User blog:Qwertyxp2000 the second/Balance change suggestions for 30.0

Balance change suggestions from a dev's point of view.

Dart Monkey
The top crosspath is rarely touched compared to the bottom crosspath, likely due to the cost, especially in the early-game. Prices for those have been decreased to make it a little more easy to purchase. On the other hand, the middle crosspath has been too overperforming compared to other upgrades, so its costs have been increased. Triple Shot also fares less favorably compared to Crossbow, so its price has been slightly lowered too, which should make the top crosspath a little more worth investing.


 * Sharp Shots costs less ($140 --> $110)
 * Razor Sharp Shots costs less ($220 --> $190)
 * Quick Shots costs more ($100 --> $125)
 * Very Quick Shots costs more ($190 --> $210)
 * Triple Shot costs less ($400 --> $360)

As the Dart Paragon currently lacks an ability, and we thought it would be nice to give it one, we gave Dart Paragon with the ability to convert most Dart Monkey types on screen, adding more to the Plasma Monkey Fan Club element. The ability will not be affected by Lych.


 * Apex Plasma Master now adds an ability that converts all Dart Monkeys on screen within 2-5-5 crosspath boundaries into equivalent 2-2-5 Crossbow Masters for 15 seconds.
 * Cooldown of 90 seconds, starts with initial cooldown of 30 seconds.

Boomerang Monkey
As the Dart Paragon currently lacks an ability, and we thought it would be nice to give it one, we gave Boomerang Paragon with the ability to deal extra damage and attack faster while active. The ability will not be affected by Lych.


 * Glaive Dominus now gains an ability that grants double damage for main attack and increases its attack speed of all other attacks by 7x for 10 seconds (or 15 with Long Turbo)
 * Cooldown of 90 seconds, starts with initial cooldown of 30 seconds.

Bomb Shooter
While seeing Cluster Bombs spam strategies were fun, Cluster Bombs and Recursive Cluster all clearly outperform other grouped-popping options without considering their base weaknesses and synergies, so we've removed the innate black-popping for all its explosions, as well as cutting off a small cost off Recursive. We've also changed the description of Cluster Bombs to make it clear that the black-popping explosions are removed off this upgrade until Bomb Blitz. On the other hand, Really Big Bombs is still underperforming, so we've increased its pierce greatly to make it more worthy at demolishing dense bloons, Bloon Impact's damage has been increased without the pierce bonus to focus on the "violent" explosions, and Bloon Crush's pierce has been adjusted to become more impactful against regular bloons for an overall buff.


 * Cluster Bombs damage type for all explosions changed from Normal to Explosion
 * Changed description of Cluster Bombs from "Throws out secondary bombs instead of sharp fragments every shot." to "Throws out secondary bombs instead of sharp fragments every shot. Does not pop Black Bloons."
 * Recursive Cluster damage type for all explosions changed from Normal to Explosion. Does not affect Bomb Blitz.
 * Recursive Cluster cost decreased ($2800 --> $2700)
 * Changed description of Bomb Blitz from "Deals much more damage and gains the passive Bomb Storm Ability - when lives are lost, the Bomb Storm automatically triggers, which destroys all but the biggest of Bloons." to "Deals much more damage, pops Black Bloons, and gains the passive Bomb Storm Ability - when lives are lost, the Bomb Storm automatically triggers, which destroys all but the biggest of Bloons".
 * Really Big Bombs pierce increased (50 --> 75). Does not affect Bloon Impact.
 * Bloon Impact damage increased (3 --> 4). Does not affect Bloon Crush.
 * Bloon Crush pierce increased (50 --> 150).
 * Bloon Crush pierce consumption against blimps increased
 * MOABs: 1 --> 2
 * BFBs: 1 --> 3
 * ZOMGs and BADs: 1 --> 5
 * DDTs: 1 --> 3

MOAB Maulers are weighted too much in terms of balance without considering enough for Bomb's other paths, particularly base Bomb which is meant to be advantageous at grouped-popping. On top of giving base Bomb much of its old pierce back, we have tried to scale back the power of Mauler spam by lowering their base attack speed while giving back some of its power through alternate base benefits and additional upgrades.
 * Base Bomb Shooter pierce increased (14 --> 24)
 * Bigger Bombs pierce increased (20 --> 30)
 * Heavy Bombs pierce increased (30 --> 40)
 * MOAB Mauler attack cooldown increased (0.9s --> 1.2s)
 * MOAB Mauler bonus damage to MOAB-class increased (+18 --> +20)
 * 2-3-0 MOAB Mauler now adds an additional +10 damage to MOAB-class and +1 damage to Ceramics
 * Extra Range bonus range increased (+7 --> +10). Also affects Frag Bombs.
 * Frag Bombs now gives MOAB Mauler fragments with +9 damage to MOAB-class and +1 damage to Ceramics
 * MOAB Assassin base missile bonus damage to MOAB-class increased (+30 --> +50)
 * MOAB Eliminator base missile bonus damage to MOAB-class increased (+99 --> +200)

Tack Shooter
Inferno Ring is largely untouched mainly due to its price and awkward stepping stone. The design of Inferno Ring also feels awkward with its homing meteor not so much fitting the Tack's multi-projectile theme, so we have added more to Inferno Ring including a price cut.


 * Inferno Ring costs less ($45,500 --> $42,500)
 * Inferno Ring homing meteor impact deals less damage (700 --> 500)
 * Inferno Ring homing meteor explosion gains +5 pierce per Path 2 upgrade
 * Inferno Ring homing meteor explosion gains +50 damage per Path 3 upgrade
 * Inferno Ring now gains an multi-projectile spray of meteors.
 * 8 projectiles, true impact, 3.0s attack cooldown, 50 damage, infinite range, always attacks
 * +2 projectiles per Path 3
 * Each meteor produces explosion that deals 10 damage and pops up to 10 bloons
 * +5 pierce per Path 2

Meanwhile, the attack speed crosspath felt dominant and necessary for functionality, which makes crosspath choices unbalanced. To fix this, its attack speed bonuses have been lowered very slightly, for an overall attack speed buff on all paths, and Even Faster Shooting has its cost increased to consider budgeting rather than "always go the attack speed path". Touching on the attack speed idea again, Ring of Fire's attack speed has been increased to reward proper placement.
 * Tack Shooter base attack cooldown decreased (1.4s --> 1.25s)
 * 0-3-x: 1.19s --> 1.0625s
 * 0-x-3: 1.05s --> 0.75s
 * 0-x-4: 0.35s --> 0.25s
 * 0-x-5: 0.2625s --> 0.2343s
 * Faster Shooting attack speed bonus decreased (+33% --> +25%)
 * 1-x-x below Tier 3 total attack cooldown: 1.02s --> 1.0s
 * 1-3-0: 0.8925s --> 0.85s
 * 1-0-3: ...
 * 1-0-4: ...
 * 1-0-5: ...
 * Even Faster Shooting attack speed bonus remains +66% from Faster Shooting
 * Total attack speed bonus: +122% --> 108.33%
 * 1-x-x below Tier 3 total attack cooldown: 0.63s --> 0.60s
 * 1-3-0: ...
 * 1-0-3: ...
 * 1-0-4: ...
 * 1-0-5: ...
 * Even Faster Shooting price increased ($300 --> $360)
 * Hot Shots price decreased ($600 --> $540)
 * Ring of Fire attack cooldown decreased (0.54s --> 0.4s). Does not affect Inferno Ring.

Ice Monkey
Embrittlement has seen greater use in games ever since it has been given the capability to debuff MOAB-class bloons, but we want to ease off its incredible power and add some more use of the 4-0-2 crosspath as a more reliable debuff option, so we've increased the duration of the debuff to match Super Brittle and hopefully make crosspath choices of Embrittlement more equally viable.
 * Embrittlement debuff duration increased (2s --> 3s). Super Brittle debuff remains at 3s, and shardable status remains the same.
 * Embrittlement costs more ($2200 --> $2400)

Cryo Cannon a very strong bloon staller while having a very cheap upgrade for handling dense waves of bloons, but outpaces performance against other similar options, and said upgrade is inherently flawed in its design as a long-ranged freezer due to its already large pierce and high attack rate over a rather large price for a traditional cannon-like attack. We have reduced the pierce of the Cryo Cannon's freeze blasts while greatly reducing the price to justify Cryo Cannon as a cheap ranged staller.
 * Cryo Cannon pierce decreased (30 --> 20). Also affects Icicles but not Icicle Impale.
 * Cryo Cannon cost decreased ($1950 --> $1350)
 * Icicles cost increased ($2000 --> $2600)

Glue Gunner
Mixable glue is a highly requested feature, since Glue Gunners could not synergize with each other, but aside from this feature we have smoothened out other outlying upgrades in the game with balance changes. Firstly, we liked the bonus Ceramic change for Liquefier, so we've topped it up with a bonus MOAB-class damage rate to transition better into Solver. Secondly, The Bloon Solver has been upgraded to shoot even more projectiles per shot, on top of doing some direct damage to Ceramics and MOAB-class, and regluing the same bloons, all in order to synergize with itself and other variants of Glue Gunner. Thirdly, since Glue Splatter didn't stand out much as a Tier 2 when its current price only made sense as a crosspath, we have cut the price of Glue Splatter to account for this. And lastly, in order to encourage better early-game variety, some cost of the base Glue was pushed into the Bigger Globs upgrade to allow expand more combinations of early-game combos.


 * Bloon Liquefier damage-over-time tick damage to MOAB-class increased from 1 to 2.
 * Description of Bloon Liquefier changed from "Can glue one additional Bloon per shot and applies liquefying compounds that do 10 pops every second." to "Applies liquefying compounds that deal 10 pops every second, glue an extra bloon per shot, and dissolves Ceramics and MOAB-class twice as fast."
 * Bloon Solver now shoots 5 projectiles instead of 2.
 * Bloon Solver now deals an 1 instantaneous damage onto bloons hit by the glue, increased to 5 and 10 against Ceramics and MOAB-class, respectively.
 * Bloon Solver glue now can rehit bloons affected by its own glue type, similar to Super Glue.
 * Glue Splatter costs less ($1800 --> $1250)
 * Glue Gunner costs less ($275 --> $250)
 * Bigger Globs costs more ($100 --> $125)

Monkey Ace
The "improved explosions" theme of Exploding Pineapples wasn't enough to push Spectres towards the Exploding Pineapple route in any scenario outwith special challenge rules, so we've upped up the explosive bonuses to make that crosspath more worthwhile. In addition, since Lots More Darts makes no sense with Spectre by only giving a pierce bonus to darts, this crosspath will now actually give an additional dart-only attack instead of the old effect.


 * 0-1-4 Spectre bomb damage increased (3 --> 5)
 * 0-1-4 Spectre bomb bonus damage to Ceramics increased (+2 --> +4)
 * 0-1-4 Spectre bomb damage type changed from Explosion to Normal
 * 0-1-5 Flying Fortress bomb damage increased (5 --> 10)
 * 0-1-5 Flying Fortress bomb bonus damage to Ceramics increased (+2 --> +8)
 * 2-0-4 Spectre shoots an additional dart-only attack
 * 15 pierce, 2 damage, +2 damage to Ceramics, weak homing, 0.045s attack cooldown
 * Locked on First
 * 2-0-5 Flying Fortress shoots three additional dart-only attacks
 * 15 pierce, 4 damage, +2 damage to Ceramics, weak homing, 0.0225s attack cooldown
 * Locked on First, Last, and Close
 * 2-0-4 Spectre and 2-0-5 Flying Fortress no longer gains +25% dart pierce

However, the "improved explosions" theme of Exploding Pineapples did work well for Fighter Planes and above, so we've just added a few notches here to make this crosspath stand out a little better.
 * 3-1-0 Fighter Plane anti-MOAB missiles damage increased by +8 (18 --> 25)
 * 4-1-0 ODS anti-MOAB missiles damage increased by +8 (24 --> 32)
 * 5-1-0 Sky Shredder anti-MOAB missiles damage increased by +25 (150 --> 175)

Dartling Gunner
Rocket Storm's ability is currently too strong in too many scenarios when it should act more of a burst of extra damage. We have greatly lowered the duration of its ability, but also gave it a little more damage to reward proper ability timing, as well as boosted the pierce bonus of ability rockets with Powerful Darts crosspath. Rocket Storm's rockets had always passed through obstacles, which was initially added to avoid crippling placement, but with its huge power already proven to be so great we have given a Line of Sight weakness to the ability too. M.A.D already has so much pierce that the pierce crosspath becomes redundant, so its pierce benefits have been reworked to better fit into each crosspath's potential use cases.
 * Rocket Storm ability missile damage increased (6 --> 7)
 * Rocket Storm ability duration decreased (10s --> 5s). Also affects M.A.D ability.
 * Rocket Storm ability rockets no longer ignore Line of Sight blockers
 * 0-4-2 Rocket Storm ability rocket pierce increased (10 --> 16)
 * 0-5-2 M.A.D main missile pierce bonus increased (+2 --> +6)
 * M.A.D ability missile damage increased (6 --> 7)
 * M.A.D ability missile Ceramic damage increased (10 --> 12)
 * M.A.D ability missile MOAB-class damage increased (24 --> 50)
 * M.A.D ability missile base pierce decreased (16 --> 8)
 * 0-5-2 M.A.D ability missile pierce increased (19 --> 24)

Wizard Monkey
Arcane Blast currently lacks crosspathing value for its fire upgrades, so it is being buffed to add benefits to crosspaths. Wall of Fire's latest change has been satisfactory, but we wanted to shift the value of Wall of Fire more into crosspathing, mainly to add value to both crosspaths. And Summon Phoenix Wizard's main flame damage has been increased to give it a little something while the Phoenix is on cooldown.
 * WoF rework 1
 * Fireball with Arcane Blast now deals +1 damage for fireballs
 * Wall of Fire tick damage rate decreased (0.15s --> 0.20s)
 * Wall of Fire costs less ($900 --> $750)
 * Wall of Fire with Guided Magic now adds a small "target location" button that can be enabled/disabled. When active, Guided Magic Walls of Fire can be specifically targeted like Cleansing Foam. When inactive, Guided Magic Walls of Fire act as normal, moving location if bloons are within range of the Wizard. The "target location" button is turned off by default, and defaults to Close relative to track if the location has become invalid.
 * Wall of Fire with Arcane Blast tick damage rate increased (0.15s --> 0.10s)
 * Wall of Fire with Arcane Blast now increases contact radius from 15 to 24.
 * Wall of Fire with Intense Magic lifespan increased by +1.0s, for 5.5s lifespan.
 * Dragon's Breath with Arcane Blast tick damage rate for Wall of Fire attack increased (0.10s --> 0.75s)
 * Dragon's Breath with Arcane Blast now increases projectile size of flame attack (~2 --> ~4)
 * Summon Phoenix's Dragon's Breath attack damage increased (1 --> 2)
 * Wizard Lord Phoenix's Dragon's Breath attack damage increased (6 --> 8)

Wizard's lower-tiers felt too weak for their prices, and Wall of Fire still feels too necessary to make it worthwhile. We have made multiple changes to help settle the balance in early-game power as well as balance off the crosspath choices for higher-tier upgrades. In addition, Arcane Blasts feels redundant as a crosspath, so it will now enhance fire attacks. And finally, we have added minor crosspathing benefits for the Phoenix and Lava Phoenix to add some more choice in extra power.
 * WoF rework 2
 * Base Wizard costs less ($400 --> $360)
 * Guided Magic costs less ($150 --> $140)
 * Fireball costs less ($300 --> $250)
 * Wall of Fire costs more ($900 --> $950)
 * Wall of Fire tick rate decreased (0.15s --> 0.25s). Does not affect Dragon's Breath or 5-2-0 Archmage.
 * 1-2-0 Wall of Fire lasts +1.0s longer.
 * 2-1-0 Fireball fireball damage increased by +1. Also affects higher tiers.
 * 2-2-0 Wall of Fire tick damage increased by +1. Also affects higher tiers.
 * 0-1-1 Fireball blast radius increased by +4, for 14 by default. Also affects Dragon's Breath, for 18 instead of 14.
 * Dragon's Breath with Arcane Blast now increases projectile size of flame attack (~2 --> ~4)
 * Summon Phoenix's Dragon's Breath attack damage increased (1 --> 2)
 * Wizard Lord Phoenix's Dragon's Breath attack damage increased (6 --> 8)
 * 1-4-0 Summon Phoenix flames now do Spectre homing and last +50% longer
 * 2-4-0 Summon Phoenix flames deal +1 damage
 * 0-4-1 Summon Phoenix flames deal +5 pierce (11 --> 16)
 * 0-4-1 Summon Phoenix flames projectile speed increased by +50%
 * 1-5-0 Lava Phoenix flames now do Spectre homing and last +50% longer
 * 2-5-0 Lava Phoenix all projectiles deal +5 damage
 * 0-5-1 Lava Phoenix all projectiles' projectile speed increased by +50%

...
TBA

Alchemist
The price of the Faster Throwing upgrade currently feels too high and weighed too much around Alch buffs, so we've let the rate of the main Alch potion increase by a slightly higher amount with this upgrade. In addition, since Acid Pools feels greatly underpowered and hidden beneath an expensive attack speed upgrade, the pool attack will benefit from crosspaths and the upgrade greatly decreased. Crosspathing has also been added to Transforming Tonic as it lacked any sort of crosspath benefit while ability is active.
 * Faster Throwing increases main potion cooldown reduction further (0.80x --> 0.75x). Also affects Acid Pools. Does not affect Alch buffs or Unstable Concoctions.
 * Faster Throwing now applies a 0.80x attack cooldown reduction to the main monster of an active Transforming Tonic and Total Transformation.
 * Larger Potions now gives +5 pierce to the main monster of an active Transforming Tonic and Total Transformation.
 * Acid Pool costs less ($450 --> $200)
 * 1-0-2 Acid Pool pools gain +5 pierce
 * 0-1-2 Acid Pool pools gain +50% lifespan

Druid
Ball Lightning is an expensive grouped damage upgrade that doesn't quite do enough for its cost, so we've increased the ball's rate of lightning shots as well as given a minor price cut. Superstorm's main lightning damage is also increased massively to give slightly more meaning to its "massive damage" descriptor. Meanwhile, Jungle's Bounty still feels too income-heavy on game modes that enable Farms. While the bonus farm mechanic is meant to be meaningful in terms of synergy with other income producers, the amount of bonus income with Farms feels more of an income greed than an affinity for nature, so its income amounts have been adjusted to benefit more at base and less with Farm bonus except with Obyn, to which he will give a much greater bonus for all uses of the Druid ability, by +20% in addition to his current range boost.


 * Ball Lightning ball lightning attack cooldown decreased (0.35s --> 0.25s)
 * Ball Lightning costs less ($5100 --> $4800)
 * Superstorm main lightning damage increased (3 --> 20)
 * Jungle's Bounty ability base income increased ($240 --> $300)
 * Jungle's Bounty ability bonus per Farm decreased (+$120 --> +$100)
 * Spirit of the Forest's ability base income increased ($240 --> $450)
 * Spirit of the Forest's ability bonus per Farm increased (+$120 --> +$150)

Banana Farm
Marketplace's unanimously higher efficiency compared to Plantation in both production and utility no longer makes sense, and its value is even more displaced with the Healthy Bananas MK and built-in higher sellback. We have attempted to balance off both upgrades by decreasing the cost of the Plantation upgrade by a considerable amount, pushing the Plantation as the most cost-efficient T3 Farm in the short-term.
 * Banana Plantation cost decreased ($3000 --> $2400)
 * (2400+1250+1100)/320 - 1750/120 = 0.260416667, meaning 3-0-0 is still less cost-efficient than multiple 1-0-0.
 * (2400+1250+1100+1100)/400 - 1750/120 = 0.0416666667, meaning 3-2-0 is still less cost-efficient than multiple 1-0-0 but still more efficient than 3-0-0.

Spike Factory
To compensate for the removal of attack speed benefits for Spike Storm's ability, the Spike Storm's base attack speed has been greatly increased. In addition, since Carpet of Spikes currently feels underpowered compared to its price and multiple of its predecessor, we've added a base pierce bonus to Carpet of Spikes to add significance to its Tier 5 status while also adding value to its lesser used Path 3 crosspath.


 * Spike Storm base spike attack speed increased (0.98s --> 0.245s)
 * Carpet of Spikes base spike pierce increased for base spike attack and ability (5 --> 10)
 * 1-5-0 Carpet of Spikes spike pierce increased for base spike attack and ability (10 --> 15)

The recent buffs to Super Mines went well, so we decided to do a similar Ceramic-and-Fortified bonus to T4 Spiked Mines, adding more for its late-game prowess. We also buffed the napalm tick rate to keep up with the damage of the explosions and not see itself as a vestige on bloons and MOAB-class.


 * Spiked Mines explosions deal +3 damage to Ceramics
 * Spiked Mines explosions deal +1 damage to Fortified
 * Spiked Mines napalm tick rate increased (1 / 2.0s --> 1 / 0.5s). Duration remains 6s.
 * Spiked Mines napalm tick rate increased versus Ceramics (1 / 2.0s --> 2 / 0.5s). Duration remains 6s.

The lower-tier Spike Factory currently sits too expensive for a tower whose purpose is to stockpile spikes, and the lifespan of spikes without the Long Life Spikes upgrade is currently too long while still having the faster production path overdominate as the optimal crosspath due to higher refreshments and buffing optimization. We have attempted to address all of these problems by lowering the base lifespan of spikes and reduced costs of lower-to-mid-tier Spike Factory crosspaths across the board balance out crosspaths and the new lifespan values, with some prices shifted into the higher-performing upgrades after the changes.


 * Base Spike Factory spike lifespan decreased (50s --> 30s 40s). Does not affect Spiked Mines or above.
 * Long Reach spike lifespan decreased (100s --> 90s). Does not affect Spiked Mines or above.
 * Base Spike Factory costs less ($1000 --> $900)
 * Bigger Stacks costs less ($800 --> $600)
 * White Hot Spikes costs less ($600 --> $450)
 * Long Reach costs less ($150 --> $125)
 * Smart Spikes costs less ($400 --> $300)
 * Faster Production costs less ($600 --> $500)
 * Even Faster Production costs less ($800 --> $750)
 * Spiked Balls costs less ($2300 --> $2100 $2250)
 * MOAB SHREDR costs less ($2500 --> $1850)
 * Spike Storm costs more ($5000 --> $6000)
 * Long Life Spikes costs less ($1400 --> $1250)
 * Long Life Spikes gives more lifespan (140s --> 160s)
 * Deadly Spikes costs less ($3500 --> $2825)
 * Perma-Spike costs more ($30,000 --> $31,200)
 * Overall cost of 0-2-5 should come to 900+500+750+125+300+1250+2825+31200 = 37,850 on Medium, or around 40,875 on Hard.

Monkey Village
Removing MIB's frozen-popping for Ice Monkey hasn't made sense when all other towers receive frozen-popping too, so we've unified Ice Monkeys with MIB to let them pop Frozen regardless of having the built-in freezing upgrades or not.
 * Monkey Intelligence Bureau now lets Ice Monkey blasts pop Frozen Bloons even without Re-Freeze or Super Brittle.

Engineer Monkey
We felt that crosspathing for Engineer Monkey has been progressing, although several crosspaths still felt underperforming or too lenient on one or the other. Pin has been given bonus lifespan for sentries and foam to give it a new "longer attachment" theme. Sprockets has received an extra bonus to the sentry crosspathing benefits to add value to the "advanced engineering" aspects and bring more to each crosspath, more than just "extra pin" or "more MOAB damage". And because Sprockets won't produce foam or traps anyway, the special targeting given by Larger Service Area will now allow custom placement of sentries, defaulting to the Engineer's middle by default. On the other hand, Sentry Champion felt exclusively Path 2, all of these changes including the Pin bonus and higher pierce bonuses for all Champion Sentries have been added.
 * Pin now increases lifespan of sentries and foam by +40%
 * 3+-1-0 Sprockets now dds a small "target location" button that can be enabled/disabled. When active, sentries follow placement of the Engineer. When inactive, operates the default sentry-spawning algorithm as normal. The "target location" button is turned off by default, and defaults to Close relative to self if the location has become invalid.
 * 3-0-1 Sprockets pierce bonus increased (+1 --> +3)
 * 3-1-0 Sprockets range bonus increased (+4 --> +20)
 * 4-0-1 Sentry Expert pierce bonus increased (+25% --> +50%)
 * 5-0-1 Sentry Champion plasma pierce bonus increased (+1 --> +5)
 * 5-0-1 Sentry Champion explosion pierce bonus increased (+0 --> +50)