From a "veteran Shaolin" I ...
Hello world,
I play a lot of shaolin and I know they are weak, infact they are very weak i am 15-45 in league play with them yet i press on
I was thinking of a ways to buff the monk, when it came to me,
what if- if the monk is within one space of an enemy unit it can attack it, however what it does it rush to it, like the tribe chieftan.
Thoughts?
The Flying Bo Stab
It's an interesting idea worthy of further consideration.
+1
I like this!
Not sure if any of you have seen my latest blog post, but (IMHO) one of the reasons why monks are so crappy is that they synergise very poorly with the poisoner, and thus have little attacking value. This, on the other hand, solves that problem without giving monks a 3 range move, which I think would make them way too effective at debuffing, especially given their hardiness (1200 20/20 is top tier hardiness, even without the debuff or knockback damage disadvantage).
also +1 for a charging Bō thrust
Yes. Like monk swapping, it combines movement and attack so it helps make combos under the tyranny of 5AP. A little less powerful than monk swapping I think. (Is that good or bad?) Maybe not, if two enemy units are positioned a chess knight's move from each other, the monk could hit both in 2 APs. Of course the debuff wouldn't go to both but combined with a poisoner or a windblade, it would become much easier to get 2-combos on 2 units.
To clarify you are saying that if there is one free tile between the monk and an enemy unit, in any of the four non-diagonal directions, the monk can move to the free square and attack the unit, in one AP. Right?
Well I am still a bit skeptical, due to the same fear, but It's a great idea in general and will certainly add to SL's combo potential. Add to a list of potential changes!
I think this is better than 3-square move balance-wise. I mean is not as big, which is good, but also gives the Monk the ability to threaten those who standing 1 measly square away feel safe from the combo, which is huge for the Monk. This way the Monk could move and attack in the same AP, freeing 1AP to continue the combo with further away units. I really like this!
Hmmm...as long as another buff is introduced, I think this is a good way to boost movement without actually boosting movement. Good idea.
Now, what could be coupled with this to give them one more small nudge. Either a healing mechanic, or perhaps a unit formation that gives an AoE defensive boost. Maybe being adjacent to a crystal could give an AoE resistance?
This is a pretty a good idea, but there will need to be more (possibly something else with the Monk instead of this, but this is good at least).
The Shaolin doesn't need much of a defensive boost, they need an offensive boost. Defensively they're mostly fine (most importantly, because of access to both armor and helms). Slightly more effective healing would be nice--TF2 aside, Taoist the the only healer who does "only" 200% healing at range 2. Range 3 heal like Priestess might work out well.
The big problem is offense--combos just have too little potential in practical play because of the extra move they take to set up. One of two things has to happen:
--Single Shaolin units get a little more killing power (right now only the Poisoner can solo-kill things often).
--Combos are made much more usable. I know this fits the theme of the race more, but I'm not sure how to go about it.
In order to make combos usable, generally increasing the range on things might help. That's why I like the suggestion in the OP, but it's still not that big a change. Maybe really increasing the range of the weak Windblade jumps? Make it chain like a Shaman at range 2. Not threatening alone at only 25% damage. Still might not work though, since what you really need is for a unit in the back lines to participate in a combo without moving, and being able to jump through enemies wouldn't help that.
What about letting 1CP persist across turns? It's kind of expanding the idea of the Monk debuff--setting up weaknesses in the enemy team. The Monk and Poisoner debuffing is the best gameplay in the Shaolin team right now, so maybe make the combo system more like that.
I see Writch took this up again on:
http://www.robotentertainment.com/forum/topic/Summary-Community-Balance-...
I'd suggest further comments there. This was brought up earlier on the first post-SL balance discussions. Art suggested that Robot rarely implements mechanics changes in balance updates, but who knows?
Hello world,
I play a lot of shaolin and I know they are weak, infact they are very weak i am 15-45 in league play with them yet i press on
I was thinking of a ways to buff the monk, when it came to me,
what if- if the monk is within one space of an enemy unit it can attack it, however what it does it rush to it, like the tribe chieftan.
Thoughts?
It's an interesting suggestion -- slightly boost the effective movement of the monk, but only when attacking. This might eliminate aratribal's fear that monks would just turn into "move-move-debuff-retreat-retreat" units... Obviously it would have to be coupled with other buffs to fully solve the SL problem, but it's certainly worth considering.