Nerf managarmrs

[TheCryptoSorrow]

Nerf managarmrs

Managarmrs require a proper nerf. They still ruin the game in their current state.

Managarmrs abuse one of the game limitations and mechanics called rendering distance. They simply render in and one shot you leaving almost no time for a reaction. There should not be a single creature in the game capable of moving at such a speed that the time between the moment it renders in and the moment you are already dead is equal to a couple of seconds. This opportunity to render in and deliver a one shot ruins the game for everyone else solely.

The freezing effect and super extremely high damage output makes them game breaking. Essentially a well bred managarmr one shots 99% of in-game creatures a player may have. Its not a kill with a single hit but it is a freeze&death during the freezing duration without any opportunity to do something. Prior to the extinction release griffins, wyverns or pteras (before flyer nerf) were apex pvp mounts. These were manageable for a foot player. With supreme skill advantage there was a counter strategy for an undergeared player to beat any of them with the use of firearms, grapples, encumberance mechanics etc. The only viable way to take down a good mana is to outgrind it and bring things that are essentially more valuable and harder to obtain than the mana you are going to kill with it.

On top of this the creature is a no risker.

- Wyvern is high risk high reward tame as you need to collect its eggs if you lose a wyv in the fight.

- Griffin is high risk high reward as you need to re tame a new one if you lose your griffin.

- Reaper is super high risk and high reward as you need to get impregnation again.

- Giga is medium risk medium reward as it takes long to raise a baby and it yelds definitely great damage with super low mobility. A giga can not decide the outcome of a pvp encounter on its own.

- Rhino is low risk low reward as it can be mass produced and it is decent but again it can't chase down most of its targets and is only viable as a support/burst mount.

- Mana is no risk super high reward as it can be mass produced right at home and it can beat everything 1v1.

 

In its current state managarmr is disbalanced compared to other creatures and thus devalues the viability of the rest in-game content and ruins fun for everyone who is not using them as it can essentially one shot most of the mounts in the game as well as foot players in the best armor.

 

[Ixtha]

What the title says.

Not only managarmrs are the strongest creature in the game that can face-to-face beat almost everything except the top lines of gigas, theriz or rhinos but also their mechanics are extremely toxic and gamebreaking.

 

1. Ambush oneshotter. 

 

There is an optimization measure which is called "rendering distance" in ARK. Literally a player can not spot objects that are further than the "rendering distance" away from him. Essentially managarmr moves so fast that it naturally conflict with the rendering distance which makes it unspottable while in fact it does not have any access to invisibility or any ambushing mechanics. In reality a player has little to no ability to spot managarmr from a safe distance sufficient to timely reaction on its threat. Because the maximum rendering distance is not "safe" due to the crazy speed of managarmr. A player may be cautious enough to investigate the nearby areas before landing however managarmr appears and freezes him to death at random just because rendering distance can be covered in seconds. 

It may not be intended but managarmr has so high DPS that it can destroy anything but top tier creatures in the game in less time that the freeze effect lasts. The combination of ability to move at so high speed that spotting it at a safe distance is impossible and the ability to kill most creatures without any chance of countermeasures is extremely toxic on its own for a game where players of different levels coexist with each other.

It is not a big problem that 150lvl wyvern can not beat managarmr 1v1. However the problem here is that the 150lvl wyvern can be frozen to death WITHOUT ANY POSSIBILITY TO RESPOND upon landing just because 1700melee mana rendered in and spammed the ultra accurate cheatingly powerful breath that has a cheating ability to stun targets for 5 seconds.

 

2. It is unshootable.

Prior to the release of extinction it was possible to snipe the rider of a wyvern, ptera or griffin. In some circumstances it was also possible to shoot the wyvern or griffin to death with the use of battery turrets or capped weapons. In case of managarmr is it absolutely impossible to shoot its rider thanks to the cheating speed and the mana itself can withstand crazy amounts of damage.

A decent griffin may have 10K hp. A decent wyvern may have 20K hp which means that it can withstand 26K dmg with 30% imprinting bonus. A decent mana can have 20K HP with a saddle that makes it capable of withstanding 120K dmg (like really, 4x more than a wyvern). However someone can level mana up to 30K or even 50K HP. So you need 300K dmg to reliably kill a mana as opposed to 10 to 30K dmg needed to kill pre-extinction creatures. Sniping the rider is no longer a strategy at all. A player can not even dismount to aim because mana can cover the shootable distance in less time than is needed to kill the rider with capped fabby.

 

3. Mana is overgrindy

Some may say that it's not a problem that the managarmr is so strong because players are in the same conditions. Don't like to be killed by manas? - Ok, use mana yourself. 

Seems logical but it is not actually viable. Tamed managarmrs are as good as raptors in pvp. It should be noted that mana vs mana fight is just a straightforward clash of stats with little to no room for tactics, maneuvers or strategy. The one with better stats/saddle wins in almost any circumstances (given that the level of skill of both players are equal). In griffin vs griffin or wyvern vs wyvern fight a player that is in a disadvantage stat-wise will attempt to pick of the enemy and use the value of this maneuver to counter the stat advantage however in mana vs mana fight there is no analogue.
In reality this means that there is no way to counter these top mana lines that are worth years of progress with anything less grindy.

Prior to extinction a player could fight competitively by day 2. The top pvp creatures were griffins, wyverns, golems and reapers. A player could obtain a griffin in a matter of days. None of these creatures are breedable and requere years of unwiped progress to establish a competitive line. With managarmrs it changed a lot. Now a player has no option but run away from any bred managarmr. Because there is no way to be competitive that does not involve something less grindy that the managarmr itself.

Another managarmr? - Years of breeding.
Z + pocket giga? - Tamed giga does not work. You need a giga line so years of breeding as well.
Z + theriz? - Years of breeding.
Rhino? - Breding ...

Y + battery turrets? - Well, how much turrets and arb one need to deliver 300K damage to the creature?

Please, correct me if I'm wrong and a tactic of beating managarmrs with something that does not involve things that are actually more expensive than the targeted managarmr do exist.
 

4. Managarmas in general do not bring anything good to the game

Definitely there are players that like managarmrs (mostly those who prefer outgrinding advantage over the competitive fighting). However there are plenty of others who would like to be competitive without investing years in this game. The good point would be the ability of equal choices where a player would be free to pick his option of preferences for the fight. You like a bloodstalker? - use it. You like a wyvern? - use it. You like a griffin? - use it.
Although its not how the game is balanced right now. You like anything but managarmr - well, you can have a lot of fun until someone with 449lvl overgrindy mana will come. Then you run away and have no ability to stand your ground at all.

There is a good question whether such a feature has merits to exist in the game or not. At the end the game intends to deliver FUN for players. A feature like "Nuclear bomb: charges for 15 minutes then wipes out every player, every creature and every structure at the server" does not seem to be promoting competitive and fun gameplay. It will deliver nothing but frustration for a lot of players to simply realize that someone just used this feature on their server and wiped them on occasion. It does not matter how expensive this feature will be. It does not matter that everyone has access to it and is free to use it themselves. The feature will just bring more frustration than fun.

Managarmrs do bring some new mechanics to the game. Since the release of extinction the ground fights and ground creatures have seen their new shine. Players started using theriz, gigas, rhinos and even spinos sometimes.

At the other hand a lot of previously usable creatures became redundant: pteras, wyverns, griffins, reapers, golems. Sniping turned into a redundant mechanic that is only used at raids or ob pvp but never in world pvp cases. The whole competitive gameplay where a highly skilled player could competitively co-exist with alphas and have the ability to defend himself from top tier creatures with just prim shotgun and a couple of grapples degraded to the level where you either have something that more grindy than manas or just run from manas.

If the goal of this update was to make aerial creatures less viable and promote ground fights then it was possible to do it in a more conservative way - just make stamina regeneration of flying creatures a raw number instead of % amount or make flying creatures unable to take off and fly away for some time after getting hurt.

Anyways, in the current situation managarmrs ruin a lot of fun mechanics of the game. Way more than the amount of mechanics they introduce instead.