now. The station is essentially the same as the Phoenix pulse, healing the whole team, however constantly and limitless. That it is bound to a certain spot is such a tiny downside it isn’t really noticeable.
One could think that Aura is bad at guarding an attack wave because her healing is stationary compared to Phoenix or Sawbonez. But that is actually really wrong.
Take for example Bridge as attacking Aura, you are fast enough to speed through the whole left path, even get through the door before the enemy is really a problem. Then you continue left and set the station between EV and door in that walled of spot. Your backup arrives exactly at the time your station is ready to buff and there is nothing the enemy can really do.
A whole team standing on a station and being constanty healed is quite hard to deal with. And if it is a Rhino standing on it like mentioned by OP it is just ridiculous.

Also the XP farming ability of Aura is just insane. If you have a ‘Total XP’ mission always go for Aura.

I don’t know what you could do to bring Aura down a bit, but 2 weaker stations is worse in my opinion. Then you can support the main attack wave and the flanks.

You could think about changing the constant healing of the station to an impule like Phoenix has. Every X seconds a pulse is being released and then introduce an augment like Noz for Rhino to reduce X seconds to Y seconds.


(ragnak) #3

[QUOTE=KeMoN;554044]
I don’t know what you could do to bring Aura down a bit, but 2 weaker stations is worse in my opinion. Then you can support the main attack wave and the flanks.

You could think about changing the constant healing of the station to an impule like Phoenix has. Every X seconds a pulse is being released and then introduce an augment like Noz for Rhino to reduce X seconds to Y seconds.[/QUOTE]

The problem is, is that i dont consider her overpowered thats why i dont really call for nerfs. Fact is that her station is too strong at some maps when defending (bridge 1st phase is especially painful because of her) but it doesnt have the impact when you attack. In any case i would simply want her to be a better pick for attacking without her being overpowered for defending (unless you counter pick, but even then its sometimes really hard to deal with station).


(ifreborn) #4

Aura would be fine if sawbones packs were improved to make him a more offence biased medic. I don’t like self use heal time penalty.


(Szakalot) #5

a simple change tonaura would be to givethe station a weak spot which can be targetted for extra damage, like a headshot multiplier. this plus fixing fire support AoE destroying stations from huge distance should fix all problems imo


(Nail) #6

cool, would work