Balance (#2) - Archangel UP After Weapon Change? (#104) - Message List

Several revisions ago I swapped out the Archangel's missiles and flak for lasers and a weaker version of the Packo. Google_Frog said that the Archangel seems weaker than before.

Reasoning Behind the Change

I wanted to differentiate the Archangel from the Phalanx, where the latter would be an area-attacker, and the former would be more of a precision anti-air unit. Also I think the fade-out lasers look cool when tracking fast targets.

Stats

Archangel's lasers does less theoretical DPS than the old missiles. However, the lasers do not suffer from overkilling.

Lasers burn 1 energy per 10 damage.

The range of the lasers is about the average of the range of the old missiles.

The mini-packo deals 100 DPS in theory (but misses a hell of a lot), versus 27.3 DPS for the old flak. The range is also longer (but again, misses a lot at long range). However, the flak offered better first-shot damage, splash, and accuracy.

Testing

In a very brief test, the new weapon layout seems to do better against spread Rapiers than the old one, provided one is not e-stalling. However, as could be expected, the old flak is very deadly against clustered Rapiers.

Options

• No change.
• Increase EMG and/or laser damage.
• Revert the weapon changes for one or both weapons.
• Increase laser range.
• Something else?

So, what do you all think? Also, if there's something you don't like about the new fx, mention that too.