The random targeting is always brought up and it’s definitely a limitation of Magma, but while it may look bad on paper it’s barely a hindrance when using a strategy Magma likes. If you’re playing “control” and want to stun/sleep enemies then sweep the others obviously Magma will do poorly. Where he fits in beautifully is with other stun immune damage dealers and auto-protect monsters. If you’ve got this in your team then it’s likely when he comes onto the field you’ll have other monsters getting turns soon and your opponent will struggle to kill him off without getting punished for it.
The thing which might not be so obvious when you look at him on paper is how the SS can remove the enemy team’s sweepers. You get to choose both the targets so it very quickly incapacitates the enemy team, arguably better than a slayerbane all. From there Magma becomes extremely hard to kill and, if not forced to repent, can get multiple kills before needing to repent and switch to berserk attack.
Finishing snap is one of the most irritating things to face and when people say “you’re forced to attack with Magma” it’s actually possible to use finishing snap for minimal damage every 25TU if you want to avoid mistakes and pass time. I say it’s irritating because if Magma is combined with other sweepers then Magma can clean up any attacks at almost instant speed as well as remove shields to let other monsters damage that target. Finishing snap wouldn’t be so much of a problem except that Magma has stun immunity and every move with such low TU.
With all said and done, I obviously want Magma to be nerfed but I don’t think the TU of the attack moves should be increased. I like the relentlessness of the attacking, this was clearly the design. However, with everything as it is right now the monster is simply too much to handle. The only true weakness it has is poison which, while common, is not enough to balance it. The increase in TU of the SS was much needed, that was insane at 50TU.
Here’s what I suggest (all applied):
- Increase TU of Repent 50TU -> 70TU
- Reduce recoil on Berserk Attack 1/2 -> 1/3
- Increase recoil on Berserk Smash 1/5 -> 1/2
What this will do is limit how much killing it can do before it’s forced to repent and use Berserk Attack, as well as slowing down its attacking a little and the support it can give the team. It will still have a huge impact when it enters, uses the SS then can Berserk Smash if it hasn’t been hit to low health. However, after the first Berserk Smash there’s a high chance it will have to repent and switch to Berserk Attack. This attack still does huge damage (it one-shot my Tygoron from full health just yesterday) but it’s not going to be sweeping through the enemy team quite so easily. Berserk Smash will be the one you use in certain situations but Berserk Attack will probably be your bread and butter move from there on. The reduced recoil on Berserk Attack is to help it keep going with these attacks a little better.
Note also that you can still use Repent then grab a kill with Finishing Snap to jump straight to Berserk Smash without needing to worry too much about the recoil. Right now I feel like this works way too well with Berserk Smash only doing 1/5 recoil.
I want Magmarinus to be a lot of fun but not something that can sweep through a team at break-neck speed meanwhile supporting the team from poison, sleep, etc.
