The last two merc releases have got me thinking about how SD releases mercs and how potentially we could be better prepared for future mercs that are coming. In my humble opinion, Turtle’s release was an effing home run. They could not have released a better merc that filled a niche, was balanced, fun to play, and fit into the game so damn well. So I was naturally excited for more of the same, until Canerlin came out, broke the game, and caused a whole storm of problems until her nerf. Guardian is on the right track, but doesn’t fit anywhere fully enough to really be a viable competitive pick on a team.
So what’s the problem/is there one? I think mercs need a bit more testing before release. I’m only guessing at this point but I think the reason Turtle was so perfectly balanced upon release is because he was in development for so long. (keep in mind i don’t ever want anything to take that long again) Cancerlin came out pretty quickly after that and before even she was completely balanced (the threads talking about her fixes says that she still isn’t) we get Guardian in a slightly usable, slightly not state.
So whats the solution? In a dream world, we’d get a PTR server up and running where the players could test out new releases for about a week and then SD would tweak based off that feeback for another week and then we’d get a full release. This way, we don’t break the game a-la Cancerlin style, and we get 90% more releases like Turtle’s. But what’s a realistic way to do this since we probably never will get a PTR? I don’t know, maybe take another week of development in-between releases to check balance/bugs? What do you all think? Is this an issue? What’s a good solution?