khimerakiller
(Pandora's Industrial Engineer)
#39
For those who are interested, I’d like feedback about a couple of the changes I implemented. Just keep in mind their balance is centered around this thread, not the current Battleborn.
Miko: (R6) Spore Strike - Enemies in Cloud of Spore’s slow field take damage over time. +60 Damage per Second
- This is massively powerful when combined with the already very powerful, new and improved Trail of Spores… when used in a specific way. My question is: “Should I put a restriction on it like I did with Whiskey’s Napalm, or should the power of the stun, cleanse, and Healer’s Oath allow those that forsake them to have this new power?”
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Thorn: Bramble Patch - For every 500 damage that Thorn deals, she reduces all of her active skill cooldowns by 1 second.
- I sorta like leaving it as is, even if it might be infeasible. But do you all think with everything else, it’s really too much? Or would something like increasing the damage dealt to 600 be better?
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Thorn: (M10) Pack Mentality - Wrath of the Wild now splits into 5 small energy bombs after detonation, which home in on nearby enemies, dealing 20% damage in a small radius.
- Should I add a condition that splits have to hit enemies besides those hit by Wrath of the Wild? Or is it fine to just say “sucks to be you” and allow the splits to hit the same enemy if no other enemies are nearby? Sorta like how Galilea’s (L2) Skilled Throw works in the current Battleborn.
Rath: Movement speed helix options.
- Now that I know you’ve seen this thread @blainebrossart1. What do you think of having one of Rath’s level 5 helix choices now change his life steal into a shield charge like the “Starkweather’s Oscillator”? Giving it good synergy with Evasive Maneuvers and flawed Eldrid gear. To initially balance it, I could reduce EM’s duration.
- The factors balancing it would be that you lose the true sustain of Genetic Syphon, you don’t get the helix’s current/future neighbors, and you really need to have that 20 shield capacity from gear to make it work with EM (meaning you lose 280 SC).
- But now you get that synergy with EM, your passive no longer gets shut down by shields, and it makes Rath a lot harder to crit.
Kleese: Tactical Battle Chair
- I already added the ability for it to have horizontal control during extended jumps. But should I add the ability to cancel an extend jump, or should it be a risk for the power the ability has? A soft cancel might not be bad, but an instant drop back to the ground would be pretty powerful.
Phoebe: Technocratic Parry - Only has a 1.5 second duration.
- I designed it as primarily being a way to counter things like Wrath of the Wild, Hawkeye, Flashbang, Priority Target, etc… but do you think the duration should be longer, so that you can activate it in anticipation of an attack, not just one that is currently happening?
Phoebe: A different Phoebe 2.0
- Another way to rebalance/design Phoebe was to add Blade Sweep to True Strike by default. Do you like this better, and I’ll just take away some of the buffs I gave to her? Or do you like the current way?
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Ernest & Whiskey - Explosive Charge & Sticky Bomb
- I tried to make all skills appealing at level 0 without helix choices. I added a wound and bonus damage to shields to Blade Rush, I changed the weaken Fulminate had into the silence, I added a silence to Scraptraps, buffed the hell out of KU’s non-stationary drones, added the lunge to Injection by default, etc… but these are the last 2 I view as lackluster. Are their helix choices strong enough to overlook this, or do you all have some minor buff that won’t break the balance of the skills?
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AoEs - Their return and beyond.
- Does the return and addition/buff of AoEs plenty balance the power I’ve given to builder characters like Ernest, Kleese, Toby, etc…? Or should I limit the places where their build-ables (mainly Power Egg) can be deployed?
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Galilea: Legendary: +14.00 Health Regeneration per Second/+5.04% Attack Speed/Galilea Only: Activates all helices on level 2 in versus, and level 3 in story.
- This is completely different from all other character legendaries, and in truth makes her stronger than I intended in PvE. But I thought it was a cool way to allow her to attack while sprinting in PvE again. What do you think of this style of legendary?
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Montana: High heat builds.
- Would all of the changes I made to his high heat helix choices ever persuade you to skip the additional 20% damage reduction and lose the slow?
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Toby: Force Shield
- Personally I think the massive changes I made makes it much much better in high level play. But do you think it’s too strong, or do you like the old Force Shield better and I’m an ass for trying to take it away?
Whiskey: Combat Rhythm (Notes) - Combat Rhythm is now activated by scoring a critical hit. Making it much more suitable for a long range character, whom promotes focusing a single target and accuracy.
- Do you think I should allow it to activate for 5 seconds after a crit and 10 seconds after a kill? Or does it fit him better by just leaving it only activatable by crit.
I have a few more I could ask, but this list is already much longer than I intended.
There are other very powerful changes I implemented like Karakafruit Express, Pile Driver, Mitosis, etc… But I either don’t lose sleep over them, or I think I’ve added enough to balance them in some way or another.
I would approve. It opens up new builds for a pseudo shield tank build with Rath. Something like changing Swordsman’s Salve to “15% of all damage dealt by Rath is returned to him as shield strength. Removes all life steal from Genetic Syphon”. Combined with retuning his level two Shield Syphon to a 50% shield gain on all damage dealt with Crossblade instead of just shield damage. One issue that would come up from that however is a build around low shield capacity and The Comback King. It would create some abuse similar to this. However the problem there lies in the gear not the character so if this were implemented than I recommend putting an internal cooldown on the CBK of 5 to 10 seconds.
I have a few other opinions for this thread but I just got off a particularly long day of work and am very tired at the moment. So I’ll save those opinions for later.
2 Likes
HandsomeCam
(TheFriskyFinisci)
#43
I think that, like a few other characters, Toby is in the perfect place, and i personally don’t want him touched anymore. Could he be better? Absolutely; and i actually like some of your suggestions, @khimerakiller. However, Toby has LONG been in that gray area of “borderline OP, but only in skilled hands”, and i am EXTREMELY uneasy to add just ONE more log to that fire, because it could result in nerfs to his damage or survivability if he starts outperforming due to his mains having more tricks up their sleeves…
As to his stun, which i have long fought as being necessary for dealing with melee, so that he does not get countered by some of them as easily as the other snipers, i would actually be fine with it being dropped to one second, if the melee stunners were likewise gutted; hell, i’d take a silence instead if it meant that i myself would not have to worry about being chain-stunned anymore…
khimerakiller
(Pandora's Industrial Engineer)
#44
Not to be rude, but I wrote about how something like these issues would be a non-problem.
In terms of if Toby would be balanced or not, this thread is highly opinionated and has a new standard of power, of which all of the characters got a similar treatment. Some were more heavily buffed than others, like ISIC isn’t much more powerful than his day one self, but Attikus is now a monster. And that’s not just because I nerfed his counters and gave him a base health no character could melt through solo, but because his kit now works and his helix has synergy.
And I think I understand the characters pretty well, and I do a good job of enforcing the roles that I want them to play.
- I didn’t touch Toby’s base DPS, because he has the highest sustained DPS at level 0 in the current Battleborn.
- I kept his stun, but I burned Double hugs to a crisp.
- I gave him a powerful helices, but with semi-drawbacks.
- His Force Shield can now only be truly dealt with by snipers, not just every “Joe Schmo” Caldarius that looks at you. Now they’ll need to burn a skill (Flashbang) to counter a skill.
- I know his weaknesses and counters (Force Shield and hit/crit box) so I kept them, but made them less glaring.
And at least in terms of stuns.
HandsomeCam
(TheFriskyFinisci)
#45
Eh. I’d still prefer that he simply not be reworked at all, because my opinion is that he is a perfect case of “don’t fix what’s not broken”.
As to the Double Hug, i STILL advocate for removing CC from the second mine completely, but allowing it to deal full damage; that seems fair to me. More lane clear but no chain-CC.
khimerakiller
(Pandora's Industrial Engineer)
#46
For all the power Toby has, he still has broken aspects.
- Force Shield is one of the worst designed skills in the game.
- The way Boosters interacts with itself is still a horrible design/oversight.
- You yourself have made threads on broken helices like Remote Detonation.
- Etc…
I understand most of you all are perfectly complacent and satisfied with whatever you’re given, but I desire for something greater.
1 Like
HandsomeCam
(TheFriskyFinisci)
#47
I’m not saying that i wouldn’t like it if said issues were addressed; but above all, because it has been shown time and time again that they can make it much, much worse, i do not want whoever is in charge of “balancing” at Gearbox to touch Toby, lest we have another El Dragon/Mellka incident that will not be resolved for months, if ever. I suppose i am just paranoid, but as i’ve said, it’s happened before when a charcter is overperforming, and putting all of those buffs in the hands of the Toby mains MAY lead to just that…
Also, the above qoute came off as a tad insulting, and i’ll just add that i’m no more complacent than you are power hungry…
1 Like
Nemosis327
(Deandes in crime )
#48
If that greater thing you desire isn’t the dankest of memes then I’m afraid I’m going to have to stop you right there sir. Now get back in line and complacently accept the character changes GBX gives us, just like everyone else.
@HandsomeCam
Don’t worry fam. Nemo’s here to resolve the situation by making it worse. Now where is this power you speak of, I must have it…
3 Likes
HandsomeCam
(TheFriskyFinisci)
#49
Hands Nemo a scavenger hunt map that suspiciously centers around retrieving a fish sandwich and a bottle of soda.
Here. Oh, and make sure that you bring the necessary items back to me to be… Judged…
[Inserts cheesy children’s anime response about how the power is already within Nemo]
2 Likes
Nemosis327
(Deandes in crime )
#50
I already have the full collectors set of those
3 Likes
HandsomeCam
(TheFriskyFinisci)
#51
Damn… Well then, power really comes from getting back on topic, so that i am not fed to a leapord seal!
…
Or a stun-chaining comp… That’s the dark side of power though…
1 Like
Nemosis327
(Deandes in crime )
#52
Topics were made to be strayed from
2 Likes
@khimerakiller Not to put a hole in your boat, but I noticed a problem. It might be considered OP by some, and would heavily effect the game.
My suggestion is that bullets only apply venom if consuming ammo. Otherwise, we have an infinite range, infinite ammo, infinite venom Melka. And that would attract nerfs.
But as a Melka main, I love this!!
1 Like
khimerakiller
(Pandora's Industrial Engineer)
#54
That was sorta the point. (Tone doesn’t translate well in text, but I say that light-heartedly)
And really all it does is prevent you from needing to do a 0.75 second reload every 30 rounds. You also miss out on the canister damage. But the reason it looks strong, in a fun way, is because I expected it to primarily only be used in PvE. As you have to give up the now buffed Air Stall to get it.
So IMO Air Stall is still the stronger option in PvP, plus you have to wait until level 7 for it to truly come online. Mellka’s level 3 should now have similar uses and power to Thorn’s level 3.
I really appreciate all the support you’ve shown for this thread, but I don’t really expect Gearbox to take any of this into consideration.
This is sorta like when you were a kid and you were ask “What would you do if you were the President for a day?”. This thread shows what would happen if I had an unadulterated authority over Gearbox for a day.
But thanks for the feedback.
1 Like
True, and when BB gets the fall update, maybe, just maybe, they’ll allow Moded support for offline (PvE only, no Marketplace bonus) play. I mean, that would be awesome!
Alas, I am coming from a reasonable route though, as if Melka had an irritating ability, the nerf hammer would be swung. I mean, look what happened 9 months (Holy shit, we have gone 9 months with little to no Eden and less Mell?)
Ago. We saw that filet Melka, then serve her up to the cc meta to be chewed and spat out.
At the same time, this could be so fun, and in a theoretical world, with all characters power levels like this, I would be hyped.
2 Likes
khimerakiller
(Pandora's Industrial Engineer)
#56
And so, with my last day playing Battleborn for the foreseeable future, I’m posting the last patch I did a couple months ago. If I update this thread again, I more than likely won’t make another patch post. If anything, I’ll just edit this one.
Thanks for your time if you went through the trouble of reading this massive monolith of a thread. (43997 words)

Patch v1.6
Characters
Attikus
- Pounce: Pounce no longer excessively launches Attikus into the air when he leaps a very short distance.
Boldur
- General: 84 damage. Reverted Boldur’s quick melee damage to how it was before.
Ghalt
- Helix: (R10) All in the Mind - Ghalt increases the damage of his shotgun, instead of equipping another one, allowing him to use his other skills. In addition, every shot Ghalt hits increases his shotgun’s attack speed. +100% Damage, +5% Attack Speed per Hit
Montana
- Helix: (R4) Hot Lead (Notes) - Also, Montana’s movement speed is no longer reduced while using his Minigun.
Orendi
- Helix: (M3) I Have Four Arms! - Orendi’s off-hand melee strikes twice in quick succession, as well as granting her increased movement speed upon hitting an enemy. +30% Movement Speed for 1.5 Seconds
Oscar Mike
- UPR-RDC Combat Armor: Oscar Mike’s jump resets upon touching any surface, including those that are vertical. Oscar Mike can reset his jump a maximum of 3 consecutive times.
Pendles
- Snake Eyes (Talent): Pendles’ natural evasive abilities grant him -25% CC Duration. In addition, Pendles cloaks himself whenever Smoke Bomb comes off cooldown.
- Corner Sneak: Pendles’ jump height is no longer reduced while uncloaked.
- Helix: (R10) Venom Synergy (Notes) - Added the functionality of allowing Pendles to attack and use Injection at the same time. Injection is now executed by an after image of Pendles.
- Helix: (L10) Necrosis (Notes) - Added the functionality of having enemies no longer hear audio cues made by Pendles.
- Helix: (R4) Savage Cut - After hitting an enemy with Injection, the target and nearby enemies suffer a portion of the damage dealt over a short time. +45% Damage over 3 Seconds
- Helix: (R2) Ninjineering - For a short time after using Smoke Bomb, Pendles is immune to slows. +3 Seconds Slow Immunity
Whiskey Foxtrot
- Scrap Cannon: Removed the delay after firing Scrap Cannon, where Whiskey can’t aim his Rifle.
General
- Reverted all of the scaling changes introduced in the 10/19/17 patch.
- Text: General text fixes.
1 Like