Fixer Balance Changes

The time has come after multiple instances of facing nightmare players with t5 Epic flare guns.
My goal: Rebalancing of Flare gun in relation to all Green items
Argument: Direct comparison between Epic t5 Flare and Green Items

Epic t5 Flare gun:
90-100 dps / Sec
Duration: 22 seconds (4 epic 1.5 sec perks)
Cooldown: 11.1 seconds (Not affected by crew)
Burning able to be negated: No
Bonus effects:
For full duration -30% healing for target (It stacks so you can get up to 100% heal negation)
For full duration boost all cannons dmg on target

Epic t5 Duct tape:
175 - 185 hp / sec (4 epic 7.5% hp perks)
Duration: 10 seconds (No perks available for extending duration)
Cooldown: 20 Seconds (If you max crew 11 seconds, BUT you sacrifice alot of better talents)
Healing affect able to be negated: Yes, Fully negated for full duration of stun while active, negated by 50% for full duration of frost blaster while active, negated for 30% by burn for full duration
Bonus effects:
None

For the other 3 green items the circumstances are even more dire.

Repair pulse:
12.5 Seconds Cooldown
1) Only heals for 9 seconds!
2) Only self heals for HALF!
3) Healing subject to 3 types of negation!
4) All who are healed from pulse subject to #1 & #3 above

Repair box:
9 Seconds cooldown
Ex: Epic t5 around 900HP per box
Fully negated if stunned!
heals only +-600 if burning!
heals only +-450 if frozen!

Repair Bolt:
10 Seconds cooldown
EVEN THIS is subject to burning debuff!
Ex: Epic t5 around 1400 per bolt
Heals full amount on stunned and removes stun!
Heals full amount on frozen and removes frost!
Heals only +-980 if burning and DOES NOT remove burning or even reduce duration

Summary:
If you read so far you can clearly see how many advantages the flare gun provides!
Compare that with everything in a fixer's aresenal, there is simply nothing that can go 1:1 with a flare gun. There is no counter for a flare gun. You cannot give a single 1 slot weapon so many benefits. There has to be more balance for ALL green items.

Possible solutions:
- Replace HP % perks for pulse and Tape with duration perks like fire weapons
- Remove the 30% healing debuff from flare gun
- Remove the ability to Stack 30% heal debuffs
- Change duration perks for fire weapons to % dmg boost
- Add additional secondary effects to green items to compensate extra dmg boost effect with fire
- Allow removal of fire with repair bolt
- Allow reducing of burn duration with green items
- Buff overall green items base healing

Open to comments and suggestions. If you disagree, take your time and write out a clear and concise reasoning response for why you think so. Constructive criticism is best. No salt or hate wanted here.
Do not pose comments about me and my bias. Treat this as a true suggestion. I ask Moderators @The Grim Repair to please delete duplicate threads in the past i may have made on this topic, although this one is most direct.
Anything non-topic related will be ignored. For those that comment please also state whether or not you are a flare gun user. My goal here is to provide a more balanced playing field for all fixers on the bay as the flare gun is a detriment to us all.

 

My main problem is flare duration perk, 22 seconds tick is not balanced when healing items can't even tick more than 10 seconds. Flare cannon combo is supposed to take skill. Letting burn durations be left so long takes no skill to use the combo. Frost torp is fair because it's not easy, 22 secs tick is too easy.
If they can just change fire duration perk to dmg boost perk it would be fine.

 

Words from a wise man!! You should follow the advice

 

My constructive feedback:

Fixers should be in back of their team, making them hard to hit with flare gun because of the short range the weapon has.

Flare gun does not affect healing from repair boxes or repair bolts (BUG?), so a fixer should not be running 3 duct tapes or just repair pulses.

The 30% effect is later game so not everybody has it, it unlocks after tier 4 which is actually difficult to get.

Flare gun is easy to dodge if you're not right next to the flare gun user.

Not many players run more than 1 flare gun so you have 11 seconds to run away from the 2nd flare gun shot.

For a weapon that does damage over time and not instanly, I find it very balanced.

 

I think flare gun could actually use a little buff, based on the fact it doesn't seem to do much to my defender. Maybe if the procs could crit or something?

 

Maybe just a bit but at the same time they should fix the 30% heal negate stacking of multiple flare gun shots

 

From a game-design standpoint, healing should never be as powerful as damage.
Then people stack heals, teams become unkillable, and it's horrible game-play.
Healing should, however, have a non-trivial effect, or no one would ever play healer.
The team shouldn't feel invincible, but they should feel like some mistakes can be erased.
Having a healer changes the flow of game-play (on both sides of the match).

Likewise, if having healers, and the effect healers have on game-play is something the Devs like about the game...
Then they should be "protected" to some degree just like anything else that they like.
In the same way the Defense stat has a cap -- because the Devs don't want some weapons (like Carronade) to do literally zero damage...
Then in the same way there should be a cap on -Healing debuffs.
To allow stacking heal-negating effects is very dangerous from a game design standpoint, especially if that item/effect becomes popular.
The risk is having an entire class or play-style abandoned out of frustration for not even being able to do your one and only job.
Is a heal-reducing effect interesting? Yes! ...but imo, it should either not be stackable at all, or at least have a sensible cap...

 

You are exactly right,But How do most of the Fixer play? They stay with the team and while keeping the teammates(Hence firepower alive) they also deal damage. Flare is a close range weapon,hence req close combat and any smart teammate would protect their fixer.Hence the healing debuff is justified since it cant be Hit so often to a fixer who is conservative minded or protected by smart teammates.

On to the miku da yo's part now.He uses 3 duct tapes,Plays like a defender Tanking the team.Clearly it is not what fixers do.Which means he has more chance of getting stunned and hit with flares which doesnt occur more so often except for higher level gameplay.Flare has slow projectile,it is skill based weapon and requires a risk to land on enemy because of short range.But if you go running towards a weapon which exactly counters your LOADOUT,Then i dont see fault of weapon in there.FOR EXAMPLE
If i m a mortar spammer shooter and blame a carronade using speeder who utterly destoys me at close range then it does not make carronade OP,so i should not complain about rather change my combo

Although i agree it should not stack

 

I think we can all agree that this is not exactly a danger at the moment?
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But agreed, comparing healing items individually to a specific weapon serves little purpose. For one Duct Tape/Repair Pulse is guaranteed to hit (yourself) and do so on CD, being in range & hitting a target with a weapon is another matter. But primarily the premise of the thread is flawed because it ignores that BB is a teamgame, is someone is within range to consistantly Flare you up, then your teammates need to scare them off or kill them.
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I do however agree that healing (and in particular selfhealing) could use more ommph - The Repair Pulse nerf was absurd, but sadly it was also a clear indication that devs felt it necessary to nerf fixers despite fixers already struggling at high end. Sadly I think your options are to accept a lower peak performance, or to play another class.

 

Yeah, this is like his 5th thread. If he could just play the game property or just uninstalls it, there'd be 80% less bitching on the forums.

 

I only disagree on this if there is PvE. Which was the whole reason the WoW-style healer like we have was even invented.

As it stands now, though, it's very common to see a fixer have more healing than anyone can come close to in damage. And by the way they get weapons too. This is why I fail to understand how the primary anti-healing item needs a nerf.

 

The problem is that if devs see a boat doing better than it should be at mk5 but struggling at mk6/7 they are going to nerf the entire mk1-7 class.

Same with enforcer, not trying to go offtopic but it's the same deal with it aswell, mk6/7 does very well so they feel it is fine to nerf the lower mk's that do not do as well, nerfing the entire mk1-7 class.

I feel some ships need specific nerfs/buffs to certain mk levels. They need to look at every mk level of the same class as a whole different ship, in my opinion...

 

In general I dont get the fuss over minor imbalances whilst leveling up. The games matchmaking system (atleast in theory) pits you against an evenly matched crew, until nightmare (mk6+) balance between boats is not a big deal (imo).

I really dont understand the endless stream of Enforcer nerfs, it was strong at mk6+ sure. But never to a gamebreaking degree (least not during the past 6months) and its been the 2nd strongest yellow boat for ages

 

The point of my reply to the OP was to say I think it's ridiculous to make the argument that because healing items don't do as much healing as weapons do damage, then that must mean that healers need a buff.

I don't play Fixer, so I can't say with any authority whether I think they're in a good spot or not... I can have my own outside perspective, but I just think if anyone is going to argue for a buff/nerf to any class, that they should use good solid arguments (which I didn't think the OP did).