Okay, my first posting on this Forum. I've tried to read the whole thing back when it was only 15 pages. Then my charger broke and 2 days later it was up to 22 pages. So I more or less gave up on that. So I'll just talk about my experience based on the several hours I played.

I made it up to about level 9, and in that frame I won about, um, 2 Games? I guess. I dunno, I'm pretty bad a video games sometimes, but I still managed to have fun. Never really felt like rage quitting. Probably because review sites warned me that I'd be at a disadvantage? Which is a good thing in my back, helped me to just enjoy the game. I also remember being thrown into some pretty bad sessions where my team's first turret was already half dead, but eh.

I find it funny how people were talking about how Leon is overpowered and good for beginners, not because I disagree, the little jerk is the ban of my existence 1v1. I just don't know how in the 20 bucks to use him. Of course that's mostly my own dang fault, jumping out of stealth simply because I have an itchy trigger finger and jumping around while slashing like I'm still holding a gun. Although I swear the range on the thing is screwed up, while I was playing as Froggy G to the Drizzle, I was running away from him, and even though I was still a considerable distance away from his sword, it hit me anyway, eventually killing me. Not sure what witchcraft was at work there, but it was "totally whack how fish dude was all up in my water grill."
Froggy's words.

That being said, I don't really all that agree with the ideas to nerf him. Making him jump out of invisibility when hit seems to just make the power downright useless in a game where bullets and explosions are flying around the screen all the time. I'm not against hints to him being around, like a small dust cloud that appears when he jumps and lands, but it just seems to take a lot of fun out of stealth when you can just be snapped out of it when you were hit by a renegade bullet. And this is coming from someone who doesn't even use the guy. Also, I think the idea is that he's invisible, and transparent, which would explain why he can't attack while incognito. He'd just be going through the guy without harming him. If he starts taking damage while invisible then it doesn't really make much sense as to why he can't hit back and stay invisible.

I did pretty okay with The Frogster himself all things considered, although if his gun does the same damage as Longstar's pistols then that defiantly seems off to me. My very first thought when I got him was "Oh my god, this gun sucks. Why would anyone use this thing? Oh god, why?" There should be some type of exchange of range for damage. That's the deal with Leon's sword isn't it? Maybe 15-20% more than it already is? Is that a lot?

The two games I won were both with Voltar, which leads me to believe he's either OP, or I'm just a dang good healer. I think it's mostly the later because I did focus mostly on healing droids and teammates. I couldn't heal droids faster then the turret killed them though, and I was pretty easy to scare off, as I was never really quite certain how effective my own orb drones were doing at shooting things cause there were just so much on the screen whenever I got into a scrap. Tried to avoid going 1v1 and mostly had my Teammate Frog-Pac Shacur with me, having him go in and do damage and then rush back to me when he needed health. Also, to the turrets aiming for droids, this may just be an issue for me because I still suck, but the droids fly every which way leading the turrets to shoot all over the place. Now, this isn't as bad as concentrated fire, but since Voltar has a glass jaw, it still led to me backing off, as I constantly found myself getting hit by a large majority of the misfire anyway. But I never tried any turret rushing techniques so it may just be me being a coward.

Longstar is great for pushing back large crowds, an insanely useful tactic for a game described as "tug-of-war" by some reviewers. I mostly focused on upgrading his dynamite though, seeing as how it would be his one attack that would do the most damage.

Leon isnt overpowered - he is beginner friendly.

He is a very good character, but they all are. I cant think of a time where he has been more of a pest than any other of the characters.

This.

Leon seems overpowered because of to things:

A) He is, as Trollem said, easy to use.

B) Most importantly, Leon was designed for 1v1. His stats, skills and upgrades all click together to create a character that can pick out individual character, attack them while they are on their own, and either come out on top or make a succesful retreat. However, because he isn't too good against groups or turrets unless specifically upgraded to be, his power balances out.

The only two things that need to be changed right now are the ones most people agree on:

1. Make turrets ignore Voltar's drones, so his turret pushing effectiveness is lowered to an acceptable level.

2. (edited) Make Yuri cast his time bubble on the move, so it is an actually viable option in battle and build choice.

All other suggestions (Yuri's upgrade cost lowering, Voltar's drone damage lowering, Leon's invisibility shimmering on hit) are optional, but I would advise the devs to hold these ones off for now, and wait until the next patch to implement them if needed.

If Yuri bubble can be instant cast. I would believe that Yuri can beat any other Awesomenaut. If they allow Yuri to move around while casting the bubble I can see that being fair. Yuri can easily kill anyone with damage mines (upgraded to do 70 damage) and slow down bubble if the instant cast is put into the game.

Good point, you have convinced me; I will edit my above post.

Not gonna lie. But I like your idea but I don't think it will be balance. However I will only talk about Yuri because I mainly use him. I won't talk to much about other Awesomenauts because they all have their own role to play.

I also just made an account here. First, let me say I absolutely fell in love with the game. I've never played a MOBA, and this past week I haven't had more fun than now for a long time.

Anyway, I have personally put in a chunk of playtime, and I'm halfway through my first prestige. I have a very good record of wins and K/D ratios with all the characters, so I'd like to think I'm an advanced player. I've played with and against many people and strategies, and I've read all of the posts in this thread so far. With that in mind, I want to state my own personal opinions on the game's balance, and I welcome criticism and replies.

Lonestar

Lonestar's easily the most well-rounded and variable character in the game, in my opinion. Dynamite is incredibly powerful, with huge burst damage, trap capability, and crowd-controlling chaos, all with a very short cooldown. Bull is more situational, but still useful with crowd-control, defense and pinning down players. His blaster is also very solid, and equally viable. Despite this, he still remains balanced with the weaknesses he does have. I wouldn't touch him.

Froggy G

A prime example of a harassment character. Splash Dash has huge utility purposes, and it really is what makes Froggy G so good. Tornado can be very damaging, and combos with Splash Dash like peanut butter to toast. He will annoy and distract players with stuns, and wreck their health with Tornado. It's okay if his early game is poor, because he becomes a force of nature over time. I have to say his fish shotgun is underwhelming, though, as it's too solar consuming for builds when the abilities are far better. The shotgun could be slightly cheaper, but he is just fine nonetheless.

Leon

A large amount of people say he's overpowered. To a small extent, I agree, but not in the same light others may do. Leon is a DPS expert, so it's not surprising how easily he can destroy people. Cloak & Clone always lets him choose his fights, and escape isn't hard either. Tongue Grab will moisten fleeing enemies for the kill. He surpasses even Lonestar in terms of damage potential, IMO.

So what are my issues? Well, like some people have posted, Leon's Cloak being indefinite through damage is a problem. I am a fan of the shimmer suggestion, on the exception that he gets a second or so of time after activation, so he can still have an escape option. I have not seen the "clone army tanking" strat that people have used, but a base health reduction of clones would probably solve that. My other concerns are the lifesteal and slow upgrades for the blade. Both are inexpensive, and slow will literally be impossible for players to escape from, which is overkill for Leon. I would advise weakening slow, and increasing both of their solar prices, so they can't be used immediately at the start of matches.

I think a large factor for people is that they're not being aware of Leon on the opposing team. Make sure to fire off some shots if you're alone, and stay together as much as possible. Leon's strong, but he's still squishy enough that he can't do 2v1s without massive risk. Clunk is a hard counter to Leon, as he's burly, and Explosion will decimate him, especially if Clunk has Bite's ensnare or really most Explosion upgrades.

Clunk

I had a lot of mixed feelings of the big mechanical lug, but in the end, I think he's fairly balanced. Missiles are good and long-ranged hunters, and Bite is very useful to fit the tank role, including the incredible ensnare upgrade. Explosion is the bee's knees, as it's such a massive threat of raw damage and crowd control, and keeps people from ganking him. He's slow as molasses, however, and I haven't seen much variety in builds, so he's also predictable. The only thing I could complain about is the Explosion's displayed radius, which is already being fixed, so yeah, no complaints at all.

Voltar

Another character widely discussed here. Personally, I share the same views as most of you. Voltar is a support character, but once middle-late game approaches, his options can evolve him into full DPS, dedicated support, or even a hybrid. Similar to Froggy G, he can be devastating once he gathers enough solar to upgrade his drones and heals, but in the beginning he is very vulnerable.

Normally, I'd have no problem, but two things have made him much more worrisome than he should be. The first is obviously his drones tanking on turrets. The fact that they can stand up to turrets and destroy them faster than it can kill them is a dilemma, and rush tactics are hard to counter because of this. The idea of turrets ignoring the drones is a good fix, but I would personally lower their base health from 40 to 10. That way, if Voltar wants to tank turrets, he's forced to use the health upgrade, which lowers drone effectiveness greatly, and the strategy, while still available, isn't nearly as good. The other issue is how Voltar's solar gain far exceeds the rest of the cast, and I agree that this should be resolved in some fashion to even him out with others.

Yuri
Hoo boy. Undoubtedly, I'll get flak for my position on my favorite, Yuri. To be entirely truthful, I believe that Yuri is not underpowered, and complaints are mainly coming from just being hard to use. Yuri is a support character, through and through. He is not meant to go up against others and kill like the rest can. All of his kills should stem from indirect means, like luring and air-bombing players with his powerful mines, or picking off distracted and weak foes with his laser. Time Warp has vastly underrated utility once upgraded. It greatly helps Yuri make escapes, heavily annoy enemies, and can make small pushes into huge ones.

Some are saying to remove Time Warp's initial delay. If that happened, then catching a Yuri would be nigh impossible, as he would activate it and fly off easily using it's many upgrades. It would turn into cat-and-mouse, with Yuri only getting caught if he makes a fatal mistake. Increasing the base radius might work, but odds are it'll make the range upgrade pointless.

Yuri isn't nearly as straight-forward like Leon and Clunk are, so it's understandable that many have a hard time of making him work. Leon is a hard counter to him as well, so that further aggravates players. You have to use him with a specific mind-set, and then you'll see how amazingly good Yuri can be. I can say this myself, as I usually do an excellent job with him, excluding the bad teammates you might get in games that any character will suffer with.

Want a TL;DR? Too bad, read it, you lazy bums.

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Steam ID: OverlordCrono
Main: Yuri
Subs: Rest of the cast, I make an effort to be proficient with every character

Want to learn how to use Yuri? Visit my in-depth forum guide: [Link here]

After playing a lot of games with a friend of mine who mains Yuri, I'm starting to agree with what OverlordChrono is saying about him. Besides the fact that Leon completely counters him, Yuri's strengths outweigh his weaknesses. I've seen my friend completely liquify an entire team into free solar with a mine field before, and it makes me wonder why he's the least used character in the game. He's got the tools to be great, I just feel as if his true potential has yet to be unlocked by anyone.

Even though I feel this game is the epitome of balance, I do feel like there should be tweaks. As I said earlier in the thread, I still feel like Voltar's drones shouldn't * around with the turret AI and Leon's clones shouldn't do full damage on turrets. Maybe a tweak to how much solar Voltar gets for healing non-players (clones, his drones, his healbot, etc), but that might be stretching it.

I feel like any more tweaks than that in this game's current state (six playable characters and three maps) would offset the balance that's already in place.

Ronimo, keep up the good work and I can't wait to see more content for this amazing game!

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XBL Gamertag: SovietRon
Mains: Lonestar, Voltar
http://atl.brutalbrainwork.com <---- this site is cool

Voltar needs a solar energy decrease and way less DPS than he's got. His little orbs just shred everything when upgraded and at quite a distance.

Yuri is good but he requires a lot more finesse than the others. Some of his abilities should be tweaked for ease of use. Maybe a very tiny health increase, too.

Leon is the go to guy for beginners and experts alike. He basically goes from okay/great/good as the game progresses from early/mid/late. He's very easy to use thanks to his many utilities that come with his cloaking, self heals, tongue and clones. While he does high damage, he's still vulnerable if focus fired by a group. As Clunk gets more HP and snares and the others get their stuns/heals/etc, his viability evens out.

Clunk is probably the most balanced character in the game, IMO. He's good throughout the entire match with high survival ability, DPS potential and has answers for basically every character that isn't Yuri. When backed up by a Voltar he's nearly impossible to kill.

Froggy G is hard to pinpoint but I'd say he's for the more skilled players. He starts off pretty poor but in my experience he turns into the second most annoying character in the game (after good Yuri's). His dash and tornado combo speak for themselves. But it's the dash itself that makes him the annoying little * that he is. His dash does good damage, stuns, great distance, can be used in the air, aimed, goes through targets, etc. It's probably the single best offensive ability in the game. Then you got his blaster which is rapid fire with decent damage when upgraded. Plus his jump height is ridiculous. If he wants to come after you and keep you locked down, he easily can. However players who aren't careful with him early on will be nothing but a feeder for the enemy team because of how weak he starts off with pitiful blaster damage and health.

Lonestar is pretty much the consummate beginner character who remains solid at all levels of play. He's got his double (and later, triple) jump, dynamite that can do ridiculous damage and heal/blind, a good blaster and last but not least, his bull. The bull is amazing. You say jump, your opponent jumps, you want cover for your drones from the enemy turret, the bull is on the job. You need to shove the enemy toward your turret or say... an exploding ally Clunk or even better... push an enemy exploding Clunk away, the bull is there. It has many uses and can come out at almost any time very quickly making it almost impossible to directly react to depending on how close he is when he releases it.

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[On]

It's funny, there's this trend in this thread.

1. Claim a character should be nerfed/buffed.
2. Talk about this for 5 pages.
3. Realise the character is pretty balanced after having played the game more.

I even find Voltar underwhelming these days. I've seen him become out leveled because people really learned how to position themselves (:

This game is so balanced, that it's actually a little scary xD

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