Power Cells Strategies Abused
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Keep running into 2 strategies (as well as exploiting them myself if the team knows what's up) that are pretty broken.
Makutu Invulnerability Super when handing in cells - If Makutu uses his "Can't Touch Us" Super, he or any of his team that benefit from it cannot be interrupted when handing in cells, no matter what. It lasts the entire duration it takes to hand in the cells as well (edit: with a mod). It's a guaranteed win if you pull it off basically.
Daemon Invisibility hoarding cells - Daemon will collect all the cells during the course of the game whether that be passively breaking the cells or collecting them from the opposition at the end of the first team fight. He will then just sit in his invisibility until either 2 points are open and the team gets split up/distracted or at the end of a team wipe or just being patient and picking the right opportunity. Slightly less of a guaranteed victory as the one above but it's a completely boring strategy to play against and once you know Daemon has around 10+ cells, you pretty much know you've lost.
You could try to make the argument that you should "just focus Makutu/Daemon so they can't pull these off" but it's much easier said than done. Unless you absolutely steamroll the opposition, there's no realistically stopping either strategy from being used against you even if you are the superior team.
I realise posting this may actually increase the number of these strategies being used if people didn't already know about them, hoping the right people see it though and it can be altered because after the first time where you're like "wow nice strategy", it becomes ridiculously overpowered and not fun to play against.
I'd suggest not allowing Makutu or any of his team to hand in cells whilst invulnerable. And Daemon's infinite invisibility mod to be removed entirely because it drives me nuts
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@x-AmberPrice In a melee heavy based brawler autolock tps I don't think an unlimited invis mode should exist cause it doesn't encourage fights, but just standing there and running to the target with low health and finishing them off.
How many time we lost just because one daemon carried 22 cells and got to the second point, even when we played like a team and steamrolled, they still win with their garbage solo plays, it infuriates me.
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Sorry I just... really don't agree. First of all, if the enemy team is able to horde all the power cells, consider that it's either cause you're losing team fights or your team isn't gathering them in the first place, the latter of which is a huge problem and you deserve to lose.
The Makutu strategy really threw me for a loop when I saw it. I'm not totally against it though - it's a valid strategy, but what it needs right now is a solid counter. I THINK Mekko's bubble super will work on invulnerable targets, which will be a great counter setup. You also only need to run it if Makutu is going the mod for Can't Touch Us which increases the duration (I've tried it without the mod, doesn't work!), so it's not like it's every time you go Power Cell Collection. So if that's the case when Mekko comes out I won't have a problem with it. It is a VERY strong strategy though, and it's not easy to deal with at all.
I'm not concerned about the Daemon thing at all. The fact that they're able to win while you're 4v3 the entire time tells me your team is just doing very poorly. If you manage to get even half the cells and then are winning every teamfight, there's nothing the Daemon can do by hiding the entire game. Also, there already exists a counter for this in terms of abilities, so get Stalker. Even if you don't run Miko, you really should ALWAYS be watching secondary points when they open up and hovering on them to stop turn-ins. That has nothing to do with Daemon, ANY character can sneak a turn-in if you're not paying attention, and by the time they're turning in it's way too late to run over and stop them (unless you're Maeve with peek-a-brew!). So I will never agree that this is a problem.
Also, am I the only one who plays this game that can see stealthed characters?? If I'm already chasing a Daemon and he uses stealth there's a solid chance he's not getting away from me if I have something I can use quickly. He moves pretty fast though so there's that. But they can't do anything while stealthed, so the second they pop up, map vision is often so forgiving you can tell where they are anyway. Or just look at the disappearing power cell canisters. The cooldown on stealth is massive, so you have plenty of time to go try and catch him with your team the moment he pops up to grab cells.
There's actually a rather advanced form of this strategy I just realized. So you drop all your power cells when you go back to base right? You can focus on gathering with your whole team, pass off it all to a Daemon, then do this strat. There is some methods to deal with that though. I still think it's fairly easy to win in this situation if all the Daemon is doing is hiding like a loser, but it's a good way to put all your power cells on a Cass or Daemon if you're looking for a free turn in opportunity because the enemy isn't paying attention to the other objective - which is their own fault.
I wish to promote strategy in this game, so I want more valid strategies like these that also have decent counterplay. It should be your own fault for falling for it. In Daemon's case that's true, in Makutu's case... not so much but that might work itself out or need to be nerfed.
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@Evade-This5965 said in Power Cells Strategies Abused:
Sorry I just... really don't agree. First of all, if the enemy team is able to horde all the power cells, consider that it's either cause you're losing team fights or your team isn't gathering them in the first place, the latter of which is a huge problem and you deserve to lose.
The Makutu strategy really threw me for a loop when I saw it. I'm not totally against it though - it's a valid strategy, but what it needs right now is a solid counter. I THINK Mekko's bubble super will work on invulnerable targets, which will be a great counter setup. You also only need to run it if Makutu is going the mod for Can't Touch Us which increases the duration (I've tried it without the mod, doesn't work!), so it's not like it's every time you go Power Cell Collection. So if that's the case when Mekko comes out I won't have a problem with it. It is a VERY strong strategy though, and it's not easy to deal with at all.
I'm not concerned about the Daemon thing at all. The fact that they're able to win while you're 4v3 the entire time tells me your team is just doing very poorly. If you manage to get even half the cells and then are winning every teamfight, there's nothing the Daemon can do by hiding the entire game. Also, there already exists a counter for this in terms of abilities, so get Stalker. Even if you don't run Miko, you really should ALWAYS be watching secondary points when they open up and hovering on them to stop turn-ins. That has nothing to do with Daemon, ANY character can sneak a turn-in if you're not paying attention, and by the time they're turning in it's way too late to run over and stop them (unless you're Maeve with peek-a-brew!). So I will never agree that this is a problem.
Also, am I the only one who plays this game that can see stealthed characters?? If I'm already chasing a Daemon and he uses stealth there's a solid chance he's not getting away from me if I have something I can use quickly. He moves pretty fast though so there's that. But they can't do anything while stealthed, so the second they pop up, map vision is often so forgiving you can tell where they are anyway. Or just look at the disappearing power cell canisters. The cooldown on stealth is massive, so you have plenty of time to go try and catch him with your team the moment he pops up to grab cells.
There's actually a rather advanced form of this strategy I just realized. So you drop all your power cells when you go back to base right? You can focus on gathering with your whole team, pass off it all to a Daemon, then do this strat. There is some methods to deal with that though. I still think it's fairly easy to win in this situation if all the Daemon is doing is hiding like a loser, but it's a good way to put all your power cells on a Cass or Daemon if you're looking for a free turn in opportunity because the enemy isn't paying attention to the other objective - which is their own fault.
I wish to promote strategy in this game, so I want more valid strategies like these that also have decent counterplay. It should be your own fault for falling for it. In Daemon's case that's true, in Makutu's case... not so much but that might work itself out or need to be nerfed.
I agree with the majority of this post. I've encountered the Makutu strategy a few times already and I'm not even convinced it's problematic enough to warrant change. The focus in Power Cell shouldn't be all about the team fights exchanged at the point of delivery. If you're anticipating a Makutu play, then cut the enemy team off and hold some choke points to prevent them from even getting to a delivery zone in the first place. As for the Daemon strategy, I'm not the least bit concerned about it. I would actually prefer if most of my matches were spent as a 3v4 with a loner roaming around carrying 10+ cells. And nope, no problem on my end seeing invisible targets. Worth a mention - I also believe Bastardo cannot be interrupted while using his Unkillable Super although I could be wrong. Haven't encountered that enough yet and I'm unsure if some things can still affect him.
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I was expecting people to defend the Daemon invisibility but not the Makutu strategy. I don't really know what else to say, maybe you have barely experienced it? I'm not trying to flex but I've played an absolute shit ton and either I do it or the enemy team does it in ~ 1 in 3 Power Cells match now and it's never been stopped once. Unless your team is already steamrolling so much that the other team can barely set foot outside spawn. As long as you stick together and aren't new to the game then it's too powerful.
if the enemy team is able to horde all the power cells, consider that it's either cause you're losing team fights or your team isn't gathering them in the first place,
By that logic every game would end 50-0 in OBJ score though? Most Power Cells matches that aren't extremely one sided tend to fluctuate quite massively between ourselves having loads of cells or the other team having loads of cells. There's usually a minimum of 3 collection periods per game if it doesn't turn into TDM so 3 opportunities to collect cells no matter what. Minimum.
You also only need to run it if Makutu is going the mod for Can't Touch Us which increases the duration
Yes so if you're going for that strategy then you're obviously going to have that Mod equipped so it doesn't matter.
I THINK Mekko's bubble super will work on invulnerable targets
I don't actually think it will since literally nothing else does in the entire game and would kinda defeat the purpose of invulnerability if it was invulnerable to everything but Mekko's bubble. It's a keyword. So Daemon would be able to be bubbled in his Shadow Strike and Maeve vanishing which I doubt would be a thing.
I don't think it deserves a counter at all. It's so good that every match would eventually end up as - not using whatever the counter is = loss. Very stale boring meta. Very stale boring strategy.
Even if it did, so the only thing to counter it is a specific SUPER from a specific character? That would be the worst meta ever.
Just disable handing into the point whilst in his invulnerability Super like invisibility already does, solves everything and nerfs nothing fundamental about the Super.
The fact that they're able to win while you're 4v3 the entire time tells me your team is just doing very poorly
There's so many more variables to that though. It's usually once Daemon has a ridiculous amount of cells when he fully disengages from the fight and remains invisible, and that's the only target our team cares about at that point. He can collect them winning team fights, passively collecting them himself, letting his team collect them for him, etc. Like I said you're banking on steamrolling the opponent for the strategy to have little chance in working. It's like your whole team have to go 0 deaths so you're always matching 4 against however many they have alive. Very rare that happens, even rarer if you're not steamrolling. It can and it HAS won games many times when the better team by far has lost to Daemon hoarding a ton of cells and nothing more.
You can still achieve that strategy without the infinite invisibility mod, it's the mod that makes it broken because he will never be found once he has a set amount of cells.
Also, there already exists a counter for this in terms of abilities, so get Stalker.
Again...one specific Super on one specific character is the only reliable counter? Boring meta boring strategies again. I've never once seen it actually make a difference in that situation either to be honest but it has potential to.
you really should ALWAYS be watching secondary points when they open up and hovering on them to stop turn-ins.
Obviously, but how do you know which one he's going to pop up at? By the time you realise, you're either really split or too far to get there in time, especially on the moving Aqueducts points. It's easier said than done again because there's so many variables involved and it's far easier to be distracted in some sort of situation and it's rare you're just gonna be all fully healed and prepared to deal with that scenario occurring while the other 3 on the enemy team are dead or doing nothing.
ANY character can sneak a turn-in if you're not paying attention
Of course but you can follow them, track through walls, know of their whereabouts, etc. Daemons just pops up on the point and triggers a ~4 second timer to do something about it.
am I the only one who plays this game that can see stealthed characters??
You can, but barely, and only when they're really close to you. Even then, only AoE abilities can get him out of stealth because you can't lock onto him with basic attacks.
So you drop all your power cells when you go back to base right? You can focus on gathering with your whole team, pass off it all to a Daemon, then do this strat
Yeah this already happens a lot and it's the same with the Makutu strategy even though it doesn't necessarily have to be Makutu that hands it in, it's just easier. For me it's no different to just camping out with cells in the actual spawn room which was changed pre Alpha so you drop cells outside.
I wish to promote strategy in this game,
So do I, massively! And there's some amazing strategies but these two are completely unfun, incredibly difficult to counter and have massive value. It's unbelievably frustrating and boring both pulling off and being the victim of this strategy already and the game has been out less than a week.
@Cold-Conduct
If you're anticipating a Makutu play, then cut the enemy team off and hold some choke points to prevent them from even getting to a delivery zone in the first place
Again that's massively situational, easier said than done and way too many variables going on all of the time. Makutu is arguably the toughest character to actually take down as well. 2 healers surrounding him and he's a LUMP.
I also believe Bastardo cannot be interrupted while using his Unkillable Super
Bastardo can be interrupted whilst unkillable.
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@x-AmberPrice
he didnt defend the makutu strat. said they needed to add a counter to it. and was hoping mekkos bubble would counter it. at least that is how i interperated his writing.and while the daemon strat is a good one. it does leave your team to fight 3 v 4s. now the other team should be winning these fights and if not they deserve to lose. and if they are winning these. they should be able to collect more cells then the daemon.
the way i use daemon is i will still fight with my team but if its looking bad i will dash out and invis away. and only come back in to collect the dropped cells of my teamates.
also like evade said. just look at the disapearing cannisters. you yourself can easily cancel him from collecting or sneak up on him yourself. just takes some coordination. people also have abilities that reveal invisibility.
i think the problem here is people get tunnel vision. it becomes a oh my god daemon has 20 cells we better soley focus on killing their team, rather than omg they have 20 cells we better farm 30 and kill them when its hand in time.
while its a good strat i dont think its impossible to beat. you can always simply have a daemon on your own team to invis stalk your way to killing that daemon, or to do the same kind of cell farming
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@x-AmberPrice @Evade-This5965
Some really interesting takes on how to approach power cells, thanks for posting your thoughts.
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Cass isn't invulnerable or invisible though. She's good but there's ways to counter her. Maeve Cage for example. You catch her in that thing and you can do 75% of her health yourself before she can even move. If Cass is roaming around the map trying to collect cells then it's likely she's on her own as well. Of course caging her doesn't mean instant death but it gives you a massive chance. That's where skill comes in - can you dodge the cage, avoid the Maeve encounter in the first place, exploit her crazy flying maneouvers, etc. With Daemon/Makutu it's just 1 press of the button with little to no counter (see above posts)
edit: you can just reply here with your opinion next time instead of talking behind my back
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@ivowns
Yeah I'd argue it's the only consistent counter to his infinite stealth in Power Cells, but it's tied down to 1 specific Super on 1 specific character. Even then, it doesn't last that long, and if Daemon can just survive the duration of Stalker then you're completely out of counters again until you regain your Super.
Cass collecting cells for example is good, but land any sort of cc stun on her and she's dead if she's alone.
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@x-AmberPrice said in Power Cells Strategies Abused:
@ivowns
Yeah I'd argue it's the only consistent counter to his infinite stealth in Power Cells, but it's tied down to 1 specific Super on 1 specific character. Even then, it doesn't last that long, and if Daemon can just survive the duration of Stalker then you're completely out of counters again until you regain your Super.
Cass collecting cells for example is good, but land any sort of cc stun on her and she's dead if she's alone.
It's a matter of strategy, your team has to pick the right characters to counter the enemy team. If they have a Daemon, consider to have one too and maybe a Miko with Stealth.
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@ivowns
It's a pretty stale meta then if someone is hoarding cells with Daemon and you have to pick 1 character and use 1 Super or else you lose unless the Daemon messes up.
A lot of the time the value is in how spontaneous it can happen. I don't think a lot of Daemon players strategise from the beginning of the match to passively collect cells all game and not fight at all. You can just suddenly end up with a bunch of cells after a team fight, then all you have to do from there is disengage and sit in stealth until an opportunity arises to sneakily hand in. You might not have time to switch to Miko and wait for her Super to charge every time, and again, even if you do, it's not guaranteed you're gonna catch him. He could be the other side of the map. He can keep himself alive reasonably well too, e.g. Shift Strike, slow with Shurikens, Shadow Strike invulnerability. Like Cass, you have to cc stun him once you've Miko Stealth'd to really begin to guarantee the kill.
It's just a lot of what ifs and situational circumstances. My opinion hasn't changed in that it is just a really cheesy "strategy" that shouldn't live alongside the many great strategies you can pull off that require more than 1 press of a button and putting your feet up.
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@MyOldXbox said in Power Cells Strategies Abused:
@Evade-This5965 said in Power Cells Strategies Abused:
Sorry I just... really don't agree. First of all, if the enemy team is able to horde all the power cells, consider that it's either cause you're losing team fights or your team isn't gathering them in the first place, the latter of which is a huge problem and you deserve to lose.
The Makutu strategy really threw me for a loop when I saw it. I'm not totally against it though - it's a valid strategy, but what it needs right now is a solid counter. I THINK Mekko's bubble super will work on invulnerable targets, which will be a great counter setup. You also only need to run it if Makutu is going the mod for Can't Touch Us which increases the duration (I've tried it without the mod, doesn't work!), so it's not like it's every time you go Power Cell Collection. So if that's the case when Mekko comes out I won't have a problem with it. It is a VERY strong strategy though, and it's not easy to deal with at all.
I'm not concerned about the Daemon thing at all. The fact that they're able to win while you're 4v3 the entire time tells me your team is just doing very poorly. If you manage to get even half the cells and then are winning every teamfight, there's nothing the Daemon can do by hiding the entire game. Also, there already exists a counter for this in terms of abilities, so get Stalker. Even if you don't run Miko, you really should ALWAYS be watching secondary points when they open up and hovering on them to stop turn-ins. That has nothing to do with Daemon, ANY character can sneak a turn-in if you're not paying attention, and by the time they're turning in it's way too late to run over and stop them (unless you're Maeve with peek-a-brew!). So I will never agree that this is a problem.
Also, am I the only one who plays this game that can see stealthed characters?? If I'm already chasing a Daemon and he uses stealth there's a solid chance he's not getting away from me if I have something I can use quickly. He moves pretty fast though so there's that. But they can't do anything while stealthed, so the second they pop up, map vision is often so forgiving you can tell where they are anyway. Or just look at the disappearing power cell canisters. The cooldown on stealth is massive, so you have plenty of time to go try and catch him with your team the moment he pops up to grab cells.
There's actually a rather advanced form of this strategy I just realized. So you drop all your power cells when you go back to base right? You can focus on gathering with your whole team, pass off it all to a Daemon, then do this strat. There is some methods to deal with that though. I still think it's fairly easy to win in this situation if all the Daemon is doing is hiding like a loser, but it's a good way to put all your power cells on a Cass or Daemon if you're looking for a free turn in opportunity because the enemy isn't paying attention to the other objective - which is their own fault.
I wish to promote strategy in this game, so I want more valid strategies like these that also have decent counterplay. It should be your own fault for falling for it. In Daemon's case that's true, in Makutu's case... not so much but that might work itself out or need to be nerfed.
I agree with the majority of this post. I've encountered the Makutu strategy a few times already and I'm not even convinced it's problematic enough to warrant change. The focus in Power Cell shouldn't be all about the team fights exchanged at the point of delivery. If you're anticipating a Makutu play, then cut the enemy team off and hold some choke points to prevent them from even getting to a delivery zone in the first place. As for the Daemon strategy, I'm not the least bit concerned about it. I would actually prefer if most of my matches were spent as a 3v4 with a loner roaming around carrying 10+ cells. And nope, no problem on my end seeing invisible targets. Worth a mention - I also believe Bastardo cannot be interrupted while using his Unkillable Super although I could be wrong. Haven't encountered that enough yet and I'm unsure if some things can still affect him.
Literally explained how to counter the makutu strat right here in simple terms. Now if your solo Q team isnt doing this then there isnt much you can do other than be more aggressive/proactive for the cells during collection phase to deny makutu. I hope other people can understand that the delivery phase isnt the only phase and collection is just as important.
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@x-AmberPrice You're right, I apologise, I was rather frustrated with the game and NT in general and used you as a way to vent and take out frustration, so again, my apologies my dude.
As for Daemon, it's quite simple to deal with him, if there's 2 hand in points and he's hoarding cells, then one of your team needs to be at the off point to deal with him. Also his stealth is easy to counter, if you can spot his shimmer then any ranged can knock him out of stealth, if not there are abilities like Bastardo's Empower which automatically deals damage in a globe(?) around him, which will pop Daemon out of stealth. Ultimately, it just takes a bit of thinking and implementing a basic strategy to deal with the Daemon. As a Daemon player myself I don't go for the horde the cells playstyle, as I find it really boring, and am not a fan of carrying a lot of cells, but I do normally shutdown enemy Daemon's that do try this strategy.
Cass on the other hand is way more mobile, sure some cc does shut her down, and again most Cass players just aren't very good with her, with only a handful being able to play her to her full potential, like our good buddy Gunked here. As I have seen multiple times either in match or watching Gunked he's a really slippery player and is hard to lock down or chase to an off point as again Cass is just extremely mobile. But then again, the same arguement does arise for dealing with Cass as it does for Daemon, just need to have someone at the off point to stop her hand in, the problem there though is she can get back to the rest of the team faster than anyone else, and has a hugely impactful ultimate, so even if say a Maeve catches her at an off point, she's just gonna run after the cage drops, IF it hits her, and rejoin the team fight while Maeve is mounting up and will get there later.
As for the Makutu cheese, you need to hard engage him before hand in point comes up, so he doesn't get a chance to cheese hand in on point. Or just horde all the cells yourself, so he becomes even more useless. Personally I don't like Makutu on cells as the only thing he really brings is the hand in cheese, and is easy to deal with before hand in phase.
Also @Gunked on console you cannot see the shadows, but the shimmer is still there, so Daemon is harder to spot for us console plebs
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I think there's just certain situations where these 2 strategies can literally be "abused" to cheese a win that feels incredibly unrewarding, rather than something you can pull off every match if you strategise from the start.
I actually made this thread during release week, so nearly 2 months ago. I'm not encountering either strategy as much as I used to but I think that's more because it's pretty boring to pull off consistently. As mentioned more recently in this thread by you and others, there are ways to stop it, whilst also remaining almost unstoppable in certain circumstances. There are still some games that feel incredibly cheated out of, being in solo queue is irrelevant. Personally, I still don't think either deserve a place in the game but it's very much my experience vs yours so we'll agree to half agree and half disagree
I think if I use that argument with the Daemon strategy then it's only fair I apply it to Cass. There are certain situations she can be effective too, even more so by certain players like you said, so I definitely get your point. I feel like, with Cass, it's much more skill based. Whereas with the Daemon + Makutu strategies, there's not nearly as much skill involved in my opinion. Hence the "cheese"
In regards to Daemon, I play on a standard xbox one, on a TV, on wifi, so probably the worst possible set up. I can only see Daemon if he's literally within Buttercup's width of me otherwise he's completely invisible. There are definitely abilities like El Bastardo's Empower that can easily de-cloak him, but it's usually only effective once you've seen him enter stealth, otherwise he could be hiding absolutely anywhere around the map.
I think it's been proven that some find it a problem, whilst it may not be a problem for you, it's not because people are "frustrated at their solo queue experience".
I find it ironic you think I am frustrated with my solo queue experience when you literally report people on your team that have just contributed to winning a match because they weren't up to your "standards". I don't get the ego at all. I get being frustrated at matching with new players who make it very difficult to enjoy the match. I get the general video game rage. I don't get constantly being toxic to everyone, regardless of whether you've even win or not, and the players in the lobby aren't within your circle of players.
We are such a small community that is becoming smaller and smaller everyday. One of the pros of playing as many solo queue matches as I have is that you hear a lot of opinions on the game from people in voice chat and learn a lot about how the community are feeling. I think it's extremely telling that the most frequent thing I've heard personally is how many toxic players people encounter, and how many automatically think they're better than everyone in the lobby and are never ever to blame. We all make misplays. We all have our own reasons to back certain plays. We all have our own opinions from our perspective of the match.
It's not just you but it breeds from other players acquainted with you. It has genuinely affected my experience on the game as I don't play it nearly as much as I used to and it's not because I don't enjoy the game itself anymore. I'm tired of dealing with egos and toxicity in the majority of matches I play. I know it isn't specific to Bleeding Edge either but I genuinely don't think I've played a game where it's been this much of an issue.
The Alpha was the golden period for me because people played to have a good time. Nobody cared that the people on their team weren't perfect. We'd just queue up again. We still had very competitive games, in fact I'd argue more so than present day Bleeding Edge. The difference was that there was never some self righteous perfect player spamming text chat or shouting down the mic or standing in spawn to prove a petty point or jumping off the map and purposely throwing just because of egos.
Very off topic but it was a rant I needed.
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I agree something should be done but i think nerfing the duration of his ult or removing perma invisibility will set a bad tone of caving in for the slightest problems for the game. I think fixing stealth to reveal when interacting with cells such as picking up or turning it reveals you in stealth.
Then for makuta just make it to where you cant turn in while ultimate is in use but not just for makuta but everyone. Like gizmo can't turn in during mech or meeko cant during his sonic wave.
This way it can seem more of a healthy fix to the game and not a targeted hard nerf to makuta and daemon. However they choose to fix it i think it will be great long if it's not aimed to make the game stop being fun because perma stealth is a really popular fun mod for people. (I think this as a person who never played even a minute of Daemon)