The Great Tank Rework of 2021
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As with my last post that focused on reworking supports I have one for tanks as well. The purpose of the support rework was to make them all capable solo healers while simultanesouly kill double support. The tank reworks I will be describing are more to level the playing field and open team composition/builds. Double tank is a viable play style that I don't want to disappear unlike double support which is very anti fun to play against.
As with the support thread please try to imagine that bugs and exploits have been fixed (damage resistance lowering healing for example).
El Bastardo:
-New Passive- El Bastardo gains Unstoppable for .5 of a second after casting any ability (Leap of Faith, Death Spiral, Empower, and either Super): this will allow him to time abilities to ignore CC which will help him both apply pressure and peel. Since it is only .5 of a second per ability cast the longest he can chain the effect is for 2 seconds but since he can activate it off any ability he can essentially always have an Unstoppable up his sleeve when he needs it.
-Shield Passive- shields are now generated off every attack, they generate 75% of the current value (25% nerf per attack but an overall buff of 50%), and make it so shields are generated based on damage dealt: generating shields on every other attack is weird and awkward. By making it so they generate off every attack but also generate at a reduced value will add consistency to his kit without giving him an absurd boost to shield generation. Additionally, allowing him to generate shields based on the damage dealt allows mods related to damage to become more viable and Power Ups will be a useful resource for El Bastardo to control.
-Leap of Faith- improve tracking, fix buggy interactions, and reduce CD by 2 seconds: the tracking is worse the closer you get to your target, fix that. If Bastardo uses Leap of Faith on Barge, Launch, or Surge his ability gets completely nullified regardless of the angle he leaps at his target (if Bastardo comes at his target from behind he will get stunned and bounce off against Mekko or carried by Makutu and Buttercup). He already has a tough time against the other tanks so he doesn't need these interactions making it worse. The CD reduction is to help him stun more often, peel, and chase down targets. Basically, what he is supposed to do.
-Empower- add a slow to Empower and a mod to increase the range: either a short but strong slow or a moderate slow for a moderate duration will assist in peeling and chasing. Although another stun in his kit would be better it would also be a bit over the line. Increasingnthe range through a mod would make other Empower mods stronger as well as improve the ability overall.
-Supers- CD reduction on both: both Supers either have little impact or you need an ideal situation to make them work. By being able to cast them more often El Bastardo players should be able to find those situations more often.
-Health- increase Health to 875 and make his health mod 75 additional health: in the damage rework post I intend to make soon I will be nerfing Nidhoggr's health. El Bastardo never should have had less than Nid.Buttercup:
Honestly, no change. She is in a pretty good place right now and is mostly just overshadowed by Makutu. She could go a patch without any changes and feel relevant. Maybe something to her Super Turbocharger but she doesn't need anything major, maybe a CD reduction.Makutu:
-Huaki Stance- reduce damage buff to 25%: the current 50% bonus damage is absurd. I can't think of a single mod in the damage roster that is 50% so the fact that Makutu has it on demand in his base kit is bonkers.
-Huaki Uppercut- the uppercut would no longer stun shielded targets and heroes channeling abilities: being able to bully targets with shields is bad enough but being able to stun ANY channeled ability using a basic attack is brutal. By removing the ability to stun both Mekko and El Bastardo while they have shields will have counter play to Makutu and heroes who rely on channeled abilities will only have to worry about Makutu's Barge, Attraction/Repellent, and Katamori.
-Barge- reduce the hit box back to its original size: with the addition of Attraction getting good Barges off is much easier than it used to be so the increased hit box is unnecessary. Additionally, with the damage provided by Huaki Stance Barge shouldn't be easy to connect considering you deal more damage.
-Leg-it/Healthy- make there CD's separate but increase Leg-it's CD by 4 seconds: by making their CD's separate Makutu will be able to cast Healthy whenever it is off CD rewarding players for remembering when the ability is available and enabling Makutu to be a tank more focused on healing rather than resisting CC. Leg-it is absurdly good so by keeping it how it is but increasing the CD Makutu players will need to be precise with the ability and opponents who keep an eye out for them to use this ability can punish Makutu harder and for longer inbetween casts.
-Katamori- remove the ability to juggle players into corners and decrease the CD: although Makutu is a tank focused on disruption and setting up plays his ability to juggle someone into a corner and basically guarantee their death is busted. Making it so players can escape the corner while lowering the CD of the ability will make it less of a troll ability and closer to its intended goal of being a mass disruption Super.
-Mods- reduce the value of any damage mod by 50%: the man is a tank with a boatload of disruption and survivability so he truly doesn't need damage too. By nerfing his Huaki stance and any mods related to dealing damage will open up support mod builds and make it so his combos are more to set up allies instead of doing the majority of the damage himself.Mekko:
-Lifeline- make it so when the Lifeline target is bejng pulled to Mekko have it so the hero being pulled gains Unstoppable: pulling allies using Lifeline is a bit buggy and your ally won't always make it back. And when you think about it, getting stunned shouldn't stop Mekko from pulling you unless Mekko himself gets stunned. He should be able to pull allies out of bad situations consistently.
-Surge- make it so the description and mods fit what the ability describes: I realize I said things like "imagine all bugs are fixed" but Mekko's Surge has enough problems with its description that I feel like they need to be mentioned. According to the description, an Empowered Surge should only heal while traveling but if you end the ability early or get stunned you continue to heal. The mod that increases the Surge travel time should equal more healing since you are traveling for longer but this mod has no effect on the amount healed regardless of how much distance is traveled. Descriptions should be accurate to the ability.
-Sonic Barrage- increase damage and make it so it comes out in "pulses" with short delays between: the damage it deals is okay and you only really get to see it in action if you get someone in the corner, much like Katamori. By increasing the potential damage dealt and making it so there are brief periods between pulses players will have an opportunity to escape throughout the ability while also potentially taking more damage.The tanks have been the META setters. Buttercup was "pick comp", Mekko was "turtle comp", and Makutu is "holy trinity comp". Since the tanks determine the META they HAVE to be as close to balanced as possible. As many people have said, Makutu being OP is good for the game since he has a higher skill ceiling and therefore creates a better environment. Unfortunately, there are enough other qualities of this game that are off balance that Makutu is borderline unstoppable unless he is being forced to to fight another Makutu.
With changes El Bastardo should feel viable, Makutu won't dominate every match up in the game, Mekko should feel like he is making bigger impacts, and Buttercup doesn't have to worry about someone swapping to Makutu and ruining her fun.
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Dear... GOD, I forgot to mention Makutu cheese.
Makutu:
-Can't Touch Us- decrease duration to 1.5 seconds on both the Super and the mod Happy Thoughts: this will prevent cheese turn in while still keeping this Super at the same relative strength. It is arguably the best Super in the game so nerfing it seems logical but I'd rather not nerf it into the ground. -
Everything you said here sounds pretty good. I'd love to see it
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Turbocharger is the only useless thing Buttercup has. It should give temporary or permanent 300-400hp so that you can use it when surrounded and when health is close to zero. Now its 30% from your available hp: 100hp when 300 is left and 30hp when 100 is left. Nobody uses it as its useless in critical situations.
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@Commander-Brand from what I've tested it seems Turbocharged always gives the same amount of health (346?). Regardless how high or low your hp is and regardless of if you bring the health mod for BC. I've been running a goofy self sustain Turbocharged build on BC and it has been fun but far from replacing classic builds and Burnout.
