Pendles; omgwtf

Battleborn Pendles
#71

I’m still gonna give this theory some time, but as of now I don’t see it. I ran a few -CC specific loadouts yesterday, but with Pendles’ TTK (at least, a Pendles that is being played properly), I’m not sure -CC is the answer for him. Granted, I gave up on the loadouts after I think 4 games, and one of those games had a Rath + Pendles duo that was inseparable, and there might be some more tweaks I can make to the loadouts, but for now I’m skeptical.

Not that anybody asked, but I think the debate around CC in this game should start to focus more on CC duration relative to TTK. I’ve seen requests to buff CC duration, but, even though the time to kill is longer in BB than other FPSs, it’s still shorter than other MOBAs (at least, as far as I can recall from my brief time playing LoL). Point being, CC, when used properly, should be at least slightly reducing TTK already, so buffing it too much runs the risk of players being killed before CC even runs out (which is the main “issue” I see with Pendles at the moment [THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR A NERF].

Anyway. I’m veering off topic again. We’ll see how the -CC vs Pendles stuff works out.

*Slightly edited for clarity
*And edited again so that last sentence says -CC, and not CC

#72

[quote=“DevonS3, post:71, topic:1542362, full:true”] with Pendles’ TTK (at least, a Pendles that is being played properly), I’m not sure -CC is the answer for him.
[/quote]

I actually think that Pendles might be one of the characters most apt for +hp. I could see a shard gen, Symbiotic Gauntlet (+attack, +hp, and +attack damage based on % of max hp), and Vampiric Vestment (+hp, +attack damage, +hp per kill til death stacked 10 times). With an extra 490-770 hp, you’re talking about an absolutely massive increase to his TTK (he’s got 300 shield and something like 1300 hp at 10; with full stacks, you’re talking about almost 50% increase to TTK) and decent buff to his damage (~25% attack damage), and, with smoke bomb for escapes and his ability to finish off low health characters, I could easily see him being able to generate and maintain those stacks pretty effectively.

#73

Sorry, should’ve been more clear, though I agree with your points.

What I was referring to was Pendles’ ability to burst down much of the cast (at least the ones I used against him) without having a chance to fight back.

Earlier in the thread I had mentioned that the addition of -CC to some legendaries might have been directly related to Pendles’ upcoming debut, and maybe -CC loadouts would be a good counter against him. It still might be, but not for certain characters, because the TTK by Pendles against those characters (or against anyone not being vigilant about their health) is too low. (Based on my limited experience so far.)

#74

I’m used to always seeing TTK used as a measure of survivability, not kill speed. I can understand what you’re talking about with that clarification though. What’s important to consider is that he’s really good at taking out weakened (or already squishy) opponents but not particularly good at taking out nice hard targets (at least in my experience), which means that one of the better ways to counter Pendles is to have a support that can keep people topped off (or use Supply Stations heavily).

[quote]Earlier in the thread I had mentioned that the addition of -CC to some legendaries might have been directly related to Pendles’ upcoming debut
[/quote]

The problem with -CC gear is that the values are too low to be relevant with the already low CC durations in BB. 14% reduction against a 1 second stun (which is about standard, honestly) means you’re going to be getting out of that stun .14 seconds sooner, which isn’t really particularly noticeable, especially since one of the advantages of stun is that it interrupts whatever the target happens to be doing (so even a fraction of a second of stun is going to be doing a lot, especially if you use it while the target is using or winding up for a skill).

If they really want to make -CC gear relevant, they need to make it chance to ignore CC. If you can just straight up ignore CC ~30% of the time by stacking -CC gear, that’s actually really nice (though still highly situational). It’s not reliable, but it’s definitely noticeable and valuable. I would probably keep Pendles’ -CC as duration reduction, since otherwise he’d basically be able to become impossible to CC at all, but the gear should be converted to “chance to ignore CC” rather than “-CC duration”.

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#75

Yeah. Trust me, I’m not a big believer in -CC in this game. I just figured the -CC additions coming out about the same time as Pendles wasn’t a coincidence. Unless the devs really are out to destroy legendary gear (I don’t think they are).

But, yeah, CC itself isn’t long enough for current -CC values, and noticeably buffing CC duration (I think) would be a problem given the average TTK in this game (longer than most shooters, but still not that long in a brawl situation.) Plus, higher CC duration would mean even lower TTK.

I actually like your suggestion. Or maybe do a combination. Like giving X% chance to reduce CC by, for example, 66%. That way --CC can have a noticeable effect on survivability, but there won’t be situations where people feel like they completely wasted their CC skills.

#76

I havent read all the posts, but the one thing I have to think about the perma stealth, is that they nerfed ISIC from his perma ultimate cannon thing, dont remember exactly what they call it, but anyways. ISIC could go into his ultimate and had some severe drawbacks for doing so. I dont really see how it is fair at all for someone to have near perma-stealth with very little drawbacks.

2 Likes
#77

Once you know what to look for, he’s too easy to deal with. His health pool is super low, his damage is low without augments, and if your team has an Orendi, Ambra, or Whiskey Foxtrot, his reliance on stealth is apparent, because all you need to do is reveal him, and focus fire.

His movement speed is reduced to the level that an accelerator would slow Oscar Mike when Pendles isn’t in cloak, so if you can catch him out, he’s dead.

Pendles doesn’t work well against experienced players who know what to look for, he preys on the unaware players, most common in pubs. Don’t soloQ, play with a premade of 5.

Communication and awareness are the best counters to Pendles, and makes him useless.

Remember, FOCUS FIRE.

2 Likes
#78

Plus you can hear his super sweet sneakers when he gets close. Whenever that happens you could use a skill (if you are playing a character who can) to uncloak him to get rid of some of his bonus damage.

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#79

xD I know, I love the little details in this game.

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#80

One more note, because I didn’t have it in my previous post. The one thing that needs a little fixing before they nerf anything on Pendles is is auto cloaking. I’m sure other have noticed that he can still autocloak even when you’re staring dead at him. If he’s in full view of the player I feel like he should HAVE to smoke bomb to get away in stealth and not just luck out and the game stealth him while you’re staring directly at him. Yes it’s easy to see him when he’s stealthed, but if an enemy is locked onto him in PVE (most of the time not always) his auto cloak doesn’t work, so it should be similar in PVP.

Again, not screaming for nerfs, just maybe a little fix and he’d be perfect. He’s nowhere near broken, GBX really learned their lesson from Alani’s release, and hopefully they’ll keep at it.

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#81

That’s not supposed to happen. If you can capture it on video and file a bug report on GBX’s support site that would be gr8! He is new so there are probably bugs that their QA testing didn’t catch.

#82

Yea, it happened a few times last night, but I didn’t even think to record it. You can even notice it in solo story missions occasionally too.

#83

I think Pendles is in a reasonable state so far but he has twisted the metagame out of shape like Alani did initially. The most frustrating games I’ve been playing are opposing teams with Pendles, Deande and a third fast melee like Caldarius or El Dragon. They just appear out of nowhere and just delete one player after another. Unless your team is massively tanky they just roll in and crush people.

However, tackling Pendles individually is a lot more bearable. I’ve had quite some luck with the following characters:

Ambra: I keep Sunpots up as much as I can and keep my heat bar filled. If he drops in on you, smash your staff into his face several times and then health drain him. I’ve stopped using Radiant Halberd to take the fight to the other team in exchange for the Flame Staff lifesteal to defend myelf and my team.

Attikus: I had a game where I needed to take a break from healing so I picked someone bulky. I went full lifesteal for Attikus and crushed the snake flat. it was Miko and Boldur that I was struggling with. Attikus now has a silence as a basic ability and gets a wound debuff much earlier than Pendles. I’ve only played one Attikus game since Pendles dropped so I don’t know if he’s a counter but he’s bulky enough to be an unattractive target for a opportunistic assassin most of the time.

Kleese: Setting up linked Rifts and upgrading the taser makes for a very bad day for an unsupported Pendles but in an opposing team with good timing I was often unable to set up at all.

Orendi: I found myself in a team with an Alani player and a Miko so again I have a non-support game and played Orendi in a defensive role trying to keep Pendles off the healers. He didn’t stop targeting the healers but with a lot of damage plus reveal meant any kills he got were pretty costly. Orendi is also able to pursue if necessary.

There’s probably some better examples available but these are my experiences. I don’t usually play dedicated Melee characters so I don’t know how characters like Rath or Phoebe deal with Pendles.

#84

How many load outs do you have? The less load outs you have filled, the quicker your character selection loads. You can still have 15 load outs, just only have items in the first few, remove them from the rest. Now you can play Pendles

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#85

I just hit him with my wrench.

Crits evritiem

#86

Ambra and Orendi have reveals so their potency against Pendles is a no-brainer. Attikus is also a good honorable mention as he has a little more damage output and sustain than Pendles so he can 1v1 him rather well. All in all good post

1 Like
#87

Actually, yes it is. It’s line of sight, or a set distance. However, given that an uncloaked Pendles moves just barely faster than Montana if he gets away, he earned it.

#88

He followed Ambra into the shower once.
Oh… that did not end well.
For anyone.

#89

I just played ISIC for the first time in a long while and noticed he has been needed into the dirt. He is actually unplayable for me; his damage is miniscule, he is a huge target, his spinny shields are trash, his health pool feels like a warm butter pool, and despite his dash, it’s very difficult for him to escape.
From what I saw, he can no longer slow with his charged shots, he can no longer dash into the air, and he can no longer maintain his ULT, which is far too easy to get knocked out of as is. In other words, he is no longer a tank.
The only reason i didn’t get slaughtered with his is his energy aegis. But that only helps if teammates cover you, and i q with randoms, so I get owned eventually. I just prolong it.

#90

Then that’s a quality of life bug IMO. I would feel differently about it if after being marked by Priority Target one cloaks and the mark is removed. But the fact that one remains marked suggests, to me at least, that the homing shots should continue to home in.