Who’s ready for round 2? This was an early patch before nWay was really even capable of enacting some of the sweeping system-level changes that would be introduced later down the line. I didn’t really appreciate that making and changing games takes, like, time and effort, so I didn’t really write either this or the previous balance patch thing with that in mind. Oh well.
I recently wrote a piece on Power Rangers Legacy Wars detailing the changes I’d make to the game so that it would be a less random, more rewarding experience. nWay, the developers of the game, decided they’d do something similar with Power Rangers Legacy Wars Version 1.1.5, the newest version of the game that adds new features, new characters and a slew of balance changes for existing characters. Read the patch notes here.
These people clearly don’t know what they’re doing. So now, in my infinite charity, I’m going to balance their game for them again, this time with the stipulation that I won’t be changing anything to do with the core interactions. No “strikes beat breakers always” or “no casting block to interrupt combos”. nWay clearly has a vision for their game, so I may as well run with that.
DASH PUSH
- Change from 1.1.5 reverted: +70% dash push amount for all warriors
- Dash push increased by a bonus 15% when opponent is knocked down
It’s amazingly easy to get cornered in this game. The dash push change in the latest patch was meant to make it more difficult to corner your opponent by dashing into them, but this also had the effect of making it more difficult to get yourself out of the corner. With this change, dash push is reverted to 1.1.4 dash push, and you can now use knockdowns to get yourself in and out of the corner more consistently, giving the defender a strong reward for making the correct read with attacks that cause a launch.
LEADER CLASS CHANGES
- 2017 Movie Zack changed from Defender to Balanced
The guy craps out damage, with any single block leading to between one and two guaranteed Breakers, or at least a One Two Combo. Don’t give this guy a high block rate or a high critical rate.
WARRIOR BALANCE CHANGES
CAST-WIDE CHANGES
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Invulnerability property removed from all Primary and Special Leader attacks
I shouldn’t be seeing any of my strikes whiff through MMPR Red’s T-Rex Takedown. Ever. -
Invulnerability property universally applied to the starting animations of all Assist attacks
I’m going back on a change I wanted to make in the previous post. I figured that having this being a defensive option in the corner is okay since you’re spending 5AP on it.
MMPR RED (LEADER)
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Recovery period after dash increased
The guy has a giant sword and some of the longest-range physical attacks in the game, he does not deserve to be as mobile as he is while having the range and damage he does. -
T-Rex Takedown damage reduced to 68
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Rising Power Slash damage reduced to 85
The combo of Rising Power Slash into T-Rex Takedown absolutely tears through HP right now, so a little damage normalisation will stop Jason from completely deleting the opponent’s life bar in two combos. The damage reduction on T-Rex Takedown is also to reduce its effectiveness in neutral — it’s still one of the most damaging and longest-reaching pokes in the game, and it’s still very hard to block.
2017 BLACK (LEADER)
- Power Punch damage reduced to 91
If you get hit by this move, it’s going to hurt. The change to Balanced class lowered the amount of Blocks 2017 Black is going to draw, but the damage on this move had to be nerfed to compensate for the slightly higher crit rate he’ll have as a result.
2017 BLUE (LEADER)
- EMP damage reduced to 60
It’s Xandred assist but on a Leader. These kinds of abilities are really strong, so it makes sense to lower the damage on it.
MASTER XANDRED (ASSIST)
- Increased contributing health to 50
The amount of HP Xandred added to the health pool wasn’t really the issue. He deserves to add a little more HP, but not quite as much as 2017 Blue (the other Defense assist) does, since he acts as a catch counter rather than a defensive attack.
2017 BLUE (ASSIST)
- Decreased contributing health to 100
This amount is still better than a Level 5 Xandred, but providing as much HP as he does for what is essentially a guaranteed punish on every grounded string ability (with pretty decent damage, too), the HP contribution change feels pretty warranted.
And that should about do it this time. Anything I might have missed is a result of a still fairly centralised meta — there’s definitely more diversity in the higher leagues now, but there’s still a lot of MMPR Reds and 2017 Blacks running around, and no one seems to want to play much else outside of the established “viable” characters. I have a feeling the new and improved Leader Super Megaforce Yellow is going to be amazingly strong, but drop rates on her are abysmal, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
For the record, I still think adding the ability to discard cards at will is a good idea. Maybe make it cost like 1AP per discard or something.