Dwarf Testing Feedback

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Hey CTFers!

We’ve looked at the feedback and suggestions you guys have given us for dwarf. We would like to go over our responses to some of your replies, as to clarify our thought process, so here goes!


The possibility of one-shotting players with Dwarf smash on specific maps sounds very strong.

Dwarf smash has a damage cap; it deals a minimum of 5 hearts and a maximum of 15 hearts of damage, armor not taken into account. Additionally, there is a damage fall-off; the further away you are from the center, the less damage you will take. With both this and armor taken into account, the majority of classes will not be able to be one-shot by Dwarf’s smash ability. The classes that do have the risk of being one-shot are low-armored classes such as ninja and assassin, which are supposed to be squishy.


Make Elf’s shield be able to block Dwarf’s smash ability.

When we discussed this, we actually thought the opposite of this may be interesting to test - making dwarf smash break Elf’s shield. Elf’s shield currently has only a single counter, that being Mage’s lightning spell, and we would like to see how it having more counters will turn out. We may also try having the smash ability reduce elf’s shield mana by 50% instead if fully draining it proves too strong.


Make Dwarf smash break Mage’s freeze spell.

This could be interesting too and we may test this idea in the near future. Our only issue with this ability on Dwarf is that is might never be used, as both Mage and Dwarf will be defensive classes - they would likely not encounter each other much in most CTF games. That said, if this ability doesn’t make it into the Dwarf class rework, the ability to break Mage’s freeze spell is definitely something we’d like to consider for a future class (rework)!


Dwarf currently feels very mobile - what about giving Dwarf slowness when it spawns and giving it a small speed boost as it reaches higher levels?

We prefer to stay away from implementing slowness into any class. This is because playing with slowness often simply isn’t fun, which the old version of Dwarf showed us, and we want Dwarf to be fun to play. As we likely won’t be adding slowness, adding a small speed boost when it reaches higher levels is not necessary at this moment either.


It’s difficult to hit more than 1 player with Dwarf smash in many scenarios as they have a lot of reaction time.

While this can be difficult using the right-click version (which launches you straight into the air), using the left click will give you a strong momentum boost in the direction you’re looking at instead, thus making it a lot easier to hit opponents without them being able to react. We also designed this class to be strong against groups of players who are close together; the trade off is the class being weaker against individual players.


The lower levels of Dwarf’s sword feel very weak, and the levels decrease too fast.

We would like to see more of Dwarf before we look into adjusting damage values, as to get a better idea how strong it really is. In the meantime, an idea we think can help is to increase the decay time for Dwarf’s lower sword levels. We’ll likely test out this in the near future!


Dwarf doesn’t feel very defensive anymore; as Dwarf smash doesn’t work well inside, you’ll be stuck with a low level sword if you don’t leave the flag room.

While old Dwarf had a playstyle that would work best by staying in the flagroom, this rework was designed to make Dwarf into a roaming defense class, much like ninja, heavy defense or soldier defense. Dwarf smash only working well outside the flagroom is a way to emphasize that roaming is the best way to go about using the class on defense.


Allow Dwarf to hit sneak to fall faster after using Dwarf smash.

While it’s an interesting concept, our fear is that this will practically nullify the counter to the ability through disallowing the opponents most of their reaction time. If you’re having trouble hitting people with the ability, we recommend using the left-click option which boosts you forward - this will give opponents much less reaction time.


The axe at the last level to make Dwarf vulnerable to Assassins is unnecessary.

We believe the axe is important as to force the Dwarf to be smart with its positioning on offensive support & recovery. We also would like it to be mainly a defensive class, and using non-sword weapons is often an easy way to ‘force’ a class into a more defensive role because of assassin.


Make Dwarf smash’s right-click always deal at least one heart, regardless of the distance you fell, to make it more useful in maps with tunnels/low roofs.

We don’t want Dwarf to be strong in all scenarios; on maps with tunnels/low roofs, Heavy is a better option. Additionally, this would remove a big portion of the counter play from dodging Dwarf’s smash ability as practically no reaction time may be given to the opponents in small tunnels, depending on how low the roof is. While the damage from the smash ability itself would not be high, it would make it very easy for Dwarf to very quickly get a high sword level.


Have the highest level Dwarf sword deal more damage but for a shorter time to help ends stalemates.

The damage values of Dwarf’s weapon used to be higher (1 sharpness level more) than the current ones. While these higher values were present, players complained about the axe’s damage after they had tested it in a PPM; we lowered the damage value since. Because of this, we won’t be adjusting the damage values for the time being.


The highest level Dwarf sword should give a short speed boost once you get it.

We feel that Dwarf smash is currently strong enough the way it is. Aside from this, hitting the ability means that you are practically next to an enemy already, so a short-lasting speed boost is not necessary to be able to hit players with the axe.


Can Dwarf retain some kind of crouching mechanic to keep it in line with the name?

While we agree that it would be nice to have a mechanic like that to make Dwarf live up to its name, we’re happy about where the class rework is currently standing and don’t want to introduce another layer of complexity and/or balance difficulties through another ability. As such, we most likely will not re-introduce a crouching mechanic for Dwarf.




That should cover the majority of the feedback we’ve gotten; feel free to share with us what you think of it. We hope that Dwarf will hit the game soon and will continue to see how it performs after release, as well as make changes where necessary. Thank you for your feedback!


Happy capping and recovering!
-The CTF Staff Team