1
Reference:
https://static.mwome..._11-15-2016.pdf
I'll just list quirks as they are listed, and just for the sake of people being occasionally being error prone... I'll match up quirks of the same type with letter designations.
Listed in the order they appear in the document (as posted at approximately 4PM EST):
SMN-B CT
Energy Heat Gen -10% (A)
Acceleration 70% (
Deceleration 70% (C)
Turn Rate 35% (D)
Torso Yaw Speed 40% (E)
Reverse Speed 5% (F)
Speed 5% (G)
Add Structure CT 11 (H)
SMN-C CT
Energy Heat Gen -10% (A)
Acceleration 70% (
Deceleration 70% (C)
Turn Rate 35% (D)
Torso Yaw Speed 40% (E)
Reverse Speed 5% (F)
Speed 5% (G)
Add Structure CT 11 (H)
SMN-D CT
Energy Heat Gen -10% (A)
Acceleration 70% (
Deceleration 70% (C)
Turn Rate 35% (D)
Torso Yaw Speed 40% (E)
Reverse Speed 5% (F)
Speed 5% (G)
Torso Angle Yaw 9
Add Structure CT 11 (H)
SMN-F CT
Energy Heat Gen -10% (A)
Acceleration 70% (
Deceleration 70% (C)
Turn Rate 35% (D)
Torso Yaw Speed 40% (E)
Reverse Speed 5% (F)
Speed 5% (G)
Add Structure CT 11 (H)
SMN-M CT
Energy Heat Gen -10% (A)
Acceleration 70% (
Deceleration 70% (C)
Turn Rate 35% (D)
Torso Yaw Speed 40% (E)
Reverse Speed 5% (F)
Speed 5% (G)
Add Structure CT 11 (H)
SMN-PRIME CT
Energy Heat Gen -10% (A)
Acceleration 70% (
Deceleration 70% (C)
Turn Rate 35% (D)
Torso Yaw Speed 40% (E)
Speed 5% (G)
Add Structure CT 11 (H)
SMN-PD CT (Hero)
Acceleration 70% (
Deceleration 70% (C)
Turn Rate 35% (D)
Torso Yaw Speed 40% (E)
Speed 5% (G)
Add Structure CT 11 (H)
On the surface, if you look at the awful copy+pasting job of our balance overlord... the hero has arguably the worst quirks, followed by the Prime variant... with the D variant having the penultimate quirks.
Such a quality job from a quality overlord right?
Let's dig in further to some of the other quirks... particularly from the Hero and compare a few sections...
SMN-PD LA (2B)
Add Structure 15
UAC Velocity 10%
SMN-PRIME LA (1B)
LBX Spread -10%
LBX Velocity 30%
Ballistic Cooldown 10%
Add Structure 11
SMN-M LA (1B)
LBX Spread -10%
LBX Velocity 30%
Ballistic Cooldown 10%
Add Structure 11
SMN-F LA (1E, 1B - only listed as 1B on the PDF)
UAC Range 5%
ER laser range 5%
SMN-C LA (1B)
UAC Jam Chance -30%
UAC Velocity 20%
Ballistic Cooldown 10%
Add Structure 11
SMN-B LA (2M)
Missle Velocity 2%
So basically... the new hero's 2B dakka arm has MORE STRUCTURE than most of its 1B counterparts. The 2M arm doesn't get any love for whatever reason, but whatever, the dakka arms get more love in the form of structure (the hybrid 1B+1E arm gets some alright quirks) and still gains the UAC velocity quirk, which is pretty important unless you like the jam chances of the SMN-C's arm.
Mind you, most dakka build options tend to use the dakka torsos... so the uses will be for the bonuses though. It doesn't justify the structure buff on the new hero.
SMN-PD LT (1E+AMS)
Add Structure 20
SMN-Prime LT (1M)
Missile Velocity 5%
SRM Spread 10%
LRM Spread 10%
SMN-M LT (1E, 1M)
No Quirks
SMN-F LT (1M)
LRM spread -10%
Add Structure 15
Missile velocity 10%
SMN-D LT (1B+AMS)
MGun RoF 10%
AMS RoF 10%
AMS Range 5%
SMN-C LT (1M)
Add Structure 15
Missile cooldown 5%
SMN-B LT (1M+AMS)
AMS Range 10%
AMS RoF 10%
NARC Range 50
NARC Duration 10
Add Structure 15
So, we have the dakka torso to have no bonus structure... I guess it's for good reason. Then again, the structure quirks are all over the place... where the combo 1E+1M torso gets nothing (which is fine), but the SMN-Prime's LT has potentially the "most offense", yet velocity+structure are greater overriding factors.
Still, this doesn't point out the egregious structure buff on the hero variant... where it is perfect for the current Summoner-PPC build meta... reinforcing that section w/o consequence (not an issue for MRBC/leagues necessarily, but it's certainly a build defining option for the Summoner).
SMN-PD RT
Add Structure 20
Energy Range 5%
SMN-PRIME RT
Energy Cooldown 5%
Energy Heat Gen -5%
SMN-M RT
Energy Range 5%
Energy Heat Gen -5%
SMN-F RT (1E)
No Quirks
SMN-D RT (1B+AMS)
MGun RoF 10%
AMS RoF 10%
AMS Range 5%
SMN-C RT
Torso Angle Yaw 5
Add Structure 15
Ballistic Range 10%
Ballistic Cooldown 5%
SMN-B RT
Turn Rate 5%
Add Structure 15
So, normally you'd see some structure gains on the weaponless sections, but then again we have the SMN-M and SMN-PRIME not having it.
Again, the one that's "above" the rest is still the hero RT omnipod. However, the energy hardpoint of SMN-F is probably going to see the most use across the board, despite that. Still, it doesn't mean the PD should have a more useful omnipod than some of its alternatives.
SMN-PD RA (1E)
Add Structure 15
ER laser Heat gen -5%
SMN-PRIME RA (1E)
Energy Cooldown 5%
ERPPC Cooldown 5%
ERPPC Velocity 30%
Add Structure 11
SMN-M RA (1E)
Energy Cooldown 5%
ERPPC Cooldown 5%
ERPPC Velocity 30%
Add Structure 11
SMN-F RA (1E, 1B)
UAC Range 5%
ER laser range 5%
SMN-D RA (2E)
Er Laser Range 5%
SMN-C RA (2E)
Laser Duration -5%
SMN-B RA (2M)
Missle Velocity 2%
While I could see some justification for the 1E arm of the hero, it still has more structure than the rest, despite not having ideal firepower gains. Having more structure than the ERPPC arm kinda bothers me a little.
TL;DR
When you compare quirks, it is blatantly obvious our balance overlord didn't do a good enough job copying and pasting quirks for the CT. While it "could look" like a "different way" to balance Summoner quirks in terms of stock or omnipod sets, the hero variant omnipods (outside of the CT) when looked in a vacuum are generally superior omnipods to the alternatives (for the particular energy builds that are optimal for Summoners).
It feels like another instance of the Dartboard of Balance at work... but ultimately it actually demonstrates that there isn't one clear and obvious message on how to approach balance from an omnimech quirk combo level, and that's a symptom of poor balance in a more broader and general sense.
It could be argued powercreep in some form for the new hero and it may sell at the end of the day... but it is balance just done haphazardly at minimum and can be intentional powercreep at worse.
Edited by Deathlike, 11 November 2016 - 02:37 PM.
