Spiral Knights - Lockdown Mechanics Fix

Lockdown Mechanics Fix

4 replies [Last post]

Sat, 12/01/2012 - 19:29

Zephyrgon

Everybody appreciates the fact that SK has its own and very unique PvP system called Lockdown, LD for short. However, as wonderful as it is, Lockdown needs quite some tweaks to it to make it incredibly balanced. I'm talking about the mechanics in LD, not the equipment, although there are some problems with equipment balance. LD mechanics must be fixed in order to have a more balanced LD, so people would stop complaining.

1) The Striker: Everybody concedes to the fact that the Striker is overpowered in LD. It was also brought up that Recon and Guardian were also underpowered. So, I'll point out a few things that we can have done. The Guardian and the Recon are actually well made (they need some tweaks too), it's just the fact that Striker is not doing what it's expected to be doing. The Striker is supposed to be a glass cannon, the term coined for something that can output high amounts of damage, yet is very fragile. Unfortunately, thanks to broken Health trinkets, the Striker can take a lot more abuse than should be expected. So, the Striker should have a scaling health reduction per tier, -3 for Tier 1, -5 for Tier 2, and -7 for Tier 3. This should counteract the issue of the Striker being able to tank too much. There is also the issue of the Striker's incredible amounts of mobility. A Striker can cover a lot of ground with their booster, use it quite well offensively, and give them high amounts of mobility. A simple fix is to double the amount of time that it takes to recharge the Striker's booster, so as to make them choose between moving around the map faster or using the booster for offensive purposes.

2) The Recon: The Recon is quite a nice class, however one thing always crosses one's mind. That is of course about the fact that the Recon's cloak breaks in one hit. It is incredibly devastating when using bombs since bombs at lower tiers are smaller in blast radius and puts recons at a dangerously close distance to enemies, and many more. So what should be implemented is a Recon's cloak that does not break in one hit, but however takes damage when hit. No, it does not serve as a shield, but rather the amount of damage you take, the cloak also takes. This is so that recons have an added security when it comes to obscurity.

3) The Guardian: The guardian serves as a powerhouse in defensinve and supportive capabilities. Guardians need just a little buff, assuming that all the other buffs and nerfs listed above are carried out. That is the increased healing under the shield per tier. The healing under the shield is incredibly useful when camping at a point, however, it becomes a lot less useful in higher tiered LD. So, the healing should be 1/2 health in Tier 1, 1 health in Tier 2, and 2 health in Tier 3. This makes the guardian a more viable class in support as well as sustain.

4) Trinkets: Health trinkets are nice, but they need to be scaled a lot more since they outclass defensive trinkets way too much. A suggestion is to lower the health bonus by the trinkets by 1, since it downgrades the overall power of health trinkets in lower tiers, where 2 health is actually very substantial. Another is to bring defensive trinkets in line. Nobody uses defensive trinkets since health trinkets outclass them. (Testing has yet to be done to determine this) Make defensive trinkets in line with health trinkets to give another defensive option.

5) Noobies: NOBODY wants noobs on their team. NOBODY. In Tier 2, nobody wants someone in Tier 1 gear with a 2* sword going striker and inadvertently dying for no good reason. The same goes for Tier 3. So, what should be implemented is a system in which people who do NOT have certification in that tier, be it either Tier 2 or 3, cannot participate in that respective lockdown. This would reduce the amount of noobies in LD.

6) Leavers and AFKers: Leavers and AFKers are even worse than noobs. Make a system in which these players can be reported or even a strikes system in which they will be held accountable for their leaves and afks. This is so that we don't have players who rage after dying too much in LD, as well as people who afk for no good reason.

Feel free to comment about these tweaks discussed in this thread.

Sat, 12/01/2012 - 20:56

Lord-Asura

I agree

i agree with the fact that strikers are overpowered. i sometimes go to battle with people that have rocket hammers and a crap ton of health due to trinkets. it makes the game very unfair and takes the fun out of it

Sat, 12/01/2012 - 21:06

Forum-Brady

and -7 for Tier 3 That would

and -7 for Tier 3

That would mean that strikers without heart pendants would be completely useless. You'd die in a single hit from virtually anything, and a gunner would drop you before you even saw him. The problem with tank-strikers comes from heart pendants; don't punish those who don't/can't/choose not to use them to mitigate the effect of them. The better idea is to simply remove heart trinkies, rather than cripple anyone who doesn't.

As for /4:
Reducing heart trinkies by 1 would have a completely unnoticeable effect. The defensive trinkies (both base defence and status resistance) give a bonus equal to a "medium" UV which is fairly unnoticeable as well. A duo set of trinkies gives a "Max!" equivelant bonus, which is generally conisdered fairly meh-y, especially when not accompanied by other UVs of the same type to buff it. Slightly reducing damage (by maybe 1 hit of the specific weapon type) isn't worth not using heart trinkies that allow you to tank 2/3 more hits of everything.

Sat, 12/01/2012 - 21:56

Zephyrgon

Not really

Your health gets scaled per tier. Even without trinkets, you can find yourself with a little bit less that 20 bars with 5* gear on. -7 just makes it so that Strikers will die within 2 hits, exemplifying the glass cannon idea. As for the reduction of heart trinkets by 1, I do believe it would put them in line with defense trinkets. It's either this or they boost the defensive trinkets to provide a "high" UV instead of just medium. You should also realize that it takes both trinkets to actually provide the medium UV, so if it provides it as a stand alone trinket, it would be much better.

Sat, 12/01/2012 - 22:28

Forum-Brady

you can find yourself with a

you can find yourself with a little bit less that 20 bars with 5* gear on

A vog Striker has about 12 hp (ish; I forget the exact number since I don't roll striker often) in LD, with the -3 debuff. They already die in two hits, and even from FF. A -7 debuff would mean they die in one hit from slow swords. They'd go from being glass cannons to glass cannonballs that just fly in, hurt someone and completely die. They would be absolutely useless if they can't even survive a single hit. The balance is already there and actually quite well balanced. The heart trinkets are the only thing that throw it out of balance. Your idea would only serve to reinforce the usage of heart trinkies, as striker would be utterly unplayable without them.

As for the reduction of heart trinkets by 1, I do believe it would put them in line with defense trinkets

A 5* trinket gives 6 hp. Two give 12. To give a -1 reduction would give +10 instead of +12. This would be basically meaningless and would change virtually nothing. Even with your -7 stacking on top of this (for a grand total of -6) this amounts to the equivelant of your current strikers dropping a single heart trinky. They can still tank 3, maybe 4 hits.

You should also realize that it takes both trinkets to actually provide the medium UV,

Again, wrong. A single 5* UV gives "medium", whether this be status, defence, asi, attack, ctr; anything. 5* trinkies are the equivelant of "medium"s. To equip two trinkies gives a bonus of vh (or maximum, in terms of defence/resistance). However, since immunity requires max+high, people don't like using trinkies for immunity since they'd need UVs as well, and would rather have heart trinkies that allow 2/3 more hits to be tanked.

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Lockdown Mechanics Fix