User blog:Golurk 88/War Robots: An Uncertain Future

Introduction
This is going to be a rather short blog on a rather troubling thought that I’ve had when considering the history and future of WR...remember that it was made after’WR: Into the Future. Feel free to express your views in the comments!

Uh-oh
Does anyone remember when Death Button Rhinos were considered overpowered? And then Ancilots? Back then, War Robots was much less advanced than it is now but looking at what used to be overpowered can be quite troubling sometimes.

For newer players and wiki users, most of you should remember when the Haechi entered the battlefield and completely owned it. With 3 Orkans the Haechi was the very definition of overpowered, until the Bulgasari started to steal its thunder when equipped with Tarans or Scourges. Equipped with 3 medium weapons, Dash, good durability, decent speed and a very tough physical shield the Bulgasari relegated the Haechi into the shade.

That was the beginning of what some users call the ‘dark ages’ of War Robots. To make matters worse, the teamwork-discouraging Shocktrain along with the Inquisitor started to become commonplace. Player dissatisfaction reached an all-time high...before the Spectre arrived. 4 Medium hardpoints gave it enough firepower to obliterate opponents almost instantly, which gave it a huge advantage in firepower and many other aspects when combined with its stealth jump ability (Descend).

Then the Bulwark arrived. A tanky robot that not only boasted physical shields and high health but also an Ancile-like shield that blocked everything...the Aegis. Still...could be worse.

A while after, more and more insane robots and weapons entered the battlefield. They boasted previously undreamt-of abilities such as weapon-damage suppression, immobilisation, corrosion, healing and more. Players started to feel overwhelmed. But, for a while, things were still manageable, albeit barely.

Now with the Ares, Hades and Nemesis, we might well see a new ‘dark age’ in the game, as these robots feature in-built weapons and an invincible Aegis which are activated in abilities that have absurdly short cooldowns. It might take quite a while to recover, as the economy as well as production times and costs for Workshop 2.0 are very expensive and long. More weapons, including a heavy Scourge are also coming, which can lead to more setups that players didn’t think would ever exist.

Overview
My message is very simple. The next time you are about to complain about how new or upcoming content is ‘overpowered’ or ‘balance-breaking’, just think to yourself about how Orkan Haechis and even the now humble DB Rhino used to be considered that way...and how they compare now to the new meta robots and weapons. The thing is, what does ‘overpowered’ mean now in this game? Because at this rate, it might soon just not have any definition left.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below!