Joseph Ridgeson
WarRavens
League of Infamy
372
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Posted - 2014.01.26 22:03:00 -
[1] - Quote
I am a Tanker. I have been Tanking since about 6 weeks past open beta. I like Tanks. I thought they were great fun before 1.7 and I think they are actually more fun now. Limited choices means that the idea of Hardener, Repairer, Plate isn't so cut in stone as the game forces true choices and strategy. It also makes a clear difference between Shield and Armor Tanks in play style. Thought I would hate this patch, am actually really enjoying it.
One thing I have noticed happen is the new Shield recharge rule. In short, providing a single attack doesn't do X damage, the Shield will continue to recharge at a constant rate. Considering an Assault Rifle used to be able to completely stop a Gunnlogi from passively repairing itself, it is a good change. The problem that has come forth is that Shields can become utterly impossible to take down, especially with a hardener active. With Missiles doing damage each hit, it is actually kind of impossible to hurt a Tank's shield with a Militia Swarm Launcher without any kind of extra damage. Each hit doing small damage ends up getting pushed into the part where the Shield continue to recharge. This means that in between reloading, it might literally be impossible to destroy a Tank with a single non-damage upgraded Swarm Launcher.
With Shield Hardeners active, I am not sure if a Swarm Launcher could even stop the Shield Recharge. They still might be able to break the shield tank but the passive regen will still likely be going on providing the Hardener is online. Considering Shield Tanks are supposed to rely on Shield Boosters to regain their Shields while in combat, it seems strange that with a Hardener or two that the Gunnlogi becomes a Drake.
Here is a clip of a video from CEOPyrex. It is basically a montage but at 1:06 you can really see what starts to happen. Look at his Shields. With his Hardeners online, the Blaster Tank is unable to kill him as his Shield regenerates faster than the Blaster can do damage. It is only when the Railgun Installation hits him at about 1:12 that he stops regenerating. What is happening is that the Hardeners on his Shield are pushing the Blaster's damage into the amount that is passively repaired. Providing the Hardeners are online, that Tank cannot die from anything short of sustained alpha damage.
I have seen it in my games as well, even with a single hardener. My basic 80gj Blaster will be pushed to the point where the Tank continues to heal. This means that a booster is often not needed as anything short of high alpha damage (Railgun, Forge Gun, Remote Explosives) will not stop the regenerating shields. Furthermore, it means a Shield Hardener also works like an Armor Repairer because it keeps the Shield regenerating even when taking damage.
Let's say that the limit for a single attack to do enough damage to pause the Tank's regeneration is 100 damage. Currently, with Hardeners, almost anything can be pushed to sub-100. It means that weapons that relay on constant damage rather than burst (Swarms, Blasters) are particularly ineffective. My proposal is to change how the limit works. Make the limit based on the raw damage before reduction. This means that a Swarm Launcher can actually stop a shield from regenerating and actually be able to ward off a Tank with sustained damage.
Changing that would mean that the Blaster Tank in the video, who was doing less than 20 damage per shot of the blaster, would actually stop the Tank from regenerating but it would still take a very long time to kill Pyrex and probably wouldn't happen until the Hardeners fell. It still keeps the Hardeners making him almost invulnerable without making him actually invulnerable.
Be well. |