Hey all. It's me again - the guy who requested that Snipers be limited because they're pretty powerful. This time, I had an idea for a way to fix what is widely agreed to be one of, if not VSH's absolute weakest boss character. I've almost never seen an experienced VSH player happy to play Horsemann, and it's really unfortunate. I find Horsemann to be really fun despite his severe flaws. But, a brief tangent.
Recently Trolldier was added, and among his many unique qualities included (for the most part) no knockback while he's airborne. This was to compensate for the need for good Market Gardening skills since that's primarily Trolldier's way of getting effective kills. More simply put, the high skill floor of Trolldier is what justifies such an immense advantage over other Hales.
But I think this would be a great buff for Horsemann, too. Not for skill reasons, obviously, but moreso for mobility reasons. Horsemann might kill everyone the same for just a hit, but the one thing everyone gripes about is his lack of mobility in comparison to most other Hales.
Quick bullet list on what makes wall jumps + teleport less effective than regular Super Jump:
The first two of these would be solved by no aerial knockback - sure, Horsemann still might not be able to move too well, but you're not going to stop him from getting where he wants to go. Much like the old Horsemann, mm? It would make life so much easier for Horsemann so that one Pyro mashing M2 or a Scout with half-decent aim couldn't completely ruin his ability to catch important targets, like Medics, or the last Scout standing.
Of course the issue with this is what about more mobile classes that jump around...Trolldiers, Demomen, Pyros with flares, etc. For these playstyles, teleport needs to be reworked. There's two ways to go about doing this.
I think these two things would go a long way for Horsemann. He'd still be relatively underpowered, but it would fix two of his biggest issues, would make him a lot more fun to play, and would certainly make people less apprehensive about playing him. He's been "bad" forever...let's give him a little love, yeah?
TL;DR Removing aerial knockback from Horsemann's wall jumps and reworking his teleport so that it's not a useless gimmick would make this character a pretty respectable Hale.
Recently Trolldier was added, and among his many unique qualities included (for the most part) no knockback while he's airborne. This was to compensate for the need for good Market Gardening skills since that's primarily Trolldier's way of getting effective kills. More simply put, the high skill floor of Trolldier is what justifies such an immense advantage over other Hales.
But I think this would be a great buff for Horsemann, too. Not for skill reasons, obviously, but moreso for mobility reasons. Horsemann might kill everyone the same for just a hit, but the one thing everyone gripes about is his lack of mobility in comparison to most other Hales.
Quick bullet list on what makes wall jumps + teleport less effective than regular Super Jump:
- The biggie - it makes it hard to dodge. Horsemann is constantly grounded without walls to jump and do small strafes off of. Likewise, his dependence on them can make his movement pretty predictable as opposed to other Hales who can do some powerful strafes to get past their opponents' shots and get in for a kill.
- Sort of going off this, Horsemann's main traversal doesn't leave too much in the way for strafing around and avoiding shots, especially after the nerf to his climb height. If he gets airblasted, or hit by any strong enough hit (Sniper Rifle, Rocket hit, Loose Cannon, etc.) then he has to do it all over again which allows most classes to put even more distance against a Hale that already lacks good mobility.
- Teleport should theoretically make up for the lack of Super Jump but, let's be honest, 90% of the time you don't teleport to who you're hoping to teleport too, and half of the time you DO get to who you want to teleport to, you're inactive too long and they can get away. You then have to wait another long 45 seconds to roll the dice again. Super Jump takes you where you want, to who you want, and the recharge time is astronomically shorter. Teleport is a gimmick at best.
The first two of these would be solved by no aerial knockback - sure, Horsemann still might not be able to move too well, but you're not going to stop him from getting where he wants to go. Much like the old Horsemann, mm? It would make life so much easier for Horsemann so that one Pyro mashing M2 or a Scout with half-decent aim couldn't completely ruin his ability to catch important targets, like Medics, or the last Scout standing.
Of course the issue with this is what about more mobile classes that jump around...Trolldiers, Demomen, Pyros with flares, etc. For these playstyles, teleport needs to be reworked. There's two ways to go about doing this.
- You could make Teleport scare whoever Horsemann teleports to. This would basically guarantee a kill for whoever Horsemann teleports to, and yes. That's fair when you have to wait 45 seconds for a random chance dice roll. If Trolldier is the last one standing, it's finally not impossible to catch him without using Teleport + Rage, and due to the solo rage condition, it's very easy for Horsemann to waste that rage. Stunning the person he teleports to to secure a kill would make it a much more worthwhile ability.
- On the other hand, just get rid of the stun that ONLY HORSEMANN experiences for some reason. Why is that even a thing? So people have a chance to react to and get away from the least mobile Hale in the game? Awful balancing choice.
I think these two things would go a long way for Horsemann. He'd still be relatively underpowered, but it would fix two of his biggest issues, would make him a lot more fun to play, and would certainly make people less apprehensive about playing him. He's been "bad" forever...let's give him a little love, yeah?
TL;DR Removing aerial knockback from Horsemann's wall jumps and reworking his teleport so that it's not a useless gimmick would make this character a pretty respectable Hale.
