It's the home stretch! Today we unveil the final part of the interview and get to some questions about Imperial Guard and Eldar. We also get a few miscellaneous questions in for good measure.
By this point, you don't need much of a lead-in other than to remember that this interview was conducted about a week ago now when the initial patch notes were just being released, so newer changes aren't reflected, although you can see them hinted at here!
5*General: Can you clarify what "Laser Turrets now take 60% damage from grenades/grenade launchers" means? Compared to before, do Laser Turrets take more or less damage from these weapons?
bC: Before they took nearly no damage from grenades however now they will take 60% of the total grenade damage. This change was specifically meant to help the Eldar vs Imperial Guard match-up.
5*General: Many players complained about the Inquisitor's Crossbow Bolt Pistol, but instead of changing that you seem to have gone the route of reducing the range of Hammer of the Witches. Can you explain your reasoning for the range nerf to Hammer of the Witches and your vision for the Crossbow Bolt Pistol's role and effectiveness?
bC: You still need to invest in to getting the Crossbow Bolt Pistol whereas the Hammer of the Witches is available right from the get go.
5*General: The Lord Commissar's Inspire Determination (aka Bionic Eye) has taken a couple of nerfs on the chin, but the biggest concern among most players has been the speed boost which was left untouched. Can you explain your reasoning?
bC: I wanted to see if the health and damage changes are sufficient if not I will be looking at the speed boost.
5*General: Stormtroopers are getting a big change, now having to pay for their upgrades rather than getting them for free over time. In the case of Melta Stormtroopers, maybe it was about time. However, Assault Kit Stormtroopers were actually on my question list as something that could use a buff in some way. Instead, they are going to cost 75 requisition more now without any notable performance offsets for this. Are there any plans to follow through on rumors of adding a Frag Grenade to their arsenal or to remove the incoming damage penalty they take?
bC: Removing the incoming damage penalty sparks my interest so you might see that in the near future.
5*General: Can you explain what it means for the Leman Russ's "defense" to go from 100 to 150? This is not typically a stat we see leveraged often in multiplayer.
bC: This just increases the damage mitigation while keeping flavor of Imperial Guard tanks.
5*General: Can you elaborate on the Chimera weapon changes?
bC: Essentially it's just a damage nerf on the guns, before the Chimera had the potential to deal 190 damage now it only has the potential to deal 160.
5*General: No changes to Sentinels or Stomp. Can you offer any thoughts on that?
bC: I think as the metagame develops players have been adjusting accordingly and are able to deal with the Sentinel. I think the longer time goes on people will stop complaining about it.
5*General: Do you have any plans to show Imperial Guard Bunkers some love?
bC: Possibly but at this moment I have no plans to change Imperial Guard Bunkers. I know there is some talk about setup teams having problems shooting out of their windows but that issue can be easily dealt with better building placement.
5*General: Imperial Guard infantry leaders tend to add a lot of population overhead. Are you happy with this?
bC: It has been brought up but I don't see it being that big of an issue.
5*General: The Webway changes certainly seem interesting. Are you anticipating any problems with Warp Spider Exarch Webway Gates and Warp Spiders?
bC: Not anticipating any problems but we'll have to see what happens.
5*General: Are you concerned with the retreat-killing capabilities of Warp Spider squads?
bC: Yes I am keeping an eye on that.
5*General: What are your feelings on the Warp Spider Exarch's melee special attack?
bC: Its pretty good but with the HP nerf on his wargear I think it brings it in line.
5*General: Can you explain how you see the Channeling Runes and Heart of Darkness changes fitting into the Warlock's play post-patch?
bC: This will make the Warlock more tanky considering his surviability will be a lot better post patch.
5*General: What Farseer wargear do you see Runes of Reaping synergizing well with?
bC: All of her abilities, this promotes Fortune, Doom, Guide, and fast switching to wargear.
5*General: Immolator Blade's Immolate is pretty effective against turrets, and now it only costs 20 power. Are there any plans to reduce the effectiveness of the ability against those targets to compensate?
bC: Ah another typo I meant to write 25 instead of 20 sorry. But no there are no plans to reduce the effectiveness.
5*General: Can you explain the need for the nerf to the Warp Spider Exarch's Improved Warp Generator health bonus?
bC: I felt that 200 HP was a lot for him and I didn't really feel like he suited the roll as Tank Spider Exarch.
5*General: Do you feel the Autarch's call-in grenades are still a problem?
bC: Very situational but I feel like the telegraph it provides enough time for players to react.
5*General: Including set-up teams?
bC: Setup teams do get hit but I don't see them getting squad wiped if the player reacts.
5*General: Eldar didn't get hit with too many changes this patch, and the race had by far the fewest submissions to me for balance issues. Are Eldar in a good spot? Are they becoming the example of what you hope to achieve with all other races?
bC: Yes I believe that Eldar is a strong race as a whole with multiple options and builds. I hope to achieve this with all the races while continuing to improve the game.
5*General: Melta Bombs and Haywire Grenades are always under fire as being too easy and effective at disabling vehicles. What are your thoughts on this? Also, are you at all interested in bringing user-targeting (such as how regular grenades are tossed) to these items and perhaps even other abilities like High Explosive Shells?
bC: Possibly but no plans so far.
5*General: Are there any match-ups at the moment that you feel are particularly imbalanced?
bC: Currently with all the changes in this patch I'm actually not too worried about any specific match up.
5*General: The Chaos Dreadnought is receiving a necessary rotation speed fix, and while this is a bug fix, could we see more rotation speed tweaking again in the near future?
bC: Yes of course.
5*General: Can you clarify the Tyrant Guard's special attack bug fix?
bC: Before its special attack was attacking less units then it should.
5*General: There are some noted fixes to Brightlances and Lascannon friendly fire and to many attacks now ignoring terrain. In the notes, some units like the Beamy Loota and Blastmasters are left out, or at least seem to be. Are they actually left out, or will they also be getting these changes?
bC: They will be also getting fixed, Blastmasters already ignores terrain.
5*General: Ah the internet- raging without testing. On the topic of attacks ignoring terrain, are you at all concerned that this will lessen the tactical impact and significance of the game's 3D terrain?
bC: I think it will just improve gameplay and thats what we all want/
5*General: This has been a right proper and informative interview. Any chance we can make this a recurring deal every time a patch comes out?
bC: I'm always down! but you'll have to ask my producer about that =)
5*General: Hopefully the next interview will take less than two and a half hours
Thanks for your time, and have fun dealing with... everything a Lead Balance Designer deals with when a new patch comes out!
bC: Haha, no worries. Always a pleasure you guys at
GameReplays have always shown us great support its the least we can do!
The big takeaway from the Imperial Guard segment of the interview is that it looks like bC is relatively happy with Imperial Guard's Tier 1 at this point, or at least wants to see the community try to cope with it better. On the other side of the Imperial Guard fence, the high population cost of infantry leaders is something that bC is ok with- for now anyway.
For Eldar, complaints about Warp Spider retreat-killing are not going unheard, even though no action has been taken currently. Furthermore, the Autarch's call-in grenades seem to be fair game, so players will want to adapt to reacting to them rather than sighing at them. The biggest thing for Eldar though is that bC feels they're in a rather good spot, and it seems they set a good example for other races.
And in the miscellaneous column, it seems no particular match-up is concerning to bC in 3.18 (well, so far- the patch hasn't gone live yet although the beta is up now), which seems to say good things about balance on the whole and should again indicate that players should seek answers to their problems in the current game rather than from future patches.
But that wraps things up for this three-part interview. With all the bombshells that dropped after we conducted it, there's no doubt we're looking forward to another interview soon, although I think we'll need to let bC catch his breath first!
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