Poplo Furuya
Condotta Rouvenor
Gallente Federation
261
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Posted - 2013.07.11 21:53:00 -
[1] - Quote
I main Forge and the one thing that really shouldn't be done is shortening the optimal to a crippling degree.
As an infantry AV weapon it's philosophy is the sacrifice of speed and mobility in order to gain reach and rapid delivery. The name of the old starting specialisation 'Sentinel' attests to that.
If it loses the reach it then must close in to short range to engage vehicles. Heavies ain't much for rapidly closing in on a stealthy vector and vehicles won't even have to use cover to mitigate the threat, just blast them from outside their range or create distance if they find themselves set upon.
Blast radius, splash damage and the Assault's rate of fire all taken together is quite formidable versus infantry right now. The obvious change to toy around with is blast radius, necessitates more precision to obtain a result, gives more room for the assailed to successfully evade.
Splash damage is the other alternative. If significantly toned down it makes splashing more of a harassing or finishing action than an outright killer. Would quite like the missile effect of jarring the screen and displacing aim to be added to Forge splash should this happen, though. The slug isn't a chemical explosive but the victim did just have it impact a surface right next to them with incredible force.
Tangent suggestion, make it so we can't feather the Assault Forge's trigger. I'd hate this but still throwing it out there. Once you begin charging the charge can't be cancelled. The reduction in charge time is a massive boon that can't be understated, this would make you lose more in order to gain that boon. You can't keep bringing it to half then resetting while waiting out a target's emergence giving the standard model a wider advantage in this scenario. Again, I would hate this, it'd be a damper on the Assault FG. I put it out there merely because there's a nagging feeling that the Assault gains a lot but with only minor penalties and this may not be right in the grand scheme of things. This alteration might see a bit more incentive to use the standard. Would still use an AFG as default even if this did happen though.
But if anything does happen please for the love of god do not make all the above changes simultaneously CCP. If you think there's an issue experiment incrementally. Make sure not to compromise it's effectiveness versus vehicles in an attempt to rein in its effectiveness against infantry.
Direct hits are fair game. |