Four really simple improvements to Black Panther (Civil War)
ESF
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Hello, Kabam and other players!
Thread title covers what we are talking about; I think Black Panther (Civil War) is an interesting character but could use a bit of a quick look to see if these improvements might make him a bit more playable. I admit it: It kinda bugs me that Killmonger is a lot more playable. I like it when heroes and their archvillains are pretty equal.
First: The basic issue that some complain about is his relative lack of damage. Truthfully, I am not necessarily horrified by that. My biggest concern in the game right now -- and I might post a lengthy missive about this at some point -- is that a lot of characters really feel the same. I understand why; a 3/30 Sentry is a 3/30 Sentry. For gameplay purposes, it cannot hit that much harder than a 3/30 Hawkeye. It just can't. There is always gong to be some element of "sameness." But it can feel stale at times.
BPCW is more of a defender, and that's fine -- it does make him feel a little different than other characters. That's actually a good thing. What I see, though, is that the defensive capabilities he has are not strong enough, at either a base or passive level, to really create a "wow" factor with the character.
Here are four improvements that I think are really simple that I would investigate, and why:
1. His base armor has a built-in zero rating, likely because of the Armor Ups he receives. The problem is two-fold: He takes too much chip and other damage when he is not Armored Up, and they expire too quickly. Solution: 7.5 percent base armor rating, plus 1000 Energy Resistance, 1000 Physical Resistance.
2. The mechanic introduced in the Michael B. Jordan Challenge for the character, Razor Claws or something like that, where BPCW inflicts bleed even through blocks, was a great mechanic. It could/should be combined with the Punisher Mechanic "Open Wounds," where BPCW has a chance to open up a moderate bleed even while a character is blocking. If that was added to the character, it would make him very, very different -- couldn't just stand there and block; you have to evade with the character if he is on defense.
3. Stored Damage from his Reflective State should proc only on Specials. They should deal 1000 direct damage on SP1, 2500 Direct Damage on SP2, and 4000 Direct Damage on SP3. That way, players can choose how they want to play and deal the direct damage.
4. Lastly, my most important idea for the character: Every 7 Armor Ups received generate a "permanent" Armor Up, to a maximum of three. After that: No more Armor Up buffs unless an Armor Up is consumed to Reflect Stun, then the character can resume generating Armor Ups, once again, to the maximum of three "permanent". This would be cool because then, BPCW basically becomes unstunnable after periods of gameplay, which would be different than the majority of characters.
So, that's all I have -- I think this would help flesh out this character and make him a really interesting defensive character, while delivering a little more pop on Specials. Those, plus the Razor Claws...could be fun, right?
Thanks for listening!
Thread title covers what we are talking about; I think Black Panther (Civil War) is an interesting character but could use a bit of a quick look to see if these improvements might make him a bit more playable. I admit it: It kinda bugs me that Killmonger is a lot more playable. I like it when heroes and their archvillains are pretty equal.
First: The basic issue that some complain about is his relative lack of damage. Truthfully, I am not necessarily horrified by that. My biggest concern in the game right now -- and I might post a lengthy missive about this at some point -- is that a lot of characters really feel the same. I understand why; a 3/30 Sentry is a 3/30 Sentry. For gameplay purposes, it cannot hit that much harder than a 3/30 Hawkeye. It just can't. There is always gong to be some element of "sameness." But it can feel stale at times.
BPCW is more of a defender, and that's fine -- it does make him feel a little different than other characters. That's actually a good thing. What I see, though, is that the defensive capabilities he has are not strong enough, at either a base or passive level, to really create a "wow" factor with the character.
Here are four improvements that I think are really simple that I would investigate, and why:
1. His base armor has a built-in zero rating, likely because of the Armor Ups he receives. The problem is two-fold: He takes too much chip and other damage when he is not Armored Up, and they expire too quickly. Solution: 7.5 percent base armor rating, plus 1000 Energy Resistance, 1000 Physical Resistance.
2. The mechanic introduced in the Michael B. Jordan Challenge for the character, Razor Claws or something like that, where BPCW inflicts bleed even through blocks, was a great mechanic. It could/should be combined with the Punisher Mechanic "Open Wounds," where BPCW has a chance to open up a moderate bleed even while a character is blocking. If that was added to the character, it would make him very, very different -- couldn't just stand there and block; you have to evade with the character if he is on defense.
3. Stored Damage from his Reflective State should proc only on Specials. They should deal 1000 direct damage on SP1, 2500 Direct Damage on SP2, and 4000 Direct Damage on SP3. That way, players can choose how they want to play and deal the direct damage.
4. Lastly, my most important idea for the character: Every 7 Armor Ups received generate a "permanent" Armor Up, to a maximum of three. After that: No more Armor Up buffs unless an Armor Up is consumed to Reflect Stun, then the character can resume generating Armor Ups, once again, to the maximum of three "permanent". This would be cool because then, BPCW basically becomes unstunnable after periods of gameplay, which would be different than the majority of characters.
So, that's all I have -- I think this would help flesh out this character and make him a really interesting defensive character, while delivering a little more pop on Specials. Those, plus the Razor Claws...could be fun, right?
Thanks for listening!
1
Comments
Also, I don't think BPCW should do a set amount of direct damage on his specials with reflective armor-maybe a multiplier as the strength of the special attack increases? Like sp1 has a 1x multiplier, sp2 has a 2x multiplier, etc.(just examples). Good ideas tho!
My thinking is that the seven Armor Ups are simply sequential -- you get them somewhat regularly, anyway. The "permanent" aspect would give the character some defensive consistency and, of course, make it so the Reflect Stun aspect has almost continuous uptime.
I would be fine with your suggestion on the Specials, as well -- just something where, again, the Reflective State is more consistent and gives a bit more bang for the buck, while players get to choose when to activate it.
Thanks for your interest and feedback!
I think CWBP should be a quite a bit better, but if you scaled this up to AW defender stats, I think it would be an issue.
Maybe his armor should be unable to reflect stun if he is in the reflexive state as a tradeoff. Those active armor buffs could convert to passive ones to increase his durability, but the stun reflect would only be able to be triggered by active armor buffs. Or maybe instead of being strictly armor buffs, they could be combined into a new type of buff that provides armor, physical, and energy resistance once converted to a passive.
I do think it would be cool to give him some more offensive utility so maybe he could pick up kinetic charges or something when hitting into the opponents block. He does something similar in the movie anyway. It would basically work like an offensive version of his reflexive state but not as strong. Sentinels do something similar to what I'm conceptualizing here. Maybe he gets something similar and could dump those charges as a multiplier on his specials.
If you combined these abilities, I think he could be a good defender still and a viable attacker / quest champ who is as cool to play as he looks.