Greeting fellow guardians
I have seen a lot of you voicing concerns over the recent meta change we've witnessed in the PvP community. In particular there's been much division between peoples opinions over the new sun breaker super, Hammer of Sol.
(TLDR is marked towards the bottom)
I'd like to start of by saying that this a purely PvP topic and nothing said by me is a PvE assessment. Now, let's begin.
Upon activation of HoS the titan in question receives a significant damage reduction to all damage types; ie weapons, grenade abilities, melees, as well as other supers.
The part I would like to address mainly would be supers and how the should interact with one another. Let's take a look.
Hammer of Sol:
- Gets roughly enough super energy to throw four ranged attacks dealing roughly 350+ damage on direct impacts. This number increases to six with the use of a first tier perk.
- Midrange attacks putting the user into moderate risk situations.
- Energy is drained at a constant rate per second and a chunk of remaining energy is consumed per hammer thrown.
- Receives a resistance buff upon activation that lasts until the super is resolved. (Death or loss of energy)
- Access to perks that grant recovery per kill, AOE field, tracking, and an ability that grants additional hammer throws.
Fist of Havoc
- A single use high damage AOE (area of effect) attack designed to deal significant damage to a group of enemies or singular target.
- Close range super with medium risk upon activation.
- Access to perks that grant resistance buff until resolved, A secondary AOE field that deals damage, gain increased radius of attack, better system of aiming.
Ward of Dawn
- A single use support super that blocks incoming fire from most damage types. (Gunfire, grenades, most other supers)
- Access to perks that grant increased resistance while inside ward, an over shield that remains for a set period of time, a damage buff to allies that pass through the ward, decrease to charge time, and an ability to generate additional orbs of light after receiving significant damage.
Golden Gun
- An offensive super in which the user is granted an enhanced hand cannon with a high damage capacity.
- Ranged super with a lower risk norm. (Risk increases as range gap is closed)
- Gets enough super Energy to fire three shots.
- Energy is drained per second until super is resolved.
- Access to perks that enable slight AOE upon kills, increased aim assist, reduction to cool down of super.
Arc Blade
- An offensive super designed around maneuverability as well as high crowd control capacity.
- Base attacks are melee only (high risk)
- Energy is drained per second until super is resolved.
- Access to perks that grant Small AOE attack, longer range frontal attack, and activated invisibility. (All three require excess energy to use.)
Shadow shot
- single use midrange super designed for versatility and battlefield control.
- midrange attack requiring moderate risk.
- Enemies close to impact are "tethered" and received a speed decrease.
Access to perks that increase tether distance and duration, tethered enemies explode upon death dealing damage to others, increase number of shots to three per super.
Radiance
- Offensive /general buff super that grants an increase to grenade and melee damage and a reduction to grenade and melee cooldown.
- A "no range" suprt solely dependant on the user actions. Risk can vary wildly depending upon circumstance.
- Access to perks that reduce cooldown for nearby allies, grant a reduction to damage received, and the ability to activate after death reviving the player.
StormTrance
- An offensive super designed for crowd control and high dps capacity.
- Close range super with moderate to high risk.
- Energy is drained per second until super is resolved.
Access to abilities that deal AOE damage upon activation, double the capacity to chain to other nearby enemies, and teleport mid super.
Nova Bomb
- A single use high damage AOE (area of effect) attack designed to deal significant damage to a group of enemies or singular target.
- Midrange attack with low risk upon activation.
- Access to perks that create AOE field that damages enemies, increase travel speed and range of Nova Bomb, and split super into three separate projectiles.
Each of these supers are unique and are designed to interact differently between one another. No super should have the capacity to out do the others in a majority of scenarios but each has a designed role to play.
FoH and NB are shutdown supers, intended to stop other supers or hard to kill targets.
GG, AB, and HoS are highly offensive supers. They are designed around traversing the map in different ways but with the file of racking up as many kills as possible.
SS and WoD are control/support supers, designed around assisting teammates and shifting the battle into your favor.
Hammer of Sol and Arc Blade are the more direct and close ranged supers when compared to Golden Gun and as such receive a reduction to damage received. They are distinct from one another in that HoS has more range than AB as well as more armor. This is because HoS does not possess abilities that enable it to avoid damage or evade enemies.
TLDR:
HoS, AB, and GG are offensive supers and, while distinct in design, share a common gole of killing as many opponents as possible. How the interact with one another is troubling. Before HoS both Arc blade and Golden Gun had tightly defined niches that were different enough that they seldom clashed. Hammer of Sol falls between them and as such interacts with both far more than what was predicted to occur.
To help redefine each super's niche to restore clarity between them I propose that:
- Golden Gun receive a damage resistance buff not on par with Hammer of Sol but somewhere just below where arc blade sits now, enough that GG can survive at least on HoS attack.
- Arc blade receive an increase to attack damage as well as a reworking to existing perks to improve maneuverability on the battlefield. As well as a more forgiving window when activating that enabling players to keep their super energy if killed before animation is complete.
- Hammer of Sol should NOT receive a resistance debuff or damage alteration, instead I purpose that while active, users suffer a 20% cut to speed as well as a more forgiving window to keep super energy when activating their super if killed before animation is finished.
Thank you for reading my thoughts on the matter. I would love to see how you, the community feel about my perspective.
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On paper the HOS looks balanced. However in practice it becomes a battlefield dominate. I have shut down to HoS, both with tether. I have shut down close to 10-12 storm, and a few golden guns recently. Unfortunately, the Titans ability to tank damage more than makes up for its mobility. It got the best of both worlds from a golden gun and arc blade.