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Bot Balance early impressions
Drake6401
Posts: 321
Most forums are complaints so lets get something positive rolling because the latest update did give us something to take gratefully.
The new buffs to many bots was something I was really anticipating and the mass majority did not disappoint. Obviously, I immediately took Shockwave for a spin as soon as the update came about, and this is the buff Shockwave needed. His combat style is still the same but is now worth doing unlike before. His Shock debuffs got a huge upgrade now dealing 80% damage over 6 seconds across the board, so now all use of charges is equally worth it. I favor this longer lasting shock because of his new power leak effect. No more will your enemies trigger an S3 to save their skins from Shockwave's. Perhaps the largest upgrade is allowing his S1 to generate charges. This means he can unload 6 shocks at a time. RIP Waspinators when I get into raiding again. I was hoping to see a small upgrade to the lasting time of charges but with more power for those charges, the risk finally meets the reward. Thanks to this upgrade, Shockwave can sit comfortably with his fellow tech bots as the new damage dealer of the class.
Galvatron is the only other bot I've gotten to test as I forged almost all my three stars since I'm backing out of arenas. In my opinion, the charge rate is a little too fast now. 30% instead of 50% would had been a better fit, but Galvatron did need to charge faster. I haven't gotten the stun to go off yet in my few fights with him but it is nice to see the chance of his S1 improve. Both Galvatron and Shockwave deserve the block buffs they got since they rely on it so heavily. Being the demo of my main team, it's nice to see Galvatron get a touch up.
What do ya'll think of the new buffs now with a hands on impression? I don't have most of them anymore so I'd like to hear how they fair. Any bots you think could use an upgrade?
The new buffs to many bots was something I was really anticipating and the mass majority did not disappoint. Obviously, I immediately took Shockwave for a spin as soon as the update came about, and this is the buff Shockwave needed. His combat style is still the same but is now worth doing unlike before. His Shock debuffs got a huge upgrade now dealing 80% damage over 6 seconds across the board, so now all use of charges is equally worth it. I favor this longer lasting shock because of his new power leak effect. No more will your enemies trigger an S3 to save their skins from Shockwave's. Perhaps the largest upgrade is allowing his S1 to generate charges. This means he can unload 6 shocks at a time. RIP Waspinators when I get into raiding again. I was hoping to see a small upgrade to the lasting time of charges but with more power for those charges, the risk finally meets the reward. Thanks to this upgrade, Shockwave can sit comfortably with his fellow tech bots as the new damage dealer of the class.
Galvatron is the only other bot I've gotten to test as I forged almost all my three stars since I'm backing out of arenas. In my opinion, the charge rate is a little too fast now. 30% instead of 50% would had been a better fit, but Galvatron did need to charge faster. I haven't gotten the stun to go off yet in my few fights with him but it is nice to see the chance of his S1 improve. Both Galvatron and Shockwave deserve the block buffs they got since they rely on it so heavily. Being the demo of my main team, it's nice to see Galvatron get a touch up.
What do ya'll think of the new buffs now with a hands on impression? I don't have most of them anymore so I'd like to hear how they fair. Any bots you think could use an upgrade?
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I also agree that galvatron charges a little too fast now. Overall I didn't notice much different playing with him in the arena so the changes didn't affect his value to me.
Don't have UM, so I can't comment there, and the rest were so minor that I'm not noticing them.
This will forever be the shockwave fix update to me and Kabam nailed it.
People thought I was crazy for having a rank 4 Shockwave as my best bot, but it was worth holding onto him. Fitting too since he seems to be final boss of Act 3 in the story. ^^
Kabam really did a great job can’t wait to rank him up!
Ramjet... he still hasn't stunned yet for me today (lol?), though I disagree that this was his main problem anyway. Specials not hitting like a demo were, and those weren't buffed so it's a fail buff on paper. However on the bright side his S2 (gasp) is not missing so far!
UM is hard to tell, on paper fantastic buff, though... the sig is STILL ambiguous, is he supposed to get both buffs in arena or...? Kinda have to fight more actual tough opposition to tell.
Dinobot wasn't hurting for a buff either. But if he WERE, as many pointed out, I don't think a heavy bleed stack would do it, the first one is fairly rare much less two? It's like... a blue moon where you'd ever be like "yep, that double bleed sure is working". There's not enough of a change here even on paper to generate a comment from usage...?
Shockwave is most noticeable BUFF as buffs go, though that's only because there's no way to tell without more extended use if Galvatron is in fact OVERpowered now or not.
"Lord Megatron, I got buffed! My joy is completely and entirely hollow and emotionless, I promise! This danging is just a jacked up servo, totally don;t have emotions!"
SS didn't need a buff, his only problem was being worst in best class in game. And really if that beats out the techs, was a decent starting position lol. Anyway his burn buff is kinda weak, but additional damage is additional damage. I'm not sure what the guage is supposed to be here, not an amazing general buff... does it mean he now can be debated against barricade as worst in easily the best class? Maybe, I mean it's closer at least.
Arcee... see I liked her too already anyway because the energy from crits is no joke when you have multi hit specials. You could almost get a special for throwing a special if you have crit masteries, I don't know if many people noticed that when using her. She played like a weak windblade before, wasn't bad. Anyway, so with huge crit chance against dashing people plus a stackable head shot.... lemme put it this way, she WAS like a weak windblade because she popped a bleed just as easy but it was a weak bleed. RE-READ that, she popped as easy as windblade, it was just capped. Now it stacks. Does an even meaner imitation of windblade now. I would say best in class contention if swordmaster didn't exist (bonecrusher got sickest s1 in game, arcee stackable bleeds better is a debate, and she might win). Of course SM does exist, so drift is best. Still... of the non SM synergies arcee loves her some mirage pairing... you can't sneeze at the teams you'd use her with either. This buff qualifies as successfully very noticeable.
Ultra Magnus addendum... the S2 conversion only applies to the s2 attack itself, you do not keep the buff (I don't know if that's intentional or a bug report?). Not as good as it sounds. S1 converting armor buffs to armor break is QUITE literal. If optimus primal has 7 armor buffs, they are wiped and turned into 7 armor breaks. That's obviously incredible, although.. means the buff mostly applies to purples, whom he already had an advantage against anyway. I dunno.... given everyone puts purple on raid defense, he definitely shoots up to serious consideration for your raid offense. I'm not sure how great the buff was otherwise... unless s2 is broke, in which case amazing buff if working as intended
He gets both, or at least the AI controlled ones in arena do
The conversion is intentional otherwise he would be OP. I now have him r5. His S2 is definitely stronger but still doesn't quite add the burst damage as desired. His sig is better and breaking multiple stacks is amazing when it's used. I'm happy with the update but I still think he is missing something against non-armored enemies. I still think a chance to burn or apply 1 armor break to non-armor enemies or when there are no armor buffs would be sufficient and not OP, just have it also be based on his resistance stacks. Even a chance to burn on heavy, I'm just not seeing a major difference in his s2 just a slight one.
I see no use for his S2 and his S3 should seriously be buffed to provide more regen. Using S3 and not even getting one regen is awful. It doesn't even heal a huge amount with multiple stacks. Some combo of these updates would help.
I hear you but... I dunno, I mean.... compare him to another situational bot (grimlock). I mean... as I said on a different topic (best and worst bots by class), if you were going by whom you'd choose in just any fight grimlock sucks. Like for real if you don't need his debuff shrugging, you'd pick any other brawler first. Same thing, only in reverse. If you need to get rid of any BUFF you'd pick Magnus now.... not just armor buff either, he nullifies everything else too, he's just more spectacular with armor up.
But nobody is clamoring to say grimlock sucks (even though meh). I would say he's not even as bad, because he's not the worst in his class (bumblebee ahem). Also I'd take him straight up over grimlock too if the buff/ debuff specialty wasn't needed. I'm not so sure his buff was not the most spot on buff of all to be honest (noticeable but not mad overpowered like galvatron). If you think about it, his specialty was buffed to grimlock level, yet he's not sucking as bad otherwise. That's not awful?
Edit: well, I suppose you might take Megatron instead of you wanted to nullify (if duped to steal), but... that's actually not as good unless it's a huge heal. Point is, compare to grimlock
Blink.... blink...
How anyone pegged him as worst demo behind ramjet is just... what? He already was second BEST in game. Now? Lol, well you didn't believe me before so i don't suppose you'd listen to me saying in a whispered tone ohhh yeah he's better than ironhide now. (Ramjet still lags behind, mixmaster still better... stuns what the heck I mean yeah it's better but STILL... what's the point of a demo with weak damage specials)
Dare I dare to say, now y'all whining about galvatron and Magnus buffed on a node, well... ummm.... sounds about right? (Told ya so rant out)
Also IH needs to be duped, while you can use Galvatron directly when you get him. I have both, and I'm really pleased with that buff, because I like playing Galvatron.
Galvatron's update has made him night and day. He was sub-par before because of his charge time etc. but now he is far better and is viable. His quicker charge time is huge but more importantly his charges not expiring on s2 increases his potential damage in a major way.
I would say he and IH can be on similar levels now. IH has burn which is a pro however Galvatron doesn't have to rely on the randomness of IH's sig.
Ramjet's potential to more reliably sp1 + heavy stun lock an opponent has been a welcome addition. Just pin the opponent in a corner and go to work on them. With Starscream on his team, he's even more brutal. Same goes for his sig if you have him duped, he does way more damage if you can get those special buffs. I'm taking him up to R4, along with Starscream, Galvatron, and hopefully when the game decides to give me a Shockwave (seriously, everyone in the game seems to have him except me, lol). All great synergies when used together. Only thing still buggy about Ramjet is the persistent lag issues when using specials; not sure what's going on there.
Galvatron is now awesome and fun to use. It was exactly the adjustment he needed (that said, I take the left side in AM, so I don't know the agony everyone is going through facing him on the right, but it sounds more like a mod tweaking issue than a bot tweaking one). I'm looking forward to r5 ing him though the first chance I get. His synergies with Starscream, Ramjet, and Shockwave will make him the death-dealing machine that he has always been feared for being.
I get all the hate on Grimlock, but I'm glad I r5'd him and nearly max forged him; he's been an indispensable part of my AM, Spotlight, and Raid team for what he can do with DoT effects. I'd say the only thing he needs is some kind of debuff he can put on an enemy with his sp2; a chance to stun would makes sense, given that you're having a giant metal dinosaur sit on the opponent. It's not as impressive as Unstoppable, but it would be a nice little supplement to the small attack buff he receives.
Another brawler who I think is getting a little short-changed on his sp2 is Grindor. I feel like just for the sake of making him a more interesting bot to use, they could give him a little something more for his sp2 (and sp3).
Sideswipe I don't seem to notice much difference other than the sp1 stun duration - he plays a bit more like a demo bot now.
Arcee I'm not sure. She's ok but catching a dashing opponent in the harder game modes can be tricky because they are so slippery.
I don't use UM so can't comment.
Dinobots changes are completely unnoticable - he is absolutely terrible anyway and after the update is one of a few bots whom at least for me are suffering movement glitches - his in particular is making it so I can't dash back twice in succession as the second dash back just blocks instead (others are Grimlock and Windblade, and can't sidestep twice with Optimus Primal)
Actually all he needs for his sp2 is to increase the damage bump from the opponents stored power. I love using it when the AI is absolutely refusing to use a special.
His sp3 is garbage though. That crit rate bonus for missles only triggers for AI grindors in my case, and even then it's still garbage. I wish there was a way to lock the special bar so I could still throw a sp2 and just use 2 power bars.
They were significantly improved. Galvatron is a little too fast in my opinion despite him being my main Demo. Shockwave is glorious compared to his original version. No one makes fun of me for having Shockwave as my best bot now. xD
Though Shockwave is really strong now, I hope they don't nerf him down the road. He's now the right kind of strong that requires added attention to make use of. Before, he was hard to use just to get on par like I had mentioned in the past.
Grindor’s S2 is spinning rotors. It should cause bleed - strength based on opponents power.
Locking to S2 would be great. Would love that with Motormaster. Hate it when I miss his S2 and get stuck with the red.
Ok.... Many people are ignorant of Grindor and particularly his s2, so I want to educate everyone on this.. here are a couple screenshots from his abilities, and I'll break down why he does not need a bump in damage for his specials, especially his s2! Take a look:
Ok... So first... His Sig. This is an r4/40 Grindor at Sig level 10, and already he can get an additional 62.5% damage boost based off opponent power. Add that to the already present +40% damage boost from s2 and you have double damage at Sig 10 alone.
That's not all though.. a little known fact about Grindor is his ability to massively reduce block proficiency with every Crit debuff stack.
What does this mean exactly? Well.... With 2 or 3 Crit debuff stacks, you can basically render opponent block useless and melee or special through it delivering full unmitigated damage, when you combine this ability with his Sig.
So... A little tactic I love employing with Grindor. Put Barricade in your party. Get your opponent power up near s2, then block a few hits, and Crit debuffs will stack. Launch a heavy attack to get power lock, then go to town whether the opponent is blocking or not.
You will be shocked at how much damage you can land this way. Don't believe me? With 2 Crit debuffs stacked and some opponent power bar stored, launch an s2 and look at what Grindor does to your opponent. This is noticeable in special content such as AM or high level spotlight.. you don't dare try and block Grindor, he's nasty!
I was thinking bump it to 60-80% mainly to punish power hoarding, but you make a good point. I love his powerlock synergy, but I honestly never paid much mind to the crit debuffs. I'll have to try that out, thanks for the tip.
Mirage laughed