Shield Healing Blast

Ok, so the Medics have a Healing Blast, so why not give the Engineers a Shield Healing Blast?

Ok, so far. Same size as healing blast, cost 50 adrenaline, increases everyone's shield in the same way healing blast increases their health. Engineer gets xp for the healing (1.5% if shield healing level 3). Give as part of Shield healing level 3.

So, first question - pets. Medic healing blast does not add health to pets. So, to match, do not let the shield healing blast give shield to the pets either.

So, second question. Should the blast increase the armor of any vehicles/turrets/sentinels in the blast?

Since the blast is just a quick way of duplicating what the engineer can do with the link, then part of me says yes.

However, another part says that the sentinels etc are summoned, so they are really like the medic pets, so should not get healed? But then to be fair the pets perhaps should get their shields healed, since they are not summoned by Engineers?

However, perhaps the medic blast ought to heal pets, but just no xp back to the medic? Likewise, the shield healing blast could heal pets and sentinels but give no xp

Another part of me says sentinels haven't got shields, they have armor. So have a different blast called an armor blast which heals vehicles/turrets/sentinels, for no xp, and a shield healing blast that only heals players shields that gives xp

So, what's the general consensus?
One or two blasts?
Include pets or sentinels etc?

I like the idea of shield healing. And it's just like you said, if it will heal pet's shield, then medic's healing blast should heal pets.

Should it be able to heal turrets, sentinels, vehicles etc... I'm going to leave that question. I also have a yes and no for that one. But I am totally rooting for the shield blast.

Great idea. Here's my vote:

1) Either way, the shield blast should match the medic's healing blast. Therefore, it should not heal vehicles (which don't really have "shields" anyway). If vehicles could be given shields, then I think it could work on those shields.

2) I think making medic healing blast heal pets (but not giving exp) is a good idea. If this were implemented, giving pets shield should be done as well.

3) An armor blast might be cool as well, but the cost would have to balance out how much healing it does.

Another thought occurs to me. Currently the medic blast has a 2 second delay before exploding. Is this too long?

The initial thought was that it gave time for people to close in at the centre of the blast, but since they are often used in the heat of the battle, no-one notices the emitter, and often have moved away.

So a half second timer may be better for both blasts?

My vote on the timer would be to keep it at 2 seconds. A half second timer may make it too easy for a medic to heal themself in the heat of battle. With drip 3, and a few monsters killed, and a high max adrenaline stat, a medic can use several blasts in a row; the 2 second timer acts as the balancing factor for an otherwise very powerful abilty. (the ability is still used alot even with the 2 second timer, for a lot of medics it is their most used artifact)
If the timer is decreased, I think an increase in the adrenaline cost of blasts would be apropriate.

Szlat wrote:

Another thought occurs to me. Currently the medic blast has a 2 second delay before exploding. Is this too long?

I think the blast delay is fine as it is. Players have become skilled at timing when/where to let the blasts go, even when others don't pay attention. Ton for example is great at doing this.

I think shield blast and armor blast would be way cool to have... as for the 2 second delay on the blast I also say to leave it where it is. Like has been said, it's used a lot during the heat of battle, if you can set one off every half second, or even second, I personally think it would make the game too easy.

I like the idea of a shield and/or armor healing blast for the engineers. I think it should also use adrenaline in similar fashion to the healing blast.

I realize that the ENG class has been tweaked due to well-founded concerns that it was unbalanced however I would also recommend consideration of allowing Adren Drip for this class. Each of the other classes can utilize two of the original three (Resupply, Regen & Adren drip) It could be limited to level 1 or 2.

What does everyone think?

Z0G wrote:

I realize that the ENG class has been tweaked due to well-founded concerns that it was unbalanced however I would also recommend consideration of allowing Adren Drip for this class. Each of the other classes can utilize two of the original three (Resupply, Regen & Adren drip) It could be limited to level 1 or 2.

Engineers get Shield Regen and Armor Regen - so 2 out of the 5.

Z0G wrote:

I realize that the ENG class has been tweaked due to well-founded concerns that it was unbalanced however I would also recommend consideration of allowing Adren Drip for this class.

Hi Zog!

I'm not sure how you think adren drip would be beneficial to engineers. LA's and medics depend on it for artifacts and spawning monsters, but engineers depend more on a timer. So that leaves booster and berzerk. Booster kind of reduces the dependence on medics and berzerk doesn't exactly help the balance issue. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding something here?

I was thinking it would be necessary/helpful to "fuel" the use of artifacts for the engineers if they were afforded a shield healing blast or an armor regen blast.

I understand that it would make them more powerful at a time when we are looking for ways to balance this class already.

Thanks for the response.....

hmmm well id say nay tot he adren drip cus althou it sounds tempted i know for a fact that adren builds up fairly quickly from a well placed sent and so they dont really need it att this current time i would say..

as for the blast hmm yeah medic pets shuld be healed by blasts but with no xp...

2 blasts sound interesting for eningeers but confusing..
why not have a 'engineer blast' to do both?...i dunn jus a thought

as for delay id say maybe 1 sec culd be the fastest you put it...anyfaster for any blasts and youll unleash an eruption of never ending blasts..but yeah interesting

Shield Healing Blast artifact added to cvs. Get automatically as part of Shield Healing Ability level 3. Will not heal armor, just shields. Cost 50 adrenaline. Will heal shields of pets, but get no xp.
Keybind using SelectShieldBlast - rpg.ini updated also to support.

Also changed Medic Healing Blast so it will heal pets, but no xp.

Oh durrrr... forgot about the shield blast artifact.

Szlat wrote:

Shield Healing Blast artifact added to cvs. Get automatically as part of Shield Healing Ability level 3. Will not heal armor, just shields. Cost 50 adrenaline. Will heal shields of pets, but get no xp.
Keybind using SelectShieldBlast - rpg.ini updated also to support.

Also changed Medic Healing Blast so it will heal pets, but no xp.

Beautiful. I'll co-op that for Limit Break stage 3.