Time to get rid of FBs friendly damage? (in General)

"but in general i would like to see battles go a couple more rounds"

Damage in Ranged was cut last change month, damage has been cut again. I'm all for stopping Ranged being the be all and end all of CB, and wanting combats to last into Melee somewhat, but if this design is being pushed, why does FB need to be penalised more with it's friendly fire?

When just about everyone uses CoC for it's massive damage to get round all the damage reduciton layers.

A while back I suggested a skill that would remove this.

I should add, I'm all for it, if FB is designed to be a gamble. Kill your opponent in Ranged, or lose as you kill yourself in Melee.

If that's the case then FB damage in Ranged rounds needs to be massively increased or have some other benefits.

Yeah Ranger, read that. ;) But I feel that if FB stays as it, it shold just be removed totally, without needing to spend extra XP ona skill.

Remove the backlash. It serves no purpose anymore.

Bah, friendly fire is part of my strat!

I like the massive increase in damage idea. Neutered FB has always seemed sad to me...

Aye, that or make it totally ignore AC, or MGS, or AMF. Something, if it's suposed to be a trade off.

Otherwise make it back into a normal DD again.

I 100% agree, well of course I do im a Single FB Mage.

But seriously if i don't finish my opponets off in ranged or close to it, im obviously doomed. I feel I will not be able to be competative in the higher ranks because I won't be doing enough damage in ranged.
I really like this strategy and it works welll for me now, but im willing to bet past 1mil MPR I won't be finding easy targets anymore.
I will always be a single minion, so If FB doesnt work out im gonna have to rethink my strat and most likely go tank like everyone else in the high ranks.

I'm all for this too... It seems like FB and MM is just getting as useless as ever because all the damage reduction....

since fireball is designed as a quick kill strategy and it really needs to do its damage by melee rounds if it is to succeed, why not make it a spell that has diminishing returns? in effect it starts out extremely large, with extremely large splash (requiring some hp investment) and then it goes down pretty rapidly each round so that if it doesn't kill by melee it is pretty much not going to.

this may be a silly idea, but i would truly like for fireball to be useful in its own right and more differentiated from magic missile...oh and the vodka didn't help any!

you should drink more dudemus...

have FB start with CoC level damage and no backlash
next round damage drops and backlash starts
it increases until melee where you're hitting yourself for as much as you hit the opponent...

"have FB start with CoC level damage and no backlash "
Goodbye every single single minion in existence. :(

i drink plenty!

and i like the idea of the splash starting up after round one and as the damage goes down splash goes up.

I think you are all forgetting the "good idea" Jonathan said about a new melee-based DD spell.

Let's wait for that. *smile*

or i missed it with all the other posts of late.

i will go check all the recent posts by jon i guess, what with no clicky!

I said we need a new DD spell if ranged DD is so forsaken. I mentioned a melee-only MM (imagine that bolt!).

Later, Jonathan said "good idea". I have no idea what that means or if it even means anything. This was on the damage reduction Changemonth thread.

i do like that idea as well and think both are actually woth pursuing. right now we have fireball and ranged that are just too similar and one is not greatly better than the other due to the reduced damage fb has taken over time and splash damage.

why not have one that excels in ranged for quick kill strategies and one that shines in melee for more defensive strategies? i don't think we are limited to choosing just one here.

Are you suggesting to forfeit MM and Decay? Or I am understanding the last statement wrongly?

i was thinking more of revamping fireball and magic missile actually.

What I'd like to see is a change-pack that would look something like this:
-increase ranged DD efficiency a lot, and non-ranged a bit
-make evasion work only if a minion is not attacking

Otherwise I think that Fireball/ToE/Evasion will become a bit overpowered.

That's just a newbie opinion.

We need a new DD anyway.

But We can still try to fix the exisitng ones. ;) MM I'm not too worried about, it's not designed as quick kill. Just constant damage (with its rear hitting twist) over all the combat rounds.

FB is different though. It's current design screams at a quick kill strat that will be over one way or anyother by Melee.

But the current changes don't allow it to fulfil the quick kill in Range ideal.

So either it should be changed to 'normal' DD spewing out damage over all the rounds, or buffed to make it's gamble a viable tactic.

I just don't think FB now works as intended. ;)

Oh, and we need another new DD. Preferably a front hitting one! (Or a Ranged only DD, for wierd DD/Melee Weapon builds! lol!).