Forum Discussion

NicWester's avatar
8 years ago

Some balance tweaks I'd make to specific characters.

Been thinking about a couple characters and what I'd do to bring them more in line with others. I'm not putting this in the Feedback section because it's not really ready to be submitted for real-real. Also, none of these are "Do more damage" because that isn't really specific enough to be helpful. Also-also, I don't own every character so I'm just talking about the ones I've directly dealt with. Anyway, in alphabetical order:

Biggs Darklighter
Adrenaline Rush: Rework it to be a counterattack if crit or attacked by an Empire character. (100% turn meter has too many implications--debuff duration, stun efficacy, but most importantly makes Comrade-In-Arms' cooldown irrelevant. Counterattacks are still strong, Comrade-In-Arms still has a minimal cooldown, and debuffs will still matter against Biggs.)

B2 Super Battle Droid
Relentless Assault: Teamstamp this effect to only trigger if a Droid or Separatist ally is damaged. (B2 is a wonderful character and I love having it, but this ability is just too universally useful. Its AoE cleanse and buff immunity is strong enough that it's still a viable character in any team, but it's no longer the backbone of those teams.)

Chief Nebit
Distracting Negotiations: Lower the duration of his HoT by 1, instead heal him for the amount of one turn of his HoT when the ability is used. (This keeps the amount healed constant, but front-loads it a little since he's about to taunt and take a lot of damage. Also, given how many cleanses there are, he often doesn't get to heal at all.)

Count Dooku
Master Tactician: Teamstamp the dodge to Sith and Separatists, with other factions gaining half the amount. Leave Offense Up unchanged. (A blanket 15% dodge is too powerful. Teamstamping it brings the effect in-line with similar abilities.)

Darth Sidious
Demoralizing Blows: Rework the bonus DoTs so that they'll happen all the time instead of only on a Crit. (Making his bonus DoTs crit-reliant made sense when Sidious had enough potency that all his debuffs landed all the time. But when his potency was dropped so he wouldn't land the heal immunity all the time, the extra DoTs were severely impacted. This would address that oversight.)

First Order Stormtrooper
The Order Relentless: Merge the effects of this ability with Finn's Hold the Line, and then merge Finn's Hold the Line with this ability. (Sacrificing an attack should give a commensurate benefit. This...... Doesn't. FOSt and Finn having a mirrored ability would fit the theme, as well, since he started as a FOSt.)

General Greivous
Furious Assault: Have this ability remove Foresight when it's used. (Hitting through Foresight is great, but Furious Assault leaves the Foresight up, so the next character is still going to miss. Darth Vader's basic attack wipes away Foresight (because what technically happens is Foresight causes him to miss, then--if the target is a Jedi--it hits.) so there's a precident.)

Geonosian Soldier
Swarm: +1 to cooldown. (The Geonosian Soldier does a truckload of damage, adding another character on top of that on a short cooldown is too good.)

Lando
Double Down: Reset cooldown on three or more crits, otherwise keep the same. (With base 15% additional crit and a good chance at Crit Up--especially with all the assists in the game--and the introduction of Mods into the game, it's absurdly easy to get two crits and the attack does, basically, single-target damage as an AoE. Making the auto-refresh a little harder is a good balance that allows it to keep the same high damage.)

Lobot
Cloud Computing: Change to "If a Droid applies a buff or debuff, it gains % Turn Meter." And keep the current Potency increase. (This way he acts as a Light Side version of HK. He's still not as overall good as HK, because offense is always better than defense in this game, but now he's functionally similar while being strategically different. This could also inform the design of future Light Side Droids (still none!) into buffing/debuffing characters.) MAYBE add Rebels to this, but that might be too much good...

Mace Windu
Shatterpoint: Rework as "At the start of each of his turns, Mace Windu has a 45% chance of Exposing all enemies until the end of his turn or after he attacks. This can't be resisted. Mace gains turn meter blah, blah, blah." (Shatterpoint is a good ability, but it's too random. Applying it to everyone would allow Mace to attack more in-line with your strategy. The wording of "after he attacks" is there to future proof the ability, in case some new character's basic attack winds up being an AoE. If called to assist through Phasma, that would cause Shatterpoint to work unintendedly strong. It's a corner-case scenario, sure, but better safe than sorry!)

Nute Gunray
Shrewd Tactics: Change the defense gained to offense. (Defense makes sense thematically, but considering he's stealthed most of the time, it really doesn't do anything. Changing it to offense still fits the theme--he's bolder and more confident when he has bodyguards, but loses effect when he becomes the only one left--and will affect the gameplay.)
Backroom Subterfuge: Add a chance for each character to gain Stealth at the start of their turn, like Teebo, but a smaller chance, given how powerful the rest of his effect is.
Cowardly Shot: Increase stealth to 2 turns. (Courtesy of Zanhaep)

Old Daka
Nightsister Elder: Give half the bonus to non-Nightsisters. Add a 5% chance to revive any killed ally. (40 Defense and 7.5% health is... Not very good. Being team-stamped to Nightsisters only is even worse. Adding a second revive to her leader ability gives her something unique as a leader without being overpowered--it would mean about a 15% chance to revive overall, which seems fair.)

Princess Leia
Heart of the Rebellion: Give an equal amount of crit damage to Rebels. (Crit chance was good when the game started, but compare that to Wedge and Ackbar and there's just no reason to use her as a leader. Leia's still a great character, but the more legitimate choices there are for leaders, the more varied the game becomes.) I'd also change her animation so that she just keeps shooting for as long as the attacks come, because the current animation takes a little too long when she does three attacks--but that's such a minor thing that who really cares?

Qui-Gon Jin
+1 to the cooldowns of each of his abilities. (Qui-Gon is ridiculously good. Damage, assists, limited healing, cleansing, offense up, limite turn meter reduction. Like, RIDICULOUSLY good. And all his abilities are on such short cooldowns (after Omegas) that they're always available. Utility is good, but it should come at some cost. Increasing cooldowns seems like a good start.)

Talia
Draining Strike: Overheal from this ability should be converted into Protection. (The Protection update unintentionally hurt Talia by making the heal on this character less impactful. She's already considered a weak character, giving her at least SOMETHING to do with overheal helps a little.)
Nightsister Nimbleness: Heal 10% when an ally dodges, overheal is converted to protection. (The 50% chance to heal 5% is really bad... Luminara has an equivalent leader ability, and it heals at the start of every turn, whether there's a dodge or not. 5% is a tiny amount that doesn't really matter... It's also irrelevant if a character hasn't been attacked.)