Post by drspendlove on Sept 16, 2020 9:39:21 GMT -5
In crew combat, Rifle Attack hits 2 targets with -35% All Damage, +10% Armor Piercing, +10% Critical
Soldier 1, usable from 2, 3, 4, against 1 & 2
Double Initiative cost
Let's break down what you're getting raw stat wise with this talent:
65% Damage to two targets = 130% Damage
10% Armor piercing = 20% Armor Piercing
10% Critical = 20% Critical
Double initiative cost motivates this to be either an end of round YOLO or a start of combat spike to wipe out one or two foes immediately. Due to the low damage, it is unlikely to take down full health foes of any kind on the start of the turn. So this is more suited to something you do with 1 initiative left when you're ok hitting penalty.
Advantages:
This talent gives snubbers a way to fire from position 3 at first level which is situationally helpful.
AoE attack available at rank 1.
AoE attack usable from position 2 (unlike full auto).
Weaknesses:
- Not enough damage to spike foes like Full Auto
- Won't take down a single foe reliably unlike even a basic attack. (A 40% damage bonus from a critical and an armor pierce on top of 65% base damage ends up giving you 91% damage with piercing which isn't bad but isn't excellent. And the piercing isn't overwhelming.)
- Helpful only when two foes are both critical, and the double initiative cost is acceptable. That tends to be at the end of fights when victory is generally assured anyway.
Compare to:
Full Auto: In crew combat, Rifle Attack hits 2 targets with +10% Ranged Damage, +10% Armor Piercing, +20% Critical. Successful attack Debuffs yourself with -25% Ranged Accuracy, -25% All Damage, -10% Dodge for 2 Turns
Full Auto deals 220% damage 20% Piercing (matched) 40% Critical at the same initiative cost but at the price of a debuff.
The debuff can be resisted by traits and buffs. It can be cured as well but that requires another talent or coordination from a team member.
Even with the debuff, this talent deals 170% Damage with lower accuracy and a minor defensive weakness. Situationally, firing this twice can still be stronger than Burst Fire.
Full Auto is rank 8 which isn't immediately available. However, higher rank talents shouldn't be so much stronger than lower rank talents that there's virtually no reason to use the lower rank one.
Full Auto can deal enough damage to burst down 2 foes at the start of combat or take one down and severely injure the second. The burst potential is a huge advantage for the talent. Burst fire (ironically) lacks this burst-kill potential.
Comparing to single target attacks only makes Burst fire look even worse as its raw stats are so low where it matters. So I'll skip that.
Recommendation:
Make Burst fire the reliable AoE talent. And make it a less committed talent than Full Auto. Make it the talent you use when you need to whittle something down that's hard to land blows on, and that you're in against for the long haul. It'll still be an AoE but it'll be a safer option than YOLO spike damage form Full Auto at 2x initiative cost. This can be accomplished by adding a 10% accuracy bonus to Burst Fire and lowering the initiative cost to 1.5x. This allows it to situationally compete with two standard attacks, and somewhat against suppressing fire. (3 uses of single attack talents versus 2 of the 1.5x still make Burst fire do less damage)
Alternatively, if a two target attack for less than 2x initiative is unacceptable, raise its damage to -20% so it has some hope of bursting down foes. You'll then want to nerf Full Auto by making the penalty for using it slightly more severe. I recommend shifting the accuracy penalty from the debuff from -25% to -30%. This small shift would make a second round attack of Full Auto even closer to the "not enough accuracy to land a hit" zone.
Soldier 1, usable from 2, 3, 4, against 1 & 2
Double Initiative cost
Let's break down what you're getting raw stat wise with this talent:
65% Damage to two targets = 130% Damage
10% Armor piercing = 20% Armor Piercing
10% Critical = 20% Critical
Double initiative cost motivates this to be either an end of round YOLO or a start of combat spike to wipe out one or two foes immediately. Due to the low damage, it is unlikely to take down full health foes of any kind on the start of the turn. So this is more suited to something you do with 1 initiative left when you're ok hitting penalty.
Advantages:
This talent gives snubbers a way to fire from position 3 at first level which is situationally helpful.
AoE attack available at rank 1.
AoE attack usable from position 2 (unlike full auto).
Weaknesses:
- Not enough damage to spike foes like Full Auto
- Won't take down a single foe reliably unlike even a basic attack. (A 40% damage bonus from a critical and an armor pierce on top of 65% base damage ends up giving you 91% damage with piercing which isn't bad but isn't excellent. And the piercing isn't overwhelming.)
- Helpful only when two foes are both critical, and the double initiative cost is acceptable. That tends to be at the end of fights when victory is generally assured anyway.
Compare to:
Full Auto: In crew combat, Rifle Attack hits 2 targets with +10% Ranged Damage, +10% Armor Piercing, +20% Critical. Successful attack Debuffs yourself with -25% Ranged Accuracy, -25% All Damage, -10% Dodge for 2 Turns
Full Auto deals 220% damage 20% Piercing (matched) 40% Critical at the same initiative cost but at the price of a debuff.
The debuff can be resisted by traits and buffs. It can be cured as well but that requires another talent or coordination from a team member.
Even with the debuff, this talent deals 170% Damage with lower accuracy and a minor defensive weakness. Situationally, firing this twice can still be stronger than Burst Fire.
Full Auto is rank 8 which isn't immediately available. However, higher rank talents shouldn't be so much stronger than lower rank talents that there's virtually no reason to use the lower rank one.
Full Auto can deal enough damage to burst down 2 foes at the start of combat or take one down and severely injure the second. The burst potential is a huge advantage for the talent. Burst fire (ironically) lacks this burst-kill potential.
Comparing to single target attacks only makes Burst fire look even worse as its raw stats are so low where it matters. So I'll skip that.
Recommendation:
Make Burst fire the reliable AoE talent. And make it a less committed talent than Full Auto. Make it the talent you use when you need to whittle something down that's hard to land blows on, and that you're in against for the long haul. It'll still be an AoE but it'll be a safer option than YOLO spike damage form Full Auto at 2x initiative cost. This can be accomplished by adding a 10% accuracy bonus to Burst Fire and lowering the initiative cost to 1.5x. This allows it to situationally compete with two standard attacks, and somewhat against suppressing fire. (3 uses of single attack talents versus 2 of the 1.5x still make Burst fire do less damage)
Alternatively, if a two target attack for less than 2x initiative is unacceptable, raise its damage to -20% so it has some hope of bursting down foes. You'll then want to nerf Full Auto by making the penalty for using it slightly more severe. I recommend shifting the accuracy penalty from the debuff from -25% to -30%. This small shift would make a second round attack of Full Auto even closer to the "not enough accuracy to land a hit" zone.