Eternal War Q&A With Clint "TASK3R" Tasker
Раскрывающийся текстClint answers questions from the community on the recently released patch notes for the Eternal War Update:
The scatter radius reduction changes sound interesting. What was the goal here and what effect do these number tweaks have?
It’s important to understand how the scatter mechanics work before getting too excited about these changes. Scatter should not be confused with accuracy. When attacking a lone squad at range there is 0 scatter so there will be absolutely no change in this instance. Scatter occurs within a certain angle when two or more units are in close proximity to each other. If the scatter angle is set to 20 degrees it means that any potential ranged shots will scatter between any units within the 20 degrees. Some units had their angle set to 20 which is quite large and as a result had trouble focus firing down squads because of shared damage. We have reduced the angle of a lot of weapons so that this will occur only infrequently and only when players are trying to use it to their defensive advantage.
The Orks received a number of changes. What was the goal? Why were Big Shootas and Stikkbommas left untouched? They seem powerful currently.
The purpose of this patch was to promote and buff units, abilities and upgrades that were underpowered, underused or not fun. A few Ork squads have suffered for a long time such as Stormboys. We wanted to address these. Another major concern was Orks had little answer to super units in tier 3 such as terminators. This compounded with the changes to the Avatar and Great Unclean One meant Orks needed to be better prepared to face them. This meant that Nobs, whether the unit or the sergeants, would be the go to weapon against these later game enemies. With the melee_heavy damage type being effective versus vehicles there is a natural concern that Orks will forgo Tankbustas and other proper AV units. Tankbustas and Beamy Deff guns are still the safest way to take down vehicles, especially walkers that can do significant damage to melee units. Like all changes we will keep our eye on it and determine whether it is too much.
Why were Big Shootas and Stikkbommas left alone? Big Shootas first: these units have almost been untouched for a year, since the There is Only War Update, and while it seems like a powerful strategy it is a true evolution of the metagame. From our observation of higher level play it seems that every race has a counter to Big Shootas, although it might be a bit tougher to pull off than the spam. It’s a reality of balance that some strategies will take more skill to pull off than others. Because it is counter-able we decided to leave it alone and not to interfere with that aspect of the meta game. Our other changes may make other Ork units a bit more appealing which may change the meta game or Ork players will remain glued to the Big Shoota spam until they are forced to change.
Stikkbommas were left unchanged because they are currently fulfilling their role as artillery. Getting two squads can result in some lucky squad gibs, but that isn’t any different to a Plasma Cannon, Wraith Guard or Dcannon. Spamming Stikks is also a significant drain on the Orks Waaagh! resource which means there will be a lot less globals being used. I would agree Stikks are on the powerful side but I don’t considered them overpowered.
Do you feel the Kommando nob is too good?
Statistically the Kommando Nob wasn’t significantly higher than the Warboss or Mek in Win/Loss percentages. We agree that extra equipment was over the top as an upgrade and are slowly trying to correct it. He may need some future tweaks still.
Heretics received two buffs, a straight damage increase and cheaper Aspiring Champion upgrade. Why?
Heretics had their doom blast ability changed in the last patch from straight damage to suppression and light damage. We are happy with the changed gameplay but as a result the heretics were losing straight up in some matchups that they were intended to win. The damage increase is to make them a more stand alone melee counter without the assistance of CSMs. The damage increase should be just enough for the heretics to win their matchups but it is unlikely a Chaos player will want to chance fighting it out.
The aspiring champion was buffed in cost because it didn’t seem to be a popular upgrade. Because heretics have difficulty scaling it was not appealing enough to invest in this squad. The new cost seems more appropriate and may entice Chaos players to upgrade heretics over CSM.
Lictors are now cheaper and have had their damage type changed. What was the idea behind this? They seem like they might be anti everything now?
Lictors needed a change. They were an expensive unit in Tier 3 that could sort of kill infantry and cap but no one built them over Carnifexs, even in high level play. These changes were to make the Lictor more desirable next to the Carnifex. To be frank, I’ll be really surprised if spamming Lictors leads any Tyranid player to utter dominance. And if it does then we will address it.
Is the Lictor Alpha still going to be too good?
The Lictor Alpha was too good because it was sniping leaders which lead to heavy requisition and power drain trying to keep a detector on the field. Flesh Hook is still intended to single target disrupt with some sniping potential but it should require a bit more work to finish off sergeants.
What’s the cooldown on the Assault Space Marine (ASM) jump?
1 second. (Pauses for rage) ASMs have been this highly contested unit since the release of Dawn of War II. Everyone has a different opinion on how they should operate. Our internal position is that they are a disruption unit and they should fulfill that role rather well based on their high cost, currently the highest cost tier 1 unit in the game. The other direction players wanted us to go is increasing their stats and making them more of a stand up melee unit which in our opinion would lead to a lot more balance concerns.
The common opinion is going double plat versus an ASM is totally useless now which is not our intention. If an ASM squad is jumping on a setup team and instantly jumps on another staggered team, then the first one is free to setup again with minimal damage taken. The minimum range was to promote strategic jumping and to prevent too much damage from “goomba stomping.”
The other popular concern is the synergy ASM have with the Apothecary over the other two commanders. It is a valid concern as the Apothecary has always been better at keeping ASMs alive. Two issues though are that the Apoth’s heal range has been significantly reduced and if the ASMs are double jumping deep into enemy territory the Apoth will not be able to support them. The other issue is that a double jump isn’t just for offense, and if a Force Commander or Techmarine is having difficulty supporting the ASMs they can now escape with their extra energy.
We are aware of the potential scaling issues with the ASM which is a constant issue with almost every Space Marine unit, and of course we are paying attention to how players use this unit. In 2.2.3 I’m not convinced ASMs are worth their cost even in the hands of a very skilled player so this is the direction we chose to go in.
