Shocktrain and Haechi

The problem with the Haechi was always the double dash making it impossible to catch if it uses with weapons that deal high burst damage, combined with the firepower of three medium slots and a rechargeable Ancile shield. The Ancile got a slight nerf, but it remains by far the best robot in the game. They need to dump the double dash and give it the same armor and ancile strength as the Carnage.

And the problem with the Shocktrain is that it deals massive instant damage (and when combined with the ability to dash to and from cover, there is no counterplay). The fact it bounces just added insult to injury, so the bounce damage nerf did little. It remains the best weapon in the game. The weapon really should work like the Gekko and deal damage over time, allowing people to get to cover and increasing the time the user exposes themselves in order to deal damage.

I don't really see a difference to either from their nerfs.

That isn't possible game design wise if there are instant damage weapons like the Shocktrain. I'm probably going to do a detailed writeup on why from a game design perspective later, but the ability to Dash from cover, deal instant damage (all while being immune to anything except energy weapons), and immediately return to cover is incredibly strong. The only counter to such tactics is having your own instant damage weapon, the Shocktrain.

Below is a gif of a Terran Marauder kiting a Protoss Zealot in Starcraft 2. The Zealot is supposed to counter the Marauder, but with perfect micro Marauders beat Zealots, as you can see from the gif the Zealot never hits the Marauder. This was a real problem after the game was released because Terran players at the top who could micro the situation perfectly would rush Marauders from proxy Barracks, and with only Zealots to hold the Protoss player died helplessly. Blizzard delayed the timing of Marauders (by requiring a supply depot before Barracks) in response, giving the Protoss player more time to get out ranged units to fight off the Marauders.



You see, the Marauder could have 1 health and deal 1 damage and it would defeat the Zealot eventually, so it wasn't really about health or damage. It was about lack of counterplay, and that is what the Haechi presents. Played perfectly, a Haechi defeats any Robot in the game, there is no counterplay. A Shocktrain Haechi played perfectly with 1 health could defeat anything without energy weapons. And that is why nerfing health alone isn't the answer.


The game would be extremely shallow if instant burst damage is all that works. In fact, it would basically be a bad version Counterstrike, not a Mech game. Sadly, I predicted long ago this game was heading in the FPS direction and away from the Mech genre. Battle Titans is going to slaughter this game.