Merc Design, Health, Speed and Size

(Reddeadcap) #1

Ever since the massive nerfs for Phantom after his introduction many balance chances were really strange, one noticeable one is based around the most consistent aspect of the game, Merc design, size, health and speed.

While the smaller and less visibly armored a merc is, the faster and trailer they are but they also have subjectively speaking, more effective abilities that are less straight foward and dangerous than their sturdier counterparts.

Lets take a look at assaults for instance.

Nader isn’t heavily armored but is a bit buff, hence why she’s set to 120 health, around average with the Fire Supports who’re wearing body armor but lightly armored for an Assault, Mobile and capable to do tremendous indirect fire.

Fragger visibly armored more than even a fire support, leaving him at 150, a fine middle ground between Nader and Rhino with both indirect fire with his hand grenades and the capability to mow down enemies with an Mg and balanced Automatic and Burst Rifles.

Rhino lacks mobility and indirect fire capabilities with but has tremendous amounts of health, armors from the neck down.

Looking at the recent changes to Vasilli, changes to Phantom and release of Thunder don’t add up.

Vasilli and Phantom are both set to 110 hp, but no chances were done to their movement speed.

So Vasilli still has his original speed that matches Phoenix and this was a change nobody was really expecting.
Phantom still moved at his original speed, matching Stoker, Arty, Nader and Skyhammer, Redeye but even with his cloak activated right away upon taking damage, his cloak and actual health Add up to 115 health while he is visibly more armored than Vasilli, more armored than even anyone else with 120hp

Finally, Upon release Thunder’s movement speed and actual health don’t add up, the health that matches his current movement speed would be 170, not 160 and Thunder did have 170 by the looks of older beta footage.

What’s your thoughts, think Splash Damage should look into character health/movement speed closely for some balancing?
Find it fine as is?

Edit: Thunder should be 175, not just 170 by the looks of his speed recently.

(Naonna) #2

so… is this a call to buff the health of the recon classes or increase their speed? I’m confused.

(Reddeadcap) #3

@Naonna personal wish would be that Phantom gets his health back to 120, Vasilli back to 100 and balanced some other way and that Thunder’s health buffed back to 170.

I just couldn’t help but feel like bringing up a discussion on that if SD are going to change a character’s health, so should movement speed which looks like it was hugely overlooked and hoping it doesn’t become a trend in future patches since it’s one of the most consistent aspects of the game.

Also bringing up how a character’s design should really fuel what direction they’re going with those change, for example, it made sense that Nader went from 110 to 120 as even if she’s not so armored she’s buff and an Assault class.

(JJMAJR) #4

I do know the why behind Vasilli’s recent buff:
MPs were severely nerfed, thus Vasilli was buffed to compensate for that.

Speaking of which, Sparks should drop her MPs for heavy pistols due to the same logic. She’s severely weak in combat, and her abilities are nerfed to nearly par compared to other medics, so the heavy pistols would be able to alleviate that.

Phantom should get buffs to both movement speed and health. He shouldn’t be on par with Nader, Skyhammer, and the like, he should exceed that because of how weak his abilities are. 130 HP and movement speed on par with Phoenix.

And if he were to become a Recon, he should get a spotting ability. Even if it can’t be as powerful as Vasilli’s, just something to make him able to contribute to the team. If that’s impossible, at least give him the ability to kill more effectively and efficiently, like with a grenade.

(Eox) #5

This is what happens after several balancing updates : some characters does not fit their physical build anymore. In my case, it’s not something I mind a lot. I am more caring about a balanced game than a logic game. But of course if the game is both balanced and logic, it’s better.

But hey, since Phantom’s 110 hp does not fit his look anymore, how about turning him into a midget ? A 110hp midget explained with the fact that he’s wearing a the refractive armor : it makes sense to me. :]

(Reddeadcap) #6

@JJMAJR I’ve said in a couple of suggestion similar to that, suggesting that while Phantoms could have high speed but average/above average speed with it handwaved that the armor technology makes it durable but lightweight but with the removal of his refractive armor’s damage mitigating effect and more buffs to recharge speed.

I get your point, MPs were pretty much mini smgs, especially the Empire-9.
That said, the two mercs that rely on MPs as backup weapons had their main weapons nerfed quite a bit too.
Sparks’ Reviver because it basically made her a better sniper than Vasilli

Sniper rifles which at the moment the only merc that makes use of all of them is Vasilli, there is a lot of RNG to shooting them, flinching and any sort of movement makes shots go off center, the removal of headshot decapitation thus instantly killing the player with no revival, just think some aspects of how they were before should be reintroduced.

(Tanker_Ray) #7

and with Aimee’s weakening, oh yes. he deserves that more.

THUNDA’s Max HP has been always the biggest major downfall of him.

Really, if there’s someone who actually think Thunder is tankier than Fragger, that guy is only shooting Thunder’s foot or something.

Considering machine gun’s movement speed decrease and even with the spread buff, you still have to ADS and slow yourself more, really. he is a slightly moving weak MG turret.

I mean, I really just want to TANK more. not Rhino level. BUT real THUNDA level.