Damage buffing reminds me a lot of Gears of War active-reload, a feature that really messed up that game. Does brink really need a character that can buff weapon damage!?
It feels pretty annoying to me and unbalanced since it has a direct impact on player skills. Healing and giving ammo is cool, but buffing damage is… well not very competitive if you ask me.
What do you guys think? Should buffing damage be replaced by another skill instead?
I think it’s fine, damage is quite low as it is. It encourages people to stick to their team too.
I don’t see your problem actually. You just say ‘it’s not very competitive’ but a team that makes sure all their weapons have an engi buff sound pretty competitive to me.
With damage buffing, the combat are so short, it prevents the game from offering a proper pacing for strategy, execution and aiming skill. It becomes pretty much like CoD and all about having a decent weapon that offers low recoil, good fire rate and oky accuracy.
Sniper rifles are yet underpowered (way too slow) from what I’ve seen so far.
Get a medic to buff health. It all evens out in the end, but the team lacking one element on either side will lose out
Well its engis base skill, so if everyones being buffed, take engi and start buffing, if both teams can do it and its very essy to, its balanced.
But applying the buff in and of itself requires pacing, strategy and execution. With all the health and hp buffs you equally risks fights taking too long drawing the focus away from the objectives. This buff is a nice way to offset that.
The simple lesson here is play as a team. if you capture CP’s, have your medics buff health, engineers buff weapons and have your soldiers throw ammo your unit will work better than the enemies.
You can bet in comp there will def be at least 1 buffer for each type just going crazy making sure the team is buffed, like Quake weapon/powerups, people will time it so they re buff you just as your old buff runs out maximising supplies and efficiency. As people get better at the game it will become a standard to have the team buffed up and if people don’t they will be found out as they will lose badly.
[QUOTE=Hyrage;298468]Damage buffing reminds me a lot of Gears of War active-reload, a feature that really messed up that game. …
What do you guys think? Should buffing damage be replaced by another skill instead?[/QUOTE]
1: While many people don’t like it - active reload being a problem in Gears isn’t a universally accepted fact.
(As an aside, I find it interesting that you cite the need for rewarding skill in aiming, when pulling off active reloads 100% of the time without looking at the reload bar, takes…skill.)
But I digress…
2: Like others have said - if everyone is damage buffing, then they aren’t health or armor or whatever else buffing. It’s give and take. Your team has to be smart about how and when it uses all the various buffs.
I think it’s fine.
The point is like W:ET and ETQW you need a good distribution of classes, or class balance as it is called. Have to many of one class and you will lack in other areas.
Thats why its important to have A soldier for ammo, Medics for buffs and reviving, engineers for building/buffing/turrets. Those 3 represent the backbone of the team and the operative goes and messes up the other team.
Since the games are 8v8 I reckon the best class line up is:
2 Soldiers (needed for ammo and assault abilities)
2 Engineers (1 less on offense when not engy obj) still need one for buffs.
3 medics ( 1 more if 2nd engineer isn’t needed. Essential to keep team alive
1 Operative (unless hack obj, instead of 4th medic 2nd operative)
Guess it’s a badass buff then.
Anyone know how much the improved version buffs?
I’d play engi if it wasnt for the turrets and stuff taking up half their abilities.
That’s what I like about the buffs as well. It’s a way to attach value to staying alive without having to go by kill streaks.
That’s the exact problem I’m pointing out. in the end, it’s going to be all about having Soldier, Medic and Engineer to buff, buff buff. In the end, the classess become pretty much pointless because there is going to be only one big and linear strategy: buffing.
As pointless as Guild War PvP if you ask me. Character classes should offer you different playstyle instead… not to end up like that.
Do you lose your buffs if you die but get revived by a medic? if not then thats an extra reason to wait for a medic and why medics are so important. I reckon an 8 man team needs at least 3 medics, possibly 4 depending on the particular objective.
[QUOTE=Hyrage;298834]That’s the exact problem I’m pointing out. in the end, it’s going to be all about having Soldier, Medic and Engineer to buff, buff buff. In the end, the classess become pretty much pointless because there is going to be only one big and linear strategy: buffing.
[/QUOTE]
But that’s an entirely different issue than you originally stated. And regardless of buffs, classes are still important - mainly for objective completion, but also for supply and maintenance of the team. Buffs are just one part of it.