First, I want to say that I'll talk only about level 6 players playing on HoE difficulty. Because I know some level 6 players, who are playing with Brute on Normal/Hard and saying Brute is quite balanced. That isn't a Brute balanced, but players overpowered for that difficulty. So I'd recommend for such players to turn off Brute and switch to HoE. And when vanilla HoE will seem too easy, only then try the Brute.
Many say Brute is designed to weaken Sharpshooter. But he doesn't. Actually Shaprie with xbow is the second best Brute-killer after Support with HSg. You just need to stand behind a crouched person, who rages a Brute. Then wait until Brutes charges to him and raises his arms to make a hit. Xbow shot in uncovered head = Brute dead. Yes, it requires skill, need some time to master, but it is one of the best Brute-killing techniques. It is also very exciting, because requires much more skill and takes more action than killing Scrakes. So I'm absolutely fine with it.
But the absolutely best way to kill a Brute is to play as Support Spec., sit down and shoot with Hunting Shotgun in his balls. Two shots from moderate distance = Brute dead. Even in vanilla game Support seems slightly overpowered for me, but with Brute it becomes the main perk to survive. If you have no 2 supports facing in every direction (or at least very skilled 1sup+1ss), you'll mostly be wiped in later waves. There are 7 perks in a game, but Brute forces to choose only between ss and sup for at least 4-5 players from 6.
What I can't understand, is why devs can spend so much time to create awesome visual models, animations and program AI, but can't find an extra couple of hours for adjusting some variables/code lines to make the final product balanced? Sometimes I have feeling that TWI are testing the game on beginner mode with GOD mode on. WPC please confess, are you doing the same?
OK, enough whining, let's move out to the real facts (taken from the source code, please correct me if I made mistakes somewhere) :
My first suggestion is to completely remove any damage resistance for damage types, which can't do headshots (bCheckForHeadShots=false): all explosives and fire damage.
Second, slow down Brute while burning, because current 15% is next to nothing.
There are alternatives for the other suggestions.
Damage reduction for blocked headshots
a) Leave the same value (90%), but then damage the head, not the body;
b) or still hit the body, but lower reduction value (to 50-70%).
Decapitaion
a) Lower head's health (down to Husk's head), so when Brute's head is uncovered, he can be decapitated by 1 LAR headshot made by SS, off-perk xbow or Commado's SCAR precise burst;
b) or make Brute stunnable. Because Brute's head blocked most of the time, there will be only a few stunning techniques: LAW, Pipes and Melee backstab.
Berserker
1. Raise melee damage resistance from 25% to 50% when blocking (all damage, not only when hitting the arm)
2. Remove damage resistance when Brute is not blocking.
Raising melee resistance will make impossible to backstab body-stun (if stunning will be enabled), but also will allow to master frontal Axe head-hits when Brute's arms are open.
Many say Brute is designed to weaken Sharpshooter. But he doesn't. Actually Shaprie with xbow is the second best Brute-killer after Support with HSg. You just need to stand behind a crouched person, who rages a Brute. Then wait until Brutes charges to him and raises his arms to make a hit. Xbow shot in uncovered head = Brute dead. Yes, it requires skill, need some time to master, but it is one of the best Brute-killing techniques. It is also very exciting, because requires much more skill and takes more action than killing Scrakes. So I'm absolutely fine with it.
But the absolutely best way to kill a Brute is to play as Support Spec., sit down and shoot with Hunting Shotgun in his balls. Two shots from moderate distance = Brute dead. Even in vanilla game Support seems slightly overpowered for me, but with Brute it becomes the main perk to survive. If you have no 2 supports facing in every direction (or at least very skilled 1sup+1ss), you'll mostly be wiped in later waves. There are 7 perks in a game, but Brute forces to choose only between ss and sup for at least 4-5 players from 6.
What I can't understand, is why devs can spend so much time to create awesome visual models, animations and program AI, but can't find an extra couple of hours for adjusting some variables/code lines to make the final product balanced? Sometimes I have feeling that TWI are testing the game on beginner mode with GOD mode on. WPC please confess, are you doing the same?
OK, enough whining, let's move out to the real facts (taken from the source code, please correct me if I made mistakes somewhere) :
- 6p HoE Brute's head has 1771hp
- >90% of the time head is covered
- While shooting covered head, Brute is taking only 10%, but this damage is taking by the body, not the head. It's impossible to deal any damage to the covered head.
- You don't check for KFWeaponDamageType.bCheckForHeadShots, so blocked head damage reduction is applying also on those weapons, which can't make headshots (explosives, flames). For example, if you hit Brute with LAW rocket in the balls, you'll make ~1500 damage (level 6 demo), but if you shoot his metal arm, your damage will be only ~300. Is it a bug or some kind of very silly pervert "feature"?
- Brute has 25% damage resistance against any melee weapon, even when his head is uncovered.
- Brute can't be stunned.
- Brute is slowed down only by 15% when burning.
- Are you guys insane?
My first suggestion is to completely remove any damage resistance for damage types, which can't do headshots (bCheckForHeadShots=false): all explosives and fire damage.
Second, slow down Brute while burning, because current 15% is next to nothing.
There are alternatives for the other suggestions.
Damage reduction for blocked headshots
a) Leave the same value (90%), but then damage the head, not the body;
b) or still hit the body, but lower reduction value (to 50-70%).
Decapitaion
a) Lower head's health (down to Husk's head), so when Brute's head is uncovered, he can be decapitated by 1 LAR headshot made by SS, off-perk xbow or Commado's SCAR precise burst;
b) or make Brute stunnable. Because Brute's head blocked most of the time, there will be only a few stunning techniques: LAW, Pipes and Melee backstab.
Berserker
1. Raise melee damage resistance from 25% to 50% when blocking (all damage, not only when hitting the arm)
2. Remove damage resistance when Brute is not blocking.
Raising melee resistance will make impossible to backstab body-stun (if stunning will be enabled), but also will allow to master frontal Axe head-hits when Brute's arms are open.
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