Warrior General Games

For Corndog and/or Bort’s consideration, and to generate discussion, these are some observations and thoughts on special abilities. I’ll add to the OP as folks bring up good stuff in the discussion that follows. I expect I'll edit this guy multiple times to clean it up and reformat it as folks give useful opinions. Perhaps this can eventually be a guide of sorts on Special Abilities eventually after enough contribution?


Generic Special Abilities

Second Wind:
Ability Type: Passive
Powered by: N/A
Activation Condition: start of 4th quarter, at the 4th quarter 2 minute warning, at the start of overtime.
Activation Chance: 100%
Duration: N/A
While Active: +4/+8/+16 energy and morale, regardless of conditioning or heart skills.

Useful for low Conditioning/Heart players that regularly get sapped of thier blue and green bars towards the start of the 4th quarter. Bronze tier doesn't do much, but at Gold you can get a significant recharge. In any ovetime game, you'll have recharged 3 different times.


Road Warrior:
Ability Type: Passive
Powered by: N/A
Activation Condition: Playing on the visiting team.
Activation Chance: 100%
Duration: entire game.
While Active: +4/+8/+16 to Heart and Toughness, and +0/+4/+8 to Conditioning.

Road Warrior could use a buff to equalize it with Home Town Hero. Right now it's an obviously inferior choice between the two. Predicting home/road games outside of the league schedule isn't easy enough to determine if you should take this over Home Town Hero despite the lower values


Hometown Hero:
Ability Type: Passive
Powered by: N/A.
Activation Condition: Playing on the home team.
Activation Chance: 100%
Duration: entire game.
While Active: +5/+10/+20 to Heart and Toughness, and +0/+5/+10 to Conditioning.

The opposite of Road Warrior, and typically the better choice currently if you're deciding between the two SAs. Most folks who take one, probably take both. Not likely to be taken up to the Gold tier on many builds.


First Step:
Ability Type: Active
Powered by: Quickness
Activation Condition: not moving, or nearly stopped.
Activation Chance: up to 15%/30%/50%
Duration: .3-.6 / .4-.7 / .5-.8 seconds
While Active: Acceleration increased by 30%/80%/150%, and max speed increased by 2%/4%/8%.

Most useful on very fast players that need to accelerate from a stop quickly. High sprinting/quickness WRs and TEs can make excellent use of this to get downfield before coverage can effectively react. Also potentially very useful on quick DEs, DTs, or blitzing LBs that want to get a very good jump on their would-be blockers. Special teams players get good mileage from this too in getting to their blocking positions or coverage lanes quicker. Will also work if your players movement gets stopped or nearly stopped for any reason such as a turn, or recovering from a knockdown or stun, so it can be fired mid-play sometimes depending on the situation, not just at the beginning of a play.

Time Trial notes:
1) It is an interesting option for Powerbacks who run inside and outside. They would probably be well served from the boost after breaking a tackle as a third SA;
2) Pretty much a Gold or nothing SA... the problem with a lot of these SAs is that there really isn't a benefit to a single point when you get no effect, low activation chance, and a low activation duration; and
3) Because it is powered by quickness, it is tailored to more than simply "100 sprinting" builds.


Passing Special Abilities

Hail Mary:
Ability Type: Active
Powered by: Pass Power
Activation Condition: less than 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter, throwing to a receiver in the endzone or more than 30 yards downfield.
Activation Chance: up to 30%/50%/70%
Duration: N/A
While Active: +4/+8/+12 to pass power, pass accuracy, and pass technique. -4/-6/-8 to pass consistency.

Hail Mary seems very under-powered compared to other passing SAs. It’s only available for final 3.33% of the game. You must be throwing deeper than 30 yards, or into the end-zone to have a chance for it to fire. Emphasis on CHANCE, since this SA maxes out at 70% chance at gold, depending upon passing power skill. The bonuses are indeed very strong, but we’re talking about impacting maybe a single pass per game on average, and it’s not like the bonuses guarantee success when they do impact the play. This is all assuming your team even has a chance to throw the ball in the 2 minute window at the end of the game. Lastly, I believe this is the only SA with a negative side effect that gets WORSE as you increase the tier investment from bronze to gold.


Clock Manager:
Ability Type: Passive
Powered by: N/A
Activation Condition: less than 2 minutes to go in the half.
Activation Chance: 25%/60%/90%
Duration: N/A
While Active: +7/+10/+15 to pass consistency and heart. +2/+5/+10 to pass accuracy.

Clock Manager has similar issues to Hail Mary. Its availability is limited to 6.67% of the game. It does have a better activation chance, not relying on a skill to power it, and up to 90% chance at Gold tier. It will work for all throws too, not just bombs and endzones tosses. The bonuses arguably aren’t as good as Hail Mary’s bonuses, but you do get a higher overall stat increase when taking into account Hail Mary’s negative impact on Pass Consistency. The increased likelihood that this SA will actually do something for you in a game makes it more useful than Hail Mary, but that’s not saying much. It’s still vastly inferior to other passing SA options in my opinion. The developers might should consider somehow merging this SA with Hail Mary to develop a better "end of half" SA that would be more enticing.


Quick Read:
Ability Type: Passive
Powered by: Pass Awareness
Activation Condition: passing while not being hurried.
Activation Chance: up to 15%/30%/40%
Duration: .3-.6 / .6-1.0 / 1.0-2.0
While Active: QB checkdown ability is increased by 50%/100%/200%.

Quick Read does exactly what it says it will do. It enables your QB to more quickly read receivers and get to an open receiver. Even at Bronze investment, you’ll see this fire multiple times per game. By Silver tier, it’s firing nearly every passing play with modest pass awareness investment. Since Pass Awareness is already helping your QB read receivers better, and you pump that skill to power this SA, it just snowballs your QBs ability to find good targets and hit them quickly when they come open. Probably a core SA for any passing QB.


Tuck and Run – no experience with this. Seems alright for the right build, but possibly needs to last longer. 2.0-3.0 seconds at Gold maybe? Possibly needs a “Surge” style acceleration bonus too? Maybe toss in +footwork? Most Pocket Passers don’t rollout and/or scramble due to increasing your hurries/sacks by blocked DEs. So scrambling is rare. Most Rushing QBs don’t dropback to throw much, so scrambling is rare. If this skill were stronger, might encourage more agents to set their QBs to higher scrambling frequencies to try and utilize it.

Pump Fake – no comments. Seems fine.

On the Run – no comments. Seems fine.


Ball Carrier SAs

Stiff Arm – seems fine. Need to clarify the morale damage impacts in the tooltip though. All other such SAs spell that information out in detail.

Freight Train – No real opinion on this SA. Doesn’t seem heavily utilized yet. Probably a 2nd or 3rd SA for some powerbacks, so might not see it till professional/veteran tier much. May need a buff to make it more interesting compared to stuff like Mr. Reliable or Power Through. Then again, it’s synergy may be overpowered as is when we see it at Veteran. Wait and see.

Grinder – Not very sexy. Outclassed by Goalline Back in many ways. Useful for longer 3rd/4th conversions. May need a small buff to make it more interesting.

Surge – seems fine. Less popular than some other SAs due to the inside running play limitations. Awfully short timer on activation. May need a slight buff to increase interest?

Spin – seems fine. Odd that it improves power running rolls yet reduces grip and balance? Seems kinda counterintuitive for the combo back that might be interested in its power running impacts. Interesting for an elusive back though still. Rarer, but more powerful activation impact on elusive running rolls than Juke.

Power Through – Seems fine. Core Powerback skill. No comment.

Brace for Impact – Seems fine. Weaker than Mr. Reliable, but has a wider range of activation chances, and activates when you need it specifically.

Mr. Reliable – Seems Fine. No comment.

Juke – seem fine. Core elusive back skill. No comment.

Goalline Back – seems fine. No comment.


Pass Catcher SAs

Slot Machine – Can’t say I’ve seen this fire? Anyone got a link? Description seems useful if it’s working.

Head Fake – Seems fine. Pretty powerful skill on the right builds.

Prime Time – Seems fine. Core Possesion Receiver SA or for a team wide morale strategy.

YAC Attack – Seems fine. Core Power Receiver SA. Potentially nasty synergy with Power Through and Mr. Reliable/Slot Machine.

Catch in Stride – Seems fine. Useful on Homerun threat type builds.


Blocking SAs

Beat Down – Seems fine. Synergy with Pancake Chef. Knock Down buff most useful on Special Teams to keep tackler down during longer time it takes to develop the play.

You’re Next – Seems fine. Useful on pancake builds. Not a primary SA. Needs pancake chef to synergize with IMO. Maybe a bit longer activation time?

Strong Arm – Seems fine. Core pass blocker skill.

Leverage – Seems fine. Core pass blocker skill.

Wide Load – Seems fine. Core pass blocker skill. Why not available on Centers? Also, pass blocking options are clearly more limited than run blocking.

Immov. Object – Seems fine. Core run blocking skill. Least interesting though. Why also based on power with Get Low when the comparable pass blocking skills have a tech/power split on base skill?

Get Low – Seems fine. Core run blocking skill. Very popular.

Pancake Chef – [Bias rant] Why isn’t this available for pass blocking? It’s synergy with Beatdown and You’re Next ought to have it based on Intimidation too instead of run block tech. Would greatly help with the Special Teams bias to run blocking heavy teams too. [/Bias rant]

Goalline Blocker – Seems fine. No comment.

Pull Specialist – Seems fine. No comment.

Recommendation: Add a new SA called “Peel Back”. Similar to Pull Specialist, but for Pass Blocking.
Ability Type: Active.
Powered by: Pass Block Awareness.
Activation Condition: Not engaged in a block while pass blocking.
Activation Chance: 15%/30%/50%
Duration: 0.6-1.2/1.2-2.0/2.0-3.0
While Active: +5/+8/+12 Sprinting, Quickness, Footwork. All Pass block technique rolls guaranteed to be at least 30%/50%/75%.


Pass Rushing/Block Breaking Special Abilities

Spin Cycle – Seems fine. Core Pass Rusher skill. Very effective.

Shed Block:
Ability Type: Active
Powered by: Break Run Block
Activation Condition: winning a one-on-one run blocking interaction.
Activation Chance: up to 10%/20%/40%
Duration: N/A
While Active: side-to-side swim movement power is maximized. 0%/50%/75% chance to stun opposing blocker.

Similar to Spin Cycle, but for breaking run blocks. Not terribly effective or noticeable at Bronze tier due to the lack of a stun effect. Maybe a good argument for adding a small chance to stun at 25% or so? Once you can get the stun effect at Silver and Gold tier, much more useful.

Examples:
http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/replay/61909/267999?player_id=11795
http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/replay/57923/438131?player_id=11801
http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/replay/63873/597144?player_id=11779
http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/replay/61909/267091?player_id=11779

Tunnel Vision – Seems fine. Core Pass Rusher skill.

Goalline Stand – Seems fine. No comment.

Unstopp. Force – Seems fine. Less popular maybe. Counter to the run power/get low type blockers.

Beat Down – Same as above for offensive players. Seems fine.

Trash Talk – Seems fine in description. Doesn’t seem like it fires nearly at the rate it’s supposed to fire though. Possibly broken? Or maybe the toughness required to defend against it stops it from firing all-together instead of simply reducing its impact? Could use some clarification on how this SA works perhaps. Of course, if this SA worked as described at the activation chance it’s described, it’d be potentially Overpowered against Passing teams. Especially if you can stack more than one trash talk per play. Also, doesn’t seem to work on rushing plays, despite the description not specifically limiting it to blitzing passing plays.


Tackling/Pursuit SAs

Monster Hit – Seems fine. No comment.

Death Grip – Seems a bit weak. Potentially very useful in an synergy with Opportunist against power backs though. Likely a rarer seen SA for that purpose. You’d want Opportunist before you bothered with Death Grip I think. Maybe an improvement would be to also counter Freight Train and slow down the rusher as well.

Closing Speed – Seems fine. No comment.

Showboat – Possibly Overpowered? 18 morale damage to the entire offense is a huge, huge blow. By far the most impactful “morale” skill in the game, and it’s not close. Has the ability to determine the outcome of a game on its own with a concerted defensive effort to leverage it. At silver rank it’s already devastating. At gold rank, it’s absurdly powerful. Not to mention, its morale boost for the entire defense allows for skimping on the usual morale boosting skills. 100% passive activation on sacks and TFLs is a big part of what makes it such a good SA. What’s not to love about this SA?

Opportunist – Seems fine. Interesting anti-power back skill. Rarer chance to use against an elusive back that doesn’t drag players.


Coverage SAs

Pick Six – Interceptions are rare. Interceptions with the opportunity for return are rarer. For an SA that might have a chance to activate at most a dozen times an entire season later in player builds, this guy needs to be considerably more powerful. 50% chance to activate based on Balance needs to be 100% and passive. Double the duration. If I’ve gotten an interception and bothered to take this SA, it needs to fire. Even with all that, it’s a 3rd skill at most simply because INTs, especially those with return opportunities aren’t common at lower tiers. Not common enough to burn a whole SA on them. Assuming we see players getting 12-18 INTs or more at Veteran, it might be useful, but even then it’s not ever going to be a primary SA to build around.

Eyes on the Prize – Seems alright. Better than Pick Six. The limitation to underneath zones might should be dropped and made to work for all zones. I’ve seen shell safeties jump routes in the NFL. Would see more safeties taking it since most teams run M2M schemes.

Chase Down – Seems fine. A secondary skill for M2M defender though.

Third Down Stopper – Seems fine. No comment.

On an Island – Recently fixed, but still does some odd things like fire after tackles and such. Seems useful. Popular M2M SA.


Kicker/Punter SAs

Chip Shot – no experience. Does this work? Seems useful by description. Might want to buff the range it can impact though. I could see it being more popular if it worked out to 30 yards for gold tier.
Coverage Commander – Works on Punters. Broken on Kickoffs. Seems useful if/when it works.

Streaky – no experience with this. It’s a gold or nothing SA. You don’t want the bronze or silver version. Definitely a 3rd SA. Not worth taking till later in the build when skills are better to leverage it better.

Three and Out – Seems fine. No comment.

Pinned Deep – no experience with this. Seems fine from description.

Protect the Lead – no experience with this. Seems fine from the description.

Inspire Fear – no experience with this. Seems fine from description. Interesting synergy with coverage commander.

Celebration – Does this work? You don’t get a popup at the end of a FG for it. I’ve not bothered to analyze player morale before/after FGs to see if it’s ever firing.

Entrapment – no experience with this. Assuming it works, very similar to celebration above. Useful for a morale SA strategy.

Follow Up – Seems fine. Useful for the single kicker team that would like more touchbacks.

Laces Out – Seems fine. No comment.

Originally posted by Galithor



Generic SAs

Road Warrior – Why not balanced with hometown hero? Possibly worth combining with Hometown Hero and renaming the new SA? Seems like an awfully big investment to take both to significant ranks, and taking Hometown Hero first is always the clearly better choice IMO.

Hometown Hero – see above. If combining RW and HTH is worthwhile, maybe lessen the power of the new SA slightly for the advantage of having its impact every game. Or maybe make it powerful starting from Bronze, but do 25%/50%/75% chance to activate for a game as the bronze/silver/gold upgrades.



I love this idea - call it "Feeds of the Crowd" or something and group them up.

Basically agree with everything you've said.

I do think Chip Shot is too weak - the situation doesn't happen enough



thanks for putting that together

Originally posted by TxSteve
I love this idea - call it "Feeds of the Crowd" or something and group them up.

Basically agree with everything you've said.

I do think Chip Shot is too weak - the situation doesn't happen enough



thanks for putting that together



Agree on chip shot.

I think that 3 star HtH and RW is pretty much going to be limited to K/P builds for the big boost to conditioning.

Definitive no on combining hth and rw.

Originally posted by bhall43
Definitive no on combining hth and rw.

Why not? Care to share a more elaborate opinion? Something you saw from the test server perhaps?

Sa's need to be more about hard choices than let's combine good sa's to make them not choices anymore.

Originally posted by Galithor
Why not? Care to share a more elaborate opinion? Something you saw from the test server perhaps?

Becomes a stand-alone huge boost (above the caps) to skills that people can then ignore.

Why would you go above 1 stamina if you could get +10, 15, or 20 conditioning from an SA that was always on?

Originally posted by Time Trial
Becomes a stand-alone huge boost (above the caps) to skills that people can then ignore.

Why would you go above 1 stamina if you could get +10, 15, or 20 conditioning from an SA that was always on?

I agree with that. But if you're willing to spend 12 Ability points as it currently works, you get exactly that, a standalone boost to skills that you can ignore.

What if you replaced them with a single ability that does the same thing, but had some scaled % chance to activate per game?

Originally posted by Galithor
I agree with that. But if you're willing to spend 12 Ability points as it currently works, you get exactly that, a standalone boost to skills that you can ignore.

What if you replaced them with a single skill that does the same thing, but had a 30%/50%/70% chance to activate per game?

If I'm already investing in them both on some players, I would obviously love to save 6 AP.

The problem is, there are so many good SAs out there that "do something" that I doubt that I would use this SA unless I thought that I could gold it. There aren't many builds where I would Gold this SA despite the changes.

Originally posted by Galithor
I agree with that. But if you're willing to spend 12 Ability points as it currently works, you get exactly that, a standalone boost to skills that you can ignore.

What if you replaced them with a single ability that does the same thing, but had some scaled % chance to activate per game?

That is awful.

Originally posted by Time Trial
If I'm already investing in them both on some players, I would obviously love to save 6 AP.

The problem is, there are so many good SAs out there that "do something" that I doubt that I would use this SA unless I thought that I could gold it. There aren't many builds where I would Gold this SA despite the changes.

What if you got the current HTH Gold bonuses at bronze and silver, and it were merely the % chance to activate that changed with each tier? There's lots of ways to balance these guys to potentially make them more interesting choices. I just don't feel like either Home Town Hero or Road Warrior are very interesting right now, and Road Warrior certainly isn't compared to it's stronger brother.

Originally posted by bhall43
That is awful.

Cool. Thanks for the input.

I'm fine with putting road warriors functioning at the same level as hth, but combining them is exactly what this game needs less of and turning them into a % chance firing is an absolute fucking nightmare.

Originally posted by bhall43
I'm fine with putting road warriors functioning at the same level as hth, but combining them is exactly what this game needs less of and turning them into a % chance firing is an absolute fucking nightmare.

Yes, especially since you don't ever see them activate.

never mind - forgot about the non-heart bonuses