Item Balancing & Mechanical improvements

[NGSpeed]

Several components could benefit from balancing adjustments and quality-of-life improvements to increase their usefulness, build diversity and tactical potential.

01 // SCOPE SHIFTER

• If the affected target dies, the range bonus should remain active for its remaining duration instead of immediately disappearing.

02 // PERFORATOR

Variant	Effectiveness	Duration / Cooldown
Rare	95%	Unchanged
Ancient	97%	Unchanged
Ancient Long	97%	150% / 150%
Ancient Rapid (NEW)	97%	60% / 60%

Duration and cooldown percentages are relative to the regular Ancient variant.

New Ancient Rapid Perforator for Antares, Gemini, Mizar, Sol, Draconis, Sirius and Tau Ceti (Remnant Rapid).

03 // AGGRO BEACON

• Aggro should be generated exclusively on the beacon, while the associated Effort is credited to its owner.
• Destroying the beacon should not transfer its accumulated aggro to the deploying pilot.
• Generating personal AoE aggro should remain the exclusive role of Aggro Bomb, which is intended for tanking.
• Custodian Commanders should use their stun ability against the beacon itself, not its owner.

This would prevent vulnerable ships such as Shocker and Wolfhound from becoming helpless immediately after their beacon is destroyed.

04 // THERMOBLAST

• Cooldown: −50%
• Damage: +10%

Goal: Establish Thermoblast as a powerful single-target DPS component capable of competing with Sniper Blaster in sustained damage.

05 // MATERIALIZER

Proposed balancing:

Variant	Active Duration	Damage Reduction (NEW)
Rare	16s → 14s	33%
Ancient	12s → 13s	31%
Ancient Long	18s → 16s	36%
Ancient Strong	8s → 9s	28%

• Ancient Long cooldown: 45s → 40s
• New mechanic: Damage reduction while Materializer is active.

06 // 9TH SLOT BALANCING

Component	Modifier	Current → Suggested
Materializer	Active Time	×2 → ×1.25
Materializer	Cooldown	×2 → ×2.5
Attack Droid	Cooldown	×2 → ×1.25
Mine	Cooldown	×2.5 → ×2
Mine	Lifespan	×1 → ×0.75

Attack Droid: The current cooldown of approximately 9.5 minutes is excessive, especially since its active duration is already heavily reduced.

Mine: Shorter cooldowns would encourage tactical use, while the reduced lifespan prevents excessive pre-placement.

07 // ATTACK CHARGE

• Reduce cooldown by 15%.

08 // CORRUPTION CLOUD

• If the affected target dies, the Corruption Cloud should remain at the target's last position until its remaining duration expires.

This would improve its usefulness against groups of weaker enemies.

09 // CONCLUSION

The goal is to improve component viability, tactical flexibility and build diversity without removing their individual strengths and weaknesses.

These adjustments could make underused components more attractive while preserving meaningful differences between Rare, Ancient and Remnant variants.

Feedback and alternative balancing suggestions are welcome.

 

[Jackal]

I'd like to add my own sugestions too:

1) Healing Debuff switched from Taunt to the Thermoblast
2) Repair Target should nullify negative effects like cloud, scope... for the duration of the module (this do not remove the cloud or the scope itself), working like protector against stuns
3) Quantum Leap cooldown needs a nerf, also the distance to cooldown ratio of the Ancient/Remnants should be adjusted like other Ancient/Remnant variants, following the same logic (now the cooldown is increased by 30% for only 20% extra distance aprox.)
4) Make the Aim Scrambler animation different and far more noticeable, it's almost impossible to see them properly in a fight, in pve and pvp

If you are suggesting maintaining the cloud when the target dies, this should apply to Sticky Bombs and Rockets as well for gameplay and consistency purposes.

I'm fine with most of the changes but some could be tweaked because some numbers are too big, with the exception of the perforator, it's difficult to add a variant now, because all players would need to go to Sirius again, please do not hurt us XD

 

[NGSpeed]

@Jackal
I think the Taunt deservers the Healing debuff. Taunt is at a good spot right now.
Thermoblast just needs drastically more benefit. It makes no sense that AoE Weapons outperform it on a single target scenario while providing great AoE DPS.
Repair Target is strong enough, only the 9th slot needs some adjustment, because the repair field outperforms it too much.
I see Quantum Leap as very balanced. It is a good escape andget closer tool, but decreases fighting capabilities by a slot. Griffon Vulture with highest base armor is just an issue by maxing the armor and minimizing movement speed.
I feel like Dominator and Blazing Lava should share the first place for highest base armor as a Tank should.
Weapons of Griffon Vulture can be described as a bruiser build, but these usually never outrank a tank in RPGs.
A new visual rework of aim scrambler is definitely needed. It is very difficult to spot its activation. Usually what you notice first is your blaster missing twice in a row than sharping your eyes on the enemy and noticing the blue scrambler sparks. Maybe we could make a community contest for best design rework suggestions.

That is a great point with stick bombs and rockets!

One new reason to revisit Sirius haha I hate to admit it, but it is one of the longest blueprint rotations already in the perforator category "greens". But it felt always wrong that the perforator was the only exception with only 1 extra variant instead of 2, collector should stay without variants^^

 

[Redthorne]

01 // SCOPE SHIFTER

Agree.

02 // PERFORATOR

Agree in principle, but would mean adding another variant that could mess with loot tables, might not be that easy to add.

03 // AGGRO BEACON

Agree in principle, although I believe that aggro and effort are two faces of the same coin, it might not be possible to separate them.

04 // THERMOBLAST

Disagree, it's already a good item and doesn't need number adjustments, especially if it gets the anti-heal effect discussed below.

05 // MATERIALIZER

Disagree, resurrect is already a good item, adding damage reduction on use makes it way too strong. It also makes the "tank with mat" strat even stronger which is unhealthy imo.

06 // 9TH SLOT BALANCING

Resurrect: disagree, that would enhance "tank with mat" strat.
Attack droid: disagree with only a reduction in CD. The CD is too big, that I agree, but it's also an item with tremendous power especially in 1v1. I would see to nerf active time even harder if CD were to be buffed.
Mine: kinda disagree. I would either go further down this road so that 9th mine can quickly place a smaller field, or give x2 active AND lifespan to make it possible to have the same field as regular mine but that takes twice as long to setup. Up to debate at least.

07 // ATTACK CHARGE

Why not.

08 // CORRUPTION CLOUD

I would rather have the cloud be placed on the caster instead of the target, affecting enemies only of course. That way you are not punished for killing the clouded target and enemies are incentivized to try and kill the cloud caster. Considering that cloud is one of the "heaviest" items, all cloud users are more or less tanks, which would make sense for them to brawl in the melee.

1) Healing Debuff switched from Taunt to the Thermoblast

Agree, that would take power away from this egregious tank meta and give some love back to storm. RDX-17 will be unaffected so that's fine.

2) Repair Target should nullify negative effects like cloud, scope... for the duration of the module (this do not remove the cloud or the scope itself), working like protector against stuns

I'm not too sure about that one, RT is already a very strong item. I agree that there needs to be some debuff counterplay, but I don't think it has to be RT.

3) Quantum Leap cooldown needs a nerf, also the distance to cooldown ratio of the Ancient/Remnants should be adjusted like other Ancient/Remnant variants, following the same logic (now the cooldown is increased by 30% for only 20% extra distance aprox.)

Agree, QL is busted.
Variants are fine though, it makes sense to "pay" extra in CD for the range because higher range has more implications than just travelling faster.

4) Make the Aim Scrambler animation different and far more noticeable, it's almost impossible to see them properly in a fight, in pve and pvp

100% Agree.

 

[Jaax]

Not to be rude, but i'm going to be rude

I did not read 90% of your post because I saw that you were asking to buff scopeshifter and disagreed with jackal saying the quantum leap needs a nerf and that it's in a good spot XDDDDDDD

That's just stupid

 

[Jaax]

I'd like to add my own sugestions too:

1) Healing Debuff switched from Taunt to the Thermoblast
2) Repair Target should nullify negative effects like cloud, scope... for the duration of the module (this do not remove the cloud or the scope itself), working like protector against stuns
3) Quantum Leap cooldown needs a nerf, also the distance to cooldown ratio of the Ancient/Remnants should be adjusted like other Ancient/Remnant variants, following the same logic (now the cooldown is increased by 30% for only 20% extra distance aprox.)
4) Make the Aim Scrambler animation different and far more noticeable, it's almost impossible to see them properly in a fight, in pve and pvp

If you are suggesting maintaining the cloud when the target dies, this should apply to Sticky Bombs and Rockets as well for gameplay and consistency purposes.

I'm fine with most of the changes but some could be tweaked because some numbers are too big, with the exception of the perforator, it's difficult to add a variant now, because all players would need to go to Sirius again, please do not hurt us XD

Great Ideas

 

[Jackal]

I think the Taunt deservers the Healing debuff. Taunt is at a good spot right now.
Thermoblast just needs drastically more benefit. It makes no sense that AoE Weapons outperform it on a single target scenario while providing great AoE DPS.

That's why it's better to have Thermo with Healing debuff, it's a single target item which have the lowest impact overall and many times ships that have it can't finish their targets properly, specially considering the use of Perforators (other ships can't help you that much in killing them.
This can also fix low level systems entirely having more class variety.

I see Quantum Leap as very balanced. It is a good escape andget closer tool, but decreases fighting capabilities by a slot. Griffon Vulture with highest base armor is just an issue by maxing the armor and minimizing movement speed.

Quantum Leap is so much better than afterburner that given the chance of switching from AB to QL all playerbase will take it. There are only 3 ships with QL in the game (I'm excluding the Panther) and in all cases there are issues.
The main problem is the lack of risk using it, specially if you have AB as well, too low cd means you can jump with almost no consequences.
Also I'd like to mention that this item is so OP that the 9th version had to increase its cd 6 times lmao

I'm not too sure about that one, RT is already a very strong item. I agree that there needs to be some debuff counterplay, but I don't think it has to be RT.

It's not a bad item, but it's not a strong one either, RT has the lowest impact among all the other engi items just by being single target, plus giving that new buff does not affect that many encounters either.

 

[NGSpeed]

I would rather have the cloud be placed on the caster instead of the target, affecting enemies only of course. That way you are not punished for killing the clouded target and enemies are incentivized to try and kill the cloud caster. Considering that cloud is one of the "heaviest" items, all cloud users are more or less tanks, which would make sense for them to brawl in the melee.

Casting the Corruption Cloud on yourself seems really like a great versatile option. Maybe a mix of both. Having a range/target indicator when in reach would be necessary imo. Same would be good for Protector, Speed Acuator and Attack Charge on allies (Aggro Beacon has ~ Blaster range, it doesn't need an indicator).

That's why it's better to have Thermo with Healing debuff, it's a single target item which have the lowest impact overall

Taunt means usually raw stats and debuffs in RPGs. That's why it fits better this component role/purpose.
Damage dealers use weapons and their role is to increase the DPS of yourself. The Thermoblast purpose is DPS not debuff, that's why appreciate the current Taunt. It's been to many years of Taunt bashing and uselessness, it deserves these stats imo.

Thank you to everyone sharing their thoughts

Maybe the damage reducing numbers are too high suggested here. I made them up thinking of rescuing a friend during a Remnant and then an orbital strikes scares me away in the glassarmor Constructor xD

 

[Alinoe]

Custodian Commanders should use their stun ability against the beacon itself, not its owner.

Pretty sure that a bug with the messy DS IA, because sometimes it stun the beacon but most of the time the owner. It would be nice to get a fix on it.

Quantum Leap is so much better than afterburner that given the chance of switching from AB to QL all playerbase will take it. There are only 3 ships with QL in the game (I'm excluding the Panther) and in all cases there are issues.
The main problem is the lack of risk using it, specially if you have AB as well, too low cd means you can jump with almost no consequences.
Also I'd like to mention that this item is so OP that the 9th version had to increase its cd 6 times lmao

Yeah, an item allowing you to jump though walls has good use in both PVP and PVE, without any surprise a lot of players would actually love to switch their AB for it. I'm pretty sure however that this frustration come from Griffon ability to easily going in and out without getting punished in PVP.

Poor Panther, some ships would gain something to get reworked/buffed like regular Sirius and regular TC.

 

[skyslide22]

Corruption Cloud usage similar to Protector/Buff/Speed would be nice indeed. When no target is selected then apply it to oneself, else cancel the item / grey it out when target is out of range?