Give Gorge Umbra?
Techercizer
7th Player Join Date: 2011-06-11 Member: 103832Members
7th Player Join Date: 2011-06-11 Member: 103832Members
<div class="IPBDescription">He's already sort of a walking crag...</div>With the incoming building changes, the Gorge is planned to once again be able to contribute meaningfully with his buildings. Recent patches have however taken what was an arguably too powerful healing capability and demoted it to a sundry. The slow rate of fire, low healing rate, and limited energy sustainability all make the Gorge more fragile and less interactive with his fellow lifeforms than ever before.
What if we gave the Gorge another tactical option, though? Something he could offer that a quick trip to the hive wouldn't always do better? I propose the Gorge be able to *sneeze*, creating a small cloud of umbra under him that expands and fades in short time. This ability will allow a dedicated gorge to toughen up his Hydras by dousing them, and will let him buff other lifeforms in melee range by giving them an umbra coating for a short period of time. It would only work at approximately melee range; balance values could be tweaked, but ideally something shorter than heal spray would work. This would finally give the Gorge a combat option besides spam heal and hope to live or run away.
Balance-wise, we're not bringing anything new to the front lines here. Khams have been dropping Crags and puffing Umbra in the later parts of games for ages. We're allowing the tactic to be implemented for Pres instead of Tres, but we're doing it at the expense of energy and survivability; a Gorge that uses all his energy buffing his friends is a dead Gorge if any Marine gets near him.
Plus, think about it, don't you want to see a Gorge sneeze out a tiny little *achoo!* of umbra?
What if we gave the Gorge another tactical option, though? Something he could offer that a quick trip to the hive wouldn't always do better? I propose the Gorge be able to *sneeze*, creating a small cloud of umbra under him that expands and fades in short time. This ability will allow a dedicated gorge to toughen up his Hydras by dousing them, and will let him buff other lifeforms in melee range by giving them an umbra coating for a short period of time. It would only work at approximately melee range; balance values could be tweaked, but ideally something shorter than heal spray would work. This would finally give the Gorge a combat option besides spam heal and hope to live or run away.
Balance-wise, we're not bringing anything new to the front lines here. Khams have been dropping Crags and puffing Umbra in the later parts of games for ages. We're allowing the tactic to be implemented for Pres instead of Tres, but we're doing it at the expense of energy and survivability; a Gorge that uses all his energy buffing his friends is a dead Gorge if any Marine gets near him.
Plus, think about it, don't you want to see a Gorge sneeze out a tiny little *achoo!* of umbra?
Comments
Also, Babblers as pets.
But yeah, since BB is given to Lork, Umbra is more than welcome in my book. I just think that we should brainstorm some new, unique abilities for Gorge instead of resulting to existing ones, which could cause potential overlap.
Take Encrust for example: an overheal of armor is very useful, and perhaps for a stronger effect (if on Heal Spray and current RoF + Heal rate is kept) Encrust could restore armor while spray restores health, like how the Armory does for Marines.
I thought I heard that goo wall was going to be blocking bullets? With a mixture of that and Damage Soak, I am not so sure gorge umbra is really necessary.
Goo walls will be good static defense elements, but they don't help a combat Gorge support his allies without getting pincusioned; Umbra does.
Also, if Umbra starts unbalancing early-game Skulk v Marine fights, we could always make it a lifeform upgrade or tie it to 2nd hive. I think this feature has a place in both NS2's theme and its gameplay, balance tweaks pending.
apart from that it need a decent balance to get it to work
But yeah, since BB is given to Lork, Umbra is more than welcome in my book. I just think that we should brainstorm some new, unique abilities for Gorge instead of resulting to existing ones, which could cause potential overlap.
Take Encrust for example: an overheal of armor is very useful, and perhaps for a stronger effect (if on Heal Spray and current RoF + Heal rate is kept) Encrust could restore armor while spray restores health, like how the Armory does for Marines.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Encrust would be cool, the effect could be the alien getting extra armour parts allover it, would look really cool and convey the effect to players