[Updated after Winter 2021 update.]
I filled out the end-of-year survey yesterday and wanted to share some specifics as to why I gave certain perk skills the scores that I did. The balances made this past year to perk skills have been amazing changes, and I appreciate the devs for listening to some of my suggestions. Here are a few more to help us all work towards well-balanced skill trees.
You can also find my Weapon Suggestions thread here.
My favorite is in bold.
I filled out the end-of-year survey yesterday and wanted to share some specifics as to why I gave certain perk skills the scores that I did. The balances made this past year to perk skills have been amazing changes, and I appreciate the devs for listening to some of my suggestions. Here are a few more to help us all work towards well-balanced skill trees.
You can also find my Weapon Suggestions thread here.
My favorite is in bold.
- Survivalist
- 5 - Tactical Reload/Heavy Weapons Training: These should be combined into one skill, Tactical Reload (so Tactical Reload would increase reload speed for Commando, Gunslinger, SWAT, Demolitionist, Sharpshooter, Support, Firebug, and Survivalist weapons). Then Heavy Weapons Training would be replaced with a High Capacity Magazines skill, which would increase magazine capacity by 50% for Commando, Support, Field Medic, Firebug, SWAT, and Survivalist weapons. This would allow for more versatility with Survivalist loadouts and make the Survivalist more fun and enjoyable. Also, in case you didn't notice, both of these level 5 perk skills should apply to all Survivalist perk weapons as well.
- 15 - Weapon Harness: This skill should definitely give a different grenade, as a Molotov cocktail does not come close to being as helpful as the healing grenade given with Ammo Vest. I would suggest that the Molotov cocktails be replaced with freeze grenades, or perhaps a grenade that can benefit from Make Things Go Boom.
- 20 - Make Things Go Boom: There is a sweet spot between having more explosive area of effect and the area of effect being so large that it hurts you too often. Increased area of effect of all explosives by 50% is too high. 40% is a good sweet spot (also change this for Demo's Fragmentation Rounds), but keep explosive resistance at 50% (or maybe even increase to 60%).
- Berserker
- 10 - Vampire/Butcher: It looks odd when both sides of the skill tree give the same bonus. In this case, "Attack 20% faster with perk weapons" should be removed from both of these skills and become a passive Berserker bonus (+1%/level) for a maximum of 25%.
- Commando
- 25 - ZED TIME - Tactician/Machine Gunner: I have yet to find Tactician helpful, as the sped-up reload takes just a bit too long and almost always causes me to lose the ability to extend ZED time. As a result, Tactician almost always loses out to Machine Gunner. To buff Tactician, it should switch perk weapons 3x as fast (instead of 2x). Also, the 3% bonus damage should be removed from Machine Gunner (why is that 3% bonus damage even there?).
- Support
- 10 - Fortitude: The 50% health increase sounds nice, but the increased damage of Salvo wins out almost every time. Maybe instead of 50% health increase, you start with 25% armor AND give an additional 20% armor to teammates whenever they interact with you once per wave?
- 25 - ZED TIME - Penetrator: I have tried using this skill many, many times, but it is never as good as its Barrage counterpart since I get one shot in (at most) and have to either reload (slowly) or pump the shotgun before firing again. To buff this skill, an added damage increase during ZED time would make the one shot with increased penetration worth while.
- Field Medic
- 5 - Symbiotic Health: This skill is too powerful. Either the 25% total health increase should be removed, or the 6% self-heal amount should be reduced.
- 15 - Acidic Rounds: This skill is not straightforward in its application and doesn't add value to weapons that already deal toxic damage, including healing grenades. Instead of adding toxic damage to non-toxic weapons, make all sources of toxic damage (from toxic weapons, grenades, darts, and perk skills) deal twice the toxic DOT. At least that way, healing darts and healing grenades can be used more effectively as weapons.
- Demolitionist
- 10 - Extra Rounds: An ammo increase of 10 is very inconsistent. For example, it is helpful for the RPG (16 max ammo) but not as much for the Seeker 6 (90 max ammo). As such, this would better serve as a percentage increase of about 15%. The max ammo for weapons would have to be adjusted a bit to account for this. This passive skill should then apply to C4 (see Extra Explosive Ammo below).
- 15 - Sonic Resistant Rounds/Fragmentation Rounds: Sonic Resistant Rounds are much less useful than Fragmentation Rounds. A great buff for Sonic Rounds would be that projectiles explode at any range. This feature makes perfect sense in contrast the added area of effect of Frag Rounds. Plus, it would be nice to have projectiles explode at any range despite damage to yourself, as a dud can be quite disappointing when surrounded by trash ZEDs. Also, reduce the area of effect increase of Frag Rounds from 50% to 40% (also change this for Survivalist's Make Things Go Boom). 50% is excessive and hurts you too often.
- Extra Explosive Ammo: This passive skill of +5 max ammo should be changed to +3% every 5 levels (see the Extra Rounds skill mentioned above as well). This passive skill should apply to C4 as well, but at 3 max ammo for C4, you would only get +1 C4 max ammo if a level 25 Demolitionist was using Extra Rounds as well (+30% max ammo total).
- Firebug
- 5 - Bring the Heat/High Capacity Fuel Tank: I did the math on this, and from a DPS perspective, the 35% damage bonus is almost always better (the only notable exception being with Spitfires). To balance this, move the Firebug's passive +25% reload speed bonus to High Capacity Fuel Tank. However, if you decide not to buff High Capacity Fuel Tank, then Bring the Heat must be nerfed. Mathmatically, 20% damage increase balances fairly well against the +100% fuel tank capacity.
- 20 - Firestorm: Compared to Heat Wave, Firestorm doesn't stand a chance. As such, in addition to the increased range, a great buff for this skill could be that ground fires have 50% larger area of effect or that ground fires have stumble power (ZEDs will stumble if standing in ground fire for too long).
- Gunslinger
- 25 - ZED TIME - Whirlwind of Lead/Fan Fire: Whirlwind of Lead always loses out to Fan Fire. A great buff to Whirlwind would be to add a 100% recoil reduction to perk weapons during ZED Time. If that buff isn't enough, a damage bonus would also be welcomed. Also, Fan Fire should definitely have its "reload in real time" bonus removed, as the Gunslinger already has faster ZED time reload (yes, I understand why "reload in real time" was added to this perk, but adding it here feels clunky and a bit unnecessary as the passive faster ZED time reload skill is completely negated).
- Sharpshooter
- 5 - Sniper: Marksman's speed increase is very valuable, so Sniper needs a slight buff. +10% recoil reduction while stationary and using perk weapons would be a great addition.
- 20 - Always Prepared: The benefit of extra ammo always comes just short of the Dead Eye skill benefits. A +25% max armor bonus would be a welcomed addition to Always Prepared, as the Sharpshooter needs something to help with survivability.
- 25 - ZED TIME - Assassin/Ranger: "Any head shots with perk weapons have a 5% chance to trigger ZED Time" should be linearly applied to the Sharpshooter as a passive skill (1% increase every 5 levels). The Sharpshooter has always been lacking a bit in value on a team, and doing this would help non-level 25 Sharpshooters gain some of that much-needed value.
- SWAT
- Armor Backpack: The SWAT perk skills are very well balanced with recent changes, but if it still feels like the SWAT lacks a role on a team, it would be logical and fun for the SWAT to passively allow other players to get 25% armor from them once per round, just as the Resupply Pack skill does for the Support (the armor of Resupply Pack for Support would be replaced with more ammo).
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