eldarbulyga
New member
Something I've noticed about Viscous' abilities is that each of them have a really cool - playstyle impacting T3. Each of them except puddle punch. Splatter T3 enables spirit stacking builds, cube T3 is a power spike late game or could be what you revolve your support style around, and T3 ball allows you to be a serious threat with ability usage and mobility items. Splatter punch T2 gives you an inconsequential amount of damage and a nice slow - while T1 and T3 allow you to use the ability more. Hardly impactful or important for any build.
I have a few ideas that could make puddle punch feel more relevant compared to the other abilities.
Spirit builds obviously want to get splatter T3 asap, support builds most likely choose T3 cube.
Currently, none of the abilities are core for gun builds and while goo ball T3 is core for tanking builds, it's not like beelining to T3 ball helps since you probably don't have the items you need to be a serious threat and fully utilize being able to cast and use stuff in ball form. Melee oriented builds also don't actually get much real utility out of punch despite it scaling with light melee, it's just too weak and can actually make it harder to hold on to your opponent if they use the punch momentum to their advantage.
So that means gun, tank, and melee builds are in a bit of a weird place on choosing where to spend their ability points. Splatter first is the generic go-to I think since it's hard to go wrong with more damage. My goal is to make puddle punch a compelling option to max out first if spirit or healing are not the goal of your build. Right now I currently struggle to see any reason to get anything more than MAYBE T1 punch before maxing out every other ability.
List of potential mechanics that can make puddle punch more appealing.
I have a few ideas that could make puddle punch feel more relevant compared to the other abilities.
Spirit builds obviously want to get splatter T3 asap, support builds most likely choose T3 cube.
Currently, none of the abilities are core for gun builds and while goo ball T3 is core for tanking builds, it's not like beelining to T3 ball helps since you probably don't have the items you need to be a serious threat and fully utilize being able to cast and use stuff in ball form. Melee oriented builds also don't actually get much real utility out of punch despite it scaling with light melee, it's just too weak and can actually make it harder to hold on to your opponent if they use the punch momentum to their advantage.
So that means gun, tank, and melee builds are in a bit of a weird place on choosing where to spend their ability points. Splatter first is the generic go-to I think since it's hard to go wrong with more damage. My goal is to make puddle punch a compelling option to max out first if spirit or healing are not the goal of your build. Right now I currently struggle to see any reason to get anything more than MAYBE T1 punch before maxing out every other ability.
List of potential mechanics that can make puddle punch more appealing.
- T1 - Puddle punch refunds a charge if it hits Viscous or an ally
- While this sounds a bit odd, my intention here is to enable greater movement capabilities. I don't know if this would be too busted since we have seen incredible movement out of some Viscous players in practice maps, but for the time being it seems incredibly hard to traverse the map fluidly without some serious practice and setup in actual matches. Improved movement is a difficult T1 to pass up unless you really need to start building damage or healing with the other abilities. The improved movement would be perfect for tank and melee builds.
- Furthermore for tank and melee builds, being able to get resetting puddle punches if you can hit your opponent and yourself can create interesting positioning choices. This is the aspect of this T1 that I think can get out of hand, maybe if it is limited to if you hit ONLY Viscous or an ally - no enemies.
- For support builds, this also can allow players to be more conscious of trying to save teammates rather than attack opponents.
- T2 - Enemies hit by puddle punch become immobilized (or stuck) to the next surface they land on. Likely for a very short time, like 0.25 or 0.5 seconds.
- I think this is probably the most impactful suggestion here, I am considering even if T3 and T2 should be swapped, but that's up for debate.
- This would provide reason for gun, melee, and tank builds to pick puddle punch over the other abilities, as viscous struggles to really lock anyone down to get close or land enough shots. Personally I think removing the slow from the ability and replacing it with this would be better for the ability.
- T3 - Puddle punch now instead scales with heavy melee.
- Viscous early game damage has been clearly nerfed in favor of late game damage. I think this goes in line with that philosophy and I think this would synergize best with the builds that need it to synergize without being oppressive in others.
- I saw a forum post saying that currently the light melee damage of puddle punch does not scale as one would expect off items, I don't know if this was fixed but puddle punch damage seriously drops off in the end game. If anything it becomes an ability I stop using altogether because between the heightened movement of opponents and the clustering of teammates in team fights, puddle punch becomes more of an annoyance to my team. So if it did serious damage, at least it would be justified to continue using.
