This is not about any grievous issue in need of balance but more something that’s been itching me since I’ve begun playing with Kerillian.
I’ve felt that her second class was lacking a bit of the straightforward elements of some other careers in the game, and more importantly could be perceived as quite underwhelming when starting with her. Not that is underpowered, she’s a fine hybrid with reasonable access to the ranged option of the waystalker and good active resilience and mobility.
Still as she’s often considered as a tank archetype she lacks something most of the other crowd control careers have, both a passive element to her tankyness and something that really makes her stand apart. Basically her kit only rewards making good use of existing mechanics for other classes. She’s has buffed dodge distance and endurance regeneration. Other classes have something that goes beyond using the common gameplay : ironbreaker does negate a hit, can attract enemies, the knight does passively protects and can repeatedly do a forced ingress/egress while stunning pushing around crowds. These features are quite noticeable.
Basically when playing HM you’re supposed to put to good use your regen to shove foes aways and use your ult to exit tight spots or help friendlies. Still, any error is punished hard, she doesn’t have any passive sustain and her special moves though very quickly recharged won’t disturb foes and can let you be hit very hard if performed through opponents. I’ve often felt that playing her well was quite equivalent of playing any of the other 2 Kerrilian classes well, she hasn’t access to different weapons, she needs a lvl 25 talent to drop aggro and though she can take a good quantity of ammo, isn’t as ranged centric as the waystalker.
That’s why I suggest she get a passive resilience traits, that would make her more straightforward to master and her role clearer. One possibility is to give her the regen from the waystalker, it wouldn’t be too weird, maybe even more cohesive. With the added regen bound talents line she could be a fine tankish support. The regen itself is not considered powerful in champion or legend, but it would help getting into her resilient “tankish” role at lower levels. Of course that would mean givin the waystalker something else, keeping in mind her range advantage and homing active will always make her comfortable at lower levels.
Another thing is I think the dodge increase distance kinda contradicts her endurance regen. They both let her avoid damage but encourage a bit different playstyles. With the many threads about the shade, I kinda feel the dodge style is more fitting for this class instead. Many players opt for a two handed weapon and take the dodge penaly with it anyway.
Finally the active itself should be a way to have “invulnerability” frames. If being hit/incapacited while rushing is considered a balance alement, then at the very least open the option as a talent, instead of the negligible damage offered. This is an ult you use to safely reach somewhere and evade nasty stuff. Besides being the character with the real “super dodge” would be a great identity.
There. I think the class itself is really cool looking and many players certainly appreciate her as is. This is mostly a thread about maybe making her role clearer and more beginner friendly. But with a possible rework of the shade in the future and the ranged vs melee balance still a work in progress I thought I’d throw out my feelings about her.
and I think that makes the career quite distinctive from all others.