Infested Enemy Type Balancing Suggestion.

[DPV111]

I would like to suggest a reduction in the spawn rate of Volatile Runners and an increase in the spawn rate of Leapers.

 

Thematically I find it silly that the highest population mob in the faction are kamikaze type.

 

Gameplay wise, they are both the least challenging and most frustrating enemy depending on your tactics. You can just run through a group and they will all stand there and die while you move out of range. If you are using cheap tactics they are by far the most trivial enemly in the game, period. But if you want to engage Infested in full melee, they become a very polarizing force, deterring certain frames and tactics.

 

The biggest problems I have encountered is when using Nova. Molecular Prime + Melee is fantastic against other factions but against Infested, it is very dangerous, since the Primed explosions will cause VRs to pop, you can be blasted by a ton of them all at once with no way to mitigate since it only takes the first death to set off the rest.

 

Other powers have terrible synergy with VRs as well. Pretty much anything in the game from teammates to sentinels (STOP HELPING!) to any ability that makes enemes take non-melee damage make meleeing the melee faction a bad idea.

 

It seems to me like while players have adapted to the either/or ranged and melee system, Infested are more balanced around the old quick-melee, with ranged attacks, explosions, auras...

 

I feel that a general trade off of runners for leapers would rebalance the faction toward not punishing fair melee tactics and rewarding cheap kiting and would make melee less of a deterrent for many frames. Some of course have no issue with this, and I am not whining or saying the game is broken. I'd just like Infested melee to be less of a deterrent. Leapers are a challenge, Runners are just a deterrent.

[BrotherIcarus]

Surely the easiest enemy should be the one with the greatest spawns? 

 

Also replacing them with leaper's sounds terrible, they can already be pretty annoying with there stun in the current numbers, if they were increased to VR level it would be ridiculous. 

[APBladeX]

Also, get rid of these overly stupid ancient auras, as well as their scorpion grappling hooks. Really?

[--FORMA--]

Also, get rid of these overly stupid ancient auras, as well as their scorpion grappling hooks. Really?

I'll be fine with the Auras if they didn't make my weapons do zero damage. That's just insane.

[Paradoxbomb]

I would definitely like to see less Volatile Runners (since they are pretty garbage enemies), but boost their damage to "actually noticeable" tier as a tradeoff so that they're a semi-common but actually threatening enemy that should be prioritized rather than running sacks of free exp that may or may not push you around a bit. Then fill their void with a mix of the other light units, rather than just Leapers.

[DPV111]

Surely the easiest enemy should be the one with the greatest spawns? 

 

Also replacing them with leaper's sounds terrible, they can already be pretty annoying with there stun in the current numbers, if they were increased to VR level it would be ridiculous. 

They are only the easiest enemies if you are using cheap tactics like standing up high, using launchers.  If you fight melee as a Nova, you are hooped. I am sure there are shades of grey in between, but the extremes are the problem. If there were less of them they wouldn't be the easiest anymore. And leapers are great. They pause so long before attacking they give you a reason to be observant and to block and dodge around.

 

I just want to be able to use Melee 2.0 against them instead of Quick Melee.

 

Also, get rid of these overly stupid ancient auras, as well as their scorpion grappling hooks. Really?

I'll be fine with the Auras if they didn't make my weapons do zero damage. That's just insane.

There are so many ways to mitigate this.

 

I would definitely like to see less Volatile Runners (since they are pretty garbage enemies), but boost their damage to "actually noticeable" tier as a tradeoff so that they're a semi-common but actually threatening enemy that should be prioritized rather than running sacks of free exp that may or may not push you around a bit. Then fill their void with a mix of the other light units, rather than just Leapers.

I agree. It would be much easier to deal with one dangerous one than 15 that are only dangerous BECAUSE THERE ARE 15!

I find the crawlers well balanced between their range and status effects. Chargers do way more damage but they are also larger targets, more durable, and do more damage. In fact the only thing they DO is damage. I would rather have teh Leapers you can fight with.