Easy changes to improve game balance

JayZ

There are a lot of problems that are more difficult to solve (challenge grind, GW timing, etc.), but there are some easy changes that NG can make in order to create some more survivor balance and to improve the viability of some gear that players worked hard to obtain in season campaigns.

What do you all think? Any other suggestions?

Weapon improvements:

• Deadly Spike: Threat reduction only on charge attack is just not that useful. Threat Reduction on any kill would be OP. Change the special trait to: Guaranteed threat reduction on charged kill, 75% chance on a non-charged kill.
• Bayonet Musket: Absolutely useless. Make the regular attack hit up to 3 enemies (just like a normal Spear) and reduce the cost of the charge attack to only 2 charge points.
• Festive Road Sign: This is out-classed by the Dragon's Tongue. Add special functionality, like built-in Destructive trait or massively increase the base damage to make it more viable.
• Zweihänder: Offensive Bruiser builds are not that viable, so this weapon has no place in the game meta. That being said, tweaking the traits to switch Lethal for Interrupt could make it more viable.
  
• Pickle Jar: Simply not that useful. Remove the threat from the charge attack to make it slightly more viable (but it's still just a worse version of the Decimator).

New weapon releases (money-makers) or GW-exclusive weapons:

• Decimator with Charging/Lucky/Concussion traits.
• Morgan's Staff with Interrupt/Lucky/Razor traits.
• Festive Shotgun with Lucky/Destructive/Incendiary traits.

Class balance improvements to improve viability of ranged survivors (currently, only Sasha/Assault/Assault or Sasha/Hunter/Hunter are viable on the highest levels):

• Increase Shooter damage to be comparable to Scout damage (Scouts are still better because of Power Strike, Threat Reduction, Prowl, bigger movement, etc. but it will at least make Shooters more useful)
• Make Hazard Suit available on all ranged armor
• Increase Piercing trait bonuses from 20% Silver/30% Gold to 30% Silver/45% Gold (like Razor) [except this might hurt Sasha's LT]
• Increase Silence trait bonuses from 30% Silver/40% Gold to 40% Silver/60% Gold (will increase effectiveness, but still not allow for 100% unless Hunter Daryl leading, but Hunter Daryl is not useful in the end-game so it won't be OP IMO)
• Give Sure Shot a damage bonus, like Power Strike
• Increase chances of Critical Aim
• Update Strong/Marksman to affect TOTAL damage, not just WEAPONS damage

3vilrine

• Pickle Jar: Simply not that useful. Remove the threat from the charge attack to make it slightly more viable (but it's still just a worse version of the Decimator).

I think they changed that?

I can only agree with everything else. Push!

Deadheads

I still think sure shot should be equivalent to power strike... add a damage boost to it!  I'd love a tweek to silence too, I've always wanted to try a silence team but its just not worth it.

PigBenis

Give ranged classes a new trait called "Steady Aim" or something similar (independent of Piercing trait) that has an X% chance of a one-hit kill on a walker no matter what level. Doesn't have to be an incredibly high percentage, but it would help to make ranged more viable at higher levels of play and give them something unique that melee teams don't have.

WellyLuga

Spot on. I think a piercing buff, shooter damage increase and CA chances improved are the main 3. 

I don't think piercing should match razor though, maybe slightly below at 20/30/40. We have Alpha to further reduce body shot chances. 

Increased shooter damage and CA chances would lessen the dominance that bruisers and scouts currently have.

Edit to add: if you did buff piercing then you would need to add a harpoon gun to the shops without it and nearly everyone would buy it

DiElEl

Couldn't have said it any better @JayZ , I just hope @Fluxxx is reading this

Pic

@JayZ
Zweihänder crap weapon right? Simple way to make it useful 
@Fluxxx

Zweihänder

Luck /tactical 
Razor
Interrupt 

Would turn a weapon that nobody uses into something that would be the best interrupt weapon in the game + not over powered.

JayZ

@3vilrine ahh, good point, thanks. Updated.

@WellyLuga yeah, but how often does any all-ranged team use Alpha instead of Sasha? point taken though, that increasing Piercing too much could have a negative side effect of hurting Harpoon charging. Perhaps the better option is for Piercing to add a "Ignores damage reduction" option like Razor.

@Pic nice one, will add to original post. Totally forgot about that crap weapon because it's useless lol.

I added one more suggestion, which was to buff Strong and Marksman as they currently add negligible amounts of additional damage.

Mario_Romero

JayZ said:

There are a lot of problems that are more difficult to solve (challenge grind, GW timing, etc.), but there are some easy changes that NG can make in order to create some more survivor balance and to improve the viability of some gear that players worked hard to obtain in season campaigns.

What do you all think? Any other suggestions?

Weapon improvements:

• Deadly Spike: Threat reduction only on charge attack is just not that useful. Threat Reduction on any kill would be OP. Change the special trait to: Guaranteed threat reduction on charged kill, 75% chance on a non-charged kill.
• Bayonet Musket: Absolutely useless. Make the regular attack hit up to 3 enemies (just like a normal Spear) and reduce the cost of the charge attack to only 2 charge points.
• Festive Road Sign: This is out-classed by the Dragon's Tongue. Add special functionality, like built-in Destructive trait or massively increase the base damage to make it more viable.
• Zweihänder: Offensive Bruiser builds are not that viable, so this weapon has no place in the game meta. That being said, tweaking the traits to switch Lethal for Interrupt could make it more viable.
  
• Pickle Jar: Simply not that useful. Remove the threat from the charge attack to make it slightly more viable (but it's still just a worse version of the Decimator).

New weapon releases (money-makers) or GW-exclusive weapons:

• Decimator with Charging/Lucky/Concussion traits.
• Morgan's Staff with Interrupt/Lucky/Razor traits.
• Festive Shotgun with Lucky/Destructive/Incendiary traits.

Class balance improvements to improve viability of ranged survivors (currently, only Sasha/Assault/Assault or Sasha/Hunter/Hunter are viable on the highest levels):

• Increase Shooter damage to be comparable to Scout damage (Scouts are still better because of Power Strike, Threat Reduction, Prowl, bigger movement, etc. but it will at least make Shooters more useful)
• Make Hazard Suit available on all ranged armor
• Increase Piercing trait bonuses from 20% Silver/30% Gold to 30% Silver/45% Gold (like Razor)
• Increase Silence trait bonuses from 30% Silver/40% Gold to 40% Silver/60% Gold (will increase effectiveness, but still not allow for 100% unless Hunter Daryl leading, but Hunter Daryl is not useful in the end-game so it won't be OP IMO)
• Increase chances of Critical Aim
• Update Strong/Marksman to affect TOTAL damage, not just WEAPONS damage

I stand by my original assesment of the deadly spike. Change gold charging for gold threat reduction and make the special functionality a guarantueed swift strike on charge attacks.

Will take it from useless to top class in under 5 seconds.

nadecir

I nominate @JayZ for the position of NML player liason to NextGames.

NextGames should put him under non-disclosure, and he should work to coordinate with them on future changes to the game before they are implemented.

There have been thousands of hours of developer time wasted on useless stuff in this game.  Having an experienced player like @JayZ sign off on ideas before they are implemented would make this a much better game in the long run.

ShadowWalker

What I like about these suggestions is that they are all completely reasonable.  

I would even be happy with 50% threat reduction on the Deadly Spike to be honest (add that to the Hunting Bow too please!). I also think the Bayonet having 2 charge points is good enough as well. See NG, it won't take much to make us happy. 

Grendel

Remove threat creation from weapons completely. No change for ranged is OP unless it makes ranged more powerful than melee.

ghost_pepper

Just leave threat creation for scavange or change it so scavange always generates it's own threat creation with each wave building upon the last wave.

Fluxxx

I definitely like quite a few of the suggestions in here, thanks @JayZ for your ideas and for considering their feasibility as well  
We'll look over them and discuss!

JordanYuki

JayZ said:

Class balance improvements to improve viability of ranged survivors (currently, only Sasha/Assault/Assault or Sasha/Hunter/Hunter are viable on the highest levels):

• Increase Shooter damage to be comparable to Scout damage (Scouts are still better because of Power Strike, Threat Reduction, Prowl, bigger movement, etc. but it will at least make Shooters more useful)
• Increase Piercing trait bonuses from 20% Silver/30% Gold to 30% Silver/45% Gold (like Razor)
• Update Strong/Marksman to affect TOTAL damage, not just WEAPONS damage

I think buffing Shooter damage to be comparable to Scout damage and buffing Body Shot damage from range classes to be equal to melee classes would be a more reasonable buff (50-%-> 75%). Like others mentioned, a piercing buff would hurt some weapons like the harpoon gun and imagine Alpha leading a Shooter team that deals damage comparable to Scouts with up to 75% piercing.

I’ve seen it mentioned a few times on the forums, Marksman should also increase damage from critical hits. 

WellyLuga

I see you have already implemented one suggestion into the game from this thread, nice start! Now we just need a charging/lucky decimator!

JordanYuki

I’m not sure how I’d change the deadly
spike since we already have the Daryl’s
knife that does a good job for removing threats. But for the Hunting Bow I think I’d give it high-powered in its special functionality with destructive/TR/Piercing.

vshield50

Fluxxx said:

I definitely like quite a few of the suggestions in here, thanks @JayZ for your ideas and for considering their feasibility as well  
We'll look over them and discuss!

Fluxxx said:

I definitely like quite a few of the suggestions in here, thanks @JayZ for your ideas and for considering their feasibility as well  
We'll look over them and discuss!

@JayZ you are the man! Love it

xbamfx

Lucille!!!!!!!!! You suhnahmahbitch! 😆

zeeblack

I like Zweihänder. I have rerolled RGG into an offensive bruiser and now just a couple of hundred tokens away from making him a 7 star bruiser. The weapon should have in built stun like all other bruiser weapons. With its long reach, this would make it a great weapon. Tweaking the traits to switch Lethal for Interrupt would not be required.

rogueDS

@zeeblack what your max level in challenge. I have never heard anyone making rgg offensive honestly. My rgg is all defens . I get to MM 44 45 or high usually 

zeeblack

@rogueDSI have just enough time to reach 35. I have never tried beyond level 35.

I have a good defensive bruiser team comprising of a 8 star survivor and 7 star Morgan. Sorry I did not reroll RGG into a offensive bruiser. Rather I have badged RGG with 3 DR,  2 D and 1 H badge for Zweihänder. He has retaliate, strong, iron skin and punish as traits.

m4s

nadecir said:

I nominate @JayZ for the position of NML player liason to NextGames.

NextGames should put him under non-disclosure, and he should work to coordinate with them on future changes to the game before they are implemented.

There have been thousands of hours of developer time wasted on useless stuff in this game.  Having an experienced player like @JayZ sign off on ideas before they are implemented would make this a much better game in the long run.

Job waiting - https://jobs.lever.co/nextgames/d8bcdb33-cba0-4f03-b1d2-4f018aa8135f

Paste

zeeblack said:

@rogueDSI have just enough time to reach 35. I have never tried beyond level 35.

I have a good defensive bruiser team comprising of a 8 star survivor and 7 star Morgan. Sorry I did not reroll RGG into a offensive bruiser. Rather I have badged RGG with 3 DR,  2 D and 1 H badge for Zweihänder. He has retaliate, strong, iron skin and punish as traits.

If you used more conventional traits, badges and weapons I'm sure you would have "time" to go a lot higher than that. 😉

ATLAS-Z

https://forums.nextgames.com/walkingdead/discussion/44928/new-hunter-weapon-javelins/p1?new=1

My suggestions aren't coming as often as they use to , but here's one that's pretty solid.

Cheers ! 

JayZ

Precharged Shooters this week reminded me that Shooters are still garbage. The Piercing buff was a questionable one. Please think about some of these other suggestions NG.

3vilrine

pretty nice cash grab Harpoon bundle for fucking 22€, with a Harpoon that is >>>>> old Harpoon instead of selling it as a Guild War reward. So much for game balance..

ATLAS-Z

Yeah bit high on the price , though I'm a sucker and bought it anyway 

I suggested a small $10 or less bundle like the original Harpoon.