[NinMug]

Hello and first of all i want to thank for reading this.I hope this feedback will be useful.
Im started playing back in ROTBP times , when Wardog campaign released.I instantly like this game but when i saw Hive...I just fell in love.
She is my main reason i keep playing this game and why i write this.
Steam says have 1330 hours and around 900 was on Hive only.My MMR varied between 60 and 80, until recent MMR hell.
I cant say im "pro" player but i think because of my long and vast experience with Hive, i can give constructive feedback.
I dont want Hive be "OP". Only fun,unique,useful and challenging in good way.
Lets start from her role and place in our game.
- Question to MSE: What MSE vision of her? When balanced , is she considered more as cqc specialist or tank?(Sometime ago , main site said she is a tank,now changed)
- Because of her effectiveness in cqc, she is good in elite hunting(if they dont have Aleph) and thanks to good leech(not anymore) decent grunt clear.
- On bosses, she is one of weakest Raiders , because of worst range(projectile) damage. Only on Kuzzman and Schneider bosses she is somewhat useful.
- Her ability allows her to tank some damage but in high difficulty matches and PVP its not enough, useful more for escaping than tanking.
- She is Wardog , means she always visible to enemy and have constant regen.
- She is definitely Raider oriented character , as Antagonist vs decent players she is weak. Her Wardog nature,one of weakest range(projectile)damage and cqc orientation(1vs1) makes her underdog in most situations.
Overall: Grunt-Elite clearing CQC oriented character with mediocre tank ability and extremely weak range(projectile) damage.

Now to her problems:
- Lack of options.One of biggest flaws what she extremely one dimensional character. No matter how you build or play her, she is effective in one way ,CQC.
She cant be true tank or be good enough in range fight(Raceme). For example, Locals are very deadly in range combat but if you want, you can use right cards(Patient and others) making them also extremely deadly in CQC.
- Easy to counter and predictable.Every character can counter her with just one simple thing, dont allow her to get close. If its a success, she cant do anything.
Enemy always know where are Hive and can ambush or just track and prepare, again , limiting her options.
- CQC problems. CQC is a bad spot now , its very buggy,inconsistent and ping dependent. This drags Hive at bottom ,again,because of no good options available.Before CQC was rewarding , giving you ammo and aleph,
Now there is no reason to go in CQC,again,only Hive need to use it because she dont have anything else.
- Leech. It was her trump card(IMHO) before but even then its not guarantee a victory in CQC , i have many situation when i infect, go in CQC and lose just because i dont have enough damage or health to kill enemy or countered by CQC builded chars.
By nerfing her leech, you reduced both her offensive and defensive capabilities,its much harder now to fill essence bar.
- Over health. Its very good in low mission difficulty matches, you can be true tank. But on high difficulty and in PVP its not enough at all.It wont help you to break the distance or tank,you will be easily gunned down. Its good only as escape or to survive some hazards. Most of Raiders will deplete your full over health in few shots.
Overall: Because of her one dimensional playstyle,lack of options,very ping depended,CQC limited nature,mediocre tank ability,extremely weak range damage and now leech nerf she is compplete underdog. There is no reason to pick her,other characters can be more useful. Rak with Pheromone can replace her and will be more useful because of his ability and cards(speed up,healing,increasing damage)
Before i can rate her 6.5/10 and now 4/10.

What can be done:
-Rollback leech nerf.
-As trade off to leech nerf,increasing projectile damage, allowing her be not completly useless in range fight.
-As trade off to leech nerf,increasing her tanking potential, for exampple increasing her over health to 450-500hp.
Thank you for reading this. I hope this feedback is constructive and reasonable.

[Engelsgaard]

thanks, the way I see it, it's because a year ago, CQC was the main way to kill. Due to mediocre bullet damage (dealt and received) and the way you got aleph and bullets, it was just the way was played.
I remember when I fell in love with the barrier weapon and Mikah in cqc.

Now you mostly don't need to go into melee, you shoot from afar because enemy bullets hurt, but they are mostly not very accurate at range. I even shoot 5th council instead of going into melee. (their pushback shotgun hurts like hell)

This seems to be the problem with most melee raiders. The problem was (it seems to me) that MSE wasn't aware that they passively nerfed CQC through unlimited ammo (and other things) so they thought that Hive needed another nerf as well.

I'm not sure that a better overheal would help all that much. I would suggest lowering the suck damage a bit (still better than the term impregnating) and having the old range back AND to keep sucking while overhealing.