Bots: Repair

[Weylin]

It's bad, very skippable, and I'm sure most players will agree you're better off taking something else.

 

I've bounced around a lot of ideas to make it a more compelling choice, but I keep hearing something about this "cottage rule" whatever that is. 😋

 

-Low cooldown, but it shuts the bot down to fold up into a "maintenance mode" where they heal over time and have a high +Res +Def for the duration

-Changing it to summon a specialized repair bot of some type (this also opens up the possibility to use it as a mule for pet auras or something)

-Recycle. Dismiss the bot (perhaps explosively) for components, shortening the time to summon reinforcements

-Absorption added to it, to prime the target for a nuke you know is going to wipe it out otherwise

-Resurrects the targeted bot to full health and endurance

 

Maybe you guys have some ideas? But we can all at least agree it's bad in the current state, right?

[tidge]

I agree that Repair is bad. More damning is that I haven't found it necessary.

 

While leveling up my Robots/Traps MM, I used the Medicine pool's Aid Other to keep the minions alive during circumstances like Perez Park street sweeping... but as the build approaches maturity I found that it simply wasn't important to worry too much about healing the pets (aside from using an Incarnate heal occasionally in farming content). For farming, I actually took triage beacon although that is in the secondary.

 

The simplest thing that would make me take Repair would be if I could slot the IO pieces that give global bonuses (e.g. Defense) to the pets but now must consume precious slots in the Robots themselves. The 'bots odd combination of AoE and Knockback pretty much demands slotting KB->KD, which further reduces the number of available slots in teh pets.

[Weylin]

Another thought I had is a dynamic recharge rate. Is that possible?

If you heal a...

Battle Drone - 20s recharge (60 ÷ 3)

Protector Bot - 45s recharge (90 ÷ 2)

Assault Bot - 120s recharge (120 ÷ 1)

[tidge]

The best simple idea I've seen (suggested by many folks) for Repair is to simply make it be a targeted AoE heal for the pets.

 

As I wrote, the primary issue I have with Repair is that it is rare that healing the pets is a top choice for a given situation. In my experience: If the pets are taking significant damage at a sustained rate, either the pets are in over their heads or the MM is. Healing the pets isn't doing anything to address that sort of situation. If they are just taking limited damage and not recovering it between fights... congratulations! My 'bots are good at cleaning up minions but not that good at speedy boss kills! My experience has been that the resummon power has typically recharged by the time I lose a pet to atrophy.

 

The philosophy of the Robots primary is understandable, but there is a design flaw that the two upgrade powers (not unique to Robots) don't need any slots and only serve a limited purpose, and likewise Repair is of extremely limited utility. No MM (aside from the petless heretics) can really skip the two upgrades.

 

Replacing Repair with a robotic equivalent of Gang War (maybe summoning those little Vanguard HVAS or Spiderlings) would be a much more useful choice.

[Weylin]

I think I like the idea of a Gang War equivalent.

 

Imagine a ground-targeted ability that calls in a transport ship that flies in and drops off 6 robots and 1 large stationary turret/artillery piece with something like a gatling laser or photon barrage

[Razor Cure]

Honestly all the MM 'special' powers could use a look at, at well as pet/team buff powers via the pets themselves.

 

Bots and Force bubble is awesome, but it takes SO long to buff them all, and for some reason cant stack on teh MM (but it stacks on all the other pets).

 

Thugs Leadership stacks on all pets and NOT the MM (again, wtf?).

 

Demons (t2) have the aoe heal..on ONE pet, when both prot bots can heal/buff.

 

Other sets (necro for one, havent played mercs/ninjas/beasts) have no pet based healing (sure, life drain on zombies, but I found it to be borderline useless) or buffs. I assume mercs do, with the medic, same as Lioness pets. But even so, that is just healing, not def buffs.

 

The other MM set special powers also need a huge rebalance.

 

Gang War is stupid awesome...

and Bots get..repair? Well that sounds totally comparable. Not.

The beast power, Pack something or other (I only played beasts briefly back on Live/Test) was very meh also.

Demons..a SINGLE target damage and to hit buff? Not bad (great on incarnate pets)..but as good as summoning a horde of extra minions?

Necro..the soul extraction power. Again, played necro back on Live, but I recall it being pretty shit, and also single target.

Mercs..I understand that Serum is awful.

No idea what Ninjas get, but I am sure it isnt a ninja rush gang war clone!

[Galaxy Brain]

 

Make repair into a Repair Drone pet.

[tidge]

1 hour ago, Galaxy Brain said:

Make repair into a Repair Drone pet.

I appreciate the lean into the theme, but... when I was running Robots the only time I really wanted/needed a heal for the pets was at level 12 and below. By level 18, you have 3 T1 and 1 T2, and the T2 is applying a Force Shield to each of the T1. At level 18 and up, the need for a heal is severely diminished. I used the Medicine pool at the lower levels for street sweeping in Atlas Park with Robotics MM.

 

If I can play perfectly happy without Repair (and by level 20 I respeced out of the Medicine pool) I'm pretty sure I'm not going to spend a pick on a Repair Drone. toggle.

 

The Repair Drone idea would face less opposition from me if it were made a Recharge Instensive pet instead of a Toggle, so that it could hold IO pieces that otherwise have to get dropped into the Bots (which already want a KB->KD piece each).

[Galaxy Brain]

Tbh, the pwt aura IOs gotta go too, so in my mind changes take that into account. Otherwise every MM set will need a 4th pet power just to mule.

[Weylin]

Wait, I got it!

 

What if Repair was replaced with something akin to the Kheldian transforms?

- It places you into the cockpit of a big stompy war-mech with its own set of powers

- Your normal powers are locked out for the duration that you're in the form

- Once disabled, it has a somewhat lengthy recharge time

 

This disables your ability to call in reinforcements, prevents use of your support abilities, and cancels certain toggle abilities

But you get to be a watered down Sentinel for a bit 😋

Edited November 14, 2020 by Weylin

[tidge]

I definitely feel that one of the big problems with Repair is that it is a T7 power that can be simulated by using inspirations. This specific complaint is leveled against T9s in defensive sets. I'll grant that in the case of those T9s, many are accompanied by a crash (as opposed to using inspirations), but pet healing is so situational (IMO) that I can't imagine it being useful except in a limited number of similar (PANIC!) situations.

[Galaxy Brain]

4 hours ago, tidge said:

I definitely feel that one of the big problems with Repair is that it is a T7 power that can be simulated by using inspirations. This specific complaint is leveled against T9s in defensive sets. I'll grant that in the case of those T9s, many are accompanied by a crash (as opposed to using inspirations), but pet healing is so situational (IMO) that I can't imagine it being useful except in a limited number of similar (PANIC!) situations.

A bigger issue is that when compared head to head with literally any other heal it falls short. Yes, it 100% heals the robot HP but can only be used on them and that is actually worse except on the assault bot... who if its that damaged is going down anyways lol.

 

It needs to either be way less committal or something else.

[Solarverse]

If it were up to me I would make it heal like Nanites. Any damage taken would regenerate at almost HoT Heal speeds and making the ability perma would be possible.