Cata difficulty is labelled as “EXTREMELY HARD” in full caps with red text in-game. Cata should be ‘sweaty’. Legend is already chill enough. Most of my suggestions and ideas, and most of the ones by others in this thread, wouldn’t make it so that players had to babysit each other on Cata, be super-coordinated etc. They would increase the need for headshots, reduce brainless hit trading (while still keeping it as an intelligent option), not make it impossible for a career like Shade to solo/clutch but require a more careful approach.
When I say team play, I mean stuff like covering each other when possible, looking behind to see if anyone is struggling/stuck on an enemy etc. In regular Cata this basic stuff isn’t necessary because players can just run ahead.
BW is high and frequent aoe bodyshot dps with a low precision requirement, good damage reduction, high thp generation and a low cooldown escape/dps ult that puts other movement ults to shame. Too much reward. Ergo a change or several changes are needed. Doesn’t necessarily have to be weaker. It could be outright nerfed, or made more difficult to play.
Shade with Cloak of Mists + Vanish is backstab (and the crits are still insane without backstabs) bodyshot dps with no precision requirement beyond walking behind an enemy.
These two, among other things like shotguns, trivalise content, with incredible uptime.
You don’t ‘need’ to play video games. Need is not relevant. Upping the skill ceilling in higher difficulties is objectively a good thing. It should be done carefully, so that we don’t end up with a game where players hold block all the time, or everyone needs to body hug each other 24/7.
I see this cop out a lot. Modded isn’t exclusive, anyone can play it. It even lets players bypass the grind to get reds or cosmetics if they want to. Most of the balance suggestions made here would only matter on modded difficulties. Twitch takes skill but it’s still rng and subject to luck/specific team comps. Modded is where team play is rewarded. DWONS isn’t rng.
Shade with Cloak of Mists is so overpowered that even on modded content it makes the player invincible.
DWONS is fun. It takes adjusting to, but once you play it regular Cata becomes boring.
There’s just not enough stuff to fight on regular Cata because entire hordes of tier 1 & 2 chaff can be deleted before they even get into melee range with even a halfway decent ranged horde dps. This is a fact. RV with a shotgun can do it.
Books just limit gameplay by taking up an item slot. There’s a reason that players rarely take them on Cata and modded. The only team play is IB/any tank taking a grim, which is so automatic and straightforward that it’s not interesting.
Grims mean a property and less health. This isn’t interesting as Cata enemies already do enough damage (personally I’d like about a 10-15% damage increase, depending on health breakpoints, but that’s a personal preference that most would dislike). All it does is make certain things risky in a way that doesn’t revolve around skill (a lot of damage taken is somewhat luck based and how well a player recovers without overpowered thp generation is a better showing of skill than how much they’re willing to hold block for extended periods of time).
