What are peoples thoughts on skill changes?

Thread in 'BattleTech (2018)' started by Duty Remains, Dec 10, 2018.

  1. Duty Remains

    Duty Remains Junior Member

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    So Flashpoint and update 1.3 are here and brought a serious overhaul of the skill changes with them...

    The big changes are in the Guts skill line: Bulwark now adds 20% to any other damage reduction a pilot receives, instead of giving 50% damage reduction and Entrenched for standing still. It should also be noted that both Cover and Guarded now provide 20% damage reduction, but they also stack with each other. With Bulwark, Cover and Guarded, damage reduction now maxes at a whopping 60% but that's not practical except through the use of Morale on key turns. The questionable Juggernaut has been replaced with Coolant Vent which allows a pilot to reduce their 'mechs heat by 50 but reduces their 'mechs cooling ability for the next 3 turns (this is repeatable with a 4 turn cooldown )

    Otherwise Sensor Lock and Sure Footing (formerly Evasive Movement) gained slight buffs in the form of additional effects. Sensor Lock now reduces the accuracy of the target for 1 turn and Sure Footing grants the unit Entrenched as long as it doesn't Jump, Sprint or Melee for 1 turn.

    Overall I think the changes are good and skills make more sense now. It hasn't really changed my skill choices. I still heavily favor Bulwark and choose the rest from either Gunnery or Tactics lines but I do see a reason to take the other skills now (they're simply not as well suited to my tactics and playstyle) and I do feel like I'm giving up valuable options to take the skills that I want.

    This seems like a great improvement. I haven't played enough since the patch to adequately judge how it affects higher level missions though... It all comes down to how much the Bulwark changes effect the player's forces vs how those changes affect the AI forces. Given the propensity to be outnumbered through out the game, I'm worried that a substantial rebalancing of later mission difficulties may be in order. Although to be fair, 5 skull missions were always more pain than they were worth in my opinion, so its not exactly a new concern.

    What are other peoples thoughts?
     
  2. Dagonus

    Dagonus Moderator Staff Member

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    I was thrilled to get to repick my skills since I actually felt lousy about my choices originally. I had specced up to a lot of skills that were better in light and mediums, not realizing that the assaults often wouldn't move far enough to get trigger the evasion bonuses. I didn't grab a lot of Bulwark initially because movement is fun, but then being so slow later on made me feel like I had wasted time doing other things. Ultimately though, I like the changes because I don't feel like I absolutely positively must have Bulwark in the late game. It's nice and I can put guys out there to face tank with it, but every mech doesn't need it. Anytime something is "must have" for every thing all the time, then its probably too powerful.
     
  3. Shock

    Shock Patron of the Underdog Staff Member

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    I like the change to Bulwark, mostly because it allows you to move and still receive benefit. If I have cover, I still get most of the benefit the old skill used to provide.
    Coolant Vent is a good ability. even with reduced cooling on turns 2-4, it's a boost to overall cooling. And it's far better than the useless Juggernaut skill was.
    Sure footing is good early and I still like the Move then shoot ability. There's a lot that can be done with that.
     
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