179 replies to this topic

[TBoneBiggins]

Honestly, if Tech was removed I'd call the game a few shades better instantly. Not near being good, but better than it is. Tech's add a frustrating game mechanic where lower-MMR teams get a decent boost from a Tech and high-MMR games turn into camping death-balls based around the tech. This isn't teamwork per se, just the only way to at least compete in such a situation. It forces you into balling around a tech. That's not a good game mechanic, when you take all other options and nullify them because one is so OP/crazy-buffed. High-MMR games honestly get boring because of this.

[ScottRidley]

TBoneBiggins, on May 15 2014 - 10:20 PM, said:

Honestly, if Tech was removed I'd call the game a few shades better instantly.

Have you ever thought about how the Tech feels_ Everyone wants some of that sweet juice, but they keep bouncing all over the place. Then there's those bad boo-boos who keep lobbing all sorts of ordnance in his direction, so he has to bounce all over the place too. Then suddenly, a wild Infiltrator appears and grenades the living bajeezus out of him. And that's the last thing he ever sees.

This makes Mrs. Tech and his sweet nerdy Techkids very sad. Imagine their big tearful eyes, staring blankly at you, because you murdered their daddy. Think of the children!

Edited by ScottRidley, May 15 2014 - 10:30 PM.

[ticklemyiguana]

LONEDEADWOLF, on May 15 2014 - 05:58 PM, said:

when  you  use the word  ([font=arial, sans-serif]anikˈdōtl/[/font])  towards others experiences...did you not read the article you yourself posted_
You said ([font=arial, sans-serif]anikˈdōtl/[/font]) but you never said that...ok...

I don't actually understand this, both because I didn't post an article and because what you said doesn't make sense.

LONEDEADWOLF, on May 15 2014 - 05:58 PM, said:

I would argue everyone's point of view is important even if we don't agree which would probably will be more times then agreeing.....in either case both sides must come to a discussion...and a true solution can be found.....even after all the fix's this mech has seen it is still a huge breaker of balanced games and the catalyst to an easy snow ball effect in the games i have had the displeasure of being in ....

No one said they weren't. I just said you're in a very small and loud minority. And, as that implies, you're one of the few that consider the tech a breaker of games. If you can't figure out how to counter that, or the idea of having to counter something in a game all about countering your enemies and remaining a step ahead of them just isn't fun for you, then don't play it. This game is all about competition, it's all about teamwork, it's all about getting out of tough spots and using your head, but if you really can't handle those extra 35 health points a second that your opponents are getting, and really can't imagine that the technician promotes aggressive, fast paced games, and somehow don't consider a tech and another enemy combined to be two mechs instead of one, and really can't consider the fact that those "easy snowball effects" are basically the end result of combined firepower, and should realistically be happening often during any game, technician or not (or that when there is a technician there, that team is generally losing out on the firepower of a mech and trading it for 35-50 health per second on a single mech and every two minutes or so a health boost) then this game probably isn't for you.

You're complaining about something that makes the game a lot of fun for most of us. If you want to boycott it, you have my full support. You also have my support for your boycotting the forums when nothing at all happens because you're complaining about something that doesn't make sense to complain about.

[Duralumi]

The Technician is not the main problem.
The Helix Repair Torch is.
Dedicated healing is.
Dedicated supports, are.

Imagine if the Incinerator was an A-Class that could manually siphon heat from a teammate, allowing them to fire for extremely extended periods of time.

Expand dong on the Red0x. Trash the Helix.

Edited by Duralumi, May 16 2014 - 01:11 AM.

[LU0P10]

Duralumi, on May 16 2014 - 01:06 AM, said:

The Technician is not the main problem.
The Helix Repair Torch is.
Dedicated healing is.
Dedicated supports, are.

Imagine if the Incinerator was an A-Class that could manually siphon heat from a teammate, allowing them to fire for extremely extended periods of time.

Expand dong on the Red0x. Trash the Helix.

Which is why I have suggested earlier in this thread to just replace Torch with a Tow. If the Tech is able to aid his teammates with tactically and intelligently positioned "med packs" (=special ability) - which are stationary then of course - death balling phenomenon imo thus is solved - cause mechs are forced to stop for a while to repair (maybe extractors need a review too though).  I can foresee some neat plays with that kind of Tech without anyone consider it cheesy.

Continuos healing is also bad because with increased speeds some maps are effectively too small if a deathball manages carefully control the central area of a map and maintains that position. Enemy team is quite often split up after spawns and kept so.  End result 4-40 scores...

Edited by LU0P10, May 16 2014 - 01:34 AM.

[Krellus]

I like both Duralumi and Luop10's ideas. Both better versions of what we have now.

[draco7891]

Duralumi, on May 16 2014 - 01:06 AM, said:

Imagine if the Incinerator was an A-Class that could manually siphon heat from a teammate, allowing them to fire for extremely extended periods of time.

But the Incinerator can already do that. To every teammate at once. Passively. And he doesn't break the game (well, he does but for entirely different, weapon-DPS-related reasons).

But let's take it to a natural extreme, and say this A-class Incin heat siphon could, say, double the length of firing time for a mech. Does that mean the Assault/CRT abilities break the game_ Abilities that have existed since Hawken first came into being_

Never mind that now heat buildup cools off at 63heat/sec after 3 seconds of no fire. Did the ability to basically cool oneself off immediately after an engagement "break" Hawken_

LU0P10, on May 16 2014 - 01:33 AM, said:

If the Tech is able to aid his teammates with tactically and intelligently positioned "med packs" (=special ability) - which are stationary then of course - death balling phenomenon imo thus is solved - cause mechs are forced to stop for a while to repair (maybe extractors need a review too though).  I can foresee some neat plays with that kind of Tech without anyone consider it cheesy.

Continuos healing is also bad because with increased speeds some maps are effectively too small if a deathball manages carefully control the central area of a map and maintains that position. Enemy team is quite often split up after spawns and kept so.  End result 4-40 scores...

So what you're suggesting is that the Tech only carry, in effect a "super Health Charge". Except (nearly) every mech already carries Health Charges as a matter of course, and enemy deaths also continuously provide Health Charges. In fact, when items regenerated on a timer, a committed and coordinated team could have Mk3 Health Charges on the ground all the time for everyone to use. What would the point of using the Tech be, if he was a weak, low-DPS water boy doing something everyone else already does_

Moreover, trying to balance such an abilities effect would be extremely difficult, and I can foresee several cases where it would be cheesy. If you give it too much health and/or too much HP/sec, then it becomes a nexus around which a team can sit in a choke and have their way with the enemy team, turning the "deathball" into a "death-turtle". If you give it too little, then there's absolutely no reason to take the Tech over just taking Health Charges on your key mechs and staying mobile, and what makes it difficult is that what constitutes too much or too little health depends entirely on each unique healing situation, match-to-match. What would be too much in one circumstance isn't enough to work in another, so the ability oscillates between broken and useless, never landing at some point of viability.

---

What causes 4-40 matches, most often, is not the magic deathball. It's a team losing momentum. A few players (or perhaps key mechs) are lost, and the rest of the team folds, respawning individually, alone and away from their teammates and instead of disengaging, grouping up and then reengaging as a cohesive team, decide to cast themselves pell-mell one at a time at the coordinated, organized enemy team defence. Feed it enough kills, and that's the score you get. Momentum in Hawken is key, keeping up a steady pace and steady pressure on the enemy force to keep them off-balance and unable to mount a significant offense is what wins the match. The Tech, as he stands, helps keep a team mobile and pushing that objective, lets them keep up their momentum. Making the Tech into a death-turtle runs counter to that design philosophy; getting rid of it entirely takes that momentum option away from all but a handful of the very most closely organized teams (and turns pub play into camp central; do none of you remember CB2 dual SS on the bridge on Prosk_ How horrible and impossible it was to move or do anything once the enemy had accomplished a defensible position_).

Taking the tech is a conscious choice that the loss of extra DPS is worth the gain in team momentum, that the remaining teammates when suitably bolstered can carry the day rather than using all damage mechs. But deathballs do not come about because the Tech can heal a teammate one at a time; they come about because teams are uncoordinated and feed into desperate, unwinnable situations after having lost their momentum.

Draco

[LONEDEADWOLF]

Duralumi, on May 16 2014 - 01:06 AM, said:

The Technician is not the main problem.
The Helix Repair Torch is.
Dedicated healing is.
Dedicated supports, are.

Imagine if the Incinerator was an A-Class that could manually siphon heat from a teammate, allowing them to fire for extremely extended periods of time.

Expand dong on the Red0x. Trash the Helix.

Thank you some one that understands mechanics and knows exactly whats wrong with the Mech...

[Duralumi]

draco7891, on May 16 2014 - 10:29 AM, said:

But the Incinerator can already do that. To every teammate at once. Passively. And he doesn't break the game.

Key word in there. Which is precisely why it's heat draining abilities don't break the game.

I'd love to see a G2 Technician (or just rework the main technician like this sans the C-Class), with these traits:

• C-Class
  
• Red0x with more AoE and more per-shot damage, but slower travel time and firing rate
  
• NO HELIX ANYWHERE. Healing is now passive to all nearby targets at a constant rate of 5hps
  
• Ability triples regen speed for 10 seconds. With a 45 second CD.

Passive supports (5hps) or combat supports (secondary Red0x) could be just as useful as a dedicated support. Not quite a helpless duckling in the field, nor are they the lynchpin that is the sole key to the team's success.
Yet due to their active nature, the pilots actually have to work as hard as everybody else to be useful (you know, consider things other than "who has the lowest health on my screen", or in pubs case "who's the best player on my team so I can jump into his pocket").

I'm aware that there's a little more to the tech than I make it out to be sometimes, but watching health bars and keeping track of how far you are from an ally in need just ain't as taxing as considering the enemy(ies) position, performing on-the-fly calculations for manual detonation, proper flanking procedure (give yo butt a retreat route), heat management and health management (because without a Tech, HP is more of a resource).

For how easy the Tech is to play, you think it'd be somewhere close to the Brawler in terms of usefulness (funnily enough there's no direct correlation between the two since Bruiser is one of the hardest mechs to play effectively, yet is also one of the worst in the game), yet it'll always top the scoreboard provided it isn't piloted by the kind of person who tries to hug people as Rocketeer.

draco7891, on May 16 2014 - 10:29 AM, said:

But let's take it to a natural extreme, and say this A-class Incin heat siphon could, say, double the length of firing time for a mech. Does that mean the Assault/CRT abilities break the game_ Abilities that have existed since Hawken first came into being_

Assault and CRT do not break the game because they are neither mobile enough to keep on their targets with their sustained weaponry, like a Berserker, nor are they bulky enough to stand their ground and trade shots like a Vanguard or Brawler could.
Active heat siphoning would be broken because it would allow certain mechs to keep firing for way, way longer than they should. And make chokepoints a living hell.

Imagine a Hawkins Reaper that didn't have to take breaks as much.
Imagine an Assault that could further keep the heat off by complementing the active heat drain with it's own coolant.
Imagine a Rev-GL Grenadier that only had to stop firing a half as much as usual.

draco7891, on May 16 2014 - 10:29 AM, said:

Never mind that now heat buildup cools off at 63heat/sec after 3 seconds of no fire. Did the ability to basically cool oneself off immediately after an engagement "break" Hawken_

No, because in order to achieve that safely (yet even "safely" is not guaranteed), you have to break LoS with your opponent or become a dancing practice dummy for 3 seconds, with the former being hard to do unless you're already a considerable distance away from them.

Edited by Duralumi, May 16 2014 - 01:40 PM.

[burns1124]

Simple way to balance tech appearances:

Both teams must have a tech, period, one person at all times must spawn as a tech, or no one can.

Class restrictions: 1 non tech A, 2 B's, 2 C's

#fixvoip lack of comma outside third party makes coordination really difficult/unrewarding

Put a "bench" system in place so games cannot have a direct numerical advantage, 9/10 times beings abused by a rookie with a tech just trying to get his daily TDM crumbs for the overpriced items/internals that aren't interesting or different enough to matter.

The main issue with techs is they too easily swing balance and provide and unbalanced team a huge advantage in the leeway of other joining players evening teams.  


In my book anyone that uneven a teams and goes RIGHT to their tech is a giant scumbag and has just admitted to the lobby they can't be effed to care about fair play or skillful dancing to try to edge your opponent.

[nepacaka]

Quote

I'd love to see a G2 Technician (or just rework the main technician like this sans the C-Class), with these traits:

• C-Class
  
• Red0x with more AoE and more per-shot damage, but slower travel time and firing rate
  
• NO HELIX ANYWHERE. Healing is now passive to all nearby targets at a constant rate of 5hps
  
• Ability triples regen speed for 10 seconds. With a 45 second CD.

somthing wrong here

if such a thing appear in the game, you'll be the first who ask to remove it. lol.

Edited by nepacaka, May 16 2014 - 01:30 PM.

[Amisto]

Sylhiri, on May 13 2014 - 09:23 PM, said:

Akrium, on May 13 2014 - 07:28 PM, said:

Basically, learn to understand how your team is playing and counter that.

Enemy: 4 heavies, 1 tech and 1 SS.

Counter:

A. Suicide run in a desperate attempt to kill the tech before the deathball guarding the little bugger kills you faster before you can alpha him. In a TDM match.

B. Stay in your own deathball with your own tech and hope that the game gets interesting at some point while both teams stick to their own sides of the map and spam poor mans long ranged attacks at each other.

Tried A, doesn't work well. Noticed people have been playing B since the Steam patch.

Get a mech with explosive weapons, most important GL secondary, this weapons is made for hitting the tech , easy to arc them over the guy he is healing.  

Additionally when people have tech's they are prone to over extending, you stay in cover, and just keeping firing that primary secondary primary combo ,( charged heat, or eoc, grenade and then another uncharged heat or EOC 3 puck, get back behind cover, charge primary/wait for secondary, repeat.

Edited by Amisto, May 16 2014 - 03:57 PM.

[Sylhiri]

Amisto, on May 16 2014 - 03:54 PM, said:

Get a mech with explosive weapons, most important GL secondary, this weapons is made for hitting the tech , easy to arc them over the guy he is healing.  

You say that like people don't dodge, TOW is better since it is faster. EOC pucks are chip damage, very heal-able and unreliable unless hit directly so Heat Cannon is better provided they don't just drop a shield or hide around the corner while healing. You also need to do this quickly since ranged mechs especially Sharpshooter can instagimp A classes or the other mechs spamming the hell out of hitscan sustain/fireballs/secondaries.

You generally are trying to avoid death, in that previous situation you basically focus fire down a mech that is not in range of healing or will die fast enough before healing while replacing any low health mechs with newly healed mechs so they can manually heal. If you take too much damage and they push then you can run or die, kinda like a civil war reenactment. Hawken tactics just got old school.

Edited by Sylhiri, May 16 2014 - 04:18 PM.

[ScottRidley]

Sylhiri, on May 16 2014 - 04:18 PM, said:

EOC pucks are chip damage, very heal-able and unreliable unless hit directly

You saturate an area with those and dead Tech very soon. Just sayin'...

[Sylhiri]

ScottRidley, on May 16 2014 - 05:03 PM, said:

You saturate an area with those and dead Tech very soon. Just sayin'...

Mine damage is 13 per puck, just spray and pray the whole area doesn't work on a competent player. If you did that against any attacking class, an actual decent player, that would not work at all although you may damage them and make them manually repair it doesn't really work well against a mech that can dodge/move/fly and heal at the same time. Why does everyone think technicians are mentally handicapped_ lol

[ScottRidley]

Sylhiri, on May 16 2014 - 05:32 PM, said:

Why does everyone think technicians are mentally handicapped_ lol

I've started playing the Tech myself to better understand why people hate it so much. And while I may not be among the top guns I can still get a good impression. Whenever people are railing against the Tech, they usually paint a picture of a situation in isolation - just as you are doing right now.

Of course Tech players aren't retarded. But if they are busy dodging tons of incoming fire - as they should be because everyone should be shooting at it - a few friendly pucks on the ground can work wonders. I fuzzy bunny loathe mines as a Tech, As a Pred or Infil I giggle as I hear all those pop-pop-popedy-pop sounds followed by the satisfying boom.

[Goyo]

Scott, have you experienced that tech is a force multiplier_  When around good teammates it increases the likelihood that the opposition has no chance_

Hawken should strive for 1:1 balance.

Sure there are games where tech can be a stinker to play.  That can be said for any mech because Hawken balance shifts in crazy ways compared to most games I have ever played (since the 70s)

[LU0P10]

LU0P10, on May 16 2014 - 01:33 AM, said:

If the Tech is able to aid his teammates with tactically and intelligently positioned "med packs" (=special ability) - which are stationary then of course - death balling phenomenon imo thus is solved - cause mechs are forced to stop for a while to repair (maybe extractors need a review too though).  I can foresee some neat plays with that kind of Tech without anyone consider it cheesy.

Continuos healing is also bad because with increased speeds some maps are effectively too small if a deathball manages carefully control the central area of a map and maintains that position. Enemy team is quite often split up after spawns and kept so.  End result 4-40 scores...

draco7891, on May 16 2014 - 10:29 AM, said:

So what you're suggesting is that the Tech only carry, in effect a "super Health Charge". Except (nearly) every mech already carries Health Charges as a matter of course, and enemy deaths also continuously provide Health Charges. In fact,
when items regenerated on a timer, a committed and coordinated team could have Mk3 Health Charges on the ground all the time for everyone to use. What would the point of using the Tech be, if he was a weak, low-DPS water boy doing something everyone else already does_

Well no. I was suggesting Tech use his special ability to drop - just a regualar sized health orb. And balance that with cool down timer of the mentioned ability. That ability is usefull enough - while you say other mechs are carrying that health orb item anyways - but on tech that would be a inexhaustable health resource, maybe with a shortish cooldown. I was juggling with a five to ten secs number in my mind as a CD.

Then you might answer: but one could just kill 'mechself' in order refresh items. Good that is fine - again that would break deathballing effectively since the wait for a respawn. And that's right: items were on timer, but not anymore. Items run out, which makes my version of a Tech a bit more useful I guess/ I hope.

Imagine the Tech with Hawkins-RPR and TOW - hardly a low dps mech (= I would say nicely versatile little bugger). Or shoot tows behind the front line and debuff enemies with a redox. Use item and ability health orb to double stack health generation - for mechself or for a teammate.
Six Techs on a team - OP_ It's yet to be seen. Their own health is low.

Quote

Moreover, trying to balance such an abilities effect would be extremely difficult, and I can foresee several cases where it would be cheesy. If you give it too much health and/or too much HP/sec, then it becomes a nexus around which a team can sit in a choke and have their way with the enemy team, turning the "deathball" into a "death-turtle". If you give it too little, then there's absolutely no reason to take the Tech over just taking Health Charges on your key mechs and staying mobile, and what makes it difficult is that what constitutes too much or too little health depends entirely on each unique healing situation, match-to-match. What would be too much in one circumstance isn't enough to work in another, so the
ability oscillates between broken and useless, never landing at some point of viability.

See my obove paragraph. I don't consider it would be that hard to balance it to be viable mech.
Maybe there was a slight misunderstanding of that ability Tech would have in my version of it.

That I cannot say wheather or not deathballing would turn into deathturtling - because we have already have both situations too often too easily - dare I say, due to the mobile nature of healing bot. Umm at least my version of the Tech wouldn't contribute as much as now to *Deathball commenced, lets wreck this server* -phenomenon.
Maybe C-class mech would have to press C-key eventhough there is the Tech on his side

Quote

What causes 4-40 matches, most often, is not the magic deathball. It's a team losing momentum. A few players (or perhaps key mechs) are lost, and the rest of the team folds, respawning individually, alone and away from their teammates and instead of disengaging, grouping up and then reengaging as a cohesive team, decide to cast themselves pell-mell one at a time at the coordinated, organized enemy team defence. Feed it enough kills, and that's the score you get. Momentum in Hawken is key, keeping up a steady pace and steady pressure on the enemy force to keep them off-balance and unable to
mount a significant offense is what wins the match. The Tech, as he stands, helps keep a team mobile and pushing that objective, lets them keep up their momentum. Making the Tech into a death-turtle runs counter to that design philosophy; getting rid of it entirely takes that momentum option away from all but a handful of the very most closely organized teams
[and turns pub play into camp central; do none of you remember CB2 dual SS on the bridge on Prosk_ How horrible and impossible it was to move or do anything once the enemy had accomplished a defensible position_). Luopio's comment: Wasn't that more of a question of SS weapons being too strong_]

Taking the tech is a conscious choice that the loss of extra DPS is worth the gain in team momentum, that the remainingteammates when suitably bolstered can carry the day rather than using all damage mechs. But deathballs do not come about because the Tech can heal a teammate one at a time; they come about because teams are uncoordinated and feed into desperate, unwinnable situations after having lost their momentum.

My point there was - that on smaller maps - the losing side of players are kept separated - denied from regrouping if deathturtle on the center of that map (for example Prosk) gets firm grip of the position. Rocketeer/Incinator on that middle bridge with constant and dedicated healing bot - no bueno, especially with green beam option which Tech owns (/pwns hard) and can not miss.
Winning team keeps one or two enemy mechs alive on one side of that map and just predicts enemy respawns to the other side -> farm the kills till 4-40. That I don't know it different version of the Tech would solve this particular scenario.
Again see my above quote to you. Maybe my version of the Tech wouldn't be kingpin anymore - which might understandably upset current Tech (ab)users - but in the sake the this game, then the rewised Tech teams might have just a little bit harder time to keep constant pressure on scattered enemy teams.
There are probably numerous reasons (which we don't even scratch on this discussion) what causes deathballing-> 4-40 scores, matchmaking one of them. One for sure in warfare tactics is... defense has always the advantage. Unorganized team should always lose against cohesive, organised defensive team, especially when it has managed to gain a healthy (<-no pun intented) lead.
Anyways... somehow I can't see my version of a Tech turn things into all but deathturtle matches.

TL:DR... What I would like the Tech would be viable inexhaustable source of healt orbs... but then mechs are frequently forced to pause just for a while to regenerate their health back.
IMO with current build of this Hawken, speeds, map sizes, weapons, items... it might work out...

Quote

Draco

Luopio (a finnish word which translates in english to Renegade)

Cheers

[Doc_Dragon]

Having the Tech drop "1st Aid Kit" energy globes would make the playstyle feel a lot like Medic from Battlefield. I'd be willing to give this a try, (SInce I love playing Tech), but I think it'd be a bit of shame to have to go back to something that feels like an older game. (I always preferred Engineer in BF.) Also, in my limited experience of the game so far, there seems to always be a good supply of energy globes just lying around during the course of most matches. That might be different in higher tier matches, I don't know.

I'm not sure how valuable popping out the odd yellow egg of goodness with a cool down timer would be though.

What I'd rather see for the Tech is making C class mechs in turret mode completely immune to the Helix beam. That would mittigate some, not all, girlfriend healer play style that a lot of people seem to have issue with. I really don't like the idea of trailing around after a very slow moving mech constsantly healing them. That's got to be the most boring ten minutes you can spend in Hawken, surely_

As for the Helix beam itself, what if it was a beam weapon_ Fires in a straight line, with a bit more range than the "sticky version". I would like to see it build heat a little more slowly as compensation. For the red vampire mode, it'll be skill based which would hopefully satisfy those who dislike the sticky nature of the Helix. I'd like for it to again have a little more range and a bit more damage as a trade off.

With these changes I would also get rid of Amplification and swap it for Fred's Coolant ability. If the Helix has to manually be trained on a team mate while he zips around dodging incoming fire, I imagine Amplification would be somewhat pointless.

Hopefully these kinds of changes might encourage Techs to range the field a little more, supporting their team as a whole rather than being a mere extension of a single invulnrable heavy.

I also wouldn't mind seeing the points/xp values for healing be adjusted downwards too. It does seem to be a little odd that a Tech can top the table so easily.

[Rhadamanth]

Admittedly, I've only been playing Hawken a fairly short while (pilot level 18). But having played a Tech quite a bit, and having read through this thread as well, I had a few thoughts.

I started playing the Tech because I've always enjoyed the healing/support roles in games. I've found the Tech to be quite fun and well-balanced. To me it seems that most of the complaints about the Tech and suggested "fixes" for it, are unfounded or problematic.

To those who complain that the Tech means the loss of team firepower (since the Tech spends time healing):
You must have played with lazy Techs. As a Tech, my game involves sticking close to the squad, softening up the enemies with the Redox, healing teammates if they're taking sustained fire, and helping those under sustained fire to finish off their targets. It is a very active playstyle and I have to be aware of everything happening around me to be effective.

To those who complain about the Tech/Heavy combo being invulnerable:
Honestly, anyone engaging this combo on their own has more balls than brains. Unless the heavy has just come out of a fight, chances are you won't be able to kill it. The thing is, there is nothing wrong or unique about this. Anytime you go against two mechs on your own the odds are against you. My advice would be to bring more mechs, even the radio voice-over tells you this. If you're engaging a Tech/Heavy combo, don't stand together either. I can attack and heal at the same time as long as I can see both targets. If one of you goes after the Tech, while the other occupies the Heavy, you have a chance of bring us down. If you can force my attention on saving my own tail, you can interrupt my healing, and likely kill me. I only have about 300 health, and in 1 vs 1 combat, any uninjured skilled player has a good chance of taking me down. In short, stick together, and remember how Tech healing works (must have LOS). Also, I'm highly vulnerable to sniper fire, but you probably can't hit me from standing by the Heavy's target.

To those who think having a Tech is an automatic advantage:
I can tell you this is absolutely untrue. A Tech can only shine, or even survive, if the team acts like a team. If everyone goes off in their own direction, I can't do anything but try get to people and heal them, and more often than not, they die before I reach them, leaving me alone and vulnerable near enemies. If the team works together, I can provide a real advantage though. One of the most effective tactics I've seens is where the entire squad sticks together while moving, but cycles who is in the front lines, with me hanging out in the rear healing people before they cycle back to the front. The big advantage here is the lack of downtime, injured mechs don't have to self-heal, they can remain alert, and even keep attacking. However, teams that make the most of a Tech are the exception. Which is probably where the whole Tech/Heavy combo came from, if we can't rely on a team, it's our best option. It is always a secondary option for me though, as I get a lot more XP from healing a whole team.

To those who want to rework how the Tech heals:
The idea of having it drop healing balls, while carrying two normal weapons, would remove the uniqueness of the Tech. The idea of the Tech doing passive healing to nearby mechs is boring, and would be harder to balance, and remove some of the skill required to play a Tech well. In my opinion an iconic ability (such as healing) should never be passive, it just isn't as much fun.

Finally, to those who think a Tech is giving the opposing team a big advantage:

• Grab the Tech and give it a try.
  
• Quit playing a team game more like a free-for-all deathmatch and come up with some tactics.
  
• Play a standard deathmatch, I guarantee you won't mind seeing Techs there.

To summarize, in my opinion, the Tech makes the game more enjoyable and fast-paced (no one likes shutting down to self-heal). It can provide a team with an advantage, but also requires the team to adapt their tactics to reap those benefits. However, a team with a Tech is vulnerable to a team that works well together, as taking out the Tech can cause a big loss in momentum. In a lot of ways a Tech helps push a team toward working as a squad, and can expose weaknesses in the opposing team.

Edited by Rhadamanth, May 18 2014 - 06:49 PM.