EX Cannon is Busted since last 2 updates. FIX suggested below

Ex cannon was nerfed cause it was op. Otherwise why would the top players use it, the defenders and speeders? Almost every top speeder had an ex cannon, every top defender had 1-2 ex cannons, and simply stating the nerf without even realizing how much a ex cannon can do is absurd.
On one hand i can agree that explo's projectile speed is low, so a bit of increase in speed wouldnt be bad.
But for the rest?
It has area damage, a major advantage where you can hit crowds and deal double-triple damage, even hit obstacles/shipwrecks/teammates and get damage to enemy. Yes even if you miss a little. No other cannons have it.
The area damage is better than torps taking into account torps have to reach there and can be evaded while explo can hits like a cannon and going above.
Its projectile hovering above is another advantage, it can easily traverse above low-medium waves unlike other weapons such as railgun (only railgun users know that).
Also comparing it with other two slotters, it hits equal in any range unlike railgun (which takes much greater time to reload+above disadvantages) or unlike missiles or torps which cant hit at close range.
Next up, it also has a critical chance, and that shit is heavy.
I've faced many explo hits from the top ones myself, defenitely they are not less damaging. The chain flare-explo hitting takes hardly some secs to wreck you out while it takes a while with other weapons. The recent nerf to cooldown must be behind some logic as anti snipe stated in a post above too, maybe the devs were trying to reduce one hit wherein before you can unload two shells of explo cannon during one flare burnout like flare, then hit once, and again after explo's cd, or even better to get 2-3 hits in one flare if you use dual explos like some defenders do to take a major advantage of.
And still the explo seems a pretty decent choice, many are using it (including me, a lvl50 rare) so whats this about, justifying the nerf of an op weapon.

 

Man, why can't people on the bay just have more variety, there is ALWAYS a super popular meta build and it ALWAYS gets nerfed. Stop creating metas, everyone should just use what they want, the devs won't stop until they can reasonably shrink metas so it's not the go-to setup.

 

Firstly canon will always be the best weapon in the game because of thier versatile nature and viability on every ship now to ex canon.
Ex canon was never op it was good weapon which was overused solely because of its range and additional little increase in dmg output it had over blast canon.
Speeder and defender used it over blast for same reason range and little more dmg output that's it which is totally justified for it being a two slot weapon and since speeder and defenderhave ability to carry two slot weapons why not use it over blast sure it had its negatives too it had 1 sec longer cooldown and 4 projectile slow speed.
Secondly aoe radius of 2 is not great nor ground breaking the situation where its aoe can be used requires two ships to be very close which happens rarely in a match.
And aoe is 75% of total dmg and does not carry the fire dmg to another ships which makes canon good.
Secondly as I have said before to blacksheep compare weapons b/w same category but all of you insists on comparing it to another weapons so let's settle this for once and all.
Railgun is an awesome weapon having dps output of atleast 121 and having second highest projectile in game and infinite range all three pts of major advantage over ex canon.
Missiles another high projectiles speed and with aoe which works like mortars not ex canon kind can lob over walls higher range than ex canon and higher dmg output and low amount of cooldown and higher dps output.
Big torp massive dmg output high aoe radius which constantly dmgs more than 1 ship and high amount of dps and massive dmg output on frozen target.
But all three don't have as much viability like canons on every ship so that's why the usage percentage is low as compared to ex canon but it doesn't make ex canon overpowered.
Once again I will remind you that it was popular because of its range over blast and slightly more dmg output that's all and most of all its viability on every ship

 

It's just sad to see defenders crying about being dead after explosive cannon nerf. Aren't there any other good weapons/combos?

Funny that Porthos made it to the top 50 in a Defender without explosive cannon.

 

Funny that's time top 50 was not that competitive funny then the players didn't have maxed out legendaries.
Wanna see a proof of this blacktail's hasn't been in top 10 since he came back and he was legend in prothos time meta and gameplay and mostly importantly the item rarity has changed a lot since since porthos played his combo is not viable in today's scenario that's all

 

The worst part about the cooldown nerf is that it essentially ends up being yet another buff for shooters.

If you’re a shooter running Ex Cannon, then a couple more seconds is no big deal. They can just mash the fire button, like normal, until it comes back around. On Speeder, Defender and Fixer, it’s much harder managing that extra cooldown, and you really feel it when there is a damaged ship right in front of you, and you’ve got nothing to shoot.

Speeders, Defenders, Enforcers and Fixers, all got nerfed in this update. And what did Shooters get? : buff to Sniper aiming, and head clearance on Wayward Plains.

I’m really starting to feel like the Devs only want non-shooters in the game so that shooters can have different coloured cannon fodder to blow up. Heaven forbid, another boat (with literally half the weapons), might have a realistic shot at killing one.

 

That I agree with. In battles under 4000 infamy you see 4/5 shooters. Rovio still decides to nerf everybody else.

Don't get me wrong, I just think improving Explosive won't help defenders. I'd prefer if they buff Defender stats.

I love playing with a good Defender, you can just follow him and destroy the whole team. But most of defenders just die in first minute dealing less than 2000 damage.

 

Yes I started using them and I must say they work so well. My mk4 fixer has managed to get further than my mk5 speeder.

 

You see, I think you assumed I was following the Meta. I didn't. I just like cannons more than any weapon(I use BC+EC instead of FG+EC). So this nerf hit Meta and crippled non-meta users.

Most of us F2P players don't have a backup weapon as we usually scrap any item that we don't need for a chance to get a rare/epic piece so It's going to be tough for us to "just use another weapon duh" and that's why we are irked by this nerfed. As of the moment we have no choice but to make adjustments.

 

Much smaller player pool then. Being an early mk.6 then mk7 ala Porthos during that time. With his tactics he could get away with it.

But by the time I became a mk6. He was much easier to kill.
Also tri torps beginning of game was once one of the most Op weapons in the game.

So Porthos did chose the Op weapon.
His weaoon got nerfed. Now doesnt hardly play. The goal here is to have more players right?

And speaking of Porthos. He 100 percent supports that its time for defenders to get a buff.
Best not to mention what one doesnt know.
Jaws

 

I recently went 1vs1 with a shooter wayward pains. Both of us full health. He had 9.5hp. And I have 18k. He had 1 ex cannon. 2 blast cannon. One was rare. He had a flare and a rail gun.
I charged him as a defender should do. I missed 1 shot during my charge. He missed 1 shot.
There we were firing everything we had like a pirate movie.

In the past, before this horrid nerf. I would have beat The shooter boat and had 2kh.p. left over.
Not this time.
It came down to the final shot. As I waited for one of my 2 ex cannons to finish cool down. He killed me with his rare blast cannon. As a shooter he was able to fire non stop. Cool down never affected him.
Whereas 3 times during my Defendet charge I had to wait to fire till my cool down was finished.
This perfectly explains the lameness of this nerf. Distance didnt kill me. Cooldown Did.
Side note. This shooter hadnt beat me in a 1vs1 full health ever before.
Its kind if a big deal.
1) Cool down should go back to a shorter time for the Explosive Cannon.
Or ...2) shot speed should raise by 5 and
3) Base damage should raise by 10 to 15 percent.

And to people who say play a different weapon. Grow up. Stop acting like its that easy to level up a new weapon to epic in 3 days. The same comment I mentioned about other nerfs I will say here. When your favorite weapon and ship gets nerfed. Lets see how easily u switch weapons and boats. Or are ya gonna quit? U probably will quit.

At least the defenders and ex cannon users that are writing here are courageous enough to not quit. And are asking for a fix.
Historically devs nerfed tri torps. Then buffed it back.
I am asking developers to fix this. This is the right things to do.
@Miika @The Grim Repair @Dmg don

 

I think the reason why explosive cannon was used so much in the first place, (especially by speeders, defenders) was not because it was so extremely op, but because there aren't really any other 2 slot pt alternatives.

The other 2 slot point weapons:
Big Berta
Big Torp
Triple Torp
Railgun
Missiles
Napalm
Fire Bomb

Would you consider ANY of these items to be able to work well on a speeder? Not really, maybe the torps but that's about it. As for defender you have a few more options with railgun and (maybe) missiles but not much. So speeders and defenders need something to take advantage of their 3RR and 5RRR respectively. Of course Explosive was a bit better than the other 1 slot alternatives on speeder, such as blast cannon, and it should be considering it is 2 slots.

 

Hey , can u post the link for the replay.. would love to see it for myself(I thought it was impossible to kill 18k hp defender alone by a shooter before the update...just wow!)ty

 

I was a frosttorp speeder. Fortunately, i had a shooter build as well, but liked speeder wayy more. After the nerf, didn’t quit, but considered it. Now i enjoy shooter even more than speeder. It will get better, just give it some time.
And sadly in case of tritorp, it was only buffed almost a year after the nerf, and it was way more severe than this one, so i wouldn’t wait that buff in next update.

 

There is a way for the devs to somehow force them to respond to this thread

 

Replay

#KMGHWTCG

http://replay.battlebay.net/KMGHWTCG

 

Remove one t from htttp

 

Lol. He won just by a second. That long cooldown killed you.

 

Ok! Here's my rant! No disrespect meant!
You missed 2 shots, and he maintained his Hits constantly while you were taking a little longer to take shots and i dont blame you when you have 3 weapons you have to make it count

Secondly, in the rush matches like this bandage is Utterly useless. You couldn't even Justify your bandage Which in usually longer matches helps you to have a game changing recover

THIRDLY, the type of Shooter genius by trade uses is very good in 1v1 battles like this. The Range shooter or the meta shooter(Popular one with missile and railgun) which is normally a mixture of all ranges would destroy it even before it reaches at a range which it can fight full fledge and a defender like you can Engulf it like it was Fly.!

Having said that i think you are much better player than me and my judgment is not always right! And i m totally surprised by the fact that shooter with half HP to yours was Able to melt you down ..

So, my point is every type of shooter is better against some boats while weak against others. So it does not a boat OP.

 

It happens now since the nerf. Before this woupdnt have been an issue. It take me longer to get him in range. Ie range nerf hurt me. Then cool down. I had to wait to fire 3 times. Thats the ball game.
We all know this nerf is weird.
So if it wont go back to how it was.
Why not move cool down equal to big torp? Thanks American Maurader for that suggestion.

And why not up shot speed. Or raise damage some?
It hurts defenders the most. 18k health gone in a flash. This is imballanced.


Please support this defender forum thread below
https://forum.battlebay.net/threads...shooters-and-enforcers-fixes-suggested.16843/