Here are a few of the things that I wish would be changed about Aura.
1, Healing Station Explosion
Currently when fighting vs an Aura in close range you have to deal with both Aura + the Healing Station. Most Mercs will out DPS the Healing Station provided that you both hit the majority of the shots you put down range and a good majority of them shots hit Aura in the head. The other thing you can do is attempt to take out the Healing Station and then the Aura. This is normally the better choice if your aim is not top tier, however you then need to deal with higher weapon spread when changing target to Aura.
The Healing Station in general is a very strong ability and without totally changing the way it functions I believe it will always be a in either the camp of useless or overpowered. Options are…
(A) Change the way you take damage while stood on the healing pad.
(B) Change the risk cost of using a healing station.
© Healing Station malfunctions for XX seconds after taking damage.
By doing (A) you can cause the Healing Station to heal at a reduced rate for XX amount of time after taking damage while on it. This is effectively a direct nerf to the Healing Station and to Aura also. Balancing the numbers could take time but I do believe it should still be possible to balance.
By doing (B) you can add an explosive discharge on destruction of the healing station. I was thinking something in the region of 40 Damage in the center radius that drops to 20 Damage on the outer radius. This would promote better placement of the station and lower the punishment for focusing the healing station in a fight. With good telegraphing of the Healing Stations damage via sparks, sound and colored pulsing you could reduce the frustration of being caught out.
By doing © you encourage better positioning of the Healing Station so to avoid it taking damage. This would also allow the Healing Stations HP to be higher then its current value. The problem with doing it this way is communicating the lack of heals effectively in the heat of battle. Like (A) this could result in the feeling of inconsistency while using the Healing Station.
Personally, I like the (B) idea. It allows the healing station to be just as strong as it is currently when placed perfectly yet prevents it being spam carried and dropped at Auras feet vs decent players. Getting multi Healing Station kills would become something of a humiliation kill and entice Auras to play smarter rather then simply brute forcing heals.
2, Remove the Healing Stations collision.
When fighting next to a enemies Healing Station its far to easy to collide with. Healing Station placement can block doors and cause wedges at corners. I believe that even if you communicate the Healing Stations team better, these problems would likely persist on corners and doors due to its low profile. The ability to block players also seems strange considering its size. Visually it appears like you would just walk right over it and that also adds to the frustration.
I would however add some collision… Around a 10u box that feels like a small step when walking over it. The reason for this is to communicate the stations position when it is below you. Think of it kinda like haptic feedback for your feet. I believe this collision box should be present for both the friendly and enemy Healing Stations to keep consistency high.
3, Added Functionality (Healing Station)
Currently its difficult to know if a Healing Station is friendly or enemy and I assume this will be addressed in future. However, I would like to suggest a few things that could be added to make the Healing Station a little deeper in its utility then it is currently. Here are some of the things I have been thinking about…
(A) Enemy Healing Stations still heal you.
(B) Aura can switch between health and damage for the healing station.
© Healing Stations heal friendlies and hurt enemies.
With (A) the outcome is simple. The Healing Station is only as strong as it is if you can keep the enemy off it. This would promote the idea of rushing towards the Healing Station in order to fight its owner. On killing the owner you are then free to use the Healing Station as your own. I do feel in certain situations this could be a little over powered so as much as I like the idea I would feel it needs to be added with either (B) or © to prevent frustrating team mates and becoming so integral to the outcome of a match.
With (B) Aura would be able to tap Q or a new key when the healing station is placed toggle between healing and damage. This would allow the healing station to be placed on corners to force action from the enemy as well as switching the mode while you are dead to prevent the usage for the enemy. This adds a rather large skill gap between good Auras and bad Auras and I love it. There is one small problem with this idea however… Being able to switch between healing and damage on a FF ON server would allow for a certain amount of “trolling”. That said it is really no worse then being able to airstrike your own team or throw a nade at their feet.
With © you kinda have the best of both worlds all be it with much less input/feedback from the Aura herself.
Each one of these additions would add a whole load more depth to Aura as a Merc and really start moving towards that cool “Hero” style that I think Dirty Bomb should be perusing! I would like to point out that the third section of this post would work great in tandem with the first section. Maybe even have the placing of a new station start the detonation of the previous with a 2 - 3 second fuse and telegraph.
EDIT: The healing station enemy damage would be around 1/4 of what it heals. More of a slow burn over time and by no means an effective way of killing. More of a way of forcing action/reaction.
4, Pick it up!
I believe that right now using Aura to pick up the healing station and replace it at a new location is far to easy. I would like the pick up of a healing station to NOT effect the cooldown of the ability and instead it be picked up like the carry/transmit objectives. Moving up to the next point would require you to not have your weapons out or use your cooldown. Having this not effect your cooldown means that you can actually have MORE Healing Station locations due to having 1 up and 1 ready to drop at the same time. This also would encourage the Aura to hold back during a team fight in order to push up with the team rather then becoming a teams scout and pre-placing the healing station. Obviously both are still an option but it would certainly remove the frustration of feet drop healing stations when bumping into an Aura. It also means that Aura can make use of more input actions and this should make her feel much more involved than she currently does.