I don't think I'm teaching you anything you don't already know, so... what are your thoughts on the GS's speed in LMS scenarios?
LMS is its own mechanic I could write another treatise about because currently it's a mechanic that, while I see what TWI was going for, isn't executed terribly well and encourages dragging out the match due to the difficulty drops (or rather, doesn't really punish playing badly; the biggest threat in LMS is everyone's weapons disappearing by the next round).
Gunslinger's speed in general is just stupidly good (and, if I'm honest, would be the main thing I look at if I had to balance Slinger's kit), combined with LMS being scaled to solo meaning the game suddenly gets much easier on anything that isn't a boss wave (ammo woes and all that entails). With the max onscreen zed count being scaled so far back, Slinger has an even easier time since you have fewer things to worry about when hitting you.
But they are at least a glass cannon compared to Zerk and Medic, so if they can't do, they die, which is at least a mercy for the other spectators involved. (Personally I'm also a "offer to just end it" player myself when it comes to anything like 40+ Zeds on LMS.)
Skirmisher Zerk and Medic of course have similar problems but the inherent weaknesses of those perks lead them to drag out the LMS, which isn't fun for anyone involved. Iif I had to put it another way, Gunslinger kiting is the lesser of two (three?) evils on that front.
I imagine you haven't seen the clobber nearly as much in HoE. I've seen a decline in Hard.
It's still used fairly frequently from what I've seen, although I also admit I jumped out of Beta 2 fairly quickly due to an absence of ready servers I was hoping to play. C'est la vie. Some old player habits definitely die hard.
I'm glad they nerfed (rather than removed) the clobber. Providing a self-healing crutch for all of those times when players wound up playing with inexperienced medics (presumably still learning the ropes) isn't the worst thing ever, especially at those low levels. I think the post-nerf clobber does a much better job of promoting damage output and mitigation (via parry) over damage recovery while still retaining some level of a safety net and encouraging more effective options as players get used to the game and/or become exposed to more healing options.
The 501 doesn't bother me too much. Its low capacity, high weight, and high cost help make that one fairly optional, IMO. Similar to the clobber, I used it early on. But most of my "early on" experience was playing solo, so it wasn't until I started playing more co-op that I learned how effective (and fun) the darts can be. I use the 501 more with Commando on the boss wave than Medic these days. I strongly prefer the 401 and 301 for the latter.
Right, and I'm not against
some limited self-healing per se, but given the game is
supposed to have crappy self-healing to encourage either working together (crossperk HMTech weapons) or sticking near the Medic to have that healing which paves over player mistakes, having too much of it is a problem.
The thing is, the self-healing weapons right now only really help bolster the perks that already can self-heal outside of the self-syringe
and already have well above average survivability from their kits (and tend to be much simpler to play both in execution and on paper), so there's that cumulative effect of "people play the perks because you can basically cheese the survivability." And to top it off, the self-healing is
so easy to use. I'll make an exception for Zerk's Vampire since 1) you do have to kill things and 2) it comes at a legitimate opportunity cost compared to Butcher (better sustain but worse kill potential against HVTs outside of Zed-Time).
Not that the other perks need some equivalent of the Carbine like Sharpshooter gets, as an example, but IMO the Carbine is a pretty clever design for something with self-heal potential. The Carbine's healing is rewarded by actually taking advantage of the Sharp's offensive capabilities (you at least have to tag the Zed and kill it within a short time frame; even if the Sharp doesn't get the kill, the dart still goes off), and it's not something like a straight 1-1 life leech where damage inflicted = damage healed because it's on a very powerful perk to begin with, nor can you spam the darts because of the built-in recharge.
The other weapons like the Clobber and 501 have...pressing the alt-fire, sometimes at nothing, and still getting a reward for it. On the zoomy perks that can evade hits.
The other thing is whether or not it could lead to a slippery slope of "now every perk needs a self-healing weapon." It already happened with the specialist-->generalist drift and I hope TWI would see past that.
My only thing with the 501 is that it could stand to have its max grenade count reduced a bit; with how strong the grenades are at basically giving a team a "safe zone" of healing/buffs/dead trash, 15 per round is a bit insane (15, that is, with your throwables). Either the gas needs to not damage Zeds or there should be fewer charges.
But the thrower has those bigger problems that you pointed out. I wouldn't miss the thrower if it were removed and if TWI offered players an opportunity to ban certain guns or perks from individuals' games, this would be on my list every time. I feel like it is more broken than the clobber ever was. If it is going to remain in the game, I'd like to see its range and damage reduced (equivalent to Caulk 'n Burn), price raised to 1100 to eliminate its accessibility over other T3 options, less ammo, darts removed (so medics are still reliant on other weapons for healing at range, thus (hopefully) encouraging learning the nuances of darted weapons), one or no left-hand skill triggers, and no stacks, similar to grenades. Add a nerf to tankiness and medics will be less inclined to use short-ranged weapons
Yes, yes,
yes. Nothing to disagree with here.
