Helix options: the best and worst of 'em

Battleborn Open Beta Open Beta General Discussion/Feedback
#9

This is a fairly important issue, and if gearbox was pulling hard data on helix choices, I think they can easily see which helix options need to be changed to be more appealing. That said some of the helix options just don’t give enough hard data for people to know if they’re worth grabbing or not, so people just…don’t.

…I would love to give an example of this, but I don’t have one. But I feel like some of the lesser picked helix options might simply be because people didn’t really understand how good they might have been.

I personally picked push it on montana, because it turned his knockback nearly into a true stun because of how far it knocked people back. You could use it nearly anywhere and get the stun off. The ol’ one-two seems more if you don’t feel comfortable using a disruption, for example if your team has a lot of melees, or characters like orendi who have delayed skills. I didn’t play montana enough to get that helix mutation, but it seems nice as well, though perhaps inferior in a lot of situations? I dunno, like I said, no experience with it.

#10

One example of what you are talking about is for PvE play. Some skills activate on killing an enemy battleborn or a major enemy, but it is unclear to many just what a major enemy in PvE is and if you encounter them enough in PvE to make it worth while.

#11

Also a lot of skills seem to function as ways of making something easier to use, like Oscar Mike’s helix 1 option that causes frags to detonate on impact, or reyna’s helix that has her plasma pulses home in. The alternative is clearly a stronger choice, but requires higher skill. Getting a +25% damage bonus on your frags (Or airstrike?) out of stealth is really nice, and obviously the slow on hitting someone marked with priority target is absolutely ace, but the other options almost purely exist to make using the skill simpler.

I think this is good and bad at the same time, as it exists to give newer players a way to compete without as much skill…? But it also serves to narrow the choices, as if you’re good at aiming, why ever pick homing shots. The slow is just too good. (I don’t mean too good as in nerf it, pls no nerf)

Maybe those are the levels that need a third helix choice, if one choice is specifically “for noobs”. Maybe all the levels need a third choice by default, or you unlock a third choice on every level over time. I dunno.

#12

Homing shots can go around and over some cover if aimed right, allowing you to hit players normally protected. Use is still limited compared to slow effect, but it is useful for more than just “bad aimers”

#13

You are correct, but pretending you’re in the movie Wanted is difficult with how viciously it homes in. I’m not saying the helix doesn’t have a use, it’s just the other option is better if you can use the skill effectively already.

#14

All these, as well as most mutations, can be found on the wikia http://battleborn.wikia.com/wiki/Battleborn_Wiki great resource. There are defenitly some characters who’s helix mutations are not so great. Others which seem balanced to certain play styles, and some like Galilea whos give her to much power when shes already a power house ( muations that provide aoe range pull and silence).

My personal favs for mutations would have to be Marqies mutation to get 2 more rounds per reload (very useful) and Kelvins 3% health to chomp to damage, which helps keep chomps damage high against lower hp targets.

Of the normal helix I personally enjoy Thorns high jump and Rath’s double jump for getting around the maps. Just my thing I suppose.

#15

Agreed but for different reasons. Option1 is only useful situationally, where option 2 is useful all the time.

#16

I often choose the homing over the slow because it really pisses off characters that re fleeing or high mobility. It makes Benedicts life especially difficult.

#17

What I think is bad design about sporeshock is that it is currently a necessary pick to complete the lore challenge (stunning 100 enemies with cloud of spores). Their are a few other examples that I can’t think of off the top of my head where a helix choice is required to complete a lore challenge. This skews the choices more than it should and I think lore challenges that do this should be changed.

#18

Considering the relatively fast cooldown on it, 100 is that much, especially if it is enemies in general and not battleborn. Play a couple PvE matches with the stun option and you’ll have completed the challenge.

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#19

My point is, it will make people pick it not on its own merit alone(its pretty good, balanced with the other option) and they will pick it to complete the lore challenge when they otherwise might not take it. If the challenge was just to slow enemies with cloud of spores but it was a slightly higher number, say 200, you could complete it regardless of helix choices.

#20

I think lore challenges should take some purposeful work to get. If you get them just from normal play then it’s just kind of boring.

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#21

For the most part, lore challenges are unlocked through just normal play. Healing 30-50k as miko is one of them, I wasn’t even attempting to get it and I got it within the first day.

#22

And that’s fine, but they shouldn’t all have to be like that. Robs completing all the lore of feeling like an actual accomplishment.

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#23

Fair enough. There is ways to make them difficult to get without making the challenge specific to a helix choice though.

#24

I’m with mkunzik here. It promotes people getting helix choices that may not actually be a good choice, just because “Challenge says so”. As a highly competitive player, I’d rather my team was concentrated more on making good decisions rather than achievement hunting, you know? Having them come naturally through gameplay, even if it requires something specific like getting kills with ghalt’s trap, would be ideal.

#25

If they’re truly acheivement hunting then they are probably going to be doing that one in PvE, faster that way. But even if they did decide to do it in PVP, do you really think you’d notice? (not just the choice, but that they were playing it just for achievement) Way I see it, there is no noticeable difference in team play in this situation.

#26

Depends on the achievement. In the case of miko here, the stun spore seems to be the superior choice due to the effectiveness of stuns, and I’m not even sure what the alternative choice is. But if there are more things like this that require specific helix choices, they could potentially cause problems. I don’t have any evidence to support this, though. I just want people to actually play the game is all, at least when I’m in the match with them. :stuck_out_tongue:

#27

And IF there are other helix choice lore unlocks that involve inferior choices, I think that you wouldn’t have to worry about a team member hobbling themselves with it in 99.9% of the matches you take part in over the course of your battleborn career. It’s such a rare occurence that I don’t feel gameplay elements need to be geared around it.

#28

The alternative choice is trail of spores, basically as the spore ball is traveling it will drop a slowfield along the way to cover a larger path. It is balanced pretty well with the stun, if you aren’t going for directs. I tend to go for the stun personally, but you can justify both I think.