There is no point in playing as SM now. Every game is just a boring slaughterfest. Hell, very rarely we get full games now. This was a bad and lazy decision from Devs (under the muh early Alpha excuse) normally when mistakes like this happen they get fixed ASAP (what we call hotfixes).
Played shieldbro for the first time (well I played it before but for like 5 minutes). Oh boy, its feels like easy mod. Ranged weapon really is not a treat more than a 80% of time. Yeah I cannot go full berzerk (like MoN) and fight 3 vs 1 or 4 vs 1 (because I need to roll and use shield) but still 1 vs 1 shild bro tops anyone ( MoN got slight advantage with his bolt pistol) Oh almost forgot about no capping. Before I thought it as a not so important, but after my session, yeah it feels bad.
What was a bad lazy decision from the Devs? Mistakes like what? well this is the Alpha stage of the game so balance isn't a priority or concern at this time. and saying that were in Alpha isnt an Excuse its a fact. To expect optimal performance in Alpha or to have balanace in alpha is a error on your end. The issue is LSM got use to Traitor Assaults(TA) not having their mark and being super easy to bring down. Now that the Devs have given MoN back to Traitor Assaults, the Loyalists are crying a river because they can't drop a TAMoN like they use too. As a player that mains TA before and after the patch. I can say after playing Shield Assault. that MoN is not perfect but pretty damn close to being what it should be. Ive Solo'd 3 MoNs as a shield Assault with little to no effort on my end. Getting to completely negate Damage is freak'n crazy, throw a Power anything on and just go to town. With a decent understanding of melee combat, any Melee character should be able to beat a TAMoN. If they are more skilled than you or they are having less FPS/Lag issues then your going to have a run for your money. As for Fighting TA(MoN) with range. rule #1 unless you are comfident in your CQC skills, either take them out from a far or go get back up. #2 Never go it alone, this goes for any class. #3 this game is not about 1v1 so giving examples of 1v1 fights doesnt help. As for LSM not winning games, IMO it all comes down to Team play. From my experience Chaos work better together. People tend to be more willing to listen to others and follow basic instructions, you'll always find a couple knuckle heads running around doing their own thing, and that's fine. But when i play LSM there is little to no guidance from anyone. Everyone is just going for Kills and not playing the Objective.
There is also the issue of people trying to face down a MoN marine or shield-bro head on as a Tactical... If they are getting within lunging distance you need to turn around and run. Run away as fast as you can and preferably towards allies screaming "(NAME HERE) needs supporting fire!" If you're lucky you'll stay just ahead of them and they won't be smart enough to use their pistol. If you're unlucky they'll just run you down with the axe and dodge rolls (At least until they adjust the lunge distance on the axe) or shoot you in the back (Zig zag and use cover! They get tangled up by it to!) If they decide the chase isn't worth it and they break off to attack someone else you turn around and start shooting them in the face until it stops being funny and purifying to your soul while they are busy with their new prey. As a Devestator your best bet is to pray they only use light attacks and just spam D-Bash, if they're bad you can shoot them in the face and chuckle as you pistol-execute them. For Chaos players this works even better with shield bros since they can't shoot you in the back and, if they don't have the shield, they're far more vulnerable than MoN's are.
Ok, update I guess. Played again as a shield bro. I was on a hunt for MoN and usually I was killed not by MoN but by another CSM. And here's a problem. MoN can tolerate bolter fire while dulling, shieldbro mostly cannot.
What you and a lot of other CSM players fail to understand. We are not asking for an optimal balanced game, we are asking for a playable game. Now, the SM are losing like crazy, i havent won a single match since the last patch. Are ou going to tell me "no Chaos play better blablabla"? Well, no, both CSM and SM have good and average players, so its not like suddenly SM got a surge of bad players since the last patch. People always run from MoN, there is no change now in how to play him, its just now he is too strong for a capping class. You said you soloed 3 MoN's by yourself? Well i am sorry but, you either played vs the worst MoN that the community can offer, or they got injured before/min the middle of the fight by allies/enemies. Also you can't run away from MoN since he will just fill your ass with bolter pistol bullets. The game is in a broken state now. Any dedicated SM player would agree with me. CSM players are enjoying the freewin ride this is why they try to shift the problem "to muh skill" going 50/2 as MoN in 15min game.
This is exactly what we try to tell people over, and over, and over again yet they still don't seem to understand it. This ISN'T a 1v1 dueling game, VERY rarely will it ever be 1v1 so ANYTIME you swing your weapon as GA you are VULNERABLE unlike the MoN. Here is the difference, with GA you have to stand or SLOWLY walk to approach an enemy, so unless they are willing to ALLOW you to close in on them, you have no chance. Unlike the MoN who have a BUILT in shield due to massive HP, they don't have to walk slow, or stand still and block, all they need to do is charge and kill. This is under the guidelines of getting kills and dominating the score board, GA are BEST used defensively and guarding your own team mates. This is were the discussion constantly gets confused. When it comes to aggressive, charging and getting kills MoN is far superior. But playing defensively GA have a slight advantage, only because the MoN buff was huge. from 14-8- and now 16 bolter shots to down is just to much with the broken melee and d-bash we currently have. Only real issue I have is the MoN have no draw backs, no penalties but GA aren't allowed to cap, which in my opinion is extremely important, capping is what WINS games, not kills like so many like to think.
In my opinion it is ridiculously unbalanced. I've played both factions and, to be completely honest, MoN takes the cake on being OP. Shield Astartes' defense can only hold for so long before they become wide open to anything, plus they can't capture points either. On one occasion I managed to d-bash a Traitor Assault and shoot him several times with a plasma gun and he just seemed to shrug it off and proceed to down me in only two blows. When playing as Chaos, well... Unless Space Marines are engaging me from both sides, and I mean either from a distance or 3+ players in melee, I can easily down them one by one.
I think for what it is, the MoN is too tanky. And this won't and shouldn't be remedied until accessories. It all leads back to the issue that the MoN can cap while the LSM's pusher (Shieldbro) can't. A Traitor MoN shouldn't be CSM's melee pusher class. Traitors should still be able to equip melee and pistols, I just don't think they should be receiving as much of a defensive buff from the MoN as they currently are - especially if you consider that they can take ranged weapons. I feel it should be: Aspiring Sorc < Traitor = Havoc < Raptor In terms of which class gets the biggest boon to their tankiness from taking the MoN. For the Raptor, they would have to make a LP decision between MoN and Jump Pack.
