Not sure if anyone will read this but worth a shot, i’ll write it in reddit too. First of all, amazing patch, its exactly the type of fun PvE content and costumization that makes the game fun. Ladder changes are also exciting, but these are really big, well designed and good steps for PvE, feels like my birthday got here early.
My main feedback will be about the new coop “prestige talents”. My opinion about the new campaign achievements can be summed up as “awesome, the more the better, did i mention awesome?”, and i’m not a good map maker so i can’t appreciate the editor changes.
I’ll focus my coop feedback on Fenix who i play the most and might edit more later on if i think about some stuff, so here goes.
Fenix Prestiege Talents Feedback
Network Administrator: reduces shell units cost by half, and increases their contribution to Tactical Data Web by 200%. However, shell units have half as much dmg and life.
Another very interesting talent, but one who’s viability largely depends on the unclear phrasing. Some of the Tactical Data Web benefits of Fenix Champions is cooldown reduction (Mojo, Talis and Warbringer). With a triple benefit, Fenix can easily get the cooldown down to 0, which would presumably be way too overpowered (imagine endless anti air stunning aoe from mojo). PTR testers have informed me this isn’t the case, and the cooldown remains the same, which is fair, but begs the question what does the talent actually do then? Does it Only affects non cooldown based improvements? A Khaldalis with a 99 aoe dmg would be very fun and worth exploring, but not overpowered if the rest of your army is much weaker.
But is the goal instead that Fenix needs far less units to reach his regular maximum Tactical Data Web coverage, that essentialy makes the talent into “fenix is now zagara”. Giving him early and cheap ramp at the cost of highly lowered endgame power. This seems not worth the trade except in increadibly niche circumstances (maybe ones where early game is everything or where you expect to be forced to lose shell units constantly and dont need lategame). You will be significantly weaker the rest of the time. Since i suspect you will be weaker even with amped up Data Web buffs, i implore blizz to consider making sure the talent actually strenghens the Data Web benefits rather then merely allowing you to max it out faster. The Cooldown reduction ones should be strenghened in ways other then further cooldown reduction, of course, to prevent them from being completely overpowered.
Akhun’delar: Suits dmg is doubled, abilities cooldown twice as fast, life/shield/energy regen doubled, but the suits are now large 2 min cooldowns and only last 20 secs.
The goal here is obviously to make them long but impactful cooldowns, at cost of their versatility and consistent output in normal fenix play. This is a cool concept worth exploring, but the way the talent works only buffs the Dragoon and Praetor suits. The Dragoon can now demolish even the toughest of hybrids or the craziest of avenger waves without worry, whereas the Praetor will fully regen shields every 2.5 secs, practically making it undying, while stunning and aoe enemy ground units at an astounding rate.
However, non of this helps the Arbiter suit at all. Its measly attack won’t gain much from the dmg buff, and since energy COSTS aren’t affected, it can’t use its abilities any more then it would do normally. Its abilities are quite powerful and ussualy enough to statis an enemy base if you need to, but a buff in this area so it could do that plus cloak would be helpful considering the now steep cooldown. If an energy cost reduction of half would be too much power for the other suits, you can make this only affect the arbiter, and it would go a long way towards making this talent strong. As things stand, its primary use would be vs ground only comps, because otherwise the praetor armor isnt useful and the arbiter gains nothing, meaning only the solarite is really helpful and using just the solarite dragoon seems not worth the costs of the talent.
Unwavering Vindicator: Avenging Protocol effects increased by 100%, Champion AI that die refund 75% of shell unit cost, but champion AI do not gain additional life or shields and have reduced attack range.
The least promising talent. Its design seems to be “let your champions die repeatedly and come back stronger”, but this is only of significant usage for Khaldalis. Mojo and Talis, who tend to also die somewhat more often then the heavier champions, don’t gain much from avenging protocol. Some tuning or changes might be in order, but i have yet to see it in action. My humble suggestion: Replace fenix suits topbar with an ability to overcharge his shell units, letting one type of them all become their Champion version for a short duration. This means you don’t get access to his suits, but you get a reliable, possibly low cooldown ability that makes your units so durable and damaging that you can brute force your way through. Just a suggestion though.