Let them be heroes...let them be...
There’s been some
push to have more in depth ability progression for the characters in Crucible.
I’d vote not to, sorta. Reasons: (1) depth already exists, (2) balance, and (3)
uniqueness of characters. These reasons only make sense when looking at the
gestalt, the whole of how characters fit in their team and their environment
(objectives, stompers, harvesters, etc.).
Depth: Level one and three offer three upgrades to choose from, level two and four are fixed, and level five has two upgrades. This format gives each character two builds really, a support/sustain and a high damage build. You can build a combination of the two but doing so takes away from how some of the talents work together. At first look this sounds, well, boring. You have to realize each character comes with their own complexity based solely on their kit though. Every hero has some sort of auto attack (left click) that reloads but their other abilities and how they function are completely different.
Tosca has the best
damage over time whereas Mendoza and Earl can pelt you from the backline and
heal up. The growth that levels provide is there to enhance the
abilities, the kit, not to entirely change the character’s role. Not
every hero should become a crazy damage dealer, hypermobile, or unkillable.
Teams that have compositions of different aspects are actually quite deep but I’d
vote that this is one of the least explored areas of Crucible. What combo
wombos do exist? What heroes play off of each other well?
Unique Characters: The
more abilities you add per character the more it takes away from what makes
other characters unique. Let’s say Summer’s fireball gets an upgrade where it
blinds or slows enemies on contact. Not too big a deal, right? Except that now
Summer can do what only Mendoza, AJ, and Rahi could do: blind. She also starts
to intrude on Tosca, Sazan, Shakirri, and Bugg slows. But that’s not the only
problem. If it becomes a broken mechanic (i.e. unbalanced) then you either have
to nerf parts of Summer’s kit (maybe fireball now does less Dot) or introduce counter
play for other characters (maybe someone now gets a cleanse of all CC). And on
and on. Thinking long term, I’d vote to include these new abilities, this cheekiness,
in new characters adding niche to that character.
Environmental Abilities: Now don’t hate me but what I said wasn’t the entire truth. The abilities do need to change, some do need to be added, but they need to relate to how characters interact with Crucible itself. The scanner needs to change. Everyone can scan everything including enemy heroes. This is an example of abilities taking away from hero uniqueness. Tosca has a scanner but everyone has one that is arguably more powerful than her ability.
Here’s a suggestion:
make the scanner do something different depending on who you’re playing. Only Earl
and Mendoza can scan for med kits. Sazan and Drak get to scan enemy heroes. AJ’s
connection with nature allows her to scan for creatures (assuming they’re made more
random since we all know where to expect them). Bugg’s can scan for creatures
too but he “marks” them so they take extra damage from his plants. Give
objectives a zone instead of an exact location and let Shakirri’s and Tosca’s
scanners pinpoint them. Ironically, scrapping some functionality would add more
depth to each hero. Maybe this is built into level two or three and levels are
pushed back a bit, so getting to level six is more rewarding. In my experience games
rarely make it to levels beyond six or seven.
In all, leave the individual space, the gaps, in character kits. Put the emphasis on teamwork and the "macro" play. Add more to how heroes play off of Crucible, but let the heroes be heroes, let them be.
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