Omeleet's suggestions:
- Reduce Jade Catalyst base damage
- Reduce Liang HP (and reduce their % health but increase base health)
- Reduce Fanatic vehicle damage
- Increase speed of Shock Troopers and Flame Troopers (or reduce their cost to 30)
- Increase Shatterer speed, and in turn reduce the stun duration
I do like all of these suggestions.
#1 is pretty unanimously shared by most players right now, as it's too easy to win with Jade even without actually getting Chem clouds onto the opponent's base. Jade decks like this can make it quite possible to win first missile, and then the Jade player has plenty of time to kill the base -- either with one big cloud attack, or with some catalyst missiles and some additional damage from other units. Nerfing the base catalyst damage still leaves the "get Chem Troopers or Buggies to base" a strong threat, but makes it less viable to just spam catalyst missiles and phantoms on dual harvester.
#2 is a fair suggestion. Key criticism of Liang is it's ability to steal pads too easy. A big change to the mechanic is unlikely, so a hitpoint reduction at least makes it easier to kill Liang quickly in these "missile flip" scenarios. Also, I like the change to make the base heal stronger (good for low-HP units) but reduce the % heal (bad for high-HP units like Sandstorm, Mammoth Tank).
#3 is probably fair, but I don't have that much experience playing Fanatics myself. But the sentiment seems to be shared by a number of top players.
#4 is supposed to make Shocks & Flames generally more viable, as they have pretty much disappeared from both the Nod meta and GDI meta. I'd prefer the speed change over the cost change personally. The meta repercussions of more shocks would be interesting to see. E.g. I'm curious whether it would be good or bad for Tech. On the one hand, it makes Rifle/Militant pad stalling potentially less viable (as Shocks would usually be accompanied by Dogs / Wheels as openers), on the other hand, e.g. competent Infantry/Air stalling might even benefit from opponent's shocks as they cost more. And Tech players who opt for some more expensive units to stall might get a more powerful tool with Shocks.
#5 makes a ton of sense to me. Shatterers need to get in position quickly enough to have a role to play in protecting e.g. MLRS or generally fighting Marauder/Grenadier. And balancing a speed buff with reducing the stun effect sounds wise.
Thanks, Omeleet for sharing your thoughts with us!
I like the suggestions all but the Lyang. Having lower health does not solve stealing pads from unit that often hold back pads like militants / wheels and cant attack air. Healing should be used to heal units and win battles. So make the spawn position not global anymore so that the drone can only be summoned next to units. You could then still fly to a back pad at the cost of time.
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ReplyDeleteSorry about the reposts. My phone is glitchy.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it’s possible for the devs to make the Liang drone health drop extremely fast if it’s not healing a friendly unit. For example, without healing, the drone dies in 7-10 second. With healing it lasts the normal time.
The issue is the drone stalling the missile for 15-20 seconds while everyone furiously fights over the contested pad. If the Liang drone died more quickly while not healing, it would shorten that stall time to something more reasonable. It would also encourage people to use the drone as it’s actually meant to be used, which is still pretty strong.
I don’t think last second flips/steals with Liang are unreasonable. Lots of good players do that with air units/jump jets already. The primarily balance issue in my view is Liang drone can buy too much time allowing the Liang player to get the right units on the field.
I’m not sure the overall health of the Liang drone should be nerfed too much for two reasons. First, that impacts its ability to heal because the health decreases over time. Second, I assume outside of upper part of Tiberium league the drone actually gets hit from time to time. Lowering the overall health might impact gameplay too much for most players. Balance changes have to account for all skill levels, not just top players.