Let's remake the Defender

I do rush to the frontline in the beginning of battles and attempt to control the chokepoints early. The turbos are for the contingency escape plan once I draw focus. Everything is about anticipation. No matter how much hp you have if you come against the whole unfriendly team, you better run or you will shortly die. Depending on where I spawn, I will flank, too. Having speed just helps with my playstyle.

 

These screenshots of individual match results is some kind of fake scientific method. I could pick selected screenshots from any day of the week and use them as evidence that x boat is op, y boat is fine, z boat needs a buff, if that's what I wanted to do. There are a lot of matches and statistical variation happens.

 

they are merely to point out that defender can still be used effectively. I main defender, and I am for a buff. I could post consecutive battles if that is more to your preference. I don't win every battle. No-one does. But me not performing well in battles, well, that rarely happens. My point was to prove the defender isn't doing as bad as some people make it out to be. I selected all of these battles with just a quick scroll through my battle log. I'm a defender. Why would i cherry pick battles to stop a buff? Contrary, i would cherry pick my worst battles to help the cause. We have to be careful what we wish for, cuz we may just get it. Some of these ideas may sound great, but they would most likely create a situation that's worse than what we have now. Most people seem to think the only good defenders are the p2w whales, but I beg to differ.

 

Ok so you think Defender needs a buff but are kind of proud you don't really personally need one on yours. I mostly feel the same way but there is a challenge factor that I am aware of while maining my Defender, like I am choosing a harder path in many ways. I mean some of the people I see at my infamy in different boats are so bad lol. But they have more advantages from the game systems, because the devs long ago miscalculated when they decided that (slowness/stiffness + big hitbox + 3 weapons) = (the extra hp + extra defense stats). I can tell that the left side of that equation is overweighted somewhat and I think that's mainly what people are trying to solve with heir different ideas. Personally I tried to solve it with turbo, rudder, lube and my weapon choices. But it's still overweighted some to the left side of the equation even with all that.

I keep coming back to the hitbox. That hitbox is so brutal. It's so much bigger than the ship it's ridiculous. Ffs at least make the ship the same giant size as the giant hitbox? So I can stop having to guess while I ride through a mine field? Or not get hit by a torp in my invisible hitbox ass when it seems like I should be safe hiding behind a corner?

 

I agree. Defenders role is to charge.

To answer your question regarding top speed. In mk7. With swift training maxed and brock training maxed. Speed on defender is. 1.42 capped. Any epic tier V turbo can hit this top speed. Same with Lgenedary tier 2 turbo.

 

Ok, so let’s increase that to say 1.5, so high level defender gets quicker.

 

I agree with modifying items in the bay. But want it to be usuable for all ships.

From warnet. Combine lube and rudder into one item. If this were done more ships would use it.

Or a defender variation. Allowing for an extra slot that can only be used for lube/rudder.

But still. My basic premise is this wont do enough to change meta. We need base stats improved for defender. Ay 1.42 a shooter can still travel faster going backwards than I do forward.
Or as a charger. The ship needs higher % defense.

Lastly. The "hitbox" is massively bigger than the ship. Its ridicoulous. And its also the reason this game is dumbed down. Do we really need the biggest ship to have an extra large hitbox? Nope. Items hit the defender ship that clearly went past it all the time. This isnt lag. This is by design. Fix hitbox.
Thanks,

@Miika

 

Well said. I agree 100%

 

Meta data is all one needs.
Most non defenders don't pay attention to top 50, top 100 standings. Let alone top 200 of nitemare league.

In these leagues u have all sorts from p2w to f2p. But mostly it's all epic maxed weapons and or some legendaries tier 1 thru 5.

If u don't pay attention. The pat answer is we need more data.

From meta. We have already learned all ex cannon nerfs dropped defender infamy scores by a combined 300 to 700 points per player that had 2 ex cannons on ship.

Check right now. Oberst Highest infamy player defender with 2 ex cannons. He is barely above 5k. Before ex cannon nerf. He was 5.5k...no defender will break 5.45k ceiling this week. Before all nerfs of last 2 updates the highest a defender only had climbed was 5.75k. Now that is over.
Again this is all easy data available to all observant players.

Top 200 defender only players. 3 total. 3!?!? This used to be nearly 25 strong even 7 months ago. Most great defenders have retired the boat and gone to shooter or enforcer. Fact.

Lets go now to most important data. Top 10.
A defender only player hasn't hit top 10 in 7 months.
Look at who is top 10. People here can summarize. They are the best of the best. They must all have legendary tier 5 weapons right? Nope. Ysl plays with epics. Weeze has 1 t2 napalm. A few have some tier 2 legendaries. Only 2 players in top 10 have t5 legendaries. Epics v are the norm for nitemare.
So it is completely possible to be a top 10 player with every boat other than Defender with epics V and to win the league.

Now let's go absurd. Benjen. Is now the player named Naot...he switched to enforcer. Now top 10.

Before the switch. For a year. He was the top defender in the game. He has Legendary tier V weapons. He couldn't break top 10 while trying his hardest as a defender. Legendary V5 weapons. But as soon as he switches ships to enforcer. Walla... Top 10.

Nuff said. All other boats have the ability to compete because they are balanced amongst each other. Or closer balanced. Not the Defender. Not yet. It is Meta big time due for a buff.

Jaws

 

I don't do a defender so some thoughts might be misplaced.

A defender should be able to enjoy the best of both health and defense, the cap means they have to be selective and a limit of 100 from perks when bigger weapons can hit for 2k+ makes no difference. The removal of the cap and a fair buff to the perks would make it much more favourable and be more in line with what their name suggests.

I don't think bespoke abilities/utilities would solve the problem. Every other ship's unique talent would likely trump the defenders. I'd suspect they would go along the lines of, Fixer = Healing Boost, Shooter = Damage Boost, Speeder = More Speed, Enforcer = ???, Defender = Damage reduction... though it would add a nice dash of flavour to the game.

The name of the ship (shooter probably being the exception for obvious reasons) shouldn't necessarily define them. Fixers are now becoming selfish fixers who don't really fix anyone else and just go hunting. As someone mentioned previously, an enforcer doesn't really enforce, they can do anything from crowd control to all out DPS. I see a Defender as a meat shield to soak up damage long enough for your team to punish theirs. But considering they can take near enough the same level of damage as other ships, they aren't as effective as their name implies and I come full circle to my defense point.

I think it would be better to rebrand them to detract from the stereotypes that they have. I.e. Defender becomes Dreadnaught.. because they're a big lumbering pain in the ****.

 

Hello All,

I'm a first time caller, long time listener!

As a full-time Defender Player myself, I don't think that a huge buff is necessary or that a new "purple slot" is needed either. I'm capable of doing just as much damage with 3 slots as Shooters with 5. However, I would like to see a buff to speed cap and defense points. As Defenders, we take a lot of damage through torpedoes, mortars, flare guns, and fire bombs because we don't have an opportunity to dodge an incoming attack. The additional HP and Blue Slots that a Defender has barely makeup for all the additional damage we receive. Torpedoes are the worst because it effects the rest of your teammates when you get hit, and you then become a liability. If Rovio increased Defense Point by 15-20 and max speed to 1.45-1.55 for MK6 Defenders, that may better balance the stats without making it as OP as some might argue.

Just an opinion.

 

I completely agree with Rebranding the ship.

Dreadnaught is a great pirate-y name for it.

I also would like Battleship.
Or Destroyer...in line with big ships of navies around the world.
And just like a Destroyer. I want it to be both a support boat and an attack boat. Hard to take down with 1 ship.

 

I believe all defender needs is an HP buff. 20K hp with only 3 shields and being able to run a lube or rudder would solve all its problems. We cant have 12K hp shooters and 16k HP defenders -_-

 

Hp and defense are a first and simple basis, we defenders are already unable to maneuver. So why do we eat every bit of damage thrown at us, to only have 10-20% more health than a shooter. The health is nothing in comparrison to damage dealt when nearing nightmare or above

 

20 k unbeatable monsters is only if you are at the top of the infamy tiers. If you are still dancing in your 3k HP enforcer then these defenders should be 10k. We are saying we need more 20k HP+ defenders because at our level we face enforcers with 8-10k HP, speeders also with 8-10k HP, and Shooters with 10k+ HP. Yes we want a defender HP buff but they should buff it accordingly so low level players like you don't run into them.

 

I'm a defender myself and I think the problem with defense points is that they scale very bad the higher you go. What on earth will 100 defense points do against a 5000 damage mine? I think making defense points into percentages is a much better option. All weapons get debuffed by the same percentage. Cannon alongside carronade and missiles wouldn't be destroyed by defense points anymore and mines and big torpedos wouldn't just brush them off. I think it was a faulty design to make such a passive factor have a set number instead of an adaptive one.