EDIT: Some of my information on this post in incorrect, even if it is similar to the actual mechanics. For in depth information on all of the ranged damage mechanics please check out this very detailed post I found: https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkTide/comments/10f40uz/all_enemy_attacks_damage_values_healthtoughness/
So for those that don’t know, there are these 2 mechanics based around ranged enemies damaging the player:
- Ranged enemies basically all deal a bonus +300% (aka x4) damage to toughness. This is presumably so that ranged enemies can still be scary without deleting players’ health bars from afar.
- Players gain temporary immunity to ranged damage when their toughness bar breaks for the first time (not sure if this is refreshed when toughness reaches full, or after a cooldown). Afterwards having any amount of toughness will prevent ranged overkill damage from damaging health. This is presumably to help prevent against getting deleted by ranged enemies before you have a chance to recover.
These 2 mechanics combined result in the current awkward situation the game has now, where basic ranged enemies will absolutely delete your toughness bar, only to do no permanent damage if you can recover within a couple seconds. This creates some issues with the flow of the game:
- The main problem I see with this is that it really punishes the lower skill players that are bad at recovering and avoiding damage, while it overly rewards the high skill players that rarely get gunned down or hit at all. That second part is actually a big problem as I’ve noticed a lot of damnation players saying the game is too easy.
- Another issue is that Feats/Blessings that give periodic toughness replenishment allow you to have massive gunfight slap-offs without the player taking any overkill damage into their health. All while not avoid any ranged attacks.
- Melee damage that bleeds through missing toughness is also very clunky and feels unfair when 1 basic shooter can do over half of your toughness bar resulting in you taking large amounts of lasting health damage from any consecutive melee hit taken. Again something that is frustratingly punishing for lower end players, that the good players that position well don’t even notice.
This is my recommendation to make ranged enemies a bit easier for lower end players to deal with, while also making them harder (or at least not easier) for highly skilled players to deal with. The changes are as followed and recommended numbers may not be perfect, but they get the general idea across:
- Reduce the bonus damage that basic ranged enemies deal to toughness from +300% down to +150% (from x4 down to x2.5, essentially). Keep elite enemies like shotgunners/gunners/reapers at +300% (x4) as they deserve to be that scary since they are not spawned in the dozens.
- Completely disable the ranged immunity/overkill immunity that players get when toughness breaks. Fun fact, shotgunners busted through the immunity anyways.
- The Sharpshooter’s level 20 feat that grants 75% ranged resistance during their ability should probably be nerfed down to 50%, to compensate. This one is more of a footnote, but a decent amount of people thought it was already overpowered anyway so…
- Footnote #2 barely related, but plz make the curio perk “gunner resistance” also include shotgunners.
Overall, these changes would result in basic ranged enemies taking more bullets to break through players’ toughness, but players could no longer buffer infinite ranged damage with regen Feats/Blessings, and evading ranged damage would be more important in higher skill play as you now CAN take lasting health damage from getting hit by a volley of ranged attacks when you screw up. Ranged elite enemies would also be more comparatively scary as they still would do big toughness damage and the immunity buffer would no longer exist.