In order to balance, we must quit ignoring all of these weapons / armors with no drawbacks.
From what I hear, toothpicks are overpowered in lockdown.
The two above cannot be solved by a giant fresh batch of buffs.
In order to balance, we must quit ignoring all of these weapons / armors with no drawbacks.
From what I hear, toothpicks are overpowered in lockdown.
The two above cannot be solved by a giant fresh batch of buffs.
The problem is Skolver + Toothpick + Heart Pendants on a striker is stupidly difficult to stop. Pure piercing damage hurts if you don't resist it, and they are the fastest decent swords in lockdown. They are fast, damaging, and the most annoying thing is they interupt. Interuption makes it so any slower sword can't touch them at all, and when you add damage from skolver, a decent ASI uv, and an additional 12 health you have a tanky, dps, speed demon. Not to mention skolver resists the only counter to a toothpick which is another toothpick. The swords faster than toothpicks are the striker line which are good at interupting but they do PITIFUL damage. Not to mention almost everyone has normal defense, so normal weps are already uncommon. I think I have a solution but I wouldn't know without it being tested.
Skolver damage buff changed to CTR reduction
Make the guardian, recon, and striker shield things give a SET amount of health
Make the Flourish and BTB line not interupt attacks on anything but the final hit
With skolver becoming CTR it may be less used but it would give a CTR sword armor I think would be appreciated somewhat. Of course there will be people raging, but that happens no matter what you change. So essentially you have to be wearing the snarby set for damage bonus which oddly enough doesn't have piercing resist. If you want damage you don't get piercing resist so you are just as vulnerable as they are. The Skolver line would be used less, primarily with the brandish line for spamability probably.
Heart Pendants are incredibly unfair in Lockdown because each class has default heath for the class role. Guardians have a lot of health, and with pendants he gets even tankier. This isn't the main issue though, for strikers were meant to be frail damage dealers. Two penta heart pendants gives +12 extra bars of health, and suddenly the frail DPS class isnt so frail.
The fencing weps are too fast and damaging to allow interrupt the other weps so easily. I don't want to see their base damage nerfed, but if they don't interrupt it isn't as much of a problem.
/rant
Most of my experience is tier 3 with some tier 2. I wanted to try tier 1, but no one ever plays.
balancing items because Lockdown
If this is going to be reoccurring, then the attention should be turned to LD itself, yes? The items work fine in the main game; nerfing/altering their use there for the sake of an optional mode would cause more grief than glee.
On the armory:
'A coursely a status change was not going to compare to a valuable offensive increase. For now, it brings the items closer to the line, and the previous odd-eggs more appealing.
If anything, something I would like to see is a small, yet noticeable decrease in the defensive capabilities of the stronger 'offensive' pieces - comparatively weaker Defense and/or Status for the weapon bonus.
If not, some unique stats/bonuses for the items without.
Espeonage
Toothpicks need a nerf for PvP AND PvE.
Blitz Needle: charge attack does a disproportionally large amount of damage compared to other guns and charge attacks.
Polaris: Overpowered vs. turrets; shouldn't interrupt attacks
AP/Setenza: does too much damage considering its range, mobility, and ease of use; shouldn't be able to shoot through barriers
I ARGEE WIT GOLFDINGER!
GUNNARS ARE TOO OP! THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE NEYTHING GOOD!!1!
And Alchemer's ricochets are unfair! Make them all behave like 2* version, rly!
Serious mode="on"
Polaris is the only gun that must be nerfed. At least in it's nasty graphics.
/Serious
Polaris needs to keep its knockback/cancelling abilities.
The reason I got that damn thing was for shutting down turrets and herding purposes.
If I wanted elemental damage with shock status, I'd have gotten a Storm Driver instead.
The primary problem is the massive screen flash it causes. The secondary problem (having enemies such as Lumbers knocked into you) is mainly caused by idiots spamming the shots without thinking.
Polaris is MADE for killing turrets.
Taking away its attack cancelling abilities will remove the point of the gun.
If that happens, I'd just go switch to a Valiance instead.
Blitz needle does do a large amount of damage, but it also roots you in place for the duration of the charge or standard attack, leaving you vulnerable. It's pretty much fine, due to the fact that it is a situational gun.
Maybe something ought to be done to encourage people to use armor that is NOT Wolver line.
And this is coming from a swordsman. I need to use the furry gear just because it's the best - if the other choices are all objectively worse, then there's no true choice in the matter. Choice would be allowing players to pick between what matches their playstyle - allowing them to choose between 'good' and 'not so good' is false choice.
Also give us more piercing sword styles other than the rapiers.
Also buff plate armor plz k thx.
@Golfdinger
Alchemers, with double clipped splits 2/5 of the time, will out-dps a Sent / AP in single target damage. (Though you'll have to work on double clipping the splits..... which is sometimes not even do-able).
Sent / AP have no utility whatsoever, and no AoE besides its charge attack which its uses are tough to find because it leaves you vulnerable + has somewhat screwy mechanics. Also besides shooting inbetween 2-3 monsters hitting them all... but all guns can do that, alchemers much better.
Also, AP / Sent have a slower mobility than alchemers while firing, very slightly, in addition to not having a small burst of 100% movement speed while shooting and pausing.
Polaris should no longer cancel attacks and Blitz should have a damage nerf, those are reasonable. But don't target the AP / Sent over the Alchemers - if anything, alchemers are more deserving of a nerf.
So I agree with your first 2 Golfdinger, the third one is nitpicking without supporting information just searching for some random nerf. If we nitpicked some things about swordsman, I bet they would come out a little nerfed too.
My thoughts on guns~
Magnus line:
-Increase range
-Make bullets penetrate targets without shields etc
-Triple the charge attack damage (the bullet is bigger than the target in most cases)
Antigua line:
-Fine IMO
-Fix the charge hitting walls behind you
Alchemer line:
-Make ricochets more predictable
-Buff the visual effect of the charge shot hit
Autogun line:
-Pepperbox range buff
-Pepperbox double the amount of projectiles but ~40% less per bullet
Pulsar line:
-Make the projectiles deal almost no damage when not charged
-Increase the range it takes to charge the shot by a square or two
Catalyzer line:
-Replace the primary fire with a vector laser
-Drop the damage of regular shots
-Make charges go off when the target dies
Blaster line:
-Increase clip size to 5-8
-Make the charge shot penetrate targets like the antigua line 5* charge thingy
Any thoughts? I know the catalyzer line change would be quite drastic but heck, dont we got enough small, round sluggish projectiles already? The damage is normal/shadow so it wouldn't be much good against gun puppies or howlizers compared to the other anti-turret weaponry. Also it would make igniting the charge shots much more reliable especially when playing with other people
SRLY?! I mean gunner are already left out i mean no 2*, not good enoug T1 stuff (8 damge? are u kidding?) and now u wanna nerf them? THIS IS MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!
No, leave the guns themselves alone (except maybe buff that pepperbox with the slug). If anything, maybe tone down the polaris and nitronome graphics? It can be distracting.
I can see this coming: Toothpicks gets nerfed.... everyone complaints because they are useless againts Devilites, GG.
Make skolvers have fire weakness, vog have freeze weakness and snarb have shock weakness.
For PvE, it won't change much, you don't use a vog for freeze levels, a skolver for fire levels, and for ppl who want to use snarb for fsc, shock is not a deal breaker.
For PvP, skolvers will die by AoA's and the like, VT's will destroy snarbs, and toothpicks will make them die all the more faster.
Nerf all the guns to 10 damage a shot. Then it's even, while making a armor for swordsman that has fire resist, shock resist, and freeze resist, while having piercing and shadow, AND normal max bars.
Bombs can get 600 damage per explosion.
Serious: Stop making dumb topics, and posts.
I also assume I'm not the only one who is getting annoyed at your constant riff-raff.
@Sypsy
The problem with your rock-paper-scissors analogy is that currently toothpicks pretty much ignore rock-paper-scissors. Bombers are dead before they can get a bomb off, and any player with half a brain will not move into the mist range. Currently, the only counter for toothpicks are toothpicks. While they need a PVP nerf they don't deserve a PVE nerf. Don't know why one would even suggest that.
Why someone would want to nerf guns is beyond me.
Blitz needle hits hard, but not to the point where you'd use it over umbra driver on gremlins or Argent Peacemaker on undead. Even the Polaris is out damaged by the alchemers and the AP except on turrets. I could see a nerf in graphics though, would make it more party friendly.
Sounds like people like to panic and cry nerf when something that isn't a sword is actually rather effective.
Spiral Knights could always go the route of Guild Wars where they split PVE/PVP, that way they could nerf or buff the heck out of different swords for the sake of Lockdown without making the PVE community complain.
Also drastic nerfs can always be rough when it's such an investment to get a 5-star weapon. I'd hate to work towards a sword for half a month and then have it be useless after a patch.
I have 1 question.
Why is everyone trying to base how weapons and armor should be around LD when LD is just a small side game? The armor is made for running the clockworks and fighting monsters inside there. If you are smart enough to use certain things together with each other to become a "tank" then congrats. Everyone should do it then it will be based purely on skill.
If they start drastically, or even remotely noticably, altering weapons because of LD in ways that affect PVE performance negatively, it will be the single most insipid change ever.
This is not a PVP game, and it should not be balanced around PVP. Toothpicks are perfectly fine in PVE - generally only optimal for the things they are weak to, like they should be, with charge attacks that are only particularly good in very very specific situations. So, if the Devs went ahead with this incredibly shortsighted idea, these swords would end up useless and piercing would once again be a damage type with no valid representation.
As for making Swordsman armors offer large drawbacks... this just doesn't make sense, to me. Nameless basically is literally Vog for Gunners, and the Seerus mask is just absolutely ridiculous enough that if it didn't have any drawback, it would be sickening - and its negative resists aren't nearly as high as a lot of other negative resists, to boot. Mad Bomber adds hilariously large boons to your effectiveness, with two strong properties on both pieces, so again, if it did not have drawbacks, it would be infinitely more potent than the Wolver lines. Even Snarb does not add particularly huge amounts of resist(compared to other status resist pieces), though it is probably the only example of one I'd consider noteworthy in being even remotely imbalanced.
It's pretty clear that people who cry wolver really haven't ever looked at other armor sets, at all, and generally also seem to be people who forget that being up close is a lot more risky than being far away. Bombing is unnecessarily difficult comparatively, I think, as a solo endeavor and in some group situations, but I'm not sure how nerfing swordsman armor is going to do anything to assist that.
I would thoroughly support changes that only affected PVP environments, but it seems like it would be convoluted - and if it is a question of either nerfing them in both PVP and PVE, or letting them reign supreme in PVP, I am fine with listening to LD players cry.
Polaris really does need to be less vibrantly obnoxious, though.
"Nerf all the guns to 10 damage a shot. Then it's even, while making a armor for swordsman that has fire resist, shock resist, and freeze resist, while having piercing and shadow, AND normal max bars.
Bombs can get 600 damage per explosion.
Serious: Stop making dumb topics, and posts.
I also assume I'm not the only one who is getting annoyed at your constant riff-raff."
ps. everyone who agrees with what Rangerwillx said should copy it and post a reply, until the madness stops. Suggesting a graphics change is fine, and would be a good idea for the polaris line of guns, but not stat nerfs. Why not suggest that OOO increase the price of CE, and have a max CE of 1000? I could come up with lots of ways to make this game stupid and not fun... but why would anyone want that? Maybe because you bought terrible gear, and the only way you can think of to feel better about it, is to suggest maiming other players so that your gear doesn't feel so terrible. Lockdown is not the primary game, if you don't like the balance, don't play it.
+1 to comments that agree on not balancing for pvp
lockdown is a small part of the game, plus, is not even deathmatch, not sure why people still want a balanced chance to win against that other player when they should be focused on team play and capturing points instead of trying to kill everything on sight or dueling with specific players.
if you want to have a truly balanced skill only based experience you'll end up with a game where only proto gear is allowed, so no one has an advantage, and even then, a low ping will always be king there.
Don't nerf anything for lockdown, only for PvE. Lockdown is not the main part of this game.
@Rangerwillx, sorry for the "riff-raff", I assume because your account was deleted and your name is stolen and OOO isn't exactly doing anything because it is your fault for deleting your account because you have real life issues and OOO doesn't seem to care about you, it seems you have... ah, I lost my train of thought.
Sorry, by the way.
I highly doubt OOO is stupid enough to do a highly destructive nerf to the fencing weps so as too make them be useless PvE. Upon reflection I would be happy if fencing weps only interupted attacks on the last hit, and the ONLY exception would be fiends which would spontaneous explode upon impact egardless of which fencer you are using.
Basically only fiends should flinch every hit to a piercing wep. Wolvers don't already so it would only change PvP.
Bam reasonable nerf that doesnt affect PvE
> only interupted attacks on the last hit
This... would fix the clones in Lockdown.
I'm not sure how interruption is determined in PvE but it is completely broken in PvP. Knights should not be flinched by every hit in Lockdown. The only thing that needs to be altered is the Knights' interruption threshold, preferably only in Lockdown. If it is impossible to separate that from PvE, I personally wouldn't complain about gremlins interrupting my swing less often.
Don't nerf anything for lockdown, only for PvE. Lockdown is not the main part of this game.
But having the same mechanics/behavior all over the game makes sense and it's easier to code. Stop whining.
I agree this game needs nerfs, and right now I think we need to nerf the weapon that is game breakingly overpowered in PvE: The Divine Avenger.
Consider:
People may chastise other swords because they don't have as much utility as the DA, but that's not because those weapons are underpowered. It's a symptom of the DA being so overpowered that it's the only weapon you need for PvE, and it needs to be nerfed. I realize that nerfing the DA is not going to win many fans, but the alternative is to buff all the other weapons to the point where they are all overpowered, and I don't really think that's great for the game in the long term.
I think most are good as it is. Also, like rangerwill said: Lockdown is completely OPTIONAL-It's your choice to play it or not. It's not even necessary to play it in order to advance unlike clockworks with the tiers and stuff. Thus if you are gonna nerf some toothpicks just because it's so called OP in LD, gg you ruined the only piercing sword in the entire game.
Might as well nerf hammers, what with it's full elemental destroying stuff in LD. It's almost as bad as toothpicks, no? Go get some jelly gear if you hate toothpicks that much, or dragon scale for the sake of hammer and pokeystik defense. Meh.
But not disagreeing... these things NEED a buff. Really.
-Spur (I believe most spur fans/ w/e would agree with me that removing the first dash is a NERF)
-Plate lines (maybe max normal with 1/3 of each special defense, or a balance between or 4?)
-Catalyzer (EXTREMELY slow bullets makes pulsar bullets feel fast)
-Irontech? BAB?
-FoV y u slash so slow
-Dark retribution was nerfed. I think it's fine in it's current state, but I think the damage is low for a DLC item. Even upping the speed of orbs is good with it's current damage.
-IRON SLUG
-Gief shadow/piercing bomber gear NAO pl0x
Not gonna talk about things which need a nerf. I don't think there are any now as of now. DAs, and GFs are BOSS gear items. Toothpicks are fine as they are; just cause it's "OP" in LD doesn't mean it needs a nerf.
"Overpowered" is a relative term. Buffing everything else to be at the same power level as the offending things would also fix the problem, without nerfing things and making everyone sad. The link to power creep is misleading because power creep neglects old content, which is the opposite of what has been happening in the game lately and what everyone seems to be suggesting here.
@Owaoforum
I agree that there are weapons that need a buff. But that doesn't negate the fact that the Divine avenger (and to clarify the DA's charge attack) is OP. It's just that some weapons need a buff while the DA needs a nerf.
@Arquebus
buffing everything else would give the DA competition as to which sword to use, true. But, buffing everything to the DA's level will make everything overpowered, and soon the clockworks would be too easy to run.
And yes, the link to power creep is relevant. Although power creep usually happens as new content gets pushed out, eclipsing old content, that's not the only way it happens. Old overpowered content may exist that makes new content look weak. So, the new content gets buffed to match the old content. I think this is already happening now.
Example? Do we really need the 5* brandish's charge attack extending half way across the screen? Yes, the Glacius and other 5* brandishes needed reliable charge attacks. But why did they increase the amount of explosions at from 3 to 5? My guess (and it's only a guess:) Even with three explosions the 5* brandish line would have inferior range to the Faust and DA, so they added more range and more explosions.
That's only one example, but I wouldn't want to see more examples occur. Really, the DA needs a nerf, not everything else a buff. Maybe I'm reading too much into the brandish lines buffs. But I don't think so...
"Content" isn't just weapons and armor. We see changes in enemies too; zombies in particular now need to be dealt with in a different way than they did before, which could certainly be considered a buff. Besides, much of the balance that can be had in this game lies more with playing with numbers than with utility. Think of the Antigua changes: they work the same way they did before, but the shift in damage makes them much more effective. Would the Polaris with its great utility be as popular and useful if it was a split type like the old Antiguas were? Definitely food for thought.
It's a bit difficult to talk about where the balance is or should be because OOO seems to be VERY conservative with its changes. I suspect that different pieces of the game are in different stages of conversion to whatever "new world order" the mission system started, which is cool enough... but in the meantime, everything is naturally going to feel a bit messy as different things are brought up to speed at different rates.
And Heavenly Iron Set +Almirian Set...don't forget about those..
That makes sense. The game is in transision now, so it makes sense that power levels seem to be shifting back and forth.
I've read through this thread off and on, and the main thing that rubs me the wrong direction is that people lament about "fairness" and "balance."
To be honest, I couldn't care less about perfect balance! What really matters is something that seems to be so obvious that everyone misses it completely.
Is the weapon fun to use?
A weapon can be completely worthless, but as long as it makes the user feel like the greatest bad@$$ in all of video game history, then people will use it, period. Once weapons become really fun to use, only the hardcore players will care about what is the best. Thus, I'm completely opposed to the idea of any severe nerfs. Why? Because OOO should not be afraid to sacrifice balance for fun.
Spiral Knights is a game. Games are supposed to be fun. I want to feel like a virtuoso of the sword as I drive my Final Flourish through the back of a Trojan. I want to fee like those hunters in old cartoons, shooting Callahan bullets bigger than my head at barking blurs. I want to feel like an omnipotent god as I use one swing of my mighty Divine Avenger to obliterate dozens of Zombies. I want to feel like the greatest saboteur of history, as the world explodes in my wake and enemies flail in an inferno of flame. I want to feel like one of those last survivors of an Apocalypse, with blackened hostiles on all sides and a Polaris filling the screen with bright lights, as the four of us pray that the gate will lower and we can proceed to Sanctuary.
NONE of these things occur because you NERF the weapons! I don't mind a slight damage tweak, but don't remove entire aspects of a weapon for the sake of balance.
Then what, make DA fire the same cahrge as GF? Yeah expect a hella rage afterwards from playerbase.
Golfdinger post#5
Blitz Needle: charge attack does a disproportionally large amount of damage compared to other guns and charge attacks.
Polaris: Overpowered vs. turrets; shouldn't interrupt attacks
AP/Setenza: does too much damage considering its range, mobility, and ease of use; shouldn't be able to shoot through barriers
Aureate post#9
Polaris needs to keep its knockback/cancelling abilities.
The reason I got that damn thing was for shutting down turrets and herding purposes.
If I wanted elemental damage with shock status, I'd have gotten a Storm Driver instead.
The primary problem is the massive screen flash it causes. The secondary problem (having enemies such as Lumbers knocked into you) is mainly caused by idiots spamming the shots without thinking.
Polaris is MADE for killing turrets.
Taking away its attack cancelling abilities will remove the point of the gun.
If that happens, I'd just go switch to a Valiance instead.
Blitz needle does do a large amount of damage, but it also roots you in place for the duration of the charge or standard attack, leaving you vulnerable. It's pretty much fine, due to the fact that it is a situational gun.
@Golfdinger & Aureate
I totally agree on the nerfing or whatevering of the Polaris. Polaris has Elemental , knockback, and the most useful status while Supernova only has Normal and knockback. Why not make the interruption as exclusive to the Supernova as the Shock to the Polaris? Otherwise it would be rather useless to have a Supernova, with the exception of dealing with quicksilvers. Making interruption Supernova-only seems to make the balance a bit more equal.
_______________________________________
Uuni post#12
Pulsar line:
-Make the projectiles deal almost no damage when not charged
-Increase the range it takes to charge the shot by a square or two
@Uuni
Ok, i agree on the other things you said, but the pulsar is both lines in general. When they almost no damage when not charged it means ull have to charge all the time, making it a uselees piece of toy. Also making the pellets expand 2.5 tiles further away not only means that you have to stand back and estimate even more than you have to now, it also means that the Pulsar line will get a ridiculous range since having the bullet expand for o.1 second is useless, which happens when you put the expansion-moment at the end of its current range.
cuz most of players made their overpowered stuff because of how they were before. (me included) If my DA's charge starts taking 5 seconds to charge like GF, i'd be rlly pissed off.
so yeah, they need to buff other stuff til they actually convince players to use them.
@Floipd
I was pretty tired when writing that message, there was supposed to be "or" between those two. Either of the changes would make its role more clear
Now it deals just like 20% more when the shot is charged, sure it has bigger AoE but the all-purpose utility for the gun is quite ridiculous
It's amazing that so many people want to Nerf the polaris line. 5 star gear is supposed to own.
When a line of guns gets Nerfed, the lower star editions suffer greatly. I'm a mostly 3 star weapon guy, my only 4 star weapon is an Ascended Calibur.
[most?] 3 star guns are not overpowered (I have not tried them all...), take the Kilowatt pulsar for example. If I go to T2 Royal Jelly, it takes 6 shots at max distance to kill a gun puppy. Gun puppies are what this gun is designed for, right? I'm fairly certain that a 3 star elemental sword will kill those puppies in far fewer shots. I have no 3 star elemental sword to test it with, but when I had my 3 star calibur, I could kill them pups in one charge attack. That's 3 hits. If your counting, that's half the hits as my "puppy killer". The Calibur is not designed primarily to kill puppies, and if it were, it would probably be a quicker death.
Aonother example: the Antigua, 18 damage vs beasts? It takes like 20 shots to kill them, and they are weak to piercing damage!!! It's almost useless in it's 3 star variant. Nerf it! Nerf it! 18 damage is too much! Twisted Snarble Barb, 3 star, is able to do 120+ damage per hit to beasts! Give me a break, guns (at least at low levels) are SO UNDERPOWERED it ridiculous! Most games have 1 shot 1 kill weapons. What's wrong with that?
If I had mad cash in the game, I would test this out, so don't flame me if my assumptions/etc don't line up with reality in SK.
Maybe the solution to all of this "Balance" is to change lockdown. If you want balance because of lockdown, say so, but the answer is not to nerf all the powerful weapons, the answer is: gain the skills you need, get the good guns/armor/etc. and STOP complaining about balance. Life is unfair, have you not seen that in life??? Bill Gates makes more money than I do. That's a fact we ALL have to deal with, it's not fair, but it's a fact.
PvE SHOULD have overpowered weapons/armor/etc. That's what makes it fun. If there were no super powerful weapons, I would stop playing, or simply play T1 with proto gear, as there would be nothing for me to look forward to by buying new equipment. This is especially true if the equipment I save up for and buy is made useless because a bunch of players complain that it's "Overpowered".
At least modify the toothpicks so that they do not interrupt you unless they get the final stab in... At least.
To my knowledge, the developers at OOO are not able to change the damage model in lockdown without also changing the damage model in the clockworks.
The problem with nerfing the toothpick flinch, is that one of the hardest enemies in the PvE world will become even more difficult if the Flourish/Snarble lines are changed. As far as I know, the FF/BTB is the best anti-fiend weapon we have. I can't imagine fighting them without flinching them on the first hit. Fiend would OWN everyone that is not amazing at Spiral Knights. It would not be pretty, go fight some T3 fiend mobs and then think about how important flinch is when using Flourish/snarble line swords.
If you don't like getting owned by toothpick touting mad men, don't play lockdown...
I like the suggestion of making items have slightly different effects in PVP and PVE. In PVP you could make it so that only the last hit caused flinching, and leave it as normal in PVE.
ctr for wolver means brandish will destroy everything with instant charge
The flourish line's attack speed does not help everyone against devilites. You can only use the Flourish/snarble barb that way if your latency is low. But, if you have high latency and you try that then you will end up trading blows at best.
Yep I also agree that Polaris, not only is overpowered but makes life of your teammates a pain. How many people did I see switch to Polaris and pwn everything that's weak or neutreal to elemental with such an ease? Shoot shoot shoot, everything dies, no ennemy resist because of the knockback. I even saw a beginner swordie about to die in JK, when he realized he was low hp he took his pulsar and start spamming all day, he didnt lose one health bar doing that. Now thing is, I don't care if it's overpowered, but it kills all the fun in a party. Some idiot decides to go the easy way by spamming polaris, and I'm forced to watch everything dies, and can't even attack without risking to lose my health because of the impreivisble knockback.
Yes, Polaris is OP, at least spamming it, and a fun-killer. As annoying as people who keep shivermist everything for no reason.
A weapon can be completely worthless, but as long as it makes the user feel like the greatest bad@$$ in all of video game history, then people will use it, period. Once weapons become really fun to use, only the hardcore players will care about what is the best. Thus, I'm completely opposed to the idea of any severe nerfs. Why? Because OOO should not be afraid to sacrifice balance for fun.
Spiral Knights is a game. Games are supposed to be fun. I want to feel like a virtuoso of the sword as I drive my Final Flourish through the back of a Trojan. I want to fee like those hunters in old cartoons, shooting Callahan bullets bigger than my head at barking blurs. I want to feel like an omnipotent god as I use one swing of my mighty Divine Avenger to obliterate dozens of Zombies. I want to feel like the greatest saboteur of history, as the world explodes in my wake and enemies flail in an inferno of flame. I want to feel like one of those last survivors of an Apocalypse, with blackened hostiles on all sides and a Polaris filling the screen with bright lights, as the four of us pray that the gate will lower and we can proceed to Sanctuary.
-Traevelliath 03/29/2012
Still reading thread. Absolutely had to log in to say that this post here gave me cold chills. Cold chills for heaven's sake. Awesome stuff, right here.
---
On subject, and in regards to the biggest complaints I've heard thus far about Lockdown and it's balancing... I play on and off with a decent amount of infrequency, so there's what little credibility I have to offer. Using a full *3 Plate series, Troika Series, and Freeze bomb Series set, I rarely have any problems at all with fencing foils, hammers (Though I'll admit that watching my health drop to 1 after a single hit is rather surprising.), or any gunners (the gunners I've faced are somewhat sad in PvP. Credit for them trying hard). In T3, Mixed 4* and 5* Bomber. Same overall result. I'm starting to think it's not the weapon balance....
If you really want to nerf something.... Um.... I can't think of anything, actually. Maybe I'm not the best person to ask 'bout nerfing stuff. Hah, in fact, if folks thought the way I did, enemies would just be stronger or faster. I miss the days of violent healers. XD
We haven't seen the last of this batch of balances, Iron Slug still needs to be buffed.