Nidhoggr Is Fine But Shredder Is Busted
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Everyone and their mother has expressed negative feelings towards Shredder at one point or another so I'll keep that portion of this post short.
The only way to consistently shutdown a Nidhoggr Shredder build is to take him on in a melee duel. There is one problem with that, a big problem. Nidhoggr wants to fight you in melee. His basic attack damage is the highest per hit and considering he has built in lifesteal taking him on in melee isn't exactly a satisfying solution. Shredder is really cool and gives Nidhoggr a method of playing like a hybrid hero (melee and ranged basic attack) but it is flat out too strong. Even Cass, a true hybrid, has less ranged and melee damage than Nid and on top of that Nid applies his passive with Shredder and chains between multiple targets. To make matters worse for Cass, she has to use a different ability, a different button, for each of her basic attacks, Nid doesn't. Nid gets to keep his other ability slots for abilities. Of course Cass has mobility but the sheer damage output, simplicity, and how easy Shredder build is to use is the problem. Spamming Shredder is the problem.
Playing games with some people over the weekend I heard some good ideas and shared some of my own to fix Shredder, prevent spamming, without killing the build or the ability altogether.
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Shredder range starts small but grows as you charge it. This prevents Nid from shooting out lightning bolts constantly since he needs to wait for the range to grow large enough to reach his target.
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Shredder has increased charge time. Shouldn't need anymore explanation there.
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Shredder chain range is substantially reduced. This would allow him to spam but would prevent him from burning multiple targets with EVERY cast.
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Shredder no longer chains. This would make the mod that allows it to chain to two targets now only give Shredder one jump.
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Burn passive deals less damage. I don't like this one but if NT refuses to nerf Shredder something has to happen to the burn effect. Less damage is the easy call. It could have its duration reduced. Simple nerfs but sometimes simple is best.
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This one is extreme but could be really cool. Swap Shredder with Fire breath. This would put Shredder on a CD. Now Fire breath would activate by holding the basic attack button and could function differently. First of all it could be a channeled ability. Meaning as long as you hold the button you KEEP breathing fire. Imagine how brutal it would be to give Nid a Good Omen shield so he can't be interrupted by hit stun and then have him exhale percentage based HP damage at a tank. Sounds pretty cool to me. This change would require some changes to mods, specifically the CDR on hit mod for Fire Breath. In this case Fire Breath would no longer have a CD but Shredder would so NT would have to transfer that mod to the new Shredder.
I know that last one might be difficult to fully comprehend but it would prevent Shredder spam while opening the door to a new way to build and play Nid.
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