Spread out global talents more

Talent tree balance is difficult, and I applaud the devs for the good judgements they made. I make specific recommendations here, but these ideas are to spur conversation and are not a fixed concept.

After items base stats, talent placement is the biggest factor in determining if an item is used. Current trees are split between those heavy on global talents (apply to all ships) and trees heavy on specific item talents. This impacts weapon variety since weapons whose talents require foregoing global talents or critical ship talents are less appealing. Many popular weapons have decisions that are trivially easy decisions, while less popular weapons require major sacrifice. I propose spreading out global talents so less-used weapons (esp Carronade and Grenade, but also Napalm, Flare, Fire Bomb, Swift Torpedo, and green items) are easier to choose, and popular weapons require more sacrifice. This will also help address the high damage meta and single volley kills, which forces players to emphasize damage and health rather than agility, turrets, and unique weapon selection.

Carronade is the current system poster child. Speed is critical for survivability, and Carronade shares a tree with Overboost, Nitro, and global speed/agility perks. Players choose between survivability and the Carronade. There are tons of Carronade talents, too: a whopping 17. Two levels require you to choose between two Carronade talents and nine levels require you to choose between Carronade and Overboost, Nitro, or speed/agility. No other tree has decisions like this. Selecting Carronade is a big sacrifice.

In contrast, you don't often have to choose between weapon talents and global talents. Some tough decisions include Burnice 26 (Flare 5% damage vs. global 5% agility), Isak 24 (5% turret vs. +1 grenade range), Feelix 27 (global 75 health vs. -10% Repair Bolt cooldown), Feelix 16 (global 3% health vs. repair bolt remove frost), Feelix 9 (+50 global health vs. 5% healing), Feelix 6 (+50 global health vs. -10 Duct Tape cooldown vs. +1 Repair Box range), Feelix 3 (+50 global health vs. 10% Repair Pulse). These decisions matter, but not like Swift decisions.

Unlike Swift, Isak, and Burnice, Bhurt only has two global skills (both +50 HP all ships) and Mortimer, Sinklair, Blastian, and Dr. Buzzkill have none. Point and splash damage talents matter, but only a few items (Standard Mortar, Swift Torpedo, Tesla Bolt, and Tesla Shield) have competing talents. Many popular and powerful weapons (Sniper Cannon, Explosive Cannon, Railgun, Mine, Big Torpedo, Ballpark Mortar, Big Berta) do not require talent sacrifices. If some global talents were reassigned it would buff weapons on Isak, Swift, Feelix, and Burnice's trees and alter the current high-damage/high HP meta and encourage less-used item use. Some specific recommendations:

Bhurt
The only real decision here is Sniper Cannon vs. Blast Cannon. Players who will use Explosive Cannons have tough choices at 25 (XC/BC) and 27 (projectile speed/XC), but that's about it. Bhurt and Mortimer should receive some global HP talents from Feelix and Brock.

Mortimer
Again, no tough decisions. The only big decision is Ballpark Mortar vs. Long Range Mortar, and the latter is underpowered after about 2000 infamy. Level 8 is criminally easy (30% damage increase for all bullseye shots vs. 5% care package boost), so the care package talent should be exchanged with the splash damage talent from level 17. Level 8 becomes (bullseye boost/splash boost), and level 17 becomes (Standard Mortar cooldown/care package).

Swift
Global speed/agility talents at 5, 10, 12, 23 are critical to current meta. Without speed/agility, you die. Carronade conflicts with these at 5, 10, and 12. These conflicts should be resolved: some of these global talents should be moved to other trees, or the choice should not be between Carronade talents and global traits. Decisions should be between Speeder-specific talents and Carronades. Some possible exchanges to consider:
Level 5 and 7: Move Carronade 5% from 5 to 7, move +50 Speeder HP from 7 to 5.
Level 10 and 3/15: There are two split decisions between Overboost and Nitro at 3 and 15. The Carronade range talent at level 10 should be switched with one of the Overboost/Nitro talents at 3/15.
Level 12 and 2: The most critical Carronade training should not be paired with a global 5% speed boost. A level 12 talent should be switched with a level 2 talents. So either 2 (Speeder HP/global speed) and 12 (Carronade slow/care package), or 2 (Global speed/care package) and 12 (Carronade/Speeder HP).
Level 19: Split Carronade decision. One talent should be moved. I propose moving to level 21 (which currently has only 3% Speeder HP) or exchanging a level 19 talent with one of the Overboost/Nitro talents at level 3/15.
Level 22 and 26: Split Carronade decision. 5% Carronade damage talent should be exchanged with the level 26 care package talent, so 22 (turret slow/care package) and 26 (10% Overboost/5% Carronade damage)

Isak
This tree is well balanced. The biggest challenge for Isak's items is that frost was so badly nerfed and ships move too fast for Grenade, so it needs a bump tree adjustments can't give. Global talents at 2, 7, and 12 are good. Turret talents at 24 and 26 might need adjustment, but there are no really obvious candidates.

Feelix
As with Isak, this feels balanced with regards to item talent selection, but Fixers have to choose between green item talents and HP talents in a way Shooters and Defenders don't. This makes Fixers less hardy, less capable of dealing "damage," and less desirable. There are global HP talents at 3, 6, 9, 16, and 27 (ignoring the level 30 talent because it makes sense where it is). I recommend moving 2-4 of these to low global skills trees, i.e. Bhurt, Mortimer, Sinklair, Blastian, or Buzzkill. This will help mitigate the harmful meta of excessive damage and shield use by forcing characters to choose between HP and damage. This will buff Gear Lube and Bandage by lowering damage and increasing survivability. Current trees don't force HP/damage decisions as much as they should. Some levels that might be paired with a global HP talent from Feelix:
Bhurt 21 (currently 20% XC)
Mortimer 8 (currently 30% bulleye damage/care package boost)
Sinklair 13 (currently 5% frost damage/10% Big Torpedo)
Sinklair 25 (currently only Big Torpedo 10%)
Blastian 15 (currently 5% Rocket damage)
Blastian 22/25 (currently global 2% damage boost)

Brock
As with Isak and Feelix, this feels balanced, but unlike Isak and Feelix, the current meta forces everybody to level Brock since very few players can do Ace 1 or Nightmare without high level Shields. As with Feelix, I think a solution is to force players to choose between damage talents and HP talents. Brock has six global HP talents at 4, 10, 15, 22, 25, and 27. Since the shield talents are inherently about boosting HP, I again think that 2-4 of global HP talents should be moved to a low-global skill tree (Bhurt, Mortimer, Sinklair, Blastian, Buzzkill).

Sinklair
I don't use Torpedos enough to have a good sense of this tree, but two things strike me. Bandage talents at 11, 23, and 29 require the player to forego a damage talent, which is healthy. All Bandage talents should force this choice (so 4, 15, and 21 should be paired with damage talents, too). I am also struck by the lack of Speeder-specific talents on this tree. Some Speeder-specific boosts should be moved from Swift to Sinklair. This will give breathing room to Swift's crowded tree and make pure-damage talent selection more of a liability. There are six Speeder-specific talents at Swift 2, 7, 11, 16, 21, and 29, and only 1 Speeder talent at Sinklair 10. Compare this to the other ships:
Shooter: 3 Bhurt, 5 Mortimer
Defender: Brock 6, Blastian 4
Speeder: Swift 6, Sinklair 1
Enforcer: Isak 5, Burnice 3
Fixer: Feelix 3, Dr. Buzzkill 5
It's obvious that Speeder is the exception here, and should be adjusted.

Burnice
Burnice has special considerations because her tree has heavily used items (Flare Gun) and the least used item in the game (Gear Lube). Given the power of Burnice 21 (reduces all healing by 30%, can stack multiple times) it is obscene that it is not paired with a similarly powerful talent to force a tough decision. I think moving the global 5% HP boost from Brock 22 would make a nice match with Burnice 21 and force players to choose between offense and survivability. Global perks at 2, 10, 18, 24, and 26 make sense as they are. Rudder perks at 3 and 5 should be easier decisions (i.e. the perk should be alone or paired with care package boost) to help spur Rudder adoption. Talents currently paired with Rudder should be moved to the currently empty stretch from level 9 to 13.

Blastian
As mentioned earlier, he should receive global HP talents from Feelix and Brock's trees to force players to choose between damage and HP. Specifically, the 2% global damage boosts at 22 and 25 should be paired with global HP talents. Otherwise well-balanced.

Dr. Buzzkill
This is a generally balanced, but I can't help notice that nothing here is particularly useful for or favored by Fixers. They're also the only ship with an item in their tree they cannot equip (Tesla Shield). This is rather silly, don't you think? It would be like a Frost Blaster in Bhurt's skill tree or Frost Launcher in Mortimer's. Also, the biggest users of Railguns are Defenders and Shooters, and they disproportionately target Fixers. The point damage talents at 11, 17, and 27 don't force players to choose between Railgun and point damage, which again means these talents primarily benefit Shooters and Defenders targeting Fixers. It's beyond the scope here to discuss the state of yellow items, but since Nitro and Overboost (9 talents total) are by far the most commonly used Fixer yellow items, exchanging them for Tesla Bolt (11 talents) or Tesla Shield (13 talents) could bring the meta and skill tree into agreement.