Alternative Fixer mode: Breaker

I want to float a new gameplay mode for Fixers, the Breaker mode. I apologize if something like this has been suggested before, I didn't find anything similar when I searched.

Out of all the ships, the Fixer captures my imagination the most. When I think of the bits and pieces of story suggested by the game, I really like how Feelix and Dr. Buzzkill complement each other in character designs, like a Jekyll and Hyde duo. Feelix is obviously the core of the Fixer experience now, but the Dr. Buzzkill side of the ship has never really been explored. Breaker mode would be a hardcore opening up of the Dr. Buzzkill / Hyde personality of the ship.

As a Breaker, green items deal damage instead of healing. In battle, a Breaker is indicated to friendlies so that they don't expect healing, but the unfriendly team does not know in advance. A ship sneaking up to assassinate a Fixer won't know until they got close, so Breakers have good honey pot / anti-assassin potential. This is the Mr. Hyde side of the Fixer: a Feelix Fixer is a goodie two-shoes who can't defend himself or shoot his way out of a wet paper bag, but a Dr. Buzzkil Breaker has as many weapons as a Shooter and can even attack a ship that is behind her turret via Repair Pulse!

Breaker mode can be switched on and off between games relatively easily. Red items are the same, but green items develop new personalities: the Repair Bolt becomes a Swift(er) Torpedo. The Repair Box Launcher becomes a mix between a grenade, a Sniper Cannon (because of the criticals), and a Mine. Repair Pulse becomes a completely unique weapon, doing area damage over time and self-healing as before. Duct Tape does not change.

A Breaker would look like a specialized Shooter/Enforcer hybrid. Selfish Fixers evolved as a response to the fact that everybody aggressively targets Fixers, and Breaker mode would give Fixers a new level of unpredictability that would disrupt the prevalent "always target any Fixer first" mentality. As many players don't like being a healer, it would get more players using the ship, too. For players like me who play the Fixer the majority of the time, it would be a way to change things up without having to radically change my layout, trainings, or ship. Many Speeder players who enjoy the thrill of a high-stakes hunt would enjoy playing a Breaker, too. How many times have you seen a teammate run away from the team to attack a Fixer from half a map away? What if that "vulnerable" Fixer was actually a trap?

 

Well this idea is good but not realistic.....

 

Alright, first, nice comparison to Jekyll and Hyde, but I think if Rovio considered this, they could add a button to toggle between fixing and 'breaking' (during battle), but the change would deactivate the boat for like 12 seconds, and buzzkill could be trained to lower the duration it takes to switch and how much the items convert from healing to damage (like fully trained, green items could do 80% or 100% dmg)

 

Just imagine all those selfish fixers...

Though seriously you'd probably see a decrease in regular fixers, and they're already pretty rare,

 

This is all speculation, but I would expect an increase in traditional Fixer use. The problem with Fixer use is that most of the game-playing population just doesn't enjoy being a healer. Healers and support are the least-used classes in most of the online games I've ever played. This would give players who prefer shooting an excuse to level green items, and with decent strength green items around, they would be more likely play healer occasionally, too.

 

Certainly a more interesting way than "dur-hur-hur nerf Speeders!" to address assassins, isn't it?

 

I thought of this as something that would be picked for the entirety of a match. Switching mid-game would be really confusing for friendlies, and requiring training would change the entire skill tree around and require rebalancing a lot of different things. Since the green items are already balanced for battle by the devs, they should be full power right off the bat.