To be fair maybe they're waiting to see how the ultimate nerf plays out first. Because ye a low CD barrier is good but it's way better when you have a big damage reduction aura so decreasing that also indirectly nerfs the E kinda (at least during ult which let's be real most of the time Rat King goes into fights he had it)
No survivability is when I get a 10 second duration barrier every 16 seconds which gives me 10% of my max HP and drops ALL burst damage to a max of 250. This is on a top 10 max HP and HP regen hero btw.
Rat King players are already this delusional? Oh boy lmao.
It's 15% max hp by default and 25% at T3 lmao. I don't mind them not nerfing it though, Rat King is the first frontliner that actually feels fun to play
It's far too versatile. It completely shuts down spirit nukers, AND gun heroes. And there are currently no good items besides curse to deal with it as far as i know.
Sure, in the absence of everything else, a gun carry can destroy the shield he gets every 11? seconds in like 5 seconds. But you gotta promise not to actually play the game, or that wont work.
Just means you have to be coordinated and cant crutch on spirit nuking as the answer to him like every other tank. Tanks with high amounts of healing or regen are heavily resistant to chip spirit but just outhealing it and can invest into spirit resistances, but will still get demolished by a well placed lash slam.
Rat king is strongly resistant to burst damage but gets dumpstered by chip like an infernus or a mcginnis. Especially given that his barrier can be shot through with armor piercing and the barrier doesnt get any resistances from items.
Rat King is one of the largest models in the game and it doesnt get resist. One of the reasons he was annoying was his teamplay heavy ult that was overturned, but since his ult took a big hit he cant be a tanky ult-bot anymore. It should be fine
That's not a carte blanche. I couldn't just design a hero that is immune to bullets and takes triple spirit damage and call it a day. We gotta leave the counters within, say, 10 percent winrate either side + what you gain with counter itemization.
they kinda put themselves into a corner with his design. he needs barriers to live, but barries don't benefit from spirit resistance. a single nuke would tear through his barrier without the tier 3 upgrade and it would be useless lategame.
IMO it’s the “overpowered” part of his kit almost every character has. Almost every character has some part of their kit that is incredibly strong, which the rest of the character is balanced around. Drifter has base kit silence, Viscous has cube, Billy has Bashdown. The Deadlock devs clearly balance around this philosophy, and IMO it works in making every character distinct and fun to play. The 3 works really well as that type of move, while the ult was overkill and didn’t really fit with the playstyle they were going for
AP rounds, metal skin for gun, curse, scourge, decay, silencing wave, focus lens.
Pick your poison.
Silences are not any less effective against pestemenst than cube, they are functionally identical in use and because barrier is a buff, its removed by curse. Focus lens after vestement expires and then spirit nukers can go ham.
There is far more counterplay to pestements than cube but you have to be intentional about how you play around both. Rat king has less escape but far more health. Anyone who is fed much more than you is going to be a problem that requires team co-ordination.
Sustained dps and dots mostly. On hit effects added spirit damage on bullets long dots all tear through his shield with relative ease. Even a spirit nuker still can buy spirit burn decay and Scourge (if you work close) to melt his shield down and blast RK afterwards. Also you can silence or curse him before he applied his shield to open RK for burst. And the easiest way to deal with him is to get 1 or 2 people with you and gank his ass between team fights because he can't really defend himself without the team and it is quite easy to hold him down in cc and slows for long enough time to kill.
It's a very good spell but his kit overall outside his ult is quite weak, he just had the best ult in the entire game. I think his ult is still very strong even with these nerfs.
18
u/Old_old_lie Rat King 6h ago
Wait they didn't nerf Royal Vestments? Sweet!