Quote Originally Posted by CMaster View Post
Well yes, obviously one of the problems with this is it takes APUs away from where they used to be, gives different reasons to enjoy and dislike playing them. On the other hand however, APUs can never go back to what they once were, as it was vastly unfair.



The idea is that using the debuffs will be necessary to play as an APU. In terms of pure damage/time they wouldn't be able to compete with a tank, or probably a PE or Spy either. However, by using their debuff abilities, they'd be able to turn it into a fair fight.
This would also hopefully mean that having an APU or two in a team would always be useful - it would enable you to weaken or neutralize the star-members of the opposition team. However, it would never make sense to bring nothing but APUs, as once a target has been debuffed, a tank will do more damage than an APU would to the debuffed target. APUs would be expected to focus more heavily on the debuff role and less on hitting stuff in big team operations than they would during solo play, where they'd use some debuff abilities, but mostly focus on attacking.



The core concept is two-fold. On the aesthetic side, the idea is to make the APU the literal opposite of the PPU. The PPU heals and strengthens a target, the APU damages and weakens. On the balance side, it's to make APU a distinct playstyle, rather than having two classes (tank and apu) who do nothing but look at the target while holding down the mouse button, and at the same time make APUs useful contributors to a team, without ever being the only thing you need in a team.
This is what should had been done for 2.2 to defuse Monko'cron.