Swat Rework idea (less free stuff, higher skill cap, and stronger utility.)

[Demon Swords]

Edited: Link is to a buffed version of this Swat Rework. I think that the first version of the rework was a buff, but it was not enough to make Swat Viable.
Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qtWJrijI8T7VVSSHhbCWBG6c3P4awFnOLgZX5rBzjKg/edit?usp=sharing

Buffs in linked version: Turned Heavy Armor into a passive (with same strength by lv 25.) and replaced it with a, "regen 1 armor on zed kill while 30 or less armor.'' Tactical movement now also gives 5% sprint speed and another 5% sprint speed while you have no armor. Close Quarter Combat gives 5% more move speed while holding a knife. Utility Belt now also increases grenade damage by 50% and no longer gives starting grenades.
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Swat Rework

Preface:
The Swat class is one that doesn’t do much in later waves and is used primarily in wave one for the free starting stuff.

The point of the class is to be one that can take out fodder zeds easily while incapacitating larger zeds with some tankiness.

The problem is that the swat’s role is overshadowed by the firebug that can kill both small zeds and large ones, the Commando that can also kill small zeds easy while giving team support, and the Survivalist that is a tanky ranged fighter with some crowd control and a much larger weapon pool.

Rework Goal: To fix that swat is only useful wave one and to make it more differentiated from other classes.

Overall changes:
Buffs: Stronger Utility and conditional damage increase. More impactful skills thus more meaningful choices.
Changes/ Cost for Balance: Less free stuff from game start and weaker wave 1 at lower levels. Not as strong Mag size + Reload combo.

Basics Changes​

• Add 4 starting armor per level
• Remove 4 mag size per level
• Increase max ammo by 1% per level (max 25%.)

Rational for basics changes: By making the starting armor be part of the base kit it allows for a player to not be restricted with what skills to start. The reason for removing the mag size per level is to allow it to be a part of the tier 1 tradeoff to allow for more utility and uniqueness to both options. Added max ammo into base because max ammo is important to swat and I cannot think of a good way to balance it into a skill tier.

Tier 1: Specialization​

Juggernaut

• Increase mag size of perk weapons by 1% for each point of body armor. (added)
• While you have body armor, you only take Health damage from sonic attacks and clots can’t grab you. (same as before)

Tactical Movement

• No movement penalty for using iron sights or crouch movement. (same as before.)
• Can reload single handed perk weapons while sprinting. (any perk weapon, but dual 9mm and riot shield weapon.) (added)

Rational for Tier 1: Mag size is an important part of using swat weapons so the mag size was redirected to Juggernaut. The reason the mag size scales off of armor is so that at lower levels you can reach 100% mag size without starting with it in the first wave. With starting armor being the same as mag size it has the same starting strength as it does when it is constant from base kit. As being good at Swat requires conserving ammo by headshotting zeds since max ammo can be low and expensive, having more mag size does not help with that. Having the ability to trade more mag size for other benefits when a player is skilled enough to not need it is what I added.

Tier 2 - Assault Techniques (dividing Fallback into 2 skills.)​

Close Quarter Combat

• Gain 10% resistance to all damage.
• Increase knife damage by 85%.
• While holding a knife, increase move speed by 5%.

Arsenal

• Increase 9mm damage by 85%. 9mm is treated by perk skills as a perk weapon. (specified skills so passive damage increases and max ammo does not apply.)
• Increase Reload speed of Perk weapons by 15%.

(Note: Elite reload has different animations for each weapon causing different values of effective reload speed increase. Most of the swat weapons seem to range between 20-30%. The only exception is the starting weapon with a reload speed difference of about 40%.)

Rational for tier 2: Because of the desire to reduce the swat from being used to get freebies wave one then being switched to another perk; the idea of two 9mm is removed. To keep the idea of having a method of saving swat ammo (since swat ammo is expensive) for both halves and to keep them balanced I split fallback into a skill for the knife and another for the 9mm. Because of the many buffs the Swat would get from this rework and it being attached to 9mm, I made the reload speed less effective then Tactical Reload was.

Tier 3 - Crowd Control (placing both CC skills in 1 tier.)​

Suppression Rounds

• Increase stumble power by 100% for perk weapons. (same as before.)
• Zeds you Stumble, Stun, or Knockdown take 10% more damage. (damage boost is for everyone and can occur from weapons, grenades, or skills.) (added.)

Cognition Buster (reworked idea of Cripple; moved from tier 4.)

• Increase Headshot damage by 10% for perk weapons.
• Each consecutive headshot with a perk weapon adds a stack. Hits slow zeds by 5% for each stack, up to 25%. (Loses stacks like “Rack them Up”.)

Rational for Tier 3: Since I wanted to increase the damage potential of the swat without making it too powerful I decided to make it conditional. Though both skills increase damage output and incapacitate they do it very differently. Suppression rounds make it easier to stumble zeds - which pairs well with rapid assault - and the damage received increases well with grenades. The skill helps the playstyle of spraying bullets for newer players or the skilled play style of well timed grenades for damage increased coordinated attacks. Cognition Buster is a skill about rewarding the ammo conservative approach of Headshoting.

Tier 4 - Equipment​

Heavy Armor

• Maximum Armor increases by 50%. Start the game with 50 more armor. (same result as the current version but in less words.)

Utility Belt

• Increase the size of grenades by 30% and their carrying capacity by one. Start the game with two extra grenades. {if weak, could also increase Grenade damage.}

Rational for Tier 4: The point of these two perks is to strengthen past skills. Heavy Armor increases Max and Starting Armor which synergizes with Juggernaut for more max magazine size. Utility Belt Synergizes with suppression rounds by giving easy damage increase and Cognition Buster for easy headshots.

Tier 5 - Specialist Training (same as before)​

ZED TIME - Battering Ram

• During Zed time, you move fast in real-time and deal massive damage and knockdown to any Zed that touches you. (Same as before)

ZED TIME - Rapid Assault

• During ZED Time, when using perk weapons you have unlimited ammo, shoot in near real-time, and increase stumble power by 100%. (Same as before)

Rational for tier 5: Both zed skills work well with Swat and are not weak, so I don’t see a reason to change them.

 

[Humam2104]

Increase mag size of perk weapons by 1% for each point of body armor.

So the Kriss would have 33+25=58 while the game has 66. So you're nerfing the magazine size.

increase move speed by 5%

Well, the sharpshooter gets 10% when he acts as a (marksman). SWAT should be compared to the gunslinger, which gets 20% or even 25%>
10% damage resistance is good but have you considered that the SWAT gets 60% with the riot shield? Compared to that it's a low number.

Loses stacks like “Rack them Up”

Well, the SWAT is not considered to be having (acurracy) since it's a bullet hose and it shoots with SMGs not assault rifles. It shouldn't be a class that is concerned with accuracy like the Gunslinger because the gunslinger does higher damage.

Increase the size of grenades by 30% and their carrying capacity by one. Start the game with two extra grenades. {if weak, could also increase Grenade damage.}

Well, the Cripple skill does a much better job than this one. Having extra 50 armor wasn't that good, and now having two starting grenades that don't do much to the playstyle.

Zeds you Stumble, Stun, or Knockdown take 10% more damage

SWAT doesn't knockdown zeds. It stumbles them and that depends on the 100% stumble skill. This skill could be somehow useful for scrakes and FPs but since the GS can reach up to 50% the 10% extra damage is not that much.
An extra headshot damage of 10% is kind of good but relatively low,

Well, it seems you've nerfed the SWAT with these skills. You've also removed the 30% extra ammo skill (Ammo Vest) and replaced it with 25%. Good nerf.

 

[Demon Swords]

So the Kriss would have 33+25=58 while the game has 66. So you're nerfing the magazine size.

Well, the sharpshooter gets 10% when he acts as a (marksman). SWAT should be compared to the gunslinger, which gets 20% or even 25%>
10% damage resistance is good but have you considered that the SWAT gets 60% with the riot shield? Compared to that it's a low number.

Well, the SWAT is not considered to be having (acurracy) since it's a bullet hose and it shoots with SMGs not assault rifles. It shouldn't be a class that is concerned with accuracy like the Gunslinger because the gunslinger does higher damage.


Well, the Cripple skill does a much better job than this one. Having extra 50 armor wasn't that good, and now having two starting grenades that don't do much to the playstyle.


SWAT doesn't knockdown zeds. It stumbles them and that depends on the 100% stumble skill. This skill could be somehow useful for scrakes and FPs but since the GS can reach up to 50% the 10% extra damage is not that much.
An extra headshot damage of 10% is kind of good but relatively low,

Well, it seems you've nerfed the SWAT with these skills. You've also removed the 30% extra ammo skill (Ammo Vest) and replaced it with 25%. Good nerf.

Mag size change:
The mag size increase of the Swat is 4% for each lv (thus 100% at lv 25.) Juggernaut gives 1% mag size for each point of armor, so having 100 body armor gives 100% mag size. Normally at lv 5 you would have 20% mag size, but by basing it off of armor you can get 100% at lv 5. If combined with Heavy armor, you could have up to 150 Body armor and thus up to 150% mag size.

Move speed:
Why should the Swat be as fast as the gunslinger? Maybe my move speed buff was low, but that doesn't mean a "tanky perk" Should have the kite-ability of the best move speed class.

Damage Reduction:
I was being conservative as Body armor takes reduced damage.

Swat shouldn't be accuracy based:
Many of the swats weapons have like zero recoil when in single fire mode and little recoil when doing rapid fire. As for the damage amount, going from 0 damage boosts to 10% is quite a bit. Also the 10% number comes from being consistent with Dead Eye's 10% head shot damage while using iron sites.

Grenades and Armor:
The Grenades are flashbangs that stun and/or stumble zeds which works with the idea of the Swat haveing CC and also works with Suppresion rounds Damage boost for CC.

CC of the Swat:
I included the word knockdown because that is what battering ram calls its cc (also jumping on top of Zeds head is probably a knockdown.)

30% ammo boost to 25%:
The 30% ammo boost was the tradeoff for the 100% stumble power. Getting half of a skill for free by the same lv then 5/6s of it by lv 25 should be a buff for at least for that part of the Swat.
(Also why did you repost the same comment twice with only a small difference, You could have just edited the first one.)

 

[Humam2104]

(Also why did you repost the same comment twice with only a small difference, You could have just edited the first one.)

I was out and posted from my phone. I deleted the other one.

I was being conservative as Body armor takes reduced damage.

Well, we lose body armor quickly at higher difficulties because of the zed teleportation mechanic in the game.. so, yeah.

have up to 150 Body armor and thus up to 150% mag size.

What if you don't have any armor left? you're back to 0 right?

"tanky perk" Should have the kite-ability of the best move speed class.

Well, it's a tanky perk on lower difficulties and solo mostly

Many of the swats weapons have like zero recoil when in single fire mode and little recoil when doing rapid fire. As for the damage amount, going from 0 damage boosts to 10% is quite a bit. Also the 10% number comes from being consistent with Dead Eye's 10% head shot damage while using iron sites.

Well, that's true, but the SWAT doesn't have the high damage that SS has. Look at the gunslinger and his REU, new Steady skill. together they give 155% damage. That's a huge number for a gun like the the DEAGLE or the Magnum.

The Grenades are flashbangs that stun and/or stumble zeds which works with the idea of the Swat having CC

Well, the flashbangs could have a larger radius and more damage, no argument there. but is it really worth a skill instead of having it as a passive skill?

also jumping on top of Zeds head is probably a knockdown.

They nerfed this, so we won't be able to do it as often.

Why should the Swat be as fast as the gunslinger?

Well, the GS is fast and causes high DPS. and SWAT is slow and has low damage. so at least give him speed?