Skills rebalance proposal

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Skills rebalance proposal

Introduction and purpose

This document is solely for discussion purposes among players, primarily in the Community Council. This an attempt at identifying OP skills, describing why they are OP and presenting suggestions.

Summary

1. Assault: changes to Ready for Action, Onslaught and Rapid Clearance
2. Heavy: problem with War Cry, changes to Boom Blast
3. Sniper: changes to Quick Aim
4. Berserker: general comment on class as inadequate for melee
5. Infiltrator: changes to Sneak Attack
6. Technician: changes to Manual Control
7. Priest: changes to Frenzy

Belial's list of grievances

as a framework

Rapid Clearance: Allows to regenerate more AP than spent on kill resulting in infinite AP chain. Creates absurd synergy with many skills or equipment.

Boom Blast: Allows to shoot 0 AP explosives with Vidar GL or Mounted Missles.

Bloodlust: Damage bonus does not require unit to approach enemy, so can be used to shoot grenades or sniper rifles from safe distance. Can stack with Sneak Attack.

Adrenaline: Combined with Rapid Clearance create AP loop. Armored head mutation allow to negate Daze effect.

Manual Control: Abusable with Vehicles and Turrets, especially with multiple technicians.

Sneak Attack: Very easy to maintain stealth, especially by using Vanish. Technically it allows any unit to deal double damage with no drawback.

Frenzy: Max SPD in Phoenix Point is 29 (Agile Legs, Akatsu Armor, Thief, Quaterback) is further amplified by this. Nets +100% speed coupled with bloodlust and even more with Dash.

Warcry: Too easy to cripple enemies from safe spots like through roofs and walls. Too effective vs Skyllas. 

Onslaught: Can be used to feed OP soldiers with AP.

Ready For Action: Allow to easily manipulate inventory of every soldier in a squad and saves too many AP.

Brawler: +50% damage is too much, especially with LOTA weapons.

Rage Burst: Too effective vs Skyllas, not good vs at all vs multiple smaller enemies. Only effective at very close ranges.

- Quick Aim: Synergy with Rapid Clearance.

Master Marksman: Very large ACC bonus compared to other sources like Armor and General Perks which have been nerfed in Polaris.

Marked For Death: Too strong on Deceptor with Rage Burst or Scorcher AT with Remote Control.

Destiny: Precision surpassing all sniper weapons in the game. Would that feel okay if used against player?

Gorgon: Damage per AP is too big

Fire: AI commits suicide in fire.

Bionics: Too powerful with almost no drawbacks

Melee weapons: Unless you use Vengeance Torso fall behind Bash in terms of damage.

Perception: Is too high for humans.

Stealth: easy to abuse. Too strong with Sneak Attack.

Will gain/loss: Most skills pay for themself when used to kill enemies.

Nanotech: Makes some enemy weapons completely ineffective.

Cover: Most enemies are melee/psychic/explosive/high mobility - cover does not protect vs majority of opponents.

Acid Cannon: Bad in general, very OP vs Skylla.

Scorcher: Extremely high damage output amplified by Marked for Death and Remote Control.

VENGEANCE TORSO: Very powerful synergy with Rapid Clearance. Makes Synedrion (or NJ?) “The Melee” faction, where it should be disciples

Venom Torso: Poison arm is very weak and losing hand is a huge debuff.

Assault

- Proficient with assault rifles and shotguns (complete list here)

Dash

Move up to 1/2 of the movement of the character (3WP and 1AP; limited to 2 uses per turn) (e.g. with a movement stat of 20, a soldier can move 10 tiles casting )

Return Fire

Shoot back at an enemy when it attacks, provided that character is using a direct-fire projectile weapon with proficiency, and the enemy is within half perception range (passive skill)

Ready for Action

Reloading and inventory management costs 0 AP (passive skill)

Suggested change:

Reloading and inventory management of the operative costs 0 AP (passive skill)

Reasoning: it's stupid and immersion breaking that an operative with this skill can be used as a logistics hub of sorts to allow operatives closely packed together to share a single weapon and reload it for free

Onslaught

Refunds 2AP to another operative within 12 tiles, can only be used once per turn by the same soldier (cost 4WP and 2AP)

Suggested change:

Refunds 2AP to another operative within 12 tiles, can only be used once per turn by the same and on the same soldier (cost 4WP and 2AP)

Reasoning: to prevent "Cheerleading", which is both immersion breaking and somewhat OP, in that you can channel AP towards an Uber soldier that can optimize their utility

Rapid Clearance

Get back 2 AP for each kill until the end of the turn (cost 5WP)

Issues

The skill can be used to gain more AP than those spent on the kill (particularly when combined with other skills such as Adrenaline Rush, Quick Aim, Boom Blast, Vengeance Torso), which results in very long "kill chains", up to cases where an operative can singlehandedly clear the whole map. Even when the skill does not refund more AP than those spend on the skill, it can still be too strong with high mobility builds that take advantage of damage buffs and skills that reduce AP costs. This trivializes the challenge and breaks immersion.

Suggested Changes

Until the end of the turn, the next attack after a kill costs 2 AP less

Reasoning: prevents net generation of AP from kills

Alternative:

Until the end of the turn, the next attack after a kill costs 2 AP less, can't use any skills or abilities that cost WP after casting it

Reasoning: skill too strong already, synergies with other skills can be OP

Heavy

- Proficient with machine guns, cannons and grenade launchers (see complete list here)

Brawler

Bash and melee attacks deal 50% more damage (passive skill)

War Cry

Limits the AP of all enemies within 10 tiles to 2 (3WP 1AP)

Problems: it is OP and immersion breaking that the skill affects large Pandorans, particularly Scylla, and that it works through any wall or obstacle.

Boom Blast

Reduces the cost of using explosives by 1 AP and increases their range by 50% until the end of the turn (5WP)

Suggested change:

Reduces the cost of using explosives by 1 AP to a minimum of 1 and increases their range by 50% until the end of the turn (5WP)

Reasoning: prevents using mounted weapons or Vidar Launcher for 0 AP

Inspire

Killing an enemy grants allies 1 additional WP (passive skill)

Rage Burst

Fire the weapon 5 times in an arc, limited to one use per turn by the same soldier (5WP + standard AP cost of firing the weapon)

Sniper

- Proficient with sniper rifles and pistols (see complete list here).

Extreme Focus

Overwatch cost is reduced by 1 action point(passive skill)

Quick Aim

The AP cost of the next shot with proficient weapon is reduced by 1 (3WP)

Suggested change:

The AP cost of the next shot with proficient weapon is reduced by 1 (3WP), limited to 2 uses per turn

Reasoning: prevents spamming the skill with 1AP weapons to get free attacks, but allows the most common use of the skill to shoot twice with a sniper rifle per turn and keeps a limited synergy with 1 AP weapons; also similar solution to dash, so easy to understand

Master Marksman

Accuracy with a proficient weapon is increased by 30% while there are no spotted enemies within 10 tiles (passive skill)

Weak Spot

Disabling a body part also remove that body part's armor (passive skill)

Mark for Death

Increases damage suffered by the target by 10 from each hit until the end of the turn (4WP)

Berserker

General comment: There seems to be close to universal agreement that Berserker's skillset is uniquely unsuited for its nominal role of melee fighter (see here in my description of the class my personal view on why this is the case)

Armor Break

Next attack will shred an additional 30 armor (4WP)

Close Quarters Evade

Attacks from enemies within 10 tiles deal 25% less damage (passive skill)

Bloodlust

Damage and movement are increased proportionally to the health lost (up to double) (passive)

Ignore pain

Disabled body parts remain functional. Cannot Panic or be Mind Controlled (passive)

Adrenaline Rush

All abilities cost 1 AP until the end of the turn, can't use any skills or abilities that cost WP after casting it, Accuracy reduced by 50% and you are dazed the next turn (5WP)

Infiltrator

- Proficient with crossbows and spider drones (see complete list here)

- Gain +25% to stealth while undetected

Surprise Attack

Attacks from behind gain shock damage equal to 3 times the damage dealt (passive)

Deploy Decoy

Deploy holographic decoy at the chosen location. The decoy is treated as a real target by all enemies (4WP 1AP)

Spider Drone Pack

Deploy 3 spider drones with one action (2AP)

Vanish

Move within 5 tiles and disappear from view until the end of turn or is revealed by contact with mist (4WP)

Sneak Attack

Damage dealt while not spotted is increased by 100% (passive)

Suggested change:

Damage dealt while not spotted is increased by 100% for the first attack of the turn (passive)

Alternative suggestion:

Next attack the damage dealt whileif not spotted is increased by 100% (passive) 50%(4WP). Cannot be used with Quick Aim, Boom Blast or Rage Burst

Reasoning: the problems with this skill are twofold; it allows to do too much damage as it can be repeatedly combined with other skills that increase damage output, making the game too easy, and it's not tactical; there are no meaningful choices regarding the use of the skill, as damage from all attacks is doubled provided a trivial condition is met. The first suggestion seeks to address these problems by limiting the bonus to a single attack per turn, and as it's also the first attack, some tactics would be required to make the best use of the skill. With the second suggestion a Sniper / Infiltrator or Heavy / Infiltrator has to choose between damage buff or more attacks per turn.

Technician

- Proficient with PDWs, Auto Turrets and Exo-Arms (see complete list here)

Fast Use

The action point cost of medkits, stimpacks and robotic arm abilities is reduced by 1(passive)

Manual Control

Take manual control of a turret or vehicle weapon and shoot at a target (3WP 1AP)

Suggested change:

Take manual control of a turret or vehicle weapon and shoot at a target, limited to one use per turn per device (3WP 1AP)

Reasoning: multiple castings on the same device (particularly turrets and Aspida, but also Spider Drones) is a very cheap way of dealing massive damage, making the game too easy. It's also immersion breaking because it unexpectedly stretches out time - why is the device capable of taking an unlimited number of actions if under 'manual control'?

Field Medic

Restore 10 hit points and 10 armor to all body parts of the selected target. Disabled body parts are restored (2WP 2AP)

Remote deployment

Turrets can be thrown in a radius of 10(?) tiles and deployed for 1 AP (passive)

Electric reinforcement

Give yourself and allies within 20 tiles a bonus of 20 armor for 1 turn. This effect does not stack (6WP 1AP)

Priest

- Proficient with weapons that deal virus damage (that is, Redeemer and Subjugator)

- Can use special head mutations, which give them additional abilities

Additional abilities acquired from head mutations

A particularity of is that they have access to a unique set of head mutations, each of them adding another ability (or 'spell') to their repertoire:

1. Judgement Head: Instil frenzy in friendly characters within 20 tiles for 2 turns, increasing their movement by 50% and making them immune to panic (1AP, 4WP)

Suggested change:

Instil frenzy in friendly characters within 20 tiles for 2 turns, increasing their movement by 50% 5 and making them immune to panic (1AP, 4WP)

1. Screaming Head: Cast psychic scream, reducing WP of all enemy units in an 8 tile radius by NTC (3AP, 4WP)
2. Synod Head: Living allied units within 7 tiles recover 2 WP at the start of the turn (passive skill)

Mind Control

Gain control of an enemy in range and with line of sight (WP cost equal to enemy's current WP, 1AP; costs 1-10 WP per turn to maintain, depending on target type)

Induce Panic

Cause a target to panic if its current WP are less than the (3WP, 1AP)

Mind Sense

All organic enemies within 15 tiles are automatically revealed (passive)

Psychic Ward

Allies within 10 tiles are immune to panic and psychic damage attacks (passive)

Mind Crush

Deal 100 damage to all enemy entities within 10 tiles (6WP, 1AP)