My first archived post (and possibly the first user to use an archived post, with exception to Guide writers): Before everyone starts screaming nerf on Hal or Steel...I did testing with Hal's Jet, Bane's Venom Soak, and Two-Face's Barrel (20 matches a piece with each) Jet: Initial hit- 300+ (biggest hit I had 396) DoT- 3-6 ranging 85-130 6s cooldown Venom Soak: Initial hit- 300+ (biggest hit I had 379) DoT- 10-12 ranging 85-120 15s+ cooldown Barrel: Initial hit- 300-500 (biggest hit I had 525) DoT- 3-6 ranging 85-150 30s+ cooldown Jet and Venom Soak seems to hit players in the AoE regardless if moved away from Area after, while Barrel stops hitting if moved away from AoE As you can see, the Jet is on par damage wise with these powers (Venom Soak hits for more damage), but I can concur that it is definitely a more conveinent power to use because of the short cooldown...therefore, ONLY the cooldown should be adjusted, not the damage As far as Steel goes, his Lightning (which only ticks anywhere from 100-130) is not what melts people...his mine has an initial hit (200+) & DoT (100-130) and his hammer throw has an initial hit (300+) & DoT (85-125)...in turn, smart players stack his DoTs, with Lightning usually being last makes it look like it is melting you, when in reality it is a combination of 3 powers that they are using to take players out...just saying
His jet is just annoying, never found him overly powered at all though. What I wish they had were some stats we could see of the legends.
It's good to do a comparison. Of course the Fire Barrel is interruptible, and can be avoided by destroying it first, so that's a little rough. Assuming "Venom Soak" is "Venom Clap", your stats seem accurate. But you're completely disregarding the status effects: Strafing also gives fear when applied and knockup when it hits. Also it's an AOE, Venom Clap is not, and you'd need some good timing to get multiple people triggering thes same barrel. (It can happen, if put down in melee, but again interruptible.) I do agree with you that the sensible place to adjust is the timing rather than the damage. It should be much longer. Or perhaps a much bigger power cost, I'd be OK with that too. But to take one of the best supercharges in the game and then turn it into a 6-second regualr click is pretty ridiculous. Correct. While Hal is a character for 1-button smashing, Steel is a suite of powers that might individually be OK. That's much more troublesome, actually. An average to poor player on Steel is a fine fight. A good player on Steel is near-unbeatable. It feels like Steel was conceived as a support character, like Fate or Faust, but then ultimately developed like a DPS one. In fact, if you look here at the original announcement, Mepps literally says "Steel is more of a support character." Compared to the damage-dealing Lex Luthor. Now Lex can certainly take down a match, don't get me wrong. But I don't see teams of 4x Lex melting the opponents the way I've repeatedly seen with Steel (or Hal for that matter). Steel needs a couple subtle nerfs across the board. Nothing huge, but bring him back in line. Maybe make him more vulnerable. Long moves like the Hammerang and the Atom Splitter should be support moves that are effective when you're not being attacked, but vulnerabilities when you are. Fortunately, it seems they're really listening to the public on these character. From the newest patch on Test: Thank God that's finally being addressed, after what must have been mountains of player complaints. Here's hoping sometime around update 26 they'll finally get to modify the design of Steel's shoes...
Also it's an AOE, Venom Clap is not, and you'd need some good timing to get multiple people triggering thes same barrel. (It can happen, if put down in melee, but again interruptible.) Actually Venom Clap is a front conall AoE...enemies near the target will take the initial hit and DoT as well, but it is not a true AoE like Jet