How to make DoTs great
So there have been lots and lots of character kits that try their darndest to take advantage of the currently-paltry DoT effect. Yes, it does add up in raids with effect, but still falls short of most any recent character or team strategy.... and they're almost totally ineffective in shorter battles such as arena (with the exception of Zylo, who benefits massively from such a "debuff"). I'd like to propose a two-pronged rework of the way DoTs work in order to make them menacing and strategy-provoking in a way which is notably lacking.
1. Change when DoTs effect the debuffed character.
I believe if DoTs acted more like the traditional "poison" effect in classic RPGs, it would vastly change how menacing and effective they would be. That is, instead of inflicting damage ONLY at the beginning of a character's turn, DoTs should inflict damage every time a character takes an action... every assist and counter attack would trigger the DoT effect. The very strong attributes of counter attacks and assists would be marginalized, but not to the extent to make them obsolete. This would create a beautiful dichotomy for a Vader v. CLS battle, as it should be (amongst countless other classic match-ups becoming significantly more interesting).
2. Change the mechanic for calculating the damage done by DoTs.
The current mechanic... taking away a percentage of health... is just plain old bad. It almost rewards toons with low health-pools and penalizes toons with high health-pools. There's a lack of creativity, strategy, and customization with this approach. Rather, I believe the damage done by DoTs ought to directly correalate to a character's potency... the higher the potency, the higher the damage (and make it a flat/discrete number). This would accomplish MANY strategies in factions the devs have been trying to marry with potency. For starters, it compliments the potency + debuff motif of The Empire. Continuing that thought, if properly executed, it would make the EP lead + Vader meaningful again (as it really should be). Further, it could allow for some interesting synergies with Boba-lead BH teams (or partial BH teams). Lastly, it would give the near-useless Potency Up buff a little more clout and make it desirable to invest in.
Imagine if you reworked zTarkin to give all allies potency up, with EP lead and Vader to boot... or Zader lead with zTarkin, zBoba, and two other DoT dealers (shaman and farmboy perhaps?). That would really add up to a great answer for the CLS meta, and any counter/assist-heavy team, and be an effective answer/strategy for a long long time.
What's everybody think? Can we at least agree that DoTs are vastly underwhelming and deserve to be looked at for a rework? And if we can agree on that, what does everybody think of these proposed reworks?
1. Change when DoTs effect the debuffed character.
I believe if DoTs acted more like the traditional "poison" effect in classic RPGs, it would vastly change how menacing and effective they would be. That is, instead of inflicting damage ONLY at the beginning of a character's turn, DoTs should inflict damage every time a character takes an action... every assist and counter attack would trigger the DoT effect. The very strong attributes of counter attacks and assists would be marginalized, but not to the extent to make them obsolete. This would create a beautiful dichotomy for a Vader v. CLS battle, as it should be (amongst countless other classic match-ups becoming significantly more interesting).
2. Change the mechanic for calculating the damage done by DoTs.
The current mechanic... taking away a percentage of health... is just plain old bad. It almost rewards toons with low health-pools and penalizes toons with high health-pools. There's a lack of creativity, strategy, and customization with this approach. Rather, I believe the damage done by DoTs ought to directly correalate to a character's potency... the higher the potency, the higher the damage (and make it a flat/discrete number). This would accomplish MANY strategies in factions the devs have been trying to marry with potency. For starters, it compliments the potency + debuff motif of The Empire. Continuing that thought, if properly executed, it would make the EP lead + Vader meaningful again (as it really should be). Further, it could allow for some interesting synergies with Boba-lead BH teams (or partial BH teams). Lastly, it would give the near-useless Potency Up buff a little more clout and make it desirable to invest in.
Imagine if you reworked zTarkin to give all allies potency up, with EP lead and Vader to boot... or Zader lead with zTarkin, zBoba, and two other DoT dealers (shaman and farmboy perhaps?). That would really add up to a great answer for the CLS meta, and any counter/assist-heavy team, and be an effective answer/strategy for a long long time.
What's everybody think? Can we at least agree that DoTs are vastly underwhelming and deserve to be looked at for a rework? And if we can agree on that, what does everybody think of these proposed reworks?
