Love Halo Wars 2. But just thought after playing for a while and watching a lot of other players vids online… I’d come up with my own list of things I think would be a cool change to the leaders… Just my opinion guys! No hate needed. I will attach all my posts together!
UNSC:
Captain Cutter:
-Change his Hero unit to the ODST squad in Operation Spearbreaker instead of Jerome. It makes sense I’m sure after ATN comes out, as we will surely see Jerome mentioned as a now “Commander Jerome” while you are playing as the Banished. If we can’t do this… then change some of the Spartan upgrades and have them start out with their weapon. This will bring them more in line early game with other leader hero units.
-De-nerf (New word) his ODST abilities. I do believe they needed to be toned down a notch but maybe not quite so harshly. This is Cutter’s bread and butter. He is the captain of the spirit of fire. The ability to call down the ODSTs and of course orbital bombardments like archer missiles and Close Air Support works perfectly in the tone of his role. Honestly, with those small changes Captain Cutter is in a good balanced position overall I feel.
Morgan Kinsano:
-Buff her hero unit a tad bit more. This should be an absolutely menacing and scary unit to come across on the battlefield if you are going strong infantry against her. She already had a ton of weaknesses to an aerial minded player… so just make her even more menacing at what she does best… Torch things… Everything. Obviously don’t make it OP but make it legitimately scary to see. When you play Kinsano… You should know she’s gonna bring the heat.
Kinsano is clearly a precision leader IMO. She used to run house but got toned down almost to a point where she is too one dimensional. However, if she is to be one dimensional in her building raiding/ infantry frying powers / hero… Make her so. Make all her fire powers absolutely destructive. I’ve always felt that Inferno for instance is a little bit weaksauce compared to some of the other hard hitting leaders “nukes”.
Isabel:
-I honestly really like Isabel. And I think with a few cool buffs to some of her existing abilities… she could be a super awesome and fun leader to play. It starts out with filling her role out even more. She is a logistics AI I believe. She needs to have a little more buffs to logistics of unit deployments (Cost, build speed, etc.) She also needs to have some trickery to her. Buff both her Decoy power and Ghost in the machine a little more. When you go up against isabel you need to be aware that you might be faked out a few times by her decoys and never truly know where she is hitting you next. You also need to be wary that she can possibly steal your units and really change around an army battle in the instant if not careful. (She blew up the Covenant carrier pretty handily in the campaign guys… She’s no joke).
-Also, like Captain Cutter… her hero unit needs to start out with their weapon. Leave the hi-jack/slam ability as an upgrade but give them their damn weapons.
-Also, I like the adding of the shield to the scorpions and gales… What about maybe a few more… What about a small shield to Hornets in late game? That would be a game changer for UNSC in the air… and certainly add to her appeal.
Anders:
-Honestly after this last patch I think 343 has Anders in a REALLY good place. She doesn’t feel OP, but she still feels very much like a contender. Her map control late game with her sentinel networks in awesome… Almost annoyingly awesome if you’re against her. You know what you’re gonna be dealing with when it comes to Anders… She has a very unique unit type / leader power wheel that is very in tone with her Character. I can’t say much about Anders now. Oh yea one thing…
-Make her Spartan start out with their weapon…
Sgt. Forge:
-Sgt Forge is all about economy and powering ahead in mid to late game with vehicles and an onslaught of them. His Grizzly is once again viable and his rolling economy / combat salvage are awesome too. Forge is honestly in a GREAT place of balancing except for of course… The Forgehog. 343… I think everyone can agree here. The only true “nerf” that Forge needs right now is that anvil round needs to be toned down quite a bit. Don’t make it useless again… but seriously maybe cut it’s 300% down to like 140% or some number. He needs to be a menace but not like he is now. If you do this… and MAYBE a small nerf to grizzly battalion (Thought that’s debatable) and you have honestly one of the now better balanced leaders in the game.
Sgt Johnson:
-Oh the leader we all want to love… but just can’t seem to find a really effective game plan for. Well here is mine:
-Mantis need to have Stomp… not the Colossus. Colossus should have another kind of upgrade. A siege mode. Basically where they either completely entrench themselves and put their physical shield up for defense… and a bonus to railgun range/damager Or make it to where they go into kind of a “Sniper mode” where shield is also up to negate some damage, and maybe damage/range increase to railgun… but the Colossus would move EVEN more slow… A siege mode for this, just like the Kodiak be used for both Defensive and Offensive purposes. And by the way… I know that this is kind of also like the Kodiak… But that’s fine. Let him have both. Make Sgt. Johnson all about Bunkering in and strong defense… and also the best base siege ability in the game. When you play against Johnson you should know and be ready for a powerful barrage of siege, and also a long fight to take his bases/outposts out as well. Because his weakness is he doesn’t do anything very quickly. This utilizes his mech overcharge abilities and his leader passives for increased defense to bunkers and base defense.
-I like his hero unit. He just needs to be a little more survivable early on.
-I think Sgt Johnson should be downright frightening to attack with a ground army of vehicles and infantry. His weakness would be air for the most part… But it makes his bases very hard to overcome in a mid to late game with a one dimensional ground army.
Go to Part 2
Part 2:
Commander Jerome:
-I Feel this guy is in a good place. I like his playstyle and his mastodon is pretty cool. I think the Mastodon needs a slight more tweaking for defense, but is otherwise a cool way to approach the game. His hero unit is fine right now… especially if you bring the other UNSC leaders up to par on weapon attacks out the gate with their leaders. All his leader powers seem pretty balanced and useful. He is all about inspiring and doing a lot of damage with a minimal amount of troops on the field. His passive buffs are awesome. His omega team may need some fine tuning but I think it’s fine personally. Like I said Commander Jerome isn’t gonna hit you with a massive zerg army. He’s gonna do it with a precision army composition that is buffed up well. His weakness is just that… a few well placed leader “nukes” and you can pretty much cut his numbers quick… He is also able to be overrun and surrounded easily.
Serena:
-I actually like Serena and what she brings to the game. She like shipmaster, arbiter, and to an extent some of the others is played very uniquely and very much to the strength of her leader abilities. Her powers need to be used in coordination with each other, or they suck. That’s perfectly fine, because if chained together right… they can be devastating.
-Cryotroopers are perfect. They have a slow/freezing effect that is unique, but they do far less damage upgraded than hellbringers. That makes sense. That’s called balance right there.
-The Frostraven is an awesome support unit and i’m glad it’s just that. You don’t need a lot of them and they are easily focused down and destroyed. You let them get out of hand and they can be nasty though.
-Her hero unit however… while awesome is a little bit OP… And unlike Sgt. Forge OP due to sheer damage… Hers is OP because it quite honestly starts to break game mechanics. The deploy mode is a little bit broken. I think it should have a timer. A long timer sure, but a time nonetheless. Too many people are literally rolling into other players bases and basically locking down their economy and everything else. It’s a game changer and their really is no way to counter it. It could be a cool strategy if the Bison was on a timer. Meaning that it’s a tactic that can be used but it’s not an “I win” button. It’s a decision that the Serena player would have to use, and it would have the chance of maybe backfiring if the other player has a good recovery plan. As it stands, there is almost no way to truly counter it. You can get lucky and stop it maybe if the Serena player doesn’t get you in time with it and some cryotroopers… but other than that it’s pretty much GG.
-Fix this and I think Serena is actually in a pretty damn good place. Her leader abilities are strong/annoying, but once again you have to utilize them in combination with her freezing units. You have to really plan with Serena when it comes to using all that. If you don’t… I think we all see that her armies get trashed quickly.
Go to Part 3
Part 3:
Banished Leaders:
Atriox:
-Atriox is in a good place. Like Captain Cutter, his leader wheel is one of the best in the game. It’s a great starting leader for Halo Wars 2 and just like Cutter he feels very deep to master, but also easily accessible by first time players. He has a little of everything in that leader wheel.
-His Hero unit is solid… I can’t say too much needs to be done here. However, I don’t use Atriox too much so that’s debatable.
-I think people don’t give 343 enough credit sometimes when they do good things. Atriox, Decimus, Jerome, Colony, Anders, are their best examples yet of balancing leaders.
Decimus:
-I also don’t see too much wrong with Decimus. When you fight against Decimus you know you are gonna get a siphoned bloodlust army that’s going to hit you not really “faster” than other leaders… but definitely with the potential to be rougher. His quick damage buffs and siphoning abilities make his armies devastating to play against.
-His warlord I feel is in a pretty good place. He might need some fine tuning, and maybe even his ultimate Decimus drop as well… But overall I think he is in one of the more balanced states.
ShipMaster:
-Shipmaster is awesome. He truly feels like the rogue/stealthy annoying leader of the game… and that’s not a bad thing. He is easily beatable if you play him right… because his Armies have 0 true buffs. catch him off guard without his get away abilities and Shipmaster’s armies fall quick. He’s all about hit and run and being sneaky and I like that. He has been toned down quite a bit and it’s been for the better. A very good micro managing player can be deadly and honestly have a lot of fun with shipmaster. I really think he is not too OP in any way. Annoying maybe… but that’s part of his gameplan.
-With that being said… I think he needs one buff. His hero unit. I think the honor guard should be permanently cloaked. Yes… I said it. I think he should be permanently cloaked out the gate. He’s not very strong, and really he’s like a hero scout /A-hole unit. I like that. Make it to where when you play against shipmaster you know you need a detector out pretty early to deal with him. Both factions easily have those available by the time he is at your base so it’s not that it can’t be countered.
-Will you get a lot of “our base is under attack” at little outposts and stuff? Absolutely… Players will send him at you nonstop… But you know what? That’s part of his style. Fast attack, hit and run, constant pestering style gameplay.
Colony:
-Besides having the coolest leader voice in the game… Colony is just awesome. I don’t see too much wrong with him here.
-Hunter’s brand is a quick unit killer and that’s okay. It’s not always a game changer and it’s not OP by any means. 3 colony players can get annoying… but then again so can any 3 players. Doesn’t mean they will win the game either.
-Hunter Captain is in a better place. I think that when he uses Taunt that he should get a temporary buff to defense to counter everyone then blasting him to bits… and I think he should have a shorter cooldown on it. It basically makes him a linebreaker unit and I like that.
-Goliaths after this recent patch are lot more viable but still seems just a tad bit weak. They remind me of ultralisks… I think they need to be beefier. These should be the single best early on building smashers in the game. They should also tear through infantry best too. They need to be slightly more damaging than Hellbringers/Elite enforcers/Jumpack brutes.
-Skitterers are cool.
-Increase the initial circle ranges of his vehicle symbiosis. It needs to be able to affect more vehicles at a time.
Arbiter:
-Arbiter kind of like Shipmaster in some ways… and some ways not. He needs to have I think some increases to his buffs for units. Also, make is leader power abilities faster cooldown and cheaper. This plays into his “using a lot of leader power” buff. The plasma bolt needs to be buffed a bit. It’s kind of weak even at max rank just doesn’t seem to do much because by then the enemies higher tier units are buffed up too.
-His Arbiter hero unit recently got buffed, but not quite enough. This guy needs to be truly an offensive close range linebreaker when he charges your line. He’s a beast and needs to be made so. You should fear the arbiter.
-Phantom needs to be made a little more defensive. It’s not horrible, but it could use some love.
-Elite Enforcers are awesome and I don’t too much needs to be changed with them at all.
Anyhow, I’m sure i missed a bunch of things but thought I’d do this for fun and hope some Devs maybe take a few ideas and think about them!
Thanks!