update Drones & Supplies update

[numericable 2,375]

33 minutes ago, readyfireaim said:

Do y'all think I should buy Miner after this update? I'm looking for a cheap drone to back up my Supplier. Or should I get Defender? (I use Wasp.)

Booster is a greater choice

[Blutchidoo 508]

Defender got a nerf ):) My cup runneth over.

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

1 hour ago, DaringDeer said:

I'm not exactly sure how the cooldown works with Miner drone.  It is 10s currently and it is almost impossible to be killed twice in 10s given respawn and protected time.  Is the cooldown activated when you drop a mine or when you die?

With long battles and 100 mines retained this drone could ruin matches on its own if it is not possible to clear them some way.  You are not getting a mammoth across some of these giant maps to use their OD.

Miner's effect triggers when it's activated. Miner activates when it dies. It has a 10 second cooldown. It takes 9.5 seconds for it to start being able to take damage again. This effectively means its mines cannot disappear. There is no period of time allowing it to disappear due to enemy interaction. 

 

The new Miner will have a cooldown of 30 seconds. This means that if the Miner is killed during the cooldown, the drone cannot activate and thus cannot save the mines. There is now counterplay to Miner. The problem is that this counterplay can be withheld by the Miner users themselves. If a Miner has a large minefield and happens to die, in order to save those mines, they can stay in Pause until the drone's cooldown has finish, and then spawn. This ensures that their minefield cannot be destroyed from them being destroyed. 

 

Solution: The ideal thing to do is to target Miner users at the start of the battle. Interrupt their setup as much as you can. Whether it be by brute force with Defender/Booster/Crisis/Lifeguard or by Mammoth and Titan's Overdrives. The important thing is to nip it in the bud. Don't let it get an easy set up. This becomes problematic if there are multiple (and smart) Miners on the team. If they're able to set up a large minefield that dissuades enemies from passing there, they can keep it alive if they stay in pause after they die. 

 

 

[wolverine848 13,097]

34 minutes ago, TheCongoSpider said:

The new Miner will have a cooldown of 30 seconds. This means that if the Miner is killed during the cooldown, the drone cannot activate and thus cannot save the mines. There is now counterplay to Miner. The problem is that this counterplay can be withheld by the Miner users themselves. If a Miner has a large minefield and happens to die, in order to save those mines, they can stay in Pause until the drone's cooldown has finish, and then spawn. This ensures that their minefield cannot be destroyed from them being destroyed. 

Are you saying the mines from the new Miner will disappear if the player dies?  ALL of them?

That mechanism seems really goofy. And totally at odds with the purpose of the drone.

If so, then what's the point of the drone?  Might as well have Saboteur which places up to 7 at a time.

Edited October 7, 2021 by wolverine848

[DMR 676]

I hope they gonna buff Brutus drone and add another goal of this drone instead of just increasing supplies effect which isn't interesting

[Espoir 991]

25 minutes ago, Yveltal9 said:

I hope they gonna buff Brutus drone and add another goal of this drone instead of just increasing supplies effect which isn't interesting

This is not going to happen since Brutus is the only drone not using your batteries ^^
They just made it so you can actually get the increased damage/amor without consuming your batteries

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

26 minutes ago, wolverine848 said:

Are you saying the mines from the new Miner will disappear if the player dies?  ALL of them?

To put it succinctly, in order to destroy the minefield of a Miner drone without using external factors such as Mammoth/Titan/Ares Overdrives, you must kill that player twice in the span of 30 seconds. Killing them the first time will activate their drone (which will save their existing mines) and put the drone on a 30-second cooldown. IF the player dies again before that 30-second cooldown is finished, their mines will be destroyed with them. If they survive the entire cooldown, well then the next time they die, their mines will be saved, and the aforementioned scenario starts again. 

 

There will be counterplay to Miner. The problem lies in the fact the Miner user can avoid this counterplay by staying in the pause screen until their drone's cooldown is finished. Here is a video visualising it using Lifeguard, which currently has a 30 second cooldown, just like what Miner will have after the update. Suppose I mined both of the side entrances to our base with 20 mines each, a very nice minefield, and I die to an enemy Magnum bombardment. To take away the risk of my minefield getting destroyed from me dying immediately after I spawn, I will sit in pause until the drone's cooldown is up. That is the problem that will occur. 

 

 

There is not much incentive to do this at the start of the battle, which is why interrupting Miner setups early and constantly will be ideal if you don't want this situation occuring. 

 

[wolverine848 13,097]

6 minutes ago, TheCongoSpider said:

There will be counterplay to Miner. The problem lies in the fact the Miner user can avoid this counterplay by staying in the pause screen until their drone's cooldown is finished.

I think that's just dumb.  The "counters" to Miner are protections.  Losing an entire mine-field because a team is able to spawn-kill your team completely ruins the drone.  They need to remove this from the "Pros" section of description because it will no longer be true ... "Works well when your team is struggling - even if you are destroyed frequently, your defenses will get stronger as you plant more mines."

I'm sure there will be a few players who use pause to avoid it's loss.  But boy am I glad I didn't upgrade beyond a few steps because that would have been a huge waste of resources.  Better off with Saboteur.  Looks like I'll be spending crystals upgrading Booster.

[Frylock 1,617]

I knew it booster got a buff not a nerf. XD When I use blunderbuss Im still making higher damage with it and some status augments like AP Rail.

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

Allied Crusader froze my screen with their Overdrive. I think this pic neatly shows the chaos happening in battles right now. 

 

 

 

[DestrotankAI9 1,513]

The new Lifeguard drone is brilliant, better than Defender I would say in most situations given the nerf that it has now received, and the buff to Lifeguard.

Lifeguard now has the same "permanent" Boosted Armor and ability to activate BA/BD at the same time as Defender, while also having its safeguard + full heal ability, albeit with a 60 second cooldown instead of 30. That beats a now significantly reduced +50% armor from Defender IMO.

At worst, Lifeguard will grant you a heal of up to 3000 if activated by a low damage attack such as from Vulcan. At best, it will save you from an otherwise guaranteed death such as a Wasp Bomb or High Capacitor Shaft shot backed up by Crisis or Booster, and heal you for up to 3000 - while having the same permanent Boosted Armor and instant BA + BD that Defender has.

The only downside of course is that it consumes additional Repair kits, which are significantly more valuable than Boosted Armor. However given the "nerf" to a 60 second cooldown, it now consumes a maximum of 3 extra repair kits each 60 seconds rather than 6 before - which means now thanks to the "nerf" it could be more affordable to run for free players. Still expensive, but given the power of this drone in capture modes it may well be worth it.

Kind of sad given that my Defender is about to get to 19/20, but I might consider MU-ing Lifeguard.

PS: Also tested it on my alt account and it is definitely as powerful in practice as it seems to be on paper.

Edited October 8, 2021 by DestrotankAI9

[Mr.Spark 240]

I bought 200k crys drones before this change on 50% discount so I saved about 75% crys :PPP

Edited October 8, 2021 by Mr.Spark

[Spy 14,687]

41 minutes ago, At_Shin said:

 

Topic merged.

[yellowghetto 3,206]

Booster is OP

 

Edited October 8, 2021 by yellowghetto
Thanks

[lssimo 1,559]

Too many changes, I can't keep up. Maybe I should play more... actually I will, during the Infra Days (11-14).

Infra is the opposite of Ultra in Latin.

There should be Infra skins, very simple skins that are good to show off paints. And Infra Containers.

Edited October 8, 2021 by lssimo

[cautious 11]

Decent update, good to see weak drones have become much better. Just two problems - engineer didn't deserve a nerf and crisis didn't deserve a buff

[Spy 14,687]

1 hour ago, yellowghetto said:

Booster is OP

 

I disagree, it's much more balanced than what it used to be.

[yellowghetto 3,206]

25 minutes ago, Spy said:

I disagree, it's much more balanced than what it used to be.

Boosters are everywhere.

[Spy 14,687]

20 minutes ago, yellowghetto said:

Boosters are everywhere.

True, but the drone isn't OP.

[Iron_Man 2,376]

I've just tried booster. Well, it is still very very strong

I was really crying that the only drone I used got greatly nerfed but now it isn't all that bad as I expected.

[TESL4 426]

10 minutes ago, Iron_Man said:

I've just tried booster. Well, it is still very very strong

I was really crying that the only drone I used got greatly nerfed but now it isn't all that bad as I expected.

It should be better now with melee-mid ranged dps turrets. 

[Tidebreaker 1,669]

4 hours ago, DestrotankAI9 said:

 

I find it a little funny about how many thought that Lifeguard was getting nuked, when in fact it actually became even better. I've been using this drone for a little over 2-3 months now, and it has saved me against skilless ODs such as Viking an incalculable amount of times.

No one realized its potential, because they would much rather abuse the meta Defender.

Now, I think it might be holding the spot for best drone in the game, and I am so glad I invested into this. It absolutely plows through Booster, Defender, and Crisis users with Adrenaline Vulcan and Crusader.

I don't know if it will get nerfed, but I'm really enjoying it so far. For once, I can truly make Defender users ragequit, Booster users wonder how I simply do not die, and Crisis users have an existential crisis on which supply to activate before their eventual demise.

[fghjkl54 1,517]

Just now, wolverine848 said:

Are you saying the mines from the new Miner will disappear if the player dies?  ALL of them?

That mechanism seems really goofy. And totally at odds with the purpose of the drone.

If so, then what's the point of the drone?  Might as well have Saboteur which places up to 7 at a time.

using it to finish place X mines faster

[NikmanGT 4,362]

With defender, I can't feel anything with respect to armour now as if no armour was applied

With booster, I still miss the 3 sec spike, but now the base damage overall in increased which allowed using different combo to the match, including XP one with scout.

[Frylock 1,617]

4 hours ago, Spy said:

True, but the drone isn't OP.

Booster is totally "not OP"

Spoiler

Spoiler

My Isida is at 5/20 

My Hopper is at 11/20

Booster 16/20

Edited October 8, 2021 by MysticBlood