Towershields have been in the meta since they came out, they have recieved just useless weight nerfs that do not affect their best users, but just make them more exclusive to them, which is well - bad.
While Oghmirs are undeniably OP, which I proved in my last post "Current state of footfighting meta - a focus on Thursars and Oghmirs" probably the biggest reason, and hardest to fix is towershields:
Oghmirs are not inherently as OP as they seem, towershields just amplify their strenghts to another level, and allow reckless use of their abilities, such as bigger pots and pipes.
Oghmir’s beer belly should get a 50% nerf - to 5 thirst, is 10 currently
Oghmir’s inhale(pipe) should get a nerf with its cooldown increased (30 second increase)
Oghmirs need just those 2 nerfs themselves, nerfs are still big, but if you are a veteran, played large scale PvP, you know that they are neccesary if you strive for balance. Oghmirs would still be the best footfighters in teamfights, and definitely the best frontliners, but will not outperform others out of proportion, as they do now.
Now back to towershields, the amount of damage they reduce is comparable to full armor set, in their current form they drastically lower skill ceiling in teamfights, make you tanky af without parrying well, they allow you to trade freely and the opponent will most likely hit a shield anyways. And if you are a good player who uses them, you massively outperform even the best player who does not, just due to eHP gain from them.
Mages using them is silly, they can swap out to using them freely when a meele dives them, they gain massive defences for free, and if you are a fatmage, you basically outtank the second tankiest footfighter - a Thursar because they do not have a towershield. Its crazy how hard fatmages can be to kill when they have that thing on their back, for free, again, they do not sacrifice mana because they can ctrl-4 boom towershield instantly appears, mage being attacked and sacrificing a small amount of time of low mana regen for an extreme amount of defense, is very overpowered, exploitative, and unrealistic.
and thats where the first nerf comes:
- Add an equip/remove animation to them just like armors have
This would make it so you either suffer the negatives, or dont yield the positives, mages now are basically wearing an item that is supposed to be a double edged sword, just when its a benefit, totally ignoring the idea of mana penalty due to armor weight. This would fix that, and would somewhat nerf Oghmirs also.
Bonus nerf that would compliment this one well - durability nerf/bigger dura penalty when you get equipment hits - would force the animation when it breaks.
Second important nerf - towershields on back should barely reduce dmg, or not at all - this one is self explanatory and has a clear purpose, as mentioned before Oghmirs pipes/pots benefit so much off of towershields tanking every hit while you are healing yourself, both 0 skill mechanics.
Pipe that has massive power (100 free HP per minute) because of the idea that it will be punished if misused, now freely gets that power, because towershields removing so much dmg while on back allow it to be used ON COOLDOWN, which is just 30 seconds. And that is another massive balancing failure - pipe being used on cooldown, which is meta, Oghmirs will run into the enemies while piping and potting and not be punished due to towershields, let alone when they run backwards and every hit is a TS hit, swords do like 2 dmg. Oghmirs get ignored during fights even at their most vunerable.
Str requirement 96, so str based footies and Veelas with raw str rings can use them, and not a 10 str mage that can barely hold a 50 gram dagger, wields a 6kg chunk of metal in their left arm.
The few times it was publicly stated the reason why strength requirement was a rejected balancing design choice is because it is a build restrictive method. Unfortunately that's already a stark reality. The continuous increasement of shields’ weight has led to realistically only oghmir footfighters and mages who “hot swap” their towershield on and off to be able to use them
Trading with towershields and going full offense while getting a massive, free eHP bonus is terrible design, it makes towershields a braindead option and I repeat my original point - they should be double edged sword, but for some reason are not.
Nerf for this - getting equipment hit while not parrying reduces dmg resisted from the shield and gives stamina penalty
This would not only make them more skill based, but also more fair - as now you get to decide, do I have less stamina over a course of a fight (stam on parry + this change would make that significant difference) for massive defense bonus or do I go without towershields and have more stamina so I can be more offensive.
Stamina penalty should be tied to amount damaged rather than flat, to buff 2h weapons, as they should never be ignored and are easy to parry, if you ignore those, you are basically saying - "my item is so overpowered it ignores the sole reason your item exists" if you get hit by that one, you should be punished both stam and dmg wise, however this is not neccesary, but I think an obvious choice instead of a flat penalty that again promotes 1h/spam.
There you go - these few nerfs:
1. Animation on equip/removal/break of the towershield
2. Towershield on back barely reduces damage, if at all
3. Str req 96 - important, more realistic, easier to balance, less restrictive
4. Getting equipment hit while not parrying reduces amount an equipment hit resists AND gives stam penaltly
Would fix towershields long term, another weight increase would be silly, and would just make Oghmirs go stronger trinkets/khurite/diff steel/cronite legs which would barely affect them and would totally remove them from anyone elses list, which is again, bad.
If anyone complains mages will get hit harder than Oghs in these nerfs, yes. They shouldnt be tanky in meele for free, as diving them is their only counterplay, they will now have to choose between being tankier with armors for less stam, or having more stam, rather than both. And I suggested Oghmir nerfs outside towershield nerfs and I think those are important, pipe and beer belly need to be weaker, they give too much compared to any other survivability clade from any race now. Like 3x more.
I quoted foe's "MO2 combat feedback manifesto" a few times when describing an issue here, it focuses on overall combat balance of the game, gives great suggestions to broken aspects of it.
Thanks for reading and remember - Nerf Towershields... Like a lot.
While Oghmirs are undeniably OP, which I proved in my last post "Current state of footfighting meta - a focus on Thursars and Oghmirs" probably the biggest reason, and hardest to fix is towershields:
Oghmirs are not inherently as OP as they seem, towershields just amplify their strenghts to another level, and allow reckless use of their abilities, such as bigger pots and pipes.
Oghmir’s beer belly should get a 50% nerf - to 5 thirst, is 10 currently
Oghmir’s inhale(pipe) should get a nerf with its cooldown increased (30 second increase)
Oghmirs need just those 2 nerfs themselves, nerfs are still big, but if you are a veteran, played large scale PvP, you know that they are neccesary if you strive for balance. Oghmirs would still be the best footfighters in teamfights, and definitely the best frontliners, but will not outperform others out of proportion, as they do now.
Now back to towershields, the amount of damage they reduce is comparable to full armor set, in their current form they drastically lower skill ceiling in teamfights, make you tanky af without parrying well, they allow you to trade freely and the opponent will most likely hit a shield anyways. And if you are a good player who uses them, you massively outperform even the best player who does not, just due to eHP gain from them.
Mages using them is silly, they can swap out to using them freely when a meele dives them, they gain massive defences for free, and if you are a fatmage, you basically outtank the second tankiest footfighter - a Thursar because they do not have a towershield. Its crazy how hard fatmages can be to kill when they have that thing on their back, for free, again, they do not sacrifice mana because they can ctrl-4 boom towershield instantly appears, mage being attacked and sacrificing a small amount of time of low mana regen for an extreme amount of defense, is very overpowered, exploitative, and unrealistic.
and thats where the first nerf comes:
- Add an equip/remove animation to them just like armors have
This would make it so you either suffer the negatives, or dont yield the positives, mages now are basically wearing an item that is supposed to be a double edged sword, just when its a benefit, totally ignoring the idea of mana penalty due to armor weight. This would fix that, and would somewhat nerf Oghmirs also.
Bonus nerf that would compliment this one well - durability nerf/bigger dura penalty when you get equipment hits - would force the animation when it breaks.
Second important nerf - towershields on back should barely reduce dmg, or not at all - this one is self explanatory and has a clear purpose, as mentioned before Oghmirs pipes/pots benefit so much off of towershields tanking every hit while you are healing yourself, both 0 skill mechanics.
Pipe that has massive power (100 free HP per minute) because of the idea that it will be punished if misused, now freely gets that power, because towershields removing so much dmg while on back allow it to be used ON COOLDOWN, which is just 30 seconds. And that is another massive balancing failure - pipe being used on cooldown, which is meta, Oghmirs will run into the enemies while piping and potting and not be punished due to towershields, let alone when they run backwards and every hit is a TS hit, swords do like 2 dmg. Oghmirs get ignored during fights even at their most vunerable.
Str requirement 96, so str based footies and Veelas with raw str rings can use them, and not a 10 str mage that can barely hold a 50 gram dagger, wields a 6kg chunk of metal in their left arm.
The few times it was publicly stated the reason why strength requirement was a rejected balancing design choice is because it is a build restrictive method. Unfortunately that's already a stark reality. The continuous increasement of shields’ weight has led to realistically only oghmir footfighters and mages who “hot swap” their towershield on and off to be able to use them
Trading with towershields and going full offense while getting a massive, free eHP bonus is terrible design, it makes towershields a braindead option and I repeat my original point - they should be double edged sword, but for some reason are not.
Nerf for this - getting equipment hit while not parrying reduces dmg resisted from the shield and gives stamina penalty
This would not only make them more skill based, but also more fair - as now you get to decide, do I have less stamina over a course of a fight (stam on parry + this change would make that significant difference) for massive defense bonus or do I go without towershields and have more stamina so I can be more offensive.
Stamina penalty should be tied to amount damaged rather than flat, to buff 2h weapons, as they should never be ignored and are easy to parry, if you ignore those, you are basically saying - "my item is so overpowered it ignores the sole reason your item exists" if you get hit by that one, you should be punished both stam and dmg wise, however this is not neccesary, but I think an obvious choice instead of a flat penalty that again promotes 1h/spam.
There you go - these few nerfs:
1. Animation on equip/removal/break of the towershield
2. Towershield on back barely reduces damage, if at all
3. Str req 96 - important, more realistic, easier to balance, less restrictive
4. Getting equipment hit while not parrying reduces amount an equipment hit resists AND gives stam penaltly
Would fix towershields long term, another weight increase would be silly, and would just make Oghmirs go stronger trinkets/khurite/diff steel/cronite legs which would barely affect them and would totally remove them from anyone elses list, which is again, bad.
If anyone complains mages will get hit harder than Oghs in these nerfs, yes. They shouldnt be tanky in meele for free, as diving them is their only counterplay, they will now have to choose between being tankier with armors for less stam, or having more stam, rather than both. And I suggested Oghmir nerfs outside towershield nerfs and I think those are important, pipe and beer belly need to be weaker, they give too much compared to any other survivability clade from any race now. Like 3x more.
I quoted foe's "MO2 combat feedback manifesto" a few times when describing an issue here, it focuses on overall combat balance of the game, gives great suggestions to broken aspects of it.
Thanks for reading and remember - Nerf Towershields... Like a lot.
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