User blog comment:Manafai/Beatrix - The Coordinator/@comment-3391671-20170205032820

You are making quick strides in making sure Beatrix is not a buff applier under the disguise of being a robot user. However, just like with any big update upon a new concept, there are some good aspects and some that are a bit over-tuned or not touched upon enough. I'll refer back to old points, along with bringing up new ones that were present in Beatrix's old kit, but didn't note it then for you to hopefully discover on your own.


 * One Man's Junk is still the central ability of what is intriguing of her kit, where she collects resources to better her kit. Yet, the Junk resource doesn't feel interactive still. This is due to how unimportant Junk feels in the kit. This is seen in how less than half of her abilities have Junk as a resource cost, and only two of the three scale off the Junk.
 * I'm glad that you've granted the three bots some form of actual health for themselves to be a pet, but did you consider the issue with having them all be present on the field? I'll possibly make this comment next (as I will touch on the R first, not the basic abilities), but I feel that you attempted to enter upon a creative idea too arduously. I say this because you are trying to give Beatrix the flexibility of being both a defender and a siege-capable champion, but that hampers Beatrix from being intriguing, at least in my opinion. On top of that, the way you control the two modes is through a seemingly delayed "activate-deactivate" console. It's not entirely complex as players can get used to pressing R-Q-R-W-R-E to change all bots into their other mode. Yet, in the end, it becomes tedious and that is what cause it to be hampering.
 * Instead of having them all available, it should be apparent that Beatrix is only using one bot. Having three bots at one time is for sure intimidating, but realistically speaking, it's not going to be easy to manage, thus not new-user-friendly. From the looks of it too, there is no specified way in controlling the movement of these bots, so they are still stagnant when independent from their abilities. You didn't add the capability to move either for balance purposes, or to avoid bloating the kits, or simply from forgetting the two; in the end, Beatrix has more control over the bots, which are now their own units, but they are still stale due to having limited options.
 * " [...] turning her into the source of its respective ability." While this does not devalue the worth of the bots, I believe this minimizes the impact upon Beatrix in "losing" a bot. There is no downtime for the abilities, which may not create a reason to "destroy" bots in given situations.
 * Moving onto the R, the issue once again is that this R will be abused. For good reason to be able to switch between the two modes, but it causes the kit to technically have three independent ability-shifting components. Do you know of any champion with such a kit? Even if other games may have this, this is League, where champions are not supposed to frustrate players with hand-tech challenging kits. This issue is called "burden of knowledge" if I haven't mentioned it before.
 * I do not find those passive aspects (bonus or tenacity) necessary, neither do they help make the ability seem intuitive. The numbers are small, and they provide very passive effects. Once again, to provide something worthwhile, adding on extra passives will not do the trick. This is especially the case when they frankly give them just by having a combination, not through intuitive gameplay.
 * The 3 seconds creates this buffer for switching the modes of the robots. I find it that Beatrix should have more immediate access by allowing her to activate R, causing all her bots to go into "statis" during which Beatrix can press their corresponding abilities to switch them or switch them out. Upon pressing R again, the robots will switch and R goes on a cooldown (longer than 3 seconds).
 * As much as you explain it in the tooltip, the original description needs to be just as clear. If the bonuses are granted passively, note that they are ("Passive: For every robot in X mode, Beatrix gets X"). "Passive" is vague especially if it's not indicated in the ability what is the "passive."

Before going into the abilities, I'll let you know that I believe that you should create a separate kit (a second one?) that is without these two modes. As mentioned before, the current one feels lopsided and has too much information due to the two modes, causing a lack of centralized ideas. Otherwise, I'll try to criticize the abilities without being too harsh with my opinion in regards.
 * Q: Odin is the new Jorgen. I honestly ask why you had completely changed names. There was no necessity, and it made the names more original than these that look like they were taken out of a history textbook. If you were trying to make a difference between the old and new, I cannot argue much, but I feel that change was unnecessary.
 * Onto the actual ability itself, this is supposed to fulfill what seems to be the main artillery and tool of the kit. The effects are alright, although it feels that the mechanism could be a bit complicated. However, it does alright in claiming that Artillery Q locks Odin down to fire at the target of Beatrix's basic attacks for however long (until reaching out of leash range) and the defensive Q is a modified  ...
 * Not much needs to tweaked, although this has an issue of identity. Odin feels lacking as a "pet"...
 * W: Loki is definitely not a direct upgrade/successor of the Drone Brothers, since they function differently. It makes me sad once again that you removed the old ideas for these new ones... with seemingly no new clear definition.
 * Dirty Bomb easily caught my attention is a design that is haphazard. Gladly it's not of poor design, but it fulfills too many things. What is Loki's purpose? This bomb alone is a damage inflicting ability which passively attacks enemy champions and leaves behind something that reduces the enemy's resistances, and for Beatrix allow her to increase healing... that's a real mess of an ability, and we're only at the Artillery side.
 * I see you tried implementing the Drone Bros electric shock ability. But... I believe you have in reimplementing this effect into the new kit. What made the shocks amusing was that it required teamwork with other champions. However, here, Loki simply has to stand around an enemy for 3 seconds to inflict a, further more, if the enemy has no means of escape tools, through a dash or MS boost, they are doomed to be , , and then . I reject this ability for the reason that it is likely a candidate of frustrating to deal with for a no-brainer ability (you simply send him out in an area and no further intuitive thought).
 * I notice the Beatrix effects are rather overly simple, thus unclear of how they actually work. We readers can assume, but all we can know is the ambiguity of these effects.
 * E: Freyja supposedly replaces Carlotta, but once again, I feel something is lost like the other two...
 * This is Loki all over again, as Freyja provides a lot of benefits to Beatrix in the form of a mark that increases ally damage on the marked enemy, bonus and, and a shield to allies. At this point, these set of items do not make sense in the way of "how is Frejya doing this!?" Take these into consideration when making these abilities, because for sure, someone will go "Why in the world are these bots able to do this!?"
 * The one thing that felt nice about the original Carlotta was the AoE heal she had. Now you replace it with a possible damage enhancer or a shield. This change not only felt unnecessary but drew away something that could have been nice to keep on the E.

In the end, I feel this rework was one step forward in improving on the design, but two steps back in the sense that you went away from the goal and also made the kit more overloaded. I'll offer advice upon request, but for now, reflect on what criticism I've said above (And will say below) and work to bettering the kit. I'll probably release my own version of the "puppeteer" I had mentioned before to show how you can have more than three "bots" working together without making it feel cluttered nor dull.

Looking above, one issue I find in the design now is that you supposedly added the robots in, then the support aspect. That is where the issue begins, since you forced the kit to be support based due to categorization. If it's important for Beatrix to be a Support-Mage, then mold the kit first into that role then adjust around; thinking up of the thematic points only and heaping the mechanics on later causes a clash in proper mechanics & balance.

To state again, the other issue is the resource, which needs brushing up. When making a new resource, think of how its dynamics and if it fulfills something with purpose without have some odd ends sticking out.

Now a response to your new Strategy log: Two biggest mistakes= Beatrix was for sure lacking in interactivity, but the actual other issue was the "plethora of things," since the single player team force derived from the. By offering too many tools to offer to the team... she herself became a tool instead of being active and engaging. As you found out, this kit was no different than other supports, as it featured a tedious routine too.

The cores were interesting, but I felt they were channeled in the wrong direction. It might have a been a nice idea if the dropped cores did something else than cause her to be a meat shield. For example, depending on what core was dropped, her next ability would be augmented. In the end, the idea of these robots exploding was the actual issue, since it created a disconnect with Beatrix: "Boom, they exploded... well, gotta pick up their core." Makes me wonder why Beatrix doesn't try to fix them up so they don't explode upon "expiring" at the end. A step back= Making her a tank may have been the root of the issue. If she were to be a tank, her bots would have to reflect that too. During the cooldowns, she would also have to be tanky, thus the meatshield-result. Thus, the seemingly passive nature. If the bots were anymore active, they would work more like a Fighter for Beatrix. I would argue against the fact that they are fully passive (tank- says hi), but nonetheless, for Beatrix it was a weak link.

I'm glad you had reviewed some of the supports, but you may have been a bit hasty in deciding her role as a Mage-secondary. I do not believe it's a bad idea, in that you can for sure optimize her to be one, but as mentioned before, with flexibility, you also added a bit too much to her kit. The champions you mentioned ( and ) have varied kits, but they are also simple to understand in their own way. Each ability has a clear focus, although I have my fits with. The Coordinator= I'm not a punny man, but I do not know how you came to the conclsion that Shift Mode would solve the lack of teammate feel. It does give diversity and flexibility, but to grant interactivity, that is inlaid with the very way the ability interacts with each other, not how the entire kit works. The new change made the bots into "," but you made them too diverse that it treads on overcomplication. Adding those passives for Beatrix is only an icing of this overdone kit. Unconventional And Indirect=

''I always thought supports could be much more than a healing and/or shielding machine. Disruptions, buffs and debuffs, are just as crucial to a game but somehow they go under the radar compared to damage control skills. For this reason I gave Beatrix a variety of utility skills, making her a sort of pseudo-controller. This is because two of Beatrix's new robots create danger zones for enemies who cross them because they run the risk of being affected by the negative effects these zones incur. Your enemies will want to avoid these danger zones, creating a sort of home field advantage for your team if you can force enemies inside. Another mistake I fixed for Beatrix was her own relevance. With only the robots as the source of her skills, she herself had no power related to her, even as a tank. By changing the Core passive to the new Teamwork passive, Beatrix is no longer a summoner but instead a caster. Giving her robots their own health bar and removing the burden of having to summon them gave me the space to make each robot a flexible machine with a distinct purpose. The robots are still the source point of Beatrix' active abilities, but now when one of them is destroyed, two things happen: the passive buff they provide is boosted and Beatrix automatically becomes the new source of their respective abilities (albeit with some changes). This means Beatrix actually becomes stronger when she loses her robots instead of weaker like her previous design made her.'' Meet The New Crew=

''Jorgen has been replaced with Odin. He does not move at all unless commanded to. Axel, Butch and Crash have been replaced with Loki, who follows close by you unless commanded otherwise. Carlotta has been replaced with Freyja, which follows ahead or behind you and cannot be issued movement commands. As an exception, staying a large distance away from your robots for 90 seconds will cause them to abandon their position and teleport back to you, after which they will follow you until commanded otherwise.'' Artillery Mode= ''This is the offensive mode, giving the robots more aggressive abilities and making Beatrix lean more towards the mage role. Odin acts as a mortar cannon. He is rooted in place and fires shells at a long distance, knocking enemies away if they are close enough to the center of the blast. Odin can only store a finite number of shells and requires Beatrix to reload and operate him in this mode. This mode allows you to disrupt the enemy team from a fairly long distance, but shells travel relatively slow, giving quicker enemies time to react. While not very powerful against one or two enemies, in a team fight where 3 or 4 enemy players are clustered together, the ability to disperse them could make or break a fight, shifting your teams focus to an isolated enemy champion and turning the tides.

Loki follows close by Beatrix, attacking enemies within a short range. Beatrix can command Loki to fly to a target location, dropping a bomb that deals magic damage and creates an area that debuffs enemy champions, reducing their defensive stats. Smart enemies will want to avoid this zone as it leaves them vulnerable. In a team fight you may sometimes want to sacrifice the damage output in favor of dropping this bomb on your own team, creating a sort of home field for you to fight in.

Freyja will automatically move slightly ahead of Beatrix, periodically marking enemy champions to increase their incoming damage for a period of time. Spending scrap allows her to boost teammates AD and AP, making her especially effective in the heat of a team fight but also a likely target to be destroyed first among the three robots. Siege Mode=

''This is the defensive mode, giving the robots more protective abilities and making Beatrix lean more towards the support role. Odin becomes a movable barrier and passively generates up to 3 charges. When Odin is commanded to move, he quickly dashes to the targeted location. Upon reaching his new location, he deploys a barrier that blocks all champion projectiles for 1 second and completely negating them. While on relatively short cooldown, charges take a static 10 seconds to reload, so it is important to know when to block with Odin. Reaction time is also important for this skill because barriers are only deployed when the dash ends. Loki becomes a like heavy cruiser in this mode. He is capable of firing at multiple targets who enter his patrol range, applying the same slow-slower-stun combo the previous drones would have cast. The huge difference here is that at level 5, Loki is capable of firing at the entire enemy team individually, so sending him out to the middle of clustered enemy champions of 3 or 4 could potentially have devastating results if they do not leaving his range immediately. Freyja will follow slighty behind Beatrix. In this mode, she grants a shield which refreshes if no damage has been taken for a long time. The shield has two unique features - it is relatively weaker than common support shields and can be boosted. As long as you remain in Siege Mode, you can activate Freyja's ability to convert Scrap into bonus shield, up to 3 times. Changing into Artillery Mode removes the bonus shield gained from Scrap and returns it to base power. With enough patience and planning, Freyja can provide shielding for your teammates similarly to Locket of the Iron Solari. If you actually build LotIS and let Freyja;s shield build up, you have what is probably the strongest team shielding potential in the game when you use both together. Since the shield only returns 12 seconds after not taking any damage, it is powerful enough to defend a team but does not refresh so often that it breaks the game. Hopefully Done Right=

''With this new design, I hope to have created a champion that is far more active as a support, whether it's through Artillery Mode's long range harassment and damage output or Siege Mode's supportive and defensive effects. By giving each of the robots a different form of movement control, I hope to solidify the core idea that Beatrix is the leader of a single champion team and by supporting your robots with your scrap investments and proper coordination you indirectly support your teammates as well.''