User blog comment:MasterKnight/Sub Commander rebalancing ideas/@comment-25404524-20200701230753/@comment-43000-20200703212956

I tried looking over the math with Double Damage being retained without M2 crosspathing. Airburst Darts, which already contests Pinks on 3 Spacing, just provided too many complications, particularly when its base target would get hit *FOUR* times (granted, it's not like a Rainbow would become 8 Yellows from one hit, but even so...), and there's also been reports of Ballistic Missile abusing the Double Damage anyway. Even the final results of the math for what I go with are a little terrifying, but at least should be more anchored. (Pun works for me.)

I should go over all the other buffs outside Village and what checks them in comparison, since I looked them over recently because of Prince of Darkness:
 * Super/Plasma Monkey Fan Club (Dart) - buff only works from activation ability
 * Elite Sniper (Sniper) - 4/3 attack rate and added Targeting mode for ally Snipers isn't that insane
 * Carrier Flagship (Boat) - 20/17 attack rate is not insane at all
 * Prince of Darkness (Mage) - SUCKS! Seriously.
 * True Sun God (Super) - Freeplay boost for Adora
 * Shinobi Tactics (Ninja) - okay, I can see this be stupid too, but without the massing, the boosts are otherwise tame
 * Top path of Alchemist - okay, so this is sloppy as well, and mercifully called out
 * Druid bottom path - same
 * Overclock (Engineer) - activation ability
 * Gwendolin Heat-It-Up - Gwen needs to be close to ally targets to affect them without her second activation ability, and +1 Pierce and Lead become more marginal as the game goes on as well
 * Striker Jones - highest passive buff is attack frequency multiplied by 100/81 with 1.25x Pierce and 1.05x Range as well as damaging Blacks/Zebras, applied to Bomb Towers
 * Obyn - only non-tame buff is toward the B3 Druids when Obyn is at L18
 * Benjamin - activation ability aside from Bank buffs (sure)
 * Ezili - activation ability that requires Lives
 * Brickell/Pat Fusty - activation abilities

So as we can see, most of the other flowchart comes from passive ally buffs that aren't from Tier 5s or Heroes. Even the Tier 5s/Heroes keep the passive buffs tame. Of course, Sub Commander is meant to be about the ally buffs in and of themselves. What we have, though, is inevitably excessive when the Airburst Darts can achieve OTT DPS while still using Advanced Intel. If DDTs become a threat (and they wait Round 90 for crying out loud), it wouldn't be hard to shift some of the flowchart to Ballistic Missiles, which ALSO gets the double damage bonus.

Having Camo detection for T2 crosspathing apply only to the Commander would prevent something like Ballistic Missiles at the edge of the Commander's range from trivializing Camos, and the Damage boost being restricted to the M2 crosspath would reduce the count of Subs that can even exploit it. Yes, the Sub Admiral MK is still a thing anyway, but the Sub Commander himself would also no longer be able to mix the damage boost with Advanced Intel on himself, increasing his reliance on his support if he's not in the frontlines with this combination. Sub Commander would still be powerful, but players would no longer be able to just throw about Advanced Intel and cause the whole thing to be entirely ridiculous.