Space Hellions Are Hellish.

[Cpl_Facehugger]

Now, I love the archwing mode. It's really fun and different. However, the grineer space hellions are hugely powerful. Almost gamebreakingly so. Even at low levels, a maxed level 30 frame optimized for defense falls extremely easily to a small number of space hellions, not helped any by the fact that archwing armor and shield mods are extremely weak and the defensive powers leave you at the mercy of whether blue balls drop or not.

 

While every other enemy is a reasonable challenge, the space hellions basically turn the game into a matter of who sees and hits the other first. But in a confusing 3d space melee, it's extremely easy to lose track of these enemies which are literally just recolored mook enemies. So the first thing you see of them is the explosion proc icon and the fact that your archwing is stunned. Just in time for another barrage to stun you again. Meanwhile all the other enemies are hosing you down too. Which means that basically any frame but a tank-optimized valkyr or rhino need not apply. Trying to archwing a loki? Forget about it.

 

And this is the level 8 enemies on Earth. The level 20+ ones in Uranus or the Limbo mission are nearly impossible without tons of hard to find archwing mods.

 

Something has to change.

 

You could remove/reduce their explosive proc chance. While this way they'll still do enough damage to bring a 1500 shield/900 health rhino down to 450 health in one barrage, at least they won't stunlock you like they can now. Not my favorite option because it still leaves low durability frames a liability in archwings. Nerfing their damage would just make the game a bit too easy, I think, so that's not a good option either. Instead, players should be encouraged and given the tools they need to *avoid* the damage.

 

However, both present archwings have powers that let you dodge missiles, so the framework for a solution is there. The starter has the flares, and the other one has the smoke power. The problem here is that these powers require energy to use (which means if you get unlucky with blue ball drops you're in trouble), and that in a chaotic melee it's down to luck whether you hear the missile launches and recognize them for what they are fast enough to hit the flare button even if you do have energy left.

 

So what I think needs to be done is thus:

 

1. Give all enemy homing weapons a 'missile lock' warning like in flight sims, so players know when to trigger their flares. If Archwing wants to act like a space sim with tons of enemies with homing missiles, it needs one of the most fundamental trappings of the space sim genre. This way, the player knows when to dodge, and it encourages skillful play rather than getting bushwhacked out of nowhere by a 1500 damage missile barrage.

 

2. Reduce/eliminate the cost of the flare/missile avoidance powers but implement a cooldown to prevent it from being spammed, because there are times when your archwing has no energy, which means you're in serious danger of getting pwned by ninja hellions.

 

Thoughts, fellow Tenno?

Edited October 26, 2014 by Cpl_Facehugger

[vaugahn]

Space Grineer in general are insanely powerful. They're crazy fast and they hit harder than they have any right to.

 

I'd suggest a very small damage decrease across the board for them. 

[Rivy]

Agreed !