I have a very brief experience with Arbites now that I’m able to play on the weekend.
So far my initial impression is that a few sounds are weak or uninteresting. Or feel like placeholders, or I simply don’t recognize that they are much different from other things already in the game.
For the dog:
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I wish they had a ‘turf war’ (think Monster Hunter) style animation with Pox Hounds to lock them down and kill them. This would occupy the dog’s time, but they already get occupied by locking down fodder and other enemies. It wouldn’t really change the flow.
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Additionally, I think every elite/specialist lockdown should come with a unique animation per specialist/elite type to better facilitate a visual assault from the dog. Right now it looks like when players get pounced, which is fine, but not visually stimulating or interesting to witness.
For example, Gunners would helplessly fire their guns into the air, creating a visual that helps them stand out in the battle.
- The dog should be able to rip the detonator cord on Poxbursters to trigger their imminent explosion, if/when they knock the burster back. Otherwise the dogs will get stuck repeatedly knocking down the Poxbursters.
This could cause a lot of issues in co-op gameplay, but I think it’s something to look into. I think the two most common issues this would cause is if the Poxburster gets knocked toward players, and if they rip the detonator cord while another player is dealing with the Poxburster.
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The dog should have some louder, foreground audio cues when it pounces something. But this may be confused with Pox Hound cues.
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Dogs could be able to climb onto ogryn and go for the neck, perhaps with a talent, to briefly lock them down and do massive bleed stacks. (The one that gives bleed stacks on pounce/stagger would be a good adjustment.)
For the Arbites:
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Arbites Grenades sound identical to Frag Grenades. Fine in reality but kind of boring.
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Without paying attention, The (male) Fatalist sounds way too similar to the equivalent Zealot male voice, especially if you are using the masks with the modulation effect on. I don’t know if this could ever be adjusted or changed, considering the gravity of it, but something I noticed. I don’t hate it at all, though. I personally love the voice on both characters.
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Nuncio-Aquilas voicelines are too quiet and boring. It should be a loud, obnoxious speech, closer to the foreground, either for just the player that summons it or everyone. Similar to how Chorus is with Zealot.
*Dogless keystone is kinda bad and boring. The dog is insanely strong and this keystone does not match the power loss. +2 Blitz instead of +1 would be a good start, but I don’t know how I would adjust it upward otherwise.