I think defender is a different caste from warrior, and that’s fine. Warrior does not have to be defender, defender does not have to be Warrior. They are similar in a lot of ways, and Warrior is way better for a vast majority of players.
Defender simply has bad dmg and worse abilities then Warrior. So in the actual output, warrior deals much more dmg and much more CC and moves the enemy a lot more and can more or less survive the same when combined with teammates - it focuses its output a lot more on a single target which is what you want in a caste because that is how you pick apart a front (one marine at a time) - being a bullet sponge is really unnecessary since that also means your slower, especially to engage and disengage. And your usage to allies is more dependent on position and pressure anyway. Defender because of its worse abilities and dmg cannot pressure nearly as much without lots of teamwork, while warrior can do a lot more with less (and more so because of its ability as a support to defend a position almost undeniably with enough skill).
So your ability to be safe is more dependent on your pressure then just your health and armor. Because with significant undeniable pressure the enemy cannot approach, while in defenders case, health and armor and weaker abilities, the enemy can’t reach their intended target instead of being scared for their life - they might just ignore you and try anyway which is much more dangerous and unreliable for both you and your teammates.
A defender will tail slam or knock u down, maybe fling u 3 tiles if ur in a rly bad position or stunned. A warrior will stun you in that same situation, drag you 5 tiles, then fling you 3 tiles. In situation 1 you don’t die and just walk away. In situation 2 you have a very high likelihood of perma. That’s why warrior is a stronger support caste - you may output more technically with a 9 person tail knockdown, but in reality marines are selfish and will avoid and “play worse” in situation 2 in far more situations.
I know some runners that can wipe half of shipside, but if we balanced around competent players can do with high skill ceiling toolkits, the MK2 would be removed.
dont tell him why the barrel charger was removed and eb was made almost useless and shit keeps getting nerfed
warrior before it got nerfed like 6 times in a row:
people will still die to it because it has insane positioning impact and thats the only thing that matters
1v1 scenarios make almost no sense because outside of lowpop backline/shipside you’ll never engage a warrior like that
Woyer is probably my least favorite T2 caste. I haven’t played it much though, I haven’t bothered to learn it’s combo (lunge→fling) so I’m not really using it right, but yeah woyer is why I don’t like the defender line.
Come to think of it, does woyer require the most skill out of all combat T2 castes to be viable? Spitter can take pot shots with spit and spray at a distance, and lurker can leap on lone marines to get fracs/kills. While woyer you HAVE to have that specific combo to be good, and lunging at a marine without excellent positioning will quickly get you killed?
Come to think of it, does woyer require the most skill out of all combat T2 castes to be viable?
yeah pretty much, there are areas where Warrior is pretty easy to pilot, but it’s objectively the easiest caste to die with if you make any significant mistakes
scenario: you lunge/pounce out of a walled position at a group of three marines separated by a single (empty) tile of space, you’re three tiles away from the wall you came from, and four tiles away from any other defensive position that lets you break LOS. consider what every caste does to escape/deal with the scenario
