Should queens have a lunge attack like Ravagers?

[kastion]

Make the Rav charge work like Warrior's lunge, where you can only activate it by clicking on a target's sprite, and it wouldn't be used by the queen to get out of every fight safely; if you really want it so much. But I'm really really against this, as this will encourage combat queening, when it's already the number one reason for xeno loss lately, followed by bald T3s dying for free.

The main problem with xeno, is that there's so much power stacked up on T3s and queen, so when players controlling T3s and queen fail, the hive fail. We should spread that power out, trickle them down to T2 and T1, not giving T3s and queen even more power.

glad im not the only one that thinks this.

[chocolate_bickie]

I like the idea of giving T1s some love. Right now it feels like your waiting to reach Elder so a single lucky shot dosen't crit you. Not to mention the fact that slashes to literally no damage.

[Grubstank]

the idea behind the charge and movement speed nerf was to increase the Queen's dependence on her daughters for combat support. Adding a rav charge would defeat the purpose of the nerf-- the queen would have an effective getaway mechanism, and it would encourage queen players to be independent of their daughters when picking what fights they'll take.

Screech, neuro, her decent tank, pheromones, and high damage are tools which are more than sufficient for queen players to lead pushes and offer a modicum of independence. Adding an additional combat ability like a lunge would be detrimental.

[Grubstank]

I like the idea of giving T1s some love. Right now it feels like your waiting to reach Elder so a single lucky shot dosen't crit you. Not to mention the fact that slashes to literally no damage.

imo, T1s are quite well balanced at the moment, except perhaps for runners.
Defenders are good bullet sponges and fill their niche well -- especially during barricade seiges when it devolves to flooding the screen with xeno HP
Sentinels have a reliable stun and can practically substitute for a lurker if you play it right.
Drones can make a fair contribution in combat, and any shortfalls they have are made up for by their utility abilities
Runners are the only questionable T1 at the moment, but their speed can be used to sabotage marine positioning and fulfill a lot of logistical functions

Having to wait until you reach elder is more than balanced. You're a fresh spawn. Youngs should be one step above a larva, and their abilities reflect that. Matures can hold their own versus isolated marines, and elder+ lets you tackle small groups, or adds a safety margin.

That's all kinda off topic for this thread, but I really don't feel the T1s are in need of rebalancing. They each do very well within a niche.

[MattAtlas]

global pheromones

[kastion]

imo, T1s are quite well balanced at the moment, except perhaps for runners.
Defenders are good bullet sponges and fill their niche well -- especially during barricade seiges when it devolves to flooding the screen with xeno HP
Sentinels have a reliable stun and can practically substitute for a lurker if you play it right.
Drones can make a fair contribution in combat, and any shortfalls they have are made up for by their utility abilities
Runners are the only questionable T1 at the moment, but their speed can be used to sabotage marine positioning and fulfill a lot of logistical functions

Having to wait until you reach elder is more than balanced. You're a fresh spawn. Youngs should be one step above a larva, and their abilities reflect that. Matures can hold their own versus isolated marines, and elder+ lets you tackle small groups, or adds a safety margin.

That's all kinda off topic for this thread, but I really don't feel the T1s are in need of rebalancing. They each do very well within a niche.

unless marines are FFing each other like crazy no t1 can ever tackle small groups even at ancient. Most t1 can hardly even 1v1 unless they stun (facehuggers/neuro)

[Grubstank]

unless marines are FFing each other like crazy no t1 can ever tackle small groups even at ancient. Most t1 can hardly even 1v1 unless they stun (facehuggers/neuro)

I pretty regularly tackle small groups of 2-3 as an elder+ sentinel, and inflict a couple bone breaks or rarely a kill before retreating. 1v1 mature sentinel is practically a guaranteed kill or return-for-surgery. Drones can often manage 1v1s too, even without huggers. I'm nothing special. You can often see this level of gameplay among xenos if you spectate.

As I said, they perform well within their niche. Runners are broken, so they're not a great comparison right now. Neither defenders or drones are designed to be solo combat castes, but both castes can manage skirmishes on the flanks of a main xenos force-- they can both be worth their weight in a group fight.

the t1 castes pretty much contribute exactly as much as a t1 xeno should do.

[GoliathTheDespoiler]

Should the queens have yet another fucking ability to add to their utility belt?

no thanks just buff T1s pls

[Griffith78]

I would agree as well, it would afford a nice bonus before a screech and also help for an escape in a tight spot

[flying_dice]

God no. We'd get even more unrobust people going Queen for the sole reason of wanting to be OP fightan beno.

Buff T1/T2, reduce maturation timers, buff acid spit, buff beno stuns other than screech, de-nerf Carrier. Leave Queen alone.

e: I realize that's somewhat unhelpful. What I would actually like to see done for Queen is something like this:

Make the Queen a hybrid of old Queen and current Queen. Allow the hive to tick evolve and upgrade points & evolve to higher tiers at the current rate while the Queen is de-ovi'd. Have the benefit of the ovi'd Queen be faster evolution and upgrade ticks. 50% faster, 100% faster, whatever. Make Queen pheromones stronger while ovi'd, and/or allow her to transmit them to all xenos while ovi'd instead of just leaders. Make her heal and plasma gift cheaper and more suited to rapid use.

Basically, turn ovi mode into a more effective command and control mechanism that offers hive-wide benefits rather than something you're required to toggle on occasionally for the sake of evo and eggs that's nearly worthless when there's active combat. Right now there's zero reason for the Queen to stay in ovi mode when conflict moves beyond initial skirmishes: she can distribute pheromones more effectively from the front, her heal isn't significant enough to turn battles, and with so many other xenos stuns gimped her screech is vital for stopping marine pushes.

[carlarc]

buff defenders theyre need healthstve

-defender main

but for real fix runners

[4000daniel1]

Screech is already very powerful, I don't see the need for a lunge attack.

[Ketrai]

Please, let's not buff combat queen in any way. This sounds like it can be used to dive into the middle of a group of marines, and stun like 10 of them whilst a boiled drops a big fat DOOKIE on top of them, bad idea. Give her some supportive ability, not this.

[Avalanchee]

No.
Queen is a queen, she should rely on other xenos to protect her, if they fail or the queen fucks up - Marines deserve the kill.

[GriffinG]

No. Queen would be too OP with the lunge ability. She already has screech Which is OP if she has a few xenos around her that know what they are doing.

[CABAL]

I've changed my mind. Buff Combat Queen as much as you want, but nerf other benos for "balance" ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°).

[MattAtlas]

ill say it again

global pheromones

[chocolate_bickie]

As alot of people have said in the past, Queen's are not supposed to be front line leaders. They're more like SOs except they are often called in to screech due to the general squishy nature of xenos and ss13s stun based combat. If anything buff queen in ovi, maybe give her an ability to increase the evolution points of a xeno so she can force the Tier2/3s she wants.

[kastion]

ill say it again

global pheromones

i suggested global pheromones like a week ago and spooky straight up said no and closed my gitlab thread.

[Gnorse]

iirc, elder empress can assign like 4 leaders. That's enough to provide most of the hive with pheromones except for the backline ambushers, and even then she can buff one of them by watching over him.

[420MYK]

i suggested global pheromones like a week ago and spooky straight up said no and closed my gitlab thread.

thats because globals were broken asf. It lasted for like 2 days with globals before everyone cried. Like someone else said, honestly queen can set multiple leaders that if shes smart and they are (fat chance i know, queen AND hive being smart) can cover the whole hive in smellys, save for the backline runners and lurkers, Id be happier with a Rav charge than stronger pheremones whether its strength or availability only problem is youll get back into the old combat queen styles that gimps the hive these days

[TheMaskedMan2]

We don't need more weight and power onto a single player/caste. Xenos could use buffs in my opinion but not to the Queen. Give more abilities to the other Xenos, buff T1s, etc.

Queen is already powerful and a lunge wouldn't change much of anything.