Lord Phol
Member
Gambit rework is going to be awesome!
Greetings, Gambit fans.
I wanted to share the list of updates we've got planned for Gambit.
DESIGN GOALS
- Make Gambit’s powers entirely usable and make his power level more consistent
- Focus the purpose of his powers, making him more satisfying to customize
- Allow more build options, by boosting underused powers and damage enhancers as needed
- Enhance his utility in a group setting
- Improve his Signature power
BO COMBAT
Bo Strike
We want to improve this power’s animation and convert it to a melee, single-target spirit spender. To that end, another power will get its debuff affix, and install a purely offensive affix.
Bo Beatdown
Since this will be Gambit’s melee basic, we want to hone its purpose by giving it a more exciting offensive affix. We’re also moving the vulnerability debuff to another power that applies the debuff more effectively.
Street Sweep
To give this power a clear role in Gambit’s kit, this power now leaves behind a hotspot that damages enemies standing in it (visuals already lend well to this). This will be a healthy boost to Gambit’s boss killing proficiency.
Bo Vault
This inherits the weaken debuff from Bo Strike, which will make it better-suited as an opening power for melee builds.
Grand Slam
In order to add more responsive gameplay and make this power more usable, Gram Slam will now trigger faster. In addition, players have the option of charge this power for the full second to earn a damage bonus to the explosion component. Additionally, we’re increasing the area of the power to align with its impressive visuals.
All In
No change.
Savate Expert
We want to improve usability of the passive, and lean it more toward offensive melee builds. The new set of affixes are: Damage rating for melee powers, Health, Heal on melee hit, Chance to block, and Tenacity.
KINETIC MASTERY
Wild Card
We want to improve the usability of this power and focus its function by trading up it’s stun component for more damage. Also, this damage boost will not be “consumed” on the first hit of the power, instead it will be a damage buff for Wild Card for a duration after using a spirit spending power.
Dead Man’s Hand
We felt the gameplay of this power could be greatly improved by adding a more interactive component. Instead of randomly getting bonus projectiles, continued use of the power will ramp up the number of projectiles, and converting it to a spirit spender will make it an attractive choice as a ranged, single-target spirit spender.
Ace of Spades
Our goal with Ace of Spades is to improve its gameplay, pure and simple. Now, when Ace of Spades initially hits its target (or max range) there’s an immediate explosion, and any target hit is stunned. In addition, the target hit will have the classic charged card stuck to them. After a short duration it explodes with a larger damage packet and area (relative to the initial hit). To make it more attractive to weave into a power rotation, we’re adding a short cooldown and compensating it with even more damage. Also, we’re fixing the “dud” bugs, where a throw would have no effect.
Royal Flush
This power is being rebuilt slightly to be a little easier to use without giving players a headache, while still being effective for mass-enemy clearing. With the addition of more single-target spirit spending power, Royal Flush can be designed as an effective trash clearer and not the only single-target option. The explosion component has been rebuilt to deliver one large damage packet to all enemies hit and the power will still be enhanced by area affixes on gear. Additionally, all components will apply a vulnerability debuff to make it more attractive as a weave-in power.
Fold ‘Em
We want to improve the escape utility of this power by stepping up the slow component to an outright stun vs. enemies.
Stack the Deck
To improve the feel of one of his most iconic powers, we rebuilt it and promoted it to Gambit’s signature power. Stack the Deck is now an impressive display of skill and power, and will be much more satisfying to use and true to Gambit’s style.
52 Card Pickup
52 Card Pickup will now work as normal crowd control hotspot power to make room for his awesome, new Signature.
Kinetic Control
The damage-at-range affix felt a little at odds with both Gambit’s hybrid and full-ranged play. We’ve converted it to damage bonus to thrown powers and added a Spirit on thrown power hit in appropriate symmetry to Gambit’s melee passive. These changes will better serve both the Ranged and Hybrid Gambit builds.
VAGABOND
Black & Red Suits
This set of powers had a number of problems with them. Their visuals were difficult to read in many cases, they were taking up bar space (or causing finicky ui overhead), they loudly force players into hybrid play, and further bloated the power point cost of Gambit’s passives. For this reason, we’re simply cutting both these powers and distributing their contents to other powers so players have more points to spend on other things.
Good Times Roll
We’re improving the animation of this power to feel more like Gambit. Furthermore, we’re moving the cleanse component to another power, and adding a Haste buff as a quality-of-life improvement for Gambit.
Cheat Death
To make this more in-line with other self-resurrect powers (see: Ironman), it will trigger passively. This also will inherit the cleanse active component, formerly on Roll.
Sleight of Hand
To focus its role as a defensive passive, it inherits the defensive component from Savate. This change should engender a larger variety of viable Gambit builds.
Sticky Fingers
Adding a passive group Tenacity buff to reinforce this as a group utility power.
Ragin’ Cajun
This power’s potency was detracting from the over-all consistent power level of Gambit, and leaving players no choice about including this power. To address this, we’ve migrated some power from this to other passives (while leaving the exciting components in), and making it come off cool-down more frequently based on gameplay. This brings Gambit’s power level base-line up, while maintaining the exciting impact that made this steroid fun in the first place.
ULTIMATE
Cherie
We want to buff the radius a bit, and add a stun component. This will enhance Gambit’s grand fireworks display.
UNIQUE ITEMS
As we’ve done recently with heroes receiving design reviews, all of Gambit’s unique items will be reviewed and buffs applied as appropriate.
As always, we're greatly interested in your feedback.
-Rawr
P). See, most of my gear is +melee/physical damage which doesn't show on that main page. Even my Physical damage rating only shows ~2100, but again it's NOT showing my +melee damage (~1500 more damage).
