Legend Class Changes and Class Perk Additions

So with the recent class changes and new perk additions, I really wanted to assess if the legends in their respective classes actually fit their role. Short answer: most of them do, however there are some in regards to Valkyrie, Ash, Alter, Loba and Gibraltar where they could use a little boost into their class role.

Valkyrie

First of all, Valkyrie. She either falls into the Skirmisher or Recon class and has quite fallen off recently with the addition of EVAC towers and being in the Skirmisher Class is not helping. So I propose a slight modification to her kit alongside bringing her to the Recon Class. The modification being - she can also highlight enemies lower in altitude whilst using her jetpack (same scan that is used when skydiving and when using ultimate). Although, I do think limiting the range with the ultimate (similar to the respawn mechanic in the new revival mode) with decreased ultimate cooldowns will also be good since rotation power is mostly attributed to the Skirmisher role and instead you can focus on highlighting all nearby enemies with the ultimate and more often. This change will give most of her kit a recon flare despite being inherently more of a mobile character. She can benefit from the survey beacons, scan enemies for the squad in the fight and have more recon-focused in-the-fight elevated intel with some rotation power for the squad. Alternatively, she could stay in the Skirmisher class and have all scans with her ultimate removed but have her ultimate and jetpack significantly buffed to being the same if not better than what it was in Season 9 so that way she fully fits into the Skirmisher class.

Edit 1 - 12th Sept

The Patch Notes for Season 22.1 just released and Valkyrie has been changed to Recon and given some Recon potential through using her jetpack by highlighting enemies whilst in use similar to her ultimate, as suggested above. Additionally, her recon potential has been buffed through a Level 3 perk that improves the ultimate scanning to work through walls and at further distances. However, most of the buffs to Valkyrie this patch were to her tactical and in improving her mobility which in my opinion will still disrupt Ranked play whereby the Skirmisher will be obsolete now as Valkyrie can do everything they can do plus use survey beacons and scan enemies. I still stand behind my belief that her ultimate range needs nerfing similar in use to the revival mode respawning but also the jetpack changes in the post need reverting too. She is just too mobile now - that power needs to be controlled to ensure she is a capable and unique recon pick and only for that purpose.

Ash

For ash, the main issue with her kit is that she has an assault tactical, recon passive and skirmisher ultimate. I am all for blending the classes and giving legends more usage in other areas other than their assigned class, however, she has lost the label of being an assault because so much of the time you are not filling that role and other characters do them roles better. What I propose is a complete rework to ger kit:

- Passive:

Old - Ash's map shows the location of recent deathboxes which can be marked for surviving attackers.

New - Ash's map shows the location of nearby deathboxes which can be marked for surviving teammates and if all are eliminated, marks surviving attackers.

- Tactical:

Old - Throw a spinning snare that damages and tethers the first enemy that gets too close.

New - Dash forward a small distance in the direction you are facing (two charges). Enemies caught in your wake are snared.

- Ultimate:

Old - Tear open a one-way portal to a targeted location.

New - Pull out a sword that has increased melee speed, damage and accuracy and can block enemy fire. Once at full charge, fire an Arc Wave fire blast that damages enemies it hits in front of you.

Lifeline

Now that I have situated the rework to a legend that needs it most, lets go over the Lifeline Rework which is supposed to be happening next Season. With rumors suggesting Lifeline will get a controllable DOC drone, which is great, an added Movement Passive of hovering for a few seconds and a new ultimate that launches enemies out of an area, I think we could have a better smaller rework since her pickrate is already incredibly high. What I suggest is to give her that improved DOC handling where you can reposition the DOC drone to heal teammates easier but the hovering and area tool I dont think she needs. But I also think the Care Package is a bit outdated and gives away your position more than any benefit you could get from the package. That's why I think Lifeline should get a resurrection ultimate. When activated, yourself and all downed or killed teammates will get revived, respawned and healed to full health allowing for a full reset of your squad but with a 4 minute cooldown. This is a very supportive last-ditch effort to keep the team alive and really fits the name of Lifeline.

Gibraltar

Now that we have gotten the main characters which I find a problem currently. We can look at some other legends that are kind of lacking in their classes. First of all, Gibraltar. The main issue with Gibraltar is that he is classes a support but the only supportive ability is the Dome of Protection. Thats why I think the passive should have an additional use. When aiming down sights and you have another teammate within 10m of you, you will hold out a large arm shield which has 5x the health and can have teammates standing behind it. You can still shoot through it but teammates cannot. This will act as a very low health barrier for nearby teammates to heal whilst you fight off the attackers. The Dome of Portection revives allies 33% faster. How about we also allow 33% faster healing too like before. Therefore, Gibraltar would have two new supportive uses.

Loba

Loba is in a weird spot with her being both a skirmisher and a support. But she focuses on getting loot for the squad rather than reviving or healing in the support class. That's where the contradiction of classes comes into play where Ballistic has a supportive ultimate that gives teammates unlimited ammo. Does that mean he is a support - no. But loba is? Her ultimate is a supportive ability because is is emplaced and is intended to be used to kit yourself up before fighting and has more supportive uses than ballistics ultimate which is mainly used for pushing enemies, inherent with the assault class. But the skirmisher tactical is not supportive at all. The only thing supportive about Loba is that ultimate. So lets change that. The tactical, I propose, should have an alternative use where you can lock on to teammates (similar to conduit tactical) who have had their shields cracked to pull them towards your position. Teammates who have this happen to them also gain 1 second of invulnerability to get behind cover. It of course uses the tactical cooldown so you are removing a bit of your mobility out of dangerous situations in promoting your teammate still being alive. This will allow Loba to be a life saver in these situations and is not too OP as you need line-of-sight to your teammate and we have abilities already like this with Alters ultimate.

Alter

Speaking of alter - she has the same problem as Loba. Because she has such a supportive ultimate and her Skirmisher abilities are quite lacking she lends herself to the Skirmisher and Support classes too. However, the playstyle of Alter is not to support your teammates, it is a by-product of the ultimate. So lets give her more Skirmisher power with the use of her tactical. Currently the tacical stays active for 15 seconds before closing. I think this should be changed to stay active for 15 seconds until 1 player has passed through it (yourself, teammate or enemy). Therefore, only yourself can get into buildings through walls, removing the potential supportive mechanic of this to be used by teammates and improves the use of pushing an enemy with it since the enemies exit route - your portal - is now closed automatically, locking you with the enemy and making these fights more easy to understand and less of a 'who can go in and out of the portal for the longest before your teammates come to help'. Also, doing this makes for trapping enemies whereby placing a portal on a surface near them to drop into a building below less escapable since the portal closes. This should overall make the tactical more Skirmisher based however probably nerfs it overall which is not good since Alter has limited use in the playerbase. So I propose her cooldown be 20 seconds from 30 seconds and to extend the range of placing the portal from 45m to 90m and the depth of the portal from 20m to 45m. Hopefully, in the future there will be a new Skirmisher perk so Alter gets more power as she is overall lacking. I do have a concept for a Skirmisher perk below.

Mirage

Mirage is also in a weird spot when considering he is definitely a support but he could be put in his own class. Instead of doing that, how about we improve his supportive capabilities to fully act like a support aside from his cloaked revive. This will be through his tactical whereby similiar to conduit's tactical whereby it gives a lock-on to teammates to heal them, you can lock-on to downed teammates to send out your decoy to revive them. One downside - this revive will not be cloaked, so enemies will be able to tell that the mirage reviving is a decoy and so shooting it will cancel the revive. This will be an easy addition to his tactical to make it more useful whilst solidifying him in the support class.

Rampart

Although there is no disputing that Rampart is a Controller legend, she doesnt really do the indoors Controlling as well as the other legends as Wattson, Caustic and Catalyst dont have to rely as much for your team to be on the perimeter since the traps are normally enough to disallow teams to engage specific entrances. However, for Rampart, an amped cover isn't a trap and only acts as a barricade that a teammember must use to sustain control over enemies trying to enter. So to summarise, although Rampart is great in the open for creating space, she could use a bit of a deterrent when in a building and the enemies are closing in on you. This buff has to do with the Amped Covers, whereby, similar to Newcastle's Castle Wall, when enemies try to climb over the amped cover, instead of being stunned and damaged, enemies will have a 10 second amped damage multiplier (the same as the Amped Cover) debuff applied meaning you dont have to sit behind your walls to deal that extra damage. This debuff effect currently exists in the game with Vantage's sniper ultimate after you hit an enemy, it applies a damage multiplier on all teammate damage dealt afterwards. So instead of using this debuff to snipe a target, you will be using it to focus a target that tried to enter your controlled space. I also think it would be pretty interesting if this multiplier stacked with the Amped Cover multiplier so you deal even more damage to them.

Class Perks

The recent season added new perks to the Controller and Recon class, bringing the total of Class Perks up to 9 and a common theme emerged amongst these perks. One perk is a selfish ability in which only benefits that player such as the Assault Ammo Bandolier, Controller Ring Overcharge and Recon Threat Vision and the other perk is a team-based, EVO earning ability utilising a device only accessible by that class of character such as the Assault Bins, Support Bins, Skirmisher Care Pack Scans, Recon Survey Beacons and Controller Ring Consoles. The Support Banners feature does not follow this pattern as this should be considered a selfish perk and so what I believe would be best for the game is to remove this perk from the game on favour of no longer needing to retrieve banner cards and instead, any teammates who had been killed can be brought back simply by interacting with a respawn beacon. In response to this, the support characters should get a new perk “Self-Revive”, removing the Legend Perk from Lifeline, giving her something new in addition to all support legends getting this selfish perk to keep them in the fight to support their team but are only able to use the self-revive once every 2 minutes, enough to where you can use it every fight but only once per fight so that it isnt abusable too much once your team falls. Additionally, the Skirmisher class is missing out on the fun since they only have the team-based perk so introducing a new selfish perk of “Shellshock Swiftness” gives a permenant speed buff of 20% granted to the Skirmisher player when their shield is broken which perfectly fits the class role whilst also being similar in activation to the controller class perk needing a condition to met such as being in the ring, but in this case, being on no shield left.