The bomb is more handy for boss CC and vs pats though, and the problem with pot drops has always been Grims. Now they also compete with bomb drops in terms of chance.
But the rest of his kit doesn’t do much for him in that regard and even less in melee. WHC has guaranteed OHK critical HS and unlimited stamina vs light attacks in melee, as well as ranged ammo capacity talent and aforementioned tag + ult.
I think a little hardiness in the form of 25HP would be fine for RV, he still wouldn’t tread on WHC’s ground, and WS has her own advantages (double arrows etc.).
While I remain unconvinced that his damage is low or linear I’ll simply concede because I can’t formulate an actual reason against as opposed to my own inherent thoughts that he’s fine as he is. Which frankly ain’t good enough or compelling enough a reason to be opposed to any changes.
I think for his last line of talent, 15 second invisibility isn’t that interresting compare to other choices. Instead I had an idea but maybe it’s overpowered :
Party hiding :
Bardin’s smoke can now hide his companions but last only 5 seconds.
This would permits a short rest in the middle a struggle for everyone, for a quick heal or revive teamate.
What do you think about it ?
Make grudge-raker great again and he won’t need more base health
Maybe I need to experiment more, but I am absolutely getting 2-hit KO’d by the moo crew in game right now, and I’d rather they get fixed before Ranger gets more health.
Temp hp gained is strong. Xbow is fun and useful as is handgun. I’ve moved away from shotgun since I don’t find it as fun. Dropping bombs and pots is way more useful than ammo but I’ve never really had much of an ammo problem in general. I do wish we got a choice like before (pots or bombs not both). Actually can’t think of anything he needs right now to be in a good spot; he fit’s his role really well and is a lot of fun to play as.
Giving him hp is just a suggestion, there likely are better choices.
But, the tankiness of IB doesn’t come from the extra health as much as it’s passive and damage reduction / stamina / reaction times.
Also, as much as I like his DR talent, slayer is still tankier with his 50% DR on elites / monsters.
Not saying slayers can’t use a buff, just being fair
It’s ONLY on elites + monsters. I’m not sure if you’ve been playing a heck of a lot of Slayer, but if you have then we’re both on the same page that almost all of your damage comes from either specials or hordes now. If I get hit by any of the elites all all for any reason even in patrols, that’s my fault. But hordes give you incidental damage and that talent does absolutely nothing. Monsters it’s dependent on which one. Obviously the value goes up for mino. And does it even work on the Lords? Because when they changed talents the first time that was a thing that was a distinction.
On the topic of the other DR talent…
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from a DR talent that doesn’t auto refresh, isn’t up 100% of the time, and can be off in the space between swings (the only point in time you actually need it to be on). Never you mind how its usefulness immediately ends the second you’re grabbed, pounced, hooked, or stormed (heaven forbid). This is also ignoring the fact that it doesn’t work with push attacks and doesn’t work for throwing axes.
Edit:
Then there’s barge. I like barge. Taking barge gives you no DR at all but makes it so that you’re more hardy against surrounds when they do happen. And they will because that’s just this game now. But it carries the vulnerabilities of both of the above in exchange for having a small radius utilitarian push attached to your dodge
So this loops back into this passive they give us
Oblivious to Pain is useless in the situations you need it the most i.e stopping friggin horde damage.
Grimnir’s Focus would synergize, but Grimnir’s Focus can’t be depended on unless you’re using 2H hammer x 2.
So they took away, See It coming (20% dodge range), Stoutfellow (25% health),
old Oblivious (worked on everything), moving target (trophy hunter stacks give defense), Crunch (made a big radius around where you landed with stagger)
and instead took unstoppable which was only good because of your other defensive perks and gave it to us as a passive and tell you to get out there and take hits directly to the face with your next to nothing health pool.
Makes sense? Certainly not to me. But what do I know. I guess FS really weights those 3 throwing axes pretty high.
TLDR:
30% forever DR on a 100 hp pool is a lot higher than DR that works half the time or DR that doesn’t work on the things that are killing you.
Firstly remove the ammo share talent and replace it with a talent that grants the entire party 5 THP upon picking a ammo pouch up. Good for supporting the whole teams THP generation.
Secondly remove the 30% ammo talent and make the ammo pouches give 25% ammo by default.
Lastly add another talent that increases RVs power by 1% for the whole level (stacks up to 15 times, but resets on death) whenever picking an ammo pouch up, doesn’t matter if RV or a teammate picks it up. This would be good for more offensive builds
These are solid. The big problem with RV now is he brings very little support, and very little DPS, while being among the squishiest characters. Your suggestions perfectly compensate for these flaws.
I’m not sure I would call infinite ammo 'no support. ’ Potions and bombs for the entire team are likewise good even if both go underused in most of the teams I play into. So maybe low support? Temp hp though is a suggestion I can’t get behind. Hell I’m not even behind them giving it to Siena if we’ll be honest.
Wouldn’t call him squishy either. 30% DR takes care of that.
This rings the most true for me. I feel like the bugs and overtuned beastmen have created a scenario in which low tank is less an option. I’d rather the fix all the crap that makes having a squishier character be too much of a liability. I don’t think RV is in a bad spot and I actually like his utility talents, I’d like those to change to give his playstyle more variety and less towards a health/dr talent, that’s kinda boring.
If anything please just make the smoke bomb instant.
It’s stupid when in a fubar scenario where you want to retreat but you have to leave yourself open to attacks. Even just for a second, you know that 1 attack can be up to 50 damage or more. Otherwise let me block and throw down the smoke bomb at the same time.
what did rats do to you for you to hate them so much?
