So during the closed/open betas, there were very clear talent, passive, and career abilities that needed an overhaul. Waystalker regen was OP, Huntsman Career Ability was OP, regen necklace trait was OP, and infinite buff potion use at the cost of a little hp was OP. But honestly, that was it. Simple tweaking could have fixed it but they decided to nerf EVERYTHING and now the game is in a state where everything outside of your natural skill / career abilities has almost NO affect on the actual gameplay. The nerf hammer was heavily overused during release overhaul. Here are some changes that could be made to counter-balance the overnerf they implemented.
KERILLIAN
Waystalker - is in a good place. Health regen was too strong and needed a nerf. However, I’d suggest giving it a slight buff to heal up to 50% of your maximum health BEFORE being reduced by grims. An entire talent tree depends on regen ticks which almost never happens now unless she lets herself be hit a few times and drop to critical health.
Handmaiden - is in a good place as a dodge tank and has excellent survivability. I’d suggest buffing the bleed as right now it’s 100% unnoticable on champion. I’m hero power 545 and I don’t think I’ve seen anything die to bleed damage.
Shade - is among the 3 weakest classes in the game and has probably 0 playtime by most of the community. I suggest changing the stealth to give ONE melee attack a 3x damage + 100% crit for that single attack. Cooldown is too long and does too little damage to even consider it a viable career ability compared to others.
KRUBER
Foot Knight - Is capable of filling the role of a tank but is vastly outclassed by the Iron Breaker. I’d suggest buffing the reduced damage taken for Kruber himself.
Huntsman - I suggest changing his career ability to grant him a similar damage buff as the previously mentioned shade but limit it to a range attacks only that also has infinite piercing. Should also NOT apply stealth as too many character’s have that ability.
Mercenary - is in a good place and fulfills a role as a melee dps. Ranged dps is heavily outclassed by Pyromancer / Waystalker.
BARDIN
Iron Breaker - is by far the strongest tank to take in Champion / Legend as his AOE taunt/knock back and 360 degree block/push angle makes him ideal for allowing your dps to survive almost any encounter.
Slayer - Is among the 3 weakest classes as the damage output almost never beats Waystalker, Pyromancer, or Bounty Hunter and has no ranged attacks with which to save allies who’ve been pinned/grabbed by specials. My suggest is you change his leap to also have a ground slam effect that knocks back nearby enemies and frees pinned allies. Furthermore, the Slayer should have shield breaking and armor penetration with BOTH light and heavy attacks.
Veteran Ranger - Is in a good place especially since he provides 25% chance to spawn health potion on special kill and 10% ammo gained from special kills. Smoke Bomb seems only work 50% of the time and needs some debugging.
SALTZPIRE
Witch Hunter Captain - Fills a role as a sub-optimal melee/ranged dps class and his Career Ability is useful, however, he is still heavily outclassed by Kerillian / Sienna. I suggest increasing the crit % from his career ability and increasing the duration.
Bounty Hunter - if Kerillian and Sienna are equal in damage / kill potential, the Bounty Hunter is right beneath them. Though he’s sub-optimal, his Career Ability does a decent amount of damage to bosses. If combined with crit / strength potion and used on a target’s head, it’s pretty devestating. I’d suggest slightly reducing the cooldown period but overall isn’t bad. Also I think he should highlight all special enemies within a decent range so his allies knows what’s around them.
Zealot - Among the 3 weakest classes as he doesn’t bring anything to the party that someone else already does better. I feel as though should have a talent that grants Shield Breaking and grant Armor Penetration on both light and heavy attacks to allow for him to better manage Storm Skaven and Shielded targets. This would make him a useful party member rather than mediocre dps.
SIENNA
Battle Wizard - I never see anyone use this class beyond low level recruit. Tranquility should be buffed to only require 4 seconds to activate and should have it’s effectiveness slightly increased.
Pyromancer - Is in a good place
Unchained - I feel as though her Living Bomb trait isn’t all that strong. The most I ever see it used for is to reset heat overcharge and to knockback enemies when surrounded. I think buffing the increased bonus damage with high overcharge would make it more appealing.
It does feel as though the game was nerfed with almost no consideration to the people who weren’t already level 30. Recruit doesn’t feel like recruit at level 1, there’s no casual play early on. Fat Shark devs need to carefully consider the changes they make because it does seem like most of the changes during the release overhaul pushed players away. As someone who’s a hardcore player, I understand the need to cater to casuals (i.e. recruit difficulty) and I really enjoy playing Champion / Legend, but in its current state, there’s almost no point in min/maxing your build which was an aspect I really enjoyed about V2 > V1. Please consider what I’ve written because, though balance is important, this isn’t a PVP game so heavily nerfing characters isn’t going to be as well received by the community.
Every character should FEEL powerful in their own right. Quit nerfing careers and consider buffing the weaker ones. Even by just scrolling through game lobby, you can tell which classes are the most popular because some careers are just so weak and useless. In its current state, if I’m attempting to play Legend and I see a Shade or a Slayer, I just disband and look elsewhere. Every character should be viable. Unfortunately, that is currently not the case.