My ideas for balancing reworks

(Press E) #1

I saw someone make a similar post a while ago, and I figured it might be fun to get all my thoughts out and hear what others have to say. Before reading please keep in mind these are just my opinions, and I am biased to a lot of aspects in this game. If it were up to me, snipers for the most part wouldn’t be part of this game, but I can live with them, lol.
I’d love to hear your feedback!
These ideas are also made with DB’s large population of inexperienced players kept in mind, however. I’m not focusing on competitive play as much as what I believe would make the game more enjoyable to everyone.

  1. Phantom - I do not believe Phantom should be played as an invisible assault merc, but rather to disable deployables at critical times to encourage a team to push.
    -Different XP values for EMPing different deployables depending on priority, with med stations giving a large amount, and ammo stations much less. This helps the Phantom know what they’ve EMPd and helps prioritize EMPing important targets.
    -Continual XP from staying cloaked near a deployable to keep it EMPd, more incentive to keep a health station down while your team pushes
    -Increased damage absorption from the cloak slightly. Around 30+ damage at a full charge is really next to nothing. It is “refractive armour” after all.
    -Potentially EMPing non-deployable abilities at no cooldown cost. For instance, a red eye would be unable to use their IR goggles while near a cloaked Phantom, or a Phoenix to self revive. This effect would immediately stop after the Phantom decloaks, however.

  2. Sparks -Automatically start charging the revivr when drawn using quick access (E), basically the same as the defibs. This would make her a lot easier to pick up for new players who are used to reviving with aura.
    -Remove (or massively reduce) minimum charging level, but have it do next to no damage. Again, this makes her easier to pick up with mercs who are used to the defib
    -Decrease movement speed while holding the revivr to help alleviate problems caused by players with godlike aim killing larger mercs close up with headshots and insane dodging speed.

  3. Fletcher
    -Combine the sticky bombs and detonator into one “weapon”, where both would be held at once and could be thrown with left click and detonated with right click. Pressing Q or E would still have the same effect as it currently does however. This removes some of the issues surrounding weapons not switching properly, and makes Fletcher slightly less complex to get used to for newer players.
    -Decrease direct hit damage to about the same as Nader’s grenade direct hit, and increase its AoE slightly. I believe Fletcher’s abilities should aid his weapons, not become more powerful than his weapons.
    -Potentially increase his cooldown slightly, making stickies less spammable.

  4. Shotguns and Bolt Action Sniper Rifles
    -Change the pumping animations so they don’t restart after weapons are switched. While the firing delay is still in place, you’re not faced with an annoying animation when you pull your gun out again. The current system really just feels clunky and awkward to me.
    -Change the spread pattern on shotguns into more of a fan rather than a star (perhaps depending on the gun), making the shotgun desirable to use against multiple close players, rather than single targets.

  5. Stilnotto Stiletto
    -Greatly increase its quickslash speed, perhaps even with a slight damage reduction. As it is, it just feels like a terrible version of the beckhill.
    -Add a sort of cylindrical hitbox when the player is aiming below the horizon, so everything below their crosshair is also hit. I’ve noticed issues with taller mercs where the stilnotto doesn’t finish downed mercs in the same way as other melee weapons, almost as if the range is so small that it barely hits them most of the time

  6. Sneaky -It’s a great augment against more experienced players, but its effect is still rather minimal
    -Increase the effect from 25% to 50%

  7. Steady
    -Add it to other deployables, such as med stations and maybe even heartbeat censors

  8. Untrackable
    -I’m honestly not too sure if it already does, but allow it to effect items like the snitch or heartbeat sensor.

  9. Bushwhacker
    -Add the Spotter augment to the turret, giving it a larger enemy detection radius
    -rotate the turret so it faces the player when deployed, allowing for better placement and less of a risk of getting stuck when team collisions are on.
    -Implement a proper reclaim system for when the turret is destroyed. Allow the player to easily pick up the turret for slightly reduced cooldown when it’s first destroyed (and hopefully prevent it from falling through the floor). This makes it more desirable to stay near your turret, rather than placing it at random far corners.

  10. Ammo Stations
    -Readd the extra clip “bug”, where an extra magazine could be obtained from ammo stations. As it is, it’s much more desirable to pick up ammo packs rather than visit an ammo station

  11. Looter (this is more for fun tbh)
    -Increase the size of the dropped medpack or ammo pack when the enemy is killed with melee. You have no bullets, right? Better get a lot of them.

  12. Quick Deploy
    -Add a quick deploy augment to certain deployables, like med stations or mines to help them activate faster after being placed.

  13. Arty
    -Increase the speed between artillery rounds. He already has two blasts, and it shouldn’t be used for continual damage.

  14. Thunder
    -Swap out the Stark for literally anything else in gen 3 loadouts. I don’t really mind the Stark, but it’s insane on Thunder.
    -Remove the mouse sensitivity reduction and change the blinding effect in concussion grenades so you’re not completely blind (almost like before), but with heavily distorted vision to make it difficult to fight as before. This gives players a chance to actually get to cover, rather than just holding the still for a face full of stark

  15. Nader
    -Slightly increase the speed martyrdom takes to explode, perhaps at the cost of AoE to make it a bit more practical against more experienced players.

(Eox) #2

Moving to mercenary discussions.

(Press E) #3

It’s not just mercenaries, it’s everything, that’s why I left it in general

(Eox) #4

Heh.

Moving back.

(AlbinMatt) #5

I just imagine Eox tossing threads like it’s an Olympic event.

(GatoCommodore) #6

the ammo station extra clip is pretty useful tbh.
it gives ammo station an extra use instead of being a blocker for newbies

(LifeupOmega) #7

Ammo Station yes, Steady no. Aura Stations are already tankier than a merc of the same health pool.

(TheStrangerous) #8

For some reason I feel like I’m the only one equipping ability items, instead of using quick buttons.

The biggest potential in Phantom’s cloak I see in equipping it (default “4” on keyboard).
Not sure if his speed remains the same as with melee weapons he has. But if he was forced to have his forearm equipped, while using cloak, this could potentially open a lot of balancing possibilities. So far, the whole instantaneous attacking during cloak is the problem.

Do agree with combining Stickies and Detonator into one weapon. Especially, as I mentioned, I use manual ability item selection.

(everlovestruck) #9

Sparks does not need a buff (nor the descent of her skill floor)

(Press E) #10

@everlovestruck said:
Sparks does not need a buff (nor the descent of her skill floor)

It’s not intended to be a buff, it’s intended to make her easier to pick up with newer players, while keeping game play for higher skill levels more or less the same.
As it is almost no one plays Sparks. I love the atmosphere she adds to a match of having to watch to make sure your kills aren’t revived, and I think it’s a shame she’s so hard to even get used to, let alone do decently at.
Casual sparks players are very easy to counter, and still add a lot more to a match than a casual Vassili. I don’t see the issue in making her slightly easier to pick up for newer players, being that almost the entire player base never makes it past level 10 because a lot of the mercs aren’t very user friendly for beginners.

(Eox) #11

I’m going to comment the Fletcher part for now.

  1. Fletcher
    -Combine the sticky bombs and detonator into one “weapon”, where both would be held at once and could be thrown with left click and detonated with right click. Pressing Q or E would still have the same effect as it currently does however. This removes some of the issues surrounding weapons not switching properly, and makes Fletcher slightly less complex to get used to for newer players.
    -Decrease direct hit damage to about the same as Nader’s grenade direct hit, and increase its AoE slightly. I believe Fletcher’s abilities should aid his weapons, not become more powerful than his weapons.
    -Potentially increase his cooldown slightly, making stickies less spammable.

Fusing Detonator with Stickies ? Meh, why not.

Decreasing direct hit damage and increase AoE is a terrible move. It encourage mindless spamming less than actually aiming the sticky bombs : accuracy and predictions would be less rewarded while higher AoE would make non-direct hit stickies easier to pull out. What you want to do about Fletcher balancing is discouraging spam as much as you can. A smarter move would be to punish further poorly accurate shots by decreasing minimum damage of the sticky bombs, as well as maybe decreasing maximum non-direct hit damage from 85 to 75, though I think we should keep the ability to one shot Aura and Sparks since they can be a pain in the ass to deal with without the right tool. You can also decrease slightly the RPM of the sticky bombs to discourage mindless spamming further (so far you can toss 1 per second).

Increasing the CD is a no-brainer.

(Press E) #12

[quote=“Eox;c-227394”]I’m going to comment the Fletcher part for now.

  1. Fletcher
    -Combine the sticky bombs and detonator into one “weapon”, where both would be held at once and could be thrown with left click and detonated with right click. Pressing Q or E would still have the same effect as it currently does however. This removes some of the issues surrounding weapons not switching properly, and makes Fletcher slightly less complex to get used to for newer players.
    -Decrease direct hit damage to about the same as Nader’s grenade direct hit, and increase its AoE slightly. I believe Fletcher’s abilities should aid his weapons, not become more powerful than his weapons.
    -Potentially increase his cooldown slightly, making stickies less spammable.

Fusing Detonator with Stickies ? Meh, why not.

Decreasing direct hit damage and increase AoE is a terrible move. It encourage mindless spamming less than actually aiming the sticky bombs : accuracy and predictions would be less rewarded while higher AoE would make non-direct hit stickies easier to pull out. What you want to do about Fletcher balancing is discouraging spam as much as you can. A smarter move would be to punish further poorly accurate shots by decreasing minimum damage of the sticky bombs, as well as maybe decreasing maximum non-direct hit damage from 85 to 75, though I think we should keep the ability to one shot Aura and Sparks since they can be a pain in the ass to deal with without the right tool. You can also decrease slightly the RPM of the sticky bombs to discourage mindless spamming further (so far you can toss 1 per second).

Increasing the CD is a no-brainer.[/quote]

True. But what I was thinking was similar to Nader, where she can one-shot auras, but not if they have unshakable. Sure it rewards accuracy and all, but like I said I believe his stickies should be used to aid his weapons, not replace them.
I’ve also always been against most one-shot kills in multiplayer games. Even if it is hard to pull off, there’s always an aspect of luck involved with them that makes them feel really cheap to me.

(Eox) #13

[quote=“STARRYSOCK;c-227454”][quote=“Eox;c-227394”]I’m going to comment the Fletcher part for now.

  1. Fletcher
    -Combine the sticky bombs and detonator into one “weapon”, where both would be held at once and could be thrown with left click and detonated with right click. Pressing Q or E would still have the same effect as it currently does however. This removes some of the issues surrounding weapons not switching properly, and makes Fletcher slightly less complex to get used to for newer players.
    -Decrease direct hit damage to about the same as Nader’s grenade direct hit, and increase its AoE slightly. I believe Fletcher’s abilities should aid his weapons, not become more powerful than his weapons.
    -Potentially increase his cooldown slightly, making stickies less spammable.

Fusing Detonator with Stickies ? Meh, why not.

Decreasing direct hit damage and increase AoE is a terrible move. It encourage mindless spamming less than actually aiming the sticky bombs : accuracy and predictions would be less rewarded while higher AoE would make non-direct hit stickies easier to pull out. What you want to do about Fletcher balancing is discouraging spam as much as you can. A smarter move would be to punish further poorly accurate shots by decreasing minimum damage of the sticky bombs, as well as maybe decreasing maximum non-direct hit damage from 85 to 75, though I think we should keep the ability to one shot Aura and Sparks since they can be a pain in the ass to deal with without the right tool. You can also decrease slightly the RPM of the sticky bombs to discourage mindless spamming further (so far you can toss 1 per second).

Increasing the CD is a no-brainer.[/quote]

True. But what I was thinking was similar to Nader, where she can one-shot auras, but not if they have unshakable. Sure it rewards accuracy and all, but like I said I believe his stickies should be used to aid his weapons, not replace them.[/quote]

That’s what you’ll more or less get if you punish spamming further. Stickies are powerful and all, but they’re supposed to be absolutely atrocious in duels : considering an enemy that has a somewhat decent aim, if you miss your direct hit the enemy will have a great advantage over you.

You’re supposed to use sticky bombs to start fights when it’s possible, flank, deny or clutch. But not for direct encounters (though you probably want to pull out your stickies in a frontal 1vs3 scenario : you’ll die anyway, so better trying to harm as much people as possible). Some Fletchers still attempt a direct hit in a duel situation, but it can be a gamble. From my own experience, I lost a lot of my duels because I decided to use my sticky bombs in a straight 1v1 duel instead of actually pulling out my Blishlok (or even my secondary) and go for the head. Stickies are just still a bit too strong to be truly punishing to use in duel scenarios. We just have to make that weakness more pronounced.