Marines are overwhelming. (Feedback to Patch 332)
MikuruKitsune
Australia Join Date: 2014-09-26 Member: 198726Members
Australia Join Date: 2014-09-26 Member: 198726Members
Regarding to Update 332 which includes various fixes, tweaks and gameplay balance changes but It ultimately feels so in favour towards Marines.
Please leave any comments if you believe I am right about the things I have said, to prove me wrong or would like to add on more feedback for the Balance Team.
As always, I mean no disrepect to the Developers of Natural Selection 2 nor their decisions, this is merely my personal feedback.
The Good:
Vampirism was a much needed nerf as It resulted in most cases a single Skulk player able to take down multiple marines, however I must say the new Vampirism is a little underwhelming and could use a very tiny bump up. Carapace on Skulk is still the way to go.
Although the animation speed of grenades feels rather quick and sudden, I do hope it encourage more Marines to purchase/use grenades via the quickthrow, so I'll give it a pass.
No more Drifter Ability spamming and have to consider when's the right time to use said tools.
I often found it quite hard to use the Lerks Spikes against Marines and now with the addition to being able to penetrate soft targets and has a higher projectile size, I'd say It's a good change for now.
The Bad:
Shotguns are so overwhelming right now, even with Weapons 1, and I have even seen multiple fades meet their demise to anyone wielding one as they're blown into pieces from 2-3 shells. Without a doubt in my mind, this is the first thing that needs to be changed.
Mines were already easily countered by Spikes, Bile, Parasite and Fades blinking over them but required you to take time to dispose of said mine, now they almost become utterly useless unless placed within random parts of the map and in vents.
Skulk Size, Bite Cone and Sneak Speed Should've never been changed, period. Just like the phrase, "If It ain't broke, don't fix it".
Not Sure:
Not being able to see Healthbars was quite a big change honestly and cant help but feel dissatisfaction with the removal of it, but I understand It makes the enemy guess at how wounded you are and whether or not they should commit. Also the Commander is able to see the HP values of an Alien when clicked.
Webs were already pretty terrible and were treated as detection traps more than anything. Gorge structures are also extremely weak to Cluster Grenades, maybe if the clogs were a little more durable so Gorges are able to fortify positions easier. The detection at which you finally see the Web appear is quite a bit close but I guess it encourages you to not sprint into the room.
I like that Stab tried to get changed since It very rarely sees any practical use and that's mainly because It's useless and requires Biomas 7 at which point you might as well get Biomas 8 to get Stomp. However, I have heard that the new Stab is quite powerful against structures and hoping to get more data/feedback on this.
I much appreciate Exosuits being able to auto-repair themselves out of combat since this is probably one of the biggest weaknesses to Exosuits, Just not having a Marine to weld you. But I must say the Rate, Delay and Value of the repair is just too high and needs to be adjusted.
Please leave any comments if you believe I am right about the things I have said, to prove me wrong or would like to add on more feedback for the Balance Team.
As always, I mean no disrepect to the Developers of Natural Selection 2 nor their decisions, this is merely my personal feedback.
The Good:
Vampirism was a much needed nerf as It resulted in most cases a single Skulk player able to take down multiple marines, however I must say the new Vampirism is a little underwhelming and could use a very tiny bump up. Carapace on Skulk is still the way to go.
Although the animation speed of grenades feels rather quick and sudden, I do hope it encourage more Marines to purchase/use grenades via the quickthrow, so I'll give it a pass.
No more Drifter Ability spamming and have to consider when's the right time to use said tools.
I often found it quite hard to use the Lerks Spikes against Marines and now with the addition to being able to penetrate soft targets and has a higher projectile size, I'd say It's a good change for now.
The Bad:
Shotguns are so overwhelming right now, even with Weapons 1, and I have even seen multiple fades meet their demise to anyone wielding one as they're blown into pieces from 2-3 shells. Without a doubt in my mind, this is the first thing that needs to be changed.
Mines were already easily countered by Spikes, Bile, Parasite and Fades blinking over them but required you to take time to dispose of said mine, now they almost become utterly useless unless placed within random parts of the map and in vents.
Skulk Size, Bite Cone and Sneak Speed Should've never been changed, period. Just like the phrase, "If It ain't broke, don't fix it".
Not Sure:
Not being able to see Healthbars was quite a big change honestly and cant help but feel dissatisfaction with the removal of it, but I understand It makes the enemy guess at how wounded you are and whether or not they should commit. Also the Commander is able to see the HP values of an Alien when clicked.
Webs were already pretty terrible and were treated as detection traps more than anything. Gorge structures are also extremely weak to Cluster Grenades, maybe if the clogs were a little more durable so Gorges are able to fortify positions easier. The detection at which you finally see the Web appear is quite a bit close but I guess it encourages you to not sprint into the room.
I like that Stab tried to get changed since It very rarely sees any practical use and that's mainly because It's useless and requires Biomas 7 at which point you might as well get Biomas 8 to get Stomp. However, I have heard that the new Stab is quite powerful against structures and hoping to get more data/feedback on this.
I much appreciate Exosuits being able to auto-repair themselves out of combat since this is probably one of the biggest weaknesses to Exosuits, Just not having a Marine to weld you. But I must say the Rate, Delay and Value of the repair is just too high and needs to be adjusted.
Comments
What is also good imho is the new look of the Power Node. Just love it.
I don't think anyone in their right mind would say Vampirism did not need a rework.
About the SG: They just took back the last nerf. And that on its own would have been okay imho. But paired with (what feels like) an almost all round Alien nerf hits quite hard, esp for low- and mid-tier players who were often times already struggling as it was.
The removal of the Healthbars was not really necessary imo. Yes they did bug on (in my experience) rare occasions, but I don't think often enough to warrant a complete removal.
And the Web "rework" essentially boils down to a Web removal for me. I mean they are now closer to what they were like in NS1, but the room size in NS1 was lower and you could place real webs back then, not only 3 strings (because that's what they are), so they much less useful than they were in NS1.
I like the Stab rework. The ability was virtually unused and dead, and rightfully so. Time will tell if that will change or not. I think people have to become more aware of the new Stab and maybe it will see some use now.
My main problem with the Exosuit rework is, that the welding is way too loud and annoying for how long it takes to fully heal.
All in all I feel the Patch balanced more with 6v6 in mind, as I think most of the changes hit 10v10 harder. Like the SG un-nerfing. That one hits a lot harder when 2-3 Marines in a room is standard and to be expected and not the absolut exception. And while a Skulk with Carapace might now survive a Mine, that is a lot more useful when there's like 5 People placing Mines vs up to 9 (the Com does not get to place them!). Also an organized team of 6 is much more likely to take advantage of speed debuff on a Marine than a bunch of uncoordinated randoms. Also in 10v10 Marines are more likely to travel in larger groups which lowers the value of slowing down a single Marine. Which makes the new Webs more useful in 6v6 imho.
All-in-all we'll see which effect it all will have on 6v6 and 10v10, since I feel it is almost impossible to achieve a good balance for both at the same time.
The only reason I reinstalled NS2 is because they removed that childish thing :P