perhaps they key to balance volt sol. gains is to make him gain solar only for healing actual players (no creeps, his heal bot or the leon clones) that way you force him to play in team while nerfing a little bit the attack build because they are usually players that tends to heal creeps while the drones destroy the towers and gain insanely solar for that levaing the rest of the team to be killed

that will still make the drone build a good build but wont sky rocket his solar gain making it more "fair" to the others chars that only gain solar for killing even while voltar still will have 2 ways of gaining it for full support builds.

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PSN id: QUAKeR---
Valar Morghulis - Valar dohaeris

That would actually severely cripple Voltar's gain of money, because unless investing into an aggressive build, he has very little ability to sustain his solar gain through healing, mostly because teammates usually run around like crazy (especially Leons and Froggies), so unless you're lucky and have a Yuri or Clunk who stays with you, you won't be able to gain solar from healing, and are forced to invest into attack builds. Additionally, the healbeam money skill already is pretty much an investment early game (200something solar).

I would suggest removing the money gain from the Leon clones, and Voltar's drones and healbots, but keep it for the creep drones (which are in quite a lot of cases support Voltar's main money resource).

Okay, so while I have nothing interesting to say about the characters specifically, I DO have something to say about the way the game is set up, and how that indirectly unbalances some games.

1st: Unlocking skill items through your level.
Some of the items you unlock are easily the best for some specific skills, although it also greatly depends on how you want to build a character, I'd say that for an example; Leon's melee attack health steal is the best item for his melee attacks. (Especially early game).
I never really thought it was a good idea to limit your skills based on how much you've played the game. This means that new players feel inadequate, also when you prestige your favorite build is most likely not available, so you'll have to play with a not so efficient build obviously.
Any thoughts on this?

2nd: Dropping in and out of games! I was just playing a games as Froggy, and I totally destroyed my opponents. Now, obviously I have a prefix on how I want to build my character, but I also adjust to my enemies playstyle/choice of characters. Now, as I said, I was doing pretty good, having the most kills, although my team weren't keeping up too well, so it was pretty much a stalemate... untill the worst player from their team dropped out, and another one joined... NOW, because the game automatically sets your level to the average of all the players, we were all of a sudden up against a much greater opponent than before, and a totally new character too! So not only were we totally unprepared for this, but they got a boost to their team, just because some guy dropped out. About 3 minutes after he joined, we lost.

3rd: Starting a new game! More than once have I seen our first tower taken down 30% of the way before our team even spawns! That is such a BIG advantage for their team! Rushing at the start of the game is really a problem that needs to be looked into.

So what can we do about no. 2 & 3? Well, we could make lobbies first of all, as someone already mentioned (Which made me a happy little boy, because then I don't feel so alone!).
Also, a possible "fix" to counter people leaving is to
1. No solar exp for next map.
2. Get a loss on your stats.
3. Take the LoL way and put a delay on when you can play an online game again. (Like 5-10 minutes), I am aware that sometimes your internet just flips or you really just have to go, so a 5-10 minute "ban" wouldn't seem too bad.
And last, but not least, don't let the game start before all players are ready, because by god, I hate getting into a new game where we're already losing!

Also, whoever said the thing about making bots optional... I really do want that, because the bots are really annoyingly bad. They get themselves killed in the first minute if the other team is focusing enough firepower, because the bot goes to the middle of the map from the start anyway, so it's a really easy target. Also... I noticed how bots are just waiting outside of tower range if nothing is happening and there are no creeps, so if I go to collect some solar in tower range for a quick dash out, the bot thinks I want to attack the tower and joins me, so the bot takes some tower damage... That's annoying as hell!

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if im not wrong is wothless (mathematically) to start the game with dreams of greed so spending those 200 at the beggining is a bad strategy in the other hand i think it would just make the level gain even, and the fact that your team members run away like crazy is obviously and expected is the voltar player the one that should be chasing them, support characters are not meant to be static in one position throwing heal just to the front so that will also improve the voltar level of playing (its not random that he can fly and heal diagonally and down)

in any case probably eliminating the solar gain from the creeps and adding a little extra for healing players is a good push in the right direction of making voltar a more "support" type character instead of a "one-man army" i understand that with 6 players you need to make him aggro but as other characters enter the cast he MUST be more support based

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PSN id: QUAKeR---
Valar Morghulis - Valar dohaeris

Dreams of Greed doesn't do anything until you are healing by at least +11. After that, you will get 2 Solar for every heal instead of 1. I know it looks like a 5 Solar block, but it only counts as 2.

Not to mention it's something you have to unlock first; Voltar doesn't start the game with the ability.

I have been playing quite a bit as Voltar. I always take dreams of greed first and then heal spam NPCs until I have 130, then a pick up Solar Tree.

At this point I am now uncatchable in level by any other awesomenaut because my income will be so much higher. I had a game last night where I was level 31 and the closest player in level to me was 19....

Even in games against other Voltar players who take drones first, ill always outlevel significantly in the first minutes and by the time they can match my earning potential im a good 5 levels up.

Thats the biggest balance issue in the game at this point in my opinion.

I think a simple way to fix voltar would be to lower his healing done to minions, it would partly fix the solar gain at the same time, and make killing towers less fast and easy unless you are with someone.

On another note, im only commenting on the characters i play, and would like to say that clunk's self destruct should cancel when he dies instead of going off anyway, this promotes ppl just going in and spamming S-D all day long even as they die since they'll prolly get a kill anyway. With the charging -0.9second upgrade and his high hp clunk can just go in a break teamfights all day long without needing any sort of skill.

I would simply suggest to get rid of the fact that he explodes on death, since you should be rewarded for killing him before explosion imo. Maybe make S-D deal more damage on himself too? I mean its a self-destruct right? I dont think 40hp on clunk's very high hp is something we could call a fair drawback.

I love clunk and hes my main with over 150games 88% win. I dont especially play the way i just mentionned, i use ensnare and try to be more an asset to my team, but i find it out of place that just any clunk can grab him and spam explo and get kills too easily. Hell ill be honest and say that even i am a noob for playing him but its just that good.

I'm not saying these things arent counterable, but they are annoying way of playing which makes the whole game experience frustrating for others.

Just my 2cents on the 2 characters i play the most so far.

Agreed the self destruct def feels OP since it goes off automatically if you die, cant tell you how many times ive gotten double and afew times triple kills when i shoulda have died just by hitting SD at the last second. the fact that clunk is almost entirely unsafe to attack if your not at full life because of this is abit absurd tbh, hit SD right before you die VOILA your not feeding massive gamechanger. also i know this has been adressed but the animation for his bubble isnt correct which makes it more annoying to dodge.

Clunk is slow lol he needs to be feared someway and SD is the only way to keep ppl away from him. With out SD he would just get run over. Every character has a move you hate. I dont think its overpowered, just need to learn how to engage him.

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