An APU idea

[CMaster]

I brought this up elsewhere, but in a thread that ultimatley I made rather a fool of myself in. So seting this up seperatley.

OK, so principally I believe the idea of APUs as glass cannons is flawed. Nobody really wants to play a glass cannon in most circumstances. For solo levelling, i simply doesn't work. You spend all your time lieing flat on the floor or getting poked. For solo PvP, again its not actually that hot. Raiding is far better served by a character that can back off and heal, or what have you. So the only time you are ever going to see an APU then is with a PPU (aside from a few people who pu up with it). But lets be honest - most of us think that a huge plasma cannon being lugged around by a beast of a human well, should do more damage than some wizardy type. We like that the most effective combo isn't just the two monks together. Because thats what happens when APU has the best offence and worst defence, and the PPU can boost any other's defences. Beyond all this theoertical concepts, the reality is that APUs at the moment don't pack anything like the punch they should do.

Another thing - don' you hate i when you are up against somebody with a PPU, and not only does the PPU with all those shields, heals and primses make it a damn sight harder to kill them, they also cripple you with damageboost and antibuffs?

So, what am I getting at? What I propose is that we reduce PPU to a purley defence boosting class - a "buffer". And then we make APUs effectivley a defense weakening class - where a PPU supports their freinds, an APU cripples their enemies a "debuffer" role. So to do this we actually weaken APU attack (but leave them with roughly the selection of attacks they have at the moment). Then we give APUs damage boost. We give them slightly powered up antibuffs (possibly however elminating the "remove all shields" spell). WE maybe give them a nanite disruption spell too. Then we find some other things to keep them busy - we all know how irritating para is, but perhaps a spell that reduces combat skill/skill effectivness? So when you get hit my it your weapon damage is reduced? And to keep people wanting to PvE in teams with APUs, they can have a mob-only paralyse or some other mob-only debuff (seeing as antibuffs aren't useful at all in PvE).

Thought? Problems? Additions?

[Serious_Sam]

The problem of an APU still needing a PPU for any sort of contructive levelling/caving/OP warring still remains despite having a few extra responsibilities.

Thats a nice idea, i do like the idea of a DBing APU (diiirty), but they are still glass warriors that can't do a damn thing on their own. I think that should be the focus of their change.

[CMaster]

The problem of an APU still needing a PPU for any sort of contructive levelling/caving/OP warring still remains despite having a few extra responsibilities.

Thats a nice idea, i do like the idea of a DBing APU (diiirty), but they are still glass warriors that can't do a damn thing on their own. I think that should be the focus of their change.

I just came to the conclusion that nobody yet had come up with a model for the APU that was useful solo. Yes, my idea makes APU pretty much a team class only, but then it pretty much always has been.

[unreal]

I never really felt items like Damage Boost and Parashock should be in-game, as they were used even when enemies were already outnumbered, making fights even more unbalanced. Parashock was horrendously abused, but thankfully isn't a problem anymore. However Damage Boost lasts forever now, and the only class it really effects is the humble Spy because it's essentially an easy-tracking tool.

I guess the main thing I disliked about Damage Boost was the fact that Private Eyes could use it, and your idea would definitely help put a stop to that (depending on the requirements given). Private Eyes should never have been able to use the same weapons as a Spy with minimal sacrifice, let alone being able to deal more damage than a Spy because of being able to cast Damage Boost on the target. With WoC Pistols being seriously overpowered, they're still able to do this, hence every PE you see is using Pistols. So much for them being the Jack of all trades?

I'd definitely like Damage Boost to become an APU spell, but I'm not sure about the other antibuff proposals. It might just be creating more imbalances, giving an all too familiar advantage to the clans who can regularly get the larger numbers into a fight.

As I'm sure you've been reading the many other threads, and probably experienced yourself in-game, the balancing effort hasn't done much other than switch the previous imbalances around. Cannons and Pistols are now especially overpowering, which along with a couple of other things, have made APU's become somewhat redundant.

Something should definitely be done about the APU situation, but I feel nothing should be done until Reakktor eventually finish the current weapon balancing. APU's might not be so terrible in comparison if the majority of weapons weren't overpowered. People are going to carry on using those overpowered weapons until Reakktor eventually make some changes, because for some reason those people prefer minimal retaliation, so I hope Reakktor pull their finger out instead of creating diversions in the form of an F6 reshuffle (or should I say, rollback? :p). ;)

Off Topic: On the APU levelling front, I guess one possible solution would be to introduce some Monk-specific implants or items to boost your defenses or defensive skills, all of which would require the Law Enforcer. That way you would get a bit of a boost and because of the Law Enforcer requirement, they couldn't be abused for PvP purposes.

[Zeninja]

I have no problem with APU being a "team" class only. They're not supposed to be thugs or canon fodders.

Best Offense + Worst Defense sounds like the ninja way of fighting to my ears ; contrarely to the common view ninjas weren't flying and they used to attack in large groups most of the times.

:lol:

Also I wouldn't compare them to RTS' artillery units anymore, since their range has been reduced (thanks to god ?) and they have no means to overpass a wall with AOE like Tanks could with nade launchers.

Haven't played one myself recently, but I sometimes doubt anyone with a ppu buttplugged has interest to use APU rather than Tank in wide scale fights from what I've seen (maybe those I met got the wrong PPU). Mainly because of their weak constitution that may not be compensated by slightly better offense than tanks.

With their discharge, they still have interesting specs versus tanks :

- They can enjoy decent INT skills, especially Poking
- They're able to hit opponents through a teammates crowd (which is a bit biased by the new APU reticle, but affordable)
- They still have the best offense (in theory)
- They could be choosed as "leader dmg dealers" to be followed (and protected) by the rest of the team, since their attack (especially Fire Apo) focuses people attention on their target. In other word, they could decide where to unleash the team's Agro ; although this only concerns a very restricted sort of team strategy which is probably barely ever used
- They could use nanites
- No ammo required

[Seraphin[69]]

- They still have the best offense (in theory)



That's in theory... A creed tank do more damage overtime... APU is casting his spell in slow motion actually...