Pristine emblem should have a Flat bullet velocity increase

[narcissyphus]

The problem with % bullet velocity increase is it disproportionately favors already high bullet velocities.

eg. Vindicta has 889 m/s
35% * 889 = 311.5

Warden's bullet velocity is 212m/s
. 34 * 212 = 74.2


Is this not ridiculous?

And even in the case of Vindicta, it's not like that extra 300 bullet velocity makes a game-breaking difference as she's at the point of diminishing returns, meanwhile the slow bullet velocity folks get nothing.

Also this stat makes no sense being on pristine emblem instead of long range. Pristine emblem being good against tanky heroes should have healing, and long range should have bullet velocity.

 

[Khanzy]

Should be like 200m/s or so.

 

[gimmekeyplskthnx]

High velocity mag used to build into headhunter. That's why pristine has bullet velocity. Warden's gun is already pretty strong, and all the slow bullet heroes have slow bullets for a good reason.

 

[narcissyphus]

High velocity mag used to build into headhunter. That's why pristine has bullet velocity.

... That doesn't explain why it was put specifically on Pristine Emblem, what does bullet velocity have to do with doing more damage to high HP targets? It's just a random stat tacked onto the item.

IMO there should be a clear use case / playstyle build path for each item.

Warden's gun is already pretty strong, and all the slow bullet heroes have slow bullets for a good reason.

When there is such a large discrepency in bullet velocities, confirming / denying souls is very unbalanced.
I don't disagree with you, but lately i've been playing a lot of Magician -- and i like that his weapon has a unique personality... But it's also really bad to lane with, so you struggle to keep up in souls.

Not saying High Velocity mag should turn Warden into a sniper, but a tier-3 bullet velocity item like Pristine Emblem should be more balanced.

From personal experience of playing around with projectile velocity in game engines, if a weapon has a low base bullet velocity, increasing by a % just isn't noticeable below 50% [and even then!].

Any Proper Fraction of a small number is still going to be a small number, so High Velocity Mag on heroes like Warden is a placebo, most heroes only build it for the Pristine Emblem upgrade because the velocity increase is so insubstantial.

Meanwhile, the velocity increase given to Vindicta by itself is faster than Warden's base bullet speed, lol.

How is that not fucked up?

 

[gimmekeyplskthnx]

... That doesn't explain why it was put specifically on Pristine Emblem, what does bullet velocity have to do with doing more damage to high HP targets? It's just a random stat tacked onto the item.

IMO there should be a clear use case / playstyle build path for each item.

When there is such a large discrepency in bullet velocities, confirming / denying souls is very unbalanced.
I don't disagree with you, but lately i've been playing a lot of Magician -- and i like that his weapon has a unique personality... But it's also really bad to lane with, so you struggle to keep up in souls.

Not saying High Velocity mag should turn Warden into a sniper, but a tier-3 bullet velocity item should be more balanced.

From personal experience playing around with projectile velocity in game engines, if a weapon has a low base bullet velocity, increasing by a % just isn't noticeable below 50%. Any proper fraction of a small number is still going to be a small number. I honestly think that getting High Velocity Mag on heroes like Warden is a placebo, most heroes only build it for the Pristine Emblem upgrade because the velocity increase is so insubstantial.

Meanwhile, the velocity increase the Vindicta gets by itself is faster than Warden's base bullet speed, lol.

It was put on pristine emblem because both it and headhunter were incredibly strong at one point. Giving pristine a build up makes it more expensive (and therefore harder to rush for most heros). Again, slow guns are slow for a reason. Warden's already really cracked in lane, especially in duo. Multiple time we seen heroes with slow projectiles like kelvin and viscous become the best gun users in the game, to the point that actual gun carries couldn't compete.

 

[narcissyphus]

It was put on pristine emblem because both it and headhunter were incredibly strong at one point.

.... I know why Headhunter and Pristine Emblem were changed, i'm saying Bullet Velocity is a completely random stat for Pristine Emblem, and Headhunter for that matter, to a lesser extent.

I'm saying, if youre going to have a bullet velocity item, do it right or don't do it at all. It would be one thing if it were a random small 20%, but 30% is polarizing.

IMO doing it right would be putting it on it's own item - make High Velocity mag a tier 2 or 3 item that gives a flat velocity increase somewhere in between what Vindicta & Warden currently get.

As far as gun builds for Warden, Viscous, etc. being better than weapon carries, i'm pretty that's a huge exaggeration, and in any case their weapons have been nerfed.

I feel like we're in League of Legends territory where items are ostensibly tailor designed for specific heroes.

The Valve circlejerk hivemind tells me that icefrog balances items so that everyone has the flexibility to create broken builds, but the math isn't mathing.