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Is Hot Rod missing something and is his decelerate stack broken?

Not sure whether or not this should go under General Discussion or Bugs and Known Issues.


The recent thread about Galvatron needing a buff got me thinking about Hot Rod, who I personally think is missing something as well.

He's a great bot, but there is 1 of 2 things I'd like to see happen to make him more usable.

1. Make decelerate trigger 100% of the time, just like UM's nullify is supposed to do. I mean, it's a Time Bubble Gun. Do the time settings on his gun only work some of the time? The gun should work 100% of the time.

or

2. Increase the duration of decelerate. If we can't have it land 100% of the time, then the duration time it's there needs to double. At low levels, 3 seconds is not enough time.


My second point brings up the second part of the subject line. Is his decelerate stack broken? Because it says it's supposed to stack, but every time I hit an opponent with multiple shots of decelerate in a row, the only thing that happens is that the timer resets to 3 seconds; it most certainly is not stacking. The only time I can get it to stack is when I use his sp2.

Can anyone else confirm this potential bug? Because if it's a bug and his decelerate is in fact supposed to stack then disregard my suggestions to make him better. A decelerate that stacks should be fine.

p.s. seriously, fix UM's 100% nullify chance on ranged shots too. He's already not that great and needs all the help he can get.



Comments

  • ManthroManthro Posts: 2,752
    edited November 2017
    Ok.. so... Let's take a look at this with the ability in front of our eyes.

    k8ef69yl2603.png

    sxq9pav4ck7g.png


    This is at rank 3/30 on a 3* bot, not even maxed.


    Even though it says 60%, it probably gets close to 80% at rank 4.. and, in my experience it triggers nearly 100% of the time anyway, even if the opponent is blocking, much like barricades backfire. This alone offsets the "not quite 100%" trigger rate.

    As for stacking... it doesn't actually say that deceleration stacks. It just says you disrupt power flow by x% per stack, which I agree is misleading.

    Stacking would actually make this ability completely broken, as you could power lock an opponent absurdly easily if this were the case.
  • SynthwaveSynthwave Posts: 1,012
    Does the % go up with ranking, or with sig level? I thought it was sig level. So even at r4 it will it still be 60%? Any way, with my experience using Hot Rod, it really is about 60% of the time.

    I can't tell you how many combos I've tried to start with Hot Rod by leading with a ranged shot only to have decelerate not trigger and he ends up lashing his opponents with wet noodles. The chances seem even worse when you're facing bots with higher PI levels too. So I do feel like he needs an uptick in some department, be it a higher chance of landing decelerate or longer duration.

    But I do agree that the reduced power flow would get too OP if it stacked, so I wouldn't mind if they reduced the % of power flow reduction down to the single digits if it meant they could stack. Most players I know using Hot Rod don't sing the praises of his power flow reduction anyway (It barely even registers with me that it's in effect)

    Players using Hot Rod are more interested in crit rate. So reducing the % of power flow reduction would remove the OP factor but would still give the player a longer amount of time to try and string a combo in while the decelerate debuff is still in effect.

    I think that's a fair improvement. Thoughts?
  • ManthroManthro Posts: 2,752
    edited November 2017
    Ok, so...

    The percentage on regular abilities a bot has go up with rank, not with bot level or Sig level.

    The percentages in the Sig itself go up with Sig level (dupes)

    It's a little confusing, but that's how it works.

    The #1 key I found with Hot Rod is that once you get deceleration to trigger against an evade bot, do your best to back off and fire again to keep the timer at full charge when necessary. You'll find bots like Bee and sideswipe are rendered into easy targets this way.

    The bot can't trigger evade so you have a better chance at landing a shot and resetting the timer.

    As for your other suggestions, yeah he could use a bit of a buff in some aspects if done carefully.
  • SynthwaveSynthwave Posts: 1,012
    I just assumed the highlighted stats all improved with sig level gains. Maybe they should consider using two different colors for highlighted stats that can be improved upon. Green for stats that improve with rank and yellow for stats that improve with sig gains.

    Either way I'll end up r4ing him, but it would be nice if they tweaked a little bit more to bring up to par with some of the other warrior bots. He's a fun bot to use, kinda like Galvatron, just frustrating to use with the current stats Kabam has him at.
  • SupraliminalSupraliminal Posts: 143
    edited November 2017
    I believe it DOES stack for power flow actually. I will have to check in next few days if I remember, however I was never reading it the way it sounds like you think it is supposed to work... it decelerates power FLOW not power gain. So it will decelerate the snot out of soundwave/node/etc power flow. That isn't the same thing as power gain from being hit/landing hits. I'm pretty sure it freezes this, although I'm not even 100% about that either... but since I always assumed power flow wasn't the same thing as power gain I was not under the impression it was broken. Regarding stacking, a regular attack doesn't say it stacks, but I believe the special decelerate stacks with normal attack decelerate (at work cannot test, just pointing out stuff to look for).

    Also I don't have my 3* even super levelled, and the most glaring obvious test I can think of is expert grimlock in current event... but he'd dispel it anyway. But supposing it was any other bot hot rod should be great against that node. Should be fairly obvious in raids if anyone has one high enough to test real quick.
  • KillMasterCKillMasterC Posts: 3,105
    edited November 2017
    Does a gun kill 100% of the time? No, you have to aim at the head or the heart or anywhere the driller teaches you to. LOL

    But seriously, deceleration should decelerate the opponents moving speed in the first place! Theres too few evaders in this game for him to exploit.
  • SynthwaveSynthwave Posts: 1,012
    Maybe Hot Rod's Time Bubble Gun has been the source of all the lag in the game. Things to think about.
  • I hate it when his decelerate doesnt activate when i need it.
  • One very important factor to his decelerate... It works thru block and also during specials. I feel like a move to 100% would dictate removing this feature.

    I will say, his decelerate seems really weak as far as power control goes, but if it stacked correctly then it would be far better.
  • BOFADBOFAD Posts: 481
    Deceleration is like a bubble. Think about his special 3 with the bubble. Even mirage's duck and run heavy is vulnerable. Never had it hit me on a dodge though.
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