Spiral Knights - Bring Power Mitt and Heater shield up a notch (BTS too)

Bring Power Mitt and Heater shield up a notch (BTS too)

5 replies [Last post]

Thu, 08/20/2015 - 09:09

Holy-Nightmare

With the Debut of the Teddy Buckler I became concerned for the game's balance......

Stat-wise it is comparable to the Heater shield or the Power Mitt. The most noticeable difference is that the Teddy shield offers TWO status resists while the Heater Shield and Power Mitt only have ONE status resist.

http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Heater_Shield
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Power_Mitt
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Barbarous_Thorn_Shield
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Teddy_Bear_Buckler

Probably the simplest solution is to give both the Heater and Power Mitt MAX stun resist. This would bring them up on par with the new shield in terms of stat numbers.

So..... I'm not done yet. Currently the Heater shield is super cheap to acquire, in order to make this shield worth that new status resist I would move the branch off of the alchemy path down to the 3 star level. This way the player has to invest in getting 3, 4, and 5 star recipes before reaping the full benefit.

On a side note this would knock the BTS down a bit since it sort of falls into the group since it shares identical stat values at the current Heater. All that needs to be done is add a Poison Resist to the shield. It already requires a very high investment (with CR, tokens, and Arcade runs), why not make the reward worth it? Even better it fits in more with the Snarby armor.

Thu, 08/20/2015 - 10:21

Fangel

Hmm.

Teddy bear buckler more resembles a gorgomega, but switches defense values and gives up the great shield bash for no MSD.

Heater and power mitt can get some additions to powers, but if you want them to be unique you could go down the "new status combo!", however a better way to do it might be "give same status combos". What do I mean by this? I mean that Power Mitt could get the same resistances as a grey owlite shield (fire + shock), it simply now acts as more normal defense instead of elemental defense. Similarly, the heater shield could become the omegaward's alt shield, giving freeze and fire resistance in the same exchange way that the teddy shield does.

However, after doing this, I would recommend giving all tortoshields a slightly higher health value than other shields. Not as high as the omegashield, but higher than other 5* shields (or 3-4* while crafting up) in shield health. This will give tortoshields move blocking power and make them still have high usage in places where paid shields (teddy bear, power mitt, not exactly paid but heater shield) would be useful.

Barbarous Thorn Shield is fine where it is right now however, seeing as it is the only offensive shield we have right now at 5*. It trades status resist for an ability to hit harder.

Thu, 08/20/2015 - 11:11

Holy-Nightmare

@ Fangel

Players enjoy having more choices when it comes to shields. While most of your ideas are balanced there is no real increase in incentive to acquire them. What would be the point of getting a Power Mitt if the Grey Owlite can do the same job? That is part of the reason why I made such an effort to get a Savage Tortoise, it is totally unique. It is also why I may never make an effort to get the Grand tortoise....

Tortoshields are fine where they are and the suggestion for the BTS is rather weak compared to the others since Poison is considered to be the weakest or one of the weaker status that afflicts players. The poison resist would help it in it's design to keep players on the offensive.

Thu, 08/20/2015 - 13:51

Fangel

Meh

Yes, having more choices to shields is good. No, heater/power mitt/teddy bear buckler don't need a buff/nerf. They all fulfill their role perfectly fine, same that the tortoshields fulfill their own.

The point I was getting as was that if you wanted promotional items to be more "in balance" with our current stuff, making it equal to stuff we already have is a better route than, say, making promo boxes have completely unique items in them with no F2P alternative.

Stun/Fire/Elemental would be completely new as a shield. Very powerful too, since we have no stun resist elemental shield, thus making lumbers much less threatening. That would be, in your terms, "pay to win". A teddy bear buckler? It's "new" in its stats, but has a F2P alternative that can be arguably better or worse. In other words, it's good where it is.

If you make promo items close to other shields, then it's alright. You could make power mitt a reskin of the volcanic plate shield for all I care. When there's a better or equal option in an item, then the "pay to win" argument loses all momentum. Making the power mitt similar to another shield is fine (it's close to heater right now), and if you can't pay for that item you can craft an owlite shield for the status + damage resist, or a heater shield for equal elemental/normal defense.

What I'm saying is either we make these items unique items but close to other free options, or we make them almost reskins if not direct reskins of free options. You can't cry "P2W" while suggesting to make an item classified, in your own words, as P2W, in good conscience.

Thu, 08/20/2015 - 15:29

Holy-Nightmare

@ Fangel

OP mentions giving both the Heater shield and the Power Mitt an addition Max Stun resist.

BTW Redwards (Lumbers that are supposed to deal fire) can't actually set you on fire..... so if my suggestion is put into effect then the Heater shield would actually be superior just more costly to obtain.

Fri, 08/21/2015 - 10:31

Fangel

... And?

Maybe you want to not get inflicted by the fire of rocket puppies and also not be inflicted by the stun of redwards, thwackers, etc.

My point is that the shield is a "new unique shield" with no alternative, which is exactly what you want to avoid anyways. Regardless of how powerful it is, a fire/stun/elemental shield is unique. A fire/elemental shield isn't. Hence, people have less complaints about power mitt than celestial shield, despite celestial shield's statusless weakness.

Heater shield is a low end shield as it's in a low-end shield line. I think it's fine as of right now. Power mitt has a more varied F2P alternative with a couple reskins. Teddy bear buckler has a F2P alternative that has like, 2 differences in it (swapped shadow and normal defense, removed tortobash/MSD) that will make you shield with it the exact same anyways.

A heater shield buff could likely come alongside a cobalt line buff, but if that never happens then there's really no need for a heater shield buff.

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Bring Power Mitt and Heater shield up a notch (BTS too)