Repair Items
- Duct Tape increase was something I knew was coming. Duct Tape has become the replacement for the loss of healing in the Healing Pulse. Looks like we'll see more Fixers using them.
- Repair Bolt. Changing it to a 1 slot item made a lot of sense, the item was still inferior to the Healing Pulse and it's more a supplementary item to the Fixer, and it's only pro is the ability to negate effects.
I don't think there's a lot of change here. The repair bolt is still very new and I'm sure it will require more data and actual battle usage to see the actual effectiveness. I sense it may need to be buffed more and possibly some changes to the actual projectile speed, range, or behaviour.
Speeder Nerf
- Hitpoint Talents & Ship Hitpoint reductions. I think this will make the Speeder class even harder to play, personal opinion but Speeder is one of the more difficult to play classes. Players that has success in this class has the most reflex, positioning smarts, and the ability to compensate shooting weapons with momentum(try overboosting + nitro and shooting at the same time while leading a shot on Crash & Burn! ). I can confidently say that players in this class would have success changing to any other ship and playing well. Why do these players choose speeder? @Kitterini It might not be meta, it's the most mobile and versatile, and for Teamplay, being able to strike and flank and quickly change position becomes a preference for these players. They are best in that class because they can play at their full potential. It's basically the best players in the game choosing it, what's meta about the speeder is the player, so Meta players choosing the Speeder not the other way around.
For myself, It's quite difficult already at 3.3K Infamy and up as a MK5, the lack of speed with the Overboost reduction has made the Speeder less of a mobile scout. With the reduction of Hitpoints, I can see this will affect my survivability a lot lower. @American Marauder already says(You suck! 400 damage fool or something along those lines) that I'm not effective in Nightmare League ranges and I agree with him (all rares items can only carry you so far even with skill), MK5 Speeders really have no place above 3500 Infamy now. I think I might transition to becoming an enforcer instead.
Frost Launcher Buff
- Cooldown decrease and Projectile speed increase. Cooldown makes sense. Not sure why the flight time was needed. The frost launcher is used more at high level, and it's nearly unavoidable even at it's current flight / projectile speed due to it's huge Area of Effect. Rather than increasing the flight time, look at the variable decrease stats/percentage based on accuracy; Increase it's effects on outer ranges of the hitzone / area of effect when it's off center / target.
Missiles Nerf
- Cool down increase and Projectile speed decrease; This was much needed, finally! Out of all the weapons, aside from the harder to grasp with aiming, it seemed very overpowered. Once the user has mastered how to aim them, they can hit and deal massive damage to any target very easily. There's no chance of avoidance, and it shoots over walls have a massive long range, and the explosion shakes the victim's camera angles enough to lose target. It's a very spammy weapon that even when it misses, causes confusion.
I appreciate the heads up, it's definitely good to communicate openly with your user base. I know there needs to be balance in this game, but to be honest, I think we're all in shock a bit how quickly these balances came this time around. Rather than tweaking with Rapid succession, it's probably better to sit back and see more of the data/results rather than making changes after a few short weeks. @Miathan Brings up a good point, most players haven't even started adapting / using these new items yet. Give it time!