Dumping Ground

[Jackal]

Pretty much what it says it is. I just want a little place to dump ideas and stuff. Nothing too ambitious or whatever. Just anything, really.

On that note, let's see..

Starcraft 2 - Terran Weapons -

The Apathy

- Requires: Tech Lab

- Built at: Factory

- History: The Thor, the Dominion's greatest weapon, was a machine too vast for mass production, especially for Raynor's Raiders. After the assault on Char, engineers sought to combine the low cost of the Goliaths with the toughness of the Thor and came up with a machine loving nicknamed the Apathy.

Tactical Analysis:

The Apathy is a walker mech, much like the Goliath and Thor. It fits the same technological niche as the Goliath, allowing Terran commanders fast access to a powerful support weapon, and is as easy to transport. Its costs are considerably higher than the latter, but for a good reason - the Apathy's trademark armored Streaker Missile Launchers allows it to shield itself while firing. Tests have determined that up to 50% of incoming damage is absorbed by the shields!

However, the Apathy is only capable of blocking damage from one direction at a time - either from in front, or on top. Launchers will fire at the other direction - shields deploy in front to absorb damage and launchers fire at airborne targets, or shields deploy on top to absorb damage from air attacks while the Apathy barrages ground forces.
The first position gives it a niche as a cheaply-built mechanical ' tank', soaking up considerable amounts of damage from attackers while able to take out airborne attackers, and is best used in conjunction with other weapons such as Siege Tanks , Hellions, or Marauders. The second lets it spearhead an assault on a position heavily guarded by air units.

[Jackal]

So, I'm bored, and reading warrior threads. And thinking of some ideas for some fixes to the Fury talent tree - some pretty big reworks that will probably never be noticed, if the threads I made are any indication.


General Warrior changes ( somewhat related to Fury)

< Heroic Strike / Cleave> They should have no cooldown, imo. Should be balanced so they deal slightly less damage, and are thus great rage burners if you have it in excess, but like any good warrior enough should be saved for their normal cycles. Heroic Strike is, after all, still Fury's filler move, in the same slot as the Arms warrior's Slam.

< Execute > Needs to feel more kill-friendly. Should have something like a 5 second cooldown but hit like a damn truck.

< Impending Death > Accessible by all warrior specs at 85 - if Execute fails to kill its target, the damage of your next Execute increases by 10%. Stacks up to 3 times. Effect lasts 15s.

FURY WARRIOR


So, ideas. These are just basic, and numbers can be tweaked to balance.

Talent bonuses - Precision - Now increases your chance to hit with white ( normal) attacks by 6% in addition to its 3% hit chance buff.

Dual Wield Specialization - Now further boosts your damage dealt while dual-wielding by 5%. This helps make up for a possible loss in Enrage, and helps smooth out the damage between enrage periods.





<Bloodthirst> Costs 20 Rage and now has a 5s cooldown. Now deals 100% of your attack power in damage and instantly heals you for 3% of your total health.


< Seething Rage> Replaces Enrage. Same amount of talent points - each of your normal attacks has a chance to cause you to be enraged, increasing the damage dealt by your next 3 special attacks by 7/14/20%. This effect cannot be dispelled.

( Proc chances will be based on your weapon type - 1h or 2h. 2h weapons will have a 50% extra chance to proc to make up for its slower speed.)


< Frenzied Assault> Modified talent in place of Raging Blow - replaces Raging Blow and Flurry. 20 Rage, 6s cooldown. It no longer requires an enrage, but deals 100% weapon damage from both weapons instantly. When used under an enrage effect, it deals 50% more damage and increases your melee haste by 10% for 15s. ( Both these bonus effects count under Unshackled Fury)

< Loose Cannon> Replaces Flurry. When you receive any enrage effect, your attack speed increases by 7/15/20% and your Heroic Strikes and Cleaves have a 10/20/30% chance of resetting the cooldown on Whirlwind and Frenzied Assault. Lasts 15s.

< Belligerence> Replaces Die by the Sword. When you are below 50% of your total health, you will take 7/15% less damage and have 7/15% increased movement speed.

-> Intensify Rage moved to Bloodsurge position - Bloodsurge pushed up one tier.

-> Intensify Rage position replaced by Skirmisher.

-> Skirmisher position replaced by < Spirit Breaker > - Execute has a 10/20% increased critical strike chance and is now useable on targets below 27/35% health.

-> Piercing Howl - Now has a major glyph that allows it to also apply a 10% reduction to enemy physical damage for 45s.

< Bloodsurge> Now also causes that next Slam to deal additional 30% damage.



All of these should make the Fury warrior ' feel' like a demolition truck, a rampaging monster that has a solid dps cycle ( Heroic Strike filler / BT / Frenzied Assault) , excellent rage consistency due to Precision's white hit buff, some procs to watch out for ( Seething Rage, Bloodsurge) and the feel of the enraged warrior ramping up the speed ( Frenzied Assault on enrage effect, Loose Cannon and its cooldown resetting power, damage boost from Seething Rage), and also have some decent pvp viability due to Belligerence and instant BT heals.

Note: Unshackled Fury will also affect Frenzied Assault's buffs to haste and its own damage, Loose Cannon's haste effect and Seething Rage's proc damage booster. ( Note that while it affects Frenzied Assault's haste by percentage, it increases its damage by flat bonus percentage - meaning, when Unshackled Fury gives a 2% boost, it increases the effect to 52% extra damage under an enrage)

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That's it for now.

[Jackal]

SC2 Unit ( Terran)

The Firefly

- Requires: Tech Lab

- Built at: Starport

- History: None, so far.

Tactical Analysis:

The Firefly is a fast assault aircraft available at the same tech level as a Banshee, and costing a similar price. Because it is also a purely ground-target assault craft, it makes sense to compare them directly. Unlike the Banshee, the Firefly does not use rockets to barrage their targets, but uses an array of superheating lasers to fry their enemies. This weapon system allows a Firefly to hit up to 3 targets at once with the fast-firing weapons, and the nature of these weapons increases its damage against light armor units, making it even more powerful at worker killing!

Of course, it has the disadvantage of not being cloaked, plus although its weapons strike fast, they deal less damage against single targets than a banshee. However, they also fly faster than the Banshee itself, and can be upgraded to have a Mirage Shield, an illusive barrier that reduces the chance for most projectile weapons to hit you by 25%! Coupled with their advanced speed, and paired with a Raven, they make excellent counters to a player who spams light anti-air units, or forgets to protect his workers from air assaults.

[Jackal]

Affliction Lock

Yes, I know, QQ nerf locks moar. But see, even if affliction remains stale, there will be more destro locks, and destro locks will still eat everyone for supper. So what are the weaknesses of affliction from my point of view as compared to the other specs?

-> Slow build-up, erratic damage that evens out only over long fights. You only need to look at the tree to see the cause. Both Eradication and Nightfall have exactly 10% chance to proc if you add them both up. What this means is that in bosses that don't last a minute, you're probably not going to see them much. Of course, 20% haste is amazing, especially for affliction, but it doesn't happen a lot until you already have a lot of haste or thrown corruption on a group of mobs. ( AoE, basically) For raid bosses, this is fine. For dungeon bosses they will feel pathetic.

-> No burst cooldowns. Absolutely none. This includes soulburns too. Instant soulfire is nice, but it favors the other specs more so than affliction.

-> Drain Life - Drain Life now lasts a total of 8s. It has the same tick speed as before, however, and is hence more mana / gcd efficient.




Suggestions:

-> Not sure if Blizz already has plans but they're probably going to nerf the bonus shadow damage, maybe. If so, an additional passive bonus to haste would be good.

-> Eradication - 2 talent points. Your corruption effects have a 10% chance to increase your spell haste by 6/12%. Higher chance of proc but reduced effect, caps faster with haste so doesn't scale so well.

-> Blackheart - 1 talent point. Drain Life and Drain Soul can now be used on the move, and while channeled on a target, they hasten your damage-over-time effects on the target by 10%. ( possibly.)

-> Soul Swap - Allow it to affect - all - affliction effects. This would mean curses, Haunt and Shadow Embrace, and make it even more powerful for an affliction lock's target swapping ability.

-> Nightfall - Make it an ability, a tool for burst. 1 min cooldown, causes your next 3 Shadow Bolts to have a 50% reduced cast time.

-> Darkness Calls - Requires Nightfall - Nightfall also gives you a 10% increased critical strike chance and your Unstable Affliction ticks have a 10% chance to reduce the cooldown of Nightfall by 3s. Tweak as needed.

Both of these gives affliction a much-needed burst during those Bloodlust / Heroism periods. It also reduces the scaling with haste but gives them more control over their own power. In addition to this, the Corruption glyph would remain unchanged, giving locks a chance for instant shadow bolts anyway.

-> Soul Burn: Shadow Bolt ( can also be universal, but would favor affliction more) - Your next Shadow Bolt will consume all damage-over-time spells on the target, dealing shadow damage equal to the damage effect of their full durations. A smart warlock could use this to finish off a target that has their dots nearly done, or use this to deal an early burst to a boss and then reapply the dots.

-> Felhunter - Affliction's designated pet according to Blizzard, but not getting any dps love themselves. At the very least, their Shadow Bite should put them at a competitive rate with the Succubus by, perhaps, dealing additional shadow damage equal to a portion of the damage of each of the warlock's damage-over-time effects on the target. Or perhaps simply scaled up so its 6s cooldown shadow bite would deal 3 times the damage of a Succubus' basic attack and then more with the damage-over-time effects.

That's all I have at the moment.