To see my initial complaint go here: Plunderstorm is dream finally come true but... why levels?
This is still true, even more so having since grinded our Reknown 40.
Levels
This needs to be removed if there are future versions. It’s antithetical to Battle Royals. If you absolutely MUST have levels (you don’t) then don’t make the gap between levels so large. Something closer to 150 - 200 would be better. 5HP per level. Additionally the AP is HUGE especially because most of the damage comes from abilities. That needs to be scaled up on the low end and scaled down on the high end (50 -100 might be better but even then).
Additionally because most of the NPCs are dead within the first few minutes if you got caught up in a PVP fight or just had bad spawn it is VERY difficult to bridge the gap.
Also having levels make people want to engage in PVP even less until the final ring. If you aren’t level 8 or 9 within the few minutes it’s in your best interest to try and avoid all fighting until the final ring and simple 3rd party the last fight. In fact this is exactly the best way to win. If you can avoid any fighting until the last 3 or 4 people and simply come in and wipe up you will have a really good chance of winning. Especially if you target the higher levels.
Items
Items are cool but the UI is janky for picking these up. Should be top stratus for the items but for whatever reason it’s a pain to pick up stuff. I don’t know if there is a bug, latency, or some combination of things but plenty of times I’ve spammed clicking on an item only for it not to be picked up and have the enemy pick them up instead a second later.
Additionally all abilities scale in power as you level them up and also reduce the CD. It should be one or the other but not both. For instance Mana Sphere goes from 0.4 DMG with a 14 second CD to .46 DMG with an 8 second CD. So if you’re high level with epic abilities it is a HUGE advantage that is difficult to overcome. I’d rather the level up of an ability only change one stat. Range, Damage, Cooldown, Knockback, AOE, etc.
I also think the CD on abilities should be MUCH higher. The main attack should be your default attack but you rarely ever use it unless you had bad luck on abilities and even then it’s almost always better to get distance then try to get into melee combat, unless you’re higher level with more HP/Attack.
Plunder
It’s pointless to pick up (unless you’re trying to grind renown). It’s better to ignore it and look for more NPC kills/chest to open. You will have far better success pretending it doesn’t exist and try to farm more XP or look for upgrades to abilities. You could make it more useful by having POIs where you turn in plunder for levels/abilities/items which would make those POIs high risk, high reward and make farming plunder useful. Would also combat bad RNG or being behind in level/abilities.
Would also be better if you could use that Plunder to buy the rewards you wanted instead of level renown. I know that would certainly be a better system for the PVE players who want nothing to do with this mode.
Individual Abilities
| Ability | Thoughts |
|---|---|
| Earthbreaker | The stun is the main draw here. The ability mostly be avoided unless you use another ability to slow/stun so they cannot get out of the AOE. Would be better to nerf the damage but just make it an AOE Stun with a lower CD. It’s almost useless final ring unless you combo into it and even then there are better options. Good for NPC farm. |
| Star Bomb | Like Earthbreaker but worse. Doesn’t stun and you really need to combo into this. Only really good for AOE Farm at the start. The pull is okay in DUOs if you can combo into something else. Not a good pick mid/late game. |
| Fire Whirl | Oh man this thing is OP. Lots of damage, speed boost, AOE damage. This is good for just about everything. You can farm NPCs, you can use it to escape, you can use it chase down, you can use it to punish, you can use it to pull someone out of stealth. |
| Holy Shield | Pretty good ranged attack. I rarely use it but it’s probably one of the more balanced abilities. Skillshot with secondary affect that requires some skill to time correctly for extra damage. |
| Mana Sphere | Almost necessary skill. This with Fire Whirl is a great combo. The damage can be a bit much on the top end but the fact it does the same damage no matter the size is a great design. If you think you can hit someone without charging it, it can really be great and if you’re unsure about hitting them you can charge it up. Can be avoided. I don’t have much to complain other than epic feels like the CD is too quick. |
| Rime Arrow | Absolutely pointless skill. It’s better than nothing but the amount of times I’ve been killed by this is very low. It does do an AOE but the damage is so small that it’s basically just a ranged basic attack. Not good for farming and only really useful for cancelling a heal or killing someone with the tiniest sliver of HP that is running away. Might be more useful if the range was longer or the damage higher. Any other ability is a better pick. |
| Searing Axe | Cool ability if you combo it but most people are trying to not be in melee range and the knock back makes it harder to combo into. If you are in melee range it’s pretty good though. However I rarely use it. |
| Storm Archon | Not a bad ability but others are better. The slow while casting, the lower damage, and the lack of any secondary effect make this an okay pick but you’ll want to replace this with something like Mana Sphere/Holy Shield |
| Toxic Smackerel | I didn’t like this at first but now it’s my go to melee. I think it’s better than Searing Axe because of the DOT and the lower CD. DOT will prevent healing and pull them out of stealth. Damage isn’t enormous nor is the DOT but it puts pressure on the enemy. A good item for PVP. |
| Explosive Caltrops | Decent item that I mostly use for movement. If you don’t have Quaking Leap, it’s a decent item to disengage or chase down opponents. The actual caltrops are easily avoided though. |
| Fade to Shadow | Decent item but better to replace with something else. The blink is nice but the CD is too long and you can be pulled out but a ton of things which makes it mostly useless unless you combine with another ability. |
| Faeform | This is extremely good. You need to pick this up if you see it. Can escape, chase, get out of CC, and prevent CC and 90% damage reduction. |
| Hunter’s Chains | This is the ability you want if you need to combo someone. Chain them and run out of range and then while flying to you, start a Earthbreaker/Star Bomb/Repel/Snowdrift or whatever ability you want. Works nearly every time. Can also be used to chase someone down but harder to combo out of if you charge them. |
| Lightning Bulwark | 2nd really only to Faeform but can be better because of damage immunity/aoe. However Faeform is better because you can get even more distance or chase someone down. |
| Quaking Leap | So good. Can chase down or escape. The stun will let you combo and gives you a 3rd jump. This with faeform/lightning bulwark is my go to utility. |
| Repel | Another really good ability and definitely something to consider if you can combo with it. Not as good as Quaking Leap, Faeform, Lightning Bulwark |
| Snowdrift | Poor Man’s Repel and only useful if you’re about to combo into it because of the slow |
| Steel Traps | Right up there with Rime Arrow as one of the most useless skills. If you can manage to get someone with it you can combo nicely but Windstorm is so much better. Only really useful against anyone without a ranged ability and only in melee. |
| Windstorm | This is a combo machine. If you can aim well it can be used for escapes, chases, combos. In DUOs it’s almost required that one of you run with this. You can instantly kill anyone in this who doesn’t have Faeform in Duos with a combo using this as the opener. |
| Slicing Winds | This would be useless if it wasn’t for the dash. The damage is not good and the windup time is very long. I would almost rather if just be a one button dash with no damage and no windup. Also due to latency or whatever I often find it doesn’t actual hit even though as far as I can tell I dashed through them. For being a skillshot the damage should really be a lot higher or something. |
MAP
There is way too much clutter. Lots of abilities get stopped because of some random object in the world and it’s hard to tell when it will or won’t hit. Some abilities will go through everything (Smackerel for instance can hit through solid objects) while other will be stopped. Id much rather way less clutter. Otherwise it’s fine. Nothing special.
The NPCs need to be randomized as well or something. The idea is to land on an elite and either instantly hit level 2 or very close with a guaranteed ability. If you can bully everyone out of your POI on drop you will be leaving at around level 6. Additionally there needs to be either more POIs or more NPCs because if you don’t get a POI to yourself you will be behind the level curve. Additionally if you get stuck in a PVP fight you’re going to be WAY behind on levels. Most of the time the best thing to do is to avoid PVP because you don’t get enough EXP from player kills so you and your enemy will be at a disadvantage for engaging in PVP. The only time I’ve hit level 10 was from focusing only on farming and avoid all fights and that was only because we got two POIs to ourselves and even then we had to farm up the random NPCs out in the world.
The Piece of Hate is too easy and isn’t worth the time it takes to kill. I only died to it once and that was because I was in the middle of a PVP fight that happened to be at the Piece of Hate and happened to get stunned in the AOE while low on health.
Health Potions and 3rd Parties
No real complaints other than I think health pot should refresh immediately when you kill someone OR you should heal up to 50% of your maximum health or instantly refresh abilities. Something because It’s FAR too easy to roll up to a fight in progress and as soon as one of them dies, dive in and kill the winner. I know BRs are all about 3rd/4th/5th parties but nothing is more infuriating then winning a really good fight and then dying because there is literally nothing you can do. This happens in other games obviously but every other game there is a skill you (the player) can learn to survive. Fortnite you can build and plenty of health abilities, Apex you can armor swap or use abilities etc, Warzone has armor plates and utility. Plunderstorm if you try and heal and take damage you stop healing and your only hope if you have Faeform or something off CD to get away and heal, assuming they don’t chase. Because of the levels and abilities and such Plunderstorm seems extra prone to dying to 3rd parties.
Pre-Lobby
Cool you added this. Not so cool that you’re only there for a few minutes at most. Would be way cooler to have this where you you queue up. That way you can see people and be social, practice things, etc
Would love this to be where you enter the game and could find DUOs etc or just randomly queue. Need a place to hang out with the homies between games and the pre-lobby is the perfect place for it. Would also be nice to have the ability to 2v2 or 1v1 some how and play around with abilities/combos.
Final Thoughts/Wrap up
I love you guys made this but there are some major changes that need to be made going forward. Get rid of levels or make levels matter WAY less.
- Make plunder matter in-game.
- Change the reward loop (especially for my PVE friends out there).
- Add Dynamic POIs where you can use plunder or something to combat RNG and give people something to do mid/late game other than hug edge.
- Need more POIs or NPC for mid/late game as map gets cleared way too quickly.
- Adjust the abilities so as you level them up they only increase by one stat (Damage, Cool Down Reduction, Range, Size, Windup, etc) instead of increasing multiple things.
- Adjust how you heal (make it so kills give you health, refresh cooldown, or something) to combat how effective 3rd parties are.
- Range is VERY good in this mode so melee, especially default attack, needs to be buffed to make it ever worth using.
- Consider adding trios/quads. I know Trio/Quads won’t work now because of just how powerful abilities are. You could wipe a whole squad in a single combo.
Cost and Install
This could absolutely be a very successful BR but two major things need to change. It needs its own launcher. Not everyone wants download all of retail just to play this mode. On that note it also needs to be free to play. As much as I wouldn’t mind paying 15/month to play this (because I already pay 15/m for SOD) if you want any sort of mass adoption it’s going to need to be it’s own thing that doesn’t require a subscription.