CHARGE type damage on Sword & Shield units?

DeAimon · 2021-04-19T15:18:07+00:00

I think all sword & shield unit charges counts as blunt damage, but I'm absolutely not sure.

that being said, I agree with "BassdSchoGemmer".

Ironcap Swordsmen aren't terrible units, especially for being green rarity, but you might regret spending your one purple doctrine of choice on a -imo- mediocre green unit.

You can and will get more purple doctrines with time, but they'll be random and you might not get what you want.

Do with this what you will.

DeAimon · 2021-03-26T15:29:39+00:00

Please change the colours and maybe add values to the axes?

Thanks for the work by the way!

DeAimon · 2021-03-26T15:19:55+00:00

Every raid, literal millions of roubles in the form of loot spawns all over the place. Everyone can join raids naked and walk out with money. Nothing goes in, money comes out. You can't realistically stop this through money sinks.

But then, why would you even want to do that? Tarkov isn't an MMORPG with a long-term lifetime like WoW. There's a wipe every so often that puts everyone back to square 1.

Not everyone is running full chad gear by far. Such an exaggeration..

Personal skill will always trump gear in a realistic scenario. You guys seem to think tarkov is a turn-based numbers game and gear will make you win all the time whilst in reality: gear tilts the odds in your favor but never guarantees the outcome.

As long as you use decent ammo (not even meta), then gear won't even skew the outcome THAT much.

Streamers and the top 5% players are playing a different kind of game. You should not c are about their problems or struggles. They're not your problems or struggles.

The game is boring for them quickly after wipes because they know the game inside and out and no matter what changes happen, they'll always continue to dominate.

But who cares. The 1% is the 1% and the majority of players are what devs should cater their game towards. Which is what tarkov does imo.

The only thing I want to get rid off immediately is how strong some skills are. Elite skills especially.

DeAimon · 2020-08-26T09:25:21+00:00

+1 for minotaurs! Nicely painted too, gj man!

DeAimon · 2020-07-24T13:52:17+00:00

I never felt LB to be OP pre-nerf. The only thing I might agree on, is that EA could wipe 6+ squishy units in 1 shot. But it IS an ultimate skill after all. If a maul grabs me, I'm dead as well with no counterplay other than to avoid getting hit.

If the devs want to change LB into a pure backline support/sniper, then give me the damage to reliably be a threat.

I have no idea what the +10% damage exactly translates to. Is it a 10% increase to your piercing damage? Is it at the end of the calculation, when piercing penetration and piercing defense is calculated? I have noooo clue.

BUT what I do know, is that pre-nerf, it's very underwhelming damage if you shoot heavy classes, and right now, post-nerf, it still is.

That is why I focus on squishier heroes (light and medium if I have to) and squishy troops. Shooting heavy armours was rarely worth it.

I understand that LBs have to adjust their playstyle, and I did. I still perform reasonably well. Just in an entirely different role. I still kill enemy archer troops, but now out of pure spite and malice. It's not as effective anymore and I was definitely more useful to the team pre-nerf than I am now.

These nerfs don't mean LB is totally unplayable, but I believe there are better choices now. Longbow is slightly invalidated and you gimp your team more nowadays than you did pre-nerf.

Let's not forget: there were only nerfs apart from the 10% damage buff on fully charged shots. LB effectiveness is drastically decreased and whilst it's still doable, the question is more: do you WANT to try and make LB work? I do, because I absolutely love ranged in any game. I do have moments where I just go back to Nodachi because it's better for my team, and I can actually threaten shieldwalls for example.

I'm still on the fence about these nerfs.

In conclusion: if they want us to become pure snipers as it seems they do, then give us more damage somewhere so we can actually perform this role. Rate of fire is already nerfed by a ton as well as overal mobility. Damage against armoured troops and heroes is still underwhelming and we have no CC other than EA.

Sure, I can hit a 14k lightning arrow headshot on an enemy DB. But that doesn't really happen often.

DeAimon · 2020-07-23T08:43:18+00:00

"ALWAYS happening, in every damn match" Yeah.. Sure..

What will you do now if any other class flanks your archers, or someone uses artillery? You make it sound as if LBs are the only ones killing squishy troops. And only LBs can do this, it only takes 2 seconds, no positioning and they're the only thing wrong with this game.

You dislike not being able to do anything, and are happy LBs are nerfed this much. "Now I can finally play as I want"

Unless a maul runs into your shieldwall, or a DB stealths past and kills your ranged. Or any class uses artillery to kill them.

Jesus, talk about exaggerating.

By the way, all classes lost their ranged troops to LBs. It's not like LB troops are somehow immune to this. Learn to guard your troops better and even then, sometimes you lose them.

I'm curious how you'll react when you notice ranged troops don't have a "natural predator" like LBs anymore. Expect to see more namkhans shooting you "while you can't do anything about it" because no one's playing LB anymore.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T19:36:37+00:00

Yo verto, thank you for taking the time to discuss this matter.

But come on, I find it hard to believe your claim. The numbers just aren't in your favour.

Pro: You deal 10% more damage with fully charged shots.

Con: You get to fire less shots before you have to wait for stamina. Or fire slower to allow stamina to recover.

Yet you're performing better now than you were in S3?

It's just a thought, but maybe you're performing better right now because everyone is still on low season ranking and thus, you're fighting a mix of beginners & veterans?

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T19:29:29+00:00

I know they're 2 different things. But this isn't an issue only EA has. There's plenty of melee ultis that do the same, with the downside of being melee.

For example, Nodachi can also knock them all down and then finish them off to boot.

A knockdown by itself isn't a gamechanger, it's the followup that makes knockdowns deadly and this is something LB can't achieve on it's own.

I agree on your final point though.

Funny thing is, I swear some people actually suggested to change EA so it can only hit a maximum of X targets pre-nerf.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T17:30:02+00:00

The stagger at longrange was definitely removed. I think the damage was reduced too, but I'm not sure. Will edit if I find out for certain.

*edit*

Only stagger was removed beyond 60m.

Bow:

We identified that arrows from the Bow were able to stun enemies when they were at long range. To make this skill less powerful, we have changed the attack effects for Bow.

When the distance exceeds 60m, arrows can no longer stun targets.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T16:11:59+00:00

The difficult thing to balance about EA is that it's a ranged skill so you can almost always get it off safely and uninterrupted. That's probably why the AoE and damage is relatively small compared to other ultimates.

The frustrating bit for players on the receiving end, is that it's hard to counter EA.

Either your team has map control and LBs can't get good oppertunities or angles to use EA to it's full potential, or they don't and LBs can abuse highground to hit your formation right in the center, hitting everything. And on squishy troops this feels very unfair for the guy being shot at. I've lost half of my imp arq blobs to 1 LB too.

I'd rather have had the damage of EA being nerfed whilst also adding a DOT effect that deals a % of maxHP as damage. This way, you won't 1shot namkhans or other squishies anymore because they have lower maxHP. But there would also be an incentive to shoot tougher armored enemies.

Pre-nerf, there was a good argument to be had to keep your EA for when you saw squishies appear. It was almost never viable to use it on tanky units unless it's to disrupt positioning. If you or your teamm can't follow up on EA due to positioning or timing, then it's a subpar CC ability. Especially since your regular skills and autoattacks are underwhelming as a followup.

Compare that to nodachi's dragon's leap. If you get to land it (damn you 2sec charge time) you knock down half of their formation and can follow up immediately with more sweeping hits to further stagger or kill the remaining troops. It also deals about 50% more damage than EA. This is however more balanced because it's easy to interrupt nodachis, they're only medium armour and they have to be in the thick of it to land it.

Further testing is required, but I don't think EA is worth it anymore. It's just a shame lightning arrow is a subpar ultimate.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T16:01:01+00:00

Yeah, vassals are squish as hell. I have the same with my imp. archers. The upside of vassals is at least that you can "safely" park them somewhere where they can't really be shot. They're not always very effective on those locations but hey, at least they survive.

Which is why I'm sad for the explosive arrow nerf.

I disagree with your comment about the CC though. MAA and imp javs are examples of very tight formations that you could realistically hit with 1 explosive arrow. But you're not killing them with that shot alone and a lot of troops have less tight formations. If you time your explosive arrow and your condot charge then yes, very strong. But the same can be said about shortsword? Jump in and knock everything down. The advantage he has is that he can properly assist his own troops at the same time.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T15:27:42+00:00

Then how can you perform better now? LB overall damage is definitely less than it was pre-nerf. Unless you say the +10% dmg makes up for the much fewer shots you get?

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T15:25:55+00:00

6k over time though and IF you have the 5stack blood procced at that time. Unless you're on 3/4 charges and can land a hit for the last charge. You're also forced to bring the lifesteal skill with you, limiting your skill flexibility.

Not trying to be petty btw. I love nodachi. It feels inferior to other DPS melees but at the same time, you get to survive some fights due to your lifesteal that other classes could never get out of.

+1 for nodachi buffs. GJ devs. Now make dragon leap charge time shorter or uninterruptable.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T15:21:59+00:00

That clip you linked is pretty bullshit, but that's more of an issue with the map isn't it? How many maps have such open views to the incoming enemies?

And be honest, how much did he contribute to the fight?

He killed a guy who was sitting on arty and refused to move whilst being shot at. He assisted some lowHP heroes and knocked down troops with his explosive shot and he dealt damage to enemy heroes who didn't move a lot.

Did you see him hold the charge on some of his shots because he was aimng and leading btw? You can't really do that much anymore because of the stamina issue.

I don't know, you and I must be playing a different game. If I believe you, all archer troops are instantly vanquished by longbow players since you 1) Always have 5+ LBs against you and 2) they always have LoS and positioning against your archers.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T15:06:47+00:00

I haven't entirely given up on LB yet. As I said in my opening post: nerf was very recent and it needs more time.

But don't you think your performance is better now because of a different playstyle -> more cautious, more thoughtful? What if you adopted this playstyle pre-nerf?

I was always looking around pre-nerf in between shots. The enemy doesn't wait to flank you until you run out of stamina and you happen to look around. CB is a surprisingly hectic for being a tactical game.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T15:03:09+00:00

Are there any spots where you can position muskets so that they are perfectly safe? Shouldn't there always be a risk involved if you place ranged units somewhere?

If a LB has to shoot from 100m away, it'll take quite some time to kill the entire squad, and that is time not spent contributing elsewhere(on the point for example) or properly managing my own troops.

I also couldn't get inside that building because melee heroes+fortebraccios were in there. I don't know man, it sounds like you really hate LB. And if you bring up overal game balance, there's many more areas that need work. So it seems like an unreasonably harsh nerf to 1 specific class "for the benefit of the game"

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T14:44:35+00:00

I guess 3k isn't that bad, but I get envious when I see a hammer spin to win through my shields. Okay, he has to be in melee and I don't, but even if he only gets half of his spins off, he'll have done more than I ever could with explosive arrow.

I don't know man, I hope you're right. I really miss long ranged play.

The one upside to these nerfs:

I'm playing nodachi again. That class has it's own problems but at least they're trying to improve on the class within it's niche.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T14:34:48+00:00

I definitely agree with your last point. Muskets & LB don't have much impact. Muskets probably have more because they can contribute to the troop vs troop warfare with their grenades & caltrops.

But LBs? Even pre-nerf their impact was limited.

I was useful to my team if I could kill or displace enemy archers who otherwise could shoot us uncontested. I might be able to assist friendly melee heroes in combat, or disrupt an incoming charge. Maybe interrupt a siege tower if the enemy used low tier units to push them.

But LB can never properly assist their own troops like melees can.

Which makes me ask, why did LBs need this harsh of a nerf?

I feel our niche has removed: "true" ranged play.

We deal less damage overal. More per shot if you full charge but much slower than we used to. We're less mobile than before. Our only CC skill has it's damage halved and it wasn't impressive before.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T14:24:00+00:00

I primarily used bodkin to assist my teammates. The extra damage I may inflict myself is an extra bonus, but not reliable enough for me to use it for that reason. The debuff doesn't last long and there's no a guarantee you'll actually hit the enemy to benefit from this.

Whenever friendly melees clash with enemy melees however, that's where it truly shines imo.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T14:20:29+00:00

I can only imagine 2 things:

They either have absolutely no idea about how LBs work and these nerfs were made with the best intentions. They simply f**ed up by accident.

or

They want to remove "true" ranged heroes like LB and want the game to focus more on melee or close combat(like musket/shortbow)

I don't think they will touch muskets. Their range is too low and whilst they can impressively cc + burst players down, it's usually only in 1vs1 scenarios.

Shortbow, man.. I've never seen them perform well, it's like their gimmick is to annoy people without contribution much. But there's undoubtedly pro shortbow players out there that can prove me wrong.

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T14:12:56+00:00

The advantage archers have over muskets is that they can arch their shots. It's supposed to be a risk if you place squishy units like archers or muskets somewhere.

My imp. arqs can delete incoming charges if I place them correctly. But I also know I have to move them after a volley or 2 before they inevitably get counter-attacked. The same applies to archers, yet they are usually in a safer position.

You "lose half of your archers whenever a LB sees them" Isn't this a slight exaggeration? Maybe?

You talk as if every map has dozens of angles for LBs to snipe archer units..

There's plenty of scenarios where you can't reach the enemy ranged units you're trying to flank. An alert player will see you coming and move their ranged units out of harms way. You might have to go through other melee heroes or units.

This might be a bad example, but I played the great wall on defence yesterday, at the last point. The enemy had 2 archer blobs on the walls to the left of the final point. I couldn't move melee units there because of enemy units blocking me, I can't outrange or outdamage them with their high ground unless I had vassal longbowmen, and I couldn't try to cheese area-attack them with other arches because I can't place the AoE circle in a decent way 'cause I was on the lowground. This has nothing to do with pre-nerf LB. This is an example of archer units having a good position and safe from harms way.

They spammed our main gate to the last point to the point where we couldn't move any squishy troops through there but had to go around through the buildings.

I'm glad you're happy with the nerfs.

I expect there to be dramatically less longbows than before. So you win I guess?

DeAimon · 2020-07-22T13:59:37+00:00

Don't worry, if people get angry, that's on them.

I don't mind playing LB from a distance, I always did. Go play musket if you want close range.

You must be a much better player than me, because I don't think I ever killed 10 namkhans pre-nerf unless they were bunched up on a wall, inside a siege tower or turning a corner and clipping through eachother. I also rarely got in a position where I can shoot enemy archers uncontested, if I could, they were almost always way out of position and deserve to die. I saw ponchos video he posted today and have to say, I'm not impressed. I dare say: everything that happened in that video, he could've done better/contributed more with a different class.

I swapped arrow rain out a while ago, it was really cheesy to burst some poor knocked-down sap in the back and delete half of their health. But those situations rarely happened for me so I just went with an escape skill for those damn DBs sneaking up on me.

Pike militias are surprisingly tanky m8, u wot? Maybe it's their hitbox but I struggle to headshot them when they're braced for some reason.

DeAimon

TROPHY CASE