Guest_Air Quotes_*
I like the Cabal and I have already done something like 400 waves with her including 3 Gold solos (vs Reapers, Cerberus and Collectors) and 1 Platinum solo vs Reapers. So I don't wanna see any "lrn2play" posts - those will be automatically dismissed.
That said - she needs a buff and specifically in Poison Strike. But I will cover all her powers and melee in this post. Excuse me for grammar or spelling mistakes - English is not my native language.
So, many people either spec out of Poison Strike or put a few pity points in there for using it as an escape or to traverse the map or when they spec fully, they mostly find it dissapointing, but can't really pin down to what it is exactly.
Well, we will only see when comparing. And we'll compare to other Vanguards and Havoc Soldier (because he plays similary)
Poison Strike Vs Biotic Charge
So what's the difference? Other Vanguards DEPEND on Charge to keep themselves alive. 2 Vanguards (Slayer and Novaguard) ABSOLUTELY NEED Charge to be able to deal respectable damage, because they use their barriers to do it. Cabal has NO TIES to Poison Strike . PS does not regenerate barriers. Biotic Focus does. But only if you spec completely into it AND choose Biotic shield, making the Cabal the first and only Vanguard that can't regen shields without specific (almost forced) evo and putting 21 points into it. And even then it'll restore only 40% of your shields. And consumes a cooldown, that could've been used to Poison Strike. To compare - Biotic Charge will always give you 50% barriers and can give 100% Havoc Soldier only needs 1 point in Stim packs to be able to regen 1200 shields, which completely heals a full fitness Turian.
So you have no real reason to Poison Strike the enemy. Spamming Biotic Focus and shooting your weapon + Nightshade Blades is safer and deals more damage. You play more like a Human Soldier with Adrenaline Rush and not like a CQC Vanguard.
Now let's look at the damage and evos on Poison Strike compared to Biotic Charge. Biotic Charge has infinite range. As long as you can target the enemy - you can Charge it. Far away or close, you can slam into it restoring your barriers. Biotic Charge has 1.5 damage modifier VS Barriers. It also has evo's for WHOOPING 40% more power damage for 10 seconds or 25% weapons damage. It has evo's for Radius, which means you can stun up to 3 people. You can also choose a 50% no cooldown evo and Charge 3-4-5 times in a row with no CD and getting 50% barriers each time. Double Dash can only do it twice, with no regen.
What do you get with Poison Strike? You toy around with range. If you want Double Dash you need to choose range in the first evo. Otherwise you'll end up with a 7.2 meter strike. Fury or Slayer cover that distance in 1 dodge! Jetpack Turian will cover 8 meters in 1 burn. 7.2 meter charge will barely get you trough a Brute or a Praetorian and many times you will get stuck in their guts and get staggered to death. So you absolutely need range. What else do you get? 3 extra seconds of PATHETIC DOT or recharge speed? Recharge speed is a no brainer. That allows you to pack a heavier weapon. And the last evo? A bit stronger (yet still absolutely laughable) DOT and paralyze up to 2 unshielded targets? WOW! Really? Biotic Charge will stagger 3, and will stagger shielded and even armored ones too because it has force. Double Dash is again a no brainer. But again only for traveling reasons and not damage dealing ones (I'll explain why)
So, Poison Strike loses on damage departament heavily vs Biotic Charge. Biotic Charge deals similar up-front damage that will get stronger 40% with the next one + all of your other powers will get 40% more powerful. Biotic Charge has force, so if you see that Trooper jet-booting up the ledge you can just ram him and throw him off the map. If you have a quick shield stripper such as Acolyte, you can do the same to Phantoms. Poison Strike can't do that. you will just go trough the enemy. And again. Biotic Charge has 1.5 modifier vs barriers. PS doesn't.
Imagine Nightshade Blades with 40% extra damage. Now that would be useful instead of 3 seconds of crap DOT. Or 25% more damage to you weapon. Or 40% more melee damage from Kroguards Charge tree.
Why do I call Poison Strike's DOT pathetic? Well because it is. The max you can deal is 120 damage for 8 seconds. That's 960 damage total. And it has no modifiers vs defenses, unlike let's say Inferno nades, Arc nades, Dark Channel, Reave and others. That DOT is just pure damage. And it's super low. In fact - a Cannibal will override your DOT with his health regen and will regenerate like nothing happened. What good that kinda DOT is for? It does't even have modifiers against health (you know, you'd think poison would wreck health or if it's acid it should wreck armor). Nope. Nothing. 960 damage is what? 2-3 Carnifex shots? OVER 8 SECONDS. That's ETERNITY in this game. The enemy will be long dead before that, or if it's a boss - it won't even notice it.
But the worst part is - Poison Strike is very impractical in real combat situations. Specifically because you go trough the enemy. It's good for escaping or as a finishing move, but garbage when you have to whittle the enemy down. Lemme explain.
With Biotic Charge, you slam into the enemy, thus staggering weaker ones or sending them flying and even Phantoms. You can even stagger an Atlas if you time it right when he's about to fire a missile. Then you can dodge back or immediately shoot the enemy in the face, or use your Phase Disruptor/Nova or throw a grenade, thus increasing your DPS MASSIVELY. You never lose sight of the enemy. He's always in front of you. You can see his moves. So you can repeat this charge/weapon/melee/grenade/power to face over and over again as long as you can stay alive and target an enemy. Enemies will get staggered, knocked down - that means they won't shoot you for some time or you'll just finish them on the ground.
With Poison Strike it's another story. You go trough the enemy with no force which means they won't get staggered, armored or shielded ones will not give a crap at all. I admit, phasing trough an Atlas is cool, but...
After Poison Strike you have to turn around or keep running to not lose momentum. Since the damage of PS is low and the DOT is LOW, most likely you WILL have to turn around to finish the enemy down or to Strike again. Turning around is slow. As slow as a limousine. And enemies actually turn around FASTER than you. Even bosses. MANY times I would Strike an Atlas only to turn around and see the same Atlas already looking at me and shooting, Brutes will already be in charging motion, Scions already sending grenades or missiles, even freaking Ravagers will turn around in less than a second and lock on to me. Little, nimble enemies such as Phantoms will shoot you in the back , faster then you can recover from PS. Now after you turn around, remember - you're human, so you will have to reaquire you're target again, aim and fire. Enemies don't have to do that. They will instantly shoot you with whatever they have.
This is what makes Poison Strike great for escaping, but absolute garbage for damage dealing. On small maps such as Glacier or White and similar, enemies will often cluster in hallway, which makes them perfect to Biotic Charge, dodge back and keep attacking with AOE and weapons. You constantly detonate teammate powers and ammo. So enemies will die fast. With the Cabal - you just DON'T WANT to Poison Strike trough all of them. That means you will lose sight of the enemy, you will have to turn around, which makes you a stationary target that screams "please shoot me now, please shoot me a lot" and you can get randomly interrupted with enemy melees and stagger attacks such as all favorite Atlas ass rocket.
See with Biotic Charge you can time it, and Charge an Atlas as he about to shoot, this will stagger him and he won't fire, you will win a couple of seconds to go back into cover or run or for teammates to finish it off. With Poison Strike you will go trough and recieve an ass rocket in the back.
Now remember people, when you Charge or Poison Strike - you don't shoot.
You Biotic Charge to stagger enemies, to regain your shields, to have invincibility frames, to detonate your ammo and teammate primer powers, to BUFF your own powers/melee/weapons, to rapidly close great distances and in case of Slayer and Novaguard - to be able to deal damage in the first place.
You Poison Strike to? Uhhh, gain Invicibility frames, it sucks as a gap closer, unless the gap is really short. It detonates ammo and powers - sure, but you can't whale on the enemy after PS like you can after BC.
So what you use it for? To teleport around the map. To ignore ladders, to ignore buildings. To escape trough enemies. But for the most part your dodge will get you trough most obstacles. And if you play Slayer - he can do the same. But this is not what makes a Vanguard.
Vanguards suppose to fight at vanguard. Not to run away or fight from distance all the time. That makes you a soldier. And Cabal is a stiched up soldier now. Batarian/Human/Turian Soldier that spams Biotic Focus and shoots Harriers/PPR's or whatver from long range while spamming Blades.
But I don't want to play a soldier. I will play TGI if I want AR damage thank you very much. I want to play the Cabal to X strike all the things. I wanna go trough enemies and see them die quickly from poison or be staggered/paralyzed. I wanna wreck havoc from close range. Now I find myself using Poison Srike just to vary my gameplay, and for ****s and giggles, but by no means is it necessary for me to survive or kill. And actually using Poison Strike puts me in compromising positions a lot of the time when I strike trough a wall and the enemy greets me with instant melee or gun fire.
So. If Bioware wants players to use the Cabal in CQC and use/spec fully into Poison Strike this is what they have to do:
1. Up front damage - 25% increase
2. Poison DOT - doubled or tripled (even then it won't be that strong, trust me) 200 damage per second is nothing much. Dark Channel for example deals 512 on the Fury per second VS Barriers and almost 400 on Armor. It can be detonated, lasts for 30 seconds, slows the enemy down, and benefits from Warp ammo up to 100%, can be casted instantly from range and you can shoot immediately after casting. So this more than makes up for the up front damage on PS. On Asari Infiltrator these numbers sky rocket even more and goes 800/600 from cloak per second for 30 seconds. Even against shields it'll deal 110. Which is the same as PS, but the duration is much longer.
You say Dark Channel affects only 1 target? Compare it to Reave then. It stacks, it's instant, It'll prime everything in 3 meter radius, it benefits warp ammo, you can shoot right away, cast it from distance and so on and it'll do more damage.
Bottom line - PS DOT IS THE LOWEST DOT OF THEM ALL. BY A LOT.
3. Remove the target cap or double it. 3 enemies affected by PS is way too low. The target # needs to be unlimited or much highter, so every little thing you strike trough gets affected.
Reason - has no force, you have to turn around. Players will only feel confident in PS, if they know that if they go trough those 3 Marauders with PS, they will die in 8 seconds from DOT and not shoot them in the back or just regen their shields and come haunt them later in the game. They need to know that if they PS a Banhee, she will take some damage instead of laughing in your face.
Or they won't spec into it.
4. Increase base range to 16-18 meters.
Nightshade Blades.
Good damage, DOT is a little weak but it's okay, because the damage is good and you can spam them without a cooldown for great CC. Can be made to explode, thus giving you a much needed second stagger.
Now the bad points. NB's only work in a straight line, which means you have to be in the line of fire and the enemy has to be in the open to recieve damage. If the enemy is in cover or if you are in hard cover - you will not hit. 3 target limit. Depends on range - the closer you are - the more damage. Long'ish firing animation that locks you in place and you can easily be staggered out of it.
So you phase trough a wall, you see and bunch of Cannibals there, you try to Nightshade them, they hug you and you're dead, because the firing animation is too long and you got meleed out of it. Now people will say to - take the geth Scanner you idiot - it'll show you what's behind walls - good suggestion I say, but you will sacrifice a lot of Nightshade Blades and potencial AR and SR damage for it.
Your only true damage power and CC gets gimped to basically non existant.
Now compare it to something like Asari's Lift nades. 6.5 meter radius, even more damage after BC, ignores LOS, unlimited target cap, doesn't depend on range and can be thrown across maps easily, fast throw animation and even if you get staggered, often times the grenade will still be thrown out. You can throw them out of cover to an enemy that's in cover and kill them no problem. And you can dodge while doing it.
Do Nightshades need a buff or change? Not really, if the Poison Strike gets buffed and Biotic Focus gets a longer duration.
Biotic Focus.
Nothing to say much about it . It's an okay overall power. Gives you some DR, some speed, some melee damage. But the duration is really short. And if you want extra melee damage - it's even shorter. So you have to constantly spam it to keep it up, thus killing your CD for Poison Strike. So you're not Striking much, you're again playing as a soldier.
For example Fury gives you 90 seconds and similar boosts + shield drain from every shielded enemy + DOT and a primer.
Solution. Increase Biotic Focus base Duration to 20-25 seconds.
Melee.
It's fun to play and go Wolverine of everything, and it's good for the most part.
But here's what sucks hard about it. ONLY HEAVY MELEE kills give you bonuses to Martial Artist and weapons damage. But you will be using heavy melee as a gap closer and as an initial attack and you will finish the enemy with fast light melee strikes. Which means you will rarely gain 75% melee + weapons damage bonuses from melee tree. And you forgo lots of shields for it. (and you need those shields in CQC, trust me)
Passives - yeah, those are standard Turian passives. They are good.
Dodge - her dodge is smooth as fast. But incredibly buggy and won't work a lot of the times. When you need it the most of course.
So to summarize - Cabal is not really a Vanguard. She's a Frankenstein. Her Vanguard power - Poison Strike is very underwhelming and it's also buggy and slow to start. Biotic Focus kills it's cooldown too much. Nighshade Blades are okay, but slow to start. She's by no means a finesse class like Fury or Slayer is. She's just a soldier or a pretty standard melee masher.
Cabal can be fun, I'm not denying that, but she's not a Vanguard and that grinds my gears.
Modifié par Air Quotes, 11 mars 2013 - 06:58 .
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