Hello there. My name is Sintag, and this is a thread about that most despised word: Balance! Namely, gear, AI, and mission balancing! I'm not going to get into this introduction too far, so allow me to state this. If you expect TL;DR, I respect and honor your wishes.*
* = I will also completely ignore them.
ARCHERON
This weapon's base power needs a nerf. There's no doubt about it, the Archeron is simply TOO dang strong. But if it were nerfed to normal, the Obsidian Edge's poisoning ability would destroy Archeron's use! So, what to do, you might ask?
Simple. Bring it down to the old weapon power, BUT add in Damage Vs. Slimes: High, and Damage Vs. Gremlins: High.
You're still encouraging use of the weapon by making it much more effective against what you're SUPPOSED to be using it on, and you're still bringing it's power down to a relatively acceptable level.
CHAOS SET
This won't win me any new fans. Fact is, I'll probably lose some over this whole thing. But the Chaos Set is simply overpowered. Too much reward for, once you UV away the Fire and Shock weaknesses, which can be done EASILY if you got the cash and the RNG favors you.
Here's my idea: Raise the stat debuffs to Maximum.
Can't UV yourself to positive resistances, and you have to be REALLY careful in themed levels, relying on dodging more and more.
BLITZ NEEDLE
This gun needs a small nerf, and that's mostly coming from a guy who is sick of Vanafarmers asking, "Blitz?" all the damned time. The idea behind this gun? More dakka. The gun has a wide firing cone, stops you, and only barrages twice, ONCE if using the charge attack. But since people bring the Shivermist as well, that essentially makes enough cheese to have pizza for WEEKS.
My suggestion? Reduce the amount of needles fired off in the charge volley.
Two-pronged thing here: First off, by reducing the needles fired in the charge attack, you're going to need some actual skill to keep charging Vanaduke with needles. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it ENCOURAGES THE USE OF OTHER GUNS ON VANADUKE. This is a small complaint from me, but the amount of people who kick you for not having a Blitz Needle is too high.
BRANDISHES
The problem? It's all too easy to chargespam, like the Blitz Needle, and simply wreck things. This nerf goes for the Archeron and Obsidian Edge, too, so keep reading.
The solution? Reduce the charge's power and reach. This forces you to get all close and personal, and forces you to stop relying on that charge attack. You know. Like how swords are meant to be used.
All right, you're likely sick of hearing me yell to nerf things. So here's the buffs!
IRON. FREAKING. SLUG.
Enough said. Raise the attack power and speed. All I need to tell you.
CALLAHAN
Make this gun's Stun chance a touch more likely to occur, and PROBABLY raise it's attack power a bit more. Just, a light poke on both of them will work.
WINMILLION
Raise the power and make foes less likely to dodge this thing. And for God's sake here, OOO, I know you're busy with the Gunner Update, but would it kill you to make a 5* Winmillion that, I don't know, fires beams or something, to be released? Since TECHNICALLY the Winmillion IS a gun sword thing, it still counts. But you know what? Getting ahead of myself here.
AZURE GUARDIAN STUFF
Yup, went there. This armor needs a buffing and it needs one now. Perhaps, I dunno, give it medium resistance to Stun and Freeze once it hits 3* and up? It seems perfectly clear that this armor was meant to take a beating.
NORMAL DAMAGE
Ten percent more damage for Normal Damage as a whole. Don't make it enough to outclass the specialist items, but keep it viable.
Here's some things pertaining to the AI, and sadly for you, it's almost all buffs. But first, a nerf.
GORGO
These things are ANNOYING. They ruin shields, hover JUUUUUST out of reach of a sword, and have this ungodly smash attack it only seems to do with parties. My nerf for this monster is to have it do a small bit less damage so that way yo can actually SURVIVE three of these things in rapid succession. OK, that's all the nerfing. But one more for good measure.
SILVERSAPS
Do not let them re-apply Freeze until the first Freeze timer has gone away. That's literally all it'd take to balance these jerks.
Now onto their buffs.
WOLVERS
Make the bite attack of Alphas track you, like these "old days" I hear oh-so-much about.
Make them less likely to be interrupted.
Shield bumping, if they're winding up an attack, won't push them AS MUCH.
Dig's placement now picks a random spot to appear from. Right now, if one digs, I can just turn 180 degrees and stab it as it pops out.
CONSTRUCTS
Make Retrodes have a deadlier melee attack that goes faster and does more damage. Make it tough but not impossible to hit them in melee.
Make the T1 Retrodes use their laser attacks.
Giving the Retrode, say, the ability to, in T3, fire multiple lasers in rapid succession would help nicely.
Make Lumbers move slightly faster.
Give the Gun Puppies some sort of beam attack as well.
Rocket Puppies' rockets will now burn you more often.
FIENDS
Make the Devilite track your movements with it's furniture throw, as in lead it's shot, BUT make the furniture fly a bit slower to compensate for this sudden intelligence thing.
Pit Bosses -> Overtimers percentage should be increased by, maybe, 3%. I've seen swarms of Yesmen swarming Bosses.
Trojans shouldn't take as long to buff up their attack power, and their charge attack now throws you across the room.
NO BUFF FOR GREAVERS
GREMLINS
Give them some more intelligence. Maybe have the Thwackers and Pyros call for a Mender when damage, THEN run off to use their Health Capsules. Have them coordinate attacks, for example, two Pyros attack, one spilling out oil, the other igniting it.
Demos, well, those guys do not need a buff. They're annoying enough.
UNDEAD
Give Zombies their old leap attack back (Where they attach onto you and, in true Zombie fashion, eat your brains), and, instead of having the latch be 100%, make it a somewhat low-ish chance.
Spookats need no buffing. But their T3 death cry needs more horror.
SLIME
No buffs are needed for the slime family as a whole. Maybe have slimes, in T3, when finished off, split into two Mini Jellies (Not the Compounds Monster, but a pink recolor of the Royal Minis). MAYBE. And even then, ehh...
MISSIONS
Optimize. March Of The Tortodrones and Shroud Of The Apocrea (Assuming that's making it's grand return).
Grinchlin Assault should have lowered difficulty and less wheels.
The King of Ashes shouldn't give out as many crowns, to discourage farming.
The Return of Ur should reward you with, fittingly enough, a Crest of Ur.
DROPS
Increase the drop chance of Sparks when you're running low, put it to where it currently is once you get 20 or more of them, and decrease the drop rate if the player has over 40 of them.
Some other, smaller ideas are displayed below.
An option to replace Prestige Badges with Spark Indicators would be rather nice. That way, players can tell if people are lying to hoard sparks or actually out in the cold when it comes to revives.
Auto Target should not show weaknesses or health. It should instead just display what your target is and what family it belongs to. I can understand your want to help, OOO, but this feels mildly like hand-holding.
Heroic Difficulty, where Battle Sprites are disabled (But still gain heat), you have reduced health, your shield breaks easier, pickups are rare, and Vitapods do not exist, in exchange for MUCH higher drop rates for Rarities and MUCH better payouts. Also, maybe a star indicator for beating a mission on Heroic would be nice.
Give players a way to revisit tutorial missions BUT NOT the Rescue Camps. Maybe make it similar to City of Superheroes's Flashback system. I don't want to create a new character just to be able to see a minor change in one piece of the tutorial.
That's all I can think of. Have any suggestions? Leave 'em below.
"ARCHERON"
-1. No. Then Obsidian Edge would outclass it in every way. IMO, it should be somewhere about 5/8 of the way between Obsidian Edge and Gran Faust.
"CHAOS SET"
-1. Your suggestion does not solve the problem. It's overpowered. It needs its rewards nerfed, not the punishment buffed.
"BLITZ NEEDLE"
-1. Again, this still doesn't solve the problem. It still does insanely high damage and is insanely safe (and easy) to use.
"BRANDISHES"
+0.5 I don't know about you, but I'd still charge spam it. Doing 800 damage on the first swipe + a couple of explosions hitting is enough for me, especially when I just love mashing enemies in the middle of a Vortex with it.
"IRON. FREAKING. SLUG."
No comment. Raise the power and give it stun, call it a day.
"CALLAHAN"
+1.
"WINMILLION"
-1 to raising power and dodginess, -1 to Winbillion.
"AZURE GUARDIAN STUFF"
-1. I hate this set, and I want to see absolutely no buffs to it. Sorry some of you new people who decided to make it simply because it's free or good looking (although I think it looks like garbage).
"NORMAL DAMAGE"
-1. A few months ago, I would have said +1. However, as of recently I've been using Normal damage more and more, and I believe it has its spot among specialised equipment. So -1.
"GORGO"
-1. Shield bash them, then murder their face. Problem solved. Don't tell me it doesn't work because it doesn't work the first time you try it. Get used to shield bashing first, then Gorgos will be no more.
"SILVERSAPS"
-1. http://wiki.spiralknights.com/File:Item-Remedy_Capsule.png
"WOLVERS"
-1 to Alpha following you, -1 to harder to stagger, +1 to the rest.
"CONSTRUCTS"
-1 to all this.
"FIENDS"
-1 to all this.
"GREMLINS"
-1...
"UNDEAD"
+1.
"SLIME"
-1.
"MISSIONS"
-1.
"DROPS"
+1 if and only if by "less" you mean the current droprate.
"An option to replace Prestige Badges with Spark Indicators would be rather nice. That way, players can tell if people are lying to hoard sparks or actually out in the cold when it comes to revives."
+1.
"Auto Target should not show weaknesses or health. It should instead just display what your target is and what family it belongs to. I can understand your want to help, OOO, but this feels mildly like hand-holding."
We can already toggle this...
"Heroic Difficulty, where Battle Sprites are disabled (But still gain heat), you have reduced health, your shield breaks easier, pickups are rare, and Vitapods do not exist, in exchange for MUCH higher drop rates for Rarities and MUCH better payouts. Also, maybe a star indicator for beating a mission on Heroic would be nice."
Chaos clones assemble. -1.
"Give players a way to revisit tutorial missions BUT NOT the Rescue Camps. Maybe make it similar to City of Superheroes's Flashback system. I don't want to create a new character just to be able to see a minor change in one piece of the tutorial."
Only if we can not join noobies parties.