[COMPLETE] CTF v2.0: A series of Proposals

CTF v2.0​

Hello everyone. The following is a comprehensive rework and perhaps the longest post ever made to the forums, on Brawl, Discourse, or YAF at well over 15,000 words long and has been three years in the making. Anyway before I get down to it there's two things I wanted to cover. First, I will report any off topic or flaming posts so please don't post any Second, if you have no desire to read 15k+ words of text about CTF, and if you are one of those people, check out the TL;DR section below!

Finally, before you read this I want you to clear your mind and maybe get something to eat or take five or something. Reading something like this is a drain on the mind and usually when I try to read something very long I like to be alert and fairly calm. Naturally many of you will not agree or like everything or possibly – most things – in this rework, and that’s fine, thus if that is the case please leave some feedback in the comments because constructive criticism is vital to making a better rework.

Before I go in depth into anything on this rework I want to note everything that it covers. CTF 2.0 is a complete rework of the game, influencing nearly everything about CTF and changing something about most of the classes. Below is the order of what the CTF Rework aims to address:

-A note on Minecraft 1.9.
-A note on skill.
-A note on instant kills.
-A note on changes.
-The Studmuffin Tier System.
-A look at the Instant kill classes through the Tier System.
-Suggested reworks.
-Credits to everyone who was a helped/offered their wisdom in the creation of this rework.
-Closing.

A Note on 1.9:​

This rework does not include concepts from 1.9 because the update has not yet been released. However some of what is known about its effects on combat/etc. can be found on the Minecraft Wiki.

For more information on Shields and how they work check this page: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Shields

For more information about Minecraft 1.9 check this page: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/1.9

A Note on Skill:​

Spoiler

As some including @Miskey has pointed out, skill is a big factor in game-play. How OP or UP a class can be is in part determined by the player who is using the class. This rework aims to address that by balancing the classes out. However there will always be skilled players in the game and that will cause imbalance. Regardless, I want to make this very clear: no matter how you slice it that cannot be solved by changing the make-up of classes. Therefore I ask of all of you who are reading this to not bring up the point of 'what if player x is super good with Heavy?' argument because I and others who made this rework are very aware of that and adjusted the classes to compensate for it as best as possible.

A Note on Instant-Kills:
​

If you haven't already read this then I suggest you do as it gives an in depth explanation as to why removing instant kills from CTF is necessary. Mind, you should probably get something to eat or drink before reading this (if you actually plan to), cause it's quite long
​

Spoiler

[Disclaimer] There has been a ton of debate on this already, but since the place of instant kills in CTF is such an important topic I decided to make another thread on it. As you may or may not have noticed this post is very, very long. Because of that I have broken my arguments as to why Instant kills are bad for the game into three main points:

1. Instant Kills make CTF less friendly to new players and are a major limiting factor in its popularity.

2. Instant Kills take away teamwork from CTF, which makes the game even more unfair.

3. Instant Kills both ruin and limit the type of maps that can be built.

I strongly suggest reading some of - or all if you can - my logic behind these arguments if they do not seem sensible at first. But beforehand, go get yourself a cup of coffee or maybe a Snapple or if you're on a phone get on a computer and take a look at it without hurting your eyes.

NOTE: In spite of the academic tone this thread does not mean to imply that those who are in favor of keeping instant kills are ignorant in any way.

Also:

Now read on

Spoiler: Instant Kills - Why they must be Removed for a better CTF

Before I get into my main arguments I want to take a moment to cover three things:

1. Some of you might wonder what the point of this post is when Instant kills have already been so heavily debated. The reason is, a consensus needs to happen about how CTF should be reworked. However, because instant kills are a huge part of CTF and for a rework to occur they will have to be addressed in one way or another. No rework can be made without a decision about what to do with instant kills. Because of that, I have created this post as an impassioned plea for their removal as the only way to really start on the path to making CTF a much more balanced game.

1. Secondly, I want to debunk the popular argument that instant kills should not be removed from the game for fear that it would destroy the game. This argument has been disproved before but it is still being used as a reason why instant kills shouldn't be removed, which is why this fore-note is necessary. Anyway, I digress, the problem with the argument is that it is based entirely off of the appeal to ignorance fallacy, that CTF could never be practically remade without instant kills. Of course any argument based on fallacy is automatically wrong so this one is likewise debunked.

3. Instant kills fundamentally unbalance the game. It’s very funny to me how some people claim that instant kills are balanced because there is nothing balanced about being killed instantly. I think we can all agree that in combat terms, balance is all about finding that equilibrium, where each side has an equal chance of defeating the other. However, the trouble with instant kills is that they deny that chance; they slant everything towards the Pyro, the Assassin, the Archer, or even the high level Dwarf in combat because these classes are all given the advantage of being able to instantly kill their target(s). Some of you may ask the question, so why does this matter? CTF is still a fun game after all, so why is it so urgent that the instant kill mechanic be removed? Perhaps if you are the person making this argument you might find that instant kills make the game fun and invigorating, for instance.

First, I want to make it clear that I agree with all of the above. To a certain degree, instant kills do make the game fast paced and exciting for those playing instant kill classes since there can be nothing quicker in combat than being able to instantly blast the enemy to kingdom come. Nevertheless, most people who argue or have argued against removing instant kills state that their removal would make the game slow and boring. That argument is flawed in and of itself.

Indeed, it begs the question of how can anyone state that CTF without instant kills would be slow and boring when such a version has never existed before? To make such an argument is to commit the slippery slope fallacy and naturally that is illogical in and of itself.

Now that it is established that CTF without instant kills is possible as a fun, fast paced game I shall point out three key reasons as to why instant kills hurt CTF more than they help it aside from what I have already said about balance in the above section:

- Firstly, instant kills in CTF make the game less noob friendly and limit its growth in popularity. In my topic On: Instant Kills I examined the primary arguments in favor and against removing instant kills. @BAWSS5 composed an interesting response to my argument which you can read below:

Spoiler

“Since I'm the one who originally said it, let me answer this question...

What's the total number of players brawl has on at any time, across all game modes? Let's say about 1000. That's 1000 players... across all game modes. Of that 1000 potential CTF players, only one server at a time is ever truly full, and of the other three, one is usually about half full, and the other two have a few players. So, rounding up, that's about 100 players of CTF on average. AFTER THE BRAWL BOOM. After we were presented to a server full of prospective new players, we can barely manage to fill up one and a half 60 player servers on a regular day.

Now, keep in mind that CTF classes can only be bought once per player, and with each class costing 2.50 a piece, and being generous in assuming that all of the 100 average players will purchase every class, nor have they purchased any classes from MCPVP that were transferred. That's 3250 dollars profit for CTF on an average game. Total. That's not that much. No matter how you slice it, CTF is not a profitable game mode without a constant influx of new players.

Add on top of all this the fact that the classes are unbalanced to the point where new players are just likely to rage quit as they are to stay at all, and you've got a CTF that's only really going to survive on the strength of its own player base and their constant support.

So, how many players of CTF do you think will move on to new games within a year or two? Probably quite a few, and while there will obviously be new players joining the veteran community, with the age and staleness of CTF, there's very likely going to be 2 or 3 leaving for every new joiner from here on out.

If you take all of this into account, the point I made becomes clear. CTF's time to thrive, to generate profit and as such allow for brawl to justify spending considerable time fixing it, is only going to run out. Maybe it will live for years to come. However, unless there's a massive update that revitalizes the entire game mode's playability, CTF will only continue to be a hollow shell of the life it once had.”

First off, before I respond to @BAWSS5’s post, I want to point out why it is relevant to the argument that instant kills limit the growth of the player base. BAWSS’s post is relevant because it notes the point that all classes are unbalanced to the point that new players are likely to quit just as much as they are to keep playing the game. Of course, this unbalance is by and large due to instant kill classes, although classes like Chemist have issues of their own.

As for his post, @BAWSS5 is correct on multiple accounts that CTF is not and will not be profitable without a constant influx of players to make up for the low prices of premium classes. Furthermore, BAWS is also correct that CTF has a low player base, one that has not grown since 2013 and will most likely not see much life for very long without a major update.

Some people have said that it is the so called ‘condescending’ community or the fact that CTF’ers seem to be more closely knit than other communities that turns outsiders away, but that is a bunch of nonsense. CTF's community is no more rude than any other community out there, on Brawl or otherwise, and is a good deal kinder than some.

In fact, what makes CTF not a noob friendly game is primarily is its ridiculously unbalanced game play. @BAWSS5 stated that people are just as likely to stay as they are to leave and I think there’s some truth to that. Instant kills wreak havoc with CTF because if someone logs in to the server and gets headshot a whole bunch of times within a few minutes not only does that situation scream imbalance, it happens all the time. In fact instant kill classes not only make the game far too unfair because they provoke people to use very OP non instant kill classes as well, such as Mage, Chemist, and Soldier, in order to counter their effectiveness and this is also bad for the game. Just imagine the situation when someone logs into CTF as a Heavy and is suddenly confronted with a bunch of people shooting at him as Archer, pot spamming him as Chemist, lightning him on fire as Pyro (and so on)! That doesn’t sound like a game that is particularly receptive to new players to me. Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating for total balance as that is never possible no reasonable, but I am merely restating that removing instant kills must go if we are to make the game fairer.

Think about it, if instant kills were removed the last free class counter to Chemist (Archer) would no longer be very effective against it, which would naturally force a comprehensive rework of Chemist. This would be great for the game for two reasons, first a broken mechanic would be gone from the game and secondly Chemist would be far more balanced and not the ‘jack of all trades’ class that it currently is. I do realize however, that removing things from the game to force reworks of broken classes more broken is a bad way to do things but the example was merely to prove the point that classes such as Chemist are as OP as they are to counter instant kills.

Moreover, I think that if we stopped the counterbalancing juggling act between super OP classes and the instant kill classes and balanced out the classes we could draw more players to CTF. Generally speaking people like a game that is fun but dying a whole bunch of times because you don’t own the right class – such as Chemist or Mage – or because you’re getting headshot all the time is not fun at all. It’s hard to believe for those of us who are CTF regulars and have been for years but some people get put off by getting killed very quickly by a headshot or getting their flag stolen by a soldier for the umpteenth time. After all, wouldn’t the game be better if there were no more spawn camping Pyro’s killing a bunch of your team-mates? Or if you didn’t get head-shot the instant you jumped off the sponge? Or if you didn’t lose all your levels as Dwarf after getting 1 shot by an Assassin?

I think we can all agree that a game where death wasn’t extremely fast as it is with instant kill classes would make the game more fun to play. Right? Right.

Thus the issue with instant kills causing CTF not to be noob friendly is actually twofold:

Firstly, instant kills cause a fundamental imbalance in the game that is filled by a whole bunch of broken classes. Or instant kills are added as a band aid to make up for bad class design such as how Assassin was created to be – more or less – a counter to Dwarf. In this situation - as I have already explained at length - it makes the game too crazy and too unfair, and this is a big problem because it does not readily allow for more balanced competitive gameplay.

Secondly, instant kills create vastly different gameplay experiences. For example, the person camping as an Archer might have a great time in CTF but the guy trying to get one kill with Necro isn’t going to be too happy. The problem is, it’s almost too easy to get kills sometimes with instant kill classes such as Archer, Pyro, Dwarf – and sometimes Assassin – and that causes the gameplay for those classes to sometimes be vastly more enjoyable than that of non-instant kill classes. However, the issue with instant kills creating various levels of enjoy ability in gameplay cannot simply be boiled down to the statement that instant kill classes are better than non-instant kill classes because you can get instant kills. That is fallacious as some non-instant kill classes are far stronger than some instant kill classes such as Assassin.

No, the issue rather, is that gameplay with instant kill classes is either extremely good or extremely terrible for both the person playing the class and the people playing against it. Instant kills create a situation where skill is – to some degree – irrelevant because there are times on various maps where you walk out of spawn and are headshot and immediately killed. How do you respond to that? You can’t really. Make no mistake, there are plenty of skilled Archers out there but that the fact that they are so skilled at what they do makes the skill of players playing other classes irrelevant.

The trouble with situations like this in game is that people like to think that if they are skilled at a game they can do really well at it. Think about it, even if someone is good at strafing or combat PvP there is nothing they can do if they get headshot or axed, or one shot by an Assassin or Dwarf, and this is not only frustrating but it is not fun. I mean, what is the point in trying to capture the flag or playing the game in general if I am just going to get headshot a whole bunch of times or get killed by a rampaging Chemist?

This is a good point that I wanted to pause to address. This post is not advocating for raising the skill bar anywhere near the level of HG, nor is it advocating for making kills very hard to come by. I agree that easy kills keep people playing but quick deaths from an instant kill do the absolute opposite when you're on the receiving end of one a lot.

I know that was a lot of text to read through but I hope you can see what I am getting at. If you didn’t here is my final point of this argument in a nutshell: instant kills make CTF – in its current state - less attractive for new players to play because they cause massive imbalances in game in game play through the power of the classes and their disregard for skill – to a degree - of other players.

Therefore to make CTF more friendly to new players more skill must be incorporated into the classes so that if someone happens to own Chemist, Pyro, Mage, or mains Archer they do not have a total advantage over you. Yes, they may have an advantage in certain areas and that is fine but the issue occurs when they are too good at what they do and that leads to extremely unbalanced gameplay and a bad time for the countered class.

To reiterate @BAWSS5:

“Add on top of all this the fact that the classes are unbalanced to the point where new players are just likely to rage quit as they are to stay at all, and you've got a CTF that's only really going to survive on the strength of its own player base and their constant support.”
2. Furthermore, the second reason why instant kills must be removed is that they take away teamwork from CTF gameplay. Take Assassin for example. No matter how much teamwork you have you cannot outdo the Assassin or the Archer in killing the flag carrier (at long range) because both classes are simply too good at what they do in that role.

Another way to think about this is to look at all the best defenses and offenses. All the best defenses have a Pyro, Assassin, or Dwarf and many of the best offenses have either a Pyro or a good number of Archers. You may find yourself asking this in response: well if all these classes are fun to play then why is a rework even needed?

What is key is that a rework is needed so that the game is fun to play for the players who are up against classes like Pyro, Assassin, Dwarf, or even Archer. It is simply a bad way to run a server if the game is extremely skewed in favor of people who use certain classes for whatever role they choose.

Indeed, to some degree instant kill classes make CTF a little like a pay to win server. Obviously, this comparison isn't completely true as Archer is a free class and classes such as Chemist are non instant kill but are extremely strong on their own. However, there is some truth to it for several reasons.

As I have already established in the previous argument, instant kill classes force non-instant kill classes to be very OP in order to adequately counter them or non instant kill classes were previously very OP, creating a need for instant kill classes to counter them. Because of this, classes like Chemist, Soldier, and Mage are quite strong. Soldier is extremely mobile. Chemist excels in all roles. Mage is one of the strongest midrange classes in the game. Therefore, CTF is made somewhat pay to win because many of the strongest, most versatile classes are either instant kill premium classes or instant kill/non-instant kill free classes (Archer, Soldier) and most of them are premium classes.

@Quarrelt made a great point about Solo-capping in a related thread and how that is, more or less, the norm in current CTF.

First off, I agree, this is a very valid point, which is why I want to address it.

As I have previously stated the issue lies in that instant kill classes such as Pyro or a lvl 20+ Dwarf can almost entirely defend on their own, or how a Chemist can run into a flagroom on their own - potspam the hell out of everyone and get out and can only be stopped by a Pyro or a Dwarf.

In other words:

(*Yes I know I was the person who posted the End the Tyranny of Teamwork thread and that was a joke @furtles )

The third and final reason why instant kills should be removed is that they can ruin maps as well as limit what kind of maps can be built. While it is true that some maps are poorly designed - such as Unholy Faith - in that they are OP for classes like Soldier, Archer, Engineer, Mage, Pyro, Chemist (etc.) instant kills not only magnify the problems with these maps but also make potentially good maps bad as well. For example, most open maps are taboo or not very fun to play on because they end up being Archer OP.

Furthermore, instant kills make it to where you cannot have maps that are too closed in because they end up being Pyro OP, or Dwarf OP, or Assassin OP. If this was not the case and instant kills were removed – thereby forcing a rework of other highly unbalanced classes – CTF map making as well as reworks would be made easier. How so? Because there would not be so many ridiculously unbalanced game aspects to have to compensate for while building that could break the game if it isn’t made just right.

There is one final point to note in this argument though. Most maps have been designed to admit instant kills the best they can. What would happen if instant kills were removed and many of the classes were suddenly reworked?

I think it would force some maps to be changed but at the same time it would make some maps easier to play on. For example, with less crazy or harsh gameplay in a game without instant kills or with classes that are less OP maps such as Blackout would not be as overwhelmed by sniping Archers and the flag-room could possibly be more easily defended with a nerf on Soldier's mobility per removal of Pyro's instant kill.

Conclusion:

For the sake of not repeating myself too much I'm going to keep this short and sweet.

There are a lot of good games out there that do not have instant kills. Not a single base ability (not including AP or AD) in League of Legends is an instant kill by itself, yet it's an extremely popular game.

CTF can be more popular, but to do so it simply needs to be more fair. That's really all this post is about.

If any reworks are going to happen on CTF the biggest cause of its imbalance - instant kills - need to be removed so that the other ultra OP aspects/classes of the game can be fixed.

Anyway I apologize for making this post so long, I only did so to thoroughly explain every single one of my arguments the best way I can.

I know CTF is not a priority game mode but its broken and needs a fix, and I think removing instant kills is one step towards a solution.

A Note on Changes:​

Spoiler

Personally I'm not the greatest fan of change. I cried the time when Obama got elected. Believe me, that's how much I dislike change - or rather lots of it. Therefore, this rework aims to stay fairly similar to current CTF so that while the game-play might be slightly different it will not turn CTF into an entirely new game-mode. The other reason why changes in this rework does not make CTF far removed from its current formula is because it would probably turn it into something that isn’t CTF and that would be bad for the game and the player base.

Nevertheless, some changes are very significant and I ask you to carefully consider what you read in this post as a great deal of thought went into most parts of it - and perhaps this rework could influence future changes in CTF? Or maybe it will actually occur as a rework? (Be still my heart…)

The Studmuffin Tier System:​

Spoiler

For those of you who don't know studmuffin713 was a legendary moderator on CTF back in 2013 and 2014. In his brilliant post CTF - TDM? Revolutionary Concept he came up with a tier system for how each CTF class interacts with others, which I will use throughout this post:

Counter level 1: Very slight counter, the countered class generally has a good chance of surviving if they have some skill.
Counter level 2: Slight counter, the countered class can have a rough time but can still come out on top.
Counter level 3: Good counter, the countered class still has a chance though if they are skilled enough.
Counter level 4: Harsh counter, the countered class has a low chance of surviving but is still able to kill the enemy player and live if they are skilled enough at using their class.
Counter level 5: Harsh counter, the countered class barely stands any chance at all, and killing the attacker has a lot of luck involved.

A look at the Instant - Kill Classes:​

CTF currently has 4 instant kill classes which are Dwarf, Pyro, Assassin, and Archer. The only one of these classes that does not have an immediate instant kill ability is Dwarf, which has an instant kill at lvl 20 sharpness and over on its sword. Additionally, Archer is the only free instant kill class while all the others are VIP or higher.

Pyro:​

Spoiler

Medic counters Pyro at a tier 2 level.

o This is so because of Medic's large number of steaks and regeneration ability. Moreover, Medic has more +2 armor than Pyro, is immune to fire and can block whereas Pyro cannot.

Pyro counters Heavy at a tier 5 level.

o While Heavy does have a great deal of armor and can best nearly any other class in 1v1 melee PvP it is not immune to fire and can therefore be killed without too much trouble by the Pyro.

Ninja counters Pyro at a tier 4 level.

o Pyro can be termed a squishy class because of its weak armor and poor melee fighting abilities. Pyro is usually a 3 hit kill for Ninja and usually the Pyro does not have enough time to react before he or she is killed.

Assassin counters Pyro at a tier 5 level.

o Pyro cannot block and thus cannot do much to stop from being instant killed by Assassin.

If Engineer has its turret setup: Engineer counters Pyro at a tier 4 level.

o Engineer is excellent at zoning through its turret and it is unlikely that the Pyro will be able to get close enough on its own, without dying, to one shot the Engineer.

If Engineer does not have its turret set up: Pyro counters Engineer at a tier 5 level.

Pyro counters Soldier at a tier 4 level.

o Soldier's relationship with Pyro is similar to that of Heavy's except Soldier has excellent mobility on its side which it can use to escape getting lit on fire or extinguished.

Mage counters Pyro at a tier 5 level. Mage thrives on destroying squishes like Pyro.

Pyro counters Archer at a tier 4 level.

o Archers have poor melee ability, like Pyro, and tend to be more stationary than the other classes. Pyro can only be countered by Archer through its excellent knock-back ability.

At level 5 and over Dwarf counters Pyro at a tier 5 level.

o Pyro cannot instant kill Dwarves or light them on fire at this point and thus cannot fight Dwarf.

At level 4 and below Pyro counters Dwarf at a tier 5 level.

o In this instance, Dwarf has next to no mobility and can be lit up and instantly killed by Pyro while being powerless to stop it.

Pyro counters Necro at a tier 5 level. Pyro can instant kill Necro’s minions as well as the Necro.

Elf Counters Pyro at a tier 2 level.

o Elf’s water element combined with its pure element and its ability to fly allow it to avoid getting instant killed most of the time while it can still can deal enough close ranged and long ranged damage to beat Pyro in melee combat most of the time.

Pyro counters Chemist at a tier 2 level.

o Chemist’s high burst damage combined with its speed allows it to take advantage of Pyro’s squishiness. At the same time Chemist cannot counter the Pyro instant kill so it is still highly vulnerable in that area.

Overall Pyro counters others at a total of: 5+5+2+4+5+5 = 26
Pyro is countered at a total of: 5+5+5+4+4+2 = 25

While these numbers are about even they do not signify that Pyro is balanced by any means. To see the scope of the problem with Pyro one has to look no further than the enormous number of tier 4 and tier 5 counters littered within Pyro’s relationship with other classes. What this means is that Pyro is either heavily countered or is a harsh counter with certain classes. This is not balance; it is a large cluster of harsh counters. What balance aims for is to give each class a reasonably even relationship with each other, such as a tier 2, or 3 counter.

What causes Pyro’s problem of multiple high tier counters is its squishiness and instant kill. For now I want to focus on the instant kill because it is the main source of the problem as it allows for many of the tier 4 and 5 counters. Thus, as many of you who are reading this know, Pyro has a very unbalanced relationship with most classes except Medic. It is obvious that the reworks I will suggest here all take away the instant kill, so I will not dwell on that any longer.

Assassin:​

Spoiler

Assassin counters Dwarf at a tier 3 level.

o Assassin is one of the few classes that can has a legitimate chance at killing a high level Dwarf encamped in the flag-room. Dwarf can block to stop the Assassin but if he doesn’t see it coming or if the Assassin is quick enough the Dwarf is dead.

Assassin counters Medic at a tier 2 level.

o If the Medic is blocking or throws down a good cobweb then there’s not much of a problem. If not, the Medic is dead.

Assassin counters Archer at a tier 2 level.

o See Medic.

Assassin counters Heavy at a tier 2 level.

o See Medic.

Assassin counters Mage at a tier 3 level.

o Mage cannot block but can snipe, freeze, or knock the Assassin away in order to escape or kill him or her. However, Mage cannot block and therefore is thus more vulnerable to Assassin than any of the other classes except Pyro.

Assassin counters Elf at a tier 1 level.

If the Engineer has a working turret up: Engineer counters Assassin at a tier 4 level.

o If Assassin can get close enough (depending on where the turret is placed, how many enemies/allies are around) they can kill the Engineer without dying to turret shots.

If the Engineer does not have a turret up:

o Assassin counters Engineer at a tier 2 level. See Medic.

Assassin counters Soldier at a tier 1 level.

o Currently Soldier’s extreme mobility combined with blocking give it two avenues to deal with Assassin. Otherwise, see Elf.

Assassin counters Necro at a tier 2 level.

o See Medic.

Assassin counters Pyro at a tier 5 level.

o Like Mage, Pyro cannot block and unlike Mage it has no real way to keep Assassin at range.

Ninja counters Assassin at a tier 5 level.

o Assassin is usually Ninja’s bridesmaid since Ninja can go invisible, has more consistent speed and can kill Assassins in 3 quick hits.

Chemist counters Assassin at a tier 4 level.

o Chemists can keep Assassin away through pot-spamming (potion damage will instantly kill Assassin if they use the redstone), can block, have high mobility, and can kill Assassins in 3 hits or less.

Overall Assassin counters others at a total of: 3+2+2+2+4+2+1+2+5 = 21
Assassin is countered at a total of: 4+5+1 = 10

Assassin is a very difficult class to deal with because it relies entirely on a broken instant kill mechanic. But how is the class broken you might ask? I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from @obikenobi21 on understanding that. Assassin’s problem is that it is either really bad or really great. Assassin depends entirely on a sometimes glitch based and often luck based instant kill mechanic that can be countered by blocking and it has no other way to get kills or really have a meaningful effect on the game if they fail to one shot their target(s). Thus the difficulty becomes imminently clear: how can Assassin be reworked without destroying the class?

There have been numerous Assassin reworks proposed that have attempted to deal with this problem but I have seen one in particular that has dealt with it better than most and that is @obikenobi21’s which you can find under 'Assassin' in the reworks section.

Obi’s rework shifts Assassin from a class with only one offensive capability to a class that has three and if they are used correctly Assassin can get kills with them. Furthermore, if all of Assassin’s abilities were to be used at once under his rework Assassin could theoretically one shot someone, although this would not be an instant kill because they can fight back.

Therefore this Assassin rework gives the class some leeway in actually being able to play multiple roles by not limiting its only purpose to one shot some random on the other team. On the other hand it keeps Assassin from becoming imbalanced by limiting its power and sustain, for example the Iron sword cannot deal more than 1.5 hearts of true damage and none of the abilities deal more than 2.5. However, the wither effect compensates some by making tactical fights against Assassin at melee range more difficult – as they should be.

Some of the best abilities involved in this rework are the shadow stride and killer instinct. For example, Shadow stride makes one target Assassination much more possible as it allows Assassin to rapidly approach the victim and deal quick damage with the sword and dagger. This, the mobility it gives is key to the success of the class, as it should also be. The Killer Instinct is also a good ability as it makes Assassin more about tactics rather than random killing as it currently is. The Assassin would be able to gauge which targets are more vulnerable than others using the Killer Instinct ability and would be able to target them as such and pick up kills or disable the target with the stun.

Archer:​

Spoiler

Archer counters Soldier at a tier 2 level.

o Soldier has the best mobility in the game and can dodge arrows fairly well using its high jump ability. However an archer with reasonably good shooting skills can counter this fairly well.

Mage counters Archer at a tier 4 level.

o Mage’s damage ability combined with freeze and flame can take out Archers at mid-range. Archer also cannot fire back frequently enough – most of the time - to counter neither Mage’s high damage and does not have the tankiness to take Mage burst damage for very long.

Archer counters Heavy at a tier 3 level.

o Heavies do not have Soldier’s mobility and while they are much stronger at melee than Archer, they are easy targets for headshots and can be zoned fairly well.

Ninja counters Archer at a tier 5 level.

o Ninjas can deal rapid damage in a short period of time and can go invisible making it very hard for Archer to fight back.

Pyro counters Archer at a tier 4 level.

o See section on Pyro.

Assassin counters Archer at a tier 2 level.

o See section on Assassin.

Archer counters Necro at a tier 4 level.

o Necro minions aren’t much use since they can be killed at range and are pretty weak in general. See Heavy.

If Engineer has its turret set up or not: Archer counters Engineer at a tier 4 level.

o Archer is the only class that can kill Engineer fairly reliably without harsh counter play by Engineer.

Archer counters Elf at a tier 1 level.

Archer counters Chemist at a tier 2 level.

o Archer arrows deal triple damage to Chemist and its headshots make it the only free class counter to it.

Before or after level 5 Archer counters Dwarf at a tier 2 level.

o Dwarf has virtually no mobility and Archer can just zone the hell out of it and kill it in a couple shots. However, since Dwarf spends most of its time in enclosed spaces or the flag room Archer must keep its distance as Dwarf trounces Archer in 1v1 PvP.

Archer counters Medic at a tier 4 level. See Heavy.

Overall Archer counters others at a total of: 4+4+5+2+4+2 = 21
Assassin is countered at a total of: 4+5+4+2 = 15

While Archer’s numbers look somewhat balanced between its counters and the classes it counters, they do not tell the story of the problem with the class. Archer’s problem is in fact, two fold. The first problem is that Archer is far too campy and too powerful in that role because of, in part, its ability to headshot anyone over thirty blocks away. The second issue is Archer’s Punch II bow, which can make the class difficult to counter at short range and allow it to actually knock back targets into instant kill range. Plus, Archer’s Punch II bow make it to where most free classes cannot effectively counter it but where VIP+ classes such as Mage, Pyro, and Ninja can and this is a major problem because it makes CTF something of a “pay to win” game mode.

To further elaborate on the trouble with Archer and to look at a possible solution, I would like to take the following quote from @LordCh4os:

“My own ideas center around the punch enchantment. Now obviously archer is a class based on countering long range and being countered short range. Now the punch enchantment is powerful enough to fairly easily knock a player into the long range, making archers much harder to counter short range. Me, saixos, and matt spent a good deal of time working on an idea to fix this. The best way we came up with was exchanging the punch for a small speed boost for a few seconds. Now 2 benefits of this, would make archers even more counter able short range and encourage teamwork because of their vulnerability short. The other benefit of it would mean archers are more mobile, and less likely to camp, which would improve the bit about archer most hated. No speed would be gained from a headshot, only a short-range shot. This would mean that archers can't just headshot a guy behind a guy attacking them short range and then run away, they'd have to concentrate their fire short range. The only downside to this would be the whole speed boost changing the field of view. On the other hand good archers don't usually use the normal field of view anyhow so I guess they're used to it.”

The following proposal of removing Punch II and replacing it with a small speed boost is a very good idea. The nice thing about it is that it would keep Archers from being able to knock anyone back into headshot range and would decrease camping a little bit. Archers are able to camp, in part, because of the Punch II on the bow, which allows Archer to knock back anyone from short range with little issue. Removing this mechanic and replacing it with a speed boost would undoubtedly decrease Archer’s power at short range and would force the class to be more mobile – hence the decrease in its tendency to camp out somewhere.

Therefore, one main component of the Archer rework that I propose to you is to remove the Punch II on the bow and replace it with a speed boost of Speed I for 2.5 seconds.

The second component of the Archer rework is removing the instant kills. Removing instant kills is essential to Archer’s rework for the same reason stated above, it would reduce Archer’s high tendency to camp and rack up huge kill streaks.

However, it is also important to realize that Archer is by its very nature a long ranged class and must remain that way in order for the class to still be an Archer. Therefore, what I have struck out to achieve in this section of the Archer rework is to nerf its instant kills while still allowing Archer to be powerful at long range but not so powerful that it encourages camping too much.

The idea I propose for this is to change Archer’s instant kills to something I like to call ‘critical shots’. Back in Medieval times, an arrow wound damage would often be due to the internal wounds it inflicted, or rather how much the wound bled out, or where it hit on a person’s body. However I am not encouraging a proposal for body shots, rather I am talking about adding a bleed effect to Archer’s arrows in CTF. Here’s how that would work:

If a target is hit at 25+ blocks away they take 6 hearts of true damage immediately and 4 hearts more true damage over the next 2 seconds. The target also suffers Slowness I for 1.5 seconds after being shot.

This second aspect is what some would call a nerfed instant kill and to a degree it is, but unlike current head shots ‘critical shots’ does not have a 100% chance of killing the target. Nevertheless, ‘critical shots’ give Archer’s head shots a fair nerf that still gives Archer a reasonable chance to get kills or at least to cripple enemies.

To a degree ‘critical shots’ also introduce an aspect of teamwork that is currently not present in CTF. They force Medic’s to be more active in order to save someone who got hit by a critical shot by giving them a chance to heal their wounded ally. Furthermore, ‘critical shots’ no longer allow Archers to ‘go it alone’ in getting kills. Instead they must work with their teammates – more often than not – to kill someone. For example, the Archer can cripple the enemy and then an allied Heavy or perhaps a Chemist could take them down. The slowness also introduces an aspect of teamwork into the class in the area of recovery. You might ask how this is so - and that is only reasonable to think since Archer as it is now assists greatly with recovery by being able to head shot flag carriers from long range and ‘critical shots’ cannot do that nearly as well.

Regardless, the way ‘critcal shots’ encourage teamwork in regard to recovery is that it cripples the carrier making it easier for other allied players to take them down. Teamwork is all about working together, and critical shots encourages that as it does not allow Archer to operate as a ‘lone wolf’ class but forces it to at least work some with team mates in order to get kills or recoveries by crippling/killing enemies.

The above proposals constitute the changes I propose to you in this Archer rework. The armour, sword, steaks, and arrows are unchanged.

I just want to note that@LordCh4os was hugely inspirational as well as helpful in the creation of the following Archer rework – thanks again for your great feedback.

​

Dwarf:​

Spoiler

Before I get into looking at Dwarf’s counters there are a few important things to take note of:

Dwarf exists in two states - one before level 5 and one after level 5. Dwarf has a large power spike at level 5 where it gains an extra level of sharpness as well as fire aspect on its sword and resistance to fire and potion damage. Therefore it only seems reasonable to evaluate the class in two separate categories, pre level 5 and from level 5 to level 15.

The reason why I am not going further than level 15 is because it is increasingly uncommon to see Dwarves at a level above it.

It is also very important to keep in mind that I’m assuming - in the following tier ratings - that Dwarf is in the flag room. This is for two reasons. For one thing it would be very pointless to go on and on about how –out in the open - Dwarf is destroyed no matter what level it’s at because of its severely limited mobility, the high mobility of every other class, and Archer headshots. The second reason is that Dwarf is most commonly seen in the flag room and it only seems fair to evaluate the classes’ counters there.

Before level 5: Mage counters Dwarf at a tier 5 level.

o Dwarf has no mobility and thus cannot stand up to Mage.

From level 5 to level 15: Mage counters Dwarf at a tier 5 level.

o Dwarf’s immunity to fire and very high damage output can be a problem if Mage gets too close. Otherwise, Mage’s far superior mobility, unlimited health pool, knockback and freeze abilities, as well as its consistent output of high, mid ranged damage still destroys Dwarf.

Before level 5: Dwarf counters Heavy at a tier 1 level.

o Dwarf has higher damage and nearly even armour and both classes have the same health pool. By around level 4 Dwarf deals enough damage to begin to match or overcome Heavy’s superior armour and mobility.

From level 5 to level 15: Dwarf counters Heavy at a tier 3 – 5 (median: 4)* level.

o Dwarf’s fire sword, higher damage, and knockback gradually override Heavy’s higher mobility and armour.

Before level 5: Pyro counters Dwarf at a tier 5 level.

o Dwarf has no invulnerability to instant kills at this point and cannot do anything to Pyro once on fire.

From level 5 to level 15: Dwarf counters Pyro at a tier 5 level.

o Pyro’s squishiness combined with Dwarf’s high damage and immunity to fire utterly destroy Pyro.

Before level 5: Necro counters Dwarf at a tier 1 level.

o Dwarf’s damage is not yet high enough to efficiently kill Necro’s minions and Necro has higher mobility, nearly even armour, and a much higher health pool than Dwarf making PvP even or slanted towards Necro.

From level 5 to level 15: Dwarf counters Necro at a tier 4 - 5 (median: 4) level.

o Dwarf’s higher damage and fire ability gradually allow it to efficiently kill Necro minions and makes up for Dwarf’s deficiency in mobility and health pool against Necro.

Before level 5: Soldier counters Dwarf at a tier 3 level.

o Soldier can easily out-maneuverer Dwarf, thus PvP and defence against Soldiers at low levels are made difficult.

From level 5 to level 15: Dwarf counters Soldier at a tier 2 – 5 (median: 3) level.

o See Necro.

Before level 5: Archer counters Dwarf at a tier 2 level.

o Dwarf cannot yet one to three shot Archer so it will have a hard time returning much of the Archer’s damage. See section on Archer.

From level 5 to level 15: Archer counters Dwarf at a tier 2 level.

o See section on Archer.

Before level 5: Chemist counters Dwarf at a tier 5 level.

o Chemist can easily destroy Dwarf largely through strafing and pot spamming and Dwarf does not have the damage yet to counter Chemists’ massive health pool.

From level 5 to level 15: Dwarf counters Chemist at a tier 1 – 5 (median: 3) level.

o Dwarf can no longer be destroyed by pot spamming and can gradually dominate Chemist in 1v1 PvP as the Dwarf gains in levels.

Before level 5: Elf counters Dwarf at a tier 2 level. Elf does not have very strong armor or damage output but it can still beat Dwarf due to Dwarf's low damage.

From level 5 to level 15: Dwarf counters Elf at a tier 1 level. Elf gets destroyed in close ranged combat but in long range it can easily handle Dwarf.

Before level 5: Medic counters Dwarf at a tier 2 level.

o Medic can immobilize Dwarf with its cobwebs and can give it a pretty rough time despite Medic’s low damage output.

From level 5 to level 15: Dwarf counters Medic at a tier 3 – 5 (median: 4) level.

Before level 5: Dwarf counters Engineer at a tier 2 level*.

o Engineer’s low armour and damage can make it difficult to stand up to Dwarf in melee combat although it has double Dwarf’s health pool.

From level 5 to level 15: Dwarf counters Engineer at a tier 5 level**.

o See Medic.

Before level 5: Dwarf counters Assassin at a tier 1 – 3 (median: 2) level.

From level 5 to level 15: Dwarf counters Assassin at a tier 4 level.

o Dwarf’s damage allows it to destroy Assassin in combat but Dwarf still must be very careful to block at the right time to avoid dying.

Before level 5: Ninja counters Dwarf at a tier 2 – 4 (median: 3) level.

o Dwarf cannot yet deal enough damage to one hit Ninja and Ninja’s high damage, mobility, and invisibility allow it to destroy Dwarf in combat or at least severely deplete its health pool.

From level 5 to level 15: Dwarf counters Ninja at a tier 4 level.

o Ninja can still avoid getting one shot through its mobility and invisibility but it becomes increasingly dangerous to fight Dwarf.

Level 20 Dwarf: For those of you who do not know level 20 is when Dwarf can one shot any class. I did not cover this in the tier system above because level 20+ Dwarves are extremely rare to see in game (it takes a very long time to get to lvl 20 or above it) and because it is fairly self-explanatory that Dwarf would counter every class except for the ranged ones at a tier 5 level.

*I averaged how much Dwarf counters certain classes (like Heavy) at level 5 and over because Dwarf’s power is relative to its level and it usually maxes out at around level 15 before the game ends.
**Engineer cannot place its turret very close to a flag room. Since the tier analysis assumes that Dwarf is in the flag-room the analysis of the relationship between Engineer and Dwarf did not factor in the turret.
***See **

Before level 5 Dwarf counters others at a total of: 1+2+2 = 5
Before level 5 Dwarf is countered by others at a total of: 5+5+5+5+1+3+3+2+2 = 31
From level 5 to level 15 Dwarf counters others at a total of: 4+5+4+3+3+4+5+4+4+1 = 37
From level 5 to level 15 Dwarf is countered by others at a total of: 5+4 = 9

By the numbers it should already be clear that Dwarf is not balanced in the least. Before reaching its level 5 power spike Dwarf is somewhat weak whereas at level 5 and over Dwarf becomes gradually stronger to nearly invincible against most classes. Dwarf is therefore a perfect example of a broken snowball class. Now that begs another question, aside from the numbers how is Dwarf broken? And why is it designed the way that it is?

The answer to the first question can be answered by looking at Dwarf’s abilities:

What makes Dwarf broken are several things including its incredibly powerful sword, tankiness, and lack of free class counters. To keep this rework as organized as possible I will look at Dwarf’s sword first.

Dwarf has to squat (hold shift) in order to gain XP to gain sharpness levels on its sword. Every XP level Dwarf gains another level of sharpness and every few levels another level of knockback or fire aspect. At level 5 Dwarf has Sharpness V, Fire Aspect I, and Knockback II, and that alone does a lot of damage. No other class has a sword that can deal this much damage and the power of Dwarf’s sword has no limit on it. That already sounds highly OP and that brings us to its tankiness.

Dwarf is the second tankiest class in the game. It has the second most armour at 8.5/10 (second only to Heavy), and at level 5 it is resistant to damage potions, poison potions, or fire. With proper aid from a Medic Dwarf can stay in the flag room for a very long time. You might respond to that with the argument that someone can just go Assassin and kill the Dwarf. Well whether or not the Assassin can kill the Dwarf is sometimes a matter of luck because Dwarf can usually block an assassination attempt with its sword.

Finally, Dwarf has no free class counters. The fact is, while most people will scream ‘Archer!’ in response to this statement because Archer can destroy a slow, short ranged class like Dwarf right? Not necessarily. Archer is not really a counter to Dwarf when you consider that Dwarf spends much of its time in a cramped flag room. Furthermore, most flag rooms are specifically designed to not be large enough for headshots and so Archer’s often cannot fight against a Dwarf in a flag room without risking getting into its range – and thus get destroyed in melee combat. Moreover, Medic, Soldier, and Heavy cannot consistently stand up to Dwarf because they all deal far less damage and can be one to three shot by Dwarf at level 10 or higher. Do any of those classes sound like effective counters to Dwarf to you?

The answer to the second question is even simpler. Dwarf’s range is so limited because it’s melee power is so incredibly high. Thus to Dwarf from going on a rampage and destroying everything the class has Slowness II, cannot run and must squat all the time to keep its XP levels. Because of these extreme mobility limits Dwarf must confine itself to small spaces like the flag room on most maps in order to actually be able to fight. Therefore in an effort to balance out its inherently broken design Dwarf was imprisoned in the flag room and turned into the most powerful flag defence class aside from Pyro.

To rework the class we must look at what role Dwarf should play in the game. Offense? Mid-Fielding? Capturing perhaps? I think Dwarf could theoretically play any of these roles with the right reworks. One rework I’d like to advocate for would be one that caps Dwarf’s power, increases its mobility and changes its role. This kind of Dwarf would be more of a Defensive/Mid-Fielding class, capable of getting more into the game than current Dwarf.

TL;DR/Proposed Reworks:

Archer:​

Spoiler

https://www.brawl.com/threads/44683/

-Remove Instant kills from Archer
-Replace with 6 hearts true damage at 25+ blocks away along with 4 hearts true damage dot over the next 2 seconds after being shot (2 true damage per second) along with Slowness I for 1.5 seconds.
-Remove Punch II enchantment from the Bow.
-Gives Archer a feather if they land 2 shots in a row from 25 blocks or less. Feathers are stack-able up to 2 and each one gives Speed I for 2 seconds.

Soldier:​

Spoiler

-At the start of the game Soldier starts off with a full XP bar.
-Every time it uses its wall climb Soldier loses 1/6th of the XP bar.
-XP bar regenerates 1/6th of the way every 2 seconds.
-Soldier takes 50% reduced flag poison damage.
-Crouching will regenerate the XP bar twice as fast.
-Crouching while wall-climbing will not regenerate the XP bar at all.

This is meant to prevent excessive Soldier wall-spam while still allowing it to be mobile. As I understand it, the moderators are working on something similar to this at the moment of this writing.

Heavy:​

Spoiler

-Every 3 kills Heavy gets a steak back.
-Buffs for Heavies (Strength, Speed, Regeneration) last only half as long as those for other classes.

Assassin:
​

Spoiler

https://www.brawl.com/threads/41062/

-Remove redstone dust.
-Remove Sugar.
-Remove XP system.
-Add Leather Chest-plate/Tunic.
-Enchant Golden Boots with Feather Falling I.
-Add Shears
-Add Steak
-Add Redstone Repeater
-Add Wither Head
-Iron Sword deals 1.5 hearts of true damage with 2 hearts for critical hits.

Dagger (Shears):
- When right clicked, shoots an arrow out. Deals 2.5 hearts of true damage and slows whoever it hits for 1.5 seconds with a 3 second cool-down.

-Shadow Dash (Repeater):
When right clicked, teleport's the assassin 10 blocks in whatever direction he is facing. The assassin has the option to reactivate this ability and teleport back to his starting point in the next 4 seconds (think LeBlanc's W). Additionally, the assassins next attack within 2 seconds deals double damage. 6 second cool-down.

-StunShot (Wither Head): When right clicked, fires a wither head that stuns anybody it hits for 2.5 seconds and those in a 2 block radius for 1.5 seconds. Deals 2 hearts of true damage. Cooldown of 7 seconds.

-Shadow Stride: When sprinting, adds a speed level every 5 seconds, capping at speed III. (stolen from @elegle_josh)

-Killer Instinct: Assassin can see the enemies teams health percentages after hitting them with an ability or their sword.

-Lifesteak: Assassin regenerates one steak for each kill, capping at 1.

Necro:
​

Spoiler

This is a hybrid Necro. Inspiration/source threads:

https://www.brawl.com/threads/49612/
https://www.brawl.com/threads/42049/
https://www.brawl.com/threads/47320/

-All monsters have 50% Knockback resistance.
-Monsters can gain Regeneration, Speed, and Strength buffs.
-Monsters gain Regeneration buff every 2.5 minutes. Capped at Regeneration II.
-Monsters gain Strength buff every 2 minutes. Capped at Strength I for Zombies and Strength II for Skeletons.
-Monsters gain Speed buff every 1.5 minutes. Capped at Speed II for Zombies and Speed I for Skeletons.
-Add redstone torch. Right clicking the redstone torch will kill all of Necro's monsters.
-Remove the XP system.
-Remove spawner.
-Add Zombie Egg, Skeleton Egg, and Eye of Ender
-Use eggs to spawn zombies and spiders at any given time. Maximum of 4 monsters can be spawned.
-2 second cool-down between spawning monsters.
-Right click Eye of Ender to summon Enderman Form (credits to @Webmant for the idea) which does the following:

Enderman Form:

-Armor: same armor as usual.
-Food: Same as usual.
-Weapon: Iron Sword.
-Special form item: Ender-pearl to teleport.
-Special form buffs/de-buffs: none.
-Special form ability 1: every 7 hearts of damage you deal you gain an ender-pearl, stack-able up to 3.
-Special form ability 2: each time you use an ender-pearl you take 2.5 hearts of true damage.
-Special form ability 3: each time you go below 3 hearts of health, you instantly get thrown 7 blocks straight up into the air and gain an ender-pearl. If you throw an ender-pearl while in the air, the teleportation will deal you no damage. You will not take fall damage upon landing.
-Minion: an Endermite that follows you and moves at your speed, unless in combat, in which it follows and attacks the enemy you last hit, perfect to annoy the enemy and to cause some distraction and damage. Respawns 5 seconds after changing form and 2.5 seconds after it dies (can re-spawn in combat).
-You can only be in Enderman form for a maximum of 30 seconds as shown on the XP bar before you return to Human form. 2 minute cool-down. (also shown on the XP bar)
Ender-pearls travel no farther than 15 blocks.

Engineer:​

Spoiler

-Turret shots deal an additional 1 heart of damage to Necro minions.

Pyro:​

Spoiler

See Reworked Pyro Rework if you haven’t already (just look at the OP - it was updated per feedback received on it) if you're curious about the hybrid concept of this Pyro:

https://www.brawl.com/threads/48443/
https://www.brawl.com/threads/47483/

-Remove Arrows
-Add 5 Fire Charges
-Add Magma Cream
-Add Button

Flamethrower:​

-Draw back the bow to shoot the fire charge.
-Enemies hit by the fire charge are lit on fire for 6 seconds.
-Enemies in a 2 block radius of the target are also lit on fire.
-Fire charges recharge 1 every 8 seconds.
-Fire does 1 heart of damage every second (or 0.5 hearts per 0.5 second).
-The bow can be completely drawn back for a maximum of 3 seconds (credits to @Miskey for the idea).
-Pyro can light itself on fire with the flamethrower.

Frenzy Mode:

-Enemies lit on fire by the flamethrower take 3 hearts of true damage per hit.
-If Pyro is on fire during Frenzy mode, enemies lit on fire by the flamethrower take 130% more true damage per hit.

Pyroclasm:

-Right click Magma cream to trigger Pyroclasm.
-Enemies in a 3 block radius around the Pyro as well as the Pyro are immediately lit on fire and take 2.5 hearts of true damage and are knocked back slightly (2 blocks).
-Pyroclasm lasts a maximum of 4.5 seconds with a 9 second cool-down - upon which Pyro will get their Magma cream and button back.
-Enemies lit on fire during Pyroclasm are given a wither effect.
-At the end of Pyroclasm an explosion is automatically triggered dealing 5 hearts of true damage to anyone lit on fire.
-Right clicking the button before Pyroclasm is over will trigger the finisher explosion early with a 0.5 second delay.
-Fire in Pyroclasm deals 1 heart of damage per second.
-Pyro suffers Slowness I during Pyroclasm.

Passives:

-Water deals 0.5 hearts of damage each second and grants Weakness I.
-Pyro gains Strength I when on fire.
-Permanent Fire Resistance.
-Pyro can see the health of enemies while they are on fire. (Heat Vision)

(credits to @Spookelia_ for the passives)

Dwarf:​

Spoiler

Another hybrid rework. This rework aims to make Dwarf capable both offensively and defensively by removing the restrictions on its mobility and nerfing its power.

https://www.brawl.com/threads/45813/
https://www.brawl.com/threads/46186/#post-587077

-Remove Diamond Sword.
-Remove XP system.
-Remove permanent Slowness II.
-Add Diamond Axe.
-Add 1 Steak. (for a total of 4)
-Add Minecart with furnace.
-Activate Shield by right clicking on the furnace. Shield grants Resistance III. Dwarf cannot use its axe while it is using its shield.

Ingot system:
-Each successful hit of a dwarf to an enemy gains him 1 iron ingot.
-Once Dwarf reaches 5 iron ingots, they are removed from the inventory and a iron axe is added, enchanted with Knockback III.
- Axe deals 7 hearts true damage to opponent. Instantly breaks after 1 use.

- Every 2 successful hits earns a gold ingot.
-Once Dwarf reaches 5 gold ingots they are removed from the inventory and a enchantment potion is added.
-Right clicking the potion triggers Dwarven Fury and will give Dwarf Speed I, Strength I, and Night Vision I for 3 seconds. Killing an enemy while in Dwarven fury will give Dwarf one steak back, capped at 4 so Dwarf cannot have more than 4 steaks in total.

Ninja:​

Spoiler

https://www.brawl.com/threads/47521/#post-608233
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13JUyx7HBRpTO5tqQRWvK1bOQ3W9GY-49pbhlPs_85y4/edit?pli=1

-Eggs are reduced to 2
-Eggs regenerate 1 every 2 seconds.
-Ninjas gain 35% (or so) Armor penetration on targets hit with flash bombs.
-Blindness effect lasts an additional 0.5 seconds.
-Sharpness on the sword is increased to Sharpness V.

Fashioninsta:​

Spoiler

Needs more dragons!!

Medic:​

Spoiler

-Snowballs no longer spawn cobwebs.

Throw Syringe: Throwing a snowball and hitting a target (an enemy) gives them Slowness III for 2 seconds. Getting one on a teammate will heal them 2 hearts while also giving them Resistance II for 2.5 seconds.

-Heals now heal faster or slower depending on the level of health an ally has. For instance, healing an ally at 0.5 hearts will give them Regeneration III until they reach half health, then Regeneration II until they reach 80% full health (8/10 hearts) and Regeneration I to full health.

Chemist:​

Spoiler

https://www.brawl.com/threads/44169/

-Remove Iron Sword.
-Add Stone Sword.
-Remove Damage potions.
-Remove Poison potions.
-Change number of Instant Health II Potions to 5.
-Change number of Regeneration III Potions to 3. Each one lasts (0:10)
-Add 4 Weakness + Slowness I potions. Each one lasts (0:05)
-Add 4 Strength I + Speed I potions. Each one lasts (0:45)
-Change number of Fire Resistance Potions to 3. (0:10)


-Persistent Potions: All potions provide their most potent effect to all players - except Heavies -regardless of their location within the potions' radius.

-Fireproof: Fire Resistance provides a 40% reduction from Pyro's attack damage while lit on fire. For example, someone on fire after Pyro has activated their Pyroclasm will take half the usual damage with Fire Resistance. This ability belongs to the potion effect - not to Chemist, i.e. splashing this potion on a teammate will make them fireproof. (If/When Pyro is changed, this ability and the Fire Resistance potion would need to be modified/possibly removed or replaced.)

Mage:​

Spoiler

-Reduce Regeneration V to Regeneration IV on the heal spell.
-Increase the duration of the Heal Spell to 6 seconds (with no extra cool-down).
-If the knockback spell is used on an enemy within 3 blocks or less they will also be knocked 4 blocks into the air.
-Reduce the damage from the damage spell to 3 hearts (equivalent to that of an iron sword).
-Damage to Necro minions is 3.5 hearts (the same as a diamond sword).

Elf:​

Spoiler

https://www.brawl.com/threads/47365/

-Increase protection on Leather Armor to Protection II.

Pure Element:

Arrow- Fully drawn shots do 4 hearts of true damage. Hitting the same target twice without missing does 8 hearts of true damage. Fully charged shots that hit their target also return the arrow.

Left Click- If shield is full, places it where you are currently standing for 5 seconds (Shields duration), and resets shield charge. No arrow cost.

Water Element:

Arrow- Extinguishes all allies on fire within a 3 block radius if fully drawn. Gives Resistance 1 and Regeneration 1 for 6 seconds to all allies within its radius.
Left Click- Extinguishes self from fire at the low price of 1 arrow

Wind Element:

Arrow- When fully drawn, causes an explosion of a 2 block radius on impact, dealing 3 hearts of damage (not true damage) to anyone within it's radius, and pushing them 2 blocks away from the arrow. If shifting when the arrow is fired, the explosion pulls enemies towards you instead. Soldiers caught in the explosion will not be able to wall climb again until they hit the ground.

Left Click- Propels you ~2 blocks in opposite direction you are facing, for 1 arrow each use.

Credits/Closing: ​

That's the end of this proposed rework. If you actually read the whole thing, then congrats!

I don't really have much to say at this point other than - THIS TOOK FOR FREAKING EVER TO DO! Anyway, I've got some Calculus work to do along with a minor headache so yeah... that's it for me before I turn in.

Credit for most of this rework goes to a lot of people in the community mainly because I took ideas from a whole bunch of threads and put them together. But in particular I wanted to give a shout-out to...

@LordChaos_92
@obikenobi21
and
@cactusflower
and
@BAWSS5 he did nothing but I like tagging him <3

for their really good feedback.

Cheers!

-Admiral

@aRandomBob157
@Spookelia_
@NomNuggetNom
@Nohox
@kevshadowslayer yo, I heard u like reworks

 

I know. And I appreciate it

 

Read it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Hehe I wish. They're not really my reworks. Most of them are other people's, which I combined into one big rework.

True it doesn't stop fall wall spam but it does significantly nerf the frequency where Soldier can wall-jump, which was the intention all along.

Pyro actually does quite a bit of damage in this rework. For one thing:

If Pyro lights him/herself on fire with the flamethrower they gain Strength I, now add that to the 3 hearts of true damage they already do to enemies on fire in Frenzy Mode and that's some pretty massive damage right there.

I just realized I hadn't specified that bit in the original post so I'll add that in there right now

As for countering Soldier in its reworked state... considering that Soldier cannot wall-hop nearly as much as it currently can Pyro can counter it pretty well with Frenzy Mode/Pyroclasm + early finisher explosion or at the very least deal a lot of damage.

Admittedly Pyro's attacks during Pyroclasm are somewhat weak (compared to Frenzy Mode) but it doesn't really matter considering that anyone lit on fire during Pyroclasm suffer the wither effect so it's quite hard to know exactly when to heal - which gives Pyro a HUGE PvP advantage.

Ninja may not do a heck of a lot of damage with the sword but if it hits a target with a flash-bomb it can deal a LOT more (35% armor penetration).

Considering that this Pyro is a good deal less powerful than the current Pyro and doesn't counter other classes as hard I take your point. Fireproof now reduces Pyro damage by 40 instead of 50%.

Thanks for the feedback

@Ironic_Boogeyman zzy? It's Admiral to you good sir!

 

Really good point but it's still doesn't encourage Pyro camping anywhere near as much as the instant kill. Also maps are a strong factor with encouraging Pyro camping. Blackout, for instance, encourages Pyro camping in a number of areas.

Good stuff but Pyroclasm doesn't deal wither damage. It just applies a wither effect so opponents can't really see what their health level is. Anyway I agree the damage from Pyroclasm is high but it's not nearly impossible to survive.

Again no damage is dealt via the wither effect but I take your point

True enough. Removed the range limit of Ninja's ender-pearls.

Yep. Not going to argue with that.

That's not nessicarily a bad thing considering that Mage is rather weak at short range.

Yep. I was considering reducing the Regen to Regeneration III and I might do that after I do a little more research on it. Anyway I like Mage where it is, for the most part. Sure it has an unlimited health-pool but it's not anywhere near invincible.

Chemist has Strength, Speed, Weakness, Regen, and Slowness pots. I think it's still pretty relevant. As for Elf, its quite weak in melee combat and it's main source of damage/support ability are a couple skill-shots meaning it's not really good enough at anything to have a solidified role. That's the main reason why it needs a buff.
Also, thanks for catching that issue with Soldier. That's kinda funny xD I'll change up its rework as I continue to get more feedback on it.

Thanks for your feedback I really appreciated it.