War Machine: A Champ Built around his Armor Up....with No Way to Protect It?
Jhaegar
Member Posts: 4 ★
Strap in! This is gonna get a bit long!
War Machine has had one of my favorite champion buffs this year, and I enjoy playing him more than most other champs in game right now. But something has always bothered me about his kit....the fact he cannot regain his armor up buff once it is removed.
A bit strange sure but, hey that's how you balance him since its one of the strongest natural armors in the game right? Well, sure, to some extent it can be seen that way. But to me, because of the fact that two of his prefight abilities scale directly off of his armor rating and because he is in fights for a longer time than other champs due to his slow build, high yield damage rotation, he, more than any other champs, should have a mechanic in his kit that allows him to either prevent the removal of his armor or allow a way to get it back.
So, let's take a look at some other champs who use armor in some way in their kit. We can split them up into champs with:
Permanent Armor Effects (PAE)
&
Temporary Armor Effects (TAE)
Now, that is a bit simplistic but it works for what I'll be showing so lets stick with it. Let's see some examples of champs that fall into those categories.
PAE: Warlock, Silver Centurion, G2099, Guardian, HTD, HB, Odin, Venom, KM
TAE: Ultron (AOU), Doc Oc, IMIW, Silver Surfer, Civil Warrior
On top of that we have champs that fit into both columns, such as Heimdall, Angela, Colossus. But to some degree every single champ with an armor effect will fall into some combination of these categories. And something they all have in common? A mechanic to either reactive/regain an armor effect or gain additional armor effects within their normal gameplay rotation.
For example, G2099, Warlock, Guardian. They each regain a removed armor up effect over time, 4-10-14 seconds respectively. Pretty simple! Then there's more unique examples, Ultron (AOU) gains armor effects on block/parry, Doc Oc gains armor up when activating a biology breakthrough (landing hits), Colossus starts the fight with permanent armors and can gain more from parrying and activating his immunities, as well as being immune to armor break unless at class disadvantage. All of these champs and more are able to protect their armor effect in some way.
In fact there are only two champs in game (by my count) that can never regain their single natural armor effect once it is gone. War Machine and the first MCOC big bad many years ago...Kang (whose abilities actually do not state he even has an active armor up buff so maybe a small change can be made to that description as well while we are at it
). These two also happen to have the strongest natural armor effects in game (numbers based off 6r2) WM at 3575 and Kang at 6304 at max signature level. Really big numbers for sure! But should that mean that once it is gone it stays gone? I don't think so.
In a game with many nodes and abilities that can manipulate armor one way or another, restricting a character such as WM so that he relies heavily on one armor effect for almost all of his utility and some damage as well, it just seems to not be in line with the character itself. WM has always been the rough and tumble version of Iron Man, the brawn to the brain of Tony Stark, ready for anything that comes his way. So I feel like he should embody that in game as well.
So I thought of some ideas that could work for WM within the constraints of his character and also help protect his armor effect, within reason.
1. If removed, this Armor reactivates after 14 seconds - increased by 2 seconds for each personal prefight active.
(Simple, but takes his mechanics into account. Can sacrifice other utility if you want to focus on protecting armor more.)
2. When refreshing 2 or more personal debuffs with his heavy attack, WM reactivates his personal armor buff, if it has been removed.
(Can be fit into a normal dmg rotation if it is not urgent to get armor back up, or can be used after sp1 to sacrifice dmg for survivability. Still requires you to manage his heavy timer and so is balanced around that 20 sec timer but more in the players control.)
3. When activating sp3 or signature ability, the WM armor unleashes its full arsenal, reactivating its personal armor buff if it has been removed (once per fight). In addition the WM armor cannot be cracked by any earthly means (immune to armor break unless at class disadvantage).
(This is the more "character oriented" idea. Gives pseudo protection from armor break, while still allowing nullify effects, and gives you a fall back with a one time ability use in dire straights or if you want to rush to sp3 to sacrifice some dmg to regain the armor.)
These are just some thoughts I had about this dilemma and while I do not expect any changes to come to the champ, I think it would not be unreasonable that this weakness be addressed in some degree. Thanks for reading and would love to hear others' thoughts on this awesome champ as well!
- Your local War Machine enthusiast
BOOM! You looking for this?
|
|
V
TLDR: Being one of only two champs with a single armor effect who cannot regain said effect once it is gone (without some other mechanic to negate that), WM deserves a mechanic to protect himself from armor break/nullify effects. This is due to the fact that he is heavily reliant on it for his main utility abilities and early fight damage.
War Machine has had one of my favorite champion buffs this year, and I enjoy playing him more than most other champs in game right now. But something has always bothered me about his kit....the fact he cannot regain his armor up buff once it is removed.
A bit strange sure but, hey that's how you balance him since its one of the strongest natural armors in the game right? Well, sure, to some extent it can be seen that way. But to me, because of the fact that two of his prefight abilities scale directly off of his armor rating and because he is in fights for a longer time than other champs due to his slow build, high yield damage rotation, he, more than any other champs, should have a mechanic in his kit that allows him to either prevent the removal of his armor or allow a way to get it back.
So, let's take a look at some other champs who use armor in some way in their kit. We can split them up into champs with:
Permanent Armor Effects (PAE)
&
Temporary Armor Effects (TAE)
Now, that is a bit simplistic but it works for what I'll be showing so lets stick with it. Let's see some examples of champs that fall into those categories.
PAE: Warlock, Silver Centurion, G2099, Guardian, HTD, HB, Odin, Venom, KM
TAE: Ultron (AOU), Doc Oc, IMIW, Silver Surfer, Civil Warrior
On top of that we have champs that fit into both columns, such as Heimdall, Angela, Colossus. But to some degree every single champ with an armor effect will fall into some combination of these categories. And something they all have in common? A mechanic to either reactive/regain an armor effect or gain additional armor effects within their normal gameplay rotation.
For example, G2099, Warlock, Guardian. They each regain a removed armor up effect over time, 4-10-14 seconds respectively. Pretty simple! Then there's more unique examples, Ultron (AOU) gains armor effects on block/parry, Doc Oc gains armor up when activating a biology breakthrough (landing hits), Colossus starts the fight with permanent armors and can gain more from parrying and activating his immunities, as well as being immune to armor break unless at class disadvantage. All of these champs and more are able to protect their armor effect in some way.
In fact there are only two champs in game (by my count) that can never regain their single natural armor effect once it is gone. War Machine and the first MCOC big bad many years ago...Kang (whose abilities actually do not state he even has an active armor up buff so maybe a small change can be made to that description as well while we are at it
). These two also happen to have the strongest natural armor effects in game (numbers based off 6r2) WM at 3575 and Kang at 6304 at max signature level. Really big numbers for sure! But should that mean that once it is gone it stays gone? I don't think so.In a game with many nodes and abilities that can manipulate armor one way or another, restricting a character such as WM so that he relies heavily on one armor effect for almost all of his utility and some damage as well, it just seems to not be in line with the character itself. WM has always been the rough and tumble version of Iron Man, the brawn to the brain of Tony Stark, ready for anything that comes his way. So I feel like he should embody that in game as well.
So I thought of some ideas that could work for WM within the constraints of his character and also help protect his armor effect, within reason.
1. If removed, this Armor reactivates after 14 seconds - increased by 2 seconds for each personal prefight active.
(Simple, but takes his mechanics into account. Can sacrifice other utility if you want to focus on protecting armor more.)
2. When refreshing 2 or more personal debuffs with his heavy attack, WM reactivates his personal armor buff, if it has been removed.
(Can be fit into a normal dmg rotation if it is not urgent to get armor back up, or can be used after sp1 to sacrifice dmg for survivability. Still requires you to manage his heavy timer and so is balanced around that 20 sec timer but more in the players control.)
3. When activating sp3 or signature ability, the WM armor unleashes its full arsenal, reactivating its personal armor buff if it has been removed (once per fight). In addition the WM armor cannot be cracked by any earthly means (immune to armor break unless at class disadvantage).
(This is the more "character oriented" idea. Gives pseudo protection from armor break, while still allowing nullify effects, and gives you a fall back with a one time ability use in dire straights or if you want to rush to sp3 to sacrifice some dmg to regain the armor.)
These are just some thoughts I had about this dilemma and while I do not expect any changes to come to the champ, I think it would not be unreasonable that this weakness be addressed in some degree. Thanks for reading and would love to hear others' thoughts on this awesome champ as well!
- Your local War Machine enthusiast
BOOM! You looking for this?
|
|
V
TLDR: Being one of only two champs with a single armor effect who cannot regain said effect once it is gone (without some other mechanic to negate that), WM deserves a mechanic to protect himself from armor break/nullify effects. This is due to the fact that he is heavily reliant on it for his main utility abilities and early fight damage.
23
Comments
I recently pulled 6* and don't have much time using him.
Apocalypse can make any mutant better.
Falcon can help his teammates.
Magneto House of X can give #metal #hero additional 15% attack and parry stun
Mr Fantastic can help alliance with pre-fight ability
How effective is WM pre-fight ability? The shrug off is limited and it's tech only.. pair him with Guardian for better block?
As for his prefights, I can only speak for how they are for himself as I exclusively use them on him not on other champions, but they are very handy. The energy resistance allows him to handle nodes such as EMP mod or any shock/coldsnap as well as reducing damage from strong energy based special attacks. And the cleanse prefight is a perfect safety net for fights with stun debuffs in play such as encroaching stun and reflective stun and any fight in war where the opponent could parry you, as well as many other fights where one or two debuffs could cost you (30 sec. debuff at fight start or any Void fight, etc.)
Pair him with two hero champs and you can use all three prefights every fight without worrying about running out during a quest! Hope this info helps!